Wider Confidence Lifts Economy From Freeze

Enlarge / The Samsung Watch 6 classic. (credit: Samsung) Wear OS was nearly dead a few years ago but is now on a remarkable comeback trajectory, thanks to renewed commitment from Google and a hardware team-up with Samsung. Wear OS is still in a distant second place compared to the Apple Watch, but a new Counterpoint Research report has the wearable OS at 21 percent market share, with the OS expected to hit 27 percent in 2024. Counterpoint's market segmentation for this report is basically "smartwatches with an app store," so it excludes cheaper fitness bands and other, more simple electronic watches.

Enlarge / New gods, same old drama. (credit: Supergiant) Here at Ars, we were obviously excited by the late 2022 announcement of Hades II as a follow-up to our favorite game of 2020. But when early coverage of that sequel suggested major changes to the game's core combat, we were a bit worried that the developers at Supergiant risked messing up the core gameplay loop that made the original game so satisfying. So far, it seems like those worries were unfounded.

Enlarge / A decorative ring made from carved stone is embedded in the wall of a ballcourt in the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza. (credit: Kåre Thor Olsen/CC BY-SA 3.0) It's well-known that the ancient Maya had their own version of ball games, which were played with a rubber ball on stone courts.

Enlarge / Sony Honda Mobility will start taking orders for its AFEELA EV next year. (credit: Peter Nelson) We're living through a period of radically shifting automotive technology. Companies are working on increasing electric vehicle range and redefining our concept of reenergizing. They're also gradually refining driver assistance technology and figuring out how to make vehicles an extension of their drivers. Sony Honda Mobility's (SHM) main aim with its AFEELA luxury-tier sedan concept is to put the emphasis on the latter.

Peloton is cutting about 400 jobs worldwide as part of a restructuring effort and its CEO Barry McCarthy is stepping down after two years as the company continues to work on turning around its business. Shares edged down about 2% in morning trading, to $3.16. Peloton has been working on a significant rebranding since last year, shifting its identity as a seller of luxury exercise bikes and equipment to heath technology for all. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The New York company experienced incredible sales growth during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft) Microsoft is currently investigating a bug in its most recent batch of Windows 10 and Windows 11 updates that is preventing some VPN software from working properly. The company updated its list of known Windows issues to say that it has recreated the issue on its end and that it's currently working on a fix. The VPN issue affects all currently supported versions of Windows: Windows 10 21H2 and 22H2; Windows 11 versions 21H2, 22H2, and 23H2; and Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019, and 2022. Microsoft says the problem was caused by update KB5036893, which was initially released on April 9, 2024.