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Of the three much-anticipated fitness bands that were rumored to release this year, Polar was the first to confirm theirs, and the last to release it. Today it’s official: the Polar Loop is a $199 wristband with no subscription that can track workouts and more. 

Pre-orders open today for the Polar Loop, and it will start shipping on September 10, 2025. It’s a lightweight device, only 29 grams including the strap, 20 grams without it, and it’s available in three colors: black, brown, and “greige” (gray-beige). As for physical size, it’s 42 x 27 x 9 millimeters; that’s similar to the Amazfit Helio device, but larger than the Whoop 5.0. 

What’s in the Polar Loop

The device looks similar to the Polar 360, a wristband that Polar developed as a business-to-business offering. I asked a Polar representative if the Loop is indeed based on the 360, and they pointed out that the main differences are the styling, and the extra battery life. 

The Polar Loop has an optical heart rate sensor, and (so far?) is only available with a wristband, with no armband option. It connects with your phone over Bluetooth, and that’s about it. No GPS, no other sensors, no display. 

The Polar Loop’s battery can last eight days, according to the company. You can start tracking an activity from the Polar Flow app on your phone, or set the device to auto-detect activities. 

The device can also track your sleep, and the app will use your HRV data to give you a recovery score—so it covers the same bases as a Whoop or, for that matter, pretty much any basic smartwatch these days. 

The features of the Polar Loop are pretty much what I expected, but I have to admit the $199 price tag is disappointing. That’s the same cost as the Polar Unite, an actual watch with a touchscreen display. I’m not clear on why the Loop, as a pared-down device, should have the same price tag. The Amazfit Helio is half that price. Polar was probably aiming to compete with Whoop (which starts at $199/year), but Whoop’s sophisticated app is what subscribers are really paying for. Still, it’s good to have more options when it comes to non-watch fitness trackers—Whoop stood unchallenged in this market for too long.

U.S. workers are becoming more stressed about their rising personal debts and financial health, a Bank of America survey showed. From a report: Of the respondents polled by BofA, 47% of employed people said they had a sense of financial well-being, dropping from 52% at the start of the year. Nearly 85% of consumers carried some type of personal debt, while 26% of the workforce was seeking help in areas such as emergency savings, paying down debt, and overall financial wellness, compared with 13% in 2023, according to the May survey of more than 1,000 people working full-time.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

People in Internet security circles are sounding the alarm over the issuance of three TLS certificates for 1.1.1.1, a widely used DNS service from content delivery network Cloudflare and the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) Internet registry.

The certificates, issued in May, can be used to decrypt domain lookup queries encrypted through DNS over HTTPS, a protocol that provides end-to-end encryption when end-user devices seek the IP address of a particular domain they want to access. Some security experts are also concerned that the certificates may underpin other sensitive services, such as WARP, a VPN offered by Cloudflare. The certificates remained valid at the time this post went live on Ars.

Key failures

Although the certificates were issued four months ago, their existence came to public notice only on Wednesday in a post to an online discussion forum. They were issued by Fina RDC 2020, a certificate authority that’s subordinate to the root certificate holder Fina Root CA. The Fina Root CA, in turn, is trusted by the Microsoft Root Certificate Program, which governs which certificates are trusted by the Windows operating system. Microsoft Edge accounts for approximately 5 percent of the browsers actively used on the Internet.

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IO Interactive seemingly wrapped up its assassination series Hitman in 2023, launching the anthology on practically every game platform. But it’s not done with sneaking, subterfuge, and… sniper rifles. The game developer announced that it was making a new James Bond game, teasing an “unrefined” Bond in training – yes, it’s another reimagined origin story.

At a closed-door briefing at Gamescom, I watched the team play through some early parts of 007 First Light, with Bond part of a team of more seasoned spies hunting down a rogue double-‘o’ agent. Ah, that sounds like a Bond plot.

The gameplay was separated into three parts. First, the creative, exploratory sandbox part, as Bond tries to elbow his way into a bougie mansion – when he should be readying the escape car. Like Hitman, Bond can sneak around, triggering items to draw away guards or distract from his own actions. He scrambles up a building to get in through an open window, while vaguely flirting with staff and pretending he’s meant to be there. The team explained that social interactions will form another part of how the rookie agent can interact with people and progress through areas and toward goals.

