Did you get a recent text about your rewards points expiring? The FTC is warning that some of those messages are phishing scams designed to steal your personal or financial information, such as SSNs and credit card details.

According to the FTC, scammers are sending texts with threatening language that your rewards points will expire if you don’t take immediate action. The message will be accompanied by a link for you to click to save your points. Instead of taking you to a legitimate company site, you will be directed to a lookalike phishing page.

While the FTC didn’t specify which companies are being referenced in the scam, reports from security researchers and consumers indicate that AT&T and Verizon reward programs have both been used in recent messaging. And it’s probable the scammers will add more company names to the list they use to avoid detection and improve victim response rates.

How to avoid getting fooled by a phishing text

As with any unsolicited text, the best advice for staying safe is to never click any links or call any phone number directly from the message. Instead, login to the official company app or website to verify that the message you received is valid. When calling, look up the company customer service number yourself through its official app or verified website, not just what comes up at the top of a Google search.

The same guidance holds true for email. And it’s important to be aware that scammers can spoof the sender’s address to make it appear as though an email came from a specific company. Here’s a quick way to check whether an email has been spoofed or is a valid customer service notification.

[Image credit: ChatGPT/Techlicious]

I’ve owned a number of televisions over the years. And I have to tell you, there have been more than a few moments when I’ve gnashed my teeth because the audio is nowhere near the visual quality. The result? Researching and investing in a soundbar or speaker setup to achieve some audio-visual parity. However, when it comes to home theater setups, no matter how simple the company says it will be, there will be some kind of calibration as you work to bring the different channels into alignment to create an optimal audio experience in the room. And as much as I like to tinker, sometimes I want to just unbox, plug it in, and go.

Samsung is offering such a solution with its Music Studio Wi-Fi smart speakers. Designed to work independently or with other audio components such as a soundbar, Music Studio 7 delivers warm, balanced audio and a bunch of features designed to enhance your listening experience. I recently had the opportunity to test the Music Studio 7. Here are my thoughts. 

Pricing and availability

The Music Studio speakers are currently available in two varieties. I demoed the Music Studio 7, which costs $499.99 per speaker. Each speaker features a 3.1.1 channel setup consisting of three main channels – left, front/center, and right channels – plus an up-firing driver and a built-in subwoofer. The Studio 7 offers a more immersive audio experience than its counterpart, the Music Studio 5 speaker. Priced at $299.99, the Music Studio 5 has a 2.0 channel setup of two tweeters and an integrated subwoofer. 

Design

The Music Studio 7 makes for a fine-looking pair of speakers. The charcoal black rectangular housing is minimalist and stately, toeing the line between art and furniture. The result of a collaboration with renowned artist and designer Erwan Bourollec, the Dot Design focuses on the titular circular dot on the front of the device. They’re not the centerpiece of the room, but they add a touch of elegance to just about any decor, nonetheless.

Nine out of ten, when it comes to audio, I’m going to choose the speaker with the best performance and features. However, I have to say, I prefer the Studio 5 as it eschews the rectangular shape, going all in on the circular motif. They offer a more visually striking presentation that speaks to me.

In terms of dimensions, neither pair of speakers takes up much real estate. The Music Studio 5 weighs 5.29 pounds and measures 9.88 x 11.18 x 5.39 inches. The Music Studio 7 has a more substantial footprint of 7.28 x 10.59 x 7.5 inches and weighs 12.35 pounds. Either can fit comfortably in an entertainment system or on a TV stand.

Features

The Studio 7 comes packed with features. My favorite is SpaceFit Sound Pro, which utilizes integrated mics to examine audio reflections in whatever room you’re planning to use the speakers in, using test acoustics. From there, the software calibrates the audio to best match the room. In addition to optimizing audio for every channel plus the subwoofer, the Sound Pro also keeps track of content engagement and automatically adapts the sound according to circumstance. So, whether you’re watching a breathy romance, an action movie bursting with explosions, or slaying a dragon in a game, Sound Pro will adjust without you lifting a finger. 

Q-Symphony is another cool feature. It allows for wireless syncing between the Studio 7, your Samsung TV, and up to three additional Samsung audio devices. Want even more audio power? Throw a soundbar in for good measure. Samsung has also launched a new app called Samsung Sound that acts as an aggregator of all your connected Samsung audio devices, allowing you to create custom audio groups for multi-room or single-room experiences. You can also tailor your listening preferences with equalizers and sound mods.

For the bass lovers, there’s AI Dynamic Bass Control, a patented Samsung technology that uses AI to monitor your audio, adjusting the lows in real time. The result is powerful bass that isn’t diffused or distorted. The Studio 7 also has Waveguide Technology, another patent that helps the speakers create immersive audio with a wider soundstage and better clarity. That means instead of having to sit in the very center of the speakers to snag that coveted sweet spot, I got a stellar performance even though I was sitting left of center.

Finally, to further improve audio clarity, you have the company’s Pattern Control Technology. It uses algorithms to manage audio signals and works to cut down on signal overlap between different audio channels, for a cleaner result when Dolby Atmos 3D audio is enabled. In short, the technology prevents audio bleed between the three channels (left, front/center, right), ensuring that finer details like a whisper or the flicker of a flame instead aren’t buried under a weighty explosion or loud soundtrack music.

Performance

The Music Studio 7 sounds pretty gosh darn good. I listened to several tracks as well as watched a few movie clips. And no matter what I watched or listened to, the Studio 7 delivered warm, balanced audio with a generous soundstage and clean detail.

I started my testing with a scene from “The Old Guard”. Andy (actor Charlize Theron) and her team infiltrate what’s supposed to be an enemy base, only to discover the entire operation is a setup. The scene opens with a helicopter dropping the team off at their destination; the steady pulse of the blades spinning punctuates the heavy strings of the background music. The gentle bleating of goats and the soft crunch of footsteps as the team made their way to their destination were crisp. The same can be said for the blunt, meaty sound as a bullet hit an unsuspecting guard. A satisfying metallic clink from the spent bullet casing isn’t buried under the pulsating drumline as the team infiltrates the base.

The scene culminates as Andy lets out a tight, frustrated expletive that’s cut off by an explosive volley of gunfire. The team goes down in a hail of bullets punctuated by the sound of numerous shell casings hitting the concrete floor. I was impressed at how well the speakers handled the finer details of the scene, particularly the dialogue. It’s been my experience that on certain speakers and soundbars, dialogue comes in lower than music, explosions, or other background noise. It was nice to hear that Theron’s swear word wasn’t lost in the midst of the action.

I also streamed a few songs from Spotify. To test the speakers’ Hi-Fi chops, I set the stream quality to Lossless (up to 24-bit/44.1kHz). Speaking of which, the Studio 7 has Spotify Tap, so you can start listening to your playlist with the tap of a button. But back to the testing. I started with Van Morrison’s “Moondance”. My ears were immediately buffeted with warm piano, complete with a tinkling trill. I clearly heard the strumming of the bass as the artist’s dulcet tenor drove the song, while a clean flute, a brassy horn, and crisp percussion completed the composition. The generous soundstage allowed me to focus on individual parts of the track without much effort. And although I wasn’t sitting in the center of the Studio 7 speakers, I didn’t notice any deficits.

Next, I listened to one of my favorite songs, Santana’s “Europa (Earth’s Cry Heaven’s Smile)”. And as expected, Santana's electric guitar was front and center. But it didn't overwhelm the organ, warm bass, or synthesized strings. The sound was so clean, I could hear the brassiness of the cymbals right along with hits to the snare, kick, and high-hat.

Verdict

Set it and forget it never looked or sounded this good. The Samsung Music Studio 7 speakers are made for those of us who just want to turn a gadget on and have it just work. The 3.1.1 channel system, combined with Samsung’s proprietary technologies, ensures a great listening experience regardless of where you are in the space and what you’re watching or listening to. They’re stylish, even if they sport a more traditional design, and can synchronize with up to four additional Samsung audio sources. They’re a little pricey compared to some competing systems, but for the number of features and ease of use, it’s worth spending a little more. 

