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For many people, the first cup of tea is often the highlight of their day. And while you don’t need much to make a great brew, there are a number of tools and gadgets that can make the whole experience a lot more enjoyable. So this holiday season, whether you’re looking for a present for you or someone you love, check out this list of our favorite gifts for tea lovers.

Hiware Borosilicate glass pitcher

Hiware

After the handle on my previous pitcher developed a crack, I went on a search for a simple but durable container that could support my iced tea addiction and after a year and a half, this thing has not disappointed. Its heat-resistant borosilicate glass means you can pour boiling water directly into the pitcher without worrying about it shattering and its huge 68-ounce capacity holds enough to keep an entire family hydrated. Meanwhile, the stainless steel lid prevents leaves or stuff like fruit pulp from escaping. And at $20, this pitcher is just great value.

Hario Cold Brew Bottle

Hario

If you know someone who always brings their “famous” iced tea to parties or picnics check out Hario’s Cold Brew bottle. It holds up to 750ml of liquid and comes with a removable strainer to keep tea leaves from spilling out. There’s even a grippy silicone top for easy handling and a removable stopper that acts like a cork. And if you’re worried it’s a little pedestrian looking to make a lasting impact, Hario makes a champagne bottle version too.

Fellow Stagg EKG Electric Kettle

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

When it comes to boiling water in style, Fellow’s Stagg EKG Kettle can’t be beat. It’s available with a huge range of finishes and accents including walnut, cherry and maple woods. There’s an LCD panel built into the base for choosing a specific temperature (down to the degree) while the hold feature keeps water hot for up to an hour. The gooseneck spout is also great for friends or family that like making mudwater (aka coffee) with a V60 or similar brewer. And if that’s not enough, just this fall, Fellow introduced a new pro model that supports customizable brew settings, WiFi connectivity and more.

Breville IQ Electric Kettle

Engadget

For those on your list that prefer function over form, you really ought to consider Breville’s IQ Electric Kettle. In addition to having nearly double the capacity (57 ounces vs 30 ounces) of the Stagg, it has dedicated temperature settings for a lot of major types of tea (green, white, oolong and black). It’s also a bit more powerful with an output of up to 1,500 watts, so there’s less waiting around for the water to heat up.

OXO Tea Infuser Basket

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

One of the easiest ways to brew better tea is by moving away from single-serving bags and switching to loose-leaf teas. That’s because typically tea bags feature lower quality leaves that often sit on shelves for months (or years) with the whole process favoring convenience over flavor. On top of that, the cloth or (more often) paper used to make tea bags can also impart unwanted flavors.

If you know someone looking to get into loose-leaf teas, they’re going to need an infuser, and OXO’s is one of the best. Its stainless steel basket won’t mess with the taste and its included lid traps heat in when steeping while also doubling as a saucer to prevent dripping once the tea is ready to drink. The basket is also a perfect size so it fits in practically any mug (and even many iced tea pitchers), and at just $15, it’s cheap enough to buy two or more so there will always be a clean one ready to go.

Fellow Atmos Vacuum Canister

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

While Fellow’s Atmos Canister was originally intended to store coffee, it’s equally great at keeping tea tasting fresh and flavorful, even after long periods. That’s because simply twisting its lid removes oxygen from the canister, slowing down potential oxidation which can cause tea to taste dull and lifeless. It’s available in three sizes (0.4, 0.7 and 1.2 liters) and in a range of materials, though you’ll probably want to stay away from the glass version, as light is another source of potential oxidation. (Leave the clear one for cookies or something.) And while it’s a bit on the pricey side, in my opinion there’s no better way of keeping even the fanciest leaves tasting great over time.

Golde Superwhisk

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

For matcha lovers who don’t want to deal with the hassle of a traditional bamboo whisk or anyone seeking a way to quickly froth up some milk, Golde’s Superwhisk is a great pick. It has two different speed settings and a battery that can be recharged via USB. It even comes with an included travel case, so your giftee can take it camping or anywhere they want to enjoy some tea (or a latte).

Pure’Tea Portable Tea Infuser

Pure'Tea

For people who want to bring their brew on the go, this charming portable tea infuser bottle looks great and makes the whole process super easy. Tea goes in the top section and water goes in the bottom. Right before drinking they flip the whole infuser upside down to brew instead of letting the leaves become oversteeped after sitting in water all day. The portable infuser also features borosilicate glass with a double-walled construction, so it can handle high temperatures without burning hands. Admittedly, there are similar bottles for less, but between its innovative design and premium materials, I can’t think of a better way to drink tea on-the-go.

