NotebookLM is undoubtedly one of Google's best implementations of generative AI technology, giving you the ability to explore documents and notes with a Gemini AI model. Last year, Google added the ability to generate so-called "audio overviews" of your source material in NotebookLM. Now, Google has brought those fake AI podcasts to search results as a test. Instead of clicking links or reading the AI Overview, you can have two nonexistent people tell you what the results say.
This feature is not currently rolling out widely—it's available in search labs, which means you have to manually enable it. Anyone can opt in to the new Audio Overview search experience, though. If you join the test, you'll quickly see the embedded player in Google search results. However, it's not at the top with the usual block of AI-generated text. Instead, you'll see it after the first few search results, below the "People also ask" knowledge graph section.
DENVER—Ads shown while you're streaming shows or movies are disruptive enough. But there's something uniquely eerie about what you see when a connected TV (CTV) platform fails to sell ad inventory. You may get a black screen accompanied by ethereal music or a confusing thumping beat, alongside a graphic that says something like, "We'll be right back."
Not only are streamers being forced to endure more ad time than ever, but that time doesn't even always benefit streaming platforms or advertisers. For the past six months, AdGood has been working to turn that blank, wasted ad space into messaging for good by helping nonprofits buy ad space for cheap.
During the StreamTV Show in Denver this week, Ars spoke with Kris Johns, CEO and founder of AdGood, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that sells unused, CTV ad space to other nonprofits. AdGood sells unfilled, sometimes donated, ad space at discounted rates, which it says can be as low as about $5 to $6 CPMs (cost per mille, or the amount an advertiser pays for every 1,000 impressions an ad earns). Johns said that CTV CPMs can vary depending on the scenario, with costs ranging from $12 to $15 and higher. Some CTV ad firms peg the average CTV CPM at $35 to $65.
Apps used to be the measure of a mobile platform's worth, with Apple and Google dueling over who could list the most items in their respective stores. Today, the numbers don't matter as much—there are enough apps, and Google's attempt to replace parts of the web with apps is going away. Instant Apps, a feature that debuted in 2017, will reportedly be scrapped in December 2025. In its place, you'll just have to use the Internet.
Developer Leon Omelan spotted this news buried in the latest Canary release of Android Studio (confirmed by Android Authority). The development client includes a warning that Instant Apps is headed for the Google graveyard. Here's the full notice, which is the only official confirmation from Google at this time.
Google's latest Android Studio build announces the end of Instant Apps.
Credit:
Android Authority
Instant Apps wasn't a bad idea—it was just too late. Early in the mobile era, browsers and websites were sluggish on phones, making apps a much better option. Installing them for every site that offered them could be a pain, though. Google's Instant Apps tried to smooth over the experience by delivering an app live without installation. When developers implemented the feature, clicking a link to their websites could instead open the Android app in a similar amount of time as loading a webpage. Google later expanded the feature to games.
As artificial intelligence has advanced, AI tools have emerged to make it possible to easily create digital replicas of lost loved ones, which can be generated without the knowledge or consent of the person who died.
Trained on the data of the dead, these tools, sometimes called grief bots or AI ghosts, may be text-, audio-, or even video-based. Chatting provides what some mourners feel is a close approximation to ongoing interactions with the people they love most. But the tech remains controversial, perhaps complicating the grieving process while threatening to infringe upon the privacy of the deceased, whose data could still be vulnerable to manipulation or identity theft.
Because of suspected harms and perhaps a general repulsion to the idea of it, not everybody wants to become an AI ghost.
Last week, electronics engineer Lorentio Brodesco announced the completion of a mock-up for nsOne, reportedly the first custom PlayStation 1 motherboard created outside of Sony in the console's 30-year history. The fully functional board accepts original PlayStation 1 chips and fits directly into the original console case, marking a milestone in reverse-engineering for the classic console released in 1994.
