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If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.

Strands 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 preferrined pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for August 4 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for August 4 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Gastronomic gadgets

The words are food-related.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words are common cooking instruments.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Kitchen Tool.

Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for August 9

• Corkscrew

• Spatula

• Zester

• Kitchen Tool

• Whisk

• Mizer

• Sieve

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 today's Strands.

Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.

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 today: Hints and answers for August 4 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's The Mini crossword answers for August 4, 2025 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

Related to the nose.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

The letter A appears twice.

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

Today's Wordle starts with the letter N.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. 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...

NASAL.

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.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for August 4

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

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 Wordle.

Whether you're into full moons because of their rumoured effects on sleep, mood, or werewolf activity, you just love a bit of astronomy knowledge, or you just like to look up at them, August’s full moon is worth a look.

Beyond the folklore, this month's full moon marks an important point in the lunar calendar, with seasonal significance. Here’s when it's due, what it’s called, and what it means.

When is the August full moon?

August's full moon will take place on Saturday, August 9. The previous full moon was on July 10.

According to Astronomy.com, August's full moon will peak at 3:55 am ET.

What is the August full moon called?

The full moons each have a name, a tradition that comes from early cultures using the lunar cycle to track time and seasonal changes.

August's full moon is known as the Sturgeon Moon, according to NASA.

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon predicted to occur on Sept. 7, 2025, according to Royal Museums Greenwich.

What are the lunar phases?

The full moon is just one day of the lunar phase, which is a 29.5-day cycle of the moon's orbit. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us. We always see the same side of the moon, but how much of it is lit up by the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle:

New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side.

Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

After a GPT-5 rollout that was "a little more bumpy" than expected, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company is bringing back GPT-4o — with a catch.

During a Reddit AMA (and also on X), Altman said GPT-4o will soon be available again for paid ChatGPT users.

"Ok, we hear you all on 4o," said Altman. "Thanks for the time to give us the feedback (and the passion!)." And on X, Altman confirmed, "We will let Plus users choose to continue to use 4o. We will watch usage as we think about how long to offer legacy models for."

So GPT-4o lives to fight another day.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Why is OpenAI bringing back GPT-4o?

OpenAI launched the highly anticipated GPT-5 model on Thursday, promising the smartest, fastest model yet. GPT-5 also has a streamlined system that works behind the scenes to choose which version of GPT-5 is best for the user's prompt. Previously, users could select specific models for each of their prompts. But soon after the rollout began, ChatGPT users roasted GPT-5 on Reddit and other social media platforms, calling it a "disaster" and "biggest piece of garbage."

Much of the criticism came from GPT-5's colder "personality," compared to GPT-4o. Users also complained about the abrupt removal of all other models from the ChatGPT model picker in favor of the ostensibly unified GPT-5. Ironically, users previously criticized OpenAI for the confusing number of model options, proving that you can't please everybody.

SEE ALSO: OpenAI says GPT-5 hallucinates less — what does the data say?

Sam Altman and other OpenAI leadership had a pre-planned Reddit AMA on Friday. What they encountered was a flood of demand to bring back GPT-4o.

In the AMA, Altman also promised ChatGPT users that GPT-5 will rapidly improve.

"GPT-5 will seem smarter starting today," Altman said. "Yesterday, the autoswitcher broke and was out of commission for a chunk of the day, and the result was GPT-5 seemed way dumber. Also, we are making some interventions to how the decision boundary works that should help you get the right model more often."

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responds to GPT-5 critics. Credit: Screenshot: Reddit

Many users said they liked the warmth and empathy from GPT-4o (and GPT-4.5), with some comparing the situation to losing a friend overnight. However, GPT-4o also had major problems with sycophancy, prompting OpenAI to apologize and tweak the model. Still, some users grew very attached.

Some users complained they didn't get advance notice about earlier models being removed from ChatGPT. Still, it was implied that GPT-5 was developed to replace them.

