Technologies

Apple Arcade Games Coming Soon

Here’s what’s available on Apple Arcade this month.

Apple Arcade — a CNET Editors’ Choice award pick — features hundreds of games to play for just $5 a month. The service offers familiar and classic games, as well as exclusive titles. You can find these games in the App Store, but they have paywalls and ads that might hinder your gaming experience. With an Apple Arcade subscription, you can play each title without paywalls or ads at no extra charge.

Here are the new games you can play in January.

Episode XOXO

Developer: Pocket Gems
Release date: Jan. 6

Episode XOXO is the sequel to Episode: Choose Your Story. It’s an interactive storytelling game where players can choose to enjoy a story full of drama, romance and adventure. The game is launching with five new stories, and there are plans to add more stories in future updates.

Illustrated

Developer: Border Leap
Release date: Jan. 13

Illustrated is a puzzle game whose gameplay blends jigsaws and word play. Each puzzle starts with an illustration that shows a concept sketch with the hidden words of the artist’s story behind the illustration. As you place puzzle pieces in their correct spot, the illustration begins to color itself in and the words of the story are revealed.

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!

Developer: GAME FREAK
Release date: Jan. 20

Game Freak, the creator of the Pokemon game series, isn’t horsing around with its next Apple Arcade game. Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! was originally released as Pocket Card Jockey on the 3DS. The game is a combination of solitaire and horse racing where players clear cards with sequential numbers from the game as fast as they can. The more cards you clear, the better your horse’s mood is. Your horse’s mood helps your trusty steed charge energy during races. Once your horse’s energy is charged and you’re in the homestretch, your horse will have to use that energy to sprint to victory. Special cards also litter the raceway, and they provide your horse boosts and benefits, like leveling up and learning new skills. Off the track, you can breed your horses to produce foals with their parent’s abilities to be used in future races.

Squiggle Drop

Developer: Noodlecake
Release date: Jan. 27

If you like puzzle games with a little bit of physics, you should try Squiggle Drop. In this game, players have to solve puzzles by drawing a single shape. As players solve more puzzles, they can earn rewards and unlock buildings and upgrades to build their own Squiggletown.

Apple Arcade games getting January updates

What did Apple Arcade release in December?

Technologies

Waymo Expands Its Robotaxi Fleet to Las Vegas, San Diego and Detroit. Everything to Know

Here’s everywhere the self-driving company operates now and where it’s heading soon.

Technologies

Apple Plans to Use a Custom Model of Google’s Gemini AI to Power Siri, Report Says

Apple reportedly chose Google over Anthropic for financial reasons.

Apple is turning to Google to make a custom Gemini AI model to power the next version of its virtual assistant Siri for spring 2026, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman on Sunday.

According to the report, Apple was evaluating whether to use Google or AI competitor Anthropic for the next version of Siri. Gurman says Google offered a better financial deal. In an earlier Bloomberg report, he says Anthropic would have cost Apple $1.5 billion per year. The report doesn’t reveal Apple’s own financial offer.

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This custom Gemini model will run on Apple’s private cloud compute servers. Apple’s own models will continue to run on devices for personal data, while Gemini would operate on servers for more complex tasks. Gurman also says that Apple won’t highlight Google’s involvement in the company’s marketing.

Representatives for Google, Apple and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

With major tech companies pivoting toward AI, Apple has largely been left behind. The tech company was slow to adopt AI and hasn’t developed AI models that are competitive. It instead turned to companies like OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, to help add generative capabilities on top of existing Apple systems.

Even then, the promise of a truly agentic Apple Intelligence has failed to materialize, although it has improved. Apple CEO Tim Cook also hasn’t ruled out the possibility of acquiring an AI company.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Apple also has a close relationship with Google. The search giant pays Apple $20 billion annually to remain the default search engine on Apple devices. It’s a relationship that nets Apple money and prevents it from building a competitor to Google Search, a claim Apple denies. This arrangement was an important factor in the Department of Justice’s case against Google, where a judge ruled that the company was operating an illegal monopoly.

Despite falling behind on AI, Apple is doing well financially. Last month, it surpassed a $4 trillion market cap.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Nov. 4, #877

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Nov. 4, #877.

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 has a diverse mix of topics. They’re not too tough, but let’s hope you recognize your computer-related phrases. If you need help, 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: Point in the right direction.

Green group hint: Like a veneer, or veil.

Blue group hint: Like JPG.

Purple group hint: Musical instrument.