Microsoft announced it will deprecate the Windows Deployment Services (WDS) server role starting with the next Windows Server release.

WDS is a revised version of Remote Installation Services (RIS) that lets IT administrators remotely install Windows operating systems on fleets of dozens or hundreds of computers over a network.

After deprecating WDS in the next Windows Server version, Microsoft will stop active development and plans to retire and remove it completely.

The company partially deprecated WDS, removing boot.wim support in 2021 and hands-free deployment in January 2026 (this is now disabled by default for all customers who installed the April 2026 Windows updates or any subsequent ones).

After those changes, it stopped officially supporting the deployment of standard desktop operating systems using its native setup engine starting with Windows 11, and Microsoft restricted WDS to deploying Windows Server or booting custom deployment environments.

“This includes the inbox WDS role, WDS services, management tools and interfaces, and WDS-provided Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) boot functionality,” Microsoft said.

“Deprecated products are supported until they are eventually removed from a future OS version,” it added in an early notice published earlier this week.

“While deprecated, WDS will continue to work on all currently supported Windows Server versions according to their published servicing lifecycles. This announcement does not change WDS availability or support on those releases.”

However, Microsoft noted that the inbox WDS server role and associated WDS functionality remain available on all currently supported Windows Server releases (Windows Server 2025 and earlier), and that non-Microsoft deployment products and independent PXE implementations that don’t depend on WDS are not affected.

“Microsoft Configuration Manager operating system deployment is not being affected,” it said. “However, begin migrating Configuration Manager environments that still use WDS-backed PXE or WDS-dependent multicast away from those WDS dependencies.”

Microsoft advised customers to begin planning their migration to alternatives like Microsoft Configuration Manager, which provides a more flexible experience for deploying Windows images.

Join Mikko Hyppönen and security leaders from the NFL, CHANEL, and Atlassian for a two-hour digital summit on what AI-speed attacks change, what defenders should stop doing, and how to validate, decide, fix, and re-validate at machine speed.

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Retailer. Delivery: Variety packs or single-varietal packs arrive once every four weeks.

Best Coffee Subscription for Rare Beans: Bean & Bean

Courtesy of Bean and Bean

Bean & Bean

Coffee Subscription

Bean & Bean sources some of the rarest and most precious coffee beans on the planet, and roasts them to delicate fruition. There are only about 400 certified Q Graders in the United States—basically, the master sommeliers of coffee. Two of them are the mother-daughter team of Rachel and Jiyoon Han at New York’s Bean & Bean. Together, they roast some of the world’s most exquisite beans, like Geshas from Taiwan and honey-milled Cup of Excellence winners from El Salvador.

You can shop these bags individually. But the more fun option is to let the Hans surprise you with their favorite ridiculously rare light roast of the moment. It’s a more expensive subscription than some, and bag size may vary depending on the expense of each rare bean. But you have probably never tried coffee like the bag that will arrive at your stoop.

Roaster. Delivery: Depending on subscription type, anywhere from weekly to monthly. Priced per bag or selection.

More Coffee Subscriptions WIRED Recommends

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

There are so many coffee subscriptions out there, and honestly, a lot of them offer very good coffee—some are even amazing. This list would need to be at least three times as long to capture every one of them. I have way more subscriptions I’ve loved than I have space to talk about them, so here I’ve gathered some past picks that we here at WIRED like. Have a favorite we haven’t tried? Drop a recommendation in the comments.

Multi-Roaster Coffee Subscriptions

Angels’ Cup: Angels’ Cup is more like a distance-learning coffee school than a box subscription service, and the Black Box subscription is like a blind coffee tasting from afar. You will learn what you actually like and dislike about coffee, along with some education through the app, roaster’s notes, and notes from fellow tasters.

Mistobox: With more than 500 different coffees from 60-plus roasters, Mistobox makes a good gift subscription, especially if you don’t know what kind of coffee to get someone. Somewhere in those 500 choices, your coffee fanatic should find something that will make them happy. One of the most compelling and surprising offerings: Misto lets you choose the most you’re willing to pay per shipment, and your offerings will change accordingly. Delivery frequency can also be customized down to the day. We’re due for a re-test after Mistobox retooled its website.

