Technology

Today’s data and business analysts have a wealth of tools at their fingertips to do their jobs effectively. Behind every analyst team, however, is an IT leader being asked to communicate how such tools offer a Return on Investment (ROI).

Without being able to answer these questions resolutely, IT budgets will be scrutinized and, at worst, put at risk. However, the arrival of AI and IT automation may be about to flip the switch and make it much easier to prove ROI. Let’s explore…

The reporting gap

A lack of answers boils down to reporting gaps. To date, companies that have invested in advanced data analytics and data visualization platforms have fallen into the trap of neglecting the reporting that shows impact. If no one tracks the time saved from that platform or its influence on decision making, its impact goes unnoticed in the wider business.

Take a retail business as an example. Deploying predictive analytics to optimize inventory management counts for nothing without structured reporting on stock reductions, cost savings or sales improvements as outcomes.

Analysts themselves feel the drag when they aren’t given the space to communicate outcomes. A third believe reporting should be a core part of their role but is currently overlooked.

With the introduction of AI into analytics workflows, as well as increased automation, it’s high time for enterprises to turn a page. The improvements that these changes offer (both to working with data and its outcomes) make possible a more systematic approach to reporting.

New possibilities

Our recent research found that 97% of analysts are integrating AI into their workflows, with 87% using analytics automation to streamline routine tasks.

With the right platform, it's possible for analyst teams today to automate data exploration, insight generation and the way that workflow’s function. This leads to faster time-to-value, improved decision-making and, crucially, analysts can report on progress against set KPIs in a reliable manner that doesn’t rely on manual input. Automated collection of performance-based data can track things like time savings in data preparation, cost per project and even the tracing of revenue back to insights generated via analytics.

Automation also makes the output of analytics more accessible. No-code platforms allow users to visualize key findings and insights without technical knowledge. This makes it easier for any business end users to come to, and communicate, data-driven conclusions.

Finally, sophisticated analytics platforms that come with integrated generative AI functionalities allow analysts to spin up presentations, reports and workflow summaries simply through a natural language prompt. The significant relief this provides analysts in terms of time and resources saved is obvious.

A focus on results communication

While AI and automation in analytics offer immense advantages, IT leaders need to shepherd a strategy to streamline and optimize the communication of results.

First and foremost, IT leaders should define success metrics that directly measure the enterprise impact of analytics tools, such as cost savings, revenue growth or operational efficiencies. Aligning these metrics with broader organizational objectives makes reporting coming out of data initiatives much more likely to resonate in ways that other teams care about – rather than heralding technical achievements without context.

Regular and proactive communication of insights is also crucial. Data analysts should go beyond ad-hoc reporting and establish a cadence for sharing comprehensive updates with leadership teams. These reports can highlight key metrics, emerging trends and measurable outcomes, ensuring that executives remain engaged with the impact of AI and analytics automation.

By demonstrating clear ROI through ongoing reporting, organizations can secure buy-in for further investment and scale their analytics capabilities effectively. There’s also no excuse not to do it, given how frictionless automation makes the collation and reporting of such insights.

Finally, fostering a culture of data literacy is an important step toward realizing the ROI of analytics and the tools that enable it. When more business users are working with data, IT teams have greater scope to gather day-to-day feedback from their analytics investments. A wider range or team are empowered to make smarter decisions and create tangible examples of ROI that make the case for continued investment.

Workforces in which the foundations of working with data are understood are more likely to apply new AI technologies in impactful ways. It also stands to improve their own productivity. Put in these terms, the strategic, long-term case for investment in analytics and data stacks becomes easier to articulate to any internal stakeholder.

Settling a debate

Proving the ROI of data analytics tools has long been a tough challenge for IT leaders. Without tracking the impact of their investments, many organizations will have been sitting on high ROI without even knowing it. That’s changing. Advances in AI tools and automation make it easier to track and show the value of analytics with clarity. This is in addition to the democratization of analytics that can unlock all-new levels of operational efficiency.

