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This week Garmin's screenless Cirqa smart band received a firmware update that fixes one of its most obvious gaps: the lack of alerts from your phone. With Version 4.20, you can now set up your smart band to buzz your wrist for texts, calls, and other smart notifications from your phone. The addition is listed on Garmin's forums as "Support vibration for smart notifications/incoming calls." Reaction has been upbeat, too—users on the Garmin subreddit have been glad to see the feature arrive.
Amusingly, Garmin's own FAQ still states that the Cirqa does not vibrate for text messages, phone calls, or other smartphone notifications. Clearly that page is now out of date, so Garmin will want to correct it. Since Garmin doesn't yet have step-by-step instructions, I tested the text-message vibrations myself. Here's how you can set up your Cirqa smart band to vibrate for calls and texts, in addition to a number of other promising updates to check out.
To receive these alerts, your band must be running firmware 4.20 or later. Here is how to get everything configured.
Update the firmware. Open your Garmin Connect app and sync your Cirqa, so the app can check for and install version 4.20 or newer.
Grant the necessary phone permissions. In your phone's settings, make sure Garmin Connect has permission to access SMS, Contacts, and Phone.
Configure notifications in Garmin Connect. Back in Garmin Connect, tap the Menu (or More) tab. Select Garmin Devices, then choose your Cirqa Smart Band. Go to Notifications & Alerts (or Smart Notifications) and turn on text and call alerts.
Troubleshooting tip: If alerts aren't coming through, check that Do Not Disturb, Sleep Mode, and any aggressive Battery Saver settings are turned off on both your phone and the band.
For most a lot of Cirqa fans, the phone alerts are the headline, but the 4.20 update carries a solid list of other improvements and bug fixes:
Trail Run: Run/Walk detection is now available for Trail Run activities.
Timestamp fix: Resolved a problem where an activity's recorded time didn't match the time on your phone.
Distance calibration: You can now calibrate distance for Treadmill Run, Indoor Rowing, and Indoor Cycling before saving the activity on the device.
Duration alerts: Duration time alerts for speaking out now accumulate.
Stress alerts: Stress alerts are now blocked while Auto Activity Detection is recording.
Bedtime reminders: Fixed an issue where the bedtime approaching notification sometimes failed to trigger.
Live Activity: Heart rate now appears on the Live Activity screen before recording begins.
Pinned activity bug: Fixed an issue where the pinned activity reverted to Timed Activity after changing the phone's language.
Workout editing: Fixed a problem that prevented editing reps during a workout.
Stability: General system stability improvements.
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Garmin users are taking to the company's support forums with a common grievance: The newly introduced "OK Garmin" hands-free voice feature appears to be eating through battery life. The feature arrived through Garmin’s September software updates, bringing hands-free voice activation to the Fenix 8, Forerunner 570 and 970, Venu 4, and several other models. Here's how to make sure Garmin's new updates aren't slashing your watch's battery life.
Last month's updates for select watches also brought all-day fall detection, a set of new Quick Workouts and Garmin Run Coach plans, as well as that "OK Garmin" hands-free voice command feature. It's exactly what it sounds like: Instead of pressing a button, users can simply say “OK Garmin” to activate voice commands. However, it looks like "OK Garmin" in particular is what causes some watch's projected runtimes to drastically drop, allegedly by roughly 35% to 50% in some cases.
Garmin does acknowledge that enabling these settings shortens battery life, though it doesn't say by how much. The tradeoff makes sense, since the watch has to listen constantly for its wake phrase. Even so, giving up several days of runtime is a steep price for a feature that many people may seldom use. Luckily, the fix is simple: Turning off "OK Garmin" should restore your battery life estimates right away.
If your watch has been draining faster since the update, go to Settings > System > Voice and disable "OK Garmin." If needed, you can also switch off the Phone Assistant wake word from the same area. The good news is that turning this feature off won't even take voice commands away—you can still trigger them manually using the watch's physical controls.
Keep in mind that these numbers are battery estimates rather than independently tested, real-world runtimes. Some of the battery complaints that surfaced after the update may also stem from unrelated issues. Still, trading away as much as half your battery life just to avoid pressing a button is a difficult bargain to defend.
ChatGPT's capabilities continue to expand apace, and the latest feature is a fully capable slideshow creator. Announced a few weeks ago, ChatGPT Slides lets you create PowerPoint-style decks from inside your conversations, and it's now appearing for those on the Pro tier and above (meaning right now, you need to spend at least $100 a month to get it).
If you're on the free ChatGPT plan or the $20-a-month Plus tier, you can still get ChatGPT to generate downloadable PowerPoint files from the content of your conversations. However, they'll be more basic than those made in the full version of ChatGPT Slides, and there are no collaboration or native edit options.
ChatGPT Slides is part of OpenAI's push to give users a complete office suite inside the ChatGPT apps. Pages (the word processor) is already available for Pro tiers and above, while a spreadsheet app is on the way—the idea being that you will soon be able to get all your work done without any help from Google or Microsoft.
While Chatgpt Slides is only available on pricey plans right now, it's likely to come to lower subscription tiers in the future. But for now, how does the tool compare to what's available in the free and Plus tiers, not to mention what you can do with Gemini inside Google Slides? I've taken a detailed look.
When it comes to testing out AI tools, it helps to focus on something you're already knowledgeable about so you can spot any mistakes. To test this, I decided to see what ChatGPT could hoover up from the web about the new iPhone Duo. If you're on the free or Plus plans, you can start a conversation, then ask for a slideshow or PowerPoint about it.
Plus accounts also have access to a specific Presentations add-on, available via the + (plus) menu in the prompt box, though I get the impression this feature is in a state of flux since ChatGPT Slides arrived. In any case, you can begin asking about the iPhone Duo specs and early online reactions, and then say "build me a slideshow on the key features and reviews so far".
What I got back on the $20 Plus account was a fairly competent slideshow on Apple's foldable, with accurate information as far as I could see, and a simple series of layouts. It looked like something you might whip up from a template if you were in a rush and didn't have time to properly align all the bullet points or be very selective about which details you included and which you left out. One neat touch is that ChatGPT was able to drop in an official photo of the iPhone Duo at the start of the slideshow, but I had to specifically ask for one.
You can go back and make specific edits to the slideshow, but you have to describe them in the general prompt box—you can't select individual slide elements and make more precise changes. Still, if all you want to do is occasionally convert your ChatGPT conversations into a rough and ready slideshow, there's no real need to upgrade from the free or Plus accounts for now.
Switching to a Pro account, I gave a similar task to ChatGPT Slides hoping for something more comprehensive. To begin with, Slides gets its own dedicated area in the app, so you can start up a blank presentation from scratch—there are some basic image and text features, but the idea is to use prompts to build your slide deck. It's like a really basic Google Slides, with a prompt box.
Creating a slideshow this way feels rather tedious: Typing out what you want to say and then waiting for ChatGPT to do it isn't as intuitive as just throwing in some graphics and text yourself, as you might do in PowerPoint. It also seems to be a bit buggy, at least during the time I spent testing it, with some requests not properly completing.
Starting a standard conversation with ChatGPT and then turning all the information into a deck is much more useful from my perspective. My iPhone Duo slideshow was longer, laid out better, and more informative than the one I created on the Plus plan—there were even charts of battery life and official photos this time.
However, whether I used the free, Plus, or Pro tools, my presentations didn't come across as particularly well thought through. They don't really flow smoothly, either across individual slides or the slideshow as a whole—it feels very much like an algorithm, rather than a person, has decided what information to include and where on the slides to stick it.
Whether you create presentations in chats or through the ChatGPT Slides space, you're able to click on individual elements and do some basic manual resizing and repositioning. You can also request edits via prompts: "Drop in an image of a cat", "make this pop more", "center all of this information", or whatever it is.
ChatGPT Slides does offer collaborative tools, which I wasn't able to test, and I can see that being useful for teams heavily invested in ChatGPT's ecosystem. I can also imagine ChatGPT Slides coming in handy when you've got a lot of information you need to quickly dump into a slideshow that looks vaguely presentable.
In general though, I think I'd much rather stick to the traditional way of making slideshows for now. These old methods are more precise and more manageable, and give you full control over what's shown and where—even if they do take a bit longer. What's more, modern-day presentation tools come with so many templates and other layout aids that it's not difficult to put together something that's easy on the eyes while including all of the information you think is most critical.
Google is, of course, also all the way in on AI (and then some), and if you pay for Google AI Pro ($19.99 a month) or above, you can have Gemini pop up right inside Google Slides to give you some assistance with your presentation-making. To compare the tools, I gave it the same task as I did ChatGPT, asking for a slide deck on the new iPhone Duo.
Gemini actually asked some questions along the way: about wht visual style to use, the audience to aim the slideshow at, and the details to highlight. Though it's always possible to put this sort of information manually into a prompt, this would be a helpful additional to ChatGPT Slides.
What Gemini and Google Slides produced was impressive in terms of the layout and overall vibe of the presentation: It felt much more like a human being had put together the slide deck compared to what ChatGPT had produced, in terms of the information chosen, the way the slides were laid out, and the color picks.
However, Google's result had its faults too: The presentation got the facts on the maximum brightness of the iPhone Duo screen wrong, and produced an "iPhone Duo" graphic that looked like two iPhones from around 2021 stuck together. ChatGPT Slides at least managed to pull official imagery from the Apple website.
You can't attach individual edit prompts to specific parts of your presentation in Google Slides as you can in ChatGPT Slides—you have to mention them in the general prompt box. That said, Google Slides is obviously a much more mature and established slideshow tool compared to the OpenAI equivalent, in terms of its features and layout options (it has been around for a decade, after all).
Given that extra software structure and the lower cost of entry, Gemini and Google Slides is the better option for AI-assisted slideshow making at the moment—though I wouldn't bet against OpenAI catching up. For now, ChatGPT Slides is something that's good to have available if you're already paying a lot for ChatGPT every month, but not a feature that makes it worth your while to swap your AI allegiance.
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If you have even the tiniest inkling that you might want to get in shape in the new year—or anytime really—don’t wait until January. This isn't a "winter arc" self-improvement pitch; it's just facts. The best time to start a gym habit is before the holiday season. Heck, in December, you’ll even have the place mostly to yourself.
Sure, technically “right now” is always the best time to start exercising, but the holiday season is special. If you wait until January, gyms will be packed. The first two weeks of the year, everybody thinks they’re at the start of an amazing new fitness habit...and by February, most of them have forgotten all about it. Don’t make life harder for yourself by starting during the big rush. Classes will fill up, you’ll have to fight people for the squat rack, and it will be hard to have any real fun. So start now.
In October and November, gyms and classes are at more or less their normal capacities. This is a good time to feel out the vibe of a new place. But it gets better: Once December rolls around, the fair-weather gymgoers will be off shopping for gifts after work and attending holiday parties on the weekends. They won’t feel like getting out of their warm beds in the morning, either. When you arrive, the squat rack will be free. You’ll have your choice of treadmills. The gym will be your oyster.
If you start now, you'll have about two months to get up to speed before the rush starts in January. And that is a perfect little time frame to set a small goal and keep it. Vow to hit the gym three times a week, and you’ll be able to get in 24 workouts before Christmas, even if you take a few days off for festivities. You can get a lot stronger in 24 workouts. Or run, if that's the fitness journey you're most excited about. If you start a couch-to-5k running plan now, you’ll be routinely running 30 minutes at a stretch by the time we get to January.
Yes, the holiday season can be busy and stressful, but remember that working out tends to help our brains manage stress. Mark workouts on your calendar, and keep those appointments with yourself.
Don’t worry about missing out on deals. Any gym or studio that offers a January special probably offers sales year-round anyway. And ultimately, if you get into the habit of actually using the gym, you're getting a lot more value for your money than somebody who joins in January and quickly stops showing up.
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There’s no shortage of outdoor security cameras, but finding one that balances video quality, battery life, and ease of use without pushing past $100 is rare. Right now, the Tapo MagCam 2K+ is on sale for $59.99 on Amazon, down from $89.99, which is its lowest price to date, according to price trackers. PCMag named it the best security camera of 2024, pointing out that while battery-powered cameras often trade convenience for frequent recharging, the MagCam 2K+ avoids that issue with a 10,000mAh battery rated to last up to 300 days per charge, depending on how often it records.
Charging happens over micro-USB, though there’s an optional Tapo A200 solar panel if you want to avoid manual recharging altogether. Video tops out at 2K resolution, with a wide 150-degree field of view that works well for driveways or side yards. During the day, footage looks sharp and detailed. At night, the camera can switch between infrared black-and-white or color video using its built-in spotlights and starlight sensor. Storage is flexible. You can record locally to a microSD card, up to 512GB (card not included), or you can go with cloud storage through a Tapo Care plan starting at $3.49/month.
Alerts can distinguish between people, pets, and vehicles, and those intelligent notifications are free, as highlighted by PCMag in its “outstanding” review of the MagCam 2K+. It also integrates smoothly with Alexa, Google Assistant, and IFTTT, though it doesn’t support Apple’s HomeKit. You also won’t find mechanical pan or tilt, but the fixed lens covers enough ground for most yards or porches. As for managing the camera, its companion app is intuitive, offering settings for motion sensitivity, siren activation, spotlight brightness, firmware updates, and more. Overall, the MagCam 2K+ handles the basics well and throws in a few smart features usually reserved for pricier models.
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Not everybody needs, wants, or can afford the "best" headphones available, especially when they can easily cost half a grand. If the $450+ Sony XM6s, which I called the best over-ear headphones of 2025 (and 2026 so far), are not in your budget, then perhaps the more affordable Sony WH-CH720Ns could be. While they're not quite as premium, they're significantly cheaper and offer good enough audio quality for most people.
Right now, you can get them for $88 (originally $179.99) on Amazon, their second-lowest price ever according to price tracking tools. Thopugh they've dropped below $100 before, all three colorways have not been available at their current price at the same time until now.
These are Sony's entry-level over-ear headphones, and the company mostly made cuts in the design and build. When you hold them, they might feel hollow and light, but they're still comfortable since the earcups are well-cushioned, as noted in CNET's review. However, Sony did not make as many sacrifices in the audio or ANC department, which, at the end of the day, is what's most important.
These headphones use the same Sony Sound Connect app as the flagship models and share some of the same features, like multipoint technology to connect to up to two devices. They also come with Google Fast Pair and Find My Device support, nice features to have for convenience, especially if you misplace them. You can get 35 hours of battery life with ANC on and 50 hours with ANC off, and the charging is quick, with three minutes giving you three hours of juice.
The ANC is not as good as the latest XM6, but it works great for under $100, according to Mashable's review, and it will block most ambient noise outdoors or indoors. Transparency mode is also great, allowing you to have conversations and hear bikes or cars passing by. The adjustable EQ in the app means you can tweak the crisp and vibrant sound of the WH-CH720N to your liking.
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Zone 2 training is still having a moment—even if no one can agree on what it actually means. Legend has it that your easy, conversational-pace cardio—aka your Zone 2 heart rate—is the secret to unlocking everything from a bigger aerobic engine, to faster race times, and even to a longer life.
Whether Zone 2 deserves quite this much hype is debatable, but still, there are plenty of good reasons to master heart rate training more broadly. To train by heart rate, you aim to keep your heart rate in the "zone" that gives you your desired workout. Even if you believe every word of the Zone 2 gospel, it's completely pointless if your watch has the wrong idea of what your Zone 2 is. If you train with a Garmin watch, here’s how—and why—you should reset your heart rate zones now (and periodically).
When you first set up your Garmin, it asked for your age, weight, and a few other details. From there it generated heart rate zones, often using a default formula based on a maximum heart rate estimated from your age (typically some version of 220 minus your age). But these formulas are often wrong, since they give a single number for everybody at the same age, while real maximum heart rates vary from person to person.
Plus, there isn’t one universally agreed-upon heart rate zone system. So if your watch assumed a max of 180 and yours is actually 195, every zone it gave you is shifted. Your "Zone 2" might really, for you, be Zone 1 (AKA a pace so easy it barely feels like a workout). Or your "Zone 2" might actually be a moderate-to-hard effort that's digging you into a hole, while you think you're taking it easy. At every step of the way, there’s a different formula and definition that determines what heart rate zone shows up on your watchface.
To complicate things further, Garmin gives multiple options to set up your zones:
Percent of max heart rate. This is the simplest approach. You enter (or let the watch estimate) your max, and each zone is a slice of that number. It's only as good as your max heart rate figure, which, as noted above, is often a guess.
Percent of heart rate reserve (HRR). This method factors in both your max and your resting heart rate, so zones are based on the range your heart works across rather than just the top of it. It tends to produce more personalized zones, but it means your resting heart rate needs to be current, too.
Percent of lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR). Here, your zones are anchored to the effort level where your body starts producing lactate faster than it can clear it, a point that's closely tied to how you actually perform. Many coaches consider this the most meaningful anchor, because it reflects your real physiology rather than a formula.
That third option raises its own question: Where does your lactate threshold number come from?
In the past, getting a lactate threshold estimate from a Garmin meant wearing a compatible chest strap and doing a guided test, which involved a structured, hard run on your part. On newer models, however, that's no longer the case. Garmin has been rolling out an updated lactate threshold detection that works from the wrist's optical heart rate sensor, with no chest strap and no dedicated test. Instead, the watch estimates your threshold automatically from regular outdoor runs. This feature is typically on by default and generally requires a baseline VO2 max estimate and a run or trail run recorded with heart rate. If you'd rather not leave it up to the algorithm, you can turn auto-detection off and enter your own lactate threshold heart rate manually in the heart rate zone settings. Which watches have this varies by model, so check your specific device.
Even if you set your zones carefully once, they don't stay accurate forever. Several things change over time:
Your fitness changes. As you get fitter, your resting heart rate often drops, and your lactate threshold heart rate can shift. Zones based on where you were a year or two ago may not reflect where you are now.
You age. Your maximum heart rate tends to decline gradually over the years.
You change sports. Running, cycling, and swimming each have different heart rate behavior, and Garmin lets you set sport-specific zones for exactly this reason. If you've never touched them, you may be using running-based numbers on the bike, or vice versa.
You switched watches or imported old data. Zones can carry over from a previous device or a profile you set up years ago.
Your resting heart rate has changed. An outdated resting number could be throwing things off.
None of these have dramatic consequences, but if you’re focused on heart rate training, it’s worth trying to be as accurate and up-to-date as possible. If your zones are set too high, you may not be getting the aerobic stimulus you think you are. You'll also underestimate how hard your harder sessions really are, and your training load and recovery metrics can end up skewed.
On the flip side, if your zones are set too low, your "easy" runs could actually become the classic trap of training in the gray zone: too hard to recover from well, too easy to drive big gains. And because Garmin's training status, recovery time, and load features lean on your heart rate data, bad zones can quietly nudge those numbers off as well.
The good news is that fixing all this should take less than 10 minutes. First, decide whether you want zones based on max heart rate, heart rate reserve, or lactate threshold. There’s a good chance you can trust the lactate threshold your watch gives you, or you can find your actual max heart rate.
The informal way is to just notice what number you see on your watch when you can no longer speak comfortably; the more formal way is this treadmill test. You can also look through your recent hard efforts, like races, hill repeats, or all-out intervals, and see the highest sustained heart rate you've recorded. If you want a more deliberate test, a coach or a structured max-effort protocol can help, but only attempt hard testing if you're healthy and your doctor is comfortable with it. Also keep in mind that reading from a wrist-based sensor can also spike unreliably, so a chest strap gives more trustworthy numbers when accuracy matters.
