Technology

There is a growing body of research examining how AI influences the way we think, learn, and solve problems. While no study has yet measured the long-term cognitive effects of AI use—after all, these tools have been widely available for less than five years—researchers are identifying patterns that align with established findings in psychology and neuroscience.

If something goes wrong in my home, like a pipe bursting, I would rather find out from a notification than stepping in inches of water. It’s for that reason that I’ve started building a water leak detection system using this one adorable, off-the-shelf sensor: the IKEA KLIPPBOK.

Got an old Android tablet gathering dust in a drawer? Wondering if there’s anything genuinely useful you can do with it besides recycling it? Here are seven practical ways to give your old Android tablet a new life and a new purpose.

Google's TV Streamer ships with a handful of defaults that work against you. These three changes take less than five minutes and make the whole experience faster and less intrusive.

We often hear more about Google's Android features than Samsung's, even though Samsung sells far more phones. While those Samsung phones come with many Google apps installed, they're also packed with Samsung-specific features that are often better than their flashier alternatives on Pixel phones. Let's touch on some of the bangers.

Yes, I daily-drive a trackball mouse. I have used trackballs on and off throughout my life, but I've never actually owned one. It was usually at school or using my dad's friend's PC. An architect, he swore by this big A4Tech trackball mouse and when I had to do anything on one of these computers (usually fix them), the big red ball mouse was the only option.

I know many consider Android Auto to be essential when buying a car—but as for me, I rarely use it. The way I see it, my car's infotainment system is already a better experience.

Rclone is an app that lets you upload, download, sync, and delete files in the cloud. Let me show you why it's better than the official apps from your cloud providers.

From a built-in spam detector to the option of pinning messages and automatically deleting OTPs, the Google Messages app offers a variety of features. Here are nine Google Messages features that everyone should know about.

I love tinkering with Home Assistant. While the main purpose of using it is to create automations for controlling my smart home, sometimes you need to do things manually. Tapping smart home dashboards or shouting at voice assistants isn't always that much fun, but over the years I've set up plenty of weird and wonderful ways to make my smart home do what I want.

OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman is trending on X for suggesting that parents use ChatGPT to generate podcasts about their children's lives in lieu of... listening to them.

"cool use case of chatgpt work i heard last night," he shared on X in all lowercase. "connect your family calendars and explain your kids' interests."

SEE ALSO: The OpenAI-Hugging Face hack was worse than we thought

He continued, "Every morning for the drive to school, have it make a podcast that talks about one kid's soccer game that afternoon, one kid's upcoming birthday, some news, etc."

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The post has amassed around 9,500 likes at the time of this writing, dwarfed by 120,000 likes on the reply, "What if you just talked to your children?" from Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch. (The same day, Hirsch also criticized Google's addition of its AI image generator into Google Earth, which it reversed.) Other popular replies have the same sentiment: That Altman is apparently encouraging users to disconnect from their families.

The backlash about AI tools has ramped up in recent years, for a myriad of reasons, including environmental impacts, surveillance, job loss, and fears of AI psychosis. The potential degrading of relationships is also a concern for some, as more people turn to chatbots to outsource relational conflicts or even seek to replace relationships themselves.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

I owned a 981-generation Porsche Cayman S for several years. I put about 4,000 track miles on mine before I moved on to something else. My Cayman S was brilliant on the racetrack. It was so well-balanced, the PDK transmission was fantastic, and the car sounded great as well.

Samsung DeX is the oldest and most popular Android-based desktop, but it wasn't my first, and it's not necessarily the best. Depending on how you want to use your phone with an external display, you would be wise not to sleep on Motorola's Smart Connect.

Linux is pretty impressive, and its greatest feature is arguably its cost. If you were to dip into your pocket and pull out nothing but fresh air, you'd still have enough to cover the license fees for this powerful system. Windows, on the other hand, well, Microsoft locks many of its capabilities behind a tiered payment structure. But what supposed features am I talking about? Seven off the top of my head; maybe you can think of more?

Some movies stand out because of the stories they tell, while others make an impression because of how differently they tell them. Paramount+ has a mix of both, with a collection of original movies that aren't afraid to experiment with genre or storytelling.

I lived in my previous apartment for more than seven years, and during most of that time, I used a small ISP that had a lot going for it. For starters, I paid the equivalent of $18, first for a 250/50Mbps plan and later for a 500/100Mbps plan, which was a great price no matter where you live, if you ask me. Better yet, I never signed a contract. I was on their prepaid plan, so when I moved apartments, I just let them know I no longer needed their service, returned the equipment, and that was it.

Many car enthusiasts dream about the next modification: bigger brakes, better tires, and more horsepower! Others simply enjoy performing their own maintenance. I am no different. But after years of spending money on my cars, I finally invested in the place where I work on them instead. Looking back, it may have been the best automotive investment I've ever made.

The most exciting part of 3D printing is the actual printing process. Watching your desktop factory do its thing is exhilarating, and I, for one, never get tired of watching that print head zoom around.

My Galaxy Watch typically has lasted a little over a day, which I always considered good enough—until I went on a trip. It completely changed my routine. I forgot to charge my watch before leaving, and by the middle of the day, I was walking around with a useless device strapped to my wrist.

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 August 1, 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 August 1, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for August 1 Pips

Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 0-6, placed horizontally; 6-5, placed horizontally.

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

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 5-2, placed vertically; 0-3, placed horizontally.

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

Medium difficulty hints, answers for August 1 Pips

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

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

Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 0-5, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 3-5, placed horizontally; 0-5, placed horizontally.

Not Equal Everything in this space must be different. The answer is 1-2, placed horizontally; 6-6, placed vertically.

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

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

Hard difficulty hints, answers for August 1 Pips

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

Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 3-5, placed horizontally; 4-2, placed vertically.

Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 1-2, placed horizontally; 1-4, placed vertically.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 1-4, placed vertically; 6-3, placed vertically.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 1-2, placed horizontally; 4-2, placed vertically; 2-0, placed horizontally; 2-6, placed vertically.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 2-6, placed vertically; 4-4, placed vertically.

Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 0-1, placed horizontally; 1-5, placed horizontally.

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

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

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 6-3, placed vertically; 3-3, placed horizontally; 4-3, placed horizontally; 3-0, placed horizontally.

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

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally.

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