MotionX GPS Drive 3.0: The Best Value GPS App Just Got Way Smoother [IPhone Apps]

Posted on by

When I reviewed MotionX GPS Drive for iPhone, I said it offered the best value but had some UI issues. Newly redesigned, the app's 3.0 version is far better—with landscape view and a more logical user interface.

Yes, the landscape mode I was lamenting its lack of in the last edition is there, and it looks great. As you can see, even pulling up iPod controls doesn't hog the screen. Remember, naysayers, it's not that you need widescreen for the road ahead, you need it for extra info, and you need it because it fits on the windshield better.

Time till arrival, distance till arrival and estimated time of arrival still all scroll through to the right of the "upcoming turn" text. I would prefer that I could pick one (I'm an ETA man—though not the Basque nationalist kind), but you can't do that, yet.

The interface has a nice menu system that shows more priority to things I really use, and buries things like Compass and iPod where they need to be, on the periphery of my awareness. The only thing I'm missing still is the ability to navigate to a point on the map. That may be a trick, but one worth pulling off. There isn't a lot of custom routing options in there yet, but if you really care about prioritization of stops, you should buy something more elaborate anyway—perhaps a portable GPS unit.

As you can see, even in portrait mode, the menus are cleaner:

All in all, it's a palpable improvement for a worthwhile product, especially one so durned cheap. That's right, it's still just $1, with $3/month or $25/year turn-by-turn voice service. You may hate GPS navigators, you may even hate GPS apps, but if you are on vacation and you don't have this app—at the very minimum, that is—you are just crazy. [Motion X GPS Drive iTunes Link]


Whales vs. Navy: NOAA May Limit Sonar Tests, but Another Case Heads to Court | 80beats

Posted on by

submarine

Whales and the U.S. Navy have tangled repeatedly over the past years over charges that the Navy’s sonar exercises disorient or injure whales and other marine mammals. Now, whales in the Pacific appear to have a new champion: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is considering limiting the Navy’s sonar tests in certain marine mammal “hot spots.”

The announcement was made in a letter (pdf) from NOAA head Jane Lubchenco to the White House Council on Environmental Quality. NOAA also called for development of a system for estimating the “comprehensive sound budget for the oceans,” which could help reduce human sources of noise — vessel traffic, sonar and construction activities — that degrade the environment in which sound-sensitive species communicate [Los Angeles Times].

While NOAA’s new investigations into limiting the Navy’s sonar use is good news for whales, it may take years before new rules are issued. And until then, fights will rage on in courts. Back in 2008, a 5-4 vote in the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Navy to conduct sonar tests in the Pacific Ocean, despite environmental groups fighting to stop the tests. But that wasn’t the end of litigation over this issue. Last week a consortium of environmental groups sued the Navy in U.S. District Court to stop a sonar project on the other side of the country, in the Atlantic Ocean waters off Florida.

The proposed Undersea Warfare Training Center would cover 500 square nautical miles in an area ideally close to two Navy bases, one in Georgia and another in Florida. However, the range would lie just outside the shallow waters where right whales give birth and nurse their calves each year from mid-November to mid-April [Los Angeles Times]. Right whales are an endangered species numbering only about 350, researchers believe.

“Right whales shouldn’t be subjected to the threats that accompany this range — ship strikes, entanglement and noise disturbance — in the only place in the world where vulnerable females give birth to and care for their calves,” said Catherine Wannamaker, an attorney with Southern Environmental Law Center [Environmental News Service]. The Pentagon didn’t responded to the lawsuit immediately, but the Navy has previously stated it doesn’t believe the project will cause major environmental harm, and that it would halt construction during the whales’ five-month calving season.

The Navy’s own environmental impact statement notes that sonar can harm whales, though scientists don’t completely understand the specifics. But the environmental groups say there’s more to this case than sonar: Ship traffic in the calving grounds is of particular concern since data suggests female right whales are struck more often, possibly because they must spend more time at the surface with their calves which have undeveloped lung capacities [Environmental News Service].

Because of the extra issues besides sonar, and right whales’ status as critically endangered, Wannamaker says this is a different case than the 2008 one that became a Navy victory. In that decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that national security and military training outweighed the concern for the whales in that case, but that they wouldn’t necessarily trump the environmentalists’ arguments in every case.

