We check for tech deals every weekday. On Fridays, we pull together the best of what we found that still happens to be on sale. This week, Amazon continued to sell Apple's latest AirPods Pro for a $50 discount and one more retailer joined in too. Samsung's flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S23 series, finally got a proper discount, instead of just a free storage upgrade, so you can grab the base configuration S23 Ultra for its lowest price yet. Depending on which options you want, Microsoft's tablet-PC hybrid, the Surface Pro 9, is up to $300 off during the company's spring sale. There's also a deal on a rugged portable SSD, as well as discounts on a graphics card, bluetooth speakers and even a projector. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.

Apple AirPods Pro

If you didn't dive in last week and are still hoping to save on Apple's second-gen AirPods Pro, here's good news: Amazon is continuing its $50 discount on the buds. Verizon is now matching the price too, so if you'd rather buy from them, you can. The $200 price point matches the lowest price we've seen so far and if you're an iPhone person, we think these are the best buds you can buy. They've got one of the best transparency modes of any buds we've tested, perfect if you like to listen to music but still keep an ear on what's going on around you. The overall sound is clear and much improved over the previous generation Pros, with properly immersive sound. And of course, they work seamlessly with iOS and Apple's ecosystem in general. They earned an 88 in our review.

One other sale we can point you to is a discount that's still holding strong on our favorite earbuds overall, Sony's Sony WF-1000XM4. They're $198 after a 29 percent discount, which is the lowest price outside of the shopping holidays last November.  

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

Samsung's latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is $200 off at Amazon right now — and that discount applies to the 256GB and 512GB configuration. We've seen sales on the S23 Ultra before, but the savings essentially amounted to free storage upgrades, as they made the 512GB phone the same price as the 256GB model. But now if you just need the base model of the premium handheld, you can still save some money. We like the long battery life, brilliant display and improved cameras on the S23 Ultra and gave it an 89 in our review. We also happen to think it's the best Android phone you can buy. 

If you're thinking of grabbing the Galaxy S23+ instead, that model is getting a $150 discount, again in both storage configurations, making the 256GB size $850 and the 512GB capacity phone $970. The S23+ earned an 86 in our review, but don't necessarily think you need to upgrade to this model if you already have the S22+.

For an even bigger bargain, you can check out Google's Pixel 7, which Amazon is selling for 25 percent off, making it $450 instead of $600. The phone earned a 90 in our review, in which we called it and the Pixel 7 Pro the best bargain in flagship phones. 

Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5 Pro

Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is down to $394.49 at Amazon right now, which is a 12 percent discount over its usual $450 price tag and actually lower that it sold for on Cyber Monday. The watch features GPS tracking for your hikes and runs and offers sleep tracking and coaching. The sensors can even give you a body composition analysis. The deal only applies to the black Bluetooth model. If you want it in gray or with LTE connectivity, you'll have to pay full price. 

Of course, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 is cheaper overall, and it's on sale for $249. That's $20 above the lowest price we've seen, but it's still more affordable than the Pro version. We called the standard Galaxy Watch 5 the best smartwatch for Android users and it gives you in-depth fitness and health tracking, body composition analysis and sleep coaching. The only thing it lacks over the Pro model is the larger titanium case and the turn-by-turn hiking and biking directions you get from the Pro's GPX-format routes.  

Blink Mini indoor camera

Many of Amazon's Blink security devices are on sale right now, including the Blink Mini for 29 percent off and the Blink Outdoor for 36 percent off. Both discounts are within $5 of the all-time-lows the devices hit during last year's Black Friday sales. We named Blink Outdoor the best wireless security camera in our guide to smart home devices. Amazon is discounting other Blink devices as well, including the Blink Video Doorbell for 30 percent off, making it just $35 instead of $50. While doorbell cams can bring peace of mind, we should note that these devices do have their share of security concerns. But if the benefits of keeping tabs on your homefront outweigh any possible risks, you may also be interested in Arlo's sale on similar security devices. 

