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TL;DR: Watch PSG vs. Monaco in Ligue 1 for free on CazéTV. Access this free livestream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

Ligue 1 has started with some unexpected results. We're all so used to seeing Champions League champions PSG at the top of the standings, but right now they're sitting in 11th. We expect to see the defending champs move up the table, but are we seeing the start of a decline for Luis Enrique's side?

Next they face Monaco, probably not the side they wanted to come up against as they seek their first win of the season. Monaco top the standings after two rounds, without conceding a single goal.

If you're interested in watching PSG vs. Monaco in Ligue 1 from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.

When is PSG vs. Monaco?

PSG vs. Monaco in Ligue 1 kicks off at 3:05 p.m. ET on Sept. 4. This fixture takes place at the Parc des Princes.

How to watch PSG vs. Monaco for free

PSG vs. Monaco in Ligue 1 is available to live stream for free on CazéTV.

CazéTV is geo-restricted to Brazil, but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Brazil, meaning you can live stream PSG vs. Monaco for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream PSG vs. Monaco for free by following these simple steps:

1. Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (we recommend ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in Brazil

4. Visit CazéTV

5. Watch PSG vs. Monaco for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.99 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer generous money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch PSG vs. Monaco without committing your cash. This is obviously not a long-term strategy, but it gives you enough time to stream this fixture (plus Premier League action) before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for Ligue 1?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on CazéTV, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries, including Brazil

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices, including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and usually offers a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99.

Live stream PSG vs. Monaco for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

SAVE $50: Through Sept. 13, new and select returning subscribers can score an entire year of Audible Premium Plus for just $99. Typically $149.50 for the year, that saves you $50.50 on an annual subscription.

Opens in a new window Credit: Audible Audible Premium Plus (Annual Plan) $99 for one year (save $50.50) Get Deal

Audible's newer Standard plan might be cheaper than its Premium Plus plan ($8.99 vs. $14.95), but it doesn't come with the same perks. I personally don't think it's worth it unless you come across a discount. The Premium Plus plan is far superior. And this Labor Day promotion knocks the price down to less than the standard plan for a limited time.

Through Sept. 13, new subscribers and most returning subscribers can score an entire year of Audible Premium Plus for only $99. It typically costs $14.95 per month or $149.50 per year, so you'll save $50.50 on the annual plan (or $80.40 compared to the monthly plan).

The difference between the Standard and Premium Plus plans lies in how long you can keep the audiobooks you choose. With Standard, you're essentially just borrowing one book per month, and it disappears once the calendar turns. Premium Plus membership lets you "buy" whatever title you want with a monthly credit. And you'll get to keep it indefinitely. You'll also unlock access to over 150k included audiobooks and podcasts that don't require a credit card to purchase.

With the annual plan, you'll also receive all 12 of your monthly credits up front, so you can "buy" a dozen titles whenever you see fit. No need to wait until the first of each month to make your selections.

Why pay for Audible at all when apps like Libby exist? Plain and simple, there are no wait times. You can easily select and listen to new 2026 releases, popular BookTok picks, Goodreads favorites, and more without waiting for your hold to go through.

The best Ryobi Labor Day deals from Home Depot: Best beginner deal Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless 1/4 in. Hex Screwdriver Kit with Compact Battery and Charger $49.97 (save $108.97) Get Deal Best angle grinder deal Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V Brushless Cordless 4-1/2 in. Angle Grinder with 4.0 Ah High Performance Battery $99 (save $149) Get Deal Best multi-tool deal Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V Brushless Cordless Oscillating Multi-Tool with 4.0 Ah High Performance Battery $99 (save $149) Get Deal Best circular saw deal Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V Brushless Cordless 7-1/4 in. Circular Saw with ONE+ 18V 4.0 Ah High Performance Battery $139 (save $129) Get Deal

There's a version of every home project where you end up making three trips to the hardware store because you're missing one specific tool. Home Depot's Labor Day sale is a good chance to close that gap for good — it's taking up to 69% off Ryobi's 18-volt cordless tools, and since Ryobi's batteries are compatible with over 300 different tools, getting one today means you're already set up for future buys.

We rounded up the best deals from the sale below, from a circular saw that can handle your bigger cuts to a driver kit that covers everything else on your list.

Best beginner deal Opens in a new window Credit: Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless 1/4 in. Hex Screwdriver Kit with Compact Battery and Charger $49.97 at Home Depot
$158.94 Save $108.97   Get Deal Why we like it

Every DIY kit needs a reliable driver, and the Ryobi 18V ONE+ 1/4-inch Hex Screwdriver Kit covers the basics: driving screws, drilling holes, hanging shelves, or fixing a fence. It's lightweight, making it easy to handle for smaller jobs, and its design reduces hand fatigue during overhead or tight-space work, while an onboard LED worklight illuminates dark work areas. Swapping bits is also effortless thanks to the 1/4-inch keyless quick-connect collet.

Best angle grinder deal Opens in a new window Credit: Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V Brushless Cordless 4-1/2 in. Angle Grinder with 4.0 Ah High Performance Battery $99 at Home Depot
$248 Save $149   Get Deal Why we like it

An angle grinder isn't the flashiest tool, but it's the one you reach for when you need to cut or shape metal, or just nip off the end of a screw that's poking through where it shouldn't. The Ryobi 18V ONE+ HP 4-1/2-inch Angle Grinder can make up to 210 cuts on a single charge, so you're not stopping mid-project to recharge, and comes with an 18-volt, 4-amp-hour battery.

Its smart brushless motor keeps the tool cool so it lasts longer, while an updated design lets you make flat cuts easily against surfaces. With a comfortable grip, quick tool-free guard adjustments, and a battery that works across hundreds of other Ryobi tools, it’s built to handle tough DIY projects with total ease.

Best multi-tool deal Opens in a new window Credit: Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V Brushless Cordless Oscillating Multi-Tool with 4.0 Ah High Performance Battery $99 at Home Depot
$248 Save $149   Get Deal Why we like it

The Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V cordless oscillating multi-tool with 4.0 Ah high-performance battery does a little bit of everything: cutting wood, PVC, metal, or drywall, plus sanding and polishing depending on which attachment you swap in. It comes with a plunge-cut blade, a flush-cut blade, and a sanding attachment right out of the box, and you can adjust the speed depending on what you're working on, useful for anything from rough cuts to more delicate jobs like refinishing furniture.

Best circular saw deal Opens in a new window Credit: Ryobi Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V Brushless Cordless 7-1/4 in. Circular Saw with ONE+ 18V 4.0 Ah High Performance Battery $139 at Home Depot
$268 Save $129   Get Deal Why we like it

If you don't have a table saw, the ONE+ HP 18V Cordless 7-1/4-inch circular saw is basically your stand-in for one. It handles long, straight cuts through materials like plywood and two-by-fours, which covers a lot of ground for woodworking or repair projects. It also has an attachment port for a shop vac or dust collection system, so you're not left cleaning up sawdust for the rest of your weekend.

Silo showrunner Graham Yost can sum up the fourth and final season in two words: "It's war."

The upcoming season, set for a summer 2027 release, picks up in the wake of Season 3's twisty finale, which took viewers inside Silo 1. There, we discovered survivors from the show's past timeline, who are cryogenically frozen and periodically reawakened to serve shifts controlling the other silos. Among them are Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) and his sister Charlotte (Jessica Brown Findlay), whose memories have been erased and who have been renamed Troy and Susan.

