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As technology continues to evolve, I take privacy very seriously, especially given growing concerns about identity theft and data collection policies. My phone number is also part of that identity profile, which means yours is too. Sure, I can control which apps I download and who I give my number to, but many things require my smartphone's number.

I had higher hopes for the 2026 Genesis GV60 Performance AWD when the automaker recently loaned me one for a week here in Detroit. It was a sharp-looking vehicle that's for sure, finished in Uyuni White over a Sky Blue and Prussian interior, with all the hallmarks of a luxurious electric SUV listed on the window sticker.

Google Maps feels like an app that's perfectly suited to a phone, but with its growing number of features, it's becoming increasingly cluttered. I recently switched to using my laptop whenever I wanted to plot a route in Google Maps. It turns out it's so much better.

So you've finally got gigabit broadband and Ethernet and Wi-Fi to match. Just a few years ago, this would be an impossible dream, but it's becoming the norm for more and more people. Now, at last, you can stop worrying about how fast your home network is and relax—just kidding!

I'm sick of the poor quality, occasionally poor photos my phone's default camera app produces. While some of this is 100% a skill issue (I'm a hobbyist photographer at best), I sometimes feel like my photos just don't look as good as I'd like. So I tested a few camera apps to see which one took the best-quality photos.

Cadillac hasn't built a true one-off concept since the Cien debuted at the 2002 Detroit Auto Show, a drivable V12 supercar that hinted at where Cadillac's performance ambitions were headed, right up until the cost of its custom engine and a projected $200,000 price tag kept it from ever reaching production.

Marvel Studios debuted the first trailer for its Disney+ series VisionQuest at D23 in Anaheim, California, offering the clearest look yet at Paul Bettany's return as the sentient AI hero Vision.

SEE ALSO: Marvel unveils X-Men cast: Adam Driver, Inde Navarrette, and more set for May 2028 film

The trailer finds Vision living in hiding and grappling with an existential crisis after essentially being resurrected in WandaVision. As part of his search for answers, Vision converses with several other artificial intelligences drawn from his own programming, including FRIDAY (Orla Bradley), DUM-E (Henry Lewis), JARVIS (James D'Arcy), and Ultron (James Spader). Much of Ultron is shown in human form in the footage, and the other Tony Stark-created AIs appear less than thrilled to have him around. An understandable reaction, given that Ultron nearly wiped out humanity in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

According to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, VisionQuest will serve as the final installment in what he's calling the "Wanda trilogy," following WandaVision and Agatha All Along. It's also expected to be Marvel's last live-action Disney+ series for the foreseeable future, part of a broader pullback from television that multiple outlets have reported in recent months. That shift already led to the cancellation of Wonder Man, which drew backlash from fans after the show was scrapped just months after being renewed for a second season.

VisionQuest premieres on Disney+ on Oct. 14.

Nothing starts a conversation faster with high school or college kids than an addictive Netflix series. These shows will spark debates that should spread across campus. It's the kind of show where, if you don't watch, you'll feel completely left out. I felt that way when Stranger Things first premiered and it became a true word-of-mouth show.

I finally decided to jailbreak my Kindle and install KOReader. Doing so has given me access to features that aren't possible on a standard Kindle. I set up an automation that turns off my bedside light when I've finished reading, and I can't get enough of it.

Most people who use Excel on Android tried it once, decided it wasn't worth the hassle, and went back to their laptop. That's a reasonable conclusion if you haven't used it lately, but the mobile version has gotten a lot better. The features that used to make spreadsheet work on a phone feel like a punishment have gotten fixed. In fact, I don’t even mind using Microsoft Excel on my phone anymore.

I thought I had a good handle on what started when I turned on my Windows PC. Then I opened Microsoft's Autoruns and was surprised by how many more entries it showed me. So I decided to investigate them to see which ones actually mattered and how much they were using my PC's resources.

One of the few hit Pixar films without a sequel is finally getting one.

At its D23 fan event in Anaheim, Disney unveiled what the company has been working on for its Coco 2 sequel.

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Disney announced that the original Coco director, Lee Unkrich, will be returning to direct alongside co-director Adrian Molina. In addition, Benjamin Bratt will return to reprise the role of Ernesto de la Cruz, which means that Ernesto de la Cruz will be returning in the Coco sequel, too. In fact, it appears that Ernesto de la Cruz will play a major role in the upcoming film.

SEE ALSO: Kingdom Hearts' first-ever anime TV series coming to Disney+

"To some, Miguel is a little menace who ruined a career and destroyed a legacy," Bratt said onstage at the event. "Ernesto de la Cruz is back for revenge, sending Miguel on an adventure back to the Land of the Dead. Proving fate has a sense of humor, Miguel must team up with a handsome superstar: me."

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Based on what Bratt had to say, it seems Coco 2 will take Miguel back to the land of the dead, where he'll have to join forces with Ernesto de la Cruz, the music superstar who was revealed as a fraud that killed Miguel's great-great-grandfather Hector in the first film.

