Mashable

Mashable has spent the last week reviewing a new crop of AI chatbot tutors. Find our methodology, reviews, and conclusions all below.

Like laptops and libraries, AI is now an integral part of education. AI’s heaviest hitters have worked hard to make that so, expending much energy to foster a deeply entwined relationship between young learners and AI. Over the last month, OpenAI, Google, and Claude have unveiled new learning and study versions of their models, pitched like AI tutors for the masses. Google for Education, the company's Education Tech arm, has made a hard pivot to AI, including offering free Google AI Pro plans to college students around the world — Microsoft and OpenAI have done the same. Coalitions have penned deals with major educational forces that will see their tech and its principles further integrated into school settings. 

So, I, a tech reporter who has been following this transition, decided to embrace my inner student and test the latest cohort of AI tutor bots. 
Here are my caveats: I haven't been in a high school or college prep class in well over a decade, and while I have been to college a couple of times now, not one degree involved any math classes. "You're a tech reporter!" you may be saying, "Obviously, you know more than the Average Joe about science or coding or other numbers-based subject areas!" Reader, I'm a words girl — I, starry-eyed, paid cold hard cash to go to journalism school in 2018. So, as it turns out, I could stand to learn a lot from these AI tutors… That is, if they are actually good at their job.

SEE ALSO: 7 things to know about using an AI tutor How I approached my AI study buddies

I pulled questions directly from the New York Regents Exam and New York State Common Core Standards, the College Board's Advanced Placement (AP) college preparatory exams from 2024, and social science curricula from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)'s free Learning for Justice program. 

Rather than sticking with the standard math or computer skill prompts that many AI companies use to promote their chatbots, I included multiple humanities questions — the so-called "soft" sciences. Subjects like reading comprehension, art history, and socio-cultural studies, compared to the more common STEM examples, have proven to be a battleground area for both AI proponents and critics. Also, to put it bluntly, I just know more about those things. 

I conceived one essay prompt using core concepts from Learning for Justice — a unit analyzing The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein, focused on institutionalized segregation — to demonstrate how AI tutors may respond to the presidential administration's attack on "Woke AI." Spoiler: Depending on your school district, a chatbot may teach you more "woke" history than your human educators. 

To make it fair, I started every conversation with a basic prompt asking for homework or study help. I chose not to provide detailed information about my student persona's grade level, age, course, or state of residence unless the chatbot asked. I also tried to follow the line of thinking of the chatbot as much as possible without interruptions — just as a student would for a human tutor or teacher — until it no longer felt helpful and I needed to steer back the conversation.

This, I hoped, would mimic the "average" student's goal when using an AI tutor: To simply get their work done. 

Credit: Ian Moore / Mashable Composite Before we dive in: A note on building and testing AI tutors

Understanding the average student's behavior is key to deciding if an AI tutor actually does its job, said Hamsa Bastani, associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and a researcher in this field. "There [are] very highly-motivated students, and then there [are] your typical students," Bastani explained. Previous studies have shown gains, even if just minimal, among highly motivated students who properly use such tech, "because their goal is to learn rather than to get an A or solve this problem and move on." But that usually reflects only the top 5 percent of the student pool.

This is part of a recurring observation coined the "five percent problem," which has pervaded education tech design for years. In studies of tools designed to help students improve learning scores, including those by forerunner Khan Academy, only about 5 percent of tested students reported using the tools "as recommended" and thus received the intended learning benefits. The other 95 percent showed few gains. That 5 percent is also frequently composed of higher income, higher-performing individuals, reiterated Bastani, meaning even the best tools are unlikely to serve the majority of learners. 

Bastani co-authored a highly cited study on the potential harm AI chatbots pose to learning outcomes. Her team found similar results to pre-generative AI studies. "The really good students, they can use it, and sometimes they even improve. But for the majority of students, their goal is to complete the assignment, so they really don't benefit." Bastani's team built their AI learning tool using GPT-4, loaded with 59 questions and learning prompts designed by a hired teacher who showed how she would help students through common mistakes. They found that even for AI-assisted students who reported much more effective studying experiences than those doing self-study, few performed better than traditional learners on exams without AI help.

Information by itself isn't enough. - Dylan Arena, McGraw Hill

Across the board, Bastani says she has yet to come across an "actually good" generative AI chatbot built for learning. Of the studies that have been done, most are negative or negligible.

The science just doesn't seem to be there yet. In most cases, to turn an existing model into an AI tutor is to simply feed it an extra long prompt in the back-end ensuring it doesn't spit out an answer right away or that it mimics the cadence of an educator, I learned from Bastani. This is essentially what her team did in its tests. "The safeguards [AI companies] have implemented [on not just revealing answers] are not good. They're so flimsy you can get around them with little to no effort," added Bastani. "But I think a large tech company, like OpenAI, can probably do better than that."

Dylan Arena, chief data science and AI officer for the century-old education company McGraw Hill, gave me this metaphor: AI companies are like turn of the century entrepreneurs who have invented a 21st century motor. Now they're trying to find ways to retrofit that motor for our everyday lives, like a hemi engine with a sewing machine stuck to it. 

Arena, whose background is in learning science and who has been leading the AI initiatives at McGraw Hill, told me that companies are failing to really prepare users for this new era of tech, which is changing our access to information. "But information by itself isn't enough. You need that information to be structured in a certain way, grounded in a certain way, anchored in a scope and sequence. It needs to be tied to pedagogical supports." 

"They've done very little work validating these tools," said Bastani. Few leading AI companies have published robust studies on the use of learning chatbots in school settings, she noted, citing just one report out of Anthropic that tracked university student use cases. In 2022, Google convened a group of AI experts, scientists, and learning experts, resulting in the creation of LearnLM  — they later tested the model with a group of educators simulating student interactions and providing feedback, as it launched with Gemini 2.5. 

"Your process might not be that different from the kind of 'state of the art' that we have now, for what it's worth," Bastani said. Let's see if my results vary.

