Technologies

Apple’s AirTag 2 Comes With Significantly Longer Range and a Louder Speaker

Best of all? This updated version of this popular Apple accessory will be available at the same price as its predecessor.

As a surprise Monday treat, Apple has unveiled an update to its popular AirTag item tracker. There’s no radical design changes to the accessory — instead it’s all about extra power to enhance Precision Finding to help you locate your keys, lost luggage and other important items.

Inside the new AirTag is Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, which is the same one you’ll find in the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch Series 11. This boost in power, along with an upgrade to the AirTag’s Bluetooth chip, will let you find your lost items up to 50% farther away.

Apple says that the new AirTag’s louder speaker will also allow you to hear your AirTag from up to two times further away than you could previously. Another new feature means that for the first time, you can locate your AirTags using your Apple Watch — although you’ll need a Series 9, Ultra 2 or later.

Powered by the strength of Apple’s Find My network, AirTags allow you to keep track of any possessions you attach them to, alongside all of your Apple devices and any people who are sharing their locations with you. Apple says that the AirTag has «industry-leading» security features in place to prevent unwanted tracking and ensure that your location data and history are secure.

This is Apple’s first major update to the AirTag since it first launched the product back in 2021. Rather than calling it the AirTag 2 or a similar name, this new iteration will continue to be known as the AirTag. It’s a straight swap for the previous version, which it seems will be discontinued immediately.

If you’ve been thinking about investing in AirTags for a while, now is the perfect time to take the leap. Apple has priced the new accessory to match its predecessor, which means that a single AirTag will set you back $29 (£29), whereas a four-pack will cost $99 (£99). Ordering from Apple means that you can add personalized engraving to your AirTags for free.

AirTags and the lost luggage revolution

Back in 2022, when my luggage failed to arrive home from my honeymoon on the same flight as me, I declared Apple’s AirTags a travel essential.

Even though, at the time, I couldn’t share the information location directly with my airline, the fact that I could see where my lost luggage was and the journey it was taking to be reunited with me provided enormous peace of mind in a stressful situation.

In 2024, Apple raised its lost luggage game even further by partnering directly with airlines so that passengers could share their AirTag locations. A report from air transport industry tech company SITA released one year on, in December last year, said that thanks to the partnership, the number of truly lost bags had decreased by 90%.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Jan. 28

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Jan. 28.

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? Read on for all 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: Remove from a position of power
Answer: OUST

5A clue: Not cool
Answer: UNHIP

7A clue: «Fine, see if ___!»
Answer: ICARE

8A clue: Kind of bored
Answer: JADED

9A clue: Primatologist’s subjects
Answer: APES

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Kind of board
Answer: OUIJA

2D clue: Prepare to use, as a pen
Answer: UNCAP

3D clue: Desirable place to sit on a hot day
Answer: SHADE

4D clue: Pair on a bicycle
Answer: TIRES

6D clue: ___ Xing (street sign)
Answer: PED

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Jan. 28, #492

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Jan. 28, No. 492.

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 tough one. 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: Stats about an athlete.

Green group hint: Where to watch games.

Blue group hint: There used to be a ballpark.

Purple group hint: Names are hidden in these words.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Player bio information.

Green group: Sports streamers.

Blue group: Former MLB ballparks.

Purple group: Ends in a Hall of Fame QB.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is player bio information. The four answers are alma mater, height, number and position.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports streamers. The four answers are Netflix, Paramount, Peacock and Prime.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is former MLB ballparks. The four answers are Ebbets, Kingdome, Three Rivers and Tiger.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ends in a Hall of Fame QB. The four answers are forewarner, Harbaugh, honeymoon and outmanning.

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

Technologies

Google Rolls Out Expanded Theft Protection Features for Android Devices

The latest Android security update makes it harder for thieves to break into stolen phones, with stronger biometric requirements and smarter lockouts.

Google on Tuesday announced a significant update to its Android theft-protection arsenal, introducing new tools and settings aimed at making stolen smartphones harder for criminals to access and exploit. The updates, detailed on Google’s official security blog, build on Android’s existing protections and add both stronger defenses and more flexible user controls.

Smartphones carry your most sensitive data, from banking apps to personal photos, and losing your device to theft can quickly escalate into identity and financial fraud. To counter that threat, Google is layering multiple protective features that work before, during and after a theft.

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

At the center of the update is a revamped Failed Authentication Lock. Previously introduced in Android 15, this feature now gets its own toggle in Android 16 settings, letting you decide whether your phone should automatically lock itself after repeated incorrect PIN or biometric attempts. This gives you more control over how aggressively your phone defends against brute-force guessing without weakening security.

Google is also beefing up biometric security across the platform. A feature called Identity Check, originally rolled out in earlier Android versions, has been broadened to apply to all apps and services that use Android’s Biometric Prompt — the pop-up that asks for your fingerprint or face to confirm it’s really you — including third-party banking apps and password managers. This means that even if a thief somehow bypasses your lock screen, they’ll face an additional biometric barrier before accessing sensitive apps.

On the recovery side, Google improved Remote Lock, a tool that allows you to lock a lost or stolen device from a web browser by entering a verified phone number. The company added an optional security challenge to ensure only the legitimate owner can initiate a remote lock, an important safeguard against misuse.

And finally, in a notable regional rollout, Google said it is now enabling both Theft Detection Lock and Remote Lock by default on new Android device activations in Brazil, a market where phone theft rates are comparatively high. Theft Detection Lock uses on-device AI to detect sudden movements consistent with a snatch-and-run theft, automatically locking the screen to block immediate access to data.

With stolen phones often used to access bank accounts and personal data, Google says these updates are meant to keep a single theft from turning into a much bigger problem.