Single-Roaster Coffee Subscriptions

Courtesy of Sightglass

Sightglass Coffee: San Francisco’s Sightglass Coffee is headquartered right in the middle of the city’s South of Market neighborhood, which is SF’s tech hub (and also home to WIRED). Just think of all the Github commits, UX prototypes, and vibe coding chatbot prompts that have been fueled by this roaster’s beans. The subscription service is flexible, so you can pick to have the same bag sent every time, or you can have them curate the selection so you get something different. My personal recommendation is the single-origin Seasonal Variety Subscription. You’ll get a bag of beans from different producers every month. The sourcing is all over the map: Colombia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kenya, Mexico. I tried one 12-ounce bag per week for two months, and everything was just outstanding, with unique and distinct flavors from each of the producers. —Michael Calore

Two third-party GitHub Actions previously compromised in a Mini Shai-Hulud campaign were re-enabled by their maintainer and remained accessible for more than a week despite still pointing to malicious code.

After being compromised on May 18, the GitHub security team removed actions-cool/issues-helper and actions-cool/maintain-one-comment, preventing any downstream workflow from downloading malware.

According to researchers at application security company Socket, starting September 16 and up to September 25, the two actions became active again with the same release tags, causing workflows referencing their actions to download and execute the old payload.

The Mini Shai-Hulud supply-chain attack in May affected 323 packages and 639 package versions on the Node Package Manager (npm) index, infecting them with malware that targets developers’ tokens, credentials, and CI/CD secrets.

Socket researchers found that last Wednesday the release tags for actions-cool/issues-helper and actions-cool/maintain-one-comment resolved to a commit containing the obfuscated payload inside the ‘index.js’ file.

“On September 16, 2026, both repositories became accessible again. Their release tags were not cleaned up first,” Socket explained.

“They still point to the malicious content introduced on May 18, so any workflow that references either action by a version tag resumed downloading and executing the payload on its next run.”

It is unclear exactly why these repositories were re-enabled without proper cleaning occurring first.

Socket says that GitHub’s dependency graph lists about 15,000 repositories depending on ‘issues-helper,’ though this does not mean all of them were compromised.

The researchers note that they have not yet established how many dependents reference either action by mutable tag instead of a pinned commit.

However, they explained that the impacted actions are those running almost daily, as they support issue-housekeeping needs.

On September 25, Socket found that both actions were disabled again on GitHub, leading workflows that reference them to fail instead of running the payload.

Socket recommends finding references to both actions, removing them or pinning a verified clean commit, reviewing runs since September 16, and rotating secrets accessible to workflows that ran an affected tag.

Potentially impacted developers should look for references to both actions and remove them or pin a verified clean commit.

The exposure started on September 16 between 11:09 and 18:16 GMT+2.

Join Mikko Hyppönen and security leaders from the NFL, CHANEL, and Atlassian for a two-hour digital summit on what AI-speed attacks change, what defenders should stop doing, and how to validate, decide, fix, and re-validate at machine speed.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has insisted investors think of his electric automaker as a robotics and autonomous vehicle company now. He’s targeted a $20 trillion valuation—nearly four times the value of market leader Nvidia—on that premise. But his Tesla team was in Sparks, Nevada, on Thursday to focus on, well, an electric vehicle: the long-awaited Tesla Semi.

The Semi concept first rolled onto a Tesla event stage in late 2017. Nearly a decade later, Tesla officially launched high-volume production at a livestreamed but invite-only event at the company’s factory. It targeted a niche audience: the cost-conscious people who manage large trucking fleets. A handful of them, all men, trooped across the stage to be thanked for their orders to a pulsing techno beat.

“It’s going to be, really, a driver’s truck. It’s like a sports car in truck form.” Musk said in a pre-taped video played during the evening event. (Musk, for years the ringmaster at Tesla’s circus-like events, skipped his second vehicle debut in a row; he was attending a White House China State Dinner featuring President Xi Jinping.)

The long-range version of the Semi will travel an estimated 500 miles per charge, Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of Vehicle Engineering, confirmed at the event—around the average number of miles traveled by US long-haul truckers each day. The standard version will get an estimated 325 miles per charge. Competitor EVs advertise ranges of 155 to 430 miles.

Electric Dreams

The Tesla Semi has its work cut out for it.

