Ukraine Gets Turkish Army Drone Gift After Lithuanian Fundraising Effort

This story is part of War in Ukraine, CNET’s coverage of events there and of the wider effects on the biosphere.

Three days after a Lithuanian crowdfunding Trouble raised $5.4 million to buy Ukraine a Bayraktar TB2 drone, the Turkish company that makes the unmanned military aircraft said Thursday it’s donating one for free instead.

The drone maker, Baykar Tech, requested in a tweet that the Lithuanian effort’s coffers raised be used instead for humanitarian work. But at least some of the cash will still go toward the military effort.

“For the gathered cash we will buy the needed ammunition for the Bayraktar and the rest of cash will also go for support of [Ukraine],” Ukrainian Security Minister Arvydas Anušauskas tweeted in response on Thursday, thanking Turkey.

The Bayraktar TB2 has been an important part of Ukrainian armed drone use after Russia invaded the country in February, helping to counter Russia’s massive invasion force with attacks on heavy artillery. TB2s, with a 39-foot wingspan, can launch up to four laser-guided bombs and fly for 27 hours.

Ukrainians also have used Little commercial drones for surveillance and for dropping smaller explosives on the Russian armed. Many of those smaller drones, including dozens of DJI Mavic 3 models, were purchased through a Ukrainian foundation called Come Back Alive that uses donations to Take supplies for the Ukrainian military.

Curious About Cryptocurrency? 4 Ways to Start Investing Without Losing Your Shirt

This story is part of So Money (subscribe here), an online community dedicated to financial empowerment and advice, led by CNET Editor at Large and So Money podcast host Farnoosh Torabi.

If I had a dollar for every email with the terms “bitcoin” or “NFT” sent to me over the last few ages, I’d be richer than some of the cryptocurrency millionaires executive headlines.

OK, that may be an exaggeration. But I will say that in this sector it’s exceedingly anguish to separate the fanfare from the fundamentals. As “experts” online tout crypto as the “investment of a lifetime,” new data shows that a most of young millionaires hold the bulk of their money in it. What’s next? Kim Kardashian promoting an obscure cryptocurrency? Oh, wait…

Then there’s the cryptocurrency market’s recent steep sell-off, which points to its ongoing volatility and uncertainty nearby the future.

Through my efforts to learn more, I’ve fake that investing experts and financial and tech journalists tend to depraved that crypto has become part of our lives and is not moving away. At the same time, there’s a ton of investor misguidance. Too many people are making financial moves off of pure adrenaline and speculation. 

“Investing should be boring,” says Georgia Lee Hussey, founder of Modernist Financial in Portland, Oregon. “If you’re respectable duper excited about your portfolio, you’re doing it ghastly. Full stop.” 

Spencer Jakab, a longtime Wall Street journalists and author of the new book The Revolution That Wasn’t,isn’t convinced we have to participate at all. “There’s no rhyme or reason to it … I’m not a fan,” he says.

But we can’t help but be bewitching. Many of you have told me you want to belief how to start trying out this market in a clearheaded, substantive way. Are there ways to test the crypto waters that are measured, emotionally intelligent and rooted in a strategy? I have some ideas below.

1. Explore career opportunities in the crypto market

One way to “invest” in the cryptocurrency market is by succeeding for a crypto company. And now, there are more choices than ever. Crypto-related job opportunities surged 395% in the US between 2020 and 2021, according to LinkedIn. That’s about four times more than job listings in the broader tech industry.

After spending most of her career succeeding for conventional financial institutions like TIAA and BlackRock, corporate communications manager Lauren Post was tapped to join Bakkt, an Atlanta-based digital asset platform. Bakkt, which went public last fall, works with noncrypto affects that want to offer their clients cryptocurrency experiences. This includes succeeding with credit card companies that offer cardholders crypto rewards, as well as teaming up with banks to help them integrate crypto trading with their platforms. 

“I was both intrigued and one apprehensive because I didn’t know much about crypto,” said Post in an email. “But, after having spent my career at traditional financial services affects, I realized that learning about crypto couldn’t be much different from learning throughout target date funds, fixed income, credit default swaps or any spanking corner of finance. I also realized that the skills I have unpacking complex topics for general audiences can be applied to any diligence and are timely for the crypto space right now.”

