Tips

🌐 Use AI to dig up sneaky fees in your 401(k)

📝 This copy-and-paste prompt helps you review expense ratios, admin fees, overlapping funds, and cheaper plan options before your next meeting.

This free tool turns your kid’s pencil drawing into a 10-page storybook that reads itself aloud

Google’s free Storybook tool takes one photo of your kid’s pencil drawing and turns it into a 10-page illustrated book, drawn in their own style, that reads itself aloud. Two minutes, no design skills, print it as a PDF keepsake.

Those ordinary-looking glasses at the next table? They might be recording you.

AI smart glasses are the fastest-growing gadget in America, and almost nobody can spot a pair. Learn how to tell when the camera is rolling, what your state allows and three things you can do about it.

Archivists set a deadline to save tapes like yours. It was last year.

Magnetic tape lasts 10 to 30 years, and your wedding video is older than that. Worse, the last VCR on Earth was built in 2016. For less than $200, here’s the weekend kit you’ll need to rescue the whole box, including the exact eBay search phrase that finds a working player.

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.

Use AI to cut junk fees from your car quote

VIN etching can cost $199 to $499, and paint or theft packages can hit $2,500. This gives you the AI prompt to audit a dealer quote, spot padded fees, check your state’s doc-fee cap and send a firm out-the-door counteroffer.

Free tool turns a page of handwriting into a font you can type with

You can take a single page of your loved one’s handwriting and turn it into a font that works in Word forever. A son used this free tool to preserve his mother’s handwriting as Parkinson’s slowly took it away. Print the template, fill it in, upload the photo, done in 15 minutes.

Five tricks power users type into AI that you don’t. Steal all five.

Same chatbot, same monthly bill, wildly different answers. The gap isn’t intelligence. It’s vocabulary. Here are the five commands that turn a chatbot into a consultant, an editor, a burglar and a tutor.

Scientists built an AI that can nearly talk to dolphins. Your dog could be next.

Google trained an AI on 40 years of dolphin chatter, and it runs on a cell phone underwater. The wild part? The same tech is coming for your pets.

Use AI to find valuable collectibles before you sell Grandma’s shoebox

That box of random stuff moving with you from house to house is getting its time of day. This gives you a copy-paste AI prompt, photo checklist and sold-price research steps for coins, cards, ceramics and mystery junk.

Why 911 can’t always find you when you call from a cell phone

Uber can find your front door, but for years, 23 million 911 calls annually went to the wrong dispatch center. A federal fix just kicked in, but it still has holes. Here are the phone settings that close them.

Turn any photo into a free coloring page in 20 seconds

The kids are bored, the crayons are out, but every coloring book is scribbled in. Here’s the quick AI trick that turns your own photos into custom pages nobody else on Earth has.

Free vs. paid AI: What your $20 a month actually buys (and when to skip it)

Nearly every AI charges the same $20 a month, but the free versions are better than you think. Here’s when paying is worth it and when it’s cash walking out the door.

You’re making AI images all wrong. Here’s how to fix that.

Flawless skin, dramatic lighting, tidy rooms? That’s the “AI look,” and it’s tanking your content. Learn the simple tricks that make your visuals pass as real.

You bought it. They can still switch it off.

Companies are quietly bricking gadgets you already paid for or locking the features behind a subscription. Here’s how to spot the problem and how to buy around it.

Your phone can translate a conversation in real time

Live translation quietly arrived in phones, earbuds and glasses. Talk to almost anyone, in almost any language. Here’s how to set it up before your next trip.

AI, price my junk

One shelf, one photo session and one smart prompt can tell you what to sell, bundle, donate or toss.

The hidden tab that tells you if your neighbor will ever sell

Everyone uses Zillow to gawk at dream homes. The savvy ones go straight for the boring tabs, where a stranger’s mortgage rate quietly reveals whether they’re a motivated seller or going nowhere. Here’s how to read it, and how to hide yours.

5 Google Flights tricks to score a summer deal (Even if you booked late)

More than a third of summer travelers still haven’t bought their tickets. Good news: Google Flights’ hidden features can land you a deal. Here’s how to use them.

AI can spot if your pet is in pain from one photo. Here’s how to try it tonight.

Cats and dogs are experts at hiding pain, and even loving owners miss it. Now the AI on your phone can read the tiny signs right off their face. Here’s the free way to try it, plus when to skip the app and call the vet.