Blackpink in your upper-facial area.
Category Archives: Technology
Meta’s next smart glasses collab is with Blackpink’s Lisa
Blackpink in your upper-facial area.
Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 hands-on: Better battery life and a price hike
The latest lineup comes in two new frame styles: Aviator and Zena.
Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 hands-on: Better battery life and a price hike
The latest lineup comes in two new frame styles: Aviator and Zena.
Meta announces Ray-Ban Meta Audio, its first smart glasses without a camera
That’s one way to avoid the whole surreptitious recording issues.
Meta brings FDA-cleared hearing enhancement to its smart glasses
After a free trial it’ll cost $150 to add on, or require a Meta One subscription.
Meta’s Muse AI agent is coming to its AI glasses
Have your virtual assistant book a flight while you’re jogging.
The purpose of the triangle symbol on your Samsung Galaxy phone
Samsung phones have a few different triangle symbols that can display in the status bar in different scenarios. This is how to tell what they mean.
RFK Jr.’s CDC isn’t letting states order COVID-19 shots for kids, blocking access
As respiratory virus season nears and fall vaccination drives get underway, more than half of US children are facing uncertainty over access to this year’s COVID-19 shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has unexpectedly delayed the distribution of the shots to a key federal program and some states.
Usually, the CDC would allow states to order the newly available seasonal COVID-19 vaccines through the federal Vaccine for Children (VFC) program, which provides vaccines at no cost to children who are uninsured, underinsured, Medicaid-eligible, or Indigenous people in the US. Approximately 52 percent of all US children are eligible for vaccines through the program.
Additionally, The Guardian reports that at least 11 states and one US territory are part of a universal vaccine purchase program, in which they buy all vaccines for children—regardless of their ability to pay or insurance status—through contracts otherwise for the VFC. The 11 states and one territory include: Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming, and American Samoa.
RFK Jr.’s CDC isn’t letting states order COVID-19 shots for kids, blocking access
As respiratory virus season nears and fall vaccination drives get underway, more than half of US children are facing uncertainty over access to this year’s COVID-19 shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has unexpectedly delayed the distribution of the shots to a key federal program and some states.
Usually, the CDC would allow states to order the newly available seasonal COVID-19 vaccines through the federal Vaccine for Children (VFC) program, which provides vaccines at no cost to children who are uninsured, underinsured, Medicaid-eligible, or Indigenous people in the US. Approximately 52 percent of all US children are eligible for vaccines through the program.
Additionally, The Guardian reports that at least 11 states and one US territory are part of a universal vaccine purchase program, in which they buy all vaccines for children—regardless of their ability to pay or insurance status—through contracts otherwise for the VFC. The 11 states and one territory include: Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming, and American Samoa.
I Tried Siri AI on My New Apple Watch, and I’m Frustrated
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One of the big features Apple announced alongside the new Apple Watches is Siri AI—now available on your wrist! You need to join a waitlist to try Apple’s new and improved chatbot, and since my turn just came up, I put the new on-wrist Siri through its paces. Here’s how it went, and why I don’t think the experience lives up to Apple’s promises (yet, anyway).
What devices have Siri AI?
Since Siri AI requires Apple Intelligence, you’ll need a device that supports it. Those include iPhones 15 Pro and newer, and an Apple Watch that is Series 9 or newer. If you want to use Siri AI on the Apple Watch, you need both a supported watch and a supported phone—a new watch and old phone won’t do the trick. With my phone and watch both on iOS 27 (the iOS 27.2 developer beta on the phone; watchOS 27.0 on the Apple Watch Series 12), I enabled Siri AI in my phone’s Settings app, which put me on a waiting list. A few days later, I got a notification that I was in.
Siri AI on the Apple Watch is occasionally useful, but mostly disappointing
Once I’d upgraded to Siri AI on my watch, I went about asking it plenty of questions and watched it struggle to answer many of them. The first thing I tried was to ask where I could find the nearest yoga studio; it responded with a list of yoga studios, none of them particularly close to my home. After rewording my question a few times, it finally listed one about a mile away. This is one of those examples where using AI is less efficient than a Google search—or even plain old regular Siri: When I asked this same question of the old Siri model last week, it quickly found the closest studio.
With my phone in another room, I next decided to try some of the questions that Apple provides as examples on the WatchOS 27 page. Here’s how that went.
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“What’s a good warm-up for deadlifts?” Siri gave me paragraphs of text about the purpose of warmups in general. When I tapped “Show More,” I was sent to the bottom of a long bulleted list of exercises. I’m not reading all that.
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“Read my upcoming events.” Siri needed a good five seconds to think about this one, but then correctly rattled off my next few calendar appointments.
