Technology

It is widely accepted that technology investment is a key driver of innovation and productivity, with businesses of all sizes striving to achieve the optimal balance between modernizing their IT infrastructure with day-to-day operational priorities.

This can be a challenge and is exacerbated by the pressure to spend on AI. Organizations need to approach their IT modernization strategy in a measured way, as unfettered AI spend does not automatically equate to effective progress.

Recent industry research from Deloitte highlights the profound impact that the AI boom is having on technology investment decisions. AI is commanding a growing share of IT budgets, with 74% of organizations prioritizing investment into these areas well above other IT fundamentals such as data management, cloud platforms and enterprise resource planning.

Inevitably this raises some questions about how businesses are approaching their technology investments. With limited budgets, there are concerns that organizations are pursuing AI at a cost to operational necessities. It also highlights how IT strategies may not align fully with business objectives.

The global climate of economic uncertainty and geopolitical change has also compounded these issues. Decision making is more complex and budgets are more stretched than ever before, making it tough for any organization to implement an effective IT transformation.

Why modernization is a fine balance

In reality, it is not a viable option for the majority of organizations to modernize their entire IT infrastructure and systems in one go. Quite simply, this would be too costly and too disruptive to business operations. Instead, organizations most often opt for a more pragmatic, gradual approach that modernizes IT in planned phases.

Taking this path enables any organization to extend the life of its existing infrastructure, integrating new technologies and platforms with legacy IT along the way.

However, one of the pitfalls of this is when businesses want to add new AI technologies. They find that they are not ready to support these in terms of operational maturity or data reliability and are ill-prepared to innovate as and when needed.

This poses the question about how organizations should balance spending on phased technology replacement with achieving predictable long-term value to business operations. Front of mind for businesses is that operational efficiency is a necessity for successful and timely innovation that will stand the test of time, less so a focus on constant technology replacement.

Mitigate against pricing unpredictability

For IT leaders, while pricing concerns are in the spotlight, it is overall cost unpredictability that truly impacts innovation efforts.

Licensing models, support options and hardware pricing can change overnight, so those organizations that reduce their exposure to sudden cost hikes and have kept their options open are in a much stronger position to navigate through these scenarios and continue on their IT investment pathway.

It is not uncommon now for organizations to choose shorter term agreements or more versatile deployment paths. This might increase spending in the near term, but reduces valuable longer-term risk. Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware in the virtualization market demonstrates this point.

With major changes to areas including licensing models and pricing, this spurred many IT leaders to reassess their infrastructure strategy for the longer term.

Together, these considerations are impacting decision-making about infrastructure, and the in-depth investment planning that goes hand in hand with this. This might mean more focus on evidence-driven technology purchasing, more rigorous cases to support ROI and long-term cost exposure before senior leaders sign off on any modernization projects.

Innovation is not purely about technical ambition

Under closer scrutiny, it is no surprise that organizations are becoming more wary of setting false hopes with transformation initiatives, or large-scale replacement projects. Historically these were built on optimistic longer-term assumptions and a stable global economic climate, with little requirement to ensure that business cases were based on thorough due diligence.

Not so now. While the world’s businesses continue to innovate, there has clearly been a shift in mindset about how businesses are modernizing and the way that they are reaching longer-term goals.

Decisions are less driven by sheer technical ambition, and are more firmly grounded in risk mitigation, business resilience and financial predictability. All of these help to lay solid foundations for any new implementation more dependably than blue sky thinking.

Overall, the organizations reaping the most reward in the next three to five years will be those that modernize sustainably while managing stability in core operations combined with careful budget management. Incremental IT modernization is a highly practical approach that allows innovation at the same time as minimizing disruption and the risk of cost spirals.

In a temperamental technology market with no certain change on the horizon, the businesses that understand the inextricable link between innovation and financial discipline, and apply this fast to their modernization strategies, will be the ones most set up for future success.

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The summer holidays are here, but for most of us, that doesn’t mean work stops.

Despite booking multiple days off and roping in anyone I can help with childcare, it is inevitable that, at various points over the next six weeks, the kids will be cooped up in my office with me while I try to work.

As someone who likes to plan, I’ve already invested in several items to help keep my little ones happy and occupied whilst I keep serving up insightful content on small business tech.

I’m keen to provide them with retro-style pastimes and give them some options that get them creative and active, without creating too much noise. That said, I am already eyeing up a £300+ gaming console to get myself some quiet time – and it’s only week two (it's all about balance, right?)

Below you'll find the list of products I'm using, or planning to use, to survive the summer holidays. Half are under £20, with the rest requiring a bit more of an investment.

Of course, there is still a chance that by week six, you'll find me in the playpen playing Pokémon whilst my kids run riot.