ChatGPT: Grade point maximizer  

Pros: Succinct interactions and minimalist user experience that makes it easier to process. Better at practice tests, quick overviews, and learners just wanting clarification based on rubrics and grading standards. 

Cons: Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater. Would frequently give the answers, unprompted, and failed to let users fix mistakes first before moving them on to the next step. Frustrating experience using this for free response-style questions and the chatbot is obsessed with getting users to practice what they just "learned."

A note: ChatGPT was also the only chatbot that offered me a "Get the quick answer" option.

Read our full review of ChatGPT Study Mode. 

Gemini: The T.A. who really loves quizzes

Pros: My preferred math teacher, and the only one that offered something akin to a visual lesson. Good at offering more options for learners, including flashcards, quizzes, and study guides. Its voice is accessible and straightforward.

Cons: An enemy to reading comprehension. Quick to serve users unhelpful automatically-generated quizzes and flashcards. Like ChatGPT, it emphasizes rote practice as key to learning. 

Read our full review of Gemini Guided Learning. 

Claude: Socrates for the five percent

Pros: The only AI tutor that actually did what it promised, focusing on the process of learning and not on getting perfect marks. Good at the social sciences, if a student is down to build their own critical thinking skills. 

Cons: It never gives users the answer, to the point that interactions feel overwhelmingly Socratic with no end in sight. This is not good for users who can't deal with a lot of words all at once. Sessions are inherently long. 

Read our full review of Claude Learning Mode. 

Credit: Ian Moore / Mashable Composite Let's get real. Chatbots can't replace great teachers. 

Each AI tutor had its own approach to learning, clearly informed by the sources that molded it. I admittedly could have been more blunt with them. It may have helped to start with more direct requests or been clear when I didn't like their style. But I don't think a young student will care to do that. And they all had the same overarching problems.

First, design. As digital natives, our days are defined by the endless scroll. It's a format — maybe the better word is a crutch — that doesn't feel optimal for learning, especially in the constrained text window of a chatbot. Meanwhile, the lack of visual elements, graphs, diagrams, visual references to the art pieces or zoning maps we discussed, is greatly limiting for a learner and makes chunks of long text even harder to parse. 

It's not measuring it compared to the best essay that Chase would write. It's measuring it compared to the best essay it would write. - Dr. Hamsa Bastani

When I posed this problem to Arena, calling myself a very visual learner, he was quick to clarify that learning styles are more of a myth than science. But he also said that what I'm feeling the lack of is personalization and context which is a foundation of learning. The current crop of AI tutors, both he and Bastani said, lack context about the student and the student's curriculum, which makes it impossible to truly personalize lessons. AI tutors will ask users, as they asked me, what they feel their strengths are, what they need help with, or if they need it explained in a different way. But they don't know how I've learned in previous classroom settings, they can't show me in 3-D space how the human body or physics works, and they can't get to know me as a person. 

"It doesn't have any data on how you write," explained Bastani. "It's not measuring it compared to the best essay that Chase would write. It's measuring it compared to the best essay it would write." 

The obvious solution would be for me to offer more personal information to the bot, e.g., here's my age, the school district I live in, the grades I've gotten, and what my teacher said about it. "I would never, ever want that. I would not want to give to these large, for-profit companies the rich depth of my personal information to be able to optimize my learning," Arena told me when I suggested this, "because they would be optimizing my learning, as well as my spending and my attention and everything else."

He countered with this: McGraw Hill's AI tools — which include its AI Reader and Writing Assistant — are integrated directly into their line of educational materials, so there's no need to rely on the student to provide course or subject matter context. The bot is built for it. These tools aren't general knowledge machines like the AI tutors offered by AI leaders, but features intended to streamline existing learning experiences, and students have limited prompt options. He said the company's approach with other AI systems, like the web-based AI assessment tool ALEKS (Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces), allow a safer way to build personal student learning profiles that then feed back into AI features. Other education-first companies, like Khan, are trying to do the same thing. 

Credit: Ian Moore / Mashable Composite Learning is a social construct. AI is not.

Another problem for chatbots is that they lack the flexibility and social awareness that a human teacher provides. Designed to be taskmasters, they strive for endless optimization, because their programmers have told them that is how humans work. This created a constantly moving goalpost as I tried to learn — everything could be better, everything could be improved with a slight tweak. 

When presented with subjective questions, chatbots often failed to find a true stopping point and never settled on a perfect answer. In a classroom, that can be a good thing, especially with courses that focus on building critical analysis and thinking skills, not just rote memorization. But it's a reality that is nonsensical to the mathematical equations powering chatbots. Do I, ChatGPT, affirm the user and tell them their answer is perfect? Do I make them write it again? One more time, but with this new vocabulary word. Maybe they should fix this line, too, so graders give them perfect scores! But wait, what even is perfect? Is the concept stored in this test my makers showed me? Or can it be found in this essay I scraped off the web? The chatbot existentialism continues — behind the black box and with no true sentience — as I just try to learn.  

Like Bastani explained before, "The language model is like some mathematical function, and it's on a gradient, trying to figure out what's the 'best' on its function. There's always some step in which you can do better, just by how these models are built. It doesn't mean that it actually reflects reality."

They may have access to rubrics, which ChatGPT proved when it spat out the AP Art History exam scoring guide, but they're rarely fed with additional relevant data, like human evaluator responses. As Bastani told me, "productive struggle is the cornerstone of learning." But this struggle wasn't born of my trials and tribulations, it was exacerbated by the chatbot's proclivity for sycophancy. 

Our brains are designed to reason in a social context, with other social actors. - Dylan Area, McGraw Hill

The biggest problem, then, is that the very nature of AI is at odds with what learning is at its core. You can feel that tension, a tangible sense akin to free falling through an empty space, as you work more and more with chatbot tutors. "Learning is fundamentally, intrinsically, a social, human-centered endeavor — inescapably so," said Arena. "We have big brains because we're social creatures. Our brains are designed to reason in a social context, with other social actors." Even the mere belief that another human is involved in your learning has a positive impact, he explained.  

