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Welcome to your Thursday, {{first_name | friend}}. Sometime between the first iPhone launch and your 47th “just one more video” swipe, screens became our tiny glowing roommates. They wake us up, tell us the weather, ruin our posture and let us read useful things like this newsletter.

⏳ So today’s question. Over a lifetime, how many years will the average adult spend staring at screens? A) Nine, B) 17, C) 34 or D) Whatever’s left after the scrolling’s done? The answer’s at the end. Yes, reading this counts. Worth it, though. 

💾 Your hard drive is on borrowed time: Every drive eventually dies. When it does, recovery services charge up to $3,000 to maybe get your files back. I use Carbonite instead. It backs up every photo and document to the cloud automatically. It’s cheap insurance against a guaranteed disaster. Get 50% off right now.* — Kim

TODAY’S DEEP DIVE

Hold the phone

Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando

🤯 WOW! Apple is set for its biggest launch event in years on Sept. 9, taglined “Surprise and shine.” On deck: the iPhone 18 Pro, the first folding iPhone (estimates start at $2,000) and a whole lot more. Buy anything Apple this week, and you volunteer to pay the impatience tax.

📖 Read time: 2.5 minutes

I’m declaring a freeze on your wallet. If anything Apple is on your list (a phone, a watch, earbuds, whatever), do not buy it before Wednesday, Sept. 9. That’s Apple’s biggest launch event in years. The invitations went out with the tagline “Surprise and shine.” 

The biggest surprise might be the usual high prices are higher.

🍏 How do you like them Apples?

Here’s what’s expected on stage:

  • iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max: New camera hardware, including a variable-aperture main lens. Translation: The phone changes how much light it lets in, like a real camera.

  • The first foldable iPhone: Rumored to be called iPhone Ultra. Estimates start at $2,000, though some configurations could reach $2,500. At that price, it shouldn’t just fold. It should have a cosigner. I’ll buy it and report back.

  • New Macs: A new Mac mini from $899 and Mac Studio from $2,499.

  • Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4: Faster chips, and the ceramic case makes a comeback.

  • AirPods 5: Two versions, with and without noise canceling.

  • Maybe more: A HomePad smart-home hub, a new Apple TV 4K and a HomePod mini.

Almost as important, what’s not coming. No regular iPhone 18. No 18e. No iPhone Air 2. Those wait until spring 2027, along with new MacBooks, the OLED iPad mini and the Watch SE.

💰 The wait-loss program

  1. Old models get cheaper overnight. The moment Apple announces new iPhones, the previous ones drop in price, at Apple and everywhere else. Buy an iPhone 17 on Sept. 8 and realize you’ve overpaid by the 10th.

  2. Trade-in values move fast. The phone in your pocket is worth the most right now. Upgrading? Grab trade-in quotes from Apple and your carrier this week, so you know your number before the rush. Check Apple’s trade-in site. An iPhone 15 can fetch up to $335, or $235 for a 14. Also try Amazon Trade-in. You might get a better deal. I ran my own phone through Apple’s tool this week. The number surprised me. Check yours.

  3. The deals war starts at the keynote. Carriers throw big promotions at new iPhones to steal switchers.

Watch the event free on Apple’s website or YouTube on Sept. 9. I’ll have the full rundown, and what’s actually worth your money, the next morning.

Until then, hands off the Buy button. Call it the Granny Smith method: a little tart now, a whole lot sweeter later. I love that for you.

🎯 Send this to someone who was about to “treat themselves” to an iPhone this weekend. You just saved them real money.

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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

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🎤 PODCAST: THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW

The AI prompt that roasts you. Hilariously

(Starts at 43:29) A simple phrase turns your chatbot into a savage comedian. The LOL moment? It uses your own chat history against you. A listener tells us all about his roast fest. Or as the kids like to say, “getting cooked.”

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Or search “Komando” wherever you get your podcasts. I’m everywhere.

WEB WATERCOOLER

🪪 Your license, on sale. Scans of more than 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver's licenses turned up for sale on a dark-web service, traced to IDScan, the ID-check vendor Hertz uses at the rental counter (Target and FedEx are clients too). Security reporter Brian Krebs found his license used as a free sample. The FBI is on it. The files are already out. If you've ever scanned your license to rent a car, you need ID theft protection from Coveron, a sponsor of my show. And no scammers, I really don’t look like my DMV photo.

Glasses half empty: Meta remotely disabled the cameras on thousands of its AI glasses after owners covered or destroyed the little LED that tells people they’re being recorded. A software update spots a blocked light and turns the glasses into plain Bluetooth headphones. Meta sold 7 million pairs last year, so even though they estimate misuse at less than 0.1%, that’s a lot of creeps. Frames of reference matter.

Seuss gets sinister: Someone has turned the Cat in the Hat into a digital schoolyard threat. AI-made videos show the character lurking outside specific schools and homes, sometimes beside messages naming students or saying “you’re next.” The clips spread through TikTok and Snapchat, pushing districts in Kentucky, Tennessee and New York to issue emergency warnings. See one? Treat these as targeted intimidation, preserve the evidence and report it instead of feeding the algorithm.

⌚ Weight, that’s wrong: Darn it! Fitness tracking studies found devices such as Apple Watch and Fitbit can overestimate exercise calorie expenditure by up to 25%. That means the 400-calorie workout on your wrist might really be 300, and the snack you earned swallowed the difference. For weight loss, treat the number as a rough estimate and avoid eating back every reported calorie. Your smartwatch means well. So did the carnival scale.

