Long before you notice the symptoms of, say, the flu or COVID-19, your body starts changing in subtle ways. Taken individually, changes to your skin temperature, resting heart rate or respiratory patterns may not mean much. But when combined and compared to your baseline, they may hint that you’re coming down with something.

Research has shown that wearables can detect physiological changes from respiratory infections before symptoms appear. (It’s worth noting that they’re detecting the body’s response to an infection, not the virus or bacteria itself.) A recent study from Texas A&M and Stanford found that smartwatches may detect early signs of COVID-19 and influenza within hours of infection. The researchers estimated that encouraging people to isolate, get tested and seek treatment earlier could reduce pandemic transmission by up to 50 percent.

Of course, wearables, pandemics and the seasonal flu have been around for many years, but recent developments in AI and sensor technology could push things forward. Companies like Google, Oura and Whoop have all introduced some version of an AI coach or advisor in their apps, helping users make sense of their data. 

There are also features that aren’t labeled “AI,” like Oura’s Symptom Radar and Apple’s Vitals that piece together information from multiple sensors and compare it with your baseline. And the processing ability of the latest AI language models, like Google’s Gemini in the company’s Health Coach, will likely play an increasingly important role in tying it all together and suggesting actionable steps. But like proprietary recovery scores, much of that AI analysis will happen behind the scenes, offering little that doctors can reliably act on.

At best, AI health analyses will nudge people to seek treatment earlier. At worst, they might encourage people to substitute computer-generated advice for consultations with medical professionals. 

While today’s AI systems come with warnings to check with real-world doctors, there is still the risk of people taking wearable data or app insights as the be-all and end-all verdict on their health. Whether it’s information from a miniaturized sensor on your wrist or advice given by a chatbot on your phone, nothing can replace regular physical health checkups with doctors and medical professionals. 

The future of wearable health probably won’t be a smartwatch that diagnoses disease from your wrist — the fabled wrist Tricorder. Instead, it’s more likely to be a device that quietly watches for patterns, nudges you when something looks off and gives you another piece of useful information to discuss with your doctor.

Paraguay are the latest team attempting to stop free-flowing France as the sides meet in Philadelphia at the FIFA World Cup 2026 — and you can live stream the last-16 clash around the world for free.

La Albirroja’s tournament has been a story of resilience. Bouncing back from a 4-1 opening-game defeat by co-hosts USA to qualify as one of the best third-place teams was impressive. Yet absorbing wave after wave of pressure against Germany in the last 32 to snatch a 1-1 draw, before beating the four-time winners on penalties, was another thing entirely. Now, manager Gustavo Alfaro faces his greatest challenge of the tournament to date, as he seeks to stop a France side who have scored 13 goals in four games. Midfielder Diego Gomez should return after missing the Germany match through suspension.

Fourth of July update: The Anker Soundcore Boom 3I is perfect for pool parties, beach days and any other summer adventures, and you can pick one up for just $95 at Amazon thanks to Fourth of July pricing. That’s a $35 discount. While it’s not the all-time lowest price we’ve seen, it is a great bargain on an excellent portable Bluetooth speaker. Just be aware the only color in stock at the $95 price point is green.

In some ways, Anker’s new Soundcore Boom 3I is the spiritual successor to the Soundcore Motion Plus. It’s similarly shaped but has more of an outdoor adventure slant, with Anker touting it as “built for the wild” and billing it as the first Bluetooth speaker with playback in water, as it floats and “auto-corrects” to keep the speaker drivers facing upward just above the surface. All that adds to a perfect speaker for backyard hangouts or hot tubbing, so you might want to snag one on the cheap while the Prime Day deals are in full swing.

I’ve used the Soundcore Boom 3I for several months and have mainly been impressed with it, though the speaker is a lot easier to recommend to CNET readers at $35 off select colors.

As you’d expect from a speaker that promotional photos show strapped onto a kayak (it does have a detachable carrying strap), the Soundcore Boom 3I is fully waterproof and dust-resistant, with an IP68 rating. Anker takes things a step further, touting the Boom 3I as “5x” saltwater-resistant. “While typical speakers may rust in under five months, Boom 3I stays corrosion-free for up to two years of beach, boat and seaside use.”  

Read more: Best Bluetooth Speakers of 2026

You shouldn’t expect audiophile sound from a mono Bluetooth speaker of this ilk. But for the most part, the Soundcore Boom 3I gives you what you want from a portable Bluetooth speaker from a sound perspective. By that I mean it plays loud for its size — it weighs about 1.8 pounds and measures 8.3 by 3.1 by 3.3 inches — plus it puts out a reasonable amount of bass and has fairly respectable clarity. You can find speakers that sound a little more natural, but these types of rugged portable speakers aren’t designed for critical listening.

