Technology

• Microsoft exec describes AI scraping as "astonishing theft" of labor
• Copilot reportedly reduced NYT click-throughs by 93% compared with Bing
• Trump administration supports scraping so that the US can retain its AI dominance

In an earlier January 2023 memo uncovered in recently unredacted court filings, Microsoft Director of Applied Science Brent Hecht accused AI scraping of being an "astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions" (via TechCrunch).

With generative AI posing a "real risk" of disrupting the employment of the same people who unwillingly provided that training data, Hecht went on to describe scraping as "the largest theft of labor in human history."

This comes from a 2023 New York Times case against Microsoft and OpenAI, when the publication accused the AI giants of copying and using its copyrighted work without permission.

AI scraping described as mass theft

Microsoft's own internal research reportedly found that Copilot could reduce click-throughs to The New York Times by as much as 93% compared with its own conventional search engine, Bing.

Ultimately, the company has fundamentally admitted that LLMs could undermine the foundations of their own content supply chain, with Hecht introducing the theory of a "doom loop."

Importantly, the company's CEO, Satya Nadella, even admitted that had he known OpenAI was scraping data found behind paywalls, he would have exercised Microsoft's rights to require OpenAI to retrain its models, excluding this protected data.

As for OpenAI, the ChatGPT maker allegedly removed copyright notices from material before it entered the large datasets so that the models wouldn't re-generate those copyright notices for users.

The case accuses OpenAI's mid-training datasets of including over 91,000 pieces of work from The New York Times, Daily News and the Center for Investigative Reporting.

While the general argument over the use of copyrighted content continues and the case against OpenAI remains open, the Trump administration did recently side with AI makers like OpenAI.

"Constraining LLM development under a misunderstanding of fair use doctrine would thwart such creative and scientific progress while hindering American prosperity and economic mobility," a statement of interest from the US Government reads.

In the meantime, this public debate is likely to last years and hundreds of other publications are likely to be impacted by unsolicited AI scraping fueling rival chatbots.

• A midseason trailer for Lanterns has been released
• It teases the appearance of Guy Gardner, more Sinestro, and Hal Jordan's possible killer
• The HBO TV show might also be adapting one of the best Green Lanterns stories of all time

HBO and DC Studios have debuted a midseason trailer for their hit show Lanterns — and its 2026 storyline appears to be inspired by a fan-favorite Green Lantern comic-book series.

Released yesterday (September 17), the teaser, well, teases what's to come in the popular HBO Max TV series' final three episodes. Be aware that the following trailer is full of potentially big spoilers for Lanterns episode 6 through 8. If you don't want any plot points ruined ahead of time, click away now.

I'm really not joking when I say the 90-second, hype-generating trailer for the DC Universe (DCU) TV show's final three entries contains myriad spoilers.

For starters, Guy Gardner, aka Earth's new Green Lantern, is finally going to show up, although he has no interest in helping John Stewart investigate Hal Jordan's death (more on this shortly). Other takeaways are that we'll see Hal's backstory at some point, and John and what seems to be the Hal-O-Gram — aka the digital backup of Hal's consciousness that lives inside Hal's power ring — travel to some alien worlds.

Additionally, we'll be treated to more of Jordan's villainous former mentor Sinestro. Considering the latter isn't imprisoned in the space jail that we saw in episodes 2 and 4, he's obviously been broken out by someone. Place your bets on who did the deed.

It seems Sinestro will have a big role to play in Lanterns' last few episodes (Image credit: DC Studios/HBO max)

Furthermore, there's also a surprising albeit expectedly cold reunion between John and at-the-time alive Hal in 2026. They haven't seen each other since the devastating events of Lanterns episode 5, which occurred 10 years prior. Clearly, there's no love lost between John and Hal after their brutal showdown in that chapter's final act, too.

That said, there must be an ounce of underlying respect left, because Stewart sticks around Rushville to investigate Hal's apparent murder. We've known that Hal Jordan is supposedly dead since Lanterns episode 1, but it's only now that the DCU Chapter One program will shine a light on events before, during, and after Hal's presumed demise.

And I keep saying that Hal's death is only implied, because it looks like Lanterns' midseason trailer is teasing an adaptation of one of the most beloved Green Lantern tales of all-time...

Lanterns' midseason trailer could be teasing a live-action take on DC's 'Blackest Night' comic-book story

Lanterns has suggested Hal Jordan is dead since its premiere (Image credit: John Johnson/HBO Max)

For the uninitiated, 'Blackest Night' is a DC Comics miniseries that ran from June 2009 to May 2010.

Written by acclaimed comic-book scribe Geoff Johns and penciled by Ivan Reis, it's a crossover story that involved Earth's four Green Lanterns in Stewart, Jordan, Gardner, and Kyle Rayner, other prominent Green Lantern figures like Sinestro, and characters from other DC properties.

Anyway, in the event that Lanterns' 2026 storyline is indeed inspired by 'Blackest Night', I won't spoil everything that happens as part of its story. However, what I will say is that, if 'Blackest Night' has influenced Lanterns' next three episodes, it might explain how Hal Jordan could come back from the dead. Minor spoilers immediately follow for 'Blackest Night', so proceed at your own risk.

Is this how Hal Jordan will be resurrected in the DCU? (Image credit: DC Studios/HBO Max)

'Blackest Night' includes a DC comic-book character called Nekron, who can reanimate dead superheroes. I won't say how they bring people back to life, but the fact that they can implies there might be a way for the DCU's Hal Jordan to be resurrected.

Lanterns' midseason teaser doesn't hide that this could be possible, either. At the 1:22 mark, we hear Sinestro tell John "Hal didn't have to die in vain. I know a way..." before his sentence is seemingly cut short. Are DC and HBO hiding the fact that this line of dialog is supposed to end with Sinestro saying "I know a way to bring him back"?

