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Despite some strong language I’ve used in the past, I don’t believe that weight loss apps are inherently evil. At the same time, you’re putting a whole lot of trust into this kind of app, and that can go poorly. You’re depending on it to tell you how many calories you need, to accurately tell you how many calories you’re eating and burning, to calculate how many calories you need in the first place, and to effectively motivate you toward healthy goals so you can see healthy results. You’re trusting an app to be a calculator, a coach, and a confidante. So, how do you decide which weight loss app is the right one for you?

Both Noom and MyFitnessPal are heavyweights in the fitness tracking arena. I’ve used both over the years to various results, and I can confidently report firsthand the pros and cons of each. Here’s what to know to decide which app deserves a place on your home screen, depending on how exactly you want to reach your goals.

Different weight loss philosophies

MyFitnessPal is the household name of calorie-counting apps, and it’s certainly designed to have mass appeal. It’s essentially a sophisticated food diary that helps you stay within your calorie budget through pretty straightforward tracking. There’s no hand-holding or psychological deep dives—just data, goals, and accountability through numbers.

Noom, on the other hand, positions itself as a psychology-based weight loss program that aims to change your relationship with food through behavioral science, daily lessons, and cognitive strategies. The idea here is to be less about restriction and more about understanding why you eat what you eat. If you’re someone who has always struggled with an overly simplistic “calories in, calories out” approach to weight loss, then Noom’s philosophy is a blessing. Then again, how “anti-diet” can a diet app really be? Let’s keep digging in.

Pricing

If your deciding factor is less about your philosophy and more about your wallet, here’s what to know. 

MyFitnessPal offers a genuinely functional free version that includes basic food tracking, exercise logging, and access to its massive food database. If you’re willing to live without some bells and whistles, you can use MyFitnessPal indefinitely without paying a dime. The Premium version costs $79.99 per year or $19.99 per month, which gets you features like barcode scanning, meal scanning, custom macros, intermittent fasting tracking, and an ad-free experience. There’s another tier, Premium+, for $99.99 per year or $24.99 per month, where you get everything in Premium plus a meal planner.

Noom takes a subscription-only approach with no free version beyond a 14-day trial period. Pricing varies based on commitment length, typically starting around $42-70 per month for shorter subscriptions, with the 12-month plan bringing the monthly cost down to approximately $17.42 per month. The most common entry point is a four-month subscription at $169 (about $42.25/month).

Winner: MyFitnessPal for budget-conscious users; Noom’s lowest monthly rate requires a long-term commitment.

User interface

MyFitnessPal features a clean, straightforward interface focused on data entry. The home screen displays your calorie budget, macronutrients, and a simple diary for logging meals and exercise. It’s efficient and no-nonsense—perfect if you want to log your lunch and move on with your day. However, I can see why some users find it clinical and uninspiring, to say the least.

Noom offers a more colorful, engaging interface with multiple sections including food logging, lessons, group chat, and progress tracking. The app uses its signature color-coding system (green, yellow, red) to categorize foods based on calorie density. While this makes the app feel more interactive, and perhaps even game-like, it also means more screen time. Noom acknowledges you’ll spend about 15 minutes per day in the app, and there are plenty of animations to keep you around. Some users might find this engaging; I find it insidious. Remember, Noom doesn’t actually transcend the classic “calories = bad” formula here. It just color-codes it.

Here’s a screenshot of MyFitnessPal on the left and Noom on the right; you can pretty quickly see which one is more straightforward calorie-tracking, and which one is more about “psychology.” 

Credit: Meredith Dietz

Winner: MyFitnessPal for quick loggers; Noom for those who want an engaging daily experience.

Food database and logging accuracy

MyFitnessPal has an extensive food database, with a huge caveat. This database is largely user-generated, which is both a blessing and a curse—you can find virtually anything, but accuracy can vary wildly. Premium users get barcode scanning and meal scanning features for faster logging.

Noom claims a database of 3.7+ million food items, though users frequently report accuracy issues. The app focuses more on its color-coding system than precise nutritional breakdowns. While you can scan barcodes and log food, the database isn’t as robust or reliable as MyFitnessPal’s according to user reports.

Winner: MyFitnessPal.

Recipe logging and meal planning

MyFitnessPal allows you to create custom recipes and save your favorite meals for quick logging. You can input all ingredients, specify servings, and the app calculates nutritional information per serving. It’s a beloved feature for home cooks. The Premium version offers curated meal plans.

Noom allows recipe creation, but the feature isn’t as refined or user-friendly as MyFitnessPal’s. Again, Noom focuses less on meal planning specifics and more on teaching you to make better choices instinctively through educational content.

Winner: MyFitnessPal.

Education and behavior change

MyFitnessPal is the world’s default calorie tracker. It provides basic nutritional insights and tracks your progress over time, but it doesn’t offer structured education or behavioral coaching. You’re expected to know what to do with the data you’re collecting.

This is where Noom differentiates itself with claims of being more than just a diet app. It’s built around daily psychology-based lessons that teach you about nutrition, habit formation, emotional eating, and cognitive behavioral techniques. You’ll complete a 10-minute quiz at the start to personalize your program, then receive articles and interactive content daily. It might not be for me, but I personally know many users find this educational approach more sustainable than simple calorie counting. Depending on your subscription, you may also get access to a personal coach and group support.

Winner: Noom.

Exercise tracking and integration

MyFitnessPal easily syncs with fitness apps and wearables (Fitbit, Apple Health, Garmin, Strava, etc.) and adjusts your calorie budget based on activity. You can manually log workouts or let your devices do the work.

Noom includes basic exercise tracking and syncs with some popular apps and devices, but it’s not the app’s primary focus. Noom encourages physical activity but emphasizes that weight loss is primarily driven by food choices.

Winner: MyFitnessPal.

Community and support

MyFitnessPal offers community forums where users can connect, share tips, and support each other. It’s a helpful resource, but feels somewhat disconnected from the core app experience.

Noom integrates community support directly into the app through group chats where you can interact with others on similar timelines. Higher-tier subscriptions include one-on-one coaching, which can provide personalized guidance and accountability.

Winner: Noom for integrated support; MyFitnessPal for self-directed community seekers.

The bottom line

There’s no universal winner here—it depends entirely on your needs, budget, and learning style.

Choose MyFitnessPal if you want a free or budget-friendly option, already understand nutrition basics, and prefer straightforward calorie tracking. It’s perfect for people who are self-motivated, enjoy analyzing data, and want freedom without forced education.

Choose Noom if you’re seeking more than just a food diary—if you want to understand the psychology behind your eating habits and build lasting behavior change. Yes, it’s significantly more expensive, but if you haven’t had success with traditional calorie counting, you’re paying for structured education, coaching options, and a comprehensive program rather than just a tracking tool.

For many people, the decision comes down to this: Do you need someone to teach you how to fish, or do you already know how and just need a good fishing rod? MyFitnessPal is the rod. Noom is the fishing instructor who’ll teach you techniques and check in on your progress.

Heads up, indie game fans: 1000xResist will arrive on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 on November 4. The title, which is already out for PC and Nintendo Switch, will also be available through Xbox Game Pass on the same date. The game is also adding more localization support, bringing Brazilian Portuguese, French and Korean languages, so more players around the world can experience the story. 

And the story is the highlight of 1000xResist. This was an indie hit from 2024 that won a lot of fans for its innovative and branching story of a future timeline where the remaining members of humanity live underground in the aftermath of an alien invasion. The project from developer Sunset Visitor also picked up nominations for both the Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards, as well as winning a Peabody last year. Sometimes you’ll want to take award winners with a grain (or a pound) of salt, but the industry and players alike have lauded the game’s sci-fi storytelling chops.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/indie-darling-1000xresist-heads-to-xbox-and-playstation-on-november-4-212654512.html?src=rss

Google is introducing new recovery tools that aim to make it less frustrating to regain access when you’re locked out of your account. The Verge: Instead of answering security questions or entering a recovery email address, Google’s new security features allow account holders to verify their identity using a linked mobile number, or trusted friends or family members.

The Recovery Contacts feature enables users to designate people to confirm their identity in order to regain access to accounts after getting hacked or losing their password or passkey. Google didn’t specify how the verification process works, but says the feature provides “a simple and secure way to regain access when standard recovery methods fail.” Recovery Contacts is available for eligible personal Google accounts, and can be found under the Security option in the account settings.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Razer is updating its lineup of creator-focused webcams with two new models, the Razer Kiyo V2 and Razer Kiyo V2 X. The webcams offer new AI-powered features and 4K streaming at a more affordable price than the company’s Kiyo Pro webcams.

