Tuesday, May 17, 2022

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Mastercard's pay-with-a-smile test is bound to rile privacy advocates

Posted: 17 May 2022 08:38 AM PDT

Amazon isn't the only one hoping you'll be willing to use biometrics to pay at the store. Mastercard has unveiled a Biometric Checkout Program that aims to set standards for paying with scans or gestures. The company hopes to make the purchase as simple as smiling for a camera or waving your hand in front of a reader — you wouldn't risk holding up the queue by reaching for your card, phone or watch.

The initiative would have you enroll either at the store or through an app. The potential standard is meant to accommodate shops of all sizes, and Mastercard is teaming with Fujitsu, NEC, Payface and other companies to establish baseline requirements for performance, privacy and security.

A pilot version is launching this week in Brazil, with Payface providing technology in five St Marche supermarkets across São Paulo. Customers will just have to smile to pay for their groceries. Tests are also planned for Asia and the Middle East, although Mastercard didn't share more details.

Biometric checkouts may be appreciated if you've ever fumbled for your wallet at the cash. As with other implementations, though, it's not clear if Mastercard will satisfy privacy concerns. Regardless of promises to protect your data, you're still trusting companies with photos and other sensitive body info. Many people aren't comfortable with that, and the Red Rocks Amphitheater even dropped Amazon palm scanning after a backlash from artists and activists worried about hacking and government surveillance. If Mastercard and its allies are going to establish a standard, they'll need to reassure shoppers that spies and fraudsters won't abuse body scans.

Almond Cow provides a quick and (less) dirty way to make plant milk at home

Posted: 17 May 2022 08:30 AM PDT

As part of Cooking Week, we set out to test some of the most niche (and, in some cases, ridiculous) kitchen gadgets we could find. We wanted to know if these impressive-looking appliances actually do what they claim and if they're worth the splurge. These are our findings.

I've been drinking non-dairy milk almost exclusively for about eight years, but only recently did I think to make my own. Even since I made the transition from cow to almond milk, many more non-dairy milk options have hit the market. Just go to your local supermarket and you'll find different varieties and flavors of almond, cashew, soy, oat and coconut milk, and even the occasional pea and flax milk choices, too.

With all that choice, it may seem counterintuitive to make your own non-dairy milk at home, but Almond Cow believes that there are plenty of people who would rather take that route. Almond Cow is a company that makes a milk-maker machine that shares its name that removes a lot of the work involved with making your own non-dairy milk. It's essentially a big, high-powered blender with just enough moving parts to make alt milks at home, including an attached blade, a filter basket, a big base and a motor inside that makes all of the magic happen.

Before I get into my time with the Almond Cow, it's worth mentioning that plant milk machines aren't new, but they aren't as ubiquitous as standard blenders either. In addition to the Almond Cow, there are a number on the market from companies including Nutr, ChefWave and Tribest – all more niche than a regular ol' blender, which is exactly why I wanted to give one a go.

The Almond Cow plant milk maker disassembled on a marble countertop.
Valentina Palladino / Engadget

And I should say: You could easily make plant milk using a blender (the more high-performance, the better), but it requires a few additional steps, namely filtering your blended up ingredients through a nut milk bag. It's time consuming and messy, and honestly it's one of the main reasons why I never wanted to try to make my own alt milk at home. In testing the Almond Cow, I was hoping to figure out if making plant milk would actually be worthwhile and if it could help me reduce the amount of store-bought plant milk I buy.

I'll admit, the Almond Cow is a bit intimidating when you unbox it. It's basically a big stainless steel jug with a removable top that has the machine's blade attached to it. A bit larger than your standard pitcher of lemonade, it can make five to six cups of plant milk at a time. It doesn't take up too much counter space and I found it easy to clean as well. It also comes with a "collector cup," which is just a plastic vessel with grooves on the bottom that perfectly cradles the machine's removable top, making clean up easier and way less messy than you'd think.

After washing all the included parts first, I dove into my first endeavor: making cashew milk. The machine comes with a book of recipes, which I followed almost to a tee. Five cups of water went into the base of the Almond Cow, while the following went into the filter basket: one cup of unsoaked cashews, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and two pitted dates (the recipe called for three, but I prefer very lightly or unsweetened plant milk). I twisted the filter basket into place so that the machine's blade was submerged in the ingredients and then placed the whole top back onto the base.

The Almond Cow plant milk maker assembled on a marbled countertop.
Valentina Palladino / Engadget

After that, it's literally a one-button process. With the machine plugged in, you only need to press the top button on the Almond Cow and let it go. The device automatically cycles through three blending modes, which infuse the water with your ingredients while grinding them down into a fine pulp that stays in the filter basket. The blending process takes maybe 90 seconds, tops, so the whole process from ingredients to finished plant milk takes maybe three to five minutes. If you have the necessary ingredients at home, this is much faster than popping out to the grocery store to pick up a new carton of plant milk.

