🔭 Look down, see stars

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Welcome to your Sunday, {{first_name | friend}}. Hopefully, everyone still has all their fingers. Meta glasses are everywhere, but the real sci-fi prize is way smaller: an AR contact lens. Yep, screen, sensors and computer bits sitting directly on your eye. They exist in labs, but there’s one missing piece of the puzzle. 

👓 What’s the single biggest thing keeping them off your eyeballs? A) The screen is too blurry to read anything, B) You can’t strap a battery to your eyeball, C) Doctors say they’ll wreck your cornea, D) Blinking accidentally closes all the apps. Keep reading, the answer is waiting for you at the end. I’ve lost enough regular contacts down the drain, now they want me to lose a computer.

🧽 That random scam call that knew your name? The “package delivery” text with your actual address? They didn’t guess. They bought you. Data brokers package up your cell, your address, your relatives, your medical issues and sell the info to anyone with a credit card. Incogni puts real humans on the problem and scrubs you off those lists. I use it. I trust it. Get 60% off right now.*  

📺 It’s the only scrolling I’ll actually defend. Head to my YouTube channel! It’s packed with smart tips, real laughs and tech talk that matters. Click now and enjoy screen time that’s finally worth it. — Kim

⚡ TL;DR

📖 Read time: 3 minutes

I’ll never forget it. Flat on my back on the top deck of a boat, drifting somewhere in the middle of the Galapagos Islands. No city lights. No noise. Under a sky so packed with stars it didn’t look real. 

Then there was Bora Bora, the night I finally saw the Southern Cross with my own eyes, this thing I’d only ever heard about in a song. I actually got choked up. Every time I look up like that, I feel wonderfully small. And so thankful God created something that beautiful, then gave us front-row seats. Some views can’t be downloaded.

Here’s the best part. You don’t need a boat, a plane ticket or a telescope. Your phone does the work. Hold it up to the night sky, and it names every star, planet and constellation in real time. 

The magic wand is already in your pocket. Tonight, go outside and look up. I promise the view is stellar.

Download a free app called SkyView Lite on Android or Apple. Open it, point your phone at the sky and watch it label everything you aim at: stars, planets, constellations, even the International Space Station sailing overhead. I wave every time. Don’t judge. 

Want something deeper? Stellarium is free, too, and it can ping you before big sky events, so you never miss a good clear night.

Try this. Point your phone straight down at the ground. The app keeps right on going and shows you the stars over the far side of the planet, the ones beneath your feet this very second. You’re looking clean through the Earth.

🛑 One pro move before you head out: Turn on the app’s red night mode. Your eyes take a full 20 to 30 minutes to adjust to the dark, and a single glance at a bright white screen wipes that out instantly. Red light keeps your night vision intact. If you can, drive a few minutes past the city glow. It triples what you will see.

Use the app to track down the W shape of Cassiopeia. Beside it sits a faint, fuzzy smudge that looks like a smeared star. That smudge is the Andromeda Galaxy, and it’s the single farthest thing your naked eye will ever see. It sits 2.5 million light-years away. The light hitting your eye tonight left before our species even existed. 

You’re not looking at a star. You’re staring 2.5 million years into the past.

Then set a reminder for Aug. 12 and 13. The Perseid meteor shower peaks, and this year, it appears during a new moon, so the sky goes pitch black and you could catch 90 shooting stars an hour. Aim your app at Perseus, lie back and wait for the show to start.

Your phone became a time machine. Use it.

🤣 Why didn’t the Dog Star laugh at the joke? It was too Sirius. (That’s the real name of the brightest star, by the way.)

📩 Send this to someone who has kids or grandkids and one clear night to expand their horizons.

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(Starts at 1:03) Maddie saw her dog in an Amazon review. Without her permission. Same dog. Different owner. Coincidence or AI? You do the math.

Listen on Komando.com →

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

🕵️ Fake hire season: I don’t envy hiring managers. A newsroom posted one remote engineering job and got absolutely buried under AI-written résumés, fake candidates and deepfake interview tricks. Someone even spoofed their logo to run a hiring scam for banking details. Talk about a double whammy. Small businesses are first on the chopping block. Half these applicants don't exist. The other half want your bank account. Suddenly “references available upon request” feels downright quaint.

✅ LifeLock is fine, if you like paying more for less: Coveron does it smarter, better and cheaper, just $4.74 a month. You get real-time dark web scans for your personal info and alerts when something pops up. Why gamble with your identity when you can protect it? Check out Coveron now and save 66% with my exclusive offer.*

Origami’s expensive release: Mark your calendar, gadget fans. Samsung is unveiling the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra at its Unpacked event on July 22 in London. Rumors say it’s the thinnest, most powerful folding phone yet. Folding phones used to be a gimmick. Now they open into a mini tablet you can slip in your pocket. Don’t preorder blind, wait for the reviews. Sounds like Samsung’s about to make a big unfolding.

