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When you’re new or returning to running, the last thing you need is one more barrier. Shoes, appropriate clothes, sweat-resistant sunscreen: These things are hard to do without. But those running watches that it seems like everyone else is using? You don’t need one, and certainly not on your first day. You don’t even need to run with your phone. 

It’s off how “fitness” has become almost synonymous with tracking fitness. How many steps are you taking? How many calories are you burning? How many minutes per mile was your pace when you went jogging this morning? What was your heart rate? Each of these numbers can be worth tracking…sometimes, in some contexts. Heart rate training, for example, has its uses.

But you don’t need to know any of this. You can just go for a run, and the results are recorded in the very fibers of your muscles. Your heart and lungs know how hard they worked, and they are in the process of adapting so that they’ll be able to serve you better next time. This process does not require you, at any point, to look at numbers on a screen. So do you need a Garmin, a Fitbit, an Apple Watch, or any of their kin? Absolutely not.

What a running watch provides, and how to do without

I may seem like a hypocrite going for runs with three watches on (look, these reviews and comparisons don’t write themselves), but in the past I’ve gone years at a time without regularly wearing a device. Most of the time, I don’t feel like strength workouts need any kind of wrist-based tracking at all. And there have been times I actually took a watch off to go for a run—see the photo up top where I have a watch-shaped indent on my wrist. Not every workouts needs to be tracked.

When I do a watch-less run, I have a vague idea of time and mileage, but no precise numbers. My brain is empty of thoughts except for “don’t go too fast” and “turn around when I get to the main road.” Now I’ll discuss the data I’m not getting from a running watch when I do that, and how to go without it. 

Distance

The watch tells you: how far you’ve gone. Want to run 3 miles? Turn around when your watch says 1.5. You can also add up your miles at the end of the week. 

How to do without: Measure a route beforehand. This doesn’t need to be precise. You can use Google Maps (right-click and select “measure distance,” or just plan a walking route through the normal interface). For a nicer interface, use an app like Footpath. The free version lets you measure routes but not save them; honestly, creating a route and then taking a screenshot is good enough for our purposes here. If you’re going to pay for an app with route planning, you might as well get Strava—but more on that later.

You can plan the route before you go, and then when you’ve finished the route, you know you’ve done your mileage. It can be handy to have a few routes on hand for common distances you like to run. There’s a 5-mile loop at my local park, for example, and I know exactly where to jog in my neighborhood if I want a 2-miler.

Tracking mileage over the course of the week is even easier. To keep track of distance from day to day, you can keep a note in your phone, or add it to your training journal. Want more analytics without having to download an app? Our resident marathoner Meredith Dietz has a spreadsheet you can download.

Time

The watch tells you: how long you’ve been running. 

How to do without: In the olden days, you’d use a regular (non-smart) watch to track time, or even just look at the clock before you leave home and then again when you come back. Where a watch-user knows that their run was 32 minutes and five seconds, you are free from worrying about such minutia and can be happy to know that you were running for about half an hour.

You can also use a stopwatch on your phone to track the time, if you really want to know. You can also just estimate from your mileage: That three-mile route will take about 30 minutes if you run at a 10:00 pace.

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Pace

The watch tells you: how many minutes it’s taken you to run each mile; also, what pace you are going right now. 

How to do without: Go by feel. If you’re a beginner, the exact pace doesn’t matter; do easy runs at a speed that feels easy. Do faster intervals at a pace that feels challenging but doesn’t leave you gassed. The exact numbers aren’t important.

If you’re an experienced runner, use that experience! How do you feel when you’re running 10-minute miles? 8-minute miles? Run at an effort level that feels right for the programmed run, and every now and then you can run a race or time yourself on a track to recalibrate. For track intervals, use that old-fashioned stopwatch I mentioned above. That’s the traditional way, anyhow.

Heart rate

The watch tells you: your current heart rate, and maybe the “zone” you’re in. 

How to do without: Honestly, if you’re a beginner, don’t use heart rate at all. Heart rate can be a useful number once you have a pretty good handle on what your personal heart rate is at different effort levels. But the way most watches and apps calculate heart rate is with an error-prone formula that often sets the zones too high or too low. 

As a beginner, the only thing that really matters is that you do your easy runs at an easy pace, not a gut-busting breakneck speed that ends up being unsustainable. So, go with perceived effort here too. Do you feel like you could keep this up almost forever? Like you could talk on the phone with only a little bit of heavy breathing? That’s the famous “zone 2.”  See, you didn’t need a heart rate monitor after all.

If you’re an experienced runner, you probably get more use out of pace data than heart rate data, anyway—but you can always use a chest strap connected to your phone if you’d like the numbers.

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Coaching, sometimes

Not all watches have this feature, and even among people who have running watches, not everyone uses the coaching. But yes, some watches and some apps provide a running plan, telling you how many miles, at what pace, to run each day. They may also give you guided runs, with a coach in your ear telling you when to speed up and slow down. 

Without a watch, you’re on your own for this stuff. But you can also find a plan online that’s not tied to any particular app. Hal Higdon says I’m running 3 miles on Tuesday? Well then, I’ll go out on Tuesday and run (roughly, approximately) 3 miles. 

How I’ve trained without a running watch

Putting all of this together, here’s what it looked like for me last year, a time that was largely watch-free as I returned to running after taking time off. First, I started my running habit by getting consistent with my morning walk (30 minutes, so about 1.5 miles.) Over the course of a week, I started adding some bits of running to my walk, slowing down when I got winded or uncontrollably itchy, and after about two weeks, I was running pretty much the whole 1.5 miles in relative comfort. The following week, I started adding a little mileage—doing 2 miles most morning instead of 1.5.

This worked beautifully as a gentle re-introduction to running, and honestly? I don’t think I would have done it this way if I were wearing a watch. It would have been demoralizing to see that my “running” pace was so much slower than what I was used to seeing when I was in better shape. But once I was in the habit, it was easy to add mileage. 

After that introductory period, I collected a few neighborhood routes into a mental library. I’d put on my sun visor and headphones when I went out with the kids to wait for the bus, and as soon as they left I’d turn and head off on one of my 3-mile (usually) routes. 

I kept track of my mileage in a notebook. Three miles, five times a week, is 15 miles. If I missed a morning or if I wanted to add more time on my feet, I’d add another run in the evening or on a weekend day, usually heading to a nearby park where I knew the mileage of my favorite trails and roads. If I wanted to try a new route, I’d sometimes pick an album that is about as long as I’d like my run to be (many are around 45 minutes, which is perfect) and take note of which song occurs at the halfway point. When I hear that song, I turn around. That’s a 45-minute run in the books—in the ballpark of four miles or so.

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Can I use my phone instead of a running watch?

You sure can! If you’re looking at that list above and thinking “aww, I wish I had that data,” wish no more! There are tons of running apps that can track distance, duration, and pace in real time, even speaking up through your headphones to let you know your split times each mile. 

Pros of phone based running apps 

• No need to buy special equipment like a watch.

• Numbers are available anytime you want to pull your phone out and look at them.

• You’re probably bringing your phone anyway to listen to music.

• You’ll get a map of your run after the fact (thanks to your phone’s GPS).

• The app will keep track of your mileage over time.

Cons of phone based running apps

• You may not want to see all those numbers, especially if the thought of logging a “bad” average pace makes you rush warmups or skip walking breaks.

• GPS tracking on phones is not always as accurate as the tracking on watches (but this depends on your phone).

• GPS tracking tends to run a phone’s battery down faster than if you weren’t using the GPS.

• No heart-rate tracking, if that’s a thing you want (unless you use a chest strap and pair it to your phone with Bluetooth).

I enjoy the guidance I get from running apps if I’m doing a specific workout—like one I tried recently that involved segments of 0.6, 0.5, and 0.35 miles. No way was I going to track that manually, but the pleasant voice in my ear told me exactly when to start and stop each interval, and cued me to speed up or slow down if I was getting off pace.

If you do decide to get a running watch later on, they’ll have the same features as the phone apps, but with better battery life and an easier way to view the numbers. 

What are the best running apps to use if you don’t have a phone? 

