Technologies

You Can Now Customize Your TikTok ‘For You’ Feed With Sliders. Here’s How

At a TikTok Trends event at SXSW London, the company also revealed the content that’s keeping us glued to our screens.

How do you feel about the content in your TikTok «For You» feed? If you’ve ever thought you could do with a little more of this and a little less of that, then you’re about to get more control than ever before over what the algorithm serves you.

In the Manage Topics section of your settings, you’ll soon be able adjust sliders that will tell TikTok whether you want to see more or less content on 10 chosen topics. For example, if you’re gearing up for a summer of hosting, you might want more recipes to appear in your For You feed. To signal this to TikTok, you could boost the food and drink slider so that it knows you’re actively interested in carrot salads and margarita pitchers.

The sliders won’t eliminate content of one type all together, they simply allow you to give more weight to topics you care about.

In the coming months, TikTok is also increasing the number of keywords that can be filtered from around 100 to 200. It’s introducing Smart Keyword Filters, which use AI to catch synonyms for words people have chosen to filter out and excludes that content from their feeds.

I caught a first glimpse of the new features at a SXSW London event on Monday, ahead of TikTok announcing them on Tuesday. At the event, TikTok delved into some of the big trends that it’s observed recently, and it seems as though the cultural exchange between US and UK audiences has never been more prevalent.

The American content proving most interesting to British audiences is based on the Hamptons aesthetic, which has seen a 24% growth in the UK this year. According to TikTok, Brits can’t get enough of Nancy Meyers-inspired interiors and the beachy summer vibes that the Hamptons evoke.

Meanwhile, American TikTok users have discovered Marks and Spencer, the iconic British store that sells (among other things) fancy groceries to the middle classes. TikTok has observed a rise in content about American travelers to the UK jumping off the plane only to immediately do an M&S haul and taste test the products. Who needs Big Ben when you have Percy Pig?

British crime drama is also resonating hard with US audiences right now, particularly following the release of Adolescence on Netflix earlier this year. That said, the most popular show of all time on TikTok is still The Vampire Diaries — so if you didn’t watch it first time around, maybe now is the time.

Technologies

Apple’s Siri Could Be More Like ChatGPT. But Is That What You Want?

Commentary: Should Siri evolve to become more of a manager than an assistant? Let’s hope Apple can listen to what people want from its voice assistant.

I’ve noticed a vibe shift in the appetite for AI on our devices. My social feeds are flooded with disgust over what’s being created by Google’s AI video generator tool, Veo 3. The unsettling realistic video of fake people and voices it creates makes it clear we will have a hard time telling apart fiction from reality. In other words, the AI slop is looking less sloppy.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Anthropic is warning people that AI will wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs. In an interview with Axios, Dario Amodei is suggesting government needs to step in to protect us from a mass elimination of jobs that can happen very rapidly.

So as we gear up for Apple’s big WWDC presentation on Monday, I have a different view of headlines highlighting Apple being behind in the AI race. I wonder, what exactly is the flavor of AI that people want or need right now? And will it really matter if Apple keeps waiting longer to push out it’s long promised (and long delayed) personalized Siri when people are not feeling optimistic about AI’s impact on our society?

In this week’s episode of One More Thing, which you can watch embedded above, I go over some of the recent reporting from Bloomberg that discusses leadership changes on the Siri team, and how there are different views in what consumers want out of Siri. Should Apple approach AI in a way to make Siri into a home-grown chatbot, or just make it a better interface for controlling devices? (Maybe a bit of both.)

I expect a lot of griping after WWDC about the state of Siri and Apple’s AI, with comparisons to other products like ChatGPT. But I hope we can use those gripes to voice what we really want in the next path for the assistant, by sharing our thoughts and speaking with our wallet. Do you want a Siri that’s better at understanding context, or one that goes further and makes decisions for you? It’s a question I’ll be dwelling on more as Apple gives us the next peak into the future of iOS on Monday, and perhaps a glimpse of how the next Siri is shaping up.

If you’re looking for more One More Thing, subscribe to our YouTube page to catch Bridget Carey breaking down the latest Apple news and issues every Friday.

Technologies

Leaked Apple Charger Reveals iPhone 17 Will Have Fast Charging

The latest rumors say that the leap in charging could improve efficiency and cut down on heat generation.

It looks like iPhones, including the expected iPhone 17, could be getting a big boost from an upgrade to their wireless MagSafe chargers.

As reported by 91mobiles, a recent image of Apple MagSafe chargers included model numbers that support the Qi 2.2 charging standard. That’s according to photos that 91mobiles spotted on Taiwan’s National Communications Commission website. The NCC is the regulatory body that verifies devices for telecom products.

If the rumors are correct, it would mean Apple would jump from its current Qi 2.0, which supports a maximum charging speed of 25W. The Qi 2.2 standard supports speeds of 50W, according to 91mobiles.

Additionally, Qi 2.2 could improve magnetic alignment, so your iPhone snaps to the charger correctly and quickly. That could potentially improve charging efficiency and reduce heat generation.

And for those of us who want to hold onto our old phones instead of upgrading to the new iPhone, Qi 2.2 promises backward compatibility to as far back as the iPhone 11.

The report comes just days ahead of Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, at which the company provides updates about its latest software for iPhones and other devices. (Here’s how to watch the WWDC 2025 keynote.) Apple typically unveils its new iPhone lineup in September.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for June 6, #256

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 256, for June 6.

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 could be tricky. That purple category requires some real letter gymnastics. 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: Milwaukee player, for example.

Green group hint: Gridiron goof.

Blue group hint: Fire it in there!

Purple group hint: Shake up words for sports.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: An NL Central player.

Green group: Football penalties.

Blue group: Attributes for a pitcher.

Purple group: Sports, with a letter changed.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is an NL Central player. The four answers are Brewer, Cub, Pirate and Red.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is football penalties. The four answers are clipping, face mask, holding and offside.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is attributes for a pitcher. The four answers are command, control, stamina and velocity.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports, with a letter changed. The four answers are boiling, boring, gulf and skimming.

Boiling=bowling

Boring=boxing

Gulf=golf

Skimming=swimming

Quick tips for Connections: Sports Edition

#1: Don’t grab for the easiest group. For each word, think about other sports categories it might fit in – is this a word that can be used in football, or to describe scoring options?

#2: Second meanings are important. The puzzle loves to use last names and even college names that mean other things, to fool you into thinking they are words, not names.

#3: And the opposite is also true. Words like HURTS might seem like a regular word, but it’s also the last name of at least one pro athlete.