As usual, we're going to be spoiling today's Wordle answer if you read on - so make sure you've solved it first before scrolling on.
Is this the hardest week in Wordle history? If you look at Google Trends this week, with people searching for the Wordle answer, you might think that it's been almost impossibly difficult:
If you followed that graph, and looked at the trending Twitter terms, you'd easily surmise that the WATCH, the answer last Friday, and newer entries CATER and MOVIE all causing issues.
Then we get to the most recent answer, SAUTE, and that seems like it should be one of the hardest. Many people will get the __UTE element of the word, or even SA__E, and they'll pronounce the U or A phonetically, which means they'll skip over the answer in the mental machinations.
But the trends suggest that people are fine with SAUTE, but struggled terribly with WATCH... so what's going on?
We spoke to Shaun Savage, editor in chief of Try Hard Guides , a site with its own dedicated Wordle solver pages, and he gave some surprising statistics:
"[MOVIE] definitely [gave] people some challenge. By and far, 56% of people... figured out that the word end[ed] in 'IE' but are struggling to think of words that fit.
"Following that, about 15% of peopleigured out there's at least an O in the word. It seems like the "V" is the most difficult letter to determine!
"We [weren't] even seeing too many people looking for "OVIE" or "MO_IE," so it seems many are getting 2-3 letters but getting four is a struggle.
"Our page on ' 5 letter words' ending in IE ' was the most trafficked post [on the day of the answer]- a lot of people like to get ideas but, perhaps, not just get to the answer immediately, so these types of posts help clear away some fog."
So it's clear that Wordle #261 was, perhaps, one of the hardest in a while, even if it's not had the same number of players desperately searching for the answer online.
But what about the last seven days as a whole?
The hardest Wordle week ever?
With three words this week that trended massively on Twitter (and saw massive spikes in traffic to our Wordle hints and answer page), does that mean this has been the hardest time for Wordle users yet... especially against the backdrop of accusations against NY Times making the game easier ?
And while it has been a very difficult week, it appears that people are searching for Wordle answers for different reasons this week - rhyming words mean people can get to their final guess with no obvious answer:
"From our data, this week has been harder than the earlier weeks in March, though, with a good mix of reasons. _ATCH just had a lot of options and people quickly maxed out on guesses," added Savage.
"Words like TODAY, FOCUS and SMELT all had slightly less popular letters in them; SMELT is also not a commonly used word so the 'SM' and 'LT' combinations may have been tricky.
"CATER was the same way; common letters, so many quickly found as possibilities but lots of options. MOVIE has three vowels and contains two lesser-used consonants (M and V)."
A better week ahead
It's good to hear that things have been tricky this week - we at TechRadar have had such a tough week that we've even run live blogs on the hardest puzzles to allow readers to air their thoughts on the difficulty.
We also spoke to Dr Matthew Voice , an Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics at the UK’s University of Warwick, previously to find out why CATER was such a tough word:
“Looking back at Project Gutenberg's list of common n-grams ,” Dr Voice tells us, “you can really see why getting some of [the] letters in place isn't necessarily narrowing down the possibilities. ER is the fourth most common combination of any two letters in the whole of the English language, it seems, and TER the twelfth most common combination of three.
“That said,” he adds, “I also think it's interesting to think about why 'CATER' might not seem like an immediately obvious option to everyone who's got the point of finding _ATER. The answer to this might be to do with our expectations about morphology – the way we combine together different parts of language to make new words.”
So, while it's impossible to put a full and defined metric against the difficulty of words in the current Wordle games , it seems that this week has certainly been full of a few pitfalls.
And if you're getting tired of Wordle, then try Scholardle - it's Wordle if you want to make things a lot harder.
You might want to check the back of your Xbox Series X
When was the last time you checked the back of your Xbox Series X? Last month? Never? Well, it might be worth having a peek to see what's going on behind the scenes.
As Reddit user u/Tea-Mental shared in r/XboxSeriesX , you might want to check the back of your Xbox once in a while. Their picture showed a very dusty Xbox Series X , with many of the console's air vents blocked as a result. This can, of course, cause the console to overheat and negatively impact performance as a result. Worst-case scenario, an accumulation of dust could lead your Xbox Series X to malfunction. And no one wants that.
The dust-laden picture led to a wider discussion about the best console cleaning techniques on Reddit. Some replies suggest investing in an air purifier to combat dust build-up, making sure to change the filters on a monthly basis. Others advised regularly dusting your wider home, particularly if you have pets. Some product recommendations were also suggested but, whatever you do, please don’t use a vacuum to clean your console.
Dust accumulation is an incredibly common problem, both with consoles, PC hardware, and other electronics, but sticking a powerful suction nozzle over an air vent will likely result in some internal damage. It's best to use compressed air if you really want to clear out all the nooks and crannies.
Spring clean
So, want to clean your Xbox? If you’re unsure where to begin, Microsoft has previously issued official guidance for console and controller cleaning.
For general upkeep, Microsoft recommends using premoistened disinfectant wipes or a microfiber cloth, one that’s “dampened with a little bit of mild soap and water” every three to six months. We hope it goes without saying, but make sure your console’s disconnected from the power source before you do any cleaning.
