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📬 Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here. Tomorrow: Stop typing your address, email and “running 10 minutes late” like it’s your part-time job. I’ll show you tiny keyboard shortcut tricks you’ll use time and time again. |
Monday has entered the chat, friend. So has every person with GarageBand, a dream and a dash of confidence. Thanks to bedroom studios and AI tools, humanity is uploading songs like we’re trying to clog the internet’s shower drain. |
📀 How many new songs get uploaded to streaming services every single day? A) 1,000, B) 10,000, C) 106,000 or D) Six, and five are Taylor Swift? Make your pick, the answer drops at the end like a surprise album. |
🤫 Here’s big insider news: We moved. We packed up, left WP Engine for Hostinger, and I couldn’t be happier. Our site is simpler to run and costs over $3,000 less every month. Wow, right? Dreaming of a website for your side hustle, church group or family business? Keep reading. Today’s sponsor makes it super easy, even if you’ve never built a thing online. Plans start at just $2.69 a month.* — Kim |
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TODAY’S DEEP DIVE |
You are here |
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Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando |
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🤯 WOW! Turning off location doesn’t hide where you live anymore. AI chatbots can look at a plain backyard photo, read the trees, the roofline and the curb, then guess where it was taken. One police-grade AI tool reportedly places even windowless indoor photos. Your next “new patio!” post could be a map to your front door. |
The Short Version: Test one of your own photos with AI to see what it reveals, then strip the hidden location data and crop out the giveaways before you post. Steps below. |
📖 Read time: 2 minutes |
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You post a photo of your new patio furniture. No address. No street sign. Location turned off. Safe, right? |
Not anymore. |
AI chatbots can look at a photo and figure out where it was taken. I tried it myself. Took a pic off the patio without a street sign in sight. And AI nailed my exact position in about 20 seconds. |
It studies the trees, the roofline, the curb, the power lines, even the shape of the fire hydrant. It gets creepier. |
A company called Graylark built GeoSpy, an AI tool trained on millions of photos, for police and government agencies. It was open to anyone until reporters started asking questions, and some users had asked it for help stalking women. The company says it pushed back on those requests. Its tool reportedly can even place indoor photos with no windows. |
OpenAI says it trained ChatGPT to refuse to identify private people in images. But a guess about your backyard isn’t a person. It’s a location. |
👀 Try it on yourself |
Pick a photo you’ve posted of your home, yard or street. Upload it to ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude and ask: “Where do you think this was taken? Explain each clue.” |
Read the clues it lists. That’s your to-do list. |
Two rules: Only test photos of you and your stuff. Skip shots of your kids or grandkids. |
📍 Hide your home before you post |
Your photos leak location two ways: hidden data and the picture itself. Here’s how to turn off the hidden data. |
iPhone: When you share a photo, tap Options at the top and switch off Location. Android: In Google Photos, tap your profile picture > Photos settings > Sharing, and turn on the setting to hide photo location data.
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Check the picture for: |
House numbers, mailboxes and street signs The view out your window, especially a water tower, mountain or skyline Your car’s license plate in the driveway School logos, team jerseys and business signs
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Crop first, then post. A five-second crop beats a lifetime of “How did he find me?” |
What do bats and real estate agents have in common? It’s all echo-location, location, location. (Yeah, I heard that groan all the way here in Phoenix!) |
🗣️ Text/post this stat: Turning off location isn’t enough anymore. AI can study the trees, rooflines and curbs in a photo and guess where it was taken. Crop before you post. GetKim.com |
📩 Send this to someone who posts every room of their new house on Facebook. |
Share this now: |
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🌐 A real website for less than a latte |
Running a website used to mean hiring a pricey tech guy or wrestling with plug-ins at midnight. Not anymore. |
When my team moved Komando.com to Hostinger, we cut the headaches and the bills. Hostinger puts your hosting and easy site-building tools under one roof, so you can get a good-looking site up fast. (No computer science degree required. I checked.) |
The price. Here’s the part your wallet will love. Plans start at just $2.69 a month. That’s less than one fancy latte. Seriously. The money maker. Got a small business, a hobby you want to share or a résumé site to land that next job? This is your move. And there’s zero risk. You get a 30-day money-back guarantee. Try it, kick the tires, and if it’s not for you, you get your money back. Easy peasy.
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✅ Ready to stake your claim online? Go to Hostinger.com/Kim right now and launch your brand-new site today. |
Thank you for supporting our sponsors, who keep this newsletter free. |
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📺 YOUTUBE: THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW |
There’s an app for growing giant pumpkins |
Forget the grocery store jack-o’-lantern. We’re talking prize-worthy pumpkins that can weigh hundreds of pounds, and there’s an app to help you grow one. It’s where tech meets Halloween in the best way. |
Watch now before everyone else is talking about it. 👇 |
▶️ Watch on YouTube → |
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WEB WATERCOOLER |
🗺️ Remember MapQuest? It’s back, and it’s watching the watchers. The old-school map app added a Surveillance Layer that shows license plate readers and outdoor cameras from Flock Safety, Motorola, Axon and others. Turn it on in Map Options, right next to traffic. Camera spots are crowdsourced, so you can add the ones you spot. MapQuest finally found its way back. Turn left at the camera. |
Holmes tests positive: Remember Theranos, the blood-testing startup that promised dozens of tests from one finger prick? Its fraudster founder, Elizabeth Holmes, is now the subject of the best-reviewed movie of the year. “You Can See Everything,” a three-hour fake documentary from Nathan Fielder and A24, sits at 99% on Rotten Tomatoes after 101 reviews. Letterboxd users rate it 4.7 out of 5, among the highest scores ever there. It cost about $5 million to $7 million to make. Crazy. |
💳 Card trick backfires: Elon Musk was demonstrating AI shopping by posting a screenshot with his LEGO Star Wars order, email address and the last four digits of his credit card. Grok was supposed to help him shop. Instead, about 241 million X followers got a lesson in oversharing, and one guy claimed he canceled the order. Visa warns AI purchases can expose card data to shady merchants. Keep your plastic off camera. |
Seeing isn’t believing: That dashcam video proving the other guy ran the light? At a federal court rules meeting in Boston, experts from OpenAI and Meta warned AI video and audio are getting nearly impossible to spot. A Meta director said the newest AI fakes can look identical to the real thing. Judges are weighing a rule that would make anyone shouting “deepfake” show proof first. Only 15 of 931 judges surveyed have seen it happen. Your Honor, I object. To AI. |
💚 A star ate its veggies: Astronomers found the first green star ever seen, about 284 light-years away. How did it turn green? It swallowed its own planets. Sodium from the rocky leftovers filters orange light out of its glow, leaving a ghostly green. Researchers used a model of human color vision to confirm what you’d see. Look up tonight and wave. Talk about eating your greens. |
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💻 Have you tried turning it off & on again? |
My new merch drop is here! |
You’ve heard it from every tech support person on the planet, and now you can wear it. My new merch drop has a cozy crewneck, a heavyweight tee, a jumbo tote and a beanie, starting at $20. |
No restocks, no second chances. It wraps up Sunday night, so order now!. |
✅ Shop the drop before it’s gone. → |
Don’t miss out. Once the merch drop is over, you’ll never get the chance to buy these goodies again! |
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DEVICE ADVICE |
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Before you grab the car keys, check the roads. Open Google Maps on your phone and tap Layers at the top right. It looks like stacked squares. Select Traffic. Green means flowing freely, orange is moderate and red is heavy traffic. All that red just to get milk? Might be quicker to walk. |
🚨 Did your Windows support end? ICYMI, if you’re on Windows 11 24H2 Home or Pro, last week’s Patch Tuesday was its last security update. Yes, the last. Go to Settings > System > About to check. If that’s your version, head to Settings > Windows Update for the free upgrade. Everything might seem fine today. I wouldn’t wait for a hacker to prove otherwise. |
🔎 Siri, refresh my memory: On macOS 27 with Siri AI, press Cmd + Space to open Search or Ask. Find apps as usual or ask questions like “What’s the best app for transferring files?” It can also check messages and photos for personal answers. Try “Where did I go for dinner recently?” Apparently, “that place with the chairs” isn’t helpful. |
🗓️ Your computer crashes. Are you ready? Think about everything you’d lose. Family photos, important financial records, years of memories. Yikes! October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and here’s my reminder: Don’t wait until your computer fails. Sign up for Carbonite today, and save 60%.* |
💬 Send the text. Spare their sleep: Remembered something at midnight? Schedule the text before you forget. On iPhone, open a conversation in Messages, write your text, then tap + > Send Later and choose a time. On Android, write it in Google Messages, then hold Send to schedule it. They get a reminder. You avoid being the reason they’re awake. |
💡 A little mood lighting: I’ve been adding color-changing smart lights around the house. Warm white for winding down, a subtle red or pink for movie night. Set up this $11 smart bulb in your lamp with your phone and Wi-Fi, then choose colors or timers in the app. No hub. Low effort. Suddenly, ambience. |
Be on the show! Your doctor, your bank, your grocery store. They all know more about you than you think. Tell me what you’ve figured out. |
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KIM’S DAILY DEALS |
As an Amazon Associate, some links pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Keeps this newsletter free. Thank you. |
🧑🍳 Pan-tastic picks for your kitchen |
Less work, better meals. I’m all in. |
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🍚 Rice to the occasion: Rice cooker (10% off, $90)
4.8 ⭐ 5,700+ reviews |
Rice is just the beginning. Whip up oatmeal, steam veggies or slow-cook a stew in one pot. The 24-hour delay timer lets you prep ahead and come home to a hot meal. Too much water? It adjusts on its own. |
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Image: Cosori |
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🍳 Slide-off skillet: Eggs glide right out of this nonstick frying pan (32% off, $15). Safe on gas, electric and induction stovetops. |
Dishes done right: Kitsure’s stainless steel rack (20% off, $20) dries up to 10 plates, plus bowls and glasses at once. Utensils get their own spot. |
🥫 Open sesame: Press a button, and this electric can opener (22% off, $39) cuts along the side. Mount it on the wall to save space. |
Sharp shooter: Run your dull blades through a knife sharpener (24% off, $7). About 10 pulls do the trick. There’s even a slot for scissors. |
🛒 Running low? Stock up on the everyday essentials you use most. → |
Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication. |
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WHAT THE TECH? |
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Image: Rockstar Games via YouTube |
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🎮 Grand Theft Anticipation |
Need a new excuse to ignore your responsibilities? GTA VI dropped a launch trailer that makes adulthood look optional. |
In Rockstar’s neon-soaked Vice City, a couple’s easy payday spirals into a statewide criminal conspiracy. All that ridiculously gorgeous footage? Captured entirely on a PS5. |
The game comes out Nov. 19 for $79.99, or $99.99 for Ultimate. Don’t own a console? The cheapest setup will run you about $580. Even a life of virtual crime requires a serious investment. |
Give it a look here. It really looks like a movie. |
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LOGGING OUT … |
🎓 What you learned today: AI can guess where a photo was taken just from the trees, rooflines and curbs, and MapQuest now maps license plate cameras near you. Elon Musk showed the last four digits of his credit card in an AI shopping demo, Windows 11 24H2 Home and Pro got its final security update, and a star turned green by swallowing its own planets. You also learned to schedule texts so you don’t wake anyone up, and GTA VI arrives Nov. 19. Not bad for one email. If you keep typing the same things over and over, you’re working too hard. Tomorrow, I’ll show you the shortcut that turns a few letters into full messages.s. |
✅ The answer: C) About 106,000 new tracks land on streaming services every single day. There are more than 250 million tracks out there. |
Here’s the kicker: Roughly 9 in 10 tracks got 1,000 streams or fewer all year. Nearly half got 10 or fewer. You could listen 24/7 for the rest of your life and never catch up on even one week of uploads. Want to cut through the noise? Follow your favorite artists, so new releases find you. |
One for the road: What’s a washing machine’s favorite song? “Twist and Shout.” |
✅ Before you go, one more nudge: My insanely busy website runs on Hostinger, and I don’t hand it over to just anyone. Plans start at $2.69 a month with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you’ve got nothing to lose. Get started today at Hostinger.com/Kim.* Your future self will thank you. |
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🎵 106,000 songs get uploaded every day, and every one started with someone brave enough to press record. Go press yours. Whatever you’re making, finish it. The world has room. — Kim |
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Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily |
🏆 THE KIM CHALLENGE: Forward this to ONE person who needs to hear it today. Pick the person who popped into your head while reading. You know who it is. |
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HOW’D WE DO?What did you think of today’s issue?
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Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, Cosori, Rockstar Games |
Companies and products denoted by an asterisk (*) within this publication are paid sponsors or advertisements. As an Amazon Associate, the publisher earns from qualifying purchases. Statements regarding products denoted by a double asterisk (**) have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration; such products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This newsletter is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, medical, or professional advice of any kind. Readers should consult with a qualified professional before making any decisions based on this content. The publisher disclaims all liability for any loss, damage, or injury resulting from the use of or reliance on the information contained herein. |
