Zwift Racing is one of the best ways to stay engaged and challenge yourself indoors. In this week’s top video, hear from one Zwifter as she shares tips for those just getting started!
Also included in this week’s post are videos about weight loss, benchmark FTP tests, and the Wahoo KICKR Core 2.
Avoid These Zwift Racing Mistakes!
Looking to improve your Zwift racing skills? Jessica Strange shares everything she has learned from her recent races.
I Lost 3.1kg in 7 Days – Week 1 Challenge Results
Chad Rides shares an update after the first week of his weight loss challenge. How much progress has he made in the first week?
Indoor FTP Test After Crit Season: How Accurate Is My Zwift FTP?
After a long summer of training and racing outdoors, Cranks & Sprints puts his fitness to the test with an FTP test.
Wahoo KICKR CORE 2 In-Depth Review: Worth It?
Ray, aka DCRainmaker, shares an in-depth review of the Wahoo KICKR Core 2. Is it the best budget direct drive trainer?
Brutal First Race Back On Zwift… But One Of The Best!
Ed Laverack shares a recap and commentary on his first Zwift races back and shares why these first races were some of his best.
Got a Great Zwift Video?
Share the link below and we may feature it in an upcoming post!
The UK government will levy a pay-per-mile tax on electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles starting April 2028, UK’s finance minister Rachel Reeves announced, a measure designed to offset some of the fuel duty revenue that will disappear as drivers shift away from petrol and diesel cars. Electric vehicles will be charged 3 pence per mile and plug-in hybrids 1.5 pence per mile, payable annually alongside car tax. An average driver covering 8,000 miles a year would pay around $320, roughly half what a petrol or diesel driver pays in fuel duty.
The Office for Budget Responsibility expects the tax to generate $1.45 billion in its first year and $2.51 billion by 2030-31, offsetting about a quarter of the revenue losses projected from the EV transition by 2050. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders warned the new charge would “suppress demand” and make sales targets harder to achieve. New Zealand and Iceland have already introduced road pricing for EVs; demand dropped in the former but held steady in the latter.
If you’re scouring the web for clothing deals this Black Friday, then be sure to check out Ekoi’s Black Friday sale.
The French clothing brand is offering up to 52 per cent off a massive array of products across its range. Why not upgrade your winter wardrobe or prepare for next year at a reduced price?
Helmets, clothing, shoes and accessories are included in the sale, with the brand catering to all disciplines.
Every rider has contemplated this concept on an extra cold ride. Ekoi
Designed for riding in extreme conditions, these gloves have a built-in heater with 3 heat levels that last up to 4 hours.
They feature Primaloft Gold insulation and Y-Warm water repellent membrane to help retain that precious heat, with Ekoi claiming they’ll keep you comfy down to -11ºC.
If you suffer from cold fingers when out on the bike, then be sure to check these out.
These overshoes should keep your feet toasty through the winter. Ekoi
These over-shoes must have been dreamed up by someone on the verge of hypothermia.
They share a similar heating unit to the gloves, and offer 3 heat settings that last between 2 and 4 hours to keep your little piggies toasty.
There’s the same Primaloft Gold insulation and Y-Warm water repellent membrane as the gloves, which the brand says provides excellent heat retention while staying light, flexible, breathable, and low-bulk.
This mountain bike onesie should make clean-up easier after a ride. Ekoi
Mountain bike onesies have become very popular over winter, with high warmth and low maintenance making them perfect for cold, wet bike park laps.
Ekoi’s has a waterproof rating of 15,000mm and breathability of 15,000 g/m², meaning you should be kept dry without boiling in your own sweat.
Thermo-welded seams, reinforced knees and seat, and ankle adjustments ensure durability ensure a durable and snug fit, with Ekoi saying it allows for unrestricted movement.
If you have a Pixel 10 phone that you use for turn-by-turn directions in lieu of a dedicated GPS device, Google has an update that might be right up your alley. A Google Maps power-saving mode is now available for Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL and Pixel 10 Pro Fold. The company announced this feature earlier this month as part of its November 2025 Pixel Drop.
Power-saving mode is only available in portrait orientation and it works on your lock screen. If you tap the power button while using the driving navigation tool, the app will switch to a simpler monochrome look that retains the map layer, as 9to5Google notes. It looks a bit like the dark mode map in the Uber app.
You’ll see only see key details your journey, such as your next turn and expected travel time. Other elements, such as your current speed, are stripped out. You can still swipe down to see your notifications.
