News
- Dell has unveiled a new 14-inch laptop at IFA 2026
- The Dell 14S is aimed at students and comes in vibrant colors like the MacBook Neo
- Dell has yet to reveal the price tag, which is a crucial missing piece of info with a wallet-friendly laptop like this
Dell has revealed a new 14-inch laptop over at IFA 2026 — and it's clear that this is a Windows 11 take on Apple's MacBook Neo formula.
The Dell 14S is a smart-looking, compact laptop which is aimed at students, and it comes in a selection of vibrant colors. That includes a rather striking green (velvet green as it's dubbed), as well as a light pink (dusty rose), beige (linen) and light blue (washed denim).
It'll be no great surprise to learn that the 14S is powered by Intel's Core Series 3 (Wildcat Lake) CPUs, which are performant but affordable chips that do a good job on the power-efficiency front.
RAM and storage start at 8GB and 256GB, but a higher-tier model offers 16GB and a 512GB or 1TB SSD.
The pitch is essentially a lesser version of Dell's XPS 13 for 2026, so you don't get quite the same thinness or lightweight nature (though the 14S is still 13.5mm thin and 1.15kg, so pretty trim).
The screen on the Dell 14S isn't touch-enabled either — it's a more basic 1920 x 1200 resolution display with a 60Hz refresh rate and 300 nits of brightness (with the XPS 13 you get 120Hz VRR and 500 nits). There is a fancier screen, mind, on the upper-tier model of the Dell 14S, which sharpens the resolution to 2880 x 1800 and gives you 120Hz.
How much is the Dell 14S? Well, that's really the crucial question when it comes to a MacBook Neo rival like this, and the answer is: we don't know because Dell isn't saying yet.
Analysis: a growing no-price-at-launch trendIt makes me a bit nervous that no official price is forthcoming with this IFA unveiling, but we have got a hint behind the scenes of how much the Dell 14S might cost. According to The Verge, Dell reps are saying that this laptop will be "close" to the starting price of the XPS 13 – which is $700 in the US – but "slightly more accessible", which makes sense given the student target market, of course.
Indeed, based on the spec downgrades, I would hope it's cheaper, but the use of the word 'slightly' suggests that there's not going to be much difference. Although to be fair to Dell, the XPS 13 is level with the MacBook Neo's price tag (since Apple hiked the price from the launch MSRP) over in the US. That said, in other regions, the XPS 13 can be a good bit pricier than the Neo – in the UK currently it's 10% more, and it has been a heftier premium than that in the past. We'll likely see a similar scenario with the Dell 14S.
What compounds this concern is the RAM crisis, which is really kicking up a gear, and is expected to make hardware more expensive as 2026 continues (and matters are likely to worsen in 2027). Is Dell keeping quiet on the MSRP of the 14S right now because it's expecting further price pressures to exert themselves by the time it comes to this laptop's launch? I don't think we can rule that out.
Maybe I'm overthinking this, granted, and I like the look of the Dell 14S and the general pitch of this notebook. It just makes me a touch suspicious when we have a product that's built around being wallet-friendly, yet we don't get an MSRP, which, for this category of laptop, is an absolutely key consideration.
Hopefully my fears will prove unfounded, and it's worth noting that Dell isn't alone at being shy about revealing prices, with manufacturers avoiding pinning a recommended price on their offerings at launch being something of a trend of late (one that was noticeable at Computex). This is a symptom of the RAM crisis, of course, and component inflation on various fronts, all of which is predicted to get more severe as this year rolls into next.
It’s been an incredible 2026 for sport already. The World Cup was an epic tournament in every sense, Wimbledon reminded us why we fell in love with tennis, Tadej Pogačar picked up a fifth Tour de France title, and the Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl LX.
But what about the rest of the year? Don't worry, we've got you covered...
All the sporting action you need to know about for the rest of 2026. From football to NFL and everything in between, find out your sporting calendar below.
SeptemberSeptember is highlighted by the return of the NFL and Champions League, alongside a host of UFC events and the Solheim Cup taking place in between.
