More Meal Kits I Liked

Sunbasket

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

Sunbasket (~$16 per serving): Sunbasket focuses heavily on fresh, organic ingredients and offers a whole lot of variety in its menus. Its recipes are attentive to saucing, and to basic good cooking techniques such as deglazing. Like Hungryroot, it also offers breakfasts and snacks to supplement meal options with little extras such as coconut yogurt and sous-vide egg bites. The meal kit also lets you filter out allergen-containing items. WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe loved the flexibility and add-ons. During my most recent test, I enjoyed an excellent Greek chicken and orzo salad dish—and, wonder of wonders, the advertised prep time was actually the actual prep time (about 30 minutes). The focus on organic ingredients does make Sunbasket one of the more expensive meal kit options, and the annual Thanksgiving meal kit was a lovely and welcome extravagance at $200.

Gardencup ($11 to $15 a serving): Gardencup is a little like having the whole menu of Sweetgreen sent to your house or office, except in cylindrical form. Basically, you pick out premade salads, soups, and snacks, and they come in little cups—fresh, lovely, crisp, and ready to eat. I found it to be a great way to keep myself eating healthy when there’s no time to cook at the office (or the home office), which is typically when DoorDash or freezer-meal temptations run wild. It remains among the healthiest prepared food delivery options I know. I even tested Gardencup as a salad option during a cyclospora parasite scare, in part because I missed salad and because Gardencup could attest that it did not use lettuce from any of the suspected sources of the outbreak. The salads remained delicious and delivered a shocking amount of protein in options with meat. But variety of options is not a strong suit. A slackened focus on local sourcing, plus limited transparency on sourcing—Gardencup will disclose only that it sources its greens in the salad belt from Salinas, California, to Yuma, Arizona—has kept Gardencup in my honorable mentions.

Factor

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

Factor ($13 to $17 a serving): Factor is a prepared-meal delivery plan run by HelloFresh, with ready-to-eat meals that look a lot like TV dinners. But there’s a twist: The trays have never been frozen. They were made fresh in a commissary kitchen and were shipped out with cold packs, yielding a result that’s kind of like restaurant leftovers. Consistently, Factor ranks among the best-tasting prepared meal plans I’ve tested, especially when I shrug off directions and use an air fryer to reheat my meals instead of a microwave. Proteins and high-protein meals are a strong suit. Proteins maintain their texture quite well, especially a truffled filet mignon I couldn’t believe I microwaved. Still, some meals, especially carb-avoidant or keto meals, are oddly mushy, while meals centered on proteins and whole starches, like potatoes or rice, alongside veggies like green beans or brussels sprouts, tended to fare quite well. So did stir-fry-style meals. My gluten-free colleague, Scott Gilbertson, wrote that he had the best luck with Factor’s Mexican fare. I do wish Factor would shed its reliance on the microwave: When I went off-script and used a Ninja Crispi air fryer or convection oven, I had much better results than with the nuker. But non-air-fryer ovens do not seem to offer the same improvement. Like many ready-to-eat meals, it’s a bit more expensive than the kits you cook yourself. Oh, and as a bonus? Factor has a really, truly delicious selection of nutrient-amped juice bottles and elderberry “shots.” I could pretty much subsist on their probiotic cucumber-pineapple green juice.

Fuel Meals

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

Fuel Meals ($14 to $15 a serving): Fuel Meals are a no-nonsense, no-fluff, no-added-ingredients, pure-protein-packed nutritive meal plan, with many meals paleo-friendly. Some of Fuel’s meals had as few as five ingredients, consisting of essentially the macronutrients themselves plus a modicum of oil and salt. A large percentage of meals are marked gluten-free or dairy-free. Does all this mean less flavor? It can. The meals are also often not beautiful, dominated by a large and no-fuss serving of protein. But Fuel’s meal service offers an admirable focus, especially for those bulking up or watching carbs. Meals are substantive, usually topping 600 calories and 40 grams of protein without added sugar or fatty dairy or carb-heavy filler. I feel like if I wore tank tops more often, this is what I’d eat.

