Consider buying your next smartphone outright. It frees you to take your phone to another provider whenever you want to or to even add other eSIMs when you are traveling and don’t want to pay your US phone provider for cellular data outside the US. When you pay your phone off over time, your cell company has it locked to their towers and system. They claim you don’t have any long-term service contract with them, but they still “own” your phone until you pay it off.
As we use AI more and more, it may be tempting to ask your favorite AI to come up with new passwords. Don’t. Researchers are finding that AIs don’t generate good random passwords or passphrases, sometimes even proposing the same ones again. I still like choosing six words, using whatever room I am in to prompt ideas, and adding any other required capital, numbers, or special characters (but never placing them at the beginning or end of this new password.)
Firefox, starting with version 148, has an easy way to disable all of its use of AI. Or, you can pick and choose which AI features you want to leave on. The official instructions are at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-ai-controls
The Ray Ban Meta smart glasses are spooking some people as they look like normal glasses but contain small cameras and access to Meta AI to enable things like facial recognition. Luckily Android phone users can download the “Nearby Glasses” app which will scan for the unique Bluetooth signal patterns used by many of these smart glasses. It does also pick up on mixed reality headsets, such as the Meta Quest, but those are easier to spot. The developer says an iOS version is in the works. The app is available through Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.pocketpc.nearbyglasses
As tempting as it is to take advantage of a support center calling you back so you don’t have to stay on hold, that is now being used as part of some call scams. Say you get a suspicious text, or call from your “credit card company”, and you do the right thing, you call them using the number on the back of your card. One option might be for you have them call you back. The scammers also know that and they know the time they called or texted you. When “they” call back, using the spoofed phone number of your credit card company (spoofing is making the caller ID look like an official number even if the call is from another number, this has been possible and legal since the 1990 with the rise of digital calling services) you think you are actually talking to your credit card company. It might be better to just stay on the line when you first reach them, put the call on speaker phone, and wash the dishes.
Apple and Google are making it easier to switch between iPhone and Android, assuming you are using the latest versions of iOS and Android. If you are switching one way or the other, ask your phone provider (or whoever you are buying your phone from) to check on this.