It’s Friday, friend. Ever buy something with five-star confidence … and return it three days later, muttering, “Never again”? Yeah, same vibes.

Since today’s deep dive is about gadgets, back in 2014, this company tried to rival Apple with its very own “iPhone killer.” Spoiler alert: It died a quiet, pixelated death, so bad that the CEO apologized in a full-page newspaper ad. Guess who: A) Amazon Fire Phone, B) Google Glass, C) Microsoft Zune, or D) BlackBerry Storm? The right answer is at the end.

0️⃣ Zero, zilch, nada: My privacy secret weapon eliminated spam calls and texts on my phone. I negotiated a 60% discount just for you. More below! It’s a big day, and I have a heck of a lot to share. Let’s do this. — Kim

Oh, it’s Friday. Let’s lighten our tech brains and hearts.

Every week, some new gadget promises to make your life easier. There’s a fine line though between “tech that improves your life” and “tech that ends up in a junk drawer next to the USB lava lamp.”

I ran them through the highly scientific Kim Scale™ so you don’t have to. Let me break down the viral tech everyone’s talking about.

👓 Blue Light Glasses

Claim: Reduce eyestrain and improve sleep by filtering blue light from screens.
Reality: Studies show these glasses might help with sleep, but most digital eyestrain comes from not blinking and staring too long, not blue light itself.
Kim Scale: ★★☆☆☆
Verdict: A little helpful if you’re doomscrolling at night, but don’t expect miracles. Honestly, blinking more often is free. Your move, capitalism.

📴 EMF Blockers

Claim: Shield your body from harmful electromagnetic radiation.
Reality: There’s no solid scientific proof that EMF-blocking stickers or necklaces actually do anything, but they’re big business.
Kim Scale: ☆☆☆☆☆
Verdict: Science and I both say skip it. It’s giving a “tinfoil hat, but make it on Etsy” vibe.

🖥️ Anti-Spy Screen Filters

Claim: Keep people from viewing your screen from side angles.
Reality: These actually work! If you’re checking email at a coffee shop or handling private info on a plane, they’re a smart choice.
Kim Scale: ★★★★☆
Verdict: Privacy win. Good for privacy, or for pretending you’re working when you’re definitely not.

🛏️ The Self-Making Smart Duvet

Claim: Makes your bed with the push of a button.
Reality: This thing literally inflates inside your duvet to straighten your sheets every morning. Cool? Yes. Practical? Depends how lazy you want to get.
Kim Scale: ★★☆☆☆
Verdict: Equal parts impressive and ridiculous. Coming soon: a Roomba that brushes your teeth and tells you you’re special.

🍌 The Banana Phone

Claim: A Bluetooth-enabled banana-shaped handset that lets you make and receive calls.
Reality: Connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth, allowing you to talk into a banana-shaped device.
Kim Scale: ★★★☆☆
Verdict: A-peeling.

Well, there you have it. Is there a killer gadget I should add into the next edition? Let me know by replying to this email. I read every one, even if it says — Sent from Banana Phone.

🤦‍♀️ Speaking of … I inherited a magic device that floats in the sky and weaves magic carpets. You might say it’s a “family air loom.” (Sometimes I crack myself up writing these!)

Every day, your personal information is floating around the internet — bought and sold by data brokers who profit off your private details. That’s why I always recommend Incogni.

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🧨 Judge rocks Google’s ad empire: He says Google illegally dominated two major online ad markets: its publisher ad server and ad exchange. The feds say it’s time to sell off Google Ad Manager. Meanwhile, another antitrust trial is heating up next week that could force Google to also offload Chrome.

🚨 Life insurance data breach alert: Landmark Admin, which works with life insurance and annuities, got hacked last year with an estimated 800,000 people hit. Yeah, we’re just hearing about it now. Surprise, it was actually over 1.6 million. If you’re one of them, you’ll get a letter. Watch out for sketchy calls, texts or emails to be safe. At this point, getting hacked is just America’s newest rite of passage.

🪐 A fishy planet: Scientists just got a whiff of something suspicious on K2-18b, a distant “hycean” world 120 light-years away. While scanning its atmosphere, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope picked up dimethyl sulfide, a gas that, here on Earth, only comes from living things like plankton. Looks like SpongeBob’s nemesis finally made it to the big time.

😴 Schools are teaching kids how to sleep: Forget band and robotics. Most teens are getting just six hours of sleep a night, way below the recommended eight for developing brains. Blame late-night scrolling and heavy schedules. The fix? Classes that teach time management, no phones before bed and skipping midnight snacks. Next up: teaching Gen A how to blink between TikToks.

