Tech
We Retested Every Meal Kit Service. This Underdog Is Our New Favorite in 2026
Pros
- Thoughtful recipes you won’t find everywhere
- Even the quick recipes felt special
- Extremely fresh ingredients
- Not a lot of plastic waste
Cons
- On the expensive side when you factor in shipping
- Market add-ons are not the best
Meal kits have been around for more than a decade. HelloFresh, Blue Apron, and Home Chef have been the most visible, blasting ads on social media and during your favorite podcast — but are they the best?
After testing and retesting every meal kit service (here’s how we do it), crafting dozens of these meals-by-mail in our own kitchens, we’ve picked a new favorite for 2026, and it’s not one of the “big three.”
If you’re looking for excellent meal kits that are anything but boring, there’s a new top dog in town.
Marley Spoon offers creative and tasty meals, which may come as no surprise when you learn who the woman behind the recipes is: kitchen maven herself, Martha Stewart.
Marley Spoon caters to adventurous home cooks and food enthusiasts with creative recipes that appeal to both beginners and more refined palates. Unlike some meal kit services that target newcomers with straightforward, quick-prep dishes, Marley Spoon offers more elevated fare featuring Martha’s own recipes. Many come straight from her cookbooks or personal collection, yet they remain accessible — you won’t need advanced techniques or professional training to pull them off.
Read more: Your Guide to Meal Kits: The Essential Tools You’ll Need to Get Started
Curious as we are at CNET about all things meal kits, we wanted to know just how good they are — and whether they’re worth the money. We tested a week’s worth of recipes for a third time to bring you this review of Marley Spoon’s meal kit delivery service.
How Marley Spoon works
A selection of Marley Spoon recipes as of 2025.
Marley Spoon operates similarly to most others in the category and offers both meal kits with recipes that you cook and prepared meals that only require reheating.
After choosing between those two options, you will then answer the question, “What kid of meals do you like?” Meal kit options include everyday variety, low calorie, low carb, quick and easy, vegetarian, pescatarian and Mediterranean for two or four people and you can choose between two and six meals per week. The single-serving prepared meal options include everyday variety, low calorie or low carb and you can choose 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 or 18 meals per week.
Your box of meal kit ingredients is delivered once a week — unless you skip a week, which is easy to do — and you can either manually select recipes or let Martha Stewart personally choose them for you. OK, just kidding: She’s not your personal meal concierge, but you can let the brand select meals if you prefer a little mystery. You can select any day of the week for delivery, and the boxes will arrive between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.
There are now more than 100 recipes each week, ranging in difficulty. Before you choose a recipe for delivery, you’ll see all the steps involved, the estimated time it takes to complete, and detailed nutritional information to help you decide.
Marley Spoon meal kit pricing
Number of people
Recipes per week
Total servings per week
Price per serving
2
2
4
$12.99
2
3
6
$11.99
2
4-6
8-12
$10.99
4
2
8
$10.99
4
3
12
$10.49
4
4-5
16-20
$9.99
4
6
24
$8.99
Prepared meals are $12.99 each and shipping is $10.99 per box.
What are Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meals like
As you might imagine, since Martha Stewart helped design the concept and created many of the recipes, there are some really interesting, high-end and gourmet dishes to choose from. Luckily, though, most are still fairly simple to make.
There are plenty of healthy recipes, along with dietary preferences to choose from. However, there are only between four and six vegan options each week so if you want more options, Purple Carrot may be a better choice for you. Other services that feature built-in diet meal plans include Green Chef, Home Chef or HelloFresh.
Skillet chicken Parmesan ingredients.
At Marley Spoon, you’ll find plenty of warming comfort dishes like French onion chicken breast and beef stroganoff, plus desserts you can add on to your box, such as baked gingerbread doughnuts and French-style cheesecake.
On the prepared-meal side, the recipes are just as creative. Some meals include tilapia with smoky tomato sauce and black bean street corn and merlot chicken meatballs with orzo pasta and green beans.
How easy are Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meals to prepare?
The beef empanadas were fun to make from scratch and a new experience for me.
Our meals ran the gamut from the super simple to a bit more complicated and time-intensive, but the good news is that it’s really up to you on how difficult you want the meals to be when you make your recipe selections.
The skillet chicken Parmesan, for instance, had a number of steps like preparing the chicken, cooking it, making the sauce and preparing the pasta (which had its own ingredients). For someone with a decent amount of cooking experience, this isn’t challenging, but some beginners might not be ready for such an involved meal. Other meals, such as the butternut squash pizza, were quite simple, tasty, and perfect for a weeknight when you don’t feel like fussing much or taking time to cook.
