Here’s some exciting news that is thrilling to me not only as a diehard Peloton user, but someone with a well-documented obsession with buying and selling things on resale platforms: Peloton is expanding its marketplace for pre-owned fitness equipment. Called Repowered, it launched in a few cities in June, is now expanding to the national level, and currently allows users to list and browse Bikes, Treads, and other equipment for sale.

How Peloton: Repowered works

When you navigate to the Repowered site, you’re greeted with a welcome message, plus the option to select whether you want to shop or sell.

Listing your equipment

When the site first launched a few weeks ago, you could only list equipment, not buy it, as Repowered needed some inventory before anything could be sold. What’s more, you needed to be in Boston, New York City, or the Washington, D.C. metro area to list big equipment, though you could list smaller, shippable accessories from anywhere. Now, Repowered has broadened and you can list your Bikes, Treads, and Rows wherever you are.

When you hit sell, you’ll be prompted to enter your device’s serial number if you’re selling one of the larger pieces of equipment. For smaller pieces, like weights, you can use the search function to input your item. You’ll be able to set your own price, but the site will suggest a price for you based on information you provide, like age, condition, etc.

Actually selling your stuff

Once you have listed an item, it’s going to be your responsibility to arrange a pickup with the buyer or schedule delivery. Accessories and smaller items can be shipped separately, similar to how it works when you sell something on, say, Poshmark or Depop. From there, you’ll get paid.

Additionally, when you sell on Repowered, you get up to $600 off a future Peloton purchase. Essentially, if you’ve been considering, say, upgrading from a Bike to a Bike+, you can sell your Bike and receive a discount on a newer model. Here’s what you get off from each product if you make a Repowered sale:

• Bike+: $400 off

• Tread: $200 off

• Tread+: $600 off

• Row: $200 off

You’ll get 70% of your earnings, giving the rest to the platform, which is a decent split. When I sell on Poshmark, I keep 80% of my sale price. When I sell on Depop, I keep 90%. There, though, I’m selling clothes and small electronics—items that don’t have a big sticker price. For something like a high-tech, at-home workout bike, 70% seems to be, in my professional opinion, a pretty good split, not to mention the accompanying discount toward a new Peloton purchase.

Buying on Repowered

When you hit shop on the landing page, you can choose between four buttons: Bike, Tread, Row, and Accessories. You can also keep scrolling to see New arrivals and a button that says Shop all. Bear in mind that equipment delivery is still only available in the original cities of New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C., though that’s likely to change soon. You can coordinate your own pickups if you live elsewhere for now.

You can sort by equipment type, distance, and condition (either excellent or good), then filter by newness of the listings or by price. When you select a listing, you can see more photos and details, plus either buy the item or send the seller a direct message with a question.

Because the sales are technically happening through Peloton, you also get a few perks you won’t find if you shop on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or another resale platform. First, you’ll be able to view a detailed summary of the equipment’s service history and warranty, since each device is uploaded with its serial number. Second, if you buy a Bike, you’ll get a free replacement seat post with your purchase to account for Peloton’s voluntary recall of Bike seat posts.

There’s also some limited buyer protection here. If you purchase something that had undisclosed damage, is missing a component that wasn’t disclosed, or is not an authentic piece of Peloton equipment, you can submit photos and a statement for refund consideration.

Why this is a great option

There are two main reasons this has the potential to be better than buying or selling on another platform, like Facebook Marketplace.

First, you never have to worry about scams because Peloton itself is coordinating the sale and every part of the transaction takes place on the app. Second, as long as you’re in one of those main markets, Peloton handles delivery, just as they do with their new and refurbished products. You can schedule pickups directly with buyers and sellers, but the platform will only provide a general radius of the product’s location. If you’re selling, this means no one will ever get your address and you have the freedom to meet in a public place within that radius.

Repowered is in its early stages, but it could fill a gap in the market by providing a trustworthy source of at-home fitness equipment for those who might otherwise find the cost prohibitive. Peloton has announced that the activation fee for used equipment is down from $95 to $45, too. The All Access Membership, required to take classes and use the devices to their maximum capabilities, is still $44 per month.

