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Will Wordle remain free to play in the UK after New York Times sale – the latest news – NationalWorld

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Popular online game Wordle has been bought from its creator by The New York Times.

Creator Wardle announced the move on Twitter, thanking users for sharing touching stories about the effect the game has had on their lives and relationships and adding that he was “thrilled” about the takeover.

“Since launching Wordle, I have been in awe of the response of everyone that has played,” he said. “The game has gotten bigger than I ever imagined (which I suppose isn’t that much of a feat given I made the game for an audience of one).

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“I am just one person, and it is important to me that, as Wordle grows, it continues to provide a great experience to everyone.”

The NYT said the ad-free website, which was launched in October 2021 and now has millions of daily players, was bought for a sum “in the low seven figures”.

But will the game remain free to play?

Here is everything you need to know about it.

Will the game remain free?

Part of Wordle’s charm lies in its simplicity. The game is free to play on an uncluttered website with no unnecessary distractions or visual flourishes.

But the NYT’s acquisition of the popular puzzle has led to concerns that Wordle might not always be free in the future, and could one day be locked behind a paywall.

A mobile phone shows the screen of the popular online game Wordle. Picture: Nick Ansell/PA Wire
A mobile phone shows the screen of the popular online game Wordle. Picture: Nick Ansell/PA Wire

The NYT has said Wordle will “ initially remain free to new and existing players”.

The key word here is “initially” – the NYT currently provides games including Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles and Vertex, which are behind a paywall.

Jonathan Knight, the general manager for games at The New York Times Company, said the firm was “thrilled” to be adding Wordle to its portfolio and confirmed it had “no plans at this time” to change the game’s free-to-play nature.

“At this time.”

Knight told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he is “so impressed” by the game, and thinks it is “an incredible story”.

“It’s a game that brought us all together and that’s what’s just so special about it,” he said. “It’s one word a day and it’s the same word for everybody and we’re all trying to figure it out together.

“It’s just incredibly clever and I think it’s a game that we all needed because it just brings us together.”

Will my progress carry over?

The game currently keeps a tally of your performance, letting you know not just how many Wordles you’ve solved in the past, but what percentage of those solutions were found after four tries, five tries, and so on.

So will those stats remain once the game jumps to its new home?

Wardle has said he’s trying to make sure players’ wins and win streaks move over to the new platform.

Will the game change?

No changes are expected to be made to Wordle’s gameplay, and a New York Times spokesperson has said the company doesn’t currently have any “set plans for the game’s future.”

What is Wordle?

Anyone who knows the game Mastermind, which employs the use of coloured pegs, will instantly be familiar with the premise of Wordle.

The objective of the game is to guess the secret word in six tries, using a series of hints to figure it out.

  • If any of your letters are highlighted as green, that means that you’ve got the right letter in the right place.
  • If any of the letters are highlighted as yellow, that means that those letters are in the word, but they’re currently in the wrong place.
  • Finally, if any of your letters are highlighted as grey, it means that those letters aren’t included anywhere in the secret word.

You can play Wordle on the Power Language website. There is only one puzzle released each day, so you’ll need to check the website again the following day to continue playing along.

Users are sharing how many tries it took for them to crack the puzzle on social media, as, after it’s been solved, the website offers players the option to share their results.

This share option generates an emoji grid which replicates the colour pattern found on your completed puzzle, using the black, yellow and green emoji boxes.

Sharing like this allows players to share their results entirely spoiler-free. Users will also include what edition of Wordle it is and how many guesses they took, for example, “Wordle 187 4/6”.

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Apple announces Worldwide Developers Conference dates, in-person event – CityNews Toronto

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Apple has announced their annual developers conference will take place June 10 through June 14.

The big summer event will be live-streamed, but some select developers have been invited to attend in-person events at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California, on June 10.

The company typically showcases their latest software and product updates — including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AppleTV and Vision Pro headset — during a keynote address on the first day.

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Contributing to a drop in Apple’s stock price this year is concern it lags behind Microsoft and Google in the push to develop products powered by artificial intelligence technology. While Apple tends to keep its product development close to the vest, CEO Tim Cook signaled at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in February that it has been making big investments in generative AI and plans to disclose more later this year.