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“Set a new move ring goal.” Actually, I first started by asking what my Move ring goal was, and Siri could not tell me. So I blindly set a new goal, and later saw it updated to the new value in the Fitness app…sort of. When I asked for a goal of burning 350 calories, it gave me a goal of 350. When I asked for a goal of 325, Siri responded that it has changed my goal to 325, but when I checked the Fitness app, it showed that my goal had been set to 320 calories.
Siri AI sometimes performed well on the Apple Watch, but seemed to do better on my iPhone
I then put Siri AI to the test with a few requests that other Apple Watch users have reported give the chatbot some trouble. The first involved setting a timer; perhaps that function is buggy for some users, but it worked quickly for me. “Siri, set a timer for five minutes” did exactly that, with only a few seconds of waiting. Likewise, “Siri, what’s the weather for today?” brought up the weather forecast instantly.
One of the purported new features of Siri AI is its ability to search your emails and messages for information that is relavent to a conversation you’re having with it. On the Apple Watch, this doesn’t work for me as well as I would like. First, I asked Siri what my daughter had recently asked me to buy for her. (She is constantly texting me to ask for things.) Siri responded that my daughter had sent me a wish list of LEGO sets on Sept. 12. This is true. But it wasn’t until I specified, “wasn’t there a makeup kit?” that Siri was also able to find that request, which was from Sept. 13.
Meanwhile, the iPhone version of Siri AI was able to find the wishlist and makeup kit requests and tell me about them in the same initial response, without the additional prompting. In another test of its search capabilities, I asked who I had sent “Ramona’s dad’s phone number” to. The Watch version of Siri AI found that text message, but was only able to tell me the phone number of the person I had sent it to. Siri AI on the phone, on the other hand, was able to figure out that the person requesting the number had introduced themselves by name earlier in that conversation, and it told me exactly who that person was (even though I had not entered the name into my contacts).
Where Siri AI struggles on the Apple Watch
Still, plenty of requests don’t work even that well, or don’t work at all. The watch’s Siri app routinely crashes, taking me back to the home screen. Sometimes Siri’s voice breaks up, and it interrupts itself to start its message over again. Good save, but weird to listen to. Sometimes Siri “thinks” for a long time. Many requests take five to 10 seconds, during which time I certainly could grab my phone and look up the answer myself. Whenever Siri is stumped, it searches the web and gives me a sea of unhelpful text.
For example, I tried to see if Siri could explain a mysterious icon on my watch screen. I asked, “Why is this icon gray?” (in a variety of phrasings to clarify I meant one that I was looking at right now). Instead of telling me anything useful, or explaining that it can’t see my watch screen, it read me some text from the Internet about what gray icons mean, in general, as a concept. Another time, I asked it to resume playing my podcast. Instead of starting up my usual podcast app, it told me that Episode 550 of My Favorite Murder had just come out. I don’t like murder podcasts, have never listened to My Favorite Murder in my life, and episode 550 was—now that I check—the third-most-recent episode, not the one that just came out. (The iPhone’s version of Siri AI, on the other hand, happily started my podcast app.)
At least one thing worked better on the watch: Both versions of Siri AI said they had no information on my sleep data, but the version on the watch was at least able to tell me what time I had gone to bed and what time I had woken up. That’s something.
The promised Conversations app likewise did not work as expected. When you press the digital crown on the watch, a mini app picker pops up with Siri in the center, surrounded by a few of your most recent apps. If you scroll down, you get the full list (or grid) as before. Tapping that center button is supposed to show you a list of recent conversations, but mine kept showing me “No conversations.” Later, exactly one conversation showed up there: the one where I asked what a gray icon meant. That was the only question in that conversation, even though I had been conversing with Siri all day.
Still a work in progress
I like the idea of the new Siri AI, and being able to ask follow-up questions is nice, especially now that I can interrupt the chatbot to clarify my questions. (“Give me two specific warm-up exercises I can do before snatches” got it to stop lecturing me about warm-ups in general.) But the long waits for answers, the frequent crashes, and the bot’s inability to access data that is right there on the device are frustrating. Here’s hoping it gets better with the next update.
FBI rushes to investigate if ShinyHunters hack of thousands of employees is real
The FBI is now investigating claims from a hacker group that thousands of current and former employees’ personal data was stolen after the group exploited a previously unknown bug found on an agency jobs website.
On Tuesday, 404 Media reported that ShinyHunters took down the agency site, FBIJobs.gov, then posted a banner on the homepage that said “THIS SITE HAS BEEN SEIZED BY SHINYHUNTERS.”
