Latest Tech News

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• Need massive storage? Seagate’s Exos 28TB HDD is the current king
• Recertified models are popping up cheap - but they’re not exactly fresh out the box
• Some might’ve worked hard in crypto farms before, so check before you buy!

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If you’re looking for a high-capacity hard drive, Seagate’s Exos range will definitely appeal to you. The largest internal drive you can buy in retail right now is Seagate's Exos 28TB HDD - when launched in 2024 it overtook the previous record holder, the Western Digital Gold, which maxes out at 24TB.

Seagate doesn’t disclose pricing for the Exos 28TB HDD, but we’ve noticed refurbished versions of the drive on sale for a fraction of what you might expect to pay. This isn’t the first time these cheaper CMR drives have appeared online, and the same warnings we issued about buying them before apply now.

The drives that you’ll find online at the likes of Amazon ($379.99), ServerPartDeals ($364.99), eBay in the UK (£578), as well as other third-party retailers, are all recertified models. That means they are either previously used or customer returns that have been inspected, tested, and restored to full working condition by either Seagate or an authorized third party. In other words, they aren’t brand new, but they have been verified to meet functional standards.

Linked to the Chia scandal?

In the case of Seagate's recertified Exos 28TB, it means you’re getting a tested and refurbished enterprise-grade HDD at a significant discount, but with potentially lower warranty coverage. The drives we’ve found on sale have “Factory Recertified” printed on them, so you know what you’re getting, and (depending on where you buy from) they could come with up to a two-year warranty. That’s interesting, as Seagate does offer an official data sheet for the recertified Exos 28TB drive, which states it only offers a limited six-month warranty.

There’s no question the recertified drives available to buy are attractively priced, and they should be absolutely fine, but if reliability is your top priority, you might be better off picking up a brand-new unit.

Quite where all these recertified drives have come from is something of a mystery, but it wouldn’t surprise us if at least some – if not most – of them originated in China.

Heise.de recently reported a number of its readers had purchased Seagate drives that were supposedly new but had, in fact, been used previously - potentially for thousands of hours. Further digging suggested at least some of the drives originated from Chinese cryptocurrency mining farms that used them to mine Chia several years ago. We’re not suggesting that the recertified Exos 28TB drives have been used for crypto mining, but it’s always a possibility.

When drives are refurbished and factory-certified by Seagate, the Field Accessible Reliability Metrics (FARM) usage time is reset to zero. Heise.de reports that some readers with recertified drives discovered their purchases had been used for at least 15,000 hours, which, as Tom’s Hardware points out, suggests “that these drives were used, refurbished by Seagate, used again, and then resold as freshly refurbished models.”

If you do decide to buy one of the recertified Exos 28TB HDDs, make sure you buy from a reputable reseller, even if it means paying a little extra.

Towards the end of January 2025, Seagate added the 36TB Exos M model to its growing family of data center hard disk drives, making it the largest HDD currently available, albeit not one that you'll be able to buy (for now). Seagate's CEO, Dave Mosley, also revealed at the time that the company had successfully trialed platter capacities of over 6TB, meaning 60TB drives could be on the horizon.

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Latest Tech News

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• A report claims that Apple has stumbled with Siri’s big AI rollout
• The company is apparently facing ‘engineering problems’ and bugs
• Ironing all this out may mean the revamped Siri doesn’t make the seemingly intended cut for iOS 18.4

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Apple is reportedly struggling with its much-awaited major revamp of Siri and may have to push back the upgrade until iOS 18.5 in May.

That's according to seasoned Apple watcher Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, who claims "engineering problems and software bugs" may further delay the overhaul, which was set to give the assistant more far-reaching AI powers driven by Apple Intelligence.

If you cast your mind back to WWDC 2024, Apple revealed a huge AI upgrade for Siri, some of which came into play last year, but other more complex abilities are still in the works.

Citing "people with knowledge of the matter", Gurman reports that this functionality is proving more difficult to implement than expected and that some of these in-depth features are apparently not working consistently enough. That includes some of the more impressive powers demonstrated by Apple previously, such as having Siri scour across emails and text messages to find a relative’s flight and lunch reservation plans, to pick a specific example highlighted by Gurman.