Next, check your recent average resting heart rate in Garmin Connect and make sure the number your zones are using is current.
In your watch's user profile or in Garmin Connect, find the heart rate zone settings. From there you can adjust your max, change how zones are calculated, and set different zones for different sports.
Finally, put these new zones to the test. Go for an easy run or ride at what your watch calls Zone 2. Can you hold a conversation, breathing comfortably in full sentences? Does it feel sustainable for a long time? If it feels either laughably easy or surprisingly taxing, your zones probably need another look.
Maybe Zone 2 is the cornerstone of your training, or maybe you think it's completely overrated. Either way, the principle is the same: You should be able to train by feel, and your watch can only help you do that if the numbers behind it are right.
Garmin gives you more ways to set your zones than most brands do. Spend 10 minutes figuring out which method your zones are using, confirming the number behind it is current, and updating it in your settings. It’ll make every easy run, hard interval, and recovery metric on your wrist more useful.
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Bone conduction headphones are ideal for activities where it is vital to be able to hear your surroundings. That's because they use a technology that sends audio vibrations through to the inner ear while leaving your ear canals open. Shokz is one of, if not the best brand making bone conduction headphones right now. At the high end of Shokz's offerings sit the OpenRun Pro 2s, which impressed me when I tested them out for review, but they are a bit pricey at $180. But right now, the older but still capable OpenRun Pros are discounted to $109.95 (originally $179.99), the second-lowest price they've reached according to price-tracking tools.
If you've never used bone conduction headphones, they're worth a try, and the Shokz OpenPro are a great introduction to the technology. Previously, bone conduction headsets tended to suffer from poor bass compared to in-ear models. The OpenRun Pros are designed to compensate for some of that—you won't get the same thumpy bass you'd get from regular headphones, but it'll be the best you can get from any other bone conduction headphones.
As the name implies, these are meant to be used on outdoor runs. They have an IP55 rating for dust- and water-resistance, are lightweight and comfortable, and can be worn with bicycle helmets and sunglasses. You can use them as everyday headphones too; they can take calls, but you'll need to be mindful of the fact that they don't block any competing sound. Personally, I wear my Shokz all the time around the house and sometimes forget I even have them on (that's how comfortable they are).
In recent weeks, Google has been automatically connecting Android users' phone numbers to every Google account they are signed into on their devices—without requesting consent to do so. This means that if you are logged into personal, work, and disposable accounts on your Android phone, Google may have silently verified and linked your number with all of them even if you've deliberately kept them separate. If you that's not something you want, there's a way to fix it.
As Android Authority reports, some Android users have recently received confirmation emails from an official Google address stating that their phone number has been verified. Google has required occasional phone number re-verification but appears to have updated its support documentation about a year ago to make this feature opt-out by default. As part of this process, Google also adds your phone number to all Google Accounts that are signed in on the device, including current accounts and phone numbers and any that are added or updated in the future.
If you have an Android device, you can disable automatic phone number verification, which should prevent Google from linking sign-in accounts together. You can find this toggle in your Settings app under Google or Google services and preferences > All Services > Privacy & Security > Phone number verification. (Note that the exact path may differ by device.) You should periodically check to ensure this toggle remains off.
Updating this setting does not disconnect phone numbers and Google accounts that have already been linked. You can find out which are which via your Google Account Personal Info page. Select your profile picture in the upper-right corner to go through each signed-in account and open the Phone section to select and delete any numbers you don't want associated.
Finally, Malwarebytes advises scrolling down to the Usage section on the Phone page to view which services are listed as well as reviewing your Security & sign-in settings. If you added your phone number for two-step verification or to a separate app like Google Pay, deleting it from the Phone page won't remove it entirely from your account, and you'll need to update those settings separately. Automatic phone verification shouldn't be the culprit here, but it's useful to audit what your number is being used for and on which accounts if you want to keep things separate.
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The original A Different World was a groundbreaking sitcom in its era, spending six seasons highlighting Black academic drive among a cast of characters so indelible that we're now checking in on them decades later. Spearheaded by Queen Sugar's Felicia Pride, the update has been a critical and ratings hit for Netflix, earning the rarest prize of all in streaming television: a quick second season renewal. While you're waiting for season two, here are some other smart coming-of-age shows that blend heart and humor with realistic drama.
An easy pairing with A Different World, this show follows Black-ish's Zoey Johnson (Yara Shahidi) as she leaves home to attend a (fictional) California liberal arts college (the last couple of post-graduation seasons shift the focus to her brother Andre, played by Marcus Scribner). The emphasis is on driven young people who are capable of making big mistakes on the path to adulthood. A true comedy-drama, Grown-ish feels real(-ish) in a way that few other college shows have managed. Stream Grown-ish on Hulu.
Adapted from and expanding upon the 2014 movie, this show takes us to a (fictional) Ivy League school for a comedy-drama that tackles campus life and politics from a rather different perspective than that of Rooster. Logan Browning leads the ensemble cast as Sam White, who kind of inadvertently starts the titular radio show following a racially charged incident on campus. Far from the racial screed that some bad-faith YouTubers seem to find it, it's never shy about confronting the complicated and occasionally silly contradictions of campus activism, with each episode approaching life at Winchester University from a different character's perspective. Stream Dear White People on Netflix.
Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) is an endlessly naïve scholarship student; Bela (Amrit Kaur) is an aspiring comedy writer on the make for the hottest guys; Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) is an overachieving athlete and senator’s daughter; and Leighton (Reneé Rapp) is a closeted sorority girl. They're all randomly assigned to room together as freshmen at the fictional Essex College in Vermont. Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, this comedy-drama isn't nearly as salacious as its title suggests. There's sex for sure, but mostly it's a funny, queer-friendly show that's a little less about one overarching romance than it is about growing up, and the value of female friendship. Stream The Sex Lives of College Girls on HBO Max.
Even though we're backing up a couple of years to follow teens in their high school years, this British import's setting is a decent match, finding its students living away from home and family for the first time in their lives. At the fictional prestigious boarding school St. Gilbert’s, five Black teens are newly attending on scholarships, but their integration into the existing cliques is less than smooth—especially given that they're there largely as a PR stunt. Boarders blends teen romance, coming-of-age drama, and a delightful willingness to take the piss when it comes to the whole "rich private school" thing. Stream Boarders on Tubi.
Another modern take on a beloved '80s/'90s sitcom, this one's a bit different, serving as a total reimagining with no narrative connection to the original. And while A Different World is a comedy with dramatic heft, this one's more of a straight drama. It’s jarring for fans of the beloved original to tune in to find a serious show with the same premise as the Will Smith original—one that often leans into heavy realism. Jabari Banks plays, er, Will Smith, a 16-year-old from West Philadelphia who moves in with his auntie and uncle in Bel-Air following a gun charge and a run-in with a Philly drug lord. Banks is charismatic and believable, bringing a ton of personality to a show that occasionally veers down dark alleys. Stream Bel-Air on Peacock.
Comedian Benito Skinner plays himself, kinda, in this buzzy comedy that sees a former high school jock facing his freshman year in college while desperately trying to convince himself and everyone else that he's as straight as they come (relatable, except for the jock part). Much of the appeal is in its deft blending of tones: It's both a frequently raunchy college comedy and a sweet coming-of-age story about accepting yourself without worrying about what everyone else thinks. The cast includes Adam DiMarco (The White Lotus) and Rish Shah (Ms. Marvel), and, though it's more a story of one young man's coming of age, there's a strong ensemble backing him up. Stream Overcompensating on Prime Video.
The heart of All American (for most of its run) is Spencer James (Daniel Ezra), based on real-life NFL linebacker Spencer Paysinger. A star player for his high school team in Crenshaw, he's recruited by the coach (Taye Diggs) of a team in Beverly Hills to come and play for them, forcing Spencer to navigate two very different worlds while trying to build a life and potential career. Stream All American on Netflix.
Following a family tragedy, the already awkward 15-year-old Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) has a pretty terrible freshman year of high school, and decides that she’s going to turn things around the following year, hoping that a nearly academic study of sex will get her the boyfriend(s) her raging hormones have begun to demand. It works, to a point—but getting a surprise yes to sex from her crush leads her to question what she’s really ready for. More about burgeoning sexuality than sex specifically, this Mindy Kaling-produced series is both honest and charming. Stream Never Have I Ever on Netflix.
For realism in a show about the college experience, you could do a lot worse than this docuseries following several students at Gallaudet University, a school for deaf and hard-of-hearing young adults. In one sense, it's a specific setting where perspectives on deafness vary wildly, even in Gallaudet's self-contained world (aside from being a show about academically driven and horny college students, this is also a great primer for hearing people about some of the issues). But even for all of that, the challenges in building a life and future away from home are pretty universally relatable. Stream Deaf U on Netflix.
There's a reason A Different World has returned in 2026, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that there was nothing else on TV quite like it back in the late '80s and early '90s. For all of its sitcom sensibilities, the show tried hard (especially after multi-hyphenate creator Debbie Allen arrived to rework things after its first season) to paint a realistic picture of college life and an HBCU. Of the few shows on TV with largely Black casts, almost none would go so far as to highlight achievement and excellence; A Different World managed to do so while building a cast of characters so memorable that we're more than willing to catch up with them nearly forty years later. Stream A Different World on Netflix.
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Anker released the noise-cancelling Soundcore Space One headphones a few years ago, and while they were a more budget-friendly alternative to premium models from Bose and Sony, their performance and fit still fell short in several areas. The brand’s updated Soundcore Space 2 headphones are a major upgrade across the board: They’re comfier, have better ANC, and are currently 18% off at $106.49 (originally $129.99), a rare price cut for a still-new release from a popular brand.
Battery life is one of the Soundcore Space 2’s most attractive features: They last up to 50 hours with ANC on and 70 hours with ANC off, and a five-minute charge gives you up to four extra hours. The noise cancellation is strong for the price, blocking out lower-frequency sounds well. Comfort is also a major upgrade from its sparser predecessor, with roomier, more plush memory foam earcups and a padded headband. They’re also travel-friendly, as the earcups rotate and fold.
The Soundcore app allows you to customize EQ and sound presets, giving you added flexibility if you don’t like the default tuning. Instead of touch-sensitive panels, these headphones use conventional buttons, which help prevent accidental commands while adjusting the earcups and are easy to operate. Along with supporting Bluetooth 6.1, they also have a wired-cable option, which isn’t always the case with modern wireless headphones. That said, they don’t support USB-C audio.
If you want over-ear noise-canceling headphones that perform well but don’t have $200 to shell out for a more expensive model, the Anker Soundcore Space 2 headphones are a comfortable, effective, and long-lasting alternative that hover around $100 at the current discounted price.
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I fell in love with cold weather running while I was training for a spring marathon. It wasn’t a choice at first: Some weeks, the weather was bad for days on end, and if I stayed home, I would fall behind in my training. Everybody else in my training group was braving the elements, so I did too—with no regrets.
I got to run on quiet mornings while snow was softly falling. I signed up for a winter race that herded finishers into a heated barn for hot chocolate and soup. I set a personal record at a spring race, during which I pushed myself hard without breaking a sweat. I now find it sad when somebody tells me they’re afraid of running in the cold, or that they would run in the winter but don’t know what to wear.
No, cold weather doesn’t have to stop you from running, but getting dressed can be a puzzle: How do you keep from freezing your butt off at first and avoid overheating once you start to sweat? Fortunately, it isn’t as tough as it looks. With the right gear, your fingers and ears can stay toasty while you jog through a winter wonderland. Below, I’ll give you a temperature-by-temperature running cheat sheet, and then dive into the specifics on how to buy the best socks, shirts, and more.
When I get dressed to run in winter, I take a look at the “feels like” temperature, not the actual high or low. I also make sure to check the weather for the time I’ll go running, not for the whole day. It doesn’t matter how warm it will be at 2 p.m. if my run will be happening at 6 a.m., before the sun is up. I use the Carrot Weather app, but any app that gives you hourly feels-like temps will work just fine.
Next, use the 20-degree rule. Imagine that the temperature is 20 degrees (Fahrenheit) warmer than it really is. What would you wear then? Here's an example: if it’s 50 degrees out, you should dress as if it were 70: in a T-shirt and shorts, most likely. If it’s 30 degrees, you’d dress as if it were 50: long pants and maybe a light jacket. Get the idea?
Everybody has their own preferences. Some people wear shorts even when it’s snowing, while others will pop a beanie on as soon as there’s a detectable chill in the air. I’m a pretty middle-of-the-road runner when it comes to keeping warm, so here’s what I wear at each “feels like” temperature, starting with warmer weather and working our way colder. I'll give a guide to each type of garment or accessory at the end.
At 50+ degrees Fahrenheit, I’m wearing basically the same things I would for a summer run.
Bottoms: shorts or light leggings.
Top: A tank top or T-shirt.
Head and hands: Nothing special. No gloves and no hat, unless it’s a baseball cap to shade my eyes from the sun.
We’re starting to feel the first bit of a chill. This is where I may start bringing gloves, although they’ll probably get stuffed into a pocket by the end of the run. Remember, with the 20-degree rule, it will feel like 60 degrees by the time you're warmed up.
Bottoms: Leggings, lightweight long pants, or shorts.
Top: Something with long sleeves, but ideally made of thin material (think long-sleeved T-shirt, not a full-on sweatshirt or jacket). If you wore a sun shirt in the summer, that's a good layering option for these cool temps. I like my REI Sahara Shade hoodie here, but any long sleeve will do. If you run fall and winter races, you'll probably be handed a free long-sleeved version at some point.
Hands: I usually just pull my shirt's sleeves over my hands, but you could wear knit gloves if you want. Consider something like Flipmits for an intermediate option (they can be folded down into a wrist cuff when your hands warm up).
Head: A headband if you need protection for your ears.
You may see a few snowflakes drifting down, but don’t bundle up in a snowsuit. Once you’re warmed up, it will only feel like 50 degrees—so go for something in “light jacket” territory.
Bottoms: Leggings or running tights. The fleece-lined kind can be nice. (I have these.)
Top: You’ll want some kind of jacket or sweatshirt. A lightweight, reflective rain jacket is great here, or just throw on a regular hoodie over your T-shirt. (I go with cotton sweats in dry weather or light snow, but I'd go for synthetics or wool if there's rain or sleet.)
Hands: Definitely wear gloves. The cheap knit ones are usually good enough, but consider treating yourself to a nice pair of running gloves.
Head: Your choice of hat or headband; I’d stick with the headband.
Feet: This is around the temperature you may start to want warmer socks. That goes double if snow is in play: snow that falls onto your shoes will work its way through the mesh, melt, and make your feet wet. Wool is a good material here, so consider something like these from Smartwool.
This is where I’ll officially say it’s “cold.” Whatever warm-weather gear you were getting away with at warmer temps, you’ll probably have to swap it out now. Shorts people will break out their long pants. Headband people will wear a real hat.
Bottoms: Leggings and shorts. I don’t care if you think it looks goofy to wear both; this is an A+ hack. Or try a puffer skirt.
Top: It’s definitely jacket weather. Rather than getting a warmer jacket, I like to wear the same light jacket as I did at 30 degrees, but this time with a long-sleeved fleece or wool base layer underneath.
Hands: Real gloves, please. You can keep wearing your little knit gloves if you’re able to tuck your hands inside your jacket sleeves, or if you have a pair of mittens to wear over top; otherwise, get windproof gloves.
Head: A hat, and maybe also a buff for your nose and mouth. (If you have any cloth masks still hanging around from the early COVID days, they’re perfect for cold weather runs.)
Feet: Warm socks for sure. If you’ll be doing a lot of running in these temperatures, you may want shoes that are specialized for the elements. Look for ones with Gore-Tex uppers, like the Brooks Ghost GTX.
This is where I tap out. If a run is just barely in the teens, I’ll make do with the 20-degree items I mentioned above, adding an extra layer wherever needed. But if that isn't enough, I opt for the treadmill. You certainly can run in this weather if you are determined. You’ll want windproof everything, some kind of face covering, and you may need eye protection such as goggles.
Whenever the weather gets to your own personal “too cold” temperature, remember that you still have options. The early afternoon is often the warmest part of the day, so a run may be tolerable then. There’s also no shame in using a treadmill (even if you have to join a cheap gym for this reason alone).
Everybody has different preferences, and with practice you’ll figure out if you’re the kind of person who wears three shirts before it hits freezing or the type to run through the snow in shorts. But this should give you a starting point when you head out for your first (or next) cold weather run.
As you continue on your cold-weather running journey, you may need to buy some new gear or repurpose things from elsewhere in your closet. And yes, the first few minutes of your run will feel chilly. But if you’re wearing the right shoes and clothes (and planning routes with a few extra factors in mind, which I’ll discuss below), winter running is not just feasible; it’s actually fun. So here are the items you may want to consider.
Your feet need to be warm and, if possible, dry. Warm socks go without saying, but there are some extra considerations when you’re picking socks to run in. Wool socks are ideal because they keep your feet warm even when they get wet. You may not think of winter as a wet time, but any snow that meets up with your body heat will turn into water. If you don’t have wool socks, synthetic wicking fabrics are a good second choice. Cotton is a no-no
First, the socks have to be able to fit into your shoes. If you’ve been running in super thin cotton or synthetic socks all summer, thick socks may not fit. Smartwool run socks are available in a thin version that can fit no problem—but in colder weather you’ll want some thickness for extra warmth. That thickness, in turn, may mean that your winter running shoes need to be roomier than the shoes you wear in summer. If you’re buying a new pair, make sure to try them on with the type of socks you intend to run in.
If your warm socks fit, you can make do with the same shoes you wore in the summer. Your feet will stay dry if the weather is dry and you stay out of puddles. If you encounter snow and slush, though, your feet will have to endure warm-but-wet conditions for the rest of your run. That can be okay for short runs, but for serious winter running, consider upgrading your shoes.
Some running shoes are available with water-resistant uppers. This level of water resistance will keep stray snowflakes out of your socks, but it isn’t reliable if you’ll be stepping in slush puddles. In that case, you’ll want something more waterproof, like Gore-Tex shoes, many of which are made for running trails.
If you expect to run on a lot of ice or packed snow, especially on trails, spikes can give you a little extra grip.
Yaktrax makes a rubber harness that stretches to fit your shoe, with steel coils and small spikes, for about $40.
Microspikes are a notch up from there, costing around $90 for what look like a miniature version of the chains you’d put on car tires.
And if you’re really dedicated—and are seeking a purpose-built pair of snow shoes—you can attach individual spikes: either these traction spikes from IceSpike, or via a DIY approach using sheet metal screws. (There’s a tutorial here.)
The versions that include rubber, like Yaktrax, can wear out quickly on pavement, so it’s best to save these for runs on trails or on unplowed paths. You’ll also want to be careful about the fit. I tried a pair that were similar to Yaktrax, but they were a tad too big. Shortly into my run, I found that the rubber stretched enough to pull the front set of spikes up over the top of my shoe. I've since gotten better-fitting ones, and they work great.
Spikes and specialized shoes help you go more places, in worse weather—but remember that they’re not required to just head out on a chilly day. Regular shoes are fine if the weather is cold but dry, or if you’re willing to put up with a little moisture.
I actually love when the weather gets cold enough that I need a jacket, because then I get to wear something that gives me extra pockets! Stick with thin jackets that have some room inside. By the time temps dip into the 20s or below, you’ll be doing some serious layering: for example, an undershirt, a long-sleeved warm layer, and a jacket. A great option for that warm layer is a wool base layer like this one. (Don’t worry, it’s not itchy.) If you can’t wear wool, a synthetic fleece is a good alternative.
