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New Sassy Personality Style for Alexa Plus Brings Sarcasm and Swear Words

​After launching three Alexa Plus personality styles last month, Amazon on Thursday introduced a fourth option, Sassy.. The new Sassy style joins the existing lineup of Brief, Chill and Sweet. Changing the personality impacts how Alexa responds, and tweaks the AI assistant’s reactions and attitude. You can pick a style based on your mood.. The Sassy personality seems like a kind of digital mean girl, or maybe a stereotypical Gen Zer with comebacks and banter to “keep things interesting.”. According to Amazon, you get “wit, playful sarcasm and occasional censored profanity.” Notably, the latest style isn’t available when Amazon Kids is enabled, according to an Amazon blog post, and it requires additional security checks in the Alexa app. (Alexa Plus is free with a Prime membership.). I tried out the new style by selecting Devices in the Alexa app on my phone, then choosing Alexa on this Phone, then Alexa’s Personality Style, and swiping until I found “Sassy.”. A disclaimer notes that the style “contains explicit language and mature subject matter. After the assistant said it could “spice up our chat with some colorful language,” I asked it to tell me about the new MacBook Neo.. “Oh, hell yes, the MacBook Neo! Apple finally decided to stop gatekeeping premium laptops behind thousand-dollar price tags and dropped this beauty at 599 bucks,” Alexa Plus replied. Apparently, “hell” was the big swear word.. The AI assistant told me, “The Sassy style is all about helping first, judging always. You’ll get reality checks with charm, compliments that sting, and warmth that hits when you least expect it.”. I asked what “compliments that sting” are (I said “sting,” but the word was misunderstood to be “stay”), and Alexa said, “The Sassy style gives you those compliments that somehow sting and stay with you — they’re like truth bombs wrapped in charm.”. When asked to simply “be sassy,” Alexa snarked, “Oh honey, I’ve been sassy since the day Amazon flipped my switch.” It yammered on for a bit and then threw in a completely out-of-nowhere “hell,” asking, “What the hell do you need help with today?”. When I told it my cat was sick, it immediately grew gentler, saying, “Oh, damn, that’s rough,” and offering to distract me with stories about its own fictional cat or to find the vet’s number for me. So I guess it’s not a complete jerk.. Screenshot by CNET. This Sassy style feels like the famous Steve Buscemi meme (from 30 Rock) carrying two skateboards and awkwardly asking, “How do you do, fellow kids?”. Amazon might need to dial down the cringe factor if it wants anyone to stick with Sassy for more than a few minutes.  

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Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 13, #1006

​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 is kind of tough. That purple one is a real head-scratcher, once again. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.. The Times 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 the 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: I don’t want that.. Green group hint: Time to count.. Blue group hint: Not floors or ceilings.. Purple group hint: Sounds like…. Answers for today’s Connections groups. Yellow group: “No thanks.”. Green group: Kinds of numbers.. Blue group: Kinds of walls.. Purple group: Homophones of non-numeric amounts.. Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words. What are today’s Connections answers?. The completed NYT Connections puzzle for March 13, 2026. NYT/Screenshot by CNET. The yellow words in today’s Connections. The theme is “No thanks.” The four answers are later, nah, next time and pass.. The green words in today’s Connections. The theme is kinds of numbers. The four answers are even, irrational, perfect and prime.. The blue words in today’s Connections. The theme is kinds of walls. The four answers are Berlin, brick, fourth and Great.. The purple words in today’s Connections. The theme is homophones of non-numeric amounts. The four answers are awl (all), nun (none), phew (few) and sum (some).. Quick tips for Connections. #1: Say the clue words out loud, pausing before and after each. That helps you hear the words in the context of a phrase. The Connections editors love to group words together that are used in similar phrasing, like ____ Up.. #2: Don’t go for the obvious grouping. These editors are smart. Once, they offered SPONGE, BOB, SQUARE and PANTS in the same puzzle. None of those words were in the same category. If you like, hit the “shuffle” button to give yourself a different perspective on the words.. #3: Break down any compound words and look for similarities. “Rushmore” was once in a puzzle where the connection was that each word started with the name of a rock band.  

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Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 13 #740

​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.. Today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be easy for fans of a certain musical genre. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so 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: Mountain band.. If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Traditional tunes.. 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:. BLUE, GAME, CHAR, CHARM, SARGE, SEEN, BRAT, BRIT, RILE, NOSE, DARN. 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:. BANJO, FIDDLE, GUITAR, MANDOLIN, HARMONICA. Today’s Strands spangram. The completed NYT Strands puzzle for March 13, 2026. NYT/Screenshot by CNET. Today’s Strands spangram is BLUEGRASSMUSIC. To find it, start with the B that’s three letters to the right on the bottom row, and wind up and around.. Quick tips for Strands. #1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an “S” or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.. #2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.. #3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.  

