Federal investigators are looking into crashes, fires, and injuries linked to Tesla’s self-driving feature. Experts say it’s another reminder not to trust it with your safety.
Protecting yourself from voice scams
ChatGPT
Voice cloning has left the lab. Soon enough, you might hear your voice and think, Wait, is that me or an AI?
AI isn’t just being used to revive dead rappers or prank your boss with Drake impressions. Scammers are generating voices to fake kidnappings, drain bank accounts and impersonate your kid in crisis.
You don’t need to have a national radio show like me to be at risk. If you’ve ever left a voicemail, been in a podcast or posted a TikTok, congrats, you’re cloneable, and it only takes three to five seconds.
🎭 Your voice is a liability
Your voiceprint is incredibly personal. Research shows it can be as unique as a fingerprint or iris scan, with over 100 distinct vocal traits like pitch, tone, cadence and accent used to identify you.
To the human ear, voices can sound similar. Around 15% of people can be mistaken for someone else in audio recordings. But to an AI? Those subtle vocal quirks are easy to clone, especially with just a few seconds of audio.
It’s weird, dystopian and very much happening.
🗣️ Protect yourself
Here’s how to make sure you don’t get duped by a fake version of yourself (or your loved ones):
🔒 Lock down your privacy settings: Set your videos and voice clips to “friends only” or private. Delete any old uploads you don’t need floating around.
🤫 Treat your voice like a password: Create a family-only “safe word.” Something weird like “don’t forget the goat cheese,” an inside joke or phrase no AI could guess. Agree that no one sends money or help unless that phrase is used.
📵 Limit voice exposure: If the cat’s already out of the bag (mine is), there’s still time to cut back. Use visual voicemail or call-to-text instead of recordings. Skip voice notes in group chats.
🔍 A stalker’s dream? Security researchers just revealed that Tile tracking tags, owned by Life360, can be hacked. Unlike Apple’s AirTags, which trigger alerts when they’re moving with someone who doesn’t own them, Tiles have no built-in anti-stalking feature. That means a bad actor could slip one into your purse or car, track someone for weeks, and the victim might never know. The kicker? Life360 has known about this loophole for a long time and still hasn’t fixed it.
Ears the catch: Apple’s new Live Translation feature is finally coming to older AirPods (yay!), but there’s a catch. It only works if you also have an iPhone 15 Pro or newer. So unless you’ve got a $1K+ phone and the right earbuds and iOS 26, it’s back to Google Translate and hand gestures. Or get the new AirPod 3s. The heart sensing and live translation is so good.
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AI-powered side hustles
Turn your creativity into cash with AI! Learn how to start your own AI-powered T-shirt side hustle from home, no design skills required. Then, things get serious with the rise of fileless viruses and how to protect your devices from next-gen malware that hides in plain sight. Plus, the latest buzz on Elon Musk crypto scams, falling Starlink satellites, and ChatGPT’s new shopping feature.
🎧 DJ mode in Apple Music: Working on your Mac? Apple Music’s new AutoMix feature makes playlists flow like a club mix. Go to Settings > Playback > Song Transitions and switch from Crossfade to AutoMix. Instead of just fading tracks, AutoMix uses AI to speed up or slow down transitions for a smoother vibe.
🥊 Google Drive fights ransomware: Using Drive for desktop? A new AI security feature senses ransomware tampering with your files and pauses syncing to stop the damage. You get alerts on your PC and email, and your cloud files stay safe until you restore them. The catch: It only works on certain Google Workspace plans.
Watch warns before it’s too late
The Apple Watch just leveled up. Beyond EKGs and blood oxygen it can now detect hypertension, the silent killer that strikes without warning. Here’s how Apple’s newest health feature could save your life.
⌚ watchOS 26: Developers can finally make Widgets for Control Center, a feature that used to be Apple-only. To try them, press the Side button, scroll to the bottom and tap Edit. Select the plus (+) icon in the top left for suggested widgets, then scroll to From Your iPhone to find third-party options.
⏱️ Pressure’s on: Apple Watches that track hypertension just got FDA approval and start rolling out today. The watch monitors your cardiovascular patterns over 30 days and alerts you if your blood pressure looks like it’s creeping too high. It’s not a replacement for a doctor or a real cuff, but it could be a game changer for the millions who don’t know they’re at risk. The feature is coming to Series 9, Ultra 2 and all future models, and yes, your wrist might just save your life.
👀 Trading goes social: Robinhood’s turning into a social app. You’ll see verified trades (paywall link) like time stamps and profits. Even follow public moves like Pelosi’s options game or Zuck’s stock moves. Beta’s just 10,000 people early next year. Basically, a social feature for Wall Street gossip making it way too easy to copy.
🔒 Big iPhone 17 security upgrade: Apple’s adding a new feature called Memory Integrity Enforcement to take on spyware. It’s always running in the background, protecting the kernel and 70+ processes, which makes stealing your data a lot tougher. The catch? It only works on the new A19 chips. Older iPhones will still get a memory safety update, but not like this.
The time machine hidden on your phone
Google Street View goes beyond cars, capturing over 10 million miles of roads worldwide. Here’s how to use Street View’s hidden time-travel feature. Try it out, it’s really fun!
Oh, sheet: Excel’s =COPILOT() feature writes formulas for you. But here’s the catch: Microsoft says it’s not accurate, not reproducible and shouldn’t be used for finances, legal docs or … well, Excel’s entire job that’s continually regressing.
YouTube turns up the hype: Its new “Hype” feature lets you boost up to three small-creator videos a week. Those picks land on a special leaderboard, giving underdog channels a real shot at the spotlight. Look for the shiny “hyped” badge in your feed, and hit it for me now and then.
Trim silence in YouTube Music: Yep, that cool feature from Google Podcasts is now in YouTube Music. It automatically skips over silent or dead-air parts in podcasts, making episodes shorter. To use it: Open the YouTube Music app, start a podcast, tap the playback speed option, and toggle on Trim silence.
Blood oxygen’s back: I didn’t say Apple stole blood‑oxygen tech, but … you be the judge. They wooed Masimo in 2013, nabbed trade secrets, hired their talent, then shipped the feature anyway. Masimo sued, won, and Apple got benched and probably paid up. Now the blood-oxygen reading is back, so update your Apple Series 9, 10 or Ultra 2 watch today.
Big Windows update: Yup, Microsoft rolled out fixes for over 100 security flaws, including critical ones that let hackers remotely run malicious code on your PC. The Black Screen of Death is now official, and a new Quick Machine Recovery feature will try to fix your PC if there’s a boot problem. Go to Settings > Windows Update to get it.
😱 Instagram’s embarrassing new feature: You can now see which Reels (videos) your friends are liking. Just tap the Reels icon, then the Friends tab, and bam, their profile pics show up on whatever they hearted. Scared? Me, too. To turn it off, go to Settings > Who can see your content > Activity in Friends tab > No one.