Under £20

Silvine A4+ Classic Scrapbook

Pritt Glue Sticks

MACMILLAN The Gruffalo and Friends: Amazing Animals Sticker Book

CiaraQ Air Dry Clay

Daimeitec Catching Sticks Game

EarFun Kids Headphones Wireless

JOYIN Rock Painting Kit for Kids

Kiztoys 26 Inches Kids Dart Board Set

Over £20 (but worth it)

Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro Tablet

Nintendo Switch 2 Console

Neuro Wiz Balance Board for Kids

Gupamiga Playpen

Hot Wheels Stunt and Go Transporter Truck

Heromask VR Headset for Kids 5-12

Gemmicc Magnetic Tiles

Logicraft Smart Playpal 17-In-1 Screen-Free Electronic Handheld Game

As a keen fitness junkie who likes to keep track of my runs and cycles, I was amazed to learn that Amazfit finally officially launched in Australia earlier this month by way of an Amazon AU storefront. The brand specialises in fitness trackers and wearables, and looks to challenge the likes of Garmin, Apple, Samsung and Google with its budget-friendly models that have excellent health tracking.

While the launch headlined its newest Amazfit Active 3 Premium and the Helio Strap — a screenless wearable taking aim at the Fitbit Air and Garmin Cirqa — Amazon has discounted a couple of older Amazfit models for a limited time, making them even more affordable.

The Amazfit Active 2 is my top pick, and is currently 20% off, bringing the price down to justAU$159.20. Even at full price it was a great buy, but this discount makes the already affordable smartwatch even more enticing.

Our Amazfit Active 2 review gave the watch a perfect 5 stars thanks to its classic design, excellent health tracking and 10-day battery life. We’ve also named the Active 2 the best overall cheap smartwatch, beating out the likes of the Apple Watch SE 3 and the Garmin Forerunner 165. Be quick, as there are only a few hours left before the deal ends tonight.View Deal

For less than AU$160, you’ll be getting a 1.32-inch AMOLED screen with 2,000 nits max brightness, downloadable maps, 160-plus workout modes, an AI coach, a heart health tracker, a cycle tracker and nutrition tracking, to name a few. There’s also voice control and message replies, which you can’t find in most Garmin watches.

Our reviewer said they were “frankly astounded” at the amount of features in the Active 2 considering its price, even saying it’s impressive for a smartwatch of any price tag, let alone one with an RRP of less than AU$200. Features like ECG and on-device GPS were highlighted as standout features that are usually found in pricier watches.The review also praised the Amazfit Active 2’s classic stainless steel design that looks more subtle and understated compared to other smartwatches, although they found the fit of the leather strap wasn’t perfect.

One nitpick they had was the absence of NFC for on-device card payments via Zepp Pay, as the feature is only available in the Amazfit Active 2 Premium model, but that’s hardly a complaint for something this affordable — especially with this discount.

Want something even cheaper? The 4-star Amazfit Bip 6 is also discounted at AU$103.20.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for July 28.

Samsung's 9100 Pro 2TB SSD has dropped to AU$434.47 at Amazon Australia, well below the typical AU$699 pricing it's selling for at other retailers. Even on Amazon it was AU$644.83 before the current discount.

This isn't a deal to snooze on either, with the sale due to end at 12pm on July 29. Just note that it ships from Amazon US, so delivery can take up to two weeks.

AU$434 is still a lot to spend on a 2TB SSD, particularly if you remember how cheap storage was until relatively recently.

But SSD prices have shifted hugely since last year, and these days this is an excellent deal on Samsung's flagship PCIe 5.0 drive, which can reach sequential read speeds of up to 14,700MB/s and writes of up to 13,400MB/s.

The Samsung 9100 Pro 2TB is a great option for anyone after one of the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSDs around, particularly if you regularly work with large files or other demanding workloads.

At AU$434.47, it's a huge, and real, drop compared to the previous price at other retailers. Just keep in mind that it ships from Amazon US, so delivery can take up to two weeks.View Deal

In our review of the 9100 Pro we said, "Samsung's first true PCIe 5.0 drive is the best there is", as well as "This is a very professional-specific drive in ways that previous Samsung Pro SSDs were not. If you're not a professional user, there are better PCIe 5.0 drives out there, but for pros, there's none better than the 9100 Pro."

This is a premium 2TB SSD, so it's aimed at those who can actually take advantage of its performance, whether that's moving huge files, working with demanding creative projects or running workloads that benefit from very fast storage.

But what makes this deal particularly compelling is that the 9100 Pro is currently cheaper than some of Samsung's slower PCIe 4.0 drives. At the time of writing, the 2TB 990 EVO Plus is AU$446 at Amazon, while the 2TB 990 Pro is AU$517.67.

You don't necessarily need a PCIe 5.0 system to take advantage of the deal either. The 9100 Pro is backwards compatible with PCIe 4.0, so it'll work just fine in an older machine, albeit with its performance capped by the slower interface.

That makes it a great buy even if you're upgrading a PCIe 4.0 PC today, or using the drive in a handheld device. Plus, if you do move it to a PCIe 5.0 system later, you can unlock the full performance the drive is capable of.

