Starting with the
The Pokémon leakers were right: the Gen 10 games are called Pokémon Wind and Pokémon Waves. The Pokémon Company confirmed the titles during a 30th anniversary stream on Pokémon Day. The games are set to hit Nintendo Switch 2 in 2027. (A Game Freak leak last October suggested Wind and Waves would be out this year with DLC to follow in 2027.)
According to the Pokémon account on X, in Wind and Waves, “you’ll travel across beautiful windswept islands and a vast ocean with glittering waves that ebb and flow. You’ll also team up with Pokémon to overcome challenges and even the forces of nature!” They’ll be playable in 11 languages, including Brazilian Portuguese.
Introducing the first partner Pokémon from #PokemonWindsWaves!
Say hello to Browt �, Pombon �, and Gecqua �. Who will you partner with on this adventure, Trainers? pic.twitter.com/UfKtE5lszu
— Pokémon (@Pokemon) February 27, 2026
A trailer for the two games revealed the three new starter Pokémon: Browt, Pombon and Gecqua. As suggested by their colors and environments they’re shown in, they are grass, fire and water types, respectively. Other Pokémon that were featured include Pikachu (sporting fetching beachwear) and Oddish. The trailer, which reveals a new region for the series, ends by taking us into the ocean to gawk at an number of water Pokémon.
The Pokémon Presents stream on Friday included updates for many other games in the franchise, including the battle-focused Pokémon Champions (a modern spin on the likes of Pokémon Stadium). That will debut on Nintendo Switch in April before arriving on iOS and Android later this year. Cross-play will be available between the three platforms. It was also confirmed that Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness will hit the GameCube library on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack on Switch 2 in March.
Pokémon Day marks the 30th anniversary of the series’ debut with the 1996 release of Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green (later released as Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue in the West) on Game Boy in Japan. The games were remade for GameBoy Advance in 2004 as Pokémon FireRed Version and Pokémon LeafGreen Version. Starting today, those are available on Switch and Switch 2 for $20 each. Meanwhile, Pokémon Pokopia, a cozy life sim spin-off, will hit Switch 2 on March 5.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/pokemon-winds-and-waves-are-coming-to-switch-2-in-2027-152248895.html?src=rss
theodp writes: On Tuesday, Microsoft GM of Education and Workforce Policy (and former Code.org Chief Academic Officer) Pat Yongpradit posted an obituary of sorts for coders. “Computer programmers and software developers are codified differently in the BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] data,” Yongpradit wrote. “The modern AI-infused world needs less computer programmers (coders) and more software developers (more holistic and higher level). So when folks say that there is less hiring of computer programmers, they are right. But there will be more hiring of software developers, especially those who have adopted an AI-forward mindset and skillset. […] The number of just pure computer programming roles has already been declining due to reasons like outsourcing, AI will just accelerate the decline.”
On Wednesday, Yongpradit’s colleague Allyson Knox, Senior Director of Education and Workforce Policy at Microsoft, put another AI nail in the coder coffin, testifying before the House Committee on Education — the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education on Building an AI-ready America: Teaching in the Age of AI. “Thank you to Chairman Tim Walberg, Ranking Member Bobby Scott, Chair Kevin Kiley, Ranking Member Suzanne Bonamici and members of the Subcommittee for the opportunity to share Microsoft perspective and that of the educators and parents we hear from every day across the country,” Knox wrote in a LinkedIn post.
“Three themes continue to emerge throughout these discussions: 1. Educators want support to build AI literacy and critical thinking skills. 2. Schools need guidance and guardrails to ensure student data is protected and adults remain in control. 3. Teachers want classroom-ready tools, and a voice in shaping them. If we focus on these priorities, we can help ensure AI expands opportunity for every student across the United States.”
Yongpradit and Knox report up to Microsoft President Brad Smith, who last July told Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi it was time for the tech-backed nonprofit to “switch hats” from coding to AI as Microsoft announced a new $4 billion initiative to advance AI education. Smith’s thoughts on the extraordinary promise of AI in education were cited by Knox in her 2026 Congressional testimony. Interestingly, Knox argued for the importance of computer programming literacy in her 2013 Congressional testimony at a hearing on Our Nation of Builders: Training the Builders of the Future. “Congress needs to come up with fresh ideas on how we can continue to train the next generation of builders, programmers, manufacturers, technicians and entrepreneurs,” said Rep. Lee Terry said to open the discussion. So, are reports of computer programming’s imminent death greatly exaggerated?
