Technologies

Geminids Is the Final Big Meteor Shower of 2025, and It’s Coming Soon

This meteor shower can throw dozens of shooting stars per hour under ideal conditions.

December is a busy month between the holiday season, the winter solstice and the occasional aurora borealis. It also hosts one of the best meteor showers of the year, with the Geminids. This often underrated meteor shower doesn’t get the attention that the Perseids meteor shower gets, but it often rains down just as many meteors if you’re willing to brave the cold to go out and see them.

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Geminids, known for its bright, colorful shooting stars, began the show on Thursday and will end on Dec. 17. It’s not the longest-lasting meteor shower, but don’t let its short length fool you. It has one of the most active peaks of any named meteor shower and is capable of throwing over 100 meteors per hour in a good year, according to the American Meteor Society. The Geminids meteor shower peaks on Saturday evening.

It comes to Earth thanks to the 3200 Phaethon asteroid. This is unusual because most meteor showers are fed from comets, which tend to have tails made of ice, dust and rock. Asteroids are made of rock and metal, and don’t typically have tails. That makes the 3200 Phaethon’s tail unique. The only other major meteor shower that is fed by an asteroid instead of a comet is January’s Quadrantids meteor shower. The rest are fed by comets.

How and where to see Geminids

The Geminids meteor shower peaks on the evening of Saturday. During its peak, the AMS says that it can spit out upwards of 150 meteors per hour, although NASA predicts a much tamer 40 to 50 meteors per hour and its peak to occur on Friday. For the best results, we recommend going out on both nights, just in case.

Like all named meteor showers, the Geminids name is the clue for where to find them. The radiant, the point from which the meteors will appear to originate, is in the Gemini constellation. Per Stellarium’s sky map, Gemini will rise out of the eastern sky just after sunset in the Northern Hemisphere. It’ll be accompanied by Jupiter, so if you can find Jupiter, you’re looking in the right spot. Gemini will streak across the sky before ending up on the western horizon at sunrise.

For the best results, the usual skygazing rules apply. People in the city probably won’t see any meteors, while those in the suburbs may see only one or two. The optimal viewing experience occurs when you leave the big city to escape light pollution. Then all you have to do is face yourself toward Gemini and Jupiter and wait. Your eyes may need upward of 30 minutes to adjust to the darkness, so patience is a virtue.

As with most meteor showers, you won’t need any special equipment, and experts recommend that you not take any. Binoculars and telescopes restrict how much of the sky you can see, which may cause you to miss a meteor. The moon, a common source of light pollution when skygazing, will only be 30% full, which means it’s unlikely to inhibit meteor shower viewing.

Michelle Nichols, director of public observing at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, also recommends dressing warmer than you think you’ll need, since you’ll be outside for a while. She also recommends refraining from alcohol since it can cause you to lose heat faster. This is especially important if you live in the Northeastern US, where another polar vortex is going to drive down temperatures. Make sure to dress appropriately and stay safe.

Technologies

ADT Acquires AI Company for Sensing People and Activity in Your Home

ADT’s acquisition of Origin AI brings presence-sensing technology under the home security company’s umbrella.

ADT on Tuesday announced an interesting new acquisition for anyone looking to the future of home security — and it’s no surprise AI is a part of the story. In a $170 million deal, ADT has purchased Origin AI, which specializes in people detection in spaces like the inside of your home, something the security company is calling AI-sensing technology.

ADT has not disclosed specific plans for AI technology, but this comes at a time when concerns about corporate surveillance by companies like Ring and Flock have reached a fever pitch.

«ADT has been testing and evaluating Origin’s technology pre-acquisition,» ADT Chief Business Officer Omar Kahn told me. «In 2026, the focus is on integrating the technology into ADT’s platform, with commercialization expected to begin in 2027.»

Presence sensing doesn’t sound like the chatty, summary-creating large language models we consider AI these days, nor the person and car recognition features companies like Flock use. It’s a system that analyzes home Wi-Fi frequencies for disruptions. The AI is trained in pattern recognition to identify which disruptions indicate that humans are at home (ignoring pets) and what they may be doing.

