Technologies

Oura Ring’s ‘Circles’ Makes Sharing Sleep and Other Scores Possible

As long as they also wear an Oura ring, you can share health data including Sleep, Readiness and Activity scores with friends and family. Here’s how.

If you’ve ever wondered how well your coworker slept last night, now you can know for sure as long as you’re connected with them through Circles, a new feature Oura announced Thursday for its app.

Oura, the health-tracking ring that collects data such as temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen readings, summarizes that information into Readiness, Sleep and Activity scores. With Circles, you’ll be able to share those scores with up to 10 groups of people or «Circles,» with a maximum of 20 people in each group.

You’ll be able to choose which kind of data or scores you share with each group, so one circle can get more of your wellness information than another. While only three scores are available to share through Circles now, Oura said it plans on expanding sharable information in the future.

To start a circle, open the Oura app, scroll down the main menu and select «Circles.» Then you can name a circle, decide what scores you want to share and also decide whether you want that data to be daily or weekly averages. To invite people into the circle (they have to be fellow Oura users), you’ll send them a one-time link.

Once you’ve started your circle, you can view their scores and «react» with emojis, if you choose. Everyone has to sync their rings to keep the scores visible.

A picture of Circles in the Oura app — What it looks like to react to your friend in Circles.

Oura

For people who enjoy collecting health data (and maybe boasting about a good health week), Oura’s Circles features is a good way to do that with other Oura wearers. According to a press release, though, the company is positioning Circles as another way to check in and connect with each other — an increasingly important public health goal amid a loneliness epidemic, which has impacts on sleep, mental health and physical illness.

Best Fitness Trackers for 2023 See at Cnet

«Our mission at Oura has always been to improve the lives of our members by taking a compassionate approach to health, and this new feature is just the next step in delivering a personalized experience that allows our members to connect with not only their bodies, but also their friends and family,» Oura CEO Tom Hale said in a statement.

Oura’s Circles announcements comes as the company is advancing its new sleep staging algorithm out of beta mode, which means everyone tracking sleep stages with Oura will get data from the improved algorithm. Shyamal Patel, the company’s head of science, calls the new algorithm a «massive improvements of accuracy» in sleep data. The new algorithm has 79% agreement with polysomnography sleep tests done in a clinic, Patel told CNET.

Compared to Oura’s older sleep-tracking algorithm, ring wearers might experience slight changes in the amount of time Oura tells you you’re spending in deep sleep versus light sleep versus REM sleep.

«Those numbers are likely to shift a little bit,» Patel said.

For more on the Oura ring, read more about how the tracker can tell you whether you’re a morning person and how the Oura ring compares to the Apple Watch as a sleep tracker. Also, here’s our thorough review of Oura, the wearable that can tell when you’re sick.

See Oura Ring Gen 3 at Oura $299 at Oura

Technologies

The Most Exciting Video Game Rumors and Leaks Ahead of 2026

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Dec. 17

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 17.

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: Nod (off)
Answer: DOZE

5A clue: Naval submarine in W.W. II
Answer: UBOAT

7A clue: Tricky thing to do on a busy highway
Answer: MERGE

8A clue: Heat-resistant glassware for cooking
Answer: PYREX

9A clue: Put into groups
Answer: SORT

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Break up with
Answer: DUMP

2D clue: Falls in line, so to speak
Answer: OBEYS

3D clue: Legendary vigilante who cuts a «Z» with his sword
Answer: ZORRO

4D clue: Rarin’ to go
Answer: EAGER

6D clue: Common reminder for an upcoming appointment
Answer: TEXT

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Technologies

You Can Watch an Exclusive Avatar: Fire and Ash Scene on TikTok Right Now

Disney and TikTok partner on an immersive content hub for James Cameron’s latest movie about the alien Na’vi.

If you’re not quite ready to head to the theater to watch Avatar: Fire and Ash, an exclusive scene preview might sell you on the visual spectacle. As part of a new collaboration with the social media giant, Disney is posting snippets of its new movie to its TikTok account.

This scene isn’t part of any trailer and won’t be posted to other social media accounts, making TikTok the only place you can view it — unless you buy a movie ticket. A first look at the new movie’s scenes isn’t the only Avatar-related bonus on the social media platform right now, either. TikTok has partnered with the house of mouse to bring an entire «immersive content hub» to the app.

A special section of TikTok includes quizzes and educational videos that explore the alien world of Pandora shown off in the movies. On TikTok, you can take a personality quiz to find out what Na’vi clan you most closely align with and unlock a special profile picture border to use on your account.

Science and fiction blend together with a series of videos from real doctors who explain the basis for some of Avatar’s world-building. If you want to learn about exoplanets or how realistic the anatomy of the movie’s alien animals is, these videos will feed your brain while still providing entertainment value.

Perhaps the most enticing part of Disney’s latest social media collaboration is the opportunity for fans to win prizes and trips. TikTok creators who make edits with the #TikTokAvatarContest hashtag are entered into a competition to win Avatar merchandise. The biggest winners will be able to take a trip to visual effects studio Wētā Workshop in New Zealand or visit Avatar director James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment Studio in Los Angeles.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is the third installment in director Cameron’s cinematic passion project. While the first Avatar movie was released in 2009, Cameron didn’t release another entry in the franchise until 2022. In total, there is a five-movie arc planned for the indigo alien Na’vi on the moon of Pandora.

The Avatar movies are known for pushing the boundaries of CGI visual effects in cinema. They are also historically big winners at the box office: the original Avatar is the highest-grossing film of all time, earning $2.9 billion across its theatrical releases. Its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, is the third-highest-grossing film of all time, trailing Avengers: Endgame. You can stream those movies on Disney Plus.

It remains to be seen whether Avatar: Fire and Ash will financially live up to its predecessors. The film currently has mixed reviews from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.