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US president’s statement comes ahead of summit with China’s Xi Jinping View the full article

Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft divide the market over whether they can translate huge capital expenditure into incomeView the full article

US and Chinese leaders are holding two hours of negotiations as tariff deadline loomsView the full article

Announcement could rattle China and follows pressure from Seoul to build up its nuclear capacityView the full article

Google reports that AI features are adding searches rather than replacing them, pointing to more AI-led sessions and steady traffic flowing to sites. The post Google Q3 Report: AI Mode, AI Overviews Lift Total Search Usage appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Labour MPs express dismay at chancellor’s error as Tories claim her position may be untenableView the full article

The Federal Open Market Committee voted to reduce interest rates by 25 basis points Wednesday, but the emergence of dissents on the committee makes the chance of another quarter-point cut in December less certain. View the full article

Magic Leap is back. The tech company, now owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, today revealed a prototype for a pair of Android XR smart glasses made as a "reference design for the Android XR ecosystem," and announced it had extended its partnership with Google. The AR glasses have thicker-than-normal frames, but not ridiculously so, and seem to have a camera. But that’s about all we know: there's no word on availability or what the glasses actually do. While Magic Leap didn't reveal a ton of concrete details about its new shades, it did say they combine "Magic Leap’s waveguides and optics with Google’s Raxium microLED light engine" with the goal being an all-day AR wearable. "Magic Leap and Google’s collaboration is focused on developing AR glasses prototypes that balance visual quality, comfort, and manufacturability," the company said in a statement. Magic Leap and Google's spotty history in ARThat all sounds good, but both companies have stepped into AR in the past and released products that fell far short of expectations. Back in 2018, there was a lot of excitement among tech-heads about the Magic Leap One, but the $2,295 augmented and virtual reality headset fizzled, selling an estimated 6,000 units in six months. Magic Leap abandoned Magic Leap One back in 2024, but it's apparently ready to jump back in with something new. Google has an even deeper history in AR that didn't catch on, having released Google Glass in 2014 with a great amount of hype, and basically abandoned the product in 2015 after privacy concerns and limited functionality resulted in disappointing sales. To be fair, both Google Glass and the Magic Leap One had potential, but may have been ahead of their time—mid-2010s hardware couldn’t deliver on the possibilities at a price that was reasonable. It's a different world in 2025, when everyone from Apple to Meta to dozens of smaller players are hoping to release killer AR glasses. The AR-smart glasses space is getting mighty crowded, but the goal isn't really this generation of smart glasses, it's the next one. The game-behind-the-game for the tech companies is creating a pair of smart glasses that are functional and flexible enough to replace your phone entirely. In some ways, we're tantalizing close to a pair of shades that can replace all other screens—the displays in glasses like the XReal One are amazing. But other technical limitations, like a battery that will last a reasonable amount of time, and an intuitive control system, are still on the horizon. For now. View the full article

One of Paramount’s most powerful creative minds has left the production company: Taylor Sheridan, whose major hits like Yellowstone, Landman, and Lioness made him one of Paramount’s most powerful writers and producers, has ditched the media house. The move comes shortly after a new Chief Executive, David Ellison, came on board in August and a merger between the company and Skydance was approved. Sheridan will remain involved with his Paramount projects until his current deal ends in January. But while Sheridan helped prime Paramount for success, starting early next year, he will be making programs for NBCU’s streaming service, Peacock — a direct competitor. So what happened, and why would a company or organization in general let a star performer walk? A major loss amid restructuring The loss will undoubtedly be heartfelt by the media company, which is already coping with layoffs and restructuring. Losing a star performer who’s acted as an anchor can make things feel even more unmoored and uncertain for employees. On Wednesday, Ellison sent a memo to staff, explaining that around 1,000 roles would be cut as the company addresses “redundancies that have emerged across the organization” as well as “phasing out roles that are no longer aligned with our evolving priorities and the new structure designed to strengthen our focus on growth.” Sheridan, who wrote, produced, and directed, reportedly made his decision to part ways with Paramount after spats over costs and creative control. Previously, Sheridan had become accustomed to loose budgets for his projects. However, with a new executive onboard, it seemed Sheridan’s leverage was being reigned in. After some key decisions were made without his knowledge, and Chris McCarthy, a Paramount executive who managed Sheridan’s projects, left the company, tensions quickly arose, people close to the producer said, per WSJ. Jennifer Openshaw, a nationally known financial leader and CEO of nonprofit Girls With Impact, tells Fast Company that when a high performer leaves amid restructuring, it can easily rattle other employees. When clear communication isn’t a priority, it can lead others to panic about potential internal issues. “That transparency helps maintain trust and stability,” Openshaw says. A tale of two egos The dust-up seems to beg the question: how could Paramount let such a massive talent go? And why would any organization allow this to happen? Creative control is pretty crucial in ensuring working relationships can be maintained, especially industries like entertainment. Openshaw says that sometimes letting a star employee go is simply “the right thing to do,” especially when they can “command more than you can offer.” In the case of Sheridan and Ellison, that may have been the case, given Sheridan’s hefty tab. But it’s hard to miss that it’s tough to fit two sizable egos in a room. “We also can’t overestimate how much it might be personal, for both men,” James Hibberd, a contributor for The Hollywood Reporter, said in a recent debate about the controversy. “Ellison doesn’t like how much power and control Sheridan wields, while Sheridan doesn’t like the way he’s been treated since Ellison took over.” Hibberd added, “It’s very: ‘This streaming service ain’t big enough for the both of us.'” Openshaw agrees that egos are, well, paramount when it comes to predicting the success of projects and the future of a company. Sometimes, major decisions like this are made to protect the company’s larger goals. Openshaw says that, “when done thoughtfully,” letting even a star employee walk can reflect both “leadership and integrity. It protects your culture, strengthens trust, and often turns former employees into long-term ambassadors.” Still, Openshaw says, in order to avoid panic, leaders should “highlight the organization’s values and mission by creating new opportunities for the next generation to grow.” Para-mounting costs Of course, costs can’t be overlooked, either. Sheridan’s creative mind wasn’t cheap. His projects reportedly cost Paramount $500 million in 2023. Concerns had been raised about the producer’s spending requirements, too, as previously reported by WSJ. From that lens, Paramount may be looking at the loss as a giant money-saver. Either way, while Paramount seemed to let Sheridan walk away, other media houses were apparently trying to woo him at the same time. Before signing with NBCU, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav gifted Sheridan a pair of cowboy boots once worn by James Dean. But ultimately, cost was no issue for Paramount competitor NBCU. Not only did their chairman Donna Langley offer Sheridan a whopping $1 billion deal, she developed a personal relationship with him, and appealed to his ego by reportedly letting him know he’d have the control he grew used to at Paramount. That was something Ellison wasn’t ready to do, and it seems to have cost him a giant star. Therein lies the rub of letting star talent go: even if it’s for cost savings, losing them to one of your main competitors might well come back to bite you. According to Openshaw, sometimes it’s an inability to collaborate that seals the deal. “Great leaders understand that success comes from listening, collaboration, and inclusion,” Openshaw explains. View the full article

