Category Archives: Blog

BEST PRE-BLACK FRIDAY DEALS ON INSTANT POTS:

• Instant Pot Lux60 (6-quart) — $54.99 (save $44.01)

• Instant Pot Duo60 (6-quart) — $79 (save $20.95)

• Instant Pot Ultra (6-quart) — $99 (save $50.95)

• Instant Pot Duo80 (8-quart) — $99 (save $40.95)

• Instant Pot Duo Plus (8-quart) — $139.95 (save $20)

Instant Pot (noun): The insanely fast, intelligent pressure cooker that can replace numerous kitchen appliances, and is quite possibly the most important technological advancement in recent historySpaceX is a close second. (Sorry pal, maybe if you cooked rice at the speed of light.)

Everyone completely flipped over the Instant Pot on Black Friday, but if you missed out on those deals, don’t worry — they are constantly on sale, especially on Amazon. (That said, some of the best deals are usually right around Black Friday and Prime Day. Consider yourself warned.) Read more…

More about Home, Cooking, Kitchen, Mashable Shopping, and Instant Pot

IMAGE: Amazon

BUDGET PICK

Instant Pot LUX

• Functions: Pressure cooking, slow cooking, rice cooking, steaming, warming, sautéing
• Sizes: 3 quart, 6 quart, 8 quart

$59.95 from Amazon

IMAGE: Amazon

BEST FOR CLASSIC RECIPES

Instant Pot DUO

• Functions: Pressure cooking, slow cooking, rice cooking, steaming, warming, sautéing, yogurt making
• Sizes: 3 quart, 6 quart, 8 quart

$79.95 from Amazon

IMAGE: Amazon

BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK

Instant Pot DUO Plus

An upscaled version of the classic that offers the best balance of recipe versatility and price.

• Functions: Pressure cooking, slow cooking, rice cooking, steaming, warming, sautéing, yogurt making, egg cooking, sterilizing, cake making
• Sizes: 3 quart, 6 quart, 8 quart

$99.95 from Amazon

IMAGE: Amazon

BEST HIGH-END MODEL

Instant Pot Ultra

Your best option for a higher-end Instant Pot, the Ultra offers new personalized programming and an LCD screen.

• Functions: Pressure cooking, slow cooking, rice cooking, sautéing, steaming, warming, yogurt making, sterilizing, egg cooking, personalized programming
• Sizes: 6 quart, 8 quart

$119.95 from Amazon

IMAGE: Amazon

NEWEST TO THE MARKET

Instant Pot Max

• Functions: Pressure cooking, slow cooking, rice cooking, sautéing, steaming, warming, yogurt making, sterilizing, egg cooking, sous vide, pressure canning
• Sizes: 6 quart

$199.95 from Amazon

IMAGE: Mashable

BEST FOR BUSY SCHEDULES

Instant Pot Smart Wi-Fi Series

• Functions: Pressure cooking, slow cooking, rice cooking, sautéing, steaming, warming, yogurt making
• Sizes: 6 quart

IMAGE: Amazon

BEST FOR ROASTS AND SOUS VIDE

Instant Pot Aura Pro

For meals or roasts that need to be flat, the rectangular Aura fits what cylindrical models can’t.

• Functions: Slow cooking, steaming, stewing, sautéing, warming, baking, roasting, yogurt making, multigrain, and sous vide
• Sizes: 6 quart and 8 quart

$149.95 from Amazon

There are few better places around the world for adventure tourism than the land down under. Our unique landscape, deadly friendly* animals, and fearless locals makes Australia the true land of opportunity when it comes to wild, adrenaline-fuelled experiences

However, there is almost too much adventure to be had in Australia – especially for international travelers with limits on time and budget. Should you bungee jump on the far-north coast? Or pound down the white-water rapids on Queensland’s Tully? How about 4WD-ing sand dunes in Port Stephens?

Choosing the right experience can be hard. On one hand, you don’t want to spend a pile of money on something that turns out to be subpar. On the other, you don’t want to overestimate your limits, and waste your precious travel budget only to chicken out at the last minute Read more…

More about Watercooler, Supported, Brand X, Lifestyle, and Other

A man named Brayden has had a rollercoaster of a past few days. Bad news: His relationship ended. Good news: Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath broke the news. Better news: Anthony Scaramucci broke the news, too, and the whole thing is probably an enormous prank.

A video has been circulating on Twitter that allegedly shows Mark McGrath (of Sugar Ray) breaking up with Brayden on Cheyenne’s behalf via Cameo, the app where users can pay celebrities to send personalized video messages to their contacts. Each celebrity charges a different rate. McGrath’s (as in, the guy from Sugar Ray) is $100 per video.

McGrath seems a little — just a little — uncomfortable with sending a breakup video, but he manages the emotional complexity of the situation pretty well. He even draws a parallel between Brayden’s relationship and his own marriage, which is a weird move but also quite sweet.  Read more…

More about Twitter, Social Media, Cameo, Anthony Scaramucci, and Mark Mcgrath

The robots are here to help, they say. They’ll make our lives easier, they say. Yeah, we’ve heard that one before. (Enter: the robot uprising).

