It's a wonderful Wednesday, friend.Hello and come with me to Green Bank, West Virginia, the only place in America where your phone is legally useless. No cell signals. No Wi-Fi. No Bluetooth. Nothing wireless works in this 13,000-square-mile zone, and if you try to bring any kind of wireless device, they'll confiscate it.
📵 Can you guess why? A) Religious reasons, B) To protect a radio telescope, C) A failed tech experiment or D) A rich guy bought the entire town. The answer's really interesting, and it's waiting for you at the end.
🤦♀️ You know what drives me nuts? People drop $1,300 on a new laptop but won't spend a few bucks to protect the data inside it. That computer is replaceable. Your family photos, videos, years of work and tax documents are not. I use Carbonite to back up everything automatically to the cloud. Get 50% off right now. More below.*
⚡ Quick favor: If you like The Current, mark me as a keeper. Gmail, click the star. Apple Mail, add me to VIPs or Contacts. Outlook, right-click and hit Add to Favorites. It tells the email gods I'm legit. — Kim
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TODAY'S DEEP DIVE
You got this!
Image: ChatGPT
⚡ TL;DR (THE SHORT VERSION)
Your phone replaces scanners, fitness trackers, audiobook subscriptions and cable TV.
Free apps can handle what you used to have to buy gear to do.
You can save $1,930 this year by ditching redundant tech.
📖 Read time: 2.5 minutes
You've got a $200 scanner gathering dust. A $150 Fitbit you don't wear. A $100/month cable bill for channels you don't watch. Meanwhile, your phone can do all of it, better, and you're already paying for it.
Here's every piece of gear you can finally toss and the apps that replace them.
📄 Scanners: $0 vs. $200+
That bulky scanner taking up space? Your phone beats it.
Apple Notes (free, iOS): Notes has a built-in scanner. Open a note, tap the paper clip icon, choose Scan Documents. No extra app needed. Done.
Adobe Scan (free, iOS/Android): Point your camera at a document. It auto-detects edges, straightens, removes shadows and saves as a searchable PDF. Text recognition lets you search later.
📚 Audiobooks: $0 vs. $15/month
Don't pay for Audible. Your library card gives you unlimited audiobooks.
Libby (free, iOS/Android): Links to your library card and gives you instant access to thousands of audiobooks and ebooks. I listened to seven books last year without paying a cent. Btw, if you don't have a library card, Libby will get you one when you install the app.
Hoopla (free, iOS/Android): Same deal, different catalog. No holds, no waiting. Borrow instantly.
Cancel that $14.95 monthly Audible subscription. That's about $180 back in your pocket this year.
💪 Fitness trackers: $0 vs. $100-$400
Your phone tracks everything a wearable does, for free.
Google Fit (free, Android) / Apple Health (free, iOS): Automatically counts steps, distance, stairs climbed. Tracks workouts and sleep.
Strava (free with in-app purchases for iOS and Android): For runners and cyclists. GPS tracking and safety features are free.
Sure, you need to carry your phone, but you're doing that anyway.
📺 Cable TV: $0 vs. $50-$150/month
Tubi (free, iOS/Android/Roku/Fire TV): 50,000+ movies and shows with ads.
Pluto TV (free, iOS/Android/Roku/Fire TV): Live TV channels covering news, sports, movies.
Local channels: Get a digital antenna. One-time cost, free local TV forever.
Cancel cable TV ($100/month × 12 months = $1,200). Buy an antenna(25% off, $30). You saved $1,170. Nice.
📹 Security cameras: Free-ish vs. $100-$300
AlfredCamera (free with in-app purchases for iOS and Android) turns any old smartphone into a motion-detecting security camera. Download the app on your old phone and your current one, prop the old phone where you want to monitor, and you've got live viewing from anywhere.
Pro tip: If you've got an old Windows laptop collecting dust, Yawcam does the same thing. Completely free, no subscription, no catches. Sorry, no Mac version, folks.
🧮 The real savings breakdown
Scanner: $200+ saved
Audiobook subscription: $180/year saved
Fitness tracker: $150+ saved
Cable TV: $1,200/year saved
Security camera: $200+ saved
Total: $1,930+ saved. You're welcome.
