Technology

Google's new Pixel 11 lineup is here, but despite having a new processor, it's not exactly a generational leap. It's a fairly modest upgrade, and although it's far from a bad phone, the value isn't there, especially when the Pixel 10 still offers most of the same features and capabilities. That's why last year's model could actually be a much better buy for most people.

Electric vehicles are clearly the future of the automotive industry, as brands have essentially all begun their march towards carbon neutrality. However, range anxiety and slow charging have all been barriers to the average person making the switch to an electric vehicle. However, solid state batteries (SSBs) may be the solution.

Are you ready to spend some time soldering and setting up projects on your Pi this weekend? Then today's post is for you! Below, I talk about building a custom turntable with a Pi Pico, designing a custom OBD-II dashboard for your car, and building a tabletop game soundboard.

Like most people, the way I mainly share a photo with friends and family is by texting it to them. This works fine if you just quickly want to share a moment. However, it's a very fragmented situation, and there is a better way—more than one, in fact—built into Google Photos.

More than perhaps any room in your home, the kitchen begs for 3D printed solutions. It’s an area that’s ripe with opportunities for custom optimizations—especially if you’re restricted by space. My kitchen can always use more functionality, and these five prints help.

If you have kids, managing their screen time can be a constant battle. It can be difficult to enforce the rules because it's easy for them to pick up a phone or tablet without you realizing. If you have Pi-hole set up, you can use it to shut down their internet access when it's time for bed.

SAVE $30: As of Aug. 20, the 30qt Ninja FrostVault cooler in cloud white is discounted to $169.99 at Amazon. That's $30 off its full price of $199.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Ninja Ninja FrostVault 30qt Hard Cooler with Dry Zone $169.99 at Amazon
$199.99 Save $30   Get Deal

Throughout the summer, Amazon has had some excellent outdoor deals, and it's not slowing down as we inch closer to fall.

If you're someone who can't wait to enjoy camping trips and outdoor gatherings in the cooler weather, the retailer has plenty of discounts worth exploring right now, including a $30 price cut on the 30qt Ninja FrostVault cooler in cloud white.

This durable cooler is normally priced at $199.99 at the retailer, but shoppers can snag it for $169.99 right now instead. Unfortunately, only the cloud white model is down to this price, but the other available colors are priced just $10 higher.

SEE ALSO: Purple's Labor Day sale gets you a king mattress for the price of a queen — shop now for up to $400 off

From food to drinks, this 30-quart cooler can handle it all. When it comes to the latter, it can hold up to 48 cans without ice or 26 with ice. And thanks to a heavy-duty build with up to three inches of insulation, they'll stay safe and cool while you're out and about. What really stands out about this cooler is the FrostVault Dry Zone.

This keeps your food in its own section of the cooler so it stays dry and cool, away from the drinks. It's a really helpful way to keep everything packed together without it getting all soggy from the ice and condensation. Plus, this cooler comes with integrated handles, so carrying it around during fall outings will be much easier.

If the 30qt Ninja FrostVault cooler in cloud white has caught your eye, act fast to save at Amazon.

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I've been using VLC for years, so when I recently started reading about mpv as a compelling alternative, I decided to give it a try. My first impression wasn't great. mpv opened my videos just fine, but compared with VLC, it felt almost unfinished. The interface is sparse, there aren't traditional menus full of settings, and a lot of the conveniences I was used to simply weren't there.

SAVE $200: As of Aug. 20, the Amazon Fire TV 50-inch Omni QLED 4K TV is on sale for $269.99 at Amazon. That's a $200 drop from its list price of $469.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Fire TV 50-Inch Omni QLED Series 4K UHD smart TV $269.99 at Amazon
$469.99 Save $200   Get Deal

Cooler weather is right around the corner, and if you can't wait to settle in for fall's batch of streaming shows and movies, you'll want a high-quality TV to watch it all on. If you've been thinking about an upgrade, Amazon's been dropping great deals recently, including the Amazon Fire TV 50-inch Omni QLED 4K TV.

