Technologies

Let’s Not Forget About Wordle

The feelings we had earlier this year are needed more than ever.

About 100 years ago — or, that’s how long it feels — we were all together, playing Wordle. Well, we weren’t technically together. We were in sunny places, snowy places, other countries, commuting, staying at home. We were together, though. In a sense. And we weren’t screaming.

Little score grids popping up everywhere, instead of historical face filters or randomly generated AI art, or snippets of chatbot-generated text. These grids, these scores. Wordle swept through an Omicron winter where flights were canceled, trips postponed, returns to work delayed again. It was like bread-baking 2.0. Just another viral pandemic moment.

The game was acquired by The New York Times in early February, and I was ready to say goodbye to a moment I always suspected would end sometime. And it did: Scores stopped being shared. Players dwindled. I eventually stopped playing regularly sometime in the late spring, I don’t know when.

I want to go back to that moment. I remember what was going on: I was depressed. I felt disconnected from friends, from family, from anyone. I put random things on Facebook so I could feel like I did something, for just a few moments, to reach out. For a while, it was random food shots of me putting chili crisp in oatmeal. Then it was Wordle scores. I found a little community of old friends who wrote back and shared theirs. We nodded our virtual heads. We connected, just a bit.

These moments may seem frivolous. They’re not. At the end of 2022, where are we? Twitter has been acquired, gutted, and is slowly being transformed. Migrations away from Twitter (or Facebook) to constellations of new platforms, strange new worlds, places like Mastodon or Hive or Post. Social media, at the end of 2022, feels like it’s either on its last legs or struggling to be reborn as something strange, new and — yes, to me — alien.

With everything that 2022 ended up becoming, something like Wordle feels like a ridiculous little footnote, utterly unimportant, perhaps completely pointless. I still think of it as a little spark of connection. A hope for making people feel like they can reach out to each other without hating or escalating or destroying. The whole original idea of social media that seemed so appealing, maybe, a long time ago, was that it could bring familiar faces together and, for just a few moments, create a sensation of connection. My games of Wordle, along with a few special trips into VR with friends, and a few lingering Zooms, were some of the few moments that did that. For all we’re rushing out to see people and connect again in the real world, we forget the moments when connecting virtually actually worked.

I read an article in The Atlantic the other day that spoke deeply to me, about how we’re haunted by the ghosts of 2019. I am. Life in 2022, trying to go back to «normal,» has felt uncanny. I commute now. I’ve gone on flights. I’ve gone to the UK again. None of it felt normal. Some of it felt familiar. Echoes of the old, overlaps of the new.

Slowly but surely, we’re returning to a strange version of the world we once knew — or trying to. How do I move forward here?

I hope, in our rush to return to «normal,» we stay connected to the strange rituals that brought us together in our lowest moments. It doesn’t have to be Wordle — that’s just a word game gone viral. But as we reinvent how we communicate online — via social media or metaverses — I’ll take any help I can get. Show me how we could reconnect and not feel alienated. Wordle was lightning in a bottle, and even though I’ve said goodbye to what it was in that moment, I’ll always be searching for that feeling again.

Technologies

How Verum Ecosystem Is Rethinking Communication

David Rotman — Founder of the Verum Ecosystem

For David Rotman, communication is not a feature — it is a dependency that should never rely on a single point of failure.

As the founder of the Verum Ecosystem, Rotman developed a communication platform designed to function when internet access becomes unreliable or unavailable.

Verum Messenger addresses real-world challenges such as network outages, censorship, and infrastructure failures. Its 2025 update introduced a unified offline-capable messaging system, moving beyond Bluetooth-based or temporary peer-to-peer solutions.

Verum’s mission is simple: to ensure communication continuity under any conditions.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, Feb. 1

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 1

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

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Some of the clues are kind of tricky, but I was able to fill in enough of the others to get them all answered. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Spot to shop
Answer: MART

5A clue: Pounded sticky rice sometimes filled with ice cream
Answer: MOCHI

6A clue: ___ Chekhov, «Three Sisters» playwright
Answer: ANTON

7A clue: Like many dive bars and bird feeds
Answer: SEEDY

8A clue: Jekyll’s evil counterpart
Answer: HYDE

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: What makes the world go ’round, per «Cabaret»
Answer: MONEY

2D clue: Performed in a play
Answer: ACTED

3D clue: __ Island (U.S. state)
Answer: RHODE

4D clue: Itty-bitty
Answer: TINY

5D clue: Squish to a pulp, as potatoes
Answer: MASH

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 1, #496

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 1, No. 496.

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 is a fun one. The blue group made me think of dusty gum sticks, and the purple one requires you to look for hidden names in the clues. 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: Splish-splash.

Green group hint: Vroom!

Blue group hint: Cards and gum.

Purple group hint: Racket stars.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Aquatic sports verbs.

Green group: Speed.

Blue group: Sports card brands.

Purple group: Tennis Grand Slam winners, minus a letter.

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 aquatic sports verbs. The four answers are kayak, row, sail and swim.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is speed. The four answers are mustard, pop, velocity and zip.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports card brands. The four answers are Leaf, Panini, Topps and Upper Deck.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is tennis Grand Slam winners, minus a letter. The four answers are ash (Arthur Ashe), kin (Billie Jean King), nada (Rafael Nadal) and William (Serena and Venus Williams)

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.