Speaking of Miguel, Disney provided a first look at the upcoming Coco 2, which seemingly will star Miguel as a teenager.

Coco was a big success for the company when it was released in 2017. The film grossed more than $800 million worldwide and won two Academy Awards, one for best animated feature and another for best original song, "Remember Me."

Disney CEO Bob Iger previously shared that a Coco sequel was in the works in March of last year.

Coco 2 is currently scheduled to hit theaters in November 2029.

The Raspberry Pi 5 is a fairly capable SBC, but it doesn't make a great desktop—as soon as you start trying to multitask, browser tabs start to lag, and the entire system will struggle. Between a relatively low-power GPU, the limitations of a microSD card boot drive (which is the default unless you buy an M.2 hat), and a CPU that will readily thermally throttle without active cooling, it just isn't up to the job.

The next time Kingdom Hearts is on your television screen, you might not be playing it as a video game but watching it as an anime TV series.

A slew of Disney-related movies and TV shows have been announced over the past 24 hours as part of D23, the company's annual fan event, which is currently taking place in Anaheim, California. Disney announced that an anime TV series based on the Kingdom Hearts video game franchise will debut soon on Disney+'s streaming platform and the Disney Channel.

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Kingdom Hearts is a massively popular video game series by Square Enix, the gaming developer behind hit franchises such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. The series follows a young boy named Sora as he goes on adventures alongside Donald Duck and Goofy. Numerous Disney characters have recurring roles and make appearances throughout the game series, including Mickey Mouse and various Disney Villains.

SEE ALSO: Marvel unveils X-Men cast: Adam Driver, Inde Navarrette, and more set for May 2028 film

According to Disney, the anime series "reimagines the iconic adventure with a brand-new story that will expand on the universe of Kingdom Hearts while celebrating the characters that have captured the hearts of millions of fans around the world."

The show will be developed by Disney in partnership with video game creator Tetsuya Nomura and Square Enix.

“Kingdom Hearts has captivated gamers everywhere with its unique blend of adventure and imagination,” said President of Disney Kids & Family Ayo Davis. “There’s something really exciting about taking a world fans have spent years exploring through the games and bringing it to life in a completely new way. And with a creative team that is working closely with the legendary Tetsuya Nomura, our new series will be unmistakably Kingdom Hearts, while giving fans a whole new way to experience the world they love.”

There was some Kingdom Hearts video game news at D23 as well, with the next installment in the series, Kingdom Hearts 4, receiving a "late 2027" release date. In an article posted on Disney's investor website right before the announcement, Disney unveiled that Kingdom Hearts is now a billion-dollar franchise.

Disney has not yet announced a timeline for the Kingdom Hearts anime TV series.

I bought my first cordless power tool over 20 years ago, and it was a shiny new Milwaukee V28 with a lithium-ion battery. Who remembers the V28 line? It was a big, expensive purchase, and over the years I've bought Milwaukee tools here and there, but eventually I got rid of them all and switched to Ryobi. Here's why.

When you're navigating from A to B, the last thing you want to do is constantly switch back and forth between different apps. Any time you spend off the Google Maps navigation screen is time when you could miss that crucial turn. Thankfully, Google Maps has some useful integrations that mean you don't need to keep flipping from app to app.

Whenever the discussion about physical media and its inevitable demise comes up, the argument that "discs rot and degrade" will inevitably raise its head.

As great as 3D printing is, you can often tell when an object has come off a print bed and not out of an injection mold. This mostly comes down to layer lines, an inescapable symptom of the filament deposition modeling process.

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move on to the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

How to play Pips

If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity with how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for August 15, 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 August 15, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for August 15 Pips

Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 4-4, placed vertically; 0-6, placed vertically.

Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 0-6, placed vertically; 6-6, placed horizontally; 6-5, placed vertically.

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

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

Medium difficulty hints, answers for August 15 Pips

Greater Than (8): Everything in this space must be greater than 8. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally; 4-2, placed vertically.

Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 6-3, placed horizontally.

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

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

Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 6-1, placed vertically.

Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 6-1, placed vertically; 3-1, placed vertically; 0-2, placed vertically.

Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for August 15 Pips

Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 5-0, placed vertically.

Greater Than (0): Everything in this space must be greater than 0. The answer is 2-1, placed vertically.

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

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 6-4, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (16): Everything in this space must be greater than 16. The answer is 6-4, placed horizontally; 6-5, placed vertically.

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

Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.

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

Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally; 2-5, placed vertically.

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 6-4, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 6-4, placed horizontally.

Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 6-2, placed vertically.

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

Learning Python from lectures and textbooks works for some, but I know firsthand how difficult it is to learn that way. When you can actually put your knowledge to use in a game, it's much easier to learn. Most CS courses get you comfortable with syntax and give you problems that have one clean answer and a grade attached. However, it's more fun to go to Python games that put you in situations where the code either works or it visibly doesn't, and the feedback arrives fast enough that you actually learn something from it.