📤 Send this to the person who still drives to FedEx to scan documents. They need this reality check. Or use the share icons below to post it. Someone in your circle is about to save a grand or more this year.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
The easiest way to protect what matters most
January is full of fresh starts, but one of the smartest steps you can take right now is making sure your data is protected. We rely on our computers for everything, family photos, important files, videos, years of work, even music, but most people don't realize how fragile that information is, until it's gone.
Your devices work hard every day, but they're not invincible. One unexpected crash, loss, or failure can wipe everything out in a split second. I've heard from far too many people who learned that the hard way.
That's why I recommend Carbonite. It's the ultimate "set-it-and-forget-it" safety net. Carbonite works in the background, so you never have to think about it. Love that for you.
My readers get 50% off Carbonite Safe Basic. Just $47.99/year, or $4.00/month, for unlimited, automatic cloud backup! Don't wait for an accidental loss to realize what your data means to you. Give your data the protection it deserves!
Stalkerware secretly tracks photos, emails, location, everything, and sends it to someone spying on you. I'll tell you the red flags. Plus: An AI singer has 2.8 million listeners, half of Uber drivers aren't who you think, and your cheap TV screenshots everything you watch.
🎧 Or search "Komando" wherever you get your podcasts. I'm everywhere.
WEB WATERCOOLER
🚬 Social's tobacco moment: Remember when cigarette makers finally got hauled into court? Social media's getting the same treatment. Jury selection has started in LA for a teen-addiction case (paywall link) accusing Meta and YouTube of building addictive products for kids. TikTok and Snap have already settled. A now-20-year-old sued all four, claiming she got hooked young and features like infinite scroll, autoplay and algorithmic feeds fed anxiety, depression and body-image issues. Big Tobacco vibes. I'm watching this one closely.
Would you pay for Facebook? Meta's about to test paid monthly subscriptions across Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. The paid tier unlocks extra control and more AI stuff. It's probably talking about Manus, the AI agent it bought for $2B. Instagram leaks also mention stealth Story viewing and the feature I think everyone's petty internal voice wants, the list of who didn't follow you back. I guess that matters to some people, not me.
R'n you kidding: This is sneaky, so watch out. Hackers are swapping a lowercase "m" with "rn" because your brain reads them the same. Look: rnicrosoft(.)com. On your phone, you'd never catch this is not the right Microsoft address. This campaign is hitting Microsoft logins, Marriott sites to steal passwords and every other site that begins with the letter m. Don't click links. Type the URL yourself. Better yet, use a password manager. NordPass logs me into legitimate sites with one click and ignores the fakes.Get 52% off now, $1.43 a month.*
Encryption's expiration date: Cybersecurity bigwigs are arguing over Q-Day, when the internet's essential lock stops working. At that time, a powerful enough quantum computer could bust open today's encryption and read stuff that's supposed to stay private, from credit card swipes to government secrets. Experts say it could be around 2030-ish. Criminals are hoarding encrypted data right now, waiting for the day they can crack it. Your secrets might already be sitting in a line.
Healing hardware: I don't know about you, but to me, 3D-printed liver sounds like something you drunk-order on Temu. Carnegie Mellon got $28.5 million to make a transplantable liver patch. It prints squishy stuff like collagen and living human cells into a scaffold that resembles tissue. It's not a full organ, but it buys your liver two to four weeks to heal itself. That's the difference between life and a transplant list. Amazing.
🥷 Buyback bandit: This is wild. A Kansas City guy allegedly sold cars on Facebook Marketplace, then stole them back and sold them again. Eight victims in about two months. He used the same trick every time: fake accounts, forged titles, clean-looking bills of sale. Two cars, a 2013 Honda Civic and a 2013 Buick Verano, got passed around like a bad-luck casserole. Allegedly $24,000 richer, the man is now staring at charges that could add up to 98 years. On the bright side, he won't need a car where he's going.
DEALS OF THE DAY
⚡ Under-$50 overachieving tech
I found tools that cost less than a night out and work way harder.
A mini command center for your nightstand. Drop your phone on top for fast wireless charging, stream music via Bluetooth or even wake up to my radio show. One gadget, less clutter.
Image: Bitswolee
🎧 Snooze in stereo: These Bluetooth headphones(37% off, $19) pull double duty as a sleep mask and a soft workout headband.
Bye, ugly wires: An extra-long cable hider(36% off, $24) covers up cords running down your wall. Bonus: paintable to match your wall color.
