Tech
What’s Going on With Smart Rings?
If you’ve been following last year’s smart ring drama, you may have seen that the number of health-tracking rings you can buy has shrunk since October 21, 2025.
As we reported in August, the US International Trade Commission ruled in favor of Oura in a patent case in which Oura alleged that its competitors RingConn and Ultrahuman had infringed on the company’s patent for a smart ring that tracks health and fitness stats. Oura’s victory subsequently led to RingConn and Ultrahuman being banned from importing new rings into the US.
The lawsuit was bad news for both Oura competitors, and especially Ultrahuman, which had planned to expand its US-based manufacturing facility to meet growing market demand (and ostensibly to also get around the new US tariffs). Ultrahuman is distinguished from Oura in that its smart ring does not have a subscription; Oura users pay $6 per month to use its rings.
I caught up briefly with Ultrahuman’s chief business officer, Bhuvan Srinivasan, to clarify the company’s next steps to address the US market, and find out more about the latest smart ring squabbles.
Why Were the Rings Banned?
The ITC ruled that RingConn and Ultrahuman had infringed on the 178 patent, which protects a specific ring hardware design—for example, if the ring has a layered arrangement with internal and external components housing interior electrical components.
If you think this is a surprisingly broad description that can cover … well, pretty much any smart ring, or a wide range of electronic devices in general, you are correct. Over the past few years, many smart ring manufacturers have been embroiled in legal disputes over this patent.
This has panned out in a few different ways. In 2024, Oura announced that it had reached a multi-year licensing agreement with Circular, the French smart ring manufacturer, that would allow Circular to continue selling new rings in the US. (This move looks a little less generous when you consider that my two-week testing period of the Circular Ring 2 was plagued with server and connection issues.)
Also in 2024, Samsung attempted to preemptively sue Oura against future patent infringement claims in a case which a judge dismissed. Samsung’s concerns were not unwarranted. In late 2025, Oura then filed another complaint against Samsung (the Galaxy Ring), Reebok (the Reebok smart ring), Zepp Health (Amazfit ring), and Nexxbase (the Luna Ring). Oura then reached a licensing agreement with RingConn and another competitor, Omate, that would allow the company to continue selling rings in the United States.
Tech
The Oceans Just Keep Getting Hotter
Since 2018, a group of researchers from around the world have crunched the numbers on how much heat the world’s oceans are absorbing each year. In 2025, their measurements broke records once again, making this the eighth year in a row that the world’s oceans have absorbed more heat than the years before.
The study, which was published Friday in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Science, found that the world’s oceans absorbed an additional 23 zettajoules’ worth of heat in 2025, the most in any year since modern measurements began in the 1960s. That’s significantly higher than the 16 additional zettajoules they absorbed in 2024. The research comes from a team of more than 50 scientists across the United States, Europe, and China.
A joule is a common way to measure energy. A single joule is a relatively small unit of measurement—it’s about enough to power a tiny lightbulb for a second, or slightly heat a gram of water. But a zettajoule is one sextillion joules; numerically, the 23 zettajoules the oceans absorbed this year can be written out as 23,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
John Abraham, a professor of thermal science at the University of St. Thomas and one of the authors on the paper, says that he sometimes has trouble putting this number into contexts laypeople understand. Abraham offers up a couple options. His favorite is comparing the energy stored in the ocean to the energy of atomic bombs: The 2025 warming, he says, is the energetic equivalent to 12 Hiroshima bombs exploding in the ocean. (Some other calculations he’s done include equating this number to the energy it would take to boil 2 billion Olympic swimming pools, or more than 200 times the electrical use of everyone on the planet.)
“Last year was a bonkers, crazy warming year—that’s the technical term,” Abraham joked to me. “The peer-reviewed scientific term is ‘bonkers’.”
The world’s oceans are its largest heat sink, absorbing more than 90 percent of the excess warming that is trapped in the atmosphere. While some of the excess heat warms the ocean’s surface, it also slowly travels further down into deeper parts of the ocean, aided by circulation and currents.
Global temperature calculations—like the ones used to determine the hottest years on record—usually only capture measurements taken at the ocean’s surface. (The study finds that overall sea surface temperatures in 2025 were slightly lower than they were in 2024, which is on record as the hottest year since modern records began. Some meteorological phenomena, like El Niño events, can also raise sea surface temperatures in certain regions, which can cause the overall ocean to absorb slightly less heat in a given year. This helps to explain why there was such a big jump in added ocean heat content between 2025, which developed a weak La Niña at the end of the year, and 2024, which came at the end of a strong El Niño year.) While sea surface temperatures have risen since the industrial revolution, thanks to our use of fossil fuels, these measurements don’t provide a full picture of how climate change is affecting the oceans.
“If the whole world was covered by a shallow ocean that was only a couple feet deep, it would warm up more or less at the same speed as the land,” says Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at Berkeley Earth and a coauthor of the study. “But because so much of that heat is going down in the deep ocean, we see generally slower warming of sea surface temperatures [than those on land].”
