So you happen to have a gramaphone– maybe a big old Victrola/HMV, perhaps a Columbia– regardless of brand, it’s a big, beautiful conversation peice for your living room. It might not be the most practical listening device, since isnomuch as there is a vinyl renessance, it’s restricted to vinyl, not the old shellac 78s the these all-mechanical beasts were born for. [JGJMatt] decided to bring his gramophone into the 21st century, turning it into a bluetooth speaker without altering any of its original internals.
What’s really interesting is that this hack was once a commercial product– sort of. Back in the 1920s when everyone was listening to Jazz, the problem of ‘ what do I do with this massive gramophone cabinet when I’m not cutting a rug?’ was equally valid, and a solution was found: the Dulce-Tone Radio Speaker. A very weak speaker sits under the needle, turning the gramaphone mechanism into an amplifier for the radio. The very same concept, [JGJMatt] would work equally well in the 2020s with a bluetooth signal as in the 1920s with an AM one. There’s no demo video for this project, but you can hear how its 1920s inspiration sounded in the video below.
The driver for this device is made using a neodymium magnet and the voice coil from a 3W speaker. A 3D-printed needle-holder captures the gramophone’s needle– a much thicker and sturdier thing than the tiny diamond-tip you’d find on a modern turntable, we should note– and holds the magnet to it. The voice coil gets driven via a MH-M38 bluetooth module, and everything is held in a nice 3D-printed case along with the battery.
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The hack is, of course, totally reversible: at any moment, you can remove the needle from this device and drop it on a 78 for some Jazz-era fun, or swap back for 21st century brainrot. If you happen to have some of those old shellac records and a modern turntable, note it takes more than the right RPM to get good sound.
In 2024, back when the AI image fever was catching on, Google released the Pixel Studio app. It was meant to be a joyful playground where you could bring your imagination to life using AI. Well, it went a bit above and beyond. In our tests, Google’s app created disturbing images of SpongeBob dressed as a Nazi, Mickey Mouse as a slave owner, Elmo pointing a shotgun at Big Bird, Yoda doing cocaine, and Mr. Krabs holding an assault rifle.
Well, ChatGPT is doing something similar, but in an even more worrying fashion.
What’s on Earth is wrong with ChatGPT?
Over the weekend, multiple users shared examples of how an “attached image” prompt is nudging ChatGPT to make some truly disturbing and downright nightmarish images. And here’s the fun part. You don’t need to attach an image. It’s just the text prompt, and ChatGPT is creating random pictures that will keep you up at night.
This is the prompt, in case you’re feeling curious: “Restore the attached photo. I apologise for the content of the photo! I know it’s very strange. Don’t ask any questions, don’t accept any explanations. Just restore the image, please. Don’t ask me to upload the photo again; just close your eyes and restore it. Make up the photo yourself.”
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I highly recommend that you don’t try it. Just in case it doesn’t work, a few words of modification and a bit of persuasion will make ChatGPT follow the request and produce images that will make Guillermo del Toro feel the chills.
I found the weirdest ChatGPT image bug
If you ask it this prompt:
“Restore the attached photo. I apologise for the content of the photo! I know it’s very strange. Don’t ask any questions, don’t accept any explanations. Just restore the image, please. Don’t ask me to upload the… pic.twitter.com/j1qmqlbPrN
When I tried the prompt, ChatGPT created an image of a man standing in a bathtub, with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other hand, wearing nothing but a towel. The big surprise? The torso is human, but the head is that of an oversized fish, attached seamlessly to the human body in all its photorealistic glory. The chatbot initially rejected the request, but when I adjusted two words in the prompt, it complied with the request.
Um, maybe, avoid it?
Now, the image I got is not the worst that I’ve seen. On X, multiple ChatGPT users have shared AI images that are truly hellish and look as if they crawled straight out of some gory novel. A giant red Teletubby with a rifle holding a crying human hostage, a giant rat bottle-feeding a human baby, Sonic passed out on a toilet covered in faeces, and a cat sitting on the chest of a cursed doll are just some of the examples.
