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Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for May 12, #231

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 231, for May 12.

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.


Connections: Sports Edition is kind of all over the sports map today. Hopefully you’ve got a little knowledge of a bunch of things. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.  

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

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: Points in hoops.

Green group hint: Ice, ice baby.

Blue group hint: Top hitters.

Purple group hint:  A bone, for one.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Ways to score in basketball.

Green group: Areas in a hockey rink.

Blue group: Members of baseball’s 3,000-hit club.

Purple group: Things one breaks.

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

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is ways to score in basketball. The four answers are 3-pointer, dunk, free throw and layup.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is areas in a hockey rink. The four answers are center ice, crease, neutral zone and penalty box.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is members of baseball’s 3,000-hit club. The four answers are Beltre, Brock, Musial and Speaker.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is things one breaks. The four answers are huddle, racked pool balls, record and serve.

Technologies

Kia EV Truck: Everything We Know So Far About the New Electric Pickup

Here’s what we know right now about Kia’s upcoming EV pickup truck, coming to the US.

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Technologies

CNET’s Tariff Price Tracker: 11 Products on Our Radar

Worried about the tariffs coming for something you need or want to buy? Check out CNET’s price tracker for details on how things are shaping up for several popular products.

President Donald Trump’s extensive new tariffs are expected to have huge, widespread effects on prices in the US, pushing them upward for popular products. Mattel and Microsoft have already introduced higher prices or warned of them in the near future and, after a false alarm moment with Amazon, Democratic lawmakers are now looking to get retailers to display what portion of their prices are because of tariffs. 

That’s a lot of bad news and uncertainy to take in. If all that noise and worry has you unsure about the costs you’ll face in the near future, we’re here to lend you a hand.

It may not be long before other products become more expensive — assuming they’re still available for purchase at all. The last Chinese imports unaffected by new tariffs arrived in US ports last week, but fewer new shipments are expected in the coming weeks, with reports of empty US ports causing grave concerns about empty shelves in the near future.

Since Trump’s April 9 announcement of steep tariffs against nearly every country, experts have expressed concerns about what they will mean for prices for average, everyday consumers. Tariffs are essentially a tax on imports, paid by the companies importing products. Those additional costs, in one way or another, will most likely be passed down to you, the person trying to buy a new phone, laptop or even your daily coffee. So we’ve decided to try and keep track.

On this page, we’ll be tracking the real impacts of tariffs on 11 specific products and how their prices evolve over the course of 2025. Mostly, they’re electronics and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs. We’ll also track a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn’t produced in the US to any significant degree.

We’ll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It’s all in the name of helping you make sense of things so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET’s guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get experts tips about how to prepare for a recession.

Methodology

In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple’s official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering for each year: the iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we’ll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause.

The 11 products we’re tracking

The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like 3D printer filament or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists.

Below, we’ll get into more about each individual product.

iPhone 16

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes given its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500.

In April, Apple flew bulk shipments of iPhones into the US to get a stockpile here ahead of tariffs kicking in. In recent weeks, reports have indicated that the company is working on moving all manufacturing of US-bound iPhones out of China to India to evade the worst of Trump’s tariff agenda. However, it’s also been reported that the iPhone 19, planned for release in 2027, will need to stay in China, because of the level of complexity planned for its design, tied to the iPhone line’s 20th anniversary.

Duracell AA batteries

A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you’ll be needing to restock. The DuraCell AAs we’re tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon.

Samsung DU7200 TV

Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if for any given household, they’re an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET’s pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean brand so it might have some measure of tariff resistance.

Xbox Series X

Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft’s Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes — the company cited «market conditions» along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories were also affected, and the company also said that «certain» games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80.

Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US.

AirPods Pro 2

The latest iteration of Apple’s wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales. While the AirPods Pro 2 have hovered steadily around $200 on Amazon in 2025, they have been on sale for around $170 since the start of May.

Overture PLA 3D printer filament

As 3D printers continue to grow in popularity, more owners will need to replenish the filament that the machines use to make things. This material is just as susceptible to tariffs as the printers themselves but consumers will most certainly be buying it more often than they buy a new machine.

Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank

Anker’s accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET’s lists of the best portable chargers. 

Bose TV speaker

Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose.

Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush

They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts, but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won’t let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET’s overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook

Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump’s tariffs.

Starbucks Ground Coffee (28 oz. bag)

Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity —I’m certainly drinking too much of it these days —and because it’s uniquely susceptible to Trump’s tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth’s equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the «Coffee Belt.» 

Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season — little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years.

All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs.

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Technologies

Tariffs or No, Apple May Raise iPhone Prices This Year

The tech company could increase prices of its next flagship product line, as it introduces a thinner design and new features.

Even as a new deal between China and the US rolls back high tariffs for the next 90 days, the Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has plans to raise iPhone prices later this year, whether tariffs rise again or not.

The price hike would cover the iPhone 17 line, expected to be released in the fall, which could include a rumored ultraslim new «Air» model and new features, such as increased RAM across the phone line. These phones would include iOS 19, which could bring significant software changes and improvements to the company’s AI system, Apple Intelligence.

The Wall Street Journal says that Apple is trying to position any pricing increase as being prompted by improvements to the products, not tariffs, although a 20% tariff that covers smartphones would still be in place — at least under the current agreement — by the time the new iPhones launch.

The current prices for base iPhone models start at $599 for the iPhone 16E, $799 for the iPhone 16 and $999 for the iPhone 16 Pro.

Apple has already made moves to stockpile current inventory because of tariffs, and has reportedly made plans to shift more of its iPhone production to India and Vietnam.

A representative for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  

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