Blogroll

Microsoft Copilot is marketed as a genius coworker, and in many ways, it lives up to that promise. It can summarize 50-page transcripts, draft repetitive emails, and generate Excel formulas. But beneath the hype, it often functions merely as a high-tech shortcut to commands buried in the ribbon.

Last fall, OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, promised that it would enable an “adult mode” for verified users of the service sometime in the first quarter of 2026. Today, we learned that the service has been delayed.

In a brief roundup, independent journalist Alex Heath revealed on his newsletter, Sources, that an OpenAI spokesperson told him that the company was "pushing out the launch of adult mode." OpenAI stated further that the company wanted to "focus on work that is a higher priority for more users right now," such as "personality improvements, personalization, and making the experience more proactive."

SEE ALSO: OpenAI updates Department of War deal after backlash

The news may disappoint some, as the "adult mode" was allegedly meant to launch in Q1 of this year. Erotica is understood to be a potentially lucrative market for AI, and many people are already relying on generative AI for romantic connections or to find "digital companions" for NSFW chatting. However, there's also apprehension about the marriage of artificial intelligence and human sexuality, with experts warning about the “AI porn problem” and the ethical problems that might arise from handing an all-powerful software access to our fantasies. 

According to reporting by the Wall Street Journal, one former OpenAI employee even claims they were fired because of concerns they raised about the promised launch of erotic content on the service, specifically surrounding the mental health of ChatGPT users and the ease with which teenagers might still access the content. Elon Musk’s Grok A.I. has already faced heavy criticism for its “digital undressing” feature, used to disrobe real people without their consent.

Despite the controversy and the latest delay, OpenAI has continued to roll out age verification features to gatekeep functions and hasn’t shied away from its commitment to giving its users the maximum autonomy. "We still believe in the principle of treating adults like adults," the spokesperson told Heath, "but getting the experience right will take more time."

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.

As I write this, hard drives are selling out all over the world and prices are rising, so finding storage for your NAS is more of a challenge than ever. But, while browsing the web looking for a deal, you spot some large hard drives marketed as "surveillance" hard drives at a good price. How has no one else snapped these up? A hard drive is a hard drive, right? Wrong!

TL;DR: Live stream Wrexham vs. Chelsea in the FA Cup for free on BBC iPlayer. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The FA Cup always produces interesting storylines, and all eyes will be on Wrexham vs. Chelsea in the latest round of the competition. Chelsea are obviously favorites to progress, but Wrexham's well-documented story could add another famous chapter with a win here. The Racecourse Ground will be rocking when Chelsea come to town this weekend.

If you want to watch Wrexham vs. Chelsea in the FA Cup for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Wrexham vs. Chelsea?

Wrexham vs. Chelsea in the FA Cup kicks off at 5:45 p.m. GMT on March 7. This fixture takes place at the Molineux Stadium.

How to watch Wrexham vs. Chelsea for free

Wrexham vs. Chelsea in the FA Cup is available to live stream for free on BBC iPlayer.

BBC iPlayer is geo-restricted to the UK, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK, meaning you can unblock BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Wrexham vs. Chelsea for free by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

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

4. Visit BBC iPlayer

5. Live stream Wrexham vs. Chelsea for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Wrexham vs. Chelsea without committing with your cash. This isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to live stream select fixtures from the FA Cup before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for BBC iPlayer?

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

• Servers in 105 countries including the UK

• 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 a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99 (with money-back guarantee).

Live stream Wrexham vs. Chelsea in the FA Cup for free with ExpressVPN.

Getting started with a Raspberry PI can feel daunting, especially with so many peripherals and projects out there. This was the project that got me started, and it is still a great beginner project today.

I grew up on Windows 7 because it was my main operating system for years. I spent some of my early computing days on Windows XP, but Windows 7 was my digital home for the longest time. I haven't used it in almost a decade. Microsoft dropped support for it about six years ago. There was an extended release version, but software companies are abandoning that ESR version too. Just this month, Firefox announced that it's ending support for Windows 7, which prompted me to try it again for old time's sake.

There's always been a strong rivalry between Apple and Microsoft along with the companies that make Windows hardware. This has been going on ever since both companies were "inspired" by the graphical technologies they saw at Xerox PARC all those years ago.

Have you ever shaken your smartphone and heard something rattling inside? It's not loose parts—well, technically it is, but it’s placed there intentionally. Here's what's actually going on.

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 March 7, 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 March 7, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for March 7 Pips

Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 6-0, placed horizontally; 1-3, placed vertically.

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 6-0, placed horizontally; 0-0, placed horizontally.

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

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

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

Medium difficulty hints, answers for March 7 Pips

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

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

Greater Than (0): Everything in this space must be greater than 0. The answer is 2-0, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (0): Everything in this space must be greater than 0. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally.

Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 3-6, placed vertically; 6-0, placed horizontally; 4-6, placed horizontally.

