Ahoy, on this bright and shiny Tuesday! Unless it’s raining where you are. You know how we start here: Trivia. Amazon wasn’t Jeff Bezos' first rodeo. What was his first business? A summer camp, a limeade stand, a traveling bookstore or a dog-walking service? You’ll find the answer at the end.

🎉 Win big! We're giving away an iPad, MacBook or Windows laptop (your choice, valued at $1,200) to one lucky referrer! Want to win? It's simple. Share your unique referral link with friends, family — anyone who would love our free newsletter.

Each sign-up using your link equals one entry into the contest. The person with the highest number of referrals will win the grand prize. Start sharing and rack up those entries for a chance to bring home some fantastic tech! — Kim

I always like to make sure you’re ahead of the tech curve. Every fall, you can count on leaves changing colors, pumpkin spice cravings and Apple having a big announcement. This year's event on Sept. 12 is called “Wonderlust” — yeah, Apple names them. I know.

You’re probably in one of two camps at this very moment: “Kim, I’m so excited to see the new Apple gear,” or “Kim, I don’t give a rat's a** because I use Android.” I cover major Android announcements, too.

If you’re in the Apple camp, read the whole thing. Android readers, you can skip to the section about the Vision Pro. It’s something everyone needs to know about. So, here’s what my grapevine is "vining" about.

iPhone 15’s big debut

It’s right on schedule following iOS 17, and all rumors point to "Yes." If you’ve been waiting to upgrade your iPhone, it may be time to do it. Highlights for the iPhone 15 include:

• A new titanium shell. This rumor is all but confirmed thanks to a leak from iPhone suppliers. Titanium will make the new iPhone stronger and more shockproof than ever, a boon to those of us who fumble our phones on the reg.
• Maybe — well, probably — the huge switch to USB‑C for the new iPhone models. There’s a good chance new AirPods will get USB‑C, too.
• A shapeshifting Dynamic Island bar that acts like a responsive notification center and “look-at-me” spot for everything your iPhone's doing.

New Apple Watch gets both wander and lust

Apple loves to dump new tech into its smartwatch updates, and since wanderlust means “a big desire to get out and travel,” I’m foreseeing a lot of travel-happy upgrades.

That may include a dual-frequency GPS that recently came to the iPhone 14 line, more durable strap options and a long-awaited update to 5G.

See the Vision Pro (and AR goodies)

The Vision Pro mixed-reality headset is expensive, but that’s what you pay to be at the forefront of augmented reality (AR) tech. With so many years and millions of dollars Apple has spent on this project, it’s understandably going to do everything it can to make sure the Vision Pro doesn’t turn out like Google Glass.

My crystal ball says that once again, Apple will go hard on mentions of AR, the iPhone 15 will work with Vision Pro and new AR tech may have made its way inside the latest iPhones — like an AR shopping feature to help with in-store price comparisons.

Bring on the MagSafe

MagSafe’s lock-on wireless charging is a neat trick, making tripping over your cords way less dangerous. This year, I want to see MagSafe mini speakers, projectors, AirPod cases and maybe even a HomePod Mini with MagSafe on the bottom.

🏴‍☠️ The new iPatch for pirates

Or the iRon for newly married couples. J/k, I made those up. “Now, Kim, it sounds cool, but I won’t watch the event.” I know, friend. That’s why I’m here. We’ll update you on all the announcements next week. For now, start trying to sell that iPhone and Watch if you want a new one! Values will drop very, very soon.

Do you see a body? Check out these pics captured on Google Maps. A woman posted the shots to Facebook, showing what she and many others are convinced is a body. A man is walking a bicycle down a road in Akron, Ohio, with something wrapped in a gray tarp. Can’t decide if I agree or if the internet’s just bored.

🛍 Keep the receipts: Your 2023 taxes might be trickier than last year’s. The IRS is now monitoring what you sell on sites like Etsy, eBay and Facebook Marketplace and through payment processors like PayPal, Square or CashApp. If you make $600 or more on a platform, you’ll get a 1099-K form to report the income. This doesn’t need to be a side hustle, btw. The rules apply if you sell your old car, appliances or anything else. Yeah, thanks.

Console yourself: Jann Mardenborough mastered the game Gran Turismo when he was 8, and now he’s a real-life race car driver. Want to score major kid points? Tell them you want to watch the "Gran Turismo" movie with them to see the story unfold. It’s only in theaters, so prob streaming by year end.

Let’s make a thief's job easier: It’s a pain trying to fit a big smartphone into a tiny purse. Chinese company Honor thinks it’s solved that problem with the world’s first foldable smartphone that doubles as a purse, shoulder strap and all. Yup, not only will you get mugged for your phone, but they'll steal all your money, too.

