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🥧 Happy Saturday, friend. Pi Day is nerdier than you think. Math teachers love it for obvious reasons. Bakers love it because geometry gives people an excuse to stuff their pieholes. But March 14 isn't only about circles, infinite decimals and showing off at breakfast (3.14159265... yes, I kept going). It's also the birthday of one of the most famous scientists who ever lived. |
Can you guess who? A) Nikola Tesla, B) Albert Einstein, C) Isaac Newton or D) Stephen Hawking. The answer's at the end. Hint: E = MC². |
🤦♀️ iCloud is not a backup. I need you to hear that. It's a sync. Whatever happens on your phone happens everywhere, including when ransomware hits, a file corrupts or you accidentally delete something. Gone. On every device. Simultaneously. Carbonite keeps a completely separate copy of your entire computer, untouched and recoverable, no matter what. I use it myself and sleep better because of it. Get my exclusive 75% off deal right now. More below.* |
📻 My national radio show is on this weekend. All weekend. More than 510 stations across the country, which means there's almost certainly one near you. Find it fast with our station locator map. Or skip the dial entirely and listen commercial-free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch it on YouTube. Your call. I'll be there either way. — Kim |
📬 Someone forwarded this to you? Smart friend. Want it in your own inbox instead of waiting on them? Sign up here. It's free, and I promise not to spam you. |
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TODAY'S DEEP DIVE |
Get smart |
 | Image: Gemini |
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⚡ TL;DR Key Takeaways |
That airplane mode announcement? Mostly tradition. The main issue is a faint buzzing in pilots' headsets. Some tech myths refuse to die. Force-closing apps drains more battery, Incognito mode doesn't hide much and deleted photos can linger for 30 days. Charging your phone to 100% every night wears out lithium batteries faster.
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📖 Read time: 2 minutes |
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✈️ Sound familiar? "Please put your devices in airplane mode for departure." |
Here's the thing nobody tells you: It doesn't matter. |
The FAA changed the rules in 2013. Your phone signals don't interfere with navigation systems. Airlines announce it out of habit and liability. The one real reason it sticks around? Your phone searching for a cell tower at altitude creates faint buzzing in pilot headsets. Annoying. Not dangerous. |
You've been doing this for years to prevent a minor headache in the cockpit. Turns out, we were all flying blind on this one. |
🦄 The myths that got all of us |
Closing background apps saves battery. Nope. Completely backward. Apple confirmed it directly: Force-closing apps and reopening them uses more battery than leaving them alone. Your phone manages its own memory just fine. You swiping everything away actually works against it. Put the phone down. |
Incognito mode makes you private. I want to grab people by the shoulders on this one. Incognito only hides your history from other people on your device. That's it. Your internet provider still sees every site you visit. Your employer still sees everything on their network. Websites still log your IP address. Google knows it's you. Incognito is a privacy curtain inside your own house. It does nothing about the people outside. PSA: Incognito is not the same thing as Incogni, a sponsor of my shows, which removes your personal information from data brokers. |
Deleting a photo means it's gone. It isn't. On iPhone, deleted photos sit in your Recently Deleted album for 30 days, fully visible to anyone who picks up your phone. On Android, same story. And if you have iCloud or Google Photos backup turned on? You have to delete them in at least three separate places to get anywhere close to actually gone. People have discovered this the hard way during breakups, job interviews and phone repairs. |
🔋 The one quietly killing your battery tonight |
Charging to 100% every night feels responsible. It isn't. Lithium batteries degrade fastest at the extremes. Apple, Samsung and Google all recommend keeping your charge between 20% and 80%. |
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📩 Send this to someone who still swipes away every background app like it owes them money, or force-quits 47 apps before bed. They need a byte of truth. Use the handy icons below. |
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WEB WATERCOOLER |