That's not the only clue that indicates Hal could be revived. As the aforementioned Sinestro voiceover plays, we see Hal lying on the floor as someone menacingly approaches him. Hal asks "what are you?" before the teaser moves on to the next excitement-building clip.

WAIT A MINUTE!Why does Hal Jordan have the same wound like John Stewart? Is Hal still alive, and the body we saw was a clone?! #Lanterns pic.twitter.com/EWvaWXU1yuSeptember 17, 2026

As multiple fans have pointed out online, Hal can be seen with a mark on his arm that's identical to the one that John had after he was healed by Zoe, aka the mysterious Manhunter hunted by John and Hal in Lanterns' 2016 storyline. Remember, that mark was left because the Manhunters' technology takes a tissue sample before it can heal/cure someone of their injuries or ailments.

If — and it's a big if — Zoe (or another Manhunter we don't know about!) took a tissue sample from Hal, it's not only possible that his body could be cloned from said sample, but the Halo-O-Gram could be embedded into that clone. Hey presto, Hal Jordan lives once more.

Comment from r/DC_Cinematic

Of course, that would negate the need for Nekron to be part of proceedings. Regardless, if Nekron doesn't show up before Lanterns ends, it could still retroactively be inspired by the 'Blackest Night' comic series. All it needs to do is replace Nekron with a Manhunter cloning facility that, say, Sinestro located after his jailbreak, then lay the breadcrumbs for John and the Hal-O-Gram to follow to find him, and persuade them to bring Hal back from the dead. Sure, Sinestro will have a nefarious reason for wanting to do so, but I'm sure John and the Hal-O-Gram can find a way to outwit him.

What did you think of Lanterns' midseason trailer? Do you like the above theory, or have an even more impressive one of your own? Let me know in the comments. Once you're done, check out the five biggest questions I have heading into Lanterns episode 6.

September isn't the greatest month for VPN deals. Black Friday is around the corner and, generally speaking, the big bargains are to be had from late October onwards. But, if you need a subscription now, then, no problem. There are still one or two real deals to be had, including this one from Private Internet Access.

The average base price for PIA sits at $2.18 which very much puts it in the category for a cheap VPN – cheap but very good. That's for the 27-month plan, which then works out as around $57, all in.

Instead, right now, you can pick up this VPN for $1.79 as the lowest per-month price. But, make sure to pay attention because things aren't quite as straightforward as they seem.

This $1.79 per month price is possible because PIA is offering a longer subscription. It's for 39 months, instead of 2 years. So, the overall cost – which, bear in mind, you need to pay up front – is more than the above. It's $69.81.

Now, if you ask me, that's a pretty good deal given that PIA is a TechRadar recommended VPN and that the extra year's service is pretty cheap at about $12.

But, what I really like about this deal is that the auto-renew price is exactly the same. So, no nasty surprises if you forget to cancel in 3.5 years' time.

Private Internet Access: $2.19 $1.79/month for 3-year deal
PIA is a great VPN. It offers more customization options than almost any other VPN and is a particularly good choice for torrenting. It also works well with streaming services and offers unlimited simultaneous connections. There are no nasty auto-renew fees to worry about either. All PIA plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. View Deal

That's important because, like a lot of subscription services, many of the top VPNs have some eye-watering auto-renew prices. Windscribe, Mullvad and, with this deal, PIA are some of the ones that don't.

PIA is a particularly good choice for people looking to do some torrenting. There are good safety features to keep you protected while you use P2P networks and it's very configurable if you want to maximise you download/upload speeds too.

At this time of year, the only other VPN deal out there of note is Windscribe's Back to School offer which is still live despite the intended September 14 deadline.

But, like we say, if you've got your heart set on a different product, and you can wait another four weeks, you'll probably find more options.

• Ugreen has announced an iPhone 18 Pro case with an E Ink screen on it
• Rather than being an ereader, it's designed for displaying photos
• Pricing and availability are still to be confirmed

I’m a big fan of tech innovation, so when a phone case that provides a second screen for the back of your device gets announced, I pay attention. And while that in itself isn’t a totally new concept, the new Ugreen Magic E Ink Screen Case takes a different approach from most.

While second screens designed for the back of phones are usually focused either on ebooks or — if they’re more tightly integrated into the phone’s operating system — widgets, this one, announced on Ugreen's Weibo feed, is designed simply to show photos.

It’s a nice idea, delivering both the protection of a case — in both iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max sizes — and the ability to sync photos to the color E Ink screen built into it. But it also sounds quite limited compared to some e-paper accessories.

E-paper is still best for reading

An Xteink X4 Pro on the back of an iPhone (Image credit: TechRadar)

I’m thinking primarily of the Xteink line, and in particular the Xteink X4 Pro, which is currently stuck to the back of my iPhone. With this, I can read ebooks on an eye-friendly display, and while it doesn’t show color and wouldn’t be great for photos, I’m not convinced the Ugreen Magic E Ink Screen Case will excel at this either.

Images and especially color on e-paper screens tend to leave something to be desired, even on high-end products like the Kindle Colorsoft, which delivers quite muted shades. And we’ve seen image-focused e-paper accessories before, like the VidaBay E Ink fridge magnets, which in my opinion display most images quite poorly.

Still, you never know; the Ugreen Magic E Ink Screen Case might surprise me, and if the price is right, it could be more appealing to some buyers than an ordinary case anyway. The price, though, is still unconfirmed, as is availability, with this product so far only announced for China. So it remains to be seen whether you’ll even be able to buy it.

Most enterprise shadow AI programs have completed step one. They ran discovery, found more AI in the building than expected, and built a spreadsheet. Then the program stalled.

This pattern is nearly universal. Discovery is genuinely useful, and it's also where the easy work ends. Knowing that 37 agents are running, roughly the enterprise average per Microsoft's February 2026 Cyber Pulse research, doesn't change the fact that more than half operate with no security oversight or logging.