About two to three terabytes of data were taken, ShinyHunters told The New York Times. None of the data has been leaked yet, but it included “names of current and former agents as well as applicants and corresponding home addresses, phone numbers, names of spouses, certain medical information, and other data.” According to Bloomberg, the data could be used to potentially retaliate against agents, with one sample appearing to include “potentially sensitive professional information on the FBI employees’ work focus such as counter-intelligence work on China, Russia and Iran, as well as work against street gangs.”
FBI rushes to investigate if ShinyHunters hack of thousands of employees is real
The FBI is now investigating claims from a hacker group that thousands of current and former employees’ personal data was stolen after the group exploited a previously unknown bug found on an agency jobs website.
On Tuesday, 404 Media reported that ShinyHunters took down the agency site, FBIJobs.gov, then posted a banner on the homepage that said “THIS SITE HAS BEEN SEIZED BY SHINYHUNTERS.”
About two to three terabytes of data were taken, ShinyHunters told The New York Times. None of the data has been leaked yet, but it included “names of current and former agents as well as applicants and corresponding home addresses, phone numbers, names of spouses, certain medical information, and other data.” According to Bloomberg, the data could be used to potentially retaliate against agents, with one sample appearing to include “potentially sensitive professional information on the FBI employees’ work focus such as counter-intelligence work on China, Russia and Iran, as well as work against street gangs.”
How Garmin’s New ‘Epic’ Feature Helps Me See the Bigger Picture of My Training
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Garmin’s new logging feature, Garmin Epic, is getting buried in the launch of the latest Fenix 9 watch, but it deserves a headline of its own. It’s a shareable digital travel journal for your big trip, being pitched by Garmin as the kind of thing you post after a major hike or race. Personally, I think that framing undersells it. Epic is also a great training-analysis hack, and that’s how I plan on using it for my upcoming marathon this fall.
First things first: Garmin Epics are not to be confused with Garmin’s older watch line, epix, with an “x”. This feature is Epic, with a “c”. The names are close enough that searching for one turns up the other, so double-check the spelling.
What is a Garmin Epic?
A Garmin Epic is a digital travel journal that combines your activities, maps, photos, and key health and performance metrics into a single interactive timeline you can revisit and share. With the Fenix 9 smartwatch, you can create and start an Epic directly from your watch. For older watches, you can still create Epics in the Garmin Connect app.
Once you create an Epic, you can see all activities on one map, photos, an activity feed, daily notes, and selected performance and health reports across the whole span. It’s a free Garmin Connect feature, and Garmin’s launch demo showed a Reports tab with sleep score, resting heart rate, and HRV status for the same dates.
Credit: Meredith Dietz
How to use Garmin Epic as a training tool
Again, although the launch of Garmin Epic is wrapped up in the launch of the Fenix 9, you don’t need that smartwatch to use Epics in the Connect app: You can find it under the Activities menu. You can also group past activities into an Epic after the fact, and that ability is what makes the training-hack angle work.
An Epic can run up to 92 days and keeps cumulative distance and calories along with sleep, recovery, and HRV status. That’s about 13 weeks, which conveniently covers a typical training block for a half-marathon-level event. Here are some ways to use it:
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Wrap a whole training block. Make one Epic per build, such as “Fall Marathon Build” or “Base Phase.” You get total volume and the recovery trend in a single view, and you can compare it against your next block.
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Review a training camp or big week. Garmin lists training camps as a use case: Group the days, see total volume, and check how fitness and recovery responded over time.
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Look back at a build after the race. Backdate an Epic across the last 10 weeks and see whether your HRV status and sleep held up. Then you can decide what to repeat for next time.
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Track a return from injury or a taper. Sometimes these are periods where the trend matters more than any single run.
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Use daily notes as a subjective log. “Legs heavy,” “slept badly,” “felt great.” The metrics show what your body did, but your notes show how it felt, which is usually what explains a strange week.
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Plan ahead. You can schedule up to five future Epics, up to 366 days in advance. Set up your next block before it starts.
Garmin Epic wasn’t designed to be a comprehensive training-analysis feature, so it’s not a flawless system. Still, while Epic is marketed as the place to relive your adventures, I’d argue the more useful trick is using it to zoom out and look for patterns in your training for next time.
Disney+ and Hulu raise prices by up to 13 percent after doubling profits
Disney+ got its fourth price hike in four years today. Hulu prices also went up.
Disney+ and Hulu’s respective standalone, ad-free plans (which also support 4K and HDR) are each increasing 13 percent from $19 per month to $21.50/month.
Disney+ and Hulu’s respective standalone plans with ads increased from $12 to $12.50.