Tech
Skullcandy Headphone Deals: Crusher Evo, ANC 2, PLYR 720 and More
Skullcandy headphones aren’t always the sharpest tools in the proverbial shed, but they do have cool looks and have affordable price tags, and that gets even better with these Skullcandy promo codes on a few of the brand’s top products. If you’re after a pair of in-ear, open-ear, or over-ear headphones, Skullcandy has cut prices on several of its headphones, making now a decent time to buy. Plus, make sure you check out our Skullcandy coupons above for even more savings.
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Right now, you can get nearly half off (47% off) Skullcandy Crusher Evo Headphones. We haven’t tested these sleek over-ear headphones, but they look nice and likely have solid performance. They come in many different colors, which is the main appeal of many Skullcandy headphones; they match your own personal style.
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Open earbuds are a great way to hear the world around you while also tuning into your favorite music, audiobook, or podcast. We really like using them when working out in nature or working in the yard, where hearing someone honk or yell at you can be helpful. Skullcandy Push 720 Open Earbuds are 35% off right now; so if you’ve been curious about open earbuds, now’s a great time to buy.
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The Skullcandy Crusher ANC 2 are over-ear headphones that come with a leopard print finish, which should appeal to anyone who is tired of boring black over-ear headphones. They also have active noise canceling, which should help tune out any errant roars. They are on sale for a limited time, at 36% off.
Take Your Gaming to the Next Level With Crusher PLYR 720 Headphones
Folks who want a gaming headset will be happy with the swivel-based mic on the Crusher Plyr 720 (now on discount at 33% off) allowing them to easily chat with friends and foes during tense online gaming sessions.
Shop the Skullcandy Sales to Save on Headphones, Earbuds, and Speakers
Don’t see what you’re looking for here? Be sure to check out the full list of Skullcandy options on sale right now on the company’s website. I’d also recommend looking at our Skullcandy discount codes and coupons, which rotate often to make sure you’re getting the best deals possible.
Tech
ICE Agent Who Reportedly Shot Renee Good Was a Firearms Trainer, Per Testimony
Jonathan Ross, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer identified by multiple news outlets as the federal agent who shot 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday, is a veteran deportation officer in ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, according to sworn testimony from the federal district court in Minnesota obtained by WIRED. A member of a Special Response Team, ICE’s version of a SWAT team, he’s had duties as a firearms trainer and led teams drawn from multiple federal agencies including the FBI, Ross testified.
The testimony stems from a December 2025 trial related to a June incident with parallels to the interaction that led to Good’s killing.
In June according to Ross’s testimony, he led a team seeking to apprehend a man named Roberto Carlos Muñoz-Guatemala, who was on an administrative warrant for being in the United States without authorization. Because the man’s home was across from a school and immigration agents had no authority to enter his home, Ross testified, they instead trailed him in unmarked vehicles.
Muñoz-Guatemala’s attorney did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
According to the December testimony and a New York Times account of an FBI agent’s affidavit associated with the case, Ross approached Muñoz-Guatemala and asked him to roll down his window and open his door. Ross, who testified that he had been driving an unmarked vehicle, was dressed in ranger green and grey, and wore his badge on his belt, broke the driver’s side back window and reached into the vehicle, at which point Muñoz-Guatemala pulled away.
While being dragged at a speed he claimed seemed like “40 miles an hour at least, if not more,” Ross pulled out his Taser and fired it at the driver. Muñoz-Guatemala continued to drive, and succeeded in shaking Ross from the car. At trial, Ross testified that he suffered injuries that required 33 stitches.
According to the affidavit, Muñoz-Guatemala called 911 to report that he’d been assaulted by ICE, which led to his arrest. Last month, he was convicted of assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.
Reports from the Minnesota Star-Tribune and The Guardian identified Ross as the shooter who killed Good, a mother and recent transplant to Minneapolis, during an immigration enforcement action in the city. Video of the incident appears to show a federal agent firing shots into Good’s vehicle as she attempted to leave the scene. The officer did not appear to have been struck by the vehicle, and Good appeared to be turning the wheel to avoid contact, video analysis by The New York Times and the Washington Post shows.
At Thursday’s White House press briefing, vice president JD Vance answered questions about the incident, and his responses included numerous identifying details about Ross, mainly relating to his interaction with Muñoz-Guatemala. “That very ICE officer nearly had his life ended, dragged by a car, six months ago, 33 stitches in his leg,” said Vance, “so you think maybe he is a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile?”
Department of Homeland Security secretary Kirsti Noem has repeatedly described Good’s actions as an intentional act of “domestic terrorism.” An FBI investigation into Good’s killing is ongoing.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told WIRED in a statement that the department is “not going to expose the name of this officer. He acted according to his training.” McLaughlin added that federal immigration agents “are under constant threat from violent agitators” because of “doxxing” and that the Minnesota Star Tribune, which first published Ross’ name, “should delete their story immediately.”According to Ross’ December testimony, he served in the Indiana National Guard and was deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005 as a machine gunner on a patrol truck, then joined Border Patrol in 2007 after finishing college, working near El Paso, Texas.
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