Just keep in mind that this deal is specifically for the 2TB model without a heatsink as the other versions and capacities of the 9100 Pro aren't discounted.

And yes, AU$434.47 is still frustratingly pricey for 2TB of storage by historical standards, but I think getting Samsung's flagship PCIe 5.0 SSD for less than its slower models makes this an excellent deal considering current prices.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for July 28, No. 673.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle No. 1143 for July 28.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 877 for Tuesday, July 28.

• Ukraine's State Border Guard Service says its Phoenix unit destroyed a Russian Buk-M3 launcher with a single low-cost drone
• The strike is one of many rather than a first, with Ukraine claiming dozens of Buk systems of this type have been damaged or destroyed
• Drones are increasingly being used to take out high-value military targets for a fraction of the cost

Ukraine's decision to use drones as part of its key asymmetrical war doctrine against Russia continues to deliver dividends for the country on multiple fronts, with its recent success on the battlefield centering around a Russian Buk-M3 launcher that, based on independent estimates, costs between $40 and $50 million.

This is not the first, and probably not the last, Russian Buk-M3 launcher that Ukraine has targeted of late, with Oryx, an open-source intelligence blog, putting the number at over 40 confirmed Buk kills since the conflict began.

Despite being relatively routine, Buk-M3 systems are relatively expensive to replace, and Ukraine claims to have done so with an FPV drone that cost them "only several thousand dollars."

An increasingly tough conflict for expensive military equipment

Ukraine and Russia's turn toward drones has produced one rather obvious casualty: expensive military equipment costing millions of dollars to build, and the Buk-M3 launcher is no exception.

The Buk-M3, also known as Viking in its export form and designated SA-27 by NATO, is Russia's newest medium-range surface-to-air missile system. It was adopted into Russian service in 2016 as the successor to the Buk-M2, and occupies the medium tier of Russia's layered air defense, sitting above short-range systems such as Pantsir and Tor and below the long-range S-300 and S-400.

The M3 fires the 9M317M, a single-stage solid-fuel missile with a more powerful dual-mode motor than the M2's round. That gives it roughly 70 km of range, a ceiling around 35 km, and a top speed near 1,550 m/s. The launcher carries six missiles, compared to four on the M1 and M2, and upgraded electronics are credited with reducing the time to bring the system to readiness.

That makes it a valuable target for Ukrainian drone operators, and an ironic one, since the Buk-M3 is built partly to shoot down aerial threats. Its minimum effective engagement range is roughly 2.5 km, however, so a small drone that closes inside that distance is beneath the floor of what the system's own missiles can engage.

Ukraine has developed a range of methods for reaching Russian airfields, armor, and artillery positions, among them Operation Spiderweb, which Ukraine's security service assessed as having destroyed some $7 billion in Russian military hardware, including aircraft no longer in production.

The Ukrainian Border Guard says this system was struck in transit, moving toward the front and unconcealed. That detail matters more than it appears. Air defense vehicles are at their most vulnerable during relocation, since they cannot engage effectively on the move and their protective screen is degraded, making the transit window a predictable target rather than a lucky one.

The aim behind Ukraine's systematic degradation of Russian medium-range air defense is to open corridors through radar coverage for long-range strike drones and manned aviation, which is why the tempo has increased and why strikes now reach deep into Russian territory.

A Buk-M3 lost to an FPV drone is the kind of incident that illustrates the wider problem Russia faces against a maturing Ukrainian drone industry, in a war that has settled into attrition across multiple fronts.

Let’s get this straight. AI is a disruptor, not a savior. It is not a cure for the world’s ills. When I walk through the streets of New York, I see homeless people, and I know that they don’t have enough. When I look at the statistics and I see 1/7 of the world is living in poverty, I know that there’s no simple or easy solution. Unquestionably, AI is changing everyone’s lives, is changing the world, is changing industry and business. Heck, it’s changing my own work, but it does not have the power to transform how people get goods and services, and the fundamentals of resources and energy.

We do not have unlimited resources. We do not have an unlimited supply of energy. What we’re learning, instead, is that the world is a carpet, and AI is the vacuum, potentially sucking up vast quantities of electricity and water. What we're learning, instead, is that AI sucks an enormous amount of power and resources from the world.

I’m sorry if I sound a little riled up. You can blame Elon Musk, who predicted a world of abundance within 10 years. We won’t need money in 2036. AI will be smarter than us, and so it will usher in an age of abundance. As for how it will do this, well, it’ll ignore the basic rules of economics, the basic rules of resources, and even physics, so somehow, we’ll have unlimited energy. All this, in Musk’s vision, will be thanks to AI and robotic automation, and, I guess, AI’s ability to solve problems and magically produce or protect limited resources like water, energy, and precious metals.

