Latest news with #MiniSudoku
The Verge
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Teenage Engineering did it again
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 94, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, did you hydrate today, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I'm visiting LinkedIn way too much because of Mini Sudoku, looking at the fake texts in Apple's marketing materials, marveling at tiny doodles on microchips, listening to Taylor Swift's New Heights podcast episode, learning about model railroad power debates, reading about the death of expertise, catching up on my favorite HGTV home renovation show, and watching a very good drumline. I also have for you some durable cables, a great new Alien show, a strange RPG, and more. (As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What do you want to know more about? What awesome tricks do you know that everyone else should? What app should everyone be using? Tell me everything: [email protected]. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.) This week I'm featuring Soren Iverson, who you may recognize as the person who posts unhinged design concepts on social media like an iOS app icon filling up based on how many notifications the app has. Whenever these cross my feed, I nearly always cackle. I expected him to bring some of that chaos on his actual homescreen, but I was surprised to learn that his homescreen is even more minimal than mine — which inspired me to make mine a little less busy, too. The phone: iPhone 15 Pro The wallpaper: A black screen. I try to make time on my phone intentional, I call, text, or take notes most frequently. Everything else I bury as a more intentional action I have to take so that I'm generally more focused. The apps: Phone, Messages, Notes I also asked Soren to share a few things he's into right now. Here's what he said: Here's what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you're into right now as well! Email [email protected] with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we'll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on The Verge, this post on Threads, and this post on Bluesky. 'Buying a bunch of Ubiquiti gear for the new house that totally isn't overkill.' — SorryAboutYourCat 'Model railroading. Been holding off converting to DCC from DC hoping a well designed modern alternative will appear, but it's the same over priced out of date market it's always been.' — RoboticsRob 'I've been playing Merge Maestro way too much. It's a fun match game with Super Auto Pets-like emoji artwork. Free-to-start on mobile with a $2 price for the entire game.' — Dominick 'Reading: The Next Conversation by Jefferson Fisher. Playing: Dishonored for the first time. Watching: Mr. Robot and Murderbot (does this count as a theme?) Rabbit hole: Home Assistant and generally reducing my digital footprint (I say as making this public post).' — Omega86 'Just got to watching The Penguin, and it's a really fun gangster romp set in Gotham. I've mostly tired of the superhero stuff, but I'm always a sucker for good origin tales, and this really delivers. And the secret is, it's really about Sofia Falcone and her war with her patriarchal mob family. Cristin Milioti is fantastic in the role.' — verge_user_m573tv18 'UFO 50 just came out on the Nintendo Switch. I've been following the podcast Eggplant: The Secret Lives of Gamers, which is going through each of the 50 games in a book club-like format, with just one game a week.' — -goobers 'I, like many other people, watched Barbarian recently on Netflix. It's leaving on August 31st. The director's new movie, Weapons, just came out. Highly, highly recommend Barbarian. It's fun to go in blind, and even if you've seen the trailer, you'll still be spared some of its great twists. There's more humor in it than you might expect, and the gruesome aspects aren't over-the-top.' — Cameron Google is about to kick off the 2025 gadget season with its Pixel launch event on August 20th. I'd love to hear from you all: Are you planning to upgrade anything this year, and if so, why? What are you hoping Apple, Google, and others will announce? Or are you going to keep holding onto your gear? See you next week! Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Jay Peters Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Installer Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
4 days ago
- Business Standard
Tech Wrap Aug 14: Vivo Vision glasses, Gemini update, LinkedIn Mini Sudoku
Vivo AR glasses to launch on August 21. Gemini learns to remember and go incognito. LinkedIn introduces Mini Sudoku. PUBG to end support on PS4, Xbox One. Photos brings creative tools Tech Wrap August 14 BS Tech New Delhi Vivo's answer to Apple Vision Pro headset launches on August 21 Chinese consumer electronics brand Vivo has announced that it will be launching its Vision Discovery Edition Glasses on August 21. The announcement was accompanied by a teaser video highlighting the headset's design. Vivo has yet to confirm whether this will be a global event or limited to its home market in China. Google is upgrading its Gemini AI assistant to be both more personalised and more privacy-conscious. According to Google, Gemini will now offer two new features: a memory-enabled 'Personal Context' mode, which remembers your past conversations to deliver more tailored responses, and an optional 'Temporary Chat' mode, which allows one-off interactions