Google Nest Doorbell

If you'd rather Google kept an eye on things over Amazon, you may want to check out Google's sale on its Nest security devices. At both the Google Store and at Amazon, the wired Google Nest Doorbell is down to $130, which is a $50, or 28 percent, discount and the lowest we've seen it drop yet. This is the wired version, which means the device will never go dead (outside of a power outage) but you'll need to have doorbell wires available for installation. Otherwise, you'll want the battery version of the Nest Doorbell. 

Other Google home devices are on sale too, including the Nest Thermostat which is $90 after a 31 percent discount, and the outdoor or indoor Google Nest Cam — down to $140 after taking 22 percent off the $180 list price.    

XGIMI MoGo Pro Portable Projector

Portable projectors can bring your movies and shows to more places — including outside. The XGIMI MoGo Pro Portable Projector is our favorite portable budget projector in our updated guide to projectors and right now it's seeing a 40 percent discount at Amazon, making it $300 instead of $500. You can snag the same discount directly from Xgimi too. MoGo Pro is small enough to fit in a backpack and can run for over two hours on a charge. The image it delivers from the 300 lumen DLP projector is reasonably accurate, with 1080p resolution. Keystone and auto focus will help you get it looking as sharp and accurate as possible, and the built-in Harman Kardon speakers will handle the accompanying audio.

PS5 God of War: Ragnarok bundle

This particular bundle went on sale last month, but it's back — good news for those who weren't yet ready for a PS5 but are now. The PS5 God of War: Ragnarok bundle includes Sony's latest console along with one of our favorite games of last year. The 9 percent discount knocks $50 off the game and console, which basically means you're getting GoW: Ragnarok for $20, since it usually goes for $70 on its own. While that may not sound like the largest discount, the bundle is notable for being available at all — in 2022 the PS5 was tricky to find in stock anywhere. As for the game, we think its one of the best games you can play on Sony's console. If you prefer, you can get the same deal from Target, Adorama or Best Buy.  

Bose SoundLink Flex

We named Bose's SoundLink Flex one of our favorite portable Bluetooth speakers and right now it's getting a solid $20 discount from Amazon, Adorama, Best Buy or directly from Bose itself. The speaker is about the size (and sort of looks like) a clutch bag, but still manages to deliver good clarity and significant bass. It's not a room-filler, but can pair up with similar speakers for stereo sound. The IP67 rating means it's dust proof and can handle a dunk in water without damage. Perfect for taking outside as the weather warms up. 

A slightly bigger speaker that also gets the nod of our recommendation is JBL's Charge 5. Both Amazon and JBL are selling it for $140, which is a 22 percent discount and the lowest price we've seen outside of the shopping holidays last November. The Charge 5 delivers an impressive 20-hour battery life and can even recharge your smaller devices. The bright output and decent low end is great for entertaining a few people and comes in a portable two-pound package. 

Microsoft Surface Pro 9

If you've been thinking about getting a Surface device, now is a good time to do so as Microsoft is hosting a spring sale with up to $300 off different devices. Discounts apply to the tablet-PC hybrid Surface Pros, with the more expensive versions seeing the larger savings. Not to be outdone, Amazon is also offering deals on different configurations of the Pro 9. 

Microsoft came out with the Surface Pro 9 in October of 2022 and they essentially made two different models: one with WiFi connectivity running on an Intel chip and a 5G-enabled version powered by Microsoft's own SQ3 ARM chip. We got the chance to review the 5G model and you can read our review here. For the record, we prefer the Surface Pro 9 without the 5G connectivity, and recommend it as the best convertible laptop in our guide to the best laptops. 

Microsoft is also including discounts of up to $450 on newer models of Surface Laptops, including the Surface Laptop 5, which impressed us with its faster Intel processor and added Thunderbolt support, but we felt that the chassis and overall design could use an update. 