As of Aug. 20, this smart TV has been slashed from $469.99 to $269.99. That's a solid $200 discount, and not too far from its lowest-ever price of $249.99. It's only on sale at this price for a limited time, so act fast to save.

SEE ALSO: Best Buy's 60th Anniversary Sale is live: We found the best deals on TVs, iPhones, Pokémon, and more

Since this 50-inch Fire TV is a smart TV, you'll be able to access all of your favorite streaming services right from the home screen. What you watch will look stunning as well, as this TV boasts a 4K resolution QLED display that sharpens details and brings out rich colors on screen. It even comes with Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive to give pictures an added color boost, and also supports HDR10 and HLG.

Another cool highlight of this TV is that it can automatically optimize the brightness of what you watch using a built-in sensor that detects the room's lighting. That way, you won't miss any of the action happening on screen. It also comes with the Fire TV Ambient Experience, which lets you display art or photos when you're not watching anything.

If you're thinking it's time to grab a new TV, don't miss out on this great deal on the Amazon Fire TV 50-inch Omni QLED 4K TV at Amazon.

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Seth Meyers' Late Night may be on summer vacation but the news keeps rolling. So, the host has launched a version of his popular deep dive segment "A Closer Look" as a video podcast series during the break.

A Closer Look: Out of Office is now streaming on YouTube, Peacock, and major podcast platforms. For the series, Meyers catches up with supervising writer/producer Sal Gentile on a video call to unpack the last current affairs.

"You had another name which I did really like," Gentile says in the first episode. "A Closer Look: Proof of Life, to show people we're still alive. Kind of like the way Mitch McConnell releases a new photo."

For the first episode, Meyers and Gentile explore Donald Trump's Air Force One catering cart switcheroo, and the Department of Justice's push to revive the case of vandalism concerning the controversially renovated Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.

Apparently Meyers saw the word "vacation" and thought, I'll pack my podcast equipment.

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The Claude plans have two different usage limit windows. One is a five-hour session limit and the other is a weekly limit that gets reset once a week. Anything you use below your weekly quota doesn't carry over, so any excess capacity is effectively wasted.

'Weird Al' Yankovic on Tiny Desk Concert? It happened. Again.

The music comedy legend and king of parody squished himself and eight musicians into NPR's minuscule performance space for the latest fundraising episode, and it's honestly a delightful time. You'll snack upon renditions of some of his big hits from Weezer-style "Skipper Dan" to Backstreet Boys parody "eBay," and epic Star Wars-inspired "American Pie" tribute "The Saga Begins."

Weird Al has actually appeared on Tiny Desk Concert before, playing a set of originals in 2010.

"It's really great to be back at Tiny Desk. We did play here in 2010 and apparently we did so great they invited us back 16 years later," he said during the set.

You can watch the set above or on NPR's YouTube channel. It's a treat.

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Your closest friends are generally the ones you have most in common with, and that often means sharing hobbies. Some of these things you do alone, while others are wholly social affairs. Many of them are even better when combined with a self-hosted project in your homelab.

The ls and cd commands are as old as Linux itself—older if you consider their actual Unix-based origins back in the 1970s. Now, while both of them are just as reliable as they used to be, a few modern alternatives have cropped up promising faster performance and more intuitive workflows. I decided to give them a try, and as it turns out, they’re good enough that I’ve retired both cd and ls from active duty.

Rosie O'Donnell's Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest-hosting run has been peppered with digs at Donald Trump. On Monday, the comedian called the president "Mango Mussolini," and on Tuesday, "President Oompa J. Loompa."

And on Wednesday, O'Donnell, a longtime Trump critic, started the show with another.

"A special hello to those of you watching from home and from the White House," the host started her monologue with. "But I do have some bad news for President Petty Roosevelt. That's all I'm gonna say about you tonight, sweetheart."

