Being second to market doesn’t mean being too late
In Sept 2021, in the middle of a global pandemic, James Leong and Joyce Lim packed up their lives in Singapore and moved their young family, including their three-year-old child, to Shanghai.
James had been promoted into an APAC regional role at his chemical raw materials company, while Joyce, coincidentally, was offered a China Representative position when she informed her employer of the relocation.
For a while, everything seemed to fall into place. But two years later, that sense of stability was shaken.
Joyce lost her job due to a company restructuring in Oct 2023. Then, in Mar 2024, feeling increasingly disillusioned with corporate life and sensing the fragility of long-term career security, James made a difficult choice of his own, resigning from what he describes as a “high-paying job.”
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I was sick of corporate life and knew deep inside that it was a matter of time before my career would be affected if I continued on the same path.
Now, with both of them no longer tied to the careers that had brought them to China, the couple began looking for something else: a business they could build on their own terms. In 2024, they founded NutriSmart Group to explore opportunities in the F&B industry.
They didn’t have to look far. At a catering conference in Shanghai, the couple came across BingXue: a Chinese franchise built around fresh fruit teas and a signature S$1 ice cream cone. James was struck immediately, not just by the affordable price point, but by the quality behind it.
They began to seriously consider bringing the brand to Singapore, but there was just one problem: back home, a nearly identical brand, Mixue, had already become a fixture. The Chinese bubble tea and ice cream giant had arrived earlier, built strong brand recognition, and firmly captured the mass-market space: affordable, accessible, and quality-driven.
Still, James and Joyce went ahead anyway. Not out of naivety, but conviction—believing that being second to a market doesn’t always mean being too late for it.
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There’s still room for another player
Image Credit: BingXue/ Travel & Food via Google Reviews
Conviction alone isn’t enough to validate a business. Before making any commitments, James and Joyce did their homework.
On the surface, BingXue and Mixue offered very similar products: S$1 ice cream cones, milk tea, fruit teas, and a range of affordable desserts designed for the mass market. The main difference between the two was BingXue’s stronger emphasis on matcha-based offerings.
Even so, the couple still believed there was a gap in Singapore’s mass-market F&B space—it was not fully served.
While cheap drinks are widely available in Singapore, many lean heavily on artificial flavours and lower-quality formulations. BingXue’s use of fresh fruit in its teas stood out in contrast, offering a sense of quality that was often missing at that price point.
And although Mixue had the first-mover advantage, launching in 2022 and already establishing a local footprint of over 10 outlets by 2024, there was still room for another player.
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Right place, right time for regional expansion
The opportunity to bring BingXue to Singapore came exactly at the right moment.
As it happened, the brand was already expanding aggressively across Southeast Asia, entering markets including Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia between 2022 and 2024. Singapore was a logical next market.
“When we approached them, they were genuinely excited about the opportunity,” James recalled. “They invited us to visit their production facility and headquarters in Shandong Jinan… the rest, as they say, is history.”
Image Credit: Dana, love ling via Google Reviews
After signing the Letter of Intent to become the master franchisee for Singapore, Joyce took on the role of market validator.
She returned to Singapore and spent full days stationed outside different Mixue locations—especially those in weaker locations—simply observing customer traffic and counting how many cups of drinks and ice cream cones were sold throughout the day.
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Because BingXue and Mixue target the same mass-market segment, the goal was to understand how well this type of concept was already performing in Singapore.
The data they gathered, combined with their understanding of the BingXue business model, ultimately gave the couple the confidence to commit.
A six-figure investment to bring BingXue to Singapore
Image Credit: BingXue/ David Park via Google Reviews
Though the couple declined to share full negotiation details, they invested a significant sum in the “high six-figures” to bring BingXue to Singapore, drawn entirely from their personal savings.
A large portion of this investment went into building the supply chain, including setting up import routes for raw materials, equipment, and inventory needed to run the stores in Singapore.
But the biggest challenge wasn’t just financial. It was finding the right locations.
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Singapore’s retail landscape proved difficult to break into, with landlords cautious about unfamiliar new brands. The couple faced multiple rejections during their search.
The scepticism was understandable. A new Chinese food brand with no local track record was a risky tenant for landlords accustomed to proven operators. But the couple’s persistence paid off: they successfully opened two outlets in Oct 2024, at Yishun Junction 9 and Changi City Point.
