Before anything else, you’ll have to decide between ink and laser. I’ll get into the details when it comes to each model, but the most important consideration is the paper type you print onto most often. Laser printers use heat in the bonding process, which means if you regularly print on windowed envelopes or photo paper, you’ll need to either use an ink printer or change to a thermally safe alternative, which can be cost prohibitive if you print a lot.

Inkjets are the most common flavor of home printer, and they work by boiling ink until it splatters through a series of tiny holes. Inkjet printers either come with prefilled cartridges or built-in tanks. The latter is quickly becoming more popular thanks to better pricing, more convenience, and a massive reduction in wasted plastic. If you’re buying a new printer in 2026 I recommend you opt for an ink tank (or a laser printer, depending on your needs). Ink tanks are a little more work to set up and maintain than using replaceable cartridges, since you have to keep the tanks topped off and they should remain in one place on a flat surface to avoid leaks. I can’t imagine many situations where a printer would be constantly moving and tilting, but it’s a consideration nonetheless.

You thought inkjets were cool? Laser printers work by blasting a tube full of dried plastic particles, then fusing them to the paper with heat. They tend to cost more upfront, but the cost per page is overall much lower. Where a $20 ink cartridge might print 200 pages, a $60 toner cartridge could print 2,000. Laser printers don’t dry out and tend to be a lot faster than inkjet printers. Plus, the pages come out of the printer nice and warm, and you can’t really put a price on that.

There are also thermal printers, which are commonly used for receipts or shipping labels. Instead of filling the printer with ink and depositing it onto a surface, these apply heat in precise patterns to special paper, allowing you to print text and images in low resolution, and typically in one color. If you print shipping labels or simple stickers at home, these can save you a lot of time and ink cost, but beyond those uses, they’re pretty limited.

Finally, there are UV printers, which make it possible to print onto a variety of surfaces. However, they’re typically incredibly expensive, so if you don’t anticipate regularly needing to make custom mugs or coasters, you could safely opt for a different printing format.

From my experience, most folks will get the best value from an ink tank printer. The ink pricing is generally much lower than cartridges, and without the limitations of a laser printer.

Warning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers: our coverage contains references to and images of someone who has died

The case of a five-year-old girl who was allegedly murdered in Australia’s Outback has caused outrage across the country.

The BBC’s Katy Watson is in Alice Springs and explains the background of the case, the cultural sensitivities and why it has caused so much anger.

Like any Sleep Number smart bed, the ComfortNext Lux offers 100 firmness levels, and the one you select is your “Sleep Number,” or the firmness you prefer to sleep on. I usually skew toward firmer for lumbar support and weight distribution, which has previously been in the 40 to 50 range. Then, a new recommendation popped up in the app—my firmness level was in the mid-70s, but going softer could improve my sleep score, which Sleep Number calls its “SleepIQ score” and reports in its app. I decided to lower it to a much softer firmness level of 35.

The SleepIQ score summarizes your nightly sleep metrics, including heart rate variability, breathing rate, and time spent in each sleep stage. This data is compiled into a score that summarizes your sleep quality. The app’s score always skewed lower than what my Apple Watch SE would track. However, with dogs jumping in and out of bed, the sensors track that motion and take it into account, too. Despite this, my Apple Watch showed a six-day streak of high-80s to 90s sleep scores. Given that my body is always getting used to new beds with a revolving door of mattresses to test, this is extremely rare for me. Previously, while testing other smart beds or standard mattress types like memory foam or hybrid, I’d achieve this kind of quality sleep with medium-firm or true firm mattresses, never soft ones.

What was clear after two weeks of testing was that, even at the absolute firmest 100 setting, the ComfortNext Lux still felt only medium-firm. I started off with firm and went way softer, but the reality is that the ComfortNext Lux’s plush foam layers will always make whatever level you choose feel softer. If you are seeking a truly firm mattress—like one of our favorite firm options, the Plank Firm Luxe—the ComfortNext Lux does not even remotely play in the same league. This is not shocking, as nearly all smart beds I’ve tried lack the rigidity you’d find in coil-based designs.

Got Your Back

If you regularly deal with back pain or have more severe spinal conditions such as scoliosis, I don’t recommend this smart bed for you. My husband is part of this club, and according to him, the ComfortNext Lux is doable for a few days. After a bit, he needs to return to a firmer mattress to get the support his spine needs. To this end, the ComfortNext Lux’s lumbar support is not where it needs to be for full-time stomach sleeping or heavier-bodied sleepers who require lift around their midsections. Some adjustable bases will have lumbar support bars that project from the base, which would be a beneficial remedy here. Unfortunately, this feature isn’t available on Sleep Number bases at this time, and I don’t recommend pairing this smart bed with an adjustable base from another brand.

If not for back pain, you may wonder who the ComfortNext Lux works best for. In short? Side sleepers. As a side sleeper myself, this mattress offers the level of cushioning I often crave for my pressure points, with a satisfying amount of sink-in that makes the joints feel cushioned. You truly feel cocooned, and not in a claustrophobic way. For couples who happen to be side or side-back sleepers, the foam’s prominence in the ComfortNext Lux also helped prevent motion from rocking the bed. However, it is a bit harder to move between sleeping positions because you are working against the softer surface as you roll.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Pope Leo at the Vatican on Thursday, at a time of increasing tensions following President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on the Catholic leader over the Iran war.

Rubio’s meeting with Leo was a sign of a “strong” relationship between the Vatican and the US, said a State Department spokesman. The Vatican did not immediately give any comment about the meeting.

Leo, the first American pope, drew Trump’s ire after becoming a firm critic of the war on Iran and the Trump administration’s hardline anti-immigration policies. Trump has criticised Leo, calling the pope ‘weak on crime’.

More than a decade since its debut and five years after Google acquired it, the Fitbit app is officially rebranding as Google Health. As part of the transition, Google also announced plans to sunset the 12-year-old Google Fit app later this year, though details about migrating user data to Google Health will be released in the coming months.

Google introduced a dramatic redesign of the Fitbit app last year in public beta, centered around a new AI-powered Health Coach chatbot that can provide guidance on anything and everything from your health to fitness, even parse your medical records. Now, the Health Coach is officially exiting beta. Fitbit users will see an app update on May 19 that rebrands the Fitbit app into Google Health.

“The investment we’ve been making the last few years is literally designed for this one moment,” Rishi Chandra, Google’s vice president for health and home, tells WIRED.

Despite the app’s name change, Chandra says the Fitbit brand is still very much part of Google’s playbook: The company announced the first new Fitbit in three years, the Fitbit Air, which you can read more about here. Designed as a screenless health tracker that’s ultra-lightweight and comfortable to wear, it debuts alongside the new Google Health app with simplicity at its core. Anyone—a kid, adult, or an elderly person—can easily understand the data the device produces.

“That tying together of this wearable technology with the coaching experience is what’s been missing for the longest time, so candidly, we were waiting for the Coach to be ready before we launch new hardware,” he says. “Now we have the Coach, you should expect to see more hardware coming.”

The Google Health app is designed to be the one-stop shop for all your health and fitness needs. It supports Health Connect and Apple’s HealthKit platform, meaning anyone with an Apple Watch can use the Google Health app to parse their data. If you buy the new $100 Fitbit Air, Google plans to make it so the device’s data can be viewed in Apple Health as well, though this won’t be available at launch.

The app allows you to upload medical records—you can search for your doctor’s name or address and log in to the provider’s portal, which will mean historical and future records will sync to Google Health. Plus, you can log anything you want through the Health Coach, whether that’s what you ate for lunch to track nutrition, or if you broke your leg and want to reconfigure your weekly fitness regimen. Chandra says the app is designed to be shareable, allowing you to share health data with family, friends, or a physician.

Virus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius is set to arrive in Tenerife on Sunday, after being anchored for three days near Cape Verde.

Authorities have said precautions will be taken to ensure passengers do not make direct contact with locals. It comes as the World Health Organization said the hantavirus outbreak on board was not the start of a pandemic.

The BBC’s Guy Hedgecoe reports from Tenerife, where some locals fear the ship’s arrival could bring health risks.

Read more here.

The Air is not meant to stand on its own so much as serve as a data collector within Google’s expanding health software ecosystem. (The company also rebranded the Fitbit app to “Google Health.”) Built on Gemini, Health Coach is the brains of the system, promising personalized guidance based on your habits, goals, and biometric data. Rather than simply displaying stats, Google Health Coach translates them into actionable recommendations. It can generate workout plans, suggest recovery windows based on strain and readiness, and analyze sleep disruptions. It’s meant to provide ongoing coaching that evolves alongside your routine.