- 4-13 September: FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup
- 4-6 September: F1 Italian Grand Prix — Get Tickets Here
- 8 September: Champions League begins — Get Tickets Here
- 10 September: NFL season begins
- 11-13 September: F1 Spanish Grand Prix — Get Tickets Here
- 11-13 September: Solheim Cup
- 12-28 September: Men's Volleyball World Championship
- 19 September: UFC 331
- 19 September - 4 October: Asian Games
- 20-27 September: UCI Road World Championships
- 21-27 September: Billie Jean King Cup Finals
- 21 September - 6 October: Football Nations League
- 24-26 September: F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix — Get Tickets Here
- 27 September: Berlin Marathon
October has four Grands Prix and the Rugby League World Cup, with Australia heavy favourites to win that. Don't forget Barcelona vs Real Madrid in El Clásico at the end of the month.
- 2-4 October: F1 Bahrain Grand Prix — Get Tickets Here
- 3 October: UFC 332
- 3 October: Super League Grand Final
- 4 October: NRL Grand Final
- 4-18 October: NFL London Games — Get Tickets Here
- 9-11 October: F1 Singapore Grand Prix — Get Tickets Here
- 9-31 October: South Africa vs Australia 3 Test-Match Series
- 10 October: Ironman World Championship
- 10-11 October: UCI Gravel World Championships
- 14-18 October: UCI Track Cycling World Championships
- 15 October - 15 November: Rugby League World Cup
- 15-31 October: England–Sri Lanka–Pakistan ODI Tri-Series
- 17-25 October: World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
- 20 October: NBA season begins
- 23-31 October: MLB World Series
- 23-25 October: F1 United States Grand Prix — Get Tickets Here
- 24 October: UFC 333
- 25 October: Barcelona vs Real Madrid — Get Tickets Here
- 30 October - 1 November: F1 Mexico City Grand Prix — Get Tickets Here
November will see all your tennis needs fulfilled with the WTA Finals, the ATP Finals and the Davis Cup Final 8. Alongside that there's the New York Marathon and the Grand Slam of Darts...
- 1 November: New York Marathon
- 6-8 November: F1 Brazilian Grand Prix — Get Tickets Here
- 6-29 November: Nations Championship Matchday 4,5,6 and finals day
- 8-15 November: WTA Finals
- 12-17 November: Nations League Matchday 4 & 5
- 14 November: UFC 334
- 14-22 November: Grand Slam of Darts
- 15-22 November: ATP Finals
- 19-21 November: F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix — Get Tickets Here
- 24-29 November: Davis Cup Final 8
- 27-29 November: F1 Qatar Grand Prix — Get Tickets Here
- 28 November: Copa Libertadores Final
- 28 November - 6 December: Snooker UK Championship
December is headlined by two brilliant Test match series, with New Zealand touring Australia and England heading to South Africa. We also have the Darts World Championships and your Christmas Day NFL games...
- 1-6 December: World Aquatics Swimming Championships
- 3-20 December: Women's European Handball Championship
- 4-6 December: F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix — Get Tickets Here
- 9 December - 8 January: Australia vs New Zealand 4-match Test series (cricket)
- 10 December - 3 January: PDC World Darts Championship
- 11 December: Emirates NBA Cup Final
- 12 December: UFC 335
- 17 December - 7 January: South Africa vs England 3-match Test series (cricket)
- 18-19 December: Formula E season opener
- 25 December: NFL Christmas Day Games
- 28 December - 6 January: Four Hills Tournament
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- Florida is removing Flock cameras from state highways
- At the same time Texas is freezing future funding for Flock systems
- There are concerns over privacy and misuse
It's not just regular citizens who are turning against the hundreds of thousands of Flock license plate reader cameras across the US — now state authorities are also pulling back on their use of the scanning technology.
First up is Florida (via Fox Business), which has pulled all license plate readers from state roads, and given agencies (including Flock) 30 days to comply with the order. Florida governor Ron DeSantis said in a news conference that while he can see the usefulness of these systems, he's also concerned about potential misuse.
"What we don't want in the state of Florida is to have a digital AI surveillance state where everything we're doing is being tracked at all times," DeSantis told reporters this week. "Where is this data going? They claim that the companies aren't going to misuse it, but no one's watching that."
In a memo, the Florida Department of Transportation called out "concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes" as reasons for the move. Several investigations over the past year have found police officers using Flock systems outside of their allowed remit.
Taxpayer money in TexasFlock cameras use AI to track license plates and car types (Image credit: Getty Images)Over to Texas, where governor Greg Abbott has ordered state agencies to pause funding for Flock cameras amid increasing scrutiny (via the Texas Tribune). Around 3,200 Flock license plate readers have been installed in Texas since 2023.
