Just me wishing you a happy Friday, friend.I sent my niece a video last week, and we both cracked up. It sounded exactly like something my mom would've said. Same razor-sharp wit. Same no-nonsense delivery. That "I said what I said" energy. Then my niece asked, "Wait, who IS she?"
🧞♀️ She wears all-pink designer suits and dishes out ruthless life advice ("Flowers die, honey. My Chanel bags are forever.") with no tolerance for nonsense. The comment sections are filled with people saying she reminds them of a grandmother they lost. She feels like someone who had lived a life worth learning from.
So who exactly is the social media viral Granny Spills? A) A real grandmother whose teen granddaughter secretly films her, B) A 40-year-old comedian in old-age makeup, C) A fully AI-generated person, D) A retired soap opera actress playing a character? Take your best guess, truth drops at the bottom.
🙏🏻 Before we get started, I need a favor. Email providers like Gmail and Yahoo watch whether you click links in my emails. If you do, I will stay in your inbox. If you don't, I get banished to the spam folder like a time-share pitch. So tap a link or two today. Any link. Even this one. It tells your email provider, "Hey, I actually want this." Deal? Deal. Now let's get you tech ahead. — Kim
Noise cameras are spreading across U.S. cities. Too loud? Ticket arrives by mail.
Fines range from $250 in Rhode Island to $2,500 in New York.
Completely stock vehicles have been ticketed. This affects more drivers than you'd think.
📖 Read time: 2.5 minutes
You already know about speed cameras. Red light cameras. Toll cameras that photograph your plate and bill you later.
Now meet their cousin. Noise cameras are the newest automated enforcement technology spreading through American cities. A pole-mounted device contains sensitive microphones paired with a license plate camera.
Your car drives past. If your exhaust tips over the legal decibel limit, a ticket arrives in your mailbox days later. No warning. No flashing lights. Just a microphone that never blinks, never takes a break and never misses a shift.
🔊 Silence of the Lambos
New York City has been running these since 2021. The cameras have issued more than 1,600 violations and collected nearly $2 million in fines. Get caught once, and you're looking at $800. Get caught repeatedly, and the fine climbs to $2,500.
Newport, Rhode Island, put two cameras on scenic Ocean Avenue. Within days, a Mustang GT got nailed at 85 decibels. Two decibels over the limit. $250 fine. Providence approved $180,000 to add cameras in 2026. Connecticut passed statewide legislation.
California has six cities running a five-year pilot program with fines up to $1,105. Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Sacramento and Washington, D.C., are all deploying or testing.
🏎️ Too loud and furious
When I'm in my Porsche and flip into manual mode, rowing through the gears with that beautiful exhaust note singing, I'm not doing the math on that out loud. Let's just say I'm watching the camera location maps very carefully.
Here's what should concern drivers with completely stock vehicles. That Mustang GT wasn't a tuned track car. It's a car you buy at a dealership. And it still got fined for being two decibels over the line.
AI is being used to identify which specific vehicle in a group generated the noise. The tech is getting smarter every month.
🚔 Roar and peace
There are two valid sides here.
If someone with a straight-pipe exhaust does a flyby past your bedroom at midnight, you're probably delighted. Noise pollution is a real health issue. Cities have tried everything, and nothing's worked until now.
But this is also another layer of always-on surveillance that never forgets and never gives you the benefit of the doubt. Critics have raised legitimate questions about whether cameras get placed disproportionately in lower-income neighborhoods.
FYI, these cameras are spreading faster than most drivers realize. Before you find out the hard way, check Waze. It's updated with noise camera locations by the driving community in real time. You can search your city name plus "noise camera ordinance" to find the exact decibel limits where you live.
Speaking of noise, my laptop was making funny noises today, it sounded like it was singing. Probably because it's a Dell. (Ok that was a good one!)
📣 Send this to someone who is a car enthusiast, a motorcycle rider or anyone with a loud vehicle? Forward this before they find out the hard way. Consider it your good deed for the week.
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Hot new job? Teaching your replacement. Companies are handing out fat paychecks to people who teach robots how to do their work. I also cover the viral Anthropic chart showing which jobs AI is coming for first. Here's what the findings mean for your career.
🎧 Or search "Komando" wherever you get your podcasts. I'm everywhere.
WEB WATERCOOLER
🔐 Passwordless mugging: Ever get one of those work logins that looks annoying enough to be legitimate? That's this Microsoft 365 attack's bread and butter. Hackers are hitting organizations across five countries, including the U.S., with fake device authorization codes. Click it, and they hijack your live session without even touching your password. They're going after health care, legal, real estate, nonprofits, government, pretty much anyone with bills and secrets. Set up multifactor authentication at aka.ms/mfasetup and turn it on. Don't wait for IT.
Chip paid off: A Philadelphia woman, Jourdyn Koziak, got her pit bull Forty-Cal back after he vanished from her yard in 2015. She never stopped updating his microchip info, even after moving, getting married and having three kids. On Saturday, Animal Control in Philly scanned him after a little girl found him and brought him home for hot dogs. The ol' hot dog maneuver. Next day, boom, reunion. Ah, microchips. Boring until they save the day. Forty-Cal really said, Let me circle back in a decade.
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Recall bait: You know those alerts telling you your air fryer might explode or your new curtains have lead in them? Consumer Reports says scammers are sending fake Amazon recall texts that use your name and claim something you bought got recalled, then push you to tap for a refund. Nope. Real recalls send you to Amazon or the Consumer Product Safety Commission, not some sketchy text link. Delete it, don't click, move on with your life.