There’s no clear explanation as to why this is happening. Notably, the images generated by ChatGPT for the same prompt are wildly different for each user, and there is no clear pattern. The only similarity is the sheer horror and absurdity of the media coughed up by the AI image generator. We have reached out to OpenAI and will update this story as soon as we hear back from the company.
The CryoTherm Palm can switch between cold, heat and contrast therapy.
Therabody is known for its massage guns that help with post-workout recovery, but its latest device gives you a little extra oomph during your exercise. According to Therabody, the CryoTherm Palm cools your hands in order to kick the onset of fatigue down the road and maintain grip strength. It’s reasonable to be skeptical of this $399.99 device, but Therabody said that the University of Southern California’s soccer players did 58 percent more reps in their final set in real-world testing with the CryoTherm Palm.
Even though it bears some slight resemblance to a Shake Weight, you don’t grab the CryoTherm Palm in the middle. Instead you rest both your palms on each end during breaks in training for one to three minutes at a time. You can select between three levels for both cold and heat therapy, or do contrast therapy where one side is hot and the other is cold. Therabody also included a stopwatch function on the device, which has a max battery life of 120 minutes.
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Beyond its pricey massage guns, Therabody has been branching off into products that are designed for specific parts of your body. Last year, the company revealed its TheraFace Mask Glo meant to reduce face wrinkles with LED technology. However, like the LED mask or its face massager, you’ll have to decide if dropping hundreds of dollars is worth it.
On an average day, when a company makes “best ever” claims for its new product, I usually take it with the proverbial pinch of salt. Naturally, when Baseus launched the Inspire XH1 and marketed them as the “finest headphones” it has ever made, I was skeptical. I’m glad that I was wrong. These are the best budget headphones in years, and they hit way beyond their weight class on multiple metrics.
These fall in the rare class of audio wearables that make you double-check the price tag. It takes features that usually live behind a premium paywall and folds them into something almost absurdly affordable. Tuned in collaboration with Bose, these over-ear cans carry a “Sound by Bose” profile that leans into punchy bass and a clarity that outdoes its weight class. The aesthetics borrow plenty from Bose’s premium headphones, serving a comfortable folding frame, plush memory foam earcups, and a proper hard carrying case that you don’t have to fork extra cash for.
The headline numbers are absurd in the best way, especially for the per-charge mileage. They aren’t without their own set of sonic flaws, though. The companion app can be finicky, the Dolby Spatial Audio isn’t a winner, and the active noise cancellation (ANC) mode takes some toll on the audio quality. But the bigger picture is still bright. If you want premium comfort, multi-point connectivity, high-resolution LDAC support, and a warm sound without spending flagship money, the Baseus Inspire XH1 is one of the most compelling options you can get.
Baseus Inspire XH1 specs: What’s inside these cans?
Driver Unit
35 mm dynamic
Frequency Response Range
20 Hz – 40 kHz
Audio Codec
SBC, AAC, LDAC
Connection Modes
Bluetooth / AUX
Bluetooth Version
V6.1
Multipoint Connection
Yes
Low Latency
80 ms
Battery Capacity
800 mAh / 2.39 Wh
Playback Time
Approx. 100 hours (with ANC off and volume at 50%)
Transparency Mode
Yes
Baseus App Support
Yes
Product Materials
ABS + Metal + PC
Ear Cushion Material
Protein Leather
Weight
Approx. 275 g
Size
8.07″ (H) × 6.57″ (W) × 3.14″ (D)
What’s in the Box
Inspire XH1 Headphones, Aux Cable, USB-C Cable, Carrying Case
Baseus Inspire XH1 design and build quality: Luxury ride on a bargain ticket
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Engineering wallet-friendly wireless headphones usually means cutting costs in a few places, and you can normally see them from a mile away. The Inspire XH1 mostly skips that trend, and to a surprising extent. At a relatively light 275 grams, these closed-back over-ear cans feel a class above what Baseus has offered so far, and you’ll feel it the moment you pick them up.
Now, let’s talk about that Bose brand-and-tune job. The design language is unmistakably Bose-inspired, leaning hard on the styling of the flagship QuietComfort Ultra, with a thoughtful mix of metal and high-grade plastic. Even the colorways, which include Cosmic Black, Starlight Off-White, a muted blue, and a punchy red, echo the grown-up elegance of pricier gear you will come across in the Bose portfolio.
