Google's FDA-cleared Loss of Pulse Detection Feature is rolling out to Pixel Watch 3 users. Here's what it does and how to opt in.

According to a post on X, the White House was lifting the tariffs on all countries but China. However, the rumor proved false and stocks went tumbling.

Silver Lining: Nvidia has been significantly impacted by the tariffs introduced by Donald Trump on April 2. The company sources nearly all of its GPU products from TSMC and is likely to face price increases in the near future. However, according to market analysts, data center servers for AI workloads could partially avoid the new tariffs. The technology industry is still grappling with the aftermath of the new economic policy imposed by the US administration on its traditional partners and competitors. Meanwhile, analysts are trying to determine whether some of the most popular tech stocks could show resilience in the face of the resulting financial shock. According to Stacy Rasgon, senior analyst at Bernstein Research, a majority of Nvidia's AI data center servers may, in fact, avoid the recently introduced Trump tariffs. The potential impact of tariffs on Nvidia's AI data center products has been one of the most frequently asked questions since Trump's announcement, Rasgon noted. So far, semiconductor products have been exempt from reciprocal tariffs, the analyst explained. However, Nvidia primarily sells "core hardware," which could fall under the scope of the new tariff measures. One possible loophole may lie in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the free trade deal signed by Donald Trump and enacted on March 13, 2020. Products manufactured in Mexico that meet USMCA requirements remain exempt from the latest tariffs. Rasgon pointed out that Nvidia builds its AI data center systems in Mexico, which could help shield them from tariff-related price hikes. Thanks to Nvidia's own data on export regulation compliance, we can trace where its manufactured parts originate. According to Rasgon, the majority of Nvidia's server shipments – including DGX and HGX systems – come from Mexico, with approximately 60 percent manufactured on-site and another 30 percent produced in Taiwan. Given the AI industry's heavy reliance on Nvidia hardware, it's safe to assume that a significant majority of AI servers are currently routed through Mexico. // Related Stories The USMCA indicates that these product categories are compliant with the agreement and should therefore be exempt from the latest tariffs imposed by US authorities. Nvidia and its manufacturing partners are ramping up production in Mexico, meaning the proportion of tariff-exempt products is expected to grow over time. At the company's annual GTC conference, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated that the impact of tariffs would not be "meaningful" in the near term. Huang was likely alluding to the expanded Mexico operations, where Foxconn is scaling up manufacturing to better support Nvidia's growing hardware demands.

Google has begun rolling out its Loss of Pulse Detection feature to Pixel Watch 3 owners in the United States. This potentially life-saving feature uses the watch’s optical heart rate sensors to detect if the wearer’s pulse ceases at any point. That can include instances like cardiac arrest or other heart-related abnormalities. When these issues are detected, the watch can automatically contact emergency services should the wearer become unresponsive. The rollout is gradual, with availability expected to reach all users over the next few weeks. Initially announced alongside the Pixel Watch 3 in August 2024, the feature was already available in several European countries. However, its US debut required clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before being released which was granted in late February 2025. Now that it’s headed out to new and old Pixel Watch 3 owners, now might be a good time to invest in one should be looking for an alternative to the smartwatch you might currently be wearing. Recommended Videos To keep this feature reliable and minimize false alarms, Google spent quite some time on extensive testing, analyzing over 100,000 hours of data to tweak and adjust things to its satisfaction. The company also published a peer-reviewed study in Nature detailing its long-term development and efficacy. Related Wearers will see a prompt on their Pixel Watch 3 to opt into the Loss of Pulse Detection feature. Once enabled, the watch will monitor their heart rate and initiate emergency protocols if a loss of pulse is detected and the wearer does not respond over a period of time. For those interested in picking up the Pixel Watch 3 with this advanced health monitoring capability, new and current devices will be eligible to receive the update. It could be a boon for anyone with potential heart issues that may or may not have been diagnosed yet, but it’s also just a good feature to have around in general. Editors’ Recommendations

Justin Vernon’s indie-rock project returns in part to his early folk style on its fifth album, featuring memorable melodies set sonically askew.

