Pennsylvania’s explosive measles outbreak is now the largest the US has seen since the highly infectious virus was declared eliminated in 2000. With well over 1,000 cases, it’s the largest on record since 1991.

Pennsylvania’s health officials reported 1,078 measles cases in all of 2026 as of this afternoon. That includes 12 cases in January and March, with the remaining 1,066 cases since April, when the current outbreak began. The tally includes 145 cases recorded in the last seven days and 74 identified since the previous update on Monday. Health officials noted that 40 of the 74 cases added today were from more than two weeks ago and are just now being recorded.

Among the cases, there have been 207 hospitalizations and five deaths—a newborn, a 6-week-old, an 18-year-old, a 20-year-old, and a 40-year-old. All of the deaths occurred during the current outbreak in people who were unvaccinated; the two infants were too young to have been vaccinated.

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TP-Link is facing more legal troubles in the US as Florida and three other states filed lawsuits alleging that it lied to consumers about its connections to China and the risks of its routers being exploited by Chinese state hackers.

The lawsuits were filed yesterday, about six months after the Federal Communications Commission announced a sweeping ban on consumer-grade routers produced wholly or partly outside of the US. Numerous router makers have obtained exemptions to the ban, but the Trump administration so far has not granted one to TP-Link.

Router makers that received exemptions include Netgear, Asus, Adtran, Amazon and its Eero subsidiary, Calix, Nokia, SpaceX’s Starlink division, and others. For now, TP-Link is unable to sell its latest Wi-Fi 8 routers in the US, though models approved before the ban can still be sold.

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The agency is doubling down on direct-to-device service.

Honestly, a bit like an oversized Lego brick.

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If you’re looking for a last-minute October Prime Day deal on budget noise-canceling earbuds that still deliver big sound, the JBL Tune Buds are currently seeing a massive 67% discount. They’re down to $32.95 (originally $99.95), giving you most of the features you likely want from your everyday earbuds, at a record-low price.

JBL Tune Buds

$32.95
at Amazon

$99.95
Save $67.00

$32.95
at Amazon

$99.95
Save $67.00

Battery life is one of the biggest selling points of the JBL Tune Buds. They last up to 48 hours—12 hours on a single charge, with an additional 36 hours from the charging case, when ANC is off. A 15-minute quick charge delivers up to four extra hours of playback, although it’s worth noting that the case doesn’t support wireless charging. They also have an IP54 rating, making them somewhat resistant to dust and water.

According to PCMag, they offer modest active noise cancellation, which is still a steal at the current price. The earbuds also come with built-in Alexa and an accompanying app that lets you further customize the sound and switch between modes such as ANC, Ambient Aware, and TalkThru. The sound is bright and bass-heavy thanks to JBL’s bass-forward Pure Bass tuning, but you can adjust it with the in-app EQ if it’s not to your liking.

While they don’t have all the bells and whistles of pricier noise-canceling earbuds, the features you get at this price make them easy to love. If you’re looking for an affordable alternative to more expensive models that you can use for workouts, commuting, travel, and more, this last-minute JBL Tune Buds October Prime Day deal is worth grabbing while it lasts.

October Prime Day FAQs

When is Prime Day?

October Prime Day is Oct. 6 and runs through Oct. 7. It happens every year during October.

When does Prime Day end?

October Prime Day ends on Oct. 7 in 2026. It’s a two-day online sale.

What is Amazon Prime Day?

October Prime Day is the fall version of Prime Day, which is the biggest sale Amazon hosts during the spring, summer, and fall. You can find deals on many categories during the sale, including tech, tools, appliances, apparel, and more.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

The heart rate sensors on smartwatches are usually good enough for casual training (and some of them are really good), but to get the best possible accuracy, you want a separate heart rate monitor—ideally a chest strap. Fortunately, fitness trackers and smartwatches aren’t the only wearables on sale right now. Heart rate monitors from Polar, Coospo, and more are available at discounts, and here are the best deals I’ve found. 

The Polar H10 chest strap is $20 off

All electrical chest straps are good, but the consensus in the fitness world is that if you want the best, you get the Polar H10. It’s the chest strap that Apple used in its own heart-rate accuracy testing; it’s also the one I recall being put on me when I did a VO2max test in a lab. It retails for $104.95 but goes on sale from time to time, and now is one of those times: You can pick up a Polar H10 for $84.74.

Polar H10 Heart Rate Monitor

$89.21
at Amazon

$104.95
Save $15.74

$89.21
at Amazon

$104.95
Save $15.74

The Polar Verity Sense armband is also $20 off

OK, personally I wouldn’t get an armband in place of a chest strap; armbands use optical sensors, the same technology as in your watch. Optical sensors are more error-prone than electrical chest straps. But even though they’re not my favorite, armbands like the Polar Verity Sense are popular and their accuracy is good enough for most people. If you hate the feeling of a chest strap, or just prefer the convenience of an armband, the Verity Sense is a great alternative, and it’s $85.46 right now, down from a regular price of $104.95. 

Polar Verity Sense – Optical Heart Rate Monitor Armband – ANT+, Dual Bluetooth, Gray, M-XXL

$84.95
at Amazon

$104.95
Save $20.00

$84.95
at Amazon

$104.95
Save $20.00

My favorite budget brand, Coospo, is 29% off

I love when a budget option works as well as the top-of-the-line model, and that’s why I swear by my Coospo heart rate monitor. Full disclosure, the H6 model I used for over four years finally gave up its ghost, so I’ve moved on to a newer model, the H808S. Both are on sale: the H6 for $23.99, down from $29.99, and the H808S is $26.26, down from $36.99. 