"[Flock cameras] are going to be required to be used responsibly if they’re used at all," Abbott said in a radio interview. At least six police departments and sheriff's offices across the state have announced that law enforcement officials are being placed on leave, criminally charged, or investigated for Flock camera misuse — in the last month alone.
Further reporting by the Texas Tribune has found that $30 million of taxpayer money has been put towards the Flock network in the state, with more public funding set to be added before the pause was announced. According to one Texas police chief, the cameras are essential for disrupting criminal networks.
For its part, Flock has been making moves to improve the security and privacy of its systems, including setting seven days as the default for deleting data that's not part of a criminal investigation — but the debate over whether the company's technology is useful or invasive looks set to continue for some time.
- Free-to-play live service game Let it Die shut down earlier this week
- It's not the end, though, as players will still be able to play the game in a new offline state
- The new offline version costs just $19.99 / £16.99 / AU$28.50 and has all microtransactions removed
It feels like a live service game is shutting down every few weeks, and I'm no stranger to the crushing disappointment of learning that one of your favorite games is going offline.
Under the RadarUnder the Radar is our way of highlighting great games that might have passed you by. Through a regular mix of news stories and features, we'll cover great experiences that we feel haven't found the audience they deserve. Read the full series here.
Normally, the news means you lose access to the game for good — with all your progress, achievements, and in-game items vanishing along with it. Just look at Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt, Anthem, or Hawked: three offline titles that died in the last few weeks alone and are now completely inaccessible by official means.
Although the reasons for such shutdowns are often understandable, it still seems like a massive waste of resources, development time, and sometimes some genuinely good game mechanics or ideas.
With Let it Die, however, developer Grasshopper Manufacture is defiantly bucking that trend. The free-to-play game shut down earlier this week after nine whole years on the market, but that doesn't mean it's now unplayable.
The company put in the work to create an offline version, which you can buy on PC or PlayStation 4 for $19.99 / £16.99 / AU$28.50. You lose some of the original's offline features, but all microtransactions are removed so you can experience the full game without having to open your wallet more than once.
You can even bring over your progress from the online game if you played it before.
A positive exampleIf you're not familiar with Let it Die, it's a roguelike hack-and-slash with a challenging, almost soulslike combat loop that has you battling your way through a massive enemy-filled tower.
Players loved its wacky writing (with iconic characters like its skateboarding rendition of the Grim Reaper) when it first released back in 2016, but microtransactions were pretty pervasive. In short, it was designed to make you part with real money to keep reviving your characters when you died, which, given the high level of difficulty, was pretty often for most.
With these mechanics now removed, I'm already seeing long-time fans call this new release the definitive version.
"Great to see this game won't ever die due to its servers being shut down now," wrote one Steam reviewer. "Plus all the crappy monetization which held the game back a ton is gone."
Others praise the decision to keep the game alive in some form: "Shutdown the servers but made sure the game was still playable afterwards. That's how you actually end a live service."
Of course, the irony of a game called Let it Die carrying on forever is not lost. "Can't say the devs don't have a sense of humor," quipped one player.
It goes to show that the end of a live-service title doesn't have to screw over gamers, and I hope other developers take note of the positive reception.
- Fitbit users are complaining about Google Health’s food tracking
- The AI tool has reportedly been logging inaccurate metrics
- One user described the mistakes as ‘almost dangerous’
If you’ve used any kind of artificial intelligence (AI) tool, chances are you might have seen it hallucinate wildly inaccurate answers to your simple questions. Most of the time the results are largely harmless, but what about when these problems start having the potential to affect your health and wellbeing? That’s what many Fitbit users have recently noticed, and it could have serious consequences if it carries on unchecked.
The issue centers on Google Health, an AI helper that has been integrated into many of the best Fitbit wearables. It’s designed to understand your health metrics and make helpful suggestions to improve your health. Unfortunately, many Fitbit users have noticed it is doing the exact opposite when it comes to logging their nutritional intake.
Posting on Reddit, for example, one user said that Google Health’s food logging was “so inaccurate it’s almost dangerous.” Describing their problem, they outlined how Google Health drastically overestimated the number of calories in a serving of eggs while simultaneously underreporting the calorific intake of a portion of Greek yogurt. “On what planet is this level of deviation acceptable for a health product?,” they asked, before adding: “To make matters worse, digging into the food database it is full of incorrect nutrition facts.”
