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You may soon have to assemble your own Peloton❗️

Coming on the heels of a third round of layoffs, Peloton is now considering redesigning its bikes so that users can assemble them independently. CEO Barry McCarthy is also considering a plan that would let Peloton app subscribers potentially view workouts on third-party workout machines. McCarthy told Bloomberg that Peloton has been working on a bike redesign “for a while” and, to top it all off, said he hopes Peloton’s long-awaited rower might debut sometime this holiday season. He also confirmed the company hasn’t fully given up on the Tread Plus.
All of this tracks with comments McCarthy made in May during the company’s Q3 2022 earnings. At the time, he floated the idea of potentially changing hardware designs so that in the future Peloton equipment would be designed to arrive at a customer’s home in one piece. Right now, Peloton’s treadmills and bikes require white-glove delivery in separate pieces, with a crew that comes to your home and builds yours for you. The service used to be free, but Peloton began charging an additional $250–$350 fee at the end of January.
The move is part of Peloton’s ongoing restructuring plan, which aims to reduce the company’s costs and improve cash flow. On Friday, Peloton announced it was cutting more than 500 jobs related to last-mile deliveries and product distribution. The company also noted it was raising the cost of its Bike Plus and Tread while shuttering retail locations in 2023. Making it so that customers can assemble their own equipment would mean the company can simply ship devices via FedEx — which is a move that rowing rival Hydrow recently implemented with its slimmer, smaller Hydrow Wave rower. Since taking over in February, McCarthy hasn’t shied away from sharing novel ideas on how to turn around Peloton’s flailing financial fortunes. Money saved from Friday’s cost-cutting measures will purportedly be funneled back into Peloton’s R&D as well as marketing efforts. That includes marketing Peloton’s standalone app, which McCarthy identified as historically receiving little to no promotion. That dovetails with other plans the CEO divulged to Bloomberg, including potentially allowing Peloton users to stream classes on third-party workout machines. McCarthy also noted the company may tweak the app’s subscription strategy toward a “freemium” model where some features aren’t locked behind a paywall.
That strategy is similar to what Apple currently does for its Fitness Plus service, which doesn’t require the use of an Apple-branded exercise machine. Instead, people can use their own devices to stream Fitness Plus classes while using rowers, treadmills, and bikes at their local gym. The main difference is that Apple still requires users to own a minimum of an Apple Watch and to access Fitness Plus.
But while McCarthy seems keen to pivot toward services, it seems like hardware still has a role to play in Peloton’s business. For instance, the company is gearing up to launch a rower, potentially this holiday season. The rower was perhaps the worst-kept secret in connected fitness until it was confirmed earlier this year at Peloton’s annual Homecoming event for subscribers.More surprisingly, McCarthy hinted that the company was hoping to relaunch the Tread Plus, which was recalled last year after causing several injuries and the death of a small child. While both its Tread and Tread Plus machines were recalled, the Tread was later approved for sale toward the end of 2021. The Tread Plus, however, remains out of circulation. In Q3, the company also noted that returns of the high-end treadmill were higher than anticipated, costing the company $18 million. According to McCarthy, relaunching the Tread Plus is entirely dependent on the government clearing it for sale. It’s possible that while Peloton hasn’t given up hope on the Tread Plus, it’s not something that it’s banking on either. On Friday, part of the rationale for hiking up the price of the “affordable” Tread by $800 was to position it as a superior device and boost Peloton’s “premium” image.
Another interesting tidbit is that Peloton may be preparing to expand its One Peloton Club leasing pilot. The program bundles together the cost of the bike and classes into a single $89 monthly fee. The pilot has thus far been successful for the company, with McCarthy saying in May that the program had “mass market appeal” as 53 percent of signups came from households with incomes under $100,000.
Peloton is expected to hold its Q4 2022 earnings call later this month on August 25th, and we’ll likely find out more about which plans will stick then. So far, Peloton’s restructuring efforts have been off to a slow start, and Wall Street investors have seemed skeptical overall.

Microsoft has announced the beta for the new Outlook for Windows, which will make the desktop email client a lot more like the web version. While screenshots and an entire build of the app were recently leaked, Microsoft’s announcement gives us a good look at what kind of features we can expect to see coming to our inboxes.
According to Microsoft’s Tuesday post, Outlook will be getting quite a few new features in addition to an updated design. For starters, it’ll integrate with Loop, Microsoft’s system for collaborating on things like polls, task lists, and more throughout Office. There’s also a new system for attaching files. If you’ve got something stored in the cloud, you can type the “@” symbol and then the filename, and you’ll get a list of matching files ready to add to an email.
Microsoft’s also added a few calendar and to-do features. Some of them are simple, like the ability to pin emails to the top of your inbox so they’ll stay in your face until you deal with them. You’ll be able to drag emails over to a panel and set them as to-do items or as calendar events if you want to book time to respond — and after you’ve done that, you can look at the new calendar view that shows your task lists, notes, and various other customizable pieces of information alongside an actual calendar.
I don’t want to make it seem like Microsoft’s reinventing email here. The app is still decidedly Outlook, even if it seems like it’ll just be a very fancy web view. But a few of these features remind me of what got me so excited about the now-defunct Mailbox app that Dropbox bought way back in the day. I’m also happy to see a revamp of the calendar interface; I’ve always hated the one that’s in the current desktop version of Outlook.
Microsoft’s post mentions myriad other features, too. For example, when responding to a calendar invite, you can specify whether you’ll be attending in person or virtually; the inbox-cleaning Sweep feature will be included in the app; and Outlook will pin messages that it thinks are important if you seem to have missed them. You can see the full list of features, along with screenshots and descriptions, on Microsoft’s page.
As always with apps based on web technology, I do have a little bit of trepidation around this future update, especially its performance. I also assume that longtime Outlookusers will have to endure one heck of an adjustment period, especially if it’s the main app they spend their days in. But, at the same time, I very much like the idea of Outlook having the same functionality on the web and in the desktop app, rather than making us use two substantially different UIs. Plus, the features that Microsoft’s showing off mesh very well with how I view email. So, color me cautiously optimistic.
If you feel the same, you may be able to try it out yourself — though you will need a commercial or educational Microsoft account. If you’ve checked that box, you can sign up to be an Office Insider and join the Beta Channel. Once you’ve done that and updated to the latest version of Outlook, there should be a toggle letting you switch to the new version. Of course, do keep in mind that it is a beta; be sure you’re comfortable with running your email through a program that’s still in the works.