Wildgrain

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

Wildgrain ($13 to $17 per loaf or box of pastries): This is less a meal delivery service than a way to step up a home meal. Wildgrain is a monthly delivery bread box: You receive par-baked bread and pastries from small bakeries all over the country. This is pretty much the same process that likely happens at local restaurants when your warm bread basket comes out: It’s not quite as high-quality as you’d get direct from an artisan bakery, if you live in places with artisan bakeries. But it’s also as fresh as it gets, and I had a very good experience testing the box in October 2025, in particular, with sourdough breads perfect for large meals with houseguests. You finish the baking at home, so what you have at the end is ultra-fresh baked bread, biscuits, doughnuts, or scones that are still warm and crisp from the oven. A Wildgrain subscription arrives as a monthly box, filled with four, six, or 12 items that might range from a full sourdough loaf or fresh-made pasta to a pack of six doughnuts or four large croissants. Basically, you build your own box each month, choosing from among healthy sourdough or pasta and decadent pastries.

Thistle ($12 to $15 per meal): A prior top pick for solo diners with individually prepared dishes that require little to no prep, Thistle is mostly a plant-based meal kit—but there’s a $3 option to add sustainable meats to any otherwise vegan meal. It’s also so local and seasonal that the West and East Coasts have different menus, and the whole middle of the country, except Chicago, gets none. (You can check your zip code here to see if you can get delivery.) WIRED reviewer Adrienne So has used Thistle as a means to get herself to eat more vegetables, and thus avoid a life of rickets and/or scurvy. Portions are generous enough to split among meals, and in a nice turn for those who hate having to dispose of boxes, Thistle’s drivers will pick up the cooler bag that housed last week’s meal and replace it with a new one full of food. Vegan tester Molly Higgins’s favorite meals from Thistle were a whirlwind of textures, including a Mexican-inspired corn and poblano chile salad with adobo pinto beans and a chilled lemongrass-accented rice noodle bowl that mixed spice, tang, crisply fresh veggies, and deep umami from mushrooms and seaweed. She still dreams about it sometimes. Breakfasts are available at a lower cost, as low as $9.

Tovala

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

Tovala (~$9 to $15 a serving): It’s not every day you get to try something that feels super new. Tovala offers perhaps the most ambitious solution to ready-to-heat and prepared meal delivery I’ve seen: The meal kits come with an oven! In contrast to the sogginess of many prepared meals, Tovala’s recipes come in little foil pans with recipes custom-designed for a little steam oven. The results are often delicious—as was the case during my testing with a sweet chili–glazed salmon with pickled veg and noodles—and the QR code scanning function makes each recipe seamless to cook. Stick with the meal plan for six weeks, and in the bargain you get a quite affordable and powerful little convection oven, toaster, and steamer. A previous flaw was that Tovala only offered single-serve meals. But as of early 2026, at least four or five meals a week offer two to four servings, making the meal delivery service much more useful to families and couples—and much more economical on a per-serving basis. But not that it’s also one of the most sodium-filled meal services I’ve tested.

Gobble

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Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

Gobble ($17 a serving): Formerly the top pick for fast-cooked meals, Gobble previously wowed with speed-demon dishes that also offered interesting and worldly flavors. Indeed, the most recent test included Caribbean rondon, an Indonesian peanut curry stir-fry, and steak vierge. But while the flavors have stayed interesting, the focus on fast cooking appears to have waned since my colleague Louryn Strampe tested Gobble. Cook time estimates aren’t printed on the recipe cards, but meals took as long as 30 minutes. For now, Hungryroot has taken the fast-cooking crown. For small households, Gobble is also among the most expensive kits. At most portions, prices approach $17 a serving plus shipping.

