💔 When will people wake up? A 63-year-old woman was ready to leave her husband for a scammer pretending to be Enrique Iglesias. Over two years, he talked her out of thousands of dollars. When her cash dried up, he told her to steal it. Hubby traced the messages to Nigeria and begged her to stop. She even went on TV and still swears it’s Iglesias. So sad.
Turn on this phone setting before it’s too late
ChatGPT
Oh, that familiar quick pat of the pockets and the spike of panic when you realize your phone is no longer on your person. Maybe it’s in the car. Maybe you left it at the coffee shop. You open Find My Phone.
It’s too late, you might as well be looking for a TI-84 calculator. If your phone isn’t prepped ahead of time, you might never get it back.
Let’s break it down, whether you’re on Team iPhone or Android.
🍎 iPhone: “Find My” can’t work on vibes alone
Apple’s Find My iPhone is your digital bloodhound, but it needs to be activated before disaster strikes.
Here’s how to turn it on:
- Go to Settings, Tap your name and then Find My.
- Toggle on three things: Find My iPhone, Find My Network and Send Last Location. This one sends your last location when the battery’s about to die.
Next, do this:
- Set a 6-digit passcode and toggle on Face ID or Touch ID.
- Go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode > toggle on Erase Data.
🧨 You can remotely erase your iPhone by visiting iCloud.com/find, selecting your device and choosing “Erase iPhone.”
🤖 Android: Where’s my phone
Unless you set up Find My Device before it disappeared, you’re basically shaking your couch cushions and praying.
Get paid to stand in line for someone else
ChatGPT
When I saw this, my first thought was, “That’s strange.” But I hate standing in lines. And what if you physically can’t do it but need to?
Then yesterday, I read a story in the WSJ (paywalled) about what a nightmare DMVs are right now with everyone scrambling to get a new ID. Starting May 7, you need a REAL ID to travel. The lines are wrapped around the buildings by people who need it. (I’m one of them!)
Unlock the Disney+ vault: Just type these secret codes into the search bar. If you’re in the mood for a Marvel trailer, enter 78654. Looking for a good laugh? Try 79008 for some hilarious Star Wars bloopers.
🎬 Put “cut” in shortcut: Need to record your screen? On a Mac, press Shift + Cmd + 5. You can grab your entire screen or select just a part of it to leave something out. For Windows 11, hit the Windows logo key + Shift + R to open the Snipping Tool and start recording.
Create separate Netflix profiles: Netflix recommends content based on what you watch, so don’t let kids’ cartoons or your partner’s thrillers mess with your rom-com queue. Go to Manage Profiles > Add Profile > Name it > Continue > Save. Bonus: It also makes it easier to keep track of what they’ve been watching.
📦 Prime, who? Score free shipping without signing up for Amazon Prime. Just add at least $35 worth of goodies to your cart and pick “Free Amazon Shipping” at checkout. That way, you can save $14.99 a month for something fun instead. So good to know!
Lucky’s the name: Rename your phone from “Pixel 9” or “My little phoney” to something helpful like “Reward if found – Call 555-123-4567.” For iPhones, head to Settings > General > About > Name. On Android, go to Settings > About phone > Device name. It’ll pop up on Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or when it’s plugged into a computer.
LinkedIn growth hack: When it comes to followers, 150 is a magic number. Once you reach that many, your page will grow nine times faster than pages with fewer than 150 followers. If you run a biz, ask your employees (and everyone else you know) to follow. Psst, if you’re hiring, use my link to post a job for free.
🖼️ Before texting your pic: Remove the location data to hide where you snapped it from snoops. On Google Photos, just find the pic and tap the three-dot icon in the top right. Then, hit the pencil icon next to the location and select Remove Location. This helps protect your privacy.
Hot topics: Check Google Trends. Search keywords related to your biz to see what people are chatting about. You can filter by country, time and category. This can help boost your SEO, so your business stays in the know with what folks are googling.
💰 Struggling with debt? Ask your favorite chatbot to pretend to be your creditor to practice your pitch. Just say, “Imagine you’re my creditor. Let’s role-play negotiating an [adjustment, extension, etc.] to my payment plan, and then critique my strategy.” Leave out private info when chatting with the bot.
Stop squinting: Just make your text bigger! On an iPhone, go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size. Next, tap Larger Text and enable Larger Accessibility Sizes. A slider at the bottom of the screen lets you increase or decrease the text size. On Android, open Settings > Accessibility > Text and display > Select font size, then adjust the slider. (Note: These steps may vary for Android, so if you can’t find ’em immediately, just poke around under Accessibility.)
💵 A dollar here, a dollar there: It seems like every subscription is more expensive than when I signed up. Use the Rocket Money app to see what you’re paying for. I do! They’ll even cancel a subscription for you if it’s not worth the money anymore.
Freeze frame: In Excel, it helps to keep your column and row headings stuck in place while you scroll around big spreadsheets. Select the cell where the actual data starts, and then click the View menu > Freeze Panes.
AI upgrade: Hit this link to try Google’s new Gemini 2.5 free. All you need is a Google account. What’s different? Version 2.5 “thinks” before it replies for higher-quality answers, and it beats the other big AI bots in math and science.
Got this question from Sharon in Chicago: “How much can I make selling books on Amazon?” Be careful how you price your books. For e-books priced between $2.99 and $9.99, you’ll get 70% in royalties. Anything above or below that range drops your royalties to 35%. For paperbacks, you’ll get 60% of the list price (minus printing costs, which depend on page count, size and color). What a novel way to make a living!
💸 IRS scam link: It never stops. This time, if you Google how to get a business tax ID, the top results look official, but they’re not (paywall link). They’re ads from companies that charge you over $300 for something the IRS does for free. The real IRS site ends in .gov. Anything else? Fake.