Tag Archives: Wearables

Luna Band could be the first screenless fitness tracker that actually feels worth buying

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If you have been following international sports, there is one thing that you will find common across players of all disciplines. It’s not anger and aggression that we can discuss another day; it’s actually a screenless band you can see on their wrists. This is a fitness tracker, in most cases it’s from Whoop, or another company, say a Hume.

Now there are two more brands that are targeting the obvious interest space of discreet, no-display fitness trackers. After the launch of the Fitbit Air from Google, the Luna company behind the Ring smart ring brand is launching the Luna Band, first showcased to the world earlier this year at the CES 2026 in Vegas.

Designer: Luna

Despite the surge of interest in screenless fitness trackers over the past couple of years, there has been one caveat that, in my opinion, has shadowed these faceless trackers behind the smartwatches. It’s the accompanying subscription charges. For the record, a Whoop Band hits you about $30 per month in subscription. The new Fitbit Air, available for preorder at $99.99, comes with a $9.99 per month subscription.

Luna targets the masses with the launch of its new band now, which the company says will require no subscription. A big advantage for those like me who don’t prefer paying every month for a fitness tracker. Luna Band is now fully official. The makers confirm it will be available for pre-order on July 4. The band will start shipping later in the month, though the date is confirmed for July 31.

So, what are we expecting from the band? The Luna will do the basic tasks of tracking sleep and activity. It will come with Luna’s own LifeOS, which allows integration with Gemini and Siri assistants so you can take full advantage of the band via Android smartphone or iPhone. The band features a textured strap, like that of the Whoop you would have seen your favorite player wearing. It will come in a range of colors and materials, but the basic one is going to be fabric with a metal buckle.

Alongside remote access to various parameters, it’s tracking, the phone connected to the Luna Band can also allow voice-based health logging. We say it without definite confirmation, because there is no certainty, at the time of writing, whether this feature will be directly embedded in the phone with a microphone, or will it work via the phone (which is more likely to be the case). The band, additionally, early reports affirm, will log food intake, bloodwork, supplement intake, and store relevant medical data, which is new for a screenless fitness tracker.

Powered by a built-in battery, providing up to 10 days of backup, the Luna Band doesn’t have a confirmed pricing yet. Going by the features and the fact that the band will not require a subscription, we are guessing it will come for a steeper price tag than what’s prevalent for such devices in the industry.

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Smart rings just had their breakout week

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Smartwatches have had an impressive run, but the category is starting to feel a bit crowded and tired. Most recent releases have been iterative, adding a sensor here or a display tweak there, while the core form stays essentially the same: a small screen on your wrist buzzing at you constantly. Consumers are starting to wonder what the next genuinely interesting chapter of wearables looks like.

It turns out the answer might be right on your finger. In one week during May 2026, the smart ring went from niche wellness accessory to the category everyone in wearables should be watching. Oura confidentially filed an S-1 with the SEC, RingConn opened pre-orders for its Gen 3, and fresh leaks in iOS 26 code reignited the idea that Apple might be circling the space.

Designer: Oura Ring, RingConn, Apple, Samsung

Part of what makes this moment feel significant is that it isn’t purely a business story. The smart ring’s appeal is rooted in something the smartwatch was never designed for: disappearing. A ring doesn’t have a screen demanding your attention, doesn’t buzz through dinner, and doesn’t get taken off at bedtime. For passive health tracking, especially overnight, the finger turns out to be a surprisingly elegant surface.

RingConn Gen 3

RingConn’s Gen 3 is the clearest hardware proof that the category is maturing. At $349, the titanium ring ships with a 14-day battery, vascular health tracking, and haptic alerts, all without a subscription fee. That battery figure alone is worth pausing on. A ring that only needs charging once a fortnight fits into daily life in a way that a device needing nightly top-ups simply doesn’t.

RingConn Gen 3

RingConn Gen 3

What RingConn’s launch really signals is a shift in the category brief. Buyers aren’t just asking whether a ring can track their sleep anymore. They want richer health data, meaningful feedback, and hardware that feels finished rather than experimental. Titanium construction, cardiovascular insights, and a no-subscription model together suggest that the smart ring has stopped apologizing for what it can’t do and started showing off what it can.

