Technology

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #582) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• BANK
• PARK
• BOOK
• STORE
• RESERVE
• TRAIN
• SCHOOL
• POOL
• EARTH
• SIGNAL
• INCH
• COACH
• TURN
• GLOW
• GUIDE
• BRAKE

NYT Connections today (game #582) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Learn
• GREEN: Collection of items 
• BLUE: Take the wheel 
• PURPLE: Wriggly creatures

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #582) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: TEACH 
• GREEN: CACHE 
• BLUE: DRIVING INSTRUCTOR DIRECTIVES 
• PURPLE: WORM 

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #582) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #582, are…

• YELLOW: TEACH COACH, GUIDE, SCHOOL, TRAIN
• GREEN: CACHE BANK, POOL, RESERVE, STORE
• BLUE: DRIVING INSTRUCTOR DIRECTIVES BRAKE, PARK, SIGNAL, TURN
• PURPLE: WORM BOOK, EARTH, GLOW, INCH

• My rating: Easy
• My score: 1 mistake

In the list of DRIVING INSTRUCTOR DIRECTIVES the one I heard the most during my lessons was BRAKE. I was so bad at driving that my first instructor refused to take me out after my second lesson – I hit a police car in stationary traffic. The police officers thought it was hilarious, the instructor less so.

When I eventually came to take my first test I failed after 10 seconds, after managing not to SIGNAL and then making a TURN in the wrong direction and directly into oncoming vehicles.

I should add that during this period I also crashed my father’s car into a rock and then a tree.

Fortunately, after a 10-year break it all clicked and I sailed through my second test. I’ve even thought about becoming a driving instructor myself, but then I realised I’d have to teach people like I was at 17.

Anyway, a lovely Connections today. Certainly less stressful than a driving lesson.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, 12 January, game #581)

• YELLOW: FABRICATION FAIRY TALE, FANTASY, FICTION, INVENTION
• GREEN: WOO CHARM, COURT, PURSUE, ROMANCE
• BLUE: CLASSIC ATARI GAMES ASTEROIDS, BREAKOUT, CENTIPEDE, DEFENDER
• PURPLE: THINGS FEATURING TAILS COIN TOSS, COMETS, DRESS COAT, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

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Anyone who has attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) over recent years will have spotted that major automotive players have been muscling in on consumer tech turf. Autonomous driving, AI-powered voice assistants and masses of high-definition touchscreen displays have been employed to snare column inches and take over TikTok feeds.

This year was no different, with BMW choosing the platform to introduce the latest generation of its iconic iDrive infotainment system that, unsurprisingly, now involves a frankly terrifying amount of screen real estate.

Due to arrive in the upcoming BMW Neue Klasse X electric SUV, with the system slated to roll out to all new BMW models in the near future, the Panoramic iDrive offering features a 3D head-up display in front of the driver, a mammoth 17.9-inch central touchscreen and, to top it all off, a separate head-up display that spans the entire width of the windshield.

As is the way with most infotainment systems now, the central touchscreen is customizable, in so much as drivers can pin their most-used apps and key information to the home screen. Judging by imagery and video released by BMW, there’s at least three tiles that are available to constantly display information.

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What’s more, the epic Panoramic Vision head-up display (HUD) offers space for up to six fully customizable widgets, while the three directly in front of the driver are reserved for key vehicle information, such as speed and remaining battery charge.

Already, we are up to 12 points of information, and that is before we even consider the third and final head-up display that’s projected onto the windscreen in front of the driver, which will show enormous, animated turn-by-turn directions when BMW’s navigation is in use.

Some of the examples BMW cites when it comes to the tiles that can be pinned to its Panoramic Vision HUD are a weather app and a compass. Now call me old fashioned, but can’t you just look out of the window to see what the weather is doing and when was the last time you used a compass while driving? It’s 2025, not 1925.

Finally, there has been no word on how BMW’s flashy Panoramic Display and slightly angled central touchscreen will interact with the likes of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – two systems that the majority of the driving public are perfectly happy with.

An industry issue

(Image credit: Harman)

To only berate BMW would be wrong, because Hyundai Mobis also revealed that it has created the world’s first full-windshield holographic display, which beams a glut of information across the entire width of a windshield.

According to the Korean automotive supplier, its system uses a specialized film that’s embedded with a Holographic Optical Element (HOE), which utilizes the "principle of light diffraction to project images and videos directly to the viewer’s eyes". Say what?

