NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, May 9 (game #1063)

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, May 8 (game #1062).

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 #1063) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• PUFF
• EPISODE
• TIE
• SHOELACES
• PERIOD
• CHAIN
• SEASON
• THINK
• LANYARD
• FRIENDSHIP BRACELET
• CONVERSATION
• SERIES
• QUIPU
• BOA
• FRANCHISE
• MACRAMÉ

NYT Connections today (game #1063) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• YELLOW: Television components
• GREEN: Neckwear
• BLUE: Material fastened and looped
• PURPLE: Add a word that rhymes with “neice”

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 #1063) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: UNITS OF TV PROGRAMS
• GREEN: THINGS WORN AROUND THE NECK
• BLUE: STRINGS TIED IN KNOTS
• PURPLE: ____PIECE

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

NYT Connections today (game #1063) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1063, are…

• YELLOW: UNITS OF TV PROGRAMS EPISODE, FRANCHISE, SEASON, SERIES
• GREEN: THINGS WORN AROUND THE NECK BOA, CHAIN, LANYARD, TIE
• BLUE: STRINGS TIED IN KNOTS FRIENDSHIP BRACELET, MACRAMÉ, QUIPU, SHOELACES
• PURPLE: ____PIECE CONVERSATION, PERIOD, PUFF, THINK

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 2 mistakes

I got quite muddled with THINGS WORN AROUND THE NECK and STRINGS TIED IN KNOTS, starting off with a group that contained SHOELACES, FRIENDSHIP BRACELET, TIE and QUIPU. I incorrectly thought the latter was the name for a bootlace tie, but I now know it's the name of an ancient abacus.

Eventually I got there and after eliminating the blue group, UNITS OF TV PROGRAMS suddenly seemed blindingly obvious.

As someone who has written a fair amount of PUFF pieces (I had a short-lived job writing press releases about ovens) I really should have solved the purple group — alas, it passed me by.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Friday, May 8, game #1062)

• YELLOW: CANOODLING FIRST BASE, MAKING OUT, NECKING, TONSIL HOCKEY
• GREEN: FIVE-SIDED THINGS HOME PLATE, JEANS BACK POCKET, SCHOOL CROSSING SIGN, THE PENTAGON
• BLUE: UNEXPECTED PLACES TO BE "OUT OF" LEFT FIELD, NOWHERE, THE BLUE, THIN AIR
• PURPLE: ENDING IN CANDY BRANDS MINUS "S" BURGER KING WHOPPER, FILM NERD, MEMENTO, PITCHER'S MOUND

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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NYT Strands hints and answers for Saturday, May 9 (game #797)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands 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 Strands hints and answers for Friday, May 8 (game #796).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

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

NYT Strands today (game #797) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Garden variety

NYT Strands today (game #797) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• PAIRS
• DIGGER
• GASP
• CHIN
• GUIDE
• TIDES

NYT Strands today (game #797) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 13 letters

NYT Strands today (game #797) - hint #4 - spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: left, 8th row

Last side: right, 8th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #797) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #797, are…

• ARTICHOKE
• LETTUCE 
• RADISH
• ONION 
• ASPARAGUS
• SPANGRAM: SPRINGVEGGIES

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

I initially thought I was playing yesterday’s game again but the themes are subtly different — yesterday it was “garden variety” as in commonplace and today it’s “garden varieties” as in the many vegetables one may grow in an actual garden, specifically in springtime. 

That sorted out, I spotted ARTICHOKE almost immediately. Well, that’s a lie, I spotted “choke” immediately and then wondered if it could actually be ARTICHOKE. 

After getting LETTUCE it was all pretty rudimentary, as each word was layered over each over in a growing heap — a bit like compost I suppose.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday, May 8, game #796)

• BASIC
• PROSAIC
• COMMON
• ORDINARY
• PEDESTRIAN
• SPANGRAM: RUNOFTHEMILL

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

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The Wayback Machine faces another threat from AI — ridiculously expensive hard drive prices

• The Wayback Machine is under threat from AI once more
• The AI boom has tripled the price of the large hard disks needed for this expansive archive of the web
• This is a further danger posed to the Wayback Machine, which is also in trouble due to news sites blocking its web crawler, which is again due to AI

It's an increasingly desperate time for those trying to keep a record of the history of the web, as AI is again proving a serious stumbling block to the efforts made by the likes of the Internet Archive — and this time it's about soaring hard drive prices.

