Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 10 #525

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 525 for Sunday, Aug. 10.

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

Just how old are the New York Times staffers writing today’s NYT Strands puzzle? I swear, some of these words haven’t been used in 50 years. So cast your mind back for some historical terms, and let’s get at it. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: A rip-roaring good time.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Let’s throw a bash.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

HALE, WIRE, SALE, PALE, LEER, RUST, BLOW, ROUT, ROUTS, DOWN, GIRO, WING, DING, SHIN, BOUT

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

LUAU, BLOWOUT, HOEDOWN, SHINDING, JAMBOREE, WINGDING

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is PARTIES. To find it, look for the P that’s five letters down on the first column on the left, and wind up and then down.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 10, #791

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle No. 791, for Sunday, Aug. 10.

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.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle features a fun blue category, especially for bookworms like me. That purple category, though — no one does those random «look for a word inside of a word» categories like the Times. 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, including 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: To have an effect on something.

Green group hint: Gather together.

Blue group hint: Not nonfiction.

Purple group hint: Look at a high-school or college schedule for hints.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Influence.

Green group: Amass.

Blue group: Kinds of fiction.

Purple group: Starting with math and science classes, for short.

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 influence. The four answers are juice, pull, sway and weight.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is amass. The four answers are cluster, collect, concentrate and group.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is kinds of fiction. The four answers are fan, historical, pulp and science.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is starting with math and science classes, for short. The four answers are biopic, calcium, chemise and triglyceride. (Biology, calculus, chemistry and trigonometry.)

Technologies

After User Backlash, OpenAI Is Bringing Back Older ChatGPT Models

OpenAI touted GPT-5 as a new model for everything. However, some people still prefer the older versions.

OpenAI hoped to shrink the menu of generative AI models on its ChatGPT platform to just one with the release of its GPT-5 model this week. Not everyone was a fan.

Now CEO Sam Altman says the developer is looking at giving ChatGPT Plus subscribers the option to keep using the older 4o model.

Altman and other OpenAI leaders took questions on Reddit on Friday, a day after the announcement of the new GPT-5 model. A quick glance through the comments revealed how many users preferred how older models like GPT-4.1, GPT-4.5 and 4o handled writing and other tasks. Some said the other models seemed more friendly and conversational than GPT-5.

«BRING BACK 4o,» one user posted, «GPT-5 is wearing the skin of my dead friend.»

Another said GPT-5 is «short» and «cold» compared to GPT-4, adding, «It was terrible that this happened overnight with no other options.»

Altman, posting in the AMA, said OpenAI will look into making 4o or other models available for Plus users. Altman said «we hear you all on 4o» and that OpenAI will monitor usage to see how long to support 4o for Plus users.

The rollout of GPT-5 was «a little more bumpy than we hoped for,» Altman said. The program that decides whether a prompt will be handled by a faster, lighter model within GPT-5 or a more intensive reasoning model was not working for part of Thursday, he said. The rollout of GPT-5 to all users has also taken longer than expected.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Aug. 9, #320

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Aug. 9, No. 320

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.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition stumped me all over the place today. Growing up in Minnesota surrounded by ice hockey, I was able to nail the green group, but I didn’t do so well otherwise. 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: Throw it in there.

Green group hint: Five for fighting.

Blue group hint: On the ice.

Purple group hint: Crimson Tide.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Baseball pitching arm slots.

Green group: Hockey penalties.

Blue group: PWHL teams.

Purple group: Former Alabama QBs.

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 baseball pitching arm slots. The four answers are overhand, sidearm, submarine and three-quarters.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is hockey penalties. The four answers are boarding, cross-checking, hooking and interference.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is PWHL teams. The four answers are Charge, Fleet, Frost and Sirens.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is former Alabama QBs. The four answers are Namath, Stabler, Starr and Young.

Quick tips for Connections: Sports Edition

#1: Don’t grab for the easiest group. For each word, think about other sports categories it might fit in – is this a word that can be used in football, or to describe scoring options?

#2: Second meanings are important. The puzzle loves to use last names and even college names that mean other things, to fool you into thinking they are words, not names.

#3: And the opposite is also true. Words like HURTS might seem like a regular word, but it’s also the last name of at least one pro athlete.