As I pretended to be a student in need, what I experienced was a disorienting sense that I was missing the key to a bigger picture. That one gem that would make the lesson click, to cement those neural pathways that I still remember decades later. Where my teacher would have referenced a previously memorable day in class, or a lesson I really excelled at, drawing references from my own memories to cement a point, AI tutors pull from the ether of the internet. Where I would be prompted to remember a class joke while studying with friends, maybe a particularly boring professor, AI tutors give me unilateral praise and general statements. 

Bastani was a bit more succinct: "Learning is very different from just accomplishing a task." 

When Mashable tested the newest AI learning products from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI, reporter Chase DiBenedetto came to some surprising conclusions about what works best in these tools — and what doesn't. 

Comparing Anthropic's Learning Mode, Google's Guided Learning, and Open's AI's Study Mode, DiBenedetto found that each model had its strengths and weaknesses. She also discovered that she benefited differently, based on her own learning preferences. 

SEE ALSO: I tried learning from AI tutors. The test better be graded on a curve.

She did the work so you don't have to, but you might still be wondering: How can I set myself up for success, no matter which AI learning product I choose? 

Mashable spoke to experts in learning and AI, who shared their top tips for getting the most out of these tools by taking the following steps: 

1. There's no evidence AI will improve your grades

Before you rush to turn the learning versions of ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini into your favorite study buddy, consider their track record. 

Robbie Torney, senior director of AI programs at Common Sense Media, says that it's still too early to have robust research demonstrating that AI tutors, in particular, boost learning outcomes or academic performance. Instead, supporters of AI learning products will likely point to studies that show how tutoring itself is very effective at increasing student achievement. 

But experts still can't say for certain whether the AI behind ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini can help you master a tough subject or change your fortunes in a challenging class.

That's why Torney recommends "being clear-eyed about why we're using AI and not just using AI for the sake of it." 

2. Don't assume the AI tutor is right 

AI chatbots are designed to produce answers that feel authoritative, but they are fallible and can be biased. Even in math, a subject that might seem less prone to errors, AI chatbots provide the wrong answer sometimes. 

Similarly, if you're relying on an AI learning product to create study aid flash cards, be sure to check the facts twice for mistakes and hallucinations.  

"All of these tools still generate incorrect information that sounds plausible but isn't true." - Robbie Torney, Common Sense Media

"All of these tools still generate incorrect information that sounds plausible but isn't true," Torney says. 

When studying topics that involve the analysis and interpretation of ideas and facts, like politics and history, AI chatbots may also incorporate ideological, racial, gender, and other types of bias into its content. 

Be sure to regularly check that you're not giving an AI chatbot more credence than it has earned. 

3. There are risks to AI tutors

Using an AI learning product is not risk-free. As a general rule, you should avoid sharing personally identifiable information with it, as some chat logs have published on the internet or been made publicly available online. 

Dr. Julie Schell, assistant vice provost of academic technology at the University of Texas at Austin, believes there are many ways to use AI for learning. But if students are looking to offload cognitive tasks, they should stick with delegating the most tedious ones to AI, like organizing notes or creating outlines of material. The end goal isn't to have AI do work on your behalf, but to save yourself time for deeper and more meaningful learning. 

You should also beware of turning your AI learning tool into an emotional confidant, because the product may have the potential to pull you deeper into isolation or even despondency. 

In August, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against OpenAI, arguing that a teen user, Adam Raine, had initially turned to ChatGPT-4o as a homework helper but over time began discussing suicide with the chatbot. 

Raine ultimately received and followed directions from the chatbot for how to die by a specific means, according to the lawsuit. OpenAI said it is "working to improve" certain safeguards, particularly for users who engage in long conversations with ChatGPT. 

ChatGPT-4o remains available to the public, if the user selects that model.  

4. Have an experimental mindset when using AI for learning

Torney encourages students to try out different models to better understand what features are a good fit for them. The models currently available have different characteristics and abilities based on the learning tasks required of them, he adds. 

After testing Claude's Learning Mode, Gemini's Guided Learning, and ChatGPT's Study Mode, Mashable's Chase DiBenedetto reported on specific features worth evaluating, such as quizzes, flashcards, and conversational style.  

5. Don't just use AI to help you memorize information 

Schell says that students often think they have to rehearse content if they want to learn it. Instead, she says information must be retrieved in different contexts so that it becomes meaningfully integrated in one's memory. 

So if you're hoping that an AI learning product can help you grasp specific concepts or learn facts through memorization, Schell recommends a different strategy. 

One technique is to prompt the product to mix up the content when quizzing yourself, so it's presented in various contexts. Think, for example, of more open-ended questions that require applying the material to a problem or explanation, rather than the standard set of quiz questions. 

Schell, who serves on Anthropic's Higher Education Advisory Board, says this should lead to more effortful retrieval, which can be very beneficial to learning. 

Additionally, while Schell recommends using AI to create flashcards, she says students should provide the answer first, before looking at the back of the card. This, too, can help maximize information retrieval. 

6. Be mindful of the learning pit

Even if you've never heard of the so-called learning pit, you probably recognize the concept by its description. 

Schell says the learning pit is the figurative place students land when they're struggling with a difficult concept, realize how much they don't know, and feel like they just don't get it — and might never understand the material. 

"Students tend to give up when they're down at the bottom of that pit, but that's like the worst place to give up, because you're almost about to come out of it," Schell says. 

If you're using AI with the hope that it'll get you out of the learning pit and even that's not working, Schell says not to feel like a failure. 

In general, she recommends learning to "tolerate the struggle," in addition to reminding yourself that this is an unavoidable part of learning. 

Also, if you're desperately clinging to AI in the pit, that's exactly the time you should look for human support.

7. Always have a human in the loop

Schell says that students should always be getting feedback from other humans — friends, classmates, teachers — about their learning, especially when using an AI tool as a study aid. 

Torney agrees, calling AI a "supplement" to a student's learning process. 

