Technologies

How to Use the New Blood Pressure Tool on Your Samsung Galaxy Watch

You’ll need additional hardware to use the blood pressure monitoring tool on your Samsung Galaxy smartwatch.

After years of regional limits, Samsung is finally unlocking blood pressure monitoring for Galaxy Watch users in the U.S. Starting Tuesday, the feature is rolling out to the current Galaxy Watch 8 series as well as older models dating back to the Galaxy Watch 4. It’s a major addition for anyone tracking cardiovascular trends, but you shouldn’t expect a simple «plug and play» experience.

For starters, you’ll need to own (or buy) a traditional upper-arm blood pressure cuff to calibrate the feature on the smartwatch. And you’ll have to download a separate app, the Samsung Health Monitor app, on your smartphone. Then you’ll have to recalibrate with the cuff every 28 days to ensure accurate readings.

In other words, the blood pressure monitor requires a blood pressure monitor to function.

Samsung first introduced blood pressure monitoring on its watches in 2020, gradually rolling it out in other countries, but regulatory holdups kept it from being usable in the US.

Unlike Samsung’s ECG and sleep apnea detection features (both FDA-cleared), the blood pressure feature has not received FDA clearance and is intended for wellness purposes only. This means it is not a diagnostic tool and should not be used to identify or treat high blood pressure. Readings are also on-demand only, so you have to manually take them through the watch rather than having it happen automatically in the background.

That last part may change. Samsung’s announcement also noted that passive blood pressure trend monitoring is coming later this year.

Apple debuted FDA-cleared hypertension alerts on newer Apple Watch models in September 2025, which passively monitor and alert owners when it detects signs of high blood pressure. Oura and other wearable companies are working toward similar features through long-term data trends, though true on-demand blood pressure readings remain out of reach for most mainstream consumer smartwatches.

The blood pressure feature is compatible with Galaxy Watch 4 and will only work on watches paired with a Samsung Galaxy phone running Android 12 or higher. It will not be available on other Android phones or on Samsung’s Galaxy Fit tracker. And even if you check all those boxes, you might not get it right away. Samsung says it’s rolling out the feature in phases.

If you do have access (and a cuff handy), setup is fairly straightforward. Once your watch is connected to your phone, download the Samsung Health Monitor app, enable blood pressure tracking and follow the calibration steps while using your upper-arm cuff. Just know you’ll need that cuff nearby anytime you want to keep your readings accurate.

Technologies

Meta Unveils New AI Model Developed by Costly, New Superintelligence Labs

The model comes from a team of AI leaders and developers poached from other AI companies last year.

Meta unveiled its latest artificial intelligence model on Wednesday, its first since assembling a costly team to help the company better compete with its AI rivals.

The new model, known as Muse Spark, was created by Meta Superintelligence Labs, a team of expensive AI leaders and developers assembled last year from other AI companies and led by Alexandr Wang, the co-founder and CEO of Scale AI. Wang joined the Meta AI team after Meta agreed to make a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI.

The model, known internally as Avacodo, now powers the Meta AI app and the Meta AI website and will soon power Meta apps WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and AI glasses. Meta called the new model «an early data point on our trajectory,» adding that it has larger models in development.

«This initial model is small and fast by design, yet capable enough to reason through complex questions in science, math, and health,» Meta said in its announcement. «It is a powerful foundation, and the next generation is already in development.»

Meta has been investing increasingly large sums to compete in the ever-evolving AI landscape, creating a «superintelligence team» that works toward achieving artificial general intelligence, or AGI. The release of Muse Spark comes after the company’s disappointing release of the Llama models last year.

Meta has bet big on AI to catch up and keep pace with other AI builders. Google leapfrogged its rivals in November with its Gemini 3 model, showcasing its impressive coding and research abilities. OpenAI was quick to follow with updates to GPT-5.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for April 9, #1033

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 9, No.1,033.

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 is a fun mix. If you follow your horoscope regularly, you might solve the blue group right away. 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: Like haunted house weather.

Green group hint: Medicine you spread on skin.

Blue group hint: Crab, bull and lion are three more.

Purple group hint: Think Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Gloomy.

Green group: Ointment.

Blue group: Zodiac symbols.

Purple group: Muscular, minus «ed» sound.

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 gloomy. The four answers are blue, dark, down and low.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is ointment. The four answers are balm, cream, paste and rub.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is zodiac symbols. The four answers are archer, fish, goat and ram.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is muscular, minus «ed» sound. The four answers are jack, rip, shred and yoke.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, April 9

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 9.

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? I thought the two shoe-and-also-bathtub-problem clues (1-Across and 1-Down) were pretty funny. Read on for all the answers. 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.