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For a limited time only, you can get this highly rated 3D printer for only $299 ahead of the Prime Day sale.

Alexandria may not have the fastest internet options in the country, but there are still plenty of choices. Here are the best providers available.

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 #483) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• SHED
• CREAM
• RETREAT
• ABOUT
• COTTAGE
• LOGIN
• HOME
• SCRATCH
• KNEAD
• GOAT
• LEAVE
• STRING
• FLEE
• PURR
• CONTACT
• WITHDRAW

NYT Connections today (game #483) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• Yellow: Go away
• Green: Feline things
• Blue: Privacy is often another
• Purple: Blank [dairy food]

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 #483) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: TURN TAIL
• GREEN: THINGS CATS DO
• BLUE: PAGES ON A WEBSITE
• PURPLE: ___ CHEESE

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

NYT Connections today (game #483) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #483, are…

• YELLOW: TURN TAIL FLEE, LEAVE, RETREAT, WITHDRAW
• GREEN: THINGS CATS DO KNEAD, PURR, SCRATCH, SHED
• BLUE: PAGES ON A WEBSITE ABOUT, CONTACT, HOME, LOGIN
• PURPLE: ___ CHEESE COTTAGE, CREAM, GOAT, STRING

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

I like cats, I like cheese and I work on a website, so I was in a good place to solve today's Connections, which featured all three as groups. That said, it was the yellow TURN TAIL group with FLEE, LEAVE, RETREAT and WITHDRAW that I solved first, perhaps unsurprisingly given that it was pretty straightforward and consisted only of synonyms.

The others were technically more difficult. Green – THINGS CATS DO – did occur to me early on, on account of PURR and SCRATCH. KNEAD made sense too, but I couldn't find a fourth. I nearly guessed CREAM or STRING as things associated with cats, but they didn't quite fit with the other three. And then eventually I realized that SHED could be a verb, too, at which point it all fell into place.

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Saturday, 5 October, game #482)

• YELLOW: STEAK CUTS FILET, HANGER, SKIRT, T-BONE
• GREEN: KINDS OF UNDERWEAR BIKINI, G-STRING, HIPSTER, THONG
• BLUE: INVOLVED IN A DENTIST VISIT DRILL, SINK, TOOTHBRUSH, X-RAY
• PURPLE: BRANDS THAT HAVE BECOME GENERIC TERMS CHAPSTICK, JACUZZI, Q-TIP, XEROX

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

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Got any bleu cheese?

NYT Strands today (game #217) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• LATE
• GLADE
• BLADE
• NICK
• CHICK
• TOAST

NYT Strands today (game #217) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Food in rows

NYT Strands today (game #217) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First: top, fourth column

Last: bottom, fifth column

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

NYT Strands today (game #217) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #217, are…

• BACON
• CHICKEN
• TOMATO
• VINAIGRETTE
• GREENS
• EGGS
• SPANGRAM: COBBSALAD

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: Perfect

I presume there might be a split between people in the US and those in the rest of the world here. Or maybe it's only me that had not really heard of a COBBSALAD and therefore struggled to solve this one. I was also very confused by the theme clue of 'Got any bleu cheese?', which made me think it was something French – because otherwise why is it spelled 'bleu' and not 'blue'. So the whole thing was a bit baffling.

I solved it in the end, but it was really just a case of trial and error. I spotted BACON early on, and CHICKEN too, so I realized it was a food-themed puzzle. The others took me a while to find, and getting the spangram was entirely based on there being nothing else it could be by the time that I got it. Not the most satisfying game for me – though if you know and like Cobb Salad (which to me sounds disgusting) then maybe you'll have been fine with it. Ho hum.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday 5 October, game #216)

• SHAM
• FAKE
• QUACK
• PHONY
• HOAK
• CHARLATAN
• HUMBUG
• SPANGRAM: THATSUNREAL

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.

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 #986) - 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 #986) - 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 0.

Quordle today (game #986) - 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 #986) - 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 #986) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• F

• T

• B

• R

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

Quordle today (game #986) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #986, are…

• FUDGE
• TENOR
• BEGAT
• ROUSE

The key to solving this Quordle, for me at least, was playing my unofficial fourth start word, BEFOG, which gave me the G I needed for FUDGE and BEGAT, and the B for that latter word too. But otherwise this was a straightforward day for the game. That said, both BEGAT and ROUSE are relatively uncommon words. BEGAT in particular is the kind of thing you might read in Shakespeare, but not exactly an everyday term – so well done if you solved it.

