Technologies

Apple’s Games App Unveiled at WWDC 2025 Closes the Book on Game Center

Apple’s new video game app will come preinstalled on their mobile devices, Macs and smart TVs. As a one-stop hub for gaming, it’ll make Game Center truly obsolete.

At WWDC 2025 on Monday, Apple announced Games, a streamlined app store and unified library for gamers using multiple Apple devices — showing a greater commitment to the video game industry than ever before.

The App Store won’t be rendered useless, since you’ll still need to access it for nongaming app downloads. But the old Game Center app, which provided leaderboards and social features to mobile gamers (and has long been relegated to a deep, dark corner of the iPhone’s Settings menus), will finally be reaching a point of obsolescence.

Once it launches later this year, the Games app will be preinstalled on all new Apple devices. The hub will allow gamers who are deeply embedded in Apple’s product ecosystem to launch their favorite titles from their mobile devices, Macs and smart TVs.

The app provides multiple tabs to manage your gaming experience on Apple devices. The streamlined interface includes Home, Apple Arcade, Library and Play Together tabs, as well as a search feature that will allow you to delve into a dedicated game storefront.

The Games app’s Home tab allows gamers to quickly check out new events and updates for the mobile games they frequently play, while the Library tab lets users scroll through any game they’ve ever downloaded from the App Store.

The new app will also serve as a hub for Apple’s other recent endeavor in the gaming space, Apple Arcade. This curated gaming subscription service launched in September 2019 and allows subscribers to download and play hundreds of games handpicked by Apple employees. The Apple Arcade includes some of the biggest indie successes and retro gaming ports, as well as classic fan-favorites from the App Store with some additional bells and whistles.

The Games app is a hybrid gaming app store and social hub, making it much more front and center than the Game Center application. Game Center functionality has long been buried within Apple’s mobile device settings, but it’s possible that this new hub fares better now that Apple has built out a scaffolding of mobile gaming infrastructure with Apple Arcade.

The Game Center leaderboards will be revamped and integrated into the new Games application through the Play Together feature. Within the Play Together tab, people will be able to keep up with what their friends are playing, compare achievements and high scores and invite other gamers to multiplayer games.

The announcement of the Games hub comes on the heels of Apple’s acquisition of RAC7, the developer of Apple Arcade hit Sneaky Sasquatch. An investment in first-party developers could signal that Apple wants to pursue some level of gaming exclusivity on its platforms.

Technologies

Facebook Brings Back Local Job Listings: How to Apply

One of Facebook’s most practical features from 2022 is being revived by Meta.

On the hunt for work? A Local Jobs search is being rolled out by Meta to make it easier for people in the US to discover and apply for nearby work directly on Facebook. The feature is inside Facebook Marketplace, Groups and Pages, Meta said last week, letting employers post openings and job seekers filter roles by distance, category or employment type.

You can apply or message employers directly through Facebook Messenger, while employers can publish job listings with just a few taps — similar to how you would post items for sale on Marketplace.

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Facebook offered a Jobs feature before discontinuing it in 2022, pushing business hiring toward its other platforms. Its return suggests Meta is attempting to expand Facebook’s usefulness beyond social networking and to position it once again as a hub for community-driven opportunities.

«We’ve always been about connecting with people, whether through shared interests or key life events,» the press release states. «Now, if you’re looking for entry-level, trade and service industry employment in your community, Facebook can help you connect with local people and small businesses who are hiring.»

How to get started with Local Jobs on Facebook

According to Meta, Local Jobs will appear as a dedicated section in Facebook Marketplace starting this week. If you’re 18 or older, you can:

Tap the Marketplace tab on the Facebook app or website.
Select Jobs to browse available positions nearby.
Use filters for job type, category and distance.
Tap Apply or message the employer directly via Messenger.

Businesses and page admins can post jobs by creating a new listing in Marketplace or from their Facebook Page. Listings can include job details, pay range, and scheduling information and will appear in local searches automatically.

The Local Jobs feature is rolling out across the US now, with Meta saying it plans to expand it in the months ahead.

Technologies

Tesla Has a New Range of Affordable Electric Cars: How Much They Cost

The new, stripped-back versions of the Model Y and Model 3 have a more affordable starting price.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 22 #598

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 22, No. 598.

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 is a fun one — I definitely have at least two of these in my house. Some of the answers are a bit tough to unscramble, so 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: Catch all.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: A mess of items.

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:

BATE, LICE, SLUM, CAPE, HOLE, CARE, BARE, THEN, SLAM, SAMBA, BACK

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 have 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:

TAPE, COIN, PENCIL, BATTERY, SHOELACE, THUMBTACK

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is JUNKDRAWER. To find it, look for the J that’s five letters down on the far-left row, and wind down, over and then up.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.