Monthly Archives: October 2025

Google and NBCUniversal reach multi-year agreement for YouTube TV

Posted on by

You don’t have to worry about losing access to Sunday Night Football and NBCUniversal’s other sports offerings and shows on YouTube TV over the next few years. The broadcaster has reached a multi-year agreement with Google to keep its programs on the streaming service after they were almost pulled by the end of the companies’ original deal. YouTube TV said at the time that NBC was asking it “to pay more than what they charge consumers for the same content on Peacock, which would mean less flexibility and higher prices for [its own] subscribers.” They were able to agree on a last-minute “short-term extension” while working on a more permanent deal to prevent the removal of NBCUniversal’s offerings. 

The multi-year commitment will give you access to NBCUniversal’s portfolio, including NBC, Telemundo, Bravo, CNBC, Golf Channel, E!, Oxygen True Crime, MSNBC, USA, Syfy and Universo. You’ll also get access to the relaunched NBC Sports Network, the cable channel the broadcaster shut down in 2021, later this fall. “NBCSN will complement the prominent sports properties presented year-round on the NBC broadcast network,” the broadcaster announced. In addition, you will be able to get Peacock in the coming months as an add-on subscription through YouTube Primetime Channels. 

Movies and shows from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will continue to be available to buy or rent from Google TV and YouTube TV, as well. And Peacock app will continue to be available via Google Play. “This deal builds on our long-standing partnership with NBCU while addressing the evolving media landscape and recognizing the importance of making content available where and how viewers want to watch it,” said Justin Connolly, Youtube’s Global Head of Media & Sports. 

While Google and YouTube TV were able to reach an agreement with NBCUniversal, they failed to reach a similar deal with Univision, the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the US. Google said that Univision’s “current demands aren’t supported by [its] performance on YouTube TV over the last four years.” TelevisaUnivision, its parent company, warned customers in early September that YouTube TV wanted to remove its programs from its standard package and to charge viewers an extra $15 to be able to access its network. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/google-and-nbcuniversal-reach-multi-year-agreement-for-youtube-tv-120051505.html?src=rss

Notable Zwift Events for the Weekend of October 4-5

Posted on by

This weekend’s big events are… well… Zwift’s Big Weekend events. But we’re also featuring two long group rides, a community-organized fondo race series, and a ride for a cause. Check them all out below!

� Zwift’s Big Weekend

✅ Celebrity Leaders 　✅ Popular 　✅ Banded

It’s Zwift’s birthday celebration this weekend, since the platform turns 11 years old this fall – and Zwift is holding a series of events with celebrity leaders to celebrate! Each ride is on a different route with different leaders, but they’re all 45-minute banded rides.

Read all about Zwift’s Big Weekend >

Note: Zwift is also holding its biggest sale ever on the Zwift Ride with KICKR CORE 2. See this post for details…

Multiple timeslots this weekend
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/zwiftsbigweekend

�La Cyclo MedioFondo Foudre

✅ Long Race 　✅ Age-Based　✅ Unique Event

Here’s a fun and unique event concept – a weekly series of “medio fondos” featuring age-based groupings. Team Foudre is organizing this series, and it appears that the first four events, held on four consecutive weekends in October, serve as a sort of “pre-series,” where your best two results count towards the overall. (See event description for details.)

The series kicks off this weekend with a race on Big Foot Hills in Watopia (69.9km, 714m).

Sunday, October 5 @ 7:45am UTC/3:45am ET/12:45am PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/5106370

� Team Vegan World Animal Day 2025

✅ Good Cause　✅ Banded Ride　✅ Beginner-Friendly

Join Team Vegan in a ride on World Animal Day, a day that “unites the animal welfare movement, mobilizing it into a global force to make the world a better place for all animals.”

This is a 60-minute banded ride on Wandering Flats, so as long as you pedal, you’ll stay with the group.

