turning leaves

Posted by Beth Skwarecki

https://lifehacker.com/health/what-is-hyrox-fitness-competition?utm_medium=RSS

A few years ago, if you knew somebody who was into being strong and fast, who called themselves a “hybrid” athlete, or if they spent a lot of time on the rower and doing wall balls, they were probably into Crossfit, or one of the Crossfit-adjacent functional fitness gyms. But these days they’re more likely to be into Hyrox. Hyrox is a new sport—not just a workout style—that has taken off in a big way. 

Perhaps your gym (or workout app, like Peloton) has started offering Hyrox classes, or you noticed that the new Amazfit fitness tracker was first teased through a Hyrox partnership. To help you understand the trend, here’s an explainer of what exactly Hyrox involves, why people like it, and where you can learn more if you’re intrigued. 

Hyrox’s origins

Hyrox is a young sport, and was started by a company that holds a trademark for the name. (In that way it’s a bit like Crossfit, which is also a company, not just a term for a style of working out.) 

It’s been said that Hyrox is short for “hybrid rockstar,” since “hybrid” is a term that athletes often use when they feel they’re neither endurance athletes nor strength athletes, but something in between. 

The company hasn’t confirmed this theory. According to reporting from Hybrid Fitness Media, the company’s founders originally wanted the name “CuRox,” from the Latin verb currere, which refers to running. Even in those days they were referring to athletes as “roxstars,” so the theory is at least half true. The company adopted the name Hyrox after a trademark dispute with another company, and held its first race at a trade fair in Leipzig, Germany in 2018. 

Hyrox has structured competitions

Unlike Crossfit competitions, which may include just about anything in any format, Hyrox’s competitions always follow the same predictable format. Much like running a marathon, you can compare your time in a Hyrox race to what others have done. The race includes eight 1-kilometer runs (adding up to about 5 miles) with stations in between. Here’s the order: 

• 1 km run, then 1000 meters on a ski erg (a machine where you pull two cords downward toward the ground, in a motion slightly reminiscent of using ski poles) 

• 1 km run, then 50 meter sled push

• 1 km run, then 50 meter sled pull

• 1 km run, then 80 meters of burpee broad jumps

• 1 km run, then 1000 meters on a rowing machine

• 1 km run, then a 200 meter farmer’s carry (walking while carrying kettlebells in both hands)

• 1 km run, then 100 meters of lunges while carrying a sandbag on your back

• 1 km run, then 100 wall balls (where you squat and then throw a ball upward toward a target on a wall)

Elite Hyrox athletes can do all of that in about an hour. The average experienced competitor takes around 90 minutes, and beginners are obviously a bit slower. The weights of the kettlebells, sandbags, and wall balls depend on which division you’re competing in (men’s or women’s, pro or open). There are also doubles and relay formats.

Hyrox’s workouts are easy to start doing

Hyrox events are hard work, but they aren’t too difficult skill-wise. You won’t see barbell snatches like in Olympic weightlifting, or handstand walks like in the Crossfit games. For this reason, it’s relatively beginner-friendly. 

The events also give competitors a mix of strength and endurance work, skewed toward endurance. Running is obviously an endurance sport, and while the eight stations use more strength and power, you still have to do a lot of reps in a row, so pacing yourself is important. 

Hyrox classes and communities are popping up everywhere

Part of the fun of Hyrox is training for it alongside others, or so I’ve heard. While you can train for a marathon on your own, training for a Hyrox race means you need access to a rowing machine, a ski erg, and a wall with an appropriate wall ball target—most of which are hard to find outside of a gym oriented toward those events. (That said, most Crossfit gyms and many commercial gyms can provide these things.) 