Brodesco's motherboard isn't an emulator or FPGA-based re-creation—it's a genuine circuit board designed to work with authentic PlayStation 1 components, including the CPU, GPU, SPU, RAM, oscillators, and voltage regulators. The board represents over a year of reverse-engineering work that began in March 2024 when Brodesco discovered incomplete documentation while repairing a PlayStation 1.
"This isn't an emulator. It's not an FPGA. It's not a modern replica," Brodesco wrote in a Reddit post about the project. "It's a real motherboard, compatible with the original PS1 chips."
When major events occur, most people rush to Google to find information. Increasingly, the first thing they see is an AI Overview, a feature that already has a reputation for making glaring mistakes. In the wake of a tragic plane crash in India, Google's AI search results are spreading misinformation claiming the incident involved an Airbus plane—it was actually a Boeing 787.
Travelers are more attuned to the airliner models these days after a spate of crashes involving Boeing's 737 lineup several years ago. Searches for airline disasters are sure to skyrocket in the coming days, with reports that more than 200 passengers and crew lost their lives in the Air India Flight 171 crash. The way generative AI operates means some people searching for details may get the wrong impression from Google's results page.
Not all searches get AI answers, but Google has been steadily expanding this feature since it debuted last year. One searcher on Reddit spotted a troubling confabulation when searching for crashes involving Airbus planes. AI Overviews, apparently overwhelmed with results reporting on the Air India crash, stated confidently (and incorrectly) that it was an Airbus A330 that fell out of the sky shortly after takeoff. We've run a few similar searches—some of the AI results say Boeing, some say Airbus, and some include a strange mashup of both Airbus and Boeing. It's a mess.
Google's Pixel phones got a big update this week with the release of Android 16 and a batch of Pixel Drop features. Pixels now have enhanced security, new contact features, and improved button navigation. However, some of the most interesting features, like desktop windowing and Material 3 Expressive, are coming later. Another thing that's coming later, it seems, is a fix for an annoying bug Google introduced a few months back.
Google broke the system dark mode schedule in its March Pixel update and did not address it in time for Android 16. The company confirms a fix is coming, though.
The system-level dark theme arrives in Android 10 to offer a less eye-searing option, which is particularly handy in dark environments. It took a while for even Google's apps to fully adopt this feature, but support is solid five years later. Google even offers a scheduling feature to switch between light and dark mode at custom times or based on sunrise/sunset. However, the scheduling feature was busted in the March update.
Amazon forced all Prime Video subscribers onto a new ad-based subscription tier in January 2024 unless users paid more for their subscription type. Now, the tech giant is reportedly showing twice as many ads to subscribers as it did when it started selling ad-based streaming subscriptions.
Currently, anyone who signs up for Amazon Prime (which is $15 per month or $139 per year) gets Prime Video with ads. If they don’t want to see commercials, they have to pay an extra $3 per month. One can also subscribe to Prime Video alone for $9 per month with ads or $12 per month without ads.
When Amazon originally announced the ad tier, it said it would deliver “meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers." Based on “six ad buyers and documents” ad trade publication AdWeek reported viewing, Amazon has determined the average is four to six minutes of advertisements per hour.
Steve Jobs spoke at the 114th commencement at Stanford University in Stanford, California, on June 12, 2005.
Photo by MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Image
Steve Jobs' notes and emails were published for the 20th anniversary of his Stanford commencement speech.
The speech emphasized themes of intuition, morality, and personal growth.
Here's what his newly released drafts and notes from other speeches said.
A trove of newly released emails from Steve Jobs shows how the late Apple cofounder prepared for one of his most memorable speeches.
Jobs addressed Stanford University graduates at the university's commencement ceremony on June 12, 2005. Twenty years later, the Steve Jobs Archive published notes and emails he wrote to himself while drafting the speech, along with a high-definition recording of the commencement address.
His Stanford address became famous for its inspirational life lessons, which could apply to college graduates, entrepreneurs, or dropouts like himself. Jobs used his own stories to drive home his points. A recording of the speech published on YouTube in 2008 has 46 million views.