"A big part of our goal here is to get the new system to a place where you don't want to use anything else," said Altman. "We will work hard on that, but we totally get the need for good change management."

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

Windows users should think about reinforcing their antivirus software. And while Microsoft Defender should provide a line of defense against ransomware, a new report claims that hackers have found a way to get around the ransomware tool to infect PCs with ransomware.

A GuidePoint Security report (via BleepingComputer) found that hackers are using Akira ransomware to exploit a legitimate PC driver to load a second, malicious driver that shuts off Windows Defender, allowing for all sorts of monkey business.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft is pushing Copilot on Bing users, report says

The good driver that's being exploited here is called "rwdrv.sys,' which is used for tuning software for Intel CPUs. Hackers abuse it to install "hlpdrv.sys," another driver that they then use to get around Defender — and start doing whatever it is they want to do.

GuidePoint reported seeing this type of attack starting in the middle of July. It doesn't seem like the loophole has been patched yet, but the more people know about it, the less likely it is for the exploit to work against them, at least in theory.

In the meantime, allow our colleagues at PCMag to recommend some fine third-party antivirus software to you for your Windows PC. For more information on the latest Akira ransomware attacks — including possible defenses — head to GuidePoint Security.

GPT-5 is out, the early reviews are in, and they're not great.

Many ChatGPT fans have taken to Reddit and other social media platforms to express their frustration and disappointment with OpenAI's newest foundation model, released on Thursday.

A quick glimpse of the ChatGPT subreddit (which is not affiliated with OpenAI) shows scathing reviews of GPT-5. Since the model began rolling out, the subreddit has filled with posts calling GPT-5 a "disaster," "horrible," and the "biggest piece of garbage even as a paid user."

Awkwardly, Altman and other members of the OpenAI team had a preplanned Reddit AMA to answer questions about GPT-5. In the hours ahead of the AMA, questions piled up in anticipation, with many users demanding that OpenAI bring back GPT-4o as an alternative to GPT-5.

SEE ALSO: OpenAI says GPT-5 hallucinates less — what does the data say? What Redditors are saying about GPT-5

Many of the negative first impressions say GPT-5 lacks the "personality" of GPT-4o, citing colder, shorter replies. "GPT-4o had this… warmth. It was witty, creative, and surprisingly personal, like talking to someone who got you. It didn’t just spit out answers; it felt like it listened," said one redditor. "Now? Everything’s so… sterile."

Reddit

Another said, "GPT-5 lacks the essence and soul that separated Chatgpt (sic) from other AI bots. I sincerely wish they bring back 4o as a legacy model or something like that."

Several redditors also criticized the fact that OpenAI did away with the option to choose different models, prompting some users to say they're canceling their subscriptions. "I woke up this morning to find that OpenAI deleted 8 models overnight. No warning. No choice. No "legacy option," posted one redditor who said they deleted their ChatGPT Plus account. Another user posted that they canceled their account for the same reason.

As Mashable reported yesterday, GPT-5 integrates various OpenAI models into one platform, and ChatGPT will now choose the appropriate model based on the user's prompt. Clearly, some users miss the old system and models.

Reddit

Ironically, OpenAI has also drawn criticism for having too many model options; GPT-5 was supposed to resolve this confusion by streamlining the previous models under GPT-5.

Sam Altman responds to the criticisms

When Altman and the team logged onto the AMA, they faced a barrage of demands to bring back GPT-4o.

"Ok, we hear you all on 4o," said Altman during the AMA. "Thanks for the time to give us the feedback (and the passion!). We are going to bring it back for Plus users, and will watch usage to determine how long to support it."

Reddit

Altman also addressed feedback that GPT-5 seemed dumber than it should have been, explaining that the "autoswitcher" that determines which version of GPT-5 to use wasn't working. "GPT-5 will seem smarter starting today," he said. Altman also added that the chatbot will make it clearer which model is answering a user's prompt. OpenAI will double rate limits for ChatGPT Plus users once the rollout is finished.