An inventory tells you what happened. Enforcement decides what happens.

What enforcement means for AI

Enforcement is the ability to change the outcome of an AI action while it's occurring, not report on it afterward. For an agent, that means one of four interventions: block the tool from running, scope down what it can reach, gate a specific action behind approval, or terminate the process mid-execution.

These aren't interchangeable: choosing between them is most of the work. Blocking is blunt and generates the most complaints. Scoping is the most durable and hardest to configure. Gating works until the approval queue becomes a formality people click through. Termination is the last resort; it needs to land before the action completes.

Why network blocking keeps failing

Blocking AI domains at the network edge was the first control most organizations reached for. It's easy to deploy and explain to a board, and it stops a shrinking share of the actual risk. AI stopped being a website.

Local models make no outbound call to inspect. Embedded copilots run inside licensed applications, so their traffic looks like the vendor you approved. IDE and command-line agents, and MCP servers on localhost, never cross a network boundary you control. Personal devices remain the oldest gap, worse now that AI tools are free and everywhere.

The permissions problem underneath

Here's what makes AI enforcement harder than the access control problems before it: an agent acts using a human's identity and entitlements. The log shows the employee read the file, or the credential belongs to a person or service account provisioned for something else. Existing identity controls just ask whether that principal is allowed to perform the operation, and the answer is usually yes.

The question identity infrastructure was never built to answer is whether this action, taken by software on the human's behalf, is one the human would have sanctioned. That's why emerging standards like AIUC-1 treat unauthorized agent actions, access privilege enforcement, and unsafe tool calls as separate controls, not folded into general access management. That separation is the right instinct.

Where enforcement has to sit

Enforcement has to sit at the point where an action executes, the only place the decision is deterministic. Controls at the instruction layer, input filtering and prompt guardrails, evaluate text before it reaches a model. They're worth deploying and they reduce volume, but they're probabilistic, and separating instructions from data inside a language model is still not solved.

So build for the case where the instruction gets through. If the agent's tool call is scoped, gated, or stopped at the moment it fires, the origin of the instruction stops mattering. A malicious prompt, a poisoned document, and an honest mistake all produce the same blocked action. That's the property you want: an outcome that doesn't depend on correctly classifying intent.

It's also why endpoint and runtime placement keeps winning the architecture argument: nearly every AI interaction eventually becomes a process on a device, where a local model, an embedded copilot, and a browser tab all look like what they are: code executing.

How to start without breaking anything

Enforcement projects fail loudly, so sequence them to fail quietly:

1. Pick one category, not the whole inventory: a small group of prohibited tools with an obvious sanctioned replacement.
2. Run in monitor mode for two weeks. You'll find the legitimate workflow nobody told you about. There's always one.
3. Name an owner for every agent before enforcing against it. An unowned agent can't be exempted or fixed, and that turns a block into an incident.
4. Turn on blocking for the smallest viable scope, then measure the complaint rate before expanding.
5. Wire the enforcement log into your evidence pipeline from day one; retrofitting is harder than building it in.

What to tell leadership

Lead with a number they won't like: the count of AI agents running with no owner, no logging, and no control. It's usually large enough to fund the program by itself. Then commit to a second number: enforcement actions taken in the first quarter, broken out into blocks and approvals. A control that never stops anything isn't a control. It's a report with better branding.

Discovery is a list. Enforcement is a decision.

The inventory was worth building. It's just not the deliverable. An AI agent moves faster than any human in your approval chain, and it doesn't wait for the quarterly review. The organizations that come out of this era in good shape will be those that can stop an action before it completes, and prove afterward exactly which rule stopped it. Find them, then be able to stop them.

We've featured the best endpoint protection 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

The UK mobile industry gathered together in London last night to celebrate the 2026 Mobile Industry Awards.

Marking our 24th year in 2026, the Mobile Industry Awards represent the gold standard of excellence - from the boardroom to the grassroots, the entrants represent the best and brightest the UK mobile industry has to offer.

The great and good were all in attendance for the MIA 2026, but who went home with the prizes? Here's our list of all the night's winners....

Our MIA 2026 winners are...

Future Stars in association with VodafoneThree:

Lydia McGann, The Big Phone Store

Sam Deans, Pure Communications

Imogen Baldie, Likewize

Paris Tilsley

Innovation of the Year Product or Service O2 Satellite

Best Mobile Service & Solution Provider plan.com

Best Wholesale Service & Solution Provider sponsored by BusinessMobiles.com VodafoneThree Wholesale

Best Mobile/Gadget Insurance Service Asurion

Best Repair Service The Big Phone Store

Best Recycling and Refurbishing Service Mazuma Mobile

Distributor of the Year ege

Sales Team of the Year Belkin UK Sales Team

Best Place to Work (under 1,000 employees) BusinessMobiles.com

Best Place to Work (over 1,000 employees) Tesco Mobile

Best Customer Service (Consumer) VodafoneThree

Best Customer Service (Business) Pure Communication Group

Marketing Campaign of the Year Lebara Mobile - The Smarter Choice

CSR Initiative of the Year Samsung Solve for Tomorrow

Sustainability Initiative of the Year Likewize Circular Device Lifecycle Services

Retailer of the Year (High Street and Online) EE

Best MVNO sponsored by eROAMING eSIM Sky Mobile

Best eSIM Provider SureSIM

Best SIM Only Network sponsored by Sky Mobile Lebara Mobile

Accessory Manufacturer of the Year Motorola

Smartphone Manufacturer of the Year sponsored by Lebara Samsung

Best Network for Business BT & EE

Best Network for Consumers sponsored by Likewize VodafoneThree

Team of the Year Virgin Media O2 CTO Team

Person of the Year Max Taylor, CEO, VodafoneThree

The great news is that we will be back next year for the Mobile Industry Awards 2027, our 25th year!

