Typically, smart grills equal pellet grills. While pellet models played a key role in popularizing connected outdoor cooking, there are plenty of other options for controlling and monitoring things from the comforts of your living room. After introducing a smart controller for its ceramic grills in 2018, Kamado Joe released its own connected pellet version in 2020. Earlier this year, the company combined its add-on controller with its popular charcoal-burning red cookers, resulting in the Konnected Joe.

At first glance, the Konnected Joe looks like any other ceramic grill in Kamado Joe’s lineup. However, the bottom half is black where most of the company’s other options are solid red. The display (or Kontrol Board) also sets the Konnected Joe apart, and it’s situated beside three food probe jacks, the power button and a temperature dial. Here, you can see temperature graphs, select a cook mode and receive alerts. The grill will also advise you on how to adjust the vents based on your selected temperature. Buttons on the left allow you to set timers and reconnect to WiFi, in addition to adjusting the display to show grill or food temperatures in large numbers visible from afar.

The Konnected Joe retains a lot of the features that make the company’s ceramic grills great for your deck or patio. The Kontrol Tower top vent, Air Lift hinge and heavy-duty cart all make using the grill easier. Inside, the company’s two-tier Divide & Conquer design allows you to cook different foods at different temperatures by changing the proximity of the stainless steel grates to the fire. You can also set up one side for direct grilling while using a heat deflector for indirect on the other. Most of the components for the grill are semi-circular, which makes the Konnected Joe just as versatile as a regular Kamado Joe. The folding side shelves are modestly sized, but they’re enough to hold a plate, tray or small cutting board.

Kamado Joe’s latest smart grill is compatible with all of the accessories for the Classic Joe grill, except for the charcoal basket. This means you can add a rotisserie (JoeTisserie), pizza stone (DoJoe) and more to expand the capabilities of the Konnected Joe. There’s a ton of options here, ranging from the affordable half-moon reversible griddle ($70) to the pricey JoeTisserie ($300), with some bundles going for even more. You don’t need to purchase anything extra to get started with the Konnected Joe, though. The grill ships with grates, heat deflectors for low-and-slow cooking and all you need for that optional two-tier configuration.

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

Just under the three food probe jacks is a dedicated button for the Automatic Fire Starter (AFS). WiFi connectivity may get the bulk of the attention on this Kamado Joe, but the AFS is the real star. It’s essentially a heating element at the bottom of the cooking chamber where you load your charcoal and wood chunks. When you turn it on, it runs for 15 minutes to light your charcoal without any additional lighter fluid or fire starters. I’ve used this every time I’ve cooked with the Konnected Joe, even when I’m otherwise running the grill in Classic Cook Mode without the automatic temperature control. It consistently, completely lit up the charcoal. See ya later, charcoal chimney.

In addition to built-in WiFi, another key aspect of smart grilling is a mobile app. The Kamado Joe App allows you to adjust time and temperature without being directly in front of the grill. During my tests, changes were typically quick although there have been a few times I had to input the desired temperature twice to get it to stick. Those temperature graphs from the onboard display are here as well, alongside the ability to browse recipes and monitor food probe temps. However, where Kamado Joe currently lags behind the competition is its library of recipes and how they’re presented.

Right now, there are over 150 recipes available in the Kamado Joe app, organized by food type and cooking method. For comparison, the Traeger app currently houses over 1,000. The Kamado Joe app is also missing a few glaring items, like pulled pork, but the company says it continuously adds new recipes. It also said it’s working to bring recipe videos and step-by-step guidance to the app sometime next year. These are two more items that both Traeger and Weber offer in their apps and they can be a big help when you’re trying a new recipe or are a beginner griller. Still, the app does a solid job with the basics of monitoring and controlling the grill.

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

Another area the Kamado Joe app could offer guidance is preparing the grill to cook. There are some tips in recipes, like waiting for clean smoke when you add wood chunks before putting any food on, but there aren’t any tips on how much charcoal to add in the first place. This is a lesson I learned the hard way, as the Konnected Joe would consistently overshoot the set temperature during low-and-slow smoking in my initial tests.