In order to keep US aviation operational through the government shutdown, air traffic controllers have been working without pay. But for the people involved in inspecting our planes to ensure they follow Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety standards, the situation is more complicated. While principal aviation inspectors were told to keep working, assistant-level inspectors and other support staff were sent home and then had to be recalled, several sources tell Fast Company. In some cases, the government is still cycling them in and out of service, adding to the overall disruption. The approach puts even more pressure on the airline industry, which is already struggling to maintain flight schedules amid what’s likely to be the longest-ever government closure. Sources tell Fast Company that the public should not feel the impact of the disruptions, and that the workers will continue to fulfill their responsibilities. Still, the situation highlights another group of people crucial to a functional commercial-aviation system, working without pay under somewhat chaotic circumstances. The approach to inspector staffing also comes amid growing concerns about the shutdown’s impact on air travel. Dan Spero, the president of Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, an AFL-CIO linked union that represents these workers, confirmed that aircraft inspectors have now been recalled by the FAA. The union doesn’t have solid data yet, but says that some offices seem to be operating “business-as-usual,” while others are using their discretionary authority “to furlough and recall employees on a day to day basis,” Spero says. The situation is impacting about 1,200 workers who focus on flight standards and another 60 who work on aircraft certifications, according to the union. Because training isn’t considered essential during a government, newer aircraft safety inspectors are still furloughed. An official with the Department of Transportation also said that some aircraft inspectors were not automatically exempted during the shutdown and that some were being recalled to inspect planes, before again being furloughed. Shutdown strains Last month, a bevy of groups in the aviation space warned leaders in Congress that, amid a shutdown, FAA workers “cannot perform their duties that support aviation safety, aircraft certification, and the integration of new entrants.” It also serves as a reminder that the shutdown isn’t just straining the professionals that monitor the skys—and save us from collisions at airports—but the people who inspect aircraft, too. An FAA document describes these workers, who carry the title “aviation safety inspectors” as the people who “administer, investigate and enforce safety regulations and standards for the production, operation, maintenance and modification of all aircraft flying today.” These workers can have a wide range of responsibilities involved in ensuring that aircraft are safe, Spero emphasizes. For instance, aircraft inspectors help ensure cabin and crew safety, and conduct oversight of Boeing vehicles. They are assigned to offices that work with the commercial airlines, as well as delivery fleets operated by FedEx and UPS. Another aviation-safety professional familiar with the matter confirmed that Transportation officials had resorted to cycling some inspectors on and off duty. During the earlier parts of the shutdown, senior leadership, field office managers, and principal aviation safety inspectors were told to work without pay during the shutdown, they say. “Aviation safety is considered a critical mission, so maintaining oversight in those areas was essential,” the person says. After a few weeks, senior leadership at the FAA then expanded the number of employees “recalled” to work, including field office supervisors and the inspectors who provide direct assistance to the principal aviation safety inspectors. “In simpler terms, those assisting inspectors are like ‘associate’ or ‘support’ safety inspectors who help carry out inspections, certifications, and oversight tasks under the guidance of the senior inspector responsible for a particular group of operators or maintenance facilities,” the person said. Supervisors have the authority to recall administrative professionals “as needed” in order to continue work on inspection and compliance, the person says. But it can be a complex process: “We must formally recall administrative employees to work, track their time, and then officially furlough them again once they’ve completed their assigned days, which can range from one to seven days per week depending on operational needs,” the person explains. Additional details about the situation weren’t immediately available, including how many workers are cycling between recall and furlough status or which aviation offices require more of these inspectors to return to work. Leaders at the FAA’s Aviation Safety office did not respond to Fast Company’s questions. In response to questions from Fast Company, the FAA media office sent an automated response: “As Secretary Duffy has said, there have been increased staffing shortages across the system. When that happens, the FAA slows traffic into some airports to ensure safe operations.” Of course, even before the shutdown, there were growing concerns about the safety of aircraft, particularly those made by Boeing, following a string of serious accidents. View the full article

Meta recorded a nearly $16 billion one-time charge in the third quarter related to U.S. President Donald The President’s Big Beautiful Bill, and said its capital expenditure next year would be “notably larger” than in 2025. Shares of the company fell around 6% after the bell. Excluding the charge, Meta said its third-quarter net income would have increased by $15.93 billion to $18.64 billion, compared to the reported net income of $2.71 billion. The social media company now expects capital expenditure to be between $70 billion and $72 billion, compared with its prior forecast of $66 billion to $72 billion. Meta continues to benefit from its massive user base. The company’s powerful AI-optimized ad platform helps marketers automate campaigns, improve the quality of video ads, translate ads, and generate persona-based images to target different customer segments. The company has launched ads on its messaging platform WhatsApp and social network Threads, directly competing with platforms such as Elon Musk’s X, while Instagram’s Reels continue to jostle with ByteDance’s TikTok and YouTube Shorts for ad revenue in the short-video market. Meta has been doubling down on AI, with a target of achieving superintelligence, a theoretical milestone where machines could outthink humans. To that end, Meta reorganized its AI efforts under the Superintelligence Labs unit in June, following senior staff departures and a poor reception for its Llama 4 model. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has personally led an aggressive talent hiring spree and has said that the company would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build several massive AI data centers for superintelligence. The company is among the top buyers of Nvidia’s sought-after AI chips. The company struck a $27 billion financing deal last week with Blue Owl Capital, Meta’s largest-ever private capital agreement, to fund a massive data center project in Richland Parish, Louisiana, known as “Hyperion.” In a surprise move, Meta said last week it would cut around 600 jobs out of the several thousand employees within its AI unit to streamline decision-making and increase the responsibility, scope and impact of each role. The company’s aggressive AI investments are creating significant cost pressures, even as it anticipates long-term benefits and revenue growth. Major tech companies including Alphabet, Amazon.com, Meta, Microsoft and CoreWeave are on track to spend $400 billion on AI infrastructure this year, Morgan Stanley estimates. These investments that come amid economic uncertainty have fueled fears of an AI bubble, putting pressure on CEOs to deliver measurable results, as the move could trigger losses, job cuts and boardroom shake-ups. —Jaspreet Singh, Reuters View the full article