Nurture Life ($6 to $7 per serving): Nurture Life is like a restaurant kids’ menu, in ready-to-eat meal kit form. We loved the idea behind this fresh-made, never-frozen delivery meal plan when we tested it a few years back: a bunch of toddler- and slightly bigger kid-friendly meals, from mac and cheese to spaghetti and meatballs to myriad variations on the chicken nugget. The meal prices have dipped to reasonable levels of late, meaning it’s likely due for a retest—and each plate contains vegetables alongside the greatest hits.

Veestro ($7 to $14 per serving): WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe enjoyed Veestro as a ready-to-eat vegan option, with premade meals delivered fresh, but with freezable options so you can have extra meals on hand in a pinch. The service offers a number of filters for other dietary requirements, and satisfying taste and texture—which is not always a guarantee on ready-to-eat meals. Veestro has updated its menu and offerings since the last time WIRED tested, including a number of snacky soup offerings. The online menu interface, allowing you to sort by ingredients and filter out unwanted ones, is among the best I’ve seen.

Splendid Spoon ($9 to $13 per serving): Splendid Spoon is a nutrition delivery kit that offers a plethora of plant-based smoothies, soups, bowls, noodles, and shots. Everything here is natural, plant-based, and free of gluten or GMOs, including spaghetti and plant-based “meatballs.” WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe has a big yen for the smoothies in particular ($10 apiece), but wasn’t quite prepared for the intensity of a lemon juice shot that comes as part of a five-pack of dense 3-ounce superfoods.

ModifyHealth’s Braised Beef (top) and Paprika Salmon (bottom)

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

ModifyHealth ($10 to $13 per serving): The idea behind ModifyHealth is that food can be medicine. Sometimes, I’ll admit, it tasted like it was designed purely for nutrition rather than flavor. ModifyHealth is a prepared meal delivery service tailored to people who need a heart-healthy, low-carb, or low-FODMAP diet to avoid dire digestive or health consequences. GLP-1 weight-loss plans are also available for people with diabetes or others. Gluten-free meals are attested to be made in an entirely gluten-free facility. The meals were simple, benign, and low-sodium but also sometimes a little soggy—a common problem with prepared meals. The plastic top of the packaging was also difficult to disengage from the base of each meal tray—a problem when the plastic is hot after a turn in the microwave. But here’s what I do like: The meals are carefully tailored with consultation from dietitians to help people for whom food can be a source of fear or pain. An additional service, offering one-on-one dietitian consultation, can be covered by many insurance plans. ModifyHealth also offers a free consultation for those just trying to figure out which diet plan is right for them. For those with IBS in particular, this remains the most focused food plan I’ve seen.

Daily Harvest (prices vary): Daily Harvest is another ready-to-eat meal delivery service specializing in dietary restrictions: plant-based, plus gluten- and dairy-free. Smoothies feature, as do harvest bowls, pastas, and grains. Calories are low. Ingredients are often inventive. The meal’s a lifesaver for the solo vegan eater without time to prep a meal, and WIRED vegan reviewer Molly Higgins appreciated that the meals mostly relied on the natural flavors of the vegetables themselves, accented with flavors like curry and lemongrass. As with a lot of frozen meals, however, texture wasn’t a strong suit in the ready-to-heat meals. The ready-to-blend smoothies are great, though.

A Meal Kit I Don’t Recommend

Sakara Life ($30+ per serving): Sakara Life offers plant-based weekly menus in fresh, prepared portions, with greens, flavorful sauces, all-organic ingredients, and textural add-ons like seeds or berries. But it’s among the most expensive meal plans we’ve tested, and neither WIRED reviewer who tried it has really cottoned to the thing. Tester Louryn Strampe questioned the science on health claims for detoxes and cleanses, while calling Sakara “egregiously expensive” and full of “bitter veggies and tart fruits.” Vegan tester Molly Higgins, meanwhile, said Sakara Life’s tinctures and metabolism supplements didn’t agree with her system, and that the mostly raw-food plan made her long for “human food.”

