Technologies

Get Discounts of Up to 25% on Google Pixel Buds Pro and Pixel Buds A-Series

Snag a pair of quality true-wireless earbuds for less, with prices starting at just $79.

Whether you want to listen to music and podcasts privately or need to stay connected with voice calling while on the go, just about everyone can benefit from a pair of everyday wireless earbuds. If you’re in the market for a quality pair, check out this deal happening at Amazon. The Google Pixel Buds A-Series are discounted by 20% and Google Pixel Buds Pro are discounted by 25% right now.

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Pixel Buds Pro are premium wireless earbuds featuring active noise canceling. They’re some of our favorite earbuds, particularly for Android users. CNET’s David Carnoy reviewed these earbuds and found the design and fit make this pair a true stand out, explaining such features, «helps enhance their strong performance on both the sound quality and noise-canceling fronts.» They also get up to 11 hours of battery life per charge and good voice-calling performance. They also sport a transparency mode. Normally $200, you can snag a pair for $150 right now.

And for even less, you can grab the budget-friendly Pixel Buds A-Series for $79. That’s a $20 discount on the list price. They only offer up to 5 hours of battery life per charge and lose the active noise canceling available on the Pro models, but they do offer good sound quality for the price and, according to CNET’s Pixel Buds A-Series review, can handle voice calling and do «a very good job reducing a lot of background noise during calls.»

Both are rated IPX4-rated water-resistant or splash-proof, which means they can handle a little moisture at the gym or weather while on the go. And for Android users, there is also access to Google Assistant for hands-free voice commands. Apple users can use either of these Pixel Buds, however they’ll lose access to a few key features, which is why we recommend pairing these earbuds with an Android device.

Looking for something a little different? Be sure to check out our roundup of headphone and earbuds deals happening now.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Nov. 8

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Nov. 8.

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? It’s the long Saturday one, so you might need assistance. Read on for 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: Uber alternative
Answer: CAB

4A clue: Red-headed character in the «Scooby-Doo» franchise
Answer: DAPHNE

7A clue: Not arrive on time
Answer: RUNLATE

8A clue: Label on a green U.S.D.A. sticker
Answer: ORGANIC

9A clue: Prestigious engineering school in Pasadena
Answer: CALTECH

10A clue: Prepares to be knighted
Answer: KNEELS

11A clue: Parts of a city grid: Abbr.
Answer: STS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Fashion brand with an interlocking «C» logo
Answer: CHANEL

2D clue: Silly behaviors
Answer: ANTICS

3D clue: Tree with smooth gray bark
Answer: BEECH

4D clue: Kevin ___, 15-time N.B.A. All-Star
Answer: DURANT

5D clue: They’re measured in degrees
Answer: ANGLES

6D clue: Division of the earth’s crust
Answer: PLATE

7D clue: Ice, in bartending lingo
Answer: ROCKS

Technologies

Spotify Brings Wrapped Energy Year-Round With Friend-Sharing Stats

The music service introduced new ways for music nerds to share their listening habits with friends.

It can be a long wait for Spotify Wrapped, the end-of-year promotion that allows Spotify users to view and share their listening habits. Now, users can keep an eye on those stats daily, plus share their listening habits with friends.

You can view your Spotify usage statistics every 24 hours and share your updates via social media services, such as Instagram Notes or Spotify Messages. The new share icon gives you access to eight different services where you can post your stats.

Every week, you’ll get updates on your top artists and songs from the past month, and Spotify will recommend new playlists. The app also gives you a «special highlight» based on a specific artist or song.

To access your personal musical data, click on your profile in the top left corner of the app and scroll down to «listening stats.»

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The new features are somewhat similar to Spotify Wrapped, the service’s annual end-of-year review of users’ listening habits, which is designed to be shared. Every year, Spotify adds extra details to Wrapped, such as assigning users a listening personality or a city that supposedly reflects their music tastes. It’s been the most popular way for Spotify users to view and share their music listening in the past. A number of third-party services do the same thing, including Volt.fm.

Read more: Best Music Streaming Services

Spotify is the world’s largest music streaming service, offering 100 million tracks and serving more than 713 million users. In addition to its $12-per-month subscription service, Spotify also offers a free, ad-supported option.

Technologies

Wordle Gets Personal: You Can Now Make and Share Your Own Puzzles

If you’re a Wordle obsessive, you can now make your own inside joke puzzles to send to friends.

Wordle’s an immensely popular New York Times word game (we post the answers daily), but it’s not the most personal game in the world. Answers such as GUISE and PERIL are tricky, but generic. Now, Wordle fans who have ever dreamed of making their own puzzles can test their friends and family by creating their own Wordle creations up to seven letters in length.

No surprise, you have to be a New York Times Games or All Access Subscriber to use this feature. If you are, you’ll find the Create a Puzzle option available from the top menu above today’s Wordle. While you must be a subscriber to create your own personalized puzzle, you can share it with anyone — they only need the link, not a subscription, to complete your Wordle.

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Enter a word, and the site will tell you if it is available. Real Wordle limits you to five-letter words, but the puzzle-making feature lets you choose words between 4 and 7 letters.

The usual dictionary rules apply, and so curse words, some pet names, and obscure inside jokes are essentially out. If your cat is named TANGO, that’s there, but RINGO is not an option. You can drop a proposal with a single word like MARRY, but MARRYME will get rejected since that’s two separate words.

Word chosen, you can then fill out your name and add an optional hint, and the feature will generate your puzzle with a link you can send around. Unlike standard puzzles, your puzzle doesn’t appear to reset after a day, so whoever you send it to doesn’t need to rush to solve it.

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.