The classic is Strava. In fact, if the community aspect of a running app or watch is what’s most important to you, you’ll definitely want to get on Strava. People who log their runs on a Garmin or another device will often upload to Strava so they can have everything in one place. But you can also “record” a run from the Strava app directly, no extra device needed. Just beware that the social features can end up revealing your location, so dip into the privacy settings to make sure you aren’t sharing more than you intend. 

If you have an iPhone, the best simple running app (thanks to an update earlier this year) is the built-in Fitness app. This used to only manage data from the Apple Watch, but has since turned into a nice standalone fitness app.

Other popular running apps include MapMyRun, Runkeeper, Adidas Running (formerly Runtastic), and Nike Run Club. There are also some general fitness apps that can track running data, like Polar Beat and Intervals Pro.

How do you track mileage when running without a watch? 

Measure or estimate the length of each run, ideally by measuring on a tool like Google Maps or Footpath. (In the olden days, we would sometimes drive a route and use the odometer.) 

Add up your mileage over time by keeping notes on a calendar (paper or digital), a notebook (paper or digital), or any other way you’d keep track of a running tally. 

How do you pace yourself when running without a watch? 

By paying attention to your body. For an easy or “zone 2” pace, you’ll want to feel like you’re breathing easy and like you can keep going forever. Faster paces might feel harder, but they’ll still be sustainable enough that you can make it the entire distance you intend, without collapsing into a heap by the end. You’ll learn over time what each appropriate pace feels like. 

On guided runs, offered by many running apps, the coach or narrator will help you figure out the right effort level. They might ask you to aim for a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, or they might describe in words how your body should feel when you’re at a given pace.

Do I need a watch to run a marathon? 

You don’t make it to the start line of a marathon without having a decent amount of running experience under your belt. And these days, when you’ve been running regularly for the amount of time it takes to build a base and then train for a marathon…you’ll probably have already given in to the temptation to buy a running watch. 

But it’s not necessary in any way. You can do your training by mapping out routes ahead of time, gauging your pace based on how you feel, and writing down your weekly mileage in a notebook. This is how almost everybody trained until running watches became more accessible about 10 or 15 years ago. The race organizers are keeping track of your time (there’s a chip in your bib, usually), and they’ll post mile markers along the course so you know where you are. 

On race day, you probably won’t want to use your running app; it drains battery, and you’ll be out there a long time. Instead, you can pace yourself by wearing a basic stopwatch and comparing your time at each mile marker with pre-calculated split times. Sound complicated? It’s not—just grab one of these temporary tattoos that has them all calculated for you. 

What is the best running watch for beginners?

Once you’ve gotten the hang of running, you may eventually decide it’s time to shop for a watch. Fortunately, we have a guide to the best watches for runners here, and I even have a shortlist of the best running watches under $250. Currently the Coros Pace 4 looks like the best of the bunch to me, while my colleague Meredith enjoys her Garmin Forerunner 165.

Human-resources departments in American companies employed 1.3 million professionals in 2024, a 64% increase over ten years. Overall employment grew 14% in the same period. Professional-services and technology firms saw the number of HR workers double since 2014. Similar patterns have emerged in Australia, Britain and Germany.

Chief human-resources officers also gained ground financially. Their total compensation, which stood at 40% of the average director’s salary in 1992, reached 70% by 2022, according to a Stanford University study. Mary Barra, who runs General Motors, previously held the carmaker’s top HR position.

The expansion has followed several workplace disruptions, including the Me Too movement, the pandemic’s shift to remote work, and the rise of diversity initiatives, Economist reports. Companies also faced more state regulations on employee relations and a jump in workplace complaints. The average number of discrimination or harassment allegations rose from six per 1000 employees in 2021 to 15 last year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The heads of Apple TV have “no plans” to bring ads to the streaming service, balking, at least for now, at a strategy that has driven success for Apple’s streaming rivals.

In its November 2025 issue, British movie magazine Screen International asked Eddy Cue, SVP of Apple Services, if there are plans to launch an ad-based subscription tier for Apple TV. Cue responded:

Nothing at this time. … I don’t want to say no forever, but there are no plans. If we can stay aggressive with our pricing, it’s better for consumers not to get interrupted with ads.