After consulting with the company, I determined I was using too much charcoal and the extra fuel was igniting before I needed it during the longer sessions. Using less at the start fixed my problem, but extended cooking times may require you to add more. This means moving your food and any racks to the side to access the bottom of the chamber. It’s not ideal, but it’s hardly a dealbreaker.

None of this means much if the grill can’t produce great-tasting food, and the Konnected Joe does an excellent job in that regard. Since this is mostly a Kamado Joe ceramic grill with some smart-cooking bits added on, its performance is similar to those non-WiFi models. You get the flavor of charcoal, which has a more pronounced smoky essence than pellet grills produce. Sure, you can impart plenty of smoke with wood pellets, but what you get from charcoal is just different. And, at least to me, it’s slightly more intense. You also get the flavor of charcoal through direct cooking for a true grilled essence as opposed to hot-and-fast searing on a pellet grill.

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

Over the course of testing, I did a mix of high-heat grilling and slow-smoked barbecue. This included a lot of steaks, a Boston Butt for pulled pork, baby back ribs and more. I was consistently impressed by the charcoal smoke flavor present in all of my cooks, especially in the longer sessions for the pork shoulder and ribs. What’s more, the Konnected Joe allows you a bit more room to experiment with types of wood as you add chunks to supplement the charcoal. There are different kinds of pellets intended for different foods, but sometimes those aren’t a single type of wood even if they're labeled as such. For example, Weber’s Cherry pellets are 60 percent Maple. With the Konnected Joe, you can grab a bag of a single type of wood chunks (I use Kingsford) and change them up based on what you’re cooking.

Another thing you need to be aware of (and this applies to ceramic grills in general) is the long cool-down period. Due to the nature of the materials, these models retain heat a lot more efficiently than a kettle or gas grill – or even most pellet options. This is great while you’re cooking, but it also means you need to plan for an extended time for the grill to cool off before you can put the cover on. As an example, I finished cooking ribs around 5PM at a temperature of 275 degrees (a five-hour cook). When I locked up for the night around 11PM, the grill was still warm to the touch, so I couldn’t cover it yet. High-heat searing required even more time to cool off, and in most cases, I had to leave the grill uncovered until the next day.

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

One area where the Konnected Joe surpasses WiFi-enabled pellet grills is the ease of cleanup. You only need to use the included ash tool to scrape debris through the holes in the bottom of the cooking chamber, leaving larger pieces of used charcoal for the next cook. A tray inside the bottom vent slides out for easy disposal. If there’s a large amount of ash, you may need to use the tool to scrape that slot, but you shouldn’t need to get out the shop vac like you do for a pellet grill. Of course, the accessories may require a thorough scrubbing after use, but that’s nothing some grill cleaner or soapy water can’t handle.

If you’re looking for a charcoal-burning alternative to the Konnected Joe, you don’t have to go far. Parent company Middleby Outdoor also owns the Masterbuilt brand that has the Gravity Series smart grills we tested in 2020. While the Gravity Series 560 was the first version, the company has since introduced the larger Gravity Series 800 that comes with a griddle insert and the Gravity Series 1050 with the largest cooking capacity of the trio.

The design is the same across all three models: a gravity-fed hopper on the right side funnels charcoal down to a digitally-controlled fan to maintain temperatures. You can add wood chunks to the ash bin to produce more smoke. The Gravity Series is capable of hot-and-fast searing, low-and-slow smoking and everything in between, all with the ability to monitor temperatures from your sofa. One key issue with those grills is they can be difficult to light when you have used charcoal at the bottom of the hopper, so it’s best to cycle through and have fresh fuel to light, mixing any used bits mid-chamber.

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

If ease of use is your top priority, a pellet model is worth considering when shopping for a smart grill. In addition to full-featured apps for monitoring and controlling the grill from afar, Traeger and Weber both offer easy-to-follow recipe guidance. Both companies also give you estimated completion times in their apps (via Meater for Traeger) so you have an idea of when to have the sides ready (and to keep hungry guests informed of the situation).