The results were impressive. My first batch of cashew milk was subtly sweet with a creamy, smooth texture. Cashew milk has a pretty neutral flavor and my homemade batch tasted similar to the cashew milk I get at the grocery store. The biggest difference I noticed came a couple days later when the cashew portion of the milk settled to the bottom of the mason jar I was storing it in. Settling will happen with almost any non-dairy milk – that's why every carton advises you to "shake well" – so I only noticed a hint of graininess when I drank the very last portion of my homemade milk (something I've never experienced with industrially made alt milks, even when I neglected to shake the carton). That's not to say the last cup or so of my cashew milk was bad; rather, it just required more vigorous, continuous stirring into my coffee that morning.

I also made coconut and pistachio milk, with similar results: light and pleasantly creamy milk that required a good shake before pouring after it sat in the fridge overnight. One of the great things about the recipes in the Almond Cow book is that almost all of them call for unsoaked nuts, so you can make batches of non-dairy milk without any prepping ahead of time. You can also control the exact ingredients you put into each batch, so if you're like me and like to experiment with different recipes, the Almond Cow will be a great machine for you.

There's also a compelling reduced-waste aspect to the Almond Cow that I'm sure many will appreciate. Making your own plant milk at home means you may not buy as much pre-packaged milk at the store, thereby reducing the amount of packaging you consume regularly. Also, Almond Cow's website has a bunch of nut pulp recipes, too, so you can further cut down your waste by conserving the nut pulp from each batch and using it to make cookies, muffins, pies and if you're feeling adventurous, even vegan cheese.

The Almond Cow plant milk maker next to a jug of homemade cashew milk and a glass with homemade cashew milk on a marbled countertop.
Valentina Palladino / Engadget

Undoubtedly, the Almond Cow is best for tinkerers, home chefs and those who care about reducing waste. I fit into all of those categories, but I can still see the drawbacks to this $245 device. First, as you could probably guess, the Almond Cow isn't going to save you money on non-dairy milk in the short term. The device itself is expensive, but the real cost comes in when you consider how many ingredients you'll need to keep on hand to make alt milk regularly. Nuts aren't cheap and you'll need a half-pound (eight ounces) to make one batch of milk in the Almond Cow. And you'll likely need to make at least one, maybe two batches each week, depending on how much you drink, because homemade plant milk lasts for only three to five days in the fridge – a paltry shelf life when compared to the weeks you'll get from a carton of the store-bought stuff.

Also, it's worth noting that the Almond Cow is designed to take the guesswork out of making your own plant milk. That means it's less flexible than, say, your own blender when it comes to customization. The baseline ratio of nuts to water is 1:5 (cups), so what that produces is the creamiest milk you'll get. The included cookbook does provide a few "creamer" recipes, which uses the limited area of the collector cup to make a small amount of thicker, nut-milk creamer for you to use in your coffee. However, you'll be able to experiment with more than creamier consistencies of plant milk if you use different nut-to-water ratios in a high-powered blender.

One thing I have grown to love over the past decade or so is make my own common foods from scratch. I'd rather make my own pasta sauce than buy a jar for $5; I have a go-to granola recipe that I prefer over any pre-made types; and I have a signature pesto recipe that I'm now attempting to mess with to make it vegan. That's all to say that the Almond Cow is a unitasker that's designed specifically for someone like me. And I do love using it, but will it totally replace the plant milk I love from my grocery store? No – at least not immediately. I've tried so many plant milks over the years that I now have my favorites and it'll take a lot to get me to give those up. But I do relish the opportunity to make my own plant milk at home in the hopes that maybe, someday, I'll craft a concoction that comes close to my store-bought favorites.

Ford added GT power (and fun) to the Mach-E

Posted: 17 May 2022 08:00 AM PDT

The Ford Mustang Mach-E GT suffers from long-name syndrome. Most of it has to do with cramming with the word "Mustang" onto the front, which has really angered some Mustang owners on the internet. They can be mad all they want because the GT is a great addition to the Mustang lineage, even though it's an electric SUV.

Starting at over $60,000, the GT is not cheap fun, but it is exhilarating enough that if you're in the market for a Mach-E and crave an all-wheel-drive torque machine, you owe it to yourself to hop in the driver's seat for a road test. As for the tech, it's getting better but there are a few issues we hope Ford will rectify in the future. 

Check out the video above for the full story.

We ran every test you could think of on the M1 Ultra

Posted: 17 May 2022 07:30 AM PDT

We've now tested every version of Apple's M1 processor, from the first M1 chip in the 13-inch Macbook Pro all the way up to the M1 Ultra in the new Mac Studio, and the chip's ability to scale performance is pretty incredible. The M1 Ultra fuses two M1 Max chips together to get you a processor with 20 CPU cores and 64 GPU cores, along with up to 128GB of RAM, and it's one of the fastest processors we've ever tested.

We asked what tests you'd like to see run on the M1 Ultra and assembled quite a list, including Adobe Lightroom and Premiere Pro, Davinci Resolve and Fusion, 3D modeling in Blender, machine learning tests like TensorFlow and Pytorch, and even some gaming.

Amazingly, the M1 Ultra really does seem to be around twice as fast as the M1 Max in most applications. Whatever overhead is required to shuffle data around such a large chip, it rarely impacts CPU performance. The GPU scaling doesn't fare quite so well. The M1 Ultra was typically 40-80% faster than the M1 Max, still speedy, but not quite as impressive in its scaling as the CPU.