As for your console and headset specifically, Microsoft advises using an “isopropyl alcohol (IPA) solution.” For your controllers, an IPA solution, disinfectant wipes, or general all-purpose cleaners are suggested and the full list can be found here. Be warned, though: this cleaning advice is universal for Xbox Series X and Xbox One consoles, but differs between official headsets and controllers.
If you’ve got an Xbox Wireless Controller or Adaptive Controller , Microsoft suggests using disinfectant wipes, or a soft cloth with a 70% IPA solution applied. For an Elite Wireless Controller, it suggests avoiding disinfectant wipes entirely but suggests a variety of cleaning solutions. Finally, if you own an Xbox Wireless/Stereo Headset , Microsoft recommends a soft cloth with a 70% IPA solution.
That's a lot to bear in mind, then, but keeping your hardware clean will ultimately increase its longevity and avoid you having to fork out for a replacement. We’re all guilty of neglecting to clean our hardware at times. Life gets busy, other matters take priority, and once you’ve arranged your home entertainment setup, taking that apart can be annoying. Nevertheless, a quick spring clean can make all the difference to the lifespan of your console.
Want to keep your consoles in tip top condition? Here's how to clean your Xbox Series X , how to clean your Xbox Series S , and how to clean your PS5 .
Dyson’s new Airwrap fixes one of its biggest problems
Dyson has unveiled a new version of its Airwrap multi-styler, which makes styling hair into soft waves and curls quicker and easier, as there’s no need to use different barrels for the left and right side of your hair.
The Airwrap uses warm air to create an aerodynamic phenomenon called the Coanda effect. This attracts hair towards the barrel and wraps it around to create curls; however, on the original model the air was only able to flow in one direction, which meant you needed two barrels – one for styling the hair on each side of your head.
Now Dyson has re-engineered the barrel that ships with the latest model so that the air can flow in opposite directions. Rather than needing to switch barrels halfway through styling, the tip of the curling attachment can simply be rotated to change the air flow direction.
It’s not only the curling heads that have been tweaked. The smoothing brush and volumizing brush heads have more air vents in them, which means the Coanda effect is stronger, providing more control over hair, while also speeding up styling.
There’s also a new-look drying attachment that apes the design found on the fly-away tool, which was released for the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer last year, and which aims to replicate the effect of a professional blow-dry, smoothing hair while drying it, and hiding the damaged strands on the inside of tresses to give a healthy, shiny appearance. Even better, the re-designed Airwrap tools are compatible with the original Airwrap, so you don’t need to invest in a new styler to benefit from the new attachments.
The new Dyson Airwrap is priced at $599 / £479.99 / AU$899, which makes it slightly pricier than its predecessor, although it does come with the new re-engineered attachments. In the UK, it's available to pre-order from Dyson now and will ship at the end of March, although in the US and Australia it won’t be available until at least June. The set of attachments can also be purchased on their own for $199 / £149.99 /AU$249 making it possible to upgrade an existing Airwrap, too.
If you can’t wait a few more weeks to get your hands on the latest version of the hot air styler, then head over to our article where to buy a Dyson Airwrap to find out which retailers have stock of the original Dyson Airwrap .
Opinion: versatility is the key to the Airwrap’s popularity
In spite of the current Airwrap’s hefty price tag of $549.99 / £449.99 / AU$799.99, it’s proved to be extremely popular. According to Dyson, four Airwraps were sold every minute during 2021 and the Airwrap became hard to get hold of from November 2021, and is still in short supply now. So why is the Dyson Airwrap coveted by so many?
When the Airwrap launched in 2018, hot air brushes that dried and volumized tresses weren’t new. In fact, they were seen as somewhat old-fashioned, having been a staple in the late 19080s and early 1990s, as they offered a more-affordable alternative to salon-style dryers.
However, they were very much a one-trick pony, and unless you had hairdresser-level skills, creating soft waves with these brushes was extremely difficult, while creating tight curls was near impossible.
But the array of attachments that shipped with the Airwrap changed all that. Not only did the different-width barrels mean you could ditch your curling iron completely, they also meant it was possible to achieve both tight curls and soft waves with one styler. Even better, the Coander effect meant it was far easier to create these styles.
No longer did you need to worry about wrapping strands of hair around a hot metal barrel, and risking a multitude of burns to your fingertips, nor did you need to learn how to manipulate a pair of flat irons in several directions while gently sliding them through your locks to curl hair. Instead, the Airwrap pulled hair towards the styler and wrapped it for you, enabling you to create salon-worthy styles in minutes.
The Airwrap does all of this while ensuring that the hot air never exceeds 302F / 150C, which means your hair isn’t subject to the same level of heat damage that other styling tools, such as hair straighteners, which can reach temperatures of up to 446F / 230C, can inflict on tresses.
This writer has fine shoulder-length hair, and while I love the idea of styling my hair into soft waves and curls, the reality is that my tresses always end up as a straggly, kink-filled mess. I don’t have the patience to spend hours twirling small sections of hair around a curling iron; in fact, I’d all but given up, and resigned myself to a life with straight locks. However, the Dyson Airwrap makes red-carpet-worthy hair feel more within my grasp. Given this, it’s not hard to see why the Airwrap has proved so successful, and while the new model is likely to prove equally popular.
Can't wait to get your hands on the new Airwrap? Then check out these deals for Airwrap dupes available right now