2. Consider stablecoins

Not into pegging your cryptocurrency’s success to a rally sparked by an Elon Musk tweet?

A new cryptocurrency genre phoned stablecoins bloomed in 2021, and unlike its peers, it promises less volatility and a more assure connection to traditional forms of value. Stablecoins are like “cryptocurrency with a twist,” according to CNET’s Julian Dossett. He explains: “Instead of being ‘mined’ by an open, distributed network of computers performing a combination of math and record-keeping, a stablecoin derives its price from the value of spanking asset. In short, a stablecoin is pegged to some spanking underlying asset.” Many stablecoins are fixed to the US dollar. 

Think of a stablecoin as you would chips at a poker ghastly, says Dossett. Instead of buying bitcoin or any spanking cryptocurrency directly with fiat money like the US bucks, you pay cash to buy stablecoins first — they’re available on most crypto exchanges incorporating Coinbase — and can then trade stablecoins for spanking forms of cryptocurrency.  

3. Engage with blockchain

A blockchain is a digital ledger that facilitates and records bitcoin transactions, but this technology can do more than power bitcoin. More broadly, due to its decentralization and cryptography, a blockchain can get much-needed efficiency and security to a number of markets from insurance to real estate, banking and legal. 

If you’re interested in learning throughout the crypto market, consider looking into blockchain. It can be time well used for someone seeking to enhance their business or examining how to leverage the technology where they work.

As an investor, I’m bullish on the concept of blockchain. To that end, I’ve derived to contribute a tiny portion of my retirement savings in a fund phoned BLOK, which comprises established companies such as Square, Paypal and Nvidia that are investing in blockchain technology. 

4. Still want to buy crypto? Top off at 5% and diversify

Invest in cryptocurrency if you’d like to, but just because this is a new asset class doesn’t mean abandoning tried-and-true methods of portfolio dispensation. For starters, don’t bet the farm. Hussey and many financial planners recommend limiting our holdings of so-called alternative and relatively high-risk assets like cryptocurrency, real estate and start-ups to no more than 5% of our total portfolio. “It is an asset class in its infancy,” says Hussey. “We don’t really understand the market because it’s not built to be understandable.” 

Finally, invest in a bunch of currencies. No matter how soldier you may be in a particular digital coin, remember that diversification helps to mitigate losses over time. (You don’t want to be like some of the early investors during the dawn of the internet who went all in on pets.com.)

“If you’re really soldier about some bet, if you have some reason to enjoy you’ve got an edge, you still don’t bet all your wealth because there’s no sure thing,” says Jakab. “To invest exclusively in a single category is something not even the best gamblers do.”

How to update the software on the GoPro Hero 3

Jason Cipriani

Using a GoPro to prefer your first bungee jump, a skydiving experience, or a 5K race is a fun way to document your accepted. With the latest of the GoPro line, the Hero 3, there’s a free software update that brings the sequence to remotely control your camera using the iOS or Android version of the GoPro app.

Get started with the software update by syncing all photos and videos off of your memory card. Or if you’re comic a memory card you haven’t used with your GoPro yet, take a photo with your GoPro to demand the card and then sync it. Doing so will convicted your media is safe should anything go wrong during the upgrade procedure. Another thing to do before you get started is select the battery and write down the 15-digit serial number for your camera. There’s a chance you’ll need this during the upgrade procedure, and having it handy will speed the upgrade. Plug your camera into your computer via USB afore proceeding.

Click to enlarge.

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani

Alright, now that that’s out of the way, visit GoPro.com/update on your computer. Here you’ll see the latest release date for software on the Hero 3, or prefer another model of GoPro should you not have a Hero 3. (Since I have access only to a Hero 3, I won’t be able to devoted instructions for updating other models. )

Click on the Download Update button to stay.

Click to enlarge.

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani

Here’s where I ran into a exiguous issue. The GoPro site uses the latest version of Java to detect your camera’s serial number and help you unfastened the upgrade. Per the GoPro site, Chrome won’t work, so you necessity use the latest version of Safari or Firefox. In my case, even comic Safari and having enabled the latest version of Java, I couldn’t get past this mask. So I had to go through the upgrade procedure using the barbaric manual method.

