Welcome to the Saturday tech party, friend! Football season is upon us, and everyone knows it’s my favorite sport. OK, I’m kidding. But I got a kick out of this: If you want to watch every single NFL game this season (about 340 in all), it’ll cost you around $1,700. It’s even more if you subscribe to cable — $2,500 for the entire season. That’s some pigskin power!

0️⃣ Zero, zilch, nada. I get no spam phone calls and texts after using Incogni. It wiped my DOB, address, Social Security number, phone number and more from over 380 data-broker and people-search sites that sell your data to anyone willing to pay. Use code KIM60 to get 60% off. It’s fabulous! — Kim

A dollar here, $10 there. Streaming services used to be the way to watch what you wanted for much cheaper than cable or satellite. Now? Not so much.

As with everything, what’s old is new again, and more and more folks are ditching paid options for freebies. Sure, you have to put up with ads, but most of today’s streaming services now have those, too!

The most popular free option by far is YouTube. Nielsen says it’s the No. 1 streaming service, with 10.4% of total TV consumption. Netflix comes in second, with 8.4%. Let’s take a closer look at some of the less popular but still great free options out there.

Free TV, please

Pluto TV: Pluto’s owned by Paramount, so you get over 250 free channels, including news, sports and lifestyle options. It’s got a solid selection of old TV shows, plus some movies. It’s also compatible with most streaming devices and platforms, like Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Roku and PlayStation TV.

Tubi: Tubi gives you over 50,000 movies and TV shows, thanks to content from big studios like MGM, Lionsgate and Paramount. You can watch it on your smartphone, laptop, and pretty much any other streaming or gaming console.

YouTube: You can find thousands of TV show episodes and even feature films on it for free (with ads). Not to mention, creators like MrBeast have full-length, high-production shows that give regular TV a run for its money. And you get my shows for free, too.

The Roku Channel: Get thousands of free movies and TV shows, along with over 350 live channels, on any Roku streaming device, compatible Samsung smart TVs or Amazon Fire TVs, or the Roku app. The content is constantly updated, and they have some surprisingly solid originals, too, like "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" and "The Great American Baking Show.”

Crackle: If British TV is your jam, Crackle might be your best bet. It has a lot of BBC shows, like the sitcom “Peep Show” and comedy-drama series “Shameless,” plus a big library of movies and classic TV series, including "The Dick Van Dyke Show." The downside? Long ads before and during programming. Bollocks …

Freevee: Freevee is Amazon’s free arm, so you’ll need an Amazon Prime account for this one. But once you’re in, it has thousands of free movies and TV episodes with fewer ads than network TV. It also has some excellent original content, like “Jury Duty,” which was nominated for an Emmy last year and is wet-your-pants funny.

Kanopy: This one’s my ringer. Kanopy lets you watch thousands of films completely ad-free using your public library card. They have a great selection of classic, critically acclaimed and foreign films. Stream ‘em on your phone, tablet or almost any other TV streaming device, including Apple TV, Roku and Chromecast.

🥊 I’ve decided to stream all the Sylvester Stallone movies. Unfortunately, I’m off to a “Rocky” start. (Yeah, you can use that one without giving me credit!)

To a criminal, any little bit of personal info can be a way into your wallet. Say someone finds an embarrassing old social media post or your Social Security number. Before you know it, they’re in your inbox asking for money or they’ll send it to everyone you know.

This happens to folks every single day. Online extortion is one of cybercriminals’ favorite tricks in 2024. The best way to protect yourself is to get all that sensitive info off of the web. My secret weapon is Incogni.

Create an account and they get to work removing you from people-search and data-broker sites immediately. So far, they’ve saved me over 200 hours — more than eight days! Once they remove your info from a site, they follow up to make sure you’re never added back. Sweet.

⚠️ Scammers can be victims, too: A woman calling herself “Sara” told ABC News her heartbreaking story. She was living in South Africa and applied for a customer service job in Bangkok. Before she knew it, she was taken to a compound in Myanmar, where her passport was taken and her cellphone’s SIM card was destroyed. She was held prisoner, told to play the part of an Asian woman and forced to scam others online. She escaped but not everyone does.