Saturday, October 4 @ 2:15pm UTC/10:15am ET/7:15am PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/5111133

� USMeS – Task Force 100 [E]

✅ Fresh Ride Host 　✅ Beginner-Friendly 　✅ Banded

The USMeS Team holds a 100km ride every Saturday, but on the first Saturday of the month it’s a 100 mile event. This month they’re riding on London’s PRL Full (173.8km, 2628m).

If you’ve been wanting to knock this route out, this is a great way to do it… because long rides are always better with friends!

Rider leader will pace at 2.2 w/kg average, but all paces are welcome.

Saturday, October 4 @ 12:50pm UTC/8:50am ET/5:50am PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/5126436

� Vikings Valhalla Sunday Skaal Ride

✅ Endurance Challenge　✅ Legacy Leaders

We’ve featured this event many times in the past, as it’s always well-attended and well-led at paces that helps everyone stay together. Experienced leaders and sweepers do their best to keep the groups together so everyone can work together to knock out a long ride!

This week’s ride has two pace category options: a D pace of 1.7-2.2 W/kg, or a C pace of 2.5-2.8 W/kg. Both groups will ride 3 laps of Watopia’s Triple Flat Loops for a total length of 104.2km and 476 meters of climbing.

Sunday, October 5 @ 7:05am UTC/3:05am ET/12:05am PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/5127265

How We Make Our Picks

We choose each weekend’s Notable Events based on a variety of factors including:

  • Is the event unique/innovative in some way?
  • Are celebrities (pro riders, etc) attending/leading?
  • Are signup counts already high, meaning the event is extra-popular?
  • Does the ride include desirable unlocks or prizes?
  • Does the event appeal to ladies on Zwift? (We like to support this under-represented group!)
  • Is it for a good cause?
  • Is it just plain crazy (extra long races, world record attempts, etc)?
  • Is it a long-running, popular weekly event with a dedicated leader who deserves a shout out?

In the end, we want to call attention to events that are extra-special and therefore extra-appealing to Zwifters. If you think your event qualifies, comment below with a link/details and we may just include it in an upcoming post!

The Morning After: Amazon’s Kindle Scribe Colorsoft fuses two types of ereader

Posted on by

If I covered everything announced at Amazon’s fall hardware event, it would take a while, and I would be repeating the hard work of my colleague Kris Holt. Check out his report for all the new Echo speakers, new Alexa tricks, more Nest Cameras and, yes, more Kindles — AKA the only Amazon hardware I’m usually interested in.

When it comes to Amazon’s ereader series, the standout new addition is the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, combining its stylus-toting note-taking hardware with its latest color e-ink screen. It has a new rendering engine, too, which is meant to make writing faster, more fluid and more natural. Check out our first impressions of the device, and if you’re intrigued, you can order one later this year for $630.

If you think color is overrated, there’s a new regular Kindle Scribe, with a bigger screen that matches typical paper sizes. The refreshed Kindle Scribe will go on sale in the US by the end of the year, priced at $500. A version without a front light will be available for $430.

TMA
Amazon

— Mat Smith

Get Engadget’s newsletter delivered direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

The news you might have missed

Microsoft jacks up the price of Game Pass Ultimate

But don’t worry, there are 45 new games.

Alongside some tier shuffling, there’s also a painful sting in the tail for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. It now costs $30 a month, a 50 percent increase on what it was before. And there’s no discount if you go for an annual subscription, either. It’s also the second price jump in the last two years. It went up from $17 in July 2024. Three dollars doesn’t seem so bad now.

At $360 per year, Game Pass Ultimate is now more than twice as expensive as PlayStation’s Plus Premium. If you’re willing to pay up, though, Microsoft added 45 more games this week, including a lot of entries from the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry series, two gaming franchises where the games definitely aren’t very similar to each other.

Continue reading.

Ray-Ban Meta (2nd Gen) review

Smart glasses are finally getting useful.