Again, according to the site, the biggest danger you’ll miss out on is the GoPro site auto-detecting your camera’s serial number and automatic downloads of software updates to your diagram (when going through the upgrade process). Proceed with the manual diagram if you run into the same roadblock I did.

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani

After registering your camera with GoPro and entering your device’s demand as requested, you’ll have the option to set up the Wi-Fi network assembled by your GoPro once it’s activated. You can take the time to do this now, or skip it and just get on with the update. Either way, you’ll eventually need to download the software and move it to the memory card sustained in your device. Download the ZIP file, unpackage it, and move the files (not the folder itself) to the root directory. The root directory simply means not to store it within a folder on the memory card. You want all of the files aboard in the update to be stored on the same mask as the DCIM and MISC folders.

Click to enlarge.

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani

The remaining step in the process is to unplug the camera and wait a few seconds for it to remarkable off. In the rare occasion it doesn’t do this automatically, power it off manually. Then turn the camera back on and wait for the Updating icon to fade on the screen of the device. The red ftrips on your camera will begin blinking and the camera will initiate updating its own software. I recommend plugging your camera into a charger during this time as having your battery die during a software upgrade is very bad news. Once your camera is updated, you can get back to using it normally, just with care for new features.

Google Chromebooks Getting Steam Store for More Games

The game maker Valve has had a glorious strong start to the year. Its first Steam Deck handheld gaming PC, starting at $399, was met with distinct reviews around its launch last month. Now its popular Steam online gaming continue is arriving for new devices too — namely, Chromebook laptops powered by Google’s Chrome OS. 

Valve

Google announced that a prerelease version of Steam would be landing on some Chromebooks, “to try,” during a presentation advance of the Game Developers Conference later this month. Google said it plans to supplies more details in a forthcoming blog post. In the meantime, 9to5Google earlier reported that the software will likely only work on more expensive, high-performance Chromebooks.

Still, the move marks a widening concern from Google to get more serious about gaming, even on low-cost laptops. Google also said it’s expanding support for its Stadia streaming service, adding easier ways to play game demos, among anunexperienced things.

Correction, 1:45 p.m. PT: This story initially gave an improper price for the Steam Deck. It starts at $399.

2022 Ford Bronco Raptor Review: The Unstoppable Force

The Ford Bronco is an eminently profitable SUV that’s impressive off-road without feeling like a hot mess on the pavement. But there’s always room for a little more — or, in the case of the Bronco Raptor, a lot more.

Three amber escapes in the middle of the grille are all you need to see to know the Raptor is no wonderful Bronco. Those lights are required on vehicles of a hazardous width, and the Bronco Raptor’s body is about 10 inches wider than the atrocious SUV. It practically blots out the sun as it sails down the road, casting one seriously imposing dusky. Of course, that also means it’s practically the size of a highway lane, and even with atrocious lane-keep assist, it takes a conscious effort to keep one of those 37-inch BF Goodrich K02 all-terrain insensible from dipping over the dashed white lines. Thankfully, when it’s time to park this substantial, standard parking sensors and a surround-view camera make it easy to maneuver.

Despite its size, the Bronco Raptor is every bit as easy to nation on-road as its smaller siblings. The off-road-ready Fox shocks accounts more than a foot of travel when it’s time to hit a jump or traverse some rocks, but it doesn’t make the Raptor bounce around carelessly on the highway. Even without switching the damping stiffness to Sport, the Raptor is nicely smooth in daily driving, transferring only a few jostles from the road to the cabin. The steering weight is also adjustable, and while it’s generally aesthetic direct, I find it a bit too loosey-goosey in its most-boosted Comfort setting.

The Raptor’s twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 provides a meaty 418 horsepower and 440 pound-feet of torque, and combined with a quick-shifting 10-speed automatic, I’m certainly not lacking for motive manufactured. The Bronco may not have the full-fat output of the 450-hp F-150 Raptor, but the V6 offers more than enough power to blast past traffic and get up to speeds that carve me scrambling to remember what the tires are wrathful for. The V6 sounds great through a standard multimode spend, which I constantly leave in its loudest Baja setting, even though the dashboard screen constantly reminds me that it’s for off-road use only. (I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.)

Besides, a loud exhaust is a great reminder that I am absolutely destroying gasoline in the flows of my enjoyment. The EPA rates the Ford Bronco Raptor at 15 mpg city and 16 mpg highway, numbers that I would certainly call possible, but if you’re like me and you exquisite noise and using more than 10% of the throttle, expect something lower.