Eero Pro 6 mesh WiFi router

We covered a similar deal on Amazon's Eero Pro 6 mesh Wi-Fi 6 router a couple weeks ago at Wellbots. If you didn't take advantage then, and still want better Wi-Fi coverage for your home, you can snap up a unit now for the same $40 discount. That's 20 percent off and, while it's not the lowest price yet, it's the cheapest the unit has sold for since last year's holiday sales. The router will cover 2,000 square feet, offers support for WiFi 6 and can deliver speeds of up to a gigabit per second. If you've got a lot of smart home devices, the Eero Pro 6 can connect up to 75 of them at once. If you've got a late-model Echo speaker, Eero routers can turn them into WiFi extenders to offer even more coverage. 

Samsung T7 Shield portable SSD

Need a little more storage for games and files? The T7 Shield SSD takes our favorite portable SSD, Samsung's T7, and wraps it up in a tough rubber casing to make it water- and dust-resistant. Right now, the 1TB and 2TB versions of the drive are on sale at Amazon, Best Buy and directly from Samsung, going for $80 and $130, respectively. Both prices are at or very near the lowest we've seen on the drives yet. 

SanDisk's Extreme Portable SSD in the 1TB size is also getting a discount this week, with 64 percent savings at both Amazon and at B&H Photo. 

ASRock AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT graphics card

Newegg is selling ASRock's AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT graphics card for $610 after a $50 discount and a $20 promo code. Enter VGAEXCAA496 at checkout to get the full deal. You'll also get a free game code for The Last of Us, just in case you don't have that title yet. When it launched last year, the card went for around $1,000, so this a decent discount and a new low. While this isn't the newest GPU from AMD (and it eats a lot of power), it can still capably play many games in 4K, with strong high-fps performance in 1440p. 

It's no accident that this discount is coming shortly after Nvidia's launch of the similar RTX 4070, which is probably the card you should get if you care about ray tracing. But if not, or if you'd specifically prefer an AMD card, this is a relatively good value. Newegg is also selling ASRock's AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Phantom graphics card for $540, which is a decent price for another 1440p option, and also includes TLOU game code.

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Astronomers have discovered a new exoplanet — but this time, the way they found it may be as significant as the discovery itself. Researchers used a breakthrough combination of indirect and direct planetary detection to locate the distant world known as HIP 99770 b. It could inch us closer to finding Earth-like exoplanets among our (distantly) neighboring stars.

Direct imaging is what most casual observers would expect to lie at the heart of exoplanet hunting: using powerful telescopes with advanced optics to capture images of distant planetary bodies. However, direct imaging is most effective for planets orbiting far from their stars; an exoplanet closer to its sun is usually obscured by the star’s bright light, making it difficult to detect or image. (When they’re farther away, there’s greater contrast between the exoplanet’s and the star’s light.)

Meanwhile, indirect imaging (precision astrometry) looks for stars that appear to “wobble,” meaning their gravity may be affected by an (otherwise unseen to us) exoplanet. This method can more easily detect the presence of planets orbiting closer to their stars — like the Earth’s relationship to the Sun. As a result, indirect imaging has yielded over 5,000 exoplanet discoveries, while direct imaging has only captured about 20.

The international team of researchers, led by Thayne Currie of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and the University of Texas at San Antonio, combined the two methods to discover the new exoplanet. First, they used data from the Hipparcos-Gaia Catalogue of Accelerations — a map tracking the precise positions and motions of nearly two million stars in the Milky Way — to identify the star HIP 99770 as a prime candidate for hosting an exoplanet. Then, they used Japan’s ultra-powerful Subaru telescope (in Mauna Kea, Hawaii) to directly image the newly discovered exoplanet, creatively titled HIP 99770 b.

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency image above illustrates that the exoplanet is about 16 times as massive as Jupiter. Despite having an orbit over three times longer than Jupiter’s orbit around our Sun, HIP 99770 b receives around the same amount of light as Jupiter because its sun is about twice as massive as ours. The researchers say it may have water and carbon monoxide in its atmosphere.