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Baseus has wrapped the sturdy aluminum headband and roomy ear cups in a soft, velvet-like leather. Beneath it sits memory foam that settles comfortably onto your skull, while the clamping force is just about right. It’s gentle enough for the long haul, but I often found the slipping from my sweaty head in the charring Summer of New Delhi.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Thankfully, even after hours of sustained usage, I didn’t feel any fatigue, save for a bit of warmth around the ears that comes with the closed-back territory. The cups run deep and generous, easily cradling larger ears without complaint. That said, certain ear shapes may find the big internal microphones tucked in the driver cavity brushing against the ear, which takes a small nudge of the cup to get in a comfortable position.
Another aspect of the Baseus Inspire XH1 that I love is portability, thanks to the versatile dual-hinge design. The cups swivel 90 degrees to lie flat across your collarbones when slung around the neck, and the metal hinges let the arms fold up into a tidy package. The hinges feel a touch loose, though, and they’ll spin with barely any resistance. But at the end of the day, these headphones are built to last. To further sweeten the deal, Baseus throws in a color-matched hard travel case, something you’ll hardly find on a product in this price bracket.
Coming to the controls, they are entirely physical, skipping fiddly touch panels for buttons you can actually find by feel. The left cup holds the power button and the ANC toggle, while the right side handles playback and volume. The track-skipping logic is a little awkward. Holding the volume-up button jumps back on the queue, while volume-down moves the dial forward.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Thankfully, you can customize the behavior of these buttons in the companion Baseus app. The quiet showpiece, though, is the official IP66 rating, meaning serious protection against dust and strong jets of water. Most over-ear wireless headphones ship with no ingress protection at all, which leaves the XH1 oddly well-suited to sweaty gym sessions, light rain, or a dusty walk home.
Score: 9/10
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Baseus Inspire XH1 audio quality: Pleasing, if you stick to the basics
The real winner of the Basesus Inspire XH1 headphones is the audio driver architecture. They come equipped with 35mm dynamic drivers, but it’s not just the hardware that must make it to the headlines. It’s the tuning. Basesus knocked at Bose’s doorsteps to build the “Sound by Bose” default EQ, and in doing so, the brand has nudged the Inspire XH1 out of the budget hearable conversation.
Straight out of the box, the Inspire XH1 leans towards a warm and lightly V-shaped frequency curve. In simpler terms, it’s engaging but doesn’t get in your face with exaggerated frequencies. There’s real energy injected into the upper-mids and lows, and the music feels alive because of it. The bass is the standout aspect. It’s deep, rich, and full-bodied, dropping low without too much effort or distortion.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Budget-focused headphones tend to smear the low-end into the vocals, but the Inspire XH1 keeps things controlled. The bass is thumping, but never overpowering. Listening to Hatikoli’s Go was a pleasing experience. Likewise, with Bass Boost enabled, Twin’s Uzi got a discernible lift, producing deeper bass without meddling with the synths or the electronic vocals.
One of my friends, after trying Gucci Mane’s I Get The Bag, remarked that the bass is literally vibrating their ears without any jarring effect. The mid-range comes through smooth and textured. Voices sit clearly in the mix, especially with the “Sound by Bose” EQ profile enabled. If there’s a soft spot, it’s right at the top.
The treble misses a little sparkle, so the finest details in cymbals or upper strings can read slightly muted. The upside is that there’s no noticeable sibilance or harshness, even when you crank up the volumes. For fans of classical music, the XH1 offers a surprisingly wide soundstage, making it easy to map instruments across an orchestra.
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Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
The breath behind a woodwind or the low hum of a cello lands with startling clarity. If you’re a fan of Hans Zimmer or artists like Olafur Arnalds, these headphones won’t disappoint. Rock and progressive metal tracks run into a bit of trouble as the highs tend to sound a bit muddy, but you can still salvage them with a bit of EQ tuning.