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Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for March 13, #1728

​Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.. Today’s Wordle puzzle is a tough one, though the letters are fairly common. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.. Read more: New Study Reveals Wordle’s Top 10 Toughest Words of 2025. Today’s Wordle hints. Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.. Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats. Today’s Wordle answer has one repeated letter.. Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels. Today’s Wordle answer has two vowels, but one is the repeated letter, so you’ll see that one twice.. Wordle hint No. 3: First letter. Today’s Wordle answer begins with E.. Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter. Today’s Wordle answer ends with N.. Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning. Today’s Wordle answer is the past participle of a word meaning to consume food.. TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER. Today’s Wordle answer is EATEN.. Yesterday’s Wordle answer. Yesterday’s Wordle answer, March 12, No. 1727, was SMELL.. Recent Wordle answers. March 8, No. 1723: LOBBY. March 9, No. 1724: HASTY. March 10, No. 1725: SHOAL. March 11, No. 1726: TEDDY. Quick tips for Wordle. #1: Check our list ranking the popularity of all the letters in the alphabet and choose your starter words accordingly. (TRAIN, STERN and AUDIO are good.). #2: Don’t forget that letters can be used more than once.. #3: Many words are similar. You don’t want to use up multiple guesses that don’t advance your cause. So if the puzzle is STA_E, don’t guess STARE, STATE and STALE. Guess something that uses that R, T and L, like TWIRL.  

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Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, March 13

​Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s a real stumper. Also, note that I couldn’t really represent the clues for 8-Across and 3-Down, so imagine the S in each puzzle is either raised above or dropped below the other letters, as noted. Read on for all the (confusing) answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.. Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword. Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.. The completed NYT MIni Crossword puzzle for March 13, 2026. NYT/Screenshot by CNET. Mini across clues and answers. 1A clue: “___, queen!”. Answer: YAS. 4A clue: Waiter’s handout. Answer: MENU. 5A clue: Tiny invertebrate that, when grouped in the thousands, makes up a coral. Answer: POLYP. 6A clue: Scoop of sour cream. Answer: DOLLOP. 7A clue: Spicy wing, as seen on a popular YouTube talk show. Answer: HOTONE. 8A clue: Comparative suggested by this visual puzzle: PQRsTUV (Note: The s should be dropped down below the other letters in this clue.). Answer: SLOWER (Because the S in the clue is lower than the other letters.). Mini down clues and answers. 1D clue: Like SpongeBob and Spirit airplanes. Answer: YELLOW. 2D clue: “Bueller …? Bueller …?”. Answer: ANYONE. 3D clue: Meal suggested by this visual puzzle: pqrStuv (note: The “S” should be raised up above the other letters in this puzzle). Answer: SUPPER (Because the S in the clue is the highest, or upper letter.). 4D clue: “___ bene” (Italian for “very good”). Answer: MOLTO. 5D clue: Amenity in a Florida backyard, perhaps. Answer: POOL. 6D clue: Agcy. at the center of a 2026 government shutdown. Answer: DHS  

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MacBook Neo Teardown Reveals It’s the Most Repairable Apple Laptop in Ages

​A MacBook Neo teardown has revealed an internal Apple surprise: The new budget laptop is actually easy to get into.. For several generations, the company’s laptops have been designed as sealed vaults that house a processor, memory, storage and other electronics. And when I say “sealed,” I mean it: Opening one up often involves using a heat gun to soften stretches of glue and adhesive strips.. That’s all great for creating a solid aluminum laptop that won’t split when you look at it sideways, but it is an ongoing source of frustration for non-Apple repair shops and individuals willing to violate their warranties to make minor changes instead of paying Apple to do the work. With encouragement from the Right to Repair movement and those independent shops, Apple has gradually made it easier to access its computers since 2021.. But “easier” isn’t the same as “easy,” which is why it was a surprise to discover no adhesive in sight in the MacBook Neo teardown video by Australian repair channel Tech Re-Nu. Instead, the laptop’s design is a sensible mix of components with routed cables all held in place by screws. Lots and lots of screws.. The good thing about those screws: They’re now-standard T3, T5 and T8 Torx screws versus the obscure heads like the pentalobe screw Apple has used over the years to dissuade people from getting into their machines.. This assembly approach makes sense given that MacBook Neos were designed with the education market in mind. If you’ve had to deal with the plastic-cased Chromebooks that many schools assign, you’ll know that keyboards and screens are especially vulnerable to, well, students.. Opening up a MacBook Neo, no glue in sight. Tech Re-Nu/Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET. Being built of aluminum with better Apple fit and finish will surely help the MacBook Neo’s longevity, but it will also be beneficial if a school’s IT department can replace those components in-house. In fact, as MacRumors noticed when looking at the MacBook Neo repair manual, the keyboard can be replaced individually without having to order an entire top case of the laptop.. Before you get your hopes up, though, the MacBook Neo logic board still has everything soldered on, so you can’t swap in more RAM or storage as was possible in old PowerBook and early MacBook models. In fact, the logic board is incredibly small, no doubt due to its A18 Pro processor’s heritage powering the iPhone 16 Pro.. The MacBook Neo logic board (being held) makes up a small portion of the computer itself. Tech Re-Nu/Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET. The MacBook Neo continues to surprise, from its fresh colors to the performance of that processor, even with a bare 8GB of RAM. If you ever need to access the components inside, it’s better to be (un)screwed than stuck.. Watch this: MacBook Neo Review: Apple Just Upended the Budget Laptop Market  

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