Month: March 2024

Enlarge / Google Fitbit's Charge 5. (credit: Fitbit)

Google closed its Fitbit acquisition in 2021. Since then, the tech behemoth has pushed numerous changes to the wearable brand, including upcoming updates announced this week. While Google reshapes its fitness tracker business, though, some long-time users are regretting their Fitbit purchases and questioning if Google’s practices will force them to purchase their next fitness tracker elsewhere.

Generative AI coming to Fitbit (of course)

As is becoming common practice with consumer tech announcements of late, Google's latest announcements about Fitbit seemed to be trying to convince users of the wonders of generative AI and how that will change their gadgets for the better. In a blog post yesterday, Dr. Karen DeSalvo, Google's chief health officer, announced that Fitbit Premium subscribers would be able to test experimental AI features later this year (Google hasn't specified when).

"You will be able to ask questions in a natural way and create charts just for you to help you understand your own data better. For example, you could dig deeper into how many active zone minutes... you get and the correlation with how restorative your sleep is," she wrote.

Enlarge / OnLeak's Pixel 8a render. (credit: OnLeaks and Smartprix)

Google's next mid-range phone, the Pixel 8a, is rapidly approaching release. The presumed launch date has always been Google I/O, and that's officially set for May 14. Although the Pixel 8a recently hit the Federal Communications Commission, the box has leaked, and renders have been out since October, we haven't really talked specs.

The ever-reliable Kamila Wojciechowska has a new article for Android Authority detailing some specs for the upcoming device. Apparently, there are some big upgrades planned. The Pixel 7a took a big jump to a 90 Hz display, and the Pixel 8a is encroaching even more into flagship territory with a 120 Hz display. Wojciechowska's source says the Pixel 8a display will be a 6.1-inch, 120 Hz, 2400×1080 OLED panel with an improved 1,400 nits brightness. The display's 120 Hz screen will not only make the phone more competitive here; it will also be a big deal for the Pixel line's recent expansion into India, where 120 Hz is the norm at this price range.

The report says to expect the same camera loadout as the Pixel 7a, along with the newer Google Tensor G3 chip, just like the other Pixel 8 phones. Google doesn't mention it on the spec sheet, but Wojciechowska says internally there is a small difference: It's the same silicon on the A-series, but Google goes with a cheaper, hotter silicon packaging method. So expect some thermal differences.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | stefanamer)

Cable and satellite TV companies must start advertising "all-in" prices instead of using hidden fees to conceal the full cost of video service, the Federal Communications Commission said in new rules adopted last week.

The FCC voted to adopt the rules on March 14, and the final text of the order was released yesterday. The rules are aimed in particular at the Broadcast TV and Regional Sports Network fees charged by Comcast and other companies.

For years, TV providers have advertised artificially low prices that don't include such fees. The actual bills received by subscribers thus have prices much higher than the advertised rates.

Enlarge / A pit stop during the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix in early March evokes how the team's manager was feeling when looking at the Excel sheet that managed the car's build components. (credit: ALI HAIDER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

There's a new boss at a storied 47-year-old Formula 1 team, and he's eager to shake things up. He's been saying that the team is far behind its competition in technology and coordination. And Excel is a big part of it.

Starting in early 2023, Williams team principal James Vowles and chief technical officer Pat Fry started reworking the F1 team's systems for designing and building its car. It would be painful, but the pain would keep the team from falling even further behind. As they started figuring out new processes and systems, they encountered what they considered a core issue: Microsoft Excel.

The Williams car build workbook, with roughly 20,000 individual parts, was "a joke," Vowles recently told The Race. "Impossible to navigate and impossible to update." This colossal Excel file lacked information on how much each of those parts cost and the time it took to produce them, along with whether the parts were already on order. Prioritizing one car section over another, from manufacture through inspection, was impossible, Vowles suggested.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

Few Ars readers will have been surprised by the news from last week concerning General Motors' connected cars. As The New York Times reported, some owners of vehicles made by General Motors have been having a hard time getting car insurance. The reason? They unwittingly agreed to share their driving data with a third party. Now, at least one driver is suing. If more follow suit, this could be the push the industry needs to do better.

The heart of the problem is one of GM's OnStar connected-car services, called Smart Driver. We've tested it out in the past—it monitors things like how fast you drive, how hard you accelerate and brake, how often you drive at night, and your fuel economy, then uses that data to generate a numerical score from 0 to 100, with a higher number indicating that you're a safer driver.

These kinds of services can be useful—most people think they're great drivers until they start getting independent feedback. And the data that Smart Driver collects really can help you drive more economically and with less risk. But as I noted at the time, I was glad my insurance rates weren't at risk via data sharing with an insurer.