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

Hard difficulty hints, answers for March 7 Pips

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

Number (18): Everything in this space must add up to 18. The answer is 3-6, placed horizontally; 6-0, placed horizontally; 6-5, placed vertically.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 6-5, placed vertically; 3-5, placed vertically.

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

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

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

Equal (3): Everything in this red space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-5, placed vertically; 0-3, placed vertically; 1-3, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 1-2, placed horizontally; 2-4, placed horizontally; 1-5, placed vertically.

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

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

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically; 1-4, placed vertically; 2-3, placed horizontally.

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

Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 4-6, placed vertically; 2-3, placed horizontally.

Number (18): Everything in this space must add up to 18. The answer is 4-6, placed vertically; 6-6, placed vertically.

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

As a lifelong bookworm, it's saddened me to see the popularity of reading decline during my life as people gain access to other, more convenient forms of entertainment. Sure, there's been a bit of a revival thanks to the "BookTok" phenomenon, but by and large the average person would rather open the Netflix app than crack open a book.

Today's Connections: Sports Edition is for anyone who's ever lived in Arizona.

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: Sports in the Copper State

• Green: Advanced stats

• Blue: Non-power conferences

• Purple: Receivers

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Arizona Teams

• Green: Baseball Stats, Abbreviated

• Blue: Mid-Major College Conferences

• Purple: NFL WR Nicknames

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 #530 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Arizona Teams - CARDINALS, MERCURY, SUN DEVILS, SUNS

• Baseball Stats, Abbreviated - ERA, IP, OPS, WAR

• Mid-Major College Conferences - HORIZON, OHIO VALLEY, SUMMIT, SUN BELT

• NFL WR Nicknames - HOLLYWOOD, JSN, NUK, SUN GOD

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.

Software doesn't usually age gracefully. If you're lucky, you might see 10 years of support for a typical desktop app, and most mobile apps have an even shorter life expectancy. That is what makes one legacy program so remarkable.

Bad news for gamers: the much-hyped Steam Machine, long rumored to see the light of day in the first half of 2026, may be delayed even longer due to memory and storage shortages and the astronomically high prices these shortages are pushing on to consumers. 

SEE ALSO: Out of stock: Valve Steam Deck is the latest casualty of global memory shortage

With the expansion of artificial intelligence, gaming hardware manufacturers have to compete for memory, storage, and graphical processing power with the deep pockets of Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, all of whom are racing to outcompete one another and win the AI race. 

As recently as February, Valve made some concessions to this reality in a blog post: 

"When we announced these products in November, we planned to share specific pricing and launch dates by now. But the memory and storage shortages you've likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then. The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame)."

For the unaware, the Steam Machine is Valve’s latest attempt to leverage its dominant software position in the PC gaming market into hardware, promising what amounts to a budget gaming PC with the form factor of a gaming console allegedly priced under $1,000 but still capable of offering “4K gaming at 60 FPS with FSR” with either 512GB or 2TB of native storage, expandable via microSD, and running on their proprietary SteamOS. 

In their "Steam Year in Review 2025" update, Valve initially wrote that they "hope to ship in 2026," potentially indicating that the launch of the Steam Machine and its key accessories, the Steam Frame VR headset and controller, would be delayed until next year, but they have since amended the sentence to be more optimistic: "we will be shipping all three products this year."

While that almost certainly means we will have to wait until the second half of 2026, it also helps keep the hope alive among gamers hoping for a better budget gaming experience. 

Much like a fire extinguisher or home insurance, a panic button is something that could mitigate disaster, but that I really hope I never need to use. I set up a panic button for my smart home, and it's comforting to know it's there should the worst happen.

There are thousands of Docker containers that you could potentially run on your server. While I haven't run anywhere near all of them, here are 10 containers that I simply can't live without in my homelab, and why I think you should run them too.

I've been writing code for a long time. Over the years I've used countless development environments—sometimes simultaneously—trying to find the perfect tools for the multitude of languages that I've worked with. Those days are gone. My search is over. I've found the one to rule them all!

Ubuntu Studio is a Linux distro from Canonical that's designed for creatives. It comes preinstalled with a big array of free and open-source software for audio, video, graphics, and photography. Early on in my career, I did graphic design work for a while and I still draw illustrations for fun. These are my impressions of Ubuntu Studio.

In an ideal world, your PC should never be the only place where your important data lives. It can be one of the places, though, but the most critical files should be backed up following the 3-2-1 rule (or even more advanced methods).

For years, the idea of a complete home security system seemed to end with just cameras. However, the modern smart home is now heading into a time of seamless integration, especially when it comes to perimeter defense, which uses security and safety sensors.

Once, the Calendar app integrated into Windows was a capable scheduling companion. However, following several updates between Windows 10 and 11, the Windows calendar is now almost entirely useless.