Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

OK, today’s Connections puzzle purple category made me laugh out loud. Spacey! Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, showing number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Leathery meat.

Green group hint: Plug in, rock out.

Blue group hint: You’ll need a wide straw.

Purple group hint: Celestial bodies get a makeover.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Qualities of overcooked meat.

Green group: Play some electric guitar.

Blue group: Ingredients in bubble tea.

Purple group: Planets/dwarf planet with first letter changed.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is qualities of overcooked meat. The four answers are chewy, dry, stringy and tough.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is play some electric guitar. The four answers are jam, noodle, shred and solo.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is ingredients in bubble tea. The four answers are boba, milk, sugar and tea.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is planets/dwarf planet with first letter changed. The four answers are Bluto, Cars, Darth and Genus, for Pluto, Mars, Earth and Venus.

While clip-on earbuds were kicking around the Asian markets well before Bose released its $300 Ultra Open Earbuds last year, it was Bose’s innovative design and marketing that brought this new style of earrings-like open earbuds to a worldwide audience and spurred others to release clip-on designs to the U.S market. Now Shokz, known for its bone-conduction headphones, has joined the growing clip-on crowd with its OpenDots One ($200), a more premium model that looks and feels similar to the Ultra Open Earbuds but lists for $100 less. 

I’ve been testing the OpenDots One for a couple of days, comparing them to the Ultra Open Earbuds along with some budget clip-on buds that cost as low as $50. Here are my initial thoughts on the OpenDots One. Note that they do not use bone-conduction technology. 

Read more: Best clip-on earbuds of 2025

Design

From a design standpoint, the Shokz OpenDots One measure up quite well to the Bose Ultra Earbuds. They fit my ears as well and maybe even slightly better than the Bose buds, which are quite comfortable. Like the Bose, they have a flexible connector that Shokz refers to as a JointArc and says «provides a gentle yet secure grip on various ear shapes» while noting that «soft silicone strategically placed on the exterior of the speaker further minimizes pressure, even during extended wear.»

As with all clip-on buds, the OpenDots One, as their name implies, feature an open design. That means the bud and driver sit over your ear canal and aren’t jammed in it like noise-isolating ear buds with silicone or foam tips. Open buds allow for sound to leak into your ears and are good for those who don’t like having ear tips jammed in their ears or want to hear the outside world around them for safety reasons. Shokz specializes in headphones and earbuds that are well suited for sporting activities and like its bone-conduction headphones, the OpenDots One offer a secure fit and work well for runners. They have an IP54 rating, which means they’ll provide protection from «light rain and sweat» and are also dust-resistant.

The touch controls take some trial and error to get used to. You can either tap the battery compartment or JointArc or «pinch» the battery with two fingers to control playback and answer/end calls. You can set the long tap and hold gesture to either adjust volume, activate your voice assistant or advance tracks forward and back. I prefer the Bose’s physical control button on its battery, which is also shaped like a barrel, but the OpenDots touch controls were fine. 

Shokz OpenDots One Sound Quality

Shokz says the OpenDots One feature its Bassphere technology that «combines dual 11.8 mm drivers in a spherical module to replicate the performance of a 16mm driver.» They also feature Dolby Audio and Shokz’ DirectPitch technology, which minimizes sound leakage so people near you can’t hear what you’re listening to (or hear it very faintly anyway). You have to engage Dolby Audio in the Shokz App for iOS and Android and it does open the sound a bit and everything sound a tad fuller. It’s simply some form of digital processing and it’s unclear whether it impacts battery life but you can hear a difference when engaging it. 

The sound of all clip-on buds changes slightly with how you position the buds on your ears (you can slide the bud up or down a bit to find the most comfortable fit but the positioning may impact sound quality). They also face some bass challenges because of their open design and tend to not sound as good as noise-isolating earbuds.

That’s the case here as well, although the OpenDots are among the best-sounding clip-on buds I’ve tested, which should be expected given their high price. That said, their sound falls a little short of the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds’ sound quality, even with Dolby Audio engaged. The Bose buds sound a little more open with a tad more bass and their tonal balance is slightly better (they sound more natural and accurate overall). It’s a relatively subtle difference but it is noticeable. 