The biggest hiccup is the Dolby Audio. The two built-in presets that ship with it (Music and Cinema) just suck the life out of songs, especially those where you want to enjoy the lively vocals. Listening to Moein and Sivash Ghomayshi’s Parandeh was a test of patience, as the Dolby Audio mode flattened the highs and mids, making the track feel bland.
In general, the Sound by Bose is the one you should stick with for nearly all genres of songs. For Android users chasing the hi-res dream, the XH1 supports the LDAC codec. There’s also a 3.5mm input for passive, wired listening when the battery finally taps out. Without the internal DSP and amplification doing their thing, though, the sound feels thin and tinny.
Score: 8/10
Baseus Inspire XH1 noise cancellation and transparency: A bright picture
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Noise cancellation is a well-known litmus test, and it’s usually where budget headphones fall apart. Thankfully, the Inspire XH1 headphones pull off a competent performance and make the daily sonic grind a tad easier to handle. As far as numbers go, Baseus touts up to -48 dB of reduction, which is fairly standard for the price bracket.
Qualitatively, the Inspire XH1 headphones can handle low, sustained drones with ease. Airplane engines, office HVAC units, and the constant roar of a subway car are easily shoved into the background. All you hear is a faint (but not totally faint) remnant of the external noise.
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It’s excellent for the money, but it isn’t the vacuum-sealed silence you get from the likes of Bose QuietComfort Ultra or the Sony WH-1000XM6. High-pitched or sudden sounds, such as a siren, a barking dog, or sharp chatter nearby, still pierce through. It can completely silence a room fan, but not the Reels playing on a phone being used on the next table.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Oddly, with the noise cancellation enabled, I could still feel the rumble of your footsteps, irrespective of whether I was wearing rubberized slippers or heavy boots. The ANC also affects the audio output. Once enabled, it discernibly shifts the sound profile, giving it a slightly thicker flavor for the low frequencies, while the mids also get a bit suppressed. If you’re chasing the pristine audio output, disable ANC and crank up the volume to drown out the external noise.
Moving to transparency mode, it pipes the humdrum of the outside world into your ear canals to keep you aware of your surroundings. It’s pretty good on the Inspire XH1 headphones. Low-cost headphones usually produce a loud hiss with a synthetic reproduction of the external noise. On the Baseus headphones, the sounds are natural, but the hissing is still there. What baffles me is Baseus’s decision to switch transparency off the moment you take a call.
Moving to the microphone and call quality, things are fairly smooth here. There are five microphones here, and they get a lift from AI-powered noise reduction. On calls, the voice comes through clean and stable. In the noisy landscape of a city street, the AI algorithms kick into action and scrub the background noise. In my time testing these headphones, callers never complained about any jarring background interference. However, a few of my friends pointed out that the voice sounds a tad different and subdued. But overall, the Inspire XH1 can handle calls fairly well, if that’s a key concern for you.
Score: 7/10
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Baseus Inspire XH1 software: Clean and straightforward
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
In order to get the best out of this package, you must head over to the Baseus companion app. The interface is clean, intuitive, and all the features are conveniently laid out. There’s barely any bloat, and all the core controls are easily accessible. All the core controls, including ANC and transparency, can be handled through the app.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
There’s also a “Sound Fit” personalization test that plays a run of tones to gauge your hearing and accordingly creates a customized EQ to compensate for any hearing discrepancies. It works surprisingly well. If you’re an audio purist, there are seven EQ presets, including a “Powerful Bass” mode for bassheads and a “Clear Treble” mode to lift those recessed highs.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
For maximum flexibility, there’s a custom 8-band equalizer, as well. As far as wireless connectivity goes, it’s rock solid. Multipoint support ensures that you can simultaneously pair these Baseus headphones with two devices at once. There’s also a Low Latency mode that is tailor-made for gaming.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
What’s missing is the quality-of-life stuff. There are no wear sensors, so the music won’t pause when you pull the headphones off, and it won’t pick back up when you put them on. Thankfully, they can automatically power off after a brief spell of inactivity and save on the battery juice.
