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Travel costs change depending on your IP
Gemini
Last month, my friend Anna was getting ready for a dream trip to Italy. Flights were booked, hotels lined up, but when she went to rent a car in Milan, the price came back at nearly $1,400 for the week. She texted me: “Kim, this is ridiculous.” I texted right back: “Open your VPN, set your location to Milan, and try that booking again.”
A few clicks later, the rental dropped to $800. Same car. Same dates. Same rental site. Mamma mia!
That’s not luck. It’s location-based pricing. And it’s happening everywhere.
🇮🇹 They’re Rome-ing around
You’d be shocked how many companies change prices based on where you appear to be. Hotels, car rentals, even subscriptions and online shopping sites are using your IP address (your digital location) to tweak what they charge you.
This practice is so common, the FTC published a report this year warning about companies’ “surveillance pricing.” This means they use your precise location and personal data to set individualized prices.
- A study by Nord tested this exact scenario. It found a one-week car rental in Italy was 11.43% cheaper when booked from an Italian IP address ($541) compared to a U.S. one ($611).
- An investigation by SFGATE found booking sites showed “substantially higher” prices to San Franciscans. For one Manhattan hotel on Expedia, Bay Area users were quoted $829/night while people from Phoenix and Kansas City saw a price of $318/night for the exact room.
- A YouTube Premium subscription can cost $13.99/month in the U.S. but under $2/month when purchased from an IP address in India.
It’s not just your location. It’s your device type, cookies, currency settings and even your browsing history. These companies are watching and adjusting accordingly.
🧳 Don’t get ripped off
Now, don’t get sneaky. Always follow the terms of the site and the region you’re booking from.
The next time you are buying something big like a trip, try this. Turn on your VPN. Search from a few different locations, especially in the country you’re traveling to. Compare prices. You might be shocked.
Anna was. And that $600 savings? It paid for her Amalfi Coast tour.
📌 Access your Chromebook apps faster: Keep your favorite apps a click away by pinning them to your task bar. Open the Launcher in the bottom left, find the app, then right-click (or two-finger tap) and select Pin to shelf. You can drag apps around to rearrange them, or right-click again and choose Unpin to remove one.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Need a quick charge? Switch your phone to Airplane or Flight mode. It turns off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other background processes, so your battery fills up faster. Handy when you’re racing out the door.
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🍏 See iPhone updates on your Mac: With macOS 26 and iOS 26, you can link your iPhone to your Mac so live activities show up there, too. Go to Settings > Desktop & Dock > Widgets > iPhone and select the device. After that, you’ll see things like your upcoming flight info right in the menu bar, without reaching for your phone.
One endless page: If you use Google Docs for notes, meeting minutes or blog drafts, you don’t need those page breaks getting in the way. Click on Format > Switch to Pageless format to turn it into one continuous scroll. Bonus tip: Head to View > Text width to adjust how wide your text appears on the screen.
Clean your system: Ever feel like your computer’s holding onto too much junk? BleachBit can help. It’s a free tool that clears cache, internet history, logs and more you didn’t know was there. It works with apps like Chrome and can even “shred” files so they’re almost impossible to recover. Download it for Windows and Linux.
More updates to install: It was Patch Tuesday, so Microsoft also rolled out fixes for 63 flaws on Windows. Go to Settings > Windows Update to make sure you’ve got it. One more thing: Windows 10 received its first Extended Security Update since support ended last month. You can still enroll, but save yourself some stress and upgrade for free (here’s how).
🚨 Chrome alert: Google dropped a new update that fixes a serious security problem. Hackers could crash Chrome, bypass protections or run harmful code on your computer. The patch rolls out automatically, but it might take a few days to reach you. Get ahead by going to Settings > About Chrome > Relaunch. Phew.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Keep your iPad healthy. Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health and turn on 80% Limit. It caps charging at 80% to reduce wear and extend your battery’s life.
Copy-paste personality: Uare.ai (yep, spelled like that) raised $10.3 million to make AI copies of people. I’m talking full-on digital twins that think and sound like you. They call it an “Individual AI,” built on your memories and habits. Maybe even the opinions you share after a few drinks. They say it’s all private, secure and self-owned. Heard that before!
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🚫 Android apps you don’t need: Your phone probably came with a bunch of apps you don’t use that are eating up your storage. You might not be able to delete them, but you can turn them off so they stop running or updating. Go to Settings > Apps > [app name] > Disable. Goodbye, random photo editor you never opened.
Turn it down a notch: If your iPhone’s speaker is too loud for your liking, you can set a limit. Go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Volume Limit > Limit Maximum Volume. Use the slider to cap it anywhere from 20% to 80%. Even at full blast, it won’t go past your chosen level. FYI, this only applies to media, not calls or alarms.
🧃 Per my last brain cell: OK, you know those emails that start with “Just circling back” or “Please advise”? Yeah, turns out everyone hates them, and now AI’s writing that way, too. We basically trained the bots to sound like they’ve been trapped in middle management since 2006. A new study looked at a million emails, and the worst offenders are exactly what you’d expect: “per my last email,” “take this offline,” “just ping me,” “low-hanging fruit,” “bandwidth” and the dreaded “quick question.”
Served on stage: Sam Altman was handed a subpoena while on stage in San Francisco, mid-event, next to Steve Kerr. Prosecutors tried reaching him at work and online first. It’s tied to a criminal trial involving protesters who blocked OpenAI’s HQ in February. The group Stop AI claims they were trying to slow OpenAI’s “attempted murder of everyone and every living thing on Earth.” Just another day in San Francisco tech. Oh, to add to the stress, Sora is costing OpenAI $15 million a day.
Pause those surprise updates: Windows 11 can decide to install a big patch right when you’re in the middle of something important. The good news is you can delay it for a bit. Go to Settings > Windows Update > Pause updates. When you’re done, head back and click Resume updates to keep things secure.
That ain’t Hank: An AI-generated “artist” named Breaking Rust hit #1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, beating some real heavy-hitting artists. The Spotify numbers are suspiciously massive, and there’s zero disclosure. The fans? Possibly bots. The “singer”? Not real. I bet he’s not even a real outlaw! Give the song a listen.
Bill’s bubble bust: Bill Gates says we’re in an AI bubble, not full tulip mania but definitely dot-com vibes. He thinks some AI companies will be game changers, but most? Burning cash and copying each other. Totally something Microsoft wouldn’t do. “Dead ends,” he called them. The tech’s real, but the hype is getting expensive fast. After seeing my third AI note-taking app this week, I can’t say I disagree.