Samsung Hit with Restraining Order Over Smart TV Surveillance Tech in Texas

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has secured a temporary restraining order against Samsung, blocking the company from continuing to collect data through its smart TVs’ Automated Content Recognition technology.

The ACR system captured screenshots of what users were watching every 500 milliseconds, according to the state’s lawsuit, and did so without consumer knowledge or consent. The District Court found good cause to believe Samsung’s actions violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The TRO prohibits Samsung and any parties working in concert with the company from using, selling, transferring, collecting, or sharing ACR data tied to Texas consumers.

Samsung is one of five major TV manufacturers the Texas Attorney General’s office has sued over ACR deployment. Paxton previously secured a similar order against Hisense.


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OneXPlayer Teases Super V Gaming Tablet With Core Ultra X7 358H Panther Lake And Arc B390

OneXPlayer Teases Super V Gaming Tablet With Core Ultra X7 358H Panther Lake And Arc B390
Intel’s new Core Ultra Series 3 processors (codenamed Panther Lake) offer extremely impressive integrated graphics performance, as we noted in our brief testing yesterday. They’re also based on what is arguably the most advanced manufacturing process in the world, Intel’s 18A, which boasts exclusive features like RibbonFET and PowerVia. That

The GE Profile Smart Fridge stops you from buying too much kale

If you’ve ever bought a bag of spinach only to come home and realize you already had a bag of spinach, you may appreciate this fridge. I had a chance to check out the GE Profile Smart Fridge with Kitchen Assistant at CES and was surprised to find I kinda wanted one. To be perfectly honest, most attempts I’ve seen at the show to “stick some AI in it” are at best amusing but usually completely unnecessary.

Here, though, the AI has a purpose. After seeing how the autofill water dispenser worked, I asked the GE Appliance reps how easy it was to change the fridge’s water filter. Jason May, a GE Appliances product management executive, walked up to the fridge’s (appropriately sized) touchscreen and said “Hey HQ, where’s my water filter?” (HQ is short for SmartHQ, GE Profile’s assistant). Then, relying on information it had gathered from this model’s user manual, the AI assistant explained exactly where to find it (in the left hand door below the ice maker). It took another rep about two seconds to pop out the filter and, justlikethat, the task was on its way to done.

As for the spinach conundrum, that’s handled by a crisper drawer camera, called Fridge Focus. Each time you open the drawers, a built-in camera (that you can physically shutter or turn off in the app) takes a video snapshot of what’s left when you’re done. So if you’re at the store and wondering how much kale you already have, you can take a peek and see.

Checking out what's in the crisper drawer using the Fridge Focus feature.
Checking out what’s in the crisper drawer using the Fridge Focus feature.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Wendy Treinen, GE Appliances’ senior director of product communications, told me the camera can see what’s in the crisper drawer, but can’t see who accessed it. So if you’re hoping your fridge will rat out whoever at the last of the grapes, you’re out of luck. It can however, help that grape-eater easily add more fruit to the family shopping list.

That’s the most unique feature the fridge offers: a patented, built-in barcode scanner. It lives in the water dispenser and when you walk up, a little green light activates and scans the barcode of whatever you hold up to it. So if you’re drinking the last of the almond milk, you scan the container and it’ll automatically add it to your list.

That list can be accessed through the SmartHQ app which you can either check off at the grocery store or, if you really want to get deluxe about it, use the Instacart integration and have it delivered to your door. I scanned a few products — a box of vitamin C mix and a package of cinnamon raisin bagels — both of which quickly popped up on the screen and joined the running list.

Adding grocery items to Instacart with one button.
Adding grocery items to Instacart with one button.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget

The scanner can recognize four million products, including household items like paper towels and trash bags, but you can add things a other ways too. The easiest is probably just asking your fridge to do so, saying “Hey HQ, add paper towels to my shopping list.” The app allows manual additions and you can add items using the recipe function as well.

