Peloton has launched two new exercise models, with the new Peloton Bike+ and new Tread offering a more full-featured cycling experience and a new entry-level treadmill. Rumored last week, the two new models join rather than replace the existing bike and treadmill, with the current Peloton Bike now getting a price cut too.
Amazon is launching a new fitness wearable, Amazon Halo Band, designed to track not only movement and sleep, but analyze "positivity" from the tone of your voice. The Halo Band itself is screen-free and only communicates via an LED indicator, with Amazon using its AI-powered Halo app to do the heavy-lifting and feedback.
750 million genetically-modified mosquitos will be released in Florida, as a project to use the mutant bugs to try to control dengue fever, Zika, and other diseases gets the green light. The controversial Oxitec project was granted EPA approval earlier this year, but it was only this week that local regulators gave the go-ahead to the trial.
There's a printable "Face Mask Exempt Card" out in the wild that the official United States Department of Justice just called out. The card looks semi-legitimate, especially if the person showing the card has a laminating machine - but it's absolutely unofficial an unenforceable in any legal capacity. As noted by the Department of Justice, the card may include a message suggesting that exemption from face mask rules is allowed because of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - but it's all a sham.
Staying indoors often means a lack of physical activity for people whose definition of "physical activity" is pretty much going to the office or school. While some people with more active lifestyles have found ways to exercise even at home, most probably have a hard time finding the motivation to even move around the house. Applying age-old principles of gamification, Nintendo is launching a free game that aims to get the blood running by making you jump up and down with an imaginary rope.
Samsung has spun-off new projects from its C-Lab incubator, including a smart highlighter for digitizing handwritten text, and an artificial window for boosting your vitamin D levels. Running since 2012, Samsung C-Lab offers the company's employees the opportunity to work on a side-project, with the support to spin it out into a standalone startup if the idea has merit.
As the major sports of summer are effectively cancelled and the world sits at home, quarantined from their fellow citizens, one wonders... will televised sports ever return? According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), it's entirely possible - with a key disclaimer. Speaking with Peter Hamby, host of Good Luck America, Dr. Fauci suggested that team sports, televised sports, and the like, could return without fans.
As more and more businesses and events are shutting down because of the COVID-19 outbreak, one major question mark has been the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. A lot of planning and money goes into hosting the Olympics - whether its the summer or winter Olympics - so we expected the International Olympic Committee to take its time in making a decision. It seems that such a decision is right around the corner, if one IOC member has it right.
COVID-19 in the USA was the reason for President Donald Trump's invoking of the Defense Production Act (DPA). This act was originally put in place by President Truman during the Korean War, and has been changed significantly since then. As laid out in the last major change of provisions in the act, in a CRS (Congressional Research Service) Report for Congress by Daniel H. Else, Specialist in National Defense, on May 14, 2009, "DPA authorities are not permanent."
There's a global pandemic going on right now thanks an infectious disease called COVID-19, aka "the coronavirus".* COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2, aka severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. If you're reading this article while you're out about town, go home now. Now is the time when you should be isolating yourself by yourself or with your immediate family to avoid further spread.
As early as February, the threat of the novel coronavirus, which would be officially named COVID-19 eventually, put many large events and organizations to uncertainty. MWC 2020 in late February was canceled out of those concerns and things started downhill from there. Some organizers and individuals are still unsure whether to push through with plans or incur the costs of postponing or even canceling mass events. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC not only recommends that you do but also that you hold off until after 8 weeks.
Following the US Surgeon General's recommendation that the general public stop buying face masks with the goal of preventing the spread of coronavirus, eBay has announced that it will halt sales of masks and a couple of other items that are associated with the outbreak. The move seems to be an effort to prevent price gouging from sellers who are trying to take advantage of the fear surrounding COVID-19.