You may recall that last month, we covered another angle on the difficulties AI has been causing the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. This is the non-profit organization's history of the web, and there's a problem in that, as part of measures designed to foil AI scraping their content, online news sites are increasingly blocking the web crawler the Internet Archive uses to compile the snapshots of web pages that comprise the archive.

And now, 404 Media reports (via Tom's Hardware) that the Internet Archive is suffering due to the hard drive shortage brought on by AI (as more large drives are needed in data centers for AI workloads).

Yes, the AI boom is not just about LLMs (Large Language Models) eating your RAM and SSDs, but also hard drives (as well as indirect effects on other components).

The huge hard disks — on the order of 30TB — that the Internet Archive needs to host the Wayback Machine's historical record are now up to three times more expensive, or indeed completely out of stock. In this way, the AI boom is now a "very real issue costing us time and money," the Internet Archive's founder Brewster Kahle commented to 404 Media.

With some 210 petabytes (210,000TB) of web page snapshots in its library, which is expanding by 100TB daily, you can appreciate the scope of the web archiving that's going on here.

Wikipedia's parent non-profit, the Wikimedia Foundation, is reportedly facing similar struggles, as you'd imagine. It has some 65 million articles to host, which takes up a lot of drive space. A Wikimedia Foundation spokesperson told 404 Media that the main problems are the "purchase of memory and hard drives", but also lead times on server deliveries.

(Image credit: Ollyy / Shutterstock)

Analysis: workarounds aplenty — but what about tape?

So, is the Wayback Machine really in danger? Are we going to see the wheels start to come off the 'living history of the internet'? Well, there's no immediate peril, as apparently donors and the community around the Wayback Machine are pulling together to work around the issue of spiralling drive costs.

Still, this is clearly a concern going forward — and the blocking of the Internet Archive's web crawler is even more so. The problem there is that the news sites are blocking AI scraping, but those blocks can be circumvented if the owner of the AI targets the content via the Wayback Machine instead. It's a thorny issue, but talks are ongoing, and hopefully both sides can come to some kind of resolution.

And on the drive front, if you're wondering why the Internet Archive can't switch to tape as a storage medium, the catch there is that it's a 'living' archive of the web — as in it's online, for people to access those web page snapshots on demand. As such, hard drives are needed for that access to be responsive. Tape simply isn't up to snuff performance-wise in this case.

The Internet Archive does use tape, mind, for longer-term backups of content, but it's only part of the puzzle in that respect. Hard drives are vital for the actual day-to-day functioning of the Wayback Machine as we know it, in terms of being able to quickly serve users the content they need online.

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The RAM crisis isn't alone anymore, PC users — a new report suggests there is now a motherboard manufacturer crisis, and it seems it's only going to get worse

• The RAM crisis has reportedly resulted in a motherboard manufacturer crisis, according to Digitimes
• Digitimes' report suggests motherboard shipments have plummeted for four major Taiwanese manufacturers
• Consumers no longer have the incentive to buy motherboards for new PC builds due to unaffordable RAM kits

The AI boom and ongoing economic struggles continue to leave the PC hardware market in disarray, and a recent development suggests matters are only getting worse.

As reported by PC Gamer, a new Digitimes report indicates a 'collapse' for motherboard manufacturers and their shipment targets for 2026, due to the memory crisis.

Unsurprisingly, RAM shortages and price hikes have effectively discouraged consumers from building new PCs, which has a knock-on effect of leaving motherboards on the shelves.

Notably, the report states that Asus is among the four major Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers that lowered shipment targets at the end of 2025, and has still experienced a collapse in shipments. It also claims that Asus has only managed to ship 5 million motherboards in the first half of 2026, despite aiming for 10 million overall.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Frankly, those numbers are regarded as one of the worst for Asus, as it's said to mark the 'lowest point in Asus's motherboard shipments since the company split in 2008', and also worse than the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A similar case applies to MSI, which was reportedly estimating 11 million motherboard shipments but has fallen to 8.4 million for 2026.

