Quordle hints and answers for Saturday, September 12 (game #1692)

Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Friday, September 11 (game #1691).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1692) — hint #1 — Vowels

How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1692) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.

Quordle today (game #1692) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1692) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 2.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1692) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• S

• B

• R

• S

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1692) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1692, are…

• SUPER
• BRUSH
• RESET
• SOWER

Even though I only had three possibilities from my remaining letters I had doubts that my final word was SOWER.

Until this point though it had been stress free, so I needed a bit of risk to feel as if I'd achieved something.

Daily Sequence today (game #1692) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1692, are…

• EARTH
• PEACH
• SKIFF
• WAGER

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1691, Friday, 11 September: PLUSH, PAINT, RIVAL, AFOUL
• Quordle #1690, Thursday, 10 September: AGENT, EXILE, TITAN, PUREE
• Quordle #1689, Wednesday, 9 September: HAPPY, GONER, SMACK, MOTIF
• Quordle #1688, Tuesday, 8 September: FLUNG, DIARY, HALVE, BERTH
• Quordle #1687, Monday, 7 September: VISIT, CLANK, FEVER, OCEAN
• Quordle #1686, Sunday, 6 September: PILOT, HONOR, BOWEL, TAUNT
• Quordle #1685, Saturday, 5 September: GNASH, GEEKY, WHELP, PUTTY
• Quordle #1684, Friday, 4 September: QUICK, BEEFY, TRUCK, SNAIL
• Quordle #1683, Thursday, 3 September: SIGMA, ESSAY, MERRY, LLAMA
• Quordle #1682, Wednesday, 2 September: INCUR, FELLA, TITAN, FROZE
• Quordle #1681, Tuesday, 1 September: NASAL, ROUTE, ANKLE, MIGHT
• Quordle #1680, Monday, 31 August: ALIVE, LOUSE, ABOVE, MOSSY
• Quordle #1679, Sunday, 30 August: USING, SORRY, FILET, PIPER
• Quordle #1678, Saturday, 29 August: OVINE, ALLOY, VOICE, CARVE
• Quordle #1677, Friday, 28 August: WAIST, EDICT, BONUS, DEUCE
• Quordle #1676, Thursday, 27 August: SHEEN, TRICE, WAGON, BEVEL
• Quordle #1675, Wednesday, 26 August: OPIUM, EPOCH, BESET, FINER
• Quordle #1674, Tuesday, 25 August: BLESS, FELON, PORCH, CHOSE
• Quordle #1673, Monday, 24 August: MAJOR, VERGE, CRUSH, SCOFF
• Quordle #1672, Sunday, 23 August: CHASM, BLAME, PARER, BYLAW

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NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, September 12 (game #1189)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, September 11 (game #1188).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #1189) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• TURN SIGNAL
• WEATHER
• POSTER
• BUMPER STICKER
• VANITY PLATE
• CURSOR
• SPOILER
• TROLL
• SMOKE DETECTOR
• FUZZY DICE
• SPAMMER
• NERD
• RED
• EYELIDS
• HOOD ORNAMENT
• LURKER

NYT Connections today (game #1189) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Vehicle adornments
• GREEN: Chatroom characters
• BLUE: Flickering on and off
• PURPLE: Add a word that means “be aware”

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #1189) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: WAYS TO PERSONALIZE A CAR
• GREEN: PEOPLE IN AN ONLINE FORUM
• BLUE: THINGS THAT BLINK
• PURPLE: ______ ALERT

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #1189) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1189, are…

• YELLOW: WAYS TO PERSONALIZE A CAR: BUMPER STICKER, FUZZY DICE, HOOD ORNAMENT, VANITY PLATE
• GREEN: PEOPLE IN AN ONLINE FORUM: LURKER, POSTER, SPAMMER, TROLL
• BLUE: THINGS THAT BLINK: CURSOR, EYELIDS, SMOKE DETECTOR, TURN SIGNAL
• PURPLE: ______ ALERT: NERD, RED, SPOILER, WEATHER

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 2 mistakes

I missed the chance of completing the groups in difficulty order (yellow-green-blue-purple) by getting ___ ALERT ahead of THINGS THAT BLINK, but this was already a far from perfect game.

