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Two minute tech tricks: Start the year with a clean inbox

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Two minute tech tricks: Start the year with a clean inbox

Email stinks. OK, it’s not that bad, but I’d much rather get things done in person, in a video meeting or over chat. My rule of thumb: If we get into an email back and forth, I’m calling you instead.

That said, email has its place and you might as well make your inbox as useful as it can be. For me, that starts with my annual ritual: Clearing out all the old mail from the year before. Give it a try.

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The trick is simple: Archive your inbox

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You’ll be surprised at how effective this is at giving you back some digital headspace.

Email spoofing consists of scammers forging sender addresses that appears similar to yours, allowing them to bypass spam filters and distribute harmful malware or request money from unsuspecting victims. (CyberGuy.com)

So, what is email archiving? Basically, this keeps a record of everything you’ve sent and received — so you’ll always have a copy of any of your messages and attachments — but they won’t be sitting in your inbox.

Sure, you can file all your emails away into carefully sorted folders, but what are the chances you’re actually going to keep up with that level of organization? Archiving is a great gift to give yourself going into the new year. Plus, it’s an easy New Year’s Resolution to keep. Just click a few buttons, and your life is already easier!

Follow these steps to archive in Gmail

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  • First, open your Gmail account on a computer and click the Inbox folder on the left.
  • Above your emails, there’s an empty checkbox. Click the small arrow next to it, and choose All. This selects only the conversations visible on the screen.
  • To select all your emails, click Select all (number) conversations in Inbox. Then, hit the Archive icon (folder with a downward pointing arrow).

Gmail will take some time to process your request. Be patient. You may have to do this step a few times to get everything.

FIVE DUMB TECH SECURITY MISTAKES YOU’RE MAKING

Once you’ve archived a message, you can hit All Mail to the left, right under Inbox and your other email folders to find it. Your best bet is to search by a term you know was in the email or by the sender.

Using Apple Mail? Here’s what to do

  • Open the Mail app on your Mac. Look through your inbox or other folders and find those emails you want to stash away. Click on an email to select it, or if you’ve got a bunch, hold down the Command key and click on each one you want to archive.
  • Got an ‘Archive’ button (looks like a little box) on the toolbar? Just click that, and you’re golden. No button? No problem. Click ‘Message’ at the top, then choose ‘Archive’ from the dropdown. If you’re all about shortcuts, just hit Control + Command + A and those emails will zip right into your archive.
  • Where did they go? Head over to the ‘Archive’ folder. It’s in the sidebar under ‘Mailboxes.’ Got more than one email account? Each one has its own Archive folder.

When you need to find those emails again, just click on that ‘Archive’ folder anytime. All your archived emails are there, ready when you are.

Person holds an iPhone (Fox News Digital)

How to archive emails in Microsoft Outlook

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Microsoft Outlook doesn’t put archived messages into a separate folder. Instead, they’ll go straight to a data file you can access whenever you want.

  • Select File > Cleanup Tools > Archive, then hit Archive this folder and all subfolders. Choose the folder you want to archive. In this case, your inbox.
  • Under Archive items older than, enter your date. For example, you may want to archive everything before 2012. Then, check the box that says Include items with “Do not AutoArchive.” Click OK, and you’re good to go.

You’ll see emails disappear from your inbox and subfolders. Now they’ll be under the Archives heading.

2023: A YEAR OF INNOVATION AND DISRUPTION IN TECH

Your inbox should be clean as a whistle

Now that you know my secret, your inbox is sure to look a whole lot cleaner to start the new year. Worried you missed something? Here’s my tip: If it’s really important, that person will email you again.

As a side note, remember that even if you archive emails, they can be subpoenaed for legal cases. We don’t give legal advice, so it’s best to consult a lawyer if you have any questions about this. 

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Use Yahoo? I have steps for archiving here on the website.

Email on your laptop (Cyberguy.com)

Keep your tech-know going 

My popular podcast is called “Kim Komando Today.” It’s a solid 30 minutes of tech news, tips, and callers with tech questions like you from all over the country. Search for it wherever you get your podcasts. For your convenience, hit the link below for a recent episode.

PODCAST PICK: Billionaire doomsday preppers, p*rn copyright trolls & nasty Amazon scam

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Plus, my 2024 tech resolutions and ways to have AI help you craft yours. California bans this ultra-weird product from Amazon — and yes, it involves donkeys. Peloton tablet goes obsolete, and I’ve got five tech holiday road trip tips.

Check out my podcast “Kim Komando Today” on Apple, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player.

Listen to the podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for my last name, “Komando.”

Sound like a tech pro, even if you’re not! Award-winning popular host Kim Komando is your secret weapon. Listen on 425+ radio stations or get the podcast. And join over 400,000 people who get her free 5-minute daily email newsletter.

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Technology

ChatGPT has a new $100 per month Pro subscription

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ChatGPT has a new 0 per month Pro subscription

OpenAI has announced a new version of its ChatGPT Pro subscription that costs $100 per month. The new Pro tier offers “5x more” usage of its Codex coding tool than the $20 per month Plus subscription and “is best for longer, high-effort Codex sessions,” OpenAI says.

The company is introducing the new tier as it tries to win over users from Anthropic and its popular Claude Code tool. ChatGPT’s $100 per month option will directly compete with Anthropic’s “Max” tier for Claude, which costs the same price. It also offers a middle ground between the $20 per month Plus tier and the $200 version of the Pro tier.

(Yes, there are now two tiers of “Pro”; while the new tier “still offers access to all Pro features,” OpenAI says that the more expensive one has even higher usage limits.)

