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Let’s get our Monday started, {{first_name | friend}}. NASA put rovers on Mars, parked people on the moon and still spent taxpayer money studying the ancient productivity hack perfected by toddlers, cats and dads "watching the game." (Eyes closed. Somehow still knows the score.)
Here's the backstory. In the 1990s, NASA studied long-haul pilots flying brutal overnight routes. Because when your office is a cockpit 35,000 feet over the Pacific, "a little sleepy" isn't a mood. It's an emergency.
✈️ So what did NASA discover supercharges pilot performance and alertness? A) Coffee every two hours, B) A 26-minute nap, C) Bright blue cockpit lighting or D) High-protein snacks. Lock in your answer. The truth is waiting at the end, and no, you can't sleep on it.
🛡️ That email might be a trap: AI-powered phishing scams are targeting you and the kids, and they never hesitate. One wrong click infects every device in the house. My family runs Webroot Essentials. It blocks dangerous sites and covers every device. Plans start at $19 a year. Get my deal: 62% off.* — Kim
TODAY’S DEEP DIVE
Meet Rosie
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
🤯 WOW! The hot new “AI” home robots have a secret ingredient: a person. The WSJ caught the $20,000 NEO being driven by a human in a VR headset. San Francisco’s $30-an-hour robot maid has an operator watching every visit, and the contract hands the company your home footage forever, even after you cancel.
📖 Read time: 2 minutes
I want Rosie from The Jetsons. I really do. I bet you do, too.
Don’t buy the hype about the hottest gadget of 2026, the robot butler. It folds laundry, loads the dishwasher, tidies the toys. But the “artificial intelligence” doing your chores is a guy in an office in the US or overseas somewhere, wearing a VR headset, watching your kitchen through the robot’s eyes.
That’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s in the fine print.
🕹️ Pay no attention to the man inside the robot
The $20,000 NEO home robot from 1X (or $499 a month for a subscription). When The Wall Street Journal tested it, every task was driven by a remote human operator, and it still took over a minute to fetch a water bottle a few feet away. Putting three dishes into the dishwasher took five minutes.
Isaac 1, the $8,000 laundry-folding robot from Weave. “Autonomous,” until it gets stuck. Then a remote operator quietly takes over.
Tau’s $30-an-hour robot maid in San Francisco, where a remote operator watches every single appointment.
Why? These robots learn by having humans drive them. Your chores are the training data. You’re not buying a butler. You’re paying to host a film crew.
The fine print admits it.
Tau’s contract grants the company a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to footage recorded in your home, and it survives after you cancel. Faces in stored footage aren’t blurred. And footage already used to train the AI? The company admits it can’t pull it back out.
🔒 Here VR
Ask who’s driving, and when. The good companies let you schedule operator sessions in an app and show a light when a human takes the wheel (NEO’s head glows). No schedule, no light, no sale. FYI, that indicator can be turned off.
Hunt the words “perpetual license.” Search the terms for “perpetual,” “worldwide” and “royalty-free” near “footage” or “recordings.” That’s legalese for: your living room, forever, free, going who knows where.
Demand no-go zones. Bedrooms, bathrooms, anywhere kids sleep. If it can’t block off rooms, it doesn’t belong in your house.
Someday the robots will drive themselves and the humans will fade out of the loop. Until then, assume the butler brought a plus-one. So go ahead and wave at the robot, friend. Somebody might just wave back.
🎯 Send this to someone who dreams of an in-home robot. Share this now using the handy links below.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Back to school means back online
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The backpack’s packed. Now lock down the laptop. You can’t stop your kids from clicking every link, but Webroot can help protect their devices when they do. Webroot Essentials plans start at just $19 a year, and my readers save 62%.
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📺 YOUTUBE: THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW
Watch now or bookmark for later
(Starts at 42:27) You’re at the gate. On time. Boarding pass ready. And your seat is already gone. The reason? AI. It guessed you’d miss your flight, gave the seat away and rebooked you. There’s a magic phrase that can get you $2,150 back.
