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I’m a Longtime Jackbox Games Player. The New Party Pack 11 Might Be My Favorite

I spoke with the Pack Lead about Party Pack 11, which might be the most well-rounded collection yet.

The Jackbox Party Pack 11, launching Thursday, Oct. 23, offers the series’ trademark variety of casual party games, from trivia to drawing to joke writing. I own a handful of these bundles, breaking them out whenever I have a group of friends over and we want something with lower stakes and less of a time commitment than playing a full D&D session or even breaking out a game of Camel Up. 

The great thing about a Jackbox title is that it mixes five different mini-games into one package, meaning almost anyone can find at least one they enjoy among the variety. The trouble is that the group may not always enjoy the whole pack, or even most of it. There may be only one or two of the five that really click with your group, perhaps neglecting the more experimental or complex challenges. 

«There’s a lot of different people out there,» Rich Gallup, director of production at Jackbox Games told me. «There’s a lot of different types of parties [with different ways they] play our games, and not every game is gonna fit every group.» Gallup referred to the «power of the pack» — the idea that each Party Pack should have a game for everyone, and in some cases, more than one game. 

Party Pack 11 manages the remarkable feat of being pretty even throughout. I played through the mini-games ahead of launch with a group of friends I would describe as «abundantly familiar» with prior entries in the Jackbox series. After playing through the entirety of the new Party Pack, we all agreed that almost every game felt equally interesting to us… even if we came out with some early favorites that we’ll probably go back to over and over again. 

All the games in Jackbox Party Pack 11

Hear Say

The standout of the new Party Pack is Hear Say, a game where your group is asked to record sound effects in response to prompts like [example] and [example]. Then you vote on the best recording.

«It’s a whole new form of creativity for our players,» Gallup said. «Writing jokes is hard. Drawing is hard. Making a fart noise, y’know… maybe that’s a little more universal. And the game has shown you can make fart noises over a lot of things, and they make a lot of people laugh.»

The simplicity is a huge part of the charm. Unlike Jackbox staples like Quiplash, which asks you to carefully craft cerebral (or crass) jokes, Hear Say is all about blurting silly little sounds into your phone. Pretend to almost sneeze. Forget your coworker’s name. You only have about 5 seconds for each sound effect, so brevity is king. 

Hear Say also gives you plenty of opportunities to make other players laugh. My group heard each other recording their sound effects, and sometimes had to redo our own because we burst out laughing in the middle of recording. If there’s a particularly popular sound effect, you can also replay it on demand after hearing everyone’s responses before voting is finished. 

The result is a characteristically delightful Jackbox jumble of chaos, aided by some great details like the animations of your chosen avatar whenever your recording plays. I would fire up Party Pack 11 just for Hear Say, and could probably play it several times in a row without feeling bored of the gimmick. 

Doominate

Look, I’m sure you’re not a bad person, but I’m equally sure you’d find it fun, occasionally and in small doses, to act like one. Doominate prompts you with nice, wholesome things, and then asks other players to ruin those things by twisting them out from under you. Then it ups the stakes by asking you to list extra things you enjoy so other people can spoil them. It’s a more personal brand of ruination. 

Things come back around at the end when you get to un-ruin a prompt for someone. So maybe you ruined «puppies» with the answer «puppies… running away from you.» You can redeem yourself by twisting it back into a semblance of its original shape: «puppies… running away from you… into your home together!» 

It’s a fun variation on the joke-writing format seen in prior Jackbox mini-games like Quiplash or Fibbage. And while you might wrinkle some relationships in the early rounds, the un-ruination in the final round gives you a chance to smooth things out again. 

Gallup said the final, good-natured twist came through playtesting. «There was a lot of testing of, like, do we like how the game ends if you’re just ruining things, or do we like that, like, upnote at the end of, like, eh we made it better — we’re still friends, right? And through our playtesting, that stuck.»

My group liked it as a warm-up game to get the jokes turning in our brains. It’s a pretty zippy game, too, which makes it easy to come back to. 

Cookie Haus

One of my favorite styles of Jackbox Games is games like Tee K.O., where you’re drawing something on your phone and matching the drawing with delectably funny titles. Cookie Haus asks you to do that by decorating cookies.