SEE ALSO: 'Silo' showrunner Graham Yost breaks down the Season 3 finale's massive Silo 1 reveal

Troy butts heads with Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) at the end of Season 3, in a sequence that merges the show's timelines and sets the stage for a showdown between Silo 18 and Silo 1, and between Juliette and Daniel. According to Yost, that means we'll be getting more of Juliette on the warpath.

"[This season] Juliette has come from not knowing who she was to saying, 'We have to take on Silo 1.' That's Juliette. That is the full return of Juliette. In Season 4, we are full-on Juliette from the first frame of the season to essentially the final one," Yost told Mashable.

SEE ALSO: 'Silo' Season 3's twisty ending, explained

On top of Juliette's full return, Silo Season 4 is also going to be showing more of the inner workings of Silo 1.

"Certain characters we've spent some time with really move up into the fore," Yost said of the new focus on Silo 1.

Among the characters you can expect to see more of are Senator Rosalind Thurman (Laura Innes), her daughter Anna (Morven Christie), her aide Henry (Reed Birney), and Charlotte, now Susan.

However, several key characters are missing from that list. What happened to trillionaire Per Stensen (Colin Hanks)? Or journalist Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick)? Both their fates were left unclear following the nuclear explosion that sent the silo residents underground. (But Per had to have engineered the apocalypse, right? The timing was too convenient!)

Yost confirmed that we could get answers on at least one of these topics. "The biggest thing is you will find out what happened to Helen," Yost said.

Knowing Helen's fate post-explosion will help better connect the past and the present, including finding out how the Pez dispenser and Helen and Daniel's baby's sonogram photo became relics in Silo 18. Plus, Helen and her baby are likely the ancestors of some Silo 18 citizen we've grown to know and love over the seasons. Who is their descendant?

In an interview with Backstage, Henwick confirmed that she will be back for Season 4, meaning we're likely in for flashbacks to her time in Silo 18. What did her life look like there, especially in the aftermath of the explosion? And was she, in true journalistic fashion, able to uncover secrets about the silos' true purpose? Bring on Season 4 so we can find out.

Silo Season 3 is now streaming on Apple TV.

Last week, Silo Season 3 delivered its most shocking episode so far. But now, with the finale, Graham Yost's adaptation of Hugh Howey's book series may have outdone itself.

A lot happens in the closing episode of Season 3, which knits our post-apocalyptic silos of the present day with the flashback storyline that's followed congressman Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) and journalist Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick). The main thing we're left with? Questions. Many, many questions.

From the ominous goings-on in Silo 1 to terminology like "The Project" and "The Directive," we've done our best to unpack everything below.

SEE ALSO: 'Silo' showrunner Graham Yost breaks down the Season 3 finale's massive Silo 1 reveal What happens in Silo Season 3's finale?

First, a recap. After Season 3, episode 9 showed us the start of the apocalypse — a nuclear explosion on the launch day of the silo project masterminded by Per Stensen (Colin Hanks) and Senator Thurman (Laura Innes) — that sends Daniel and Helen running towards Silo 1 and Silo 18, respectively. We know that event took place hundreds of years before the present-day silos, but the finale opens with another shock: Daniel is still alive. Like other key members of Silo 1, he's been cryogenically frozen, woken only to deal with major security incidents around the silo complex. Now a specialist known as Troy, he seems like a different person, listening to a briefing from (also still-alive) psychologist Victor (Matt Craven) before ordering the killing of Silo 17's rebels with disturbing detachment.

His sister Charles (Jessica Brown Findlay) is alive too. She's now known as Susan, and she is a senior drone commander who Daniel/Troy appears not to recognise. Clearly, his memory has been wiped, but he still has flashes of Helen, even though he no longer knows who she is. Before he goes back into cryogenic sleep, he asks Victor about her. The doctor promises to look into it and give Daniel/Troy an answer when he next wakes up. But when he puts the note in Troy's file, we see many other notes just like it.

Back in Silo 18, Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) and her allies do their best to clamp the pipe that's used to deliver the "safeguard" (i.e. poisonous gas) to the silo, while Camille (Alexandria Riley) attempts to negotiate with the algorithm to stop their silo from being poisoned. Here, we finally learn that the algorithm's voice is actually that of Victor back in Silo 1, which answers a question that's been hanging over the show since the end of Season 2.

Thankfully, Silo 1's attempt to safeguard Silo 18 doesn't work. Camille deceives the algorithm/Victor and switches sides, giving Knox (Shane McRae) and Shirley (Remmie Milner) time to clamp the pipe. Victor orders Daniel/Troy to be woken back up and then dies by suicide, leaving him a video recording to tell him that the name of the woman he's been glimpsing when he wakes from cryogenic sleep is Helen Drew.

Finally, back in Silo 18, Juliette visits the pipe at the very bottom of the silo and speaks with the algorithm, now voiced by Daniel/Troy. He tells her that if they make no attempt to contact other silos, Silo 1 will stop trying to kill them. She agrees.

What will happen next in Season 4?

We have many questions, but what comes next feels like the most pressing one. Something that seems pretty certain, though, is that Season 4 will focus on the people of Silo 18 going up against Silo 1.

"They're expecting us to prepare to defend ourselves, right?" Juliette whispers to the others in the episode's closing moments. "Which means they won't be prepared to defend themselves against us. So if we get to them first, we could protect everyone. We need to take out Silo 1."

Mashable's Belen Edwards spoke to showrunner Graham Yost, who confirmed that Season 4 will follow Juliette on the warpath while also spending more time with Silo 1's characters. He also said we'll learn what happened to Helen, so it sounds like more flashbacks may be on the way.

Is the air outside the silos actually poisonous?

Throughout Silo, the characters have been imprisoned by the fear of a supposedly poisoned atmosphere that exists beyond the safety of their underground bunkers. But is it actually poisonous after all?

The answer appears to be no. In the opening sequence of Season 3's finale, when we watch from Silo 1's perspective as Daniel orders the murder of Silo 17's rebels, the people are outside the silo for some time. It's only when Silo 1 launches a drone attack using a "compound" that they start to die.

Does this mean that every person who's been sent out to clean has actually been murdered by Silo 1's drones, flying high enough to be invisible and targeting them with the same compound? It suddenly seems likely.

What is The Directive?

When the newly murderous Daniel enters Silo 1's control room to deal with Silo 17's rebellion, he uses something called "The Directive" to justify his actions.

"The top priority, per The Directive, is to prevent contamination between silos," Daniel says, before referring to it again later when he addresses his drone operators. "The citizens of Silo 17 have chosen to go outside. They are beyond The Pact, but they're not outside The Directive."

So we've got The Pact, The Order, and now The Directive — but what's this latest one? Well, while The Pact is the public law memorised by silo citizens, and The Order is a secret rulebook for the head of IT, it seems that The Directive is yet another rulebook exclusively for Silo 1. Perhaps it's a framework that they use for keeping the rest of the silos in check?

What is The Project?

We don't see Per Stensen (Colin Hanks) in the finale (more on that later), but we do see Senator Thurman. She's now known as "Madam Director," and she's also still very much alive thanks to Silo 1's cryogenics. During her conversation with Daniel/Troy and Victor, she mentions another term we're not familiar with: The Project.