it's all in the pour Fewer beans = great coffee if you get the pour height right Pour-over coffee is made by flowing a strong, laminar water jet through a bed of ground coffee beans. Jennifer Ouellette – Apr 8, 2025 4:14 pm | 7 Credit: Ernest Park Credit: Ernest Park Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world, counting many scientists among its fans. Naturally those scientists are sometimes drawn to study their beloved beverage from various angles with an eye toward achieving the perfect cup. While espresso has received the lion's share of such attention, physicists at the University of Pennsylvania have investigated the physics behind brewing so-called "pour-over" coffee, in which hot water is poured over coffee grounds in a filter within a funnel-shaped cone and allowed to percolate and drip into a cup below. The trick is to pour the water from as high as possible without letting the jet of water break up upon impact with the grounds, according to their new paper published in the journal Physics of Fluids. In 2020, we reported on a mathematical model for brewing the perfect cup of espresso with minimal waste. Many variables can affect the quality of a steaming cup of espresso, including so-called "channeling" during the brewing process, in which the water doesn't seep uniformly through the grounds but branches off in various preferential paths instead. This significantly reduces the extraction yield (EY)—the fraction of coffee that dissolves into the final beverage—and thus the quality of the final brew. That, in turn, depends on controlling water flow and pressure as the liquid percolates through the coffee grounds. That model was based on how lithium ions propagate through a battery's electrodes, akin to how caffeine molecules dissolve from coffee grounds. Conclusion: The most reproducible thing you can do is use fewer coffee beans and opt for a coarser grind with a bit less water; brew time was largely irrelevant. Three years later, the same team showed how adding a single squirt of water to coffee beans before grinding can significantly reduce the static electric charge on the resulting grounds. This, in turn, reduces clumping during brewing, yielding less waste and the strong, consistent flow needed to produce a tasty cup of espresso. And just last month at a physics conference, scientists presented insights into the underlying physics of channeling that will further help coffee lovers achieve more consistent results when brewing espresso. They found that channeling adversely affected extraction yields but did not impact the rate at which water flows through the espresso puck. Art of the grind Dynamics of pour-over coffee, relevant parameters, and the experimental laboratory setup. Credit: E. Park et al., 2025 There have been far fewer studies focusing on increasing extraction yields for plain-old pour-over coffee, according to the authors of this latest paper. The fundamental elements are the coffee grounds, a smooth laminar water flow, and a funnel-shaped cone to hold the filter. The quality of the resulting cup of coffee is dependent on such variables as the amount of coffee used, the jet radius, the pour height, and the flow velocity, all of which have an impact on how the water jet interacts with the bed of coffee grounds. Ideally, you want efficient mixing to get a richer cup. From a physics standpoint, we're talking about a complex interplay between a liquid jet and a granular bed of coffee grounds. And granular materials are prone to avalanches. While prior research has looked at water jets and granular avalanches separately, "much less is known about water jets impinging on a liquid surface with a granular material underneath," the authors wrote. "Moreover, there are relatively few studies that directly visualize the granular particles interacting with multiphase flows." To learn more, the authors conducted several experiments. They made pour-over coffee in the lab, analyzing the coffee grounds with a high-resolution camera to get a distribution of particle size, then measuring the total dissolved solids in the brewed coffee. They also simulated this brewing process using silica gel particles as a substitute for the coffee grounds and a transparent glass funnel at a 60-degree incline as a coffee cone filter, illuminated by lasers. Once again, high-speed cameras captured the dynamics of the interplay between the gel particles and the water jets. Based on their findings, the authors recommend pouring hot water over your coffee grounds slowly to give the beans more time immersed in the water. But pour the water too slowly and the resulting jet will stick to the spout (the "teapot effect") and there won't be sufficient mixing of the grounds; they'll just settle to the bottom instead, decreasing extraction yield. “If you have a thin jet, then it tends to break up into droplets,” said co-author Margot Young. “That’s what you want to avoid in these pour-overs, because that means the jet cannot mix the coffee grounds effectively.” Smaller jet diameter impact on dynamics. Credit: E. Park et al., 2025 That's where increasing the height from which you pour comes in. This imparts more energy from gravity, per the authors, increasing the mixing of the granular coffee grounds. But again, there's such a thing as pouring from too great a height, causing the water jet to break apart. The ideal height is no more than 50 centimeters (about 20 inches) above the filter. The classic goosenecked tea kettle turns out to be ideal for achieving that optimal height. Future research might explore the effects of varying the grain size of the coffee grounds. Increasing extraction yields and, by extension, reducing how much coffee grounds one uses matters because it is becoming increasingly difficult to cultivate the most common species of coffee because of ongoing climate change. “Coffee is getting harder to grow, and so, because of that, prices for coffee will likely increase in coming years,” co-author Arnold Mathijssen told New Scientist. “The idea for this research was really to see if we could help do something by reducing the amount of coffee beans that are needed while still keeping the same amount of extraction, so that you get the same strength of coffee.” But the potential applications aren't limited to brewing coffee. The authors note that this same liquid jet/submerged granular bed interplay is also involved in soil erosion from waterfalls, for example, as well as wastewater treatment—using liquid jets to aerate wastewater to enhance biodegradation of organic matter—and dam scouring, where the solid ground behind a dam is slowly worn away by water jets. "Although dams operate on a much larger scale, they may undergo similar dynamics, and finding ways to decrease the jet height in dams may decrease erosion and elongate dam health," they wrote. Physics of Fluids, 2025. DOI: 10.1063/5.0257924 (About DOIs). Jennifer Ouellette Senior Writer Jennifer Ouellette Senior Writer Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 7 Comments

