Google is changing its tune around efforts to hire employees from historically underrepresented backgrounds, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.
The company reportedly announced that it would "no longer set hiring targets to improve representation in its workforce." The first hint that things might be changing at Google was a tweak to its parent company Alphabet's annual report. A phrase that claimed Alphabet was "committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve" featured in previous years was removed.
When reached for comment, Google provided the following statement:
Were committed to creating a workplace where all our employees can succeed and have equal opportunities, and over the last year weve been reviewing our programs designed to help us get there. Weve updated our 10-k language to reflect this, and as a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating changes required following recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic.
Even if diverse hiring is no longer a stated goal, Google still plans on supporting resource groups for underrepresented employees and opening offices in cities with diverse workforces, according to the report. It just doesn't plan on having "aspirational goals" moving forward.
Backing off of at least some of its diversity, equity and inclusion goals stands in contrast to the Google of five years ago. In 2020, CEO Sundar Pichai committed to "improve leadership representation of underrepresented groups by 30 percent by 2025," among other changes meant to better racial equity at the company.
Making this kind of change isn't exactly unusual, however. Amazon is winding down some of its DEI programs, according to CNBC and Meta has completely eliminated its diversity hiring goals and the position of chief diversity officer at the company. Based on Google's statement and justifications Meta made previously, US companies are worried about the current Supreme Court and the Trump Administration's opinion of diversity, equity and inclusion. Eliminating programs that might displease them is simpler than inviting what could be a losing legal battle.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-is-reportedly-changing-course-on-its-diversity-initiatives-too-223644402.html?src=rss
Reddit briefly banned dozens of subreddits without warning on Wednesday due to a bug that affected scores of NSFW communities on the site. Redditors were told the subreddits were banned for being unmoderated even though many were heavily moderated, according to numerous posts from confused moderators.
Engadget counted more than 90 subreddits that seem to have been caught up in the unmoderated ban. The vast majority of these have now been restored after going offline for a few hours Wednesday morning. In a post in r/ModSupport, a Reddit admin blamed the widespread bans on a bug. There was a bug with one of our tools that caused some subreddits to be banned incorrectly, they wrote. We are actively working on a fix and many of your communities are already back up and running. We appreciate that you are already busy moderating in your communities, and we will do our best to prevent this from happening again.
A Reddit spokesperson told Engadget the issue was a "bug related to how we detect unmoderated communities" but didn't provide details or confirm how many subreddits were affected. But it appears the bug was widespread across the site. It affected scores of subreddits followed by millions of people.
The banned subreddits included some of the most popular NSFW communities, including r/porn (3.9 million members), r/rule34 (3.6 million), r/boobs (2.5 million) and r/NSFW_gifs (2.1 million). It also affected some subreddits related to drugs, including r/drugs, r/cocaine and r/NarcoClips. Some subreddits that arent tagged as NSFW but allow NSFW content, like r/transgender_surgeries and r/cubancigars, were also caught up in the ban.
The nature of the affected subreddits has alarmed some users and moderators who worry the company may be getting ready for a bigger crackdown. In r/transgender_surgeries, where users discuss their medical care, members began to discuss ways to back up the content of the subreddit. Elsewhere, concerned users pointed out this is the second time in six months that Reddit has mistakenly banned popular NSFW subreddits for supposedly being unmoderated. Redditors complained about similar bans last year.
Our subreddit automation was a bit overzealous, a Reddit admin said at the time. They added to the months-old thread today, saying that the recent bans are different from what happened before, but didnt elaborate.
Have a tip about Reddit or other information to share? Get in touch by email at karissa.bell [at] engadget.com or message securely on Signal at karissabe.51.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reddit-blames-bug-after-banning-more-than-90-nsfw-subreddits-221908069.html?src=rss
Researchers from Kaspersky have identified malware being distributed within apps on both Android and iOS mobile storefronts. Dmitry Kalinin and Sergey Puzan shared their investigation into a malware campaign, which they have dubbed SparkCat, that has likely been active since March 2024.
"We cannot confirm with certainty whether the infection was a result of a supply chain attack or deliberate action by the developers," the pair wrote. "Some of the apps, such as food delivery services, appeared to be legitimate, whereas others apparently had been built to lure victims."