Speaking about Susan/Charles, who earlier disobeyed a direct order from Daniel/Troy, Thurman says Susan's punishment would typically be "neutralization." But in this case, that's not an option.

"Susan's skills will play a critical role at the end of The Project," she says.

Later, when speaking with Daniel/Troy about the memories he's been experiencing, Victor references The Project again. "The whole purpose and design of The Project is to free us from the past," he says.

It's pretty clear that The Project is the concept of the silos themselves, orchestrated by Stensen, Thurman, and Victor all those centuries ago. What we still don't know is the real why behind The Project, and what the mysterious end — referenced by Thurman — will look like. Why will Susan/Charles' drone piloting skills be so important?

We don't yet have the answers, but we do have one more clue. It comes in the answer Victor gives to Camille when she asks the why question posed to her by Juliette.

"The human species was in a terminal cycle of self-annihilation," Victor says. "The silo was the last, best hope to ensure the survival of the species."

It's a little unclear, but it sounds to us like Victor is saying that the silo's founders decided that The Project needed to begin. Rather than using the silos as a last resort, is it possible they orchestrated the apocalypse to put the wheels of their own plan into motion? If that's the case, then presumably they also have an end goal in mind.

Where is Per Stensen?

Speaking of the Founders, where is the world's richest man who financed the entire project? There's no mention of him in the finale, and the fact that Thurman is referred to as "Madam Director" sort of implies that she's the top dog. Of course, it's been hundreds of years since the founders first entered Silo 1. A lot of stuff could have happened in the meantime. Maybe Per Stensen died somewhere along the way?

Is Helen Drew related to Juliette Nichols?

We know that Helen is pregnant when she runs into the shelter of Silo 18. It would seem like a very strange narrative choice for her not to be related to someone in the present-day silos, but who is her distant descendant? Juliette seems like obvious choice here. She has the same no-nonsense rebellious streak as Helen, and there's a moment at the end of the finale when Daniel/Troy stares at a close-up of Juliette's face on his giant Silo 1 screen. Wouldn't it make their upcoming war even more tragic if they were, in fact, long-lost relatives?

The good news? We won't have too long to wait for answers. Season 4 has already been filmed and is due out summer 2027. In the meantime, you can read Mashable's interview with showrunner Graham Yost for more clues.

Silo Season 3 is streaming now on Apple TV.

Want more film and TV news and reviews delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for Mashable’s Top Stories newsletter or get Mashable push alerts today.

After three seasons of mystery, Silo has finally unveiled what's inside Silo 1: most of the characters from its past timeline. Also, elevators!

The Season 3 finale reveals that Daniel (Ashley Zukerman) survived episode 9's devastating nuclear blast. So did his sister Charlotte (Jessica Brown Findlay). However, they aren't the same people they once were. Their memories have been erased, and they now go by Troy and Susan. Even worse, they're cryogenically frozen for long periods of time, waking up every few years to carry out a shift in the silo.

SEE ALSO: 'Silo' Season 3's twisty ending, explained

The first shift we see Troy/Daniel carry out is horrifying. Overseen by Dr. Victor (Matt Craven), he clinically orders the mass poisoning of the Silo 17 rebellion, both answering the question of what wiped out the silo and raising more questions about Silo 1's insistence that the silos do not interact with one another. In an interview with Mashable, showrunner Graham Yost broke down the long-awaited introduction of Silo 1, from its aesthetic to the dehumanization of its inhabitants.

We finally get to see Silo 1 this episode, and it's visually so different from all the other silos. How did you and your team shape the look for Silo 1?

Graham Yost: I'd originally thought one thing, and then quickly realized no, we've got to go cool. We've got go, "What's the most fun, interesting, weird [idea] that still fits in the Silo world? What's a silo that doesn't look like the other silos, but still is a silo?"

What [production designer] Nicole Northridge came up with was that everything's curved, and it's all very well maintained. In the other silos you're seeing cracks in the walls and destruction and overgrowing. There's no plants. There is this weird tree in another set that you'll see in the next season, but it's a fake.

SEE ALSO: 'Silo' showrunner Graham Yost breaks down episode 9's bombshell ending and surprise musical guest

The other silos were designed to be lived in for 500 years with succeeding people. Silo 1 is the same people, so they need a sense of continuity. It needs to be the same shift by shift so that they can do their jobs, and it needs to be well maintained, so they're not spiraling into depression. Then we talked about the big screen. The big screen in the other silos shows the outside world, and it's dead and horrible. And for Silo 1, we thought, "What if it's just pictures of Earth?" My thing was there should be no or very little human stuff in it. It should be more just nature.

I was so intrigued by that whole setup, like those big futuristic mouse pads for the controls.

There were so many discussions about that! And there's stuff that we used in the finale episode of Season 3 that you won't see again in Season 4 because we decided enough time has passed that they've figured out a better design.

Sticking with that control room, we get to see the murder of the citizens of Silo 17 through Troy/Daniel's eyes. Tell me about showing this brutal moment through his eyes.

We wanted to show the dehumanization that's happened in this silo, and how he's no longer Daniel.

We knew it would be really interesting to see what happened to Silo 17 because we've seen all the bodies as Juliette walked through. We saw this hand holding this flagpole and this tattered flag, and we know that that was the sheriff, but how did it get there? So there was this sort of retconning that Amber [Templemore], the director, had to do to get Ross [McCall] to land in such a way that his hand would be on the flag, so it would make sense from the beginning of Season 2. Seeing him, seeing his face, seeing his wife's face, seeing their their son, it really humanized them as this horrible shit's about to happen. All of that was in service to see Daniel — now Troy — doing it without apparently having the least qualm. That's his job and that's what he does. Charlotte — now Susan — has a different reaction, and that was important to us.

I am so fascinated by that. I'm also fascinated by Victor monitoring them and checking to see how much they remember of each other.

It was fun to create this character that we look at as being sort of a secondary character in the first part of the season, who then steps up. There's a reason that I got Matt Craven to play him.

But in his reaction [to the Daniel and Charlotte scene], he's not only clocking them; he's just watching Daniel/Tory do this horrific thing, and there's a part of him that's dying. When he leaves that message to Daniel saying, "When they capped the safeguard in Silo 18, there was part of me that was relieved," it's clear he doesn't want to be a part of this anymore. His life has run its course. There's no point.

We thought it would be interesting and hopefully emotional to see a character that we learn to love over the course of the season, Daniel, become this absolute amoral, completely untethered [person], just doing his job and killing people. There's a line that [finale writer] Fred [Golan] wrote where he says, "Let's get those numbers down, people." The numbers are people. It's just like, "Let's make more dead bodies." That's a big setup for Season 4 as well, just understanding the level of the lethality of this project.

The interview above was edited for length and clarity.

Silo Season 3 is now streaming on Apple TV.

Want more film and TV news and reviews delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for Mashable’s Top Stories newsletter or get Mashable push alerts.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

Want more tech and digital culture news delivered to your inbox daily or sent straight to your device? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter or get Mashable push alerts today.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

Hard to get out of a shirt.

Hurdle Word 1 answer

STAIN

Hurdle Word 2 hint

To capture.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for September 4, 2026 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

CATCH

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Related to a raccoon.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for September 4, 2026 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Meanings for each word for Sept. 4, 2026 Hurdle Word 3 answer

COATI

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Found in the deep sea.