Afyonkarahisar, the capital of the central Anatolia region of TurkeyDaphnusia images/Shutterstock This is an extract from Our Human Story, our newsletter about the revolution in archaeology. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every month. Every so often, I’m reminded of a truly startling fact. It is possible to travel from the UK, where I live, east through Europe into Ukraine and western Russia (maybe don’t do this bit), cross the Caspian Sea, then carry on east all the way to India – and always speak to people whose language belongs to the same family. That’s…

Warning: Spoilers for "The White Lotus" season three ahead.Fans of "The White Lotus" finally found out who lived and died in Sunday's season three finale — and many weren't happy.Viewers shared memes and jokes as they mourned the death of fan-favorite Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) and criticized how the Ratliffs' story was resolved, among other gripes.Season three has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of all the seasons with an 87% critic rating. That's still high, but not as good as the 90% and 94% the first and second season have, respectively.Here are ten shows to try if you were left unfulfilled by "The White Lotus" season three. 'Succession' Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox in "Succession." HBO If you enjoyed the way "The White Lotus" cleverly examines how the ultra-rich can struggle to stay in touch with reality, "Succession" is one to check off the watchlist.The HBO series tells the story of the billionaire Roy family as Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) and his siblings clash over who will succeed their aging father Logan Roy (Brian Cox) as head of his media conglomerate Waystar RoyCo.Throw in some excellent foul-mouthed performances from Cox and Kieran Culkin, and "Succession" is a must-watch.All four seasons of "Succession" are streaming on Max. 'The Perfect Couple' Sam Nivola as Will Winbury and Nicole Kidman as Greer Winbury in "The Perfect Couple." Liam Daniel/Netflix Each season of "The White Lotus" is essentially a murder mystery that starts by teasing that someone will die at the luxury hotel.Netflix's "The Perfect Couple" is similar in that a dead body is found on the beach the day a wealthy family hosts a wedding at their Nantucket home.It stars Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, and Eve Hewson, and keeps the twists coming throughout the six-episode series.It also features Sam Nivola, who plays Lochlan Ratliff in "The White Lotus" season three — although there's no incest subplot here."The Perfect Couple" is streaming on Netflix. 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Nicole Kidman in "Nine Perfect Strangers." Vince Valitutti/Hulu Hulu's "Nine Perfect Strangers" is another Nicole Kidman-led mystery drama. It's set a luxury wellness resort, which promises guests will leave enlightened and healed.Kidman plays the resort's mysterious director, Masha Dmitrichenko, who survived being shot in the head before the series' events.The show focuses on Dmitrichenko's past, why each guest is visiting the resort, and how their stay changes them. It's similar to "The White Lotus" in many ways, although the resort in "Nine Perfect Strangers" is even more exclusive and nefarious.The cast includes Melissa McCarthy, Manny Jacinto, Michael Shannon, Bobby Cannavale, and Samara Weaving.The first season of "Nine Perfect Strangers" is streaming on Hulu. 'Beef' Ali Wong and Steven Yeun in "Beef." Andrew Cooper/Netflix Netflix's "Beef" is about the bizarre events that follow when Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) and Amy Lau (Ali Wong) get tangled in a road rage incident.This small, singular moment creates a furious rivalry as their attempts to seek revenge escalate beyond harmless pranks.The dark comedy uses their dynamic to examine things like class and wealth in Los Angeles. "Beef" is returning for a second season, and like "The White Lotus," it will become an anthology series.The first season of "Beef" is streaming on Netflix. 