Read more: Meal Kits Taught Me How to Cook. Now I Get to Test Them for a Living
What we cooked and how it went
Beef picadillo pockets with bell peppers and cilantro chimichurri: This meal was not only delicious but also fun to make. It was the first time I used raw dough in a meal kit recipe, and the results were well worth the effort. Although the empanadas were filling, I still would have liked it to have come with a side other than the chimichurri sauce.
The beef empanadas were filling and tasty.
Butternut squash pizza with ricotta, almonds and hot honey: I had never had butternut squash on a pizza before this meal, but I can definitely see myself making this again. It was a perfect fall meal with the onions, squash, rosemary and almonds added on top.
The butternut squash used the same type of dough as the empanadas.
Seared salmon and citrus butter sauce with smashed potatoes and shaved Brussels salad: The Brussels sprout salad helped elevate this simple meal and take it to the next level. I cooked the salmon on the stovetop and the smashed potatoes in my air fryer.
I loved making smashed potatoes for this meal.
Skillet chicken Parmesan with casarecce and sautéed spinach: This recipe was good and very comforting, though it certainly had a healthy share of carbs and calories. The red sauce was very simple and the chicken cutlets weren’t breaded so it felt a little healthier than normal chicken Parm but not quite enough to be really, truly healthy. I had lots of leftovers, which was nice.
Honey miso salmon with roasted carrots and Brussels sprouts: This one was great and healthy, but it wasn’t particularly out-of-the-box. The salmon was high-quality and tasted super fresh.
Restorative chicken soup with sweet potato kale and quinoa: A very tasty and hearty soup I made and ate all week. The shredded chicken was already cooked, which surprised me but I appreciated, as it was still moist and flavorful. This entire meal was simple to prepare and felt like nourishing medicine, thanks to all those superfoods.
I was eating chicken Parm and pasta leftovers all week.
Marley Spoon support materials
I found the recipes clear, concise and easy to follow. There’s some nice background on the ingredients, too: my salmon recipe, for instance, provided context on miso for anyone unfamiliar with the fermented paste. The Marley Spoon app is also helpful with lots of information about each recipe and gives you the ability to order, pause, cancel or skip a week right from your mobile device.
All the ingredients for a healthy miso salmon with roasted veggies.
What makes Marley Spoon different from other meal kit services?
One thing to like about this service is it doesn’t try to be anything other than good. There’s no pandering to fad diets or giving users too much autonomy to change recipes or swap out meats. The meal kit service’s proposition is that the culinary team has come up with thoughtful, mostly healthy recipes they think you’ll enjoy — and they ask you to put your trust in them. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it stuffy or stubborn, but there is something very Martha Stewart about it.
In that respect, it reminds me a bit of Sunbasket. That meal kit service also tries to keep the integrity of the original recipes they’ve created and while it might not please everyone, I think it pays off in the end for those who appreciate good food.
The finished product.
Who is Marley Spoon good for?
This is one of the best meal kit services for foodies and experienced cooks looking to shake up their weeknight dinner rotation. If you’re looking for interesting new recipes that are both gourmet and approachable, Martha Stewart’s meal kits are a good pick. It’s also a solid choice for a home cook who’s looking to hone new skills or work with new ingredients.
A lot of the recipes are kid-friendly, so these meal kits would also work well for families of up to four people. And with as many as seven plant-based recipes each week, this is a good meal kit service for vegans, vegetarians or those trying to sprinkle in a few more non-meat dinners per week.
A healthy chicken soup that fed me for a few days.
Who is Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon not good for?
If you’re an extremely picky eater, a very new cook, or are trying to keep a gluten-free diet, I would not suggest this meal kit. It’s also not a good meal delivery service if you’re simply looking to get dinner on the table each week and don’t care about the cooking process, since some of the recipes are involved.
Packaging and environmental friendliness
I found Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon to be on the eco-friendly side of the meal kit spectrum. There was some single-use plastic waste, as there always is, but nothing excessive — and the ingredients were not individually packed in disposable bags as of 2025. The boxes, coolers and ice packs were also recyclable.
Changing, skipping or canceling your meal kit order
Between the website and mobile app, Marley Spoon makes it very easy to skip weeks, change out recipes or pause your subscription. Any changes must be made six days prior to the delivery date.
