IT General

Covering free and open source software has always had a degree of fun, but there was a time when we were starved for choice. These days, it's just the opposite. There are many excellent open source apps out there, but without marketing budgets, it's easy for these gems to fall through the cracks. Here are some of the ones I've been genuinely impressed by recently.

The Toyota Tacoma is one of America's most popular midsize pickups, and the 2026 model year gives potential buyers a range of options across eight trim levels, from a more basic work truck to a full-on, high-speed desert off-roader.

Our lives are more digital than ever. Year after year, we keep adding to the ever-growing pile of photos, videos, downloads, documents, and media on our computers, phones, NAS devices, and cloud storage accounts while barely removing anything. Because of this, it's easy to lose track of just how much data has accumulated—and the hidden costs that come with it.

I love my Kindle, and it's easily my favorite piece of tech that I own. What I don't love is Amazon's horrendous ads that show up on the cover screen all the time. So I ripped those ugly ad pages out and replaced them with these beautiful custom wallpapers.

Audiophiles and audio enthusiasts love to argue about which features are a meaningful investment and which are just a flashy waste of money. One of the most hotly debated topics is audio cables themselves. Does gold plating matter? Do fancy connections really make a difference? What is the real improvement between a coat hanger and a $1,000 premium audio cable?

You’ve probably seen carbon fiber used in high-end products, like on race car wings and road bike frames. Many modern 3D printers have nozzles that are tough enough to print filaments that are infused with carbon fiber, but not everyone is aware of the potential dangers associated with doing so.

If you ever used a computer in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, your first foray into programming was most likely with BASIC. Here are the reasons why Python has taken its place as the language of choice for people learning to program.

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

Released in August 2025, 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 on to 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 with 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 June 13, 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 June 13, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for June 13 Pips

Greater Than (5): Everything in this space must be greater than 5. The answer is 4-6, placed vertically.

Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 4-6, placed vertically; 3-0, placed horizontally.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 4-2, placed horizontally; 2-6, placed horizontally.

Number (11): Everything in this space must add up to 11. The answer is 2-6, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed vertically.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for June 13 Pips

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 1-6, placed horizontally.

Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 2-6, placed horizontally; 3-1, placed horizontally.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 1-6, placed horizontally; 3-1, placed horizontally; 4-1, placed horizontally.

Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 4-1, placed horizontally; 5-0, placed horizontally.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 1-0, placed horizontally; 1-2, placed horizontally.

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

Hard difficulty hints, answers for June 13 Pips

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

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

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-6, placed vertically.

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

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

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

Equal (6): Everything in this orange space must be equal to 6. The answer is 0-6, placed vertically; 3-6, placed horizontally.

Equal (4): Everything in this red space must be equal to 4. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally; 0-4, placed vertically; 4-3, placed vertically; 4-4, placed vertically.

Equal (5): Everything in this light blue space must be equal to 5. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed vertically.

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 4-2, placed horizontally.

Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 4-2, placed horizontally.

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

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed vertically; 2-1, placed horizontally.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 4-3, placed vertically.

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

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

Less Than (4): Everything in this space must be less than 4. The answer is 1-1, 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.

Some Android apps do one thing really well, and that’s it. No ads, no in-app purchases—just providing a feature that Android itself doesn’t have. Caffeine is one such app, and it’s been following me around for years on countless phones.

Just days after rolling out its latest AI models, Anthropic has been forced to remove Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 due to an order from the Trump administration barring foreign use.

Anthropic pulled the AI models on Friday evening after sharing a statement about the U.S. government issuing an export control directive "to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees." 

SEE ALSO: OpenAI and the White House have competing visions for regulating artificial intelligence

As a result, Anthropic has disabled Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all its customers in order to ensure compliance with the government's order. 

This order is the latest development in the ongoing feud between the Trump administration and Anthropic. Earlier this year, the U.S. government designated Anthropic as a "supply-chain risk" to national security. The dispute began after Anthropic requested a guarantee that its AI technology wouldn't be used for mass surveillance or for certain weapons of war, following the signing of a $200 million contract with the government. 

