Posted by Beth Skwarecki

https://lifehacker.com/health/oura-ring-new-charging-case?utm_medium=RSS

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Oura has finally answered my biggest (yet perhaps pettiest) complaint about its iconic smart ring—it’s now getting a battery-powered charging case so you can top up the battery when you’re away from your home. The company first announced this back in October, but the charging case is now finally on sale. It's $99 and you need to make sure you order the size that matches your ring size.

The charging case is specific to the Oura ring 4. If you have a gen 3 ring, there are a few third-party charging cases available, like this one, as well as cases that can house your existing Oura charger of either version, like this one.

Along with the charging case, Oura's October announcement included new ring colors available in a ceramic finish, and finally, multi-ring support so you can switch between rings. At the same time, Oura also announced Health Panels, a feature that lets you book a blood draw at a Quest lab and view your results in the Oura app. Whoop had previously announced a similar feature, and Ultrahuman launched its Blood Vision earlier in 2025. 

Why I’m excited for the charging case

In all the time that I’ve been using Oura rings—since generation 2—the charger has worked the same way: You have a little circular stand that lives on your nightstand, and you set the ring on top of it, fitting it around a little cylinder shape that sticks up from the base. I’ve never loved this format; it’s too easy to send the ring flying if you catch your foot on the cord in the dark. It’s also not the most convenient for travel. 

Now, however, the Oura ring has a charging case. The case holds about five charges’ worth of battery, so you can top up the charge on your ring by popping it into the case, then closing the case and sticking it in your pocket. Or gym bag. (Weightlifting workouts are my favorite time to charge the ring.) Traveling with the charger is now simple, and you don’t have to worry about losing the ring if the charger gets knocked over. Other ring brands have been making their own charging cases in the meantime. RingConn comes with a charging case; so does the Luna ring that I'm reviewing now.

Now for the bad news: This puppy is $99, and it’s a separate add-on; you can’t get it in place of the nightstand charger when buying a new ring. Like the nightstand chargers, it’s specific to the size of your ring. For example, you need a size 8 charger for a size 8 ring. The new charging case doesn’t seem to be available on Oura’s website yet, but it should be coming soon. (If you can’t wait, or want to save a few bucks, I found this third-party case that holds your nightstand charger—either generation 3 or 4. It's not as sleek as the official one, though.) 

You can now swap between rings

Today Oura announced a new collection of ceramic rings in four different colors: white, navy, pastel green, and pink. The new rings have the same internals as the metallic Ring 4, so this isn’t a new generation of ring, just a new appearance. (Oura also notes that the ceramic rings should be more resistant to scratches, and each one comes with a polishing pad to keep its shine.) All colors are $499, the same price as the gold and rose gold finishes of the regular Ring 4.

With so many color options, Oura seems to hope existing members will splurge on a second ring. The company is rolling out multi-ring support for the app, another feature I'm surprised they didn’t have before. (When I’ve tested the gen 3 and 4 rings to compare, I've had to completely reset my ring to switch over, or else use two different accounts.) Oura says you’ll need to select in the app which one you’re wearing, so it’s not quite as seamless as the way Garmin or Apple handles multiple devices. (Garmin has me choose a “priority device” and then I can switch at will; Apple just sets you free to swap as you like, and it does its best). 

If you are done with your old ring after upgrading, Oura now has a ring recycling service that gives you a shipping label to send back your old ring. Any Oura ring can be recycled through this program, including old or broken ones. (You should factory-reset the ring first.) Rings you recycle won’t be eligible for returns or refunds.

https://lifehacker.com/health/oura-ring-new-charging-case?utm_medium=RSS

Posted by Meredith Dietz

https://lifehacker.com/health/your-smartwatch-doesnt-actually-know-how-stressed-you-are?utm_medium=RSS

Garmin displays a real-time stress level from 0 to 100. Oura calculates "daytime stress" and resilience metrics. For Whoop, it’s the stress monitor; for Fitbit, a "stress management score." However it’s branded, some version of a “stress score” has become ubiquitous across smartwatches and wearables. This number is marketed as a window into our internal emotional state, turned into quantified proof of how our day is really going. The only issue: these numbers aren’t all that accurate.

What your "stress score" actually tells you

The scores lighting up our wrists aren't measuring what most of us think they're measuring. When you check your smartwatch and see that your stress level spiked, you might assume the device somehow detected your anxiety about some direct stimulus, like a difficult conversation or frustrating traffic. But that's not totally accurate.

Sure, your watch might have detected physiological arousal—changes in your heart rate variability, skin conductance, or movement patterns. And while those signals do tell us something real about the nervous system, they don't really tell us about stress in the psychological sense you actually care about.

"Part of the discrepancy can be explained by different definitions of how stress is conceptualized," says Eiko Fried, who co-authored a 2025 study that found smartwatch stress measures did not align with self-reported stress scores for most individuals. The way most people understand the term "stressed"—as in "I was really stressed today!"—isn't the way Garmin defines its stress score, which measures physiological stress. So, your watch is not necessarily telling you how stressed you feel, just how your nervous system is behaving. "Such elevated activity can come from various sources," says Fried, "including many we would not typically consider a stressful experience."

Physiological arousal shows up in response to all kinds of experiences that have nothing to do with distress. "What most smartwatches call a 'stress score' isn't stress itself," says Erwin van den Burg, a physiologist who specializes in the biology of stress. "It's usually based on indirect physiological signals like heart rate variability, skin conductance, or movement patterns. Those signals tell us something about arousal in the nervous system, but arousal can come from many sources—physical activity, excitement, caffeine, poor sleep, illness, or emotional engagement—not just psychological stress."

The oversimplification becomes even more problematic when we consider that most stress algorithms fail to account for sex-specific physiology, particularly the menstrual cycle. Because hormonal fluctuations can meaningfully alter heart rate, heart rate variability, and temperature, "a perfectly healthy physiological shift can be interpreted by a wearable as 'high stress,'" says Emile Radyte, CEO at Samphire Neuroscience. This means women are more likely to receive misleading stress alerts for standard human biology, which can be confusing at best and anxiety-provoking at worst.

Can you trust your "stress score" at all?

Even setting aside the definition problem and the sex-bias issue, there's a basic question of measurement accuracy.

"When you have problems with your heart, your cardiologist may ask you to wear a chest-worn device for a few days to monitor your heart rate and heart rate variability. This is a highly accurate medical-grade device," Fried says. "Your doctor will not ask you to wear a smartwatch, because there are many issues that make wrist-worn measurement less reliable. This affects in particular heart rate variability, for which we need highly accurate measurements."

Heart rate variability is the cornerstone of most smartwatch stress scores, yet wrist-worn devices struggle to measure it with the precision required for medical-grade insights. The data isn't worthless, but it's noisy, and building definitive claims about internal states on top of noisy data is, well...scientifically dubious.

So is your wearable useless? Of course not. My critique here isn't that wearables have no value—it's just that the value they provide is being misrepresented. Your smartwatch's "stress score" claims to tell you far more than the science really supports. And in some cases, a less-than-ideal score may even increase stress, rather than help people understand what their body is responding to. The great irony of the wellness industry persists.

The bottom line

The way you think about "stress" doesn't translate to a single biological state, let alone one that can be captured by number or "score." Your watch simply detects signs of arousal in your nervous system, which could mean almost anything.

This distinction doesn't make the data useless, but it should make you a more informed consumer. It'd be nice if companies could stop using the word "stress" for what they're actually measuring—perhaps "physiological arousal" or "autonomic nervous system activity," which would be more accurate, but less marketable, so I'm not holding my breath. (Although, if I did, I'm sure my stress score would skyrocket.)

A device marketed to help you manage stress may actually create more of it by generating anxiety-inducing alerts about normal physiological variation that it misinterprets as distress. The sooner we're honest about that gap, the sooner these devices can actually help us, rather than selling us a quantified illusion of self-knowledge they don't really have.

https://lifehacker.com/health/your-smartwatch-doesnt-actually-know-how-stressed-you-are?utm_medium=RSS

Posted by Pradershika Sharma

https://lifehacker.com/tech/meta-quest-pro-sale-january-2026?utm_medium=RSS

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The Meta Quest Pro launched as Meta’s vision of what high-end virtual and mixed reality could look like without dragging a gaming PC into the equation. At $679.99 on Woot, it’s now $320 off its original $999 price and still more than $100 cheaper than Amazon at the time of writing. This deal runs for six days or until it sells out, with free standard shipping for Prime members and a $6 fee for everyone else. This headset won PCMag’s Best VR Headset award in 2022, and while it’s no longer the newest thing Meta sells, it’s still positioned well above entry-level VR in both build and capability.

Meta Quest Pro

$679.99 at Woot

$999.99 Save $320.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$679.99 at Woot

$999.99 Save $320.00

What you’re really paying for here is comfort and hardware that doesn’t feel compromised. The Quest Pro uses a balanced halo-style strap with the battery placed at the back, which spreads the weight more evenly than front-heavy headsets. That makes longer sessions more tolerable, though “long” is relative—the battery lasts around two hours, which can feel limiting if you’re deep into work or creative apps. Inside, you get a Snapdragon XR2+ chip, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, which is generous for a standalone headset. The displays push 1,920 by 1,800 pixels per eye, with better contrast and richer colors thanks to local dimming. In practice, this means sharper text, deeper blacks, and fewer washed-out scenes compared to older Quest models, especially in mixed-reality apps where clarity matters.

The controllers are another quiet upgrade. Meta removed the tracking rings and gave each controller its own cameras, so tracking doesn’t depend on where your headset is pointing. That pays off in tasks like 3D sculpting, painting, or precision-heavy productivity apps, where hand movement feels steadier and more predictable. Eye and face tracking also come built in, which lets avatars mirror your expressions in supported apps. It’s impressive, but not essential for everyone. One downside, according to this PCMag review, is immersion: The default open-style face interface lets in light from the sides, and full isolation requires an optional light blocker that costs extra. Still, if you're after a premium standalone headset with solid future-proofing, this is the lowest price the Quest Pro has seen, and a compelling offer while it lasts.

https://lifehacker.com/tech/meta-quest-pro-sale-january-2026?utm_medium=RSS