Before you run out to buy all new clothes, experiment with what’s in your closet. Try repurposing a thin sweater, for example. Some people would never wear cotton for running (it can be cold when wet), but I wear it as my undershirt layer and have lived to tell the tale. Just make sure to shower or change after your run, so you aren't sitting around in cold, wet clothes.
The jacket is the most important layer. You can grab a sweatshirt in a pinch, but to be really well-equipped for nasty weather, you’ll want a jacket that is windproof and water-resistant. Jackets made for running are lightweight, for layering. Consider ones that are visible at night, with bright colors and reflective areas, and that come with zippered pockets.
Once it’s too cold for shorts, you’ll want to start layering your bottoms, too. Loose pants let cold air in, which is why leggings or “running tights” like these are standard winter wear for all genders. Running tights come in different thicknesses; go for something fleece-lined for your coldest runs, or layer two pairs.
You need to keep your ears warm, but don’t reach for a winter hat right away: an ear warmer or headband can cover your ears while still letting heat escape from the top of your head. And if anything is falling from the sky (say, snow), a baseball cap will keep it out of your eyes.
Fleece or knit hats are great for cold enough days, of course. The dividing line between earwarmer weather and hat weather is a personal one, and depends on whether you’re overheating. If you’re wearing a hat but sweating into your base layers, the hat is probably overkill.
Gloves, however, are essential. I keep a pair of cheap knit gloves in my jacket pockets, but windy or very cold days call for something stronger. You can layer gloves; I find gloves under mittens work well. You can also get windproof insulated gloves, which are warmer than any number of layers of holey knit gloves.
Your face will freeze on windy or very cold days, so this is where your old stash of pandemic face masks really shines. Consider a balaclava or even a fleece-lined bandana. A neck gaiter stays on better than a scarf if your neck is cold. At this point, every inch of you is covered but your eyes. Sunglasses can take care of that.
If you use Google Chrome, you can turn on a new safety feature that will warn you if you navigate to a suspicious website that looks like others already known for malicious behavior. The alerts are part of Enhanced Protection mode in Chrome's Safe Browsing, which checks your activity against potentially harmful sites and warns you if you're at risk of encountering malware, phishing, intrusive ads, or social engineering attacks.
Most internet users are familiar with the full-page alerts that appear if you navigate to a site that's known to be malicious. These red "dangerous site" warnings indicate a high risk of harm to the user and can't really be ignored since they take up the entire screen and urge you to go back to safety.
The new "suspicious site" alerts indicate possible risk of harm based on patterns consistent with other known malicious sites. This means that Google isn't as confident that the website is actually dangerous, but it looks a lot like others that are spreading malware or running phishing scams. These suspicious site warnings are smaller pop-ups with the text "This site doesn't seem right" and two button options: Mark as safe or Back to safety. The different colors, text, and formatting make it easy for users to distinguish between what Google deems dangerous versus suspicious.
Safe Browsing in Chrome has three options: standard protection, enhanced protection, and no protection at all (which isn't recommended). Standard protection checks your browsing activity, extensions, and downloads against Google's list of unsafe sites, which is updated periodically. By contrast, enhanced protection works in real time and uses AI analysis. Note that enhanced protection does require you to share more information about your activity to Google, and the data are linked to your Google Account.
While privacy-conscious users may be hesitant to send more info to Google, enhanced protection is likely worthwhile for those who aren't as savvy to advanced scam tactics (and therefore more likely to enter credentials or financial information on or download a file from a malicious website). To enable Enhanced Protection and receive suspicious website warnings, go to Settings > Privacy and security in Chrome and toggle Enhanced protection on under the Safe Browsing section.
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Amazon has dropped the price of the Philips Keypad Front Door Lock Set to $89.98 from $142.99, taking $53 off and bringing it to its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. For that, you get an electronic deadbolt along with two matching lever handles in a matte black finish, so you can replace your existing front door hardware without having to find coordinating pieces separately. The set also makes a good case for itself if you've been considering keyless entry but don't necessarily want another device connected to your home network, since this lock operates entirely offline. Being offline doesn’t limit your ways in, though; you can use a fingerprint, a PIN, or one of two backup keys.
Philips claims the fingerprint reader works in 0.3 seconds, which could be handy when you're carrying groceries or don't feel like digging around for your keys. You can also register multiple fingerprints for family members and generate unlimited one-time PINs for visitors—so your dog walker can get in without needing your personal code. There's also an adjustable auto-lock timer that secures the door after 30 to 180 seconds, along with alerts for incorrect entries, low batteries, and a jammed lock. Privacy, away, and silent modes add further control.
Getting all of that onto your door is fairly simple and takes just a screwdriver, provided your door meets the requirements: 1⅜ to two inches thick, with a one-inch edge bore and a 2⅜- or 2¾-inch backset. The biggest limitation is its lack of connectivity—you can't unlock the door remotely, check its status from your phone, or integrate it with other smart home devices. Anyone who needs those features will have to look elsewhere, but for straightforward keyless access without connectivity, this Philips set covers the essentials.
Holiday content returns to Netflix in November, with the monthly slate weighted toward dozens of Christmas and seasonally themed films and shows as well as season nine of The Great British Baking Show: Holidays (Nov. 23). Netflix will also be hosting a Thanksgiving Eve NFL game with the Packers vs. Rams matchup on Nov. 25.
Other titles of note include The Altruists (Nov. 19), a limited drama series about the rise and fall—and crimes—of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison (played by Julia Garner of Ozark and Inventing Anna fame). Jessica Chastain stars in the Netflix original film Heartland (Nov. 13), a thriller about a former country music star whose niece disappears.
On the documentary side, there's Ron Howard's Avedon (Nov. 11), a film about the photographer's life and influence, plus comedy specials from Mike Tyson (Return of the Mike, Nov. 3), Janelle James (How Romantic, Nov. 10), and Mike Ward (Modest, Nov. 17).
Here's everything else coming to Netflix in November, and everything that's leaving.
Gordon—Netflix Series
100 días para enamorarnos: Season 1
A Sudden Case of Christmas
Air Force One
Barbie in the Nutcracker
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Bridesmaids
Cliffhanger
The Croods
The Day After Tomorrow
El Chema: Season 1
Falsa identidad: Seasons 1-2
Fury
Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas
Happy’s Place: Season 2
Insidious: Chapter 2
Insidious: Chapter 3
Looper
Mistletoe Murders: Seasons 1-2
The Mummy
No Sleep 'Til Christmas
Public Enemies
Rectify: Seasons 1-4
The Red Road: Seasons 1-2
Resident Evil
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Richard Jewell
Same Time, Next Christmas
Stand by Me
Weekend at Bernie's
Whiplash
A Cinderella Christmas Ball
Bass X Machina—Netflix Series
Christmas Time Is Here
Menorah in the Middle
Mike Tyson: Return of the Mike—Netflix Series Comedy Special
St. Denis Medical: Season 2
Will Trent: Seasons 1-4
A Dog's Perfect Christmas—Netflix Film
A Runaway Bride for Christmas
Anaesthesia—Netflix Series
Deck the Hallways
Ninho: Fame Ain’t Worth It—Netflix Documentary
Taken: Natalee Holloway—Netflix Documentary
Black Doves: Season 2—Netflix Series
Deck the Halls
The Neighborhood: Season 1-8
North of North: Season 2—Netflix Series
One Year to Live, Buy a Man—Netflix Film
Overacting—Netflix Film
Carolina Caroline
Funny Money: The Dane Cook Story
Possible Love—Netflix Film
Under Siege—Netflix Series
Unprotected: Murder in Galicia—Netflix Documentary
Doozie's Doghouse—Netflix Family
The Good Lawyer—Netflix Film
Misty Green
Power: Seasons 1-6
The Devil's Plan: Season 3—Netflix Series
Janelle James: How Romantic—Netflix Comedy Special
Last One Standing: Season 4—Netflix Series
Reminders of Him
Alicia's Law—Netflix Series
Avedon—Netflix Documentary
The Body—Netflix Series
ChiaroScuro—Netflix Series
The Gospel of Christmas—Netflix Film
How to Fall In Love By Christmas
Rodeo Christmas Romance
A Christmas Castle Proposal: A Royal in Paradise 2
Allen—Netflix Film
Bros: Season 2—Netflix Series
The Christmas Switch—Netflix Film
The Empress: Season 3—Netflix Series
Ethos: Season 2—Netflix Series
The First 48: Season 16
Love Is Blind, Habibi: Season 2—Netflix Series
Miracles of the ER—Netflix Series
Never Surrender—Netflix Film
A Merry Christmas Wish
Heartland—Netflix Film
Murder in Galicia—Netflix Series
Stars and Vows: Anele & Buzza—Netflix Series
Insidious
Smile
Christmas On The Ranch
Reporting for Christmas
Mike Ward: Modest—Netflix Comedy Special
Obsession
RBG
Run the World: Seasons 1-2
America's Test Kitchen Friendsgiving: Season 1
Gentle Monster—Netflix Film
Guarding Stars—Netflix Film
The Law of Beasts—Netflix Series
Valentina and the 12 Signs—Netflix Series
Win the Mall—Netflix Series
A Cherry Pie Christmas
The Altruists—Netflix Series
Christmas at Fields Ranch
On Behalf of My Son—Netflix Film
Primetime Preacher$—Netflix Documentary
Steps—Netflix Family
The Family Holiday
Marry Christmas
Mistletoe Mixup
The Great British Baking Show: Holidays: Season 9—Netflix Series
Mark Rober's CrunchLabs: Season 6
Sesame Street: Volume 4—Netflix Family
The Trials of Karen Read—Netflix Documentary
All for Christmas
Rob Lowe: The Outsider—Netflix Documentary
The Trouble With Mistletoe
The Mosquito Bowl—Netflix Film
NFL Netflix Gameday: Thanksgiving Eve, Packers vs. Rams—Netflix Live Event
Always on Call—Netflix Series
Fool Night—Netflix Series
The Hunting Wives: Season 2—Netflix Series
Toos: The Van der Valk Kidnapping—Netflix Series
The Child—Netflix Film
The Hunchback, Soul of Paris—Netflix Film
Salish's 12 Games of Christmas—Netflix Series
Pressure
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
13 Going on 30
42
American Sniper
Black Adam
Broadchurch: Seasons 1-3
Catch and Release
Eat Pray Love
Fast Five
Hitch
Jumanji
Nightcrawler
Pompeii
Speed
Speed 2: Cruise Control
Starship Troopers
Steel Magnolias
Under the Skin
The End of the F***ing World: Seasons 1-2
Safe Haven
The Lost City
The Big C: Seasons 1-4
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Shallows
Saw X
True Romance
The Resident: Seasons 1-6
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life: Limited Series
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The Apple Watch Series 10 was released in September 2024, and it's one of the best ways to get into the Apple Watch in 2026 without breaking the bank. Right now, the titanium 46 mm case model with cellular capabilities is $112 off, bringing the price down to $637 (originally $749). That's the lowest price after Apple raised prices this summer due to the RAM shortage, according to price-tracking tools. The same model in gold titanium is also over $100 off, reaching $679 (originally $799), saving you the same amount compared to the latest Series 12 going for $799.
The Apple Watch Series 10 was considered the best Apple Watch for most people last fall and is a great replacement if you're still wearing the more budget SE. There are also some key upgrades from the Apple Watch 9, although they're less noticeable than previous Apple Watch upgrades. If you're curious to know how it compares to other flagship smartwatches from its time, you can check out our head-to-head comparison.
Some of the first things you'll notice on the Series 10 are a thin case and a big OLED screen (either 1.6 inches or 1.8 inches, depending on which model you get). The Series 10 has audio playback, meaning you can listen to podcasts, take calls, or listen to Spotify on its speakers. The sleep features allow notifications for signs of sleep apnea. What you're giving up by saving on this version over the latest Series 12 is a faster S11 chip, a newer Health Sensing System and the Readiness app (tracks daily insights, vitals, and other metrics), a longer battery life (from 18 to 24 hours), 5G RedCap support (it helps save on battery life and has better network coverage compared to 5G), and audio intelligence features like Live Rewind, Siri Recap, and Sound Recognition.
If those extra features don't matter to you, the Series 10 is a great Apple Watch to get in 2026 at a discount, when many are still suffering from their price hikes.
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You Can See Everything, the new documentary about Theranos founder (and accomplished con artist) Elizabeth Holmes from filmmakers Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, is breaking records (and brains). Not only is it raking it in at the box office in a way that few documentaries can manage, it’s also dominating the pop culture chat right now thanks to genre-defying techniques; a huge, rule-breaking twist (that I won't spoil); and its unrepentant and inexplicably mesmerizing subject.
While some might argue that you should head into this incredible film experience fresh, if you’re unfamiliar with any of the three major figures involved, you will benefit from a little prep work before you head in—and if you've already seen it, you're no doubt eager to dive even deeper into this truly remarkable (in every sense of the word) story. Here’s what you should watch, read, and listen to before or after You Can See Everything.
To put it simply: There’s a lot going on here. To ensure you can appreciate the film, you should make sure you know at least the basics about three things: Elizabeth Holmes (and why she’s infamous), and the work of both Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. Here’s the crash course.
The 2019 podcast The Dropout is one of the most efficient ways to get the background on Holmes and Theranos. In the style of a true crime podcast, this show from ABC and journalist Rebecca Jarvis offers a deep dive into Holmes and her crimes that will give you all the background you’ll need.
John Carreyrou is the journalist who broke the Holmes story wide open, and his award-winning book Bad Blood offers a more journalistic and less sensational investigation than other accounts, providing a close-up look at Holmes in her CEO persona—an alternately terrifying and charismatic person who comes across as a “character” Holmes is playing. The book will inform your viewing of the documentary in important ways.
While Nathan Fielder is getting most of the attention for You Can See Everything, co-director Lance Oppenheim brings his signature technique to the film—it wouldn’t be nearly as interesting without his visual sensibility and framing.
Oppenheim has helmed several notable films, as he’s made a name for himself as a brilliant documentarian over the last few years, but to get ready for You Can See Everything, check out Spermworld, his 2024 exploration of unregulated sperm donations (you read that right). The doc deals with people who are as reality-challenged, manipulative, and possibly delusional as Holmes, and it will prep you for his visual style of extreme close-ups and excessive coverage that seems almost impossible in a normal documentary setting. You can stream Spermworld on Hulu.
If you’re unfamiliar with Nathan Fielder’s work, you need to strap in, because he’s unlike any other comedian or documentarian you’ve ever encountered.
To get a sense of his style, start with Nathan for You, a comedy-documentary-reality TV hybrid in which Fielder—as a version of himself—tries to use his business experience to help struggling people and small businesses. Presented as totally sincere, Fielder’s ideas are nevertheless increasingly elaborate and, in a word, unhinged. This show will familiarize you with Fielder’s persona and approach, but if you only have time to cram one episode, check out the series finale, “Finding Frances.” It follows Fielder’s attempts to reunite one of his earlier clients with his long-lost love, and it is a nearly perfect encapsulation of his style and approach. You can stream Nathan for You on HBO Max, Hoopla or Paramount Plus, or rent it episode-by-episode on Prime Video.
You should also watch at least some of Fielder’s other series, The Rehearsal. Here, Fielder (again, portraying a version of himself) attempts to help people prepare for difficult conversations utilizing increasingly outlandish techniques and scenarios that spiral into comedic insanity, including building sets, hiring actors, and immersing himself and his subjects in an alternate reality of sorts—an approach that will prepare you for some of You Can See Everything’s swerves. If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, just check out the first episode, “Orange Juice, No Pulp.” It’s a self-contained chapter and will give you the basics. You can stream The Rehearsal on Apple TV or HBO Max, or rent episodes on Prime Video.
Have more bandwidth before watching You Can See Everything, or want a deeper dive after the documentary has melted your brain? Here’s what else you can check out.
The companion podcast to Carreyrou’s book, Bad Blood: The Final Chapter, is well worth a listen. Hearing the journalist’s perspective about his investigation and work during and after Holmes’ trial offers additional insight into her personality and methods that will really resonate after watching her in Fielder and Oppenheim’s doc.
Once you’ve noodled on You Can See Everything for a moment, there are two more movies you should check out.
For more on Holmes’s specific grift and how she pulled it off, Alex Gibney’s excellent The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley is the way to go, especially if you didn’t follow the Theranos story closely at the time and your main visual guide to Holmes is the new documentary. Gibney’s film is more traditional, but offers a wealth of insight into Holmes and her bubble. You can stream The Inventor on HBO Max or rent it on Prime VIdeo.
If you more from co-director Lance Oppenheim, watch Some Kind of Heaven, his 2020 breakout documentary about The Villages retirement community in Florida. It’s the film that put Oppenheim on the map, and offers hints of the same detached observational style that makes You Can See Everything so arresting. You can stream Some Kind of Heaven on Kanopy or Hoopla, or rent it on Prime Video.
Speaking of which, if you loved the visual style and “enhanced” reality of You Can See Everything and want to see more of that, catch the Robert Pattinson-starring Primetime, still in theaters. It’s Oppenheim's narrative film directorial debut, and combines his hyperstyled visual flair with thriller pacing and a narrative based on a true story.
The Curse, Fielder’s 2023 TV series, is his first work of fiction, and it offers some fascinating insights. It follows a newly married couple (played by Fielder and Emma Stone) who struggle to get an HGTV-style show off the ground as things get excruciatingly awkward (and, eventually, kind of surreal). After watching You Can See Everything, it will be interesting to see how Fielder views the power of editing, the ethics of reality TV, and working with a name actor to get the results that he wants. Plus, similarly to the film, The Curse swerves into a final act that will melt your brain. You can stream The Curse on Apple TV or rent it on Prime Video.
You should also definitely watch The Dropout, the 2022 Hulu series starring Amanda Seyfried. It’s a well-made film, and Seyfried’s performance was rightly praised for capturing the weirdness of Holmes' public persona. You can stream The Dropout on Hulu.
If you're like me, you've spent years ignoring most of Siri's functionality. Sure, it's great for setting timers, making calls, and sending a text. But that's kind of it—Apple's promise of an "always-on" digital assistant never truly delivered.
But that's finally changed with the recent launch of Siri AI. Fifteen years after debuting the app on the iPhone 4S and four years after the release of ChatGPT, Apple has taken the time to build out its own private Apple Foundation Models (with little help from Google) that work both on-device and on Apple's servers to give quick responses to your queries. Siri AI's answers are short, to the point, and actually useful. However, the conversational side isn't the only new thing about Siri AI. In fact, once you scratch the surface, you'll find Siri AI features embedded across the entire iOS and macOS ecosystem. Here's how to get the most out of Apple's new, enhanced digital assistant.
Siri AI is already tuned for brevity. Compared to Gemini or Claude, its responses are short and to the point. But still, if you ask something with your voice, it responds using voice as well. I personally prefer to quickly read through Siri responses. If you’re like me, you can enable a hidden setting that makes sure that Siri always answers silently, no matter if you’re writing to it or using your voice. Go to Settings > Siri > Responses and switch to the Silent Response option.
On the other hand, if you prefer to listen to Siri's responses, it's worth it to spend some time fine-tuning them. If you have an iPhone that’s under two years old, you have access to a more expressive Siri voice. Siri AI has an Expressive Voice feature that works on iPhone 17 Pro and higher, iPhone Air, and Macs with an M3 processor or higher (at least 12GB RAM).
To find this feature, go to Settings > Siri > Voice. Here, you can change the Pace to make Siri faster or slower. The big feature is the Expressivity slider; you can use it to make Siri sound brighter and more enthusiastic, rather than flat. You also have several voice options at the top (color-coded).