Anthropic says it received the export control directive order from the U.S. government on Friday at 5:21pm ET. The company says the Trump administration cited national security authorities as the reason for the order barring foreign use of the AI models. However, the letter did not include any specifics about the national security concerns from the government. 

The AI company says that it believes the government is aware of a method to "jailbreak" Fable 5. Anthropic says it "reviewed a demonstration of this specific technique being used to identify a small number of previously known, minor vulnerabilities." 

However, Anthropic is describing these vulnerabilities as "relatively simple" and it says other AI models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-5.5, are able to discover these vulnerabilities as well without requiring a bypass.

Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 are promoted as its most powerful models yet. Anthropic rolled out Fable 5 to the public earlier this week. Fable 5 is a version of its Mythos model, which has been deemed too "dangerous" to launch to the public, with safety guardrails built in. In addition, Anthropic also released Claude Mythos 5, but only to its trusted test partners.

However, both models are now unavailable following the Trump administration's directive.

Your Home Assistant server can seem fine on the surface, while deep down it’s crying out for some attention. This can range from missing entities and services to performance problems that are slowing down your whole home.

If you're still typing long, comma-heavy CONCATENATE formulas to merge text in Excel, you're doing more manual work than necessary. Since switching to four alternatives that make combining data faster, cleaner, and far less frustrating, I haven't looked back.

Laptops are getting kind of expensive these days. Sometimes, they can also be a bit of a pain in the neck to travel with, depending on the situation.

Taskmasters Alex Horne and Greg Davies are no strangers to discomfort. In fact, they've made quite a career creating scenarios, or tasks, placing the funniest people in the world in the most uncomfortable situations to create hilarious television. Horne and Davies recently sat down with Mashable Executive Producer, Mark Stetson, to dive deep into Series 21: the pranks, Kumail Nanjiani being brave sharing his internet history, and defining once and for all the true definition of a worm.

The premiere episode of Taskmaster Series 21 kicked off with a task challenging the contestants to find a worm and bring it to Alex Horne for points. This task sparked much online debate as to whether or not some of the contestants actually found an acceptable worm. Amy Gledhill and Kumail found mealworms while Joel Dommett presented the Taskmaster with a gummy word he procured from the kitchen. Finally, Armando Iannucci made the case that his being "a bookworm" would suffice. Davies "caught a lot of flack online" due to his decision to accept all of these as "worms." His response, probably won't surprise any fans of the show:

"What those people don't realize is that every bit of flack makes me more powerful. It's absolutely what keeps me going. I'm actually 150 years of age, and it's purely because every time I make a call that might not be accurate and people get cross about it, I'm fueled. I take the game very seriously. But we're we're not dealing with life or death here. And the definition of a worm will not haunt me."

Davies and Horne also reminisced about bringing back the crowd-favorite, Prank Task, with Joel Dommett this series. Tasking Joel with keeping an egg with Greg's face on it safe for the entirety of the series, Joel was unaware that he was the only one given that task until the studio tapings. "You'll notice he was in no way aggrieved," mused Greg. "And I found that remarkable because, you know, my feeling was if it had been done to me, I would be incandescent at the reveal. But he's like, 'Okay, I guess that's life.' Adorable." It wasn't until the final taping, that the other contestants joined in as well. "He really didn't know the others had their eggs, so he was so touched by that."

When asked what moment from Series 21 was most surprising, the Horne's answer was very clear: "It was Kumail being brave." Kumail shocked the Taskmaster community by voluntarily allowing Horne to see his online browsing history. A search that revealed such patterns as, "Ghostbusters, watch porn, and Bluesky," sent gasps throughout the studio.

"I was one of the gaspers," disclosed Davies.

The entire Taskmaster Series 21 is now live on the Taskmaster YouTube Channel.

Bosch fans know the company makes all sorts of excellent corded and cordless power tools, especially for masonry trades or woodworking. And while many of you likely own a Bosch drill, random orbit sander, or other basics, the brand also makes several lesser-known tools with a lot to like.

For years, some of big appeals of Google's Pixel lineup were that the devices came with a clean version of Android, some exclusive, cutting-edge features, and generally solid hardware specs. These exclusive features—like the clever AI camera tricks and seamless integrations—were one of the biggest perks of choosing a Pixel over other Android devices. For a long time, even most older or cheaper models would eventually receive the best new tricks via software updates.