BingXue’s outlets at Yishun Junction 9 (left) and Changi City Point (right)./ Image Credit: BingXue/ Muhammad Shaifullah via Google Reviews
Opening one outlet at Yishun and another at Changi might seem random, but it was a deliberate strategy by the couple.
Junction 9 allowed them to test the concept in a community setting—a neighbourhood mall with a regular customer base. Changi City Point, on the other hand, offered high footfall and broad visibility, particularly due to its proximity to Singapore Expo, which draws visitors from across the island.
“Together, these two locations would give us a well-rounded read on how different customer segments will respond to BingXue,” James explained.
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Localising to Singaporean tastes
A BingXue outlet at Bonsai Garden./ Image Credit: BingXue
To better appeal to Singapore consumers, the couple didn’t bring everything over unchanged—they localised BingXue’s offerings.
One of the first adjustments James and Joyce made was reducing the default sugar level in drinks. Based on their observations, Singapore customers tend to be more health-conscious, so they set 50% sugar as the standard instead of the original formulation.
“It’s a subtle but important change, and customers notice it,” said James.
Beyond that adjustment, BingXue’s headquarters gave them flexibility with branding but maintained oversight on the menu and pricing. After all, the China team understood their product, but James and Joyce understood their market.
We work closely with BingXue HQ on menu and pricing decisions. On branding and marketing, we have considerable flexibility. They trust that we, as Singaporeans, understand our consumers better than they do.
The support from headquarters turned out to be far more hands-on than expected.
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Despite Singapore being a relatively smaller market compared to Indonesia or Malaysia, the founder and CEO of BingXue visited with senior management twice in 2025 alone. Daily WeChat updates, strategic guidance, and problem-solving became an ongoing part of how they work together.
Expanding BingXue to 12 outlets
In the early days, when James and Joyce opened their first two BingXue shops, customer confusion with Mixue was inevitable. Some walked in expecting Mixue products, only to realise after ordering that the two brands were not the same.
Many even asked if the brands were related. The couple often had to explain the differences and clarify that while the concepts were similar, the two businesses were separate.
Image Credit: BingXue/ Void via Google Reviews
Over time, as awareness of the brand grew, so did interest from franchise partners. Since launching about a year and a half ago, BingXue has scaled to 12 outlets across Singapore.
Securing retail space has also become easier. “Today, mall leasing managers proactively approach us with suitable units,” James said. “That’s a meaningful reversal from our early days, and it reflects the growing recognition of BingXue.”
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Most outlets have been able to break even within one to two months. But what the couple is most proud of is that many of their stores have been cash-flow positive from the “very first month” of operations.
In F&B, that’s rare—most businesses are bleeding cash in the early months just to keep the lights on. For our franchisees, that means from day one, the business is already covering its own costs and generating profit.
To support this, the team works closely with franchisees at every stage, from site selection and lease negotiations to renovations, licensing, and staff training.
Still, scaling hasn’t been without its challenges, especially in Singapore’s highly competitive F&B landscape.
Supply chain management has been critical, with the team needing to maintain healthy inventory levels without over-committing working capital, especially given the limited shelf life of key ingredients. Their logistics partners also had to scale in lockstep with the brand’s expansion.
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“Many can sell ice cream for S$1, but not many can make money”
Image Credit: BingXue
Singapore’s F&B landscape is only becoming more competitive. Coupled with the current global uncertainty in the Middle East, James expects transportation and material costs to increase significantly in the coming weeks and months.
To survive, he believes brands need to be clear about where they compete.
For BingXue, that meant focusing squarely on the lower end of the mass market. While margins are healthy in percentage terms, the low price points mean the business relies heavily on volume to stay profitable.
This is where economies of scale matter. By tapping into BingXue’s production capabilities in China, the brand benefits from lower costs at higher volumes—making it possible to keep prices low while remaining sustainable.
Many brands can sell ice cream cones for S$1. But not many can make money from this S$1. Even fewer brands can sell a good quality ice cream cone at S$1 and still make money.
From the opening of its first outlet in Oct 2024 to Mar 2026, BingXue has sold more than 1.2 million ice cream cones across all its Singapore outlets.
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Looking ahead, James and Joyce plan to continue expanding the brand’s footprint locally. Interestingly, while their early franchisees had no F&B background, they are now seeing more experienced operators come on board, an indication of growing confidence in the brand.
