June postscript: 5 unusual things you can make in an Internet-connected oven

The June helps you push toaster oven boundaries… with more and less success.

Baked churros

Enlarge / The air-fried "churros" were delicious, but they tasted nothing at all like churros. (credit: Megan Geuss)

Earlier this month, Ars reviewed the June Oven, an Internet-connected, seven-in-one device that pushes the boundaries of the traditional toaster oven. Overall, I felt pretty positive about the June, especially the internal camera that allows you to watch your food cook (and share that view with others if you so desire).

But I mostly tested more traditional foods in the oven. After all, the best way to tell if a new toaster oven is any good is to see if it makes your best recipes more deliciously/reliably than your old toaster oven. I tried out some new things, of course: I hardboiled eggs (good!), baked bacon (bad!), and dehydrated kale chips (yummy but energy intensive!).

Before I send the June Oven back to its maker (in a box, with postage, not in a violent way of course) I wanted to test out five of the more unusual recipes that I found in June's app cookbook. The cookbook that's included in the June app is surprisingly well-populated with recipes specifically tailored to this IoT toaster oven, including a number of recipes that you'd never think to use a toaster oven for.

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Report: Tesla has more than 3,300 Model 3s remaining in US inventory

Tesla pushed to sell as many vehicles as possible before full Federal Tax Credit ends.

Report: Tesla has more than 3,300 Model 3s remaining in US inventory

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On Sunday, auto blog Electrek reported that there were more than 3,300 Model 3 vehicles sitting in Tesla's US inventory, according to an unnamed source familiar with the matter. The source added that, although Tesla has been working to sell every last vehicle before the end of December 31, when the $7,500 Federal Tax Credit for the company's customers expires, it has still built up an inventory.

Ars contacted Tesla to confirm this information, but we did not receive an immediate response.

Tesla sold its 200,000th electric vehicle in Q2 2018, leaving the company with two remaining quarters to sell vehicles that would receive the full tax credit. Starting January 1, all newly delivered Teslas will only qualify for a $3,750 Federal Tax Credit.

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Break out the bubbly and reflect on the complex physics of the fizz

“Come quickly brothers, I am drinking stars!” —Dom Perignon, 17th century monk

Making champagne is fairly simple, but the physics behind its bubbly delights is surprisingly complex.

Enlarge / Making champagne is fairly simple, but the physics behind its bubbly delights is surprisingly complex. (credit: Jon Bucklel/EMPICS/PA/Getty Images)

It's New Year's Eve, and revelers around the globe will be breaking out the bubbly in massive quantities to usher in 2019. Why do humans love champagne and other fizzy beverages so much, when most animals turn up their noses when it's offered? Roberto Zenit, a physicist at Mexico's National Autonomous University of Mexico, and Javier Rodriguez-Rodriguez of the Carlos III University of Madrid in Spain, posit in the November issue of Physics Today that carbonation triggers the same pain receptors in our deep brains that are activated when we eat spicy food.

"This bubbly sensation you have when you drink a carbonated beverage basically triggers similar taste buds," said Zenit. "Champagne is just wine; what makes it special is the carbonation. It's a sad day when you drink flat champagne."

He and Rodriguez-Rodriguez study the behavior of various fluids (including paints), and carbonation is a particularly fascinating topic within that discipline. When the bubbles in champagne burst, they produce droplets that release aromatic compounds believed to enhance the flavor further. (When bubbles in a carbonated beverage like beer don't burst, the result is a nice thick head of foam.) And here's another interesting fact: the bubbles in champagne "ring" at specific resonant frequencies, depending on their size. So it's possible to "hear" the size distribution of bubbles as they rise to the surface in a glass of champagne.

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Daily Deals (12-31-2018)

Looking for a last minute (belated) holiday gift for an Apple user in your life (or maybe yourself? Walmart is selling $50 digital gift cards for the App Store and iTunes for $40. If you’re not tied to Apple’s ecosystem, there are also some…

Looking for a last minute (belated) holiday gift for an Apple user in your life (or maybe yourself? Walmart is selling $50 digital gift cards for the App Store and iTunes for $40. If you’re not tied to Apple’s ecosystem, there are also some pretty great deals on Amazon, Roku, and NVIDIA media streamers today. […]

The post Daily Deals (12-31-2018) appeared first on Liliputing.

LAPSCREEN is a thin & light portable display for phones, laptops, and tablets

Dual-screen laptops have never really taken off in a big way, but there are a handful of portable monitors designed to let you connect a second screen when you’re working on the go. But the LAPSCREEN may be the thinnest and lightest to date. The …

Dual-screen laptops have never really taken off in a big way, but there are a handful of portable monitors designed to let you connect a second screen when you’re working on the go. But the LAPSCREEN may be the thinnest and lightest to date. The 12.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel displays are a little […]

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BitTorrent Blocklists Are Even Less Effective Than Pirate Site Blocking

For my years, some pirates have been putting their faith in so-called ‘peer blocking’ apps that aim to prevent anti-piracy agencies from connecting to their clients and monitoring their activities. Unfortunately, they have never worked and won’t ever be effective in the future. For those who still aren’t convinced, think about how effective site-blocking is at preventing file-sharing.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Over the past 18 years, ever since P2P clients made their run into the big time, users have been trying to figure out a way to avoid expensive lawsuits.

At the beginning, no real solutions were available, so it was a roll of the dice from start to finish. People either got lucky, or they didn’t. The majority did but a significant number didn’t feel like taking so many chances.

Somewhere along the way, so-called ‘peer-blocking’ applications raised their head. These pieces of software act like a firewall on a user’s computer, with the aim of preventing ‘hostile’ IP addresses from connecting to a torrent client, for example, thus preventing lawsuits.