'Only Murders in the Building' Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short in the season four finale of "Only Murders in the Building." Hulu "Only Murders in the Building" is a slightly more classic murder mystery than "The White Lotus." However, both of the Emmy-winning shows prioritize character development over the main mystery.The series stars Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez as three lonely true crime fans who start their own podcast solving murders in the Arconia, their luxury apartment building in Manhattan.Each season peels away new layers of the three lead characters as they put themselves in the crosshairs of the murderers they hope to capture.The first four seasons of "Only Murders in the Building" are streaming on Hulu. 'No Good Deed' Lisa Kudrow as Lydia and Ray Romano as Paul in "No Good Deed." Saeed AdyaniNetflix An ensemble of wacky characters, a death teased in the first episode, and the juxtaposition of a dark, unsettling story in a dreamy, luxurious location — "No Good Deed" has several similarities to "The White Lotus."The show, which premiered on Netflix in 2024, follows several couples as they bid for their dream home in a desirable Los Angeles neighborhood, completely unaware that a murder took place there years before. As the owners struggle to keep the past secret, the couples try to outwit their fellow buyers and keep their relationships from falling apart amid the stress.The show stars Luke Wilson, Linda Cardellini and Lisa Kudrow.The limited series is streaming on Netflix. 'Schitt's Creek' The Rose family (Dan Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Annie Murphy, and Eugene Levy) in "Schitt's Creek" season six. PopTV In "The White Lotus" season three, tension builds around the wealthy and out-of-touch Ratliffs, who are about to lose everything when patriarch Timothy learns he's participated in an illegal deal. If you were a fan who was disappointed that the show ended before Timothy tells his family about their imminent financial ruin, "Schitt's Creek" can provide closure.The Emmy-winning series features much-lauded performances from Eugene Levy, Dan Levy, Catherine O'Hara, and Annie Murphy as the Roses, a formerly rich family who move to Schitt's Creek, a town they once bought, after becoming poor.All six seasons of "Schitt's Creek" are streaming on Hulu and Prime Video. 'Big Little Lies' Nicola Kidman, Shailene Woodley, and Reese Witherspoon in "Big Little Lies." HBO "Big Little Lies" is an HBO mystery series about five women in the wealthy coastal city of Monterey, California, who become suspects in a murder investigation.The show starts by teasing that someone has been killed, but like "The White Lotus," it doesn't reveal who is involved as the mystery unfolds throughout the season.The show features an all-star cast, including Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Zoe Kravitz, Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley, and Alexander Skarsgard. The second season adds Meryl Streep into the mix.Both seasons of "Big Little Lies" are streaming on Max. 'Revenge' In "Revenge," Emily VanCamp and Madeleine Stowe play bitter enemies. Richard Cartwright / Walt Disney Television via Getty Images via Getty Image Inspired by the 19th-century Alexandre Dumas novel "The Count of Monte Cristo," "Revenge" follows Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp), a woman on a mission to destroy her wealthy neighbors as payback for them ruining her life and killing her father.Unlike Rick in "The White Lotus" season three, Emily plays the long game, working her way into the family to destroy them from the inside. But when people she cares about get caught in the crosshairs, Emily struggles to complete her quest and save her loved ones.All four seasons of "Revenge" are streaming on Hulu. 'Acapulco' Enrique Arrizon plays young Maximo in "Acapulco" season one. AppleTV+ If you watched "The White Lotus" and wished there was more focus on the hotel employees, watch "Acapulco."The comedy series follows Maximo Gallardo Ramos (Eugenio Derbez) as he recounts the rags-to-riches story of how he became a successful mogul after getting his first job in 1984 at Las Colinas, the hottest resort in Acapulco, Mexico.This series has a lighter and more nostalgic tone than "The White Lotus," so expect more comedy than drama.The first three seasons of "Acapulco" are streaming on AppleTV+.

