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It's the Full Moon tonight, and the fourth consecutive supermoon. Full Moons all have their own names, and January's is traditionally known as the 'Wolf Moon'.

What is today’s moon phase?

As of Saturday, Jan. 3, the moon phase is Full Moon. According to The Sky Live, 100% of the moon will be lit up tonight.

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon will be on Feb. 1.

What are moon phases?

According to NASA, the Moon takes roughly 29.5 days to complete a full cycle. This cycle is known as the lunar cycle. Throughout this period, the Moon moves through a series of phases as it orbits the Earth. While the same side of the Moon always faces our planet, the amount of sunlight illuminating its surface changes over time. This is why the Moon appears fully lit, partially illuminated, or not visible at all at different stages of the cycle. The lunar cycle is divided into eight main phases:

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. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last 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.

Today's Connections: Sports Edition will be easier if you know sports movies.

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. 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: 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: Protective gear components

• Green: Diamond hurling

• Blue: Pugilistic players

• Purple: Same second word

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Parts of a football helmet

• Green: Baseball pitches

• Blue: Oscar nominees for playing a boxer

• Purple: ____ Storm

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 #467 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Parts of a football helmet - CHIN STRAP, FACE MASK, PADDING, SHELL

• Baseball pitches - CHANGEUP, CUTTER, SLIDER, SPLITTER

• Oscar nominees for playing a boxer - DE NIRO, STALLONE, SWANK, WASHINGTON

• ____ storm - COURT, HANNAH, RED, SEATTLE

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 catalogue.

Released in August 2025, the 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 onto 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 for 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 January 3, 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 January 3, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for Jan. 3 Pips

Greater Than (1): Everything in this space must be greater than 1. The answer is 2-6, placed horizontally.

Equal (6): Everything in this red space must be equal to 6. The answer is 2-6, placed horizontally; 6-4, placed horizontally.

Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 6-4, placed horizontally; 3-1, placed horizontally.

Less Than (1): Everything in this space must be less than 1. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally.

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

Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 5-4, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed horizontally.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for Jan. 3 Pips

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 2-1, placed vertically.

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

Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically; 2-1, placed vertically; 1-5, placed vertically; 4-1, placed vertically.

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically; 5-0, placed horizontally.

Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 5-2, placed vertically; 1-5, placed vertically; 5-3, placed horizontally.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 5-3, placed horizontally; 4-3, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (1): Everything in this space must be greater than 1. The answer is 5-0, placed horizontally.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for Jan. 3 Pips

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 6-1, placed horizontally; 4-5, placed vertically.

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

Number (10): Everything in this purple space must add up to 10. The answer is 2-6, placed vertically; 4-4, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this yellow space must add up to 10. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally; 5-0, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 2-6, placed vertically; 4-0, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 4-0, placed horizontally; 1-1, placed vertically.

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

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

Number (5): Everything in this light blue space must add up to 5. The answer is 2-3, placed horizontally; 2-1, placed vertically.

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 3-6, placed vertically; 4-1, placed horizontally.

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

Not Equal: Everything in this space must be different. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically; 0-1, 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.

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult to solve if you're a pop music fan.

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 January 3, 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: Military levels

• Green: Lower body clothing

• Blue: Popstar tunes

• Purple: Not dry

Here are today's Connections categories

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

• Yellow: Army ranks

• Green: Legwear in the singular

• Blue: Rihanna #1 hits

• Purple: Wet ___

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 #937 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Army ranks: CAPTAIN, GENERAL, MAJOR, PRIVATE

• Legwear in the singular: JEAN, JOGGER, OVERALL, SLACK

• Rihanna #1 hits: DIAMONDS, SOS, UMBRELLA, WORK

• Wet ___: BAR, BLANKET, NURSE, WILLY

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for January 3, 2026

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

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 an original.

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 January 3, 2026 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for January 3, 2026 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: I've never seen that before!

