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TL;DR: Save 65% on a refurbished MacBook Air (M1, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) M1 while supplies last — fewer than 50 remain in stock.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Refurbished Apple MacBook Air (M1, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) $514.99
$1,499.00 Save $984.01 Get Deal

I went through two laptops in my four years of college. Yeah, yikes. I opted for cheaper models then, and, instead, I paid the price with sucky battery life. When the second one bit the dust, I knew I had to get something nicer. That’s when I finally sprung for a MacBook. But here’s something most people don’t know: they aren’t always expensive. 

On a college budget, I did some research and discovered refurbished laptops. Usually gently owned and restored to like-new condition, you can save buckets of cash — and help the environment. I found a deal on the Mashable Shop for a refurbished Apple MacBook Air (M1, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) at $514.99, 65% off its sticker price of $1,499.

Here’s how it’s held up over the past two years

I’m the first to admit that I’m hard on the things I own (you read the opening line of this article, didn’t you?), but this Apple laptop has held up surprisingly well after two years of regular daily use. 

Apple’s M1 chip does an amazing job of powering me through my writing days. I often have 20+ Chrome tabs open at once, a YouTube video playing in the background, and pricing spreadsheets open. With everything running, I get a solid six hours of battery life, but it lasts all day if I’m only working in Google Docs.

Another thing I love about the laptop is the fanless design. It’s silent and weighs under three pounds. I work remotely, so it's easy to bring along when I want to write in a coffee shop or outside.

Don’t miss out on this refurbished MacBook deal. Once they sell out, they’re gone for good.

Get this 13.3-inch MacBook Air M1 for $514.99 (reg. $1,499).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Use our code KOOFR at checkout and get a 1TB cloud storage lifetime subscription from Koofr for £103.14 (reg. £642.81) through 23 February.

Opens in a new window Credit: Koofr Koofr Cloud Storage: Lifetime Subscription (1TB) £103.14 at Mashable Shop
£642.81 Save £539.67 Use code 'KOOFR' Get Deal

Having cloud storage shouldn’t make you feel like you’re Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, with subscription fees charging you over and over, for years or even decades. There’s a new way to protect your files that pays for itself — if you’re willing to spend a little more upfront.

Koofr is like any other major cloud storage platform, except they offer a lifetime cloud storage subscription. Instead of paying every month, you pay just once and never worry about fees again. Plus, through 23 February, this one-time fee is down to £103.14 (reg. £642.81) when you use code KOOFR at checkout.

Affordable, convenient, and secure

Koofr has hundreds of 5-star reviews that speak for themselves. Users seem to love Koofr because it pays for itself after just one year. Similar storage plans from Google Drive cost £8 monthly, so after 13 months, you’ll have money back in your pocket with Koofr.

Here’s a whole list of things to love about Koofr:

• Get 1TB of storage for life with no future fees

• Easily connect your other cloud accounts to transfer your files

• Use Koofr’s duplicate file finder to spot repeated files

• Koofr never tracks your activity

• Your files are encrypted in rest and transfer

Save on cloud storage with Koofr’s lifetime plan, now £103.14 with code KOOFR at checkout until 23 February at 11:59 p.m. PT.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

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.

Tweet may have been deleted

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.

Tweet may have been deleted

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's The Mini crossword answers for February 15 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: To reveal a secret

• Green: Found on an Apple computer

• Blue: Terms often abbreviated in music styles

• Purple: Words that commonly come before "cake" in food names

Featured Video For You Connections: How to play and how to win Here are today's Connections categories

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

• Yellow: Divulge

• Green: Words on a Mac Keyboard

• Blue: Words Shortened in Rock Genres

• Purple: ___Cake

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 #615 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Divulge: BLAB, DISH, SPILL, TELL

• Words on a Mac Keyboard: COMMAND, CONTROL, OPTION, RETURN

• Words Shortened in Rock Genres: ALTERNATIVE, EMOTIONAL, POPULAR, PROGRESSIVE

• ___Cake: CHEESE, CUP, PAN, SHORT

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 February 15

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.

Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. 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 SEE ALSO: 8NYT Connections today: Hints and answers for February 15 Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for February 15, 2025 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

A bend in a road, or someone dishonest.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

The letter O appears twice.

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter C.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today's Wordle is...

CROOK.

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle 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.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for February 15

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

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 Wordle.

If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.

Strands 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 February 15 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for February 15 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Will you be my Valentine?

These words are related to goal-oriented groups.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

The words are names.

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 HockeyTeam.

Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for February 15

• Sharks

• Jets

• Devils

• HockeyTeam

• Avalanche

• Lightning

• Wild

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.

Connections: Sports Edition is a new 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.

Tweet may have been deleted

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.

Tweet may have been deleted

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.

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: Block

• Green: THPS

• Blue: High-flying jams

• Purple: Same second word

Featured Video For You Connections: How to play and how to win Here are today's Connections Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Try to stop a basketball shot

• Green: Skateboarding tricks

• Blue: Two-time NBA Dunk Contest Winners

• Purple: ___ Line

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 #144 is...

What is the answer to Connections Sports Edition today

• Try to stop a basketball shot - CHALLENGE, CLOSE OUT, CONTEST, DEFEND

• Skateboarding tricks - KICKFLIP, MANUAL, MCTWIST, OLLIE

• Two-time NBA Dunk Contest Winners - LAVINE, MCCLUNG, MINER, RICHARDSON

• ____ Line - 3-POINT, BLUE, GOAL, MENDOZA

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.

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.

The Finance Committee’s top Democrat sent a letter last month to Dan Morehead, the founder of Pantera Capital, about the investigation.

The Silicon Valley giant is trying to cut a deal it hopes would help it pull out of a yearslong slump.