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Netflix backed out of its deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD’s) streaming and movie studios businesses on Thursday night. After increasing its bid for all of WBD by $1 per share on Tuesday, Paramount Skydance is poised to become the new owner of WBD, including Game of Thrones, DC Comics, and other IP, as well as the HBO Max streaming service and cable channels CNN and TBS.
Netflix and WBD announced merger intentions on December 5. Netflix was going to pay an equity value of $72 billion, or an approximate total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, for part of WBD. At the time, NBC News reported that WBD’s total market value was $60 billion.
But Paramount has reportedly been eyeing WBD for years and followed December’s merger announcement with an aggressive hostile takeover bid. On Tuesday, in addition to raising its offer to buy all of WBD, Paramount also agreed to pay a $7 billion regulatory termination fee should a Paramount-WBD merger fail to close due to antitrust regulation, as well as a $0.25 per share ticking fee for every quarter that the deal doesn’t close, starting on September 30.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced sweeping changes to the Artemis program on Friday morning, including an increased cadence of missions and cancellation of an expensive rocket stage.
The upheaval comes as NASA has struggled to fuel the massive Space Launch System rocket for the upcoming Artemis II lunar mission, and Isaacman has sought to revitalize an agency that has moved at a glacial pace on its deep space programs. There is ever-increasing concern that, absent a shakeup, China’s rising space program will land humans on the Moon before NASA can return there this decade with Artemis.
“NASA must standardize its approach, increase flight rate safely, and execute on the President’s national space policy,” Isaacman said. “With credible competition from our greatest geopolitical adversary increasing by the day, we need to move faster, eliminate delays, and achieve our objectives.”
Samsung’s Unpacked event midweek revealed three new phones and two sets of earbuds, but the real standout, as usual, is the Galaxy S26 Ultra. This year, the Ultra actually features a bit of genuine tech innovation — and no, we don’t mean it folds.
Let’s talk about its new Privacy Display. This isn’t a shimmery, holographic screen protector that’s hard to read and constantly peels off at the corners; this tech is engineered directly into the S26 Ultra’s OLED display.
Samsung Display revealed its Flex Magic Pixel technology back in 2024. The S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display is built off the back of this. It controls the direction of light emitted from the AMOLED at the pixel level, integrating wide-angle and narrow-angle pixel arrays so the display can switch between a wide-angle viewing experience and more private, straight-on views.
While HP’s SureView tech is similar, the amount of customization possible is incredible — and we all have our phones out in public much more than our… HP laptops. It could be perfect for keeping prying eyes off your banking apps, messaging apps and even dating apps.
Otherwise, the rest of the S26 series offers incremental updates with better cameras and newer processors. This makes the base S26 and S26+ a harder sell unless your current Galaxy phone is several years old. Also, following the 2026 trend, they are all pricier this year.
Make sure you check out our early impressions (S26 Ultra, S26, Galaxy Buds 4); reviews are coming soon.
— Mat Smith
Ambient’s dedicated alarm clock offers many of the conveniences of your smartphone alarms — highly customizable alarm schedules, a library of soundscapes and noise masks and even Bluetooth so you can connect earbuds. There’s no subscription, it sounds great and sleep insights are supposedly incoming. However, $250 is a lot. Check out our full review.
Review aggregator Metacritic has removed a review of Resident Evil Requiem because it was AI generated. Kotaku explained the review was published by UK gaming site VideoGamer, but appears to be “written” by a fake AI journalist rather than a real person. “Brian Merrygold” doesn’t seem to exist.
The author’s profile on VideoGamer is just as awkwardly written as the review, and the profile picture of the account also appears to be AI-generated. Literally, the file name includes “ChatGPT-Image.”
