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Weber Connect will be a useful tool for grillers of all skill levels

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I’ve reviewed Traeger’s Timberline and Ironwood connected grills that allow you to control and monitor the machine remotely. The connectivity offered via that company’s WiFire tech is extremely useful, especially during longer cooks like a brisket or pork shoulder. Trager’s app has a massive library of recipes and you can automatically set grill temperature based on the recipe you choose. The software does offer some guidance, but it’s not quite on the level of what Weber Connect will provide.

Weber

Weber Connect runs on JuneOS, the technology that powers the June smart oven. Essentially, the oven uses algorithms and other tech to help you produce perfectly cooked meals, whether that’s juicy chicken or a well-cooked steak. The smart oven has a meat probe that monitors internal temperature to ensure things turn out like they should. Weber is bringing this tech to the backyard, equipping SmokeFire grills and the Smart Grilling Hub with the ability to tap into the cooking knowledge of JuneOS.

For at-home grill masters, Weber Connect will provide you with step-by-step guidance on how to prep the grill, prep your meat, when to put it on, when to flip, how long to rest it and more. The system can even give you an estimated completion time based on the type and weight of meat or seafood you tell the app you’re cooking. Inside the Weber Connect app, the steps are queued up in order, so you know what’s next and how long you have until you need to move to the next step. Both the grills and the Hub will send real-time temperature readings to the app for up to four food probes. And in the case of the Grilling Hub, you can designate one of those for ambient grill temp.

Weber

Not every aspiring pitmaster will want this level of oversight. However, I can tell you that I’ve experienced first-hand how liberating it can be not to have to walk outside every hour or so to check the temperature, even if you don’t open the grill to visibly inspect things. It’s also a massive upgrade to be able to monitor things when you need to run to the store, or while you’re doing other things that aren’t within Bluetooth range of the grill. And with Weber Connect, the estimated completion times will take all of that convenience a step further. If I have an idea of when a 14-pound brisket will be done, I can better plan sides and the rest of the meal. I’m not just relying on a thermometer telling me when the meat hits target temperature. Trust me, that’s far from an exact science when it comes to timing.

This week at CES, I got to see the entire Weber Connect setup in use. The company’s pitmasters were smoking and grilling beef ribs, steaks, brisket and more on both Weber’s SmokeFire pellet grills and Weber gas models with the Smart Grilling Hub. Both options produced some stellar food, and the amount of smoke flavor from the pellet grills could’ve easily convinced me that the meats were cooked in a wood-fired pit. Both SmokeFire and the Hub work as advertised, and the staff were relying on Weber Connect to track when things needed attention or were ready to come off.

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After Math: All the stuff that happened while we were at CES

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Finally, someone thought of the children. Unfortunately, it was the septuagenarians in Congress who had that thought. They want to raise the age limit governing when companies can begin collecting data on kids from 13 to 16 and modernize COPPA. While their intentions are probably honorable, I’m still old enough to remember the trainwreck that SESTA became all those 21 months ago.

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How unfathomably expected. Who could have possibly seen this coming besides literally everybody.

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Live by the Scoot, die by the Scoot. In some cases, quite literally.

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In what is being described as an attack which could have been prevented months ago, a ring of cyber bandits have downloaded 5GB of sensitive personal information from international money transfer service and are holding it for a $6 million ransom. The crisis has reverberated throughout the finance and tech worlds with Samsung Pay users left unable to transfer money to other accounts.

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While riders are throwing themselves against the ramparts and open car doors of the ongoing urban mobility wars, Lime appears to be fighting a losing battle. The company announced this week that it’s retreating from 12 cities across the country and paring down its employee fighting force by 100 souls.

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Samsung will launch its rugged XCover Pro worldwide

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The new XCover is ostensibly built for workers, including walkie talkie-like voice chat (for apps like Microsoft Team), the ability to double as a point-of-sale device and two programmable buttons to handle common tasks without touching the screen. However, it might also be viable as a solid mid-range phone for anyone who wants a rough-and-ready device. It’s water-, dust- and drop-resistant, as you’d expect, but it also includes a healthy 4,050mAh replaceable battery and a 6.3-inch 1080p screen that supports wet finger and glove touches. Yes, where an S10 might fall flat in the midst of a day of heavy use, the XCover Pro should keep going.

Just dial down your performance expectations accordingly. There’s a middling 2GHz eight-core Exynos 9611 chip inside along with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of external storage, a 13-megapixel front-facing camera and a dual rear camera system that includes a 25MP autofocusing sensor and an 8MP fixed-focus unit. This is for field crews that care less about raw performance than they do completing a job.

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Instagram’s Boomerang adds much-needed editing and effects tools

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The rumors of Instagram spicing up Boomerang turned out to be true. It just introduced a host of creative tools, including an (arguably overdue) trimming feature. Much like the trim tool in your phone’s video editor, you can decide just where the animation loop starts and stops — no more re-recording a Boomerang or settling for a less-than-perfect endpoint. There are also three special effects, including SlowMo (half-speed playback), Echo (a motion blur trail effect) and Duo (a glitchy appearance).



