Hasta La Gadget!

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When life gets busy, cooking is one of the first activities that many forego to get a bit more free time. However, after a while, ordering out and eating sub-par meals gets old. Kitchen gadgets that assist in quickly preparing meals and drinks are not only helpful but essential in creating balance — and time — to conquer the day.

Whether it’s a cold brew coffee maker that saves you money or sous vide gear that’ll upgrade your chef skills, we’ve gathered some of our favorite appliances that are enjoyable to use — and that give you another reason to spend more time in the kitchen.

The OXO Good Grips Spiralizer comes with three blade attachments (from left to right): a ⅛-inch spaghetti blade, a ribbon blade, and a ¼-inch fettuccine blade. Photo: Michael Hession

Spiralizer: OXO Good Grips Spiralizer

Thinking about the steps that go into making a really good salad or vegetable dish is enough to make some grab a take-out menu. If you always jump at the opportunity to cross chopping and dicing fresh vegetables off of your agenda, a spiralizer is a simpler alternative to use when prepping food. The OXO Good Grips Spiralizer is our top recommendation; it creates noodles, ribbons and chips that can be used as garnish or a full meal. After you secure it to your countertop, choose a blade and select your vegetable (or fruit) of choice, this gadget does the majority of the work. Pile your zucchini noodles or butternut squash ribbons high and freeze them to be eaten later in the week.

Personal Blender: NutriBullet Pro 900 Series

Most would agree that the effort it takes to make a smoothie is usually more than worth it. After researching more than 24 models, we tested 10 personal blenders and chose the NutriBullet Pro 900 Series as our top pick. Compared to other blenders we put to the test, it performed best powering through kale, frozen fruit, fresh ginger fiber and dates, as well as a mid-range full-size blender. It’s a great device to have on hand, it pays for itself and quickly produces whatever puree or smoothie you’re in the mood for. Consider an immersion blender for soups and purees that you want to cook in a pot or that call for ingredients that won’t fit in a personal blender.

Photo: Michael Hession

Electric Pressure Cooker: Instant Pot Duo 6-Quart

Aside from being able cook a meal — or the most time-consuming components of a meal — in one pot, the biggest perk of using an electric pressure cooker is finishing the task in a fraction of the time. The Instant Pot Duo 6-Quart has three temperature settings and can be used for slow-cooking and sautéing. New cooks or those intimidated by stove-top pressure cookers can rest assured knowing that electric pressure cookers are safe, durable and easy to use. It’ll come in handy more often than not, as you can make almost anything, including stews, sushi rice, braised meat and even cake.

Photo: Tim Barribeau

Sous Vide Cooker: Anova Precision Cooker Wi-Fi

When it’s time to impress your friends or do something in the kitchen that’s cooler than the norm, breaking out a sous vide cooker will do the trick. The Anova Precision Cooker Wi-Fi is an immersion circulator, which means it simultaneously circulates and heats water in which vegetables, eggs, steak, salmon, Greek yogurt and a list of other foods can be cooked. It clips to the side of a variety of containers and pots, and although it doesn’t require Wi-Fi to work, it enables its timer and temperature to be controlled from anywhere. You’ll need to vacuum seal your food before it’s cooked — and for a finishing sear we recommend using the Bernzomatic TS8000 searing torch.

The OXO brewer makes flavorful, money-saving concentrate, looks good on a counter and is easier to use and store than any other pick. Photo: Michael Hession

Cold Brew Coffee Maker: OXO Good Grips Cold Brew Coffee Maker

If grabbing coffee at your local café has become a routine, making it at home can be a thing, too. There’s no better time than the summer to invest in a cold brew coffee maker if waking up, getting out the door or surviving the day requires a caffeine boost. We like the OXO Good Grips Cold Brew Coffee Maker because it’s compact and has a great design. More importantly, it produced the boldest, most flavorful cup of coffee during testing — plus, its features make brewing and storing coffee easy. Cold brew machines are the best option for iced coffee that’s otherwise diluted and weaker-tasting when it’s made from refrigerated hot-brewed coffee.

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While cheaters are almost always to be expected when it comes to games, sometimes cheats get a bit too far to the point where legal action has to be taken. Such is the case over in South Korea where an Overwatch hacker has been handed a suspended prison sentence of one-year, along with an additional two years of probation.

The reports are claiming that Blizzard had worked closely with the Seoul National Police in helping to bring the hacker to justice. It has also been reported that the sentencing appears to be relatively lenient. This is because under the Game Industry Promotion Law and Information and Communication Technology Protection Law in South Korea, those found guilty can receive up to 2 years in jail straightaway, along with a whopping $18,000 fine.

Given that the hacker in question does not need to go to jail or pay a fine, it seems that they got off pretty easy. This isn’t the first time that Blizzard has resorted to legal measures to counter cheaters and hackers. Last year the company won a $8.6 million lawsuit against a developer that made Overwatch cheats, and with companies starting to employ more legal means against hackers and cheaters, hopefully this means that such practices will subside a bit.

Overwatch Hacker Given Suspended Prison Sentence , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Due to the relatively easy nature of signing up for an online account and the creation of an email account, this has led to an increase in spam accounts that were created for marketing/advertising or even malicious purposes. Twitter is well aware that there are tons of spam accounts on their platform, but have announced a new way to fight against it.

According to Twitter, they will be fighting against spam accounts with the introduction of a new signup process. “To make it harder to register spam accounts, we’re also going to require new accounts to confirm either an email address or phone number when they sign up to Twitter. This is an important change to defend against people who try to take advantage of our openness.”

That being said, Twitter has also acknowledged that there might be some who need the privacy and will be working to come up with a way to address that as well. “We will be working closely with our Trust & Safety Council and other expert NGOs to ensure this change does not hurt someone in a high-risk environment where anonymity is important. Look for this to roll out later this year.”

In addition, Twitter also stated that they will be looking into existing automated signup systems, even legacy ones, to ensure that there are at least some security checks in place to prevent automated signups.

Twitter To Fight Spam Accounts With Email & Phone Number Verification , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

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