Welcome to a magnificent Monday, my friend! Let’s start with a little brainteaser. Are there more humans or more mobile phone subscriptions on Earth? Hmm, tricky-tricky. Answer’s at the end!

Massive tech-know ahead! 🚆 I had a blast putting together this newsletter, which is brought to you today by the good folks at NetSuite. Business owners, say goodbye to QuickBooks. Do yourself a favor and check them out. Let’s do this! — Kim

It’s World Photography Day! It’s also National Potato Day and International Orangutan Day, but let’s focus on photos. (See what I did there?)

Below are some of my favorite tips and tricks for better smartphone pictures, along with a privacy tip at the end that always gets at least one major “thank you.”

8 pro secrets for better pics

1. Less is more: Too often, people try to get way too much in one pic. Tightly crop your shots to fill the frame and try to keep the background clear of distractions.
2. Stop using your camera’s zoom: Your feet work better and you’ll capture more detail. Don’t be afraid to get up close and personal.
3. Flash is not your friend: Natural light is. Your phone’s flash makes people look extra harsh and natural scenes washed out. Early morning and late afternoons are most flattering, btw.
4. Clean your lens: Talk about a quick win. Dust, fingerprints and smudges make your pics blurry. Yes, I usually use my shirt and hope for the best …
5. Tap to focus: Tap your subject on the screen to bring it into focus. Most phones automatically adjust the exposure when you do this, too, giving you a clearer image.
6. Better action shots: Hold your finger down on the shutter button to take a ton of pics faster than you could clicking one by one. Save your favorites and delete the rest.
7. Time for a dad joke: Saying “cheese” leads to fake-looking smiles. “Yoga,” “whiskey” and “money” give more relaxed smiles. I make a silly joke and then start snapping. What kind of photos do lobsters take the most? Shell‑fies.
8. Use a tripod: The pros do this for good reason. This inexpensive option is both a tripod and a selfie stick. This top-of-the-line version is good enough for the best-quality videos.

Most importantly, stop oversharing

When you snap a picture, your phone stores details about your device, camera settings and location. If you text pics you took at home, anyone who knows how to access this info now knows where you live. Yeesh.

Steps may vary slightly based on your phone and OS version. Start here:

• On iPhone: Open the image and tap the share button (square with an arrow pointing up). Select Options > toggle off Location > tap Done.
• On Android: Open your gallery and select the photo. Go to Details (it may be a three-dot menu) > Remove location data.

You can turn off this kind of data tracking for good, too. Steps here on my site.

Let’s end on a happy note

Some of the best pics on my phone are of my dog, Abby, and kids and flowers. My favorite trick is to mix up the angles. I know my best selfie angle, but little ones look cute no matter what. Get down on the floor, stand on a ladder (be careful) or move to the side.

📸 Share with me! To celebrate this fun World Photography Day, reply to this email and share a picture you’re proud you took. Now, one time I did this and I got several male parts, including a creative soul who made his manhood look like a bouquet of flowers. Keep it PG-rated. I’ll send one person a $25 Amazon gift card.

I’m on Team Apple so I use AirTag trackers on everything — the dog, my cars, my bag, Barry’s stuff … But Apple’s GPS trackers aren’t the only game in town.

• Chipolo’s ONE ($25) is like an AirTag that works with iPhone and Android. It connects to your phone via Bluetooth, and there’s an app that tracks the location even when it’s out of range.
• Chipolo also makes a card version ($30) that you can insert in your wallet or stick on the remote.
• Tile trackers work with iOS and Android, and they’re 24% off right now!
• Apple AirTags are 14% off today.
• Want to keep track of your pup? Pop an AirTag or another small round tracker into one of these inexpensive holders that slides onto their collar.
• You can slip a round tracker into a thin, flexible wallet holder, too (20% off).
• Don’t forget a holder perfect for luggage or any other fabric (click the coupon for $5 off).

Venmo vultures: They’re trying every trick in the book to get account logins: Fake calls, bogus texts, ”accidental” payments and posing as loved ones. If someone contacts you out of the blue, hang up, ignore the text — whatever — and reach out to Venmo directly. This goes for any of your financial apps and accounts. This is a great reason to make sure you have solid antivirus on all your devices to spot scam links.

🐷 Beware the pig butchers: I’ve been warning you about pig-butchering scams for years, and now they’re finally mainstream news. A random message leads to a friendly chat, and before you know it, you're pouring your money into a get-rich-quick scheme. The scams play with your emotions, whether that’s love, fear or panic. Your critical thinking goes out the window. Remember this — and share this (paywall link).