Astronomers believe the new method combining direct and indirect imaging opens an exciting new door for future discoveries. “It provides a new path forward to discovering more exoplanets, and characterizing them in a far more holistic way than we could do before,” says Currie. Additionally, the group views Gaia’s upcoming fourth data release, which will yield nearly double the previous version’s data, will make it easier to identify stars wobbling from the gravity of planetary bodies. “The discovery of this planet will spawn dozens of follow-on studies.” The team is now studying data from about 50 other stars showing promise for hosting exoplanets.

“This is sort of a test run for the kind of strategy we need to be able to image an earth,” said Currie. “It demonstrates that an indirect method sensitive to a planet’s gravitational pull can tell you where to look and exactly when to look for direct imaging. So I think that’s really exciting.”

The Super Mario Bros. Movie has only been in theaters for a week and a half, but it's been pulverizing box office records faster than Nintendo's mascot can run from left to right. It already had the highest-grossing opening weekend for any video game-based movie in the US and Canada, but the film has proven to be a hit around the globe.

According to Variety, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has raked in north of $508.7 million worldwide. That makes it both the biggest film of 2023 so far as well as the highest-earning video game movie of all time in theaters. The previous record holder was Warcraft, which had a global haul of $439 million.

After the bizarre mess of the 1993 live-action Super Mario. Bros film, Nintendo swore off movie adaptations of its properties for decades. But with the help of Despicable Me studio Illumination and a focus on replicating the widely recognized art style of Mario games in animation, Nintendo has struck gold with the latest film (even if the plot doesn't amount to much).

There's a long way to go before Nintendo, Illumination and Universal, which co-financed and distributed the flick, can truly dream of The Super Mario Bros. Movie becoming one of the biggest animated films of all time. It hasn't broken into the top 50 yet, while the 2019 remake of The Lion King has the top spot with $1.66 billion.

Still, movies and other non-gaming experiences like theme parks will likely form a major part of Nintendo's business going forward. A Mario sequel and films based on other Nintendo properties (a Breath of the Wild adaptation, anyone?) now seem inevitable, as if Illumination founder Chris Meledandri having a seat on the board wasn't clear enough of an indication.

Months after Ye dropped his bid, Parler has a new owner... and is out of commission for the time being. Starboard, the owner of pro-conservative news outlets like American Wire News, has shut down Parler on a temporary but indefinite basis after completing its acquisition of the social network from Parlement Technologies. The buyer says it will conduct a "strategic assessment" of the platform during the downtime, and hopes to integrate Parler's audience into all its existing channels.

Starboard isn't shy about its strategy. While it still sees a market for communities that believe they've been censored or marginalized, it considers a Parler revamp virtually necessary. "No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more," the company says.

Parler launched in 2018 as a self-proclaimed free speech alternative to Twitter, which some conservatives claim is biased against right-wing views. It had few rules or moderation controls. Like Gab, though, it also became a haven for people with extreme views. Parler drew flak in January 2021 after word that people involved in the Capitol attack used the social platform to coordinate. Apple and Google kicked Parler off their respective app stores until it improved moderation and kept out users inciting violence.

Ye offered to buy Parler from Parlement in late 2022 after being banned from Twitter for antisemitic posts, but called off the deal in mid-November through a mutual agreement that cited the star's "business difficulties" as a factor. Soon after, Parlement laid off most of its staff. The firm is pivoting to cloud services for businesses that believe they could be knocked offline for their content.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Starboard chief Ryan Coyne says he expects to keep users on Parler despite rivalries with other sites, such as former President Trump's Truth Social. However, the absence of a revival date doesn't leave members many options. For now, they'll have to use other platforms to express themselves.

Researchers at Stanford Medicine have made a promising discovery that could lead to new cancer treatments in the future. Scientists conducted tests in which they altered the genomes of skin-based microbes and bacteria to fight cancer. These altered microbes were swabbed onto cancer-stricken mice and, lo and behold, tumors began to dissipate.

