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The original Ninja Creami became a viral hit a few years ago when it took the tech from $5,000 commercial ice cream makers and distilled it into something you could buy for less than $200. As good as the Creami is at whipping up sorbets, gelatos and smoothie bowls, theres still one classic frozen treat it cant do: soft serve. But now theres a new addition to the family, the Swirl by Creami, and with it Ninja may have just created the ultimate all-in-one home ice cream machine. Design and features Instead of engineering a brand-new, multi-purpose device, Ninja basically took the existing Creami and bolted a soft serve module on the side. And then it tacked on a big handle, so you still get that physical sensation of pulling it down to dispense your icy creation. That might seem a bit crude from a design perspective, but lets be honest, the Swirl isnt going to win any beauty pageants. More importantly, its a rather straightforward and effective approach. Thats because when youre not making soft serve, you can simply spin a batch of regular ice cream with one of the machines two included pint containers. However, if you are going for something smooth and fluffy, things get a little more complicated. In addition to the standard paddle lid, the Swirl has a special top you need to use when making soft serve. The machine uses a new pint container that has a clever but somewhat tricky built-in nozzle for dispensing said soft serve. You need to keep the twist cap on its bottom closed for traditional scooped desserts, but open for soft-serve. And you better not forget, because if you dont seal it all the way while freezing your ice cream base, its going to get stuck. Thats no good because the container wont fit in the machine unless the pint is fully closed, so youre going to chip away at the parts that are stuck until it does. Unfortunately, if youre not planning on making soft serve, you cant use the classic Creami pints because those arent compatible (though like before, the Swirls lids and containers are dishwasher safe). A potential hurdle with the Swirls design, especially for people who live in apartments or places with small kitchens, is that it's about twice as big and heavy as a standard Creami. Its 15.1 x 10 x 17.5 inches and weighs 20 pounds. This means youll have to find a decently large place to stash it, unless you live in a mansion, because this thing isnt going to live on your countertop. Modes: The world is your ice cream Sam Rutherford for Engadget One of the best things about the Swirl is that it can do practically everything the Creami can and more. Thats because, in addition to the standard ice cream, lite ice cream, gelato, sorbet and milkshake modes, there are new options for frozen yogurt, fruit whip, frozen custard and so-called Creamifits. Most of these are self-explanatory, but a few warrant further explanation. Fruit whips are mostly frozen fruit with a bit of sugar that are blended into something akin to a healthier sorbet (like those delicious pineapple Dole whips). I also appreciate that theres a dedicated mode for frozen custard, which is even richer and creamier than traditional ice cream (often due to the inclusion of additional egg yolks). Since it's hard to find outside of southern and midwest states, this is another welcome addition. Finally, Creamifit is a new term for high-protein concoctions that frequently feature ingredients like whey, cottage cheese or Greek yogurt. They effectively turn workout shakes into frozen treats. Sam Rutherford for Engadget When youre ready to whip up a batch, Ninja made things simple by dividing the machines functions into two main categories: one for regular scooped treats and one for soft serve. The label you wont see is the one for smoothie bowls, which is a setting thats available on older models. I found that omission wasnt a big deal because depending on the type of texture youre looking for, the milkshake or Creamifit settings are viable replacements. Another improvement over the original Creami is that Ninja updated the Swirls blending modes so that you get the right consistency without needing to re-spin. And in my testing, Id say the company nailed it. Oftentimes with its predecessor, I would have to put ice cream in for a second go before I was happy, but not so with the new machine. That goes for both soft serve and regular scooped desserts. Furthermore, the Swirl is quieter too. Granted, its still rather loud at about 80 decibels from around six feet away. But compared to the basic Creami (around 82db), which routinely sent my three-year-old son running out of the kitchen when I used it, its a small improvement. So while you won't want to watch TV in the same room, you can at least still have a conversation. Soft serve: Tasting is believing If you want to make soft serve, after using the standard paddle lid (left) to spin your ice cream base, you'll