Google’s Discover content feed is getting some new features. It’ll soon include more than just articles from throughout the web. The company says the platform will be incorporating stuff like social media posts from platforms like Instagram and X along with YouTube Shorts.
“In our research, people told us they enjoyed seeing a mix of content in Discover, including videos and social posts, in addition to articles,” the company wrote in an announcement. These changes will start showing up in the “coming weeks.”
However, that’s not the only new tool arriving for Discover. Starting today, users can customize feeds in a number of ways. Folks can follow creators or publishers to see more content from them. Users can also tap the creator’s name to preview social posts and articles before making a final decision. This is all similar to a recently-introduced feature for Search that lets people set preferred news sources.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/google-discover-is-going-to-start-showing-social-media-posts-and-youtube-shorts-175754283.html?src=rss
The Trump administration yesterday issued a lengthier denial of a whistleblower’s allegation that DOGE officials at the Social Security Administration (SSA) copied the agency’s database to an insecure cloud system. The allegation centers on the Numerical Identification System (NUMIDENT) database containing Americans’ personally identifiable information.
The cloud location described by the whistleblower report “is actually a secured server in the agency’s cloud infrastructure which historically has housed this data and is continuously monitored and overseen—SSA’s standard practice,” said a letter sent yesterday to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).
The letter was sent by SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano, a Trump appointee who was previously CEO of the financial technology company Fiserv. It came in response to Crapo’s request for information.
Last week I ran the D.C. half-marathon alongside nearly 8,000 other runners. While I generally love running with my Garmin Forerunner 165 (which I’ve previously reviewed), when I strapped the watch on the morning of the race, I had some reservations. This watch has earned a reputation as a barebones beginner device—and I was worried if it would hold up when it really mattered. Would the GPS remain accurate throughout the 13.1 mile run? Would the pacing features actually help me hit my goal time?
After crossing the finish line, I’m happy to report that this entry-level watch met my expectations in almost every way.
In the leadup to race day, I tested Garmin’s training plans. It’s a simple process: Once you select a plan in Garmin Connect, your watch automatically receives each day’s workout, complete with target paces, intervals, and recovery periods.
The selling point for me is that Garmin’s training plans adapt to your performance over time, adjusting target paces based on recent runs and fitness assessments. For my marathon training, the plan included everything from easy runs and tempo workouts, to speed intervals and long runs (which may not be long enough—but more on that in a moment).
As I’ve previously noted, I particularly love the pacing guidance during tempo runs—the watch beeps and displays alerts when I drifted outside my target pace zone, helping me nail those challenging sustained efforts that are so crucial for race preparation.
That said, I’m not convinced Garmin’s training philosophy is entirely reliable, particularly over long run distances. I have a sneaking suspicion the device might not suggest long enough peak mileage for some runners, but I’ll dive deeper into that analysis after completing a full training cycle. In the meantime, I’m absolutely loving the pacing assistance and structured workouts.
Creating a custom race day workout
Ahead of race day, I took advantage of one of Garmin’s best features: creating a custom workout. To do so, I opened the Garmin Connect app and navigated to Training > Workouts > Create a Workout. From there, I built a step-by-step plan for my race. I created a warm-up mile (at an easy pace), followed by the main event (an 11-mile step with ambitious target pace alerts), and an extra ambitious final mile push. The key was setting up pace alerts that would notify me if I was running too fast or too slow relative to my half-marathon pace goal.
Once saved, the workout automatically synced to my Forerunner 165, and I could start it just like any other workout on race morning. Having this structure eliminated the guesswork and helped me stay disciplined during those early miles, when adrenaline and crowd energy make it so tempting to start out too fast.
Forerunner 165 GPS accuracy
Here’s where the Forerunner 165 really impressed me. I was genuinely concerned about GPS accuracy going into the race. Anyone who has ever attended a concert knows how dense crowds disrupt GPS on your phone or watch, and this half-marathon had around 8,000 runners plus who knows how many spectators cheering for us. More advanced Garmin watches offer dual-band GPS for improved accuracy, which the Forerunner 165 lacks. I worried that in a crowded race environment, amid tall buildings and thousands of other runners, the single-band GPS might struggle to maintain precision.
My fears were unfounded. Throughout the race, my Garmin’s distance measurements matched almost perfectly with the official mile markers set up by the race organizers. Mile after mile, when I reached each marker, my watch showed within 0.1 miles of the expected distance. This consistency gave me confidence in my pacing and eliminated the stress of wondering whether my watch was leading me astray.
You can see how close Garmin’s tracking is to my official race results in a side-by-side here.