With Kimmel on vacation, O'Donnell's guest-hosting run comes after weeks led by Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz, and Colman Domingo, and there's more monologues where that came from.

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Looking for spoiler-free NYT Connections hints or just wondering why Connections is trending today? We've got what you need to understand the clues for today's puzzle without spoiling any of the answers.

Of course, Mashable has also provided daily hints and answers for Connections, Wordle, and Strands for years, so we can help you if that's also what you need.

While we are focused more on meanings than hints in this story, sometimes learning that many of the words have completely unrelated meanings is a clue in and of itself. Connections frequently includes clues that involve words within words and other visual clues.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for August 20, 2026 Telephone meaning

A device for making calls.

Apostrophe meaning

A form of punctuation frequently used to indicate possession.

Oxford meaning

A city in England.

Serial meaning

Things that happen as part of a sequence.

Hawaiian meaning

Something linked to Hawaii.

Okina meaning

A consonant in the Hawaiian language.

Ratchet meaning

A tool frequently used to tighten or remove bolts.

Comma meaning

Punctuation used to indicate a pause, though not a complete stop.

White meaning

A color that represents all visible light frequencies.

Pigment meaning

An ingredient that infuses color into items or materials.

Atomic meaning

Describing something linked to atoms.

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Dragonfly meaning

A flying insect often found near water.

Diavola meaning

Italian for devil.

Cedilla meaning

A mark used to change a letter from a hard sound to a soft sound.

Meat lovers meaning

Frequently used to describe a collection of pizza toppings.

Social Security meaning

A U.S. program designed to provide assistance to those with low income for a variety of reasons.

Have you learned the meanings and still want the things? Check out the hints and answers for today's NYT Connections puzzle.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

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.

We're always looking for new and inventive ways to hit you with big savings on popular items. We cover hundreds of deals every month. You can find these deals on site, on socials, and on our newsletter. We've also launched a Mashable Deals text group. The daily deals that we send to this group are researched and assessed by the team with the same level of care that we dedicate to the rest of our shopping content.

You can find a live hub for those deals right here.

It won't shock you that there's a superabundance of interview podcasts and internet series out there. You're probably subscribed to a bunch of content creators (perhaps those who made this year's Mashable 101) or maybe you depend on your feed to hand-deliver the most viral clips. But your time is precious, so we've rounded up the best on the internet this week.

Whether you're into deadpan showdowns, niche hot takes, or simply wholesome interviews between creative minds, here's what we reckon is worth your time (and of course, we'd never leave out Mashable's own Say More, what are you, nuts?).

SEE ALSO: The Mashable 101: The creators defining the internet in 2026 1. Iconic Guest: Ziwe x Law Roach

The whole "name a more iconic duo" thing gets thrown around these days, but it applies with full effect here. In the latest episode of Iconic Guest, writer and comedian Ziwe Fumudoh interviews iconic stylist Law Roach — and if you watch just one podcast interview this week, make it this one. The host and guest are matched in deadpan, aligned in stone-faced determination, as the pair unpack Roach's career one Zendaya hat, dystopian definition, and "Hatuna Makata" at time.

Where to watch: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram

2. Subway Takes: Kareem Rahma x Lucy Dacus

Yes, it's not technically a podcast, it's an internet interview series, shut up, move on.

Kareem Rahma's Subway Takes keeps our feeds brimming with steaming hot perspectives, and the latest episode of his wildly popular web series won't leave my consciousness. The journalist interviewed musician Lucy Dacus on a boat off Rhode Island during Newport Folk Fest, asking for her hottest take.

Her answer? "Birds shouldn't walk."

Where to watch: TikTok, Instagram

3. Say More: Kristy Puchko x Hannah Einbinder and Jane Schoenbrun

Mashable's Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko sat down in the Say More studio with filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun and actor Hannah Einbinder to unpack Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, one of the best horror films of the year. It's a wonderful chat between likeminded horror fans, talking KFC, Little Death (Jack Haven), Counting Crows, and the inspirations behind this unforgettable slasher.