To find a Hyrox club near you, Hyrox has a locator on its website. Also consider checking with gyms and fitness clubs to see if they may have started offering Hyrox classes or training groups. 

https://lifehacker.com/health/what-is-hyrox-fitness-competition?utm_medium=RSS

Posted by Stephen Johnson

https://lifehacker.com/entertainment/best-vr-experiences-meta-quest?utm_medium=RSS

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Most people strap on a VR headset to shoot zombies, socialize, or watch movies, but there’s growing collection of virtual reality experiences on Meta Quest headsets that aim at something other than escapism. They’re about history, empathy, or just immersing yourself in a weird job you’d never try in real life. Below are some of the most interesting non-game experiences I’ve tried in VR: some are educational, some are artsy, and some are so realistic they made me sick, but all of them prove that VR has more to offer than just games.

On the Morning You Wake (To the End of the World)

Remember that day back in 2018 when the United States Emergency Alert System mistakenly sent every residents of Hawaii a text alert that read, “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL”? It probably didn't seem like too big of a deal to you, but that’s because you weren’t in Hawaii at the time. If you had been, you’d have spent 38 minutes—that’s how long it took for the clarifying follow-up text to arrive—in a world where the end of everything was coming. It was not a drill, and all you could do was wait for the flash. On the Morning You Wake (To the End of the World) is an evocative VR documentary that examines how those 38 minutes changed people’s lives, what it feels like to know the end has come, and how scary it is that the next ballistic missile text probably won’t be a mistake.

Titanic VR

It’s not exactly fun to be on the deck of the Titanic just before it sinks, but it’s really interesting—through some goggles, anyway. Titanic VR features an immersive, 360 cutscene where you float away on one of The Titanic’s few lifeboats, meet “the unsinkable” Molly Brown, and watch helplessly as the massive ocean liner slips into the cold North Atlantic, taking 1,500 or so passengers to their watery graves. Then you can fast forward to the present for an interactive simulation where you are a maritime archeologist who pilots a submersible to visit the sunken wreck of The Titanic. Your mission is to discover, recover, and preserve historical artifacts. I tried very hard to slam into the wreckage and go out with a bang, but it’s not that kind of experience.  

Anne Frank House VR

This poignant VR experience lets you walk through a faithful recreation of the Secret Annex in Amsterdam where Anne Frank, her family, and others hid from Nazis for two years. Once you open the hidden door behind the bookcase in Anne Frank House VR, there are no avatars and no narration beyond occasional selections from Anne’s diary spoken into the stillness. There are no goals or tasks to fulfill, leaving you alone with the weight of history, free to make what sense you can of the things that were left behind. Here is the small kitchen table where Anne Frank ate her meals. There is the narrow bed where she shared a first kiss with Peter. Here are the pictures she cut from movie magazines and taped on the wall. Mercifully, there is no sudden bang on the door announcing the arrival of the Gestapo; it would be too much to take. 

Mission: ISS

It’s sad, but you and I are never going to outer space. The closest we’ll probably get is the virtual reality experience offered by Mission: ISS, a realistic space travel sim that lets you float around in zero gravity as you orbit Earth in the International Space Station, dock a space capsule, and take a spacewalk. Sadly, I wasn’t able to experience more than the initial stage of floating around in the ISS: this game is so realistic, it made me instantly motion sick, just like I’d be on a real space station!

Simtryx

I’m obsessed with the virtual reality training programs available on Meta. This unexplored genre is filled with experiences give you an unfiltered look at occupations and vocations you’d have no way of experiencing, like driving a forklift or disassembling a turbine engine, without dumbing them down by making them "fun." Simtryx is the best one I've found. This augmented reality medical training tool is designed to test fledgling doctors and nurses’ diagnostic skills. It’s an exam, so it offers no guidance; it just presents users with a bunch of tools—that listen-to-your-heart thinger, that popsicle-stick-tongue dealy, you know, doctor stuff—and an AI-powered patient to poke and prod. Then it expects you to make a medical diagnosis before a timer runs out.

I'm sure this is a useful tool for medical professionals, but it's hilarious when you don't know what you're doing. Your patients will answer anything you ask thanks to AI, and you can prescribe all kinds of drugs. "A stomach ache, you say? 500ccs of Fentanyl, stat!" So far I’ve killed a bunch of people and diagnosed even more with “Hell if I know,” but after much trial and error, I was able to correctly diagnose this sad sack with cirrhosis of the liver:

Credit: Stephen Johnson - Simtryx

Being a doctor is super easy. Note: this is serious doctor biz. Login credentials are “only available to Simtryx partners at the moment," so you might have to plead to be let in like I did.

OneLab VR

Created by the Centers for Disease Control, OneLab VR was designed to train laboratory professionals and testers in scientific best practices, but they left it open so any jerk can mess around in the virtual lab. It’s set in a realistic 50,000 square-foot public health laboratory, where (presumably mad) scientists can operate centrifugal force machines, properly dispose of with biohazardous waste, sterilize instruments in autoclaves, and much more, all without actually dropping containers full of pathogens or drinking hazardous waste. It’s multiplayer too, so instructors can guide students, but there's no reason you can't use it to dick around with your friends. If you like following meticulous procedures that you don’t fully understand, or you just want to pretend you're wearing a lab coat, you will love OneLab VR.

Notes on Blindness

Based on the audio diaries of theologian John Hull, who gradually lost his sight in the 1980s, Notes on Blindness is an artistic journey into empathy that is only possible in virtual reality. It doesn't try to simulate blindness (super easy to do by closing your eyes), it immerses the user in a visual and aural interpretation of what Hull called "a world beyond sight." It’s a quiet, emotional, and deeply personal experience, and you do it with a VR helmet on, so no one will see you cry.

https://lifehacker.com/entertainment/best-vr-experiences-meta-quest?utm_medium=RSS

Posted by Jake Peterson

https://lifehacker.com/tech/disney-is-killing-the-hulu-app?utm_medium=RSS

Bad news, Hulu fans: Disney has plans to kill your app.

As Variety reports, the company announced the news during a quarterly earnings call on Wednesday. The plan? Fully absorb the Hulu experience into the Disney+ app. Why have two apps when you could have one? (Other than, of course, the fact that these are two separate services entirety.)

From Disney's point of view, it's a total win. By keeping Hulu and Disney+ in one app, both services can operate on one "tech platform." That will, supposedly, save the company money, as well as improve the customer experience—at least, according to Disney. Plus, from a business perspective, the company can bundle ad sales for both Disney+ and Hulu. Get ready to see a lot of ads for these two services together.

What does this mean for Hulu subscribers?

Of course, most of us do not work for Disney, and do not directly benefit from the things that increase the profits of the company. What will impact you, if you're a Hulu subscriber, is how Disney handles this merger of sorts.

First things first: This isn't happening overnight. According to Disney, the new combined Disney+ and Hulu app won't be available until 2026. Until then, you'll be able to carry on business as usual.

Once the new app is here, and Disney shuts down the standalone Hulu app, you won't be forced to subscribe to Disney+ just to watch Hulu as well. Disney says you'll still be able to subscribe to Hulu by itself, even if you do have to use this combined app to watch it. You might be aware that you can already watch some Hulu content on Disney+, but it's a much more limited experience than the one Disney is now pitching.

According to Variety, Disney plans to market Hulu + Live TV separately, as it combines the service with Fubo, another live TV service that focuses on live sports. That said, a Disney+ rep told Variety that there are plans for Hulu + Live TV to be folded into the Disney+ app at some time in 2026.

Any information on pricing?