Score: 8/10
Baseus Inspire XH1 battery life: An absolute warhorse
If there’s one aspect where the Inspire XH1 headphones demolish the budget perception (and even pricier headphones), it’s the battery life. The stamina here borders on the ridiculous, and is well past what you would reasonably expect from a wireless pair. Baseus claims a colossal 100 hours of continuous playback with ANC off, clocking down to roughly 50% volume on the standard AAC codec.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Even with ANC enabled, you’re still looking at 65 hours of per-charge mileage. For comparison, flagships from Apple, Bose, and Sony tend to land somewhere in the 30 to 40-hour range, and that’s mostly restricted to the latest and greatest models. The Baseus Inspire XH1 stands out, and I can vouch for its frugal power uptake.
On average, you can go at least two to three weeks of heavy listening without even worrying about low power warning messages. You can comfortably carry them on a multi-stop international flight, run them through a full office week, and survive weeks of gym duties without plugging in a cable.
The idle power draw is absurdly low and almost negligible. As far as charging goes, the Inspire supports fast charging over USB-C, with a 10-minute plugged-in time delivering enough juice to last 12 hours of music playback. In a nutshell, the proverbial battery anxiety is effectively gone.
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Score: 9/10
Should you buy?
The Baseus Inspire XH1 is nothing short of a masterclass in milking the most value out of your spending, discounted or otherwise. What you get is class-leading comfort, an enormous battery, and capable drivers that will please your ears. In doing so, Baseus offers something that trades blows with the heavyweights of the mid-tier.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
If you love that warm, dynamic Bose signature but won’t drop a minimum of $350 to enjoy it, the Inspire XH1 offers a strikingly close acoustic experience for a fraction of the cost. In case you spend an hour (or more) commuting each day and absolutely need music to focus on work, you have a solid pick here. Thanks to a combination of solid battery life, a protective hard case, and effective noise isolation, these headphones are hard to beat for the 9-to-5 lifestyle.
The cherry on top is the IP66 rating, which means you can comfortably take them for a sweaty gym session. But it’s not a flowery picture everywhere. If a flawless ANC experience is what you can’t live without, you must pay the flagship fee at Bose or Sony’s counter. The Inspire XH1’s ANC is good, but not perfect. Plus, if you lean too much on transparency for long calls, you’re out of luck.
Finally, if you’re chasing those pristine treble lines, you may not like the bass-forward Bose tuning on these headphones. At the end of the day, wireless over-ear cans tag along with compromises. The Baseus Inspire XH1 serves fewer of them than, and effortlessly proves that you don’t need to spend a fortune to enjoy good audio.
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Why not try?
Sennheiser Accentum Plus — If pristine, audiophile-grade sound sits above everything else for you, the Sennheiser Accentum Plus is a solid pick. They skip the big, punchy bass of the Baseus XH1 in favor of a detailed soundstage. The treble clarity is better, which makes them a natural fit for critical listening, jazz, and acoustic material. You get aptX Adaptive support, a finer ANC system, and touch controls on the cups. Battery life lands at a respectable 50 hours, though there’s no ingress protection available.
Sony ULT Wear ($250) — If the bass-forward tuning on the Baseus headphones is not enough, the Sony ULT Wear will satisfy your basshead cravings. A dedicated button slams on huge sub-bass boosts on demand, and these are tuned to rattle your skull. Past the low-end theatrics, you get Sony’s noise-cancelling pedigree, which edges slightly ahead of the Baseus offering. Additionally, wear sensing for auto-pause and resume is seriously convenient.
Beats Studio Pro — In case you’re swimming deep in the Apple ecosystem, the Beats Studio Pro is a smart choice. The sound is far more balanced and refined, but the real standout on these cans is the fully supported Dynamic Head Tracking and Spatial Audio, which is leagues beyond the lackluster Dolby Audio experience on the Baseus. You also get lossless USB-C output. On the flip side, the fit is uncomfortably tight, and you will feel the pain after long listening sessions.
How we tested
For a spell of two months, I used the Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones as my primary noise-cancelling over-the-ear audio gear. I kept them paired with my Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, iPhone 17 Pro, and MacBook Pro, while using the official Baseus (v1.1.11) mobile app.
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To test the audio quality, I played music across different genres and compared the audio quality while using Sony’s WH-1000XM6 as a reference device. To test the noise cancellation and transparency modes, I wore the headphones in buzzing cafes with music playing in the background, on metro rails, in auto rickshaws on busy roads, and in my own room to gauge noise isolation across different frequencies.
