Technologies

Amazon Has a Real-World Fitting Room, and It Makes Me Want to Shop

Commentary: Amazon’s concept clothing store eliminates a lot of the awkwardness of shopping.

I hate shopping for clothes. Shopping online means never really knowing if that shirt or those pants will fit. But going into the store means, well, physically going to a mall. It also means awkward moments in a fitting room where I need to get the attention of a clerk to bring me a different size or color. Often I don’t even bother, and I often go years between buying new pants.

Yet here I was at the Americana at Brand in Glendale, California, the weekend before Christmas, doing a bit of last-minute holiday shopping with my family. Mostly out of curiosity and some cynicism, I stepped inside Amazon Style, the online retail giant’s concept clothing store, and actually found myself having a fun time.

By merging its online shopping experience with a revamped, high-tech fitting room, it made me actually want to spend more time looking at clothes. For once, I didn’t feel the awkwardness or rushed anxiety that comes with trying things on in a changing room. This store is just one of two in the world (the other being in Columbus, Ohio), but I hope this is less an experiment and more the way all retailers start to think about their clothes shopping experience.

Amazon’s forays in the brick-and-mortar world have been varied and, at times, puzzling. There are the fully automated Amazon Go stores, where you grab an item and are automatically charged when you leave. Amazon also has its own supermarket concept which sits alongside its chain of Whole Foods Markets. Then there were the bookstores and pop-up shops, which the company shuttered this year.

Amazon declined to comment on its future plans for the Amazon Style store.

Like Amazon’s other stores, the key to the experience lies in its shopping app. At first glance, Amazon Style looks like any other clothing shop, with a few knick-knacks in the front and sections for men and women’s clothing.

But upon closer inspection, there are some subtle differences. Each article of clothing appears once – there are no different sizes. The prices are the same as what you’d pay online, although there are discounts if you spend more. Flanking one side of the store are a row of fitting rooms – with more rooms taking up the entire second floor.

It’s those fitting rooms where Amazon Style really sets itself apart. Rather than randomly find an empty room, I use the app to scan a few articles of clothing that I want to try, and tell it that I want to «start a room.» An employee then gathered the selections and put them in a fitting room. After about seven minutes, the app notified me that one was ready and directed me to a specific fitting room number, which I unlocked using my app.

Once inside, I saw the various shirts and jackets I scanned hanging on a rack or neatly folded on top of the shelf below. In addition, there were a few extra items added based on what Amazon thought I might like. Curiously, there was a Calvin Klein shirt on top of the pile, a «sponsored item» that was essentially a pop-up ad come to life (I didn’t bother to try it on).

On the wall to my right was a large touchscreen that displayed my selections and offered recommendations for other items I might like. I could also request different sizes and styles and have them delivered to my fitting room.

Rather than have a store clerk knock on my door and hand me the clothes, the items are delivered through the closet to the right of the clothes rack. It takes a few minutes, but when the items are ready, the closet door locks and a red light flashes. Inside, the back of the closet opens up, allowing an Amazon Style employee to hang the new clothes. Once the red light goes off, I open the door and there they are.

The touchscreen and the fitting room take the best parts of the physical shopping experience and the online and mash them into an effective hybrid. It’s so simple, yet removes so much of the hassle from the shopping experience. I came into the store on a whim, but left with a white Adidas jumper.

It actually has me looking forward to the next time I need a new pair of pants. Maybe in 2024?

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Monday, Jan. 5

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Jan. 5.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Fans of the Knives Out film series, today’s Mini Crossword has a clue just for you. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: «Now I get it!»
Answer: AHA

4A clue: Benoit ___, detective in the «Knives Out» films
Answer: BLANC

6A clue: Give one’s two cents
Answer: OPINE

7A clue: Time difference between the East and West Coast, in hours
Answer: THREE

8A clue: Pirate’s assent
Answer: AYE

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Generation after Gen Z
Answer: ALPHA

2D clue: In need of a shave
Answer: HAIRY

3D clue: «Bonne ___!» («Happy New Year!,» in French)
Answer: ANNEE

4D clue: Many a social media antagonist, sadly
Answer: BOT

5D clue: First in «class»?
Answer: CEE

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Jan. 5, #469

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 469 for Monday, Jan. 5.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition features a diverse mix of categories, so it might be tricky. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Fore!

Green group hint: Hoops info.

Blue group hint: Big Apple legends.

Purple group hint: Toddlers play with this toy.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Golf shots.

Green group: Basketball stats in singular form.

Blue group: New York Mets retired numbers.

