• HKUST (Guangzhou) and HK PolyU researchers' InjectEave beams a radio carrier at devices so their own circuits leak analog audio
• The leaked audio has already been decrypted by the device itself, making encryption offer no protection against such an approach
• The 30m headline needed a pricey amplifier pushing output to 10 W, while standard ranges of 1 to 6m were measured by detecting a test tone

Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University have shown that everyday headphones, a desk phone, and a handful of smart-home gadgets can broadcast what they are doing simply by using a radio signal.

The technique, called InjectEave, was presented at USENIX Security 2026 in Baltimore, and multiple outlets have since covered the researcher's claim that the attack "can recover headphone audio from up to 30 meters away, including through walls".

The claim may be accurate, but it has limitations, including the need for specialized equipment that is often very noticeable in most settings.

An impressive technical show with plenty of limitations in tow

Conventional electromagnetic eavesdropping waits for a device to leak. That works poorly for audio, because speech sits below 20 kHz while a device's wiring radiates efficiently only at megahertz or gigahertz frequencies.

InjectEave chooses to close the gap by transmitting a carrier signal at the target. According to the paper, nonlinear components such as amplifiers, analog-to-digital converters, switching MOSFETs, and power converters mix the secret signal onto that carrier, and the device's own traces and cables radiate the result back to a receiver.

Because the leak happens in the analog path, after audio has been decoded, the project page states that "InjectEave is immune to digital defenses such as encryption, masking, and randomization." Encryption in any form on a wireless headset is irrelevant, since the attack directly targets the signal driving the speaker, not the radio link.

The team demonstrating this used a USRP B210 software-defined radio, two antennas, a Siglent spectrum analyzer, and a laptop to set up their proof of concept, which could, as they noted, "eavesdrop on the majority of these devices from over 2m away and through walls, with a maximum distance of 30m for recovering intelligible headphone audio".

This isn't the first time the technique has been used, even as the researchers have built on it considerably; the idea originates from "The Thing," a Soviet bug given as a gift to the US ambassador in Moscow in 1945, which was passively powered remotely as a listening device.

InjectEve, however, does not involve planting anything; instead, it leverages existing work on interference-induced leakage and impedance-based backscatter, and distinguishes itself by recovering coarse digital data rather than continuous analog waveforms, allowing users to 'listen in' without added steps.

The same approach applies to wired headphones, which are also prone to leaking microphone audio; researchers concluded that their sound cards were the primary source of the leaks, which were being sent back over very short distances.

The threat is somewhat tempered by the fact that it can capture what users hear but, with wireless headphones, cannot hear what the user is saying. The attacker also has to transmit continuously and use a high-powered (10W) transmitter to reach the full 30-meter range, even though capturing and rendering speech is harder than the tones the test used to prove the approach worked.

The attacker also needs to know the target model and profile a matching unit first, although they managed to get a profile to transfer cleanly across three identical UGreen headsets, suggesting this might be easier than one would assume.

The researchers say they reported the findings to the affected manufacturers but, "as we have not yet received a response," withheld the table's frequencies and stripped injection control logic from their released code. One shouldn't be too hopeful, however, as no software update can fix an analog leak, and it is relatively limited in practical abuse cases.

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 #1702) — hint #1 — Vowels

* 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 #1702) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1702) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1702) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

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 #1702) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

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

Quordle today (game #1702) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1702, are…

• COMFY
• LOBBY
• DRESS
• PANEL

After making a speedy start I ground to a halt trying to get my last word.

Fortunately, it only took me two guesses to find COMFY, but I wasted lots of time thinking I was looking for another double-letter word.

Daily Sequence today (game #1702) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1702, are…

• SPOOL
• LUPUS
• SHELL
• HAIRY

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1701, Monday, 21 September: WAXEN, HIPPO, PETAL, LEASH
• Quordle #1700, Sunday, 20 September: DERBY, LIMBO, GAWKY, REIGN
• Quordle #1699, Saturday, 19 September: SCOPE, HEIST, PULSE, CHAMP
• Quordle #1698, Friday, 18 September: MUCUS, MIRTH, APPLE, TILDE
• Quordle #1697, Thursday, 17 September: CRIER, CHIRP, NEIGH, FREER
• Quordle #1696, Wednesday, 16 September: SPEAR, PRICE, BLUNT, FISHY
• Quordle #1695, Tuesday, 15 September: SHUSH, LITHE, DELTA, BUGLE
• Quordle #1694, Monday, 14 September: ZEBRA, LEGAL, RATIO, TROLL
• Quordle #1693, Sunday, 13 September: LUCID, SPRAY, MANGE, EMAIL
• Quordle #1692, Saturday, 12 September: SUPER, BRUSH, RESET, SOWER
• 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

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 #933) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #933) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• FAIL
• SAVERS
• TWIN
• CHAIN
• VOTES
• SOIL

NYT Strands today (game #933) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #933) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

NYT Strands today (game #933) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #933, are…

• SWITCH
• CHANGEOVER
• TRANSITION
• PROGRESSION
• SPANGRAM: FALLEQUINOX

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 hint

Even as I was collecting the words I still thought that the theme was about work and the moment when the day shift and the night shift swap over.

It wasn’t until I got the spangram — I had been ignoring the game’s two rare letters until then — that the penny finally dropped and I understood that the words were connected to what AI tells me is “the precise astronomical moment when the center of the Sun crosses Earth's equator, marking the official astronomical start of autumn”.

Every day’s a school day with Strands!

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Monday, September 21, game #932)

• NEON
• LYCRA
• GRUNGE
• SCRUNCHIES
• TRACKSUITS
• SPANGRAM: NINETIESTREND

• Hackers are using blockchains to keep malware instructions available after servers disappear
• AI is making blockchain-based malware infrastructure easier for less experienced hackers
• Blockchain traffic is difficult to block without disrupting legitimate cryptocurrency services worldwide

Hackers are increasingly hiding malware instructions inside public blockchains, creating communication channels that can survive the removal of conventional infrastructure.

New figures from Chainalysis claim malicious blockchain activity increased 440%, with daily entries rising from 2.06 to 11.1 after newer AI systems emerged.

The technique gives attackers another way to maintain communication with compromised computers without relying entirely on conventional servers controlled by hosting providers.

Blockchain networks become malware dead drops

Blockchain dead drops use transaction data or smart contracts as lookup points, allowing infected computers to retrieve commands, addresses, or configuration information.

Because blockchain records are distributed across networks, removing a conventional server does not erase information already stored on the ledger.

A North Korean-linked operation associated with UNC5342 uses TRON and Aptos as alternate routes before retrieving encrypted instructions through the BNB Chain.

Its malware can check one network, switch to another when necessary, and retrieve updated addresses without receiving another malware package.

Iranian actors suspected of links to the country's intelligence ministry have embedded encoded routing information inside Bitcoin transactions used for malware retrieval.

Russian-speaking cybercriminals have also commercialized the technique, using Polygon contracts to provide blockchain-backed infrastructure for malware campaigns operated by different customers.

One related operator controls more than 50 BNB Chain resolver contracts while also conducting activity involving fraudulent tokens and clipboard-monitoring malware.

These operations show how blockchain records can function as persistent lookup infrastructure rather than merely serving their conventional financial and transactional purposes.

AI lowers the technical barrier

Chainalysis said the sharp increase in this malicious activity followed the arrival of high-capacity Chinese open models, which placed fewer restrictions on malware development requests.

Before those systems appeared, building reliable blockchain-based malware infrastructure required expertise across malicious software, cryptocurrency networks, and distributed communication systems.

AI tools can reduce that knowledge barrier by helping less experienced operators understand unfamiliar technologies and produce components needed for blockchain communication.

In the second quarter of 2026, state-linked groups accounted for roughly two-thirds of newly observed activity.

Those groups also represent about half of overall observed activity, indicating that blockchain-based malware infrastructure extends beyond conventional cybercriminal operations.

Defenders face difficulties because blocking blockchain traffic could also disrupt legitimate wallets, decentralized applications, exchanges, and decentralized finance services used worldwide.

Attackers can further complicate disruption by operating their own blockchain nodes, reducing dependence on external providers that defenders might otherwise pressure or disable.

Some operators have hidden server addresses inside wallet identifiers without usable private keys, then used zero-value transfers to trigger malware retrieval.

Those transactions leave public records that investigators can examine, potentially providing useful clues even when attackers attempt to conceal their infrastructure.

"While the exploitation of blockchain by state-linked organizations such as North Korea is becoming more sophisticated, on-chain records left by attackers can actually serve as important clues to track them," said Kwon Jun-hyeok, General Manager of Chainalysis Korea.

"Tracking these traces and identifying attackers and related infrastructure through blockchain intelligence will become increasingly important in responding to new cyber threats."

• So-called signal sharing between Microsoft and Google uncovered the RedVDS marketplace was behind large-scale cyber fraud
• RedVDS sold access to virtual machines running unlicensed software from which cybercriminals launched scams and directed attacks
• Threat data was shared securely via the Global Signal Exchange (GSE), a non-profit organization

A major cybercrime marketplace has been taken out of action thanks to cooperation between Microsoft and Google via a secure threat data sharing platform.

Known as the Global Signal Exchange, the collaboration led to the take-down of the RedVDS, an online cybercrime mall supplying virtual machines for launching phishing, business email compromise attacks, and more.

The marketplace – which provided quickly-deleted and therefore virtually untraceable VMs – was meticulously monitored by Microsoft’s security team, Digital Crimes Unit, with both Microsoft and Google suspending the operation and action taken to seize domains and servers.

A secondary case featuring the GSE identified a Microsoft-impersonating tech support scam, resulting, highlighting the importance of secure thread data collaboration platforms.

Digital Crimes Unit

Finding massive scams is not easy. Even with its own Digital Crimes Unit, Microsoft has to rely on information sharing with third party organizations. In this case, the RedVDS marketplace was identified ahead of disruptive action taken by Microsoft in January 2026, which applied to courts in the UK and US to have the RedVDS web domains seized.

Data shared via the GSE enabled Google to follow suit, identifying related accounts on its networks and suspending them. Meanwhile, servers were impounded in Germany, and Europol took action against Europe-based RedVDS servers.

It’s an impressive account of cooperative, decisive action against cybercrime, a collaborative response to what has been described as a “$66 million fraud marketplace.”

An incredible 130,000 organizations were targeted by RedVDS-provided virtual machines between September and December 2025, with 191,000 Microsoft email accounts compromised during this period. All of this access to cybercrime was available from just $24 a month for a basic scam-ready virtual machine.

The importance of collaboration

The Global Signal Exchange is a UK-based non-profit, co-founded with Google in 2025 with the aim of providing real-time monitoring of the cybercrime supply chain.

"Fraud does not respect company boundaries, and no single organization ever sees the whole picture," noted Emily Taylor, CEO at Oxford Information Labs and Co-Founder of the Global Signal Exchange.

"That is exactly why we built GSE: to give trusted partners a secure way to share what they know, quickly. These two cases are a good example of GSE doing exactly what it was designed to do."

The Global Signal Exchange’s role in the sharing of information between Google and Microsoft has highlighted the importance in such collaborations. Both organizations have stated they plan to continue sharing information through the GSE, whose other partners include Meta, Amazon, Google, among many others.

• ShinyHunters hacked rival gang Cl0p, stealing source code, logs, and onion service keys
• The gang defaced Cl0p’s site via Grav CMS flaw, posting their logo and taunts about past threats
• Feud recalls Conti’s collapse in 2022, raising risk of escalating “cyber war” between criminal groups

Infamous cybercriminal gang Cl0p has seemingly been hacked by an even more infamous data leak collective, ShinyHunters.

The attack is still being pieced together, but it would seem we have true hacker beef on our hands - which just might escalate into a full-blown cyber war.

ShinyHunters has added Cl0p to their data leak site, giving the hacking group 72 hours to pay a ransom or see all their files leaked into the cybercriminal underbelly. The files allegedly stolen in the attack include source code, Grav CMS plugins, system logs, and other information, Cybernews reports. We don’t know how much money ShinyHunters are asking to keep Cl0p’s files private.

Still downloading

"The data we stole includes source codes, gravCMS plugins, and other things. We are still downloading and reviewing them," ShinyHunters allegedly told BleepingComputer.

The group also said they stole everything in the server’s /var/log directory, including system activity records, authentication logs, and IP addresses associated with connections to the server. We doubt this could lead to the identification of any Cl0p members, and even if it could, it would mean very little since the members are likely Russian and thus mostly free to conduct their operations.

Doxxing might help defenders disrupt the group’s infrastructure, though.

Whether or not that will be needed, given ShinyHunters’ activity, remains to be seen. The attackers also said they stole the private keys for Cl0p’s Tor onion service:

"We have their onion keys. So if they kick us out it wouldn't matter at all because we control the private keys to host the same exact onion URL," the group said.

On top of it all, ShinyHunters defaced Cl0p’s website. Allegedly, the group found an unauthenticated file upload flaw in the Grav CMS Cl0p was using, gaining access to their target’s servers, website, and more. Cybernews confirmed the website had been defaced and now holds an ASCII image of ShinyHunters’ logo, and a link to their Tor site. It also displays a large message:

"THIS SITE HAS BEEN PWN3D BY SHINYHUNTERES #Skids10p - Maybe don't try to threaten us next time.” Furthermore, it says “rooting your systems since '19 ;)".

The “maybe don’t try to threaten us next time” message seems to refer to a threat that a Cl0p member made earlier. Apparently, this person threatened violence against ShinyHunters, as well as to expose their identities to the public. The remarks were made during Cl0p’s 2025 Oracle E-Business Suite attacks.

"During the Oracle EBS campaign they ran and stole from me last year, someone from cl0p personally messaged me and said, and I quote (translated from Russian): I have more money than you and all of your people combined, I'll kill you soon," ShinyHunters told BleepingComputer.

Dog eat dog

Cybercriminals often work together. They share resources, rent each other’s services, and often complement their campaigns. However, that doesn’t make them “friends” or “colleagues”, in any way. It is usually just a marriage of convenience that falls apart at the slightest sound of trouble. The last big “feud” we’ve seen was back in 2022, at the very start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Back then, a group called Conti publicly declared its “full support” for the Russian government and threatened to use its resources against anyone conducting cyberattacks on Russian infrastructure.

The announcement was a fiasco - many of Conti’s affiliates stopped working with the group, and others were openly attacking it. Soon after, a Ukrainian researcher and an alleged affiliate leaked more than 60,000 messages, exposing the group’s operations and internal organization.

All of this eventually led to Conti’s collapse later that year. However, its members did not disappear - they splintered into multiple groups such as Black Basta, Royal, and Quantum. Some of the crooks engaged in Conti are allegedly still active today.

Insta360 Link 2 Pro webcam: Two-minute review

Action camera brand Insta360 has been making a name for itself in the webcam space recently, breaking out with its first-ever webcam, the Link, back in 2022. Then we saw the Insta360 Link 2 in 2024, so while I was hoping for a Link 3 this year, instead we're getting an interstitial generation: say hello to the Insta360 Link 2 Pro.

I can't say I'm disappointed, mind you. The Link 2 was a fantastic webcam, and while the Link 2 Pro is a fairly straightforward hardware upgrade, I'm not one to complain about getting more of a good thing. The Pro model increases the price a bit, but also delivers improved internals: a bigger, better sensor and wider aperture for superior FOV and light balance mean that 4K video capture looks even prettier. It also adds a little gold trim around the lens.

Now, the Link 2 was already a pricey product, so there's no denying that the Insta360 Link 2 Pro is very expensive for a webcam, even a 4K-capable one. More on that further down in this review, but in short: want one of the best budget webcams? This ain't that.

But for professional users creating video content or making regular presentations over video conferencing, the Link 2 Pro should be a very serious consideration. It may not be cheap, but you get a lot of webcam for your money: the performance, design quality, and feature set are truly all best-in-class.

It's almost a bit surprising that more camera companies haven't made the jump to webcams. From old-guard industry titans like Canon to up-and-coming manufacturers like DJI, you'd imagine that more of them would want to capitalize on a product type that has only become more necessary in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of remote work.

But hey: their loss is Insta360's gain, having made a seamless jump from action-cams and drones to premium webcams. And make no mistake, the Link 2 Pro is indeed a premium piece of hardware.

The build quality on display here is nothing short of excellent. The casing is a pleasingly sturdy construction of matte plastic and metal, with a compact folding clip that snaps magnetically to the rotating gimbal mount, makning it easy to attach to any monitor. It also features an industry-standard threaded screwhole on the underside for fitting it to a tripod or arm mount.

Of course, the gimbal is arguably the star of the show here. A two-point mechanism that allows for both horizontal and vertical rotation of the main camera unit, the gimbal allows the camera to track your movements within a wide radius thanks to AI-powered head-tracking technology.

I tested this thoroughly, and it really works; even when I attempted to move completely out of frame, the camera was surprisingly adept at tracking my movements.

That's not all it's capable of, though. The gimbal also enables several of the Link 2 Pro's nifty presentation modes, including desktop mode (which points down to the surface in front of you, ideal for showing off physical documents), whiteboard mode (which frames and zooms on a whiteboard or similar presentation board), and the very clever 'pause-tracking' mode (which lets you designate a specific area where the tracking lingers naturally as it follows you around, creating a more dynamic feel to your footage).

It also doubles as a privacy feature (as opposed to a lens cover or camera killswitch), with the lens pointing directly down when not in use. A set of four 'recognition markers' is included in the box, which are used for some of the tracking-lock modes.

All this fancy functionality, as well as more 'conventional' features like light balance adjustment and digital zoom, is readily accessible through Insta360's free software. It's a solid tool that makes setting up your ideal video experience swift and seamless, but even better, it's also available as a phone app – perfect for quick adjustments without needing to fire up an extra piece of software on your PC while you're trying to record.

With all that fancy AI baked into the Link 2 Pro, you might be hoping for something a little more sophisticated than tracking modes. Worry not: like the previous Link 2, this webcam features a set of preloaded gesture controls, letting you control the camera with your hand movements rather than needing to adjust anything in the app.

These are fairly basic, but I found they worked well in practice. Holding up your palm freezes (or unfreezes) your tracking or auto-framing preset, holding up two fingers toggles the aforementioned whiteboard mode, and making an 'L' sign and moving your hand up and down lets you zoom in and out. It doesn't feel particularly natural at first, but I quickly found myself adapting to it.

Now, let's get to the meat of this review: how's that picture quality? Well, I'm very pleased to report that it's nothing short of excellent. Even in the poorly-lit, cramped little box of a room I call a home office, I don't think I've ever looked better on a monitor-mounted webcam.

4K footage is sharp and bright at 30FPS with solid color reproduction. The upgraded sensor and larger aperture compared to the previous model give the Link 2 Pro great performance across a range of light conditions, showing me clearly and well-illuminated whether it was the middle of the day with the curtains open or late at night by the light of my desk lamp.

The field of view is also reasonably wide at 83.9 degrees, making it easy to fit two or even three people in frame for presentations or podcasts. I've seen webcams with broader FOVs – in fact, I very recently reviewed the Razer Kiyo V2, which boasts an almost too-wide 91-degree FOV – but this is more or less perfect for mainstream use.

The built-in microphone array is pretty good considering that integrated microphones frequently feel like an afterthought on webcams. It offers clear enough audio capture with AI-powered background noise canceling for casual to intermediate users, great for stuff like Zoom meetings, but serious professional content creators will likely still want to invest in a proper standalone microphone.

