Technologies

XR Is Going Mainstream. Does That Mean We’ll All Be Glasses Wearers Now?

«The time is now» for XR, says Google’s Rick Osterloh. Are you ready to buy in?

I’m standing in the lobby of a hotel in Hawaii, gazing into the glaring sun through the lens of Snap AR Spectacles and wondering if this is my future.

The glasses are an updated version of the ones I tried out last year at the Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii. Rather than playing with Moo Deng — a fun little novelty — I’m using them for things I do every day on my phone: Browsing the internet and scrolling through social videos.

Right here is evidence of Snap bringing productivity and genuinely useful features to its glasses, which are still a clunky developer version for now, before it eventually turns Spectacles into a bona fide consumer device. Like my colleague Scott Stein, who tried the Spectacles out several weeks ago, I’m most impressed with the AI-powered live translation feature. It allows me to see my conversation partner’s words translated into French subtitles in real time just below her face, making it easy for us to converse naturally without breaking eye contact.

To me, the progression is clear: The Spectacles seem to be growing up, taking themselves more seriously and finding their true purpose. This is part of a wider trend of XR devices (mixed reality), which feel as though they’re on the cusp of having a major mainstream breakthrough.

Trace the idea of XR back to its earliest days, and you will find clunky virtual reality headsets that were groundbreaking in their time and showed us a vision of wearable screens that ultimately didn’t lead to mainstream adoption. Even Apple’s much-hyped mixed-reality headset, the Vision Pro, has struggled to establish broad appeal beyond the pros and rich bros.

But many people in tech think we’re about to hit a watershed moment for XR.

«The time [for XR] is now,» said Rick Osterloh, SVP of devices and services at Google, speaking at the Snapdragon Summit. «The technology’s ready and a bunch of products are going to really change the user experience.»

Google has been working on XR products for a long time, said Osterloh, but the combination of underlying silicon, such as Qualcomm’s chips, and AI breakthroughs means the tech «is now ready to be able to create a new, brand new computing experience that’s really powerful.»

The concept of a breakthrough moment for XR doesn’t appear to be just wishful thinking either. Sales volumes of Meta’s Rayban glasses, also powered by Qualcomm, have increased more than 12x from the end of last year to now, Alex Katouzian, Qualcomm’s group general manager for mobile, compute and XR told me.

«It’s like massive amounts… the traction on it is really good,» he said. «And then the China customers are coming out with glasses, after glasses, after glasses. Xiaomi is doing a really good job.»

AI supercharging XR

Other than Snapdragon chips, there’s one technology that seems to be igniting the XR product category. «AI is breathing life into it,» said Katouzian.

As I discovered in my Snap Spectacles demo, AI can elevate an XR experience to make it feel truly immersive and seamless. The combination of sensors that could pick up my conversation partner’s speech and visualize where she was standing, along with the AI that could translate her speech, made me understand, perhaps for the first time in all my years of demoing this technology, why I might choose to wear smart glasses even though I’m not a glasses wearer.

Live translation has almost become a litmus test for consumer AI applications over the past year, including earlier this month, as Apple launched the AirPods Pro 3. It tackles an obvious communication challenge and is practical enough that people can easily take advantage of, said Dino Bekis, Qualcomm’s VP of wearables, in an interview.

XR and glasses, in particular, feel like a natural lens through which people can interact with AI, said Bekis. «It’s the same way we interface with the world,» he said. «It sees what you see. It can hear what you hear.»

For Bekis, XR’s breakthrough moment is due to a combination of factors — the quality of AI agent capability, connectivity and the ability to make very small power-sensitive devices.

«We’re just now getting to a point where embedded displays and all these things are starting to happen in a way that actually can translate into real, meaningful, personal devices,» he said. «It’s the beginning.»

But what if you’re like me: Hesitant about wearing glasses for comfort reasons? Bekis told me that we’re actually similar in this respect. It might feel unnatural for some people, he acknowledged, in which case they might opt out but choose to have other wearables instead that can still provide crucial sensor data that can contribute to an immersive AI experience.

People should choose the form factors that feel natural to them, he added. From there, it’s the job of the tech companies to make everything work together, regardless of which choices people make.

