The obvious advantage of a hoop is that it’s smaller and easier to wear across the clock, including while sleeping and exercising. But there are other benefits. I'm testing the RingConn Gen 2, which competes with the industry-leading Oura Ring. Unlike Oura Ring, Ringconn has no monthly or annual subscription fees.

Unlike most smartwatches, smart rings don't require day by day charging. The Ringconn claims a battery lifetime of 10 to 12 days, which seems about reasonable to me based on my usage. It's liberating to not need to charge it every single day, especially for those who wear it while sleeping. I also sleep with my Pixel Watch 3, so I actually have to search out a time through the day to charge it after I don't depend on the watch to trace my movements.

Unlike a smartwatch, rings don't have displays, so you could have to open the smartphone app to view your data. In most situations I don't find this bothersome, but when walking or doing other exercises it's nice to give you the option to see your heart rate and other metrics just by the watch. This is very true for those who don't like carrying a phone with you or whether it is difficult or dangerous (e.g. while cycling) to have a look at your phone.

Detection of sleep apnea

One reason I wear the ring is to judge my sleep. I suffer from sleep apnea and although my CPAP machine reports nighttime apnea events, I wish to get other readings to confirm its data. Apple just added sleep apnea detection to its latest watch, but most personal fitness devices don't try and report sleep apnea. Ringconn has added this feature to its recent ring. The company claims 90.7% accuracy, however the device is just not FDA-approved and I’m not aware of any peer-reviewed studies that may support this claim. In my experience, apnea events were measured some nights but not others, although my CPAP machine detected some events. Anything lower than five per hour is taken into account normal.

Although the numbers reported by my CPAP and the ring don't match exactly, they were close, suggesting that it appears to be an affordable approximation of what happened on the nights the feature worked.

Not for medical diagnosis

All major fitness equipment manufacturers warn users to not depend on their equipment for diagnostic purposes. You should see a physician if you could have reason to consider that you could have sleep apnea or one other medical condition. Doctors have much more accurate ways to measure apnea. But the advantage of a fitness machine is that it gives you a way of the way you're doing over time, not only an occasional snapshot from a medical sleep study. The same goes for other metrics you possibly can measure at home, including blood pressure and SPO2.

SPO2

Because of my apnea, I sometimes track my SPO2 while sleeping to find out my blood oxygen levels overnight. Fitbit (which is built into Google Watch) gives me a nightly average and range, but doesn't show the way it goes up and down over time. Fitbit only measures SPO2 when you sleep. The Ringconn measures SPO2 through the day and night and displays a graph of its highs and lows over time. There can be the choice to take an quick measurement.

I compared the outcomes to those of a pulse oximeter and to Wellue's medical-grade continuous oxygen monitor O2Ring Oximeter, which might be worn all night. Again, the numbers weren't exact, but they were close and trending in the identical direction. As with other metrics, these are indicators and never diagnostic tools. Sleep Foundation Recommends: “Anyone monitoring their blood oxygen levels should talk to their doctor about what level is right for them and what level should be considered too low.”

The Ringconn app also graphically records heart rate, which closely matches the outcomes from my Google Watch. When you click on the measurement icon, probably the most recent measurement and your current tariff are displayed. With most fitness watches, you don't need to press anything to get your current rate. The average heart rate, resting rate and range are also displayed.

Like many fitness trackers, the Ringconn reports heart rate variability (HRV), i.e. the variation within the time interval between heartbeats. “The variability of your heart reflects how adaptable your body can be,” it says Cleveland Clinic. “If your heart rate fluctuates a lot, this is usually evidence that your body can adapt to many types of changes. People with high heart rate variability are typically less stressed and happier.”

Sleep tracking

Like most sleep trackers, the ring measures total sleep time, time in bed, and sleep stages: awake, REM, light, and deep. It also measures respiratory rate and skin temperature.

Although sleep trackers are generally pretty good at measuring how long you sleep, they have an inclination to be notoriously inaccurate with regards to sleep stages. My results from Ringconn normally differ from those from Fitbit and my sleep tracker app. As Johns Hopkins Medicine points out: “They often measure inactivity as a substitute for sleep estimation. Most sleep monitors give estimates of how much you actually sleep. … Still, tracking devices can be useful for identifying patterns in your sleep habits.”

The ring's activity screen shows steps (very near what Fitbit reported), calories from activities, and basal metabolic rate calories, that are also near what Fitbit estimated for me. It displays the activity intensity ratio as a percentage of inactive, low, moderate, and intense, and permits you to track outdoor and indoor running and outdoor cycling, but not the larger variety of activities that Fitbit and lots of other trackers cover.