CHECK PRICE ON SAMSUNG

[Image credit: Sherri L. Smith/Techlicious, Jonathan Takiff/Techlicious]

Every March, World Sleep Day serves as a reminder that a lot of us aren't sleeping as well as we think. This year, it nudged me to do something I hadn't done before, actually look closely at the sleep data I'd been passively collecting for months on my RingConn Gen 2 Smart Ring. I used to assume I was a decent sleeper. I'd fall asleep easily, rarely wake up in the middle of the night, and usually felt okay in the morning. A few weeks of paying attention to my overnight numbers told a more complicated story.

Now I understand my sleep in a way I never did when I was going purely by feel. Including one night that genuinely caught me off guard.

Why I chose a ring over a watch

I've tested a lot of smartwatches over the years. Most track sleep, but I've never been able to wear one to bed comfortably. Even lightweight models that I love during the day feel bulky and intrusive at night. I'd end up taking it off before bed, which meant missing the data I actually needed.

A smart ring solves that problem. The RingConn Gen 2 is small and light enough that I genuinely forget I'm wearing it. Because the sensors sit close to the arteries in my finger, it captures heart rate, body movement, and subtle physiological signals throughout the night, the same data a wrist device would collect, in a form factor that doesn't interrupt my sleep to get it.

What the ring is actually tracking

Each morning, the RingConn app greets me with a Sleep Score. That number is the first thing I check, but over time I've learned the score itself isn't the most interesting part. What's behind it is.

The app breaks down each night into sleep stages: light sleep, deep sleep, and REM. Light sleep makes up the largest portion of most nights and helps the body transition between stages. Deep sleep is where physical recovery happens, muscle repair, immune function, the body doing its maintenance work. REM sleep is tied to memory processing and emotional regulation. How your night is divided among these stages affects how restored you feel the next day.

Two other signals I watch closely are resting heart rate and heart rate variability, or HRV. During deep recovery, heart rate typically drops. When it stays elevated overnight, that's usually a sign that something is working against rest, stress, illness, a late meal, or alcohol. HRV measures the variation between individual heartbeats and works as a recovery indicator in the opposite direction. Higher variability generally means your body is well rested, while lower numbers can point to fatigue or strain.

The night the data surprised me

A few weeks into paying closer attention, I had what I thought was a perfectly fine Saturday night. Two glasses of wine with friends, home by 11, solid eight hours in bed. I woke up feeling okay. By early afternoon, I was dragging.

When I checked my data, the story was right there. My overnight heart rate had stayed noticeably elevated compared to a typical night. My deep sleep was lower than usual. My recovery score was down. My body had spent the night working harder than it should have been. I just didn't feel it until six hours later.

Research backs this up. Alcohol raises nighttime heart rate and disrupts sleep cycles even when it doesn't feel that way. But seeing it in my own data, tied to a specific night I remembered clearly, made it land differently than just reading about it.

The alert I didn't expect

Then came a night that made me pay attention in a different way.

I woke up to a sleep apnea risk flag in the app. The RingConn Gen 2 includes monitoring that analyzes patterns in blood oxygen levels, heart rate, and breathing throughout the night, and that morning, it had flagged an elevated risk score. Not a diagnosis or an emergency alert, but a signal that something in my overnight data had looked unusual enough to surface.

It only happened once and there was no pattern or repeat flags in the nights that followed. But that single alert made me aware of something I never would have noticed on my own, and it prompted me to mention it to my doctor during my next visit. RingConn says the Gen 2 is one of the only smart rings that analyzes trends in blood oxygen, heart rate, and breathing patterns together to offer this type of sleep apnea risk monitoring. After seeing that flag, I understood why that distinction matters.

Sleep apnea affects an estimated 30 million Americans, and many of them have no idea. The condition causes breathing interruptions during sleep that fragment rest and strain the cardiovascular system, often without obvious symptoms beyond daytime fatigue that's easy to chalk up to something else. Traditionally, identifying it has required an overnight sleep study, which many people never pursue because they don't realize they need one. A device that can notice irregularities in your breathing patterns night after night and flag them when something looks off is a meaningful step toward catching a problem that might otherwise go undetected for years.

What the patterns taught me over time

That apnea alert was a one-off, but the broader lesson stuck that the data sees things I can't. Since poor sleep can affect focus, mood, and long-term health, including heart disease and metabolism, I want to be armed with actionable data.

Work travel shows up consistently in my numbers. Flights, late dinners, unfamiliar time zones, all of it pushes my overnight heart rate up and pulls my deep sleep down. I can't always avoid that, but seeing the pattern has made me more intentional about building in a genuine recovery night after I get home instead of pushing straight back into a full schedule.

Bedtime consistency turned out to matter more than I expected. Nights when I go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time tend to show better efficiency and more balanced sleep stages than nights when I stay up later, even when the total hours are similar.

I've also learned my own perception is not a reliable guide. There have been mornings when I was sure I'd slept well, only to see weak recovery numbers. Other nights that felt middling showed stronger scores. The data offers a more honest picture than my gut sense ever did.

What to do with what you learn

Sleep tracking is most useful when you zoom out. A single low score doesn't mean much. A pattern of low scores after late nights, travel, or a stressful week starts to tell you something actionable. An unexpected flag, like my sleep apnea alert, is also worth taking seriously, even if it doesn't repeat.

The data works best as a nudge rather than a verdict. For me, that has meant skipping a drink on nights when I want to feel sharp the next day, going to bed earlier when I see several nights of poor recovery stacking up, and paying attention when the ring notices something I didn't.

Awareness is the real benefit

The RingConn Gen 2 Smart Ring hasn't transformed my sleep overnight. What it has done is make my habits visible, demonstrating a connection between what I do during the day and how I recover at night that is impossible to ignore. Features like sleep apnea risk monitoring can also help flag potential concerns that might otherwise go unnoticed. That kind of awareness is worth more than a perfect sleep score.

We’ve all gotten those sketchy texts from someone claiming to be your bank, a suspicious call from "Social Security," or a too-good-to-be-true investment tip from a new online friend. While many are obvious scams, advancements in techniques and technology are making many harder to detect. And according to a recent FBI report, the people behind those messages are becoming more successful and richer by the day.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its 2025 annual report [PDF] this week, and the data in it tell a very troubling story. Americans reported losing a record $20.877 billion to internet-enabled crime last year – a 26% increase from 2024 and more than double the losses from just three years ago. And the volume of complaints behind those losses is surging just as fast. The IC3 received 1,008,597 complaints in 2025, averaging nearly 3,000 reports every single day and crossing the million-complaint threshold for the first time in its 25-year history.

Investment fraud leads in damages

The single biggest loss category was investment fraud, which cost victims $8.6 billion – nearly half of all reported losses. It was also the fourth-most-reported crime type by volume, with nearly 73,000 complaints, up 52% from 2024.

Most of that damage is tied to cryptocurrency investment scams, known as "pig butchering," where fraudsters build trust with potential targets through social media, dating apps, or seemingly misdirected text messages before steering them toward fake investment platforms. Those who take the hook watch their fake account balances grow, sometimes for months, before attempting to withdraw. At that point, they're hit with bogus taxes and fees – a final attempt to extract even more funds – before the scammers vanish with everything. The FBI reported $7.2 billion in crypto investment fraud losses in 2025, with complaint volume jumping 48% from the prior year.

Business email compromise ranked second in losses at $3 billion across nearly 25,000 complaints, while tech support scams generated $2.1 billion in losses from almost 48,000 reports. Phishing and spoofing – a catch-all category for deceptive emails, texts, and calls – remained the most common complaint type by far at 191,561 reports. Direct losses in that category were comparatively modest at $215 million, but accounts lost to phishing can later be used for identity theft and to perpetuate other types of financial fraud.

Read more: How to Tell if an Email Has Been Spoofed

Older Americans bear the heaviest burden

Adults 60 and older filed 201,266 complaints in 2025 – a 37% increase from the prior year – and reported $7.7 billion in losses, a 59% jump. That works out to an average loss of over $38,000 per victim. The specific crimes hitting this group hardest financially are investment fraud ($3.5 billion), tech support scams ($1 billion), and confidence and romance fraud ($584 million).

What makes these numbers particularly grim is the complaint growth rate. Phishing complaints from this group nearly doubled year-over-year, jumping from about 23,000 to 48,000. Investment fraud complaints among seniors rose 79%, from roughly 9,400 to nearly 17,000. While government impersonation complaints – where criminals pose as Social Security or Medicare officials – almost doubled as well.