My two mistakes were logical, in my mind, as I tried SPOILER for both WAYS TO PERSONALIZE A CAR and PEOPLE IN AN ONLINE FORUM.

Speaking of bumper stickers, I recently spotted a niche one at a music festival that featured a picture of David Byrne with a speech bubble saying “How do I work this?” and “How did I get here?” and the legend “Keep honking — I have found myself behind the wheel of a large automobile” — lyrics from the Talking Heads classic Once in a Lifetime.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Friday, September 11, 2026, game #1188)

• YELLOW: PEOPLE HIRED FOR AN EVENT: BAND, FLORIST, PHOTOGRAPHER, PLANNER
• GREEN: INTERNALIZE: ABSORB, DIGEST, PROCESS, TAKE IN
• BLUE: WAYS TO PRACTICE SELF-CARE: EXERCISE, JOURNAL, MEDITATE, UNPLUG
• PURPLE: THINGS THAT ARE PUSHED METAPHORICALLY: AGENDA, ENVELOPE, LIMITS, LUCK

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

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Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie on the Evercade Nexus use the original Rare source code, which included 'a load of stuff' that the studio didn't even know about, Blaze Entertainment says

• Blaze Entertainment says it found hidden features in Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie's source code when developing the Evercade Nexus ports
• Head of communications Sean Cleaver says Blaze worked closely with Rare, which handed over the game's original code
• The team uncovered "loads" of unreleased features, including unreleased tracks and a level editor

Blaze Entertainment has revealed that it uncovered hidden features in the source code for Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie while developing the Evercade Nexus ports.

Earlier this year, the hardware company, which works to revive retro gaming, announced it was expanding its physical ecosystem with a new handheld console that handles physical game cartridges, the Evercade Nexus.

The new iteration is expected to launch on October 30 and comes with the new Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack, which includes both Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, and has been customized for the Evercade Nexus with "all the authenticity and playability of the originally released titles, as well as performance and graphical improvements.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom, head of communications Sean Cleaver also discussed the Evercade Nexus - Doom Edition, also releasing on October 30, and said that Blaze worked closely with iD Software to give the game new life on the handheld.

Cleaver said there were no barriers between the companies and "They were really, really passionate about their product and their history," and "working with them has been great."

Blaze also worked closely with Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie original creators, Rare, and shared more about their working relationship, revealing the studio handed over the original code for the N64 versions of both games, which had hidden features the team implemented in the Evercade Nexus ports.

"Working with Rare has been awesome," Cleaver said. "They shared the source code. We found a load of stuff that they didn't even know was in the source code, like old unreleased tracks, there's a level editor, and we put it all in. [Plus some] little unlockable bonuses, so it gives something new to people as well."

He elaborated, saying Blaze worked internally and with a few contracted people who are familiar with the nature of the work, and discovered "really, really cool things" in the code.

"So there's a lot of public knowledge about what is in the games, but that's decompiling against what's been released, not the source code," Cleaver explained. "So when you actually get the source code, the whole thing's open. You just go through it and find the little strands and the little nuggets."

The Evercade Nexus and the bundled Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack is priced at £169.99 / $199.99 / €199.99.

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Fool's Theory says the biggest 'challenge' developing Songs of the Past was making sure Dandelion's story didn't 'steal the show' since The Witcher 3 is about Geralt — 'There was a very big effort put into this fine balancing of the narrative'

• CD Projekt Red and Fool's Theory say there were narrative challenges when developing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past
• The expansion is about Dandelion, but they didn't want him to "steal the show" from Geralt
• There was also "pressure" to live up to the "legacy" of The Witcher 3's previous expansions, but "pressure is what makes us better"

CD Projekt Red and Fool's Theory have said that developing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's third expansion, Songs of the Past, came with some narrative challenges and pressure to deliver.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom, where Jakub Rokosz, CEO of Fool's Theory and game director on Songs of the Past, and senior quest designer Despoina Anetaki offered new details about the upcoming expansion, the pair revealed the process of developing a new story about Dandelion without stealing the spotlight from Geralt.

Songs of the Past will be The Witcher 3's final expansion and centers on Dandelion, Geralt's best friend, as the monster slayer unravels a new mystery within the bard's homeland of Letten.