This shift is helping IT leaders make the case to stay the course with nascent or mature analytics programs, rather than dismantling efforts that were highly viable but difficult to link to business value until now. Enterprises mastering data and analytics will readily demonstrate measurable returns, giving them the most to gain in the upcoming intelligence era of AI disruption.

We list the best business intelligence platforms.

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

In today's data-rich environment, enterprises find themselves custodians of vast, largely untapped repositories of unstructured data. These troves, encompassing documents, emails, videos and more, represent a latent competitive advantage—a wealth of potential insights awaiting activation.

The challenge lies not in the accumulation of data, but in the effective extraction of actionable intelligence. Artificial Intelligence (AI) serves as the transformative tool, capable of converting this “dark data” into tangible business value.

Nearly 90 percent of enterprise data remains unstructured. The most significant opportunity for enterprise growth and innovation in the current landscape is thoughtful AI application. The key is moving beyond mere data collection to strategic data operationalization.

Decision-Making Challenges in the Age of Information

The sheer volume of data does not automatically translate to accelerated or improved decision-making. In fact, teams often struggle to derive relevant insights and take decisive action amid the noise. To address these challenges, enterprises should focus on three critical areas of improvement:

Breaking Down Departmental Data Silos: Siloed data impedes cross-enterprise information sharing, hindering comprehensive analysis and strategic alignment. Establishing seamless data flow between departments unlocks a holistic view of the enterprise, allowing for better and more informed decision-making.

Upgrading Legacy Systems: Legacy systems often cannot fully leverage modern data processing capabilities, limiting the potential for advanced analytics and AI integration. Modernizing infrastructure is essential to unlock the full value of enterprise data.

Transforming Regulatory Compliance: Viewing regulatory compliance as a structured framework, rather than a mere obligation, allows enterprises to proactively leverage compliance data for strategic insights and confident action. This approach transforms compliance from a cost center into a value driver.

To drive this point home, let’s consider the example of a major healthcare provider grappling with fragmented patient data dispersed across 15 disparate systems. By implementing a unified data platform, the provider can empower physicians with comprehensive patient histories during critical situations, reducing treatment delays, minimizing redundant testing and ultimately improving patient outcomes.

Enterprises don’t need more data—they need better ways to use the data they already have. When enterprises combine data quality, governance and scalable AI systems, they turn a passive asset into a strategic differentiator.

Navigating the Critical Data-AI Relationship

The symbiotic relationship between data and AI demands careful navigation. Several key considerations are paramount:

The Data Quality Imperative: The performance of AI systems is inextricably linked to the quality of the underlying data. Poor-quality data can severely limit AI's potential, leading to inaccurate outputs and flawed insights. Enterprises must prioritize data excellence as the bedrock of any successful AI initiative.

Preserving Trust in AI: AI-driven decisions are only as reliable as the data upon which they are based. Inaccuracies, biases, or "hallucinations" can erode confidence in AI outputs, hindering adoption and potentially leading to adverse outcomes. Enterprises must implement robust data validation and governance mechanisms to ensure the trustworthiness of AI systems.

Impact Multiplication: The impact of poor data quality on AI performance is not merely additive; it's multiplicative. Failing to address data quality issues can lead to compounded losses in efficiency, accuracy and competitive advantage. Enterprises must recognize the long-term consequences of neglecting data quality.

Industry Reality Check: The Real Cost of Untapped Data

Untapped data represents more than just a missed opportunity; it's a tangible competitive disadvantage. Consider the following industry-specific realities:

Financial Services: Financial institutions often struggle with outdated data systems that are ill-equipped to detect sophisticated modern fraud patterns, leaving them vulnerable to financial losses and reputational damage.

Healthcare: Fragmented patient data within healthcare systems compromises the quality of care, increases costs and hinders the development of personalized treatment plans.

Retail & CPG: Retailers collect vast amounts of consumer data but often fail to translate these insights into the personalized customer experiences now expected, resulting in lost sales and diminished brand loyalty.

The key takeaway is clear: data hoarding is not a viable strategy. Enterprises must prioritize data monetization and operationalization to unlock the full potential of their data assets.