Customers will walk into the Cookie Haus with prompts for weird specific cookies they want. For example: «Mermaids, the wrong way.» Then it’s up to you to choose a cookie shape and get to frosting (and naming) their wildest dreams. 

The music and art design also make it a pleasant game to play.

«Cookie Haus is magical. It’s cozy,» Gallup said. «The act of icing a cookie just feels so delightful. It just feels really good. It looks delicious.» 

The cookies look surprisingly realistic, with smooth textures on the icing, and a variety of sprinkles you can place on top. I enjoyed the flexibility of working with different colors or sprinkles, but watch out for the restriction of only being able to undo your single most recent icing stroke or sprinkling. My whole group struggled with that. 

Be prepared to make revisions to cookies later in the game, giving you a chance to improve upon (or, depending on your mood, totally ruin) someone else’s creation. Overall, it’s a great game for when you just want to doodle and maybe get a few chuckles out of it. I’ve been mentally sketching out cookie abominations since I last played.

Suspectives

Suspectives has everyone fill out surveys about themselves and then secretly casts one person as a criminal while the rest of the group is tasked with interrogating everyone as survey info about the criminal slowly rolls in. 

Candidly, social dedication games are not my thing — I’m in the camp of people that finds them more stressful than fun. So Suspectives is the one game in Party Pack 11 that I don’t expect to replay much, although I did find it slightly less stressful than other games in the genre. 

Gallup acknowledged that challenge. «We knew it needed to be a game where someone like you and I, who don’t love lying, could have fun and, at the very least, hide a little bit. And the surveys and the pacing allows for that. Generally, you only have to stand up to one round of grilling, more or less, maybe two. And if you can make it through that one, I’ve found, personally, I can do OK.»

What I appreciated most about Suspectives was the fun Noir-ish atmosphere. The game has a strong flavor, and if anything brings me back, it’s most likely to be that. But I did also enjoy filling out the surveys and having a more structured game instead of being forced to argue nonstop for 20 minutes about who the criminal was. 

If you like social deduction games, there are a few neat inclusions in Suspectives, notably the ability to reveal one person’s answer to see if they’re telling the truth. These extra twists can mix up the formula and keep things interesting.

Legends of Trivia

While Hear Say is my favorite game in the pack, Legends of Trivia is the one I expect to play the most. Partly because it supports two players, which means my wife and I can pick it up at any time, but also because it blends together two things I love: trivia and roleplaying games. 

It’s also the first time Jackbox is making trivia collaborative.

«The goal was: We want people to work together on trivia,» Gallup said. «We learned very quickly that making a collaborative trivia game is a little harder than a competitive trivia game. Because if it’s collaborative, there’s almost always going to be someone who knows the answer. And so this is also likely Jackbox’s most difficult trivia game, because you don’t want that one person who’s going to answer every single question. (Which is me. I’m that person.)»

Legends of Trivia starts unlike any other trivia game, asking you to choose your character, complete with stats that affect the game. Health gives you more of a safety net, attack rewards you more for getting answers right, and gold gives you resources to pick up items. 

Then you set out on your adventure, where you’ll be stopped by trivia-obsessed monsters. Answer their questions correctly and you’ll deal damage to them and gain gold. Answering incorrectly means you miss an opportunity for damage, and you lose some health and gold. You can shop for items along the way, trading gold for trinkets that might heal your character or give you hints on tough questions.

Survive your trek and the game will measure the gold you acquired to determine whether you’ve reached «legendary» status. 

My group loved the combination of collaboration and individual choice in a trivia game. It’s up to you to buy your own items (or save your gold). Don’t agree with the consensus answer? Everyone answers individually, so you’ll either bask in the glory of being the smartest person in the room… or be yelled at by your party because you’re the reason the monster didn’t die this turn. 

Legends of Trivia also has the distinction of being an uncommonly long Jackbox game. While trivia tends to run a little longer than more joke-based entries, Legends of Trivia has three different levels for you to explore, each one taking around 20 to 30 minutes to complete, so a full run might reach an hour and a half. If you don’t want to trivia for that long, you can take a smaller slice, but I like the opportunity to keep going, similar to starting a «sequel» at the end of a Trivia Murder Party round.

