Technologies

Panic Playdate Has a New Wave of Games, and a Price Bump

The still-hard-to-get indie handheld gets an app store with separately sold games, and the price goes up to $199.

My favorite little gaming handheld last year was the Panic Playdate, a tiny yellow crank-enabled pocket console with its own included library of weird indie games. Even though the Playdate launched last year, shipping delays and shortages have meant many people still haven’t been able to get one. But the handheld just added its own on-console game app catalog with a bunch of new games… and along with it, a price increase for anyone who still hasn’t preordered.

The Playdate cost $179 before, but the price is going up to $199 starting April 7. Preorders before then will get locked in at the $179 price. Price increases for products are becoming common right now (it happened to the Quest 2 last year). The Playdate’s unique games (it comes with 24 of them) and tiny design still make it worth the price for a curious indie handheld fan, but it also pushes this experimental device to the same cost of more versatile handhelds like the Nintendo Switch Lite.

See at Panic

The season-based game library approach for the Playdate, which launched with its own catalog of included games that auto-download to the device two at a time, once a week, is being shifted up with the handheld’s new Catalog. The games in the Catalog are sold separately, although two are free to download. The games are welcome additions: There are 16 to start, 10 of which are new. The other six are familiar hits that have already been available to sideload from itch.io, an indie gaming hub that’s been a great source of other experimental Playdate games.

The game prices vary from $1 to $15. I’m just playing through them now, but I wish some of these games also had free demos to understand how they work. Taking a plunge on a $1 game is fine, but $15 isn’t quite an impulse purchase.

Using the Catalog feels like an on-Playdate extension of the games I can already get through itch.io in many ways, but with a more curated focus. Itch.io is fun to browse, and has many games that are totally free, but is a more unpredictable mix of experiments and more polished products. Those games also need to be downloaded and then reuploaded through Panic’s own website, which sideloads the games to the Playdate, while the on-Playdate catalog just adds them instantly. (The 4GB of onboard storage may seem small, but I’ve stored dozens of games already and still haven’t used up half of it.)

Panic Playdate game handheld in yellow, with a black and white screen showing games for sale — Scott Stein/CNET

What I was really hoping for was a true season 2 of Playdate games, but that’s either not here yet, or the planned rollout for future games is changing. Either way, it’s still a promising sign that future indie games will be easier to find on the Playdate, and that hopefully a steady flow continues. Also, hopefully, the Playdate will finally be easy to order. According to Panic, Wave 4 preorders are now shipping, but eventually the hope is that the handhelds aren’t backordered at all. Valve fixed its Steam Deck supply issues; hopefully Panic will do the same.

Technologies

McDonald’s Snack Wrap: Is the Viral Food Favorite Returning on July 14?

July 14 could be the release date for the much-longed-for chicken Snack Wraps, but Ronald and crew aren’t talking.

McDonald’s is riding a viral wave. The fast-food chain’s Minecraft Happy Meals and adult Minecraft Meals hit restaurants on April 1 and sold out quickly. Diners ordering a Happy Meal these days will find a Squishmallow theme meal instead. But there’s more viral buzz about another McDonald’s product online. People are eagerly awaiting the return of Snack Wraps, a chicken-tortilla entree that’s been missing from US locations of the Golden Arches since 2020.

Read more: Review: McDonald’s Minecraft Meals Feature The Hottest Nugget Sauce Ever

On April 15, McDonald’s tweeted «snack wraps 0x.14.2025,» hinting the wraps would return on the 14th of an upcoming month. This leaves fans having to check their McDonald’s mobile app or local restaurant menus on the 14th of every month, hoping the wraps will make an appearance. The wraps didn’t appear in restaurants on May 14, so now fans must check again in June, and again in July if the June date does not pan out.

At least one Reddit users seems to think the McDonald’s Snack Wraps could return on July 14. One user wrote, «It’s July, I work for McDonald’s,they revealed the date on the employee app.»

But another person posted, «It’s not July. I work at McDonald’s corporate and can confirm.»

Neither of those posts can be confirmed.

June 14 is a Saturday, while July 14 is a Monday. Some suggest that McDonald’s would be more likely to launch a new product on a Monday than on a weekend, so if that’s true, July 14 could be the day.

A representative for McDonald’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

snack wraps 0x.14.2025

— McDonald’s (@McDonalds) April 15, 2025

Snack Wrap fever

Snack Wraps first came out in 2006, and were meant to be a chicken item that would appeal to drive-thru customers. There are different versions, but the basic one includes white-meat chicken strips known as McCrispy Strips wrapped in a flour tortilla with cheese and lettuce with either ranch, honey mustard or salsa. McCrispy Strips are a reworked version of a chicken item formerly known as Chicken Selects.