What’s more, pellet grills don’t require you to futz with components to add more fuel as you simply refill the hopper outside of the cooking area if you start to run low. Cleanup is a little more involved, but for longer cooks that don’t require any spritzing to keep the meat moist or wrapping to expedite cooking, this type of grill is truly set it and forget it. Weber’s most recent model is the SmokeFire Sear+, which offers over 1,000 square inches of cooking space for $1,599. The best new Traeger for most people is the recently redesigned Ironwood, the smaller version of which is $1,800.

At $1,699, the Konnected Joe is very expensive for a charcoal grill. However, it’s more affordable than the Classic Joe Series III, which offers the same cooking area without the connectivity and AFS igniter. A comparably sized Big Green Egg is around $1,100, but again, you’ll need a secondary device for any kind of temperature monitoring. When you pit it against WiFi-equipped pellet grills, the Konnected Joe isn’t that far off. In fact, it’s slightly cheaper than Kamado Joe’s own Pellet Joe. A connected grill and all the convenience that it affords has never been cheap, but the Konnected Joe pairs all the versatility of a ceramic cooker with the advantages of charcoal and performs well. If the company can expand and refine its companion app, this grill will be a complete package – even if it commands a steep investment.

Marvel's visual effects employees have voted in favor of joining a union in their fight for better pay, overtime compensation, more benefits and better treatment. According to Vulture, a supermajority of the company's 50 on-set VFX employees have filed a petition for an election with the National Labor Relations Board. They're hoping to join the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which also represents hair and makeup artists, wardrobe, lighting and prop personnel, among other workers. Because apparently, despite Marvel's reliance on visual effects to make its universe(s), superheroes and supervillains look real on the big screen, its VFX artists aren't represented by a union. IATSE has also been campaigning broadly to expand its membership into VFX and animation workers in recent months.

Several current and former VFX employees for the company previously spoke out about grueling schedules and breaking down under pressure while working on shows and movies for the studio. Sources told IGN that people were being given tasks that were impossible to finish within the timeframe allowed to complete them. Some VFX artists told Vulture that the hectic production schedule for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, for instance, led to rushed work and an end product that many reviewers had described as "bland."

VFX coordinator Bella Huffman said: "Turnaround times don't apply to us, protected hours don’t apply to us, and pay equity doesn’t apply to us. Visual effects must become a sustainable and safe department for everyone who's suffered far too long and for all newcomers who need to know they won’t be exploited."

Vulture says a strike by Marvel's VFX artists is not out of the question. It is a common tactic employed by workers seeking to organize, after all — plus, both the Writers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild are currently on strike to demand better pay, streaming residuals from successful shows and regulation of AI use in Hollywood.

Taking a screenshot comes in handy for multiple reasons, which is why it’s so easy to do on several devices, including Macs. When it comes to saving what's on your display, the answer lies in your keyboard. All you need to remember are a few keyboard shortcuts and you’ll be able to take a screenshot on Mac easily — and there are even ways to save only portions of your display and screen record, too. Here are all of the ways to take a screenshot on a MacBook or Mac desktop.

How to take a screenshot of your entire screen

If you just want a screenshot of your entire screen, just press: Command (⌘), Shift and 3. By default, that image will appear on your desktop for easy access.

Photo by Julia Mercado / Engadget

How to capture a portion of your screen

If you want to save a portion of your screen, hit Command + Shift + 4. A crosshair cursor will appear and you can select which part of the screen you want to capture within the gray box.

If you hold the Spacebar after selecting a portion of the window, then you can move your cursor to choose what part of the screen you want to capture.

To take a screenshot of an entire window, select Command + Shift + 4, hover over the window in question and then tap the Spacebar. A camera icon will appear and the window will turn gray to show it’s selected. Click on the screen and you will get an image of the window you chose. (Select option (⌥) in order to get rid of any border edges.)

How to customize your screenshot experience

If you can’t remember the keys to screenshot an entire window or a certain portion, Macs have an even easier way to screenshot. Press Command + Shift + 5 to bring up the toolbar (or simply open the screenshot tool from Spotlight).

Photo by Julia Mercado / Engadget

This will give you several options, such as taking screenshots of videos and even recording the screen. For a more customized experience, click on Options in order to set a timer for your screenshot and select the folder in which you want to save the image or video. This toolbar also allows you to do the basics like take a screenshot of the entire screen or just a specific window.