Where to watch: Mashable, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok

4. Good Hang: Amy Poehler x Keke Palmer

One of the most wholesome interview podcasts on the internet, Amy Poehler's Good Hang is always exactly that. This week, the host interviewed Keke Palmer, whose own brilliant podcast Baby, This is Keke Palmer should already be on your weekly listening list. The star of The Burbs and I Love Boosters makes it hard for Poehler to keep it together, unpacking whether Jesus was a Virgo ("You can't have disciples if you can't organise them!"), Kelis' 1999 eternal banger "Caught Out There," and whether you can say "Macbeth" on a podcast.

Where to watch: YouTube, Instagram, TikTok

5. Mythical Kitchen: Angela Giarratana

Angela Giarratana enjoyed her "last meal" on Mythical Kitchen, joining her friend, host and chef Josh Scherer, for one of the most gleeful, fun, and real chats you'll see this week. The Smosh star, writer, comedian, and actor feasted on her favourites: extra dirty gin martinis, her grandmother's pastina, the tuna melt from San Diego's Beginners Diner, the roast pork from Miami's La Carreta, her party-leaving strategy order from Silverlake Ramen, and more. It's a hoot.

How to watch: YouTube, Instagram, TikTok

6. Vanity Fair's Lie Detector Test: Marc Jacobs

OK, I'm just going to let you watch this one. Vanity Fair's Lie Detector Test — the one that threw Merrily We All Roll Along stars Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez into the sea — values the truth and nothing but the truth. Fashion legend Marc Jacobs' interview goes to some real corners of possibility, but it's the very first question, involving styling Luigi Mangione, that has people talking.

Where to watch: YouTube, Instagram, TikTok

7. Criterion Closet: Colman Domingo

If you're invited to the Criterion Closet, you usually have a plan. And Oscar-nominee Colman Domingo absolutely did, picking out Ousmane Sembène's Black Girl, Ermanno Olmi's Il Posto, John Berry's Claudine, René Clément's Purple Noon, Cher's Oscar-winner Moonstruck, and a Wong Kar-wai box set. But Domingo lets fate decide his final film, closing his eyes to select Russian Civil War film Coup de Grâce.

From YouTubers and TikTok stars to streamers and podcasters, Mashable talks to creators about how they built their platforms, the gear they swear by, and the trends they see coming next. Read more of our creator coverage, sign up for our Trending Now and Top Stories newsletters or get Mashable push alerts to discover the internet's most exciting voices. 

You can't accuse Samsung of playing it safe with the Galaxy Z Fold 8. The passport-like design is an even bolder step than last year's slimmed-down Z Fold 7, and fundamentally changes how you use a foldable phone. It's an excellent device that I'm drawn to every day, and might just expand the audience for the Z Fold series. I'm just worried that its intended audience isn't ready to pay the high price for what they get.

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you're familiar with the theater.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. 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 today's 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?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. 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: NYT Pips hints, answers for August 17, 2026 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

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

• Yellow: Pizza

• Green: Important numbers

• Blue: Punctuation marks

• Purple: Zodiac animals

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Here are today's Connections categories

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

• Yellow: Kinds of Pizza

• Green: Kinds of Numbers

• Blue: Similarly Shaped Typographical Marks

• Purple: Starting with Chinese Zodiac Animals

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 #1165 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Kinds of Pizza: DIAVOLA, HAWAIIAN, MEAT LOVERS, WHITE

• Kinds of Numbers: ATOMIC, SERIAL, SOCIAL SECURITY, TELEPHONE

• Similarly Shaped Typographical Marks: APOSTROPHE, CEDILLA, COMMA, OKINA

• Starting with Chinese Zodiac Animals: DRAGONFLY, OXFORD, PIGMENT, RATCHET

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for August 13, 2026

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

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 today's Connections.