Hackers want your home: Cybercriminals can steal your home title, take out massive loans in your name and leave you stuck with the fallout. It’s one of the fastest-growing cybercrimes. Get peace of mind with a free home title history report when you sign up with Home Title Lock using code KIM. You’ll also get a free 14-day trial of their Million Dollar Triple Lock Protection.*

👮 Stop, it’s the police: DJI made new drone accessories that let cops yell at you from the sky. The Zenmuse V1 speaker blasts voices at up to 127 decibels, which is about as loud as a jet taking off. Nothing says “subtle police presence” like a screaming metal bird. There’s also a spotlight that beams light up to 500 meters (that’s 0.3 miles for the rest of us).

🌲 Moose on the loose: A Swedish TV station is livestreaming moose as they cross the Ångerman River to warmer spots for summer. Over 30 cameras show peaceful forests and rivers (with night vision, too). Sometimes a moose strolls by. Sometimes … nothing happens for hours. It’s like Netflix for people who breathe essential oils. Watch it here.

💪 From your morning workout to late-night routine, I’ve got your back.

👉 Your ground game: Protect your floors from scuffs with an interlocking puzzle mat (12% off) during your sweat sessions.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: In Word or Google Docs, press Ctrl + Enter (Windows) or Command + Enter (Mac) to start a fresh page. No need to smash Enter 10 times. Saves time, so you can get back to Googling, “How can I get my cat TikTok famous?”

🏠 AI meets HGTV: Remodeling your home? Upload your photos to ChatGPT 4o and watch it create realistic design renderings in minutes. This way, you can see your vision before trying to win over your skeptical spouse or grabbing that paintbrush.

Pro Windows user? Use “God Mode” to access all your Control Panel settings in one place. Just create a new folder anywhere, like on your desktop, and rename it to this exact string: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} Hit “Enter,” and the folder icon will change to a Control Panel icon. Opening this new folder will give you a powerful, centralized view of virtually all settings and configuration options in Windows.

⌨️ iPad typing trick: Did you know you can use the space bar as a trackpad? Just tap and hold the space bar, wait for the keys to fade out and you’ll be able to move the cursor through text easily. Trying to select text? While still holding down, tap once on the keyboard with another finger, then let go. You can now highlight the text you want.

🛍️ Set up shop: Turn your followers into customers with an Instagram shop. You’ll need a Business profile, which you can create during setup. Just go to the Facebook Shops page, click Get Started and follow the steps. Once approved, tag products in posts, so your followers can buy them easily. Buy my shirt, my ego and the dream I had when I posted this.

Switching to StartMail is easier than you think. You can transfer your inbox and contacts in just a few clicks — no hassle, no headaches. Unlike big tech email providers, StartMail puts your privacy first. No more scanning your messages to target you with ads. Just secure, private email that puts you in control. Check it out now.*

Starting today, Gemini Advanced will let you conjure stunning eight-second video clips.

Think Pixar with a caffeine addiction and a PhD in physics. Just describe your scene, and boom: cinematic realism, smooth motion, zero effort. It’s like hiring Spielberg, but he lives in your laptop and doesn’t judge your creative choices.

Also rolling out: Whisk Animate, the AI tool’s artsy younger sibling, which now lets you animate your creations. Draw it, prompt it, and your weirdest doodles can now move. It’s finally time to launch that cartoon pilot.

It’s available now if you pay for Gemini Advanced at gemini⁠.google⁠.com.

📱The answer: A) The Amazon Fire Phone, a flaming flop if there ever was one. Launched with Bezos-size ambitions, it also came with a Bezos-size apology, fizzling faster than a wet sparkler. Turns out, its flashy features like 3D head-tracking weren’t the future, they were just dizzying.

The phone lasted barely a year before Amazon quietly yeeted it into the tech graveyard, right next to Google Glass and Clippy’s acting career.

✅ Privacy? It’s possible. Incogni has sent over 1,400 requests to data-broker and people-search sites on my behalf. I’ve tried doing this myself over the years, and I was happy if I got to a dozen. There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee, too, so you have nothing to lose. Use my link for 60% off. You’ll be so glad you did!

Tomorrow, the perfect use for an old phone you’re going to love in the best tech newsletter in the USA! Now go dazzle the world with your brain and your bandwidth. You are so incredible! — Kim

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