The three-day Adobe Max 2023 event in Los Angeles is in full swing, and the leading name in digital photo, video, and design suites unveiled major updates to its Creative Cloud, including – you guessed it – the latest AI-powered editing and generation tools.
Adobe’s Creative Cloud which includes Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, and Illustrator, has received a bumper update this year, and the next-gen Firefly plays a leading role. There’s too much to sensibly cover here, so let’s take a closer look at the headlines for the respective platforms.
Adobe’s next generation Firefly
In the video short (above), Aya, an Adobe Product Manager on ‘Project Stardust’, talks us through Adobe’s new object-aware editing engine that is “going to revolutionize the way we interact with Adobe products”.
The video shows an image file being imported into the next-gen Firefly editor, where AI-powered non-destructive edits can be made. A yellow suitcase in a model’s hand is selected and becomes a new layer that can be moved around within the frame or deleted, and content-aware intelligently fills the background space left behind.
We are then taken through generative word prompts, putting yellow flowers in the hands of the model instead of the suitcase. In another example (below), we see Firefly’s improved image generation capabilities.
All of this is nothing new per se, and it’s clear even from the first demo on a small display that there are artifacts where the yellow suitcase has been removed, but the ease with which these edits can be made seems to be another level from Adobe’s beta AI Firefly interface.
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(Image credit: Adobe)
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Firefly works across Photoshop, Express and Illustrator, and includes the world's first generative AI for vector graphics, powering Text to Vector Graphic in Illustrator, with editable graphics including icons, scenes and patterns.
Put simply, the latest Firefly engine appears smarter, more versatile and more powerful, with a greater understanding of text prompts that can create commercially-ready assets just from a sentence of text. Firefly can recognize more landmarks and cultural symbols, give guidance to either expand or reword a prompt, and yield better results. It's not perfect, but it certainly is impressive and sees Adobe take a step forward from the competition.
New photo editing tools
Outside of Firefly’s generative AI, Adobe has added a host of tools for Photoshop and Lightroom. In the promo video (above), Adobe shows a new Lens Blur tool for Lightroom, which acts much like a smartphone's portrait mode, adding a blur to the background to make subjects stand out from their surroundings. The shape of the bokeh (out-of-focus points of light) can be changed to any one of five options, including perfect circles – again a tool we see on flagship handsets like the Huawei P60 Pro.
Other Lightroom tools include improved HDR optimization and Point Color which helps photographers make precise, accurate, and detailed color refinements.
(Image credit: Adobe)
And as more concerns over what is real and what is AI-generated arise, Adobe has highlighted its Content Credentials support for new file types, which serve as a digital “nutrition label”.
Content Credentials provide information about the creator, date, edits – including those generated by AI – and tools used from start to finish of a digital file. This is a step up from a photographer simply adding copyright to their photos for ownership – it's proof of authenticity for those who wish to be more informed about what has and hasn't been changed in the photo.
In the example of penguins in a desert (above), Content Credentials indicate that at least one element in the image has been generated with an AI tool.
Adobe Max 2023 marks an evolution for the leading name in the creative digital space, an AI evolution that is rapidly enhancing what we can do in the editing suite. It's not perfect, but it's fun, it's speeding up the editing process, and shows plenty of promise.
Your Oura Ring will soon be receiving three new features to help you manage stress, understand what causes it, and even offer recommendations on how to relax.
The full update will be released incrementally starting off today with Daytime Stress. This tool identifies what triggers your stress by constantly checking for “small changes" like heart rate fluctuations and shifts in body temperature. The device records these changes every 15 minutes or so. You can check these readings on your smartphone via the Oura app, where it’ll tell you “which experiences add stress… and which ones help [you] recover.” The on-screen dot graph informs users when they are the most exhausted as well as when they are totally relaxed. A daily summary appears the moment you launch the app.
There is a catch: users will need to have a subscription to the Oura Membership in order to access Daytime Stress. It’s unknown if there are plans to roll out the feature to non-subscribers.
Letting it all out
Next is Reflections, an AI-powered journal for the Oura smartphone app. It allows users to record short entries in the app about what’s stressing them out. The company claims “journaling is an effective tool for reducing stress” with Reflections making this process a lot easier. To get the conservation started, there will be a prompt question at the top of the screen.
(Image credit: Oura)
Speech recognition will automatically transcribe the text while the AI will suggest implementing tags to “correspond with your journal entries”. Those tags will add context “to help you understand your own personal stressors”. That way, you’ll know, or at least have some idea, of how to recover. Also, if you don’t feel like talking, you can always type in an entry.