Last week, the two-year-old social media app Tea, which functions as a Yelp-style platform where women can anonymously rate and review real men who cannot access the app nor respond, experienced an intense moment of virality that rocketed it to the top of the most-downloaded list on Apple’s App Store. But within days, it faced a major data breach that leaked years-old user data. And now there are reports of a second breach, and it’s even worse.

Reps for the app said last week that the data that leaked was about two years old, and that no information related to users who joined more recently appeared to be included. But according to a new report from 404 Media, the second incursion leaked direct messages and other data from as recently as last week.

The second data breach included more recent information

According to 404 Media’s report, an independent security researcher named Kasra Rahjerdi reported the second breach, noting “it was possible for hackers to access messages between [Tea] users discussing abortions, cheating partners, and phone numbers they sent to one another.” This breach appears to be of a separate database, not the same one that was at issue last week, and this database stored much more recent information.

In last week’s breach, hackers were able to view and disseminate user verification images—including photos of driver’s licenses—that were submitted when women signed up for the service. At the time, a spokesperson for Tea Dating Advice, Inc. confirmed to me that the app, “identified unauthorized access to one of [its] systems and immediately launched a full investigation to assess the scope and impact.” The initial results of this effort suggested, “the incident involved a legacy data storage system containing information from over two years ago. Approximately 72,000 images—including approximately 13,000 images of selfies and photo identification submitted during account verification and 59,000 images publicly viewable in the app from posts, comments, and direct messages—were accessed without authorization.”

The representative added, “At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that current or additional user data was affected.”

In the wake of this new information, I reached out to Tea again today. The spokesperson said they have no additional comment at this time.

What the breach may mean

In its report, 404 Media makes clear that this security issue was noticed and flagged by an independent researcher—but there’s no way of knowing who else may have discovered it and not taken the info to the media. The outlet was able to confirm that the database included private, potentially sensitive information about not only the women who were chatting within the app, but the men they were discussing. Some women shared phone numbers and private details of their interactions with men and made accusations about the men’s conduct. While Tea encourages users to create anonymous usernames, 404 Media reported it wasn’t hard to tie at least a few of the messages back to real-life people.

What does this mean for users of the app? At this point, it’s impossible to say whether anyone else has gotten ahold of this information, or if it has been uploaded anywhere online. But the information that was accessible is quite private and, given that Tea users are assured of the anonymity of the app, the news is understandably upsetting for anyone who may have shared intimate details using the app.

What you need to know about Tea

If this is the first you’re hearing about Tea, congratulations, because that means you aren’t as terminally online as I am. I hope you had a nice weekend doing all kinds of real-life activities. But whether you know a lot, a little, or nothing about Tea, allow me to give you a rundown on the ill-fated app.

As noted, Tea is a Yelp-style social media app that only women can join. To do so, users must send in a verification photo that proves they are a woman (although it’s still unclear how that works, and what the implications are for LGBTQ+ or gender non-conforming people who may want to sign up). Once approved, users can search for men by name, find ones they know, and leave comments about them. Users can also simply append a “red flag” or “green flag” reaction to a man. The volume of red or green flags is meant to show any other women looking him up whether he’s a good guy, or a bad guy. Like a Rotten Tomatoes score, there is very little room for nuance on here.

In theory, men can’t access the app, so they have no recourse if they’re drowning in red flags and warnings on Tea. In fact, they may not realize they have a page dedicated to them on the app at all. That’s notable, given that Tea announced that last week that it had received more than 2.5 million new requests to join the app—meaning a man’s profile is potentially visible to millions of women, whether he even realizes it exists.

Granted, you could argue that if someone doesn’t want to be branded a “red flag man,” they should act more like a “green flag man.” But the lack of any kind of due process could certainly lead to major reputational damage for men who may or may not deserve it. Though the app’s tagline is “Dating safely for women” and it advertises that users can “run background checks,” “identify potential catfish,” and “verify he’s not a sex offender,” among other things, the ability to anonymously leave comments about men is a major draw—and, if used nefariously to defame someone who doesn’t deserve it, a major drawback.