TMA
Engadget

Meta’s second-generation smart glasses are becoming a genuinely useful accessory. This year’s hardware upgrade addresses many of the issues we had with the original Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The battery life is much improved, while the 3K resolution bump makes video far more useful on platforms like YouTube. Resolution aside, the video quality is just better too. Check out our full review.

Continue reading.

Shark’s skincare gadget sucks gunk from pores and rinses them

How’s that morning coffee tasting?  

TMA
Shark

I felt a little nauseous writing that headline, but if your interest is piqued…

Continue reading, you sicko.

Peloton updates its entire Bike, Tread and Row series

The plus models have form-checking cameras, rotating screens and lots of AI.

It’s been a rough time for Peloton. Now, the company is back with major hardware (and software) upgrades across its Bike, Tread and Row family of machines. It’s an almost-entire overhaul, with new software, programmable workouts and an array of collaborations. There are also some tentative steps toward wellness, because why not?

All of the new machines have a screen that rotates away from the bike/track/rower. The updated Bike+, Row+ and Tread+ models feature a 23.8-inch display, while the base models have a 21.5-inch display. Rotating it turns your Peloton into a more versatile screen for cross-discipline workouts, which Peloton has already dabbled in, including yoga and strength training. The new devices are now available for purchase.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-amazons-kindle-scribe-colorsoft-fuses-two-types-of-ereader-111516509.html?src=rss

Engadget Podcast: EA, Xbox and the state of gaming in 2025

Posted on by

This week, EA announced that it plans to go private as part of a massive $55 billion sale, a move that will likely have huge implications for the gaming landscape. In this episode, Devindra and Engadget’s Sam Rutherford chat about what this deal really means (and why it includes a Saudi Arabian investment fund), and also dive into the messy state of Xbox. Is the ROG Ally Xbox X already a failure at $1,000?

Subscribe!

Topics

  • Electronic Arts to go private in a deal worth $55 Billion – 1:43

  • What the heck is going on with Xbox? The $1,000 ROG Ally Xbox X could be a failure even before launch – 15:23

  • Great games out now: Final Fantasy Tactics, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hades II and more – 42:46

  • Amazon’s fall hardware event announced new Echoes, a new Fire TV and a panopticon powered by Ring – 59:10

  • Google announces new Nest Doorbell along with a couple of Nest Cams – 1:09:34

  • Hollywood film stars recoil in disgust at Tilly Norwood, an AI actress created by a Dutch production studio –1:14:30

  • OpenAI’s Sora video app is full of fake shoplifting clips – 1:14:13  

  • Working on – 1:17:35

  • Pop culture picks – 1:19:01 

Credits

Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Sam Rutherford
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/engadget-podcast-ea-xbox-and-the-state-of-gaming-in-2025-113000903.html?src=rss

Upcoming Quest Game Lets You Turn Your House Into a Custom Mini Golf Course

Posted on by

Starlight Games, the studio behind House of Golf 2 (2024), announced they’re releasing a new mixed reality-supported entry into the mini golf series in October, this time using your own humble abode as a putt-putt course.

The News

Called HOUSE OF GOLF VR, the game is slated to launch on Quest on October 30th, bringing both MR and VR modes.

In MR, users can fill their physical space with custom-built mini golf courses, letting you choose from a variety of obstacles, ramps, and colorful contraptions like mini-cranes, cannons, hot air balloons, and more.

Image courtesy Starlight Games

House of Golf VR is slated to launch with “hundreds of course pieces, hazards, and whimsical items,” the studio says.

And all of that whimsy is coming in the game’s VR mode too, albeit immersing you in “vibrant VR locations filled with interactive puzzles and competitive championships,” Starlight Games says.

Initially founded in 2010 as Atomicon, the Liverpool, UK-based studio rebranded in early 2024 as Starlight Games to focus on new IP. In addition to House of Golf VR, the studio has also teased a futuristic sports game and sci-fi rogue-lite action experience currently in development—neither of which have been confirmed as XR titles at the time of this writing.

