Technology

Modern home batteries are full of all sorts of interesting tech. Here are a few things that surprised me.

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now nearly 1,000 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 Wordle today, NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles.

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 #992) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.

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

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

Quordle today (game #992) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #992) - 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 0.

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

• S

• U

• E

• H

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

Quordle today (game #992) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #992, are…

• SAUCY
• UNDUE
• EGRET
• HELLO

Remember EGRET? A relatively early Wordle (game #378) that caused a lot of problems in July 2022, ending up with an average score of 4.4. It's every bit as challenging in today's Quordle, costing me two guesses, although one of them was due to a mistake on my part, when I didn't look at the board properly and played a letter where it was ruled out.

EGRET aside there are repeats in HELLO and UNDUE, adding to the sense that is a more difficult Quordle than most. Well done if you solved it.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Daily Sequence today (game #992) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #992, are…

• STORY
• NERVE
• QUILL
• IDLER

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #991, Friday 11 October: RINSE, ANIME, PUSHY, ZEBRA
• Quordle #990, Thursday 10 October: UNTIL, MARSH, METAL, WINDY
• Quordle #989, Wednesday 9 October: TRIAL, HUSKY, DOWNY, TRADE
• Quordle #988, Tuesday 8 October: TROUT, HATER, BARGE, DOZEN
• Quordle #987, Monday 7 October: CAULK, HALVE, APING, HEATH
• Quordle #986, Sunday 6 October: FUDGE, TENOR, BEGAT, ROUSE
• Quordle #985, Saturday 5 October: ELECT, CROAK, FRISK, JAUNT
• Quordle #984, Friday 4 October: ELFIN, GRAIL, PATIO, RECAP
• Quordle #983, Thursday 3 October: TENTH, REMIT, CURVE, TOAST
• Quordle #982, Wednesday 2 October: ARGUE, CRANE, TOKEN, PRINT
• Quordle #981, Tuesday 1 October: FRILL, MADLY, GRANT, NYLON
• Quordle #980, Monday 30 September: CRUSH, TARDY, TEACH, STUMP
• Quordle #979, Sunday 29 September: SERIF, BORNE, WRITE, SLEEK
• Quordle #978, Saturday 28 September: BUSHY, CIVIC, SNOUT, EQUIP
• Quordle #977, Friday 27 September: GUEST, CHASM, ROOST, BASAL
• Quordle #976, Thursday 26 September: STAGE, VOGUE, CLUMP, HEATH
• Quordle #975, Wednesday 25 September: UMBRA, DADDY, GLAZE, PRANK
• Quordle #974, Tuesday 24 September: SPACE, INNER, SPAWN, BEGAT
• Quordle #973, Monday 23 September: GUILT, STERN, ANNEX, FIELD
• Quordle #972, Sunday 22 September: ZESTY, MEATY, ALIVE, DRAWN

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 clues.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

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 #489) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• GOO
• SWALLOW
• GOBBLE
• STOLE
• COO
• MOTOR
• SCARF
• TAKE
• APP
• HONK
• STAND
• HOOT
• WRAP
• BEAR
• SAM
• SHAWL

NYT Connections today (game #489) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• Yellow: Neck wear
• Green: Put up with
• Blue: Cluck cluck
• Purple: SON is another

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 #489) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: DRAPED ACCESSORIES
• GREEN: TOLERATE
• BLUE: BIRD ONOMATOPOEIA
• PURPLE: STARTS OF CELL PHONE MAKERS

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

NYT Connections today (game #489) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #489, are…

• YELLOW: DRAPED ACCESSORIES SCARF, SHAWL, STOLE, WRAP
• GREEN: TOLERATE BEAR, STAND, SWALLOW, TAKE
• BLUE: BIRD ONOMATOPOEIA COO, GOBBLE, HONK, HOOT
• PURPLE: STARTS OF CELL PHONE MAKERS APP, GOO, MOTOR, SAM

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

Another easy Connections puzzle today, folks. The frustrating thing for me is that the one I didn't get was the one I absolutely should have got. That one was the purple START OF CELL PHONE MAKERS group, and given that in my spare time (when I'm not writing puzzle columns) I am a technology journalist, I really should have spotted APP(LE), SAM(SUNG), GOO(GLE) and MOTOR(OLA).