The words are related to newness.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe originality.

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 Break New Ground.

NYT Strands word list for January 3

• Inventive

• Seminal

• Break New Ground

• Original

• Novel

• Fresh

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.

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.

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

To scold.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

CHIDE

Hurdle Word 2 hint

Buzzed.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for January 3, 2026 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

TIPSY

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Noiseless.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for January 3 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for January 3, 2026 Hurdle Word 3 answer

QUIET

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Possessor.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for January 3 Hurdle Word 4 answer

OWNER

Final Hurdle hint

Real.

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

LEGIT

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

The new year has barely begun, and already we have a strong contender for our annual dead tech list, 2026 edition — the Apple Vision Pro.

Not that the iPhone maker's Augmented Reality (AR) headset has passed on yet, exactly. The Apple Vision Pro (starting at $3,499) has been, to paraphrase Monty Python, just resting production at its Chinese manufacturer, Luxcorp. That's according to analysts at International Data Corp, which estimates Apple only sold 4,500 headsets worldwide in the holiday quarter of 2025 — new M5 chip version (which is reportedly made in Vietnam) included.

For comparison, that's less than one-tenth of the half-million Vision Pros analysts say were sold in its launch year, 2024.

Apple doesn't break out Vision Pro sales figures — but the company has all but given up on marketing the product, according to a scathing Financial Times report. Digital marketing for the device has been slashed by 95 percent. If you see a banner ad for a Vision Pro in the wilds of the internet, you might want to take a screenshot: You're looking at an increasingly endangered beast.

SEE ALSO: Meta AI glasses adds 'conversation focus' feature What went wrong with the Apple Vision Pro?

To be fair to Apple, slumping sales are a problem across the whole AR/virtual reality space — not to mention the whole U.S. retail space.

Analysts at Counterpoint saw a 14 percent drop in all AR/VR headset sales in the first half of 2025. The Vision Pro is clearly on the luxury end of the market — Meta's Quest 3S VR headset recently dropped its price to $250 — and luxury items tend to be the first to go when consumers are feeling the pinch of rising prices on necessities such as groceries and healthcare premiums.

Even if you're all-in on the idea of hefty AR headsets with battery packs attached, you might be sorely tempted to drop half the price tag of the Vision Pro on the new Galaxy XR headset ($1,800). As cool as the Vision Pro hands-on experience may be, no must-have "killer app" has yet been identified for the platform. The iPhone is an essential status symbol; the iPad helps you live your best creative life; your Mac is your workhorse; and the VisionPro ... does what, exactly?

From the outset, the company has struggled to explain why we should want a Vision Pro (as this weirdly Black Mirror-esque product demo showed). So it makes sense to pause those ad dollars, at least. For those of us who find the Vision Pro's EyeSight display eyes creepy, banner ads that display the feature may make us less likely to buy one.

Apple's AI glasses are the future.

Disappointing sales and paused production don't mean Apple has no clue what to do in this category. Quite the opposite, according to one well-sourced Oct. 2025 report — the company is already pulling employees away from its cheaper Vision Pro version, and on to a lighter, cheaper model of smart glasses that will compete with Meta's AI-powered Ray-Ban Display and Google's upcoming Android XR glasses.

That makes much more sense. Despite an extremely cringe Mark Zuckerberg demo fail, the $800 Meta Ray-Bans made for one of the more buzzworthy product launches of 2025. Early adopters and critics alike were positive, and investors clamored to buy shares in the company that makes Ray-Bans.

With live translation, directions, and voice search, the Meta Ray-Bans fulfilled many promises of augmented reality that have been with us all the way back to Google Glass (which also took a long time to officially die out); they also happen to be Ray-Bans and thus don't make you look like a nerd. (Well, unless you're indoors and the cool shades lighten to reveal, unfortunately, thick frames.)

