Technologies

Acer Adds More OLED Laptops With New Swift Go and Swift X

Battery life be damned!

There are going to be a lot of OLED laptops this year and Acer is doing its part to make that happen. At CES 2023, the PC maker announced four new models in its ultraportable Swift line and all but one have an OLED display option.

Acer released two OLED laptops in 2022, the 14-inch Swift 3 OLED and the 16-inch Swift Edge. The new Swift Go 14 and 16 are thin-and-light laptops falling somewhat in between those models in size and weight. The Swift Go models are powered by 13th-gen Intel Core U- or H-series processors. The Go 14 will be available with AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors, too. The Swift Go 16 features a 16-inch 3.2K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, while the Swift Go 14 has a 90Hz 14-inch 2.8K OLED display.

Also read: Best Gaming Laptops From CES 2023 So Far

Aside from the OLED displays, the design and features sound like a pretty standard premium laptop for work, school or home. That includes a 1440p webcam with enhanced video conferencing features like AI noise reduction, background blur and auto framing.

If those sound good but you wish the 14-inch Go came with a discrete graphics option, Acer has the Swift X 14. It’s slightly bigger and heavier than the Swift Go 14 but gives you the option of either Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 or 4050 GPUs. It is Intel-only with 13th-gen Intel Core H-series processors. It’ll be offered with the same 14-inch 2.8K OLED display as the Swift Go 14.

The OLED attraction is understandable. Colors are vibrant, viewing angles are wider and contrast and brightness are great. Viewed side by side with an average laptop LCD and you can easily see the quality difference. They do generally add to the cost of a laptop though, and, perhaps more importantly, they hurt battery life.

Also read: CES 2023’s Top 10 Biggest Reveals: From a Shape-Shifting Screen to an Invisible Trackpad

However, for those concerned with battery life, the Swift Go 14 and 16 and the Swift X 14 will be available with LCD options. Or you can choose the new Swift 14 with either a WQXGA (2,560×1,600) or WUXGA (1,920×1,200) touchscreen LCD covered with antimicrobial Gorilla Glass. It, too, will be running on Intel’s 13th-gen Core H-series processors, it weighs 2.6 pounds (1.2 kilograms) and comes with other premium features from the Swift Go like Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports and a 1440p webcam.

The Swift 14 is expected to be available in March starting at $1,400, which converts to about 1,160 or AU$2,050. The Swift Go 14 is expected to be available in May starting at $850, while the Go 16 is expected to start at $800 in June. The Swift X 14 is expected in April starting at $1,100.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 15, #1008

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 15, No. 1,008

Looking for the most recent 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, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is kind of tough, but the yellow category has some fun options in it. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

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

Yellow group hint: Mine, all mine!

Green group hint: A part you might use to build something.

Blue group hint: Blended words.

Purple group hint: Not a cow, but close.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Greedily control.

Green group: Toothed wheels.

Blue group: Portmanteaux.

Purple group: Bull ____.

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

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is greedily control. The four answers are bogart, corner, hog and monopolize.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is toothed wheels. The four answers are cog, gear, pinion and sprocket.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is portmanteaux. The four answers are blog, motel, smog and spork.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is bull ____. The four answers are dog, doze, frog and horn.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 15, #742

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 15, No. 742.

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

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is fun and timely, relating to a certain big ceremony held this weekend. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Best of all

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: The envelope, please.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

RATE, RATED, DATE, DOTE, DATED, DOTED, GATE, GATES, TROD, TRODS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: