Hey, hi and welcome to Sunday, friend. I hope you’re having a lovely day. I’ll be cruising on my boat after church. Let’s start with a riddle that’s stumping the internet. “I can be cracked, made, told, and played. What am I?” Make your best guess, and you’ll find the answer at the end.

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Imagine if you could have a virtual double to attend meetings for you, see a drug’s side effects before you take it or, my personal favorite, do the laundry. Analysts say the digital twin market will be worth $379 billion in 2034 — 10 times what it is today. That’s why I’m telling you about it; I always want to keep you ahead of the tech curve, not left in the dust.

So, what is a digital twin?

Exactly what it sounds like: A virtual imitation of a person or thing. Digital twins can monitor their target’s behavior and send feedback in real time, whether that twin is representing a hurricane, city traffic — or you.

Who’s twinning?

💻 Tech founders: LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman created a digital twin of himself called “Reid AI” to help him become a better person.

Reid AI is built on two decades’ worth of Hoffman's writing, speeches and videos. It also uses AI voice cloning and a digital avatar. Reid AI looks pretty darn real to me.

Hoffman says chatting with his digital twin helps him finetune the way he thinks, interacts with people and expresses himself. It’s like talking to yourself in the mirror … if your reflection could talk back. Kinda cool, kinda freaky.

🚄 Smart trains: Italy is using digital twin tech to build a smart railway system, complete with stations, bridges, tunnels and 10,000 miles of track. A digital copy helps them know when stations need maintenance and sends safety alerts to the remote Italian countryside.

🧑‍⚕️ Health care providers: To create a digital twin with Twin Health, you wear a special watch that monitors your heart rate, along with a Bluetooth sensor. The twin gives you and your health care providers all kinds of trackable data, helping you get truly personalized medicine.

Get this: One 66-year-old was able to reverse his Type 2 diabetes and get off his medication. So cool. I hope this tech makes it to more people who need it.

Here’s some rapid-fire trivia for you: Who coined the term “digital twin?”

Answer: NASA scientist John Vickers, back in 2010. These days, NASA uses digital twins to simulate space capsules in orbit.

🥁 Speaking of … What did the drummer call his twin daughters? Anna One, Anna Two.

AI is changing the world at a pace we’ve never seen before in the history of mankind. That’s why you need to take a free test drive to learn how you can save time and money using AI in your business.

The problem: Buying the tech to make it happen is expensive — and who knows if you’re even choosing what you truly need?

The pros at Oracle will bring AI to your company the easy way. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure uses NVIDIA GPUs, so you know you’re getting the gold standard in processing power. Let them worry about updates and maintenance so you can focus on the future.

Single gunshot wound to the head: That’s the official cause of death for former President Trump’s would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks. The FBI says Crooks’ final search on his encrypted Samsung phone was for p*rn. A few hours before that, he flew his drone over the rally site. Now, investigators are moving on to his laptop and external hard drives found at his parents’ home.

A one-man news site beat the national media: This is interesting. John Paul Vranesevich, owner of the Beaver Countian, was the first to learn officers had been stationed inside the building Thomas Crooks fired from and that police were alerted to someone suspicious. Then, the big networks got the news and interviews. Here’s Vranesevich’s story.

♨️ Major recall: Some 3.2 million Bissell Steam Shot handheld steam cleaners shoot hot water or steam when you aren’t expecting it. Ouch. The steamers went viral on TikTok and were sold at Target, Walmart, Amazon and everywhere else. If you have one, hit this site.

He was onto something: In a newly released clip from 1983, Steve Jobs dreamt of a machine that could generate responses based on a person’s “underlying spirit, or underlying set of principles, or any underlying way of looking at the world.” Yeah, that’s an AI chatbot. Btw, Jobs wanted to talk to Aristotle and Plato. I’d like to chat with my parents.