Details on table booking and sponsorship will be open soon, so stay tuned to the MIA website for all the latest information...and see you in 2027!

• Diablo 5 senior game director Joe Shely says the team is "trying to make it for everyone who loves Diablo" for specific reasons
• He says the team used "deferred complexity" to help balance the game's systems for endgame players and campaign lovers
• Narrative director Jennifer Hepler says there are like-minded developers on the team who are "passionate advocates" and are creating the content for these fans

Diablo 5 senior game director Joe Shely has said Blizzard is making a sequel for all fans, but it has to find the right balance for players who love the series for specific reasons.

Speaking to TechRadar Gaming at BlizzCon 2026 after the game's reveal, Shely explained that the team isn't trying to make a Diablo game "for every human on Earth" or "literally everyone" but is "trying to make it for everyone who loves Diablo, and people who love Diablo love it for specific reasons, and those reasons are knowable."

He and the team know some fans play Diablo and are most interested in the storylines and exploration, while other, more hardcore players spend time with the complex systems that come with itemization, designing builds, and racing to the endgame.

"We can talk to players and understand why individual players or groups of players love Diablo and what they love about it, and from what game they associate with Diablo," Shely said, "and so that allows us to tailor our systems and experiences, campaign and progression in a way that can be satisfying to different kinds of talent players."

This is where the developer brought up "deferred complexity," an idea the team used to help balance the game's systems for those who enjoy taking their time, while also delivering on "our commitment to have a complete end game for those players at launch." This means that some complex systems have been moved to the endgame.

"By deferring some of the complexity of the systems and itemization later into the endgame," Shely said, "we can deliver the depth and mastery elements that our players who love the endgame enjoy without overwhelming our players who are enjoying spending a lot of time in the campaign and exploring the world."

Narrative director Jennifer Hepler added that all types of Diablo fans are represented on the development team; she said they are like-minded, "very passionate" about the series, and understand what players enjoy most.

"People who love campaign are working on campaign, and the people who love systems are working on the end game," Hepler said. "And so every group of players has passionate advocates on the team who are not only speaking for them but are actually creating the content for them."

Diablo 5 is in development and is slated to launch in Spring 2029.

Here are hints and the answers for today’s NYT Strands puzzle for Sept. 18, 2026.

Minor spoilers for Neagley ahead.

Neagley naturally had a lot to live up to as a spinoff of popular Prime Video action series Reacher, but now that I've binged all eight episodes, I think it deftly rose to the challenge.

It doesn't hurt that Neagley herself (played by Maria Sten) is the most popular character aside from Alan Ritchson's hero in Reacher history, to the point where many Reddit threads were dedicated to mourning her absence in season 4.

However, the move to give her her own spinoff has been a wise one. Neagley effortlessly carries on the same vibe, emotion and expectation we have from the main series, and the exploration of Neagley's personal backstory — which finally solves a huge mystery — doesn't disappoint.

In my mind, Amazon would be incredibly silly not to greenlight Neagley season 2 in the next few weeks. While it's still too early to tell exactly how many viewers will be tuning in, that number is like to be a high one. Add in how much the streamer is already invested in the Reacher IP, and you've got a surefire success.

The wait to find out if Neagley season 2 will happen is a frustrating one, so I've chosen to get a jump-start. Luckily, creator Nicholas Wootton and the show's lead cast all know what they want from future episodes... and their ideas couldn't sound more exciting.

'This is where we develop our future seasons'

"I hope we get to dig deeper into the relationships and emotionality of the show," Neagley star Maria Sten tells me.

"We have so many great action sequences in this show, and if we get another season, I want to build on that... make it even bigger. Continue to develop these characters, get them into trouble, and get them to face the consequences of their emotional problems."

Sten knows exactly which beats to hit, but she's not the only one we'd need to consider in a second season. In the final moments of the season finale, Renee (Adeline Rudolph) and Keno's (Jasper Jones) romantic relationship is tentatively cemented — so we're only just starting to scratch the surface of what's between them.

"I think for Renee, there's still a lot of unanswered questions," Rudolph says. "I personally have them too, and I'm so excited to find out about them. And to see what the next adventure is."

Jones agrees, "I kind of want to leave things open because I want to be surprised. I want to keep giving something new. Maria has done such a beautiful job of that in reprising this character... now that she has her own show, she has to bring something new to the table. I would like to hold that torch and bring that forward."

For Wootton, what season 2 holds is much more straightforward. "I've always seen Neagley as being a Chicago-centric show with a team," he explains. It differentiates from Reacher in that it has a home base and a consistent group. That means we can explore more about her psychology and movement forward.

"She's never been in love, had a first dance... all of these sorts of things. Then you've got the richness of Chicago's own crime history. It's fascinating. This is where we develop our future seasons."

Yes, I transcribed that correctly: future seasons, plural. This lot are clearly on a mission, and I'm keeping everything crossed that they'll be successful.

• Sixteen Xeons give this ageing HP C7000 enclosure a surprisingly dense processor count
• The 1TB DDR3 memory pool remains the biggest number in the listing
• Each blade adds eight cores and sixteen threads to the overall configuration

A UK seller trading as NomadUK has listed a fully populated HP C7000 blade enclosure for £500 per blade, roughly $700 at current exchange rates.

The bundle includes sixteen BL460c G8 servers, each built around a single Intel Xeon E5-2660 processor with 8 cores, 12 threads, and a 2.20 GHz base clock under the Sandy Bridge-EP architecture.

Multiplied across the chassis, it delivers 128 physical cores and 256 logical threads, backed by 1024GB of DDR3 memory spread across 32 modules of 32GB each, running at speeds up to 1600MHz through registered DIMMs.