If there's any company that understands the importance of design that appeals to non-nerdy customers, it's Apple. So while the bulky, costly, nerdy Vision Pro may be dead tech walking, don't count its maker out yet. Apple just may rebound from this sales slump to surprise us with something like a Vision Air — lightweight specs that work for way more than 45,000 new customers per quarter.

TL;DR: PDF Expert is a fast, full-featured PDF editor for Mac, and its lifetime license is on sale for $79.99 (reg. $139.99) — no subscriptions required.

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PDFs aren’t going anywhere, and neither is the frustration that comes with dealing with them. Whether it’s a contract that needs signing, a form that won’t let you type anything, or a document that suddenly needs edits five minutes before a deadline, PDFs have a way of showing up at inconvenient times. If you’re going to need a PDF editor anyway, it helps to have one that actually makes the process easier. PDF Expert does exactly that — and its lifetime license for Mac is currently down to $79.99 (reg. $139.99).

At first glance, most PDF editors seem interchangeable. But as the youths would say, PDF Expert is not like the other girls. Used by more than 30 million people worldwide, it stands out for how fast, polished, and straightforward it is. The app was even a runner-up for Apple’s App of the Year back in the day — losing out to Periscope that year, which, well, time tells its own story. PDF Expert, meanwhile, is still very much here and doing what it does best.

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PDF Expert covers the basics most people need. You can edit text, insert images, add links, fill out forms, sign documents, and redact sensitive information. It also handles more advanced tasks, including merging and splitting PDFs, rearranging or deleting pages, adding stamps, and converting PDFs into formats like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, or editable text files. Conversely, you can go the other direction and turn files like JPGs, PNGs, Word documents, or spreadsheets into PDFs.

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PDF Expert’s lifetime Mac license is available for $79.99 (reg. $139.99) for a limited time.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

The new year is here, and we've been putting out some great Android editorials to read while you get over the post-holiday blues. I've picked five for you to check out this weekend—along with a cheat sheet of top news headlines.

If you miss the simplicity or design aesthetic of 1990s Linux computing, there's some good news. A project to port KDE 1 and its desktop environment to modern Linux is underway, called MiDesktop.

It would be fair to say that I've never been a fan of Windows Search. It feels slow, inconsistent, and just a little too eager to get in my way when all I want is to find a file and move on. That’s why I eventually replaced it with Everything, which does one thing extremely well and does it fast. For a long time, that solved my search problem on Windows, and I stopped thinking much about alternatives altogether.

Florida loves highways, so it may not come as a surprise that it's building a new one west of Orlando, connecting US Route 27 to State Road 429. The new highway, known as the Lake/Orange Expressway or State Road 516, is notable for its 21st-century features, which include technology that wirelessly powers electric vehicles.

A small portion of the freeway, approximately three-quarters of a mile, will feature inductive charging coils installed underneath the road, according to Techspot. The charging apparatus utilizes a magnetic field to send power upward and requires an attachable receiver that can transfer up to 200 kilowatts as the vehicle drives over the surface. The technology will allow vehicles — most likely EV trucks and buses — to extend their range, but will not allow a full charge. E-highways are not a new concept, but they typically require overhead wires and special (and expensive) infrastructure on the electric vehicles.

SEE ALSO: Chinese EVs are spreading across the globe, but not in the U.S.

While the forthcoming Lake/Orange Expressway will offer tangible benefits to EVs when it fully opens around 2029, it will also serve as a test run for similar projects that allow charging without stopping. If successful, it can also address other impediments to large-scale EV adoption, like the dependence on massive battery packs and the cost and complexity of building charging stations. States like California are investing billions in new charging stations, with over 200,000 already in place.

Besides wireless charging, State Road 516 will also feature solar panels for nearby infrastructure, wildlife crossings, and shared-use paths that carve out space for non-automobile travel.