More broadly, Gurman’s sources paint a picture of Apple’s engineers “racing” to finish these AI features. The original plan was supposedly to launch the upgraded Siri in iOS 18.4 – an update rumored for April 2025 (the beta should be imminent, in fact) – but now, that might be pushed back to May (in iOS 18.5 seemingly), or even later.

Some, or all, of these heavyweight AI powers for Siri might be held back, so we could potentially see a smattering of new abilities in iOS 18.4 – but it’s sounding very up in the air still, especially considering this is a relatively close timeframe now.

Gurman also theorizes that another option for Apple could be to include the new AI features for Siri in iOS 18.4, but switched off by default – presumably a ‘use at your own risk’ kind of scenario. Apple might then choose to fully enable them (by default) in the next release of iOS, when any final gremlins are ironed out, presumably.

One way or another, it sounds like Siri getting fully upgraded with all the AI features Apple promised is looking a shakier prospect in the nearer-term – assuming Gurman's sources are accurate, of course.

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(Image credit: Future)

Analysis: Apple device owners are running thin on patience

What are these AI powers, you might be wondering? To recap on the WWDC reveal, they include some major pieces of the puzzle to really power up Siri, including awareness of what’s on the screen of the device (to use this info in context, when interacting with the user), and deeper integration with apps to facilitate better control over this software.

A more personal experience and a whole bunch of new tricks should be possible, including the ability described by Gurman above pertaining to the relative’s reservation plans.

The problem is that some Apple fans are increasingly eager to actually try out some of the compelling features for Siri that were demonstrated by Apple the best part of a year ago now. Just in the past week, we've written about how the iOS 18.4 beta promises to include the Siri upgrade we've been waiting for and that iOS 18.4 could be the biggest iPhone upgrade ever.

So far, we’ve been treated to a smart new interface for the assistant, and those ChatGPT chops, but there’s nothing that heralds the arrival of the all-new, much more powerful AI that we were promised by Apple at its big developer conference last year.

The danger is that if iOS 18.4 turns up, and Siri is again left standing still on the AI front, people will start to lose patience here. And not only that, but a sluggish deployment of these AI features will reinforce the impression of Apple as lagging behind the rest of the tech industry in the artificial intelligence field.

To be fair to Apple, when it revealed Siri’s new AI functionality at WWDC last year, for the more complex features, the company didn’t promise anything in terms of delivery beyond a rollout over the course of 2025.

That tentativeness may itself have been a hint that Apple wasn’t confident in a delivery timeframe, and realized the complexity of actually implementing all this stuff so it works well.

As ever, this is just chatter from the rumor mill, so take it with some skepticism, although Gurman is certainly one of the more reliable journalists out there when it comes to insider info from Apple. We'll presumably find out soon, with a new iPhone tipped for release next week and possibly some iOS news around the same time.

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Forget the Scale. Here's How to Lose Fat and Gain Muscle at the Same Time

Body recomposition is an effective way to reduce fat and increase muscle mass. This is how it works and why you should stop weighing yourself.

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Latest Tech News

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• HP’s $4299 EliteBook X G1a packs 128GB RAM, Ryzen AI 9, and Radeon 890M
• Offers AI-ready power, security features, and enough memory for massive models
• It's a Windows powerhouse for those who don't want a Mac

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HP has quietly introduced a new $4299 laptop that comes with a whopping 128GB of LPDDR5x-8533 RAM.

The EliteBook X G1a (or, to give it its full name, the HP EliteBook X G1a 14 inch Notebook Next Gen AI PC Wolf Pro Security Edition) is powered by an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 processor featuring 12 cores and 24 threads with a maximum boost clock of 5.1 GHz.

It includes AMD Radeon 890M graphics and a 1TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe TLC SSD. This makes it powerful enough for even the most intensive tasks, like running a 70B-120B parameter LLM locally.

(Image credit: HP)

Solid choice for Windows users

The 14-inch laptop has a 2.8K OLED touchscreen with 100 percent sRGB color accuracy, IPS technology, BrightView, and a brightness rating of 400 nits. It also features HP Eye Ease for reduced blue light exposure. Audio is handled by Poly Studio, with quad stereo speakers that include discrete amplifiers, along with integrated dual-array microphones.

Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, two Thunderbolt 4 ports with USB-C at 40Gbps, one USB Type-C at 10Gbps, an HDMI 2.1 port, a USB Type-A port, and a headphone/microphone combo.

As you can guess from its name, it comes with HP Wolf Pro Security Edition (for three years), with security features such as HP Sure Platform, HP Tamper Lock, and a fingerprint sensor.

The system is powered by a 74.5Wh battery and comes with a 100W USB-C slim adapter. The chassis measures 12.29 x 8.45 x 0.36 inches at the front and 0.52 inches at the rear, with a starting weight of 3.3 pounds.

One of the key challenges in AI computing, and large-scale data processing in general, is having enough memory to keep up with the increasing demands of complex models. Most consumer laptops max out at 64GB RAM, often pushing users toward workstations. HP’s portable powerhouse addresses this gap while looking good doing it.

With its 128GB of fast memory, a capable processor, and speedy storage, HP’s new laptop looks to be a solid rival for Apple’s highest-end 14-inch MacBook Pro. While I personally think Apple’s product just about wins the battle, the EliteBook X G1a will be a great choice for anyone who prefers Windows.

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Best Weightlifting Shoes for 2025

The best weightlifting shoes have a wide toe box, providing a stable base that lets you plant your feet firmly and lift safely.

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Latest Tech News

Year in and year out, increasingly more people worldwide turn to VPN software to claim back their privacy online and bypass internet geo-restrictions. Not all services are made equal, though. Now, Obscura VPN, a new provider on the market, has thrown a challenge to the whole industry and promises to "set the standard for the next generation of VPNs."

Obscura VPN officially launched on February 11, 2025, and essentially vows to do two things better than its competitors: to be "private by design" and "outsmart internet restrictions."

The VPN is only available for macOS at the time of writing. Support for other platforms is set to be added in the future.

Two VPNs, better than one?

According to Obscura VPN's founder, Carl Dong, today's VPN industry comes with some considerable flaws, the biggest being around providers' trust.

In a blogpost he said: "Fundamentally, the biggest flaw of existing VPN companies is that they act as your primary man-in-the-middle – seeing both your personal info (connecting IP, email, billing address, etc.) and your browsing history."

In Dong's opinion, not even no-log VPNs are a complete solution as, even a provider that keeps true to its promise, "can suffer a security breach and be compromised."

We asked Dong for more clarifications on these points as well as for his take on independent no-log audits but are still awaiting a response at the time of publication.

What's important to know for now is that Obscura VPN decided to take a different route to be more "private by design." VPN traffic gets rerouted through two different hops. Yet, unlike traditional multi-hop VPNs, each of these servers are managed independently by two different VPN providers.

Today we are announcing a partnership with Obscura VPN, a newly launched two-party VPN service that uses our WireGuard VPN servers as its “exit hop”. Read more here: https://t.co/BxWn9hOuh5February 11, 2025

To do so, Obscura VPN has partnered with one of the most secure VPNs on the market, Mullvad VPN.

Obscura's servers act as the entry hop that encrypts your internet connection via the WireGuard protocol for later relaying it to Mullvad-operated exit servers. It's then the second VPN provider (Mullvad) that technically connects you to the internet.

"This splits 'who you are' from 'what you do,' meaning neither party can tie your identity to your browsing," Dong explains.

Obscura VPN claims, in fact, that it can never decrypt your traffic. On its side, Mullvad should not be able to see your personal information linked with your account, either.

Additionally, Obscura VPN doesn't require your name, email, phone address, or any credit card info to sign up, reducing the amount of users' data collected.

A new censorship-resistant tech

As previously mentioned, Obscura VPN also promises to be better than its competitors in bypassing censorship and evading VPN blocks. To achieve that, it employs QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connections), a newer internet protocol designed for maximum security and speed.

According to Dong, QUIC is better than current VPN obfuscation technologies as it blends with normal internet traffic while avoiding performance issues that might affect TCP (transmission control protocol) connections.

Beyond the technicalities, many VPN providers keep investing in their censorship-resistant features to stay ahead of the game against ever-sophisticated censors' tactics.

