An anonymous reader shares a report: Intel has considered divesting its network and edge businesses as the chipmaker looks to shave off parts of the company its new chief executive does not see as crucial, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Talks about the potential sale of the group, once called NEX in Intel’s financial results, are a part of CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s strategy to focus its tens of thousands of employees on areas in which it has historically thrived: PC and data center chips.

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If you’ve been waiting for a chance to grab a MacBook without wrecking your budget, this refurbished 2020 M1 Apple MacBook Air deal is worth your time. It’s currently on sale for $499.99 on StackSocial, which is a huge drop from its original $1,499.99 price. Since it’s a Grade “A” refurbished unit, it should arrive looking almost brand new, with little to no visible wear. You’re getting the 13.3-inch model in the Gold finish, with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD—pretty much the combo most people need for everyday work, casual creative projects, and lighter multitasking.

The M1 chip is really what keeps this 2020 model relevant. Even though it’s not the latest, it still handles tasks like browsing, document editing, and basic video or photo editing without breaking a sweat. Its battery life also holds up well, with about 15 to 18 hours on a single charge, depending on your usage. The fanless design means it’s whisper-quiet even when you have a dozen tabs open or you’re running a marathon Zoom call. However, storage might feel a little tight if you’re into heavy media projects or like to hoard large files, and the 8GB RAM could start to show its limits if you run dozens of apps at once.

One thing worth keeping in mind is that the port situation is basic—just two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports and a headphone jack. You’ll probably need a dongle or hub if you regularly plug in USB-A accessories or an SD card. But in return, you get that lightweight, durable aluminum body, a crisp Retina display, and the Magic Keyboard. If you’re not chasing after the latest M3 or M4 upgrades and just want a solid MacBook for everyday tasks, this refurbished MacBook Air is hard to beat at this price. And for those who care about looks, the Gold finish definitely stands out without being too flashy.

Jurassic World Rebirth is coming to theaters for the Fourth of July weekend, and Universal Pictures has released one final trailer to whet audience appetites for the film.

As previously reported, this is the fourth installment in the Jurassic World series and seventh film overall in the franchise spawned by 1993’s Jurassic Park. This time around, Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali step into the leading roles since the film is meant to be a fresh start for the franchise—although it does feature a return to the original research facility. Gareth Edwards—who directed 2014’s Godzilla—signed on to direct a script penned by David Koepp, who wrote the scripts for Jurassic Park and The Lost World (1997).

Per the official premise:

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Amazon is updating Amazon Music with a a new “AI-powered search experience” that should make it easier to discover music based on the albums and artists you’re already looking for. The company says the new beta feature “includes results for many of your favorite artists today,” which is to say, not everyone, but it’ll continue to expand to include more over time.

A traditional search uses a search term — an artist’s name, a song or an album title — and tries to pull up results that are as close to whatever you entered as possible. You’ll still be able to make those kinds of searches in Amazon Music, but now under a new “Explore” tab in the iOS Amazon Music app, you’ll also be able to see new AI-powered recommendations. These include “curated music collections,” an easy jumping-off-point for creating an AI-generated playlists and more. 

Amazon

Amazon suggests these results will vary depending on what you search you do. Looking up Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” will show the album, but also “influential artists who influenced his sound” and other musicians he’s collaborated with, the company says. A search for BLACKPINK, meanwhile, would highlight the K-pop group’s early hits before surfacing solo work from members like Lisa or Jennie. It all sounds like a more flexible and expansive version of the X-Ray feature Amazon includes in Prime Video, which provides things like actors’ names, trivia and related movies and TV shows with a button press.

This new search experience was built using Amazon Bedrock, Amazon’s cloud service for hosting AI models. It’s one of several ways the company is trying to incorporate more AI features into its products. Earlier this year, Amazon started rolling out Alexa+, a version of the popular voice assistant rebuilt around generative AI, to select Echo devices.

AI search in Amazon Music is available today on iOS for a select number of Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers in the US. If you’re not included in this beta, you could be included in future tests.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/amazon-music-gets-ai-powered-search-results-in-new-beta-140055428.html?src=rss

When a company enters a new product category, it might as well swing for the fences. That’s exactly what Marshall is doing with its first soundbar. The Heston 120 is a $1,000 Dolby Atmos and DTS-X living room speaker, equipped with 11 drivers to power that spatial audio. Like the company’s headphones and speakers, there’s plenty of the iconic guitar amplifier aesthetic to go around. 

