I am not a chef. I’m not a cook. I’m barely a functioning male adult, but I wanted an air fryer. Not because I live on chicken fingers and fries but because there’s no quicker way for me to make crispy gyoza from frozen, to make relatively healthy (not-quite) fried chicken and douse it in fiery Korean sauces and sesame seeds. More broadly, air fryers have expanded my kitchen repertoire without forcing me to heat up my oven and time things meticulously.

Engadget

The Engadget team called in a bunch of air fryers, complained about cleaning some of them and highlighted the best. The boring, measured advice is that the best air fryer for you depends on your own circumstances. Got plenty of kitchen space? Get the convection oven-styled ones. Living alone? You can get 80 percent of the benefits with the smallest pod air fryers.

My pro-tip? Reheated pizza. Try it in the air fryer and never look back.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

• Is this smart toaster worth $399?

• 'Fall Guys' lands on Switch, Xbox and Epic Games Store on June 21st

• Cadillac's Lyriq EV will start at $62,990

• Peloton and iFit settle patent feud

• Apple will allow some apps to automatically charge you higher subscription prices

• Tesla starts taking Semi truck reservations, five years later

• Amazon's Fire TV sale cuts its streaming devices by up to 42 percent

• TP-Link's new smart home line includes affordable 2K security cameras

Apple staff are already using Tap to Pay at the HQ visitor center

Contactless payments using only an iPhone.

In February, Apple unveiled Tap to Pay, a new feature for merchants to accept payments with only an iPhone. The company is already testing the feature in the wild… sort of. Staff are using the feature at the Apple Park visitor center in Cupertino, where customers can make an Apple Pay payment directly to an Apple staffer’s iPhone, with no payment terminal in sight.

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Here are the new games included in ​​PlayStation Plus' new high-end tiers

Alongside ‘Ghost of Tsushima,’ there are some classics from the past.

Sony has revealed the first games to arrive with the launch of its new PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscription services. PlayStation Studios titles include Demon's Souls and Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut, along with third-party games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and NBA 2K22. Those games will arrive in the "launch time frame," starting May 24th.

Premium members will also get access to classic games "with some titles that will show improved frame rates and higher-quality resolution compared to their original launch versions," Sony wrote. Think Ape Escape, Hot Shots Golf, Tekken 2 and Worms Armageddon, along with remasters like Dark Cloud and Rogue Galaxy.

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Apple rolls out iOS 15.5

There are upgrades for Apple Cash and Podcasts.

Apple has released iOS 15.5 and its iPadOS 15.5 counterpart, with improvements to both Apple Cash and Podcasts. Cash users can now send and receive money from their card, while Podcasts users can automatically limit episode storage based on criteria like the number of shows or time since release. Oh, by the way, have you subscribed to The Morning Edition?

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Uber Eats is launching two autonomous delivery pilot schemes

Both in Los Angeles.

Uber

Uber Eats is testing autonomous deliveries, hard. The first pilot is an autonomous vehicle partnership with Motional, originally announced in December, and the second is with sidewalk delivery firm Serve Robotics, a company that spun out of Uber itself. Both in Los Angeles.

Trials are limited for now, with deliveries from just a few merchants, like the Kreation Organic Kafe and Juicery. Serve will do short delivery routes in West Hollywood, while Motional will take care of longer deliveries in Santa Monica.

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A new 'Black Mirror' season is in the works after a long hiatus

Casting is underway for the upcoming episodes, according to 'Variety.'

Black Mirror is coming back. Variety reports Netflix has greenlit a sixth season, with more episodes than season five. It seems casting is in progress for an even more cinematic season than before.

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With Twitter deal on hold, Musk says a lower sale price isn't 'out of the question’

On and on it goes.

Reuters

Elon Musk is continuing to clash with Twitter over the accuracy of its bot count and hinted yesterday that he may try to renegotiate the $44 billion deal. According to a Bloomberg report, Musk told attendees at a Miami conference that a deal at a lower price wasn’t “out of the question."

