Feed aggregator

Connections is the latest New York Times word game that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for September 8's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

Tweet may have been deleted

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer. If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

Tweet may have been deleted

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for September 7 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

Want a hit about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Making a cake

• Green: Increasing blood pressure

• Blue: Religious servants

• Purple: Boy bands and duos

Featured Video For You Connections: How to play and how to win Here are today's Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Verbs in a Cake Recipe

• Green: What A Heart Does When Excited

• Blue: Ecclesiastical Titles

• Purple: ___Boys

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #455 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Verbs in a Cake Recipe: BAKE, BEAT, FROST, PREHEAT

• What A Heart Does When Excited: POUND, PUMP, RACE, THROB

• Ecclesiastical Titles: BISHOP, PASTOR, POPE, PRIOR

• ___Boys: BAD, BEACH, HARDY, PET SHOP

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

The iPhone 16's colors reportedly span from pink to blue for the entry-level models and Desert Titanium to gray on the Pro variants.

Of course, it's too early to know for sure which shades the iPhone 16 models will come in. However, there are plenty of credible leaks and rumors we can chew on while we wait for the official announcement from Apple at the Sept. 9 Glowtime event.

SEE ALSO: New iPhone 16 Pro color will reportedly be Desert Titanium iPhone 16 colors

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, a reliable Apple analyst and leaker, Apple is "shaking up the colors" this year.

Tweet may have been deleted

However, from our perspective, we feel that the phrase "shaking up the colors" is a bit of a stretch. The Cupertino-based tech giant is only swapping one color for another.

The entry-level iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are rumored to come in the following colors:

• Green

• Pink

• White

• Blue

For reference, the colorways for the current-gen, non-Pro models are Green, Blue, Pink, Yellow, and Black. Gurman says that the new White colorway will replace the Yellow one. Interestingly, the Apple leaker didn't mention anything about a Black shade.

iPhone 16 Pro colors

According to Gurman, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max models sport the following colorways:

• Gold Titanium (also known as "Desert Titanium")

• Black Titanium

• White Titanium

• Natural Titanium

The current-gen iPhone 15 Pro models come in Blue Titanium, Black Titanium, White Titanium, and Natural Titanium. So the "Desert Titanium" colorway is replacing Blue Titanium.

Tweet may have been deleted

As we recently reported, leakers have described Desert Titanium as different shades (i.e., from "dark gold" to "bronze"), so it's difficult to nail down its exact hue. However, Gurman called the color "impressive."

Want more iPhone 16 news? Check out our oft-updated live blog; we’ll be on the ground in Cupertino covering all things Apple before, after, and during the event.

Elon Musk's X is still banned in Brazil. 

In addition, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has said that any user who attempts to access the former Twitter via VPN faces thousands of dollars per day in fines.

So, Brazilian posters need a new place to, well, post. And it appears many Brazilian X users have found a new online social media platform in the form of X competitor Bluesky.

Last week, just 5 days after Brazil banned Musk's X in the country for failing to appoint a legal representative, Bluesky announced that it had 2.6 million new users join the platform over the previous few days alone.

Bluesky shared that 85 percent of those millions of new user signups were Brazilian.

What a week! In the last few days, Bluesky has grown by more than 2.6 million users, over 85% of which are Brazilian. Welcome, we are so excited to have you here! Here are answers to some common questions about Bluesky:

[image or embed]

— Bluesky (@bsky.app) Sep 4, 2024 at 1:26 PM

On Friday, Bluesky announced they hit 3 million new users that morning.

That brings Bluesky's total user base to 9 million, with 50 percent of those users joining the platform just in the past week.

this morning we crossed THREE MILLION new users! that brings our total size to over 9 million people. welcome everyone! we're so glad you're here 🫶 (and yes, video is coming soon)

[image or embed]

— Bluesky (@bsky.app) Sep 6, 2024 at 6:14 PM Bluesky's user base grows after Brazil's X ban

Bluesky is an X rival that received a $13 million investment from then-Twitter before Elon Musk acquired the company. However, Bluesky is much smaller than X and its main competitor, the Meta-owned Threads. 

But, even without massive backing from a company that owns both Facebook and Instagram, Bluesky has stayed competitive and is often viewed as the third most popular micro-blogging platform behind X and Threads. Bluesky has become the main platform for certain niches of users like artists and more progressive users who were turned off by Musk's right-wing politics.

