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I've written before about various software tricks to nudge a smartphone toward dumb-phone territory: stripping the home screen down to essentials, enabling greyscale mode, scheduling downtime windows. I tried all of it, and for a time it worked for me, but only in the way that hiding a bag of chips in a high cabinet works—technically an obstacle, but not really a barrier. One tap to "Ignore Limit," and I'm back to scrolling.

The problem is that the key to unlock everything is right there in your pocket. Turns out I needed a small device called Brick to physically restrain me create a physical barrier, and I can feel my screen time habits finally change for the better.

How Brick works with your smartphone

Brick is a small NFC fob—roughly the size of an AirPods case—paired with an app. You open the app, pick which apps or sites to block (or flip it around: choose only the apps you want to keep, and everything else gets blocked), name it something like Work or Family Time (or just Sanity), and tap your phone to the Brick to activate it.

That's it. And to get everything back, you have to physically walk to wherever you left the Brick and tap again. Each Brick comes with five emergency unbricks you can trigger from the app. I appreciate that those exist, and luckily, I haven't had to use them yet.

Why Brick actually helps you reduce your screen time

Here's the thing I keep coming back to: Every digital-based solution asks you to rely on yourself in the exact moment you're weakest. By the time you're faced with the "Ignore Limit" option, you've already picked up your phone. You're already mid-habit.

Brick changes the physicality of the problem. I've found that the greatest service Brick provides is that it doesn't ask you to resist temptation in the moment; instead, it forces you to set an intention earlier, then it makes that intention stick through physical separation rather than willpower. The research on behavior change says this is exactly the right approach. Environment design beats in-the-moment resolve almost every time. (I just apparently needed a $59 piece of hardware to finally internalize that).

I do have to be honest about how ridiculous this is for me: I spent a lot of money on my phone. And I have now spent additional money ($59) specifically to stop using it. Oh well! That's where my screen time had brought me. On the bright side, Brick is a one-time purchase with no need for a subscription or "premium plan." I'll admit I hesitated to make any purchase, given the irony of the situation and my desire to simply have more willpower. But I've realized my time and attention span is worth the cost, and I'm annoyed it took me this long to act on it.


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On Wednesday, Google announced "notebooks," a new feature for Gemini designed to help organize your research materials while using the company's flagship chatbot. Google says you should think of notebooks as "personal knowledge bases shared across Google products, starting in Gemini."

If that's a bit too vague for you, here's a simpler explanation: Notebooks are like Gemini chats, but designed to focus on a single topic, complete with bespoke resources Gemini can reference as you discuss that topic.

How Gemini's "notebooks" work

If you're a frequent Gemini user, you probably have a number of chats spanning any number of topics. The goal of notebooks is similar, but more focused: When you know you want to start compiling resources on a specific subject, you can choose the "New notebook" option on the side panel of the Gemini app, give it a name, then start adding sources. These can be from anywhere, including your Google Drive, your computer, websites, or text from your clipboard. You can also move previous chats into this notebook, if they're relevant to the topic at hand.

Once everything is in the notebook, you can start prompting Gemini and asking the AI questions about your topic. Gemini will then pull from all the resources in the notebook to offer detailed, relevant responses. Depending on your subscription plan, Google says you may be able to add more sources to notebooks, too.

gemini notebooks
Credit: Google

This tool isn't made in isolation. Despite launching in the Gemini app, notebooks will sync with NotebookLM, Google's deep research tool—which is perhaps its biggest perk. That means, notebooks you create in Gemini automatically appear in NotebookLM, so you can not only pick up where you left off, you can take advantage of NotebookLM's features. That means if you create a notebook in Gemini, you can open it in NotebookLM and turn your project into a video, or generate a "podcast" from your Gemini conversations.

I think this cross-platform syncing is probably the best use-case for notebooks. You could already share resources with Gemini if you wanted to chat about a specific topic, but now, you have a dedicated function for that purpose, one that automatically moves across Google's AI research platforms.

How to try notebooks in Gemini

Notebooks will be available to all Gemini users, even those on the free tier, but paid subscribers will have first dibs: Google is rolling out the feature to AI Ultra, Pro, and Plus plans this week, and will make the feature available to mobile and free users in the coming weeks.


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The StairMaster may be having a moment, but straight-up stair running has been around forever. As a runner myself, I know real-world stair workouts are one of the most effective and accessible training tools out there, no gym membership required. Especially for my fellow city runners without mountains or hills nearby—or really anyone looking to add some variety into their workouts—stair workouts are a great option to try.

What is vertical training?

