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A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Wednesday, August 27 (game #542).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Do go on …

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• STALE
• BOAST
• QUOTE
• HATTER
• LIVE
• SORE

• Spangram has 10 letters

First side: left, 5th row

Last side: right, 5th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

The answers to today's Strands, game #543, are…

• GABBY
• VERBOSE
• VOLUBLE
• TALKATIVE
• LOQUACIOUS
• SPANGRAM: CHATTERBOX

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 hint

Today’s theme gave us absolutely no clues at all, so I began by circling the board looking for possibilities and non-game words that would give me a hint. 

Among them, I saw Evita – which very briefly made me think we could be looking for musicals – but this was neither a game word or non-game word.

A hint gave me GABBY, which immediately made me think we were looking for words that describe someone who cannot stop talking. The first thing I thought of, and saw running across the board, was CHATTERBOX.

Some of the other words were less obvious – I had doubts over VOLUBLE as I connected the letters by guesswork and the wonderful LOQUACIOUS came last after several attempts to piece together a word that began with a Q.

• LAKE
• POND
• OCEAN
• HARBOR
• LAGOON
• SWAMP
• BAYOU
• SPANGRAM: BODIES OF WATER

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, August 27 (game #808).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• CYBERSPACE
• KETTLE
• ROCK
• SNARE
• STEEL
• MAKESHIFT
• WEB
• WATER
• ICECAPS
• NET
• CUP
• DIAMOND
• TANGLE
• TEABAG
• CANTAB
• NAILS

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Caught up
• GREEN: Hot beverage 
• BLUE: Tough stuff 
• PURPLE: As seen on a laptop

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: PLACES TO GET TRAPPED 
• GREEN: USED FOR TEA 
• BLUE: ASSOCIATED WITH HARDNESS 
• PURPLE: ENDING WITH KEYBOARD KEYS 

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

The answers to today's Connections, game #809, are…

• YELLOW: PLACES TO GET TRAPPED NET, SNARE, TANGLE, WEB
• GREEN: USED FOR TEA CUP, KETTLE, TEABAG, WATER
• BLUE: ASSOCIATED WITH HARDNESS DIAMOND, NAILS, ROCK, STEEL
• PURPLE: ENDING WITH KEYBOARD KEYS CANTAB, CYBERSPACE, ICECAPS, MAKESHIFT

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 mistake

I had an office job once in a team of eight British people and one American and I’ll always remember the latter's irritation after doing a tea run and discovering the many tea-making peccadillos of their co-workers: leave the teabag in, put the milk in first, put the milk in last, stir it five times, make sure you use boiling water, make it the color of terracotta.

Frankly, it’s no wonder that coffee has overtaken tea as the UK’s favorite beverage, it’s so much simpler.

My personal tea obsession helped me find USED FOR TEA quickly enough, although I did temporarily think we were looking for drums with SNARE, KETTLE and STEEL.

My mistake came in thinking that there was a group linked by words for the internet with CYBERSPACE, NET and WEB. I added CANTAB as the fourth. I had no idea what it meant, but I thought it might have been some 1950s version of the world wide web with people in universities chatting to each other via computers the size of houses. How wrong I was.

• YELLOW: RESTAURANT WATER OPTIONS BOTTLED, SPARKLING, STILL, TAP
• GREEN: ATM OPTIONS CHECKING, DEPOSIT, SAVINGS, WITHDRAWAL
• BLUE: BINARY QUESTION OPTIONS FALSE, NO, TRUE, YES
• PURPLE: ROULETTE OPTIONS BLACK, EVEN, ODD, RED

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

• Apple’s iPhone event will take place on September 9, 2025
• The event invitation might contain clues hinting at what we’ll see
• There are some products that definitely won’t be at the show, though

Invitations for Apple’s iPhone 17 event have just gone out, and the company has confirmed that the show will take place on September 9, 2025. That will give us our first glimpse of the iPhone 17 range and much more, and there could well be some hints buried in Apple’s “Awe dropping” invitation card.

The first clue lies in the event name. Apple has picked “Awe dropping” this year, and that suggests to us that the company is confident it has some big news to share. Based on the rumors we’ve seen so far, that could be the iPhone 17 Air, which will likely be Apple’s thinnest phone ever and something that could take the iPhone line in a new direction.

If you saw the Apple invitation on an iPad or iPhone, you might have noticed that you can interact with it: slide a finger or stylus over the Apple logo and its colors move to follow your input. That might be an allusion to Apple’s Liquid Glass redesign, which also features colorful visual effects that move and refract light.

