Sunday, May 14, 2023

Best Prepaid Home Internet Plans for 2023 - CNET

Prepaid internet plans are ideal for simple, pay-as-you-go pricing without contracts or credit checks. Here are my top picks for prepaid home internet.

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Best Cheap Meal Delivery Services of 2023 - CNET

Have delicious, money-saving meals delivered straight to your door. We've tested the best meal delivery services on the market so you can find the perfect affordable option.

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Best Internet Providers in Oakland - CNET

From Sonic's blazing 10-gig plan to Xfinity's budget cable offerings, here are Oakland's best home broadband providers.

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Saturday, May 13, 2023

Latest Tech News

It's time for your daily dose of Quordle hints - now with added Daily Sequence answers! 

Yes, that's right: the makers of Quordle have a new game, which sees you complete four Wordle puzzles consecutively. The twist is that the letters you've already used on the first game are repeated on the second and so on. 

It's good fun, but also difficult - so if you already find yourself searching for Wordle hints, you'll probably need some for Quordle and the Daily Sequence too. 

I'm a Quordle and Wordle fanatic who's been playing since December 2021, so I can definitely help you solve Quordle today and improve your game for tomorrow. Read on for my Quordle hints to game #475 and the answers to the Daily Sequence. 

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers. 

Quordle today (game #475) - hint #1 - Vowels

How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too). 

Quordle today (game #475) - hint #2 - total vowels

What is the total number of vowels in Quordle today?

The total number of vowels across today's Quordle answers is 5.

Quordle today (game #475) - hint #3 - repeated letters

Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.

Quordle today (game #475) - hint #4 - total letters

How many different letters are used in Quordle today?

The total number of different letters used in Quordle today is 13.

Quordle today (game #475) - hint #5 - uncommon letters

Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #475) - hint #6 - starting letters (1)

Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 3.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #475) - hint #7 - starting letters (2)

What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• C

• S

• S

• S

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #475) - the answers

Quordle answers for game 475 on a yellow background

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #475, are…

  • CLONE
  • SKUNK
  • SWEPT
  • SASSY

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.


Daily Sequence today (game #475) - the answers

Quordle Daily Sequence answers for game 474 on a yellow background

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #475, are…

  • STAIN
  • DEPTH
  • CANON
  • ERECT

Quordle answers: The past 20

  • Quordle #474, Saturday 13 May: TRACT, PREEN, BUDGE, SNARE
  • Quordle #473, Friday 12 May: HONEY, CYNIC, DAUNT, CHIRP
  • Quordle #472, Thursday 11 May: CRYPT, DUNCE, WHEEL, NOBLE
  • Quordle #471, Wednesday 10 May: PRINT, VICAR, GAFFE, PLAIT
  • Quordle #470, Tuesday 9 May: PROSE, MUNCH, PIVOT, CONDO
  • Quordle #469, Monday 8 May: PUSHY, GRIPE, BLOAT, ASSET
  • Quordle #468, Sunday 7 May: TOOTH, SKULK, BRISK, SLOSH
  • Quordle #467, Saturday 6 May: SCALD, TABBY, STYLE, TEASE
  • Quordle #466, Friday 5 May: LIMBO, REVUE, TOTEM, ELBOW
  • Quordle #465, Thursday 4 May: BALER, SCORN, FETID, PASTE
  • Quordle #464, Wednesday 3 May: GODLY, LAGER, STEEL, GROWL
  • Quordle #463, Tuesday 2 May: CROSS, MOULT, STAIN, TATTY
  • Quordle #462, Monday 1 May: ETHIC, ALIKE, BIRTH, SLAIN
  • Quordle #461, Sunday 30 April: STOUT, GROUT, RALPH, RIGOR
  • Quordle #460, Saturday 29 April: SCOUR, BLUSH, WHINE, ELIDE
  • Quordle #459, Friday 28 April: TRITE, SLEEK, ALTAR, VOTER
  • Quordle #458, Thursday 27 April: QUASI, PLUSH, CHUTE, SOAPY
  • Quordle #457, Wednesday 26 April: PARKA, SPINY, BUSHY, CHAIR
  • Quordle #456, Tuesday 25 April: CREST, SHRUB, CREDO, BELOW
  • Quordle #455, Monday 24 April: DEUCE, BEAST, NOISY, YOUNG

Quordle FAQs: Everything you need to know

What is Quordle?

Where Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day, Quordle presents you with four puzzles to solve. And rather than complete them in turn, you do so simultaneously. You get nine guesses, rather than the six for Wordle, but the rules are otherwise very similar. 

It's played online via the Quordle website and you can also get to it via the Merriam-Webster site, after the dictionary purchased Quordle last year

As with Wordle, the answers are the same for every player each day, meaning that you're competing against the rest of the world. And also as with Wordle, the puzzle resets at midnight so you have a fresh challenge each day.

