Flouris is a little sceptical of sweat-sensing.

Referring to various unnamed devices that analyse sweat, which he has evaluated in the lab, he says, “Most of these products that we’ve tested do not show the level of accuracy that you would expect.” The results of his experiments are as-yet unpublished.

Sweat sensors, Flouris suggests, work best when worn during long bouts of physical activity – such as a marathon. But they struggle when the exertion is more varied and intermittent. Think a footballer switching from walking to suddenly running very quickly.

In response, Ghaffari says he and his colleagues have published peer-reviewed papers, external on the accuracy of Epicore Biosystems’ gadgets.

He acknowledges that analysing sweat loss over short intervals up to 20 minutes long “can be challenging” but says his company’s products appear effective for 30-minute, or longer, workouts.

Perhaps the most common hydration-focused products available are the smart water bottles that remind you to take a sip throughout the day.

“We try to make it fun,” says Cem Bakiş, head of business development at WaterH, which has a glowing ring that blinks in order to prompt its owner to take a drink. “You can add friends, you can earn points.”

Some smart water bottles work by estimating the weight of liquid in them, and how that changes over time as the drink inside is consumed. But WaterH takes a different approach.

Sensors detect when the water bottle is tipped at an angle, and also the flow rate of fluid as it leaves the vessel. The water bottle will immediately recognise when you’ve had a sufficient quantity of liquid, stresses Bakiş.

I point out that, while some reviews online are positive, other comments criticise the accuracy of these measurements. This is often an issue with how the device is calibrated, and easily rectified, responds Bakiş.

If you don’t want to take instructions in hydration from a water bottle, though, you always have the option of asking your toilet how things are going.

Vivoo makes a urine-analysing gizmo that sits on the rim of a toilet bowl, promising to help you understand your hydration “like never before”.

The device uses optical sensors to work out your “urine specific gravity” – a measure of urine’s density compared to clean water. The denser it is, the more dehydrated you are, generally. Small print on Vivoo’s website emphasises that its products are not intended to provide medical diagnoses.

Urine-based measurements are used to evaluate hydration in scientific studies, says Flouris. Though he notes that there can be some delay between a person entering a dehydrated state, and this becoming detectable in their urine.

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Shares of Getty Images more than doubled after the company disclosed a display agreement with OpenAI. The stock jumped 104%, to $1.23 a share Monday. Through Friday’s close, Getty Images shares had lost more than half of their value since the beginning of the year.

Under the partnership agreement, Getty said its licensed content libraries will appear across OpenAI search and discovery experiences within ChatGPT, enabling the use of Getty’s content within the artificial-intelligence platform.

Wednesday’s edition of The New York Times’ popular word-grouping game served up a grid built around classic rock bands, wedding traditions, and a clever color-themed character category that lured solvers toward an early, incorrect grouping before the actual answer revealed itself.

How the Game Works

Connections by The New York Times is a unique daily word game that fans can enjoy online for free. The puzzle challenges players to sort a given set of 16 words into groups of four. Each group features a hidden theme that connects the four words that belong in it. Players get only four guesses to find out how the words are connected and categorize them accordingly. The game also provides a “one away…” pop-up as a hint whenever a player chooses three out of the four correct words in a group. The four groups, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple, are divided according to the level of their difficulty, with Yellow being the easiest to sort and Purple featuring the trickiest theme to figure out.

Wednesday’s Four Categories

The themes and answers for the June 24, 2026, NYT Connections puzzle were as follows:

Yellow Group: Prog Bands — GENESIS, KING CRIMSON, PINK FLOYD, RUSH.

Green Group: Classic Wedding Gifts — CHINA, LUGGAGE, MONEY, TOASTER.

Blue Group: Red Characters — CLIFFORD, DEADPOOL, KOOL-AID MAN, MR. KRABS.

Purple Group: Rhyming Compound Words — CHICK FLICK, HELTER SKELTER, HUMPTY DUMPTY, MUMBO JUMBO.

The Color Trap That Caught Solvers Off Guard

Puzzle number 1109 features some heavy misdirection, with several words seemingly fitting into different themes before revealing the true groupings. Watch out for the red herrings today. At first glance, words like Pink and Deadpool look like they could fit into a simple color theme, but committing to that group early will cost you lives.

The trap centers specifically on Pink Floyd’s inclusion in the yellow prog-rock category, since the word “Pink” on its own could plausibly suggest a color-based grouping alongside the actually correct blue category of red-colored fictional characters. One solver described falling into exactly that confusion while working through the grid: “Not being familiar with the work of Kool-Aid Man put me at a disadvantage today and was the reason for my single mistake. While I knew that Clifford of Big Red Dog fame, Deadpool and Mr. Krabs favored the color red.”

Breaking Down the Categories

The yellow category gathered four influential progressive rock bands, bringing together Genesis, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and Rush — a relatively straightforward grouping for fans of classic rock, though the inclusion of Pink Floyd specifically created the color-based misdirection that tripped up several solvers elsewhere in the grid.

The green category required players to think about traditional gift-giving customs, linking China, Luggage, Money, and Toaster as classic items associated with wedding registries and gift lists.

The blue category, despite its color-based misdirection trap, ultimately gathered four fictional characters who all happen to be red in appearance: Clifford the Big Red Dog, Deadpool, the Kool-Aid Man, and Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob SquarePants.

The Purple Category’s Wordplay Challenge

As is typical for Connections puzzles, the purple category delivered the day’s most inventive twist, built around compound phrases that rhyme internally. The category brought together Chick Flick, Helter Skelter, Humpty Dumpty, and Mumbo Jumbo — four well-known rhyming compound terms that required solvers to think specifically about phrase structure rather than shared meaning or category.

Strategic Advice From Puzzle Outlets

Ahead of revealing the solution, several outlets offered general guidance for navigating Wednesday’s grid. We recommend looking closely at proper names and word structure first. Separating band names from characters and common terms will make the remaining words significantly easier to manage.

Other strategists emphasized broader habits worth building into a daily Connections routine. Before submitting a set of words, you should always check whether they fit somewhere else too. If you hit a dead end, use the shuffle button at the bottom of the grid — placing the words in different positions can spark new connections and act as a mental refresh, helping new patterns emerge that may not have been obvious in the original layout.

A Moderate Difficulty Rating

Despite the color-based misdirection built into the puzzle, early tester feedback suggested Wednesday’s challenge landed closer to the middle of the difficulty spectrum overall. NYT’s early testers rated today’s Connection puzzle 2.5 out of 5, putting it in the medium difficulty level — a rating that aligns with the mixed reactions from solvers who successfully avoided the Pink Floyd trap versus those who fell for it.

The Game’s Continued Popularity

Connections is one of the most popular online word games from The New York Times, closely trailing behind Wordle. The puzzle presents players with a 16-word, four-by-four grid that has helped cement the game’s status as a daily ritual for millions of solvers since its 2023 launch.

Where to Find More Puzzle Help

Besides Connections, other puzzles that fans can play on The New York Times Games collection include Wordle, Strands, Pips, the NYT Crosswords, and Sudoku, among others. Wednesday’s slate also included Wordle puzzle number 1831 and Strands puzzle number 843, giving puzzle enthusiasts a full menu of additional daily challenges beyond the standard Connections grid alone.

With Wednesday’s puzzle now solved by players who successfully navigated the Pink Floyd color trap and identified the rhyming compound words hidden in the purple category, attention turns to Thursday’s edition, puzzle number 1110, when a fresh sixteen-word grid and an entirely new set of hidden categories — and likely a fresh round of cleverly placed red herrings — will once again test the Connections community’s pattern-recognition skills before their four guesses run out.