​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? I thought it was a bit tricky. 1-Down is one of those old-fashioned comic-book sounds that I had to remember how to spell correctly. Read on for all the 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 11, 2026. NYT/Screenshot by CNET. Mini across clues and answers. 1A clue: Study of the human mind, informally. Answer: PSYCH. 6A clue: Common fixture in a gym bathroom. Answer: SCALE. 7A clue: Kinda boring. Answer: HOHUM. 8A clue: Like a commenter without a username, for short. Answer: ANON. 9A clue: “All good between us?”. Answer: WEOK. Mini down clues and answers. 1D clue: Old-fashioned “Yeah, right!”. Answer: PSHAW. 2D clue: Coffeehouse pastry. Answer: SCONE. 3D clue: Google alternative. Answer: YAHOO. 4D clue: Sound of a dull thump. Answer: CLUNK. 5D clue: Line on the bottom of a pant leg. Answer: HEM  

​Chinese smartphone-makers OnePlus and Oppo plan to raise prices on some existing models starting next week, according to a 9to5Google report citing GizmoChina and a notice posted on Oppo’s China online store.. In its notice, Oppo said it would adjust pricing after evaluating rising costs for several key components used in its mobile phones. The changes are expected to take effect around March 16 and will affect some of the company’s more affordable smartphones, as well as some OnePlus models.. Flagship devices — like those in the Find and Reno series — are not expected to be affected for now. The reported adjustments currently appear to be limited to China.. The move highlights growing pressure across the smartphone supply chain as component costs climb. Analysts say prices for memory and storage chips used in phones have been rising in recent months as demand surges across the tech industry.. Much of the chip demand is coming from the rapid buildout of AI data centers, which rely on large amounts of high-performance memory.. That pressure isn’t limited to Oppo and OnePlus. Analysts say smartphone brands across the industry are facing rising component costs amid increased demand for memory chips.. As manufacturers shift production toward higher-margin memory used in AI servers, supply for consumer electronics such as smartphones and laptops can tighten.. If component costs continue to rise, manufacturers may face difficult choices later this year, including raising retail prices or adjusting device specifications to offset higher manufacturing costs.. OnePlus and Oppo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.  

​Workers who excessively use AI agents and tools at work are at increased risk of mental fatigue, according to a recent Harvard Business Review study. In certain industries, more than 25% of hired professionals report increased mental strain due to their role in AI oversight — though these professionals also generally experienced less burnout than peers who aren’t using AI.. This phenomenon — which the researchers refer to as “AI brain fry” — is described as a “‘buzzing’ feeling or a mental fog” that caused study participants to develop headaches and difficulty focusing and making decisions. Individuals pointed to being overwhelmed by large amounts of information and to frequent task switching as the reasons for these feelings.. Studied individuals experienced more brain fry when they utilized AI agents to manage a workload beyond their own cognitive capacity. When participants used AI to replace mundane, repetitive tasks, managing the growing number of tools led to increased mental fatigue.. Crucially, the study found that fewer individuals who used these AI agents reported workplace burnout.. The researchers predict that this is because burnout testing assesses emotional and physical distress. In contrast, they report, acute mental fatigue “is caused by marshalling attention, working memory and executive control beyond the limited capacity of these systems.”. These are the processes that are taxed when study participants use multiple AI tools in their workflow, according to the researchers.. The Harvard study identifies several business costs incurred by workers suffering from AI brain fry. The foremost consequence is that these individuals may end up making lower-quality decisions. “Workers in [the] study who endorsed AI brain fry experience 33% more decision fatigue than those who did not,” the study reports. Workers who report AI brain fry were also more likely to self-report making both minor and major errors at their jobs.. Another recent Harvard Business Review study similarly found that employees who use AI tools “worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks and extended work into more hours of the day,” but warned that “workload creep can in turn lead to cognitive fatigue, burnout and weakened decision-making.”  

​All things that go up must eventually come down. NASA expects the Van Allen Probe A satellite to come crashing back to Earth after a 14-year journey through space. The agency predicts that the probe will begin re-entry around 7:45 p.m. ET on Tuesday but says that time may be off by as much as 24 hours, meaning it could come down at any point in the next day or two.. Launched in 2012, the Van Allen Probe A is one of two satellites that NASA launched into orbit around the Van Allen radiation belt, which exists around Earth due to solar winds caught in the Earth’s magnetosphere. The probes were supposed to remain in space for only two years, but ultimately measured radiation for seven years before running out of fuel in 2019. Without fuel, the probes couldn’t orient themselves toward the sun to power their solar panels, and both shut down.. Once the mission ended, NASA originally calculated the probes would fall back to Earth sometime in 2032. The agency admits it did not account for the current solar maximum. The solar maximum is a period of increased instability on the sun, which leads to more intense space weather events. NASA says the extra solar wind caused drag on the probe, hastening its descent faster than initial calculations predicted.. Data from these probes is still used today to measure and predict the impact of solar winds and radiation on communications systems, navigation satellites, power grids and even astronauts in space. The radiation that the Van Allen Probes studied is also the same radiation responsible for all of those gorgeous auroras Earth has been getting lately.. NASA says that most of the spacecraft will likely burn up as it re-enters the atmosphere, but some components are expected to survive the trip back to Earth.. The components probably won’t hit anyone. NASA says the current odds of the debris causing harm to humans are about one in 4,200, which is minimal. The Space Force will continue to monitor Van Allen Probe A’s progress through the day in case those odds change.. The probe’s partner, Van Allen Probe B, is also scheduled to crash back into Earth, but it isn’t expected to arrive until sometime after 2030.  

​My interview with William Caughlin, the head of AT&T Archives and History Center, started with an ironic twist. Our Microsoft Teams video call failed, so we ended up talking over the “regular” phone.. Perhaps “regular” isn’t entirely accurate, given the infrastructure. But it was fitting for the topic of our conversation: the very first phone call, which occurred exactly 150 years ago.. On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made a famous exclamation to his assistant: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.” That sentence crossed a single copper wire to the next room. Though the technology that enabled the call has changed drastically over the past century and a half, the experience was fundamentally the same. Two people in two different locations were having a conversation — and seeking a connection — in real time.. Caughlin told me that Bell had been working on experiments for a year by then. But even though he was able to transmit speech sounds over copper wire in 1875, it was inarticulate. “Watson could hear noises, sounds, but he couldn’t really make out what Bell was saying. But Bell knew he was on the right path at that point,” Caughlin said.. Those experiments culminated on March 10, when the sounds became clear.. Read more: AT&T Says It’s Pumping $250 Billion Into New Infrastructure Improvements. Artifacts of the future. To celebrate the anniversary of that first transmission, AT&T created a pop-up exhibit at its Dallas headquarters, open to the public through Thursday, March 12.. Some notable artifacts on display from this day 150 years ago include the copper wire over which the message was sent, which in 1914 was wrapped in a loose spool and set behind glass. There’s also Thomas Watson’s notebook, where he recorded those historic first words.. “It’s one of the greatest treasures in our collection,” said Caughlin.. The original copper wire over which Bell transmitted the first phone call in 1876 is featured in a pop-up exhibit. AT&T/Screenshot by Jeff Carlson. The first transcontinental call, with Bell in the center, took place in New York City in 1915. In front of the person to Bell’s right is the original copper wire used in the first phone call in 1876. From left, Chief Engineer of AT&T John J. Carty; President of the New York City Board of Aldermen George McAneny; Vice President of AT&T U.N. Bethell; Alexander Graham Bell; Mayor of New York City John Purroy Mitchel; President of Nebraska Telephone Co. Casper E. Yost; and New York City Comptroller William A. Prendergast. AT&T. In his journal, Thomas Watson recorded what was said during the first phone call from Bell. AT&T/Screenshot by Jeff Carlson. And with its red ribbon and official seal, the original March 7, 1876, patent for “Improvement in Telegraphy,” is said to be the most valuable patent ever granted.. At a pop-up exhibit at AT&T’s headquarters, the original patent for Bell’s telephone is framed, along with the copper wire used to transmit the first phone call and Watson’s j