Researchers in Japan have developed a set of electric chopsticks they claim can enhance the taste of salt. The device is attached to a wristband computer. It uses electrical stimulation to transmit sodium ions from food to the eater’s mouth, according to Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita, who developed the chopsticks with food and drink maker Kirin.
Miyashita is also the person behind the lickable TV that was announced a few months ago. The idea behind that not-at-all gross device is that people would be able to taste whatever they see on screen.
The chopsticks seem far more practical, especially if they can help people reduce their salt intake. The researchers say the chopsticks can enhance the perceived saltiness of low-sodium foods by around 1.5 times.
Issei Kato / reuters
As Reutersnotes, the traditional Japanese diet skews toward salty flavors. A typical Japanese adult consumes around 10 grams of salt per day, twice the level that the World Health Organization recommends. High sodium intake is linked to increased risk of stroke, high blood pressure and other conditions.
Artificially enhancing the saltiness of dishes could make it easier for people to opt for low-sodium options without having to skimp on flavor. Miyashita and Kirin have also discussed using the tech in spoons and tea bowls. They’re refining the prototype of the chopsticks and aim to start selling the product as soon as 2023.
The Instant Pot may be the most popular and ubiquitous multicooker, but it’s certainly not the only option. Companies like Ninja now make their own multicookers that can hold their own against the various Instant Pot models out there, and now you can pick up one of Ninja’s most capable machines at a near record-low price. The Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 multicooker is on sale for $130, or $70 off its normal price and only $10 more than its all-time low that we saw at the end of last year.
As the name suggests, this model supports 10 cooking modes, including pressure cook, slow cook, steam, dehydrates and more. Among those is an air-fry mode, which isn’t something all multicookers have, and the machine uses Ninja’s “TenderCrisp Technology” to lock in juices using pressure cooking and then crisp the outside just before finishing. This multicooker has a 6.5-quart capacity, which is big enough to make a whole meal for a mid- to large-sized family, and it can fit a whole, five-pound chicken or a six-pound roast easily.
Generally, you’ll find the best deals on these devices during the holiday shopping period, but this discount is a good one if you want to add a device like this to your kitchen immediately. And if you’re totally new to the world of multicookers, you can check out our Instant Pot guide for handy tips, tricks and recipe sources since most of them can be applied to this Ninja device, too.
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Apple is boasting of its environmental initiatives ahead of Earth Day, and it’s shedding new light on its devices in the process. As part of its 2022 Environmental Progress Report, the company has revealed that 18 percent of the material in its fiscal 2021 products was recycled or renewed, the “highest-ever” ratio at the iPhone maker and a 50 percent jump from last year’s 12 percent. There were eight new products including at least 20 percent recycled material. This included the company’s first use of certified recycled gold (in the mainboards and camera arrays of the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro), while reuses of cobalt, rare earth elements and tungsten “more than doubled” over the year.
The tech firm also said it had cut nearly all use of plastics in its packaging. The material represented just 4 percent of packaging in 2021, and the new iPhones were the company’s first handsets without any plastic packing material. Apple hopes to eliminate all use of plastic in its packaging by 2025.
The report not-so-subtly advertised Apple’s response to repairability concerns. The company noted that its its products have become increasingly easier to fix at repair centers, and use more durable designs. It mentioned the announcement of the Self Service Repair program, although it wasn’t more specific about the 2022 launch window.
Apple has been eager to share its eco-friendly goals in the past, including plans to make both its products and the supply chain carbon neutral by 2030. Critics have argued that highly publicized efforts like these sometimes represent “greenwashing” that masks the overall environmental harm of their products (such as shipping hundreds of millions of devices per year). However, it’s still good to know that the hardware you buy won’t deal quite as severe a blow as it would have in the past.
That tiny webcam on your laptop has probably gotten more use in the last few years than it ever has before. Even if you’re back to taking some of your meetings in the office, chances are that back-to-back Zoom calls are now a permanent part of your pro…
In a rare case when we’re so used to major games getting delayed, Nintendo now plans to release Xenoblade Chronicles 3 on Switch on July 29th. It originally scheduled the game for September, but perhaps in part due to a Zelda-shaped hole in the 2022 calendar, the company is moving up the release date.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will arrive nearly five years after the previous game. While the JRPG will follow on from the events of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, it’ll have a new cast of characters. A new trailer offers a peek at them in action and reveals that you can team with up to seven characters at the same time. A special edition that will be available exclusively through the My Nintendo Store includes a steelbook cover and an art book.
The 2021 MacBook Pros were some of the best laptops we came across last year, but as to be expected, they come with high price tags. Right now, you can pick up the 14-inch MacBook Pro for $250 cheaper than usual at Amazon. The price has already been discounted by $50, but an addition $200 automatically applied coupon brings the machine down to a record low of $1,749.