The website also includes a practice mode - which I definitely recommend using before attempting the game proper! - and there are daily stats including a streak count. You also get Quordle Achievements - specific badges for winning a game in a certain number of turns, playing lots of times, or guessing particularly hard words.

Oh, and it's difficult. Really difficult.

What are the Quordle rules?

The rules of Quordle are almost identical to those of Wordle.

1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.

2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow. 

3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray…

4. …BUT the word you guess appears in all quadrants of the puzzle at the same time, so an A could turn green in one square, yellow in another and gray in the final two. 

5. Answers are never plural.

6. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.

7. Each guess must be a valid word in Quordle's dictionary. You can't guess ABCDE, for instance.

8. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses and there is no equivalent of Wordle's Hard mode.

9. You have nine guesses to find the Quordle answers.

10. You must complete the daily Quordle before midnight in your timezone.

What is a good Quordle strategy?

Quordle needs to be approached in a different way to Wordle. With four puzzles to solve in nine guesses, you can't blindly throw letters at it and expect to win - you'll stand a far better chance if you think strategically.

That's the case in Wordle too, of course, but it's even more important in Quordle.

There are two key things to remember. 

1. Use several starting words

Firstly, you won't want just a single starting word, but almost certainly two or three starting words. 

The first of these should probably be one of the best Wordle starting words, because the same things that make them work well will apply here too. But after that, you should select another word or possibly two that use up lots more of the most common consonants and that include any remaining vowels.

For instance, I currently use STARE > DOILY > PUNCH. Between them, these three words use 15 of the 26 letters in the alphabet including all five vowels, Y, and nine of the most common consonants (S, T, R, D, L, P, N, C and H). There are plenty of other options - you might want to get an M, B, F or G in there instead of the H, maybe - but something like that should do the trick.

If all goes well, that will give you a good lead on what one or sometimes two of the answers might be. If not, well good luck!

2. Narrow things down

Secondly, if you're faced with a word where the answer might easily be one of several options - for instance -ATCH, where it could be MATCH, BATCH, LATCH, CATCH, WATCH, HATCH or PATCH - you'll definitely want to guess a word that would narrow down those options. 

In Wordle, you can instead try several of those in succession and hope one is right, assuming you have enough guesses left. It's risky, but will sometimes work. Plus, it's the only option in Hard mode. But in Quordle, this will almost certainly result in a failure - you simply don't have enough guesses.

In the scenario above, CLAMP would be a great guess, as it could point the way to four of the seven words in one go.



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Friday, May 12, 2023

Google Confirms Wear OS 4 Along With New Gmail, Calendar and Backup Features - CNET

WhatsApp's first smartwatch app is also coming to Wear OS, bringing texting and voice calls without needing a phone.

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Latest Tech News

Mozilla Firefox is already our pick for the best browser due to its excellent privacy options and cross-platform synchronization, but with a new update, the Firefox experience is about to improve in a major way.

Ahead of Global Accessibility Day on May 18, Mozilla announced that its most recent update, Firefox 113, would give Firefox a significant improvement over its accessibility engine. The overhauled accessibility code enhanced screen readers and other assistive technologies and, even more impressive, runs 20 times faster on large, complex pages and two to three times faster on everyday tasks, such as opening emails and switching tabs.

Firefox 113, which started as a project called Cache the World back in 2020, was a complete rewrite of its old architecture. Android already received this update in 2022 with Firefox 102, and Windows and Linux in the Firefox 112 release. With 113, macOS finally received the same changes to its Firefox browser.

Why was this change for Firefox necessary? 

When internet browsers first came about, they were much simpler and only required a single operating system process, even with multiple tabs or documents. Some assistive technologies and operating system frameworks, which often had to run on more complex processes, used a process called in-process code that allowed for large batches of queries needed to perform a task to be executed quickly.

However, over the years, browsers became more complex and the threat of security exploits became much higher. Browsers like Internet Explorer 8 used different processes for different tabs, while Google Chrome used a stricter process that delegated tasks into tightly controlled communication channels, meaning that assistive technologies could not access the web content process containing the accessibility tree, nor inject code into that process. Firefox adopted this same method, resulting in accessibility having similar issues on both browsers.

Because Firefox was created long before Chrome and before the complex internet landscape, it faced more challenges in updating its architecture to address both accessibility and security issues. A major update to its then-existing architecture lasted for a few years but problems began to stack and Mozilla had to revamp its whole architecture from scratch. Enter project Cache the World.

What was Cache the World’s impact? 

The main purpose behind Cache the World was to re-architect Firefox’s accessibility engine. 