Math teachers have too many problems: One high school is swapping teachers for AI. A group of 15-year-olds will use ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs) to prep for math, biology and English exams. The school says kids will learn at their own pace and ask questions they’d usually hold back on. I really hope they double-check AI answers.

Help from afar: Samsung’s new Family Care service helps caregivers keep tabs on loved ones remotely. Set reminders, manage appointments, and get alerts when they arrive or leave a location. Plus, it lets you control smart devices like the stove or check the fridge for groceries. Fine print: Galaxy phones only. Yep, it’s free. Find it in the Life tab on the SmartThings app.

Privacy at risk: With companies like Neuralink capturing brain data, biological privacy laws are coming. Colorado is leading the charge, expanding “sensitive data” to include “biological data” under its Consumer Protection Act. But how can lawmakers protect us from tech that’s still a mystery? We know by now we can’t count on tech companies to be transparent about what they collect.

🖼️ Just Imagen it: Google just released its Imagen 3 text-to-image generator via ImageFX. The AI tool whips up photorealistic images based on prompts you type in, and now it’s better with details. It can even get generated text right, so “Happy birthday, Kim” won’t come out looking like a garbled mess.

Know a policeman? Ford is recalling 85,000 Explorer Police SUVs due to an engine fire risk. The recall affects models from 2020 to 2022 with 3.3L hybrid or gas engines. No fix yet, but Ford will notify owners by mail. In the meantime, Ford says to stop driving your vehicle if you hear any strange engine noises.

📼 Cassettes have A and B sides, and they were replaced by the CD: Big-time artists like Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo are releasing new music on cassette tapes so Gen Z can discover that nostalgic crackling sound (paywall link). Surprise, they have no idea how to use them! Pro tip: Get the teen in your life a Walkman for cool points.

All right, there’s no club, but there is a better option. Join over 37,000 companies that have upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle. Manage your financials, inventory, HR, e‑commerce and more, all in one spot. No more getting lost in an endless sea of spreadsheets and docs.

Whether your business does a few hundred thousand dollars a year or a few hundred million, who wouldn’t love less paperwork, more insights and higher revenues? It’s time for you to make a move.

Stop running your business on gut feelings. Let the data speak to you. Take a sec and check out what NetSuite can do for you now.

🖥️ Grab a (virtual) pen: You can mark up your Google Slides presentations during a meeting. Neat! To annotate while in a presentation, ​​open Slideshow mode by clicking the Slideshow button in the app bar. Mouse over the bottom left of the viewer and click the ellipsis icon > Turn on the pen. Now you can circle things, scrawl notes or cross out the ideas everyone hates.

“Hey, how come no one told me that sooner?” Try this if you have a Windows PC. Before you restart, hold down the Shift key. Keep holding until the machine powers up, then click Continue. This will shut down all the processes running for a true reboot.

📘 It’s fundamental, Watson! Project Gutenberg has 70,000 e‑books free for the taking — legally. Don’t have a Kindle or e‑reader? Put one on your phone and read instead of scrolling through the news. Here’s “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.”

Mac acting up? Skip the Apple Store and try the built-in diagnostic tool. It works with macOS Sonoma 14.1 and later. Put your Mac into diagnostics mode, enter the serial number and let the troubleshooting begin.

👚 I’m picky about my clothes and Barry’s: I like nice basics that last — and don’t cost a ton. Bonus if I can throw ‘em in the washer. Quince has washable silk tops and $50 cashmere. Go to quince.com/kim for free shipping and 365-day returns.* They offer awesome men’s styles, too!

Check out this 5MB IBM hard drive being loaded onto a plane in 1956. It weighed about 2,000 pounds. The drive had 50 24-inch platters.

The answer: Mobile phone subscriptions. There are 8.9 billion mobile subscriptions. There are more than 8.17 billion people on Earth, according to the U.N. Some caveats: Many people own more than one phone, and machines and devices use a significant number of connections.

📲 Did you hear about the guy who traded his car for an old cellphone? Now he’s got Nokia.

Phew, that was a jam-packed newsletter, eh? Do me a solid and leave a thumbs-up if you learned something new or smiled at one of my jokes. See you bright and early tomorrow morning with a list of apps to kick off your phone in the best tech newsletter in the USA! — Kim