Rokosz and Anetaki discussed how the expansion will "complete" The Wild Hunt's story by giving Dandelion the spotlight he deserves, a chapter that CDPR felt was missing from the base game; however, it came with some challenges in how best to center the bard without losing the focus on Geralt as the protagonist.

"The narrative challenge of Songs of the Past was the biggest challenge; we knew we wanted to do an expansion about Dandelion, but he cannot steal the show, right? Because it's a game about Geralt," Rokosz said.

"So, all of us, straight away, we discarded certain ideas because they were too overwhelming. But then, at the same time, if it's a game about Geralt, there is a very fine line between when it's about Geralt and Dandelion and when it's about you just running around Dandelion's home, right?"

The former Witcher 3 senior quest designer also said that the narrative approach was something his team at Fool's Theory spent "absolute days and weeks discussing."

He added, "So there was a very big effort put into this fine balancing of the narrative, where you are there for your friend, but it's still your adventure. But it is about him and his family's matters, you know. And your relationship with Dandelion as well."

Anetaki said another big narrative challenge was "living up to the legacy" of The Witcher 3 and its critically acclaimed expansions, Hearts of Stone and, "especially," Blood and Wine.

"It's difficult to make something that is just as good or, if not better, right?" the developer said. "So it was really important for us, if we were to make an expansion, to make sure it's a compelling story, right?"

(Image credit: CD Projekt Red / Fool's Theory)

While Anetaki acknowledged that this came with a lot of pressure, "pressure is what makes us better."

"It's motivating," Rokosz continued, "we always try to outdo ourselves, both Fool's Theory and CDPR. When you're working on a AAA game, there's always something that you want to improve, right? Even if you release a very good AAA game like The Witcher 3, you know there's something we'll improve 11 years later in it, right?

"So we always try to outdo ourselves," he added, before referencing Songs of the Past's demo, which premiered at Gamescom and showcased the many visual and technical improvements.

"Everyone always tries to improve their own discipline, right?" Anetaki said. "Cinematics. A lot of them [developers] have a background in movies, and they try to hone their craft as the years go by, make it better. Same for quest design. We never rest on our laurels. We try to always improve our craft, make stories more nonlinear, more compelling, more memorable for our players.

"Writers have a background. A lot of them have published books, so they're excellent at what they do. They always try to tell amazing stories together with the quest designers and the cinematic designers. Art always tries to push the boundaries, tries to make everything fit the narrative and look as beautiful as possible.

"There are technical challenges that we always try to overcome, so it's always a journey upwards, right? We always try to push the quality."

Songs of the Past is scheduled to launch in 2027.

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Exclusive: 'Jason seems quite deadpan and monotone' — Former GTA dev says he wants to see more personality from the GTA 6 protagonist, since Rockstar 'usually gives us characters who are funny and have their own flair'

• Former Rockstar Games developer Mike York says Grand Theft Auto 6's Jason "seems quite deadpan and monotone"
• York hopes Jason will show more personality, like Grand Theft Auto 4's Niko Bellic
• He also suggests co-protagonist Lucia will contrast Jason's more subdued personality

Former Rockstar Games developer Mike York has shared his thoughts on Grand Theft Auto 6's big gameplay reveal, including his initial impressions of co-protagonists Jason and Lucia.

In an exclusive interview with TechRadar Gaming, York, who previously worked on GTA 5 and GTA Online, said Jason appeared to move around "very slow and methodical," almost like a "robot" or "a Terminator," and showed very little emotion.

The developer compared the character to other GTA protagonists, such as GTA 4's Niko Bellic, a "great character" and one of his favorites in the series, who was "witty and had some great lines", and hopes GTA 6 will show Jason in a similar light.

"I hope we see more of that because right now, Jason seems quite deadpan and monotone," York said. "Rockstar usually gives us a bunch of neat characters who are funny and have their own flair. I don't know if we're going to see that with Jason, but I hope we do."

Jason will serve as co-protagonist to Lucia, his partner in crime and girlfriend — if you choose to romance her properly, that is. From the extended gameplay footage, it's clear that Lucia is much livelier than Jason, sometimes taking the lead in certain situations; York agreed that as switchable characters, Lucia could serve as the Yin to Jason’s Yang.

"I think that's what they're going to do," he said, and addressed the cutscene where the duo arrives at the Effluvia rooftop bar in the trailer.