In terms of flexibility of use, it's good, if not perfect. It's relatively compact, so while there are smaller and lighter webcams out there, you can still take it with you on the go if you work across multiple locations. If you fit it to a suitable mount, you can easily flip it onto its side to record vertical video for social media without any loss of functionality. The only issue is that it's a tad bulky to mount atop a laptop display unless your laptop has a particularly sturdy hinge, but that's a pretty minor issue in the grand scheme of things.

Overall, I'm finding very little I can criticize about the Insta360 Link 2 Pro. Other than the fact that it's undeniably expensive and will almost certainly be more than the average user actually needs, this is just a fundamentally great product that easily ranks among the best webcams on the market right now.

If I absolutely had to pick something to nitpick here, it might be that the Link 2 Pro lacks any kind of lens cap. Dust and debris getting stuck on or under the lens can be a real irritation with webcams, so it would have been a nice inclusion – especially considering that it's a pricey, high-end webcam. But that really is the definition of nitpicking; this is genuinely one of the greatest webcams I've seen in a long time.

Insta360 Link 2 Pro webcam: Price & availability

• How much does it cost? $249.99 / £239 / AU$439
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? The US, UK, and Australia

At $249.99 / £239 / AU$439, the Insta360 Link 2 Pro is the most expensive webcam the company offers, and it's undeniably a steep price for the average user. If you're purely looking for a high-quality 4K webcam and you're not bothered about fancy features, you could easily find one for half that price if you shop sales.

That being said, I'm not going to call this bad pricing. Considering that the Link 2 Pro is a high-end webcam aimed squarely at professionals who are serious about their hardware, along with the rich feature set and great picture quality it offers, I don't think the price is unreasonable – it's just not going to be worth it for more casual users.

Insta360 Link 2 Pro webcam: Specs

Should you buy the Insta360 Link 2 Pro webcam?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Insta360 Link 2 Pro webcam: Also consider

How I tested the Insta360 Link 2 Pro webcam

• Tested the webcam in video calls and recording
• Compared image quality to other webcams
• 8+ years of experience reviewing computer hardware

I've been using an Insta360 Link 2 as my day-to-day webcam for several months now, so I was curious to see how it compared to the Link 2 Pro. As per my usual process for reviewing webcams, I replaced my daily driver with the Link 2 Pro for just over a week, using it for my usual spate of workday video calls.

I also installed the relevant Insta360 software on my phone and PC to test out its functionality, and made sure to test the performance of the Link 2 Pro in a range of different light conditions by recording video and comparing the clips side by side.

I've been testing and reviewing PC hardware for more than eight years, starting at the PC-building hobbyist magazine Maximum PC before making the leap to TechRadar's computing team. I put all of my knowledge and experience behind each and every one of my product reviews, so you can be assured that you're getting an informed and bias-free judgement.

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed September 2026

• A recent update introduced a new bug affecting pasting in Excel
• Excel 2016 just got a hotfix, but Microsoft admits issues can persist
• Temporary workaround is available by selecting 'Paste Special'

Although a recent Microsoft Excel security update brought with it a highly annoying bug impacting copying and pasting functionalities across the spreadsheet software, it's already issued a partial fix.

Just days after the glitch was introduced with a September 8 2026 security update (KB5002914), the company has released a hot fix rather than forcing users to wait until the next cycle.

But this fix in particular only applies to Excel 2016, which is unlikely to have as much reach and global usage as Microsoft 365 versions of the app, therefore many users won't even have been aware of the issue.

Excel just got an important new fix

Other non-365 versions of Excel were also impacted. "In Microsoft Excel 2024, 2021, 2019, and 2016, as well as Excel Online in Office Online Server, the paste operation might fail silently," the company explained in a status update.

"Although users try to paste content, the source remains selected and the destination is unmodified," the update reads, confirming that users didn't receive an error message or sound to let them know of the failure.

Office LTSC 2021 and 2024 are officially fixed, Microsoft confirmed, but a only a mitigation is available for Office LTSC 2019 and Office 2016, so users may still experience some problems.

Thankfully, while a full fix is in the works, Microsoft offered up a pretty simple workaround. Pasting 'Special' from the Home tab is all it takes, with conditional formatting apparently causing headaches for now.

• Canva ProSuite connects Affinity, Cavalry, Flourish, and Leonardo into one ecosystem
• Affinity and Cavalry stay free as ProSuite gains over 100 additions
• Scene Decomposition uses AI to split flattened pictures into separate editable components

Canva is giving Affinity a major set of upgrades as it tries to make its professional creative tools more useful against established competitors.

The free software now adds photography, design, automation and file compatibility features alongside deeper connections with Cavalry, Canva and other creative products.

The changes form part of Canva ProSuite, which brings Affinity, Cavalry, Flourish and Leonardo together while keeping Affinity and Cavalry available without payment.

Affinity gets a major photography and design update

The photography changes are particularly extensive, adding batch importing and an improved RAW processing system for users handling large collections.

Preset looks can now be applied across multiple images, while new correction tools address mixed illumination and camera movement during editing.

Scene Decomposition uses AI to separate flattened pictures into editable components, allowing photographers to modify individual elements without rebuilding images manually.

A dedicated Astrophotography Studio adds specialized controls for photographers working with night skies and astronomical subjects during detailed image processing.

Affinity is also expanding the range of files it can handle, including support for bringing InDesign documents directly into the application.

The company says this gives users access to major industry file formats while reducing obstacles when moving projects between different creative applications.

Integration with Canva Brand Kit and Canva Sheets also adds a route for connecting design work with brand assets and structured information.

Other additions cover vector editing, typography, brushes, noise reduction, high dynamic range processing and export controls, giving professional users more options.

Sony ARW6 support, OpenColorIO display emulation, and improved output matching also extend Affinity's capabilities for photography and color-managed production workflows.

The release includes more than 60 Affinity additions, while Canva says ProSuite brings over 100 additions and changes across its connected products this year.

Canva connects Affinity with motion and AI tools

Canva is also connecting Affinity with Cavalry, its software for creating motion graphics and animations, as part of the new ProSuite.

Cavalry receives more than 50 changes, including new shape controls, lighting effects, graph editing improvements, and expanded SVG handling for motion designers.

The integration lets selected elements within Cavalry projects become editable inside Canva, while keeping the underlying animation protected.

This arrangement could allow teams to make limited changes without repeatedly sending modification requests back to motion designers and animators across team workflows.

Affinity and Cavalry can also connect with AI assistants through ProSuite's AI Connectors, allowing repetitive operations to be handled from natural-language instructions.

“We're genuinely excited to be releasing such a huge swathe of new tools for professional designers, animators, photographers and other advanced users,” said Duncan Clark, CEO of Pro Design at Canva.

“We asked professionals what they actually needed to power their creative work…there’s a lot of noise right now about AI replacing human creatives, but we believe professional craft matters more than ever. We want the Canva ProSuite to be where that craft lives and thrives.”

Affinity's new features, the Cavalry improvements and tighter connections across Canva's products give the free software a significantly larger professional toolkit.

Dell XPS 13 (2026): Two-minute review

The new Dell XPS 13 (2026) is a shift from Dell's usual modus operandi, finally bringing the premium-quality XPS line down to a more affordable space. If that sounds familiar, it's because Apple did the exact same thing earlier this year: the arrival of the MacBook Neo has shaken up the laptop market, and evidently left other manufacturers scrambling to front their own competition to Apple's new wallet-friendly MacBook.

But before I delve into how effective a frontline soldier Dell's new effort is in the never-ending battle between Windows and Mac, it's time for a brief history lesson: the lore of XPS, if you like.

Dell's XPS brand was unceremoniously killed off last year, before being suddenly resurrected at CES 2026, presumably because their executives realised that shuttering your single most iconic and well-loved brand is a bad idea (shocker, I know). But as I mentioned above, the return of XPS has seen a paradigm shift; while the Dell XPS 14 and XPS 16 are still the pricey, high-end laptops I've come to expect from the XPS lineup, the new XPS 13 is an entirely different beast.

It's still identifiably an XPS laptop, there's no denying that. From the ultra-thin chassis to the all-metal casing and minimalist logo on the lid, you'd be forgiven for thinking at first glance that this was just another premium XPS model.

But opening up the laptop betrays its more budget-conscious nature immediately; gone are the giant, edgeless touchpad and zero-spacing keyboard seen on this year's 14- and 16-inch models, replaced instead by more traditional fare. The touchpad and keyboard here wouldn't look out of place on the average Chromebook.

A peek at the spec sheet further solidifies the new XPS 13's position as a MacBook Neo rival; a lower-end hexa-core Intel Core 5 chip and only 8GB of RAM in the base model all point to this being a more sensibly priced product.

I'll dig into the performance specifics later in this review, but the good news is that the lower-spec hardware doesn't render the XPS 13 dangerously underpowered. This laptop is perfectly capable of handling everyday work, even if it's not a performant powerhouse like its bigger siblings. The battery life is also excellent, and the display is very high quality for the price point. In short, there's a lot to love here.

Unfortunately, there are a few things that hold this new breed of XPS back. The base configuration features only 8GB of RAM, which is fundamentally insufficient in the current era of Windows software, and the measly port selection may prove frustrating for some users. It's also just a bit too expensive to be considered a true rival to the MacBook Neo.

Now, it's arguable that this isn't entirely Dell's fault. The ongoing RAM crisis, spurred by skyrocketing demand for AI data center hardware, is causing the prices of all kinds of computer components to spike sharply. Shifting to 8GB of RAM in the base configuration is very likely to be a cost-saving move. Overall, I'd say that this is a pretty solid effort from Dell – just don't expect too much from it.

Dell XPS 13 (2026) review: Price & availability

• Starts at $699 / £749 / AU$1,597.20
• Student discounts help a lot
• Available worldwide

Brace yourself: this is going to be one of the longest price sections I've written for a review in a while. There's a lot to talk about here, sorry!

Apologies to our readers outside the US: the pricing of the Dell XPS 13 beyond America is pretty damn awful, to the point where I'm worried it might have already scuppered any chance of this laptop being a genuine competitor against the MacBook Neo.

In the US, the base configuration comes with a 256GB SSD, Intel Core 5 320 processor, and 8GB of RAM. It'll cost you a very reasonable $699, or $599 with a student discount – in other words, exactly the same price as the 256GB MacBook Neo.

However, I'd generally struggle a little to recommend that version. 8GB of RAM is simply substandard for running software in Windows 11 these days, especially if you plan to run multiple programs at once. Stepping up to the safer recommended 16GB of RAM (which also mandatorily bumps up the SSD to 512GB) will cost you $899, already taking us a fair bit beyond the competing MacBook Neo. Of course, there's no 16GB version of the Neo available, but it's worth noting that the 'unified memory' used by Apple's laptops is a bit more efficient than traditional laptop RAM.

Outside the US, things start to look dicey. For starters, there's no 256GB SSD configuration available in Australia, with the cheapest available models starting at £749 / AU$1,597.20 – a far less attractive prospect after accounting for exchange rates. And if you want to bump things up to 16GB of RAM, you're looking at a fairly steep £1,099 / $1,897.50. My review unit is the 8GB UK configuration with 512GB of storage, which will cost you £899 (though at the time of writing, it's already on sale for £769)

There are higher-spec models available, too, with the RAM configurable up to 32GB and the SSD up to 1TB, as well as the option to upgrade the CPU to a significantly more powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 355. This top-spec model will cost you $1,799.99 / £1,899 / $3,698.20 – and quite frankly, at that point you might be better served by opting for the more premium XPS 14. Configurations with the Core Ultra 7 processor also benefit from an upgrade to Thunderbolt 4-capable USB-C ports.

Overall, I'm not too impressed by the pricing of the Dell XPS 13, especially considering its market position as a Windows-toting rival to the MacBook Neo. There's certainly still an argument that it deserves a place among the best budget laptops (for buyers in the US, at least), but it's not the phenomenal value product I was really hoping to see when I first heard about it. Still, if you're a US shopper who wants a basic but effective laptop for work or school, it's not a terrible choice.

• Value score: 3 / 5

Dell XPS 13 (2026) review: Specs

Dell XPS 13 (2026) review: Design

• Impressively thin and light
• Premium build quality
• Port selection is feeble

Straight off the bat, despite its aggressive redesign and shift towards more conventional aesthetics, the 2026 Dell XPS 13 still feels like a premium product. I might have complained about the pricing further up in this review, but considering that the build quality remains solid regardless of which configuration you buy, I have to admit that I'm very pleased here.

The entire chassis is machined from high-grade aluminum, making it highly durable without compromising on weight. The whole thing weighs almost exactly one kilogram, and combined with the 13.4-inch display's slim bezels, it's a very portable laptop indeed.

It's also impressively thin, measuring just half an inch thick with the lid closed. The casing has rounded corners and a smooth matte finish, which is reasonably good at resisting scratches and fingerprint marks. It's available in a few different colorways, all muted metallic tones, with availability varying between regions and configurations.

The keyboard and touchpad are totally different from what we've seen on previous XPS 13 models, now trending towards functionality over style. The LED-backlit keys are reasonably spaced, comfortable to type on even for extended periods, and have a decent amount of travel despite the laptop's ultra-thin design.

They're perhaps a little spongy on full presses for my liking, with a bit of flex in the keyboard housing; something which I consider completely forgivable in a sub-$800 laptop, but might push some users towards the more premium typing experience of the XPS 14 or 16. Similarly, the touchpad has a satisfying click, but firm presses on the bottom corners feel a tiny bit flimsy – definitely not a dealbreaker for a budget laptop, but again, it gives me pause when it comes to recommending the higher-spec models.

Thankfully, some things haven't changed from previous models. The display is once again the star of the show here: a fantastic 2.5K touch panel, boasting good maximum brightness and impressive color reproduction, especially considering that the screen is the same regardless of which internal spec you opt for. If you get the cheapest configuration, you're getting plenty of bang for your buck when it comes to the display.

Looking at the rest of the physical design, it's all good without being spectacular. The speakers are integrated under thin slots on either side of the base and are reasonably loud for such a small laptop. Don't expect thumping bass here, but the volume is good without high notes sounding tinny.

The webcam is also decent, 1080p rather than the 720p resolution you'll find on many budget-conscious laptops. I've certainly seen sharper webcam footage, and the low-light performance is merely okay, but it gets the job done well for the most part. It also supports facial recognition logins via Windows Hello. The integrated microphone array is decidedly average, though, so I'd advise getting a decent headset if you plan to make regular video calls.

Lastly, we come to connectivity, which is perhaps the most mixed part of an already mixed bag. Wireless connectivity is top-notch; Wi-Fi 7 ensures speedy, lossless internet (assuming you're connected to a network that supports it!) while Bluetooth 6.0 is an exceedingly rare sight on any laptop under $1,000.

Physical connections, though? Yeah, this one's a wash. We criticised the MacBook Neo for only having two basic USB-C ports (no Thunderbolt 4 support), and it's the same case here. Granted, these are both USB 3.2, while one of the Neo's ports is a frankly pathetic USB 2, and springing for the higher-spec CPU upgrades both ports to Thunderbolt 4, but it's still just fundamentally not enough ports.

Considering that the only way to charge the XPS 13 is to use one of the only two ports available, you're down to just a single port any time it's plugged in. Power users who want to connect multiple peripherals are going to need to spend extra on a USB-C hub, and anyone who doesn't shell out for the more powerful CPU will be dealing with slower charging and data transfer speeds.

Overall, it's a well-designed laptop that feels like it should last for years, but I will be docking a point for the sheer dearth of ports. If you prefer to connect your hardware solely via wireless means, though, you should have very little to complain about here.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Dell XPS 13 (2026) review: Performance

• Decent everyday performance
• Gets a little warm under load
• 8GB RAM is simply not enough for heavier workloads

I'm a big believer in setting realistic expectations, so once I learned that my XPS 13 review unit was the UK standard configuration with 8GB of RAM and the decidedly low-end Core Ultra 5 320 CPU, I immediately tempered my hopes of great performance.

Despite this, this XPS 13 performed a bit better than I'd expected overall. Performance in my everyday workloads – including web browsing, word processing, and some light image editing in GIMP – was good, with virtually no slowdown even with half a dozen Chrome tabs open and Spotify running in the background. Windows 11 generally felt snappy and responsive.

The more you start to load it down with tasks, though, the more it struggles. The simple fact is that in the current age of computer software, 8GB of RAM just isn't sufficient for more complex or varied workloads.

It was a telling moment when Apple finally relented and upgraded the minimum starting memory on the best MacBooks to 16GB rather than 8GB back in 2024; the demands of modern professionals have shifted, and I was rather upset to see that the MacBook Neo has reverted back to 8GB as standard. However, this is less of a problem for Apple, since the 'unified memory' used in MacBooks is faster and more efficient than traditional DDR laptop RAM, and the company's total control of the Mac software/hardware ecosystem makes optimizing for less memory a bit easier.

So let's break down how the XPS 13's 8GB of RAM actually performed. I'll start with the bad news: some of my tests failed to complete altogether, loading up but then aborting. I've not seen this happen in quite a while, with the 16GB industry standard evidently shielding me from such failures.

In total, the XPS 13 failed eight of our standard benchmark tests, most of which were the more demanding 3DMark graphical tests. However, I also noticed some instability in other tests; Cinebench crashed several times before I was able to get stable readings, and 3DMark also crashed once before I was even able to start running tests.

The tests that did run showed decidedly lackluster performance in 3D rendering and similar creative workloads. This isn't a laptop you'll be squeezing in a few rounds of Marvel Rivals on, though I did manage to get Slay the Spire II running fine, so perhaps some 2D indie gaming is still on the table here.

Outside of regular testing, I also tried to fire up Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro. Both initially loaded without crashing, but were sluggish in practice, and Photoshop ended up crashing after about five minutes of use.

The Dell XPS 13 (2026) got rather warm during the more intensive tests. The thermal exhaust is a thin slot nestled into the display hinge, and while the fans remained impressively quiet throughout my testing, the underside of the laptop did get too toasty to comfortably have it actually on your lap while running resource-intensive software. It did remain cool and near-silent during regular office work, however.

The takeaway here is that while the 8GB model of the XPS 13 is perfectly capable of handling basic everyday workloads, it just doesn't have the oomph for anything more demanding than straightforward office or schoolwork. If that's all you want to do, the budget-friendly 8GB configuration should be fine; if you've got grander designs than that, you'll need to pay extra for a more powerful model.

• Performance score: 3 / 5

Dell XPS 13 (2026) review: Battery life

Intel's third-generation Core chips are clearly putting in some work here. Although the Dell XPS 13 (2026) only has a 52Wh battery (far smaller than the batteries you'll find on many ultrabooks these days), the efficiency of this chip can't be understated; our video playback battery test saw the laptop sail comfortably past the 16-hour mark.

There are laptops that can go for longer, but at this price point, that's a very respectable effort. It outstrips the MacBook Neo by nearly three hours according to our tests. I found that even at maximum brightness, with a Bluetooth mouse and headset connected and the Windows power mode set to Balanced, it could comfortably make it through an eight-hour workday without needing a charge.

The laptop also holds charge fantastically when not in use. My partner got sick, and I had to shelve this review for a couple of weeks, during which time the XPS 13 simply sat untouched on a desk in my home office. When I finally opened it up to start my review process, it was still at 90% charge. When plugged in, it charges up to full in just under an hour (though the higher-spec model with Thunderbolt 4 ports will presumably charge faster).