NordVPN, for example, has recently released its new censorship-resistant NordWhisper protocol that uses web tunnel technology designed to mimic normal web traffic. Proton VPN also unveiled a few major updates to its service over the summer to double down on its fight against censorship, including expanding support for its very own Stealth VPN protocol on Windows.

While only time will tell if Obscura VPN can really outsmart tough censorship better than its competitors, it's definitely interesting to see yet another solution developing in this space.

Today is the day: Obscura VPN is NOW AVAILABLE!@obscuravpn is the first VPN that:- CAN'T log your activity by design- Outsmarts network filtersWe believe Obscura sets the standard for a new generation of VPNs, and hope you’ll check it out!👇 Links + more in thread pic.twitter.com/biQBwXhAvmFebruary 11, 2025

Currently, Obscura VPN only offers its provider as a Mac VPN – this means if you're using different devices you'll need to wait a bit longer before you can test it out.

The server network is quite slim, too, when compared to other VPN providers. These include a few locations between Canada and the US, some European countries (France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the UK), and less than a handful in Asia (Japan, Singapore, and Turkey). Again, the team is said to be working to add more locations soon.

You can subscribe at a discounted rate right now of $6 per month, instead of the regular cost of $8.

While it's too early to say if Obscura will eventually gain its spot among the best VPN apps, it's worth mentioning that the software is fully open-source. This means that anyone with some technical knowledge will be able to lift up the hood and take a look at its code to see if it really does what it claims to.

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Beatbot's AquaSense 2 Ultra Upgrades Pool Cleaning with AI Technology

The company's new line of products are available now, with a special offer if you purchase before Feb. 16.

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Latest Tech News

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• Google Maps is testing the rollout of more incident reports
• These are weather-related options such as ‘flooded road’ or ‘low visibility’
• The growing library of incidents is a source of annoyance for some drivers

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Google Maps is introducing new incident reporting options, fresh additions that pertain to weather-related conditions.

Android Police spotted these new kinds of report, and they include the likes of ‘flooded road’ for when there’s been a huge deluge of rain, or ‘low visibility’ for when it gets foggy. And indeed ‘unplowed road’ for when, well, you should probably turn around and find a plowed road that’s not wheel-deep in snow.

The site noticed these new options in Google Maps for Android Auto first off, and then in the iPhone app.

The not-so-great news for those keen on being able to benefit from a wider variety of untoward happenings being reported is that these new introductions have not yet made it to the Android version of Google Maps.

However, it surely won’t be long before the ability to report a flooded or snowed-up road arrives on Android.

Is an ever-growing library of incidents a good thing?

(Image credit: Future)

This is a continued expansion of the reporting of incidents in Google Maps, on top of clearly-labeled Waze reports being piped through alongside native reports since last year. There’s already a wide range of incidents that can be flagged, such as road traffic accidents, stalled cars, lanes being closed, speed traps, and so on.

Sometimes, these kind of alerts can be very useful, of course, and plenty of folks are grateful to have been warned of an incoming thorny issue on the road ahead.

However, not everyone is keen on being subject to more and more of these reports being highlighted in Google Maps – with complaints about them being too frequent only likely to multiply, as Google further expands the library of incidents that can be reported.

The problem is compounded by errant reports – incidents that aren’t there, or were resolved some time back – and there being no easy way to switch off said reports.

It looks like this is a road Google is insisting on driving down, though, despite the ‘stop’ signs being waved by some of the drivers who use its navigation app.

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King of the Forest (and Fridge): Here's What to Know About Lion's Mane Mushrooms

Lion's mane mushrooms are circling online as the latest "superfood" -- but are they worth the hype?

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Latest Tech News

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• Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University published research that says AI is causing “the deterioration of cognitive faculties”
• The study involved 319 people who use AI tools at work at least once per week
• The survey-based study opens the door to deeper research into AI side effects

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Brain rot is usually associated with endless doom scrolling of low-quality online content, but a new Microsoft Research study suggests that overusing AI might be causing “the deterioration of cognitive faculties.” Oh no.

Performed in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, the study – titled The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers – asked 319 participants who use “GenAI tools at work at least once per week” (such as Gemini, ChatGPT, CoPilot) to judge how AI usage at work was affecting their critical thinking skills.