Watch now before everyone else is talking about it. 👇
Or for audio only, click your favorite podcast player below:
WEB WATERCOOLER
🚕 Tips leave town: Living in Nevada or visiting soon? Your next taxi could show up with nobody driving and nowhere to leave a tip. Tesla, Uber and Waymo have regulatory approval to run thousands of robotaxis statewide, making this one of the largest tests of driverless travel. That could mean cheaper short rides for passengers and a sudden pay cut for people who drive for a living. The current experiment? Airport runs, groceries, children and whatever happens after midnight. Good luck, passenger.
📱 Checkout joins civilization: Walmart finally decided your iPhone and Google Pay are good enough for the checkout line. Starting Monday, select Walmart and Sam’s Club stores will add Tap to Pay, with every store expected aboard by year’s end and fuel stations by mid-2027. Apple Pay works at 85% of U.S. retailers, so the resistance was getting ridiculous. For millions of shoppers, the change means fewer frozen register moments and one less weekly obstacle between your milk and cereal being in your stomach.
🔥 Yesterday was better. Today still works: The best time to start supporting your wellness goals was yesterday. The second-best time is today. I take GLP-1 Support every day because it helps support my body’s natural GLP-1 response, so I feel satisfied longer and make healthier food choices.** It’s stimulant-free, made in the USA with premium, clinically studied ingredients and simple enough to stick with. Start today and get up to 50% off, plus free shipping and a gift.
Bend it like Cupertino: Early testers tell Bloomberg's Mark Gurman the "iPhone Ultra" opens from a 5.5-inch phone into a 7.8-inch mini iPad, with a barely-there crease and Touch ID instead of Face ID. The catch: no telephoto zoom on a phone starting around $2,000. My advice: never buy version one. I will but it comes with the job. Drops on Sept. 9th.
🌊 Motherboard overboard: It’s interesting to see how other parts of world are dealing with data centers. The city of Ulsan in South Korea is dropping a $37 million data center into the ocean, using cold seawater to cool AI servers instead of the electricity-guzzling chillers land-based centers burn through. Microsoft tried this years ago and found underwater servers actually failed less often, because there are no humans down there bumping into things. If it works, expect more. The cloud is officially becoming the sea.
HURRY! TIME IS RUNNING OUT
🎁 My first-ever merch drop is here
The high-quality hoodie says Do Not Disturb, Buffering (the most relatable status since "Away").
The soft stretchy tee confesses I Have Read The Terms & Conditions (I Have Not). Finally, a shirt that tells the truth.
The awesome mug promises No Data Leaks Here, which is more than I can say for most apps on your phone.
And the super cool hat? No punch line. Just KK. For the days you want everyone to know exactly whose team you're on.
One week only. When it's gone Saturday, it's gone for good. No restocks. No reprints. No "notify me when it's back" button, because there is no back. Grab one for yourself, or for that person in your life who clicks "I agree" faster than they read a stop sign.
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Sending someone a long article? Don't make them hunt. Highlight the exact sentence, right-click it and pick Copy link to highlight. Paste that into a text or email, and when they open it in Chrome, it jumps straight to that line, already highlighted. No more "scroll down … nope, a little more." Congratulations, you're now everyone's favorite.
Windows 11 24H2 is losing support: If you're on the Home or Pro version, the clock runs out Oct. 13. After that, no more security patches, and hackers keep a calendar. Go to Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates and move up to 25H2. It should install automatically, but make sure updates aren't paused. Better safe than hacked. 💀
📺 Freeze frame, fixed: YouTube keeps freezing on your TV? Nine times out of 10, the app needs an update. Open your TV's app hub, then look under Profile or Settings > App updates > Update all. Flip on Auto-update apps while you're in there, and this fixes itself forever. The wording changes by brand. Your remote forgives you for blaming the batteries.