«It’s not just really about the glasses as much as [it’s] also about this collection of devices that you’re carrying around on your person on a regular basis — the ability for these different devices to interact, share some of this sensory information and then be able to then pull that together in an interesting way for you to digest,» he said.

The jury’s still out for me on whether I’d be willing to embrace XR by adopting glasses as so many people around the world seem to be doing. But in the meantime, I like the idea that XR could be something I dabble in for specific experiences, while I let my watch, my earbuds, my phone and whatever other wearable devices might emerge in the near future do the heavy lifting.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 18, #1011

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 18 #1011.

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 pretty tricky, but musicians might find the blue group easy. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times 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: Time between two things, maybe.

Green group hint: That smarts!

Blue group hint: Rockers know these well.

Purple group hint: You might write one out to pay a bill.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Interval.

Green group: React to a stubbed toe.

Blue group: Guitar effects pedals.

Purple group: ____ check.

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 interval. The four answers are patch, period, spell and stretch.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is react to a stubbed toe. The four answers are curse, hop, wince and yell.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is guitar effects pedals. The four answers are delay, reverb, wah and whammy.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ check. The four answers are blank, coat, rain and reality.

Toughest Connections puzzles

We’ve made a note of some of the toughest Connections puzzles so far. Maybe they’ll help you see patterns in future puzzles.

#5: Included «things you can set,» such as mood, record, table and volleyball.

#4: Included «one in a dozen,» such as egg, juror, month and rose.

#3: Included «streets on screen,» such as Elm, Fear, Jump and Sesame.

#2: Included «power ___» such as nap, plant, Ranger and trip.

#1: Included «things that can run,» such as candidate, faucet, mascara and nose.

Technologies

My Kid Wanted Video Games. I Was Against It. This Console Gave Us Both the Win

The movement-based Nex Playground might be the antidote to parental screen time guilt.

When our 8-year-old started asking for video games, I knew we were about to engage in an uphill battle. Anytime we’ve been to friends’ houses with gaming consoles, he goes full zombie mode, then has an epic meltdown once the sensory overload wears off. And since he inevitably ropes his 6-year-old brother in, we’re essentially sealing both their fates.

So when our neighbors started raving about a movement-based gaming console called Nex Playground, my first instinct was to shut it down. The words «gaming console» alone were enough to put me in a mental block. Add in my own memories of Wii tennis sessions where I nearly took out the ceiling fan, and I was firmly in the «no» camp.

But after doing a little more research, I was intrigued enough to try it out.

Screen time isn’t something I take lightly. With three kids ages 2 to 8, my husband and I have always been intentional about how and what they watch. They don’t have their own tablets, and most of their screen time happens on our family TV, which means whatever the oldest is exposed to quickly trickles down to our toddler. So anything we bring into the house has to work for all of them. Tall order, I know, but the Nex Playground gets surprisingly close.

Getting started is easy

The console itself is refreshingly simple. It’s a small cube, slightly larger than a Rubik’s cube, with a circular camera and motion sensor, a light indicator and two ports for power, and an HDMI connection to the TV. There’s no controller beyond a basic remote for navigating menus. For most games, your body is the controller.

Setup is quick. Plug it in, connect it to your TV, and you’re ready to go. It doesn’t store video or upload footage to the cloud, which was an immediate plus. It also comes with a magnetic privacy cover that you can put on the lens when it’s not in use.

At $250, it’s not cheap, but it’s less than some of the popular gaming consoles for this age range, like the Nintendo Switch 2. That gets you a five-game starter pack: Fruit Ninja, Go Keeper (soccer), Starri (think Guitar Hero for your whole body), Party Fowl (an AR emoji frenzy) and Whack-a-Mole. Additional games require a subscription: $89 a year or $49 for three months, which unlocks a library of 50-plus games and counting. New titles dropped even as I was writing this.

The library spans a surprisingly wide range. There are board game adaptations like Connect Four and Candy Land, character-driven games with Peppa Pig, Bluey and the Ninja Turtles, and sports like baseball and, yes, tennis — minus the ceiling fan hazard. There’s even parent-friendly content like Zumba workouts, which I may or may not have fully committed to on a rainy afternoon.