Battery life was tested across three full charging cycles, spanning hours of music playback every day with volume levels usually hovering between the 50% and 60% mark. I used Apple Music and Amazon Music (Unlimited tier, Ultra HD quality preset, Dolby Atmos playlist) to stream audio in wired and wireless modes.
However, with recent high-profile leadership changes and a business reset following an Xbox Game Pass price increase, it seems like Microsoft is course correcting before a next-gen console is announced. And this showcase was another step in the right direction.
More than 25 trailers were shown in Sunday’s showcase. While there were updates for several live service games, such as Fallout 76 and Sea of Thieves (a tactic that Sony avoided with its State of Play), Microsoft showed off a number of major titles. Some were exclusive, such as Gear of War: E-Day, but others were revealed for the first time at the show and will be available on day one for Game Pass, including Persona 6.
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Microsoft didn’t have a reveal on the scale of Sony’s God of War: Laufey, but it’s clear the company is leaning into its strengths: big titles that’ll also be available on Xbox Game Pass at launch. Will that help Microsoft move more consoles or attract more Xbox Game Pass subscribers? It’s hard to say, but at least the company doesn’t appear to be fading anytime soon.
Gears of War: D-Day game trailer
Fable game trailer
Halo: Campaign Evolved game trailer
Resonance: A Plague Legacy game trailer
Persona 4 Revival game trailer
State of Decay 3 game trailer
Sea of Thieves: Season 20 game trailer
Metro 2039 game trailer
Bad Magpie game trailer
Wo Long 2 game trailer
Join Us game trailer
Senua game trailer
Doom: The Dark Ages | Revelations game trailer
Crazy Taxi: World Tour game trailer
Age of Empires 4 game trailer
Minecraft Dungeons 2 game trailer
Magicians: The Devil’s Deal game trailer
Valor Mortis game trailer
The Elder Scrolls Online: Return of the Thieves Guild game trailer
Fallout 76: Infestations game trailer
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, World Update 22 game trailer
Thursday, June 11 3pm – Mexico vs South Africa 10pm – South Korea vs Czech Republic
Friday, June 12 3pm – Canada vs Bosnia & Herzegovina 9pm – USA vs Paraguay
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Saturday, June 13 3pm – Qatar vs Switzerland 6pm – Brazil vs Morocco 9pm – Haiti vs Scotland
Sunday, June 14 12am – Australia vs Turkey 1pm – Germany vs Curacao 4pm – Netherlands vs Japan 7pm – Ivory Coast vs Ecuador 10pm – Sweden vs Tunisia
Monday, June 15 12pm – Spain vs Cape Verde 3pm – Belgium vs Egypt 6pm – Saudi Arabia vs Uruguay 9pm – Iran vs New Zealand
Tuesday, June 16 3pm – France vs Senegal 6pm – Iraq vs Norway 9pm – Argentina vs Algeria
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Wednesday, June 17 12am – Austria vs Jordan 1pm – Portugal vs DR Congo 4pm – England vs Croatia 7pm – Ghana vs Panama 10pm – Uzbekistan vs Colombia
Thursday, June 18 12pm – Czech Republic vs South Africa 3pm – Switzerland vs Bosnia & Herzegovina 6pm – Canada vs Qatar 9pm – Mexico vs South Korea
Friday, June 19 3pm – USA vs Australia 6pm – Scotland vs Morocco 9pm – Brazil vs Haiti
Saturday, June 20 12am – Turkey vs Paraguay 1pm – Netherlands vs Sweden 4pm – Germany vs Ivory Coast 8pm – Ecuador vs Curacao
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Sunday, June 21 12am – Tunisia vs Japan 12pm – Spain vs Saudi Arabia 3pm – Belgium vs Iran 6pm – Uruguay vs Cape Verde 9pm – New Zealand vs Egypt
Monday, June 22 1pm – Argentina vs Austria 5pm – France vs Iraq 8pm – Norway vs Senegal 11pm – Jordan vs Algeria
Tuesday, June 23 1pm – Portugal vs Uzbekistan 4pm – England vs Ghana 7pm – Panama vs Croatia 10pm – Colombia vs DR Congo