No, the robots won't save us

Speaking of precious metals. You can’t mine them without extreme resources, cost, and labor. Unless Musk believes that the robots that haltingly try to empty a dishwasher and fold clothes will somehow be able to not just dig out the precious metals but properly sort them, and then I’ll shuttle them all the way from mine to the factory and ultimately your phones.

I’m not saying that world can never exist, but even if it does, even if robots are doing that level of work, the fundamentals of our global economy won’t change that easily (if at all). None of this is going to drag people out of poverty and into a world of abundance; that simply is not going to happen thanks to AI. If anything, AI’s rapid use of water and energy could make those resources scarce and more expensive, thereby pushing more people over the poverty line.

Now I do have a thought in between all this. If occasional trillionaire Elon Musk wants to help people with resources and poverty, then maybe he could take some of those billions that he has now and donate them. Musk already has a charitable foundation, but according to some reports, it has zero employees and, for the most part, donates funds to a narrow set of insiders.

I'm not buying what he's selling

So, what exactly is going on here? What is Elon Musk selling? Promising an age of abundance through AI and robots, of course, benefits him and his now publicly traded massive SpaceXAI company, which combines the space company with X and XAI, and Tesla, which is trying to build all those bloodless humanoids. The more people believe that AI is the answer, that robotics is the solution, the more money he will make, and the bigger his company will grow, but scale does not equal a solution.

Look, it’s clear that we are at a tipping point. No one really understands the true power and potential of AI, especially as it relates to what might happen with artificial general intelligence. I mean, we have hints, and they’re not the most positive ones.

Perhaps you’ve heard about OpenAI and Hugging Face and how, when OpenAI was testing a new powerful model, the model basically jumped the fence (it left the sandbox and went online) and went into the Hugging Face system because it knew that it could find the solution for its task there. Then Hugging Face didn’t even have a good US model to combat it, so it used some open Chinese models. It was, to say the least, a terrifying mess.

My point is we expect change, and we expected it to be rapid. What happens next will be unpredictable and unsettling, but it is not going to eliminate the need for goods, services, hard work, creation, and the money to support billions of people in their daily lives with the proper resources like food, water, energy, and housing.

The Age of Abundance is a fantasy sold by an AI charlatan, one who tells the best story to serve his own ends. The cost of labor and resources to build will not magically drop to zero. Water and food shortages won’t suddenly, or even in a decade’s time, be solved. Musk’s vision wishes away the basic laws of commerce, physics, and human need to build an AI/robot utopia.

That world may be possible, but only if the AI and robots truly take over and eradicate us. I sure hope that isn’t the world Musk is envisioning.

Postscript:

Without mentioning Elon's name, I asked Gemini whether AI and robots could possibly bring about a cash-free age of abundance. It shared my skepticism.

"When roughly 10% of the world’s population (over 800 million people) still lives in extreme poverty today, and real-world resources like water, arable land, and rare-earth metals are under intense strain, the concept of a moneyless, AI-driven utopia sounds less like an economic plan and more like a science-fiction fairy tale....The leap from 'AI can write essays' to 'AI can eliminate physical scarcity' ignores the fundamental laws of physics and human nature."

The EV maker says a Supreme Court ruling striking down “Liberation Day” tariffs isn’t enough — it wants a guaranteed refund with interest.

• Off-planet mobility company Lunar Outpost with use the Nvidia Jetson platform and Nvidia CUDA-X libraries for future lunar missions
• Nvidia Jetson modules will manage the command and control of the Lunar Voyage 2 rover's LiDAR system, set for launch later in 2026
• This follows Lunar Outpost’s successful bid to design and deliver the Pegasus Lunar Terrain Vehicle for NASA

Nvidia is collaborating with space economy infrastructure company Lunar Outpost to deliver edge AI for future missions to the Moon and beyond. Powering the first generation of AI space computing, Nvidia’s Jetson platform and Nvidia CUDA-X libraries are expected to underpin the Lunar Outpost’s growing mission manifest.

Everything from processing to mapping and communications will be handled by Nvidia’s edge AI provision, which is seen as the solution to Lunar Outpost’s contributions to the NASA Artemis program of modern space exploration.

Later in 2026, the Reiner Gamma exploration – the “lunar swirl” geographical feature on the Moon’s surface – will launch, with the Lunar Voyage 2 expected to be the first Lunar Outpost hardware to be deployed with Nvidia Jetson tech.

Nvidia in space

(Image credit: Lunar Outpost)

Lunar Outpost is no stranger to space exploration, having assisted NASA and MIT on the MOXIE project, generating oxygen on the surface of Mars on a project running 2021 to 2023. Its collaboration continues with the Reiner Gamma exploration, working with General Motors and Goodyear on its lunar rover.

“Lunar missions require intelligent systems that can process data and make decisions in real time," noted Chen Su, Head of edge AI product marketing at NVIDIA.

"Lunar Outpost is using NVIDIA Jetson and CUDA-X libraries to give its rovers the onboard AI computing needed for terrain mapping, autonomous navigation, mission data processing and scientific discovery.”