Oura’s confidential S-1 filing adds a different kind of weight to the week. Filing with the SEC isn’t something companies do casually. It means Oura believes the smart ring market is stable enough, scalable enough, and financially convincing enough to withstand public-market scrutiny. It’s also a signal that the subscription model, which charges users a monthly fee to access their own health data, has real staying power.

Oura Ring 4

That subscription debate cuts to something interesting about how these companies see what a smart ring is. Oura is essentially selling a sensor paired with an ongoing interpretation service. RingConn is selling a finished object you own outright. Neither is wrong, but the two approaches create very different relationships between wearer and device, and that relationship shapes every other decision the product team ends up making.

Then there’s Apple, which hasn’t confirmed anything but whose shadow is already affecting the conversation. References buried in iOS 26 code have fueled speculation that Cupertino is at least exploring a ring-shaped device, possibly one that ties into the broader Vision Pro ecosystem. Apple hasn’t shipped a ring yet, but its apparent interest alone changes how developers, investors, and competing hardware teams think about the category’s long-term potential.

Samsung Galaxy Ring

The harder question, of course, is what comes next for a category that’s barely five grams and still trying to grow up. Blood pressure monitoring, non-invasive glucose tracking, and finer cardiovascular sensing are all on the roadmap, but they’ll demand even more from a form factor that’s already pushing the limits of miniaturization. Getting there without sacrificing comfort or wearability is the real design challenge ahead.

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AirPods Pro 3 vs Pro 2: Should You Actually Upgrade in 2026?

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Eight months after Apple shipped the AirPods Pro 3, the comparison has quietly shifted. Nobody is really debating whether the Pro 3 are good. They are. The more interesting question, the one actually driving search traffic right now, is whether the Pro 3 are worth it when the Pro 2 can be had for around $167 renewed, and when both models share the same H2 chip.

That last part matters more than it sounds. Apple’s decision to keep the H2 chip in the Pro 3 means both generations run the same core software features, including everything arriving with iOS 26. That’s not a knock against the upgrade. It’s just a useful signal about where Apple actually spent its engineering effort this cycle. The answer is the body.

Design: Apple

The AirPods Pro 3 ship with a redesigned fit system, adding foam-infused ear tips across all sizes and a new extra-extra-small option for a noticeably deeper seal. That revised fit is doing real work. It’s part of why independent testing from RTINGS shows the AirPods Pro 3 outperforming the Pro 2 on noise isolation, especially with street-level and mid-frequency noise. The ANC improvement is real, and most of it comes from better physics, not a completely overhauled processing stack.

Then there’s the durability jump. IP57 replaces IP54, meaning the AirPods Pro 3 can survive submersion in a meter of water for up to 30 minutes, compared to the AirPods Pro 2’s more modest splash resistance. If you work out in the rain or tend to leave things near water, that’s a quiet but meaningful upgrade. Battery life lands at eight hours with ANC on, a clear step up from the Pro 2. Worth noting, though: using the heart-rate sensor drops that figure to roughly 6.5 hours per charge, so those gains are conditional depending on how you actually use the earbuds. Which brings us to the feature doing most of the marketing heavy lifting.

The heart-rate monitor is the AirPods Pro 3’s most discussed addition, and it’s genuinely well-implemented. You can track over 50 workout types on iPhone alone, without an Apple Watch, logging heart rate and calorie burn throughout. If both devices are present, Apple’s system pulls from whichever sensor is giving more reliable data at the time. That’s a thoughtful design call.

But here’s the thing. If you already wear an Apple Watch, the heart-rate sensor in your ears becomes a nice backup, not a reason to upgrade. The people for whom this feature is genuinely transformative are iPhone-first fitness users who aren’t wearing a watch, or people who prefer fewer devices on their body during a workout. For everyone else, it reads more like product ambition than personal necessity.

So where does the AirPods Pro 2 still hold its ground? Almost everywhere a casual listener, commuter, or Apple Watch owner actually lives. The H2 chip delivers the same spatial audio, the same call quality baseline, and the same hearing health features, including the hearing test and hearing aid mode. At $167 renewed, the Pro 2 offers a level of performance that would have been considered flagship just two years ago.

