Technologies

I Left My Heart Container in Nintendo’s San Francisco Store

Nintendo’s First West Coast Store is a Warp Pipe to Whimsy and Delightful Gamer Decor.

I’m in a group of adults slowly descending a staircase in a brightly lit white store, small gasps of joy escaping our mouths as walls of smiling squid toys come into view. Our tour guide is wrapping up his tour, and as he rattles off his last fact, he eyes the crowd. «Think you guys are ready to shop?» My reply echoes the words of former Nintendo Chief Operating Officer Reggie Fils-Aimé when he tested the Wii Board at E3 2007: My body is ready.

Japanese gaming giant Nintendo opened its first-ever West Coast store in San Francisco on Thursday — the second in the US after its New York City storefront. While it stocks lots of company merch featuring the company’s most iconic characters like Mario, Peach, Link, Zelda and way too many Pokemon, its website alludes to future events like those held at its other stores.

A few days earlier, CNET was treated to a first-hand look at all the new goodies and gadgets awaiting fans in San Francisco.

Inside the store

Set at the intersection of Geary and Powell in San Francisco’s Union Square neighborhood, the first thing you notice is the parade of Nintendo characters lining the store’s windows, with Mario leading the congregation to the main doors. Upon entering the store, you’re greeted by the clean, white aesthetic that the Nintendo brand is known for.

«We want [Nintendo San Francisco] to be much more than just a store,» said Nintendo Senior Regional General Manager PJ Sadler, a manager of the NYC Nintendo store who led the tour of the new location. «We want it to be an immersive experience, we want to immerse you in our characters, with our world.»

In that spirit, a Nintendo store associate told me several Pikmin figurines were hidden throughout the store for guests to find. (I counted five; they told me there were still a few more.)

There are the requisite store exclusives, the items you can find only at the San Francisco location that set it apart from its NYC counterpart — namely, the SF-branded water bottles, T-shirts, and hoodies that say «Nintendo San Francisco.» I found those designs a little lackluster and rather sterile; I was hoping to see a little more San Francisco flair. New York City once had a collection in kanji, for example. But at least you can also find the Nintendo character parade motif adorning other San Francisco souvenirs, including exclusive minifigures and bags. Sadler noted that any products with a red Nintendo square logo indicate they can be bought only in the Nintendo US locations, either in San Francisco or New York (there were no unique marks for SF exclusives).

Also on the ground floor was a section dedicated to actual gaming equipment, including an area where customers can put together their own Nintendo Switch OLED with their choice of colored Joy-Cons and docks. (Nintendo representatives were very coy about what, if anything, would be happening at the store for the upcoming launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5.) Among the other controllers and accessories was a shelf of Nintendo Alarmo clocks, the company’s big surprise hardware launch of 2024, waiting to be taken home.

Downstairs is where they had the «big guns,» so to speak, or at least the Master Swords. Similar to Nintendo’s New York store, there are dedicated areas for Splatoon and Legend of Zelda, as well as Pikmin, Kirby, and Pokemon. There was also a giant projector screen for watching shoppers play games, alongside a giant wall of Amiibo with harder-to-find figures such as Sora from Super Smash Bros and Kingdom Hearts.

A sales associate kindly walked me through a kiosk where visitors can check in daily for Nintendo Platinum Points, which can be used for My Nintendo Rewards in the Nintendo eShop. «I just moved into a new place, so I’ve been stocking up on Animal Crossing coasters,» the associate confided.

Cozy merch forever

Though it’s been a while since I’ve been to the New York store, reconnaissance from friends and TikTok confirmed that a big theme for NY is Pokemon, featuring an almost life-size Pokemon Center where herds of Pikachu frolic on the shelves.

While Pokemon has a presence in the San Francisco counterpart (I almost walked away with a Psyduck backpack), there seems to be a greater dedication to more twee, cozy series such as Animal Crossing and Pikmin, as well as adorably subtle game decor in general.

The Animal Crossing corner featured a slew of home goods, such as an adorable cottage-core coffee grinder branded with «The Roost,» the in-game cafe headed by character Brewster the Pigeon, with a matching cup and saucer set. Other kitchen goods like an apron, glass jar set and oven mitt elicited a few squeals from me and another sales associate, who kindly pointed out the equally kawaii Animal Crossing stationery with stickers, sticky notes, notepads and character-themed pens.

Downstairs in the Legend of Zelda section, I was taken with the Zelda Fairy collection, particularly a large faux leather tote purse and fairy-themed wallets with iridescent flourishes. Lovely golden Heart Container-shaped accessories, of which not nearly enough found their way into my shopping bag, framed the scene.

Down the line, rows of enamel Kirby keychains and plush Waddle-Dees eyed me hopefully from their perches while a tower of Pikmin blind boxes and flower bud vases (successfully) tempted me from over my shoulder.