Yes, these cases don't directly impact consumers, especially given the lack of consumer incentive to buy motherboards (which is part of the issue, but not to blame), but in theory, low motherboard sales could lead to a drop in production for the major manufacturers.

If the RAM crisis does dissolve, there will likely be a sudden demand for motherboards where production has been severed, ultimately leading to skyrocketing prices and shortages. It's quite evident that the AI boom has done immense damage to the PC hardware market, but we can only hope that it isn't irreparable.

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'This is not facial recognition' — Meta wants to scan kids' height and bone structure to verify their age

• New AI tools for verifying ages are being rolled out by Meta
• Instagram and Facebook is for users aged 13+
• A "visual analysis" will weigh up height and bone structure

Age verification for sites, apps, and devices is fast becoming the norm as regulators look to protect children from potentially harmful content — including content on social media. Now Meta has announced new "age assurance measures" for teen users and predictably, they are powered by AI.

Specifically, the system will use contextual clues associated with a profile (such as mentions of birthdays or school grades) together with a "visual analysis" to help figure out how old a user is.

"We want to be clear: this is not facial recognition," says Meta. "Our AI looks at general themes and visual cues, for example height or bone structure, to estimate someone's general age; it does not identify the specific person in the image."

Users suspected of being too young for Facebook and Instagram (so under 13) will have their accounts deactivated. They'll then need to provide some form of proof of age through a specific age verification process to get their account back.

'Safe, positive experiences online'

Teen protections for Instagram and Facebook are heading to more regions (Image credit: Meta)

Other Facebook and Instagram users can report accounts that they think are being used by kids under the age of 13, and Meta says it hopes to "significantly increase the number of underage accounts we identify and remove" through these methods.

"We want young people to have safe, positive experiences online," says Meta (though some would disagree). "For over a decade, we've built tools, features, and resources to help teens have safe, age-appropriate experiences on our apps."

Similar AI techniques are already being used to spot teenagers on Meta's platforms, and shepherd them into teen-appropriate spaces on these platforms. This tech is now expanding into more regions (including Facebook in the US and the UK).

Meta's announcement ends with a familiar call that we've heard before from the developers of apps and websites: to force age verification at the device level, so it's a problem for Apple, Google, and Microsoft rather than Meta.

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Vine is coming back, and it’s being relaunched by the guy who killed it — say hello to Jack Dorsey’s Divine, a TikTok and Instagram Stories rival with a ferocious ambition to end AI slop

• Vine is being relaunched as a new app called Divine
• It's being funded by Jack Dorsey, who acquired the original Vine platform in 2013
• It's invite-only for the time being, but a wider rollout is on the way

Vine was the social media platform that defined the 2010s, and it’s making a comeback after a nearly 10-year absence. Well, kind of.

The platform that spearheaded short-form vertical feeds with its iconic six-second looping videos is being relaunched as Divine and funded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, AKA the same guy who acquired Vine in 2013, and later put it to sleep in 2017. But the funniest thing about the reboot is that Dorsey has beaten Elon Musk to the punch, who previously teased restoring user access to the 2010s social media staple.

While this sounds like a dream come true for those who lived through the Vine days, Divine is invite-only for now, but the company is planning a wider rollout in the coming months. The company has also noted that while Divine is inspired by the original Vine platform, it operates entirely independently and has no affiliation with Twitter/ X.

That said, a lot has changed since Vine was shut down. Social media algorithms are smarter, and consumer habits have shifted — so how will Divine live up to TikTok, Instagram, and other rival kingpins?

vine reboot? there was something special about the original. hoping this takes off.April 29, 2026

Divine’s aim is two-fold: the first being nostalgia, which I think will be the catalyst for luring users. Divine will play host to an archive of over 500,000 videos from Vine’s golden days, giving you a one-stop place to relive some of the most famous online videos you probably still reference with your friends today, as well as allowing you to create and upload new content.

As far as its algorithm goes, Divine is taking an alternative approach and will let users choose how content reaches them, offering four options: Home feed, Discovery, Trending, and Hashtag feed.

“We believe that the monoculture of a single advertising-oriented algorithm is responsible for many of the issues experienced by other social media,” Divine details in its FAQs page.

(Image credit: Divine / iOS App Store )

The second part of Divine’s goal is to take a stance against AI-generated content, which involves combining a plethora of methods to create a robust AI detection tool.

ProofMode, the main component of this, is a tool that inspects metadata to detect AI that's used to generate audio, images, and videos. On top of this, Divine has a user reporting system in place in addition to machine-learning detection and human-in-the-loop (HITL) techniques.

Despite having to wait for the broader rollout, there’s no denying that Vine’s relaunch will excite an entire generation of internet nerds who got their first online video kick from Vine. Unlike the old musical.ly platform, which was then merged with TikTok, this is a different scenario.

It’s a full-on resuscitation of an app that, despite having a significant influence on the evolution of short-form videos, was quite short-lived, and you can best believe you’ll be getting a full review when I finally get my hands on it.

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AMD's CEO predicts 'higher memory and component costs' later this year — so brace yourself for Radeon GPU price hikes

• AMD has announced its Q1 results, with booming revenue driven by AI
• There's bad news for the gaming division, though, due to 'higher memory and component costs, ' AMD's CEO Lisa Su observed
• AMD's CFO has forecast 'gaming revenue to decline by more than 20%' in the second half of 2026 compared to the first half of the year

AMD just revealed its latest financial results, with good news for investors in the form of a major surge in revenue, but bad news for consumers, with more RAM-related worries looming on the horizon.

Tom's Hardware reports that AMD's Q1 2026 fiscal results witnessed a new record for data center revenue, as the AI boom drove further growth, but CEO Lisa Su warned of PC component price spikes going forward.

Su predicted that demand is going to wane with its client and gaming businesses – essentially the consumer side of AMD's hardware – in the second half of 2026 due to "higher memory and component costs".

So, yes, that means AMD's chief executive believes that after next month, as we head into Q3, RAM and other components are only going to get pricier.

With gaming, the damage done by price hikes could be quite considerable, as AMD's Chief Financial Officer, Jean Hu, observed: "We expect second half [of 2026] demand in gaming to be impacted by higher component and memory cost. We now expect second half gaming revenue to decline by more than 20% compared to the first half."

Analysis: Radeon price hikes – or indeed pricier consoles?

(Image credit: AMD)

In other words, compared to the first half of the year (of which less than two months now remain – with time flying by, as ever), the second half of 2026 is going to be considerably more sluggish for AMD's gaming revenue. The expectation isn't just a 20% drop, but a more than 20% fall, so that could be a quarter less money raked in, or maybe more, up towards 30%, even.

This would seem to indicate that AMD's Radeon graphics cards are going to be in shorter supply in Q3 and Q4, and that there may be further price hikes on RX 9000 models. Clearly, AMD is expecting things to slow down with these graphics cards as 2026 rolls on, but its gaming revenue isn't just about Radeon, of course – Team Red also makes the semi-custom GPUs for the PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

Sales of those consoles are softening naturally, mind you, given that they're in the later stages of their expected lifespan now, so we're reaching saturation levels for would-be buyers. What could also be factored in here is the price hikes for console hardware, causing further unwillingness to buy – or possibly, AMD is anticipating further PS5 or Xbox price rises later this year, compounding the misery.

That's just guesswork, but clearly the outlook isn't great for the second half of 2026, and this is the latest in a quickfire round of pessimistic RAM crisis predictions, two of which have come from memory chipmakers themselves. Micron has warned of growing AI demand and more pressure on RAM supply, while Samsung has observed that 'significant shortages' of memory will continue to plague us through 2027 as a best-case scenario.

There isn't much faith out there in Reddit-land that RAM pricing will recover anytime soon, or indeed that prices will ever reach the levels we saw last year, before the memory hikes started coming thick and fast.

As one Redditor put it in reaction to this news from AMD: "My prediction is that over 2027 prices will drop from an insane 400% [price increase] to a nice and summerly 200%. But they'll never fall lower than that ever again. The RAM economy will permanently change and data centers will be a nuisance for the rest of recorded time."

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Someone has built a gaming PC the size of a room, complete with giant fans and air conditioning for cool operation — and also a sauna for some reason

• A PC modder just built a room-sized gaming PC, fit with an air conditioner and a sauna
• The gaming PC has hardware components larger than a human
• The RAM sticks are props that are estimated to be 18,000GB of RAM each

Gaming PC builds come in all different shapes and sizes, either targeting improved airflow and temperatures or prioritizing desktop space — but this one takes the cake.