Garmin’s summary on the left, my official race results on the right. Credit: Meredith Dietz
I should note that I’m an extremely relatable runner, in that I’m truly right in the 50th percentile of marathon runners: No faster, no slower. This means my experience is probably representative of what most recreational racers can expect from this watch.
How the Forerunner 165 performed on race day
During the race itself, the Forerunner 165 delivered exactly what I needed without overwhelming me with unnecessary data. The screen remained easily readable in various lighting conditions, from the pre-dawn start through full daylight. Battery life was never a concern—after two-plus hours of GPS tracking, I still had plenty of juice remaining.
The vibration alerts for pace deviations were perfectly calibrated: noticeable enough to get my attention without being jarring or distracting. The auto-lap feature marked each mile clearly, giving me regular checkpoints to assess my progress against my race plan.
Advice for racing with the Garmin Forerunner 165
Based on my race day experience, here are my top recommendations for getting the most out of your Forerunner 165 during a race:
Charge fully the night before. Even though battery life is excellent, there’s no reason to risk it. A full charge will easily handle any race distance.
Set up your data screens in advance. Customize what information appears on your main screen. I recommend keeping it simple: current pace, average pace, and elapsed time. Too much data can be overwhelming when you’re pooped.
Practice with your custom workout. Don’t let race day be the first time you use a custom workout. Test it during a long training run to make sure the pace alerts and structure work for your preferences.
Trust the GPS. My biggest surprise was how accurate the GPS remained throughout the race. Trust your watch’s distance and pace readings rather than trying to calculate based on course markers or feel.
Use the lap button strategically. While auto-lap is great, manually hitting the lap button at key points (like the halfway mark or when you start your finishing kick) can provide helpful psychological markers.
The Garmin Forerunner 165 might be positioned as an entry-level watch, but it did exactly what I needed it to do on race day, with accurate GPS, reliable pacing feedback, and an easy-to-read display. Sometimes, it seems, the most advanced features aren’t necessary—sometimes you just need a watch that works when it counts.
AI models often produce false outputs, or “hallucinations.” Now OpenAI has admitted they may result from fundamental mistakes it makes when training its models. The Register: The admission came in a paper [PDF] published in early September, titled “Why Language Models Hallucinate,” and penned by three OpenAI researchers and Santosh Vempala, a distinguished professor of computer science at Georgia Institute of Technology. It concludes that “the majority of mainstream evaluations reward hallucinatory behavior.”
The fundamental problem is that AI models are trained to reward guesswork, rather than the correct answer. Guessing might produce a superficially suitable answer. Telling users your AI can’t find an answer is less satisfying. As a test case, the team tried to get an OpenAI bot to report the birthday of one of the paper’s authors, OpenAI research scientist Adam Tauman Kalai. It produced three incorrect results because the trainers taught the engine to return an answer, rather than admit ignorance. “Over thousands of test questions, the guessing model ends up looking better on scoreboards than a careful model that admits uncertainty,” OpenAI admitted in a blog post accompanying the release.
Later today, Meta will unveil its first smart glasses with a display. But the shadow of Orion, and the expectations it set, looms over Meta Connect 2025.
At Connect 2024, Meta unveiled and demoed its Orion AR glasses prototype. Orion is a marvel of science and engineering. It delivers unparalleled AR field of view given its form factor of a thick pair of glasses, positioning virtual objects and interfaces in your undistorted physical space without the significant loss of object permanence of other attempts at transparent AR.
Orion received overwhelmingly positive feedback. Those who tried it were simply blown away.
But there was only one problem – Orion is unshippable, at least any time soon. Its field of view was achieved by using silicon carbide lenses, and there exists no commercial-scale supply chain for optical-grade silicon carbide. While there eventually will be, and Meta’s partnership with Anduril may accelerate that, it will still take a lot of time. We won’t see silicon carbide consumer AR glasses any time soon.
This year, Meta is set to launch a very different kind of smart glasses product with a display, as many reports and Monday’s leak reveal. The Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, as they will seemingly be called, are set to have a small fixed heads-up display (HUD) in the right eye only, with no positional tracking or eye tracking.
For those of us enthusiastically interested in XR, that this product will be vastly less ambitious than Orion may be obvious. But to those outside our bubble, the confusion has already set in. The response I’ve seen in the comment sections across the internet suggests that many are expecting Meta to ship Orion as a product, not just souped up Ray-Ban glasses.
To be fair to Meta, it was relatively open about Orion’s status. The company admitted that Orion would cost over $10,000 to sell as a product, and described it as “a time machine that lets us live in the future”. Orion’s production run is just 1000 units, mainly used for demos, research, and internal development.