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

Daily Sequence today (game #986) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #986, are…

• PUNCH
• BROOK
• TWICE
• FIGHT

Quordle answers: The past 20

• 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
• Quordle #971, Saturday 21 September: VITAL, FRAIL, SPEAR, EERIE
• Quordle #970, Friday 20 September: ELIDE, DITTO, SHAWL, BONUS
• Quordle #969, Thursday 19 September: MARRY, OWING, DICEY, LUCKY
• Quordle #968, Wednesday 18 September: CEDAR, VENOM, MIGHT, MEDIC
• Quordle #967, Tuesday 17 September: ETHOS, COUNT, PRINT, THREE
• Quordle #966, Monday 16 September: ROUGE, SWAMP, FUGUE, UNDUE

Samsung’s mid-year Galaxy Unpacked launch for 2024 was a bit dull. The Galaxy Watch range didn’t see many improvements bar the introduction of the Ultra (which is really only intended for the most diehard fitness heads), and time was mostly devoted to the show stopping Galaxy Ring, an entirely new product category for the smartphone maker (one that I’m excited for in Australia, where it is still yet to launch). Combined with an extremely lukewarm year for the sixth generation Samsung foldables, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 arguably received the least love of all the new gadgets – but I’ve come to appreciate the phone for what it is beyond the obvious gimmick.

The Galaxy Z Flip 6 has existed in a weird space among Samsung’s premium phone lineup for some time now. Vertically foldable akin to trendsetting phones of the 2000s, the Z Flip’s only real drawcard is in the name – it’s fashion before function. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 makes a much better case for its existence, acting as a tablet-phone hybrid, albeit at a high price point.

Internally, the phone underperforms compared to similarly priced models in the flagship Galaxy S product range, with a dimmer and less detailed screen along with a smaller body. Its unimpressive cameras don’t do it any favors and its battery life is middling at best.

But I don’t really want to be too down on the Galaxy Z Flip 6, because it’s an aesthetics first device – and it aces that. In fact, it’s more fun than almost every other phone I’ve used this year. The flipping function makes for a fun fidget toy and the phone can be placed in a bunch of creative poses.

But as it turns out, my favorite aspect isn’t actually that it folds – it’s the narrow portrait orientation that the form factor creates.

But why is that cool?

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly/TechRadar)

Perhaps it’s me admitting that smartphones are sort of blending together in my head, as they all share the same basic ‘big glass rectangle’ characteristic, but I’ve truly fallen in love with just how tall the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 is.

The phone folds in on itself from top to bottom, and to avoid being too short for casual use in its folded form (where it's square-shaped and usable in a limited capacity via the screen on the back) it has a taller stature.

Let’s pull up the specs: the dimensions of the Galaxy Z Flip 6 are 165.1 x 71.9 x 6.9 mm (H x W x D), while the Samsung Galaxy S24 (the phone with which it shares the most DNA) has dimensions of 147 x 70.6 x 7.6 mm. The Z Flip 6 has a slightly narrower (and thinner) chassis, with thicker bezels that give the S24 a great screen-to-body ratio.

The 18mm taller screen on the Galaxy Z Flip 6 makes me wish we had more phones with zanier dimensions. That’s 18mm more for Google results to fill in Chrome, or for lines on a news article, or displaying more tweets, or for text in your messages, and while a lot of the extra space can be counteracted by the simple act of scrolling, I’ve been enjoying the longer display and the way content fills it from top to bottom.

Somehow it brings me back to the early iPhone years, when touchscreen phones were dramatically smaller and fake iPhone concept videos included completely absurd designs (particularly this one). It also takes me back to the early smartphone years when these gadgets were much more creatively designed, particularly models like the LG BL40.

Today you’re unlikely to find a smartphone smaller than six inches (excluding the 4.7 inch iPhone SE, which is likely to be defunct soon), with all dimensions getting a bump as the size goes up.

And that’s what we want, right? The uniformity of display dimensions across brands and manufacturers is informed by how we use the tech and the content we consume. It’s no coincidence that most streaming services cater content to a 16:9 aspect ratio with cinematic bars added in for a better viewing experience – it’s because smartphone use habits stem greatly from TV use.