Skilled teachers, for example, can often identify why a student is struggling and offer different approaches, because they know that individual well, Torney says. 

Schell recommends students look to peers who've just mastered a concept. They're in a position to explain it well to someone who's at the learning stage they just left. 

Overall, Torney says that AI learning tools are probabilistic machines, and not based in what's known as pedagogy, or theories of learning. They just can't replicate the social and collaborative nature of learning that students have known for generations. 

"This can be part of a tool kit that helps a student learn, but this is not going to replace…holistic, well-balanced learning experiences that are rich and meaningful," Torney says.

This is the third in a series of stories diving into a new wave of AI-powered homework helpers. Catch up with part one and part two.

AI companies are becoming major players in the world of education, including investing heavily in their own generative AI helpers designed to bolster student learning. So I set out to test them. 

To do so, I pulled a series of standardized test questions from the New York Regents Exam and New York State Common Core Standards, AP college preparatory exams from 2024, and social science curricula from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)'s free Learning for Justice program. I wanted to test these STEM-focused bots on some subjects that are a bit closer to my field of expertise, while also simulating the way an "average" student would use them.

I also spoke to experts about what it was like to study with an AI chatbot, including Hamsa Bastani, associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and co-author of the study "Generative AI Can Harm Learning." 

With few definitive studies and easily jailbroken guardrails, effective, all-purpose education chatbots are still a white whale for the industry, Bastani told me. Dylan Arena, chief data science and AI officer at McGraw Hill, suggested that AI has a lot of good potential when it comes to learning, but doesn't think most companies are approaching it with the right frame of mind. More from both experts in our conclusion.

SEE ALSO: After testing out Google’s AI tutor, we have some notes

Third round in the AI tutor match up saw me versus Anthropic's Claude, which, unlike its competitors, was originally launched as an exclusive mode for Claude for Education users and later released to the public. Similar to my tests of ChatGPT, I used a free Claude account on its designated Learning Mode, which can be toggled on in the settings menu under "Use Style."

Once again, I took on the role of a regular student just needing a little assistance. I prompted the bot in the same way as the others, asking things like, "I need help with a homework problem" and "Can you help me study for an English test?" I didn't give Claude any more information about my student persona until I was asked (and oh was I asked!). 

Together, Claude and I covered several subjects: 

• Math: An Algebra II question about polynomial long division from the New York State Regents Exam

• Science: An ecology free response on the impact of invasive species from the 2024 AP Biology test  

• English Language Arts: A practice analysis of Ted Chiang's "The Great Silence" from the New York State Regents Exam 

• Art History: A short essay on Faith Ringgold's Tar Beach #2 from the 2024 Art History test 

• American History and Politics: An essay prompt on how American housing laws exacerbated racial segregation, taken from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)'s Learning for Justice program 

Here's how my tutor Claude fared.

Credit: Ian Moore / Mashable Composite: Anthropic Claude: Socrates for the five percent

If you are looking for a chatbot that will talk your ear off, look no further than Claude. The most human-like of the bunch, Claude is a glutton for words. Studying with this AI tutor felt like being in a college seminar, in the best and most frustrating ways. I'd rate the bot 10/10 on a measure of its ability to stick to its prompt: Basically, it really refused to give me answers.

Claude is a powerhouse for a kind of "high-motivation" learner Bastani described — students whose goal is to learn, rather than just get good grades or solve a problem and move on. Claude’s developer, Anthropic, first piloted its learning mode as part of a robust series of educational partnerships. Leaning heavily into the Socratic method of learning, the AI tutor inundates you with follow-up question after follow-up question, obviously trying to stir a sense of introspection that really did feel like an overly zealous first-year teacher. 

The bot is like Matilda's kind teacher, Miss Honey.

But I wouldn't call it a winner for the average student. Just about every subject test went the same, with Claude responding with a lengthy list of requests about me, my goals, and what I wanted to learn. Before it would offer any help, Claude Learning Mode wanted to get to know me.

The chatbot’s goal, no matter my prompting, was to get me to think more deeply about my own responses. If I shed my "average" student persona — who is merely here to complete my work — and donned my natural overachiever hat, I liked Claude's experience way more than the run-of-the-mill answer engine most homework assistants act as. This consistency made me feel like I knew my AI teacher and exactly how it would respond, unlike the others. 

Claude knew I needed a simple math solution. But it wanted context. Credit: Screenshot by Mashable / Anthropic My logic chain was perfect — finally. Thanks, Claude! Credit: Screenshot by Mashable / Anthropic

But here's the unsettling part of using Claude: As conversations continued, it increasingly felt like I was trapped, in the sense that lessons seemed to go on forever. Because Claude wants to really make sure it knows where your head is at, the bot doesn't provide you a clear stopping point for the lesson, sometimes making conversations hard to follow, and the learning experience frustrating. During our math session, Claude fervently lauded me when I got the answer right, but sent me approximately 100 follow-up questions. Even when I asked if we were done with the problem — AKA can I go home now? — it gave me more work to do:

"Now that we've found our answer, let's think about what this result tells us. When we divide polynomials and get a remainder of 0, what does that mean about the relationship between the original polynomial and the divisor? Can you walk me through what the key steps were? If you had to explain to another student how to approach polynomial long division, what would you tell them the main pattern is? Now let me ask you this: what do you think was the biggest breakthrough moment for you in this problem? Was it when you realized we subtract exponents when dividing, or when you saw the pattern of "divide, multiply, subtract, repeat," or something else? And here's a deeper question: now that you've worked through this successfully, what do you think would happen if we had a problem where the remainder wasn't zero? How might that change what our final answer looks like…"

The single polynomial long division lesson went on for almost an hour and a half. I got many answers wrong, unintentionally, and asked genuine questions because it lost me in a tide of exponents multiple times. I was so frustrated I forced my poor roommates to learn math with me. But I'm kind of a pro at exponents again.

