It’s Wednesday, friend. Back in 2014, a historic moment in human evolution occurred. It was the first-ever Apple Pay purchase.

Behold: Mankind’s leap into contactless commerce. Can you guess what was the first item ever purchased using Apple Pay? A) A burrito at Chipotle, B) A tube of lip balm at Walgreens, C) A soda at McDonald’s, or D) A pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks? Find the answer at the end!

Zero, zilch, nada: My privacy secret weapon eliminated spam calls and texts on my phone. Silence feels so good. I negotiated a 60% discount just for you. More below!

⭐️ Like what you’re reading? Hit “favorite,” so I don’t end up in Spamland. It’d mean the world to me. — Kim

Is it just me, or does it feel downright offensive to pay $25 for in-flight Wi-Fi that barely loads your email?

Here’s the nasty truth: Some folks on your flight are scrolling TikTok or answering emails for free.

The secret? A mix of loyalty perks, smart credit card picks and a little insider know-how. Let me break it down.

🆓 Airline freebies

You might already have free Wi-Fi and not even know it.

🎬 Pro tip: Don’t count on the plane’s Wi-Fi working. Been there, it’s hell on wings. Before you take off, set your Google Drive to offline access and download a couple of Netflix movies or Spotify playlists to your device, so you’re not stuck staring at the seat back in front of you.

💳 Credit card or service

Some credit cards include free or discounted Wi-Fi perks that can pay for themselves after a few trips.

Also, T-Mobile users, you get free texting and Wi-Fi on Alaska, Delta, American and United flights. Just enter your phone number midair.

👉 Pro tip: Buy Wi-Fi ahead of time if you’re not covered. Airlines like Alaska offer preflight passes for less than what they charge on the plane.

If you fly a lot, check if your airline offers a monthly Wi-Fi subscription. For example, Delta and United have flat-rate plans for frequent fliers that are worth it if you travel often. It’s basically a Costco membership for your attention span.

One more thing: Wi-Fi is usually tied to the device. Pay on your phone? You can’t just jump to your laptop. Learned that the hard way on an American flight and paid again for my laptop. At first, I thought it was a joke that went over my head.

Truth is, with just one Google search, someone could find out where you live. Whether it's a stalker or scammer, your personal info is out there and that’s just scary.

But there’s a way to stop it: Incogni. They go beyond removing your name from Google results. Incogni works in the background to erase your data from people-search sites, data brokers, and shady databases you didn’t even know existed.

One of my readers shared this about their experience:

"I have been using Incogni for about a year now. To me, it’s worth every penny I spend on it each month. I started using it because of an article you wrote, so thank you very much."

You can protect yourself too, and it’s easier than you think.

👩‍💼 Midweek slump? Time to freshen up your workspace.

🔌 Ten ports = one hub: Grab this neat USB charging hub (33% off) and power up all your tech at once.

🛒 Visit my Amazon store for more of my recommendations.

🍪 93.7 billion cookies for sale: And nope, not the Girl Scouts kind. Hackers are selling browser cookies on the dark web, so they can access your accounts with no login needed. How’d they get them? Infostealer malware from shady downloads. Be careful what you click.

AirTagged and attacked: This is frightening. Miami man Andres Dorado allegedly planted an Apple AirTag tracker in his estranged wife’s car, then used it to crash her hotel date and stab her new partner. A knife, broken window and GPS breadcrumbs later, cops found the AirTag was linked to his phone and arrested him on the spot.

Gemini is watching: Google’s Gemini AI can now watch videos you dump in Drive and give you notes like a nerdy intern who doesn’t sleep. It’ll spit out meeting takeaways or product updates, but only if the captions are on. Congrats, even your AI thinks your all-hands meeting was boring.

🦷 May the floss be with you: I never thought this would be something.Tufts made a smart dental floss that detects cortisol (your stress hormone) by poking around spit and sends the drama readings straight to your phone. Coming next: trauma-reading mouthwash.

Silicon in your skull: Neuralink’s got company. Paradromics just put a brain chip in a human in a clean 20-minute surgery during epilepsy treatment. It’s their first human implant to prove the tech works; the brain chip was removed after 20 minutes. Next stop: a full clinical trial, and maybe someday, mind-controlled emails. What could go wrong?

💸 PayPal is leaving Google Wallet: Starting June 13, you won’t be able to use your PayPal account to pay through Google Wallet anymore. If you’ve got any recurring payments set up, switch your payment method ASAP. The good news? PayPal-branded Debit Mastercards still work just fine.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Bookmark your bank’s login page. Hackers create look-alike sites to trick you. Using a saved, official bookmark sidesteps typos that lead to phishing traps.

😴 Brain won’t shut off? Let me help. Watch this quick video with my tips. Hit the heart, so more people will find it, too. TY!

Master iPad gestures: In any app, swipe up from the bottom to return to the Home screen. Swipe sideways on the bottom bar to switch between apps. Want the Dock? Swipe up slowly from the bottom. You can also drag an app from the Dock to the side to multitask in a new window.

👆 Search your PC in seconds: Press Windows key + S and start typing. You can pull up apps, files, system settings and web results in seconds. No more clicking around or digging through menus.

🎧 Spotify sounding flat? On mobile, it might default to lower audio quality to save data. On iOS, go to Settings and privacy > Audio Quality and set it to High. On Android, go to Settings and privacy > Media Quality and set it to High. If you have Premium, there’s also a Very High option. One great option that always sounds great is my show, imho.

Unblur that photo: AI image upscalers can sharpen your fuzzy pics, but they’re not all reliable or safe. DGB.LOL is a collection of tools that keeps your uploads private and deletes them from its servers after 24 hours. It’s free, too. Score.

Think your email’s private? Think again. Big Tech tracks everything. That’s why I use StartMail. No ads, no tracking, just private email. Try it free for seven days and get 60% off your first year.*

Ever spot clouds glowing after sunset and think, “Am I hallucinating?” Nope, you just met a noctilucent cloud (NLC). These ultrahigh, night-shining clouds drift 50 miles above Earth and catch sunlight long after our part of the planet is dark.

Scientists are trying to figure out why these glowing clouds are showing up in new places, and they want you on the case. If you spot silver-blue clouds that look like a wispy alien signal, snap a pic and log it on CitSci.org via the Space Cloud Watch project.

Even if you see nothing, that’s useful, too; absence counts as data. You’ll be helping scientists study the mesosphere (aka the middle child of Earth’s atmosphere).

Answer: B) A tube of lip balm at Walgreens. The first Apple Pay transaction happened on Oct. 20, 2014, just one day after Apple launched the service.

The buyer? TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino picked up ChapStick simply because it was da balm and the cheapest item he could grab quickly.

👉 Before you go: Incogni has requested my info be removed from over 1,400 different data-broker and people-search sites. I’ve tried doing this myself over the years, and I was happy if I got to a dozen. Incogni offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose. Use my link for 60% off.

You just read the #1 free tech newsletter in the U.S. Brain: updated. Inbox: upgraded. Tomorrow, we’re talking about hearing tech, AI kangaroos and more. Until then, stay sharp and stay scam-free because you’re tech ahead! 🔒 — Kim

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