The Morning After: Electric chopsticks that make food taste saltier

Researchers in Japan have developed a set of electric chopsticks they claim 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.

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Reuters

Miyashita is also the person behind the lickable TV that was announced a few months ago. Japan was also where I first saw a similarly specced-out electric fork, using the same theories, but with the Western implement. It’s an unusual sensation: like air-fried food compared to actually fried food, it was a different, almost salty, kind of experience.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Samsung’s Pokémon-themed Galaxy Z Flip 3 is a delight

It comes with a Pokédex pouch.

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Samsung

If this doesn’t get you into foldables, nothing will.

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Audi’s Urbansphere EV concept is for tomorrow’s megacities

What can a car be when it has to be more than a car?

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Audi

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. This is 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 and 5.8 feet tall. 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.”

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The best webcams you can buy

Time to upgrade from your tiny laptop cam.

Even if you’re back to taking some of your meetings in the office, chances are back-to-back Zoom calls are now a permanent part of your professional life. Once an afterthought, your computer’s webcam has become one of its most important components — and the fact remains that most built-in cameras are not able to provide consistent high-quality video chat experiences. We tested out a bunch of the latest webcams to see which are worth your money and which you can safely skip.

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This third-party Sony camera battery has a built-in USB-C port

Why isn’t this how all rechargeable batteries work?

Nitecore’s UFZ100 has a built-in USB-C port so you don’t need to use a proprietary Sony power adapter to charge it. The battery also includes a handy LED indicator to tell you when it’s below 10 percent charge. With a 2,250mAh capacity, it’s only slightly smaller than Sony’s 2,280mAh NP-FZ100 and works with many of the company’s most recent camera models, including the A6600 and A7 IV. One thing we don’t know about the UFZ100 yet is how much it’ll cost. Third-party battery manufacturers tend to price their offerings lower than Sony, Canon and Nikon, but the added USB-C port on the UFZ100 could make it more expensive.

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Brave’s browser can automatically bypass Google’s AMP pages

Brave is putting Google’s Accelerate Mobile Pages (AMP) on blast with a new feature called De-AMP, The Verge reported. It’s designed to bypass any pages rendered with AMP and take users directly to the original website. “Where possible, De-AMP will rewrite links and URLs to prevent users from visiting AMP pages altogether,” the company wrote in a blog post.

If that’s not possible, then “Brave will watch as pages are being fetched and redirect users away from AMP pages before the page is even rendered, preventing AMP/Google code from being loaded and executed,” it added. 

The new feature was implemented in the name of privacy, security and internet experience, according to Brave. “In practice, AMP is harmful to users and to the Web at large,” the article states. “Just as bad, AMP helps Google further monopolize and control the direction of the web.” It adds that the next iteration of AMP “will be even worse.” 

Google originally promoted AMP as a way to improve the mobile web experience by loading pages faster. However, it has recently been a target of critics who see it as a way for Google to increase its hegemony in the internet ad market by hosting content on its own servers. A group of publishers recently announced it was moving away from AMP, and a lawsuit filed by several US states accuses Google of running a monopoly that harmed ad-industry competitors and publishers.

Brave promises “the best privacy online” with its browser, so of course attacking Google is part of its business strategy. Despite its efforts, though, it lags well behind most other browsers in mobile market share, sitting in the “other” category behind Internet Explorer on Statcounter. De-AMP is now available in beta and “will be enabled by default in the upcoming 1.38 Desktop and Android versions, and will be released on iOS soon after,” Brave said.

Nitecore’s new Sony camera battery charges through built-in USB-C

Every year, companies like Canon and Nikon push camera technology forward with new models that add features like 8K video recording and 30 fps shooting speeds. But the batteries powering those cameras haven’t changed nearly as much during the mirrorles…

The best webcams you can buy

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…

Apple’s 14-inch MacBook Pro is back down to a record low of $1,749

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.

Buy 14-inch MacBook Pro (512GB) at Amazon – $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.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

The Morning After: Our verdict on Playdate, the console with a crank

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.

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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.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

VW ID.Buzz first look

An EV that makes vans cool again.

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Engadget

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.

Take a closer look.

Samsung Galaxy A53 5G review

Hardly an upgrade.

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Engadget

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.

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‘Battlefield 2042’ will finally get in-game voice chat on

Groundbreaking.

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.

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The Engadget Podcast

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.

Listen and subscribe here

For some reason, Nintendo’s Super Mario anime has been remastered in 4K

But we still don’t understand it.

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.

It gets weirder…

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