When most TVs aren’t in use, they sit as an ugly black screen in the middle of the living room. With The Frame, Samsung invented an entirely new kind of TV — an art TV that complements your home decor instead of subtracting from it. Mashable's tech editor Timothy Werth has called The Frame the best TV in the world, and it's inspired a whole host of dupes and copycats. Ahead of CES 2026, LG is now following suit with an artwork TV of its own, dubbed the LG Gallery TV. 

Like The Frame, LG’s Gallery TV works like a typical TV most of the time, allowing you to watch TV, play video games, and stream movies as much as you want. Once you’re done using it, you can drop it into Gallery Mode, which will then cycle through famous pieces of artwork instead of leaving the screen blank. LG says the TV also reduces glare and optimizes color and brightness settings throughout the day to maintain clarity. 

SEE ALSO: The Frame isn't the only glamorous 32-inch QLED TV anymore: Meet the $299.99 Hisense S5 DécoTV

Per LG, users will also be able to display their own photos in Gallery Mode and create new artwork to look at with the help of generative AI. Even if you don’t add anything to it yourself, the Gallery TV will boast 4,500 pieces of artwork that the TV can play like a slideshow. 

The Gallery TV will be available starting in 2026 in 55-inch and 65-inch models, both of which will have a flush-mount design and a removable magnetic frame. For internals, the TV will house an a7 AI processor, which is most commonly seen in LG’s mid-range lineup, along with a matte-covered MiniLED panel. It is unclear if this is a true MiniLED panel or an edge-lit panel being called a MiniLED panel, like some of LG and Samsung’s other TVs. 

Pricing remains a mystery for now, but per Bloomberg, LG is aiming for a competitive price point with Samsung. Currently, the 55-inch Frame TV sells for $1,499.99, and the 65-inch model adds $500 to the price tag. LG’s TV will likely be in that same ballpark in terms of pricing. 

While the Gallery TV is new to LG’s lineup, it is the latest in an increasingly crowded space. In addition to Samsung, Hisense, TCL, and Skyworth are also competing in this space with the CanvasTV, NXTVision TV, and the Canvas Art TV, respectively. All three of those additional competitors also sell their TVs for hundreds less than Samsung, so LG has some stiff competition. 

So far, all of The Frame's copycats have tried to lure customers with a cheaper price tag, but LG seems to be billing the Gallery TV as a premium device. The Gallery TV may have one advantage over The Frame, too. The standard version of The Frame offers a QLED display, while the pricier Frame Pro offers a MiniLED display. However, LG Gallery TV features a MiniLED panel and thus may have a slightly improved display compared to Samsung.

Head to the Mashable CES 2026 hub for the latest news and live updates from the biggest show in tech, where Mashable journalists are reporting live.

This week, X users noticed that the platform's AI chatbot Grok will readily generate nonconsensual sexualized images, including those of children.

Mashable reported on the lack of safeguards around sexual deepfakes when xAI first launched Grok Imagine in August. The generative AI tool creates images and short video clips, and it specifically includes a "spicy" mode for creating NSFW images.

While this isn't a new phenomenon, the building backlash forced the Grok team to respond.

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"There are isolated cases where users prompted for and received AI images depicting minors in minimal clothing," Grok's X account posted on Thursday. It also stated that the team has identified "lapses in safeguards" and is "urgently fixing them."

xAI technical staff member, Parsa Tajik, made a similar statement on his personal account: "The team is looking into further tightening our gaurdrails. [sic]"

Grok also acknowledged that child sex abuse material (CSAM) is illegal, and the platform itself could face criminal or civil penalties.

X users have also brought attention to the chatbot manipulating innocent images of women, often depicting them in less clothing. This includes private citizens as well as public figures, such as Momo, a member of the K-pop group TWICE, and Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown.

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Grok Imagine, the generative AI tool, has had a problem with sexual deepfakes since its launch in August 2025. It even reportedly created explicit deepfakes of Taylor Swift for some users without being prompted to do so.

