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The best cordless power tool brands, like DeWalt, stand at the top of the heap thanks to the power, performance, and reliability of their tools, but not necessarily because of their affordability. These tools tend to reside on the more expensive end of the aisle at your local hardware store, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find them at more affordable prices if you know where to look.
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Quite a few DeWalt tools have gone on sale since the end of Amazon’s Prime Day, and there are even more now that we’re in July. The problem is that many of these discounts are scattered across the numerous major retailers that sell DeWalt’s products. We’ve done the work for you, though, checking these retailers to identify a handful of great DeWalt tools available at deep discounts. If you’re interested in adding a few more DeWalt products to your garage, this is the list for you.
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DeWalt 20V Max Drill and Impact Driver Combo Kit
A good drill and impact driver are two of the most important tools in any collection, so it’s worthwhile to get some high-quality ones. DeWalt has a DCK277D2 20V Max Drill and Impact Driver Combo Kit that includes everything you need to get started. The kit usually runs $249.00, but there is a limited-time deal at Acme Tool, True Value, and Amazon right now that allows you to get it for just $169.00. It’s also on sale at Home Depot, though it will cost you $179.00 there.
Both the drill and the impact driver that come in the kit have brushless motors. That means they will be able to generate more power than brushed motors, with reduced wear and tear and better battery life. The DCD777 20V Max ½-inch Compact Drill/Driver has 15 clutch settings, two speed settings, and a maximum rotational speed of 1,600 rpm. Meanwhile, the DCF787 20V Max ¼-inch Impact Driver generates 3,200 impacts per minute, has a max speed of 2,800 RPM, and produces 1,500 in-lbs of torque. Both come with additional features like overmolded comfort grips and built-in LED worklights. The kit also comes with a pair of 2.0Ah 20V Max batteries, a standard charger, and a canvas contractor bag.
The kit has 4.8 out of 5 stars from over 4,500 user ratings on Amazon. Customers generally seem happy with the power, performance, durability, and value, with no consistent complaints to indicate serious issues with the products.
This miter saw has a 1,100-watt, 15-amp motor that can hit 3,800 rpm. It has tall, sliding fences designed to support regular cuts up to 2×14 inches, crown molding up to 7-½ inches, and base molding up to 6-½ inches vertically, with an integrated XPS blade positioning system for more accurate cuts. It has a 60-degree miter capacity to the right and a 50-degree capacity to the left, with a stainless steel detent plate that has 10 positive stops for precise angle cuts. The saw also has steel rails with linear ball bearings on either side, with a built-in clamping mechanism, and promises an exceptionally efficient dust collection system that captures more than 75% of the dust it generates.
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DeWalt’s DWS770 has a 4.8 out of 5 rating on Amazon, aggregated from over 2,400 user ratings, and a 4.7 out of 5 on Home Depot based on over 1,400 user responses. Users across both sites praise the tool for its power and precision, with many praising the XPS cut line positioning system and how it makes lining things up much easier.
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DeWalt 60V Max 16-inch Brushless Chainsaw
Those who have invested in DeWalt’s line of power-hungry 60V tools are in luck as well. The DCCS670B DeWalt 60V Max 16-inch Brushless Chainsaw is on sale through ToolUp. This would cost you $479.81 at full price, but ToolUp currently has it discounted to $289.00.
This saw has a 16-inch Oregon Bar and chain that are useful for both outdoor and construction cutting applications. The saw itself is powered by a brushless motor that can generate chain speeds up to 15 meters per second. It has a chain brake that’s designed to eliminate kickback, an automatic oiling feature, and tool-free tensioning via a tightening knob. The tool weighs 9.4 pounds, and DeWalt promises that it can make up to 70 cuts through 6×6-inch pressure-treated pine on a single charge.
This chainsaw doesn’t have many reviews on ToolUp, but it has a 4.3 out of 5-star rating from over 35 users so far. Most reviews only had positive things to say about the tool’s overall power and performance. That said, there are complaints about the automatic oiling system that claim it either makes a mess or fails to lubricate the saw outright.
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DeWalt 20V Max Reciprocating Saw
A good reciprocating saw deserves a spot in just about everyone’s garage, and DeWalt makes some great ones. One DeWalt offering currently available at a discount is the DCS380B DeWalt 20V Max Reciprocating Saw. This saw typically costs $159.00 at full price, but you can get it from Amazon right now for just $99.00.