This feature is currently in beta for iOS devices. No word on whether or not the beta will migrate over to Android, although we did ask.
Road to (stress) recovery
Rounding out the trio is Stress Resilience coming out this winter. True to its name, this function “creates an assessment” detailing how resilient someone is to certain “physiological” situations. It tracks a person’s “daytime stress load”, how they recover during the day, and how they recover while sleeping. Paired with Daytime Stress mentioned earlier, the tool will provide “insights, education, and recommendations” on how to manage everything. The goal here is to aid people in finding the most effective way to chill out.
We reached out to Oura for clarification for certain things like if there will be an Android version of Reflections plus the exact launch date of Stress Resilience. This story will be updated at a later time.
Tens of thousands of WordPress (WP) sites have been compromised through a flaw in popular premium themes, with the attackers using the vulnerability to redirect visitors elsewhere.
As reported by BleepingComputer, cybersecurity researchers Sucuri recently discovered that tagDiv Newspaper and tagDiv Newsmag WordPress themes both carried a vulnerable companion tool called tagDiv Composer.
This tool was vulnerable to a cross-site scripting flaw (XSS) tracked as CVE-2023-3169, allowing attackers to remotely send and run PHP code, with some hackers abusing the flaw to deliver the Balada Injector, which redirected visitors to fake tech support pages, fake lottery wins landing pages, and various push notifications scams.
The importance of patching
In total, Sucuri claims, at least 17,000 WordPress websites were compromised in September alone. The entire attack surface counts some 155,000 websites, as those are cumulatively all sites using tagDiv’s vulnerable premium themes (not accounting for pirated copies).
This is not a brand-new flaw, either, first being discovered by Dr. Web in December 2022. The Balada Injector campaign, some researchers believe, has been active since 2017. The company behind the premium themes, tagDiv, was notified of the existence of the flaws months ago and has since released a patch. The problem is that many site owners didn’t apply the fix on time.
"We are aware of these cases. The malware can affect websites using older theme versions," tagDiv said. "Besides updating the theme, the recommendation is to immediately install a security plugin such as wordfence, and scan the website. Also change all the website passwords."
The earliest secure version of tagDiv Composer is 4.2.
As a web-builder platform, WordPress is generally considered safe. It’s the plugins, such as these two, that threat actors usually scan for flaws and abuse. That’s why website owners are advised to only install plugins from reputable sources and make sure they’re regularly updated.
HP’s latest device is also one of its strangest – but there’s plenty to love about the all-in-one HP Envy Move, a 24-inch Windows-powered tablet that’s designed to be carried around your house.
Starting from $899, the tablet features an Intel Core i3-1315U CPU and 8GB RAM by default. You can, however, upgrade these specs to an Intel i5-1335U CPU plus 16GB RAM in its highest-end configuration for an extra $150.
The tablet also supports Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E, depending on your customization choices, and Bluetooth 5.3. This is alongside a 256GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD which, again, you can upgrade up to a maximum of a 1TB PCIe 4x4 NVMe TLC M.2 SSD.
HP Envy Move: Jack of all trades?
Ultimately, the HP Envy Move is designed for users who want a high-quality desktop-like machine to pack up and take it around with them with ease – despite its 9-pound (roughly 4kg) weight.
The device, which strives to be among the best all-in-ones, thankfully, includes a keyboard with an integrated trackpad, which you can pack neatly into the rear of its case. There’s also a handle at the top that you can use to carry it.
When unloading the HP Envy Move, you can kick its self-deploying kickstand into action, connect the keyboard, and carry on working wherever you end up.
When in use, it looks no more like a desktop setup than the best desktop PCs out there thanks to a sleek design with super-narrow bezels around its 24-inch 2,560 x 1,440 IPS touchscreen display.
While it’s certainly more powerful than a tablet, you’d really have to want it for its relative portability. The trouble is, its hardware is more akin to middling laptops than anywhere close to a high-end PC.
That means its use cases may be quite limited if you’re looking for a more heavy-duty machine to handle, say, graphically intensive workloads. It’s only fitted with Intel UHD Graphics and certainly lacks the punch of the best GPUs out there.
Elsewhere, the machine features a 5MP IR camera with a privacy shutter, alongside a USB-A port, USB-C port, and HDMI. Its battery, meanwhile, lasts up to four hours on a single charge – meaning it’s not wholly suited to working on-the-go.
