🧺 Put ALL your eggs in one basket. Really.

📬 Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here. Tomorrow: For the first time, we may be able to understand what dogs and dolphins say. I’ll tell you how close we really are. 

A very happy Saturday, {{first_name | friend}}. Once upon a time, before we could end professional emails with “👍” on our phones, we had a problem. Text felt cold, and people kept misreading each other.

Enter Shigetaka Kurita, a 25-year-old designer in Japan who hand-drew 176 tiny emoji in 1999. Each one was only 12 by 12 pixels, a tiny piece of digital real estate. He borrowed from manga, weather symbols and the smiley faces people were typing out of punctuation. You know, the :-) era. Why did the smiley emoji drop the nose? Too negative.

Japan adopted them instantly. Twelve years later, Apple put a bigger set on the iPhone, and the whole planet started talking in pictures. Those original 176? They ended up somewhere unexpected.

🙂 Where do the original 176 emoji live today? A) In the Unicode Consortium’s headquarters, B) In the Smithsonian, C) In the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, D) In a Tokyo vending machine, still 100 yen a pop. The answer lurks politely at the end.

📻 Listen up! My national radio show is airing all weekend across the USA. With over 510 stations strong, find your closest one by using our super-duper station locator map, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or watch the entire show on YouTube. I’m wherever you are. — Kim

🤯 WOW! Thieves stole backups of roughly 30 million LastPass vaults in 2022 and still had to crack them one at a time, offline, for years. The encryption held. The weak master passwords didn’t.

The Short Version: One long master password, two-factor turned on and one trusted person named for Emergency Access. Fifteen minutes, and you’re done.

📖 Read time: 3 minutes

Marilyn, yes. It’s all in one basket. That’s exactly the point. Stick with me on this.

Here’s the part nobody explains, and it’s the whole reason to trust these things.

Real password managers use something called zero-knowledge encryption. Your vault gets scrambled on YOUR device, before it ever touches their servers. The key that unscrambles it is built from your master password, which the company never receives, never stores, never sees.

Translation: They are holding a locked box they cannot open. If a burglar hits their warehouse, he gets your box. Not what’s in it. And we are not guessing here. We have results.

In 2022, hackers breached LastPass and walked off with backups of roughly 30 million customer vaults. The worst breach the industry has ever had. But the encryption held. The thieves could not simply read those vaults. 

So who got hurt? The people who used lame, weak master passwords like Password, Letmein or 123456. Those vaults cracked open. Federal investigators have tied a $150 million crypto theft to that breach.

Read that twice, because it’s the entire lesson. The vault didn’t fail. The weak passwords people chose to lock it did.

I hear this a lot. Someone dies, and nobody can get into the bank, the email, the insurance, the photos of their own grandchildren. Locked out of a life they helped build.

Marilyn, one basket is fine. Just make it a basket with a lock nobody can pick. That’s NordPass. 

It’s the password manager I recommend, with the same zero-knowledge encryption we just talked about, plus Emergency Access baked right in. Full disclosure: They’re a sponsor of my national radio show, but I used them before that happened.

✅ Right now, you can get NordPass for 52% off, just $1.43 a month. That’s less than the eggs you’re putting in the basket.  

FYI, the password beefstew is not stroganoff.

📩 Send this to someone who keeps their passwords in a spiral notebook and is very proud of it.

Police ambushed Joel Feder and his wife in a Kohl’s parking lot. Guns drawn. The tipster? Flock cameras. Wrongly tracked him for days over stolen plates he never took. We talk to The Drive journalist one-on-one. Need more? Check out his article.

Plus, remember that viral three-finger trick to catch a deepfake? Doesn’t work anymore. AI already caught up. And Lisa went viral for her “Marry Lisa” billboards. Nearly 4,000 submissions later, she found the love of her life. On an app.

Also: 

Listen now before everyone else is talking about it. 👇

▶️ “Flock cameras almost got me arrested”→

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

🧯 Router fire drill: CISA, the FBI and the NSA said Russia’s FSB is breaking into home and small office routers to watch traffic and cover its footprints. Older models with no security updates are easy prey. Restart yours, update the firmware or retire it. I know buying a router is boring. Espionage is worse. Here’s the one I recommend. And while you’re in there, set the Wi-Fi password to 2444666668888888. That way, when guests ask, you can honestly say it’s 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. So clever of you!

Game of clones: Google wants to turn your selfie into a tiny corporate spokesperson clone. It announced that Vids, its Workspace video tool, will soon let you make a digital avatar from a selfie and voice recording. It looks like you, sounds like you and can deliver company updates while your real body eats cereal over the sink. It can also tweak backgrounds, lighting, effects and edits without starting over. 

