Sponsored by
Welcome to your Wednesday, {{first_name | friend}}. Remember when Netflix was just a scrappy little upstart slingin’ DVDs through snail mail like Blockbuster’s quirky cousin with a dot-com dream? Way back in 1998, they mailed out their very first disc.
🎬 Pop quiz, hotshot! Any guesses what flick kicked off the binge era? Was it … A) The Matrix, B) Apollo 13, C) Beetlejuice or D) Space Jam? 🔍 Find out at the bottom, but no peeking! That’s cheating, and you know I’m watching. 😜
⭐ Like what you’re reading? Hit the “favorite” button, so I never get lost in your spam folder. It’s very weird in there. — Kim
📬 Was this forwarded to you? Be the first to know, not the last to hear. Sign up now. It’s free!
TODAY’S DEEP DIVE
It went data away!
Image: Midjourney
You’ve probably seen the sales pitches. “Get blazing-fast Wi-Fi 7 with internet speeds like you’ve never seen before. Just $600 for a new state-of-the-art router!” Let me save you money.
🤑 The reality check
Yes, Wi-Fi 7 is fast. Theoretical speeds reach up to 46 Gbps. That’s 46,000 Mbps, compared to Wi-Fi 6, which tops out around 9.6 Gbps (9,600 Mbps). Here’s what that means in real life.
A 4K movie is about 15 GB.
Wi-Fi 6 downloads that in 12–15 seconds.
Wi-Fi 7 does it in about three seconds.
Yea, you’ll never notice the difference.
🐌 The real bottleneck
Most Americans’ internet maxes out between 200 to 1,000 Mbps. That’s 0.2 to 1 Gbps. This isn’t even close to what your router or phone can handle. Not sure? Look at those numbers above again. I’ll wait.
About your phone, it’s limited by your internet connection, not your router.
🏎️ Who can use Wi-Fi 7?
When you fall into one of these categories, it’s worth getting.
Video editors moving 100 GB+ files wirelessly between computers.
Gamers or engineers with a high-end NAS (network-attached storage).
Power users with super fast fiber connections (2 Gbps and up).
Otherwise, it’s like buying a Ferrari to drive to church.
✅ What to do instead
Know what you’re paying for. Before blaming your devices, look up your internet plan. Are you paying for 100 Mbps? 500? Gigabit?
Run a speed test. Go to speedtest.net or fast.com on a phone or laptop connected to Wi-Fi. Compare the results to your plan.
The good ol’ reboot. It works more often than you’d think. Here’s the right way to do it: Unplug both your modem and router (if they’re separate). Wait 30 seconds, enough time to hum the Jeopardy! theme. Plug the modem back in first. Wait until the lights are steady. Then plug in the router and give it another minute to fully reboot.
Still a slowpoke? Try a mesh Wi-Fi system (nice, it’s 33% off right now) to improve coverage.
Speaking of… A router and a modem got married. They were pronounced husbandwidth and WiFi. (Yea, it was bad. I agree.)
Know someone who needs this in their inbox? Tap below and make their day.
|
The assistant that scales with you
Great leaders don’t run out of ideas. They run out of hours.
Wing gives you a dedicated assistant who plugs into your workflows – calendar, inbox, research, outreach, and ops – so execution never stalls. Wing can:
Onboard in days, not months
Run the day-to-day so you don’t have to
Adapt as your business grows
With Wing, you buy back time without adding headcount. More focus for strategy, more follow-through on priorities, and a lot fewer “forgot to send” moments.
THE CURRENT POWERED BY KIM KOMANDO
Why your insurance bill could suddenly soar
Scammers are making synthetic identities to cash in on insurance fraud. Meanwhile, fake Google reviews are crushing small businesses, Apple’s big security update, and MIT’s telepathic breakthrough is straight out of science fiction.
🎧 Subscribe on your favorite platform:
WEB WATERCOOLER
📅 Invite from hell: One poisoned Google Calendar invite can trick ChatGPT into leaking Gmail if connectors are on. Apple folks recently got hit, too, with fake iCloud invites pushing PayPal scams. Different tech, same headache. Fix your calendar settings so only invites from people you actually know land on your schedule. In Google Calendar, go to Settings > Event settings > Add invitations to my calendar, and switch it to Only if the sender is known.
AI suicide lawsuit filed: A family is suing Character.AI, saying its chatbot “Hero” acted like a trusted friend to their 13-year-old girl, then failed to intervene (paywall link) when she expressed suicidal thoughts. She died in June after weeks of withdrawing. Her parents say Hero gave emotional support without ever urging her to seek help. Something has to change.
🇨🇳 TikTok on the clock: Looks like the U.S. and China are inching toward a deal that could keep TikTok alive in America. The plan would move U.S. operations, with Oracle overseeing data here in the States. Communist China’s ByteDance would still have a hand in the algorithm, which is the heart and soul of the app.