ClickOut Media, the company that owns VideoGamer and a collection of other publications, reportedly laid off the staff of its gaming sites earlier this month to pivot to AI-generated content. Here it is.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-144951777.html?src=rss
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If you need to start a cordless tool kit or replace a set that’s worn out or broken, this Ridgid 18-volt, eight-tool combo set has all the basics you need for home DIY and beginner woodworking projects. Because cordless tools can be expensive, getting a good deal on a set is a way to stretch your DIY budget. I’ve used this set for shop work building shelving and displays, and the tools are durable and the batteries hold a charge well after years of use. At 65% off, it’s a great deal for eight tools and
batteries.
Ridgid tools has been around for a century, and it makes tools with a reputation for durability and good battery life. The company is best known for inventing the pipe wrench in 1923, and since then, they have developed a line of over 30 cordless tools that can be used for anything from lawn care to carpentry. Ridgid is unique in the industry of cordless tools for offering a lifetime warrantee on their tools sold through Home Depot that includes the batteries. Once you own this set and register it with the company, you will have the battery set for as long as you want to use the tools.
I used the Ridgid tools that come in this bundle on the set of a haunted house over the course of several years and they held up, without the need for a warrantee replacement even with daily use for several hours of overtime a day. The impact driver and drill are well-balanced and comfortable to use and the new, slimmer batteries are lightweight, allowing smaller precision tools like the drywall cutout tool to be operated easily.
The Ridgid 18-volt, eight-tool combo set is on sale at Home Depot right now for $283, 65% off its regular price. The set comes with a drill, an impact driver, a circular saw, a reciprocating saw, a random orbital sander, a work light, a mini shop vac, a blower, a 4-amp-hour battery, a 2-amp-hour battery, a charger, and a tool bag.
Because this set comes with a set of batteries covered by a lifetime warranty, you’ll save a lot on replacing batteries over time as well as in the short term by shopping the sale. In order to access the warranty on this set, you need to register the set with proof of purchase within 90 days of buying them, and they have to come from Home Depot to be eligible for the coverage. The warranty also covers all of the 18-volt tools that Ridgid makes, so if anything goes wrong, you can get a replacement or a repair at no cost.
A tool set that comes with a drill and driver is a good way to start, and this set also has saws and some accessories to build your home DIY kit. The mini shop vac is great for a home shop in a mixed use space, like a basement because you can clean up quickly using the same batteries you use for your driver and saw.
This week, we’re diving into the big changes at Xbox and what it all means for Microsoft’s gaming future. Phil Spencer, the longtime face of Xbox, announced he’s retiring last week. He’ll be replaced by Microsoft’s former CoreAI CEO Asha Sharma, instead of his longtime deputy Sarah Bond, who plans to leave the company. Will this change actually help the beleaguered Xbox division, or is it another example of Microsoft shoving AI into everything?
Also, Samsung held its latest Unpacked event this week to announce its new Galaxy S26 family. They look pretty much the same as last year, but the Ultra model includes a unique privacy feature that can instantly make the screen unreadable to bystanders. It’s one of those features we expect to see in every phone eventually.
Xbox leadership falls apart. what happens next with Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond out? – 1:53
Samsung Unpacked: Privacy display on the S26 Ultra looks amazing – 27:27
U.S. Defense leadership gives Anthropic a Friday deadline to let it use Claude as it sees fit – 42:38
MrBeast editor accused of insider trading on Kalshi – 50:40
Discord delays age verification program after user revolt – 54:09
Around Engadget – 1:04:04
Working on – 1:05:16
Pop culture picks – 1:08:21
Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Igor Bonifacic
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/engadget-podcast-xboxs-leadership-shakeup-and-samsungs-galaxy-s26-150000180.html?src=rss
If you are planning spring or summer travel, you may want to slow down and pay close attention to the process. Scammers have a lot to gain by targeting travelers: The Federal Trade Commission tracked more than 58,000 reports of travel, vacation, and timeshare plan fraud in 2024 totaling $274 million in losses. And AI is helping them get away with it.
Some of the most common travel scams involve impersonation: of people, brands, and listings. For example, fraudsters will post fake vacation rental listings and collect payment (sometimes by pressuring you to use wire transfers or peer-to-peer apps) and leave you stranded with no place to stay or stuck in accommodations way worse than what you booked and paid for. On the back end of a trip, a dishonest host may try to make fraudulent damage claims and pressure you into paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for something you didn’t do.
