Technologies

United Airlines App Adds TSA Wait Predictions, AirTag Luggage Tracking

United will now allow travelers to share the location of lost items equipped with AirTags directly with airline staff.

Air travel comes with plenty of guesswork, especially before you even reach the gate. Starting Wednesday, United Airlines is rolling out several new features in its mobile app that could help.

The new additions are designed to help travelers gain insights into flight details, notably how long security check-ins are taking at their departure airport. That’s a particularly important addition amid the ongoing partial government shutdown, which left TSA employees unpaid and prompted some agents to quit. Some agents have begun to receive back pay.

But security check-in predictions are only the start of the changes coming to United’s app. One change addresses another frequent headache for flyers — lost luggage. United’s new platform now supports Apple’s AirTag tracker so that flyers can share item locations directly with United customer service staff.

CNET has been recommending using AirTags in checked luggage for years, so if you’re already placing AirTags in your baggage, this is a useful feature for you. It may also be showing up at other airlines. Just don’t try the same trick with your pets.

A United representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

«We appreciate the work and professionalism of our TSA agents, and while most began receiving back pay earlier this week, the US Department of Homeland Security shutdown continues, and people want to stay informed about expected security wait times at our airports,» Jason Birnbaum, United’s chief information officer, said in a statement.

How far is my gate?

The app also adds turn-by-turn directions to your gate, including estimated walking times and automatic in-app flight status updates.

Travelers will also have access to more self-service tools, including the option to rebook directly in the app and to receive digital vouchers received when a flight is delayed.

You’ll also find an option to receive radar-map text to see how the weather will impact your layover or destination.

Technologies

April Fools’ Day 2026: The Good, the Bad and the Bizarre of This Year’s Corporate Jokes

T-Mobile releases a cologne that smells like a phone (not really), Fortnite allows llama riding (yes, really), Warhammer: The Musical and more.

If you’re online at all in 2026, you know it can feel like April Fools’ Day every day. You’ve almost certainly come across videos and content, often created with AI, and had to stop and ask yourself if what you’re looking at is true or made up.

Some are obvious. You mean, there aren’t really beds made of kittens, cotton candy and rubies? And I wasn’t really offered a job guarding a spooky funeral home where I might hear tapping coming from the morgue freezer at 3 a.m.? (Both of these are TikTok videos, and the AI is scarily good — and also just scary.)

As brands roll out their April Fools’ Day jokes for this year, I keep thinking that in an AI-heavy world, the jokes seem less surprising, the faked-up art less novel. Here are some highlights from this year’s list of April 1 corporate and tech jokes.

Dyson beauty tools for pets

PSA: Do not use a styling tool, especially a heated one, on your poor pets. That said, this April Fools’ Day prank promoting a fictional Dyson Air Wrap for pets is pretty cute. That horse, cat and dog look pretty elegant with their new curls. There’s a fun YouTube Short, too.

PlayStation Project Playmo

Why have your own fun when you can outsource it? IGN created an April Fools’ Day prank involving a fake PlayStation controller dubbed Project Playmo with Al Copilot. The joke is that it can not only play games for you, but will override your wishes and do a lot of embarrassing or dumb things, like change your online ID to something humiliating or play back your Voice Chat recordings at the worst possible times.

Snap gets Real

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, poked fun at Instagram Reels and TikTok with a joke video announcing that it is renaming Snapchat’s Spotlight feed to «Reals.» Co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel pops up in a social-media video where he describes «Reals» as a place where «real people share real moments. Really.» It’s a pointed reference to the fact that Snap originally popularized vertical short-form content with Stories long before many of its competitors copied the format.

Fortnite: Big heads and llama riding

Here’s an April Fools’ prank that’s more than a joke, it’s real — but only temporary. Fortnite players can try out a 24-hour-only April Fools’ Day game update that throws some truly wacky changes into the popular game. Players get enormous heads, can ride on other players’ shoulders, can use finger guns that go «pew, pew,» make a splat sound when landing after a fall, and, perhaps best of all, rideable llamas have appeared.