📺 Dumb TV fix: Roku's mid-tier streaming stick 4K(30% off, $35) gets you HDR, Dolby Vision and a voice remote. Lowest price this month!
One-plug wonder: This flat outlet extender(20% off, $19) turns a single wall outlet into eight charging spots and four USB ports.
👩💻 Still buffering? I got you. Click here for my top 20 laptop & desktop recs.
Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication.
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Your phone has a dirty little secret. When Wi-Fi's weak, it switches to cellular behind your back and torches your data plan. Kill the habit. Team Android, swipe down and disable Mobile data. Team iPhone, open Control Center > Cellular Data.
👋 Let me greet you properly: Tell me your name by updating your email preferences right now. Log in, click the three dots in the top right > Edit profile > type your name and Save. It only takes 10 seconds, and we're officially on a first-name basis. You're more than a friend to me.
Stop showing yourself online on Instagram: Ever get a "why aren't you replying?" It's annoying. Open Instagram and go to Settings and activity > Messages and story replies > Who can see you're online > Show activity status. Turn it off, and people won't see when you were last active or if you're currently on the app.
🚨 Still using an iPhone 5s or 6? You need a new phone. But Apple released iOS 12.5.8 for them, so features like iMessage, FaceTime and other stuff will keep working after January 2027. Pretty crazy for phones that old. For newer models, the latest iOS 26.2.1 update is also out. If you're on an iPhone 11 or newer, go to Settings > General > Software Update to get it.
💼 Stop drowning in bad résumés: You post one job and get 200 applications from people who didn't read a single word. Now you're spending hours playing guess who's qualified. I use LinkedIn Jobs to skip that nightmare. Their screening tools filter out the noise before you waste a minute. You only see candidates with the skills you actually asked for. Get $100 off your first job post with LinkedIn Hiring Pro.*
📦 Why pay for two Prime memberships when one does the job? Here's how to split the perks with someone you live with. Go to Account & Lists > Account > Your Amazon Family, or click here to set it up. They get free shipping, streaming, everything. You look generous. Everybody wins.
🕰️ The internet forgets everything.Wayback Machine remembers it all. This nonprofit has saved 900+ billion web pages since 1996. See any website exactly how it looked in 2005, 2010, 2020. But here's what nobody uses: hit "Save Page Now" and you can archive any page yourself instantly. Evidence for lawsuits. Deleted articles. Your competitor's old pricing. Dead websites. Here's my 2003 website. Funny, I kinda have the same hair style. I hope that's a good thing.
WHAT THE TECH?
Image: I Build Stuff
🌧️ Hands-free rainy days
I like to imagine that the guy who invented the umbrella was going to call it the brella. But he hesitated.
Ever looked at your umbrella and thought, What if I could use this without hands, and I also might need a permit for it? Me neither.
This autonomous flying umbrella hides quadcopter propellers under fabric, locks onto your position with a 3D depth camera and follows you like a loyal, but loud, pet. That's right, shih tzu energy. It even uses GPS, a flight controller and custom folding arms, so it still fits in a bag.
🔜 Tomorrow: That "Sign in with Google" or "Sign in with Facebook" button you click without thinking? It's a tracking beacon. Every site, every click, every purchase, fed straight into a profile with your name on it. I'm showing you exactly what they're collecting and how to shut it down. You can't afford to miss this, so be sure to read your newsletter tomorrow.
🔭 The answer: B) To protect a massive radio telescope. Green Bank, West Virginia, is home to one of the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescopes, and even your Bluetooth earbuds throw off its research. So no Wi-Fi, no cell towers and definitely no OpenAI data centers.
The telescope is so finely tuned it can detect radio waves emitted from galaxies billions of light-years away. How about the locals? They use wired landlines and drive miles to get a signal. It's basically 1994 but with fewer frosted tips.
Oh now, take a deep breath and prepare yourself. What do you call a telescope that can't stop running into stuff? A kaleidoscope. (I warned you!)
⚠️ Don't ignore this warning: Hard drives fail. It happens every day. When yours dies, I don't want you to panic. I want you to be like me and rely on Carbonite. It runs in the background and restores your files with one click. I wouldn't put my name on this if I didn't use it myself. Grab my exclusive 50% off deal before it ends.*
📲 Screen time fades. Real time matters. Prioritize accordingly. I know you will. — Kim
Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily
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.
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