The final verdict on Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon
Being a Martha Stewart-conceived meal kit project, I had lofty expectations for this service and it mostly met them. When I flip through the menu each week, it boasts one of the highest percentages of recipes that make me go “ooh, that sounds good” right up there with Sunbasket. Most importantly, all the recipes we made delivered on the promise of a tasty and interesting meal. There wasn’t much blah factor, and we very much appreciate that.
The meal kit service also includes some thoughtful touches that others don’t, like quick ingredient explainers for new chefs and different chefs behind some of the recipes. The produce, meats and fish were also some of the freshest we’d received from a meal kit service and that goes a long way in creating a truly delicious dinner. The pricing is fair for what you get, and if you’re cooking for a large group, it actually gets rather affordable per serving. The market add-ons have also grown over the years.
If you’ve been wanting to try a meal kit service with a range of healthy, hearty and comforting meals and you already have the cooking basics down, I’d say give Martha’s meals a whirl.
The San Francisco startup emerges from stealth with Mayfield backing and a pitch that treats ad creative as a continuous learning loop, not a quarterly deliverable.
Every B2B marketing team knows the problem. A campaign launches, the creative is fresh, the targeting feels right, and then, slowly, it starts dying. Audiences tune out. Click rates fall.
The agency comes back for a creative refresh and the cycle begins again. Matt Jayson calls this “decaying ads,” and it is, by his account, a structural failure of how digital advertising is built: campaigns that start losing effectiveness the moment they go live, because the feedback loop between what customers actually say and what the ads actually say is too slow.
On Wednesday, the startup Multiply emerged from stealth with $9.5 million in funding to tackle that problem. The round was led by Mayfield, with participation from Sorenson Capital, Instacart co-founder Max Mullen, and Josh Woodward, Google’s VP of Labs and Gemini, the executive credited with building NotebookLM and overseeing Google’s flagship AI app.
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Executives from HubSpot, Braze, Brex, Sierra, and Common Room also joined the round.
Multiply’s pitch is that modern B2B companies are already sitting on the data they need to run far better advertising, they just aren’t using it. Sales call recordings, CRM pipelines, and closed-won deal data contain precise information about why customers actually buy.
Multiply’s system plugs directly into those sources and uses a suite of AI agents to translate them into continuously improving ad campaigns on Google Search and LinkedIn.
Hundreds of structured experiments run in parallel each week, testing messaging, audiences, and creative, with winners scaled and losers cut automatically.
The agent architecture breaks down into five components. A Customer Insights Agent extracts language from sales calls to personalise ad copy. An ICP Agent analyses closed-won deals to tighten audience targeting.
A Quality Score Agent tunes keyword alignment and copy for Google’s ranking signals. A Creative Design Agent refreshes imagery on a weekly cycle. An A/B Testing Agent runs the experiments and identifies what’s working.
Human media buyers sit above all of it, providing brand oversight and compliance review, the “hybrid” in what Multiply describes as a hybrid AI-plus-human agency model.
Jayson, who previously worked at Google in user acquisition and then at Brex as Head of Product for core experiences, describes the gap the company is trying to close: the insights that land deals, the specific objections, the competitor comparisons, the language that actually resonates, rarely make their way back into ad campaigns quickly enough.
His co-founder and CTO, Ashish Warty, spent five years as SVP of Product and Engineering at HackerOne and held senior engineering roles at Airship and Dropbox.
“Modern companies already have all the data needed to create radically better ads,” Jayson said in a statement. “Sales conversations, CRM systems, and pipeline outcomes reveal exactly why customers buy, yet those insights rarely make their way into ad campaigns fast enough.”
The timing is deliberate in another sense. Multiply’s infrastructure is, the company says, already being positioned for ChatGPT advertising, a format that OpenAI has signalled it intends to launch but has not yet released at scale.
The argument is that the same campaign learning systems built for search and social can extend into conversational and AI-driven ad formats as they emerge. That is a forward-looking claim that will depend entirely on how those platforms eventually structure their ad products.
“There is a major shift happening in the $50 billion B2B advertising market,” said Patrick Salyer, Partner at Mayfield and a Multiply board member, in a statement. “Service-as-Software is redefining how companies grow, and Multiply has built the first AI model for B2B advertising.”
The $50 billion market figure comes from Mayfield’s own framing and has not been cross-referenced against independent market data.
Multiply is, in essence, making a structural argument about where the ad agency model breaks down: not in creative execution, but in the speed of the feedback loop.