Despite its stripped-back exterior, the Air retains the same breadth of tracking capabilities as the Charge 6. That includes baseline metrics like steps, distance, and calories burned, alongside more advanced features such as weekly Cardio Load and Daily Readiness scoring. It also continues to offer 24/7 heart rate tracking, including irregular heart rhythm notifications that can flag potential signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib), alerts for high or low heart rate readings, and heart rate variability (HRV) insights.

Sleep tracking gets a modest upgrade. The Air still delivers Fitbit’s personalized Sleep Score, but Google says the system—now powered by Google’s Gemini—is 15 percent more accurate than the previous model at capturing interruptions, naps, and transitions between sleep stages. It also includes Smart Wake alarms, which aim to wake users at the optimal point in their sleep cycle for an easier start to the day.

It’s worth noting here that while Health Coach is at the heart of Google’s health software ecosystem, it’s also a subscriber-only feature. Anyone can use the Google Health app for free, and if you have a Fitbit device or Pixel Watch, you can continue to see your activity, sleep, and health-tracking data. (Google also intends to offer support to a wider array of devices later in the year.) If you want access to Health Coach or features like adaptive fitness plans, it will cost $10 per month ($100 per year) for Google Health Premium. You get three free months with the purchase of the Air, and it’s also included for anyone subscribed to Google One’s AI Pro and AI Ultra subscription plans.

If you’re already in the Google wearables ecosystem, the Air is designed to slot into your routine without friction. Both the Air and the Pixel Watch pair with the Google Health app, meaning you can wear them simultaneously or switch between them. Health data syncs automatically, and the app lets you filter metrics by device. It’s a small but telling detail that reflects Google’s broader attempt to unify its lineup and build interchangeable inputs for a singular health platform.

The new Google Health app rolls out May 19 for Android and iOS. The Fitbit Air is available for preorder today and launches on May 26.

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What are we doing? Come on. Is this who are are now? “Saturday Night Live” featured player Jeremy Culhane once again showed up on “Weekend Update” in his spot-on impression of right-wing talker Tucker Carlson — and this time his target was last weekend’s Met Gala.

“A night of fashion and fun. Huh. Really. Come on, everybody, let’s all prance around in our $100,000 clown outfits and watch the American empire crumble. What are we doing? Come on,” Culhane-as-Carlson said in opening the segment.

When “Weekend Update” anchor Colin Jost noted that Carlson clearly didn’t like the event, “Tucker” sarcastically responded: “Oh no, I loved it. Because when I go to a museum, I don’t want to learn about history. No, I want to look at The Rock in a skirt. Do you smell what the Rock is cooking? Because I do. It’s gender confusion. That’s the rule. That’s the goal now.”

Then, he took on Madonna: “She named herself after the Virgin Mary. And you want to know my favorite thing about the mother of Jesus Christ? The big pirate ship on her head. And I have to be attracted to this?”

No, Jost said, you don’t. Was there anything you liked? What about Heidi Klum’s outfit?

“Oh yeah, the left has finally gotten what they’ve wanted. They put the Statue of Liberty in a burqa,” he said. “What’s next? Is the Chrysler Building going to become the antichrist-ler Building? What are we doing? Is this the New York we want to live in Colin?”

Jost noted that Carlson actually lives in Maine. And then “Tucker” went on a tangent about the silent “e” in Maine,

“I’m glad you brought that up. Colin, what does the E even stand for? Oh, I know: ‘Euphoria.” And, no, I’m not talking about the feeling I get when I press one for English.” Cue Tucker’s maniacal laugh.

Then came Carlson’s take on Jafar Jackson, the star of the new “Michael” film. Carlson had issue with the film — but of course, not because of the controversy surrounding the King of Pop’s behavior and alleged crimes.

“Oh, yes, right. Some people were upset about the movie,” Jost noted.

Said Carlson: “And they should be. The movie ends in 1988 so obviously they avoided something serious that needs to be acknowledged. The part of Michael Jackson’s life no one wants to talk about anymore. The part when he was a white man. Sorry, kids, Michael Jackson doesn’t get to live a beautiful white life anymore. Who does that remind me of? Oh, that’s right, all of us. ‘Shamona,’ yeah. More like ‘shame on ya.’

After a brief commercial break by Carlson (“Round bananas. Want to eat a banana without looking gay? Try round bananas!”), he left his most offensive hot take for the end.

“Now let’s talk about A$AP Rocky’s outfit. He was on the red carpet — wearing my least favorite color, African American.”

What are we doing?