Using a Kia EV9 as a testbed at this year’s CES, it’s easy to see this sort of technology appearing in some of the Hyundai Motor Group’s more premium products in the coming years.

Harman also debuted its home-theater-quality Ready Display, with Quantum Dot and Blue Mini LED-based local dimming technology. That’s high-end television specification, shrunk down to something that will fit in a family SUV and will likely rarely be fully appreciated.

After all, when was the last time you watched an entire Hollywood blockbuster while waiting for your EV to charge?

Killing interior design

(Image credit: Mercedes-Benz)

Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz is set to unleash its all-new CLA model onto the world soon and it comes with the promise of a ‘user-friendly MBUX Superscreen’ that, in the early concept cars at least, takes up the entire width of the cockpit.

It’s not that I’m necessarily anti-touchscreens in vehicles; I write for a tech site, after all. However, dedicating so much space to them, like Mercedes-Benz and BMW have chosen to, leaves little to no room for individual acts of interesting physical design.

Rewind a few years and car interiors all looked vastly different: it was easy to differentiate between the quirky interior flourishes of a Citroen and the more upmarket polish of an Audi, for example.

But the over-reliance on the digital space means that, without interior designers pushing for more unique physical elements, modern vehicle interiors look eerily similar, especially when powered down.

Consider the fact that many manufacturers have turned to Epic Games, which offers its Unreal Engine to produce much of the interface, and even the digital domain is becoming homogeneous.

I've noticed the interface that visualizes an operational advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), for example, is practically the same in numerous modern cars. The small digital representations of trucks, cars and motorcycles that the external cameras pick up look largely identical, no matter if you are in a Tesla or a Volvo EX90.

Of course, the notion of good design is a very personal thing, but there’s also the sticky issue of user experience. Brands (ahem, Volkswagen) have had their fingers burnt in the past, unleashing bouji, sparse interiors that might look like an LA A-lister’s apartment but prove nightmarish to use and live with.

Plastering a vehicle’s interior with screens and irritating haptic buttons typically comes at the expense of easy-to-locate physical switches that, when you are in the midst of driving (a cerebrally taxing task), are essential for distraction-free and safe motoring.

Designing for the future

(Image credit: BMW)

Right now, it feels like automotive companies are designing vehicle cockpits for a time when high levels of autonomous driving are both legal and commonplace.

I’m not simply talking about SAE Level 3, which allows drivers to 'enjoy' eyes-off driving under some fairly strict parameters (highways, speeds under 30mph etc), but Level 4 and 5, where the vehicle does the majority of the heavy lifting.

We are still some way from this technology becoming a reality, and an even larger leap from legislators creating a proper legal framework for the widespread adoption. So it begs the question, why are manufacturers choosing to offer so much potentially distracting information now?

As if to protect themselves from a potential torrent of driver distraction accusations, most modern manufacturers are also working with artificial intelligence and large language models to allow drivers and occupants to interact with their vehicles via natural speech prompts, negating the need to prod around a touchscreen or hunt for buttons.

Having a vehicle predict when you are feeling chilly with a cutting-edge suite of bio-sensing technology is a very expensive and complicated way of admitting that burying the climate control adjuster in a series of annoying sub-menus was probably a bad idea.

Listen, I understand that space-age vehicle interiors is, essentially, what technological progress looks like and I'm not suggesting we head back to the days of walnut wood trim and cigarette lighters (although wood interiors are still cool, IMHO).

But designing vehicles – that are slated for imminent release – with NASA control room-levels of interactive displays seems counterintuitive.

Until the day arrives that I can genuinely kick back and enjoy what's beaming out of those screens, I want to be able to drive a vehicle – not pilot Falcon 9.

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Here are some hints -- and the answers -- for Connections No. 582 for Monday, Jan. 13.

Here are some hints and the answer for Wordle No. 1304 for Monday, Jan. 13.

• Lenovo presented a 3.5-inch mock-up of an 'AI storage device', which could be a portable SSD, a NAS, or something new
• Not a product announcement, but a proof of concept
• But presence of a red ring on one of the ports may indicate that it will be a ThinkStorage product

Lenovo has unveiled a new concept device at CES called "AI Storage", which could be the company’s first AI-assisted NAS (Network Attached Storage).

The apparent prototype features a minimalist, space-efficient design with ventilation grilles on the right side for either active or passive cooling.

