Technologies

Samsung Can Now Create an AI Copy of Your Voice to Answer Calls

It’s only available in Korean for now as part of Samsung’s Bixby Text Call feature for the Galaxy S23 lineup.

Can’t answer the phone? Samsung wants to help by letting you create a replica of your voice using artificial intelligence.

The feature is only available in Korean and is part of Samsung’s Bixby Text Call service, which lets you answer a call by typing a text message instead. Samsung plans to release the voice creator tool in English later this year, a Samsung spokesperson said to CNET via email. The announcement comes after Google has used the Google Assistant to automate certain parts of the phone-calling experience. It also arrives amid a surge in interest in AI-generated content, thanks to the rise of ChatGPT.

To be clear, Samsung’s new feature is not an AI clone that answers calls entirely on your behalf. Instead, Bixby Text Call lets you type a text message to answer a phone call at times when it may not be appropriate to do so verbally. Bixby then converts your typed text to audio for the recipient.

That feature was announced last year as part of Samsung’s One UI 5 update and just became available in English after debuting in Korean. Now Samsung is launching the Bixby Custom Voice Creator for the Galaxy S23 lineup to let users record sentences that the Bixby assistant can analyze to copy their voice and tone. Samsung is positioning this as a means to customize the way Bixby Text Call converts text into audio during a call.

When the Bixby Custom Voice Creator’s AI-generated voice answers a phone call, it will let the caller know that Bixby is answering the call rather than the user, Samsung said. When asked whether Samsung has safeguards in place to prevent someone else from creating a copy of your voice through a recording, Samsung said users will need to read specific sentences to generate the custom voice.

Bixby’s text-to-speech transcription process takes place on the device itself rather than in the cloud, Samsung said when announcing Bixby Text Call last year. Audio is also deleted right after the recognition process takes place, according to the company.

Samsung said in Wednesday’s press release that this AI-generated voice will eventually be compatible with «other Samsung apps beyond phone calls,» although it didn’t say which ones. When pressed for specifics, Samsung said more details will be announced in the future.

Samsung is broadening Bixby’s functionality after Google in recent years rolled out a suite of features designed to make the phone calling experience more convenient. Its Direct My Call tool, for example, uses the Google Assistant to transcribe automated phone menus. Google updated this feature with the launch of the Pixel 7 last year.

At the same time, there’s been a deeper interest in how AI-generated content can be used in everyday tasks, resulting from the popularity of ChatGPT, the online chatbot from OpenAI that launched in late 2022. Microsoft recently incorporated the technology behind ChatGPT into its Bing search engine, which is currently available in a limited preview, to provide more conversational results. Google also announced its own ChatGPT rival called Bard.

Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to create some personal finance explainers that are edited and fact-checked by our editors. For more, see this post.

Technologies

TikTok and FIFA Team Up for World Cup 2026 Coverage

A new team-up aims to make this summer’s tournament more accessible for fans.

If you hadn’t already planned on swiping on TikTok videos of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a new partnership between the social media platform and tournament organizer FIFA could motivate you to start stretching out your thumbs.

As the soccer tournament nears — it will take place from June 11 to July 19 and span 16 host cities in Canada, Mexico and the US — TikTok will become FIFA’s first «preferred platform.» According to a FIFA statement on Thursday, this entails TikTok providing more coverage of the World Cup, including original content and even livestreaming of some portions of matches.

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You can use the FIFA World Cup 2026 hub on TikTok to find content, match tickets and viewing information, as well as participation incentives such as custom stickers and filters.

In the US, World Cup games will air live across Fox and FS1. If you don’t have cable, you can get a live TV streaming service, such as YouTube TV, which includes those channels. Additionally, every match will stream live on Fox One and the Fox Sports app.

«FIFA’s goal is to share the exhilaration of the FIFA World Cup 2026 with as many fans as possible,» FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafström said.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Jan. 9, #473

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Jan. 9, No. 473.

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 might be tough, if you don’t know your sports venues. 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: Are you ready for some playoffs?

Green group hint: Up! Down!

Blue group hint: Where teams play.

Purple group hint: Not angels.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: NFL playoff rounds.

Green group: Jumping ability.

Blue group: NBA arenas.

Purple group: ____ devils.

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 NFL playoff rounds. The four answers are conference championship, divisional, Super Bowl and wild card.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is jumping ability. The four answers are bounce, bunnies, hops and ups.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is NBA arenas. The four answers are Delta, FedEx, Scotiabank and Spectrum.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ devils. The four answers are blue, New Jersey, red and sun.

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Technologies

Speediance’s Compact Resistance Trainer and Wearable Make Wellness and Fitness More Connected

Speediance unveils a portable strength training device and a wearable at CES.

Speediance unveiled its new Gym Nano and Speediance Strap products this week at CES 2026. The smart fitness equipment manufacturer, which previously developed its own smart home gym, the Gym Monster 2, designed the Gym Nano and Speediance Strap to complement its current equipment ecosystem.

«Rather than developing products in isolation, we’re building a comprehensive training and health ecosystem that adapts to users’ real lives and empowers better decision-making over time,» Speediance founder and CEO Liu Tao said in a statement.

Speediance used the consumer tech expo in Las Vegas to demonstrate the Gym Nano, a portable, motor-driven cable resistance training system designed to occupy minimal space for those who prefer to work out at home. The strap is a prototype wearable device designed to read your health data and provide training recommendations based on this insight.

CNET previously tested Speediance’s VeloNix AI Smart Bike and named it the best AI-powered exercise bike.

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Gym Nano

The Gym Nano is a compact digital cable resistance machine trainer that fits any space and delivers full-body workouts. It’s meant to make strength training at home easier if you have limited space and can’t commit to larger home gym equipment.

The Gym Nano offers up to 220 pounds of resistance through adjustable 1-pound increments. It also has five dynamic weight modes: Eccentric, Chain, Standard, Fixed Speed and Sled.

Speediance Strap

The strap can be used for both endurance and strength training activities and recognizes various types of exercises, movement patterns, training volume and other insights that can help you learn how well your body is responding to your training.

The Speediance Strap is a screen-free wearable that collects data related to your sleep, training and core body temperature. It then uploads and shares this data to the Speediance Wellness Plus app, where it makes suggestions for your daily training and recovery based on this information. Similar to other wearables, the Speediance Strap assesses your readiness each day and can detect stress factors to determine if you should focus more on recovery on that day.

«With Speediance Strap, we are exploring how wearable data can function as part of a decision-support layer within a connected fitness system, rather than existing as isolated metrics,» Tao said in a statement.

Additionally, everyday insights (like core and recovery data) will be free to you unless you want to upgrade to the Wellness Plus access, which will come at an additional cost to receive long-term insights and AI planning.

It’s unclear when the Gym Nano will be available for purchase, but the Speediance Strap is expected to launch through a Kickstarter campaign in spring 2026.