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Showing posts from August, 2025

NYT Strands hints, answers for August 31, 2025

If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands , the New York Times ' elevated word-search game. Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically. SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections . If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle,...

Wordle today: Answer, hints for August 31, 2025

Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle . As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer. If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you. SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections today: Hints and answers for August 4 Where did Wordle come from? Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble , music identification game Heardle , and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once .  Wor...

Get Microsoft Office for life at a great back-to-school price

TL;DR : Give an old PC an upgrade with this lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows , now just $39.97 (reg. $219.99) through Sept. 7. Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows: Lifetime License $39.97 $219.99 Save $180.02 Get Deal Jealous of all those kids going on back-to-school shopping sprees? Take advantage of a deal on something your PC could use: a fresh Microsoft Office Professional 2021 lifetime license . Right now, you can enjoy this suite of Microsoft Office apps for life for just $39.97 — $180 off the usual price — if you purchase before Sept. 7. Bring Word, Excel, Outlook, and more to your PC for less Whether you’re heading back to school or just trying to get through the work day, a Microsoft Office Professional 2021 license gives your PC a new lease on life. It equips your device with eight helpful apps that can help you tackle everything from creating a killer presentation to w...

US delays GPU tariffs for another 3 months, court rules most Trump tariffs illegal

The US Trade Representative's office announced that a 25-percent tariff on graphics cards, motherboards, SSDs, and other PC hardware assembled in China for the US market will not take effect until at least December 1, 2025. However, the future of most of the Trump administration's tariffs is uncertain after a... Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/oTYnabL via

Lego pauses part of its Pick a Brick service for U.S. customers after Trumps de minimis change

Thousands of pieces from Lego's "Pick a Brick" service are no longer available to customers in the U.S. and Canada as of this week, which could make it harder for hobbyists to customize their sets and replace lost bricks. You can probably blame President Donald Trump. Pick a Brick is an online service offered by the Lego Store that lets fans order individual pieces for as little as three cents. The Lego news and reviews site New Elementary reports that "thousands of elements" from its "Standard" collection were removed from the service for North American customers on Aug. 25. Approximately 1,500 pieces from its mainstream "Bestseller" collection still remain. A screenshot of Lego's Pick a Brick page on Friday, Aug. 29. Credit: Mashable / Screenshot via Lego.com Lego is calling the removal a "service pause" in a note at the top of the Pick a Brick landing page. "In the US & Canada, Standard pieces are temporar...

Microsoft debuts in-house AI models as it builds independence from OpenAI

Microsoft is developing and testing proprietary large language models, signaling a shift from its previous heavy reliance on OpenAI technology. Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/br3c4PU via

Tesla sales continue to decline in Europe even as EV competitors flourish

Forty percent. That's how much Tesla's European sales declined in July compared to the year before. The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), the lobbying group for the automobile industry in the EU, released new data on Thursday showing that Tesla, led by Elon Musk, is continuing to face a steep decline in sales. In total, just 8,837 Tesla vehicles were registered across Europe in July 2025. That figure includes the European Union, as well as the United Kingdom, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. Furthermore, Tesla's drop in sales is not the result of a broader decline across the larger EV market either. In fact, sales of electric vehicles as a whole actually went up in the EU. For example, Tesla's biggest Chinese rival BYD saw 13,503 new vehicle registrations in July. That's a monthly surge of 225 percent compared to the year before, as CNBC reported . This also marks Tesla's seventh month in a row of declining sales . Te...

Forget herbicides, this AI-powered laser robot uses Nvidia GPUs to torch weeds

Designed to be towed in fields behind a tractor, the contraption uses raw compute power mated to 36 high-resolution cameras to identify and incinerate weeds on contact using 24 240W diode lasers. It may sound like science fiction, but it's already proven itself on hundreds of farms. According to Carbon,... Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/AuS0LdI via

Pixel 10 Pro review: An impressive camera makes up for some notable flaws

Google's annual refresh of its Pixel line is always a treat. The Pixel hardware is lovely, and the visor on the back is quickly becoming an iconic look. (For Star Trek fans, it's giving major Geordi LaForge vibes.) The software offers one of my favorite user interfaces in the Android world, and it comes with a ton of goodies to play with besides. Anecdotally, I have seen more and more Pixel phones out "in the wild" in 2025, and not just among my fellow tech-nerd friends. The market share isn't there yet, but it's certainly climbing. This year's Pixel 10 Pro refresh doesn't have as much new as previous years, and not all of the new features are necessarily welcome. Google made some choices with this phone that aren't landing for me, and that is not a reference to having Jimmy Fallon host the Made by Google event . Overall, this has been a really fun phone to play with, largely because of the aforementioned camera bump on the back. Google promis...

Did Elon Musks DOGE copy the entire Social Security database to an insecure cloud system? A whistleblower says it did.

The Social Security Administration's Chief Data Officer is blowing the whistle on President Donald Trump and Elon Musk 's Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE. According to the Government Accountability Project, which is representing whistleblower Charles Borges, DOGE officials have risked the security of more than 300 million Americans by creating a "live copy of the country's Social Security information in a cloud environment that circumvents oversight." SEE ALSO: Elon Musk's xAI sues Apple and OpenAI over App Store drama Borges says that he became aware of "serious data security lapses, evidently orchestrated by DOGE officials, currently employed as SSA employees" in recent weeks, as the Social Security database was copied to an insecure live cloud system. What did DOGE do with Social Security data? The Government Accountability Project sent a letter detailing Borges' account of DOGE's actions to members of ...

TCL's RayNeo Air 3s Pro AR glasses go global with a $249 price tag

The Air 3s Pro features dual HueView 2.0 tandem micro-OLED displays with a peak brightness of 1,200 nits, which TCL claims makes them the world's brightest AR glasses. The displays offer a 46-degree field of view, an industry-leading 200,000:1 contrast ratio, and color coverage of 145 percent of the sRGB... Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/9rL6pND via

Stock exchanges representatives warn against turning financial assets into cryptocurrencies

The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) recently issued an open letter to major financial regulators urging them to address the rising interest in tokenized assets and cryptocurrency-based equities. The global trade group for publicly regulated stock, futures, and options exchanges is calling on institutions to take a more proactive stance... Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/tIh9CX3 via

Moon phase today: What the moon will look like on August 26, 2025

We're on day three of the lunar cycle, a series of eight unique phases of the moon's visibility. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA , and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth.  So let's see what's happening with the moon tonight, Aug. 26. What is today’s moon phase? As of Tuesday, Aug. 26, the moon phase is Waxing Crescent, and only 11% will be lit up to us on Earth, according to NASA's Daily Moon Observation . There's still not enough of the moon lit up to see anything on its surface, so keen moon gazers will need to wait a few more days before it is bright enough to see anything. When is the next full moon? The next full moon will be on Sept. 7. The last full moon was on Aug. 9. What are moon phases? According to NASA , moon phases are caused by the 29.5-day cycle of the moon’s orbit, which changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how t...

Researchers warn of security flaws in AI-powered browsers

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly integrated into everyday technology, including web browsers. However, new research from Malwarebytes raises concerns that this shift could enable novel attacks that rely not on code, but on language. Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/kxuHMaq via

How to watch the Love Island USA Season 7 reunion special

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