Some features differentiate First Light from the aforementioned bald-headed assassination games. First of all, it’s far less centered on all the killing (at least until the full-throttle action sections later), with the team attempting to reflect Bond adventures beyond bullets and grizzly ends.

There’s also an Omega-branded Q Watch that attempts to elegantly fold in HUD features like location markers, weaponry, and gadget selection. It’ll also help analyze the environment for interactive parts and opportunities for Bond. Players will apparently have a degree of freedom to decide how they approach missions and areas, even if we only saw one approach during this presentation. It did manage to convey the stress and pressure I’d expect to feel from an IO Interactive game.

The early demo diverges from Hitman familiarity elsewhere. IO Interactive said that while 007 will offer a linear adventure of sorts, players will still have “control of their adventure.” A blend of action setpieces and more measured, thinking, exploratory sections should separate it from other games and other Bond games, too, which have typically been first-person shooters, some of which are terrible.

The demo jumps ahead as Bond follows the rogue agent in an exciting-looking car chase. These reminded me of Uncharted car segments, filled with destruction and chaos. Bond drives through a Swiss market, with something catching on his car tires for the rest of the chase, while there are jumps, explosions, and near-misses as you fight to catch up. It’s a shame that, at this early stage at least, you can tell that regardless of your honed driving skills, you will never catch up to your quarry until the game wants you to. The chase ends at a very well-guarded airbase.

This leads into the other facet of First Light: gunplay and way too many oil drums and trucks filled with gasoline. The final segment includes Bond rushing the airbase and chasing a military transport craft as it takes off. Fighting is a mix of duck-and-cover, using the environment, and, if all else fails, throwing your gun once it’s out of bullets.

There’s a great point after Bond barely makes it on board the plane just before it takes off. He uses his Q Watch to tilt the plane, swinging cargo and enemies into the walls of the plane or even out the cargo door. Eventually, 007 is flung from the plane too, and as he falls, has to claim a parachute.

It’s a real change of pace from the early part of the demo but suggests First Light might cover all the Bond movie beats. I might not be sold on another Bond origin story, but hopefully, IO Interactive can successfully blend three different types of game together.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/007-first-light-hitman-meets-action-movie-183551755.html?src=rss

We finally have our Lara Croft, well over two years after Prime Video’s Tomb Raider series was first announced. Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner has been cast in the role, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She had better start trying on khaki shorts and blue sleeveless shirts.

Turner acknowledges the “massive shoes to fill” from previous actors that have played the role, shouting out Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander. She also says she can’t wait for audiences “to see what we have cooking.”

We also now know when the show will enter production. Filming starts on January 19. We don’t know when the series will come out, but at least we know it’s a real thing that’s going to get filmed.

Additionally, the platform has announced that Chad Hodge will join Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a co-showrunner. Bridge was revealed as the creator well over a year ago. Hodge is best known for his work on shows like Good Behavior and movies like Single All the Way.

Bridge may be best known for creating the romantic comedy series Fleabag, but she has had plenty of experience with action-heavy projects. She created the series Killing Eve and co-wrote a James Bond film. She also starred in the most recent Indiana Jones movie, which is a franchise the Tomb Raider games cribbed from.

As for those games, Amazon is also publishing the next entry in the long-running franchise. Crystal Dynamics is developing it, which is the company that has been in charge of the mainline titles since 2003.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/amazons-tomb-raider-series-will-star-sophie-turner-as-lara-croft-183035877.html?src=rss

Ubisoft is releasing a free Discovery Tour app covering the history of Baghdad, the setting of Assassin’s Creed Mirage. The game launched in 2023 without Ubisoft’s “Discovery Tour” feature, a mode that’s previously been packed into Assassin’s Creed games — starting with 2017’s Assassin’s Creed Origins — and uses the game’s open-world maps and character models to illustrate the history and cultural specifics of their chosen setting.

This new app takes a slightly different approach, reworking the map of Assassin’s Creed Mirage to deliver a two hour narrative adventure set in 9th century Baghdad. The Discovery Tour app also includes “encyclopedic entries on the history, art, and culture of medieval Baghdad and the Abbasid Caliphate” and an augmented reality feature that lets you view 3D models of famous artifacts.