Get ready for an awe dropping #AppleEvent on Tuesday, September 9! pic.twitter.com/uAcYp2RLMMAugust 26, 2025

Speaking of colors, Apple’s “Awe dropping” logo prominently showcases oranges, yellows and blues. That might point towards the iPhone 17’s colors, all of which supposedly feature in a photo from leaker Sonny Dickson that he claims showcases the entire phone line-up. Among the devices are dark blue and orange iPhone 17 Pro phones, as well as light blue and golden yellow iPhone 17 Air devices.

The event logo’s tones are also reminiscent of patterns produced by a heat-sensing device. Could that be an indication that Apple will improve the iPhone’s cooling abilities? There are rumors that the iPhone 17 roster will come with vapor chamber cooling, which would certainly be worth shouting about on Apple’s part.

All that said, there are a few things we’re unlikely to see at Apple’s September event. Firstly, pre-show indications suggest that the Mac line will be entirely absent, with Apple planning to launch new Macs either later in 2025 or in early 2026. If you want a new MacBook Pro or iMac, you’re probably going to have to wait.

Likewise, the HomePod is highly unlikely to make an appearance, despite strong claims that Apple is busy developing a HomePod with an integrated display and a version of the speaker that puts a screen on a robotic arm. There’s still a while to wait before those products are ready, though.

Finally, the AirPods Max headphones have been left largely unchanged since their 2020 launch, with just a USB-C port and new colors being added in 2024. Despite that, the device is not expected to be upgraded this September – and there are no suggestions that a new edition is planned for the foreseeable future, either.

Still, there should be plenty on show at Apple’s “Awe dropping” event. If the logo is anything to go by, we could have plenty on our plate.

• iPhone 17 launch date official as Apple sends out invites for ’Awe dropping’ event – here are 5 things to expect
• iPhone 17: latest news and rumors for every expected model
• Why won't AirPods Max 2 be at the newly announced September Apple Event yet again? A report says they're 'too popular' to kill and 'not popular enough' to prioritize

• Dropbox is joining the list of companies shutting down password managers
• The mobile app will soon be shut down, with the browser extension following
• Users are recommended to move to another credential manager

Dropbox will begin shutting down its password manager service this week as part of a phased discontinuation of the feature.

While the shutdown isn’t immediate, there are several steps you need to take to be able to transfer your existing credentials to another password manager.

And if you don’t act now - you could lose all of your stored passwords.

On August 28, 2025, the autofill function will be disabled and you won’t be able to add any new credentials to your storage. You also won’t be able to edit your stored credentials, but you will still be able to access them for export.

You should probably export your stored passwords sooner rather than later though, as on September 11 the mobile app will be shut down and you won’t be able to access your stored passwords through a mobile device. If you haven’t exported your passwords by then, you will still be able to access your password vault through the browser extension.

If you don’t take any action by October 28, then you won’t be able to export any of your stored passwords as Dropbox will be shutting down the browser extension, and deleting all accounts and passwords. This timeline also applies to business users, but each individual employee will need to export their stored passwords before October 28.

There are numerous other options for credential storage, both the best password managers and the best business password managers have numerous options for all budgets and use cases.

If you find a new solution and want to export your passwords across to a different solution, Dropbox recommends taking the following steps:

Browser extension:

1. Open the Dropbox Passwords browser extension.
2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) in the bottom-left corner.
3. Click “Preferences.”
4. Click the “Account” tab.
5. Click “Export.”
6. Click “Export” to confirm.

Mobile app:

1. Open the Dropbox Passwords mobile app.
2. Tap “Settings.”
3. Tap “Export.”
4. Tap “Export” to confirm.

Numerous companies have begun removing credential storage functionality from their services, from Dropbox, to Microsoft Authenticator, and even Deutsche Bank.

“This development, while challenging for affected individuals, highlights an increasingly crucial aspect of personal and organizational cybersecurity: the need for robust, reliable, and dedicated solutions,” says Karolis Arbaciauskas, head of business product at NordPass.

“In other words, relying on integrated features within a broader service, which might be subject to strategic shifts, can expose users to unexpected vulnerabilities,” he continues.

“But in the long run, this shift can be beneficial. Users will likely move from integrated solutions to dedicated cybersecurity tools. Meanwhile, Dropbox, Deutsche Bank and other non-cybersecurity companies will be able to focus on their core products. Keeping services, such as password vaults secure and up to date is costly and requires constant attention.”

• These are the best password managers for families
• Microsoft Authenticator is deleting your passwords today
• Take a look at our roundup of the best cloud storage