Buy Now, Pay Later? Credit bureaus are catching up

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Those interest-free installment plans used to be invisible. Even if you missed a payment. Not anymore.

United’s getting Starlink Wi-Fi: And it sounds pretty good. The first customer flight gets it by May, and the airline plans to upgrade 40 planes a month, with 300+ jets getting it by year’s end. It’s supposedly 50 times faster than the current painfully slow onboard Wi-Fi. Free for MileagePlus members. Now if only the snacks were this impressive.

17 teaspoons

Added sugar most Americans eat or drink each day. Wow! It’s way more than the 9-teaspoon limit for men and 6 for women. But watch out for diet sodas or sugar-free snacks with artificial sweeteners like sucralose. They can make you hungrier. Did you hear the sugar cube took etiquette classes? Now, he’s refined! 🍬

🍿 Sup, movie buffs: Wanna dish about your favorite films? Say hello to Letterboxd. It’s like Goodreads but for cinephiles. This free site lets you rate, review, keep a diary of your watch list, and even follow friends to see what they’re loving (or hate-watching). 

🖼️ Spark your creativity: Check out Lexica for inspo. You’ll find over 5 million AI-generated images. The best part? See an image. Steal the prompt. Pretend you were a creative genius all along. Browsing and downloading is free, but using them commercially starts at $10 a month.

🎸 Fine tunes: Got a shiny new instrument and don’t know where to start? Check out Yousician to learn guitar, piano, bass, ukulele and even sing. With over 10,000 songs in their library, you’ll be jamming in no time. Quick daily sessions are free, or get a subscription for $7.49 a month, less than a single broken string at Guitar Center.

⏰ Take a rest: BreakTimer is a free app that reminds you to take a breather. Because apparently just blinking isn’t enough, now they want you to breathe? You can set how often and how long breaks should last. If you’re busy, just skip or snooze it. The countdown resets if you’re away from your computer.

🤑 Swipe to earn: Take payments anywhere with a Square Reader. Your first one is free when you sign up. Just pick your connector (USB-C, Lightning), download the app, plug in to your phone and start swiping. Fees are 2.6% plus $0.10 per transaction. Cha-ching has a new sound, and it plugs into your phone.

📝 Hey, teachers: Check out Khan Academy’s AI tutor, Khanmigo. It’s free for teachers and runs on OpenAI’s tech. Use it to whip up lesson plans, answer your students’ questions and flag any AI-generated work. Fun fact: “Conmigo” means “with me” in Spanish. Teachers finally get an assistant that isn’t a coffee machine and a deep sigh.

🧑‍🧒‍🧒 FamilySearch: This free site from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lets you build a family tree and dig into your genealogy. It’s open to everyone, no matter your religious background. 

Déjà vu is over: Posting one at a time on social media eats up your time. Tools like Buffer, Hootsuite and Later make it easy to schedule posts for your biz with just a few clicks. Try out the free trials to see which option you like best. Work smarter, not scroll harder.

📦 Prime, who? Score free shipping without signing up for Amazon Prime. Just add at least $35 worth of goodies to your cart and pick “Free Amazon Shipping” at checkout. That way, you can save $14.99 a month for something fun instead. So good to know! 

LinkedIn growth hack: When it comes to followers, 150 is a magic number. Once you reach that many, your page will grow nine times faster than pages with fewer than 150 followers. If you run a biz, ask your employees (and everyone else you know) to follow. Psst, if you’re hiring, use my link to post a job for free.

AI upgrade: Hit this link to try Google’s new Gemini 2.5 free. All you need is a Google account. What’s different? Version 2.5 “thinks” before it replies for higher-quality answers, and it beats the other big AI bots in math and science.

💸 IRS scam link: It never stops. This time, if you Google how to get a business tax ID, the top results look official, but they’re not (paywall link). They’re ads from companies that charge you over $300 for something the IRS does for free. The real IRS site ends in .gov. Anything else? Fake.

LinkedIn growth hack: When it comes to followers, 150 is a magic number. Once you reach that many, your page will grow nine times faster than pages with fewer than 150 followers. If you run a biz, ask your employees (and everyone else you know) to follow. Psst, if you’re hiring, use my link to post a job for free.

Student in the family? A student Amazon Prime account is a heck of a lot cheaper than the regular price. Students get six months free, and then it’s half off a year ($69).

Have some free time today? Check out OpenAI’s Academy. It’s loaded with guides, live streams, videos and in-person events. You’ll find everything from how to build custom GPTs to crafting a storyboard. It’s free if you create an account. Check it out. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: AI won’t replace your job. Someone with AI skills will.

Free up space on Windows: Storage Sense automatically clears out stuff you don’t need, like temporary files and whatever’s been sitting in your Recycle Bin. To turn it on, go to Start > Settings > System > Storage and toggle on Storage Sense

Can you guess this bird call?

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This free app can name birds just from their song or a quick photo. Birdwatchers, you’re gonna want this.