The published correspondence showed Jobs had been working on the speech for at least six months before delivering it.
His early ideas included points about diet, meditation, and encouraging students to focus on their "inner world." Jobs was introduced to Zen Buddhism and meditation in the 1970s.
Jobs wrote down several anecdotes in emails to himself before settling on his final choices for the speech.
In a May 1 draft, Jobs wrote, "Try to always surround yourself with people smarter than you." They can come from different walks of life. He pointed to a "terribly old" engineer he'd hired at Apple not long after it started, who was a "genius." (The engineer was in his 40s at the time, while Jobs was 50 when he delivered the speech.)
Jobs ultimately chose three other personal stories. The first was about "connecting the dots," the second covered "love and loss," and the third was about death.
From the oldest email published, however, Jobs had his opener locked in.
"This is the closest I've ever come to graduating from college," he wrote.
Jobs drew on an earlier commencement address and mused on parenting in his notes
The Stanford speech echoed Jobs' commencement address almost 10 years earlier.
In 1996, Jobs spoke to the graduating class of Palo Alto High School. Both speeches discussed intuition, morality, and following one's passions.
While the 1996 speech focused on the students, Jobs also thought about the parents in the crowd. Scribbled at the bottom of a printout of the speech, he jotted down some thoughts on parenting.
"They tell you that you will love your kids," the handwritten notes read, "never mention that you will fall in love with them."
He also wrote that "every injury or setback parents feel 10x" and that they will always see their children as they were at ages 5, 6, or 7.
The speech concluded by encouraging the high school students to live their lives with as few regrets as possible.
In the Stanford address, Jobs also implored the students to find what they love and live each day like it was their last, telling the story of his first bout of cancer. The Apple cofounder died of pancreatic cancer in 2011 at the age of 56. Once he devised an ending for the Stanford commencement, it stuck.
"'Stay hungry. Stay foolish.' And I have always wished that for myself," he said.
Jobs stuck to the script — that he made a point to write himself down to his "thank you very much."
Fans saw clips of a man riding an alligator in a Kalshi ad.
Kalshi
An AI-generated ad for Kalshi, where you can bet on real-world events, aired during an NBA Finals game.
PJ Accetturo, a self-described AI filmmaker, described his process for creating the ad.
Here's how he used Google's Gemini chatbot and Veo 3 video generator to make the "most unhinged" ad.
A farmer floating in a pool of eggs. An alien chugging beer. An older man, draped in an American flag, screaming, "Indiana gonna win baby." The chaotic scenes are all part of a new AI-generated ad from sports betting marketplace Kalshi, which aired Wednesday during Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
"The world's gone mad, trade it," the commercial's tagline read, following the 30-second collection of surreal scenes.
In a recent thread on X, the ad's director explained how he made the clip for just $2,000.
"Kalshi hired me to make the most unhinged NBA Finals commercial possible," PJ Accetturo, a self-described AI filmmaker, wrote on Wednesday. "Network TV actually approved this GTA-style madness."
Kalshi hired me to make the most unhinged NBA Finals commercial possible.
Network TV actually approved this GTA-style madness 🤣
High-dopamine Veo 3 videos will be the ad trend of 2025.
Accetturo said he made the ad using Veo 3, Google's latest AI video generator. A Kalshi spokesperson confirmed to BI that the company hired Accetturo to make the ad and that it was generated entirely using Veo 3.
"Kalshi asked me to create a spot about people betting on various markets, including the NBA Finals," Accetturo wrote on X. "I said the best Veo 3 content is crazy people doing crazy things while showcasing your brand. They love GTA VI. I grew up in Florida. This idea wrote itself."
He said that he started by writing a rough script, turned to Gemini to generate a shot list and prompts, pasted it into Veo 3, and made the finishing touches in editing software.
To write the script, he said he asked Kalshi's team for pieces of dialogue they wanted to include, then thought up "10 wild characters in unhinged situations to say them." Accetturo said that he got help from Gemini and ChatGPT for coming up with ideas and working them into a script.
