Technologies

Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Celestial Guardians Expansion Will Launch Alongside a Special Event

The Pokemon Sun and Moon-themed will packs introduce the first immersive Supporter card, while the new event will highlight the legendary Rayquaza.

With so many strange and lovable creatures walking around, human characters often fade into the background of the Pokemon universe. But the human-featuring supporter cards are finally getting their time to shine in Pokemon TCG Pocket when the Celestial Guardians expansion set arrives on April 30.

There are more than 200 cards in the new set, making this the largest set expansion in Pokemon TCG Pocket since the original Genetic Apex set that launched alongside the game. Celestial Guardians will introduce players to exotic Alolan Pokemon, including starter Pokemon Litten, Rowlet and Popplio and legendaries Solgaleo and Lunala.

Regional variants of classic Pokemon also will be highlighted in this set, including Alolan forms of Meowth, Persian, Vulpix and Ninetales. Full art versions of Alolan Raichu and Alolan Marowak cards will be included in the packs.

The set will be split into Solgaleo and Lunala packs, with themed cards in each sub-set. For the first time ever, though, there will be different versions of the same Pokemon card in each sub-set — there are different variants of Litten, Rowet, Popplio and Oricorio in the Solgaleo and Lunala packs.

As one of the biggest sets in the game, Celestial Guardians will require a lot of time, dedication and luck to complete. It’s time to start saving up those Pack Hourglasses.

Lillie is the first immersive Supporter card

Immersive cards are some of the most sought after variants in Pokemon TCG Pocket. They’re a good example of why trading cards work virtually — there are things they can do that physical cards can’t. With immersive cards, that’s allowing players to inspect them to unlock an animated scene.

Previous Pokemon TCG Pocket immersive cards have largely focused on the most popular pocket monsters from their respective expansions. Genetic Apex included immersive cards for Pikachu, Charizard and Mewtwo, for example, while Spacetime Showdown featured Dialga and Palkia in their own animated cards.

If the Celestial Guardians set followed the same trend, we’d expect to see immersive cards for Solgaleo and Lunala — but that trend is getting bucked for a fan-favorite human character.

Lillie is the player’s companion from Pokemon Sun and Moon, and the friend and protector of the Cosmog named Nebby. She’s also the daughter of the main antagonist — Lusamine — and many Pokemon fans connect with her quest to be a better person than her mother.

Lillie is a natural choice for a Supporter immersive card, and opens up possibilities for new immersive Supporter and Trainer cards in future Pokemon TCG Pocket expansion sets.

What card will shake up the Pokemon TCG Pocket meta?

New Pokemon Ex cards and other important pulls often drastically change the Pokemon TCG Pocket meta. Their special gimmicks, high-damage attacks and Pokemon abilities often change the way the game is played.

This time around, it’s not a Pokemon that has people chattering about the meta shake-up: It’s a Trainer card. The Rare Candy card lets players bypass a Stage 1 evolution, placing a Stage 2 card from your hand onto an active Basic Pokemon.

This effect lets players ramp up their strength absurdly quickly — in certain cases, you can have some of the most powerful Stage 2 Pokemon Ex cards in play by your second turn. Certain Pokemon are themselves turned into powerful energy factories at Stage 2, like Shining Revelry’s Charizard Ex, and the Rare Candy will almost certainly become a mainstay pairing for these cards.

No one will be able to predict how the meta will shake out quite yet. With more than 200 cards being added to the game, including powerful new legendaries and Pokemon Ex cards, it will take some time and theory-crafting to figure out the best new synergies in Pokemon TCG Pocket.

The Pokemon TCG Pocket «Half-Year Celebration» event

Launching in tandem with the Celestial Guardians expansion on April 30 is Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Half-Year Celebration event.

Themed around Rayquaza, the generation three legendary Pokemon featured on the Pokemon Emerald box art, this event will introduce the Promo Pack A Series Volume 7 packs as rewards for beating special solo battles.

Several new cards will be available in these promo packs but the chase card is a new Rayquaza Ex. Every promo pack contains a single card, which encourages players to continually log-in over the course of the event to maximize their pulls. Event Hourglasses let players take on additional event battles. The solo battles — and their promo pack rewards — will be available until May 12.

Special missions will also be available starting April 30, and they’ll reward players with a separate full art variant of Rayquaza Ex alongside «a few other goodies.»

This split between battling and generalized missions adapts a similar structure to older TCG Pocket events, giving casual collectors a chance to pick up some cool card art without engaging in any battles. The special missions will run until May 28.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for April 28, #421

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 421 for April 28.

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 has a very strange, long spangram, but the answers themselves are short and pretty easy to solve. If you need hints and answers, 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: My bad!