The 3.5-inch mock-up could be more than a traditional NAS, in that it might also function as a portable SSD, or serve an entirely new purpose, blurring the lines between storage and AI integration.

A smarter future for storage?

The concept image shows that this device will support a standard RJ45 Ethernet port accompanied by dual status LEDs. These could indicate active connectivity or possibly its association with Lenovo’s ThinkStorage branding.

A visible USB-C port should enable high-speed data transfers via USB 3.2 or Thunderbolt protocols. There's also another USB-C port marked with a distinctive red ring, presumably for power.

It's important to note that a good number of concept devices never make it to the market. Whether this device will evolve into a full-fledged NAS or will work as a versatile storage solution remains to be seen.

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• Modular laptop vendor Framework said it will launch a RISC-V product in 2025
• RISC-V is the equivalent of Linux for hardware, open source and free
• More tech companies are adopting but it has yet to hit mainstream in a meaningful way

RISC-V, an open source ISA developed at the University of California, Berkeley in 2010, has steadily been gaining attention as a customizable alternative to proprietary ISAs like x86 and Arm.

Its license-free approach allows manufacturers to create and modify processors without restrictions, leading to adoption in various specialized applications, and this year could mark a key step toward broader consumer adoption of the architecture.

For RISC-V to truly reach the mainstream, it still needs to gain traction in the laptop market. Hong Kong–based DeepComputing introduced the first RISC-V notebook, the Roma, in 2023, followed by the DC-Roma II in 2024, which shipped with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed. While praised for its open-source flexibility, the laptop’s performance lagged behind x86 and Arm alternatives - but speaking to IEEE Spectrum, DeepComputing CEO Yuning Liang said the company's upcoming DC-Roma III will close that gap with performance comparable to the Arm Cortex-A76.

Enter Framework

Perhaps even more excitingly, DeepComputing is collaborating with Framework, a company known for its modular, repairable laptops, to create a RISC-V motherboard for the Framework Laptop 13. Nirav Patel, CEO of Framework, said, "If we look at a couple of generations down the [software] stack, we’re starting to see a line of sight to consumer-ready RISC-V in something like a laptop, or even a phone.”

According to IEEE Spectrum, "Though still intended for early adopters and developers, it will be the most accessible and polished RISC-V laptop yet, and it will ship to users with the same look and feel as the Framework laptops that use x86 chips."

Following the initial announcement in June 2024, Framework launched a product page for the RISC-V motherboard, but it remains a placeholder.

DeepComputing's site however, reveals more details, including images of the DC-Roma RISC-V Mainboard for the Framework 13 Laptop, one of which you can see at the top of the page. The board is powered by the RISC-V 64-bit quad-core CPU JH7110, and supports both Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 and Fedora 41.

RISC-V has already been embraced by a number of tech companies. Western Digital uses it for storage controllers, British startup Blueshift Memory's BlueFive processor is built on an open-source RISC-V core, the Chinese XiangShan project has developed two RISC-V designs, and Ubitium has a universal RISC-V processor that consolidates all computing workloads onto a single, affordable chip.

We will likely see more details about Framework's RISC-V Laptop 13 in the coming months, but given the current focus on developers and early adopters, along with performance limitations compared to established architectures like x86 and Arm, it seems fair to say that while this is unquestionably a huge step forward for the architecture, RISC-V isn’t ready for mainstream consumer adoption quite yet.

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• The AI headphones would offer real-time translation and AI-generated voice cloning
• Given the design, I expect it to be rolled out as part of the Think family
• It could be paired with Lenovo's AI-driven action assistant

At CES 2025, Lenovo showed off prototype AI-powered headphones it hopes will elevate language skills for workers everywhere.

The standout feature is the headphones' ability to provide real-time translation, enabling users to interact across different languages.

The prototype also introduced a new feature called AI-generated voice cloning, which allows the headphones to mimic a user’s voice accurately.

Advanced health features and Action Assistant

The concept also incorporates advanced health monitoring features through Lenovo Virtual Care, which combines biometric tracking with an AI-powered virtual assistant for personalized wellness insights.

These headphones could also integrate with Lenovo’s Action Assistant, a task automation concept also unveiled at CES 2025.

Powered by a large action model (LAM), Action Assistant can understand natural language instructions to perform complex workflows.

From the concept image, Lenovo’s AI headphones integrate seven key ports and buttons - including volume - on one ear.