You can wishlist House of Golf VR on the Horizon Store, which supports Quest 2 and above.

My Take

On the face of it, you might be surprised that some of the bigger names in VR mini golf haven’t pursued the sort of mixed reality mode House of Golf VR is banking on, considering Meta made a big push with full-color mixed reality passthrough when it released Quest 3 in 2023.

While there are some great VR golf games ones out there—my favorite being Walkabout Mini Golf (2020) (more course DLCs to count)—not many include mixed reality modes, and I think that’s probably for good reason. Games with proper MR modes need a high degree modularity at their core to work with the wide variety of physical room spaces.

Image courtesy Starlight Games

Admittedly, Quest has gotten better at scanning rooms and automatically creating boundaries (walls, furniture, etc), but MR games that actually use that data and incorporate it into gameplay are still a rarity. Many games with MR modes rely on nifty passthrough ‘windows’ to fully-realized VR environments, or have to rely on super modular object placement so you create the fun, like Gadgeteer—and by extension, the MR mode in House of Golf VR.

As an aside, there are even fewer games, like Starship Home (amazing), that manage to split the difference, requiring users to setup their room with a few key anchor points, and then let the game figure out the fun. I want to see more of those.

Still, I would consider House of Golf VR’s MR mode a good compromise, since it essentially taps into the vestigial ‘LEGO’ section of my brain. Whatever the case, I’m just hoping they’ve managed to copy Walkabout Mini Golf’s putting mechanics, because developer Mighty Coconut has definitely hit on the gold standard there.

The post Upcoming Quest Game Lets You Turn Your House Into a Custom Mini Golf Course appeared first on Road to VR.

VRChat Creators Become Birds With Quest Pro Eye Tracking

Posted on by

Creators on VRChat hacking with avatars are figuring out how to become birds.

The latest work from VRChat’s emerging avian-class sees Quest Pro eye tracking rigged up to an avatar’s head movement system. Creator Purpzie says they took inspiration from an owl by groxxy while building on top of a gryphon from manyblinkinglights. Altogether, Purpzie made a feathery creature with the gryphon’s head movements driven by human eye movements seen by Quest Pro.

0:00

/0:08

Video courtesy Purpzie.

“The main goal is to let people feel like they just became a creature. When I was a kid, I daydreamed about being some kind of dragon or gryphon flying through the sky. I never thought I’d get to fulfill that dream in VR,” Purpzie wrote. “After finding manyblinkinglights’s avatar base, I spent 2 weeks hyperfocusing on tweaking it and learning about Final IK. (Nearly everything I know about game development is from working on VRChat avatars…)”

0:00

/0:25

Purpzie takes to the air in worlds with open flight enabled while “constantly tweaking the animation and inverse kinematics systems as it maps onto a human body.” You can switch what your arms control, Purpzie explains, “between the wings, front legs, and even the head. Gestures let people control the gryphon’ s facial expression.”

You can follow Purpzie’s progress in late night updates to Bluesky.

“VRChat has completely changed my life. Within 2 or 3 years, my crippling social anxiety disappeared, I met my boyfriend and so many wonderful people, and my drive to create has blossomed into every corner of game development. I want to share and spread this happiness with everyone,” Purpzie wrote. “I learned tons of stuff by tweaking avatars and worlds for personal use, but seeing people get so happy about stuff I worked on… it’s the best feeling in the world. My heart melts.”