The team is targeting at least 50 outlets within the next three years. “With LOIs already signed and strong inbound interest from experienced F&B operators, the path to 50 is already being paved,” added James.
As for NutriSmart, the couple intends to grow it beyond BingXue, bringing in more overseas franchise concepts and building a platform that helps aspiring entrepreneurs start their own businesses with a proven model.
Huawei has officially shown off a wide-format foldable phone, and it is hard not to look at it and think about the iPhone Fold rumors all over again.
The unreleased foldable iPhone just got an unofficial rival with the Huawei Pura X Max. Huawei has already started teasing it through official materials ahead of its China launch on April 20. Image posters shared by the company show an unusually wide foldable layout that looks closer to a compact tablet when opened than the taller, narrower foldables we have gotten used to.
Huawei
Why the Pura X Max has everyone talking
The official images shared by Huawei show the Pura X Max in blue, white, black, and orange colors with a boxy, passport-like build and a triple rear camera setup. It looks like a super wide foldable, which is a format that has only been seen in rumors of future Apple and Samsung devices so far.
This is also where the iPhone Fold comparison really comes in. Recent CAD renders and rumors of the first-ever foldable iPhone shared a similar wide design language, rather than the conventional style seen in the Galaxy Z Flip or Z Fold models. But it looks like Huawei is taking the first step with a broader canvas, which should make reading, multitasking, video, and gaming feel more natural.
So no more awkward aspect ratios on the main screen. In practice, the wider main screen gives way to a compact tablet-like design when unfolded.
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Huawei
Why it is stealing hype from the iPhone Fold
The answer is pretty simple: the Pura X Max is real.
The iPhone Fold is still making the rounds in online speculations and rumors. Many of these are likely made up, render speculation, and supply chain chatter. Meanwhile, Huawei has an actual product with official visuals, a launch date, and a design that appears to answer the same “what should the next big foldable shape be?” question before Apple ever got there.
A wider ranging security incident reported by Google Threat Intelligence Group last week prompted OpenAI to take action around its certification process.
OpenAI said on Friday (10 April) that it would be working on safeguarding and updating the certification process for its apps running on MacOS following reports of a security issue around a third-party development tool.
The company said that it would update the security certification process for its MacOS apps through “an abundance of caution”, having found no evidence that OpenAI user data was accessed, that its systems or intellectual property were compromised, or that its software was altered.
A wider ranging security incident reported by Google Threat Intelligence Group last week centred around exploits of a third-party tool named Axios, which prompted OpenAI to consider and take steps against the possibility “of someone attempting to distribute a fake app that appears to be from OpenAI”, the company said.
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According to the company, this “unlikely” scenario necessitated it to revoke and replace existing security certifications for MacOS versions of its chatbot ChatGPT, coding tool Codex and web browser Atlas.
OpenAI said that Mac users of any of these apps are required to update to their newest versions to ensure compliance with the new security protocols, adding that “older versions of our MacOS desktop apps will no longer receive updates or support, and may not be functional”.
User passwords and OpenAI API keys were unaffected by the potential breach, and no evidence of “malware signed as OpenAI” had been detected, the company said.
It added that after 8 May, new downloads and launches of apps signed with old security certificates will be blocked by MacOS security protections.
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The potential security threat does not affect iOS, Android, Linux, Windows or web versions of OpenAI apps, the company said, and only users of its MacOS versions need to take action.
The “root cause” of the security incident was a “misconfiguration in the GitHub Actions workflow” that has since been addressed, according to OpenAI.
Last month, reports emerged of the AI giant’s plans for consolidating its chatbot, coding and web browsing tools into a single ‘superapp’ for desktop in the face of fierce competition from Anthropic.
The following week, it decided to shut down its controversial AI video generator Sora and sideline plans for an ‘erotic’ version of ChatGPT to focus instead on its core enterprise business.
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On April 13, Apple stopped providing downloads for the previous versions of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. Instead, download the Creator Studio versions of the apps that are still free.
iWork icons of both generations
Apple’s introduction of the Creator Studio brought with it new versions of the iWork suite to match. The new apps, designed to work better with the Creator Studio subscription, were provided while still allowing users to acquire the previous version of the apps. However, as of April 13, 2026 and spotted by @Aaronp613 on X, users attempting to acquire Pages, Keynote, or Numbers for macOS or iPadOS will not be able to get the non-Creator Studio versions. Checking the App Store and the Mac App Store, only the updated Creator Studio editions are available, with the old versions not shown in searches. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
Adobe has released an emergency security update for Acrobat Reader to fix a vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-34621, that has been exploited in zero-day attacks since at least December.