Adjacent to this is a multi-function button, likely designated for playing or pausing media, answering calls, or activating a voice assistant.

The concept also features with a foldable microphone arm which can swing to any direction for clear audio capture.

A USB-C port should support fast charging and potentially wired connectivity. There's also a dedicated power button as well as a speaker grille that features a perforated design.

Finally, the AI headphones' design is rounded out by a padded and adjustable headband which is usually used to provide comfort during extended wear.

It's worth reiterating that Lenovo’s AI headphones are just a prototype; and pointing out that a significant number of prototypes never reach commercial availability.

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• The OnePlus Open 2 could be arriving imminently
• A tougher, lighter, thinner build is rumored
• The Honor Magic V3 is currently the thinnest foldable

The OnePlus Open 2 is shaping up to be a fantastic foldable, with new details leaking out about what to expect from the phone: apparently it'll be the thinnest foldable to date, while also offering an upgraded titanium build.

These predictions come from two well-known tipsters, Digital Chat Station and Smart Pikachu (via Android Authority). Both leaks mention the Oppo Find N5, which is expected to be marketed as the OnePlus Open 2 outside of China – just like the Oppo Find N3 was rebadged as the original OnePlus Open.

There's a mention of the foldable being the "thinnest in the world" (as per Google Translate). That would mean the OnePlus Open 2 would have to be less than the 9.2 mm thickness of the Honor Magic V3 when closed.

Indeed, this has been rumored since last September, which gives you a sense of the anticipation around the second foldable from OnePlus. We don't get any information about just how thin the phone could be, but it sounds like it will be super-thin.

Lighter and tougher

The Honor Magic V3 is currently the thinnest foldable (Image credit: Future)

Across these two leaks we get a mention of titanium being used in the build, and a "new industrial design, focusing on durability" (again via Google Translate). That suggests we're looking at a phone that will be both lighter and tougher.

There's also talk of a triple-lens camera with periscope zoom and Hasselblad engineering, satellite communication capabilities, a Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition chipset, a battery approaching a capacity of 6,000 mAh (as previously rumored), and wireless charging – all of which sounds good to us.

One of these tipsters mentions a half a year gap between the next foldable phone and this one – and with new foldables from Google and Samsung expected around July time, the OnePlus Open 2 could be with us before the end of February.

There has been some debate about when the OnePlus Open 2 would see the light of day – bear in mind the first OnePlus Open phone launched in October 2023, so we've now been waiting more than a year for its successor.

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• The LG UltraFine 32U990A has a gorgeous design and targets creatives
• Its Thunderbolt 5 port makes it a perfect complement for Apple's Pro range
• It is the third 6K monitor after Dell and Apple's Pro Display XDR

If you’re in the market for a new monitor that’s going to last you a while, LG’s 32-inch UltraFine 32U990A, showcased at CES 2025, definitely fits the bill. Judging by the image released with the announcement, the monitor sports a minimalist design with ultra-thin bezels and a sleek stand.

Although details are a little lacking, the UltraFine 32U990A is the world’s first 6K high-resolution monitor to feature Thunderbolt 5 connectivity. This could potentially enable refresh rates of up to 120Hz (which would be quite something), but LG has yet to confirm the exact specifications.

What we do know is that the screen features a Nano IPS Black panel, designed for exceptional color accuracy and high contrast. It offers a wide color gamut covering 99.5% of Adobe RGB and 98% of DCI-P3, making it ideal for creative professionals working with high-end content creation.

A great match for the Apple Mac Mini M4

The monitor’s 6K resolution provides nearly 40% more screen real estate than a standard 5K display, positioning it as a competitor to Apple’s Pro Display XDR, though likely at a more affordable price point.

For comparison, Apple’s Pro Display XDR delivers a resolution of 6016 x 3384 pixels with a pixel density of 218 ppi, 1,000 nits of sustained brightness, up to 1,600 nits peak brightness, and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Dell’s UltraSharp 32 6K Monitor (U3224KBA), another competitor, offers a 6144 x 3456 resolution at 60Hz but that only has Thunderbolt 4.

With its professional-grade resolution and Thunderbolt 5 support, the UltraFine 32U990A would be a great match for Apple’s Mac Mini M4 - if you’re prepared to step outside Apple’s ecosystem and opt for a third-party display, that is.

