✅ 5 free AI tools you’ll 🤯 over

Wow, this Friday couldn’t come soon enough, {{first_name | friend}}. You’ve made it to the last page of the workweek. Let’s wrap up the week with some internet history you didn’t know you needed. 

👍 That thumbs-up button you tap without thinking? Back in 2009, Facebook almost called it something completely different. Which one was it? A) Nice, B) Awesome, C) Yay or D) Cool. Find the answer at the end, no cheating!

📦 Heads up: I’m moving to a new email provider, and I need your help training the algorithms. At the end of today’s newsletter, give it a rating and leave a comment. It tells Big Tech, “Put this in my inbox, not in junk.” The people in there scare me. Now, on with your tech smarts. — Kim

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You’re really gonna love this.

I’ve been diving into the latest AI tools, and some of them are so jaw-dropping I couldn’t wait to get them in your hands. They don’t feel like tech. They feel like creative black magic.

These aren’t dry “watch me demo an algorithm” kind of tools. These are “I just accidentally made a Pixar short about a pizza delivery robot who questions reality” kind of tools.

Best of all, you can play with them right now. No downloads, no special skills required. Just your browser and a little imagination.

Yes, you’ll need to make a free account for each one. Most give you a set number of free credits every month. A credit is one action, like generating a video or creating a piece of art. When you run out, you can wait for the next month or pay for more.

Smart sign-up tip: If you have Gmail, keep your inbox clean by adding a plus sign and a word to your address. If your email is myname@gmail⁠.com, sign up as myname+ai@gmail⁠.com or myname+music@gmail⁠.com. All the messages still land in your inbox, but you’ll know exactly which service sent them and you can filter or block them anytime. Apple users, try Hide my email. 

Google Veo
Hollywood-level video from a sentence. Type “a drone shot over snowy mountains at sunrise,” and Veo creates it in cinematic quality. Join the wait list now, it’s worth it.

Adobe Firefly
Add, remove or transform anything in a photo in seconds. “Put a rainbow over the lake” or “erase the car in the background.” Done, no Photoshop required.

Runway Gen-2
Type a scene like “a cat surfing a giant wave in Hawaii,” and get a video clip back. You can even upload your own footage and change the entire style from realistic to wild and surreal.

Suno Music
Describe the style, mood and vibe, and it will compose a fully original song, vocals and all. Yes, even “jazz lullaby for robots” works.

Midjourney Web Beta
Truly, I saved the best for last. The most stunning AI art and video generator out there, now in your browser. “Steampunk city at night” turns into a masterpiece in seconds.

🎨 Now, if you create some bad AI art, just brush it off. Use the share icons below to let your family and friends join the fun. They’ll get a kick out of these sites, too!

George, my AI sidekick, is back with some of his best gadget hacks yet. Plus, a few stories you won’t believe … like a cat that surfs. Listen in and tell me what you think!

Listen on Komando.com →

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😌 Rest assured, it’s a real thing … and the perfect excuse to treat yourself.

💝 Because you deserve it: Why stop here? Click through to my Amazon page for more cozy comforts and gift-worthy gems.

Data today, gone tomorrow: Back it up before it backs out on you. Total Drive automatically saves your photos, videos and important documents in the cloud, safe and sound. Simple, secure, and yes, I trust it with my own files. Get 10TB for just $18.*

🧳 Panic in the skies: Midway through a plane ride, Will’s AirTag said his suitcase was “left behind” at the last airport. No Wi-Fi meant two hours of imagining his luggage sipping cocktails without him. Landing? Bag was fine. An AirTag glitch. Therapy bill pending. At least Reddit is free; Will’s post is going viral. 

Big Windows update: Yup, Microsoft rolled out fixes for over 100 security flaws, including critical ones that let hackers remotely run malicious code on your PC. The Black Screen of Death is now official, and a new Quick Machine Recovery feature will try to fix your PC if there’s a boot problem. Go to Settings > Windows Update to get it.

📸 That’s one bad Lenovo: Researchers at Eclypsium have shown that some Lenovo webcams (510 FHD and Performance FHD) can be reprogrammed via BadUSB‑style firmware attacks to inject keystrokes and drop malware, which can persist even after reinstalls. Translation: Your webcam can now type, hack and haunt your PC forever. Patch via firmware 4.8.0 now.

Swift thinking: Taylor Swift revealed her twelfth album, The Life of a Showgirl, not on stage but on boyfriend Travis Kelce’s podcast, precisely at 12:12 ET on Aug. 12. No songs, no date, just a master class in soft-launch hype engineering. Within 15 minutes, she had over 1 million views. Dang, how do I get Taylor on my show? 

