💸 Fake crypto apps drained their wallets

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It’s a great, fabulous Friday, {{first_name | friend}}. Your smartwatch may be counting steps as if your feet are the star of the show, but your fingers are out there doing the real work. Every email, text spiral and 2 a.m. Google search adds up, and your keyboard has the receipts.

How far do the average person’s fingers travel each day while typing? A) Half a mile, B) 3 miles, C) 7 miles or D) 12.6 miles? Take your best guess before the big reveal sneaks up at the end.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Don’t let scammers use your family history against you. If your tree is online, your kids and parents are at risk. Really. Incogni is the cleanup crew for your family’s digital footprint. It only takes a few clicks. Protect your circle for 60% off with my code: KIM60.*

🚂 Thanks for hopping aboard the Komando Tech Train. Whoo-whoo! No loco motives here, only tremendous, valuable intel you can use to impress your friends and coworkers. Let’s keep making inbox history together. — Kim

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⚡ TL;DR

📖 Read time: 3 minutes

I can’t stand being taken advantage of and HP did it again. They pushed a firmware update that bricks third-party ink cartridges across 11 printer models. No warning. No opt-out. Surprise, your cartridge doesn’t work anymore. Gee, thanks jerk face.

Here’s the twist. HP, Epson, Canon and Brother control roughly 87% of the printer market worldwide. Four companies. That’s all. They watch each other like hawks, and when one locks you into expensive ink, the rest quietly fall in line. Funny how that works.

Let’s talk about what that ink actually costs. Inkjet ink runs $1,664 to $9,600 per gallon. For context, Chanel No. 5 perfume sits around $26,000 a gallon. You read that right.

The business model is called razor-and-blade. They sell the printer cheap, sometimes even at a loss, then squeeze you forever on the ink. Try to fight back with a generic cartridge? HP’s Dynamic Security chip refuses to play. One firmware update and boom, your perfectly good cartridge becomes a paperweight. That’s not a bug. That’s the whole money point. Argh.

Step 1: Turn OFF firmware auto-updates on your printer. Go to Settings > Maintenance > Auto Update and flip the switch. That single move blocks most of this nonsense.

Step 2: If you mostly print text docs, ditch the inkjet. Switch to a monochrome laser printer. The Brother HL-L6310DW is Consumer Reports’ top pick for 2026. Toner lasts years, not weeks. Love that for you.

Step 3: If you need color, skip cartridges. Grab an Epson EcoTank ET-2800 or Canon MegaTank G3270. You refill them from a $12 bottle, which lasts up to two years.

Step 4: Skip the HP+ enrollment at setup. It’s the loyalty trap that locks you into HP-brand ink for the life of the printer.

Looks like the printer cartels really put the “con” in consumables. Time to cartridge them off the list. Oh that was a good one!

📩 Send this to someone who still pays $70 for HP ink cartridges. Use the links below.

North Korean hackers are deepfaking their way past HR departments at Fortune 500 companies, landing remote jobs and funneling the paychecks back to Pyongyang. How to stop them? One crypto firm interviewer cut through all of it and found a phrase no North Korean plant will ever say out loud. Kim Jong Un hates this.

▶️ Trick exposes North Korean spies →

Or for audio only, click your favorite podcast player below:

🤖 Apple’s fake bank: You know how the App Store is supposed to be the safe one? It recently got caught hosting 26 fake crypto wallet apps, posing as legit companies like MetaMask, Coinbase and Trust Wallet. Open one, type in your recovery phrase and your whole stash gets drained in minutes. Apple’s been pulling them, but tough luck for anyone who fell for it. Only download from official websites, never the App Store search bar. Trust, but always verify, maybe double-verify in crypto. 

Melted Pixels: Apparently, Google found a way to make a phone burn calories. Pixel folks say the April 2026 update has their batteries dropping in half, phones running hot and idle drain chewing through charge while the screen is off. It’s not a single model either, Pixels 6 through 10 are affected. Google’s response? Basically, our battery data stinks, please send us better bug reports, so we can figure stuff out. Gee thanks.

🏈 Stream maze season: Remember when football was broadcast on TV? Now, events bounce among Amazon, Netflix, cable, networks and maybe another five-game package. Fans need a map and a blood oath. The NFL is defending its 65-year-old antitrust exemption (paywall link) in front of the FCC, saying all 32 teams selling media rights together keeps prices lower and watching simpler. “Trust us, we’d gouge you worse separately” is a bold sales pitch. It used to be so easy to watch football. I love a tight end.

💸 Tired of paying for subscriptions you don’t use? That app from 2021 is probably still charging you. Rocket Money hunts down those sneaky fees, shows them all in one clean dashboard and helps cancel the junk for you. I use it because it saves time and money. Try it now!*

📞 Rate drop racket: The creepiest part of modern scams isn’t the phone call anymore, it’s how much they already know. The FTC says crooks cold-call people, offering to lower credit card rates, and sometimes they know your balance or the last four of your Social. Cute. That trust-building trick probably starts with your data getting passed around by brokers like a Costco sample tray on Saturday. Yea, Incogni makes it stop. Don’t press 1. Hang up and call the number on the back of your card.