They’re not alone in their irritation, as the Reddit thread is full of similarly frustrated Google Health users. “This is a neverending fight,” said one who lamented that the AI often neglects to add foods when asked, then does so inaccurately when it finally decides to log them.
Another frustrated user has given up on Google’s AI entirely, reporting that: “I have been trying SO HARD to give this the benefit of the doubt, but the hassle of getting nutrition right in the app finally broke me … It also randomly changes my workouts, imported data from other systems, etc. I’ve honestly never been more disappointed in a Google product in my life.”
Another Google Health hallucination(Image credit: Google)Unfortunately, this is far from the only problem we’ve seen reported when it comes to Google Health. The switch from Fitbit’s previous health-tracking app to an AI-native alternative in the form of Google Health has brought with it a slew of complaints in a range of different areas.
That includes the AI giving users ‘unhinged’ fitness advice, telling ‘nonstop lies’ about their workout sessions, and simply being ‘unbelievably bad.’ The feature has received so much heat that even Google appears to have acknowledged its flaws, with a recent update allowing you to hide the AI tool completely.
It’s a serious reminder of the problems that can arise when an AI tool starts working in potentially damaging areas like health and nutrition. While the original poster’s example of eggs and yogurt may just result in some annoyingly inaccurate metrics, the problems could be a lot worse if their health depended on specific consumption levels or if allergens were involved.
If you have any kind of risk factors when it comes to food and nutrition, it might be a good idea to treat your Fitbit’s Google Health AI with a strong dose of skepticism — or to avoid it altogether for now.
Laptops
Deals under $50
Monitors
Printers
Desks & chairs
SSD & HDD
Routers & docks
As a die-hard WFHer and deal-finder, I went through every offer on Amazon and Best Buy to find my favorite Labor Day home office deals on laptops, monitors, printers, and gadgets (because as regular readers know, I can't resist cool gadgets like these). Basically, I've hand-picked everything you need to upgrade your workspace ahead of fall with some major discounts.
One thing I noticed is that Best Buy is absolutely killing it on laptop deals, with a host of 16GB business machines from Dell, Lenovo, and HP that'll feel seamless while multi-tasking. For my money, those laptop deals are better than anything that Amazon is offering right now (which are mostly sluggish 8GB models I recommend avoiding). On the other hand, Amazon has nailed the sales on everything else you need to refresh your office setup.
Editor's picks: My top 3 deals Sony WH-CH520 Wireless On-Ear Bluetooth Headphones With Microphone Dell Touchscreen | 15.6-inch 2K | Core i7 | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD Samsung Viewfinity S70H | 27-inch | 4K Labor Day laptop deals Dell Touchscreen | 15.6-inch 2K | Core i7 | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD Lenovo Yoga 7i | 16-inch 2K | Core Ultra 7 256V | 16GB RAM | 512GB Microsoft Surface Laptop | 13.8-inch 2K | Snapdragon X Elite | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD Dell 14S | 14-inch 2K | AMD Ryzen AI 7 445 | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD HP OmniBook 3 | 14-inch OLED | Snapdragon X | 16GB RAM | 256GB SSD Apple MacBook Air | 13-inch | M5 | 24GB RAM | 1TB SSD Editor's pick15.6" 2K Touchscreen Laptop: was $1099.99 now $649.99
My top choice laptop deal for Labor Day, this 15.6-inch Dell comes equipped with 13th gen Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD storage. For the specs, I haven't seen better in the sales.View Deal
Viewfinity S70H: was $299.99 now $199.99
This 4K IPS monitor from Samsung is the one I'd recommend out of all the displays I've seen on sale. It's perfect for business use, and it's a great price. View Deal
For home and small business use, Epson's EcoTank ET-4800 ticks all the boxes at a great price. This 4-in-1 prints, scans, copies, and faxes, and features an ADF for scanning multiple documents. I'm a big fan of ink tank printers, as the bottled ink costs less than traditional inkjet cartridges.View Deal
Labor Day office chair & standing desk deals FlexiSpot EN1 One-Piece Standing Desk Vari Classic Electric Standing Desk Huanuo Electric Standing Desk With 2 Drawers Eureka Ergonomic Frosted Glass Standing Desk With Drawers FlexiSpot Standing Desk With Monitor Riser & Cable Management Vivo Corner Standing Desk Editor's pickEN1 standing desk: was $169.99 now $109.99
The EN1 is my favorite budget standing desk because unlike most cheap standing desks, this one has a more stable single-piece desktop. It features everything most home office users need.View Deal
B100 Mesh Office Chair: was $219.99 now $159.99
The Sihoo B100 is, for my money, one of the best budget desk chairs around right now. The mesh design means it makes all-day sitting cool, but what I especially like is the adaptive lumbar support. Most chairs at this price don't offer that level of support. View Deal
- Aesto Health reported a December 2025 cyberattack breaching AWS infrastructure, affecting 9.5M patients
- Stolen data includes PII, SSNs, medical histories, billing, and insurance information across 20+ clients
- No dark web leaks confirmed; credit monitoring offered, marking 2nd‑largest healthcare breach of 2026
American healthcare technology company Aesto Health suffered the “second-largest confirmed healthcare data breach” of the year so far, having lost data on more than 9.5 million patients.