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After the iPhone, the Redmi Note is perhaps the best-known phone series, at least in markets like India. Millions have bought a Redmi Note, including me, because it’s a faithful companion. Today, Redmi introduced the newest Redmi Note 17 Pro series, and I’ve been using it for the past two weeks. While there is still some time before the full review, here’s everything you need to know about the Note 17 Pro.

Battery That Lasts Days, and More

As you may have guessed, the biggest highlight of the Note 17 Pro is its 9,000 mAh silicon battery. And while I can’t talk much, you definitely won’t be charging it every day. This is coupled with 67W fast wired charging, and the Note 17 Pro also reverse charges at 27W. Redmi has also gone the extra mile and gotten the 5-star Battery Performance Certification from TÜV.

That massive battery powers the Snapdragon 6s Gen 4 processor, which Redmi says shoukd should stay smooth for years to come. Alongside, you can get up to 8 GB RAM and 256GB UFS 3.1 storage. I’ll reserve my final verdict on gaming and sustained performance for the full review, but so far the phone feels exactly like what a Redmi Note should: dependable, responsive, and built for long days away from a charger.

Premium Design

Redmi has refreshed the camera island with a cleaner, more modern look that feels closer to its premium phones than previous Note devices. The phone comes in multiple finishes like Sky Blue, Black, Satin Orange, Purple, and the matte rear panel does a good job resisting fingerprints despite using a plastic back.

At 223 grams and 8.6mm thick, it isn’t a lightweight device, but that’s the trade-off for fitting such a massive battery. In hand, the weight is well distributed, and the flat design is pretty comfortable for everyday use. The front is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2, while the phone also carries IP68 and IP69K ratings for dust and water resistance. Redmi even claims up to 3-meter drop resistance, and to test that, they invited The Great Khali, who then proceeded to drop the phone from his height.

The Redmi Note 17 Pro features a 6.83-inch AMOLED display, and it’s easily one of the better-looking panels you’ll find in the mid-range segment. You get a 1.5K resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and 3,840Hz PWM dimming. Redmi claims a peak brightness of 3,500 nits, and while I haven’t measured it yet, outdoor visibility has been excellent during my time with the phone.

Redmi has opted for a relatively simple dual-camera setup this year. The primary sensor is a 50MP wide camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), accompanied by an 8MP ultrawide shooter. On the front, there’s a 16MP selfie camera housed inside the centered punch-hole cutout. Out of the box, the Note 17 Pro runs Android 16 with HyperOS 3.

The REDMI Note 17 Pro 5G starts at ₹36,999 for the 8GB + 128GB version, and the 8GB + 256GB version costs ₹39,999.

• The gaming chat service Discord appears to have gone down
• Users are reporting that the app is not loading
• Discord says there are problems affecting availability right now

Popular gaming chat service Discord appears to have gone down, with many users reporting that they are currently unable to access the app on social media.

It’s unclear which regions are affected right now, but here in the UK, I can no longer open the desktop application. The mobile app seems to be functioning properly, though, and I am able to both send and receive messages for the time being.

cyber-crime

Forum post claims 7.49 million files up for grabs as Texas utility investigates breach

Texas utility CenterPoint Energy has confirmed that an attacker broke in and stole customer information through one of its internet-facing systems.

The company disclosed the breach in a Form 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission after a post on a cybercrime forum claimed to offer its customer data.

Houston-based CenterPoint, which serves around 7 million customers, said its electricity and gas services remain operational and undisrupted.

“While the investigation remains ongoing, the company has determined that an unauthorized third party obtained personal information relating to a portion of the company’s customers through one of the company’s external-facing systems,” the filing said.

“The company is continuing to work with third-party experts to determine the scope of customers and personal information affected by the incident and intends to notify affected customers and regulatory authorities as required by applicable law.

“The company reported the matter to law enforcement authorities and has notified certain regulatory authorities of the issue.”

The person claiming responsibility said they extracted 7.49 million of CenterPoint’s files from a poorly secured API.

