Technology

Whether you are a dedicated Milwaukee fan or want another Milwaukee power tool for your arsenal, you don’t have to pay full price, sales and specials run year-round. You just need to know where to find them, and many deals are set by the manufacturer.

Our phones aren't just personal computers we carry with us — they're the ones we use to control everything else, from speakers and smart home devices to portable power stations. In this world of devices we connect to our phones, there are some quirky but fun accessories you might not even know exist.

Did you know that Walmart makes power tools? Hyper Tough is Walmart's in-house brand, and like most things at Walmart, it's fairly affordable. However, many tools are overlooked, so here are four affordable Hyper Tough tools released in 2026 that you might want to add to your DIY toolkit.

Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have merged to form Skydance. The David Ellison-led media company now owns some of the most important franchises from two legacy studios, including Game of Thrones, the DC Universe, Mission: Impossible, Yellowstone, and Dune.

If you look at your Pi-hole dashboard after a few weeks of use you'll see thousands, if not tens of thousands, of blocked queries. Yet, despite your best attempts, there are still ads playing on your TV.

Excel is a brilliant tool for managing data. You can store data, organize, analyze, and even visualize it. However, Excel is not a database, as it lacks many of the primary features a database system offers. No relational integrity, data constraints, or foreign-key support. That's where DBeaver earned a spot on my PC.

Google Pixel has a good reputation in the Android world — this is the brand you buy if you want Android as Google's designers intended. But Google's vision for Android seems increasingly at odds with what matters most to Pixel owners, and it's starting to push people away.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2) runs a real Linux kernel inside a lightweight virtual machine right inside your copy of Windows. It's an awesome piece of technology that lets you run Linux apps and do Linux things from within Windows with no dual-booting or any of that other malarkey.

If there's one thing that annoys me about modern internet-connected technology, it's that everything is a subscription these days. Features that should just be part of an appliance, or performed locally by an app, now depend on siphoning a few dollars from your account every month.

I hate driving in a silent car. I love having music playing, singing along to my favorite songs, and occasionally dancing in my seat at a red light (don’t judge me).

I'm just old enough to have participated in the last few years of the floppy disk era, and although I don't feel a particularly strong sense of nostalgia about floppies, I do think that they're interesting. In any case, I've recently started archiving old screen saver disks and screwing around with floppy disk cameras, and I was surprised by all of the tactile, sensory memories that my mind had chosen to bury away.

Walmart is on the defensive after a bombshell Groundwork Collaborative report that it has patented technology to personalize prices. According to the Oct. 5 report, "The Walmart Watchtower," several patent applications describe the data Walmart can collect about its users, from songs on your playlist to your credit report.

Dynamic pricing is the practice of changing prices in a 24-hour period depending on conditions like the weather, and it's something that some policymakers are fighting against. Surveillance pricing, which is similar, uses customer behavior and characteristics to price the same products differently.

SEE ALSO: Claude sent phony tip about an unsolved murder to Philadelphia police

"Combined with the miles-long list of personal data it collects on shoppers, outlined in its most recent privacy notice, these patents show Walmart building detailed consumer profiles — and the infrastructure to deepen them — seemingly so it can price people, not products," the report states.

The report goes on to allege that Walmart plans on charging more depending on who a customer is and what they need, such as charging new parents more for baby products. Another example is adjusting prices based on items in one's cart, like charging more for mayo if someone is already buying tuna.

The report also discusses Walmart's in-house AI shopping assistant, "Sparky," and claims that customers who use it spend more than those who don't (and that Walmart executives brag about this).

The report is written by Groundwork's president and CEO, Lindsay Owens, and its vice president of policy, advocacy, and research, Elizabeth Pancotti.

Walmart's executive vice president of corporate affairs, Dan Bartlett, responded to the report the same day with an open letter on X (and on Walmart's website) specifically to Owens. He denied Groundwork's accusations, saying the report repeatedly mischaracterizes Walmart's pricing practices and use of technology. Walmart won't pursue dynamic pricing and has committed not to, he said.

"Your comments about Sparky also draw unfounded conclusions. We do not use AI to upcharge our customers," he added.

Owens then responded to the "baseless attacks" on Oct. 5 with a new statement. She said, "The confusion around Walmart's pricing practices is of its own making. Walmart says one thing in its damage-control letters to customers, another to its investors behind closed doors, and a different thing entirely to the United States Patent and Trademark Office."

She said she released a new analysis of Walmart patents so Americans can decide for themselves. She also voices concerns about Spark's capabilities and safeguards, particularly following the Hugging Face incident.

