Technology

Hints and answers for Connections for March 5, #633.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle No. 1,355 for March 5.

Shades like peony, periwinkle, aquamarine and tangerine are now available for iPhone 16 silicone cases.

Learn all about the wellness giant’s new products and add them to your recovery and skin care routine.

The superthin phone also features a 5,200-mAh battery, which means that if the device were ever to make it to market, it wouldn't have to compromise on functionality.

In a demo at MWC 2025, the TCL glasses proved themselves far from perfect, but they're within striking distance of an ideal AR product.

When I watched Netflix's The Electric State trailer, I immediately returned to the iconic sci-fi movie District 9. Especially when you watch the grainy TV part at the beginning, where humans are just disregarding robots and shoving them away in a sectioned area – it does raise questions about how we mistreat things we don't understand. While the District 9 aliens (or "prawns" as they were unaffectionately known) are different from the robots in The Electric State, the concept is frighteningly familiar. With that in mind, I'm really keen to see how Netflix adapts this story.

The trailer is full of action and heart, especially as one robot with an ominous smile (not their fault, the poor thing) seems to want to help a human. Again, there are parallels with how one alien and his child unexpectedly assist bureaucrat Wikus van de Merwe in District 9. Considering that it's one of my favorite movies of all time (can you tell?), I hope The Electric State is worth the hype, given how intrigued I am by the subject matter. If we're lucky, maybe we'll even add it to our best Netflix movies round-up.

Check out the trailer below.

What do we know about The Electric State?

(Image credit: Netflix)

The Electric State is the newest movie from the MCU's Russo Brothers, known for their work on the best Marvel movies such as Avengers: Infinity War and the follow-up Avengers: Endgame. Their latest project, The Electric State, is said to be loosely based on the comic of the same name by Simon Stålenhag. With that in mind, it's important to note it's not a direct adaptation, and there may be several differences in how they tell the story.

There's a huge cast attached to this movie, too, including Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Ke Huy Quan, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Cox, so that's quite the ensemble.

When we first reacted to news of The Electric State, we noted that nobody's sure what to make of it, and there's plenty of discussion about the movie online. We'll just have to wait and see before we can give our final verdict!

You might also like

• 3 thriller movies coming to Netflix with over 89% on Rotten Tomatoes
• 3 new movies on Netflix in March 2025 with over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes
• 7 new horror movies on Netflix, Shudder, Max and more in March 2025

Enforcing the tariffs on Taiwan would be difficult, and they wouldn’t necessarily be enough to meaningfully increase semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, experts told WIRED.

Engineers and executives at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency are drawing healthy taxpayer-funded salaries—sometimes from the very agencies they are cutting.

These foods are packed with essential nutrients to support hair growth.

• Maserati MC20 is equipped with numerous Lidar, cameras and sensors
• Demonstration vehicle hit almost 200mph at the Kennedy Space Center
• A second autonomous MC20 Cielo took to the streets of Florida

Maserati has just set a new autonomous speed record at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as its drop-dead gorgeous MC20 supercar hit 197.7mph without a human behind the wheel.

The initiative is a partnership between the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) and Politecnico di Milano, Italy’s largest scientific-technological university, with the pair aiming to test the very limits of hardware, computing power and artificial intelligence where it relates to advanced levels of autonomous driving.

The clever crew at the Politecnico di Milano, which forms part of a team that specializes solely in autonomous driving at the university, managed to hit 192.8mph in its IAC AV-21 race car in 2022, but returned to one of the world’s longest runways at 15,000 feet (2.8 miles) to attempt to beat it using Maserati’s 630hp street car.

According to the team, pushing the MC20 to almost 200mph without a driver behind the wheel “demonstrates the robustness and reliability of the algorithms developed for autonomous driving," Scientific Director of the project Professor Sergio Matteo Savaresi explained.

To further demonstrate how far the team has come in terms of autonomous driving abilities, the team also brought along its convertible Maserati MC20 Cielo, which had been specially fitted with Lidar, camera and sensor technology.