Related Content:
80beats: Navy 1, Whales 0: Supreme Court Allows Navy’s Sonar Exercises
80beats: Supreme Court Hears the Legal Dispute Between Whales and the Navy
Reality Base: Whales Battle U.S. Military… and (Probably) Lose
80beats: Who Would Win in a (Legal) Fight: A Whale or a Battleship?
DISCOVER: Killing Whales With Sound

Image: Rialyn Rodrigo/U.S. Navy


Working Gear Ring Geared Towards Gear Heads [Gears]

Posted on by

Sometimes, and only sometimes, a piece of geek jewelry can rise above being tacky and decidedly unwearable to become tacky and borderline unwearable. Steve Wozniak's nixie tube watch is one such example. This ring with working microgears might be another.

The Gear Ring, designed by Kinekt Design, is made of stainless steel and is, of course, quite ugly. But seeing the gears rotate as the ring's outer rim is spun is actually pretty cool.

Is it enough to make me consider wearing a gear ring? No. Is it enough to make someone consider wearing the gear ring? Probably.

If you're that person, you can buy the Gear Ring from Kinekt for $165. [Kinekt Design via Technabob]


Computing Magic: look ma, no wires!

Posted on by

I have a netbook that I have been using mainly for backing up files, and occasionally for portable computing. If has recent Win XP on it, while my desktop machine has 2000, which I have not wanted to change because it is not broken. I wanted to brush up on Action Script (the Flash programming lang

CSF Welcomes New NASA Human Spaceflight Plan, Congratulates Commercial Crew Development Winners

Posted on by

Washington, D.C., February 1, 2010 – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation welcomes the decision today by President Barack Obama to place U.S. human spaceflight on a new trajectory with major investments in technology, science, exploration, and commercial spaceflight. As part of this plan, NASA’s new competitive commercial crew initiative will invest $6 billion over five years for multiple companies to develop human spaceflight capabilities that will take astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

“President Obama has given NASA a bold and exciting new mission: to once again push the limits in technology and exploration, promote innovation, and foster a vibrant commercial spaceflight sector,” said Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “In particular, the commercial crew initiative will create thousands of new high-tech jobs, help open the space frontier with lower-cost launches, and inspire a new generation with high-profile missions. This initiative is on par with the government Airmail Act that spurred the growth of early aviation and led to today’s passenger airline industry, which generates billions of dollars annually for the American economy.”

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is also congratulating today the winners of $50 million in seed money from the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) competition, which is NASA’s precursor to the full $6 billion commercial crew program. Boeing, United Launch Alliance (ULA), Paragon Space Development Corporation, Blue Origin, and Sierra Nevada Corporation were selected as winners in the CCDev program, which aims to demonstrate hardware milestones on the path to commercial human spaceflight.

Alexander added, “Investing in commercial spaceflight will allow us to create U.S. jobs, rather than continuing to send billions of dollars to Russia to fly our astronauts to space. With so many capable American companies here at home, why would we send all of U.S. human spaceflight to Russia? Let’s create those thousands of jobs right here in the United States.”

Alexander stated, “Commercial crew will reduce the gap in U.S. human spaceflight by using launch vehicles that are either already flying today or are close to launch, such as the Atlas, Taurus, and Falcon. To build orbital capsules for these existing launch vehicles is on a comparable level to the Gemini program in the 1960s, which required only about three years from contract signed to the first flight of a crew.”

“Using demonstrated launch vehicles will not only reduce the gap, but help ensure safety,” emphasized Alexander. “Upcoming cargo flights mean that the Atlas, Taurus, and Falcon rockets will have long track records by the time astronauts are placed onboard. Safety is paramount for the commercial spaceflight industry – commercial spaceflight providers are already trusted by the U.S. government right now to launch multi-billion dollar military satellites, upon which the lives of our troops overseas depend. And over a dozen distinguished former NASA astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin, published an op-ed a few months ago in the Wall Street Journal stating that commercial companies can safely handle the task of low-Earth orbit transportation.”

Alexander concluded, “With President Obama’s historic decision, we stand on the threshold of a new era in space. The commercial spaceflight industry is working to extend the legacy of the Wright Brothers into space, for the mutual benefit of both NASA and the nation.”

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. CSF member organizations include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, and spaceports. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is governed by a board of directors, composed of the member companies’ CEO-level officers and entrepreneurs. For more information please visit http://www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

# # #

Seagate BlackArmor PS110 USB3 Drive Kit Review: Three Times Faster [Review]

Posted on by

Seagate's BlackArmor PS110 USB3 drive kit brings USB3 to laptops without USB3. And your transfer speeds will be 3 times what they were through USB2. If you weren't excited about USB3 before, you should be.