This isn’t one of DeWalt’s high-end brushless tools, which is partly why it’s so affordable. Even so, it has a variable-speed trigger and maxes out at 3,000 strokes per minute with a 1-⅛-inch stroke length. The tool has a four-position blade clamp, adding versatility to your cuts. On top of that, it also has a pivoting adjustable shoe, making it easier to achieve even more complex positions. It has a double oil-sealed shaft to prevent dust and moisture contamination and an overmolded comfort grip to reduce vibrations when in use.
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This reciprocating saw has received nearly 13,000 reviews on Amazon and has an excellent weighted score of 4.8 out of 5. Customers have praised the quality of the tool’s design, its cutting ability, the versatility of the blade and shoe, and its compact size. Opinions regarding battery life are a bit more mixed, however, with claims that it eats through modest-capacity batteries fairly quickly.
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DeWalt 20V Max XR Brushless Jigsaw Kit
If you need a versatile saw for making precise and non-linear cuts, you’ll want a jigsaw. One of the best deals on DeWalt tools that you’re likely to find in July is for the DCS334BWDCB609C DeWalt 20V Max XR Brushless Jigsaw Kit. This generally retails for $528.00, but it’s been discounted by a whopping 57% at Home Depot, and you can currently get it for just $229.00.
This jigsaw is part of DeWalt’s XR tool system, which means it has a brushless motor — in this case, one that runs at up to 3,200 strokes per minute. It has a variable-speed trigger, a four-position orbital action setting, a lever-action keyless blade clamp, and an adjustable shoe with detents at 0, 15, and 30 degrees and a positive stop at 45 degrees. But the jigsaw isn’t what makes this kit so enticing. It also comes with one of DeWalt’s 9Ah 20V/60V Flexvolt Batteries and an 8-amp fan-cooled Fast Charger that works with 20V and 60V batteries, opening up a whole world of 60V DeWalt tools. What’s more, a 9Ah battery is pretty hefty, so it will likely end up being your go-to power source.
This kit has a 4.9 out of 5-star rating on the Home Depot site based on over 1,300 user ratings; 89% of them indicate they would recommend it to others. Most appreciate the tool’s power and versatility, with the long battery life and easy blade-changing apparatus also being boons.
Ceefax was the BBC’s broadcast teletext service that ran until 2012, providing text and rudimentary graphics that were broadcast invisibly with the TV signal. In order to get this teletext data merged into the analog TV signal, special equipment was needed, of which [Nathan Dane] has a 1997-era unit on his bench to take a gander at.
Interestingly, until this time the Ceefax signal had been generated centrally in London, meaning that regional TV broadcasts might have Ceefax issues on occasion due to retransmission glitches. This makes this Ceefax Inserter system so much more interesting, as it was one of the early examples of what these regional stations would end up installing in their racks.
At their core these units are regular PCs, running MS-DOS 6.22 on a 486-class CPU and all the typical bits and bobs that go with a PC. The speculation here is that these are essentially rebranded industrial PCs, which would make a lot of sense. As for how [Nathan] got his hands on these units, it required a deal with the company scrapping them, preventing him from showing details of the software configuration.
Following a booting demonstration, we get the teardown of a typical 1990s rackmount PC, revealing a rather interesting backplane with the mainboard being one of the cards on it. Of these, two ISA cards provide the special Ceefax sauce as well as a timing signal in the form of a PDC card featuring a Lattice CPLD or FPGA that VCRs could use to automatically start recording.
The Ceefax main event comes in the form of the inSERT Teletext Encoder card. This is pretty much its own computer system, featuring a TI TMS34010 CPU and its own RAM as well as IO. Compared to modern takes on teletext generators, this card appears to directly mix the analog signals, without any kind of conversion.
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Although teletext systems have been largely shutdown now at this point due to the transition to digital TV broadcasting, there’s still a lot to be said for having such a service available for basic news and information.
Sounding off: OpenAI has spent years developing an as-yet-unrevealed hardware platform for its generative AI technology with help from former Apple engineers. On Friday, however, Cupertino filed a lawsuit against Sam Altman’s company, accusing it of building its entire hardware project on confidential information stolen from Apple.
Apple has sued OpenAI for allegedly stealing its trade secrets to develop an AI-focused device and other hardware. Apple alleges that as over 400 former employees left to join the ChatGPT maker, many of them routinely accessed Apple’s confidential data related to unreleased products.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, primarily targets Chang Liu and Tang Tan, who were senior Apple employees before joining OpenAI’s hardware efforts. Apple accused them of masterminding a pattern of hiring Apple employees who brought trade secrets with them.