In mid-December last year, the company suffered a cyberattack. Now, more than half a year later, it reported the incident to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights, detailing what was lost, from whom, and what the extent of the incident is.
Aesto Health is an Alabama-based healthcare technology business, whose core service is helping other healthcare firms manage medical data, change electronic health record systems, and similar. As per its announcement, the attack affected parts of its Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure, which unidentified threat actors managed to access between December 2 and December 18.
Losing personally identifiable informationAccording to a report on HIPAA Journal, the August attack affected more than two dozen of its clients, including Village Practice Management, Everside Health, Together Women’s Health Medical Group, and many others.
In the attack, the company lost personally identifiable information (PII) of its’ clients’ patients, including full names, Social Security numbers (SSN), partial dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, state identification numbers, financial account numbers, taxpayer identification numbers, health records, medical histories, claims/billing information, and health insurance information.
This is more than enough information for cybercriminals to launch highly sophisticated phishing and vishing attacks, which can result in disruptive ransomware and millions of dollars in damages. Luckily, there is still no evidence the data leaked on the dark web, or that it was already used by other criminals.
Aesto Health is now offering credit monitoring and identity theft protection services to everyone affected by the breach.
This is now the second-largest healthcare data breach of the year so far, HIPAA Journal confirmed, the largest one being the hit on DentaQuest that exposed 15 million records.
Via HIPAA Journal
- Some Chinese models are said to be 90% cheaper than their US counterparts
- Open-weight models are also better suited to local deployment
- Price- and quality-driven markets exist within the AI sector
A new report from Juniper Research has revealed how rapid improvements and dramatically lower operating costs for Chinese AI models could be impacting the uptake of counterpart US models.
The paper details how Chinese AI models can now cost as much as 90% less to run than leading US alternatives, which is already affecting where developers choose to run their AI workloads.
Looking ahead, the battle is becoming less about who can build the highest-performance, lowest-cost models and more about who can make inference cheaper.
Chinese AI models are seriously undercutting US modelsJuniper's research focuses on API platform and marketplace OpenRouter, which last year saw around 70% of work being conducted with US AI models from the likes of OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. Their combined share has since fallen drastically to around 30%, the paper notes, noting the clear willingness to move workloads away from US firms to cheaper alternatives.
More broadly, Juniper says two distinct markets have started to emerge within AI spend – a price-driven one where customers prioritize cheaper inference and a quality-driven one where customers are willing to pay more for higher accuracy and reasoning.
While US companies still appear to dominate the quality-driven market, emerging Chinese models deliver better on the price-driven front.
Juniper also noted that open-weight models are challenging the idea that inference needs to be sent a cloud provider. Now that many small models can be deployed locally, cloud providers could also be set to lose out on the major revenue they've been experiencing in recent years.
While what comes next is unclear, it's likely that a growing market could lead to a space where cheaper Chinese models and higher-performance US models could coexist, but one thing's for certain. US dominance is certainly being challenged.
- CD Projekt Red's joint CEO Michal Nowakowski has confidence in game consoles coping with the RAM crisis
- Nowakowski is convinced consoles will 'weather the storm', as analysts expect shortages to continue through 2027
- Sony isn't just facing the RAM crisis, but also a major backlash over its decision to end physical game discs
The RAM crisis is continuing to cause havoc with the hardware market, affecting component prices, PC makers, and potentially delaying next-gen console launches. However, it's not so bleak as you might think, at least in the eyes of CD Projekt Red's boss.
As reported by IGN, CD Projekt Red's (CDPR) joint CEO Michal Nowakowski was interviewed by The Game Business and voiced his confidence that next-gen consoles will survive the RAM crisis despite the prospect of high pricing.