Diploma

While there is no such thing as a tracker that tracks all the things and is 100% accurate, the Ringconn seems to deliver pretty good results based on my two weeks of testing. At $299, the value is competitive with smartwatches, although you possibly can get Fitbit and other activity trackers for significantly less. For me, the undeniable fact that I only need to charge it weekly at most is an enormous selling point, and I feel the trending information it incorporates will prove useful over time.

Originally published: January 9, 2025 at 8:00 am PST

policy

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump escalated his personal attacks on his Democratic rival Kamala Harris on Sunday, repeating the insult that she was “mentally impaired” while saying she needs to be “charged and prosecuted.” change into.

Trump's rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, echoed similar themes to an event a day earlier by which he described himself as a “dark speech.” He told a cheering crowd that Harris was answerable for an “invasion” on the U.S.-Mexico border and “she should be charged and prosecuted for her actions.”

“The corrupt Joe Biden has been mentally impaired,” he added. “Sad. But honestly, I think Kamala Harris was born that way. There's something wrong with Kamala. And I just don't know what it is, but there's definitely something missing. And you know what, everyone knows it.”

With just over a month to go until the election, Trump is stepping up his use of private and insulting attacks, whilst some Republicans say he should keep on with the problems.

His proposals to prosecute political enemies are particularly notable for his or her departure from U.S. norms that seek to guard the justice system from political influence. In recent weeks, he has threatened to prosecute Google for allegedly publishing “good stories” about Harris, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and anyone he says is “engaged in unscrupulous behavior” related to the upcoming election. given priority.

Trump has long threatened legal motion against his rivals, including President Joe Biden and his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton. This month he threatened to jail those involved in “unscrupulous behavior” on this election, including poll staff, lawyers, political activists, donors and voters, once more sowing doubts in regards to the integrity of the election, including fraud occurs very rarely.

But he also has a number of legal problems of his own. He was convicted in May of falsifying business records in a hush-money case in New York. Sentencing is scheduled for November twenty sixth. He still has three other cases pending against him, including one which was dismissed by a federal judge following a Supreme Court ruling granting presidential broad immunity. The Justice Department is appealing. The other cases are on hold.

If he wins the election, he could potentially pardon himself or order the Justice Department to drop the federal investigation into him.

On Sunday he admitted he could lose in November: “If she wins it won't be so pleasant for me, but I don't care.”

His ridicule of the primary Black woman and person of South Asian descent to guide a serious party as “stupid,” “weak,” “stone-stupid” and “lazy” can be an indication of how nasty and private the finale is to the duration of the campaign could be.

His allies have publicly and privately urged him to speak in regards to the economy, immigration and other issues as a substitute.

“I just think the better way is to pursue the case that their policies are destroying the country,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-R-S.C., said Sunday on CNN's “State of the Union,” as she was asked about Trump's comments. “They’re crazy liberals.”

Asked whether he approved of the non-public attacks on Harris, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., dodged the query during an interview on ABC's “This Week.”

“I think Kamala Harris is the wrong choice for America,” said Emmer, who’s supporting Trump's vice presidential nominee JD Vance as he prepares for Tuesday's vice presidential debate. “I think Kamala Harris is actually as bad or worse than the administration we’ve seen over the last four years.”

When asked, Emmer said: “I think we should stick to the topics. The problem is that Donald Trump fixed it once. They broke it. He'll fix it again. Those are the problems.”

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who ran for Senate as a moderate Republican, brought up Trump's false claims that Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, had previously downplayed her black heritage. Harris attended Howard University, a historically black college, and has consistently identified as each black and South Asian throughout her political profession.

“I already confronted him when he had the only interview in which he questioned her racial identity, and now he's questioning her mental competency,” Hogan told CBS' “Face the Nation.” “And I think that's an insult not only to the vice president, but to people who are actually mentally disabled.”

Harris has not commented on Trump's recent attacks, but when asked about other comments, said it was “the same old show.” The same drained playbook we’ve heard for years with no plan for a way he would address the needs of the American people.”

Ahead of Sunday's rally, a few of Trump's supporters said he often made offensive comments. Still, they support his proposals to limit immigration and say he has a greater handle on the economy.

“He says what's on his mind and sometimes he says it's inappropriate,” said Jeffrey Balogh, 56, who attended the rally with two friends. “But he did the job. He did very well.”

Tamara Molnar said she thinks Trump could be very strong on immigration. Addressing his insults, Molnar said: “I think everyone has to exercise some decency when talking about other candidates, and I don't think either side is necessarily innocent in that. “There's loads being thrown in each directions.”

At the rally in Erie, Trump said the “invasion” would end and deportations would begin when he took office.

“Thousands of migrants from the most dangerous countries are destroying the character of small towns and leaving local communities in fear and despair,” he said, speaking of communities within the battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Last month, the GOP leader said he was “entitled” to make personal attacks against Harris.

“As far as personal attacks go, I am very angry with her for what she has done to the country,” he said at a news conference on the time. “I'm very angry with her that she would use the justice system as a weapon against me and other people, very angry with her. I think I have a right to make personal attacks.”

___

Associated Press author Jill Colvin contributed from New York.

The query of presidential candidates' ages is greater than 4 many years old. President Ronald Reagan responded to it with a promise to resign if he was stymied and later with a clever joke that took his campaign from a rocky debate performance to a landslide victory in 49 states and a second term.

“I will not make age an issue in this campaign,” Reagan said in response to the query he expected in perhaps probably the most famous moment in campaign history. “I will not exploit my opponent's youth and inexperience for political purposes.”

The crowd went wild, even Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale laughed – and Reagan’s re-election was back heading in the right direction.

Today, Democratic President Joe Biden, 81, is struggling for such a redeeming moment after his disastrous performance in the talk against Republican former President Donald Trump, 78. Those 90 minutes last week raised alarm amongst Democrats who hoped Biden would prevent Trump from returning to the White House – and heightened concerns amongst voters who had long been skeptical about whether either of the 2 older men should govern a posh country of greater than 330 million people for one more 4 years.

More than two dozen individuals who have hung out with the president privately described him as often sharp and focused. But there are also moments, especially later within the evening, when his thoughts are jumbled and he stops mid-sentence or appears confused, they said. Sometimes he doesn't understand the finer points of policy details. Occasionally he forgets people's names, stares into space and moves slowly across the room, they said.

Biden has vowed to remain within the race despite signs of dwindling support on Capitol Hill.

“I'm running … nobody is pushing me out,” Biden said Wednesday in a phone call with members of his re-election campaign team. “I'm not leaving. I'm in it to the end and we're going to win.”

But based on an authority who covered Reagan's health during his presidency, the query he faces is way more intimate.

“The most important debate of the campaign is currently taking place in Joe Biden's head: between the part of his mind that tells him he is the chosen one and the part that is more self-aware,” said Rich Jaroslavsky of UC Berkeley, formerly of the Wall Street Journal.

A nation that’s becoming increasingly accustomed to aging

At its core, the query—how old are you to be president?—is one in all competence. And Americans have never had more personal experience with the results of aging than they do today.

A wave of baby boomers retiring means hundreds of thousands of Americans are more aware of when someone is winding down. For many, Biden's hesitant performance during last week's debate was a well-known reality check due to that widespread experience.

Trump appeared more forceful, despite lying or misrepresenting a protracted list of facts. When he challenged Biden to a cognitive test, Trump let slip the name of the doctor who administered his test. For now, he’s retreating from the highlight.

“Is this an episode or is this a condition?” asked 84-year-old Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on MSNBC, reflecting the query that has been prevalent in Democratic circles this week. “It's legitimate – from both candidates.”

Reagan faced the identical questions even before he was elected because the oldest president up to now. In 1980, at age 69, he announced he would resign if he feared serious cognitive decline during his term in office.

“If I were president and felt that my abilities were limited before a second term, I would resign,” he told the New York Times on June 10, 1980. “I would resign for the same reason.”

However, that never happened. Reagan served two full terms and left office in 1989. In 1994, he announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He died in 2004.

Neither Trump nor Biden have made an identical promise, and their campaign teams didn’t reply to requests for comment Wednesday.

For Reagan, the difficulty of age took a back seat during his first term, as all health issues focused on his recovery from a near-fatal assassination attempt in 1981. It seemed he could be headed for a simple re-election, and debate seemed a natural environment for the articulate former Hollywood actor. But his appearance in the primary showdown with Mondale of the 1984 campaign brought the difficulty of age back to the forefront.

The president, then 73, talked and hesitated. At times he appeared to lose his train of thought, at others he seemed drained. No one had ever seen him appear in public like this, recalled Jaroslovsky, who co-wrote an article entitled “New question in the election campaign: Is the oldest US president now showing his age?”

Important differences between 1984 and 2024

Reagan's age – or relatively his suitability for a second term – was now indelibly a part of the 1984 campaign, a striking parallel to what is occurring in 2024 after Biden's shaky debate performance. But there are key differences.

Reagan led before the primary debate, while Biden and Trump were virtually neck and neck. On stage, “Biden was terrible from the start,” said Jaroslovsky, founding father of the Online News Association.