The main issue with cheaper clip-on earbuds is that they tend to distort a bit at higher volumes. The OpenDots One mainly manage to avoid distorting when you push up the volume. They play loud but not super-loud.

Shokz OpenDots One Voice-calling performance

Shokz headphones and earbuds tend to have good voice-calling performance and while the OpenDots One aren’t bad in the voice-calling department, callers did say they heard a fair amount of background noise when I used them on the noisy streets of New York.

At launch, the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds also weren’t great performers for voice calling with similar issues with background noise reduction. But Bose has subsequently improved the noise reduction with a firmware update (Bose also added multipoint Bluetooth pairing with the same firmware update). And while the Ultra Open Earbuds still aren’t top-notch for voice-calling, they’re now above average. 

Shokz OpenDots One extra features and battery life

The OpenDots One have «Dynamic Ear Detection» that allows the earbuds to automatically recognize which bud is in which ear, so no left or right markers are needed. But otherwise their feature set is fairly basic. They do link with the Shokz App for iOS and Android, which «enables multipoint pairing between two devices, 4 pre-set EQ modes plus two personalized EQ, Find My Earbuds and more.» 

The Bose Ultra Open feature Bose’s Immersive Audio for music spatialization. That’s the same feature found in the QC Ultra Earbuds and QC Ultra Headphones. As with those models, these buds have head-tracking, so you can set the Immersive Audio for Still mode that fixes the sound or Motion Mode that follows your head movements. Engaging it does enhance the sound a bit from standard stereo mode but I think it makes a more pronounced difference with the QuietComfort models. Also, engaging it does reduce battery life.

The Ultra Open Earbuds are rated for up to 7.5 hours at moderate volume levels but that number drops to about 4.5 hours with Immersive Audio on. The charging case provides an additional 19.5 hours of battery and has a quick-charge feature but no wireless charging option.

In contrast, the OpenDots One are rated for up to 10 hours of use on on a single charge, with an additional 30 hours of battery in the charging case, which does feature wireless charging. So the Shokz definitely have an advantage there. 

Shokz OpenDots One final initial thoughts

The well-designed OpenDots One are among the best open earbuds out there right now and certainly have a place on our list of best clip-on earbuds. While they don’t sound quite as good as the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, they’re pretty close and fit my ears slightly better and have better battery life. Like the Ultra Open Earbuds, which list for $299 but are currently on sale for $249, they’re overpriced, but at least they cost less than the Bose and their case does have wireless charging. 

More affordable clip-on earbuds like the Baseus Bowie MC1 (about $50) or Tozo OpenEarRing ($30), don’t sound as good or feature as premium a design. But because these types of clip-on open buds are more for casual listening, not critical listening and just don’t produce the greatest sound, it’s harder to justify spending big bucks on them. In other words, the OpenDots are clearly superior to those budget models but not $150 better.  

Shokz OpenDots One key specs:

• Weight: 6.5 grams per bud
• IP54 splash-proof and dust-resistant
• 11.8 mm drivers
• Bluetooth: 5.4
• Dolby Audio
• Touch controls
• Battery life: Up to 10 hours on a single charge and up to 40 hours with the charging case
• 10-minute quick charge provides 2 hours of playtime
• Multipoint Bluetooth pairing
• Wireless charging supported
• Customize EQ modes and touch controls in Shokz App for iOS and Android
• Locate your earbuds feature
• Colors: Black or gray
• Price: $200

After tariff-based delays, the Nintendo Switch 2 preorders finally opened up in the US — and as expected, it looks like the first wave got snapped up quickly. Given that unexpected wait, and now seeing the new game console currently sold out, it’s understandable if your thumbs are getting twitchy for preorders to open again.

That said, having played on the Switch 2 recently at an event, may I help ease your FOMO somewhat by saying you’re probably OK waiting on it?

I felt this way after my full-day Switch 2 experience, and I’ll reiterate it now: As good as the upgrades the Switch 2 has, and as fun as the new Mario Kart and Donkey Kong games seem to be — and the GameCube gaming library also seems like a blast of retro fun — the Switch 2 is very much an iterative upgrade for now. The very best games on the Switch 2, and its most unique exclusives, are likely still to come.

