Growl makes a subscription-based interactive punching bag

If you're looking for a boxing trainer in your home, Growl is a startup looking to launch a wall-mounted fitness device made to address your needs. The Growl device encourages interactivity with its screen that doubles as your punching bag. It uses sensors and projectors to bring this concept to life.

Using projectors also helps make the experience more immersive. The main screen, which is half a punching bag's size, promises resistance similar to the real thing. There's even a life-size virtual trainer you can throw punches at or play interactive fitness games similar to Beat Saber but for punches. It will detect when you've punched it via infrared time-of-flight sensors, turning the screen into a large touchscreen of sorts.

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Report: Amazon seeks to license news content for revamped Amazon Alexa voice assistant

Photo: Amazon

Amazon wants to boost the generative artificial intelligence capabilities of its Alexa voice assistant. And they want the help of news publishers. Amazon is reportedly seeking licensing agreements with news publishers to allow it to respond to real-time queries about the news.

Alexa currently offers answers from sources like Reuters, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Associated Press, and more. However, it isn't set up to provide real-time answers for breaking news. So, Amazon wants to change this with the updated version of Alexa, which is expected to come out next year.

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Threads introduces advanced search filters

Image: Meta

Meta is trying to keep its Threads competition at bay with a new update for its search option. It's not quite as comprehensive as what you'll see on X but it at least allows you to narrow your queries by keywords, language, exact phrases, hashtags, excluded words, and more. As Tech Crunch pointed out, it brings the social site more on par with Bluesky's search options. But the Bluesky app doesn't show all the filtering options yet.

Before this update, Threads would only show a keyword or keywords and filter these through "Top" or posts with the most engagements, and "Recent" or the latest posts. This new search feature is going to be rolled out to users in the coming weeks.

SOURCE | VIA

Google rolls out Waze incident alerts on Maps

Image: Google via Tech Radar

What separates Google Maps from Waze is the community-driven traffic incident alerts you get on the latter. But that feature looks like it's coming to Maps. Users are now seeing Waze traffic alerts in the app with the words "From Waze drivers" in the pop-ups. Google announced this integration back in July, but it's been getting a broader release in time for the holiday driving season.

As Tech Radar pointed out, Google Maps has been asking drivers to offer traffic incident updates for a while now. But the alerts coming from Waze are a new addition. These notifications are for incidents like lane closures, nearby construction, and the like. It does hint at Google possibly integrating Waze into Maps, which they have said in the past that they won't do. But we can't say for sure that Google will keep its word. We all know what happened to Fitbit after all.

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