Still, I got the other three, of which BIRD ONOMATOPOEIA (blue) was a nice one, the other two fairly standard fare. Move along, nothing much to see here.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Friday, 11 October, game #488)

• YELLOW: CHERISH RELISH, SAVOR, TREASURE, VALUE
• GREEN: QUICK JUMP IN THE POOL DIP, DIVE, SPLASH, SWIM
• BLUE: ADDITIONAL BENEFIT BONUS, EXTRA, FROSTING, GRAVY
• PURPLE: BRASHNESS BRASS, CHEEK, NERVE, SAUCE

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.

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 Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

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 #223) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Toon time

NYT Strands today (game #223) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• HEAR
• HARE
• AREA
• CART
• RUNG
• SNUG

NYT Strands today (game #223) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Assorted loons

NYT Strands today (game #223) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First: right, 5th row

Last: left, 6th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #223) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #223, are…

• PORKY
• BUGS
• GRANNY
• DAFFY
• FOXY
• FOGHORN
• PETUNIA
• SPANGRAM: CHARACTERS

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 2 hints

I have mixed feelings about this Strands puzzle. On the plus side, I loved Looney Tunes as a kid, and revelled in the antics of PORKY, DAFFY, BUGS Bunny and the others. On the minus side, the NYT puzzle setters couldn't find space for the best characters in the gang, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. But as far as this puzzle goes, my main problem is that the spangram is CHARACTERS – which they all are, yes, but shouldn't it be more specific than that?

That aside, this was undoubtedly a difficult game. It's some 40 years since I was regularly watching these cartoons, and they weren't a big thing when my kids were young (it was all Peppa Pig, Frozen and Dora by then). I found some, but needed hints for FOXY (who I didn't remember) and FOGHORN. A mixed bag, then, but overall I'll give it a thumbs up. And for today at least, that's all folks.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday 11 October, game #222)

• BEAKER
• FLASK
• PIPETTE
• GOGGLES
• THERMOMETER
• SPANGRAM: CHEMISTRYLAB

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and 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.

Whether you're looking to join original Medicare or Medicare Advantage, the next few months are the time to do it.

This remaining Prime Day deal will help you look your best just in time for the start of the holiday season.

Picking out individual ingredients from a dish can be a fun, if difficult, part of a meal. Professional chefs and food scientists can spend years refining their palettes. Now, a robot may be able to join in the activity thanks to the researchers behind a robotic taster that combines AI and an electronic tongue capable of detecting tiny differences in flavor.

The Penn State research team has published a paper detailing how the AI 'brain' uses the artificial tongue to detect how much water is in a cup of milk, the mix of beans in a coffee blend, and even incipient rot in fruit juice that would be impossible for a human to spot. 

Electronics to identify components in a mixture isn't a new idea. That's how machines can measure things like acidity and temperature. But, what the researchers have done goes beyond that by using AI to mimic the way your tongue, nose, and brain interpret the taste of things beyond a simple detection of pH balance. Using the advanced sensors known as ISFET (graphene-based ion-sensitive field-effect transistor), the electronic tongue can measure a lot of complex chemicals at the same time instead of needing multiple kinds of sensors like a thermometer and pH testing stick. 

The sensors produce a huge amount of data, which standard computer processors might take a while to sort out, and the analysis wouldn't tell you much about how watered down the milk is or how freshly squeezed your orange juice is. Instead, the researchers used AI in the form of a neural network that can mimic some of how humans process taste. 

Flavor AI

After teaching the AI how different chemicals affect the electronic tongue's sensors, the neural network could accurately identify different types of soda and the freshness of juice more than 80% of the time. That was just the beginning, however. When the scientists took the metaphorical leash off the AI and let it come up with its own way of analyzing the data, the AI's accuracy shot up to 95%, barely ever getting a wrong answer.

The combination of measuring subtle aspects of food plus using AI to judge what they mean is an impressive simulation of how humans taste things. It can also do so when a difference is too subtle for human perception, like if milk isn't bad yet but will be soon.

Food tests for purity and freshness are only some of what an accurate AI tongue could do for people. Taste is, at its most basic level, a way of identifying chemicals. That means the AI taster could help in more than just the kitchen. It could theoretically help in industrial factories or in medical diagnostics, spotting biomarkers of disease or changes in your health. These concepts are still in the early discussion phase, but the electronic tongue may be a taste of the future.

You might also like

• Hands-on with Google's Project Astra, the AI that knows where you left your keys
• Forget self-driving cars, the robot can get in and drive for you – if it can overcome some major limitations
• And that’s how it all started: AI managed to design a robot that walks — from scratch, and in less than 60 seconds

A good solar company should leave you with lower energy bills, not more headaches. Here are the national solar companies CNET recommends.

It may seem early to be thinking about the holidays just yet, but major deals are already rolling out on everything from top tech items like laptops and earbuds to gadgets for your home like robot vacuums and kitchen appliances.

Some deals from Prime Day are hanging on a bit longer, like this sous vide from Breville, down to just $200.

You never know when you'll need a paper copy of something. Investing in a printer is a great idea -- especially when it's on sale.

Intel is already working on support for its Xe3 GPU architecture in Linux – even though Xe3, codenamed Celestial, won’t be used in any chips until late in 2025 (at the earliest)

Indeed, Battlemage, Intel’s 2nd-gen Arc graphics, is only just here (in Lunar Lake laptops as the integrated GPU), so it’s very early days for 3rd-gen Celestial.

However, as Phoronix reports, Intel engineers are currently laying the groundwork for enabling Xe3 in the Linux kernel.

Thus far, we don’t know anything about how Xe3 – which will first be used as the integrated graphics in next year’s Panther Lake processors, the successor to Lunar Lake on the laptop side of the PC fence – will improve on its predecessor.

The Linux driver code might eventually give us a clue, but it doesn’t yet. It builds on the existing Xe2 code, and focuses on Xe3 LPM (low-power mode).

What about discrete Celestial?

While this is Xe3 for laptops, the prospect of discrete graphics cards built on Celestial seems far more distant. After all, as we’ve already noted, Battlemage discrete GPUs haven’t even arrived yet, just the implementation of integrated graphics for Intel’s Lunar Lake mobile chips. It may be a while yet before we see standalone Battlemage graphics cards for desktop PCs, but hopefully these might turn up relatively early in 2025, with any luck.

Meanwhile, Intel is certainly forging ahead when it comes to how powerful its integrated graphics are, notably with Lunar Lake, and with Arrow Lake mobile processors also close on the horizon now, and looking pretty nifty, too.

You might also like

• These are the best GPUs right now
• Check out the best cheap monitor deals
• Want a great gaming PC? Look no further

Amazon is infusing AI into a new facet of its online shopping experience with the release of its AI Shopping Guides. The new feature aims to take over the product research part of hunting for a product by employing generative AI models that make personalized companions for your search. You can try it on Amazon’s website and mobile app, though just in the U.S. for now, and see guides for more than 100 categories of products.

The AI Shopping Guides start with a standard search for an item. Along with the usual list, you’ll see an AI guide appear if there is one for the category you’re looking at. When you open the guidebook, you’ll see an AI-curated collection of information about the products, including basic information, charts comparing different specs, and reviews from previous purchasers. 

The AI models create guides that analyze all of the information Amazon has about the products available for sale and how people review them to write their own descriptions. It will even rewrite the descriptions so that you can understand some of the terms you might not know. The AI will then write custom recommendations for you based on its analysis of both the products and your own search and purchase history. Notably, using AI to keep scanning product listings means the AI Shopping Guides will stay up-to-date even as new products come out and old ones are updated or removed. 

(Image credit: Amazon) Rufus Writes In

The AI Shopping Guides also act to augment the Rufus AI chatbot, which Amazon deployed to offer AI-powered research and recommendations. Rufus makes the AI Shopping Guides interactive by answering follow-up questions you might have, personalizing your look for a product even further by, for instance, answering a question about two similar products by not only comparing them to each other but to products in a similar category you might have previously bought.

Rufus also includes some suggestions based less on your history and more on what companies have paid to have advertisements relayed by the AI. Amazon has also hinted at plans to further personalize its recommendations by using (with your permission) data from Gmail and YouTube.

You might also like...

• Amazon's AI personal shopper is sharing ads with its advice
• Amazon’s new AI chatbot wants to be your personal shopper for impulse buys
• Amazon's new AI feature might be your secret weapon for winning at Prime Day

Southwest is getting assigned seating and red-eye flights. What I'm now doing differently with my credit cards.

Here's how much energy (and cash) you can save by swapping one for the other in 2024.

Windows 11 24H2 has got off to a somewhat wobbly start - with a number of bugs being discovered, though thankfully, there are no huge blunders (yet) - but one thing to be aware of is that the upgrade can take a pretty long time to install.

