Grab a refurb Nexus 5X or 6P for as little as $141 today only

One day only.

As part of its Gold Box deals of the day, Amazon has refurbished Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P smartphones available for as low as $140.79. For the Nexus 5X, there is currently both 16 and 32GB versions in black, white, and blue, and the Nexus 6P is available in silver, black, and gold in your choice of 32 and 64GB.

These are sold and shipped by BuySPRY, though they do come with a minimum 90-day warranty. Google has already promised to support both of these phones with security updates through November 2018, but the company has announced that neither phone will officially receive the update to Android P. This doesn’t mean the phone’s lifespan is over, you can trust the community will continue to bring custom versions to both devices.

Keep in mind that these prices are only good for one day, and these will likely sell out on the quick side, so be sure to grab the one you want before it’s gone.

See at Amazon

Watch: Samsung Galaxy S9+ video review

There’s no sense in pretending the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ are completely new devices unlike anything we’ve seen before. These two are the textbook definition of an iterative update, building upon the solid foundations of the Galaxy S8 series and with important upgrades where necessary. The S9 brings a new main camera experience with adjustable apertures, telephoto zoom for the first time in a Galaxy S, a new biometric setup centered around a redesigned fingerprint scanner. Samsung took a great phone and made it better, and the result is sure to be a phenomenal commercial success.

You could say it’s the most boring Galaxy S launch in years. Or you could say Samsung doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel and completely upend a highly successful series of phones. Either way, you’ll want to check out our comprehensive video review above, and share your own thoughts down in the comments!

• Android Central on YouTube
• Samsung Galaxy S9 review
• Samsung Galaxy S9: Everything you need to know
• MrMobile reviews the Galaxy S9+

Samsung reported to skip in-display fingerprint sensor on Galaxy Note 9

Current in-display sensors “cannot meet Samsung’s technical requirements.”

During CES this past January, one of the phones that grabbed our attention the most was the Vivo X20 Plus UD – primarily because of its in-display fingerprint sensor. This technology was later seen on the Vivo Apex during MWC in February, and we’re anticipating more and more OEMs will adopt this new tech as we go about 2018 – one of which being Samsung.

It was originally expected that the Galaxy Note 9 would be the first Samsung phone to feature an in-display fingerprint sensor, but according to Ming-Chi Kuo, a research analyst at KGI Securities, this is no longer the case.

According to Kuo:

While we previously predicted that Samsung’s new flagship Galaxy Note 9, due out in 3Q18, will come equipped with an under-display fingerprint recognition function, we now believe Samsung will cancel this feature on Note 9 because both ultrasonic (provided by Qualcomm) and optical (provided by Samsung LSI, Goodix, Egis, and Synaptics) solutions cannot meet Samsung’s technical requirements.

In-display fingerprint sensors are still very much in their infancy, and Kuo believes issues like power-consumption, incompatibility with screen protectors, and more will keep Samsung at bay for a while longer.

However, just because the Note 9 won’t have this tech doesn’t mean something like the Galaxy S10 or Note 10 won’t. Kuo says “under-display fingerprint recognition is key for full-screen designs” and doesn’t believe that face-unlock systems can “fully replace fingerprint recognition.”

Kuo also goes on to say:

Also, as under-display fingerprint recognition module has a unit price 4-6 times that of capacitive fingerprint recognition module (or higher), we think that once the former module goes into mass production, the contribution to suppliers’ sales and profits will be significant.

Having an in-display fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy Note 9 would have been a great selling point, but a rear-mounted one shouldn’t necessarily take away from the device as a whole. Rear-mounted sensors may not be as flashy as ones embedded within the screen, but their functionality remains as good as ever.

Samsung Galaxy S9 review: A fantastic phone for the masses, but not an exciting one

What is Stock Android?

And does it even matter any more?

Hang around any part of the internet that talks about smartphones long enough, and you’ll see people arguing the merits of Stock Android. On one side you have folks with a Pixel phone, Google’s Android the way Google wants it, and on the other, you have someone with a Galaxy phone; Android the way Samsung wants it. These two phones offer a very different user experience in some ways but are also very similar. When it comes to the “Android” part, more similar than most people think; and neither is Stock Android because Stock Android isn’t what most people think it is.

