📬 Did someone forward this to you?Sign up here. Tomorrow: A comet is about to put on a free sky show over every state. I’ll break down the best time for you to see it and why this year is extra special.
Welcome to your Tuesday, friend.Somewhere between National Treasure and a gas station junk drawer sits Uber’s annual Lost & Found Index. Phones? Of course. Wallets, keys, luggage and headphones? Naturally. Then riders started leaving things that make me wonder, How is that even possible? A dishwasher. A fish tank. Duck sausage. Live butterflies.
🚕 Uber says thousands of riders left the same body part behind this year. Which one? A) Fingernails, B) Teeth, C) Hair extensions or D) Their spleen? Keep reading, the answer is hanging out at the end waiting for a five-star review.
🛑 Stop wasting money on expensive, ineffective creams. They only treat the surface. The real reason your skin wrinkles or your hair thins is that your body stopped making enough collagen. I fix it from the inside with NativePath. I put a scoop in my tea every morning to restore what time takes away. Get up to 45% off plus free shipping and gifts right now.** — Kim
TODAY’S DEEP DIVE
Haggle rock
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
🤯 WOW! Cable and internet companies bank on your loyalty, literally: Some promo rates reset from $50 to as much as $120 a month after year one. In a Consumer Reports survey of 176,000 members, about 80% of people who haggled won something.
The Short Version: Paste your bill into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, ask for a retention script, then call and say the word “cancel.” Steps below.
📖 Read time: 2 money-saving minutes
Confession time: I hadn't really looked at my Spectrum bill in years. Autopay makes it so easy to look away. When I finally did? I was pissed. I'm paying $125 more a month than when I signed up.
The kids' package? The kids are grown. The sports bundle? Never watched a single game. Internet faster than anyone on my block could possibly need? Come on.
I called. The extras came off. And I decided if it happened to me, it's happening to you.
Because here's the dirty little telecom secret: the price on the ad is for strangers. The price on your bill is for suckers who stopped checking. I was one of them. Their words in spreadsheet form, not mine.
The promo year ends, and the bill quietly climbs $20 to $40 a month. Plans that started around $50 can reset to $80 or even $120. Companies call it "standard pricing." I call it a loyalty tax.
The fix has always been haggling, and the data says it works. When Consumer Reports surveyed 176,000 members, roughly 80% of those who negotiated their bundle came away with a perk or a lower rate. The problem? Most of us hate the call. We freeze, we're too nice, we take the first no.
That’s where AI comes in. It never gets flustered, and it’s read every negotiation guide ever written.
🤖 The 10-minute play
Feed the robot. Open ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and type:
My internet bill is $X/month with [provider], and my promo expired. Competitors here charge $Y. Write me a short, polite phone script asking for their current promotional rate, including what to say if the rep says no and when to ask for the retention department.
Paste in your bill details.
Say the magic word. Call and say “cancel my service” at the menu. That routes you to retention, the folks with discounts regular reps can’t touch.
Read the script. Stay kind. Reps help people they like. If the first answer is no, thank them, hang up and try once more tomorrow. Different rep, different mood, different offer.
💸 Skip the middlemen
Bill-negotiation services like Rocket Money and Billshark do this for you, then keep 35% to 60% of the savings. The AI writes the same script for free. You keep 100%.
Total damage: 10 minutes of typing and one phone call. Worst case, they say no, and you’re out exactly nothing.
This is your rerun-season reminder: Everything’s negotiable. Let’s get ready to grumble!
🎯 Send this to someone who has paid the “standard rate” since 2019 out of politeness.
Most people don’t realize this: collagen production starts declining in your mid-20s and it shows up fast.
Fine lines. Less firm skin. Thinning hair. Brittle nails.
Collagen is what helps keep your skin smooth, plump and youthful-looking.
But not all collagen is the same. That’s where many go wrong.
NativePath Collagen is made with one clean ingredient, sourced from grass-fed cattle and third-party tested for purity. That means no fillers, no junk.**
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Individual results may vary.