For the launch of the fridge, GE Profile has partnered with Taste of Home and will send 50 recipes each month to the fridge for users to try. Once you see the ingredients list, you can add anything you’re missing to your shopping. Those 50 recipes will cycle out at the end of the month to make way for a new 50, so if you cook something and like it, you’ll need to to add it to your personal recipe vault.

The AI assistant can also create recipes for you. The GE rep snapped a picture of an array of produce and asked SmartHQ what he could make with it. A list of recipe suggestions popped up and they all looked quite tasty (to be fair, I hadn’t eaten yet and it was already 2PM).

The recipe created from a picture of produce. Sam Rutherford for Engadget
The recipe created from a picture of produce. Sam Rutherford for Engadget

I mentioned the water dispenser’s hands-free auto-fill feature earlier. That’s been available on GE Profile fridges for a while and lets you select your glass capacity and walk away while it fills. You can also ask for, say, a half cup of water for a recipe. A new “precise fill” feature will dispense larger amounts in sequence. Say you need ten cups of water for soup. Since you can’t fit a huge vat in the water dispenser tray, you can instead use a smaller jug and the auto-filler will fill it the correct amount of times.

Another of my favorite bits is the screen. Fridges with giant, interactive screens make my eyes roll. Yes, it’s novel and eye-catching and perhaps amusing, but what possible problem is it trying to solve? The screen here is eight inches, which is enough to display scanned items, show recipes, and display the weather atop a pretty image when you’re not actively using the interface.

Finally! A reasonably sized fridge screen.
Finally! A reasonably sized fridge screen.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget

The GE Appliances reps were eager to point out that this is just the beginning of what they want to do with the fridge. My college Sam Rutherford asked whether the fridge would be able to alert you before your lettuce went bad, and we were told something that addresses that problem is on the horizon. It would likely work by recognizing when you purchased a perishable, and how long that perishable typically lasts. The company is also working with a chef on a feature that can reimagine your leftovers to create something new.

During the demo, May told me that the whole idea around the fridge’s design was to do something other than just “put a big screen on it with a bunch of apps that don’t have ay relevance to anything.” Instead the engineers started with problems people actually have — knowing what to buy at the store, knowing what’s already in the fridge, answering the eternal, unrelenting “What’s for dinner?” question — and designed the fridge around that.

I’d have to live with it a while to know whether those problems were solved, but so far, I can say this is the most intrigued I’ve felt about a smart fridge yet. The GE Profile Smart Fridge with Kitchen Assistant will be available in March from geappliances.com for $4,899.

A good amount of organization.
A good amount of organization.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/the-ge-profile-smart-fridge-stops-you-from-buying-too-much-kale-172433059.html?src=rss

NASA delays spacewalk due to a ‘medical concern’ with a crew member

NASA has postponed an International Space Station (ISS) spacewalk that was scheduled for Thursday. “The agency is monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that arose Wednesday afternoon aboard the orbital complex,” the agency wrote. On Thursday, NASA added that ending Crew-11’s mission early was on the table.

The unnamed crew member is stable, according to NASA. Space News notes that Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was heard on an open comms channel on Wednesday requesting a private medical conference with a flight surgeon. However, those requests are routine on the ISS, so we can’t assume the events were related.

“The matter involved a single crew member who is stable,” NASA wrote. “Safely conducting our missions is our highest priority, and we are actively evaluating all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew-11’s mission.”

NASA astronaut Zena Cardman in her pressurized spacesuit, checking its comms and power systems ahead of the (now postponed) spacewalk
NASA astronaut Zena Cardman in her pressurized spacesuit, checking its comms and power systems ahead of the (now postponed) spacewalk
NASA

Crew-11 was scheduled to remain on board the ISS until at least the second half of February. Its replacement, Crew-12, isn’t slated to blast off until February 15 at the earliest.

NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman had planned to exit the airlock on Thursday for the six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. The short trip’s mission was to install a kit and cables in preparation for a new roll-out solar array that will arrive on a future mission.