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Spectrum’s exit from home security leaves people with useless tech

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A spokesperson told KSBY that Spectrum was bowing out of a business it “inherited” four years ago as a result of deals between Time Warner Cable and Bright House in 2016. It’s offering promotional deals from Abode or Ring (minus service subscriptions) as compensation. The company first alerted customers in December.

It’s not offering refunds, though, and the offers won’t help customers who spent much more outfitting their homes with cameras and sensors. Charter told Gizmodo that a “small percentage” of customers would be affected, but that still leaves many people with gaps in their security that could cost hundreds of dollars to fix. The firmware on the devices doesn’t allow switching to other services, either.

The shutdown makes a case for transitioning to dedicated home security devices and services. While those aren’t immune to shutdowns, they’re less prone — and the equipment is more likely to be useful if the service ever stops.

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Thermaltake’s latest gaming headset works with Alexa and Razer Chroma

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And yes, it’s supposed to perform well as a headset. Thermaltake touts “oversized” 50mm drivers, a 20Hz to 20kHz frequency range and the combination of an ESS ES9018 DAC and a SABRE9601K amplifier that reportedly help drive 24-bit/96kHz playback with a wide dynamic range and minimal distortion.

There’s no mention of how much the Riing Pro RGB 7.1 will cost, but it’s expected to ship in the first quarter of the year. That price might be the deciding factor. There are a number of RGB headsets at competitive prices (such as Corsair’s $100 Void RGB Elite Wireless and Razer’s $130 Kraken Ultimate), and Thermaltake may have to offer comparable value as a result.

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Uber is leaving Colombia after court ruling

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A lawsuit had accused Uber of breaking the law by steering customers away from taxis and offering public transportation without a license.

This isn’t the first time Uber has been given the boot. A German court recently ruled against Uber, and Italy temporarily banned the company in 2017. However, it appears to be the first time Uber has been forced out of an entire country in the Americas. It also comes under questionable circumstances. Taxi driver unions had lobbied the Colombian government in a bid to thwart ridesharing apps in return for promising to stay out of anti-government protests.

Whatever the circumstances, Uber’s departure could have mixed consequences. While it’ll reassure taxi drivers worried they were being squeezed out (though they still have to compete with options like Didi), it could leave thousands of Uber drivers out of work. Unlike the US and some other countries, driving Uber full-time can pay relatively well — this could represent a significant blow for some workers.

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US will investigate Fitbit and Garmin following Philips complaints

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The original complaint had been filed in December and could lead to tariffs or outright bans on any devices found violating Philips’ patents. Companies embroiled in patent disputes often use ITC complaints alongside or in place of lawsuits to get a faster verdict (civil suits frequently take years to unfold) and pressure targets into reaching a settlement.

To no one’s surprise, the complaint isn’t going over well. A Fitbit spokesperson told Reuters that Philips’ assertions were “without merit” and stemmed from the Dutch firm’s “failure to succeed” in the wearable device space. We’ve asked Garmin for comment.

Philips was relatively late to the fitness watch party, releasing the Health Watch in 2016 long after Fitbit, Garmin and others had entered the space. While it was a fairly specialized device from the outset and wasn’t likely to become a runaway hit, it clearly struggled compared to the explosive growth of competitors that also included Apple and Samsung. Whatever Philips’ motivations, this may be a rare chance for the company to reap a windfall from its smartwatch work — especially when Google is in the midst of acquiring Fitbit.

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Modder makes the GameCube Joy-Cons you’ve always wanted for your Switch

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He even created a center piece that lets you reunite both halves in a single gamepad that’s the same width as the original Wavebird.

The creator expects to provide CAD files for those who want to attempt their own mods, but be warned: this definitely isn’t for first-timers. Shank cautioned that a lot more was involved than simply cutting a controller in two and shoving the Joy-Con electronics inside. He had to add missing buttons, modify others (the shoulder buttons needed a new feel to reflect the all-digital input) and introduce a host of 3D-printed support structures, in addition to grappling with electrical challenges. Even getting that GameCube-style indigo color required an extensive painting process.

Still, this might be worth attempting if you have the DIY chops to pull it off. It’s about as close as you’ll likely get to an official GameCube-themed Joy-Con set for the Switch, with many of the original parts. Shank also notes that it’s a “huge step up” from the standard Joy-Cons for playing games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It might be worth the effort if you’re a GameCube diehard and know your way around a soldering iron.

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OnePlus is reportedly holding a display tech convention

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OnePlus

OnePlus itself has yet to confirm the event, so we can’t say for sure what kind of display products and technologies it’s planning to announce. According to the Weibo post, though, we might see screens with a 120Hz refresh rate, which will enable smoother pictures than what displays with lower refresh rates are capable of.

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