🎤 PODCAST: THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW
Teacher’s Snapchat joke got her arrested
(Starts at 7:37) AI flagged a teacher talking about one of her students. The FBI showed up to the school within an hour. Remember, what you type online never really disappears.
Click your favorite podcast player below to listen now or later:
🎧 Or search “Komando” wherever you get your podcasts. I’m everywhere.
WEB WATERCOOLER
💦 War against birds: I watched this guy turn his pigeon problem into a tiny automated border dispute, and I respect the commitment. An engineer rigged an object-detection camera to spot incoming birds, then had a microcontroller fire targeted water spritzes before they could land on his balcony. No traps, no poison, AI playing extremely petty defense. Word is the pigeons are planning a coo of their own. It won’t fly.
📸 Forest sees you: If you drove into Yosemite recently, a camera may have logged your license plate without clearly telling you. Flock cameras started popping up along entrances and scenic roads inside the California national park, putting America’s favorite surveillance state tech into a place people visit to disappear for a while. People are scared the records could be stored or shared beyond their trip. Glad I went in a rental.
🚁 Smoke gets spotted: Living near an area getting blasted by wildfire smoke, or worse, actual fires, this summer? Here’s some good news. APUS 25, newly flight-tested by Israel Aerospace Industries, is designed to patrol huge areas, spot early fires with infrared sensors and send the exact location immediately. That head start could keep families home, protect property and save retirement savings tied up in houses. I’d rather have a drone interrupting one cookout than helicopters and fire trucks circling the neighborhood three hours later.
🛥️ Zucked at sea: Get this. A 21-foot skiff ran out of fuel in chilly Alaskan waters, and the Coast Guard radioed nearby vessels for an assist. Reportedly the closest? Mark Zuckerberg’s nearly 400-foot, $300 million superyacht called Launchpad. The tow instead came from a nearby small Alaskan cruise ship. When its captain told passengers who was anchored nearby, the whole boat booed. Zuck wasn’t on the boat, and his crew said they were on a different radio channel.
🍖 The treat tribunal: I’m not touching this debate without protective gear. Who’s smarter: cats or dogs? Well, a recent study found dogs have more cortical neurons and are usually better at social problem-solving, especially when humans are in the mix. Cats? More independent, and they usually keep working when a treat gets stuck instead of asking us for help. Neither dominates every intelligence test. So who wins? Depends on the assignment. Dogs understand teamwork. Cats understand how to make teamwork look beneath them. Speaking of, what’s the difference between a cat and a comma? A cat has claws at the end of its paws, and a comma is a pause at the end of a clause. Meow!
🎤 PODCAST: DIGITAL LIFE HACK
Songs bring Alzheimer’s patients back
Musical memory is one of the last things Alzheimer’s touches. A personalized playlist can help restore it. Even for a moment. Plus, we help Joseph catalog his 5,000-book collection.
A fixed camera leaves blind spots. The newest Ring pans 360 degrees, so you can scan the whole room, not just one view. Two-way talk lets you shoo your dog off the couch, even while you’re at work.
Image: Ring
🔑 Fumbling that key? Stick this motion light(31% off, $9) above the lock. It flicks on the second you reach for the keyhole in the dark.
Metal muscle: Kicking in doors is burglars’ go-to move. Reinforcement locks(21% off, $22, three-pack) hold up to 800 pounds of force.
🚨 Break-in buzzers: Wireless alarm sensors(15% off, $28, five-pack)give you a loud heads-up when a door or window opens.
Package vault: A delivery lockbox(10% off, $54) tucks packages out of sight and away from porch pirates. Better than “Hide it behind the plant.”
Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication.