According to OpenAI, ChatGPT Plus will “will continue to be the best offer at $20 for steady, day-to-day usage of Codex, and the new $100 Pro tier offers a more accessible upgrade path for heavier daily use.” OpenAI also offers an $8 per month Go tier and a free tier.

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Humanoid robots hit mass production in China

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Humanoid robots hit mass production in China

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For years, humanoid robots felt like something you watched on social media. Impressive, yes. Practical, not quite. That line just got blurry.

A new factory in China is now producing humanoid robots at a pace that feels closer to car manufacturing. One robot rolls off the line every 30 minutes.

That adds up to about 10,000 units a year. This is not a prototype phase anymore. This is real production.

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A Chinese factory is producing humanoid robots every 30 minutes, signaling a shift from experimental tech to mass production. (Tang Yanjun/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Inside China’s humanoid robot factory

The production line comes from a partnership between Leju Robotics and Dongfang Precision Science & Technology. What makes this facility stand out is how structured and repeatable the process has become.

There are 24 precision assembly stages. On top of that, 77 inspection steps check everything before a robot leaves the line. That level of testing matters because reliability has always been a weak spot for humanoid machines. Efficiency also jumped. The company says output improved by more than 50 percent compared to older production methods.

Then there is flexibility. The system can switch between robot models without shutting everything down. That means the same factory can serve multiple industries, from automotive to home appliances. This is how you move from cool tech to actual business.

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Why humanoid robot production at 10,000 units matters

The robotics industry has reached a turning point. It is no longer enough to show what a robot can do. Companies now need to prove they can build them at scale.

That shift is showing up across the market.

  • Agibot has already hit 10,000 units
  • Unitree Robotics is planning a major expansion with new funding
  • UBTECH Robotics is working to lower costs to below $20,000 per robot

Investors are watching production numbers closely. High output signals that a company can move beyond demos and into real deployment. It also shows confidence that there will be actual demand.

US TARGETS CHINESE ROBOTS OVER SECURITY FEARS
 

High-volume humanoid robot production marks a turning point for the global robotics industry. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

The shift to large-scale humanoid robot manufacturing

There is another important change here that is easy to miss. Companies are splitting roles. In this case, Leju Robotics focuses on design and software. Dongfang Precision Science & Technology handles production and scaling. This model looks a lot like how other tech industries evolved. One group builds the brain. Another builds the product at scale. That separation could speed things up across the entire robotics space.

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What is still holding humanoid robots back

Even with all this progress, one big problem remains. Software. Building the body is getting easier. Teaching it how to function in the real world is still difficult. Homes, warehouses and public spaces are unpredictable. Objects vary in shape. Lighting changes. Tasks that seem simple for humans can confuse a machine. Factories can now produce thousands of robots. That does not guarantee those robots will be useful right away. The pressure is shifting toward AI developers to close that gap.

What this means to you

This might feel far removed from everyday life. It is not. As production ramps up, costs usually come down. That opens the door for more businesses to adopt humanoid robots. You could start seeing them in warehouses, retail environments or service roles sooner than expected. At the same time, this raises questions about jobs, safety and how comfortable people feel interacting with machines that look and move like humans. The speed of this shift is what stands out. What felt experimental last year is now moving toward mainstream deployment.

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ARE ROBOTS COMING TO A MCDONALD’S NEAR YOU?
 

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China ramps up humanoid robot manufacturing with a facility capable of producing 10,000 units annually. (Tang Yanjun/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Kurt’s key takeaways

Humanoid robots are entering a new phase. The conversation is no longer about whether they can be built. It is about how quickly they can be produced and where they will actually work. Factories like this one in China are setting the pace. Now the rest of the industry has to keep up.

If humanoid robots become common in workplaces, where would you draw the line between helpful automation and going too far? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Google makes it easy to deepfake yourself

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Google makes it easy to deepfake yourself

YouTube Shorts is rolling out a new AI-powered feature giving creators an easy way to realistically clone themselves on camera. The launch, hinted at earlier this year, reflects the platform’s fraught relationship with AI-generated content, adding more generative features while struggling to contain AI slop, deepfake scams, and impersonations.

YouTube says the new tool will let users create a digital version of themselves, called an avatar, that can be inserted into existing Shorts videos or used to generate entirely new ones. The company said avatars will “look and sound like you,” framing them as a safer and more secure way to use AI to create new content.

Creating an avatar is a bit more involved than simply pressing a button, but it sounds fairly straightforward. In a blog post outlining the process, YouTube said users must first record a “live selfie” capturing their face and voice while following a series of prompts. For the best results, the company recommends good lighting, a quiet area, a background free of other people or images of faces, and holding the phone at eye level.

Once avatars are made, users can select “make a video with my avatar” while creating a video to generate a clip from prompts, which can be up to eight seconds long, according to 9to5google. Users can also add their avatar to “eligible Shorts” in their feed, though YouTube did not specify what makes a Short eligible.

The AI avatar feature comes with fairly tight restrictions. They can only be used in the creator’s own original videos, who also control whether their Shorts can be remixed. The creator can delete their avatar or videos where it appears at any time, YouTube says. Avatars that aren’t used to create new content for three years will be automatically deleted.

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Not everyone will be able to use the feature immediately. YouTube says the tool “will be rolling out gradually,” though it did not give a timeline or indication of where it will be available first. Creators must also be at least 18 and own an existing YouTube channel, the company says.

Its arrival comes as one of Google’s main AI rivals, OpenAI, pulls back from video generation. The startup said it was sunsetting its Sora video tool last month after a year of struggling to get the wannabe social platform off the ground. It was costly and faced a parade of copyright challenges, deepfake controversies, and slop that made it an unattractive bet for investors ahead of an anticipated IPO this year.

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