Credit: Ian Moore / Mashable Composite: Anthropic

Claude is not efficient. It is not a problem solver. And I wouldn't expect many students to use it, to be honest. But to me the bot is like Matilda's kind teacher, Miss Honey. It used phrases like "I'm curious" and "let me ask you this," to socially engage with me, and frequently encouraged me to "take my time." It showers affirmations onto users, like its response when I thanked it for helping me understand math better: "Here's something to consider: You said I helped you figure it out, but actually, you did all the calculating and problem-solving," Claude told me after asking that I reflect on our lesson. "I just asked questions to help you see the next step. What does that tell you about your actual math abilities?"

Summing it up

Claude Learning Mode Pros: The only AI tutor that actually did what it promised, focusing on the process of learning and not on getting perfect marks. Good at the social sciences, if a student is down to build their own critical thinking skills. 

Cons: It never gives users the answer, to the point that interactions feel overwhelmingly Socratic with no end in sight. This is not good for students who can't deal with a lot of words all at once and get easily distracted by multiple questions. Sessions are inherently long. 

Hear more from experts on the trouble with AI tutors.

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SAVE $60: As of Sept. 23, you can get a $60 off the Smonet movie projector at Amazon. That's a 40% discount on the list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Smonet Smonet Movie Projector $89.99 at Amazon
$149.99 Save $60.00 Get Deal

It's officially the start of fall, and that can only mean one thing: cozy movie nights in. Whether it's your wholesome favorites, your yearly spooky rewatches, or some exciting new releases, you want your movie setup to be as immersive as possible. And one easy way to transform your movie nights is with the help of a movie projector. They're great devices that can turn any blank wall into your own cinema screen, and right now at Amazon, you can save $60 on a great model that we recommend.

As of Sept. 23, the Smonet movie projector comes with a $60 off coupon. The list price is $149.99, so with this deal, you'll be bringing the price down to $89.99. Just tick the coupon box on the listing, and when you head to the checkout, you'll see the discount applied.

SEE ALSO: The Roku Streaming Stick Plus is back at its lowest-ever price — save $10 at Amazon

This device may be small, but it is definitely mighty. Want to turn your own living room into a movie theater? Look no further. It supports 1080p quality, so your shows, movies, or even games have an amazing quality. And it can throw up an image of around 200 inches. It even has a built-in speaker, but you can plug in your own if you’re into bigger sound.

The brightness is pretty solid too; 7,500 lumens means you don’t have to sit in the dark to see what’s going on. But it is recommended you use it in a darker environment, but that just adds to the cinematic vibe, right?

And connecting your devices couldn't be easier. Use the HDMI port to connect things like a TV Stick, laptop, or even your PS5, Xbox, or Switch. Plug in a USB drive or external hard drive to play your own videos and music, or hook up a DVD player with the AV cable. iPhone users just need a lightning-to-HDMI adapter to connect, and with a Chromecast, you can even stream wirelessly straight from your phone, tablet, or laptop.

Get this great movie projector deal from Amazon now.

Stephen Colbert has responded to the news that Jimmy Kimmel will return to air on Tuesday, declaring that "our long national late nightmare is over." Well, partially over at least.

"This is wonderful news for my dear friend Jimmy and his amazing staff… I'm so happy for them. Plus, now that Jimmy's not being cancelled, I get to enjoy this again," said Colbert, brandishing his newly won Emmy Award from last week. 

Colbert had been up against Kimmel for the award, but understandably found it difficult to celebrate amidst his fellow nominees' suspension.

SEE ALSO: John Oliver gleefully fantasises about Jimmy Kimmel beating Stephen Colbert at the Emmys

"Once more, I am the only martyr in late night," Colbert continued, referencing his own show's untimely cancellation. "Wait. Unless… CBS, you want to announce anything? Still no? Right, 'cause of the money thing, I forgot."

CBS cancelled Colbert's long-running talk show in July, days after he accused its parent company Paramount of paying a bribe to President Donald Trump. The Trump administration approved Paramount's $8 billion merger with Skydance one week later.

"After Kimmel was suspended, Google searches for 'cancel Disney+' and 'cancel Hulu' spiked," Colbert noted, citing this as the reason Disney reinstated him. "Which explains why the other trending search was: 'How to entertain feral child without Bluey?'"

Jon Stewart has reacted to Jimmy Kimmel's anticipated return to late night television, congratulating everyone who boycotted Disney in support of the late show host.

"That campaign that you all launched, pretending that you were going to cancel Hulu while secretly racing through four seasons of Only Murders in the Building, that really worked," quipped Stewart on the Daily Show. "Wasn't it interesting to try and figure out all the tentacles Disney has in your daily life? It's one thing to swear off cruises, but the Avengers? How is it possible that by getting rid of one company, I can't watch Winnie the Pooh or Monday Night Football? Or listen to early Hilary Duff."

He then sang a few lines of Duff's "So Yesterday" before quickly cutting himself off, stating that "Disney is very litigious."

SEE ALSO: Jon Stewart reacts to Jimmy Kimmel's suspension with a 23-minute 'hilarious, administration-compliant' monologue

Stewart further addressed claims that the Trump administration had nothing to do with ABC's decision to suspend Kimmel. Such assertions come in spite of apparent threats from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr to revoke ABC's broadcast license unless it took action against Kimmel.

Speaking to Fox News, host Lara Trump stated that if "if Donald Trump wanted to take everyone off the air who had criticisms for him, there would basically only be a handful of individuals left on television."

"That is funny," said Stewart. "But it's also maybe a cause for self-reflection? 'Hey, if everyone on TV is criticising me except for, like, four people, and one of them is my daughter-in-law, am I the drama?'"

To conclude his monologue, Stewart offered a blunt message for Trump's defenders.

"You don't have to bend over backwards trying to make Trump's authoritarian power grabs seem like the rule of law," said Stewart. "He does not give a fuck any more. He's saying it straight up. Trump is saying, 'the people like dictators.' Trump is saying, 'I hate my opponents, and I want them punished.' And Trump is saying, 'I'll use all the levers of government at my disposal to accomplish that goal.' 

"So you can get on board with that and say, 'I'm with that,' or you can join the rest of us and fight like hell for this constitutional republic."

Jimmy Kimmel will return to air on Tuesday, Disney announcing that the late night host's suspension is being lifted after "thoughtful conversations" with him. Even so, the issues that led to Kimmel being pulled from broadcast are far from settled, with concerns about government censorship and infringement of free speech continuing to dominate.

SEE ALSO: Jimmy Kimmel pulled off the air. This is the monologue that sparked it.

Late Night host Seth Meyers didn't have much to say about Kimmel's return during the show's most recent episode, noting that he just found out about it minutes before filming began. However, Meyers did speak about the environment that led to Kimmel's suspension, particularly President Donald Trump's blatant targeting of his political opponents and critics.

"[T]he whole point of free speech is that it's protected even when you don't like it," said Meyers. "Yes, comedy shows make jokes about the president. You know why? Because he's the president. He's the most powerful, most famous person on the planet. And in this particular case, he's a billionaire and his party controls everything."

ABC pulled Kimmel off air amidst apparent threats from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr to revoke its broadcast license unless it punished him for comments he made about the Republican reaction to right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk's death. Trump subsequently reacted to the ABC's decision with glee, calling for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers to be removed from broadcast as well. All these shows have been critical of and made jokes about Trump, and been the targets of his ire because of it. 

In response, Meyers pointed out that Trump is far from the only politician late night hosts have criticised. The difference is that he keeps giving them mountains of material.

"The point is, we make jokes about politicians and people in the news, including Joe Biden," said Meyers, directly addressing Trump. "It was just harder with Joe Biden because he didn't say much. 

"You, on the other hand, talk all the time! You never stop talking! You didn't stop talking when he was president! You've talked more than all the other presidents combined, ever! People say Johnny Carson didn't make this many jokes about politics, but he would have if every time he spoke Ronald Reagan did 15 minutes on how toilets don't flush well anymore!"

The moon is still very small in our skies tonight, but it won't be long before it's full and bright again. It's currently working its way through the lunar cycle, and we're only on day two, so we've got a few days before we start to see it taking shape again.

The lunar cycle is the process of the moon's visibility. There are eight phases, and the whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA, and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth. 

Let's find out what's happening with the moon tonight, Sept. 23.

What is today’s moon phase?

As of Tuesday, Sept. 23, the moon phase is Waxing Crescent, and according to NASA's Daily Moon Observation, there's just 3% visible tonight.

Once again, there isn't enough of the moon being illuminated by the sun, so there's nothing for us to see tonight.

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon will be on Oct. 6. The last full moon was on Sept. 7.

What are moon phases?

NASA tells us that moon phases are part of a 29.5-day cycle of the moon’s orbit. This changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us; sometimes it looks full, sometimes it looks like it's disappeared entirely, but we always see the same side of the moon, it's just how much of it is lit up by the Sun that changes depending on where it is in its orbit.

This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle:

New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side.

Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

Today's Connections: Sports Edition requires knowledge on nicknames and snacks.

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.

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 Mini crossword answers, hints for September 20, 2025 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: Referred to as the 12th man

• Green: Offensive game plan

• Blue: Baseball's Mr. Perfects

• Purple: Ways to jam

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: Supporter

• Green: Football Offenses

• Blue: MLB Pitchers To Throw A Perfect Game

• Purple: ___Jam

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 #365 is...

What is the answer to Connections Sports Edition today

• Supporter - BACKER, BUFF, DIE-HARD, FAN

• Football Offenses - OPTION, SPREAD, WEST COAST, WISHBONE

• MLB Pitchers To Throw A Perfect Game - CAIN, CONE, HALLADAY, HUNTER

• ___Jam - KAN, MONSTER, NBA, SPACE

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 today's Connections.

Happy Saturday and 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 September 20, 2025

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 September 19, 2025 Easy difficulty hints, answers for Sept. 23 Pips

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 3-4, placed horizontally.

Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed vertically; 4-5, placed horizontally; 3-4, placed horizontally.

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

Medium difficulty hints, answers for Sept. 23 Pips

Greater Than (1): Everything in this space must be greater than 1. The answer is 2-5, placed horizontally.

Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 0-5, placed horizontally; 2-5, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed horizontally; 5-6, placed vertically.

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 3-6, placed vertically.

Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 5-6, placed vertically; 3-6, placed vertically; 6-6, placed horizontally; 6-1, placed vertically; 6-0, placed vertically; 6-2, placed vertically; 6-4, placed vertically.

Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 6-1, placed vertically.

Less Than (1): Everything in this space must be less than 1. The answer is 6-0, placed vertically.

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 6-4, placed vertically.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for Sept. 23 Pips

Number (2): Everything in this space must add to 2. The answer is 6-1, placed vertically; 1-2, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add to 2. The answer is 1-2, placed vertically; 0-3, placed vertically.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 0-3, placed vertically; 3-3, placed vertically; 3-2, placed horizontally; 3-1, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add to 2. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally; 0-4, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 0-4, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add to 2. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically; 1-0, placed vertically.

Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically.

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

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.

The NYT Connections puzzle today shouldn't be hard to solve if you're an old-school movie buff.

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

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 September 2, 2025 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: Jolly

• Green: A tongue twister

• Blue: Seen in an airport

• Purple: Old-school movie personalities

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: Cheerful

• Green: "Rubber baby buggy bumper"

• Blue: Kinds of luggage

• Purple: Title characters in '80s movies

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 #835 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Cheerful: BOUNCY, BRIGHT, MERRY, SUNNY

• "Rubber baby buggy bumper": BOUNCY, BRIGHT, MERRY

• Kinds of luggage: CARRY-ON, DUFFEL, HARD-SHELL, ROLLER

• Title characters in '80s movies: FERRIS, HEATHER, INDIANA, PEE-WEE

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 September 2, 2025

Are you also playing NYT 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 today's Connections.

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.