The Data-to-Intelligence Revolution: AI as the Catalyst

A modern data engineering approach must encompass every stage of the data lifecycle, from legacy data migration and real-time ingestion to robust governance and AI-driven analytics. Key components include:

AI-Accelerated Data Migration: AI/ML-powered accelerators streamline the transition from legacy systems to cloud-native environments, minimizing disruption and accelerating time-to-value. Automated workload discovery and dependency mapping provide a structured migration plan, while AI-driven schema conversion, code refactoring and optimization reduce manual effort. Self-learning AI models analyze historical workloads and recommend performance-optimized architectures for modern platforms.

Advanced Data Engineering: Real-time data processing is essential to power AI-driven decision-making. Generative AI enhances ETL/ELT pipelines, automating data transformation and quality checks. Automated, real-time ingestion pipelines leverage AI to detect, clean and process data at scale. Predictive optimization models dynamically allocate computing resources based on workload demand, while event-driven architectures ensure instant data availability for analytics and decision-making.

Knowledge Graphs for Enterprise Data Intelligence: Generative AI-powered knowledge graphs transform fragmented enterprise data into an intelligent, structured and interconnected ecosystem. AI algorithms detect patterns and uncover insights that would otherwise be missed, while enhanced data lineage tracking ensures accuracy, transparency and trust in AI-driven decisions.

Building an AI-Ready Data Foundation: A robust data foundation is essential to support AI initiatives. This includes:

• Robust Infrastructure: Ensuring high-quality, integrated data for AI-driven insights.
• AI-Driven Governance: Automating compliance, preventing mismanagement and securing access to sensitive data.
• Smart Metadata Management: Enabling automated tagging for organization, searchability and auditability.

The data-to-AI revolution isn’t about isolated initiatives—it’s about integrating every layer of enterprise data into a responsive, scalable foundation for innovation.

Transforming Data with AI Agents: From Raw Information to Powerful Insights

We are rapidly moving beyond the era of static business intelligence dashboards and reactive data analysis. The future of enterprise decision-making lies in the hands of AI agents: intelligent, autonomous systems that proactively transform raw information into actionable insights. These aren't just souped-up analytics tools; they represent a fundamental shift in how enterprises interact with and leverage their data assets.

The key to unlocking the full potential of AI agents lies in their ability to:

Contextualize Data: AI agents don't just process data; they understand its context, relevance and implications.

Automate Insights: AI agents automate the process of extracting insights, eliminating the need for manual analysis and freeing up human resources for more strategic tasks.

Enable Proactive Decision-Making: AI agents empower enterprises to anticipate and respond to change in real-time, enabling proactive decision-making and a competitive edge.

For example: imagine a retail enterprise deploying AI agents to continuously monitor customer behavior, social media trends and competitor pricing strategies. Instead of waiting for a weekly report, these agents dynamically adjust stock recommendations, personalize marketing campaigns and optimize pricing in real-time. This level of agility was previously unattainable, but AI agents make it a reality.

This is where dark data turns into an enterprise superpower. It enables every employee—not just data scientists—to make informed decisions, guided by always-on, always-evolving intelligence.

Conclusion: From Data Possession to Data Power

In the modern enterprise, the emphasis must shift from simply possessing data to effectively leveraging it. Enterprises don't need more data; they need better ways to use the data they already have. Failing to operationalize data comes with the risk of falling behind competitors who are actively harnessing the power of AI.

The enterprises that will thrive in the decades to come are those that can successfully unlock and activate their untapped data assets using AI. The question is no longer “How much data do you have?” but “How intelligently are you using it?”

The time to act is now. The future belongs to those who can harness the hidden power of their dark data, transforming it into AI-driven business value.

We list the best data visualization tools.

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for July 14, No. 294.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for July 14.

Dyson, a company best known for its vacuums and hair dryers, has unveiled a new rotating farm design that aims to make food production more local, sustainable and dependable.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for July 14, #764.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 14 No. 498.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for July 14, No. 1,486.