Among the data allegedly available to download are customer names and contact details, billing data, move-in dates, driver’s license information, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.

The Register has not independently verified the contents of the alleged data dump, and CenterPoint did not respond to our request for comment on the veracity of the claims.

CenterPoint said it does not believe the incident is reasonably likely to materially affect its financial condition or results of operations.

For operators of critical infrastructure, cyberattacks can lead to far worse outcomes.

Recently, disruptive attacks have been recorded at facilities in Poland and the UK, and more than 100 US water systems were affected by attacks in July.

The US consistently warns about the cyber threat facing utility providers from hostile states because successful attacks can disrupt essential services. ®

Apple CEO John Ternus whipped out his iPhone Duo on the Emmys red carpet, to the delight of the press gaggle. The Internet immediately started whining, as it does.

The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards were a big success for Apple TV. As the new CEO of Apple, John Ternus was in attendance, and he used the opportunity of a red carpet interview to flash the iPhone Duo in front of the cameras.

In a clip posted by Deadline to X, Ternus reaches into his tuxedo, pulls out the iPhone Duo, and opens it up. After a squeal of delight from the reporter, the grinning Ternus folds the iPhone Duo up and puts it back in his pocket.

While the reporter was obviously happy to see the device in person, the Internet was not.

Internet peanut gallery

Comments below the post included a lot of discussion about Ternus, but quite a few about the iPhone Duo itself. Chiefly that it had a seemingly bad display.

“That matte screen is so bad it’s making me think about getting a Fold 8,” one person writes. “The quality of inner screen so suck” another bashes out along with emojis of a sad face.

Others touched on how you couldn’t see the crease because of the lack of brightness. “Borderline unusable in natural daylight” another declared.

Some believe it wasn’t his daily driver because it allegedly didn’t show any apps nor touch the screen itself. Except the clip shows him swiping up with his thumb and the screen moving.

A dim viewpoint

When it comes to answering the question of why the screen is not super-bright in the interview, there are quite a few possible reasons for it. Some more obvious than others.

For a start, the red carpet is the worst place to judge a display on a device. We’re talking about an area that is very brightly lit, with a different light characteristic than daylight, so that the stars can be filmed by the broadcast cameras.

This is a ton of light, and any consumer-grade device will have trouble competing with that situation. It also doesn’t help that the broadcast cameras are set up to use this light so that the humans it sees look great, not necessarily a light-emitting device like a smartphone screen.

The second and most obvious reason is that Ternus didn’t have the brightness turned up in the first place.

Whipping out the iPhone Duo in an off-the-cuff moment is different from a choreographed PR exercise which would’ve stuck the brightness as high as possible. It’s probable that a prepared moment would’ve “fixed” the environmental lighting too so that the iPhone Duo looked perfect.

A multi-layered problem

Then there’s the iPhone Duo display itself. We know it’s using many layers of glass and other trickery to try and hide the inevitable crease, and that affects how the display appears to others, especially when it’s someone viewing at an angle.

Apple’s use of nano-texture is also at play here, since it’s an etched texture designed to scatter light and to minimize environmental glare. It’s not a one-way effect, as it does marginally soften the image of the iPhone Duo’s OLED panel.

The iPhone Duo has many layers of glass – Image Credit: Apple

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It also means that the contrast is affected when there’s more environmental light to compete against. Under bright lights, the screen will look more grey and washed out than if you looked at the same screen in a dark room.

The decision to go for a matte display for the iPhone Duo was for consumers to have a better experience under normal usage. A glossy screen, as used by rivals, would look bright and make it more attractive for sales, but it would be a detriment for everyday use.

Under such extreme viewing conditions, it’s completely understandable for the iPhone Duo to not be presented perfectly in Ternus’ hands.

After all, the bright light there was to make the stars the awards were about shine brightly.

In brief: Nvidia’s RTX 4090 and 5090 have become notorious for melting power cable connectors. While the two flagship GPUs have drawn renewed attention to the problem over the past several years, users should remember that lower-wattage cards and cables aren’t immune, even with power monitoring devices, as one unlucky AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX user recently discovered.

