In partnership with
📬 Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here. Tomorrow: AI is making new laptops a lot more expensive. I’ll show you free AI tools to diagnose your slow computer before you drop hundreds on an upgrade.
Welcome to your Thursday, {{first_name | friend}}. Somewhere above your morning coffee, GPS satellites are zooming around Earth with atomic clocks so precise they make your microwave look like an amateur.
One tiny problem? Time up there doesn’t behave like time down here. Thanks to speed and gravity, those satellite clocks tick a little differently. Engineers correct for it every day because “close enough” doesn’t work for navigation.
🗺️ What would happen to GPS if engineers ignored Einstein’s theory of relativity? A) Nothing, it’s just a theory, B) Your phone would lose signal every night, C) Your location would drift about 6 miles off every day or D) Your phone would route you to Narnia? Take your time, the answer is at the end.
⏰ Clocks change Nov. 1: That extra hour of sleep sounds great, right? Not so fast! The time change can throw off your body’s internal clock and leave you feeling groggy. That’s why I love melatonin-free, sugar-free ImproveLife Sleep. Save up to 30%, plus free shipping.** — Kim
TODAY’S DEEP DIVE
Tag, you’re it
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
🤯 WOW! Target paid $5 million after California prosecutors said its app showed lower prices before shoppers walked in and higher prices once they were inside the store. Digital shelf tags are going up across the country, and New York requires a warning label when your personal data sets the price. Your phone may be part of the checkout math.
The Short Version: Stores are getting new tools to change prices, and some states are cracking down. Here’s how to spot a personal price and make sure you pay what the shelf says. Steps below.
📖 Read time: 2 minutes
You and your neighbor walk into the same store, grab the same box of cereal and pay different prices.
Paranoid? Maybe not.
Paper shelf tags are going digital. Walmart has them in 2,300 U.S. stores and expects them chain-wide within the next year. Shoppers want to know: Is my price based on me?
Walmart says no. CEO John Furner says the company prices the product, not the person.
Fair enough. But here’s the backstory:
Target paid a $5 million settlement after California prosecutors said its app showed lower prices before shoppers walked in and higher prices once they were inside. Target said it didn’t personalize prices.
A Consumer Reports investigation found Instacart shoppers seeing different prices for the same items at the same store. Instacart says it ended those tests. My Instacart prices are a lot higher than my assistants, just saying.
At least 30 states considered pricing bills this year. Maryland, New Jersey and Connecticut limit the use of your personal data to set what you pay.
New York requires a warning label: “This price was set by an algorithm using your personal data.”
🕵️ How to catch a personal price
Compare logged in vs. logged out. Check the price in the store’s app while signed in. Then open a private browsing window and look again. Different number? Screenshot both.
Ask a friend to check. Same item, same store, different phone.
Watch the app at the door. Some apps know when you’re in the parking lot. Check the price before you leave home, then again inside.
Read the fine print on “member” deals. Loyalty programs trade you a discount for your data.
💰 Make sure you pay the shelf price
Snap a photo of the digital tag before it goes in your cart.
Check your receipt before you leave the lot, not when you get home. Scanner errors happen, and many stores fix them on the spot.
Use a free price tracker. CamelCamelCamel shows an Amazon item’s price history. In Chrome, look for the Track price option when you shop.
A higher price isn’t proof someone is profiling you. But your phone, your account and your loyalty card all leave clues. Comparing is free. Overpaying isn’t.
I always dreamed of spending money like a millionaire. I just never thought it would be on eggs, milk and bread.
🗣️ Text/post this stat: Target paid $5 million after prosecutors said its app showed higher prices once shoppers walked into the store. Check your price before you go. GetKim.com
📩 Send this to someone who does the weekly grocery run with the store app open.
Share this now:
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
🥱 Eight hours of sleep and still exhausted? Something’s gotta give.
You know what I can’t stand? Waking up groggy after a full night’s sleep. And with the clocks changing Nov. 1, your sleep schedule could be in for another surprise.
When daylight saving time ends, we gain an hour, but that shift can throw off your circadian rhythm, your body’s internal clock. Hello, restless nights!
That’s one reason I love ImproveLife Sleep.
No melatonin. No sugar. Just premium ingredients like magnesium glycinate, glycine and L-theanine to help you unwind and support deeper, more restorative sleep.**
One scoop before bed. It tastes great, too!
