Welcome to 2023

Celebrating 10 years in San Clemente

Jan 04, 2023

Welcome to 2023! You’ve probably noticed a different look and feel to the Digital Life newsletter. My much-loved curation and newsletter service, Revue, is owned by Twitter and has been shut down. Moving forward, I’m publishing on Substack. Never fear, you’ll see the same great curated content that you enjoy every month.

If you get a minute, I encourage you to check out back issues and other writers on Substack. It’s a great platform.

Thanks for your continued support of Lökwest, now entering our 10th year!

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In the News

Interested in what billions of searches across the world looked like in 2022? The Google Trends site always does a nice job on year-end round-ups. Would you believe the #1 search globally in 2022 was “Wordle”?

We haven’t tried this out yet, but it looks fantastic! If you’re an armchair karaoke fan, whip out your iPhone and try out a song today. Select songs are available now on Apple Music.

Security Updates

They send out a fake invoice and payment request. They ask you to call a number to “fix” it. They get your personal data in the process. Here’s how one PayPal attack works and what you can do to avoid being scammed.

Similar to the PayPal scam mentioned above, scammers have been using Venmo to try and part you with your money as well. Venmo works similarly to a debit card, meaning the dispute process is much tougher than a credit card. This makes it a very attractive target.

I have several clients who use the LastPass password manager. Yes, there was a data breach and yes, it was pretty bad. However, most clients should be safe assuming they have a STRONG master/vault password and have changed it recently. Read more about the breach here, and if you’re still concerned reach out to us! There are alternatives available, and new developments from Apple and Google are slowly helping with passwords too.

In Tech History

CES, the super bowl of electronics shows, starts this weekend. Of course, you’ll see the usual bevy of smart things, big TVs, futuristic devices, etc. It will be interesting to see how much of the industry has contracted given market conditions. We’ll have all the updates for you next month. In the meanwhile, let’s take a look back, shall we?

To the good old days of the ’50s, when the first 15” color TV could be had….for $1000. (That’s about 10K in today’s dollars!)

BTW - Here’s what $1000 bought in 1953:

House: $8,200
Average income: $4,011
Ford car: $1537-$2403
Milk: $.94
Gas: $.22
Bread $.16
Postage stamp: $.03
10- lb bag C&H sugar: $ .89
12 oz. jar of Libby’s pickles $.25
16 oz. jar Kraft Cheese Whiz: $.57
Romaine Lettuce: $ .10 lb

That’s Interesting

OK so I started reading this thinking it was another smart toilet joke. However, the more I read some of the science actually makes sense. Read for yourself and find out if training AI on farts can advance medicine.

Speaking of CES, didn’t we tell you there would be smart gadgets galore? How about a fridge with a 32” screen to write notes on, display things, and let you know what’s in the fridge? Or, how about you save a few $$ and buy some sticky notes and put a Lökwest calendar up there instead? 🙂😂