The comments follow reports over the years suggesting that Apple has been seeking knowledge on how to build a streaming ads business. Most recently, The Telegraph reported that Apple TV executives met with the United Kingdom’s ratings body, Barb, to discuss what tracking ads on Apple TV would look like. In 2023, Apple hired advertising exec Lauren Fry as head of video and Apple News ad sales.

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Apple Music’s selection is exceptional, but I’ve never enjoyed using its Mac app much. It’s slow, buggy, and lacks the razor sharp focus on albums that I sometimes desire.

On my iPhone, I often turn to the excellent Albums app to scratch that itch, which is why I’m excited to say that the same app has recently arrived on the Mac as well. I’m always looking for excuses to avoid opening the Music app on the Mac, and Albums has arrived at exactly the right time for me to make the switch. While I do enjoy listening to individual songs or playlists, I am going through an albums phase right now. For this, the Albums app is perfect. Its sole focus is on playing whole albums from your Apple Music library, rather than mixing and matching songs for you. It goes without saying that this app requires an active Apple Music subscription, but I far prefer it to the official Music app.

Play whole albums from Apple Music

Credit: Pranay Parab

Albums is available as a free download from the Mac App Store, but it does have a premium tier that unlocks some of its best features. On the free tier, you can search for and listen to albums. When you open the app, it shows a randomized grid containing all the albums in your Apple Music library. You can click any album to start playing it, and you can also queue other albums to play after the current one ends.

Albums Premium is available either as a subscription ($2/month or $19/year) or a one-time purchase ($90). If you join the premium tier, you get access to a whole bunch of power user features, such as listening stats, a release feed that tracks upcoming albums from artists in your library, and an “Insights” section for you to find curated lists of music albums you’ve listened to before. You only need to subscribe or purchase the app on one device to unlock it on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Stats and insights in Albums for Mac

Credit: Pranay Parab

The Albums app’s Insights section is a fascinating way to discover music. It gives you the choice to enter your date of birth and generates a full list of collections based on that. Some examples of these collections include “High School,” “Late Teens/Early 20s,” “My 30s,” and so on. If you open any of these collections, it shows you albums (from your Apple Music library) that were released during that stage of your life, which is a great way to take a walk down memory lane.

Most collections in the Insights section don’t require your personal information, though. Albums will also look at your Apple Music data, and create useful collections such as “Only Listened Once,” “Never Played,” etc. I also like the “Today In History” section here, which highlights albums released on the day you’re listening on, but in previous years. Once you open a collection, you can either choose an album you want to play, or use the shuffle option to automatically queue other albums after the current one finishes playing. This is also a nice way to stick to the app’s core principle of focusing on whole albums, while still including a “shuffle” feature. 

The Albums Premium tier also lets you create custom collections. You can create a collection of albums by a specific artist, music from a particular decade, or even albums of a particular runtime. For instance, if you’re only in the mood for short albums, you can use the app’s collection filters to group all albums under 15 minutes long. This is how I learned that the longest album in my Apple Music library is a 666-minute epic (Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, by Daniel Barenboim). I might actually play that start-to-finish when I start writing an epic fantasy novel.

Power user features in Albums

Credit: Pranay Parab

If you’re looking for different ways to discover and play albums, this app does a great job. It’s also perfect for people who love customizing a UI. You can edit the sidebar to reorder various sections, add collections, or even opt for a minimalist look by picking just one element for each section in the sidebar. Albums also supports bulk actions that let you quickly add notes to a bunch of albums or add a set of albums to a new collection. And there are useful sorting options that let you order albums based on release date, title, time spent listening to them, etc. 

In fact, some of you may complain that Albums has too many customization options, since they can make the UI a bit confusing. For instance, I noticed three different gear icon buttons on the same screen in the app. One of them opens app settings, the second is for collection settings, and the third one is for now playing settings. Power users may enjoy this degree of customizability, but it can also be overwhelming for someone who’s just looking for the right button to change their collection’s sort order. I also spotted a minor UI bug that displays search results on top of sidebar elements, which makes both hard to read.

Still, other than these minor complaints, Albums is a great app that brings some much-needed improvements to Apple Music. It is much faster than Apple Music’s own Mac UI, loads songs flawlessly, and does its one job of curating all your albums very well. On the surface, Albums may look like a one-trick pony, but the moment you start exploring it, you’ll realize that it has a lot of amazing features for you to enjoy.

