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Today's Connections: Sports Edition will be easier if you know sports movies.

As we've shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.

Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections: Sports Edition?

The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake — players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. Here's a hint for today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Protective gear components

• Green: Diamond hurling

• Blue: Pugilistic players

• Purple: Same second word

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Parts of a football helmet

• Green: Baseball pitches

• Blue: Oscar nominees for playing a boxer

• Purple: ____ Storm

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections: Sports Edition #467 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Parts of a football helmet - CHIN STRAP, FACE MASK, PADDING, SHELL

• Baseball pitches - CHANGEUP, CUTTER, SLIDER, SPLITTER

• Oscar nominees for playing a boxer - DE NIRO, STALLONE, SWANK, WASHINGTON

• ____ storm - COURT, HANNAH, RED, SEATTLE

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new sports Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

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

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

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

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

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

How to play Pips

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

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for January 3, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for January 3, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for Jan. 3 Pips

Greater Than (1): Everything in this space must be greater than 1. The answer is 2-6, placed horizontally.

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

Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 6-4, placed horizontally; 3-1, placed horizontally.

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

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-4, placed horizontally.

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

Medium difficulty hints, answers for Jan. 3 Pips

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 2-1, placed vertically.

Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 4-1, placed vertically.

Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically; 2-1, placed vertically; 1-5, placed vertically; 4-1, placed vertically.

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

Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 5-2, placed vertically; 1-5, placed vertically; 5-3, placed horizontally.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 5-3, placed horizontally; 4-3, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (1): Everything in this space must be greater than 1. The answer is 5-0, placed horizontally.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for Jan. 3 Pips

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 6-1, placed horizontally; 4-5, placed vertically.

Greater Than (0): Everything in this space must be greater than 0. The answer is 6-1, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this purple space must add up to 10. The answer is 2-6, placed vertically; 4-4, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this yellow space must add up to 10. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally; 5-0, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 2-6, placed vertically; 4-0, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 4-0, placed horizontally; 1-1, placed vertically.

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

Number (5): Everything in this red space must add up to 5. The answer is 3-6, placed vertically; 2-3, placed horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this light blue space must add up to 5. The answer is 2-3, placed horizontally; 2-1, placed vertically.

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 3-6, placed vertically; 4-1, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this purple space must add up to 2. The answer is 4-1, placed horizontally; 2-1, placed vertically.

Not Equal: Everything in this space must be different. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically; 0-1, placed horizontally.

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

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult to solve if you're a pop music fan.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for January 3, 2026 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

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

• Yellow: Military levels

• Green: Lower body clothing

• Blue: Popstar tunes

• Purple: Not dry

Here are today's Connections categories

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

• Yellow: Army ranks

• Green: Legwear in the singular

• Blue: Rihanna #1 hits

• Purple: Wet ___

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #937 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Army ranks: CAPTAIN, GENERAL, MAJOR, PRIVATE

• Legwear in the singular: JEAN, JOGGER, OVERALL, SLACK

• Rihanna #1 hits: DIAMONDS, SOS, UMBRELLA, WORK

• Wet ___: BAR, BLANKET, NURSE, WILLY

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for January 3, 2026

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

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

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you're an original.

Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for January 3, 2026 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for January 3, 2026 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: I've never seen that before!

The words are related to newness.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe originality.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Break New Ground.

NYT Strands word list for January 3

• Inventive

• Seminal

• Break New Ground

• Original

• Novel

• Fresh

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

To scold.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

CHIDE

Hurdle Word 2 hint

Buzzed.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for January 3, 2026 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

TIPSY

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Noiseless.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for January 3 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for January 3, 2026 Hurdle Word 3 answer

QUIET

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Possessor.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for January 3 Hurdle Word 4 answer

OWNER

Final Hurdle hint

Real.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

LEGIT

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

The new year has barely begun, and already we have a strong contender for our annual dead tech list, 2026 edition — the Apple Vision Pro.

Not that the iPhone maker's Augmented Reality (AR) headset has passed on yet, exactly. The Apple Vision Pro (starting at $3,499) has been, to paraphrase Monty Python, just resting production at its Chinese manufacturer, Luxcorp. That's according to analysts at International Data Corp, which estimates Apple only sold 4,500 headsets worldwide in the holiday quarter of 2025 — new M5 chip version (which is reportedly made in Vietnam) included.

For comparison, that's less than one-tenth of the half-million Vision Pros analysts say were sold in its launch year, 2024.

Apple doesn't break out Vision Pro sales figures — but the company has all but given up on marketing the product, according to a scathing Financial Times report. Digital marketing for the device has been slashed by 95 percent. If you see a banner ad for a Vision Pro in the wilds of the internet, you might want to take a screenshot: You're looking at an increasingly endangered beast.

SEE ALSO: Meta AI glasses adds 'conversation focus' feature What went wrong with the Apple Vision Pro?

To be fair to Apple, slumping sales are a problem across the whole AR/virtual reality space — not to mention the whole U.S. retail space.

Analysts at Counterpoint saw a 14 percent drop in all AR/VR headset sales in the first half of 2025. The Vision Pro is clearly on the luxury end of the market — Meta's Quest 3S VR headset recently dropped its price to $250 — and luxury items tend to be the first to go when consumers are feeling the pinch of rising prices on necessities such as groceries and healthcare premiums.

Even if you're all-in on the idea of hefty AR headsets with battery packs attached, you might be sorely tempted to drop half the price tag of the Vision Pro on the new Galaxy XR headset ($1,800). As cool as the Vision Pro hands-on experience may be, no must-have "killer app" has yet been identified for the platform. The iPhone is an essential status symbol; the iPad helps you live your best creative life; your Mac is your workhorse; and the VisionPro ... does what, exactly?

From the outset, the company has struggled to explain why we should want a Vision Pro (as this weirdly Black Mirror-esque product demo showed). So it makes sense to pause those ad dollars, at least. For those of us who find the Vision Pro's EyeSight display eyes creepy, banner ads that display the feature may make us less likely to buy one.

Apple's AI glasses are the future.

Disappointing sales and paused production don't mean Apple has no clue what to do in this category. Quite the opposite, according to one well-sourced Oct. 2025 report — the company is already pulling employees away from its cheaper Vision Pro version, and on to a lighter, cheaper model of smart glasses that will compete with Meta's AI-powered Ray-Ban Display and Google's upcoming Android XR glasses.

That makes much more sense. Despite an extremely cringe Mark Zuckerberg demo fail, the $800 Meta Ray-Bans made for one of the more buzzworthy product launches of 2025. Early adopters and critics alike were positive, and investors clamored to buy shares in the company that makes Ray-Bans.

With live translation, directions, and smart specs, the Meta Ray-Bans fulfilled many promises of augmented reality that have been with us all the way back to Google Glass (which also took a long time to officially die out); they also happen to be Ray-Bans and thus don't make you look like a nerd. (Well, unless you're indoors and the cool shades lighten to reveal, unfortunately, thick frames.)

If there's any company that understands the importance of design that appeals to non-nerdy customers, it's Apple. So while the bulky, costly, nerdy Vision Pro may be dead tech walking, don't count its maker out yet. Apple just may rebound from this sales slump to surprise us with something like a Vision Air — lightweight specs that work for way more than 45,000 new customers per quarter.