🎵 Work hack? Studies show surgeons work faster and more accurately when listening to classical music. For those of us not in the operating room, the best tunes are those that put you in a better mood. The three most popular tracks on work-related Spotify lists: “Drops of Jupiter” (Train), “Dreams” (Fleetwood Mac) and “Don’t Stop Believin’” (Journey). Did I just hear you humming a tune?
Tags: Apple Mac, hacks, Mood, Music, popular, Spotify, work
Whoever said to throw the laptop out, instead of squeezing everyone else out, is a genius.
App intrusion: Stop apps from listening by turning off access to the mic. On iPhone, open Settings > Privacy & Security. Locate the menu labeled Microphone and tap it. Find the app you want to turn off the mic for and toggle off its switch. Steps for Android here.
Amazon started as an online bookstore back in 1994. Did Jeff Bezos pick books because … A.) His mom was a librarian, B.) He read four to six books a week or C.) He thought he’d never run out of books to sell?
Apparently the pharmacy chain Rite Aid just found out about a “little” data breach they had … back in 2017.
Don’t suffer in silence: If you get scammed, report it. You’ll save someone else from being a victim and leave a paper trail if the crook that scammed you ever gets caught. You can report online scams at the Internet Crime Complaint Center and even share your story on Reddit’s r/scams.
🤳 How to go viral on TikTok: Since 2020, the most liked video on TikTok is a woman making funny faces while lip-syncing a catchy song. Today, a new, viral post is pretty much the same thing. So many people ask me, “How can I go viral?” The winning formula: Be young, attractive and do something easily replicated.
Beta blocker: Apple Safari 18 beta’s new Reader mode lets you read any article without ads or auto-playing videos. To use it, you’ll need to update to the Sequoia OS beta. Go to Settings > General > Software Update > toggle on Beta Updates > macOS Sequoia developer beta > Upgrade Now. Now, when you open an article in Safari, click the square icon in the URL bar, and then click Show Reader to scroll ad-free!
File cleanup: You have separate PDFs that should all be in one file. In Adobe Acrobat, go to Tools > Combine Files to merge multiple PDFs into a single file. Don’t pay for Adobe? No sweat. Here’s a free site I like for editing PDFs.
Wikipedia isn’t the only option: Try Perplexity AI to learn more about a topic you’re interested in. Think of it as your smartest pal who lies from time to time but is versed in science, math, history and most other subjects.
Fun Samsung shortcuts: Instead of hitting the backspace key over and over to clean up a typo, use two fingers to swipe left. That’s “Undo.” Want to “Redo?” Swipe two fingers to the right and your text will come back.
