Welcome to your Thursday tech-life upgrade! My iMac gave me the dreaded spinning rainbow-colored beach ball of death this morning. Yup, these things even happen to me. The fix: Re-index Spotlight's cache and life is good again.

⌛ Quick tip: On a computer? Take a look at the top of your browser. You know what the refresh, back and forward buttons do, but what about the rest? The padlock icon indicates whether the site you're connected to is secure. The star is a shortcut to bookmark a page. If you see a little globe or shield, that indicates your VPN is on. Now you know! — Kim

I tell Siri what to type all the time. It's so frustrating when I'm doing this and my husband, Barry, is in the room. He thinks I’m talking to him, so he’ll reply, "What do you mean?" and Siri picks that up, too. Yeah, I know … first-world problems.

Sending a text with your voice can be a real timesaver or a huge lesson in patience. Lucky for you, I'm your tech-savvy friend with a few ways to make it easier to get Siri or Google Assistant to do the typing for you. Just try some of what I listed below for you. You'll love it!

Know the commands: Ever seen one of those memes where someone's microphone caught all the things they said after they meant to send a text? Don't be that person. When you're ready to send, just say, "Send."

That's not quite right: To delete the last word you dictated, say, "Delete the last word." To delete the last sentence, say, "Clear sentence." If you want to get rid of everything you just said, say, "Clear all."

😀 Add an emoji: You can do this with your voice, too. Just say the name of an emoji, like “Smiley-faced emoji.” No guarantees you'll get the exact one you want. I once wanted Barry to pick up eggs, and Siri sent him the eggplant emoji instead.

Look at the icon: If the microphone icon is on and glowing, it's listening. If you want it to stop, tap the microphone or say, "Stop listening." Pro tip: You should also see an orange dot in the top right of your screen on your iPhone if it's listening (green is the cam) and a green dot on Android.

Still thinking? Depending on your phone, every pause might turn into a comma or period. Yes, it can be annoying, but that's just how it goes.

✏️ Think of it as a rough draft: If you're dictating a long message, consider what you say with your voice a starting place. It's easy to go back and make corrections on your keyboard, and you still save a bunch of time.

Stop yelling: Talk to your digital assistant with your “inside voice” like you would a friend. I get it — the more frustrated you get, the louder you get. But that just makes your voice more garbled. Take a breath and try again.

Act natural: Talking way too quickly or too slowly will probably confuse your voice assistant. Sorry, fast talkers.

🔇 I'll leave you with one of my favorite Siri tricks. (You can use this on an Android, too.) Say, "Siri, put my phone on Do Not Disturb." I use that before I record for the radio or a podcast. You can use it before bed, church, a movie or when you just need some peace.

😂 Between typos and autocorrect, it's getting hard to text. One tiny mistake and your whole message is urined.

📹 Make better videos: YouTube's new app, YouTube Create, includes a bunch of free, easy-to-use tools to make Shorts and longer vids. Add your clips, use the editing tools, trim everything, add stickers, GIFs and whatever else you want. It includes royalty-free songs, too. It's in beta for Android. Bummer, no iPhone version yet.

Powering down: The iPhone 15 has a sweet new feature. In the settings, you can see when it's time to replace your battery. You'd have to get deep into your phone's analytics to do that on an older model. Makes sense to me. Apple would much rather you buy a new battery than just charge your phone more.

Artist in your browser: The latest version of the text-to-image tool DALL‑E will create results right within ChatGPT. You can use DALL‑E to create works inspired by past artists, but it'll no longer allow you to copy a living artist. Copyright laws, anyone? The update drops next month.

Still using LastPass? After all its privacy and security trouble in the past year, I'd say it's time to jump ship. But if you're sticking around, LastPass says all master passwords must now meet a 12-character minimum. The fact that passwords less than that were still allowed is kind of mind-boggling.

🎶 Upgrade your earbuds: The second-gen Apple AirPods Pro are $50 off right now on Amazon. They come with a MagSafe charging case and a USB‑C option, so no more looking for another one of those Apple Lightning cords. They just came out, so 20% off is a pretty sweet deal you should scoop up now before it’s over.

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

🏕️ The great outdoors: Campsites at top-tier national parks book out months or even a year in advance. If you want to snag a cancellation, check out the website Campflare. It scans bookings at national parks, state parks and national forests every 45 seconds. Mmm, s’mores.

Quit snoopin’: Use your face or fingerprint, not a passcode, to unlock your smartphone. Criminals are taking advantage of people in bars, restaurants and anywhere they can watch while you type in your code. That handsome stranger might be waiting to snatch your phone.

Catch them in the act: Use Gmail? Next time you sign up for an app or online service, put a plus sign (+) and a word after your username, before the @ symbol. It’ll look like this: username+app name[at]gmail[.]com. You’ll receive the email like normal, but it also allows you to check if that service shared that email address with anyone else.

Smile for the camera: The sweet spot to mount your video doorbell is 48 inches from the ground. Most doorbell cams have a wide scope, so you don't need to put them any higher. If you do, you might get notifications every time the sun crosses your porch.

🌌 Goodnight, moon: If you live in a city, it's difficult sometimes to see the beautiful night sky through all the bright lights, buildings and smog. Try Dark Site Finder to find the best places near you to view stars away from city lights. Bonus points for downloading an astronomy app like SkySafari Legacy so you know which constellation, planet, star or potential UFO you're looking at.

A virtual private network, or VPN, is a great place to start. A VPN encrypts your data and hides your IP address, giving you an extra layer of protection from snoops, advertisers and Big Tech companies looking to profit off you.

Some VPNs slow your connection or, worse, track your internet activity and compromise your security. Not ExpressVPN.

ExpressVPN’s servers run on RAM, or volatile memory, that’s cleared each time the server is reset — meaning they don’t save your data. You can connect in just one click from a Windows PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, iPad, you name it.

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

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I fought the lawn and the lawn won.

🙏 Phew, that was a lot of tech know-how you just gained for free. If there's something you want to learn, get better at or understand, I'm here for you. Reply to this email or drop a comment when you rate this newsletter. Thank you for letting me in your inbox with the best tech newsletter in the USA! — Kim