It takes a lot of software to make a phone work. There are all the parts we can see and tap on and swipe away, but behind everything you see on a screen is software that runs the apps and keeps the Wi-Fi working and keeps track of your location and does all the other things we take for granted when were using it. The operating system on your phone is incredibly complex and includes parts from the company that made it and parts from the companies that made the individual hardware components like the display or the processor. Android is one of those parts, not the sum of those parts. It’s complicated.

Android is one of the parts of your phone’s software, not the sum of those parts.

We use the word Android for several things, including one thing that’s it’s really not — an operating system. On a phone like the Galaxy S9, Android is really only part of an operating system along with parts from Samsung or parts from Qualcomm and other parts also from Google. On a phone like a Pixel 2 XL, Android is also only part of an operating system along with parts from Samsung or parts from Qualcomm and other parts also from Google. All these companies need to work together to make your phone turn on and do things, and the one company that makes it and sells it has to manage the parts and assemble them into software that keeps it all running. A Pixel 2 doesn’t run Stock Android. Neither does a Galaxy S9. Because Stock Android is the software that serves as an application framework and a hardware interface that lets that framework communicate with all the parts it needs to keep itself running. Both phones run Android, but the operating system is better described as Android-powered. And for a while now, that Android portion of the operating system on almost every phone has been nearly identical. They have to be because Google says they have to be in order for free access to Google Play and all the Google services.

It wasn’t always that way, but early on someone rightfully decided that if you wanted all the phones to be able to use all the apps there needed to be some pieces that were uniform no matter who made that phone. This means the “Android” part of any phone is the same as the “Android” part of any other phone (or Chromebook or watch or television) that has the same version. It’s also a thing that we can’t see because of the other software on that phone or Chromebook or television. Those parts can look very different. The Galaxy S9 may have the same framework (with extras added that aren’t part of “Android”) as the Pixel 2, but visually it doesn’t feel that way. This is the part most of us are talking about when we say Stock Android.

Having different phones that can all use Google play is what’s important for “Android”, not the label we put on them.

Thing is, neither the Pixel 2 or the Galaxy S9 are running it. If you go back through the history of Android, somewhere around the Galaxy S and Motorola Xoom Android from Google diverged from the product of the open-source code and into the thing that Google wants it to be. You can still build an Android-powered operating system from the open source project, but it certainly won’t look like anything you can buy today, even from Google. The actual Android framework would be the same no matter what or who built that software but the interface doesn’t have to and won’t. None of this really matters anyway. It’s trivial to make a Galaxy S9 and a Pixel 2 look the same when it comes to the user interface The extras that Samsung adds are easy to hide and the things that Google doesn’t include can be added in from the Play Store. Differences like a better display or compatibility with Samsung Pay have nothing to do with Android software. These two phones look and feel very different for plenty of reasons, none of which are Android.

Offline mode on Spotify sucks out loud and on purpose

Taking your music offline is an age-old tradition, and Spotify is spitting in its face.

Ever since the Walkman days, music lovers have taken their music anywhere and everywhere they could. We take our music out for a run, we bring music into the shower, and we always bring music when we travel, be it by plane, train, or automobile. And since we bring our music where our internet sometimes cannot follow, that means that offline modes for our music apps are important. Offline for Spotify is an abomination, and call me crazy, but I believe it’s intentional.

Let’s begin with what you have to do to turn on Offline mode. Turning on Offline mode is a three-tap process at a minimum. From the home tab of Spotify:

Tap Your Library.
Tap Settings (the gear icon in the top right corner).

Tap Offline mode to toggle it on.

And to turn it back off, you have to come back to the settings, as opposed to apps like Google Play Music, where Downloaded Only mode can be activated directly from the hamburger menu and can be disabled simply tapping the Downloaded Only banner at the top of the most screen in the app. You can’t trigger Offline mode for Spotify in Android Auto, so if you want to only listen to downloaded music in the car, you have to turn it on before you plug up in the car.

With Offline mode enabled, three of the five tabs of the Spotify app won’t work. Radio doesn’t work without internet, because radio stations can’t be saved for offline playback. Browse doesn’t work without internet because you can’t choose to download what you haven’t seen yet. The home tab doesn’t work without internet because … I actually don’t get this one. At the very least, the Home tab could show your recently played and some recommendations from your downloaded music in the Home tab, but no, the tab is just disabled.

