This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest phones, smartwatches, apps, and other gizmos that swear they’re going to change your life. Optimizer arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 10AM ET. Opt in for Optimizer here. Once again, AI is failing to […]
AI chatbots “pose serious risks to individuals vulnerable to eating disorders,” researchers warned on Monday. They report that tools from companies like Google and OpenAI are doling out dieting advice, tips on how to hide disorders, and AI-generated “thinspiration.” The researchers, from Stanford and the Center for Democracy & Technology, identified numerous ways publicly available […]
Withings first announced its U-Scan, a non-invasive device you install in your toilet to track various health metrics, at CES 2023 two years ago. Unlike Kohler’s Dekoda, which uses a camera to analyze your poop, the U-Scan detects and samples your urine, tests it using replaceable cartridges, and sends the results to the Withings app, […]
Earlier this month, Lyra Health announced a “clinical-grade” AI chatbot to help users with “challenges” like burnout, sleep disruptions, and stress. There are eighteen mentions of “clinical” in its press release, including “clinically designed,” “clinically rigorous,” and “clinical training.” For most people, myself included, “clinical” suggests “medical.” The problem is, it doesn’t mean medical. In […]
Knowing what’s coming out of your body can be just as useful for maintaining a healthy lifestyle as being choosy about what goes into it. As part of a new initiative focused on “turning the bathroom into a connected, data-informed health and wellness hub,” Kohler has announced a health tracker called the Dekoda you attach […]
Today’s Decoder episode is a special one: I’m talking to Zocdoc CEO Oliver Kharraz, and we chatted live onstage at the TechFutures conference here in New York City. You’re almost certainly familiar with Zocdoc — it’s a platform that helps people find and book appointments with doctors. It’s a classic of the early app economy, […]
Oura is launching a redesigned app with expanded stress-tracking insights as it develops new blood pressure features that could identify signs of hypertension. The updated Oura app will introduce a new Cumulative Stress feature that provides a weekly overview of how the body manages and recovers from sustained stress, drawing from sleep, heart rate, temperature, […]
This week the Pew Research Center published a study about how parents managed screen time for their kids 12 and under. The results were not particularly surprising (or enlightening, if we’re being honest). A full 90 percent of parents said their children watched TV, and 61 percent said their kids interact with smartphones at least […]
Amazon is adding vending machines stocked with prescription drugs to its One Medical clinics, allowing patients to pick up their medications immediately after their appointment. A wide range of common prescriptions will be available for kiosk collection, including antibiotics, inhalers, and blood pressure medication. The company announced that the Amazon Pharmacy kiosks will be available […]
President Donald Trump is launching a new government-run website that he says will let Americans buy medications at lower prices. The new website, called TrumpRx, is expected to launch in 2026 and will direct consumers to discounts on drugmakers’ online stores, including Pfizer’s, as reported earlier by The New York Times and NPR. The Tuesday […]