The flaw allows malicious PDF files to bypass sandbox restrictions and invoke privileged JavaScript APIs, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution. The exploit observed in attacks enables reading and stealing arbitrary files. No user interaction is required beyond opening the malicious PDF.
Specifically, the exploit abuses APIs like util.readFileIntoStream() to read arbitrary local files and RSS.addFeed() to exfiltrate data and fetch additional attacker-controlled code.
The security issue was discovered by Haifei Li, founder of the EXPMON exploit detection system, after someone submitted for analysis a PDF sample named “yummy_adobe_exploit_uwu.pdf.”
Haifei Li says that someone submitted the sample to EXPMON on March 26, but it had been sent to VirusTotal three days before, where only five out of 64 security vendors flagged it as malicious at the time.
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The researcher decided to manually investigate the issue after the exploit detection system activated its “detection in depth” feature, an advanced detection capability Haifei Li specifically developed for Adobe Reader, he says in a blog post last week.
Security researcher Gi7w0rm spotted attacks in the wild that leveraged Russian-language documents with oil and gas industry lures.
Following the receipt of Li’s report, Adobe published a security bulletin over the weekend, assigning the vulnerability the CVE-2026-34621 tracker.
Although the flaw was initially rated critical (9.6) with a network attack vector, Adobe subsequently lowered the severity to 8.6 after changing the vector to local.
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The vendor listed the following Windows and macOS products as impacted:
Acrobat DC versions 26.001.21367 and earlier (fixed in version 26.001.21411)
Acrobat Reader DC versions 26.001.21367 and earlier (fixed in version 26.001.21411)
Acrobat 2024 versions 24.001.30356 and earlier (fixed in version 24.001.30362 on Windows, and version 24.001.30360 on Mac)
Adobe recommends that users of the above software update their applications through ‘Help > Check for Updates,’ which triggers an automated update.
Alternatively, users may download an Acrobat Reader installer from Adobe’s official software portal.
No workarounds or mitigations were listed in the bulletin, so applying the security updates is the only recommended action.
However, users should always be wary of PDF files sent from unsolicited sources and open them in sandboxed environments when suspicious.
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Automated pentesting proves the path exists. BAS proves whether your controls stop it. Most teams run one without the other.
This whitepaper maps six validation surfaces, shows where coverage ends, and provides practitioners with three diagnostic questions for any tool evaluation.
The noise cancellation here works by combining active technology with passive design elements in the over-ear cups, and the Quiet and Aware modes let you toggle between full isolation and complete environmental transparency without taking the headphones off.
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That level of control extends to the sound itself, with adjustable EQ through the Bose Music app giving you direct influence over bass, mid-range, and treble rather than locking you into a house sound you cannot modify.
Battery life runs to 24 hours on a single charge, and a 15-minute USB-C top-up adds another 2.5 hours of playback, which covers the kind of mid-trip low battery situation that tends to occur at the least convenient moment.
Multipoint Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity keeps the headphones paired to two devices simultaneously, so switching between a laptop and a phone does not require disconnecting and reconnecting each time.
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The included audio cable with in-line microphone means the QuietComfort headphones remain fully functional even when the battery is flat, which is a practical fallback that wireless-only designs cannot offer.
Plush over-ear cushions and a padded headband keep the 240g build comfortable across extended sessions, and the carrying case adds a degree of protection for travel without adding significant bulk to a bag.
Worth noting is that the source lists these as not water resistant, so they are better suited to commuting and indoor use than outdoor exercise in unpredictable weather.
If you have been watching the QuietComfort headphones and waiting for the right price to act, $199 represents the most accessible this colourway has been in recent weeks, and limited edition finishes rarely stay discounted for long.
While many startups founded prior to the emergence of ChatGPT are struggling to position themselves for the AI era, Vercel, a 10-year-old dev tool and website hosting platform, is benefiting from the explosion of AI-generated apps and agents.
“When I started this company, only tens of millions of people could deploy,” Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch told the audience at the HumanX conference in San Francisco last week. “Now we’re seeing that everybody in the world can create an app.”
The explosion in app creation by non-developers has been a significant boon to Vercel’s business.