Warhammer: The Musical

Hey, if Broadway can make a musical about Alexander Hamilton, or a bunch of cats, surely they can make one about the Warhammer universe? That’s the joke behind this trailer for The Emperor Protects: A Warhammer 40,000 Musical, the April 1 joke from Games Workshop, creator of the popular game world. The 2.5-minute trailer, with impressive costumes and music, really sells it.

Traeger: AI-powered grilling glasses

This April 1 joke seems like it could maybe be a practical, real thing. Traeger makes wood-pellet grills, and this year’s joke is their claim to offer AI-powered grilling eyeglasses. «With smart guidance, thermal imaging, night‑vision, and hands‑free photo and video capture, MEAT‑AI lets you command every cook like never before,» the site touts. Hmm, I wouldn’t actually mind a pair of glasses that could look down at my grill and tell me whether my steak is done or how much more time it needs to cook. Get on that, Traeger.

T-Mobile cologne

Want to smell like your cellphone? What does that even mean? Wireless tech giant T-Mobile’s prank is Metro by T-Mobile CALLoGNE, combining call, as in phone call, with cologne. The company touts its April 1 joke as «the world’s first luxury fragrance inspired by the unmistakable scent of a brand-new phone.» Metro is T-Mobile’s prepaid brand, formerly known as MetroPCS.

Timekettle British translation

They say the US and UK are two nations separated by a common language. You may already know some British phrases, including «boot» for what Americans call a car trunk, and «bonnet» for what we call the hood of a car. Timekettle makes AI-powered translation products, and its April 1 prank is a British-to-American language translation update for its translation devices. Cheerio, old chap.

Whisker cat hair clothing

If you own a cat, cat hair is already on everything in your closet. So Cataire (like couture, I guess), a line of designer clothing made out of real cat hair, doesn’t seem that far off. Whisker, the company behind the Litter-Robot litter box, is taking this April 1 prank to the meowy max. They’ve actually used real cat hair from adoptable cats at a Michigan animal shelter to adorn three sweaters that will later be sold on eBay. Each eBay listing doubles as an adoption profile for a real shelter cat.

Yahoo’s Scrōll Stoppr

Those who spend too much time on their phones might appreciate the idea behind Yahoo’s prank, Scrōll Stoppr. It’s described as «a delightfully absurd finger accessory that physically blocks your thumb from touching your phone screen.» I hate to break it to Yahoo, but I discovered this myself years ago when I cut my thumb slicing onions for Thanksgiving and had to wrap it in a Band-Aid. Yahoo says you can actually buy this — it will be available for $5 on Yahoo TikTok Shop on April 1 and will be delivered in a box that sounds off with the Yahoo signature yodel. If it sells out, just put on a Band-Aid for the same results. BYO yodel.

Omaha Steaks pocket steak

Need a spot of protein on the go? Omaha Steaks is best known for sending giant crates of beef as gifts, but the company’s April 1 product is «the world’s first pocket-sized steak.» It gets beefier: The company jokes that the steak is cooked by motion-activated technology. A rare deal indeed, if well done.

Baskin-Robbins ice cream soup

Baskin-Robbins has always had creative ice cream flavors, but for April 1, the company is hyping… ice cream soup. Not real, of course, but they’re promoting the faux frozen dessert in hopes that people will be inspired to take advantage of a buy-one-get-one 50% off deal on pre-packed quarts April 1-2 for Baskin-Robbins Rewards Members. Slurp ’em if you got ’em.

Baby Bottle Pop, supplement style

Grown-ups don’t get any of the fun kid candy, but instead are stuck taking vitamins and supplements. Baby Bottle Pop Candy, which is exactly what it sounds like, candy in a baby-bottle container, is pretending for April 1 that it now comes in adult flavors. Is protein a flavor? Is fiber? Salmon is, but candy salmon is too much, even for this Seattleite. Thankfully, it’s just for April Fools’ Day.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, April 2

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 2.

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? It was a bit of a toughie today. 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.