🫥 Your "anonymous" account isn't: Think your burner is invisible? Nope. A new study found AI can link fake accounts to real people with 68% accuracy. And when it does make a match, it's right about 90% of the time (paywall link). Your word choice, sentence length, even how you use punctuation? That's your fingerprint. This affects everyone from executives running secret troll accounts to whistleblowers and abuse survivors. And yes, your Aunt Debra's one-star Yelp rampage. Nobody is as anonymous as they think. |
Microsoft wants your bloodwork: Remember when you were told never to put your real name online? Ancient history. Microsoft Copilot Health wants your prescriptions, lab results and Apple Watch heart data to act as your AI concierge doctor (paywall link). It connects to 50,000-plus hospitals and providers if you opt in. One in five Copilot conversations are health-related. Microsoft says it won't train AI on your health data. (Sure.) Love that my cholesterol numbers live next to my Wi-Fi password in the Settings menu. |
💲 Quick math: $110 phone bill x 12 months = $1,320. For a signal that comes from a tower that Consumer Cellular also uses. Over 50? Get one line of unlimited talk, text and data for $35. Under 50? Still way less than you're paying now. I'm not saying your carrier is laughing at you. (I'm a little saying that.) Switch to Consumer Cellular, use code KIM25 for an additional $25 off. Do it before you autopay again.* |
Pokémon is back, baby: I love when a smiling blob moves markets. Pokémon Pokopia is the highest-rated Pokémon game in more than 10 years, and it sold 2.2 million copies in its first four days as a Switch 2 exclusive. You play as Ditto, a pink impostor with a gardening hobby, building a little paradise. Sounds like one of my neighbors. The crazy part? Nintendo stock jumped 18% this week because millions of adults looked at a pink puddle and thought, Yep, that's my weekend. |
🐝 The buzz is over: The quiz and listicle empire that taught millennials which Disney princess they are is in serious trouble. BuzzFeed flagged a "going concern" warning, meaning it may not survive the next 12 months. Shares lost 98% of their value since going public at $1.5 billion in 2021. Stock now trades at a penny. Digital advertisers fled to TikTok and Instagram and never looked back. The company is "exploring strategic options." Translation: looking for a buyer or a miracle. Which Disney princess? Apparently, Bankruptcy Belle. |
| | KIM'S DAILY DEALS | 🧰 Your weekend warrior starter pack | Tackle those nagging projects without the usual fuss. |
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🪛 Daily driver: Electric screwdriver kit (50% off, $30)
4.7 ⭐ 1,600+ reviews | Can't hit that tiny screw hole in a dark corner? Skip the squinting. This cordless screwdriver's built-in LED lights up those tricky spots. Comes with 25 hex bits, and the magnetic lid keeps everything neat. |
|  | Image: HOTO |
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🪚 Sharpest tool: Chainsaw sharpener (20% off, $40)
4.4 ⭐ 3,700+ reviews
Don't toss a dull chain. Titanium-coated bits bring the edge back fast. Best part? Sharpen it right on the saw. No chain removal needed. | Eye armor: Tinted safety glasses (19% off, $17)
4.5 ⭐ 6,100+ reviews
Wraparound lenses fit right over your prescription glasses. You'll protect your peepers without ditching your specs. | 🔦 Small but bright: Mini flashlight (20% off, $20)
4.4 ⭐ 6,200+ reviews
Your phone light is fine, until it isn't. This pocket flashlight shines up to 270 feet. Its base is even magnetic for hands-free fixes. | Easy fix stick: Touch-up paint pen (25% off, $15, two-pack)
4.4 ⭐ 8,500+ reviews
These refillable pens cover up little dings with a quick swipe. A must-have for renters hoping to keep that security deposit. | | Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication. |
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DEVICE ADVICE |
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Your Fire Stick is begging for a restart. Apps glitching? Everything running slow? Hold the Select and Play/Pause buttons together for five seconds. The device reboots itself. No unplugging, no digging behind the TV. Do it once a week, and you'll never sit through that frozen loading screen mid-finale again. Preventative maintenance isn't boring when your show stops buffering. Easy. |
📧 That "unsubscribe" button isn't helping you. It's confirming you're real. Every time you click it, you're telling spammers your address is live, and someone reads it. (Congrats, you made the premium list.) I stopped playing that game. StartMail gives me disposable aliases. Fake address for every sign-up. Spam shows up, I delete the alias, done. Gone. Like it never happened. Get 60% off plus a 7-day free trial with this limited time offer. Stop unsubscribing. Start disappearing. |