"There's that moment in the trailer where they get in an elevator, and he says: ‘Sometimes I'm just more comfortable when I have to use a gun’. She replies: ‘Just be charming!’ Lucia's got this attitude where you can tell she's trying to break him out of his shell. She's the one that probably goes into missions gung-ho, all guns blazing.”

GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Series S. Rockstar has confirmed that it will run at 30fps on consoles at launch.

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Rebellion says Alien Deathstorm is a 'dynamically generated' survival horror game with sandbox elements and 'not another corridor shooter' — 'It's a rare beast'

• Alien Deathstorm producer Martin Willingham says the game is "not another corridor shooter"
• Head of design Ben Fisher says it's a "dynamically generated" survival horror game
• The Rebellion developers say it's a 360-degree sandbox experience

Rebellion Developments has said players can't expect its upcoming first-person survival horror game, Alien Deathstorm, to be another linear corridor shooter, calling it a "rare beast."

Alien Deathstorm was revealed earlier this year by the developers behind the Sniper Elite series and Atomfall and is described as a "visceral first-person action horror experience, where second-to-second survival hinges on responding to a monstrous, constantly shifting threat on a storm-blasted off-world colony."

TechRadar Gaming recently went hands-on with the game at Gamescom and then later caught up with some Rebellion developers, who talked more about it at length, including the concept and design influences, replayability, and player freedom.

While Alien Deathstorm may look like your run-of-the-mill survival shooter with typical survival horror features, the team considers it a "dynamic" experience with sandbox elements where the player's actions can affect unscripted enemy encounters.

Producer Martin Willingham said this means, "the horror, the tension, can happen at any time in different ways between playthroughs and between difficulty camps as well.

"For me, that's one of the most exciting parts of the game because in horror games the experience is typically kind of very, very choreographed because it has to be to build up that anticipation set of those jump scares. But it means you can only play it once."

He continued, saying the team values replayability and sandbox freedom, which means "we had to do something dynamic," and "building the encounters around the player and the player's activities means it's a different experience."

Ben Fisher, head of design, called the game "dynamically generated," where levels are played sequentially, and each has its own sandbox, adding that "It's a rare beast."

"It's not another corridor shooter," Willingham added later. "You're in that sandbox. It's 360 degrees. The action could be coming from anywhere, rather than just at the end of that corridor."

Alien Deathstorm doesn't have a release date yet, but you'll be able to play it in Spring 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.

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FBI launches investigation after 153 million drivers licenses apparently leaked on Russian cybercrime forum

• 153 million US driving licences have been leaked on a Russian cybercrime platform
• Among those apaprently discovered in the stolen data is US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
• The FBI is now investigating the leak, which has been traced to an identity verification company

A data leak of 153 million US drivers licenses is said to have been shared on a Russian cybercrime forum, with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth among those leaked prompting an FBI investigation.

Security researcher Brian Krebs identified the leak – which included his own data – as originating from a hack of an identity verification service. Louisiana-based IDScan provided ID verification for various well-known companies, including FedEx and Hertz car hire.

The data was shared on a Russian forum called Exploit, a long-established online community of cybercriminals. Following news of the leak, the identity theft service “Nexus” has apparently scrubbed its existence from the Dark Web.

Driving licenses and more

It wasn’t just US driving licenses that were found in the archive of recently-collected personal data. Krebs’ investigation found that Nexus claimed other types of data, and found a further 1.1 million driving licenses from Canada.

Other identity documentation alleged to be in the leak include 10 million identification cards, three million travel documents and international IDs, and 579,000 medical cards. The data was available to browse, notes Krebs, with Nexus providing details: “Records are available to preview before purchase with pertinent information redacted. Customer photos are displayed if available.”

The leak has a personal dimension for Krebs. Not only was his driving license in the collection, so was that of his mother. It has proved to be a useful coincidence, one that has enabled the security and privacy researcher to establish how the data was sourced by Nexus.

Both licenses were used for a car hire, which Krebs traced to Hertz. Others affected by the leak had also used the service, which has used New Orleans-based IDscan for identity verification.

The company, which claims to perform 21 million verifications a month, is yet to issue a statement on the matter. Its marketing and operations leader, Jillian Kossman, told the journalist: “At this point I’m not able to share any additional information, but the updates you have provided have been welcome, and helpful to our team’s investigation.”

