Hasta La Gadget!

Do you like the features that come with Twitter Blue, but not the image it conveys of an Elon Musk superfan? There might be a solution in the near future. As Boing Boingnotes, developer Alessandro Paluzzi claims to have spotted Twitter testing an option to hide the Blue checkmark on your profile. Unless you write a very long tweet or otherwise flaunt Blue-only features, other users might never know that you’re paying for perks. You’d still need to verify your government ID to use the features.

Twitter isn’t available for comment as it disbanded its communications team after Musk’s purchase. The test comes as Twitter says it will start removing legacy verified checkmarks on April 1st. In November, Musk called legacy checkmarks “corrupt” and said the social network would remove them in the months ahead. 

There are reasons you might want to hide the checkmark besides humility or embarrassment, of course. You may not want to give the impression that your tweets represent the views of your employer. And if you share the same name as a celebrity, you might not want to risk confusing users.

There’s no guarantee Twitter will make the checkmark-hiding option widely available. If the company presses ahead, though, this might (further) diminish the value of the blue tick by making it inconsistently visible. On top of this, Twitter now has gold and grey checkmarks for business and government accounts respectively — those are the true upper-echelon badges.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitter-may-let-you-hide-the-fact-you-pay-to-use-twitter-160015039.html?src=rss

Researchers at Columbia University’s Creative Machine Labs recently used their creative machines to 3D print slices of cheesecake; layer by layer the machine dispensed triangular troughs of graham cracker paste to hold other ingredients like peanut butter and Nutella. I’m hungry just thinking about it! Although I was already hungry if I’m being perfectly honest.

In the video, the 3D printer attempts eight different cheesecake variations of increasing complexity. It fails a couple of them but does manage to complete the most challenging print. Although, to me, there’s no such thing as a failed cheesecake print, just a messy dessert.

The 3D printer uses a fine-nozzle extruder to build layers of graham cracker paste as the base of the cheesecake, adding walls to hold the softer ingredients inside. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from baking, it’s that you don’t want your soft ingredients on the outside, or they might just end up at the bottom of the oven. Then the fire department has to come and threatens to take away my baking privileges!

[via TechEBlog]

Today in Japan, the final episode of the Pokémon anime to feature Satoshi, a.k.a. Ash Ketchum, aired—bringing to a close a legacy that has helped define the franchise for 25 years. But while we have a little while longer to see Ash’s adventure end in the English dub, we’ve already got a peek of what’s on the…

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If you’re on the market for a new e-reader, Amazon’s latest discounts on Kindles may have exactly what you’ve been looking for at a lower-than-expected price. Key among the sale items is the Kindle Paperwhite, which is down to $100. That’s only $5 more than its record-low price, and it’s the same price as the standard Kindle, which doesn’t have as many extra features as the Paperwhite.

While we did not review the Paperwhite, we did test the Paperwhite Signature Edition, which is only different thanks to its auto-adjusting front light, higher storage capacity and its wireless charging capabilities. You should get a very similar experience going with the regular Paperwhite, and it should be a great one. The latest version of Amazon’s ubiquitous e-reader has a 6.8-inch, 300 ppi glare-free screen with 17 front LEDs, including a new adjustable warm light that will make it easier to read in dark environments (and after a full day of staring at a computer screen).

The design of the Paperwhite hasn’t changed drastically over the years, but Amazon has refined it. This model’s screen is flush with its bezels, giving it a cleaner look, and it’s also IPX8-rated, so it won’t be in danger if it takes an accidental dunk in the pool or bathtub. This Paperwhite also has Audible support, so if you have audiobooks through the Amazon-owned outlet, you can listen to them directly from your Kindle as long as you have a pair of Bluetooth headphones to do so.

It’s worth mentioning that the Kids version of the Paperwhite is also on sale for $110, and we sometimes recommend this model even for adults. You’re getting the same hardware as the non-kids model, along with a longer warranty and a protective case. The Kids version is also touted to have no ads, but that’s only if you stick to the kid-friendly UI that’s preinstalled on the e-reader.

Also included in this sale is the new Kindle Scribe, which is down to a new all-time-low price of $290. The Scribe is Amazon’s first jump into the e-ink tablet space, and the model on sale includes 16GB of storage and a basic pen. As a tablet, the Scribe is a basic but fairly well-executed device: there’s little to no latency when writing on the display, there are a decent number of brush options to choose from and you can organize multiple notebooks pretty easily. As an e-reader, it’s a little on the large size with its 10.3-inch display, but the screen is crisp and responsive and we like the wider side bezel that makes the device easier to grip.

You can’t actually take notes in the margins of Kindle books on the Scribe, but you can add sticky notes to your books and jot down ideas that way. And if you like the idea of keeping your notes on the same device that holds most of your reading material, the Scribe will be a good option for you. That goes for those who have big Kindle e-book libraries, but also those who have PDFs and ePUBs they want to mark up, too, as the Scribe supports a number of different file types.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-sale-knocks-the-kindle-paperwhite-down-to-100-150513073.html?src=rss

It’s rare that you see any Koenigsegg car up for sale at auction, but this customized Regera hypercar on Bring a Trailer is an even crazier sight to behold.