Visual Intelligence is deeply integrated into iOS 27 and macOS 27, and it turns anything on your screen into a source that Siri AI can act upon. It can search anything on your screen, and even take action on things it finds out. You can highlight any text on an iPhone, tap and hold, and choose the Ask Siri option. On the Mac, Ask Siri is the first option in the right-click menu. Choose a file, select text, and get started talking to Siri.
But it goes further. Just pull up Siri AI on your iPhone or Mac and start asking questions about what you’re seeing on screen. If you’re seeing a photo of a cafe on Instagram, ask where it is, or ask Siri to open it in Maps. If you’re watching a scene from a movie or a TV show, ask Siri where it’s from.
Clean Up was part of Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18, but it wasn’t great. It used on-device models to remove objects, and the results were lacking. Now that Apple runs its own Apple Foundation Models in Private Cloud Compute, it can securely process images on its servers, and the Clean Up process is much better. It now removes objects from photos very reliably, and even accounts for shadows. But to use this, you have to make sure to use the High Quality feature (instead of the default Auto mode).
Tap the Edit button in a photo, go to Tools > Clean Up, and from the top, switch to the High Quality option. Now brush over or tap an object you want to remove. Then, tap Clean Up and wait for a while until Apple’s servers complete the process. Tap Done to save the changes.
One of the most tedious parts of using the Calendar app is manually entering multiple events from a complicated schedule—say, for a season's worth of your kid’s soccer practices, or your college course's weekly lecture schedule. With Visual Intelligence in iOS 27, this is now table stakes: You can point your iPhone camera towards a schedule or take a screenshot of one, then tap the Add to Calendar button. Siri will recognize all the events, and you’ll get an option to add them to the calendar individually or all at once.
Siri AI's Mail integration is a hidden gem. Once your iPhone or Mac is done indexing your local data from Mail, you can use Siri AI to triage and manage your Mail without even opening the Mail app. In my testing, it works really well, especially because Siri AI understands the context of an email. This means you don't need to remember the exact details about the sender or the subject. You can just ask something like, "Find all emails about my flights from last week and send them to my accountant." You can also ask it to do things for you. For example, you can say, "Archive all the emails from Walmart from last month," and it will give you a one-button option to do just that.
When you start using the new Siri AI more often, you'll realize that it asks for confirmation way too often. For things like deleting mail, that's useful. But for sending messages, less so. There is a hidden setting that removes the extra step when it comes to sending messages via Siri. Go to Settings > Siri > Responses and enable Automatically Send Messages.
After the Siri AI upgrade in iOS 27, I find myself using the Camera Control often, and you should try it too. Just press and hold the Camera Control button to launch the camera's Siri mode. Point towards anything you want to find out more about and tap the big Siri icon. In a second or two, you will get the Siri response at the top, along with relevant actions based on what you're looking at. This feature is genuinely useful, and if you don't like using the Camera Control (or don't have access to it on your iPhone), you can also add the Siri AI shortcut to the lock screen, Control Center, or the Action button.
While Shortcuts has been one of Apple's most powerful features, it's also one of the hardest to use. Making an automation requires setting up steps, selecting variables, and thinking about chronology, and more. With Siri AI, Apple is trying to reduce that burden. And when it comes to simpler stuff that an everyday iPhone user needs, it works.
For example, you can open Shortcuts, create a new shortcut, and use the Describe a shortcut feature to talk about a Shortcut you want to build in natural language. You can ask Siri to create a daily morning Shortcut that shows you the day's weather, upcoming calendar events, and the to-do list for the day. You can also ask it to create a Shortcut that converts images in batches and creates new notes with a pre-made template.
While Apple is now using its own Apple Foundation Models for the new Siri AI, ChatGPT isn’t technically gone. If you have a complex question, or if Siri AI’s answer isn’t doing the trick, you can still summon ChatGPT from the Siri AI app (no need to go to the ChatGPT app for this). Tap on the text field in the Siri app, choose the Ask option and then switch to the ChatGPT service. Siri AI is quite intelligent at routing, so if ChatGPT can’t answer, it will route you back to Siri AI’s own models.
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“Is my watch too big?” is a constant question on forums dedicated to smartwatches and fitness trackers of all kinds. (Some, but fewer, wonder if their watch is too small.) Personally, I don’t much care how a watch looks, but I’ve noticed that size can make a big difference in how accurately a watch functions. If your watch is too big, your numbers may be off.
Watches measure heart rate through an optical sensor on the back of the watch. (That’s what you see glowing green back there.) The heart rate sensor detects how that light reflects off the blood vessels in your skin. To get a proper reading, it needs to be snug against your skin, ideally in a way that blocks out ambient light.
If the sensor loses contact with your skin, or if too much light sneaks in, heart rate readings may be inaccurate. If a watch fits you well to start with, you can generally get an accurate heart rate by simply making sure the watch is snug during workouts.
But if a watch is too big, it can move around, letting light in. When you run, if a watch is bouncing around, the sensor may detect a flash of light with every footstep. This can lead to your watch reporting a heart rate that is the same as your cadence (footsteps per minute), which is sometimes called “cadence lock.” Some runners will cover their watch with a sleeve (especially in cold weather) to minimize this possibility.
No matter how you wear it, a big watch on a small wrist is likely to have a lot more difficulty than one that fits properly. Very small devices can have a similar problem: The device isn’t large enough or can’t be tightened enough to block light. This isn’t usually a problem with wristwatches, but it may explain why smart rings tend to be so poor at daytime heart rate tracking.
Now, is this a real-life concern, or just a theoretical quibble? I wasn’t sure, until I took the Forerunner 265 and 265S for a run at the same time. These are the same watch, with the same heart rate sensor, differing only in size. You can read about my results here, but the graph tells the story pretty well: The smaller 265S (42 mm) captured my heart rate more accurately than the 265 (46 mm).
If heart rate accuracy were the only issue, I would tell you to get the smallest watch you can find. It wouldn’t even look weird; before smartwatches became popular, wristwatches were often much smaller than a person’s wrist. (Watch old movies and you’ll see some tiny watches, even on people who don’t have tiny wrists.)
But watches are big and seem to be getting bigger. A bigger screen means numbers, text, and icons are easier to read. This is great news if your vision isn’t the best anymore, or if you use the watch while exercising and want to be able to see what’s on your screen with a quick glance.
Bigger watches can provide bigger screens, but also bigger batteries and more room for other internals. This is probably at least partly why more “premium” watches come in bigger sizes. That said, it’s hard for me to distinguish when a watch is huge because it needs room to pack in its hardware features, versus when the company is making the watch bigger so it will seem fancier and thus justify a higher price.
And this brings me to something I need to rant about. Smartwatch and fitness watch companies know that watch size matters: They often offer two sizes for at least some of their models. The Apple Watch Series 12 comes in 42 or 46 millimeters, while the Garmin Forerunner 570 comes in 42 or 47 millimeters, to give a couple of examples.
But when it comes to premium models, those options often disappear. The Garmin Forerunner 970, far more feature-rich than the 570, only comes in a 47-millimeter size, matching the larger size of the 570 but without a smaller option. The Apple Watch Ultra 4 only comes in a 49-millimeter size, which is even larger than the larger size of the Series 12. I’m about to start testing a Hyrox feature that only comes on Amazfit’s Balance 3 or Balance Ultra watches; those watches are 51 and 52 millimeters, respectively. This is getting ridiculous.
As a woman reporting on tech, I can’t ignore the way gender plays into this. According to ANSUR II, a U.S. Army study, women have an average wrist size of 154 millimeters (about 6.1 inches), and men have an average wrist size of 176 mm (about 6.9 inches). My wrists are right around 6 inches, making me very average for a woman.
When companies make two sizes of watch, the smaller size usually fits the average woman’s wrist fairly well, and the larger size is a better fit for men’s wrists. This isn’t a perfect match, of course, since plenty of women may fit or prefer the larger size, and vice versa. I’m glad the companies market these as “small” and “large” or just by the numerical size.
But as a person with six-inch wrists, I can’t wear a large watch without dealing with bouncing, rubbing, and potentially inaccurate data. I’m no twig; I’m perfectly average for my half of the population. But those larger watches just aren’t going to be as accurate for me as they are for the average man. I noticed a similar phenomenon when I tested the heart rate tracking in Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds: They barely worked for me, but did fine when I tried them on a man with larger ears.
There's also an uncomfortable intersection between this gender dynamic and the way watch companies use size as a signifier of how fancy a watch is supposed to be. While Garmin only offers the 970 in a large size (47 mm), they only offer the cheaper 70 and 170 in smaller sizes (both 43 mm). Garmin’s Venu 4 comes in both 41 and 45 millimeter sizes, but the cheaper Vivoactive 6 is only available in 42. Having a small wrist can save you money, but it still shuts you off from some of the more premium options out there.
For my work reviewing and testing watches for Lifehacker, I’ve worn smartwatches ranging from around 40 millimeters (an older Apple Watch) up to 48 millimeters (a tie between the Kospet Tank and the Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro). I love a watch in the 40-42 millimeter range; I can tolerate one around 46 millimeters if it’s lightweight enough that it doesn’t bounce too much; and I really have a hard time with anything larger.
Those bigger watches are hard to snug up sufficiently for a workout; get them tight enough not to bounce, and they’ll feel like you’re nearly cutting off your circulation. After a long run with a big, heavy watch, I’ve sometimes gotten red, irritated spots on my wrist from the inevitable friction. You may not be able to judge how badly a watch will fit when it's still in the box, but I do have a rule of thumb for when you try it on.
To judge visually, I find it helps to put a watch on your wrist, rest your arm on a table, and look directly down at it. If the lugs of the watch extend past your wrist, it’s too big. You want the watch to fit on your wrist, not overhang the sides.
And if you prefer a watch size that isn’t going to be the most accurate for heart rate, remember that you can always pair a chest strap to a watch that supports it, or to your phone if you don’t have a compatible watch. If you prefer a larger watch for more readable text or maps, or if you want a premium feature that doesn’t come in smaller sizes, a chest strap may be the way to get the best of both worlds.
iPhone Duo preorders officially launched last week to high demand, a quick sellout, and delayed delivery estimates. Naturally, scammers are finding ways to capitalize on the rush to obtain Apple's new foldable, so if you're in the market for a new device, be on the lookout for signs of compromise.
Soon after the iPhone Duo was announced, threat actors jumped into action, setting up fake preorder pages that looked like Apple's official website but were actually designed to deliver a malicious payloads to your device. As Malwarebytes outlined in late September, these pages promised a $500 voucher and AppleCare+ coverage in exchange for your contact information. But submitting the form isn't actually the scam. Rather, simply opening the page launches the attack, which uses the DarkSword exploit chain to bypass iPhone protections and gain access to cryptocurrency wallets, messages, contacts, emails, calendar entries, and location data.
This scam began several weeks ago and seemed to specifically target iPhones running iOS 18.4 to 18.6.2. Apple has said that devices running the latest versions of iOS 15 to 26 are protected from the exploit, so if your iPhone is up to date, you are likely at minimal risk for this specific scheme. That said, beware of websites and social media posts that promise access to the iPhone Duo faster or cheaper than other sources, as this is almost certainly a scam designed to steal your information or install malware on your device. Official sources for preorders include Apple itself (through the official Apple website or Apple Store app) as well as major cell carriers.
Another scam to be on the lookout for involves fraudulent charges for an iPhone Duo you didn't order. News outlets in Hong Kong have reported that shoppers are seeing transactions from Apple appear on their bank and credit card statements—even when they haven't actually tried to buy the device since preorders went live. This may be the work of bad actors who have harvested credit card details via phishing or data leaks and are using them for fraudulent purchases.
While this specific scheme doesn't appear to be widespread (yet), you should check your financial statements and accounts regularly anyway given how vulnerable your data are to theft and fraud. If you see a charge you don't recognize or duplicate charges, report it to your bank or card issuer immediately using contact information from a trusted app or client portal.
Scammers will also take the threat of fraudulent charges one step further: They may contact you directly about supposedly suspicious transactions and claim they can help resolve the issue if you provide personal information or account credentials. With the iPhone Duo specifically, bad actors may also call pretending to be Apple or a carrier and ask you to confirm information about your order, possibly to avoid having it canceled. As always, any communication that provokes fear and a sense of urgency should raise red flags. If you're not sure who you're talking to, hang up and call back directly to confirm.
If you are on a Spotify Family plan, you may need to verify your location to keep your account active. Like many streaming services, Spotify is cracking down on family sharing for users who don't live in the same household by requiring QR code verification for some plan members—and once prompted, you must verify within seven days or risk being locked out of Family and Duo plans for a full year.
Spotify does require users on shared plans to verify their address when they join to confirm that they live with the plan manager and to re-verify if the manager changes addresses. Users may also be prompted via to re-enter their full address if Spotify "can't confirm" their location. This obviously doesn't prevent users from sharing plans, as Spotify isn't actually tracking your location but rather cross-checking addresses.
Some users may start seeing a QR code verification requirement, which has stricter parameters and may be more difficult to get around if plan members aren't in the same location. In these cases, the plan manager must open a QR code on their phone via Profile > Your Premium > Manage, and plan members must scan it with the camera on their phone.
According to Spotify's support page, both users must be in the same location to complete the scan, and the QR code changes every few seconds, making it hard to send screenshots to anyone not present in person. However, as 9to5Google notes, some users have been able to work around these restrictions with video calls, using multiple devices to complete the scans.
If you are prompted to complete location verification either by email or QR code, make sure you do it within seven days of the notification—otherwise you'll be lose access and be downgraded to a free plan. Spotify says that you can rejoin the same Family or Duo plan again, but you'll be restricted from joining a different shared plan for a full year.
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Woot has dropped the price of the Amazon Basics 20,000mAh portable charger in black to $12.99 from $38.99, making it considerably cheaper than the $34.85 the same model currently costs elsewhere. You also get free standard shipping if you’re a Prime member (while everyone else pays $6), but keep in mind Woot doesn't deliver to Alaska, Hawaii, P.O. boxes, or APO addresses.
For that price, you're getting a fairly substantial backup battery that measures 4.48 by 2.83 by 1.16 inches, making it compact enough to slip into a backpack or tote, although its 0.77-pound weight might make it a little bulky for a jacket pocket. The trade-off is a fairly generous 20,000mAh capacity that should be enough to recharge a typical smartphone several times, making it particularly useful for camping trips or long weekends when access to power outlets is limited. And since you're likely to have more than just your phone with you on those trips, the charger comes with two USB-C ports and one USB-A port, allowing you to charge up to three devices at once.
When used individually, either USB-C port can deliver up to 20W, enough to fast-charge many modern smartphones, while the USB-A port tops out at 12W, making it better suited to older devices and smaller accessories. The catch is that connecting two or three devices reduces the total output to 15W shared across the ports, so charging everything together will take longer than plugging in one device at a time. Both USB-C ports can also be used to recharge the power bank itself, which takes around 4.4 hours, and the box includes a 1-foot USB-C to USB-C cable for charging (it won’t transfer data).
All said, anyone hoping to charge a laptop will need a higher-wattage model, but for occasional travel, commuting, or keeping your phone running during a long day, the capacity and price make a reasonable combination.
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The 27-inch ASUS ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG gaming monitor has earned stellar reviews for its excellent visuals, refresh rate flexibility, and other impressive gaming-focused features. If you've been looking to upgrade your setup, right now is a good time: It’s $100 off, reaching its lowest price ever—$549 (originally $649).
This 27-inch monitor has a 4K UHD WOLED panel that delivers high contrast and deep blacks, making games, movies, and TV shows look more vivid. Compared to a traditional OLED panel, WOLED (White OLED) uses a white light source with filters to provide deeper blacks, faster response times, and more uniform images across a range of lighting conditions. The TrueBlack Glossy coating is better at reducing glare than a matte screen while delivering a clearer picture (though some reviews claim it’s still not bright enough to mitigate intense glare if bright light hits the screen directly).
A native 4K, 280 Hz refresh rate allows for high-detail gaming and multimedia use, while its Frame Rate Boost mode offers versatility for playing different kinds of games. For example, FHD at 330 Hz also makes it a solid choice for competitive shooting games and high-FPS play. The monitor has an overall 0.03 ms response time, which is best-in-class, and minimizes motion blur. Other notable features include NVIDIA G-SYNC and AMD FreeSync support, and reduced burn-in risk due to OLED Care Pro and the Neo Proximity Sensor.
If you’re looking for a gaming monitor with dual-mode features, nearly instantaneous response time across a range of refresh rates, low input lag, and inky blacks, the 27-inch ASUS ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG monitor for gamers is a great choice.
If you have personal conversations with ChatGPT that you don't want others to see, you can now add an extra layer of security for those specific chats. The new Locked Chats feature allows you to hide sensitive conversations behind a four-digit account PIN (or biometric authentication on mobile), meaning others with access to your device or screen can't read them.
Locked chats are retained in your chat history—unlike temporary chats, which are private conversations that aren't saved by default—so you can return to or continue them at any point. However, once locked, they are hidden from your regular chat history, pinned chats, and regular conversation search. To access them, you have to go to Projects > Locked chats and enter your PIN or device unlock method (such as Face ID or Touch ID).
To start a locked chat for the first time, open an existing conversation that you want to keep private and open the options menu. Select Lock chat > Lock chat and create or enter your account PIN. This moves the conversation to your locked chats project. You can repeat this with any existing conversation or start a locked chat from scratch under Projects > Locked Chats by entering your PIN or authentication method and typing a message to launch the chat. When you're done, select Lock now to end access to locked chats and hide them from the sidebar.
Note that if you don't already have an account PIN set up, you should be prompted to do so the first time you attempt to lock a chat. Select Create a PIN, enter your four-digit code, and enter it again to confirm. You can also enable biometric authentication in Account PIN settings. If you reset your account PIN at any point, all locked chats are permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.
Locked chats are available on ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans on both mobile and desktop apps. The feature is not available for ChatGPT for Healthcare. There are other limitations, too: For example, temporary, archived, and group chats can't be locked, nor can those with shared links, scheduled and background tasks, or meeting recordings. OpenAI says locked chats are rolling out gradually, so they may not be available to all users yet.
While locked chats do add a layer of privacy in terms of how conversations appear on your device, they are not suddenly encrypted or otherwise protected from being retained or used by OpenAI. As the support page notes, locked chats are not encrypted end to end or placed in a separate encrypted vault, and locking a chat does not affect other privacy settings, such as Improve the model for everyone (which can be turned off in Settings > Data controls) or remove information ChatGPT already knows about you.
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Rest is a crucial part of strength training. Depending on the exercise and your goals, you may find yourself resting 30 seconds, or one minute, or three to five minutes. So what do you actually do during that time? Let’s talk about your options, both in terms of training effectiveness and gym etiquette.
As awkward as it may feel at first, this is the best option for most people, most of the time. Actually rest. Don’t stretch, don’t work a different muscle; just allow your body to recover.
Some gyms will have stools, benches, or folding chairs near the platforms where people are lifting heavy (and thus need the longest rests). I’m mostly thinking of powerlifting and weightlifting gyms, but I’ve been to big-box gyms like Crunch that provide seating as well. And impromptu seats are common in many other places—who hasn’t sat on a plyo box or some other convenient surface?
There are plenty of little actions that you take at the gym (or should take) that are not explicitly exercise. The rest between sets is the perfect time to do these little maintenance tasks. Things like:
Change the weights to what you’ll need for your next set.
Write down what you just lifted in your notebook or lifting app.
If you took a video, watch it to give yourself feedback for the next set.
