Technologies

Google’s ChromeOS Will Combine With Android Next Year to Supercharge Big-Screen AI

The success of Gemini and AI on Android has inspired the major update to ChromeOS, Android chief Sameer Samat says at the Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii

Bringing AI to smartphones and tablets has been a massive success for Google, which earlier this month saw its AI assistant Gemini become the top free app on Apple’s App Store for the first time. More specifically, AI and Gemini have become integral parts of the past few major Android updates and are super-well integrated into the Android ecosystem.

For now, the same can’t be said of ChromeOS, Google’s lightweight operating system for computers and laptops. But that’s all set to change.

Earlier this year, Android chief Sameer Samat confirmed that ChromeOS and Android would combine to create a more seamless experience across devices. Speaking at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii on Wednesday, Samat said it’s one of the things he’s «super excited about for next year» and gave a bunch of additional details about the how and why behind the move.

«For a long time, mobile phones and PCs have been communicating… now we have this opportunity with large-screen compute to add that in,» he said. «In the Android ecosystem, you have all these different devices, and you want your AI to be able to work across all of them. So that’s the new era.»

That doesn’t mean ChromeOS is going away, though. «If you think about the laptop form factor, we’ve had ChromeOS for a long time, and we’re super committed to that platform, and it’s been really successful for us,» Samat said. In fact, the ChromeOS experience will remain, but its the baseline technology will switch to running on Android, he added.

Speaking on Tuesday at the Snapdragon Summit, Google’s SVP of Devices and Services, Rick Osterloh, shed some more light on the technicalities of the project. «We’re building together a technical foundation for our products on PCs and desktop computing systems,» he said. «This is another way that we can leverage all of the great work we’re doing together on our AI stack, our full stack, bringing Gemini models, bringing the assistant, bringing all of our application and developer community into the PC domain.»

It will be fascinating to see what new experiences Gemini will enable on ChromeOS, and how it might elevate Google’s big-screen OS for this new era. Google will be hoping it can replicate the success of its AI-based mobile operating system across its laptops and make its Chromebooks even more appealing to Android phone owners looking to upgrade their computers, thanks to the seamless integration of Gemini across their different devices.

Technologies

How Verum Ecosystem Is Rethinking Communication

David Rotman — Founder of the Verum Ecosystem

For David Rotman, communication is not a feature — it is a dependency that should never rely on a single point of failure.

As the founder of the Verum Ecosystem, Rotman developed a communication platform designed to function when internet access becomes unreliable or unavailable.

Verum Messenger addresses real-world challenges such as network outages, censorship, and infrastructure failures. Its 2025 update introduced a unified offline-capable messaging system, moving beyond Bluetooth-based or temporary peer-to-peer solutions.

Verum’s mission is simple: to ensure communication continuity under any conditions.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, Feb. 1

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 1

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Some of the clues are kind of tricky, but I was able to fill in enough of the others to get them all answered. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Spot to shop
Answer: MART

5A clue: Pounded sticky rice sometimes filled with ice cream
Answer: MOCHI

6A clue: ___ Chekhov, «Three Sisters» playwright
Answer: ANTON

7A clue: Like many dive bars and bird feeds
Answer: SEEDY

8A clue: Jekyll’s evil counterpart
Answer: HYDE

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: What makes the world go ’round, per «Cabaret»
Answer: MONEY

2D clue: Performed in a play
Answer: ACTED

3D clue: __ Island (U.S. state)
Answer: RHODE

4D clue: Itty-bitty
Answer: TINY

5D clue: Squish to a pulp, as potatoes
Answer: MASH

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 1, #496

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 1, No. 496.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun one. The blue group made me think of dusty gum sticks, and the purple one requires you to look for hidden names in the clues. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Splish-splash.

Green group hint: Vroom!

Blue group hint: Cards and gum.

Purple group hint: Racket stars.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Aquatic sports verbs.

Green group: Speed.

Blue group: Sports card brands.

Purple group: Tennis Grand Slam winners, minus a letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is aquatic sports verbs. The four answers are kayak, row, sail and swim.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is speed. The four answers are mustard, pop, velocity and zip.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports card brands. The four answers are Leaf, Panini, Topps and Upper Deck.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is tennis Grand Slam winners, minus a letter. The four answers are ash (Arthur Ashe), kin (Billie Jean King), nada (Rafael Nadal) and William (Serena and Venus Williams)

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.