“I ordered the sleep powder for my wife, and it really works. No other over-the-counter sleep supplements could do it.” — Edwin
Don’t let the time change throw off your nights.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Individual results may vary.
📺 YOUTUBE: THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW
✈️ Phone calls at 35,000 feet?!
Imagine being trapped on a flight next to someone chatting on the phone for 40 minutes. One traveler called it a wonderful chance to catch up with his brother. We have some thoughts about whether in-flight voice calls should be allowed. What do you think?
▶️ Watch on YouTube →
WEB WATERCOOLER
🍔 Takeout takes measurements: Picture a robot rolling up with your groceries. You enter the code, grab the bags and later learn it may have mapped your face and hands. This happened, according to two guys in Chicago in separate class action lawsuits against Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics. They say robot delivery was assigned without their say-so and biometric data was collected without consent. The companies deny it. Imagine getting thrown in a database because you wanted tacos at 11 p.m.
📦 Seasonal work upgrades: Looking for an extra shift? Amazon’s hiring more than 300,000 people nationwide for part-time and full-time holiday work. Seasonal pay averages $20/hour, enough to help with groceries or utility bills. And get this. Beginning Jan. 1, eligible seasonal workers logging at least 30 hours get health care from day one. Plans start at $5 weekly with $5 copays. New roles will be posted weekly through December. Keep an eye out on amazon.com/localjobs or text NEWJOB to 31432 to sign up for local job alerts. Fake Amazon job texts that charge a ‘fee’ are everywhere this time of year. The real Amazon never charges you to work.
⚖️ Tesla takes stand: Most day care runs end with crackers crushed into the seats, but this guy drove home and ended up on his knees at gunpoint outside his garage in Winter Springs, Fla. Police said he fled a traffic stop. His Tesla’s rear camera showed the officer turning around far behind him, lights barely in the picture. A jury found the driver not guilty after nearly two years. The officer later resigned. Consumer cameras to the rescue.
🎗️ Sharper odds ahead: I read this and thought about the awful limbo after breast cancer treatment, when the outlook still doesn’t feel settled. Cleared by the FDA, TumorSight Risk uses your MRI, plus lab and clinical data, to estimate recurrence risk for the most common breast cancer type. In a 2,129-woman study, high-risk patients had more than triple the recurrence risk. That could shape treatment and monitoring. Insurance, naturally, is deciding whether certainty fits the budget. Ask your oncologist if your center offers the AI tool.
🧶 Merch drop: Have you tried turning it off and on again?
Every tech support call in history starts with that question. Now it’s on a hat.
My October merch drop is live, and the star is this beanie. It has a soft suede patch with tech support’s favorite question, it’s one size fits all, and it’s just $28. It’s warm on your head and gets a laugh from everyone who’s ever fixed a printer, router, computer, phone, well you get my drift.
Go matchy-matchy. Pair it with the crewneck for the coziest combo in the collection. Want the whole set? Add the tee and the jumbo tote.
🎁 Holidays are coming. Are you the family’s unpaid tech support? You’ve earned this. Know someone who is? That’s their gift, done.
⏰ Here’s the catch: This drop disappears Sunday night. When it’s gone, it’s gone.
It’s the only reboot your wardrobe needs. It’s a great gift, too!
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: If you can’t speak during an emergency, many areas let you text 911. Send your address first, say whether you need police, fire or medical help, then explain what’s happening. Check text911.info now to see if it’s supported where you live. It only takes a moment. Share this with the people you care about. Call if you can, text if you can’t.
👥 Clean up those duplicate contacts: On iPhone, open Contacts and look for View Duplicates at the top. Review each match and tap Merge, or choose Merge All. It combines numbers, emails and other details without losing them. On Android, try Contacts > Settings > Merge duplicate contacts. Mom only needs one entry. She’ll still call as often.
🔒 Stop guessing your own passwords: How many times have you tried three different logins, only to get locked out? Total waste of time. I use NordPass to create strong passwords and autofill them instantly. I remember one master password. It handles the rest. Right now, save 55%. Just $1.34/month.*
🛠️ Tell Safari what you want: On iPadOS 27 with Apple Intelligence, you can create extensions using plain English. Tap the Page Menu button to the left of the address bar > Describe Extension and type “Set the minimum font size to 14pt.” Safari checks for existing options first. If none suits you, tap Create to build your own. Website text will stay at least that size. Look at you coding.