If you press the power button or tap the screen, Google Maps will revert to the standard view. The app also turns off power-saving mode when you get to your destination.
Google says that the power-saving mode can extend your Pixel 10’s battery life by up to four hours, so this could come in handy for long drives when you don’t have an easy way to charge your phone while you have it mounted on your dashboard. The more streamlined look could perhaps help to mitigate distracted driving too.
Google will probably bring the feature to other devices down the line, but it’s disappointing that the company is limiting it to the Pixel 10 lineup for now. Perhaps it will end up offering this stripped-down UI on the Android Auto version of Google Maps someday. too
It seems that Google is enabling power-saving mode by default via an update on its end. If you’d rather not be able to use the feature, you can switch it off by going to the settings in the app, then Navigation > Driving options and tapping the toggle for power-saving mode.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/a-google-maps-power-saving-mode-lands-on-pixel-10-devices-180000601.html?src=rss
In addition to Intel Arrow Lake desktop performance evolving nicely on Linux over the course of 2025, the Intel Arc B-Series graphics that launched last December with the Arc B580 have evolved quite nicely too with their open-source driver stack. With it coming up on one year since the Arc B580 launch, here is a look at how the GPU compute performance has evolved since that point. Similar Intel Arc B580 Linux graphics comparisons are also coming up in a follow-up comparison on Phoronix.
Google is testing a new Wi-Fi hotspot configuration in the latest Android Canary build that pairs the 6 GHz band’s superior throughput with the 2.4 GHz band’s broad device compatibility, eliminating the trade-off users previously faced when choosing between speed and legacy support. Android’s default hotspot setting uses 2.4 and 5 GHz frequencies, omitting 6 GHz because most devices lack support for the newer standard and because U.S. regulations previously prohibited smartphones from creating 6 GHz hotspots. Recent regulatory changes and a Pixel update unlocked standalone 6 GHz hotspots, but that option cuts off older devices entirely. The new “2.4 and 6 GHz” dual-band mode, spotted in Android Canary, is expected to arrive in an upcoming Android 16 QPR3 beta.
Here’s some bad news for folks who’ve been using Plex to stream stuff from a buddy’s personal media server to their TV for free for years. As it pledged to do earlier this year when it bumped up the price of the Plex Pass, the service is starting to enforce a paywall for remote streaming from a personal server to TV apps. Plex is rolling out the change on its Roku app this week, followed by its other TV apps (on the likes of Fire TV, Apple TV and Android TV) and third-party clients that use its remote streaming API in 2026. Plex also recently started deploying a redesigned version of its app on Roku-powered TVs.
Under the new way of things, the owner of a media server needs a Plex Pass subscription to grant other people remote access to it through the service. A Plex Pass now costs $7 per month, $70 per year or $250 for a lifetime membership. Those with such a subscription (or the Remote Watch Pass for $2 per month or $20 per year) can remotely access someone else’s media server, even if the server owner doesn’t have Plex Pass. Plex started enforcing the change on mobile devices before doing so elsewhere.
It always stinks when a company puts up a paywall around a feature that was previously free. Plex needs to make money to keep things running, which is fair enough. But turning free features into paid ones is hardly a consumer-friendly approach, especially when there are open-source alternatives like Jellyfin around.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/plex-starts-paywalling-remote-streaming-to-tvs-beginning-with-its-roku-app-160535590.html?src=rss
A bipartisan right-to-repair provision that would let the U.S. military fix its own equipment faces a serious threat from defense industry lobbyists who want to replace it with a pay-per-use model for accessing repair information. A source familiar with negotiations told The Verge that there are significant concerns that the language in the National Defense Authorization Act will be swapped out for a “data-as-a-service” alternative that would require the Department of Defense to pay contractors for access to technical repair data.
The provision, introduced by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tim Sheehy (R-MT) in their Warrior Right to Repair Act, passed the Senate in October and has support from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Army and the Navy. The National Defense Industrial Association published a white paper backing the data-as-a-service model, arguing it would protect contractors’ intellectual property. Reps. Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Adam Smith (D-WA), who lead the House Armed Services Committee, outlined similar language in their SPEED Act. Rogers received more than $535,000 from the defense industry in 2024; Smith received over $310,550. The final NDAA is expected early next week.
Many jobs carry occupational risks and sport is no different. For pro cyclists, crashing hard on tarmac is the obvious one, but when it comes to health, iliac artery endofibrosis (IAE) is another.