Ultimately, this is a monstrous device that may well serve remote or hybrid workers well, but it did get me thinking that I’d rather be using a laptop version – with its own (much larger) keyboard and trackpad.
Prime Big Deal Days is nearly here. The Amazon shopping event starts tomorrow,October 10, and runs to the end of Wednesday (October 11), offering two days of savings across multiple categories. It's not as big of a deal as Black Friday, but it's the closest you'll get this month.
In fact, the early signs are that there are some pretty big savings to be had, particularly on Amazon's own devices, but also on MacBooks, iPads, AirPods, air fryers, vacuums, TVs and much more. You can browse our top choices right now in our main Prime Day deals hub (so named because really this is just Prime Day, after all).
But what actually is it – and how does it work? Don't worry – we can explain everything. Below, you'll find our detailed guide to the shopping event. Good luck out there.
Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2023: FAQs
(Image credit: Amazon)
What is Amazon Prime Big Deal Days?
Prime Big Deal Days is essentially a Prime Day in October, or Prime Day 2. It will offer two days of discounts on everything from Amazon devices to TVs to laptops to appliances to beauty products and much more.
It's much like the Prime Early Access Sale that the retailer held last year, where the majority of the deals served as a preview to the Amazon Black Friday sale. If you're not a Prime member, expect many offers will come back during that end-of-year sale for another chance to bag the same bargains.
When does Amazon Prime Big Deal Days take place?
Big Deal Days runs from tomorrow – that's Tuesday, October 10 – to Wednesday, October 11, 2023. In the US, it starts at midnight Pacific Time on October 10 (so 3 am Eastern Time) and runs until 11.59 pm PT on October 11. In the UK, it starts at midnight BST. In short, you get 48 hours to shop, shop, shop and save, save, save.
Do I need Amazon Prime to access the deals?
Yes, you need to be an Amazon Prime member in order to get access to the Prime Big Deal Days deals. However, a small selection is available to all. Membership costs $14.99 / £8.99 per month or $139 / £95 for a year, but new subscribers can take advantage of the 30-day Amazon Prime free trial to buy the deals, so sign up now to be ready.
While on the free trial, you get all the other membership benefits including free shipping, access to Prime Video and much more. Do read our Amazon Prime review for full coverage of what you get as part of a membership. That can help you decide if you want to cancel Amazon Prime once your free trial has ended, to avoid being charged the monthly fee.
How is Prime Big Deal Days different from Prime Day?
The honest answer is that it's not any different at all! Big Deal Days is really just Prime Day under a different name, and in October rather than July. Like Prime Day, it offers discounts for Prime members only, across all of the major categories available on Amazon. We're not really sure why they didn't just call it 'Prime Day in October' or 'Prime Day 2', but presumably Amazon knows what it's doing.
Are early Prime Big Deal Days deals available now?
Yes! There are already dozens of early Big Deal Days deals on offer, and we've rounded them all up in our Prime Day deals hub (if you're in the UK, visit our UK Prime Day deals page). The links below will also help you jump straight to the category that interests you most:
If you want a preview of the kind of deals available, here are three of the best Big Deal Days deals on offer right now:
Fire TV Stick 4K:was $49.99 now $22.99 at Amazon Stream your content in 4K resolution with the Fire TV Stick 4K, which is marked down to $22.99 - the lowest price we've ever seen. The best-selling Fire Stick allows you to stream your favorite content in 4K Ultra HD resolution with support for Dolby Vision, HDR, HDR10+, and Amazon Alexa for hands-free control. There is a slightly upgraded newer version available but it costs twice as much and effectively does exactly the same job so we suggest snagging this for all your streaming needs.View Deal
Hisense U6 50-inch QLED 4K Smart TV:was $499.99 now $199.99 at Amazon
Invite-only: Definitely register your interest in this unbelievably low price for a reasonably-sized 4K QLED TV from Hisense. TVs with these capabilities usually cost at least double this deal price. The Quantum Dot technology inside means the display can deliver a brighter image with better lighting and more accurate contrast so pictures really pop. And, with the Fire TV interface, you get easy access to all the top streaming apps just a button press or voice command away.View Deal
Apple Watch 8 (GPS, 41mm):was $399 now $224.99 at Amazon The Apple Watch 8 is one of the best smartwatches you can buy, thanks to its impressive display, health tracking, and safety features, such as fall detection and Emergency SOS. Amazon now has the best-selling smartwatch on sale for a new record-low of $224.99 when you apply the coupon on the store page. That's the best deal you can find right now and the lowest price we've ever seen.View Deal