Even more so than movies and TV shows, smartphones require display uniformity for the sake of app consistency. Some apps still have compatibility issues between tablet and smartphone versions, where on the tablet the app is scaled up to cater for the display size at the cost of image quality. If smartphone makers suddenly had to cater for vastly different aspect ratios from longer (or wider) smartphones, let alone simply bigger screens, the result would be greater pressure on developers and more unused dead space as developers try and hit the sweet spot of aspect ratios (letting the tops and bottoms of displays go to waste).

How far can a gimmick take the Z Flip 6?

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly/TechRadar)

It’s at this point that it’s worth discussing the inevitable – can Samsung continue to make the cool, quirky, yet stylish little foldable interesting enough to buyers?

There’s always going to be the space for consumers wanting something a bit more aesthetically pleasing, but in the vertical folding space, Samsung’s now competing with cheaper (and arguably better looking) options from Motorola and other smaller brands. Comparative to the Z Flip 5, the Flip 6 was less a revision and more a re-release with some small changes made.

It’s also a clash with reality to try and position the Z Flip 6 as an upmarket device, which is likely why we heard rumors of a cheap Flip FE earlier this year. The Flip isn’t meant to be a performance phone and the constraints of the display present a considerable obstacle to positioning it that way. So why not go down market with the FE, then?

For now though, I’m pretty satisfied with having a long phone. The taller screen meshes so well with my smartphone habits that I can’t help but love it. The folding aspect is cool too, and I’ve found a bunch of great uses and situations for it, but I’ve fallen for the display in a way not intended.

You might also like...

• Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 review
• What are the differences between the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 and the Z Fold 6?
• An Apple foldable may arrive in 2026

October Prime Day is bringing prices down across the board, like this 15% off fall sale on some of our favorite temperature-regulating bedding.

For a limited time, you can save on MagSafe chargers, earbuds, cables and more.

Stay ready for anything with this powerful portable tire inflator for just $65, thanks to this early Amazon Prime Day deal.

Mouth taping is a popular internet hack for stopping snoring and achieving deep sleep. But should you really try it?

Amazon has an exclusive offer for Prime members this Prime Day sale: a desk lamp and power strip for only $17.

A new storm is approaching the west coast of the Florida, threatening to inflict heavy rain, strong winds and flash flooding in the already-storm battered state.

(Image credit: NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center Earth Science Branch)

Woot has opened up its refurbished and open-box shelves, revealing great deals on some of the most coveted Amazon products ahead of October Prime Day.

The Powrun P-One battery pack can bring your car back to life without all the trouble of traditional jumper cables.

We found all the coolers worth buying for your outdoor adventures this fall.

Prime Day is basically here, and Prime members can take advantage of this exclusive offer on a 3D printer.

The Airweave 30 is not like any other mattress we've tested. If you're looking for a unique sleep experience and a firmer mattress, check out our full review.

Apple Intelligence’s release date is fast approaching, making it an exciting time to own one of the best iPhones.

The AI tools are one of the major selling points of the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, bringing features like proofreading and rewriting, summaries, and AI photo editing to iOS 18. That’s not all, however – iOS 18.1’s imminent launch and the arrival of AI on iPhone is just the beginning, with more Apple Intelligence features set to launch over the next year.

So when is the Apple Intelligence release date? And is it actually a big deal? Or will consumers forget it even exists in just a few months’ time?

Apple Intelligence release date

(Image credit: Apple)

Apple Intelligence is currently in testing via the iOS 18.1 public beta. This means we can expect to see Writing Tools, Clean Up, and Notification Summaries, to name just a few features, arrive in October with iOS 18.1’s official release. We’ve covered all the Apple Intelligence features, and when you can expect to use them, in-depth already, but here’s a quick rundown of the expected release schedule:

Apple has confirmed that Apple Intelligence will arrive in October with iOS 18.1. Later this year, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Genmoji and Image Playground will arrive in iOS 18.2 which is expected in December. Following on from those major updates, iOS 18.3 is expected around January, and could potentially add some of the Apple Intelligence-fuelled Siri features. Finally, the full Siri Apple Intelligence makeover is expected in March of next year as part of iOS 18.4, closing out the first year of Apple Intelligence features just in time for iOS 19 and WWDC 2025.

Based on these rumors, and Apple’s own confirmation that Apple Intelligence will launch this month, we fully expect iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 to arrive in the next couple of weeks.