The Kaspersky duo said SparkCat is a stealthy operation that at a glance appears to be requesting normal or harmless permissions. Some of the apps where the pair uncovered malware are still available to download, including food delivery app ComeCome and AI chat apps AnyGPT and WeTink.
The malware in question uses optical character recognition (OCR) to review a device's photo library, seeking screenshots of recovery phrases for crypto wallets. Based on their assessment, infected Google Play apps have been downloaded more than 242,000 times. Kaspersky says "This is the first known case of an app infected with OCR spyware being found in Apples official app marketplace."
Apple often promotes the rigorous security of the App Store, and while instances of malware appearing have been rare, this discovery is a reminder that the walled garden is not impervious to attacks.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/kaspersky-researchers-find-screenshot-reading-malware-on-the-app-store-and-google-play-211011103.html?src=rss
OpenAI is showing no signs of slowing down its recent pace of updates. On Wednesday, the company announced the expanded availability of ChatGPT Search. After rolling out the tool first to paid subscribers last fall, and then making it available to all logged-in free users at the end of 2024, now anyone can use ChatGPT Search with no account or sign-in necessary.
"Like the logged-in experience, ChatGPT can search the web and get you fast, timely answers with links to relevant web sources directly in ChatGPT," OpenAI said.
In most cases, ChatGPT will automatically search the web to source the most up-to-date information related to your question. Users can also force the chatbot to scour the internet by tapping the "Search" button below the prompt bar.
ChatGPT search is now available to everyone on https://t.co/nYW5KO1aIg no sign up required. pic.twitter.com/VElT7cxxjZ OpenAI (@OpenAI) February 5, 2025
Effectively, today's announcement means OpenAI is ready to take on Google's dominance in search, though, if I had to guess, right now it's more concerned about staying ahead of upstarts like DeepSeek. In just the last week, the company announced the availability of its latest AI model, and a new ChatGPT feature called Deep Research. Oh, and it even showed off a new logo. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/chatgpt-search-no-longer-requires-an-openai-account-to-use-205538282.html?src=rss
Apple's Invites app is a simple way to throw together an event invitation directly from your iPhone or web browser. The app is free to download from the App Store, and technically you don't even need an iPhone or an Apple Account to RSVP to an event.
If you want to create your own invitations you will need to be an iCloud+ subscriber, but the barrier to entry is relatively low. The subscription is bundled into Apple's pricier Apple One plans (the bundle that includes things like Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple News+), and you can also pay for it separately starting at $0.99 per month. iCloud+ subscriptions get you extra cloud storage, a custom domain for your iCloud email, and Apple's Private Relay feature on top of your new invite-creating privileges.
What is Apple Invites?
Apple Invites is Apple's attempt to offer an event planning and invitation creating service like Partiful or Evite. The app lets you create and RSVP to events, and includes integrations with other Apple services, like collaborative playlists from Apple Music and shared albums from Apple Photos. Invites also supports Image Playground if you want to use AI to create an image for your invite, rather than relying on Apple's built-in options or one of your own photos.
How to create an event invite with Apple Invites
To create an event invitation with Apple Invites you'll need to head to the iCloud website or have an iPhone running iOS 18 or later with the Invites app installed. To take advantage of Invites' integration with Apple Intelligence you'll also need an iPhone that supports the feature (an iPhone 15 Pro and up).
To create your event, first open the Apple Invites app. Then tap on "Create an Event" if its your first time opening the app or the small "+" in the top right corner of your screen if you already have events you've made or been invited to. You should then see an empty invite screen.
Ian Carlos Campbell for Engadget
From here, tap on "Add Background" and select from Apple's premade background (Emoji, Photographic, and Color options) or a new photo, a picture from your photo library, or an Image Playground creation by tapping on one of the circular icons at the top of the screen.
Next, you'll want to title your event by tapping on "Event Title" and typing in whatever you want to call it. Apple also lets you choose from four different font options to add some extra style. Tap on "Date and Time" to choose the day and time the event starts and ends, then tap on "Location" to search and select the location where you'll be hosting your event. You can give the location a name if you want, too. Finally, by tapping on "Add a description" you can add an event description with extra information and enter a separate host name if you'd prefer the invitation to not show your first and last name.
Ian Carlos Campbell for Engadget
Those are the basics you need to fill out for an invitation, but Invites includes two other features that are specific to Apple software. By tapping on "Create Album" you can create a shared photo album that guests can add to during the event and access after. The album's name will be the name of the event, but you can enter a new name under Album Name and tap "Done" if you want to save your changes.