Purple group: ____ block.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is golf shots. The four answers are approach, chip, drive and putt.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is basketball stats in singular form. The four answers are block, foul, point and turnover.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is New York Mets retired numbers. The four answers are Piazza, Stengel, Strawberry and Wright.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ block. The four answers are chop, pancake, pass and run.

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Technologies

Withings’ New Smart Scale Turns Your Daily Weigh-In Into a Longevity Check

This $600 Body Scan 2 measures things most people only hear about in a doctor’s office and can calculate how fast your body is aging.

Longevity has become one of the biggest buzzwords in health tech, and Withings is leaning in hard with the Body Scan 2, a $600 smart scale designed to paint a more complete picture of your health than just a standard bathroom weigh-in ever could.

Launched at CES 2026 as part of the wave of Consumer Electronics Show announcements, the Body Scan 2 is packed with firsts for an at-home device. It promises to assess everything from your risk of hypertension (high blood pressure) to early signs of glycemic dysregulation (a precursor to diabetes). In total, Withings says the scale measures more than 60 biomarkers that can influence long-term health, aging and the risk of chronic illness.

The goal isn’t just to show you numbers, but to spot small physiological changes early — while they’re still reversible — and guide you toward lifestyle changes that, over time, could extend and improve your quality of life.

The Body Scan 2 still looks like a futuristic bathroom scale with a pull-up exercise bar tied to the top. It has a flat tempered-glass surface and a retractable handle bar that’s connected by a cord. That handle has a color screen that displays on-the-spot metrics during weigh-ins.

Under the glasshood, the scale uses eight embedded electrodes in the platform and four stainless steel electrodes in the handle to collect its data and automatically sync data via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to the Withings app on your iPhone or Android. It runs on a rechargeable battery that Withings says can last up to 15 months.

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Withings isn’t new to this space. The company created one of the original connected scales back in 2009 and has since expanded into smartwatches, blood pressure monitors and other connected health devices. Body Scan 2 seems to be a culmination of all of these efforts, turning what used to be a single-measurement device into what the company calls an «at-home longevity station.»

Longevity has become a major theme in health tech, as companies look beyond the narrow snapshots captured during doctor visits. Instead, they’re starting to focus more on continuous, big-picture monitoring that reflects how people actually live day-to-day. Withings is betting that frequent, at-home measurements can help catch early warning signs related to heart health, metabolism or blood sugar regulation long before they turn into chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension or heart disease.

Turning a mountain of metrics into actionable insights

According to Withings, the Body Scan 2 uses five medical-grade technologies that, until now, have largely been limited to clinical or research settings. Combined, they track 60 biomarkers that fall into three core categories:

Heart and vascular health: The scale can flag your potential risk for high blood pressure without using a traditional cuff, similar to the blood pressure notifications found on newer Apple Watch models. It also looks at how efficiently your heart is pumping blood and the flexibility of your arteries. Together, these measurements offer early clues about heart health and whether your cardiovascular system may be under extra strain.

Cellular and metabolic health: The scale also looks at how efficiently your body uses energy at the cellular level and how your cells are aging. These measurements can offer insight into whether factors like stress, inactivity, inflammation or diet may be affecting your overall health.

Diet and glycemic regulation: The scale also looks for early signs of glycemic dysregulation, or how well your body manages blood sugar. Poor regulation can be a precursor to prediabetes and cause fatigue, abdominal fat gain, and ultimately accelerate aging (often without any obvious symptoms).

After a roughly 90-second weigh-in which requires you to pull the handle bar up to hip level, the app uses these measurements to come up with what Withings calls a Health Trajectory score that you can view in the Withings app. It establishes a personalized baseline for your health and tracks how it trends over time, rather than focusing on daily fluctuations.

Beyond the score itself, the app flags any major changes from that baseline and gives you guidance on lifestyle adjustments that could help correct any negative trends. The idea is to spot potential issues early, when they’re more likely to be reversible, and give you a preview of how those changes can influence long-term health.

As with all health data, privacy is a major concern. Withings addresses this by disclosing that the Body Scan 2 complies with GDPR and HIPAA, and carries ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications for data security and privacy management.

Pricing and availability

Body Scan 2 is pending FDA clearance for select metrics and is scheduled to launch in Q2 2026. Pricing is set at $600, £450 and AU$899, respectively. It will be available through Withings, Amazon and select retailers.

We haven’t tested Body Scan 2 yet, but we’ll update our coverage once we’re able to spend time with it in the real world.

For more product launches and first looks ahead of CES 2026, check out CNET’s full CES coverage.