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Productivity writer Ben Meer has shared five insights from his new book, 'How to Be Good at Life: Simple Systems to Achieve More and Stress Less.' The insights center on a short Sunday planning routine Meer says can make the rest of the week easier to manage.
International timekeeping bodies have voted to abolish the leap second, the practice of periodically adjusting Coordinated Universal Time to match Earth's rotation. Instead, UTC will now be allowed to drift up to an hour from Earth's actual spin before any correction, likely via a future 'leap hour,' becomes necessary. Officials say such a correction probably won't be needed for centuries.
The International Bureau of Weights and Measures voted to abolish the leap second, moving up a previously agreed 2035 deadline to May 20, 2026, timed to World Metrology Day. Instead of periodic one-second adjustments, timekeepers will allow atomic and astronomical time to diverge until a full 'leap hour' is needed, a scenario not expected for roughly 3,000 years.
The General Conference on Weights and Measures voted Thursday to abolish the leap second, the periodic adjustment used to keep Coordinated Universal Time aligned with Earth's rotation. The decision ends a system that has periodically synced atomic clocks with the planet's variable spin since its introduction, following repeated technical disruptions caused by past adjustments in 2012, 2015 and 2016.
A day after Epic Games launched a preview of its new 'vibe-coded' launcher touting faster load times than Steam, Valve shipped a small Steam update that cut cold-boot time to about 5.23 seconds, edging out Epic's roughly 5.47 seconds. Epic's launcher still posts a slightly quicker tray-restore time, but Steam now leads on the core startup metric Epic had used to market its new client.
Apple hardware engineering chief John Ternus told TIME that work on a foldable device began as early as 2011, when he and five colleagues filed a patent application exploring batteries and circuit boards for folding electronics. Ternus said he was unimpressed by other companies' earlier foldable phones, calling them 'cheap and crappy,' and described pushing his team to keep refining the iPhone Duo's design even as rivals shipped foldables years earlier. Apple VP Richard Dinh also described how Ternus urged engineers to avoid settling for an adequate surface material, leading to a custom polymer nanotexture surface and a hinge with over 100 precision components.
Data for Progress surveyed 1,098 U.S. adults, replicating questions from the 1975-1999 DDB Needham Life Style surveys, and compared results with 1995 data. The firm found double-digit percentage-point declines in activities such as attending a class or seminar, entertaining people at home, and attending church, with participation in several activities falling by more than 20 points.
New research examines how workplaces treat parents differently when childcare emergencies arise during work hours. Fathers who leave work for a sick child are generally seen as facing a temporary logistical issue, while mothers in the same situation are more often perceived as themselves being the problem. The findings point to uninterrupted work time as a resource unevenly distributed between parents.
A preview build of Nintendo's upcoming Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time shows substantially upgraded graphics, including denser environments, reworked textures and redesigned character models. The writer reports that beyond the visual overhaul, the game's controls and exploration feel notably improved compared to the 1998 original.
CNET previewed an early build of Nintendo's remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Switch 2, priced at $60. The hands-on session covered the game's opening in Kakariko village, where Link now has new abilities including jumping and swimming, alongside new voice acting and updated character animations. The writer described the remake as closely following the original game's structure while visually resembling the style of Link's Awakening, Echoes of Wisdom, and Breath of the Wild.
Nintendo is remaking The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Switch 2, adding modern conveniences such as a dedicated jump button, a real-time item-swapping menu, and a new progression tracker called Threads of Time viewable from the pause screen. The remake also integrates with the Nintendo Switch app's Zelda Notes feature, letting players view maps and other information on their phone. A preview session let a reporter play roughly 90 minutes covering Child Link and Adult Link sections of the game.
Engineers constructed a lattice of hexagonal unit cells, each fitted with a compliant flexure, voice coil actuator and Hall effect sensor, linked through a microcontroller that applies a non-reciprocal force rule based on measured strain. The team reports that interactions between active hexagons produce coarsening of mechanical waves across the structure, a behavior associated with time crystallization in an engineered, programmable material.