Trim that video so that you (or your coach, or your friends) don’t have to watch all 20 seconds of you fumbling with the camera and adjusting your belt before you actually lift.
Have a drink of water and, if needed, a snack.
Clean up after yourself! Rack any plates and dumbbells you aren’t using.
During the last few sets of an exercise, it’s time to start thinking about what you’ll do next. This could mean grabbing the equipment you’ll need or changing your shoes, but it's also an excellent opportunity to start warming up—especially if it’s an exercise that can benefit from a little gentle mobility work.
Let’s say you have a few sets of squats left, but after that you’ll do some overhead press. You probably want to warm up your shoulders with some mobility work so that you won’t be so tight when you hit that nice stable overhead position. Or maybe it’s the other way around, and you’re pressing, but next you’ll do squats. It’s a great time to start doing some ankle mobility work so that you’ll be able to comfortably hit a deeper squat.
When the weights are routine, I sit and chill. When they get heavy, I need to pace. (At weightlifting competitions, I not only stake out a warmup platform, I also pick out a walking path that I can pace between attempts.)
Or if you’re more of a cheerful, high-energy person, maybe you just want to dance. You’ll see this most often from people who lift at home, or at a chummy small gym where an impromptu dance party might occur between friends. Alone in my garage gym, I’ve been known to put on some good karaoke songs and sing along, with or without dancing.
The idea is not to get some extra cardio or get your steps in, but just to stay busy and loose and have fun—or, if you’re nervous about a big lift, to keep your head. At a busy commercial gym, make sure not to walk too far away, and consider leaving your water bottle or gym bag on your equipment to let people know it’s still taken.
I promise that it is actually OK to look at your phone between sets. You’re probably doing it anyway. There’s your lifting app, your videos that you took to check your squat form—and, yes, your usual texting and social media stuff.
The risk you’re taking here is that you’ll get distracted and rest too long. Too much rest, say more than 10 minutes, can make you feel both mentally and physically unprepared. Long rests can also lengthen your workout. Sticking to the minimum necessary rest times will get you in and out of the gym a lot faster.
From others’ perspective, a person who sits on a machine for 10 minutes scrolling is committing an unforgivable sin in gym etiquette. Don’t take longer rests than you need, if you’re holding up equipment. (That said, if you’re polite to others who approach, and you accept requests to “work in” (take turns) while you scroll, you’re morally in the clear.)
For your own sake, set a timer when you do anything that might distract you between sets. I like how I can program rest times into a Garmin watch workout, but Hevy also has a timer, and you can always use the regular timer function on your watch or phone.
Another tip: Be mindful about what you’re doing on your phone. Now is not the time to get into an argument on the internet, or check your work email and see what will be waiting for you back at the office. It is a good time to play little games on your phone, or read an ebook, or put together your next great workout playlist.
I’m leaving this option for last because I don’t want it to be your go-to. Just because you can do one exercise while resting for another, doesn’t mean you should.
Why not? If you really want to give squats your full energy, for example, don’t do pull-ups on the squat rack in between. You’ll fatigue yourself more than you realize, and you won’t do your best on those squats.
But supersets can be great if you’re willing to sacrifice a little weight for a lot of time. They’re best for exercises where the exact weight doesn’t matter—you can pair bicep curls with tricep extensions, or pull-ups with dips (so long as you’re a person who can bang out multiple reps of each with ease).
To do a superset, you just do a set of the first exercise, then a set of the second, then rest a short time (if needed at all), and repeat. I have a list of the best superset pairs here—usually you’ll want to do opposing muscles, like a push exercise with a pull exercise.
Plenty of Mac apps do one job, and do it quite well. For example, KeyboardCleanTool lets you disable your Mac's keyboard temporarily while you get dust, food particles, and gunk off the keyboard. I love these apps, but if you keep installing utilities, things start to feel crowded; it can be a real problem even trying to remember that you have an app installed for a specific task. This is where Vorssaint comes in: It's the Swiss Army knife of Mac apps, packing over 75 utilities into a single, free resource.
The best thing is that you can choose which of these utilities you wish to enable—if you need only five of Vorssaint's features, you can disable the rest. This prevents the app from becoming a resource hog, which is particularly valuable for those of us with older, base-model MacBooks. Even though Vorssaint has replaced multiple Mac apps on my MacBook, however, it's not always better than the apps it replaces. If you use Vorssaint to set a custom volume level for each Mac app, for example, it doesn't mean Vorssaint can do everything SoundSource does.
Vorssaint is very much a jack of all trades, master of none, and that's perfectly fine for most people. If that sounds like the kind of tool you need, then Vorssaint could be great for you. Here are 10 Vorssaint features that I've used to replace apps on my MacBook:
Unless you're addicted to appearing like you're yelling all the time, you probably don't need the Caps Lock key at all. You can always hold Shift whenever you want to capitalize something, and in my opinion, Caps Lock should be repurposed for something better. Apps such as Raycast allow you to convert Caps Lock into a "hyper key," which means that when you press that button, your computer registers it as a combination of other modifier keys. On my MacBook, pressing Caps Lock equals holding Command-Control-Shift-Alt together, and I've used it to create keyboard shortcuts that don't conflict with those in macOS or third-party apps.
To enable this feature in Vorssaint, open the app, and go to Settings > Features. Go to the "Mouse and keyboard" section, and enable Super key. Vorssaint allows you to map modifier keys to Caps Lock. It also lets you continue using the button for capitalization, switching input sources, or as an alternative way to press the Esc key (useful for keyboards that don't have this button). It works by triggering the "Super key" only when you hold Caps Lock, and toggling the other feature you chose when you press the button once.
Your Mac's Spotlight has a basic clipboard manager, but Vorssaint adds a few more features. The app lets you clean tracking data from URLs, and even adds a "Cut and Paste" feature to your Mac's Finder. The latter is great for people switching from Windows—Finder's cut/paste feature isn't as seamless as the one on Microsoft's platform.
Once you enable these features in Vorssaint, you can cut any file in Finder by pressing Command-X, and paste it elsewhere with Command-V. The URL cleaner is customizable, and it allows you to define parameters to remove. It also allows you to create filters for specific websites, which reduces the chances of breaking URLs when you try this feature. By default, Vorssaint will automatically clean a link the moment you copy one, but you can also manually clean links in the app if you wish to.
The app's clipboard manager has all the basic features you'll need, and it lets you exclude some apps too. This lets you keep Vorssaint from storing clipboard items from sensitive apps. The shortcut to view clipboard history from Vorssaint is Command-Option-Alt-V.
I use Rapidmg, a popular app installer format on the Mac, to auto-mount and install DMG files. After the app is installed, Rapidmg also gets rid of the installer file. Vorssaint has this feature built-in, and you can enable it by going to Vorssaint settings > Features > Disk image installer. It's located under the "Clipboard and files" section.
If you're looking for an app to set a custom volume level for each Mac app, then Vorssaint has a tool for the job. It's good enough to replace basic volume control apps like FineTune, but not nearly as powerful as SoundSource. Vorssaint lets you set a per-app volume level, quickly switch between output devices, and even set priority for audio devices. It doesn't support sending audio to multiple devices at once, tweaking latency levels, boosting volume above the maximum, or sending audio from certain apps only to specific output devices (e.g., Spotify always goes to headphones, VLC always sends audio to speakers, etc.). If you value power-user features, then SoundSource has to be your go-to. For most people, Vorssaint is good enough to get the job done. You can enable volume mixer in the app by going to Vorssaint settings > Features > Volume mixer. It's under the "Sound" section in the app.
There are many good reasons to stop your Mac from going to sleep, such as connecting your MacBook to an external display and using the laptop with its lid closed. Apps such as Amphetamine allow you to keep your Mac from going into sleep mode, and Vorssaint has this feature built-in as well. You can use it by enabling the "Keep awake" feature in the app, which lets you disable sleep mode on your Mac for a custom time interval that ranges from 15 minutes to indefinitely.
If you're missing your iPhone's Dynamic Island on your MacBook, you could install one of several useful notch apps on your Mac. These apps show a now playing widget, brightness or volume levels, calendars, or even have a temporary shelf to help you drag and drop files on your Mac. Vorssaint ships with a notch app, too: Dynamic Island. Once you enable it, Vorssaint's Dynamic Island can show notifications, calendar events, timers, song lyrics, playback queue, etc. Note that this feature is labeled "Experimental" in the app, which means that it's not as stable as most other features. I've also been using it to activate other Vorssaint features such as Keep awake and volume mixer, since Dynamic Island shows toggles to control them.
iStat Menus is one of my favorite Mac apps—it allows me to monitor my MacBook's current load and operating temperatures. Vorssaint also ships with the ability to monitor CPU load, GPU load, RAM usage, network usage, battery temperature, etc. It's not as elegant as iStat Menus, but it'll do the job for those who need a basic system stat monitor. In my tests, though, I observed that Vorssaint incorrectly reports CPU temperature. Two other apps (iStat Menus and TG Pro) reported my Mac's CPU temperature at around 104°F (40°C), but Vorssaint kept showing a number closer to 145°F (63°C). All other temperature readings were nearly identical in the three apps, which indicates that Vorssaint probably has a bug to fix.
Vorssaint can also be a substitute for apps that enhance your Mac's Dock. It allows you to enable features like previewing open windows by hovering over an app's icon in the Dock, quitting apps from the Dock preview, clicking the dock icon to minimize, hide, or cycle between apps' windows, etc. One useful feature allows you to click the green button to maximize any app's window, as opposed to switching to full-screen mode. I don't use it, but I can recommend it to people who switch from Windows and ask me about the maximize button.
macOS doesn't always allow your mouse to work the way you want it to. Third-party "mouse fix" apps add nice features such as smooth scrolling, customizable actions for side buttons, and so on. Vorssaint includes support for smooth scrolling, and a few other features. It lets you map extra mouse buttons to custom keyboard shortcuts, and even has a feature to prevent accidental double-clicks. The latter is good for people who have a mouse with double-click problems. You can enable these features under the "Mouse and keyboard" section in Vorssaint.
Apps like KeyboardCleanTool allow you to temporarily disable your Mac's keyboard for you to give it a good clean, or to allow your cat to sit on the keyboard without disturbing your workflow. Vorssaint supports this, too—you can enable this feature by toggling "Cleaning Mode" under the Tools section in the app. Once you lock the keyboard, you can either click the "Unlock" button or press Esc five times to start typing again.
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If horror films have taught me anything, it's that nothing good ever comes out of the fog, but the haze-filled thriller Below has definitely earned record ratings and enthusiastic audiences for Netflix—it's the top debut for a Canadian show in the streamer's history, as it happens. In its wake, consider these 10 other series that take you to isolated and evocative landscapes filled with horrors both human and monstrous.
Claustrophobic, mysterious, and perpetually misty (seriously, you can't see shit in any of these towns), Midnight Mass is very much about the monsters within being no less frightening than those without. It may or may not be the best of Mike Flanagan's Netflix work, but it's certainly the most emotionally devastating. Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) returns to the tiny, isolated community of Crockett Island, his arrival coinciding with that of Catholic priest Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater). Riley is wrestling with his justifiable guilt over a drunk-driving death for which he was responsible, while the charismatic priest is reviving the town's once-flagging religious fervor while exacerbating local tensions. The brewing conflict, involving the limits of both faith and guilt, is fascinating, while the inseparably horrific elements are terrifying. Stream Midnight Mass on Netflix.
Running to the darker end of the spectrum, the often devastating Katla moves slowly until it doesn't, deliberately picking up speed as it builds to an emotional climax. Set in Iceland, the show takes place one year following the eruption of the real-life Katla volcano, which buries the nearby town of Vik in choking ash. The few people who've elected to remain are surprised, to say the least, when soot-covered figures from the past start arriving, including the dead son of the volcanologist studying the meteorite in the nearby glacier. Stream Katla on Netflix.
Each season of The Terror is distinct, but all converge on the idea that real life is far, far more horrifying than the supernatural stuff going on in the background. Season one, adapted from the Dan Simmons novel, is our focus here, involving as it does the true story of two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, searching for the Northwest Passage before becoming trapped in a field of ice. Starvation, madness, and monsters ensue. While set in the 1840s (and in an ice field), the vibe isn't wildly dissimilar to Below. Stream The Terror on AMC+ and Shudder.
This weird, ambitious slice of folk horror finds Jude Law's Sam arriving on Osea Island while grieving his murdered son and trying to save his failing business. After he intervenes when he sees a young woman attempting to hang herself, Sam is caught up in some wildly atmospheric creepiness around the town. Later, Naomie Harris' Helen arrives on the island with her daughters only to discover that everything's gone to hell, and that the causeway that connects the island to the mainland is gone. In between the two halves of the miniseries, the creators produced an immersive 12-hour, single-camera livestream capturing a day in the life of the island, a wild bit of innovation. Admittedly, it's all a bit more vibes than plot, but the vibes are genuinely disturbing. Stream The Third Day on HBO Max.
One of the better creepy-stuff-in-an-isolated location narratives of recent years, moving away from the schvitzy bro energy of earlier seasons in favor of a darker (literally) and frostier mystery involving missing scientists at a research station near a tiny and necessarily remote Alaskan town, where the dark and the cold are practically characters themselves. The resulting case ties together veteran Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), two women with complicated pasts and screwed-up present family lives. Stream True Detective: Night Country on HBO Max.
Set in 1945 Gyeongseong (modern-day Seoul), and during the Japanese occupation of Korea, this series finds the title's monster arising out of human experimentation conducted in secret by the Japanese army. The scars of occupation have been justifiably fertile ground for storytelling in the last few years (see also Apple’s Pachinko), and Gyeongseong adds science fiction to that mix. The second season moves the action to the present day, with a third season renewal looking likely. If Below's monster is a primary draw, South Korean import Gyeongseong is about as good a follow-up as you're likely to find. Stream Gyeongseong Creature on Netflix.
Set near the real-life Lago di Resia in northern Italy, this show was inspired by the lake's singular view: the bell tower of a 14th century chapel rising above the water, the only visible remains of a village submerged by a dam in the 1950s. That eerie setting is home to Anna Raina (Valeria Bilello); it was, anyway, until she fled while pregnant with her twin daughters following her mother's tragic and mysterious death. The twins are now teenagers, and the three of them have returned—except nobody seems to want them around. They come to learn that Anna's been having dreams about her mother's death in which she's the killer, and then she herself disappears. It all ties back to that lake and the creepy bell tower—more about family mystery and vaguely supernatural menace than monsters, but the evocative setting ties this and Below together. Stream Curon on Netflix.
Another recent addition to the atlas of regrettable vacation destinations is Widow's Bay, an isolated New England island trying to shrug off its literally cursed reputation in favor of becoming a tourist destination à la Martha's Vineyard—but, alas, the timing isn't great. Cozy and idyllic on the surface, Widow's Bay appears to be "waking up," according to a few of the more tuned-in locals. Mayor Tom Loftus (Matthew Rhys), a relative newcomer, is having none of it—at least until a killer clown and waterlogged lady come for him, convincing him to join forces with local eccentric Wyck (Stephen Root) who seems to be on to something with his crackpot theories. The show is frequently funny, but also legitimately scary, with an everything-and-the-kitchen sink approach to the horror genre. Stream Widow's Bay on Apple TV.
As we in the real world well know, monsters can be tiny at least as easily as they can be large. This import finds us on a Scottish oil rig (obvi) in the North Sea, abruptly cut off by a mysterious fog (never a good thing) just as the facility is beginning to experience catastrophic system and structural failures. The mysterious haze is more than just a weather phenomenon, though, as there seems to be a microorganism carried within it that causes dramatic behavioral changes, and that may have a relationship to every mass extinction event in Earth's history. But hey—anything to push down the price of oil, amirite? Stream The Rig on Prime Video.
The tone is wildly different, but so many of the shows here are included on the basis of their claustrophobic, mist-shrouded settings and similarly hazy human motivations, so it's only fair to give you some actual monsters, and no show has more creatures than this Godzilla spin-off. Monarch does a surprisingly effective job of telling its own story within the universe of all those American Godzilla movies of the past decade or so, bringing the narrative back down to Earth while building out an entire monster-verse mythology in the process. Anna Sawai stars as a young teacher searching for her father, missing since Godzilla's attack on San Francisco (depicted in the 2014 film), and finds herself drawn into the past and present of a secret government agency. Wyatt and Kurt Russell play the past and present incarnations of the Army colonel who helped set the whole thing in motion. Kong and Godzilla make appearances alongside the whole Toho monster stable. Stream Monarch on Apple TV.
Your phone number is the skeleton key to your digital life, and carriers have spent years handing out copies to anyone with a decent script. Resetting a bank password, recovering an email account, approving a crypto withdrawal: All of it can run through a text message sent to a number that a call-center rep can reassign in minutes.
The good news is that all three major U.S. carriers now let you lock your number with a toggle. Here's how the attacks work and where to find each switch.
A SIM swap starts with research. Attackers collect your name, address, and account details from data breaches or phishing, then contact your carrier pretending to be you. If they convince someone to move your number onto a SIM they control, your calls, texts, and two-factor codes go to them instead. A close cousin is port-out fraud, where the attacker opens an account with a different carrier and arranges for your number to be transferred there.
The scale is hard to pin down, but the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged 982 SIM swap complaints and about $26 million in losses in 2024, down from 2,026 complaints and $72.7 million in 2022. That decline looks encouraging, but the figures only include crimes that victims bothered to report to one federal portal.
eSIMs removed the plastic card, not the weak link. Researchers at the Russian firm F.A.C.C.T. found that attackers now break into a victim's carrier account with stolen or leaked credentials, generate a QR code, and scan it on their own device. Your legitimate SIM is deactivated at the same moment. There's no store visit and no phone call to a rep.
Intel 471 also flagged a provider that let the activation code go to email instead of SMS, which gave attackers a second inbox to compromise. That provider has since closed the loophole, but the lesson stands: Every shortcut for locked-out customers is also a shortcut for criminals.
Carriers now offer three overlapping defenses. A SIM lock blocks SIM or eSIM changes and device upgrades; a port-out lock stops your number from moving to another carrier; and a PIN adds a password check when you contact customer service or request a transfer.
I'd treat the PIN as the weakest of the three. PINs aren’t bulletproof because company reps can still override them. A lock that grays out the option entirely is much harder to talk your way around.
In its 2023 order, the FCC instructed wireless providers to offer customers a free account lock and to notify them of SIM change and port-out requests. Compliance deadlines were pushed back until federal paperwork review finishes, though, so don't assume every carrier has implemented these features fully.
AT&T bundles everything into a single toggle called Wireless Account Lock. According to AT&T's support page, it blocks device upgrades, SIM and eSIM swaps, IMEI changes, number changes, transfers to another carrier, and edits to authorized users and billing info. You can still pay your bill, change plans, and unlock a device.
To turn it on (postpaid):
Open the AT&T app on a device that's active on your wireless account, and sign in.
Tap the person icon.
Scroll to Wireless account lock.
Swipe to lock.
Prepaid customers follow a different path: Sign in, choose your number, tap Profile & Settings, then Account Info & Preferences, and select Turn on under Wireless Account Lock. AT&T texts a one-time code to confirm.
Only users with primary or secondary access can flip the switch, and AT&T emails the account holder and texts every active number whenever the lock changes. I like that. A silent change is the whole point of these attacks, so noisy notifications are half the defense.
Verizon splits the job in two. SIM Protection blocks unauthorized SIM and device changes, while Number Lock blocks your number from being transferred to another carrier. Verizon's own documentation notes that Number Lock alone doesn't prevent SIM card changes, so you want both switched on.