Vertical training is exactly what it sounds like: deliberately incorporating upward movement into your workout. Unlike "flat" running, every step up forces your body to fight gravity, which changes the muscular demand, the cardiovascular load, and the mechanical stress on your joints. There are plenty of reasons why you'd want to add vertical training of some kind into your routine.

It increases posterior chain strength

Running on flat ground is largely quad-dominant. Climbing stairs, on the other hand, requires serious glute, hamstring, and calf activation. Over time, stair training builds the posterior chain strength that flat running simply doesn't, and that strength translates directly into faster, more powerful running on any surface.

It gives you stride power and explosiveness

Each step up is essentially a single-leg press against gravity. That builds the kind of explosive hip extension that makes you a stronger pusher-off at ground contact. Sprinters have used stadium stairs for decades for exactly this reason. You don't need to be a sprinter to benefit from it.

It's lower impact than you'd think

Compared to pounding the pavement, the uphill phase of stair running is surprisingly low-impact. The key is going easy on the downhill.

It increases your mental toughness

There's a reason the stairs are the end of the "Rocky" training montage. Training yourself to stay composed and keep your form when your legs are screaming is a skill that pays off in all areas of your life.

These are my favorite stair workouts

Before diving into specific workouts, there are some form cues to understand. You want to make sure you're driving your movement through your whole foot, not just your toes. Try to lean slightly forward from the hips, pump your arms, and keep your gaze a few steps ahead. Avoid letting your heels hang off the edges of steps, locking your knees at the tops of steps, or otherwise causing yourself to trip up or down the stairs.

With all that in mind, here are the stair workouts I like to do when I'm training for a race. Ideally, you'll warm up for at least five minutes before you start climbing.

This simple beginner stair workout

Simply climb continuously for 20–30 minutes at a conversational pace. If you are on real stairs instead of a machine, allow yourself to descend slowly each time. Focus on consistent effort, not speed. Cool down with five minutes of walking and calf stretching.

A posterior chain focused stair workout

After your warm-up, run up one flight hard, and then walk down slow. Run two flights hard, walk down. Build up to five or six flights, then work back down. Rest 60–90 seconds at the bottom between sets.

I know that what constitutes a "flight" changes depending on what you have in front of you, so use your best judgment. The goal is explosive, powerful steps—two at a time, if you can do it safely. Aim for a total session time of around 30 minutes.

And intervals stair workout

This one you can do on a machine or outdoors. Do 8–12 repeats of hard uphill effort for 20–30 seconds, followed by 90 seconds of easy descent and recovery at the bottom. You should be working at a 9 out of 10 effort on the way up. (For experienced runners, this is the stair equivalent of track 200s: short, sharp, and effective.)

The bottom line

Be like Rocky. Seriously, when I'm training for a race with any significant elevation, stair work is non-negotiable. But even if your goal race is completely flat, the posterior chain strength and raw efficiency of stair intervals will make you a better runner on any terrain.


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WhatsApp is finally getting a long-awaited privacy feature that allows you to display a username rather than your phone number, which will remain hidden from other users. This feature has been in the works for more than a year, with few details released as to its functionality and ETA. While it's still not rolling out to all users just yet, we now know a little bit more about how it will work.

According to WABetaInfo (and as reported by 9to5Google), WhatsApp is set to launch usernames to a very limited number of accounts as part of a phased rollout. This means that you may not have access to this update now—but you should consider the switch as soon as it becomes available to you.

How to add a username to WhatsApp

Once the username feature is widely available, you should see the option in your WhatsApp profile settings (go to Settings and tap your profile name and photo). On the pop-up, you can choose to create a WhatsApp username or select your existing Facebook or Instagram username instead. According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp has a handful of rules for new usernames:

  • Usernames can contain only lowercase letters, numerals, periods, and underscores.

  • Usernames must include at least one letter.

  • Usernames cannot start with "www." or end in a domain (such as .com).

  • Usernames must be be 3–35 characters in length.

Usernames on WhatsApp must also be unclaimed across other Meta platforms—so even if a username appears available on WhatsApp, you won't be able to choose it if someone else is using it on Facebook or Instagram. If you have an existing username on either of the latter, consider the potential privacy implications of making your accounts easy to identify across platforms before linking that same name to WhatsApp.

Along with a WhatsApp username, you'll also be able to set up a four-digit code, which other users will need to enter when they message you for the first time. Username keys allow you to limit communication to trusted contacts.


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ProPublica has a scoop:

In late 2024, the federal government’s cybersecurity evaluators rendered a troubling verdict on one of Microsoft’s biggest cloud computing offerings.