There’s an official Reddit thread detailing what features and changes users can expect to see with version 24H2 of Windows 11, as well as a FAQ section. And in the latter, Microsoft admits that 24H2 can be very slow going with respect to the time it takes to install.

Microsoft observes: “This is a significantly larger update than the regular monthly updates you have been installing up until now. In some cases, it can take a few hours to install, so be patient! You do not need to babysit it, and you can continue to use your computer during most of the installation.”

So, as noted, you can keep using your PC while the installation process is churning away in the background. Or so Microsoft assures us, anyway, though performance will be affected to some extent at times. And, of course, once the update is ready to go, you will be forced to sit through a whole lot of spinning circles and multiple reboots where you can’t do anything (with your PC, anyway).

(Image credit: Future / James Holland) What’s the secret of a great installation? Timing

If you want a rough idea of installation times, there’s a report from PC World which tested how long it takes to install Windows 11 24H2 on various laptops. While noting that Microsoft describes 24H2 as a ‘full OS swap’ to underline how noticeably bigger it is than previous updates, PC World recorded installation times varying from just over an hour, to one hour and 45 minutes. Four laptops were tested in total, with the average time taken for those devices being around an hour and a half. So yes, that is longer than most folks are used to - certainly these days anyway.

PC World notes that as you’d expect, as a general rule, older laptops take longer to update, and I echo its recommendation that you set aside some time in your day (an hour or two) if you want to update to version 24H2. Time during which you can at least keep glancing at, and keeping an eye on, your PC while it’s updating.

Windows 11 24H2 is in the process of being rolled out in a phased, gradual manner, and when it’s your device’s turn, the upgrade should be offered automatically. You can keep manually checking for it in Windows Update if you’re keen, though.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...

• Windows 11 could soon get a cool feature to seamlessly link your Android phone to the Start menu - and a nifty gamepad perk, too
• Windows 11 24H2 update yoinks 8.6GB of your precious drive space and refuses to give it back – but a fix is coming
• Windows 11 PCs could soon get the ability to set up much faster Wi-Fi hotspots to share their internet with other devices

While both mesh systems from Google are outdated at this point, but they'll still get you steady and reliable whole-home Wi-Fi.

“All the state leaders should be getting their people out … to watch for ballot stuffing,” wrote the leader of the American Patriots Three Percent militia. “Our nation depends on this."

HighPoint has announced the RocketAIC 7749M2, a PCIe Gen4 x16 AIC drive available in 64TB or 128TB configurations with pre-configured RAID storage.

This solution is designed to fit into a compact form factor, similar in size to a high-end GPU, making it well-suited for AI workstations and other data-intensive applications.

The 128TB RocketAIC 7749M2W incorporates 16 Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 8TB M.2 SSDs connected through HighPoint's x48 lane PCIe Switching Technology which allows each SSD to run at maximum performance, reaching transfer speeds of up to 28GBps. This makes it ideal for professionals in fields like AI, machine learning, and media production, though as you might expect, the top-tier 128TB version comes with a hefty price tag - $26,000.

Highest capacity AIC

The drive, which you can buy now, is recognized as a single physical unit by the operating system, allowing it to be easily configured for different roles such as an application drive, virtual scratch disk, data archive, or media library. It has a three-pronged cooling system which includes a fully enclosed aluminum casing and triple fans, ensuring the device remains cool and prevents thermal throttling even during intensive workloads.

The RocketAIC supports versatile RAID configurations, giving users flexibility to balance performance with data protection based on their needs. HighPoint’s integrated management suite simplifies setup and ongoing monitoring.

TweakTown was one of the first to review the new RocketAIC 7749M2W 128TB and came away highly impressed, noting that, “Not only is it the highest capacity AIC of its kind, but we also find it to offer the best overall delivery mechanism for this level of throughput. The card itself is brilliantly designed, being sleek, cool-running, and well-proportioned. Its tool-free design is an absolute godsend, allowing you to easily access its 8x removable storage trays in seconds with zero frustration."

The site awarded the 7749M2W an impressive 96% rating, citing cost as the only major drawback, but praising it for delivering “the best overall user experience for a storage device of its kind.”

More from TechRadar Pro

• These are the fastest SSDs you can buy right now
• And these are the best SSDs for your PC
• Highpoint card with eight super-fast SSDs delivers staggering 60GBps read performance

Bask in the glow of the northern lights with glimmering aurora views from the International Space Station and locations across the country.