A screenshot he posted of this stage of his process showed dialogue like "Indiana gonna win baby" and "I'm all in on OKC" alongside characters like "rizzed out grandpa headed to the club" and "old lady in front of pickup truck that says 'fresh manatee' in a cooler behind her."
Accetturo said he then asked Gemini to turn every shot description into a Veo 3 prompt.
"I always tell it to return 5 prompts at a time—any more than that and the quality starts to slip," he wrote on X. "Each prompt should fully describe the scene as if Veo 3 has no context of the shot before or after it. Re-describe the setting, the character, and the tone every time to maintain consistency."
Accetturo said it took 300 to 400 generations to get 15 usable clips.
"We were not specifically looking for an AI video at first, but after getting quotes from production companies that were in the six or seven figure range with timelines that didn't fit our needs, we decided to experiment, and that's when we made the decision to go with AI and hire PJ," the Kalshi spokesperson told BI. "Given the success of this first ad, we are absolutely planning on doing more with AI."
The spokesperson said the video went from idea to live ad in three days, cost roughly $2,000 to make, and is on track to finish with 20 million impressions across mediums.
Accetturo told BI that he was "paid very well for the project" and now makes a "lot more as an AI director" than he did for live action contracts, which often involved weeks of work before and after the shoot compared to the few days the Kalshi ad required.
"The client got an insane ad for a great rate on a blistering timeline, and I got paid really well, while working in my underwear," he said.
This is the space where I usually try an AI tool. This week, though, I'm featuring an experience shared by a Tech Memo reader who got in touch after last week's installment about AI coding services such as Replit, Cursor, and Bolt.new.
This person worked at Google for more than two decades, so they know their software! They recently tried out Replit, following Google CEO Sundar Pichai saying he's been messing around with this tool.
"Like Sundar, I've also tried Replit to test out a cat purring app I had (lol). I poked around on some other options, but I liked Replit because it took the query and really built an app for you (even on the free test version). So based on a query alone and answering some questions (e.g., do you want people to be able to log in and save their cat?), you had an app. And it would work! You could launch it if you were really interested and happy with it.
"The limitations came with fine-tuning the app from there, as it seemed to get confused (and use up your credits) if you asked it for changes, e.g., change how the cat looked. It also was a pretty rough product; ultimately, if you wanted more than a proof of concept, you'd probably want to delve into the software code and change things yourself versus relying on queries.
"Over time, I think they'll fine-tune these things and I love how it makes it easy to prototype ideas. It really lowers the upfront cost of testing ideas."
Thank you, dear reader, for getting in touch. I have also been messing around with an AI coding tool. I chose Bolt.new, partly because I recently met the cofounder of the startup behind this service, Stackblitz's Eric Simons (another Tech Memo reader, btw). Next week, I'll share some thoughts about Bolt. I've been building something with my daughter Tessa and we can't wait to show you!
WWDC was a bit of a bust. Apple's Liquid Glass design overhaul was criticized on social media because it makes some iPhone notifications hard to read. A few jokers on X even shared a screenshot of YouTube's play button obstructing the "Gl" in a thumbnail for an Apple Liquid Glass promo. Need I say more?
The more serious question hanging over this year's WWDC was not answered. When will Siri get the AI upgrade it desperately needs? Software chief Craig Federighi delivered the bad news: It's still not ready. That knocked roughly $75 billion off Apple's market value. The stock recovered a bit, but it's still badly lagging behind rivals this month.
Andy Kiersz/BI; Google Finance
Google, OpenAI, and other tech companies are launching powerful new AI models and products at a breakneck pace. Apple is running out of time to prove it's a real player in this important field. Analyst Dan Ives is usually bullish, but even he's concerned. "They have a tight window to figure this out," Ives wrote, after calling this year's WWDC a "yawner."