AI is making scams harder to spot

Not surprisingly, AI makes a big splash for the first time in this year’s report. In 2025 – the first year IC3 tracked AI as a complaint descriptor – the agency logged more than 22,000 AI-related complaints, resulting in $893 million in losses.

The FBI notes that, “AI-enabled synthetic content is becoming increasingly difficult to detect and easier to make, which allows criminal actors to potentially conduct successful fraud schemes against individuals, businesses, and financial institutions.” Historical tells for detecting scam content, such as bad grammar, awkward phrasing, or obvious visual cues in images and videos, are disappearing. As a result, the technology is showing up across nearly every major fraud category.

Voice cloning has supercharged the grandparent scam, with criminals generating audio that sounds exactly like a family member in distress – same voice, same cadence – to demand emergency cash. Victims lost more than $5 million to these distress scams in 2025, and the FBI warns the tactic is expanding to mimic friends and other relatives across a growing range of fake emergencies.

In investment fraud, deepfake videos of celebrities and financial experts are being used to fake endorsements on social media and in video calls. Business email compromise attacks are getting sharper, too. AI-generated text now produces polished executive impersonations that are increasingly hard to distinguish from the real thing, with businesses reporting more than $30 million in confirmed AI-assisted losses. Even job interviews aren't safe: the report flags a rise in AI-generated video used during remote hiring, where fraudulent "interviewers" are attempting to use information gained from hopeful candidates to infiltrate corporate networks.

Sextortion is exploding in volume

Extortion complaints reached 89,129 in 2025, nearly double the 48,223 reported in 2023 and the second-highest complaint category overall. Much of that growth is driven by sextortion – cases where criminals threaten to publish intimate images of a victim unless paid.

The FBI says sextortion often begins when people believe they are communicating with someone who is interested in a relationship, a process known as catfishing. If they are convinced to send nude images or videos, the scammer threatens to release them unless demands for more images or money are met. In other cases, the initial threats are bluffs by the scammer based on claims of evidence of porn use. In all, the FBI received more than 75,000 sextortion-related submissions in 2025, with 11,000 of those complaints coming from people under 20. But that figure almost certainly undercounts the true damage, with the FBI noting that shame and fear keep many victims from reporting at all.

FBI shows success in stopping some fraud

When a victim reports a fraudulent wire transfer quickly enough, the FBI's IC3 Recovery Asset Team (RAT) can trigger a process called the Financial Fraud Kill Chain – a rapid coordination effort with banking partners designed to freeze funds before they move beyond reach. In 2025, the RAT processed nearly 3,900 incidents involving $1.16 billion in attempted theft and froze $679 million, a 58% success rate.

Launched in January 2024, Operation Level Up takes a different approach – contacting people who are actively being victimized by cryptocurrency investment fraud before they lose everything. In 2025, the operation notified 3,780 victims of active scams, with estimated savings totaling $225 million. Strikingly, 78% had no idea they were being scammed at the time of contact.

Beyond the raw numbers are the human stories of the damage being prevented. The FBI reports that Operation Level Up stopped one victim from cashing out $750,000 from his 401(k), another from selling her house to invest $500,000, and a third from taking out a loan to send $400,000 to scammers. Perhaps most sobering: 38 victims were referred to FBI Victim Specialists for suicide intervention.

What you can do

The FBI's core advice hasn't changed much, but with the rise of AI, the urgency of it has. Be deeply skeptical of any unsolicited contact – by text, phone, email, or social media – that involves money, investment opportunities, or requests for personal information. If someone you've never met in person is asking you to send cryptocurrency, buy gift cards, or wire funds anywhere, those are all major red flags.

If you or someone you know has been targeted, report it at ic3.gov immediately and include as much transaction detail as possible. In fraud cases involving wire transfers, every minute counts.

[Image credit: Suzanne Kantra/Techlicious via ChatGPT]

If you've ever been stuck at the airport wondering when delays will end, Flighty, my go-to app for flight-tracking, can now tell you. It can also alert you to problems at your airport before your airline does. The new feature, called Airport Intelligence, monitors live conditions at over 14,000 airports, translating raw aviation data into plain-English summaries.

The update taps into the same real-time data feeds that pilots and air traffic controllers rely on, such as weather observations, terminal forecasts, and notices of closed runways or equipment outages. Flighty then translates all of that aviation jargon into plain-English summaries, so you can actually understand what is going on at your airport without needing a pilot's license.

I use Flighty every time I travel, and it is one of my favorite apps on my phone. Airport Intelligence is a solid addition, especially for understanding what is happening at an airport I have never been to or checking on conditions at one I know well before heading out.

The big feature here is the delay forecast. You get a timeline showing when delays should start piling up and, more importantly, when they should stop. If you have ever sat at a gate wondering whether things are getting better or worse, this is exactly the kind of information that will help ease that travel anxiety. The forecasts are paired with AI-generated summaries, so you'll get a quick read on the situation without having to dig through the data.

In addition, the update adds new airport warnings for issues such as hail, low visibility, de-icing, and lightning. You can mark airports as favorites and get notifications when major disruptions hit, even before your flight is affected. There are also new arrival and departure boards with hourly performance trends, so you can see when delays tend to build throughout the day.

Airport Intelligence is also integrated directly into your flight's detail page, showing airport status and personalized alerts specific to your trip. That is a nice touch because it means you do not have to go looking for the information separately.

Flighty is also now finally available on the web for free at flighty.com/airports, so anyone can check an airport's live status without downloading the app or paying for a subscription. You can search for any airport and see current delays, on-time percentages, cancellation rates, and weather warnings on the web, which is pretty neat.

One of the biggest pain points for US travelers is still the landside experience – security line wait times and terminal congestion. Airport Intelligence is focused entirely on flight operations, which it does well, but I would love to see Flighty tackle that other half of the airport experience down the road. Knowing how far the app has come, I expect it to get to that down the line.

The Flighty app is available on iOS and Android. Airport Intelligence is included with Flighty Pro, which costs $59.99 per year billed annually or $299 for lifetime access. The free web version at Flighty.com is available to everyone.

Read more: United Airlines targets loud passengers with new in-flight ban

[Image credit: Flighty]

Google is now letting you change your @gmail.com address without creating a new account. If you've been stuck with a Gmail username that no longer fits (like an old nickname, something you picked when you were 14), you can finally swap it out. The company started testing this last year, and it's now available to all U.S. Google Account users.

To change yours, go to your Google Account settings. Click your profile photo in the upper right of any Google service, then Manage your Google Account > Personal info > Email > Google Account email. If the option is live for you, you should see "Change Google Account email." Pick a new username, confirm, and that's it.

What happens to your old email address

Your old Gmail address is not going anywhere. It stays on your account as an alternate email, so any messages sent to it will still show up in your inbox. You will still be able to sign in with it, too. All your existing data like Drive files, Photos, purchase history, and old emails will stay untouched.

One thing to note is that Google does not update old stuff retroactively. So, Calendar events you sent before the change and shared Drive documents will still show your previous email address.

You can only create a new Gmail address once every 12 months, with a lifetime cap of three new addresses per account. You can switch back to a previous address at any time, though. Google also recommends backing up your data before making the switch, just as a precaution. Some app settings may reset, similar to when you sign in on a new device.

If you've been waiting for this since we first reported on it back in December, now's the time. I think this is a great feature and I can’t wait to see it become globally available.

Read next: How to Delete an Old Facebook Account When You Can't Log In

[Image credit: screenshot via Techlicious, mockup via Canva]

Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Monday aimed at strengthening how California vets and purchases AI technology – a move that puts the state on a direct collision course with the Trump administration's newly released national AI policy framework. As the world's fourth-largest economy and home to 33 of the top 50 privately held AI companies globally, according to the governor's office, California is one of the few states with the size and power to go head-to-head with the federal government. 

The Newsom order directs California's Department of General Services and Department of Technology to develop new certification requirements for AI companies that want to do business with the state. Within 120 days, those agencies must submit recommendations for standards that would require vendors to attest to their safeguards around illegal content, algorithmic bias, and civil rights protections including free speech, voting rights, and protections from unlawful surveillance.

The White House released its own national AI policy framework (PDF) earlier this month, and it looks nothing like Newsom's. The Trump document, which lays out legislative recommendations to Congress, calls for preempting state AI laws that the administration considers "burdensome". It argues that AI development is "an inherently interstate phenomenon with key foreign policy and national security implications," and that states should not be permitted to regulate it.