While electrics account for nearly 30 percent of heavy-duty truck sales in China, according to state media, they’ve had a slow start in the US, as manufacturers struggle to make the vehicles competitive with their traditional diesel-burning counterparts. Electric semis can cost two to three times more upfront. Right now, they’re not easy to charge because they require a countrywide network of specialized megawatt chargers that can fill large batteries in hours. Tesla’s website shows two such public chargers operating in the LA area. However, Dan Priestley, who leads Tesla’s Semi program, says the company plans to open 30 by the end of the year.

Plus, the Trump administration and the GOP—the same group Musk spent millions to get into the White House—cut billions in federal support for electric vehicles last year. The administration is also working to lower fuel economy standards for truck engines, which would have required manufacturers to hit aggressive climate goals. Heavy trucks alone account for some 7 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions.

And yet, it’s not a bad time to be an EV-maker. US diesel prices hit record highs this month as the Iran War continues to disrupt oil production and shipping in the Middle East; prices are up nearly double from this time last year. The truck “is going to make a ton of sense economically because the cost of electricity is much less than the cost of diesel, especially in these crazy times,” Musk said in his pre-taped address, nodding to the conflict launched by the administration he once worked for.

This week, an alliance of shippers including Microsoft and PepsiCo placed a record-setting order for 2,500 Tesla Semis, to be delivered starting this year and through the next 18 months. If those trucks reach customers, they would nearly double the number of heavy-duty electric trucks on US roads today.

The group selected Tesla trucks over competitors’ after “assessing price, performance, production capability, and service support,” Meena Bibra, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Smart Freight Centre, which was involved in the deal, told WIRED. If the carriers are accustomed to another truckmaker’s vehicles, or if other electric trucks better meet their needs, they may also choose to purchase electric trucks from Kenworth, Ride, and Volvo.

Pooling demand among many carriers allowed the electric automakers to bring down the prices of the new trucks, the group said.

Full Self-Driving (Supervised), Tesla’s driver assistance feature, will not yet be available on the Semi, though Musk said in his address that it would debut in “the very near future.” The feature’s predecessor technology, Enhanced Autopilot, was promised during the initial 2017 rollout.

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee spent decades being treated as a single musical unit, which makes these two upcoming Bluesville reissues more interesting than another pair of titles pulled from the Prestige vaults.

Recorded just one week apart at Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs studio in October 1960, Brownie’s Blues and Sonny’s Story shifted the spotlight onto each musician individually. McGhee leads the former, with Terry appearing on harmonica, while Sonny’s Story puts Terry firmly out front with Sticks McGhee on guitar, J.C. Burris on harmonica, and Belton Evans on drums. The sessions offer a different perspective on two musicians whose names became almost inseparable during their long partnership.

Craft Recordings and Bluesville Records will return both albums to vinyl on November 20, 2026, with mastering from the original analog tapes by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab. The 180-gram LPs are being produced in partnership with Acoustic Sounds, pressed at Quality Record Pressings, and packaged in reproduction tip-on jackets with new obi notes from GRAMMY-winning producer and writer Scott Billington.

That combination has become familiar to anyone following the revived Bluesville series. Craft and Acoustic Sounds have been digging through the Prestige, Bluesville, Riverside, Vanguard and related catalogs with an emphasis on original tapes, heavyweight QRP pressings and substantially better packaging than these recordings have received during many previous trips back to vinyl.

Sonny’s Story and Brownie’s Blues will also be available in hi-res and standard digital formats on November 20.

Related Reading:

Sonny Terry Steps Out Front on Sonny’s Story

Sonny Terry’s harmonica was never merely accompaniment. His whoops, train whistles, animal cries, and sharply rhythmic playing became one of the most recognizable sounds in Piedmont blues. Born in Georgia in 1911, Terry lost his sight following childhood accidents and turned increasingly to music as a means of supporting himself. By the 1930s, he was performing alongside Blind Boy Fuller in North Carolina, and his appearance at John Hammond’s celebrated 1938 From Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall helped introduce him to a much larger audience.

Terry’s partnership with Brownie McGhee would eventually span decades and make the pair one of the most familiar blues duos of the 20th century. But Sonny’s Story gives Terry considerably more room to stretch out on his own. Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder at his Englewood Cliffs studio on October 13, 1960, and released on Prestige’s Bluesville imprint in 1961, the album features Terry on vocals and harmonica alongside Sticks McGhee on guitar, Belton Evans on drums, and J.C. Burris on harmonica.