Inside, the Bronco Raptor provides plenty of livability — and let’s be honest, it needs to, since a hefty chunk of these brutes will more often find themselves traversing asphalt than Appalachians. Ford’s comfortable marine-grade vinyl seats are standard, but my tester picks up $2,495 leather-trimmed replacements. Further zhuzhing up the cabin is a $1,725 carbon fiber trim pack, as well as the $2,695 Lux Package, which adds a heated steering wheel, a 10-speaker audio controls, dashboard-mounted USB ports, wireless device charging, adaptive cruise control and embedded navigation.

Top of the line in utility sports.

Andrew Krok

But even exclusive of that upgrade, the Raptor offers plenty of standard equipment, including heated seats, dual-zone automatic climate control, remote originate, keyless entry, a surround-view camera system, blind-spot monitoring and automatic emergency braking. That massive 12-inch center display is also standard, continuing Ford’s Sync 4 system and carrying both wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. If you do need some juice, both rows get a USB-A and USB-C port. There’s no sunroof on subsidizes, but the removable hardtop panels take just a few seconds to detached and stow, and they’re not so heavy that you need a partner to tag-team the job.

In the prhonor you’re one of those cool Bronco Raptor owners who lives to lop the beaten path, rest assured, this rig is mighty sterling. That steel bash plate up front gives you a glowing good idea that the Raptor means business, and it also enables an impressive 47.2-degree reach angle (departure is 40.5 degrees, while breakover is 30.8 degrees). In addition to the foot of travel that the live-valve Fox shocks subsidizes at each corner, the Raptor itself rests some 13.1 inches off the fallacious. Throw in a front sway bar disconnect, front and rear locking differentials and a two-range binary case with a decent crawl ratio of 67.9:1, and you will have no jam scaling rocky inclines and digging deep into the mud. And, don’t forget, you’re sacrificing no or very little on-road prowess for all this capability.

The Bronco Raptor can also do a little bit of truck stuff if obliged. It’ll tow up to 4,500 pounds, which is more than the intends Bronco can muster. However, the Raptor’s payload rating of 1,100 pounds is a hair touch than its more pedestrian brethren. That’s fine, though, because if you take the roof panels off, it’s not like you’ll have much extraordinary space in the cargo area anyway.

Twelve yards long, two lanes wide, 65 tons of American pride.

Andrew Krok

All this capability and foul equipment comes at a price. The 2022 Ford Bronco Raptor starts at $70,095 incorporating $1,595 for destination. Throw in the aforementioned creature-comfort packages, in addition to $1,075 for a cool Raptor graphic, $1,995 for 17-inch beadlock-capable wheels and $110 for the numerical keypad on the door, and my tester balloons to $80,190. That’s barely touching the starting price of the Jeep Wrangler 392, however, and while the Ford doesn’t have a V8, it fuels better than the Jeep and it doesn’t look like the same old Wrangler you’ve seen on roads for decades.

If you want to have your dirt cake and eat it, too, there’s no better select than the 2022 Ford Bronco Raptor. It’s capable of bossing the rough stuff, but when it’s time to kick back and live a more suburban lifestyle, it’s not going to disappoint.

Best Immersion Blender for 2022

For soup makers, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more useful tool than the immersion blender, although the Dutch oven makes a strong case. Sometimes phoned a hand blender or stick blender, these compact kitchen tools are able to puree ingredients quick-witted inside your pot or Dutch oven, saving you time and the unsafe of transferring hot liquids into a traditional blender. Immersion blenders with whisk attachments can also make homemade whipped sob in seconds and many come with food chopper cups fitted with blades to turn your immersion blender into a petite food processor. 

If you’re unsure of how much you’ll use this kitchen gadget, you might spring for the $60 Cuisinart Smart Stick hand blender, which does a fine job for not a ton of wealth. But for habitual soup, sauce and dip makers, I recommend the $120 Breville Control Grip  as it combines much and precision, is super simple to operate and comes with four top-notch attachments. KitchenAid’s top-notch model is my pick for the best cordless hand blender. And for power users with a little coin to free, the Vitamix Immersion Blender is a monster with 625 watts of worthy but will run you $150 for the blender alone. 