The Price

$180

The Verdict

It's three times faster than USB2, which is a pretty good jump this early on in the life of the standard. In theory, you can get somewhere around ten times as fast, but you're then running into bottlenecks such as the actual drive itself and the computer you're transferring data to. But our biggest complaint is it's not OS X compatible.

Here's how we tested. The kit comes with an ExpressCard adapter that can drive any one USB3 port. However, the adapter does need to be plugged into a USB2 port for supplementary power. So we used a MacBook Pro (an older one with ExpressCard) booted into Windows 7 to test. We also used a CyberPower P55 tower with USB3, because we wanted a more powerful unit to make sure the bottleneck wasn't with the computer we were using. And we went with CyberPower, because they're one of the only OEMs now that are including USB3 on most (all) of their builds.

Here's CyberPower's test results first. Comparing the USB3 drive to a similar Seagate USB2 drive showed that direct transfer rates on big files are about 3 times faster. A bunch of smaller files evened up the match, since that's more dependent on the hard drive itself to seek the files rather than the actual data transfer. Even still, USB3 came out ahead.

Similar results came out when we tested on a MacBook Pro bootcamped to Windows 7, because the ExpressCard kit doesn't support OS X. The difference between USB3 and USB2 is less pronounced here—not quite twice as fast—because of the bottleneck with the machine, rather than the transfer. But it is faster, which is great if you're constantly moving large files around on the go.

Gripes

Beyond the fact that the kit doesn't support OS X at all, Seagate also brilliantly placed the drivers for the ExpressCard adapter on the USB3 drive itself. This is somewhat confusing, because they don't tell you that you don't have to use the adapter to access the data—you can plug the drive into a USB2 port, get the drivers off, install it, then plug the adapter in.

It's a good drive

This USB3 drive costs a little extra from Seagate, since the 1TB version of their USB2 drive goes for $150, and this is $170 with just 500GB, but does come with an ExpressCard adapter. But if you plan on getting a USB3-capable laptop (everyone will), you might as well future-proof yourself now. And if you're looking for a USB3-compatible PC, there's CyberPower, which has them on just about all their systems now. [Seagate, CyberPower]

Fast

Comes with an ExpressCard kit

ExpressCard kit needs a extra USB2 slot to power

Slightly pricey

Doesn't work with OS X


And the Winner of the Apple iPad Is… [Ipad]

Posted on by

Do you know why this guy is singing? Because he's happy. And do you know why he is happy? Because he won an Apple iPad in our Apple Tablet Sweepstakes. His name is Chris Kratzer.

Like we said in the sweepstakes rules, we eliminated the questions that didn't have a clear answer. In some cases, like the screen size, we took the the closest answer as the correct one (10.1 inches is near enough 9.7 inches).

Only nine people out of 37,382 were right. We put those in a list sorted by date, and then ran a random number generator, which gave us the number three. Chris was in that position.

Chris works in ITS at Auburn University-Montgomery, where he's also a senior in Marketing. I asked him what was his answer process and he said that he "went with my gut on most of them, and rumors that you guys posted that seemed likely." He believes the is "gorgeous, and the ten hour battery life is really amazing." Like many, he was "really shocked that it did not support background apps" but, also like many, hopes that "will come with the next OS update."

The tablet "is nothing that I need, but everything I want..." he says, but at the end, he wants it mainly for "watching movies and reading books."

Congratulations Chris, and thank you all for playing!


Alienware M11x Available for Preorder Now, Shipping March 1 [Alienware]

Posted on by

Just a few hours after the M11x specs first leaked, Dell has put its high-powered ultraportable gaming notebook on its website for pre-order. It starts at $799, and will ship on March 1.

Turns out the leaked info was pretty accurate, except for the pricing and ship date. That $799 will get you a Pentium SU4100 processor, though for an extra $100 you can equip it with a far superior Core2Duo SU7300. The start price also includes 2GB of dual channel DDR3 memory at 800MHz, while 8GB dual channel DDR3 will cost you an additional $350. You'll also probably want more than a 160GB SATAII hard drive, with your options scaling up to 500GB SATAII (7200 RPM) for $150.

In all, it looks like you're going to have to spend at least a thousand bucks—and probably more—for an M11x that's capable of the kind of gaming you're going to buy it for in the first place. It still may be worth it, but it's certainly not as much of a deal as we first thought. [Dell. Thanks, Sam!]