I certainly acknowledge that warning women of abusers, violent men, and cheaters is a good, safe thing to do and that anonymously rating people and not having to provide any proof of the accusations you’re publicly making against them is potentially a very bad thing.

And inarguably, the fact that thousands of women’s photos and private messages were stored in such an insecure way by Tea that they have been exposed in multiple data breaches is definitely a very bad thing. No one is winning here.

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If you’re building out a home gym, the first piece of equipment you need is a set of weights. While I’m a huge fan of adjustable dumbbells as a savvy cost-saving hack, there’s another place to turn to save money on your home gym arsenal: Your FSA/HSA funds.

Thanks to Nike’s partnership with Truemed, you can now use pre-tax dollars to purchase Nike strength training equipment, potentially saving you around 30% on your fitness investments. Here’s everything you need to know about turning your health savings into home gym gains.

How to get a Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN)

Like with using your health funds to buy wearables and fitness trackers, the secret to unlocking FSA/HSA eligibility for fitness equipment lies in obtaining a Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN). Your LMN is basically a doctor’s note required to classify certain purchases as qualified medical expenses under IRS guidelines, proving that it will be used to treat a legitimate medical condition, such as obesity or a heart condition. As long as you submit an LMN to your benefits administrator, it will most likely be covered. Without this letter, the IRS considers fitness equipment a general wellness expense, making it ineligible for tax-advantaged health account funds.

Traditionally, obtaining an LMN meant scheduling an appointment with your primary care physician, explaining your fitness needs, and hoping they’d write the required documentation. This process could take weeks and wasn’t guaranteed to result in approval. However, third-party apps have changed the game on this front.

When you’re checking out your eligible purchases on Nike’s site, you’ll see the option to “Pay With Truemed” at checkout. From there, as Truemed explains it, you’ll be asked you a few questions about your health circumstances, and you’ll be matched with a provider to determine your eligibility. This covers your fitness goals, any relevant health conditions, and how the equipment will support your wellness objectives.

If you qualify, you’ll get an LMN that will allow you to use your HSA or FSA funds to complete your purchase—all without ever having to meet with your primary doctor. This typically happens within 24-48 hours, much faster than scheduling a traditional doctor’s appointment.

Once approved, you can complete your purchase knowing it’s fully FSA/HSA eligible. If you do not qualify, you may cancel your order at any time prior to delivery.

These Nike weights qualify for FSA/HSA funds

Nike Strength products are eligible for HSA/FSA purchases through Truemed. The eligible equipment includes:

• Alpha home gym setup

• Nike barbell and plate set

• Nike curl bar bundle

• Nike grind dumbbell

Again, these products qualify because they support specific health outcomes including muscle building, cardiovascular health improvement, and joint stability enhancement. The key is proving you need them for some specific health and fitness purposes, rather than general recreation.

While your FSA/HSA-funds won’t cover the full $2,819 cost of that home gym set-up, an average of 30% savings could be enough to justify clicking “add to card” in the first place.

The bottom line

Your FSA and HSA funds were designed to support your health and wellness, and if you play your cards right, that support could extend to building the home gym with Nike strength equipment. Nike and Truemed clearly mark which products qualify for FSA/HSA funds, but you do need to prove your eligibility. Some employers’ FSA administrators may scrutinize purchases more closely, but Truemed’s LMN system could be your saving grace. Just remember: The most important aspect of shopping with HSA funds is record-keeping. Make sure to keep every receipt—and LMN—for every HSA purchase you make.

Have you been told not to charge your phone at the airport? Many of us have, by major government agencies like the FBI, no less. The conversation is back in the news, confusingly, from a March post on the official TSA Facebook page. Like the FBI, the TSA is warning us to avoid both USB ports and wifi networks in public places, like airports—and it doesn’t seem much has changed from their perspective in the four months since they posted.