Then an invite-only platform, Bluesky amassed 2 million users by November 2023 as some social media users fled X due to Musk's leadership. Bluesky opened to the public and dropped the invite requirement in February of this year.

In May, Bluesky shared that it was approaching 6 million users — having appeared to hit that number in July. 

It took roughly 8 months for Bluesky to gain 4 million new users, which took them from 2 million users to 6 million. Thanks to Elon Musk and the company's feud with Moraes, Bluesky was able to add 3 million new users in just one week.

So, what's next for Bluesky? In its post sharing its new 9 million user base numbers, Bluesky promised that a long-request feature – video uploads – would soon be coming to the platform.

Plus, it seems like there's no end in sight regarding Musk's feud with Brazil, so it's likely that Bluesky will continue to benefit from X's ban in the country.

You've likely come across the online sextortion scam before.

An email pops up in your inbox with the sender claiming to have obtained your indiscreet photos or videos, such as nudes or sex tapes. For a price, they offer to keep the content private. But, if you don't give in to their blackmail, they threaten to release the photos publicly and send them to your friends and loved ones.

SEE ALSO: Scammers are using pictures of your home to amplify sextortion threats

Despite being well known, scammers continue to utilize this model across the web, which means they are still finding success. But perhaps the scheme's effectiveness is starting to wane as new updated sextortion scams are starting to roll out. 

The latest version of this sextortion scheme has a brand new hook: proof that your spouse is cheating on you. They even use their real name in the scam.

The cheating spouse sextortion scam

One of the earliest public mentions of this new sextortion scam occurred on Reddit just last month.

Reddit user Extension-Bunch9277 posted a screenshot of an email that they received in the r/Scams subreddit. In the email (addressed to Extension-Bunch9277's partner) the scammer uses the Reddit user's real name in the email introduction, and then proceeds to use their spouse's real name. The Reddit user explained that the scammer even included a second last name that they "barely used."

The email claims to have proof that the receiver's spouse is cheating on them and offers to give the user full access to this supposed proof at a linked website. The Reddit user did not click the link, though a replying user posted a couple days later they they had. The sender's email appears to be spoofing an email address attached to 3Bigs, a legitimate healthcare data company. 

Reddit

In the comments on the Reddit post, other Reddit users report recently receiving these emails too. Some share that they received them after only recently getting married. Users also shared that the scammer had access to not only the names they used publicly, but their maiden names too.

The Reddit post was first noticed by cybersecurity news outlet Bleeping Computer.

This is obviously a scam, an updated version of the aforementioned classic sextsextortion scheme. However, it's not clear exactly how this particular version of the scam plays out when a user falls for it. The Reddit user who said they clicked the link reported being taken to a website's login page. They did not continue from there. It's possible that the scam involves a request for payment in order to receive the supposed data. It's also possible that the links lead to a download for the target, which inevitably installs malware on their computer.

Multiple Reddit users on the thread shared that they had recently used the wedding planning platform The Knot. However, it's unclear if there's any connection between the service and the scam. It's also possible that the scammers are utilizing public background check websites for this information. Just last month, Mashable reported on a massive data breach at background check company National Public Data, which leaked sensitive data for 2.9 billion people.

Just earlier this week, Mashable reported on another new sextortion scam first reported by 404 Media. This version of the scam weaponizes images of the target's home address, likely taken off of services like Google Maps, to threaten people into paying a monetary ransom.

Mashable readers who receive these scam emails should not click on any links included in the message.

Over the summer, Disney's internal communications channels suffered a data breach. We now know that as a result of this breach, guests and employees were affected, with personal information being stolen by hackers.

Earlier this summer, a hacker group called "NullBulge" gained access to over 1TB of sensitive data from Disney after infiltrating the company's internal Slack channels. Now, a new report by the Wall Street Journal, which viewed the leaked files, has uncovered more about exactly what was in the stolen files.

SEE ALSO: [UPDATE: Disney responds] A death at Disney World leads to legal battle over Disney+ terms of service

The leak consists of more than 44 million messages found in Disney's Slack workplace channels. This also includes around 18,800 spreadsheet files and 13,000 PDFs. The data leaked by the hackers was limited to files Disney employees posted in a Disney Slack channel, with both private and public channels affected. Private direct messages between Disney employees in Slack are also not found in the leak.