My only real criticism here is that it doesn't come with a power adapter in the UK and EU. Much like Apple's approach with the MacBook Neo, this is ostensibly due to local regulations that mandate consumers' ability to buy a laptop without a charger, but come on; you could include the option to add one at checkout. I've criticized Apple for this in the past, too: it's malicious compliance, and it's simply irritating for the end user.

• Battery life score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Dell XPS 13?

Scorecard

Buy it if…

Don't buy it if…

Dell XPS 13 (2026) review: Also consider

How I tested the Dell XPS 13 (2026)

• Tested for one week
• Used for a variety of workloads
• 8+ years of hardware testing experience

If you've read any of my other reviews, you'll already know the drill: I swapped out my daily driver (the excellent Asus Zenbook Duo 14) for the Dell XPS 13 for one full week, including the weekend.

This helps me get a proper feeling for how the laptop functions in everyday use scenarios, testing it out for a range of typical tasks including web research, writing articles, and image editing. Naturally, I also ran the laptop through our usual suite of synthetic benchmarking tests, including our looped video test for battery life.

I've been a computer hardware journalist for more than eight years, and working for TechRadar for half a decade. In that time, I've reviewed more laptops than I can remember for numerous different publications; the number is certainly in the dozens, quite likely into triple digits by now! I put every bit of experience and expertise I've gained over those years into my reviews, so you can rest assured that you're getting accurate, bias-free information.

• First reviewed: September 2026
• Read more about how we test

• Joint report from Japan, US, Germany, and Australia says Contagious Interview stole $10 million in crypto
• NK operatives used fake personas, companies, and “laptop farms” to infiltrate 30,000+ devices in 100 countries
• Agencies urge vigilance: verify applicants’ details, check IPs, validate certifications, and watch for crypto‑based payments

North Korean threat actors behind the infamous “Contagious Interview” campaign have so far compromised more than 30,000 devices across 100 countries, and have robbed around 7,000 people of their hard-earned cryptocurrencies.

The theft has brought more than $10 million to the North Korean government, a new report jointly released by law enforcement agencies in Japan, the United States, Germany, and Australia has found.

Fake everything

Contagious Interview is a hacking campaign running for almost four years now. Sometimes it’s also called Operation DreamJob.

The cybersecurity community in general attributes it to the government of North Korea, although more precise attribution is rather difficult.

Some researchers believe it is being done by the Lazarus Group, one of the largest and most influential state-sponsored actors around.

Others believe different groups are involved, labeled DeceptiveDevelopment, Gwisin Gang, Tenacious Pungsan, DEV#POPPER, PurpleBravo, or TAG-121.

Contagious Interview leverages the lack of skilled workers in the West to infiltrate organizations, steal sensitive data and ultimately, money. North Korean operatives would create entire fake personas on social media such as LinkedIn, and would apply to hundreds, if not thousands, of job ads across IT, healthcare, and other industries.

The personas are carefully crafted, using a mix of legitimate information stolen in data breaches (names, SSNs, addresses), and AI-generated images, video, and audio. If hired, the operatives would use their access to infect organizations with malware, steal login credentials and different access, and exfiltrate sensitive files and cryptos.

The operation works the other way around, as well. Crooks would create fake companies and fake job positions, and would then reach out to their targets to offer lucrative positions on exciting projects. As part of the hiring process, the candidates would be asked to download and work on code which, unknown to them, was malicious. The North Koreans would then pivot to their targets’ current employers, resulting in the same outcome.

Laptop farms

One of the ways organizations in the West are trying to combat this issue is by being mindful of the IP address and the location from which their employees are logging on. To work around this challenge, the attackers have set up “laptop farms” - facilities located abroad (usually in countries that don’t have that strict limitations, but are still NK-friendly, such as China), hosting hundreds of laptops. They would then access their targets’ networks through these laptops, to make sure their actual location is never revealed.

The primary targets are individual web designers, engineers, and specialists working in cryptocurrency, blockchain, and Web3 technologies, it was said. Businesses should be wary when they receive numerous applications in a short time, for a position where there are usually very few applicants.

“If possible, verify that IP addresses generally match the applicant’s claimed residence,” the report states. “Carefully check all contact information. Calling an applicant’s phone number may reveal the number is out of service.”

The agencies also warned that trying to get hired is often a group effort: “Even if a single individual appears to be applying, multiple people may be collaborating behind the scenes, inflating the perceived skill set.” Therefore, businesses should verify certifications by checking registration numbers and, in case of any inconsistencies, should ask for detailed explanations.

Asking personal details about the applicant’s hometown, weather, or hobbies, is often a good way to spot a scammer. Finally, it was said that North Korean IT workers tend to favor payment in cryptocurrency, and they may request that remuneration be sent to an account in another person’s name.

Contagious Interview has been ongoing for roughly four years now, and during that time it evolved significantly. Security agencies warn that changes to the standard practice could happen at any time, and that the variations to the theme should be expected.

• Some of those who've upgraded to macOS 27 aren't happy
• They're complaining about bugs with the interface and sluggishness
• The main problem is with Mission Control, but there's also flak being aimed at Apple due to other issues – and its testing department is under fire

Apple released macOS 27 Golden Gate last week, and some early adopters are flagging up bugs and regretting their upgrade – although others are finding the new version smooth sailing.

The Reddit 'megathread' on macOS 27 bugs and issues highlights some of the more common problems that those upgrading are running into, some of which appear to be more severe than others.

The biggest beef is with Mission Control which a number of macOS 27 users are describing as broken. It's in pretty bad shape by all accounts.

As one user put it in the above thread: "Been reading about this and finally tried it because I never use Mission Control and you're absolutely right. Most NON smooth experience I've ever seen on a Mac."

Someone replies to agree, and goes further: "It is, without a doubt, the most significant visual glitch I've encountered as a decades-long Mac user."

Another Redditor observes: "I'm a power user of multi-desktops and Mission Control and I can't believe they've broken such a fundamental feature. Yes, the animations are broken and sluggish, but the issue that breaks my workflow is when you drag a desktop to another monitor it leaves an unresponsive black screen behind.

"The only fix is to create a new desktop on the black screen, switch to this new desktop, then delete the new desktop."

In a separate thread complete with an illustrative video clip, another Redditor declared that Mission Control is "glitchier, laggier, and buggier," and that: "The animations judder, and sometimes when switching to a full screen app I'll get a completely black screen."

They added: "I've been using Macs for 20+ years, and remember [when] Exposé was released. Never have I ever experienced such a Windows-esque bug in macOS."

On top of this, there are complaints about sluggishness with some other areas of the interface in macOS 27 Golden Gate, including the menu bar and Control Center.

There are also frustrations being vented about Spotlight search not working properly, but this is apparently a symptom of the system reindexing after the installation of the new version of macOS.

Analysis: mission statement

The biggest problem is clearly Mission Control, but stuttering, sluggishness and glitchy animations can reportedly extend to other areas of macOS 27.

That said, there are a notable amount of folks who are finding that macOS 27 runs nice and smoothly for them, and they're praising it as a vast improvement over macOS 26 (although that isn't difficult given that Tahoe was a messy release for many reasons).

You may experience some slowdown with Golden Gate due to search indexing, as mentioned above, but once that work is done, those performance hiccups should disappear, and macOS 27 will hopefully settle down.

If you use Mission Control, though – and granted, a lot of people don't, as it's designed for power-users, and those running apps across multiple virtual desktops or monitors – it seems that for now, macOS 27 is best avoided. Those in this boat might want to wait until the 27.1 release in the hope that it brings a resolution.

It is a bit baffling that a feature should be pushed out in a clearly wonky state – there's no arguing that something is wrong with Mission Control – and this has brought up a related issue with Apple's beta testing of the desktop operating system.

As one tester tells us: "Many years ago, I did actually get responses [from Apple] to bugs submitted and updates on where it was heading. I've submitted a lot of bugs and since Tahoe (maybe earlier) I haven't received any feedback on my submissions and the bugs that I submitted still exist in the official release of Golden Gate. I don't think that anyone is reviewing the bug reports anymore."

That's in reply to a post that says: "The very long list of serious bugs were reported extensively and often during the beta to Apple. Apple did what they always do with macOS beta feedback. Your video [of the glitchy Mission Control interface] is the result."

Others agree that the process of beta testing and feedback seems to have gone downhill in recent times, hence the comparison of macOS to Windows. Microsoft has long taken flak for its QA department which, as I've argued many times, needs some serious attention – but this subject just isn't talked about. I doubt Apple will be talking about these testing-related assertions, either, but hopefully Mission Control will get the attention it needs behind the scenes.

For now, a good number of macOS users who stuck on Sequoia because Tahoe was overly buggy and problematic are still holding off upgrading to Golden Gate, and I can see why some folks might think it's prudent to exercise caution here. Those macOS 25 holdouts will continue to watch and wait, no doubt, and that's a bad look for Apple.

Beaming so brightly, I was tempted to measure his nits, President of Android Ecosystem at Google, Sameer Samat, grasped my hand tightly and asked, "So what do you think?"

Samat was referring to the five brand-spanking new Googlebooks arrayed around the room, all running Googlebook OS, the first hybrid lovechild of ChromeOS and Android.

A year ago in an interview with me ostensibly about Android 16, the over-sharing Samat let slip, "we’re going to be combining ChromeOS and Android into a single platform," and set the tech world on fire.

He said it so casually back in July 2025 that I scarcely grasped the significance. After all, there's been chatter about the idea for ages, but no one had confirmed it, and if it were true, it would mean Google was looking at the idea of an Android ecosystem in a whole new way.

Now, however, we have the fruits of that comment and all the labor in Googlebook OS and Googlebooks laptops from partners Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, and HP, which go on pre-order today and start shipping October 5.

Samat told me that he wanted five partner brands and not just two because he wanted to show the breadth of options and noted that they have some points of differentiation, like some have facial recognition, and other Googlebooks include a fingerprint reader. To this point, we have ultra-lights, like the 2.2lb Asus, and workhorses, like a 15-inch Lenovo, and pen-supporting convertibles from Acer. While there's a range of CPUs, from the Intel Core Ultra line to the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, and even MediaTek, they do all share some core Googlebook features.

There's the Glowbar, a thin, multi-colored bar on the top cover of all the laptops that lights up to let you know, among other things, that Gemini is at work, or to show battery status. There are even some Easter Eggs to discover. I wondered out loud if the battery status would work when the laptops weren't plugged in. Unfortunately, it's to show charge status.

Each laptop has a massive, haptic touchpad, and there's a G key for quick access to Google features, and a special Caps Lock key with instant access to text-based add-ons like emojis. They all offer the magic cursor, which you can jiggle to open screen-aware Gemini access, basically telling Gemini to do [this] with [that] on-screen element. They all also start with 16GB. Samat told me he was excited that they all start with the "right amount of RAM." 16GB means these natively Gemini-supporting portables are ready for a lot of local AI (the CPUs can reportedly handle up to 45 TOPs).

While a hybrid platform, there's no indication that this is a mobile OS in desktop clothing. Yes, there are things like customizable widgets (and ones you can create via prompts) that I, after a two-finger click on the trackpad, could endlessly resize and move, and access to all your Android Apps. But there are also desktop-level apps and services (online and offline access to Canva, Netflix, and Adobe apps), a dock, and a full file system.

One cool demo showed how you could search across files on your Googlebook and Android phone and even dig into inscrutable file names because the system can see inside files.

The Android infusion combines the Android in your hand and the Googlebook laptop on your desk. There's a single sign-on that recognizes you as one user on the phone and laptop. An email started on your Android phone can be continued seamlessly on the laptop (it does not yet let you go in the other direction). There's a small icon that appears in the dock, showing a tiny phone. You click that, and it opens the email draft on the laptop Gmail app.

The intention here is quite clear: a true Android ecosystem where, Samat told me, it all just works. "That's the dream," he said. The benchmark for such an ecosystem will always be Apple and how its laptops, desktops, phones, and wearables all work together. I asked Samat if I could expect similar levels of interoperability, zeroing in on how when I get an authentication code on my iPhone, it automatically appears on my MacBook Air. He said the unified messaging system will allow this, and added that they would've demoed it on stage that day, but wanted to keep the presentation relatively lean.

Before the event, I wondered if Googlebooks were intended to compete with Apple's new and quite popular $699 / £699 / AU$1,049 MacBook Neo. However, these systems start at $899 / £999 (around AU$1,899) , and a few were $1,199 (around £1,200 / AU$1,680) and $1,299 (around £1,300 / AU$1,800).

That was intentional. Samat, who said Neos are great but that people often find their performance limits, told me they wanted to start with premium offerings. Instead of compromises, Googlebooks offer eye-catching designs and real performance.

Googlebooks run desktop-grade apps online and offline, though App downloads appear to come exclusively through the Google Play Store, and in demos I saw, the systems have the power to do traditional coding and Agentic or Vibe Coding with Google Antigravity. It's worth mentioning, though, that to do the latter, you will need a Gemini account and tokens.

Samat, though, is excited about the power and possibilities, enthusing over the inclusion of a Linux Terminal, a fact that's not surprising since the stack includes a Linux Kernel (right below the Android Stack).

Glancing around the room, Samat asked me which Googlebook was my favorite. As I scanned the crowded demo space, I realized just how much each laptop looked like a standard Windows system, until, of course, you opened them up and saw that Googlebook OS desktop. After a moment, I told him the 2.2-lb. Asus Googlebook is quite attractive. Samat grinned and asked me if I'd checked out the aluminum-clad HP. I agreed that it looked like a premium laptop, too.

On stage, Samat said, "For so long I’ve wanted to do what we’re doing today," calling Googlebooks "a new category of laptops built for how people actually work today."

Later, Samat told me this is "just a start," and there's a lot more to come.

The Googlebooks I saw were notable for their smooth and polished operation. It may be the merging of two platforms, but each Googlebook's desktop and operations I tried felt remarkably unified, as if they'd been together all along.

Still, I had to wonder how this all fits in with Googlebook's cousin, the Chromebook, low-cost laptops that are more or less shell systems offering easy access to cloud-based apps. Schools love them. Samat claimed that 70% of all US education is using them and said it's the only system designed to be passed from one person to another (as each user signs in and out and so on).

Googlebooks and Chromebooks are not mutually exclusive. Samat said Chromebook is important, but it's for a different user and purpose. I said that Chromebook is a doorway, but the Googlebook appears to be about productivity. "Exactly," he told me, still smiling.

I spent quite a bit of this year wondering about Googlebooks. After Google announced them in May, things got a little quiet, and I noticed that when I was at the huge Computex 2026 show in Taiwan, no one seemed to be talking about them — Nvidia’s RTX Spark ARM chip, and Windows 11 competitors to the (then recently-released) MacBook Neo, were the talk of Taipei.

Computex would have been the ideal event for Google and its hardware partners to hype up Googlebooks, if only to give us a bit of a tease. Instead, the silence made me worry that they could end up being another Google product that quickly gets forgotten about.

So, when rumors of an impending Googlebook launch started cropping up a month or so ago, I was very interested. However, with information still so thin on the ground, no one was really sure what a Googlebook would be. Would they be budget laptops designed to replace Chromebooks? Or, might they be mid-rangers aimed at taking on the MacBook Neo?

Well, now that we have pricing information, and I’ve spent time with the five Googlebooks that will go on sale on October 5, I can confirm that Googlebooks are neither of those things — instead, they’re premium thin and light laptops designed to rival the MacBook Air, and Windows 11-powered Ultrabooks. And that makes them all the more interesting.

More ambitious than a Chromebook

With the cheapest Googlebook, the Acer Googlebook 14, starting at $899 / £999 (around AU$1,899), you might be disappointed that these aren’t going to be ultra-affordable Chromebook replacements, especially at a time when prices of everything, especially tech, seems to be climbing.

However, as multiple Google employees told me when I visited the company's UK headquarters in London, Googlebooks are not replacing Chromebooks. Instead, Chromebooks will remain the budget, entry-level, laptop choice running Chrome OS, while Chromebook Plus devices will remain the mid-range option.

Googlebooks, meanwhile, will be the high-end, flagship laptops that run an entirely new operating system — Googlebook OS — while still offering plenty of value for money.

The $1,000 / £1,000-plus price has allowed Google and its hardware partners to be rather ambitious with these first-generation Googlebooks. Each one (the aforementioned Acer Googlebook 14, plus the Lenovo Googlebook 15, HP Googlebook 14, Dell XPS Googlebook, and Asus Googlebook 14) has a stylish thin and light design, and, depending on the model, offers premium features such as OLED touch displays, haptic touchpads, and fingerprint sensors.

Each Googlebook also has a ‘Glowbar’, which is an LED stripe located on the back of the lid that can light up in a variety of ways depending on what you’re doing on the Googlebook. Described by John Maletis, Google’s VP Laptops and Tablets, at the launch event I attended, as a ‘distinctively Google design statement’, it adds a nice bit of color to each Googlebook, and I especially liked how it can show the battery level of the device when it’s plugged in and charging.

In the future, third-party developers will have access to the Glowbar, so that their apps can use the feature, and while I can’t see it being an essential part of the Googlebook experience (remember, the Glowbar is on the back of the laptop’s lid, so usually facing away from the user, limiting its usefulness), it’s a nice little detail that helps these laptops stand out.

Googlebooks also have premium components to complement their designs. Each one comes with at least 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, and some models will allow for higher configurations up to 32GB of RAM and larger SSDs. They're also powered by high-end chips from Intel (series 3 Core Ultra processors) and Qualcomm (Snapdragon X Elite and X1 Elite chips), and feature NPUs capable of over 45 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) for on-device AI — as you might expect from Google, a big focus of Googlebooks is AI.

Thanks to this combination of powerful specs and the lightweight Googlebook OS, Googlebooks feel very fast and responsive in use. While I wasn’t able to run any benchmarks during my time with the new devices, I spent a decent amount of time with each one browsing the web, using apps and even playing some games (admittedly Android games designed for mobile, but even they can be quite graphically impressive these days), and Googlebook OS was fast and fluid, with nary a pause as I opened up multiple apps.

With Google promising up to 10 years of software support, these Googlebooks could be the last laptop you buy for a long time — and that makes their higher prices slightly more palatable. A 10-year lifespan for a laptop feels very MacBook-like too.

A brand-new operating system

Perhaps the most exciting thing about Googlebooks is that they're running on an entirely new operating system, Googlebook OS, rather than simply using Google’s Chrome OS software.

While Chrome OS has come on in leaps and bounds since its inception, Google’s lightweight operating system built around its Chrome web browser has plenty of limitations. While these limitations have helped keep hardware requirements and costs down, making Chromebooks excellent budget laptops, they can also be frustrating for users. It’s the main reason why I stopped using my Google Pixelbook Go, one of my favorite laptops ever, as my daily driver some years ago.

Googlebook OS combines the best things about Chrome OS, namely its lack of bloat, with Google’s other incredibly popular operating system, Android, to create something entirely new. Built on Linux, and making use of the higher hardware specs of Googlebooks, Googlebook OS is a fully-fledged desktop operating system that really feels like it can compete with Windows 11 and macOS.