This leaves you with the Search tab, where you can listen to recent searches that you’ve downloaded, and My Library. Even in My Library, though, things aren’t made any easier in Offline mode, because you still see your whole library. If you go to Albums trying to see what albums you can listen to offline, be prepared to hunt for those little green downloaded icons underneath the album names, because albums with zero offline songs are still down in your Albums list. Same with Playlists; a playlist with zero songs downloaded for offline still shows in your Playlists list. The Songs list isn’t much better, because rather than hiding all non-downloaded songs, your Songs list is the same as the online version, except most of the songs in it are greyed out.

If you’re trying to find something to listen to quickly in Offline mode, it better be something in Recently Played, because otherwise you’re digging through a library of mostly unavailable music looking for what you actually can listen to. This is compounded by the fact that even though Spotify caches while it streams, that cache can’t be played offline the way other music apps do: you have to explicitly tap Download for every album and playlist you want to listen to offline.

For most users, it’s just easier to leave Offline mode off and just pick an album or playlist that you know has already been downloaded for when you’re trying not to blow your data cap. And that is exactly the point of this exercise in frustration: Spotify doesn’t want you to use Offline mode.

If you’re using Offline mode, you can’t listen to any radio stations or non-downloaded playlists, meaning you aren’t listening to anything new and you aren’t being dazzled by Spotify’s algorithms. Spotify may lull people into subscribing with their large library and low student pricing, but the way it keeps those subscribers is by wowing them with great new music every time they start a Playlist Radio station or tune in time after time to Discover Weekly. Spotify needs you to keep Offline mode turned off so that it can keep serving up its best features, and so Offline mode being a hobbled mess may be less of a bug and more of a feature.

Do you even bother turning on Offline mode in Spotify, or do you just try and avoid any un-downloaded content while you’re out and about in the world? Have you just tossed your data concerns to the wins and decided to not care about offline for Spotify? Or do you download so much of your library that finding something to listen to offline isn’t finding a needle in a haystack?

Google Maps lets you navigate through town as Mario

Oh yeah! Mario time!

March 10 is apparently Mario Day thanks to a clever play on words (aka MAR10), and in celebration of everyone’s favorite Italian plumber (sorry, Luigi), Google has a fun Easter egg to check out.

The next time you open Google Maps, you should see an iconic Mario block next to the Start button for beginning turn-by-turn directions. After tapping on this, you’ll get a pop-up asking you if you want to have your indicator turn into Mario driving his red-painted kart.

WHO SAYS NO TO THIS?!Thanks @googlemaps 🚗😁 pic.twitter.com/C441XnTPhE

— Trisha Hershberger (@thatgrltrish) March 9, 2018

It’s unclear how long this little treat will be available for, and while I’m not seeing it on my Pixel 2 quite yet, it should roll out to everyone over the coming day.

Safe driving and happy (almost) Mario Day!

Download: Google Maps (free)

Best Action Games for PS4

Get your heartrate elevated with these great action games for your PlayStation 4!

The action genre, by definition, includes a multitude of varying styles. The most defining characteristic, however, is fast-paced frenetic gameplay. PlayStation 4 has a ton of fantastic action games to offer. Here are some of the best available to PS4 owners.

• The Binding of Isaac
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
• Doom
• Far Cry 4
• Overwatch

The Binding of Isaac

While The Binding of Isaac is chock full of roguelike and dungeon crawling elements it is most decidedly action packed. It drips with creepy atmosphere as it tells the story of a young boy locked away by his evil religious mother. As you attempt to escape you will wander from room to room dodging enemies as you shoot them with your tears.

With a randomly generated world, no two play-throughs will be the same but they will always be a ton of fun. And difficult, very difficult. You can get a copy of Binding of Isaac Afterbirth, which includes all the expansion content for $37 on Amazon.

See at Amazon

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Do you want fast paced action? Wolfenstein 2 has it. Developer, MachineGames has been tinkering with the Wolfenstein franchise since 2014. In 2017, alongside publisher Bethesda, they really knocked it out of the park. The New Colossus has some of the most satisfying shooting mechanics I have experienced in a while.

If the idea of running around with some really awesome guns and turning Nazis into pink mist sounds enticing, then you are probably going to want to pick up a copy of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. That can be done for $35.

See at Amazon

Doom

While we’re on the subject of frantic run and gun action we may as well talk about Doom. Yet another ancient franchise that Bethesda stuck a finger in, Doom languished in id development hell until it was finally released in 2016. If you’ve ever played a Doom game before then you know storyline is somewhat irrelevant.