The post itself, in my humble opinion, is bizarre. It reads less like a PSA from an official security agency, and more like a social media post typed up by a summer intern. The largest red flag for me is this sentence, which reads: “Hackers can install malware at USB ports (we’ve been told that’s called “juice/port jacking”).” I would like to think an agency like the TSA wouldn’t need to be told what a supposed security threat is called.

But ignoring the lack of authority in the style of the post, the warnings themselves are a bit odd. From where I’m sitting, there are few legitimate reasons to stir up panic over these two security issues. Let’s look at each one individually:

Are public USB ports safe?

The worry here is that bad actors can infect these publicly accessible ports with malware, so when you plug in, the malware installs itself on your device. This is what’s known as juice jacking or port jacking.

It’s not that juice jacking seems impossible: Malware can be delivered in a number of ways. It’s more the fact there has been no known case of this happening in the wild—save for an educational example at Defcon 2011. Could the FBI and TSA be aware of attacks that the public is not? Sure. But I’m not sure that airport USB ports are massive yet silent malware spreaders. That would require bad actors to buy plane tickets, enter the secure zone of each airport, and take the time to infect each port. Again, possible, but, in my view, unlikely. Why do that when it’s much easier to trick users into installing malware from fraudulent websites?

Bad actors would also need to contend with USB cables that are charging only, with no support for data transfer. Maybe your cable allows for data transfer, but maybe someone else’s doesn’t. Even if yours does, many modern smartphones require you to grant permission to access the USB device before you can initiate a data transfer. Without that permission, the connection will only charge your device. While it is true that researchers have found ways around these defenses, there are too many variables out there for this to be an effective malware installation method, and if I were a hacker, I just wouldn’t think the juice was worth the squeeze.

That being said, perhaps there are manipulated USB ports in airports, and cases of juice jacking the FBI and TSA are aware of, but aren’t disclosing to the public. You have a couple of options if you have to charge in the airport safely.

The first is to use a USB “condom:” USB condoms essentially turn any cable into a charging-only cable, by blocking all data transfer capabilities. If you have a USB cable that would otherwise happily install malware on your device, a USB condom will block this activity, so you can charge safely and securely. But you don’t need one of these devices to safely charge your devices at the airport: Just use the wall outlets. These pose no risk of juice jacking, since there are no data transfer capabilities here. Just plug your power adapter into the outlet as you normally would, and charge away with peace of mind.

Is public wifi safe?

The second warning advises travelers to not use free public wifi, especially for online purchases or to enter sensitive information. This is good advice, for 2015. Back in the day, most websites were not encrypted, which meant your internet traffic was exposed to anyone who knew how to access it. It’s one thing if you checked headlines on The New York Times, or watched a YouTube video: Hackers could see that traffic, but there wasn’t much to do with that other than violate your privacy. But if you entered sensitive info on sites, like passwords, or accessed sites with private data, like your bank’s website, then you have a security situation. That’s why the (good) advice of old was to avoid using public wifi, especially for these types of activities.

Since 2018, however, the vast majority of websites you visit are encrypted. That means even if you use public wifi without encryption, the actual web traffic is protected. Hackers won’t be able to see the information you enter on those sites, as long as it is indeed encrypted.

So, if you’re using public wifi—especially public wifi without some type of password protection—just double-check the website itself is encrypted before logging in. You’ll know that if the site uses HTTPS (as opposed to HTTP), or by the small “lock” icon in the address bar, depending on the browser.

Now, you’ll still want to ensure the website you’re visiting is not only encrypted, but legitimate. Phishing sites can use HTTPS too, so make sure you’re actually visiting your bank’s website before plugging in your information. That advice, of course, applies whether you’re using public wifi or your home wifi, anyway. You can also protect your web browsing even more with a VPN, which reroutes your traffic to make it much more difficult to track you. You might be connecting through the Denver airport, but your traffic could look like it’s coming from Japan, Panama, or Iceland.

(Washington, D.C., July 28, 2025) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins today announced additional U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) assistance to help producers in the Commonwealth of Virginia recover from Hurricane Helene. Secretary Rollins signed a block grant agreement with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) that provides recovery assistance for Virginian farmers. Virginia is the second state to receive this disaster aid.

