Technologies

Google’s Latest Android Feature Drop Brings Productivity Boosts and Customization

The company says to keep an eye out for «cheerful penguin» animations, coming to Google Wallet soon.

Google’s latest Android feature drop landed on Monday with some slick updates designed to make your life easier, with the promise of more to come.

Rolling out immediately are features including freehand annotation for Google Drive on Android, noise cancellation in Google Meet and page zoom for Chrome on Android, which will let you upsize content by up to 300% to make it more readable. It’s not all work and no play either, as Google is bringing more emoji combinations to its Emoji Kitchen features, which allows you to mash up your favorite emojis to create personalized combinations.

As the world’s biggest mobile show kicks off in Barcelona on Monday, Google’s influence can be felt everywhere. With Android the dominant operating system across the phones at the show, it’s no surprise that Google is taking advantage of the opportunity to offer up new features to users.

An upcoming feature set to roll out in the next few months is the new Google Keep single note widget, which will allow you to manage your notes and check off your to-do lists from your Home Screen. Perfect for organizing on the run, the widget also syncs with your smartwatch to ensure you don’t miss a thing.

Wear OS is also getting two new Google Keep shortcuts to make it easier to create notes and to-do lists from your watch face. Other new features coming to Wear OS are two new sound and display modes geared toward better accessibility. These are designed to reduce the disorientation from split audio and improve visibility with grayscale and color correction options.

At CES back in January, Google made a big deal about providing easier ways for people to connect devices to each other. Carrying on that trend, it will soon allow you to connect your Blueooth headphones to your Chromebook with just one tap and allow them to automatically connect when they’re nearby after initially being paired. Tap-to-pay animations will soon be coming to Google Wallet to help provide visual confirmation of payments. Google says to look out for «cheerful penguins» and more.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, April 27

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 27.

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 isn’t too much of a stumper. A lot of words contain A and E, for some reason. 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.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. 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 at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Outdoor spot to people-watch, maybe
Answer: STOOP

6A clue: Big name in health insurance
Answer: AETNA

7A clue: Broadway theater helper
Answer: USHER

8A clue: Easy to understand
Answer: CLEAR

9A clue: When many show up to a job interview
Answer: EARLY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: What «salsa» literally means
Answer: SAUCE

2D clue: Electric car maker since 2003
Answer: TESLA

3D clue: «… in one ear and out the ___»
Answer: OTHER

4D clue: Tatum ___, youngest-ever Oscar winner (at age 10, for Best Supporting Actress)
Answer: ONEAL

5D clue: Defensive maneuver in fencing
Answer: PARRY

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 27, #216

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 216, for April 27.

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.

Connections: Sports Edition might be a breeze, as long as you know your sports-league commissioners. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it 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: Dunk it.

Green group hint: Get it moving.

Blue group hint: They run the leagues.

Purple group hint: Like house, kind of.