The M1 Ultra does best when its hardware accelerators can kick in. These are the parts of the chip built to speed up specific tasks, namely video rendering and AI processing. In a test processing ten 8K video clips at once, the M1 Ultra did the job in just 29 seconds when its accelerators were able to help out. This was about twice as fast as the PC we were testing, despite it having a 16-core AMD 5950X processor and Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti graphics card.

Apple's M1 ecosystem does at times feel unfinished. There were more strange bugs than I'd expected, and software compatibility can still be a problem, but it's improving rapidly. The M1 Ultra wasn't always faster than my PC, but in some tests it was two or three times quicker, and in only a few cases was it significantly slower. If you use Apple and need a high-end desktop, there's really no decision, and for everyone else looking for a workstation, the M1 Ultra Mac Studio is a contender.

Check out the video above for the full details of our testing.

You can practice for a job interview with Google AI

Posted: 17 May 2022 07:15 AM PDT

Never mind reading generic guides or practicing with friends — Google is betting that algorithms can get you ready for a job interview. The company has launched an Interview Warmup tool that uses AI to help you prepare for interviews across various roles. The site asks typical questions (such as the classic "tell me a bit about yourself") and analyzes your voiced or typed responses for areas of improvement. You'll know when you overuse certain words, for instance, or if you need to spend more time talking about a given subject.

Interview Warmup is aimed at Google Career Certificates users hoping to land work, and most of its role-specific questions reflect this. There are general interview questions, though, and Google plans to expand the tool to help more candidates. The feature is currently only available in the US.

AI has increasingly been used in recruitment. To date, though, it has mainly served companies during their selection process, not the potential new hires. This isn't going to level the playing field, but it might help you brush up on your interview skills.

Apple Music will livestream concerts, starting with Harry Styles

Posted: 17 May 2022 07:06 AM PDT

Apple Music will start livestreaming some concerts from major artists this week as part of a new series. Apple Music Live kicks off with a Harry Styles show that subscribers in 167 countries will able to watch live and at no extra cost on May 20th. The company says Apple Music Live is a way to "give the biggest stars in music the biggest possible platform to flaunt how they connect with audiences and how their songs translate to live performance." 

The concert takes place at UBS Arena in Long Island, New York. It's effectively a record release party for Styles, whose third album, Harry's House, comes out on the same day. Apple Music's landing page for the event includes an interview with Styles about the making of the album, a link for users to pre-add Harry's House to their library and a bunch of playlists focused on the performer.

This seems like a smart way for artists to both promote new releases and give people a sense of what their live shows are like to perhaps sell some more tickets. It could also help Apple Music persuade fans of artists whose shows it streams to sign up for the service.

Styles' gig, titled "One Night Only in New York," will be available to stream at 9PM ET on Friday. So that folks in other parts of the world can catch the show at a more reasonable time, there will be encore streams on May 22nd at noon ET and May 26th at 5AM. That suggests the concert won't be available on demand afterward. When asked by Engadget for clarification on that, an Apple spokesperson said the company had "nothing to announce at this time."

Several other platforms have streamed live shows to viewers. YouTube has broadcast performances from Coachella over the last several years. As it happens, Styles was one of the festival's headliners this year. Hulu just inked a deal to stream the Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits music festivals this year and next. Amazon Music has baked in artists' Twitch streams, while Amazon has streamed live shows on a ticketed basis and offered them to Prime Video subscribers afterward.

Apple has some experience in livestreaming concerts too. In 2007, it started running the iTunes Festival (later known as the Apple Music Festival) in the UK before expanding it to the US in 2014. Apple announced in 2017 that the festival had come to an end.

Update 5/17 11:10AM ET: Added Apple's response.

Netflix is using subscribers as focus groups for unreleased shows

Posted: 17 May 2022 06:11 AM PDT

Netflix is turning to a conventional strategy to improve its originals: the focus group. Variety has learned Netflix has been screening movies and TV shows in advance to obtain feedback from subscribers invited to participate. Customers reportedly watch several titles over the course of six months and fill out a survey to indicate what they liked, hated or would change.

The company confirmed that it's running focus groups, but only in the US. The panels have reportedly been active for roughly a year.

These screenings have been mainstays in Hollywood for decades, and are used to make edits when producers want a title to reach the broadest possible audience. Terminator 2's ending was changed after a focus group rejected the initial version, for instance. As in those cases, Netflix is using the groups to make sure its originals are received well and keep viewers coming back.

The company is very familiar with experimentation. It has tested everything from random show selection through to mobile games. However, testing show content is relatively new. While it's not clear what prompted the new approach, Netflix is facing mounting pressure from rivals who are chasing awards and the customers that sometimes follow.

ASUS' Flow X16 2-in-1 gaming laptop features a 165Hz mini-LED display

Posted: 17 May 2022 06:00 AM PDT

ASUS has refreshed its gaming laptop lineup to add the latest components from AMD, Intel and NVIDIA. Of the two computers it announced today, the more intriguing one is the ROG Flow X16. It builds on the company's previous gaming 2-in-1s by adding an enviable display to the mix.

