Friend or fake

Friend or fake? A grandma got duped by her Facebook “friend” who told her she could win $200,000. The price of entry? $10,000. She sent the money, then called her friend — who had no idea what she was talking about. A scammer used AI to hack her friend’s account. The lesson. Call first.

Tags: Facebook, money


Try these April Fools' tech tricks on friends and family!

Monday is April 1, and I can’t let it go by without recommending some techy April Fools’ pranks! If you know me, you know I love a good gag. If you know Barry, you know he’s my most frequent victim.

These sneaky tricks are harmless (and hilarious), but be forewarned — they require a little bit of device snooping. Hey, what else do you have going on this weekend?

Continue reading

Trivia

In every Apple ad, the time shown on the iPhones, MacBooks and iPads is always the same. Is it A.) 9:41, B.) 12:01, C.) 6:30 or D.) 10:10?

Find the answer here

156.3 trillion fps captured by the world’s fastest camera

For context, the highest iPhone camera speed is just 240 frames per second (fps). Scientists will use the camera’s “swept-coded aperture real-time femto-photography” (SCARF, for short) to snap “shockwaves moving through matter.” But can it see why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch? All right, I’m sorry for that one.

Have you ever seen a T. rex fossil in person? I saw one at a natural history museum once. The teeth were pretty yellow — he could’ve used a few rounds with a toothbrush and some Crest-aceous. (I know, sorry.)

$2.1B ad campaign

What TikTok’s spending to pressure senators to vote “no” on the app’s ban. The ads feature TikTokkers talking about how a ban would hurt their livelihoods, and they’re slated to run for a month in key states. TikTok can buy all the ads they want; I’m not buying their Communist China B.S.

25 years is Sam Bankman-Fried’s prison sentence

In his ruling on SBF’s $14 billion crypto fraud, the judge cited the former FTX CEO’s “exceptional flexibility with the truth” and “his apparent lack of any remorse.” I expect we’ll hear about his jailhouse scams in a few years.

Trivia

How many Tyrannosaurus rex (you know … big mouth, big teeth, tiny arms) dinosaurs existed in North America before their extinction? Was it … A.) 2,500, B.) 250,000, C.) 2.5 million or D.) 2.5 billion?

Find the answer here

1,741 miles without stopping

It’s a new world record for a continuous hydrogen train journey. The Swiss-made train set the record using only a single tank of (hydrogen) gas. You’ll soon be able to ride it in its new home — a nine-mile track on the San Bernardino Line in California. We need better trains in the U.S. for sure.

57% more likely to develop cardiomyopathy

That’s if you take certain ADHD meds. Thankfully, the overall risk of developing a weakened heart muscle over a decade is low — 0.72% for people on Adderall or Ritalin compared with 0.53% for unmedicated folks. Still, ADHD prescription usage rose 55% from 2016 to 2022, so it’s important to know the risks.

5 of 10 bestselling vinyls in 2023 belonged to Taylor Swift

The top 10 albums sold 3.8 million LPs between them last year, and Swift’s records accounted for 67% of that. At No. 1 was “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” with over 1 million vinyl copies sold. Time to release “The Eras Tour” concert on VHS.