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Mobvoi’s New TicWatch Pro 5 Arrives With Wear OS 3, a New Chip and More

It’s the first smartwatch to use the Snapdragon W5 Plus Gen 1 platform.

Mobvoi, the company behind the popular line of TicWatch smartwatches, on Wednesday launched its latest watch, the TicWatch Pro 5. It runs on Google’s Wear OS 3 software and is powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon W5 Plus Gen 1 chip, which should increase speed and overall performance. A new version of the Mobvoi health app will launch alongside the watch, which costs $350 and is available now. 

In addition to the new chip, the TicWatch Pro 5 includes a number of other features like a rotating crown for navigating the watch’s interface and a smarter new backlight that should allow trail runners and night joggers to view the screen without illuminating their surroundings. There’s also a one-tap measurement feature to provide access to five different health metrics instantly, like heart rate, blood oxygen and more, as well as stress management and advanced sleep tracking.

On the fitness side, there’s continuous heart-rate monitoring, a built-in barometer, improved VO2 Max tracking and tools to help you understand the proper recovery time required after your workouts. There are over 100 different workout modes, which should make it easy to match what the watch tracks to the activity you’re doing. With the redesigned app, Mobvoi is putting more focus on the health-tracking aspects of the watch to better compete with companies like Samsung, Apple and Oura. 

Mobvoi has historically focused more on lower-cost, entry-level models, which the company has had some success with. It’s also one of the only «smaller» companies that’s producing Wear OS watches. While this watch will launch with Wear OS 3, the most current version available today, it’s worth noting that Google just announced Wear OS 4 during its developer conference. When asked about that next operating system, Mobvoi did not have any announcements but said the company is working with Google on future Wear OS updates.

Still, Mobvoi’s overall focus on health, with both its new app and the TicWatch Pro 5’s features, further show that fitness is the major area of focus for today’s wearables. 

Technologies

Google’s New AI Features Are Trying to Make Data Entry a Thing of the Past

More Gemini AI features will come to Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.

The latest batch of Google updates to its workspace tools highlights AI’s promise to automate mundanity in the workplace. Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Drive all have new AI-powered features, the company announced Tuesday. The one thing all these updates have in common? Gemini is using your files, emails and chats to give you relevant information, not random answers gleaned from the web.

These updates come as AI is playing a bigger role in our work lives, for better or worse. Agentic tools like Claude Cowork and coding assistants like Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex are more capable than chatbots and able to handle tasks announced independently. AI tools are also becoming more customized, with Google’s personalized intelligence rolling out across its platforms to help refine AI outputs to things that are relevant and useful for you. Google continues that trend with this new batch of Workspace updates.

New Gemini AI features in Google Workspace apps will cite their sources after each query. For example, if you ask Gemini in Google Docs to fill out an itinerary template, it will pull the information from your email, chats and files. The «sources» tab in the Gemini side panel will show you where it found the information it used, like your flight confirmation email and chats discussing dinner plans. Seeing where Gemini pulled its answers from is also how you’ll double-check Gemini’s work.

The most impressive new features are in Sheets, where AI can fill in the holes in your spreadsheets. You can describe what you want the AI to do with a simple prompt and avoid writing an exact formula. You can click on an empty cell, select the pop-up that says «Drag to fill with Gemini,» then highlight the cells you want Gemini to fill in. That deploys an AI agent to search the web to fill each cell with the necessary information.

For example, if you have a spreadsheet of the contact info for local companies, you can have Gemini search the web to fill in a the location, CEO and other publicly available information of each company. The tool aims to dramatically reduce the time needed for manual data entry. Gemini can also summarize, categorize and create charts with prompts alone.

You can also chat with Gemini in Sheets and have it scour your raw data to make custom reports and charts. No need for pivot tables if they confound you as much as they baffle me. One of the biggest uses of AI at work is helping create presentations.

In Google Slides, you can now tell Gemini in natural language what you want to appear on a slide, and it will create it, matching the style of your existing slides. You can also ask Gemini to edit your slides if you don’t want to waste time painstakingly moving design elements around the slide. The AI should fill the slides with relevant information based on your instructions and the work files it has access to, so you shouldn’t need to replace a bunch of filler text.

If you use Docs, Sheets and Slides through the Workspace account of your company, then you won’t be able to turn off AI features individually. The managing company is in control of AI access for users. Personal users can tweak their settings to limit Gemini. The new features are rolling out in beta now, in English only, to Google AI Ultra and Pro subscribers in the US, as well as some Google Workspace customers who are part of the Gemini Alpha testing program.

For more, check out the new cowork feature in Copilot and how to use Perplexity AI for deep research.

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Nintendo Switches Lanes, Sues US Over Tariffs

Mario wants his money back.

Tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump were struck down by the Supreme Court last month. Companies that were subjected to those fees, such as FedEx and Dollar General, have since sued the federal government, and Nintendo wants a piece of the action. 

Nintendo filed a lawsuit against the federal government in the US Court of International Trade on Friday, as first spotted by Aftermath. The complaint seeks refunds of tariffs Nintendo paid, plus interest, and asks the court to declare the tariffs unlawful and stop the government from collecting them going forward. 

«Since February 1, 2025, President Trump has executed the unlawful Executive Orders, imposing tariffs on imports from a vast swath of countries,» Nintendo said in the complaint. 

When reached for comment, Nintendo of America confirmed the lawsuit. 

«We can confirm that we filed a request. We have nothing else to share on this topic,» Nintendo of America said in an emailed statement on Friday, March 6. 

It’s unclear how much Nintendo paid in tariffs, and it did not state an amount in the lawsuit. While the Switch 2 was priced at $450 when it launched last year, and has stayed at that amount, Nintendo did increase the price of the original Switch and accessories for both consoles. Microsoft and Sony also increased the prices of their hardware and accessories last year due to tariffs. 

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

On Feb. 20, the Supreme Court ruled by a vote of 6 to 3 that the sweeping tariffs Trump instituted last year exceeded his executive powers. Following the ruling, on the same day, Trump announced a new set of tariffs of 10% on imported goods that would last for 150 days, starting Feb. 24. 

The decision on what to do with the collected tariffs — a reported $166 billion —  has been left to the US Court of International Trade. Judge Richard Eaton told the US Customs and Border Protection on Wednesday, March 4, to refund the importers that were forced to pay tariffs, which is more than 330,000. On Friday, the CBP said it couldn’t easily issue tariff refunds because its system requires duties to be recalculated and refunds processed entry by entry. This process would involve tens of millions of transactions. The agency said it’s updating its systems and could start providing refunds by late April. 

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Sony WF-1000XM6 vs. Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro Earbuds: A Photo Finish

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