Alexandria's internet providers offer solid speeds at affordable prices. You can also find multigig options in the city.

• MaxSun’s Mini Station fuses dual GPUs and mobile silicon into a compact desktop unit
• With 48GB of VRAM, it’s clearly built for demanding creative and AI inference tasks
• Dual Thunderbolt 5 ports and SlimSAS slots push bandwidth to a theoretical 192Gbps

MaxSun has introduced what it claims is the industry's first compact workstation built around Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285HX processor, a chip based on the Arrow Lake-HX architecture.

The MaxSun Mini Station is a compact system intended for professionals handling AI inference, model deployment, or resource-heavy creative work.

The system includes two Arc Pro B60 GPUs from MaxSun, specifically the Milestone 24G model, each equipped with 24GB of video memory - together, they provide a total of 48GB VRAM, designed to support demanding workloads like large language model interactions and long-context scenarios such as Qwen3-32B.

Dual Arc GPUs push VRAM to 48GB

There are some questions over its practical compatibility and whether such GPU arrangements can scale efficiently across different software stacks, especially those outside of AI labs.

On the CPU front, MaxSun opted for the Core Ultra 9 285HX, a 24-core processor with 8 performance cores and 16 efficient cores.

This mobile-class chip, recontextualized for desktop through the MoDT (Mobile on Desktop) strategy, forms the foundation of the Mini Station.

The processor is not removable or upgradable, which imposes a fixed ceiling on long-term flexibility.

Although the hardware choice makes sense from a manufacturing standpoint, it may raise doubts for buyers.

In terms of connectivity, the Mini Station supports one M.2 PCIe 5.0 x4, two M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4, and two SlimSAS SFF-8654 4i PCIe 4.0 x4 interfaces - combined with dual Thunderbolt 5 and dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, the system delivers a theoretical throughput of 192Gbps.

These specs suggest real potential for external GPU setups or ultra-fast local storage, important factors for those looking for the best PC for video editing or complex simulations.

The MaxSun GPUs incorporate dual fans, composite heat pipes, and a metal backplate, which should ensure thermal stability.

However, this does not eliminate concerns over performance throttling in such a compact case.

Via ITHome and Videocardz

You might also like

• Check out the best 3D modeling software for 3D printing and more
• We've rounded up the best portable monitors available now
• AI workloads are reshaping infrastructure - here’s what data centers need to know

• Samsung has been talking about future wearables
• Earrings and necklaces could be developed
• Several companies are working on portable AI devices

Samsung has big plans for more wearables: not just in the form of the newly launched Galaxy Watch 8 and the much anticipated Galaxy Ring 2, but also in more innovative products such as smart earrings and smart necklaces.

Speaking to CNN (via Android Authority), Samsung mobile executive Won-joon Choi offered some thoughts on the next wave of wearable devices we might see – and how these devices could differ from what we have today.

"We believe [these devices] should be wearable, something that you shouldn’t carry, [that] you don’t need to carry," says Choi. "So it could be something that you wear, glasses, earrings, watches, rings and sometimes [a] necklace."

This is a long way from confirmation that a Samsung Galaxy Earring or Necklace is on the way, but it's clear that Samsung is looking into different types of technology, and weighing up what kind of device form factors could be beneficial for users.

Working and exploring

The Galaxy Watch 8 is Samsung's newest wearable (Image credit: Samsung)

Smart glasses are also mentioned there, and Samsung has been rumored to be working on a pair of smart specs for quite some time now – ready to take on the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses – although nothing has been made official as yet.

Watch this space though: "We are actively working on glasses, but some people do not want to wear glasses because they change their look," says Choi in the interview. "So we are also exploring other types of devices."

No doubt some kind of AI processing will be involved in these future devices. We know that ChatGPT developer OpenAI is busy developing a hardware device that would enable you to carry an AI assistant with you, though several similar previous projects haven't worked.

Whatever these devices end up looking like, they're going to need long-lasting batteries, and we know that's something else Samsung is looking into. In the not-too-distant future, we may have a lot more wearable device types to choose from.