Where is the data?

Krebs reports that he was alerted to the data on August 31, 2026, little over a week ago. Regular checking noted that the data was still being added to, increasing by “nearly 400,000” records prior to publishing his investigation on September 1.

Since then, however, it seems that Nexus has vanished, along with the data. But how widely was the data downloaded before that happened? While the FBI investigates, it falls on the American and Canadian public to be extra vigilant and wary of identity fraud.

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Fake GTA 6 malware is on the rise as release date nears — here are some of the worst scams to look out for

• Huntress warns fake GTA 6 ISOs spreading malware ahead of official Nov 19, 2026 release
• Packages deliver RATs, infostealers, and Chaos ransomware disguised as game installers
• Users urged to avoid pirated downloads; infected systems should be reimaged and credentials reset

Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6), one of the most anticipated computer games of all time, is due to launch on November 19, 2026 - so everything found online before that is almost certainly malware.

This is the warning sent out by security researchers Huntress, which said it recently saw one variant deploying all sorts of filth, from remote access trojans (RAT), across infostealers, to full-blown ransomware encryptors.

The story behind GTA 6

GTA 6 is a third-person action-adventure and open-world gam developed by Rockstar Games, which egan preliminary work more than a decade ago, and has allegedly spent more than a billion dollars during that decade and a half, which would make it, by far, the most expensive game ever developed.

It is also a sequel to GTA 5, a game that was sold in more than 230 million copies around the world, which made it one of the most popular games of all time.

In late August 2026, someone going by the alias LEEK claimed to have obtained a working, playable build of the game, roughly six months before the official release. They posted numerous screenshots and videos of them playing the game, even writing their nickname onto a wall, using a rifle to prove the authenticity. Truth be told, even without this, people would have still probably searched for, and downloaded, fake installers. This only made the problem worse.

And a major problem, it definitely is. Huntress is now saying it is seeing websites ranking relatively high (through SEO poisoning), offering for download an ISO of the game. Similar ISOs are circulating around different gaming forums, torrenting sites, and social media channels.

An ISO file is a digital copy of an entire disc, such as a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray, stored as one file. Users can download an ISO (which can weigh tens or hundreds of gigabytes), mount it into a virtual drive, and the computer will treat it like a physical disc.

Huntress found some ISOs weighing more than 100GB which was done just to make it seem authentic - the actual malware was “a factor smaller”. The ISOs they analyzed contained multiple variants, including NJRAT and CDRAT (two remote access trojans), Mercurial Grabber (an infostealer grabbing Roblox Studio cookies, Minecraft session data, Discord tokens, Chrome passwords and cookies, system information, IP addresses, and geolocation, Windows product keys, and screenshots), and Chaos Ransomware. The package also contained a legitimate, regular browser - “Just for kicks,” apparently.

A plausible failure

During the “game” installation, the installer displays a message in Russian, saying the product is unlicensed and that there is a good chance it won’t run. If that happens, the user is told to reach out to a specific Gmail address to receive an “updated crack”. After the installation completes, the victim will get that exact popup, saying “License not found”. All of this is just a smoke screen, to make the victim not suspicious as to why the “game” won’t run.

There is no way of telling how many people fell for the ruse and installed malware on their devices. Huntress says that generally speaking, trying to download cracked and pirated software is a bad idea, which is even worse if the game in question has not yet been released.

“This is fertile ground for scams and threat actors attempting to take advantage of the impatient and overeager,” the researchers said.

The good news is that all of the malware being distributed there is not new. Some of the variants contained in the ISOs are several years old, meaning most antivirus programs, such as Windows Defender for example, can easily detect it and stop it from compromising the system.

Those that do end up infected should disconnect the machine from the internet, reset all passwords, enable 2FA wherever possible, and do a complete reimage of the compromised system.

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Apple’s AI-packed macOS 27 upgrade for Macs launches on September 14, but can it win over macOS Tahoe haters?

Amongst all the hype over Apple’s first-ever foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, which was announced at the company’s ‘Surprise and Shine’ event, Apple (rather quietly) also revealed when Mac users can get the latest version of its desktop operating system, macOS 27 Golden Gate: September 14.