This drop-top model managed to complete around 60km (around 37 miles) of the famously tricky 1000 Miglia road race in Italy two years ago without a driver behind the wheel.

It went on to parade the streets of the south easternmost US State during the 1000 Miglia Experience Florida to showcase "the excellence of Italian research" according to the team.

That said, the images reveal that a human had to be in the driver's seat. Perhaps the organizers were worried about Tesla owners getting jealous.

From the racetrack to the streets

(Image credit: Maserati)

Far from simply being an impressive autonomous speed record (although not an officially sanctioned Guinness World Record), the Kennedy Space Center achievement helps push AI-driver software and robotics hardware to the very limits.

Paul Mitchell, CEO of Indy Autonomous Challenge and Aidoptation BV claims that by transitioning to a streetcar, rather than a purpose-built racing machine of previous record attempts, it helps “transition the learnings of autonomous racing to enable safe, secure, sustainable, high-speed autonomous mobility on highways”.

At speeds of almost 200mph, software reaction times have to be razor sharp and, perhaps more importantly, super reliable.

The team claims that if it can create a system that safely navigates these sort of highly illegal speeds, it can translate some of the findings to help improve low-speed urban mobility.

You might also like

• Millions of cheap EVs in China will get advanced self-driving features this year – leaving the rest of the world far behind
• Is this the end for electric supercars? More luxury automakers, including Aston Martin, delay plans for EVs
• This tech-heavy SUV is coming to Europe – and it offers the longest all-electric range of any plug-in hybrid

• YouTube might be planning a big redesign of its TV app's homepage
• The new layout will reportedly incorporate more streaming services
• Creators will be able to display their content in episodes and seasons

YouTube has been teasing some big changes to its TV app, and it looks like one of these new features might see the addition of more on-demand streaming content from the likes of third-party services such as Netflix.

That's according to a new report from The Information as seen by The Verge, which reveals that a new redesign of the homepage is expected to be launched in the "next few months."

The update is expected to make it easier to see which of the best streaming services you're subscribed to through the YouTube TV app, which you can access via Primetime Channels. The big difference that the change will make is instead of hiding away this content in the 'Movies and TV' tab, it will reportedly include it on the homepage alongside your favorite creators' videos.

That's similar to the interfaces of apps like Apple TV and Prime Video, which act as hubs for all your subscriptions. However, not every service is available via Primetime Channel, which varies depending on your region.

For example, US users can access Max on YouTube's Primetime Channels, while UK and Australian users can't. This is expected to change as part of the redesign's shift, though, as YouTube reportedly told The Information that it stopped offering new services due to its struggle to integrate paid content into the app.

YouTube's streaming dominance

YouTube has been the most popular streaming platform for a while now – it had an 11.1% majority share of TV and streaming viewership in the US in December 2024, according to a report by Neilsen.

That's not surprising when you consider that watching YouTube on TVs has become the preferred device to access the video sharing platform compared to phones and laptops, making it even more embedded into our home cinemas.

As part of YouTube's broader plans to make its app more like your favorite streamer, the service has also previously said that it will give its creators a new feature that lets them format their content into episodes and seasons – just like one of the best Netflix shows.

That change was announced in September last year and is expected to be further expanded with plans to add functionality that will let you automatically preview a movie or show on the homepage when scrolling over it – just like you would see on the homepage of Netflix.

Kurt Wilms, YouTube’s senior director of product management, told The Information that the service envisions these new automatic previews blending content from third-party apps with creators' videos.

What the new YouTube TV app will look like and whether these new features will become available is not yet definite, of course, but we'll be keeping an eye out for any updates and will report back as soon as we have more news from YouTube on the changes it plans to launch.

You might also like

• Best streaming deals in March 2025: current offers live
• Paramount is leaving YouTube TV – but YouTube is cutting some bills as compensation
• I signed up for YouTube Premium, and it was the best tech decision I've made all year

The company is also adding six other games to the service.

