Technologies

Anycubic Kobra Go 3D Printer Review: An Expert and a Novice Weigh-In

The price is right for beginners, but the setup feels more appropriate for intermediate 3D printing hobbyists.

Anycubic’s updated 3D printer lineup has impressed us this year, with products like the Kobra Max and the Photon M3. Another new addition, the $200 Kobra Go, is an ambitious attempt to crack the budget 3D printer code.

8.0

Anycubic Kobra Go

$200 at Amazon

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Like

Auto-bed-leveling for $200
Removable build plate
Excellent price

Don’t Like

The manual can be hard to read
Needs fine-tuning from the start

While I’m an advanced 3D printer user, this is a product aimed at beginners, so I also asked my colleague Russell Holly to test the Kobra Go and compare it to other budget 3D printers he’s tried, such as the Anycubic Kobra. I’m including his observations alongside my own.

Some assembly required

The Kobra Go is shipped in semikit form. That means while you will have to put together a lot of the mechanical pieces, you don’t have to run cables or use any tools apart from the included hex wrenches.

The upside of a kit is that you can learn what all the pieces are, and to some degree what they do, as you build it, though the manual doesn’t go into too much detail. The assembly is certainly something that can be done by just about anyone, and is worth the time because it introduces you to some pretty advanced features.

Russell: Anycubic’s general ease of use and even greater ease of repair is frequently marred by less-than-stellar instruction manuals, and the Kobra Go is no exception. User error aside (I admit to missing a page in the manual, which was totally on me) the manual regularly changes the perspective of the printer when trying to show you how to connect different pieces, causing the user to stop multiple times to confirm it’s not being installed backward.

It’s not that the instructions are unreadable, in fact far from it, but there’s a lot of room for improvement given the audience these printers are aiming for. I would go so far as to suggest a video demonstration for first-time 3D printer owners would be appropriate for something like this.

It’s still a $200 3D printer (with extras)

While most 3D printers in the $180 to $220 range are pretty similar in terms of print quality, the addition of auto-bed-leveling at this price is a compelling selling point for the Kobra Go. I’ve said many times that ABL should become the industry standard and Anycubic including it in a printer in the extreme budget section is a good sign. Having ABL on every machine would make 3D printing much more accessible.

The quality from the CNET test print showed some instances where the Kobra Go isn’t calibrated quite right, but with a little effort and some tweaking of the software, you should be able to print quality models reliably.

Russell: The print quality for the Kobra Go is exactly what I expected for a $200 3D printer. I wouldn’t use this for printing something with high detail or lots of fine edges, but simple shapes or pieces for a larger project can easily be printed on this machine. With a little bit of practice, it wouldn’t be all that limiting for most projects.

Kit vs. cost

When it comes to making a budget 3D printer, there’s a balance between cost and usability. By selling the Kobra Go in kit form, Anycubic can save money in assembly and shipping, giving the company scope to add auto-bed-leveling and other premium features.

Whether you’re brand-new to 3D printing and looking to learn as you go (and willing to put in some effort to build it), or if you’re just looking for a cheap 3D printer with ABL, the Kobra Go makes a good case for taking a DIY approach.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #463

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 463 for June 9.

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.

Todays NYT Strands puzzle features a bunch of mysterious words. Some are a bit 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: What you see isn’t what you get

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Hiding in plain sight

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:

CALL, CALLS, FALL, FALLS, SAME, SEAM, LAND, ROSE, COVE, CANE, CANES, FLUME, FLUMES, DIGS, MEAL, COLA, CARD, CASE

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:

MASK, CLOAK, COVER, FACADE, DISGUISE, CAMOUFLAGE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is FALSEFRONT. To find it, start with the F that’s two rows over from the far left and two letters down. Wind around into a question mark.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #729

Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 9, No. 729.

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.

Do you play the NYT Spelling Bee? If you do, you should be able to ace the purple category in today’s NYT Connections puzzle. 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: Control-C.

Green group hint: Don’t wait till the last minute.

Blue group hint: Pals to plan a heist.

Purple group hint: Think another NYT online game.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Keyboard shortcut commands.

Green group: Secure in advance.

Blue group: Crime organization.

Purple group: Spellling Bee ranks minus a letter.

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 keyboard shortcut commands. The four answers are paste, print, quit and save.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is secure in advance. The four answers are book, order, request and reserve.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is crime organization. The four answers are crew, family, ring and syndicate.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is Spelling Bee ranks minus a letter. The four answers are genus, goo, mazing and slid. (Genius, good, amazing and solid.)

Technologies

I Made Google Translate My Default on iPhone Before a Trip and It Saved Me More Than Once

Google Translate supports far more languages than Apple’s app, and it’s easy to make the switch.

If you’re traveling overseas this summer, the Google Translate app can come in handy to quickly translate a road sign or conversation. The latest Google Translate update allows you to pick the app as your default translation app for Apple iPhones and iPads running iOS and iPadOS 18.4 and later. Previously, you were limited to the built-in Apple option.

Google began leveraging AI to boost Google Translate’s offerings, adding 110 languages last year to increase its total support for 249 languages. Compare that to Apple Translate, which supports 19 languages. Neither Google nor Apple responded to a request for comment.

Both apps offer voice and text translation, including a camera feature that lets you instantly translate by pointing your camera at text. Both also allow you to use translation features without an internet connection, which can come in particularly handy when traveling to more remote locations.

After using both, I found that the Google Translate picked up speech a little quicker so I didn’t have to constantly repeat myself, and the audio pronunciations were a little easier to understand than on Apple Translate. I switched to Google Translate as the default on my iPhone, and here’s how you can, too.