Firefox asynchronously pushes the accessibility trees from each web content process to the main UI process. When assistive technologies query the accessibility tree, all queries are answered from the cache without any calls between Firefox processes, and when a page updates, the content process asynchronously pushes a cache update to the main process. 

This new change results in a massive increase in speed for those using accessibility tools like screen readers, as well as plenty of wiggle room for updating and improving the new architecture. In total, about 20,000 lines of code were removed by the completion of this project, the majority of which was operating system related.

Considering how often accessibility features and tools are overlooked, either on their own or how they’re negatively impacted by software and hardware updates for other tech, it’s refreshing to see how deeply and genuinely Mozilla cares about it. 



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How to Buy a Mattress Online in 7 Easy Steps - CNET

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Latest Tech News

Canada-based hi-fi manufacturer NAD has announced a new stereo amplifier with high-res audio streaming capability and an HDMI eARC port for hooking up to a 4K TV. The announcement arrives in advance of next week’s High End Munich show, an audiophile’s paradise that draws hi-fi fanatics from all over the world.

NAD’s C 3050 is a follow up to a limited edition version of the same amp the company released back in late 2022. Produced in a run of 1,972 numbered units to commemorate NAD’s 50-year anniversary, that model seemed like a sort of trial balloon to see how hi-fi fans would respond to the amp's retro design.

The test run was clearly a success, because owners of the best stereo speakers quickly bought up the limited edition C 3050. Now, NAD’s amp is being made widely available, and is priced at a not-outrageous $1,399 (around £1,125 / AU$2,100).

The C 3050's return is good news, mainly because with its chunky buttons and control knobs, glowing VU meters, and wood-finish casing, it's literally the best looking integrated stereo amp we know of. When it comes to hi-fi, retro design is a winning proposition, and the C 3050 hearkens back to the glory days of the ‘60s and ‘70s when brands like Marantz, Yamaha, and JBL made similarly cool-looking gear.

Looking past its retro exterior, the C 3050 is a fully loaded modern integrated stereo amp rated to deliver 100 Watts per channel into 8/4 ohms. It has both analog and coaxial and optical digital inputs, along with the aforementioned HDMI eARC port. A moving magnet phono stage lets you connect one of the best turntables, and there are dedicated subwoofer and headphone outputs plus a proprietary MDC2 slot to accommodate NAD’s MDC2 BluOS-D module ($599).

While the MDC2 BluOS-D module is an optional add-on, listeners will want to scoop that up as well in order to take advantage of the multiroom wireless high-res audio streaming capability it brings to the C 3050. This feature is controlled using the excellent BluOS app, and the MDC2 BluOS-D further supports Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, and AirPlay 2, along with two-way aptX HD Bluetooth, which lets you stream audio to the amp and also use a set of the best wireless headphones for listening.

Another feature the MDC2 BluOS-D module brings to the table is Dirac Live. Dirac Live processing provides both time- and frequency-based room correction, and it covers not just bass but your speakers’ full frequency range.

NAD C 3050 integrated amp on white background

The NAD C 3050 provides an assortment of analog and digital audio connections, and it has an upgrade slot that adds wireless streaming capability. (Image credit: NAD)

Analysis: back to the retro future 

Retro is all the rage in the hi-fi world, with a wide assortment of brands looking to their past for design inspiration. And while we can’t say we’re fully on board with some of the retro speakers we’ve seen (The JBL 4329P Studio Monitor Powered Loudspeaker being an exception), vintage-looking amplifiers like NAD’s C 3050 are deeply appealing.

The advent of music streaming services has made music listening something of a hands-off activity. Streaming with the best wireless speakers is controlled by apps, and many of them also support voice commands for an even more complete hands-free experience. That’s partly why vinyl records have made a comeback, and why retro components like the C 3050 with its big buttons and warm, engaging VU meters, are audio objects of desire – you want to physically interact with them, as opposed to letting Alexa do the work for you.

At the same time, when outfitted with NAD’s optional MDC2 BluOS-D module, the C 3050 provides all the mod cons such as wireless high-res streaming and room correction. It even supports Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri voice commands if that’s something you want to engage with!

With one foot in the audio’s future and the other in audio’s past, the C 3050 is the kind of component that will help keep hi-fi alive and kicking. It’s a good thing that NAD opted to make more than 1,972 of them.



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Thursday, May 11, 2023

Latest Gadgets News

A Russian court fined Alphabet's Google RUB 3 million (nearly Rs. 31 lakh) on Thursday for failing to delete YouTube videos it said promoted "LGBT propaganda" and "false information" about Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported. Over the last year Moscow has levied dozens of fines against Western tech companies as part of a drive to ramp...

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Today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for June 30, #280

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