Will Genetically Modified Eucalyptus Trees Transform Southern Forests? | 80beats

Posted on by

eucalyptus-treeNow that many U.S. farmers have grown used to genetically modified (GM) soy and corn, the controversy surrounding GM crops may shift over to GM eucalyptus–a fast-growing Australian tree that, in its unmodified strains, dominates the tropical timber industry.

Two industry giants, International Paper Co. and MeadWestvaco Corp. have formed a biotech venture called ArborGen LLC that is looking to introduce this tree to the southeastern forests of the United States. The company is seeking greater governmental deregulation so it can roll out its plans of replacing native pines in southeastern plantation forests with the genetically engineered eucalyptus, which can survive freezing winter temperatures.

Unlike the pine trees used in Southern plantations — which have quietly helped displace tobacco in the region’s economy — eucalyptus can deploy a full canopy of leaves within a few years. It is greedy for carbon, and within 27 months can grow to 55 feet in height [The New York Times]. ArborGen points out that the high growth rate will allow the company to grow more wood on less land, which could provide a boost to the region’s timber exports. What’s more, the wood could potentially serve as a biofuel feedstock.

Critics, however, worry that the plant would grow untrammeled, like a weed gone wild, and would consume whole forests and wipe out native foliage. One of the two species used to breed ArborGen’s hybrids, Eucalyptus grandis, had previously turned invasive in South Africa–raising concerns about this tree turning invasive in the south. ArborGen has received conditional approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand its experimental eucalyptus operations to 28 sites in seven states, for a total of 330 acres of forest. Given the uncertainty involved, however, the Nature Conservancy has recommended to USDA that ArborGen be allowed fewer acres and trees to flower, and none in Florida, [ecologist Doria Gordon] said. The draft permit approved by USDA would allow flowering in 10 sites across the state [The New York Times]. ArborGen has pointed out that the tree that grew invasive in South Africa was thriving in arid conditions, something that would not happen in Florida due its moist climate.

ArborGen also says that the GM trees won’t spread because of a genetic tweak that prevents the trees from reproducing. (Similar techniques have been used to make GM plants like corn and soy infertile, a controversial tactic that forces farmers to buy new seeds each year.) In the case of the eucalyptus trees, ArborGen restricts their pollen production with a bacterial gene that produces a toxic enzyme called barnase that slices apart genetic material in a cell, causing death. Through genetic trickery, the enzyme is only produced in the pollen-spreading parts of the tree, destroying its ability to reproduce — at least most of the time [The New York Times].

It’s not yet clear how the public will feel about GM forests. But scientists note that some trees that have been genetically tweaked to prevent disease have already gained widespread acceptance–like papaya trees in Hawaii that are less susceptible to the ringspot virus, and American chestnuts that resist a deadly fungus. ArborGen’s scientists argue that tweaking eucalyptus trees for commercial reasons isn’t so different from those earlier efforts, and say the trees could eventually play a significant role in biofuel production. Tree geneticist Steve Strauss, who consulted with ArborGen, says: “If we’re going to rely on biofuels as a significant part of a diverse portfolio of renewable technology,” then harvesting trees is the best way to go, he said. “There’s a lot of marginal land that could be used” [The New York Times].

Related Content:
80beats: GM Corn & Organ Failure: Lots of Sensationalism, Few Facts
80beats: GM Corn Leads to Organ Failure!? Not So Fast
80beats: New Biotech Corn Gives Triple Vitamin Boost; Professors Unmoved
80beats: Germany Joins the European Mutiny of Genetically Modified Crops
DISCOVER: “Frankenfoods” That Could Feed the World
DISCOVER: Genetically Altered Corn, and how GM corn not intended for humans got into the food supply

Image: iStockphoto


Bill Gates gives $10 billion for vaccines! | Bad Astronomy

Posted on by

Have no doubt, I’m a Mac guy. I don’t drink the Kool Aid, but my time with using PCs is well behind me. But y’know, Bill Gates is still my kinda guy: he and his wife are investing ten billion dollars to get vaccines to kids who need them.

That’s $10,000,000,000. Holy Haleakala. They think this can save nearly 9 million lives, and I think that’s pretty cool:

“Vaccines are a miracle,” added Melinda Gates. “With just a few doses, they can prevent deadly diseases for a lifetime. We’ve made vaccines our priority at the Gates Foundation because we’ve seen firsthand their incredible impact on children’s lives.”

Good on them. Very, very good. This is not only something desperately needed, but the publicity is, haha, a shot in the arm as well.

And if I may disagree ever-so-slightly with Ms. Gates, I’ll add that vaccines are not a miracle: they are the result of science, of clever people, of medical advances. That fact is lost on a lot of folks, including the antivaxxers. On top of this incredibly generous move, I’d love to see Mr. and Ms. Gates donate some money and effort to a good ad campaign that promotes vaccination and specifically targets the claims of the pro-disease antivax crowd, so that their work will have even more of a sustainable impact. I’m so thrilled they’re doing this, but we also need a national campaign to show people that the antivaxxers are wrong and doing significant damage to the public health.

Still and all: my congrats to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and my very sincere and hearty thanks.


You Wouldn’t Expect an 01 Watch to Be Strictly Analog [Watches]

Posted on by

You'd expect a watch called 01 "The One" to be a celebration of binary code, but while the 01 certainly has a dual-dialed binary design, it's ironically analog.

A retro celebration of jump hour watches (that I've just learned were popularized in the 70s), one dial handles the hours, the other dial handles the minutes. It's nothing complicated, which is completely the point.

01 is constructed of steel and leather, and it's available in black, silver (pictured here) or what looks to be a bronze. It sells for $170—hey—just like an Xbox 360 hard drive! [Watchismo]


Confessions of Another New Planeteer

Posted on by

Tracy DziekonskiLast week, Ryan posted about his first month at The Planet, and as a new employee on the training team, I can’t help but echo his excitement and enthusiasm. 2009 was certainly a year of difficulties and change for me. With the downward spiral of the economy came an unexpected turn in my career.

After more than 13 years with the same company, I received the proverbial pink slip last summer. At 40, I lost a large part of my identity with the click of a mouse. How could this happen? What do I do now? I was fortunate enough to have a severance cushion for my abrupt nudge out of the nest, so I took some time and enjoyed the summer with my kids.

With the daily silence of the phone and the vast wasteland of my inbox came a foreboding sense of doom. What if I never get a job? I felt the first trickle of panic around the time my kids went back to school. They had returned to their normal routine. Where was my chance?

Then one day I opened my email expecting the same “inbox empty” message that had mocked me for months. This day was different: there was a response. The Planet wanted to talk to me! I was even more excited and promptly contacted the office to schedule an interview.

The phone interview fueled my excitement, followed shortly by an in-person meeting. I walked into the office and was immediately impressed. This was not your normal corporate land of cubicles — this had style. I felt an energy I knew I wanted to be a part of. After I had what I hoped would be the best interview of my life, I waited patiently for next steps. It came a few days later when I had the opportunity to meet with the director and further explain why I felt this company simply could not live without me. I walked out, sure this would be my new corporate digs. I was so confident that I immediately started planning my first-day outfit.

Given the holiday season, the actual “welcome” took a little longer than expected, so I was anxious to hear if I had finally made it back into the productive work force. As I was waiting, I got a call from my old employer out of the blue with the possibility of going back to work in a different department. Not my dream job by any means, but it was a job. And I felt vindicated. They had made a mistake in letting me go.

And then I received an offer letter from The Planet. I was at a crossroads. Two paths awaited my decision that would forever change my destiny. One was well traveled and familiar; the other bright and shiny and shrouded in mystery. I had some serious contemplating to do. I talked with my family and weighed the pros and cons of both. Enlightenment often comes from the most unexpected places. My son, with all his ten-year-old wisdom chimed in: “Mom, your last company betrayed you and that is not good. The Planet needs you!” Now, how was I going to argue with that?

I immediately accepted the offer with The Planet, and the day I started knew it was the best decision I had ever made.

In my short tenure I’ve learned that one of our core values is about passion for the business and for our customers, and those “aha” moments come every day. The team here at The Planet offers an immediate feeling that I belong , and they are glad I finally made it.

I may have traded my thirteen years for 42 days, but the rewards are already priceless. I am proud to be part of this company and look forward to work every day.

I still think this is one of the coolest offices around. I gaze onto downtown Houston with a smile on my face. It is so much more than just a job — it’s a true sense of belonging. When I attend meetings and get to hear about the great things that we are working on, I am thrilled to be a part of it. It is a new horizon that seems endless in opportunities. I am still in awe of the massive amount of knowledge that sits behind these glass and steel walls.

Just like Columbus explored his new world, I am navigating my very own Planet. Although I doubt seriously he had to worry about throughput and bandwidth on his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.

-Tracy

StumbleUpon
Twitter
DZone
Digg
del.icio.us
Technorati

SousVide Supreme Review: How To Cook From the Inside Out [Review]

Posted on by

Sous vide is French for cooking in a vacuum, placing sealed meat or veggies in water held at an exact temperature. Because this precision requires high technology, the method was solely for chefs—until the $450 SousVide Supreme arrived.