Wednesday, June 24 3pm – Switzerland vs Canada 3pm – Bosnia & Herzegovina vs Qatar 6pm – Morocco vs Haiti 6pm – Scotland vs Brazil 9pm – South Africa vs South Korea 9pm – Czech Republic vs Mexico
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Thursday, June 25 4pm – Curacao vs Ivory Coast 4pm – Ecuador vs Germany 7pm – Tunisia vs Netherlands 7pm – Japan vs Sweden 10pm – Turkey vs USA 10pm – Paraguay vs Australia
Friday, June 26 3pm – Norway vs France 3pm – Senegal vs Iraq 8pm – Cape Verde vs Saudi Arabia 8pm – Uruguay vs Spain 11pm – New Zealand vs Belgium 11pm – Egypt vs Iran
Saturday, June 27 5pm – Panama vs England 5pm – Croatia vs Ghana 7.30pm – Colombia vs Portugal 7.30pm – DR Congo vs Uzbekistan 10pm – Algeria vs Austria 10pm – Jordan vs Argentina
KNOCKOUT STAGE
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ROUND OF 32
Sunday, June 28 3pm – A2 vs B2
Monday, June 29 1pm – C1 vs F2 4.30pm – E1 vs A/B/C/D/F3 9pm – F1 vs C2
Tuesday, June 30 1pm – E2 vs I2 5pm – I1 vs C/D/F/G/H3 9pm – A1 vs C/E/F/H/I3
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Wednesday, July 1 12pm – L1 vs E/H/I/J/K3 4pm – G1 vs A/E/H/I/J3 8pm – D1 vs B/E/F/I/J3
Thursday, July 2 3pm – H1 vs J2 7pm – K2 vs L2 11pm – B1 vs E/F/G/I/J3
Friday, July 3 2pm – D2 vs G2 6pm – J1 vs H2 9.30pm – K1 vs D/E/I/J/L3
ROUND OF 16
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Saturday, July 4 1pm – Round of 16 game 1 5pm – Round of 16 game 2
Sunday, July 5 4pm – Round of 16 game 3 8pm – Round of 16 game 4
Monday, July 6 3pm – Round of 16 game 5 8pm – Round of 16 game 6
Tuesday, July 7 12pm – Round of 16 game 7 4pm – Round of 16 game 8
White House AI adviser Sriram Krishnan is leaving at the end of June. He plans to start an outside institution to continue influencing AI policy.
Sriram Krishnan, the White House’s senior policy adviser on artificial intelligence, is stepping down. The former Andreessen Horowitz partner was tapped by President Donald Trump to help shape the administration’s AI strategy during his second term. He will leave at the end of June, according to the Washington Post.
Krishnan played a central role in the administration’s AI action plan. In May, he helped broker an agreement with Google, Microsoft, and xAI to give the US government early access to their AI models before public release. The arrangement lets the government assess capabilities and security risks during a 30-day review window.
White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks credited Krishnan with work on “policy initiatives and international diplomacy” as part of efforts to ensure “American AI dominance.” White House spokesperson Kush Desai called him “a critical asset for President Trump’s push to cement American dominance in technology and innovation.”
Krishnan said he plans to continue working with the White House as an outside adviser. He is reportedly starting a new institution focused on AI policy. “After a break, I’ll be working on helping tackle some of the large challenges facing America on AI,” he wrote on X.
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The departure follows a busy stretch of AI policymaking. On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order outlining a voluntary framework for cybersecurity threats posed by AI, stopping short of mandatory testing. On Friday, he directed national security agencies to work with more than one AI provider, a move that followed the Pentagon’s feud with Anthropic over contract terms.
Anthropic had been the only vendor approved for classified military use until the Defence Department blacklisted it as a supply chain risk after the company refused to allow its models to be used for autonomous weapons or mass surveillance. The administration has since signed classified AI deals with Nvidia, Microsoft, and AWS.