Inside, two subwoofers, two mid-range units, two tweeters and five full-range drivers produce the Heston 120’s sound. There are also 11 Class D amplifiers (two 50W and nine 30W) inside and the soundbar has a total power output of 150 watts. Bluetooth (5.3) and Wi-Fi are also onboard, which means AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect are all available. For wired connectivity, there are two HDMI 2.1 ports (1 eARC) for your TV and other home theater gear, plus an RCA input allows you to hook up a turntable or other audio devices. 

Marshall

The Heston 120 takes design cues from Marshall’s line of guitar amps. This has been the case for the company’s headphones, earbuds and speakers, and it will continue with soundbars. To that end, there’s a mix of leather and metal, complete with the trademark gold script logo. There are also tactile controls you typically don’t see on a soundbar, like the gold knobs and preset buttons akin to those that adorn an amplifier. 

This soundbar doesn’t come with a subwoofer, but Marshall says a standalone option is on the way. What’s more, that Heston Sub 200 and a smaller Heston 60 are both due to arrive “at a later date.” Lots of companies are bundling at least a sub with their high-end soundbars, so it’s disappointing that Marshall didn’t do the same. I look forward to getting a review unit to see if the company’s promise of “bass rumbling from below like never before” from the soundbar itself hold true. 

The Heston 120 will be available for purchase from Marshall’s website on June 3.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/the-first-marshall-soundbar-is-the-1000-heston-120-with-dolby-atmos-140041873.html?src=rss

Survey response rates have collapsed from 30-50% in the 1970s to as low as 5% today, while AI agents now account for an estimated 20% of survey responses, according to a new analysis.

The UK’s Office for National Statistics has seen response rates drop from 40% to 13%, with some labor market questions receiving only five human responses. The U.S. Current Population Survey hit a record low 12.7% response rate, down from 50% historically.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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If your current version of Office is starting to feel a little old, this might be the right time to upgrade without committing to a subscription. Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows is down to $49.97 on StackSocial—marked down from its regular $219.99 price. It’s a one-time purchase with a lifetime license for one Windows PC. That means no monthly fees, no renewals, and no cloud dependency to use the core apps. You’ll get instant delivery of your license key after checkout, and setup is straightforward. Just note that the license ties to your device, not your Microsoft account, and must be redeemed within seven days.

This version covers all the core apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams (free), OneNote, Publisher, and Access. If you use your PC for work, school, or anything remotely admin-related, that lineup covers most bases. Word and Excel are as capable as ever, and PowerPoint continues to be a reliable go-to for clean, no-fuss presentations. Access and Publisher may not be for everyone, but if your job calls for database management or simple layout design, they’re nice to have without paying extra. Everything runs locally, so you can keep working even if your wifi cuts out. And the system requirements are light—Windows 10 or 11, with at least 1 GB of RAM and 4 GB of disk space.

The interface sticks to the familiar ribbon layout, so there’s not much of a learning curve if you’ve used Office before. You can still edit fonts, styles, margins, and layouts in a few clicks, and the apps load fast on modern machines. While it lacks some of the collaboration features baked into Microsoft 365, this is more of a traditional, standalone package for those who want full control over their software without recurring costs. At this price, and with instant access included, it’s one of the more affordable ways to lock in a full-featured, up-to-date Office suite—especially if you just need it on a single Windows machine.

We think the iPad Air is the best blend of price, features and performance in Apple‘s tablet lineup, and the 13-inch version in particular is a fine buy if you want a roomier display for multitasking or streaming video without paying the iPad Pro‘s extravagant prices. If you’ve been waiting for a sale on the jumbo-sized slate, good news: The device is $100 off Apple’s list price and back down to $699 at Amazon and B&H. That’s a deal we’ve seen for much of the last few weeks, but it still matches the lowest price we’ve tracked for the most recent model, which was released in March and runs on Apple’s M3 chip.

This offer applies to the base model with 128GB of storage. If you need more space, the 256GB and 512GB variants are also $100 off at $799 and $999, respectively. The former is another all-time low, while the latter only fell about $25 lower during a brief dip at the start of the month. The one catch is that these discounts only apply to the Space Gray colorway. 

We gave the newest 13-inch iPad Air a score of 89 in our review. This year’s model is a straightforward spec bump, with the only major upgrade being the faster chip. So if you’re coming from a prior M2 or M1 model and are still happy with its performance, there’s no real need to upgrade. The M2 version in particular is still worth buying if you see it on sale — right now Target has the 256GB version of that slate down to $699, so feel free to grab that instead if you don’t mind buying something slightly less futureproof. 

