🚨 Schools spy on kids even at home

It’s Wednesday, {{first_name | friend}}. Once upon a time in 2007, Apple dropped the very first iPhone and accidentally launched a decade-long saga of embarrassing autocorrections. It’s almost poetic: You’re trying to type something heartfelt (or maybe spicy), and suddenly your phone decides it knows better. 

📱 Guess the very first word Apple’s iPhone ever autocorrected: A) Mop, B) Ducking, C) On my goat, or D) Horny. Think you know it? The iTruth is waiting for you at the end! 

😊 Feeling more tired than you used to? Starting in your 30s, your cells slow down. Mitopure® by Timeline helps recharge your cellular energy. It’s clinically proven to boost strength and vitality. Take 30% off your first month. — Kim

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School is back in session, but here’s something no one told you at orientation: Your kids may have more eyes on them than just their teachers’. Even if you don’t have kids in school, you really need to know about this.

A new study from UC San Diego uncovered what’s really going on with those student safety tools schools buy. You know, the ones that are supposed to stop bullying, flag mental health struggles and prevent school shootings? Well, they’ve morphed into 24/7 surveillance machines.

Get this: 86% of the companies that provide these services monitor kids day and night, not just during school hours and not just on school devices. That’s every Google search, every message, sometimes even at home on personal phones and laptops.

Nearly a third of these companies give kids “risk scores” based on what they type or search. The kicker? 71% rely on AI to flag behavior. Yes, an algorithm decides if your child is “risky.” 

Imagine your kid writing out a text they never send and that draft gets scooped into some company’s database. Creepy doesn’t even begin to cover it.

About 36% of companies monitor student-owned devices. All it takes is a school-required app, plug-in or software. 

Late-night YouTube binges, private DMs and social media posts could trigger a red flag on some dashboard.

I think these tools can do a lot of good. God knows we don’t want any more school shootings or kids slipping through the cracks. 

But you and your kids need to understand exactly how they work and what happens to the data. Copy these questions and send an email to the school’s administrator or set up a meeting in person.

Make sure your kids know that anything they do on a school-issued device is fair game. And depending on the setup, their personal phone or laptop could be tracked, too. These systems can protect, but they also raise big questions about privacy and oversight.

Is this happening with your kid’s school? Drop me a note. I’d love to talk to you about it.

🚸 Know someone with kids? Share this important information using the handy icons below.

George, your AI copilot, breaks down why car companies are pulling features like GPS and remote start. Plus: AI pregnancy bots, smart mirror warnings, TikTok’s dad trend and quick tech hacks!

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🇺🇸 Chip in: The Trump team is weighing a plan to grab about a 10% stake in Intel by flipping CHIPS Act funds into shares. The goal: boost U.S. chipmaking and lean less on foreign suppliers, since Intel’s been lagging way behind. Markets did a double take, shares dipped on the news, then bounced after SoftBank swooped in with $2B.

Hurl of fame: As everyone becomes a passenger in autonomous vehicles, motion sickness is the next billion-dollar problem. From predictive buzz seats to cars that gently tilt your body during turns, engineers are working overtime (paywall link) to keep your breakfast down while your car drives itself. The goal? Making you queasy-free before 2030. 

📱 Google unpacks Pixel 10: Today, Google unveils the Pixel 10 lineup, including Pro, Pro XL and foldable Pro Fold, plus the Pixel Watch 4 and new Pixel Buds 2A. Phones drop Aug. 28, then the Fold, Watch and Buds arrive in October, just in time for holiday shopping. On Sept. 9 (just my guess, they haven’t announced the date yet), Apple will roll out their newest and greatest.

Baby got bot: Taking cues from the 2019 I Am Mother movie, China’s building a humanoid with a synthetic womb that can carry a fetus from start to finish. Price tag? Just $14K, way cheaper than a human surrogate. Get this: The inventor, Dr. Zhang Qifeng, says they’re aiming for a working prototype within a year. Frightening.

📚 Words, but dumber: The Cambridge Dictionary just added “skibidi,” “delulu” and “tradwife” to its official listings, because apparently we needed receipts that the internet broke language. Other new gems include “mouse jiggler,” “broligarchy” and “work spouse.” Your English teacher is somewhere in a corner, sobbing into a thesaurus.