Liu was an Apple senior electrical engineer for eight years before joining OpenAI in January, while Tan helped design the iPod, iPhone, and Apple Watch during his time at Apple. Tan left Cupertino in 2024 to co-found hardware startup io alongside fellow Apple design veteran Jony Ive – a company OpenAI later acquired.
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The engineers have reportedly been designing a screenless device that leverages OpenAI’s technology to assist users by constantly recording visual and audio data and responding in context. Altman has said the product does not aim to replace smartphones, just as smartphones did not replace laptops. OpenAI is also said to be developing a smartphone that primarily runs AI apps, which might not emerge until 2028.
In a statement to 9to5Mac, Apple claimed to have significant evidence that OpenAI employees used their old Apple credentials to access the company’s networks and copy confidential files.
When recruiting former Apple employees, Liu and Tan also allegedly instructed them on how to extract files and devices from Cupertino while avoiding security measures. Liu reportedly celebrated the exploit in messages to a former colleague, suggesting he knew exactly what he was doing.
Apple also accused OpenAI of tricking its partners into divulging trade secrets by leading them to believe it had the company’s approval. For example, it allegedly misled one of Apple’s third-party partners into revealing details of a metal-finishing technique it performs for Cupertino. OpenAI is also said to have gathered information from Apple partners related to power, batteries, and other components.
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Apple brought its accusations to OpenAI’s attention in February but received no response. The iPhone maker is seeking injunctive relief and damages.
OpenAI, for its part, began preparing possible legal action against Apple in May, after an agreement to leverage ChatGPT to enhance Siri failed to deliver the results it expected. Apple’s lawsuit states that its complaint does not involve that collaboration.
Subversive ETFs has filed with the SEC for two “Ex-Elon” funds, the Nasdaq-100 Ex-Elon Enterprises ETF (QQNE) and the S&P 500 Ex-Elon Enterprises ETF (SPNE), that track those indexes but exclude any company “founded, controlled or led by” Elon Musk, currently Tesla and SpaceX. The trigger was SpaceX’s fast-tracked Nasdaq-100 inclusion, which forced passive investors to hold it. The actively-managed funds (higher fees) are slated to launch around 21 September 2026.
An investment firm is offering a way to invest in the broad market without owning Elon Musk’s companies. New York-based Subversive ETFs has filed with the SEC for two “Ex-Elon” funds, Bloomberg reports.
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One fund tracks the Nasdaq-100 and the other the S&P 500. Both exclude any company “founded, controlled or led by” Musk.
The products are the Nasdaq-100 Ex-Elon Enterprises ETF and the S&P 500 Ex-Elon Enterprises ETF, ticker symbols QQNE and SPNE. Filings point to a launch around 21 September.
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For now, the exclusions mean no Tesla and no SpaceX. Other Musk ventures, like Neuralink and the Boring Company, are not publicly traded, and the screen could extend to OpenAI, which Musk co-founded, if it ever lists.
The funds are actively managed and aim to hold at least 80% of their assets in their index minus the excluded names. Active management typically carries higher fees than a plain index tracker.
Why a fund to avoid one man
The direct trigger was SpaceX joining the Nasdaq-100. A rule change fast-tracking mega-cap listings meant the newly public rocket firm entered major indexes quickly, pulling it into the funds that track them.
That forces passive investors to hold SpaceX whether they want to or not. Analysts have flagged that hundreds of billions in index-tracking assets were set to buy the stock automatically, a dynamic critics call a wealth transfer toward existing shareholders.
Screening out a company is not free, and that cuts both ways. SpaceX slipped nearly 7% on its first day in the Nasdaq-100, which would have spared Ex-Elon holders the drop.
But excluding a stock also means forgoing its gains, and Musk’s firms have created enormous wealth for early backers. An investor betting against them is making an active call, not a neutral one.
The funds also sit in a small but growing niche of values- and politics-driven investing. Whether many savers actually route money through a single-person exclusion screen is the open question these tickers will answer.
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For now, the pitch is simple, and narrow. If you want the index without one particular founder, there is finally a box to tick.
Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.
Today’s NYT Strands puzzle was really kind of tough. I did not figure out the theme for a while. Fans of Welcome Back, Kotter, will remember this particular item as being a running joke on the show. If you need hints and answers, read on.
