The Wirecutter’s best deals: The latest 13-inch MacBook Pro drops to $1,300
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, they may earn affiliate commissions that support their work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here.
You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot — some of these sales could expire mighty soon.
Instant Pot IP-DUO60 Electric Pressure Cooker
Street price: $120; MSRP: $120; Deal price: $100
While this isn’t as good as the holiday or Black Friday sales, where it dropped down to $80, this is a good discount if you missed those. If you’re looking for a larger pressure cooker for cooking larger meals, the 8-quart model of the Instant Pot is also on sale for $130, which is $30 less than it’s normal price.
The Instant Pot IP-DUO60 is our top electric pick for best pressure cooker. Lesley Stockton wrote, “The Instant Pot IP-DUO60 is our overall favorite if you’re looking for a super-easy pressure-cooking experience. It’s simple to use and will turn out delicious meals in a fraction of the time conventional cooking requires—you can cook black beans from scratch in 20 minutes, for example. Compared with other electric models, it has more heat settings, and it sautéed onions better (none of the electric models brown meat all that well). As a multi-cooker, this pot can also function as a slow cooker and a rice cooker (which it did okay, but if you’re a rice snob we prefer our rice cooker pick).”
JLab Epic2 Bluetooth
Street price: $100; MSRP: $100; Deal price: $80
The first good sale we’ve seen on the Epic2 models. We used to feature regular deals on the original model, which just had a MSRP drop, but if you want our newest pick, you can save a solid $20 with this deal.
The JLab Epic2 Bluetooth are our pick for the best wireless exercise headphones. Lauren Dragan wrote, “This great-sounding pair is sealed to block out distractions and able to take a beating, and it fit all of our panelists equally well.”
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016)
Street price: $1,500; MSRP: $1,500; Deal price: $1,300
We’ve seen more sales on this Macbook than we would’ve expected, and this latest $200 discount is the best price we’ve seen to date.
The 2016 non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro is our top pick in our guide on which Macbook to buy. Dan Frakes writes, “If you don’t need any legacy ports—or you’re willing to deal with adapters until all your gear is USB-C—the 2016 non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro occupies a nice middle ground between the 12-inch MacBook’s size and weight and the Touch Bar Pro’s performance and connectivity.”
Olympus PEN-F Mirrorless Camera (Body Only)
Street price: $1,200; MSRP: $1,200; Deal price: $1,000
A $200 drop in price on the Olympus PEN-F, marking one of the lower prices we’ve seen. While we saw this camera at a $950 low a few months back, at $1000 this is a solid deal for this compact shooter.
The Olympus PEN-F is our compact pick in our guide to the best mirrorless camera. Amadou Diallo wrote, “The Olympus PEN-F is an impressively specced camera in a small package that’s well-suited for street photography. Compact enough to fit in a coat pocket, it has the first new sensor we’ve seen from Olympus in years, plus an articulated screen. Its image-stabilization system is rated to let you handhold images at shutter speeds up to five stops slower than without stabilization. Unlike our top picks, though, this model isn’t weather-sealed. In addition, it uses a slower contrast-detect autofocus system that is much less able to track moving subjects than the hybrid systems found in our main picks.”
Deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.
Scientists recreate the outer layer of the heart with stem cells
While organ transplants saw a 20 percent increase in the past five years, a lot of people in the recipient list still won’t get one. That’s why various scientists across the globe are trying to recreate organs in the lab. One particular group from Penn State, for instance, chose to focus on the heart, and they recently found a way to turn human stem cells into epicardium cells, which cover the surface of the organ.
They’re actually well on their way to making a whole human heart — back in 2012, they found that if they treat stem cells “with chemicals that sequentially activate and inhibit Wnt signaling pathway,” they can create myocardium muscle cells. The myocardium is the muscular part in the center of the heart that stimulates contractions necessary to pump blood throughout the body. Stanford University’s Wnt homepage explains that Wnt proteins regulate the proliferation of cells. Wnt signals “predominantly mediate signaling locally, between neighboring cells” and “give shape to tissues as cells are proliferating.”
To transform stem cells into epicardium cells, they had to do the opposite. The study’s lead author Lance Lian said they found out that “if [they] activate the cells’ Wnt signaling pathway again, [they] can re-drive these cardiac progenitor cells to become epicardium cells, instead of myocardium cells.”