📙 Don’t fall behind: AI is changing business fast, and you need to keep up. Grab NetSuite’s free guide, “The CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.” It’s a quick way to get smarter about AI, because it’s here to stay.*
AI ads incoming: Roku is rolling out generative AI tools so even the tiniest business can slap together an ad in minutes. Roku has hundreds of advertisers, but they want 100,000+. Streaming’s booming, ad slots are open, and AI sludge is about to fill the void.
📦 Prime and pause: Don’t click “Buy Now.” Amazon just announced a big hardware event for Sept. 30 in New York City, where it’s going to unveil new Echo speakers, Fire TV gear and a colorful Kindle that you can write on. Alexa’s gonna be smarter, too. Maybe it will ask me, “Kim, why am I unplugged?”
DIGITAL LIFE HACK
Kindle secrets every reader should know
Calling all bookworms. Time to dust off your Kindle to borrow from the library, send PDFs and more. Super cool!
🎧 Subscribe on your favorite platform:
DEALS OF THE DAY
Feel better, live smarter
🧠 My pick: Renpho smart scale (43% off)
Image: Renpho
Step up and get the full picture. Not just pounds, it tracks body fat, BMI and more, right to your phone.
❤️ Blood pressure monitor (22% off): Keep an eye on your ticker with an at-home cuff that stores readings for your whole family.
Metal tongue scraper (40% off): Kiss bad breath goodbye. Your mouth (and your friends) will thank you.
💊 Travel pill organizer (30% off): Eight roomy compartments for meds = zero excuses for missing your daily dose.
The Pink Stuff multipurpose cleaner (40% off): Social media’s favorite grime-buster actually lives up to the hype.
✈️ Check out more of my travel helpers.
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Draft smarter emails by pasting your rough notes into a chatbot and saying, “Make this more professional, and cut the fluff.”
Add extra clocks in Windows 11: Have folks in other time zones? Add more clocks to your taskbar. Right-click the date and time in the bottom right, select Adjust date and time > Additional clocks. Tick Show this clock, choose a time zone, name it, then hit Apply and OK.
🖨️ Stop Android from searching printers: That drains the battery. Go to Settings > Connections > More connection settings > Printing > Default print service and toggle it Off.
🚀 Big power. Low price. No cloud drama. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) delivers serious speed, power and savings without the usual cloud chaos. See why smart companies are switching, and try it free today.*
🆕 Fun stuff in iOS 26
⌚ watchOS 26: If you’ve got a Series 9 or newer, or the Ultra 2, when a notification or alarm pops up, just flick your wrist away from you to return to the Home screen without pressing the Digital Crown. FYI: No setup needed, it works with the update.
💻 macOS 26: The Control Center is now customizable. At the bottom, click Edit Controls, and a window pops up with everything you can add. Search for what you want, hit the green plus (+) icon and select Add to Control Center. Then, right-click to choose between Small, Medium or Large tile sizes.
🍏 iPadOS 26: Multitasking is here. Open Safari and look for a curved icon in the bottom right. Swipe up to undock it from full screen, then resize the window from any corner. You can do this with multiple apps and move them using the title bar.
📱 iOS 26: iPhones got a visual overhaul with liquid glass. Search bars now sit at the bottom in apps like Messages, Mail and Photos, while ellipses menus return in the top right with floating options. Not a fan of the see-through look? Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Reduce Transparency.
WHAT THE TECH?
Image: Greg Matusky
💝 Ever wish you could talk to your parents or grandparents one more time, hear their voices, their laughter, their stories?
That’s the soul behind Reflekta, an AI platform built to preserve the life stories of the people we love before they’re gone forever.
It started with Paul Matusky, a WWII veteran, POW survivor and devoted teacher, whose son, Greg, created Reflekta to make sure voices like his dad’s are never lost to time. Think of it as a talking family album that answers back.
🎤 I’m interviewing Greg Matusky this Thursday. Got a question for him? Drop it here.
And this weekend on the show, I’ll share my answer to a deeply personal question: Will I use AI to bring my mom back?
LOGGING OUT …
The answer: B) Apollo 13 and C) Beetlejuice. The internet is debating it, so either one is good for a win. Back then, Netflix shipped just 30 DVDs that first day, by hand, from a warehouse in California. Within a decade, they were mailing out 1.2 billion discs a year.
Nerd joke alert: I just spent $100 on a limited edition Star Trek II DVD. Turns out the seller was a Khan man. 🖖
This is the #1 tech newsletter in the U.S. Tomorrow, I’m uncovering the literal internet, the miles of fiber-optic cables stretched across the ocean floor that power everything from your texts to your TikToks. You do not want to miss this one.
✌️ Until then, stay curious, and stay in the driver’s seat of your tech. — Kim
📣 Don’t keep me a secret: Share this email with friends (or copy URL here)
Photo credit(s): Midjourney, Renpho, Greg Matusky
Companies noted with an asterisk (*) sponsor my national radio show. Also, as an Amazon Associate, we earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.
This newsletter and its content are intended for informational purposes only. They are provided without warranty of any kind. You shouldn’t construe anything provided here as legal, health, medical, technical, tax, investment, financial or any other kind of advice.
Missed something? View past issues
Join the lists for my weekly small biz and cryptocurrency newsletters!