You can also tap on "Add Playlist" to create a shared playlist that guests can add songs to before and during the event. You'll have to select an existing playlist or create a new one from scratch. If you create a playlist, it will have the name of your event by default with the option to edit it if you want.
Once you're done creating your invitation, to see what it looks like to guests, tap on "Preview" in the top right hand corner and then "Next" to start inviting guests.
How to invite guests to an Apple Invites event
Once your event invite is created you can start sending it to your guests a couple of different ways. You can send the invite as a public link or invite individual people from your contact list. Inside your invitation, tap on Invite Guests to start sending your invitation.
If you tap on the Messages or Mail icons you can send a link to your invitation through those respective apps. By tapping on "Share Link," you can share a link to the invite through any app in your iOS share sheet. And if you tap on "Copy Link," your invite link will be copied to your clipboard so you can paste it anywhere.
Ian Carlos Campbell for Engadget
You can also send a one time link to individual guests by tapping on "Choose a Guest." Apple Invites will ask to access your contacts and then display every contact you have saved. Tap on one to share a unique invitation link through Messages, Mail or the iOS share sheet. Unlike public links, these links can only be used once.
How to send a note to guests of an Apple Invites event
If you want to update your guests on information about your event or remind them of something they might need to bring, you can send anyone who's invited a note directly through the Apple Invites app. From inside your invitation, tap on "Send a Note" and then enter in whatever text you want to send and tap on "Send Note."
How to delete an Apple Invites event
If you need to cancel your event, you can delete it by tapping on the event, then tapping on the three-dot menu in the top right corner. Tap on "Event Settings," then scroll down and tap on "Delete Event." Confirm you want to delete the event by tapping "Delete Event."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/how-to-use-apple-invites-to-plan-your-next-event-204503849.html?src=rss
The M2 MacBook Air is on sale for just $800 via Amazon. This is a decent discount, as this model has been going for around $1,000 lately. The well-reviewed laptop is actually on sale for $950, but theres a clippable coupon worth $150. The only caveat to this sale is that the coupon doesnt work on the midnight black model, but all other colorways are fair game.
The laptop easily found a spot on our list of the best MacBooks. It lacks some of the punch of last years M3 MacBook Air but the M2 chip is no slouch. This computer is fast and should be able to handle most everything you throw at it. This particular model includes 8GB of RAM and 512GB of solid-state storage.
We heaped a whole bunch of praise on Apples M2 MacBook Air upon the initial release, calling it a near-perfect Mac. The screen is bright and colorful, the battery lasts 18 hours per charge and the computer is both thin and light. As previously mentioned, the performance is speedy, even when using software like Logic Pro X.
The only downsides? This isnt Apples latest MacBook Air and it only comes with 8GB of RAM. Most MacBooks come with 16GB nowadays. The webcam is also on the drab side. If you find yourself in a lot of Zoom meetings, look into purchasing a standalone webcam.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-m2-macbook-air-drops-to-800-195140269.html?src=rss
Tubi isnt the only service touting its Super Bowl LIX presentation prowess ahead of Sundays big game. If you have the right setup, the whistles, slamming helmets and quarterback play-calls in this years matchup could sound a bit more immersive. Comcast said on Wednesday that it will not only offer Dolby Vision, as it did in 2023, for the big game. This year, the showdown between the Chiefs and Eagles will also add Dolby Atmos for the first time.
The pairing is part of Comcasts Enhanced 4K programming for X1 customers. The feature, which debuted at last years Paris Olympics, uses Dolby Vision HDR and Atmos surround sound for crisp quality,brighter colors and immersive audio. Enhanced 4K streams in ultra-low latency at higher bitrates than traditional 4K.
To get in on the jazzy presentation, youll need to be an Xfinity X1 subscriber with a checklist of required hardware. That starts with a 4K TV, 4K HDR set-top box (Xfinity X1, XG1v4 or Xi6) and a 4K-capable HDMI cord. In addition, your TV, external speakers or soundbar will need to support Dolby Atmos for the virtual surround sound experience. X1 subscribers can also get Enhanced 4K through the Xfinity Stream app.