Newsom's order fires back directly. It instructs California's Chief Information Security Officer to review any federal designations of AI companies as supply chain risks, and gives the state the authority to overrule those designations if it deems them improper. In plain terms: if the Trump administration tries to block California from buying AI products from a particular company, the state reserves the right to keep buying from them anyway.

The White House framework takes a decidedly hands-off approach to AI oversight. It opposes creating any new federal rulemaking body for AI, deferring to industry-led standards and existing regulatory agencies. And while it does address child safety and intellectual property, the framework's overriding priority is keeping the U.S. dominant in the global AI race.

In contrast, Newsom's order puts forth a philosophy grounded in consumer protection. It requires companies to explain, in writing, how they prevent misuse of their technology before they can sell to the state. It also pushes for watermarking guidelines for AI-generated images and video, as a likely reaction to the exploding prevalence of deep fakes across the internet.

To offer a financial carrot to AI companies as a counterbalance to the restrictions, Newsom's order directs the state to build a public-facing AI tool that helps Californians navigate government services organized around life events like job searching, starting a business, or applying for disaster relief. This could lead to significant licensing revenue for AI companies supplying the underlying technology to support these services.

The federal preemption question is unresolved. If Congress acts on the White House's recommendations and passes legislation to override state AI laws, California's order could face serious legal challenges.

For now, the two visions of AI governance are pointed in opposite directions. Washington wants to clear the runway for AI companies to build fast. Sacramento wants to make those same companies prove they are building responsibly before they get a state contract. Both positions come with tradeoffs, and consumers are caught in the middle of a fight that is only getting started.

Read next: Trump Moves to Shut Down State AI Laws Across the U.S.

[Image credit: Josh Kirschner/Techlicious via ChatGPT]

The key thing to understand is this: every Roku has the same interface and access to the same channels, so what you’re really choosing comes down to performance, picture quality, and a few convenience features.

So which Roku device should you buy?

It depends on your TV, your budget, and how much performance you need. For most people, the Streaming Stick 4K hits the best balance of price and performance, while the Ultra adds extra features for those who want the most complete setup. If you’re on a budget, the entry-level Streaming Stick is the most affordable way to get the Roku experience.

What are the key differences between Roku devices?

The biggest difference between the various Roku devices is resolution and video support. Entry-level models like the Roku Streaming Stick are limited to HD, while midrange and premium models add 4K support. Higher-end devices, like the Roku Streaming Stick 4K and Roku Ultra, also support advanced formats like Dolby Vision and HDR10+, which can significantly improve picture quality if your TV supports them.

Form factor is the next key differentiator. Roku offers both small set-top boxes (like the Ultra) and streaming sticks that plug directly into your TV’s HDMI port. The sticks are more compact and easier to hide behind a TV, while boxes tend to offer better performance, more stable connections, and additional features like Ethernet ports. Also important: the sticks can be powered directly by your TV (if your TV has a powered USB port), which makes them ideal for wall-mounted TVs.

The included remote control varies by model as well. Higher-end Roku devices come with voice remotes that support hands-free commands and, for the Roku Ultra, a rechargeable battery and backlit buttons. Lower-cost models often include more basic remotes without these extras.

Performance also comes into play. More expensive Roku devices use faster processors and more memory, which means quicker app launches, smoother navigation, and fewer slowdowns when switching between apps. In day-to-day use, I’ve found the difference in speed between a basic Roku and a premium model to be noticeable, though all are fast enough for normal use.

Most, but not all, of the Roku devices support Bluetooth Headphone Mode, which allows you to connect your headphones directly to the Roku for private listening. All the models also support Bluetooth headphone listening via the Roku app on your phone.

Finally, there are a few premium-only features. The Roku Ultra, for example, adds an Ethernet port for more reliable streaming, a USB port for local media playback, and a remote finder function – small touches that can matter if you use your Roku as your primary streaming device.

Read more: Pair Your Bluetooth Headphones with Roku: A Step-by-Step Guide

Comparing the Roku models

The Roku Streaming Stick is the most basic option. It’s a Full HD streamer with a Voice Remote and Wi-Fi 4, and it supports Bluetooth Headphone Mode for private listening. If you’re using an older TV or just want the cheapest option, it gets the job done.

Step up to the Roku Streaming Stick Plus, and you add 4K video with HDR and faster Wi-Fi 5. It’s an easy upgrade if you want 4K without spending much more, and like the base model, it supports Bluetooth Headphone Mode.

In my opinion, the Roku Streaming Stick 4K offers better bang for the buck. It adds Dolby Vision support, a newer processor and a stronger Wi-Fi connection thanks to dual-band MIMO and a receiver built into the power cable for better range. The Streaming Stick 4K doesn’t support device-level Bluetooth headphone pairing, but you can still use private listening through the Roku app on your phone. In real-world use, this is the model that balances price and performance the best, which is why it’s the one most people should buy.

The Roku Streambar SE is a bit different. It combines a 4K streaming player with a compact soundbar, so you’re upgrading your TV’s audio at the same time. If your TV speakers sound thin or hard to hear, especially for dialogue, this can be a simple all-in-one fix. It also supports Bluetooth Headphone Mode, but it comes with a simpler remote without voice controls.

At the top of the lineup, the Roku Ultra is the most powerful player Roku makes. It’s the only model with Wi-Fi 6 and an Ethernet port for the most reliable connection, and it supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. It also comes with Roku’s best remote, with backlit buttons, USB-C charging, and a lost remote finder. If you want the fastest performance and the most complete feature set, this is the one to get.

Roku device quick comparison chart

My picks for the best Roku devices

Having tested all of the Roku devices, here are the Roku models I recommend, based on how most people actually use them.

Best Roku device: Roku Ultra

Of all the choices, I can confidently recommend the Roku Ultra as the best Roku player. While it’s the most expensive at $99, it offers the best of everything that’s important – 4K streaming with support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+, WiFi 6 (802.11ax MIMO) wireless, and the most advanced remote control, the Voice Remote Pro (2nd Gen).

As Roku’s flagship streaming player, the Ultra supports the most video and audio formats. In addition to HDR10/10+, it supports Dolby Vision for video and Dolby Atmos for audio. For home theater enthusiasts, this is the one to get.

The Ultra is also the first Roku streaming player to support WiFi 6, which provides better throughput and range. Combined with the Ultra’s processor, which is the fastest to date, the user experience is faster and smoother than any other Roku player.

The bundled Voice Remote Pro (2nd Gen) is Roku’s best remote for two key reasons: it’s the only one with backlit keys, allowing use in the dark, and it runs on a rechargeable battery (via USB-C) that lasts about a month on a single charge. Like its predecessor, it offers an always-listening mode for Roku voice commands. When enabled, you can find your remote just by asking, "Hey Roku, where’s my remote?" and control Roku search, play shows, and more. Additionally, it features two user-programmable "shortcut buttons" that can be assigned to any task you can perform with a voice command.

The one potential drawback is the design. Some people might prefer the stick form factor of the Streaming Stick 4K over the Ultra’s box design for wall mounted TVs.

Price: $99.99

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Best Roku device for most people: Roku Streaming Stick 4K

While the Roku Ultra may offer the most bells and whistles, I recommend the Streaming Stick 4K as the best Roku device for most people. It hits the sweet spot between price and performance, offering everything most people need without paying for features you may never use.

You get 4K streaming with support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+, along with Wi-Fi 5 dual-band MIMO and a Wi-Fi receiver built into the USB-C power cable for extra range. In my experience, that extra range can make a real difference if you don’t have strong Wi-Fi. Plus, you can pair Bluetooth headphones with the Streaming Stick 4K through the Roku app for private listening.

While it doesn’t have quite the same processing power as the Ultra, the Streaming Stick 4K is still fast and responsive in everyday use. Apps load quickly, navigation is smooth.

The design is also a big advantage. Because it plugs directly into your TV and can be powered by USB, you don’t have to deal with extra boxes or cables. It’s a clean setup that works especially well for wall-mounted TVs or smaller spaces.

The bottom line is that the Streaming Stick 4K delivers the full Roku experience at a very reasonable price.