The bacteria in question, Staphylococcus epidermidis, was grabbed from the fur of mice and altered to produce a protein that stimulates the immune system with regard to specific tumors. The experiment seemed to be a resounding success, with the modified bacteria killing aggressive types of metastatic skin cancer after being gently applied to the fur. The results were also achieved without any noticeable inflammation.

“It seemed almost like magic,” said Michael Fischbach, PhD, an associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford. “These mice had very aggressive tumors growing on their flank, and we gave them a gentle treatment where we simply took a swab of bacteria and rubbed it on the fur of their heads.”

This is yet another foray into the misunderstood world of microbiomes and all of the bacteria that reside there. Gut biomes get all of the press these days, but the skin also plays host to millions upon millions of bacteria, fungi and viruses, and the purpose of these entities is often unknown.

In this instance, scientists found that staph epidermidis cells trigger the production of immune cells called CD8 T cells. The researchers basically hijacked the S. epidermidis into producing CD8 T cells that target specific antigens. In this case, the antigens were related to skin cancer tumors. When the cells encountered a matching tumor, they began to rapidly reproduce and shrink the mass, or extinguish it entirely.

“Watching those tumors disappear — especially at a site distant from where we applied the bacteria — was shocking,” Fischbach said. “It took us a while to believe it was happening.”

As with all burgeoning cancer treatments, there are some heavy caveats. First of all, these experiments are being conducted on mice. Humans and mice are biologically similar in many respects, but a great many treatments that work on mice are a dud with people. Stanford researchers have no idea if S. epidermidis triggers an immune response in humans, though our skin is littered with the stuff, so they may need to find a different microbe to alter. Also, this treatment is designed to treat skin cancer tumors and is applied topically. It remains to be seen if the benefits carry over to internal cancers.

With that said, the Stanford team says they expect human trials to start within the next few years, though more testing is needed on both mice and other animals before going ahead with people. Scientists hope that this treatment could eventually be pointed at all kinds of infectious diseases, in addition to cancer cells.

Instagram is rolling out several Reels updates, including a redesigned editing tool. The new-look editor, which Meta says is available worldwide on iOS and Android, pulls together video clips, audio, stickers and text into a single, more streamlined screen. "This makes it easier to align and time elements of your reel to the right moments in a more visual way," Meta wrote in a blog post. The company noted that additional editing tools are on the way as it continues to try to chip away at TikTok's dominance.

Reels creators who are looking to go viral and build their audiences on Instagram will be able to check out the top audio and hashtags on what Meta is calling a "trends destination." The tab is accessible from the dashboard. You'll be able to see how many times others have used a song and either add the audio to your own reel or save it for later.

This should help creators figure out what's popular in Reels at a given time so they can tap into trends. It's fairly easy for TikTok creators to determine what's trending in that app, so this seems like an important update for Instagram.

Instagram

On a related note, Instagram is upgrading the Reels insights page to give creators a deeper sense of how their videos are performing. You'll be able to view the total watch time and average watch time to better understand how viewers are engaging with each reel beyond view counts. If it seems most viewers are dropping off at a certain point in a video, that could help creators learn what their audience is less interested in seeing and make adjustments to their future reels. In addition, you'll get notifications showing the people who started following you from a specific reel.

Meanwhile, Instagram will expand the gifts monetization feature to more countries in the coming weeks, including Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, New Zealand and the UK. In addition, creators will be able to see exactly who tipped them with a gift so they can thank generous fans.

Accused classified document leaker Jack Teixeira may be learning first-hand about the ease of tracking people's digital lives. The federal government has charged Teixeira with illegally taking national defense info and classified items after a quick investigation focused on his digital trail. As The New York Times' Christiaan Triebert explains, his investigative journalism team identified Teixeira by finding an Instagram account mentioned in his Steam profile. That, in turn, showed photos of the granite kitchen countertop and floor tiles visible in the leaks.

