The Verge is covering the rapidly evolving world of wearables. We test everything from smartwatches like the Apple Watch, to smart glasses like the Meta Ray-Bans, to fitness trackers like the Oura Ring to find out which ones deliver on their promises. Follow along to find out whether covering our bodies in screens and sensors can actually make us smarter and healthier.
Meta only donates tens of thousands of pairs of smart glasses to blind veterans when it’s in extreme distress.
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Oof the PR crisis must be bad
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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.
Smart glasses, like the Ray-Ban Meta, have become a resource for people with disabilities. Meta says the company and its partners will provide hands-on training for all the veterans who receive a free pair of AI glasses through the Blinded Veterans Association or TechSoup.
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.
The Walkie-Talkie app for Apple Watch that lets users send push-to-talk voice messages to one another over FaceTime has been quietly removed in the first watchOS 27 developer beta, with no option to reinstall it. It was first introduced alongside watchOS 5 in 2018.
An on-the-record chat about Apple Intelligence.
AI Siri, take two? Definitely everything coming to iOS 27, macOS 27, and more.
So says Meta spokesperson Che’von Lewis. Senior was previously Meta’s Product Lead for its Studio and New Vertical portfolios. You can read more about Supernatural’s forthcoming era here, and catch up on the buff ladies who worked so hard to save it here.
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.
Former Verge editor Joanna Stern found listings in 30 states offering to remove the recording indicator LED on Meta smart glasses. She met one of the people offering this service, who drilled the light out of her glasses and filled it in, allowing her to stealthily record with the glasses.
How far can we push the limits of the human body? At the Enhanced Games in Las Vegas, a few dozen athletes tried to find out, and The Verge’s Victoria Song was there to watch. She tells us the story of the swimmers, weightlifters, and other athletes who competed, the intense training and drug regimens they underwent, and the complicated mix of pseudo-science and actual science behind the event. Then, she tells us where this project goes from here — because the Enhanced Games experiment is just beginning.
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The smart ring company says on March 27th hackers used an internal analytics tool to access users’ contact and account details, transaction history, and “some fitness related data.” According to TechCrunch, the breach impacted 0.1 percent of Ultrahuman users, or an estimated 700 people.
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[Ultrahuman]
Companies regularly share product specs with official accessory makers, but Google is encouraging DIYers to make their own straps, cases, and mounts for the Fitbit Air by releasing its technical specifications, 2D CAD drawings, and guidelines for the best materials to use.
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Biohackers say drugs can help you be your best self. It’s hard to spot when they’re not telling the whole truth.
New FCC filings hint at the imminent launch of four new devices, which appear to magnetically dock to a mysterious “debug tool.”
There’s also a ton of new software updates coming, including GLP-1 insights.
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.
The smart ring maker has confidentially filed its Form S-1 ahead of an IPO, and it plans to potentially go public this year, Bloomberg reports. Oura also said Wednesday that it’s “on pace” to pass five million paid subscribers this quarter.
