Hey, Tuesday! It’s your free afternoon newsletter designed to make your digital life easier. As I say all the time, “Everything is now a tech thing!” Fasho, right? (Fasho means “for sure.”)

⌛ Quick tip: Crappy Wi-Fi is the worst. Your walls, furniture, baby monitor and microwave might be making your connection worse. Best bet: Place your router in a central location as high as possible (say, on a shelf) and switch to a 5GHz band for a less-crowded signal. And bam, you’ll be doing the Wi-Fi hustle! — Kim

I was in the pool not long ago, and a drone flew overhead. More than a million registered hobby drones are buzzing around the country, along with countless unregistered ones — and that one saw me in my bikini. Creepy, right?

We like to think private moments are private, but it’s not always true — even with your messages! There are sly ways others can intercept texts. Here’s how to know if someone’s snooping on you.

iPhone owners, look to your family, friends and roommates

Shocker … You don’t have to be a tech whiz to intercept Apple iMessage texts. Message forwarding, as the name implies, forwards messages to another device automatically. It’s handy if you set it up but an invasion of privacy if someone else did. To check:

• Go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding.

While you’re at it, use a code to see if your calls and texts are being forwarded. This doesn’t work with every carrier and phone model. Your mileage may vary.

• Open the Phone app and tap on Keypad at the bottom.
• Dial *#21# and hit the green call button.

You’ll get a screen detailing your call activity, SMS messages and even faxes. If they’re listed as “disabled,” you’re OK. Tap “Dismiss” when you’re finished looking at the data.

🛑 If you find any issues with your phone settings, someone likely got into your device, iCloud account or both. Change your passwords and PINs right away.

Anyone can use spyware

Finding and installing an app that monitors text messages, calls and social media interactions is easy. They can be installed remotely on an iPhone if you have the right iCloud credentials. For Android phones, someone needs physical access to install it — not hard if you live with your snoop.

Popular options include mSpy, SpyBubble, XNSPY, Cocospy, Spyera, EyeZy, uMobix and Hoverwatch. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but most have clues in the names themselves.

Your phone’s performance is another big clue spyware may be installed. Your phone may feel hotter than usual, or it’s lagging, dies quickly and uses more data than normal.

Scroll through your apps

Are there any unfamiliar ones you don’t remember installing? Delete them! It’s wise to do this whenever you have some time to kill.

• On iPhone: Touch and hold the app icon > Remove App > Delete App > Delete.
• On Android: Open the Google Play Store app > tap Profile. Manage apps & devices > Manage > choose the app > Uninstall.

What if you find an app that looks suspicious? Change your PINs and passwords — then back up and factory reset your phone. I know it’s a royal pain in the rear, but you need to do it. Find steps to do that here.

🎈 I always assumed China used extremely sophisticated spying technology on its rivals. Well, that balloon burst.

📺 400+ free channels: Coming to Amazon Fire TV users via the Fire TV Channels app. That includes ABC News, Fox Sports, MLB and CBS Sports. In the app, click Your Apps and Channels, then Free. Yes, there are commercials.

9.2%: That’s the percentage of TV streamers watching YouTube. And if you pay for the premium YouTube TV, the app has a new look — and an easier way to see all the built-in free channels. No shocker here, but the guide looks a heck of a lot like Google TV’s Live tab. 

👍 Good news, Android folks: Apple’s SOS message feature that sends communications via satellite is a game-changer Google can’t ignore. You’ll soon see the option to send an SOS satellite message with Google Messages, too. This means when you have no cell service, you can still get help. Love when tech is awesome.

Snap it like you mean it: Snapchat’s My AI is powered by ChatGPT and responds to questions, offers advice, plays games with you or can even create content. Artificial intelligence (AI) is fun, useful and lots of other things, but I say don’t let it make life decisions for you. Let your mom or granny do that.

Watt’s up, hackers? Bad news if you have TP-Link smart lightbulbs. Researchers discovered big flaws in the top-selling Tapo L530E smart bulb and app that let someone steal your Wi-Fi password. Armed with that, they can hop into everything else on your network. No word yet on an update to fix it, so if you have one, turn it off.

Say hello to my Daily Tech Update podcast. In the first minute, get the latest tech news distilled down to its essence. In the next, learn a practical digital trick that can make your life easier or more fun.

👉 Two minutes to a tech-smarter you

🌐 Email mile-high club: No connection, no problem. You can read, search and reply to emails with no connection. (Note: Your replies won’t send until you have service again.) How? In Gmail, hit the settings cog > See all settings > find the Offline tab. Click the box to enable.

The name game: If you have multiple Amazon Echo devices, standard names like “Kim’s 3rd Echo” are useless. Send your music to the right place by changing the names to something meaningful, like the room’s name. Open the Alexa app > Devices > Echo & Alexa. Choose your device, tap the settings cog, then Edit Name.

Did you restart it? Turning it off and on is an IT rule of thumb because it works. When you’re doing that to reestablish a connection (like when your Bluetooth headphones won’t sync or you have a suddenly bad Wi-Fi connection), wait 30 seconds to turn it back on. This gives your devices time to fully unpair or disconnect … like that last bad romance you had.

It’s your Australian mate: You can change your smart assistant’s voice if its dulcet tones get on your nerves. On iPhone: Go to Settings > Siri & Search > Siri Voice. For Android: On most phones that use Google Assistant, say, "Hey Google, open Assistant settings." Go to All settings > Assistant voice and choose one.

💻💻 Like having two computers: On Windows and macOS, you can create virtual desktops to keep things organized and switch between them using keyboard shortcuts. You might try separate home and work setups or a regular profile plus one you use for all your house renovation stuff, for example. Steps here if you want to try it.

OK, that’s AFTER you’ve read this newsletter. But you’re here so you’re doing that!

🦷🥚🚽 While you’re brushing your teeth, cooking eggs or, uh, using the bathroom, update yourself with my Daily Tech Update podcast. In just 60 seconds, I’ll catch you up on the big tech news story of the day.

Use the link below to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode.

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

Serious alert: House fires kill seven people every day. Step one: Make sure a smoke alarm is installed and working. It could save a life. If you want to help someone who lives far away, contact the Red Cross. Their Home Fire Campaign offers these lifesaving gadgets for free.

Sign up for one here. →

😂 After Bob broke up with his very short girlfriend, she was upset and started a YouTube channel dedicated to trashing him every day with a new video. When asked about it, Bob said, “I think it’s a little ex stream.”

If you love my jokes, bless you. If you can’t stand them and read anyway, bless you. Thanks for letting me in your inbox. I’ll see you tomorrow with the best tech newsletter in the universe! — Kim