This particular model comes with Apple’s M1 Pro chip, which features an 8‑core CPU and 14‑core GPU, plus 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. The performance gains provided by specs like this was one reason why both the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros earned a score of 92 from us when we reviewed them last year. Not only will they be able to handle anything you throw at them, but they also have the stamina to last most of the day. We clocked a 12.5-hour battery life for the 14-inch model in our testing and a 16.5-hour battery life on the 16-inch laptop.
While the MacBook Pro looks fairly similar to previous models, Apple fixed a few long-standing issues — namely, the lack of ports. The new machines have three Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI connector, a headphone jack, an SD card slot and a MagSafe power port. You’re also getting a 1080p FaceTime webcam and a Liquid Retina XDR display with a 3,024 x 1,964 resolution, up to 1,600 nits of brightness and a 120Hz refresh rate. The biggest downsides to the MacBook Pro are its non-upgradeable memory and storage, plus its high price tag. This discount addresses one of those issues, and overall, it’s a solid laptop that will be best for power users.
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Amazon is facing legal consequences for its history of firing protest participants. The New York Timesreports that judge Benjamin Green has ordered Amazon to reinstate warehouse worker Gerald Bryson, who was fired from his role at Staten Island’s JFK8 facility (the one that just voted to unionize) after allegedly violating language policies during a COVID-19 safety protest on April 6th, 2020. Green sided with a National Labor Relations Board argument that Amazon retaliated against Bryson for protesting, and reportedly used a “skewed” investigation to find pretexts for firing the employee.
Bryson (pictured above) had been protesting outside JFK8 and called for Amazon to shut down the warehouse for safety reasons. He got into a row with a female employee who said she was grateful for the work. Only Bryson was fired despite the two trading insults — the woman received a written warning. The people Amazon interviewed for its investigation provided “one-sided, exaggerated” versions of events, according to Green, including claims of racial slur use that weren’t supported by video evidence. Amazon didn’t interview the person who recorded the video.
The judge also found that Amazon had previously issued lighter punishments for more serious infractions (such as the use of violence). The company also didn’t provide all the documents requested in a subpoena.
In a statement to The Times, Amazon said it “strongly disagree[s]” with Green’s decision and claimed the NLRB wanted the company to “condone” Bryson’s behavior. The tech giant planned to appeal the decision with the NLRB.
Amazon has been repeatedly accused of retaliating against staff who challenge its policies. Safety protest leader Chris Smalls accused the company of firing him for highlighting poor safeguards against COVID-19. Maren Costa and Emily Cunningham, meanwhile, were supposedly fired for being vocal critics of Amazon’s climate and labor practices. Amazon said these workers were dropped for violating policy, but opponents rejected those assertions.
Bryson’s win comes as Amazon faces a growing backlash from workers. On top of the successful unionization vote at JFK8, the company is grappling with a close rerun election for unionization at an Alabama warehouse as well as a looming vote at a second Staten Island facility. Employees are increasingly demanding better treatment, and the company’s attempts to quash dissent aren’t always proving successful.
After all that waiting, Senior Editor Jessica Conditt finally got her hands on Playdate. From the makers of Firewatch and meme-friendly Untitled Goose Game, it’s a petite portable console that marries the familiarity of the GameBoy with the spirit of indie game innovation. That last bit might sound like hollow platitudes, but well, it’s true.
Engadget
This isn’t a console for FPS, teraflops or anything MMO, it’s like a pixel-filled brainstorm of delights. Having said that, if you decide to order the handheld today, you’re in for a wait. “We’ve filled our production capacity for 2022, but we’re ramping up to make even more systems,” the company says on its website.
Maybe I’ll wait out for Playdate 2. I’ll always have my fishing controller, but it’s not the same.
If you want an electric van, your options are limited, which is precisely what VW is hoping to address with the upcoming ID.Buzz. At the New York International Auto Show, we finally got to check it out.
It’s slated to go on sale sometime in 2024, featuring a 77 kWh battery and two rows of seats for the European model (which is the version VW had on display) or a full three rows of seats and slightly longer chassis for the US market. Other specs, like its range and price, are still TBD.
Samsung’s Galaxy A53 5G offers one of the better displays on a midrange phone, with a 2,400 by 1,080 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. But Samsung’s slow Exynos 1280 chipset struggles, even with basic tasks. If you’re set on a Samsung phone and have an extra $100 to spend, consider the Galaxy S21 FE, which has been heavily discounted since its launch last year.
Battlefield 2042 will finally get in-game voice chat, but with caveats. The VoIP feature won’t work across an entire team. The only channel options are for parties and squads (with a maximum of four members). Given that teams can have up to 64 players, voice chat could get messy fast with that many people talking over each other. A proximity-based option might have been helpful for callouts, though. Sigh.
Nintendo Switch Sports and Elon Musk’s ongoing Twitter affair.
