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Connections: Sports Edition is a new version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.

Like the original Connections, 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 the latest 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 Sports Edition?

The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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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.

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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.

Here's a hint for today's Connections Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Slow run

• Green: Results at the plate

• Blue: They protect the net in U.S. soccer

• Purple: Share the same first word

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

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

• Yellow: Move at a slow pace

• Green: Outcomes in an at-bat

• Blue: U.S. soccer goalkeepers

• Purple: Hand _______

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 Sports Edition #107 is...

What is the answer to Connections Sports Edition today

• Move at a slow pace - AMBLE, JOG, LOPE, TROT

• Outcomes in an at-bat - FIELDER'S CHOICE, HIT, STRIKEOUT, WALK

• U.S. soccer goalkeepers - HOWARD, NAEHER, SCURRY, SOLO

• Hand _____ - BALL, OFF, SHAKE, SPRING

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.

If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.

Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for January 8 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for January 8 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Time for an upgrade

These words are used to describe parts of your kitchen.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

Words are things you might upgrade in your kitchen.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is KitchenRemodel.

Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for January 8

• Backsplash

• Countertop

• Island

• Sink

• Oven

• KitchenRemodel

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and 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 Strands.

Sony and Honda are betting big on the AFEELA 1, the sleek new electric vehicle five years in the making that's turning heads at CES 2025. Not only did Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) spill the tea on pre-order details — and its jaw-dropping price tag— on Monday but the company's also letting attendees get a first taste of life inside this futuristic ride.

We scored a seat inside the AFEELA 1 Signature, the top-tier trim of the lineup that clocks in a massive $102,000. But don't let the sticker shock scare you off just yet — this EV is loaded with bells, whistles, and cutting-edge tech designed to make that price feel (almost) reasonable.

SEE ALSO: CES 2025 live updates: Here's what we know, from Nvidia to John Deere announcements

One of the first things you’ll notice about the AFEELA? No door handles. It's a flex we've been seeing a lot in the EV world over the last few years, and SHM is fully on board. Instead of traditional handles, you're supposed to unlock the car through the AFEELA app on your phone. However, because the Las Vegas Convention Center WiFi was a mess, our guide had to go old-school — pressing a tiny button in the top corner to pop the door open manually. You can also just tap your phone to the door to open it as well.

Hilariously, someone at the briefing pointed out that the LiDAR cameras perched on top of the AFEELA are styled like cat ears. Yes, cat ears. It's oddly charming, and honestly? It kind of works.

Featured Video For You I Tried Xreal’s New One Pro AR Glasses at CES

Step inside, though, and the vibe shifts from playful to premium. The interior is where SHM really flexes its vision for the AFEELA brand. The joint company's big mission has been to "redefine the relationship between humans and mobility," and it's doubled down on creating an interior that feels more like an immersive sanctuary than a car. It's all about the experience —and SHM's not holding back.

We're talking a full-panoramic touchscreen display that stretches across the entire dashboard, ambient lighting along the door trims, OLED screens mounted on the back of every seat, and —wait for it — a Sony PlayStation 5 controller, which you can use with PlayStation Remote Play to play video games in the car. (Yes, according to one of the PR reps, the controller does come with the car.) The touchscreen itself can switch between themes (like one inspired by Sucker Punch's Sony game Ghost of Tsushima), and nestled on the corners of the driver and passenger seats are displays showing real-time camera views from the rearview mirror.

AFEELA does not come with a traditional hood ornament. Instead it features a customizable LED display. Credit: Mashable / Chance Townsend

The whole setup is undeniably extra, and it only gets wilder. The car boasts a sound system so loud it might actually qualify as a health hazard, which the rep used to blast music and — get this — screen an episode of Solo Leveling on Crunchyroll. I wish I was making that up. As if that weren't enough, the AFEELA is loaded with apps no one asked for but somehow make sense in modern EV universes. Zoom for your next web chat? Sure, why not — Teslas have it too. TikTok and YouTube? Of course. It's becoming standard, we guess. Because if you're already succumbing to brain rot, you might as well do it in style.