Price-wise, I was pleasantly surprised that most items weren’t egregiously expensive and more similar to pricing you’d find at a theme park. I’d expected the aforementioned coffee grinder to be somewhere around $70, but it was priced at $40. Similarly, many of the more intricately designed wallets and bags were at the $35 price or under. Pikmin blind boxes were $10. But there were still outliers — a sleek Team Rocket anorak was marked at $120, for example.

Why San Francisco? Why now?

Before 2025, Nintendo had four official stores around the world: three in Japan (Kyoto, Tokyo and Osaka) and one in the US (New York). Now, San Francisco marks its fifth retail location selling merch directly to fans.

The San Francisco store’s opening comes at a pivotal time for the city’s downtown economy. Retail vacancies in San Francisco have hit record highs since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a number of flagship stores shutting down, including the Westfield San Francisco Centre and Macy’s, the former epicenter of the city’s Union Square shopping area.

When Nintendo announced the official opening plans for the store in May 2024, then-Mayor London Breed posted on X, «We’re excited for San Francisco’s future and look forward to welcoming this iconic brand to our City.»

Supervisor Danny Sauter, who represents San Francisco’s District 3, which includes Union Square, told KQED in March, «The narrative on San Francisco is starting to shift…[p]eople are willing to take a chance on San Francisco again, and it’s remarkable how that was not the case six months ago.»

Whatever the city’s reputation, fan response has been immense, with «Warp Pipe Pass» shopping visit reservations for opening week sold out in minutes, continuing on into the Memorial Day weekend. Locals have been peeking into the windows and taking pictures as soon as the signage went up. Reddit user CaterpillarFederal43 posted a picture in the San Francisco subreddit in April 2025 with his dogs in costume, noting he visits every day for a chance to use StreetPass (a peer-to-peer feature on the Nintendo 3DS) with fellow fans.

End credits

San Francisco has a legacy of gaming culture, from the former Walk of Game to the annual Game Developers Conference held in Moscone Center. Now it has a retail location and event space for one of the biggest gaming companies in the world to welcome fans.

Whether you’re a Nintendo superfan with an Isabelle-patterned sweater vest or a tourist looking for a «gamer-y» souvenir for a relative, the San Francisco Nintendo store looks like a perfect place to spend all your rupees and bells. Just watch out for mischievous Pikmin along the way.

Nintendo Store Levels Up in San Francisco: A First Look Inside the Ultimate Fan Experience

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for May 16, #705

Here are hints and the answers for Connections for May 16, No. 705.

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.

Do you think the makers of the Connections puzzle keep a notebook, and when they see words containing other words, they write those down, eventually coming up with four of a kind? I bet that’s how they get a lot of the purple categories, like today’s. 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: Grow.

Green group hint: No more.

Blue group hint: Red cape time.

Purple group hint: Bob the Builder.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Kinds of plants.

Green group: Discontinue.

Blue group: Associated with bulls.

Purple group: Ending with building materials.

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 kinds of plants. The four answers are herb, shrub, tree and vine.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is discontinue. The four answers are dissolve, end, shrub and sunset.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with bulls. The four answers are Michael Jordan, rodeo, Taurus and Wall Street.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ending with building materials. The four answers are Hollywood, hourglass, Kubrick and neuroplastic.

Toughest Connections puzzles

We’ve made a note of some of the toughest Connections puzzles so far. Maybe they’ll help you see patterns in future puzzles.

#5: Included «things you can set,» such as mood, record, table and volleyball.

#4: Included «one in a dozen,» such as egg, juror, month and rose.

#3: Included «streets on screen,» such as Elm, Fear, Jump and Sesame.

#2: Included «power ___» such as nap, plant, Ranger and trip.

#1: Included «things that can run,» such as candidate, faucet, mascara and nose.

Technologies

The Samsung S25 Edge’s Camera Is Good Enough to Rival the Ultra

If you ever wondered whether people buy phones for the cameras, take a look at the Samsung S25 Edge.

Creating a super thin phone is a prime opportunity for compromise. If the goal is to reduce the profile of an already slim device, a bulky camera would naturally be one of the first things to toss overboard.

And yet the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, now officially announced, includes a surprising 200 megapixel (MP) f/1.7 wide-angle camera that shares the same specs as the one in Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra. In fact, you could argue that the 200MP camera alone justifies the Edge’s $1,100 price, with the latest versions of Android and Gemini as added bonuses in a thin and light body. To get that same camera resolution on the S25 Ultra, you’d need to fork over $1,300 or more.

So why did Samsung choose to include a top-tier feature in a phone that sits in the middle of its S25 lineup?

Most phones are cameras with phone features

The difference between phones in the same lineup often comes down what each model adds over the others.

The Galaxy S25 is a thoroughly capable phone that (to cherry pick specs) runs the latest software on a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, packs a 4,000 mAh battery, has a 6.2-inch display and features the following array of cameras: 50MP wide-angle, 12MP ultra-wide, 10MP 3x telephoto and 12MP front camera. For 256GB of storage, it costs $860. The 128GB base model starts at $800, but I’m using the 256GB version to keep the storage consistent across all our examples.

