Technologies

Apple Arcade Games Coming Soon

Here’s what’s available on Apple Arcade this month.

Apple Arcade — a CNET Editors’ Choice award pick — features hundreds of games to play for just $5 a month. The service offers familiar and classic games, as well as exclusive titles. You can find these games in the App Store, but they have paywalls and ads that might hinder your gaming experience. With an Apple Arcade subscription, you can play each title without paywalls or ads at no extra charge.

Here are the new games you can play in January.

Episode XOXO

Developer: Pocket Gems
Release date: Jan. 6

Episode XOXO is the sequel to Episode: Choose Your Story. It’s an interactive storytelling game where players can choose to enjoy a story full of drama, romance and adventure. The game is launching with five new stories, and there are plans to add more stories in future updates.

Illustrated

Developer: Border Leap
Release date: Jan. 13

Illustrated is a puzzle game whose gameplay blends jigsaws and word play. Each puzzle starts with an illustration that shows a concept sketch with the hidden words of the artist’s story behind the illustration. As you place puzzle pieces in their correct spot, the illustration begins to color itself in and the words of the story are revealed.

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!

Developer: GAME FREAK
Release date: Jan. 20

Game Freak, the creator of the Pokemon game series, isn’t horsing around with its next Apple Arcade game. Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! was originally released as Pocket Card Jockey on the 3DS. The game is a combination of solitaire and horse racing where players clear cards with sequential numbers from the game as fast as they can. The more cards you clear, the better your horse’s mood is. Your horse’s mood helps your trusty steed charge energy during races. Once your horse’s energy is charged and you’re in the homestretch, your horse will have to use that energy to sprint to victory. Special cards also litter the raceway, and they provide your horse boosts and benefits, like leveling up and learning new skills. Off the track, you can breed your horses to produce foals with their parent’s abilities to be used in future races.

Squiggle Drop

Developer: Noodlecake
Release date: Jan. 27

If you like puzzle games with a little bit of physics, you should try Squiggle Drop. In this game, players have to solve puzzles by drawing a single shape. As players solve more puzzles, they can earn rewards and unlock buildings and upgrades to build their own Squiggletown.

Apple Arcade games getting January updates

What did Apple Arcade release in December?

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for March 10, #533

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for March 10, No. 533.

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 features a lot of team names, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy one to solve. 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: Play ball!

Green group hint: Not front.

Blue group hint: Certain NFL player.

Purple group hint: They play at Smoothie King Center.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: An AL Central player.

Green group: Words appearing before «back,» in football.

Blue group: Associated with Derrick Henry.

Purple group: New Orleans Pelicans.

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 an AL Central player. The four answers are Guardian, Royal, Tiger and Twin.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is words appearing before «back,» in football. The four answers are corner, defensive, full and running.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with Derrick Henry. The four answers are Heisman, King, Ravens and Titans.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is New Orleans Pelicans. The four answers are Bey, Fears, Murphy and Queen.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Tuesday, March 10

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 10.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? I’d just like to point out that the New York Times puzzle-makers love the 7-Across answer — they use it about every other week. 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? Read on. 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: Writing that lacks substance
Answer: FLUFF

6A clue: Pencil in a cosmetics bag
Answer: LINER

7A clue: ___ acid (building block of proteins)
Answer: AMINO

8A clue: Partner of services, in economics
Answer: GOODS

9A clue: Small criticism
Answer: NIT

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Warning sign in a relationship, metaphorically
Answer: FLAG

2D clue: Fancy prom ride
Answer: LIMO

3D clue: SAG-AFTRA, for one
Answer: UNION

4D clue: Luxury fashion house headquartered in Rome
Answer: FENDI

5D clue: Ground coating on a cold morning
Answer: FROST

Technologies

Australians Flock to VPNs in the Wake of Online Age-Restriction Laws

App downloads for VPN services increase sharply as websites in Australia go behind age-restriction walls.

A new set of laws in Australia requiring adult websites and app stores to age-restrict content for those under 18, and requiring AI companies to restrict chatbot offerings from displaying certain types of sensitive or adult content to minors, is apparently driving many to download Virtual Private Network apps there.

Major adult sites have closed their virtual doors to those who aren’t age-confirmed in Australia, and these changes follow a nationwide ban on social media use by teenagers and young children that went into effect in December.

According to reports from Reuters, The Guardian and others, in response to the bans, downloads of VPN-related apps, which people can use to circumvent location-based restrictions, are sharply on the rise. According to Reuters, three of the 15 most downloaded free iPhone apps in the country were VPN-related as the new laws went into effect on Monday.

Lawmakers in some regions, including the US, are well aware that people use VPNs in this way. In states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, laws are being proposed to limit or outright ban VPN use. Wisconsin’s proposed law would require adult sites to block VPN traffic, while Michigan’s proposal would ban VPN use entirely in the state.

There is also a proposal in England under consideration to ban VPN use by minors. That proposal is currently under review.