Sous What Now?

Think of sous vide as cooking from the inside out, rather than the outside in.

When the Coen Brothers were making The Big Lebowski, they couldn't for the life of them figure out how to fling the ringer—a briefcase supposedly containing $1 million but actually holding Walter's dirty undies—in a graceful arc from the Dude's moving car. It sounds easy, but it's physically impossible. They were about to give up when the sage-like Jeff Bridges suggested shooting it backwards. Eureka. They filmed the bag toss, its perfect trajectory, falling into the slowly reversing automobile, and made cinematic history.

Sous vide is a lot like that. Instead of burning the crap out of your extra-thick filet mignon in a pan, perhaps tossing it into a hot oven afterwards, all with the hope of hitting a target internal temperature of 130ºF almost by chance, you vacuum seal the lightly salted raw meat and stick the bag into the "water oven," raising the temperature of the entire cut to 130º.

Once the ideal "medium rare" is reached, you sear the outside for a pleasing Maillard-effected crust.

Your steak is perfect. And you can't fail. Seriously, you can do this 1000 times and never screw up. Because of sous vide's precision temperature, you can let meat sit for hours without fear of it overcooking. Sous vide is (mostly) moron-proof—high science brought down to home kitchens that may or may not be worthy. If you eat medium-rare steak at home at least once a week, you basically need this.

In some ways, sous vide is the next obvious kitchen tool, like its predecessors the microwave, the convection oven and the induction cooktop. It's a unique tool that could easily go from exotic to commonplace in just a few years. As you'll see, the microwave comparison is perhaps most apt, since they're both self contained, make simple meal prep easier, and function on a fool-proof, "set-it-and-forget-it" basis.

The only catch is, when cooking sous vide, you have to vacuum seal everything, or—as I discovered—buy food that comes pre-sealed. The SousVide Supreme doesn't have its own sealer, so you need to buy a FoodSaver or something like it, which can be expensive. I was loaned a Reynolds Handi-Vac, which was finicky but at least affordable. The sad news is that Reynolds discontinued it, so if you own one or buy one on eBay, make sure to stock up on bags. (Here are some official details on that.)

Beyond Steak

My crash course in sous vide cooking came from this amazing, nerdy practical guide by Douglas Baldwin, a comp-sci/math guy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He covers the basics of cooking meat and other protein in a sous vide bath as thoroughly as one could ask for from a guy busy getting his PhD in Applied Mathematics. I encourage you to read it, though it's basically a discourse of temperature and time, the only two factors in sous vide cooking.

Seriously, that's really all there is to the SousVide Supreme. You set the temperature, in Celsius or Fahrenheit, and then you set the timer. That latter part is optional if you own a clock, since it takes hours, sometimes days, to overcook anything. I prepared many meals in there, and only managed to ruin one dish. I left some chicken cooking overnight, mostly to see what would happen if I did. The meat just became inedibly flaky.

There is a very nice, very expensive cookbook by Thomas Keller (and his team of cooking/writing geniuses) that explains the miracles sous vide is capable of performing. I did not use that book during this test, in part because I wouldn't have had any money left over to buy food, but in part because we're talking about you and me, not TK and the CIA posse. If you will likely be creating "cuttlefish tagliatelle with palm hearts and nectarine" or maybe "squab with piquillo peppers, marcona almonds, fennel and date sauce" on a regular basis, then a) I pretty much hate you and b) why the hell are you taking advice from me? What I can tell you is what an enthusiastic, experienced and adventurous home cook could possibly do with this thing on an ongoing basis. That, it turns out, is the trick. It's not what you can make, it's what you can keep making, day in and day out. Here's what I cooked, and whether or not SousVide Supreme is worth having on hand for best results.