AI-manipulated media detection platform Copyleaks conducted a brief observational review of Grok's publicly accessible photo tab and identified examples of seemingly real women, sexualized image manipulation (i.e., prompts asking to remove clothing or change body position), and no clear indication of consent. Copyleaks found roughly one nonconsensual sexualized image per minute in the observed image stream, the organization shared with Mashable.

Despite the xAI Acceptable Use Policy prohibiting users from "Depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner," this doesn't necessarily include merely sexually suggestive material. The policy does, however, prohibit "the sexualization or exploitation of children."

In the first half of 2024, X sent more than 370,000 reports of child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)'s CyberTipline, as required by law. It also stated that it suspended more than two million accounts actively engaging with CSAM. Last year, NBC News reported that anonymous, seemingly automated X accounts were flooding some hashtags with child abuse content.

Grok has also been in the news in recent months for spreading misinformation about the Bondi Beach shooting and praising Hitler.

Mashable sent xAI questions and a request for comment and received the automated reply, "Legacy Media Lies."

If you have had intimate images shared without your consent, call the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative’s 24/7 hotline at 844-878-2274 for free, confidential support. The CCRI website also includes helpful information as well as a list of international resources.

Windows RAM usage is nowhere near as straightforward as Task Manager would have you believe. The operating system strategically fills unused memory with cache, compressed data, and recently used app data to make your system feel faster. This is useful, but it might have you believe you need more RAM than you really do.

Today's Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you're an instrumentalist.

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 January 3, 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 January 3, 2026 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

An Indian instrument.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no recurring letters.

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

Today's Wordle starts with the letter S.

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...

SITAR

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 January 3, 2026

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 the latest Wordle.

Now that the holidays are over and real life has resumed, you’re probably looking for some new projects to tackle in your homelab. Whether you need to monitor service uptime, share files with friends, or make your own short URLs, here are three homelab projects to tackle in the new year.

Spam calls are probably the most annoying daily issue that has arisen with smartphones. Either it's a salesperson cold calling you, a ridiculous spam, or robocall. The good news is you can prevent a good chunk of these calls by just doing one simple thing—and it works for iPhone and Android.

There's a new pair of AI-powered AR glasses on the block — the Pickle 1. According to Pickle Inc., these AR glasses use cameras, microphones, sensors, and artificial intelligence to observe, remember, and even anticipate a user's daily life. It's intended to function as part traditional wearable, part AI companion. After learning about you, the Pickle 1 glasses will then serve up real-time information, reminders, and suggestions, according to Digit.

And here's how Pickle Inc. describes its futuristic AR glasses on its website: "For a life better in every dimension, we need an intelligence that sees with you, remembers your life, and learns to understand you. A new soul."

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Giving birth to a new soul is a big enough claim on its own, but the promo video for the Pickle AR glasses also shows a level of augmented reality that's far ahead of brands like Meta and Xreal, which already make AR glasses.

So, for many social media users, the early videos and concept images of the glasses simply seem too good to be true. The Pickle Glasses are reminiscent of Iron Man's AI-powered visual display, and some experts say that users should be very skeptical while the product is still in development. The Pickle website states that users can put down a $200 deposit to preorder the Pickle 1, with deliveries starting in the second quarter of 2026.

"As someone who worked in AR/VR for over a decade please listen. The @pickle glasses are not real. It’s literally just a mold of glasses made in China," one user wrote on X. "The technology for AR glasses in this form factor isn’t possible yet. Not even Meta or Apple has glasses like this. 100% fake."

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"For context on how insanely fake this is: Xreal is one of the leading AR glasses companies on Earth. Their flagship glasses model (Xreal One) without any cameras, compute, or battery weigh more than Pickle claims their 'full AR' glasses with 4 cameras do," another user posted.

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Whether the glasses are up to the hype or not, it might be best to wait until they come out and reviewers can get their hands on them before putting down the $200 deposit — or at least until we see an actual product demo.