The suspect hasn't yet entered a plea and will face a hearing on April 19th. The two charges against him carry a maximum combined sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

Teixeira, an Air National Guardsman in Massachusetts, allegedly began sharing the documents on a Minecraft-oriented Discord server in late 2022. He initially transcribed them himself but later posted photos of the raw material. He supposedly didn't intend to act as a whistleblower (he was trying to impress his gaming friends), but the content eventually reached other Discord servers as well as 4chan and Telegram.

The documents include large volumes of information about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including Ukraine's strategy as well as Russia's bids to secure weapons from Egypt and Turkey. The files also show how the US spies on allies and otherwise monitors their activity, such as interest in UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The FBI arrested Teixeira the afternoon of April 13th. The case has raised questions about the ease of access to classified material in the US military. Teixeira is an Airman First Class who serves as a Cyber Transport Systems Journeyman — effectively, technical support. The Washington Post notes Teixeira could nonetheless use the Pentagon's Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, granting him access to top secret intelligence like that from the leak.

Cooking via “sous vide” might sound complicated and intimidating, but it’s actually a lot easier than you might think. French for “under vacuum,” “sous vide” simply translates to immersing vacuum-sealed food in a temperature-controlled water bath until the food is cooked to your liking. Instead of worrying about whether a steak is medium rare or whether that chicken breast will be dry, you can just dial in your desired temperature, wait a few hours, and you’ll get perfect results without the guesswork.

Though sous vide cooking was once the province of professional cooks with expensive equipment, affordable options are now widely available. Wand-like immersion circulators have made sous vide cooking accessible to home chefs for several years now. And, like a lot of kitchen tools now, many sous vide devices even have companion apps and WiFi connectivity that make the process even more automated. If you’re curious about giving sous vide cooking a go, we’ll walk you through the process of choosing the right machine for you and share some of the tips and tricks we’ve learned through our own experiments.

How to pick a smart sous vide machine

If you’re going to choose a sous vide machine, we definitely recommend getting a smart one, which means it either has Bluetooth or WiFi capabilities (or both). That’s because this often adds a whole lot more features than you might otherwise have. We suggest getting models with a companion app that will help you set up and monitor your sous vide temperature remotely. Bluetooth-only models work when you're within 30 to 40 feet of the cooker, while those with WiFi let you supervise your food from anywhere in your home, or as long as you're on the same network. We also tend to prefer apps that come with recipes already on it, especially if you’re new to sous vide cooking and need some help getting started.

Other factors to consider

At a minimum, the other items you need to cook sous vide are a large metal pot (big enough to fill with water) and zipper-lock freezer bags to put the food in. Alternatively, you can use reusable silicone bags such as these from Stasher. Rather than using a vacuum sealer to get rid of air, you would use the water displacement method: Immerse the bagged food in the water while partially unsealed, and water pressure will push the air through the opening. Once everything is mostly underwater, you can seal the bag and it'll stay submerged.

If it still floats, you can stick one or two spoons in the bag, and that will hopefully weigh things down. (J. Kenji Lopez-Alt from Serious Eats also suggests using a large binder clip attached to the bottom of the bag along with a heavy spoon.) If you're concerned about water getting in the bag, you can attach the bag tops to the pot with binder clips, thus keeping the bag upright.

If you're really serious about sous vide, you might want to invest in some specialty equipment. Instead of pots, for example, you could opt for large restaurant-grade plastic containers by Cambro or Rubbermaid. Not only is plastic a better insulator than metal, but there's generally more space for more food, which is handy when you're cooking for a crowd.

Whether you use a pot or a plastic container, it's best to cover the vessel with plastic wrap when cooking for long periods, to keep evaporation to a minimum. Some companies, like Chefsteps, offer custom silicone pot lids that are made specially to accommodate their sous vide cookers. Alternatively, Lopez-Alt offers a much cheaper and more ingenious solution: cover your water in ping pong balls. They'll slow down evaporation.