💨 Quick speed check: If you’re still using heavy antivirus software, you are slowing yourself down. Webroot gives you better protection that uses a fraction of the space. It works on PCs, Macs and phones. Grab my exclusive 62% off deal before it is gone.*

Tiny game factory: There’s plenty wrong with Roblox, but I love this. It’s pushing a new mobile AI feature called Build that turns text prompts into basic playable games, including environments, characters, visual style, sound and sharing. Your kid can build a game with a few words. This is like the “build your own computer kit” version of today’s vibe coding. Critics say it’s going to churn out a bunch of sloppy copycat games, but that’s the cost of creativity.  

Mount Pisgah mystery: Picture three dozen responders climbing a wooded Vermont mountain because an iPhone said an airplane crashed. On Monday, an alert hit Vermont’s 911 system, claiming a plane emergency with multiple people trapped on Mount Pisgah. Troopers, EMS, game wardens, drones and a National Guard helicopter searched. The phone’s owner called three hours later, saying the iPhone was in his backpack. He was in a dead zone the whole time. 

💔 Custody of the queue: A woman asked her divorce judge for three things: the car, the dog and her ex’s Netflix password. She meant it as a joke to lighten a heavy day. The judge wrote all three into the settlement, which makes her the first person we know of with court-ordered streaming. She got the last laugh and the last episode.

(Starts at 1:20) Love is finding a new home on LinkedIn. People are finding their soulmates there. Nothing says romance like someone with a job.

Listen on Komando.com →

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

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Want to show someone a Claude chat? Click Share at the top right to create a read-only link. They don’t need an account, and it works on the free version. Just know the link only shows the conversation up to that point. If you add more later, you’ll need to make a new one. More tips like this in my free Splash of AI newsletter every Thursday.

🎧 The only earbuds in my bag: I’ve tested dozens. These are the only ones that stay locked in on my runs, sound rich (not tinny) and have noise cancellation that actually works on a plane. Bonus: a fraction of what AirPods cost. I’d tell a friend. I’m telling you. Grab 20% off my top pick.* 

🔴 Lose the red dots: Those iPhone notification badges can feel stressful when every app looks like another thing you haven’t done. Go to Settings > Notifications, choose non-priority apps like Walmart and toggle off Badges. The app stays exactly where it is, but the little red guilt trip disappears. Much better.

You’re one search away: A public Instagram profile means strangers can find your posts without even opening the app. Google your name, and there you are. Open Settings and activity > Who can see your content > Account privacy, then toggle on Private account. Now people need your approval to see your photos, videos and follower list.

📰 Safari without the extras: If there’s a news site or blog you always switch to Reader mode, make Safari do it automatically. Visit the site, then on Mac, click Safari > Settings > Websites tab > Reader. Find the site you’re on, and change the drop-down from Off to On. One less button to click.

🎮 Peek behind the headset: Does your teen game online? Chances are Discord is part of the setup. Download the app, then go to Settings > Family Center > Connect with Teen. Have them open the same menu, show their QR code and scan it. You’ll see new friends, time spent on calls and servers they join.

Chinese EV company Voyah launched its 6,151-pound SUV off a giant ramp, because why not. 

The plug-in hybrid hit the ramp at 62 mph, flew 66 feet and let gravity do its thing with roughly 50,700 pounds of impact force. Engineers were testing the body, battery-cell geometry, suspension and how the whole land yacht behaves under maximum stress.

Result of the Dukes of Hazzard EV sequel? The suspension bottomed out, and interior trim went airborne, but the passenger cell held firm.

Watch it fly.

🎓 What you learned today: A password manager is only as strong as the master password guarding it, old home routers are spy bait for Russian hackers, Google wants your selfie to become a talking work avatar, Roblox is turning your kids’ prompts into playable mini games, and Voyah stress-tested an SUV by sending it airborne. Tomorrow, a Pixel phone, Google AI and a bunch of dolphin clicks could change how humans talk to animals forever. 

The answer: C) The Museum of Modern Art. Yep, MoMA acquired the complete original set in 2016 and put them on display, which means Kurita’s 12-by-12-pixel drawings sit in the same permanent collection as Picasso, Warhol and van Gogh. 

His original set had roughly five faces and four hand gestures. Today, there are thousands of emoji, complete with skin tones, professions and a startling amount of produce.

Your text messages have become fine art. Frame the group chat, hang it in the hallway, charge admission. Two art thieves pulled off a heist at MoMA. One turned to the other and said, "Grab the Monet and let's Gogh."

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 }}. FYI: This only changes if the people you refer actually click to sign up for this free newsletter.

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): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, LYWALT, @CarForLife. via YouTube

Companies and products denoted by an asterisk (*) within this publication are paid sponsors or advertisements. As an Amazon Associate, the publisher earns from qualifying purchases. Statements regarding products denoted by a double asterisk (**) have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration; such products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This newsletter is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, medical, or professional advice of any kind. Readers should consult with a qualified professional before making any decisions based on this content. The publisher disclaims all liability for any loss, damage, or injury resulting from the use of or reliance on the information contained herein.