The ten-song album consists entirely of Terry compositions and makes a strong case for viewing him as far more than one half of a famous duo. “High Powered Woman” and “My Baby Done Gone” showcase the infectious rhythmic attack that made his harmonica playing so distinctive, while “Telephone Blues” and “I Ain’t Gonna Be Your Dog No More” reveal a more emotionally direct side of his singing and songwriting. The twin-harmonica interplay with Burris is another highlight and gives portions of the record a character quite different from Terry’s recordings with Brownie McGhee.

Terry’s career ultimately extended well beyond the blues circuit. He appeared in the original Broadway production of Finian’s Rainbow, worked in film, and received a 1982 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts alongside McGhee. But Sonny’s Story captures something particularly useful for anyone who knows him primarily through that partnership: Sonny Terry without Brownie McGhee standing beside him, and with nowhere for his considerable personality to hide.

Brownie McGhee Stretches Beyond Piedmont Blues on Brownie’s Blues

Brownie McGhee was one of the defining guitarists of Piedmont blues, but reducing him to that description misses a substantial part of what made him such an interesting musician. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1915, McGhee grew up in a musical family and developed a fingerpicking style built around syncopated melodies and a thumb-driven bass line. By 1940, he had landed his first recording session through Okeh Records and soon began working with Sonny Terry following the death of Terry’s previous partner, Blind Boy Fuller.

The partnership with Terry would define much of McGhee’s career, but Brownie’s Blues gives the guitarist considerably more room to demonstrate just how broad his musical vocabulary had become. Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder at his Englewood Cliffs studio on October 6, 1960, and released by Bluesville in 1962, the album features McGhee on vocals and guitar, Terry on harmonica, and Bennie Foster on second guitar.

There is plenty of Piedmont blues in the mix, but McGhee also pushes into jump blues and more jazz-inflected territory. “Jump, Little Children,” “Lonesome Day,” and “The Killin’ Floor” have considerably more rhythmic drive, while his interpretations of “Trouble in Mind” and “Every Day I Have the Blues” give him room to show off the sophisticated single-note playing that often gets overlooked when his name is automatically paired with Terry’s.

That broader range is really the point of Brownie’s Blues. McGhee sounds relaxed, confident, and far less constrained by the expectations of the duo format, with Foster and Terry filling out the arrangements without crowding him. Van Gelder’s recording also keeps the focus where it belongs: on McGhee’s guitar work and warm, conversational vocals.

McGhee was hardly confined to the blues circuit either. He performed on Broadway in Finian’s Rainbow, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Langston Hughes’ Simply Heavenly, worked extensively in film and television, and continued touring and recording for decades. In 1982, he and Terry were among the inaugural recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowships, cementing their place well beyond the folk revival that had helped introduce them to another generation of listeners.

Where to buy:

Both albums are available for pre-order now, and will be released on November 20, 2026.

Related Reading:

After months of speculation and plenty of rumours, Apple has finally unveiled its long-awaited foldable, the iPhone Duo. But how does it compare to the flagship iPhone 18 Pro?

While we’re yet to review either the iPhone Duo or iPhone 18 Pro, we’ve compared its specs to decipher what’s different and what’s the same with the Apple flagships. 

Read on to learn more about the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro, and decide whether you think either will join our best smartphone guide.

For more from Apple’s launch event, visit our iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 18 Pro Max and iPhone Duo vs Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold comparisons. 

Specs Comparison Table

	iPhone Duo	iPhone 18 Pro
Battery	Typical use up to 24 hours	Typical use up to 34 hours
Chipset	A20 Pro	A20 Pro
Rear Cameras	48MP + 48MP	48MP + 48MP + 48MP
Manufacturer	Apple	Apple
Operating System	iOS 27	iOS 27
RRP	£/$1999.99	£/$1199.99
Outer screen	5.4-inch	6.3-inch
Inner screen	7.6-inch	N/A

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Price and Availability

Although it has been unveiled, the iPhone Duo is not currently available to buy or pre-order. Apple’s first foldable will instead be available for pre-order from October 16 ahead of its official launch from October 23. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s the most expensive iPhone in Apple’s range, with a starting price of an eye-watering £1999/$1999 for the 256GB handset. This can rise up to a massive £3199/$3199 for its 2TB iteration. 

