Techy landfill

March 5, 2024

What percent of e-waste — old computers, phones and other tech — gets recycled? Is it … A.) 50%, B.) 90%, C.) 20% or D.) 10%?

The answer: C.) 20%. Yup, the rest ends up in landfills or incinerated. FYI, places like Walmart, Staples, Best Buy and some grocery chains recycle electronics for you. Another easy way to find a spot? Search online for “electronics recycling [your city].” Just be sure to wipe all your data before you recycle.

Tags: Best Buy, online, recycling, staples, tech, Walmart

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Make your smart home smarter with a smart lock

Today the average home has 10 times more technology than NASA used to land humans on the moon. That’s a lot of tech to secure! That’s why we’re sharing the Ultraloq U-Bolt Pro Smart Lock to upgrade your Apollo 11-era keys.

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Math, the final frontier: Spock and Kirk can out-calculate your high school math teacher. A VMware study found AI chatbots turn into math whizzes when you use the prompt, “Think like a ‘Star Trek’ character.” Just don’t go asking it for help in finances channeling its inner Jordan Belfort.

1,000% increase in online searches for Airbnbs

From people looking for places to stay in the path of the solar eclipse. Dallas, Waco, Fredericksburg and Austin are a few trending cities in the path of totality for the April 8 eclipse.

Hot and fresh: Apple’s latest gadgets are the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air models, complete with the speedy, new M3 chip (beefy enough to support two external monitors), 1080p webcams and a reported 18 hours of battery life. The cost? $1,099 and $1,299, respectively. Frankly, that’s not crazy for Apple.

Plot twist: Spotify wants to win over Audible subscribers, but its offer must be fiction. The Audiobooks Access Tier is $9.99 per month for 15 hours of audiobook-listening and ad-supported music. Compare that to Spotify Premium, at $10.99 a month, 15 hours of audiobook listening and ad-free music. Do they think we can’t read?

ScamU: Scammers are targeting parents with fake SAT/ACT prep offers. They know your kid’s name and school, and they’re promising “free” materials for a “refundable” deposit. Spoiler: You’re out $249.95 and get zilch. Don’t get duped: Places like the College Board never call to ask for a credit card over the phone.

$10K for baby photos

That’s what some parents pay for over-the-top newborn photoshoots. From Disney-themed to “Game of Thrones,” no vision is too wild. Photographers report (paywall link) making custom-made props, importing tiny furniture and creating elaborate costumes.

$22M payment sent to hackers

For the Change Healthcare ransomware attack. For 10 days and counting, pharmacies and hospitals haven’t been able to get people their prescriptions. Turns out all it took was an enormous bitcoin payment to stop them.

Turning up the beets: Watch out for an Indian content farm behind over 60 domains impersonating huge sites like the BBC, Forbes, The Guardian, Washington Post and CNN. They copy articles word-for-word, sell ads and boost SEO links to gambling sites. They even run phony Facebook pages and sneak into Google News. Why are there no checks in place for this junk?

On the Edge: Microsoft yanked away Edge version 122.0.2365.63 faster than a toupee in a hurricane. (Sorry.) Why? An “out-of-memory” error left users’ browsers crashing all over the place. The culprit? Enhanced Web Protection defaulting to Strict mode.