It’s already been an exciting Major League Baseball season. And that excitement is clearly translating into the business and advertising side as well. Earlier this summer, Variety reported that ads for the MLB All-Star Game, which took place in July, sold out over a month in advance. On Monday night during Game 3 of the World Series, when the Los Angeles Dodgers won against the Toronto Blue Jays—which gave L.A. a 2-1 series lead and featured another significant performance from Shohei Ohtani—the game went to 18 innings and lasted six hours and 39 minutes. So what happens to ads when a game has extra innings? When a large tentpole tournament or games like the Super Bowl goes to overtime, it often turns into a bidding war between advertisers. But baseball is a unique animal and in a league of its own. It’s different compared to the Super Bowl given the complexity of the sport’s structure, and due to unplanned breaks and pitcher changes, which have to be accounted for. According to a source familiar with the matter, Monday night’s game had so many breaks that Fox, which is broadcasting the series, went through its entire national inventory by the 13th inning, running out of spots because it went on for so long. From there, the network ran several promos from that point on until the 18th inning. While a normal game usually runs around 76 commercials, the source said around 108 spots ran on Monday night. What typically happens from a ratings perspective is that the network can cut off the game and split it into two sets of viewership numbers: one where it starts at the beginning of the game at around 5:15 p.m. ET and goes until 12:30 a.m. ET. And then there’s the entire game from start to finish: Monday night’s Game 3 ended around 3 a.m. ET. The longer the game goes, viewers start going to bed and ratings typically drop, so it doesn’t necessarily help to continue running new spots at that point in the game. “They ran into an anomaly,” the source told Fast Company. However, something similar happened seven years ago in 2018 when the Dodgers and Red Sox had an 18-inning game during Game 3 at Dodger Stadium where the network had to split viewership into two games, according to our source. While the viewership numbers from Monday night’s 18-inning Game 3 have yet to be released, Fox reported that it averaged 13.3 million viewers from Game 1 on Friday, down 13% from last year, while 11.6 million watched Game 2 on Saturday, which is down 16%. At the same time, with the Blue Jays in the series, TV ratings are generally up when combined with Canada’s viewership. Fox declined to share specific numbers around commercials in this year’s World Series tournament, but in Variety’s report from July, a source told the publication at the time that Fox had been “seeking between $750,000 and $800,000 for a 30-second commercial in the All-Star Game.” View the full article