The developer is clearly is an album enthusiast, and it’s nice to see such care still being put into listening to music in the order the artists intended.

After more than a decade of planning, the launch of the African Medicines Agency (AMA) is being celebrated in Mombasa, Kenya, this week at the Seventh Biennial Scientific Conference on Medical Products Regulation in Africa. From a report: The agency’s establishment marks a pivotal moment in Africa’s public health, at a time when the need for biomedical research conducted in Africa, focused on African health problems, has never been greater. Africa holds higher levels of human genetic diversity than anywhere else on Earth, but this diversity has not been adequately studied. And many globally approved treatments and vaccines for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are less effective, and can even be harmful in some people of African ancestry.

This year, cuts of billions of US dollars in international funding for biomedical research and health services in Africa have left millions of people without access to life-saving treatments or, in the case of researchers and health-care workers, unemployed. This demonstrates the immense vulnerability that comes with relying on funding from external donors.

What’s more, Africa’s phenomenal population growth and pace of urbanization is bringing fresh challenges — as well as opportunities — around health and disease. In Africa’s cities today, the inhabitants of increasingly affluent neighbourhoods are demanding high-quality medicines and health care. But in low-income areas, high population density, inadequate housing and poor sanitation are facilitating the spread of respiratory and diarrhoeal infections. And everywhere, inadequate diets, air pollution, smoking and physical inactivity are driving increased rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. By 2100, Africa is expected to host 13 of the world’s 20 largest cities, and such inequalities are likely to worsen.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

For years now, Valve has been slowly improving the capabilities of the Proton compatibility layer that lets thousands of Windows games work seamlessly on the Linux-based SteamOS. But Valve’s Windows-to-Linux compatibility layer generally only extends back to games written for Direct3D 8, the proprietary Windows graphics API Microsoft released in late 2000.

Now, a new open source project is seeking to extend Linux interoperability further back into PC gaming history. The d7vk project describes itself as “a Vulkan-based translation layer for Direct3D 7 [D3D7], which allows running 3D applications on Linux using Wine.”

More options are always welcome

The new project isn’t the first attempt to get Direct3D 7 games running on Linux. Wine‘s own built-in WineD3D compatibility layer has supported D3D7 in some form or another for at least two decades now. But the new d7vk project instead branches off the existing dxvk compatibility layer, which is already used by Valve’s Proton for SteamOS and which reportedly offers better performance than WineD3D on many games.

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US residents across 15 states could be in for a show tonight and throughout the week. Incoming coronal mass ejections may spark geomagnetic storms that blaze up the northern lights for all to see, according to a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Forecasters anticipate geomagnetic activity and aurora displays from November 10 until November 12 in states such as New York, Minnesota, Iowa and Alaska, among others. This is due to a trio of coronal mass ejections that began on November 7.

NOAA

As previously stated, the latest NOAA aurora forecast map notes that 15 US states are fully or partially above the view line. This isn’t an exact science, as it’s entirely possible that those living below the view line could get a glimpse of something in the night sky. Auroras are fickle, so it’s also possible that the lightshow will be understated. A number of conditions have to align for the perfect display.

If you’re planning on heading out tonight for a look, here are some tips. Make sure to find a north-facing vantage point with a clear view of the horizon. You want to be as far from light pollution as possible, so head away from large cities. Use a mobile phone to scan the skies as the camera is actually better at picking up faint lights before being visible to the naked eye. This can help pinpoint where to focus attention.

The last truly powerful and widespread aurora event in the US took place last year. That geomagnetic storm was one of the strongest in the past two decades. It’s unlikely this week’s activity will be quite as striking.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/northern-lights-could-be-visible-in-15-states-this-week-180056871.html?src=rss

Windows 11 users are getting a long-awaited Start menu redesign this week. While the features have been available in beta for awhile, Microsoft is rolling out the updated interface to everyone alongside November’s Patch Tuesday.