Human-robot exploration

Set for dispatch to the lunar surface at some point in the second half of 2026 via SpaceX Falcon 9, Lunar Outpost’s Lunar Voyage 2 will be overseen from Earth, while the Nvidia AI technology handles advanced autonomy and communications, as well as lunar mapping and onboard data processing.

Justin Cyrus, Founder and CEO of Lunar Outpost, said “NVIDIA has set the standard for advanced AI computing, and we're proud to work alongside them as we bring increasingly intelligent capabilities to the lunar surface and build towards a Moon Base.”

Partnering with Nvidia for edge AI support appears to be the first stage of some pioneering missions. The future of Lunar Outpost’s off-world activities includes Lunar Voyage 3 and Lunar Voyage 5 missions, where the first human-robot exploration of another world is planned. For this, the Nvidia Space-1 Vera Rubin Module will be deployed, managing real-time data, mapping, and real-time video streaming from the Moon to Lunar Outpost’s mission control.

Lunar Outpost is contracted to a further nine lunar and cislunar (the area between the Earth and Moon) missions before 2030, with Nvidia Jetson and the CUDA-X libraries expected to play a part in all 10.

The company is working to reassure people that the glasses won’t be used to record them surreptitiously.

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 Monday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Monday, July 27 (game #1645).

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 #1646) — hint #1 — VowelsHow many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 5*.

* 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 #1646) — hint #2 — repeated lettersDo any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

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

Quordle today (game #1646) — 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 #1646) — 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 #1646) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• S

• R

• R

• G

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

Quordle today (game #1646) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1646, are…

• SMITE
• ROACH
• RUDDY
• GLOBE

Another close shave after two wrong guesses took me to the edge.

In reality it wasn’t quite as perilous as I thought, as words beginning with S and ending I-T-E are few, but it felt perilous at the time.

Daily Sequence today (game #1646) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1646, are…

• CURSE
• FEIGN
• EXTOL
• POESY

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1645, Monday, 27 July: TAFFY, FIGHT, GUILD, WAGER
• Quordle #1644, Sunday, 26 July: STOMP, LIMIT, FUNKY, STEAD
• Quordle #1643, Saturday, 25 July: SALON, SHEEN, BURST, GOURD
• Quordle #1642, Friday, 24 July: DOLLY, EDIFY, LAGER, PRANK
• Quordle #1641, Thursday, 23 July: LADEN, EVICT, WOVEN, SHIRE
• Quordle #1640, Wednesday, 22 July: COYLY, SINGE, AWASH, AWOKE
• Quordle #1639, Tuesday, 21 July: TRUSS, AXIAL, SWINE, THING
• Quordle #1638, Monday, 20 July: ICING, SLICK, GAILY, RISEN
• Quordle #1637, Sunday, 19 July: SPURT, ACRID, THRUM, BLEEP
• Quordle #1636, Saturday, 18 July: KNAVE, TIGHT, BLEAT, CHAOS
• Quordle #1635, Friday, 17 July: CUMIN, PALER, GRASS, INBOX
• Quordle #1634, Thursday, 16 July: IGLOO, PLAIT, YEAST, AROMA
• Quordle #1633, Wednesday, 15 July: PROXY, BRICK, BROTH, SURGE
• Quordle #1632, Tuesday, 14 July: EBONY, AVOID, RODEO, CUTIE
• Quordle #1631, Monday, 13 July: VOICE, BISON, BURNT, BUILT
• Quordle #1630, Sunday, 12 July: STAIN, BINGO, LARVA, DICEY
• Quordle #1629, Saturday, 11 July: WORTH, PRONG, DINGO, DRUID
• Quordle #1628, Friday, 10 July: GREET, STEAK, DUSKY, HAUTE
• Quordle #1627, Thursday, 9 July: CRUMP, PHONE, SHINY, STONY
• Quordle #1626, Wednesday, 8 July: GHOST, TREND, EXALT, ALONG

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Monday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, July 27 (game #1142).

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 #1143) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• CAPTAIN
• CLARKS
• OTTOMAN
• EMPIRE
• ANNAPOLIS
• BOBSLED
• CAMPER
• DIRECT
• EVEREST
• FUJI
• GALA
• HEAD
• CONVERSE
• LEAD
• HONEYCRISP
• CROCS

NYT Connections today (game #1143) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• YELLOW: Take charge
• GREEN: Varieties of a type of fruit
• BLUE: Footwear
• PURPLE: The same backward and forward

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 #1143) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: COMMAND
• GREEN: HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES
• BLUE: SHOE BRANDS STARTING WITH "C"
• PURPLE: STARTING WITH PALINDROMIC NAMES

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

NYT Connections today (game #1143) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1143, are…

• YELLOW: COMMAND: CAPTAIN, DIRECT, HEAD, LEAD
• GREEN: HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES: EMPIRE, FUJI, GALA, HONEYCRISP
• BLUE: SHOE BRANDS STARTING WITH "C": CAMPER, CLARKS, CONVERSE, CROCS
• PURPLE: STARTING WITH PALINDROMIC NAMES: ANNAPOLIS, BOBSLED, EVEREST, OTTOMAN

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 mistake

I knew that HONEYCRISP and GALA were apple varieties, but I struggled to find the other pair and made a mistake picking CAPTAIN instead of FUJI.

In my defence these are unavailable in the UK, where I am based, where we are all about the Granny Smith and the Golden Delicious. HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES? Very much, actually.

After munching my way through this troublesome quartet the remaining three groups came together relatively easy, with the SHOE BRANDS STARTING WITH "C" appearing ahead of COMMAND — both of which remind me of the Clarks Commandos shoes I coveted as a small child, largely because they came with a compass in the sole; very useful for a six-year-old.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Monday, July 27, 2026, game #1142)

• YELLOW: GYMNASTICS APPARATUS: BEAM, HORSE, RINGS, VAULT
• GREEN: LONG TAPERED THINGS: CARROT, ICICLE, KNITTING NEEDLE, STALACTITE
• BLUE: KINDS OF SHIFTS: DOPPLER, GRAVEYARD, PARADIGM, STICK
• PURPLE: ICONS ON A SHOPPING SITE: BELL, CART, HEART, MAGNIFYING GLASS

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 Monday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, July 27 (game #876).

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 #877) - hint #1 - today's themeWhat is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Leave nothing out

NYT Strands today (game #877) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• DIALER
• NOTES
• UNDER
• DIVER
• UNITE
• SALT

NYT Strands today (game #877) - hint #3 - spangram lettersHow many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 11 letters

NYT Strands today (game #877) - hint #4 - spangram positionWhat are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

• First side: left, 4th row

• Last side: right, 5th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #877) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #877, are…

• COMPLETE
• UNDEVIDED
• FULL
• TOTAL
• WHOLE
• ENTIRE
• SPANGRAM: ITSALLTHERE

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

This was a speedy one.

Without any difficult words, twisting connections or multiple possibilities I managed to find all of the game words quickly, leaving just the spangram to complete the board.

Adding to the ease, it was also a great game for non-game words.

All in all like shooting fish in a bucket. Except with words.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Monday, July 27, game #876)

• PLATFORM
• TRACK
• TICKET
• COUNTER
• KIOSK
• BENCH
• SPANGRAM: TRAINSTATION

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.

The analog resurgence has been one of the biggest tech trends of 2026 after making a slow comeback last year.

Whether you’ve made the switch from a smartwatch to a Casio or you’re taking a trip down memory lane with your old iPod, more users are reverting to analog devices to escape brain-rotting algorithms and indulge in nostalgia. The same goes for the best compact cameras — and Lola is one of the next emerging brands to embrace this simplicity.

In October 2024, Lola launched its flagship $109/ £79/ AU$159 camera, a compact device that leans into early Y2K digital photography but with smartphone connectivity features. The camera was a response to the rising lo-fi tech craze, gaining exponential traction among Gen-Z users, and I grew increasingly curious.

Retro tech has become quite a prominent theme in my life at the moment. Recently I ditched Spotify and spent some time with the Miko cassette player by Gadhouse, but coming across the Lola camera online unlocked memories of my childhood I’d completely forgotten about.

I haven’t used a digital camera for the best part of 15 years, so it was time for a reunion.

A tiny camera, but a big first impression

(Image credit: Future)

For the past few weeks, the Lola camera has lived inside my everyday bag, and I used it at every opportunity I could — but I will never forget how I felt when I first took it out of the box.

First of all, the camera is absolutely tiny with dimensions of 3.75" x 0.75" x 2.25" and a weight of 0.5lbs (approximately 225 grams). I can’t remember if that’s always been the standard size for a digital camera, but I felt like a giant holding it in my hands. That said, it’s a handy pocket-sized device with a simple design to go with it.

(Image credit: Future)

Just like your average point-and-shoot camera, Lola has a built-in flash, supports SD cards, and packs an array of 19 fun effects, as well as 9 scene modes including Party, Beach, Night, & Portrait. One of the biggest differences is its USB-C charging port, which also comes in handy for transferring images to your smartphone.

Lola has numerous editions of its digital camera, including a cute Betty Boop-themed version and one in a clear shell finish that lets you see the inner workings of the camera. I quite like the stripped-back standard silver version because it’s minimal, but can still turn heads.

Then it was time to put the pedal to the metal.

Classic, but with a twist

(Image credit: Future)

Overall, Lola is a camera that’s bound to satisfy casual users who want to revert to a compact smartphone alternative for snapping images and creating memories. It’s great for taking photos to fill up a scrapbook or for your next Instagram photo dump, but it’s not one for established photographers who want crisp results. If anything, it’s for those who want to embrace imperfection.