You run around with comically large guns and kill equally massive demons. It manages to capture the spirit of the earliest entries to the franchise while expanding, deepening, and polishing the gameplay. You can get your copy at Amazon for $28.

See at Amazon

Far Cry 4

If you’re looking for chaotic over the top action that feels at times as if it might have been directed by Michael Bay, then allow me to introduce you to Far Cry 4. It is a truly open world game where the whole map is yours to explore with methods like wingsuits, speedboats, and dune buggies. If you’re not really into driving then you can set your vehicle to drive itself while you hang out the side raining down bullets on your targets.

Like the Far Cry games before it, this one is over the top, a load of fun to play, and packed with things to do. Pick up a copy for yourself for $22.

See at Amazon

Overwatch

I have a confession to make. I have not been the biggest fan of multiplayer first-person shooters in some time. It often seems to me as if they are the same game over and over again with a new skin. Then in 2016, Blizzard dropped something relatively unique on me. Overwatch is a multiplayer FPS populated by 26 playable characters. Each character is unique visually and in mechanics.

It is this uniqueness which allows players to develop their own play style in order to help their team win. If you have been looking for a multiplayer FPS with style and depth then I suggest picking up a copy. You can do that for $38.

See at Amazon

There is already a vast amount of fantastic action games available on the PS4. As the console continues to age we are only going to see more. I have been more than happy with the volume of pulse-pounding gaming I have done in front of my PS4 and I am excited to see what other action games will be coming my way in the future.

What are some of the killer action games you have played on your PlayStation 4?

let us know about some of your favorites below.

Why are we talking PlayStation 4 games on Android Central? Let us explain.

PlayStation 4

• PS4 vs. PS4 Slim vs. PS4 Pro: Which should you buy?
• PlayStation VR Review
• Playing PS4 games through your phone is awesome

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Best microSD Cards for Samsung Galaxy S9

64GB is a lot of onboard storage, but sometimes you need a little more!

I know, I know. Onboard phone storage has grown a ton in the last few years, but I still prefer to have all my contacts, physical music, and app files on a microSD card. That way when I inevitably upgrade phones, I can have everything come along for the ride. If you’re upgrading to the Galaxy S9, then pick up one of these SD cards and broaden your storage horizons.

Let’s take a look at things in terms of performance and value.

• Performance options
• Value options

Performance options

These selections all have a U3 rating, which offers a minimum sequential write speed of 30MB/s. This way your Galaxy S9 can record 4K video to an external card.

Side note: Even if your S9 technically allows the new 960FPS slow-mo footage to be recorded to a card, I wouldn’t trust that much data throughput to the SD card. It just can’t handle it, captain!

SanDisk Extreme 64GB

SanDisk’s microSD cards are just great. I’ve been using them for years and they’ve never failed me. The Extreme line boasts read speeds of up to 90MB/s and write speeds of up to 60MB/s, which is exactly what you want if you’re recording video directly to the card. As mentioned above, this one has the UHS-3 speed class rating and even comes with a lifetime warranty from SanDisk.

The best part is the price. A 64GB card starts around just $33. You could go down to 32GB for about $19, but why not double your storage? This card also happens to be the Wirecutter’s top pick for the best microSD card.

See at Amazon

Samsung EVO Select 64GB

This is another card that’ll obviously double your Galaxy S9’s storage, and it features transfer speeds of up to 100MB/s. I’ve been using one of these in my phones since my Galaxy S5 and love it. This particular card even comes with a full-size adapter so you can easily transfer data between your phone and computer.

Pricing here is excellent, with the 64GB option at roughly $23 (and you can drop to 32GB for only $12).

See at Amazon

Samsung EVO Plus 256GB

If you need a ton of space and performance, then Samsung’s EVO Plus line is one of the best around. You get read speeds of up to 100MB/s and write speeds of up to 90MB/s, and at $125 for 256GB, it’s not a bad deal. These cards are water-resistant, heat- and cold-resistant, and awesome if you’re looking to record all the 4K video. You’ll also get the full-size adapter in this pack — perfect for offloading video and photos on the go.

See at Amazon

Value options

If you simply want more bang for your buck and aren’t terribly concerned with recording 4K video directly to an external card, then consider these options and just try to fill up both your phone and the card. I dare you.

SanDisk Ultra 200GB

Boom, out of the gate, this 200GB microSD card is only about $70 on Amazon. That works out to only 35 cents per GB. You’ll still get read speeds of up to 100MB/s, but being a U1 rating, you won’t get write speeds that fast. This is still, however, a class 10, so full HD video shouldn’t be much of a problem.

See at Amazon

Samsung EVO Select 128GB

I mean, what can I say, prices are awesome at the time of this writing. The 128GB EVO Select from Samsung is only $40 right now on Amazon. That’s roughly 31 cents per GB. And with that you get a UHS 3 speed class rating, transfer speeds of up to 100MB/s and a whole whack of space that you’ll likely never use up. You get the full-size adapter and a 10-year limited warranty. As frugal as I am, I’d probably grab a couple of these just because SO MUCH SPACE. In terms of bang for your buck, a high performance, large storage card like this doesn’t get much better.

See at Amazon

SanDisk Ultra 256GB

SanDisk’s 256GB Ultra card is about $15 cheaper than Samsung’s EVO Plus at about $110, but that does come with some compromise in speed. You’ll get read speeds of up to 100MB/s, but write speeds will be slower, and you’re only getting a UHS 1 speed class rating here, so full HD video should be fine, but forget about writing 4K video directly to the card. That being said, you’ll have all the space you’ll probably need forever.

See at Amazon

What’s your go-to?

Do you have a favorite microSD card that you use with every phone you buy? Sound off in the comments below!

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Galaxy S9 review: A great phone for the masses
• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. Google Pixel 2: Which should you buy?
• Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S8: Should you upgrade?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

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Lyft will test its autonomous cars in a former military base

In July 2017, Lyft announced that it’s joining the autonomous vehicle race and even opened a dedicated research facility in Palo Alto. Now, it’s already preparing to put its technology to the test: the ride-hailing firm plans to test its self-driving cars at Gomentum Station in California. It’s a 5,000-acre autonomous vehicle proving grounds, which used to be the Concord Naval Weapons Station military base. Testing vehicles at the proving grounds will bring Lyft closer to unleashing its vehicles on public roads — something it has to do before it can officially release a self-driving fleet.

It’s unclear when trials will begin, but the vehicles it’s putting to the test at Gomentum Station will come straight from its Level 5 Engineering Center in Palo Alto. Lyft’s self-driving tactic involves teaming up with various automakers and tech giants. Level 5’s engineers, hardware and software developers are working with companies like General Motors, Land Rover, Jaguar and Waymo under Lyft’s Open Platform Initiative in order to develop the ride-hailing firm’s technology.

Lyft will probably test familiar cars loaded with its self-driving tech at the Station — we’ll know for sure once the company reveals more info about this particular project in the future. “By partnering with GoMentum Station,” said Lyft’s VP of Engineering Luc Vincent, “we’re able to test our self-driving systems in a secure facility and advance our technology in an efficient way.”

Source: Gomentum Station

The Tasty OneTop smart cooker ruined my dinner party

It’s been quite a drama for me in the kitchen lately: Due to a leak in my building, my cooking gas was shut off for 11 months. It’s back now, but for most of last year I had to get by with takeout, microwaveables and oh-so-many salads. Tasty’s OneTop seems tailor-made for these type of situations. It’s an induction cooktop, which means it goes anywhere you can plug it in. And Tasty’s step-by-step instructions make the whole cooking process manageable. It’s the kind of thing you’d happily play with in a college dorm. Or, in my case, a small New York City apartment with no working stove. Every year I always have a few people over to watch the Oscars, so that seemed like a good opportunity to give the OneTop a spin. Home-cooked food and a new gadget to play with! Perfect pre-show entertainment!

The big conceit of the OneTop over other electromagnetic induction burners is how it connects with the Tasty app over Bluetooth. Tasty specializes in those bird’s-eye videos that walk you through each stage of a recipe quickly. They’re fun to watch and generally give you a good idea of how hard a given dish might be to prepare. The app lets you watch the video at your own pace and follow along at home. The OneTop’s advantage is that when connected to the app, it can automatically adjust its temperature according to what stage you’re at in the recipe. It’s supposed to be easier and more precise.

The first step in this supposed ease of use was to download the Tasty app. I whipped out my Android device and went poking through Google Play, where there were several apps called Tasty but none that were the official one. It turns out that Tasty is iPhone-only right now. I ended up grabbing my iPad and installing it there. The lack of an Android app was annoying, but the decision to not have an actual iPad app is puzzling, given how many people use their tablets for cooking. That’s definitely among the top five uses I have for my own iPad, as I appreciate having the larger screen to work with.

In the app itself there’s an icon at the bottom for the OneTop, which takes you to a screen filled with recipe categories and a giant blue button to connect. I tapped it, the OneTop chimed and it was done. I’ve struggled in the past to get devices to connect, so this was a relief.

Things got a bit murkier as I poked through the app looking for a test recipe to cook. The number of OneTop “exclusive” recipes numbers 38, with an additional 26 from the Tasty archives that are “OneTop Friendly.” That’s … not a lot. To be fair, it’s comparable to what you get in a general-purpose cookbook, but it’s still disappointing from a site that has hundreds of recipes at its disposal.

It’s also not well organized — there are a few major categories like “steak” and “eggs,” but at least three rice dishes and four desserts were tossed into the “more” section of the app when they could have occupied their own sections. And you can’t even search recipes! To find something to cook I had to browse through each dish manually, glancing over the required ingredients and equipment to gauge the difficulty level for myself. I eventually settled on a deep-fried buffalo-cauliflower recipe.

Tasty sells a set of branded pots for the OneTop on its site. They’re not required; any pot made out of magnetic material should do. However, I was sent a set with the OneTop review unit, so I gave them a spin. They’re nice pots, sturdy with good heft. I put the stock pot on the OneTop and followed the instructions to fill it halfway with oil.

I emptied the contents of a new, unopened bottle of vegetable oil into the pot and … it wasn’t enough. It stopped just shy of the temperature probe. I thought about switching pots, but the temperature probe was too long for any of the smaller ones I owned. I had to send one of my guests out to buy another bottle of oil just to fill the pot enough to reach the probe.

Now, I could have figured out how much oil I needed with a bit of research — it’s an 8-quart stock pot, so I would have needed at least four quarts. That’s far more than the 48-fluid-ounce bottles I tend to keep around my kitchen. But when the point of the OneTop is to make things easier, I shouldn’t have to look this stuff up. It should be explicitly written down in the recipe.

After that initial snafu, the next few steps were relatively simple. The OneTop began heating the oil, and I started battering the cauliflower in the cornmeal-hot sauce mixture. What’s nice about the Tasty app here is that it displayed the current temperature of the oil, so I had a general idea of how much time it was until the next step. I wouldn’t have been able to move on anyway — the “next step” button won’t appear until the OneTop is ready to go. It’s a great idea for newbies who need to stay organized but frustrating if you want to peek ahead. The app doesn’t let you go backward either. If you want to re-review a previous step or get an idea of what’s coming next, there’s a drop-down menu that lets you read the instructions, but you won’t be able to watch the corresponding video.

Once the oil was done, the “next step” button reappeared, and we were prompted to put the cauliflower in. So we brought the battered vegetables over to where we had set up the OneTop and carefully dropped them into the hot oil. It all seemed great until a few minutes later, when the app happily announced it was finished and turned off the cooker. This was not so: The cauliflower florets were still pale and soft, most definitely not the “golden brown and crispy” the recipe called for. It looks like the app started its timer the minute we advanced to the frying stage, not taking into account the time spent getting the cauliflower in. I tried to restart the timer but with no success — eventually I turned it back on manually and asked my Google Home Mini to alert us instead.

While we waited for the cauliflower to cook, I futzed with the app to try to get us back on track. The inability to go back meant I ended up restarting the entire recipe, and the timer still didn’t seem to know what it was doing. At this point I gave up on using the step-by-step mode and just went to the straight text instructions to finish up the dish. We took the cauliflower nuggets out of the oil, let them dry a bit, tossed them in the sauce and then ate straight out of the mixing bowl. There was no point in plating it at this point; I was tired of the whole thing and didn’t want to dirty more dishes. They were pretty tasty, at least.

Fantasy vs. reality

We had another cauliflower head, but at this point it just wasn’t worth the hassle. I turned off the OneTop, dumped out $14 worth of dirty oil and then opened up Seamless to order vegetarian food. That too was tasty. It was also quicker, cheaper and didn’t make me want to throw my iPad out the window.

The OneTop promises to make cooking easy, but by taking away so much of my control, all it did was make it harder to fix problems when they arose. That’s an essential skill to have in the kitchen, one you’ll never learn if you lean on the Tasty app’s half-baked experience.