The car boasts a sound system so loud it might actually qualify as a health hazard...

There's also an AI assistant that SHM says it wants to function as a friend to drivers, which is why is called an "AI Agent" and not an assistant. Unfortunately, AFEELA’s "friendliness" wasn’t on full display during our demo, thanks to its shy streak (read: the convention center WiFi was seemingly on strike by this point). So, for now, we’ll have to take SHM’s word for it.

We didn't get to see the AFEELA in motion — which, fair enough, given the general chaos of CES — but SHM wasn't shy about hyping up its Full Self-Driving capabilities. The car is currently rated at Level 2+ (out of 6) on SAE International's levels of driving automation, which means semi-automated driving with some driver intervention is still required. Ambitious as ever, SHM says it's aiming for Level 4 — High Driving Automation — where the car would basically drive itself without human help. But let's be real, that dream is still stuck in development purgatory and not ready for prime time — Mercedes-Benz beat Tesla to become the first to sell Level 3 autonomous cars in the U.S. in April 2024; Level 4 is still the horizon.

All things considered, the first look at the AFEELA 1 Signature was thrilling, even for someone who neither drives nor has a snowball's chance of affording one. For now, pre-orders are only open to California drivers, with SHM citing the state's superior EV infrastructure as the reason.

On the CES floor, SHM showed off the AFEELA 1 Signature, retailing for a cool $102,900, while its slightly less bougie sibling, the AFEELA 1 Origin, will go for $89,900. The Signature is slated to ship in mid-2026, while the Origin lags behind with a 2027 release.

Meta is joining X and YouTube in shifting moderation to users. Are you ready?

There are a slew of AR glasses, VR headsets, and other high tech eyewear at CES 2025. Almost every device has some sort of AI implementation or camera embedded into the glasses, which provides the users with an array of capabilities – probably more than they would ever intend to use on a regular basis.

But, the keyword here is "almost." And that's because of Chamelo Eyewear, a smart glasses company that's focusing on practicality.

SEE ALSO: CES 2025 highlights: What we've seen so far

Chamelo brought a number of its latest products to CES, but all of the company's smart glasses focus on one main feature: Changing the tint on your sunglasses.

Also at CES was Chamelo's Chief Brand Officer, former New York Knicks player and two-time NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury. Unlike some other celebrity endorsements or collaborations, you can tell Marbury really uses Chamelo glasses. As you can see in our video interview above, Marbury broke down how Chamelo smart glasses work and their use cases with the passion and knowledge of a startup founder.

Chamelo offers your standard sunglasses, smart glasses for athletes, and its latest prescription lenses product Aura Rx. There's no camera screen, no audio recording, no fancy AI capabilities. The smart glasses can simply adjust the level of tint and the color of your smart glass lenses with the push of a button. Anyone who regularly wears glasses will actually use these tint features for everyday practical use.

The company also has an audio version of its product called the Music Shield, which simply adds an audio speaker to Chamelo's tint-changing glasses. Only the individual wearing the glasses can hear the music being pumped out of the handles.

This feature appeared to work well when Mashable tried it out on CES' showroom floor. Though Chamelo's glasses were playing music, I couldn't hear it until I placed the device on my head. Similarly, I couldn't hear the music playing on the pair Marbury was wearing either. The showroom floor is admittedly a loud environment, so it may have been difficult to pick up any sound leakage, but if there was any it seemed minor.

At an event where many companies try to outdo others with complex, never-before-seen features, it's good to see companies like Chamelo focus on the practical use-cases for their products.

Mashable is on the ground live at CES 2025! We’re covering all the wildest and most important developments this week, so please keep checking back in with us. Want to submit a product you represent for our teams’ consideration as we identify the Best of CES? Here’s more info on how to do it.

Self-driving cars are one thing. At this point, we've been there, seen that.

But, driverless tractors are a whole other thing entirely.

You may not think of John Deere, best known for manufacturing farming and other agricultural equipment when you think of the Consumer Electronics Show. But, John Deere has been leading the charge when it comes to technological advancements in the farm, construction, and other heavy machinery industries.

At CES 2025, John Deere delivered another set of innovations in the space: A fleet of autonomous vehicles.

While you can check out the John Deere CES 2025 press conference in full here, Mashable went over to the John Deere booth to check out John Deere's "autonomy journey" ourselves.

Credit: Mashable

John Deere's autonomous 9RX tractor for large-scale agriculture uses "16 individual cameras arranged in pods to enable a 360-degree view of the field," according to the company. John Deere says that its autonomous tractor can help farmers "step away from the machine and focus their time on other important jobs."

The autonomous vehicles can also help farmers with improving safety and can help manage labor shortages, according to the company. 

Credit: Mashable

The autonomous 5ML orchard tractor for air blast spraying features Lidar sensors to help cover the more dense areas found in orchards. The 460 P-Tier autonomous articulated dump truck (ADT) can be used to handle repetitive construction tasks found in quarry operations like transporting building material around a site, according to John Deere.

Credit: Mashable

The autonomous battery electric mower can take care of mowing the lawn without an operator. It features two cameras on the front, left, right, and rear. This provides 360-degree coverage for commercial landscaping needs, according to the company.

Credit: Mashable

Mashable is on the ground live at CES 2025! We’re covering all the wildest and most important developments this week, so please keep checking back in with us. Want to submit a product you represent for our teams’ consideration as we identify the Best of CES? Here’s more info on how to do it.

"Mark, Meta, welcome to the party," said X CEO Linda Yaccarino in response to Tuesday's announcement that Meta is replacing fact-checkers with Community Notes.

In a keynote interview with journalist Catherine Herridge at CES 2025, the first thing Herridge asked about was Meta's pivot to the feature that allows users to add notes to posts that might be misleading or inaccurate.

"Think about it as this global collective consciousness, keeping each other accountable at global scale in real time. And it couldn't be more validating than to see that Mark and Meta realized that," responded Yaccarino.

"When you think about Community Notes, Mark and Meta realized that it's the most effective, fastest fact-checking, without bias... also it inspires great behavior. Human behavior is inspired because when a post is noted, it's dramatically shared less, so that's the power of Community Notes," she continued before welcoming Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the proverbial party.

Despite Yaccarino's depiction of Community Notes as a success story for X, the reality of the program is much different. A 2023 Mashable investigation found several posts with accurate Community Notes were seen by a fraction of users. A 2024 report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) came to a similar conclusion finding "74 percent of accurate community notes on U.S. election misinformation never get shown to users" and that "posts without Community Notes promoting false narratives about U.S. politics have garnered billions of views, outpacing the reach of their fact-checked counterparts by 13 times."

SEE ALSO: I read all the community notes on Elon Musk's X account. Here's what I learned.

So while Community Notes may be a good idea in theory, it hasn't effectively decreased the rampant spread of misinformation and toxic content on X.

Yaccarino said she's excited for Meta's content moderation pivot, but not everyone shares that sentiment. Groups like the aforementioned CCDH, Free Press, and the Real Facebook Oversight Board have spoken out about Meta's shift, saying it's a regressive approach to content moderation and will lead to more misinformation and hateful content on the platform.

"By abandoning its fact-checking program in favor of a discredited 'community notes' system, Meta is turbocharging the spread of unchallenged online lies, worsening the spread of hate, and creating more risks to our communities, democracy, public health, and the safety of our kids," CCDH founder and CEO Imran Ahmed said in a press statement on Tuesday.

