Deepfake dames on the loose: Award-winning actress Helen Mirren is warning fans after scammers used her name to send “charity” emails from drogogo91(at)gmail.com (Yes, really). She says, again, in all caps IT’S NOT HER. If you believe that 79-year-old Dame Helen’s emailing you about crypto, it’s time for you to get off the internet, forever.
Set default apps on iPad: Want Gmail instead of Mail? Or Chrome instead of Safari? Go to Settings > Apps > Default Apps. You’ll see categories like Email, Messaging and Browser. Tap one to switch. Bonus: You can also enable any custom Keyboards you’ve installed from this menu.
📨 Giving out your Gmail? Use an alias to track where emails are from. Just add +anything before @gmail.com (like kim+signup@gmail.com). When a message hits your inbox, you’ll see the +signup in the To field.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Use Ctrl + Z (or Command + Z) to undo anything, that is text, files, even deleted emails in Gmail. Too bad it doesn’t work on chocolate.
📅 Search by date range in Gmail: Need to find emails from a specific time frame? In the search bar, type: after:2025/01/01 before:2025/03/01. This shows emails from Jan. 2 to Feb. 28, 2025. You can narrow it more like from:kim@example.com or has:attachment. Neat.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Using Gmail? Add a +keyword to your email (like you+shop@gmail.com) to track who leaks your info.
📨 Faster email flow: Speed through your inbox with Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts. Go to Settings > See all settings > General, check Keyboard shortcuts on, then hit Save Changes at the bottom. Need the full list of shortcuts? Press Shift + ? while you’re in Gmail.
🔍 Google I/O announcements: I wasn’t overly impressed. Search is getting an AI Mode tab so you can use Gemini to browse the web. Why? Google Meet will add real-time speech translation. Finally. Gmail will dig through your inbox to suggest replies that sound more like you. Helpful, maybe. And for shopping? Upload a full-length photo and virtually try on outfits. And Google gets more data points on you to sell.
📨 Size matters: Want to make that email bigger and shrink your inbox? If you’re on Gmail or Google Chat with an Android tablet, you can. Google just added draggable dividers. Grab the gray bar between your inbox and message view, then slide it left or right to adjust the layout.
Email déjà vu: Stop rewriting the same message. Create a template in Gmail to save time. On your computer, go to Settings > See all settings > Advanced. Click Enable next to Templates and Save Changes. Next time you hit compose, select More options (three dots at the bottom) > Templates > Insert template.
🔒 Keep this between us: Need to send a private message on Gmail? Click Compose and select Confidential Mode (padlock icon with a tiny clock) at the bottom. This way, your recipient can’t forward, print or download your email or any attachments. You can even set an expiration date and a passcode.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Gmail power user with attachment issues? Type “has:attachment larger:10M” to instantly find and delete space-hogging emails.
🛜 Off the grid? Check Gmail anytime, even without an internet connection. Just log into Gmail, tap the gear icon > See all settings > Offline tab > click Enable offline mail. Click here to go right to that page. Choose your offline data settings and hit Save. This only works in Chrome and not in Incognito mode.
🛡️ Google scrambles to fix Gmail phishing mess: I told you about this on Saturday, but it’s still going in full force. Don’t fall for spoofed emails claiming your Gmail account is about to be closed down. These are passing Gmail’s scam filters, slipping into inboxes looking squeaky-clean. You know it’s bad when the scammer gets better deliverability than your friend’s birthday email.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: In Gmail, type “unsubscribe” in the search bar. Boom, every promo list you forgot you signed up for, ready to nuke. This tip alone is worth the price of this newsletter.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Quickly find emails in Gmail by typing @ into the search bar to view emails from your contacts. Easy way to find everyone you’ve been avoiding!
🚨 Last minute tax write-off alert: Run a business? You could score a tax break if you bought new or used equipment from laptops to software. Section 179 lets you deduct up to $1.22 million (taxes filed in 2025). It jumps to $1.25 million next year. Pro tip: Track your purchases to save more.
📨 Out of the office? Set up a vacation responder to auto-reply like a pro. In Gmail, go to Settings (gear icon) > See all settings. Scroll down to Vacation responder and check it on. Then write your message, pick your dates and hit Save Changes when you’re good to go. Auto-replies are self-care with punctuation.
Gmail’s getting more secure: Google’s making it way easier for businesses to send encrypted emails. Before, you had to deal with something called S/MIME, which was a pain to set up. Now? Just turn on the Additional encryption option when drafting an email. FYI: It only works within your company, so yes, your boss can finally encrypt that calendar invite you’ll ignore.
🫨 Gone phishing: If you use Gmail or Outlook, watch out for deceptive emails asking for sensitive info or trying to trick you into clicking a malicious link that takes over your computer. Make a mistake and the hackers will hold your PC or data hostage until you pay a ransom. This one’s spreading, so watch out!
📧 Sent the wrong email? Gmail lets you undo a sent email before it actually goes out. Click the Gear icon (Settings) in the top right > See all settings > under General, go to Undo Send and set the Send cancellation period to 30 seconds for extra time. Next time you slip up, just hit Undo in the bottom left corner.