Whether a $9.5 million AI stack can fix that faster than incumbents adapt is the question its pipeline metrics are presumably meant to answer.
sciencehabit shares a report from Science.org: In The Martian, fictional astronaut Mark Watney survives the wasteland of Mars by growing potatoes in lunar soil — with a bit of help from human poop. The idea may not be so far-fetched. In a preprint posted this month on bioRxiv, researchers show potatoes can indeed grow in the equivalent of Moon dust, though they need a lot of help from compost found on Earth. To make the discovery, scientists first had to re-create lunar regolith — the loose, powdery layer that blankets the Moon’s surface. To replicate that in the lab, David Handy, a space biologist at Oregon State University (OSU), and his colleagues used a mix of crushed minerals and volcanic ash that matched the chemistry of the Moon.
But lunar regolith is entirely devoid of the organic matter that plants need to grow. “Turning an inorganic, inhospitable bucket of glorified sand into something that can support plant growth is complex,” says Anna-Lisa Paul, a plant molecular biologist at the University of Florida not involved with the work. So Handy and his colleagues added vermicompost — organic waste from worms — into the regolith. They found that a mix with 5% compost allowed the potatoes to grow while still emulating the stressful conditions of the lunar environment. After almost 2 months of growth, the team harvested the tubers, freeze-dried them, and ground them up for further testing.
Analysis of the potatoes’ DNA showed stress-related genes had been activated. The potatoes also had higher concentrations of copper and zinc than Earth-grown ones, which may make them dangerous for human consumption. The plants’ nutritional value, though, was similar to traditional potatoes — a surprise to the scientists, who expected lower levels of nutrition “because the plants might have been working overtime to overcome certain stressors,” Handy says.
Dell is doubling down on AI-powered computing with a new lineup of Pro Precision workstations designed to bring serious AI performance directly to desks.
At the centre of the announcement is a refreshed Dell Pro Precision range. It includes both tower and mobile workstations built specifically for AI-heavy workloads like model training, simulations, and creative production.
The idea is straightforward: instead of relying on cloud infrastructure, Dell wants AI development to happen locally. This way, teams can experiment faster and keep control over their data.
The new Pro Precision 9 tower series, available in T2, T4, and T6 configurations, is aimed at high-end users who need sustained performance. The top-end T6 model pushes things furthest, with support for up to Intel Xeon processors (up to 86 cores), multiple NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell GPUs, and as many as 15 PCIe slots. Dell says it’s its most scalable workstation yet, built to handle long-running AI workloads without slowing down.
Moreover, that same focus is now extending to laptops. Dell’s updated Pro Precision 5 and 7 Series mobile workstations bring AI-ready performance into more portable designs, powered by the latest Intel and AMD chips with improved NPUs.
These systems are designed for on-device AI tasks, including local inferencing, without needing constant cloud access. Optional RTX PRO GPUs, faster memory, and Gen 5 storage round out the package.
Dell isn’t stopping at traditional workstations, either. It’s also introducing Pro Max systems with NVIDIA’s GB10 and GB300 platforms, which aim to bring data centre-level AI capabilities to a desk setup. The GB300 model, in particular, is built around NVIDIA’s Grace Blackwell architecture and is designed to run large AI models locally, reducing latency and ongoing cloud costs.
All of this ties into what Dell calls its AI Factory with NVIDIA — a broader ecosystem that connects local development to large-scale deployment, whether on-premises or in the cloud. The goal is to let teams move from prototype to production without needing to rebuild workflows.
In practice, this is less about flashy features and more about shifting how AI work gets done. By pushing more compute power into desktops and laptops, Dell is betting that faster iteration, lower costs, and better data control will matter just as much as raw performance.
Tech
Pete Hegseth: We Can’t Wait For Larry Ellison To Turn CNN Into Another Right Wing Propaganda Mill
from the we-are-incapable-of-subtlety dept
We’ve noted repeatedly how the U.S. authoritarian right is buying up all of our new and old media companies because they’re trying to mimic what Viktor Orban created in Hungary. Namely, a media where all the major outlets are owned by rich autocratic allies, who spew propaganda 24/7 while the government strangles real, independent journalism just out of frame.
Of course, you’re supposed to try and have some subtlety in this so the public isn’t fully aware of the con. But the Trump administration doesn’t do subtlety.
Last week Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth apparently got upset by the fact Trump’s war in Iran isn’t going very well. Poor Donald clearly didn’t understand the evolving nature of modern and inexpensive drone warfare (despite all the brutal evidence in Ukraine), and has gotten the country bogged down in precisely the sort of clusterfuck the fake populist pretended he opposed last election season.