Fox, which has the broadcast rights to this years Super Bowl, will also show the game for free in 4K on Tubi, which it owns. This will be the first time the streaming service has shown the big game quite the departure from its usual fare of ad-supported Dog the Bounty Hunter and Duck Dynasty reruns.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/the-super-bowl-is-being-broadcast-with-dolby-atmos-audio-for-the-first-time-180035421.html?src=rss
Amazon is set to show off some new stuff later this month. The company has scheduled a devices event for February 26 in New York City. The company's hardware chief, Panos Panay, and his devices and services team will be on hand. The event will start at 10AM ET.
The event invitation that Amazon sent to the media doesn't give much away. It includes the date, the Amazon smile/arrow logo and a tagline that reads "See what's next." Some swoopy blue lines are in the background.
It hasn't been too long since Amazon refreshed the Kindle lineup, so it seems a little unlikely that we'll see new e-readers from the company later this month. Instead, Amazon may finally be ready to spill the beans about the long-gestating next-gen Alexa, which it reportedly planned to reveal last October before a delay. The head of Amazon's artificial general intelligence said in January that the company had been dealing with technical difficulties, such as incorrect or false results that tend to be an issue for generative AIs.
If, indeed, the next-gen Alexa is the focal point of the event, Amazon may have new audio gear to show off. As such, new Echo speakers and Echo Buds could be on the agenda. We might also learn just how much Amazon plans to charge for a subscription to this turbocharged version of Alexa.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/amazon-is-holding-a-devices-event-on-february-26-164421400.html?src=rss
Update, February 5, 2025, 10:02AM ET: The USPS swiftly backtracked on its suspension of Chinese packages.
In an updated statement published Wednesday morning, the agency said, "Effective February 5, 2025, the Postal Service will continue accepting all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts. The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery."
The original story follows...
The United States Postal Service has temporarily stopped accepting inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong, and according to Wired, it's already causing huge problems with e-commerce shipments to the US. USPS posted the notice on its website, announcing that the suspension will be in place "until further notice." As Wired notes, the international parcel suspension is a direct result of the Trump administration's order to end import tax exemption for small packages shipped into the US worth less than $800. The administration also imposed an additional 10 percent tariff on goods imported from China.
The "de minimis" import tax exemption rule allows e-commerce companies like Shein and Temu to sell to customers in the US while keeping prices on their platforms low. It was originally intended to make it easier to send gifts stateside, but the US government has been considering removing or altering it in recent years due to the rise of e-commerce shipments. Now, the Trump administration has removed it completely, and so quickly, that shipping companies are apparently scrambling to find a way to get packages into the US.
A Canadian trucking company owner told Wired that his trucks were turned away at the border because they contained packages from China. The owner said that border control was "actually going through the trucks and randomly checking the packages." He explained that it won't be easy to sort packages to remove everything coming in from China, so this development would most likely cause delivery delays.
According to US Customs, there were over 1.36 billion de minimis shipments to the US within the 2024 fiscal year. If the agency decides to hold all de minimis shipments at the border, that means they may have to process around 3.7 million packages a day to check how much import taxes and other additional fees the receiver or buyer has to pay. That could cause a massive backlog in shipments. A customs and trade management business executive told Wired that the government could choose to keep packages moving instead and to charge people for the fees retroactively. In the future, though, China's e-commerce platforms could start adding those fees, along with the 10 percent tariff now required for Chinese goods, to a customer's total amount, making it more expensive to buy from websites like Shein and Temu.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/usps-backtracks-on-suspending-packages-from-china-140013986.html?src=rss
Smart rings have been a niche inside a niche in the wearables world for more than a decade. But in the last few years, theyve enjoyed a renaissance as more attention and hype brought bigger names to the category. Finnish company Oura has been around longer than most and is now the class leader despite fierce competition. At the end of last year, Oura released the Ring 4 to address the flaws of its predecessor and keep ahead of its now many imitators. Its easy to say that it remains a technological marvel, but harder to say if its worth a decent chunk of your hard-earned to get one.
Hardware
Daniel Cooper for Engadget
Oura put a lot of effort into nipping-and-tucking the Ring 4, like ditching the epoxy resin interior for a full titanium body. The Ring 3, especially once it moved beyond its squared-off side, already looked like a fashion ring, and the Ring 4 continues in that vein. I wear my Oura Ring on my left index finger with a Vitaly Grip ring on the right to balance the look. And nobody can tell the difference between the two, which is just how it should be.
