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Everything old is new again with the Fitbit Edge

Close up of the Fitbit Edge on a person’s wrist with the new metal links bracelet and a watchface that shows noticeable black bezels around the edge.
The bezels aren’t that noticeable with other watchfaces, but some things don’t change.

Last week, I sank into my living room couch and watched a bedraggled, nihilistic Matthew McConaughey take a drag of a cigarette in season 1 of True Detective. "You know, someone once told me time is a flat circle. Everything we've done, or will do, we're gonna do over and over and over again." I assume most people aren't thinking about fitness trackers or gadgets while watching that scene. But in that moment, I couldn't help but think about the Fitbit Edge on my wrist.

The $179.99 Edge is a modernized version of the 2014-to-2020 era of fitness bands - your Charges, your Altas, your Inspires. If you've ever owned one, you already know the va …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Oura adds two new cardiovascular health tracking features to its smart rings

A person stretches their leg by holding their foot while wearing an Oura smart ring.

Oura is introducing two new cardiovascular-focused health tracking features to its smart rings designed to help users better understand the effect regular workouts and exercise are having on their long-term health, and whether they need to ramp it up or dial things down. Cardio Effort and automatic VO2 Max (previously known as Cardio Capacity) are available for the Oura Ring Gen 3 and later models, but only to users with an active Oura membership.

Instead of measuring how fast or far a user went during a run or bike ride, or metrics like calories burned, Cardio Effort measures how hard their cardiovascular system was working during exercise …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Amazon’s always-listening Bee wearable can now help you buy stuff

Last year, Amazon bought Bee, a relatively unknown startup with a $50 always-listening AI wearable that summarized every conversation you had. Today, the e-commerce giant is announcing two new Bee devices - and a new subscription to go with them. First is the $74.99 Bee Frontier, an updated version of the original Bee device. And coming soon is the $99.99 Bee Eclipse, a credit-card-shaped gadget that snaps magnetically onto the back of a smartphone.

Both devices are framed as gadgets to help you stay present in the moment. They listen to your daily conversations and then provide summaries, transcripts, insights, and to-dos based on what ha …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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I don’t miss the camera on the Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses

The other day I whizzed past several people while running in the park, my playlist blasting at full volume. The next morning, I smiled at a barista while ordering a caramel apple-flavored matcha latte. Afterward, I sat on a park bench reading a book, called up a pal to chat about her recent trip to Prague, and then asked my Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses what meetings were coming up on my calendar. The chipper AI voice said I hadn't connected my Google Calendar yet (I had) and asked if I would like help connecting. I sighed and then asked it to play an upbeat song. It picked Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us."

These past few days, dozens of people …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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