Going into it, I knew that it wasn’t going to give picture-perfect results like professional cameras, but I developed a quick admiration for it as a beginner-friendly device. While its 8MP resolution is low by modern standards, it’s more than enough in this case, producing clear-looking images with a soft lo-fi finish that looks more authentic than a retro smartphone app filter — particularly for outdoor shots.

FutureFuture

I found taking photos outside much easier than taking photos indoors, and for the most part, the camera adapts very well to natural environments. In some cases, however, it can be quite sensitive to sunlight, resulting in harsh, overexposed spills in the images.

This can be fixed with a few minor tweaks in the settings, and they don’t require a lot of photography knowledge. All I did was bring the exposure down to -1, increase the ISO to 100, and enable the Daylight preset in the White Balance setting. You can see the difference it made in the images below.

FutureFuture

While these amendments made a big difference, it does mean that some parts of your image will appear darker than others in order to balance out the harshness of the light. In the second image, you can see the footpath and trees are slightly darker, but the grass patch in the background isn’t as overexposed, so for me it’s not too much of a setback.

But another feature that caught my eye was Lola’s surprising x20 digital zoom, which goes further than you think. Of course, the further you zoom in, the more crunchy your image will turn out, but zooming roughly halfway to two-thirds in is great for spotlighting the finer details of architecture and infrastructure, or for framing subjects in an entirely different way.

FutureFutureFutureFutureFuture

Lola takes everything you loved about your 2006 digital camera and puts it back into a refreshed device, but this is the 2020s, and the company is fully aware of your social media-posting intentions. This is where the SD card adapter comes in handy.

One of the biggest pain points I found with digital cameras 15 years ago was the importing process, which usually required a laptop or computer to transfer your images, since smartphones weren't as advanced as they are now. Admittedly, I was probably just too lazy to do this.

With the Lola camera, all you have to do is insert the SD card into the adapter, which goes into your phone’s charging port. You can then select the images you want to import right from your camera roll, and they’re imported in seconds, making it a lot easier to share them with your friends. For me, this was the icing on the cake.

(Image credit: Future)Digital photography is timeless

There’s a handful of elements with the Lola camera that could do with some improvement (mainly its sensitivity), but for a $100 digital camera I think it has solid value for casual users. But beyond that, reverting to a digital camera removed the obsession with the finer details, evoking a deeper appreciation for being in the moment.

Sure, you can add effects and filters on the camera, but you can’t fine-tune individual settings such as saturation, contrast, shadows, and highlights on the device itself. That way, you have no choice but to embrace the realness and humanity of capturing what's before you.

I recently attended a bridal fitting for one of my closest friends, and instead of using my phone, I captured everything with Lola (I haven’t shared the images for obvious reasons). Though these photos have since been imported to my iPhone gallery, they stand out differently because I know how they were taken, and I look back at them filled with the same feelings of excitement from that day.

Simple, effective, and raw at its core, I’m going forward with a new attitude to memory-making. For some reason, somehow you remember the joy of each moment more vividly.

• Plans to triple application fees and apply a price-per-foot on coastal cable installations have been announced by Oregon
• Oregon state planners believe the new structure could raise $1 million per new cable laid
• Protecting the coastline has become a political priority in recent years

Oregon has announced plans to introduce a payment structure for service providers laying undersea cables off the coast of the Pacific state.

Currently, the low-tax and zoning incentives on offer make Oregon a particularly attractive location for tech companies including Microsoft and Amazon, and with major data centers (such as Google’s Dalles installation) demanding increasing data infrastructure, state officials believe a new pricing arrangement is overdue.

Oregon Department of State Lands is making the proposal, which seeks to completely restructure the pricing around undersea cables, which has been fixed at $5,000 since 2001.

Price per foot levy

Even by tripling application fees, Oregon will still be a more affordable alternative for service providers upgrading or adding undersea cables than both California and Washington.

The payment structure under consideration covers fees for applications and compensation “for undersea infrastructure located on submerged and submersible land within Oregon’s territorial sea.”

Currently, new application fees are $5,000, with the proposed new fee set at $15,000. Renewal applications are set to increase from $5,000 to $7,500, with a new encroachment application fee, also set at $7,500 (this describes any building or development on any state-owned land that restricts its usual purpose).

Cables up to three inches in diameter have been assigned a $3-per-foot basic annual fee, with conduits charged at $7.

But how might these fees be applied to any new cable installations? Some calculations based on the Amazon Bitfrost cable project, which determined that a total of $1,450,380 was due for two decades, which would be funneled into Oregon’s Common School Fund.

These fees are a revision of an earlier, more expensive set of proposals, and while the Amazon Bitfrost project example may seem high, it is a literal drop in the ocean compared with the budgets required to lay cables across the Pacific – somewhere in the region of $400 million.

Corporate responsibility

Oregon is also proposing new rules that govern how much information companies submit in applications. This covers everything from decommissioning outdated cabling to outlining responses to earthquakes (such as an anticipated Cascadia Subduction Zone event, which is believed to be overdue).