Unlike a watch strapped in place, rings have a knack of turning on your finger through the day. To combat this drift, Ouras previous rings housed their sensors in raised domes on the inside surface to maintain contact with your flesh. I never found them uncomfortable, but it was an issue for some, which is why Oura has worked to re-package the sensors to fit flush. In lieu of that, theres now an ugly-ass notch on the ring to indicate the side that should be facing your palm at all times.
Since it's easy for the sensors to be out of alignment, youre constantly at risk of poor quality data or, worse, gaps. Oura upped the number of signal pathways from eight on the Ring 3 to 18 here in order to maximize data collection. Plus, a new algorithm hunts for the most efficient way to pull data from those sensors to hopefully ensure gaps are a thing of the past.
The Ring 4 is available in a wider number of sizes than its predecessor, fitting fingers from size 4 to 15. With a re-engineered ring comes a re-engineered charging dock thats a lot nicer, too. Unfortunately, its also slightly bigger and heavier, which is a burden when youre taking the ring on a trip lasting longer than seven days.
If you already own an Oura Ring 3, then Id say that while the Ring 4 is nicer, more comfortable and more useful, its not so compelling to make you ditch an existing unit in good working order.
In use
Daniel Cooper for Engadget
One downside of Ouras iterative update is that much of what I wrote about the Ring 3 remains true about the Ring 4. Once its on your finger, it should very quickly fade into the background of your day, and its plenty easy to forget. Naturally, youll do all of your interacting with the ring via its mobile app, which is one of the best available for a smart ring. Youll get regular notifications telling you how far through your daily activity goal you are, plus advice on when to get ready for bed. Itll also send the occasional reminder to get up and move if the ring feels youve been sitting for too long.
Open the app and youll first be presented with a row of numbers showing your Readiness, Sleep, Activity, Heart Rate and Stress scores. Scroll down and youll get panes with more information about your activity goals, stress metrics and heart rate. If theres an issue, youll also get additional commentary about the problem and suggestions on how to improve. For instance, my resting heart rate dropped in the late evening because Id gone to town on a very big bag of Doritos. The ring knew, and told me that if I kept eating close to my bedtime, Id ruin the quality of my sleep.
Keep scrolling and youll find your activity timeline, based on what the ring thinks youve been up to that day. Sadly, in my experience the system will frequently assume youre exercising when it sees movement plus an elevated heart rate. Itll often accuse me of doing some form of rigorous workout when, in reality, Im just going up and down stairs while I get my kids ready for school. If youre doing one type of activity, then itll pick it up as such but if youre chopping and changing for instance by doing circuits then itll be labeled as other. If, in fact, it gets labeled at all: I have had instances where walking to and from my gym was recognised, but nothing I was doing when I was actually working out counted.
The app has a number of hidden depths, including the Explore section which hosts a small library of meditation content. Theres also Oura Labs, which is where the company shares its not-ready-for-prime-time features before theyre added to the platform proper. At present, the company is testing Oura Advisor, a conversational AI that gives you the same advice the app would anyway, just in a chat box format. Its also testing an AI-based food-tracking algorithm thatll discern what youre eating from a picture of your meal.
Well get into the economics of this down in the Price section, but Oura paywalls a number of key features behind its Membership program. If you dont cough up, you wont get 24/7 heart-rate tracking, temperature monitoring, menstrual cycle insights, SpO2 and VO2 Max analysis. All of these features are essential if youre looking to get even the basic use out of your Ring 4.
As for battery life, I wear a size 10 ring and over the last two months Ive fairly regularly wrung seven days out of the device before Im advised to find a charger. Naturally, the bigger rings have a bigger battery, and so your mileage may vary, but the company is promising up to eight days.
Having lost a significant amount of weight in 2024, I would often find my Ring 3 sliding clean off my finger. Thankfully, if your rig is paired with your smartphone, youll now be able to see its last-known location through the app. Unfortunately, this is just using your phones GPS, so while youll be able to know if its in your home (or further afield), its no help finding which couch cushion it fell under. Consequently, itll still be worth picking up third-party developer Andreas Assermarks Find My Ring app, which will use the Bluetooth signal strength to help you pinpoint its location.
Tracking activity, sleep and stress
Daniel Cooper for Engadget
Ive never believed wearables, or any consumer-grade health device, can or should be held to the same standard as a clinical model. The smarter approach is to trust the trend and look for patterns rather than obsess if you did 10,000 or 10,001 steps in a day. Especially as, for most people, if youve had a rough night or youre feeling like hell, you probably already know.