Price: $49.99

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Best budget Roku device: Roku Streaming Stick

If you don’t have a 4K TV and are on a budget, the Roku Streaming Stick is the best choice. You can enjoy the same easy-to-use Roku interface as the more expensive models, is supports Bluetooth Headphone Mode, and the remote supports voice commands and can operate your TV power and volume.

It’s also the simplest, cleanest setup Roku offers – everything can plug directly into your TV, including power, so there’s no extra clutter.

The tradeoff is that you’re limited to Full HD and you don’t get HDR or Dolby Vision, and performance isn’t quite as fast as the higher-end models. But if you’re using an older TV or just want the cheapest way to stream, those tradeoffs are easy to live with.

Price: $29.99

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Updated on 3/30/2026 with current model information

[Image credit: Roku]

If you have been working on a small 1080p screen and feel like you are constantly shuffling windows around, a bigger 4K monitor makes a real difference. The Acer AOPEN 32SA2QK is a 31.5-inch 4K UHD monitor built for home office and everyday use, and at $153 it is one of the most affordable options we've seen for that kind of screen space.

AOPEN is Acer's budget-friendly monitor brand, but this one punches above its weight. The 4K resolution means text looks sharp, and you get plenty of room to work with multiple windows side by side. At 31.5 inches, it is large enough to replace a dual-monitor setup for most people. It has HDR10 support for better contrast when you are streaming movies or shows, and AMD FreeSync keeps things smooth if you do some casual gaming on the side. You get a DisplayPort 1.2 and two HDMI 2.0 ports, so connecting a laptop and a console at the same time won't be an issue.

One thing to keep in mind is that the refresh rate is 60Hz, so this is not the monitor for fast-paced competitive gaming. But if you are looking for a big, sharp screen for work and media, 60Hz is perfectly fine. It also has low blue light and flicker-free features, which help if you spend long hours in front of it.

Amazon's Big Spring Sale has the AOPEN 32SA2QK down to $152.99 from $276.04, a 45% discount. You would normally pay well over $200 for a 4K panel of this size. This one of the best monitor deals we've found. The deal runs through March 31.

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[Image credit: Acer]

The head of the FBI just got hacked. Let that sink in for a moment.

An Iranian government-backed hacking group called Handala claimed Friday that it broke into FBI Director Kash Patel's personal Gmail account and dumped the contents online. A Justice Department official confirmed to Reuters that the breach was real and that the material posted online appeared authentic.

We pulled the files from Handala's webpage and went through them. Honestly, there's not much there.

Very old, boring emails.

Handala published more than 300 emails and photos. Most of them are over a decade old. We're talking family messages, travel itineraries, and personal photos. Nothing classified. Nothing that would make Patel sweat. The published sample spans personal and work correspondence dating between 2010 and 2019. The newest item we found was a plane ticket receipt from 2022.

This looks like either an old account Patel barely used or a breach that happened years ago and just sat on a shelf waiting for the right moment. The FBI's own statement backs that up. "The information in question is historical in nature and involves no government information," a spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Cybersecurity experts agree with that reading. Alex Orleans, head of threat intelligence at Sublime Security, told NBC News the Iranians likely had this material sitting around for a while. "Iranian actors sit on all kinds of odds and ends for a rainy day," he said. He also noted that if Handala had fresh access to Patel's account, you'd expect them to release something far more damaging than decade-old family photos.

Why now?

The timing is no accident. Earlier this month, the Justice Department seized four domains tied to Handala as part of a crackdown on Iranian hacking and transnational repression operations. Patel personally piled on in a March 19 press release, declaring "Iran thought they could hide behind fake websites and keyboard threats to terrorize Americans and silence dissidents," and that the FBI wasn't done going after them.

The U.S. government is putting real money on the table. The State Department's Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $10 million for information leading to the identification of Handala's members.

Handala didn't take that well. The group posted online that it had decided "to respond to this ridiculous show in a way that will be remembered forever."

Who is Handala?

The group presents itself as pro-Palestinian vigilante hackers, but many Western researchers consider it a front for Iranian government cyberintelligence units. It has been busy. Handala claimed responsibility for an attack on medical tech giant Stryker that wiped tens of thousands of employee devices.

Gil Messing of Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point told The Globe and Mail that the operation fits Iran's broader strategy of trying to make U.S. officials "feel vulnerable." The Iranians, he said, are "firing whatever they have."

The lesson that never seems to stick

Even a dud breach is a reminder of an obvious risk that too many senior officials seem oblivious to – personal accounts are easy targets. Patel got lucky, his account appears to largely have been a digital junk drawer. But as Director of the FBI, having any account breached is not a good look.

Read more: 2FA Explained: The Safest Ways to Protect Your Accounts

[Image credit: FBI.gov]

If you have been seeing those tall, glowing multi-colored RGB floor lamps all over TikTok and Instagram and thought they might add some pop to your space, now is a great time to grab one. Lepro's OE1 Corner Floor Lamp is down to $53.19 on Amazon from $95.99, a 45% discount, as part of Amazon's Big Spring Sale.

The Lepro stands about 60 inches tall and tucks into a corner on a compact 9-inch base, so it does not eat up floor space. It puts out 2,300 lumens, which is bright enough to light a room rather than just glow in the background. It works equally well if you have a work setup that needs some lighting or you just want to jazz up your living room.

The Lepro app lets you pick from 16 million colors, set warm or cool white tones for everyday use, and sync the lights to music if you want to get fancy with it. You can even draw custom color patterns on the lamp using the app, which is a fun touch. It also works with both Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can control it with your voice if you have a smart speaker set up.

At $53, you are paying less than most basic floor lamps at Target or IKEA, and this one does a whole lot more. It is not going to replace your overhead lighting, but as an accent lamp, it makes a noticeable difference in how the space feels. It’s also easy to set up thanks to a tool-free assembly, which takes about 10 minutes.

The deal runs through March 31 on Amazon. Note that it's a Prime Exclusive Deal, so you will need a Prime membership to get the price.

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[Image credit: Lepro]

Your phone is already one of the most powerful computers you own, so why can't you use it like one? You can. Google has offered a bare-bones version of Desktop Mode on its Pixel phones since 2019, but it was designed as a tool for app developers and wasn't optimized for consumer use. The company spent the following years on improvements and, as part of the March 2026 Feature Drop, rolled out a mature, functional version of Desktop Mode.

Desktop Mode now looks and operates more like a computer with a taskbar, a multi-window interface, and support for keyboard and mouse. There's support for data transfer, 4K video, and charging simultaneously through your phone's USB-C port, so you can use a single cable to plug into the monitor.

This means you can now use Desktop Mode to turn your phone into a PC for a full-screen desktop experience when needed. You can use a monitor in your hotel’s business center to get real work done or give a PowerPoint presentation without carrying a laptop. And you don’t face the security risks of using a public computer; you’re using the device you already have in your pocket, with all your apps and files ready to go.

How to set up and use Pixel Desktop Mode

Google's Desktop Mode requires your Pixel phone’s USB-C port to support DisplayPort Alt Mode (DP Alt Mode), which enables data, power, and video to travel together over a single USB-C cable. Currently, Pixel 8, Pixel 9, and Pixel 10 series phone have this feature. Your Pixel phone also needs to be running Android 16 (March 2026 Feature Drop) or later.

Read more: Pixel 10: Big AI Leap and Magnetic Charging Upgrade

Next, you need the appropriate hardware to connect your phone to an external display. You can use a USB-C cable to connect your monitor, as long as it specifically says it supports DP Alt Mode, like the StarTech.com 3ft USB-C to USB-C Cable with DP Alt Mode ($25.99) . However, you're more likely to encounter displays with an HMDI input. So, I recommend investing in a small USB-C hub with HDMI output, like the Anker 555 8-in-1 ($35.99). It's a reliable product we use at Techlicious, with verified DP Alt Mode support and sufficient PD passthrough at 100W. And with its multiple USB-C and USB-A ports, you can easily connect a wired keyboard and/or mouse.

Last but not least, you must have a mouse and keyboard to navigate and type. I recommend going with wireless options for a clutter-free experience. We're fans of the Logitech Keys-To-Go 2 ($79.99): it's slim, has a protective magnetic cover, and can pair with up to three devices so you can switch between your phone, tablet, and laptop without re-pairing. For the mouse, our go-to is the Logitech MX Anywhere 3S ($79.99), which works on virtually any surface, connects via Bluetooth or a USB receiver, and is compact enough to put in a jacket pocket.