Groundwork Collaborative was also part of the Dec. 2025 Consumer Reports investigation about Instacart's price tests, which it claimed upped customers' grocery bills. Instacart ended the tests after a public outcry from both customers and politicians.

Spooky season is here, which means I'm making room on my October watch list for witches, ghosts, and characters that make for interesting stories. Netflix has plenty to choose from, whether you want a supernatural mystery with a shade of comedy or a proper horror series that haunts you for days.

Most productivity software sells you a clean interface and a recurring charge for features you could build yourself in an afternoon. I've paid for tools that promised to do a lot, and they ended up being spreadsheets. People write Excel off as old or basic, but it can do math, it saves everything, and it works offline.

Today's Connections: Sports Edition will be easier for who watch Texas football.

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. The sports 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 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 before 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: MLB abbreviations

• Green: Frontcourt basketball

• Blue: Texas football

• Purple: Involves a ball

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: MLB Teams, On Scoreboards

• Green: Terms for a Frontcourt Basketball Player

• Blue: A Texas College Athlete

• Purple: Ball___

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 #747 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• MLB Teams, On Scoreboards: MIA, MIL, SEA, TEX

• Terms for a Frontcourt Basketball Player: BIG, CENTER, FORWARD, POST

• A Texas College Athlete: AGGIE, LONGHORN, MUSTANG, OWL

• Ball___: HOG, MARKER, SECURITY, STATE

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 the latest Connections.

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

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 October 10, 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 October 10, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for October 10 Pips

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

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

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 2-0, placed vertically; 0-5, placed vertically.

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

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 0-5, placed vertically; 5-6, placed horizontally.

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

Medium difficulty hints, answers for October 10 Pips

Greater Than (9): Everything in this space must be greater than 9. The answer is 5-6, placed horizontally; 4-1, placed vertically.

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

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

Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 2-5, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (9): Everything in this space must be greater than 9. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally.

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

Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 1-2, placed vertically; 4-4, placed horizontally.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for October 10 Pips

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I realized recently how much of my phone life quietly depends on Google. Calendar for appointments, Keep for random thoughts, Chrome for basically everything, Maps when I’m lost, and Authenticator when Google decides I need another security code. It’s convenient, sure.

No one takes shots at bad movies and performances quite like the Golden Raspberry Awards, better known as the Razzie Awards. While the Oscars celebrate the best movies of the year, the Razzies reward the worst movies of the year. It's supposed to be a joke, but the Razzies have sometimes taken cheap shots. Thankfully, the Razzies eventually put age limits on their nominations.

There’s a common belief that Windows has more apps — and better ones, too — than Linux. And sure, that’s true in a few categories. If your work depends on Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Cloud, Windows is definitely the better platform. However, that superiority doesn’t hold across the board. Some really capable apps exist only on Linux, so if you’re on Windows, you can’t use them. Here are three of my favorite Linux-exclusive apps.

Claude Haiku 4.5 sent the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) a false homicide tip, Anthropic and the PPD announced.

In an Oct. 9 blog post about Anthropic investigating unintended model actions, the company described the incident and several others in which different Claude models performed actions they weren't asked to perform.

SEE ALSO: Anthropic IPO docs reportedly reveal over $40 billion in losses last year

In this case, Claude Haiku 4.5 was tasked with generating and performing example tasks on randomly-selected webpages. The model landed on a PPD tip form about an unsolved homicide. The model was instructed not to log in, create accounts, enter personal data, make purchases, or "submit anything destructive," according to the post — but the list of don'ts didn't include submitting forms.

So, Claude filled out the tip form:

I may have information regarding this case. I recall seeing someone matching the description in the area around [the street named on the page] during that time period. Please contact me if this information is relevant.

Claude didn't fill in the name or contact fields, nor did he provide a description of the imaginary suspect.

The PPD provided more details in a statement shared with 6abc Philadelphia. Claude submitted the form to PhillyUnsolvedMurders.com on July 18. The tip went to spam and was never acted upon. Anthropic discovered the incident on Sept. 28 and notified PPD on Oct. 7.

The statement went on to say that PPD has a vetting process for tips, including a human review, before any follow-ups. "Those PPD safeguards limited the impact of this incident," PPD stated. "They do not diminish the seriousness of an AI system presenting fabricated information as though it came from a person with knowledge of a homicide."

"Unsolved cases involve real victims, grieving families, and investigators working to secure answers," the statement went on. "Technology companies must take all appropriate steps necessary to prevent their systems from submitting false information to law enforcement."

Other rogue actions described in the blog post included exploiting software flaws, circumventing restrictions to access gated data, and using URL shortening services. In the post, Anthropic insisted these behaviors were "significantly less severe" than in previous incidents, and the real-world impact was minimal.