Your Fire TV can get slow and start to stall over time, which is one of the most annoying things. These devices start fast out of the box, but they quickly turn into a headache as you install more apps. The problem is usually just limited hardware struggling with hidden background tracking and files that take up too much space, and I don't mean your router. You just need to adjust your settings, kill those background tasks, and clear out space to make it fast again.

Over the past year, I've gone down the homelabbing rabbit hole, and as a result, I've tried quite a few server operating systems. Two weeks ago, I assembled a new home server because my old DietPi wasn't cutting it anymore. Instead of going with the usual Debian or Ubuntu server, however, I decided to give Proxmox a try. And I'm so glad I did.

As a happy Bambu Studio user, I’ve long wondered why some users prefer to use OrcaSlicer for their 3D printing needs. So I did some digging, downloaded OrcaSlicer, and found out for myself.

Amazon is hosting its 2026 Prime Day sale from June 23 to 26 instead of mid-July like usual, throwing the summer retail calendar for a loop. What gives?

The company isn't sharing many details about its reasoning. But based on what it has said, and what it's prioritizing lately, it's fairly easy to deduce an answer: There's a lot happening this July already, and shoppers will want to stock up for the festivities.

"This year, we have the [FIFA] World Cup," Jamil Ghani, worldwide VP of Amazon Prime, told Reuters earlier this month. The international soccer tournament, which is being hosted across North America this year, runs through July 19.

SEE ALSO: Prime Day is less than 2 weeks away: Here are 20+ early deals to start shopping now

"We've got also the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence [on July 4]," Ghani added, "and so we thought ​this week [in late June] was the best week for us to hold Prime Day."

An Amazon spokesperson previously told Mashable that the company "felt holding the event earlier in the summer was the right choice for our customers." When asked how an earlier Prime Day would benefit shoppers, exactly, they declined to elaborate. But as Reuters pointed out, Amazon is likely positioning its June Prime Day as an opportunity to save on groceries and household goods for July's celebrations.

A bigger focus on grocery savings

Grocery delivery has become a massive part of Amazon's business. In January, the company said it was the second-largest grocer in the U.S., with everyday essentials now representing one out of every three units it sells online. Amazon introduced same-day delivery of fresh foods in thousands of U.S. cities last August. And earlier this month, it expanded its 30-minute delivery service for groceries and essentials in dozens of locations.

Prime member benefits include free same-day grocery delivery on orders over $25, exclusive discounts at Whole Foods (which Amazon also owns), and 5% cash back on groceries with a Prime Visa card. Notably, Amazon is running a free grocery sweepstakes ahead of Prime Day 2026.

SEE ALSO: Order from Amazon and you could win free groceries for a year Amazon has shifted Prime Day's schedule before

Technically, this isn't the first time Prime Day has fallen outside of its regular time frame since it launched in 2015. Back in 2020, Amazon pushed its members-only sale to October because of supply chain issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The following year, it moved up Prime Day to late June — its earliest slot thus far — before returning it to July from 2022 to 2025.

Amazon had similar reasons for moving Prime Day to June in 2021. CFO Brian Olsavsky cited "a number of factors" for the shift in an earnings call that year, per ZDNet, including July being "a big vacation month" and the timing of the 2020 Olympics, which had been rescheduled to that summer.

Olsavsky framed the 2021 June move as a test at the time. "It might be better ... for customers, sellers, and vendors to experiment with a different time period," he said. That seemed to have panned out: Prime members "shopped more and saved more" on Prime Day 2021 than any Prime Day prior, per a company earnings report.

Prime Day 2021 also saw record-breaking sales for third-party sellers on Amazon, but its earlier timing probably wasn't the only contributing factor. Amazon funded a "Spend $10, Get $10" promotion on products sold by small businesses that year.

Other major retailers usually run their own sales alongside Prime Day in mid-July, and this year, they've all adjusted their calendars accordingly. Walmart is hosting a Summer Deals event from June 22 to 28; Target is having a Circle Week Deal Days sale from June 23 to 26; and Best Buy is running a Tech Fest sale from June 22 to June 28.