Nintendo has clearly designed the Switch 2, at least for the moment, to exist as a bridge to the current Switch, with many upcoming games intended to work on the original Switch too. Much more than the debut of the first Switch, the Switch 2 is designed to be a system you could wait to upgrade to. In that sense, it’s following the path of the current gen of Xbox Series X and S and PlayStation 5 consoles.

You can build up your Switch library now and be Switch 2-ready when you eventually upgrade

The Switch 2 plays all the Switch games, which wasn’t the case with the Switch and previous Wii U and 3DS hardware. That means you could skip the Switch 2 now if you needed to, play games on the Switch, and then move your library over whenever. Switch 2 versions of games cost more (ranging from $10 to $20 more), but you can just buy the Switch 2 game upgrades later for a similar price — or play the versions you’ve already got minus the enhanced graphics and game extras.

The Switch 2’s current upgrades are good, but not shockingly good

After playing several of the Switch 2 Edition versions of Switch games for a bit, I noticed better frame rates and graphics resolution, but I honestly didn’t find it to be that much different. I’d prefer playing the enhanced Switch 2 editions, but the experience reminded me a bit of the PS5 Pro versus PS5 versions of games when I first played on the console with Sony last year.

If you have a big TV, you’ll likely appreciate the difference. The bigger Switch 2 screen shows off games in higher-res 1080p with HDR, but you could play on the older Switch and be fine. I’m playing on a Switch OLED again, and after the Switch 2 experience, I don’t have massive I-wish-this-were-a-Switch-2-envy. 

I’m sure this will change as games are developed to take better advantage of the amped-up Nvidia-powered Switch 2 GPU, and when more exclusives arrive. It’s similar to how I felt about the Meta Quest 3, which has better graphics than Quest 2 but didn’t feel like an absolute must-get until a year into its release.

You can still play upcoming Nintendo games on OG Switch

While Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza are Switch 2 exclusives, Metroid Prime 4 Beyond and Pokemon Legends Z-A also play on the Switch. It’s unclear how well these games will play on the Switch versus Switch 2, but you can get a good dose of New Nintendo this year on the older hardware and upgrade the hardware upgrade later. Think of it as a bit of a FOMO buffer.

Looking at Nintendo’s game history, the company often supported its previous consoles for a good couple of years after the new hardware’s release. I’d expect that after 2026 the Switch 2 will start to become the go-to platform for most big game, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a handful of key Nintendo games still supporting original Switch for another year at least.

There’s no ‘whole new experience’ you’ll miss other than Game Chat, that camera and the mouse 

The original Switch was an eye-opener because it was a portable, full game console that could dock with your TV and turn into a shareable console with modular controllers. It was different from anything Nintendo had made before. The Switch 2 is mostly the same proposition, just nicer.

You won’t feel the same regret for missing out on a whole new way to play this time, since it’s a continuation of the same idea. There are two new features you might envy: audio or video Game Chat among friends and the new Joy-Cons working like mice in some supported games. But Game Chat works only with other Switch 2 owners and needs a Switch Online subscription. The mouse functions are fun at times, but could also end up as just a gimmick. For now, the Switch 2 hasn’t pulled that many wild new functions out of its hat, but that could change, knowing Nintendo. There are also some fun camera-connected party game modes for Mario Party Jamboree if you happen to connect a camera, but no other games even have new camera-based features yet.

It’s fine to wait, but tariffs are still a question mark

I’m saying this well before I’ve had a chance to review the Switch 2, and for sure, it looks like the best Nintendo console in a long while and worth upgrading to. But take some comfort that missing out on getting one early this time isn’t quite as big a deal as it was in 2017, even if you’re feeling the pull of regret. 

The only wild card remains the question of the effect tariffs will have on future console pricing. Will it fluctuate? I hope not, but the prices of Nintendo’s Switch 2 accessories have already gone up as a result of Trump’s chaotic tariff policies, and it’s unclear if that might happen again. The state of pricing and consumer electronics is still in an unknown zone, but in the meantime, you can still have a lot of fun on the Switch you already have, now and even in the near future.