Even our soggy corporate press has occasionally been making this clear to the public, something that upsets Pete Hegseth very much. Hegseth apparently got particularly upset with CNN recently insisting that the Iran War had “intensified.” It made him so upset that he openly pined for the moment when Larry Ellison (and his nepobaby son) control CNN, so they can cheerlead for war:
One of the funniest parts about this is that claims the war had “intensified” was made by his own agency in a press release!
It’s very clear that the U.S. right wing won’t be satisfied until the entirety of U.S. media is owned by a handful of rich right wingers like Larry Ellison and Elon Musk, allowing them to create a North Korea bullhorn of daily, uniform propaganda that does nothing but lavish praise upon them. To build something like that here in the States requires a level of subtlety they’re simply not capable of:
Democrats historically suck on media policy and reform (even the progressive wing of the party is fairly incompetent on the subject), so you can’t expect much help there.
But there are several things working in our favor, including America’s sheer size (it’s very difficult to maintain the kind of control they’re looking for), our diversity, the decentralized nature of the modern internet, and the fact that most of the nepobabies (David Ellison) and brunchlords (Bari Weiss) integral to their plans appear to have absolutely no Earthly idea what they’re actually doing.
For example, all the debt Ellison has adopted from the purchase of CBS and Warner Brothers is going to force them to engage in massive, unprecedented cost cuttings and layoffs, making it hard to maintain informational control and build an effective, ratings-grabbing propaganda operation (even if Bari Weiss knew what she was doing, which she assuredly does not).
And the public still has agency. Larry Ellison can buy TikTok and Elon Musk can buy Twitter, but they can’t control the flow of the public as they flee to other, less white supremacist, right wing friendly alternatives. It’s sheer hubris to think they can maintain information control in a country this massive and diverse, and there will be some useful entertainment value in watching them set money on fire trying.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, agitprop, consolidation, free speech, iran war, journalism, larry ellison, media, pete hegseth, propaganda
Companies: cbs, cnn, paramount
The Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold is already on its way out. A new report suggests that the company is killing sales for the triple foldable phone just three months after its debut, putting an end to its $2,899 experimental showcase.
But while the Galaxy Z TriFold sales are being halted, it’s apparently not the end of the road for such an ambitious smartphone.
What’s left to unfold?
Amid the TriFold’s reported phase-out, fresh rumors hint that Samsung doesn’t plan on abandoning the concept entirely. It would appear that the brand is doubling down with a better successor, which is slimmer and more refined than the original Z TriFold.
Samsung took feedback on the first-generation TriFold, and the thickness seems to be one of its biggest drawbacks. Early tri-folding designs being bulky isn’t a surprise, considering their multi-hinge structure. But Samsung could make the next version even thinner, and refine the overall form factor to make it more practical for everyday use.
Why thickness matters for tri-fold devices
One of the biggest challenges of any foldable phone is its overall width when folded, which is especially true for a triple-folding design. The multiple folding sections can make the device a lot thicker than standard foldables when folded, which can affect everything from portability to in-hand comfort.
In comparison, the notebook-style and clamshell folding flip phones are more mature in their designs. Even the first-gen Galaxy Fold had its fair share of issues, which were ironed out with each passing generation. So Samsung seems to be making a quicker move to improve the TriFold concept before pushing it further.
The chair starts at $8,995, but that doesn’t include the side table or ottoman. Add those and it costs $10,995. The model pictured above uses Alpaca wool fabric and brings the cost up to $14,995. (There are more than 300 fabrics and colors to choose from, and the swiveling table comes in various woodgrains.) The Herman Miller Eames, of which the Diffrient Lounge also takes inspiration, costs roughly $8,500 today, depending on which leather you choose.
“The Eames is obviously an iconic design—it’s timeless, it’s beautiful—but it’s not something you can work comfortably in for a long time,” Silva says.
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Don’t let the Lounge in the name fool you. Silva assures me that every chair the company designs is built with ergonomic comfort in mind, with the adjustable work surface and headrest allowing for different postures. While traditional lounge chairs focus on style, Silva says the Lounge prioritizes comfort. In my brief time on the chair, it indeed felt enveloping and cushy yet supportive. And the mechanical levers made it easy to shift the chair into a more active sitting position or a more relaxing posture, without disrupting the ergonomics with a laptop on the table.
