🙏🏻 iPhone saves teen’s life: A 16-year-old in Greenville fell asleep at the wheel and crashed, leaving her with multiple broken bones. Trapped inside her pickup, she couldn’t call for help, but her iPhone did. Crash Detection automatically dialed 911 and got rescuers there. Want the same safety net? Go to Settings > Emergency SOS and toggle on Call After Severe Crash.
Smart glasses are spyware
Kim Komando
That’s me, virtually trying on Meta’s glasses on their website, doing my best Tom Cruise Risky Business impersonation. Spoiler, I didn’t buy them.
These remind me of Google Glass. Those awkward $1,500 face computers from 2013 that made you look like a cyborg at brunch. They launched with a ton of hype and died just as fast.
Between the terrible battery life and the privacy panic, “Glasshole” became a real word. Here we are over a decade later, and smart glasses are back big-time.
🕶 Meta’s bet on your face
Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses start at $299 and have already sold over 2 million pairs. They look like regular sunglasses but take hands-free photos, livestream video, play music and even answer questions through Meta AI whispered in your ear.
Battery life is four to six hours, and they charge inside a little sunglasses case. Everything syncs to the Meta View app, where your content is stored in the cloud.
Here’s the thing: The glasses are always listening, and they can start recording with just a tap. Meta added a tiny LED that lights up when filming, but really, who notices that at a Starbucks or party?
Privacy aside, Meta’s serious about this space. They own a $3.5 billion stake in EssilorLuxottica, the massive eyewear company behind Ray-Ban, Oakley and pretty much every brand you’ve ever tried on at the mall.
👓 Halo X is coming soon
Halo X is the chilling nerdy challenger, made by startup Brilliant Labs. It projects AI-generated responses right onto the lens. You can ask it to translate a sign, identify a flower or even help remember the name of someone you met at a bar two Friday nights ago.
Seriously, it records everything. Video, audio, all of it gets uploaded to the cloud. No local storage. No off switch. That’s helpful … or horrifying, depending on how you feel about privacy.
Battery life is short, two or three hours. When it ships in a few months, the glasses will cost $350 to $400.
We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.
2 hours
That’s the school day for core subjects at Alpha, the AI-powered private school. Kids in this $40K-to-$65K-a-year program blast through math, reading and science on personalized software before lunch, then spend afternoons on bike rides, hobbies or “life skills.” Imagine that.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Alexa has a Whisper Mode that replies quietly when you whisper to it. Just say, “Alexa, turn on Whisper Mode.” Great for late-night requests without waking the house.
📼 Own it? Not really: A new lawsuit says Amazon’s “Buy” button on video downloads is misleading, because what you’re really buying is a long-term rental they can take back anytime. A new California law backs the claim. So if your “purchased” movie vanishes next week, well, that’s legal. Somewhere, your dusty DVD collection is cackling.
👨🏻⚖️ Tesla said, “No data here” … Oopsie: Tesla told a jury there was absolutely no data showing what happened in a 2019 Autopilot crash that killed 22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon and left her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, seriously injured. Then a hacker in a Starbucks found the so-called “missing” evidence, and it was game over. The jury hit Tesla with a $243 million verdict.
$60,000
The median annual pay for HVAC techs, no bachelor’s required. That’s about the same as a liberal arts grad, minus the $43,000 student debt. Hot take: Installing AC might actually be the cooler job. Blame “AI-xiety,” but better a wrench in hand than a résumé lost in the algorithm.
The quiet speaks: Get this, researchers built an AI tool (SeeMe) that can spot teeny-tiny facial movements in coma patients days before doctors even notice. Wild part? These little flickers, like an eye twitch or a mouth move, mean some patients we thought were unreachable might actually be conscious, and even able to answer yes-or-no questions. Amazing.
📩 He was supposed to help: A U.S. postal fraud inspector, the very person meant to protect elderly scam victims, allegedly stole over $330,000 from them instead. He rerouted packages meant for evidence and used the cash for cruises, escorts and home renovations. Investigators say he even tried to cover his tracks by laundering the money through family members. There’s a special place for people like this; hopefully, it’s a prison cell with some great roommates.
😲 Google gets a slap not a split: Google just dodged a breakup in its big monopoly trial but don’t break out the champagne in Mountain View just yet. A judge says Google can’t keep cutting those sweetheart “default search” deals and has to open up some of its secret search data to rivals. Chrome stays safe, and Google keeps its crown, but this ruling cracks the door for competitors, especially with AI nipping at Google’s heels.
17 inches
That’s the neck size where men’s health risks spike. For the ladies, it’s 14 inches. A thicker neck isn’t just a linebacker flex, it’s a red flag for heart disease, diabetes and sleep apnea. Turns out your shirt collar might be better at predicting your future hospital visits than your bathroom scale.
🕵️ AirTagged and bagged: Guy loses his AirTag-equipped suitcase at LAX, chases the signal, finds his clothes being modeled by squatters in a condemned building not far from the airport. The bag was trashed, but he still got most of his wardrobe back, just … pre-worn. Imagine sprinting after your underwear on Find My iPhone.
Check your Facebook settings: The sinister mobile app has quietly turned on two settings that let Meta scan your phone’s entire camera roll. Nice. That means Facebook can look at your photos, even the ones you haven’t uploaded. Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Camera roll sharing suggestions > and Toggle off Custom sharing suggestions from your camera roll and Get camera roll suggestions when you’re browsing Facebook. PSA: Your steps may vary but these work for most.
$46.7 billion
Nvidia’s Q2 revenue hit a record high, and nearly half of it came from six companies. The AI gold rush is paying off big-time, but that kind of customer concentration is the corporate equivalent of putting all your GPUs in one basket. Two customers are nearly 40%! Let’s just hope “Customer A” doesn’t speak Chinese.
🚨 Runway crash alarms: Ever wonder how pilots know if another plane’s about to cut them off on the runway? Spoiler: They don’t. Honeywell’s testing a new system that yells, “Traffic on runway” 30 and 15 seconds before disaster. Considering we had 1,664 runway oopsies last year, I’d say it’s about time planes got their own version of Waze.
🎸 Thunderstruck the cattle patrol: To keep wolves from eating livestock, scientists are flying $20K drones that scream preloaded clips like AC/DC, gunshots and Marriage Story arguments at them. So far? It’s actually working. Wolves run. Cows live. Somewhere, a Five Finger Death Punch fan is trying to follow the drones on tour and asking where to buy merch.
10%
That’s the fraction of dogs who responded to a breakthrough cancer immunotherapy. Lola, a now cancer-free golden retriever, was one of them. She was given two months to live. Two years later, she’s doing victory laps. The treatment? Inhaled IL-15 immunotherapy with no side effects, just being a very good girl.
‼️ WhatsApp just got hit with a stealthy spyware attack: No clicks, no links, just boom, you’re infected. If you’re on iPhone or Mac and haven’t updated WhatsApp in the last day, do it now. This one’s next-level sneaky and initially targeted journalists, so don’t wait to find out if you’re next.
📞 Nice try, scam daddy: Heads up, if your phone rings and it says “Google Support” (+1-650-253-0000), don’t pick up. Hackers are spoofing Google’s real number, pretending to be tech support, and tricking people into resetting their Gmail password. Do that, and you’re locked out of your own inbox. Google swears they’ll never call you, so just hang up and check your account yourself.
230
That’s the suspected IQ of Terence Tao, the reigning brainiac of Earth with the highest recorded IQ. The UCLA math prodigy was doing calculus while the rest of us were apparently eating glue in third grade. Now he’s published 300+ papers, 18 books and advises the U.S. president. My math teacher told me my IQ was pretty average. I thought, “That’s just mean.”