Last season's beaten finalists take on Les Dogues in this last-16, first-leg match.

The Gunners look to maintain their strong UCL campaign as they head to Eindhoven.

Prebiotic drinks have joined the healthy soda trend. But are brands like Olipop, Poppi and Coca-Cola's new Simply Pop delivering the expected health benefits?

Right now, Apple’s iPad lineup is a strong four, two of which come in two sizes. Just this morning, Apple ushered in the next generation of the iPad Air and the entry-level iPad, which is now dubbed iPad (A16).

Even with the gorgeous Dynamic OLED display on the iPad Pro, the bite-sized build of the iPad mini, and the sheer value of the iPad Air – now with M3 – the entry-level iPad is still a perfect balancing act.

On paper, the most recent upgrade seems minimal – it’s a jump from the A14 Bionic chip to the A16, which Apple promises delivers up to 50% better performance and a doubling of the internal storage from 64GB to 128GB. Both of these keep this iPad ticking, but what it doesn’t bring is support for Apple Intelligence.

It's kind of a surprise, yes, but it also shows that Apple isn’t necessarily on a quest to bring it to every device, or at least not at this time. Further, I think it’s a sign of what this entry-level iPad is all about and a testament to the fact that the rest of the hardware here makes it a pretty perfect package.

High-end looks with likely stellar performance

(Image credit: Apple)

There is no knocking the iPad (A16) for its looks – it still comes in some fun colors and boasts an iPad Air-esque design with rounded edges and a healthy bezel around the now-called 11-inch Liquid Retina display that’s still 10.86 inches. It looks modern in every sense of the word, even though it’s stuck in the design language that was used when it was the tenth Generation.

This was also the first iPad with a front-facing camera on the landscape side and Apple’s still sticking with that placement on everything but the iPad mini. You also get an easy way of unlocking and purchasing with Touch ID built into the power button, and there is a camera on the back should you want to take photos with your iPad.

The Apple Pencil situation here is still a little complicated as the iPad (A16) has a USB-C port but supports the first-generation Apple Pencil even though it has a Lightning port built-in. To charge it, you’ll need an adapter and a USB-C to USB-C cable – it’s incredibly clunky, but it works.

A post shared by Jake Krol (@jake31krol)

A photo posted by on

You can also opt for the Apple Pencil with USB-C, which you can slide the top over to expose the USB-C port to plug it in for charge. That’s equally clunky. It does magnetically attach to the side of the iPad (A16) for safe-keeping, but that won’t charge it.

Once you figure out how to keep it charged, it works like an Apple Pencil should – giving you an experience that’s close to writing with pen to paper or drawing on a surface. Scribble is supported here, letting you write a message, and the iPad automatically translates it to text. It was kind of an Apple Intelligence-like feature before that was dubbed the name for Apple’s suite of AI functionality.

The A16 chip here should be plenty powerful for all the major tasks one would want to use an iPad for, like:

• Following a recipe
• Browsing the web
• Playing a game from the App Store or Apple Arcade
• FaceTiming with friends or family
• Reading a book
• Listening to Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run
• Scrolling through photos or editing some
• Typing a story … maybe even this one?
• Taking notes with an Apple Pencil
• Endless other things
• Streaming movies and TV shows

You get the point, but the vast majority of things that one can do on an iPad are all possible here (with the notable exception of Apple Intelligence). No, it might not replace a high-performance workflow that you’d need an iPad Air or iPad Pro for, but for the basics and even some more fun processes, the iPad (A16) is more than capable.

After all, to deserve the name of iPad, it needs to be an iPad. But when my friends or family ask me which one is best, if they aren’t doing anything crazy and simply want an iPad to join the bandwagon, as a secondary device, or as one for streaming content, this entry-level iPad checks off the boxes.