Scammers will also impersonate travel agents and booking platforms, allowing them to collect sensitive personal information and money before you clock the fraud. Booking.com is a common target for scams. Multiple campaigns have used a spoofed version of the site to spread malware—another known as “I Paid Twice” targeted both Booking.com and Expedia.
Other travel scams involve fake flight cancellation notifications (which direct you to rebook on a phishing website), fake customer service numbers promoted via both sponsored ads and legitimate business listings, and deals that are too good to be true.
These days, even savvy consumers can fall victim to these travel scams. As travel expert and consumer advocate Christopher Elliott writes for The Seattle Times, AI has rendered traditional scam red flags practically obsolete. We can no longer rely on obvious grammar and spelling errors to differentiate between what’s real and what isn’t, as tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are capable of nearly flawless replication of human speech and generating authentic-looking content—like photos, rental listings, and entire websites—in almost no time.
According to McAfee, one of the most common ways AI has changed the travel scam landscape is via voice cloning. Threat actors can make deepfake calls using just a few seconds of voice samples pulled from promotional material or customer service recordings. You may not be able to differentiate between a fake airline representative, hotel staff, or travel agent and a real one, and fraudsters use this to get everything from passport information to credit card numbers.
AI also makes phishing attempts far harder to spot, as scammers can craft booking confirmations and other communication using authentic branding and perfect text. And fake booking sites (as described above), rental listings, and tour pages are nearly indistinguishable from real ones, thanks to AI-generated photos, videos, and reviews.
Thankfully, AI hasn’t eliminated every scam indicator. Urgency should always raise alarms, as scammers count on targets responding to demands before having time to think. If you’re being pressured to provide information or pay money or book before a deal expires, it might be a scam. Slow down and verify before taking action.
If you’re asked to send money via crypto, wire transfers, gift cards, or apps like Venmo and Zelle, it’s almost certainly a scam. Always book travel over trusted platforms using credit cards, which have fraud protection and can be tracked or disputed.
If a customer service rep contacts you about your trip, ask them to verify your booking details before providing any additional information. If they cannot confirm things like your reservation number or card on file, they are likely not legitimate. If you’re unsure, hang up and call the hotel, airline, or travel agent using contact information obtained from an official source.
Finally, check travel websites carefully for subtle signs of a scam. Be wary of URL tricks like homograph attacks and typosquatting, which are used to spread malware. Legitimate businesses will also have contact information and privacy policies on their websites. Avoid getting to websites through search results and unsolicited emails and social media messages—instead, go directly through trusted communication or type the correct URL into the address bar.
Bright Data, a company that operates one of the world’s largest residential proxy networks, has been running an SDK inside smart TV apps that turns those devices into nodes for web crawling — collecting data used by AI companies, among other clients — and most consumers have had no idea it was happening.
The company has published more than 200 first-party apps to LG’s app store alone and still lists Samsung’s Tizen OS and LG’s webOS as supported platforms, though LG says the SDK is “not officially supported” and its operation on webOS “is not guaranteed.” Google, Amazon, and Roku have all since adopted policies restricting or banning background proxy SDKs, and Bright Data no longer supports those platforms.
Several Roku apps still running the SDK disappeared from the store after a journalist with The Verge behind this reporting contacted the company.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An Ars Technica colleague recently bought a new M4 MacBook Air. I have essentially nothing bad to say about this hardware, except to point out that even in our current memory shortage apocalypse, Apple is still charging higher-than-market-rates for RAM and SSD upgrades. Still, most people buying this laptop will have a perfectly nice time with it.
But for this colleague, it was also their first interaction with macOS 26 Tahoe and the Liquid Glass redesign, the Mac’s first major software design update since the Apple Silicon era began with macOS 11 Big Sur in 2020.
Negative consumer reaction to Liquid Glass has been overstated by some members of the Apple enthusiast media ecosystem, and Apple’s data shows that iOS 26 adoption rates are roughly in line with those of the last few years. But the Mac’s foray into Liquid Glass has drawn particular ire from longtime users (developers Jeff Johnson and Norbert Heger have been tracking persistently weird Finder and window resizing behavior, to pick two concrete examples, and Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has encouraged users not to upgrade).