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Google has finally opened its Bay View campus to employees almost 10 years after revealing its initial plans for the new facility back in 2013. It's the first Google campus the company has developed itself, and it definitely doesn't look like the traditional offices you're used to. One of the first things you'll probably notice about the new HQ, for instance, is its roof that looks like dragonscales from afar. 

This "dragonscale skin" design is actually made up of 90,000 silver solar panels capable of generating almost seven megawatts of energy, or up to 40 percent of the new offices' energy needs. Wind farms nearby will also provide the energy needed to run the all-electric HQ that has two kitchens equipped with electric equipment instead of gas. In addition, the campus has automated window shades to let a lot of natural lighting in during the day and a ventilation system that uses 100 percent outside air. 

The new campus also houses the largest geothermal installation in North America that will help heat and cool the campus without the use of fossil fuels. It even reduces the amount of water used for cooling by 90 percent. This geothermal pile system uses pumps to absorb heat from the ground during wintertime and to send heat into the ground in the summer.

Google only recently started transitioning its workforce to a hybrid work schedule that would require employees to work in its offices a few times a week. The Bay View HQ's natural lighting, greenery and wide open spaces could help make the transition easier for people who've been working from home these past two years. 

Last week, Costa Rica declared a state of emergency following a massive Conti ransomware attack on its government. Now, Conti has boosted its threat, saying its aim is nothing less than to overthrow the government, The Associated Press has reported. "We have our insiders in your government," the group said. "We are also working on gaining access to your other systems, you have no other options but to pay us."

The group, which also doubled its ransom demand to $20 million, may be trying to take advantage of the fact that Costa Rica's President Rodrigo Chaves has only been in office for a week. "We are at war and that’s not an exaggeration," Chaves said, adding that officials were dealing with a national terrorist group with collaborators inside the nation. He says that the scale is broader than thought, with 27 government institutions, including municipalities and state utilities, affected. 

The US State Department has declared a $10 million bounty on Conti, saying the attack "severely impacted the country's foreign trade by disrupting its customs and taxes platforms." It's reported to have affected Costa Rica's ministries of finance, labor and social security, among other bodies. 

Conti was also in the news recently after attacking Parker Hannifin, a major component supplier for Boeing and Lockheed Martin. It reportedly infiltrated current and former employees, stealing information like their social security numbers, passport numbers, bank and routing numbers and more. 

However, the threat to overthrow Costa Rica's government is likely just a ruse to extort more money, according to a ransomware analyst cited by the AP. "I believe this is simply a for-profit cyber attack," said Emisoft's Brett Callow. "Nothing more."

Apple has announced an update to its subscription policy that's supposed to make auto-renews seamless but could also lead to surprise charges. Under the old policy, the tech giant will ask users to opt in before they're charged for a subscription that has recently raised its price. Going forward, however, it will allow developers to automatically charge higher prices, so long as they meet a set of conditions. Apple will notify users of the price increase in advance via email and push notification, but it's up to them to unsubscribe before they're charged.

In its announcement, the company said that developers can use the feature if they don't increase their price more than once a year. Further, the increase must not exceed $5 and 50 percent of the current subscription pricing, or $50 and 50 percent of the current annual subscription price. Presumably, that means users will automatically get charged $15 for a subscription that was formerly $10. However, they'll have to opt in for a $30 sub that used to cost just $20, because while that's 50 percent higher than the old price, the increase is also way higher than $5. 

Apple says users tend to miss prompts asking them to opt in for higher subscription prices, which interrupts their service. If so, they're also likely to miss notifications about price increases. Since developers can only use the feature if they don't change prices once a year, unscrupulous players at least can't take advantage of the system by frequently raising their prices by a couple of bucks or so. Still, people with tight budgets may want to check their emails every now and then to ensure they're not being charged higher prices than what hey can pay all of a sudden.

Billionaire Elon Musk is continuing to clash with Twitter over the accuracy of its bot count, and hinted today that he may try to renegotiate the $44 billion deal. Musk told attendees at a Miami conference that a deal at a lower price wasn’t “out of the question," reportedBloomberg. Musk's potential bid for a lower price is an unexpected twist, given that the SpaceX exec agreed to pay a 38 percent premium on Twitter when he reached a deal with the company's board back in April.