A bonus for Touch Bar MacBooks

Photo by Julia Mercado / Engadget

MacBooks with a Touch Bar have the ability to screenshot the bar itself: hit Command + Shift + 6 to do so.

Here’s a series of words that’ll send any sane person sighing themselves into oblivion, sorry in advance. Elon Musk has announced he may need to postpone his potential brawl with Mark Zuckerberg over a medical issue. The Xitter owner Xeeted he needs to get an MRI of his neck and upper back, which may lead to surgery before any date is set in stone.

Plenty of folks are hinting Musk’s medical issue may be as conveniently timed as Frasier Crane’s clarinet lesson. And this wouldn’t be the first time Musk has talked a good game and then spent the next few months doing his best to avoid following through. After all, that’s how he wound up owning Xitter in the first place – and look how well that’s gone.

I don’t know what’s worse: That billionaire CEOs are making lame jokes about punch-fighting one another or that some people are taking this stuff seriously. Or that this weird mix of idiotic bravura and unrestrained id means, in this increasingly dumb world, there’s a tiny but real chance it might actually go ahead.

– Dan Cooper

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MrBeast's burger company countersues the YouTube megastar for over $100 million

The pair should obviously resolve their dispute with a cage match.

YouTube star MrBeast teamed up with Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC), a ghost kitchen operator, to produce MrBeast-branded burgers. But customers quickly started saying the food was inedible, which prompted MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) to sue the company. Now, VDC has filed a countersuit, saying Donaldson has materially damaged its reputation and needs $100 million or more in compensation.

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Google Search now has an AI-powered grammar checker

It’s another useful tool baked into the search bar.

There are plenty of hidden features baked into Google Search that lets you solve tricky problems in a hurry. Now, the company has parked itself on Grammarly’s lawn by adding a machine learning-powered grammar checker into its search bar. All you need to do is type “Grammar Check” before a rough sentence and it’ll offer a correction if it thinks one is required.

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Colorado education department discloses data breach spanning 16 years

It’s time the government took education data security seriously.

Colorado’s Department of Higher Education (CDHE) has started notifying students of a potential data leak after a ransomware attack struck in June. Officials believe the attack exposed vital personal information, including names and social security numbers. Worse, the attack exposed data across several programs, from public schools to adult education schemes, going back 16 years. Education agencies have become an easy target for hackers, with nearly 200 attacks taking place since 2021.

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PS5 USB ports reportedly ‘melted’ at Evo 2023 esports tournament

Be careful what you plug into a PS5 in a hot, sweaty events room.

Photo by Aaron Souppouris / Engadget

There’s no question the PlayStation 5 is great, but even its most ardent fans admit its thermals are a problem. At the Evo 2023 esports tournament, attendees reported issues with their USB accessories, including connectors coming away full of melted plastic from the PS5’s rear. The console may not be entirely at fault here, given the variable nature of most USB accessories and the unusually high temperatures these events can reach. But it does serve as a reminder to keep your console in a cool, well-ventilated area – and if you don’t already have one, you can grab a disc-based PS5 for $449 right now.

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If you're running out of storage on a device like your phone or computer, but want to pay less for more, then now is your chance. A range of Samsung's Memory Chips and Drives are currently on sale, including the Samsung PRO Plus 512GB MicroSD. This new storage device is currently down to $35 from $60 — a 42 percent discount. It reads content at about 180MB per second and writes at 130MB per second. It also stores premium 4K video with UHS-I, V30-rated speed and A2 rating. We like it so much that we named it one of the best SSDs to buy this year. 

Other notable Samsung items on sale include the 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB and the T7 Shield 1TB. The 970 EVO plus is more advanced than the PRO Plus microSD, reading at a rate of 3,500MB per second and writing at 3,300MB per second. It also has the latest V-AND technology backing it up and a Dynamic Thermal Guard. The 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB is down to $80 from $100 — a 20 percent discount.