The agency said it will provide further updates within 24 hours.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasa-delays-spacewalk-due-to-a-medical-concern-with-a-crew-member-171900024.html?src=rss

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy deftly balances teen drama with intergalactic intrigue

Star Trek is in a weird place right now. Less than three years ago we were living in a golden age with five shows on the air, all with different styles and intended audiences.  But the universe rapidly contracted, with Picard ending while four other shows were cut short. Strange New Worlds still has another two seasons left, sure, but even that final season got truncated. As it stands, there’s only one project with a firm future right now, and that’s a brand-new show, Starfleet Academy, premiering January 15 on Paramount+.

How this show is received could very well determine the future of Star Trek. That’s a lot to put on it, but there’s something very appropriate given the subject matter. Starfleet Academy takes place in the 32nd century, 900 years after the adventures of James T. Kirk and company, and it takes place at the titular academy, meaning its principal cast is a collection of teens representing the next generation of Starfleet officers. That focus on a younger cadre has led to fans online derisively calling the series “CW Trek” without seeing a single episode. 

As Starfleet Academy is technically a Discovery spinoff, it picks up some of that series’ traits. The sleek, shiny sets are back, as well as a few plot threads originally set up in Discovery. The most notable is the collapse of the United Federation of Planets and the rebuilding of both the Federation and Starfleet. In fact, the series picks up on that as early as its second episode, with the Academy hosting a delegation from a once stalwart Federation planet that’s now gone isolationist. 

Scenes from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Scenes from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
John Medland/Paramount+

While many complaints about the series have focused on how what fans wanted was an academy show set during the 24th century (the time of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, et al.), this particular episode plot works precisely because of the distant future in which it is set. In a fully-functioning galactic democracy like the United Federation of Planets, there’s no logical reason for the average 18-year-old college freshman to be involved in interplanetary diplomacy. But in the 32nd century, the Federation is a lot scrappier and the individuals involved might be asked to wear many hats. It’s a lot like an early-stage tech startup.

The setting also lets the show be a little more creative with its cast: where TNG featured the first Klingon in Starfleet (Worf), 900 years of progress have created a Starfleet where no one bats an eye when a Klingon cadet like Jay-Den Kraag (played by Karim Diané) shows up to study science. There’s also a holographic cadet, Sam, who is the first of her kind to attend the academy (and she’s super excited to do so). A few new species are present as well: Darem Reymi (George Hawkins) is a Khionian and Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard) is a Dar-Sha, both aliens making their debut in the Star Trek universe.

The cast of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
The cast of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
John Medland/Paramount+

However, the show does still lean on some Trek stalwarts, and it’s these characters that have gotten the most chatter from fans. Mary Weisman as Sylvia Tilly was originally slated for the cast, and there was even a backdoor pilot-esque episode of Discovery to tie her in to the new show, but she’s no longer a regular and is nowhere to be seen in the first two episodes. Instead, we have Jett Reno (played by the wonderful Tig Notaro) as supporting cast, and Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr) appearing in a few episodes. And old school fans have been abuzz by the inclusion of The Doctor, who first appeared on Voyager (and later Prodigy). As a hologram, he’s practically immortal so his presence doesn’t need any convoluted explanation, and after 800 years he’s still the same gregarious blowhard (and it’s delightful).

They’re joined by new characters like Lara Thok, a part Klingon, part Jem’Hadar security officer and a Lanthanite chancellor, Nahla Ake, played by Academy Award Winner Holly Hunter. And Hunter isn’t even the only Oscar winner on the cast, with a major villain, Nus Braka, being portrayed by Paul Giamatti.

It’s a stellar cast, and the show’s sets certainly rise up to meet the challenge. Like in the shows of old, a good portion of Starfleet Academy is clearly shot on location, though not in the familiar water reclamation plant that was used back during the TNG and DS9 era. This time it’s all being shot in Ontario, with the outdoor scenes in particular being filmed in Waterloo. Regardless of where it’s shot, it looks enough like sunny California to work. 

Scenes from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Scenes from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
John Medland/Paramount+

The indoor scenes, shot at Toronto’s Pinewood Studios, have a pleasant convention center quality to them, with lots of wide hallways and large windows in contrast to Discovery’s cramped ship corridors. The hallways are full of students and teachers going to and fro, including some from species that would normally be off-limits to a show with a limited budget. But here robots and strange aliens roam freely in the background. The CGI can’t have been cheap.