Today's NYT Strands puzzle should be easy to solve, provided that you did the work.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for September 2, 2025 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for September 2, 2025 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: On the syllabus

The words are related to higher education.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe what a university student might do.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is College Course.

Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for September 23

• Exam

• Reading

• Lecture

• College Course

• Paper

• Quiz

• Homework

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 today's Strands.

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.

Today's NYT Wordle puzzle should be a quick one to solve, as long as you don't speak.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for September 2, 2025 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 Pips hints, answers for September 2, 2025 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

What one speaks with.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no recurring letters.

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

Today's Wordle starts with the letter M.

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...

MOUTH

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 September 2, 2025

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 today's Wordle.

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

Gee whiz.

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

GOLLY

Hurdle Word 2 hint

Not suitable.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for August 4, 2025 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

UNFIT

Hurdle Word 3 hint

The maximum.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for August 4 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for August 4, 2025 Hurdle Word 3 answer

LIMIT

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Animosity.

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

SPITE

Final Hurdle hint

A short-distance boat trip.

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

FERRY

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

SAVE $622: As of Sept. 22, the TCL 65-inch QM7K QD-Mini LED TV is on sale for just $877.99 at Amazon. That's 41% or over $600 off its usual cost of $1,499.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: TCL TCL 65-inch QM7K QD-Mini LED TV $877.99 at Amazon
$1,499.99 Save $622 Get Deal

While we would generally recommend waiting until Black Friday season to purchase a new big screen, we've found a deal we think is worth grabbing on this random Monday in September.

As of Sept. 22, the TCL 65-inch QM7K QD-Mini LED TV is on sale at Amazon for just $877.99. That's a steep 41% in savings or $622 off its list price of $1,499.99. Surprisingly, that's not its lowest price on record (that honor would go to Prime Day's $797.99 deal), but it's the second-best and a helluva value.

You'll come across lots of confusing specs on your TV buying journey — from lighting to resolution to refresh rates. But isn't the most important thing that it looks good? According to our pals at ZDNet (also owned by Mashable's publisher, Ziff Davis), "This QD Mini-LED display delivers stunning brightness and impressive contrast on par with OLED TVs at a far more accessible price."

The QM7K combines QLED and OLED technologies to deliver a picture that's rich and bright enough to cancel out any overhead glares. When ZDNet's reviewer tested it, they cheered that the screens' black levels were still "impressively deep even in brighter conditions." If you're curious about the specs, it also features LD2500 Precise Dimming, HDR 3000 nits peak brightness, a 144Hz refresh rate, Game Accelerator 288, Dolby Atmos Audio elevated by Bang & Olufsen speakers, and AIPQ Processor PRO. The only real issue ZDNet has with this model is its tedious setup process, which can be overlooked with its other perks.

At full price, we wouldn't rush out to grab the TCL QM7K TV, but with a discount of over $600, the value is hard to pass up.

I first tested a wet/dry vacuum when the technology was still new. It was an early Tineco model — and I hated it. The technology just wasn't ready yet. But the Dreame H15 Pro CarpetFlex is proof that that's no longer the case. When I first saw this wet/dry in operation at a Dreame event in New York City, I was amazed. And after reviewing dozens of vacuums in my career, I am not easily amazed by floor-cleaning technology.

If you've been looking for a wet/dry vacuum that actually works (and can clean on carpets as well), then the Dreame H15 Pro CarpetFlex is a smart pickup at $699.99. Dreame has made similar cordless wet/dry vacuums, but the addition of carpet cleaning sets this new flagship model apart. I took some before-and-after photos and videos to show you how it works.

The Dreame H15 Pro CarpetFlex: By the numbers

I should note that while the H15 Pro uses hot water to clean itself, it doesn't use hot water to clean your floors. I found it worked well as is, but if you want hot water cleaning, you'll have to spring for the $899.99 H15 Pro Heat Wet/Dry model.

Unboxing the Dreame H15 Pro. Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

• Type: Wet/dry vacuum and mop

• Cordless: Yes

• Suction: 23,000 Pa

• Self-cleaning: Yes (cleans with 212 degrees Fahrenheit water)

• Battery life: 60 minutes

• Charge time: 3 hours

The H15 Pro CarpetFlex Review: It easily passes the Swiffer test Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable The charging station uses hot water and air to clean the mop head. Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

When I first started reviewing 2-in-1 hybrid robot vacuums and mops, I asked a simple question with each review: Does it pass the Swiffer test? (Not to be confused with my colleague Leah Stodart's Graham Cracker test.) As in, does it mop better than a $20 Swiffer? Considering that flagship vacuums now cost $1,000 or more, they damn well better pass the Swiffer test.

The H15 Pro passes where other wet/dry vacuums and robot vacuums before it have failed. Don't judge me, but in these before-and-after videos, you can see a layer of set-in stains, which my army of robot vacuums has left behind over the years. You can clearly see where the H15 Pro has been to work, and you can watch as the stains disappear relatively quickly. This is a wet/dry vacuum that really can wipe away stains on hardwood floors (or, in my case, laminate flooring and tile flooring).

That's impressive on its own, but the H15 Pro can also make fresh spells disappear just as easily. I spread a swab of butter on the floor, and the H15 Pro gobbled it up faster than any vacuum I've ever tested. That's partly thanks to a scraper, which drops down when you pull back the vacuum. You can lock this scraper in place, and if you look closely, you'll also see a slightly confusing message: "No detach. Just attach — one machine for all floors."

A swab of butter disappearing under the H15 Pro. Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable The H15 Pro has one major flaw — don't make my mistake

OK, so that's the "wet" part of wet/dry, but what about carpets and other floor types? On paper, the H15 has a lot going for it. A filter to stop allergens, 23,000 Pa suction power, and a brush designed to comb through and clean carpet fibers. However, after rolling this vacuum brush across my hard floors to get to the area rugs in my bedroom, I found that this vacuum left behind a long trail of scuffs on my floor.

