Tag: settings

Your car is selling your driving habits, and your insurance bill shows it

A new study of 21 cars and 30 car apps found 19 vehicles leaking data. Here’s what’s tracked, who buys it and how to shut it down.

Talking to your phone is three times faster than typing on it, with fewer typos. Here’s how to start, plus pro moves for people who already dictate.

Typing on a slab of glass with your thumbs is slow. Talking isn’t. Your phone has known that for years. You’re the one who never pressed the button. Monday’s a good day to start. 🎙️ How to dictate iPhone and Android: Tap the microphone on your keyboard and talk. To punctuate, say “comma,” “period,” “question […]

The 2-minute hotel check Kim runs every stay, the broken lock it caught and the trick that turns the room’s TV into a second monitor.

Kim’s hotel room check caught a broken door lock in Jackson Hole, friend. Steal her 2-minute routine, turn the TV into a second monitor and hear about the $300,000 ring in an Italian safe.

Your phone can record the call, type and summarize it before you hang up. Here’s how on iPhone, Pixel and Samsung, and the legal line you can’t cross.

The doctor who calls back. The contractor who gives you a quote. The insurance rep who talks in numbers. Your phone will record them, transcribe the conversation and write a summary, no app to buy, friend. Steps for iPhone, Pixel and Galaxy below, plus the 12-state rule that keeps you out of court.

🗣️ How to practice difficult conversations with ChatGPT Voice

ChatGPT’s GPT-Live voice mode lets you rehearse negotiations, interviews and awkward conversations with natural interruptions. Here’s how to start, the prompt to use and what happens to your audio.

Which side of the family do your kids take after? Ask AI, and paste these 5 prompts

Grandma says the chin is Grandpa’s. Your sister says the kid is all you. Upload three photos and let AI referee. Five prompts, one warning about privacy and the science on who babies look like.

🔒 Stop ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini from using your chats for AI training

Your chatbot conversations can help train AI, and some may be reviewed by humans. Here’s how to tell ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini: Thanks, but no thanks.

She hadn’t seen her childhood block in 70 years. Then she put on a headset in a California retirement home.

Sue Livingstone, 84, stood on her old street in Queens again. Ginny, 81, swam with dolphins. Bob, 83, hiked Glacier on his birthday with his wife of 61 years beside him. And the part nobody expected: Afterward, they all went to lunch. Together, friend.

On September 11, the phones didn’t break. They filled up. Here’s what still worked.

Twenty-five years ago, millions of Americans picked up the phone at the same moment, and most of them couldn’t get through. The network wasn’t destroyed. It was busy. That continues to happen in hurricanes and blackouts, and there are four things you can set up tonight that make you reachable when everyone else isn’t.

🧠 How to see and delete what ChatGPT remembers about you

ChatGPT keeps a running profile of you, and the Memory Summary may not show everything it remembers from past chats. Here’s how to read and clean it up.

Google scams have four new faces. Here’s the checklist that beats all of them.

A Google Form, a calendar invite, a “Google Security” call, an AI Overview phone number. Four scams wear Google’s logo, friend, but the company insists it will never call you about security

⚙️ Stop retyping the same ChatGPT prompt: 3 settings that make it work your way

Custom Instructions, Memory and Temporary Chat are already in your ChatGPT app. Here’s the 60-second setup for each, the instructions to paste and the privacy catch on incognito chats.

More than half of America watches TV with subtitles on. It’s not your hearing. Here’s the free 2-minute fix and the gadgets that finish the job.

Turn it up, now it’s blasting, turn it down, have to rewind, “what did she SAY?” A survey found over half of Americans keep subtitles on, mostly because the audio is muddled. The real culprits: razor-thin TVs with speakers firing at the wall, theater sound mixes crammed into your living room and streaming compression.

🍝 ChatGPT can book restaurant reservations for you

ChatGPT will find open tables, book them and even join a Yelp waitlist without you leaving the chat. Here’s how to do it, the prompt that gets the best results and the catch about cancellations.

🏠 How to search rentals and book apartment tours with AI

Zillow is a connected app on both Gemini and ChatGPT, so you can find listings and schedule tours just by asking. Here’s the 60-second setup, the prompt to try first and the privacy catch.

Your smart TV is taking snapshots of everything you watch, then selling the data

Your smart TV has a setting called ACR that’s spying on everything you watch. It’s on by default, and every brand buries it somewhere different in settings. Turn it off and nothing changes except the ads get dumber.

Gadgets under $50 you’ll actually use

Inside: A $10 surge protector, a pocket laser measure, touchless trash can and more clever finds that won’t end up in your junk drawer.

Free streaming got good. Your $69-a-month bill didn’t get the memo.

The average household pays $69 a month for streaming, and 73% are fed up with the price hikes. Nielsen says free services like The Roku Channel beat some paid giants, and Tubi alone has 300,000 free titles. Cancel your least-watched app for 30 days and try one of these instead.

Free AI strips the dog, the traffic and the coffee grinder out of your calls in real time

Krisp strips barking dogs, traffic and coffee shop noise out of your calls in real time, using AI that runs entirely on your device. Works with Zoom, Teams, Meet and Slack. Free tier covers about an hour of noise-free calls a day.

Your parents’ phone problems aren’t about the phone. They’re about having no one to ask.

A 20-minute setup stops half the panicked calls. A carrier with a real human who answers stops the rest, for your folks and for you.