The X16 will come with a mini-LED panel. According to the company, the QHD screen features a 165Hz refresh rate and a 3-millisecond pixel response time, in addition to 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage and 1,100 nits of peak brightness. With 512 local dimming zones, the X16's display secured VESA's DisplayHDR 1000 certification. When it comes to gaming monitors, you've typically have had to choose between speed and HDR performance. With the Flow X16, ASUS is promising a no-compromise display, and that's exciting if you play a mix of competitive titles and immersive single-player games.

The ASUS Flow X16 in its
ASUS

Internally, you'll have the option to configure the X16 with the latest Ryzen 6000 series CPUs from AMD, including the eight-core 6900HS. Also on offer are NVIDIA's recently announced RTX Ti GPUs for laptops. ASUS hasn't forgotten about DDR5 either. It's possible to configure the X16 with up to 64GB of fast 4,800MHz DDR5 RAM, and as much as 2TB of PCIe storage.

To cool all those components, ASUS has equipped the Flow X16 with its "Pulsar" heatsink and an additional fan. The company says those components will help keep the computer cooler for longer. Powering everything is a 90Wh battery with fast charging support built-in, and the entire laptop weighs just under four-and-a-half pounds.

On the I/O front, you can look forward to HDMI 2.1 connectivity, allowing you to plug the Flow X16 into the latest 120Hz TVs to play games at 120 frames per second just like you would with a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. The X16 also comes with a single USB 4.0 port that can act as a DisplayPort 1.4 connection. For good measure, the laptop will also ship with stylus support and a Windows Hello-compatible Full HD web camera. Pricing on the Flow X16 will start at $1,950, increasing to $2,700 for the top-spec model.

On Tuesday, ASUS also announced an updated version of its ROG Strix Scar 17 laptop. The company claims the new "Special Edition" model features among the "most powerful" components you'll find on a portable PC. You can configure the computer to feature Intel's 16-core i9-12900HX CPU in combination with a GeForce RTX 3080Ti. What's more, the SE includes a Turbo Mode, allowing both components to draw more power than they normally would, in turn boosting their performance. For cooling, the CPU and GPU feature a thermal metal interface, which ASUS claims keeps the components up to 15 degrees Celsius cooler than traditional thermal paste. Additionally, the company says the SE won't produce more than 40 decibels of noise when in its Performance mode.

ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 SE
ASUS

Unfortunately, the laptop won't come with a mini-LED display like the Flow X16, but it will feature an IPS panel with a QHD resolution, 240Hz refresh rate and a 3-millisecond pixel response time. Just like the X16, it also comes with up to 64GB of 4800MHz DDR5 RAM, HDMI 2.1 connectivity and a 90Wh battery. Unique to the SE is an invisible ink finish ASUS says it spent six months developing. The finish produces a blue and green glow when under UV light. 

Pricing for the Strix Scar 17 SE starts at an eye-watering $3500. ASUS expects both models to go on sale before the end of the first half of the year. 

The best online resources for cooking at all skill levels

Posted: 17 May 2022 05:55 AM PDT

A key part of adulting is learning to feed ourselves. Some might opt for restaurants or takeout for sustenance, but that can get expensive. The best option is to learn to cook your own meals. That might sound harsh, especially if cooking doesn't sound fun to you, but there are a plethora of resources online for cooks of all levels. Be it beginner how-tos or deep-dive YouTube videos, we hope this list of Engadget staff favorites will get you started on your path to culinary confidence. Oh, and if you're ever confused about measurements, a tool like this recipe converter is a good reference to keep on your bookmarks tab.

Recipe sites

Serious Eats

If you self-identify as a nerd and you're also into cooking, you probably already know about Serious Eats. The site rose to prominence several years ago under the helm of J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, who often takes a decidedly scientific approach to cooking. Lopez-Alt has since transitioned to a consulting role at Serious Eats (he has his own vlog, which is well worth following as well), but the site remains strong under new leadership. It offers tips on basics like food prep and storage, as well as a slew of how-tos and step-by-step instructions for everything from breaking down a chicken to kneading your own bread.

Try this: Quick and Easy Pressure Cooker Black Beans with Chorizo

NYT Cooking

This is the only recommendation on this list that requires payment — $1.25 a week or $40 a year — but I personally think it's worth it. The site and accompanying app (for iOS and Android) is well organized and intuitive to use, with bright and colorful photos along with an ever-changing list of curated recipe recommendations and suggestions. I especially like the search function, where you can not only enter in the ingredients you have on hand, but also filter by the sort of meal you want to make iIs it for breakfast? A snack? Or dinner?) along with any dietary restrictions. If you don't want to cough up the subscription fee, however, NYT's YouTube channel is a great resource as well.

Try this: Spiced chickpea stew with coconut and turmeric (YouTube)

The Kitchn

The Kitchn is a daily food magazine that's been around since the mid-2000s, and it frequently serves up not just recipes but also fun features like a celebrity recipe showdown (check out this one that compares the pot roast recipes between Alton Brown, Ina Garten, Taste of Home and the Pioneer Woman). Of course, The Kitchn also publishes plenty of tips and tricks to help readers be a better cook. 

Try this: Maple Corn Cakes

YouTube channels

Food Wishes

"Hello, I'm Chef John, from Food Wishes dot com" is the familiar refrain that you'll hear at the beginning of every Food Wishes video, and it never fails to warm my heart. His tone is so welcoming and cheerful that it cheers me up every time I hear it. A YouTube favorite (he has over four million subscribers), he's also a favorite among a few Engadget staffers, and for good reason. Not only is he goofy and charming, his recipes are also almost always geared toward the novice chef, with clear and concise instructions. He also encourages viewers to experiment, use their senses, play around with food, and to think of cooking as art as much as science.

