Happy Fri-yay! Hope it’s been a good week for you. Could you go two weeks without the internet on your phone? Yeah, me neither. Researchers put 467 people to the test. Get this: Their attention spans improved as much as if they had turned back the clock 10 years. So, after you finish my newsletter, unplug for a bit? You might just feel a little sharper.

🔐 Manage, store and autofill secure passwords. This is important. Keep your logins locked down with my favorite password manager for PC, Mac, Android, iPhone and web browsers. More below. Onto the tech smarts! — Kim

Right on my Mac desktop, I can check my mouse battery (38% and dropping), see where my son Ian is (at work), get the latest weather update (hello, sunny Phoenix!), and even keep track of time with a world clock.

Widgets are like mini windows into your favorite apps, giving you instant info without the hassle of opening them up. Want to set yours up? I’ve got you covered!

For all my Windows pals

These steps may vary if you’ve already played around with widgets. Windows displays widgets in a board you can access by hovering over the weather icon in your taskbar or pressing Windows + W.

• Click the + (plus) at the top to add new widgets, then Pin any you like. To see more options, follow Find more widgets.
• Click the three dots (top left) on any widget to remove or customize it. For the stocks widget, for instance, you can pick which stocks are shown.

⭐ Photos and Shopping are useful, but look around and see what works for you. To put widgets on your actual Windows desktop, not a pop-up panel, you’ll need a third-party app, like the freemium Widget Launcher.

If you’re using macOS

On your desktop, click the date and time in the top right corner. The notification center pops up. That’s where you’ll find widgets. 

• Click Edit Widgets at the bottom of the panel to add new ones. You can also hit Cmd + click on the desktop, then pick Edit Widgets to add them directly. You’ll get lots of choices, from news feeds to sticky notes.

Drag widgets down from the notification center to the desktop to move them. macOS will arrange them in a grid to keep your desktop tidy.

Pro tip: If you’ve got a MacBook, you definitely need the battery widget. It’ll remind you how much juice is left in your laptop aka how quickly you need to find a charger.

🤣 Why’d the pirate update his MacBook? His matey told him he needed an iPatch. (Sorry, had to.)

Did you know 68% of Americans worry about their family’s safety online? For good reason! The average internet user juggles around 100 different passwords. That’s a lot of potential risks.

Letting your browser save your passwords is quick, automatic and doesn’t require much thought. But convenience comes at the cost of security. Imagine the fallout if someone swiped your computer and all the passwords saved to it. What you really need is a password manager like NordPass, packed with email masking, password sharing, a password generator and a password health tool to ensure you’re always protected. 

NordPass keeps your most sensitive information — passwords, personal IDs, Wi-Fi credentials, PIN codes and passport details — all in one encrypted vault, accessible anytime, anywhere, on any device.

💸 An older adult lost a whopping $2.09 million in a gold bar scam: But she’s getting 40% back. Morgan Stanley has to pay her $843K for failing to follow industry standards. Banks are supposed to flag big withdrawals and check with a trusted contact first. They didn’t.

Listen up, Workspace Teams: No more, “I didn’t know.” Your Google Meet AI notetaker is getting an upgrade. Now, meeting transcripts will include a checklist of suggested next steps, complete with tasks, due dates and assigned members. 

This is important: Global myopia rates have tripled since 1990, increasing the risk of cataracts, glaucoma, and blindness (paywall link). The culprit? Too much screen time. Reminder: Every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds to protect your eyes. I like puns about eyes, the cornea the better.

📺 Did Netflix cross a line? If you’ve seen “American Murder: Gabby Petito,” you heard Gabby reading her journals and texts. The filmmakers actually used AI to clone the murder victim’s voice. They say her family approved, but some are calling it “monstrous” to tell her story this way. What do you think?

Safe Wi-Fi anywhere: Using public Wi-Fi is risky no matter where you go. It doesn’t make a difference if you stay at a five-star luxury hotel, have lunch at your hometown diner or you’re at the airport. The easy way to protect yourself? Turn on a VPN.*

Amazon switcheroo: Starting Feb. 26, you can’t download Kindle books onto anything other than an Amazon device. So, right now, sign in to Amazon, click Accounts & Lists > Content Library > Books. On the one you want, hit More actions > Download & transfer via USB.

🍸 Shaken, not stirred: The Broccoli family has produced every James Bond film since 1962. In 2022, they sold the rights to Amazon for $8.5 billion (as part of the MGM acquisition). After years of power struggles, Amazon now has creative control and hopefully we’ll see a new James Bond soon. Speaking of … Where do James Bond actors go when they die? 00Heaven. (So good!)

• Sweet pants hangers ($17) that don’t take up nearly as much space.
• The best hand cream! O’Keefe’s is cheap, unscented and doesn’t leave your hands greasy. They make a lip repair balm, too!
• Don’t let a lunch mishap ruin your favorite shirt. Grab a Tide pen stain remover ($7.88). I used one to get mascara off a white T-shirt the other day!
• Not much space? These shelves (two for $20) that go over your power socket are genius.
• No more jumbled mess of cords for me. I stuck my blow dryer and curling iron in basket that hangs from the cabinet (19% off).

⭐ Your new BFF in the kitchen: A metal scraper you can use to move veggies from the cutting board to the pan, scrape gunk off the counter, cut dough, whatever.

Sign language AI: This is amazing. Nvidia’s new AI helps you learn American Sign Language right in your browser using your webcam. If you already know ASL, you can record signs to build out their dataset.

💬 Discord is super popular with kids: If yours use it the chat app, go to User Settings > Privacy & Safety > Safe Direct Messaging > Keep Me Safe. This enables the explicit media content filter. It’s worth explaining to your kiddo why you’re turning this on.

I order supplements online: Mix two scoops of collagen* into your coffee or smoothie. I do this every morning to keep my skin, bones and joints happy. (Psst, it’s 45% off and you’ll get free shipping with my link.)

Share tabs across iPhone and iPad: On both devices, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud. Turn Safari on. Now you can tap the Tabs button (overlapping squares) > iCloud Tabs. Tap to see what’s open on your other devices.

Open in a New Tab: It’s not just an option in your browser. When you’re in the finder window on a PC, right-click and choose Open in a New Tab.

Lost in Space Slack? Use the arrows at the top to move to the channel you were just in. Or use your keyboard: Cmd + [  on Mac, Alt + back arrow on Windows. Hit the clock icon to see your history. 

A Gulf by any other name … You can make your own, too. 

Aren’t you smart: MIT has 2,558 free courses online. Learn about anything that strikes your fancy, like FinTech (crypto, AI, APIs, oh my!), moral psychology or the ethics of technology.

😆 There's a University called the National University of Science and Technology It's not called the National University of Technology and Science, because that would be NUTS.

✅ Hit this page for 58% off my password manager pick. You’ll be glad you took a smart online security step. Bonus (I get asked this a lot): This password manager makes it easy-peasy to share your passwords with a trusted contact when you pass away.

Thanks for being here. Be sure to drop your suggestions when you rate this newsletter if there’s something you want to see. Let’s do this again, eh? Tomorrow? OK, see you then with the best newsletter in the USA! — Kim