You might also like

• Our early thoughts on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic
• These are the best smartwatches you can buy
• The secrets of the Galaxy Watch 8 antioxidant sensor

Can Enzo Maresca's men stop the European champions from adding a world title to their cabinet?

AT&T is the top ISP in Jacksonville, but other options might better suit your needs and budget. Here's what CNET experts recommend.

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Sunday, July 13 (game #497).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

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

NYT Strands today (game #498) - hint #1 - today's themeWhat is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Won't you be my neighbor?

NYT Strands today (game #498) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• TORY
• LIAR
• RIFE
• FAIL
• HEAR
• RENT

NYT Strands today (game #498) - hint #3 - spangram lettersHow many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 9 letters

NYT Strands today (game #498) - hint #4 - spangram positionWhat are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: left, 4th row

Last side: right, 4th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #498) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #498, are…

• TEACHER
• MAYOR
• JANITOR
• LIBRARIAN
• FIREFIGHTER
• SPANGRAM: COMMUNITY

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 hint

Although TEACHER was easy to spot – hanging out very visibly in the top left-hand corner – the rest of today's answers posed quite the word search challenge.

With the exception of MAYOR, every word was hard to work out, with JANITOR taking me quite a while – although I can use a cultural differences excuse here, as I am in the UK and we call this profession a caretaker.

That said I am very familiar with the word thanks to the opening titles of the Hanna Barbera cartoon Hong Kong Phooey and its introduction of “Henry the mild mannered janitor”.

Meanwhile, after a run of sensible, straight, and short spangrams we have returned to experimentation with today’s yellow snake ending in the middle of the puzzle. Crazy.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Sunday, July 13, game #497)

• LINEN
• WOOL
• SILK
• COTTON
• RAYON
• POLYESTER
• SPANGRAM: TEXTILES

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Sunday, July 13 (game #1266).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

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 #1267) - hint #1 - VowelsHow many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 5*.

* 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 #1267) - hint #2 - repeated lettersDo any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 3.

Quordle today (game #1267) - hint #3 - uncommon lettersDo the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• Yes. One of Q, Z, X or J appears among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1267) - hint #4 - 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 #1267) - hint #5 - starting letters (2)What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• S

• P

• P

• P

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

Quordle today (game #1267) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1267, are…

• SURGE
• PIZZA
• PAPER
• POPPY

Phew! I came dangerously close to crashing out today and was only rescued by a hail Mary guess of PIZZA – although, on reflection I’d used up so many letters that there were probably no other possibilities from a word I knew contained a P and an A.

My downfall today was PAPER, but in particular getting the A and the E and R in the correct positions, which rather than narrow things down revealed numerous possibilities.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Daily Sequence today (game #1267) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1267, are…

• CAUSE
• GOURD
• GUSTO
• GLARE

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1266, Sunday, 13 July: KAYAK, DECRY, RUDDY, HATER
• Quordle #1265, Saturday, 12 July: WREAK, NANNY, CLASP, STAIN
• Quordle #1264, Friday, 11 July: LAPEL, DRAIN, FROND, GROSS
• Quordle #1263, Thursday, 10 July: CROSS, WHEEL, UNDID, PENCE
• Quordle #1262, Wednesday, 9 July: SHIRE, SIXTH, SINGE, IMAGE
• Quordle #1261, Tuesday, 8 July: PLIED, PRANK, GAWKY, OXIDE
• Quordle #1260, Monday, 7 July: DROLL, TRUCE, TWIRL, SINCE
• Quordle #1259, Sunday, 6 July: AMPLY, SPAWN, EXTOL, RIDGE
• Quordle #1258, Saturday, 5 July: HAVEN, SNAKE, DREAM, TORUS
• Quordle #1257, Friday, 4 July: FAVOR, SKUNK, GAWKY, FLUFF
• Quordle #1256, Thursday, 3 July: DANCE, EYING, GLAZE, EGRET
• Quordle #1255, Wednesday, 2 July: INANE, SCOUR, ELITE, ULCER
• Quordle #1254, Tuesday, 1 July: REBAR, YEARN, FORTH, CROWD
• Quordle #1253, Monday, 30 June: INGOT, INFER, TAPIR, CLUED
• Quordle #1252, Sunday, 29 June: MIRTH, APTLY, SCRUB, SMACK
• Quordle #1251, Saturday, 28 June: AWOKE, SMOKY, DEVIL, SWING
• Quordle #1250, Friday, 27 June: SPEAK, EAGLE, AVERT, SUING
• Quordle #1249, Thursday, 26 June: SLUMP, REBUS, GUAVA, MONEY
• Quordle #1248, Wednesday, 25 June: SOGGY, CLASH, MODEM, SQUAD