Food Porn

Eggs: Hard boiling an egg is easy, but getting the perfect custard-like consistency of a gently soft-boiled egg is not. This baby can do it blindfolded. Just set the temperature to 148º F, wait for the thermostat to beep, then toss in a few eggs, no vacuum sealing needed, since nature already did that. I made a spaghetti carbonara the other day that was absolutely perfect, in large part due to SousVide Supreme. Since I don't know of any other way to get the perfect soft-boiled besides maybe timing and praying, I'm going to say SVS wins this round: Worth It

Duck breast: Lord love a duck… and so do I. But duck is another classic overcookable meat. I set mine for 150º and frankly, I still think I could have gone lower. Once it came out of the vacuum-sealed bag (which it was conveniently packaged in when I bought it, along with a cheap but not terrible l'orange sauce), I stuck the breast in a hot pan, searing the fat out of the skin side, and then browning the rest of the breast with the rendered fat. Verdict? I've overcooked enough duck in the past to say yes, this kind of control is appreciated: Worth It

Rack of lamb, rib roast, and other tender roast meats: Steak and duck are just a few of the "tender" meats that benefit from sous vide. I didn't try these others (partly cuz they're so damn expensive), but my experience with them in ovens, sometimes undercooking, sometimes overcooking, tells me how nice it would be to have the ability to reach a fixed internal temperature, even if it took many hours. But is it worth it? These are not foods one prepares too often, and there are tried-and-true ways to roast them in an oven, especially a convection oven with more controls. So I am going to have to say: Not Worth It

Short ribs and other tough meats: Here's another example of getting something different than what you can achieve in an oven. I love to brown the hell out of my short ribs, then braise the hell out of them in wine and mirepoix for 4-6 hours, in an oven, at a temperature of 325º. With sous vide, you can slow-cook short ribs at 135º for two days, rendering them softer but still rare. The meat is almost prime-ribby. I actually browned them before their sous vide cooking process, so they could be eaten immediately out of the vacuum bag. Verdict? I've never tasted slow-roasted meats like this—it was very good, and there's something to be said for transforming a rude cut of meat into a fine steak, but my in-oven slow-cooking method is as fool-proof, and has the added benefit of creating a carmelized sauce to go with it. It's a Draw

Fish: One of the funny things about sous vide fish is that so many fish come frozen vacuum sealed in plastic, often already steeped in marinade. You just throw the whole bag in, still frozen, wait an hour, and pull it out. There it comes, spilling out of the bag ready to eat, every bit a sci-fi—or at least 1st class airline—fantasy. But anybody interested in buying a SousVide Supreme will have no problem broiling or poaching fish to their desired doneness, and you don't sear a cooked fish as you would a cooked steak, so the sous vide process is a liability, or at least a limitation. Not Worth It

Vegetables: Veggies are another strangely gray area. I mean, I don't have any problem steaming, boiling, roasting or pan-frying vegetables, but there's some allure to the fact that you can cook them in a perfectly sealed environment, thereby preserving the very essence of that vegetable. (I'll admit, the allure doesn't pull me too strongly.)

I tried artichokes and beets. Nailing the beets was easy, since a beet is the same from outside in, so you just leave them in there for 90 minutes or so they're cooked through at 183º. And when they come out? They taste like cooked beets.

But those artichokes, ugh. Not only do the heart and petals cook differently, they can be quite different from one to the next. Also, they float. At least the big old leathery dead-of-winter flown-in-from-God-knows-where prickly sons of bitches that I tried. I've cooked artichokes for ages, even carefully charring them on the grill, but in this case I assumed the set-it-and-forget-it approach was good enough, and it wasn't. I eventually did get the artichokes cooked through, but I had to pop them out of the bag to check them, and I had to sit a heavy plate over the top of them to get them both underwater. Those two specific issues—and the general fact that I was dicking around with artichokes for several hours—combine to kill any advantage of this over the old pot-boil method. Not Worth It (though I am sure Thomas Keller's artichaux are to die for)

That Sweet, Succulent Bacteria

I might add that there's a food-poisoning angle to sous vide that could be a problem, but only if you're totally oblivious to the issues. Usually, you cook food at a bacteria-scorching 300º F or higher. With sous vide, you're often operating in that weird borderland of 130º to 140º, so you have to be far more careful. Generally speaking, anything cooked so that the center reaches 130º or higher is fine, and anything you sear the daylights out of after you sous vide it is fine, too.

If you want to research this issue further, I suggest starting with Baldwin's practical guide (specifically, the sections on "Safety" and—my favorite—"Pathogens of Interest"). In reality, the key is to exercise the same caution you normally should, only with extra vigilance. Don't reuse knives and utensils used for prepping raw meat, don't let food sit around at room temperature for very long, and don't undercook anything of dubious origin.

The Next Microwave

SousVide Supreme is the first home-targeted sous vide machine that I am aware of, certainly the first getting any kind of attention in the US. It's not the last. I know that precise temperature control does cost money, but technologies like this get inevitably cheaper, and I predict slightly smaller units selling in the $100 range in the next 2-3 years. I have a $100 rice cooker that gets a regular workout, and a brand new $100 Max Burton inductive burner that gets daily use. On the other side, I've got a $100 deep fryer that comes out twice or three times per year for occasions that demand Belgian frites, and a really nice slow cooker we have seriously never used.

