Month: April 2022

Enlarge / A word game that's as addictive as a "DRUG."

The viral success of Wordle has reminded the world of how compelling a good word game can be (even if that game is not exactly new). But if you're anything like me, the daily Wordle grind has probably started to feel a bit monotonous by now.

After months of daily puzzles, there's just not enough depth to Wordle's simple five-letter guessing game to really keep pushing a regular player to interesting new places. Variations that limit the possible word space (i.e., Lewdle) or tack on more simultaneous games (i.e., Sedecordle) bring back some of the novelty but can only go so far.

For players ready for a bit more depth in their daily word puzzles, I can't recommend Knotwords enough. The game combines the jigsaw-like intersecting letter arrangements of a crossword puzzle with the positional logic of a math puzzle like kenken, creating a truly unique and addictive brain teaser. After spending a week tearing through dozens of Knotwords puzzles, I'm pleased to say I'm still eager for more.

Enlarge / The opening credits for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds feature the USS Enterprise voyaging through the universe. (credit: Twitter/Paramount+)

Paramount+ debuted the official opening credits for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Twitter this morning, and the sequence leans heavily into fan nostalgia. The credits are a visually stunning tribute to the iconic opening credits sequence for Star Trek: The Original Series, showing the USS Enterprise soaring through space, past asteroid belts and clouds of interstellar dust as it searches for the titular new worlds. Even the voiceover dialogue remains the same (except "no man" is now "no one").

As we've previously reported, showrunner Akiva Goldsman has confirmed that Strange New Worlds will return to the episodic structure of classic Star Trek—making it a rare beast in this era of serialized storytelling and streaming platforms—and will respect existing canon. It will feature Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Number One (Rebecca Romijn), and Ethan Peck's Spock, who first appeared in Star Trek: Discovery's second season.

Babs Olusanmokun plays Dr. M'Benga; Celia Rose Gooding has the unenviable task of filling Nichelle Nichols' shoes as Cadet Nyota Uhura; Jess Bush plays Nurse Christine Chapel; Melissa Navai plays Lt. Erica Ortegas; Bruce Orak plays an Aenar named Hemmer who is blind in one eye (Aenar are an albino subspecies of Andorians that are generally depicted as blind); and Christina Chong plays La'An Noonien-Singh (a relation of the classic revenge-obsessed Star Trek villain Khan). The streaming platform has already greenlighted a second season, with Paul Wesley (Vampire Diaries) joining the cast as future Enterprise Capt. James T. Kirk.

Enlarge (credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia released version 2.0.40 of its GeForce Now game-streaming app earlier this week, and among its new features is native support for newer Apple Silicon Macs.

Like most Intel-only Mac apps, GeForce Now could run on Apple Silicon Macs using the Rosetta 2 compatibility layer. Nvidia says that adding native support for Apple Silicon will reduce the app's power consumption and startup time and lead to an "overall elevated experience," though it notably doesn't mention gameplay factors like streaming quality or input latency.

Apple Silicon Macs from the M1 to the M1 Ultra all have reasonably powerful GPUs compared to similarly priced and specced PCs, but so far, that hasn't led to an influx of AAA PC titles on the platform. This is partly because Windows enjoys a higher usage share than macOS and is thus a bigger target for game developers. And on the software side, Apple focuses its energy on its own proprietary Metal graphics API rather than supporting the open Vulkan API or modern versions of OpenGL.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Earth Day was April 22, and its usual message—take care of our planet—has been given added urgency by the challenges highlighted in the latest IPCC report. This year, Ars is taking a look at the technologies we normally cover, from cars to chipmaking, and finding out how we can boost their sustainability and minimize their climate impact.

While chips have been in short supply lately, there has also been growing concern about their environmental impact. Droughts and COVID caused factory (or fab) shutdowns just as the pandemic fueled a surge in demand for medical devices, tele-everything, and all the other gadgets to help people remain productive and less isolated. But the demand for chips has been growing for some time, making it important to ask whether meeting these demands is compatible with climate and sustainability goals.

The answer is that it’s a work in progress. Semiconductor manufacturers are building new facilities in Taiwan, the US, Europe, and elsewhere, providing an opportunity for the industry to incorporate sustainability from the very start. Doing so will help leading chip manufacturers meet voluntary pledges, such as reaching net-zero emissions by 2040 and 2050. These promises are encouraging, but they're still shy of the urgent action needed, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. And pledging doesn’t guarantee delivery—but contributions from researchers, external regulators, and consumers can help with that.