AI is complex, expensive, and takes a long time to get right. Apple was late to start building the needed foundational technology, such as data centers, training data pipelines, and homegrown AI chips. By contrast, Google began laying its AI groundwork decades ago. It bought DeepMind in 2014, and this AI lab shapes Google's models in profound ways today.
When I was at Google I/O last month, one or two insiders whispered a phrase. They cautiously described an "intelligence gap" that could open up between the iPhone and other smartphones. Many Android phones already feature Google's Gemini chatbot, which is far more capable than Siri. If Apple's AI upgrade takes too long, this intelligence gap could widen so much that some iPhone users might consider switching.
At I/O, these insiders only whispered this idea. That's because it will take something pretty dramatic to get people to give up their iPhones. This device has become a utility that we can't live without — even for the few days (weeks?) it might take to get used to an Android replacement.
Still, if Apple doesn't get its AI house in order soon, this intelligence gap will keep growing, and things could get really siri-ous.
Mistral AI partners with Nvidia to launch European AI infrastructure platform, challenging US cloud giants while unveiling breakthrough reasoning models that rival OpenAI.Read More
BYD Co. sees China’s electric vehicle price war as unsustainable, according to a senior company executive, who stopped short of saying the country’s largest EV maker would scale back the aggressive discounting it helped trigger.
“It’s very extreme, tough competition,” executive vice president Stella Li said in an interview with Bloomberg News in London. “No, it’s not sustainable,” she added, noting that consolidation across the sector is likely as the market matures.
The comments highlight mounting strain within China’s overheated EV market, where a flood of new entrants and deep price cuts—many led by BYD—have eroded margins and triggered rare government intervention. While BYD has gained market share, the fallout is growing, with investors, regulators and rivals all pushing for a reset.
Beijing summoned industry leaders for talks earlier this month, telling EV makers not to sell cars below cost or offer unreasonable price cuts.
The EV price war has weighed heavily on automaker shares, with BYD losing around $22 billion in market capitalization since peaking in late May. Still, the company is seen as a likely long-term winner if smaller and mid-sized rivals are squeezed out, allowing BYD to grow its dominant market share.
Li said BYD plans to continue investing aggressively outside China, with a particular focus on Europe. The company expects to spend as much as $20 billion in the region over the coming years, she said.
BYD’s market share is rising rapidly in key European countries including Germany, the UK and Italy, helped by a fast-expanding dealer network and competitively priced offerings—especially plug-in hybrids.
The company recently overtook rival Tesla Inc. in Europe, a shift attributed in part to BYD offering a wider lineup of models. It currently sells around nine to ten vehicles in the region, compared to Tesla’s four.
Li also said that BYD has no immediate plans to partner with a European automaker, a strategy that local rivals Xpeng Inc. and Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology Co. have embraced. “But the door is open,” she said.
Li added that BYD is also investing heavily in after-sales service, and expects its European market share to climb further as more customers become familiar with the company’s technology and support.
“If we decide to do something, we put all our resources behind it,” she said. “We want to make sure it’s successful in the long run.”
Stella Li, vice president of BYD Co., during a Bloomberg Television interview at the Founders Forum Global conference in Great Tew, UK, on Thursday, June 12, 2025.
OpenAI hit $10 billion in annualized revenue on Monday, almost doubling its 2024 ARR in six months. Investor Mark Cuban believes the ChatGPT creator’s massive sales growth reflects its standout brand in a crowded start-up market.
Mark Cuban is bullish on ChatGPT.
The chatbot’s creator, OpenAI, said its annual recurring revenue reached $10 billion on Monday, almost doubling its $5.5 billion in ARR last year. While whispers of a potential IPO ripple through the investor community, AI advocate and investment luminary Cuban said he prefers the chatbot over competitors like Gemini and Claude, which he also uses.
“This is still a race in the first inning, but ChatGPT has done the best job of building a brand, and it shows in their sales,” he told Fortune in an email.
The San Francisco startup said its $10 billion figure includes ChatGPT business products, consumer products, and its application programming interface, or API.