What’s new with the Windows 11 Start menu

The Start menu will now be scrollable, so you can see all of your apps on the homepage instead needing to click All apps to open a separate page. Below pinned apps and recommendations, Microsoft will now automatically categorize similar apps into groups—the Productivity group may include your browsers and Microsoft 365 suite, for example—and place remaining apps under Other. Categories are created with three or more similar apps. For the time being, Microsoft does not allow you to customize your own. This will be the default view after the update, though you can change back to grid view with apps listed A to Z.

The new Start menu will also adapt to fit your screen: Larger screens will default to eight columns of pinned apps, six recommendations, and four category columns. If your screen is smaller, the menu will shrink to six pinned app columns, four recommendations, and three columns of categories. You can also disable recommendations, which will allow you to see more installed apps on the Start menu without needing to scroll. You’ll find this option under Settings > Personalization > Start.

In addition to the improved Start menu, Windows 11 users will also see a handful of other updates this Patch Tuesday. The battery icon now will have an optional percentage display and color indicator, and File Explorer will have a Recommended section on the Home page in place of Quick Access. Voice Access and Click to Do also have improved features.

You do not need to reinstall Windows in order get the Start menu redesign. Just ensure your system is set to automatically check for updates as soon as they’re available.

A new simulation could help solve one of astronomy’s longstanding mysteries—how supermassive black holes formed so rapidly—along with a new one: What are the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) “little red dots?”

Invisible leviathans lurk at the cores of nearly all of the 2 trillion or so galaxies strewn throughout space-time. Monster black holes entered the cosmic scene soon after the Universe’s birth and grew rapidly, reaching millions or even billions of times the Sun’s mass in less than a billion years. Astronomers have long wondered how these supermassive black holes could have grown so hefty in such little time.

The monster black hole mystery became even more perplexing in 2022 when “little red dots” were spotted at the far edges of space. When these tiny scarlet orbs began unexpectedly popping up in JWST images of the distant Universe, their nature was hotly debated. Now that scientists have amassed a sample of hundreds of them, many think the dots are growing supermassive black holes.

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AI has been the tech buzzword over the last few years, but it’s stolen attention from other technological advancements that are possibly more impactful in your everyday life. Take satellite connectivity for example: For most of the time cellphones and smartphones have existed, losing cell signal meant your mobile device was largely useless. With satellite connectivity, however, as long as you’re within range of a satellite, you can continue to make calls and send texts. It’s remarkable, for both the convenience of communication, as well as your safety.

Right now, there are only a few companies leading the satellite connectivity charge, at least as far as consumer technology goes. T-Mobile is the only carrier pushing it, having partnered with Starlink to offer satellite communications to its customers. But you don’t need T-Mobile for satellite connectivity if you have an iPhone: Since 2022, Apple has been building the iPhone’s ability to connect to satellites, starting with Emergency SOS via Satellite (the ability to reach out to emergency services over satellite), before rolling out general satellite messaging with iOS 18. Whether you have T-Mobile, an iPhone, or both, it’s possible to send your friend a text in the middle of nowhere, assuming you have a clear line of site to a satellite overhead. Amazing.

And according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has some major plans to expand the iPhone’s satellite connectivity capabilities.

“Natural usage” improvements

Perhaps most importantly, Apple wants you to be able to connect to satellites without the need for an unobstructed view of the sky. Right now, that’s arguably one of the technology’s biggest hurdles: It’s great when you have a clear path between your iPhone and a satellite, but if there’s something in the way—say, a bunch of trees, or if you’re inside a building—the signal might not reach. The company is working on what is called “natural usage” improvements, which would support satellite connectivity across a wider variety of situations. Maybe your iPhone is in your pocket, or you’re in your car, but it’s as if you’re outside in a wide open clearing.

Apple Maps via satellite

Once you’re able to connect to satellites in more places, the other new features become even more useful. That includes a new version of Apple Maps that supports satellites, which would let you use the app without needing wifi or cellular. This is probably the feature I’d be most be excited for: It can be so stressful trying to pull up directions in an area with low to no signal, so to know you almost always have a way to connect Maps—even if it’s slower than usual—would be a relief.

Sending photos via satellite

Messaging is another area that will reportedly see some improvement: While you can currently text over cellular, Gurman says Apple is working on supporting sending photos over satellite as well.