And that’s ultimately my biggest question about Starfleet Academy. Exactly how much is this costing Paramount? So much of it is being shot on real sets instead of green screens, established actors like Hunter and Giamatti couldn’t have been cheap, and plentiful CG points to a robust special effects budget. Though Paramount doesn’t release official numbers, estimates have put an average episode of Strange New Worlds at $10 million, so it figures that Starfleet Academy is probably more than that, with some online estimates as high as $20 million per episode. 

With 10 episodes scheduled, that’s on par with a major motion picture budget but without the promise of blockbuster box office returns. No wonder Paramount has been doing so much cost-cutting, which includes axing every other Star Trek show.

That said, Starfleet Academy is carrying a lot on its shoulders. Just as the success or failure of its class of Starfleet cadets will determine the future of Starfleet and the Federation, the success of the show may even affect whether this era of Star Trek continues. As a Star Trek fan, this can be nerve-wracking; no one wants the franchise to go dormant again. But Starfleet Academy has so far shown itself to be up to the challenge.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/star-trek-starfleet-academy-deftly-balances-teen-drama-with-intergalactic-intrigue-170253808.html?src=rss

Garmin Now Has Nutrition Tracking (for a Price)

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Garmin, maker of fitness watches (among other things), announced this week that the subscription tier of the Garmin Connect app will now include nutrition tracking. According to the company, the app can identify foods based on a photo, and can set your calorie targets based on your activity data. 

Garmin announced this feature during CES 2026, although a new feature announcement isn’t exactly traditional CES fare—I was hoping it would show off a new watch. Still, I did get a chance to try out the feature on my own phone (and watch), and thought it worked well. 

How Garmin Connect+’s nutrition logging works

Screenshots of the Garmin Connect+ app showing nutrition logging

Credit: Screenshots by Beth Skawrecki

Garmin’s nutrition logging is pretty similar to the nutrition logging features on other apps, including my fave free app Cronometer. Identifying food items from a photo is a common feature, but it’s often locked behind a premium tier—which finally makes Garmin’s $6.99/month Connect+ subscription start to make sense. If you were going to pay for a premium nutrition app anyway, or if you already subscribe to one, you can consolidate those subscriptions by only paying for Garmin. 

If you currently have MyFitnessPal linked to Garmin, you may get a message saying that it’s been disabled. This connection still works, but you can’t use both that and the new nutrition feature—Garmin Connect needs to have one source for nutrition information. 

One nice thing about doing your nutrition in Garmin Connect rather than another app is that the setup process uses your activity history to help you pick a calorie target. This way you don’t have to guess whether you’re “moderately active” versus “lightly active.” Calorie estimates from fitness apps are never totally accurate, but they tend to be a pretty good starting place if you have no idea what number to pick.

The nutrition feature also allows you to view your calories from your watch, and to log favorite or recent foods. (For a full search, you’ll still need to use the app.) This watch feature is available natively on newer watches, and through a ConnectIQ app for slightly older watches—the Forerunner 255 and Fenix 6 are covered with the latter app.

Germany’s Dying Forests Are Losing Their Ability To Absorb CO2

Germany’s Harz mountains, once known for their verdant spruce forests, have become a graveyard of skeletal trunks after a bark beetle outbreak ravaged the region starting in 2018 — an infestation made possible by successive droughts and heatwaves that fatally weakened the trees. Between 2018 and 2021, Germany lost half a million hectares of forest, nearly 5% of the country’s total.

Since 2010, EU land carbon absorption has declined by a third, and Germany is now almost certain to miss its carbon sequestration targets, according to Prof Matthias Dieter, head of the Thunen Institute of Forestry. “You cannot force the forest to grow — we cannot command how much their contribution should be towards our climate targets,” he said.

