📞 Get a free second phone number to protect your privacy

Let’s hit the ground running on this Monday, {{first_name | friend}}.

It’s time for “How to Lose a Spaceship in One Easy Step!” The year: 1999. The mission: Send a $125 million Mars orbiter into space. The result: Lost. Gone. Floating somewhere out there. Why? 

Two NASA teams used different units of measurement. One used metric. The other? Well, let’s see if you can guess: A) Imperial system, B) Decimal time units, C) Custom NASA conversions or D) Computer-estimated trajectories. Lock in your answer, and scroll to the end to see if you could’ve saved the mission. 🚀

Your devices are under attack right now. Protect them with real-time security that stops threats before they strike. Cover 5 devices for just $19 for the first year. Details below. — Kim

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Here’s something smart to start your week. Get a free, private second phone number you can use on your smartphone. It’s perfect for keeping your personal number personal. 

With Google Voice, you get a real U.S. phone number that rings to your cell, computer or tablet. You can call, text, screen calls and get your voicemails transcribed to text, all without revealing your main real number.

Now, when someone calls your Google Voice number, it’ll ring your real phone. 

For personal use, Google Voice is totally free. Calls and texts to the U.S. and Canada cost nothing. You only pay for international calls, and rates are low. The business version starts at $10/month. It adds auto-attendants, call routing for teams and admin tools.

Bottom line? If you don’t already have a second number, it’s free and easy to use. And get ready to groan. What are the first three digits of an opera singer’s phone number? The aria code. (You can’t say I didn’t warn you!)

🤝 Share this great insider tech tip with your family and friends using the handy-dandy icons below. They need a free number and just don’t know it, yet.

Move over, Adele. Roger Love, vocal coach to stars like Selena Gomez, Steve Carell and Bradley Cooper, takes me on as his newest project. Spoiler: I actually sing. Plus, the U.S. leases China’s TikTok algorithm, and Facebook has a new dating AI.

Listen on Komando.com →

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😡 Crackin’ under fake pressure: Remember the Cracker Barrel logo drama? Turns out half those boycott posts on social media were bots. New research says AI-generated accounts fueled a fake backlash, and the brand actually folded. Oh, Cracker Barrel, come for the biscuits, stay for the psyop. Next time you see rage-bait, remember the mob might not even be real. 

ChatGPT pulls an all-nighter: OpenAI just dropped Pulse, a new Pro-only feature that works while you sleep. It reads your chats, data and random wishes (like my Antarctica trip), then hands you a personalized morning briefing. I’m going to try it and report back.

You don’t need to live in fear: Most security systems respond only after a break-in has started, and that’s too late. SimpliSafe is different. It’s proactive, not reactive. Get 50% off your new security system today!*

Amazon’s dropping new gear tomorrow: I’m expecting Alexa to get better AI along with new Echo Shows, a Kindle you can write on and updated FireSticks and tablets.

🏈 Tablet wars, football edition: College coaches can finally use tablets on the sidelines, and guess what? Everyone’s picking iPads. The MAC just joined the SEC, ACC and Big Ten in ditching Microsoft for Apple. Why? Real-time replays, quick play tagging and the tablets don’t freeze mid-game. NFL? Still using Surfaces like they lost a bet with Bill Gates.

📚 Since phones were banned in schools: Kids are turning Google Docs into live chat rooms. They invite friends as collaborators and chat in real time, sometimes sneakily in white text on white background. It’s note-passing for 2025. Teachers don’t notice. Parents don’t know. But is it kind of genius? Yeah. You’ve got to respect the hustle.

📺 Thanks for everyone who entered our mini-contest asking the most popular streaming day of the week. I’ll be randomly selecting winners of the $50 Amazon Gift Card from those who got the right answer and reaching out this week. 🟣 And the correct answer is… Sunday! Why? We have free time. Based on publicly available streaming analytics, the highest single-day viewing records fall on Sundays. This was so much fun, I think we should do this every weekend, don’t you?

That text is the start to a new Venmo scam. Don’t be the nice guy. Here’s why you shouldn’t send that payment back.

Listen on Komando.com →

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⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Need help but can’t speak? In many U.S. areas, you can text 911 instead of calling. Check text911.info to see if it works where you live. It could save your life.

Boost your YouTube channel: If you want the algorithm to help people discover your videos, add channel tags. On desktop, click your profile picture and open YouTube Studio. In the left panel, go to Settings > Channel > Basic info. Under Keywords, fill in things like “lifestyle vlog” or “easy recipes,” and hit Save.

📶 Share your phone’s internet on Windows: First turn off Wi-Fi on your PC and connect your phone with a USB cable. On iPhone, go to Settings > Cellular > Set Up Personal Hotspot and follow the instructions. On Android (path may vary), go to Settings > Connections > Mobile Hotspot & Tethering > USB tethering.

Redesigned Smart Stack on watchOS 26: Rotate the Digital Crown upward to open your Smart Stack, then scroll and tap Edit to add or remove widgets. The new prediction algorithm shows info you’re most likely to need, e.g., a workout prompt pops us when you get to the gym.

📱 Pay less for iPhone repairs: Go to support.apple.com/repair and check for independent repair providers near you. They use official Apple parts but charge less than Apple Stores.

📚 Make Kindle pages cleaner: Ever notice a faint imprint of the last page after you turn? Fix it by forcing a full refresh each time. Go to All Settings > Home and Library > Reading Options > Page Refresh. FYI: It may nibble a bit more battery, but you'll barely notice.

You’ve baked sourdough, brewed kombucha, maybe even grown basil in a recycled coffee can. But have you ever tried growing your own chicken nuggets? 

A Japanese project called Shojinmeat is betting you’ll want to. 

😋 If you have $400 and the courage to mix chicken egg cells with a towel warmer and a bottle of sports drink, it’s for you. Or go full lab rat mode with a $600 bioreactor that grows 30+ kinds of animal cells. Yummy.

The catch is you’ll only get about 1 gram of edible cell goo, definitely not a science fair experiment farm-to-table fillet.

👩‍🍳 Personally, I’m hanging onto my air fryer.

🛰️ The answer: A) Imperial. One team used metric, the other used imperial, and no one double-checked. The result? A $125 million lesson lost in space. This mishap is how come the metric system gets invited to all the cool science parties. So if you slip up today, you’re still doing better than a rocket scientist with a unit conversion problem.

📏 Let me tell you why I never wanted to learn the metric system. I don’t want to live under a foreign ruler. (Dang, that was a good one if I do say so myself!)

Don’t leave your devices unprotected: TotalAV offers coverage for up to 5 devices for just $19 for the first year. It’s a simple, safe way to stay secure from malware and virus threats.

This is the #1 free tech newsletter in the United States. Tomorrow’s gotta-know-it tech smarts are about new glasses that focus automatically. Yeah, no more carrying glasses for distance and glasses for reading.

✌️ The smartest thing you can do today? Show up, stay curious and help someone else along the way. You’re amazing! — Kim

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Photo credit(s): Google, Shojinmeat Project

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