Technologies

Here’s How to Move the Chrome Address Bar to the Bottom of Android Phone Screens

Google frames the tweak as related to ease of use, depending on the size of a user’s hand or phone.

Depending on how you use cell phones — and maybe even your hand size, Google’s latest tweak just might be a very welcome change.

Starting Tuesday, Chrome for Android users can now place the address bar at the bottom of their phone screens, a move that finally comes nearly 17 years after the first Android phone hit the market in 2008. Users can still keep the address bar at the top, but being able to have it at the bottom might make sense for folks with a certain hand size or phone size.

In a blog post Tuesday, Google said that «one address bar position may feel more comfortable than the other. We designed this update to give you the flexibility to choose your preferred location — so you can browse with more ease.»

To move the address bar from top to bottom, Google instructs to «long-press on it and select the ‘move address bar to bottom’ option. Or just navigate to the settings menu and select ‘address bar’ to choose your preferred spot.»

All the options will travel with the address bar, including the tab switcher, three-dot overflow menu and other shortcuts. And you can keep the address bar at the top if you prefer.

Google said that the option to move the address bar will eventually be available to all users in the coming weeks.

Small change that makes a difference

Jason Howell, host of the Android Faithful Podcast, and a former CNET staffer, applauded the upgrade by Google.

«As smartphones continue to get bigger, and not just wider but often taller, one-handed use becomes more challenging,» he told CNET. «The inside display of the recent Moto Razr Ultra is a great example: it’s so tall that operating it with one hand is practically impossible. Reaching the top address bar with one hand is often tricky and risky. Giving users the option to place the address bar at the bottom means Google’s important apps are more accessible to more people.»

Giving users the address bar option comes a few years after Apple did the same thing with its Safari search bar with the iOS 15 rollout. In response to years of users complaining about the search bar being at top by default — sometimes cutting off web page content — Apple enabled the top-bottom option in late 2021.

Technologies

Spotify Brings Wrapped Energy Year-Round With Friend-Sharing Stats

The music service introduced new ways for music nerds to share their listening habits with friends.

It can be a long wait for Spotify Wrapped, the end-of-year promotion that allows Spotify users to view and share their listening habits. Now, users can keep an eye on those stats daily, plus share their listening habits with friends.

You can view your Spotify usage statistics every 24 hours and share your updates via social media services, such as Instagram Notes or Spotify Messages. The new share icon gives you access to eight different services where you can post your stats.

Every week, you’ll get updates on your top artists and songs from the past month, and Spotify will recommend new playlists. The app also gives you a «special highlight» based on a specific artist or song.

To access your personal musical data, click on your profile in the top left corner of the app and scroll down to «listening stats.»

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The new features are somewhat similar to Spotify Wrapped, the service’s annual end-of-year review of users’ listening habits, which is designed to be shared. Every year, Spotify adds extra details to Wrapped, such as assigning users a listening personality or a city that supposedly reflects their music tastes. It’s been the most popular way for Spotify users to view and share their music listening in the past. A number of third-party services do the same thing, including Volt.fm.

Read more: Best Music Streaming Services

Spotify is the world’s largest music streaming service, offering 100 million tracks and serving more than 713 million users. In addition to its $12-per-month subscription service, Spotify also offers a free, ad-supported option.

Technologies

Wordle Gets Personal: You Can Now Make and Share Your Own Puzzles

If you’re a Wordle obsessive, you can now make your own inside joke puzzles to send to friends.

Wordle’s an immensely popular New York Times word game (we post the answers daily), but it’s not the most personal game in the world. Answers such as GUISE and PERIL are tricky, but generic. Now, Wordle fans who have ever dreamed of making their own puzzles can test their friends and family by creating their own Wordle creations up to seven letters in length.

No surprise, you have to be a New York Times Games or All Access Subscriber to use this feature. If you are, you’ll find the Create a Puzzle option available from the top menu above today’s Wordle. While you must be a subscriber to create your own personalized puzzle, you can share it with anyone — they only need the link, not a subscription, to complete your Wordle.

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Enter a word, and the site will tell you if it is available. Real Wordle limits you to five-letter words, but the puzzle-making feature lets you choose words between 4 and 7 letters.

The usual dictionary rules apply, and so curse words, some pet names, and obscure inside jokes are essentially out. If your cat is named TANGO, that’s there, but RINGO is not an option. You can drop a proposal with a single word like MARRY, but MARRYME will get rejected since that’s two separate words.

Word chosen, you can then fill out your name and add an optional hint, and the feature will generate your puzzle with a link you can send around. Unlike standard puzzles, your puzzle doesn’t appear to reset after a day, so whoever you send it to doesn’t need to rush to solve it.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Nov. 8, #411

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 411 for Saturday, Nov. 8.

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 tricky one. The theme of the purple category is also a word hidden among the answers, but of course, it doesn’t end up in the purple group. If you’re struggling 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 show up in the NYT Games app but appears 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: Brawl.

Green group hint: The Steel City.

Blue group hint: They once played in Oakland.

Purple group hint: Not always made of cardboard.