Circular introduced its Ring 3 lineup, split into a feature-rich Pro model and a lighter Slim version, both equipped with NFC chips for contactless payments and vibration-based alerts for alarms and reminders. The Pro adds FDA-cleared ECG for Afib detection, blood pressure trend tracking, glucose tracking and deeper sleep analysis with up to 12 days of battery, while the Slim focuses on core metrics like heart rate, HRV, SpO2 and skin temperature with up to 10 days of battery.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-03
Circular unveiled its Series 3 smart ring at IFA, adding NFC payments compatible with Visa and MasterCard alongside a returning vibration motor for silent alerts. The lineup splits into the fully-featured Ring 3 Pro, with ECG and haptics, and the slimmer, lighter Ring 3 Slim that drops those features. Battery life nearly doubles to 12 days, and both models ship with a 700mAh charging case.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-03
Circular debuted two new smart rings at IFA, the Ring 3 Pro and Ring 3 Slim, both featuring built-in NFC for contactless payments via supported Visa or Mastercard cards—a capability absent from Oura and Samsung's Galaxy Ring. The Pro adds FDA-cleared ECG, blood-pressure monitoring, and a bigger battery lasting up to 12 days, while the Slim is lighter and thinner but caps battery life at 10 days. Pricing and availability have not been disclosed.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-03
Circular has launched its Ring 3 series, succeeding last year's Ring 2, in two versions: a titanium Pro model retaining ECG-based AFib detection, and a lighter Slim model using biocompatible epoxy but lacking ECG tracking. Both rings add vibrating alerts for alarms and reminders and an NFC chip enabling contactless payments directly from the ring.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-03
At IFA, SwitchBot introduced the Lock Ultra Max Vision Pro Combo, a retrofit smart lock bundle for European doors priced at €339.99/£339.99. The package bundles the Keypad Vision Pro, Hub Mini Matter, and the new Lock Ultra Max, offering entry via fingerprint, passcode, NFC card, facial or palm vein recognition, plus remote, voice, smartwatch, and app widget controls. SwitchBot says the hardware fits roughly 99 percent of European lock types, including EU profile, knob, Swiss round, and UK oval cylinders, with adapters for rarer setups.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-03
A developer designed a credit-card-sized PCB business card featuring an NFC chip that opens his website when tapped and a red LED that lights up on a printed Charizard's tail, powered entirely by the phone's own NFC radio field rather than any onboard battery. He had to write a custom Core NFC app for iPhone because standard NFC apps couldn't write to the blank NTAG I2C Plus chip he used, so his app sends the chip's native write commands directly.
kevin.md
· 2026-09-01
A hobbyist designed a PCB business card that uses an NFC chip's energy-harvesting capability to power 21 LEDs and an ATtiny412 microcontroller, all without a battery. Tapping the card against a phone triggers an LED animation, drawing power solely from the phone's NFC field via chips like the NXP NTAG I2C Plus or STMicro ST25DV-KC that can route excess harvested voltage to external components. The creator built the project in about three months as a way to learn KiCad, and has published the full design files publicly.
wilsonharper.net
· 2026-08-28
A GrapheneOS user reports that the PayPal app now fails to launch, throwing a RootDetectionSecurityException citing a security policy violation. The user suspects the crash may be tied to having enabled the PayPal card for contactless NFC payments, though this hasn't been confirmed as the sole trigger.
news.ycombinator.com
· 2026-08-27
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