It’s a health condition that’s rare in the general population, but increasingly common among professional cyclists who ride 10s of thousands of kilometres every year.
IAE is a vascular condition that causes a narrowing of the external iliac artery, which carries blood from the pelvis to the legs. It’s not just seen in professional cyclists in the sporting world, but they are especially afflicted by it.
Pro riders who’ve suffered from issues with their iliac arteries are many, including Ineos Grenadiers’ Bob Jungels and recent Tour de France Femmes winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. It also curtailed the careers of Zdeněk Štybar and Tayler Wiles.
The exact number of cyclists with IAE is impossible to pin down because many cases go undiagnosed or are misattributed to other physiological or performance reasons, though it’s been reported that up to 20 per cent of elite road cyclists may develop IAE over time.
In fact, a 2022 paper published in the online medical journal Cureus called for IAE to be classified as an occupational disease, particularly in the case of athletes and cyclists. Whether it’s on the increase or awareness is growing remains to be seen.
So, what’s going on? And why might you, as a recreational rider, be affected?
Narrowing of the vessel
2025 Tour de France Femmes winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is one of several pros to suffer from IAE. Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
“The term endofibrosis means that somewhere within the wall of a blood vessel is an increase in fibrous tissue, which is essentially scar tissue,” says Professor Nick Cheshire, head of vascular surgery at Royal Brompton Hospital.
“Normally it’s flexible and soft, especially in young people, but if an area has been irritated over a long period of time, the scar tissue builds up and starts to narrow the blood vessel. This is called ‘stenosis’, which restricts the blood flow and is a secondary effect to the fibrosis.”
When a cyclist is resting, all is good. But when they work hard, their muscles demand more oxygenated blood to feed working muscles. This narrowness of the blood vessel reduces blood circulation of the limb, causing pain, weakness or numbness during movement.
Leg pain is one of the ways IAE manifests.
The most common symptoms are a cramping or burning sensation in one leg, usually the thigh but also the calf or buttocks. Generally, it occurs during high-intensity efforts, like out-of-the-saddle ascents or sprinting to the line, but soon settles down once intensity is lowered.
Another symptom is losing power. This is how it manifested itself in Jungels, who’s had two IAE operations.
“Symptoms for me were fatigue and a loss of wattage,” says Jungels. “I could feel that I just hadn’t been able to hit those high, intensive numbers for a fair while. My body really struggled when we hit race pace.”
It was a similar tale for Štybar, who said at the time of his problems in 2023, “I was training well, hitting good numbers and should have been in the best shape of my life, but I just couldn’t perform in races.
“My legs were so tired, so sore. When we hit a climb, I was immediately dropped and could no longer do the numbers. I didn’t understand. It was such a weird feeling. I felt lost.”
What are the causes of iliac artery endofibrosis?
Flexion of the hip in the hunched cycling position is one reason riders like Zdeněk Štybar have been afflicted by IAE. Tim de Waele / Getty Images
For the general population, IAE is often down to the usual high-risk factors such as smoking and diabetes, resulting in narrowing blood vessels and painful calf muscles. For professional cyclists, it’s also down to lifestyle factors, albeit the usually positive ones.
“It’s down to repeated movements,” says Cheshire. “The arteries supplying the leg begin at the umbilicus level [commonly known as the naval or belly button]. This is where the main blood vessel exiting the heart divides into two. They’re called the iliac arteries.”
Each iliac artery divides into an external iliac artery, which continues down the limb and becomes the femoral artery that supplies most of the lower limb, and internal iliac artery, which supplies blood to the pelvic organs, gluteal region and parts of the reproductive organs. It’s the external iliac artery that’s often affected in IAE, especially in cyclists.
“The artery comes around the pelvis and into the leg via the groin,” says Cheshire. “To enter the groin, it has to come under the inguinal ligament. As you’re pedalling, the artery is irritated by the ligament.”
This can cause kinking and damage to the iliac artery wall, leading to a build-up of fibrous tissue within the artery. This not only narrows the artery but prevents it from dilating during exercise, impairing bloodflow and oxygen supply to the leg.
The large swathes of blood associated with intense efforts passing through the narrow or kinked artery can cause further microtraumas and endofibrotic changes.
This repetition of movement is at peak volume in the professional ranks with male pros accumulating over 30,000km in training and racing each year. If there’s an issue, every pedal stroke will only exacerbate the situation.
Although inconclusive, the cycling position has been cited as a major reason, too, with the extreme hip flexion seen in the professional peloton combining with heavy bloodflow during hard efforts to stimulate these endofibrotic changes. That’s how Jungels saw it.
“Cycling is a relatively unnatural activity for your body, so where you bend your leg from the hips, scar tissue forms inside,” he said. “After nearly 20 years of training, this can build up and prohibit bloodflow.”
Excessively long iliac vessels could also increase the likelihood of kinking during hip flexion, while there are suggestions that systemic factors could also play a part, like some metabolic disorders and autoimmune disease such as Raynaud’s, but this requires further exploration.
“There are very few studies on endofibrosis and athletes,” says Cheshire. “It’s a mixed bag. Some sufferers have a single point narrowing; some have a long area of narrowing; some it’s directly underneath the inguinal ligament; some people it’s closer up to where the iliac artery begins.
“Like any arterial disease and narrowing of any form, whether it’s smoking and diabetes related or repetitive injury related, there are often personal anatomical factors that mean one person suffers and another doesn’t.”
Treatment options
Recreational riders certainly aren’t immune to IAE. Joseph Branston /Our Media
If IAE is left untreated in cyclists, it can lead to the performance decline mentioned, plus significant vascular damage and, in some cases, permanent functional impairment.
While it’s not typically life-threatening, the impact on an athlete’s career and quality of life can be severe. Which is why treatment is the only option.
“The ideal treatment is something that avoids damaging the muscles,” says Cheshire. “So, the ideal treatment is ‘balloon angioplasty’. This is where a catheter with a small inflatable balloon is inserted into the narrowed section of the artery, which is then inflated to stretch the vessel and improve bloodflow.
“The problem is that this isn’t very effective when faced with the tough fibrous scarring in the elite athlete population.”
This is supported by research including a 2016 study that suggested balloon angioplasty, a minimally invasive procedure, failed in most cases, unlike surgery, which led to a 99 per cent return-to-sport rate.
“Surgery is often the only solution for athletes, which is a really big deal because they might return to the sport, but at what level?” says Cheshire.
“It often involves an abdominal incision before opening up the artery and then applying a patch.” More specifically, once the artery wall’s been opened, the narrowed section is removed and replaced with a sewn-in patch of tissue, which is either synthetic or from the rider’s own vein.
Like arterial disease in general, it’s more common in men. “A ratio of about four to one, I think,” says Cheshire, “albeit that could be heavily down to the fact there are more male cyclists. But the main problem is in identifying the problem.
“You see, it depends on the narrowing. If it’s less than 50 per cent, the pulse may be normal. And in fit athletes, it might not even show up on ultrasound. But there’s a much greater chance it will if you increase the blood flow, as if you were exercising.
“It’s why our investigation labs feature a treadmill and static bike. It’s called the ‘Stress Doppler’ and the ultrasound is done before and after exercise. It’s not routinely done but it can be invaluable for cyclists.”
Cheshire says that recreational riders can suffer from this condition, too, and if you have concerns that you might be suffering from IAE, mention this stress test to your doctor.
There’s also a diagnostic test called the ABI, or ankle-brachial index. The test measures blood pressure at the ankle and arm both at rest and immediately after exercise, and detects a drop in the ABI caused by reduced blood flow to the legs.
To ensure accuracy it should be performed in the cycling position, with exercise intensity gradually increased until symptoms appear, making the test sensitive enough to identify the condition.
How can you prevent IAE in the first place? That’s a tricky one. You might presume bike fit could play a part, but there is no research into its effectiveness.
In theory, you’d think the trend for shorter crank length would help by decreasing hip flexion and opening up the hips. Throw in a raised front end and you’d think the less-aggressive position might help. But again, there’s no research to support this idea.
“It’s hard to prevent because it’s down to lots of repetitive movements,” says Cheshire. “It’s a slow-burner of a condition.
“If you’ve had surgery, it might never come back, especially as a professional’s career is relatively short, so they won’t be racking up such enormous miles for decades upon decades. Ultimately, if you have any concerns, seek out an expert who can diagnose the problem or put your mind at rest.”
It should come as no surprise that Amazon saved its most aggressive discounts on its streaming hardware for the Black Friday sales bonanza. The newest version of every Fire TV Stick is on sale, and not just by a little bit—the discounts span 42% on the low end (or 36% if factoring in the Fire TV Cube) and stretch all the way up to 50% off.