Third-party support

It won’t just be Apple’s own apps and services that are benefitting, either. Gurman says Apple is working on an API to let third-party developers add satellite support to their apps as well. Apple’s own software may have the best experience, but it does open the door for expanded support. Other navigation apps, like Google Maps, could potentially connect to satellite this way. If you prefer it over Apple Maps, you wouldn’t have to stick with your iPhone’s built-in maps app when you don’t have cell service.

More coverage for future iPhones

While it wouldn’t impact current iPhone owners, the iPhone 18 will likely support 5G NTN, which lets cell towers themselves connect to satellites to boost coverage.

When these features will launch

Apple can’t add all of these improvements on their own, unfortunately. According to Gurman, the company will need Globalstar, the company that builds this satellite infrastructure, to make hardware improvements on their end. Assuming that happens, the idea of “dead zones” may be a relic of the first quarter of the 21st century.

Patreon has spent the last few years pitching itself as a healthier alternative to algorithmic social platforms for creators. Now, the membership service is adding a bunch of new social features for its creators in an attempt to make its platform more of a viable alternative to mainstream social media.

The updates include a new post format, called Quips, that allows creators to share non-paywalled updates that can include text, photos or video. Patreon users can browse quips from creators via the app’s redesigned “home” feed, which now includes recommended posts. (Patreon says users can opt to only see posts from creators they’re already following if they wish.) The company is also working on a saved posts feature and a tagging feature so creators can @-mention each other in their posts. 

All that may sound a lot like social media, but Patreon CEO Jack Conte says the updates are meant to give creators a way to grow their audience without relying on platforms that aren’t as invested in their success. “I don’t think of it as competing with Instagram …  I feel like we’re competing with what Instagram should have and could have become, but did not,” he said in an update shared on his Patreon. 

Patreon

With the updates, the company is also walking a fine line between offering creators an alternative to social media and becoming the type of algorithmic platform it has railed against. Conte seems aware of this tension, noting that the membership-only tab will still deliver updates only from creators people are already following. “If we pivot too much to discovery and you don’t see the creators that you’re subscribed to and love, then we’re not doing our job of helping you cultivate long-term relationships, and we have to fix that,” he said.

At the same time, he says there are early signs that the changes will be positive for creators. According to Conte, creators who have tried a beta version of Quips have already seen a significant rise in new free memberships from the feature. So far, there’s been a much smaller rise in paid subscribers, with “somewhere in the 5 to 10 percent” range of new paid memberships coming from Quips, though Conte says he’s “optimistic” about its potential to drive paid growth,

Patreon plans to roll out these updates slowly, with full availability coming sometime next year. In the meantime, creators who want access to Quips sooner can join a waitlist to be added to the beta.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/patreon-is-adding-a-discovery-feed-to-help-creators-avoid-social-media-platforms-173000049.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: Spotify is the most popular music streaming service in the world. While its algorithmic recommendations aren’t necessarily the reason, its reach has meant that hundreds of millions of people are being fed a steady diet of music curated by a machine. Spotify’s goal is to keep you listening no matter what. In her book Mood Machine, journalist Liz Pelly recounts a story told to her by a former Spotify employee in which Daniel Ek said, “our only competitor is silence.”

According to this employee, Spotify leadership didn’t see themselves as a music company, but as a time filler. The employee explained that, “the vast majority of music listeners, they’re not really interested in listening to music per se. They just need a soundtrack to a moment in their day.” Simply providing a soundtrack to your day might seem innocent enough, but it informs how Spotify’s algorithm works. Its goal isn’t to help you discover new music, its goal is simply to keep you listening for as long as possible. It serves up the safest songs possible to keep you from pressing stop.

The company even went so far as to partner with music library services and production companies under a program called Perfect Fit Content, or PFC. This saw the creation of fake or “ghost” artists that flooded Spotify with songs that were specifically designed to be pleasant and ignorable. It’s music as content, not art. […] Artists, especially new ones trying to break through, actually started changing how they composed to play better in the algorithmically driven streaming era. Songs got shorter, albums got longer, and intros went away. The hook got pushed to the front of the song to try to grab listeners’ attention immediately, and things like guitar solos all but disappeared from pop music. The palette of sounds artists pulled from got smaller, arrangements became more simplified, pop music flattened.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.