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I’m just doing my job, but turns out, it feels lousy holding other people’s privacy in your hands. I've long argued that Hollywood has simultaneously set and ruined our expectations for smart glasses . But after binge-watching two seasons of Netflix's A Man on the Inside , this is perhaps the first time I've seen Hollywood, perhaps inadvertently, illustrate the biggest cultural problem with smart glasses as they stand today. In a nutshell, Ted Danson plays Charles Nieuwendyk, an elderly widower who finds a new purpose working for a private investigator. Armed with a pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses, a voice recorder, and a smartphone, Nieuwendyk infiltrates a retirement home, and several privacy-infringing hijinks ensue as he hunts for the je … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/column/961707/smart-glasses-ai-wearables-meta-surveillance-privacy

Satya Nadella in February 2026. | Photo by Sven Hoppe / picture alliance via Getty Images A year after cutting around 9,100 employees , Microsoft is making further layoffs today as it begins its new financial year. The software maker is laying off around 4,800 employees today, approximately 2.1 percent of its workforce. Most of the employees affected by today's cuts are in Microsoft's commercial sales business or the company's Xbox division. In an internal memo to employees, Amy Coleman, executive vice president and Microsoft's chief people officer, blamed the job losses on a changing technology industry and the "need to adjust resources and roles and shift how we operate" to respond to how AI is impacting companies like Microsof … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/news/961528/microsoft-layoffs-july-2026-sales-xbox

Most Americans don't trust AI . It's proven that it doesn't know what safe toppings for pizza are. People don't even want to listen to AI music . But none of that matters for some of America's wealthy, who are turning to AI to teach their kids instead of traditional schools. Companies like Forge Prep and Alpha School are charging families tens of thousands of dollars to turn their kids into beta testers for AI tutors and "interactive project-based workshops." Unsurprisingly, Silicon Valley have been major adopters of this new model. Shaun Johnson, a San Francisco-based venture capitalist, told the Wall Street Journal that he plans to send his … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/961505/wealthy-ai-schools-alpha-forge-prep

First, you drop bombs, then you send aid. Totally logical. | Image: Definitive Jux There was a period in the early aughts when Definitive Jux (nee: Def Jux) seemed like it was going to be the future of hip hop. While the label featured plenty of experimental, boundary-pushing, and politically minded acts, Lif stood out as the most "conscious rapper" in the traditional sense. It was clear though, that label head El-P envisioned that as an important part of Def Jux's identity, as the first record it put out was 2000's Enter the Colossus EP, from Lif. Mr. Lif's follow-up was 2002's Emergency Rations EP, a sort of place setter for the full-length I, Phantom just a couple of months later. It opens with a skit about Lif missing … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/961484/mr-lif-emergency-rations-ep-post-9-11-review

A look at in-game cosmetics you’ll get with the Ultimate edition. | Image: Rockstar Games Rockstar's long-awaited Grand Theft Auto VI is launching November 19th, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X consoles. The game will be available digitally at launch, with physical cases containing codes, not discs , so your options for preordering are straightforward. The preloading phase for the game begins on November 12th, which should give you plenty of time to install the game. There are two versions of the game to choose from, the $79.99 Standard and $99.99 Ultimate editions. Both include the same preorder perks. You'll get the Vintage Vice City Pack when the game launches. It's a set of in-game items that includes vehicles, we … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/960838/grand-theft-auto-gta-6-vi-preorder-editions-buy

Gears of War: E-Day. This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the bleak state of the video game industry, follow Andrew Webster . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Microsoft closed out Summer Game Fest with a bang. The company's annual June showcase was packed with crowd-pleasers: Halo , Gears of War , Fable , a translucent Xbox, and even some pleasant surprises like new Persona and Crazy Taxi games. It was the kind of event that harkened back to the boisterous days of E3, when the industry was in a healthier place an … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/column/960600/xbox-is-a-disaster