Echo Show 5 (2023):was $89.99 now $39.99 at Amazon You can get the all-new Echo Show 5 on sale for $39.99 - that's a massive 56% discount and a new record-low price. The Echo Show 5 features a compact 5.5-inch display but packs impressive sound with deeper bass and clearer vocals, so you can listen to podcasts, movies, music, and more with the help of Amazon Alexa. The Echo Show 5 is rarely discounted, and we predict you won't see a better deal at the official Amazon Prime Day sale.View Deal
Apple AirPods Pro 2:was $249 now $199 at Amazon After sitting at $219 for the last month, Amazon now has the best-selling AirPods Pro 2 back down to a record-low price of $199. Rated as one of the best earbuds you can buy, the AirPods Pro 2 feature active noise cancellation to block out unwanted noise, improved audio quality, and a wireless charging case that provides more than 24 hours of battery life.View Deal
MacBook Air 13-inch (M1):was $999.99 now $749.99 at Amazon The 2020 Apple MacBook Air with an M1 chip is a little old now, but it's still one of the best laptops ever made - and Amazon has the laptop on sale for a record-low price of $749.99 right now. Our MacBook Air M1 review awarded the device 4.5 stars out of five, where we particularly praised Apple's premium device for its speed, responsiveness, beautiful design, and long-lasting battery life.View Deal
When was Amazon Prime Day 2023?
Amazon Prime Day 2023 ran from midnight PST on July 11 until 11:59pm PDT (3am EDT) on July 12.
A good number of Prime Day deals were available in the week running up to the event, too, so you could actually bag a bargain quite early. And some offers remained live following the official end of the sale, too, for last-minute shoppers.
How to prepare for Prime Day 2023: our pro tips
We've collected together some buyer's tips and advice that will help you get the most out of Amazon Big Deal Days. This is based on our own experience covering Amazon events for eight years now.
Some of these tips may seem pretty basic and straightforward to some, but they're definitely not to be overlooked if you're preparing a shopping list already.
(Image credit: Amazon)
1. Find an Amazon Prime free trial... Amazon Big Deal Days is reserved for Prime members only. However, if you've not subscribed in the past, Amazon offers a free trial that you can activate in the lead-up to the event. Just be careful that you time your membership to run over the period of Big Deal Days and cancel once it's over so you aren't charged a fee.
2. ...but don't rely on it
Last year we saw more retailers participating in similar Prime Day sales in order to steal a little of Amazon's pie. We expect stores like Walmart and Best Buy will run their own discounts over the same period this year, which means you can shop around to find the best Big Deal Days deals possible. Ultimately, you could find a big saving on exactly what you want outside of Amazon, where membership isn't required - unless there are exclusive offers for Walmart Plus or My Best Buy members.
3. Know what you want to buy... Going into big sales events such as Amazon Prime Big Deal Days with an idea of what you want to buy is a great place to start. Sure, we all like to do a bit of digital window shopping, but knowing what you're after means you can filter out all that noise, dodge the rubbish lightning deals and get straight to the good stuff right away. Take the time now to research the price history of your chosen product, as well as the prices of its competitors over the last year - both cheaper and more expensive versions. With that in mind, you can go into Big Deal Days knowing for yourself what is a good deal.
4. ...but stay flexible Even if you know everything about the one product you really want, it's unwise to assume that the particular TV, tablet or whatever it is you're after will be on sale. Your heart may be set on a product but the big day can roll around and no savings are found on it. Does that mean you should give up? No way.
Take all that research you did in the days beforehand to look at similar products. Is there an equivalent cheaper item that's even less for Big Deal Days, or perhaps that slightly more expensive model is now reduced to a price more in line with your original item? We'll be on hand to help with these suggestions, too, so you could get an even bigger saving or come away with a better product that you would have otherwise missed out on.
5. Get in there early... When Big Deal Days begins, you want to be one of the first to check which offers have gone live at midnight - or at least first thing in the morning when you wake up. We don't think that anything is going to sell out in a matter of hours in this early window, but there's definitely a risk that the hottest deals will sell out as the first day draws to a close. If you see something you really want to buy, get it in your basket right away - you can always cancel the order if you change your mind.
6. ...but check back throughout the event Just because you've managed to secure your dream deal straight out the gate doesn't mean Amazon is done. New Big Deal Days deals will be released throughout the entire sales window and there are often limited-time lightning deals that may grab your attention. And sold-out products may come back at a later time if you missed out on something big.