Either way, the Air remains a fairly definitive upgrade over the entry-level iPad (A16). It’s certainly more expensive, but its laminated display doesn’t look as cheap, holds up better against glare and can pump out slightly bolder colors. Its speakers sound less compressed, and it works with superior Apple accessories like the Pencil Pro stylus and latest Magic Keyboard. The M3 chip is noticeably faster for more involved tasks like exporting high-res videos or playing new games as well. More importantly, it sets the Air up better going forward, as features like Apple Intelligence and the Stage Manager aren’t available on the lower-cost model at all. Plus, the base model is only available with an 11-inch display; if you want that bigger screen, this is the most affordable way to get it. 

Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-13-inch-ipad-air-m3-is-100-off-for-memorial-day-133034317.html?src=rss

App notifications need careful balancing across Android, iOS, Windows, and of course macOS. Too many of them and you’re in a state of constant distraction; too few of them, and you risk missing out on something important that one of your programs is trying to tell you.

macOS has you covered when it comes to finding the right balance for you, providing a full suite of controls for managing interruptions and staying up to date with your notifications. It doesn’t take long to set up these notification options, and then once they’re configured, you can use Focus modes for specific scenarios (like working or watching movies).

Note that some individual apps come with their own notification settings, in addition to the options macOS offers you (and the tricks you can do with third-party tools). Discord, for example, gives you a bunch of options for choosing what you get notified about.

App notification settings

Every macOS app should ask for permission to show notifications when you first install it. However you respond to this first request, you can configure notifications for all your installed programs at any time by opening the Apple menu from the macOS menu bar (top left), then choosing System Settings and Notifications.

First, you get the chance to set the notification settings for the operating system as a whole: You can choose whether or not pop-ups appear when your Mac is locked, and when the display is asleep, and when you’re mirroring or sharing the screen. You’re able to control whether previews are shown with notifications by default, and you can also give Apple Intelligence permission to summarize your notifications.

Setting individual app notifications.
Credit: Lifehacker

Next, you can control notifications for individual apps. As with iOS, you get a bit of nuance here: As well as turning notifications on or off completely for each of your apps, you can also change the type of alert that gets shown (temporary banner or permanent pop-up), and set an app’s notification to come with a sound, or not. There’s also a toggle switch for showing this app’s alerts in the macOS Notification Center, which appears when you click the time and date (top right).

There are also settings for notification previews and notification grouping for each individual app. The idea is that you can give your most important programs plenty of prominence, while keeping alerts from more minor apps hidden away in the background (or turned off altogether). If you set notifications as Alerts, they’ll stay in the top right corner of the display until you dismiss them.

Focus modes

When you’ve got your individual app notification settings configured the way you want them, you can use Focus modes to override these settings. When it comes to macOS, this is most likely going to involve the traditional Do Not Disturb mode, which will block out any alerts for a set period of time.

Switch from Notifications to Focus in System Settings on macOS to see the modes available: You can make use of these preset ones, or click Add Focus to create your own. There’s also a Share across devices toggle switch just underneath the Focus modes list, which you can turn off if you don’t want all your iPhone modes showing up on macOS as well (and vice versa).

Choosing a Focus mode on a Mac.
Credit: Lifehacker

The settings screen for each mode comes with specific settings for which notifications are allowed to show up. Click Allowed People to pick contacts who can trigger notifications when the mode is enabled, and Allowed Apps to do the same for programs. There’s also an Intelligent Breakthrough and Silencing toggle switch you can enable to give macOS permission to show notifications it thinks are important.

Easy access to your modes is provided via the Control Center on the menu bar, in the top-right corner of the screen (the icon that looks like two toggle switches), as well as from the System Settings panel. Click this icon, then Focus, and you can pick from your list of modes or head to the Focus Settings screen again.

Syncing with iPhones and iPads

Thanks to Apple’s suite of Continuity features, you can sync call and message notifications across iPhones, iPads, and Macs, if they’re all signed into the same Apple account. This is handy if you want to be able to pick up iPhone calls on your laptop, but not so helpful if you’re trying to get some work done on macOS without interruption.

You’ve got a few options for extricating yourself from this—including just turning off Messages and FaceTime notifications on macOS. On your iPhone, open Settings then choose Cellular, and you get a Calls on Other Devices menu, where you can turn the toggle switches off for any Macs you’ve got connected. There’s a similar setting for text messages, which you can find from iOS Settings by tapping Apps > Messages > Text Message Forwarding.

Turning off Mac access to iPhone calls.
Credit: Lifehacker

That will stop cellular phone calls, and SMS/RCS messages from showing up on your Mac—though because of the way Apple Continuity works, you’re still going to see FaceTime calls and iMessage updates on macOS. To change this, you need to head into FaceTime > Settings and Messages > Settings on your Mac.

