Besides the Car Pro Show and our weekly newsletter, my other favorite radio show and newsletter is Kim Komando’s. We are on many of the same radio stations across America. She does for her listeners and newsletter subscribers exactly what I endeavor to do: Give you useful information to keep you up to date on the latest in cars, only she does it with technology and there is nobody who does it better. Not sure how she puts out a top-notch newsletter seven days a week, but she does.
With her permission, I comb her newsletters each week and curate a list of her tips and advice that I think you'll find relevant and interesting. Here's what I have for you this week!
As written in Kim Komando's newsletters:
3-second tech genius: Phone on silent and swallowed by the couch? Make it ring anyway. From any browser, head to iCloud.com/find (iPhone) or android.com/find (Android), sign in and tap Play Sound. Full volume for two minutes, even if silent mode is on. Beats tearing apart the living room, yelling, “CALL ME!” at the family. That’s what I call a sound strategy.
Scammers plant Facebook grief-bait: A nasty ploy is making the rounds on Facebook. You get a message from a “friend” saying, “He died in an accident” with a link to a news article. Click it, and you land on a fake login page that steals your credentials. Your account gets hijacked, and the scam sends the same message to everyone you know. Never click grief-bait links. If a friend posts something alarming, call them. These scammers count on your panic. Don’t give it to them.
La-Z-Boy’s butt speakers: La-Z-Boy launched a recliner that blasts surround sound directly at your rear end. The chair includes built-in speakers positioned to deliver audio through your backside for “immersive entertainment experiences.” It’s like they took the bass literally. Movie explosions will never be the same when they’re rumbling through your tailbone. I guess you could say choosing this chair over regular furniture? It’s sound advice.
Ocean kill switch: Ever think about how much of modern life depends on stuff we can’t see, or is it just me? China tested a robotic submersible that can cut undersea cables 11,400 feet down. Those cables carry most of the world’s internet, banking and cloud traffic. Everything from money transfers to your kid’s Zoom call runs through those lines. China says it’s for maintenance. I mean, sure, but what if it starts snip snipping during conflict? Modern warfare could come down to a robot with a pair of scissors.
Sky Pokémon: For its 100th anniversary, American Airlines is bringing back retro plane trading cards starting in early May on flights. You have to ask the pilot. First come, first served. Can’t say bothering the person flying the gigantic tin can is a good idea, but hey, I don’t make the rules. The lineup includes the 787 and A321neo, plus classics like the DC-3, MD-80 and 707-123.
This is big bucks: So Walmart is getting ready to let ChatGPT do the part where you spend money. This fall, you can browse Walmart’s catalog and buy items directly inside ChatGPT. Not simply search help, actual purchasing. It’s funny how we spent 20 years building beautiful websites to end up shopping through a text box.
Visit Kim Komando's website and subscribe to her newsletter here →
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