Try this: No-Knead Country Bread

Binging with Babish

Binging with Babish is a popular YouTube channel (over 9.6 million subscribers) that's primarily focused on recreating foods from TV shows and movies. Some famous examples include the Krabby Patty from Spongebob Squarepants and ratatouille from, well, Ratatouille. But host Andrew Rea can cook "normal" foods too, and the popularity of his channel led him to host a spin-off series called "Basics with Babish" that's geared toward the beginner.

Try this: Chickpeas

Food52

The Food52 website can be considered a one-stop shop for cooking enthusiasts, as there's an online store along with recipes and a community board. But the real highlight for me is its YouTube channel, which features excellent shows such as Sweet Heat by Rick Martinez (the former Bon Appetit editor showcases recipes with both a sweet and spicy element), Big Little Recipes (focuses on recipes with a short ingredient list) and Genius Recipes, which, well, shows "genius" recipes created by notable chefs.

Try this: How to Make the Easiest Beefy Mac Rice Cakes

Dessert Person

Have a sweet tooth? Then look no further than Claire Saffitz's YouTube channel, where she bakes up everything from apple pies to oatmeal pecan cookies. Her personality is a combination of cranky and lovable, which I adore, but more importantly, her recipes are excellent. She gives very detailed instructions and the results are almost always delicious. She makes a lot of savory baked goods as well, such as sourdough bread and quiche.

Try this: The Best Oatmeal Cookies

Maangchi

Maagchi has been referred to by The New York Times as the Julia Child of Korean cooking, and the description couldn't be more apt. Not only does she have a friendly and bubbly personality, she does a wonderful job of demystifying Korean cooking and making it approachable to beginners and advanced cooks alike. From Korean classics like kimchi jjigae and bibimbap to sweet treats like Korean doughnuts, she makes it all seem within reach. 

Try this: Korean Street Toast (Gilgeori-Toast)

Dietary concerns or special diets

101 Cookbooks

For a site that is entirely dedicated to vegetarian cuisine, I highly recommend 101 Cookbooks by Heidi Swanson, which has been an online favorite for decades. I'm a huge fan of her simple, straightforward recipes that are able to turn a carnivore like me into a lover of plant-based meals (a personal favorite is this cauliflower soup).

Try this: Chickpea and Rice soup with Garlic Chile Oil

Nom Nom Paleo

You don't need to be on the paleo diet to fall in love with Nom Nom Paleo, a mini-empire that consists of a food blog, two award-winning cookbooks, and a podcast, among other things. The New York Times has referred to Michelle Tam, the creator of the site, as the Martha Stewart of Paleo, because of how accessible she makes it seem. After perusing her site and trying her recipes, you'll no longer think of the paleo diet as restrictive; instead you might find yourself eating more than ever. Tam has also tailored some of her recipes to fit Whole30 or keto diets as well.

Try this: Garbage Stir-Fry with Curried Cabbage

Clean and Delicious

If you're not strictly vegetarian or paleo, but you still want a healthy diet, check out the Clean and Delicious food blog by Dani Spies. A wellness and weight loss coach, Spies believes in a balanced diet and "clean eating," but without foregoing the foods you love. For example, there's a recipe for lemon bars on her site, but it's made with whole wheat flour and doesn't have dairy or refined sugar. All of the recipes on her site reflect this philosophy; they're either gluten-free, paleo, vegan or vegetarian and they are also often low-carb, keto, dairy-free or nut-free. I also like her Instagram and YouTube channel, where she also shares tips on mindful eating and healthy living.

Try this: Healthy Banana Bread Muffins (YouTube)

Staff recommendations

There are simply way too many food sites on the internet to list them all, but here are a few more that were recommended by our staff that you might find useful.

Chinese Cooking Demystified

This is one of the best YouTube channels for learning all the ins and outs of authentic Chinese cooking from people who actually live in China. It's very detailed, well-produced and offers great advice on recreating these dishes in a Western kitchen. I also love that it teaches technique in addition to just recipes. To this day, I still come back to this video on how to stir-fry any vegetable.

Minimalist Baker

The blog Minimalist Baker features recipes that use 10 ingredients or less and only take about 30 minutes to make. Weekend Editor Igor Bonifacic is a big fan as well, mostly due to the site's wealth of vegetarian recipes, like this curried cauliflower lentil soup.

Budget Bytes

Budget Bytes is a great resource for those watching their wallets, as each recipe gives you a breakdown of estimated costs for each ingredient. Commerce Editor Valentina Palladino said that the site is also really good for beginners.

Rainbow Plant Life

If you're looking for vegan recipes, Rainbow Plant Life has a ton of them. Palladino loves the cashew cream recipe and appreciates that the site's founder, Nisha, has a trove of vegan-friendly Instant Pot recipes to try as well.

Pick Up Limes

Another staple for accessible vegan recipes is Pick Up Limes. Palladino says that the Healthiest Ever Granola recipe is one of her favorites, and she likes that the Pick Up Limes website makes it easy to filter recipes by type of ingredients, preparation time, allergens and more.