While some of Disney's internal company information and financials were part of the trove of stolen data, the most concerning details involve the private data belonging to Disney's theme park and Disney Cruise Line customers and employees.

Disney crew and guests doxxed

The Disney data leaked by hackers includes private information for Disney Cruise Line staff and guests, as well as theme park attendees.

Physical addresses, birthdates, passport numbers, visa information, and even current assignments belonging to Disney Cruise Line crew members were found amongst the data stolen by hackers.

Another file contained names, addresses, and phone numbers tied to passengers on the Disney Cruise Line.

Information on guests at Disneyland was also discovered in the leaked data. It appears a "cluster" of Disneyland guests who had dining reservations at the park had their names and contact information revealed.

It's unclear exactly how many Disneyland and Disney Cruise Line guests and staff have been affected.

Internal Disney streaming, theme park financials

The leak includes new financial information for Disney's streaming service, Disney+.

According to internal spreadsheets found in the leaked data, Disney+ made more than $2.4 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2024. 

While Disney does publicly report its streaming financial information to investors, as the Wall Street Journal points out, Disney does not disclose exactly how much each of its individual streaming services – Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ – contributes to that overall total. The leaked revenue data reveals that Disney+ contributes 43 percent of revenue for Disney's direct-to-consumer entertainment business, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The leak also includes some very interesting financial details for Disney theme parks. Between October 2021 and June 2024, Disney's add-on theme park service Genie+ brought in more than $724 million in revenue at Disney's Orlando, Florida resort complex, Disney World. Genie+ was a paid service that allowed Disney World guests to skip to the front of the line for the theme park's attractions. Disney replaced Genie+ in July with a similar paid add-on service called Lightning Lane.

Mashable has reached out to Disney for comment, and will update this post if we hear back.

YouTube is building tools to detect AI-generated likenesses of artists like actors and musicians, the company's vice president of creator products Amjad Hanif wrote in a blog post this week. Hanif also repeatedly expressed that YouTube is "committed" to the responsible development of AI tools.

The first of the new tools is "synthetic singing" identification within Content ID, a system of identifying copyrighted music that launched in 2007. Mashable reported back in 2016 that YouTube has paid billions of dollars to rights holders through Content ID, and Hanif reiterated that in this post.

The new technology will apparently be able to detect AI-generated voices of musicians' likenesses. A pilot program is set to start next year.

SEE ALSO: YouTube extends limits to body weight and fitness videos for teens in Europe and UK

YouTube is also developing technology to detect AI-generated content showing the faces of actors, creators, athletes, and the like.

In addition to this announcement, Hanif addressed YouTube and Google (which owns YouTube) using uploaded content to "improve the content experience" through machine learning and the development of AI tools. The company is "committed" to this being "done responsibly," though specifics aren't given. The post also states that the site has implemented safeguards for the use of YouTube's own generative AI tools like Dream Screen, such as preventing certain prompts that violate its policies (though it doesn't explicitly say which prompts).

YouTube is also (once again) committed to assuring that third-party apps respect YouTube's Terms of Service, which prevent certain uses of creator content like scraping.

"We're committed to working with our partners to ensure future advancements amplify their voices, and we'll continue to develop guardrails to address concerns and achieve our common goals," Hanif wrote.

Celebrated indie writer/director Sean Baker isn't precious about sex. On social media, pearl-clutchers chatter about love scenes being unneeded in media. In politics, our bedroom activities and identities become fear-mongering talking points. Meanwhile, Baker shrugs off such puritanical shame, turning out one critically heralded movie after another that offers a defiantly casual yet humane portrait of sex work in the U.S.

Among his most notable: Tangerine, which won a slew of Gotham Awards, follows two enchanting trans sex workers around during a harried Christmas in Los Angeles. The Florida Project, which features Willem Dafoe in an Oscar–nominated supporting role, centers on the mischievous child of a sex worker, being raised in candy-colored squalor under the shadow of the Disney theme park. Palme d'Or nominee Red Rocket stars Simon Rex as a washed-up porn star looking for a new lease on life with a fresh-faced ingénue. Now, Baker's Palme d'Or winner Anora chases the Pretty Woman dream — a "hooker with a heart of gold" marries a wealthy white knight — to a far less Hollywood ending. 