"Meta is now saying it’s up to you to spot the lies on its platforms, and that it’s not their problem if you can’t tell the difference, even if those lies, hate, or scams end up hurting you. Rather than stepping up to the challenge of responsible platform governance, Meta is retreating from accountability. This is huge step back for online safety, transparency, and accountability, and it could have terrible offline consequences in the form of real-world harm."

UPDATE: Jan. 8, 2025, 7:00 p.m. UTC Added statement from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).

The financing efforts follow new funding rounds by Elon Musk’s xAI and the market leader, OpenAI, which is now valued at $157 billion.

Meta’s chief executive has stepped away from his mea culpa approach to issues on his platforms and has told people that he wants to return to his original thinking on free speech.

Meta’s chief executive has stepped away from his mea culpa approach to issues on his platforms and has told people that he wants to return to his original thinking on free speech.

The social networking giant will stop using third-party fact checkers and instead rely on users to add notes to posts. President-elect Trump and his conservative allies said they were pleased.

Instagram recently blocked teen users from viewing the results for numerous LGBTQ+ terms by accident, according to a spokesperson for Meta, the platform's parent company.

The restrictions were reported by User Mag, which found that teen users searching for content related to dozens of hashtags including #lesbian, #bisexual, #gay, #trans, #queer, #nonbinary, #Tgirlsarebeautiful, and #lesbianpride were instead shown a blank page with a message directing them to the platform's sensitive content policy.

That policy prohibits content "that impedes our ability to foster a safe community," and includes material that may be "sexually explicit or suggestive."

SEE ALSO: Instagram announces new tools to fight sextortion and help teen victims

"These search terms and hashtags were mistakenly restricted — an error that has now been fixed," a Meta spokesperson told Mashable. "It's important to us that all communities feel safe and welcome on Meta apps, and we do not consider LGBTQ+ terms to be sensitive under our policies."

Meta attributed the issue to technology that helps limit user exposure to sensitive content mistakenly misclassifying several LGBTQ+ terms, making them temporarily restricted.

Instagram's new teen accounts limit sensitive content by default. Teens between the ages of 13 and 15 need parental permission to change the setting.

Mashable previously reported on claims made by adult LGBTQ creators that Instagram has shadowbanned their content. The platform has tried to address general concerns regarding "non-recommendable" content, with mixed reviews from affected creators.

Meta told Mashable that LGBTQ content isn't considered sensitive and is eligible for recommendation, provided the content doesn't violate any other platform policies.

LGBTQ youth advocates criticized Instagram for the search restrictions.

"For many LGBTQ people, especially youth, platforms like Instagram are crucial for self-discovery, community building, and accessing supportive information," Leanna Garfield, social media safety program manager at GLAAD, told User Mag. "By limiting access to LGBTQ content, Instagram may be inadvertently contributing to the isolation and marginalization of LGBTQ users."

During the height of CES 2025, Qualcomm unveiled the existence of its new Snapdragon X processor, which the company says will create opportunities for more budget-friendly Windows laptops as early as this year. We're talking Copilot+ laptops in the $600 range, which we would definitely welcome with open arms. The chip will also be used in at least one mini desktop PC at some point.

The new chipset is being positioned by Qualcomm as a more accessible high-end chip for a much wider audience. “Snapdragon X is an ideal solution for students, freelance workers, and budget-conscious consumers who need a reliable and powerful laptop that can keep up with their busy lives,” Qualcomm said in a press release detailing the announcement. Though the Snapdragon X is technically a downgrade, the company says that it will still offer the same top-notch, AI-focused performance we've seen in the Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus computers that hit the scene in 2024 (which typically cost somewhere in the $800 to $1,000 and up ranges).

SEE ALSO: CES 2025 live updates: Here's what we know, from Nvidia to John Deere announcements

Qualcomm also said in the release that we can expect Snapdragon X-equipped laptops from big-name manufacturers like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo to hit the market starting this month. These will all be part of Windows' Copilot+ line of laptops, which feature advanced AI processing and CPU speeds.