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

Tired of Wordle? Try These Other Word Games Next

These are some of the most fun word and puzzle games you can find.

Wordle has grown to be one of the most popular words games since Josh Wardle launched it more than four years ago in 2021. The game asks players to figure out a five-letter word in six or fewer guesses (we have a two-step strategy to help you solve the puzzle every time). After each guess, the game shows gray blocks for the wrong letters, yellow blocks for the right letters in the wrong spot and green blocks for the right letters in the correct spot.

CNET’s Gael Cooper has loads of tips and tricks to tackle each NY Times Wordle puzzle but if you’ve been playing the game everyday for the past few years, you might be getting tired of it. Luckily, there are other word and puzzles games out there that you can play.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Here are 10 other puzzle games you can play now.

Connections

Another New York Times-owned puzzle, Connections is a tricky word game. «Players must select four groups of four words without making more than four mistakes,» the New York Times wrote on X. There are also four color-coded difficulty levels for each game; yellow is the easiest, then green, then blue and finally purple. The game is also similar to the BBC quiz show Only Connect, and the show’s host took to X to point out the connection. See what I did there?

You can play Connections on any web browser but you need a New York Times subscription (which starts at $1 a week) to play.

Strands

Strands is another New York Times-owned puzzle but this game resembles a word search more so than Wordle and Connections. This game presents a theme every day to help you find words in a grid. In Strands words can appear forward, backward, top-to-bottom or any number of ways in a traditional word search, and words can also form in the shape of an «L» or have a zigzag in them. When you find a word, tap the first letter and drag your finger to the other letters. Every letter in the puzzle is used, so if you still have letters that aren’t connected to words, you aren’t finished yet.

You can play Strands on any web browser but you need a New York Times subscription (again, $1 a week) to play.

Quartiles

Quartiles is a new word game Apple News Plus subscribers can access on their iPhone or iPad that’s running iOS 17.5 or later. In this word game, you’re given 20 tiles with letters on them and you’re trying to put them together to form different words. The longest words are four tiles long, and these are called Quartiles. The game can be tough but finding just one of the Quartiles is as satisfying as remembering something that was just on the tip of your tongue.

You can play Quartiles on an iPhone or iPad but you need an Apple News subscription (which starts at $13 a month) to play.

Multiple Wordle spinoffs: Dordle, Quordle, Octordle and Sedecordle

Are you up for a challenge? If you love Wordle and want puzzle games that take more brain power, you’ll want to check out either Dordle, Quordle, Octordle or Sedecordle. Each of these word games resembles Wordle, but they add more rows, columns and words to solve. Each game requires you to simultaneously solve a different number of words at once: Dordle has you solving two words, Quordle four at once, Octordle eight at once and Sedecordle a whopping 16. Good luck.

You can play Dordle, Quordle, Octordle or Sedecordle on any web browser.

Lewdle

«Lewdle is a game about rude words,» this game’s content advisory reads. «If you’re likely to be offended by the use of profanity, vulgarity or obscenity, it likely isn’t for you.» Translation: It’s Wordle but with bad words. The words range from mild — like poopy — to words that would make a sailor blush. Thankfully, despite this game’s content warning, slurs are not included. Like Wordle, gray, yellow and green blocks are used in the same way and there’s only one puzzle per day. So go forth and let the bad words flow!

You can play Lewdle on any web browser. You can also download this game from Apple’s App Store or the Google Play store.

Antiwordle

Tired of seeing those gray, yellow and green blocks plastered all over your social media feed? Give Antiwordle a try. While Wordle wants you to guess a word in as few tries as possible, Antiwordle wants you to avoid the word by guessing as many times as possible. When you guess, letters will turn gray, yellow or red. Gray means the letter isn’t in the word and can’t be used again, yellow means the letter is in the word and must be included in each subsequent guess and red means the letter is in the exact position within the word and is locked in place. If you can use every letter on the keyboard without getting the word correct, you win. Honestly, I’ve found this version of Wordle to be much harder than the original.

You can play Antiwordle on any web browser.

Absurdle

Absurdle bills itself as the «adversarial version» of Wordle. While Wordle nudges you in the right direction with each guess, Absurdle is trying to avoid giving you the correct answer. According to the game’s website, «With each guess, Absurdle reveals as little information as possible, changing the secret word if need be.» Absurdle doesn’t pick a word at the beginning of the game for the player to guess. Instead, it uses the player’s guesses to narrow its list of words down in an effort to make the game go as long as possible. The final word might not even include a yellow letter from one of your earlier guesses either. You can guess as many times as you want, which is helpful, and the best score you can get is four. Have fun!

You can play Absurdle on any web browser.

For more word game fun, check out CNET’s Wordle tips, the best Wordle jokes and everything you need to know about the word game. You can also check out what to know about the other New York Times-owned games, Connections and Strands.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, Nov. 9

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Nov. 9.

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

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? There are a couple of tricky ones today. (8-Across, for one.) Read on for the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Croat or Bulgarian
Answer: SLAV

5A clue: No-___ Texas Hold’em (poker variety)
Answer: LIMIT

7A clue: Proof you weren’t part of the crime, say
Answer: ALIBI

8A clue: Roll around in the morning?
Answer: BAGEL

9A clue: Purchase price
Answer: COST

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Thick piece of concrete
Answer: SLAB

2D clue: Light purple
Answer: LILAC

3D clue: Ol’ buddy ol’ pal
Answer: AMIGO

4D clue: Has good chemistry (with)
Answer: VIBES

6D clue: Lean to one side
Answer: TILT

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Nov. 9, #412

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Nov. 9, No. 412.

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 fun one, especially if you’re from the City of Angels. 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: Up into the air!

Green group hint: Tinseltown teams.

Blue group hint: The Metrodome is another one.

Purple group hint: Artsy Olympics.