SEE ALSO: Trailer for Palme d'Or winner 'Anora' teases an unexpected love story

Rejecting both the Holly Golightly/Vivian Ward version of sex for sale and the gritty thriller route of treating sex work as scandalous set dressing, Baker has made films about Americans living on the fringe of a society that wants yet rejects them. And Anora may be his best yet.  

Anora is outrageous, sexy, and hilarious.  Mikey Madison stars as Ani in "Anora." Credit: NEON

Written and directed by Baker, Anora stars Mikey Madison (Scream 5, Better Things) as its eponymous heroine (and she would really prefer it if you called her Ani). When she's not getting shit from her sister/roommate in their humble Brooklyn apartment, the twentysomething is shaking her G-string-clad bum at a strip club with a beguiling smile on her face. Like Baker's previous films, sex work is shown with a mix of frankness and humor. So amid a montage of lap dances, Ani is also shown eating dinner out of a Tupperware while arguing with her boss about her rights as a freelance contractor. This snatch at office comedy is a simple way to demystify a job that's such a point of fascination and condemnation for American audiences. 

However, Ani soon finds a way out of this grind when a sweet-faced and suspiciously wealthy Russian boy offers her a sugar daddy deal. What begins as a house call soon escalates into a trip to Vegas and a quickie wedding. But this isn't a flat-out love match for either. For Ani, it's a chance to be a trophy wife to a young, hot, rich husband with whom she actually enjoys hanging out. For Vanya (Mark Eidelshtein), Ani is a ticket to a green card that can keep him in the U.S. and away from the tedious demands of his oligarch parents back in Russia. As you might expect with such a setup, their honeymoon is short-lived. Before long, a couple of thick-necked goons come knocking at Vanya's New York City home, demanding an explanation about the rumor he's married beneath his station. 

Mafia movies train us to brace for violence in such a scenario. And Baker delivers, but not in the way you'd expect. Rather than showing men brutalizing a beautiful, scantily clad young woman (a real danger for women in sex work), Ani turns the tables — and shatters them — in a sequence that is wild and unnervingly funny.

Far from a frightened mouse, Ani rages at these intruders who aim to bully her out of her dream and into an annulment. What follows is a wonderfully bewildering road trip movie. With Vanya having fled in a juvenile panic, it's up to a reluctant Ani, a motley crew of brooding Armenian brothers (Karren Karagulian and Vache Tovmasyan), and a bit of extra muscle in the introverted but emotionally intelligent Igor (Yura Borisov) to find the thrill-seeking heir before his very pissed-off parents land in their private jet. 

Mikey Madison is a force of nature. 

Anora demands a lot of its leading lady.

Ani's work means Madison's body is on recurring display, performing steamy dances and acrobatic pole work in long shots that keep every extension in frame. The emotional arc of the story has dizzying highs and gut-churning lows, while the stunt work includes (but isn't limited to) the previously mentioned fight scene with shattered glass and a broken nose (not hers). On top of all of this, Madison must shoulder the story as every man in the vicinity of her heroine acts like a buffoon or a bully.

All this demands more than being Julia Roberts-level charming, which she is. It demands a smirking self-awareness, an edged brand of humor, and a vulnerability that can flash to defense in the blink of an eye. Madison isn't performing Ani; she's bringing to life a woman in full, from her carefully lacquered pedicure to her tinsel hair extensions. Ani might not be like someone you know, but by the end of the movie you will know her intimately. 

It's easy to fall in love with Ani. And we're not the only ones who do. 

Yura Borisov is superb in Anora. 

From Tangerine's Mya Taylor to The Florida Project's Brooklynn Prince to Red Rocket's Simon Rex, Baker has an eye for casting. In his homeland of Russia, Yura Borisov has a sizable filmography. And whether you're familiar with it or not, it's easy to see why from the moment he makes eye contact with Ani. Though Igor is brought along in case there's trouble, his face is not one of aggression or threat. He's not some Goon #2, as his eyes glisten with a sharp understanding of every situation he finds himself in.