To enable them:
Open the My Verizon app.
Tap the Me tab, then Edit profile and settings.
Find SIM Protection and toggle it on for each line you want covered.
Find Number Lock and do the same.
After you disable SIM Protection, SIM changes and upgrade orders stay blocked for another 15 minutes. And if you ever port out, Number Lock must be off before you can generate a Number Transfer PIN. Two toggles is slightly more homework than AT&T's single switch, but it lets you lock the number while leaving device upgrades open, which is handy if you swap phones often.
T-Mobile also uses two features. SIM Protection blocks SIM and eSIM changes, and Port Out Protection blocks transfers to other carriers. Both are free.
To enable SIM Protection on a postpaid account in the T-Life app:
Tap the Manage tab, then the gear icon.
Select Security, then SIM Protection.
Toggle protection for the whole account or for individual lines.
Tap Save Changes, then Continue.
Port Out Protection works differently since it's an add-on you apply to each line separately. In T-Life, go to Manage, then See Plans, then Manage add-ons, and check the box next to Port Out Protection. Repeat for every line on the account.
On T-Mobile's side, authorized users can add either feature, but only the Primary Account Holder can remove them. The per-line setup is tedious on a big family plan, though it's worth the ten minutes. T-Mobile also recommends setting an account PIN of 6 to 15 digits, which you can only change from the primary holder's phone while on T-Mobile's network with wifi off.
A lock protects against changes made through your carrier—it doesn't protect against someone who already has your carrier login, who might be able to switch it off.
AT&T at least requires its app on a device active on your account, which raises the bar. Still, researchers recommend unique passwords and two-factor authentication on the carrier account too.
Remember to unlock before you upgrade your phone or move an eSIM, because every carrier will block you otherwise. Flip it back on afterward.
The bigger fix is to stop letting your phone number guard anything valuable. Switch your bank, email, and crypto accounts to an authenticator app or a passkey where you can. Think of the carrier lock as a seatbelt: You'll rarely need it, and you'll be glad it was buckled the one time you do.
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LG’s OLED TVs are widely hailed as some of the top-rated on the market, and while their price tags can climb with the fancier models, critics and reviewers agree that one of the brand’s most popular, best-performing OLEDs is the LG OLED Evo C6. The 55-inch model is down to a lowest-ever price of $999.99 (originally $1,399.99), saving shoppers $400 on the impressive TV. The deal also comes with 90 free days of Amazon Music, upping the value even more.
Brighter than its predecessor, the OLED evo C5 has a peak brightness of 1,522 nits with a 10% white field, according to PCMag. The outlet praises its gorgeous picture quality, excellent contrast, and well-balanced colors. It has perfect black levels with no light bloom and uses LG’s webOS smart TV platform, like most current LG TVs. It’s also strengthened by features like AI dialogue enhancement, which helps improve the internal 2.2-channel audio system.
It has a native 120Hz refresh rate, with VRR up to 165Hz, and supports AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync, making it a solid choice for gamers. It also has an input lag of 4.6 milliseconds with a 1080p120 signal in Game mode. If you’re using it primarily for gaming, though, the faster Samsung S95H may be more appealing.
Ultimately, if vibrant, bright, and accurate 4K OLED picture quality is your priority but you don’t want to spend the $3,000 that some competitors with similar features cost, you won’t find much better than the 55-inch LG OLED Evo C6 at this price point—as long as you’re OK with the lack of Wi-Fi 6.
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A two-pack of Eufy’s SoloCam E30 is down to $189.99 at Amazon from $249.99, a $60 discount that lands within a dollar of its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. At roughly $95 per camera, it’s still an investment, but Eufy doesn’t charge a monthly subscription to view or store footage, so you won’t have to worry about recurring fees adding to the cost over time. Each camera is also IP65-rated for outdoor use and can pan 360 degrees and tilt 70 degrees, giving you enough flexibility to monitor multiple areas using a single unit.
That flexibility extends to how you power the cameras, since their built-in batteries can last around three months between charges, although frequent motion alerts could shorten that considerably. To reduce the need for manual charging, Eufy says about two hours of direct sunlight a day is enough to keep the batteries topped up, while connecting the cameras to a wired power source enables continuous recording and short pre-roll clips that capture what happened just before motion was detected—but you’ll have to buy the power cables separately.
As for video quality, the cameras record in 2K, which helps capture reasonably clear footage even after dark using infrared night vision. The catch is that there's no built-in spotlight for color night vision, so while you should be able to see a car pulling into your driveway at 2 a.m., you might not be able to tell what color it is. Footage is stored locally on a microSD card of up to 128GB or through either of two compatible Eufy HomeBase models (all sold separately)—the HomeBase S380 offers advanced AI features and terabyte-scale storage, while the S280 makes it easier to manage multiple cameras, with support for up to 16 units, giving you room to expand coverage later. That said, there are some compatibility limitations, since the E30 connects only to 2.4GHz wifi and works with Alexa and Google Assistant but not Apple HomeKit.
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Samsung’s newly released Galaxy Tab S12+ with 512GB of storage is already down to $1,399.99 at Amazon from $1,599.99, its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. This bundle also includes a $200 Amazon gift card through October 21, along with 90 free days of Amazon Music. CNET calls it a significant upgrade over the Tab S10+, with a body that slims down to 5.3mm from 5.6mm and weighs 553 grams while still carrying IP68 protection against dust and water for up to 30 minutes at a depth of one meter. It also manages to fit a slightly larger 12.6-inch screen (up from 12.4 inches) into its frame by trimming the bezels.
That screen is a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits—you’re unlikely to hit that number in everyday use, but it’s one of the brightest panels you’ll find on an Android tablet, making it well suited to watching movies, reading, or working across multiple apps. Powering it is an upgraded MediaTek Dimensity 9500 processor with enough headroom for demanding games and multitasking, especially if you plan to use Samsung DeX, which gives the tablet a more desktop-like interface.
That said, making the most of DeX usually means adding a keyboard, and Samsung’s options raise the overall cost considerably, from the $199 Book Cover Keyboard Slim to the $299 Pro Keyboard with its built-in trackpad. The S Pen, on the other hand, comes in the box, so you can jot down handwritten notes, sketch, or mark up a PDF, and Galaxy AI’s Note Assist can organize and summarize those notes afterward.
Beyond productivity, Samsung has upgraded the four-speaker system with four-channel spatial audio for a more immersive listening experience, while the 13MP rear camera and 12MP ultrawide front camera cover document scanning and video calls. And with seven generations of OS upgrades and seven years of security updates promised, the S12+ should remain supported for years to come.
Your homepage used to say something about you. When I got my first computer in high school, back when Google was just a weird name, my homepage was MSN. Later, in college, I changed it to ESPN—it was espn.go.com back then—and then to a new site called Facebook. By graduation, it was Google. Like a screensaver or background, the homepage represented a small part of our identity, but functionally, it crafted how we found information. If you're old enough, your experience of sorting through the internet was probably the same, evolving from homepages to RSS feeds, browser extensions, and apps. My latest guide to the internet is called TechPulse.
TechPulse is a free app with tech news, reviews, and culture from sites like CNET, PCMag, Mashable, and my team at Lifehacker. It's a clean feed with no algorithms or noise, featuring articles and videos that run the gamut from tech news to digital culture trends. If you're looking for hands-on, lab-tested reviews and advice on what tech to buy, you can prioritize CNET and PCMag coverage. If you already own a new piece of tech and are looking for practical hacks and productivity tips, you can sort through Lifehacker. For internet trends, movie reviews, and entertainment, you can browse Mashable. There are both articles and videos integrated directly into the app, streamlining your tech news intake into one place while still reading varied, unique perspectives.
It's obviously self-serving for me to talk about TechPulse and hope you give it a try, but I do think it's the best centralized hub for a broad range of news from sites with their own unique approaches to covering tech. TechPulse unifies those sites into a single platform that gives readers direct access to tech coverage in a chronological feed. My favorite part? No subscription is required. You don't even need to give your email address, sign up, or log in.
TechPulse features tech news written, filmed, and curated by real people, and I hope it feels like a breath of fresh air compared to the algorithm-driven feeds that warp to our unconscious whims and fight for our attention. You're welcome to customize the daily dashboard and better control your news, but if you prefer, you can leave it to TechPulse to keep you informed in a simple, straightforward way. I hope that the next time you read my work or catch a video, you find it there. TechPulse is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Strava has built its reputation on runs, rides, and swims. Strength training, however, has always felt like an afterthought in the app. Strava is trying to close that gap with its new guided strength workouts, and I spent some time with the beginner session to see whether it delivers.
The update brings guided workouts directly in the app. Instead of just logging that you lifted, you're walked through each exercise with animations, and you track sets and reps live as you go. Tap into any exercise, and you'll find form guidance, tips, and the specific muscles it targets.
When you finish, everything (every exercise, set, and rep) is saved automatically to your activity through the Workout Log. Your muscle map then updates to show where the effort went, which is a neat way to see at a glance whether you've been neglecting certain areas.
The feature is rolling out to subscribers over the next few weeks, and free users get access to a sample workout, so you can try it before deciding whether it's worth paying for.
I started with the beginner workout, and I want to be clear about who it's for: true beginners. There's no equipment required, so you don't need dumbbells, bands, or a gym membership. If you've been lifting for years, this isn't going to challenge you—but that's clearly not the point. For this first workout, it's designed to lower the barrier to entry.
The interface is clean and easy to use. I especially liked the graphics, which make it simple to follow along without having to pause and decipher what a movement is supposed to look like. Everything worked smoothly throughout, with no glitches, lag, or lost progress.
I have only two real notes:
Exercise instructions sometimes cut off. A few of the written descriptions were truncated with no way to see the full text, so I couldn't always read the full guidance on form.
Switching sides isn't always clear. For movements that work one side at a time, it wasn't obvious when I was supposed to switch. A simple cue or prompt would go a long way, especially for beginners who are already juggling a lot of new information.
Strava says more workout series will arrive before the end of the year, which should give the feature more range beyond that first beginner session. The company is also planning additional ways to log strength work:
Screenshot uploads: Snap a screenshot of text-based sets and reps from a training plan or notes app and import it instantly.
Build-your-own workouts: Create custom sessions instead of relying only on Strava's.
More partner integrations: So strength data can flow in automatically from wherever you already train.
These additions are what could turn this from a nice beginner tool into something I'd actually use. The real test will be whether Strava delivers the variety, progression, and range that lifters need to stick with it over time. For now, if you're new to strength work or curious, the free sample workout is an easy way to try it out. I'll be watching to see where Strava takes it from here.
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In a market where every year there is an expectation of releasing a new model, how long tech companies take to feel the need to upgrade a product is a testament to how good the product is. The Sennheiser Momentum 4 has been around since 2022, and they were only succeeded this summer with the Sennheiser Momentum 5. However, they are still great headphones, and with their $204.60 price (originally $299.99) after a 32% discount, they're a great opportunity to get top-quality headphones at a more than reasonable price.
The Momentum 4 competes with other flagships from its time, including the Sony 1000XM5 and the Bose QuietComfort 45, in terms of comfort, design, audio quality, and other features. The Momentum 4 has a more bass-forward sound compared to its competition, but it's still balanced. The biggest con is that you don't have full EQ control, only being able to select certain presets from the Momentum app. The ANC is great, but not a match compared to the Sony and Bose competition. Where it does beat its competition is with the codecs it supports, including AAC, AptX, AptX Adaptive, and SBC codecs. This means better audio quality for Android devices than the Sony or Bose options.
The battery is powerful, reaching about 60 hours of juice at mid-level. It also has a 3.5mm audio cable, so you can use it wired. The microphone is perfect for making calls, with four-MEMS-mics helping make your voice stand out even in noisy environments. You can see more features from the Momentum 4 in PCMag's "excellent" review. If you're looking for a bargain on an established flagship headphone model without having to pay the premium in 2026, the Sennheiser Momentum 4 are a great pair to consider.
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Sadly, we did not manage to abolish Daylight Saving time changes during that brief, hopeful moment a few years back, so in just a few weeks we will all be going ahead with our usual ritual: Wake up early, forgetting that the time changed during the night, then get confused when the time on our phone doesn’t match the one on the microwave. Here’s how to be a little more prepared.
Daylight saving time is what we call the time in summer, and yes, it’s daylight “saving” time, singular. This time actually gets its own time zone abbreviation: EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) instead of EST (Eastern Standard Time) on the east coast, with corresponding CDT, MDT, and PDT across the country. So in November we change from daylight time to standard time.
Specifically, daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. That’s when the clocks “fall back.” (In the spring, they "spring forward"—get it?) If you’re changing your clocks manually, 2 a.m. becomes 1 a.m. This means that if you’re used to waking up at 7 a.m., you’ll open your eyes after sleeping the usual amount of time to find that it is now 6 a.m.
The fall time change is a great moment for me, a night owl. When I was younger I would be thrilled to stay up an extra hour and still not feel excessively tired in the morning. These days, I’m more likely to use the time change as an assist to my morning routine. I’ll be up at 6:30 (for example) instead of 7:30, and I can get in an early workout or do some journaling.
If you’re more of a morning person, this may be a bit less pleasant. You’re going to fall asleep watching TV in the evening—earlier than you usually do, anyway. Maybe you should try to stay up a bit, to get a head start on shifting your routine an hour later.
For the creatures in your house who are blissfully ignorant of the concept of standardized time, routines are about to get a little weird. Most importantly: They’ll get hungry (and everything else) an hour earlier than usual.
If you think ahead, you can start moving breakfast time later, before the time change arrives. Instead of feeding your dog at 7, start feeding him at 7:15 now, and you’ll be less likely to get a cold nose in the face at 6 a.m. (Since we have about two weeks from this writing, you can shift the time to 7:30 after a few days, and then 7:45. You get the idea.)
Same goes for kids: Expect them to wake up an hour before the clock says they should, and to get tired (and overtired) an hour earlier than they normally would. A gradual shifting of routines will help here as well, and you may want to explain the situation ahead of time to kids who are old enough to understand. And if you expect your own tummy to be grumbling on cue? Consider a gradual change in mealtimes for yourself, as well, or at least have a snack on hand in case you need it.
When daylight saving time ends, we stop “saving” that extra hour of sunlight in the evening. Your evening workout or your evening commute will be darker and colder than before. On the bright side, we’ll see light earlier in the morning, which can be a good excuse to take a morning walk you might not otherwise take. (Morning light and morning exercise both help to set your body clock and may put you in a better mood for the day to come.)
If you head outside for exercise in the evening, check out our guide to how to layer for an outdoor run, depending on the temperature. You may also want to bring a flashlight or wear a headlamp. Here's the one I use.
It may be easier to wake up after the time change, but the flip side is that it may be harder to go to bed. This is a good time to take a look at your bedtime routine, or even to create a bedtime routine if you haven’t really had one.
I have a guide to good sleep hygiene here, but one of the most important tips is to give yourself a wind-down time in the evening—30 minutes minimum—where the lights are dim and you aren’t staring at a screen. It’s a good time to take a bath, read a book, or do something else you find relaxing. Soon you’ll be locked in to your new schedule—at least until our next time change in the spring.
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I look forward to the fall time change every year, because I have plans for that extra morning hour. Turning back the clock is a perfect opportunity to kick-start a morning routine, since you can get up an hour early without it feeling like you're getting up an hour early.
We are, unfortunately, still doing clock changes twice a year. But I will take advantage of that fact while I can, because the fall time change gifts us with an extra hour in the morning, even if it is cruelly ripped from our evening routines. I'm not a morning person by nature, but my day always goes better when I get my workout in early, so I'm going to take that extra morning hour and use it for a workout instead of recalibrating my body clock to wake up later. I recommend all my fellow night owls do the same.
I mean, you could use your extra hour to sleep in—take it if you need it. But personally, I'm going to set my alarm an hour earlier than I get up, starting on Nov. 1, the first day of standard time for 2026. An hour is enough time for a simple strength workout or for a short run and a quick shower before officially starting your day. I reserve one day a week for sleeping in, which for me is Saturday. On days I'm resting from exercise, I'll still wake up on schedule but use my morning hour for something fun or relaxing, like reading a book.
If you want to fit a full workout in and need more time than the hour gives you, this is still a good way to soften the blow. For example, you can wake up 90 minutes earlier (according to the clock) with it only feeling 30 minutes earlier than usual (according to your circadian rhythms). I've been using my extra hour a little differently each year, depending on how committed I am to those morning workouts. This year, I may split it between extra sleep and a mini workout.
On the first day you wake up "early," things will be much as they always are. But now that you're becoming a morning exerciser, you'll have to come to terms with the winter darkness. It will creep in, sunrise getting a few minutes later each day, until your morning jog is, most likely, fully in the dark.
If you are running in the early mornings, definitely get yourself a light to help you see and be seen. I have a Petzl Tikkina, which I bought a few years back because Petzl has a reputation for reliability, and the Tikkina is one of their more affordable models. It's worked so well that the second winter I used it, I sprang for the rechargeable battery that fits in place of its three AAA cells. The rechargeable is designed to work well even in cold conditions, which is a nice plus for winter runs. Also consider wearing bright colors, a reflective vest, or even something like the Noxgear Tracer to give you good visibility on the side of the road. I have a neon pink jacket that comes out on cold dark mornings.
At the gym, be aware that the rhythm of the place will change. There will be a different group of regulars, and it may be more or less busy than you're used to. But even if everything is the same, there’s something luxurious about being able to take your time, when normally you have to squeeze your last few exercises together and rush to work. Savor that extra hour.
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If you’re shopping around for a reliable laptop but don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on a premium model from Apple, Lenovo has some highly underrated options that are versatile and offer great processor performance for the price—and it's now even more affordable, thanks to Walmart’s newly discounted Lenovo V14 G5 14-inch FHD Laptop, now 37% off and down to $629 (originally $999.99).
It’s powered by the 10-core Intel Core i7-13620H, with six performance cores and four efficiency cores) and has a maximum turbo speed of 4.9GHz. It’s more powerful than many similarly priced 14-inch laptops and can excel at heavy multitasking, light video or photo editing, and data-heavy office work. It includes 16GB of DDR5 memory, comes with a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD for additional storage, and is powered by a modest 47Wh battery.
Despite its power, it’s relatively lightweight, clocking in at around three pounds and 0.7 inches thick. One reason the weight stays low is its plastic build. It might not feel as durable or premium as an aluminum laptop, but the tradeoff for an under-$650 price tag makes it worth it for those on a budget. The V14 G5 includes a range of ports, including two USB-A ports, one USB-C port, and an HDMI 1.4b port, as well as a headphone and microphone jack.
It supports Wi-Fi 6 and includes a physical webcam shutter for added privacy. The keyboard is designed for office use and has a conventional layout that’s helpful for those who find added touchscreens and convertible hinges unnecessary. Despite having a relatively sharp resolution and an anti-glare coating, the panel technology is somewhat outdated and has limited contrast, so it may not be the best choice for photographers, designers, or video editors.
Still, if you’re looking for an everyday office or personal laptop with a strong processor, a solid port selection, and a lightweight build—but don’t mind a couple of cost-cutting compromises—the budget-friendly Lenovo V14 G5 14-inch FHD Laptop strikes the right balance between affordability and performance, especially at nearly $370 off.
AllTrails is a popular tool for finding walking, hiking, running, and biking routes around the world. You can use it to locate trails and check user reviews, but the app has plenty of features for customizing activities, tracking conditions, and navigating (safely) in real time. Here are the tips and tricks to get the most out of AllTrails.