Not at this time. Right now, you can bundle Hulu and Disney+ for $10.99 per month, or $19.99 for the mostly ad-free experience. One would hope that by bundling the services in one app, Disney plans to keep these services at this price. But as we've seen across streaming services, prices only continue to go up.

https://lifehacker.com/tech/disney-is-killing-the-hulu-app?utm_medium=RSS

Posted by Michelle Ehrhardt

https://lifehacker.com/tech/choose-between-flip-phone-folding-phone?utm_medium=RSS

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

For a while after the first iPhone came out, way back in 2007, it felt like we knew what all smartphones would look like from then on out: Big, rectangular “candy bars.” It’s not a bad approach, since it keeps things simple and lets the apps take center stage, but there’s no denying that the sheer variety of the pre-iPhone landscape had a special kind of excitement to it. 

Finally, the standard set by the iPhone finally has some lasting competition. There have been a few attempts to break away from the candy bar approach since 2007, including my beloved Xperia Play gaming phone (which had a PlayStation controller built-in), but nothing really stuck until the advent of flexible OLED screens.

Over the past few years, two major formats that deviate from the iPhone shape have been embraced by companies including Google, Samsung, and Motorola. These foldable phones have stuck around long enough to span multiple generations, proving they’re not just a flash-in-the-pan gimmick. Even if they’re still a small percent of the overall market, they seem like the best opportunity we have to escape the original iPhone’s dominance.

But there’s still one question in mind—which kind of foldable phone is better?

Right now, the foldable phones with the most support come in two versions: one that opens horizontally like a book, and one that calls back to the flip phones of the ‘90s and early 2000s, opening vertically like a makeup compact. These tend to get called “folding phones” and “flip phones,” respectively, which is a bit annoying to me given that they both technically fall under the umbrella of “foldables,” but it’s the language I’ll use for the rest of this comparison.

Each have their pros and cons, and with the releases of recent shining examples like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Motorola Razr Ultra, I’ve finally gotten extended hands-on time with both. I do think there’s a clear winner here, but depending on who you are, both offer compelling alternatives to the non-folding brick you’ve probably been carrying around for the past decade.

Portability

By far, the thing that stands out to me most about foldables is portability, but folding phones and flip phones each have different priorities in this case.

Folding phones, for instance, don’t tend to look that different from non-folding options when they’re closed, and can actually be a little thicker. The Galaxy Z Fold 7, for instance, is 0.35 inches thick when folded, while the iPhone 16 Pro is 0.32 inches thick. That’s not bad at all, especially compared to previous models or alternatives like the 0.4 inch thick (when folded) Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, but it also doesn’t immediately make folding phones look more portable. 

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 (left) next to an iPhone 15 Pro (right). Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

The catch is that, when unfolded, folding phones offer way more screen space than a normal phone, giving you a better value for the real estate they take up in your bag or pocket. In that way, they can be seen more as portable tablets, with popular options like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold both boasting impressively large 8-inch displays when unfolded. They’re not small devices overall, but they provide the most display you can get while taking up as little space as possible. Plus, they can actually get pretty thin when unfolded, with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in particular being just 0.22 inches thick when fully stretched out.

Flip phones, meanwhile, do actually give you a smaller overall package. With these, you don’t get more screen space, but instead pack a normal phone’s screen space into less overall area. When unfolded, they look like any other candy bar phone, but when folded, they call back to the clamshell phones of many a millennial’s youth.

Razr Ultra halfway between being flipped open. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

Unfortunately, that does mean they can be a little thicker than a non-folding phone when folded up, with the Razr Ultra hitting 0.62 inches thick and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 reaching 0.54 inches thick. On the flipside, they’re much less tall in this mode—the Razr Ultra is just 3.47 inches tall and the Z Flip 7 is actually a little shorter at 3.34 inches tall. Given that the iPhone 16 Pro is 5.89 inches tall, that compromise might just be worth it for anyone who’s short on bag or pocket space.

Plus, like folding phones, flip phones also tend to be thinner than their non-folding counterparts when unfolded. The Razr Ultra is 0.29 inches thick when opened up, and the Z Flip 7 is a slender 0.26 inches thick.