Richard Bertinet's White Bread Masterclass

Richard Bertinet's video on white bread comes highly recommended for its sheer simplicity. It proves that all you need to make bread is bread flour, yeast and salt. Senior Reporter Dan Cooper says the video is also a sure-fire way of calming him down when stressed.

Half Baked Harvest

Editor-in-Chief Dana Wollman and Senior News Editor Billy Steele frequently trade Slack messages with dinner recommendations. (What's for dinner? Ask a coworker, of course.) The answer from either person is often a Half Baked Harvest link. The site is home to a vast library of free recipes that, in our experience, tend to work as advertised. We're fans of her nightly Instagram Story cooking demos as well, not to mention her tacos.

Joy the Baker

Wollman says she discovered Joy by accident through her warm, self-effacing Insta Stories, only to discover she has an equally clever blog offering a mix of sweet and savory baking recipes.

WhatsApp is testing a feature that lets you quietly leave groups

Posted: 17 May 2022 05:20 AM PDT

If you choose to leave a WhatsApp group that has become increasingly noisy or irrelevant, the app will post a notification that anybody can see in-chat. It's probably not a big deal in most instances... unless it's a group with relatives or friends who are inclined to ask why you'd left. According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is working on an upcoming feature that could prevent awkward confrontations by letting you exit groups without posting a notification everybody could see. 

To note, the app will still notify the group admins that you're leaving when the feature becomes available, but everybody else wouldn't know unless you tell them. WABetaInfo first talked about the feature when Meta discussed experimenting with Communities, which people can use to combine separate group chats "under one umbrella with a structure that works for them," back in April. Now, the publication has obtained a screenshot of WhatsApp beta on desktop that shows an exit prompt that reads: "Only you and group admins will be notified that you left the group." Hopefully, the feature will also roll out for WhatsApp on mobile when it becomes available on desktop. 

And in case you don't want specific contacts to add you back or to add you into another group chat with them, don't forget that you can always block them from doing so. Under your Privacy settings in Account, you can choose the people who can add you to groups, with the options being "Everyone," "My Contacts" and "My contacts except..." the people you exclude. 

Apple adds systemwide Live Captions as part of larger accessibility update

Posted: 17 May 2022 05:00 AM PDT

Global Accessibility Awareness Day is this Thursday (May 19th) and Apple, like many other companies, is announcing assistive updates in honor of the occasion. The company is bringing new features across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, and the most intriguing of the lot is systemwide Live Captions.

Similar to Google's implementation on Android, Apple's Live Captions will transcribe audio playing on your iPhone, iPad or Mac in real time, displaying subtitles onscreen. It will also caption sound around you, so you can use it to follow along conversations in the real world. You'll be able to adjust the size and position of the caption box, and also choose different font sizes for the words. The transcription is generated on-device, too. But unlike on Android, Live Captions on FaceTime calls will also clearly distinguish between speakers, using icons and names for attribution of what's being said. Plus, those using Macs will be able to type a response and have it spoken aloud in real time for others in the conversation. Live Captions will be available as a beta in English for those in the US and Canada. 

Apple is also updating its existing sound recognition tool, which lets iPhones continuously listen out for noises like alarms, sirens, doorbells or crying babies. With a coming update, users will be able to train their iPhones or iPads to listen for custom sounds, like your washing machine's "I'm done" song or your pet duck quacking, perhaps. A new feature called Siri Pause Time will also let you extend the assistant's wait time when you're responding or asking for something, so you can take your time to finish saying what you need. 

Two screenshots showing Apple's new accessibility features. The first shows
Apple

The company is updating its Magnifier app that helps people who are visually impaired better interact with people and objects around them. Expanding on a previous People Detection tool that told users how far away others around them were, Apple is adding a new Door Detection feature. This will use the iPhone's LiDAR and camera to not only locate and identify doors, but will also read out text or symbols on display, like hours of operation and signs depicting restrooms or accessible entrances. In addition, it will describe the handles, whether it requires a push, pull or turn of a knob, as well as the door's color, shape, material and whether it's closed or open. Together, People and Door Detection will be part of the new Detection mode in Magnifier. 

Updates are also coming to Apple Watch. Last year, the company introduced Assistive Touch, which allowed people to interact with the wearable without touching the screen. The Watch would sense if the hand that it's on was making a fist or if the wearer was touching their index finger and thumb together for a "pinch" action. With an upcoming software update, it should be faster and easier to enable Quick Actions in assistive touch, which would then let you use gestures like double pinching to answer or end calls, take photos, start a workout or pause media playback.

But Assistive Touch isn't a method that everyone can use. For those with physical or motor disabilities that preclude them from using hand gestures altogether, the company is bringing a form of voice and switch control to its smartwatch. The feature is called Apple Watch Mirroring, and uses hardware and software including AirPlay to carry over a user's preset voice or switch control preferences from their iPhones, for example, to the wearable. This would allow them to use their head-tracking, sound actions and Made For iPhone switches to interact with their Apple Watch. 