iPad Air 4 models now available on the Apple Refurbished Store❗️

Apple on Monday began selling the Air 4, also known as the 2020 iPad Air, in its US Refurbished Store. There, customers can get the previous generation iPad Air for a lower price, which is great for those who don’t need everything the latest iPad Air offers.
Customers can now save up to $100 when buying the 4th-generation iPad Air when compared to the retail price. The 64GB model with Wi-Fi connectivity is available for $469, while the 256GB version is priced at $599. At this time, there are no refurbished models with Wi-Fi + Cellular connectivity available.
Apple Refurbished Store offers the iPad Air 4 in all its original colors, which are: Space Gray, Silver, Green, Rose Gold, and Sky Blue.
The 4th-generation iPad Air was introduced in September 2020 and it features a 10.9-inch Retina LCD display, A14 Bionic chip with 4GB of RAM, 12-megapixel rear camera, 7-megapixel front camera, and a USB-C connector. The main differences from this year’s iPad Air 5 is the M1 chip with 8GB of RAM, 12-megapixel ultra-wide front camera with Center Stage, 5G support, and faster USB-C connector.
Apple Certified Refurbished Products are pre-owned Apple products that undergo Apple’s stringent refurbishment process prior to being offered for sale. While only some units are returned due to technical issues, all units undergo Apple‘s stringent quality refurbishment process. Refurbished units are shipped in a special box with all original accessories and a one-year limited warranty.
You can check out all the refurbished models available on the Apple Refurbished Store website. Availability and pricing may vary by country.
Don’t forget to look for special iPad offers at other stores like Amazon.

How to remove your personal information from Google search results❗️

Once something is on the internet, it's almost impossible to take it down. But Google now makes it easier for anyone to request the removal of their personal information from Google's own search results.
Google has been broadly against a global "right to be forgotten," a facet of European law that allows EU citizens to demand that companies, including tech giants, delete personal data that is stored about them. But that hasn't stopped Google from giving users the tools to limit what information it collects as a company, as well as tools to let children and young adults request the removal of their photos from Googles image search results.
Now with its new search results removal request feature, you can ask Google to remove personally identifiable information about yourself (or someone you represent) from its search results, like a phone number, email address or your home address, and other sensitive information that could be used to break into your online accounts, like login credentials. Google said this can help victims of doxxing, where information about a person is published online without their consent, often with malicious intent.
Google lets you request to remove your personal information from its search results. To request to remove your search results, first note what Google needs from you in order to process the removal request. Google explains what kinds of personal information it will remove, such as confidential government ID identification numbers, bank account numbers, images of ID documents, as well as contact information, like phone numbers and email addresses.
When you're ready, head to Google's search results removal form and hit Remove information you see in Google , then In Google's search results and on a website . At this point, Google will give you guidance if you want to reach out to the website host, but otherwise you can say No, I prefer not to contact the website host and just move on with the form.
At this point Google should ask you which search results you want removed. You should select Personal info, like ID numbers and private documents , then select the kind of personal information that you want removed, such as your contact information, private medical documents or other government identity documents. From here, you should fill out the form with your corresponding information, including your full name, country of residence, your best contact email address and the list of web addresses of your personal information. You can grab the web addresses of infringing search results from your browser's address bar. The final question on this form is if your personal information pertains to doxxing, which Google asks if the information is "being shared with malicious, threatening, or harassing intent." If this is the case, select Yes .
You will have to provide all of the web addresses where you have found your information. That can mean both the web address of the webpage that has your information — and the web addresses of the Google search results page. You may also have to take and submit screenshots of search results to help Google narrow down the request to you. You can submit up to 1,000 web addresses at a time. Once you're done, check the signature form at the bottom of the form. Remember, removing your information from Google's search results is not a panacea. Google's request feature will not automatically remove your personal information from the websites your data is hosted on, but it makes it more difficult for others to discover the data without the aid of Google's search algorithm. Filling out the search removal form is also not a guarantee that Google will take action on your behalf. Google said it will "evaluate all content on the web page to ensure that we're not limiting the availability of other information that is broadly useful, for instance in news articles." In cases where your information appears part of a public record, such as a court filing or a government website, Google said it wouldn't remove those search results.