While all around him there's hollering and proselytizing and drama, his words are few and his tone is soft. Steadily and subtly, he becomes a counterpoint to the other characters, quietly making space for Ani's feelings and thoughts where others reject them. It's character work that relies so heavily on physicality that every shift of his eyebrow, shrug of his shoulder, or flex of his finger carries weight. And as Ani begins to notice this, the film moves further and further from the conventions of a mafia drama or a Hollywood happy ending, into a path that is Baker's to chart. And where it ends up is at once funny, frustrating, and yet satisfyingly cathartic. 

Anora is hands down one of the year's best. 

Ushering audiences from the back rooms of a sweaty strip club to the silk sheets of a posh condo, to the dazzling, neon-lit promenade of Las Vegas and back to the pungent Russian restaurants of Coney Island, Anora is magnificently alive. Madison is its shining star, her charisma absolute as she wields a Brooklyn accent like a whip to dazzle with or wreak havoc as she sees fit. The supporting cast — including Lindsey Normington as a vicious rival — is terrifically grounded in Baker's Brooklyn of bumbling intimidation and reckless lust, nurturing sharp comments and sharper punchlines. But Borisov proves the perfect foil to Madison, allowing her to glow all the brighter under his gaze. He reflects our own growing awe of this badass broad who won't — to borrow from another 2024 cinematic sex worker — will not accept a life she does not deserve.

Underscoring this passionate tone, the cinematography of Drew Daniels draws us in closer, following over Ani's shoulder as she strides onto a stage or into a challenge. The resplendent colors — rich reds, cool teals — are set off against environments of posh beiges or urban grays, setting Ani apart as extraordinary in every moment. Altogether, Anora is a visceral experience, making its audience not voyeurs but one of the crew. Thus embedded, our pulses race, our eyes grow wide, our hearts dance as our heroes do. Anora offers a glorious thrill, as bold as it is brilliant.

Anora was reviewed out of the Toronto International Film Festival, and will open in theaters on Oct. 18, 2024.

TL;DR: If you need high-quality scans anywhere, anytime, get SwiftScan VIP. A lifetime subscription to this iOS and Android-compatible OCR scanner is only £36.54 with the discount code SAVENOW. 

It's time to go back to school, but there's still plenty of time to prepare. If you're still cleaning the papers out of your desk, help this year go differently by getting a scanner that makes short work of digitising your notes, documents, and even books. 

SwiftScan is a simple scanner for iOS or Android devices that produces high-quality scans in seconds. Normally, a lifetime subscription to SwiftScan VIP would be £152.29, but you can get one on sale for £36.54. 

How is SwiftScan different from other scanners?

In the grand colosseum of scanners and scanner apps, SwiftScan may come out on top for a few reasons. First, if you're comparing SwiftScan to a desktop scanner, the app is a great find on price alone. Sure, it can't print your scans like a physical scanner could, but it also doesn't take any desk space and doesn't require expensive ink to access half its functions. 

When it comes to scanning capabilities, the app captures premium quality scans starting at 200 dpi, and it even automatically enhances scan quality with colour filters and auto-optimisation. Trembly hands? There's blur reduction. Once you've scanned your documents, you can save them as a PDF or JPEG. The app also lets you do multi-page scans. Combine that with the OCR capabilities, and you can turn a few pages of your textbook into a digital document you can search. You can even annotate your documents, add signatures, redact text, or reorder pages. 

Don't worry. All those documents don't need to take up your phone's limited memory. SwiftScan integrates with cloud services like iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox, so you can save or scare your scans seamlessly. Kicking it old school? This scanner can even send a fax. 

Save 70% for a limited time

Get a scanner that doesn't take up any extra room in your office or flat. 

Get a Lifetime Subscription to SwiftScan VIP for £36.54 (reg. £152.29). 

StackSocial prices subject to change. 

Opens in a new window Credit: Maple Media SwiftScan VIP: Lifetime Subscription £36.54 at the Mashable Shop
£152.29 Save £115.75 Get Deal

Nikocado Avocado, a YouTuber known for over-the-top mukbangs, revealed 250 pound weight loss.

The capsule, which returned without astronauts, and other space programs at Boeing have suffered many delays and cost overruns.

Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara and Justin Theroux walk us through the shenanigans they went through to create the incredible lipsync scene in 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'