Redditor AwarenessHour9192 recently complained about a melted power connector on a PC graphics card, an issue commonly associated with Nvidia’s top-of-the-line GPUs. However, this time the affected card was an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

The user reported black screens and other problems with his PC over the course of months and could not diagnose the issue, even after a workshop reinstalled Windows and ran benchmarks. Only after disassembling the tower did he discover burn marks on the GPU’s power connector.

Nvidia’s RTX 4090 and 5090 have frequently experienced the same problem over the past few years. While the company attempted to close the issue long ago by blaming user error, users have largely blamed its 16-pin power connectors and the 5090’s near-600W power draw, with cases continuing to emerge. YouTube channel TecLab recently renewed awareness of the flaw by demonstrating two extreme ways to circumvent it.

First, they lowered a 5090’s operating temperature by soldering its PCB directly to the power cables, bypassing the connector entirely. On another unit, they proved that the 16-pin connector might be unnecessary by replacing it with a triple 8-pin setup without sacrificing performance, which also lowered temperatures.

AwarenessHour’s issue occurred with AMD’s last-gen flagship GPU, which draws only 400W via an 8-pin connector. Furthermore, instead of plugging the power connector directly into the graphics card, he passed it through a Thermal Grizzly WireView power monitor, which is designed to prevent this exact problem. Luckily, the monitor prevented the damage from reaching the GPU, whereas many other cases have left severe burns on Nvidia graphics cards that now cost over $5,000.

While AwarenessHour has not yet determined what caused the meltdown, Thermal Grizzly fortunately replaced the power connector and the WireView. The incident shows that even GPUs with modest TDPs and 8-pin power connectors can suffer from melted connectors. Users should still take care when installing them and check for physical damage if they experience video output issues.

Roblox has announced several new updates at its 12th annual Roblox Developers Conference (RDC). The event brings together developers, artists, designers, brands, and influencers from the Roblox creator community. This year, the company focused on new ways to play, create, and earn on the platform. The announcements include Roblox Everywhere, browser and offline play, new AI creation tools, Roblox Wallet, and Moments. The event also marks 20 years of Roblox’s platform development with its community.

New Ways to Play and Stay Connected

Roblox is increasingly expanding how players can access games across different devices. The newly launched Roblox Everywhere program would let creators deliver their games as separate applications on mobile phones, PCs, and consoles. Roblox would provide the required technology and services behind these apps. Players could also launch games in the Chrome browser without downloading the Roblox application. This browser option will arrive by the end of this year, with more browsers planned later.

Roblox will also add an offline mode and merge it with online mode in the same game. This could mean more single-player modes and more gameplay for people who aren’t always online. Another platform development will be increased support for 2D and puzzle games, with more creation features. These will include an orthographic camera, animated image containers, and direct sprite sheet imports. The platform will also add new UI elements, including blur, text shadow, and gradients. Meanwhile, the Friends chat tab and voice typing will help players stay connected between games.

New Ways for Creators to Earn and Grow

Roblox is also giving creators new ways to earn and manage their income. Creators have earned more than $5 billion through DevEx since 2013. They earned around $1.7 billion on the platform over the past 12 months. Roblox is now introducing Roblox Wallet for eligible creators. The wallet will let creators receive earnings in real currency and get automatic payments each business day. Roblox will first launch it later this year for eligible independent creators in the US aged 18 and above. The company plans to expand it globally next year.

Roblox is also introducing the Roblox Card, which will connect to the Wallet balance. Creators will be able to spend their available balance wherever the card is accepted. The card will start rolling out next year. Meanwhile, Roblox is expanding Moments, where players can watch gameplay videos and jump directly into games. Moments is now fully available in the US. Videos from Experience Details Pages will also appear there soon. Roblox is also updating discovery rankings to match younger and older players better. It is testing rankings based on how many new players a game brings to the platform.