Thanks to the OS's ability to run Android apps, Googlebooks will launch on October 5 with access to millions of apps and games via Google’s Play Store, and there will be a dedicated section of the Play Store for desktop apps. These apps won’t just be mobile Android apps clumsily expanded onto a larger screen, but more complex and capable apps that have been designed for Googlebooks with keyboard and touchpad controls. I imagine at launch that this library of desktop apps will be rather limited, but will hopefully expand quickly, especially if Googlebooks turn out to be a hit.

At the launch event, I saw how Googlebook OS fixes one of my biggest issues with Chrome OS. Apps for Chrome OS are usually very limited, sometimes requiring an internet connection to run. The Chrome web browser was the mobile version, which meant you couldn’t run extensions, a deal breaker for myself, as I have several extensions I need to run for my job.

So, one of the first things I did when playing around with a Googlebook was launch Chrome, and I’m happy to report that it’s the full desktop version, so extensions are supported.

Googlebook OS also has a fast and intuitive file browser app, with built-in AI that allows you to use natural language to search your files. In the example I was shown, you could search for ‘a photo with a dog in it’, and Googlebook OS will identify any photo which includes a dog, rather than just going off file names or tags. It’s the kind of responsive and easy-to-use search that Microsoft has long promised in Windows 11, but has never managed to nail. Google has made it look easy.

While Googlebook OS is a new operating system, the aim, according to Alex Kuscher Senior Director, Laptops and Tablets at Google, is to create “a laptop that feels familiar to Android users”.

That means an interface that, despite being built for desktops, looks a lot like Android on smartphones. It uses the same Material 3 Expressive interface, and widgets, menus and settings should be recognizable to anyone who's used a modern Android device. The fact that every Googlebook comes with a touchscreen means there should only be a small learning curve for Android users.

Of course, if you use a version of Android that’s heavily modified, such as with the OneUI interface found on Samsung devices, things won’t be quite as similar, as the Googlebook OS interface is very much based on the stock Android you find on Google’s own Pixel series of devices. Still, anyone who's used an Android device should find Googlebook OS easier to pick up and use compared to Windows or macOS… or even Chrome OS.

Googlebooks and Android devices will also work seamlessly with each other, so once paired, you’ll be able to access and launch apps and files from your smartphone on a Googlebook, even allowing you to carry on where you left off on one device when switching to another.

I saw this in action with a few apps, and it looked like it worked very well. It was intuitive and slick, and finally offers the kind of interoperability between mobile device and laptop that Android users have been wanting. If you’ve ever been jealous of how well MacBooks and iPhones work with each other as an Android user, then a Googlebook is definitely worth considering.

One thing to note is that, while you’ll be able to see and reply to text messages your Android phone receives on your Googlebook, you won’t be able to make and answer calls. A Google employee told me this is for security reasons; however, iPhone users can answer their iPhone through macOS, so if Apple has found a way to do this securely, I’m sure Google will figure it out as well. I was also assured that WearOS devices, such as the Pixel Watch 5, will get some sort of compatibility with Googlebooks as well, but that feature will come in the future.

Based on my time with the first tranche of Googlebooks, I've been impressed with the Apple-like way in which they work with Android devices. If anyone has tried the rather clumsy way Windows 11 works with Android, the way Googlebook OS handles things will be a revelation. Previously, only Samsung got close to this kind of ecosystem, but that relied on using Samsung apps and devices. The Googlebook OS way of doing things feels far more natural.

It's also hard to overstate how big a deal a new operating system to challenge the dominance of Windows (and to a lesser extent, macOS) on laptops is. Many people have been growing frustrated with Windows 11’s instability and bloat, and while Googlebook OS also features heaps of AI (a common complaint of Windows 11 these days), it does so in a less obtrusive way. It certainly feels like Googlebook OS was built to incorporate AI, rather than it being bolted on, as with Windows 11 (which, to be fair to Microsoft, was launched before AI really took off).

The Magic Pointer feature, for example, brings up Google’s Gemini AI with a shake of mouse cursor, and while I don’t think this is a killer feature, it’s at least easy to ignore if you don’t need it (and just as easy to use if you do).

New Googlebooks will come with 12 months of Gemini Spark — Google's personal AI agent — which is a nice added value, though I worry how much of Googlebook OS’ AI features will suddenly become unusable when those 12 months are up and you don’t resubscribe.

Also, while Googlebook OS feels lightweight thanks to the lack of preinstalled ‘bloatware’ and speed, it offers plenty of depth as well, with full Terminal access, support for Linux containers, and access to Google’s Antigravity tool for coding your own apps. The Create My Widget feature, currently in beta, lets users make their own desktop widgets using natural-language prompts.

So, it looks like Googlebook OS could be the best example yet of a lightweight operating system that doesn’t feel limiting for more advanced users. The integration between Googlebooks and Android devices is also impressive, and perhaps the thing that both Microsoft and Apple should be most worried about, as there are a lot of Android device owners looking for a laptop that works this well with their smartphone.

There’s no doubt that Googlebooks are going to be impressive laptops, and I left the event increasingly confident that pitching Googlebooks to compete with MacBook Airs (especially after Apple has raised the price of its laptops) rather than limiting them to budget laptops, is a canny move. We’ll be getting all of the new Googlebooks in for review soon at TechRadar, but from my early time with them, I would advise any Android owner who's currently thinking about buying a new laptop to hold fire until October 5.

• Acer's CEO claims RAM supply is still "quite large"
• Jason Chen does acknowledge that PC prices will rise in Q4, though, by up to 20% on average
• However, those prices will fall by mid-2027, the CEO predicts, asserting that: "It's impossible for the shortage to last until 2030!"

Not everyone is being totally downbeat about the RAM crisis, with Acer's CEO stating that he's hopeful that PC prices will drop from the middle of 2027, even if price rises are on the cards for the rest of this year.

VideoCardz higlighted a (translated) report from Taiwan's Economic Daily News that shares the most recent thoughts of Jason Chen, chief executive of Acer, on the RAM crisis.

Chen asserts that there isn't much of a DDR4 and DDR5 memory shortage at present, and that the "supply is quite large" for this RAM — we must bear in mind there may be some nuances lost in translation there — and also that there isn't much shortage of processors either.

The CEO does acknowledge that the prices of components are currently "fluctuating" at a high level, and that PC prices will continue to climb in the fourth quarter of 2026, with an average price rise of between 5% to 20%.

However, the good news, according to Chen, is that he believes PC prices should drop from mid-2027, and with more chip production coming online — especially in China — the memory shortage won't last for the rest of the decade.

Chen is pretty firm on that one, claiming that, "It's impossible for the shortage to last until 2030!"

Analysis: new hope for some stability?

As to whether there isn't much of a RAM shortage currently, almost everyone else begs to differ on that — although I accept that Chen's meaning may be altered in translation somewhat here, as noted, and perhaps the gist is that supply isn't as bad as some in the industry would have you believe.

Whatever the case, Chen is clearly sounding a more optimistic note than most. There have certainly been some analysts and prominent industry figures who are suggesting that the RAM crisis will indeed last until 2030, and those are the people who Chen is clearly directing that last comment at. The CEO does appear to be talking more about the Chinese market than the global picture here, though, and we should also bear that in mind.

Still, it's a relief to hear some more positive thinking on the RAM crisis, although there's one point that everyone can agree on: namely that prices are going to rise over the rest of 2026 and into 2027. Even Chen's predicted fall in PC pricing isn't forecast to come about until the middle of next year, and so for the time being, it's clear enough that we're stuck with rising prices.

The cost of RAM in particular has been soaring of late — against all odds, as it was already exorbitantly high — and GPUs are now being subject to some worrying price hikes (the top-end in particular is getting ridiculous), with more to come I expect. It's not pretty out there for consumers, and nothing is going to get better for some time — the question for me right now is: how much worse might things become?

I hope Chen's more positive noises here are indicative of at least some stabilizing around high pricing for PCs and components alike.

• Google's Gemini AI broke out of a testing environment and hacked into three third-party companies
• The agents guessed passwords and used a public repository of passwords to hack into computer systems
• The incident occurred in May 2026, with AI testing lab Irregular stating that the incident was caused by the "same issue" that caused incidents by Anthropic and Meta

Google’s Gemini has joined the ranks of AI models that have been involved in testing-turned-breakout events, alongside Meta, Anthropic, and OpenAI.

During capture-the-flag testing by AI lab Irregular, Google’s model autonomously accessed three computer systems belonging to third-party companies by guessing passwords and accessing an online repository of publicly listed passwords.

Google said that the incident occurred in May 2026, potentially marking it as the earliest AI models to escape testing ahead of the other incidents that took place in early July.

Google Gemini jumps the gun

“In a standard evaluation, the model found public information online and guessed credentials to access websites it thought were part of the test,” Heather Adkins, vice president of security engineering at Google, said in a statement. “In all three of these instances, the model stopped.”

Google also noted that a bug in the testing environment was responsible for allowing agents access to the internet. Contrary to incidents disclosed by other AI developers, Google’s agents ceased their intrusion once they had determined they had accessed company systems outside of the testing environment.

The testing was being conducted by Israeli AI lab Irregular. Irregular was also conducting the testing of Meta and Anthropic models during AI testing breakouts in July.

“This is the same issue that was already reported and does not represent a materially separate incident,” an Irregular spokesperson said in a statement (via CNBC). “All relevant labs were notified in late July, and affected entities were contacted as part of the investigation.”

Google said it was informed of the incident by Irregular in late July.

Debate over AI safety intensifies

The first disclosures of AI testing break outs - alongside several subsequent disclosures of more recent incidents - have coincided with increasing opposition to AI and the upcoming midterm elections in the United States, where AI has become a make-or-break topic.

The debates currently raging circles around who should control the pace of AI development. Some big tech leaders, such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, have aligned their views with those of President Trump. Trump recently stated that AI development cannot be allowed to slow down because “whoever wins AI, wins!”

Huang’s views follow a similar line. The Nvidia head has argued that AI companies should pace themselves, rather than being subject to oversight. At Dreamforce 2026, he argued that AI companies should, “run as fast as you can...but if you feel at any given point in time the company’s out of control or the product’s not going to be safe, take a pause and make sure you get it right.”

Other AI heads, such as Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, are more skeptical. Following the resignation of an Anthropic researcher, Amodei published an essay arguing in favor of ‘pacing the frontier’ - where AI companies slow development to advance alignment and regulation.

Numerous political action committees (PACs) have been channeling millions of dollars of funding into pro-AI candidates, with Nvidia setting up its own PAC to help shift US policy in the company’s favor.

Several previously pro-AI data center candidates have shifted their tone in response to their constituents' views which have become increasingly hostile to AI technology. Numerous states have also rolled-back tax exemptions for AI data centers after seeing billion dollar revenue losses.

As prices rise and the war in Iran continues to push up fuel prices, working class communities are banding together to oppose AI data centers that have pushed up energy costs and bills with new grid connections and unprecedented electricity demands in regions with existing capacity constraints.

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 #1701) — hint #1 — Vowels

* 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 #1701) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1701) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1701) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

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 #1701) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

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

Quordle today (game #1701) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1701, are…

• WAXEN
• HIPPO
• PETAL
• LEASH

For one of my words I had “rhino” stuck in my head as it featured an H, I and O, which meant I managed to ignore the other animal answer of HIPPO.

The far bigger challenge, though, was arriving at WAXEN — a word I had pondered earlier in the game but ruled out because of the rare letter X. Eventually I had no choice but to take the plunge.

Daily Sequence today (game #1701) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1701, are…

• ANGEL
• OLIVE
• GRIMY
• MARCH

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1700, Sunday, 20 September: DERBY, LIMBO, GAWKY, REIGN
• Quordle #1699, Saturday, 19 September: SCOPE, HEIST, PULSE, CHAMP
• Quordle #1698, Friday, 18 September: MUCUS, MIRTH, APPLE, TILDE
• Quordle #1697, Thursday, 17 September: CRIER, CHIRP, NEIGH, FREER
• Quordle #1696, Wednesday, 16 September: SPEAR, PRICE, BLUNT, FISHY
• Quordle #1695, Tuesday, 15 September: SHUSH, LITHE, DELTA, BUGLE
• Quordle #1694, Monday, 14 September: ZEBRA, LEGAL, RATIO, TROLL
• Quordle #1693, Sunday, 13 September: LUCID, SPRAY, MANGE, EMAIL
• Quordle #1692, Saturday, 12 September: SUPER, BRUSH, RESET, SOWER
• 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

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 #932) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #932) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• CAUSING
• STAR
• GRUNT
• RING
• DARK
• RETURN

NYT Strands today (game #932) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #932) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

NYT Strands today (game #932) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #932, are…

• NEON
• LYCRA
• GRUNGE
• SCRUNCHIES
• TRACKSUITS
• SPANGRAM: NINETIESTREND

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 2 hints

This one took me a while and a couple of hints to make any progress.

As someone who lived through the 1990s I really should have found this easier, but even though I was certain of the theme after getting LYCRA (I still have nightmares about a colleague who turned up to work in cycling shorts) I struggled to think of anything else that could be linked to the decade.

Thinking about plaid shirts and Teen Spirit help me get GRUNGE, but the remaining two words took me an embarrassingly long time.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Sunday, September 20, game #931)

• BOAST
• BRAG
• FLEX
• GLOAT
• STRUT
• BLUSTER
• POSTURE
• SPANGRAM: GRANDIOSITY

We all learn in different ways. As a visual learner, I really appreciate seeing ideas drawn out or presented through images. Give me a page of text, and I can read it, no problem, but not a huge amount is retained by my little grey cells.

Unfortunately, not everything can be boiled down into a simple image, diagram, or video. Some concepts are just too complex to be simplified. When I am forced to read a body of text, I prefer to hear someone read to me rather than read it for myself.

The problem is that not every resource has an accompanying audio feature. I could use my web browser’s reading mode, but there’s usually only a limited number of voices, and they often sound electronic and overprocessed. That’s why I’ve recently started using Speechify.

This simple and straightforward app features over 200 lifelike voices, each of which can be customized by type, pitch, and accent. The app can read uploaded files, images, and pasted text and integrates seamlessly into a range of workflows and file repositories. You can even choose the reading speed to be up to 4.5 times the normal speed, although I wouldn't recommend that!

AI voices that sound natural

Whatever you like to read, Speechify has so many voices on offer that you’re bound to find one that you enjoy listening to. The app guides users through a series of questions that help you narrow down the best choice for your requirements. It begins by asking you which type of voice you’d like. You can choose between conversational, narration, acting, professional, meditation, and educational.

From there, the app asks you whether you’d like the voice to sound bright, soft, neutral, crisp, warm, or deep, and whether you like a low, mid, or high pitch. The final option is to choose between British, American, and Australian accents. Unfortunately, these are the only three possibilities at the moment, although I’m sure they’ll add more in time.

With these simple questions answered, Speechify scans its 200+ voices and tells you which voices are the best fit. All you have to do is select your favorite, choose a document to read, and sit back and enjoy. And if you fancy a change, picking a different voice is easy.

An abundance of workflows

Speechify offers a number of different workflows, all of which are accessible through the Home tab of the app. First up is an AI-driven option where the app asks you, “What do you want to work on today?” Anyone who has used ChatGPT, Gemini, or similar will be familiar with this workflow.

Simply describe your task or ask anything, either with text or through the microphone, and Speechify will look it up for you. You can even attach files to complement your search request. Answers are presented as text but can be ‘read’ by the voice assistant. You can also ask follow-up questions to delve deeper into a topic.

If you already have a document that you’d like read out, you can choose from the list of seven workflow options. These are upload files from your phone, upload from a cloud repository, scan pages, paste text, find a book, paste a link, and dictate text.

I expected Speechify to handle PDFs and web pages with ease, but what I was most impressed with was its ability to analyze and read out images. I tested the app with several different photos, and it was able to read all types of information, including technical details. The images also didn’t have to be the highest quality or the best lit.

One of the best things about Speechify is that it lets me do a lot more multitasking. Prior to using the app, I would have to allocate a lot more time to sitting down and having focused reading time. Now I can upload a file or take a picture of something and crack on with house chores at the same time. It’s transformed how I spend my time.

Getting the most out of Speechify

The free version of Speechify provides a reasonable number of features, but it lacks offline listening, advanced voices, faster playback, and additional features such as dictation. To access these, you’ll need a Premium account, which costs $175 / £129.99 per year. There’s a free 3-day trial so you can test out the additional features before committing.

Also, if you love audiobooks, Speechify also has a library of over 100,000 books across every genre. This includes fiction, classics, self-help, and more. This costs $80 / £60 for lifetime access but is often discounted down to $35 / £25. At this price, Speechify Library is an affordable alternative to Amazon’s Audible service.

Whether you read to study, for leisure, learn a language, or simply want to boost your productivity, Speechify will help you realize your goals in super-fast time.

Download Speechify on iOS and Android.

It’s almost time for Meta Connect, with the brand hosting its annual event on September 23 and 24. Here, we’re expecting to see several new devices, with a focus on smart glasses.

Software updates are also likely, including to Meta Muse, but between the RAM crisis and a privacy backlash against the company’s smart specs, this might not be an entirely rosy affair.

So below, we’ve detailed the seven major things to expect at Meta Connect 2026 — covering both the good and the bad.

1. Camera-free Meta smart glasses

While smart glasses like the Ray-Ban Meta can be extremely useful, they’re also facing a major backlash right now, with many people worrying about them being used as spy glasses to photograph and video people without their knowledge or consent. As a result, Meta might respond by launching camera-free smart glasses.

These are rumored to land at Meta Connect, and would likely focus on conversational interactions with Meta’s AI chatbot. It makes sense for Meta to launch these, though how useful or appealing they will be when the AI can’t see what you’re looking at remains to be seen.

2. The Project Phoenix mixed reality headset

We’ve been hearing for a while that Meta is working on a mixed reality headset codenamed Project Phoenix, and while this reportedly won’t launch until 2027, we might get an official look at it during Meta Connect.

From what we’ve seen so far, this might look more like smart glasses than the Meta Quest 3S headset, despite featuring both AR and VR functionality. However, Project Phoenix has been pictured with a cable running down from it, suggesting that perhaps the battery and/or processor are external, thereby allowing for a slim design.

We don’t know much else about this yet, but that might change at Meta Connect.

3. New Oakley and Ray-Ban glasses

We’re probably due a second generation of the Oakley Meta glasses by now, and there’s also a chance we’ll see the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3, though it might be too soon for them at this year's Connect.

The Oakley Meta specs are sportier than the Ray-Ban line, with things like wrap-around designs and better water resistance, so expect the second generation to continue with that focus.

As for the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3, leaks suggest these could have better battery life, smarter AI, and improved audio.

4. A global launch for the Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses

The Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses are currently only available in the US, but hopefully at Meta Connect we might see these display-packing specs go global.

It’s certainly about time — originally these were planned to get a wider launch in early 2026, but thanks to "unprecedented demand and limited inventory" this was delayed.

But if you’re hoping to get your hands on them you’ll also have to be prepared to pay a lot, as in the US they retail for $800, so you can expect similarly high pricing elsewhere.

5. Price hikes

Alongside new and improved products, we might also see new and not at all improved prices for some things, thanks to the ongoing RAM crisis.

In other words, don’t be surprised if prices for new generation models of the likes of Oakley Meta and Ray-Ban Meta glasses are higher than the current generation.

In the case of Ray-Ban Meta glasses we already saw a price hike for the second generation, so another for the third would be extremely undesirable, but may also be unavoidable.