Because your friends are sick of listening: There’s a new Pentagon website to report run-ins with a UFO: AARO.mil. That’s the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. Currently, access is only open to service members and civilian Pentagon employees. I’ll update you when you can submit your encounter. Cue the alien music.

🍄 Mushrooms may be fun-guys: But this is no joke. AI-generated books on mushroom hunting are "sprouting" up all over Amazon, and their advice can be toxic — literally. One tip suggested identifying mushrooms by taste. I certainly wouldn’t want to taste-test a poisonous mushroom. Ahem, bad idea.

Be a male man: A study from the University of Texas at Austin says many guys are giving EVs the cold shoulder. Why? Gas engines are a marker of masculinity, of course. About 40% of men in the study said EVs would be their last pick of vehicles. I bet the study would turn out differently in another state.

🌯 Extra rice, no problem: It’s annoying when you order food through an app and there’s no way to customize your order. When the Chipotle app wouldn't let a quick-thinking woman add extra rice to her order, she changed her name to “Extra Rice Please.” It worked — she got extra rice! What a smarty. I’m gonna try this trick!

Got a few spare minutes during your drive? Or maybe you're chilling at home? Sounds like the perfect time to tune in to The Kim Komando Show podcast!

I keep it real, breaking down the latest tech trends, cybersecurity tips and gadget reviews into snack-sized, easy-to-understand episodes.

👉 Download an episode today!

Cars[.]com, an undeniably great website URL, sold for $872 million. Insurance[.]com? Yep, $35.6 million. Voice[.]com went for a cool $30 million.

You can head to GoDaddy and grab a domain for $1 a year, but anything truly good is going to cost you. KnownHost analyzed America’s most valuable domains, and you’re really going to see a theme here.

And the top 10 …

1. New England Patriots – Patriots[.]com ($670,799)
2. Minnesota Vikings – Vikings[.]com ($665,515)
3. Seattle Seahawks – Seahawks[.]com ($665,492)
4. Las Vegas Raiders – Raiders[.]com ($655,109)
5. Chicago Bears – ChicagoBears[.]com ($652,719)
6. Pittsburgh Steelers – Steelers[.]com ($651,058)
7. Adidas – Adidas[.]com ($638,100)
8. Los Angeles Rams – TheRams[.]com ($608,736)
9. Dior – Dior[.]com ($503,996)
10. Under Armour – UnderArmour[.]com ($469,956)

Would you look at that? Football teams must get more web traffic than I realized — plus, a one-word URL is pretty dang cool. That’s why I went with Komando.com.

Adidas makes sense, though I bet Nike isn’t happy about it. Luxury brand Dior and sportswear company Under Armour round out the top 10.

Now, does this mean if you offered the Vikings $665,515 for Vikings[.]com, they’d take it? Probably not, but I bet we’ll never have to find out.

💸 Guessing game: How many domains do I own? Reply to this email with your best guess. The closest without going over gets $20 to spend on Amazon! Hurry, I’ll pick a winner at noon Pacific time tomorrow!

Your webcam is good for more than video meetings. Use it as a scanner when you need to get a document onto your computer and don’t want to go through the steps of taking a photo, sending it to yourself and formatting it.

• On a Mac, open Photo Booth. Place your document in front of the webcam and line it up on the screen. Hit the red photo icon to take a picture. It will then appear in the bottom right corner. Drag it onto your desktop for safekeeping.
• On a PC, open the Camera app. Line up your document in front of the webcam, then hit the white camera icon to snap a photo. Your photo will appear in the bottom right corner. Click it, then click the three dots in the upper right. Choose Open folder to see where it’s stored.

👻 Zoom meetings are like seances with the living. “Brian, are you there? Make a sound if you can hear us. Is anyone with you? Can you see us?”

Every week on my national radio show, I talk to interesting folks doing amazing things in tech, everyday people who could use a hand, and I share some of my best tips and tricks.

Missed it? All is not lost! Just tune in to my podcast, Kim Komando Today.

This week on the podcast, I chatted with journalist Jason Koebler of 404 Media about his investigation into sketchy Instagram ads. Plus, a principal is using TikTok to call out her students. Deepfake scam videos spread over social, lost kids found through video doorbells and Google Meet’s new AI features. All that and much more, plus all your calls and questions.

The horse’s name is Mayo. And Mayo neighs.

The answer: A summer camp. In high school, Bezos ran the Dream Institute, an educational camp for fourth through sixth graders. My first job? I worked at Target in the photo department. I quit because I kept missing the target. (Oh, I know that was bad.)

🫡 Share it to win it: This is your reminder to share that unique URL below with all your pals. Post it on your social media profiles, toss it up on Nextdoor, take out a billboard, whatever you want. Can’t wait to give away that $1,200 laptop or iPad! Thanks for letting me in your inbox, and give yourself a pat on the back for learning a few new tech things! — Kim