Use a Mac? Find the list of startup programs under the Apple menu > System Preferences > Users & Groups. Select your user account, then click Login Items. Easy-peasy.
Can ChatGPT mess with your mind?
Some users are spiraling into delusions, claiming the AI gave them a sacred mission. It’s being called “ChatGPT-induced psychosis.” Plus: Physical buttons are making a comeback in cars, AirPods will soon translate languages, and Shark has recalled some pressure cookers.
🧢 Adidas x identity theft: Hackers hit an Adidas contractor and grabbed customer data. Adidas says it was just contact info, but still, change your password on adidas.com if you have an account. Adidas is now investigating this little cyber joggers’ detour and letting the impacted users know.
1 million
New users on ChatGPT every hour since GPT-4o’s new image tool launched. Wow. No wonder Open AI CEO Sam Altman calls the demand “biblical.” The buzz hasn’t been this high since ChatGPT first launched. With 500 million total users and counting, it’s clearer than ever: AI is here to stay. Or people are just obsessed with making cartoon versions of themselves.
📱 Be our guest: Android’s Guest mode creates a temporary profile that keeps your stuff separate if you lend your phone. Open Settings > System > Multiple users. Toggle on Allow multiple users and Delete guest activity to wipe their data when you switch back. Press Add guest > Switch to Guest to launch it.
📡 Siri’s not OK: Maybe you’re like me getting so frustrated at it because it just sucks. Apple’s AI fix is … other people’s AI. Siri flopped so hard, Apple’s sending us off to ChatGPT (and maybe Gemini and Perplexity, too) to avoid embarrassment. A shiny new, non-humiliating Siri is in the works, but don’t hold your breath. It’s not even invited to Apple’s developers conference in June.
⚠️ Crypto hackers get crafty: A hacker group called FreeDrain has built an entire phishing empire targeting desperate crypto users. They do it by poisoning search results with over 200K malicious links. Victims are lured by fake wallet support pages, asked for their seed phrases and drained faster than a Solana transaction. The heist? Already in the millions.
🔥 Mac scam spreading: A new phishing scam makes your Mac pretend to freeze, throw a meltdown alert, then sweet-talk you into handing over your Apple ID like it’s a lost kitten. It’s fake. It’s bad. And it’s targeting typo-prone Mac users who think “MacOsHelp.vip” is a real Apple site.
🗺️ Map wars begin: Google renamed the “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” for U.S. users, and Mexico’s not having it. President Claudia Sheinbaum is suing, saying the U.S. can’t rename an international body of water just because it passed a House bill. Rumor is the line is drawn at renaming tacos “Lettuce Pray Wraps.”
🚫 No ban, no problem: TikTok’s execs are telling advertisers to relax, promising the app’s staying power despite that little thing called a federal ban potentially kicking in next month (paywall link). With 170 million U.S. users and Super Bowl ad ambitions, TikTok says it’s too big to flinch.
📍 T-Mobile messed up big-time: The company sells a GPS tracker so parents can see their young kids’ locations if they don’t have a phone yet. But last week, a software glitch showed users the live locations, names and photos of random children instead (paywall link)! Somewhere, a lawyer just whispered: “delicious.” It’s apparently been fixed, but seriously, that kind of info should never be leaked.
🧑🏼🎨 New AI image generator: Using ChatGPT’s 4o model, just type something like, “Draw a dog surfing a wave with sunglasses,” and boom, you’ve got an image in seconds. It’s rolling out to both free and paid users, so if you don’t see it yet, hang tight.
⚖️ Google’s in trouble: The DOJ wants them to sell off Chrome, saying it has too much control over online search. They aren’t wrong … it has 3.4 billion users worldwide. Google’s clapback? Forcing a sale would hurt consumers, damage the economy and pose a national security risk. The case moves forward in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
⚡ Power users like you: Microsoft PowerToys adds free, new features to your Windows PC. Peek gives you a quick preview of a file without opening it. If you’ve used a Mac, you can preview a file just by hitting the space bar. With Peek, select a file, press Ctrl + Space. Install PowerToys here.
400 million
Weekly active ChatGPT users. Whoa. That’s double their numbers last August and more than Reddit. The AI train has left the station, folks.
Chatbot war continues: Perplexity AI just dropped a deep research tool that gives you detailed reports about nearly anything in two to four minutes. Free users get five queries a day, while Pro subscribers ($20 per month) get 500. Want to test it out? It’s live here.
You might need this: OpenAI’s fancy ChatGPT deep research agent pulls info from multiple sources but takes 30 minutes per search. It’s coming to Free and Plus tiers pretty soon, not just the $200-per-month option. The catch? Plus users get 10 prompts a month and Free users get two. I’ve mentioned before this is great to use with medical issues, business ideas and just about anything that needs a ton of research.
157 million users
Watching ads on Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. About half of all new Disney+ subscribers picked the cheaper ad-supported option. That’s helping the streamer rake in $321 million in operating income, a huge turnaround from their reported $387 million loss a year ago.
This is interest-ing: Parents are adding their kids as authorized credit card users. The idea is once they’re ready for a loan or card of their own, they have established credit. If the parents have good credit, it can boost kids’ scores by 20 or more points. I did this for my son.
🦈 Sink or swim: “Shark Tank” judge Kevin O’Leary and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt are trying to buy Communist China-owned TikTok before the possible ban on Jan. 19. O’Leary says the big goal is protecting 170 million American users from Chinese surveillance. They’ll need at least $100 billion to get this done.