6. A Meta Muse AI update

Meta Muse — Meta’s AI agent that can send emails, fill out forms, shop, and do other tasks for you — only launched recently, but as a major new service it’s likely to be getting a lot of attention from Meta, so improvements are probably already in the works.

Meta Connect then would be a prime time to find out about any upcoming changes — and perhaps even for Meta to roll out a software update for it or a new model. Or perhaps Meta will announce availability in countries other than the US, so that more of us can try it.

7. Updates addressing the privacy backlash

As well as launching some camera-free smart glasses, Meta may use Connect to announce some software updates aimed at addressing privacy concerns in its existing specs.

Already, the company has rolled out an update that will stop the glasses recording if you cover the LED once a recording has started, but Meta may well be cooking up additional changes to further prevent surreptitious photography and video recording.

Indeed, Meta's VP of Wearables Alex Himel recently said "we’re going to keep rolling out updates like this to make sure the capture LED can reliably alert bystanders when photos or videos are being captured for someone’s gallery." So while it’s unclear what exactly those updates will be, we might learn about some of them at Meta Connect.

When the original Steam Deck was first announced back in mid-2021, it was a revelation. Valve proved that handheld gaming PCs could be cost-effective and still powerful enough to run demanding software at playable framerates. The first-generation Deck would ship in February 2022, with the Steam Deck OLED model later innovating with a larger, prettier screen, improved refresh rate, and a superior battery in November 2023.

The Steam Deck impressed at the time with its respectable semi-custom AMD APU complete with its four-core (eight threads) CPU clocked between 2.4 and 3.5 GHz, and 8 RDNA 2 Compute Units clocked at 1.6 GHz.

In short, the hardware inside meant that pushing the best PC games to 30 FPS (and above in some cases) at its native 1280 x 720p resolution was a possibility, but the competition has proven that it's time for Valve to go back to the drawing board if it wants to stay competitive.

That's because the Steam Deck is now fairly underpowered when compared to the best PC handhelds on the market. The competition have Full HD (1080p) displays (or better), and feature vastly superior hardware in the form of AMD Ryzen Z1/Z2 or Intel Arc G3 APUs that run rings around the previous-generation frontrunner. So, what does Valve need to do to ensure the Steam Deck 2 can compete if, and when, it launches?

1. A 120Hz Full HD (1080p) OLED display as standard

Both the Steam Deck LCD and Steam Deck OLED models feature a native resolution of 1280 x 720p with either a 60Hz or 90Hz refresh rate. Considering when the former was launched, this was an acceptable trade-off for providing playable framerates. However, every competing product in the oversaturated space has since eclipsed this, meaning the Steam Deck 2 absolutely needs a 120Hz 1080p display at a minimum to be viable.

You only need to look as far as the biggest rivals from back in 2023; the Steam Deck's panel was passé less than a year after the hardware debuted, as evidenced by the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. Both devices could confidently be called true Steam Deck rivals. The first-generation ROG Ally had a 7-inch 120Hz 1080p panel, whereas the original Legion Go had a 144Hz 8.8-inch QHD+ screen.

I'll always argue that anything above 1080p on a display as small as seven or eight inches ultimately results in a waste of resources, and it seems hardware companies got the hint in 2024. More than two years ago, the MSI Claw A1M launched with a 7-inch Full HD screen, as did the Zotac Zone, Asus ROG Ally X, Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, Lenovo Legion Go S, and Lenovo Legion Go 2, as well as recent releases such as the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+. There's no need for Valve to look to 1440p (QHD), but the company needs to get with the times to avoid being left behind; lacking a decent screen would kill the Steam Deck 2.

2. A semi-custom AMD Zen 4 and RDNA 3.5 APU (or better)

It's never been Valve's style to throw standardized components into its hardware. While the competition was comfortable using the AMD Ryzen Z1 or Z2, or gave Intel Arc graphics a go, the Washington-based company had to go a different route. We saw this with the semi-custom APU inside the Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED, but this design philosophy has since been repeated with the recently released Steam Machine.

Valve's living room PC features a semi-custom AMD APU that utilizes a six-core (12 threads) Zen 4 CPU and an RDNA 3-powered GPU with a total of 28 Compute Units and 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM. This home-console rival was said to offer "six times the horsepower" of the Steam Deck, and the tech could act as the perfect blueprint for what should be inside the Steam Deck 2.

Now, considering the portable nature of a Steam Deck successor and the lack of an active cooling solution, combined with the price tag (I'll get to that further down the page), it's unlikely that the Steam Deck 2 will be as powerful as the Steam Machine, but it could close the gap. The Steam Machine uses around 170W of its total power draw when plugged into mains, with 110W dedicated to the GPU, 30W for the CPU, and the rest of the components (RAM, fans, SSD, etc.) accounting for the other 30 to 60W of draw.

When plugged in, the Steam Deck OLED draws a maximum of 45W (or 15V at 3000mA). When on battery power, Valve's handheld draws anywhere from four to 27W depending on the task at hand. Obviously, battery life has to be a huge consideration here as well, so we aren't going to see upwards of 100W for a handheld. Today's competition, chiefly the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, can provide 30-60 FPS in High settings in 1080p in either 17W or 35W on battery, but that comes at its own (literal) cost.

That's the power potential, but what about a close approximation of how a semi-custom RDNA 3 or RDNA 3.5-backed APU could perform inside the Steam Deck 2? Well, the closest we can get is with the performance jump from the AMD Ryzen Z2 compared to the Z1. At lower TDPs, the Z2 offers a generational leap anywhere from 4W to 40W, offering playable framerates of at least 30 FPS in 1080p, which is the only standard requirement for a Steam Deck Verified game in 2026. In particular, the Z2 Extreme features 16 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units with a total boost clock of up to 2.9 GHz and 24GB LPDDR5x-8000 memory; Valve could use something similar.

3. A sub-$1,000 / £1,000 price tag

When the Steam Deck was first revealed and distributed, it was sold at a loss. Prior to the original model's release, Gabe Newell said this decision was "painful" but "critical" for the hardware to break through to the market. Affordability and competitive performance took priority over outclassing the competition, and that was the core appeal of the Steam Deck, especially in the early years.

Well, it's nearing the end of 2026 now, and hardware companies (including Valve itself) have not learned from this example. The Steam Deck was successful because it was an affordable and powerful entry point into PC gaming, but that's a reality that's (unfortunately) becoming harder to remember as time marches on. The ongoing RAM crisis has meant the Steam Deck OLED shot up in price by 50%, and sales are also plummeting, and consumers have already begun to argue that handheld gaming PCs are back into the unaffordable niche product they were pre-2021.

To course-correct, Valve needs to offer the Steam Deck 2 for less than $1,000 / £1,000 / AU$2,000, at least for its base and mid-range configurations. We've seen growing backlash from gamers against rising prices recently, particularly with the eye-watering MSRPs of the new Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 (starting at $1,299.99 / £1,299.99) and the aforementioned MSI Claw 8 EX AI's shocking $1,799.99 / £1,399.99 entry point. To remain competitive, Valve needs to undercut the competition here, even if it means sacrificing some superficial features and maybe even peak performance.

In other words, Valve needs to remember why the Steam Deck succeeded in the first place: it was powerful enough and affordable enough to make everyday people consider PC gaming. It's a tall order given we're currently in one of the worst times in the computing industry in recent memory, where the price of GPUs, RAM, SSDs, and anything else that uses memory are skyrocketing with no signs of slowing down. Even if the Deck 2 is originally sold at a small loss, it would go a long way to prove that Valve can be pro-consumer again, as it lost favor with the Steam Machine's so-so performance for the price tag.

4. TMR sticks and mechanical buttons

Now that we've covered a prospective Steam Deck successor's price tag, specs, and screen, it's time to talk about ergonomics. While both versions of the Steam Deck are comfortable in the hand for long play sessions, the actual buttons and sticks leave a lot to be desired. Likely due to a price constraint, the handhelds utilize the standardized potentiometers, with physical parts that can cause wear and tear over time. If left unchecked for long enough, it can eventually lead to stick drift, which can be frustrating (and expensive) to repair.

Magnets are the way to go, then. It's tough when weighing up what would be the better technology for the Steam Deck 2's analog sticks, as both Hall Effect and TMR (Tunnelling Magnetoresistance) have their pros and cons. However, it's TMR that pulls ahead in this case for a couple of key reasons: it's more sensitive, accurate, and (thankfully) cheaper to implement now than a couple of years ago. There's a reason why so many of the best PC controllers on the market are already using TMR, so Valve would be missing an open goal if it cheaped out unnecessarily here.

TMR sticks and magnetic sensing technology as a whole are far superior and lead to fewer points of failure, ensuring longevity. It's essential for a handheld like the Steam Deck 2. Modern PC controllers, such as the Scuf Envision Pro 2 and the Scuf Omega, have led the charge with microswitch buttons and D-pads.

They not only provide instant actuation for more precise inputs, but they will also last longer than a pure membrane alternative. It's not just about immediacy and feel in the hand, but also about how this design decision could influence long-term use. Ideally, you would want a Steam Deck 2 to feel as good as the day you bought it, even five years afterwards.

5. A bigger and more efficent battery for longer (or more demanding) sessions

Any good portable device, whether it's the best phone or a Steam Deck successor, lives and dies on how good the battery life is. The original Steam Deck featured a 40 Wh (or 5200 mAh battery, whereas the Steam OLED bumped things up to 50 Wh (or 6,470 mAh). That netted you anywhere from two to 12 hours depending on the kinds of games you were running, with indies at low brightness yielding better playtime than a AAA release at full brightness would. On average, though, around two to four hours is considered the standard.

That's fine, sure, but Steam Deck rivals have since included larger batteries with longer average playtimes, and this is something Valve can directly address. For example, the Asus ROG Ally X has an 80Wh battery, meaning it can last anywhere from four to six hours of playback of intensive games played at 25 to 30W under the right conditions. That's a battery size increase of 60%; considering how many more lithium-ion batteries are being made in a compact or portable form factor, it means that this component cost could be cheaper than in 2021/22, and a larger battery could be among the top features of the successor device.

Ultimately, we want the ability to sit down and play our games on the sofa or on the move for longer, so offering a bigger battery with a superior lifespan would give the Steam Deck 2 the edge it would need. If Valve can bump the resolution up, tighten the ergonomics, increase the horsepower, and keep the costs down, then the second-generation of its handheld could be the best on the market.

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 #1700) — hint #1 — Vowels

* 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 #1700) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1700) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1700) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

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 #1700) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

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

Quordle today (game #1700) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1700, are…

• DERBY
• LIMBO
• GAWKY
• REIGN

It took me a couple of guesses to get GAWKY, but this bump aside I was happy to navigate a pretty tricky collection of words.

GAWKY, incidentally, is exactly how I’d feel if I was coerced into taking part in a LIMBO competition.

Daily Sequence today (game #1700) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1700, are…

• SKULL
• MADLY
• PRIOR
• FLACK

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1699, Saturday, 19 September: SCOPE, HEIST, PULSE, CHAMP
• Quordle #1698, Friday, 18 September: MUCUS, MIRTH, APPLE, TILDE
• Quordle #1697, Thursday, 17 September: CRIER, CHIRP, NEIGH, FREER
• Quordle #1696, Wednesday, 16 September: SPEAR, PRICE, BLUNT, FISHY
• Quordle #1695, Tuesday, 15 September: SHUSH, LITHE, DELTA, BUGLE
• Quordle #1694, Monday, 14 September: ZEBRA, LEGAL, RATIO, TROLL
• Quordle #1693, Sunday, 13 September: LUCID, SPRAY, MANGE, EMAIL
• Quordle #1692, Saturday, 12 September: SUPER, BRUSH, RESET, SOWER
• 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

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 #931) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #931) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• PURE
• GRASS
• BURST
• TOAST
• SIXTY
• BRAIDS

NYT Strands today (game #931) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #931) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

NYT Strands today (game #931) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #931, are…

• BOAST
• BRAG
• FLEX
• GLOAT
• STRUT
• BLUSTER
• POSTURE
• SPANGRAM: GRANDIOSITY

• My rating: So easy
• My score: Perfect

A left-to-right spangram aside, this was a fairly straightforward search once I’d bagged my first word, but that’s probably because I’m the greatest Strands player that the world has ever known.

And it’s not just me saying that. Everyone says so.

I have never lost a single game of Strands and I never need to use a hint because it’s all so easy — probably the easiest way to spend two minutes in the world, actually, because that’s how long it takes me to complete even the hardest Strands game. Two minutes! Actually, probably closer to 120 seconds.

(Not really!)

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday, September 19, game #930)

• ARRR
• HEARTIES
• AVAST
• MATEY
• SAVVY
• YOHOHO
• SPANGRAM: TALKLIKEAPIRATE

It's been over four years since Intel Arc graphics made their debut. Team Blue, primarily known for making some of the best processors of all time, had made its second big swing against the best graphics cards. Alchemist had promise from a price-to-performance perspective; the A-series impressed with budget-friendly performance in 1080p and 1440p with the Arc A750 and Arc A770, respectively, despite some driver issues and (initially) a lack of developer support.

Everything changed with Battlemage. Intel's second-generation Arc graphics cards received higher praise, with far superior generational performance, rivalling the best cheap graphics cards. In particular, the Arc B570 was a powerhouse for 1080p gaming with its $219 / £219 MSRP, and the Arc B580 confidently earned a perfect review from us with its all-star 1440p performance for just $249.99 /£249.99. However, that was some time ago.

Now, nearing the end of 2026, the concept of a cheap video card, or a true graphics card deal, is (sadly) extinct. You can expect to pay double (or more) for a B580 that made waves due to its value proposition just two short years ago, lessening the impact of an otherwise excellent GPU. Team Blue has reportedly canceled its Celestial range of discrete graphics cards, and the future of Druid (the codename for Intel's fourth-generation GPU) and beyond is uncertain.

Has Intel abandoned the dedicated GPU market to go all-in on the likes of its G3 Extreme chip found in the best gaming handhelds? Moreover, is there still hope for a third major competitor during the worst time to build (or buy) a gaming computer in recent memory?

What were Intel's original plans for Celestial?

When Intel Arc was originally announced more than five years ago, Team Blue confidently laid out its "Multi-Year Roadmap", with Alchemist (A-Series) slated for Q1 2022, a goal the company only just achieved as the initial GPU lineup dropped on March 30. With that said, no dates or timeframes were confirmed for the second, third, and fourth generations of its Xe platform.

Intel Arc Battlemage (B-series) graphics cards were officially launched on December 3, 2024, meaning almost three years (or two years and eight months) had passed between the two Xe generations. This release schedule is fairly standard for GPU launches; Nvidia launched the Blackwell-based RTX 50 series on January 30, 2025, with the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080, succeeding the RTX 40 series that debuted on October 12, 2022, with the then-flagship RTX 4090 (two years and three months).

It's nearing the time when we should start hearing about Intel Celestial, especially given just how well-received Battlemage was, and yet there's radio silence from Team Blue. More specifically, speculation around The C-series' cancellation were sparked from rumors dating back to April. Specifically, it was hardware leaker Jaykihn on X who alleged that "Celestial was canned long ago" and that "Druid is up in the air".

If we look at the updated Intel Arc Graphics roadmap, the company alleged that the Xe3P Cestial graphics cards should have been arriving in 2026.

What happened to Intel Celestial?

Intel had clearly stated in 2025 that next-generation Xe3 Battlemage graphics would arrive that year, and then year-on-year we would receive Xe3P with Celestial in 2026, Xe4 with Druid in 2027, and Xe Next, the "Next-Gen," in 2028. So what actually came of these claims? So far, so good, as the B-series is integrated into the latest G3 family.

As well as the Intel 18A-based Compute Tile (14-core with NPU 5 and up to 8,533 MT/s LPDDR5x memory), it also uses the Xe3 architecture for its 10-12 Xe-cores, 10-12 RT units, and 80-96 XMX AI Engines, whether it's the standard or the G3 Extreme variant. In other words, Intel has decided to renew Battlemage for a third year running, with no apparent space (or need) for Celestial at this time, at least for the purpose of dedicated gaming.

It's alleged that Xe3P architecture (Celestial) is being baked into the upcoming Intel Nova Lake processors. More specifically, the C-series could be entirely relegated to integrated graphics onboard certain incoming chips rather than powering discrete graphics cards.

This is claimed to be the case with the Nova Lake-S lineup, which is said to be a 16-core CPU with a 12-core Xe3P iGPU forged on the silicon, unlike other Nova Lake processors that could feature just two Xe3 cores.

While Xe3 is already being used in gaming handhelds powered by the G3 and G3 Extreme, the combination of both Xe3 and Xe3P in Nova Lake could be where Celestial lives. It's been rumored that the extra performance of the newer-generation cores could be primarily for driving the Visual Engine rather than being used for anything more intensive. Revealed at Hot Chips 2026, Intel announced that Xe3P would be powering its Crescent Island AI GPUs. At the moment, then, it seems that Team Blue has no interest in bringing over Celestial tech for gaming.

Battlemage isn't worth the price anymore, and Intel needs to learn from this

There's no easy way to say this: Intel Arc isn't worth the inflated asking prices. While the two main Battlemage graphics cards initially won favor with us and the general gaming public, the value proposition simply isn't justifiable this late in 2026. As touched upon above, both entry-level GPUs have doubled in price, and it's really hard to see the justification against a considerably stronger graphics card like the RTX 5060 and RX 9060 XT.

The average Arc B580 GPU nowadays costs around $330 / £340 for the 12GB variant from Intel's board partners such as ASRock and Sparkle. That gets you the current top-end Battlemage card with a 192-bit memory bus, 12GB of GDDR6 memory, and a total of 2,560 GPU cores.

However, for around the same price, you can also opt for an RTX 5060 8GB, or bump your budget up to around $400 / £400 for the far more capable RTX 5060 Ti instead. The former has a smaller 128-bit memory bus, although it benefits from 8GB of GDDR7 memory and 3,840 CUDA cores, whereas the latter comes with the same bus width but with up to 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM and 4,608 CUDA cores. Which one would you pick when weighing up a cheap gaming PC build?

Let's forget the tech specs and instead look at the performance numbers laofcct. According to testing conducted by Mark PC, both the similarly priced RTX 5060 and RX 9060 XT. We see this in countless examples with the demanding PC games tested, such as The Last of Us Part 1, Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Starfield; all of these games had superior average framerates from the AMD and Nvidia GPUs when benched in 1080p at max settings.

This is consistent with the testing conducted by Hardware Unboxed as well, as the three entry-level graphics cards were benched in 1080p with Medium to High settings, depending on the game. It's the same story with the likes of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Assassin's Creed Shadows, The Last of Us Part 2; you get the idea. If buying a graphics card from a processor company wasn't already a hard sell, then the price-to-performance of Arc circa 2026 certainly is.

Druid is Intel's last chance at remaining in the gaming GPU market

If Celestial is truly canceled (or relegated to an obscure APU), as has been claimed, then all hopes hinge on Druid and its Xe4 architecture, which is slated to be released in 2027. "Up in the air" really is an understatement with Team Blue's plans for its proposed fourth Arc generation; there's nothing circulating about this tech at all, which is rare considering the usual slate of rumors and speculation that usually whir up a year or so out from release.