But there is simply no precedent in recent consumer electronics for showing such a polished, integrated, and advanced product-like prototype and demoing and marketing it so widely, only to note that it’s not actually possible to manufacture at scale. It’s as if Apple had publicly demoed the iPhone before releasing the iPod.
Orion may have allayed the concerns of Meta’s investors as to why it’s spending so many billions of dollars on AR research and development. But it also set deeply unrealistic expectations for the smart glasses with a display that can actually be shipped as a product anytime soon. And the shadow of those expectations looms over Meta Connect 2025.
If you’re in the market for an air fryer, first of all, welcome to the club. A world of perfectly- cooked fries awaits you. But which model to get? Well, you can save some cash right now if you pick Ninja’s Foodi DZ090C 5-in-1 air fryer, which is down to $120 from its regular price of $180 when purchased directly from the brand. That’s a sizable saving of $60.
A smaller version of the air fryer we featured as the best dual-zone option in our 2025 air fryer buyers guide, the two-basket DZ090C lets you cook up two totally different foods in separate baskets simultaneously. And while its six-quart capacity isn’t hugely spacious, you should have more than enough space for small or solo meals. And if you have a small kitchen, it’s probably a more sensible pick than the DZ401 we highlight in our guide.
If you’re thinking about what to have for dessert, you might also be interested in Ninja’s Creami, a 7-in-1 ice cream maker that also excels at smoothies, sorbets and milkshakes. We gave it a score of 90 in our review, praising its ease of use and versatility, which landed it a spot in our best tech of 2024 awards. At $200, it’s currently $30 off.
There are also a range of discounts to be found on SharkNinja’s entire product lineup at the moment. Shoppers can save 10 percent on $150+, 15 percent on $250+, or 20 percent on $350+ on Ninja products, and 10 percent on $200+, 15 percent on $250+, or 20 percent on $300+ when shopping directly from Shark.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/one-of-the-best-ninja-air-fryers-for-small-kitchens-is-60-off-right-now-170505340.html?src=rss
Like the rest of its Big Tech cadre, Google has spent lavishly on developing generative AI models. Google’s AI can clean up your text messages and summarize the web, but the company is constantly looking to prove that its generative AI has true intelligence. The International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) helps make the point. Google says Gemini 2.5 participated in the 2025 ICPC World Finals, turning in a gold medal performance. According to Google this marks “a significant step on our path toward artificial general intelligence.”
Every year, thousands of college-level coders participate in the ICPC event, facing a dozen deviously complex coding and algorithmic puzzles over five grueling hours. This is the largest and longest-running competition of its type. To compete in the ICPC, Google connected Gemini 2.5 Deep Think to a remote online environment approved by the ICPC. The human competitors were given a head start of 10 minutes before Gemini began “thinking.”
According to Google, it did not create a freshly trained model for the ICPC like it did for the similar International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) earlier this year. The Gemini 2.5 AI that participated in the ICPC is the same general model that we see in other Gemini applications. However, it was “enhanced” to churn through thinking tokens for the five-hour duration of the competition in search of solutions.
Cubism is celebrating its 5th anniversary with a new quality-of-life update on Quest.
Originally launched five years ago on Quest, Cubism by Thomas Van Bouwel is celebrating this with a minor update. That includes seven new soundtrack songs, improved readability for the menu in mixed reality mode, and five new languages: Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, and Russian. This also includes engine and rendering pipelines updates to “help future-proof” Cubism for future hardware.
As for Van Bouwel’s next project, Laser Dance currently targets an early access release this fall exclusively on Quest 3 and 3S. This mixed reality game sees you dodge lasers in your home to reach and press buttons on your walls, and we came away impressed after our hands-on demo last year.
While Cubism is also on Steam and Pico, today’s update is available now only on the Meta Quest platform.
Although this is ostensibly the entry-level MacBook Air, it is well-equipped to last you for many years. It comes with 16GB of RAM standard, twice what the previous generation’s basic model included. The 13.6-inch “Liquid Retina” display has a resolution of 2,560 by 1,664, a P3 wide color gamut, and a maximum brightness of 500 nits. You’ll also get an excellent backlit keyboard with Touch ID, Wi-Fi 6E support, and great speakers and microphones. Apple even decided to bring back MagSafe charging with this laptop.
The 12MP camera comes with the Center Stage, which follows your face as you move around the frame during video calls. The two USB-C ports are Thunderbolt 4 means you can extend to up to two 6K external monitors.
