The Current Plus: Hacked smart TV, FBI took down a scam ring, expensive LED masks are a rip-off | In partnership with The Kim Komando Show Podcast | | It’s a fantastic Wednesday, my friend! Let’s get right to it with trivia. These famous tech personalities are all college dropouts except for one. Is it ... A.) Michael Dell, B.) Steve Jobs, C.) Elon Musk or D.) Mark Zuckerberg? You’ll find the answer at the end. Hey, watch it! I’m talking about my YouTube vids, of course. We’re streaming live today at 11:30 a.m. Pacific. Hit this link to subscribe to my channel. While you’re there, watch a vid or two to support our work. Appreciate you! — Kim 📫 First-time reader? Sign up here. (It’s free!) IN THIS ISSUE 🤑 Call me the deal hunter 🚓 Good scam news for once! 🤖 Would you pay for AI Alexa? |
TODAY'S TOP STORY Labor Day sales are live If you know me, you know I love a sale. Amazon’s Labor Day weekend deals are here, and I did some digging so you don’t have to. Here’s a link to everything on sale if you want to browse. Have fun! Labor Day sales are all about home goods Floating acrylic shelves for the bathroom, closet, bedroom — wherever — for 40% off. (Be sure to click the box for the extra coupon.) I want this masticating juicer like they use at fancy health shops. It’s 90% off! Vacuum sucks (or doesn’t, I guess)? Upgrade to a Dyson cordless model that’s $120 off. If you have pets, this option from Bissell is 28% off. Fresh, fluffy white towels make me feel like I’m at a posh hotel every time I shower. I’m an air fryer gal. You’ll never go back, trust me. Healthy, easy, crispy food! Organize your summer blankets and clothes into zip-up storage bags (almost 50% off) instead of shoving them into a closet. These wineglasses look like a designer set that costs four times the price. I can’t stand clothes falling off the hangers. Velvet hangers hold fabric in place and look so nice. Woo, 40% off! Calling all hat people! These hangers make storing them easy. No more smooshed hats. Make your house smell like pumpkin spice with a big Yankee Candle for under $17. Fall you deserves a big, fuzzy blanket for movie night. So many fun colors and 33% off. Sweet deal on a mini Ninja blender for your morning smoothies. The only thing better than soup season is a veggie chopper to make it easier. It’s 40% off, and click the coupon for an extra $5 off. I know from personal experience the dentist will stop guilting you to floss if you use a Waterpik regularly. Of course, I found tech sales, too Upgrade your 10-year-old Kindle. The latest model is 15% off. Don’t like Alexa listening? Get a Bose Bluetooth speaker you control from your phone. It’s 30% off. I love AirPods Max over-the-ear headphones … and I sure wish I’d paid this price for them. I should get one of these for the office — a walking pad to get steps while you take meetings or watch TV. Never seen ‘em this cheap. Not enough outlets? Surge protectors to the rescue for 50% off! Upgrade your Wi-Fi with a mesh wireless router. The latest model from eero is 20% off. Everyone should have a super-slim power bank for charging their phones on the go. I like having a solar power bank on hand for emergencies, too. Can’t beat this price. Jackery’s portable power station is almost 50% off. It’s a good backup if your power goes out (or way more power than you’d ever need for camping). For security, I recommend a separate machine for online banking. This Chromebook is under $200. Not a Prime member? Grab a 30-day free trial. If you don’t want to pay for it, set a calendar reminder to cancel before it ends. 🗄️ Did you hear the CEO of Ikea is now the prime minister of Sweden? He’s currently assembling his cabinet (lol). |
WEB WATERCOOLER “My children and I have lived in hell for months”: After her cable company, Xfinity, ignored her, a woman shared a now-viral TikTok video with evidence of hackers infiltrating her smart TV. The footage shows a search box on screen and someone typing in her passcode. I’ll bet either her Wi‑Fi password is weak, her smart TV allows remote access, or her gear and TV both need firmware updates. 