Turn it up to 11

I’ve spent a lot of time in Jackbox games, and I expect Party Pack 11 to quickly rise near the top of my most-played list. Hear Say and Legends of Trivia tickle different parts of my brain and will both keep me coming back, and while I have the game open, there’s little reason not to also throw in a few rounds of Doominate and Cookie Haus. 

«Whenever you create something, you never believe it’s good until it’s out. So we’re really excited for the game to come out and for people to hopefully tell us it’s good,» Gallup said, before adding a characteristic Jackbox quip: «But if they don’t, we’ll be ready for that because we’re creators.»

Jackbox Party Pack 11 launches on Oct. 23 for all major platforms.

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Technologies

Touchdown! Disney, ESPN and Other Channels Are Back on YouTube TV

YouTube TV subscribers no longer need another streaming service — or to visit a sports bar — to watch the NFL or college football.

YouTube TV subscribers, your channels — and your football — are back. Disney and YouTube said Friday night that the two companies had reached an agreement. YouTube TV subscribers lost all of Disney’s channels, including ESPN and ESPN2, on Oct. 30. Those who wanted to watch NFL or college football on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 or Disney family-friendly hits such as Bluey, had to find other alternatives. 

«We’re happy to share that we’ve reached an agreement with Disney that preserves the value of our service for our subscribers and future flexibility in our offers,» a YouTube spokesperson said. «Subscribers should see channels including ABC, ESPN and FX returning to their service over the course of the day, as well as any recordings that were previously in their Library. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate our subscribers’ patience as we negotiated on their behalf. «

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

The companies said in a statement that they reached a multi-year deal and were already restoring the channels to YouTube TV. 

According to YouTube, subscribers should see content and saved recordings restored over the next 24 hours. So if you don’t have them back yet, they should show up soon.

I’m a YouTube TV subscriber myself, and as of 5:30 p.m. PT on Friday, Disney, ESPN and other channels have been restored for me. As a die-hard Minnesota Vikings fan (yes, I know), I added Fubo TV temporarily, but I won’t be keeping that subscription.

According to the statement, the deal will include the restoration of the channels, plus other items. The unlimited version of ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer service will now be made available at no additional cost to YouTube TV subscribers. Subscribers will also have access to a selection of live and on-demand programming from ESPN Unlimited inside YouTube TV. Also, select networks will be included in various genre-specific packages, and there will be the ability to include the Disney Plus Hulu Bundle as part of select YouTube offerings.

«This new agreement reflects our continued commitment to delivering exceptional entertainment and evolving with how audiences choose to watch,» Disney Entertainment Co-Chairmen Alan Bergman and Dana Walden and ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in the statement. «It recognizes the tremendous value of Disney’s programming and provides YouTube TV subscribers with more flexibility and choice. We are pleased that our networks have been restored in time for fans to enjoy the many great programming options this weekend, including college football.»

Disney-owned channels were pulled on Oct. 30 when the agreement between the two companies expired.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the resulting 25-day blackout was the longest in recent memory for Disney.

Here’s a full list of the channels that were removed due to the dispute:

  • ABC
  • ABC News Live
  • ACC Network
  • Baby TV Español (Spanish Plan)
  • Disney Channel
  • Disney Junior
  • Disney XD
  • ESPN
  • ESPN Deportes (Spanish Plan)
  • ESPNews
  • ESPNU
  • ESPN2
  • Freeform
  • FX
  • FXM
  • FXX
  • Localish
  • Nat Geo
  • Nat Geo Mundo (Spanish Plan)
  • Nat Geo Wild
  • SEC Network
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How to Get the Most Out of Apple AirTags: A Comprehensive User Guide

Apple’s tiny trackers have become invaluable additions for travel as well as keeping tabs on everyday items. Here’s how to make them work best for you.

The last thing you want to deal with when traveling is lost luggage. In the past, you were at the mercy of the overburdened airlines to find a missing bag, but that’s all changed now. I consider Apple AirTags essential everyday items — small enough to stash in a bag or purse, battery life you can forget about for months and able to give you peace of mind when something goes missing, even if that’s just your keys inside the house.

Apple’s portable Bluetooth trackers are quickly becoming nearly ubiquitous. They’re so popular that major airports and airlines are now plugged in to Apple’s Find My service and can help you pinpoint a bag that could be wending its way through an airport’s luggage system or was left behind where you started your trip.