Rocket Report: Alpha explodes on test stand; Europe wants a mini Starship

Posted on by

Welcome to Edition 8.13 of the Rocket Report! It’s difficult for me to believe, but we have now entered the fourth quarter of the year. Accordingly, there are three months left in 2025, with a lot of launch action still to come. The remainder of the year will be headlined by Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket making its second flight (and landing attempt), and SpaceX’s Starship making its final test flight of the year. There is also the slim possibility that Rocket Lab’s Neutron vehicle will make its debut this year, but it will almost certainly slip into 2026.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

An Alpha rocket blows up on the pad. The booster stage for Firefly Aerospace’s next Alpha rocket was destroyed Monday in a fiery accident on the company’s vertical test stand in Central Texas, Ars reports. Firefly released a statement confirming the rocket “experienced an event that resulted in a loss of the stage.” The company confirmed all personnel were safe and said ground teams followed “proper safety protocols.” Imagery posted on social media platforms showed a fireball engulfing the test stand and a column of black smoke rising into the sky over Firefly’s facility roughly 40 miles north of Austin.

Read full article

Comments

Bikes stolen at train stations after being left for more than two hours will not be investigated

Posted on by

British Transport Police says it will not investigate bike thefts at train stations where the bicycle has been left for more than two hours.

This means most bike thefts will not be investigated, and CCTV footage will not be reviewed after the two-hour timeframe, according to the BBC. 

“The more time our officers spend reviewing CCTV… the less time they have available for patrolling railway stations and trains, investigating crimes which cause the most harm,” the BTP said. 

In a list of crimes the BTP won’t investigate, it said any bike worth less than £200 will not be investigated. The BTP also said thefts on trains should only be reported if the passenger knows the carriage the bike was in.

A BTP spokesperson told the BBC that it knows bike thefts are upsetting, inconvenient and potentially costly, but “there can often be limited opportunity for investigation”.

The spokesperson said: “Our experience tells us at an early stage that there are some crimes that are unlikely to ever be solved – such as those without a clear estimate of time or location for the incident or if there is a lack of CCTV or witnesses.

“The more time our officers spend reviewing CCTV footage for these offences, the less time they have available for patrolling railway stations and trains, investigating crimes which cause the most harm and providing a visible presence across the network.

“We will continue to apply a test of proportionality when determining investigation – looking at factors such as timeframes, witnesses, the availability of CCTV, the impact on the victim or whether there is a realistic prospect of a successful outcome.

“Any offence which is not investigated will still provide us with valuable intelligence, used to direct our patrols and operations.” 

More than 14,000 bicycles were stolen from outside train stations between 2021 and 2023. The number of bikes reported stolen from outside stations was up 39 per cent from 2022 to 2023. 

The London Cycling Campaign’s Tom Fyans told the BBC: “A lack of secure cycle parking at stations and next to no action against thieves leaves London way behind the Netherlands where nearly half of trips to stations are by bike.

“Many victims of theft in the capital just stop cycling – if we want to reduce car trips in London and encourage cycling we have to redouble enforcement against cycle theft.”

Which Prescriptions Meta Ray-Ban Display Supports, And How That Works

Posted on by

Looking to use Meta Ray-Ban Display as your everyday prescription glasses? Here’s a rundown of what prescriptions it supports, and how that works.

For the regular Ray-Ban Meta glasses without a display, you can get prescription lenses officially from Ray-Ban, or unofficially from a wide range of third-party providers. You simply pop out the regular lenses and attach the prescription ones, in a process that costs anywhere from $25 to $100 depending on your prescription and takes a few seconds.

Meanwhile, Meta’s Quest headsets officially support prescription inserts, similarly priced. You just snap them onto the existing VR lenses and you’re good to go.

For the new Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, the process is a lot more costly, and needs to be handled at the time of purchase, with no aftermarket support.

What Is Meta Ray-Ban Display?

Meta Ray-Ban Display does everything the regular Ray-Ban Meta glasses do, except it also has a small fixed HUD (heads-up display) in the right lens, with an interface that you interact with using finger gestures detected by the included Meta Neural Band.

Meta Neural Band works by sensing the activation of the muscles in your wrist which drive your finger movements, a technique called surface electromyography (sEMG). The wristband includes haptic feedback, has an IPX7 water resistance rating, and Meta claims it should get around 18 hours of battery life.