Additionally, while zipper-lock bags work well for most tasks, it's still not a bad idea to get a vacuum sealer along with thicker plastic bags designed specifically for sous vide. For one, this lets you sous vide vegetables or braised meats, which typically require a higher temperature. (Zipper-lock bag seams might fail when it's that hot.) This also lets you freeze a bunch of food, vacuum seal them and sous vide packets straight from the freezer, which is convenient for batch cooking.

You likely already have this at your disposal, but another handy tool is a good skillet to sear your meat. That sous vide device might be able to cook your steak to medium rare, but it won't be able to brown it. A cast iron skillet, on the other hand, will. You could also consider a torch like the Bernzomatic TS8000, and we've seen others use a Searzall — but a cast iron skillet is far more affordable than either option. Of course, if you have a grill, you can use that too.

There are other miscellaneous items that could prove useful. Lopez-Alt likes having a pot lid organizer immersed in the container to help separate several submerged bags. If you want to make custard, yogurt or breakfast cups with your sous vide cooker, you should get yourself some mason jars too.

One more indispensable item worth considering: a trivet to rest your water vessel on so you don't destroy your countertop.

Sous vide recipe resources

Since affordable sous vide cookers have been in the market for a few years now, there’s no shortage of recipes and guidelines online to help you figure out what to do with your newfangled kitchen gadget. The links below are some of our favorites, though bear in mind that a lot of this is based on personal taste. Your mileage may vary.

Anova

It only makes sense that the maker of one of the most popular sous vide machines also has a deep library of sous vide recipes. If you're ever at a loss as to what to make via sous vide, simply peek at this website, where you can search for recipes from professionals and amateurs alike.

Serious Eats

We've mentioned it several times here already in this guide, but Serious Eats truly is a remarkably useful resource for all things sous vide. Its guide to sous vide steak is a favorite among Engadget staffers, as is its take on slow-cooked sous-vide style eggs, which results in some of the best eggs I've ever had.

Chefsteps

Years before making the Joule, Chefsteps made a name for itself as a cooking school with a heavy emphasis on food science, tech and molecular gastronomy. That's probably why the sous vide recipes from Chefsteps are some of the more creative ones we've seen. One recipe, for example, teaches you how to make that perfect chicken breast along with the perfect accompaniment for said chicken breast — perhaps a crunchy apple fennel salad and a buttery carrot puree. Other favorite recipes include wonderfully tender salmon filets, juicy pork chops and Chefsteps' own interpretation of the "sous vide egg bites" you sometimes find in certain Starbucks shops.

Sous Vide at Home

This is actually a cookbook from the people behind the Nomiku WiFi sous vide machine (which has since been discontinued), but the recipes in it will work with any sous vide device. Not only does it have beautiful photographs, but it also offers fantastic recipes like jerk chicken wings, duck confit and chocolate pots du creme.

Other noteworthy recipes:

• Gooey apple pie

• Overnight sous vide bacon

• Turkey porchetta (Turchetta)

• Yogurt

• Eggs Benedict

• Sous vide pork ribs

• Rump roast

Sous vide alternatives

Aside from immersion circulators like the ones mentioned here, you could also opt for multi-purpose appliances that offer sous vide-like functions. Several Instant Pots, for example, offer such a feature. Unfortunately, however, they do not circulate the water like the aforementioned immersion circulators, and the temperatures aren’t quite as precise (which is a definite downside if you need something cooked to a specific temperature). But if you don’t really care about that, or you just want to dabble occasionally in sous vide, this might be a viable option.

If you’re dead set on a multi-tasking appliance and you have the money to spend, consider the Anova Precision Oven. Thanks to its use of steam, you can indeed use it to cook foods via sous vide but without the need for plastic bags. It also uses a fan to circulate the moist air around the food and a probe thermometer helps keep foods at a precise temperature. And, of course, the Precision Oven can be used as a regular oven as well, and is great for baking breads and bagels. It is, however, quite expensive at $700 and takes up a lot of counter space.