Hurdle Word 4 answer

DIVER

Final Hurdle hint

To wow.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

AMAZE

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

Today's Connections: Sports Edition will be easier if you skateboard.

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: Hit by pitch

• Green: Seen in a Tony Hawk game

• Blue: Iconic swimmers

• Purple: The draft

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Nail a Batter with a Pitch

• Green: Skateboarding Tricks

• Blue: Swimmers with 10+ Olympic Medals

• Purple: Draft___

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 #711 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Nail a Batter with a Pitch: BEAN, DRILL, HIT, PLUNK

• Skateboarding Tricks: 900, HEELFLIP, MANUAL, MCTWIST

• Swimmers with 10+ Olympic Medals: DRESSEL, LEDECKY, PHELPS, THOMPSON

• Draft___: CLASS, LOTTERY, ORDER, PICKS

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 yesterday's 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 September 4, 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 September 4, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for September 4 Pips

Number (7): Everything in this red space must add up to 7. The answer is 1-3, placed horizontally; 4-2, placed vertically.

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

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

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

Medium difficulty hints, answers for September 4 Pips

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

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

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 0-4, placed horizontally.

Less Than (4): Everything in this space must be less than 4. The answer is 3-1, placed horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 1-1, placed horizontally; 5-1, placed vertically; 3-1, placed horizontally; 1-0, placed horizontally.

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

Hard difficulty hints, answers for September 4 Pips

Greater Than (0): Everything in this space must be greater than 0. The answer is 1-6, placed vertically.

Number (11): Everything in this space must add up to 11. The answer is 1-6, placed vertically; 5-5, placed horizontally.

Number (11): Everything in this space must add up to 11. The answer is 6-0, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed horizontally.

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

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 3-6, placed horizontally; 4-0, placed vertically.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 5-2, placed vertically.

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

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

Number (4): Everything in this red space must add up to 4. The answer is 5-2, placed vertically; 0-2, placed vertically.

Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 1-1, placed horizontally; 1-3, placed horizontally.

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

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-6 placed horizontally; 3-3, placed vertically; 1-3, placed horizontally; 3-2, placed vertically.

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

Number (11): Everything in this space must add up to 11. The answer is 3-5, placed horizontally; 6-2, placed horizontally.

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

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

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

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 September 4, 2026 Cringy meaning

Causes embarrassment or discomfort.

Opine meaning

To state an opinion.

Stied meaning

Confined a pig in a pigpen.

That's meaning

Points to specific people, things or ideas.

Cake donut meaning

A small, holed round baked treat.

Candy corn meaning

A triangular orange and yellow treat, often associated with Halloween.

Cherry tomato meaning

A small, sweet red vegetable.

Pizza pie meaning

A large, round baked Italian dish.

Conger meaning

A large eel.

Gulper meaning

An eel with a large mouth used to swallow its prey.

Moray meaning

A family of large eels.

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Ribbon meaning

A piece of satin used to tie things together.

Bowling ball meaning

A spherical object used to knock down pins.

Eye meaning

The organ used for sight.

Moon meaning

Earth's natural satellite

Orange meaning

A bright citrus fruit, commonly grown in Florida.

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 yesterday's Connections.

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you're fashionable.

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.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

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.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

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 September 4, 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: Well-rounded

• Green: Tasty

• Blue: Sea creatures

• Purple: They throw a fit

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Here are today's Connections categories

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

• Yellow: Spherical things

• Green: Food whose name is two foods

• Blue: Kinds of eels

• Purple: Accessories inside starting and ending letters

Play our Big Guessing Game: Make your predictions now for a chance to win a new Apple Watch. Time's running out!

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 #1177 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Spherical things: BOWLING BALL, EYE, MOON, ORANGE

• Food whose name is two foods: CAKE DONUT, CANDY CORN, CHERRY TOMATO, PIZZA PIE

• Kinds of eels: HOT WHEELS, MATCHBOX, MICRO MACHINES, TONKA

• Accessories inside starting and ending letters: AVERAGE, COUNT, MAX, SUM

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

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 yesterday's Connections.

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you're a comics fan.

Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for September 4, 2026 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: To the rescue

The words are related to being superhuman.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe extraordinary traits.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

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NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Heroes.

NYT Strands word list for September 4

• Courageous

• Fearless

• Heroes

• Lionhearted

• Intrepid

• Brave

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

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and 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 yesterday's Strands.

Today's Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you're a gambler.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. 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 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for September 4, 2026 Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for September 4, 2026 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

A bet.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no recurring letters.

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Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter J.

Play our Big Guessing Game: Make your predictions now for a chance to win a new Apple Watch. Time's running out!

The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today's Wordle is...

WAGER

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle 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.

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

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 yesterday's Wordle.

Dyson's beauty lineup may be most famous for its multi-styling Airwrap and luxurious hair dryer, but the product range doesn't stop there.

In fact, it's growing. At the Dyson Unveiled event on Sept. 3, the brand announced two new beauty products: the Dyson AirSmooth dryer brush and the Corrale CoolShine straightener.

The products aren't available to purchase just yet, but we've gathered everything to know about them so far.

Dyson AirSmooth dryer brush: Price, release, what's new The Revlon One-Step finally has a Dyson analogue. Credit: Dyson

The Dyson AirSmooth dryer brush will retail for $249 and be available to purchase starting Tuesday, Sept. 8. The brush is the first dedicated dryer brush released by Dyson. Before this product, anyone looking to get a dryer brush experience from the brand would have to invest in a Dyson Airwrap.

SEE ALSO: I tested the best Dyson Airwrap dupes under $300: This underappreciated multi-styler deserves consideration

Dryer brushes have been an option from other brands for quite some time. One of the most popular budget options (and an early Airwrap dupe) was the Revlon One-Step. T3's AireBrush and Drybar's Double Shot are both options priced more in line with Dyson at $149.99 and $155, respectively, but both have dropped down to near $100 in the past.

So what makes the Dyson brush special? According to the brand, that'd be the PivotFlex and anti-snag tech behind the brush's design and bristles that allow for the smoothest possible styling (literally and figuratively). The bristles themselves can flex up to 90 degrees, while the open base allows for optimal diffusion of the air. Rounding out the experience is intelligent heat control that monitors the temperature 100 times per second, and universal voltage for easy travel.

Dyson Corrale CoolShine straightener: Price, release, what's new The Dyson Corrale CoolShine straightener. Credit: Dyson

The Dyson Corrale CoolShine straightener will retail for $329 and be available starting Sept. 15.

The original Corrale straightener (not to be confused with the Airstrait) dropped in 2020, with a cordless look designed to optimize the straightening experience. At the time of writing, the Corrale is available for $539.99 and on sale for $399.99.

This new Corrale seems to want to combine the heat-minimizing Airstrait tech with the efficacy of the original Corrale. As the name suggests, cooling is built into the process, thanks to a cool attachment that houses heat-extracting pipes. The effect is that hair is cooled immediately after it's styled with heat, which can help reduce heat damage and lock in styles. Unlike the original model, this Corrale will feature a cord, so charging is no issue.

Just how much will the foldable iPhone Ultra cost? That's the biggest lingering question ahead of Apple's big iPhone launch event on Sept. 9.

Leaks point to a price of $2,000 or more, and now, a new report from the analysts at the market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC) projects an average selling price of $2,550. The IDC has a solid reputation and is well known for its mobile market research in particular.