Free sky fireworks: Look up tonight. Seriously. The Lyrid meteor shower continues this week in dark skies across the U.S. That’s rare. Most meteor showers get washed out by a bright moon, but fireballs have been streaking every few minutes over areas away from city lights. Best viewing is after midnight, lying flat on your back. No telescope. No app. Finally, an entertainment option that requires absolutely no password.

🧸 Baby content factory: When did we get to the point where even nursery rhymes are outsourced to the robot landfill? Pediatricians are sounding the alarm on AI-generated kids videos swarming YouTube, with glitched-out characters, creepy sing-alongs and plots that feel like someone microwaved Cocomelon. The crazy part? Bot-made clips are pulling millions of views because the algorithm loves cheap repetition. Babies? Not exactly the toughest critics. Next time the children’s tablet is autoplaying YouTube Kids, peek at the screen. You’ll be glad you did.

The one-earbud-each situation is both awkward and a little gross. Good news: Your phone has a built-in fix nobody told you about.

Listen on Komando.com →

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

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Gmail has a quick way to cut off all those promo emails and marketing newsletters you don’t remember signing up for. Tap Manage subscriptions in the left panel, and it’ll pull up a list of the usual pests. Hit Unsubscribe next to the ones you’re done with, and enjoy a slightly less annoying inbox. Don’t get carried away and unsubscribe from mine.

Hide your weekend stories: So you made office small talk, added your coworkers on Instagram, and now Karen from HR is one tap away from your Saturday sundowners. Fix that by going to Settings and activity > Who can see your content > Story, live and location > Hide story and live from and choose the accounts you don’t want seeing it. No unfollowing, no drama. You come off like a model citizen by Monday.

📱 Block this thief trick: Thieves have a sneaky move where they steal your iPhone, swipe open Control Center from the lock screen and flip on Airplane Mode. That cuts off cellular and Wi-Fi, so Find My goes blind. Your phone may as well vanish into the void. Fix it: Go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode, scroll to Allow Access When Locked and turn off Control Center. Now nobody can hit Airplane Mode without your face or passcode.

Find your battery hogs: If your Android battery is draining faster than a toddler’s snack pouch, check which apps are guzzling the most power. Open Settings > Battery and look for the worst offenders. Spoiler: It’s probably your social apps. Then head to Settings > Apps > [app name] > Battery and switch it to Restricted. That stops it from constantly running in the background and chewing through your battery. 

🍝 Yelp wants to make dinner reservations for you: Their new AI assistant’s been beefed up, so you can ask for something like a “pet-friendly restaurant near X on Friday at 7 p.m.,” and it’ll suggest places and let you book a table. All in one conversation. You can also order takeout or delivery or ask for a wallpaper installer or a doctor. Sounds cool, but I’d still check Google reviews first.

Phones at the table are rude. Recording everyone instead? Apparently cool enough to productize. 

Prego teamed up with StoryCorps to build a table-top puck called the Connection Keeper that tapes your family conversations, on purpose. It’s got dual mics, one-button recording, 16GB of storage (~8 hours) and zero Wi-Fi, zero AI.  

Nothing says being present with family like pressing record before your uncle starts yelling about politics and welfare. (I have one too.)

Share this now:

🔜 Tomorrow: Amazon has a hidden resale page packed with returned, open-box and refurbished deals for up to 70% off, plus I’m showing you where the leftovers land in local bin stores for even less. If you love bargain chaos, check your inbox.

💘 Any person can find your home address in a sec. People-search sites hand over your full profile for a few dollars. Not exactly a comfort. Incogni gets your information off those sites, so you control your doorstep. Get 60% off with my code: KIM60.*

The answer is D) 12.6 miles. That’s basically a half marathon for your fingers. Farther than most Americans walk all week. Farther than your legs have moved since the last time you misplaced the remote. 

Bonus nerd facts: The letter E is the most-typed key in English. The space bar alone eats up 18% of your keystrokes. What a space hog!  

Speaking of, my friend Ty came first in the Beijing marathon years ago, but still has not been awarded a gold medal. China refuses to acknowledge Ty won. (Ouch. I know.) I’ll do better tomorrow. Promise.

One more thing before your weekend. Someone in “Share The Current” has 85 referrals and is about to become a Legend and have a meet and greet with me. Others are crossing 10, 25, closing in on a hat and a hoodie. If you haven’t started yet, your link is at the bottom of this email. It’s Friday. Your group chats are getting fired up. Drop your referral link in one of them tonight. 

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.

Your referrals get you great rewards!

Send your unique link below to friends and family.

👉 Your link is: thecurrent.komando.com/subscribe?ref={{rp_referral_code}}

They get tech-smart. You get prizes. Win-win. The more referrals, the more prizes. (Yes, even a meet and greet with me. I’d love that!)

Your referral count is: {{ rp_num_referrals }}

You’re {{ rp_num_referrals_until_next_milestone }} referrals away from {{ rp_next_milestone_name }}.

🎉 Keep it going! You got this! — Kim

Photo credit(s): Gemini, ELTRIKO, Prego

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