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Uh-oh!

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:

NUMB, TOLE, POLE, POLES, SPIT, PITS, SOPPY, BREW, TALE, DUMB, DUMBS, ALTER, LETS, BALE, BALES.

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’ve got 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:

SLIP, SPILL, FALTER, TOPPLE, BLUNDER, STUMBLE.

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is WHOOPSIEDAISY.To find it, start with the W that’s four letters down on the far right row, and wind across, and then down.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for April 28, #687

Hints and answers for Connections for April 28, #687.

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.

As an ’80s girl, I immediately spotted the four words in the yellow category of today’s Connections puzzle. I definitely had at least three of those products in my college apartment, so that was an easy solve. And since I read a lot of Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie, the blue category came along pretty easily, too. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now 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 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: Bought at Ulta, maybe.

Green group hint: Not fancy.

Blue group hint: Nancy Drew would spot these.

Purple group hint: Yawn.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Hair products.

Green group: Austere.

Blue group: Clues at a crime scene.

Purple group: Weary.

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 hair products. The four answers are gel, mousse, spray and wax.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is austere. The four answers are bare, plain, simple and spare.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is clues at a crime scene. The four answers are fiber, fingerprint, hair and tire mark.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is weary. The four answers are bore, drain, exhaust and tire.

Technologies

Step Out of the Shadows. How to Turn Off Your iPhone’s Incognito Mode

The iPhone’s incognito mode is ideal for sensitive searches and avoiding targeted ads. But there are time when you may want to turn it off.

At a time when privacy and security have become hot topics, it’s smart to look at how you’re using protections built-in your phone. The iPhone’s private browsing, also known as incognito mode, serves as a digital cloak — allowing you to surf the web without leaving traces. Private browsing works on Apple’s Safari browser and some third-party browsers like Chrome.

There are a whole range of reasons to take advantage of incognito mode. You might be using a shared device, researching sensitive topics (maybe a surprise gift idea?) or dialing your privacy precautions up a notch by working to circumvent targeted ads or third-party cookies. This is when incognito mode becomes something of a confidante, and it gives you an added layer of privacy protection.

But once you’ve finished, you might want to step out of incognito mode on your iPhone and allow your browser to remember your steps. For example, maybe you’re logged into your account on a retailer’s website and don’t want to have to log back in every time you visit the page. Let’s proceed with a step-by-step guide on how to exit incognito mode on an iPhone, using Safari and Chrome.

How to exit incognito mode on Safari

1. Open Safari: Launch the Safari browser on your iPhone. You’ll find its icon on the home screen.

2. Look for the Tabs button: At the bottom right corner of the screen, you’ll see a square icon overlapping another square. Tap on it. This button represents your open tabs.

3. View all tabs: Once you tap the Tabs button, you’ll see a screen displaying all your open tabs. These tabs might include regular browsing tabs, any Tab Groups you’ve made and any incognito tabs you’ve opened called Private Browsing.

4. Close incognito tabs: Swipe left on any private or incognito tabs you want to close. After closing all incognito tabs, you’re officially out of incognito mode! You’ll now be browsing in regular mode, and your browsing history will be saved. If you have too many tabs open and prefer not to close every single one, you can simply swipe left in the view all tabs screen from Private/incognito tabs to get back on regular mode.

How to exit Incognito mode on Chrome on your iPhone

If you use Google’s Chrome browser, you’ll follow a familiar process to leave incognito mode.

1. Open Google Chrome: Launch the Chrome browser on your iPhone.

2. Look for the Tabs Button: At the bottom right corner of the screen, you’ll see a square icon with a number on it (if you have open tabs). Tap on it. This button represents your open tabs and the number corresponds with how many tabs you have open.

3. Leave Incognito mode: After tapping on the tabs button, you’ll be able to switch between incognito browsing or regular browsing by tapping the Incognito icon or the regular browsing icon. The Incognito icon is a pair of glasses and a fedora to resemble a secret disguise. To go back to browsing on regular mode, simply tap the square button with the number on it.

How to permanently turn off private browsing on an iPhone

You can also remove the private browsing tab on Safari. In Settings under Screen Time, when you switch Web Content from «Unrestricted» to «Limit Adult Websites,» the iPhone reboots Safari and removes Private Browsing from the Tabs view. To get to the setting you open Settings, tap Screen Time, tap Content & Privacy Restrictions, tap Store, Web, Siri & Game Center Content, select Web Content and tap Limit Adult Websites.

Remember, using incognito mode isn’t foolproof — it won’t hide your activity from your internet service provider or certain extensions. But it’s supposed to offer that extra layer of privacy when needed.