Technology

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Jan. 16.

Here are some hints — and the answers — for Connections: Sports Edition No. 115 for Jan. 16.

Here are some hints -- and the answers -- for the Jan. 16 Strands puzzle, No. 319.

• Google Chrome's PermissionsAI test anticipates user permissions.
• PermissionsAI could reduce intrusive pop-ups by analyzing user behavior.
• It is currently in Chrome Canary for early testing now.

Google’s Chrome browser is testing a new feature dubbed PermissionsAI, which is designed to make those pesky pop-ups asking for access to your location or permission to send notifications much quieter.

The tool uses Google's “Permission Predictions Service” and Gemini Nano v2 to guess whether users are likely to grant a website’s request. If the answer is probably no, the feature tucks the request into a less intrusive UI instead of flashing it front and center like it currently does.

The idea is for Chrome to use AI to make browsing more pleasant by quietly handling the minor annoyances that can pile up when online. PermissionsAI analyzes your previous interactions with similar requests to predict your response. If you’re the kind of person who reflexively denies every notification pop-up, PermissionsAI won’t even bother you with a loud, in-your-face request. Instead, it quietly logs the request in a subtle UI where you can engage with it later.

PermissionsAI is currently being tested in Chrome Canary – the experimental version of the browser – and isn’t available to the public yet. It pairs well with the Safe Browsing security tool, which shields users from harmful websites and malicious downloads, meaning a wrong guess won't wreak havoc on your computer.

Browsing AI

This marks the latest move by Google to embed AI in Chrome. Gemini is now part of many of the browser's features, with the AI organizing open tabs, offering product comparisons, and helping to compose text. PermissionsAI, though, is less flashy than other features and may turn out to be one of the more appreciated improvements simply because it removes a common irritation.

While the concept is straightforward, the details of how PermissionsAI works remain vague. Google hasn’t disclosed exactly how its AI calculates the likelihood of you clicking “Allow” versus “Deny,” but it’s safe to assume the system leans heavily on machine learning.

By studying patterns in user behavior, Chrome could cut down on interruptions and make life a little easier for web developers who hear complaints about their pop-ups annoying people.

It’s worth asking whether PermissionsAI and other Gemini-powered features will strike the right balance between helpful and intrusive. While reducing the noise of pop-ups is universally appealing, AI-powered predictions aren’t infallible.

What happens if PermissionsAI incorrectly predicts that you wouldn’t want to approve a request and you miss an important pop-up entirely? Still, if PermissionsAI can reliably filter out the noise while giving users control over important decisions, it could become one of Chrome’s most welcome features yet.

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Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

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

NYT Strands today (game #319) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Bar association

NYT Strands today (game #319) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• RICE
• TRACK
• CORE
• MILK
• TASTE
• CART

NYT Strands today (game #319) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Mixed beverages

NYT Strands today (game #319) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: top, 4th column

Last side: bottom, 1st column

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

NYT Strands today (game #319) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #319, are…

• ZOMBIE
• SIDECAR
• MARTINI
• STINGER
• COSMOPOLITAN
• SPANGRAM: COCKTAILS

• My rating: Easy
• My score: 1 hint

When I saw today’s theme I initially feared that it was going to be about boring legal words (and who’d want that), but my concerns were soon eased when the first Hint gave me ZOMBIE – which is both a slow-moving human whose brain has been eaten by an inexplicable virus OR a delicious beverage made from rum, lime and grapefruit juice.

Why it’s called a Zombie is uncertain although I suspect you’d find navigating stairs tricky if you had more than a couple.

Strands also included the classic cocktail COSMOPOLITAN – not a word that I use very often, but one that was strangely satisfying to connect letter by letter.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Wednesday, 15 January, game #318)

• BLUE
• RIGHT
• GRAY
• ORCA
• BALEEN
• HUMPBACK
• SPANGRAM: WHALES

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,000 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

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

Quordle today (game #1088) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1088) - hint #2 - repeated letters Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.