The only real sliver of information that points to Team Blue still being in the GPU race at all comes from Alex Katouzian, Intel EVP and GM of Client Computing, who spoke to Dutch tech site Tweakers during Computex 2026. Katouzian is quoted as saying: "GPUs are a super important part of our PC product range" and "the traction of our GPU cores is really very good". It's a non-answer to a tough question that doesn't really give any indication as to what the company is planning; typical corporate speak to cover up the fact that it may have no idea where (or if) Druid has a future at all.

Worst-case scenario, then. Let's say Celestial is properly canned, but that Intel gives Druid a shot as a last-ditch effort to save the fledgling Arc graphics division in its dedicated form. Following the same blueprint as its last two GPU generations, a prospective launch of the D570 and D580 would need to be 12 to 16GB GDDR6X at a minimum, be built with XeSS 3's MFG in mind for 1080p to 1440p gaming, and still retail new for $250 to $350, respectively. Is this really something that can happen in 2027 with the price of graphics cards continuing to rise? I remain unconvinced.

There's a pathway for Intel to win back favor and consumer trust with a line of affordable graphics cards that deliver playable results for today's games. However, given the dire state of the industry and some truly puzzling top-level decision-making over the last two years, it just doesn't seem like things can be salvaged here. I would love to be wrong; more competition and consumer choice are always good for business, particularly if it means showing Nvidia the true meaning of budget and mid-range, but is Intel really the company to do that in 2027 and beyond? It's unlikely.

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 #1699) — hint #1 — Vowels

* 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 #1699) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1699) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1699) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

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 #1699) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

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

Quordle today (game #1699) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1699, are…

• SCOPE
• HEIST
• PULSE
• CHAMP

I played this game very tactically, waiting until the latest moment, and ruling out another word beginning with the letter P, before guessing CHAMP.

When you can see a word from the start, but cannot be certain, it’s really hard not to follow your hunch — well, it is for me anyway — so I’m pleased with my restraint.

Daily Sequence today (game #1699) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1699, are…

• ELEGY
• OPIUM
• FUGUE
• SUAVE

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1698, Friday, 18 September: MUCUS, MIRTH, APPLE, TILDE
• Quordle #1697, Thursday, 17 September: CRIER, CHIRP, NEIGH, FREER
• Quordle #1696, Wednesday, 16 September: SPEAR, PRICE, BLUNT, FISHY
• Quordle #1695, Tuesday, 15 September: SHUSH, LITHE, DELTA, BUGLE
• Quordle #1694, Monday, 14 September: ZEBRA, LEGAL, RATIO, TROLL
• Quordle #1693, Sunday, 13 September: LUCID, SPRAY, MANGE, EMAIL
• Quordle #1692, Saturday, 12 September: SUPER, BRUSH, RESET, SOWER
• 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

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 #930) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #930) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• HATE
• PEAK
• LIKE
• KEEPER
• STARE
• MEAT

NYT Strands today (game #930) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #930) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

NYT Strands today (game #930) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #930, are…

• ARRR
• HEARTIES
• AVAST
• MATEY
• SAVVY
• YOHOHO
• SPANGRAM: TALKLIKEAPIRATE

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

Saturday 19 September — so, today — is International TALKLIKEAPIRATE Day. I didn’t know that before playing today’s Strands, but am now cursed with calling everybody I meet MATEY.

The thing that caught my eye immediately was seeing three letter Rs in a row, and it was quite the delight to get ARRR correct.

From here, the search was a little bit trickier, but I managed to avoid the temptation of using a hint as the theme tune to Pirates of the Caribbean buzzed around my head.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday, September 18, game #929)

• COVENANT
• PACT
• TREATY
• CONTRACT
• AGREEMENT
• SPANGRAM: LETSMAKEADEAL

• Zimperium zLabs discovered RedHat, a Chinese‑origin Android banking trojan with AI assistant
• AI interprets screen layouts in real‑time, enabling credential theft and bypassing app redesigns
• Distributed via third‑party stores, social media, malvertising, and SMS; persistence blocks uninstall attempts

There is an Android malware out there that comes with an AI assistant that tells it what to do. The assistant seems to be independent of the malware’s operator, allowing the tool to work without requiring the operators to be present in real-time.

The malware in question is called RedHat. It was discovered by security researchers Zimperium zLabs, who believe it is of Chinese origin. It is currently being distributed via third-party app stores, social media, malvertising, and SMS spam, and requires Android’s Accessibility permissions to work.

The malware itself is a typical banking trojan - it creates an invisible overlay every time the victim brings up a banking app, capturing login credentials and one-time passwords, and thus giving attackers direct control over people’s banking accounts.

AI-powered eyes

But what makes RedHat stand out from a sea of Android banking trojans is its AI-powered component. The model serves as a kind of remote “eyes and hands” for controlling the victim’s phone.

Usually, when criminals develop banking trojans, they need to code exact coordinates of the layout for it to work. They need to code where the password is entered, or where the login button is. If the banking app gets redesigned and changes its layout, the malware breaks.

With AI, that is no longer a problem. RedHat gets a picture of what’s on the screen, sends it to the AI assistant, which then instructs the malware on how to proceed.

"RatHat uses AI to intelligently navigate and control the device interface in real-time, making its operations more adaptable and harder for security software to detect than traditional, scripted automation," Zimperium explained.

The tool also has a few advanced persistence mechanisms, being capable of reinstalling deleted components, and intercepting the uninstall process to cancel it while displaying a fake error message to the victim.

So far, there is no word on who the targets are, or how many people might have been compromised.

Via BleepingComputer

• AMD is rumored to be hiking prices for its chips
• Industry insiders in the supply chain indicate that a rise of around 10% will be applied across AMD's "entire chip line"
• This means GPUs and processors, as well as motherboards, and the hike is expected in Q4, so it could happen next month

AMD's processors and graphics cards could soon get more expensive in the latest blow from the RAM crisis rumor mill.

Wccftech spotted that leaker Harukaze5719 highlighted a post from ChannelGate (the Board Channels over in Asia) that cites sources in the supply chain who claim that TSMC has informed its customers of a 10% price rise.

The post observes that most of AMD's chips are manufactured by TSMC, and that Team Red has in turn notified its customers of a 10% "price adjustment" across its "entire chip product line".

That means everything, so on the consumer front, we can expect AMD's GPUs and Ryzen processors to be hit with price increases — and motherboard chipsets are also affected, so the price of those AMD boards will climb, too.

It's worth noting that processors aren't referred to explicitly in the post on the Board Channels, but given the mention of the entirety of AMD's chips, I think we can take that as real (as the leaker Harukaze5719 indicates).

The sources believe that AMD will enforce this new policy in Q4, so it could happen next month, in theory (although all of this remains a rumor).

In other RAM crisis bleakness, the Steam Frame arrived earlier this week with a much-inflated price tag compared to what Valve first envisioned for the VR headset. It starts at $1,059 / £889 / AU$1,609, which is a few hundred more dollars than what Valve was thinking originally.

As PC Gamer reports, a hardware engineer at Valve, Joy Lyons, said, "We set out to design [the Steam Frame] with one particular price in mind, but we've made choices to make sure that we're making a product that is choiceful, that people can purchase. They can upgrade with different features later. But we wanted to make sure we had a base product with really great performance. Then that price target shifted due to the ongoing RAM crisis around the world."

Analysis: a believable enough prediction

Sadly, the AMD rumor is another worrying doom nugget from what seems to be a never-ending supply of bad news in the past couple of months. Just this week, we've had a report that shows DDR5 RAM is somehow getting even more expensive, blowing past the levels I'd expected — not to mention the laptop price hikes.

The RAM crisis was forecast to worsen as 2026 rolled on, and that appears to be unfolding just as predicted — and there's very possibly worse to come in 2027, going by rumors elsewhere. If the pundits, analysts and insiders were right about this year, there's a fair chance they'll be right about next year, too.

Okay, so that's not a foregone conclusion, and some kind of more positive developments could yet happen — we can hope. This particular rumor must also be treated with some caution, as a Board Channels post may not have everything right (by any means), but the problem is that given the current climate, it's believable enough that AMD has price hikes in the works. Team Red already warned us earlier this year about pricing pain for the second half of 2026, after all.

• ESET reports Salt Typhoon shifted focus to Latin America, hitting Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, and others
• Group deployed new SparroWocky backdoor with 30+ commands for profiling, exfiltration, and surveillance
• Researchers link pivot to Trump’s renewed US push in the region, threatening China’s long‑term investments

Salt Typhoon has been reassigned to Latin America, and it’s apparently all due to Donald Trump’s renewed “interest” in the continent.

Cybersecurity researchers ESET have been tracking Salt Typhoon, a Chinese state-sponsored threat actor for years. This is the same group that was seen hacking telecommunication giants and government agencies across the western world since at least 2019.

According to the researchers, from mid-2025 and well into 2026, the group has been targeting a number of Latin American countries: Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. They were seen deploying brand new malware, a backdoor called SparroWocky, that features around 30 commands such as system profiling, file exfiltration, screenshot grabbing, and more. ESET says that around 90% of all Salt Typhoon’s recent activity was devoted to this specific region.

A rare occurrence

The discovery of China-built malware in these countries comes as somewhat of a surprise. Latin America cannot be considered an open ally to the Chinese, but they are quite influential in the region, both economically, and diplomatically. ESET sees the development as a “rare occurrence”, and stresses that this is most likely a response to Trump’s initiatives in the region.

“Donald Trump’s second presidential term has brought about an aggressive reaffirmation of US interests in Latin America, which threatens various long-term investments that China has cultivated throughout the continent in the last decade, in domains such as energy, mining, and telecommunications,” ESET says. “We suspect that FamousSparrow’s (their name for Salt Typhoon) activities are intended to help China better monitor and anticipate the reaction of local governments to current US pressures.”

ESET says the backdoor is being delivered via a trident loader scheme that consists of a legitimate executable, a malicious DLL, and a file containing the encrypted malware. By side-loading the DLL, the crooks can deploy the malware without being spotted.

Via The Register

• FBI and US Coast Guard boarded tanker VL Prosperity after foreign cyber compromise indications
• Iranian media claimed attackers sabotaged engine systems and communications; Kohaku vessel also affected
• No group claimed responsibility; US agencies investigating “malicious cyber activity” on targeted ships

Last month, two tankers heading for the United States were hit by a cyberattack, forcing the FBI and Coast Guard to board at least one of the vessels and investigate.

The first vessel is called VL Prosperity, which was allegedly transporting 2.3 million barrels of oil. It is a Liberian crude oil tanker, travelling from Egypt’s Sidi Kerir Oil Terminal towards Galveston, Texas, where it was supposed to dock on August 24. On its route, lasting roughly 25 days, it passed through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Some three days before arriving, it requested assistance from law enforcement, prompting a “highly specialized team” of FBI and Coast Guard cyber experts to board. The ship is currently sitting in the Gulf of Mexico.

Iranians (indirectly) claiming responsibility

“On August 21, a highly specialized team – comprised of USCG Law Enforcement personnel, USCG Cyber Protection Team members, a vessel inspector, and FBI Cyber Action Team operators – embarked the vessel to conduct a comprehensive cyber security boarding and investigation,” a US Coast Guard spokesperson told Cybernews.

The spokesperson also said the team’s activity is “designed to ensure the integrity of the vessel’s operational and information technology systems." The Coast Guard apparently saw “indications that the vessel’s network were compromised by foreign cyber actors.” It later described the incident as “malicious cyber activity.”

The second vessel in question is called Kohaku, flying under the flag of the Marshall Islands. It was travelling towards Texas to load liquefied petroleum gas, as per Wall Street Journal, and has been sitting near Malta for the past couple of days. At press time (Friday morning), it was travelling through the East Mediterranean Sea.

So far, no threat actors have publicly claimed responsibility for these attacks. However, the Iranian Mehr News Agency allegedly hinted the attack was a “message from Iran’s “Resistance Front” to Washington and the broader Middle East.”

The same publication - also the first one to report on the incident and name VL Prosperity as one of the victims - said the attackers infiltrated engine-room systems, reduced the engine’s cooling flow, increased the engine speed, and disabled the ship’s fuel and engine-oil tank, all citing an unnamed crew member. Apparently, the ship’s communications were knocked offline for a day and a half, as well.

Via Cybernews

• A new report has warned that efforts to install Chinese AI within Venezuela's surveillance network could still go ahead
• The plans were drawn up before former-President Nicolás Maduro was ousted by the US
• Report warns there has been no shift in policy, and calls on the US to take action

When the United States decided to oust and capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a daring nighttime operation, the capital of Caracas was turned to complete darkness as the United States Cyber Command allegedly knocked power generation offline.

But this goes beyond giving US troops favorable conditions to infiltrate Maduro's compound. Since coming to power in 2013, Maduro had been building a huge surveillance network to help keep an eye on and - if necessary - quell opposition. A surveillance network that could capture the whole operation on tape.

But as a President at odds with the US, Maduro sourced much of the surveillance tech from China with future plans to integrate banned Chinese AI systems into the network. While Venezuela may have changed allegiances, a new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has warned that the implementation of Chinese AI could still go ahead.

Venezuela looks to integrate Chinese AI into surveillance infrastructure

ASPI’s latest report, titled ‘Warning signals: Venezuela and the risk of Chinese AI-enabled digital authoritarianism’ [PDF], warns that before the ousting of Maduro, then Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez sought to sign “an agreement to adopt Chinese-built AI systems … to use Chinese AI to enhance existing state-sponsored surveillance.”

Following the operation to remove Maduro, Rodríguez was installed as the Venezuelan President just two days after. But since then ASPI warns that there has been nothing to signal a change in direction from Rodríguez’s plans, meaning that the US could be heading a nation filled with Chinese AI-assisted surveillance tech.

“Venezuela will become one of the first countries outside China to import China’s new generation of LLM-based AI systems for surveillance and control, and the most advanced adopter in the Western Hemisphere,” the report states.

In the immediate aftermath of the likely fixed 2024 Venezuelan presidential elections, protesters and dissidents were identified online and subsequently monitored using video and drone surveillance. Numerous protest leaders disappeared, likely captured by the authorities for their activities.

Plans to adopt Chinese AI technologies as part of Venezuela’s surveillance network would likely enable the state to continue repressing opposition. “Chinese or other AI tools could strengthen a domestically directed apparatus already used to manage dissent, restrict information and preserve political power,” the report says.

One of the companies looking to provide its technology for use in Venezuela is iFlytek. The US held iFlytek as a responsible party during China’s attempts to round up and detain the Uyghur Muslim in the Xinjiang region, and banned the sale of the company’s products in the US in 2019.

Moving Venezuela away from China

The ASPI report calls upon US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to spearhead efforts to dismantle the surveillance network and prevent the import of Chinese AI systems into Venezuela’s apparatus.

“China’s leaders appear to understand that assets and investments of its national champions are at risk in Venezuela. Beijing’s approach seems to be, in part, strengthening oversight of state-owned assets abroad to assist in risk protection and management,” the report states.

The report states that dismantling Venezuela’s surveillance infrastructure would align efforts to combat Chinese surveillance tech, and encourage others to dismantle mass-surveillance systems. The dismantling of Venezuela’s surveillance infrastructure would also help position the US’s image as a liberator, rather than just a new face of an old regime.

But the slight irony therein is juxtaposed with the US’s own current surveillance woes, especially in the wake of opposition to Flock camera systems, and AI companies refusing to provide government access to their models for domestic surveillance purposes.

• CISA urged organizations to deploy honeypots, lures, and honeytokens as cyber decoys
• Decoys complement Zero Trust by detecting LOTL activity and producing high‑fidelity alerts
• Guidance outlines tripwires, breadcrumbs, MITRE ATT&CK/Engage steps for scalable implementation

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is urging organizations to deploy honeypots and various lures to better detect cyber-intrusions and keep hackers busy with spoofed materials. To that end, it recently published a new guidance to help businesses of different sizes and cybersecurity maturity implement these “cyber decoy strategies”.

“Many organizations struggle to detect adversaries who use legitimate credentials, native tools, and living off the land (LOTL) techniques to conduct discovery, move laterally, and access data,.” CISA said in a new security advisory.

“Cyber decoys are assets that appear to be legitimate systems, accounts, or data, but are designed to distract adversaries, detect their presence, or facilitate collection of cyber threat intelligence (CTI). As organizations adopt Zero Trust models, they should assume that a malicious threat actor may gain some level of access to their environment and plan accordingly.”

Tripwires, breadcrumbs, and honeytokens

CISA’s advisory hints that Zero Trust is the preferred way to go about securing corporate infrastructure. Zero Trust treats no user, device, or network segment as inherently trustworthy and requires organizations to operate on the assumption that compromise is inevitable, it says. If you want to learn more, read our in-depth guide on what ZTNA is.

However, it adds that cyber decoys are consistent with this paradigm and complement ZTNA by supporting continuous monitoring and verification, creating high-fidelity alerts for suspicious activity, reducing alert fatigue, and helping defenders detect post-compromise activity such as adversary LOTL techniques. They are also incremental, cost-effective, and scalable, and can be introduced into the cybersecurity tech stack without major architectural changes.

The guidance can be found on this link (PDF). It introduces different decoy concepts such as tripwires, breadcrumbs, and honeytokens, and uses the MITRE Engage and MITRE ATT&CK frameworks to provide the steps needed to plan, implement, and refine these operations.

• The Steam Machine now has a collection of official repair guides
• They're written by iFixit and are commendably thorough
• The only catch is that they highlight the trickiness of some repairs or upgrades, notably the system RAM

The Steam Machine now has a whole raft of repair guides from iFixit, which is great to see – although they have highlighted some fiddly and less-than-ideal aspects when it comes to working inside Valve's compact PC.

TechPowerUp spotted (via VideoCardz) that iFixit published 18 repair guides for the Steam Machine, which cover essential maintenance or the replacement of parts in the device.

It's a thorough set of instructional guides, detailing how to replace parts of the chassis or the Steam Machine's fan, and carry out key upgrades to the RAM and SSD. It even shows you how to replace the motherboard, and how to properly clean and maintain the Steam Machine.

Valve has a partnership with iFixit which has produced a similarly in-depth collection of guides for the Steam Deck, and also sells replacement parts for that handheld, from thumbsticks and bumper buttons through to a new screen or battery. Replacement parts are reportedly coming for the Steam Machine, too, though they aren't on sale yet.

Analysis: easy does it with some of these repairs

This is great, and what I particularly like is the cleaning guide, which is an effective reminder of what a dust magnet PCs can be — and to keep the innards of the Steam Machine relatively dust-free.

However, what this also makes clear, as noted at the outset, is that some of the replacement procedures are relatively tricky — notably upgrading (or replacing) the system RAM.

Okay, so it's nothing too bad if you take your time and work carefully, but there are a lot of steps — 49, in fact, and that's to reach the memory to replace it (then you have to reverse those steps and put the Steam Machine back together). This isn't something that less tech-savvy people will be able to do, at least not without running a serious risk of breaking something else in the process.

Indeed, I'd say you'd need to be pretty confident in your abilities to perform a RAM replacement. Removing the fan is one of most awkward steps, and one method involves heating the glue (with a hair drier if you don't have iFixit's iOpener heat pad) to make the two attached antennas easier to detach. This, and a few other fiddlier aspects, are where I could see something quite easily going awry.

As one of the readers of VideoCardz observed: "Upgrading RAM is super annoying. They should place it near SSD or something in the next revision, because as it is now you have to basically dismantle the whole damn thing. Not that it's particularly 'hard' to do, but it's super annoying and you can actually damage something, like Wi-Fi antennas for example."