The week-long conference will have opportunities for developers to connect with Apple designers and engineers to gain insight into new tools, frameworks and features, according to the company’s announcement.

The Associated Press

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iPhone 16 Rumors Point to Action Button and New, Vertical Camera Layout – CNET

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The upcoming iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro are still months away from their expected launch this fall, but a new set of images published online may give us a better sense of their potential features. Among the revelations, the iPhone 16 may include an action button, similar to the one on last year’s iPhone 15 Pro, and it may have redesigned cameras in a vertical stack.

AppleInsider published a series of photos it says show dummy 3D prints of the upcoming iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro from an unnamed leaker. Aside from the action button and reworked cameras on the iPhone 16, AppleInsider also said its source found the iPhone 16 Pro to be “slightly larger” than its predecessor. Analysts had earlier said they expect the Pro model screens will grow somewhat.

Read more: iPhone 16: All the Major Rumors on Apple’s Next iPhone

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The new details suggest that a series of expected hardware updates are likely for this year’s new iPhones. Apple typically announces new iPhones around September, and the company tends to offer incremental upgrades to each new phone, introducing, over the period of several years, better cameras, screens and battery life, features that end up seeming like major upgrades when people get around to buying a new phone

Last year, Apple added a new titanium frame, action button and USB-C charging to its iPhone 15 Pro, which starts at $999. For its entry-level iPhone, Apple followed its well-worn strategy of trickling pro features down to the mainstream, adding the iPhone 14 Pro’s well-received Dynamic Island to the $799 iPhone 15, along with USB-C charging.

AppleInsider didn’t indicate whether its leaker had divined a reason for the iPhone 16’s shifted camera placements, but the two lenses will now reportedly be stacked one on top of the other, instead of diagonally. Apple has previously said it uses stacked lenses on the iPhone 15 Pro for spatial video capture, a key new technology the company highlighted as part of its $3,499 Apple Vision Pro headset, released in February.

Though AppleInsider’s leaks appear to confirm many previous rumors, not all renders and 3D prints are accurate, something the rumor blog notes itself in its report. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the veracity of the leaks.

Watch this: What Google Gemini AI on the iPhone Could Look Like

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I Took 600+ Photos With the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Look at My Favorites

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Leaked iPhone 16 dummy units hint at larger sizes and new buttons

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The iPhone 15 Pro Max, with a 6.7-inch screen
(Image credit: Future)

We’re already counting down to the arrival of the iPhone 16 series – most probably sometime in September – and a leak showing dummy units of the upcoming phones has revealed a few of the changes we can expect to see later this year.

These dummy units are usually based on supply chain information, and have various business uses – like helping case manufacturers get their wares ready for new phones before they’re launched, for example. In this case, the images were posted to Chinese social network Weibo, as spotted by MacRumors.

Perhaps the most interesting reveal from these blocks of plastic and metal is that they show the previously rumored increase in size for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max displays – up to 6.3 inches (from 6.1 inches) and 6.9 inches (from 6.7 inches) respectively.

That’s not a huge jump of course, but it does mean more screen space for apps and media. The bezels are apparently shrinking down to accommodate the larger screens, which means the increase in the physical size of these handsets is only a slight one.

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On the button

iPhone 16 dummy units leak

The next iPhones might look a bit like this, but less blue (Image credit: Weibo)

Further reveals from this leak match up with what we’ve heard before: that all four models are going to get the Action button that replaced the Ring/Silent switch on the 2023 Pro models, as well as a brand-new Capture button for getting more creative with photos.

Also of note is the redesigned rear camera module that we think is coming to the back of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. The new vertical, pill-shaped look has been leaked already, but this is more evidence that it’s on the way – taking us back to a design that’s more reminiscent of the iPhone 12, which came out in 2020.

As always with such rumors, be somewhat cautious about reading too much into the look of these dummy units. That said, as more and more similar leaks pile up, it becomes more likely that they’re based on accurate information.

The next big Apple date for your calendar is WWDC 2024 – its Worldwide Developers Conference starts on June 10, at which time we should hear much more about what’s coming this year with iOS 18 and Apple’s other software platforms.

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Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

Leaked iPhone 16 dummy units hint at larger sizes and new buttons

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