The $100 Kiyo V2 X is capable of capturing 720p video at either 60 or 30 frames per second, 1080p video at 24, 30 or 60 frames per second and 1440p video at 60 frames per second. Like some of Razer’s other webcams, the Kiyo V2 X has a wide, 83-degree field of view that can be customized with the company’s Synapse software. The webcam doesn’t have the AI-powered features of the V2, but you do get all the basics, like auto-focus, a privacy shutter and a built-in microphone.

For about $50 more, the Kiyo V2 offers higher-quality capture and a few more automated features. The $150 webcam uses an 8.3MP Sony STARVIS image sensor and can capture true 4K HDR footage at 30 frames per second. The V2 also has a slightly wider field of view than the V2 X, at 93 degrees to the V2 X’s 83 degrees. Razer is using that extra wiggle room to offer auto-framing — similar to Apple’s Center Stage feature — through an integration with Reincubate’s Camo Studio software. The Kiyo V2 can keep you in frame, remove your background and offer “adaptive lighting correction,” all with the new software improvements Razer and Reincubate are adding.

While both webcams are pitched as creator tools, the basic features Razer is offering and the prices its offering them at easily make the Kiyo V2 and V2 X worth considering. At $150, the Kiyo V2 is only slightly more expensive than Engadget’s favorite webcam and should, if Razer’s claims are true, offer even better video performance.

Razer says you can purchase the Kiyo V2 X and Kiyo V2 today, for $100 and $150, respectively.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/razers-new-kiyo-v2-webcams-offer-4k-streaming-with-hdr-211411212.html?src=rss

Alexis Ohanian, who helped build Reddit, says much of the internet has become dominated by bots and AI. Speaking on the podcast TBPN, he described the internet as increasingly “quasi-AI” and filled with what he called “LinkedIn slop.” Ohanian referenced dead internet theory, the assertion that bot activity exceeds human activity on the web. In September, Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, posted that while he had not taken the theory seriously, he now sees “a lot of LLM-run twitter accounts.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tucked away in Apple’s announcement of a second-generation Vision Pro was news on the controller front. First, we already knew that, with visionOS 26, Apple’s headset supports PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers. But now you can get them without Sony’s headset.

The Apple Store will soon begin selling the PS VR2 Sense controllers for $250. (Cue spit take.) The $400 PS VR2 headset bundle was previously the only way to buy them new. Maybe when you can justify spending $3,499 on Apple’s reality machine, $250 for the controllers is reasonable.

Apple

Apple says Sony’s controllers open the door to more immersive gameplay on the Vision Pro. They support six degrees of freedom motion tracking (any direction you move or rotate), finger touch detection and rumble support.

Apple’s second-gen Vision Pro is more powerful with the new M5 chip. It also includes a Dual Knit Band, which adds a top strap for increased stability and comfort. You’ll be able to buy the PS VR2 Sense controllers from the Apple Store on November 11.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/apple-will-sell-ps-vr2-sense-controllers-separately-for-250-next-month-203602932.html?src=rss

A stunning image of a rice weevil on a single grain of rice has won the 2025 Nikon Small World photomicrography contest, yielding valuable insight into the structure and behavior of—and providing a fresh perspective on—this well-known agricultural pest. The image was taken by Zhang You of Yunnan, China. Another of You’s photographs placed 15th in this year’s contest.

“It pays to dive deep into entomology: understanding insects’ behaviors and mastering lighting,” You said in a statement. “A standout work blends artistry with scientific rigor, capturing the very essence, energy, and spirit of these creatures.”

There was an element of luck in creating his winning image, too. “I had observed rice weevils in grains before, but never one with its wings spread,” You said. “This one was naturally preserved on a windowsill, perhaps in a final attempt to escape. Its tiny size makes manually preparing spread-wing specimens extremely difficult, so encountering it was both serendipitous and inspiring.”

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It’s 2025, so every piece of tech needs to have some kind of AI integration—even Roku, apparently. On Wednesday, Roku announced a number of new features and changes coming to its many streaming devices, but headlines zeroed in on one announcement in particular: the company’s new AI assistant. The assistant, which will be a part of the existing Roku Voice feature, lets you ask the streaming device questions about shows and movies, including the characters and actors that are in them. You could ask the assistant whether a particular movie is appropriate for kids, or recommendations for other movies that feature the actor starring in the one you’re watching.

The company says Roku Voice is powered by both “in-house and commercial generative AI and LLM technology.” That seems to indicate that some of the processing here is designed by Roku’s own AI tech, while the rest is outsourced to at least one other company. As such, you should assume your AI requests are not private, and may be fed through both Roku and third-party servers. When CNET reached out for clarification around user privacy, a spokesperson for the company simply said “We follow Roku’s published privacy policy and viewer settings.” The policy has not been updated yet to reflect the AI technology, however.

Maybe Roku’s assistant will turn out to be a useful tool, but even as someone without a Roku device, it’s not something I’d be interested in. If I want to know whether a piece of content is appropriate for kids, I wouldn’t trust an AI summary to tell me—especially given the frequency for AI models to just make things up. Personally, I’d watch the content myself first—or, at the very least, do my own research. The internet is right there, after all. It’s about as fast to look up an actor’s IMDB page to see other movies they’ve starred in, complete with user reviews, synopsis, and—wouldn’t you know—even parental recommendations, as it is to ask an AI assistant the same questions.

Roku has other interesting updates

The thing is, the AI assistant is the least interesting update the company has for customers going forward. Scanning the news, the thing that stood out to me most was the expansion of support for Bluetooth headphones for more devices. Now, Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus users can connect their wireless headphones directly to their Roku devices, rather than pairing through the app. This was something previously exclusive to larger Roku devices as Roku TVs. Whether you live with other people, and want to watch your content without disturbing them, or prefer the experience of watching shows and movies through your headphones as opposed to relying on your TV’s speakers, having the option to connect to Bluetooth headphones for streaming is such a plus.

There are other changes coming as well. When you watch trailers on a Roku device, you’ll see a new “What to watch” option, which can take you to different apps and services that host the show or movie. The search bar is also coming to What to Watch and Live TV Zone, while Live TV Channel Guide will get the search bar sometime in the near future. Even the mobile app is getting a refresh. Now, when you swipe up, you’ll see options for Find My Remote, closed captions, the sleep timer, and trivia. In addition, you’ll be able to rate content with either like or dislike options.

Finally, Roku is adding support for live sport scores that pop up on title cards for each game. You can also set reminders to alert you when certain sports matches are starting.

The Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket have been attached at the hip for the better part of two decades. The big rocket lifts, the smaller spacecraft flies, and Congress keeps the money rolling in.

But now there are signs that the twain may, in the not too distant future, split.

This is because Lockheed Martin has begun to pivot toward a future in which the Orion spacecraft—thanks to increasing reusability, a focus on cost, and openness to flying on different rockets—fits into commercial space applications. In interviews, company officials said that if NASA wanted to buy Orion missions as a “service,” rather than owning and operating the spacecraft, they were ready to work with the space agency.

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Device maker Honor has revealed that one of its upcoming smartphones will offer an unusual design choice. While many manufacturers push to have more numerous and powerful cameras in their products, the Chinese company will put the camera for its new phone on a pop-out mechanical arm. According to CNBC, the design of this so-called “robot phone” is meant to showcase Honor’s AI capabilities as the company makes a $10 billion investment in artificial intelligence over the next five years. Honor hasn’t shared too much about this product, but will likely have more details during next year’s Mobile World Congress.

Honor has experimented with unusual form factors before, including a surreally thin foldable smartphone and a laptop with a detachable webcam, and we’ve even seen a similar concept of a pop-up camera several years back in products like the OnePlus 7 Pro phone. The idea to swing out a camera could offer some interesting options for image and video capture, but it’s also a prime place for mechanical failures and high manufacturing costs.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/honor-is-making-a-smartphone-with-a-fold-out-camera-201555268.html?src=rss

Thousands of networks—many of them operated by the US government and Fortune 500 companies—face an “imminent threat” of being breached by a nation-state hacking group following the breach of a major maker of software, the federal government warned Wednesday.