The foldable iPhone Ultra is a brand new product category for Apple, so there's no baseline to say how much it could cost. However, the latest IDC report backs reports that the iPhone Ultra will launch at above $2,000.

We should note that the iPhone Ultra won't necessarily set you back $2,550. The average selling price could be quite a bit higher than the starting price, as many consumers will pay more for configurations with more storage. Despite the high price, the IDC projects that Apple will sell more than 17 million iPhone Ultras by the end of 2027 and bring in more than $45.7 billion from the foldable.

"Apple’s entry into the foldable market has done more than reignite growth in a category that was losing momentum," said Nabila Popal, Senior Research Director of IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker in a statement. "It has fundamentally altered the market’s trajectory. Without Apple, foldable shipments would have declined at a double-digit rate year over year." 

The $2,550 estimate gives us a clearer idea of what to expect from the iPhone Ultra. Some Apple analysts have projected a $2,399 launch price for the iPhone Ultra, and it could cost up to $3,000 with more storage.

IDC projects that Apple will capture around 40 percent of the global foldable market and account for more than half of the total value of foldables.

According to the IDC, the iPhone Ultra is expected to be such a hit that it will propel the foldable market forward as the only mobile category that experiences growth in 2026. The firm expects the rest of the global smartphone market to decline this year due to higher prices driven by ongoing global memory shortages.

"Perhaps most notably, Apple is positioned to challenge Huawei and Samsung for leadership in markets where they have long dominated, an extraordinary outcome for a product expected to be less than two years into its lifecycle," Popal said.

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A year after the launch of GPT-5, OpenAI has announced the arrival of GPT-6 Astra, which will begin rolling out immediately. The AI company called Astra "the world’s most intelligent and aligned model."

OpenAI Astra marks a new generation of models for the AI company, but also carries new risks.

The day before Astra's launch, OpenAI confirmed that Astra had been deemed a "critical" cybersecurity risk, but that the company would move ahead with a launch with safeguards in place. The company's Preparedness Framework tracks risk in three domains (chemical/biological, self-improvement, and cybersecurity), and an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed to Mashable that Astra is the first OpenAI model to be designated a critical risk — the highest threat level — in any domain.

Strangely, in its blog post announcing Astra, OpenAI did not call Astra its most advanced model, but only "the most capable model we have ever broadly deployed." The company also released a detailed system card outlining the model's training and safety risks.

How to try GPT-6 Astra

OpenAI will be rolling out GPT-6 starting today, though it may not be available to everyday users right away.

OpenAI said that GPT-6 Astra will be available at launch to select organizations, but that it will be available to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users "over the coming days." It will also be available via the OpenAI API and AWS.

The API pricing will be:

• $10 per million input tokens

• $50 per million output tokens

You can learn more about pricing and availability at the GPT-6 Astra webpage.

GPT-6 Astra: Cybersecurity and safety

OpenAI wrote that "with the right tools and access, GPT‑6 Astra can find previously unknown security flaws and develop new ways to exploit them across many well-protected systems without a person guiding each step." As a result, Astra's most advanced cybersecurity skills will only be available to a select group of testing partners, and OpenAI said it's tightened security around the model as well. Per OpenAI, these safeguards are designed to prevent two outcomes:

• Stopping malicious actors from using Astra to develop new exploits or carry out cyberattacks against critical systems

• Stopping the "model itself [from] causing cyber harm when taking an unauthorized (or misaligned) action"

On the ExploitBench cybersecurity benchmarking test, OpenAI reports that GPT-6 achieves a perfect 100 percent score, even at its lowest-tested reasoning level. On the ExploitGym Honeypot benchmarking test, OpenAI reported a perfect 0.0 percent score.

GPT-6 shows significant improvement over GPT 5.6 Sol on the ExploitBench benchmarking test. Credit: OpenAI

Despite posing existential cybersecurity risks, OpenAI said in its announcement that GPT-6 is generally safer than its recent predecessors. In particular, the company said, "GPT‑6 Astra is significantly safer in higher-risk scenarios."

The GPT-6 Astra system card reports better scores on safety evaluations measuring risks such as promoting emotional reliance in users, engaging with self-harm requests, and inappropriate responses to users under 18.

OpenAI says Astra achieved higher scores than other recent models in safety evaluations (higher scores are better). Credit: OpenAI

At the same time, OpenAI admitted that "GPT‑6 Astra’s monitorability has decreased relative to GPT‑5.6 Sol," meaning that the model may be more difficult to understand and control.

"We have found that GPT‑6 Astra is more capable of controlling its own CoT than GPT‑5.6 Sol, and less likely to include incriminating information in its CoT," reads an OpenAI blog post. "In adversarial settings (where we push the model to evade our monitors) we find that the model is able to remain undetected when strategically underperforming in evaluations (sandbagging) and can sometimes evade our internal monitors when asked to perform certain sabotage tasks."

GPT-6 Astra: Hallucination rate

OpenAI provided fewer details on the hallucination and factuality rates of GPT-6. In previous system cards, OpenAI provided specifics about its models' propensity for inventing facts or repeating users' own misinformation.

That being said, the system card states that GPT-6 has made strides in this regard, generating fewer mistruths and hallucinations than GPT-5.6 Sol and other recent models.

Credit: OpenAI

"We find that Astra makes substantially fewer factual errors than GPT-5.6 Sol and is significantly less likely to reproduce user-reported hallucinations. These improvements are particularly pronounced at very low latency and reasoning settings."

Hallucinations remain one of the most stubborn problems with AI models.

GPT-6 Astra: Benchmark performance

OpenAI released benchmark scores for GPT-6 Astra, showing marked improvement on most common benchmarking tests compared to both GPT-5.6 Sol and Fable 5.1, which Anthropic released earlier this week. Notably, GPT-6 Astra scored lower on Humanity's Last Exam (with tools).

Highlights include:

• Terminal-Bench Science 0.1: 64.6 percent

• FrontierMath Tier 4 (v2): 97.6 percent

• GPQA Diamond: 96.0 percent

• Humanity's Last Exam (w/ tools): 57.2 percent

• ExploitBench: 100 percent

• Exploit Gym: 42.4 percent

• ARC-AGI-1: 98.5 percent

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  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.

Classroom technology is the focus of a new report from the American Psychological Association (APA), which argues we should be focusing less on bans and more on the specific harms of flashy new tech.

The report, which includes a long list of findings and recommendations for educators and parents regarding all kinds of EdTech, hones in on a new genre of educational technology that increasingly relies on game-like features such as earned rewards, flashy graphics, and customizable avatars to increase student engagement.

In the absence of authoritative scientific evidence, the association cautions against tools — including AI-powered ones — that claim to improve intelligence, thinking, or learning writ large.

SEE ALSO: Mamdani's AI ban may not be enough to protect NYC students Screen time can be misleading

Raw screen time numbers, whether too much or too little, aren't an effective indication of how well a student is learning, the report authors found. "What young people do on screens matters as much as, or more than, how long they spend on them," the report reads.

Likewise, a student's perceived engagement or confidence with a program isn't enough to gauge whether they will have positive learning outcomes. Basically, a student winning an educational game or completing assignments effectively does not directly translate into becoming smarter, according to the APA.

Instead, the APA urges educators to test how well students can apply learned skills in real-world contexts outside of the technology itself, whether it's an app, computer game, or chatbot. If students struggle, the report says, the tech has failed.

