👀 Did Prince William and Harry just make up? This AI photo says yes

A very happy Tuesday to you, {{first_name | friend}}. Ever get called out by your smartwatch for sitting too long? Like thanks, I know I’ve been parked here on my butt binge-scrolling for an hour. No need to vibrate and shame me about it.

So how exactly does your smartwatch know when you’ve stood up or taken a step? Is it using …  A) GPS, B) A heart rate sensor, C) Motion and gyroscope sensors or D) Microphones? Dare to guess? Your bragging rights await at the bottom. 🏆

📦 Heads up: I’m moving to a new email provider, and I need your help training the algorithm overlords. At the end of today’s newsletter, give it a rating and leave a comment. It tells Big Tech, “Hey, this belongs in the inbox, not banished to Promotions Purgatory.” Trust me, the vibes down there are terrible. Now, on with your tech smarts. — Kim

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Did Prince William and Prince Harry make up?

Not even close. But thanks to Bing’s AI image generator, they practically skipped through a meadow hand in hand like it’s the finale of a very weird British rom-com reboot. No Daddy intervention, therapist or overpriced raspberry jam required. 

To get around Bing’s copyright controls, I didn’t use their names. Here’s the prompt: “Two brothers in their 30s, holding hands, gazing lovingly, dressed in royal military uniforms. One’s bald, one’s a redhead. Cinematic lighting. Photorealistic. 16:9 ratio.” 

And yeah, the photos are one pixel glitch away from joining the cast of The Polar Express.

If I had time, though, I could make them look very real. With scams on the rise and fake news everywhere, spotting phony photos is a superpower you need. So let’s talk about how you can do it first with a little help from tech.

Sure, you should still do a good ol’ reverse image search. But today’s AI tools are getting scary smart. The image might be brand-new and never have existed on the web before. That’s when the next-level detection comes in.

Meet these AI detectives:

These tools aren’t foolproof, but they’re your best shot at sniffing out the phonies. It’s like using a blacklight at a hotel: Once you see what’s there, you’ll never trust blindly again.

You don’t need fancy tools to start spotting fakes. Your own eyes can still catch some classic tells:

Quick tip: If you see something suspicious spreading on social, don’t just scroll past. Tap the three dots and Report it, especially on Facebook, Instagram or X (Twitter). You could stop the next big fake from going viral.

🎨 Did you hear that Harry is taking up painting full-time after stepping down from the royal family? He’ll be the artist formerly known as Prince. (Yea, that was one of my better ones!)

🫡 Got that smile (or smirk) going? Good, now hit the share icons below to post this must-know info on your social, or send it to someone who needs to see it.

Cruising in your car will become a relic of the past. Here’s why. I also talk to caller Laura from California who got duped by an Elon Musk crypto scam. Plus: monkeys that steal iPhones (for real), the Amazon Bee, and the dangers of Tesla’s Autopilot.

Listen on Komando.com →

⚡ Plug these picks into your day and thank yourself later.

🤖 Smart tech, small price: There are more gadgets on sale (like this portable monitor) up on my Amazon shop, right now. 

📦 QR code scam alert: The FBI says scammers are shipping fake “gifts” with QR codes that lure you into handing over personal info, or worse, downloading malware. No sender info, just a data breach waiting to happen. If a box shows up uninvited, don’t scan anything. Just toss it or enjoy your free salad spinner.

Facebook trickery can’t get past us: Meta wants access to your unposted camera roll, via a pop-up that quietly signs you into cloud uploads and AI scanning. They say it’s for fun little collages but don’t specify whether that data’s going into AI training. Go to Facebook > Settings > Your Information > Camera Roll Cloud Processing and switch it off. This also starts deleting anything already uploaded after 30 days.

🧨 The dronepocalypse starts now: New FAA rules (Part 108) will nix those tedious waivers and unlock drone flights over people, at night and out of sight. Great for commercial use like deliveries or for agriculture. Awful for an air traffic control system still running on floppy disks. Also: D.C. just let drones fly in the capital. 

🔴 Red pill teens are rising: “Red pilled” used to mean you saw the truth, like in The Matrix. Now it’s code for online communities where young men vent about women, feminism and dating, often turning hateful, sexist and sometimes racist. It’s becoming a gateway drug for disillusioned boys looking for belonging. Make sure your guys are not partaking.