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, July 13 (game #763).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

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

NYT Connections today (game #764) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• SPORTY
• JOLLY
• ICE
• GINGER
• BABY
• POWDER
• COMPACT
• SCARY
• FAST
• FLOUNDERS
• MISTER
• SKY
• BELLED
• SLEEK
• ABUT
• ROY

NYT Connections today (game #764) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Hues of a primary color
• GREEN: Ways to describe a fast vehicle
• BLUE: Followed by a name that rhymes with “dodger”
• PURPLE: Names from Walt’s world with one thing added

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #764) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: SHADES OF BLUE 
• GREEN: ADJECTIVES FOR A SPORTS CAR
• BLUE: WORDS BEFORE "ROGER/S" 
• PURPLE: DISNEY ANIMATED CHARACTERS PLUS A LETTER 

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

NYT Connections today (game #764) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #764, are…

• YELLOW: SHADES OF BLUE BABY, ICE, POWDER, SKY
• GREEN: ADJECTIVES FOR A SPORTS CAR COMPACT, FAST, SLEEK, SPORTY
• BLUE: WORDS BEFORE "ROGER/S" GINGER, JOLLY, MISTER, ROY
• PURPLE: DISNEY ANIMATED CHARACTERS PLUS A LETTER ABUT, BELLED, FLOUNDERS, SCARY

• My rating: Hard
• My score: Fail

I fell hook, line and sinker for today’s Spice Girls trap, selecting SPORTY, GINGER, SCARY, and BABY before I’d even stopped to think of any alternatives. This was just the start of my woes.

My next mistake was thinking we were looking for words that described the surfaces in winter sports, so I had ICE, COMPACT, SLEEK, and POWDER.

The only group I got through deduction was WORDS BEFORE “ROGER/S” after seeing the link between GINGER, ROY, JOLLY, and MISTER. The yellow group I had gotten thinking that the word Vanilla was the connection – Vanilla SKY is a movie, Vanilla ICE is a rapper, people buy vanilla-flavored protein powder, there’s a tanning product called Vanilla Baby. All in all, not my greatest of games. I hope it was better for you. 

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, July 13, game #763)

• YELLOW: INSULT BURN, KNOCK, SLIGHT, ZING
• GREEN: CREDIT CARD INFO EXPIRATION, NAME, NUMBER, ZIP
• BLUE: SLANG FOR PRINTED MATTER GLOSSY, MAG, RAG, ZINE
• PURPLE: WINE NICKNAMES BUBBLY, CAB, CHARD, ZIN

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

In tech terms, June and July have been particularly busy this year. While gamers have been sinking their teeth into the new Nintendo Switch 2, mobile fans have been served a run of excellent, exciting, and, crucially, affordable new smartphones to consider.

One of the lesser-talked-about affordable phone brands is Poco. The Xiaomi-owned subsidiary prioritizes performance above all else, offering powerful devices that typically undercut rivals in the budget and mid-range markets.

One of the marque’s latest offerings – the Poco F7 – strikes an impressive balance between price and performance, toting Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 silicon while still clocking it at under £389 in the UK.

Previously, the impressive value proposition of Poco’s F-series phones has meant that concessions – on aspects like camera quality and OS update support longevity – have been expected, and often accepted, by users.

