Eliana Willis

Kerry Wan/ZDNETBefore there were smartwatches that could call 911 or smart rings that predicted illness, there was the Fitbit, which clipped onto clothing and counted steps and calories.The device launched in 2007 and instantly became a hit among early adopters and fitness enthusiasts. Back then, if a user wanted to view their data, they had to sync the device to a computer to see it on the Fitbit website.Also: The best fitness trackers in 2025: Expert tested and reviewedThat’s worlds different from the fitness and health tech circulating today that automatically captures our heart rate and variability as it beats and displays them on a graph with instant insights and recommendations — or notifies us about our stress levels and then offers breathing exercises to reduce them.The second decade of wearable health techWhile the first decade of wearable health tech was marked by deployment and accessibility — getting the devices onto as many wrists as possible — this second decade is more concerned with tracking far more health metrics than ever before and creating more discreet biotech that blends into the background of our day-to-day lives. We see this most poignantly with the dawn of the smart ring, an unburdensome and screenless alternative to the clunky smartwatch that tracks our sleep, activity, and stress, all with a battery life that lasts days longer than most watches.We’re two years away from the 20th anniversary of the Fitbit, the first mass-market wearable fitness tracker that fundamentally changed the health tech industry. So, what major improvement will wearable tech’s third decade be marked by? These brands give us a few clues. More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways Satechi’s Mini NVMe SSD Enclosure is on sale for $60. It’s a handy travel accessory for moving large files between multiple devices quickly However, getting the most from the device can be an expensive endeavor. more buying choices Data transfer is a large aspect of my day-to-day life. I’m constantly moving […] More

Stephen Emlund/Getty Images If you’re a government employee with a .gov email address, you can get a free year’s use of a popular AI tool. Perplexity is offering a free one-year subscription to Perplexity Pro to anyone with an official email address ending in .gov. This applies to not only federal employees, but state, county, […] More

NurPhoto/Getty Images On Thursday, French lab Mistral AI launched Small 3, which the company calls “the most efficient model of its category” and says is optimized for latency.  Mistral says Small 3 can compete with Llama 3.3 70B and Qwen 32B, among other large models, and it’s “an excellent open replacement for opaque proprietary models like […] More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Arctis Gamebuds are available now on Amazon for $159. Once you get the EQ just right, these earbuds are a great option for gamers that switch between their phone and a console. It would be nice if it had a custom EQ option on the mobile app and didn’t require […] More

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysDell’s XPS 13 Copilot+ PC More

MirageC/Getty Images Chinese startup DeepSeek AI and its open-source language models took over the news cycle this week. Besides being comparable to models like Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s o1, the models have raised several concerns about data privacy, security, and Chinese-government-enforced censorship within their training.  AI search platform Perplexity and AI assistant You.com have found […] More

Perhaps the most well-known tablet for reading is Amazon’s Kindle devices, and the new Kindle Paperwhite released this fall is our favorite. It has all the familiar features of a Kindle (300 ppi e-ink screen, long battery life, and adjustable warm light), along with noticeably faster performance — Amazon said it features 25% faster page turns and 20% of an overall faster experience, whether you’re browsing book titles or downloading an audiobook. But aside from speed, the Paperwhite gets up to 12 weeks of battery life (compared to 10 weeks from the previous Paperwhite generation. Staff writer Maria Diaz tested the Kindle for two weeks and never had to charge it. “After two weeks of daily reading on a single charge, some days for up to three hours a day, my Kindle Paperwhite’s battery is still at 32%,” she wrote in her review. Review: One of the best E Ink readers I’ve tested isn’t made by Boox or KoboThe new Paperwhite also has a larger, 7-inch display (the previous generation was 6.8 inches), and it’s thinner as well, making it even more comfortable to hold while reading for hours. It’s also waterproof (how many tablets can say that?), so you can read by the pool or in the bath without worrying about stray splashes.There is still a Signature Edition to the Paperwhite as before, and for $40 more, you get wireless charging, 32GB of storage instead of 16GB, and an auto-adjusting front light sensor. Of course, this is definitely more of an e-reader than a tablet, and you can’t really browse the web and there is no stylus compatible with it. Still, if your primary use of a tablet will be for reading, the Paperwhite is a great option. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite tech specs: Display: 7-inch 300 ppi e-ink screen | Storage: 16 GB | Colors: Black, raspberry, jade | Weight: 7.4 ounces | Dimensions: 7 x 5 x .30 inches | Connections: USB-C, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Battery life: Up to 12 weeks  More