I already use Apple’s Find My service to keep tabs on devices, such as the iPad I frequently leave in my living room, as well as where family members are via their iPhones. For other items like my keys and everyday bag, I’ve come to rely on several Apple AirTags that fit into or onto almost anything I want to track. Apple’s tracker depends on the crowdsourced Find My network to help you pinpoint your items, from keys you’ve misplaced at home to a bag you may have left in the office.

Here’s all you want to know about AirTags. For more, learn about why you shouldn’t put an AirTag on a pet and discover five unexpected places to stash an AirTag.

What’s an Apple AirTag?

An AirTag is an individual tracking device that securely broadcasts its location using Bluetooth wireless networking. It’s a small glossy white puck not much larger than a US quarter and about the height of three stacked coins. A CR2032 coin cell battery keeps the AirTag powered for roughly a year.

Once the AirTag is paired with an iPhone or iPad, you can essentially forget about it. Hang it on a keychain or drop it into a bag —anything you want to be able to track or find later.

How much do AirTags cost and where can I buy them?

A single AirTag retails for $29 direct from Apple, and can be bought for around $24 from most outlets that sell electronics.

However, it’s always more economical to buy AirTags in packs of four — once you find a use for a solitary AirTag you’ll soon think of other things you want to track. Apple sells the set for $99 and some retailers, such as Amazon

, Best Buy and Walmart, have them for around $75, bringing the per-item cost down below $20. AirTags are also frequently reduced for big sales such as Black Friday and Prime Day.

If you do order from Apple, you can engrave initials, numbers and emoji for free, which can help you tell the AirTags apart (or just add a personal spin).

Is it difficult to set up a new AirTag?

In typical Apple fashion, activating a new AirTag is easy. Initially, a plastic tab slipped in between the electronics and battery keeps the AirTag inert. Once you pull that tab and the pieces make contact, the AirTag starts broadcasting its presence. When you bring it close to an iPhone or iPad, a dialog box appears, giving you the option to connect the AirTag.

When you tap Connect, choose a description of what the tag will be associated with, such as «Handbag» or «Luggage»; you can also enter a custom name. Choose an emoji to represent the AirTag in the Find My app and tap Continue. The AirTag is linked to your Apple ID.

How do I locate an AirTag?

In the Find My app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, tap the Items button to view the AirTags you’ve activated. On an Apple Watch, open the Find Items app.

Tap the item you want to locate. If you think it’s close by, the easy option is to tap the Play Sound button, which makes the AirTag emit a high-pitched trill. However, if you have an iPhone 11 or later (not counting the iPhone SE), tapping Find uses the iPhone’s Ultra Wideband (UWB) chip to locate the AirTag with more precision —not just estimating the distance, such as «1.5 ft nearby,» but also point you in the right direction as you move around.

If the item is not in your general vicinity, the Find button becomes a Directions button that will hand off the location to the Maps app for driving, walking, transit or cycling routes.

What if I forget items while I’m heading out?

Being able to find something I’ve lost is invaluable, but it would be better if I didn’t forget it in the first place. For every AirTag, you can enable Notify When Left Behind, an option that sends a notification if you and an AirTag that was with you are no longer together.

That could be as simple as forgetting a bag at a restaurant or — more alarming —if someone swiped the item and is making a getaway.

What’s the secret to how AirTags work?

You know how in many thrillers and spy movies someone plants a tracker on a person and is then able to pinpoint the target’s location no matter where they are? That always seemed far-fetched to me — what sort of range would a tiny piece of electronics have, really? — but an AirTag is essentially that.

The AirTag itself does not have that sort of range, but it has something better: millions of devices carried by Apple customers surrounding it. On a regular interval, the AirTag sends out a low-power Bluetooth signal containing an encrypted ID. Any nearby iPhone, iPad or Mac picks up the signal, adds its location coordinates (if it knows them) and sends that to Apple servers in a secure background transmission.

That’s how, when my luggage chose to spend an extra day in Europe without me, I knew it was still in the airport in France. Likely an iPhone owned by a traveler or employee picked up the ID of the AirTag in my bag and relayed that to Apple. When I opened the Find My app on my iPhone in Seattle, it queried the servers and presented the AirTag’s last known location.