The company’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) has skyrocketed from $100 million at the beginning of 2024, as reported by The Information, to a run rate of $340 million by the end of February 2026, according to Forbes.
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Given that growth, Rauch was asked onstage about his IPO plans. He suggested the company is already operating with the discipline of a public entity. “Vercel is very much a working public company,” Rauch said.
As for when the debut will happen, he replied: “There’s no perfect timeline or quarter I can give. The company’s ready and getting more ready for it every day.”
2026 was expected to be a strong year for new listings, but a sharp sell-off in software, fueled by the fear of AI disruption, has effectively frozen the IPO pipeline. Aside from SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI, most talk of public debuts has largely ceased. Once any of those company’s go public, all expected to be blockbuster hits, the window may open again.
Techcrunch event
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San Francisco, CA | October 13-15, 2026
Meanwhile most tech CEOs have gone quiet about their IPO plans. But Rauch is telegraphing the company’s public market readiness, suggesting that Vercel is eyeing a listing in the not-too-distant future.
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When pressed about what Wall Street should know about Vercel, Rauch responded: “The total addressable market of infrastructure has now grown, and it simply has no ceiling.”
Vercel is betting that as more apps are created by AI agents instead of humans, the company will become the primary platform for hosting everything agents develop.
“Agents are very prolific at deploying,” Rauch said, adding that 30% of the apps running on the company’s platform already came from agents.
According to Rauch, agents will accelerate software production by making it easier to generate custom solutions than to purchase existing software.
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“All of that software… it needs to go somewhere, and we think it’s going to be Vercel,” he said.
Vercel was last valued at $9.3 billion when it raised a $300 million Series F led by Accel in September. The company competes with Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services for hosting services, and it also offers v0, a vibe coding tool for creating websites and apps.
As a researcher investigating how electric brain stimulation can improve people’s powers of recollection, I’m often asked how memory works – and what we can do to use it more effectively. Happily, decades of research have given us some clear answers to both questions.
Sensory memory, which can last only milliseconds, registers raw information such as sights, sounds and smells. These are first processed by the brain’s five primary sensory cortices (visual cortex for sights, auditory cortex for sounds and so on).
Working (short-term) memory holds and manipulates a small amount of information over several seconds or more. Think of this as your brain’s mental workspace: the system that lets you do mental arithmetic, follow instructions and comprehend what you’re reading. So it mainly involves the prefrontal cortex – the front part of your brain that supports attention, decision-making and reasoning.
Finally, long-term memory stores information more permanently, from minutes to a lifetime. This includes both ‘explicit’ memories (facts and life events) and ‘implicit’ ones (skills, habits and emotional associations).
For long-term memories, the hippocampus and temporal lobes – located deep within the brain, around the sides of your head near your temples – contribute largely to memories involving facts or life events, while the amygdala (near the hippocampus), cerebellum (at the back of the brain) and basal ganglia (deep in the brain) process emotional or procedural memories.
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Working memory often acts as a conscious gateway to long-term memory – but it has its limits. In 1956, the American psychologist George Miller proposed that we can only hold about seven ‘chunks’ of information in our working memory at any time.
While the exact number is debated to this day, the principle holds: working memory is limited. And that limitation can shape how effectively we learn and remember things.
But you can also get your memory working more effectively. Here are five easy steps for improving both your working and long-term memory.
Put your phone away
Smartphones reduce your working memory capacity. Even just having a phone nearby – no matter if it’s face down and on silent – can reduce performance on memory and reasoning tasks.
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The reason is that part of your brain is still subtly monitoring it. Even resisting the urge to check notifications consumes mental resources – which is why researchers sometimes call smartphones a “brain drain”. The solution is simple: put your phone in another room when you need to focus. Out of sight really does free up mental capacity.
Stop your mind racing
Stress and anxiety can take up valuable mental space. When you’re worrying about something or are distracted by racing thoughts, part of your working memory is already in use.
Relaxation training and mindfulness practices can improve both working memory and academic performance, probably by reducing stress levels. And if meditation feels intimidating, try breathing techniques such as ‘cyclic sighing’. Inhale deeply through your nose, take a second shorter inhale, then slowly exhale through your mouth. Repeating this for five minutes can calm the nervous system and create better conditions for learning.
Get chunking
Everyone can expand their working memory using the technique of chunking – grouping information into meaningful units. In fact, you probably already do it to remember some phone numbers or lists of words – breaking long sequences into bite-size chunks that your brain can recall as a mini-group.
