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Connections game on a smartphone

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you have a good sense of smell.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games 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 today'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.

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.

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 Pips hints, answers for August 7, 2026

Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

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

  • Yellow: A different way

  • Green: Childhood classics

  • Blue: Genres

  • Purple: Get out

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Here are today's Connections categories

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

  • Yellow: Take a Different Approach

  • Green: Classic Children's Books

  • Blue: Movie Subgenres

  • Purple: Things People Try to Get Out Of

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 #1155 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

  • Take a Different Approach: CHANGE TACK, COURSE-CORRECT, RECALIBRATE, SHIFT GEARS

  • Classic Children's Books: CAPS FOR SALE, CORDUROY, GOODNIGHT MOON, MADELINE

  • Movie Subgenres: BUDDY COP, NEO-NOIR, SPACE OPERA, SPAGHETTI WESTERN

  • Things People Try to Get Out Of: BAD DREAM, ESCAPE ROOM, JURY DUTY, LABYRINTH

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for August 7, 2026

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

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.



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TL;DR: Write a 300K-word manuscript for just $37 with this YouBooks AI lifetime subscription.

Youbooks AI Non-Fiction Book Generator: Lifetime Subscription
Credit: Youbooks

Writing is just one step in creating a book. Before that comes research, outlining, drafting, and editing. But for only $36.75 (reg. $540), you’ll be able to craft publish-ready 300,000-word manuscripts for life through Aug. 9 with code AUG25. Even the busiest educators, content creators, entrepreneurs, and coaches can get their words out as intended.

The platform is powered by various leading AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Llama, to help you generate cohesive, expertly crafted, and engaging content. With it, you can use the monthly 250K credits your lifetime subscription provides for source uploads or writing.

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One credit accounts for one word or one uploaded source word; you also have the option to store up to 100 writing style samples and 100 source documents for easy access. What’s more, YouBooks pulls full real-time web searches during the writing composition, so you can rest assured that any facts, stats, and news you use are current, up-to-date, and accurate.

The source uploads don’t have to be from the web either. You can guide the AI or even upload your own memos, transcripts, and documents to foreground your work. Plus, you can also define and curate your own writing style to ensure consistency and a cohesive end project.

As you can see, each book goes through a series of steps to move from ideation to completion. Better yet, you get to retain full ownership of your content—meaning you can look forward to publishing, distributing, or even selling it without restriction.

Whether you’re writing a memoir, educational guide, teaching resource, or simply consolidating your work, YouBooks can assist you at every stage. So, why not try it out?

Get your YouBooks AI Lifetime Subscription for just $36.75 (reg. $540) with code AUG25, only through August 9. 

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Uber and Lyft signage on a vehicle

Flock Safety, the company behind a nationwide network of automatic license plate readers, pitched a plan to convert hundreds of thousands of Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers into a mobile extension of its surveillance system, according to a company presentation obtained by 404 Media.

404's Joseph Cox wrote that the document describes equipping driver vehicles with dashcams capable of scanning license plates along their routes, effectively expanding Flock's network beyond its usual fixed cameras mounted on poles.

SEE ALSO: Someone stole every Flock camera in this Minnesota city

The presentation centers on a proposed partnership with Nexar, a dashcam maker whose devices are already marketed to rideshare drivers and commuters. Cox reported that 404 Media had previously uncovered the planned partnership last year through separate sourcing, and that this newly obtained document shows Flock was actively marketing the arrangement to prospective customers around that same period.

The material was shared with 404 Media by a Georgia resident who obtained it through a public records request, after Flock presented it to that state's attorney general's office.

Flock told 404 Media the Nexar deal was never actually put into place. Still, according to Cox's reporting, the presentation demonstrates the scale of the company's ambitions, citing plans to draw on roughly 350,000 Uber, Lyft, and other delivery devices for the network, in addition to existing coverage from businesses and homeowners' associations across Georgia. It remains unclear, Cox noted, whether Uber, Lyft, or their drivers would have known their vehicles were collecting this data.

The report situates the proposal within Flock's broader push into new data sources. Earlier, 404 Media reported on a security breach that exposed a large trove of Nexar customer footage, including footage near sensitive military sites, as well as a separate effort — later abandoned — to build a tool to link license plates to specific individuals using leaked information. Cox also cited the outlet's coverage of a similar arrangement involving BusPatrol, a company that outfits school buses with cameras and shares resulting data with police.

Uber, Lyft, and Nexar did not respond to 404 Media's requests for comment, according to Cox's reporting.



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A phone with the Pips logo.

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move on to the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

How to play Pips

If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity with how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for August 8, 2026

The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible — and common — for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.

Here are common examples you'll run into across the difficulty levels:

  • Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

  • Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

  • Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

  • Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

  • Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.

If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for August 8, 2026

Easy difficulty hints, answers for August 8 Pips

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 0-0, placed horizontally; 0-5, placed vertically.

Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 0-5, placed vertically; 1-5, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (5): Everything in this space must be greater than 5. The answer is 6-2, placed horizontally.

Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 6-2, placed horizontally; 4-3, placed horizontally.

Less Than (5): Everything in this space must be less than 5. The answer is 4-3, placed horizontally.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for August 8 Pips

Not Equal: Everything in this space must be different. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically.

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 1-5, placed horizontally.

Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 0-1, placed horizontally.

Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 1-5, placed horizontally; 0-1, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (6): Everything in this space must be greater than 6. The answer is 6-6, placed horizontally.

Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 0-0, placed horizontally.

Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 0-0, placed horizontally; 6-2, placed horizontally.

Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 6-2, placed horizontally; 2-2, placed horizontally.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for August 8 Pips

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 6-5, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 0-4, placed horizontally.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-4, placed vertically.

Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 6-5, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed vertically.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-4, placed horizontally; 0-6, placed vertically.

Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 3-4, placed vertically; 4-2, placed vertically.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 4-6, placed vertically.

Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 0-6, placed vertically; 6-6, placed vertically; 6-2, placed vertically; 4-6, placed vertically; 6-1, placed vertically.

Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 6-1, placed vertically.

Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 0-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 4-2, placed vertically; 2-2, placed vertically; 6-2, placed vertically; 2-5, placed vertically; 0-2, placed horizontally.

Number (11): Everything in this space must add up to 11. The answer is 2-5, placed vertically; 3-3, placed horizontally.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-2, placed vertically.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-2, placed vertically; 1-0, placed vertically.

Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically.

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



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Curiosity Stream Standard Plan: Lifetime Subscription

TL;DR: Get a Curiosity Stream lifetime subscription for $112.49 (reg. $399.99) with code Aug25, through August 9.

Curiosity Stream Standard Plan: Lifetime Subscription
Credit: Curiosity Stream

Every streaming app has the same problem: 20 minutes of scrolling, nothing worth watching. Curiosity Stream aims to change that experience by only stocking mind-catching documentaries.

The large library covers science, history, nature, and technology, with thousands of titles and new ones added on an ongoing basis: ancient Rome, wildlife, deep space- you name it. It’s also home to a solid lineup of David Attenborough programs, which is reason enough for many people. Series like Engineering the Future, Deep Time History, and Into the Jungle each dig into a different corner of how the world actually works, rather than another true-crime rehash.

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It streams in HD across phones, tablets, and TVs, and the iPhone and iPad apps let you download episodes ahead of time, so a flight or a long drive doesn’t mean staring at a loading spinner. Search is built to handle specific topics well, so chasing a rabbit hole about deep-sea creatures or ancient Rome doesn’t take much digging, and the interface itself stays out of your way.

Bookmarking and resume playback mean you can always get back to what you want to watch.

It’s also just a good thing to fall asleep to. Swap out reality TV or a movie you have to actually pay attention to for a low-stakes documentary, and it’s a lot easier to drift off without missing anything that matters. Between that and the actual educational value, it’s a natural fit for anyone who’d rather spend an evening learning something than rewatching a show for the fourth time. And since it’s a one-time payment rather than another monthly line item, it’s also a reasonable way to trim the streaming budget without losing anything worth watching.

Get Curiosity Stream lifetime access for $112.49 (reg. $399.99) with code Aug25 before it ends August 9 at 11:59 p.m.

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Young person holds smartphone with Facebook on the screen.

Meta has been ordered to pay $567 million to fund youth mental health services in New Mexico in the final phase of a child safety trial.