Meta Ray-Ban Display’s monocular HUD has a field of view of around 20 degrees diagonal, brightness of up to 5000 nits, and resolution of 600×600, providing 42 pixels per degree, which is higher than Apple Vision Pro. The display has just 2% light leakage, meaning other people nearby essentially won’t be able to see it.

Here’s what you can use the display for:

  • Meta AI with Visuals, including step-by-step directions.
  • Messaging & Video Calling via WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, as well as notifications for phone messages.
  • Preview & Zoom for capturing photos and videos with the built-in camera.
  • Pedestrian Navigation via a minimap in 28 cities.
  • Live Captions & Translation for the person you’re looking at.
  • Music Playback, including the ability to seek and skip tracks.

Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses weigh 69 grams, compared to 50 grams for the regular Ray-Ban Meta glasses, and 45 grams for their non-smart equivalents. They’re also noticeably bulkier, with thicker frames and temples. But this is the tradeoff of adding a display.

The company claims that the glasses should get around six hours of battery life in normal use, but we’ll need to get our hands on them for a review to verify that in the real world.

In a software update set for December, Meta says Meta Neural Band will even let you enter text by swiping the letters with your index finger on a physical surface.

Because the right lens contains an intricate and expensive waveguide, which delivers the heads-up display (HUD) to your right eye, you can’t simply replace the lens. Instead, Meta Ray-Ban Display’s prescription support is implemented in manufacturing, bonded to the lens.

The bonded prescription lenses are single-vision, polycarbonate lenses with “premium anti-reflective coating”, and like the non-prescription option, they’re clear to gray Transitions.

Meta says it supports near-sightedness (myopia), far-sightedness (hyperopia), and astigmatism, up to a total power of -4 to +4D and up to 4D of CYL.

The company charges $200 for bonding a prescription, meaning the glasses and wristband will cost $1000 in total with prescription support.

Meta Ray-Ban Display Sells Out As Early Adopters Struggle To Buy
Meta Ray-Ban Display is now sold out in almost every store it was available in. Restocks are “coming”, Meta says, and the company is doubling the number of stores offering the glasses.
UploadVRDavid Heaney

To buy Meta Ray-Ban Display (with or without prescription lenses) you currently need to make an appointment for a demo at a physical retailer. During this demo, if you bring your prescription information the attendant will add inserts so that you can at least see the text on the HUD.

These inserts aren’t sold, though, they’re just for demos. Meta doesn’t say exactly why, but it’s likely that they have optical tradeoffs, introducing visual artifacts to the HUD, and may add extra bulk.

After your demo, if you go ahead with purchasing Meta says it will take 5 to 8 weeks to deliver, because the prescription lenses are custom bonded to the lenses to match your prescription.

You can schedule a Meta Ray-Ban Display demo on Meta.com.

Snapchat Caps Free Memory Storage, Launches Paid Storage Plans

Posted on by

Snapchat will start charging users who exceed 5GB of saved Memories, with paid plans starting at $1.99/month for 100GB. “If your memories exceed this limit, you’ll need to subscribe to one of its new Memories Storage plans,” reports TechCrunch. From the report: The company told TechCrunch in an email that the introductory storage plan offers up to 100GB of storage for $1.99 per month. Snapchat+ users will get up to 250GB of storage as part of their $3.99 monthly subscription, while Snapchat Platinum users will get 5TB as part of their $15.99 monthly subscription. Snapchat explains that when it first launched Memories, it didn’t expect it to grow to what it has today, as users have saved more than 1 trillion Memories on the platform.

Snapchat will provide 12 months of temporary Memories storage for any Memories that exceed the 5GB storage limit. The company notes that users can download Memories directly to their devices. If you’re over the limit, but don’t sign up for a plan, your oldest Snaps will be saved, while the most recent ones that are over the storage limit will be deleted. Snapchat says the change won’t affect most users, as the vast majority have under 5GB of Memories. It will mainly impact those with “thousands of Snaps,” the company notes. “It’s never easy to transition from receiving a service for free to paying for it, but we hope the value we provide with Memories is worth the cost,” Snapchat wrote in a blog post. “These changes will allow us to continue to invest in making Memories better for our entire community.”