Which approach to portability will appeal more to you probably depends more on your priorities—do you want something that takes up the same space as a normal phone, but packs more into that package, or do you want something with an overall smaller profile than a normal phone when it’s folded up? Personally, as someone with small or even nonexistent pockets, I prefer the latter, but cases can be made for both. Since this is my article, though, flip phones are taking the win for now.

Usability

The next big advantage to folding and flip phones is their enhanced feature sets. Sure, they tuck away well, but when you actually have them unfolded and in your hands, what do you get for your extra investment?

For folding phones, the answer is obvious: more screen space. This can be great when browsing the internet, reading a book, or multitasking with side-by-side apps, but it unfortunately has a drawback to it. As much as I compared folding phones to tablets earlier, they have an Achilles heel: aspect ratio.

While tablets tend to use rectangular screens that work well for gaming and videos, a folding phone’s main display is essentially just two regular smartphone screens side-by-side—therefore, these devices usually have to try to contort content to fit into a more square space.

Multitasking on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

That means a lot of cropping and letterboxing. As I discovered while reviewing the Z Fold 7, most apps still don’t make good use of a folding phone’s extra display space, especially video forward ones like TikTok. Gaming fares a little better, but support depends on the developer. You’re not necessarily getting a worse experience when using an unoptimized app on a folding phone’s main display, but you’re also not making much use out of your extra investment, which I’ll get into in a bit.

To be fair, folding phones also come with cover screens, so you can use them like a normal phone while they’re closed. That’s great for quick one-handed use, and more recent models like the Z Fold 7 have now made sure their cover screens are no longer thinner than the displays on non-folding phones (a big issue on older models), which means you can swap over to using the cover screen for a more traditional aspect ratio. But again, that still means that unless you’re planning to use apps in a side-by-side multitasking mode, or use text-based apps that are more easily resized, you can’t rely on getting the same experience that you would on a typical tablet.

Razr Ultra fully unfolded. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

Flip phones, meanwhile, essentially operate exactly like non-folding phones when opened. That means no aspect ratio issues, but also no bonuses. If you’ve used a smartphone at any time over the past few decades, you’ll know what to expect. That said, like folding phones, they also come with cover screens to use when they’re folded up, and these can have some toy-ish charm to them. They’re not as functional as a folding phone’s cover screen, which is essentially the same as a non-folding phone’s main screen, but these smaller displays are a great way to quickly check messages, read the time, or access minimalist versions of select apps in a hurry. They won’t be able to open every app, but using the cover screen while folded can make flip phones extra useful if you like to use your phone with one-hand, as they’re overall smaller than even non-folding phones in this form factor. I’d still give cover screen usability to folding phones overall, but it’s a nice touch.

Before I move on, I should also mention one extra feature that both folding phones and flip phones have. Because they have cover screens right next to their rear cameras, it's easy to take selfies with them. That’s a boon for influencers and social media butterflies, since rear cameras are usually much more powerful than the pinhole cameras built into most phones’ main displays. Usually, folding and flip phones will feature pinhole cameras as well, but you’re probably better off turning the phone around to take your selfies with a more powerful camera setup.

A selfie taken using the Razr Ultra's rear camera. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

Overall, folding phones do have more you can do with their screens than flip phones, so I’ll give this category to them, but note that not every app is going to take up the whole screen when you unfold them.

Price

Whether you’re buying a folding phone or a flip phone right now, both come at a premium. The cost of manufacturing a durable screen and all those moving parts is just too much for foldable devices to compete on pricing with comparable non-folding configurations right now. But for my money, flip phone pricing is a lot easier to stomach.

Yes, you get less overall screen space with a flip phone. But with decent options like the base Motorola Razr starting at $700 (and down to $600 at time of writing), getting a flip phone just feels more attainable for the average person at this moment. Granted, these more inexpensive models do have compromises, like weaker chips and smaller cover screens, but even top-of-the-line flip phones, like the Razr Ultra and the Galaxy Z Flip 7, still don’t break the $1,500 mark.