🪞 Got a smart mirror? I do, and this really doesn’t shock me, but it might you. That mirror might not just be giving you the latest cable news and weather. Turns out it’s probably logging your voice, analyzing your face and selling your data. If yours has a mic or camera, congrats! You might’ve installed a surveillance device over your sink. I’m actually glad the mirror’s watching, someone should see all this emotional growth.

Cold wash or dry clean only? Your iPhone can decode every tag, so you never ruin another pair of pants. Here’s how to hack your laundry basket.

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⚡️ 3-second tech genius: On Windows, press Ctrl + L to highlight your browser’s address bar. On Mac, it’s Command + L. Perfect for switching to a new site quickly.

Got videos eating up space on your PC? HandBrake is a free tool that shrinks them down. Drag and drop your video into the app, choose a Save location, pick a Preset like Very Fast 1080p30, and click Start Encode. FYI: Quality may drop depending on the Preset, so keep testing until you find your sweet spot. This tip alone is worth the price of this newsletter.

📚 Connect headphones to your Kindle: You can listen to audiobooks straight from your Kindle with Bluetooth headphones. Go to Settings > Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and toggle on Bluetooth. Now tap Bluetooth devices, put your headphones in pairing mode and select them from the list. Not showing up? Hit Rescan.

Trim silence in YouTube Music: Yep, that cool feature from Google Podcasts is now in YouTube Music. It automatically skips over silent or dead-air parts in podcasts, making episodes shorter. To use it: Open the YouTube Music app, start a podcast, tap the playback speed option, and toggle on Trim silence.

🎊 Hey, Swifties: If you search “Taylor Swift” on Google, you’ll get a confetti shower and a flaming heart that says, “And, baby, that’s show business for you.” A number counter pops up (already in the millions), and if you click it, more confetti drops. Why the celebration? Taylor announced her 12th album. 

$27 million
That’s how much Mark Zuckerberg’s security cost in 2024. Meta’s annual “keep Zuck safe” budget is more than Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, Microsoft and Alphabet spent combined protecting their own CEOs. It’s not paranoid if everyone is actually always mad at you, right? 

27
That’s how many “immersive” movies exist for Apple’s $3,499 Vision Pro. How awful. Turns out filming in 3D isn’t cheap (paywall link). Until Apple figures out how to mass-produce this stuff, you’re basically buying a 4K souvenir from the future. Wait until 2027 for the cheaper model and more movies.

43 years old
How old the compact disc (CD) just turned. The first commercial one was made in August 1982 for ABBA’s album The Visitors. I had one and lost it. Where did the disco? 💿 

Health insurance sold separately

If you’ve ever said, “I just want a little car I can zip around in like a maniac,” your dreams have arrived.

Meet the Nine64 Turbo Junior, an adult-size electric Porsche 964 replica by Lil Zoomers (yes, really). 

This grown-up toy is 7.2 feet long, 3.6 feet wide, supports up to 650 pounds of human, and squeezes 4,000 watts of pure “questionable decisions” energy into a go-kart. It comes in two models: 45 mph or 65 mph. 

🏁 Spoiler alert: At $11,000, therapy would be cheaper.

Answer: B) Ducking. Ah yes, the infamous autocorrect choice that still frustrates users today trying to type, well, you know. For the record, “ducking” was so persistent that Apple added a profanity override feature 16 years later. That’s a long time to be misunderstood by your own phone.

Speaking of… The inventor of autocorrect died. The funnel will be held tomato. (lol)

Before you go: Feeling tired and weak isn’t just part of getting older. Mitopure® by Timeline helps your cells produce more energy, so you feel stronger, more alert, and ready to take on the day. Get 30% off your first month today.

This is the #1 tech newsletter in the United States. Tomorrow, I’m talking earbuds that make you fluent, noise-cancel your inner monologue and let you insult someone elegantly in eight languages.

✌️ That’s your daily boost. Use it to make something great happen that brings a smile to your face. 🤩 — Kim

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Photo credit(s): Midjourney, Lil Zoomers

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