Zlib-ng 2.3.1 is out today as the first stable release in the v2.3 series for this Zlib replacement that carries a variety of performance optimizations for speedier compression/decompression…
An anonymous reader shares a report: NASA has slashed the number of astronaut missions on Boeing’s Starliner contract and said the spacecraft’s next mission to the International Space Station will fly without a crew, reducing the scope of a program hobbled by engineering woes and outpaced by SpaceX. The most recent mishap occurred during Starliner’s first crewed test flight in 2024, carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Several thrusters on Starliner’s propulsion system shut down during its approach to the ISS.
This glorious old film shows a vision of what one bicycle manufacturer thought would be the future of cycling.
The video goes behind the scenes of British brand Moulton, which is still producing bikes to this day. The short British Pathé clip details how Moulton designed and manufactured its bikes in the early 1960s.
Alex Moulton, the founder of the brand and a prolific car suspension designer, developed the double-bonded sandwich design for the small-wheeled bicycle to reduce bumps. This technology was used on the original Mini Cooper and Moulton continues to use it today, including on the NS Safari.
While the film focuses more on the brand’s commuting model, showing it being folded up into the boot of a car, towards the end we get a glimpse of the brand’s racing model.
The narrator claims this model can reach 50 miles, with the small wheels said to make pedalling easier and give terrific acceleration.
Alibaba’s Quark AI glasses are now available for purchase in China. The company has released three variants of the flagship S1 model and three of the more affordable G1 model. They both connect to Alibaba’s newly launched Qwen App, powered by the company’s own AI tech, for AI assistance through voice commands and touch controls. Their features include on-the-go translation and AI-generated meeting notes. As you’d expect, they’re deeply integrated with Alibaba’s ecosystem and come equipped with apps that include Alipay and Taobao, an online shopping platform owned by the company. They have popular Chinese music streaming services, like QQ Music, as well.
Similar to Meta’s Ray-Ban Display, the glasses’ lenses serve as screens, though the S1 is equipped with more expensive micro-OLED technology. It also has more powerful dual chips. In addition, the S1 can produce better images (up to 3K in quality) and videos (AI-enhanced 4K), and it was designed to perform better in low-lighting conditions. Meanwhile, the G1 is lighter and was built for everyday wear.
It’s not quite clear if Alibaba plans to release the glasses outside China, but both models are now up for sale on Chinese e-commerce platforms. The S1’s prices start at ¥3,799 ($537), whereas the G1 will cost buyers at least ¥1,899 ($268).
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/alibaba-launches-its-own-ai-glasses-150000678.html?src=rss
We can’t speak for everyone, but around these parts we’re all gonna be packing on a few extra pounds after feasting on Thanksgiving, followed by more holiday meals to close out 2025. Factor in leftovers and, well, our waistlines don’t stand a chance. That’s okay, in part because we’ll work it off while jamming to our playlists. You can too,
Researchers at MIT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have built a simulation that models all 151 million American workers and their skills, then maps those skills against the capabilities of over 13,000 AI tools currently in production to see where the two overlap. The answer, according to their analysis: 11.7% of the US labor market’s total wage value, or about $1.2 trillion, sits in tasks that AI systems can technically perform [PDF].
The researchers call this the Iceberg Index, and the name is deliberate. The visible AI disruption happening in tech jobs right now accounts for only 2.2% of labor market wage value. The remaining exposure lurks in cognitive and administrative work across finance, healthcare administration, and professional services, and unlike tech-sector disruption, it’s spread across all fifty states rather than concentrated on the coasts.
Delaware and South Dakota show higher Iceberg Index values than California because their economies lean heavily on administrative and financial work. Ohio and Tennessee register modest tech-sector exposure but substantial hidden risk in the white-collar functions that support their manufacturing bases.
To validate the framework, the researchers compared their predictions against Anthropic’s Economic Index tracking real-world AI usage from millions of Claude users. The two measures agreed on state categorizations 69% of the time, with particularly strong alignment at the extremes.
The Iceberg Index doesn’t predict job losses or adoption timelines. It measures technical capability, the overlap between what AI can do and what occupations require. Traditional economic indicators like GDP and unemployment explain less than five percent of the variation in this skill-based exposure, which is partly why the researchers argue workforce planners need new metrics.
It’s fair to say that Maingear is one of the most respected boutique builders in the business, as is its boss, Wallace Santos. We’ve long been impressed with Maingear’s build quality and attention to detail in the various systems we’ve reviewed, like the Zero gaming PC pictured above and, a little more recently, the Apex Force. If you’re thinking