The TV Shield 1TB is also $80, but with a standard price of $160, it's a solid 50 percent discount. The device keeps cool in warmer temperatures and also comes outfitted with a Dynamic Thermal Guard. It's dust and water-resistant and available across PCs, consoles, tablets and more. You can check out the entire list of Samsung Memory Cards and Drives on sale here to find the best one for your lifestyle.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Almost three years after PayPal started supporting cryptocurrency for all US accounts, the fintech company has launched its own stablecoin that's pegged to the US dollar. PayPal USD, the payment processor said, is "100 percent backed by US dollar deposits, short-term US Treasuries and similar cash equivalents." The company first confirmed that it was "exploring a stablecoin" back in January last year after a developer found code and images for a "PayPal Coin" in its app. It said back then that it will work with relevant regulators "if and when [it] seek[s] to move forward."

In its announcement, PayPal explained that its coin is a token issued on the Ethereum blockchain by the Paxos Trust Company, which is subject to the regulatory oversight of the New York State Department of Financial Services. The company also obtained a BitLicense, or a business license of virtual currency activities, from the NYDFS in June 2022. 

Users can buy and sell PayPal USD coins for $1 each. They can send the coins to other users as payment or use them to purchase goods and services by selecting the option during the checkout process. They can also transfer PayPal USD to compatible external wallets or convert other cryptocurrencies in their account to and from the stablecoin. 

As Reuters notes, authorities previously thwarted attempts by major companies to introduce stablecoins of their own. Meta, for instance, spent two years trying to launch a stablecoin, but the project collapsed after repeated delays due to regulators' concerns that it could be used for money laundering and other nefarious purposes. Ian Katz, managing director of Capital Alpha Partners, told Reuters that PayPal USD could soon attract the attention of the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission. For now, PayPal is focusing on rolling out the new currency and all the things people can do with it in the US.

NASA has reestablished connection with Voyager 2 after a tense two weeks of not hearing anything from the probe. On July 21st, the agency lost contact with Voyager 2 following a series of planned commands that mistakenly pointed it two degrees away from our planet. While it is scheduled to automatically reset its orientation on October 15th, it's not surprising that NASA scientists didn't just wait for that date to know whether the spacecraft is still running. Voyager 2 was launched way back in 1977, and it's one of the only two probes sending us back valuable data on interstellar space. 

For a few days after July 21st, NASA wasn't even sure what the spacecraft's condition was. It wasn't until August 1st that multiple ground antennas from the Deep Space Network (DSN) were able to detect a carrier signal from the probe. A carrier signal is what a spacecraft uses to beam data back to the ground, but NASA said the one DSN detected was too weak to be able to transmit any information. Still, it was enough to confirm that Voyager 2 was still working and that it hadn't deviated from its trajectory. 

Instead of simply waiting for October, Voyager's ground team decided to take action. They concocted a plan to "shout" a command to the spacecraft across over 12.3 billion miles of space using the DSN, telling it to turn its antenna back to Earth. The whole process illustrated just how vast outer space truly is: It took 18.5 hours for that message to reach the probe, and another 18.5 hours for NASA to start receiving science and telemetry data again, indicating that Voyager 2 had received the command. 

This isn't the first time NASA has had issues with the spacecraft. In 2020, it had to provide tech assistance from billions of miles away after it tripped a system that shut off its scientific gear to conserve electricity. Voyager 2 entered interstellar space — that means it exited the plasma bubble created by our sun — back in 2018, becoming the second human-made object to do so after Voyager 1. Although NASA believes that both Voyager 1 and 2 could remain in contact with the DSN until 2036, it also says that "science data won't likely be collected after 2025." The spacecraft could only be providing us information on interstellar space for less than two years, so it stands to reason that scientists don't want to waste a single day it can send data back to Earth. 

Apple has quietly launched a new feature for its music streaming service that could help you expand your playlists and find new artists to listen to. It's a personalized radio station called "Discovery Station," which picks the songs it thinks you'd be into from Apple Music's catalog. As Apple Insider notes, the tech giant's music service hasn't gone all in on algorithmic recommendations like Spotify, which has several playlists that can generate mixes based on your listening habits. 

