Technologies

Google Beam Futuristic AI-Powered 3D Video Chats Are Coming This Year

Google Beam uses an AI model that turns video calls into a lifelike 3D experience. It could be the next best thing to being there.

Beam me up, Google. Video chats could have a much more sci-fi feel with Google Beam, an AI-powered video communications platform that aims to make it feel like you’re meeting up in person.

Google announced Beam, an evolution of its Google Starline technology, at its annual I/O developer conference on Tuesday. Google has teamed up with HP to commercialize the system.

Read more: Google I/O 2025 Live Blog

Google Beam uses a six-camera array that captures the subject from different angles. An AI video model puts the views together in real time to create a 3D person. Google says the system features near-perfect head tracking, down to the millimeter, with video at 60 frames per second.

The idea is reminiscent of any number of holographic communications systems seen in everything from Star Wars to Star Trek. Unlike the tiny, low-quality Princess Leia hologram from A New Hope, Beam is designed to be life-sized and lifelike. Google once described the technology as a «magic window.»

The platform uses a light field display that doesn’t require wearing any special equipment. CNET’s Abrar Al-Heeti tried out Starline last year and called it «the closest thing to a hologram I’ve ever seen.»

Speech translation, a feature Google is bringing to Google Meet, could come to Beam as well, Google said.

Google introduced Starline as a research project in 2021 and has been testing and refining prototypes ever since. Today’s announcement means the technology is closing in on being ready for prime time.

Video calls have long been plagued with challenges. It can be hard to read expressions and gestures. Traditional video chats are missing a sense of eye contact. Zoom fatigue was a hot topic during the height of COVID-19. Beam wants to address those issues with a more immersive and lifelike experience.

Google said HP will share more about the platform at the InfoComm audio visual technology exhibition in June. Google is also working with Zoom and other audio visual companies. Beam will likely find its footing first with larger organizations that want to shake up the way they handle videoconferencing.

The first Beam devices will be available for early adopters later in 2025, so start practicing your «Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.»

Beam isn’t Google’s only big announcement of the day. Check out everything that’s been revealed at Google I/O.

Technologies

The FCC Just Approved Charter’s $34.5B Cox Purchase. Here’s What It Means for 37M Customers

Technologies

Spotify Expands Into Audiobook Rankings With Weekly Charts

The feature is available to both free users and Premium subscribers. Wuthering Heights is reaching the heights on both the US and UK charts.

If you’re a Spotify user, you may be familiar with features like the year-end summary Wrapped, as well as your daily usage stats. Now, the service has a new popularity chart tracking audiobooks.

Spotify’s audiobook charts are now available to free and Premium users within the service’s Audiobooks hub. While only Premium users receive 15 hours of audiobook listening per month, the company offers a larger selection of titles you can buy.

US charts and UK charts are both available now.

Read more: Best Music Streaming Services for 2026

Spotify says that the audiobook charts will help customers discover new and popular titles in real time.

«As we’ve proven with Music and Podcasts Charts, when content is easier to access, discover, and enjoy, the demand grows,» said Duncan Bruce, Spotify’s director of audiobook partnerships and licensing, in a statement on Friday.

Spotify launched audiobooks in 2022, and has since added features such as the AI catchup tool Recaps and PageMatch, which lets you swap more easily between a printed book and the audio version.

Spotify Premium currently costs $13 a month and includes more than 100 million songs, as well as audiobooks. Spotify Premium is currently CNET’s Editors’ Choice for best music streaming service.

The current US audiobooks chart lists Emily Brontë’s romantic classic Wuthering Heights as the top listen, followed by James Clear’s self-help book Atomic Habits and Freida McFadden’s psychological thriller The Housemaid. Audiobook popularity is also broken down by genre, with charts for romance, mystery and thriller books, self-help, science fiction and fantasy, biography and memoir, business and careers, teen and young adult, religion and spirituality, history, and parenting and relationships.

Powered by its blockbuster movie adaptation starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, Wuthering Heights also leads the overall chart for the UK.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 28, #523

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 523, for Saturday, Feb. 28.

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.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. Chicagoans and southerners, you might have an advantage, at least with the blue and purple categories. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for 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: Fore!

Green group hint: Take me out to the ballgame.

Blue group hint: Alma mater.

Purple group hint: Bear down.