Technologies

Google’s ChromeOS Will Combine With Android Next Year to Supercharge Big-Screen AI

The success of Gemini and AI on Android has inspired the major update to ChromeOS, Android chief Sameer Samat says at the Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii

Bringing AI to smartphones and tablets has been a massive success for Google, which earlier this month saw its AI assistant Gemini become the top free app on Apple’s App Store for the first time. More specifically, AI and Gemini have become integral parts of the past few major Android updates and are super-well integrated into the Android ecosystem.

For now, the same can’t be said of ChromeOS, Google’s lightweight operating system for computers and laptops. But that’s all set to change.

Earlier this year, Android chief Sameer Samat confirmed that ChromeOS and Android would combine to create a more seamless experience across devices. Speaking at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii on Wednesday, Samat said it’s one of the things he’s «super excited about for next year» and gave a bunch of additional details about the how and why behind the move.

«For a long time, mobile phones and PCs have been communicating… now we have this opportunity with large-screen compute to add that in,» he said. «In the Android ecosystem, you have all these different devices, and you want your AI to be able to work across all of them. So that’s the new era.»

That doesn’t mean ChromeOS is going away, though. «If you think about the laptop form factor, we’ve had ChromeOS for a long time, and we’re super committed to that platform, and it’s been really successful for us,» Samat said. In fact, the ChromeOS experience will remain, but its the baseline technology will switch to running on Android, he added.

Speaking on Tuesday at the Snapdragon Summit, Google’s SVP of Devices and Services, Rick Osterloh, shed some more light on the technicalities of the project. «We’re building together a technical foundation for our products on PCs and desktop computing systems,» he said. «This is another way that we can leverage all of the great work we’re doing together on our AI stack, our full stack, bringing Gemini models, bringing the assistant, bringing all of our application and developer community into the PC domain.»

It will be fascinating to see what new experiences Gemini will enable on ChromeOS, and how it might elevate Google’s big-screen OS for this new era. Google will be hoping it can replicate the success of its AI-based mobile operating system across its laptops and make its Chromebooks even more appealing to Android phone owners looking to upgrade their computers, thanks to the seamless integration of Gemini across their different devices.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Nov. 16, #889

Here are some hints — and the answers — for the NYT Connections puzzle for Nov. 16, #889.

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.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is a fun one. As a pop-culture junkie and game lover, I enjoyed the purple category. If you need help sorting the answers into groups, you’re in the right place. 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 the 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: Different strokes for different folks.

Green group hint: Ho-hum.

Blue group hint: Flags often qualify.

Purple group hint: Do not pass Go.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Technique.

Green group: Run-of-the-mill.

Blue group: Stripy things.

Purple group: Words on Monopoly squares.

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 technique. The four answers are approach, method, philosophy and school.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is run-of-the-mill. The four answers are banal, everday, humdrum and pedestrian.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is stripy things.The four answers are barcode, IBM logo, rugby shirt and zebra.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is words on Monopoly squares. The four answers are avenue, parking, railroad and tax.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Nov. 16 #623

Here are hints — and answers — for the NYT Strands puzzle for Nov. 16, No. 623.

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 tough. It’s a weird theme, and some of the answers are difficult 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: Around it goes.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: They’re often on a roll.

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:

CARE, SCARE, CRASS, SWAT, PELL, HELL, SCAR, HALT, STENT, HALTS, TENT, POLL, LOTS

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:

FOIL, SCARF, SHAWL, STOLE, FLATBREAD, CELLOPHANE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is THATSAWRAP. To find it, start with the T that’s three letters up from the bottom of the far-left row, and wind down, over and then up.