need to attach Ninja's dedicated soft serve lid (right) before slotting the entire pint into the opening on the left side of the machine. Sam Rutherford for Engadget If you can handle the Swirls more involved process, the rewards are worth it. This thing really can produce soft serve thats just as good as what you can buy from your local shop or friendly neighborhood truck. In fact, Id argue that your creations might even be better because you can control what goes in them. Sure, you can follow recipes. But just like its predecessor, the magic of the Swirl is that as long as you follow a few basic guidelines, you can kind of throw anything together and it wil taste divine. Thats exactly what I did for my first test batch. Like a lot of parents, I try to minimize food waste as much as possible. Instead of tossing out some old strawberries and pineapple chunks at the end of the week, I diced them up, added a splash of lime juice and mixed everything with a third of a cup of sugar. After letting the fruit macerate for a bit, I simply stuck them in the Swirls pint container and froze it overnight. The next day, I set the machine to the fruit whip setting, spun it and then swapped in Ninjas soft serve lid before pulling down on the handle. Goddamn, it was good. Sam Rutherford for Engadget The consistency of the fruit whip was super smooth without any big ice crystals, The flavor was like a tropical fruit bowl exploded in my mouth. But the best part is that it cost almost nothing to make, because its ingredients probably would have ended up in the trash in a lot of households. Next, I whipped up some basic chocolate soft serve (using this recipe from Ninjas Test Kitchen) because thats my three-year-olds favorite flavor. Instead of using regular whole milk, heavy cream and cocoa powder, I swapped those out for Fairlife chocolate milk. Not only does that increase the amount of protein, this brand is also lactose-free. This resulted in a super fluffy soft serve with an almost marshmallow-like mouthful that everyone in my family enjoyed (including my lactose-intolerant wife). It was a classic done right. After that, I tried freestyling another recipe by chopping up some maraschino cherries (get Luxardo if you can) and adding those plus some of their syrup to some Fairlife milk and coconut cream. The Swirls soft serve setting does a great job of adding lots of air to the ice cream while blending to help ensure a light and velvety texture, but just to be safe I also added a quarter teaspoon of xanthan gum to the mixture. I blended everything up as normal, pulled down the lever and voila: a super rich and dense, but not heavy, cherries and cream treat. But perhaps my most rewarding creation was a matcha soft serve that was the best Ive ever had. My wife drinks matcha every day, so over the years shes turned me into a bit of a snob myself. I know right away when places like Starbucks use poor-quality powder that tastes like day-old grass cuttings. By combining some decent ceremonial matcha with lactose-free milk and cream using this recipe, I was able to make her soft serve with unmatched taste and texture. Thats normally incredibly hard to find since most ice cream shops dont have a ton of non-dairy options. Wrap-up Compared to the original Creami, the Ninja Swirl is significantly larger and a bit more complicated. Sam Rutherford for Engadget Homemade soft serve is kind of like ice creams white whale. Machines that whip up churned desserts have been around for years, and there was even one built into the counter in my grandmas old house. But soft serve often requires specialized equipment thats incredibly cost-prohibitive to own, especially since these are single-purpose machines. Ninja has changed that with the Swirl. Not only can it create delicious concoctions that rival what you can buy from a store (and for way cheaper), it can handle pretty much any other frozen treat you can think of all in one gadget. That said, there are a few knocks against the Swirl. The first is that making soft serve results in about a quarter cup of ice cream getting stuck inside various components, like the space between the bottom of the pint and the nozzle. Thats not a big deal, but if youre trying to cut down on food waste by turning leftovers into dessert, its a bit unfortunate. The Swirl is also big and bulky, and at $350, its nearly twice the price of a standard Creami. Sam Rutherford for Engadget My biggest gripe is that the Swirl isnt available in a deluxe size like you can get with its predecessor. A pint of ice cream is enough for a couple of people, but if youre making soft serve for a crowd, the Swirls 16-ounce containers mean youll have to spin up a second batch. And with the Swirls pints and lids going for $35 a pair, thats an added expense if you plan on using this thing for entertaining. When asked, Ninja wouldnt comment if a larger model is on the way, but I would be shocked if