This week, Cherlynn Low and guest co-host Sam Rutherford discuss the new Nintendo Switch Sports games, a coincidental week of beauty gadget coverage and the ongoing saga of Elon Musk trying to own Twitter.
Nintendo’s first anime movie, from 1986, is back. Femboy Films has released a 4K remaster of The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach on both YouTube and the Internet Archive. You’ll get clean, color-corrected visuals based on a rare 16mm print, and new English subtitles and a fresh two-channel Dolby Surround audio capture from the VHS release. Oh, and Mario and Luigi work at a grocery store now.
As automobiles gain increasing autonomy and their occupants spend less time actively paying attention to the task of driving, Audi is reimagining the role of the vehicle’s cabin space — from a rigid, safety-centered, face-forward setup to a more open, communal design. The automaker showcased this evolution in its new Urbansphere EV concept, which it unveiled on Tuesday.
Audi
The Urbansphere is the third in a trifecta of futuristic Audi EV concepts. It joins the Skysphere — a 623-HP EV roadster announced last August reminiscent of the Disco-era Chevy Camaro or Jaguar XJ6 — and the Grandsphere touring coupe announced in September. All three are built with level 4 autonomous vehicle technology in mind, a project that Audi is collaborating on with CARIAD, Volkswagen Group’s software business. The hope is to get to market in the second half of this decade.
The Urbansphere is the largest of the trio and the biggest Audi concept vehicle to date. It sits on 24-inch rims and measures a whopping 18 feet in length — the same as GM’s Hummer EV; it’s over 6.5 feet wide (a Paul Pierce wingspan) and 5.8 feet tall (approximately one entire Tom Hardy!) And because the Urbansphere doesn’t have to account for a conventional arrangement of a combustion-powered car’s components “it prioritizes the occupants’ need to experience ample space as a distinctive comfort factor,” the company wrote in a Tuesday press release.
Audi
As such, the Urbansphere’s interior offers two bucket seats in both rows, the rear pair boasting seatbacks that recline up to 60 degrees with extendable footrests. The front seats swivel to enable fed-up parents to more easily get at their misbehaving progeny without having to pull this goddamn car over and then NOBODY’S going to Disneyland, though a series of privacy dividers and seat back-mounted television screens should help keep the peace.
Audi
Audi also has plans to include a “large-format and transparent OLED screen” that pivots vertically from the roof down between the two rows. It would span the entire width of the cabin interior, like a taxi divider, and allow the rear passengers to watch movies or take conference calls. (Because even in the most idealized future Audi can imagine, we are still inconvenienced by conference calls.) When not in use, the screen will remain transparent or will fold up against the vehicle’s equally clear glass roof.
Audi
The vehicle could include an anxiety detection program that “uses facial scans and voice analysis to determine how passengers are feeling” and might offer “personalized suggestions” to relieve stress. Audi does appear to be taking the relaxation of the Urbansphere’s conceptual drivers quite seriously, incorporating calming wood accents throughout the cabin and obscuring display panels in the central infotainment screen until the car powers on.
Audi
Part of the experience that Audi envisions is the Urbansphere serving as a pseudo-assistant, allowing the driver to, say, make restaurant reservations from inside or order groceries for curbside pickup. It might also leverage level 4 capabilities to ferry riders to their destination then independently find a parking or charging station.
Audi
With an 800V architecture supporting a 270 kw max DC charging speed, it shouldn’t take too long to top off the Urbansphere’s cells. Its 120 KwH battery pack requires just 25 minutes to charge from 5 to 80 percent of its 466-mile range capacity. Overall, Audi estimates it can wring 186 miles out of a quick 10-minute charge.
A new, big budget reboot of Crazy Taxihas already been in development for more than a year, and is expected to launch within the next three years. That’s the revelation issued forth by Bloomberg today, suggesting that a rebooted Jet Set Radio is also currently gestating with a similar development timeline. Both titles are part of Sega’s Super Game project, which the company first teased back in early 2021 as a way of accelerating the developer’s recovery.
Details about Super Game have been thin on the ground but Shuji Utsumi, the former PlayStation executive leading the project, has let some things slip. Back in April, he said that the project would involve a series of AAA titles leveraging cloud gaming and, deep sigh, NFTS. Late last year, Sega announced that it was teaming up with Microsoft’s Azure cloud division to help produce large-scale “global games.”
When Super Game was announced, Sega bandied around references to its Silver Age blockbusters including Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Panzer Dragoon and Virtua Fighter. According to Bloomberg, these titles are going to be reborn in the Fortnite mould as a free-to-play, massively online title. Sega is reportedly staking its business on the riches on offer from such titles, which already have devoted cult followings. Of course, as with any title this early in its lifespan, Sega could pull the plug before it reaches players, but it’s about time we had something nice in this life, and no amount of NFTs can make us hate Crazy Taxi… right?
