The first email message was a head-scratcher. Was it … A.) “Hello, world!” B.) A math formula, C.) A knock-knock joke or D.) A bunch of letters?
The answer: D.) A bunch of letters. In 1971, the first email message sent by Ray Tomlinson said, “QWERTYUIOP.” No, that wasn’t Ray saying, “Qwerty U I Op.” It’s the first line of letters on a standard keyboard.
Speaking of … What’s management’s favorite keyboard shortcut? Shift + Blame.
Wonder why Apple and Google suddenly started rolling out anti-stalking alerts for their Bluetooth trackers? Apple’s dealing with a class-action lawsuit from victims who say abusers used AirTags to track and harass them.
💻 Ctrl + Alt + Del for Chromebook: Press Shift + Esc to open Task Manager. Scan the list of apps and webpages. If your machine is lagging and you spot one with high memory consumption, click it and select End Task.
Lemme Turk to ya: I mentioned Amazon Mechanical Turk on the show, and a lot of you had questions. With mTurk, you can get paid to complete tasks that are easier for people than bots, like analyzing images and transcribing audio. Sign up here for a Worker account.
📅 AI personal assistant: Google Gemini or ChatGPT can plan your day for you. Tell the AI your top three priorities, appointments or commitments and how long a task typically takes. Then, ask it to create a schedule. Just like that, you’ll get a bulleted list, scheduled right down to the minute.
You spotted a scammer on Facebook: Do your good deed and report the page. Go to the profile, and in the top right corner, click the three dots. Select Find support or report, and then follow the on-screen prompts.
Wait, what? You can reread that Android notification you didn’t fully look at the first time. Head to your Settings and tap Notifications > Notification History to view that push alert on whatever wild thing Elon Musk said this time.
📸 iPhone editing trick: Use this next time a pic is almost perfect. Select an image and zoom in using two fingers. The option to crop your photo will appear on the top right of your device. Tap it, crop or adjust your pic using the editing tools, then tap Done.
None of your business: Quickly hide message previews popping up on your Android lock screen. This is an “A” and “B” conversation, so “C” yourself out, snoopers! From Settings, tap Display > Lock Screen > Privacy.
📺 Trying to pick the right-sized TV? Multiply the diagonal length of the TV by 1.2 to determine your ideal viewing distance. For example, a 98-inch screen would only require 118 inches, or 9.8 feet, of space between your couch and the TV for optimal viewing.
Pump it up: Stream music, movies or whatever’s on your iPad to a larger screen. Just tap the AirPlay icon in the Control Center and select an AirPlay-compatible device. Score.