My point is that, within the spectrum of fairly specialized cooking devices that a kitchen adventurer like me would own, the SousVide Supreme sits on the more useful end. But $430 is too much, and the size of the thing too great, to be justifiable for any but the most voracious of carnivores.

Five years from now, you will have a freezer full of pre-sealed pre-seasoned raw meats and fish, and you will toss these into your precision water bath like you throw something in the microwave now. We won't think about sous vide as a gift from science, just like we no longer consider it crazy that we "zap" food with radar microwaves. Sous vide will simply be an option, at least for those who want it. As great as this convenience will be for avid cooks, I hope the experience doesn't become mundane.

In the meantime, you could spring for the SousVide Supreme, which works as advertised, or you can hack yourself something cheaper, that's close if not perfect. Either way, you will love it—especially the steak—but don't expect a miracle. This won't turn you into the next Thomas Keller unless that's who you're destined to become anyway.

First "affordable" home sous vide cooking machine, offering a unique set of cooking capabilities that aren't easy to emulate without precision equipment

Extremely easy to use, and works exactly as billed

It will not make you a great cook overnight, though it will help you achieve goals you may already have

$450 is still too much for most home cooks, especially for something that they might not use often enough

Vacuum sealer equipment sold separately (and can be costly)

As large as a bread-maker or turkey roaster, equally hard to store when not in use

Interface not great; display lacks count-down timer, and buttons are sometimes unresponsive

Shout out to John Mahoney, who reviewed the SVS at Popular Science. If you're seriously considering buying this, it makes sense to read both of our takes; we think differently, but are equally in search of great culinary experiences.

Special thanks to reader Michael A., who alerted me to the existence of the SousVide Supreme after reading my holiday gift guide for home cooks. He also told me about this slightly cheaper SV controller, a little too science-projecty for a Giz review, but possibly a great alternative for someone with enough cojones.

A quick note about the Coens: Though I've come across it on several occasions, one account of the Coen Brothers' ringer-toss challenge can be found in the source-rich—but literarily unsatisfying—The Big Lebowski; The Making of a Coen Brothers Film. Coulda been way better, but still, it's required reading for die-hard Lebowski/Coen fans.

And finally, a little self promotion: If you like my style of food porn, and my cooking chatter, take a peek at my online cooking diary, You Make It You Eat It.


Alienware M11x Specs and Price Leaked With a Few Surprises [Alienware]

Posted on by

We were quite taken with the M11x when we got some hands-on time with it at CES, and while newly leaked info on the gaming ultraportable aren't exactly what we expected, they don't at all dampen the excitement.

We knew already about the Nvidia 335M graphics running the show on Dell's 11.6-inch machine, but now the processor options have been detailed as well in slides that showed up on Sina.com. The M11x will apparently ship with either a Pentium SU4100 or Core2Duo SU7300, giving it more power than you would typically expect from such a small laptop.

The slides also indicate that the M11x will ship as early as Feb. 5th, earlier than the "later this year" we'd gotten earlier had indicated. It also apparently prices out starting at $899, presumably for the Pentium model, though it's not entirely clear based on the slide. UPDATE: According to the Alienware M11x Sweepstakes website, pricing will start at $799. So we'll have to wait and see exactly what configuration that $899 price point is referencing. (Thanks, Tyler!)

Time will tell if this information holds up, but if it does, that's sounds like a pretty good price for such a powerful and portable gaming notebook.

UPDATE: Looks like the specs held up better than the price and date. [Sina via Engadget]


Commercial Space Flight Community Responds to NASA Budget

Posted on by

Space Industry CEOs Host Teleconference to Discuss President Obama's 2011 Budget Request for Expanded Role of Commercial Space

"The Next Step in Space Coalition and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, two organizations representing businesses, organizations, and people working to ensure the future of U.S. human spaceflight, today will hold a joint teleconference for members of the media. Top CEOs of the commercial spaceflight industry will provide comments on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) FY2011 Budget."

- Coalition for Space Exploration Awaits Collaboration between the White House and Congress on America's New Space Initiative and FY2011 Budget
- X PRIZE Foundation: NASA Budget Proposal Will Fuel Innovation and Investments in Game Changing Technology
- Commercial Spaceflight Federation Welcomes New NASA Human Spaceflight Plan, Congratulates Commercial Crew Development Winners