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I used it outdoors and inside in a few rooms, including a bathroom (it does make for a good bathroom speaker), and it was able to fill smaller rooms with sound. You can tweak the sound with the equalizer settings in the Soundcore companion app for iOS and Android and play around with the settings for the built-in beat-synched LED light show, which I kept turned off most of the time. You can also pair two of these speakers up in stereo mode and get significantly better sound.  

I tested the speaker’s playback in water by dropping it in a pool. It indeed flipped over, so the speaker drivers were facing up, and the music kept playing, though the audio got a little garbled when a little wave passed over the speaker, and the drivers started spitting water out. In other words, it certainly sounds better out of the water than in it.

One of the problems with Bluetooth devices is that Bluetooth doesn’t transmit through water, which is why you have to load MP3s into memory when using wireless headphones while swimming (you can’t stream music to the headphones if your head is underwater). I don’t know where the Bluetooth antenna is on this speaker, but presumably it’s on the side that stays above the surface when the speaker is floating. 

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You can actually activate a Buzz Clean mode from the app that makes the speaker vibrate and shed dirt and particles, like sand after a day at the beach. After finishing the Buzz Clean, you can then rinse off the speaker to get it truly clean. 

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The speaker also has another interesting feature: Holding down the “BassUp” bass-boost button for 5 seconds sets off a 96-decibel emergency alarm — Anker says it’s clearly audible at up to 100 meters — with flashing red LED lights. You can hit any button to turn the alarm off. 

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Battery life is rated for 16 hours at moderate volumes, which is decent for a speaker this size. It’s also worth pointing out that the Boom 3I has a Bluetooth range of 100 feet, which is better than the more typical 33 feet you get with many Bluetooth speakers.

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Samsung’s long-running Messages app is officially reaching the end of the road.

After years of gradually shifting users towards Google’s messaging platform, Samsung will stop supporting Samsung Messages on July 6. This marks the final step in its transition to Google Messages.

The move isn’t exactly a surprise. Earlier this year, Samsung confirmed it planned to retire its in-house messaging app. However, the shutdown date has now been confirmed through an in-app notice spotted by users.

Once support ends, Samsung Messages will stop working on Galaxy devices running Android 12 or later. If you’re using a newer Galaxy phone running Android 14 or newer, the switch will be even more seamless. In this case, Samsung will automatically replace the Samsung Messages app icon on your home screen with Google Messages.

Exclusive 4th of July deals are in effect at OWC, dropping prices for enclosures, docks, and Thunderbolt 5 cables to as low as $19.99.

The sale includes a variety of accessories for your Mac or iPad, with OWC’s 11-Port Thunderbolt 5 Dock especially enticing at $229.99 after a $69 discount.

You can also pick up a Thunderbolt 5 cable for $19.99 and a ThunderBay 4 Enclosure for $309.99. The four-bay Thunderbolt (40Gb/s) external storage enclosure for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA drives is a great way to expand your storage, especially if you’re a content creator needing an abundance of space.

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According to the research, as structural issues begin to limit growth, business leaders are urging policymakers to align strategies and revamp workforce development.

Ibec, the group representing Irish businesses, has issued a new report exploring the correlation between workplace AI and consistent learning strategies. 

The ‘Skills for all, skills for life’ report warned that unless there is a deliberate shift in the national approach to lifelong learning, Ireland will fail to capitalise on the long-term economic potential of AI. As it stands, Ibec found that 64pc of roles are going to require significant reskilling. 

The report, which was supported by professional services firm Accenture, suggested that by failing to proactively and adequately reskill the workforce in support of a transitioning workplace environment, a massive portion of the country’s competitive advantage could be put at risk, hindering Ireland’s ability to benefit from the “multibillion-euro opportunity being created by AI”.

AI is redefining occupational tasks, impacting roughly 82pc of working hours in Ireland according to Ibec. As a result, the workforce has to respond and adapt quickly, prioritising strategic investment, as “ leaders cannot afford to defer spending for a future crisis”, when the disruption to the workforce is “happening right now”.

Potential avenues for improvement are, according to the report, a commitment to treating the closure of emerging structural restraints as a shared responsibility among the Government, educational systems and employers; securing a strong graduate pipeline; and building an “AI-native” workforce. 

Commenting on the report, Kara McGann, the head of skills and social policy at Ibec, said: “We are just at the precipice of the change happening as a result of AI. As a country, we cannot be passive or hold back our intent or resources in supporting the transition required to meet the opportunities and challenges that will come with it. 

“We have a multibillion-euro training fund sitting on the sidelines, acting like it’s a rainy-day fund, when given the level of disruption that we’re seeing, we’re actually in the middle of a monsoon, facing the most profound and unprecedented technological shifts since the industrial revolution and simultaneously a global talent competition.”