The Galaxy S25 Plus shares all of those same features in a larger package, with a 6.7-inch screen and — due to its roomier case — a larger 4,900 mAh battery. For that you’ll pay an extra $140 more than the S25 to get the 256GB config at $1,000.

Then you jump $300 for the $1,300 Galaxy S25 Ultra, which boasts several specs such as the aforementioned 200MP main camera, a 50MP ultra-wide camera, a second 50MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom, a slightly larger 6.9-inch screen and a 5,000 mAh battery.

So where does the Galaxy S25 Edge slot into the lineup? For $1,100, it has the same 6.7-inch screen as the S25 Plus with an additional layer of protection (it’s covered with Corning’s Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2), the same Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, a smaller 3,900 mAh battery (to be expected in a thinner case) — and that 200MP wide camera.

Although the camera shares the same specs as the one in the S25 Ultra, it’s not yet clear whether it’s the same hardware. In Samsung’s event video officially announcing the S25 Edge, the company described how it redesigned the camera housing to fit the 200MP camera. I’m assuming it’s the same core hardware, just repackaged to fit a smaller form factor, but a direct photo comparison will be the real test.

Thin isn’t enough on its own

By the name alone, the primary appeal of the S25 Edge is its thin design. The company’s introductory video is full of schematics and computer-generated animations of all the phone’s components slotting together into its svelte body. And thinness does have value — just look at Apple’s obsession with making everything thin and light over the years, including its own rumored iPhone 17 Air.

But thinness as a feature isn’t additive enough (to make the obvious joke, it’s literally reductive). Samsung could have easily included the 50MP wide camera used on the S25 and S25 Plus and focused solely on the phone’s design to set it apart. By including the top-end 200MP camera from the series’ most expensive and premium phone, though, it hits a sweet spot where a customer thinks, «I’m getting a super thin version of the S25 but with the camera of the $1,300 S25 Ultra.»

Decent zoom is still possible, even without a telephoto camera

The other thing that sets the S25 Edge apart is the fact that it does not include a dedicated telephoto camera. Every other S25 model includes at least one telephoto camera to zoom in on distant subjects.

That extra reach is usually the dividing line between «consumer» and «pro» models. For example, the Pixel 9 and 9A and iPhone 16 and 16E all include wide-angle and ultra-wide cameras, but no telephoto. People regularly zoom in when taking photos, so Google and Apple pitch higher-quality optical zoom as a premium feature at the higher price levels of the pro models.

But by including the 200MP camera on the S25 Edge, Samsung can still claim a 2x «optical quality» zoom. Technically that’s a crop into the middle of the sensor, but the high megapixel count means there’s still plenty of resolution to get quality images. You can still zoom at farther ranges, but you’re leaning heavily on image processing to enhance the digitally-zoomed image.

(An important aside about resolution: Keep in mind you’re not always capturing images at 200MP resolution. The default resolution is a pixel-binned 12MP, where the camera groups pixels together on the sensor to act as a larger pixel that gathers more light. So at that resolution, the S25 Edge is likely using AI upscaling to zoom. But at the 50MP and 200MP resolution settings, the 2x zoom is more likely to be a straight crop from what the sensor is recording.)

This also reinforces the fact that phone photography is increasingly buttressed by real-time, AI-supported image processing. Shooting at the full 200MP resolution involves considerable processing to enhance details recorded by such a physically small image sensor. Even with pro phones, I regularly see people use pinch-to-zoom instead of switching among the better quality preset optical options. (Android Authority surveyed its readers and found that about 27% of respondents zoom freely versus sticking to preset zoom levels.)

Will customers specifically buy the S25 Edge because of its camera features? Not entirely, but touting the 200MP camera prominently along with the new thin design gives them extra incentive to choose it.

We’re looking forward to testing the S25 Edge’s camera to see how well it performs. In the meantime, be sure to check out the photos that CNET Managing Editor Patrick Holland made for his Galaxy S25 Ultra review, as well as Andrew Lanxon’s images pitting the S25 Ultra head-to-head against the iPhone 16 Pro.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, May 16

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for May 16.

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 took me longer than usual. 1-Down is tough — hint, there’s an old-fashioned bottled beverage with the same name. 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: Unit of distance that can precede «stone» and «age»
Answer: MILE

5A clue: Kind of powder used for hot chocolate
Answer: COCOA

6A clue: On the button
Answer: EXACT

7A clue: Connections
Answer: LINKS

8A clue: «___ not and say we did!»
Answer: LETS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Gutsy determination
Answer: MOXIE

2D clue: «That’s not gonna work for me»
Answer: ICANT

3D clue: Strands
Answer: LOCKS

4D clue: Has a bite
Answer: EATS

5D clue: Spreadsheet unit
Answer: CELL

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.