The hardware underneath the headline numbers

The listing shows that each blade uses the Intel C600 series chipset paired with an HP Smart Array P220i controller, supporting RAID 0 and RAID 1 across two small-form-factor drive bays per unit.

Network connectivity runs through an integrated FlexibleLOM slot, typically populated with a 10Gb dual-port adapter capable of Flex-10 partitioning when paired with a Virtual Connect module in the enclosure's interconnect bays.

HP rates the C7000 chassis at 10U, built to house up to 16 half-height blades vertically alongside up to 8 interconnect bays and 6 hot-plug power supplies feeding a shared power backplane.

Each blade also ships with Integrated Lights-Out 4 for out-of-band management, giving remote access to power state, health telemetry, and virtual media independent of the host operating system.

Memory population follows a four-channel design per processor, meaning each blade's DIMM slots must be filled in matched pairs to maintain full bandwidth rather than dropping into single-channel mode.

Combined, the 16 blades, the enclosure, the storage controllers, and 1024GB of registered memory carry an estimated resale value above $4,000.

According to the seller, each blade “has been professionally refurbished and checked for functionality.”

NomadUK carries 3,740 feedback entries with a 99.9% positive rating, though eBay does not independently audit refurbishment claims of this kind.

Why the economics still work for buyers

A comparable listing surfaced in Canberra during February, where a Dell PowerEdge R820 with four Xeon E5-4650 processors and 1TB of DDR3L memory sold for close to $1,200.

That server used 32 modules of SK Hynix registered ECC memory at 32GB each, working out to roughly $1 per gigabyte at sale price.

Individual sticks of the identical HMT84GR7AMR4A-H9 part number were listed separately near $60 in the United States, meaning the memory alone nearly covered the asking price.

Another UK listing offers 16 32GB DDR3 PC3-10600R registered ECC modules, the same capacity and type used in this bundle, priced at £1,191.45 for 512GB, or roughly $100 per module at today's exchange rates.

Applied across all 32 modules in the HP enclosure, that puts the RAM alone near $3,200, which is what pushes the bundle's total value past the $4,000 mark once the chassis and controllers are factored in.

Equivalent DDR5 registered memory at server-grade capacity costs more than ten times that per-gigabyte rate today, which explains continued demand for DDR3-era enterprise stock despite its age.

However, buyers considering the HP bundle should account for the E5-2660's 95W TDP per socket.

This means that 16 active blades under load draw close to 1.5kW before accounting for chassis fans, interconnects, and shared power supply overhead.

Also, its firmware support for iLO 4 and the C600 chipset ended years ago, leaving buyers dependent on community-maintained tools for BIOS and controller updates.

The Dyson Camerajet arrived 10 years after online rumours emerged that Dyson had filed a patent application for an electric toothbrush with water jet. True to form, it has surpassed the rumours with a toothbrush that goes one step beyond the norm and is packed with innovation. Having trialled it a week prior to launch, I was among the first journalists to give the Dyson Camerajet a hands-on review.

As the only smart electric toothbrush and water flosser with a built-in camera, the CameraJet uses imaging, machine learning and precision fluid dynamics to identify gaps between teeth and deliver a jet of mouthrinse. The CameraJet has received much attention since its launch, with many praising Dyson for pushing the boundaries with new innovation in oral health, and others questioning its price, reporting faults online, and asking whether we need a camera in a toothbrush at all. But for a brand that revolutionised the vacuum with cyclonic suction, restyled the hair dryer and pioneered bladeless fan technology, the Dyson CameraJet was never going to be an obvious product.

Back in May 2026, I visited Dyson’s factory and global HQ in Singapore to take a first look at the Dyson CameraJet. I went behind the scenes in Dyson’s oral health care labs where six years of research, development and engineering for the CameraJet had been taking place and spoke to Rich Bacon, head of product development at Dyson, to find out what makes the CameraJet so unique. I also asked him about the potential security implications of having a smart camera in the bathroom, and how Dyson hopes to improve our oral health.

Why now?

(Image credit: Dyson)

When I first saw the CameraJet I immediately wanted to know why Dyson is branching into attempting to make one of the best electric toothbrushes and why now?

The Dyson team said it likes to start with a problem people experience every day and ask whether they can solve it better through engineering. “Oral care is an area where many people want to improve their routines, but often struggle with consistency, technique, or understanding how effectively they're brushing,” Bacon explained. “Dyson research shows 9 in 10 people do not floss as regularly as they should, reinforcing the need for a solution that helps target the gaps between teeth as part of an everyday routine.

“The technology is now at a point where we can combine WiFi, AI, intelligent sensing and fluid dynamics with a highly engineered brushing experience, making this the right time to bring the product to market.”

By combining two devices – a toothbrush and water flosser – in one, the CameraJet has the potential to save us time in our daily routines and also help us brush for the recommended time. “In our research we found that a lot of people brush for 45 seconds, but the optimum time is for two minutes, or ideally three,’ says Bacon. ‘When I’m using this device myself for three minutes, it’s much more convenient than having separate devices to clean your teeth.”

What excites Bacon most about the CameraJet is its sophisticated engineering combined with a simple user experience. “There’s a huge amount of technology working behind the scenes here from the camera and machine learning, to its Gap Optical Targeting and precision fluid dynamics,” he says. But the user doesn't need to think about any of that. As engineers, that's always our goal: solving complex problems in a way that feels effortless for the person using the product.”

Bacon believes that this technology has the potential to make oral care more consistent and personalised. “Many people brush their teeth in exactly the same way every day without really knowing if they are cleaning effectively, and many are not flossing as regularly as they should. Dyson CameraJet brings brushing, precision-flossing and mouth-rinsing to your routine to target the gaps between teeth where plaque can build up.”