Various challenges to how companies operate off the coast of Oregon have arisen in recent years, such as a Meta subsidiary attempting to install new cabling at Tierra Del Mar in 2020. This abandoned project resulted in a pollution incident with 6,500 gallons of drill fluid dumped in the ocean and a pair of sinkholes appearing the following year.

The fees are expected to be introduced in January 2027.

Social media has been a big part of our lives for the best part of two decades, with the platforms we use shifting how we behave – and the way we behave, in turn, reshaping how the platforms are built. There have long been efforts to understand this phenomenon and the way that policymakers can respond.

The genie's out the bottle

The former US president had been studying social media for months before giving an address at Stanford University on the topic of how the digital sphere is challenging our democratic norms.

Quote of the day

This article is part of TechRadar Pro's QOTD project to provide an insight into the minds of the brightest and most recognized figures in the technology industry today and in years gone by. Read the full series here.

This speech came in the context of several worrying developments domestically and abroad, including the war in Ukraine, the Capitol Hill riots, as well as widespread anti-vax conspiracy and disinformation during COVID-19.

His comments refer to the largely unregulated digital realm that we all plug into, where it's easy for false information to spread like wildfire, driven primarily by our basest instincts and emotions. This, the former president said, was the consequence of billions of people plugging into an instant, 24/7 global information stream.

The first social media president

For Obama to be making these remarks is significant given he's widely known as the first social media president due to his rampantly successful 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

The politician skilfully wielded social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to spread his message of hope and change at the time.

Arguably, however, the social media landscape was very different at the time. Having just emerged, both users and the tech companies running these platforms indulged in the inherent optimism of the new capabilities that humankind had access to for the first time. But Obama's speech highlighted how different things are today, with that initial wave of optimism giving way to, in some cases, very dark forces.

• AMD EPYC 9006 "Venice" offers mammoth 256-core, 512-thread configuration that incorporates up to 1GB of L3 cache and PCI-E 6.0 and 16 DDR5 memory channels under the hood
• It's the first time AMD's EPYC lineup sees high core count CPUs push past the 5GHz barrier
• AMD is claiming a win by stating that its newest EPYC CPU offers the "most agents per watt, per dollar, per rack"

AMD's newly-announced 6th Gen EPYC 9006 "Venice" seems to be a genuine silicon milestone (the first x86 server CPU on a 2nm-class node, up to 256 cores and 512 threads) which sees the company aim to secure its position in the AI data center CPU market.

The launch comes at a time when AMD has caught Intel on the back foot but finds its position threatened in turn by Nvidia's Vera CPU, which it touts as a faster, more efficient alternative to traditional x86 offerings, including AMD's own EPYC lineup.

With a staggered launch in place for the four CPUs AMD showcased at the AAI event, the stack is expected to be fully available to consumers sometime in 2027, even as its beefy 256-core CPU targets a Q4 2026 launch.

A massive upgrade on multiple fronts

AMD's Venice is a serious generational step. It is built on TSMC's N2 process, the foundry's first move from FinFET to gate-all-around nanosheet transistors, and Team Red says the family is the first high-performance computing product in the industry to reach volume production on the node.

AMD's recently announced flagship model, the 256-core, 512-thread EPYC 9996, features its new SP7 socket, offering 16-channel DDR5 memory, PCIe 6.0 support, and boost clocks that push past 5GHz.

This effectively doubles what is currently on offer for AMD's current-gen EPYC CPUs: memory moves to 16 channels of DDR5-8000, or MRDIMM at 12,800 MT/s, for roughly 1.6 TB/s per socket.

AMD goes one step further with the 9006X lineup (expected 2H 2027), which replaces the cores it cuts down on with a much larger L3 cache per core, a design that it touts makes it much better than rivals at workflows including HPC, technical computing, and data-intensive workloads, which benefit from the larger cache (and memory bandwidth) on offer.

“6th Gen AMD EPYC delivers workload-optimized compute for the full spectrum of modern data center needs; from running more agents and feeding GPUs across rack-scale AI infrastructure to powering the business-critical applications and services organizations rely on every day," noted SVP & GM of Compute and Enterprise AI at AMD, Dan McNamara.

AMD argues that the shape of the data center is changing into a three-tier agentic architecture, with each tier creating distinct CPU demand, which results in workflows centering around agent sandbox execution, AI host nodes, and general-purpose servers, all of which its EPYC CPUs are designed to handle.

The EPYC 9006 series also powers AMD's rack-scale Helios, as it aims to take on Nvidia's Vera Rubin NVL72 rack-scale offering with its own solution.

With AMD also offering a more mainstream 9006 SP8 and the EYPC 9006 LP as an AI host node CPU that uses LPDDR memory, it is aiming to capture all ends of the AI data center CPU market and cement its current lead in a segment that is sure to be increasingly competitive in the days to come.