Most of us believe that we would never, ever fall for a scam. We think we know the “tells,” like poorly formulated communication that sounds urgent. Unfortunately, social engineering—tactics that prey on human emotions and instincts to get us to act against our own interests—can work on anyone.
Romance scams are a textbook example of emotional manipulation in which the perpetrator exploits a victim’s feelings of loneliness, love, or desire for connection to build trust over the long term. Beyond the emotional toll, the financial consequences are significant: The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported $672 million in romance scam losses in 2024, and this number is almost certainly only a fraction of the real total.
Scammers are increasingly employing AI tools in romance scams, making these campaigns even harder to detect and therefore even more dangerous for targets. Experian predicts that AI-powered romance scams will be among the top fraud threats in 2026.
As McAfee describes in a recent report on the state of romance scams, this type of fraud is a long con. A romance scam typically starts with a “hook,” like a DM, follow request, “wrong number” text, or match on a dating app. Once a scammer gets a response, they’ll move into love bombing in an attempt to quickly build intimacy and trust while encouraging you to keep the relationship a secret. They’ll take time to build credibility around their persona, which likely includes a job or lifestyle that prevents them from meeting you.
Next comes a minor request for financial support, which may escalate into opening an account, “investing” in a business venture, or co-signing a loan. Increasingly, these schemes involve fraudulent investments in cryptocurrency. (Another term for this is “pig butchering.”) Once they’ve got what they want, scammers disappear, leaving victims to deal with the consequences.
Romance scams work because they don’t start with obvious exploitation. Fraudsters build up trust over weeks and months, so it’s more likely to feel like a real relationship than a scam until victims are already in too deep.
AI is making romance scams even easier for fraudsters to run. In a review of recent research, Bitdefender notes that in order to build trust, scammers have traditionally had to devote significant time and attention to each individual target. While playing the long game in this way is often worth the effort—as the payoff is often significant—it limits the number of potential victims any one scammer could reach.
AI removes these barriers. Large language models (LLMs) are capable of maintaining natural conversations without the red flags of a scam, such as poor grammar and misspellings. AI can mirror personality, reflect emotion, and match tone, and it’s less likely than a human to come off as pressured or rushed. Chatbots can retain and integrate personal details from earlier conversations, and it requires very little effort to sustain for a very large number of victims.
Automated chatbots are especially adept at handling the early stages of a romance scam, and humans are required to step in only at critical moments to offer reassurance or initiate a financial request. Because scammers can maintain many conversations at once, they can also test out different tactics and quickly refine based on what works best to keep victims engaged. As the Global Cyber Alliance puts it, AI adds “speed, scale, and consistency” to the traditional romance scam.
Research suggests that victims may actually find AI more trustworthy than a human. McAfee found that a third of American adults believe it’s possible to develop romantic feelings toward an AI bot. Deepfake audio and video make these AI-powered scams even more credible, as victims can no longer rely on a scammer’s refusal to actually speak with them as a red flag.
Even a well-trained chatbot has limitations. According to McAfee, the most common clues that you’re interacting with a bot or fake profile include scripted or repetitive responses, instant (and perfectly crafted) replies, and photos that are obviously generated by AI. Other red flags include a contact who avoids voice and video calls as well as unusual requests early in the relationship.
To avoid getting wrapped up in an AI-powered romance scam, slow down. Be wary of perfectly crafted responses, which may indicate automation. Try asking unexpected questions or creating friction, which can throw a chatbot off. Remember that relationships shouldn’t rely on secrecy or be contingent on financial support. Social media and dating sites are full of fake profiles, so seeing is not always believing.
Block, the fintech group headed by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, will cut its workforce by “nearly half” in one of the clearest signs of the sweeping changes AI tools are having on employment.
Shares in the payment company soared more than 25 percent in after-hours trading on Thursday as it announced it would shed more than 4,000 jobs from its 10,000-strong workforce.
“Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company. We’re already seeing it internally,” Dorsey wrote in a letter to shareholders.
OpenAI has closed what is now the largest private financing in history — a $110 billion round at a $730 billion pre-money valuation that more than doubles the $40 billion raise it completed just a year ago, itself a record for a private tech company at the time.