What Oura offers is a lot of data which, if youre not happy with a single aggregate score, you can drill down into. Thanks to a British Airways snafu, I wasnt able to get my intended flight out to CES on January 4 and was waitlisted for the following day. That was a pretty stressful time given Id be letting the Engadget team down on a pretty crucial and busy week. Looking at the data now, I can see my resting heart rate spiked on Saturday and didnt settle for a few days.
Oura also provides a metric for Daytime Stress, which aggregates your heart rate, HRV, motion and body temperature through the day. Whats interesting is that even if the ring is keeping an eye on my heart rate, there are several instances where it stops collecting stress data. For instance, that stressful Saturday, my heart was racing but theres no Stress metric from 7:45 to 11:15. A few days after I had some distressing personal news and while my heart rate spiked to 158bpm, the stress metric disappeared entirely.
Ive already griped about the issues with automatic activity detection, even if it gets the bulk of its calls correct. I am often vexed, however, that itll often have a delay between you starting an activity and it beginning to track it. For instance, one of my regular lunchtime walks is to a local landmark 0.8 miles away from my home and back again. But often, the ring wont notice that Im out for a walk until Im a way down the road, curtailing my stats, even if it has my phones GPS to help.
These are minor gripes but ones worth knowing if youre thinking about using the ring for more intensive insights. Nobody in their right mind would think about buying a smart ring in place of a smartwatch, but be aware the data youll get is not perfect.
Theres one thing that Im very intrigued by, even if Im not in a position to test it right now, which is the recent tie-up between Oura and (Diabetes biosensor company) Dexcom. The partnership, announced November 2024, will see the two companies share data between their respective platforms. Plus, Dexcom has put $75 million behind the ring maker, pushing its valuation north of $5 billion.
Price and the Competition
The Oura Ring 4 is available for $349 if you opt for the default silver or black colorways. Should your taste extend to brushed silver or stealth, then youll need to pay $399, while the gold or rose gold paint jobs are $499. Before you buy, youll need to order a sizing kit the existing sizing kits are not compatible with the Oura 4 and are available in Size 4 through 15.
As explained earlier, key features arent available for use unless you pay $5.99 a month or $70 a year for Oura Membership. Oura has been charging this fee since the launch of the Ring 3 and is, for now, a key plank of its business model. Now, plenty of companies will sell you their hardware and paywall off additional features for you to subscribe for afterward. I suspect the reason the Membership rankles so many people is that the features held back arent just nice to have, theyre essential.
On a pragmatic level, small hardware businesses cant survive without the lifeblood recurring revenue from existing customers brings in. $70 a year is, to be blunt, your insurance ensuring that Oura doesnt go belly-up, turning your smart ring into a dumb one. Oura has been good at regularly adding more features to its platform, and allowing users to beta test them in Labs on the way. Plus, the company has been working with academics to help refine its data collection and prove its methods are sound.
But the approach of charging for what should be basic features is always likely to rankle the users. And it gives Ouras rivals, which may not be as well-equipped, an easy stick with which to beat the current market leader. Samsungs Galaxy Ring isnt as good as Oura, but it retails for $400 without any additional monthly charges. Ultrahuman, Circular and RingConn all boast they wont charge you xtra to use their rings hardware and software features.
Wrap-up
Daniel Cooper for Engadget
The Oura Ring 4 is a stellar piece of hardware, an engineering marvel and a useful companion as you go about your day. If I sound like Ive been nitpicking, its because the overall package is so good that its hard not to focus on the specs of dirt on the otherwise clean plate. The ring and its companion app are well-developed and muscular, offering a useful way to sum up your day. If youre looking to buy a smart ring, then theres little need to explore the wider market unless you are particularly predisposed to buying a Samsung.
If theres a downside, its that Oura remains forever constrained by the limitations a smart ring imposes. As I wrote last year, theres only so much data you can collect reliably from such a small device worn on the finger. Not to mention, theyre designed to fade into the background of your life, keeping an eye on your vitals and offering some post-facto tips. If you want something more comprehensive, then its likely a smartwatch is a better option, but for everything else, theres this.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/oura-ring-4-long-term-review-out-ahead-of-its-rivals-150047874.html?src=rss