Technologies

Movano’s Evie Ring Is Coming in 2023 to Challenge Oura

Movano hopes to make its wellness ring stand out by focusing on female health and undercutting Oura on price.

At CES 2023, Movano will provide a closer look at its upcoming Evie ring, which will directly challenge the Oura ring when it arrives later in 2023. As a newcomer to the wearables space, Movano is leaning into womens’ health and more affordable pricing to compete with the popular Oura ring, which had a breakout moment in 2020 during the height of the pandemic.

Movano revealed several details about the ring on Wednesday, including its name, a vague release window of sometime in 2023 and a price range below $300. Exact pricing and launch timing were not specified.

The then-unnamed ring made its debut at CES 2022 with plans to undercut the $299 Oura Ring on price. Back then, the company was considering a subscription to offset the device’s price. But after speaking with 1,000 women between ages 30 to 70 about the device throughout 2022, the company learned that subscription fatigue would have been a deterrent.

«[They] would just prefer to buy the thing and be done with it,» Movano CEO John Mastrototaro told CNET in an interview. While Movano’s ring may not be that much cheaper than Oura’s, the latter requires a $6 monthly subscription to access many of its health features.

The Movano Ring will measure many of the usual fitness and health metrics we’ve seen on competing devices from Oura, Apple and Fitbit. Those include heart rate, blood-oxygen levels, skin temperature variability, steps, calories, sleep, ovulation and menstrual symptoms. But since Movano is focusing on female health, wearers will also be able to get advice on womens’ health topics through content provided by health experts from within the app. Movano currently publishes a newsletter about sleep topics.

«We believe with this focus specifically on women, we can be very much impactful,» Mastrototaro said.

In the future, Mastrototaro hopes that Movano will be able to use the data collected to provide more health insights. At launch however, data collected by the Evie ring will be stored in the cloud and kept secure by default. Should a customer decide to share data from the ring with a health provider, it will be shared with the same protocols used by medical devices, he said.

While the ring is intended for both women and men, Movano has decided to take a female-first approach because of the perception that existing options appear to be initially made for men, according to Mastrototaro.

This also extended to the design of the ring, which Mastrototaro said purposefully includes an opening with some flexibility to account for finger swelling that may occur during hormonal shifts, which could affect how the device fits. By contrast, Oura recommends wearing its Gen 3 ring on your index finger, which may not provide as much flexibility for sizing shifts for certain people. The Evie ring will also be available in sizes 5 to 11.

Movano is also seeking FDA clearance for the Evie and has recently completed hypoxia trials to demonstrate accuracy for clinical blood oxygen (also known as SpO2) and heart rate. This has been an overall goal for Movano, and Mastrototaro said the company is also working with healthcare companies to develop partnerships.

«At this juncture there are no wearables that are medical devices, and it would be very difficult for any wearable to become a medical device because you have to have an infrastructure and a quality management system,» Mastrototaro said.

The company is entering the wearables space as established competitors begin to scale their own similar features. The Apple Watch Series 8 added a skin temperature sensor that can offer retrospective ovulation estimates and improved period predictions. Google’s Pixel Watch also plans to offer menstrual health data, although it’s locked behind a $10 monthly Fitbit Premium subscription. But Oura, which also provides female health features like period predictions, is undoubtedly Movano’s biggest competitor. The wellness company launched its third-generation ring in 2021 but has since released the ring in new design variations.

Technologies

Tim Cook Riffs on Retirement Rumors, AI, Phone Addiction and Trump

The Apple CEO discussed a range of topics on Good Morning America.

Tim Cook isn’t going anywhere just yet — not during Apple’s 50th anniversary celebrations, not with the company preparing to introduce its first foldable phone, not while the tech giant is trying to figure out how to beat the AI race.

In a sit-down interview with Good Morning America host and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan this week, Cook, who turned 65 in November, said there was no truth to the rumors that he is considering retiring from Apple. He became CEO of the company in 2011, 13 years after joining from Compaq.

«I love what I do deeply. Twenty-eight years ago, I walked into Apple, and I’ve loved every day of it since,» Cook told Strahan. «We’ve had ups and downs, but the people I work with are so amazing. They bring out the best in me, and hopefully I can bring out the best in them.»

