IT General

A San Francisco jury ruled Friday that Elon Musk defrauded Twitter investors during his chaotic $44 billion acquisition of the platform in 2022 — and the damages could exceed $2.6 billion.

As reported on by Courthouse News Service, the case centers on a series of tweets and public statements Musk made in May 2022, when he publicly cast doubt on the deal by claiming spam and bot accounts made up a significant portion of Twitter's user base. Investors argued he was manufacturing an excuse to either back out or renegotiate the deal on cheaper terms, tanking the stock in the process. The lead plaintiffs in the case sued Musk in October 2022.

SEE ALSO: Elon Musk's X teases new dislike button on replies

After deliberation, the jury unanimously found that Musk's May 13 and May 17 tweets were materially false or misleading. They did not, however, find him liable for a May 16 conference comment in which he claimed that 20% of Twitter users were spam accounts. The jury also rejected the plaintiffs' broader fraud scheme claims.

Musk's legal team has already signaled they'll appeal, calling the verdict "a bump in the road."

Plaintiff attorney Mark Molumphy told Courthouse News the verdict makes clear that wealth doesn't exempt anyone from accountability — a point that feels increasingly worth making these days.

When you think of a camera, you're probably thinking of a device that's at least partly mechanical. The zoom lens, the shutter, and the little knobs and wheels are all moving parts that exist even in a DSLR.

Do you think that everything about a homelab is expensive? Think again! These are my five favorite cheap gadgets that improved my homelab the moment they arrived.

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, the Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move onto the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

How to play Pips

If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity for how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for March 21, 2026

The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible – and common – for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.

Here are common examples you'll run into across the difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

• Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

• Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

• Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.

If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for March 21, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for March 21 Pips

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically; 0-1, placed horizontally.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-1, placed horizontally.

Number (12): Everything in this space must add up to 12. The answer is 4-4, placed horizontally; 4-0, placed vertically.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 2-0, placed horizontally.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for March 21 Pips

Greater Than (0): Everything in this space must be greater than 0. The answer is 4-4, placed horizontally.

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 0-4, placed vertically; 0-2, placed vertically; 0-0, placed horizontally.

Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 0-4, placed vertically; 1-2, placed vertically.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 2-2, placed vertically.

Greater Than (1): Everything in this space must be greater than 1. The answer is 1-2, placed vertically.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for March 21 Pips

Number (5): Everything in this purple space must add up to 5. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (5): Everything in this space must be greater than 5. The answer is 6-3, placed horiontally.

Number (5): Everything in this dark blue space must add up to 5. The answer is 6-3, placed horizontally; 1-1, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this orange space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this light blue space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this red space must add up to 5. The answer is 3-1, placed horizontally; 1-0, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this green space must add up to 5. The answer is 2-1, placed horizontally; 2-5, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this red space must add up to 5. The answer is 2-5, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this dark blue space must add up to 5. The answer is 0-5, horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this green space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-1, placed horizontally.

Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 4-1, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this purple space must add up to 5. The answer is 4-1, placed vertically; 6-1, placed vertically.

Greater Than (5): Everything in this space must be greater than 5. The answer is 6-1, placed vertically.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

When you're shopping for a laptop, there are plenty of features to consider. Some are obvious—like a fast processor or, for gamers, a dedicated graphics card. After all, no one wants a sluggish, unusable machine.

Despite the many worthy alternatives, I always find myself coming back to Plex. I know people have strong opinions on Plex, partly because it's the corporate face of self-hosting and partly because it has paywalled features that feel like they should be free.

Today's Connections: Sports Edition is for people knowledgeable about gymnastics.

As we've shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.

Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. 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 What is Connections: Sports Edition?

