Hey, Swifties

🪞 Got a smart mirror? I do, and this really doesn’t shock me, but it might you. That mirror might not just be giving you the latest cable news and weather. Turns out it’s probably logging your voice, analyzing your face and selling your data. If yours has a mic or camera, congrats! You might’ve installed a surveillance device over your sink. I’m actually glad the mirror’s watching, someone should see all this emotional growth.

How old the compact disc (CD) just turned. The first commercial one was made in August 1982 for ABBA’s album The Visitors. I had one and lost it. Where did the disco? 💿

📚 Words, but dumber: The Cambridge Dictionary just added “skibidi,” “delulu” and “tradwife” to its official listings, because apparently we needed receipts that the internet broke language. Other new gems include “mouse jiggler,” “broligarchy” and “work spouse.” Your English teacher is somewhere in a corner, sobbing into a thesaurus.

Baby got bot: Taking cues from the 2019 I Am Mother movie, China’s building a humanoid with a synthetic womb that can carry a fetus from start to finish. Price tag? Just $14K, way cheaper than a human surrogate. Get this: The inventor, Dr. Zhang Qifeng, says they’re aiming for a working prototype within a year. Frightening.

📱 Google unpacks Pixel 10: Today, Google unveils the Pixel 10 lineup, including Pro, Pro XL and foldable Pro Fold, plus the Pixel Watch 4 and new Pixel Buds 2A. Phones drop Aug. 28, then the Fold, Watch and Buds arrive in October, just in time for holiday shopping. On Sept. 9 (just my guess, they haven’t announced the date yet), Apple will roll out their newest and greatest.

That’s how many “immersive” movies exist for Apple’s $3,499 Vision Pro. How awful. Turns out filming in 3D isn’t cheap (paywall link). Until Apple figures out how to mass-produce this stuff, you’re basically buying a 4K souvenir from the future. Wait until 2027 for the cheaper model and more movies.

Hurl of fame: As everyone becomes a passenger in autonomous vehicles, motion sickness is the next billion-dollar problem. From predictive buzz seats to cars that gently tilt your body during turns, engineers are working overtime (paywall link) to keep your breakfast down while your car drives itself. The goal? Making you queasy-free before 2030. 

That’s how much Mark Zuckerberg’s security cost in 2024. Meta’s annual “keep Zuck safe” budget is more than Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, Microsoft and Alphabet spent combined protecting their own CEOs. It’s not paranoid if everyone is actually always mad at you, right?