“As we mentioned, we expected some bumpiness as we roll out so many things at once. But it was a little more bumpy than we hoped for!” Altman said in the AMA.

GPT-5 is an improvement, but not an exponential one

Expectations for GPT-5 could not have been higher — and that may be the real problem with GPT-5.

Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist and author known for his research on neuroscience and artificial intelligence — and a well-known skeptic of the AI hype machine — wrote on his Substack that GPT-5 makes “Good progress on many fronts” but disappoints in others. Marcus noted that even after multi-billion-dollar investments, “GPT-5 is not the huge leap forward people long expected.”

The last time OpenAI released a frontier model was over two years ago with GPT-4. Since then, several competitors like Google Gemini, Anthropic's Claude, xAI's Grok, Meta's Llama, and DeepSeek R1 have caught up to OpenAI on benchmarks, similar agentic features, and user loyalty. For many, GPT-5 had the power to reinforce or topple OpenAI's reign as the AI leader.

With this in mind, it's inevitable that some users would be disappointed, and many ChatGPT users have shared positive reviews of GPT-5 as well. Time may blunt these criticisms as OpenAI makes improvements and tweaks to GPT-5. The company has also historically been responsive to user feedback, with Altman being very active on X.

"We currently believe the best way to successfully navigate AI deployment challenges is with a tight feedback loop of rapid learning and careful iteration," the company's mission statement avows.

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

UPDATE: Aug. 8, 2025, 3:20 p.m. EDT This story has been updated with Sam Altman's responses from the Reddit AMA.

YouTube is officially rolling out its AI-assisted age verification next week to catch users who lie about their age.

YouTube announced in late July that it would start using artificial intelligence for age verification. And this week, 9to5Google reported that the new system will go into effect on Aug. 13.

The new system will "help provide the best and most age-appropriate experiences and protections," according to YouTube.

"Over the next few weeks, we’ll begin to roll out machine learning to a small set of users in the US to estimate their age, so that teens are treated as teens and adults as adults," wrote James Beser, Director of Product Management with YouTube Youth, in a blog post. "We’ll closely monitor this before we roll it out more widely. This technology will allow us to infer a user’s age and then use that signal, regardless of the birthday in the account, to deliver our age-appropriate product experiences and protections."

SEE ALSO: YouTube is using AI to verify user age by browsing activity

"We’ve used this approach in other markets for some time, where it is working well," Beser added.

The AI interprets a "variety of signals" to determine a user's age, including "the types of videos a user is searching for, the categories of videos they have watched, or the longevity of the account." If the system determines that a user is a teen, it will automatically apply age-appropriate experiences and protections. If the system incorrectly determines a user's age, the user will have to verify that they're over 18 with a government ID or credit card.

This comes at a time in which age verification efforts are ramping up across the world — and not without controversy. As Wired reported, when the UK began requiring residents to verify their ages before watching porn as part of the Online Safety Act, users immediately started using VPNs to get around the law.

Some platforms use face scanning or IDs, which can be easily faked. As generative AI gets more sophisticated, so will the ability to work around age verification tools. And, as Mashable previously reported, users are reasonably wary of giving too much of their private information to companies because of security breaches, as in the recent Tea app leak.

In theory, as Wired also reported, "age verification serves to keep kids safer." But, in reality, "the systems being put into place are flawed ones, both from a privacy and protection standpoint."

Samir Jain, vice president of policy at the nonprofit Center for Democracy & Technology, told the Associated Press that age verification requirements "raise serious privacy and free expression concerns," including the "potential to upend access to First Amendment-protected speech on the internet for everyone, children and adults alike."

"If states are to go forward with these burdensome laws, age verification tools must be accurate and limit collection, sharing, and retention of personal information, particularly sensitive information like birthdate and biometric data," Jain told the news outlet.