Why it’s a big deal

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

The Apple Intelligence launch is a huge deal in terms of the future of easily accessible AI, and Apple’s entrance into the AI space could play a pivotal part in the future of the technology. Let’s take a step back from the powerhouses of AI like OpenAI for a second; your parents will probably get their first taste of AI in Apple Intelligence, as will many average consumers. That means Apple’s foray into AI, and its attempt to become ‘AI for the rest of us’, is a far bigger deal than the new AI features themselves.

iPhone users make up the majority of the US smartphone market, and Apple has built a successful business on the promise of its technology just working straight out the box. With the arrival of Apple Intelligence, we’ll get a good idea of whether or not AI is ready to become a key element of our daily lives, or if, in its current form, it’s just a nice-to-have that we forget about with time. Does Apple Intelligence become a key element of the iPhone experience, like FaceID, or does it become the next example of Apple’s ideas not living up to their promise like the discontinued Touch Bar?

Every smartphone with AI features these days, whether that’s the Google Pixel 9 or the Samsung S24 Ultra, has what seems like a repackaging of the same tools: writing, summarizing, photo editing, and a better voice assistant. Can Apple’s attempt surpass these Android offerings and offer something distinct? And if so, do people even care?

As someone who writes about AI every day, I’m intrigued to see how the average consumer interacts with the idea of chatbots and AI-powered features built into operating systems. Apple’s vision for its Apple Intelligence-powered version of Siri, with personal context and on-screen awareness, is the AI addition to iOS I’m most excited about, but if the voice assistant turns out not to be as impressive as Apple’s WWDC 2024 demo suggested, it could quickly come to be seen as a high-profile failure.

There’s a lot to look forward to in the world of AI; and Apple Intelligence, while maybe not the most impressive use case we’ve seen for artificial intelligence, is set to be a turning point for the technology. As for in which direction, however, your guess is as good as mine: will Apple Intelligence catapult consumer AI into the mainstream? Or could it turn out to be another Apple Vision Pro – niche, and better executed by others?

You might also like

• Apple Intelligence hands on - iOS 18.1 dev beta gives us an early look at a smarter Siri and more
• The Apple Intelligence launch is a mess
• Apple Intelligence: here's a full list of the iPhones, iPads and Macs that'll get Apple’s new AI powers

The AirTag is king, but that doesn't mean it's the best Bluetooth tracking device for you.

Traditional microprocessors, built on silicon, have seen significant performance improvements in recent years due to shrinking transistor sizes - however, expense remains a barrier for integrating such chips into disposable or flexible products.

This cost is typically driven by three main factors: the expensive silicon fabrication processes, licensing fees for proprietary instruction sets like x86, and the costs of chip packaging. Additionally, the inherent brittleness of silicon makes it unsuitable for use in flexible or wearable devices.

Pragmatic Semiconductor has addressed these issues with Flex-RV, the world’s first 32-bit microprocessor built on a flexible substrate. Flex-RV is notable not only for its flexible form based on the metal-oxide semiconductor indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO). but also for its embedded machine learning capabilities. Developed in collaboration with Qamcom and Harvard University, it marks a major step in non-silicon microprocessors and can operate while being physically bent.

Transforming industries

“This is an exciting step forward in flexible semiconductor technology," noted Emre Ozer, Senior Director of Processor Development at Pragmatic and the lead researcher. "Enabling an open-standard, non-silicon 32-bit microprocessor will democratise access to computing, unlocking emerging applications while opening the door to sub-dollar compute.”

Ozer highlighted how the cost and form factor have long restricted the use of microprocessors in emerging applications like smart labels, wearables, and healthcare, despite the relatively low computational demands.

Flex-RV, with its 17.5-square-millimeter core and approximately 12,600 logic gates, makes use of two key technologies: the open-source RISC-V instruction set and IGZO TFTs.

RISC-V architecture, being open-source, eliminates the costs associated with proprietary ISAs, while allowing customization for specific application needs. IGZO TFTs, on the other hand, enable microprocessor fabrication on flexible substrates, reducing production costs and the environmental impact compared to traditional silicon fabs. The chips are also more durable, as they do not require the rigid protective packaging that silicon chips do.

Pragmatic says Flex-RV has undergone extensive testing and can function reliably at clock speeds up to 60 kHz and power consumption below 6mW, even when bent to a curvature of 5mm. The technology potentially opens new possibilities for integrating computing power into flexible, disposable, and wearable devices, transforming industries such as healthcare and consumer goods.

Pragmatic Semiconductor’s latest research article has been published in Nature.

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