Strahan interviewed Cook during the Apple CEO’s visit to Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Harlem, where students use Apple technology through the company’s partnership with the nonprofit Save the Music.

Speculation about Cook stepping down has been circulating since last November, when the Financial Times cited unnamed sources saying that Apple was preparing to usher in a new CEO «as soon as next year.» Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman threw water on that report, saying he «would be shocked if Cook steps down in the time frame outlined by the FT.»

During Cook’s tenure as CEO, Apple’s revenue has nearly quadrupled, with the tech giant adding dozens of new iPhone models, several more iPads, and updated Apple Watches and AirPods. This year, Apple has launched several new products, including the MacBook Neo, which at $599 has disrupted the budget laptop market. The company’s first foldable phone could come later this year.

Touch some grass

The GMA interview was short but wide-ranging, including Cook’s thoughts on how much people use their iPhones. Many studies estimate that people across most generations spend at least 4 hours a day on their phones, with millennials and Gen Z spending 5 to 6 hours.

When asked what he worries about most regarding Apple products’ impact on society, Cook weighed in, telling Strahan he doesn’t want people using iPhones «too much.»

«I don’t want people looking at the smartphone more than they’re looking in someone’s eyes,» Cook said, «because if they’re just scrolling endlessly, this is not the way you want to spend your day. Go out and spend it in nature.»

More on Apple from CNET:

AI and privacy

Cook told Strahan that AI «can be so positive,» but his response when asked whether he was «worried» about it was fairly flat.

«Technology doesn’t want to be good, and it doesn’t want to be bad,» Cook said. «It’s in the hands of the user and the hands of the inventor.»

Strahan questioned how much of iPhone users’ private lives are feeding Apple’s AI learning machine. Cook told him that because the smartphone is encrypted, Apple doesn’t have access to it. He went on to say: «When we can’t answer a question on your device, we send it to something called private cloud compute, which is essentially a big device in the sky that has the same kind of security and architecture as your phone.»

On its website, Apple says that it «does not use our users’ private personal data or user interactions when training our foundation models.»

To date, Apple has been cautious in diving into the AI scrum. While Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are spending nearly $700 billion combined on AI tech this year, Apple is «only» investing $14 billion.

Trump and tariffs

Cook has been criticized for being too cozy with the Trump administration: donating $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration; giving him a 24-karat gold plaque; and attending a White House screening of Melania, a film about the First Lady.

The Apple CEO told Strahan that he’s «not a political person» on either side.

«I’m kind of straight down the middle, and I focus on policy,» Cook said. «So, I’m very pleased that the president and the administration is accessible to talk about policy.»

One of those policies has been tariffs, which Trump has imposed on many nations to varying degrees during his second term in office, purportedly to pressure companies to shift their manufacturing to the US. The president has largely spared Apple, which promised to invest $600 billion over four years to make more products in the US.

Cook told Strahan that the glass for the front and back of an iPhone will come out of Kentucky by the end of the year, and that 100 million chip engines will be manufactured in Arizona this year. He also noted that 20 billion semiconductors will be made in the US. «We’re a very proud American company, and we want to do as much here as we can,» Cook said.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 19, #1012

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 19 #1012.

Looking for the most recent 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, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle features another tricky purple category, where words hide inside the clues and you have to dig them out. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

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

Yellow group hint: Children’s stories.

Green group hint: Lucky charms.

Blue group hint: One color, then the next.

Purple group hint: Hidden words relating to music.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Folk tale characters.

Green group: Good luck symbols.

Blue group: Things that change color.

Purple group: Ending in music genres.

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

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is folk tale characters. The four answers are Chicken Little, Frog Prince, Gingerbread Man and Goldilocks.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is good luck symbols. The four answers are evil eye, four-leaf clover, horseshoe and rabbit’s foot.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is things that change color. The four answers are chameleon, mood ring, sunset and traffic light.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ending in music genres. The four answers are baby blues, pet rock, scrap metal and soda pop.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for March 19, #542

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 542 for Thursday, March 19.

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 is tricky. Remember that many athletes’ surnames look like common words, so if you’re having trouble sorting the answers, think about whether a particular word could be someone’s last name. 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: Football division.

Green group hint: They catch the pigskin.

Blue group hint: College hoopsters.

Purple group hint: Where’s the glass slipper?