Even my toddler has gotten in on the action, mostly bouncing her way through Hungry Hungry Hippos when her brothers finally concede.

Gameplay is where it wins

The movements range from swinging your arms to keep a ball in motion, hopping or full-body launches that are far more aggressive than what the game actually requires. (I’m not about to tell the kids otherwise.) After a 45-minute session, my kids are tired and sometimes even drenched in sweat. The Nex Playground entertains and burns energy in one fell swoop.

The graphics also seem intentionally simple and arcade-like, which fits the minimalist play experience. There’s no POV storyline to get lost in, no leveling up into a new world at 9 p.m. on a school night. Some games keep score, which awakens my kids’ competitive streak, but the vibe is more collaborative and hasn’t been the catalyst for more fighting like other games. If anything, it’s done the opposite.

I still don’t love defaulting to a screen when my kids are bored, so we try to use it in moderation. In our house, piano practice is the only thing that unlocks weekend play time, and the fact that they’ll sit at the piano for a full hour tells you everything you need to know.

The verdict that matters most

But the real test: Does it hold up to an 8-year-old who was dead set on a Nintendo Switch?

Short answer: yes. At least for now. He’d still pick the Switch if you asked him, but not for the reasons you’d expect.

«The Playground is more tiring,» he told me, which only helped seal the deal for me. His current favorite is Homerun Hitters. «It’s basically a baseball game where you go against ranked global players. Me and my brother are really good at it.»

This from a kid whose primary hobby is annoying his younger brother. The fact that he said «me and my brother» as a collective was an unexpected bonus.

The Switch may still show up on the Christmas list this year. And realistically, I know I’m on borrowed time. As kids get older, «cool» becomes the currency, and a motion-based cube probably won’t hold up against an Xbox or a Switch once playdates turn into side-by-side gaming sessions.

The Nex Playground isn’t a replacement for those. It’s more of a detour; it gives them a taste of gaming without all the usual side effects. Even if I do eventually cave, I can still see it sticking around for the occasional family game night or as a rainy-day sibling diffuser.

In the meantime, I’ll relish this simpler version of gaming while I still can. He’s not exactly rushing me to return this review unit. More importantly, neither am I.

Technologies

Don’t Wait for New Emoji in iOS 26.4, Here’s How to Create Them on Your Own

If your iPhone has Apple Intelligence, you can create your own emoji now.

Apple will likely add new emoji to your iPhone when the company releases iOS 26.4. Those new emoji could include an orca, a distorted smiley face and more. According to Emojipedia, there are 3,953 emoji with more on the way. The current list of emoji include smileys, sports players, weather conditions and flags. But there’s no emoji for a dog wearing pajamas, a plate with burgers and fries and many other things. But if you have Genmoji on your iPhone you can create these emoji and many more.

Apple released iOS 18.2 in 2024 and the company introduced its own emoji generator, called Genmoji, to Apple Intelligence-capable iPhones at that time. The Unicode Standard, a universal character encoding standard, is responsible for creating new emoji, and approved emoji are added to all devices once a year. With Genmoji, you don’t have to wait for new emoji to appear on your iPhone each year. You can just create them as you need them.

Read on to learn how to use Genmoji on iPhone to create your own custom emoji. Just note that only iPhones with Apple Intelligence, like the iPhone 17 lineup, can use Genmoji at this time.

How to make custom emoji

1. Open Messages and go into a chat.
2. Tap the plus (+) button next to your text box.
3. Tap Genmoji.

You can then type a description of an emoji into the text box near the bottom of your screen and tap the check mark on your keyboard to enter that description into Genmoji. You can also tap different suggestions and themes that are right above the text box. And with iOS 26 or later, you can also combine and use emoji to create others rather than describing a new emoji or using suggestions.

Your iPhone will generate a series of new emoji for you to pick from according to your description, and you can swipe through these new emoji. When you find the one you want, tap Add in the top right corner of your screen and the new emoji will be available to use as an emoji, tapback or a sticker. Now you don’t have to wait for the Unicode Standard to propose, create and bring new emoji to devices.

For more iOS news, here’s what to know about iOS 26.3.1 and iOS 26.3. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet for other tips and tricks.