Once you've paired your mouse and keyboard to your phone, connect your Pixel phone to the display. Or, if you’re using a wired keyboard and/or and mouse, plug them into the USB-C hub and then plug the hub into your phone's USB-C port.

You should now see a notification titled “Connect to external display” on your screen. Select the “Desktop” option, and you should see Pixel UI’s desktop view on your external display.

With Desktop Mode active, you’re now all set. However, for a better experience, I suggest you configure a couple of display settings. You can adjust the display size and resolution to your preference by opening the “Settings” app and go to Connected devices > External displays > Beyond TV. You may also want to increase the screen timeout duration to prevent the phone from locking and, in turn, pausing Desktop Mode.

Desktop Mode supports multitasking, so you can work on multiple apps at once. While Google doesn’t specify how many apps you can open on the screen at once, you’re essentially only limited by your external display’s screen size and the phone’s RAM.

You can also open apps in different workspaces to keep them isolated. Desktop Mode currently lets you open up to four desktops active at once. To access the option, click the “Recents” button, then hit the square icon with a plus sign. You now have a new desktop, where you can open more apps. When you want to switch desktops, repeat the same steps and click the desktop you want to access.

Last but not least, master keyboard shortcuts to efficiently navigate your phone in Desktop Mode. Pressing the Windows key + / will pull up a list of keyboard shortcuts.

Pixel's Desktop Mode isn't perfect, yet

As of writing, Pixel’s Desktop Mode isn’t anywhere close to being a replacement for your main computer. It’s just a handy feature for one-off use cases that require larger screen estate. Part of the reason is the hardware limitations: while Google’s Tensor G chips can handle tasks decently well on a phone, they struggle to deliver the same performance when pushed in Desktop Mode. I noticed that web browsing and editing pictures in Lightroom were really slow.

Among other things, Pixel’s Desktop Mode lacks a wireless display mode, and it doesn’t let you use your phone’s screen as a trackpad. You also can't customize the wallpaper or choose widgets, like you can on your Pixel's home screen. At times, changing mobile wallpaper in Desktop Mode breaks things, and you end up with a gray background. Scaling and text size inconsistencies are some other issues I experienced with Desktop Mode during my testing.

These are all problems that Google can and will resolve. Desktop Mode is part of a broader strategy to eventually merge Android and ChromeOS into a single platform. In fact, Google is actively developing Aluminium OS with with plans to launch this fall, as Google's Sameer Samat, President, Android Ecosystem, confirmed in an interview with Android Authority earlier this month.

With additional reporting by Suzanne Kantra

[Image credit: Suzanne Kantra/Techlicious]

If you’ve ever been stuck on a flight listening to someone scroll a TikTok feed or music blasting from their phone speaker, this news will come as a welcome relief. United Airlines has updated its passenger rules to require headphones when playing audio or video on personal devices.

Under the new policy, travelers must wear headphones or earbuds when listening to music, watching videos, or using any app that produces sound. If someone refuses after being asked to comply, even after being offered a free set of earbuds, the airline now has the authority to remove them from the aircraft (though I’m not entirely sure how that removal would work once the plane is already in the air) and potentially ban them from flying United in the future.

With more passengers using their own devices for entertainment and onboard Wi-Fi more widely available, streaming movies or scrolling social media during flights has become routine. As someone who flies often for work, I’ve experienced this annoyance more times than I care to count. I’ve boarded flights hoping to get some work done or catch a little sleep, only to hear a tablet a few rows away playing “Baby Shark” on repeat or the soundtrack from an action movie echoing through the cabin. On a long flight, those bursts of dramatic explosions can feel a lot louder than they actually are.

At a time when airlines are already dealing with more disruptive passenger behavior, even something as simple as playing audio can quickly test everyone’s patience. The FAA has reported thousands of unruly passenger incidents in recent years, showing how quickly tensions can rise in a crowded cabin.

Under federal law (14 CFR § 121.580), refusing to follow crew instructions while onboard a plane is illegal. So while United is the first major US carrier to formalize a headphones rule, other airlines have language in their conditions of carriage that covers this. For example, American Airlines doesn’t explicitly spell out a headphone rule, but its conditions of carriage require passengers to behave “appropriately and respectfully,” giving crews broad authority to step in when someone is disturbing others.

The best headphones to pack for your flight

Of course, the easiest way to avoid becoming “that passenger” is to bring headphones. I recommend bringing a pair of earbuds, unless you have a lot of room in your carry-on. We've tested dozens of models for Techlicious – these are the ones that made it to the top of our must-pack list.

For the ultimate in noise cancelling, especially that low hum of the plane, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Gen 2 ($299.00) easily beat out every other pair of earbuds we've tested. The sound quality is also excellent, though models like the Technics AZ-100 ($299.99) hold an edge for true musical fidelity. If those pairs are outside your budget, the Soundcore Space A40 ($49.99) delivers solid ANC and excellent sound for a fraction of the price.

If you're not a fan of in-ear buds, the Shokz OpenFit Pro ($199.95) sit just outside your ear instead of sealing the ear canal, making them extremely comfortable for long stretches. I can listen to music or a movie while still hearing flight announcements, and the AI-based noise reduction – a first in open-ear headphones – works surprisingly well.

For long-haul and overnight flights where you need to sleep, my co-workers at Techlicious swear by Soundcore’s Sleep A30 earbuds ($199.99). They are designed to fit flat inside your ear so they are comfortable even while leaning on your side to sleep. They can also play white noise independently from your phone, giving them exceptionally long battery life for use when you're getting some shut-eye. And with ANC, they do a good job at canceling out all those annoying airplane noises (or a partner snoring when used at home).

And if you’re traveling with kids, a pair of volume-limited headphones like the JLab JBuddies Pro Kids Wireless Headphones ($34.99) is an easy fix. They have soft, padded earcups and sound surprisingly good for kids' headphones. There's a 3.5mm jack for seatback entertainment and a hidden switch to enable volume limiting to 85dB to protect sensitive young eardrums.

Another travel accessory we always carry with us is the Twelve South AirFly Pro ($54.99), a tiny device that plugs into the airplane’s seatback headphone jack and sends the audio wirelessly to your Bluetooth headphones. That means you can watch in-flight movies without carrying an extra pair of wired headphones or dealing with the cords every time you or your fellow passenger need to hit the head.

[Image credit: United Airlines]

Every year, as tax season approaches, scammers come out of the woodwork to take advantage of American taxpayers. And this year is no different. The IRS just released its annual “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams that includes some oldies but goodies (baddies?), plus new scams that are on the rise.

According to IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Bisignano, “thieves continuously adjust the pitches they use to take advantage of honest taxpayers.” And the IRS points out that it’s not just individual taxpayers that need to be wary, business and tax professionals are also being targeted. So even if you consider yourself a seasoned tax pro, it pays to keep up with the latest threats.

The goal of these scams? Ultimately, it’s all about the money. Scammers may fool you into giving up personal information like your social security numbers, which can then be used for identity theft, or file fraudulent refund requests on your behalf, leaving you to clean up the mess.

Here are the twelve scams the IRS says you need to watch out for.

Fake IRS emails and texts

Just like it sounds, scammers are sending emails and texts that claim to be from the IRS. The communications are likely to use urgent-sounding language intended to scare you into clicking a link or downloading a file before you have time to consider the consequences. Doing so may take you to a phishing site designed to steal your personal information or even install malware on your computer.

If you receive a notification from the IRS that requires your response, the safest approach is to contact the IRS through one of the online or phone options listed on the IRS help page. Never call any phone number listed in the notification, as that may simply connect you directly to the scammers.

Read more: How to tell if an email from the IRS has been spoofed

AI phone calls from fake IRS agents

It shouldn’t be a surprise that as AI tools evolve, scammers will increasingly take advantage of the capabilities to perpetuate criminal activity. The IRS reports it is seeing AI-enabled IRS phone impersonation that uses natural-language conversation and spoofed caller ID to appear to be coming from a legitimate IRS agent.

As with emails and texts, these calls may use threatening language, such as claims of arrest or large fines, to pressure you into providing information or making a payment. The goal is to create urgency, so you act before verifying whether the call is legitimate.