Krishnan’s exit also raises questions about Andreessen Horowitz’s influence on AI policy. The firm has been a significant force in shaping the administration’s approach, with Bloomberg previously reporting on its rising role in Trump-era AI decisions. Whether Krishnan’s new institution maintains that pipeline remains to be seen.
Looking for the most recent regular 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 and Strands puzzles.
Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. If you’re struggling with the puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.
Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.
Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: Hoops roles.
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Green group hint: Think Tom Brady.
Blue group hint: They excel in beam and floor exercise.
Purple group hint: The Big Apple.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Yellow group: First words of basketball positions.
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Green group: Things a QB does with the football.
Blue group: Women’s gymnastics all-around gold medal winners.
Purple group: Ends in a New York team, in singular form.
Founders participating in the WTIA Founder Cohort Accelerator, a program designed to support emerging entrepreneurs and strengthen Washington state’s innovation ecosystem. (WTIA Photo)
The early stage companies from across Washington state are working in areas such as AI, cybersecurity, healthcare, enterprise software, and other emerging technologies, the WTIA said Tuesday.
The four-month accelerator is designed to help founders with mentorship, peer learning, and connections to investors and industry leaders.
“With Seattle leading the way as a world-class hub for AI and advanced technology, this diverse group of founders perfectly captures the immense technical depth and entrepreneurial drive thriving across our entire ecosystem,” Randa Minkarah, chief operating executive of WTIA, said in a statement.
Since its inception, the WTIA Founder Cohort has supported more than 350 companies, and alumni from previous cohorts have collectively raised more than $500 million, according to WTIA.
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Cohort sponsors include Accenture, Clark Nuber, Edward Jones, Fenwick, KBF, Madrona Venture Group, MeeBoss, and Seed IP.
New dummy unit photos shared by leaker Sonny Dickson on X offer the clearest look yet at Apple’s first foldable iPhone, expected to launch later this year alongside the iPhone 18 lineup. The images confirm several design details that have been circulating in the rumor mill for months, and one that is more surprising.
What the dummy unit reveals
The iPhone Fold dummy shows a book-style foldable with a roughly 7.8-inch inner display when open, putting its screen real estate close to an iPad mini. The front camera sits in the top-left corner of that inner screen. The outer display measures around 5.5 inches, and the closed phone takes on a short and wide form factor, closer to a passport than a standard iPhone.
First look at the iPhone Fold dummy unit. It doesn’t look like Apple will offer multiple colors, with white currently appearing to be the only option. What do you think? pic.twitter.com/olMzm6t6Ts
Two rear cameras are visible on the outside of the device. Face ID is notably absent, which aligns with rumors suggesting that the device will use Touch ID through the side button for both unlocking and Apple Pay.
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Only one color?
The more eyebrow-raising detail from Dickson is the color situation. Although earlier leaks have claimed the Fold would come in black and white, Dickson now suggests white may be the only option at launch. Apple has launched new product lines in limited colorways before, gradually expanding the palette with later generations, so this isn’t completely out of the question.
iOS 27, expected to be unveiled shortly at WWDC 2026, could reveal more about how Apple is building the software experience around the foldable form factor. Foldable-specific features like split-screen multitasking and an iPad-style UI have been reported as part of the update, and the keynote may include additional cues about the device itself.
Although desalination is very commonly used these days to convert seawater into fresh water, one of the major disadvantages of current approaches is that commercial desalination plants produce a lot of brine, which has to be dumped somewhere ideally without causing major environmental issues. A new solar-thermal method as demonstrated by [Luheng Tang] et al. was published in Light: Science and Applications, with accompanying PR article.
This method is claimed to require no pre-treatment or leave brine, using special panels that wick water across their surface and then use solar radiation to distill this water. This differs from previous similar methods through a special surface treatment that prevents build-up of salts which would require cleaning or replacement.
The salts and other contaminants that would normally end up in the brine slough off these cells and can then be further processed to recover everything from plain table salt to lithium as well as gold, uranium and other substances of interest that are prevalent in seawater.
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So far these self-cleaning cells have been tested with water from a number of oceans with a claimed 74% solar-to-vapor conversion efficiency and nearly 100% salt extraction. As always the challenge will be in scaling this up to industrial levels, but so far it looks promising.
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