That Friday feeling! Happy you’re here to make your tech life better, safer and more fun. Let’s do this.

⌛ Quick tip: You’re in your home office in a meeting and your spouse’s or kid’s phone alarm has been going off for 20 minutes. So annoying. When you can’t (or don’t want to) get up, here’s a trick: Call their phone. This will stop the alarm.

⛑️ It’s heart-wrenching to see lives lost, homes destroyed and the devastation in Maui and the Big Island. We won’t know the full extent of the loss for some time. If you want to make a donation, you’ll find a list of legitimate ways on my site. Mahalo. — Kim

Here’s a little fun fact: Smartphones work best between 35 and 95 degrees. Colder or hotter and you’re risking hardware damage and shorter battery life. 

So, what can you do when there’s record-breaking heat?

Stick to the shade. Be careful not to set your phone in the sun. Aim for shade if you’re outside — or even in the car. Don’t set it on the sunny passenger’s seat. That’s a one-way drive to overheating.

Take off your phone case. They trap heat, a problem that varies depending on the case material. Just be extra careful not to drop your uncased phone and crack your screen. I keep one of these screen protectors on for this very reason.

Stuck outside or in a warm room? Make your phone as lightweight as you can, process-wise. Turn off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and demanding apps. Games with lots of graphics, video streaming and other resource-intensive tasks can strain your phone’s hardware and cause it to overheat.

Which is faster, heat or cold? Heat, because you can catch a cold. (Was that a groan I heard?)

✅ Your computer’s at risk, too. Laptops are especially prone to overheating. Get my tips for that here. (Sorry, not enough room in this newsletter!)

Attn. Android users: Google’s latest update adds a missing feature I’ve been talking about for years: Automatic scanning for unknown trackers. Apple launched the AirTag, and Android folks were left with no way to see if one was following without a manual scan. To get alerts: Open Settings > Safety and Emergency or Personal Safety > Unknown tracker alerts. Toggle On for the alerts. Finally.

Not lost in translation: Gmail's iOS and Android apps now let you translate emails right on your phone. If one is in a different language, you'll see an option to translate it or set your preferences. Pretty slick.

➕ It all adds up: Prices are going up if you're on one of Verizon's legacy Mix-and-Match plans like Go Unlimited or Beyond Unlimited. Starting Aug. 29, you'll pay $3 more. Verizon is nudging folks toward newer offerings, like its myPlan tiers. Call and see if you can get on a cheaper plan.

R.I.P. Cortana: Microsoft’s virtual assistant is no more. I talked about it earlier this month. Why? Artificial intelligence (AI), of course. Microsoft is loading OpenAI's ChatGPT into Bing Chat and a new AI assistant, Windows Copilot. I vote Clippy gets the job.

🦖 Prehistoric Google Earth: Ever wonder what your neighborhood looked like when the dinos roamed 66 million years ago? Take a journey back in time with the Ancient Earth globe from dinosaurpictures.org. My Phoenix house was in the middle of the ocean!

Sound like a tech pro, even if you're not one. Try my award-winning, daily podcast. Search for my last name with "K" wherever you get your podcasts and "Go Komando!"

Listen to my podcast, Kim Komando Today, here.

Money saver: Printer out of black ink? Change the color to #010101. It’ll look black, but it’s really 99% gray. While you’re at it, knock down the font size and switch to Courier New or Garamond. They use the least ink. This tip alone is worth the price of my newsletter. Oh, wait …

Tab overload: Here’s a faster way to navigate when you have lots of browser tabs open: Hit Ctrl + 1, 2, 3 and so on to go to a specific tab based on its order. On Mac, it’s Cmd + a number. To cycle through tabs, hit Ctrl + Tab on Windows or Cmd + Tab on Mac.

Because getting cash is annoying: Split the check for a big event like a concert, vacation or rental through Venmo. Open the Venmo app and choose Pay in the bottom corner. Tap the names of the people you want to split the check with. Enter the amount and click Split. You can customize the amount for each person.

💰 Small-biz tip: Getting the right domain is an important part of settling on a name. Check for a site name across different top-level domains (think .com, .net., .biz) and see how much they cost at iwantmyname.com.

Where’d she get that? You’re watching TV and see an outfit you must have. Go to WornOnTV.net and you might just be able to find it. The site doesn’t look like much, but they do a good job gathering outfit sources from some big-name shows.

🙏🏻 Want to get my show’s podcast commercial-free? Grab your 30-day free trial of my bustling Komando Community. It’s a few dollars a month after that. Discounts for anyone over 50, military, veterans, service personnel and more, too. Listen or watch on your schedule.

Picking out a new computer is stressful, but you don’t have to go it alone. That’s where the pros at Dell come in, and right now, you can save up to $750.

If you’re shopping for your small business, side hustle, new venture, you name it, you can chat with a small-biz expert to get totally free advice on the right hardware. No obligation to buy, either.

❓ Have a question for me? Drop it right here, or leave me a voicemail at 602‑381‑8200 ext. 290.

A party invite, your small-biz idea, you name it. Check out LogoBee. Its free, web-based Logo Maker has hundreds of templates you can customize. You can download a PNG file for free as long as you agree to the terms and conditions, which include a line that says you don’t have exclusive rights to your design.

Makes sense. They’re giving you free graphics, which means they’re giving them to everyone else. In a pinch, it works. If you want your logo in a vector format (good for print, posters and high-quality graphics), that’s $39.

An SEO expert walks into a bar, bars, pub, tavern, public house, Irish pub, drinks, beer, alcohol.

🤗 I admit it. That one got me. If you laughed or learned something new in this newsletter, hit that thumbs-up below.

Thanks for your support, and I’ll see you in your inbox Sunday! I have a great story to share about people using AI in a really … interesting way. Until then, stay awesome! — Kim