Over the years, millions of users installed these programs (along with the blocklists containing the supposed IP addresses of anti-piracy groups) believing that no ‘bad players’ could access their machines. Unfortunately for those using them, these blocklists were completely ineffective and remain so today.

Peer-blocking applications should have died a death more than a decade ago but for some inexplicable reason, torrent users on many public forums continue to post about them, asking whether they’re doing the job they’re supposed to and if additional precautions are needed.

Despite plenty of information to the contrary, some still swear by these lists and a few stubbornly believe they are “better than nothing”. If locking every window on a house but leaving the front door open is “better than nothing” to prevent burglars, then it’s difficult to disagree. If making sure is the aim, blocklists should be thrown in the trash can marked ‘placebo’.

The problem is the way these things work. Peer-blocking applications use lists of IP addresses (generally compiled by volunteers) which are thought to be connected to anti-piracy, copyright trolls, government bodies, and others interested in stopping piracy. The aim is that if all of these IP addresses can be blocked, the problem can be solved.

Years ago, when people had less understanding of these matters, blocklists seemed like the tool everyone needed. However, blocklists are massively incomplete, woefully out-of-date, and cannot ever hope to ‘know’ every IP address used by every anti-P2P group. For those that still aren’t convinced, let’s take site-blocking as an example.

When ISPs block ‘pirate’ websites, they prevent users from accessing either their domain names, IP addresses, or DNS. When customers try to access any or all of these things, a firewall on the ISP’s end prevents the connection. No further explanation is necessary because after a decade of blocking, most proficient users generally understand how these things work.

Now think for a moment how easily these blocks are defeated. As soon as an order is handed down, sites can grab a new domain, a new IP address, or have their traffic funneled through any number of proxies and mirrors. Users, for their part, can evade bans by using these modified services or utilizing tools like VPNs. Blocking is very easily bypassed.

Now for the big non-surprise: anti-piracy groups can deploy just as many and more techniques to ensure that their entries on blocklists are out-of-date or completely irrelevant. Their tracking machines can be shifted around IP addresses in the blink of an eye, through datacenters or even residential ISPs, if there is a real need for stealth.

No one anywhere on the planet – no matter how clever or resourceful – has the skill or resources to keep up with these changes and/or make a blocklist that deals with them all. A hundred people couldn’t manage it, nor could a thousand. The information required simply isn’t made public and the result is the publication of blocklists that massively overblock legitimate resources while letting through who-knows-what.

The only real way to ensure that your IP address is never connected to ‘bad players’ while using torrents is to use something like a VPN. Or, of course, don’t share copyrighted content in the first place.

Blocklists have never worked to the extent required and will never work in the future. Anyone who trusts them may as well use a fishing net as a rain hat. It’ll still catch some fish but don’t expect it to keep you dry.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Grüne: Telekom nennt Kritik am Mobilfunkausbau scheinheilig

Die Grünen kritisieren Mobilfunklücken, setzen sich in Gemeinderäten aber nicht für Mobilfunkmasten ein, meint die Deutsche Telekom. Eine Studie der Partei hatte den schlechten LTE-Ausbau in Deutschland kritisiert. (Mobilfunk, Telekom)

Die Grünen kritisieren Mobilfunklücken, setzen sich in Gemeinderäten aber nicht für Mobilfunkmasten ein, meint die Deutsche Telekom. Eine Studie der Partei hatte den schlechten LTE-Ausbau in Deutschland kritisiert. (Mobilfunk, Telekom)

Nokia 9 PureView specs leaked in promo video (5 cameras, Snapdragon 845 and Android One)

We’ve known for a while that HMD is working on a Nokia-branded smartphone with five rear cameras. But now we have a much better idea of what to expect from the upcoming Nokia 9 PureView thanks to a series of leaks. Evan Blass posted a picture sho…

We’ve known for a while that HMD is working on a Nokia-branded smartphone with five rear cameras. But now we have a much better idea of what to expect from the upcoming Nokia 9 PureView thanks to a series of leaks. Evan Blass posted a picture showing the front and back of the phone this […]

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Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 12/31/18

The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again. ‘Johnny English Strikes Again’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Bird Box’. ‘Aquaman’ completes the top three.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

This week we have three newcomers in our chart.

Johnny English Strikes Again is the most downloaded movie.

The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.

This week’s most downloaded movies are:
Movie Rank Rank last week Movie name IMDb Rating / Trailer
Most downloaded movies via torrents
1 (1) Johnny English Strikes Again 6.4 / trailer
2 (…) Bird Box 7.7 / trailer
3 (2) Aquaman (HDTC) 7.7 / trailer
4 (4) Venom 7.0 / trailer
5 (8) Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald 6.9 / trailer
6 (3) First Man 7.6 / trailer
7 (…) Ralph Breaks The Internet (Dvdscr) 5.5 / trailer
8 (5) A Simple Favor 7.0 / trailer
9 (…) Green Book (Dvdscr) 5.5 / trailer
10 (6) Halloween 6.9 / trailer

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Gaming: Retroarch kommt für Xbox One

Die Xbox One könnte die erste aktuelle Konsole sein, auf der die Emulationssoftware Retroarch ohne Jailbreak möglich sein könnte. Möglich soll das mit Microsofts Entwicklermodus sein, der von jedem aktiviert werden kann – aber eine kleine Gebühr kostet…

Die Xbox One könnte die erste aktuelle Konsole sein, auf der die Emulationssoftware Retroarch ohne Jailbreak möglich sein könnte. Möglich soll das mit Microsofts Entwicklermodus sein, der von jedem aktiviert werden kann - aber eine kleine Gebühr kostet. (Xbox One, Microsoft)