Quordle today (game #1088) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1088) - hint #4 - starting letters (1) Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 2.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1088) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• P

• B

• T

• P

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

Quordle today (game #1088) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1088, are…

• PARTY
• BLUNT
• TWEED
• PLANT

Boom!

I employed a different technique today and achieved easily my best ever Quordle score, getting all four words after six guesses.

Instead of taking an overview of all four columns I decided to solve each word at a time – Wordle style, or in the way that Daily Sequence game works – and only move on once I guessed each correctly. I didn’t do the words consecutively though, just looked at which one gave me the most clues. After getting PARTY I moved on to the fourth word – PLANT – as I had a head start there, with two green letters and two orange.

TWEED was lucky. With no other vowels available I thought there could be a double E and TWEED was the only possibility.

Happy days.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Daily Sequence today (game #1088) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1088, are…

• GULCH
• TORCH
• BEGIN
• GONER

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1087, Wednesday 15 January: RISEN, PLATE, RURAL, ENVOY
• Quordle #1086, Tuesday 14 January: SWARM, SCRAP, ONION, BELCH
• Quordle #1085, Monday 13 January: EYING, GIDDY, CHEAP, PETAL
• Quordle #1084, Sunday 12 January: BRIEF, PETAL, WOMAN, FELON
• Quordle #1083, Saturday 11 January: ASCOT, FIBER, ROGUE, SMELL
• Quordle #1082, Friday 10 January: BIGOT, INLET, LEECH, TUNIC
• Quordle #1081, Thursday 9 January: RESET, HUMOR, TENOR, IMAGE
• Quordle #1080, Wednesday 8 January: MINCE, SADLY, RISEN, VOUCH
• Quordle #1079, Tuesday 7 January: CREED, FILET, ROUTE, TAPER
• Quordle #1078, Monday 6 January: PIVOT, WOOLY, GRUNT, GROOM
• Quordle #1077, Sunday 5 January: BORAX, JUDGE, CADET, SALON
• Quordle #1076, Saturday 4 January: CORER, CRATE, QUASI, EXIST
• Quordle #1075, Friday 3 January: PERKY, QUARK, NAVEL, SHEEN
• Quordle #1074, Thursday 2 January: UNIFY, SWORE, DEPOT, INTRO
• Quordle #1073, Wednesday 1 January: CLING, SUITE, WORRY, TONIC
• Quordle #1072, Tuesday 31 December: PLUMP, TUBER, IRATE, ICILY
• Quordle #1071, Monday 30 December: TODDY, GROIN, GROWN, VERVE
• Quordle #1070, Sunday 29 December: PURER, SPLAT, RABID, EMCEE
• Quordle #1069, Saturday 28 December: BUNCH, LABOR, TRIPE, BUNNY
• Quordle #1068, Friday 27 December: BRAWL, LYING, ORGAN, CRONY

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 #585) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• MARKET
• SWITCH
• PLANT
• MALL
• TRADE
• GYM
• OUTLET
• ASSET
• RUG
• BUSINESS
• MOLE
• SCONCE
• PACK
• AGENT
• BASEBOARD
• COMMERCE

NYT Connections today (game #585) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• YELLOW: Merchandise 
• GREEN: Room fixtures 
• BLUE: Undercover
• PURPLE: Add a rodent 

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 #585) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: BUYING AND SELLING 
• GREEN: INSTALLED ON A WALL 
• BLUE: SPY 
• PURPLE: RAT 

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

NYT Connections today (game #585) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #585, are…

• YELLOW: BUYING AND SELLING BUSINESS, COMMERCE, MARKET, TRADE
• GREEN: INSTALLED ON A WALL BASEBOARD, OUTLET, SCONCE, SWITCH
• BLUE: SPY AGENT, ASSET, MOLE, PLANT
• PURPLE: RAT GYM, MALL, PACK, RUG

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 3 mistakes

I really struggled today, even though I got the yellow and blue groups fairly quickly.