Privacy included

(Image credit: Dyson)

But in an age of AI, the internet of things and relentless data collection, having a camera in your bathroom is a natural cause for concern. For Dyson, privacy was also a key consideration, however. Bacon reassures me that the camera is only active during live viewing or auto-jetting; no images are recorded or stored on the product or in the cloud, and images remain private to the user.

“We take privacy very seriously,’ he says. “The MyDyson app is a great companion piece and comes with unique cleaning insights such as location coverage. Through the app, you can also access guided cleaning, coverage mapping and personalised feedback so you have a better understanding of where you are cleaning well and where you may be missing.”

The app is a closed ecosystem, but could it one day become a broader health-data platform, similar to how people use Oura or Apple Health? “The app has been designed as a platform that can evolve over time, and the immediate focus is on useful, evidence-led insights that help people understand their brushing and interdental cleaning habits,” says Bacon. “There is an opportunity to help make those behaviours easier to see, understand and improve. Any future information or guidance would need to be grounded in robust evidence and developed responsibly, but our ambition is to empower users with helpful, accurate feedback about their oral care. We're always exploring how technology can help people get more from our products.”

Teething problems

(Image credit: Future / Emily Peck)

Since its launch, there have been reports on Reddit of a small number of early production batches malfunctioning, so TechRadar reached out to Dyson for comment.

‘We are aware that a small number of early batches of Dyson CameraJet products may have experienced a component issue,’ says a spokesperson for Dyson.

‘We are isolating those batches and are taking all the necessary steps to support our customers. We have had a very positive reaction to the new Dyson CameraJet and are experiencing strong demand globally and we are seeing some shortages of supply as we are in the process of scaling up production.’

Whether or not you’re tempted to try a toothbrush with a built-in camera and smart app, it’s exciting to see Dyson engineers paving a way with new innovations in oral health. And for that, I think we have a reason to smile.

• Lockheed Vectis carries its air-to-air and strike weapons inside the aircraft
• Lockheed expects the first Vectis prototype to fly in 2027
• The aircraft measures roughly 34 feet long with a 38-foot wingspan

Lockheed Martin has released promotional footage offering a clearer look at Vectis, its proposed stealth Collaborative Combat Aircraft for future operations.

The company says the aircraft is intended for autonomous missions alongside crewed fighters, including the F-35 and future combat platforms.

Lockheed expects the first Vectis prototype to fly in 2027, with four additional aircraft now entering development and testing.

Vectis reveals its internal weapons arrangement

New computer-generated imagery shows a deeply recessed intake above the fuselage, indicating significant attention to the aircraft's signature characteristics.

The footage also depicts Vectis launching AIM-120 missiles and GBU-53 Small Diameter Bomb IIs from internal weapons compartments.

Keeping those weapons inside the aircraft allows the illustrated configuration to avoid exposing them on external attachment points during missions.

The arrangement supports the stealth requirements associated with the aircraft, although Lockheed has released few detailed performance specifications for Vectis.

The company describes Vectis as an autonomous aircraft capable of operating independently or cooperating with crewed aircraft during demanding missions.

It also displayed a full-scale mock-up measuring about 34 feet long with a wingspan of approximately 38 feet.

Those dimensions establish the physical size of the aircraft, while important information about propulsion, payload and other systems remains undisclosed.

Ron Fehlen, Lockheed Martin vice president and general manager of Skunk Works, said the design responds to demanding customer requirements.

“The technical specs, as you can imagine, are designed to meet and, in some cases, exceed the customer sets that we are working with and their requirements and their mission needs,” said Fehlen.

Affordability remains central to the Increment 2 effort

Lockheed claims the aircraft is survivable, affordable, and adaptable across different missions, without disclosing its projected production cost.

“Engineered for affordability and built for survivability, it delivers the flexibility today’s operational environment demands. This is the future of airpower, built the Skunk Works way.” Lockheed said.

Vectis is being developed for the Air Force's Increment 2 requirement after Lockheed lost the earlier Increment 1 competition.

For Increment 1, the Air Force selected Anduril's FQ-42 and General Atomics' FQ-44 rather than Lockheed's earlier, more expensive aircraft proposal.

Lockheed reduced complexity and cost while continuing development of a more capable stealth-oriented aircraft for Increment 2.

The Air Force's requirements for Increment 2 remain under development, leaving the eventual balance between affordability, survivability and capability unresolved.

Earlier Increment 1 requirements called for more than 700 nautical miles of combat radius, while the later requirement could demand greater performance.

The lower costs could involve simpler stealth features and shorter-lived engines using manufacturing methods such as 3D printing.

A more demanding combat role, however, could require expensive propulsion, advanced avionics and sophisticated measures for reducing detectable signatures.

That combination leaves Vectis within an acquisition programme where the eventual technical requirements and preferred cost level remain unsettled.

• The trend of ditching AM and FM radios might have to be reversed 
• Supporters argue AM radio offers critical information during emergencies
• EV makers have said interference from motors can affect AM radio signal

Automakers in the US may have to reintroduce a 100-year-old technology into new vehicles, as the House of Representatives approved legislation this week that would require new cars, trucks, and SUVs to include AM radio at no additional charge to consumers, according to TechCrunch.

The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act will now head to the Senate, but it could require the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to create new rules that would make AM radio standard in new vehicles.

While support for the Act has been relatively slow to gain traction, there has been a recent spike in interest from politicians of both parties, as well as the broadcast industry and emergency responder organizations.

The key argument is that AM radio provides critical information in the event of emergencies, when cellphone signals could be knocked out.

“Farmers use AM radio for weather forecasts, local information, and crop reports, while older Americans rely on it for local news and programming,” House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie said on the House floor.

While this may be good news for AM radio fans, farmers, or those living in rural communities where cellphone signals can be an issue, a growing number of automakers may be forced to rethink their infotainment offerings.