“(OpenAI) earned every penny of it,” Cuban said of the company’s revenue landmark.
ChatGPT became the fastest-adopted app in history when it launched in 2023, gaining a million users in five days. OpenAI now supports 500 million weekly active users, it said in late March.
The company announced earlier this month that it has 3 million paying business users, a 50% increase from the 2 million it reported in February. Customers of ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Team and ChatGPT Edu, which are all workplace-specific versions of the chatbot with separate subscription tiers, comprise the 3 million users.
But the company’s growth hasn’t been profitable. OpenAI lost about $5 billion last year.
Still, the company forecasts continued growth, and targeted $125 billion in revenue by 2029, The Information reported in April.
OpenAI closed a $40 billion funding round in March, penning the largest private tech deal on record—its valuation now 30 times its annualized revenue.
In early October 2024, OpenAI closed a $6.6 billion funding round that Cuban could’ve contributed to, the former principal owner of the Dallas Mavericks revealed during an appearance on the “All-In” podcast.
Cuban told FortuneGoogle Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and Perplexity AI are some of the chatbots he uses, noting he uses ChatGPT daily. The Information recently reported that ‘AI native’ companies’—businesses fundamentally built around AI—annualized revenue have seen exponential sales in 2025, but OpenAI has taken the lion’s share, accounting for over two-thirds of revenue.
Anthropic hit $3 billion in annualized revenue in May, tripling its $1 billion figure from December 2024. The company said it’s on track to become profitable in 2027.
OpenAI’s massive growth is a testament to “just how explosive the (AI) market is,” Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney said.
But, if he were to guess, he said it’s likely the company doubled its losses along with its annualized revenue.
But Cuban is now a believer, having experienced the growth of OpenAI’s influence firsthand.
“I often ask the question at talks and panels, ‘how many of you use ChatGPT.’ The responses have gone from just a few a year ago, to pretty much all but (two) people in a large room,” Cuban said.
In March, Apple delayed its upgraded Siri, saying that “it’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver” the promised features. At WWDC this week, Apple’s SVP of software Craig Federighi and SVP of worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak shared more details about the decision to delay in an interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern.
As part of its initial Apple Intelligence announcements at WWDC 2024, Apple said that the improved Siri would have awareness of your personal context and the ability to take actions for you in apps. While Apple was showing real software at that show, Siri “didn’t converge in the way, quality-wise, that we needed it to,” Federighi said. Apple wanted it to be “really, really reliable. And we weren’t able to achieve the reliability in the time we thought.”
“Look, we don’t want to disappoint customers,” Joswiak said. “We never do. But it would’ve been more disappointing to ship something that didn’t hit our quality standard, that had an error rate that we felt was unacceptable. So we made what we thought was the best decision. I’d make it again.”
Stern asked why Apple, with all of its resources, couldn’t make it work. “When it comes to automating capabilities on devices in a reliable way, no one’s doing it really well right now,” Federighi said. “We wanted to be the first. We wanted to do it best.” While the company had “very promising early results and working initial versions,” the team came to feel that “this just doesn’t work reliably enough to be an Apple product,” he said.
At WWDC, Federighi also spoke to YouTuber iJustine, and both Federighi and Joswiak were interviewed by Tom’s Guide’s Mark Spoonauer and TechRadar’s Lance Ulanoff. In Apple’s March statement, it said that anticipated rolling out the Siri upgrades “in the coming year,” which, to Spoonauer, Joswiak clarified to mean 2026.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT service was down all day for many users after the platform started experiencing performance issues on Tuesday morning. The chatbot responded with a “Hmm…something seems to have gone wrong” error message to my colleague after failing to load, and users across X and Reddit are reporting platform outages.
Downdetector showed that issues started at around 3AM ET, with multiple regions impacted globally. OpenAI’s own status page said that some users started experiencing “elevated error rates and latency” at that time, noting that the issues were affecting ChatGPT, its Sora text-to-video AI tool, and OpenAI APIs. OpenAI added a separate line for “elevated error rates on Sora” at 5:23AM ET, and later updated the status for both to “partial outage.”