Unlock productivity with Notion AI. From writing assistance to document summarization, enhance your workflow and focus on what matters. The post Notion AI Features: 9 Ways to Boost Your Productivity appeared first on The Digital Project Manager. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The Cardio Load calculation is a metric the Fitbit app uses to suggest how much Pixel Watch and Fitbit users should exercise, but it can be hard to understand. It's also recently been updated for the new version of the app, and it works a bit differently there. Here's how you should use this number, and what it means to hit your target. What is cardio load?Cardio load is a way of understanding how much exercise you’ve been doing, whether the app logged it as a workout or not. Exercising for a longer time, and exercising at a higher intensity, both increase your cardio load. For example, on a day that you go for a five-mile run at an easy pace, you’ll have a higher cardio load in the Fitbit app than a day you ran three miles at an easy pace. If you run three miles at a more intense pace—say you race a 5K—your cardio load will be somewhere in between. Here are a few examples from some workouts of my own: A track workout that had me alternating between moderate and peak heart rate zones for an hour (total five miles) had a cardio load of 117. 20 minutes of detangling my kid’s hair got logged as a workout, but since my heart rate was in the light zone the whole time, I didn’t get any cardio load. A 53-minute gym workout, which included a mix of heavy lifts and lighter continuous work, clocked in at a cardio load of 63. The “load” here is in the sense of “workload.” If this summer you were exercising an hour a day, and right now you’re only getting in 30 minutes every other day, your cardio load for the week (and for each day) will be lower than it was in the summer. Makes sense, right? If you were to spend all next week exercising an hour a day, that would be way higher than your current cardio load—and the Fitbit app would let you know that you’ve suddenly increased your cardio load, and might want to chill a bit. What is your target cardio load? The Fitbit app automatically calculates a target cardio load based on what you’re used to doing. You can choose whether you want to improve your fitness (in which case it will nudge you to crank your load up a little higher each week) or maintain your current fitness. You’ll find this setting when you look at your cardio load in the app—just tap on “fitness target” near the bottom. How the new FItbit app handles cardio loadIn the original implementation, your cardio load target could change from day to day. Fitbit recently released a preview of the new version of its app, and that version now tracks cardio load weekly, which makes much more sense. So instead of being told that you should hit a certain load today, you'll be told that you're, say, 41% of the way toward your target load for the week. The upcoming version of the Fitbit app (currently in "public preview") Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Fitbit Which devices support cardio load? Currently, the devices that have cardio load are: Pixel Watches 1, 2, 3, and 4 Fitbit Charge 5 and 6 Fitbit Versa 2, 3, and 4 Fitbit Sense 1 and 2 FItbit Luxe Fitbit Inspire 2 and 3 Fitbit Charge 6 $133.20 at Walmart $159.95 Save $26.75 Get Deal Get Deal $133.20 at Walmart $159.95 Save $26.75 The Pixel watches can show you your cardio load on-screen, but for the others, you'll need to view it in the phone app. Other apps and platforms have their own versions of cardio load. For example, some Garmin devices measure a Training Load (along with acute/chronic load, and load focus), but it's calculated and displayed a bit differently from Fitbit's. This article is just discussing the Fitbit/Pixel version. The difference between cardio load and active zone minutesBoth metrics describe how much exercise you’re getting, and give you extra credit for hard exercise compared to moderate exercise. But they have different purposes, and are calculated a bit differently. The purpose of active zone minutes is to figure out whether you’re meeting some basic exercise targets for health. Active zone minutes match the U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines, which recommend that we all get 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise. In other words, it’s a count of minutes, with vigorous exercise (like running) counting double. This is why your 30-minute workout might count for 45 zone minutes, if 15 of those minutes were moderate and 15 were vigorous (15 x 2 = 30). (There’s a caveat on that: Fitbit uses your heart rate to estimate whether a given minute of exercise was vigorous or moderate for you. The original guidelines used METs, not heart rate, so it’s not a perfect match. But it’s close enough to be useful.) Cardio load, meanwhile, is a metric more often used by athletes to make sure their exercise effort is within the optimal range to improve or maintain their fitness. Fitbit uses a modified version of the TRIMP algorithm, which basically multiplies your heart rate times the number of minutes you were at that heart rate. Higher heart rates are weighted a little more than lower ones, as Google explains in this document. If your heart rate is below a certain level, it doesn’t get counted, which is why my hair-brushing sessions didn’t count for any cardio load. With cardio load, you aren’t just looking to beat a minimum to give yourself a passing grade—you’re trying to stay within a specific window, which is defined by the amount of exercise you’re used to doing. If you do a little more exercise every week, you can stay within your target range while pushing up the boundaries of that target range. That’s how you get fitter. On the other hand, if you’re doing a lot more or a lot less exercise this week than your body is used to, you could end up losing some fitness (if you’re doing less) or making yourself more fatigued than usual (if you’re doing more). Depending on where you are in your training, these outcomes aren’t necessarily a bad thing. But with a cardio target to compare your load to, at least you know where you stand. View the full article