My sticking point was INSTALLED ON A WALL, as I’d never heard of the word SCONCE before – which probably says a lot about my interest in interior design and home makeover shows.

Having said that, I really should have seen the words that had RAT in common.

Sheer guesswork got me over the line.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 15 January, game #584)

• YELLOW: MEANS MECHANISM, MEDIUM, TOOL, VEHICLE
• GREEN: LACKING LIGHT, LOW, SHORT, SHY
• BLUE: MARTINI SPECIFICATIONS DIRTY, DRY, PERFECT, WET
• PURPLE: FICTIONAL MISTERS BIG, PEANUT, ROBOT, TOAD

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.

The company improved it, but it's still a little cumbersome in ways that likely won't be changed by the time it ships.

Court documents say Razer knew the mask wasn't certified to offer N95 protection but sold it that way anyway.

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• Qualcomm currently sells AI accelerator processors but has the CPU market in its sights
• Sailesh Kottapalli's expertise is in x86 architecture, not Arm
• But that didn't stop Qualcomm from bringing him onboard to lead its data center team

Qualcomm, renowned for its Snapdragon processors powering business smartphones and laptops around the world, has made a potentially key hire as it looks to challenge the likes of AMD and Intel in the processor market.

The company’s latest coup is hiring Sailesh Kottapalli, a former chief architect for Xeon processors and a 28-year Intel veteran.

Kottapalli joined Qualcomm as senior vice president in early January 2025, bringing extensive expertise in designing high-performance x86 server chips.

Kottapalli's move to Arm

Kottapalli wrote on LinkedIn that “the opportunity to innovate and grow while helping to scale new frontiers was immensely compelling to me—a once-in-a-career opportunity that I could not pass on.”

What makes the move significant, given Qualcomm’s reliance on Arm-based designs, is Kottapalli’s expertise in x86 architecture. His leadership could help bridge the gap between Qualcomm’s existing technology and the demanding requirements of data center CPUs.

A renewed push for the data center

Qualcomm had retreated from server CPU development back in 2018, but the company has now revealed plans to develop high-performance, energy-efficient server solutions tailored for data center applications.

This journey began with its Snapdragon X series for PCs, featuring custom Arm-based cores derived from its $1.4 billion acquisition of the startup Nuvia back in 2021, that built to a legal crescendo in a Delaware court in December 2024 when Arm alleged that Qualcomm's acquisition breached its licencing terms. Though a federal jury sided with Qualcomm, Arm is seeking a retrial.

For now, though, Qualcomm has been expanding its presence in the data center sector, with AI accelerator chips under the Qualcomm Cloud AI brand supported by industry leaders like AWS, HPE, and Lenovo.

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• GMKTec is yet another vendor jumping on the NAS + Mini PC combo craze
• Unlike rivals like Ugreen, it's announced a cost-effective, entry-level system
• GMKtec describes it as 'a dual-system NAS', suggesting dual boot functionality

GMKTec has announced its G9 NAS mini PC, a 4-bay device targeting entry-level users.

The G9 is marketed as a "dual-system" NAS and, though specific details are thin on the ground, this does imply being able to switch between NAS and mini PC-oriented operating systems.

An official teaser for the product does confirm this device will come with 12GB of RAM, but just 64GB of storage - likely eMMC.

An entry-level device for low spenders

The G9 will be also powered by the Intel N150 processor combined with LPDDR5 4800MHz memory. According to GMKTec, that makes the RAM in the system 80% faster than the previous DDR4 standard.

The GMKTec G9 also comes with dual 2.5G Ethernet ports as well as two USB Type-A ports, a high-speed USB Type-C port and dual HDMI ports.

GMKTec lists the device as “coming soon", with no information about the price.

Considering the specs, especially the eMMC storage, I expect it to be very affordable, but power users will probably want to look elsewhere.