It sounds like less of a playable history lesson than past Discovery Tours, but still an excellent use of the historical research that goes into each Assassin’s Creed game. It’s a bit unusual the app is being offered for free when Ubisoft has traditionally charged for Assassin’s Creed games or its standalone Discovery Tour apps, but maybe that reflects Assassin’s Creed Mirage‘s unique place in the series. The game was pitched as a back-to-basics stealth game without the open-world fluff of past games, and largely delivered.

Ubisoft’s approach to Assassin’s Creed might also be changing in general. The game franchise was spun-off alongside Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six into a new subsidiary partially funded by Tencent earlier this year. Even grander plans to turn Assassin’s Creed into an always-online live-service game still loom in the background, too.

You can download and try the Ubisoft’s Discovery Tour App: Medievil Baghdad for yourself from the App Store and Play Store.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ubisofts-free-assassins-creed-mirage-discovery-tour-app-allows-you-to-explore-9th-century-baghdad-182020279.html?src=rss

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If you have a Pixel, and you want to listen to music or watch a movie with a friend, you don’t have a ton of options. You could share earbuds—which, gross—or listen through the speaker, which will disturb everyone around you. That’s now changing, thanks to expanded support for Auracast and LE Bluetooth Audio.

LE Audio is a Bluetooth standard that enables a host of new features for compatible devices, including, notably, Auracast. With Auracast, one device can output an audio signal that you can pick up with your headphones or hearing aids. The use cases run the gamut, from private audio sharing between devices, to the ability to tap into announcements in public spaces.

Google has been working on Auracast integration with Android for some time now, but Android 16 ratchets up support in a major way. The company announced two key Auracast upgrades that users can enjoy, assuming they have both a supported Android device as well as a pair of LE Audio headphones.

Expanded Auracast support

First things first: Auracast will only work if you have devices that support it. As such, part of today’s announcement involves expanded support for the standard: On the audio device front, Google says it is rolling out LE Audio capabilities for Sony headphones. It is also rolling out Auracast support for certain Pixel phones.

With that news, this is Google’s full list of Android devices that can take advantage of Auracast and its features:

• Google Pixel 8 and newer

• Samsung Galaxy S23

• Samsung Galaxy S24

• Samsung Galaxy S25

• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5

• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7

• Xiaomi 14T

• Xiaomi 14T Pro

• Xiaomi 14

• Xiaomi 15

• Xiaomi 14 Ultra

• Xiaomi 15 Ultra

• Xiaomi MIX Flip

• POCO X6 Pro

• POCO F6 Pro

• POCO F7 Pro

• POCO F7 Ultra

Audio sharing

If you and a friend each have a pair of LE Audio devices, you can now pair them simultaneously to your compatible Android device to share audio—which is much more preferable than sharing earbuds. This was possible previously on certain Android devices, but it was much more limited, and similar to how Apple supports simultaneous AirPods or Beats connections.

Similarly, you can also share audio in a a “private broadcast” with groups of people via Auracast. Friends can pair their headphones to your device via Fast Pair, or can scan a QR code to tap in. Google doesn’t say if there’s a limit to the number of participants on these private broadcasts, though the company does say “the whole group” can jump in. All your friends need are LE Audio headphones: Even if they have a different smartphone or streaming service than you, they can still participate.

Now that the Pixel 10 series has been out for a week, Google has begun rolling many of the software features it debuted with those phones to its older devices as part of the September Pixel drop. Starting today, if you own any Pixel device Google has released since 2021, including the Pixel 6 and Pixel Tablet, you can start to customize your device with the company’s new Material 3 Expressive user interface.

Among other tweaks, Google made it possible to add “Live Effects,” including a few that cover the weather, to your phone’s lock screen wallpaper. Material 3 Expressive also gives you more control over how the contact cards your phone displays when your friends and family call you look. Even if you’re not one to endlessly tweak Android’s appearance, as part of the redesign Google has once again reworked the Quick Settings pane in hopes of making it easier to use.

As Google mentioned during last month’s Pixel 10 event, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 will receive a handful of new software features, beginning later this month. To start, there’s Adaptive Audio, which Google says will allow the Pixel Buds Pro 2 to intelligently adjust the output of your earbuds to your surroundings. At the same time, Loud Noise Protection will limit the volume of the Pixel Buds Pro 2 to preserve your hearing. Two new gestures allow you to accept or dismiss a call by nodding or shaking your head. You can do the same when a text message arrives.