🖥️ Hide your entire Windows desktop in two clicks: Right-click anywhere on the desktop, go to View, uncheck Show desktop icons. Poof. Everything's gone. Perfect for when someone leans over your shoulder at the coffee shop. Want them visible but less obvious? Go back to View and switch to Medium or Small icons. Still there but not screaming. Either way, nobody's seeing what you've got going on. Nice, privacy maintained. |
Those old YouTube videos are still public, by the way: Go to your Profile > YouTube Studio > Content and change Visibility to Unlisted. Gone from search. Gone from recommendations. Only people with the direct link can find it. Your memories stay intact. Your dignity? Also intact. And your kids will definitely thank you someday. (Or maybe not. But still.) You could say it's time to ... unlist your past. Ba dum tss. |
🚗 A car remembers everything, even after you sell or rent it: Every phone you've ever paired via Bluetooth, every contact synced, every address typed into the nav, every call made through the speakers. It's all sitting in your infotainment system right now. And when you sell the car, trade it in or return a rental? The next owner gets all of it. Go to your car's Settings > Bluetooth/Connections and do a full factory reset before you hand over the keys. Rental cars are even worse. Whoever had it before you didn't wipe theirs. Think about that. |
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🎙️ CLICK. LISTEN. WATCH. 🎬 |
👂 Listen up! Tune into my award-winning radio show, airing this weekend on 510+ stations. Find yours via our awesome station finder. You can also listen commercial-free on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts. |
📞 You could be next: I talk to callers every week for my national radio show and podcast. Have a burning tech question? Send it to me here. |
Love the show? Tell your local station! Hit their Contact Us page or send a social media shout-out. Your 30 seconds keeps the tech talk coming to your city. Thank you! |
🌊 A life on the line: After her truck flipped into a freezing river, Andi Burns had only 4 inches of air and no way to reach her phone. Her $399 Apple Watch saved her life. Hear the story! |
Don't just listen! Check out the show on my YouTube channel. You get to see how I react to all the stories and calls. So cool. |
👇 Use the links below to listen on your schedule. |
🎧 Or search "Komando" wherever you get your podcasts. I'm everywhere. |
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WHAT THE TECH? |
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 | Image: Grant Parish Sheriff's Office |
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🐦⬛ Jailbird business |
Strengths: Creative. Motivated. Outside-the-box thinker. Weaknesses: Arrested. |
Two women in Louisiana allegedly earned $40,000 to stuff hollow fake crows with drugs and cellphones and drone-drop them into a federal prison. |
The birds looked real as they flew attached to small drones. The escape plan did not. |
They are now significantly closer to the prison than they intended to be. |
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LOGGING OUT … |
🔜 Tomorrow: Data brokers sell lists of people going through divorce, illness, bankruptcy and even cancer. In some cases, your worst moment becomes someone else's marketing lead. I'll show you how this happens, who's buying the data and what you can do to protect yourself. |
The answer: B) Albert Einstein. Born March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany. The universe apparently decided one mind-bending thing per day wasn't enough. Einstein and Pi sharing a birthday feels less like a coincidence and more like the cosmos showing off. Eat a slice today. It's basically a scientific obligation. |
Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018, an unfortunate way to celebrate Einstein's 139th birthday. One genius entered the chat on 3/14. Another signed off on 3/14. |
💾 Your laptop is replaceable. Your files aren't. Your photos, tax documents and years of work vanish when your hard drive dies. I use Carbonite because once it's installed, I never think about it again. I'm protected. Celebrate World Backup Day and get 75% off.* |
Oh, wait. I can't leave you without a smile. Not many people knew that Albert Einstein had a brother that an evil scientist used to experiment on. His name was Frank Einstein. (Now my job here is complete!) |
🌐 Smart people build better worlds. You're doing your part. Thanks for letting me be a part of your journey. — 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. |
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HOW'D WE DO?What did you think of today's issue? |
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Photo credit(s): Gemini, HOTO, Grant Parish Sheriff's Office |
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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