Hey, hi, it’s the last Friday of 2024, friend! Here’s some early 2025 goal-setting motivation: You miss 100% of the chances you don’t take. In 1978, now-billionaire Richard Branson wanted to impress his girlfriend by buying a $6 million private island. He offered $100,000 as a joke … and the owner agreed to $180,000. Yeah, he bought it. The island’s now worth $100,000,000. As for the girl, they got married on the island. They have two children, both of whom also held their weddings on Necker Island. Brb, I’m headed to the Porsche dealership!

🔐 Manage, store and create secure passwords. Keep your logins locked down with my tested and recommended password management app for PC, Mac, Android, iPhone and web browsers. Save a username, password, billing address or credit card once, and this great program will autofill it for you. You’ll love it as much as I do! — Kim

If your photo library feels out of control after the holidays, you’re not alone. Between taking multiple shots to get the perfect one and sharing images with friends and family, duplicate photos pile up quickly. Here’s a simple guide to declutter your digital photo collection.

1. Start with built-in tools

Try the free tools already available on your device. These can help you quickly locate and remove duplicate photos.

iPhone or iPad: The Photos app makes this easy‑peasy.

For Android: Don’t delete your duplicates manually; open the Files by Google app, select Clean, then:

For Google Photos: Sorry, there’s no built-in duplicate-cleaning tool here, so it’s up to you.

2. Get an app made for the job

If you have thousands of duplicates, deleting them manually takes forever. A third-party app like Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro is a quicker solution. None of these apps are perfect, but take any help you can get!

3. Go beyond duplicates

Most of us have a lot of crappy photos, making it hard to find the ones we actually want to see. Blurry shots, similar pics and other junk won’t make it into your duplicate purge — you’ll have to do that manually. Here are a couple of methods to deal with the madness:

Pro tip: Once you’re caught up, set a calendar reminder to spend 15 minutes a month reviewing and deleting photos. Pick the same date, and it might even become a ritual you look forward to.

4. Revisit your special memories

Decluttering is such a good opportunity to remember cherished moments. Don’t just look at the pic again and forget about it. Try one of these ideas:

“Kim, this sounds like work.” It is! As someone who has taken on this task, I can tell you it’s absolutely worth it. Don’t rush, have fun and trust the process.

😂 I once got in a photo with REM. Look! That's me in the corner.

Think of a password manager as your digital safe. It securely encrypts and stores your logins, passkeys, credit card details, personal info and even sensitive files. And, of course, a password manager generates rock-solid passwords for you and autofills them so you’re never struggling to log in.

Using your browser or a free option just won’t cut it. NordPass is my password manager pick. With military grade encryption and the ability to sync your account across all your devices, it makes it easy to access what you want, when you want it.

There’s something special about knowing every single account is safe and sound.

💔 She wasn’t dating Keanu Reeves: Katherine Goodson, a 67-year-old in Vista, California, fell for a romance scam. She thought she was enjoying the real thing with actor Keanu Reeves. She sent “Keanu” tens of thousands of dollars for “emergency expenses,” only to get ghosted when her money ran out. Now, she’s living in her car. So sad. Seriously, where’s John Wick to hunt these criminals down?

Forget cash: Today’s teens are paying off debts to each other using Starbucks items. Almost 31% would rather settle for a cold brew or cake pop over cash. The chain is the go-to spot for teens, and a whopping 89% know their bestie’s drink order by heart. That’s friendship goals in the 2020s for ya.

Judge, jury and Oculus: A Florida judge strapped on an Oculus Quest 2 to take a virtual journey through the eyes of a man accused of pulling out a gun at a wedding. His attorney wanted the judge to feel the chaotic scene. Back in the ‘90s, the same lawyer submitted a computer-animated recreation of a crime. Future jurors, buckle up (literally) for more of this.

☢️ Toxic wrist: This is bad. Your smartwatch band may be loaded with forever chemicals linked to cancer, infertility and high blood pressure. Researchers found a particularly nasty chemical in 22 smartwatch brands, including Apple and Google. The highest concentrations were in the more expensive bands; all the under-$15 ones were clear. Here are options for Apple Watches and Fitbit.

🧑‍🎄 Sleigh what? Elon Musk posted an Ozempic Santa pic on X, with Saint Nick looking festive and slim in a suit and beard. He’s technically using Mounjaro, but it has the same GLP‑1 hormone that regulates your blood sugar. Musk says he isn’t a big fan of the gym and uses drugs to drop weight instead.

Hear, there, everywhere: Leaks for Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 hint at nifty, new features, like heart rate monitoring, temperature tracking and other cool health metrics. No release date yet, but, based on Apple’s usual timeline, we should see them next fall.

About to see way mo’ Waymos: Google’s Waymo took the lead in the self-driving robotaxi race, with over 3 million driverless rides across three cities this year. In 2025, we could see autonomous Teslas, and Amazon’s Zoox plans to open up to customers early next year, too. OK, this made me laugh: A confused cop tried to pull over a car with no one in the driver’s seat.

❄️ Amazon’s Winter Sale is here, with discounts of up to 40%. Gift yourself the thing you really wanted this year.

💝 My gift to you: Daniel in Phoenix wrote in, asking how to join the Komando Community. It’s my members-only club where you can get reliable answers to your tech questions. Hit this link for a free 30-day trial. After that, it’s just a couple of bucks a month to support our work.

Cash in on your old cellphone: Don't let your old phone collect dust. Turn it into cash! Clark.com shows you how to get the most money out of your outdated phone by selling it to reputable companies like Swappa, ItsWorthMore, Gazelle, BuyBackWorld and Decluttr. Plus, learn extra tips to prep your phone for sale and maximize your return. Subscribe to Clark’s free newsletter* to receive more must-have money tips every day.

The 60-60 rule: Docs say these two steps will keep your ears safe while wearing earbuds or headphones. First, keep your volume no higher than 60%. Second, take a short break after 60 minutes of listening.

Impress your boss in 2025: Download NetSuite’s free knowledge drop, “The CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.”* No matter what you do, you should know more about AI. It’s not going anywhere.

🖌️ Formatting tip: A neat shortcut in Microsoft Word, Google Docs and pretty much every major word-processing and other office software is the paintbrush icon. Find a place in your document that has the formatting you want — think font, sizing, spacing and color — then click the paintbrush. Highlight that area, then click and drag it over the part of your doc you want to change to match the source.

A fresh inbox for the new year: Ready to ditch your Big Tech email? My privacy-first pick is StartMail. Switch over your contacts and emails with just a couple of clicks, or treat it as a fresh inbox for only your VIPs. Save 60% now with my special link.*

Know who’s calling: Set a custom ringtone for a contact so you don’t even have to pick up the phone to know who it is. Makes a good prank, too … just sayin’.

Crafty scam, right? Before you click a link, look for any letters that feel “off.”

I love a good fun fact: Google was originally called BackRub. Imagine saying, “Just BackRub it!” every time you had a question. Quiz your family on this one. They won’t believe you because it totally sounds fake.

⚔️ I Googled “Lost medieval servant boy.” The result was “This page cannot be found.” (Yes, I made myself laugh with that one.)

✅ Hit this page for 58% off my password manager pick. You’ll be glad you took a smart online security step. Bonus (I get asked this a lot): This password manager makes it easy to share your passwords with a trusted contact when you pass away.

🤗 I’m honored you let me in your inbox every day. If you want to see something specific here, leave me a comment when you rate this newsletter below. I appreciate you, and I’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow with the best newsletter in the USA! — Kim