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The same principles apply if you’re delivering a presentation, to help your audience remember your key points more effectively. Chunking would involve grouping 10 case studies, say, into three or four themes, each with a short headline and single key takeaway.
Repeat this structure on each slide: one idea, a few supporting details, then move on. By organising information into meaningful patterns, you reduce cognitive load and make it more memorable.
Become a retriever
In the 19th century, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus demonstrated how quickly we forget information after learning it. Within about 30 minutes, we lose roughly half of what we have learned, with much more fading over the next day. Ebbinghaus called this the forgetting curve. The light blue line on the chart below illustrates this.
The forgetting curve – and how to disrupt it
The forgetting curve. Image: Elva Arulchelvan (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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However, there is a way of ensuring that more sinks in when you are trying to learn a lot of information in a short period of time: retrieval practice.
When preparing to give a talk or studying for an exam, rather than simply rereading your notes, keep testing how much you remember. Use flash cards, answer practice questions, or try explaining the material out loud without notes.
Memory works through associations. Each time you successfully retrieve information, you link the material to new prompts, examples and contexts. This builds more cues to accessing the information, and strengthens each memory pathway. Often when we ‘forget’, the memory isn’t gone – we just lack the right retrieval cue.
Give yourself a break
Research shows that memory is more effective when study or practice sessions are spread out, rather than massed together. If you are studying for an exam, build solid blocks of downtime into your revision schedule. The dark blue line on the chart above illustrates how spacing out your practice sessions can help you remember more information over time, by adjusting Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve.
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One study suggests leaving gaps between each revision session that equate to 10-20pc of the time left until your exam or presentation. So, if your deadline is five days away and you do hours of revision a day, you should still take between a half and full day off in between sessions. In other words, don’t overdo it – you probably won’t see the rewards!
If you only remember one thing from this article about improving memory, make it this. Memory isn’t just about intelligence, it’s about strategy. Small changes in how you study or work can make a real difference in how well, and how long, you remember crucial information.
Elva Arulchelvan is completing a PhD in psychology and neuroscience for the Lab for Clinical and Integrative Neuroscience in Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland. She is also a lecturer in psychology for social work students in TCD. Arulchelvan’s PhD research focuses on memory and forgetting processes. In particular, her PhD research involves investigating peripheral nerve stimulation’s effect on memory and forgetting in both clinical and non-clinical groups.
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s house may have been the target of a second attack after San Francisco Police Department arrested two suspects for a reported shooting in the Russian Hill neighborhood. The SFPD said in a press release that police officers responded to a “suspicious occurrence of possible shots fired” at around 5:56 AM ET / 2:56 AM PT on Sunday, April 12.
SFPD’s Special Investigation Division took over the case and have since detained both 25-year-old Amanda Tom and 23-year-old Muhamad Tarik Hussein, seizing three firearms in the process with the help of a warrant. The two suspects were charged with negligent discharge.
According to the initial police report, as reported by The San Francisco Standard, two people inside a Honda sedan stopped in front of Altman’s property that spans from Chestnut Street to Lombard Street. The police report also noted that the passenger appeared to fire a round at the Lombard Street side of Altman’s property. The property’s security personnel reported hearing a gunshot and there was surveillance footage that recorded the incident, according to the report.
This could be the second instance of violence targeting Altman and his residence in a matter of days. On Friday, a 20-year-old man allegedly hurled a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s home, which caused a fire on one of the property’s exterior gates, according to SFPD. The San Francisco Standard reported that there were no injuries in either incident.
Carwow’s Mat Watson crossed the Atlantic to organize this unusual showdown on a California ranch. Two vehicles lined up for a day of flat-out racing, with little in common other than a price tag of roughly $120,000. On one side, there’s the Corvette Z06 designed for cornering, while on the other is Rivian’s full-size electric truck, which has four motors and enough power to move a home. Despite the comparable price tag, their approach to speed could not have been more different.
At first glance, or rather, by looking at the spec sheets, it was evident that these two cars were not a good match. The Corvette Z06 features a 5.5-liter V8 engine that delivers 670 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels via an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission. That’s a rather eye-watering setup for handling, but the real stats show the true difference: it weighs only 3,715 pounds, which is a significant benefit when attempting to travel fast. Meanwhile, the Rivian R1T Quad Motor produces an impressive 1,025 horsepower and 1,198 pound-feet of torque, but it all goes through a heavyweight 4-wheel drive system that weighs about 7,000 pounds. On paper, the truck should have been unstoppable from the outset, but the real world was a lot more unpredictable.