Apple is adding more customization options to the Books app, letting users apply new themes and tweak line heights, word and character spacings and more. Its screen reader VoiceOver will also soon be available in more than 20 new languages and locales, including Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. Dozens of new voices will be added, too, as is a spelling mode for voice control that allows you to dictate custom spellings using letter-by-letter input

Finally, the company is launching a new feature called Buddy Controller that will let people use two controllers to drive a single player, which would be helpful for users with disabilities who want to partner up with their care providers. Buddy Controller will work with supported game controllers for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. There are plenty more updates coming throughout the Apple ecosystem, including on-demand American Sign Language interpreters expanding to Apple Store and Support in Canada as well as a new guide in Maps, curated playlists in Apple TV and Music and the addition of the Accessibility Assistant to the Shortcuts app on Mac and Watch. The features previewed today will be available later this year.

The Morning After: The best air fryers

Posted: 17 May 2022 04:15 AM PDT

I am not a chef. I'm not a cook. I'm barely a functioning male adult, but I wanted an air fryer. Not because I live on chicken fingers and fries but because there's no quicker way for me to make crispy gyoza from frozen, to make relatively healthy (not-quite) fried chicken and douse it in fiery Korean sauces and sesame seeds. More broadly, air fryers have expanded my kitchen repertoire without forcing me to heat up my oven and time things meticulously.

TMA
Engadget

The Engadget team called in a bunch of air fryers, complained about cleaning some of them and highlighted the best. The boring, measured advice is that the best air fryer for you depends on your own circumstances. Got plenty of kitchen space? Get the convection oven-styled ones. Living alone? You can get 80 percent of the benefits with the smallest pod air fryers.

My pro-tip? Reheated pizza. Try it in the air fryer and never look back.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Apple staff are already using Tap to Pay at the HQ visitor center

Contactless payments using only an iPhone.

In February, Apple unveiled Tap to Pay, a new feature for merchants to accept payments with only an iPhone. The company is already testing the feature in the wild… sort of. Staff are using the feature at the Apple Park visitor center in Cupertino, where customers can make an Apple Pay payment directly to an Apple staffer's iPhone, with no payment terminal in sight.

Continue reading.

Here are the new games included in ​​PlayStation Plus' new high-end tiers

Alongside 'Ghost of Tsushima,' there are some classics from the past.

Sony has revealed the first games to arrive with the launch of its new PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscription services. PlayStation Studios titles include Demon's Souls and Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut, along with third-party games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and NBA 2K22. Those games will arrive in the "launch time frame," starting May 24th.

Premium members will also get access to classic games "with some titles that will show improved frame rates and higher-quality resolution compared to their original launch versions," Sony wrote. Think Ape Escape, Hot Shots Golf, Tekken 2 and Worms Armageddon, along with remasters like Dark Cloud and Rogue Galaxy.

Continue reading.

Apple rolls out iOS 15.5

There are upgrades for Apple Cash and Podcasts.

Apple has released iOS 15.5 and its iPadOS 15.5 counterpart, with improvements to both Apple Cash and Podcasts. Cash users can now send and receive money from their card, while Podcasts users can automatically limit episode storage based on criteria like the number of shows or time since release. Oh, by the way, have you subscribed to The Morning Edition?

Continue reading.

Uber Eats is launching two autonomous delivery pilot schemes

Both in Los Angeles.

TMA
Uber

Uber Eats is testing autonomous deliveries, hard. The first pilot is an autonomous vehicle partnership with Motional, originally announced in December, and the second is with sidewalk delivery firm Serve Robotics, a company that spun out of Uber itself. Both in Los Angeles.

Trials are limited for now, with deliveries from just a few merchants, like the Kreation Organic Kafe and Juicery. Serve will do short delivery routes in West Hollywood, while Motional will take care of longer deliveries in Santa Monica.

Continue reading.

A new 'Black Mirror' season is in the works after a long hiatus

Casting is underway for the upcoming episodes, according to 'Variety.'

Black Mirror is coming back. Variety reports Netflix has greenlit a sixth season, with more episodes than season five. It seems casting is in progress for an even more cinematic season than before.

Continue reading.

With Twitter deal on hold, Musk says a lower sale price isn't 'out of the question'

On and on it goes.

TMA
Reuters

Elon Musk is continuing to clash with Twitter over the accuracy of its bot count and hinted yesterday that he may try to renegotiate the $44 billion deal. According to a Bloomberg report, Musk told attendees at a Miami conference that a deal at a lower price wasn't "out of the question."

Continue reading.

Google opens its Bay View HQ, the first campus it designed itself

Posted: 17 May 2022 04:05 AM PDT

Google has finally opened its Bay View campus to employees almost 10 years after revealing its initial plans for the new facility back in 2013. It's the first Google campus the company has developed itself, and it definitely doesn't look like the traditional offices you're used to. One of the first things you'll probably notice about the new HQ, for instance, is its roof that looks like dragonscales from afar. 

This "dragonscale skin" design is actually made up of 90,000 silver solar panels capable of generating almost seven megawatts of energy, or up to 40 percent of the new offices' energy needs. Wind farms nearby will also provide the energy needed to run the all-electric HQ that has two kitchens equipped with electric equipment instead of gas. In addition, the campus has automated window shades to let a lot of natural lighting in during the day and a ventilation system that uses 100 percent outside air. 