Breakaway Matcha Flight Kit

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

Getting into matcha can be intimidating for even long-time tea drinkers. Not only can matcha be expensive but, since it’s very finely ground green tea instead leaves steeped in water, it has a very different flavor profile and texture. So instead of buying someone a single type of matcha, give this matcha flight kit a try. It includes four different blends which range from bright grassy varieties to deeper savory mixes. There’s also a handcrafted bamboo scoop, a sieve, tea towel and most importantly, a motorized whisk for properly whipping up the perfect cup.

Adagio Tea Samplers

Engadget

For complete newbies to tea, Adagio’s loose teas sampler sets offer a huge range of types and flavors to choose from. You can select specific types like green teas from China for the Sinophile on your list, or opt for more general mixes like seasonal blends or even herbal selections. Prices also start as low as $12 a box for four different types, which makes this one of the most flexible and affordable ways of gifting a wide range of teas without doing a ton of research.

Butterfly Pea Tea

Engadget

The first time I had butterfly pea flower tea was on my honeymoon in Thailand and it was love at first sip. It has a sweet flora aroma with some subtle earthy notes. But its signature highlight is its color. When brewed alone, you get a deep blue hue with hints of green, but when you add acid suddenly the tea becomes bright purple or pink. And because butterfly pea flower doesn’t contain caffeine, between its color and taste, it’s a great way to introduce kids to tea. Steep it, chill it, add the juice from a couple lemons or limes and a splash of sugar (I preferred agave), and in no time you’ll have the perfect summertime iced tea.

NASA has once again delayed the launch of Artemis 1 in the face of a potentially dangerous weather system. The agency had penciled in the launch for the early morning of November 14th, but it's now retargeting liftoff for November 16th. The current two-hour launch window opens at 1:04AM ET. There's a backup launch opportunity scheduled for November 19th.

The latest delay is due to the threat posed by Tropical Storm Nicole. The new launch window is dependent on conditions being safe enough for NASA employees to return to work, as well as inspections after the weather system has passed. The agency says that pushing back the launch date "will allow the workforce to tend to the needs of their families and homes, and provide sufficient logistical time to get back into launch status following the storm."

Teams are securing equipment, property and facilities at the space center, which is in HURCON (Hurricane Condition) III status. Some personnel in a “ride-out” team will remain in place to monitor conditions across the site, including the SLS and Orion.

The Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft will stay on the launch pad this time. Before Hurricane Ian bore down on the Kennedy Space Center, NASA rolled back the rocket and spacecraft to the safety of the Vehicle Assembly Building. It rolled Artemis out to the launch pad again last week. The SLS can withstand winds of up to 85MPH (74.4 knots) and Nicole isn't expected to bring winds exceeding that speed. The rocket is also able to deal with heavy rain and NASA has secured the hatches to prevent water from getting inside.

Artemis 1 is a test mission that's scheduled to fly around the Moon. It's a precursor to humans returning to the lunar surface for the first time in over half a century. However, NASA's attempts to launch the SLS and Orion over the last few months have been beset by technical issues and inclement weather.

In a few short hours, Nintendo will stream its latest Indie World Showcase. Announced on November 7th, the company promised approximately 25 minutes worth of information about upcoming indie games that are coming to the Nintendo Switch. You can watch the entire event unfold on the gaming giant’s website, as well as its YouTube and Twitch channels. If you miss the livestream, don’t worry: we’ll have you covered with coverage of the major announcements from the event.

What will Nintendo announce Iduring Indie World? One can always hope for a more definitive release date for Hollow Knight: Silksong. Based on Microsoft’s recent announcement that the game would be available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass on its release date, some have speculated that Silksong would arrive before June 2023. That said, Nintendo is more likely to share updates about games like Oxenfree II Lost Signals and Metal Slug Tactics. The latter was delayed this past summer until 2023.   

Serif is determined to make its Affinity suite a more practical alternative for creatives who'd rather not pay for an Adobe subscription — or use a conventional PC, for that matter. The developer has released Affinity Version 2 apps that not only include major new features (more on those shortly), but the first edition of Publisher for the iPad. You now have all of the Affinity bundle on your tablet, and won't have to split your attention between your computer and iPad when it's time to design a page layout.

Regardless of platform, you should see some meaningful upgrades. Affinity Photo 2 now includes non-destructive RAW development, saved layer states, compound masks (that is, joining multiple masks together), live warping and live masks for elements like hue and luminosity ranges. Affinity Designer 2, meanwhile, adds non-destructive vector warping, a "knife" cutting tool, a shape builder and even tools for measuring lengths and areas. Affinity Publisher 2 now helps you add academia-friendly footnotes, endnotes and sidenotes. You can also create automatically repeating layouts and use a style picker. There's even a way to stitch multiple documents into a single book, although that's only available in desktop versions for now.

Some improvements are iPad-specific. A new radial menu provides access to common keyboard modifiers like Command and Option, while a quick menu offers clipboard options and nine customizable shortcuts. And if you're feeling the limits of your tablet screen, a compact mode keeps the brush and layer panels open while making more room for the image you're editing.

The one-time price may be more of a draw than before. You'd normally pay $170 for the entire Affinity suite across all platforms, but a launch sale drops that price to $100. That makes it relatively affordable compared to Adobe's Creative Cloud, which will keep you paying indefinitely. You can buy the individual Affinity Version 2 apps for $70 on the desktop ($41 on sale) and $20 (currently $12) on the iPad.

This outlay might not thrill you if you recently bought Affinity V1. You may likewise need to consider rivals like Adobe if you need further apps for animation, web design and other aspects of the creative pipeline. If these tools fit your workflow, though, the price is low enough that they should be reasonably easy to justify.

If you want to get a jump start on those inevitable New Year's resolutions, consider picking up the Fitbit Charge 5 while it's $50 off at Wellbots. Enter the code ENG50 and you'll see the discount when you check out. The Charge 5 made the cut as our favorite overall fitness tracker in our 2022 guide, because it just plain does what a wearable like this is supposed to do, aka reliably delivering sleep and activity stats. As Fitbit's flagship tracker, we don't see deals on the Charge 5 often. A $50 discount makes it one of the best prices we've seen so far.    

Since the Charge 5 isn't a smartwatch, the battery lasts longer. While Fitbit promises up to seven days on a charge, we got through about five days when the screen wasn't set to "always on" and two and half days when it was. It's also less bulky than a smartwatch, which is nice for workouts, and the new touchscreen is bright and clear. The Charge 5 also has GPS to record your runs and hikes and Fitbit Pay so you can leave your wallet at home. In the end, we called it one of your best options for a GPS-enabled tracker. One of our few hesitations was the price, but with that $50 discount in play, that's less of an issue. 

If you are looking for a smartwatch and all the bonus features that brings, there's also a discount code for Fitbit's Versa 4 smartwatch at Wellbots. Enter the code ENG80 at checkout and you'll get $80 off, bringing the price down to $150, which is an exceptionally low price for a smartwatch, especially one with GPS. It's also one of the few smartwatches (apart from Amazfit devices) that come with Alexa built-in. 

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

Volvo took another step towards its 2030 goal of full electrification on Wednesday with the official unveiling of its new flagship, the all-electric EX90. The three-row, seven-seat SUV, which grew out of the Concept Recharge design, will go on sale alongside its gas-powered sibling, the XC90, in model year 2024.

The EX90 will initially come equipped with a 111 kWh battery pack powering a pair of permanent magnet electric motors for 380 kW (517 hp) and 910 Nm of AWD torque. Per the company, the pack can refill from 10 to 80 percent in under 30 minutes. Volvo has not yet shared performance figures for the vehicle.

The EX90 will be the first Volvo to offer bi-directional charging capabilities, which enable drivers to use their vehicles as home-scale batteries in the event of power outages — similar to what Hyundai's Ioniq 5 and the Ford F-150 Lightning offer. Volvo plans on selling home charging equipment as well including a wall box and energy management system. What's more the EX90 — like the rest of its EV brethren — will enjoy over-the-air software updates, though Volvo has begun expanding that service out to hybrid and ICE models as well. 

The EX90's exterior is optimized for aerodynamics, boasting a drag coefficient of .29, just a touch behind the VW ID.4 and very respectable for a full-size SUV, electric or not. "We’ve taken inspiration from yacht design to outline the Volvo EX90’s beautiful and sleek proportions,” Volvo's head of design, T. Jon Mayer, said in a press release. “If you look at the front, it’s proud and confident – inspired by a sailboat’s ability to shear through the ocean’s slamming waves. But it’s also rounder overall, which enables the air to flow around the car more efficiently.”

Pedestrians will sail around the car more efficiently as well, thanks to the "shield of safety" that Volvo is working on. Using a mix of LiDAR, optical, ultrasonic and radar sensors, the EX90 will offer a 360 degree view around itself to proactively react to other vehicles and pedestrians even if the driver doesn't immediately notice the issue. The EX90's LiDAR sensors can reportedly spot pedestrians up to 250 meters away. The company believes that the system could reduce the rate of all accidents by 9 percent and cut accidents resulting in serious injury or death by as much as 20 percent. 