In both cases, you get the option to disable connections via your cell number, or to sign out of your Apple account completely, for these specific apps. You can pick and choose the options you want, depending on how much connectivity you want on your Mac (including the ability to send messages and initiate calls from the desktop).

SAVANNAH, Georgia—Hyundai’s massive new Metaplant factory in Georgia is actually painted a subtle shade of green, not white, but you’d need someone to point that out to you. It’s a shining example of the latest in car manufacturing—bright lights and white walls inside, knee-saving wooden floors on the production line, recaptured waste energy and solar—you name it. Hyundai even uses dog-like robots to check some welds. The vast facility is responsible for North American production of the electric Ioniq 5 and, now, the all-new Ioniq 9 SUV as well.

That Hyundai would make a three-row SUV with its class-leading electric powertrain was a no-brainer. The E-GMP platform, with its 800 V powertrain, was designed for medium to large EVs, after all. In 2021 it debuted the Seven concept, which explored the idea of a living room on wheels. I’m not sure why the nameplate skipped a couple of digits, but the production Ioniq 9 tries to keep as true to that theme as possible within the confines of real life.

Although they look quite different from one another, a common design language called “parametric pixels” ties together the Ioniq 9 with its smaller siblings the Ioniq 5 SUV and Ioniq 6 sedan. Creases catch the light even with the matte-gold paint of our test car, like the line ahead of the rear wheels that calls back to the collar on a traditional Korean garment. As ever, there are some other wonderful names for the design language: my favorite is “aerosthetic lounge,” but when you look at the images, also think of words like “teutonic,” “boat tail,” and “integrated.” When you hear the shape was inspired by a pebble, it makes sense that the drag coefficient is a slippery 0.27.

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The pool of electric vehicles currently available on the North American market keeps getting wider and deeper. But, since the beginning, there’s been something of a hole right in the middle. A big hole, as it turns out. The three-row SUV, one of the most popular segments in American motoring, has been woefully underserved. The only real options come on the high-end, with things like the Rivian R1S or the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV.

Kia added a new and more attainable option last year with the EV9, and now it’s time for the other side of the corporate family to enter the fray with its own option, the Hyundai Ioniq 9. The latest American-made electric SUV from the Korean giant bears sharp styling and impressive performance. After a day piloting one through the countryside around the Savannah, Georgia factory where it’ll be built, it’s hard to argue against its $58,955 starting price.

Economy-Sized

Tim Stevens for Engadget

There’s no denying that Hyundai’s new Ioniq is huge. At 199 inches long, it’s three inches bigger than the Hyundai Palisade, the company’s now second-biggest three-row SUV. However, Hyundai’s designers have done a stellar job of giving its new biggest baby a very compelling shape.

Many SUVs with that much space resort to acres of flat sheet metal just to cover the distance between the bumpers, but the Ioniq 9 has a subtle, sophisticated and, equally importantly, aerodynamic shape. I confess I’m not a massive fan of the nose and its bland curves, but I absolutely love the subtle taper at the rear. That not only helps with the coefficient of drag (which measures at 0.269), but also helps make this thing look much smaller than it is.

The Ioniq 9 has a stance more like a Volvo station wagon than a gigantic family hauler, but make no mistake, it’s the latter. That’s immediately evident as soon as you climb into the third row. It’s a bit of a slow process thanks to the power second-row seats, but once your path is clear, access to the rear is easy, and I was shocked to find generous headroom back there. There’s even a tolerable amount of legroom for an adult.

Even better are the 100-watt USB-C outlets that are present even in the way-back. All three rows have access to high power outputs that’ll keep just about anything short of a portable gaming rig juiced on the go. Second-row seating is far more comfortable, especially if you opt for the Ioniq 9 Limited or Calligraphy trims with a six-seat configuration. These give you a set of heated and ventilated captain’s chairs. (A seven-seat, bench configuration is also available.)

The seats up front are quite similar, also heated and ventilated, with the driver’s seat adding massage. Extending leg rests also make the Ioniq 9 an ideal space for a nap during a charging stop. It’ll need to be a quick one, though.

Power and Charging

Tim Stevens for Engadget

The Ioniq 9 is built on Hyundai’s E-GMP platform, which also underpins the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6, among others. That includes an 800-volt architecture and a maximum charging speed of 350 kW. Find a charger with enough juice and it’ll go from 10 to 80 percent in 24 minutes.

Yes, it has a Tesla-style NACS plug, which means you can use Superchargers without an adapter. Still, sadly, Tesla’s current suite of chargers isn’t fast enough to support that charging rate. That means you’ll have to use a CCS adapter, which is included.

