Technologies

Apple’s Workout Buddy Is Friendly, but What if It Could Adopt Other Personalities?

Commentary: People respond to different types of encouragement when working out — some prefer a drill sergeant, others a caffeinated spin class instructor.

We all have different ways of motivating ourselves to exercise, so when Apple announced Workout Buddy for the Apple Watch at WWDC 2025, it made us think about what sorts of verbal encouragement would spur us to complete our workouts. We couldn’t help but imagine the different types of future Workout Buddies — and how they might help, cajole or even bargain with us to hit our fitness goals.

Workout Buddy in WatchOS 26 will be available at the outset in eight workouts (such as running and cycling) that you can activate when the workout begins. It exists as a voice through the watch and Bluetooth headphones or earbuds and is modeled on actual Apple Fitness Plus trainers. Workout Buddy can deliver progress indicators, stats and vocal encouragement as you push through an exercise routine.

Initially, Workout Buddy comes across as the type of friend who’s there to give you a pat on the back and a helpful rundown of what you just accomplished. But people respond to different types of encouragement. As we wait for WatchOS 26 to arrive (the software is currently available only to developers), here are some different types of workout buddies that could someday — or hopefully not, in some cases — echo in our heads while we’re sweating.

The cheerleader: «That light sheen of sweat makes your skin positively radiant! Good job hitting the half-mile mark! Wow — you have the resting heart rate of a 20-year-old!»

The drill sergeant (said in the sweetest voice possible): «Get off your ass and burn off those donuts! You’ve still got two miles to go before you reach the calories you consumed, champ!»

Your fittest friend who never seems to exercise: «Listen, brah, if you don’t push one more mile outta this run, you’re never gonna refine that six-pack and ever, like, find true love or succeed at anything in your life. Just straight-talkin’ ya, brah.»

Your friend who keeps stats at baseball games: «You’ve completed 1.39 miles of this run with a heart rate of 185 beats per second and burned approximately 140 calories, which is slightly below yesterday’s run, probably because you got only 6.4 hours of sleep last night and ate 50g more pasta for dinner than your usual serving…»

Your chill friend: «Hey, good set. I’m right here with you. Let’s do another one.»

The guilt-tripper: «Way to complete that 30-minute walk! Those donuts are still waiting at home!»

The buddy who knows you so well: «All right, you’re doing it. Look, if you can push through another half a mile, you can justify that bagel and a glass of wine tonight to celebrate.»

The caffeinated spin class instructor: «Let’s go babes, keep on keeping on! Yeah! One and two and… That’s right! You can do this!»

The zen dude: «Hello there. Good morning. Let’s thank our bodies for being here. And let’s be present in this workout. Only 15 gentle miles of uphill running to go. Namaste.»

The nihilist buddy: «Wow — is that really all you could muster? Fine, whatever, it doesn’t really matter anyway.»

Mom: «You got out there and did a workout. You did good, hon.»

Werner Herzog: «You have walked 20 miles. Can you feel the futility? I can tell you haven’t even left your house. Why do you make me a participant in your lies?»

Maybe the most important Workout Buddy: «Hey. Hi. I know it’s early, and you’re warm and comfortable, but you said you were going to wake up early and go for a ride. C’mon — you can do this. Just get out of bed. We’ll do it together. Your favorite coffee shop is right at the end of the route.»

Technologies

Toy Story 5: The Big New Rival Is a Tablet

Woody, Buzz and Jessie will battle a tablet in Toy Story 5, which is scheduled to hit theaters just about a year from now.

Pixar is giving its old-school toys a decidedly modern antagonist: a tablet.

During the studio’s Friday showcase at Annecy’s International Animation Film Festival in France, Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter revealed that Toy Story 5’s villain is Lily Pad, a «sneaky» and «prickly» tablet that convinces 8-year-old Bonnie Anderson that friends and games on a device beat dusty ol’ toys in the closet.

The first concept art shows the frog-faced tablet looming over Buzz, Jessie and Bullseye like a touchscreen tyrant of the toy box. As you can probably foresee, this is a battle between analog toys and always-on tech. (You can stream Toy Story movies one through four on Disney Plus.)

The Lily Pad reveal topped a jam-packed Walt Disney Animation and Pixar showcase, where the company rolled out updated release dates, never-before-seen footage and a couple of all-new original films.

Toy Story 5: The enemy is tech

The premise of Toy Story 5 is that Anderson gets a Lily Pad for school chat and online games. But the tablet decides that Anderson’s toys, including Woody, Buzz and Jessie, are holding her back. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack are all returning, while Ernie Hudson steps in as Combat Carl, honoring the late Carl Weathers.

Docter shared the opening scene of Toy Story 5, which shows a crate full of stranded Buzz Lightyears trying to escape a desert island. Toy Story 5 is set for release on June 19, 2026.

Pixar announced two new original films

Daniel Chong’s Hoppers, scheduled for March 6, 2026, turns an eco-heist into a critter-powered caper: 14-year-old Mabel uploads her mind into a robotic beaver to save her local pond from a highway project.

Gatto, slated for summer 2027, centers on Nero, a black cat in Venice who’s burned through most of his nine lives doing jobs for a feline mob boss. Now, questioning whether he’s wasted those lives, Nero stumbles into an unexpected friendship that could finally give him purpose. The film will be shot in a «living storybook» style, which is new to Pixar.

And we got to see new footage from Zootopia 2 and Elio

Jared Bush, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ chief creative officer and director-writer of Zootopia 2, showed some new footage and images from the anticipated sequel, which should come out in November. The audience also got to watch a 27-minute sizzle reel from Elio, the cosmic coming-of-age adventure, which opens June 20.

Technologies

Too Busy to Read? Google’s Audio Overviews Summarize Your Search Results Aloud

This new feature turns some Google queries into bite-size podcast clips so you can learn without reading.

The next time you wonder why school buses are yellow, you might not have to read a single word to get the answer. Google’s latest experimental feature can literally tell you the answer, in a tiny audio clip that loads right to your results page.

Launched Friday in Search Labs, Audio Overviews uses Google’s latest Gemini AI models to turn certain queries into 30- to 45-second, podcast-style explainers, complete with on-screen source links for fact-checking.

The move pushes Google’s AI Overviews beyond text, positioning Search for a semi-hands-free, voice-first future, while also raising more questions about what this means for publishers who rely on clicks.

How you can try out Audio Overviews right now

If you’re interested, you can try out Google’s Audio Overviews right now. Go to the Google Labs website, opt in to the Search Labs program if you’re not already signed up and toggle on Audio Overviews.

The next time you run a query, like «How do I stop apps from tracking my exact location on my iPhone,» Google might show you a button that says Generate Audio Overview, which you’ll have to scroll down a little to see.

You can then tap on the Audio Overview to process the clip, and then press play. You can speed up the audio, mute the clip and also rate it with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to better train it.

Below the player, Google lists the web pages it drew from, so you can click through to fact-check the information or just dig deeper.

For those with visual impairments, this new feature offers a glimpse at what a voice-first Google might look like. But until Google expands language support and proves the summaries are dependable, consider this a nifty experiment for now, not a substitute for reading the full story.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for June 14, #468

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 468 for June 14.

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 honors Flag Day. 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.

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: It’s a banner day.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: O say can you see.

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:

TRIP, TRIPS, TROT, TROTS, RATS, LEND, SEND, TRAIL, RAIL, NAIL, RANT, STRIP

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie in to 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: