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Small wearable patches that continuously scan your blood and zap numbers to your smartphone are about to be everywhere. Once the sole domain of people with diabetes, glucose monitors are gaining popularity as a health tracking accessory not that different from an Apple Watch or an Oura Ring. On Wednesday, the FDA approved a glucose monitoring system from the startup Signos for weight management a first for the tech, which represents a growing corner of the digital wellness space. “Everyone deserves access to insights that help them live healthier, longer, more vibrant lives, Signos CEO Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer said in a press release. Signos isn’t just about data; it’s about giving people ownership over their health and weight journeys in a way never before seen.” [Photo: Signos] Signos designed an app that sets glucose range goals based on individual needs and tailors them over time, encouraging its users to make healthy lifestyle choices to meet them. The app pairs with the Stelo continuous glucose monitor (CGM) sensor patch made by Dexcom, which already sells its devices over the counter for around $100 a month. This is the first-ever FDA clearance for a system for weight that isnt a pharmacological intervention, isnt a surgical intervention, Fouladgar-Mercer told STAT. FDA approval is an expensive, time-intensive process, but obtaining the clearance means a Signos subscription could be covered by HSA and FSA plans and potentially be reimbursed by insurance in the future. Signos sells its plans for $129 for six months, which includes glucose sensors and access to its app, which converts real-time blood sugar data into health insights and tips. The company can also now boast about being the world’s first and only FDA-cleared app and CGM for weight management and wellness, which might take it pretty far in a soon-to-be crowded market. As is the case with all technology these days, Signos uses AI to offer personalized recommendations based on the data it logs. Users can also track their food and exercise within the companys app, blending that data with glucose monitoring to make changes to their behavior and diet. Fouladgar-Mercer believes that bariatric surgery patients and some people using GLP-1s for weight loss will want the additional insights possible with the Signos app. The app also offers an alternative non-pharmaceutical path for people looking for new ways to succeed in their weight management goals, and could provide an off-ramp for former GLP-1 users looking to maintain their results with behavioral changes. One piece of the MAHA movement Obsessively quantifying the self right down to your blood sugar levels isnt everyones cup of tea, but it is a major health goal for the Trump administration. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is championing health tracking devices as part of the Make America Healthy Again movement, which is pursuing disparate health goals from regulating ultra-processed foods to investigating well-studied vaccines, sowing doubt about life-saving shots in the process. “It’s a way people can take control over their own health. They can take responsibility,” Kennedy said at a recent House Subcommittee on Health hearing. “They can see, as you know, what food is doing to their glucose levels, their heart rates and a number of other metrics as they eat it, and they can begin to make good judgments about their diet, about their physical activity, about the way that they live their lives.” Beyond RFK Jr., the U.S. government is poised to have a major glucose tracking booster in the administration. In June, Trump swapped his previous surgeon general nominee out in favor of Dr. Casey Means, a wellness industry figure who co-founded a blood glucose monitoring startup called Levels. Like Signos, that company sells subscription access to an app, pairing custom software with off-the-shelf glucose monitors made by Dexcom. Unlike Signos, Levels is not FDA approved for weight management and is marketed for general wellness. Kennedy, a skeptic of weight loss drugs, has advocated for dietary and behavioral changes over GLP-1s to reverse the most worrying U.S. health trends. We think that wearables are a key to the MAHA agenda — Making America Healthy Again, Kennedy said. My vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years.
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Impressing everyone when you’re handed the aux in the car to play DJ just got easier. Spotify now offers the option to listen to playlists with seamless transitions between songs, plus the user interface to mix them yourself if you want. Spotify released the beta version of a new “Mix” mode for its Premium subscriber tier Tuesday. The feature shows up as a “Mix” button above a playlist track list that can be toggled on or off. Listeners can either opt-in to auto-transitions between songs, or they can mix their own transitions instead with pre-set options like “Fade” or “Rise,” and settings for volume, EQ, and effects. The feature is perfect for fitness instructors who want to program a playlist for a class or for anyone hoping to create a low-effort, high-impact soundtrack for a party. Mixing for beginners Spotify designed the Mix mode UI to make things simple for beginners. After tapping “Mix,” the app shows each song’s key and beats per minute to make track ordering simple, and visualized waveform and beat data help when finding the best part of a track to drop in a transition. Spotify advises newbies to choose songs with similar tempos and keys, consider the energy they’re trying to capture with a playlist, and start with genres that are transition-friendly, since mixing “works best with music produced for seamless transitions. Dance genres like house and techno tend to blend more smoothly.” Spotify’s new feature comes two months after Apple Music announced its own “AutoMix” option for a seamlessly mixed listening experience. Spotify takes the idea of automatic mixing and makes it customizable and shareable with the ability to swap and collaborate on playlists. There’s also exclusive stickers and labels for custom playlist cover art that can only be used with mixed Spotify playlists. The Premium strategy Spotify reached its first full year of profitability in 2024. The company has more than 270 million paying subscribers and reported $4.75 billion in revenue for the second quarter of this year, up 10% year over year. That was lead by Premium revenue, which rose 12% for the quarter. Retaining and growing its paid subscriber base is key for the company’s future growth. Spotify announced a price hike for Premium subscribers in markets outside the U.S. earlier this month, and it’s pursuing a multi-pronged strategy to provide paid subscribers with content beyond just music by growing its video and audiobook offerings. With Mix mode, the Swedish streaming giant shows it’s also finding new ways to offer Premium subscribers a one-of-a-kind music-listening experience that connects them with friends. Spotify’s Mix mode takes something that could have been just for personal listening and makes it social.
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E-Commerce
California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has been trolling Donald “TACO” Trump (shorthand for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” as Newsom has repeated) on social media, with the president’s signature ALL-CAPS tweets, for weeks. And not only are Democrats here for it, but the strategy also seems to be working. Newsom’s press office runs the account @GovPressOffice, which has, for all intents and purposes, turned that social media feed into a political parody, mocking Trump and his Republicans allies, and posting hot takes on their GOP initiatives around voting, redistricting, and Ukraine, just to name a fewall the while mimicking the president’s style of lavishly praising himself and insulting, often viciously, those who disagree with him. On Tuesday, the account mocked Fox News host Dana Perino’s meltdown over Newsom’s deliberate mimicry, and Newsom’s post garnered nearly 850,000 views in just a few hours. DANA "DING DONG" PERINO (NEVER HEARD OF HER UNTIL TODAY!) IS MELTING DOWN BECAUSE OF ME, GAVIN C. NEWSOM! FOX HATES THAT I AM AMERICAS MOST FAVORITE GOVERNOR ("RATINGS KING") SAVING AMERICA WHILE TRUMP CANT EVEN CONQUER THE BIG STAIRS ON AIR FORCE ONE ANYMORE!!! TRUMP HAS— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 19, 2025 Newsom’s outspoken criticism of Trumpat a time when so few have publicly sparred with the presidentis being praised by Democrats, especially for his tough stances. One such stance is against redistricting, as Republicans are trying to redraw congressional districts in Texas and other states in a way that gerrymanders more seats in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections. On social media, some supporters are joking that Newsom’s press team should get a Nobel Prize. One user wrote on X: “I love you for doing this. I honestly feel a sense of liberation! Finally, a Dem who will dish it out. THANK YOU!! Nobel Peace Prize for the Newsom Press Office!” TRUMP JUST FLED THE PODIUM WITH PUTIN NO QUESTIONS, NOTHING! TOTAL LOW ENERGY. THE MAN LOOKED LIKE HED JUST EATEN 3 BUCKETS OF KFC WITH VLAD. IS HE AFRAID THE PRESS WILL ASK ABOUT ME??? (AMERICAS FAVORITE GOVERNOR) AND THE FACT I "STOLE THE CAMERAS" THIS WEEK WITH THE MAPS?— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 15, 2025 Over on Bluesky, user @michaeljstern.bsky.social summed up the sentiment of many posts on the platform when he wrote: “Gavin Newsom is killing it.” Of course, there’s one group that isn’t into it: The trolling has many supporters of the MAGA movement up in arms, and they’ve also taken to social media to register their ire. However, Newsom’s strategy seems to be working, fueling a surge in popularity and questions about whether he’ll be running for president in 2028. (Newsom has not announced his candidacy.) The Governor Newsom Press Office account has gained more than 250,000 followers since August 1 as the parody posts have come out, per Newsom’s office via Politico. It now has 417,900 followers at the time of this writing, while Newsom’s personal X account has some 2.4 million followers. Gavin Newsom’s polling numbers are up Notably, a recent University of California, Irvine, poll found Newsoms approval ratings had improved among California residents, while Trumps were tanking. Californians disapprove of the president by more than a 2:1 ratio, whereas following his standoff with Trump, Newsom has seen positive favorability scores. “There is no mistaking that Newsoms battle with Trump has been good for his standing in the State, certainly among Democrats and also with Independents,” the report read. And that’s not all. An August poll from Echelon Insights found Newsom is also appealing to voters nationwide. According to that Echelon poll, reported by Newsweek, Newsom is currently in second place with 13% support among a list of potential Democratic candidates for president in 2028, behind former Vice President Kamala Harris but ahead of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)all of whom have been vocal critics of the president’s second term. (The survey polled registered voters from August 14 to 18, with a margin of error of 3.6%.) That’s up from the results of an Emerson College survey from June that showed Newsom at 7% support in a 2028 Democratic primarywhich was up from just 3% in March. Another clue that Newsom’s strategy is working: Polymarket’s betting odds. The online betting website puts his chances of winning the 2028 presidential election at 18% at the time of this writing, up four points in the last four days (though he’s still lagging behind JD Vance’s 28% odds). Polymarket also now gives Newsom a 27% chance, at the time of this writing, of beating Ocasio-Cortez for the Democratic nomination, with a spread of 13 points. His chances are up seven points in the last two days.
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