Prime Big Deal Days vs Black Friday - should you wait?
Both Amazon Prime Big Deal Days and Black Friday generally offer discounts on the same kinds of devices, but there are a few differences between the sales events.
Prime Big Deal Days deals are largely focused on Amazon itself, while other stores like Best Buy and Walmart compete against them with a few of their own discounts. Competition among shoppers will also be significantly reduced on Big Deal Days, which means that deals will generally be easier to find, easier to price check and won't run out of stock so quickly.
Black Friday, on the other hand, is set across a much larger range of retailers, with prices that tend to be a little cheaper across a wider variety of brands. That does mean putting in a lot more work to make sure you get the best offer possible and keeping a close eye out for limited-time flash sales. With more competition between retailers, though, we do tend to see slightly larger discounts in November.
Of course, you may also simply want your tech sooner. If so, we wouldn't recommend a few weeks for the chance of a better discount. There's no guarantee that prices will be any different closer to Black Friday, especially on Amazon products. And with the way the sales start even earlier now, chances are the prices you see in October will be as low as they go over the two-month period.
How to find the best Prime Big Deal Days deals
(Image credit: Shutterstock/@Hadrian)
Amazon won't necessarily do a great job of promoting the best Prime Big Deal Days deals. Sure, it will shout about many of its own devices and other well-known products that are on sale, but it's often worth looking beyond these highlighted deals for some even better savings. We do a lot of that searching for you and will share our favorite offers on our Prime Day deals page, but here's some more advice on how to find the best offers.
Before the sale begins is a good place to start. In the run-up, Amazon usually has a few offers live that are a tease for the big event. These aren't usually some of the biggest products, but can still be tempting bargains. We sometimes see reductions on its own subscription services such as Audible, Music Unlimited and Kindle Unlimited during this window, making it a good time to sign up.
We also strongly encourage you to keep an eye on Amazon Warehouse. We often see store-wide discounts of up to 20% across this selection of second-hand, used and open-box products. All items are checked, tested and Amazon-approved before they go back on sale, plus they are covered by the standard returns policy, so you don't have to worry if you run into any issues. Generally, it's an excellent option to bag an even bigger bargain.
Set Prime Big Deal Days deal alerts
Want to avoid missing out on any big bargains over Amazon Prime Big Deal Days? You can set deal alerts for the duration of the sales event that will ping you a notification when specific products or items from your search history are reduced.
You can also use this function with Alexa. Simply add a product to your cart with voice commands and then tell Alexa to notify you when that product goes on sale.
It's a good way to ensure you get everything you want during Prime Big Deal Days. We'd suggest taking a look at the sneak peak of some of the upcoming deals and seeing which ones you want to be notified of when the sale starts on October 10.
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It's time for your daily dose of Quordle hints, plus the answers for both the main game and the Daily Sequence spin off.
Quordle is the only one of the many Wordle clones that I'm still playing now, around 18 months after the daily-word-game craze hit the internet, and with good reason: it's fun, but also difficult.
What's more, its makers (now the online dictionary Merriam-Webster) are also keeping it fresh in the form of a variant called the Daily Sequence, which sees you complete four puzzles consecutively, rather than concurrently.
But Quordle is tough, so if you already find yourself searching for Wordle hints, you'll probably need some for this game too.
I'm a Quordle and Wordle fanatic who's been playing since December 2021, so I can definitely help you solve Quordle today and improve your game for tomorrow. Read on for my Quordle hints to game #623 and the answers to the main game and Daily Sequence.
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 #623) - hint #1 - Vowels
How many different vowels are in Quordle today?
• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Quordle today (game #623) - hint #2 - total vowels
What is the total number of vowels in Quordle today?
• The total number of vowels across today's Quordle answers is 8.
Quordle today (game #623) - hint #3 - repeated letters
Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?
• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 3.
Quordle today (game #623) - hint #4 - total letters
How many different letters are used in Quordle today?
• The total number of different letters used in Quordle today is 11.
Quordle today (game #623) - hint #5 - uncommon letters
Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?
• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.
Where Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day, Quordle presents you with four puzzles to solve. And rather than complete them in turn, you do so simultaneously. You get nine guesses, rather than the six for Wordle, but the rules are otherwise very similar.
As with Wordle, the answers are the same for every player each day, meaning that you're competing against the rest of the world. And also as with Wordle, the puzzle resets at midnight so you have a fresh challenge each day.