"No matter how much experience you have or how much competence you have, at the end of the day, we are all still human," Volvo Head of Safety Jim Rowan quips in the walkthrough above. "We want to help people become better drivers by being there when they're not at their very best." The company plans to further incorporate the LiDAR sensors into its future unsupervised autonomous driving system.

But like the oozing garbage bags one finds on the side of the highway, it's what's inside that counts. The EX90's cabin provides a well-lit Scandinavian minimalist design clad in sustainable and recycled materials, such as "Nordico," a fabric made from recycled PET bottles "as well as bio-attributed material from responsibly-managed forests in Sweden and Finland. All of the interior wood panels are FSC-certified sustainable and if you opt for the wool seat fabric, that yarn will come from vetted suppliers "according to strict sustainability standards on animal welfare, environmental and social issues." In all, more than 50 kilograms of recycled plastic are used in each EX90 interior.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into the illumination inside the EX90, trying to create a warm interior and a somewhat colder expression for the exterior,” Mayer noted. “It’s also connected to how people in Scandinavia might be perceived. There’s a calm and understated confidence that can read as cold at first – but once you get to know people, you find that they're really warm.”

The EX90's in-cabin LiDAR is a world-first, designed to detect the presence of occupants and alert the driver if anyone is left behind in an effort to prevent hot car deaths — Volvo notes that more than 900 kids have died in these circumstances in the US since 1998. Where allowed by regulation, the system will prevent the keyfob from locking the doors should a child or pet be detected inside and display a warning icon on the central infotainment screen.

"No one chooses to be distracted or tired, but we know it can happen," Lotta Jakobsson, Volvo senior technical specialist in injury prevention. "We’re all human and distraction is a fact of life. With the help of cutting-edge technology, we’ll support you when you’re not at your best and help you avoid leaving family members or pets behind by accident."

Developing...

IBM's latest quantum computing processor marks a notable step forward for its ambitions in the field. At the IBM Quantum Summit 2022, the company announced Osprey, which has the largest qubit count of any of its processors at 433 quantum bits. That's more than triple the number of cubits that the Eagle chip, which IBM revealed last November, has. IBM said it built on top of the 127-cubit Eagle's architecture by keeping qubits on a single plane with the help of multi-level wiring.

"Unlike classical bits which have to be in a state of either one or zero, qubits can exist in a complex mix of both, tapping into the fundamental quantum nature of matter at subatomic levels," IBM said in a press release. "As a result, quantum computers offer the possibility of vastly increased computing power that can be used to tackle calculations of much greater complexity in fields such as artificial intelligence, and the design of new materials for drug discovery and energy research."

Connie Zhou/IBM

The company is scaling up its quantum computing efforts with the aim of building a system with 4000-plus qubits by 2025. It's currently on target with its roadmap. Next up is a 1,121-cubit chip called Condor that IBM hopes to debut next year.

IBM debuted an elegantly designed functional quantum computer at CES 2019. Last year, it offered a sneak preview of the design for the next-gen IBM Quantum System Two (the machine that will use its quantum processors). Now, the company has revealed more details. It designed the system to be flexible and modular with the ability to house multiple architectures and processors, and claims it will include Osprey starting next year. The company claimed the System Two design "allows for an exponential step up in quantum computing scale and enabling the vision of quantum-centric supercomputing."

Having immense computational power at one's fingertips doesn't mean much if you don't have the right software to get the most out of it. Early last year, IBM said that its Qiskit program execution environment was able to blend quantum and conventional computers to carry out complex computations in hours, when they previously would have taken months. The company said it will offer new features to mitigate and suppress errors, and provide "a fast, efficient and easy-to-use programming model for quantum computers." What's more, these features blend into IBM's goal of integrating quantum computers with classical computers, including supercomputers.

Less than two months after it admitted a million vehicles had faulty window sensors, Tesla is issuing another large-scale recall. This time, the company is flagging more than 40,000 cars after a software defect cut power steering when driving over potholes. A software fix is rolling out, and Tesla said over 97 percent of affected vehicles already have the new code.

This is, however, the 17th recall Tesla has issued in 2022, with issues affecting more than 3.4 million vehicles. It adds weight to Tesla’s critics, too, who say the company’s poor build quality hurts its ability to recruit would-be EV buyers. But despite the number of post-purchase issues, the company hasn’t seen any harm to its bottom line, which saw profits double in the last year.