Alongside the Pro Max, the iPhone 18 Pro is available to buy now and has a starting price of £1199/$1199 for the 256GB handset. Much like the iPhone Duo, the iPhone 18 Pro also comes as a 2TB handset which will set you back £2399/$2399.

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iPhone Duo is a foldable phone with two screens

The biggest and most obvious difference between the two iPhones is with their respective form factors. While the iPhone 18 Pro is a traditional candybar phone, the iPhone Duo is a book-style foldable that has two displays – one outer panel that opens to reveal a much larger internal display.

The iPhone Duo’s outer display is a compact 5.4-inch Super Retina XDR panel, that’s equipped with ProMotion, has always-on technology and sports Apple’s redesigned Dynamic Island too. In addition, although it’s considerably smaller than the iPhone 18 Pro’s 6.3-inch screen, Apple states that the iPhone Duo’s outer display covers more than 90% of the screen area of the iPhone 18 Pro too. 

Even so, the iPhone 18 Pro is still equipped with plenty of the same premium screen technologies seen within the iPhone Duo, including ProMotion, always-on and a Dynamic Island too. What it doesn’t have, however, is an additional internal screen.

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The iPhone Duo’s internal screen measures 7.6-inches and is designed to make streaming video content, gaming and productivity tasks easier. It also shares the same aspect ratio as the outer panel, which Apple promises will enable a smoother experience when switching between the two screens. 

Plus, with iOS 27, the software is tailored to best suit the foldable’s design, with controls automatically moving to the side for a more intuitive experience too. If you’ve ever used even one of the best foldable phones, you’ll know the experience isn’t always fluid. 

Finally, Apple states that the Apple Pencil with USB-C will also work on both panels too.

Both run on Apple’s A20 Pro chip

Naturally as Apple’s flagship smartphones, both the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro are fitted with Apple’s flagship A20 Pro chips. Hailed as Apple’s fastest ever iPhone chip, A20 Pro promises to run Apple intelligence using “the most advanced” on-device AI model that the brand has ever designed.

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The chip is built on 2nm technology and sports a 6-core CPU that Apple claims is the fastest found in any smartphone – although Qualcomm has since made the same claim with its Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 mobile processor. 

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In addition, A20 Pro has a 7-core GPU that sees 40% faster graphics performance since last year’s A19 Pro. Both the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro are also equipped with a next-gen vapour chamber for efficient cooling too.

iPhone 18 Pro has three rear lenses, including a telephoto

Other than their designs, the next biggest difference with the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro is with their respective cameras. Although we haven’t reviewed either yet, by their specs alone we’d recommend opting for the iPhone 18 Pro if photography is the most important aspect of a handset for you. 

While the iPhone Duo is fitted with a 48MP Dual Fusion camera system that’s made up of a main and ultrawide, the iPhone 18 Pro boasts three rear lenses that includes a dedicated telephoto lens too. Not only that, but Apple states the iPhone 18 Pro’s main lens is the most advanced camera it has ever made, thanks to its variable aperture that automatically lets in more or less light according to the shooting environment. 

Both have an IP68 rating

If you’re concerned about the durability of the iPhone Duo, then fortunately Apple has equipped its first foldable with plenty of protection. Alongside a titanium frame and hinge cover, the iPhone Duo has an IP68 rating, which means it’s dust-tight and can survive submersion in water too. That’s pretty rare for a foldable, with many offering much lower ratings. 

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Although it’s rare for a foldable, an IP68 rating is standard for most of the best smartphones and even the best mid-range phones too. With that in mind, it’s not surprising that the iPhone 18 Pro also sports an IP68 rating.

iPhone Duo has an under-display front camera

Although both phones have Center Stage front cameras, which means you will always stay in shot even when walking around, they differ with their exact offerings. The iPhone 18 Pro is fitted with an 18MP front camera while the iPhone Duo’s is a slightly lower resolution of 12MP.

In addition, the iPhone Duo’s front camera is under the front display. While Apple hasn’t given much detail about this, we know from experience that although under-display front cameras give more of an immersive screen, it does result in less detailed photos. 