It found that “while GenAI can improve worker efficiency, it can inhibit critical engagement with work and can potentially lead to long-term overreliance on the tool and diminished skill for independent problem-solving.” The study added that people's jobs are becoming less about solving problems and more about making sure the AI has correctly solved the problem – morphing our work from “task execution to task stewardship” – which led people to feel like their ability to think critically isn’t as sharp as it was before they started using AI.

Is it time to panic? Not quite yet

AI might still be a help not a hindrance (Image credit: Pixabay)

Seeing the headlines and reading the study it can feel like it’s time to pull the big AI lever and shut it all down for good in order to save our brains from being irreparably damaged by a tool that may be hurting us more than it’s helping us. But while the study certainly highlights challenges we desperately need to tackle in the AI space – ultimately the relationship between humans and AI we should be cultivating – it’s not quite as dire as it seems.

That’s because the study focuses on how AI users perceive AI usage is affecting their critical thinking. While the study uses a survey to quantify these feelings it comes down to how people feel and, more importantly, it doesn’t create a true quantitative comparison between frequent AI users and people who never or rarely use the AI.

While people who use AI a lot may feel they’re less capable of critical thinking it could be that because they’re not as distracted by less difficult tasks they can more easily tackle challenging ones thanks to AI’s help – or it could be there’s been no change in their critical thinking skills. But to measure actual changes in critical thinking we’d need a study with quantitative tests that compare different groups' ability (groups decided based on their AI usage) to complete tasks – including a control who never uses AI for work.

Until we have that kind of study it’s impossible to judge if AI really is making us dumber. However, that doesn’t mean we should just dismiss this Microsoft research.

Make AI work for you (Image credit: Shutterstock/SomYuZu)

Firstly, using this study as inspiration for a more quantitative study like the one I’ve described would be a fantastic next step. Secondly, while the participants' feelings may or may not represent factual reality, they represent reality for the people in this study – and they shouldn’t be dismissed.

If people feel like they’re simply AI stewards rather than performing meaningful work that could lead to dissatisfaction in their job. Some psychologists believe dissatisfaction with how we spend our time scrolling is the root cause of the social media brain rot experience (via the BBC). A similar sense of meaninglessness could be causing AI users’ similar brain deterioration feelings at work.

With AI becoming more prevalent we’ll need to work out how best to fight back feelings of deterioration, but a good first step will always be some self-care. Be that finding a new job that stimulates us, taking up a hobby that we can devote our freed-up brain power towards, or some other strategy that works best for you.

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Latest Tech News

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• Sony has seemingly removed a number of "spam" PS4 and PS5 games from the PS Store
• This follows recent comments made by developers criticizing the
  "slop" games featured on the digital storefront
• Developer RandomSpin has had most of its games removed, including Bodycam Shooter, Supermarket Simulator Pro, and more

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It looks like Sony may have quietly removed a number of "spam" shovelware games from its PlayStation Store.

This comes after a recent investigation from IGN which featured interviews from developers criticizing the lack of quality control across the PlayStation Store and the Nintendo eShop in comparison to the Xbox store, as well as the never-ending list of "spam" and "slop" games, and poor discoverability.

Now, a number of these low-quality PS4 and PS5 games have seemingly disappeared from the digital storefront (via True Trophies).

Over on PSNProfiles, players have found evidence to suggest that developer RandomSpin - which released over 40 titles in just 2024 alone - has had most of its games removed, including Bodycam Shooter, Supermarket Simulator Pro, Backrooms Brotherhood, and Backrooms Inside The Escape.

These titles in particular all seemed to use recycled assets, along with AI-generated images, to copy other popular games currently available, like Reissad Studio's Bodycam or Supermarket Simulator from Nokta Games.

It's unclear if the sudden delisting of these games was made by Sony as a result of the recent criticism, and it could be purely coincidental. Sony hasn't commented on the removal at this time.

In other news, Sony has announced that its first State of Play livestream of 2025 will air this week on February 12, 2025. The showcase will run for 40+ minutes and offer "news and updates on great games coming to PS5", which hopefully means we'll learn the release dates for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Ghost of Yōtei.

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How the Medicare Birthday Rule Can Help You Save Big on Insurance

More states now allow you to switch Medigap plans for a cheaper option, no medical exam required.

