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💯 OK, that’s a bargain

The early Amazon Prime Big Deal Days sales continue! To score these deals, you’ll need a Prime membership. Use this link for a 30-day free trial.

Mesh routers are the answer for larger homes with dead zones. The latest eero model is 36% off.
Treat yourself to a cozy new blanket to welcome fall. Tons of sizes and colors — and 58% off. Some colors of the throw version are under $9!
Always wanted a nice robo vac? The iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO is 32% off.
Gals, these leggings look and feel just like Lululemons for a fraction of the price.
These are the screen protectors I use on my iPhone. At the top, use the menu to choose your model. Sweet.
A fan-favorite set of rustproof shower caddies, 76% off right now!

We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

A swipe away: On a Chromebook, gestures can do a lot. Swipe up with three fingers to see open windows. Tap a link with three fingers to open it. Close a Chrome tab with a three-finger tap.

Are scammers using infidelity to manipulate you?

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“Your spouse is cheating on you.” That’s the shocking line behind a new sextortion scam. The message includes a link claiming to offer “proof,” but it’s a trap to get you to click. Plus, Gen Z is moving away from Google, and strange science wins big at the Ig Nobel awards.

Sponsored results: AI chatbot Perplexity is tapping into the billion-dollar digital ad industry. Brands will bid for a “sponsored” question featuring an AI-generated answer that will include them. Marketers will pay $50 or more for every 1,000 impressions generated by these posts (paywall link). A $50 CPM (cost per thousand) is really high for this.

$1,100 dog stroller

For sale in South Korea, where the human birth rate is 0.72. That’s the lowest in the world (paywall link) and one-third of what’s needed to maintain their population. Dog stroller sales just outpaced sales of baby strollers for the first time in the country, and the Airbuggy is a hot commodity. The government there is stork-raving mad.

Qualcomm wants to buy Intel: Once the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Intel is in a sharp decline — shares are down 60% this year. No formal offer is on the table yet from Qualcomm, the leading supplier of smartphone chips. The move will probably trigger antitrust scrutiny (paywall link), meaning they’ll have to divest parts of Intel to make it work.

In a galaxy far, far away: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicts we’ll all have our very own R2-D2 or C-3PO (paywall link) robots following us around. For non-”Star Wars” fans, these droids help with daily tasks like starship repairs and translating alien languages. Imagine that, a bot you can take on vacation or leave to do the laundry at home.

👓 Skip the blue-light glasses: They don’t really protect your eyes from screen strain (paywall link). The real issue is looking at your device too closely for too long and forgetting to blink. We normally blink 15 times per minute, but that drops to six times per minute when staring at screens. Try the 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break to look at something 20 feet away.

EVs are cheap right now: You can score the Hyundai Ioniq 5 for $259 a month or lease a Nissan Leaf for just $20 a month (paywall link). How the heck? Dealer incentives. Leased EVs are classified as “commercial vehicles,” qualifying them for a full $7,500 tax credit, which gets passed on to you.

Hackers are targeting VPN wireless routers: ASUS, TP-Link, Zyxel and Ruckus have already been hit. How it works: They break in, infect your router with malware, then use it to infect others. Warning signs you’re part of a botnet: Weird PC behavior, slow speeds when your internet is working fine, and strange emails and messages you didn’t send. Keep your router updated and run antivirus software.

A side hustle that won’t work: Pay a startup $30 a month and they’ll auto-post AI-generated vids to social media for you. Pick a topic (like motivation), and they’ll generate a script, voiceover, background track and AI images. The idea is to help you build an audience and start making money. Remember Shrimp Jesus (paywall link)?

Ultimate power move? Using a dumbphone like the Punkt MP02. Some bosses are switching to old-school tech to cut out distractions and constant notifications. Snap’s Chairman swears by fax machines, saying they’re more secure than email and grab others’ attention because they’re so rare (paywall link).

We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

😭 Look who died: Don’t click on a strange link making the rounds on Facebook that says, “Look who died.” Surprise, it’s a scam. Lowlifes want to get all the deets on your account to wreak havoc.

Human-trafficking scammers: What a sad story. A Ugandan man was lured to Thailand with the promise of a $2,500-a-month data entry job. In reality, he was trafficked into working as a pig-butchering scammer. He made $400 a month working 17-hour shifts, seven days a week (paywall link). If his productivity dropped, he was punished with hundreds of push-ups and forced runs around a parking lot. After seven long months, he escaped and is now telling his story to warn others.

🚨 “Your spouse is cheating”: That’s the message in a new sextortion email scam. It includes a link to the “proof,” along with your full name. Whatever you do, don’t click the links. Mark the email as spam, delete it and give your honeybunny a hug.

This is frightening: Virtual medical company Confidant Health exposed the sensitive health details of thousands of people. The 5.3 terabytes (paywall link) of publicly accessible data included video and audio recordings of therapy sessions and multipage reports of psychiatry intake notes. They say it’s now locked down and no malicious actors accessed patient records … that they know of.

🧠 WHO knows? The World Health Organization says there’s no link between cellphone use and brain cancer. Their experts looked at 5,000 studies published between 1994 and 2022, drilling down further into 63. Conclusion: Phones are safe even for people who spend all day with ‘em glued to their heads. I don’t buy it. Check this list to see how much radiation your phone is giving off and my tips to make sure you don’t get sick.

💄 All glammed up and no place to go: TikTok is loaded with people complaining that concealer, fake lashes and overlined lips in your passport photo can lead to big delays if you travel bare-faced (paywall link). You confuse both human and tech scanners. Btw, my passport photo is a publicity shot, and I’m happy to report I never get held up.

The new influencers: Unemployed folks are using TikTok to share “day in the life” videos with followers to show how they cope. The algorithm rewards shocking and emotional content, so it’s a good way to rack up views — and money. Better idea: Refresh your LinkedIn profile and set yourself as #OpenToWork there to find an actual job (paywall link).

U.S. states are holding onto $70 billion in unclaimed assets: Visit the National Association of Unclaimed Property online to find the link for your state’s treasury website. Pro tip: If you have a frequently misspelled name, go by a nickname or have any former names, check those, too. You never know — I helped one listener find $25,000. No, I didn’t get a cut.