As of 6:32PM ET, OpenAI’s tracker reported a “full recovery in the API,” and that “Nearly all ChatGPT components are now working properly for all users.” The one spot of trouble, however, is voice mode, which still has elevated error rates.
Some users were able to access ChatGPT, but found that the service was sluggish and taking much longer than usual to respond. Others, like myself, were able to use the chatbot without any issues, so the outages and errors didn’t seem to impact everyone.
So, you’re thinking of buying a smart ring. Well, some good news. Picking the best of the lot is incredibly easy right now. The “bad” news is that, as far as trustworthiness and reliability, your choices are somewhat limited, as this is still a niche and emerging gadget category.
Smart rings are in the middle of a resurgence. That means a lot of experimental ideas and newcomer tech brands you’ve probably never heard of. Enough competitors have cropped up that I spent the better part of last summer rocking six rings like a high-tech mafia don. While these aren’t necessarily bad products (some are pretty good), many aren’t as polished as what you’d see in more mature categories like smartwatches, headphones, and smartphones.
Speaking of which, there are a few things to know about the category. Currently, these devices are primarily health trackers. Their benefit is they’re more discreet and are better suited to sleep tracking than a smartwatch. However, the vast majority don’t include smart alarms or push notifications. This makes them best suited to casual athletes or more wellness-minded people. Hardcore athletes would be better served in most cases by a smartwatch or fitness tracker, with a smart ring as a supplementary source of data. (But that’s quite an expensive endeavor.) Smart rings are also ill-suited for weightlifters, as they can easily scratch against equipment.
With that in mind, here’s the best smart ring for most people in 2025 — and a handful of runners-up worth highlighting for the more tech-adventurous.
How we test smart rings
Smart rings are meant to be a stylish and discreet alternative to traditional fitness trackers. That requires a combination of experiential testing and benchmarks. We wear them daily for weeks to see how well they accommodate bloated fingers and temperature changes. We don’t take them off in the shower or to wash dishes to test waterproofing. And we compare them to a smartwatch, the Oura Ring, and a smart bed to gauge sleep and health tracking accuracy. Other factors we consider are size ranges, sizing kits, app design, syncing times, and, of course, battery life.
Sizing
Your fingers will bloat. How accommodating is the design? What’s the size range offered? (Some of us have tiny fingers!) How easy is it to return?
Design
Many people want a smart ring to double as a piece of jewelry. Is it comfortable to wear 24 / 7? Is the design versatile for all sorts of events? Will you get compliments for wearing it?
Durability
Does the finish scuff? Will you see visible scratches if you wear other rings alongside it?
Charging and battery
Rings are easy to lose. Does it have a charging case or does it use a charging dock that a cat can easily knock off your nightstand? Sleep tracking is one of the most popular use cases for a smart ring, and for that you need good battery life. How much do you get on a single charge?
App
Many smart ring companies are newcomers. The hardware can be nice, but it means nothing if the app is a nightmare. How easy is the ring to update and sync? Does it sync with larger platforms like Apple Health or Google Health Connect?
Best smart ring for most people
Surprising no one, it’s the Oura Ring 4.
I can already hear some of you shouting, “But what about the subscription!” And I agree. Even Oura’s relatively affordable $6 monthly fee can feel more like $100 when you consider the sheer number of apps, gadgets, and services asking for a chunk of your monthly paycheck. However, Oura is still the best in terms of hardware, size range, features offered, app, dedication to research, and experience in the field. Many of the smart rings available today follow the example Oura set this past decade.