As reported by VideoCardz, a modder known as Soda Baka on Bilibili, has built a gaming PC the size of a room, with gigantic fans, a large GPU, CPU, and an AIO cooler. These are accompanied by an air conditioning unit to help control room temperatures and a literal 12,000W sauna with added water to help simulate the heat of a regular-sized gaming PC.

It's worth noting that the RAM sticks in this build are only props, and that's no surprise, since the estimated capacity based on their scale is 18,000GB of RAM each. That would already cost a fortune on its own, but we're in the middle of a RAM crisis, so I couldn't even imagine how costly each RAM stick would be.

Baka's project is easily one of the most ludicrous PC building projects out there, and has almost no real-world use case, as I struggle to imagine anybody has the resources readily available — or better yet, any reason to build a system like this, but it's great for aesthetics.

(Image credit: Soda Baka / Bilibili)

It's quite an amusing solution to summer heat (minus the sauna), with a significant amount of room for a gaming PC's operation and the addition of an air conditioning unit.

However, in a more practical and reasonable use case to help keep temperatures cool, it's best to simply invest in an AIO water cooler for the CPU, and look toward undervolting the GPU where possible. I've done exactly that with my main gaming PC build, and temperatures for both my RTX 4080 Super and AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D — and both max out at 65 degrees Celsius.

That's easily achievable, without building a room-sized gaming PC, but again, it is a perfect themed environment for any gamer.

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NYT Strands hints and answers for Wednesday, May 6 (game #794)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands 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 Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Tuesday, May 5 (game #793).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

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

NYT Strands today (game #794) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Get-up-and-go!

NYT Strands today (game #794) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• DAME
• MAIN
• SAILS
• CLAIM
• PAIL
• RISK

NYT Strands today (game #794) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 12 letters

NYT Strands today (game #794) - hint #4 - spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: left, 6th row

Last side: right, 1st row

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

NYT Strands today (game #794) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #794, are…

• SOAR
• CLIMB
• ASCEND
• SPARKLE
• SHIMMER
• RADIATE
• SPANGRAM: RISEANDSHINE

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

Yesterday we had DIGITALCLOCK and today we have RISEANDSHINE. Is someone at NYT receiving subliminal messages about their tardiness via the medium of Strands, I wonder? Or maybe it’s just a coincidence…

Either way, this was a great game to get the brain working at the start of the day with a few tricky spots among the more obvious ones like SOAR in the board's key position of the top left-hand corner.

Meanwhile, please tell me I wasn’t the only one to miss that the diagonal spangram divided the game into two sets of words — rising on one side and shining on the other. 

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday, May 5, game #793)

• ALARM
• SNOOZE
• TIME
• RADIO
• DATE
• DISPLAY
• TUNER
• SPANGRAM: DIGITALCLOCK

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

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NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, May 6 (game #1060)

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 Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, May 5 (game #1059).

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 #1060) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

[NB: you're going to need to look at the image above for this one]

• [two parallel horizontal lines]
• [nine small rectangles arranged in two rows]
• [two squares, each containing a circle in the centre]
• [a square with two smaller squares in the top right corner, each containing a rectangle]
• [a rectangle containing three smaller rectangles, the left and right of which contain a circle]
• [A circle containing four smaller circles]
• [A circle containing three smaller circles]
• [A circle]
• [10 small circles arranged in a triangle]
• [two parallel vertical lines]
• [five rectangles arranged in an overlapping fan]
• [two circles linked by a long oval, above another one]
• [Er… it looks like a sled?]
• [piles of circles]
• [A single horizontal line]
• [Two vertical lines close to each other on the left, and the same on the right]

NYT Connections today (game #1060) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• YELLOW: Seen in a gambling setting
• GREEN: How to keep things together
• BLUE: Spotted where you get strikes and spares
• PURPLE: Stick them on a pole

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 #1060) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: FOUND IN A CASINO
• GREEN: WAYS TO FASTEN THINGS
• BLUE: SEEN IN A BOWLING ALLEY
• PURPLE: FLAG DESIGNS