The team is now developing a method to create cells that make up the inner part of the heart. Even now, though, their research can save lives. Lian says doctors could implant the epicardium cells they create into heart attack patients:
“Heart attacks occur due to blockage of blood vessels. This blockage stops nutrients and oxygen from reaching the heart muscle, and muscle cells die. These muscle cells cannot regenerate themselves, so there is permanent damage, which can cause additional problems. These epicardium cells could be transplanted to the patient and potentially repair the damaged region.”
Last year, researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital developed a technique to repair hearts deemed unsuitable for transplant with stem cells. A team of Japanese researchers also concocted a method to repair patients’ hearts with skin stem cells injected into the organ. Clearly, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for someone to create a lab-grown heart that actually works.
Source: Penn State
Amazon debuts anime streaming subscription for Prime members
If you’re into anime, Amazon’s first branded channel will give you a streaming option for $5 a month. Anime Strike is the online retailer’s on-demand library for the aforementioned genre, adding yet another subscription to the Amazon Channels lineup. If you recall, Channels is the add-on service that allows you to subscribe to a TV network’s on-demand content through the Amazon Video app. HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, NBC’s SeeSo and more available there, each with a monthly fee attached.
Anime Strike is Amazon’s first own-brand on-demand option as part of the Channels service. For now, it’s only available to Prime members in the US and offers a smattering of adult, romance and action titles that the company says are meant to appeal to a variety of ages. The library of shows includes classics as well as modern titles that are still airing on Japanese television. Options include The Great Passage and Scum’s Wish (Kuzu no Honkai) with older anime favorites like Paprika and Tokyo Godfathers, some of which are exclusive to the service in the US.
Amazon says it will refresh the anime lineup on a weekly basis and some shows will be available for streaming the same day they are broadcast in Japan. What’s more, Amazon vice president of digital video Michael Paull told Variety that the company plans to reveal other genre-specific on-demand options in the future, but he didn’t mention which topics those would cover. Again, Anime Strike will set you back $5 a month, but you can try it for a week free of charge before you have to hand over any funds.
Via: Variety
Source: Amazon
Smoking Boosted Boards recalled over battery issues
Last November, the folks behind the Boosted electric skateboard urged its customers to stop using their second-gen boards following battery “venting” until an internal investigation was complete. It turns out that those problems were the result of a short-circuit caused by water entering the battery — not from issues with the power packs themselves. As a precaution, the company has reported the issue to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, is starting a voluntary recall of the standard range battery packs and will no longer market the board as water resistant.
Previously it’d been classified as IPX5 (resistant to immersion from water jets), but we now know how that turned out. “We discovered that after prolonged and repeated exposure to water, the board’s subsystems can be compromised in a way that affects water safety, and that the IP standard for water resistance is not a sufficient test in these conditions,” a blog post reads. The company has a few plans in place to make it up to its customers.
First, is the recall. Remove the battery from your board, jot down both the board and the battery’s serial numbers and then take the latter to a recycling center. From there, get a receipt of disposal and attach it to the battery replacement form. Submit it and Boosted will give you an estimate of when to expect your new battery. Alternatively, you can return the entire board (or cancel your reservation) for a full refund.
If you plan to keep it around and not zip through any puddles you won’t be left out, either. The company is going to give you a $200 credit that can be used toward future purchases from its website.
What’s more, existing orders for the Dual will start shipping March 20th, with Dual+ orders shipping February 20th. New orders will leave the factory a week later on March 27th.
Via: The Verge
Source: Boosted Boards, US Consumer Product Safety Commission
YouTube ‘Super Chat’ comments are a new way to support livestreams
Making yourself heard in a livestream chatroom can be nearly impossible — on a busy stream, dozens of messages can scroll by every second. How do you get your favorite YouTuber to notice you? Starting today on select channels, you can pay for it. Super Chat is a new YouTube live feature that lets users pay to pin messages to the top of a chatbox for up to five hours.
Adding a Super Chat is easy: users just have to click the dollar sign in the web chat interface or Android app (iOS support is coming later) and pay to have their comment featured. The more you pay, the longer your chat message sticks. At least part of that payment is going directly to the creators, too — giving fans a new way to support their favorite channels. Think of it as YouTube’s version of Twitch Cheering, but without animated emoji.