The AirPods Pro 3 are the better earbuds. They fit better, block more noise, last longer on a charge, and carry the kind of health-sensor integration that signals where Apple wants this product category to go. But better earbuds and better value are not the same thing, and in May 2026, that distinction matters.

If you don’t own AirPods Pro yet, the Pro 3 are the ones to get. If you already own the Pro 2 and they still fit and function well, this is not a compelling upgrade unless the heart-rate tracking or the improved seal solves a real problem for you. At $167 renewed, the AirPods Pro 2 remain one of the most capable earbuds at their price, chip-for-chip. Apple builds excellent products. It also builds excellent arguments for buying last year’s excellent products at a discount.

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Google’s Android XR Glasses Pick Gentle Monster and Warby Parker

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The biggest design announcement to come out of Google I/O 2026 did not involve a language model. It involved a pair of frames. On May 19, Google and Samsung unveiled their Android XR intelligent eyewear, a product that still has no official name, no confirmed price, and no exact ship date beyond “this fall.” What it does have is two very deliberate aesthetic camps: Gentle Monster on the disruptive end, Warby Parker anchoring the refined and timeless side. And leading with eyewear partners instead of chipset specs felt like the most coherent product launch decision Google has made in years.

Two form factors are on the way. Audio glasses ship first, landing later this fall. Display glasses follow at some point after that. The audio version is exactly what it sounds like: Gemini in your ear, accessed by saying “Hey Google” or tapping the frame. From there, you can pull up turn-by-turn navigation, real-time translation, hands-free calls, photo capture, and multi-step task execution through third-party apps like DoorDash and Uber. The glasses work with both Android and iOS, which is smarter than it sounds. Picking a platform fight at launch would have cut the potential audience in half before a single pair hit a face.

Designer: Google x Samsung

The more interesting story, though, is what the Gentle Monster and Warby Parker pairing actually signals. These are not interchangeable options with different colorways. Gentle Monster built its entire identity on turning eyewear into conceptual art, the kind of brand that stages gallery-scale retail installations and has never been embarrassed to make a statement. Warby Parker, on the other hand, is the brand that convinced a whole generation that glasses could be accessible, thoughtful, and quietly cool without trying too hard. Putting both on the same platform is Google saying, very clearly, that Android XR is not a single-consumer product. It is a platform designed to flex across aesthetic identities the same way Android flexes across phone manufacturers.

That framing matters a lot when you look at the competitive landscape. When Meta launched its Ray-Ban Display glasses with EssilorLuxottica, it made a calculated bet on one legacy brand and one aesthetic: cool-casual, lifestyle-adjacent, slightly sporty. The strategy has worked reasonably well. Google is trying something architecturally different. Two visual identities, baked in from day one, each with its own mood and customer. Whether that becomes a genuine advantage or a positioning headache will depend entirely on execution, but the intent is worth paying attention to.

The missing information in this announcement is not accidental. No price. No product name. No exact release date. All of that has been deliberately saved for fall, which means we are still in the phase where the visual story matters more than the spec sheet. That is the right call. If Google had led with processor benchmarks and battery life numbers right now, the conversation would have immediately turned into a hardware comparison against Meta. By leading with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, they shifted the frame entirely. We are not talking about a spec race. We are talking about what you actually want to wear.

Industrially, the frames read as genuinely wearable. Temple thickness, hinge detailing, and touchpad placement all suggest that someone with a real brief about daily wear and aesthetic integrity was in the room during development. The original Google Glass was technically ambitious and aesthetically alienating, and that gap between capability and wearability became the most expensive lesson in smart glasses history. The Android XR eyewear, at least from what has been shown, appears to have absorbed it.

The fall window is real. Prescriptions, pricing, and the question of what this product is actually called will all arrive before year’s end. But right now, two days out from the reveal, the conversation that Google and Samsung have started feels like the right one. Not what can these glasses do, but who are these glasses for. When the design partners are Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, the answer is already pretty interesting.

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