Technology

Luxury cars often come with an unspoken cost beyond the sticker price: maintenance. Premium badges may promise upscale cabins and refined driving dynamics, but keeping them on the road can be surprisingly expensive. According to CarEdge, BMW owners can expect to spend an estimated $5,145 on maintenance during the first five years of ownership, a figure that quickly adds up when compared to some of its rivals.

When you live in a detached single-family home, a few yard tools feel like essentials. You'll probably get a lawn mower and a string trimmer. Maybe you'll get a leaf blower. I'm here to tell you, after a decade of homeownership, that a mini chainsaw deserves as high a place on that list.

"What movie do I want to watch" is the million-dollar question that I constantly ask myself every day. Sometimes, I'm ready to go. I know exactly what I want to watch and when I want to stream. Unfortunately, that only happens about half the time. The other half of the time, it can be a struggle to narrow my choices to a single movie. I even have difficulty getting my list down to three movies, let alone one.

Buying based on size alone usually leads to one of two problems: you either overspend on massive capacity you won't use for a decade, or you underbuy and find yourself shopping for more storage in less than a year.

OpenAI is facing a multistate investigation, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported that the company received a subpoena on Friday seeking documents related to its business practices and impact on users.

SEE ALSO: OpenAI may slash subscription prices to compete with Anthropic

The Journal, which says it viewed the subpoena from New York's attorney general, reports that investigators are asking about OpenAI's advertising practices, user engagement and retention, data handling, and how the company manages interactions with minors and senior users. The AGs are also reportedly asking about model sycophancy — a growing concern in the AI industry around chatbots that tell users what they want to hear rather than what's accurate.

An OpenAI spokesperson told the Journal the company takes the concerns seriously and plans to work constructively with the attorneys general.

What triggered the investigation isn't clear, but OpenAI has been accumulating legal and regulatory headaches for a while. Florida's attorney general opened a criminal investigation into the company in April following reports that the suspect in the 2025 Florida State University mass shooting had used ChatGPT.

The company has also faced wrongful death lawsuits tied to chatbot interactions. All of this comes just days after OpenAI filed paperwork with the SEC to go public.

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 know what you're thinking. "But the Raspberry Pi is way too expensive now." and "there are so many other alternatives." I will admit right off the bat that there's some truth to both of these statements.

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.