Technologies

Zoom Wants to Make You an Avatar (Not the James Cameron Kind)

Chat threads, meeting templates and more are also coming.

Video-chat service Zoom is ringing in the new year with the attitude, «New year, new cartoon version of you!» The service was announced in a Jan. 5 blog post that customizable avatars are one of a handful of new features users will be able to access. The other features include new meeting templates, threading chats in meetings and a dedicated Q&A feature. Zoom One Pro, Business, or Business Plus online plan users also gained premium access to some apps.

Here’s a breakdown of the new Zoom features and what to expect in future meetings. Most of these features are available now, unless noted otherwise.

Customizable avatars

In March 2022, Zoom released animal avatars that let you transform yourself into an animated bunny, dog or other critter. Zoom’s new avatar feature, on the other hand, lets you turn yourself into a cartoon, and you can customize your avatar’s appearance to match your own.

Your cartoon avatar will mirror your movements and facial expressions, too. However, it doesn’t do everything you do. If you’re eating in your meeting — I’m guilty of this — your avatar won’t start munching on a cartoon sandwich.

Avatars are available in beta to all Zoom users, and Zoom said it plans to continue adding customization options.

Threaded in-meeting messages and reactions

In-meeting Zoom chats can be hectic and hard to follow, especially if you’re in a company-wide meeting. To help organize in-meeting chats and to make them easier to follow, Zoom is introducing threaded in-meeting messages and reactions. Now, if someone asks in the meeting chat, «What should I get for lunch?» you can recommend your favorite burrito place without your comment getting lost.

This feature will be available by the end of January.

Meeting templates

All meetings are different and require different settings. Instead of changing the settings each time you create a meeting, Zoom is letting users create their own meeting templates. Now if you have a recurring meeting, you can create a template and use it each time rather than remembering which settings to allow or disable.

Zoom also has three premade meeting templates people can use. Here are those templates.

Large Meetings: Good for teamwide meetings. Captions are enabled for all participants and the meeting is automatically recorded.
Seminars: Think business training or university classroom. Controls are tightened so features like participant screen sharing are disabled.
K-12: Suited for remote learning in grade school and high school. Polls and quizzes are enabled, but other features are limited to cut down on distractions.

Q&A in meetings

If you’re delivering a presentation during a Zoom meeting, keeping track of your presentation and the in-meeting chat can be difficult. Some people are having side conversations and some are asking questions. Zoom’s new dedicated Q&A feature for meetings makes it easy to keep track of questions — as well as answers — people might have in meetings without clogging up the in-meeting chat.

Access to curated Essential Apps

If you are a Zoom One Pro, Business, or Business Plus user, Zoom is giving you access to premium versions of some apps, called Essential Apps. Some of the apps are productivity focused, like Coda and Sesh, while others are meant to be fun and build teamwork, like Kahoot and Funtivity.

For more, check out these 25 Zoom tips and tricks and other new features Zoom announced at its Zoomtopia 2022 event.

Technologies

Verizon’s Simple Mobile and Total Wireless Plans Expand International Features

If you frequently call or visit countries outside the US, these prepaid phone plan improvements could help your travel budget.

Travel patterns are changing, with more people in the US venturing outside the country and needing to stay connected. To accommodate this surge, Verizon is boosting the international options in its prepaid Simple Mobile and Total Wireless phone brands starting Aug. 28.

Most phone plans include options to call and text people in Canada and Mexico, along with some roaming options for US travelers. Depending on the plan, those options are extended to many other countries around the globe. But you often end up paying for a more expensive plan than you need in order to get the travel benefits.

Now, the Simple Mobile and Total Wireless brands are expanding their international options and increasing data allotments so you can travel using the plan you carry every day without the stress of finding local coverage.

See also: Make sure you have a good phone for traveling.

Simple Mobile changes

The Simple Mobile prepaid plans include an allotment of high-speed data before downshifting to slower unlimited data. Be sure to check the details for specific countries on the site. Here’s how they break down:

The $25 Unlimited plan includes 15GB of high-speed data (up from 3GB) and unlimited calling to more than 100 countries.
The $30 Unlimited plan includes 20GB of high-speed data (up from 5GB) and unlimited calling to more than 125 countries (up from 100 countries).
The $40 Unlimited plan includes 30GB of high-speed data (up from 15GB) and unlimited calling to more than 125 countries (up from 100 countries).
The $50 Unlimited World plan, formerly named the Truly Unlimited plan, includes unlimited high-speed data and unlimited calling to more than 200 countries (a doubling of the number of countries from before).
The $60 Unlimited World Plus plan, formerly the Truly Unlimited Plus plan, includes unlimited access to Verizon’s fastest network, 5G Ultra Wideband (where available) and unlimited high-speed data. It also doubles the number of countries with unlimited calling to over 200, and offers international roaming in more than 140 countries.

Total Wireless Plans

The top two Total Wireless plans, Total 5G Unlimited ($50 a month) and Total 5G Unlimited Plus ($60 a month), feature unlimited high-speed data, including 5G Ultra Wideband speeds.

As of Aug. 28, roaming coverage for those plans doubles to more than 30 countries and international calling to 180 countries.

The Total Base 5G Unlimited plan stays the same with unlimited high-speed data (but not 5G Ultra Wideband), international calling to more than 85 countries and texting to over 200 destinations and roaming in Canada and Mexico.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 20 #535

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Aug. 20, No. 535.

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.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a tough one. It helps to know a little something about different currencies, but there was one on there that was completely new to me. If you need hints and answers for today’s Strands puzzle, 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: Mint condition

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: We’re in the money!

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:

GULP, GLOB, LORE, DOLL, DOLE, DOLED, ROPE, ROPER, WALL

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:

EURO, PESO, DOLLAR, POUND, RAND, RUPEE, KWANZA

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is GLOBALCURRENCY. To find it, look for the G that’s four letters to the right on the very top row, and wind down.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Aug. 20

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Aug. 20.

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.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword has a few challenging clues (4-Down threw me off), but it’s mostly OK. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. 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.