Diffrient had been tinkering with the idea of a lounge chair that could double as a workstation for a long time, Silva says, and believed that technology allowed people to work in different ways.
“The chair acknowledges the fact that creativity and productivity don’t necessarily happen when you’re tied to your desk,” he says. “They happen in different postures; more relaxed or moving around the office, and this chair supports those transitions.”
King recites a famous quote from Diffrient: “The best chair is a bed.” When you sit upright, your weight compresses your spine, but when you lean back, a large portion of that weight goes into the backrest, so when you’re lying down, there’s significantly less pressure on your spine. “Reclining is really healthy,” King says. “He always thought it would be a good way to work.”
Luxe Seat
How does a chair come to cost $15,000? Silva highlights Humanscale’s long-standing approach to simplicity. After all, it’s a hallmark of the original Freedom chair. While the Diffrient Lounge may not look very complex, that’s by design, cleverly masking the engineered mechanical system with clean lines and curves. There’s even some automation in the headrest. If you’re fully reclined and the headrest is in a forward position to support your head, as you come back up, the headrest will automatically go into a neutral position.
Other Folding Phones to Consider
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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 for $1,056: Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip7 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is a close second to Motorola’s Razr Ultra. I liked the camera quality from Motorola’s latest flip more than Samsung’s, a big win for the Razr, but the Flip7 captures nice photos and offers better video quality, if that’s your thing. Samsung’s latest Flip has a larger front screen, though you still have to jump through a few hoops to make it useful. For example, you need to install an app called Multistar to add any app of your choosing to the cover screen. The phone also has a lackluster battery life, struggling to last a full day; the Razr Ultra still only lasts a day, but I didn’t feel like I had to plug in as much. And it also gets a little too warm for my tastes when it’s under load. It’s a good flip phone, but I prefer Motorola’s 2025 flagship.
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Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold for $1,250: The only reason to consider the Pixel 9 Pro Fold right now is if you see it on sale. Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the newer, better handset. The 9 Pro Fold isn’t as slim or as lightweight as the Galaxy Z Fold7, but it’s still a svelte device with a large front screen that feels like a normal phone. The 8-inch inner screen is excellent, and the triple-camera system delivers great results, though not as great as the Pixel 9 Pro series. Read our Best Pixel Phones guide for more.
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Motorola Razr+ (2025) for $700: There is technically a third phone in Motorola’s latest Razr lineup: the Razr+ 2025. However, it’s nearly identical to the Razr+ 2024, with fresh colors and the improved IP48 rating and titanium-reinforced hinge. It sits in an awkward middle ground, though. It’s not as affordable as the standard Razr, which offers a pretty nice experience for the money. But it’s also not as flagship as the Razr Ultra. It is also the only one of the lineup without the ultrawide camera. I usually love telephoto zoom lenses, but ultrawides are so handy on flip phones for group selfies. If you’re considering this model, it’s also worth considering the Razr+ from 2024, as you’ll see some nice discounts on it throughout the year; it just lacks the reinforced hinge and IP48 rating.
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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 for $899: Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip6 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) from 2024 might be a better buy than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip7 FE—the new “budget” folding flip phone the company introduced alongside the flagship Flip7 and Fold7. That’s because the Flip7 FE is a reskinned Flip6 with a Samsung Exynos processor instead of a Qualcomm chip. We haven’t tested the FE yet, but you can probably find a decent deal on the Flip6 that might make it a better value than the Flip7 FE. Performance could even be a smidge better.
Xiaomi Mix Flip for $899: Xiaomi’s first flip phone has a lovely design with excellent displays inside and out, long battery life with fast charging, and flagship-level performance, which makes a nice change, as flip phones often have middling specs. It also boasts a solid dual-lens camera, opting for telephoto instead of ultrawide alongside the capable main shooter, which is more useful for most folks. The software lets the party down a little; there’s no IP rating, and it is pricey, but I had fun with this flip phone. —Simon Hill
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When I searched online to see if it’s possible to pop popcorn in an air fryer, I ran into a dead end. Some websites say that you can and even encourage air-fried popcorn, while others caution against it. Unable to find a clear answer, I felt it was my duty as a devoted popcorn lover to go straight to the source for us all, which is why I reached out to an actual air fryer manufacturer and professional chefs to get a final answer.
Experts weigh in on air fryer popcorn
I reached out to Ninja, makers of the Ninja Crispi, CNET’s pick for the best air fryer overall. While the air fryer is a versatile appliance that can even roast a whole chicken, it can’t pop popcorn — yet.
