🚘👀 Your car insurance is spying on you

It’s Saturday, {{first_name | friend}}. You know those unsung hero gadgets around the house, the ones we totally take for granted but would fall apart without? Surprise! Some of our everyday must-haves were born not in a Home Depot aisle but in zero gravity.

💪🏻 Your body runs on collagen, so give it the best stuff. NativePath Collagen is clean, pure and backed by science. Just two scoops a day, and I feel the difference. Right now, get 45% off, free shipping and a free frother. Oh, they’re throwing in a free sample of Collagen PM, too. That’s a win for your body and your wallet! — Kim

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You’ve probably seen this pitch from your insurance company: “Drive safely and save. Sign up for our smart driving program today!”

You’ve got a squeaky-clean record, so what’s the harm, right? Before you sign up, let’s pop the hood.

These programs use an app on your phone or a gadget in your car to monitor how you drive. It tracks:

That data gets mixed with your age, ZIP code and driving history to build a score. If your score’s high enough, you might get 10% to 30% off your premium. Sounds good, but there’s more to it.

State Farm dings you if you go just 8 mph over the limit, even to avoid an accident. GEICO and Allstate frown on nighttime driving. That’s fine if you’re in bed by 9, but not if your kid’s practice wraps up after dark or you work the late shift.

You can bet every insurer, including Progressive, Travelers and, yes, State Farm, tracks phone activity. That means if your screen lights up in your pocket, you’re “distracted.”

Use Do Not Disturb While Driving mode and stash your phone in a compartment or mount. Even pocket motion can trigger a flag.

Here’s where it gets sketchy. Some insurers raise your rates if they think you’re risky, even if you never file a claim. And they’re not always transparent about how long they keep or share your data.

GM got slapped by the FTC this year for selling driver location and behavior data. And Texas sued Allstate, claiming they bought tracking data from mobile apps without people knowing. Yikes.

🚘 A car insurance company is offering a cheaper deal to anyone who promises not to park at a fish restaurant. They call it their “No Clams Bonus.” 

Spread the word. Use the sharing icons below!

🌲 Branches & Big Brother: Imagine getting an email saying your insurance policy is getting canceled because a drone you never saw took pics of your tree branches. That’s what happened to one Massachusetts woman. The company forced her to pay $1,200 to stay covered. Insurers are buying aerial shots, and lawmakers want limits before your roof becomes drone content. 

Meta’s new smart glasses come in two flavors: Oakley Meta ($449) for sporty types with 3K video, 12MP photos, eight-hour battery and rugged, polarized lens options. Or go sleek with Ray‑Ban Display ($799) for AR in your lens, hands-free texting, calling and navigation. So if you see anyone wearing these, you’re probably being recorded. 

🔐 My pick for home security: Most security systems respond only after a break-in has started, and that’s too late. SimpliSafe is different. It’s proactive, not reactive. Get 50% off your new security system today!* 

🔮 Law of clicks and cracks: YouTubers are racking up millions of views claiming mainstream physics is hiding the “real truth” about the universe. It’s entertaining, dramatic and wrapped in just enough jargon to sound credible. Be careful what you buy into online. Just because someone talks fast, adds big graphics and throws in Einstein’s name, it doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about. 

LimeWire catches Fyre: Remember LimeWire? It just bought the rights to Fyre Festival off eBay for $245,000. Yes, the scammy music fest from 2017 now belongs to the NFT-peddling reboot of a file-sharing app. The plan: mash up nostalgia, NFTs and a rebooted Fyre Fest, really. 

🧬 Pill against aging: Get this, Retro Biosciences, a startup with $180M from Sam Altman, is testing a pill that could fight Alzheimer’s by reviving your body’s recycling system. The first human gets it this year. If it works, they’re thinking 10 more good years tacked onto life. 

💔 Swindler swiped: Shimon Hayut, infamous as the “Tinder Swindler,” is back in jail. The con man from Netflix’s 2022 doc, was arrested in Georgia after allegedly scamming a Berlin woman out of $52K. Netflix might want to go ahead and greenlight Season 2.

My old AirPods are jealous. Noise cancellation is twice as good. Plus, they even translate conversations in real time. Battery: Up to 24 hours.

⌚ Apple’s new smartwatches:

👉 All three below support Hypertension Notifications. They’ll warn you if your data over 30 days suggests high blood pressure.

Apple Watch Ultra 3 ($799): Ideal for adventures. The tough titanium case can take a beating, and the new satellite SOS lets you call for help off the grid. Battery: Up to 42 hours (72 hours in low power mode).

Apple Watch Series 11 ($429): Same classic style, now with 5G and better sleep tracking. Battery: Up to 24 hours (38 hours in low power mode).

Apple Watch SE 3 ($329): Looking for a budget watch? This one finally has an always-on display. Battery: Up to 18 hours (32 hours in low power mode).

🤖 More bytes, more gadgets: Click here for my picks of the best Android smartwatches and latest Apple accessories.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: If your computer isn’t recognizing a USB drive, try another port. Still stuck? Restart your PC with the drive plugged in. That forces a clean reload and makes it show up.