Google-parent Alphabet beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue on Wednesday, as both its core advertising business and cloud computing unit showed steady growth. Shares of the company rose 6% in extended trading. The company reported total revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $99.89 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. The cloud services and AI giant raised its capital expenditure forecast for the year to between $91 billion and $93 billion, compared with the estimates of $80.67 billion. Google Cloud remained one of Alphabet’s fastest-growing segments, benefiting from surging enterprise demand for AI-powered infrastructure and data analytics services. The unit posted revenue of $15.16 billion, topping estimates of $14.72 billion. The performance was likely boosted by burgeoning enterprise demand for its AI infrastructure. The unit continues to close the gap with larger rivals Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, aided by strong take-up of Vertex AI and custom Tensor Processing Units. Competition in the broader AI and cloud market is intensifying, with rivals aggressively cutting prices and introducing new generative-AI capabilities. Alphabet’s advertising unit, which brings in the vast majority of the company’s revenue, has been competing in a crowded field of rivals vying for more ad dollars as lower interest rates are expected to lift the economy. However, analysts have pointed to cautious spending from advertisers in some sectors grappling with economic uncertainty due to pressures from tariff costs and a rapidly evolving global trading landscape. Still, Wall Street expects the company to benefit from advertisers moving away from experimental ad platforms like Snapchat and others. The results come just days after Microsoft and SoftBank Group-backed OpenAI unveiled “Atlas,” an AI-powered browser aimed at directly competing with Google’s core search engine and browser stack. The launch represents one of the most significant challenges to Google’s search dominance in years and will be a key focus for investors listening for management’s response to the rising competitive threat to its most lucrative business. —Akash Sriram in Bengaluru, Reuters View the full article

Of the 15 states most affected by natural disasters, California and Florida had the highest non-renewal rates in 2024, a Weiss Ratings study found. View the full article

Microsoft Advertising advertiser web interface is down and Microsoft's Navah Hopkins said the "engineering team is investigating this issue with priority." This only impacts the web interface, according to Hopkins and ad serving does not seem to be impacted.View the full article

The far-right Freedom party is projected to come secondView the full article

Advertisers are currently unable to access the Microsoft Advertising console right now. Microsoft confirmed there is an issue and that its engineering team is working to resolve it. This is impacting the web user interface to manage your Microsoft Advertising campaigns. What Microsoft said. Navah Hopkins, the Microsoft Ads Liaison, posted: “Confirming Microsoft Advertising UI is down. Our engineering team is investigating this issue with priority and we apologize for the inconvenience this may be causing. We will share more as we receive more updates.” How to check the status. You can go to status.ads.microsoft.com to check the status of Microsoft Advertising. It currently shows that the Web UI is down: Why we care. If you are currently trying to make changes to your ad campaigns, and you are trying to use the web interface, maybe try the mobile interface, Microsoft Ads Editor or a third-party tool that leverages the API. Otherwise, you will have to wait for the web interface to start working again. It seems ad serving is unaffected by this outage. View the full article

Mortgage groups want GSEs to buy MBS to lower rates, but the Chairman of Whalen Global Advisors writes that the plan is risky, unnecessary, and poorly timed. View the full article

Google Chrome will enable "Always Use Secure Connections" by default in October 2026, warning users before accessing public sites without HTTPS encryption. The post Chrome To Warn Users Before Loading HTTP Sites Starting Next Year appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Both Google and Microsoft reported its earnings today; Alphabet's Q3 2025 earnings and Microsoft's Q1 2026 earnings. Google reported ad revenues up by XX% with $ and Microsoft reported ad revenues up by XX%.View the full article