Scan through the reviews of the Poco F7, however, and you’ll see that the team behind the phone has clearly made strides to produce a more holistically capable competitor. And that poses a problem for some particularly prominent rivals.

Better ig-Nord?

(Image credit: Future)

The fresh-faced OnePlus Nord 5 touched down in the second week of June, serving as the brand’s new top mid-ranger. During the process of testing it out for myself over the last few weeks, however, comparisons to the Poco F7 have kept popping up, and OnePlus' effort loses the battle nine times out of 10.

For starters, despite coming in at £399 in the UK (i.e. £10 more than the F7), the Nord 5 runs on the same chipset family as the Poco, but it uses the previous generation – the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. OnePlus has also paired that to conventional UFS 3.1 storage, whilst the Poco uses bleeding-edge UFS 4.1 tech (that's two generations newer in the smartphone space).

You also get a brighter display (in terms of both panel-wide and peak brightness output), superior IP68-grade protection against dust and water (the Nord 5 tops out at IP65), and a 25% larger battery (6500mAh, versus 5200mAh in most markets).

Poco has even extended its update support commitment to match that of OnePlus, with four years of OS releases and six years of security updates promised.

HyperOS 2.0 still needs work (Image credit: Tom Mundy / Future)

The main caveat here, which has the potential to put the ball back in the Nord 5's court, is the difference in user experience.

Xiaomi promised big things with the move from MIUI to HyperOS in 2024, and while there are some clear technical improvements to the company's Android-based user experience, the user-facing facets of HyperOS 2.0 – as found on the likes of the F7 – are still... lacking.

In contrast, OnePlus' latest OxygenOS 15, as featured on the latest and best OnePlus phones, is cleaner, more elegant, less bloated, more responsive, easier to use, and sports a more intuitive and dynamic suite of AI-backed features. And as that's the bit of the phone you interact with more than any other on a daily basis, that might be reason enough to pick the Nord 5 over the technically superior and more affordable F7.

Something better than Nothing?

(Image credit: Future)

Perhaps the highest profile launch in the first week of July was the release of the divisive Nothing Phone 3.

I say 'divisive' because what the company is calling its "first true flagship" immediately came under fire for its design, performance, and price.

While there's no question that the Phone 3's aesthetics are unorthodox, as the most subjective of those three aspects, I'm less inclined to say the Poco F7 boasts better or worse looks. In fact, its semi-transparent back is decidedly Nothing-like, as it happens.

Where the trouble for the Phone 3 really starts is with its choice of chipset, which – as you might be able to guess – is the same as the one powering the Poco F7: the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4.

I have nothing against this particular silicon and Nothing itself has done an admirable job of extolling the virtues of the chip. But on a phone that costs £799 / $799 (Nothing's most expensive phone yet), people were expecting to see the chip of choice for almost every other 2025 Android flagship: Qualcomm's top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Elite.

(Image credit: Tom Mundy / Future)

Cue the Poco F7 to rub salt in the wound. As well as hitting the market ahead of the Phone 3, packing in faster storage and a bigger battery with faster charging, you're getting a phone with the same chipset (and thus comparable performance) for less than half the price.

Admittedly, the extra money commanded by the Nothing Phone does – like the OnePlus – buy you access to one of the best smartphone user experiences on the market, in Nothing OS 3.0, not to mention superior cameras, a brighter screen and longer software support (7 years of OS & security updates) than the Poco. So, the divide isn't quite as chasmic as with the Nord.

In a three-way shootout between the Poco F7, Nord 5, and Phone 3, then, it ultimately falls to where your priorities lie. Is a slick user experience your top priority, or does more performance and a lower price tag more readily entice you? If the latter, I'm inclined to recommend the powerful and affordable Poco.

You might also like

• Best Xiaomi phones: top Mi, Poco, and Redmi devices ranked
• Nothing Phone 3 hands-on: The most interesting phone of the year
• Nothing confirms its flagship Phone 3 won't have a flagship chipset, but I don't think that matters – here's why

• More details of the Galaxy S25 FE have emerged
• The screen and battery could get a boost
• We might see a launch sometime during September

We're still forming our early impressions of the Galaxy Z Fold 7, the Galaxy Z Flip 7, and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, but more Samsung phones are on the way – and the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE is the subject of the latest leak to appear online.