If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Recipe ingredients for an old-fashioned dish
Clue words to unlock in-game hints
Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:
These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:
Casio released the Loopy in Japan back in 1995 as a home console aimed at young girls. It featured a built-in thermal printer that could turn any game screen into a physical sticker. Only about eleven games ever appeared for the system before Casio ended production a few years later. The hardware sat largely forgotten outside a small group of collectors until a new flash cartridge and one determined developer changed the picture.
The Loopy is powered by a Hitachi SH-1 CPU that operates at around 16 megahertz and uses big-endian byte ordering throughout. It has 512 kilobytes of main RAM and 128 kilobytes of video memory, with graphics handled by a unique video display engine that operates in bitmap mode. Audio was initially based on four channels of 12-bit PCM, but the Loopy port adopts a different approach, separating music and effects over separate devices. The port was programmed by ThroatyMumbo, who also released the complete source code on GitHub under the name LoopyDOOM. Its roots can be traced back to GBADoom, an open-source version already modified for the Game Boy Advance, which in turn was derived from PrBoom and all the way back to the original id Software code; this new effort just added the Loopy-specific pieces.
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The biggest issue was that there was no straightforward way to install new software on a real Loopy, as retail carts were read-only, and no official developer tools were available. All of that changed when a hobbyist developed the Floopy Drive, a flash cartridge that allows you to write custom code directly to the cart via USB when it is outside the console. With that little tool, the port could move from emulation testing to running on real hardware.
Graphics are handled using an 8-bit per pixel bitmap layer with double buffering, with one frame drawing in the background and the previous one remaining on the screen. That keeps everything running smoothly even though the processor is handling every pixel on its own, with no fancy 3D chip to aid. On actual hardware, the game runs at between eight to fifteen frames per second. Even in quiet portions, movement feels quick, but things slow down a little when you’re ascending stairs or fighting a swarm of enemies.
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Working on music was challenging because the original tracks were in this strange MUS format that the build tools had to translate into note tables for the Loopy’s uPD937 processor. Because the chip uses its own sound library rather than General MIDI, the developer had to listen to each file in the first six levels, select the closest accessible tones, and occasionally run some variations via an AI computer before making final judgments by ear. The result is played with the console’s native audio and includes every map available in the game.
Sound effects take a different approach because the upd937 synthesizer lacks a PCM channel, therefore all that is delivered over a serial port is a series of short command frames to the RP2040 chip, which happens to be located on the Floopy Drive cartridge. A little extra gear helps get the correct digital audio from that chip out, into an external DAC, and back into the console. So, after updating the cartridge’s firmware, you can expect to hear gunfire, item being picked up, and monsters.
It appears that one of the options menu items simply sends the current screen directly to the thermal printer built into the console, allowing you to take a sticker of your progress (or your favorite moment) with you when you walk away, as intended by the console’s designers. Of course, the one negative to this function is that it is dependent on the printer not jamming on the paper path, so keep your fingers crossed.
There is an emulator called LoopyMSE that will run the same binary for testing, but it will never be completely realistic because it cannot duplicate all hardware limits, such as sprite-per-scanline restrictions. When it comes down to it, the real hardware determines whether or not everything works smoothly. The port currently only includes the first six maps from the shareware episode, complete with music and sound, which is a good start. As previously stated, all of the code is available on GitHub, so anyone may add new levels, enhance speed, or experiment with some of the hardware’s additional features.
Standalone experiment killed after less than 12 months as model maker redirects agentic ambitions towards workplace productivity
OpenAI has decided its AI browser experiment has run its course, pulling the plug on ChatGPT Atlas less than a year after launch and moving its browser-based agent features into ChatGPT and Codex.
The company said Atlas will stop working on August 9 as it rolls out the newly unveiled ChatGPT Work platform.
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Atlas arrived last October with no shortage of ambition. Rather than trying to out-Chrome Chrome, OpenAI wanted to bolt ChatGPT directly onto the web, promising a browser that could read pages, rewrite them, answer questions, and eventually start doing the clicking itself.
OpenAI hasn’t fully abandoned the idea of AI-powered browsing, but appears to have decided it doesn’t need a standalone browser to deliver it.
ChatGPT Work looks less like a browser and more like OpenAI’s attempt to become the operating system for office work. The desktop application combines ChatGPT, Codex, and Atlas into a single package that can connect to files and business applications, browse the web, generate documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and websites, and stick with long-running projects for hours at a time instead of answering one prompt after another.