In the event of severe weather, natural disasters, and other emergencies, receiving accurate information from official sources in a timely manner can be life-saving. Your smartphone can alert you to everything from public safety issues like widespread power outages to imminent threats like flash floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes, giving you a buffer to get out of harm’s way.

Of course, you should also keep abreast of conditions in your area—especially during known severe weather seasons—and be prepared with various emergency kits and the best mobile apps to navigate emergencies of all kinds. But if you only do one thing, enable these essential alerts on your iPhone or Android.

How to enable emergency alerts on iPhone

Government alerts, which include public safety, emergency, and AMBER alerts, are enabled by default on your iPhone. To confirm yours are turned on, go to Settings > Notifications and scroll down to the Government Alerts section, where you can toggle alerts on or off. There’s also a toggle for test alerts—system tests run by state and local emergency management agencies—which are off by default.

Click on Emergency Alerts to open an additional menu with toggles for Local Awareness (which improves the accuracy and timeliness of alerts targeted to your area, such as earthquake alerts in California, Oregon, and Washington) and Always Play Sound (recommended, as it ensures you hear alerts even if your device is on silent).

As outlined by the California Learning Resource Network, emergency or imminent threat alerts on iOS include severe weather or disaster warnings issued by the National Weather Service as well as state and local authorities, while public safety alerts cover civil emergencies, power outages, and hazmat incidents. All devices receive alerts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the event of a national emergency.

How to enable emergency alerts on Android

Android users can turn on government-issued emergency alerts under Settings > Safety and emergency > Wireless emergency alerts. You can also search “wireless emergency alerts”. Flip the toggle next to the alerts you want to receive (which include all the same options as on iOS).

Google also has a built-in earthquake alert system for Android, which detects and issues warnings ahead of the worst shaking based on accelerometer data collected from users’ devices. Alerts are on by default (see Settings > Safety and emergency > Earthquake alerts) and include messages to either “be aware” or “take action,” with notifications breaking through even if you have Do Not Disturb on. While Google’s is an Android-wide system, Samsung Galaxy users may soon see even more granular setting options for earthquake warnings.

Sign up for other alert services

While your phone’s built-in alerts are a baseline, it doesn’t hurt to have some redundancy, ensuring you don’t miss critical information. The FEMA app allows you to set your primary location and which emergency alerts you want to receive, while apps like Storm Shield and NOAA’s Weather Radar & Forecast (iOS, Android) can give you detailed weather information in real time with alerts via push notification for multiple locations.

You should look up emergency alerts for your city or county, which may offer more localized information for everything from severe weather to traffic and road conditions in addition to those already sent via government alerts.

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Outside of a shopping event like Prime Day, Apple products rarely go on a massive sale—but if you wait for the right moment, you can usually find a deal. If you’ve been eyeing Apple’s top-of-the-line smartwatch, that moment is now: The Apple Watch Ultra 2 has dropped to $649.99 on Amazon, saving you $150 off the retail price and matching its Prime Day discount, according to price tracking tools. This is the lowest price I’ve seen for the Ultra 2, likely because the Ultra 3 is rumored for release later this year.

Apple’s latest and highest-tier smartwatch (for now)

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 was released in September 2023 and remains Apple’s flagship smartwatch. It is different than the previous first-generation Apple Watch Ultra, which you can find for $420 refurbished at Amazon. It’s also different from the Apple Watch Series 10, which you can get for $329 on Amazon right now. If you’re looking for a budget-friendly Apple watch, consider the second generation Apple Watch SE available for $169 (originally $249).

The Ultra 2 is the most premium Apple watch, with the biggest case size, brightest screen (3,000 nits), deepest water resistance (100 meters), and longest battery life (up to 36 hours).

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is packed with fitness-focused features, but even if you aren’t a health nut, it also has a lot of great features for casual users. People who want a reliable sleep tracker can learn a lot about their sleep habits with the Ultra 2 as long as they keep it well-charged.

The model currently available for $649.99 is the “one size” fits all, which you can read more about on PCMag’s “excellent” review.