It doesn’t listen to your phone’s mic for info about you. In one case, Facebook got data from 48,000 companies about a single person. Wow. Plus, caller Ron from Georgia is a truck driver who wants to start a YouTube channel. I also cover Google’s plans for Chrome and how to check whether a phone was stolen.
Unleash your inner IT overlord
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I read every comment you leave at the end of this newsletter, and one theme always stands out: You want to know all the hidden things your tech can do!
Lucky for you, uncovering those “I had no idea!” moments is my superpower.
🪟 Secret Windows restart trick
Frequent shutdowns can fix most computer issues, but you can try a Shift shutdown to close all processes and apps and clear the RAM completely.
- Hold down Shift before you restart.
- In the menu, click the Power button > Restart while holding the Shift key and wait for your PC to power down.
- Choose Continue when it turns back on.
♻️ Did you know Windows is more environmentally friendly than macOS? Windows puts your deleted files in the Recycle Bin, while macOS throws them in the Trash. (Bet you never thought of that before!)
🧭 Wipe your location from photos
Your phone stores metadata every time you take a picture, including the date you snapped the photo, your camera settings and where you were located when the picture was taken. Before you share a photo, send that data to the intergalactic bit bucket.
- On iPhone, open the image you want to share and tap the share button (square with an arrow pointing up). Next, select Options and toggle off Location and All Photos Data.
- On Android, open Google Photos, select the photo, tap More (the three-dot menu), then go to Edit and click Remove location.
☎️ Fix your phone’s call audio
Let’s say you’re on the phone with a pal, and your background is so noisy that your friend can’t hear you. Good news if you have an iPhone: There’s Voice Isolation mode.
- Place your call, and when your recipient picks up, swipe down from the top right of your screen to access the Control Center.
- At the top of your screen, you should see an orange microphone icon next to the word Phone. Tap that, and you’ll see a separate screen with an Audio & Video option. Scroll to and tap Voice Isolation.
The day the cloud caught a cold
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If Zoom wouldn’t connect, YouTube froze or your smart home went dumb yesterday morning, it wasn’t just you. Over 11 million people reported issues with more than 2,500 big name apps and services.
The reason? A huge outage at Amazon Web Services, better known as AWS. Let me explain what all this means in plain English.
🤝 Own a website? While Google, OpenAI and Anthropic eat everyone’s content buffet-style for free, Search.com said, “How about we actually pay the chefs?” Their new AI search tool gives creators 60% of ad revenue, promises no scraping without consent and lets sites embed AI chatbots for free. It’s a small shift, but it could help keep your site, as well as your favorites, alive.
🎨 Design like a pro: I’ve mentioned Canva before, but it’s worth another shout. Besides social posts, you can make birthday cards, mini videos, CVs and slideshows. Sign in with Google to start customizing templates. FYI, teachers can get Pro features for free at canva.com/education. Click Get verified and enter your school info.
📄 Share and edit anywhere: One of the best parts of Google Docs, Sheets and Slides is how easy it is to collaborate. Click the Share button in the top right, set General access to Anyone with the link, and give them Editor privileges. Now you can work together in real time. No need to pay for a Microsoft Office subscription.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Searching for documents on Google? Add filetype: to your search. Try filetype:pdf tax form, filetype:doc resume template, or filetype:ppt marketing slideshow. You really need to remember this one. It’s a time saver.
✈️ Set Google Flights price alerts: Head to Google Flights, search for your trip and toggle the “Track prices” switch. You’ll get email alerts when prices drop. Bonus: It’ll even tell you if current prices are high, average or low compared to typical trends.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: On Google Maps, you don’t need exact names. Type “hiking trails,” “coffee shop” or “car repair,” and it’ll show local results. Sweet.
It’s a sign: A Kenyan engineer built what’s basically Google Translate for sign language. His app, Terp 360, listens to speech and uses AI-powered 3D avatars to sign in real time. It’s built with motion-capture tech (sensors track actual signers’ movements), and it already knows thousands of words. I’ve always wanted to learn ASL.
GPT-5’s office gossip: OpenAI dropped a ChatGPT update called “company knowledge,” and it’s like giving your AI an all-access pass to Slack, Google Drive and GitHub. It reads everything, finds what you need and even cites sources. Ask it, “What are 2026’s goals?” and it begins rummaging internal sources. You have to turn on “company knowledge” manually when starting a chat, so it won’t snoop unless you let it.
GM’s hands-free future: Are you tired of driving? GM’s 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ wants to let you fully check out, literally. The next-gen Super Cruise drives itself (on approved highways) with lidar, radar and cameras, and the dash glows turquoise when it’s safe to let auto drive take over. Oh, and Google’s Gemini AI will chat with you, because silence is awkward.
💄 Google Meet’s AI makeup is rolling out: You can now add virtual makeup during video calls, with 12 options to choose from like eyeliner, lipstick, blush and more. Go to Backgrounds and effects > Appearance > Makeup to try it out. The best part? The filter moves with your face, so it won’t slide off when you sip your coffee. I tried it and looked marvelous!
✋ Stop Google Photos auto backup: On Android, you can stop Google Photos from quietly uploading every picture you take. It saves some cloud space and keeps your private (or spicy) photos off the internet. Open Photos, tap your profile icon (top right) > Photos settings > Backup, and toggle it off.
📬 Create a Gmail group email: Tired of adding the same people one by one? Make a contact group instead. In Gmail, click Google apps (top right) > Contacts. Select your people, tap Manage labels (top right) > Create label and name your group. Back in Gmail, compose a message, type the group name in “To,” and everyone’s added automatically. Magic.
Share videos with Google Drive: It’s an easy way to send large files to a client or friend. Open your browser, sign in to Google Drive and click + New > File Upload. Choose your video and wait for it to finish uploading. Then open it, hit Share, select Anyone with the link, copy the link and send it off.
📍 Share your location in Google Maps: Let friends or family see where you are in real time. Open the Google Maps app, tap your profile icon in the top right, then go to Location sharing > New share. Choose how long to share (like 2 hours), then pick who to send it to. FYI: You can also select Share via link for others.
Translate pages in Chrome: Chrome can automatically translate websites for you. Click the three-dot menu (top right), go to Settings > Languages > Google Translate, and toggle on Use Google Translate. Then choose your preferred language under Translate into this language. Voilà, you can read foreign pages.
🎥 AI’s next film class: Google’s new Veo 3.1 can generate eerily realistic videos complete with audio, edits and, this is a big one, TikTok-ready vertical frames. It’s rolling out across Gemini and YouTube Shorts, which means spotting what’s real online just got harder. If you blink, you might miss the line between “content” and “AI slop.”
✍️ Fix caps in Google Docs: If you’re typing fast during a meeting, capitalization is usually the first thing to go. Instead of fixing every word later, highlight the text, go to Format > Text > Capitalization, and choose lowercase, UPPERCASE or Title Case. In seconds, your notes look tidy and professional.