An extensive report from Reveal (published in The Atlantic) details new information about workplace injuries in Amazon fulfillment warehouses. According to the records it obtained, the amount of “serious” injuries suffered by Amazon workers, defined as those that require workers to take time off or restrict job functions, is twice that of the warehouse industry standard: 9.6 injuries per 100 workers vs. the warehouse workplace standard of four per 100.  Read more…

More about Amazon, Robots, Workers, Warehouses, and Tech

Months after Facebook was forced to shut down two apps it used to collect a creepy amount of data from users in the name of market research, the company is now launching a new app designed to reward users for voluntary feedback.

The new market research app, called Viewpoints,  promises to compensate users in exchange for filling out surveys and other tasks. According to the app’s terms of service, users can make up to $600 a year from the app, which pays via PayPal once a user has accumulated a set number of points by participating in its “programs.” Exact details of the points system are unclear, though, and Viewpoints’ terms of service notes that “some rewards may have no cash value.” In a blog post announcing the app, Facebook says the first program it will offer is a “well-being survey.” Read more…

More about Tech, Facebook, Privacy, Social Media Companies, and Tech

Billie Eilish is growing up before our eyes, and thanks to Vanity Fair, fans get to check in with the singer on a very personal level every Oct. 18.

Since Oct. 2017, Eilish has recorded a video interview with the publication. Every year she answers the exact same questions, and a compilation is made so that everyone, including Eilish, can see how her responses have changed over time.

In 2017, for instance, Eilish had 257,000 Instagram followers. Now? She has a casual 40.7 million. A lot has changed since the singer’s first interview, from her hair color and famous friends to her career goals and life priorities. Some things, like her favorite movie and her concerns about the president, however, have remained exactly the same. Read more…

More about Vanity Fair, Billie Eilish, Culture, and Celebrities

TL;DR: Amazon has this year’s 128GB Apple MacBook Air at the lowest price we’ve ever seen ahead of Black Friday — get it for just $799.99 (down 27% from $1,099.99) by clipping the coupon on its product page.

If you thought you’d already seen the best of this year’s pre-Black Friday laptop deals, Amazon just dropped the savings equivalent of “hold my beer.”

The online retailer just debuted a new digital coupon for the 2019 Apple MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, lowering its sale price of $899.99 by an additional $100. 

You read that correctly: You can get a brand new 13-inch MacBook Air on Amazon right now for under $800. That’s the lowest price we’ve ever seen it anywhere — so, uh, no big deal. Read more…

More about Apple, Laptops, Macbook Air, Black Friday, and Mashable Shopping

TL;DR: Four different sparkling water makers are on sale across Walmart, Amazon, and the SodaStream website ahead of Black Friday.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have a problem with cans — specifically, La Croix cans. I’ve never made an official tally of how many of those bad boys I can go through in a single week, but the answer would probably be somewhere between “too many” and “single-handedly keeping the sparkling beverage industry afloat.”

Granted, aluminum cans aren’t as horrible for the environment as plastic bottles, and I’m just one person with a penchant for pamplemousse. But all of that waste adds up, and the growing public sentiment against single-use drink containers has forced me to consider the impact of my personal La Croix habit. Read more…

More about La Croix, Sparkling Water, Black Friday, Sodastream, and Mashable Shopping

Elsa’s grand return is a hit.

Frozen 2 had an opening weekend to remember, with $127 million in U.S. tickets sold from Friday to Sunday, contributing to an international debut of $350.2 million. The latter figure marks the best opening to date for an animated feature on the global stage.

That newly broken record also raises the bar significantly for future animated releases. The previous record-holder was Toy Story 4, which opened earlier in 2019. The Pixar hit’s first weekend in release brought in a still-mighty-impressive $240.9 million. But Frozen 2 bests it by more than $100 million.

The $228.2 million that Frozen 2 picked up outside the U.S. also made it the biggest international opening to date for an animated movie. That record had been owned for the past decade by 2009’s Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, which netted a $152 million box office outside the U.S. in its first days of release. Read more…

More about Disney, Frozen 2, Entertainment, and Movies Tv Shows

It’s definitely tempting to use Black Friday as an excuse to treat yourself. We get it. But what if – now hear us out – you use this time instead to start your holiday shopping like a responsible adult? Genius, right?

We’ve rounded up some oddly-specific gifts for the oddly-specific people on your list. These gadgets and gizmos will make it seem like you actually put thought into your shopping this year. Just remember to enter the code BFSAVE15 at checkout to get the extra discount for Black Friday. Happy shopping, y’all. Read more…

For the coffee lover who’s always on the go: Copper Cow Coffee Vietnamese Pour Over Coffee Sets

More about Black Friday, Mashable Shopping, Consumer Tech, Tech, and Consumer Tech