The new campus also houses the largest geothermal installation in North America that will help heat and cool the campus without the use of fossil fuels. It even reduces the amount of water used for cooling by 90 percent. This geothermal pile system uses pumps to absorb heat from the ground during wintertime and to send heat into the ground in the summer.

Google only recently started transitioning its workforce to a hybrid work schedule that would require employees to work in its offices a few times a week. The Bay View HQ's natural lighting, greenery and wide open spaces could help make the transition easier for people who've been working from home these past two years. 

Conti ransomware group threatens to oust Costa Rica's government as crisis deepens

Posted: 17 May 2022 01:22 AM PDT

Last week, Costa Rica declared a state of emergency following a massive Conti ransomware attack on its government. Now, Conti has boosted its threat, saying its aim is nothing less than to overthrow the government, The Associated Press has reported. "We have our insiders in your government," the group said. "We are also working on gaining access to your other systems, you have no other options but to pay us."

The group, which also doubled its ransom demand to $20 million, may be trying to take advantage of the fact that Costa Rica's President Rodrigo Chaves has only been in office for a week. "We are at war and that's not an exaggeration," Chaves said, adding that officials were dealing with a national terrorist group with collaborators inside the nation. He says that the scale is broader than thought, with 27 government institutions, including municipalities and state utilities, affected. 

The US State Department has declared a $10 million bounty on Conti, saying the attack "severely impacted the country's foreign trade by disrupting its customs and taxes platforms." It's reported to have affected Costa Rica's ministries of finance, labor and social security, among other bodies. 

Conti was also in the news recently after attacking Parker Hannifin, a major component supplier for Boeing and Lockheed Martin. It reportedly infiltrated current and former employees, stealing information like their social security numbers, passport numbers, bank and routing numbers and more. 

However, the threat to overthrow Costa Rica's government is likely just a ruse to extort more money, according to a ransomware analyst cited by the AP. "I believe this is simply a for-profit cyber attack," said Emisoft's Brett Callow. "Nothing more."

Apple will allow some apps to automatically charge you higher subscription prices

Posted: 16 May 2022 11:13 PM PDT

Apple has announced an update to its subscription policy that's supposed to make auto-renews seamless but could also lead to surprise charges. Under the old policy, the tech giant will ask users to opt in before they're charged for a subscription that has recently raised its price. Going forward, however, it will allow developers to automatically charge higher prices, so long as they meet a set of conditions. Apple will notify users of the price increase in advance via email and push notification, but it's up to them to unsubscribe before they're charged.

In its announcement, the company said that developers can use the feature if they don't increase their price more than once a year. Further, the increase must not exceed $5 and 50 percent of the current subscription pricing, or $50 and 50 percent of the current annual subscription price. Presumably, that means users will automatically get charged $15 for a subscription that was formerly $10. However, they'll have to opt in for a $30 sub that used to cost just $20, because while that's 50 percent higher than the old price, the increase is also way higher than $5. 

Apple says users tend to miss prompts asking them to opt in for higher subscription prices, which interrupts their service. If so, they're also likely to miss notifications about price increases. Since developers can only use the feature if they don't change prices once a year, unscrupulous players at least can't take advantage of the system by frequently raising their prices by a couple of bucks or so. Still, people with tight budgets may want to check their emails every now and then to ensure they're not being charged higher prices than what hey can pay all of a sudden.

With Twitter deal on hold, Musk says a lower sale price isn't 'out of the question’

Posted: 16 May 2022 05:21 PM PDT

Billionaire Elon Musk is continuing to clash with Twitter over the accuracy of its bot count, and hinted today that he may try to renegotiate the $44 billion deal. Musk told attendees at a Miami conference that a deal at a lower price wasn't "out of the question," reportedBloomberg. 

"Currently what I'm being told is that there's just no way to know the number of bots," Musk said at the conference. "It's like, as unknowable as the human soul."

Musk's potential bid for a lower price is an unexpected twist, given that the SpaceX exec agreed to pay a 38 percent premium on Twitter when he reached a deal with the company's board back in April. 

Last Friday, Musk had announced that a buyout of Twitter was "temporarily on hold" due to concerns that the number of bots on the platform was much higher than the company estimated. The billionaire tweeted that his team would do an independent analysis on bot count and also tried to crowdsource bot estimates from his own followers. Musk was later reprimanded by Twitter's legal team for revealing — in a tweet, of course — the company's methodology for estimating the proportion of bot accounts across the platform.

Earlier today, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal explained in a series of tweets that external estimates of bots are likely wrong, since the platform includes private data in its count.

"Unfortunately, we don't believe that this specific estimation can be performed externally, given the critical need to use both public and private information (which we can't share)," tweeted Agrawal.

Musk responded to Agrawal's explanation with a series of his own tweets, one that included a single poop emoji. Musk also suggested that Twitter verify whether users are human or not by calling them on the phone.

Tesla expert Dan Ives — an analyst at financial advisory firm Wedbush Securities — put the chances of Musk going through with the deal at under 50 percent. If Musk chooses to walk away, he'll be subject to a $1 billion "kill fee". But according to legal experts who spoke to The Washington Post, Twitter could sue Musk for the financial damages inflicted on the company due to the hasty reversal of the deal.
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