Happy Tech Tuesday, friend! Let’s jump in with something neat coming down the pike. Next up for Apple AirPods: Cameras! Nope, not for snapping pics. These cameras will let you use gestures to control your phone. You flick a finger in the air near your head to turn up the volume. I hope they come with an “Italian mode.”

See, that little snippet alone is worth the cost of this newsletter! Wait, it’s free. Yep, tell a friend. The more the merrier at this tech party. — Kim

Sometimes, your favorite gadgets betray you. No, I’m not talking about when your phone dies at 3 p.m. I mean like the British guy whose wife found text messages to a prostitute on his iPhone that he thought he'd deleted. Now he's suing Apple for $6 million.

Sure, that guy had it coming, but even if you’re not doing anything shady, messages, photos and other files you delete often don’t disappear right away. They usually stick around for at least a month in case you want to bring them back.

That's a problem if you want to sell or lend your phone to someone or if you share devices with your kids or partner. Here’s how to make sure your private pictures and documents don’t come back from the digital grave.

Messages

Photos and videos

Other files

Your phone has lockers for general files, too.

Stay in sync

If you have sync turned on, your apps and devices sync with the cloud and other gadgets all the time — but there’s a lot to watch out for.

If you want to sell your device, you’ll want to know how to turn it off. And if your syncing gets turned off accidentally, something you delete on one device could stick around on another.

If you're syncing across a mix of Windows, Android and Apple devices, it's a little more complicated. First things first, check your sync settings in your browser.

For Chrome on Windows and macOS:

Can’t fit ‘em all here, but I have more tips for Phone Link and iCloud for Windows on my site!

Oh, and don't forget to check syncing on any other file-sharing apps you use like OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox.

💜 Never trust a website with purple terms and conditions. They clearly violet your privacy.

💔 Grieving woman texts her late dad and receives a reply: After her dad passed away, a woman thought texting his cell number might help her cope. For months, she messaged. Then one day, she got a reply: “I’m sorry,” it said. “They gave his number away.” She switched to messaging him on Facebook.

🤖 ChatGPT warning: When you get info on ChatGPT, the results often include citation links. Click one and it might take you to scam central. Some links, like “County Local News,” are riddled with dodgy pop-ups pretending to be Adobe Flash updates or fake McAfee virus scans. Watch out!

Mirror, mirror on the road: A Cybertruck owner turned his EV into a literal disco ball on wheels by polishing it to a mirror-like shine. It's up for sale for $149,999. Hard pass, given this thing could blend right into its surroundings!

🌟 Celeb appreciation: Morgan Freeman thanked fans on X for exposing a TikTokker using AI to mimic his voice. The woman pretending to be his "nepo niece" (a relative who benefits from someone’s fame) used fake Morgan to narrate her day-in-the-life video. The clip pulled in hundreds of thousands of likes. Crazy.

Night-vision tech is getting better: Researchers are developing ultra-thin, lightweight infrared filters — think thinner than cling wrap and lighter than a gram — that fit right over your regular specs. Just imagine asking your optometrist to add night vision to your prescription lenses. Sign me up!

Track your health: More doctors are incorporating the Apple Watch into patient care, especially for managing diseases. Case in point (paywall link): A woman with atrial fibrillation sends data from her watch to her doc to make sure her medication and lifestyle are on point. Want one? Check out the Apple Watch SE, Series 9 or Ultra 2.

You need to give a sheet: If your job applications go ignored, you could be applying for "ghost jobs" — listings for positions that don’t really exist. Companies use them to trick staff into thinking help is on the way or, worse, to scare them into feeling replaceable. The tip-off: These roles linger around without any updates.

🏠 Real estate therapy: Browsing Zillow is the new way to manage stress (paywall link). Some folks look at homes within their budget, imagining what could be. Others browse properties worse than their current digs to feel grateful. I have my old homes and rentals saved so I get alerts when they change hands. It’s fun to track!

Better AI prompts: For creative work, tell AI to write for a certain reading level. For the general public, that’s around an eighth-grade level. (No one needs to struggle to read your marketing, website or email copy.)

⌨️ Custom keys: Change how the touchpad and keyboard work on your Chromebook. Go to Settings > Device > Touchpad/Keyboard. Sweet options: Changing what a right-click does and treating the top row of keys as function keys.

Have a Yelp page? Businesses that include their hours, phone number, website and a photo on Yelp get 7.6 times more pageviews per month. Dang. Log in and make sure yours is up to date!

🔠 I use it all the time: If you have an iPhone XS, XR or later, your phone can recognize text in photos, images and video. Just hold down on text in a pic you took or downloaded, and then you can paste that text wherever you want. The same goes for recent-model Androids.

Watched everything on Netflix already? Try the Roku Channel for movies and TV shows without a Roku account. Open the website on any browser. When prompted to sign in, click I’ll do it later. FYI: You can watch free, premium and live content on the iOS and Android Roku app, too.

The only way to keep it your business do that is with a VPN. A virtual private network encrypts your data and hides your IP address, giving you an extra layer of protection from snoops, advertisers and Big Tech companies looking to profit off you.

Some VPNs slow your connection or, worse, track your internet activity and compromise your security. Not ExpressVPN. Plus, you can connect in just one click from a Windows PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, iPad, you name it.

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Only if you let me control the radio.

❣️ Thank you. All your kind birthday wishes made my day extra special. I’ll never forget what my mother told me when I turned 40: “It’s better than the alternative!” Remember, I’m here for you, too. If you need a hand with something tech in your life, drop me a note.

Help me help you. To make sure you never miss an issue, drag my emails to the “Primary” tab in Gmail, or click the little flag or star to mark them as important in just about any email provider. Help here if you need it!

See you tomorrow with one I know you’ll love: Fun, free AI tools if you want to try your hand at bot creations. Be sure to click a rating below, too, so we know how we’re doing! — Kim