This comes amid concerns and projections from industry insiders and analysts that RAM shortages are going to get worse in 2027 and beyond. The big three memory chip makers — Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron — are expected to increase combined capital spending to nearly 340% from 2024 to 2027.
It doesn't look like RAM shortages and high hardware prices will die down anytime soon, but this doesn't faze Nowakowski, at least when it comes to ensuring CDPR delivers the best possible content.
"Consoles are still necessary to broaden the audience on the casual or semi-casual level. It's important to have easy to plug in and enjoy gaming," Nowakowski says.
"I'm a big believer that they're [consoles] going to weather the storm. Pricing is the objective challenge. And the rumors... we hear them about the next-gen being delayed. I don't know if they're true."
RAM isn't the only worry for Sony(Image credit: Shutterstock / Girts Ragelis)Besides the RAM crisis pushing up prices and causing potential console launch delays, Sony in particular may have an uphill battle ahead. Its recent decision to end production of physical game discs for PlayStation consoles, starting in January 2028, already has gamers in the ecosystem protesting and planning alternatives to escape the impending doom of discs.
An all-digital future means any form of game ownership will cease to exist, as digital content can theoretically be taken away from gamers at any time, and that has led to a loud (and justified, I think) reaction from the console community.
The Game Business didn't question Nowakowski directly about physical game ownership, but did probe further on the effect that delayed next-gen consoles might have, with Nowakowski making CDPR's stance very clear.
"If the next-gen gets delayed, it could be the case that some ideas [for games] are put on a shelf for the future. We'd have to adjust. We're not worried on the commercial side. Consoles are here to stay."
It's fair to say that Nowakowski's last statement is a realistic assessment. Even given Sony's dismissal of physical game discs, this isn't going to lead to a complete collapse in the popularity of consoles.
However, Sony may not make life easy for itself and publishers such as CDPR, as from 2028, when the discs are dumped with the PlayStation ecosystem, a hit to games sales is far from impossible — especially if the ongoing backlash from gamers is anything to go by.
- Huawei launches its Huawei Watch D3, its third iteration of its blood pressure-focused health watch
- With an inbuilt inflatable cuff, the watch now suppors 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, helping users track trends
- It comes as Apple, Google and smart ring startups have made advances with LED-based monitoring
Huawei has unveiled its Huawei Watch D3, the latest version of its health watch with a specific focus on blood pressure. The Watch D series is a cool bit of kit that stands out from the best smartwatches on the market by way of its mechanized components — its main selling point is a strap with inflatable bladders running through it, swelling and acting as a cuff to measure blood pressure accurately at any time.
While a great idea, previous iterations looked quite boxy, and more like the medical devices they clearly are intended to be than daily wear smartwatches.
The Huawei Watch D3 aims to change that, boasting advances over previous iterations — especially in design. It's said to be just 11.3mm thick and weigh 40g, with an 'ultra-narrow' version of its inflatable band. This makes it not only easier to wear all day, but also at night.
Night wear seems to be crucial, as the Watch D3 offers '24-hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM)' in accordance with medical guidelines according to Huawei. Its press release says ABPM helps users "track blood pressure trends throughout the day and night, even while asleep.
"During the day, intervals can be customized and manual measurements taken as needed; at night, the watch inflates automatically with quieter operation for reduced sleep disturbance."
The watch also takes pre- and post-exercise blood pressure measurements, and comes with other smartwatch features such as GPS, outdoor route navigation, and running analytics. Family members can view each others' stats via the Health Community feature, checking in on those at risk.
(Image credit: HUawei)Available in black, white and gold from £399.99 (around $545 / AU$745), the watch is unavailable in the US due to the ongoing Huawei telecomms tech ban.
Instead, people in the US who want a blood pressure-measuring wearable have to look elsewhere. No one is quite doing what Huawei is with the inflatable wrist cuff technology, even three years on from the original Watch D, but great strides have been made with optical LEDs, which were once thought of as the 'holy grail' of smartwatch capabilities.
Apple now offers a Hypertension feature, monitoring your sleep over 30 days to flag signs of possible hypertension, while the Google Pixel Watch 5 sports a Blood Pressure Detection feature.
Elsewhere, the Signal Ring startup from an ex-head of Android is focused solely on cuffless, calibration-less blood pressure sensing via a smart ring.