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Latest Tech News

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• SoftBank is reportedly close to buying Ampere
• The $6.5 billion deal could shake up AI and data centers
• There are questions about how it affects Arm’s neutrality and SoftBank’s long-term strategy

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SoftBank, the Japanese owner of Arm, is close to acquiring Ampere Computing, a company that develops data center chips based on Arm's architecture.

In January 2025, BNN Bloomberg reported SoftBank was exploring a purchase of Ampere, which is backed by Oracle and private equity firm Carlyle Group, in a move widely seen as part of Softbank’s bid to challenge AMD and Intel’s dominance in the AI and data center chip market. However, as we previously reported, there were some hurdles to be overcome - Ampere was gearing up for an IPO, suggesting a desire to remain independent, while SoftBank would require approval from both Oracle and Carlyle Group before a deal could move forward.

However, a new Bloomberg report suggests that the deal is nearing completion and could be announced in the coming weeks. Sources familiar with the matter estimate its value to be around $6.5 billion, including debt. In 2021, SoftBank valued Ampere at over $8 billion during a proposed minority investment.

Strategic questions

Ampere develops high-performance processors for data centers, including the 192-core "Polaris" AmpereOne and upcoming 256-core "Magnetrix", using Arm’s chip designs. Acquiring Ampere could help SoftBank, which previously bought UK-based AI chip designer Graphcore, expand its footprint in the competitive data center and AI markets.

That said, the move does raise some interesting strategic questions. Arm, long dominant in mobile chips, has been working to expand into server and AI processing.

Ampere is one of the few firms independently developing Arm-based server chips. If the deal moves forward, it could impact Arm’s role as a neutral supplier of intellectual property. Integrating Ampere into SoftBank’s ecosystem may also shift competitive dynamics in the industry.

Market conditions add a further level of complexity to the benefits buying Ampere will bring to SoftBank. The semiconductor sector faces rising competition and concerns over slowing AI-related investments.

As Bloomberg notes, “Chinese startup DeepSeek, which unveiled an inexpensively produced AI model last month, has raised the specter that technology providers won’t be generating as much revenue as predicted.”

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Latest Tech News

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 Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, February 9 (game #609).

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 #610) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• AUNT
• AROMA
• SHOWER
• BOUQUET
• VASE
• PEPPER
• NOSE
• STOP
• UNCLE
• TOMATO
• TRUCE
• DUST
• SCATTER
• NOTE
• EITHER
• MERCY

NYT Connections today (game #610) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• YELLOW: Powder something
• GREEN: Smell your drink
• BLUE: End this now
• PURPLE: You say neither and I say neither

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 #610) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: SPRINKLE 
• GREEN: SCENTS OF WINE 
• BLUE: "AAH, ENOUGH!" 
• PURPLE: WORDS FAMOUSLY PRONOUNCED DIFFERENT WAYS

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

NYT Connections today (game #610) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #610, are…

• YELLOW: SPRINKLE DUST, PEPPER, SCATTER, SHOWER
• GREEN: SCENTS OF WINE AROMA, BOUQUET, NOSE, NOTE
• BLUE: "AAH, ENOUGH!" MERCY, STOP, TRUCE, UNCLE
• PURPLE: WORDS FAMOUSLY PRONOUNCED DIFFERENT WAYS AUNT, EITHER, TOMATO, VASE

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• My rating: Hard
• My score: 2 mistakes

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My first mistake was thinking that one group had something to do with flowers, so I I had BOUQUET, VASE, together and randomly added AROMA and SHOWER as they sounded floral.

Then, after getting SPRINKLE and SCENTS OF WINE, I struggled for ages to work out what the final two groups were and got there with a complete stab in the dark looking for the fourth word to add to MERCY, STOP and TRUCE. I doubt I’ll be the only one who struggled today.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

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Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, 9 February, game #609)

• YELLOW: MASSIVE GIANT, JUMBO, MONSTER, SUPER
• GREEN: USED WHEN SERVING SOUP BOWL, LADLE, POT, SPOON
• BLUE: SOMEBODY CHARACTER, INDIVIDUAL, PARTY, PERSON
• PURPLE: SCI-FI FRANCHISES ALIEN, AVATAR, DUNE, TRON

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What is NYT Connections?

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

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

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

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

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