Month: December 2018

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Amazon Alexa is beta testing crowdsourced answers

Amazon announced today that it’s beta testing Alexa Answers, an invitation-only program for users to add responses for questions that Alexa can’t answer. Amazon says that in the last month of its internal Alexa Answers beta program, 100,000 responses have been added and served to customers “millions of times.”

Starting today, selected customers who have received email invitations can participate via the Alexa Answers website. Users can browse through various topic categories, like science and geography, and choose to answer questions that have been asked by other customers that Alexa doesn’t know the answers to. Those answers may then be served to other Alexa customers, and their answer will be attributed to “an Amazon customer.”

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Officially licensed Star Wars keycaps are here, and they cost $250

Customizing your keyboard by swapping out its keycaps is nothing new, but this is the first time we’ve seen a Star Wars set that’s received an official blessing from Lucasfilm, via SyFy. The Star Wars Galactic Empire DSA keycap set features a color scheme that wouldn’t be out of place at a computer terminal in the Death Star. They even have authentic Aurebesh lettering, the character set that provides the official written language of the Star Wars universe.

Getting the official seal of approval from Lucasfilm didn’t come cheap. These keycaps will retail for $250 when they go on sale on December 10th, and that doesn’t include a keyboard.

However, if that sounds…

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Ron Burgundy’s Upcoming Podcast is Kind of a Big Deal

Ron Burgundy is back…but he’s not bringing his blow-dried pomposity to the big screen in another Anchorman movie. Like pretty much everyone else, San Diego’s most famous fictional TV news anchor is launching a podcast. 

In early 2019, The Ron Burgundy Podcast debuts on the iHeartRadio Podcast Network, and it’s already set for two seasons with 12 episodes each.

The show will be co-produced by iHeart Radio and Funny or Die, the company founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Michael Kvamme, and Chris Henchy.

“Listen, I don’t know what a podcast is, but I currently have a lot of time on my hands and a lot to talk about. I am also broke,” Burgundy said in a statement to iHeartRadio. 

“Therefore, I am very excited to do this podcast. It is literally saving my life.”

To announce the show on social media, Burgundy himself took to Twitter with the new Ron Burgundy Podcast account and spilled the beans through an admittedly lengthy exchange with veteran CNN anchor Don Lemon…about eating too many hot dogs.

The entire hot dog exchange culminated to these three semi-climactic tweets:

The podcast airs early next year, and until then, stay classy.

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The 10-inch Lenovo Smart Display for $160 is a great value

As part of Best Buy’s “20 Days of Doorbuster” deals, Lenovo’s 10-inch Smart Display is nearly $100 off. Normally priced at $249.99, you can purchase it for $159.99 until the end of today.

To put this deal into perspective, Google’s Home Hub, which has a smaller (albeit brilliant) display, was $99 during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. Lenovo’s model is a few inches bigger, and it has more panache, but the main difference is that it features a camera that allows for video chatting, along with a hardware switch to toggle if you have privacy concerns.

The Lenovo Smart Display debuted just a short while before Amazon’s second-gen Echo Show earlier in 2018, which normally sits at the $229 price point. If you’re looped into Amazon…

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AT&T now supports eSIM on Apple’s latest iPhones

AT&T is the first major US carrier to add support for eSIM on the iPhone XS and XR, allowing its network to be used in a dual-SIM setup.

One of the XS and XR’s headline features was support for dual SIM cards, allowing the phones to be connected to two networks at once. But at the phones’ launch, the feature didn’t really work: major US carriers had issues supporting dual-SIM users, and none of them supported the eSIM feature that actually allowed the carrier to be on the additional SIM card.

Now, that’s changing. As part of yesterday’s iOS update, Apple added eSIM support for additional carriers, and AT&T appears to be one of them. 9to5Mac spotted that AT&T has published a…

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Restaurant Spotlight: La Grotta (Wine Spectator)

In South Korea’s Konjiam Resort, La Grotta delivers a wine-centric experience inspired by vineyard dining. Named for the Italian term for “the cave,” La Grotta is located in an actual wine cave, carved into the side of a mountain to create natural temperature control. The space protects an inventory of 30,000 bottles supplying the 800-selection, Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence–winning wine list. Overseen by wine director Hyo Keun Lee, the program is strongest in Bordeaux, with numerous vintages from the region’s top producers such as Château Mouton-Rothschild, Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Latour.

There are also exceptional labels from Italy, California and Burgundy. Selections are presented on an iPad for regularly updated inventory and vintage information, and to make the list easier to read in the dimly lit atmosphere. Elements like the soft lighting, arched ceilings and warm color palette are meant to evoke the feeling of dining in a Napa Valley winery. Yet the cuisine is distinct, blending Italian tradition with seasonal ingredients and Korean flair. Chef Jong Hun Ahn’s menu consists of signature entrées and pastas like spaghetti in an olive oil sauce with mackerel and basil. Except during a few months in winter, the herbs and vegetables are sourced from the on-site organic garden.