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Strava explains why it’s suing Garmin in Reddit post to “set the record straight”

Posted on by

Following yesterday’s news that it had filed a lawsuit against Garmin, Strava has sought to explain the reasons behind the action.

In a post on Reddit, Strava’s chief product officer, Matt Salazar, said the primary reason behind its litigation was a set of “new developer guidelines for all of its API partners”, which Strava took issue with.

Curiously, this appears to be unrelated to the claims in Strava’s lawsuit that Garmin has infringed on two of its patents.

According to Salazar, Garmin’s new guidelines were announced on 1 July 2025 and would require Strava, and other platforms using Garmin’s API, to integrate a Garmin logo “on every single activity post, screen, graph, image, sharing card, etc”.

Strava post on Reddit about it's Garmin lawsuit
Strava’s chief product officer, Matt Salazar, took to Reddit yesterday to explain the brand’s actions. Reddit

For context, an API or ‘Application Programming Interface’ is a tool that enables different pieces of software to connect with one another and share features, data or functions. In the case of Garmin and Strava, Garmin’s API is what enables activity data to be automatically shared to Strava after it’s uploaded to Garmin’s Connect app.

Entities using Garmin’s API have, Salazar claims, until 1 November 2025 to comply with the updated guidelines, or else “Garmin has threatened to cut off access to their API, stopping all Garmin activities from being uploaded to Strava”.

Salazar says Strava does not wish to comply with the new guidelines because it feels that including Garmin’s logo would amount to “blatant advertising” that would “actively degrade your user experience on Strava (and the other 150M+ athletes)”.

Strava, Salazar says, “already provides attribution for every data partner”, but sees the inclusion of logos as a step too far: “they told us they care more about their marketing than your user experience”.

Salazar also suggests this is unfair because “Garmin doesn’t even provide data attribution for third-party devices (such as heart-rate monitors or power meters) on the Garmin Connect app”.

Continuing on this theme, Salazar says: “If you recorded an activity on your watch, we think that is your data.

“We believe you should be able to freely transfer or upload that data without requiring logos to be displayed alongside it or have that data be used as an advertisement to sell more watches.”

As a result, Salazar says Strava “could not justify to our users complying with the new [Garmin API] guidelines”.

He claims Strava has “tried to resolve this situation with Garmin over the course of the past five months, including proposing additional attribution across the platform in a less intrusive way, but to no avail”.

Garmin API Guidelines
Garmin’s current API guidelines suggest using its logo is optional. Garmin

It’s notable, though, that Garmin’s current API guidelines suggest that although “a Garmin [device model] attribution” is mandatory, the inclusion of its logo is not.

Platforms should “list the Garmin attribution in all expanded views or subscreens. For multi-entry displays, you can apply the attribution globally – such as in a header – or per entry. Screenshots, printouts and reports must retain visible Garmin attribution”.

It continues: “The attribution can include the Garmin tag logo followed by the device model or simply be listed in appropriately sized text: ‘Garmin [device model].’.”

The guidelines then provide a number of illustrative examples with and without the Garmin logo included.

When contacted, Garmin told BikeRadar that it “doesn’t comment on pending litigation.”.

BikeRadar has contacted Strava for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.

You can get 3 months of Audible for just $3 right now

Posted on by

Audiobook fans can get three months of Audible for $3 for a limited time ahead of the fall edition of Amazon Prime Day. Users will be charged $0.99 per month for the first three months, after which it will auto-renew at $14.95 per month.