a deluxe version doesnt make an appearance at some point. So, if you like what the Swirl can do but want a machine with more capacity, you may want to hold tight for now. The final issue is that with the Swirl launching only a couple of years after the Creami came out, some folks may be feeling buyer's remorse about the original. I dont see it that way. The previous model is still a surprisingly versatile device thats affordable and doesnt take up a ton of space in your kitchen. While the Swirl adds a major but not truly essential branch of desserts to its repertoire, it also brings with it a higher cost and added complexity. But for anyone who has fond memories of enjoying a silky smooth frozen cone on a hot summers day (ideally, after a round of mini golf), the Ninja Swirl is bringing that magic into your kitchen in a way we havent seen before.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/ninja-swirl-by-creami-review-this-might-be-the-ultimate-home-ice-cream-maker-180015294.html?src=rss
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Breaking: A Big Tech company is ramping up its AI development. (Whaaat??) In this case, the protagonist of this now-familiar tale is Meta, which Reuters reports is testing its first in-house chip for AI training. The idea is to lower its gargantuan infrastructure costs and reduce its dependence on NVIDIA (a company that apparently brings out Mark Zuckerberg's "adult language" side). If all goes well, Meta hopes to use it for training by 2026. Meta has reportedly kicked off a small-scale deployment of the dedicated accelerator chip, which is designed to specialize in AI tasks (and is, therefore, more power-efficient than general-purpose NVIDIA GPUs). The deployment began after the company completed its first "tape-out," the phase in silicon development where a complete design is sent for a manufacturing test run. The chip is part of the Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA) series, the company's family of custom in-house silicon focused on generative AI, recommendation systems and advanced research. Last year, the company started using an MTIA chip for inference, a predictive process that happens behind the scenes in AI models. Meta began using the inference one for its Facebook and Instagram news feed recommendation systems. Reuters reports that it plans to start using the training silicon for that as well. The long-term plan for both chips is said to begin with recommendations and eventually use them for generative products like the Meta AI chatbot. The company is one of NVIDIA's biggest customers after placing orders for billions of dollars' worth of GPUs in 2022. That was a pivot for Meta after it bailed on a previous in-house inference silicon that failed a small-scale test deployment much like the one it's doing now for the training chip.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-is-reportedly-testing-its-first-in-house-ai-training-chip-174550664.html?src=rss
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Our favorite kleptomaniac prince is back. Theres a new Katamari Damacy game coming to Apple Arcade on April 3. Katamari Damacy Rolling Live is being developed by franchise steward Bandai Namco and, as the name suggests, brings those familiar rolling gameplay mechanics to iOS devices, Mac computers and Apple TV. The Apple Arcade exclusive doesnt look all that dissimilar to previous entries. You play as the prince, rolling up objects until they grow large enough to become stars. Its Katamari. The big difference here is the plot. The old games typically had you creating stars for the noble purpose of rebuilding the galaxy. This time, the stars are created for the benefit of the kings burgeoning career as a livestreamer. Bandai Namco Thats right. Successful runs boost the kings subscriber count and this leads to positive comments from in-game fans. Once the viewership reaches a certain threshold, you unlock new stages. Thats a fairly odd twist, but its not as if anyone plays Katamari for the plot. You play for the satisfaction of rolling over stuff to get bigger. Apple promises a captivating soundtrack that blends different genres. Itll be tough to beat the OG soundtrack, which is one of the all-time greats, but well just have to wait and see. Its been around eight years since weve had any new Katamari game and around a decade since weve had a good one. Bandai Namco did release a remaster of the original title back in 2018 and the sequel in 2023. This isnt the only Apple Arcade news today. The platform announced an update to the well-received Skate City: New York that brings 30 new levels and 90 new objectives. Itll be available on March 27. Theres also a new Space Invaders game coming on April 3.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-first-new-katamari-game-in-years-is-coming-to-apple-arcade-in-april-173045224.html?src=rss
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