Apple is set to launch a few new products next week. What are they? Well, no one knows for sure. There have been rumors of a new iPhone SE or perhaps something new for the Apple Vision Pro line. 

But we do know of one of Apple's anticipated releases: iOS 18.4 beta, which, according to Bloomberg's Apple insider Mark Gurman, is set to roll out next week.

iOS 18.4 beta is set to bring the iPhone some new features and capabilities. Here are some of the cool things that iPhone users can expect.

New Emojis

Listen, this isn't the most innovative thing coming to the new iOS beta, but let's be honest: It's what users will be utilizing the most.

Credit: Unicode Consortium

Seriously, look at this "tired face with bags under its eyes" emoji. It's very likely you'll be seeing this one everywhere in your late-night iMessage group chats. There's also a harp, shovel, beet-like rootless vegetable, purple ink splatter, and a barren leafless tree that's expected to be on the way, too.

Apple usually includes the newest emojis approved by the Unicode Consortium in its latest iOS releases, so you'll likely see these added, too.

Apple Intelligence: Siri gets smarter

Siri is poised to get an Apple Intelligence upgrade, according to Bloomberg's Gurman.

And that upgrade could very well be coming in the iOS 18.4 beta.

Apple first announced its own set of AI features, Apple Intelligence, last June. Apple was already late to the AI space with the announcement. But, even then, the company took months to officially start rolling them out. On top of all that, quite a few of those Apple Intelligence features still haven't been released more than 8 months later.

SEE ALSO: iOS 18.3 is here. 3 major changes to know

On top of that list of upcoming AI features: A smarter, Apple Intelligence-powered Siri voice assistant.

Some of these Siri features include personal context or the ability for the voice assistant to utilize your own data to answer your questions and queries. Siri could also get an on-screen awareness capability, which would allow Siri to interact based on what you're already doing on your device. Apple also previously said that Siri will have a "richer language understanding, more natural communication" and the "ability to take action in and across apps."

Apple Intelligence: Better news summaries

Here's one feature that was taken away that we're expected to get back: News summaries.

Apple Intelligence was originally launched with a feature that generated news summaries via iPhone notifications. There was one problem, though. AI can often get these types of summaries wrong, and when we're talking about breaking news and current events, getting those summaries wrong could be dangerous.

After pushing out a few blatantly false AI-generated news summaries that went viral, Apple pulled the features for the News & Entertainment category of news and added a warning that the feature "may contain errors" in the settings sections for other news categories.

Apple said the AI news summaries that were disabled would return after the company made improvements. It seems likely that Apple will reintroduce the feature in the iOS 18.4 beta.

Default Map and Translation app

As MacRumors reports, Apple has been required by the EU's Digital Markets Act to allow users to set their own default Map and Translation app instead of using the default one provided by Apple.

Based on the timeline for rolling this out, it seems likely that those settings changes will be coming in the iOS 18.4 beta. Yes, Apple is only required to do this in the EU, and other DMA-required features haven't all rolled out in the U.S. But this one seems like a feature that Apple will bring to all of its users.

Home app updates

Apple's expected robot vacuum support was nowhere to be found in the Home app for the last iOS release. Well, to be clear, as MacRumors points out, it was found somewhere: Hidden in iOS 18.3's code. Yet, the feature didn't go live with iOS 18.3's launch.

Apple still mentions the feature on its website, which allows users to control their robot vacuum cleaner functions and monitor its status. Did Apple still need some more time to fine-tune robot vacuum support in the Home app? There's a good chance you'll be able to finally use Siri to control your robot vacuum very soon, possibly in the upcoming iOS 18.4 beta.

Bret Taylor, the chairman of OpenAI’s board, said the artificial intelligence company was “not for sale.” Mr. Musk and other investors had offered $97.4 billion earlier this week.

Planned Parenthood's official Instagram account went dark on Feb. 13, removing all of its posts and uploading a cryptic Instagram story complete with suspicious eyeball emojis and an "I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me" meme.

Reproductive justice advocates and some of the health organization's major opponents, like extremist hate-peddler Libs of TikTok, quickly jumped to the idea of a possible hack, amid growing concern that major social media platforms are censoring abortion and reproductive justice accounts. Patients and users expressed worry online that the vital resources routinely posted and archived on Planned Parenthood were lost. Conservative commentators suggested the account was shutting its doors as it bowed down to the far right campaign to defund the vital clinic network.

But, the organization confirmed to Mashable that the page wasn't the latest victim of a cybersecurity breach — just a cheeky attempt to "break the internet" in the name of safe, consensual sex.

SEE ALSO: Bookmark these abortion resources now

"Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Instagram went dark temporarily as we prepared to mark National Condom Week, February 14-21. Organizations and brands sometimes do this to promote something new — it’s a normal thing you’ve seen if you’ve spent any time on Beyoncé’s internet, but it sent some known opponents of Planned Parenthood’s mission spiraling," Planned Parenthood clarified in a statement to Mashable. "As the foremost sexual and reproductive health care provider in the country, Planned Parenthood will never stop working to help people get the information and care — and condoms — they need to have safe and healthy relationships. "

The Instagram page now sports two new posts: A set of tongue-in-cheek Valentine's Day cards and a guide to "flirty ways" to ask your partner to wear a condom. National Condom Week, celebrated from Feb. 14-21, is a national public service campaign encouraging safe sex and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections. "This National Condom Week, Planned Parenthood is celebrating the power of condoms in making sex safer and more fun. Condoms not only protect against STIs and unintended pregnancies, but also help remove stress or worry, allowing you to relax and focus on the fun part," said Julia Bennett, senior director of Digital Education & Learning Strategy at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The organization has confirmed that the page's previous posts will be restored following National Condom Week's close.