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: One good song can unlock a whole playlist. On Spotify, tap ••• next to the track > Go to song radio. On Apple Music, press and hold it or tap ••• > Create Station. Both build a mix around the same vibe, genre or artist. No searching, no scrolling. Just more music you’ll probably like. 🕺
🔊Tired of saying “What?” You know the drill. The TV’s blasting loud enough for the neighbors to follow along. You’re nodding at dinner like you heard the joke. You’re skipping parties because it’s too exhausting to keep up. David has the Horizon IX hearing device and told me, “I hear things like never before!” I believe him. This tiny device zooms in on voices, drowns out background noise and fits comfortably in or behind your ear. No awkward bulk. No more missing punch lines. Simply crystal-clear sound. Try Horizon IX risk-free for 45 days!*
Google Assistant is ending: On Sept. 4, Google will begin shutting it down across Android phones, tablets, Wear OS watches and Android Auto. If you still use it, install Gemini from the Play Store and follow the prompts to make it your new assistant. Good news: “Hey, Google” and many familiar commands will keep working.
🐀 Instagram is snitching on you: The app shows others when you’re online, when you were last active and whether you read their message. To shut it up, go to Settings and activity > How others can interact with you > Messages and story replies > Who can see you’re online. Turn off Show activity status and Show read receipts. Privacy restored.
📺 The big screen, no cable: Showing vacation pics or a video? Don’t pass the computer around. If your Windows PC and TV share the same Wi-Fi, press Win + K and select the TV. Choose Duplicate to mirror your screen, or Second Screen Only to show everything on the TV. The HDMI can stay behind the cabinet. 🔌
🥤 That blender’s not broken: If it stops halfway through a smoothie, the motor may be shutting itself down before it overheats. Turn it off, unplug it and wait 30 minutes. For round two, lighten the load, add more liquid and don’t run ingredients too long at low speed. Need a replacement anyway? Ninja’s got one for $85.
WHAT THE TECH?
Image: @technology via Instagram
🌺 Hawaii Five-Oh no
Google Earth is doubling as Google Military Base Tour. A casual flyover of Oahu shows an absurd amount of American firepower hiding among the palm trees.
Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam hosts the Hawaii Air National Guard’s 154th Wing full of F-22 Raptors, C-17 Globemasters and KC-135 tankers. Fighter jets, flying warehouses and airborne gas stations sharing one driveway.
Add Pearl Harbor’s naval infrastructure, and Oahu starts looking less like paradise and more like a very expensive Swiss Army knife in the Pacific. Apparently, “stealth” doesn’t apply to parking and Google.
Did you know that they passed a law against laughing out loud in Hawaii? Only a low ha is allowed.
LOGGING OUT …
🎓 What you learned today: AI can haggle your internet bill down, a sprinkler now fights pigeons, Yosemite scans plates, wildfire drones buy families a head start, and "Hey Google" is handing off to Gemini. Not bad for one email. Tomorrow: Earth flies through a comet's dust trail, up to 100 meteors an hour, no telescope needed. I'll show you how to watch.
🦷 The answer: B) Teeth. Yes, teeth. Uber says riders left so many this year that they officially made the 2026 trend list, up there with Labubu collectibles, workout gear and vapes. Even more unsettling: Dentures with two teeth still attached made the “most unique” list.
Also abandoned in Ubers? Breast milk, human hair, live fish, a mannequin, pelvis implants, an ankle monitor, a meat slicer and a rhinestoned photo of Jesus. America is doing great.
New York was named Uber’s most forgetful city, followed by Miami and Chicago. FWIW, Uber’s app lets you request a trip to have a lost item returned to you.
Did you hear about the guy who went to the dentist for new dentures? His insurance was denied, and he only had a dollar on him, so he wound up with buck teeth. (Ouch.)
🛑 Don’t wait for the warning signs. Brittle nails, thinning hair and wrinkles happen when your collagen drops as we age. I take NativePath every single day to keep my joints healthy and my skin looking smooth. It dissolves instantly in my morning tea and has zero taste. Get up to 45% off plus free shipping and free gifts right now.**
🔄 When tech misbehaves, we restart it and give it another chance. Works on people, too. Especially the one in the mirror. Fresh start, starting now. — Kim
Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily
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Photo credit(s):ChatGPT/Kim Komando, Ring, @technology via Instagram
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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