F5, a Seattle-based maker of networking software, disclosed the breach on Wednesday. F5 said a “sophisticated” threat group working for an undisclosed nation-state government had surreptitiously and persistently dwelled in its network over a “long-term.” Security researchers who have responded to similar intrusions in the past took the language to mean the hackers were inside the F5 network for years.

Unprecedented

During that time, F5 said, the hackers took control of the network segment the company uses to create and distribute updates for BIG IP, a line of server appliances that F5 says is used by 48 of the world’s top 50 corporations. Wednesday’s disclosure went on to say the threat group downloaded proprietary BIG-IP source code information about vulnerabilities that had been privately discovered but not yet patched. The hackers also obtained configuration settings that some customers used inside their networks.

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The U.S. passport has fallen out of the top 10 most powerful passports globally for the first time in 20 years in the latest edition of the Henley Passport Index, which ranks nations based on the number of destinations a traveler can visit without needing a visa. From a report: The U.S. ranking is on a steep downward trend, with the U.S. passport now in 12th spot, tied with Malaysia, having already fallen from seventh place last year to 10th place in July. A decade ago, the U.S. passport topped the index.

Christian H. Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Partners and creator of the index, said in a news release on Tuesday that the declining strength of the U.S. passport signaled a “fundamental shift in global mobility and soft power dynamics.” Kaelin added: “Nations that embrace openness and cooperation are surging ahead, while those resting on past privilege are being left behind.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Like clockwork, Apple has introduced a new M-series chip on updated versions of the iPad Pro, MacBook Pro and for the first time, Apple Vision Pro. The new M5 chip shares plenty of similarities with the M4 chip Apple introduced in 2024, but the biggest seems to be a focus on improving graphics and AI performance.

The M5 chip is made using a new third-generation 3nm process, according to Apple, with an updated 10-core GPU architecture on all versions that offers four times the peak GPU compute performance of the M4, while carrying over support for things like hardware-accelerated ray tracing. The M5 also features a 10-core CPU, just like the M4, with six efficiency and up to four performance cores. 

Apple

That is unless you’re buying an M5 iPad Pro. The 1TB and 2TB models of the Pro feature a 10-core CPU and GPU, but if you opt for a smaller storage size of 256GB or 512GB, you’ll get a nine-core CPU with six efficiency cores and three performance cores. Apple says the 10-core CPU offers “up to 15 percent faster multithreaded performance” over the M4 chip, though it’s not clear if that’s due to the CPU or memory improvements. That’s because the new chip offers an improved memory bandwidth of 153GB/s, up from the starting 120GB/s bandwidth on the M4, though less than what you can get with the M4 Pro or M4 Max. Apple will likely release M5 versions of both chips next year, but it’s worth knowing what you’re missing if you opt for the M5 right now.

The performance gains Apple was able to squeeze out of its new GPU and improved memory bandwidth seem like the biggest changes users will actually notice from the M5. That includes “up to 30 percent faster” graphics performance than the M4 and “up to a 45 percent graphics uplift in apps using ray tracing.” Apple introduced the M4 with a focus on dynamic caching and ray tracing, and it seems like the M5 makes both graphical processes more efficient. The gains are apparently even more noticeable on the M5 Vision Pro, where the headset can achieve a 120Hz refresh rate, up from the 100Hz max Apple guaranteed before, and is now able to render “10 percent more pixels.”

AI performance is also improved, though not necessarily thanks to the M5’s 16-core Neural Engine alone, which seems to be the same Neural Engine used in the M4. Instead, Apple’s taking a new approach to AI processing by including dedicated “Neural Accelerators” in each core of its GPU. This extra help has led to faster performance when devices are using Apple Intelligence skills or AI-powered features like the Vision Pro’s ability to generate a Persona, according to Apple.

In-depth testing and benchmarking of Apple’s new M5 devices will be required to accurately capture how the M5 chip changes things, especially when it comes to general CPU performance. For now, though, Apple’s chips continue to get more graphically powerful, which bodes well for anyone who uses MacBooks and iPads for creative tasks, AI or playing games.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/apples-m5-chip-pushes-ai-performance-with-new-neural-accelerators-193745702.html?src=rss