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The first test was a half-mile straight-line run, which began at roughly 30 mph in second gear to settle the engine and transmission before getting underway. The electric truck accelerated immediately away, thanks to its fast torque. It didn’t remain ahead for long; the Corvette soon came up and took the lead. Mat Watson later revealed that the truck had a bit of a limiting element, as it reached an electronically limited 112 mph early on. That means it couldn’t push as hard as the Corvette.
The bigger braking test came next, starting at 100 mph. Both vehicles approached the strip at full speed before the drivers slammed on the anchors. The Corvette stopped the quickest and remained rock solid thanks to its incredible carbon-ceramic brakes and small weight. The heavier Rivian took much longer to come to a stop and felt quite unstable when braking hard. That extra weight was certainly having a significant impact here.
The standing-start quarter-mile runs delivered the most drama. The Corvette edged over the Rivian by a hair in the first few runs, but the latter struggled to get moving under factory traction. Then Mat Watson came in and changed the settings to turn off traction control and enable full launch mode on the truck. Suddenly, everything changed. The Rivian caught up smoothly and sped down the track like a missile. In the last run, it crossed the line in 10.6 seconds at 130 mph. The Corvette clocked 11.3 seconds.
Like a lot of people, Ann Garner thought that shingles was a “mild” illness—until 2024, when she became sick with it herself. If she had known at the time that Norwegians call shingles helvetesild, literally meaning “hell’s fire,” or that the Arabic name for it translates to “belt of fire,” she might have been better prepared.
Shingles (herpes zoster) is a common viral infection that causes a painful skin rash and can trigger post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), a form of long-term nerve pain that can last for years. The English name derives from the Latin for “girdle,” as the shingles rash most commonly occurs around the torso, although it can affect the face and eyes as well, as Garner discovered.
One in three people will get shingles in their lifetime, but the risk rises sharply after 50 or for anyone with a weakened immune system. The disease is triggered by the reactivation of the varicella zoster virus, the same one that causes chickenpox when it first enters the body. The virus can lie dormant in a person’s nervous system for years until it reactivates—often, but not always, when immunity starts to wane due to factors such as aging, immunosuppressant drugs, or acute stress.
Garner, a 73-year-old retired pharmacy administrator from Wales, in the UK, feels sure stress was a factor in her developing shingles. She had been under intense financial pressure over a large tax bill when, one July afternoon, she felt a strange tingling sensation along one side of her hairline above her forehead.
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Within hours, the feeling had intensified—causing her severe pain—and began progressing down her face toward one eye. “It was like hundreds of invisible, tiny hot needles pricking my scalp and face,” she recalls.
Doctors recommended that Garner take acyclovir, an antiviral drug that can help reduce symptoms if taken within a 72-hour window of them appearing, and an acyclovir eye cream to protect her eye, as shingles can cause vision damage and lead to blindness if it affects the eye.
But even with treatment, Garner’s face and eyelid were soon covered in a hot red rash with angry blisters. “I couldn’t do anything to stop this sensation of being tortured by burning needles,” she says. “It was like my nerves were electrical wires that had been cut and they were fizzing and sparking.”
Despite shingles being common, it seems public perception has only recently started catching up with the severity of the condition. A 2025 study by researchers at the University of Bristol, UK, points to inadequate public health messaging and a lack of communication regarding patient experiences of the disease: “Limited literature about the experience and understanding of shingles suggests that people tend to think of it as minor until they experience it themselves,” researchers concluded.
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Many people also fail to realize shingles can have a significant and long-lasting impact on their lives, says Martin Sollie, a consultant plastic surgeon at Oslo University Hospital in Norway. Sollie conducts research into the surgical management of chronic pain, including exploring whether grafting fat onto the skin could help reduce PHN. In 2022, he led a systematic review examining how shingles affects patients’ quality of life.
His meta-analysis of five studies, involving 2,519 patients in the US, Europe, and China, found those with an acute case of shingles had quality-of-life scores 15 percent below the norm for physical health and 13 percent below for mental health. “We were quite surprised that it did affect quality of life so much,” he says. “We know that if you have chronic pain, your quality of life is affected, but it’s very uncommon for a disease that is temporary—and not deadly—to have such an effect.”
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