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Powering it all is GPT-5.6, OpenAI’s latest model series, which the company says is better at reasoning through multi-step tasks and producing work that follows users’ templates and reference material.
The pitch is different this time around too. Atlas was all about rethinking the browser, but ChatGPT Work is about getting office workers to spend more time with OpenAI. To help with that, OpenAI has bundled plugins into a single directory, allowing ChatGPT to pull context from tools including Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, SharePoint, email, calendars, CRMs, and project trackers, either automatically or when users explicitly call them into a prompt.
For developers, the biggest change is that Codex is no longer treated as a separate product. Codex is losing its standalone app and moving into ChatGPT Work, picking up inline diff editing, pull request reviews, and multi-repository support.
ChatGPT Work is available to all plans on desktop, rolling out to Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu on web and mobile over the next few days.
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AI browsers have attracted no shortage of hype over the past year, but convincing people to swap Chrome for an AI-first alternative was always going to be a taller order than bolting another chatbot onto the web. ®
Saturday’s Japan vs Ireland live stream in the 2026 Nations Championship sees two winning sides from the opening weekend go head-to-head in the neutral venue of the Newcastle International Sports Centre in Australia.
Despite featuring no fewer than four debutants in their side against Italy last Saturday, the Brave Blossoms were the dominant force in a convincing 27-10 win. Coach Eddie Jones really seems to know how to bring out the best in this side and, under his leadership, they always feel like a potential banana skin for more fancied teams. They’ve only beaten the Men in Green once before, but that was a huge upset in front of a home crowd during the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Can they produce an overdue second?
Ireland were but minutes away from heading into this game with one ‘L’ against their name after their opening game against Australia. A 76th minute converted try from unlikely scorer Tom Clarkson was followed up by a nerves-of-steel Sam Prendergast penalty to take a 2-point advantage into the last couple of minutes. They then watched in relief as the Wallabies’ Ben Donaldson missed one of his own.
Despite four other tries from Cian Prendergast, Josh van der Flier, Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan, Ireland looked far from comfortable and Andy Farrell will be looking for a more galvanized display this time around.
Read on below for our guide on where to watch Japan vs Ireland on TV, and get Nations Championship 2026 free streams online.
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Watch Japan vs Ireland for FREE
This game – along with every other match of the 2026 Nations Championship – will be streamed live and free across the US, UK and Ireland. The Japan vs Ireland live stream is set to be shown on:
How to watch any Japan vs Ireland stream using a VPN
A VPN is a handy piece of software that can make your device appear as if it’s back in your home country, so you can unlock your usual streaming services. The best VPN right now? We recommend NordVPN – it does everything and comes with a 75% discount now.
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Get NordVPN and stream Japan vs Ireland from anywhere.View Deal
Using a VPN is incredibly simple:
1. Install the VPN of your choice. As we’ve said, NordVPN is our favorite.
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2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN app. For instance, if you’re visiting New Zealand and want to view your usual US service, you’d select a United States server from the list.
3. Sit back and enjoy the action. Head to your usual local streaming service and watch the rugby.
How to watch Japan vs Ireland live streams in the US
Japan vs Ireland and all 2026 Nations Championship matches will be live streamed for FREE on Rugbypass TV in the US.
The dedicated rugby streaming platform can be watched on its website or mobile app, and through Chromecast, Airplay, AppleTV and Android TV.
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Outside the US for Japan vs Ireland? Use NordVPN to access your usual streams.
How to watch Japan vs Ireland live streams in the UK
Rugby fans in the UK can watch Japan vs Ireland for free on ITV.
TV coverage for Japan vs Ireland is on ITV1 while you can also stream it live and on demand via the free ITVX website and mobile app.
If you’re outside the UK but want to tap into your usual coverage, check out NordVPN and follow the instructions above.
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ITVX is a free service, though you need to be in possession of a valid UK TV Licence to watch its live streams, as this covers digital content consumption, too.
How to watch Japan vs Ireland live streams in Ireland
As mentioned above, all Nations Championship 2026 games will be on free-to-air TV in Ireland.
Virgin Media One is showing Japan vs Ireland, which means it will also be available to stream on the Virgin Media Play platform.
How to watch Japan vs Ireland live streams in New Zealand
Sky Sport is the Nations Championship 2026 TV rights holder in New Zealand.