Siri calls backup: Apple set WWDC 2026 for June 8 to 12, and all signs point to Siri finally getting the glow-up we've been begging for since the iPhone had a home button. Supposedly she'll handle context and multistep requests like a grown adult. But guess what's under the hood? Google Gemini. The company that spent a decade preaching privacy like it's a religion may power its assistant with the company that basically invented internet tracking.
💸 Pay to apply: Job hunters are paying reverse recruiters $3,000 to $15,000 to apply for jobs on their behalf. Why? The job market's rough, and the first hiring manager is like a bouncer. AI scans résumés, applicants use AI to rewrite résumés and cover letters, and paid pros game the keywords. Looking for a new job in 2026? You're competing against a machine first. The modern job hunt is two robots making small talk while your mortgage sweats.
DAILY TECH UPDATE
Why AI can't replace your financial adviser
Using AI to check their work sounds smart. But is it? My take in this short podcast.
Skip the gas station stop. This pocket-size inflator hits 150 PSI and fills tires in about a minute. There's a built-in light for night use, and yep, it can charge your phone, too.
Image: Fanttik
All $30 or under 👇
⚠️ Catch problems early: A tire pressure monitoring system(33% off, $30) shows live stats and alerts you ahead of blowouts. Works for cars to trucks.
Finally, they fit: Adjustable cupholder extenders(31% off, $24, two-pack) keep your tumblers from wobbling. Fits Yeti, Stanley, Hydro Flask and more.
✨ All in the details: Soft microfiber towels(44% off, $13) soak up water fast without scratches or streaks. Safe for buffing any surface.
Cut the clutter: This leakproof car trash can(41% off, $10) hangs from your seat and folds flat when you don't need it. No more wrappers everywhere.
Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication.
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Google Maps lets you download an entire city to your phone, so it works with zero internet. Open the app, search a city, tap the three dots in the top right, hit Download offline map. Road trips, international travel, dead zones on the highway. Your maps still work. Your directions still work. The $15-a-day international data plan does not spark joy. This does.
Mac alert: You can finally control your own charging limit, which macOS Tahoe lets you cap at 80% to 100%. Go to System Settings > Battery > Charging and pick your number. Before this, Optimized Battery Charging made the call for you, and you had to trust it. Now you're in charge. Your battery will thank you in about two years. FYI, don't have the update? Head to System Settings > General > Software Update.
iOS 26.4 gave Apple Music an AI brain: There's a playlist builder hiding in your Library. Tap the lines with the plus icon at the top, select the text prompt option and type something like "fun 2000s workout songs." It pulls together about 25 tracks instantly. Neat. Bonus: Shazam in Control Center now works offline. No internet? It catches the song and shows you the result when you're back.
📱I've gotta tell you something: Switching to Consumer Cellular was one of the smartest moves I've made. Keep your phone, keep your number. Same reliable coverage at a fraction of the price, plus real U.S.-based support folks who are patient and actually listen. Check it out. Get $25 off with code: KIM25.*
There's a free screen recorder hiding inside Windows 11: No downloads. No subscriptions. No OBS setup. Press Win + G to open Xbox Game Bar, click the camera icon at the top, hit the red button, and it records everything, including audio. Tutorials, IT support bugs, video calls, anything. Toggle your mic on first. It's been sitting there the whole time. (You're welcome.)
🔒 Android has a built-in safety net for sketchy links: It flags harmful links and phishing sites inside apps like X and Uber. Go to Settings > Security and Privacy > Android Safe Browsing and toggle on Use Live Threat Detection. Some apps have their own protection. This catches what they miss. Turn it on. Leave it on.
WHAT THE TECH?
Image: Halter
🐮 The cowgorithm
For centuries, rounding up cattle meant dogs, fences and someone's alarm going off at 4 a.m. Now a New Zealand startup called Halter lets farmers herd 600 cows with one tap from their phone.
Solar-powered smart collars on the animals create virtual paddocks, shift entire herds remotely and alert you if one wanders off. U.S. ranchers have already laid down 11,000 miles of invisible fencing with it. (Eleven thousand miles. That's almost halfway around the Earth.)
The money is pouring in. Halter raised $220 million in financing led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, pushing its valuation to $2 billion. Think Palantir for pasture. Software turning chaotic, muddy, unpredictable livestock behavior into something trackable and controllable from your couch.
🔜 Tomorrow: Your browser may remember all your passwords, but that doesn't mean it's protecting them. I'll break down the hidden gaps in Chrome and Safari's built-in password savers, and why "good enough" can turn into a mess fast.
The answer is C) A completely AI-generated person created by two guys in their 20s. Granny Spills doesn't exist. Never did. It's a carefully engineered personality designed to trigger one specific emotion: the feeling of being loved by a grandmother.
Every wrinkle. Every designer suit. Every ruthless one-liner. Engineered. The account generates millions of views, brand deals and genuine emotional attachment from real people.
👵🏻 Here's what should stay with you. Nobody suspected it. Not the comment sections full of people saying she reminded them of their late grandmother. Not the journalists who covered her rise. Not your algorithm, which served her to you like she was real because to every signal it could measure, she was.
If a fictional grandmother built by two strangers in their 20s can make millions of people feel seen and loved, imagine what a bad actor with the same tools and worse intentions can do. That's not hypothetical.
I was sitting with my mom when her phone rang. A scammer said, "Virginia, listen to me very carefully. I have all your passwords." She replied, "Well thank God for that. I have a pen and paper. What are they?" 😂
🌱 Go outside. Touch grass. Then come back tomorrow because I have more that you need to know. Have questions? Ask me here. — Kim
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.
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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Keep a civil tongue.