To this end, the association recommends school districts evaluate new classroom technology on its ability to foster "durable knowledge and skills," and encourages schools to steer clear of tech that enables multitasking, relies on self-management from students, and has human-like qualities.

Be wary of AI and gamification

The APA urges educators and parents to exercise even greater caution with generative AI. "AI can help a student produce a better essay, but the improved final product does not necessarily mean the student has become a better writer," said Nicole Barnes, APA’s executive lead psychologist for education, in a press release. "Just as we need to separate engagement from learning, we will increasingly need to separate performance from learning."

The APA also joined other groups in calling for greater investment in AI literacy among young learners, teachers, and parents. Recently, coalitions of parents and educators have lobbied for AI moratoriums that curb the introduction of generative AI tools and promote digital and AI literacy programs as a precursor. Both New York City and Los Angeles's chool systems have instituted partial pauses on AI and reductions in screen time for the 2026-2027 school year.

Child psychologists have long warned about the impact of lifelong screen time and personal devices on children as they age through school. As criticism of social media's impact on young minds has increased, so too have warnings about platform features designed to grab and retain attention. These include controversial design elements like autoplay, recommendation algorithms, and tailored advertising.

Many of these features replicate the motivational structures of gaming, more commonly referred to as "gamification." The concept has been put under the microscope by advocates across industries, many of whom argue that constant, dopamine-driven reward systems are degrading critical cognitive skills and executive functioning.

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Brands are launching their pumpkin-spiced flavors, so you know what that means — summer is coming to an end. I know, we can't believe it either. But if you're holding onto the last bits of summer, you better be enjoying Labor Day weekend to its fullest. That means getting outside, but it also means taking advantage of all those Labor Day sales.

Virtually every retailer, from Amazon to Costco, has major savings right now. If you're particularly in the market for some upgrades around the home, we've rounded up the best savings on everything you need for a refresh. While Amazon is often a go-to for low prices, for major savings on furniture, make sure to check out Wayfair and Anthropologie, too.

Whether you're in the market for a new robot vacuum, air fryer, or an Echo device, here are all the best home and furniture Labor Day savings to shop now.

Best Labor Day home deal Opens in a new window Credit: Roborock Roborock Saros 10R Robot Vacuum $899.99 at Amazon
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• Anthropologie Organic Cotton Percale Sheet Set — $110.60 $158 (save $47.40)

• Tempur-Pedic Tempur-Ergo Neck Pillow — $113.90 $134 (save $20.10)

• Coop Home Goods Cool+ Adjustable Pillow — $127.20 $159 (save $31.80)

Floor care Labor Day deals

• Shark Rocket Pet Plus Corded Stick Vacuum — $149.99 $199.99 (save $50)

• Shark Steam & Scrub — $159 $189.99 (save $30.99)

• Roborock New Qrevo S Pro Robot Vacuum — $429.99 $699.99 (save $270)

• Dreame L40 Ultra Gen 2 Robot Vacuum — $499.99 $699.99 (save $200)

Best Labor Day smart home deal Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Echo Spot $69.99 at Amazon
$109.99 Save $40   Get Deal

All Amazon Echo devices are useful, but the Amazon Echo Spot makes itself crucial for your day-to-day. As an alarm clock and Echo device, it's an incredible addition to your bedroom, waking you up, playing music to jump-start your day, and telling you the weather report so you know how to dress for the day.

Right now, it's at a major discount — 36% off — perfect timing as many head into a new school year. Get the Amazon Echo Spot for $69.99, saving you $40 off its $109.99 list price.

More Labor Day smart home deals

• Amazon Echo Show 5 — $69.99 $99.99 (save $30)

• Amazon Echo Show 11 — $189.99 $249.99 (save $60)

• Amazon Echo Show 21 — $399.99 $499.99 (save $100)

Best Labor Day furniture deal Opens in a new window Credit: Wayfair Hokku Designs Heffernan 106-inch Modular Sofa $1,280 at Wayfair
$2,217 Save $937   Get Deal

While Amazon has lots of Labor Day savings, the best place to shop for furniture over Labor Day is at Wayfair. Right now, you can save over 40% on the Hokku Designs Heffernan 106-inch Modular Sofa. Usually $2,217, this modular sofa is just $1,280, which saves you $937. That's a great deal on a huge couch. It has plush cushions and can host a huge crew, perfect as you settle in for fall football and TV.

More Labor Day furniture deals

• Millwood Pines Lift Top Coffee Table — $79.99 $160.99 (save $81)

• Dakota Fields Chingford Indoor/Outdoor Hanging Egg Chair — $184.99 $219.99 (save $35)

• Anthropologie Dog Icon Side Table — $298.80 $498 (save $199.20)

• Anthropologie Irie Carmine Jacquard Oak Dining Chair — $398.40 $498 (save $99.60)

• Anthropologie Fern Marble Top Bookcase — $1,518.40 $1,898 (save $379.60)

• Anthropologie Sinclair Irena 80-inch Sofa — $3,428.60 $4,898 (save $1,469.40)

Best Labor Day kitchen deals Opens in a new window Credit: Chefman Chefman Air Fryer $69.96 at Amazon
$119.99 Save $50.03   Get Deal

Another thing that will make your life easier this fall? An air fryer. When you need dinner fast, an air fryer gets food crispy and fast. If you want to save on a new air fryer, Chefman's is majorly discounted. It's down to $69.96, which saves you $50.03.

The Chefman Air Fryer is six quarts and comes with four presets, so you don't even need to think about how long your food needs. Plus, it's so easy to clean as it has a dishwasher-safe basket.

More Labor Day kitchen deals

• Stanley Quencher ProTour Flipstraw Tumbler — $17.50 $40 (save $22.50)

• Keurig K-Mini Single Serve Coffee Maker — $49.99 $59.99 (save $10)

• Chefman Microwave Oven — $69.96 $99.99 (save $30.03)

• Ninja Nutri-Plus Personal Blender — $69.97 $89.99 (save $20.02)

• Cosori TurboBlaze Air Fryer — $89.99 $119.99 (save $30)

• Ninja Pro Air Fryer — $89.99 $129.99 (save $40)

• Instant Pot Duo Pressure Cooker — $89.99 $109.99 (save $20)

• Our Place Wonder Oven — $149 $185 (save $36)

• KitchenAid Artisan Tilt Stand Mixer — $399.96 $499.99 (save $100.03)

Every year, Hot Girl Summer arrives with the same promise that this will finally be the season when you meet someone. You’ll have a summer fling, fall in love on vacation, or somehow find your future boyfriend while drinking an Aperol spritz on a rooftop. Then Aug. starts winding down, you’re still single, and it can feel like you missed your chance.

But there’s no need to panic, because I’m here to tell you that fall is actually the best time of year to date. Let me make the case for something better: Flirty Fall.

SEE ALSO: 'I get so upset and frustrated': What dating is like on a GLP-1 Fall in love in the fall

Obviously, fall already has romance on its side. There’s a reason movies like When Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail have made so many of us associate love with changing leaves, long walks, and really good sweaters. Hallmark has even built an entire "Fall Into Love" lineup around the premise that all anyone needs to find a partner is a charming small town and some sort of harvest festival.