“Currently what I’m being told is that there’s just no way to know the number of bots,” Musk said at the conference. “It’s like, as unknowable as the human soul."

Musk's potential bid for a lower price is an unexpected twist, given that the SpaceX exec agreed to pay a 38 percent premium on Twitter when he reached a deal with the company's board back in April. 

Last Friday, Musk had announced that a buyout of Twitter was “temporarily on hold” due to concerns that the number of bots on the platform was much higher than the company estimated. The billionaire tweeted that his team would do an independent analysis on bot count and also tried to crowdsource bot estimates from his own followers. Musk was later reprimanded by Twitter’s legal team for revealing — in a tweet, of course — the company's methodology for estimating the proportion of bot accounts across the platform.

Earlier today, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal explained in a series of tweets that external estimates of bots are likely wrong, since the platform includes private data in its count.

“Unfortunately, we don’t believe that this specific estimation can be performed externally, given the critical need to use both public and private information (which we can’t share),” tweeted Agrawal.

Musk responded to Agrawal’s explanation with a series of his own tweets, one that included a single poop emoji. Musk also suggested that Twitter verify whether users are human or not by calling them on the phone.

Tesla expert Dan Ives — an analyst at financial advisory firm Wedbush Securities — put the chances of Musk going through with the deal at under 50 percent. If Musk chooses to walk away, he’ll be subject to a $1 billion “kill fee”. But according to legal experts who spoke to The Washington Post, Twitter could sue Musk for the financial damages inflicted on the company due to the hasty reversal of the deal.

Tesla's long-delayed Semi just took an important step toward becoming a practical reality. As CNETreports, the automaker has started taking reservations for its electric big rig. You'll need to place a $20,000 deposit ($15,000 of it by wire transfer), and Tesla still hasn't narrowed down the launch beyond the expected 2023 production window. Still, this is notable when early commitments have largely been limited to bulk orders from the likes of PepsiCo and Walmart.

The Semi was unveiled in 2017 alongside the second-generation Roadster. The machine was meant to up-end conventional trucking with a maximum 500-mile range, fast "Megacharger" top-ups and a 20-second 0-60MPH time at a loaded weight of 80,000lbs. It's still expected to start at $150,000, making it potentially viable for companies that want inter-city haulers without the usual fuel costs or environmental impact.

As with the new Roadster, though, the launch didn't go according to plan. Tesla has delayed the Semi multiple times, most recently to grapple with chip shortages and limited production capacity for the necessary 4680 battery cells. Reservations at this stage are less about imminent delivery and more about locking in future income, just as Cybertruck deposits (estimated at 1.3 million as of November 2021) helped Tesla secure billions in revenue whenever the pickup arrives.

Still, Tesla might not be too worried about the wait. Rival Nikola is only just ramping up production of its electric semi-truck, and established brands like Freightliner haven't found runaway success with their EVs. The Semi will still enter a relatively young field with both name recognition and technology as advantages.

Peloton has struggled financially in recent months, but it shared a bit of good news on Monday. It announced a settlement agreement with iFit, one of the companies it sued last fall for attempting to “free ride” off of its technology. At the time, Peloton accused its rival of violating up to four of its patents related to on-demand classes.

As part of the settlement, iFit will remove some leaderboard features from its devices. Peloton, meanwhile, has agreed to license a handful of patents from iFit that involve the company’s remote control technologies. The two firms did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement. “The parties are pleased to put the litigations behind them,” Peloton said.

While we will probably never know the factors that led to iFit’s decision to settle, the company probably had the fate of Flywheel in mind. Just before the start of the pandemic, Flywheel announced it would shut down its online classes after losing a patent lawsuit to Peloton. In the aftermath of that announcement, Peloton began a promotion for Flywheel customers where they could trade in their bikes for a refurbished Peloton bike at no cost. At the same time, there are examples of companies successfully challenging Peloton. At the start of the year, Echelon convinced the US Patent and Trademark Office that Peloton shouldn’t have been granted two patents related to its streaming technologies.

