Technologies

Logitech’s Telepresence Video Booth Aims for Your Next Office

The life-size video projections hide cameras behind the screens to make for better eye contact.

The world’s gone hybrid now. Many people work from home, and video meetings are office fixtures. What’s the value of coming into an office? Companies are still trying to figure this out, and so are manufacturers of office furniture. Logitech’s collaboration with Steelcase, called Project Ghost, is an office telepresence booth that’s designed to feel like remote meetings are really happening in person, instead of on a laptop or TV screen.

No one’s wearing VR or AR glasses around any normal office; we’re all in video chats to connect. That’s sparked some companies like Google to explore advanced 3D video booths like Project Starline that promise life-size, eye-to-eye conversations with people at a distance. My demo of Project Starline last year was astonishing, but not something that can be set up in any normal office easily. Logitech’s Project Ghost is a similar idea but designed to be easier to set up at a lower cost, without the glasses-free 3D part and at what will likely be a lower budget.

Ghost’s technology is meant to be pretty simple: It uses a mirror to project the video chat over a hidden webcam, so the camera is disguised and actual eye contact ends up feeling real. The screen also shows the person you’re chatting with at full scale. Project Ghost nestles the display into a wall unit, with a lounge seat and a semi-walled booth around it. According to Logitech and Steelcase’s designers on Project Ghost, it’s meant to feel as comfortable as being at home.

I haven’t tried out Ghost yet (Logitech is setting up demos in New York in the spring; for now it’s showing off this concept at a Barcelona trade show), but it sounds very much like the same proposition as Project Starline: that eye contact makes for meaningful conversations, that life-size video chats end up being remembered as more real. I don’t know how this would actually impact meetings or virtual connections at an office, but my one Starline demo did feel a lot different than a normal video chat.

Logitech’s ambitions for Project Ghost don’t just stop at offices, though. Much like Starline, the hope is that these booths could be used in places where an in-person employee could be replaced by a video-streamed replacement.

The furniture designed as part of Project Ghost is supposed to be available for interested companies by the end of the year, but the office video-conferencing tech it uses is already available. The reflective embedded mirror display with hidden camera — which is the same «Pepper’s Ghost» illusion that’s been in stage magic and theme park attractions for decades — is the one new wrinkle here.

Will it be enough to make a more inviting environment for virtual chats than what’s already on your laptop or phone? Unclear. But Logitech’s bigger angle here is seeing whether offices and corporations can find ways to make their own unevolved, prepandemic office constructs feel more appealing to a world that’s very different now.

It’s a project more than an absolute product at the moment, and Logitech is looking for feedback — mine is that, while I think comfy life-size video chats could be surprisingly relaxing and even lifelike, I don’t think they’d be enough to convince me to come into an office that was using them. In that sense, maybe I’d be the one beaming in from the other side.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Jan. 14, #948

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Jan. 14 #948.

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.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is kind of tough. The blue category, not the purple one today, expects you to find hidden words in four of the words given in the grid. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times 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 the 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: That’s not going anywhere.

Green group hint: End user or customer.

Blue group hint: Ask a meteorologist.

Purple group hint: Not noisy.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Fixed.

Green group: Receiver of goods or services.

Blue group: Starting with weather conditions.

Purple group: Silent ____.

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 fixed. The four answers are fast, firm, secure and tight.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is receiver of goods or services. The four answers are account, client, consumer and user.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is starting with weather conditions. The four answers are frosty (frost), mistletoe (mist), rainmaker (rain) and snowman (snow).

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is silent ____. The four answers are auction, movie, partner and treatment.

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

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Jan. 14, #1670

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Jan. 14, No. 1,670.

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

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a tough one, with a letter that is rarely used and which I just never guess. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has three vowels.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with A.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with D.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can mean to keep away from something or someone.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is AVOID.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Jan. 13, No. 1669 was GUMBO.

Recent Wordle answers

Jan. 9, No. 1665: EIGHT

Jan. 10, No. 1666: MANIC

Jan. 11, No. 1667: QUARK

Jan. 12, No. 1668: TRIAL

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

Technologies

Apple Launches Creator Studio Package as $13 a Month Subscription

Mac users can still buy the apps individually, but subscribers get access to Final Cut Pro and other Studio tools.

Apple is bundling its pro filmmaking and audio tools including Final Cut Pro with its productivity apps Keynote, Pages and Numbers into a subscription software suite called Apple Creator Studio.

The package, which includes apps for Mac, iPad and iPhone, includes Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, MainStage and the whiteboard app Freeform. Creator Studio will be available starting Jan. 28 at a cost of $13 per month or $129 per year, or $3 per month or $30 per year for students and educators. Mac users will still have the option to purchase software like Final Cut Pro for a one-time free. The current price for Final Cut Pro in the Mac App Store is $300.

While apps such as Keynote and Pages are already free on Apple platforms, it appears that new versions of those apps will receive access to beta features that will roll out first to Creator Studio subscribers. The announcement by Apple alludes to «new AI features and premium content» in some of the apps it otherwise makes available to use for free.

What the Creator Studio bundle comes with

The star of the show in Creator Studio is Final Cut Pro, the video editing software that will now include Transcript Search on both Mac and iPad. There is also a new Beat Detection feature Apple says uses an AI model to analyze a music track and display a beat grid, making it easier to cut video to music rhythms. The software also will include a new Montage Maker on iPad for quick social video creation.

Motion, the 2D and 3D graphics tool, and Compressor also integrate with Final Cut Pro. Apple touted Motion’s Magnetic Mask feature for isolating objects or people without the need for a green screen.

Logic Pro has new features for musicians, including a Synth Player addition to AI Session Players. Chord ID, a new AI feature, can create chord progressions from audio or MIDI recordings. A new Sound Library will have hundreds of royalty-free clips, samples and loops.

A revamped MainStage app gives subscribers access to instrument, voice-professing and guitar rig tools. Pixelmator Pro arrives with new tools and filters, and there will be an iPad version in addition to the Mac tool.

Freeform in the Creator Studio package will add premium content, including curated photos, graphics and illustrations. It will also get new AI features that include image creation.