Meanwhile, folding phones tend to cost more than even a really good laptop. The two most popular ones right now, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, start at $2,000 and $1,800, respectively. That’s a lot to spend on extra screen space that a lot of apps can’t even make use of.

With that in mind, I’m going to have to give pricing to flip phones. You’ll be able to make great use out of every bit of your dollar on these devices, and because of their unusual aspect ratios, I just don’t think folding phones can say that yet.

Should you get a flip phone or a folding phone?

Razr Ultra cover screen. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

If you’re the type of person to go all-out when buying a device, getting a folding phone is certainly tempting. You’ll get more screen space, it’ll make a great conversation piece, and manufacturers usually deck these models out with the most powerful chips they can muster.

But for everyone else, I think a flip phone is still the better choice. They simply offer more value for your money, while still being able to pull off neat tricks like taking selfies with their rear cameras or showing texts on their cover screens. Plus, they actually have folding phones beat when it comes to portability.

This could change over time, if phones with other unusual form factors start to make more of a dent in the “candy bar” look. But for now, flip phones do a great job of offering something new while still fitting into the candy bar ecosystem when needed. Folding phones, meanwhile, are just too strange when opened up for most developers to bother with supporting.

https://lifehacker.com/tech/choose-between-flip-phone-folding-phone?utm_medium=RSS

Posted by Meredith Dietz

https://lifehacker.com/health/merach-walking-pad-wont-annoy-your-downstairs-neighbors?utm_medium=RSS

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

When it comes to home fitness equipment, one question haunts apartment dwellers and considerate homeowners alike: Will this drive my neighbors crazy? After testing the Merach W50 walking pad, I can confirm this is one piece of equipment that won't get you any angry knocks on the door.

Merach W50 Walking Pad

$359.99 at Amazon

$499.99 Save $140.00

Shop Now

Shop Now

$359.99 at Amazon

$499.99 Save $140.00

The real-world neighbor test

Here's something I believe all apartment dwellers should do: Actually ask your downstairs neighbors about noise. Before starting my Merach W50 testing routine, I left a note with my contact information, asking my downstairs neighbor to text me if they heard any disturbance from my walking-pad sessions.

And now I've learned more about my neighbors. Credit: Meredith Dietz

After weeks of regular use at various times of day, my neighbor confirmed they hadn't heard a single session. I appreciate the peace of mind knowing that claims of "quiet operation" aren't just marketing fluff.

Plus, I've found the quiet operation goes beyond just floor-transmitted noise. I love to spend my walking sessions on a phone call, and not once has anyone on the other end been bothered about background noise or mechanical sounds. At least, they haven't admitted to being annoyed. And is that not the same thing?

How to find a quiet walking pad

When shopping for walking pads, it makes sense to focus on speed ranges, weight capacity, and incline. However, noise level might be the most underrated consideration, especially if you live in an apartment building, or plan to use it while on work calls, or have family members who work different schedules than you. A noisy walking pad limits when you can use it, basically defeating the purpose of having convenient home fitness equipment in the first place.

When you're shopping for a walking pad, look for these key design elements:

• Motor technology: A brushless motor operates with minimal vibration and mechanical noise.

• Shock absorption: Some sort of multi-layer cushioning absorbs foot impact, preventing the sharp sounds that can travel through floors and walls.

• Build quality: Solid construction means less rattling, wobbling, or loose components that create noise during operation.

The bottom line

The neighbor test doesn't lie. When people living directly below you can't hear your walking pad during regular use, you've found equipment that truly respects shared living spaces. And trust me, you can't underestimate the freedom to actually use your equipment without compromising your relationships with neighbors or family members. If you've been hesitating to get a walking pad because of noise concerns, the Merach W50 eliminates that barrier.

https://lifehacker.com/health/merach-walking-pad-wont-annoy-your-downstairs-neighbors?utm_medium=RSS