All those electrons get shoved into a 110.3-kWh battery pack, with roughly 104 kWh usable. Maximum range depends on which trim you choose, from 335 miles for a base, rear-drive model, dropping to 311 miles for a top-shelf Performance model with dual-motor AWD. Naturally, that upgrade gets you more power, either 303 or 422 horsepower, depending on which dual-motor variant you choose. Still, even the single motor has 215 hp.

I sadly was not able to sample the single-motor flavor, but the Performance Calligraphy Design I drove was plenty snappy. Even in Eco, the most relaxed of the available on-road drive modes, the Ioniq 9 had plenty of response to make impromptu passes or simply to satisfy my occasional need for G-forces. There’s also a selection of off-road drive modes for various types of terrain, but that’s clearly not a focus for this machine. While it’ll do just fine on unpaved surfaces and some light off-roading, given the sheer dimensions of this thing, I wouldn’t point it down any particularly tricky trails.

Behind the Wheel

Tim Stevens for Engadget

Much of my time spent driving the Ioniq 9 I was sitting in traffic, cruising on metropolitan streets or casually motoring between rest stops over broken rural roads. I’d say that’s close to the average duty cycle for a vehicle like this, and the Ioniq 9 was a treat over most of it.

At slower speeds, the suspension proved a bit rough, possibly due to the 21-inch wheels on the Calligraphy trim. But, over 30 mph or so, everything smoothed out nicely. This three-row SUV is calm and quiet at speed, helped by sound-isolating laminated glass in the first and second rows, plus active sound canceling akin to your headphones, but on a significantly larger scale.

The only place where you hear any road noise is back in the third row. There’s noticeably more wind noise and a bit more whine from the rear motor, too, but I’d gladly take that over the drone of an average SUV’s exhaust out the back.

Behind those rear seats, there’s 21.9 cubic feet of cargo space, or a whopping 86.9 if you fold both rows down. Yes, there is a frunk, but it’s tiny and it’s fully occupied by the charging cable, CCS adapter and flat tire kit.

All the Tech

Tim Stevens for Engadget

Those 100-watt USB-C ports are definitely the tech highlight on the inside of the machine. Still, you’ll also find Hyundai’s standard infotainment experience here, including both wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. They’re experienced through a pair of 12.3-inch displays joined at the bezel to form one display, sweeping from behind the wheel out to the middle of the dashboard. On the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6, this looks impressive. On the Ioniq 9, it honestly looks a bit Lilliputian given the giant scale of everything else here.

The Ioniq 9 features some lovely styling touches, subtle RGB LED mood lighting and generally nice-feeling surfaces — so long as your fingers don’t wander too far down. Harsh plastics covering the lower portions of the interior feel less than premium for a machine that otherwise looks this posh.

But it at least carries a fair price. You can get in an Ioniq 9 for as little as $58,955, if you don’t mind the single-motor version. You can also subtract the $7,500 federal incentive for as long as that lasts. There are six trims to choose from, with the top-shelf Performance Calligraphy Design AWD model you see pictured here costing $79,540 after a $1,600 destination charge.

Yes, that’s a lot, entering into Rivian R1S territory. But, where the Rivian is quicker and certainly more capable off-road, the Ioniq 9 is roomier, more practical and honestly more comfortable for the daily grind.

You can also save a few thousand by going with a Kia EV9, but I feel like the extra presence and features of the Hyundai will woo many. Either way, you’re getting a winner, which is yet more proof that our current slate of EV options is the best yet, and only getting better.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/hyundais-ioniq-9-is-a-big-electric-suv-with-big-style-130050754.html?src=rss

The iconic instrument and amp maker Fender is diving deep into the digital domain. The company just announced Fender Studio, an all-in-one music-creation software platform. It’s basically a digital audio workstation (DAW) but one that’s intended for newbies. Think GarageBand and not Pro Tools. Just like GarageBand, Fender Studio is free.

The software looks perfect for going straight into an audio interface without any complications. Players can select from a wide variety of digital amp recreations. These include some real icons, like the ’65 Twin Reverb guitar amp, the Rumble 800 bass amp, the ’59 Bassman, the Super-Sonic, the SWR Redhead and several more. More amp models are likely on the way.

Along with the amp models, the software comes with a bunch of effects inspired by iconic Fender pedals. There’s a vintage tremolo, a stereo tape delay, a small hall reverb, a triangle flanger, a compressor and, of course, overdrive and distortion. There’s an integrated tuner and plenty of effects presets for those who don’t want to fiddle with virtual knobs.

The software includes several dedicated effects for vocalists. There’s a de-tuner, a vocal transformer and a vocoder, in addition to standard stuff like compression, EQ, reverb and delay.