Have you managed to get a pre-order yet? (Nintendo) Rather than wait for Nintendo to drop its own pre-orders, you might want to check other UK retailers for stock of the Switch 2. Nintendo was supposed to open pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch 2 on its website today, but while that may have happened for a select few it’s not something anyone can just do themselves on a whim. If you’re lucky, you may have received an email granting you priority access and have already put yourself down for a console. If not, you hopefully won’t have to wait much longer, or at least not as long as the Americans do. In the meantime, other UK retailers have announced they’ve got stock in again, after initially selling out – but you’ll still want to act fast before this next round of pre-orders runs out. Where can I pre-order the Nintendo Switch 2 in the UK? Amazon and Argos both opened their pre-orders early last week and, unsurprisingly, sold out quickly. In case you missed out the first time, you’ll be pleased to know they’ve already obtained new units to sell. The extra bit of good news is that Amazon is no longer restricting pre-orders. It was originally invite-only, but now anyone should be able to purchase either the Switch 2 console or the Mario Kart World bundle, as long as there’s stock. The likes of Very, Smyths, and EE are all offering pre-orders too (though at the time of writing, Very’s website doesn’t appear to be working). If you check their sites and they’ve sold out, you may have missed the window, but if today is anything to do by they’ll get more soon enough. GAME also has pre-orders, but it has stressed that these are online-only. So, you can’t place a pre-order in-person at your local GAME store. Currys, meanwhile, is doing the exact opposite and only offering pre-orders at physical stores. So, don’t bother refreshing the website, but do register your interest so you’ll be alerted when one’s available locally. As a reminder, the console on its own costs £395.99 while the Mario Kart World bundle is £429.99 – essentially getting you the game for half price. Nintendo Switch 2 console – Argos Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle – Argos Nintendo Switch 2 console – Amazon Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle – Amazon Nintendo Switch 2 console – Very Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle – Very Nintendo Switch 2 console – Smyths Nintendo Switch 2 console – GAME Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle – EE When can I pre-order Switch 2 through Nintendo in the UK? To pre-order a Switch 2 directly from Nintendo, you’ll want to check the My Nintendo Store. It says pre-orders will be available from April 8, although this appears to only be for those who Nintendo is sending emails out to. More Trending It’s unclear when console pre-orders will be available for everyone else, but Nintendo has opened them for select physical games, accessories, microSD cards, and controllers, including the store exclusive GameCube controller. Meanwhile, pre-orders for digital games, upgrade packs, and amiibo won’t open until April 24. Whatever happens, just be glad you’re not in Canada. According to MobileSyrup, Nintendo has suddenly opted to delay Switch 2 pre-orders there as well, even though Canada has no tariffs on Asian imports. ‘Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in Canada will not start on April 9, 2025 in order to align with the timing of pre-orders to be determined in the US,’ reads a statement from Nintendo, which adds that the June 5 release date hasn’t changed. If you can, we recommend grabbing the Mario Kart World bundle (Nintendo) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

Elon Musk’s government efficiency initiative continues to wreak havoc. In a recent post on X, the Department of Government Efficiency proudly proclaimed that the General Services Administration has converted 14,000 magnetic tapes of archival data to digital records. “The @USGSA IT team just saved $1M per year by converting 14,000 magnetic tapes (70 yr old technology for information storage) to permanent modern digital records,” the post reads. While the move may at first seem like a logical decision to modernize government services, critics were quick to point out the benefits of magnetic tapes over digital. The post by DOGE features a Community Note highlighting a few reasons to use magnetic tape, including the fact that they can store data much more efficiently and offer a physical “airgap” so that data cannot be stolen by cybercriminals. Back in 2020, IBM published an article explaining that as the amount of data stored on the internet balloons year after year, large companies and educational institutions have turned to tape-based storage for archival purposes. “In terms of costs, storing data on tape is pennies per gigabyte and when not in use, tape requires no energy unlike hard disks and flash,” the company wrote. “Put simply, tape-stored data ensures that cloud providers will have the data they need when they need it. In addition, when stored properly, data recorded on tape today will still be readable in 30 years.” Anyone who has been on the internet knows the frustration of old websites and social networks going offline, effectively wiping out vast amounts of human creation in one fell swoop. Some organizations like the Internet Archive have stepped in to help preserve websites before they are lost to time, but one organization can only do so much. Link rot, as it is called, is in effect a consequence of storage costs, but magnetic tapes are dirt cheap. The average magnetic tape today can store around 15 terabytes of data, but IBM says that new tapes it has been developing could store up to 580 terabytes. Contrary to what DOGE said in its post, tape technology continues to get better. Cloud servers, meanwhile, are costly to operate, and hard drives, in general, can last up to five to ten years. Major companies like Meta and Google use RAID backups to prevent data from being corrupted and lost, but again, that is expensive. It is kind of ironic that a team tasked with lowering costs in the government may be doing the exact opposite with this move. And also, in a sense, the phrase “permanent digital records” is an oxymoron. Digital is inherently ephemeral—it is why some people still prefer having physical copies of their media. A service shuts down and your digital memories go with it. XKCD years ago created an image that explains the frustration succinctly: Credit: XKCD People often joke about how the government uses legacy technology, but there is a reason. If it works, maybe do not try and fix it.