While pretty much all of the attention was focused on the foldable, the launch of macOS 27 is noteworthy for anyone with a modern Mac or MacBook, as this free upgrade brings some tasty new features, while also addressing some of the less popular changes that came with its predecessor, macOS 26 Tahoe.

If you have a compatible Mac, then you should be prompted to download and install macOS 27 Golden Gate once September 14 rolls around. However, if you have a Mac from before 2020 that doesn’t run on Apple Silicon (so any Intel-powered Macs), then you won’t be able to get the update.

For reference, here are all the Mac models that are compatible with macOS 27 Golden Gate:

• MacBook Air M1 or later
• MacBook Pro M1 or later
• MacBook Pro 13-inch M1 2020 or later
• MacBook Pro 14-inch M1 Pro 2021 or later
• MacBook Pro 16-inch M1 Pro 2021 or later
• MacBook Neo
• iMac M1 2020 or later
• Mac mini M1 2020 or later
• Mac Studio 2022 and later

Apple recently announced new M5 and M6-powered Mac mini and Mac Studio products, and they'll likely launch with macOS 27 preinstalled when they start shipping on September 22.

(Image credit: Apple)

Fixing past mistakes

The main focus of macOS 27, as with Apple’s other operating updates such as iOS 27, and seemingly every piece of new software these days, is AI.

The upcoming macOS 27 upgrade paves the way for Siri AI integration – the long-awaited improvements to Apple’s virtual assistant that should make it more useful. When launched, Siri AI should be able to have two way conversations with you and execute multi-step tasks quickly and easily, which could make using your Mac a lot more convenient. It will be able to interact with apps such as Calendar to complete tasks such as creating events and reminders.

AI is also coming to macOS Spotlight to make finding things on your device better, and Visual Intelligence can be brought up to get information about what’s on your screen. Other AI features, such as Image Playground, are getting improvements as well.

If you’re not a fan of AI, then macOS 27 should still have plenty of reasons to download and install. One reason that will hopefully please a lot of people is that macOS 27 Golden Gate makes tweaks to some of macOS 26 Tahoe’s most controversial changes, especially when it comes to the polarizing Liquid Glass interface. The new macOS will allow you to adjust transparency effects to make using your device more comfortable, and during the beta testing process, it was one of the things our contributor Alex Blake was particularly thankful for. I’m sure he’s not the only one.

When Apple announced macOS 27 at WWDC 2026 earlier this year, it promised lots of performance improvements, especially when it comes to how responsive the operating system feels. This alone should make macOS 27 worth installing on September 14.

If you have an older Mac and feeling left out, make sure you check out our guide on the best Macs and MacBooks, which can help you find a new macOS 27-ready Mac that suits your needs and budget.

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'The memory chip market is heading toward a severe shortage': analyst firm believes RAM crisis could get far worse in 2027 — and you can blame AI ramping up

• A new report from KB Securities gets very gloomy about the RAM crisis
• We're told the "memory chip market is heading toward a severe supply shortage" in 2027
• AI demand has ramped up massively with infrastructure investments up 60% year-on-year to $1.3 trillion, creating even more demand for memory as fuel for that rise

If you thought the RAM crisis was going to get worse next year, you're very probably right — but apparently we might suffer an even more severe shortage than some analysts already expect.

Wccftech flagged up an article from Business Korea (translated from Korean), which suggests that the RAM squeeze is tightening its grip on two of the biggest memory chip makers.

Citing a report from KB Securities, the rumor is that Samsung and SK Hynix are now down to fewer than 10 days of memory inventory, which is very close to running dry.

This has caused concerns that available memory supplies could dwindle and be depleted in 2027, with analysts believing that the "memory chip market is heading toward a severe supply shortage" (again, bear in mind this is a translation, but the message is clear enough).

KB Securities notes that the AI boom is what's causing this, as memory chip manufacturers struggle to meet demand for HBM4 memory in AI data centers. Infrastructure investments for AI development have been revised upwards to $1.3 trillion for 2027, we're told, which is a 60% year-on-year increase.

Kim Dong-won, head of research at KB Securities, told Business Korea that: "AI servers will absorb demand for not only HBM but also server DDR5 and enterprise SSDs, potentially leading to a historic shortage."

