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Fresh From Cache 5-Minute Tech Tip card reading, Your screenshot tool got a lot better

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You already use the Snipping Tool. Look at what it does now.

Two keys, drag a box, and the picture is on your clipboard. That part hasn't changed. What's new is everything sitting behind the buttons across the top, and most people have never pressed any of them.

A hand holding a TV remote pointed at a wall-mounted television, with a home router on the shelf beside it.

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Your smart TV can track what you watch.

Your TV can recognize what is on its own screen, including whatever comes in over HDMI. What the setting is called on each brand, and where to find it.

A smartphone lying face up on a dark table with its home screen lit, a strip of purple light glowing on the wall behind it

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Cox Media Group told advertisers it was listening to you. The FTC says it never was.

The FTC fined Cox Media Group and two partners $930,000 over Active Listening, a service they said could pick up conversations from phones, TVs and smart speakers. It never collected a second of audio, and the tracking that really explains those eerie ads is duller and harder to escape.

A woman at an office desk holding a corded desk phone to her ear, looking at the monitor in front of her

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Who is ShinyHunters, and why is that name in every breach letter?

A hacking group said it took millions of customer records. Somebody opened the file and counted. The first big number in a breach story is a count of rows, not people.

Fresh From Cache 5-Minute Tech Tip card reading What does Google Search say about you, over a duotone clock face

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Google will tell you when your address shows up in its search results

Google's Results about you tool watches Search for your address, your phone number, and since February your driver's license and Social Security numbers. Here is what it pulls down and what it will not touch.

A shopper in a supermarket aisle looking at her phone, one hand on her cart.

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Are you paying a different price than your neighbor?

Congress never gave the FTC the power to ban personalized pricing. What it can do is make stores admit to it, and it is taking comments until September 18.

A hand holding a phone that is running an internet speed test, showing a result of 119 Mbps.

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Why is my Wi-Fi slow?

Buffering at eight, a dead back bedroom, one laptop that crawls. Those are different problems, and the checks that tell them apart cost nothing.

A row of laptops open on a wooden display table in a computer store.

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What laptop specs actually matter in 2026?

A laptop price tag is covered in letters and numbers that were put there to sell you. Four of them decide whether you still like the machine in five years, and the one that matters most is often not printed at all.

A girl in a pink shirt checking the smartwatch on her wrist in a field at sunset

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Who is behind your child's GPS watch?

Consumer Reports found kids GPS trackers that skip the second login step, and the cheapest watches run on shared platforms the buyer cannot name. Here is how to check the one on your child's wrist.

Fresh From Cache 5-Minute Tech Tip card over a clock face, reading: Want to see your mail before it gets to the mailbox?

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The post office already photographs your mail. It will send you the pictures.

USPS will email you a photo of the letters coming to your house that day, for free. Most eligible addresses have never turned it on.

A pencil eraser rubbing out the letters A and I written in pencil, with the I half erased and smearing rather than coming clean, beside a stack of books

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Can you stop AI companies from training on what you write?

The opt-out settings are real, they only work going forward, and they only bind companies that choose to honor them. What each one actually does, and the one place you have real power.

A bank of wall outlets crowded with white phone chargers, lit by afternoon sun through blinds

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What is a CPSC product safety warning?

A second kind of safety notice has grown to a fifth of the total, and it comes with no refund. Here is what to check before you buy a charger, a power strip, or a power bank.