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

NYT Connections today (game #1060) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1060, are…

• YELLOW: FOUND IN A CASINO CARDS, CHIPS, DICE, SLOT MACHINE
• GREEN: WAYS TO FASTEN THINGS BUCKLE, BUTTON, LACES, ZIPPER
• BLUE: SEEN IN A BOWLING ALLEY BOWLING BALL, BOWLING PINS, LANE, SCORECARD
• PURPLE: FLAG DESIGNS CIRCLE, HORIZONTAL BISECTION, HORIZONTAL TRISECTION, VERTICAL TRISECTION

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 mistake

As is the case whenever Connection does anything different, my first reaction is discombobulation. Experience, however, has taught me to pause and look carefully, because often games like this turn out to be the simplest of all. 

That was almost the case today. I saw the flags immediately, but missed the tile with a plain circle indicating Japan initially — picking what was supposed to be bowling lanes.

Just one mistake and a purple first from a baffling set of pictograms. I’m pretty satisfied with that to be honest. Hope you saw the threads too.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Tuesday, May 5, game #1059)

• YELLOW: GLIMMER FLICKER, HINT, SUGGESTION, WHIFF
• GREEN: INVOLUNTARY ACTIONS BLINK, HICCUP, SHIVER, SNEEZE
• BLUE: KINDS OF KNOTS BEND, BOWLINE, HITCH, SHEEPSHANK
• PURPLE: STARTING WITH UNITS IN COMPETITIONS GAMELAN, MATCHSTICK, POINTER, SETBACK

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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NYT Strands hints and answers for Tuesday, May 5 (game #793)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands 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 Monday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, May 4 (game #792).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

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

NYT Strands today (game #793) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Get up!

NYT Strands today (game #793) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• CLAM
• MEAL
• SPIRE
• TONE
• ZOOT
• SOON

NYT Strands today (game #793) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 12 letters

NYT Strands today (game #793) - hint #4 - spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: left, 2nd row

Last side: right, 8th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #793) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #793, are…

• ALARM
• SNOOZE
• TIME
• RADIO
• DATE
• DISPLAY
• TUNER
• SPANGRAM: DIGITALCLOCK

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

Does anyone still use a DIGITALCLOCK? I know they do in TV shows and movies — especially when the storyline needs to indicate the drudgery of the daily grind. But in real life? 

My memory was instantly jogged by today’s search, back to simpler times and this piece of tech’s most-used feature: the SNOOZE button.

Today, I use my phone as an alarm clock and set three alarms to nag me awake. The first is the ideal waking time if I was a properly functioning adult, the second is the “you need to wake up now” alarm, and the third is the “if you have not cancelled this alarm you are going to be late” alarm.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Monday, May 4, game #792)

• CEDAR
• ASPEN
• DOGWOOD
• BIRCH
• CYPRESS
• EUCALYPTUS
• SPANGRAM: BRANCHOUT

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

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NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, May 5 (game #1059)

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 Monday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, May 4 (game #1058).

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 #1059) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• HINT
• HITCH
• POINTER
• HICCUP
• BEND
• SETBACK
• BLINK
• SUGGESTION
• SNEEZE
• WHIFF
• SHIVER
• FLICKER
• GAMELAN
• SHEEPSHANK
• MATCHSTICK
• BOWLINE

NYT Connections today (game #1059) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• YELLOW: Shimmer
• GREEN: Can’t be helped
• BLUE: All tied up
• PURPLE: Elements of tennis scoring

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 #1059) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: GLIMMER
• GREEN: INVOLUNTARY ACTIONS
• BLUE: KINDS OF KNOTS
• PURPLE: STARTING WITH UNITS IN COMPETITIONS

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

NYT Connections today (game #1059) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1059, are…

• YELLOW: GLIMMER FLICKER, HINT, SUGGESTION, WHIFF
• GREEN: INVOLUNTARY ACTIONS BLINK, HICCUP, SHIVER, SNEEZE
• BLUE: KINDS OF KNOTS BEND, BOWLINE, HITCH, SHEEPSHANK
• PURPLE: STARTING WITH UNITS IN COMPETITIONS GAMELAN, MATCHSTICK, POINTER, SETBACK

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

My only moment of hesitation in today’s game was connecting HITCH, SETBACK and HICCUP thinking we were looking for a group about unexpected delays, but thankfully I held back as I couldn’t find a fourth.