🧲 Hinge economy incoming: Don’t let your wallet read this. Apple reportedly told Asian suppliers to crank the foldable iPhone Ultra target to 10 million, while lining up five new iPhone models through 2027. It’s trying to torpedo the market during a memory crunch. The problem? This thing might cost around $2,500. I bet it still sells out because scarcity turns adults into rottweilers near a half-empty food bowl. Barry says I don’t need another gadget. Barry is wrong.

💔 Satellite heartbreak factory: You know those “love at first swipe” stories of a hopeless romantic getting duped by some scammer across the planet? Those operations are more complicated than you’d think. Empty fields in Myanmar are turning into scam office parks, powered by forced labor, with satellite dishes on the roof. At least 25 new compounds popped up after last fall’s crackdown, and scammers at 13 used Starlink IP addresses. The story is sadder than it seems. Folks are beaten for not meeting scam quotas. Read the report, definitely worth your time. If an online romance moves fast and ends in a crypto pitch, that's not love. That's someone's life on the line. Hang up and report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Split screen is the easiest way to multitask without playing window ping-pong. On Mac, hover over the green button at the top left and choose a tile side, then pick your second app. On Windows, hover over the maximize button or drag a window to the screen’s side. Double the productivity or procrastination. I use it to watch my show while pretending to answer email. Allegedly.

📘 If your business still closes the books manually: NetSuite Next was built for you. AI is baked directly into the accounting, reporting and financial close. No formulas, no filters, no IT ticket. Just ask it. It answers. Test-drive it free at NetSuite.com/Kim.*

Roku volume rodeo: Are movie explosions loud but some dialogue scenes too quiet? Roku has a built-in feature that can balance the audio. Next time a video is playing, press the star button on your remote, then head to Sound settings > Customize sound mode and turn on Volume leveling. Your thumb can heal now.

👆🏻 iPad drag-and-drop trick: You can drag text, photos and files between apps like a computer. In Safari, for example, select some text, hold it with one finger, then use another finger to open Messages and drop it into the chat box. Same idea with photos or screenshots and moving them to a folder. Your fingers just got a promotion.

Better Watch replies: Apple Watch replies are convenient, but “OK” can sound dismissive. On iPhone, open the Watch app > Apps > Messages > Default Replies. Make sure Smart Replies are on, then tap Add Reply and write your own longer response. Add a few for meetings, shopping or busy days. Fast but personal. 

🧒🏼 Mini internet bouncer: Want to stop kids from opening certain websites in Chrome? Add the free Block Site extension. Copy the site’s URL, click the extension icon, tap the gear, then paste it under Block Sites. Bonus: You can also block URLs containing certain words and set a password so they can’t undo it later. You're the bouncer now. No ID, no TikTok.

🚶🏼‍♀️ Take me on a walk: Click to listen to my latest show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. I also make chores go by faster!

Apple never shipped its car, but at least its alumni made a very elegant golf cart.

Ex-Apple and Audi folks released the Amble One, a $25,000 open-air EV for neighborhoods, resorts and coastal towns where parking an SUV feels like bringing a couch to brunch. No doors, fewer screens, modular mounts for baskets and cargo gear, a 40 mph top speed and 60+ miles of range.

More than 500 are committed to resorts, because luxury means arriving slowly. The revolution will be street legal and wearing sunscreen. Do I want one? Yes. Do I need one? No. Will Barry find out how much it costs? Also no.

Check it out here. 

What you learned today: Your phone can name every star in the sky, including the ones under your feet, and the Andromeda light hitting your eyes tonight left home 2.5 million years ago. Fake AI job candidates are burying real hiring managers, the folding iPhone could run $2,500, and your Roku can finally stop blasting explosions louder than the dialogue. All that before you found your Sunday slippers. Tomorrow: real-time translation is already on your phone, plus the key you tap all day that has a secret talent.

👀 The answer: B) Power. You can’t strap a battery to your eyeball. The screens already work. One company, Mojo Vision, put a tiny display into a real human eye years ago, and the lens sips just 1 to 3 microwatts. But there’s nowhere to hide a battery on your cornea, so today’s prototypes cheat. Mojo’s needed a processor worn around the neck, plus a hat with an antenna. Yes, you read that right.

XPANCEO, a billion-dollar company, uses a little device worn over your ear that beams power to the lens wirelessly. Its first all-in-one lens, screen and sensors and power together, is targeted for an early 2027 reveal. 

One for the road: I lost my contact lens but somehow made it home without bumping into anyone. Truly a contactless journey.

🗑️ Deleting your data once isn’t enough. Data brokers are like weeds. You pull them once, and they’re back in 30 days. Most privacy tools do a one-time sweep, but Incogni is a recurring weed killer. It constantly checks and resubmits removal requests, so your data stays deleted. Stay scrubbed for 60% off with my code: KIM60.*

🏆 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.

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

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Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, LYWALT, Amble

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