💬 Asking for a friend, obviously: To comment anonymously in Facebook groups, tap the post’s comment icon, then your profile picture’s arrow and enable Comment on this post as an anonymous member. Your name and photo stay hidden. To post a question under a nickname, create one through your profile picture. FYI, admins must have these features turned on.
⌨️ Oops. There’s a shortcut for that: In Windows, Ctrl + Z undoes your last action, and Ctrl + Y redoes it. Ctrl + A selects everything, while Ctrl + F finds a word. Hold Alt and tap Tab to cycle through apps. Win + D hides every window and shows your desktop. Press again to bring them back. All that clicking suddenly feels unnecessary.
📬 Gmail remembers, even if you don’t: While signed into Google, join Workspace Experiments for free. Open Gmail on desktop, click the Gemini icon at the top right and ask, “When was my last dentist appointment?” It finds answers in your emails. You also get Help me write for drafting emails and Suggested replies. And yes, it’s probably been six months already. 😉
KIM’S DAILY DEALS
As an Amazon Associate, some links pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Keeps this newsletter free. Thank you.
🚗 Auto-matic upgrades for your ride
Fewer breakdowns, smoother drives.
🛞 Don't go flat: Tire pressure gauge (53% off, $7)
4.6 ⭐ 9,600+ reviews
Soft tires eat gas and wear out faster. A digital gauge gives you a reading in seconds, up to 200 PSI. It runs on replaceable AAA batteries, and the backlit screen helps for nighttime checks.
Image: ETENWOLF
🔋 Test before you’re stranded: Clip on this car battery tester (20% off, $37) to see if your battery, alternator and starter are on their last legs.
Old car, new tricks: Nulaxy’s Bluetooth adapter (10% off, $20) sends music and hands-free calls through your stereo. Fast-charges two phones at once.
🔐 Steer clear, thieves: An adjustable steering wheel lock (28% off, $33) makes crooks think twice. Sometimes low-tech is the best tech.
Blind-spot buster: This rearview mirror extender (25% off, $9) gives you a wider view of traffic. Anti-glare tint tames headlights at night.
🔑 Keys to savings: Shop all my car picks before your next road trip. →
Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication.
WHAT THE TECH?
Image: ChatGPT
📦 Prime babies
Have you seen this image above? It is all over social.
Jeff Bezos can deliver just about anything overnight. The internet thinks that includes two babies nobody knew existed.
A bogus family tree claims Bezos and Lauren Sánchez welcomed twins in 2024, including a daughter named Ella. Slight problem? They have no children together. It’s pure social media misinformation pumped out by AI.
It’s like that aunt who got drunk at a baby shower and started making things up. Even Bezos can’t return these kids because they were never delivered.
What do you call twins made by AI? Fake-ternal.
LOGGING OUT …
🎓 What you learned today: Stores may show different shoppers different prices, delivery robots are facing privacy lawsuits, Tesla camera footage helped clear a driver, and AI-generated family trees invent children who don’t exist. Not bad for one email. The AI chip crunch is making new laptops pricier. Tomorrow, I’ll explain why and how to use AI as free tech support before spending big.
📡 The answer: C) Your location would drift about 6 miles off every day. GPS satellite clocks run about 38 millionths of a second fast per day, just as Einstein’s theories predicted.
That sounds like small potatoes, but GPS figures out where you are by measuring how long signals take to travel at the speed of light. So even a microscopic clock mismatch turns into a giant navigation mess fast.
That tiny slip adds up to roughly 6 miles of error every single day. So engineers set the satellite clocks before launch to tick slightly slow. Every time your map gets you home, you can thank Einstein.
A student burst into Einstein’s office and said he finally understood relativity. Einstein said, “It’s about time.”
😴 Don’t let the time change ruin your sleep: Nov. 1 is coming, and your circadian rhythm might not love it. I use ImproveLife Sleep to help my mind unwind and support deeper, more restorative sleep. No melatonin, no sugar, just a refreshing nighttime routine. Save up to 30%, plus free shipping.**
💛 The store knows more about you than it should. Now you know more than it expected. Use it. — Kim
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.
Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, ETENWOLF
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.