For a “basic” laptop, the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air offers incredible capabilities and features for the price, and is arguably a much better value than the Pro, according to Lifehacker Senior Tech Editor Jake Peterson. If you take into account the current discount, it really is the best all-around MacBook you can buy.
We’ve never raced this route in ZRL, and as a points race, it presents a strategic challenge. Do you go hard on the Mech Isle Climb and try to drop riders to improve your chance at points up the road? Or do you save your legs for the sprint segments? And what part will powerups play in your decisions?
There’s much to discuss, including the route’s key sections, powerup details, strategic options, and bike choice. Let’s go!
Looking at the Route
Makuri Islands’ Fine and Sandy route is 10.6km long with 77m of elevation gain and 2 flat intermediate sprint segments per lap. We’ve never raced this route in ZRL, and A/B categories will be completing 4 laps (42.5km) while C/D categories will be racing 3 (32.9km).
Here are the key sections of the route from a points race perspective:
Mech Isle Climb (700 meters, 2.9%): This is the key feature on the route. It’s the only climb of any length, plus it’s dirt, plus you’ll hit it twice per lap! The first ~250 meters of this segment are quite flat, and it’s the final ~450 meters, averaging 4%, where the big efforts must happen.
One tip: push over the top to get yourself up to speed on the dirt descent, because gaps will open up and you can lose contact easily.
Boardwalk Sprint (240 meters @ 0%) FAL+FTS: this short sprint is pan flat and arrow-straight, so there aren’t many tips to offer apart from standard sprinting tips. Riders will be chasing FAL here, and if you want to compete, you’ll need to use your aero powerup just before crossing the start line. I recommend sitting in the draft for at least the first half, then using the draft to slingshot through the pack and across the line before anyone else.
Tidepool Sprint (310 meters @ 0%) FAL+FTS: another pan flat sprint, but this one is a bit longer and curvier than the Boardwalk. The same tips apply as above, although I would wait perhaps 5 seconds before popping my aero powerup.
The Finish: thanks to the twisty final kilometers, the finish line isn’t visible until ~140 meters to go, so you’ll want to watch your distance countdown and mind your pack position. Riders will begin sprinting well before the finish line is available, but it’s the rider with the perfect sense of timing (and perhaps a saved aero powerup) who will win on the day.
Riders will receive one of two powerups at each arch, and there are two arches per lap, giving us a total of eight powerup possibilities (six for C/D categories). Here are details of the powerups, including the probability that you’ll receive each at an arch:
Aero Boost (75%): makes you more aerodynamic (reduces your CdA by 25%) for 15 seconds. Use at higher speeds (flats and descents), especially when no draft is available (although it is still useful when drafting.) If you’re chasing sprint points, this is the powerup for you.
Steamroller (25%): reduces Crr for 30 seconds so you roll as fast as a road tire on pavement regardless of wheels or road surface. This is most effective when used on dirt, which means it will be helpful on the Mech Isle dirt corkscrew climb where the key selections will happen in most races.
You’ll want an aero powerup when contesting the intermediates, as well as for your final sprint to the finish line. The steamroller powerup will prove very helpful on the Mech Isle corkscrew climb, but it’s basically useless anywhere else.
Bike Recommendations
Riders will consider a handful of factors when selecting a bike frame and wheels for this race:
All of the race’s available points are on flat intermediate sprints or the flat finish. No KOM points.
The short Mech Isle climb will be a key selection point, and if you get dropped from the front, you’ve lost your chance to earn big intermediate points.
Some may ask: Do I need to pick a wheelset that performs well on the Mech Isle Climb, or a more aero wheelset to optimize for the sprints and finish?
Fortunately, the physics make it easy. We tested multiple top wheelsets, and even the Tron bike, on the Mech Isle Climb:
S-Works Tarmac SL8 with DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 85/Disc
S-Works Tarmac SL8 with DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 65
S-Works Tarmac SL8 with ENVE SES 4.5 PRO
S-Works Tarmac SL8 with ENVE SES 8.9
Zwift Concept Z1 (Tron)
At 5 W/kg, all these setups turned in the same time on the Strava segment: 1:25. Strava doesn’t do fractional seconds in times, but the consistency of those times tells us one thing: you can optimize your setup for the flat sprints without fear of losing time on the key climb!
So we’re recommending pairing the DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 85/Disc wheels – the most aero wheels in game – with any of the following frames:
Lots of recon events are scheduled on upcoming ZRL routes, led by various teams. See upcoming ZRL recons for this race at zwift.com/events/tag/zrlrecon.