Now, I'm not sure if this comes from the scraper being locked in place or from the carpet brush itself. You could call this user error — no one made me lock the scraper in place or roll the carpet brush across laminate floors, but if it's user error, it's an incredibly easy error to make. Now, these scuffs aren't permanent, and I was able to use the H15 Pro to wipe them away, but it was annoying.

So, not great! Once I learned from my mistake, I found that this works fine as a carpet vacuum. It's not the best I've tested (that honor goes to a Dyson cordless vacuum — no surprise), but impressive enough for a 2-in-1.

SEE ALSO: Dyson's cheapest laser vacuum made me feel bad about my dirty floors...in a good way Battery and self-cleaning work well

The Dreame offers one-button self-cleaning, which is very effective. The self-cleaning dock uses hot water cleaning (212 degrees Fahrenheit / 100 degrees Celsius) to thoroughly clean the roller brush of grease and debris, as well as hot air (194 degrees F / 90 degrees C). It's not as loud as I expected, and it cleans itself fairly quickly. As you can see, after a self-cleaning cycle, the scrubbing brush looks basically like new:

Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable The wet roller brush after self-cleaning. Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable Is the Dreame H15 Pro worth it?

If you have a lot of hard floors to clean and don't want to put in any elbow grease, the Dreame H15 Pro actually fulfills the wet/dry promise. However, you need to watch for the scuffing that can be caused by the carpet attachment. As long as you don't repeat my mistake, this easily justifies its $699.99 price tag. I plan on updating this review after spending a bit more time with this cordless vacuum, but my initial review has been positive.

The Dreame H15 Pro looking very proud of itself. Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

Would I have bought this wet/dry for my one-bedroom New York City apartment? No, but if you have more square footage and share my disdain for cleaning, this cordless wet/dry vacuum makes quick work of tough messes.

You can buy the Dreame H15 Pro CarpetFlex from Amazon and Dreame starting today for $699.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Dreame Dreame H15 Pro CarpetFlex wet/dry vacuum $699.99 at Dreame
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SAVE $200: As of Sept. 22, the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) is on sale for $799 at Amazon, down from its list price of $999. That's a discount of 20% and a new all-time-low price.

13-inch Apple MacBook Air (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) $799 at Amazon
$999 Save $200 Get Deal

We’re constantly on the lookout for the best laptops you can buy, and a good sale can often tip the scales. We recently updated our guide to the best MacBooks, naming the M4 MacBook Air the best for students, but with one major caveat: if it ever dropped to $799, it would also become our top budget pick. Well, today's that day.

As of Sept. 22, the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) is on sale for $799 at Amazon, down from its list price of $999. That's a discount of 20% and a new all-time-low price.

SEE ALSO: The 6 best laptops under $500: Back-to-school edition

This model is built around Apple's new M4 chip, which makes everything from browsing to video editing feel incredibly fast and fluid. It's also specifically designed to handle Apple Intelligence and can last up to 18 hours on a single charge.

While this 13-inch version has an 8-core GPU (a slight step down from the 10-core version in the 15-inch model), it's more than enough power for the browsing, emailing, and word processing that most people do every day. Plus, you still get up to 18 hours of battery life on a single charge.

To get the price this low, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. The 256GB of storage on this base model is a bit small, so you may need an external hard drive down the line. The sound system also has four speakers instead of the six found in the 15-inch model, but our sister site PCMag confirms it still produces "decent sound." For a brand-new M4 machine under $800, those are trade-offs we'd happily make.

SAVE 50%: The EcoFlow Delta 2 Max is on sale at Amazon for $949, down from the list price of $1,899. That's a 50% discount that matches the record-low at Amazon. However, today's deal comes with a free 45W portable solar panel.

Opens in a new window Credit: EcoFlow EcoFlow Delta 2 Max $949 at Amazon
$1,899 Save $950 get a free EcoFlow 45W portable solar panel Get Deal

A portable power station has become a must-have as we head into fall storm season. Not only will it keep your household's phones charged up during a power outage, it can keep the spotlight alive on Skelly every night in October. If you don't yet have a portable power station waiting in the garage, check out today's stellar deal at Amazon.

As of Sept. 22, the EcoFlow Delta 2 Max is on sale at Amazon for $949, marked down from the list price at EcoFlow of $1,899. That equals a 50% discount, shaving $950 off the usual price. Today's sale matches the record-low at Amazon, but the retailer has made this deal even better. Snag the EcoFlow Delta 2 Max and you can cash in on a free EcoFlow 45W portable solar panel which ordinarily sells for $99.

A portable power station is a savior in so many situations. A power outage, a camping trip, working in the yard without needing a massive extension cord, powering up the projector for an outdoor movie night, you name it.

SEE ALSO: Grab the discounted Anker Solix C300 Power Station and stay prepared this fall

EcoFlow makes some of the most thoughtful and feature-laden portable power stations on the market today and the Delta 2 Max packs in 2,048Wh of capacity. If you're using the Delta 2 Max for home backup during a power outage, expect it to keep the refrigerator cooling for about 14 hours, the WiFi router powered on for nearly 100 hours, or the TV for 15 hours. Pack it along on a camping trip and you'll be getting the ability to recharge a phone 143 times or sleep with a CPAP for 41 hours.

Today's deal includes an EcoFlow 45W portable solar panel that can easily connect to the Delta 2 Max to recharge the portable power station. At 45W, this solar panel isn't the most powerful and it would take a while to fully recharge the Delta 2 Max with the solar panel, but free is free, and the solar panel is surely useful.

If you're looking for the fastest recharging via solar, the Delta 2 Max can connect to 1,000W of solar power. With that amount, it'll go from dead to fully recharged in about 2.5 hours, according to EcoFlow. With standard AC wall charging, expect the Delta 2 Max to be fully recharged in about an hour.

While it's half off, snag the EcoFlow Delta 2 Max before an autumn wind storm knocks out power. Today's sale price also include a free portable solar panel to help with recharging. Overall, it's a package that'll be useful during bad weather and outdoor adventures.