Foresters in the Harz are responding by abandoning monoculture plantations in favor of mixed-species approaches. Pockets of beech, firs, and sycamore are now being planted around surviving spruce. A 2018 study in Nature found tree diversity was the best protection against drought die-offs, and more recent PNAS research found that species richness protected tree growth during prolonged drought seasons. The approach marks a shift from Germany’s pioneering modern forestry methods, which relied on single-species plantations now proved vulnerable to climate-driven disasters.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Musk Says Tesla Will Build A 2nm Dirty Fab Where He Can Smoke Cigars And Eat Burgers

Musk Says Tesla Will Build A 2nm Dirty Fab Where He Can Smoke Cigars And Eat Burgers
Semiconductor engineers everywhere are clutching their lint-free jumpsuits in horror as Elon Musk has announced his latest disruption: the “dirty fab,” a chip lab so chill in its standards that you could smoke and eat a double fat cheeseburger inside.

Elon – “I think they’re getting clean rooms wrong in these modern (chip) fabs. I’m going

Bose made the consumer friendly move to open source its SoundTouch speakers

Bose recently announced the pending end of cloud support for its SoundTouch line of home speakers. This will, in effect, turn the smart speakers into dumb speakers as they will no longer have access to many features and any related software updates. Well, there’s a spot of good news for SoundTouch owners. The company is turning to an open source model for the software, allowing third parties to keep the music playing.

The company has already begun mailing out the API documentation to customers so “independent developers can create their own SoundTouch-compatible tools and features.” This will take some time, so Bose is also extending the end-of-life (EoL) date for the SoundTouch speakers. They were set to stop receiving cloud updates in February, but that has been moved to May 6.

It made a couple of other changes to make life a bit easier for SoundTouch owners. The speakers will still be able to use AirPlay and Spotify Connect after EoL, which was something that had been in doubt. The app will also continue to work in a stripped-down format. That app was originally set to stop working altogether, so all of those angry customer comments on Reddit must have done the job.

The SoundTouch speakers were introduced in 2013 and were on the expensive side, starting at $600. Nobody likes spending hundreds of dollars on something only to have it become a useless brick several years later. Good on Bose for listening to their customers on this.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/bose-made-the-consumer-friendly-move-to-open-source-its-soundtouch-speakers-163459024.html?src=rss

MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z With 8-Inch Display Breaks 1000W Barrier For Extreme Performance

MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z With 8-Inch Display Breaks 1000W Barrier For Extreme Performance
One of the cooler things we saw in person at CES this year is MSI’s new GeForce RTX 5090 32G Lightning Z. A flagship GPU like the GeForce RTX 5090 is capable of standing on its own for noteworthiness, but what separates this one from the crowd is that it comes with a big and integrated 8-inch color LCD panel to display system vitals, artwork,

China Hacked Email Systems of US Congressional Committee Staff

China has hacked the emails used by congressional staff on powerful committees in the US House of Representatives, as part of a massive cyber espionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon. An anonymous reader shares a report: Chinese intelligence accessed email systems used by some staffers [non-paywalled source] on the House China committee in addition to aides on the foreign affairs committee, intelligence committee and armed services committee, according to people familiar with the attack. The intrusions were detected in December.

The attacks are the latest element of an ongoing cyber campaign against US communication networks by the Ministry of State Security, China’s intelligence service. One person familiar with the attack said it was unclear if the MSS had accessed lawmakers’ emails. The MSS has been operating Salt Typhoon for several years. It allows China to access the unencrypted phone calls, texts and voicemails of almost every American, and in some cases enables access to email accounts. Salt Typhoon has also intercepted the calls of senior US officials over the past couple of years, said people familiar with the campaign.


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How the Race Was Won: Drunken Intersections on the Neon Shore Loop (TTT)

The first race of Zwift Racing League Round 3 happened on Tuesday: a team time trial on the new Neon Shore Loop in Makuri Islands. While the very climby list of routes selected for Round 3 struck a bit of fear in my “overmuscled” heart, this looked like the sort of race my team (Coalition Delusion) could win…

Heat Training: Fool Me Once…

You may recall that the last TTT we won was in NYC, despite me mistakingly doing a hard heat training session the day before that definitely limited my race efforts.

