Technologies

Meta’s New AI Model Is Reportedly Delayed Again. Is ‘Avocado’ Toast?

Avocado, code name of Meta’s next-generation foundational AI model, might not be released until May.

Meta’s Avocado isn’t ripe quite yet. The company has reportedly delayed the release of its next-generation foundational model until May, according to The New York Times, citing unnamed sources. The model has fallen short «on internal tests for reasoning, coding and writing,» compared with rival models from Google, OpenAI and Anthropic.

Meta has spent billions of dollars overhauling its efforts to build artificial intelligence models and products, including purchasing a stake in Alexandr Wang’s startup for $14.3 billion to make him chief AI officer. The company has poured buckets of cash into hiring top AI engineers last year across its organization. In a January earnings call, Meta confirmed it plans to raise its spending from $72 billion last year to $115 billion to $135 billion, attributing the increase to supporting its AI labs. But all that money hasn’t bought the company the results it hoped for, with Google, OpenAI and Anthropic consistently lapping Meta with their newer models.

A Meta spokesperson told CNET, «As we’ve said publicly, our next model will be good, but more importantly, show the rapid trajectory we’re on, and then we’ll steadily push the frontier over the course of the year as we continue to release new models. We’re excited for people to see what we’ve been cooking very soon.»

That rapid trajectory is key to catch up and keep pace with other AI builders. Google leapfrogged its rivals in November with its Gemini 3 model, showcasing its impressive coding and research abilities. OpenAI was quick to follow with updates to GPT-5. More recently, Claude Code and Cowork from Anthropic have proven to be the most reliable agentic AI available, tools that can handle tasks without human babysitting. However, the biggest AI news from Meta this year is that it’s buying Moltbook, a social media platform designed exclusively for AI bots.

Meta has been in the news for other reasons. A renewed wave of privacy concerns has crested over people using smart glasses, particularly the Meta Ray-Ban glasses, to record others without their knowledge or consent. A lawsuit alleges that human staffers behind Meta’s smart glasses reviewed footage of people who clearly didn’t know they were being recorded, like while they were undressing or having sex. On the social media side of the business, a high-profile trial is debating whether platforms like Meta’s Instagram and Facebook are addictive to teens and pose significant health risks.

Technologies

AI-Recommended Music? Spotify Is Giving You the Power to Personalize

On stage at SXSW, Spotify Co-CEO Gustav Söderström announced a new feature that lets you shape your own Taste Profile.

A new Spotify feature promises to let you review and customize your Taste profile, Co-CEO Gustav Söderström announced during a session at South by Southwest Friday.

Right now, Spotify’s Taste Profile is AI-driven based on your listening habits, history and song preferences. The in-app AI analyzes what you skip, play, repeat, revisit and save to personalize the recommendations you see in Discover Weekly, Daily Mixes and Wrapped playlists. But this new feature is giving you, the listener, the power to shape what you see.

This feature is currently in beta and will begin rolling out first to listeners in New Zealand in the coming weeks.

Fine-tune your Taste

With this feature, Spotify is taking you under the hood to show you how the app understands your music taste. Then you can edit it for yourself to mold what you’re recommended on Spotify’s homepage.

Want to listen to more Justin Bieber? You can ask for more. Want less house music added to your recommended playlists? Ask for less.

You can also tell the app what genres and artists you’re in the mood for, or if there’s a certain vibe you’re looking to curate.

Over time, your input will fine-tune your music recommendations, so what gets prioritized, queued and discovered on Home is curated with your help.

Technologies

Dive, Decorate and Nurture: Apple Arcade Adds Three New Games in April

It’s a month for every type of gamer, with titles including Dredge Plus, Unpacking Plus and My Very Hungry Caterpillar Plus becoming available.

April for Apple Arcade is going to be a fun month for gamers. Dredge Plus lets players explore and fish in mysterious waters, while Unpacking Plus helps scratch that puzzle game itch, and for the kids, a children’s book favorite involving one hungry caterpillar. Between spooky adventures, relaxing puzzles and family-friendly fun, there’s something for every type of player coming to the subscription service next month.

Apple Arcade is filled with familiar and classic games, alongside exclusive titles, that you can play for $7 per month (£7, AU$10). Many of these games can be found in the App Store, but they may have paywalls and ads that hinder your gaming experience.

An Apple Arcade subscription provides access to games without paywalls and ads, a feature typically denoted by «Plus» in the name. Here are all the games you can play on the service starting in April.

Dredge Plus

Release date: April 2
Developer: Black Salt Games

The App Store Awards’ iPad Game of the Year for 2025, Dredge Plus is the haunting fishing game complete with all previously released content, including the DLCs The Pale Reach, The Iron Rig and Blackstone Key. Players take control of their own trawler in a remote archipelago in search of treasures buried deep in the waters. With those treasures are a wealth of mysteries and horrors waiting to be brought to shore.

Unpacking Plus

Release date: April 2
Developer: Humble Bundle

Unpacking Plus is a puzzle game about the experience of moving into a new place and placing all your belongings in a new place called home. As the room changes, so does the story of the person moving. Unpacking Plus satisfies that itch of wanting to create an ideal and orderly living space while dropping clues about who is going through a big change in their life. There are no timers, scores or traditional goals, letting players relax and focus on the simple satisfaction of organizing each space exactly how they want.

My Very Hungry Caterpillar Plus

Release date: April 2
Developer: StoryToys Limited

My Very Hungry Caterpillar Plus brings Eric Carle’s beloved children’s character to life in a colorful, interactive experience where players care for their own growing caterpillar. Starting from a tiny egg, you feed, play with and nurture the creature as it explores a bright garden world filled with small activities like picking fruit, painting pictures, growing flowers and discovering toys. As the caterpillar grows, new activities unlock and the adventure expands. Eventually, it forms a cocoon and transforms into a butterfly, letting the cycle begin again in a gentle, kid-friendly game designed to encourage curiosity, creativity and a love of nature.

You can start playing these games in April, and you can access plenty of others now in Apple Arcade for $7 a month or $50 annually. You can also try Apple Arcade free for one month with your first sign-up, or you can get a three-month free trial when you buy an Apple device. To access Apple Arcade, open the App Store on your iOS or iPadOS device and tap the joystick in the menu bar.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 13 #740

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 13, No. 740.

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 might be easy for fans of a certain musical genre. 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: Mountain band.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Traditional tunes.

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:

BLUE, GAME, CHAR, CHARM, SARGE, SEEN, BRAT, BRIT, RILE, NOSE, DARN

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:

BANJO, FIDDLE, GUITAR, MANDOLIN, HARMONICA

Today’s Strands spangram

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

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.