Cardio load gets a major fix in the new Fitbit app, which Android users can test out starting this week in a “public preview.” (This is the same preview that gives you access to the AI fitness coach, which I tested yesterday, with baffling results.) Cardio load will now be tracked weekly, making it much easier for the app to make sensible recommendations. What is (and was) cardio load? The cardio load feature is Fitbit’s attempt to guide you in how much to exercise. Obviously a beginner shouldn’t jump into hour-long hard workouts right out of the gate, nor should a person training for a marathon slack off for no reason. Cardio load is an attempt to put a number on the amount of exercise that would be neither too much nor too little for you. Plenty of athletes and trainers use some kind of model for exercise volume, whether it’s runners counting miles in a spreadsheet, or a coach going by their gut and saying “let’s take it easy today.” Fitbit uses a hilariously-named TRIMP approach (“TRaining IMPulse”), where every minute with an elevated heart rate counts toward your cardio load, with higher heart rates counting as more effort. I have more on this calculation here. Why cardio load was confusingThe idea sounded good: Fitbit would calculate how much cardio load you should aim for each day, based on how much exercise you’d been doing. You could tell the app whether you wanted to increase your fitness, or just maintain the fitness you have, and it would adjust its numbers accordingly. But for a lot of people, the numbers never made sense. The numbers would fluctuate from day to day, often mismatched with what a person’s history and health actually called for. Many users found that the recommended cardio load went up and up, and rest days brought warnings of undertraining. A sampling of Reddit threads from r/fitbit include titles like “Cardio load baffles me,” “Cardio load, I hate you,” “Cardio load unrealistic,” “Cardio load is not just wrong, it’s dangerous,” and “Fitbit, either fix cardio load or scrap it.” Why the new feature may be better Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Fitbit Google explained that it’s implementing a fairly simple fix—calculating cardio load recommendations by the week instead of by the day. The cardio load calculations themselves won’t change at all. After all, it’s normal to have hard days alternating with easy days or rest days, and any load management guidance should be able to handle that. Google also points out that your background activity level (like how much you walk when you go grocery shopping) also adds to your cardio load, and that also makes day-to-day recommendations hard to follow. The new version of the Fitbit app now shows a big donut on the top of the screen with your progress toward your weekly goal. With a couple of quick runs, I’m now 41% of the way toward my weekly target. There’s even a graph showing where my target is versus what it considers “overreaching.” This makes a lot more sense. View the full article

The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. “Job gains have slowed this year, and the unemployment rate has edged up but remained low through August,” the Fed said in a statement issued Wednesday. “More recent indicators are consistent with these developments.” The government hasn’t issued unemployment data after August because of the shutdown. The Fed is watching private-sector figures instead. Wednesday’s decision brings the Fed’s key rate down to about 3.9%, from about 4.1%. The central bank had cranked its rate to roughly 5.3% in 2023 and 2024 to combat the biggest inflation spike in four decades. Lower rates could, over time, reduce borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards, as well as for business loans. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without the economic signposts it typically relies on from the government, including monthly reports on jobs, inflation and consumer spending, which have been suspended because of the government shutdown. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. The Fed typically raises its short term rate to combat inflation, while it cuts rates to encourage borrowing and spending and shore up hiring. Right now its two goals are in conflict, so it is reducing borrowing costs to support the job market, while still keeping rates high enough to avoid stimulating the economy so much that it worsens inflation. Speaking to reporters after the Fed announced its rate decision, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said there were “strongly differing views about how to proceed in December” at the policy meeting and a further reduction in the benchmark rate is not “a foregone conclusion.” On Wednesday, the Fed also said it would stop reducing the size of its massive securities holdings, which it accumulated during the pandemic and after the 2008-2009 Great Recession. The change, to take effect Dec. 1, could over time slightly reduce longer-term interest rates on things like mortgages but won’t have much impact on consumer borrowing costs. The Fed purchased nearly $5 trillion of Treasury securities and mortgage-backed bonds from 2020 to 2022 to stabilize financial markets during the pandemic and keep longer-term interest rates low. The bond-buying lifted its securities holdings to $9 trillion. In the past three years, however, the Fed has reduced its holdings to about $6.6 trillion. To shrink its holdings, the Fed lets securities mature without replacing them, reducing bank reserves. In recent months, however, the reductions appeared to disrupt money markets, threatening to push up shorter-term interest rates. Two of the 12 officials who vote on the Fed’s rate decisions dissented, but in different directions. Fed governor Stephen Miran dissented for the second straight meeting in favor of a half-point cut. Miran was appointed by President Donald The President just before the central bank’s last meeting in September. Jeffrey Schmid, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, voted against the move because he preferred no change to the Fed’s rate. Schmid has previously expressed concern that inflation remains too high. The President has repeatedly attacked Powell for not reducing borrowing costs more quickly. In South Korea early Wednesday he repeated his criticisms of the Fed chair. “He’s out of there in another couple of months,” The President said. Powell’s term ends in May. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the administration is considering five people to replace Powell, and will decide by the end of this year. Powell was asked about the impact of the government shutdown, which began on Oct. 1 and has interrupted the distribution of economic data. Powell said the Fed does have access to some data that give it “a picture of what’s going on.” He added that, “ If there were a significant or material change in the economy, one way or another, I think we’d pick that up through this.” But the Fed chair did acknowledge that the limited data could cause officials to proceed more cautiously heading into its next meeting in mid-December. “There’s a possibility that it would make sense to be more cautious about moving (on rates). I’m not committing to that, I’m just saying it’s certainly a possibility that you would say ‘we really can’t see, so lets’ slow down.’” September’s jobs report, scheduled to be released three weeks ago, is still postponed. This month’s hiring figures, to be released Nov. 7, will likely be delayed and may be less comprehensive when they are finally released. And the White House said last week that October’s inflation report may never be issued at all. Before the government shutdown cut off the flow of data, monthly hiring gains had weakened to an average of just 29,000 a month for the previous three months, according to the Labor Department’s data. The unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.3% in August from 4.2% in July. More recently, several large corporations have announced sweeping layoffs, including UPS, Amazon, and Target, which threatens to boost the unemployment rate if it continues. Powell said the Fed is watching the layoff announcements “very carefully.” Meanwhile, last week’s inflation report — released more than a week late because of the shutdown — showed that inflation remains elevated but isn’t accelerating and may not need higher interest rates to tame it. The government’s first report on the economy’s growth in the July-September quarter was scheduled to be published on Thursday, but will be delayed, as will Friday’s report on consumer spending that also includes the Fed’s preferred inflation measure. —Christopher Rugaber, AP economics writer View the full article