Still, I can't knock the quality of the guides, and the thoroughness of the step-by-step instructions, complete with diagrams and information about exactly which way you should orientate the device when moving onto the next step.

Of course, you won't be able to perform repairs until you have the replacement parts, and hopefully iFixit will stock these before long (as it does with the Steam Deck). Right now, parts are obviously thin on the ground, as Valve needs them for manufacturing as many Steam Machines as it can, but that situation will change in time.

• Sublime researchers warn ICS phishing via calendar invites is surging ~33,000% since May 2026
• Attacks bypass filters, trick users into installing RMM tools like ScreenConnect for full compromise
• Defenses: scrutinize suspicious invites, verify senders, and treat ICS attachments with caution

ICS phishing - the type of phishing that abuses calendar files (.ics) is set to increase by around 33,000% between May and September 2026. This is according to a new report by cybersecurity researchers Sublime, who argue that this type of phishing has finally “hit the mainstream”.

The methodology is simple - the attacker uses a free service, such as Gmail, and sends a calendar invite to the target. Since both services are legitimate and free, the attacks bypass most email security filters and can be done at scale with close to zero cost.

Furthermore, the victim is exposed to the attack twice: once in the inbox, and once in their calendar. Inside the calendar invite is usually a link to download a maliciously configured remote management and monitoring (RMM) solution such as ScreenConnect. The attackers can use the tool to take over the compromised endpoint, deploying stage-two malware such as infostealers or ransomware, and grabbing passwords, documents, and other valuable secrets.

Spiking in popularity

ICS phishing started increasing in popularity roughly a year ago, but has been really picking up speed lately. Between May and June it increased 282%, and between June and July - 338%.

Between July and August it rose 1,216%, and in just the first half of September it rose 1,426% over the full month of August. Projections for the entire month of September, over August, are 2,852%, Sublime says.

“The jumps in August and September appear to be indicators that this attack type has finally hit the mainstream,” the researchers explained. “To really drive that point home, the increase from May to September is projected to be ~33,000%.”

Defending against these attacks is best done with a little common sense, the researchers conclude. Users should be mindful of the telltale signs, such as suspicious CTAs, suspicious senders, and the usual financial urgency.

• Security researchers used Claude Opus 5 to hijack an OpenAI employee's ChatGPT account
• Exploit abused an image processing flaw on OpenAI community forums to gain full repo access
• The entire timeline from vulnerability discovery to repo access took less than 72 hours

While taking part in an OpenAI bug bounty program, a group of Hacktron security researchers managed to compromise an internal OpenAI ChatGPT account and access internal company code on Github.

According to the Wall Street Journal, who first reported the incident, the researchers used a “special version” of Anthropic’s Claude made available to “qualified cybersecurity practitioners” to pull off the attack.

The researchers initially attempted to use Claude Opus 4.8 to create a breach, but faced multiple setbacks as the model “struggled across several sessions to produce a working exploit.” But the release of Opus 5 changed everything.

OpenAI breach part of wider libheif exploit

The breach started with a libheif exploit that abuses a flaw in the .heic/.heif/.avif image file format decoder and encoder. While this exploit allowed Hacktron to breach OpenAI, libheif is also used across other platforms and software including Slack, Meta, GitHub Enterprise, Ruby on Rails, and more.

To start, the researchers first noted that the OpenAI community forum relies on the Discourse platform, which in turn relies on FastImage for image checks. But FastImage does not support .heif image files, and these are passed on to ImageMagick for conversion instead.

Developing a working code-execution exploit that abused this relation between ImageMagick and libheif with Opus 4.8 “wasn’t fruitful”, the researchers said, but on the same day Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.

With Opus 5, the researchers managed to create a working local remote code execution (RCE) using the same premise by setting an AI agent in a loop to exploit a local Discourse Cloud instance.

The successful Discourse exploit was then used against the OpenAI community forums, where the researchers hijacked an OpenAI employee’s ChatGPT account. The employee had connected their ChatGPT Codex with the company’s Github, allowing the researchers full repo access.

Exploit needed just a few hours of human interaction

Where the researchers spent hours struggling to create a working exploit with Opus 4.8, the release of Opus 5 showed that “every new model is getting increasingly capable." It took the agent running on Opus 5 just a few hours to develop a working exploit.

The full timeline from initial discovery of the exploit to OpenAI repo access took just 72 hours, researchers noted.

The researchers also said that the entire OpenAI and Discourse hack “took a few days for an agent, and just a few hours of human time” in order to be successful. Furthermore, their research into the libheif exploit against organizations such as Slack, Zoom, Meta “took two-months, cost less than $3,000 in tokens in total, and was conducted by three researchers.”

“The AI started almost blind and adapted the exploit for each company within one or two days,” the researchers said. “We are not aware of any company that detected the activity except Shopify, even after thousands of images were sent and their image processors repeatedly crashed.”

In return for exposing the vulnerabilities, Hacktron was awarded a $6,500 bounty from OpenAI, and the libheif vulnerability has been patched.

AI agents are the future, for better or for worse

Hacktron's exploit demonstration shows how prevalent AI agents are becoming in cybersecurity. Where they have been lauded by AI companies to provide productivity bonuses and efficiency increases to workers, the same can be said for attackers.

The fact that it took just 72 hours from exploit discovery to full repo access highlights the dangers. By setting an AI agent to run on a continuous loop until it creates a workable exploit dramatically shifts the exploit timeline from weeks or months in the case of non-AI assisted attacks to mere hours for attackers aided by agents.

This is a similar circumstance to OpenAI's own accidental breach of Hugging Face during testing of AI agents. The agents were essentially told to complete a test scenario by any means necessary, which the agents interpreted as permission to go beyond their alignment and hack into a third-party environment that they thought held the key to solving their task.

"AI has been changing the threat landscape for a while now, and the defence landscape with it," Spencer Starkey, Executive VP EMEA at SonicWall said. "But there's a conversation we're not having loudly enough: do you actually want your security platform to have been built by AI, with no human track record behind it?"

"It looks compelling. You have low cost, high margins, slick interface. But what happens when something goes wrong at 02:00 in the morning and you need someone who knows the product, knows your environment, and has seen that problem before? An AI-built platform with zero employees can't give you that.

"Why go with an established vendor when a newer option does 90% of the same things for half the price? It's a fair question. But the 10% you're trading away is usually accountability, resilience, and institutional knowledge. Exactly what matters most when you're under attack.

"It looks like due diligence is eroding, and that worries me. Shiny and affordable is a powerful combination…for magpies. But in cyber security, the cost of a bad supplier decision doesn't show up until the moment you can least afford it, so don’t be a magpie," Starkey concluded.

A summer in Silicon Valley presented a studio build challenge which transformed the way I think about portability, quality, and more broadly, the future of remote contribution. Since 2020, I’ve regularly contributed as a panelist to a volunteer group of AV & tech professionals who answer questions together from all over the world.

The panelist’s feeds are remotely switched by a fully remote crew and the finished show streams live via YouTube as Office Hours Global (OHG). While my trip began to take shape, so too did the challenges I’d have to overcome if I wanted to broadcast throughout the summer.

Over the years, I have built many remote broadcast studios, but none with such an elaborate cocktail of prerequisites, portability hurdles, and output quality standards. I narrowed everything down to three constraints.

First, to travel as checked airline luggage, everything must fit in two Pelican Air 1615 cases, each under 50 lbs. Second, the sound & video must be as good as my permanent studio or this project would be over before it had begun. Third, my MacBook Pro couldn’t be a part of the build. I was in Silicon Valley to take meetings, attend conferences, and generally do things which required it to be uncoupled from the studio.

Equipment

Any claim about production has to be backed by the equipment that made it.

Computing: Apple Mac mini M4.

Video: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro with a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II, routed through an ATEM Mini Extreme ISO.

Audio: Heil PR 40 into a Sound Devices MixPre-6 II, with NoiseAssist handling room noise in real time.

Monitoring: Shure PSM 300.

Lighting: Dual GVM LED panels.

IO: OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock. Uplink: long Ethernet run.

Platform: a paid Zoom account with the enhanced media add-on.

Control & Automation Triggers: Elgato Stream Deck.

For the fans of the nitty gritty, this is the full wiring diagram.

You’ll notice there are no displays on this list. They are one of the more fragile components a packed studio could include, and cheaper to buy than to fly. I’d planned to pick up a couple when I landed, but never needed to. The places I rented had more than I could ever use. The rig, as designed, ran with a single display. I lucked out and used three.

Travel setup

I expected to spend three months tolerating a travel setup. Instead, I forgot I wasn’t at home. Not only did the rig surpass my expectations, it did so by eliminating the countless little quick-fix gadgets that I’d spent years buying for the main studio. No single niche gadget contributed more than a whisper to the complexity of the studio.

Over the years, they’ve converged into an outright shout. The components, having performed perfectly all summer, now sit packed in its original pair of cases at Stanford awaiting our return flight.

Compared to my usual rig, the only tell that I was somewhere else was the blank white wall behind me. It’s true that a permanent studio has other, non-technical benefits. An in-frame space which can silently express your career, interests or achievements can’t fit in two Pelican cases. At home, my backdrop is full of old lenses colorfully lit and beautifully in bokeh: a proper wall of depreciation!

I used to believe a remote rig earned its portability by cutting corners. Nothing could be further from the truth. Optimization is how we improve with practice. The trick is noticing when an optimization has outlived the situation that produced it.

Once you can see a better way and leave things as they are, you’ve taken on technical debt. At best, this technical debt costs a project its elegance, at worst it stacks up enough complexity to push an ambitious project past feasible.

Workflows

There’s a line from The Dark Knight I can’t get out of my head: “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” That happens to workflows!

Every one of them started as somebody’s clever answer to a real problem: remote access into a workstation because a Mac mini couldn’t run the job or approval loops built for the era before anyone could see the same frame at the same time. Those were heroes of their day. Some still can be. The rest remained long after the problem went away.

The primary assumption I had to overcome this summer was that remote, by its very nature, is lesser than professional. The workflows we built around it are a cast still protecting a limb that isn’t there.

A broadcast is just someone trying to reach other people who aren’t in the same room. By that definition, every video call can have the same clarity and authority as a broadcast. This lesson applies to everyone. Let’s test my theory.

A background blur that can’t decide when hair is foreground between one frame and the next is a small thing. The cognitive load it imposes might not rise to the level of conscious awareness when it occurs. Yet, your recognition of it, be it on your last call or your next, is proof that it has occurred to you before.

See that as an opportunity to raise the standards and the friction becomes an opportunity to prepare. Such preparation for a call is like dressing up for a formal meeting. It automatically says that the occasion was worth looking and sounding your best

Walt Disney once asked his Imagineers why the animatronic birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room didn’t breathe. The mechanism was tedious, they explained, and nobody in the audience would ever notice. He said, "People can feel perfection."

Nobody needs to name what was wrong with a virtual meeting to know they’d rather not sit through another one which felt virtual.

We've featured the best video conferencing software.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

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 #1698) — hint #1 — Vowels

* 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 #1698) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1698) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1698) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

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 #1698) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

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

Quordle today (game #1698) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1698, are…

• MUCUS
• MIRTH
• APPLE
• TILDE

I made quite a meal over APPLE, mainly due to the fact that the were so many options for words containing a letter A and ending in LE.

Fortunately, it only took me one wrong guess.

Elsewhere, two words beginning with the letter M were the major helper.

Daily Sequence today (game #1698) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1698, are…

• IONIC
• KIOSK
• VOILA
• BORNE

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1697, Thursday, 17 September: CRIER, CHIRP, NEIGH, FREER
• Quordle #1696, Wednesday, 16 September: SPEAR, PRICE, BLUNT, FISHY
• Quordle #1695, Tuesday, 15 September: SHUSH, LITHE, DELTA, BUGLE
• Quordle #1694, Monday, 14 September: ZEBRA, LEGAL, RATIO, TROLL
• Quordle #1693, Sunday, 13 September: LUCID, SPRAY, MANGE, EMAIL
• Quordle #1692, Saturday, 12 September: SUPER, BRUSH, RESET, SOWER
• 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

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 #929) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #929) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• LETTERS
• TEAM
• PATE
• GEAR
• POET
• TONAL

NYT Strands today (game #929) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #929) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

NYT Strands today (game #929) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #929, are…

• COVENANT
• PACT
• TREATY
• CONTRACT
• AGREEMENT
• SPANGRAM: LETSMAKEADEAL

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

COVENANT is a pretty unusual word to begin a word search with, but that's how my game played out today, because I was stumped and looking for non-game words; I was in the process of bagging “coven” when I saw the much longer word.

From here, though, after my slow start, I roared through the remainder of the search at an agreeable pace.

I cannot remember deals ever really being in the news at all, but in 2026 the making of them, or indeed the failure to make them, seems to be the only news there is. Frankly, I missed the days when we muddled along.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, September 17, game #928)

• PEANUTS
• ZIPPY
• MUTTS
• PICKLES
• ZITS
• BLONDIE
• SPANGRAM: THEFUNNYPAGES

• Samsung Display unveils new 'M16' OLED phone screen tech that can hit 10,000 nits of brightness in small areas
• The more useful news is that it can be 30% more efficient than its previous-gen M14 OLED tech
• It's appearing first in the Vivo iQOO 16 phone, in China

Samsung Display has unveiled the first OLED panel to deliver 10,000 nits of peak brightness, and it's already coming in a phone.

The new 'M16' OLED display is capable of 10,000 nits in 1% of the window, although in full screen it puts out a less searingly bright (but massively impressive) 2,800 nits. These numbers put it in the region of micro-LED tech, and way beyond anything we've seen for OLED so far.

Of course, brightness is all well and good, though few people are probably begging for their phone to be as bright as a full sunny day. What's arguably more exciting is that the panel is Samsung's second-generation polarizer-free OLED, which enables it to deliver significantly improved energy efficiency and brightness — the claim is a 30% improvement in efficiency.

This means that even if you view it more like the 1,000 nits of most elite phones, you're saving way more battery — and since the display is one of the biggest battery hogs in phones (or the best smartwatches, where the tech would also be really useful), that could make a real difference to phone longevity.

The M-series panels are made for smartphones and other mobile devices, but the advances in OLED material here may make their way into the best OLED TVs too, at least partly.

Where to see Samsung Display's new ultra-bright OLED

According to industry site FlatpanelsHD, Samsung Display will be providing the M16 OLEDs to Vivo for its iQOO 16 gaming phone.

Previous reports also suggest that Apple is using the M16 in its iPhone 18 Pro, as Apple has previously used even-numbered M-series OLEDs in its iPhones. My colleague Matt Bolton highlighted the longer battery life in the iPhone 8 Pro as one of its, uh, highlights — noting that battery improvements usually come from multiple elements combining, so it would makes sense if this new display is one of those elements.

For TV buyers, the most significant thing here is how fast OLED tech is evolving. Samsung announced its first 5,000 nit OLED in March 2025, and it's doubled the brightness and massively increased the energy efficiency in just over a year.

It'll be some time before these more efficient displays make their way to monitors and TVs (monitors might come sooner), and there are currently trade-offs involved — the lack of a polarizer can mean less defined contrast and black levels, which may be Apple is adding other anti-reflective tech to its displays — but clearly, any so-called OLED killers can't be complacent when OLED is evolving at such a speed.

• US law enforcement seized Nightmare Stresser domains, a long‑running DDoS‑for‑hire platform
• Service enabled hundreds of thousands of attacks since 2022; FBI banner now replaces sites
• Part of Operation PowerOFF, which has seized 100+ domains and charged 12 people so far

US law enforcement agencies disrupted yet another Distributed Denial of Service for hire (DDoS-for-hire) platform. In a press release published earlier this week on the District of Alaska’s Attorney General’s Office website, it was said that two internet domains associated with the Nightmare Stresser service were seized.

Describing it as “one of the world’s longest running Distributed Denial of Service for hire services,” the DoJ says Nightmare Stresser was used in “hundreds of thousands of actual or attempted DDoS attacks targeting victims worldwide since 2022”.

Services such as this one are called “booters” or “stressers”, and are often advertised as legitimate, allowing users to stress-test their websites against possible DDoS attacks.

No arrests

However, researchers have warned on multiple occasions that this is merely a cover for what’s essentially illegal activity. These platforms rent their services to anyone, including cybercriminals, and have been used to disrupt and take businesses, public organizations, and individuals offline, causing reputational and financial harm.

Nightmare Stresser’s two domains were seized - nightmare-stresser[.]com and nightmarestresser[.]org. Visiting these sites now shows the usual FBI defacement banner saying, “This website has been seized as part of a coordinated law enforcement action taken against illegal DDoS-for-hire services.”

To run DDoS attacks, threat actors need infrastructure - hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices infected with malware that forces them to direct their traffic towards a single point. The DoJ’s announcement says nothing about the infrastructure being dismantled, or the malware used to create Nightmare Stresser being discovered or sinkholed. It also does not mention any arrests being made, so it is safe to assume Nightmare Stresser will be back to its usual shenanigans sooner, rather than later.

Still, the press release says that the takedown is part of Operation PowerOFF, an ongoing campaign aimed at dismantling DDoS-for-hire infrastructure worldwide, as well as “holding accountable the administrators and users of these illegal services.”

So far, more than 100 domains were seized as part of the effort, and 12 people were charged.

Via The Hacker News

• Helpfeel confirmed a Sept 11 breach compromising 23.62M records tied to Gyazo users
• Stolen data includes PII, login/session IDs, Google SSO tokens, and 490M image metadata records
• Payment info safe, but private images may have been exposed; viewing disabled pending investigation

A Japanese customer-support and knowledge-base company suffered a cyberattack recently in which it lost millions of user records, including personally identifiable information (PII) and, possibly, customer photographs.

The company in question is called Helpfeel. It is an established organization with more than 200 employees, operating as a combination of a modern help center, intelligent search, and an AI support agent. It runs an image-sharing service called Gyazo. According to a breach notification published earlier this week, the breach happened on September 11, when an unidentified threat actor abused a vulnerability to upload malware, gain access to the service’s servers, and run arbitrary commands on them.

A subsequent investigation determined that the attacker compromised 23.62 million records. Multiple records are tied to the same user, and many of the records were generated by customers without user accounts, so the actual number of affected individuals is not yet determined (but it’s definitely less than 23.6 million).

Image metadata exposed, too

The compromised records fall into these categories: names, emails, password hashes, user IDs, device IDs, login session IDs, X integration tokens, email addresses associated with Google SSO, profile information, language preferences, registration date and time, login date and time, subscription plan, billing status (without credit card numbers), and usage statistics.

“We have confirmed that no payment information, including credit card numbers, was disclosed without authorization,” Helpfeel confirmed.

PII aside, the attackers also accessed image metadata. Roughly 490 million records associated with images registered in or before January 2019 were compromised, including image IDs, source IP address used for the upload, user-agents, EXIF location data, OCR text extracted from the images, image titles, source URLs, and hashed passphrases for private images.

Since some of this metadata is used to generate image URLs, Helpfeel does not rule out the possibility that the attackers viewed actual images, as well. “We have temporarily disabled viewing of some images to prevent further harm,” it said. “As we cannot rule out the possibility that some private images may have been viewed by the third party, we are continuing our detailed investigation.”

