You may have never realized it, but you don’t necessarily have to settle for the keyboard defaults that you get on your laptop out of the box: If you want different keys to trigger different actions besides the default ones, it’s possible to customize them—and that opens up a wealth of new options for you in terms of…
Ford has begun deliveries of the F-150 Lightning. The first customer to get their hands on the electric pickup is Nicholas Schmidt, who lives in the automaker’s home state of Michigan, around a two-hour drive from the F-150 Lightning plant in Dearborn. Ford started full production of the EV there last month.
The EV is replacing a gas-powered F-150, Schmidt told Bloomberg. Schmidt, who also owns a Tesla Model 3, said he had considered buying a Rivian R1T and also placed a reservation for a Tesla Cybertruck. He said whichever electric pickup he was able to order first would be the one he bought. After taking delivery of the F-150, Schmidt cancelled his Cybertruck reservation.
Ford said at the beginning of this month it would start delivering the F-150 Lightning “in the coming days.” While it’s not the first automaker to deliver an electric pickup in the US (Rivian started doing so last year), it beat Tesla to the punch.
It had a leg up on Tesla in this market anyway, as the F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle in the US for the last four decades. Case in point: it received nearly 45,000 pre-orders for the Lightning in just 48 hours. Given that the Cybertruck won’t go on sale until next year, both Ford and Rivian have a shot at building up a significant share of the electric truck market long before Tesla gets the Cybertruck into the wild.
If you’ve been waiting to upgrade your home with the latest gear, this weekend might be the time to do so. From robot vacuums to Instant Pots, there are a number of great sales for connected appliances and kitchen gadgets for Memorial Day this year. As you can imagine, there are quite a lot of them, so we’ve collected some of the best ones below.
Anker Eufy RoboVac 11S
Engadget
Anker’s Eufy RoboVac 11S is one of our favorite budget robot vacuums thanks to its slim profile, smart features and affordable price. Now it’s even cheaper at just $150. It doesn’t have WiFi, but it does have a remote control. It also has three different modes so you can pick just how powerful you want the suction to be.
If you want an upgrade, however, the Anker Eufy RoboVac 15C Max is also on sale for $250, or 11 percent off its normal price. It has features like WiFi, stronger suction and it charges itself when it’s low on power. Plus, the 15C Max is compatible with either Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant.
Those with pets might want to consider the iRobot Roomba i3 EVO at just $280, which is 20 percent off its retail price of $350. It has dual multi-surface rubber brushes that can handle any floor type while staying tangle-free. The i3 EVO is also pretty smart. In addition to Alexa or Google integration, it can learn the layout of your home and create an “imprint smart map” so that you can easily tell it which room to clean and at what time. It will even learn your tidying habits over time and suggest extra cleaning if needed.
Want a version that empties itself? Then get the iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO for $450 (18 percent off $550), which comes with a Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal unit that can hold up to 60 days worth of dirt and debris so you only need to clean it every couple of months.
Sometimes you just want to air fry two different foods at once, and the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer (on sale for $155) lets you do that with ease. It was our pick for best dual-zone air fryer because of how quickly it heats up and its quiet operation. It was also smart enough to adjust cooking times so that the two baskets will finish cooking around the same time.
The Instant Pot, everyone’s favorite multicooker, is also on sale this weekend – it’s now $79, down from $100. The Duo is one we recommend for most people, as it’s easy to use and can perform multiple functions. This model can sauté, cook rice, slow cook, pressure cook, sterilize, keep food warm, and make yogurt. You can find out how to make the most of your Instant Pot with our guide.
You can now pick up Google’s Nest Audio smart speaker for $65 from Adorama. Or, if you want two, you can grab a pair for just $120. That’s an especially great deal if you’re in need of a stereo setup. Google’s Nest Audio has excellent audio quality too, and you can link it up to your choice of music streaming service. Of course, it’s powered by Google Assistant, so you can ask it to play whatever you like, ask for the weather forecast, your day’s appointments, the local sports scores and more.
Google’s Nest Hub smart display is down to just $65, and the Nest Hub Max is also on sale at Adorama for $179. The Hub Max is geared more for communal areas like the living room or the kitchen, while the smaller Hub is geared more for private spaces like the bedroom. That’s also why the Hub doesn’t have a camera, while the Hub Max does (you can use it to make video calls on Google Duo as well as Zoom). Google’s smart displays are great not just for viewing Nest Cam footage but also watching YouTube clips, getting step-by-step cooking instructions or just controlling the rest of your smart home.
Not to be left out, Amazon’s Echo Show 8 and Show 5 are discounted today too: the larger model is now $100 while the 5-inch smart display is $50. The Echo Show 8 is our personal favorite of the two, as it’s not as large as the Show 10, but not quite as small as the 5. It’s great for watching videos, viewing photos, looking up recipes and more. The Show 8 is especially wonderful for video calls as it has excellent camera quality plus an auto-framing feature that will focus on you and follow your movements as you chat.
If you prefer a smaller display, however, the Show 5 is fantastic too. It works much better as a smart alarm clock as it’s sized to fit perfectly on a nightstand. Like all Echo Shows, you can tap the Show 5 to snooze and it has a sunrise alarm that will gradually brighten the display to wake you up.
For much of Obi-Wan Kenobi’spre-release buildup, the focus was rightly on how time has changed Ewan McGregor’s titular Jedi, and the eventual round two he’d have with Anakin Skywalker. But this being Star Wars in the Disney era, the trailers hid what the show would actually be about, so as to fuel speculation and…
A new show opening in London on Friday features a version of the band created using motion capture and other technology with a 10-piece live backing band.
Because whimsy comes in all shapes and sizes, including the shape and size of a tissue box, Japanese artist Michiru crafted this one that makes tissues appear as if they’re icebergs. Clever! As far as design goes, I think this might even be more clever than the Godzilla head tissue box, which, prior to seeing this one, I assumed couldn’t be beaten.
The addition of the polar bear really sells the illusion. Of course, Michiru could have included a tiny replica of the Titanic instead but presumably opted for a more tasteful approach. I’ve been called a lot of things, but tasteful was never one of them.
Me? I don’t even have a tissue box on my desk; I just use my shirt sleeve. My wife jokingly calls me Patient Zero anytime a new bug is going around. Although now that I think about it, I wonder if she’s actually joking or just thinks I’m disgusting. Probably the latter.
A tidal wave of real, fake meat may soon be coming our way. Intentions to construct the world’s biggest facility for cultivating meat from animal cells were announced on Wednesday by San Francisco-based company, Good Meat.
It’s been seven years since I last saw Jurassic Park III and wow, did I hate it at the time. I know that for a fact because I live-tweeted it and, as I was watching, I legitimately despised everything I saw. I was not looking forward to rewatching the film at all for Jurassic Rewatch—which is probably why I found…
It’s been possible to automatically create song stems on your computer, but now you have that option in a sampler app on your phone. Elf Audio has updated its Koala Sampler app for Android and iOS with a feature that uses AI to automatically isolate stems from samples. You can have the J Dilla-inspired app pick out the vocals, drums or bass (plus a generic “other”) so that you can fold them into a track without consuming much time on your part.
The AI isn’t perfect, as you can hear in the clip below. However, that’s not strictly the point. As with the rest of Koala Sampler, this is more about creating quick cuts and making music production more accessible to people who can’t justify expensive sampling tools. At $5, it’s an easier way to dabble in this kind of production than investing in a full suite or novelties like Kanye’s Stem Player.
NEW UPDATE to Koala (1.4055)! Split samples into stems using AI! Try doing that on a [insert sampler name here] pic.twitter.com/WBQX1POLEn
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