LG's CES announcement says, “With calibration software support, this monitor is perfect for media professionals, while its slim, geometric design enhances both aesthetics and user convenience to satisfy every kind of user.”

Pricing and availability details have yet to be revealed, but are expected soon.

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• SanDisk could be onto something by adding the word Creator to product names
• 3 new products released at CES 2025 are actually refreshes with different color schemes
• Only the Creator Phone SSD is a genuinely new product

CES is when many tech firms announce or launch their latest and greatest products - but sometimes what’s being shown isn’t quite as new as it seems.

Case in point is SanDisk’s new range of Creator storage products, announced at CES 2025. If you’re a creator, or aspire to be one, you’ll probably be very interested in these, as they are clearly tailored to your needs - however, "caveat emptor" as the Romans used to say - buyer beware.

This is because the bright blue 8TB SanDisk Creator Desk Drive, priced at $629.99, looks good and promises 1000MB/s sequential reads. But then, so does the SanDisk Desk Drive, which has a very similar model number, doesn’t include the word “Creator” in its name and isn’t blue, but is cheaper at $549.99 – a not to be sniffed at saving of $80.

Paying a premium for the color

Perhaps you’re looking to buy a microSDXC card. SanDisk has you covered here too.

Its new 1TB Creator microSD Card (in blue!) is designed for use in slotted Android phones and tablets, drones, action cams, and digital cameras, including standard point-and-shoot, digital single-lens reflex (DSLR), and mirrorless (MIL) models - all the devices a creator might use. Plus, it’s temperature-proof, humidity-proof, drop-proof, and waterproof, which is important if you're out and about.

A bargain at $159.99 - or… you could buy the 1TB SanDisk Extreme microSDXC card instead. Sure, it doesn’t specifically list the devices you can use it in, but it’s essentially the same product and $67 cheaper at $92.99.

Perhaps you want a portable SSD, like the SanDisk Creator Pro? Available in – you guessed it – a pretty blue color, it offers up to 4TB capacity and up to 2000MB/s read speeds, letting you back up and access your content with NVMe SSD performance. Good value at $349.99, right? Unless you’re not bothered about the color, in which case you can pick up the extremely similar SanDisk Extreme PRO (reviewed here) for $299.99 and save $50 - enough to buy some blue paint if you really want to match.

Or maybe you’d like to buy the SanDisk Creator Phone SSD (see below), available in 1TB or 2TB capacities, which is designed for producing content on the go by attaching to any MagSafe-compatible smartphone. That doesn’t have a price at the moment, because, unlike SanDisk's other Creator-branded storage it’s actually a new product, and one that looks genuinely useful.

We can’t blame SanDisk for rebadging old products to appeal to the creator market - it’s a smart business move. But unless you’re particularly attached to the blue color, you can enjoy some decent savings by buying the non-Creator versions instead.

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• ASICs are far more efficient than GPUs for inference, not unlike mining cryptocurrency
• The Inference AI chip market is expected to grow exponentially by the end of this decade
• Hyperscalers like Google have already jumped on the bandwagon

Nvidia, already a leader in AI and GPU technologies, is moving into the Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) market to address growing competition and shifting trends in AI semiconductor design.

The global rise of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) has significantly increased the demand for GPUs, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang confirmed in 2024 the company will recruit 1000 engineers in Taiwan.

Now, as reported by Taiwan's Commercial Times (originally published in Chinese), the company has now established a new ASIC department and is actively recruiting talent.

The rise of inference chips

Nvidia’s H series GPUs optimized for AI learning tasks have been widely adopted for training AI models. However, the AI semiconductor market is undergoing a shift toward inference chips, or ASICs.

This surge is driven by the demand for chips optimized for real-world AI applications, such as large language models and generative AI. Unlike GPUs, ASICs offer superior efficiency for inference tasks, as well as cryptocurrency mining.

According to Verified Market Research, the inference AI chip market is projected to rise from a 2023 valuation of $15.8 billion to $90.6 billion by 2030.

Major tech players including Google have already embraced custom ASIC designs in its AI chip "Trillium", made generally available in December 2024.

The shift toward custom AI chips has intensified competition among semiconductor giants. Companies such as Broadcom and Marvell have surged in relevance and stock value as they collaborate with cloud service providers to develop specialized chips for data centers.

To stay ahead, Nvidia’s new ASIC department focuses on leveraging local expertise by recruiting from leading companies like MediaTek.

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