Via The Hacker News

• The Australian government might ban smart glasses at all of its agencies
• Devices like Meta’s glasses have garnered controversy over user privacy
• The move would follow Australia’s banning of social media for under-16s

The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have been in hot water ever since they launched amid concerns they could be used to record people without their consent. And the privacy backlash has grown so vocal that the Australian government is now considering a “world-leading” ban on the devices inside any workplace run by the state.

The ban would affect any government-run offices, services centers, laboratories and local councils. It goes a lot further than the state’s current position, which is to allow workplaces to set their own rules on the controversial wearable tech. While the ban would affect most municipal locations, schools and hospitals run by the government would be allowed to decide their own rules on the glasses.

Katy Gallagher, the Australian public service minister, said that the nation’s public has been asked for feedback on the next move, adding that “Smart glasses can raise legitimate privacy and security concerns, particularly because of their ability to record and capture information.”

“We need clear and consistent guidance for public servants,” Gallagher said. So far, no national government has banned smart glasses across its agencies, with the Australian Albanese administration saying it sought to create a “world-leading” standard.

A privacy storm

Meta’s smart glasses have attracted growing criticism for their potential to encourage harassing behavior and to record members of the public without their consent. They’ve been popularly branded “pervert glasses” in light of the controversy, while a University of Sydney study found that of 350 public Instagram videos shot with the glasses, around 60% could be classified as potentially containing harassment of a person or people.

The negative blowback has not been aided by Meta’s abysmal record on user privacy. The company has been accused of harvesting triple the data of its rivals, ignoring users’ desires not to be tracked, feeding untold reams of private data into its artificial intelligence (AI) models, and more. The company’s apps, including Facebook and Instagram, have been labeled among the worst offenders for privacy violations — news that will likely surprise few people.

If the Australian ban goes into place, it would only be the most sweeping of a similar set of moves made around the world. Courts in England, Wales and New York state have banned smart glasses, as has the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Several cities and local councils in Australia have barred the glasses in playgrounds, childcare centers, gyms and public swimming pools.

And Australia also took the lead on restricting social media usage by children when it banned under-16s from using a range of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and more.

Considering the current hostile reaction to smart glasses, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see other governments follow Australia’s cue and outlaw the devices at their state facilities and workplaces. Until Meta can allay public concerns over the privacy-busting potential of its glasses, this storm isn’t likely to pass any time soon.

• Cisco fixed critical ISE flaw (CVE‑2026‑76460) allowing unauthenticated API authentication bypass
• Actively exploited; no workarounds exist—patching is the only mitigation, per Cisco PSIRT
• CISA added to KEV catalog, mandating federal agencies patch or disable ISE by Sept 19, 2026

Cisco has fixed a maximum-severity vulnerability found in its Identity Services Engine (ISE) that is being actively exploited in attacks.

ISE is the company’s Network Access Control (NAC) and identity-based policy platform which decides who or what is allowed onto a company’s network, and what they’re allowed to access inside.

“A vulnerability in an API of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass authentication,” the company said in a security advisory.

Abused in the wild

“This vulnerability is due to insufficient authentication control on an API endpoint. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted request to an affected API endpoint. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain unauthorized access to the affected device by bypassing the web-based management interface.”

The bug in question is tracked as CVE-2026-76460. It was given a severity score of 10/10 (critical), and was said it affects Cisco ISE and Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC), regardless of device configuration.

In the same advisory, Cisco said its Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) was aware of active exploitation and urged customers to upgrade to a fixed software release as soon as possible. There are no workarounds available for this flaw, and a patch is the only solution. The full list of vulnerable versions and the corresponding patches can be found on this link.

At the same time, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added the bug to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, giving Federal agencies a three-day deadline to patch, or stop using ISE entirely. The deadline expires on September 19, 2026.

Cisco has shared Indicators of Compromise (IoC) and advised defenders to hunt for suspicious usernames in access.log files on every node. It also recommended re-imaging nodes and restoring them from backups, in case of a breach.

Via BleepingComputer

• Snap’s Specs are its sixth-generation AR glasses
• They may be hefty devices, but they’re surprisingly comfortable to wear and easy to use
• The Specs come packed with engaging features, including a new AI assistant

It’s been almost a decade since Snap Inc. released its first Spectacles smart glasses back in 2016, and the series has grown a lot since then. The original pair was essentially an extension of Snapchat, designed to record short 10-second clips for the social platform.

Since then, Snap’s tech has grown into a robust augmented reality platform, improving both the hardware and software along the way.

For Fall 2026, Snap Inc. will soon launch what is technically its sixth generation of Spectacles. However, it seems that the company is looking for a fresh start, as these smart glasses will simply be known as the Snap Specs.

The Specs were initially unveiled at the Augmented World Expo 2026 in June, and it was revealed then that the company was placing greater emphasis on regular consumers rather than strictly an enterprise audience.

I had the opportunity to try out the Specs myself at Snap Inc.’s headquarters in Santa Monica, California. And it was instantly clear to me that the glasses are meant to be the entry point to a vast AR ecosystem. While I had a lot of fun using them in an early demo, the experience wasn’t without its quirks.

Big frames, vibrant screen

While these 6th-gen Specs are much slimmer than the previous generation, they are still quite chunky, sporting thick black frames made out of a Swiss TR90 polymer.

Snap offers two sizes: a 47mm model weighing 132 grams and a 52mm model weighing 136 grams. For anyone keeping score, that's significantly heavier than a pair of Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, which weigh just 50 grams. But Snap did a good job of distributing weight. The 52mm devices felt quite comfortable on my head. The smaller 47mm glasses, on the other hand, pinched my temples.

These glasses project a digital screen with a 51-degree field of view (FoV) in front of your eyes, providing a decent amount of viewing space. Snap equates the floating display to a 24-inch desktop monitor. Combine that with the liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) lenses, and you get high-resolution, vibrant images.

Smart, intuitive software

Most of my hands-on time with the Specs was spent using the consumer-facing software. The UI is clean and easy to understand. Features are split between the Home and My Lenses menus, with the main window remaining visible in your immediate view. Digital objects can be repositioned using a simple pinching gesture.

In my experience, dragging and dropping windows was a little finicky. The process was smooth most of the time, although there were instances when the glasses didn’t register my hand movements, and I had to repeat the gesture several times.

Navigating the interface takes some getting used to, although there is an alternative. Holding your left hand up toward the camera brings up a quick menu that lets you quickly navigate to the Home screen as well as other parts of the system.

A major aspect of the Specs is the new on-board AI assistant, Specs Intelligence. Like other AI assistants, such as Google Gemini, Specs Intelligence can provide contextually relevant information in response to voice commands. It will keep listening until instructed otherwise. Do note that you’ll need to speak up for the microphones to pick up your voice.

It also builds an understanding of your routines so it can surface useful information when you need it. I found Specs Intelligence to be one of the best parts of the glasses. It’s quick to operate, delivering accurate search results and suggestions in almost no time.

Seeing the Apps

I had access to a few third-party apps, namely Spotify and Google Docs. When it comes to audio, the glasses' stems have speakers on either end that point directly toward your ears. Music from Spotify came through crystal clear, with a bit of punchy bass. The best part is how little audio leakage there is. I held the glasses close to my face during the demo, and I could barely hear the music.

With Google Docs, you can connect a wireless keyboard to the Specs glasses via Bluetooth for on-the-go work. It’s a nice utility to have, although there was noticeable latency between the keyboard input and what appeared on the page. I asked if I could connect a mouse to the wearables. I was told that currently, users can't connect computer mice.

Outside the third-party software, there were plenty of first-party apps, including an internet browser, an image gallery, navigation, direct access to Snapchat, and, most notably, a translation tool. What’s cool about the translation tool is that it translates other languages in real time. I had a Snap representative speak to me in Italian, and the translated text appeared on the display a few seconds after they finished speaking.

Admittedly, I don’t know how accurate the translation tool is. I don’t speak Italian, so I can’t verify it myself, but we were able to have a fluid conversation without issue.

The early verdict

Snap’s new Specs were pretty fun to use. They’re comfortable to wear despite their size, and the software felt intuitive. Yes, the gesture controls were a little inconsistent, but there is still time before the official launch to address those quirks.

At the time of this writing, you can pre-order the Snap Specs for an eye-watering $2,195 (around £1,640 / AU$3,090) with a $200 deposit, making them quite the investment.

A release date is set for sometime this Fall (in other words, sometime before the end of November). An exact date has not been given. It is worth pointing out that Snap Inc. will let interested shoppers try the smart glasses at the Specs First Look pop-up in the Westfield Century City shopping mall in Los Angeles, starting October 1. Given that date, an October launch seems likely.

• Check Point warns scammers spoof airline customer support on social media to steal payment data
• Hundreds of fake accounts created daily, luring frustrated passengers into private chats or forms
• Campaign active since 2024; mirrors earlier fake support scams seen during crypto wallet fraud

Scammers are now posing as customer support for airlines, tricking already frustrated customers into sharing payment details and possibly losing money, too.

People who have had poor experiences flying would often vent their frustration on social media, be it X, Facebook, Instagram, or any other platform. They would tag the company and demand help, or at least an explanation. However, according to new research from security experts Check Point, the airline’s social media department is not the only one monitoring these complaints - hackers do it, too.

Not only are they monitoring the channels, they are actively preparing to hop in and talk to the customers.

Years-old campaign

Every day, hundreds of new social media accounts are created - some are built to spoof the airlines themselves, others are built to look as if they’re used by the airlines’ customer support or similar department. When the customer leaves a post or a comment, the criminals swoop in, publicly apologizing for the inconvenience, and offering assistance in a different, private channel. Sometimes those are the platform’s DMs, and sometimes it is WhatsApp or a different platform entirely.

The end result differs from case to case. Sometimes, the criminals would try to get the victims to share their personal and payment information and would later try to make a wire transfer. In other instances, the crooks would prepare a fake form for the victims to fill out, possibly creating a database for later use.

Check Point doesn’t know exactly when the campaign started but found some of the impersonation accounts dating back to before 2024, with the majority being created either in 2024, or later. “This suggests that the activity has accelerated over the past two years. The campaign remains highly active, with hundreds of new accounts appearing daily and new scam techniques continuing to emerge,” they said.

However, we can confirm that this type of fraud has been around for a lot longer than that. Fake customer support scams were rampant on X even in 2021, during the crypto ICO craze, during which crooks were taking advantage of people losing access to their wallets, or making transactions towards nonexistent wallet addresses in the same way.

• Spain’s data protection agency (AEPD) reported its first breach carried out by an autonomous AI agent
• Agent chained multiple attack stages: accessed public files, scanned systems, exploited a flaw, and modified data
• AEPD urged businesses to factor AI‑driven attacks into risk assessments, stressing faster response and stronger identity controls

A Spanish company was apparently hit with a data breach conducted by an autonomous AI agent.

Earlier this week Francisco Pérez Bes, president and deputy of the Spanish data protection agency (AEPD) published a new article on the agency’s blog, saying it “received the first notification of a personal data breach in which the incident was reportedly carried out using an artificial intelligence agent powered by a well-known large language model.”

As per Pérez Bes, the agent first used the target’s “publicly accessible files”, through which it was able to log into its system. From the inside, the agent then started scanning for vulnerabilities and after finding one, used it to modify personal data and gain access to invoices.

A call to action

The author stresses that there is very little known about this incident and that a thorough investigation is currently ongoing. He pointed out that the attack doesn’t imply the AI model or the provider’s infrastructure were compromised or malicious by design, but said that the attack was “significant from a data protection perspective,” since the AI agent was used to chain together multiple stages of the attack.

For Pérez, the attack is a call to action - businesses need to rethink how they assess and manage security risks. He claims businesses need to “explicitly account for AI-assisted and AI-driven attacks when assessing the risks associated with personal-data processing,” and need to reassess their response times.

“Procedures designed around manually executed attacks may not be sufficient when an AI agent can analyze multiple assets at once, test different avenues of attack, and rapidly adapt its behavior based on what it finds.”

He also stressed the “growing importance of digital identities and credentials,” since an AI agent with an account or an API key “can operate at machine speed and move across different services before an organization has time to detect the anomalous activity.”

Via The Register

• The US Treasury's FinCEN arm asks financial institutions to file scam center suspicious activity reports under a new keyword
• FinCEN says that it flagged financial moves across 33,904 different filings, but actual losses might differ significantly, as the approach is prone to double-counting transactions
• Only 1,300 institutions filed reports, with 10,082 (29.7%) of them centering around exploitation of the elderly by scammers

The US Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has issuespublished an alert and a companion data analysis telling banks, credit unions, digital asset exchanges, and securities firms that it needs sharper reporting on the overseas scam centers that it says target Americans at an industrial scale.

FinCEN puts total damages, per its reporting mechanism, at roughly $12.7 billion linked to suspected digital asset investment scams between September 2023 and the end of 2025.

The number comes from adding up the dollar values of 33,904 Bank Secrecy Act filings that referenced the keyword from its 2023 "pig butchering" alert, which may be overstated, as it includes both attempted and successful transactions as well as both inbound and outbound reports, often of the same transactions, causing significant overlap.

FinCEN's new requirement is a keyword

While the $12.7 billion is a measure of what institutions have flagged and is prone to double-counting and errors, victim losses, a significant chunk of which go unreported, may be considerably higher.

This has prompted Gene Lange, who effectively works as the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, to call these scams "one of the most significant fraud threats facing Americans today."

It has also prompted a new suspicious activity report keyword: "FIN-2026-SCAMCENTERS," which institutions are expected to use to indicate that a scam center is potentially involved.

FinCEN also wants chat logs, scammer phone numbers, social media handles, wallet addresses, transaction hashes, and the URLs victims were told to deposit into, filed in the structured cyber indicator fields rather than left out.

Institutions to volunteer more information to stop scams

The move is part of its push to have institutions volunteer more information under the US Patriot Act, as it aims to confront what is a growing intelligence problem: scammers tend to route victims through several institutions in sequence; most filers see only one slice of a scam's lifecycle and often have difficulty tracing it all the way.

For example, a crypto exchange might see a customer buying USDT and sending it off-platform, a bank might see a wire to that exchange, and a brokerage might see a retirement account liquidated. None of them would have the bigger picture of what essentially happened or what triggered the transaction.

Combined, with properly linked information, it makes it much easier to identify a potential scam; separately, these incidents can inflate the number of reports, which often aren't linked, and investigations can lack insight into the origin or final destination of the funds.

FinCEN's Rapid Response Program has interdicted $1.8 billion and recovered just over $1 billion for 5,790 US victims since 2015, which, against the flagged totals, is a very limited recovery at best compared with the actual funds at stake. This highlights a larger fundamental problem: institutions mostly detect these schemes after the money is gone, and reporting them correctly and thoroughly may yield limited dividends at best against an industry that has morphed, relatively unchecked, into a multi-billion-dollar juggernaut.

• A pseudonymous GitHub account has published what it calls a reconstruction of Stuxnet malware that purportedly took out a fifth of Iran's centrifuges before being discovered
• The original source has never surfaced, and the 'Stuxnet' moniker that the account uses comes from Symantec's coining of the name weeks after it was discovered
• The code remains unverified and untested, with some users indicating that it is likely an AI-generated replication of the original binaries' behavior, which has been widely documented

A GitHub account has published what it describes as a faithful reconstruction of Stuxnet, the worm that sabotaged Iranian uranium-enrichment centrifuges.

It also became the first piece of software widely accepted as having caused physical destruction in the real world, highlighting how malicious software can often do much more harm to people and hardware than just stealing or manipulating data.

The repository surfaced via a Show HN submission, which mainstream media outlets then picked up, highlighting the as-yet-unknown researcher's reverse-engineered code.

Not the first or last Stuxnet repository

The original Stuxnet source, written by whoever built it, has never been leaked and did not leak last week. The repository's README explicitly states that it is a reconstruction assembled from decompiled binaries, and those binaries have been in public circulation since Belarusian firm VirusBlokAda pulled samples from an Iranian customer's machines in June 2010.

Everything that followed, including Symantec's W32.Stuxnet Dossier and Ralph Langner's To Kill a Centrifuge, was built on those samples and how they reacted in test environments.

This is also not the first time readable C-language code aiming to replicate Stuxnet has been published online. Malware researcher Amr Thabet published a decompilation of the MRxNet rootkit carrying a 2010 to 2011 copyright notice. Christian Roggia followed with a dropper decompilation called open-myrtus, copyrighted 2012 to 2014, which has since been forked into a long chain of repositories.

The irony is that if such code were a faithful replication of the infamous malware, it would not have mentioned "Stuxnet" in multiple places, including registry keys. This is because the moniker is not one the developers likely used, but one Symantec switched to from its original 'W32.Temphid' identifier.

The thread where it was first brought to attention by a user called Sadpainy also has mixed views from developers, many of whom have branded it 'AI slop' or a 'fake' that relies on a mixture of already existing repositories, even as the about page on its GitHub repo states that it was reproduced by the researcher for educational purposes and is designed to only work on Windows XP and Windows 7.

For those looking to test it, a virtual machine might be their best bet, especially given Stuxnet's ability to physically damage hardware, but it is also a stark reminder of what a rogue AI agent could do if left unchecked without specific instructions or safeguards.

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 #1697) — hint #1 — Vowels

* 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 #1697) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1697) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1697) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

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 #1697) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

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

Quordle today (game #1697) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1697, are…

• CRIER
• CHIRP
• NEIGH
• FREER

A very taxing game despite its heavy use of the letter R and lack of vowels.

NEIGH was the hardest to get to, but once I entered N-E-I onto the tiles I realized there was no other possibility.

Daily Sequence today (game #1697) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1697, are…

• SOBER
• STONY
• IDYLL
• QUARK

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1696, Wednesday, 16 September: SPEAR, PRICE, BLUNT, FISHY
• Quordle #1695, Tuesday, 15 September: SHUSH, LITHE, DELTA, BUGLE
• Quordle #1694, Monday, 14 September: ZEBRA, LEGAL, RATIO, TROLL
• Quordle #1693, Sunday, 13 September: LUCID, SPRAY, MANGE, EMAIL
• Quordle #1692, Saturday, 12 September: SUPER, BRUSH, RESET, SOWER
• 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

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 #928) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #928) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• MUST
• TUNE
• NECK
• STICK
• PUPPY
• BLOCK

NYT Strands today (game #928) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #928) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

NYT Strands today (game #928) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #928, are…

• PEANUTS
• ZIPPY
• MUTTS
• PICKLES
• ZITS
• BLONDIE
• SPANGRAM: THEFUNNYPAGES

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 3 hints

After missing out on getting an easy Spangram-first yesterday I was on a mission to spot it today and it ended up being far easier than I thought.

I was unsure exactly what the theme meant, but seeing the word 'funny' in the middle of the board and then the word 'the' in the top-left-hand corner helped me connect THEFUNNYPAGES.

This, though, was where my good fortune ended, as I needed three hints to find all of the comic strip names, being familiar with only Peanuts.

Comic strips were less of a big deal in the UK, where I grew up, although the cartoon strips on the back page along with the TV listings section were the only parts of the newspaper I read as a kid. Ours, though, were the adventures of a world-weary viking called Hägar.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Wednesday, September 16, game #927)

• JAZZY
• VIVID
• BRIGHT
• FLASHY
• STRIKING
• VIBRANT
• SPANGRAM: EYECATCHING