Google

Bluetooth audio on the whole is getting a few upgrades on Android, courtesy of LE Audio Auracast. With the new tech, you can now simultaneously pair two different sets of Bluetooth headphones with a single Android handset. In practice, this will allow you and a friend to listen to the same song or podcast from a single device. If you want to involve more people, you can use your phone to create a QR code, which both friends and strangers can then use to join a private broadcast. Google suggests this could be a fun way to host a silent disco. To make it as easy as possible to start an audio broadcast, Google has redesigned Android’s Quick Share menu. A simple toggle allows you to switch between sending and receiving files, and there’s a new indicator where you can follow the progress of your transfers.

As mentioned, the new audio features are made possible by Auracast, which enables public broadcasts of Bluetooth audio. Google began supporting Auracast with the third Android 16 beta, and now we’re starting to see that support mature, with devices now from Google, Samsung and Xiaomi all ready to join in on the fun.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a recent Google release if the company didn’t include new AI features. On that front, the company is offering additional writing tools in Gboard. Like its iOS counterpart, the tool allows you to use an on-device model to edit your writing. The algorithm can tweak your messages to make them more formal, expressive or concise. It will also correct any spelling or grammatical errors.

Last but not least, Google is introducing an experience called Androidify, which allows you to use AI to create your own Android bot — you know, the cutesy mascot in most of the company’s smartphone marketing. The experience is available online and through an app Google has released on the Play Store. To get started, you can upload a selfie, write a prompt and add some accessories to your bot. Afterward, Google’s latest AI models will do the rest.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/googles-latest-pixel-drop-brings-the-material-3-expressive-ui-to-older-devices-180011681.html?src=rss

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Google’s September Pixel Drop is here. While the update doesn’t ship with a ton of new features, what is new here is going to be quite obvious. If you have a Pixel that can run Android 16, your phone is going to look and act quite different. Plus, if you have Pixel Buds Pro 2 or a Pixel Watch, there are some new updates to explore as well.

Google says that these updates are rolling out starting today, though they will continue “over the next few weeks.” As such, you might see some of all of the features hit your devices today, but don’t be surprised if they take more time to appear.

Material 3 Expressive

Back in May, Google announced Material 3 Expressive, the company’s latest design language for Android. Material 3 Expressive has new UI elements, text styles, bright colors, and fresh animations, and while it’s not a total design overhaul, it’s not a particularly subtle update, either. It also comes with some additional features, like new iPhone-style Calling Cards for Google’s Phone app.

This new design launched first with Google’s Pixel 10 line of phones, so if you bought one, you’ve already experienced it. However, if you’re still rocking an older Pixel, you no longer need to wait to try out Material 3 Expressive. Google announced that the new update is rolling out to Pixel 6 and newer, including Pixel Tablet, starting today.

Adaptive Audio

If you have a set of Pixel Buds Pro 2, you’re getting a pretty big update later this month. Google will be rolling Adaptive Audio, a feature that analyzes your surroundings and adjusts audio levels accordingly, to these earbuds. Google doesn’t go into much detail here, but it seems similar to Adaptive Sound, which is available on previous Pixel Buds devices. Google also highlights “Loud Noise Protection,” a feature that “protects” your ears if you encounter a loud sound. Again, few details here, but it sounds like Pixel Buds Pro 2 will limit the audio levels coming through the buds when something like a siren passes by.

Google Maps updates for Pixel Watch

I feel like smartwatches could be the ideal navigation device. When you’re on the move, you don’t really want to be looking at your phone all the time to see when the next turn is. Instead, I’d rather glance at my watch, and keep my eyes on my surroundings.

To that point, Google’s latest Pixel Drop makes navigating with a Pixel Watch a bit easier. Now, you can start walking or biking directions on Google Maps on your phone, and your Pixel Watch will automatically pick up navigation. That way, you can set your course on your Pixel, put it away, and be on your way.

Florida is planning to end all vaccination requirements in the state, including requirements for school children to get routine childhood vaccinations that protect them and their communities from severe and life-threatening diseases, such as Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), pertussis (whooping cough), diphtheria, measles, tetanus, RSV, and polio.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo made the announcement at a press conference on Wednesday alongside Governor Ron DeSantis.

“What I’m most excited about is an announcement that we’re making now, which is that the Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law—all of them, all of them, all of them, every last one of them,” Ladapo said. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”

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