The IRS notes it generally contacts taxpayers by mail first and “does not leave urgent, threatening prerecorded messages, call to demand immediate payment, or threaten arrest.” If you receive a call of this nature, hang up and contact the IRS help center through the official channels listed above.

Fake charities

Seeing tragic events around us, such as natural disasters or wars, makes us want to loosen our purse strings to help those affected. And that outpouring of generosity is the perfect opportunity to open a fake charity to take advantage of good intentions.

Donating to one of these fake organizations means your money never reaches those who need it. And if you try to claim a tax deduction on that donation, you could face back taxes, interest, and penalties if the IRS disallows it. The IRS reminds taxpayers that “charitable donations only count if they go to a qualified tax-exempt organization recognized by the IRS.”

Be wary of giving to any charity based on a phone call or unsolicited mailing. Sites like Charity Navigator will help you find legitimate charities matched to your interests and understand how effectively they use donations.

Misleading tax advice on social media

Social media is filled with people offering advice on just about every topic, regardless of whether they are qualified to do so. And that holds just as true for tax guidance. The IRS warns that “social media-driven misinformation and disinformation remain a major driver of tax scams.”

Sometimes the advice is simply incorrect. In other cases, what the IRS calls “viral tax hacks” are intentionally misleading and designed to push you toward paid services, downloadable guides, or other products.

Following bad advice can have real consequences. Filing a return with false information or claiming credits you don’t qualify for can lead to delayed refunds, audits, and potentially significant civil or criminal penalties. It’s best to rely on qualified tax professionals and reputable sources, not your favorite influencer.

Identity theft involving your IRS online account

Your IRS account is a goldmine for criminals. Once a scammer gains access, they can change your direct deposit information, file or modify returns, and redirect your refund to their own account. With access to your Social Security number, income history, and employer details, they can use that information for identity theft and other financial crimes.

The weak point isn’t the IRS system – it’s the user. Criminals don’t hack the IRS directly. Instead, they rely on stolen data from breaches, phishing attacks, or tricks designed to get you to hand over login credentials or verification codes. In some cases, they may pose as “tax helpers,” offering to assist with account setup in order to collect your personal information.

The IRS recommends creating your account directly through IRS.gov and avoiding any unsolicited offers of help. It’s also important to use a strong, unique password. A password manager – such as 1Password, Dashlane, Apple Passwords, or Google Password Manager – can make it easier to create and manage secure logins.

Fake capital gains credit claims

This is one of the more technical scams on the IRS list. Scammers are encouraging taxpayers to claim refunds using Form 2439, which applies to undistributed long-term capital gains from certain investment funds or real estate trusts. In these schemes, the supporting information is either fabricated or significantly overstated.

The pitch is straightforward: file this form, claim a credit, and receive a larger refund. But if you don’t actually have qualifying investments, the claim is invalid. Filing a false claim can lead to delayed refunds, audits, penalties, or enforcement action.

Bogus “self-employment tax credit” promotion.

This scam is spreading rapidly online, targeting freelancers and small business owners. The messaging typically claims there is a little-known “self-employment tax credit” that can generate large refunds with minimal effort.

Scammers may offer to handle the filing for you – for a fee – or provide instructions on how to claim the credit yourself. In many cases, the credit is misrepresented or applied to taxpayers who do not actually qualify.

If you’re being told you can easily qualify for a large refund without clear eligibility requirements, that should raise concerns. The IRS says they are closely reviewing these claims, and if you file incorrectly, you are responsible for repayment, penalties, and potential audits.

Ghost tax preparers

A “ghost preparer” is someone who prepares your tax return but refuses to sign it or include their Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN). While that may seem like a minor technical detail, it is one of the clearest warning signs of fraud.

Dishonest ghost tax return preparers may promise a big refund to get your business. But by not signing the return, the preparer avoids accountability for any false information or fraudulent claims, leaving you legally responsible for everything filed under your name.

If your preparer won’t sign your return, won’t provide a PTIN, or pressures you to sign an incomplete return, you should walk away. A legitimate tax professional will always stand behind their work.

Non-cash charitable contribution schemes

Donating property to charity can provide a legitimate tax deduction, but scammers have found ways to exploit that system. Promoters of these schemes may push structured arrangements involving land, artwork, or conservation easements, supported by highly inflated appraisals. The sales pitch typically promises that you can dramatically reduce – or even eliminate – your taxes through these donations.

When the IRS reviews these claims, it may disallow the deduction and assess you with back taxes, interest, and penalties. If someone is promising unusually large tax savings tied to a donation, talk to your accountant first. And, it should go without saying, don’t file information you know or suspect to be false.

Overstated withholding schemes

This scheme occurs when scammers encourage individuals to report false withholding amounts on forms such as W-2s or 1099s to make it appear that more tax was paid than actually was. The goal is to generate a larger refund by claiming withholding that never occurred. In some variations, taxpayers are instructed to report little or no income while still claiming significant withholding from multiple sources.

The IRS cross-checks withholding against records from employers and financial institutions, so discrepancies are likely to be flagged. If you’re advised to manipulate withholding numbers to increase your refund, that is a clear sign of fraud. Filing this type of return can lead to delayed refunds, audits, and financial penalties.

Spear-phishing attacks targeting tax professionals

This scam is primarily aimed at tax professionals and businesses, but it can have a direct impact on taxpayers whose data is stored in those systems. Attackers send targeted emails posing as new clients or legitimate contacts, often including links or attachments designed to install malware or steal login credentials.

At Techlicious, we’ve seen examples of this type of attack disguised as DocuSign phishing attacks and malware hidden inside calendar invitations.

Once a tax professional’s system is compromised, scammers can gain access to large volumes of sensitive client information, including Social Security numbers, tax returns, and financial records. They may also impersonate your taxpayer to trick you into sending tax payments to an account under their control.

For individuals, the risk is indirect but significant. It’s important to be cautious if you receive an unexpected request for sensitive information or to make a tax payment from your accountant. And for tax professionals, maintaining robust security practices is critical to protect yourself and your clients.

Read more: I Almost Fell for This DocuSign Phishing Scam

Aggressive or misleading Offer in Compromise marketing (“OIC mills”)

The IRS provides an Offer in Compromise (OIC) program that allows eligible taxpayers to settle their tax debt for less than the full amount owed. Scammers have built entire businesses around exploiting misunderstandings about how the program works.

These “OIC mills” may promise to settle tax debt for pennies on the dollar, often in exchange for high upfront fees. And, the IRS says that, in many cases, they target taxpayers who do not actually qualify for the program.

Before paying for OIC assistance, check your eligibility using the free OIC tools available on IRS.gov. If a company says you’re eligible, but the IRS tool says you’re not, that should be a big red flag.

How to protect yourself

Scammers rely on a consistent playbook to execute their schemes: create urgency, appear legitimate, and get you to act before you think. If you get a phone call or email, see a slickly produced social media post, or even receive a message from your tax preparer, slow down and consult IRS.gov or your accountant before taking action.

If you think your tax identity has been compromised, visit IRS.gov/idtheft for steps to protect your account and recover it if access has been lost.

[Image credit: Suzanne Kantra/Techlicious via ChatGPT]

There are numerous email scams that land in your inbox every day, from malware-ridden attachments supposedly from a friend to IRS impersonators to fake calendar invitations. And what makes many of these scams harder to recognize is that they rely on a “spoofed” email address to make it appear that they are coming from someone you trust (or even your own email address) rather than a scammer 6,000 miles away. So learning how to tell if an email has been spoofed is critical to protecting yourself.

Part of the reason why spoofed emails are so prevalent is that it is incredibly easy to spoof an address. Any mail server can be set up to send from a given domain (e.g., irs.gov), and there are even websites that will let you send one-off emails using any email address for free. And while most email services will send these to spam, it's possible one may get through, or you may be wondering whether an email that landed in your spam folder is real.

Fortunately, these methods leave telltale tracks that give it away as spoofed.

To find these tracks, you need to look at the email header. The header contains critical components of every email – From, To, Date, and Subject – as well as detailed information about where the email came from and how it was routed to you. Importantly, it also contains the results of the verification process your email provider used to determine if the sending server has permission to send using that domain (i.e., is this server authorized to send emails from irs.gov?). Checking these clues in the header is the most reliable way to tell if an email has been spoofed.

How to find email header information

Showing your email headers varies depending on which email service you’re using. The instructions below are all for your computer or the "desktop view" using your phone's browser.