Instead, I took the leap and joined the dots between the four INVOLUNTARY ACTIONS and KINDS OF KNOTS.

I saw STARTING WITH UNITS IN COMPETITIONS too late — although surely the link is specific to the game, set and match of tennis?

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Monday, May 4, game #1058)

• YELLOW: TENDER-HEARTED PERSON MARSHMALLOW, SOFTIE, SWEETHEART, TEDDY BEAR
• GREEN: PELLET-FILLED THINGS BEANIE BABY, DESICCANT PACKET, EYE PILLOW, HACKY SACK
• BLUE: THINGS WITH KNOBS CONTROL PANEL, ETCH A SKETCH, RADIO, STOVE
• PURPLE: STARTING WITH FAMILIAR NAMES FOR KINDS OF DOGS CHOWDER, DOODLEBUG, LABUBU, PITTER-PATTER

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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Microsoft continues the good work on Windows 11, with tweaks to 'quiet' ads — and that big taskbar change is 'coming soon'

• Microsoft has toned down the ads and annoyances with Windows 11's widgets panel
• In testing, the new default settings are a lot less in-your-face and distracting
• This is part of a large slab of work to improve Windows 11 in the past month, and Microsoft has further promised another major change is inbound for the taskbar soon

Microsoft has made a useful move to tame ads on the widgets board in Windows 11 (as previously promised), and it has updated us on the overall progress in fixing the OS so far – complete with an assurance that the big taskbar change some folks are desperate for is coming soon.

Windows Latest reports that in a preview build released a few days back in the new Experimental channel – which hosts the earliest test builds, before beta – there's a change to make the widgets board 'quieter', which is Microsoft-speak for less in-your-face with advertisements and promoted news stories.

Microsoft tells us: "We're working to make Widgets feel less distracting and overwhelming by making the experience quiet by default. To do this, we're testing a new set of default settings designed to reduce unexpected alerts and visual interruptions."

These new defaults mean that mousing over the widgets section on the taskbar will no longer cause the panel to pop up. More importantly, when the widgets board is summoned, you will get the "widgets experience on first launch", meaning by default the panel will be just widgets – with no MSN feed.

That MSN (Microsoft Network) feed is where Microsoft makes revenue from the widgets in the interface, pushing news stories and ads, and it's not something many people want to see – at least not by default. If you want to turn it back on, though, that's entirely possible with the new way of working, as you might expect.

Microsoft is also toning down taskbar badging for the widgets panel, which is when little notification dots pop up, say, for breaking news.

Remember that these changes are still only in testing for now, and at an early stage of that process too.

Analysis: 'top improvements' being pushed through

(Image credit: Future / Microsoft)

Essentially, Microsoft is smoothing over a bunch of distractions with the widgets panel here and turning off some of the advertising in Windows 11 by default. That's great news for everyone, and it's also a positive sign that, in its big revamp of Windows 11, Microsoft isn't afraid to make changes users really want, even if they could potentially interfere with its revenue stream.

I've recently written about my doubts about Microsoft calming down its upselling activities in Windows 11, so I'm pleased to see action actually being taken to pull back on some of the promotional nonsense that's included by default as part of the operating system.

These widget changes are mentioned in a lengthy blog post that Microsoft wrote about the "top improvements" that have started rolling out in testing, and it's quite a list, from making File Explorer speedier and improving system performance in general, through to a bunch of important changes to Windows Update.

Another key bit of info dropped here is Microsoft saying, "We know there's a lot of excitement for Taskbar customization – and that's coming soon."

So, the ability to move the taskbar away from the bottom of the screen (and other useful customization options) isn't far off, and that's good to hear. It seems that the rumors of this being a top priority for Microsoft were on the money.

All in all, it's good to see that Microsoft wants to stay engaged with Windows 11 users, and that it's keeping us all up to date regularly, and pushing promised changes through with some alacrity – including reining in some ad-related blights on the OS.

Fixing Windows 11 remains a mountainous task, don't get me wrong, but I'm starting to have more faith that Microsoft may actually pull this off.

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