Axios Finish Line

January 16, 2026
Happy Thursday evening! Axios' Natalie Daher is hosting Finish Line tonight, sharing some tech hygiene advice she should also heed herself.
- Smart Brevity™ count: 509 words … 2 mins. Copy edited by Amy Stern.
1 big thing: Your digital security cheat sheet
Being your family's go-to for tech support used to mean fixing printers and resetting passwords. Now it's about preventing the next crisis before it hits.
- Why it matters: A little upfront tech hygiene saves everyone time, money and group-chat meltdowns.
The Wall Street Journal's Nicole Nguyen recently highlighted some of her top tips — a "Tech Tuneup" — to ensure your nearest and dearest have optimal tech lives. Our favorites:
- 🔄 Focus on prevention. Turn on automatic updates across phones, laptops, routers and smart home devices. Yes, updates can be annoying. But older OS versions can be a quick path to glitches and security risks.
- 👀 Make screens easier to use. Bumping up font size, increasing contrast and reducing visual clutter can create a calmer experience, especially for aging eyes. Nguyen takes it a step further for iPhone users who aren't into the new "Liquid Glass." She writes: "Go to Settings > Display & Brightness. Tap on Liquid Glass, then select Tinted."
- 🛡️ Security is now a family skill. If one password unlocks everything, it's time for an intervention. Set up a password manager, enable two-factor authentication and talk through common scam tactics. Getting phished isn't just annoying; it can be expensive.
- 🧽 Wipe your digital footprint. Check out Google's free "Results about you" tool, or use apps like DeleteMe and Optery to do a deep dive and delete the data on you that's out there.
- 📶 Fix the Wi-Fi once and for all. Moving a router, upgrading old equipment or switching to a mesh router can dramatically improve coverage.
- 🔌 Investigate your phone-charging woes. Perpetually dead phone batteries are the worst. But dusty charging ports, cheap cables and worn-down batteries cause more problems than people realize. Make sure all your basic charging essentials are at their best, so a $10 fix can delay a $1,000 upgrade.
- ☁️ Backups matter — until it's too late. Photos, documents and contacts should be backed up automatically. Cloud or hard drive, just pick one and make it routine.
💭 Our thought bubble, from Axios' cybersecurity reporter Sam Sabin: Change your mindset. Anyone can be a scammer's next target, not just your parents or the less tech-savvy. Question any offers (text, phone or email) that are too good to be true.
💡 Pro move: Leave behind a simple cheat sheet after you run through these tips with loved ones. Lay out how to restart devices, which apps matter and what not to click.
- Empowerment beats repeat house calls.
WSJ article (gift link) ... Get Axios Future of Cybersecurity.
2. 🚢 Parting shot!

"The sunshine, the cruise ship, boats in the harbor and the iconic Sydney Opera House made this a gorgeous shot," Sebastian Mei, Axios' senior director of client partnerships, tells us of his recent trip to Sydney, Australia, with his husband.
- Sebastian, based in Milwaukee, took this photo from the Harbour Bridge on an iPhone 16.
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