Cellphone bill too high? Mine was. I switched to Consumer Cellular. Same nationwide coverage, half the price. Two lines for just $60, plus save $25 with code KIM25. AARP discounts, too. Check it out now. You’ll be glad you did.*

🌎 Map versus reality: Ever wondered how big a country really is? The True Size Of is a free tool that lets you drag and drop places side by side. Type the name of a country or state, move it where you want, and search another. Use the compass in the bottom left to rotate and your mouse wheel to zoom. Cool.

🔒 Lock your Kindle library: Make sure no one snoops on your books. On the Home screen, tap the three-dot menu (top right) > Settings > Device Options > Device Passcode. Enter a code, confirm it and hit OK. Done.

🌙 Dim your Android screen: At the lowest brightness, your phone can still feel blinding at night. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Vision enhancements > Extra dim and turn on Extra dim shortcut. Press Side + Volume buttons together to darken the screen, then press again to brighten it back up. Don’t see it? Check Quick Settings.

📺 Use Roku Guest Mode: Got friends or family using your TV? Let them sign in with their own apps, so they don’t mess up your recommendations. Go to Settings > Guest Mode > Enter Guest Mode, type your Roku PIN and hit OK. When they leave, exit Guest Mode to get back to normal. Perfect for Airbnbs, too.

✅ Back it up, or risk losing it. Total Drive automatically backs up your precious memories, family photos, graduation videos and all your important documents. Get 10TB for just $18 with this limited time offer.*

📱 iOS 26: Screenshots work differently now. First, go to Settings > General > Screen Capture and toggle on Full-Screen Previews. When you take a screenshot with Side + Volume Up, you enter full-screen edit mode. Crop the image, use the markup tool at the top to draw or write, then tap the Tick button to Save.

⌚ watchOS 26: New automatic speaker adjustment raises or lowers Siri and call volume based on the ambient noise around you. To check Silent Mode, open the Control Center and tap the bell icon.

🖥️ macOS 26: Spotlight search got an upgrade. Open it with Command + Space bar, and when you move your cursor into the search field, you’ll see four new tabs on the right: Apps, Files, Actions and Clipboard. Use Files to find documents with natural language, Actions to run shortcuts, and Clipboard to see everything you’ve recently copied.

🍏 iPadOS 26: The Files app has a new list view with columns that you can drag to resize or rearrange. Long-press a folder to customize it with colors, tags, icons or emojis. And if there’s a file or folder you open all the time, drag it straight into your dock.

🤖 Tech news is the news. For that reason, I load the show with stories that matter, warnings you can’t ignore and tools that make life better. You really can’t afford to miss it.

On this week’s show: When an AI company offered to create an avatar of my mom, I didn’t know what to think. They said they could use my photos, videos and recordings to bring her back. Thousands of you weighed in. 🎧 I’ll tell you the choice I made.

💔 Caller Brian in Syracuse, New York, needs your help. He wants to name his pond on Google Maps after his niece, who died in a car accident. The only way it happens is if enough of us suggest the change. Open the link, type in Natalie’s Pond as the name and Fishing Pond as the category, then submit.

💬 Got a crazy tech story? I want to talk to you. Make an appointment to speak with me, and you could be featured on the show. Book your spot with Kim.

Listen anywhere you get your podcasts!

After seven years of tinkering, delays and skeptics calling it a scam, Jetson finally delivered its first Jetson One eVTOL, and of course, it went to Palmer Luckey, the Oculus founder-turned-defense mogul. 

The billionaire hopped in, trained for less than an hour and called flying it “cake.” The single-seat electric craft tops out at 63 mph with an 11-mile range, no license required. Check it out in flight! 

Only 100 “Founder’s Editions” exist, each with carbon trim, racing LEDs and bragging rights baked in. 

Basically, your rich neighbor just unlocked cheat codes for traffic.

🧹 Drumroll, space fans ... the answer is: A. Dustbuster! Yep, the humble handheld vacuum got its start thanks to NASA needing a cordless drill for moon missions. Black & Decker developed the tech, then said, “Wait, what if this also sucked up Cheerios?”

Fun fact: More than 2,000 products and technologies have their roots in NASA innovations, like memory foam, scratch-resistant lenses and even freeze-dried fruit. They didn’t even planet. (lol)

💡 Before you go, stay strong, stay active, stay you. As we get older, less collagen means stiffer joints, weaker muscles and skin that’s lost bounce. Two scoops of NativePath Collagen a day can help keep you moving, active and feeling like yourself. Right now, you can get 45% off, plus free shipping and a free frother. It’s a small habit that pays off every single day.

You’re reading the #1 tech newsletter in the USA. Tomorrow, I’m helping you lighten the load of emotional over-functioning (politely, of course) with GPT. 

✌️ That’s your update. Make it count. — Kim

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Photo credit(s): ChatGPT, Apple, Jetson

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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.

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