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The Fitbit Air takes a smarter approach to the AI health dumpster fire

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Verge Score

Google Health remains a work in progress, but it could be so much worse.

Victoria Song
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
I can break down just fine on my own.

Sure, you could buy a smart scale for a body composition breakdown, but why bother?

Hoto:

I don’t need some fancy two-bit scale to give myself a breakdown about my body composition

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Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Get you a site that does both.

Where else can you find cutting edge gadget coverage and excellent sunscreen recommendations?

pretendworld:

seeing a photo of my sunscreen on the verge.. i really don’t need to visit any other site this place has it all

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Our long national sunscreen nightmare is almost over

Other countries have been doing it right for over 20 years. It’s about time we caught up.

Victoria Song
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Samsung phones are getting a new feature for checking the health of your pets.

During the VivaTech 2026 conference in Paris, Samsung announced a new feature for its mobile devices created through a collaboration with the pet health management platform, Lifet. You’ll be able to snap a photo of your dog or cat which will be analyzed by AI to alert you to conditions like periodontal disease and obesity.

Two images showing a simulated smartphone app using the Lifet platform to assess a pet’s health.
Image: Lifet
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Natural Cycles now has sleep-tracking features.

The controversial birth control app is rolling out “Sleep Insights,” allowing users to view key metrics — including sleep duration, efficiency, and timing — alongside their daily fertility status. It requires either an Oura Ring or Natural Cycles Band wearable, and over time, can show how hormonal changes and menstrual phases can impact sleep patterns.

Examples of sleep data in the Natural Cycles app.
Users can log how they slept with a morning check-in, with Natural Cycles using that data to provide personalized sleep insights.
Image: Natural Cycles
Victoria Song
Victoria Song
My mayor’s Muslim, my bagel’s Jewish, my heart rate’s fried, KNICKS IN FIVE!

Oura says New Yorkers’ hearts were palpitating on Wednesday night during Game 4. Turns out, baseline heart rates increased by 3.7 beats on average at the final buzzer. Heart rates were also elevated for the entirety of the game, and nobody seemed to get a peaceful night of sleep. Guessing we’re in for more of the same on Saturday.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
The perfect gift for your partner.

A sun exposure-tracking pendant, in case they’re running low on tech-induced anxiety.

Digi Dave:

Hey babe, wake up, a new device that creates crippling anxiety about your health just dropped!

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Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
This exposure-tracking pendant will help you stay safe in the sun.

It’s a similar idea as L’Oréal’s My Skin Track UV sensor, but the $299 (discounted to $199 at launch) Gem smart jewelry wearable from The90 is a more stylish alternative. Its sensors measure UVA and UVB exposure throughout the day and based on your skin profile it will tell you how much sun is safe to get and when to reapply sunscreen through an app.

A person holds The Gem smart exposure pendant between the fingers while it’s worn around their neck.
The Gem is available for preorder now and the earliest orders are expected to ship this month.
Image: The90
What do you mean my new smart scale is ‘built for GLP-1 users’?

The GLP-1 tech boom is coming.

Victoria Song
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Peloton takes on Pilates.

Peloton has acquired Skōp, a Pilates-focused startup that builds real-time form-tracking technology. That suggests there might be new Peloton hardware on the horizon, as the company tries to recover from its post-covid slump. In a statement, Peloton CEO Peter Stern said:

“Form is everything in Pilates, so we are taking a purposeful approach to ensure we develop the most effective, safest, and fun experiences possible—ones people will keep doing for life.”

Victoria Song
Victoria Song
Dexcom doubles down on nondiabetic CGM use.

First off, it announced today that it plans to acquire Nutrisense — a CGM startup that targets nondiabetics. Stelo, its over-the-counter CGM, is also getting an FDA-cleared redesign that includes “pattern recognition, proactive AI coaching, and personalized weekly and daily summaries.” Hopefully, these moves help ease the data fatigue I experienced in my yearlong experiment with CGMs as a nondiabetic.

Trans teens want to talk about their future

The Trump administration might not want trans kids to exist, but they’re living their lives anyway.

Grace Byron
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Withings launches the BodyFit body comp scale, a $279 budget-priced update to its BodyScan.

The BodyFit, available starting today, is a more affordable alternative to Withings’s $600 “longevity station” BodyScan 2 or the original BodyScan, which got a tariff price hike to $499.95 last year. Withings claims the BodyFit can deliver a “DEXA-level” “full-spectrum, 6-zone body composition scan in just 10 seconds.”

