Technologies

Shadow Brings Its Cloud PCs to Creatives

Shadow for Makers will let you subscribe to cloud-based systems for photo, video and 3D editing, and more.

Blade’s reinvention of its Shadow desktop-in-the-cloud service expands it well beyond gaming — previously with Shadow for Enterprise, and now to Shadow for Makers, a new virtual PC subscription targeted at creatives starting at $59 per month.

Shadow‘s technology allows you to stream a full PC to almost any lower-powered device, like a phone or Chromebook, as well as Macs, similar to the way cloud gaming works for just games. Because Shadow for Makers is still a full Windows desktop, you can still play (or develop) games on it. It’s available starting today.

The company hasn’t moved too far from its gaming roots, however, launching two game studio-focused services, too: Virtual Booth, which may eventually be the installation-free way you try out new games; and Echo Session, a streamlined way for studios to test and get feedback on their games. The latter have been developed in conjunction with Bandai Namco.

Of the four plans launching Wednesday, two will be available in North America (the other two are Europe-only): Spark, which gives you an eight-core slice of an Intel Xeon CPU and the equivalent of an 8GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080, along with 12GB RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive for $59 per month; and Zenith, which provides dual eight-core slices of an AMD Epyc CPU with a 20GB Nvidia RTX A4500 (the workstation equivalent of an RTX 3090 Ti) with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD for $139 per month. Both allow for upgrades to storage, and Zenith will be upgraded to 28GB in the second quarter of this year.

A screenshot showing the four Shadow for Makers plans, Spark, Aurora, Zenith and Lightning, with pricing and configurations. — Blade

The Spark configuration is suitable for tasks like midrange photo editing that don’t require a high-powered graphics card, while the Zenith configuration is better suited for video editing and 3D design. The Xeon and Epyc CPU generations and GTX GPU aren’t great for AI acceleration, which has become more mainstream, especially for automating a lot of photo- and video-editing tasks. On the flip side, though, the data centers hosting these servers have much better internet connections than yours, which can be a boon when working collaboratively on video.

Also of note, Virtual Booth brings the game event platform we could have used during the pandemic. It can host up to roughly 100,000 players gaming from the cloud, and will support social media, gamer feedback and Twitch streaming when it launches in the fall.

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Technologies

With Apple’s Siri AI Overhaul Delayed, Google Might Help It Catch Up

Siri’s long-delayed overhaul could end up powered by Google’s Gemini AI, a move that shows how urgently Apple is trying to close the gap with rivals.

Apple is reportedly weighing up a potentially major change to its digital assistant: powering a revamped Siri with Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence tool.

According to Bloomberg, the companies are in early discussions about a partnership that could reshape Apple’s AI strategy for the iPhone, iPad and Apple’s other products. While no agreement is in place, the talks signal Apple’s growing urgency to keep up in the generative AI race.

Siri, once a pioneer, has lagged behind its voice assistant rivals. Apple had planned to roll out a smarter, AI-driven Siri in 2025 as part of its Apple Intelligence initiative, but executives delayed the launch until spring 2026, admitting the early version wasn’t reliable enough to ship. That setback has left Apple at a disadvantage while Samsung, Microsoft and Amazon push ahead with AI assistants that are more conversational and capable.

Apple has long prided itself on controlling the technologies that make its products distinct, but generative AI has proven harder to master internally. To bridge the gap, Apple has leaned on partners: today’s Siri can already route certain requests to OpenAI’s ChatGPT when its own models fall short, and later this year, Apple Intelligence is set to upgrade that integration with GPT-5. You’ll be able to call on ChatGPT for writing help, image understanding and complex questions directly through Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence.

That reliance underscores the fact that Apple’s own models aren’t yet competitive at the same scale as its rivals.

Apple is reportedly exploring additional options, including Anthropic’s Claude and, most prominently, Google’s Gemini. A deal with Google wouldn’t just inject advanced capabilities into Siri, it would echo a long-running partnership between the two companies. Google already pays billions annually to remain the default search engine on Safari, and a Gemini deal could extend that relationship into Apple’s core AI experience.

If the talks advance, we may see a very different Siri emerge in the coming years: one less constrained, more conversational and powered by the same AI that underpins Google’s own products.

Apple and Google didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Technologies

US Government Makes $8.9B Investment to Take 10% Stake in Intel

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 23, #804

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Aug. 23, #804.

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.

The NYT Connections puzzle is often tough, but today’s is next-level tough. The blue category went wild with long, almost archaic vocabulary. See my rant below when I spoil the blue category for you. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now 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 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: Cars get thirsty too.

Green group hint: Place to play.

Blue group hint: Trickery.

Purple group hint: Who thought of that?

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Liquids you put into cars.

Green group: Arena.

Blue group: Skulduggery.

Purple group: Modern inventions.

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 liquids you put into cars. The four answers are brake fluid, coolant, fuel and oil.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is arena. The four answers are bowl, coliseum, hippodrome and stadium.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is skulduggery. The four answers are chicanery, deceit, legerdemain and subterfuge.

OK, first, «skulduggery» is one heck of a word, but then … legerdemain? Seriously? The dictionary defines that as «skillful use of one’s hands when performing conjuring tricks.» New one on me.