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Happy Tuesday, {{first_name | friend}}. If your Chrome browser wheezes when you open one more tab, congrats, you may have discovered the secret upper limit where your laptop becomes sentient and begs for mercy.Â
đ§Ž But what exactly is âtoo manyâ Chrome tabs? Is it: A) 99, B) 100, C) 500 or D) Infinite? Keep tabs on your guess, the answerâs coming at the end!
Data brokers are profiting off you. Incogni removes your personal details from lists and databases you never agreed to be on. You stay in control of your privacy while they handle the takedowns. Itâs easy and effective to protect your privacy with Incogni. â Kim
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TODAYâS DEEP DIVE
Stop hoarding screenshots

Image: Bing Image Creator
You set your phone to back up photos, turn on file sync, and next thing you know, you get a message: âStorage full.â Wait, what the heck happened?
Letâs clear up your cloud storage confusion.
đ What you get for free
Google (Drive, Gmail, Photos) â 15 GB
Shared across your Gmail inbox, Drive files and Google Photos. Thatâs enough for a few thousand photos and emails. But once itâs full, Gmail might stop working.ÂPrice: 100 GB for $1.99/month or $19.99/year.
To see how much space you are using, go to Google Drive > Storage.
Apple iCloud â 5 GB
Shared across your iPhone backups, photos, files, email and more. For most people, a single phone backup eats up 3â4 GB. Add a couple hundred photos, and boom, youâre over the limit.ÂPrice: 50 GB for $0.99/month.
To see how much space you are using, go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > Storage.
Amazon Photos â Unlimited full-resolution photo storage
But only if youâre a Prime member. Videos are limited to 5 GB unless you pay. If you have Prime, this hidden gem is worth using.
đ¸ How fast does it go?
I want you to have an idea of how much space your stuff takes.
1 minute of HD video = ~100 MB
1,000 photos = ~2â3 GB
iPhone backup = 3â6 GB
Gmail inbox = 1â10 GB over a few years
So if your monthly costs for iCloud or Google storage are higher than you want, get in there and start removing duplicates, screenshots, old backups and movies. I was guilty of having a bad Nicolas Cage movie in my backups so I could watch it offline. Why, I have no idea.
đ§ The smart approach
You want to sync what matters and vault the rest. Keep only the essentials on iCloud or Google so you stay under their free limits, or get on an affordable plan. This way, you can use iCloud or Google to sync your everyday stuff like contacts, calendars, emails and device backups.Â
I pay for iCloud+ and save money by using Appleâs Family Sharing plan, which lets me share cloud storage with up to five other people all without anyone losing privacy or access to their own data. Itâs a smart way to avoid each person paying for separate plans, especially if you have lots of photos, videos or device backups.Â
Google offers a similar setup through Google One, which also allows family sharing for their cloud storage tiers. Both services make it easy to manage storage across multiple accounts, and the shared plans are typically more affordable than buying individual subscriptions.
So what do you do with your large files, videos and archives?Â
Toss them in a cheap digital vault that lives in the cloud like Total Drive.* You get 10 TB (thatâs 10,000 GB) for $18, no monthly fees. Use it for offloading space-hogging files you want safe but donât need to access every day.Â
đ That reminds me... Hard drives donât have the patience for sit-down meals at restaurants. They prefer quick bytes. You can have that one for free.
đ Now, be a pal and use the icons below to share this intel with someone you care about.
Don't fall for this scam
Ever get a text like this: âYou owe $5 in unpaid tolls. Pay here to avoid penalties.â Would you click it? Sadly, thousands of people do. They hand over addresses, card numbers, even Social Security numbers. Thatâs how scammers get them.
And the stolen money is just the beginning. Your personal info is then sold on shady underground markets, tied back to you forever. Scammers make it worse by buying even more of your data from brokersâthings like your date of birth, emails, and even car ownership recordsâto make their scams look real.
Thatâs why I depend on Incogni. Their Unlimited plan scrubs your sensitive data from over 420 brokers, as well as any other site where it appears, and keeps it gone!
Please support our sponsors!
THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW
Am I crazy or has my phone been hacked?
Lilly from Indianapolis thinks her phone has been hacked. Can she prove it? Also, the Secret Service crushes a nightmare cyber plot. Plus, the dark side of Amazon Prime, AI celebrity boyfriends, and digital shoplifting. Donât miss this!
đ§ Subscribe on your favorite platform:
WEB WATERCOOLER
đĽ Clout-chasing or a cautionary tale? YouTuber MrBeastâs latest viral stunt has people talking for all the wrong reasons. In a video thatâs racked up millions of views, he ties a man to a chair inside a flaming building, part of a $500,000 âdeath trapâ challenge. MrBeast insists everything was done safely with pros on set. But when did lighting someone on fire become family-friendly entertainment? What your kids watch isnât just harmless fun. Itâs content engineered for attention at any cost. If your teen says, âItâs just a MrBeast video,â you might want to take a closer look.
OpenAI adds parental safety controls: After a slew of lawsuits and deaths, ChatGPT will now flag suicidal prompts from teens, with one big but: Both you and the kids have to opt in first. If something happens, human reviewers step in and alerts go out. Oh, you can also block ChatGPT past bedtime. Remember when you were a teen? Yea, they can get around these controls without a problem.
đ A stalkerâs dream? Security researchers just revealed that Tile tracking tags, owned by Life360, can be hacked. Unlike Appleâs AirTags, which trigger alerts when theyâre moving with someone who doesnât own them, Tiles have no built-in anti-stalking feature. That means a bad actor could slip one into your purse or car, track someone for weeks, and the victim might never know. The kicker? Life360 has known about this loophole for a long time and still hasnât fixed it.