🪱 “Scarlet worm”: That term is in the Bible 25 times. It’s a dye made from ground-up insects and their eggs. Archaeologists just discovered a 3,800-year-old artifact, a woven fabric, made from that very dye. The little scrap, just two centimeters across, was hiding in the Cave of Skulls in the Judean Desert. Show this to someone who says the Bible is fiction.

💲 If you put a Ring on it: Ring raised its Basic video doorbell subscription costs to $4.99 a month, but you really want the Pro plan that starts at $20 per month. It’s always something, huh? More than ever, getting SimpliSafe* to protect your whole home is a smarter, cheaper choice.

Here are some of my favorites you’ll use time and time again.

• A clip-on portable book light is great for traveling or finishing that last chapter without disturbing your spouse! Adjust the brightness or choose a warm amber light for better sleep. It’s on sale for $14.
• It’s a real page turner (literally) for your newer Kindle or iPad, and it’s 71% off now.
• Get a tablet floor stand for hands-free, comfortable reading. This one is sturdy, 33% off and works with lots of tablets.
• This durable canvas book sleeve protects pages from sand or rain for around $13.
• Bookmarks are great until they’re sliding out of place. These magnetic bookmarks are desert sunset chic and stay put for $8.

📸 iPhone editing trick: Use this next time a pic is almost perfect. Select an image and zoom in using two fingers. The option to crop your photo will appear on the top right of your device. Tap it, crop or adjust your pic using the editing tools, then tap Done.

Wait, what? You can reread that Android notification you didn't fully look at the first time. Head to your Settings and tap Notifications > Notification History to view that push alert on whatever wild thing Elon Musk said this time.

You spotted a scammer on Facebook: Do your good deed and report the page. Go to the profile, and in the top right corner, click the three dots. Select Find support or report, and then follow the on-screen prompts.

32 hours of battery life: Hey, your old earbuds don’t have that! Raycons are so much more affordable than AirPods, have studio-quality sound and they fit securely in every ear. Score 15% off and free shipping right now at BuyRaycon.com/kim.* They come with a 30-day happiness guarantee, too!

• Suzi in Arizona wired $60,000 to her designer for a kitchen remodel, but a scammer got a hold of the money.
• Amy Chan is a dating expert. I asked her for tips on building a great profile and her formula for dating app pics. You should have at least one smiling waist-up shot and one full-body shot.
• Chris in Virginia is a public school educator. He’s trying to embrace AI but isn’t very happy with teachers who use it to grade assignments.

Plus, Dave wants book-writing tools, Randy deals with a stolen YouTube channel, Tiffani needs language-learning apps, Barbara asks for help selling dolls online and so much more.

Get a new view: Window Swap lets you open a new window somewhere in the world. Such a cool thing! I got a lake in Tennessee and a cat lady’s patio.

Sneak: A peek at this year’s fall foliage. This map predicts when the leaves will hit peak pretty colors in your area. I’m already planning fall hikes.

Drink: A shot of ginger for better blood sugar regulation. This bottle is way easier than juicing it yourself, just sayin’.

Listen to radio around the world: Radio Garden lets you listen to live radio stations by simply spinning a globe.

Save money: Hit this link to see if anything you’ve bought on Amazon is on sale. I do this on stuff I use a lot.

You have to see this: I had such a great convo with the first Neuralink brain implant patient, Nolan.

Like “The Holiday”: Why rent an Airbnb from some rando when you can swap houses with some rando?

Do this for fun: I put together a great list so you can take a shot at creating some AI music or art.

The answer: It’s a password, and good ones are between 12 and 16 characters long.

One for the road: Did you know Gen Z is not into the boring out-of-office “Hello, I’m out until next Friday” style of email replies? These examples crack me up.

🤔 I hope at least one thing in this newsletter made life easier or just made you think. Drop me a note when you rate this issue if there’s something I can do to help you. I read them all. See you tomorrow with another issue of the best tech newsletter in the USA! — Kim