The elevation map is useful for visualizing total gain and loss on your route, but you can scrub the chart on mobile to see exactly where climbs or obstacles are on the map. For example, you can see where the grade increases (and what the percentage is) or how far you are from stream crossings or switchbacks. Open the map from the trail page or the Navigate function and drag your finger across the elevation profile to track the location marker on the map.
You may be most likely to search for trails based on length and difficulty as well as location, but AllTrails has a wealth of filters to find routes with specific features, or that are dog- or kid-friendly. You can also use filters to identify trails that are likely to be less crowded (though if a route is on AllTrails, it certainly isn't a secret). In the Search window, tap All to open available filters. Select Not very busy under Visitation and Loop under Route type (out-and-back trails can feel busier). Select a rating and add any other requirements, then hit Show trails.
When you use AllTrails to log an activity or write a review, a map of your track is saved to the trail listing and visible to other users. You can disable this in Settings > Privacy settings > Content—but even if you don't display your activity, you can use those that are public to find custom routes that string multiple trails together or add a ridgeline not included in the official AllTrails track. Scroll down to the reviews section and tap the activities link to pull up maps of completed activities. Note, though, that some variations in routes may not be actual detours, and you should still follow Leave No Trace principles and stay within your skill level when it comes to difficulty.
A free AllTrails account will get you most of the service's basic features, but you have to pay for a Plus subscription—$35.99 per year—for things like offline maps and wrong-turn alerts. If you have an REI membership, you get a 30% discount on paid AllTrails subscriptions, bringing the annual fee down to $24.99 per year. (A Peak subscription that usually costs $79.99 per year drops to $49.99 per year.) In the AllTrails app, go to your profile > Settings > REI Membership and follow the steps to connect your account and claim the discount.
User reviews can give you a good sense of current trail conditions, such as seasonal closures and whether there are muddy or snowy conditions, as well as more global environmental considerations like bugs and river crossings. You should obviously read the most recent reviews for your route, but you can also keyword search on desktop (CTRL/CMD + F) for terms like "mud," "scramble," "snow," "gate," "bugs," or "ticks." A trail may be marked as "easy," but this can reveal issues like snowmelt that have made running water trickier to wade through. You can read the reviews from the same month in previous years too.
When you search trails and trailheads by name on popular mapping apps, you may not always get directions to the exact starting location pinned on AllTrails. Instead, launch directions from the AllTrails listing to use the GPS coordinates, which you can then search in Google Maps or Apple Maps. On the trail page, scroll down to Get directions, then select your preferred map app (or copy the coordinates to the clipboard).
When you record an activity in AllTrails, you have the option to add a waypoint, which is essentially a note pinned to a specific location on the route. This can be useful if you want to remember details, such as tricky turns or hidden features, and you can opt into adding your waypoints to community layers to help other users. Open the Navigator in the mobile app and tap the arrow in the lower-right corner. Swipe up and tap Add Waypoint. Select the waypoint type, add details and select privacy settings, and tap Save.
Paid AllTrails subscribers have access to offline maps that allow you to navigate routes in real time even if you don't have a signal. To ensure you don't drain your phone's battery while you're mid-hike, download offline maps for your trail in advance and then switch to Airplane Mode once you lose connection. GPS passively receives signals to triangulate your position, but it does not require the ability to transmit, so you can still follow your location on the map in Airplane Mode without straining the battery by constantly searching for a signal.
AllTrails maps have optional layers that contain a lot more data than just the route itself. All users have access to the Wildfire overlay, which shows current wildfire perimeters in the U.S. With a premium subscription, you get additional overlays for precipitation, temperature, ground conditions, snow depth, fall foliage, and community heat maps so you can see real-time environmental conditions at that specific location. A Peak subscription unlocks advanced overlays for slope angle, high-definition terrain, and public and private lands. Open a map and tap the Layers button in the upper-right corner.
Basic trail safety includes letting someone know exactly where you're going and when you plan to return. The AllTrails Live Share feature (available on paid plans) centralizes this information and shows trusted contacts where you are in real time so they can send help if things go wrong. When you share a link with safety contacts, they'll be able to see your real-time location, planned route, recorded mileage and elapsed time, estimated end time, coordinate info, and cell signal strength. They can also opt into SMS alerts. Activate Live Share under the Navigate tab—you'll need to generate a unique link each time you head out.
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If you've ever been on your feet all day and your calves felt like two sandbags, you know how tough it can be to find relief. I'm a marathon runner, so I know it well. Training blocks mean high mileage, and calves take a beating on every mile. I've tried foam rollers, massage guns, stretching, and my favorite maneuver: lying with my legs up against the wall.
This week's upgrade is the first recovery tool that seems to do all the work for me, and hey—after a long run, I'm not complaining. It's my first foray into compression boots: the Hyperice Normatec Go.
The Normatec Go is a pair of wearable compression sleeves that wrap around your calves and give you a dynamic air compression massage. Hyperice describes it as a fully portable version of its Normatec line, which pro athletes and recovery rooms have used for years.
The sleeves inflate and deflate in a pulsing pattern (as opposed to just squeezing constantly). Hyperice calls this compression "gapless": There are three overlapping zones of 360-degree compression working through the calf. In theory, the wave of pressure helps push fluid and blood through your lower legs, which is why Hyperice says the massage increases circulation and reduces tension and swelling.
Hyperice also points out that the calf is often called the body's "second heart" because it helps push blood back up from your lower legs. That matches my experience: After a long run, calves are where the heaviness and tightness show up first.
The biggest upgrade over traditional compression boots is that you don't need to set up a whole system. You strap on the sleeves, open the app, pick an intensity, and relax. I've worn them at my desk, on the couch, and while answering emails after a long run. I show up to my next run feeling fresher, and for a marathon runner, that's the whole point of recovery.
A few features make the experience better:
Seven compression levels (40 to 200 mmHg), so you can go gentle after an easy run or firm after a long one
The two sleeves always stay in sync for a symmetrical massage
Bluetooth control through the Hyperice app, so you adjust everything from your phone
1.2 pounds total, and TSA friendly, so they can travel with you
Hyperice recommends sessions of about 20 to 30 minutes. You can go up to 60 after a tough workout, or use a shorter 15- to 20-minute session at medium intensity before a run to warm up your legs.
The Normatec Go costs $379. Full-size compression boots that cover your whole leg usually run well over $1,000, so that's a big difference. These only cover the calves, but if calves are where you need relief, you don't have to pay for coverage you won't use. They're also FSA/HSA eligible.
At the same time, the obvious limitation is that these are for calves only. I suppose it's a testament to the product that I've never been more tempted to spring for full-size boots, so that my quads and hamstrings can experience the same treatment.
The battery life also leaves something to be desired. Hyperice claims they last three hours per charge, but in my experience, you're better off charging between every hour or so of use.
If you're training for a race, spending long days on your feet, or just tired of tight, heavy calves, the Normatec Go is the upgrade I'd recommend. I can't imagine my recovery routine without it now.
This week's Out of Touch Guide delves into the musical genre/sub-culture of "Loser Core," a pointed response to overly polished music and Instagram-polished fashion. We also define some slang, so if a young person says you have EBK or nods and says "GiGis" to you, you'll know whether you're being insulted or complimented. And then there's Biddy Blas, Star Wars fandom's newest Glub Shitto.
Loser Core is a growing subculture and musical style among young people. The music is influenced by indie, alternative, and lo-fi, with lyrics that tend toward depressing. They're usually about alienation, teen angst, and how hard it is to talk girls. Loser Core is like emo, but more homemade and more hopeless, or like grunge with less anger. Prominent Loser Core artists include Memo Boy and Wifiskeleton. Notable influences include Radiohead and Weezer.
The Loser Core look is anti-fashion: over-size, slouchy hoodies, anime T-shirts, digital watches, and beat-up sneakers. The personality type is alienated nerd with niche hobbies and few friends. So basically, depressed young people who gravitate to depressing music and a slobby look. No matter your age, I'm sure you knew (or were) this type of person when you were 17.
Here's a video that explains it a bit more:
So that's Loser Core, the genre and lifestyle. Explaining the prominence of the Loser Core Playlist is a little more complicated. Created on Spotify by depay178, LOSERCORE is a playlist of 155 songs in the Loser Core genre. Back in June, a TikTok user called @user406398991 started posted AI-generated cartoons to promote the LOSERCORE playlist. The videos feature a recurring cast of characters, are usually about music, and end with a recommendation to visit the LOSERCORE playlist. Here's an example:
The videos started appearing on a lot of people's feeds in October, raising the profile the musical genre and generating reenactment videos like this:
...as well as videos from artists who are confused at their own inclusion on the list, people selling rip-off merch, and people gate-keeping what Loser Core is and questioning the inclusion of some songs on what is becoming the canonical list. Also: a ton of videos asking, "why does this keep showing up on my feed?"
Online chatter about the playlist revolves around the perceived lack of quality of the videos, and why, exactly, someone would spend so much time promoting a playlist on Spotify when you can't monetize the followers it gets.
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It's a good question. There are indirect ways this list could be making someone money—maybe there's a connection between the promotion and the bands on the list who get paid per stream—but I like to think it's just kids who identify with these artists and want other kids to hear what they're into, like people did with zines in the old days. We don't have to monetize everything, right?
EBK stands for "Extreme Baller Knowledge." It goes beyond the sports reference to apply to to anyone who has deep knowledge of a subject. It's usually used ironically.
Pronounced like the name Gigi, "GiGis" comes from sports by way of gamer culture. The post game pleasantry "good game" has been a staple in sports since forever. Gamers adopted it and shortened it to "GG" in text. So GiGis is a way of saying "good game."
This week's viral video comes by way of a video game cut-scene. Star Wars: Galactic Racer was released on Oct. 6, and its breakout star has emerged: Biddy Blas. You won't find him in any of the Star Wars movies or TV shows. Biddy is only in this one game, and basically only exists as an opponent to be beaten in a race. But Biddy is too great to go out in obscurity. Just check him out:
Soon after the release of the game, fans dubbed Biddy the "best Glup Shitto (Star Wars background character with a silly name)" and started making memes to celebrate him, like these:
Biddy Blas' popularity is the result of voice actor Richard Summers-Calvert's spirited performance, particularly his reading of Biddy's catchphrase, "scrib doon," (i.e.: "Write that down."). The phrase gets caught in your brain:
and there are so many occasions when "scrib doon" is the perfect thing to say:
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Samsung’s HW-Q800H soundbar has dropped to $696.99 from its usual $1,097.99, which brings it to its lowest price so far, according to price trackers. This 2026 model combines a soundbar and wireless subwoofer in a 5.1.2-channel setup, with dedicated channels for dialogue, surround sound, and overhead effects, plus a separate subwoofer to handle the bass. That layout makes it a sensible upgrade for anyone who keeps turning up the TV volume to catch a conversation—only to turn it down again when the action gets loud—since most built-in TV speakers lack a dedicated center channel to separate voices from the rest of the soundtrack.
Samsung builds on that center channel with two dialogue enhancement modes and a new feature called Sound Elevation, which attempts to raise the apparent height of voices so dialogue seems to come from the actors on screen and not from beneath the TV. That could be particularly useful if your soundbar sits on a low entertainment unit. And if you already have a compatible Samsung TV, Q-Symphony lets its speakers work alongside the soundbar, potentially creating a broader soundstage without buying any extra hardware.
The HW-Q800H also supports Dolby Atmos, adding a greater sense of height and space to compatible movies and shows, though the lack of DTS support is worth considering if you regularly watch Blu-rays with DTS soundtracks. Also, since there are no separate rear speakers included, surround effects won't feel quite as immersive as they would with a full home theater setup. Samsung does include automatic room correction, though, which adjusts the sound to suit your space without requiring much manual tweaking.
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Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch Ultra in the summer of 2024, and then refreshed it in August of 2025 with double the storage and new color options. The Galaxy Watch Ultra emphasizes outdoor and exercise features, putting it in competition with the Apple Watch Ultra as a premium fitness watch at a premium price. Ever since the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 came out this year, the 2025 Galaxy Watch Ultra has been dropping in price, currently reaching a new low price of $471.78 according to price-checking tools, over $175 off the original $649.99 price tag. And if the extra storage isn't a big deal to you, you can get the 2024 version for $399.99 (originally $649.99).
The Galaxy Watch Ultra excels over other watches in one key aspect: its outdoorsy features. If you're an avid hiker or an athlete who spends long hours outdoors, this is a worthwhile choice. Like any good rugged watch, this one is tough, made out of Grade 4 titanium, and has an IP68 water- and dust-resistant rating. You can also take it up high altitudes (up to 9,000 meters) and it can withstand up to 10ATM of pressure (about 330 feet underwater). You also get a built-in siren in case of emergencies. The screen is a 1.47-inch Super AMOLED display, brighter than previous Samsung AMOLED smartwatches. The only downside is that it comes in just one size—47mm.
The watch runs WearOS from Samsung and comes with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The 590mAh battery is one of the best for its price point, making it perfect for prolonged outdoor use. If you don't use any power-saving modes, it'll last 60 hours, but it can go up to 100 hours if you're conservative.
One of the new features this watch brings is AI-based health metrics and advanced sleep tracking, which you can read more about in PCMag's "excellent" review. If you're looking for a more budget-friendly (and smaller) option for more general use, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 at $220 (originally $329.99) is a great option.
It will soon be time, once again, for our clocks to “fall back.” Nov. 1 is the date most places in the U.S. quit daylight saving time for 2026 and go back to standard time. We're still on this clock-changing treadmill, despite legislation that was supposed to eliminate it a few years ago, and despite medical professionals warning that these clock changes are bad for our health.
For example, a study out of the Stanford School of Medicine found that switching the time back and forth every year probably contributes to increased rates of stroke and obesity. Permanent daylight saving time would be an improvement on that, and permanent standard time would be even better, health-wise. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine published a position paper a few years ago stating that scientific evidence supports the idea "that the United States should eliminate seasonal time changes in favor of permanent standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology."
But despite all this, we’ll still have to turn the clocks ahead again in spring. So whatever happened to those bills in Congress aiming to abolish the time changes?
The Sunshine Protection Act was a federal bill that would have made Daylight Saving Time permanent. If enacted, it would have taken effect on Nov. 5, 2023, the date that we would otherwise have changed the clocks. The result would be that our winter mornings would stay dark an hour longer than they currently do, but we’d get an hour more of daylight in the winter evenings.
The bill passed the Senate in March of 2022, but it wasn't taken up by the House of Representatives. In July of 2026, a similar law passed the House of Representatives, and President Trump wrote on Truth Social this month that "Republicans in the Senate have to get moving on what I call the 'No More Changing of Clocks Act.'" The Senate Majority Leader said it doesn't have the support to pass, since it would mean dark mornings for commuters and for children waiting for morning buses.
We operate on two different times throughout the year: "standard time" and "daylight saving time." These even get their own time zones! For example, if a time is marked as "EST," that means eastern standard time, which is different from eastern daylight time.
Standard time is the one we use in winter, and daylight saving time is the one we use in summer. The bill mentioned above would have done away with standard time and kept us on daylight saving time year-round. Meanwhile, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has taken the position that we should stay on standard time (that is, winter time) year-round, since screwing with our circadian rhythms twice a year has detrimental effects on our health and safety. If they got their way, we would fall back some year and then never spring forward again.
States have their own ideas about what time it should be. Currently, states are not allowed to switch to permanent daylight saving time, but they are allowed to stay on standard time year-round if they prefer. Two states do so: Hawaii and Arizona (minus the parts of Arizona in the Navajo nation).
Nineteen states have passed laws or resolutions that would allow them to switch to permanent daylight saving time if the federal government ever allows them to do so. Those states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, are Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Three other states have made attempts to join the list: Similar bills made it partway through the Kentucky and Ohio legislatures but were not signed into law. California voters have authorized a law that isn’t yet officially on the books.
Until a federal law passes, those states are stuck with their current time zones. Current federal law, as passed in 1966, allows states to opt out of daylight saving time (as Hawaii and Arizona have) but does not offer a way for states to make daylight saving time permanent or to choose their own dates for changing the clocks. If you’re sick of time changes, you can always move to one of the territories that don’t observe daylight saving, which include the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
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Whether you love camping, own an RV, frequently deal with seasonal power outages, or just want to be ready with off-grid essentials, it's useful to have a power station. The Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 has received a 40% price cut, bringing it down to $899.98 (originally $1,499).
This power station delivers a 2,048Wh capacity and 2,400W output, with 4,000W peak power for running a variety of appliances, including a dual-door fridge for up to 32 hours. It has two handles on its sides and is relatively lightweight for its capacity at 41.7 pounds. The LiFePO4 battery can last up to a decade and is rated for 4,000 charging cycles. It recharges to 100% in under an hour (or three hours via solar) and is expandable up to 4kWh. It supports up to 800W solar input (panels sold separately) for off-grid charging and includes five AC outlets, as well as a car outlet, RV connection, and high-output USB-C ports.
Compared to its predecessor, it’s quieter and more compact in both weight and footprint, and the added perk of app connectivity makes it easy to monitor and control. If you want reliable, high-capacity portable power, the Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 is a great emergency essential, though if you want something with true grab-and-go appeal, you may want to opt for the Anker SOLIX C1000 Gen 2, which weighs about 40% less but has half the battery capacity—and also happens to be 46% off right now.
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This week, Suunto launched its newest addition to its Race line of performance watches, the Race 3S. At $599, it’s lightweight with a premium feel, and to me, its most interesting upgrade is the new silicon-carbon battery, which Suunto says offers up to 38 hours of dual-band GPS, up to 45 hours in Endurance mode, 10 days of training use, and up to 12 days in daily mode. While I usually stick to my Garmin Forerunners, I’ve been personally testing the Suunto 3S and loving it on first impression.
Suunto may be one of the lesser-known fitness watch brands, but its offerings, aimed at hikers and outdoorsy people, have long been well regarded. The company sorts its sports watches into families: Run, Race, and Vertical. Three families of watches, all with several generations of models and a lot of overlapping specs, are enough to leave you staring at a product page, wracked with decision fatigue. This week’s launch of the Suunto Race 3S, the newest member of the Race family, is a good enough reason for me to help you sort it out.
Best for: Road runners, 5K-to-marathon trainers, and anyone who wants a watch they forget they're wearing, including overnight. It's also a good first step into Suunto's ecosystem.
In her review of the Suunto Run my colleague Beth Skwarecki calls this watch on of her favorite running watches, pointing to features that not only rival, but maybe even outshine Garmin and Coros watches at a similar price point. Both watches in the Run series, the Run and the Run 2, are known for being easy to wear and simple to use, but still with all the core features of a reliable running watch.
Best for: Trail runners, triathletes, and runners who want serious training tools and navigation.
The Race S is the compact option, while the Race 2 has since replaced the original Race and has a bigger screen and larger case. It might best suit people with bigger wrists who want a big display and don't mind the weight.
As of today, the Race 3S is the lightweight premium pick. It combines the Race S's compact size with a titanium and sapphire build, a bigger battery, a brighter screen, and double the storage. Suunto says its battery capacity is 46 percent larger than the Race S's, and its display is 233 percent brighter.
When in doubt, the Race series is the middle of the lineup, and it's a natural sweet spot to land on. If you can't decide between the Run and Race options, Beth's got you covered with an in-depth comparison.
Best for: Ultrarunners, mountaineers, backpackers, and anyone doing multi-day trips where charging isn't an option. It's also a good fit if you want a watch that holds up to rough use.