Clippyâs final form: âVibe workingâ is coming to Word and Excel. Microsoftâs new Agent Mode uses GPT-5 to build entire spreadsheets and docs just from a prompt, while narrating its every move. Thereâs even a PowerPoint mode that makes decks and does its own research. Somewhere, an intern just burst into tears of joy.
â ď¸ Scamming scammers: Some TikTokers claimed you could file a fake CFPB complaint and get a check from Zelle or Cash App. Millions watched. Some paid $77 for their âtemplatesâ and $24.99 for credit repair guides. Itâs all bogus. âJust lie to the governmentâ is not financial advice.
đ Buttons are back, baby: No more tap-tap-tapping. Mercedes is bringing back real buttons and knobs in 2026, saying theyâre faster, safer and less annoying than touch screens. Nothing says âluxuryâ like not missing your highway exit trying to turn on the AC. Your great-grandpa was right: Knobs are the future.
DAILY TECH UPDATE
Secret messages through Google Docs
Forget phones. Students are turning Google Docs into secret chat rooms. With invisible text and shared files, it looks like homework, but it is really the new way to pass notes in class.
đ§ Subscribe on your favorite platform:
DEALS OF THE DAY
â° Prime time to save big
Why wait for Amazonâs Prime Big Deal Days? These tech bargains are already worth clicking âBuy Now.â
đˇď¸ Nelko label maker (57% off): Print crisp labels straight from your phone. 160+ templates make it easy.
Fire HD tablet (56% off): Stream or read on Amazonâs newest tablet. Snag an extra 20% off if you trade one in.
đĽď¸ Samsung monitor (45% off): 180Hz refresh + eye-saving mode = hours of gaming or working without the headache.
Acer USB hub (48% off): Turn one measly port into four and keep more of your gadgets connected.
đ Halloween lights (17% off): Trick out your treat zone. These 100 mini bulbs will make your neighbors so jealous.
đ More gadgets, more savings: Click here for the full lineup before the rest officially land on Oct. 7â8.
DEVICE ADVICE
âĄď¸ 3-second tech genius: Some power banks charge your phone while recharging. To find out if yours can, search the make and model online for âpass-through charging.â Handy when youâve only got one outlet.
Fix the iPad pointer: After updating to iPadOS 26, see an annoying circle cursor instead of an arrow? To switch back, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch, and toggle off AssistiveTouch. Thatâll restore the arrow. Now go to Settings > Accessibility > Pointer Control to adjust size and color again.
đ§ Search Gmail by date: Pull up emails from a specific time frame using the search bar. For example, type: after:2025/08/01 before:2025/10/01 to see emails from Aug. 1 through Sept. 30, 2025.
Turn off sleep mode in Windows 11: Go to Settings > System > Power > Screen, sleep & hibernation timeouts. Set Turn my screen off after, Make my device sleep after and Make my device hibernate after all to Never. But if youâre on a laptop, this will drain the battery when itâs not charging.
â¨ď¸ Sticky mechanical keyboard? Before tossing it, try cleaning. Blow air between the key caps with an air duster. If a specific switch is stuck, remove the key cap with a puller (hereâs a cheap one with cleaning brushes) and check underneath, then blast it with air again.
đż Find where to stream anything: Tired of hopping between apps just to hunt down a show? Go to JustWatch or Reelgood, type in the title, and voila, it tells you exactly where itâs playing (yes, even the free options).
WHAT THE TECH?

Image: IXI
đ Visionary thinking right here
Helsinki startup IXI is building glasses that track your eye movements and shift focus automatically, so you can go from texting to bird-watching without the blur.Â
Now, before you get too skeptical, hereâs how they work. The lenses adjust automatically to what you are looking at. No more carrying around readers and driving glasses.
Plus, they actually look good. These arenât cyborg goggles. Theyâve got that timeless frame vibe, but with hidden sci-fi tech.Â
𼸠Have you ever wondered why you need a prescription for eyeglasses? Canât you just eyeball it? (lol)
LOGGING OUT âŚ
đŻ The answer: B) 100. Once you hit 100 open tabs with no idea where the music is coming from, Chrome just throws up its hands and shows you a smiley face. So yes, your browser is silently judging your unquenchable thirst for more stuff like a concerned but supportive parent.Â
At that point, your laptop fan becomes a hair dryer, your productivity plans derail, and somewhere, a UX designer cries out, âPlease, make them stop!âÂ
đ Speaking of⌠Iâm going to open my own bar and call it Chrome. Itâll keep your tab open until you have no memory. (OK, letâs see you come up with free clever lines to make people smile or groan!)
Hold up. â Did you know your personal data is constantly being bought and sold without your consent? Incogni fights back for you, automatically requesting removals from over 420 data brokers. Itâs simple, fast and backed by a 30-day guarantee. Try Incogni today.
Tomorrow, you have to hear about this PTA mom, a Crock-Pot and a $17M North Korean cybercrime ring. This oneâs more spy thriller than soccer practice.
𼸠Youâve got this, and Iâve got your back, one tip at a time. â Kim
đŁ Donât keep me a secret: Share this email with friends (or copy URL here)
Photo credit(s): Bing Image Creator, IXI
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This newsletter and its content are intended for informational purposes only. They are provided without warranty of any kind. You shouldnât construe anything provided here as legal, health, medical, technical, tax, investment, financial or any other kind of advice.
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