Early Verdict

Both the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro are seriously impressive looking smartphones, but arguably for different reasons. While both promise exceptional performance, the iPhone Duo is designed for productivity whereas the iPhone 18 Pro is a brilliant choice for photographers, content creators and the like. Plus, remember the iPhone Duo is considerably more expensive too. 

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We’ll update this versus once we review the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro.

If you have cursed in the vicinity of your phone while trying to launch a pizza into your pizza oven without inadvertently creating a calzone, chances are even better that Big Internet Brother has targeted you for a sliding pizza peel. If, after dozens of practice launches, you haven’t mastered the art of the traditional wood or perforated metal pizza peel, even with all-powerful semolina flour gliders, you may be very tempted by the ease promised by such a tool as a sliding pizza peel.

The Best Pizza Ovens, Tested by CNET

But is it worth it? Or is it just the Temu-niverse capitalizing on your desire for a homemade pizza that doesn’t come with a side of anxiety and despair? Reader, the temptation was too strong. I checked one out, and here’s the lowdown on what you can expect from a sliding pizza peel.

How does a sliding pizza peel work?

A sliding pizza peel is essentially a lightweight wooden pizza peel with a manual conveyor belt attached. Rather than thrusting a stationary peel under your entire pie, you only need a small edge of maneuverability to start. Once the sliding peel gets a little purchase on the raw pizza dough, you pull the cloth slide toward you by its handle while pushing the wooden board underneath. 

To launch the pizza with a sliding pizza peel, reverse the process: Use the handle on the cloth glider to push, sliding the pizza into the oven while pulling the sturdy board out from underneath it.

Cloth, you say? Well, not exactly. The conveyor mechanism moves like fabric, but think of it more like a nonstick baking mat. Many are made of woven fiberglass with a polytetrafluoroethylene coating, which is nonstick but still grips enough to hold raw or cooked pizza dough. It’s frankly like a flimsier Silpat or not unlike an oilcloth table covering.

PTFE, in case you’re wondering, is related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Yes, we’ve worked hard to avoid PFAS; however, the material’s pliability doesn’t encourage chipping, and it is also replaceable. The wooden board itself admittedly also spares every expense without the heavy lifting required of other wooden pizza peels — this is made from raw, lightweight bamboo. 

Sliding pizza peel best practices

While a sliding pizza peel may seem like a cure-all, if, like me, you adore what your pizza oven offers but still struggle with pizza peel mechanics, it still requires practiceof its own —and caution. As with more traditional pizza peels, it cannot undo other mistakes, such as poorly constructed, too warm pizza dough or an overloaded pie. You can still calzone-ify your pizza, even with a sliding pizza peel.

Unlike a traditional pizza peel, which lets you push and pull simultaneously, the sliding pizza peel’s primary handle is also very short, meaning you kind of have to get (uncomfortably) close to the mouth of the oven to use it.

The fact that none of these seemingly magic wands are produced or branded by any major pizza oven manufacturer should serve as a caution. (Pizza oven manufacturers probably just want you to become a bona fide pizzaiolo, confidently using the legitimate tools of the trade; they are clearly not trying to encourage the use of these cheap devices.)

Various sliding pizza peels are purportedly heat-resistant up to a certain temperature (which varies). Many pizza ovens, however, can reach temperatures much hotter than those sliding peels are designed for.

More than one user on various online pizza oven forums reported that the nonstick belt of a sliding pizza peel melted onto the hot pizza stone. Others, however, called the device an absolute game changer. Either way, using a sliding pizza peel requires you to launch quickly, which again requires practice, probably best done outside your actual pizza oven. (Your oven-oven with a removable pizza stone? A much lower-stakes practice arena.)

My experience with a sliding pizza peel

I have been an enthusiastic pizza oven user since one came into my life, but I still haven’t mastered the mechanics of either a traditional wood or perforated metal pizza peel. I slightly prefer metal, but either way, pizza attempt number one always results in a folded disaster. My crime, apparently, is wanting the kind of thin pizza crust a 20-year-old New Yorker demands. The thinner the pizza, the harder to launch.

I can attest that the sliding pizza peel did make it easy to pull the pizza off the cutting board where I shaped the dough and applied toppings. Despite feeling cheaply made, the mechanics are inarguable. I achieved a crust thinness I truly couldn’t with the other models.

