Technologies

Animal Crossing Update Adds Lego Furniture, With a Switch 2 Version Arriving the Same Day

Fans of Animal Crossing will have a reason to go back to their island.

Animal Crossing fans just received a big surprise, and it’s not just a new content update. A Switch 2 version is on its way.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons will receive its first big update in three years, according to a post from Nintendo on Thursday. The update, labeled 3.0, will roll out on Jan. 15, the same day the Switch 2 version of the game will be available for purchase.

Released for the original Switch back in 2020, New Horizons was the first Animal Crossing game to come to a Nintendo console since 2008’s Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Nintendo Wii.

Nintendo regularly updated New Horizons for two years after its release, but stopped at update 2.0.6 released in November 2022. Two updates were added earlier in the year to prepare the game for playability on the Switch 2.

Animal Crossing 3.0 Update

In the 3.0 update coming on Jan. 15, a new hotel is opening. Players can help bring in guests to stay at the hotel by decorating guest rooms and dressing up mannequins to sell resort clothing.

For those who haven’t touched New Horizons in years, a Reset Service will be available. Players can have their island cleaned up, and items can be stored away or trashed for those who want a clean slate.

Players with a Nintendo Switch Online membership will have access to up to three islands, where they can explore and do as they please. These new areas are available on Slumber Island. It’s up to the player to decide how the island will look, what items or plants are on it and even which characters will be found on the island. Players can also invite friends to build it together.

New Horizons will feature special collaborations and Nintendo retro gear. Lego items will be available in the update for players to decorate their homes with or clothing to dress up their villagers with. Retro Nintendo consoles, such as the NES and Game Boy, can also be used as decorative items.

If the player has a Switch Online subscription, some classic titles such as Ice Climbers and Dr. Mario can be played via these in-game devices. There are also special items based on The Legend of Zelda and Splatoon series when players tap their amiibo from those games onto the Switch while playing.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Switch 2

Switch 2 owners can get in on the digital life game with Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. Not only will this new version come with updated graphics, including 4K resolution in TV mode, but it will also add special features that can only be done on the newest console.

One of the features is mouse controls for the Joy-Con 2. Players will be able to use the controller as a mouse to decorate indoors, create custom designs and write handwritten messages for the bulletin board.

Residents in the game can now be found by saying their name into the Switch 2’s built-in microphone while using the megaphone in the game. Multiplayer has also improved dramatically, with 12-player sessions available for those playing on the new edition, and CameraPlay is supported to allow players to see one another.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch 2 will be available for purchase on Jan. 15 for $65. Owners of the original Switch version of New Horizons can upgrade to the Switch 2 version for $5.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Nov. 23, #630

Today’s Strands puzzle is a delicious one, and it might make you hungry. Here are hints, answers and help for Nov. 23, #630.

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 a delicious one, and it might make you hungry. 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: Sweet tooth

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Halloween treats.

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:

STRAND, STRANDS, REDS, REND, SEND, SENDS, TEND, TENDS, RENDS, SANT, RUST

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:

DOTS, NERDS, RUNTS, STARBURST, WHATCHAMACALLIT

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is CANDYAISLE. To find it, start with the C that’s three letters to the right on the bottom row, and wind up.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Nov. 23, #896

Today’s Connections puzzle is a fun mix of categories, with two entertainment sections. Here are hints, answers and help for Nov. 23, #896.

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 mix of categories, with two entertainment sections. If you need help sorting the words 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: To go light on someone’s punishment.

Green group hint: Where our furry friends live.

Blue group hint: Award-winning director.

Purple group hint: Swedish pop group tunes.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Lenient.

Green group: Animal homes.

Blue group: Oliver Stone movies.

Purple group: Second words in titles of ABBA hits.

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 lenient. The four answers are easy, lax, loose and slack.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is animal homes. The four answers are burrow, den, lodge and warren.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Oliver Stone movies. The four answers are JFK, Nixon, Platoon and Wall Street.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is second words in titles of ABBA hits. The four answers are Gimme, Mia, Queen and Trouper.

Technologies

Las Vegas First Responders Lean on AT&T’s FirstNet to Stay Connected During the F1 Race

Amid the chaos of the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, I talked to AT&T and first responders about how they plan and operate during events like this.

At the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix race, Rich Johnson can hear the distant percussive blats of the F1 cars racing in downtown Las Vegas, but he won’t get to see them all weekend. And he’s fine with that.

Although he’s in town specifically for the event, his main focus is ensuring that, in the event of any emergencies, first responders can communicate and coordinate effectively. I spent time with Johnson, the associate director of network disaster recovery for AT&T, to learn more about an important piece of the race weekend that most people won’t — and shouldn’t have to — think about.

Johnson oversees teams of people and resources strategically positioned around the race track and throughout the city as part of FirstNet, the First Responder Network Authority, «a private/public partnership between AT&T and the US government to create, maintain and service a nationwide public safety drop-in network,» he explains.

FirstNet operates on Band 14, a patch of spectrum dedicated for first responders so they don’t have to compete for a signal if something happens, even in a wireless-rich environment like a Formula 1 race.

«If our primary communication methods fail, we have backups that we can go to,» said Brian O’Neal, deputy fire chief with the Clark County Fire Department and emergency manager for Clark County. «Typically that involves moving from radio to cellular. When you look at an event like this, where a 3.8-mile track is running through the middle of the city, capacity within that system becomes a concern.»

That’s where FirstNet comes in, enabling every first responder to communicate with one another on that dedicated spectrum, which is not affected by all of the other competing signals.

As I spoke with O’Neal and Johnson, several bright yellow Clark County fire trucks rolled out behind them to be deployed throughout the area. Johnson pointed out that when the event is going on, traffic is even worse because it’s locked down, so ingress and egress is extremely difficult.

«All these fire trucks will end up being in that footprint before it gets locked out,» said Johnson. «And because we are so embedded with public safety, that’s part of the plan. We have our staff and equipment pre-staged throughout the footprint as well.»

One piece of equipment Johnson showed me was a small portable trailer that can be set up by a single person. When it’s activated, a process that takes about 30 minutes, it provides about a mile of FirstNet coverage.

It’s often towed by a larger response communications vehicle, which was also parked at the ready and has a deployable 20-foot mast that can provide cellular to first responders over about a mile-and-a-half radius.

Johnson also took me to the roof of a nearby parking garage, where a portable network tower occupied two parking spaces with a lovely view of downtown Las Vegas and the race track in the distance. It’s up there in «hot standby» mode as a backup to ensure a consistent flow of communication. If needed, it can be activated remotely in a few seconds, using a large dish to communicate with a long-range satellite as the data backhaul.

It’s unlikely the unit will be used during the weekend, but the commitment to multiple redundant systems is why it’s parked in the same spot as it was last year.

Planning for an event like this takes about six months, said Johnson, although much of it came together in four months this year because this is the third Las Vegas Grand Prix where FirstNet has been on hand. Both Johnson and O’Neal reiterated that the technologies and capabilities of these tools are used throughout the year for everyday operations, too. They’re just scaled up dramatically for a planned event like this.

Johnson said AT&T has over 190 assets like these dedicated to FirstNet, with access to over 750 AT&T assets they can use exclusively for public safety if needed.