that leave no lasting data trace. LinkedIn has released its sixth thinking-oriented game, Mini Sudoku. The platform has collaborated with the original creators of Sudoku, a small Japanese puzzle magazine named Nikoli, who handcrafted Sudoku around 41 years ago. Mini Sudoku essentially is a daily, bite-sized version of the classic game, designed to be solved in just a few minutes. South Korean game publisher Krafton will shift PUBG Console exclusively to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S from November 13, 2025. According to the company's official press release, this transition marks the end of support for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which will no longer be playable or available for download after the stated date. For context, PUBG Console is the console-specific edition of the battle royale game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, designed for platforms like PlayStation and Xbox. Google has reportedly begun rolling out new features to its Photos app, including the earlier-announced 'Create' tab, which consolidates various creative tools for easier use, and a fresh AI-powered 'Remix' function for altering the visual style of images. According to 9To5Google, these additions have started appearing for select users on both Android and iOS versions of the app. Samsung is widening the rollout of its Android 16-based One UI 8 beta to more Galaxy smartphones. According to a report from 9To5Google, the beta build is now reaching Galaxy S24 series smartphones as well as the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6. This follows Samsung's earlier confirmation that the One UI 8 beta would extend to more smartphones later in August, with a stable release planned for eligible models in September. Google is rolling out sensitive content warnings in Messages to alert users when sending, receiving, or forwarding images that may contain nudity. In an update to its support page, Google detailed that the feature will automatically detect and blur such images, alongside adding child safety measures. Apple has reportedly filed a patent application for an all-glass iPhone design, potentially hinting at a future model. As per a 9to5Mac report, the filing describes an electronic device with a 'six-sided glass enclosure,' aligning with Apple's long-standing vision for iPhone hardware, what former design chief Jony Ive once called a 'single slab of glass.' Reliance Digital has kicked off the 'Digital India sale', live until August 17, in which it is offering discounts of up to 25 per cent along with bank offers, no-interest equated monthly instalment (no-cost EMI), and UPI discounts on a range of electronics and gadgets. Key deals include the MacBook Air M1 at ₹49,990, iPhone 13 at ₹39,900, Google Pixel 9a at ₹42,999, and a 55-inch UHD Google TV at ₹24,990.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
LinkedIn and Nikoli bring a twist to Sudoku with bite-sized daily puzzles
LinkedIn has released its sixth thinking-oriented game, Mini Sudoku. The platform has collaborated with the original creators of Sudoku, a small Japanese puzzle magazine named Nikoli, who handcrafted Sudoku around 41 years ago. Mini Sudoku essentially is a daily, bite-sized version of the classic game, designed to be solved in just a few minutes. As per the Senior Director of Product at LinkedIn, Lakshman Somasundaram, the creation of Mini Sudoku was driven by a desire to respect the puzzle's rich history while adapting it for modern lifestyles. LinkedIn now has a total of six games for users to play – Zip, Mini Sudoku, Tango, Queens, Pinpoint, and Crossclimb. Mini Sudoku: What is it Traditional Sudoku often takes 10 to 20 minutes to complete, time that many professionals cannot spare. Somasundaram said that Mini Sudoku condenses the challenge into a format that can be completed in under three minutes, making it ideal for a quick mental reset, a burst of focus between meetings, or a friendly competition. The rules remain familiar: every row, column, and region must contain all numbers exactly once. The only difference is the reduced grid, using just six numbers, resulting in faster gameplay without sacrificing the satisfying moments of logical deduction. Difficulty levels will progress through the week, starting easier on Mondays and becoming more challenging by Sunday. Players can expect familiar tools from larger Sudoku formats, including note-taking, hints, auto-error checking, and row and column highlighting. These features aim to make each day's puzzle solvable in under three minutes, blending accessibility with a satisfying mental challenge. To accompany the launch, daily solve-through videos will be created by Thomas Snyder, a three-time World Sudoku Champion. Each walkthrough will break down his approach to solving that day's puzzle, offering practical tips, tactical insights, and strategic guidance designed to help players sharpen their skills over time. How did Sudoku come into existence As per Somasundaram, Sudoku originated from a puzzle called 'Number Place,' but it was the Japanese publisher Nikoli that refined its rules, gave it the name 'Sudoku,' and presented it to Japan in 1984. The game soon became a global sensation, appearing in newspapers and magazines worldwide. Yet, many outlets overlooked Nikoli's role, and the company gradually slipped out of the spotlight—well-respected among puzzle enthusiasts, but unfamiliar to most of the general public.