This is frightening: Virtual medical company Confidant Health exposed the sensitive health details of thousands of people. The 5.3 terabytes (paywall link) of publicly accessible data included video and audio recordings of therapy sessions and multipage reports of psychiatry intake notes. They say it’s now locked down and no malicious actors accessed patient records … that they know of.

⚓ They need a big dock: A U.S. Navy crew got so tired of bad Wi‑Fi on the 418-foot USS Manchester that they illegally installed Starlink and put the ship in danger. Senior crew members named the network “STINKY” and used it to check sports scores, stream movies and talk to family. The one who orchestrated it lied to her commanding officer about the installation and then got caught red-handed when a maintenance crew came aboard.

Gotta wing it: Imagine soaring a couple of hundred feet above the ground in your own personal aircraft. They’re called “short-hop adventure crafts” and they’re taking off. (Sorry, had to.) The electric BlackFly requires only seven days of training before you (not me) can take to the skies. Watch it in action.

🍏 The Apple rumor mill is churning: Apple is planning an October event to show off new iPads and Macs, so don’t buy either of those right now. I see an upgraded iPad mini, MacBook Pro, Mac mini and iMac with the M4 chip. Reminder: The new iPhone 16 models are coming this Monday. Pricing starts at $800, with the Pro models topping $1,100.

🆕 Bluetooth 6.0 is incredible: One of the coolest new features is channel sounding, which calculates distance with crazy precision — think tracking devices with centimeter-level accuracy. Imagine finding your lost TV remote or some other gadget in an instant. Give it about a year till this tech is ready for you and me to use.

“The Magic School Bus” IRL: Scientists are testing new tech that could stop a brain aneurysm before it happens. The method? Nanorobots smaller than most bacteria. They have a magnetic core that doctors can move to where they’re needed to deposit a clotting agent. That, in turn, prevents the stroke that comes after a brain aneurysm. Amazing.

Hear the world: If you ever ask anyone to repeat something they said, check out the new, dual-processor, almost invisible hearing aids from hear.com. The company has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, a 4.9 out of 5 rating with Consumer Affairs and a 100% money-back guarantee. Click here to find out today if you qualify for a 45-day risk-free trial.*

Actually, yes, much-needed filters — for screens, fans and more.

📻 Listen up! The weekend means my national radio show is airing all across the country. Find your local station on social media and give them a nice thank you. Then, tag me, and I’ll pick one person to win a Komando ball cap.

Find what you want: Google Photos has a slick, new, Gemini AI-powered tool: Ask Photos. Open your app to see if you have early access. If so, you’ll find an Ask button at the bottom of your screen. Type in searches in regular language, like, “On the boat with Barry” or “Playing ball with Abby.”

You’re too close: Holding your phone too close to your face puts extra strain on your eyes. On iPhones, you can get a friendly warning. Open Settings > Screen time and toggle on Screen distance. Pro tip: If your text is too small, fix that under Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size.

Side biz at your main gig: Amazon is using small businesses as delivery partners — think local coffee joints, florists or yoga studios. They say you can make up to $27,000 a year. Apply here.

Count me in: GnuCash is free, open-source accounting software with many of the same features as Quicken. You can use it entirely offline, too. But if you’re using QuickBooks, you need to check out NetSuite. They’re giving away a free guide to AI and Machine Learning right now. Grab it before it’s too late!

Spotted at the Enterprise Rent‑A‑Car counter in Santa Barbara! (Click here to see it bigger on your screen.)

🏈 For you football fans, here’s how to catch every game. Hope you’ve been saving up. My very favorite part of football season? The tight ends — ahem, I mean the snacks!

That reminds me … Why would an octopus make a good football player? Because it’d have 10 tackles a game. (Oh, I heard you laugh!)

✅ Don’t forget to check out today’s sponsor, Incogni. I’m so happy to hear from all of you who’ve reached out because Incogni’s working so well for you. Doesn’t it feel good to take back your privacy? Until tomorrow, stay your wonderful self. — Kim