The weather certainly helps sell the fantasy. It’s cool enough to spend an afternoon walking through the park without sweating through your outfit (and your blowout can actually survive the walk there), but it’s not so cold that every date has to take place inside. You can go apple picking, watch a football game, wander around a farmers' market, or spend a lazy day in the park before heading to a cozy restaurant for dinner in a turtleneck and red lipstick. Even the corniest fall activities give you something to do together besides sitting across from each other at a bar and exchanging résumés over a $25 cocktail.

I love all of that, and I’m not going to pretend that seeing someone in a really nice sweater has never affected my judgment. Still, I don’t think the clothes, weather, or seasonal activities are the main reason fall is so good for dating. The real advantage is much more practical.

In my opinion, summer may be a great time to meet people at a concert or local bar, but it can be a terrible time to actually get to know them. Everyone is traveling, spending weekends with friends, going to weddings, visiting family, or trying to squeeze every possible activity into the final few weeks of warm weather. One weekend you’re away, the next weekend they’re away, and suddenly you’ve been talking for a month but have only managed to go on one date.

Even when you genuinely like someone, it can be difficult to build any momentum when your routines are constantly being interrupted. You spend more time saying, "Let’s figure something out when we’re both back," than actually seeing each other, and by the time you are finally in the same city again, one of you may have lost interest or become distracted by something else.

Fall fixes a lot of that. Vacations slow down, work schedules become more predictable, and weekends stop filling up months in advance. Asking someone when they’re free no longer requires opening a shared Google Calendar, and you can see each other consistently enough to figure out whether there's actually something there.

Personally, returning to a routine makes me feel more motivated in general. I’m 27, but some part of my brain still treats Sept. like the beginning of a new school year. Once fall arrives, I suddenly want to clean my apartment, buy a new notebook, exercise regularly, cook meals with vegetables, and become the organized person I briefly convinced myself I would be back in Jan.

New season, new me

Some people call it "New Year’s for the girls" or, as TikTok Shop categorizes it, "Sept. reset." Whatever you call it, the idea is basically the same: Fall feels like a chance to get your life together after a summer when routines fell apart, and responsibilities became suggestions.

There is even some psychology behind that impulse. Researchers call it the "fresh start effect," which describes the increase in motivation people can experience after a meaningful point in time, such as the beginning of a week, month, year, or school semester. These moments help us mentally separate our current selves from our past selves, making it feel easier to start pursuing a goal again.

The research isn’t specifically about dating, but the connection makes sense to me. If you’re already thinking about the habits you want to build, the goals you’ve neglected, and the version of yourself you want to become during the final few months of the year, dating can easily become part of that reset. Maybe you finally redownload the app you deleted in June, agree to the setup your friend keeps suggesting, or simply become more open to meeting someone now that your schedule has calmed down.

And while there isn’t enough independent research to declare fall the official best season for love, dating app data suggests that people’s behavior and intentions really do change as the weather gets colder. According to OkCupid data, in 2023, the app saw a 26 percent increase from Oct. through Dec. in users saying they wanted to find their "forever person" rather than something casual. From June through Oct., meanwhile, it recorded a 14 percent decrease in people prioritizing love over sex.

Is it cuffing season yet?

The validity of "cuffing season," the time of year when single people supposedly start looking for someone to keep them company through winter, the holidays, and Valentine's Day, is contested. While some daters want to "uncuff" themselves for summer, others go into hibernation in the winter and want to find love in the warmer months instead. But there is something to be said for being "cuffed," a term from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "partnered." More than half of the OkCupid users surveyed by the company said in 2023 that they went on more dates during fall and winter than during spring and summer.

SEE ALSO: How to navigate cuffing season as a single person

Sometimes "cuffing season" carries a negative connotation, as if any relationship that starts in the fall is just a temporary arrangement to help two people survive winter without sinking into seasonal depression. But I don’t think people suddenly develop an interest in dating simply because the temperature drops. Maybe we aren’t all desperately searching for someone to keep us warm. Maybe we finally have the time and energy to give dating the attention it deserves.

Of course, that doesn’t mean every person you meet in Oct. will become the love of your life, and dating app data can only tell us so much about when real relationships begin. But the season may give you a chance to figure out if someone is worth pursuing rather than losing touch after a few Instagram Story likes.

So, if summer is winding down and you didn’t have the fling you expected or meet your future boyfriend over an Aperol spritz, have no fear. You have several months of good outfits and even better dates ahead of you.

Latest iPhone 18 rumors at a glance:

• Release date: We're expecting the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max to be announced at a Sept. 9 launch event, but rumor has it the iPhone 18 may not arrive until early 2027.

• Colors: Possible leaks point to four main color options for the Pro models this year: light blue, silver, dark gray/black, and dark cherry.

• Key upgrades: Besides iOS 27 and the Siri AI beta, we're expecting bigger batteries, major camera improvements (including variable aperture for the main camera), and a smaller Dynamic Island.

• Pricing: Most new phones have arrived with price increases in 2026, and we think a starting price increase is all but certain for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, sadly.

Apple's flagship smartphone hasn't taken a year off from its updates since 2007, and barring a massive surprise, 2026 won't be different — but according to the latest iPhone 18 rumors, there will be a twist this year.

The Cupertino-based tech giant is widely expected to launch a new lineup of iPhones later this year, including the iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max, and the rumored iPhone Ultra, the company's first-ever foldable. We're also preparing for the updated operating system, iOS 27, and Siri AI. However, the regular iPhone 18, the 18e, and the new iPhone Air may not arrive until March 2027.

We should know for sure next week, as Apple recently confirmed its fall iPhone launch event will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 9. One of Mashable's reporters received an invite to the big show, and we'll be reporting live from Apple Park. This year's event has the tagline, "Surprise and Shine."

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As we await the Sept. 9 "Surprise and Shine" launch event, even more iPhone 18 rumors continue to trickle out. Ahead of the big reveal, here's everything we know so far about the upcoming Apple smartphones.

SEE ALSO: Apple reportedly working on anti-phone snatching security feature iPhone 18 lineup pricing

On Sept. 9, expect to see new Apple CEO John Ternus take the stage for the keynote. The devices he introduces, alas, may put more of a dent in your wallet.

Thanks to the ongoing RAM shortage caused by the AI industry (aka RAMageddon), tons of smartphones, laptops, and gaming consoles are seeing huge price hikes. Experts who've spoken to Mashable say that trend isn't going to stop anytime soon.

As the world's number-one smartphone maker, Apple has advantages over its rivals, but a price increase is extremely likely. Apple recently raised prices on a variety of its products, and outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook even took the unusual step of preparing us for a pricier iPhone.

"Price increases are unavoidable," Cook told the Wall Street Journal in a June interview. The Journal quoted an analysis showing that the memory chip components in the iPhone 18 Pro will cost Apple $150 more than those in the iPhone 17 Pro. For context, the market intelligence firm International Data Corporation just reported that Apple's memory costs for the iPhone have spiked by 400 percent.

Expect the phones to cost at least $100 to $150 more than their predecessors (check the iPhone 17 prices for reference). The Journal estimated the iPhone 18 Pro could cost $1,399, or $300 more than last year. Apple analysts are coming to similar conclusions; one research note seen by 9to5Mac predicted $250 to $300 price increases.

iPhone 18, 18 Pro, and 18 Ultra launch dates The iPhone 18 Pro Max smartphones at last year's iPhone launch event. Credit: CNET

Barring a huge turn under Ternus, we believe Apple will announce the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and the foldable iPhone Ultra on Sept. 9, followed by a release in mid-September. Last year, the iPhone 17 Pro Max was available in stores Sept. 19, for reference.

