Google's $99 Fitbit gets a wild new update

PLUS: Flock tightens data rules after backlash

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Google’s smartwatch is getting a first-of-its-kind way to track insulin-resistance trends — with no blood draw or glucose sensor — and it’s coming to Pixel and Fitbit wearables.

The feature debuts alongside the $399 Pixel Watch 5, which brings Gemini, Google’s most accurate GPS yet, and an industry-first breathing-emergency detector — but it also reaches all the way down to the $99 screenless Fitbit Air.

In today’s tech rundown:

  • Google wearables now track insulin resistance

  • Flock tightens data rules after backlash

  • Google makes Pixel a Gemini machine

  • Joby buys its way into the defense tech race

  • Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

GOOGLE

Image source: Google

The Rundown: Google is tracking insulin resistance from the wrist, with no blood draw or glucose sensor. The feature, just unveiled at Made by Google, arrives with the Pixel Watch 5 and reaches back to the $99 Fitbit Air, a band with no screen.

The details:

  • The feature is part of Google’s Health Guardian suite, which adds blood-pressure and sleep-breathing insights and breathing-emergency detection.

  • Rather than reading blood glucose, the system combines signals including heart-rate patterns, sleep, activity, and skin temperature to estimate changes.

  • Google positions the product as an early-warning wellness tool, not a medical diagnosis, treatment device, or substitute for glucose monitoring.

  • The feature is due this fall for the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, as well as Fitbit Air, turning the launch into a software rollout across Google’s wearable portfolio.

Why it matters: If it works reliably, Google is turning everyday wearables into a new kind of metabolic early-warning system, surfacing risk before most people would ever think to get tested. More importantly, putting it on a $99 Fitbit could move a once-clinical signal into the mainstream, without asking users to do anything extra.

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FLOCK

Image source: Flock

The Rundown: Flock Safety — the $8.4B company behind more than 120K roadside cameras that log where cars go — is tightening its privacy rules after a report found its network was used in 46 cases of police officers accused of abusing the system.

The details:

  • Flock is shrinking its recommended default retention window from 30 days to seven, though existing customers can keep their current policies.

  • By year-end, every law-enforcement customer must turn on Audit Assistance, which flags abnormal search behavior and can automatically lock users out.

  • Cities will get more control over who searches their cameras, including the ability to let outside agencies query data for violent crime or missing persons.

  • Privacy groups aren’t convinced. The American Civil Liberties Union called much of the package a “thinly veiled PR attempt.”

Why it matters: Flock’s network records roughly 20B plate scans a month. At that scale, defaults become de facto privacy policy, and the new guardrails still leave police deciding whom to search without imposing a warrant requirement or independently proving that Flock’s abuse detector catches what it should.

GOOGLE

Image source: Google

The Rundown: Google’s latest hardware event just turned the Pixel into a test bed for Gemini-first computing: iterative phones, an ambient light in the camera bar, AI-inflected photography, and Android’s long-overdue answer to the AirTag.

The details:

  • The Pixel 11 family ($899 base, $1,099 Pro, $1,299 Pro XL, $1,899 Pro Fold) ships Aug. 20 with Tensor G6, 256GB as the new entry tier, and Qi2.2 charging.

  • Cameras get a big upgrade: 48MP and 56% better light sensitivity on the base Pixel 11, and a revised 50MP main, larger 48MP telephoto, 120x zoom on Pro.

  • HiLight, an RGB LED ring in the Pro camera bar, colors incoming calls from favorites and pulses while Gemini listens, with more uses promised later.

  • Gemini can now handle multistep tasks across 40+ apps, surface context from chats/bookings, and suggest actions in apps like Calendar and Maps.

Why it matters: Google gets first crack at defining Gemini on its own hardware while Apple prepares to run Google models inside Siri. And the $29 Pixel Tag, shipping Nov. 11, pushes that rivalry beyond the screen into everyday objects, tapping a Find Hub network of more than 1B Android devices.

JOBY AVIATION

Image source: Joby Aviation

The Rundown: California eVTOL maker Joby Aviation is paying $500M — roughly $450M cash and $50M stock — for Resonant Sciences, a 250-person Dayton, Ohio, defense-tech company whose workforce is more than 90% security-cleared.

The details:

  • Under the deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2027, Resonant will keep its name and CEO while becoming Joby’s dedicated defense division.

  • The new unit will absorb Joby’s existing defense initiatives, including turbine-electric, hydrogen-electric, and defense-autonomy programs.

  • Resonant makes more than $100M a year, and its core operations are profitable; Joby’s air-taxi business is still in the investment-and-loss phase.

Why it matters: Joby’s $38.6M in Q2 revenue still came overwhelmingly from Blade, the helicopter business it bought last year, which contributed $36.2M. Joby, on its part, expects to use another $385M–$415M of cash in the second half of 2026. Resonant gives the company something it doesn’t yet have: a sizable, profitable business.

QUICK HITS

Instagram swapped its decade-old wordmark for a half-cursive, half-print hybrid that Adam Mosseri called a modern refresh, and the internet read it as "Instagzam."

Whoop plans to lease 107K square feet next to its Boston headquarters, roughly doubling its local footprint as the screenless fitness-tracker maker prepares for an IPO.

Bumble ended its women-message-first rule, letting men also initiate a match, and extended the reply window from 24 to 72 hours.

Ford plans to begin prototype production of its $28K Fathom electric pickup in early 2027 at a $2B-overhauled Louisville, Kentucky, plant.

Sonos is reportedly preparing the Ace Ultra, a premium successor to its Ace headphones with potentially deeper earcups, Wi‑Fi, voice controls, and up to 5 colors.

Databricks closed a $5B round at a $190B valuation after planning to raise just $1B and drawing $15B in investor interest.

Meta said it has removed more than 750K Australian Facebook and Instagram accounts believed to belong to under-16s as it complies with the country’s ban.

Uber is developing a “tween” ride option that would let adults add children aged 10 to 12 to an Uber Family profile, reports Bloomberg.

Facebook launched a standalone iOS Creator Studio app, using an AI assistant to give creators personalized performance advice and identify priority comments.

Tandem PV said it will begin selling 30.4%-efficient perovskite-on-silicon solar panels later this year, testing whether a lab-record tech can survive utility-scale deployment.

China’s experimental maglev train reportedly accelerated from 0 to 800 km/h in 5.3 seconds on a 1 km test track, setting a short-distance acceleration record.

Heart Aerospace’s battery-powered X1 aircraft completed a 27-minute first flight using less than $5 of electricity, marking a step toward its planned 30-seat hybrid.

That's it for today's tech rundown!

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Rowan, Zach, Shubham, Jennifer, and Nate — The Rundown’s editorial team

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