Images: Will Lipman for Engadget (Anova / holiday light background)

Spotify has some disappointing news for Heardle fans: the company is shutting down the song-guessing game, which it bought last summer. “Thanks for playing Heardle, but unfortunately we have to say goodbye,” a message on the Heardle webpage reads. “From May 5th, Heardle will no longer be available.”

Players who want to keep a record of their stats for posterity should take a screenshot, Spotify says. The stats will no longer be available after May 4th.

Heardle emerged early last year in the wake of Wordle's massive success. In turn, it became one of the more prominent and successful Wordle clones. Third-party data suggests that Heardle reached a high of 69 million monthly visitors last March.

The makers of Heardle sold the game to Spotify in July. However, just before that deal was announced, Heardle's monthly visitor numbers had seemingly dipped to 41 million, according to TechCrunch, suggesting that the game's popularity was already tapering off. In comparison, The New York Times, Wordle's owner, says tens of millions of people are still playing that game each week.

When it bought Heardle, Spotify said it saw the game as a music discovery tool. Whether a player successfully guessed each day's song based on the intro or not, they were provided with a link to hear the full track on Spotify. It may be the case that Spotify wasn't seeing a high level of clickthrough rates, so Heardle may ultimately not have helped much in terms of music discovery. Moreover, the game is said to have aped some music discovery functions that are also present in Spotify's app.

It's hard to imagine that Spotify's daily song choices helped matters. Along with many classic tracks, Heardle often featured music that didn't exactly light up the Billboard charts but instead went viral on TikTok. It seems that Spotify didn't quite strike the balance of using Heardle as a music discovery tool while also making each song recognizable enough for fans to identify and keep their streaks going.

In addition, some players were frustrated that Heardle kept going back to the same wells over and over by featuring several songs from one artist over a relatively short time. Within the space of five months last year, Heardle featured six Green Day tracks, despite there being thousands of well-known artists and hit songs to choose from. Far too many Imagine Dragons songs have popped up over the last few months too (one would have been more than enough).

Spotify reportedly didn't have a team dedicated to working on Heardle, so there won't be any layoffs as a result of the game's closure. It's hard to imagine that picking one song each day and maintaining Heardle would have taken a ton of work. Engadget has contacted Spotify for comment.

You can technically run Windows on gaming handhelds like the Steam Deck, but it's not really designed for small-screened devices and their specialized hardware. However, there's at least one person at Microsoft who would like to improve the situation. Developer and Reddit user AndrewMT has confirmed that a Walking Cat video leak represents a hackathon project meant to optimize Windows 11 for Steam Deck-style devices. The proposal from September would have not only improved driver support, but fine-tuned the interface and introduced tools to help you quickly launch and exit games regardless of which service they came from.

The project was spurred by the desire to use multiple non-Steam services (such as Xbox Game Pass and GOG) and Windows' support for game mods and trainers, AndrewMT says. He also notes that The Verge isn't right in suggesting that this is an ongoing initiative. The handheld Windows proposal "didn't go much of anywhere," the developer explains. While Xbox head Phil Spencer offered contact with people who could help, they were occupied at the time. AndrewMT is hopeful the publicity will help pitch the idea a second time.

Numerous gaming handhelds, including the new ASUS ROG Ally as well as portables from Ayaneo and GPD, already run Windows out of the box. However, their creators typically load custom front-ends to make up for Windows' lack of optimization. And while you can technically use Xbox Cloud Gaming on a Steam Deck thanks to the web, Valve's system is ultimately a Linux machine built to run Steam games.

A project like AndrewMT's would theoretically encourage manufacturers to build Windows-powered handhelds. They wouldn't have to pour as much work into software, and could expect games from a wide range of stores to run smoothly. Any official commitment would take a while to pan out, however. While Microsoft senior user experience designer Dorothy Feng has already explored a prototype handheld interface, there's considerably more work necessary to make this proposal a practical reality.