– Dan Cooper

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Crypto giant Binance is buying its rival FTX following a very public dispute

FTX was once valued at $32 billion.

One of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges has been bailed out by one of its major rivals. FTX, fearing a liquidity crunch and struggling to satisfy customer withdrawals, has thrown itself upon the mercy of major rival Binance. FTX’s rapid collapse raises questions about how well these exchanges are managing clients’ money and cannot quell belief the crypto bubble is about to burst, once and for all.

Continue Reading. 

Netflix's Triviaverse will test your knowledge with rapid-fire questions

It’s like being in your very own game show.

Netflix

Netflix’s Triviaverse is the streaming giant’s latest foray into the interactive gaming space, and it’s pretty good. It’s a rapid-fire trivia quiz, throwing increasingly difficult questions at you while the clock runs down, adding an extra frisson of tension. There’s a two-player mode, too, and it’s the sort of title you could imagine throwing on when the energy in a party sags. It made me wonder how much fun we’d all have if Netflix bought a company like Jackbox, offering those titles through its platform.

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European Union opens 'in-depth' investigation into Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard

Yet more regulators want to scrutinize the deal.

The European Union has followed the UK’s lead to open its own investigation into Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The bloc is concerned the Xbox owner’s control of such a major games publisher poses a risk to competition the world over. It now has 90 days to complete a thorough investigation of the deal, postponing any completion to mid-March next year.

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Garmin's Instinct Crossover is a rugged hybrid smartwatch with a useful display

This is for serious outdoorsy types.

Garmin

Nice as the Apple Watch Ultra is, Garmin thinks its new Instinct Crossover can do a better job while standing on its metaphorical head. The new watch is a hybrid with a digital display embedded in the whole face and is sturdy enough to cope with the big outdoors. As for battery life, the standard edition will last a month on a single charge, and 110 hours with GPS activated. Opt for the Solar Edition, with PV panels around the bezel, and it’ll run for up to 70 days if there’s enough light.

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Meta is reducing the size of its workforce by about 13 percent and letting more than 11,000 its employees go in the first mass layoffs in the company’s history. Mark Zuckerberg has announced the mass layoffs in a message to employees, which Meta shared on its Newsroom. 

News of the impending layoffs was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which also reported that Meta’s recruiting and business teams would be hit especially hard.

Mark Zuckerberg has been hinting at cuts for some time. During the company’s most recent earnings call, the CEO said Meta could become “a slightly smaller organization” by the end of 2023.He also has reportedly instructed managers to identify people for layoffs, and has told employees that “realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn't be here." The company has already halted new hiring and cut some projects within Reality Labs.

Meta has been losing billions of dollars on its investments in the metaverse, with Reality Labs losing more than $10 billion in 2021. The company has said it expects to lose “significantly” more in 2023. Facebook’s ad revenue has also taken a significant hit due to Apple’s changes to apps’ ad tracking abilities.

Though Meta is cutting a significant number of jobs, it’s not the only major tech company to lay off workers in recent months. Snap laid off about 20 percent of its workforce over the summer, and Twitter recently cut about half of its staff following Elon Musk’s takeover.

Developing...

LumaFusion, a well-regarded video editing app for iPhones, iPads and Macs, is finally making its way to Android and Chrome OS devices. Shortly after it won best iPad app of the year in 2021, thanks to its ability to make complex video editing easy to do using just one's fingers, LumaFusion made its Android debut on Samsung's Galaxy Tab S8 devices. According to Android Police, its developer, LumaTouch, promised to put it up for download on the Galaxy Store back then while also working on a release for the Chrome OS. It took some time to make that happen, but now LumaTouch is rolling out an early access version of the app to the Google Play Store and the Samsung Galaxy Store.

The features iOS users enjoy are expected to be on the Android and Chrome OS releases, as well. LumaFusion lets users lay down up to 12 tracks, six of which can be videos, which they can link and unlink. They can use preset transitions or create their own, import media from various sources or edit directly from USB drives, as well as pick from a library of royalty-free music, sound effects, videos and backgrounds. AP says LumaTouch formed a team of Chrome OS developers to make this release happen, so the app has likely been optimized for the platform instead of being a subpar iOS port. 

LumaFusion typically costs $30, but users will be able to purchase it from the Galaxy Store and Play Store for $20 within its early access period. The listing for either platform isn't up yet, from what we can see, but it'll most likely pop up soon enough.