There's a brighter spot of news from laptop maker Framework though, which, as VideoCardz reports, has taken an unusual step in reducing the price of some of its products. As you may recall, Framework has been hiking laptop prices due to the increased cost of RAM (as have other notebook manufacturers), but the company just announced that it has secured some fresh memory modules at a lower price.

This means that some of its current Framework Laptop orders will be knocked down in price, and the company said on X that it's "retroactively reducing prices for orders that shipped at higher price" too.

Analysis: there's a historic level of gloom, that much is certain

(Image credit: vlado85rs / Getty)

It's impressive to see Framework acting in the best interests of its customers, particularly seeing as the firm could have (theoretically) kept quiet about bagging a batch of cheaper memory chips, and just kept the difference itself.

While that's commendable, it's a pretty small (but still welcome) bone we're being thrown in the face of the bad news for the RAM crisis here. Talk of a "historic shortage" is worrying, and it feels like this is an escalation of the recent chatter about global memory supply woes which has already turned highly negative.

While this latest report talks about server DDR5 RAM (and HBM), this will obviously have a bearing on consumer products, too. Those less profitable memory sticks are going to end up sidelined even further.

With rumors about GPU price hikes again coming to the fore this week, it's difficult to catch a breath between the bouts of bad news. We can hope that the pessimism is overblown here, but I can't shake the feeling that this seems unlikely.

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Playground Games says Fable's story will last between '15-20 hours' or double that with other open-world content, and the life systems are 'limitless'

• Fable's main story takes between 15 and 20 hours to complete
• Associate game director Will Kennedy confirms additional side content can also take between 15 and 20 hours
• However, the game's life systems are "limitless"

Playground Games has confirmed that Fable's main story will take up to 20 hours to beat, but promises the game's life systems offer "limitless" replayability.

Speaking during a Q&A session at Gamescom 2026, associate game director Will Kennedy discussed the scale of the upcoming role-playing game (RPG), saying, "So the main story obviously depends on how you play, but the main storyline is around 15 to 20 hours."

He added, "But then we've got around probably about 15 to 20 hours again of open world and side content to engage with."

While not a massive amount of hours compared to other open-world RPGs, that at least gives fans an idea of what to expect when the game releases next year.

However, it's what Kennedy said later that confirmed that, while Fable will have a good-sized story with plenty of side content, the game's life systems, like interacting with the over 1,000 unique non-player characters (NPCs), buying real estate, committing crimes, and more, will offer up even more playtime.

"Honestly, with the life systems which we [shared an] in-depth look at and showcased earlier on in the year, that's limitless, and you can engage with it as much as you want," he said.

Fable has been in development for a very long time, but will officially launch on February 23, 2027, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.

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Experts build WeChat worm able to spread across millions of iPhone and Android devices via phone calls

• Calif researchers found a zero‑click WeChat VoIP flaw enabling account takeover via calls
• “WeWorm” spreads through ringing calls; victims need not answer to be compromised
• Tencent patched in Android 8.0.77 and iOS 8.0.76; no exploitation seen in the wild

Security researchers have found a flaw in WeChat which allows malicious actors to take over people’s accounts on both Android and iOS devices - but what makes this flaw stand out is the fact that it’s a zero-click bug - victims need not do a thing to be compromised.

WeChat is a “super-app”, allegedly used by roughly 1.4 billion people, and is especially popular in China. It started as a communications app, letting users send messages, and make voice and video calls, and has evolved to function as a social network, allowing users to share photos and videos, as well as a payment app through which users can transfer money, pay for things, order food, book taxis, and even access government and business services.

Security researchers from Calif have now disclosed finding a ‘memory corruption’ issue in WeChat's VoIP stack. For now, they decided not to share the technical details, and to instead demonstrate the flaw “at an upcoming conference.” To that end, they built a worm called WeWorm, capable of taking over target WeChat accounts and spread through phone calls made via the app.

A phone call would suffice

In practice, it works remarkably simple: an attacker uses WeChat to call a person they have in their contacts list (this is a prerequisite). They can use both an Android and an iOS device, and can call anyone, regardless of the model or the OS they’re using. As soon as the phone starts ringing, WeWorm gets to work, “worming” its way into the victim’s device.

The victim does not even need to answer the phone - having it ring is enough. If they answer, they’ll hear nothing but silence, yet the worm will continue operating. If they decline the call, the attack stops, but this is hardly a mitigation - the attacker can simply call again while the victim is asleep (or otherwise away from their device).