Amazon invested $50 billion, SoftBank put in $30 billion, and Nvidia committed $30 billion, and additional investors are expected to join as the round progresses. The valuation is a sharp jump from the $500 billion OpenAI commanded in a secondary financing in October, and the round dwarfs recent raises by rivals Anthropic ($30 billion) and xAI ($20 billion).
The company has been telling investors it is now targeting roughly $600 billion in total compute spend by 2030, a more measured figure than the $1.4 trillion in infrastructure commitments CEO Sam Altman had touted months earlier. OpenAI is projecting more than $280 billion in total revenue by 2030, split roughly equally between consumer and enterprise. ChatGPT now has over 900 million weekly active users and more than 50 million paying subscribers.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Spending less than $100 on noise-canceling earbuds used to mean accepting weak ANC, short battery life, or stripped-down features. The Anker Soundcore Liberty 5 makes fewer of those compromises. They’re currently $99.99 on Amazon, down from $129.99—a $30 drop, or about 23% off—and price trackers show this is the lowest they’ve been.
PCMag gave them an “excellent” rating and named them the “Best Budget Earphones” of 2025, mainly because they offer features that are usually reserved for pricier models. The Liberty 5 earbuds have a glossy finish, while its charging case has a matte texture and slide-open top. The fit is secure enough for long listening sessions without feeling tight. They connect over Bluetooth and support AAC, SBC, and LDAC codecs (LDAC can deliver higher-quality audio on supported Android devices), which is notable at this price.
You also get Bluetooth multipoint (which lets you connect to two devices at once), so you can switch between a laptop and a phone without re-pairing. Controls are handled by squeezing the stem. A single squeeze plays or pauses audio. A long squeeze switches between noise cancellation and transparency mode. You can customize most gestures in the Soundcore app, including EQ adjustments to fine-tune the sound.
Noise cancellation is where these earbuds stand out for the price. They block low-frequency rumble from planes and engines effectively, and they reduce much of the chatter in a café. They are not on the same level as top-tier models from Apple or Bose, but they perform better than many earbuds in this range, notes this PCMag review.
Battery life is strong. With ANC on, you get up to eight hours per charge and up to 32 hours with the case. Turn ANC off and that jumps to 12 hours and 48 hours total. A 10-minute charge gives you about five hours of playback, and the case supports wireless charging. With IP55 water resistance for sweat and rain, the Liberty 5 is a practical pick for workouts, commuting, or travel at a record-low price.
Excepting the AirTag 2, so far it’s been a quiet year for Apple hardware. But that’s poised to change next week, as the company is hosting a “special experience” on March 4.
The use of the word experience, rather than event or presentation, implies that Apple’s typical presentation format won’t apply here. And CEO Tim Cook more or less confirmed this when he posted that the company had “a big week ahead,” starting on Monday. Apple is most likely planning multiple days of product launches announced via press release on its Newsroom site, with the “experience” on Wednesday serving as a capper and a hands-on session for the media.
Apple has used a similar strategy before, spacing out relatively low-key refreshes over several days to generate sustained interest rather than dropping everything in a single 30- to 60-minute string of pre-recorded videos.
You’ve probably heard that you should feel a certain muscle working when you do an exercise. Your biceps should burn a little when you’re doing bicep curls, your quads when you’re doing squats, and so on. But this isn’t an ironclad rule. Sometimes you can get a totally effective workout without feeling any specific muscle at all.
So why do so many people tell you to pay attention to feeling the muscle working? Partly because it can be a useful teaching tool to make sure you’re doing the exercise right—but that’s only true for some exercises. And honestly, another big reason is the influence of bodybuilding lingo and techniques on gym culture in general. Bodybuilders who train for the stage operate with a piece-by-piece mindset: Make sure you’re working this muscle and not that one. That’s OK if you’re trying to fine-tune your physique after years of training, but that approach isn’t needed to build muscle in the first place. So here’s what you need to know.
Here’s the most important thing to know: you don’t have to feel a muscle for it to be working. Say you’re doing a barbell squat. A squat works your quads, your glutes, and a lot of other muscles besides. You may not feel every one of those because when you’re doing a heavy squat, your brain is processing a lot of information. It’s feeling the weight of the bar on your back. It’s remembering the technique cues that you’re trying to focus on. It’s paying attention to your balance as you descend to make sure you don’t tip over one way or another. It’s counting the number of the rep in your head. Maybe sometimes a muscle manages to pipe up with “hey, I’m your quads and I’m kind of hurting right now.” But your brain does not have time to listen to every muscle’s nonsense, any more than a mom making dinner has time to listen to her toddler’s every whine. Your brain is focused on the task at hand: making sure you complete the rep.