She added: “While Ireland may not necessarily be a global hub for AI development, we can equip our workforce to be globally renowned as ‘AI natives’, which will provide a real competitive advantage for us. To achieve this, we need to considerably alter our approach to lifelong learning and its participation rates.” 

She suggested enacting a change that shifts the national mindset toward continuous learning, resolving the funding cycles of the National Training Fund and establishing an integrated AI reskilling plan, to ensure that Ireland becomes a net beneficiary of new opportunities.

Audrey O’Mahony, managing director and talent reinvention lead at Accenture, added: “Artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping how work gets done, not just how quickly tasks can be completed. As roles evolve, the real challenge is whether organisations are investing at the same pace in people as they are in technology.

“Building the skills that create value in an AI-driven economy requires more than access to tools, it demands a deliberate focus on capability, confidence and the redesign of work itself. Reskilling must be treated as a core business transformation priority, embedded into how organisations operate and how work is continuously reinvented.”

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Security

Third-party contractor compromise exposed health information and insurance billing passwords

AdaptHealth says attackers used social engineering to breach its systems and steal sensitive patient data, including passwords associated with insurance billing.

The medical equipment company disclosed the attack to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday, noting that attackers accessed internal patient management systems, document storage platforms, and external electronic health record system portals.

The attack targeted an unwitting third-party contractor, through which the cybercriminals gained entry to the company’s cloud environment, where they accessed business applications holding sensitive data.

AdaptHealth activated its incident response protocols soon after the attacker contacted the company on June 15 and disclosed the theft.

It did not specify whether an extortion demand was made, nor whether one was paid, and no cybercrime group had claimed responsibility at the time of writing.

The company’s response included disabling the contractor’s user account, resetting credentials, and implementing additional access controls. It believes the attack is now contained.

In addition to the “password file associated with insurance billing,” AdaptHealth confirmed that personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information of certain patients were also stolen.

Social Security numbers and payment details are not thought to be affected.

On June 27, AdaptHealth determined that “due to the nature and potential volume of the data that is at risk,” the attack can be considered material, requiring disclosure to the SEC.

The company did not comment on the exact scale of the attack or the related data theft, but said investigations continue to determine the scope of the breach.

It also said it “has since taken steps intended to mitigate the risk of dissemination of the exfiltrated data.”

The Register asked AdaptHealth for more information, including whether it received any extortion demands and what steps it took to reduce the risk of the stolen data being distributed or misused.

Pennsylvania-based AdaptHealth provides home medical equipment and related services for patients with chronic and serious conditions.

Founded in 2012, it specializes in respiratory, sleep, and diabetes therapies. According to a 2024 annual report, it serves more than 4.2 million patients across all 50 US states. ®

Shortly after increasing the lifetime version of the Plex Plan to $749.99, Plex has now introduced a new five-year option. One charging $249.99 for streaming media from your Mac to your iPhone.

On July 1, Plex significantly increased the cost of its Lifetime Plex Plan from $249.99 to a staggering $749.99. While consumers will have missed the boat to get the old pricing, they can still spend $249.99 on something that’s not quite as everlasting.

Subscribers can sign up for a new five-year Plex Pass. The new option, offered alongside the monthly $6.99 and annual $69.99 subscriptions, gives users a lengthy period of usage without paying a regular subscription.

The price, $249.99, will be familiar to users, since it’s the same as the Lifetime Plex Plan pre-price rise.

Good, but not quite great

It does still work out to be a decent deal for Plex users as they’d pay the equivalent of three and a half years of the annual plan for five years of usage. Or just under three years worth of the monthly plan price.

This is a bit of a cost saving for consumers. But it’s not as good as the old Lifetime offer, which did the same thing but without an end date.

The new plan certainly does help soften the blow of the Lifetime price rise to $749.99. But there are still some elements to remember.

The key one is what happens after the five-year period ends. Users will then have to either sign up for a new five-year or equivalent plan, or consider switching to a monthly one instead.

However, they won’t get any grandfathered pricing. Due to the inevitability of price increases over time, you can count on the subscriptions going up in price within those five years.

Consider your streaming choices

In justifying the price rise, Plex admitted that it had previously considered removing the Lifetime Plex Pass altogether. While recurring subscriptions sustain long-term development, the lifetime pass does not, and becomes less useful to Plex as time goes on.

The new pricing of that plan “reflects the real, ongoing value of the software we’re committed to building and maintaining for years to come.”

The severely high price of the Lifetime pass certainly does make buying one of the lower-tier options more attractive to users. Especially the new five-year option.

However, this also serves as an opportunity for users to consider whether to stick with Plex at all.

Other options exist, such as Jellyfin, which is free to use. It offers the same core streaming functionality as Plex, but it requires a little more work to get it up and running.