💸 Let’s have a pity party: Peloton’s former billionaire CEO says he’s broke and has lost almost all his money. Since stepping down in 2022, he had to sell his Hamptons mansion ($51 million) and a Manhattan townhouse ($35.5 million). Now, he’s back to work on a décor company that sells rugs online. I bet you have to rent stupidly expensive rugs by the month.
$1 for a fixer-upper
In a small North Dakota town. A woman bought a 1924 two-bedroom house that needs a lot of work, but you can’t beat that deal. Most homes in the area sell for around $100,000. She’s now got a wildly popular TikTok account about her restoration journey.
Suite dreams: Next time you check into a hotel, don’t be surprised if there are no keycards. Digital options using Apple Wallet and Google Wallet are soaring. Just tap your phone near the door handle to get in. Earlier this year, hackers cracked over 3 million hotel rooms with Saflok locks, so I’m all for this.
🚨 All that and dim sum: Researchers dug into Communist China-owned TikTok’s algorithms and found they suppress content critical of the Chinese Communist Party. Search for “Xinjiang,” a region linked with genocide and crimes against humanity, and you’ll find only 2.3% of results are anti-China. Compare that to 21.7% on YouTube. And the cherry on top? They’re not above manipulating teens with pro-China propaganda.
12 hours per week
How much kids should read for a better adulthood. Researchers analyzed 10,000 kids and found the earlier they started reading for fun, the better their learning, memory, speech and mental well-being. Looking for recommendations? These are the bestselling kids’ books on Amazon.
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Zip it: If your phone rings and someone says, “Can you hear me?” or “Is this [your name]?” hang up. Scammers record your “Yes” to create voice authorizations for bank account access. Bonus points if you report shady numbers to the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker.
190 Gbps
Speed reached in 6G Wi-Fi tests. The new standard is so fast that you’ll be able to download an entire season of your favorite show in a few seconds. But it’s not coming for another couple of years.
📸 Heartwarming moment: A middle school assistant principal in North Carolina had to be at work early on the first day of classes, which meant missing out on her son’s first day of school … again. This year, though, she got a Ring notification on her phone just as he was heading out the door. Mom got to say hi, see his outfit and snap a photo before he left. The video is adorable.
We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.
Stop blabbin’: Dropbox’s AI may share your files with OpenAI and other third parties. Don’t remember signing up for that? Me, neither. To turn it off, log in to Dropbox, hit your Account icon, go to Settings, find the Third-Party AI tab and toggle the switch to Off.
🗣️ Alexa’s makeover is going to cost you: This is interesting. Amazon’s in-house Alexa AI software struggled, sometimes taking seven seconds (a digital lifetime) to reply. Now, they’re using Anthropic’s Claude AI. Amazon invested $4 billion in Anthropic. A smarter Alexa is coming in October, costing $5 to $10 a month.