YouTube's going through a lot of changes right now, and according to the company, that's to help it better stand out on TVs. Today, YouTube announced that it's going to allow creators to upload bigger thumbnails, plus make browsing and shopping while watching on a TV a bit more convenient. But there's also a big change coming to content itself, and it's not just limited to TVs. Soon, YouTube is going to start using AI to automatically upscale any videos with resolutions lower than 1080p. While you can technically still upload videos that are 720p nowadays, with smartphone cameras getting better and better, that essentially reads to me as "old videos." It's a bit concerning to me, as someone who's been watching a lot of TV shows from the '90s and early 2000s on YouTube as of late. Credit: YouTube Done right, AI upscaling is a simple way to de-noise a video, and is more resistant to hallucination than generations made from whole cloth. But it's not without its own hiccups, and some creators have actually accused YouTube of using AI upscaling already, without telling them, and with some undesirable results. The accusations have been limited to YouTube Shorts for now, but notably, even Will Smith seems to have possibly run afoul of the system's hidden AI, as the celebrity was himself accused of generating a crowd with AI in a YouTube Short of a recent concert. However, internet sleuths have determined the footage is likely legit, but was automatically made to look like "AI slop" by YouTube. Note, for instance, how different the footage looks on Instagram. Luckily, YouTube says that this version of AI upscaling will be fully in the hands of creators and users. According to the feature's announcement "Creators will retain complete control over their library, as both original files and original video resolution will be kept intact, with a clear option to opt-out of these enhancements." Viewers, meanwhile, will be able to see when AI upscaling has been used thanks to a "super resolution" label in the resolution selection settings, and opt for the original resolution instead. Additionally, YouTube told The Verge that videos that were shot below 1080p, but manually remastered and uploaded in 1080p or above, won't be affected by the upscaling tech. What matters is the resolution the video was uploaded in. All of that's a relief for folks like me, who don't want bizarre seven-fingered extras in our sitcoms, although it's unclear whether this control will also extend to YouTube Shorts, or if YouTube might continue experimenting with mandatory AI upscaling there behind-the-scenes (which, to be fair, has not yet been confirmed). Regardless, it makes sense why YouTube is making this change, as it tries to capture more eyes across more devices. Low resolution videos might look fine on a six-inch smartphone display, but blown up to 50+ inches on a TV, not so much. YouTube hasn't said exactly when the feature will go live, but if you notice what looks like weird AI artifacting the next time you're watching a YouTube video, try checking the resolution settings by mousing over the video and tapping or clicking the cog icon. View the full article