Tesla famously began phasing out AM radio in 2020, claiming that interference from the electric motors ruined the listening experience.

It then removed built-in FM and AM radio in hardware in certain trim levels, relying instead on streaming and Bluetooth connectivity.

But since then, many more automakers have followed suit, with Volvo, BMW, Polestar, and Rivian all favoring streaming services for their software-defined vehicles.

Analysis: EVs could be hardest hit

(Image credit: Rivian)

According to USA Today, the budget office said that the legislation could particularly impact manufacturers of electric vehicles, with analysis of EV sales data revealing that the legislation would require manufacturers to update radio equipment in about 2 to 2.5 million vehicles each year.

Those carmakers that still offer FM radio built-in likely won’t feel the financial pressure as much, yet the likes of Tesla and Rivian, both of which have removed AM and AM/FM receivers entirely in certain models, will likely have to rethink their strategies.

Senator Ted Cruz said the vote sent a clear message to car manufacturers that “AM radio is a lifeline that must be protected in new vehicles,” although all eyes will be on the Senate to see whether the Act passes into law.

• China's UBTech has revealed its new robot factory
• The facility can produce 10,000 androids a year
• It uses many autonomous robots in the production process

Forget AI agents and ChatGPT, fully autonomous robots are the next high-tech frontier, with companies across the globe racing to perfect their android creations. And Chinese firm UBTech has taken a big step in that direction with its new smart factory that can produce 10,000 robots a year — and it might change manufacturing forever.

The factory is the first of its kind in the world, according to the Seoul Economic Daily. It’s located in Liuzhou, in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and is focused on producing UBTech’s Walker S and Cruzr robot series.

And the factory itself makes heavy use of humanoid robots and driverless vehicles, perhaps providing a glimpse of the future of production and manufacturing. Cruzr Y1 and Cruzr S2 androids unload materials and stack, load and transport them, while collaborative robots take part in the final assembly process that finalizes each product. These final-stage robots work in tandem with human operators and include autonomous vehicles and rotating workbenches.

In a separate development, UBTech says it has launched “the industry’s first fully automated three-dimensional warehouse,” according to the Seoul Economic Daily. This can store 112 robots in 65 square meters of space, supposedly utilizing 50% more space than a facility with similar floor space.

Expanding capacity

(Image credit: UBTech)

UBTech said it has been able to create its robot factory thanks to the strong supply chain that exists in China.

According to UBTech vice president Fang Jianxin, “This foundation is rooted in the many engineers, scientists and application scenarios China has accumulated over the past 10 to 20 years, which has formed a very strong supply chain base, manufacturing capability and research and development capacity.”

China has been ramping up its robot production in recent years, with the National Bureau of Statistics of China noting that output hit 98,677 units in July, an increase of 30.2% on the previous year. And 635,056 robots were created between January 2026 and July 2026, an uptick of 28.5% year on year.

We’ve seen similar stories of robots building robots before, such as when 1X published a video detailing its production process, while Chinese firm Agibot has also seen its robot production undergo rapid expansion in recent times.

Agibot today claimed its A3 Ultra robot is "moving from mass production into real-world deployment", posting a video on X showing it working in "hotels, auto dealerships, supermarkets and metro inspection scenarios, with more deployments underway".

And with UBTech’s factory paving the way in terms of robot creation, it might not be long before autonomous factories start expanding across the world.

• The cheapest available US RTX 5090 now costs over $6000 against a $1,999 launch price, with third-party listings often running past $9,000
• The GPU that already pushed past $3,500 in Feb 2026 owing to memory constraints driving prices higher has now hit fresh highs at multiple retailers
• The move is linked to AI demand, as data center operators have entered the fray to secure compute despite Nvidia's GeForce driver license having banned 'data center deployment' on paper since 2017

Six weeks ago, the story was ultra-rare books being fed spine-first into high-speed scanners so that AI labs could train on text written before chatbots polluted the corpus.

Focus, however, has shifted considerably to AI labs bringing the same voracious appetite to Nvidia's flagship consumer-grade Blackwell GPU, the RTX 5090, which has essentially disappeared from shelves unless you want to pay a 200 percent or higher premium to grab one.

Photographs circulated by Hong Kong outlet HKEPC, and picked up by multiple publications including Guru3D, VideoCardz, and TechPowerUp, appear to show wooden pallets stacked with boxed, retail GeForce RTX 5090 cards at AI server assembly sites, waiting to be unpacked and slotted into multi-GPU rigs.

The sky is the limit for Nvidia's flagship consumer card?

This isn't the first time Nvidia's RTX 5090 GPUs have been deployed en masse on multi-GPU, AI-centric rigs, but this time feels different, even compared with previous shortages.

For context, Nvidia launched the RTX 5090 at $1,999 in January 2025. Tom's Hardware's price tracker, updated on September 14 2026, lists the cheapest available US card at $6,389, nearly 3.2x the former.

PCGamesN reported the same week that first-party stock at Amazon, Newegg, and Best Buy had essentially vanished, leaving third-party marketplace listings above $6,000 and, in some places, over $9,000.

The pictures in circulation don't show RTX PRO workstation GPUs, but rather GPUs from MSI, Gigabyte, and ASUS that the average gaming enthusiast or consumer would pick off a shelf.

中國很多廠商會在各地收購 RTX 5090 並組裝成 AI 工作站出售。 pic.twitter.com/AssaXEylJ0September 10, 2026

An AI-generated image to create more FOMO?

The images have, however, been disputed by some quarters: Kevin Hofer at Swiss retailer Digitec, one of the few writers to examine the images rather than republish them, pointed at the box lettering in one frame and asked what a "50B0" or a "50R0" is supposed to be, concluding that AI was probably involved in producing the picture. Twitter has also added a "made with AI" moniker to the image in question.