The technology has cropped up in many spots over the past couple of years. I’ve seen it before with aging-in-place technology and Philips Hue’s newest smart bulbs, but most recently with Aqara’s sensor at CES 2026, which can detect when multiple people are congregating, standing, sitting or lying down.

How does presence sensing affect people’s privacy?

It’s not clear how ADT will use Origin’s presence sensing in its home security systems, though the company did mention smart automation, personalization and reducing false alarms. In one example, it could automatically adjust an ADT-supported thermostat when multiple people are detected moving around a house. But that also raises privacy questions.

Presence sensing, like Origin’s tech, has certain privacy benefits. It doesn’t use cameras to film anyone or save video recordings of people, and it doesn’t create identity profiles based on someone’s face or other data. It can’t tell who is in a house, only where they are and how/when they are moving around (or not moving).

That allows for capabilities such as notifying a nursing home that a resident hasn’t gotten out of bed when they usually do, without invasive investigation. But the technology also raises privacy concerns: A company could know when people in their own home are in bed, watching TV, or sitting to eat dinner, even if it can’t identify them by name.

ADT calls features like these home awareness, but also mentions municipal compliance and coordination with first responders. That could mean giving firefighters information on how many people are in a burning building. But there are concerns. Recent news reports indicate that some local law enforcement agencies have shared information with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for use in home and apartment raids, raising the possibility that the technology could be applied in similar contexts.

The technology’s implications may ultimately hinge on how ADT chooses to implement and regulate it. Until those details are clearer, its promise and its risks remain closely intertwined.

Technologies

New York Times Debuts the Midi Crossword, Its In-Between Puzzle

Is the Mini Crossword too easy, but the original one just too time-consuming? Here’s your new puzzle.

The daily New York Times Mini Crossword can be solved in a minute or so, while the newspaper’s iconic original crossword puzzle might take hours. Now, puzzlers who want an in-between diversion can try a new puzzle from the Times, introduced this week — the Midi Crossword puzzle. (And CNET readers can get daily answers for five Times puzzles — Wordle, Connections, Strands, Connections: Sports Edition and the Mini Crossword.)

New York Times Games subscribers can play the Midi in the New York Times Games app for iOS and Android devices, or on mobile or desktop web. It’s online-only, not in the print newspaper.

«We’re really leaning into the digital-first nature of the puzzle,» NYT Games Puzzle Editor Ian Livengood said in a Times article about the new puzzle. «About once a week, the puzzle will have a visual effect — an extra flourish when you start or after you solve. This could be a cool animation or colorful shading.»

As the name «Midi» suggests, this is a mid-sized crossword puzzle. Where the Mini Crossword usually only has 5 Across and 5 Down clues, the Midi is usually a 9-by-9 puzzle, sometimes as long as 11-by-11.

«If you feel like the Mini is not enough but the Daily is too much, this will be the perfect puzzle for you,» Livengood said.

Each Midi Crossword has a theme that hints at the topics of the clues and answers. Unlike the other puzzles, Livengood says the Midi might occasionally have two-letter words and repeating answers.

I tried the Midi Crossword

I tried Wednesday’s Midi Crossword and solved it in just over 3 minutes. That’s much longer than I spend on the Mini Crossword, but much faster than the original New York Times crossword puzzle takes me.

I thought most of the clues were pretty simple, and the few tricky ones filled themselves in once I moved from Across to Down.

If you’re a New York Times Games subscriber, this is a nice addition to your daily puzzle stable. It tests your mind a bit more than the Mini, but you can also solve it while watching TV or waiting for someone to text you back.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 26, #521

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 26, No. 521.

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. I started mentally connecting the purple category answers right away. Movie-goers and TV watchers, this is a good puzzle for you. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle 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 appear in the NYT Games app, but it does 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: Meet the new boss.

Green group hint: SNL star.

Blue group hint: WNBA player.

Purple group hint: They’re not real.