Blogroll

Google Assistant’s retirement was announced well over a year ago, but the official end date is now in sight. For better or worse, Gemini will be the company’s last digital assistant standing on September 4th. It’s had plenty of time to get up to speed with Assistant—here’s what’s still missing.

It’s easy to dismiss USB drives as little more than inexpensive portable storage devices that you can plug into practically anything.

Cheap Yellow Display, or CYD for short, is a catch-all term for an affordable microcontroller and touchscreen combination. These devices include everything you need to get started with ESP32 projects that depend on a display, offering a larger footprint than a standalone microcontroller but an easier onboarding for many projects.

The best 3D printer deals at Amazon: Best for everyday printing Flashforge 3D Printer $378.99 (save $170) Get Deal Best overall 3D Printer Bambu Lab P1S 3D Printer $499.99 (save $49.01) Get Deal Best for large-scale prints Creality K1 Max 3D Printer $548.98 (save $170) Get Deal

Getting into 3D printing usually means choosing between speed, print quality, and not blowing your whole budget — but this week's deals make that trade-off a lot less painful. Three printers from Bambu Lab, Creality, and Flashforge are discounted right now, with savings up to $171 (31% off).

There's a fit here no matter what you're after — a beginner-friendly all-rounder, a large-format speed machine built for bigger projects, and a quiet, filtered option for everyday use.

Best for everyday printing Opens in a new window Credit: Flashforge Flashforge 3D Printer $378.99 at Amazon
$549 Save $170.01   Get Deal Why we like it

The AD5M Pro is the printer that gets out of your way. Setup takes 10 minutes or less with no experience required, and full-auto leveling means you skip manual adjustments before your first print. It moves fast, up to 600mm/s with 20,000mm/s² acceleration, backed by a CoreXY metal structure that keeps output stable and precise even at that speed.

It's also the pick for anyone printing at home or in a shared space. It's quiet enough for a living room or classroom, and the enclosed design keeps fumes and dust from escaping into the room. There's also a built-in camera so you can check on prints remotely or capture time-lapse videos, easy nozzle swaps for different filament types, and automatic recovery if the power cuts out mid-print.

Best overall 3D Printer Opens in a new window Credit: Bambu Lab Bambu Lab P1S 3D Printer $499.99 at Amazon
$549 Save $49.01   Get Deal Why we like it

The Bambu Lab P1S earns the top spot in this lineup because it balances speed, quality, and ease of use better than most printers at this price. It sets up in about 15 minutes, handles calibration automatically with auto bed leveling, and prints fast — up to 500mm/s — without sacrificing quality. That combination makes it approachable for someone printing their first model, while still being capable enough that experienced makers won't outgrow it quickly.

What sets it apart is the AMS add-on, which unlocks multi-color and multi-material printing (up to 16 colors) without any manual filament swapping. It's fully enclosed, so advanced filaments like ABS and ASA print consistently, and the build volume is generous enough for bigger projects.

Best for large-scale prints Opens in a new window Credit: Comgrow Creality K1 Max 3D Printer $548.99 at Amazon
$719 Save $170.01   Get Deal Why we like it

The Creality K1 Max packs a massive 300x300x300mm build volume into a compact footprint, giving you room for larger prints while staying space-efficient. Pair that with a 600 mm/s print speed and 20,000 mm/s² acceleration, and you get a printer built to move fast without making you choose between size and speed.

The AI Lidar scans the first layer and automatically halts the print if something's off, while the onboard camera monitors for print failures or debris mid-print. It also comes with dual hands-free auto leveling and dual-fan cooling that hardens each layer before warping or stringing can set in.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A device for making calls.

Apostrophe meaning

A form of punctuation frequently used to indicate possession.

Oxford meaning

A city in England.

Serial meaning

Things that happen as part of a sequence.

Hawaiian meaning

Something linked to Hawaii.

Okina meaning

A consonant in the Hawaiian language.

Ratchet meaning

A tool frequently used to tighten or remove bolts.

Comma meaning

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

White meaning

A color that represents all visible light frequencies.

Pigment meaning

An ingredient that infuses color into items or materials.

Atomic meaning

Describing something linked to atoms.

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Dragonfly meaning

A flying insect often found near water.

Diavola meaning

Italian for devil.

Cedilla meaning

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

Meat lovers meaning

Frequently used to describe a collection of pizza toppings.

Social Security meaning

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

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

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

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

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

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Connections.