How to show email headers for Gmail

For Gmail, open the email and click on the three vertical dots next to the reply arrow and select “Show Original”.

How to show email headers for Outlook and Outlook.com

For Outlook, open the email. Click on "File" and then "Properties." The headers will show in the "Internet headers" box.

For Outlook.com, open the email. Click on the more icon (three dots) and select "View" and then "View message source." The headers will show in a pop-up box.

How to show email headers for Proton Mail

For Proton Mail, open the email. Click on the more icon (three dots) and select "View headers." The headers will show in a new window.

How to show email headers for Apple Mail

For Apple Mail, open the email. Click View > Message > All Headers. The headers will show in the window below your inbox.

How to show email headers for Yahoo! Mail

For Yahoo! Mail, open the email. Click on the more icon (three dots) and select “View raw message.” The headers will show in a new window.

How to find the header information that shows an email is spoofed

Below is an example of a spoofed email I sent using an online spoofing service, pretending it came from my own address. Looks pretty real. It says it came from my email address, and if I reply, it will go to the same address (unless the attacker set a different “Reply-To” address, which scammers sometimes use to redirect responses).

But the header information gives it away as spoofed. There’s a lot of technical stuff in here, and you can ignore most of it. The two things that matter most are the domain name and IP address in the “Received” field, and the validation results in the “Received-SPF” field.

The “Received” headers show each mail server the message passed through. By examining the earliest “Received” entry (usually at the bottom), you can often identify the server that originally sent the message.

As you can see above, the domain name this email is being sent from is emkei.cz (the email spoofing site), not Techlicious.com, so that’s a dead giveaway. But if the domain name is similar or it’s listed as just an IP address, you should check the IP address too and see if it passes the smell test.

To check an IP address, go to Domain Tools and enter the “from” IP address in the Received field into the Whois Lookup. When I do that with 46.167.245.206 from the example above, it tells me this is a host called emkei.cz out of the Czech Republic – not what I would expect to see if this were really an email sent by Techlicious.

Next, look at the Received-SPF field to see whether it shows a soft fail. Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a way for a domain (e.g., Techlicious.com) to specify what servers are permitted to send mail on its behalf. Mail sent from permitted servers will appear as “Pass” in the Received-SPF field, which is a strong indicator that the email is legitimate. If the results show “Fail” or “Softfail”, that’s a sign the email may be spoofed, though it’s not 100% certain, since some domains don’t keep their SPF records up to date, which can cause legitimate emails to fail authentication checks.

Many email services include an “Authentication-Results” line in the header that summarizes whether SPF (checks if the sending server is authorized to send for that domain), DKIM (a digital signature verifying the email was sent by that domain and wasn’t altered), and DMARC (a policy that confirms the sender domain matches the visible “From” address and instructs mail servers what to do if authentication fails) passed or failed. If all of them fail, that’s a strong sign the email may be spoofed.

Taken together, the sending IP address and SPF validation will give you a very good sense of whether an email truly comes from the person purportedly sending it. And don’t forget to trust your gut. If an email sounds implausible, it probably is. Don’t respond directly or open any attachments. If it is a company, bank, or government organization, find their contact information online and reach out to them directly to verify whether the email is legit.

Updated on 3/13/2026 with clarifications on what to look for in a spoofed email header

[Image Credit: BigStock-Woman at Computer]

Consult the chart below to find out the latest version of iOS or iPadOS that your tablet supports. To identify which iPad model you own, turn it over, and you will find it printed in very small type on the back under the iPad logo. You can also go to Settings > General > About. There you will find the "Model Name" and "Model Number." The model number is a letter followed by four numbers. If you see a slash in a string of characters (for example, MY3K2LL/A), you're looking at the part number. Tap it to reveal the model number.

Have an old iPhone? Check out our story on how to update an old iPhone.

The Latest Version of iOS or iPadOS by iPad Model

How to update an old iPad

There are two ways to update your old iPad. You can update it wirelessly over WiFi or connect it to a computer and use the iTunes app.

How to update an old iPad wirelessly

Back up your iPad

Make sure your iPad is connected to Wi-Fi and plugged into a power source during installation. Then go to Settings > Apple ID [Your Name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup. Make sure iCloud Backup is turned on and select "Back Up Now." You'll receive a confirmation when the backup is complete. 

Check for and install the latest iPadOS

To check for the latest software, go to Settings > General > Software Update. Your iPad will then check for a software update. On the screen, you'll see either your current version of iOS or iPad OS with the message "Your software is up to date," or, if your software is not up to date, you'll see the option to "Download and Install."

How to update an old iPad using your computer

Back up your iPad

Connect your iPad to your computer with your Lightning or USB-C cable. (You may see a message asking for your iPad passcode or for you to "Trust This Computer." Follow the directions.)

On a Mac with macOS Catalina 10.15 or later, open Finder. Select your iPad, select "General," and select "Back up all of the data on your iPad to this Mac."

On a Mac with macOS Mojave 10.14 or earlier, launch iTunes. Locate your iPad in iTunes and click on it. You'll then see an option to "Back Up Now." Click on the "Back Up Now" button, and you'll receive a confirmation when the backup is complete.

On a Windows PC, open the Apple Devices app (or iTunes if you’re using an older system). Select your iPad in the sidebar, then select "General," and select "Back up all of the data on your iPad to this PC." 

Check for and install the latest iPadOS

On a Mac with macOS Catalina 10.15 or later, open Finder. Select your iPad, select "General," and select "Check for Update." If an update is available, select "Update."

On a Mac with macOS Mojave 10.14 or earlier, open iTunes. Then, connect your device to your computer. Locate your device on your computer. Click "General" or "Settings," then click "Check for Update." Click "Download and Update." You may be asked to enter your passcode.

On a Windows PC, open the Apple Devices app (or iTunes if you’re using an older system). Then, connect your device to your computer. Select your iPad in the sidebar, then click "Check for Update" and follow the prompts.

Updated on 3/13/2026 with new model number information, iPadOS 26 compatibility, and instructions for using the Apple Device app for Windows.

[Image credit: iPad updating via BigStockPhoto]

Artificial intelligence has made it alarmingly easy to create convincing fake videos of real people, including politicians. With elections and public debates increasingly shaped by online video, that raises a serious question: what happens when a deepfake spreads before anyone can stop it?

This week, YouTube announced it is trying to solve that problem by expanding a new detection system designed to spot AI-generated impersonations of public figures. Its likeness detection tool will now be available to a pilot group of government officials, political candidates, and journalists.

The system works a bit like YouTube’s Content ID technology, which identifies copyrighted music or video. Instead of detecting media rights, this tool scans uploaded videos for a person’s facial likeness. When a match is found, the individual can review the video and submit a removal request through YouTube’s privacy complaint process.

The reason for targeting civic figures first is straightforward. “The risks of AI impersonation are particularly high for those in the civic space,” Leslie Miller, YouTube’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, told Axios when describing the effort as a way to protect the integrity of public debate.

There are already examples of how damaging this kind of content can be. In a 2025 U.S. Senate race in Georgia, an AI-generated video circulated online that appeared to show Sen. Jon Ossoff mocking farmers and defending a government shutdown – statements he never actually made.

YouTube’s new system is designed to slow that kind of damage. However, detection does not automatically mean takedown. The company says it will still weigh factors such as satire, parody, and newsworthiness before deciding whether a video should remain online.

Technology alone won’t solve the deepfake problem. Even the best detection tools can miss videos, and platforms are often reluctant to remove content that might fall under satire or political commentary. There’s also the reality that misinformation rarely stays on just one platform. A fake video taken down from YouTube may continue circulating on other social networks, messaging apps, or websites where moderation is less consistent.

Read more: Facebook Account Cloning: How to Spot It and Stop It

The broader issue is that deepfakes are becoming easier and faster to produce than platforms can stop them. Tools like YouTube’s likeness detection system are an important step, particularly during election cycles when manipulated videos can have real-world consequences. But for viewers, the safest assumption remains the same: if a video of a politician saying something shocking suddenly appears online, it’s worth pausing before believing – or sharing – it.

[Image credit: Photo of President Trump bidding farewell to Malaysian officials at Kuala Lumpur International Airport: WhiteHouse.gov, AI overlay via ChatGPT]