Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

The New York Times has introduced the next title coming to its Games catalog following Wordle’s continued success — and it’s all about math. Digits has players adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers. You can play its beta for free online right now. 
In Digits, players are presented with a target number that they need to match. Players are given six numbers and have the ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide them to get as close to the target as they can. Not every number needs to be used, though, so this game should put your math skills to the test as you combine numbers and try to make the right equations to get as close to the target number as possible.

Players will get a five-star rating if they match the target number exactly, a three-star rating if they get within 10 of the target, and a one-star rating if they can get within 25 of the target number. Currently, players are also able to access five different puzzles with increasingly larger numbers as well.  I solved today’s puzzle and found it to be an enjoyable number-based game that should appeal to inquisitive minds that like puzzle games such as Threes or other The New York Times titles like Wordle and Spelling Bee.
In an article unveiling Digits and detailing The New York Time Games team’s process to game development, The Times says the team will use this free beta to fix bugs and assess if it’s worth moving into a more active development phase “where the game is coded and the designs are finalized.” So play Digits while you can, as The New York Times may move on from the project if it doesn’t get the response it is hoping for. 
Digits’ beta is available to play for free now on The New York Times Games’ website

The latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite has integrated UWB hardware. However, not all phones with the flagship chipset will support the feature.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite has built-in support for UWB

Apple allows precise location tracking. In fact, this is what makes Apple’s AirTags really good at locating misplaced belongings. Although it is getting better, Google’s Find My Device network isn’t as good, and the reason is that it lacks hardware support for UWB.

Ultra-wideband, or UWB, is a short-range wireless communication protocol. It enables super-precise location tracking. It is an additional radio frequency apart from Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite is one of the first chipsets to have integrated hardware support for UWB. This is because the SoC packs the FastConnect 7900 connectivity platform, which supports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and UWB.

Previous iterations of the FastConnect platform lacked UWB. This meant OEMs needed to add a separate UWB module. Needless to say, several device manufacturers chose not to because of costs and additional space requirements.

Starting with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, OEMs do not need to add any extra UWB hardware, confirmed Qualcomm. FastConnect 7900 is a single-chip 6nm solution wherein, “all features and capabilities are delivered as a single chip solution,” boasted the company.

Why won’t some smartphones not support UWB?

Despite the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite having integrated UWB support, some smartphones with this chipset won’t support the feature. According to Android Authority, the OnePlus 13, the Realme GT7 Pro, and the Xiaomi 15 are powered by Qualcomm’s flagship chipset, but they do not support UWB. Moreover, some of these devices do not even declare the “android.hardware.uwb” flag, which means the installed Android OS believes there’s no UWB hardware onboard.

A Qualcomm representative has stated, “Snapdragon 8 Elite devices can support UWB thanks to FastConnect 7900, but it’s up to the OEM to determine if they want to utilize the feature.” In other words, device manufacturers will ultimately decide if they want to activate UWB or keep it dormant.

One of the most plausible reasons not to activate UWB would be the varying and complex regulations, and the need to secure prior approval. UWB involves sending out radio waves, and device makers would need to go through the calibration, testing, and certification processes for every country. Since UWB isn’t highly popular with Android device users, manufacturers might be trying to minimize regulatory hassles and costs.

It’s deja vu all over again for Microsoft’s AI-powered Recall tool. After a and then a second one , Microsoft is once more pushing back testing of the feature intended for its Copilot+ PCs. reported that Recall now won’t enter previews for Windows Insiders until December.

“We are committed to delivering a secure and trusted experience with Recall,” Brandon LeBlanc, senior product manager of Windows, told the publication. “To ensure we deliver on these important updates, we’re taking additional time to refine the experience before previewing it with Windows Insiders.”

When it was introduced, Microsoft positioned Recall as a way to give your computer a photographic memory, improving the search process on PCs. But since that photographic memory would demand a high degree of access to a computer’s systems and data, Recall has been the target of privacy and security concerns. Microsoft has tried to those worries by presenting Recall as an opt-in feature, so users will have to give explicit permission for the AI assistant to log their computing activity. The company has also detailed other privacy protections, but today’s third delay could mean that it’s proving more difficult than expected to keep security on lock.

Google launched real-time search capabilities for its Gemini AI platform on Thursday, enabling its language models to access current information from Google Search. The new feature, called “Grounding with Google Search,” targets developers building AI applications, distinguishing it from OpenAI’s consumer-focused ChatGPT Search service launched the same day.