It has the better Magic Keyboard

(Image credit: Apple)

If you want to use the iPad for email, spreadsheets, or other productivity tasks, it also works with my favorite Apple keyboard accessory. The Magic Keyboard Folio has two parts: one that magnetically snaps to the back with a kickstand that you can prop up at various heights, and a keyboard on the front complete with function keys and a good-sized trackpad.

When you don’t need the keyboard, that front piece can snap to the back with the keys facing inward so you don’t accidentally have the keys pressed. It’s great and super functional; it’s not the cheapest, though, at $249.

The previous tenth-generation iPad is our pick for the ‘Best iPad’ overall, and on our Best Tablets page, is the best for most. I expect that this iPad (A16) will quickly shuffle into that spot with better performance after we go hands-on, even without Apple Intelligence.

So if you can live without Image Playground, summarized notifications, or writing tools and want an iPad for drawing, browsing the web, FaceTiming with friends or family, gaming, and streaming your favorite content, don’t dismiss the entry-level iPad … it’s pretty awesome. And I can’t wait to test one out, hopefully in Yellow or Pink.

Apple's taking preorders now for the iPad (A16) with a starting price of $349 / £329, and it will formally launch on March 12, 2025.

You might also like

• Apple updates iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and pairs it with Pro-level Magic Keyboard
• The 7 best toys we saw at Toy Fair 2025, from a Lego boat to a hatching, robotic dinosaur
• Apple's new entry-level iPad ups the performance for the same price, but doesn't support Apple Intelligence
• Another iconic Disney Castle is getting the Lego treatment, and this one roars

The year's biggest phone show, Mobile World Congress, often has some wild handsets -- here's the cream of the bizarre crop.

Human rights organizations say the cuts have undermined years of global democracy-building and free-speech initiatives and put the lives of their staff at risk.

• Analysts says Microsoft has cancelled leases with at least two data center operators
• It could be reassessing AI infrastructure investments amid potential oversupply
• Despite adjustments, Microsoft maintains its $80 billion AI commitment

Microsoft may not be quite as all-in on investing in AI infrastructure as recent reports have suggested. MarketWatch reported on a research note written by TD Cowen analysts which claims Microsoft has cancelled leases in the US with at least two private data center operators.

The leases totaled “a couple hundred megawatts” and Microsoft is also is not converting “so-called statements of qualifications into leases”. The same analysts also report that Microsoft has moved a portion of planned international spending to the US.

This is despite a recent interview with Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Satya Nadella, who said AI supply and demand will have to meet and that tech firms will need to exponentially invest to make this happen.

Raising broader questions

“When coupled with our prior channel checks, it points to a potential oversupply position for Microsoft,” said lead analyst Michael Elias. The group believes the shift is linked to OpenAI which Microsoft has close ties to.

“Consider this: Microsoft was the most active lessee of capacity in 2023 and 1H24, at which time it was procuring capacity relative to a capacity forecast that contemplated incremental OpenAI workloads. However, as we believe is indicated by its decision to pause construction on a data center in Wisconsin - which our prior channel checks indicated was to support OpenAI - there is capacity that it has likely procured, particularly in areas where capacity is not fungible to cloud, where the company may have excess data center capacity relative to its new forecast,” the analysts said.

Writing about the news, Bloomberg said, "A potential lease pullback by Microsoft raises broader questions about whether the company - one of the frontrunners among Big Tech in AI - is growing cautious about the outlook for overall demand. The company has said it expects to spend $80 billion this fiscal year on AI data centers, and on a late January earnings call, Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said Microsoft has to sustain spending to meet “exponentially more demand.”

“While we may strategically pace or adjust our infrastructure in some areas, we will continue to grow strongly in all regions," a Microsoft spokesperson told Bloomberg. "Our plans to spend over $80 billion on infrastructure this FY remains on track as we continue to grow at a record pace to meet customer demand.”

You might also like

• Microsoft reveals new zero-water data center cooling design
• Microsoft is building wooden data centers in its latest push to cut emissions
• Microsoft set to rival Google, IBM with first-of-its-kind quantum chip