I like to think of some muscles as being “louder” than others. If I’m doing kettlebell swings, I might be more focused on the fact that my forearms are burning (from holding onto the kettlebell) and not feel my glutes working at all. But after 100 swings, hoo boy, you can bet my butt will be feeling like jelly afterward. It just didn’t give me that burning sensation in the moment.
So what should you do if you don’t feel the muscle working? You look for another way to be sure the muscle is working. In the case of the compound exercises mentioned above, the fact that you completed the exercise is all the information you need. Your pullups used your lats. Your kettlebell swings and your squats used your glutes. There’s simply no way around that.
Does it ever matter whether you’re feeling the muscle? Yes, it can help if you’re doing isolation exercises. In these exercises, like a bicep curl or a leg extension, you’re trying to focus a movement on one muscle or a small muscle group. You’re “isolating” that muscle. Your brain is a little more able to focus on the feeling from that one muscle, and isolations are the type of exercise where it may be possible to do a similar movement without working the target muscle.
For example, let’s say you’re doing side-lying leg raises to work your hip adductors, particularly the gluteus medius. If you have your hips tilted or your legs angled slightly forward, you may feel the muscles toward the front of your hips working. But if you do the same exercise with your back to a wall, sliding your heel along the wall as your lift your leg, you’ll feel it a lot more in that glute you’re trying to isolate.
As a general rule, for compound exercises (where many muscles are working at once), it doesn’t matter whether you feel the muscle. But if you are doing an isolation exercise, feeling the muscle is helpful feedback to make sure that you are isolating the right muscle.
There’s a lot of bad advice out there, and I’d like to call out one thing specifically: the advice to reduce the amount of weight you’re lifting so that you can feel the muscles better. Sometimes people will say it’s important to build a “mind-muscle connection.”
But you don’t have to forgo weight on the bar to build that connection. If you’d like to spend more time feeling the muscle, do some isolation work in your warmups. (These are sometimes called “activation” exercises.) You can also do extra isolation work at the end of your workout just to give those specific muscles a little more volume.
It’s important to remember that different parts of your workout have different purposes. If you’re squatting heavy, you need to put some fucking weight on the bar to keep building your strength and your skill at squatting. Often the lifts that make it hardest to feel a muscle are the lifts where that muscle is working the most! So don’t give up on heavy, effective lifts just because you don’t “feel” them as well as isolations or warmups.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Ballooning memory prices are forecast to kill off entry-level PCs, leading to a decline in global shipments this year — and a similar effect is going to hit smartphones. Analyst biz Gartner is projecting a drop in PC shipments of more than 10 percent during 2026, and a decline of around 8 percent for smartphones, all due to the AI-driven memory shortage. Some types of memory have doubled or quadrupled in price since last year, and Gartner believes DRAM and NAND flash used in PCs and phones is set for a further 130 percent rise by the end of 2026.
The upshot of this is that the budget PC will disappear, simply because vendors won’t be able to build them at a price that will satisfy cost-conscious buyers, according to Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal. “Because the price of memory is increasing so much, vendors lose the ability to provide entry-level PCs — those below about $500,” he told The Register. PC makers could just raise the price of their cheap and cheerful boxes to above that level to compensate for the memory hike, however, price-sensitive buyers simply won’t bite, he added.
Another factor expected to add to declining fortunes of the PC industry this year is AI devices — systems equipped with special hardware for accelerating AI tasks, typically via a neural processing unit (NPU) embedded in the CPU. These systems were predicted to take the market by storm, but they require more memory to support AI processing and vendors like to mark them up to a premium price. “Historically, downgrading specifications was the way to go when prices were being squeezed, but that’s difficult here,” Atwal said. “The thinking was that the average price [of AI PCs] would fall this year, and lead to more adoption,” said Atwal, “but that’s not happening.” The lack of killer applications isn’t helping either.
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