Audible features thousands of titles in its catalog, including podcasts and Audible Originals. Subscribers will also get to choose one audiobook each month to keep in their collection for free, including best-sellers or new releases. Amazon Prime members will receive two credits the first month of their trial.

Amazon has been bringing Prime Day back in the fall for a few years now, and this year it returns October 7 and 8. Great deals tend to start rolling out in the days ahead of the event and this year is no exception. There are already sales on Apple devices, smart doorbells and most importantly, Lego sets.

If you’re a book lover but don’t have the time to sit down and read a hard copy, or you just prefer listening to the latest novel while on the go, then take advantage of this sale. It’s a limited-time offer and will only be available through December 16.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/you-can-get-3-months-of-audible-for-just-3-right-now-090052477.html?src=rss

Maid of Sker VR Is A Survival Horror Game Based On Welsh Folklore

Posted on by

Maid of Sker, a survival horror game based on Welsh folklore, is getting a VR adaptation this November.

Originally released for flatscreen platforms in 2020, Maid of Sker VR by Wales Interactive is a first-person survival horror set in the late 19th century. Drawing from Welsh folklore, this takes place within a remote hotel filled with a “gory and macabre” history. Now heading to most major VR platforms, it’s launching this November on Quest, PS VR2, and Steam.

0:00

/1:52

Wales Interactive promises a fusion of “psychological, gothic, and British horror” as this story unfolds. You play as Thomas Evans, who’s been invited to Sker Island by his partner, Elisabeth Williams, who begins investigating the hotel after her family begins acting unusually.

This requires a stealthier approach since Thomas can be tracked by sound, and you’ll need to stop this cult of “sound-based” enemies known as The Quiet Ones. Instead of fending off enemies with conventional weaponry, Maid of Sker VR arms you with a defensive sound device with limited ammunition to help Thomas avoid an untimely end.

Maid of Sker VR will launch this November on Steam, PlayStation VR2, and Quest.

SRM launches Origin Aero cranks with swappable tips so you can vary the length

Posted on by

Power meter specialist SRM has launched a pair of crank arms for its Origin modular power meter system with swappable crank tips, enabling you to experiment with different crank lengths without needing to buy a whole new crankset or power meter.

The new SRM Origin Aero Aluminium cranks include seven crank tips, each anodised in a different colour. The crank tips bolt to the crank arms and enable you to alter the crank length in 2.5mm increments from 160mm up to 175mm.

SRM says the Original Aero Aluminium is its narrowest crankset to date, with the wide, flat crank designed to offer low drag and high pedalling efficiency.

The Origin Aero cranks come with a range of crank tips to vary their length.

The SRM Origin Aero cranks’ Q-Factor of 144mm for road bike use is also notable because it’s significantly narrower than that of standard cranksets. Shimano road cranks have a Q-Factor of 148mm, for example, which rises to 151mm for GRX gravel cranksets and as much as 176mm for its MTB cranksets. The 140mm crank Q-Factor is more typical for track bikes.

Pros have been steadily decreasing their crank length over the past few years. Jonas Vingegaard, for example, was riding with 160mm cranks on his Cervélo S5, when we checked his bike out at the start of the 2025 Tour de France. We’d spotted him experimenting with 150mm cranks earlier in the season.

Tadej Pogačar, meanwhile, typically rides 165mm cranks.

You can read the pros and cons of different crank lengths in our detailed post on the best crank lengths for cycling.

The crank arms fix to SRM’s power meter spider. You also need to factor in the price of the chainrings and bottom bracket.

The SRM Origin Aero Aluminium crank arms work with SRM’s Origin modular power meter, which can be used with a range of SRM crank designs. The Aero Aluminium is the newest option – and, at €2,015, the most expensive. 

Factor in the €1,210 price of the power meter spider (available in five colours to match at least some of your crank tips), plus up to €336 for the Carbon-Ti chainring option, and you’re looking at around €3,561 for the complete setup, without a bottom bracket spindle. 

After that, experimenting with your crank length is free, though.