This time around, I made sure I didn’t push too hard the day before. I rode the first event of Tour de Zwift at an easier pace, then turned off the fan and road easy for another 15 minutes to get just a bit of heat training in, to keep my adaptation level up. (More on heat training in an upcoming post… I’ve been doing a lot of it, and learning a lot along the way!)

Planning Our Race

Heading into the race, my team was chatting about all things course and strategy as usual. Captain Neil had our pull order worked out, with a bit of help from the Zwift TTT Calculator:

It was William’s first time riding with us, but we knew the drill: call out when you’re on deck. Call your stopping time when you get to the front. Call when you’ve got 5-10 seconds left in your pull. Call out if there’s a gap.

Basically: stick to the plan, and communicate well. Chris M would be our DS on the day, since he wasn’t riding. Always nice to have a non-riding DS for TTT weeks!

The new Neon Shore Loop route seemed fairly straightforward as a TTT course, since it was essentially flat, with three short and draftable climbs thrown in to make things interesting. We would hold formation on the flats, trying to hold our target power on our pulls, then push as hard as possible on the climbs. It’s proved a winning formula thus far… and we had no better ideas. Let’s race!

The Race

We began our race in Neokyo with around 10km of flat roads. This is a lovely way to start a TTT, especially if you’ve got some new team members. It lets you work on the fundamentals: hitting your pull targets, rotating smoothly, communicating clearly.

Two things we quickly noticed:

  1. The new drafting indicator was nice
  2. The game’s auto-steering made us look like a bunch of n00bs at every intersection, breaking formation and veering across the road

Here’s a quick screenshot of what our lovely single-file formation looked like just after a 90-degree turn at a Neokyo intersection:

Most TTTs aren’t on intersection-heavy roads like Neokyo, so perhaps I just haven’t noticed this issue before. Or perhaps it’s because I can easily see what I’m missing now that the draft indicator is live!

This may not be a popular opinion, but I think it’s time to allow steering in these races. Maybe I’d change my mind after actually racing a TTT with steering (I never have), but I really like the idea of being able to control my left-right position.

I was on the front, taking my third rotation on the day, when we hit the first little uphill: the riser to the second level, which takes us to the Rooftop KOM. I bumped my power up from my target (370W) to just over 400W, to keep speeds high on the climb without blowing myself or my teammates up. It seemed to work well, which was a good sign for me: it meant I was riding strong enough that teammates who are better climbers weren’t coming around me on uphills. But as we crested the top and Will began his pull, a gap opened up to Captain Neil, who was valiantly riding his second TTT of the day.

A bit of instruction from Chris for the front to ease, and we were back together for the start of the Rooftop KOM. We stayed roughly in formation on the lower part of the climb where speeds are high as you stairstep between slack climbing and flat road. Then it was time for my fourth pull as we hit the spot where racers traditionally attack, so I let everyone know I would just hold steady power and try to pace us to the top of the KOM.

Climbs can be messy in a TTT, and it can really simplify things if you know a particular rider is just going to keep it steady to the top.

I probably should have kept my #6 camera view live during this entire pull, but I didn’t activate it until I heard Chris ask me to ease up a bit, as a gap was forming. It’s never easy to hit that perfect pace in a situation like this, because you basically want to push as hard as your team can possibly go on a climb, since that’s where you can make up a lot of time in a TTT scenario.

Anyway, I eased, we regrouped, then we came over the top and settled in for lots of descent and flat roads, all the way down to Urukazi.

As usual, I had Sauce for Zwift running so I could see time gaps to nearby teams. It was showing that we were catching riders ahead, and pulling away from the team behind. Good signs! But it ain’t over ’til it’s over…

The next big effort we’d face would be the Pain Cavern, and as we were getting close to it, teammate Will had to skip some pulls. We made the call to have him do one last suicide pull in the run-in to Pain Cavern, and he executed it perfectly, holding the target pace until he blew up. We came around and kept pushing on, rotating through our remaining riders.

