Read to me

September 18, 2024

Read to me: Robert from Mooresville, North Carolina, called my show to ask how to make his time in the car more productive by listening to documents he’d otherwise need to read during his drive. Easy-peasy — your phone can read a PDF aloud if you set up text-to-speech.

On an iPhone: Head to Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content. Turn on Speak Screen and Speak Selection. Now open the doc you want to listen to, and swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen to activate Speak Screen.
On an Android phone: Go to Settings > Accessibility > Select to Speak. Turn it on. To use it, tap the Accessibility icon, then select the text you want to hear.

No need to buy a thing. Seriously, where else can you get this great intel?

Tags: Android, car, phone, screen, settings

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Scam emails we got this week – Don’t fall for this junk!

Eight billion. That’s how many spam emails go out in the U.S. every single day. Komando staff (me included!) have received some real winners recently. Here’s a look at actual spam emails circulating right now. I want to keep you safe from junk like this, so read carefully!

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Why you need a VPN (even if you're not tech-savvy)

When surfing the web, you might encounter a few confusing acronyms. Take VPN, for example. You might shrug and scroll past it if you don’t know what it means. Just like that, you could miss out on the best internet privacy tool.

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If your pics or music are on a hard drive: Data company Iron Mountain says 20% of the hard drives they get from the ‘90s are dead on arrival. Even when stored in perfect conditions, these drives deteriorate; most last only three to five years. Don’t let this happen to you. Use an adapter to transfer your files to a new external drive.

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$65,530 purse

Built around Nvidia’s H100 processor, the workhorse powering ChatGPT-4. An AI research scientist started GPU Purses. I wouldn’t buy one, but I appreciate the ingenuity.

Use ‘em or lose ‘em: Tech account inactivity policies

Did you know most online services have policies that allow them to delete inactive accounts and all associated data? In fact, Google is in the process of deleting old Gmail accounts as we speak.

It’s amazing how that can turn a simple mistake or moment of forgetfulness into a full-scale data catastrophe.

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3 quick tech fixes for life’s little annoyances

Let’s take a minute to appreciate something: Today’s tech can solve our problems. All of them? No, definitely not. Some major annoyances? Yep! Let’s do this.

When you can’t figure out what you’ve been humming all day, grab your phone. These tricks also work when a song comes on and its name is stuck on the tip of your tongue.

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100,000 seasonal workers

Coming onboard at Targets across the U.S. Good to know, if you want to pick up extra Christmas money! Here’s where to apply online. Ugh, I accidentally wore a red shirt to Target, and now I’m covering for Frank in produce this weekend.

How to spot an AI-generated image: Tips, tricks and pro tools

Forget trying to spot if a pic of a model was photoshopped. (It was.) Now we can’t even trust if the person we see in a photo or video is real.

Fear not, I’m here to help you navigate the pixelated wilderness. Let’s look at the seven telltale signs an image is AI-generated.

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Love this idea: Two Colorado sisters launched a dating app designed for people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Users can tap “X” or “❤️” to sort through matches, and there’s a “Dateability Deets” section where you check off terms that describe your condition. Check it out on iOS and Android.

Gemini Live is free to Android users: Google’s AI assistant chats in real time and you can interrupt it with new info or directions. To try it, open the Gemini app and tap the circular waveform with a sparkle icon in the bottom right. You’ll enter full-screen chat mode.