Alexa Has A New “Away” Mode To Deter Burglars - Alexa may now deter potential burglars.
Amazon's smart speaker has a new feature called "away mode." The feature attempts to trick would be thieves into believing people are actually at home, going about their business as usual. Alexa plays pre-recorded audio tracks that run about an hour each of real conversations and skits that could be taking place inside the home. Creators of the feature say the idea is built around "funny, but somewhat common conversations," including a couple breaking up. There are seven hour long conversation tracks written by professional comedy writers.
Will it work? Who knows!Source: Tech Radar
Smartphones As Important As Food And Water To Most People
Most people these days just can’t live without their phones, and a new survey finds that our devices are just as essential as water and food are to some people.
Asurion just released their 2018 Consumer Tech Dependency Survey, revealing that 97% of people think Americans are addicted to their devices, but surprisingly only 59% of people think they themselves are addicted.
People are so addicted that 70% say they have their phone within reach when sleeping, which goes up to 88% for Millennials. As for how long people could live without their phone, all generations report that the most they could go is one day, which is shockingly the same amount of time they say is the maximum they could go without food and water.
- Our addiction to our phone is so bad that 32% of married couples say they check their phone the first thing when they get up, while only 10% kiss their spouse when they wake up. And in a gross statistic, 23% of folks say they have taken a business call in the bathroom, with that number going up to 31% for Millennials, with 38% of that generation saying they’ve dropped their phone in the toilet.
Source: Market Watch
NATIONAL NIGHT OUT DAY – PURPLE HEART DAY – NATIONAL LIGHTHOUSE DAY – NATIONAL RASPBERRIES N’ CREAM DAY
Scammers Threaten to Expose Your Porn Habits
Wait, did you just get an email from someone claiming to know you're a visitor to porn sites? Or maybe they have some sexy photos of you that they say they'll share with others unless you pay up?
The Better Business Bureau is warning about a new porn blackmail scam that's popping up in inboxes all over the country. It's sexier stuff than the old Internal Revenue Service impersonation scam.
This sextortion scam is building, in part, because scammers have somehow gotten hold of old but legitimate usernames and passwords that you've used at one time. By using real passwords, the fraudsters sound more convincing. Remember, though, con artists are easily able to obtain such information after the long list of data breaches that have taken place over the years.
The classic bait-and-hook method tends to work better if the scammer has a tidbit that makes it seem like he or she really knows you. The grandparents scam works because often they use the name of your grandchild. The IRS impersonation scam often works because sometimes the caller has the last four digits of your Social Security number.
It's all a scare tactic. It doesn't mean these scammers are real. You don't need to pay old tax bills via gift cards. And you certainly don't need to pay ransom money via gift cards, either.
Anyone who threatens you — or threatens to expose personal information about you — and demands money immediately is a scammer. The BBB suggests that consumers also keep webcams covered when not using them to ensure peace of mind.
Link: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/nation-now/
Win A Year Of Free Groceries
Want to win a year’s worth of free groceries? Of course you do! Eight O'Clock coffee company is having a contest with that as a prize and being good at computer games raises your chances of winning.
Eight O’ Clock has teamed up with Escape the Room to create The Great Coffee Break. To play, register online through August 11th to enter the contest. Then you play the virtual coffee-themed escape room to boost your chances of winning. There are eight levels and for each one you complete, you get one additional entry. And you can earn more entries by referring friends.
And you’re probably wondering exactly what a year’s worth of free groceries gets you. Eight O’Clock means $8,000 paid out in a single check, which comes out to $153 a week, and that gets you a nice cart full of groceries. And they’re giving away eight grand prizes, with winners being announced on or around August 17th. Good luck gamers.
Source: Delish
Fly Ruins Massive Domino World Record Attempt
All a group of German domino enthusiasts wanted was to break a Guinness world record, when a meddling fly had to come and ruin the whole thing.
Patrick Sinner and his team of 20 set up a massive chain of over 600,000 dominoes...and it took them two whole weeks to do it. All it took was one unassuming fly to land on the mini-dominoes, which are described as being the size of a fingernail, setting off the cascade ahead of schedule.
Luckily their hard work didn’t completely go to waste — they still broke Guinness records for largest spiral and largest domino cube. Yay!
Source: UPI