The tech giant’s “lack of proper detailed security documentation” left reviewers with a “lack of confidence in assessing the system’s overall security posture,” according to an internal government report reviewed by ProPublica.

Or, as one member of the team put it: “The package is a pile of shit.”

For years, reviewers said, Microsoft had tried and failed to fully explain how it protects sensitive information in the cloud as it hops from server to server across the digital terrain. Given that and other unknowns, government experts couldn’t vouch for the technology’s security.

[…]

The federal government could be further exposed if it couldn’t verify the cybersecurity of Microsoft’s Government Community Cloud High, a suite of cloud-based services intended to safeguard some of the nation’s most sensitive information.

Yet, in a highly unusual move that still reverberates across Washington, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, authorized the product anyway, bestowing what amounts to the federal government’s cybersecurity seal of approval. FedRAMP’s ruling—which included a kind of “buyer beware” notice to any federal agency considering GCC High—helped Microsoft expand a government business empire worth billions of dollars.


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Meta Superintelligence Labs has introduced Muse Spark, a natively multimodal reasoning model with support for tool use, visual chain of thought, and multi-agent orchestration. The release includes a Contemplating mode, which is rolling out gradually and orchestrates multiple agents that reason in parallel.

Meta Muse Spark

Prompt: Can you turn this into a sudoku game that I can play in the web? (Source: Meta)

Capabilities

Meta positions Muse Spark as part of its push toward personal superintelligence that can understand a user’s world. The model can analyze a user’s immediate environment and support wellness-related use cases through its reasoning capabilities.

The model integrates visual information across domains and tools. It performs well on visual STEM questions, entity recognition, and localization, enabling interactive experiences such as creating minigames or troubleshooting home appliances with dynamic annotations.

The company said it collaborated with more than 1,000 physicians to curate training data aimed at improving health-related responses. The model can generate interactive displays that explain information such as nutritional content or muscle activity during exercise.

Model scaling

Meta studies Muse Spark’s scaling across three axes: pretraining, reinforcement learning, and test-time reasoning.

During pretraining, the system develops multimodal understanding, reasoning, and coding capabilities that serve as a foundation for later stages.

Reinforcement learning is used to amplify capabilities and improve reliability, with gains that generalize to unseen tasks, according to the company.

Test-time reasoning allows the system to “think” before producing responses. Meta said it uses thinking-time penalties to optimize token use and multi-agent orchestration to improve performance while maintaining comparable latency.

“To deliver the most intelligence per token, our RL training maximizes correctness subject to a penalty on thinking time,” the company said.

The company added that increasing the number of parallel agents allows more reasoning at inference time without significantly increasing latency.

Safety evaluation

Muse Spark was evaluated before deployment using Meta’s Advanced AI Scaling Framework, which defines threat models, evaluation protocols, and deployment thresholds.

According to the company, the model demonstrates refusal behavior in high-risk domains such as biological and chemical threats. Meta also said Muse Spark does not exhibit the autonomous capabilities or hazardous tendencies required to realize such scenarios and remains within safe margins across evaluated risk categories.


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The Beats Studio Buds + are among the best in-ear noise-cancelling earbuds on the market for both Apple and Android users. Compared to their predecessor, they have longer battery life and better ANC, plus a sleek design available in three colors. Right now, the Beats Studio Buds + earbuds are 41% off, bringing them down to $99.95 (originally $169.95).

A more affordable alternative to AirPods (with the added perk of ANC and a more secure fit), the sound signature is bass-forward yet balanced, and, according to PCMag, “offer some of the best active noise cancellation we've experienced under $200,” which is even more attractive at the current $100 price point. The earpieces have a secure fit and come with four sizes of silicone ear tips. They have three mics, including a feed-forward, feedback, and voice-focused mic for crisp call quality. 

The Beats Studio Buds + support hands-free Siri, Bluetooth 5.3, and AAC and SBC codecs, though not AptX. While they don’t have an H2 chip like the AirPods Pro, they do have a longer continuous battery life. You’ll get around nine hours without ANC on, plus an additional 27 hours of battery life from the charging case. With ANC on, battery life will decrease to around 6-18 hours. It will take approximately two hours to fully charge from empty, and five minutes of charging will give you around an hour of battery life. 

Whether you’re using them for your daily commute, travel, or workouts, the Beats Studio Buds + earbuds are a comfortable and secure pick for everyday use—especially if you want to block out background noise—and that value gets even stronger when you combine that impressive noise cancellation with a 41% discount. 

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