🚨 Book ‘em, Danno! The FBI caught a cyber kingpin who scammed millions of Americans. He’s behind notorious schemes like “scareware ads” — fake virus warnings that trick you into downloading software. He and his crew extorted around $400,000 a month from 2012 to 2014. Now they face decades in prison. Forget polite vacation autoreplies: Folks are getting sassy with their out-of-office messages (paywall link), like, "I’m out having way more fun than emailing you back. I’ll probably forget to reply." The whole point? No fake promises to get back to you ASAP … which none of us can do after a trip, anyway! Jeff needs the money: Amazon’s revamped voice assistant is coming in October. For $10 a month, you’ll get a Smart Briefing feature, aka daily AI-generated news summaries; a recipe helper (e.g., “What should I make for dinner with chicken and broccoli?); shopping assistance; and a chatbot for kids (paywall link). Death march: Starting with some 2023 models and those released in March 2024, Samsung TVs get seven years of free updates to keep them safe from hackers. No specifics on which models yet, but it’s likely to cover those with AI features. PSA: Before you buy any used electronics, know the EOL (end-of-life) date. More about that here. Marketers, Oct. 21 is the day: The FTC is banning fake online reviews, AI-written testimonials and sabotaging competitors with phony negative ratings. Using bots to boost social media followers and influence is off the table, too. If you spot any of this, report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Violations can cost up to $50,000 a pop. They blue it! LG is cooking up a PHOLED screen to sell next year. Blue phosphor OLED is more efficient, brighter and longer-lasting. The catch? OLEDs are already expensive to produce, so these may cost a fortune. I see fake people: Celebs like Victoria Beckham, Margot Robbie and Kate Moss are endorsing $660 LED beauty masks. The light rays supposedly stimulate collagen production and blood circulation to make your skin look younger and firmer. Research shows they can’t even reach the dermis, which is the second layer of skin where regeneration takes place. |
TECH LIFE UPGRADES Take a picture – it’ll last longer: On Windows, hold down the Windows key + Shift + S to activate the Snip & Sketch tool. Select a specific area of your screen to capture as a screenshot. On a Mac, the comparable keyboard shortcut for taking screenshots is Cmd + Shift + 4. No tech whiz needed to intercept Apple iMessage texts: Message forwarding, as the name implies, forwards messages to another device automatically. It’s handy if you set it up but an invasion of privacy if someone else did. To check, go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding. 📲 Umm … who are you? I hate when I’ve forgotten someone’s name. That’s why I wanted to pass along what a Harvard-trained etiquette expert told CNBC you should do instead: Ask for their contact info. Hand over your phone, and they’ll pop in their name. Bingo, crisis averted. So smart. Nerd alert: OpenAI's Codex (the engine behind GitHub Copilot) provides AI-powered assistance for coding and can help you write, debug and optimize code across various programming languages. 🛫 Ticket to scam: Boarding passes display your full legal name, ticket number and passenger name record. That six-digit code plus your last name gives anyone access to your booking info online (think email, phone number and address), and they can even change or cancel your flight. Do not post photos of your boarding passes on social! |
LISTEN UP | | iPhone 16 launch date: Here’s what you can expect Mark your calendars! The iPhone 16 is dropping this September. Also, Telegram’s CEO gets arrested in France — authorities say he didn’t do enough to stop shady stuff on the app. Plus, Amazon Echo fails, and fake election maps are going viral. Play Now • 35:48 ▶ |
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BY THE NUMBERS 43 times out of 100 AI car features are more trouble than they’re worth. J.D. Power polled Americans who drive 2024 models that include tech like facial recognition, a fingerprint reader and interior gesture controls. The feedback? “Meh.” See the top-rated manufacturers and models here. $17 million loss On a $27 million dream home. A New Jersey couple spent seven years building a 40,000-square-foot property that includes a chapel, an English-style pub, a gym, a home theater, a wine grotto and a golf simulator (paywall link). It’s up for auction with a reserve price of just $10 million. 23% of those 18 to 34 Never answer the phone. Never! And 56% assume a call out of the blue means bad news. Hey, it’s hard to blame them, given how bad spam calls have gotten in the last few years. |
WHAT THE TECH? Squeeze the day!
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UNTIL NEXT TIME ... The answer: C.) Elon Musk. He received a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Apple founder Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College at age 19, Dell founder Michael Dell dropped out of the University of Texas at Austin at 19, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard at age 20. ⚡ Did you know back then, before Tesla, Elon Musk was just Lon Musk? I crack myself up. Another issue done and dusted! See you back here tomorrow with more tech smarts to make your life better, your thighs thinner and your hair thicker. Well, OK, I can guarantee one out of three of those. — Kim |
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