Tech

Amazon Wants to Make a Phone Again? Its First One Was a Fast Fail

Amazon’s 2014 launch of the Fire Phone, its initial foray into smartphones, was so badly received that the company discontinued sales just one year later. Reuters reports that this isn’t deterring the retail powerhouse from another attempt. Amazon is said to be working on a mobile gadget that integrates with its current lineup of software and hardware, such as Alexa-powered smart hubs and Prime Video streaming service. The initiative, known internally as “Transformer,” may still be in its preliminary phase, per Reuters. Currently, there’s no information on a potential release date or details on what would set the phone apart from competitors like Apple and Samsung devices. According to sources in the report, the Amazon phone would emphasize AI features over app downloads. Unavoidably, the device would also be built to simplify buying products from Amazon and accessing its services, such as Prime Video and Prime Music. According to Reuters’ sources, the voice assistant Alexa would not serve as the phone’s main operating system. Amazon is also reportedly working on an Android tablet, diverging from its current tablets that run the company’s Fire OS software. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the report. The Amazon Fire Phone from 2014 featured a restricted app store and blocked Google Play services. By Josh Miller from CNET. In her 2014 CNET review of Amazon’s Fire Phone, Jessica Dolcourt scored it 6.9 out of 10, describing it as “daring, aspirational and pleasing to use,” while criticizing its high price, underwhelming performance, and weak specs. “You need to be all-in on the Amazon ecosystem to fully appreciate it, and even then, it’s not delivering a lot of Amazon features that you can’t get on rival products,” Dolcourt wrote. So what could Amazon do differently this time to avoid another flop? “Amazon has shown it can back electronics with a consumer-friendly price point,” says Dolcourt, now CNET Group’s vice president of content.

Tech

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for March 21, #1736

Searching for the latest Wordle solution? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, plus our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition, and Strands puzzles. Today’s Wordle puzzle uses mostly common letters, so you might solve it right away. If you need a new starting word, check out our list of the most common letters in English words. If you’re looking for hints and the solution, keep reading.. Read more: New Study Reveals Wordle’s Top 10 Hardest Words of 2025. Hints for today’s Wordle. Prior to revealing today’s Wordle solution, here are a few hints. If you don’t want spoilers, look away now. Wordle hint #1: Repeats. The Wordle answer for today features no duplicate letters. Wordle hint #193: Vowels.

Tech

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 21, #1014

Searching for the latest Connections answers? Click for today’s Connections hints, plus our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition, and Strands puzzles. English majors, today’s NYT Connections puzzle features a purple category tailor-made for us. Continue reading for hints and today’s Connections solutions. The Times offers a Connections Bot, similar to the Wordle one. After playing, go there to get a numeric score and have the program analyze your answers. Registered players in the Times Games section can now geek out by tracking their stats, such as puzzles completed, win rate, perfect scores achieved, and current win streak. Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time. Hints for the Connections groups of the day. 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: Right to the point. Green group hint: What you aim for. Blue group hint: Not chess. Purple group hint: Carl Sandburg is one. Answers for today’s Connections groups. Yellow group: Direct. Green group: Target. Blue group: Checkers terms. Purple group: 20th century American poets. Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words.

Tech

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 21 #748

Searching for the latest Strands solution? Click here for daily Strands hints, plus our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles. Today’s NYT Strands puzzle features some hilarious answers. Some answers are tough to unscramble, so if you want hints or solutions, keep reading. I dive deep into the Strands rules in this article. For today’s Wordle, Connections, and Mini Crossword answers, check out CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page. Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far. Today’s Strands puzzle hint. The Strands theme for today is: Sniff sniff. If that doesn’t work, try this hint: Some people keep their noses to the grindstone. Clue words to unlock in-game hints. Your objective is to locate concealed words that match the puzzle’s theme. If you’re having trouble, come up with any words you can.

Tech

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, March 21

Seeking the latest Mini Crossword solution? Click here for hints on today’s Mini Crossword, plus our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections, and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles. Need help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s an extra-long one, just like always on Saturdays, but the clues are fairly straightforward. Continue reading for all the answers. For daily solving hints and guidance, check out our Mini Crossword tips. If you’re seeking today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition, and Strands answers, head to CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page. Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword. Here are the clues and answers for the Mini Crossword. The solved NYT Mini Crossword for March 27, 28. Screenshot from NYT, by CNET. Small grid with clues and solutions.

Tech

Microsoft Lays Out Next Windows Updates: Faster, Lighter and More Flexible

On Friday, Microsoft detailed in the Windows Insider Blog several upcoming changes that its Insiders—beta testers—can anticipate over the next few months. These include less disruptive Windows Update processes, enhanced Copilot integration, a simplified start menu and taskbar, reduced notifications, lower memory usage, improved stability, and more. Everyone’s welcome—and it’s about time. Microsoft intends to be more deliberate about Copilot’s integration across Windows, prioritizing truly useful and polished experiences. Additionally, widgets will deliver information more deliberately by default, keeping content scannable and minimizing needless disruptions. The primary purpose of widgets is to enable users to quickly grasp information at a glance while remaining unobtrusive. This will make it easier to customize or disable them and cut down on notifications overall. A key performance improvement involves lowering the OS’s memory consumption, freeing up more for your apps. This is significant, not only because Windows consumes excessive memory, but also because for at least the next few years, it won’t be feasible to just equip a new system with more RAM. Microsoft plans to extend the maximum pause period for Updates, make them more predictable, and enable restarting or shutting down without a surprise forced installation if you’ve overlooked postponing them. Additionally, the company pledges fewer automatic restarts and notifications. I could definitely do without this screen while setting up Windows.