While you have to get close to the heat to deposit it, I haven’t earned any burns or scars from trying. Repeated launches in a very hot pizza oven also didn’t seem to affect the fabric slide, but then again, I was prepared to move extremely fast to avoid a crisis—and to get away from the heat.

In case it merits saying, a sliding pizza peel is entirely unnecessary for pulling pizza out of a pizza oven. In fact, I would caution against it since it really relies on setting the peel down on the pizza stone, never mind the fact that you really have to get your hand inside the oven in the starting position for pulling a pizza onto it. Once a pizza is fully cooked and the dough is sturdy, even a thin pizza can be collected with a more traditional pizza peel anyhow.

The verdict on a sliding pizza peel? Proceed with caution. And practice.

Ultimately, the average price of sliding pizza peels available online is about $30. Even with mixed reviews, it’s a fairly low-stakes gamble to see whether one improves how often you use your big-ticket pizza oven.

Pamela Vachon

Contributor

Pamela is a freelance food and travel writer based in Astoria, Queens. While she writes about most things edible and potable (and accessories dedicated to those topics,) her real areas of expertise are cheese, chocolate, cooking and wine. She’s a culinary school grad, certified sommelier, former bartender and fine dining captain with 10 years in the industry. When not sitting at the keys, she leads in-home cheese classes, wine tastings and cocktail demonstrations.

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Any new Vince Guaraldi album featuring previously unreleased versions of classic themes like “Little Birdie” and “Joe Cool” certainly catches my attention. Such is the case with the first-time release of the complete score to the February 1974 Peanuts TV special It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown, featuring outstanding music by the legendary composer, pianist, and performer.

With his career catapulting after the mid-’60s mega-success of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Vince Guaraldi continued pushing his own personal envelope with each subsequent album release, exploring new instrumentation and musical constructs. He was even hanging out with the Grateful Dead for a spell in the late ’60s (look for him in the group photo on the back cover of the Dead’s Aoxomoxoa!).

So, it’s not surprising to me that he learned how to play guitar, and by the time of It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown, his style had become quite accomplished. Here, he lends some bluesy electric guitar textures to his compositions in addition to piano, electric piano, clavinet and… whistling!

These new Peanuts soundtrack releases are important because there were never really official albums issued back in the day, aside from some poorly executed children’s records that included dialogue. Finally hearing all of this lost music curated into bona fide listening experiences is a joy!

Clocking in at more than 42 minutes, 15 of It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown’s 21 tracks comprise the complete cue score. Four alternate and unused tracks from the recording sessions, plus two excellent covers of jazz standards — including an exemplary extended exploration of “Autumn Leaves” by the full band and Charlie Parker’s “Billie’s Bounce” — round out the offering.

At times funky and always grooving, Guaraldi’s score is propelled by the outstanding rhythm section of pioneering Oakland “East Bay Funk” drummer Mike Clark (Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, Betty Davis, Brand X, etc.) and session bassist Seward McCain.

Produced by Sean and Jason Mendelson, sons of longtime Peanuts television producer Lee Mendelson who now run their father’s film company, the It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown soundtrack was mixed at the San Francisco Bay Area’s Bones and Knives Studio by engineer Terry Carleton. The recordings were restored and remastered by Vinson Hudson.

It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown also includes a 12 page booklet packed with rare photos and stills from the TV special. Sean and Jason Mendelson contribute extensive liner notes and track by track analysis, respectively, while acclaimed Guaraldi biographer Derrick Bang rounds out the package with new essays.

As with past Peanuts soundtrack releases, the producers have had some fun with the packaging. In keeping with the theme of the show, the album includes a bonus magnifying glass card that you can use to find hidden clues throughout the package and unlock special bonus material online.

No spoilers here, but I had fun finding many of the clues and ultimately getting to hear the complete bonus track, a portion of which is included on the vinyl in its own hidden locked groove section!

All in all It’s A Mystery, Charlie Brown is another completely solid, great sounding and enjoyable new Vince Guaraldi album release. You can order the black vinyl edition via Amazon for $32.99. There are also numerous exclusive color variants available from different retailers, including Barnes & Noble, Urban Outfitters and independent record stores.

Our Ratings

★★★★★★★★★★ Music

★★★★★★★★★★ Sound

★★★★★★★★★★ Packaging

Where to Buy:

Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. He reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.