Right now, the feature is only available on select channels, but Google plans to roll it out to more users by the end of the month.
Source: YouTube
Greenpeace slams tech giants over dirty data centers
Greenpeace has published its latest report on what powers the internet, and who’s working hard to keep our tweeting sustainable. The nonprofit began researching the energy consumption of the IT sector back in 2009, estimating the environmental cost of every Netflix video we watch. It describes data centers as the factories of the 21st century and wants to see companies move across to renewables to keep them going. The report puts Apple at the top of the pile for the third year running — a far cry from when it came in last place, back in 2011.
It’s worth noting that this list only judges on their energy use, rather than their overall attitude towards the environment. It’s not a surprise to see names like Apple, Google and Facebook sitting on top of the list, thanks to both their action and commitment to green energy and transparency.
Those companies that didn’t release information about their energy footprint were given instant F scores for not doing enough. Unfortunately, that includes plenty of familiar names, including Twitter, Reddit and Hulu, all of which will need to do better in future.
There were also plenty of well-known tech companies that wound up getting poor scores for their energy consumption. Amazon Web Services (along with its client, Netflix), HBO, ASUS, Acer and Samsung’s IT services division all got poor scores.
The 102-page report breaks down, as best as Greenpeace could ascertain, the energy mix used by each data center, their transparency and their attempts to secure greener power. Unfortunately, many of these businesses are either dragging their feet or aren’t doing enough to show the world they’re on the case.
Via: BBC News
Source: Greenpeace
Apple Increases Maximum tvOS App Size to 4GB
Apple today announced that the size limit of a tvOS app bundle has increased from 200MB to 4GB, allowing developers to include more media in their app submissions for a “complete, rich user experience upon installation.”
Previously, tvOS apps were limited in size to 200MB, but were allowed to download additional resources after being installed. This led to short initial installation times, but caused customers to have to wait for content to download after installing an app.
Apple is also allows tvOS apps to use On-Demand Resources to host up to 20GB of additional content on the App Store. Apple recommends app developers use On-Demand Resources to enable faster downloads. On-Demand Resources allow apps to do things like download the first couple of levels of a game and update as a user progresses, deleting content that’s no longer needed.
Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 10
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Don’t Buy)
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Universal Search Bar Coming Soon to Snapchat’s iOS App
Snapchat was today updated with an improved universal search feature that makes it easier for users to find friends, groups, stories, and other content on the social network, reports TechCrunch.
The new universal search bar is located at the top of the Snapchat app, making it accessible when browsing, sharing a photo, and more, an improvement over the previous search features that were split up across the app.
According to Snapchat, the search bar interface change is designed for speed, allowing users to find content quickly.
With the new search bar, you can jump to your own profile by tapping your Bitmoji on the left. If you tap a friend’s auto-suggest card or search result, you’ll start a chat with them, or you can tap their Story thumbnail to instantly start watching it full screen. Tapping and holding on someone’s card shows their mini profile. Beyond accounts, you can find specific daily editions of Discover channels or particular Our Stories by searching for their titles.
Snapchat is also planning to allow all of its users to submit video clips to “Our Story,” which employees use to create content focused on events and locations.
Universal search capabilities are launching today for some Android users, and will be rolling out to all iOS and Android users in the near future.
Tag: Snapchat
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C-SPAN’s online feed cut to Russian television
Afternoon C-SPAN watchers got an unexpected interjection this afternoon, when its feed suddenly cut over to the Russia Today channel for a few minutes. Captured by Deadspin’s Timothy Burke, the switch happened while Representative Maxine Waters was addressing the House regarding changes to SEC regulation. Of course, considering current events the threat of hacking has been considered, but in a statement provided to Engadget, C-SPAN isn’t going there yet. According to the network, RT is a network it monitors, and as such, it is assuming there was just some routing issue at work. Some routing issue.
Here’s the moment Russia Today took over the C-SPAN1 feed. Unclear what happened. RT aired for about ten minutes before C-SPAN1 came back. pic.twitter.com/mhWVgCoFxF
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) January 12, 2017
pic.twitter.com/ybUWoxNTLn
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 12, 2017
Source: C-SPAN (Twitter), Timothy Burke (Twitter)
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