Well, technically it can, but that doesn’t mean it should.
“At Ninja, we’re always testing the boundaries of what our technology can do, and popcorn in an air fryer is something our culinary and product development teams have explored. However, we advise against trying to make popcorn in an air fryer,” a Ninja Kitchen representative tells CNET. “Air fryers circulate heat differently than traditional popcorn makers, which means kernels don’t reach the sustained heat needed in the required time.”
Because popcorn is lightweight, Sharniquia White, chef and registered dietitian, explains that if you try to make it in an air fryer, it can fly up into the device’s heating element, get stuck near the fan, burn from uneven airflow and leave you with a frustrating amount of unpopped kernels. All cons, no pros.
Given the safety hazards and unsatisfying results, you’ll want to avoid using an air fryer for popcorn. At least until the technology catches up.
While air fryers such as the Ninja Crispi Pro can roast an entire chicken, they can’t pop popcorn just yet.
The best way to make popcorn, according to pro chefs
Since the air fryer is out for popcorn, I asked my chef sources for their recommendations on making the best popcorn.
White says that the stovetop wins every time if you want a fluffy texture, rich flavor and full expansion of your kernels. She provides these handy instructions for getting the best results:
- Heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a large, heavy-bottom pot over medium heat.
- Add 2-3 kernels to test if the oil is hot enough. When they pop, add ½ cup kernels.
- Cover and gently shake the pot occasionally.
- Remove from heat when popping slows.
- You control the oil, the salt and the outcome.
However, if you make popcorn all the time, plant-based chef Shauna McQueen, MS, RD, founder of Food School, recommends purchasing a low-cost pan with a lid you can crank to move the popcorn kernels around.
“The other option is automatic and will self-stir the kernels,” McQueen adds. “I’ve used both and have had to replace both within a few years of use, but find the automatic one most convenient.”
As for the healthiest way to make popcorn…
“If you’re reaching for the air fryer because you want to use less oil, you’re thinking in the right direction,” White says. “However, an inexpensive air popper or a measured stovetop method is more reliable and safer. Popcorn is already a whole-grain, fiber-rich snack. The goal isn’t to eliminate oil entirely; it’s to be intentional about how much you use and what you add.”
Whether you pop it on the stove or buy a device that air-pops your popcorn, it’s best to avoid microwave popcorn. According to McQueen, it may contain additives like TBHQ, which is used to extend the shelf life of processed foods. While the FDA considers it safe in appropriate amounts, it has been linked to potential health issues.
If you want less oil on your popcorn, consider investing in an air popper or being more intentional about the toppings you use.
The healthiest popcorn toppings
If extra flavor is what you’re after, McQueen suggests the following anti-inflammatory toppings: curry powder, cayenne, garlic powder or chili powder. For a cheesy flavor plus B-vitamins, opt for nutritional yeast. Her favorites include a curry-style popcorn made with curry powder, garlic powder and a small amount of nutritional yeast; chili powder with lime and za’atar; or everything bagel seasoning.
As for White, she likes adding smoked paprika, cinnamon with a pinch of salt, fresh lime zest and sea salt or dried dill, “for an unexpected herb twist.”
The bottom line
Though it’s tempting, you shouldn’t make popcorn in your air fryer. Instead, use what you already have on hand and prepare it on the stovetop.
If you can’t get enough of the stuff and make it all the time, consider these options that are under $50: a stovetop popcorn maker or an oil-free air popper.
Either way, to keep your popcorn as healthy as possible, go light on the oil, butter and salt. Personally, I’ll be topping mine with chili powder, lime and za’atar next time my popcorn craving strikes, which will likely be in a few minutes after writing this tasty piece.
Most cars on the road today use an inline engine. You’ll find them in everything from economy hatchbacks to performance models. In fact, the inline six engine has been making a comeback in recent years, with several manufacturers ditching V6 layouts in its favor.
In inline engines, all cylinders sit in a single row, one behind the other. That’s different from the other V engines, where cylinders are arranged in two separate angled banks. The debate between inline engines and V engines is as old as time, but what doesn’t get enough attention is the inline versus flat engines debate. It’s an interesting one, because both sit at completely opposite ends of the engine design spectrum, and yet, both claim to deliver a smoother ride than the V.