Zach Ciampa, who regularly covers new food releases under the social-media handle Snach With Zach, said there’s been an intense fanbase out there for the wraps. «Regarding McDonald’s Snack Wrap, it’s by far the most requested item I’ve ever seen my audience ask or demand to come back,» he told CNET. «Not just the most requested in recent memory, but the most requested of all time. And that’s not limited to McDonald’s.» Ciampa said the only similar fast-food items that come close to the same level of interest are Dairy Queen’s S’mores Blizzard and Taco Bell’s Caramel Apple Empanada, both of which also made recent returns.

«I’ve been covering food releases for years, and in that time, I’ve seen countless comments to the tune of ‘We don’t want this. We want the Snack Wrap,’ and, ‘Can you tell us when the Snack Wrap is coming back?'» he said. «A couple years ago, the chances of its return were pretty bleak. However, things escalated pretty quickly in late 2023 when McDonald’s did indeed announce that the Snack Wrap would return in a new form. Since then, details have slowly but surely trickled out, and the hype has steadily grown.»

While Snack Wraps left McDonald’s locations in the US back in 2020, they remained available at Canadian and UK restaurants. The current online McDonald’s Canada menu includes several tortilla-wrapped items, including ones with crispy chicken, grilled chicken, buffalo chicken and chicken with a sweet chili sauce.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for May 21, #240

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 240, for May 21.

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.

Connections: Sports Edition tried to fool players today by tossing in four coin words: quarter, dime, nickel and penny. Yet as longtime players know, that’s way too simple for a Connections puzzle — and this was indeed a trick. The four coin words all ended up in different groups. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it 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: Watch the clock.

Green group hint: Not offense.

Blue group hint: Nice throw!

Purple group hint: Fancy footwear.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Sections of a game.

Green group: Football defensive terms.

Blue group: Words used to describe a good pass.

Purple group: Eponymous basketball shoes, minus the S

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 sections of a game. The four answers are half, inning, period and quarter.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is football defensive terms. The four answers are 4-3, 46, nickel and prevent.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is words used to describe a good pass. The four answers are apple, assist, dime and dish.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is eponymous basketball shoes, minus the S. The four answers are Chuck, Jordan, LeBron and Penny.

Technologies

You Can Now Play Fortnite Again on iPhone and iPad

The long wait is over: Fortnite returns to Apple’s App Store in the US.

Fortnite is back on iPhone and iPad, as announced in its post today on X.

The game had been in and out of the Apple App Store multiple times over the years as its parent company, Epic Games, and Apple clashed over developer fees. But now, following a court ruling against Apple, the massively popular game can finally be downloaded again on iOS devices.

The US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled on April 30 that Apple’s behavior toward web transactions was in bad faith and anticompetitive. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney posted about the ruling on X on the same day.

«For the reasons set forth herein, the Court finds Apple in willful violation of this Court’s 2021 Injunction which issued to restrain and prohibit Apple’s anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive pricing,» court documents read. «Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated.»

Sweeney made the announcement of Fortnite’s return to iPhone and iPad shortly after the April 30 court ruling.

«We will return Fortnite to the US iOS App Store next week,» Sweeney wrote on X. «Epic puts forth a peace proposal: If Apple extends the court’s friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we’ll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic.»

Read more: The 15 Best PC Games Right Now

What will be new on Fortnite for iPhones?

In celebration of its iOS relaunch, Fortnite is rumored to be bringing back the Tart Tycoon skin. The monochrome cosmetic outfit was first released in 2020 and is meant to be a parody of Apple. Alongside the rare item, the Tart Tycoon Cup event is said to be returning.

Fortnite had been banned from iOS devices since 2020, when the flagship iOS device was the iPhone 11.

Why was Fortnite off the iPhone and why is it back now?

In 2021, Epic Games and Apple went to court. Apple largely won that court battle, but didn’t walk away unscathed. A federal judge also ordered Apple to remove its anti-steering barriers, meaning the company must allow apps downloaded from the App Store to steer customers to third-party means.

From the archives: Apple Scores Legal Win Over Epic in Fortnite Lawsuit

Apple appealed the decision later in 2021, with proceedings continuing through 2022 and into 2023. Apple eventually won the appeal. However, the court upheld its anti-steering ruling from 2021 in the process.

When Epic took Apple back to court in 2025, the company pointed out that Apple hadn’t complied with the original ruling in 2021. The judge agreed and is now forcing Apple to follow the rules to the letter. This includes not charging developers for non-App Store payment methods and allowing developers to tell people that such third-party options and platforms exist. The time frame is simple enough. Apple is to comply with these new rules immediately.

Epic Games also has lawsuits against Google and Samsung, seeking to achieve the same result for users of Google Play.