The Verge
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Verge
LinkedIn's Mini Sudoku is a clever twist on the classic puzzle
I love sudoku, so I just couldn't resist checking out LinkedIn's new Mini Sudoku game that it launched this week. Two puzzles in, I can already tell you that I like it a lot. The rules in Mini Sudoku are quite similar to regular sudoku: you need to fill in all of the blank spots of a puzzle with a number, but a number can't repeat in a line, row, or box. But the twist with Mini Sudoku is that it uses six numbers instead of nine, meaning the game has smaller puzzles that are a little easier to take in across a mobile phone screen. You can also make notes and ask for hints if you need them. The smaller puzzles have also (so far) been faster for me to solve. The New York Times' easy sudoku puzzle usually takes me more than five minutes to finish (could be a skill issue), and the first two Mini Sukoku puzzles have taken me about two and four minutes to complete, respectively. I know that's not a huge jump, but every minute counts when I'm trying to finish a puzzle before my toddler wakes up in the morning. The most annoying thing about Mini Sudoku is that it's on LinkedIn, so it means I've found myself accidentally scrolling my LinkedIn feed. But I might have to learn to deal with that to finish my daily puzzle. I'm even thinking of trying LinkedIn's other games. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Jay Peters Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News
Indian Express
5 days ago
- Business
- Indian Express
LinkedIn rolls out ‘Mini Sudoku' puzzle game created with world champion Thomas Snyder
LinkedIn has introduced a new puzzle game for the 1.2 billion users of its professional social networking app. The game is a miniature version of Sudoku. Instead of the traditional 9-by-9 grid, Mini Sudoku by LinkedIn is scaled down to a 6-by-6 grid puzzle that is supposed to be completed in two or three minutes. Mini Sudoku becomes harder to solve with every passing day of the week, similar to other puzzle-based games on LinkedIn. With Mini Sudoku, LinkedIn might be looking to play to the nostalgia of users. It could also lead to healthy competition between colleagues, friends and family members in terms of who can solve the puzzle first. Besides giving users something new to talk about, LinkedIn is likely introducing games on its platforms to boost engagement and user retention times. 'We don't want to have a puzzle on LinkedIn that takes 20 minutes to solve, right? We're not games for games' sake,' Lakshman Somasundaram, a senior director of product at LinkedIn, was quoted as saying by CNBC. Mini Sudoku was reportedly conceived based on an encounter between LinkedIn executives and Japanese publisher Nikoli, which popularised Sudoku, in Tokyo, Japan last year. Thomas Snyder, a three-time World Sudoku Championship winner, was also involved in helping LinkedIn design its gaming strategy for Mini Sudoku. Seeking to make the ancient game more accessible, the Microsoft-backed company reportedly designed several prototypes before finalising the version with six rows and six columns of squares. Mini Sudoku is the sixth game rolled out by LinkedIn so far. Millions of people play games on LinkedIn with 7am ET (4:30 pm IST) being the most popular time among users to play the game and Gen Z users on LinkedIn being the top demographic, a company spokesperson was quoted as saying. Over 86 per cent of the users who play regularly will return tomorrow, and 82 per cent of them will be playing next week, the spokesperson added.
