World News: Talking Tech: Play Wordle yet? What to know about the viral game

Thursday, January 13

Happy Thursday, tech fans! It's Brett Molina, pausing my Wordle round to deliver you the latest headlines in tech.

As a tech reporter, it's always fun when a game goes viral. Remember Flappy Bird in 2014, the popular mobile game urging us to carefully tap our thumbs on the screen so that cute little bird could fly past obstacles? In fact, it was so popular the developer removed it fearing we were too addicted.

Then we had Pokémon Go in 2016, during which we stood puzzled why crowds of people were standing in front of the grocery store only to learn they were trying to catch a Snorlax.

For now, it's Wordle. The web-based puzzle game challenges players to guess a five-letter word in six attempts. If you know nothing about Wordle, we've got you covered:

•	This is how you play the game.
•	Having a hard time guessing correctly? Try these 3 tips.
•	We already have Wordle clones. Apple is starting to remove them.

But the tech world wasn't all fun and games this week:

What else happened in tech?

►Peer pressure to use iMessage? Google thinks some users stay with iPhone because they fear being ostracized by the dreaded green text bubble on Apple devices identifying them as Android phone owners.

►A chip shortage casualty. Canon's printers think its own ink cartridges are fake. And we thought letting the cartridge dry out because we haven't used our printer in months was the biggest annoyance.

►Smart guns coming soon? The personalized weapons would only allow verified users to shoot.

►Cars getting smarter. This is all the cool car tech coming to garages soon.

Thursday's tech tip

From time to time, you might find yourself needing to capture a picture of your computer or smartphone screen. This guide will help you figure out how to capture a screenshot, whether you need it for a PC or an iPhone.