TechPowerUp and TweakTown both carried the same warning in softer form. Guru3D, to its credit, noted that the report explains neither why these firms chose the RTX 5090 nor the scale of the purchases.

Coverage like this, even with disclaimers to the contrary, can create a "fear of missing out" (FOMO) where price increases become a self-fulfilling prophecy as businesses and consumers alike move purchases forward to avoid paying a further premium.

Examining the value that an RTX 5090 brings to the AI table

The Nvidia RTX 5090 is its most powerful consumer-grade card to date, packing a Blackwell-based GB202 chip and 32GB of GDDR7 memory, which checks multiple boxes for local AI use cases and gamers looking to max out games at 4K or higher.

Nvidia's GeForce driver EULA has, since late 2017, included a clause titled "No Datacenter Deployment" that should, at least on paper, prevent data centers from stockpiling or using these.

The chip designer, currently the world's most valuable company, has previously implemented technological restrictions such as LHR (Lite Hash Rate) on its RTX 3000 series GPUs to prevent GPU miners during the Ethereum gold-mine rush from hoarding supply.

It has also released a China-specific RTX 5090 D, which reduces AI performance while matching the RTX 5090 in gaming throughput. The RTX 5090 D, created to meet AI export restrictions, shows that Nvidia can limit the RTX 5090's AI performance, but it remains relatively indifferent to a market that was its core revenue source only a few years ago.

The RTX 5090's price hike, at least in part, may be due to the RTX PRO 6000's staggering, out-of-control pricing, which Nvidia nearly doubled to $16000. The underlying cost driving the price hike is the GPU's 96GB of VRAM, which also makes up a sizeable, if not dominant, chunk of its total bill of materials.

An RTX 5090 comes with 1/3rd the VRAM on offer, but nearly the same compute performance, and with AI-centric algorithms often assisting in breaking up tasks between GPUs and memory pools, even as the total memory pool remains similar, a triple stack of RTX 5090 GPUs should comfortably outperform the RTX PRO 6000 in certain tasks.

At the same time, Chinese OEMs have reportedly managed to slap on as much as 96GB of VRAM on an RTX 5090, which could make it an even hotter commodity in a country where both the RTX PRO 6000 and the RTX 5090 are export-restricted but do manage to make it on the regular.

The RTX 5090 is a manufacturing problem with a memory bottleneck attached for AI consumers, but with the alternatives having doubled in cost recently, AI consumers are looking to save money wherever possible, and both the stock RTX 5090 and a potentially modified one are some of the best candidates in a market that has already exhausted most of its last-generation supply of the same.

Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Thursday, September 17 (game #1697).

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 — VowelsHow many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.

* 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 lettersDo any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 2.

Quordle today (game #1698) — hint #3 — uncommon lettersDo the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

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

Quordle today (game #1698) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

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

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

Quordle today (game #1698) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• M

• M

• A

• T

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

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

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

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

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

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, September 17 (game #1194).

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

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

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

NYT Connections today (game #1195) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• PILLOW
• CRUISE
• UPPER
• STEP
• FLIGHT
• STAIR
• PLATTER
• LANDING
• ROUND
• STAGE
• TAKEOFF
• MEDLEY
• BRIEF
• BOARDING
• SAMPLER
• PHASE

NYT Connections today (game #1195) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• YELLOW: A part of the plan
• GREEN: A selection of small dishes
• BLUE: Stages of a journey
• PURPLE: Add a word that rhymes with “place”

Need more clues?

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

NYT Connections today (game #1195) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: SEGMENT OF A PROCESS
• GREEN: ASSORTMENTS OF FOOD/DRINK
• BLUE: PARTS OF A FLIGHT
• PURPLE: ____ CASE

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

NYT Connections today (game #1195) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1195, are…

• YELLOW: SEGMENT OF A PROCESS: PHASE, ROUND, STAGE, STEP
• GREEN: ASSORTMENTS OF FOOD/DRINK: FLIGHT, MEDLEY, PLATTER, SAMPLER
• BLUE: PARTS OF A FLIGHT: BOARDING, CRUISE, LANDING, TAKEOFF
• PURPLE: ____ CASE: BRIEF, PILLOW, STAIR, UPPER

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 2 mistakes

I’ve not had the best of Connections weeks and struggled again today.

Falling for the very obvious trap I included FLIGHT instead of CRUISE in what became PARTS OF A FLIGHT.

That particular tile was my undoing later in the game. After getting SEGMENT OF A PROCESS, I decided that the third group must be about serving food so I had MEDLEY, PLATTER and SAMPLER locked in.

Unable to find a fourth tile, I gambled with PILLOW — which makes about as much sense as FLIGHT, although I now know, thanks to Google Gemini, that a food FLIGHT is a curated selection of three or more small-portioned sample items from a single menu category served together.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Thursday, September 17, 2026, game #1194)

• YELLOW: ELASTICITY: BOUNCE, FLEXIBILITY, GIVE, SPRING
• GREEN: THINGS THAT ARE UNDERGROUND: MINE SHAFT, SEWER LINE, SUBWAY STATION, WELL
• BLUE: HUGH JACKMAN MOVIES, WITH "THE": FOUNTAIN, PRESTIGE, SHEEP DETECTIVES, WOLVERINE
• PURPLE: LOVE ____: HANDLES, LANGUAGE, TAP, TRIANGLE

What is NYT Connections?

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

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

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

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

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, September 17 (game #928).

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 themeWhat is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Shake on it

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 lettersHow many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 13 letters

NYT Strands today (game #929) - hint #4 - spangram positionWhat are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

• First side: top, 2nd column

• Last side: bottom, 4th column

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

(Image credit: New York Times)

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

What is NYT Strands?

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

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

After more than a century, Leopardus tilcayo has arrived to astound scientists, and we want to take it home.

It’s unlikely another crater this big will be discovered in our lifetime.