Your camera roll has a search engine: Stop scroll-scroll-scrolling for that one photo from who-knows-when. On iPhone, open Photos, tap Search and type what's in the picture: "dog," "beach," "receipt," "license plate." On Android, it's Google Photos > Search, same trick. Both even read the text inside your photos, so typing "Wi-Fi" finds that router sticker you snapped two years ago. 12,000 photos, one search bar, zero scrolling. Turns out the needle could find itself all along.
Be on the show! Got a wild tech story you’re telling all your friends about? Send it my way here. I read every single one. Really.
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.
🧼 Mess with the best
Put five chores in easy mode.
⚡ Electric elbow grease: Spin scrubber (20% off, $40)
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Scrubbing grime the hard way? Let the motor do the sweating. It powers through tubs, tile, glass and more. Pick a brush head, stretch the handle for floors or walls, then go up to 90 minutes per charge.
Image: TUYU
🫧 Time to shine: This mop & bucket set (11% off, $32) has a built-in wringer and long handle to save you from bending over. Bonus: four reusable pads.
Waste wizard: Wave your hand, and an automatic trash can (36% off, $24) pops open, then closes to help trap smells. Perfect for tight corners.
🐶 Fur-get the mess: Active’s pet odor & stain eliminator (23% off, $22) tackles accidents on lots of surfaces and leaves a fresh citrus scent.
Drumroll, please: Washer smelling funky? These cleaner tablets (19% off, $21) break down gunk hiding in the drum, pump, valves and hoses.
📦 Restock your shelves: Grab the essentials you always reach for while you’re here. →
Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication.
WHAT THE TECH?
Image: @Breaking911 via X
🦾 Crash course
Nothing says the “future of robotics” like needing a giant mattress at the end of the track.
During training for Beijing’s World Humanoid Robot Games, one humanoid got a little too confident, sprinted straight into the safety cushion and folded at the waist while sparks shot out like a malfunctioning arcade cabinet.
The competition packs 666 teams into 51 events, including running, soccer and boxing. If Skynet looks like toddlers discovering the coffee table, I like our odds.
LOGGING OUT …
🎤 Miss the show this past weekend? I got you. A Florida cop ran his ex-wife's plate 717 times, and Flock's own CEO admitted his cameras get abused. Plus, Amazon caught shredding rare books to feed AI, a $4.3 million fake FBI call, and a listener who went elbow-deep into an airplane toilet to rescue her phone. (She got it back. Her dignity is still in seat 23C.)
🎓 What you learned today: Nevada is testing ground for one of the biggest robotaxi runs, Walmart and Sam’s customers join the tapping tide, you can highlight the good parts and unfreeze YouTube. Some routers can sense movement, learn your routines and even tell when nobody’s home. Tomorrow, I’ll explain how it works, who’s using it and the setting you should check.
The answer: B) A 26-minute nap. NASA’s study of long-haul pilots found a short in-flight nap lifted performance by 34% and alertness by 54%.
The length is the magic. Sleep scientists say 20 to 30 minutes keeps you in light sleep. Go much longer, and you sink into deep sleep, then wake up feeling like you got hit by a bus. (That fog has a name: sleep inertia.)
How to nap like NASA:
Set an alarm for 25-30 minutes. Not 45. Not “just until I wake up.”
Time it for the early afternoon slump, usually 1 to 3 p.m. Late-day naps steal from your night sleep.
Can’t fall asleep? Doesn’t matter. Lying still with your eyes closed still gives your brain a partial recharge.
Pro move: Drink a coffee right before. Caffeine kicks in at about the 25-minute mark, right when your alarm goes off. It’s called a “nappuccino.” (Seriously, that’s the real name.)
One for the road. Where does a spy sleep? Under covers.
🛡️ That new laptop is missing one thing: Cybercriminals are cranking out AI-powered scams that look exactly like school emails. Kids click without thinking. One wrong move, and every device in your house is compromised. Webroot Essentials blocks dangerous sites before anyone clicks and covers every device under one subscription. Get 62% off at Webroot.com/kim.*
You learned a lot today. You’ve earned a refresher nap this afternoon. That’s a win. — 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, TUYU, @Breaking911 via X
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.