COOSPO Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor Chest Strap H808S, ANT+ BLE HR Monitor Chest, HRM IP67 Waterproof, Use for Running Cycling Gym and Other Sports

$26.26
at Amazon

$36.99
Save $10.73

$26.26
at Amazon

$36.99
Save $10.73

The Wahoo Trackr is $TKTK

Wahoo is another solid line of fitness products, and the Trackr heart rate monitor is another excellent choice. It’s on sale for $84.99, normally $99.99. 

Wahoo Trackr Heart Rate

$84.99
at Amazon

$99.99
Save $15.00

$84.99
at Amazon

$99.99
Save $15.00

How to use a heart rate monitor

Heart rate monitors connect to your watch or to gym equipment wirelessly, usually with Bluetooth and sometimes with an older protocol called ANT+. (Many heart rate monitors can do both.) 

You’ll need to set up the heart rate monitor to either broadcast your heart rate or to pair to another device. (Usually you broadcast to gym equipment, but pair to a watch or phone.) The specifics vary by brand, but it’s usually pretty straightforward. If you have a fitness watch like a Garmin, or an Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch, pairing a chest strap is a simple job. Pixel Watches, unfortunately, can’t pair a heart rate sensor. 

But even without a watch, you can use a sensor with your phone. I like the Polar Beat app as a simple heart rate tracker, but there are plenty of other options. The Apple Fitness app can use third-party heart rate sensors, and so can Strava.

Just to be clear, I’m not asking you to Google ‘Japan makes a real conveyor belt keyboard,’ but you probably already knew that. You’re a smart cookie. I’m a dumb biscuit. *nibbling finger* I’m for dogs, aren’t I? Google Japan, which makes a newly redesigned keyboard every year, has unveiled this year’s GBoard, one that operates with its keys constantly moving on columns of conveyor belts (four columns of 29 keys each). I don’t think anybody is going to set a new typing record with it (or play a winning game of Counter-Strike). It might be good for hunt-and-peck style typers though. ‘Oh, there goes the key I needed! I’ll just catch on the next go-round. Damn, missed it again.’ Using this I estimate I’d be good for writing about one email a day — it would have to be a short one though. LRNING NEW KYBORD PLZ DNT FIRE ME

If you’re interested in building your own (and who isn’t?), Google Japan has provided all the design files necessary over on GitHub.

Thanks to my dad, who’s currently on vacation at my house and we are all having a great time.

Life is remarkably selective. Life relies on many molecules with what is termed “handedness”—they’re chemically identical but are mirror images of each other. Most chemical reactions will make a 50-50 mix of the left- and right-handed forms of a chemical, but life uses only one of them. In fact, because of the differences between left- and right-handed chemicals, most of the key enzymes used by organisms will fail to work if they’re presented with chemicals that have the wrong handedness.

That poses a bit of a challenge for origin-of-life research, as we’re forced to explain how a world that may have started with an even mix of left- and right-handed chemicals produced organisms that only used one of them.

Today’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to two individuals, Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai, who discovered chemical reactions could be biased, producing large excesses of one of the two forms of a chemical.

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As many doctors are moving ahead with the latest advances of modern medicine—from powerful obesity drugs to breakthrough cancer treatments—pediatricians are being forced to turn back, fighting to maintain advances in children’s health that were hard-won decades ago.

With anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has spent a considerable amount of time and resources in the past year fiercely defending lifesaving vaccinations—safe, routine shots that have saved the lives of millions of children over decades and thwarted untold suffering and disability.

But just this week, The New York Times reported that Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, has opened aggressive investigations against pediatricians simply because they vaccinated their patients. Paxton falsely claims vaccines are part of a “multi-level, multi-industry scheme.” But critics say his anti-vaccine campaign appears more aimed at currying favor with Kennedy, President Trump, and their supporters as Paxton runs for the US Senate.

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After pleading guilty, a 54-year-old North Carolina man, Michael Smith, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for using artificial intelligence to generate songs for a scheme that stole millions from music streaming platforms.

In a press release Tuesday, the US Department of Justice said that Smith is the first American criminally charged with AI-assisted streaming fraud.

First charged in 2024, Smith successfully ran the scheme for seven years without detection.

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At a press event today, Microsoft unveiled the new Surface Laptop Ultra featuring an NVIDIA RTX Spark platform with a Blackwell-based GPU capable of up to one petaflop of AI compute. The laptop supports up to 128GB of unified memory for running models as large as 120 billion parameters locally, while also adding a 15-inch mini-LED display, expanded ports, upgraded cooling, and support for hundreds of AAA games. It’s available for pre-order today starting at $2,599. Neowin reports: To keep the device’s temperature under control, Microsoft has also developed a new cooling system that offers up to 2.5 times the thermal capacity of the 15-inch Surface Laptop 7th Edition. The Surface Laptop Ultra comes with a 15-inch PixelSense Ultra mini-LED touchscreen with a 3:2 aspect ratio, a pixel density of 262 PPI, and peak HDR brightness of up to 2,000 nits.

Despite its beefy specs, the Surface Laptop Ultra measures less than 18mm thick and weighs under 4.5 pounds (around 2kg). The laptop will be available in Platinum and Nightfall finishes. Microsoft has also increased the size of the precision haptic touchpad by more than 30% compared to the Surface Laptop 7th Edition for improved haptic input. The Surface Laptop Ultra includes a broader selection of ports, featuring USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a full-size SD card reader. It also features the world’s first built-in USB-C magnetic charging.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.