Fender

There’s also a cool feature for those who just want to practice. Fender Studio offers “remixable jam tracks” that lets folks play along with songs in a wide variety of genres. These let players mute or delete an instrument, for playing along. To that end, users can slow everything down or speed things up. Fender promises that new songs will be added to this platform in regular intervals.

As for the nuts and bolts of recording, the arranger can currently handle up to 16 tracks. Despite the track limitation, the software offers some real pro-grade features. There are various ruler formats, a global transpose, input monitoring, looping abilities, time stretching and even a simple pitch-shifting tool. Tracks allow for fades, FX sends and more.

Fender

The mobile version of the app includes a pinch-to-zoom feature, which is always handy with recording software. All of those squiggly lines can get tough on the old eyeballs.

Fender Studio is available on just about everything. There’s a version for Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and Linux. It should even run well on Chromebooks. Again, this software is free, though some features do require signing up for a Fender account.

This is certainly Fender’s biggest push into digital audio, but not its first. The company has long-maintained the Mustang Micro line of personal guitar amplifiers. These plug straight into a guitar or bass and offer models of various amps and effects. The company also released its own audio interface, the budget-friendly Fender Link I/O, and a digital workstation that emulates over 100 amps.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/fender-just-launched-its-own-free-daw-software-for-recording-music-130007067.html?src=rss

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If your kitchen counter is currently housing a Vitamix blender, you know that you can whip up some serious soups, sauces, and nut butters in that thing. In fact, my Vitamix’s hot soup function is one of my favorite ways to use it. But it is almost summer, and I am no longer in the mood for soup. Now I crave chilled treats. Can my favorite blender, the Vitamix Ascent X5 go from hot soup to sorbet? Yes, and surprisingly well. Here’s how to make yourself a frozen dessert in this amazing blender.

The Vitamix is not an ice cream machine

It’s important to note that the Vitamix is a blender, and not an ice cream machine. Most ice cream machines have some sort of cooling mechanism (whether coolant, a compressor, or a frozen bowl) to chill the mixture while a dasher or auger incorporates air—the smaller the air bubbles, the creamier the texture. 

The Vitamix doesn’t have a cooling system. The blades create heat, so instead it uses them, and speed, to its advantage. This means you need to work in reverse—add already frozen food to the blender and it will whip air into the mixture as it chops up the ingredients. Then all you have to do is freeze the resulting soft-serve texture into a more solid state. 

As much as I enjoy a specialty appliance like the Ninja Slushi (it’s pretty badass), the multipurpose Vitamix Ascent X5 blender truly caters to my tiny kitchen’s space limitations. I need to do a lot of different things with a select few appliances, and the Vitamix’s frozen dessert capabilities add a whole new category to my home menus. (While the Ascent X5 makes things easier, you can use any Vitamix—I’ll add those instructions at the end of this article.)

Vitamix Ascent X5 Blender

$749.95
at Amazon

$749.95
at Amazon

How to use the frozen dessert function on the Vitamix Ascent X5 

1. Consider the ingredients

The most important thing to consider is the ratio of your frozen to liquid ingredients. Since this blender doesn’t have a cooling system to make frozen desserts, you need to add the coldest stuff you can, while still providing enough liquid to move the frozen stuff around so the blades can catch it. 

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

The Vitamix website gives the guideline of 1 cup frozen to ¼ cup liquid. This amount of liquid, along with some vigorous tamping with the plastic tamper bat, will result in a thick, soft serve-like consistency that you can enjoy immediately, or freeze to a more solid, ice cream-like state. To experiment, I used two cups of frozen banana slices, and a half-cup of a sweetened vegan cream. (Forgive me, but I have a lactose intolerant Italian-American partner who would be furious if I used regular heavy cream.) Add everything to the blender container and secure the lid. 

2. Pick your preset

Turn the power on. Press the three line “burger” button and you’ll see an array of food icons appear on the digital display. Use the rotating dial to select the one that looks like a tall stemmed glass with a pompadour and a little spoon handle. 

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Have your plastic tamper ready—this part only takes 50 seconds.

3. Blend and tamp

Press the start button. Take out the lid’s central plug and start tamping the ingredients with the tamper. The machine will start at a slower speed and ramp up pretty quickly. Your only job is to force frozen objects down into the blender blades. Once they all finally disappear into the mixture you can end your tamping session.