As I started my pull, we were in the middle of the figure 8 portion of the Pain Cavern, where racers typically attack. I eased a bit to keep the team together, then the road flattened and speeds ramped up as we exited the cavern with 2km to go and a team just a few seconds ahead!

Shorter pulls are often the way to go in the final 1-2 minutes of a race, as legs are tired but you want to finish fast. With 1.3km left in the race I came to the front and announced I’d be pulling for just 30 seconds, but pulling hard to catch the team ahead. Let’s go, boys! I do love a good carrot.

We passed the team with 900 meters to go, and I dropped a Ride On bomb as their lead rider waved. Class! Then Fabian came to the front and three down one last pull before rotating off with 500 meters left. Go go go!

Everyone on the team was pushing hard, a sort of friendly final race to empty the tank and not be last across the line. If it was a race, I guess I pipped Andrew at the line:

See my ride on Strava >

Watch the Video

Results and Takeaways

Heading over to WTRL’s website, we learned that we had indeed taken first place:

WTRL has placed us in the B2 division this round, which seems a bit odd since we took second place in B1 last round. Perhaps WTRL will re-sort the divisions after this race?

On the other hand, given the hilly nature of every other race this round, perhaps B2 is exactly where we should be. Because while our TTT result would have beaten all the B1 teams as well, our strength as a team has never been found in the hills.

Personally, I was happy with my performance in this race. I felt like my heart rate was a bit lower than usual, possibly a product of all the heat training I’ve been doing. And I was able to consistently put in 1-minute pulls, which I haven’t always been able to do.

We wrapped up the day with our traditional team photo:

What about you?

How did your TTT go? Share below…

Super Star Torn To Pieces By Black Hole Releases Energy Equal To 400 Billion Suns

Super Star Torn To Pieces By Black Hole Releases Energy Equal To 400 Billion Suns
Astronomers have captured the moment a supermassive black hole literally tore apart a super sun (one 30 times larger than our own) and released a burst of energy equivalent to 400 billion suns. 

Affectionately called the “Whippet” (officially AT2024wpp), this Tidal Disruption Event (TDE) occurred on a scale that defied traditional expectations.

Why AMD Isn’t Losing Sleep Over Panther Lake’s Big GPU Upgrade

Why AMD Isn't Losing Sleep Over Panther Lake's Big GPU Upgrade
As impressive as the debut of Intel’s mobile Panther Lake lineup at CES 2026 was, AMD has gone on the record as being “not afraid” of Intel’s latest and greatest architecture. The reason for this is because Intel didn’t compare Panther Lake to AMD’s top-of-the-line Strix Halo in its slides, with an AMD executive saying, “Strix Halo, or Ryzen

The next Xbox Developer Direct showcase is on January 22

Xbox will kick off the fourth installment of its Developer Direct event on January 22 at 1PM ET. As usual, we’ll get a glimpse at what the upcoming year has in store along with news, new gameplay footage and more directly from the teams behind this year’s slate of games.

It’s officially Developer_Direct season!

Join us on January 22 at 10am PT for an exclusive look at Fable, Forza Horizon 6, and Beast of Reincarnation: https://t.co/FvFUT7RzVZ | #DeveloperDirect pic.twitter.com/GMRpVDxucs

— Xbox (@Xbox) January 8, 2026

In a blog post announcing the event, Xbox Wire Editor-in-Chief Jon Skrebels said Xbox’s 25-year anniversary will be marked by the return of some beloved franchises. Gamers will also get their first extended look at Fable, a reboot of the iconic series. The event will also be unveiling gameplay footage for Forza Horizon 6, the upcoming open-world racing game set in Japan. UK studio Playground Games is behind both titles.

The showcase will also include new details and gameplay from Beast of Reincarnation, the “one-person, one-dog” role-playing game. The game is being developed by Game Freak, the studio best known for its series of Pokémon games, and follows protagonist Emma and her canine companion in post-apocalyptic Japan.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/the-next-xbox-developer-direct-showcase-is-on-january-22-154444166.html?src=rss