🦶🏻 Off on the wrong foot: A viral TikTok told her selling feet pics was “easy money.” In reality? She paid a $5 platform fee, submitted ID, built a brand and made $0, which somehow feels worse than being a SoundCloud rapper. She didn’t hit “rock bottom,” but she did step on it.

Woz-not-Woz: Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak went on CBS to warn about fake videos of him promoting Bitcoin. The scam clips promise to double whatever BTC you send. The funny part? While telling the story, CBS showed a fake 1970s “Woz in his garage” photo, which turned out to be of a Disney animatronic. Awkward.

Spotify’s top artist is 100% AI, from the songs to the photos. Here’s what to know.

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⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Your TV’s USB ports can charge your phone, tablet and other mobile gadgets. If a pop-up asks to access the device, just ignore it. It’ll keep charging anyway.

Clean up your iPad dock: Go to Settings > Home Screen & App Library > Dock. Toggle off Show App Library in Dock and Show Suggested and Recent Apps in Dock. FYI: You can still open the App Library by swiping all the way right, and recent apps will likely be on your Home Screen already.

💻 Buying a new computer? Know the specs you need. For basic browsing and streaming, look for at least a dual-core 2.0 GHz processor, 4-8 GB of RAM and an SSD for quick loading. For heavier stuff like gaming or video editing, get a recent multi-core 3.0 GHz+ CPU, a dedicated graphics card and 16 GB+ RAM. Click here for 20 laptop and desktops I trust. You’re welcome.

Add GIFs to your presentations: In Google Slides, go to Insert > Image > Stock & web. A panel will pop up on the right of your screen. Select GIFs, search for the one you want and click it. Your spicy meme will drop into the current slide, ready to resize and move wherever you want. Nice. 

🍿 Delete Netflix history: You can remove shows and movies from your watch history to improve recommendations (or hide guilty pleasures 🤭). On PC, go to Your Profile > Viewing activity and click Hide from viewing history next to the title. Also handy if you’re trying to remember something you watched months ago.

$40 billion
That’s how much market value Do Kwon vaporized in his crypto collapse. He hyped TerraUSD as a stablecoin, then secretly used a trading firm to fake its stability. He could face up to 25 years, but the feds will settle for 12. That’s about one year for every $3.3 billion in lost value.

💬 75 minutes
That’s how long the average Character.AI user chats with a bot every day. More time than most people spend talking to their actual friends. But hey, Sherlock Holmes never zones out mid-convo to scroll Instagram, right? Turns out, you can put a price on friendship (paywall link): $10 a month, to be exact.

17.75
The average turbulence score on America’s bumpiest flight. The eddy dissipation rate (EDR) is basically a nerdy way to measure how violently the air’s shaking you around. Albuquerque to Denver nails it, turning a short hop over the Rockies into a midair mechanical bull ride. Expect seat belt signs, coffee spills and a nervous chuckle from the flight attendant.

🚀 The final front porch

NASA accidentally sold a piece of shuttle history, a legit Convoy Command Airstream trailer, thinking it was a laundry van. Priced like it touched the moon (it didn’t), it’s yours for $199K, assuming you’re rich, nostalgic and enjoy DMV paperwork. 

Owner Jonathan Kitzen snagged the trailer after it was accidentally listed on a government surplus site for $21K, mislabeled as just “a NASA vehicle.” 

In reality, it’s the only NASA Airstream ever sold to the public; its 24 siblings are either crushed or museum-bound. Because nothing says “space exploration” like parallel parking at the KOA.

The answer: B) Awesome. The idea originally shipped as “Like” instead, and went on to become one of the most tapped icons in internet history. No joke, early Facebook mock-ups even included a button labeled “Yay.”

🙃 So Perplexity wants to buy Chrome. I was thinking, if Facebook buys Gmail then the “mark as seen” option would be changed to “Mark has really seen.” (lol)

🙏🏻 Thanks for letting me in your inbox with the #1 tech newsletter in the United States. I appreciate you! Reminder to rate this newsletter and say a few kind words.

Tomorrow, Scams are getting sleek, smart and sadly effective, from fake texts that know your name to hackers offering “customer support.” Let’s talk about how to outsmart the swindlers.

✌️ Until then, keep learning, keep laughing and keep leaning into what’s next. — Kim

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Photo credit(s): Midjourney, Hemmings

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This newsletter and its content are intended for informational purposes only. They are provided without warranty of any kind. You shouldn’t construe anything provided here as legal, health, medical, technical, tax, investment, financial or any other kind of advice.

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