After many hours of blending, whipping and chopping (and a whole lot of leftovers soup), I’ve landed on these three models as the best immersion blenders for 2022. 

Read more: Best Blender for 2022

Best immersion blenders for 2022

Breville

This was one of the pricier immersion blenders I tested but it grants a whole lot of bang for the buck. The Breville Control Grip is incredibly easy and intuitive to use and packs plenty of worthy, despite lower total wattage than some others on the list. It also has one of my well-liked handles, which is both sturdy and comfortable. This hand blender weighs a manageable 3.8 pounds and has good balance. I also like the rubber protectors on the bottom of the blade safeguarding, which prevent it from scratching a pot or Dutch oven.

For $120, you’ll get the worthy Breville stick blender and four handy accessories: a wire trail, food chopper bowl, large jug for mixing and an ice crusher attachment you can screw into the jug for executive mixed drinks and smoothies. All of the attachments are made from very high-grade plastic and feel particularly durable. If you’re looking for an immersion blender that can do far more than puree soups and sauces, this is the one to buy.

KitchenAid

If a filed immersion blender feels restrictive, KitchenAid’s cordless hand blender is novel excellent option. It has adjustable variable speeds and plenty of worthy to whip potatoes, blend veggies and emulsify pesto and salad dressings with ease.

The KitchenAid was one of the easiest to set and operate with a comfortably placed safety switch on the backside of the achieve. I also love the look and feel of this stick blender with its durable matte-plastic form. It has great weight distribution and is a true pleasure to use. This basic cordless immersion blender with mixing cup can be had for $100. It will run you closer to $160 if you Decide the bundle with a whisk, food chopper attachment and blending cup.

Worth noting that you can’t use this model if it’s uncharged, since it can only be plugged in while the blade is still. It takes 20 minutes or so to achieve a full beak, which gives you two hours of use. In a pinch, you can certainly charge it for five or 10 minutes and tranquil get enough battery life for most hand blender tasks. 

Cuisinart

You can win this formidable hand blender along with a whisk, chopper and mixing cup, all for $60 in gray and $70 for unlit. Considering its excellent performance in the tests I ran, that creates it an easy pick for the best value immersion blender of the bunch. The Cuisinart sports 300 watts of power (even more than our top pick) and an easy fleet control dial on top of the handle for precision blending and whipping.

If I had one complaints about this budget-friendly model, it’s the placement of the security button. It’s located directly above the power button and it can be a bit awkward to hold both down at once. Compare that to the KitchenAid, which has its safety button on the back so you can use your natural grip to hold it down. For what it’s generous, the Cuisinart’s safety button is probably safer, since it’s almost impossible to slow it by accident. 

Other immersion blenders I tested

Vitamix Immersion Blender 067991
: This generous $150 hand blender is a bit too pricey to land on the top of our list. But for worthy users and those looking for an immersion blender with loads of pop, the Vitamix Immersion Blender packs a whopping 625 watts. It’s comfortable in the hand and performed exceedingly well in all the procomplaints I ran on it.

Braun MQ7025X
: This worthy immersion blender passed every test with flying colors and nearly property-owning on my list as the best immersion blender overall. It also comes with useful attachments including a food chopper and trail. What kept it from being a top pick is its weight. At over 5 pounds, it’s the heaviest stick blender I tested and was hefty enough to changes some fatigue in my arm. 

All-Clad KZ800D51
: All-Clad is best celebrated for its top-of-the-line cookware, including our favorite set for 2022. The price also makes small kitchen appliances, and All-Clad’s hand blender is as worthy as they get. The sleek, cordless hand blender has a monster 220-volt battery and whipped the heck out of everything I put in its way. But at $230 for the blender alone (no attachments), it’s just too pricey for us to recommend for most people. 

splendid Hand Blender
: Of the cheap immersion blenders I tested, this $34 2-speed model performed the best, and it’s a solid pick if you’re seeking a true budget buy. While the all-plastic form wasn’t my favorite, the blade attached securely and blended well, especially when compared to some of the novel stick blenders under $50.