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DEVICE ADVICE

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Gmail can make an email self-destruct. Draft your message, click the lock icon at the bottom of the compose window and pick an expiration date. It’s called Confidential Mode, and it also blocks forwarding, copying, printing and downloading. When the clock runs out, poof. Mission: Impossible energy, minus the exploding laptop. 😏

🛡️ Don’t browse naked this back-to-school season: Those shiny new laptops are landing in kids’ backpacks with zero protection. Hackers use AI to build phishing scams that look completely real, and one wrong click from your kid puts every device on your home network at risk. Webroot scans in seconds, blocking dangerous sites before anyone lands on them, and it won’t slow your laptop down. Get 62% off Webroot Essentials right now.*

Google Maps has a time machine: Search any address on your computer, then drag the little yellow Pegman onto the street to open Street View. Click See more dates at the top left, and start flipping through the years. Some spots go all the way back to 2007. Perfect for a peek at your childhood home. (Or seeing what that “up-and-coming” neighborhood looked like before you fall for the listing photos.) 👀

😱 Another Apple Pay scam making the rounds: A text or email lands about a pricey Apple Pay charge or iCloud purchase, complete with a “toll-free support” number. Don’t call it. That number rings straight to a scammer who wants your Apple ID password and your bank login. Worried it’s real? Check your purchase history on Apple’s official site instead. Apple will never text you a phone number to call. Ever.

Instagram has a second-chance folder: Deleted something and instantly regretted it? (Been there.) Go to your profile > three lines > Your activity > Recently deleted. Tap the photo, reel or video, then the three dots > Restore. Posts hang around for 30 days. Stories? Just 24 hours. So no, this can’t wait until tomorrow.

⚙️ Windows has a free upgrade pack: “Microsoft PowerToys” sounds like something only IT nerds use. It’s not. It’s a free bundle of extras your PC should’ve shipped with. Find files faster, resize a batch of photos with a right-click, pull text straight out of a screenshot and lots more. Some of these have been on Windows users’ wish lists for years. 😒 See what else it can do.

KIM’S DAILY DEALS

As an Amazon Associate, some links pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Keeps this newsletter free. Thank you.

🏠 Home sweet organized home

Less clutter. More living.

⚡ Serious suction: Cordless vacuum (38% off, $80)

Cut the cord and the “where’s the nearest outlet” hunt. It glides from room to room, and a built-in green light reveals dirt you didn’t know was there. Tackles hardwood floors, carpets, stairs, furniture, you name it.

Image: SVHT

👔 Suit yourself: Swap flimsy plastic for solid wooden hangers (10% off, $25, 20-pack). Pick from six colors, including walnut and red cedar.

Under control: These pullout organizers (21% off, $19, two-pack) slide under your sink, so you can reach cleaning supplies without digging.

🧴 Waste not, want not: Flip-It!’s bottle emptying kit (27% off, $16, two-pack) lets gravity drain shampoo, lotion and more down to the last drop.

Shoe pileup? This three-tier shoe rack (23% off, $10) keeps sneakers, flats and boots off the floor and easy to grab. Fits closets and entryways.

🛍️ Running low? Head to your Amazon “Buy Again” page to restock your essentials.

Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication.

WHAT THE TECH?

Image: Dyson

🦷 Say cheese for $499

Nine out of 10 people don’t floss regularly, so Dyson responded in the most Dyson way possible: engineering around human laziness and charging a fortune for it.

The CameraJet packs a macro camera into your toothbrush, scans 28 frames per second and uses AI trained on 470,000 dental images to spot spaces between teeth. Find one, and within 100 milliseconds, it fires a precision mouthwash jet at it, a plaque-seeking Super Soaker for your molars.

There’s even Wi-Fi and an app with live camera views.

It’s actually pretty neat, check it out. The other day, my dentist said, “Kim, you need a crown.” I replied, “Finally, someone who understands me.”

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LOGGING OUT …

🎓 What you learned today: Apple buyers should wait for the Sept. 9 event, surveillance backlash is getting physical, Meta is disabling smart-glasses cameras when the recording light is blocked, Gmail can send disappearing emails and Dyson made a toothbrush with a camera and mouthwash jet. Not bad for one email. If you’ve ever hated a boss, muted Slack or dreamed of quitting dramatically, tomorrow’s for you. Dolly kicks off a Labor Day streaming list full of workplace disasters that’ll make your job look almost normal. Don’t miss it.

🗓️ The answer: C) 34 years. A third of your entire life, eyes on glass. Before you spiral, some of those years are kid FaceTimes and this newsletter, so not all lost. Still, maybe take a walk today.

Imagine turning on your computer tomorrow and seeing a black screen. The baby photos, videos, tax returns you need for an audit are gone forever. Hard drives have a 100% failure rate eventually. I use Carbonite. It works quietly in the background, automatically backing up every new file. If disaster strikes, I get it all back with one click. Get 50% off right now.*

📉 The cheapest thing you’ll buy this year is something you talk yourself out of. — Kim

Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily

🏆 THE KIM CHALLENGE: Forward this to ONE person who needs to hear it today. Pick the person who popped into your head while reading. You know who it is.

HOW’D WE DO?

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Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, Alpha Grillers, SVHT, Dyson

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