Charlotte Henry

Fitbit unveiled a new set of products today, including the Sense, as well as the Versa 3. You’d be forgiven for thinking the Sense looks… familiar. The Verge has a rundown of the device’s specs.

The Sense has a few more advanced health tracking features, such as detailed heart rate scans with atrial fibrillation (afib) detection via the electrocardiogram (EKG) app built into the watch (still pending FDA approval). In that way, it’s on par with Apple’s and Samsung’s recent smartwatches (though, Samsung’s EKG capability in the Galaxy Watch 3 isn’t available in the US yet). Where the Sense stands out is with its stress detection features, which it’s pitching as something that’s crucially needed — especially in today’s increasingly stressful world. To take a reading, you hold your palm over the screen and start to breath. The Sense will measure your heart rate, and uniquely, your skin’s temperature will be collected with its electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor. If your skin feels hot, chilled, or clammy, the Sense might be able to make sense of why it’s happening over time. Fitbit’s app will score you on your stress level, with a higher score being better than a lower one.

Public tests of the new version of Apple Maps have reached the UK and Ireland. Justine O’Beirne noted the change, the first time the update has been rolled out beyond U.S. shores.

In the past, Apple has spent between 16 and 49 days publicly testing its earlier expansions… and the more populated the area, the longer Apple has typically spent testing. All of this suggests that Expansion #9 will go live for all Apple Maps users sometime between mid September and early October. Given past patterns, iOS 14 is also likely to be released during this same period—so it seems that Expansion #9’s release might coincide with iOS 14’s.

Facebook’s ‘classic’ blue look will disappear come September, Engadget reported. The updated version, which has been the default since May, will be the only option available to users.

A notification on the page and support pages that told users how to switch back now indicate that the Classic Facebook is going away in September, and taking its old blue theme with it. Designers and engineers explained their reasoning for the makeover to Engadget a few months ago. The stagnation preceding this revamp occurred while Facebook focused on mobile devices, but now it’s ready to push items like its Watch and Gaming sections, as well as the conspiracist-riddled Groups.

Apple’s battle with Epic Games, the firm behind Fortnite, continues to escalate. Bloomberg Businessweek has a useful history on Nintendo and the rise of the platform ‘tax’.

It was the Nintendo Entertainment System that first introduced the platform fee in the early 1980s. It began when Namco Ltd., the creator of Pac-Man and a major provider of arcade games at the time, wanted to expand its distribution via Nintendo’s nascent console—called the Famicom when it was released in 1983 in Japan. Namco got together with another game maker, Hudson Soft Co. (creator of Bomberman), to persuade Nintendo Co. to open its platform to outside software makers, according to Hisakazu Hirabayashi, an independent industry consultant. Both were eager to be on Nintendo’s popular console, but Hudson couldn’t make its own cartridges, according to Hirabayashi. And so Namco proposed paying Nintendo a 10% licensing fee to be able to be on the console while Hudson paid an additional 20% for Nintendo to make its game cartridges. Nintendo agreed—and that two-component fee, licensing and manufacturing, became the basis of today’s 30% “tax.”