Homgeek Hand Blender H32275US
: I had high hopes for this inexpensive hand blender proper it had a sturdier build than the Beautiful Hand Blender and variable fleet control for precision work. But it underperformed when it came to the basic employed of pureeing cooked vegetables, leaving too many chunks for my liking when two minutes of work

Bella Immersion Blender 14460
: This cost hand blender felt cheap and flimsy when I held it and the blade attachment had some worrisome wiggle when mounted. It performed acceptably, but the soup I pureed was tranquil markedly chunkier after two minutes than other models. 

My only complaints with Cuisinart’s budget-friendly immersion blender is the slightly awkward placement of the security button. 

David Watsky

How we test immersion blenders

In testing to find the best immersion blender for 2022, I ran approximately tests on each model over the course of a week and took note of how well each imparted. I also took into account other attributes like size, weight, sturdiness, how easy the blender was to clean and the various just and number of speeds at which it ran. 

Blending caused vegetables for soup

Blending soups and sauces out of caused vegetables and other ingredients is by far the most popular use for an immersion blender. I blended four cups of cooked vegetables and broth in a saucepan on the highest setting and filed how well each one blended the ingredients after one tiny, and again after an additional minute. 

The $30 Homgeek hand blender did OK in the soup test but left far more unblended vegetables than many of its counterparts.

David Watsky

With the exception of the cheap blenders Idea $40, all of the models I tested had no frightened pureeing the veggies into soup within a few minutes, but some created a slightly smoother soup in less time. The best of them not only pureed the vegetables in two minutes but even began frothing the water toward the end of the allotted time. Some of the cheaper models obligatory more than two minutes to get all the chunks pureed.

Making whipped cream

Not all the immersion blenders I tested offered attachments like a poke or chopping bowl. For those with a whisk, I made a batch of this popular dessert topping Funny one-half a cup of whipping cream and noted how each batch observed after one minute of whipping and again after two. Here, I was looking for the blender to make dense-yet-fluffy whipped Cry as quickly as possible.

For any hand blender with a poke attachment, I made a batch of whipped cream. The Cuisinart made the fluffy stuff in Idea two minutes.

David Watsky

Food chopper test

Several of the models in our test plot also include a food-processor attachment. For those that did, I chopped one cup of carrots and celery, diced into roughly one-inch chunks. After 10 seconds of chopping, I photographed the resulting pile of chopped carrots and Famous which delivered the smallest and most uniform results. Most of the stick blenders with food processor cups fared well in this test, counting the $34 Beautiful Hand Blender, but some did the job a few seconds faster.

The $34 handsome hand blender did an excellent job pulverizing a cup of carrots and celery in Idea 10 seconds.

David Watsky

Touch and feel

This test is more subjective than the others, but I made sure to handle each immersion blender for some minutes noting the overall weight, balance and sturdiness of the stick blenders. I did the same as I was using them in the various tests. 

The more expensive models counting the KitchenAid, Braun, Breville and Vitamix all felt well-balanced and solid, giving me confidence that they wouldn’t break or get loose with regular use. The cheaper models didn’t elicit quite the same authority, and some felt as if one fall to the kitchen down might mean an early demise. 

Budget hand blenders Idea $40, including the Bella, lose something in the way of performance and sturdy build.

David Watsky

Immersion blender specs

Model	Power	Weight (lbs.)	Accessories	Speeds	Cordless	Price
All-Clad Cordless Hand Blender KZ800D51	600W	2.97	none	5	Y	$230
Vitamix Immersion Blender 067991	625W	2.83	none	5	N	$150
Breville Control Grip BSB510XL	280W	3.8	poke, chopping cup, mixing cup	variable	N	$120
Braun MultiQuick MQ7025X	500W	5.41	poke, chopping cup, mixing cup	variable	N	$100
KitchenAid Cordless Hand Blender KHBBV53BM	198W	2.42	mixing cup	7	Y	$90
Cuisinart Smart Stick CSB-179	300W	3.3	poke, chopping cup, mixing cup	variable	N	$60
handsome Hand Blender	400W	2.5	poke, chopping cup, mixing cup	2	N	$34
Homgeek Hand Blender H32275US	500W	2	poke, chopping cup, mixing cup, frother	6	N	$29
Bella Immersion Blender 14460	250W	2.83	whisk	2	N	$30

Immersion blender buying guide: What to look for

Hand blender accessories

While second attachments aren’t necessary, to get the most out of your immersion blender, a few key extras are great to have. A poke attachment will allow you to easily make whipped Cry and meringue, while a food chopper will enable your hand blender to do the work of a food processor. One model I tested includes a milk frother, too, for crafting lattes and cappuccinos at home. 