(Coming soon)
Strategic Options
Points Distributions, Fine and Sandy
4 Laps (A/B)
3 Laps (C/D)
These charts show the maximum points a team of 6 could earn in a race with 60 participants.
With FAL constituting the vast majority of each race’s total points, the message is clear: the winning team will be the one that puts the most riders near the front of the charging peloton at each sprint arch.
That means you’ll need to keep as many riders in the front group as possible, and those riders will need to contest the sprint segments as much as possible!
Here are some predictions of strategies we’ll see on Tuesday:
Sprint, Rest, Survive, Repeat: this will be the most common strategy. Rest between timed segments, sprint on the segments, and do the minimum required to stay in the front group over the Mech Isle climb. It’s the smartest approach, unless you have the legs to attack in a meaningful way. You’ll just need to decide which sprints you’re going all-in for, and which ones you’re conserving on.
Mech Isle Corkscrew Launch to Boardwalk Sprint: the Mech Isle climb ends about ~1.4km before the Boardwalk Sprint arch. Could rider(s) attack on the climb and stay away to grab FAL points on the Boardwalk Sprint? We think so… especially if 2-3 riders work together.
Big Attacks On the Mech Isle Corkscrew: this punchy dirt climb will stretch out the pack and drop some riders, especially on the first and last attempts of the race. Be ready for near-max ~45-second efforts each lap!
Bigger Final Mech Isle Corkscrew Attack: riders will save some juice for a final max effort up the key climb. Some who don’t trust their sprint may even try to go long, using the climb as a springboard… but these attempts are usually fatal.
Your Thoughts
Any insights or further thoughts on this race? Share below!
If global temperatures continue rising, virtually all the corals in the Atlantic Ocean will stop growing and could succumb to erosion by the end of the century, a new study finds. From a report: The analysis of over 400 existing coral reefs across the Atlantic Ocean estimates that more than 70 percent of the region’s reefs will begin dying by 2040 even under optimistic climate warming scenarios. And if the planet exceeds 2 degrees Celsius of warming above preindustrial temperatures by the end of the century, 99 percent of corals in the region would meet this fate. Today, the planet has warmed about 1.3 degrees Celsius over preindustrial temperatures.
The implications are grave. Corals act as the fundamental building blocks of reefs, providing habitat for thousands of species of fish and other marine life. They are also bulwarks that break up waves and help protect shorelines from rising sea levels. A quarter of all ocean life depends on coral reefs and over a billion people worldwide benefit from them, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
complyctl is a powerful command-line utility implementing the principles of “ComplianceAsCode” (CaC) with high scalability and adaptability for security compliance. In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, maintaining a robust security posture isn’t just a best practice – it is a necessity. For Fedora users, system administrators, and developers, ensuring that your systems meet various security […]
Deeply troubled parents spoke to senators Tuesday, sounding alarms about chatbot harms after kids became addicted to companion bots that encouraged self-harm, suicide, and violence.
While the hearing was focused on documenting the most urgent child-safety concerns with chatbots, parents’ testimony serves as perhaps the most thorough guidance yet on warning signs for other families, as many popular companion bots targeted in lawsuits, including ChatGPT, remain accessible to kids.
Mom details warning signs of chatbot manipulations
At the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism hearing, one mom, identified as “Jane Doe,” shared her son’s story for the first time publicly after suing Character.AI.
Sony Pictures has dropped a trailer for its upcoming horror comedy, Anaconda, a meta-reboot of the 1997 campy cult classic—and frankly, it looks like a lot of fun. Starring Paul Rudd and Jack Black, the film will arrive in theaters on Christmas Day.
(Spoilers for the 1997 film below.)
The original Anaconda was your basic B-movie creature feature, only with an all-star cast and better production values. The plot revolved around a documentary film crew (Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde, and Owen Wilson) who travel to the Amazon in search of a long-lost Indigenous tribe. They take on a stranded Paraguayan snake hunter named Serone (Jon Voight, affecting a hilariously bad foreign accent), who strong-arms them into helping him hunt down a 25-foot green anaconda. He wants to capture the animal alive, thinking he can sell it for over $1 million.
An anonymous reader shares a report: After years of dismissing the idea of putting a touchscreen on a MacBook, it seems Apple may have finally caved. Its MacBook Pro overhaul in 2026 is now expected to be the first-ever MacBook to feature a touchscreen display, according to a report from supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo on X.
The change will reportedly affect Apple’s next-generation MacBook Pro, which could feature an OLED display and “incorporate a touch panel using on-cell touch technology.” The OLED MacBook Pro isn’t expected to enter production until late 2026, and before then, Apple is expected to launch the M5 MacBook Pro in early 2026.