The iPhone 18, however, alongside the cheaper iPhone 18e, and the next-gen iPhone Air, are rumored to come next year, likely in March 2027. This possible delayed release is backed up a recent spanner-in-the-works report, which found several third-party companies have gone live with smartphone cases for iPhone 18 Pro and foldable iPhone Ultra devices but not the base iPhone 18.

iPhone 18 and iPhone 18 Pro design

The pace of iPhone 18 leaks has definitely increased after a massive hack exposed thousands of Apple's internal documents, reportedly including iPhone 18 Pro suppliers and tests.

Apple itself hasn't released any official teasers or imagery for the iPhone 18 lineup yet, so anything reported to date could be wrong. Still, from the sum total of all reports, it sounds like Apple isn't really reinventing the wheel, design-wise. But Ternus, a hardware guy, is reportedly bringing the company's industrial design group into the center of the Apple fold.

Looking further into the future, the iPhone 20 is said to bring bigger changes, including a curved waterfall display.

Per our friends at CNET (Mashable and CNET are both owned by Ziff Davis), the display sizes will be roughly the same as last year:

• iPhone 18: 6.3 inches

• iPhone 18 Pro: 6.3 inches

• iPhone 18 Pro Max: 6.9 inches

In August, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman (the source of most iPhone 18 news) shared on X that popular phone case maker Otterbox is already selling iPhone 18 Pro cases, even though the phone hasn't been announced yet. This was noteworthy because the case's packaging indicates that both the 17 Pro and 18 Pro fit in the same case, suggesting the two phones are exactly the same size, as CNET suggested.

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However, the display quality might be a little different this year. Prominent leaker Instant Digital shared on Chinese social media that Apple's brightness demands are unusually high this year, so it would be reasonable to expect much brighter displays than in previous years.

Some iPhone 18 models could also have a smaller camera bump compared to previous models. There are reports of a noticeably smaller Dynamic Island on the screen itself, with the pill-shaped notification hub potentially being made smaller in the iPhone 18 Pro models. One alleged leaked image purports to show an iPhone 18 Pro with a downsized Dynamic Island cutout.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. iPhone 18: The rumored hardware features

So we know the software the iPhone 18 will run: iOS 27, introduced at WWDC 2026. Time to start talking about some of the internal hardware changes Apple is reportedly making to the iPhone 18 lineup.

For starters, it sounds like the lineup will have a standardized 12GB RAM count across the board. In previous years, the Pro models had 12GB of RAM, while the base model had only 8GB. According to Korean outlet The Bell, Apple will be upgrading the base model to the Pro models in that regard. It's also widely expected that Apple will adopt new A20 and A20 Pro chips for the base and Pro models, respectively. Apple's latest silicon releases have better supported AI, and we expect that to be a major focus of the A20.

Other possible hardware upgrades include:

• A new C2 modem for improved cellular connectivity

• An improved LTPO+ display

• Improved N2 chip for wireless connectivity

• Hotspot and AirDrop reliability improvements

• 5G satellite support

As for the battery, leaker Digital Chat Station on Weibo reported that the batteries will finally be upgraded to 5,000mAh, which would be a big improvement over the iPhone 17 Pro. This year, 5,000mAh has become the new standard for flagship phones, including in Samsung's new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Instant Digital posted in a separate Weibo leak that the back glass of the iPhone 18 Pro has been altered, resulting in a new unified look, as opposed to the two-tone look of the iPhone 17 Pro. Whether that change will affect durability (or if it's just an aesthetic difference) remains to be seen. Other possible upgrades include

What will the iPhone 18 colors be? The iPhone 18 Pro models are expected to come in four colors: silver, black/dark gray, burgundy, and light blue. Credit: ESR Tech

Courtesy of leakers, we may already know the iPhone 18 Pro colors. If that's the case, the must-see equivalent of the iPhone 17's unforgettable "cosmic orange" shade is said to be a wine-like "dark cherry."

Based on numerous leaks, the most likely color lineup for the iPhone 18 Pro will be:

• Silver

• Dark gray (or black)

• Light blue

• Burgundy

Third-party smartphone case makers might have also revealed too much ahead of the launch, with case makers such as ESR, Benks, and Torras listing cases for Apple's upcoming line. ESR has gone live with four case color options for the "iPhone 2026 Pro Max": deep burgundy, light gray, black, and misty blue, while product photos on the website show what the phones might look like in these colors.

Fans of black iPhones are still holding out hope. The rumored dark gray color looks black in supposed dummy units shared by leakers like Sonny Dickson.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. What about the iPhone 18 Pro Max?

Several reports out of China say that because the iPhone 18 Pro Max will have a bigger battery, it may be a bit of a chunky boy.

We're not talking about a huge increase in weight and width: a quarter of a millimeter in thickness and 7 grams more, respectively. Still, every gram counts on the heftiest iPhone model you can get — so iPhone 17 Pro Max upgraders may want to check that their pocket linings can bear the bulk of a larger iPhone 18 Pro Max.

The iPhone 17 Pro has helped Apple break sales records in 2026. Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable iPhone 18 camera rumors

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, a source of many spot-on iPhone reports, says the iPhone 18 Pro, in particular, will have "some of the biggest camera hardware upgrades in the lineup's history."

Why? First, the telephoto camera has a larger aperture. But more important is the variable aperture.

First reported by Digital Chat Station on Weibo, variable aperture is a huge deal. It would let the iPhone 18 Pro camera capture varying amounts of light in different situations — potentially leading to a huge leap in photo quality if you know what you're doing.

For instance, the bokeh effect famously associated with portrait mode on iPhones would be possible in-camera rather than through software processing, resulting in more natural and generally better-looking shots.

While all of that sounds great, leaker Ice Universe poured some water on the fire by claiming that variable aperture would be exclusive to the iPhone 18 Pro Max. This is the first indication, as far as we can tell, that the regular Pro won't have a variable aperture. That would certainly be disappointing to people who want the feature but don't want a gigantic phone, but perhaps the Pro Max's size gives it an advantage in terms of including the technology.

For video makers, the iPhone 18 Pro Max is rumored to capture more cinematic videos as well, with features such as stabilization and AI editing tools.

What about Siri AI?

Of course, one of the first things many users will want to know about the iPhone 18 when they get their hands on one: what is the new, revamped, AI-upgraded Siri experience like?

If you're feeling adventurous, you can try it yourself by installing the iOS 27 beta.

The new features include Siri becoming an actual chatbot with its own app. It can also understand what's on your screen and help you write, create images, and edit photos.

For an overview, check out our guides to iOS 27 and Siri AI's top features.

Mashable will be reporting live from Apple Park during the Sept. 9 "Surprise and Shine" keynote event, so check back as we report in real-time on the latest announcements.

Top Apple Deals we found this week:

• Apple AirTag 2 (4-Pack) — $79.99 $99 (save $20)

• Apple AirPods 4 — $99 $129 (save $30)

• Apple iPad Air 11-inch (M4) — $649 $749 (save $100)

• Apple iPhone Air (256GB, unlocked) — $849.99 $999.99 (save $150)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M5, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,849 $1,999 (save $150)

• Shop all the best Apple Labor Day deals