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You can access Sky Sport through satellite TV or get a live stream with the Sky Sport Now subscription service starting at NZ$29.99 per day or NZ$59.99 per month and watch Japan vs Ireland.
Missing the Japan vs Ireland game?NordVPN will give you access to your home streaming service.
What is the Japan vs Ireland start time?
The scheduled Japan vs Ireland kick-off time on Saturday, July 11 is 8.10pm AEST local time in Newcastle, Australia.
That’s 11.10am BST in the UK and 6.10am ET / 3.10am PT in the US.
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Can I watch Japan vs Ireland on my mobile?
Of course, most broadcasters have streaming services that you can access through mobile apps or via your phone’s browser. For example, ITVX, Rugbypass TV and Virgin Media Play all have dedicated apps.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
China successfully recovered an orbital rocket booster for the first time, landing the Long March 10B’s first stage into a net-equipped sea platform after its maiden launch. “This mission marks my country’s first successful controlled recovery of a launch vehicle and the world’s first network-based recovery of a launch vehicle,” the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced via social media shortly after the launch. (Translation by Google.) “It signifies a historic breakthrough for my country in the field of reusable rocket technology and will lay a solid foundation for accelerating the improvement of my country’s space access capabilities.” Space.com reports: The Long March 10B is a two-stage rocket that stands about 207 feet (63 meters) tall, according to the state-owned CASC, the main contractor for China’s space program. The vehicle’s first stage burns kerosene and liquid oxygen (LOX) propellants, whereas the second stage uses LOX and liquid methane. In reusable mode, the Long March 10B can loft about 16 tons of payload to low Earth orbit.
And the rocket flew with a payload on its debut liftoff — a satellite that successfully reached “its predetermined orbit,” according to the CASC update. That post did not provide any details about the spacecraft or its orbit. It did give a brief rundown of the first-stage recovery, however. “Approximately 6 minutes after the first and second stages separated, the first stage returned vertically and was successfully recovered at a sea-based recovery platform using a net system,” CASC officials wrote, noting that launch occurred from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site on Friday at 12:15 a.m. EDT (0415 GMT; 12:15 p.m. Beijing time.) “The launch and first-stage recovery missions were a complete success.”
Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
Today’s NYT Connections puzzle was a true mix. The blue category words jumped right out at me and the purple category is really creative when you realize what it is. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.
The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: The big top.
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Green group hint: Like a placid lake.
Blue group hint: To infinity, and beyond!
Purple group hint: Repeated letters in special spots.
Answers for today’s Connections groups
Yellow group: Circus equipment.
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Green group: Undisturbed, as water.
Blue group: Toy Story characters.
Purple group: Double letters appearing in that letter’s alphabetical position.
U.S. federal cybersecurity agency CISA said it did not have a prepared response plan for how it should handle a cybersecurity incident in May, after an investigative reporter notified the agency that a contractor had publicly exposed sensitive keys and credentials for accessing U.S. government systems.
CISA, the Homeland Security unit tasked with defending federal networks and helping to safeguard critical infrastructure, revealed Friday in a postmortem report that its staff “had to spend time building [a playbook] during the early stages of the incident.” The agency said it is important to prepare playbooks for “all anticipated needs” to ensure that organizations are ready to respond in the event of a security incident rather than scrambling to improvise one in real time.
The agency did not say how long the missing playbook delayed CISA’s response, and a spokesperson did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Independent cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs reported in May that a security researcher with cyber firm GitGuardian alerted him to reams of exposed passwords stored in a publicly accessible GitHub repository, which an employee of a CISA contractor had uploaded.
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According to Krebs, the researcher tried to alert the contractor but didn’t hear back. Only after Krebs contacted CISA did the agency take the repository offline and revoke and replace all of the exposed credentials to prevent any potential future abuse.
CISA said that no customer or mission data was exposed in the incident and thanked the researcher and reporter for their help. The agency said that its channels for allowing security researchers to notify CISA of potential incidents “were not well defined,” and that it has made changes to make it easier and faster for researchers to contact the agency.
CISA has been without a permanent director since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in January 2025. The agency has also been affected by cuts, furloughs, and layoffs affecting about a third of its workforce since Trump took office.
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Ceefax was the BBC’s broadcast teletext service that ran until 2012, providing text and rudimentary graphics that were broadcast invisibly with the TV signal. In order to get this teletext data merged into the analog TV signal, special equipment was needed, of which [Nathan Dane] has a 1997-era unit on his bench to take a gander at.
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