All of this happens in the background — no personal information is sent, and the impact to the relaying device’s performance and battery is negligible.

What about privacy? Can a hidden AirTag track me?

Just as you can use an AirTag to track your personal objects, it is possible that someone could drop an AirTag into your bag or coat pocket to try to track your movements. Apple has put a few safeguards in place to try to prevent that type of situation.

If your iPhone or iPad detects an unknown AirTag in your vicinity that is persistently near you, a notification appears that says «AirTag Found Moving With You.» When you ransack your belongings and find it, open the Find My app on your iPhone or iPad, tap Items and then tap Identify Found Item. Place the AirTag against the back of the device at the top until you see a notification. When you tap that, you’re taken to a web page with the tag’s serial number and, optionally, contact information.

If it turns out a family member’s AirTag fell out of a bag, no worries. If it’s one that’s unfamiliar, you can follow instructions for how to disable the tag.

For more, see how to protect yourself from being tracked.

What if I suspect that my AirTag is stolen?

You’ve looked everywhere, used the Find feature to scan for it, but your item containing an AirTag is nowhere to be found. Now what?

In the AirTag’s details in the Find My app, scroll down to Lost AirTag and tap Show Contact Info. If someone finds the tag and checks it as described just above, you can have a phone number or email displayed, plus an optional message, when they look up its information.

The other option is to choose Share Item Location, which creates a link you can send to someone identifying where the tag is. The link is active for just one week, which is hopefully more than enough time to let someone track it down. For example, suppose your bag is swiped: You could give the shared link to the police so they can track it down. (For safety reasons, don’t confront someone who’s stolen your property.)

When the item and its AirTag are returned, a notification appears that you’ve been reunited. Or, you can make the tag’s whereabouts hidden at any point by tapping Stop Sharing Item Location in the same screen, which invalidates the shared link.

How can I share an AirTag with someone I trust?

An AirTag is linked to your Apple Account, but for years that presented a problem: AirTags assigned to other people in my household would trigger the «AirTag Found Moving With You» warning — not great on family trips when we’d take my wife’s car.

Now, fortunately, it’s possible to share an AirTag’s location with up to five people. Tap a tag in the Find My app and under Share AirTag tap Add Person. Tap Continue on the screen explaining what will happen, then select a contact and tap Share.

In that person’s Find My app, they can accept the shared item. Note that all people you add can track the location.

How long does the battery last and how do I replace it?

In my experience, the CR2032 coin battery in each AirTag lasts about a year. When the level dips below about 10% remaining, you’re alerted that the battery is low and a red indicator appears in the Find My app.

To replace the battery, turn the silver back counter-clockwise to release its latches. Lift the existing battery out and replace it with a new one, making sure the battery’s identifying markings are facing you. Then align the tabs of the metal portion with the slots in the plastic piece, press lightly and turn clockwise. The AirTag will chirp when the electronics and battery are securely in contact.

Can I use AirTags with an Android phone?

AirTags are not directly compatible with Android phones — there’s no app that ties into Apple’s Find My network. To get the same tracking functionality, look into the Chipolo One Point tracker that uses Google’s Find My Device network.

Apple once offered an Android app called Tracker Detect that would let you identify a found AirTag, but that’s not available for newer Android devices — an app with that name in the Google Play store is from a separate developer. However, for phones with NFC chips installed, you can place a found AirTag against the back of the device to view information about it.

For more, learn about this year’s best AirTag accessories and everything about Apple Intelligence.

Your iPhone Wants These 11 Essential Accessories in the New Year

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Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Nov. 15, #888

Here are some hints — and the answers — for the NYT Connections puzzle for Nov. 15, #888.

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 includes some tricky words. If you need help sorting them 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: Yum!

Green group hint: Grammar time.

Blue group hint: They win Oscars and Tonys.

Purple group hint: Think DMZ.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Enhance the taste of.

Green group: Punctuation marks.

Blue group: Kinds of actors.

Purple group: ____ zone.

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 enhance the taste of. The four answers are flavor, salt, season and spice.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is punctuation marks. The four answers are colon, dash, period and slash.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is kinds of actors. The four answers are character, film, method and stage.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ zone. The four answers are buffer, comfort, time and twilight.

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