What are flat engines, actually? In flat engines, the cylinders are laid out horizontally, with each pair facing the other on opposite sides of the crankshaft. When one piston fires outward, the one across from it fires at the same time in the opposite direction — kind of like how two boxers throw punches at each other. In fact, that’s where their alternate name, boxer engine, comes from, and it’s a different mechanism from inline engines where all pistons move straight up and down in a single row and take turns firing. Whether it’s actually better than traditional inlines is a different argument altogether, and it doesn’t exactly have a definitive answer.
How do they compare?
Before we get started, there’s a subtle important distinction worth knowing. While people use flat and boxer interchangeably, they’re technically not the same. While every boxer engine is a flat engine, not every flat engine is a boxer — and it’s all to do with differences in the crankshaft. In a true boxer, each piston gets its own individual crankpin, so opposing pistons mirror each other’s movements perfectly. Meanwhile, in a non-boxer flat engine, opposing pistons share a single crankpin.
The main advantage offered by a boxer engine is balance. Because the horizontally opposed pistons constantly counteract each other, vibration basically cancels itself out. Horizontally sitting cylinders also mean the engine has a flatter profile, which is also why they’re called flat engines, and that profile allows the engine to sit lower in the car. As a result, the car’s center of gravity drops, giving the driver noticeably better handling and stability around corners. There’s a safety angle too; in a frontal collision, the low mounting position lets the engine slide underneath the cabin. In inlines, it can get pushed into the cabin.
Non-boxer flat engines aren’t being produced anymore, so every flat engine you’ll find in a new car today is, in fact, a boxer. Even so, they aren’t exactly the most popular engine design when compared to an inline. In fact, Subaru and Porsche are the only two major manufacturers that still use them today.
The practicality angle
Inline engines win on practicality, though. Their single-row cylinder arrangement doesn’t need the extra components a boxer engine requires, like two separate cylinder heads and two valve trains. This translates to less complexity and, in turn, lower manufacturing costs. They also tend to produce stronger torque, thanks to the longer stroke.
Boxers also lose out on accessibility. Working on them can be a pain because the cylinder heads sit right up against the sides of the engine bay. As a result, repairs tend to run costlier. Even something as simple as swapping spark plugs can turn into a whole project. Moreover, the wider profile of any flat engine can also limit where it fits in a vehicle’s architecture. Inline engines don’t have that problem. They’re slimmer, more straightforward to service, and their parts are generally cheaper to replace.
Of course, boxer engines are known for their reliability too, so you won’t need to get under the hood very often. If driving feel is what matters most to you, the low centre of gravity and natural balance of a boxer are hard to match, and it’s a big part of why Porsche has stuck with the flat-six engine for so long. So there isn’t really a definitive winner here. It just depends on what matters to you most. That could either be the driving dynamics or the long-term cost of ownership.
If you have launched a AAA game on your PC recently, you know how long it can take to start. You are often left staring at the “Compiling Shaders” screen without knowing what is happening.
In the most basic terms, shaders are specialized programs running on the GPU that determine how objects appear on the screen. Because PC hardware configurations vary widely, developers leave shaders uncompiled, meaning they are compiled on the fly when you launch a game, hence the wait.
Intel’s latest Arc graphics driver update is here to fix that, and it’s part of a much bigger effort from Microsoft to solve one of PC gaming’s most annoying problems.
What exactly is Intel doing here?
The new driver introduces Intel’s Graphics Shader Distribution Service, which delivers pre-compiled shaders directly to your PC rather than making your GPU compile them on the spot.
If you have played on a gaming console, you know that you never face compilation wait time. It’s because developers have to target only a few devices, and they can optimize the code for those devices. Microsoft is trying to do the same for PC gaming.
Microsoft has achieved this by launching an API that lets apps identify themselves directly to D3D12 (Microsoft’s graphics API) and the graphics drivers in a standardized way. This way, Microsoft can deliver pre-compiled shaders for games across various display adapters and hardware manufacturers.
The result? First load times that are up to 2x faster on Intel Arc B-series GPUs, as well as Core Ultra Series 2 and 3 processors with built-in Arc graphics. The update includes pre-compiled shader support for big titles, including Cyberpunk 2077, Black Myth: Wukong, God of War Ragnarok, Hogwarts Legacy, Starfield, and Oblivion Remastered, among others.
Why does it matter for you?
As more and more developers start supporting this new Graphics Shader Distribution Service, it will greatly reduce the game launch time. Microsoft demonstrated this earlier on the ROG Xbox Ally, cutting load times in games like Avowed by up to 85%.
You will also experience fewer stutters during games when a cut scene appears, or you move between different parts of the maps. So, update your drivers and enjoy playing games instead of watching them prepare to be played.
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