Within a few seconds, the attacker will have access to the victim’s WeChat account, including their messages, contacts list, and virtually anything else found in the app. What makes this bug particularly worrisome on the surface is the fact that WeChat can be used to transfer money and pay for things, but WeChat Pay has additional authentication and risk controls designed to prevent that from happening.

The good news is that there is no evidence of this flaw being exploited in the wild. The bad news is that this is not the first zero-click flaw found in modern-day smartphones, and most likely will not be the last one.

Tencent's response

Calif said it responsibly disclosed its findings to WeChat’s parent company Tencent, who came back with a patch. Versions 8.0.77 for Android and 8.0.76 for iOS have apparently solved the problem, although

Tencent did not list any details in its patch notes, simply saying the version brought “bug fixes”, but in a statement shared with The Hacker News, it said the exploit has been “mitigated for all users”, and that it was applied server-side - users need not install anything, aside from the patch.

It’s also worth mentioning that WeChat has apps for HarmonyOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux. However, it would appear that Calif did not test those, and Tencent did not include them in its patch. The researchers did say that they would be looking into this same flaw in other products, too:

“This specific WeChat bug is one instance of the many unconventional attack surfaces that are present across many messaging apps,” they said. “We're conducting more of this research across other apps and attack surfaces, while working with app developers on attack surface reduction. This may take an industry-wide effort, since some of it depends on the platform owners. Once that work is further along, we'll share our progress, including the technical details of this WeChat bug.”

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Creative Assembly says it wanted to 'authentically simulate' the Warhammer tabletop experience for Total War: Warhammer 40,000 by adding references, lore, and more

• Creative Assembly has explained how it designed a faithful Warhammer player experience for Total War: Warhammer 40,000
• Battle product owner Dave Petry says the team didn't directly recreate the tabletop systems, but tried to "authentically simulate" them
• Creative Assembly continued its "trusting" relationship with Games Workshop, which shared its "infinite knowledge"

Creative Assembly worked closely with Games Workshop to ensure the Total War: Warhammer 40,000 player experience was as "authentic" to the tabletop game as possible.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom, lead designer Joy Dey and battle product owner Dave Petry discussed the upcoming strategy game's combat system and shared how it was able to faithfully translate the feeling of Warhammer's tabletop systems.

Rather than a complete one-to-one recreation, Petry explained that the goal was to "authentically simulate" the feel of the tabletop's combat.

"We really, really care about trying to authentically simulate the feeling of the type of combat, whatever period or kind of warfare that it is, right?" Petry said. "So in a historical, obviously, war on Earth, and generally we have the sorts of weapons that you have on Earth. When it's fantasy, it's magic and mages and all that sort of stuff, and obviously, with the science fantasy and 40k, the biggest reference point you have to that is the tabletop.

"But it's not necessarily like the be-all and end-all of it," he continued. "We're not transposing the tabletop, right? We're trying to create an authentic sense of the lore and the kind of combat that's there, but the love for the tabletop absolutely is present."

Petry said that, like so many fans, he's been playing and collecting Warhammer 40k since he was young and confirmed that references and nods to the universe, like names, abilities, and lore, are in the upcoming strategy game. However, he said some elements of the tabletop game "just don't fit" with the game's real-time simulation

Creative Assembly also focused on making the game feel "familiar" to the Total War franchise; combat has also been scaled up, and he explained that macro positioning, where the player's forces are, flanking, and enemy morale are all things that come into play.

Petry said positioning in particular is being treated as "an interpretation of the lore and the universe, with the tabletop being one of the most important references."

The developer also added that Creative Assembly continued its long-standing collaboration with Games Workshop to ensure authenticity, saying their "special relationship" has helped the studio combat issues it was dealing with.

"[If] we can't find the thing that quite works for [the game], or this piece of lore sounds similar, but doesn't quite work," Prety added, "And for them to be able to come back with their infinite knowledge of all of this stuff and go, 'Well, you're right. This doesn't quite fit, but over here we have something that actually might be able to do the job.'

"And that close or trusting collaboration has, I think, enabled us to create something that captures that authentic feeling."

Total War: Warhammer 40,000 launches in 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.

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