The Vertical 2 is marketed as an expedition-grade watch. It weighs about 87 grams and measures 49 mm, and it's available in stainless steel or titanium. It's water-resistant to 100 meters. It has a built-in LED flashlight that the lighter Race and Run watches lack, a redesigned heart rate sensor, and more storage and processing power than the original. Its main selling point is battery life—allegedly up to 65 hours of GPS in Performance mode and up to 250 hours in Tour mode.
The original Vertical is the older model, with a solar-assisted MIP display. It's still sold and often discounted, but the Vertical 2's AMOLED screen is a major step up in clarity.
The Suunto Run series is for runners who want a light, simple watch. The Race series is for performance athletes who want a premium build and strong all-around training and navigation tools. The Vertical series is for people who go far from civilization and want the longest battery life and the toughest build.
The Suunto lineup also includes Core outdoor watches and dive computers like the Ocean, but those are a different conversation. For runners and trail athletes, the choice comes down to Run, Race, or Vertical, and which of them fits how far, how long, and how rough you like to get:
If you mostly run on roads and want a lightweight entry-point watch, look at the Run.
If you race, train across several sports, or run trails and want a premium build, look at the Race 3S, or the Race if you're sticking to a smaller budget. Or you can choose the Race 2 if you prefer a bigger case and screen.
If your adventures last days rather than hours, choose the Vertical 2.
For more, here are five hacks every Suunto user should know.
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Amazon has dropped the 46mm Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS + Cellular) to $679 from $799, taking $120 off this titanium model. Although it's no longer Apple's newest smartwatch, the Series 10 still has plenty going for it, with PCMag giving it an "outstanding" rating and an Editors' Choice award, along with naming it the best Apple smartwatch of 2024. Much of its appeal comes down to the design, which is thinner and more comfortable than the Series 9, with a larger always-on OLED display that gives you more room to read notifications and messages without making the watch feel particularly bulky. The titanium case also gives it a more polished appearance than most smartwatches, especially if you plan to wear it beyond workouts.
The cellular connectivity is particularly useful if you like leaving your iPhone behind occasionally, since an active carrier plan lets you make calls, reply to messages, stream music, and receive notifications directly on the watch, even when your phone isn't nearby—in practice, that means your phone can stay on the kitchen counter during a morning jog or a quick trip to the corner store, and you’ll still be able to pick up a call from work or reach someone if something goes wrong. It also supports Apple Music playback through its built-in speaker, though you'll probably want to connect wireless headphones for longer listening sessions.
The watch is just as capable as a health tracker, logging your heart rate and sleep, taking ECG and blood oxygen readings, and using its accelerometer to spot breathing disturbances overnight that could point to sleep apnea. Swimmers get a depth gauge and water temperature sensor as well, handy for seeing whether you’ve drifted a few feet below the surface while snorkeling or how chilly the lake is once you’re in. As for battery life, PCMag recorded around 36 hours in testing (though using LTE regularly can drain it faster), which is decent for an always-on smartwatch but still falls short of the Apple Watch Ultra 2. You’ll also need an iPhone to use it, since the Series 10 doesn’t work with Android devices.
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Amazon has dropped the 27-inch LG Ultragear 27GS93QE OLED gaming monitor from $899.99 to $499.99, bringing it to its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. That’s a $400 reduction (plus 90 days of free Amazon Music) worth considering if you’ve been thinking about upgrading from a conventional IPS gaming monitor to OLED, particularly since you’re getting a 1440p display with a 240Hz refresh rate. And the difference isn’t just speed, either—OLED’s individually controlled pixels produce deep blacks without the backlight glow you sometimes notice on LCD screens.
That picture quality gets another boost from VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification, a 1.5 million-to-one contrast ratio, and 98.5% DCI-P3 color coverage, which help bring out the details in darker scenes and make colors look more vibrant. Once the action picks up, the monitor’s 240Hz refresh rate and near-instantaneous 0.03ms response time keep movement smooth and sharp, while AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility reduce tearing and stuttering when frame rates fluctuate.
It's worth noting that getting the full benefit of 240Hz at 1440p does require a capable PC, and although the two HDMI 2.1 ports and DisplayPort 1.4 input all support that refresh rate, console gamers won't benefit from anything beyond their system's 120Hz output limit. There’s also the usual OLED risk of burn-in to consider, particularly if you spend long stretches working with static elements like taskbars and application windows on screen—though LG offers some reassurance with a two-year limited warranty that covers the OLED panel, subject to terms.
Security-wise, most browsers are an open door, happy to reveal your screen size, operating system, language preferences, or GPU model when a website asks. But telling those websites to stop selling your data to third parties is still more confusing than it should be.
Although about a dozen U.S. states—including California, Delaware, New Jersey, and Texas—now require businesses to honor consumers’ privacy preferences online, most browsers do not offer a native opt-out option that lets you signal those preferences by default. Now, the California Opt Me Out Act, which goes into effect on Jan 1, 2027, is making it mandatory for browsers to do so.
Still, for now, native support for a global privacy opt-out remains inconsistent among web browsers. TSome privacy-forward browsers like Brave, DuckDuckGo, and Mozilla Firefox enable this feature by default, while others, like Chrome or Edge, require you to install third-party extensions such as the EFF Privacy Badger. Since coverage and setup vary wildly, I’ll walk you through the exact steps to enable this feature on every major browser.
Global Privacy Control (GPC) is an open-source consumer privacy protocol developed jointly by several universities, media organizations, and privacy-focused tech companies. Instead of having to hunt for a manual “Do Not Sell” or “Refuse Third-Party Cookies” link on every website and app, you enable this feature once in your browser to send a legal notification to every online destination you visit that you’d like to opt out of all data sharing and targeted advertising features.
On a technical level, GPC combines an HTTP header (Sec-GPC) with a JavaScript property (navigator.globalPrivacyControl) that your browser sends with every website fetch request to let website owners know that they are not supposed to share or sell your data.
Unlike previous iterations like Firefox’s Do Not Track, GPC issues a specific request that’s backed by leading data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), making websites and businesses more likely to honor them. With over 150 million users and more than 66,000 participating websites, the GPC project has garnered support and participation from the Mozilla Foundation, The Washington Post, Automattic, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), The New York Times, and others. It has even been made into an official work item at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
Unfortunately, even when enabled, GPC isn’t foolproof. USENIX found that about 45% of the 11,708 websites they surveyed did not honor privacy signals even when regional laws required them to do so. Still, it’s better than having no legal privacy opt-out at all, since cookie and tracker blockers work client-side and may end up breaking functionality on certain sites.
When it comes to GPC support, web browsers fall broadly into two camps. There are privacy-focused platforms like Brave Browser, DuckDuckGo, and Firefox that offer native support using a built-in toggle, or just enable it by default. Then there are mainstream browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Safari that offer limited support through third-party extensions, or sometimes none at all. Here are the exact steps to follow to enable Global Privacy Control on Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Brave Browser, and others:
Being a privacy-first Chromium-based web browser, Brave has GPC enabled by default on Windows, macOS, and Android. However, due to certain platform limitations on iOS, Brave can only enable the feature through the JavaScript API and not the HTTP header on iPhones.
You don’t need to do anything to enable GPC on Brave Browser, but there’s an easy way to confirm whether it’s active and running:
Launch Brave. In the address bar, type in “brave://flags/#brave-global-privacy-control-enabled” and hit Enter.
Confirm that the Settings page reads Default or Enabled, not Disabled.
To disable GPC on your browser, navigate to Settings > Brave Shields and Privacy to find the corresponding toggle.
DuckDuckGo, like Brave Browser, enables GPC by default on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and iPadOS. There’s no built-in toggle to disable it, which tells you just how seriously this browser takes its privacy implementation. (There's even a DuckDuckGo Search & Tracker Protection extension you can add to Chrome, Edge, and Firefox to enable GPC on those browsers, too!)
If you’d like to confirm that GPC is on when you’re using DuckDuckGo, there’s an easy way to do that:
Open a new tab on DuckDuckGo Private Browser and visit the Global Privacy Control website.
Check the notification banner at the very top to see if it reads “GPC signal detected.”
To avoid breaking certain websites on Android, iOS, and Mac devices, DuckDuckGo only sends the GPC signal to websites that are known to respect it. However, you still get full coverage on Windows or if you use the Chrome extension.
Firefox has offered GPC support since version 120. However, it’s not enabled by default, and you need to hunt for a specific toggle to switch it on.
Click on the menu button on your Firefox app, then navigate to Settings.
Access the Privacy & Security tab from the panel on the left.
Keep scrolling until you see Additional protections. On Android version 122+, look for a section that says Enhanced Tracking Protection.
You should see a checkbox next to an option that reads “Tell websites not to sell or share my data.” This is what you’re looking for.
Make sure you check the option to enable GPC, then relaunch Firefox.
As of this writing, Google Chrome does not offer a built-in toggle or native support for GPC. However, you can install a third-party browser extension like the Privacy Badger by EFF or DuckDuckGo Search & Tracker Protection to enable Global Privacy Control very easily.
Search for Privacy Badger on the Chrome Web Store.
Once you find it, click Add to Chrome. Make sure to enable any required permissions for the extension to work too.
That’s it, GPC is enabled on all sites now. You don’t need to fiddle around with the settings since everything comes pre-configured.
As with Chrome, Microsoft Edge users must also rely on third-party extensions to enable Global Privacy Control. And like before, you can choose between Privacy Badger or the DuckDuckGo extension to activate this feature.
Open the Edge Add-ons store and look for Privacy Badger. EFF’s website lists both Edge and Edge for Android as supported browsers for the extension.
Click Get, followed by Add extension.
GPC is now on by default. You don’t need to configure anything else.
At this point, you might be wondering if there’s any difference between this and just using an ad or cookie blocker extension on your web browser. Well, there are a few important distinctions.
First, GPC is a signal. It merely informs websites of your privacy preferences, but does nothing to actively block or prevent tracking or sharing of your data. Second, GPC is narrower in scope because it only covers selling or sharing your data with third parties, not collecting or storing data for a website’s own use.
Finally, ad blockers are very likely to break functionality on websites that rely on certain cookies or trackers to work as intended. Since GPC is a request rather than a blocking mechanism, it preserves existing functionality while sending a legal notification to websites that they may not share your data with anyone.
When you’re enabling Global Privacy Control instead of using an anti-tracking app or ad blocker, you’re trading coverage and effectiveness for convenience. You’ll have to just trust that websites will honor your privacy preferences, which many don’t, even when they are required to. For example, Disney just settled a $2.75 million lawsuit with the California AG’s office because it didn’t honor opt-out requests for logged-in users on every device like it was supposed to.
Goodreads is a popular platform for managing your To Be Read (TBR) pile, finding recommended titles, tracking your reading stats, and sharing reviews, ratings, and notes with friends, but there are ways to make the experience better. If you're an avid reader, use these tips, tricks, and hidden hacks to get the most out of what Goodreads has to offer.
The Goodreads mobile app has a built-in scanner that uses your device's camera to scan either the book cover or barcode. It then pulls up information about the title, including a description and ratings/reviews from other Goodreads users, so you can decide whether to add it to My Books while you're in the store or perusing a friend's shelf. Simply tap the camera icon in the search bar. You can also see a history of scanned books in the camera tab.
There are some books that are worth reading multiple times, and Goodreads allows you to track each reread as a separate activity so you don't overwrite your original entry or affect your reading challenge stats. If you just hit the Read button on the title page, it'll simply log the item as read without any additional information. Instead, select Edit my activity > Add read date to enter start and finish dates for each reread.
If you care about nitty-gritty reading stats, make sure you choose the specific edition of the title you're reading. Different editions have different page numbers, and you can also select audiobook versions if you're listening rather than reading to keep those pages from being counted in your totals. Find available editions on the book's title page, or tap Show all editions and select Switch to this edition next to the correct one.
Goodreads counts all books read within a calendar year toward your annual Reading Challenge, but there may be titles you don't want included in your year-end stats. For example, if you're tracking audiobooks, graphic novels, or children's books in Goodreads, you can exclude them from your Reading Challenge so they don't count toward your page goal. You can also exclude titles if you want your Reading Challenge to focus specifically on one type of book. In the app, go to More > Reading Challenge > Challenge details, select the book you want to remove, and hit Remove from challenge > Remove. (This can be found under your profile on the web interface.) To add titles back later, remove and re-add the read date.
If you're a Kindle user, you can link your Amazon and Goodreads accounts to see your Kindle notes and highlights centralized on Goodreads, including those for library books read through Kindle. You can add to or edit existing notes, which sync back to your Kindle book, as well as share notes and highlights with other users. On the web, open the profile menu and select Kindle Notes & Highlights > Connect your accounts.
Goodreads doesn't have the option to make a bookshelf private, meaning anyone can view your activity. Even if you set your profile to private, your shelves and reading activity are visible to your Goodreads friends. To keep a reading log that no one can see, you can create a secret group of which you are the only member and use the group's bookshelves to track private activity. On the web, go to Community > Groups > Create a group and select This group is secret.
A DNF shelf is spot for titles that you started but abandoned, giving them a dedicated place separate from your other categories. Earlier this year, Goodreads added a default Did Not Finish shelf alongside Want to Read, Currently Reading, or Read, so you no longer have to create one manually. If you give up on a book before finishing, you can still track progress but put it on your DNF shelf. (Note that these books will still count toward your goals if you include a read date with the entry, so you'll need to exclude them using the steps above if you only want to count books you've read all the way through.)
If it's difficult to find books that both you and your friends want to read together, you can use Goodreads' Compare Books feature to see a head-to-head comparison of your shelves for shared interests. Go to your Friends list and tap compare books next to their name to pull up an analysis of your libraries, including a list of books you have in common and a score for how your tastes line up.
Goodreads has granular settings for what criteria you can view and sort by on your bookshelves. If you have hundreds of titles saved on your Want to Read list, customize and save a category to sort by so you always see the highest-rated books (or those with the lowest page count or most recently published, for example) at the top. Each shelf must be sorted separately. Open the Settings tab at the top of the list, select inclusion criteria, and then choose a sort option from the dropdown. Press Save Current Settings to your shelf to lock them.
Goodreads tracks your reading history and stats, but you may want to do a regular backup of your data to ensure you don't lose years of logs if something happens to your account. Library exports include fields like book title, author, publisher, year published, and number of pages, as well as read dates, ratings, and notes. When downloaded as a CSV, the data can also be sorted and analyzed in myriad different ways. To export your books on desktop, go to My Books and click Import and export under the My Tools section. Click Export Library followed by the file name to download it to your device.
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The market for smart bands is getting pretty crowded. It’s hard to beat the Fitbit Air on value or the Whoop on performance analytics, and anything in between struggles to make itself stand out. But the Speediance strap caught my eye for an unusual feature it includes: a sensor that claims to measure your core body temperature during workouts.
The only other device I’ve seen make a similar claim is the Core 2 thermal sensor, which I wore for a summer’s heat training and found it valuable and useful (though not without a few caveats). A Speediance rep told me their device works the same way as the Core 2: It has a sensor for skin temperature, and another for heat flux, which can estimate how much you’re warming up over the course of a workout.
Core 2 requires that you pair its device to a chest strap heart rate monitor because its algorithm can only relate data from the sensors to your core temperature if it knows how your heart rate is responding. It also asks you to wear the sensor on the chest strap, so that it’s as close as possible to your actual core temperature. Speediance doesn’t have those requirements; you can get temperature estimates while wearing the device on your wrist and without any extra equipment.
To test Speediance’s claims, I wore both devices together for several workouts and compared the heat strain each device says I was under. While the Core 2 device is geared toward heat adaptation, Speediance uses heat data mostly to tell you when you’re done warming up and when your performance may be suffering due to heat.
The Speediance app shows your “heat load” during workouts, right on the same screen that shows your heart rate, time, and running mileage. At the beginning of a workout, you’ll see a label that says you’re insufficiently warmed up. Once your body temperature rises by about 0.5 to 1 degree Celsius (about 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit), you’re deemed to be in the “optimal performance” zone. A numerical strain index increases as you get warmer; above 5.0, you’re told you’re in “performance decline,” and above 7.0, you’re in “heat overload.”
For comparison, the Core 2 sensor uses a slightly different scale, or at least has different cutoffs: Between 1.0 and 2.9, you’re increasing your heat training load, and from 3.0 to 6.9 you’re more effectively increasing that load. Above 7, you’re not recommended to train because risks of overheating are too high.
It’s fall as I was testing the Speediance strap, and the weather was beautiful, so I wasn’t able to test this feature in any extreme temperatures. I did notice that, in a strength workout in my garage, my warmup was supposedly over before I had barely done any work. And I hit the “performance decline” level of heat load toward the end of several relatively cool runs.
To get a better sense of how the Speediance band does at measuring temperatures, I took it out alongside the Core 2 for an hour-long trail run on an unseasonably warm day (it was in the high 70s), and compared the heat load readings at various points during the run.
The numbers didn’t match up directly; the Speediance band always read several points higher than the Core 2 sensor, and seemed to show more ups and downs. But both climbed more or less together. I don’t think I’d say the Speediance band is as accurate—and in any sense, I don’t have a gold standard to compare to—but it seems like it could certainly be useful in monitoring how your performance varies with temperature in hot weather.
If you’re going to get a Speediance band for its temperature features, you’re probably also going to use it for general activity and sleep tracking. On that front, I have plenty of good news. It’s comfortable to wear, with a soft band that feels a bit nicer than Whoop’s. I often completely forgot I was wearing it.
The app has a lot of nice little features. You get a circular visual of your day, showing when you slept versus when you exercised. My only complaint here is that the background is a generic visual that suggests you’re looking at a graph of daytime and nighttime, but it’s not lined up with the actual times of sunrise and sunset. Aligning those times with the visual would do a much better job of showing how your habits are (or aren’t) matching up with your circadian rhythms.
The band and app measure all the usual things, and display the data well: My HRV, skin temperature, and resting heart rate are all reported as vital signs, and I can easily see how they’ve changed over the past week, month, and year. A “TRIMP” number shows up among my daily metrics, which I know refers to the same thing that other apps call cardio load. A little obscure in the naming, but a good metric to track. The app suggests a bedtime, and its sleep tracking seems relatively accurate (not counting the time it read a dentist appointment as a nap—although, to be fair, I was lying still for half an hour).
But I’m disappointed by a few things. One annoyance is that, since Speediance is primarily a home gym company, you can’t log a strength workout without creating an exercise routine. (I ended up logging my strength sessions as “mixed cardio” instead.) If you want to share your exercise data on a graphic, you get stock images of Speediance equipment for backgrounds.
And I was never able to properly sync my workouts to Strava. I got a message in Chinese after attempting the connection, which a translation app told me means “the binding is successfull!” and the settings in my app told me in English that Strava was connected. Still, nothing ever showed up on my Strava page. That’s a bummer, both for everyday use if you use Strava, and for me personally since I could have used Strava to download more specific data from my workouts than I can get from just viewing workouts in the Speediance app.
At $159, I’m on the fence. The temperature features of the Speediance strap could be useful for anyone who wants to keep track of how heat affects their workouts, especially in the summer. It doesn’t track heat adaptation, so it can’t replace the Core 2 sensor, but I do appreciate that Speediance is offering something more than just another heart rate measurement.
But the glitches (especially the lack of Strava connection) are a dealbreaker for now, and I wasn’t able to get as much information as I’d like about how well it measures heart rate. If I could overlook those, I don’t think this band is particularly worse than the Polar Loop or the Garmin Cirqa, which both cost a bit more. But I certainly can’t say it’s better than the Fitbit Air or the Whoop. Perhaps with time, this will be a better device, but at this point, I’m more inclined to watch for improvements than to recommend it as is.
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