The website also includes a practice mode - which I definitely recommend using before attempting the game proper! - and there are daily stats including a streak count. You also get Quordle Achievements - specific badges for winning a game in a certain number of turns, playing lots of times, or guessing particularly hard words.
Oh, and it's difficult. Really difficult.
What are the Quordle rules?
The rules of Quordle are almost identical to those of Wordle.
1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.
2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow.
3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray…
4. …BUT the word you guess appears in all quadrants of the puzzle at the same time, so an A could turn green in one square, yellow in another and gray in the final two.
5. Answers are never plural.
6. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.
7. Each guess must be a valid word in Quordle's dictionary. You can't guess ABCDE, for instance.
8. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses and there is no equivalent of Wordle's Hard mode.
9. You have nine guesses to find the Quordle answers.
10. You must complete the daily Quordle before midnight in your timezone.
What is a good Quordle strategy?
Quordle needs to be approached in a different way to Wordle. With four puzzles to solve in nine guesses, you can't blindly throw letters at it and expect to win - you'll stand a far better chance if you think strategically.
That's the case in Wordle too, of course, but it's even more important in Quordle.
There are two key things to remember.
1. Use several starting words
Firstly, you won't want just a single starting word, but almost certainly two or three starting words.
The first of these should probably be one of the best Wordle starting words, because the same things that make them work well will apply here too. But after that, you should select another word or possibly two that use up lots more of the most common consonants and that include any remaining vowels.
For instance, I currently use STARE > DOILY > PUNCH. Between them, these three words use 15 of the 26 letters in the alphabet including all five vowels, Y, and nine of the most common consonants (S, T, R, D, L, P, N, C and H). There are plenty of other options - you might want to get an M, B, F or G in there instead of the H, maybe - but something like that should do the trick.
If all goes well, that will give you a good lead on what one or sometimes two of the answers might be. If not, well good luck!
2. Narrow things down
Secondly, if you're faced with a word where the answer might easily be one of several options - for instance -ATCH, where it could be MATCH, BATCH, LATCH, CATCH, WATCH, HATCH or PATCH - you'll definitely want to guess a word that would narrow down those options.
In Wordle, you can instead try several of those in succession and hope one is right, assuming you have enough guesses left. It's risky, but will sometimes work. Plus, it's the only option in Hard mode. But in Quordle, this will almost certainly result in a failure - you simply don't have enough guesses.
In the scenario above, CLAMP would be a great guess, as it could point the way to four of the seven words in one go.
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Getting your hands on a 4TB SSD for just $158 ahead of Amazon Prime Day seems just too good to be true – but that’s exactly what you’ll get with the FanXiang S660, a high-capacity and low-cost NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD.
Amazon Prime Day starts on October 10, with some of the best SSDs and fastest hard drives likely to be available at cut-price deals.
At 4TB, the S660 is one of the biggest consumer-grade SSDs you’ll find – as well as being the cheapest at $158. It’s certainly the most economical in terms of pure dollars per GB. Just prepare yourself for seriously sluggish performance, according to testing by Serve the Home.
The cheapest, and largest, SSD on the market
Its price makes the FanXiang S660 4TB the lowest-cost PCIe 4.0 4TB SSD on the market right now, beating the Silicon Power 4TB UD90 SSD by just $5. But these two are emblematic of a wider trend of cheaper high-capacity SSDs that just fail to live up to expectations, with performance nosediving.
The fastest SSDs out there, including the Samsung 980 Pro, tend to only be sold in variants up to 2TB, and they generally hit read/write speeds of 7,000MB/s. This is true for the Samsung for reads, with writes hitting roughly 5,000MB/s.
The fastest 4TB SSD we’ve seen, meanwhile, is the Crucial T700, which achieved reads of 12,400MB/s and writes of 11,800MB/s. But this will set you back $529.99 on Amazon at the time of writing.
The S660 4TB, by contrast, reached reads of 5,057MB/s – not bad – but writes of just 406MB/s, which is atrocious for an SSD. Serve the Home achieved these results on CrystalDiskMark.
The site corroborated this with additional results in ATTO – another benchmarking software. Here, the S660 hit reads of 6,738MB/s but writes of an abysmal 365MB/s. What’s worse is that writes drop to 180MB/s in further testing when the drive is filled to the 85% mark.
When browsing Prime Day on October 10 and 11, it’s important to be wary of how these drives perform in testing and real-world contexts - check out our guide to the best cheap SSD deals to make sure you get the best value and performance to boot.