“We’re focused on putting search-augmented responses into developer workflows,” said Logan Kilpatrick, a product leader at Google, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “We’re leveraging what Google does uniquely well — making the world’s information accessible through search.”

Say hello to Grounding with Google Search, available in the Gemini API + Google AI Studio!

You can now access real time, fresh, up to date information from Google Search when building with Gemini by enabling the Grounding tool.https://t.co/oGVTOKHfM8

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— Logan Kilpatrick (@OfficialLoganK) October 31, 2024

The system allows developers to supplement their AI applications with fresh search data, complete with citations and sources. The service costs $35 per 1,000 queries, reflecting the substantial computing requirements for real-time AI search.

The technology uses a “dynamic retrieval” system that automatically determines when to tap into search results. Each query receives a score between 0 and 1 — questions about current events score high (0.97), while creative writing prompts score low (0.13). This helps manage both costs and response times while maintaining accuracy.

Inside the $49 billion battle for the future of search

Google’s move to integrate search with its AI platform comes at a critical moment. The company earned $49.4 billion from search advertising in Q3 2024, but faces growing pressure from AI-powered alternatives. Running these systems requires massive computing resources — OpenAI expects to spend $5 billion on computing costs this year alone.

The integration also raises questions about publisher compensation. Both Google and OpenAI have secured licensing deals with major news organizations, though the financial terms remain private. Several publishers, including The New York Times, have filed lawsuits over AI systems using their content without permission.

Why OpenAI’s new ChatGPT Search could change how we find information online

Hours after Google’s announcement, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Search, taking a different approach by targeting consumers directly. While Google focuses on providing tools for developers to build search-enhanced AI applications, OpenAI’s service offers end users a way to access current information about news, sports, stocks, and weather through a conversational interface – notably without advertisements.

“The journey we’re on is using Google Search in more creative ways, through multiple surfaces,” said Shrestha Basu Mallick, Google’s group product manager for the Gemini API, in an interview with VentureBeat. “You’ll have it through AI Studio, the Gemini APIs, and it may eventually become native in the model itself.”

This new phase of competition could reshape how people find information online. Rather than scrolling through pages of results, users may increasingly rely on AI systems to synthesize answers from multiple sources. However, questions remain about accuracy, publisher compensation, and whether companies can build sustainable business models around these computing-intensive services.

The simultaneous launches suggest AI-powered search may evolve into a three-way race between Google, Microsoft (through its OpenAI partnership), and OpenAI itself.

Google maintains advantages in search infrastructure and advertising revenue, while OpenAI has demonstrated skill in creating compelling consumer AI products. Microsoft, meanwhile, benefits from both through its multibillion-dollar OpenAI investment.

Former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Wednesday to talk about the challenges facing people who want to disrupt something — both inside and outside of the tech world.

“One of the biggest challenges that you will likely face when you try to disrupt something — or you try to do something you’re passionate about, and it ends up disrupting something in that process, is you face a lot of resistance,” Kaepernick said. “There will be difficult times, and during those times, you want to have those people that you can lean on, the people that can support you, and that’s really what gives you that endurance.”

Kaepernick is no stranger to disrupting the status quo, as he made national headlines in 2016 when he took a knee to protest racial injustice. The former NFL star says that while he faced a lot of resistance, he also saw a push to create a better and more equitable future.

“When you do that and you see such a strong response to it, it really gives you perspective and insight,” Kaepernick said. “We have such a long way to go. But, the other part that I learned during that time period, there are also a lot of people that want to go that long way with you, and I think that has been the beautiful part coming out of that is while there has been resistance to it, there’s also been a lot of organizing.”

As someone who has had thousands of stories written about him, he now wants to help creators take control of their narratives with Lumi. The startup is aiming to empower creators by helping them independently create and publish stories and content.

As for founders who are looking to disrupt and explore their passions, Kaepernick offered a few words of advice.

“Do your homework and know why you’re doing what you’re doing,” he said. “And then two, once you know that, go after it passionately and go after it with everything that you have and bring people with you. I would not be sitting here today and none of you would know me at all if there weren’t a whole lot of people that helped me along the way, and that’s everyone from my wife to family and friends to teammates to coaches, some of the investors and advisors that I’ve had along the way. So have those people with you, because that makes us, that makes you sustainable for the long run.”