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• Viewsonic VP2788-5K has a 27-inch diagonal and an integrated KVM
• It should be available by March 2025 but Viewsonic hasn't disclosed the price
• Viewsonic launched an 8K monitor at CES 2021 but it never hit the market

Viewsonic is set to unveil its latest monitor, the VP2788-5K, at the upcoming Pepcom Digital Experience in January 2025.

Designed for desktops, the 27-inch display (via TechPowerUp) is set to make it the smallest 5K (5120 x 2880) resolution monitor on the market.

ViewSonic is launching several other displays at the event, including the VG2748N, a 27-inch 1080p monitor that offers wireless casting capabilities, and the XG275D-4K gaming monitor, which brings 4K resolution with switchable refresh rates.

ViewSonic high-resolution monitors

ViewSonic’s VP2788-5K is a compact device with a 99% DCI-P3 color gamut and robust connectivity options, including Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, USB-C and A, and DisplayPort.

The monitor is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2025, possibly before the end of March.

Personally, I'm cautious about getting too excited about the VP2788-5K given that ViewSonic's previous 8K offering, the VP3286-8K, never hit the market.

Nevertheless, Jeff Muto, the company's Business Line Director, said, "ViewSonic is excited about its new line of product offerings in 2025."

"Our new desktop monitors, along with our current slate of portable display devices," he went on, "showcase how ViewSonic continues to expand its display solutions to offer more choices, features, and functionality to any type of work or play lifestyle."

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Wolf Man is the latest Blumhouse horror movie to grace our screens, with horror director Leigh Whannell returning to showcase his take on the classic Universal monster movie. He's done it before with The Invisible Man, spinning it as a tale of gaslighting and domestic abuse, and his vision for Wolf Man tells a similar, emotionally devastating tale, making it a great entry into this year's new movies.

Speaking to TechRadar, lead actor Christopher Abbott spoke about why Blake's transformation into the horrifying titular character means the horror is as much a tragedy as anything else, as the theme of loss runs throughout the narrative.

When asked if any other performances influenced his, he told us: "Yeah, I would say The Fly, Elephant Man, there's a little David Lynch in there. I guess there's sort of like a tragic element with both of those monster creatures, you know, and I think this has that."

This was one of my most anticipated horror movies of 2025, and it really did deliver. While, yes, it was scary and the jumpy moments were effective I did find myself more disturbed by the psychological torment and the emotional moments, especially when it came to the breakdown and total loss of communication between Blake and his wife and daughter (played by Julia Garner and Matilda Firth, respectively).

(Image credit: Blumhouse)

It's a big reason why I wanted to do the movie because when I first saw the designs, I just thought there was something very tragic about the monster.

Christopher Abbott, actor

Wolf Man features some brilliant scenes where the POV shifts from the wolves to the humans, so we get to see both sides of the situation. Their inability to communicate and understand each other makes Blake's transformation deeply sad, as he's morphed into something completely unrecognizable, mirroring the ways we can't communicate with any species except our own. That sense of isolation and the primal animal instinct taking over is the real horror at the heart of Wolf Man. The audience already knows Blake and his wife Charlotte's marriage is strained, and now they've had the ability to talk it out ripped away.

Abbott added: " They're miscommunicating. They're talking around each other, they're not communicating well. You just need that idea to then help set up the more fantastical thing where, where the communication then gets taken from you. And then how do you, how do you then communicate when you're not even, uh, physically able to?"

Not only was there the breakdown of a bond between husband and wife, but also a father and daughter. Abbott praised his young co-star Matilda Firth, who played his on-screen daughter Ginger, revealing: "She was oddly seasoned. It felt like she was oddly seasoned. I loved her, but it was almost off-putting. She felt too much like a pro. I felt like I was working with like an 80 year old theater vet. But she just takes things in stride. She's there to play. You can throw something at her and she'll do it or try it."

Wolf Man is in theaters from Friday, January 17.

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