According to a report from TechManiacs (via GSMArena), the Galaxy S25 FE will come with a Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide (LTPO) screen – essentially meaning it's able to adjust its refresh rate depending on what's on the display.

It's useful for reducing the refresh rate and improving battery life if an always-on display is enabled, for example, when the phone is locked: while the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE supports an always-on display mode, it doesn't use LTPO technology, so on the new model the impact on battery shouldn't be as great.

You'll see LTPO screens on top-end phones such as the Apple iPhone 16 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S25, and it's perhaps an indication that the Galaxy S25 FE will be a more premium offering than its predecessors have been.

Battery upgrade

(Image credit: Future)

The other key component upgrade mentioned by TechManiacs is the battery. The capacity is apparently being boosted from 4,700 mAh to 4,900 mAh, while the wired charging rate is set to go up from 25W to 45W.

These would all be welcome upgrades of course, though nothing is certain until Samsung makes this phone official. As with previous FE ('Fan Edition') phones, it's expected to sit somewhere between the flagship and the budget categories.

Other rumors have suggested that the Galaxy S25 FE screen will be thinner and have smaller bezels, while it could well be powered by an Exynos 2400 chip. In the camera department though, the rear cameras could be the same as those on the Galaxy S24 FE. This is all backed up by the latest leak as well.

It's still not clear when we might see the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE – although the indicators are that it's on the way. The Galaxy S24 FE was introduced in September 2024, so its successor may well show up in September 2025.

You might also like

• The ultimate guide to the Samsung Galaxy S25
• We've picked out the best Samsung phones in existence
• The Galaxy S26 Ultra could get a big camera upgrade

• Seagate 36TB Exos M hard drive is large enough to store over 1,440 single-layer Blu-ray discs
• New model ships alongside refurbished versions at nearly the same price
• Designed for AI, cloud, and data-heavy workloads with lower power use

The Exos M ST36000NM003K is Seagate’s newest and largest SATA data center hard drive to date. It follows the 32TB model launched in late 2024, which itself came nearly a year after the company’s 30TB release.

We wrote about the 36TB version back in January 2025, and now it’s gone up for preorder at ServerPartDeals.com, priced at $799.99 (which equates to $22.22 per terabyte, if you’re wondering).

What’s intriguing is that, alongside the new drive, manufacturer-recertified and seller-refurbished models are also being offered at slightly lower prices.

Refurbished and recertified

The 3.5-inch drive runs at 7,200 RPM and uses the SATA 6Gb/s interface. It introduces a new areal density milestone of 3TB per platter, reaching high capacity without changing the form factor.

Seagate combines its latest Mozaic 3+ technology with 90% of components used in earlier models. Designed for cloud services, big data, and AI infrastructure, the Exos M offers higher capacity in the same physical footprint.

It claims to deliver three times the power efficiency per terabyte compared to traditional drives, helping lower data center operating costs.

Seagate says the Exos M uses more recycled materials and renewable energy than any of its past products.

Recertified and refurbished versions of the 36TB model are already available to preorder now, priced only slighter cheaper that the brand new version.

The manufacturer-recertified version is listed at $789.99 ($21.94 per TB), while the seller-refurbished model is available for $779.99 ($21.66 per TB).

That used units are being offered for preorder alongside the new models is interesting and possibly linked to testing or early returns.

Aside from availability shortages, I can’t imagine many people are going to rush to buy one of those models just to save $10-$20 per drive.

Each new unit comes with a 3-year warranty. That drops to two years for the recertified version and to just 90 days for the refurbished model.

You might also like

• These are the fastest hard drives on offer today
• And these are the largest hard drives you can buy right now
• Seagate claims its flagship hard drives could last more than 7 years

Is your home internet suited for streaming? Check out some of our top picks for the best home internet providers for streaming this July.