Stay groovy, Old Faithful: Social media’s latest doomsday fantasy? That Yellowstone’s wildlife is fleeing an imminent volcanic eruption. The panic started with a fake post claiming “hundreds” of the park’s ~40 mountain lions were fleeing. Bears “escaping” turned out to be filmed in a drive-thru zoo in South Dakota. Someone posted a herd of wildebeests in Africa. Speaking of… What did the dad say after dropping his son off at Yellowstone National Park? Bison! (lol)

🚨 This is important: Google Search is dead. If your content isn’t showing up in ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini, you’re invisible to millions of potential customers. Whether you run a business, blog or sell anything online, this shift changes everything. I couldn’t fit it all in this newsletter. 👉 Read my full post here. Let me know what you think, or drop me a question about it in the comments.

Millions use ChatGPT for support, even confessions. But unlike a visit to a therapist, what you say could be used against you.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎤 Got a wild tech story? Did your smart home go rogue? Did AI creep you out or help you catch a hacker? Getting scammed? Family drama because of tech? I want you on The Kim Komando Show. If I feature your story, you’ll get a $25 gift card as a thank-you. Just say you saw this in the newsletter. Click this link to send it now! 

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Saying “cheese” in photos can make your smile look stiff. Try “yoga” instead. The soft “uh” at the end helps your face relax for a more natural look. 

Have your iPad read to you: When your eyes need a break, let your iPad handle the work. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content and toggle on Speak Selection and Speak Screen. In your browser, highlight the text, then tap Speak from the pop-up. To stop it, highlight again and tap Pause.

📱 Check if your device is still supported: Not sure if your phone, tablet or e-reader is past its prime? Go to endoflife.date. Search for your gadget to see if it’s been discontinued or if the manufacturer has ended support. That usually means no more security updates, and it might be time to stop using it.

Your laptop will thank you: Windows 11 swapped out Power saver for a new Energy saver mode. Go to Settings > System > Power & Battery > Energy saver. Turn on Always use energy saver to dim the screen, pause app syncing and disable fancy effects. Or set it to kick in automatically at a battery level, like 20%.

🖨️ Save your printer’s cartridge: Arial might look clean, but it eats through ink faster than you think. A better option: Try Times New Roman. Tests show it can use up to 27% less ink over time. To make the switch, tap the Font drop-down menu at the top in Google Docs or Microsoft Office.

Find the subscriptions you forgot about: I use Rocket Money, an app that finds all your recurring subscriptions and lets you easily cancel anything you don’t want. The first time I logged in, it saved me $435!*

$243 million
What a jury told Tesla to cough up over a fatal Autopilot crash. That includes $200M in punitive damages, aka “don’t do that again” money. The crash killed a young woman and injured her boyfriend. Autopilot was engaged, the driver was distracted, and the jury decided both were to blame, not equally.

$1 billion
What Zuck allegedly dangled in front of an unnamed AI engineer. That’s 5,200 Oppenheimers, adjusted for inflation. The man who ended WWII got $190K a year; this mystery coder might make that before breakfast. Superintelligence might be coming, but super salaries are already here.

Nearly $9,000
That’s what someone paid for one of Michael Jackson’s dirty socks at an auction in France. A technician found it after a concert in Nîmes, and it’s been preserved in a frame for 28 years. The twist? Back in 2009, a casino dropped almost $350,000 on the glove he wore for his first moonwalk dance. Beat that. 

Hoop, there it is!

In a stealthy Vegas trial, the NBA used AI-powered basketballs in over 500 games, without telling players. Built by Kinexon and SIQ, these balls track release angle, spin, speed and shot arc down to the millisecond. 

🏀 It’s next-gen performance data, beamed straight to coaches, refs and maybe someday your TV. The catch? Even a 1-gram chip could affect bounce, but no player complaints so far. 

With MLB testing robot umps and soccer balls already wired, it’s official: Sports are getting smarter, even if your fantasy picks aren’t.

💡 Answer: C) Motion and gyroscope sensors. Your smartwatch doesn’t judge you (openly), but it definitely knows when you’ve stood up, or haven’t. 

It tracks movement in all directions, down to the wiggle. 

Fun fact: NASA pioneered gyroscope technology for spacecraft orientation. Your smartwatch uses a very miniaturized version of the same tools to figure out when you’ve lounged on the couch too long. Watch out, world!

By the way, you have excellent taste. This is the #1 tech newsletter in the United States. Tomorrow, I’m breaking down how your car is tracking you in ways you didn’t sign up for. Spoiler: Your battery has trust issues.

💪🏼 Until then, don’t wait for the future to arrive. Build it. You got this! — Kim

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Photo credit(s): Bing and ChatGPT, Spalding

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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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