An Apple spokesperson told us that Discovery Station will only play music you haven't played on the service before from both familiar artists and potentially unfamiliar ones it thinks you might like. And since its main purpose is to help you discover new music, it will never play the same song twice and will play continuously until you stop it. Like other playlists that use algorithms to recommend tracks, Discovery Station also bases its suggestions on your activity and will keep changing as your taste evolves. 

The feature is now live around the world. If you're an existing subscriber, you can access it by going to your Listen Now page and checking out the Stations for You section. If you don't have a subscription, it will cost you at least $5 a month in the US for an audio-only plan or at least $11 a month if you want access to Apple Music's video programming and other features, such as lossless audio and Dolby Atmos. 

Late last year, Nikkei Asia reported that Japan was planning to add thousands of personnel to its military cyber defense unit. Now, we might know why — according to a report from the Washington Post, hackers in China had "deep, persistent access" to Japanese defense networks. When the National Security Agency is said to have first discovered the breach in late 2020, NSA Chief and Commander of US Cyber Command General Paul Nakasone flew to Japan with White House deputy national security advisor Matthew Pottinger to report the breach to officials.

Despite briefings that reached as high as Japan's prime minister, the Washington Post reports that hacking from China remained an issue for several months, persisting through the end of the Trump administration and well into early 2021.

US Cyber Command initially offered Japan assistance in purging its systems of malware but were reportedly rebuffed because the country was not comfortable with another nation's military accessing their systems. Instead, Japan elected to use domestic commercial security firms to find vulnerabilities, relying on the US only for guidance on what those firms found. Japan would eventually adopt a more active national security strategy, which is said to include a new cyber command to monitor networks around the clock, and as many as 4,000 active cybersecurity personnel.

Zoom has made changes to its terms of service after online blowback over recent updates to the company’s fine print allowing AI training on customer data. A report from StackDiary over the weekend highlighted how the changes, which rolled out in March without fanfare, appeared to grant the company sweeping control over customer data for AI training purposes. In response, Zoom published a blog post today claiming it wouldn’t do what its terms said it could do; the company then updated its terms in response to the continued blowback. It now says it doesn’t train AI models on consumer video, audio or chats “without customer consent.”

At least part of the issue stemmed from Zoom’s experimental AI tools, including IQ Meeting Summary (ML-powered summarizations) and IQ Team Chat Compose (AI-powered message drafting). Although account owners have to provide consent before starting a meeting using these tools, additional participants are only presented with two options: accept the terms and join the meeting, or reject them and leave the meeting.

“What raises alarm is the explicit mention of the company’s right to use this data for machine learning and artificial intelligence, including training and tuning of algorithms and models,” Alex Ivanovs wrote for Stack Diary. “This effectively allows Zoom to train its AI on customer content without providing an opt-out option, a decision that is likely to spark significant debate about user privacy and consent.” Ivanovs highlighted how the terms give it the right to “redistribute, publish, import, access, use, store, transmit, review, disclose, preserve, extract, modify, reproduce, share, use, display, copy, distribute, translate, transcribe, create derivative works, and process Customer Content and to perform all acts with respect to the Customer Content.”

In the company blog post published today, Zoom’s Chief Product Officer Smita Hashim stressed that account owners and administrators indeed have to provide consent before choosing to share their data for AI training, insisting it’s “used solely to improve the performance and accuracy of these AI services.” Hashim added that “even if you chose to share your data, it will not be used for training of any third-party models.” Continuing, she wrote, “We have permission to use this customer content to provide value-added services based on this content, but our customers continue to own and control their content. For example, a customer may have a webinar that they ask us to livestream on YouTube. Even if we use the customer video and audio content to livestream, they own the underlying content.”

“We will not use customer content, including education records or protected health information, to train our artificial intelligence models without your consent,” the blog post reads. A new section added to Zoom’s terms today makes it clearer: “Notwithstanding the above, Zoom will not use audio, video or chat Customer Content to train our artificial intelligence models without your consent.”

“Our goal is to enable Zoom account owners and administrators to have control over these features and decisions, and we’re here to shed light on how we do that and how that affects certain customer groups,” Hashim wrote.