The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake — players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. Here's a hint for today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Gymnastics

• Green: The ring

• Blue: Hybrid skill players in the NFL

• Purple: Spelled like an NHL team

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Gymnastics Apparatuses

• Green: At the Boxing Ring

• Blue: First Names of NFL Tight Ends

• Purple: Starts of NHL Team Names

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections: Sports Edition #544 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Gymnastics Apparatuses - BARS, BEAM, FLOOR, VAULT

• At the Boxing Ring - BELL, CORNER, ROPES, TURNBUCKLE

• First Names of NFL Tight Ends - BROCK, DALLAS, HUNTER, TRAVIS

• Starts of NHL Team Names - FLY, ISLAND, OIL, RANG

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new sports Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

For years, we've all seen the same lists detailing "must-have apps" for any new Android phone, but times have changed. Android has been around for a long time, and dozens of once-popular apps have faded away. Still, there are several apps many consider "essential" that you no longer need and should probably uninstall.

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It feels cliché to say at this point, but cameras are a big part of the appeal of Google Pixel phones. I’ve been using Pixel phones for many years, and I’ve become very familiar with the Camera app. With just a few toggles, I have it perfectly set up to my liking.

Windows Notepad is slowly losing many of its best qualities, but that doesn't mean it isn't usable today. Since its quiet debut in 1983, it has stayed a fundamental, lightweight core utility. For most of its history, Notepad's stubborn refusal to modernize made it an excellent tool for quick notes and great code writing. Recent updates have brought both good and bad, but for now, there's no reason to avoid it; in fact, it can end up being your most used program. Its invisible design, technical dependability, and commitment to simplicity make it an unbeatable choice, even as Microsoft risks its legacy by chasing unnecessary generative AI integrations.

You've decided to see what all the fuss is about and have installed Home Assistant. It's up and running, and you've logged in for the first time. Now what? Here are some of the key things to do first.

If you've been using KDE Plasma for a while, you've probably settled into a workflow and think you know most of its features and what it has to offer. However, there's a good chance you've been walking past some of its most useful features without realizing they exist. I've been using Plasma for nearly a decade now, and I'm constantly discovering new things you can do on this desktop environment. Here are five underrated yet advanced features that’ll make you a KDE Plasma power user.

For a long time, 4GB DDR4 RAM sticks were seen as the awkward leftovers from upgrading your machines. While 4GB is too small for a modern PC intended to run games or even multiple Chrome tabs, it's still relevant hardware because it’s relatively modern compared to older RAM standards.

Nothing ruins a professional Excel report like a "Summary" line floating on its own page when you send it to a printer or PDF. While you could manually adjust your print area for every update, the real pro move is automation. Here's how to use the OFFSET function to create a print area that truly thinks for itself.

This was another busy week in tech, with Google revealing changes to sideloading apps on Android devices, big upgrades for Visual Studio Code and IntelliJ IDEA, a new project for Linux-powered phones, and much more Here are the biggest stories you might have missed.

The professional world has pretty much lived by the unspoken rule that Microsoft Excel is the essential foundation for anything numerical. It's universally accessible and really powerful for simple tasks. However, it gets pretty unwieldy and slow when you're trying to clean complex data, process large amounts of information, or do any kind of advanced statistical modeling.

If you spend enough time around Linux users, you will eventually notice something interesting about desktop environment discussions. They almost always revolve around the same two names. GNOME gets mentioned because many major distros ship it by default. KDE Plasma gets attention because of its enormous customization capabilities and constant visual polish. Occasionally, someone brings up a tiling window manager like i3 or Sway and explains how using the mouse is apparently inefficient now.

Bambu Lab makes the most popular 3D printers in the world, earning a reputation for ease of use, reliability, and great value. But not everyone is in love with the company’s walled garden approach, which involves locking out third-party slicers and a heavy dependence on the cloud.

PC troubleshooting is usually quite the odyssey. Between needing multiple programs to cover all the bases, not having the slightest idea what's wrong in most cases, and the ever-looming chance that the machine will reboot, freeze, or bug out in the middle of the troubleshooting process, it can all be pretty frustrating.