The upgrades from the Oura Ring Gen 3 to the Oura Ring 4 were mostly software-based, with minor hardware refinements. You can read more in my review, but the gist is a more accurate heart rate and blood oxygen algorithm, improved automatic activity detection, and an expanded range that spans size 4 to 15. The app has been redesigned to be less cluttered, and in the last few weeks, Oura added AI-powered meal logging and glucose tracking, the latter of which requires Oura users to purchase a Dexcom Stelo CGM ($99). It also recently launched an AI chatbot. (Of the AI chatbots in health trackers I’ve tested, this one is among the more polished implementations — though it often feels like Captain Obvious-level insights.)
I’ve been long-term testing three iterations of the Oura Ring since 2018. Accuracy, design, and comfort have improved with each generation. The company continues to frequently and clearly communicate research and scientific developments. Third-party retail options have expanded, and I’ve seen investment pour into Oura. In an emerging category, these things matter. A lot. While I believe some of Oura’s newer competitors do some things better or have more creative ideas, Oura is the one I continually recommend for its combination of reliability, accuracy, and experience.
If subscriptions are an absolute dealbreaker, you’ll find zero protest here. In that case, here are the best alternatives to the Oura Ring.
The $400 Samsung Galaxy Ringnails the hardware. Its charging case is more elegant than the Oura Ring’s, and I prefer the slightly concave design for comfort. It also has the second widest size range. If you’re already all-in on a Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 or Ultra, you get the added benefit of extended battery life. If you have the latest Galaxy Z Flip 6 or Z Fold 6, Samsung also has gesture controls for the ring so you can control the camera.
There are a lot of interesting ecosystem-centric ideas that Samsung has for its Galaxy Ring, but while there’s no subscription, it’ll cost you a pretty penny to unlock the ring’s full potential. Without discounts, we’re talking about $1,800 to nearly $3,000 for the phone, watch, and ring. The Galaxy Ring is also a first-gen device with some first-gen quirks, too. Samsung is still catching up with sleep tracking accuracy, and its Galaxy AI-powered health features are rather hit or miss.
I’m also keen on the $350 Ultrahuman Ring Air. It gave the Oura Ring an honest run for its money when I tested six smart rings at once last year. It’s not quite as good with accuracy, but it’s on par with comfort and design. The app has much more of a fitness focus than wellness. Instead of a subscription, it has “Power Plugs.” You can think of them as add-on features. Some are free, like smart alarms and cycle tracking. Others will come with an additional fee, like a planned atrial fibrillation detection Power Plug and a cardio adaptability metric, which costs $2.90 a month.
Lastly, I’ve been testing the RingConn Gen 2 Air, a slimmer, entry-level version of its Gen 2 ring. At $200, it’s the most affordable smart ring I’ve tested but looks and feels a lot nicer than the original RingConn I tested last summer. I had issues with the RingConn’s squarish shape, but it’s much less noticeable this time around and more comfortable. It’s broadly accurate, and the app goes heavy on AI, to middling effect. It has great battery life. I’ve gotten around eight to nine days on a single charge — far better than any other smart ring I’ve tested.
Update, June 10th: Updated to reflect current pricing / availability and add several related links.
Spotlight and themes are in the limelight. | Screenshot: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
At WWDC, Apple announced its new Liquid Glass design language, which is coming to all of its devices, including Macs. I've been tinkering with the macOS Tahoe 26 developer beta on the M4 MacBook Air for about a day. So far, the aesthetic changes range from slick to slightly overwrought, but the new Spotlight search features are nifty and useful.
There are new touches of glassy transparency all over macOS 26, including the Dock, Finder, widgets, and built-in apps. It's more subtle than on the iPhone, mostly because the Mac's much larger screen real estate makes the Liquid Glass elements more like accents than whatever this mess is supposed to be. I'm not very fond of it just yet, but maybe it will grow on me, like UI changes tend to.
The Dock now has a frosted background that's more translucent than Sequoia's flatter design. The hazy, frozen glass aesthetic also extends to widgets, like the calendar and weather, and drop-down menus - though the latter have much higher opacity. The pop-ups for volume and brightness now use this distorted glass look as well, though they've moved to the top-right corner of the screen instead of being centered above the dock. Frankly, they're ugly, …
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