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Microsoft launches preview of Copilot Health AI that can analyze your medical records.

Copilot Health, first announced in March, is now open to Microsoft 365 subscribers. Microsoft says they can use it to find doctors and get insights on data from connected medical records, wearables, and other apps like Apple Health, similar to health AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic.

Copilot Health: Now in Preview

[Microsoft Copilot Blog]

What would you be willing to put in your body?

Biohackers say drugs can help you be your best self. It’s hard to spot when they’re not telling the whole truth.

Victoria Song
Victoria Song
Victoria Song
So, would you dope for $10 million?

Well, I was too busy putting the finishing touches on my feature about the Enhanced Games to notice that the company is now offering a $10 million prize for sprinters who can break Usain Bolt’s 100m record of 9.58 seconds at the Enhanced Games 2027. Oh boy. Here we go.

Roids were all the rage at the Enhanced Games

On the ground at the invite-only ‘Steroid Olympics’ in Vegas, where the athletes are the experiment.

Victoria Song
Robert Hart
Robert Hart
At least we know where AI is creating jobs.

Spicy chatbot startup Joi AI says it’s hiring 10 “masturbation consultants” to test new “daily audio-guided sessions” with an AI-generated voice. If you fancy trying your hand, you’ve until the end of the week.

Marina Galperina
Marina Galperina
Some people are losing too much weight in Retatrutide trial.

Randomized trial results of the experimental GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon drug shows that it may be too effective, while causing a whopping 11% of participants at the highest dose to drop out because of the severity of the side effects. In Optimizer, Victoria Song covered TikTok influencers pushing grey market knockoffs of “Ratatouille” and attempted to find out what was actually in them. (Please don’t buy shady “Retatrutide” from the internet.)

‘Solve all diseases,’ you say?

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis made a bold claim at this year’s I/O keynote. Not so fast!

Victoria Song
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
The good kind of penis surgery.

Turns out one of Trump’s top infectious disease officials is a former penile implant specialist, which is odd considering some of the administration’s other policy positions.

Ada:

I’m surprised that a Trump official has such an interest in gender affirming care.

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Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Six million vapes are being thrown out every week in the UK, causing headaches and fires.

Single-use vapes were banned last year, but that hasn’t stopped the deluge. Six million vapes and vape pods are being thrown out there every week, and the sheer volume is proving impossible to keep up with. Plus, the lithium-ion batteries inside are causing fires. According to The Guardian:

Recycling them is not simple. Each bucket holds between 40 and 50 devices, and over the course of a shift, she gets through about half a bucket. Using a hammer, she has to smash each vape open, pry out the batteries and separate each component into a different container.

Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
“Penile implant specialist with history of far-right comments led hantavirus presser.”

Sometimes the entire story about Trump and RFK’s attitudes towards public health is right there in the headline. CNN reports:

Before he joined the Trump administration last year, [Dr. Brian] Christine was an Alabama-based urologist who specialized in penile implants […] He’s said the Covid pandemic led to a wider government plot to control people, compared the Biden administration to Nazi Germany and suggested the Covid vaccine had little effect in stopping the pandemic.

Oh, and of course, “he once hosted a YouTube show called ‘Erection Connection,’ a professional YouTube series on erectile dysfunction for fellow urologists.”

The promises and pitfalls of personalized health

Personalized health is the holy grail, but there’s a long way to go before algorithms can factor in chronic conditions.

Victoria Song
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
FTC settles Kochava location data lawsuit.

App analytics firm Kochava and its subsidiary, Collective Data Solutions, will be prohibited from “selling, licensing, transferring, sharing or disclosing” sensitive location data without express consent from consumers. The ban settles the FTC’s lawsuit alleging that Kochava sold sensitive geolocation details that could track people seeking or performing abortions.

My $5,000 smart bed needs to shut the hell up

It told my spouse to drink alcohol nightly and wants us to battle for sleep supremacy.

Victoria Song
Victoria Song
Victoria Song
I guess Casey Means didn’t have enough good energy.

Instead, President Trump said he’s nominating Dr. Nicole Saphier for surgeon general. While Saphier doesn’t appear to be running the wellness grifter playbook and does, in fact, have a current medical license, she’s also a Fox News commentator with a MAHA-derate stance on vaccines. When will my suffering end?

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
A strong scientific background.

Gwyneth Paltrow doesn’t seem to know what a peptide is, which might not entirely surprise you.

Electric Mayhem:

Color me shocked that the person who puts lemon juice in their alkaline water might not have an intuitive grasp of biology.

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