Disney+ and Hulu raise prices by up to 13 percent after doubling profits
Disney+ got its fourth price hike in four years today. Hulu prices also went up.
Disney+ and Hulu’s respective standalone, ad-free plans (which also support 4K and HDR) are each increasing 13 percent from $19 per month to $21.50/month.
Disney+ and Hulu’s respective standalone plans with ads increased from $12 to $12.50.
ShinyHunters hackers claim to have 2-3TB of sensitive information about FBI employees
Financial extortion doesn’t seem to be the group’s goal this time.
Here’s the Torcal, the first fully electric Bentley
A few weeks ago, Bentley gave Ars a ride in a new camouflaged electric vehicle. Named after a Spanish rock formation, the Torcal is the brand’s first battery EV, and today the production car had its formal unveiling. That camo was effective: The real car is less bulbous and more blocky than its disguise would suggest. And it’s fair to say it brings some of the ideas of the EXP 15 concept to the road—even if that didn’t include that show car’s elegant, stretched proportions. It’s smaller than the Bentayga, and it should slot beneath that model in pricing (or the PHEV version of it, at least), though Bentley has yet to reveal exactly how much US buyers can expect to pay.
Underneath the bodywork are some relatively familiar underpinnings; Bentley shares technology with Porsche as both are part of the greater Volkswagen Group empire. The power output might not be as prodigious as the electric Porsche Cayenne but should be sufficient nonetheless. The standard car will offer peak outputs of 810 hp (604 kW) and 880 lb-ft (1,194 Nm), enough for a 3.3-second 0–60 mph time (0–100 km/h takes 3.4 seconds).
The EXP 15’s influence is stronger at the rear.
Credit:
Bentley
The more powerful Torcal S boasts 875 hp (653 kW) and 995 lb-ft (1,350 Nm) at its most potent; this is capable of 60 mph from a standing start in a mere 2.8 seconds (2.9 to 100 km/h) and an increased top speed of 162 mph (260 km/h), up from 155 mph (250 km/h) for the standard version, either of which are academic outside certain stretches of German highway.
Here’s the Torcal, the first fully electric Bentley
A few weeks ago, Bentley gave Ars a ride in a new camouflaged electric vehicle. Named after a Spanish rock formation, the Torcal is the brand’s first battery EV, and today the production car had its formal unveiling. That camo was effective: The real car is less bulbous and more blocky than its disguise would suggest. And it’s fair to say it brings some of the ideas of the EXP 15 concept to the road—even if that didn’t include that show car’s elegant, stretched proportions. It’s smaller than the Bentayga, and it should slot beneath that model in pricing (or the PHEV version of it, at least), though Bentley has yet to reveal exactly how much US buyers can expect to pay.
Underneath the bodywork are some relatively familiar underpinnings; Bentley shares technology with Porsche as both are part of the greater Volkswagen Group empire. The power output might not be as prodigious as the electric Porsche Cayenne but should be sufficient nonetheless. The standard car will offer peak outputs of 810 hp (604 kW) and 880 lb-ft (1,194 Nm), enough for a 3.3-second 0–60 mph time (0–100 km/h takes 3.4 seconds).
The EXP 15’s influence is stronger at the rear.
Credit:
Bentley
The more powerful Torcal S boasts 875 hp (653 kW) and 995 lb-ft (1,350 Nm) at its most potent; this is capable of 60 mph from a standing start in a mere 2.8 seconds (2.9 to 100 km/h) and an increased top speed of 162 mph (260 km/h), up from 155 mph (250 km/h) for the standard version, either of which are academic outside certain stretches of German highway.
Trump’s China rivalry and “AI race” delusion may endanger US, experts say
This week, the US and China, the two world leaders on AI, finally started talks meant to keep the whole world safe from emerging safety risks. But whether meetings between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping can lead to a reliable global governance framework for AI depends on how much the fierce rivals are actually willing to cooperate.
It’s clear Trump wants it to seem like discussions are going well. Before Trump and Xi meet on Thursday and Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that both sides had already discussed setting up a new AI safety notification mechanism. If China agrees to participate, that would create an open line for either side to send alerts when their country’s AI systems pose threats or behave unpredictably. The same channel, Bessent said, could allow the countries to share their “vision of common goals.”
However, the proposal comes at a time when China may not be ready to trust the US to have AI safety conversations that aren’t about limiting China’s capabilities. Not only has Trump steadily increased export controls that explicitly seek to block China from accessing technology to advance AI, but Congress is mulling bills that would cut the country off from more chips and hardware. Adding to tensions, just two weeks ago, Trump’s Justice Department accused six of China’s leading AI makers of stealing from US frontier labs, which China has strongly disputed.