Apple is quickly acting on its promise to deliver some useful upgrades before WWDC. The company has released iOS 15.5 and its iPadOS 15.5 counterpart with improvements to both Apple Cash and (as mentioned earlier) Podcasts. Cash users can now send and receive money from their card, while Podcasts users can have the app automatically limit episode storage based on criteria like the number of shows or time since release.

A corresponding macOS 12.4 update adds the relevant Podcasts features. You can also grab a previously teased firmware fix for the Studio Display's mediocre webcam quality. Apple has also released watchOS 8.6, tvOS 15.5 and HomePod 15.5 updates, although those focus on bug fixes and performance rather than any significant features.

The iOS, iPadOS and macOS updates aren't huge, but that's not surprising. Apple has historically wound down significant upgrades to its current operating systems around this time of year. The focus now is likely on iOS 16 and other big revisions likely to arrive in the fall.

In addition to their latest tracks and playlists, musicians can use Spotify’s artist profile pages to promote merchandise and concert dates. Soon, they may be able to use those pages to promote NFTs as well. As first reported by Music Ally, Spotify has begun testing NFT galleries. The feature is available to a select group of US users on Android and includes Web3 enthusiasts like Steve Aoki.

If you have access to the test, you can view the galleries by visiting one of the included artist pages and scrolling past the song list. Tapping on an NFT allows you to see a larger version of it, in addition to a short description. Per The Verge, a “See More” option redirects you to the NFT’s OpenSea listing page where you can purchase the token. According to Music Ally, Spotify isn’t collecting a commission on sales it helps facilitate during the test.

“Spotify is running a test in which it will help a small group of artists promote their existing third-party NFT offerings via their artist profiles,” Spotify told the outlet. “We routinely conduct a number of tests in an effort to improve artist and fan experiences. Some of those tests end up paving the way for a broader experience and others serve only as an important learning.”

We’ve reached out to Spotify for more information.

The test comes as other major platforms like Instagram incorporate their own NFT features even as the market cools down. Citing data from NonFungible, The Wall Street Journal recently found that daily NFT sales are down 92 percent from their peak in September. The number of active wallets is also down by about 88 percent. 

It's been over a year since Mediatonic confirmed Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout was coming to Xbox and Nintendo Switch. After somedelays, the wait is almost over. The ridiculously fun battle royale platformer is coming to those platforms, as well as Epic Games Store, on June 21st. A dedicated PlayStation 5 version is on the way too. Full cross-play and cross-progression will be available across all platforms as well.

What's more, Fall Guys is going free-to-play. Epic pulled a similar move with Rocket League after snatching up Psyonix. Existing players on PlayStation and Steam will receive a legacy pack, which includes three costumes and some other bonuses. Newcomers who pre-register can claim some swag as well. 

It's not a huge shock that Fall Guys is coming to the Epic Games Store — Epic bought Mediatonic parent Tonic Games Group last year. Users have needed an Epic account to play Fall Guys since November, when cross-progression was added.

A new season will also get underway on June 21st. Mediatonic is resetting the counter and calling it season one. It will be the first seasonal update since November and, as ever, there will be new levels and more cosmetics.

For the first time, there will be a premium (i.e. paid) season pass with 100 tiers and extra cosmetic items. Those who receive the legacy pass will get free access to the premium season pass for season one. A free season pass will still be available with other items to unlock. 

Crowns will no longer be used for currency to buy items in the store. The crown rank feature will be boosted with more rewards. Unspent crowns will be converted into kudos, which will be the sole in-game currency moving forward. Costumes that are on the way include Ezio from the Assassin's Creed series, along with Mecha Godzilla and Mothra.

There's one more big update on the way: a level creator. This was announced as being "under construction" and, while it won't be arriving any time soon, it's an exciting feature to look forward to.

The game debuted on PS4 and Steam in August 2020 and was an instant hit, racking up millions of players on PC in just a few days and becoming the most-claimed game in the history of PlayStation Plus at the time. It seems player numbers have dropped quite a ways since the early days — having increasingly lengthy seasons likely hasn't helped. However, the arrival of Fall Guys on more platforms, the free-to-play shift and a new season should all bring new and lapsed players into the fold.