Meta lost the lawsuit in March when a New Mexico jury found the social media company liable for misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms and endangering children.

At the time, Meta was ordered to pay the maximum penalties for each violation of New Mexico’s consumer protection laws, amounting to $375 million.

SEE ALSO: Digging into Gen Z's love/hate relationship with AI

On Thursday, a New Mexico judge assessed the new financial penalty after deciding Meta was liable for causing a teen mental health epidemic in the state. The penalty will fund treatment for young people harmed by Meta's platforms, as well as pay for mental health prevention and awareness services.

“For years, Meta knew its platforms were harming New Mexico’s kids, from feeding a youth mental health crisis to connecting predators with children, and it chose engagement and profit over their safety," said Attorney General Raúl Torrez. "Today, Meta is paying for that choice."

In total, Meta is required to pay nearly $942 million.

Andy Stone, vice president of communications for Meta, shared in a statement on X that the company disagrees with the ruling and will appeal it.

"We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content," the statement said. "We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts."

In addition to creating an abatement fund to address harms, Chief Judge Bryan Biedscheid also required the company to implement certain safety features, such as ensuring that no account for a user under 18 is recommended to an adult and preventing minors from engaging in romantic or sexual interactions with Meta's AI chatbots.

Last year, Reuters found that Meta's policies had allowed chatbots to "engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual." Such guidelines were removed from the company's policies. In January, Meta made its AI characters temporarily inaccessible to teens pending an "updated" experience for them.



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A South Korean lunar orbiter capturing the SpaceX rocket crash site on the moon

A South Korean lunar orbiter got the shot that virtually every telescope and spacecraft attempted to snap on Wednesday when a wayward SpaceX rocket accidentally smashed into the moon. 

The Danuri lunar orbiter recorded the site before and after the collision. It started watching the zone about 30 minutes before the crash, then adjusted its orbit to pass over the site several times, according to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, or KARI. Officials said the Falcon 9 rocket made moonfall at 2:34 a.m. ET Aug. 5. The spacecraft completed eight photoshoots. 

"Through this observation, changes in the terrain around the impact site and traces of ejecta spread were confirmed," the space agency said in a translated X post, referring to the debris thrown from the high-speed impact. 

The observations give researchers an unusual chance to look at changes caused by the collision. The new images will be combined with follow-up observations from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is expected to photograph the new crater from orbit, to support international research into how impacts reshape the moon. 

SEE ALSO: When AI hallucinates aliens: Some think NASA should be nervous

The roughly 4-ton Falcon 9 upper stage struck the moon after spending more than a year drifting through space. The crash was unintentional, caused by a combination of solar activity and gravity gradually pushing the stray rocket onto a collision course.

"We actively work to be as responsible as possible with hardware left in space to ensure space safety, including for more complex missions," SpaceX said in a statement. "Impacts like this are rare, but they can happen with objects in these types of orbits, and we worked with NASA on the optimal disposal solution."

Ground-based observers could not directly see the impact. But astronomers reported using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile to detect a plume of material that likely came from the crash. Independent space trackers also concluded the rocket reached the predicted impact site near Einstein Crater, close to the boundary between the moon's near and far sides.

The rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Jan. 2025, carrying Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience lunar landers. After releasing both spacecraft, the spent stage remained in space as planned instead of returning to Earth. Blue Ghost later became the first privately built spacecraft to achieve a successful lunar landing, while Resilience crashed during its landing attempt.

SpaceX Falcon 9 launching Blue Ghost and Resilience lunar landers
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches two moon landers into space on Jan. 15, 2025, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Credit: SpaceX

Coincidentally, the South Korean orbiter took the same type of ride to get to the moon. It launched on the same class of rocket — another SpaceX Falcon 9 — almost exactly four years ago, on Aug. 4, 2022. Its core mission is to map the lunar surface, measure magnetic and gamma-ray data, and identify future landing sites.

The SpaceX incident has renewed concerns about space debris around the moon as lunar missions increase. 

NASA has planned a steady stream of robotic missions in support of its Artemis program in coordination with private spacecraft operators, while both SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing lunar landers for future astronaut missions. Scientists have warned that accidental impacts could become more problematic as traffic around the moon increases.



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