4. Look for the “quadrants”

Remember when I mentioned making hot soup in this thing? Well, the reason the soup gets hot is because of the heat that builds from the friction of blades running at high speeds. You want that heat to happen as little as possible for your frozen dessert. This setting only runs for 50 seconds but if you see four humps, or quadrants, forming in the mix, then that’s the tell-tale sign that your dessert is completely smooth and finished blending. It should look like this:

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Once you see the quadrants, stop the preset, even if there’s time left. My mixture was finished after 40 seconds, so I stopped the machine and worked quickly to decant it into a metal loaf pan that I had chilled in the freezer earlier. I sprinkled some chopped chocolate on top and popped it into the freezer for a couple hours to set. 

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Not only does this frozen dessert scoop like a dream, but the texture and flavor are incredible. While it’s technically not true ice cream, it eats like ice cream. I was afraid after freezing it solid that it would be rock solid, but no—the mixture is nicely aerated and the consistency is creamy and smooth.

How to use a Vitamix without a cold treat preset

If you don’t have the Ascent X 5 model, you can still use any Vitamix blender the same way, you just have to control the speed with the dial yourself. Start on a low speed so the blades can catch the ingredients and then ramp up to the top speed within the next 10 to 15 seconds. Look for the same quadrants to form, and then turn off the blender. Get ready to spend the summer exploring any frozen dessert flavor combination you can dream up.

Another week, another “gotcha” video debunked. This time it’s “Cop Pulls Over Black Judge and Lives To Regret It,” a piece of pseudo-documentary street drama that’s been viewed millions of times on YouTube and TikTok (and elsewhere, I’m sure). The video is part of a growing online video genre based on documenting cops’ confrontations with public, either through police-worn body camera footage or citizen-filmed footage. Some of these videos are real, but many of them are not.

Here’s the “Cop Pulls Over Judge” video:

The tells: bad improv in a Florida parking lot

If you have a smidge of media literacy, it’s easy to spot this as fake.

• The acting is sub-community-theater level.

• The improved dialogue is laughably on the nose.

• I’m pretty sure judges don’t wear judicial robes when they’re running errands.

• The taillight the cop supposedly broke is intact at the end of the video

That’s just the surface. If you dive deeper, you’ll learn that the watermark for the bodycam isn’t right and there is no city of Sunny Springs in Florida.

The rage-bait cinematic universe: Who even makes these videos?

The description of the channel the judge video comes from, bodycam declassified, reads, “In our channel, we bring you real, unfiltered bodycam footage, offering insight into real-world situations. In some cases, we may reenact some elements to clarify key aspects of certain encounters.”

I can’t find any video on this channel that features real footage; Cop Slaps Arrogant Prince in Ferrari and Gets Suspended, Black Female Lawyer Vs Arrogant Cop, and the rest of these videos are fake, unless all these encounters happened in the same building’s parking lot.

Looking a little deeper into YouTube revealed a ton of these rage-bait vids, from different creators, with different stories. We got cops pulling over FBI agents, cops harassing people for taking their shoes off in the park, and my personal favorite: Dumb Cop Mess with the wrong FBI agent On Plane. Watch this and try not to laugh:

I actually like the earnestness of the creators of this video. It reminds me of the delusional incompetence of b-movie king Ed Wood: God bless them, they tried. But that is so not an airplane cabin. And that is so not a stewardess uniform. That is so not an FBI agent. And that is so not how people talk to each other on Planet Earth. The same fake plane was used in this video, too.

The “Cop vs. Judge” video is basically a reboot of a real video of Florida police pulling over Aramis Ayala, Florida’s first elected state attorney, for no reason. Comparing them makes it obvious what real body-cam footage looks like, compared to fake, but also highlights why people are drawn to the ersatz over the genuine. We don’t get to see what happens to the real cop beyond momentary embarrassment. (Spoiler: nothing.)

Why are these fakes so successful?

I’ve been digging into the sub-genre of fake confrontation videos, and they seem, like the fake political confrontation videos I posted about last week, to point to a collective desire for Justice. Cops are often bastards, and we want to see them face consequences when they do wrong, so there are a lot of popular channels devoted to videos depicting just that. (Thanks for all the free, body-cam-based entertainment, Police of America!) But real police confrontations are generally murkier than the fakes (maybe the cops shouldn’t have manhandled this guy but dude seems drunk to me), and even when the cops are clearly wrong, any “conclusion” to these stories takes years of legal wrangling. The fakes, though? Instant justice!

Why people believe in fake cop videos

The successful formula for these videos is a cop pulling someone over who is “higher” in the Justice hierarchy than a street cop. That way the offending party can face instant karma, instead of their comeuppance coming years later, in a legal filing no one will read. We want a thuggish cop to be owned by a judge in full gown while we watch. We want to see the good guys win, now, and if it’s not going to really happen, we’ll pull the wool over our own eyes. Real justice usually isn’t exciting, it’s a slog through layers of moral relativism and triple-filed paperwork, but fake justice hits hard. The biggest giveaway that these videos are fake isn’t the bad dialogue or the dodgy production design, it’s how true they feel.