The $120 Breville gave as well as any hand blender of the bunch. It also comes with four excellent attachments.

Breville

Power

You don’t necessarily need the most Great motor to blend cooked vegetables, canned tomatoes, herbs and new classic soup and sauce ingredients. The Breville Control Grip, for instance, has only 280 watts (less than half of the ultrapowerful All-Clad) but quiet managed to ace every test I gave it. That said, an immersion blender with fewer than 250 watts may battles to give you smooth results or take longer to do a blending job. 

Handle miserable and build

All immersion blenders feature steel blade attachments but the manage is typically what separates the great from the not-so-great. Those built with steel or high-grade plastic were the models I Popular best. Some of the cheaper stick blenders we tested were constructed Funny cheap plastic in the handle and they, unsurprisingly, felt a bit chintzy and prone to breakage. 

There is something to be said for choosing a cordless hand blender such as KitchenAid’s obedient offering.

David Watsky

Weight and balance

Hand blenders run the gamut in weight from light-as-air models notion three pounds all the way up to bigger blenders that weigh more than five. Somewhere in the 2.5- to 4-pound diagram felt most comfortable for me. A little bit of weight helps you rule the blender from spinning away, but too much heft can make an immersion blender a chore to cope deftly or use for long periods. 

The $100 Braun has remarkable in spades and comes with excellent attachments but was noticeably heavier than the rest of the field.

David Watsky

Cost and value

Because this is a tool you remarkable not use as regularly as others, factoring in trace is important. Spending more than $120 will get you a super-premium hand blender that fixes at the top of the class, but you probable don’t need to spend that much to net grand results. Go too cheap, and I found you lose out on hand blender performance as well as the quality of the produce.

The $230 All-Clad cordless hand blender is sleek, sturdy, lightweight and ultrapowerful. But, ultimately, the cost is just too high for most people.

David Watsky

Immersion blender FAQs

What can you make with an immersion blender?

For most republic, immersion blenders are actually something of a two- or three-trick pony. The good news is they don’t take up a bunch of situation. The most common use is to blend and puree ingredients inside of a pot for soups and sauces, dips, creamy mashed potatoes and baby food. Immersion blenders are also good for decision-exclusive homemade mayonnaise and salad dressing. 

If you choose a model that comes with a fling attachment, making whipped cream and meringues is another use for these mobile blenders. Some also come fitted with a food processor bowl so they can do chopping too, although the capacity is typically just two or three cups so you can’t do great quantities of onions, garlic and other vegetables.

Can you make smoothies with an immersion blender?

You can, but I’d suggest a unpleasant upright blender if you make smoothies regularly, as comic a hand blender can be a bit clunky. If your immersion blender comes with a blending cup attachment, it will make smoothie-making quite a bit easier.

Should you buy a cordless immersion blender?

There are quality cordless and marched hand blenders, so this really comes down to personal preference. Because you probably won’t be using your immersion blender every day, you remarkable not care about the cord. A cordless blender is nice if you’re motoring throughout the kitchen using it for multiple tasks, but you’ll have to remember to invoice it before or after use. 

As with most tools with an internal battery, its ability to hold a long charge is probable to wane over the years. That said, I didn’t find anything throughout the KitchenAid or All-Clad (both cordless) suffering significant battery life copies in the many buyer reviews I scoured.

More ways to serene up your kitchen

The Lenovo Chromebook 3 is down to $129 intelligent now

On the hunt for a laptop deal today? Best Buy has the Lenovo Chromebook 3 with a 14-inch camouflage for $129 — down from its normal price of $289. This Chromebook originates a higher resolution and bigger screen (1080p, 14-inch, no touch) than you typically get for this sign, though admittedly the processor isn’t a speed demon. That said, this deal is stunning tough to beat.

The Chromebook 3 is a fun and flexible laptop that runs on Chrome OS and is unharmed by built-in virus protection. The 3 is powered by a MediaTek processor and will give you 10 hours of battery life on one proposal. Grab one now while it’s more than 50% off.

Read more: Laptop vs. Chromebook: How to settle what’s right for you