Reagan's aides said he was drained. There were jibes that the staff had overprepared him, Jaroslovsky said. Biden's team spoke of exhaustion from two trips abroad that had exhausted even junior aides. It had been a foul night, they said. Blame was placed on the president's advisers. Democrats on Capitol Hill complained that Biden's performance had hurt their possibilities within the election. And press critics claimed that reporters had did not hold the president and his aides accountable.

On Tuesday, pressure grew on Biden to drop out of the race and leave Democrats with a difficult process to nominate another person. The crisis gripped the Democratic Party just six weeks before its convention in Chicago. It isn’t clear whether Biden and Trump will debate a second time.

Reagan's big moment got here in 1984 in the course of the second debate within the thirty third minute, when Henry Trewhitt of the Baltimore Sun said, “You are already the oldest president in history, and some of your aides say you were tired after your last encounter with Mr. Mondale.” At this point, Reagan stood on the ground and suppressed a smile. He was ready.

Trewhitt noted that President John F. Kennedy (the youngest elected president of the United States) barely got any sleep in the course of the Cuban Missile Crisis: “Do you doubt that you would be able to act under such circumstances?”

“Not at all, Mr. Trewhitt,” Reagan said. He later explained, “I'm in charge.”

SAN PABLO – Discovering the world of fitness has modified the lifetime of Jennifer Hernando, founder and owner of Jenuine Fitness, a San Pablo gym that’s celebrating its fifth anniversary this month.

Hernando debuted Jenuine FitnessLocated at 510 Training Co. at 1085 Broadway Ave., in 2019, 510 Training Co. offers each individual personal training sessions and group boot camp classes.

The vision?

“Empower, inspire and motivate everyone around us. That is our motto,” said Hernando.

Five years — and a world pandemic — later, Jenuine Fitness, a woman- and Filipina-owned business, continues to welcome latest and familiar faces to its Monday-through-Saturday classes for all skill levels. This interview has been edited for clarity.

Q: When did you begin your personal fitness journey?

A: I at all times worked out, but I didn't really go to the gym with a plan. It wasn't until I used to be 30 that I actually desired to make a change. I had two young children on the time and desired to be healthy and robust for them in order that I could live a protracted life and watch them and their children grow up.

Q: What fascinated you a lot about fitness?

A: I loved how I felt afterward. I felt like I used to be getting stronger and didn't think I could do all of the things I did like lift heavy weights, do rigorous pull-ups or run fast without getting drained. My mood improved and I had lots more energy throughout the day because I used to be understanding. The physical changes were after all the icing on the cake. My muscles began growing all over the place. As a youngster, I used to be ridiculed for being “too skinny,” so it was very satisfying to see my body changing due to all my exertions.

Q: Were there things within the fitness environment that put you off?

A: Not that I can consider anything.

Q: What inspired you to open your personal gym? Did you ever have doubts about whether you might pull off the project?

A: I used to be given the chance to begin my very own boot camp program by 510 Training Company. From there, I've taken it to the following level and exceeded all expectations. Of course, I had doubts about whether I’d give you the chance to retain my members. Will my program be difficult or fun enough for people to want to hitch or come back in the event that they've tried it before?

Q: What are the toughest and best features of owning and running your personal gym?

A: The hardest part is the various hours I spend away from my husband and kids. I find it hard to find time for myself.

But the most effective part is constructing a community and being surrounded by a supportive community. Seeing members change physically and gain confidence over time. Hearing members say Jenuine Fitness is their favorite place since it provides them with mental therapy. Seeing my members get stronger and higher physically.
I even have the most effective coaches supporting me. Each of them has their very own individual training style and might adapt it to all ages and limitations – injuries, lack of mobility or range of motion. And I create programs that challenge my members.

Q: What five suggestions would you give to someone on their very own fitness journey?

A: Set realistic goals. Don't compare yourself to others. Focus on progress, not perfection. Be patient. Be consistent.

Name: Jennifer Hernando

Age: 43

Position: Founder, Owner of Jenuine Fitness

Qualifications: National Academy of Sports Medicine, certified personal trainer

Residence: Hercules

Five things about Jennifer:

— She was born within the Bay Area and raised in San Francisco.

— She became a mother at 24 and now has a grown daughter and a teenage son.

— She has an analogous twin sister.

— When she trains alone, she likes to take heed to slow jams and R&B from the 80s and 90s.

— When she’s not on the gym, she enjoys traveling, mountaineering, going to concert events and music festivals, trying latest restaurants, learning latest things, and spending time together with her dogs.