(Also: the stewardess uniform.)

Here in the heart of innovation, where we often look to tech giants for glimpses of the future, Microsoft’s Build 2025 keynote left a distinct taste of disappointment. Listening to Satya Nadella, a figure whose steady hand guided Azure to remarkable success, felt jarring. He seemed strangely out of sync with the very AI revolution Microsoft is so heavily invested in. The stage, ostensibly a platform to showcase the transformative power of AI, felt conspicuously devoid of its pervasive influence, offering little beyond isolated demos in a presentation that otherwise resembled a standard product pitch.

Echoes of a Forgotten Past: IBM’s Warning Unheeded?

This disconnect resonated uncomfortably with echoes of a past I witnessed firsthand. Back in the 1980s, within my old division at IBM, I conducted competitive analysis, the findings of which painted a stark picture: a failure to adapt to emerging market realities would lead to the division’s demise. Sadly, that prediction materialized a few short years later. The core issue then, as it seems to be subtly surfacing now, is a fundamental human truth: people are rarely enthusiastic about embracing products or technologies that directly threaten their livelihoods.

The backdrop to this AI-light keynote was the somber reality of Microsoft’s recent layoffs, widely speculated to be a direct consequence of AI’s increasing role as a performance-enhancing tool – a euphemism for employee replacement. Nadella’s conspicuous silence on this existential threat in front of an audience largely comprised of coders whose very future is being reshaped by the technology he championed felt deeply unsettling. If Microsoft’s own narrative of AI-driven efficiency is to be believed, the long-term market for human coders could shrink dramatically, a truth left unacknowledged in a room filled with those potentially facing such a future.

The Unholy Trinity of Open-Source Hypocrisy

Adding insult to injury was Microsoft’s awkward embrace of Open Source, a concept the company – and I, in my former tech battles – once vehemently opposed. While I, like many, have come to recognize the immense potential of open collaboration, particularly in the rapidly evolving landscape of AI, the figures Microsoft chose to share this stage with felt like a bizarre betrayal of the very spirit of openness. There stood Jensen Huang, the undeniably effective CEO of NVIDIA, whose hardware reigns supreme in the current AI boom, yet whose ecosystem remains largely proprietary. Alongside him was Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, a company whose ethical AI efforts were reportedly dismantled and whose leader faced near ousting by his own board, due to concerns about his leadership and potential risks to the company’s very existence. And then there was Elon Musk, arguably the most polarizing figure in tech, whose stewardship has cast a long shadow over Tesla and whose AI venture, GROK, has recently demonstrated a penchant for amplifying misinformation.

The optics were nothing short of disastrous. At a time when individuals, companies and even governments are seemingly distancing themselves from Musk’s ventures, and Microsoft itself is navigating complex issues with OpenAI, these were the figures Microsoft chose to spotlight while simultaneously casting a shadow over the job security of their core audience. Adding another layer of surrealism, the well-documented animosity between Musk and Altman, and the very public criticisms leveled against Musk by Microsoft’s own founder, Bill Gates, created an on-stage dynamic that felt less like a unified vision for the future and more like a poorly cast reality show. I kid you not, Gates has accused Musk of killing kids, and that is who they had on stage. Who thought that would be a good idea?  

Wrapping Up: A Marketing Malfunction and a Leadership Void?

I’ve long observed that Microsoft’s marketing often struggles to connect with its audience, but the choices made at Build 2025 reached a new level of bewildering. To showcase figures so disconnected from the core values of the developer community at an event with significant international attendance and media coverage suggests a profound disconnect between Microsoft’s leadership and the reality of its audience’s concerns and perceptions. It begs the question: who is steering this ship, and are they even looking at the same map as the rest of us?

In the end, the keynote left me with a gnawing sense that Microsoft, for all its technological prowess and market influence, may be stumbling, repeating the very missteps that have plagued tech giants in the past. The tone-deaf presentation, the unacknowledged anxieties of the audience, and the bizarre choice of onstage personalities all point to a potential loss of touch with the very community that fuels its ecosystem. Perhaps it’s time for a serious re-evaluation of its marketing strategy, and maybe, just maybe, a fresh perspective at the helm is needed to navigate the complex realities of this rapidly evolving technological landscape. For now, however, the overwhelming sentiment is one of profound disappointment that Microsoft appeared to have lost its footing at Build 2025.