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

Tinder Users Must Start Logging In With Their Faces, Starting Nationwide

The social app now has new US requirements including face identification to help quell longstanding problems with catfishing and more.

US Tinder users will find a new feature when they open up the dating app starting Wednesday: A mandatory Face Check on their phones will be required before they can log into their profiles.

The Face Check step will begin with a new request to record a video of your face, a more casual version of setting up Apple’s Face ID login. Tinder will then run checks comparing your face data to your current profile pics and automatically create a small face badge for your profile. We already know how it works, because Tinder has already launched the feature in Canada and California before the full US rollout.

The technology, powered by FaceTec, will keep biometric data of the user’s face in encrypted form but discard the scanning video for privacy. Tinder will be able to use the face data to detect duplicate accounts, in an effort to cut down on fake profiles and identity theft.

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Tinder’s facial recognition rollout is also made to prevent catfishing, or people pretending to be someone else on Tinder to scam or blackmail them. But that also points to a deeper problem on the rise in dating apps — a growing number of bots, many controlled by AI, are designed to glean personal information or fool users into scammy subscriptions, among other problems.

Tinder’s working against these bots on several fronts, including this Face Check push as well as ID Check, which requires a government-issued ID and other types of photo verification.

The dating app also recently released a feature in June to enable double-dating with your friends, which Tinder reports is especially popular with Gen Z users. If you’re worried about the latest hazards on Tinder, we have guide to safety practices.

A representative for Tinder did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, Oct. 23

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Oct. 23.

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.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. 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: Like some weather, memories and I.P.A.s
Answer: HAZY

5A clue: Statement that’s self-evidently true
Answer: AXIOM

7A clue: Civic automaker
Answer: HONDA

8A clue: What fear leads to, as Yoda told a young Anakin
Answer: ANGER

9A clue: Foxlike
Answer: SLY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Verbal «lol»
Answer: HAHA

2D clue: Brain signal transmitter
Answer: AXON

3D clue: Hits with a witty comeback
Answer: ZINGS

4D clue: Sing at the top of a mountain, maybe
Answer: YODEL

6D clue: Name of the famous «Queen of Scots»
Answer: MARY

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 23 #599

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 23, No. 599.

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

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be Halloween-themed, as the answers are all rather dangerous. Some of them are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Please don’t eat me!

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Remember Mr. Yuk?

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

POND, NOON, NODE, BALE, SOCK, LOVE, LOCK, MOCK, LEER, REEL, GLOVE, DAIS, LEAN, LEAD, REEL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: