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NYT Mini Crossword game
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Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Aug. 18

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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.

There are a few stumpers in today’s NYT Mini Crossword. If you know palindromes, you’ll score at least one correct answer in today’s puzzle. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. 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 Aug. 18, 2025.

NYT/Screenshot by CNET

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Fast-food chain that sells 50-piece nuggets
Answer: KFC

4A clue: Circle above an angel’s head
Answer: HALO

5A clue: Queen or king
Answer: ROYAL

6A clue: Separately
Answer: APART

7A clue: Karaoke bar accessories
Answer: MIKES

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Lake craft with a palindromic name
Answer: KAYAK

2D clue: Distress signal for a broken-down car
Answer: FLARE

3D clue: Indianapolis NFL team
Answer: COLTS

4D clue: Indigenous people of Arizona
Answer: HOPI

5D clue: Hard-headed animal
Answer: RAM



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9 Picks of the Best Gaming Mouse, Tested and Reviewed (2025)
Gaming Gear

9 Picks of the Best Gaming Mouse, Tested and Reviewed (2025)

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Other Good Mice to Consider

NZXT Lift 2 Symm

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

NZXT Lift 2 Symm for $50: PC manufacturer NZXT has been venturing out into the peripherals market with impressive products for a company so relatively new to the game. The NZXT Lift 2 Symm is no exception. This mouse has a hollow interior and a base that uses minimal plastic. This gives it an ultra-lightweight feel, but avoids the odd feeling that other mice like the SteelSeries Aerox 3 give off by reducing the amount of plastic in the pieces that touch your hands. Combined with an 8,000-Hz polling rate, optical switches, and an excessively robust 26,000 dpi optical sensor, this mouse is more than capable of handling even the fastest games at a low price.

Logitech MX Master 3S for $120: The MX Master 3S isn’t a gaming mouse per se, but it’s also better at being a gaming mouse than many dedicated gaming mice. It features a few extra customizable buttons, plus a horizontal side scrolling wheel. It’s ridiculously comfortable. Logitech’s been making mice for years, and this mouse benefits from all that experience, with a smooth arc for your palm and a rest spot for your thumb. It even includes a button in that spot where your thumb naturally rests. This is the preferred daily mouse of many WIRED staffers. The one downside is that the 125-Hz polling rate is a bit low for competitive FPS games, but if you’re looking for something more solo, it’s hard to get more comfortable than this.

Logitech MX Anywhere 3S for $80: This a cheaper, compact mouse that can connect to up to three devices via Bluetooth, and gets 70 hours on a single three-hour charge. It doesn’t have as many fancy gaming-centric features, but if you just need a decent mouse and want to save a little money, this is a great option.

Logitech G203

Photograph: Logitech

Logitech G203 for $35: Budget gaming mice often forgo a lot of the conveniences and performance you get out of nicer models, but the Logitech G203 never feels like it’s lacking. The sensor has a lower maximum sensitivity than you’ll get out of a more expensive offering—8,000 dots per inch—so if you need that top-end sensitivity, you’ll want to look elsewhere, but it features six buttons, compatibility with Logitech’s G Hub software, and, most importantly, has RGB lighting. Those are all things you’d typically expect to pay more for.

Turtle Beach Burst II Air for $100: The Turtle Beach Burst II Air at times felt like it wasn’t even there. I’ve played with a lot of mice that cut out huge chunks of their plastic hull to reduce weight, but the Burst II Air feels incredibly light without all the gaping holes. The skates are so smooth I felt like I could push the mouse around by blowing on it. The USB-A wireless dongle fits inside a small compartment on the bottom, right next to a physical switch that swaps between 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth modes. Two customizable thumb buttons sit along the side, while a third button for cycling dpi sits farther down along the edge, which I found particularly interesting. Most mice put this button on the top of the mouse, where it can sometimes be accidentally pressed, but this spot is so convenient it makes me wonder why Turtle Beach is the first company I’ve seen place it here.

Logitech G Pro Wireless for $110: Logitech’s G Pro X series was designed with input from esports professionals. Lightning-fast response times and proper ergonomics ensure that the additional buttons are right where your fingers rest. The wireless receiver delivers 1-millisecond response times, so you won’t miss headshots due to lag. The buttons are satisfying and sturdy, with mechanically tensioned springs underneath both the left and right buttons, and separate key plates for accuracy. It lasts around 48 hours on a single charge, but if you want to completely forget about charging, get the wireless charging-mat bundle.

SteelSeries Aerox 9

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

SteelSeries Aerox 9 for $150: This has a large array of side buttons. Its shell also has a grid cutout pattern, which SteelSeries says helps reduce the weight of the mouse, but my roommate says it triggers her trypophobia, so your mileage may vary.

Razer Cobra Pro for $130: I am personally a fan of mice with a dozen extra buttons, but if you’d rather just have a little bit of extra power without being overwhelmed, the Razer Cobra Pro might be more your speed. It has two thumb buttons on the left side, as well as two dpi controls down the middle, all of which can be customized to your needs. While playing Overwatch 2, I like to use the dpi buttons to cycle between sensitivities for different heroes, but when I’m using it for work, I like that I can assign common shortcuts or macros that I need while getting things done.

Great Mousepads

One of the cheapest things you can do to upgrade your PC gaming experience is to invest in a high-quality mousepad. If you’re a mouse-and-keyboard gamer, having the right surface for your trusty little rodent can be super helpful. Not only do you have a nice little area of your desk cordoned off for mouse use, but you also get a surface designed to be as friction-free and slick as possible—so you’ll be as quick as possible.

Harber London Professional Leather Desk Mat

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Harber London Professional Leather Desk Mat for $193: Despite more than a year of use, this Harber London leather desk mat still looks exquisite. The pebbled leather is supple and has a nice texture, but your mouse will glide over it effortlessly. It comes in three sizes and three colors.

SteelSeries QcK Mouse Pad for $8: SteelSeries’ QcK mousepad is one of my all-time favorites. The medium size is perfect for most desks, even small ones. It’s well-made and doesn’t fray easily—cheaper mousepads often fray at the edges, which ruins the aesthetic a good mousepad can lend to a workstation.

Photograph: Grovemade

Grovemade Wool Felt Desk Pad for $70: This doesn’t seem like your usual gaming accessory, because it’s not. It’s a wool felt pad from Portland, Oregon, company Grovemade, and it’s large enough to fit a keyboard and a mouse with room to spare. It feels soft and plush under your wrists, and all of the gaming mice on this list just glide over its surface; it’s like they’re sliding on glass. It’s a big surprise, honestly. Not to mention, a felt desk pad adds an air of sophistication and style to any desk, without making it seem too uptight. The color looks amazing under RGB lighting in a dark room. It’s an easy and affordable way to inject some unique style into your work (and play) space.

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A Nintendo Direct focused on Kirby Air Riders is set for August 19

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Nintendo has a few major first-party Nintendo Switch 2 games lined up for the rest of the year. One of those is Kirby Air Riders, a sequel to the 2003 GameCube title Kirby Air Ride. The company is set to reveal much (much) more about what it has in store for the new game, as it has lined up a dedicated Nintendo Direct. You’ll be able to watch the showcase, which was first announced via the Nintendo Today! app, at 9AM ET on August 19. You won’t have to go hunting for it on Nintendo’s channel either, as you can click the big red button on the YouTube video above.

The stream will run for about 45 minutes and “provide an in-depth look at the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game,” according to the company. On the surface, that seems like a very long showcase for a single game by Nintendo standards, considering that it’s able to rip through a couple of dozen game reveals (or more) in a regular Direct that’s as long or shorter. The recent Direct for Donkey Kong Bananza clocked in at just under 18 minutes and had a ton of info about that game.

However, if you’ve ever seen a character reveal for game director Masahiro Sakurai’s previous project, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, you’ll be aware that the man tends to get into the nitty gritty. After all, the deep dive into the final SSBU fighter, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, is 42 minutes long. So a 45-minute Direct for a whole new Sakurai game suddenly doesn’t seem as excessive.

A release date for Kirby Air Riders seems like a safe bet for this Direct. The timing of the showcase is pretty interesting too, as it will air just before Gamescom gets underway. Perhaps Kirby Air Riders will be playable at Nintendo’s booth at the event.



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Samsung’s budget Galaxy Buds 3 FE are here
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Samsung’s budget Galaxy Buds 3 FE are here

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The Fan Edition Galaxy Buds 3 have ditched the blob for a stemmed design popularized by Apple and found in Samsung’s higher end Galaxy Buds 3 models launched last year. The Galaxy Buds 3 FE arrive with improved sound, enhanced active noise cancellation, and IP54 resistance to dust and rain, according to Samsung.

For music, the Buds 3 FE promise 6 hours of listening with ANC on, or 8.5 hours with it off. Those numbers extend to 24 hours / 30 hours, respectively, when recharged in the case. Talk time is 4 hours with ANC on or off, which can be extended to 18 hours through case recharging.

The Buds 3 FE are also designed for seamless access to Galaxy AI capabilities on Samsung smartphones. A “hey google” or long press puts you in a conversation mode with Gemini or the Galaxy AI Interpreter app to translate someone speaking in another language.

Other specs in include Find My Earbuds support, an ambient sound transparency mode, voice isolation to help improve call quality in noisy environments, and the ability to auto-switch between Samsung devices.



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Representation of AI
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The U.S. is blocking state AI regulation. Here’s what that means for every business

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Congress didn’t just reshape tax codes with the “One Big Beautiful” bill; it also quietly reshaped the future of artificial intelligence. A lesser-known provision of the sweeping legislation is now on its way to becoming law: a 10-year freeze on state-level AI regulation.

In other words, no individual state can pass rules that govern how businesses develop or use AI systems. The message is clear for companies rushing to embed AI in daily operations: govern yourselves or risk learning the hard way why guardrails matter.

Nichole Windholz

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AI isn’t a side project anymore. It’s already embedded in cybersecurity platforms, CRMs, internal chat tools, reporting dashboards and customer-facing products. Even mid-size organizations are training AI models on proprietary data to speed up everything from supplier selection to contract analysis.


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However, the adoption curve has outpaced internal checks. Many teams are greenlighting tools without understanding how they were trained, what data they retain or how outputs are validated. IT leaders often discover AI use well after it’s already operational. This kind of shadow Ai creates a major risk surface.

And now, with state-level oversight blocked for a decade, there’s no outside pressure forcing organizations to establish policies or baseline rules. This shift pushes businesses to take even more responsibility for what happens inside their walls.

Without guardrails, AI can drift; fast

AI models aren’t static. Once deployed, they learn from new data, interact with systems and influence decision-making. That’s powerful but also unpredictable.

Left unchecked, an AI-driven forecasting tool might rely too heavily on outdated patterns, causing overproduction or supply chain bottlenecks. A chatbot designed to streamline customer service could unintentionally generate biased or off-brand responses.

Meanwhile, generative models trained on sensitive business documents can inadvertently expose proprietary information in future prompts. For example, a study released in January 2025 found that nearly 1 in 10 prompts used by business users when interacting with generative AI (GenAI) tools could inadvertently disclose sensitive data.

These aren’t abstract dangers; they’ve already appeared in public incidents. But it’s not just PR damage that’s at stake. AI errors can affect revenue, data security and even legal exposure. The absence of regulatory pressure doesn’t make these issues go away – it makes them easier to miss until they’re too big to ignore.

The smart play is internal governance: before you need it

Organizations are eager to integrate GenAI, with many teams already using these powerful tools in daily operations. This rapid adoption means that just passively monitoring things isn’t enough; a strong governance structure is crucial, one that can adapt as AI becomes more central to the business.

Setting up an internal AI governance council, ideally with leaders from IT, security, compliance and operations, offers that vital framework. This council isn’t there to stop innovation. Its job is to bring clarity. It typically reviews AI tools before they’re rolled out, sets clear usage policies and works with teams so they fully understand the benefits and limits of the AI they’re using.

This approach reduces unauthorized tool usage, makes auditing more efficient and helps leadership steer AI strategy with confidence. However, for governance to be effective, it must be integrated into broader enterprise systems, not siloed in spreadsheets or informal chats.

GRC platforms can anchor AI governance

Governance, risk and compliance (GRC) platforms already help businesses manage third-party risk, policy enforcement, incident response and internal audits. They’re now emerging as critical infrastructure for AI governance as well.

By centralizing policies, approvals and audit trails, GRC platforms help organizations track where AI is being used, which data sources are feeding it, and how outputs are monitored over time. They also create a transparent, repeatable process for teams to propose, evaluate and deploy AI tools with oversight so innovation doesn’t become improvisation.

Don’t count on vendors to handle it for you

Many tools advertise AI features with a sense of built-in safety, which includes privacy settings, explainable models and compliance-ready dashboards. But too often, the details are left up to the user.

If a vendor-trained model fails, your team will likely bear the operational and reputational costs. Businesses can’t afford to treat third-party AI as “set and forget.” Even licensed tools must be governed internally, especially if they’re learning from company data or making process-critical decisions.

The bottom line

With the U.S. blocking states from setting their own rules, many assumed federal regulation would follow quickly. However, the reality is more complicated. Draft legislation exists, but timelines are fuzzy, and political support is mixed.

In the meantime, every organization using AI is effectively writing its own rulebook. That’s a challenge and an opportunity, especially for companies that want to build trust, avoid missteps and confidently lead.

The organizations that define their governance now will have fewer fire drills later. They’ll also be better prepared for whatever federal rules eventually arrive because their internal structure won’t need a last-minute overhaul.

Because whether or not rules are enforced externally, your business still depends on getting AI right.

We’ve featured the best business plan software.

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro’s Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro



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Sam Altman testifying on capital hill.
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‘Someone is going to lose a phenomenal amount of money’ says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about unwise AI investment. ‘When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth’

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman spoke to assembled reporters at a dinner in San Francisco late last week on the topic of, you guessed it, AI, the applications of AI, and the vast sums of money moving behind the scenes to fund it. Despite being one of the most vocal advocates of the tech, Altman had some words of caution for investors jumping on the artificial intelligence train.

According to The Verge, Altman said it was “insane” that AI startups consisting of “three people and an idea” are receiving huge amounts of funding off the back of incredibly high company valuations, describing it as “not rational behaviour.”

“Someone is going to lose a phenomenal amount of money. We don’t know who, and a lot of people are going to make a phenomenal amount of money,” said Altman.


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“When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth. If you look at most of the bubbles in history, like the tech bubble, there was a real thing.” said Altman, referencing the infamous dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. “Tech was really important. The internet was a really big deal. People got overexcited.”

That being said, Altman stopped short of calling investment in AI overall a bad idea for the economy in general: “My personal belief, although I may turn out to be wrong, is that, on the whole, this would be a huge net win.”

At the same dinner, Altman confirmed that OpenAI would still be spending vast amounts of money (partially provided, presumably, by the likes of Softbank and the Dragoneer Investment Group in OpenAI’s latest $8.3 billion funding round) to keep the company at the top of the AI financial leaderbooks.

“You should expect OpenAI to spend trillions of dollars on data center construction in the not very distant future,” Altman said. “You should expect a bunch of economists to wring their hands.”

Well, it certainly appears to cost a whole lot of moolah just to keep the good ship OpenAI afloat. The company has raised staggering sums of cash over the past decade to develop and run its various AI implementations, the most famous of which being ChatGPT. Reports last year indicated that OpenAI had spent $8.5 billion on LLM training and staffing for its generative AI efforts, while other analysts have predicted it costs $700,000 a day to run ChatGPT alone.

The Information recently projected that OpenAI would be burning through $20 billion in cash flow by 2027, with the company said to be hopeful that investors like Softbank would stump up another $30 to $40 billion to continue funding its operations.

A CG render of Meta’s planned Hyperion data center, superimposed over Manhattan. (Image credit: Meta)

Still, those spending figures don’t appear to be in the trillions yet, although that estimated sum is perhaps of little surprise to those of us that keep an eye on AI data center expansion.

Given that Altman’s rival, Elon Musk, has been booting up and expanding xAI’s Colossus supercomputer with incredible speed, and with the news that Meta is expanding its data center operations at such a rate it’s currently having to house a significant portion of its racks in nearby tents, OpenAI will feel the need to keep up—and to do that it needs to spend (and raise) huge amounts of cash over the next few years.

One would assume that Altman is confident enough in his company’s efforts to place its investors on the “going to make phenomenal sums of money” side of things, but his comments should perhaps serve as a warning to those looking to jump in with both feet without correctly judging the landing. Someone has to lose in the great AI race, I suppose. And as to which companies survive, and which come to a sticky end? That remains very much an open question for now.

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Scientists Pitch Bold Plan to Turn Nuclear Waste Into Nuclear Fuel
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Scientists Pitch Bold Plan to Turn Nuclear Waste Into Nuclear Fuel

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Nuclear fusion has seen some exciting advances, and the promise of clean, efficient energy does seem to be creeping closer to reality. But skeptics point to practical issues we may not be trying hard enough to solve—issues that will inevitably weigh down our reactors when they finally arrive.

A new proposal by Terence Tarnowsky, a nuclear physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, focuses on one key part of the problem: finding a supply of tritium, a fundamental ingredient for fusion. Tarnowsky, who will present his roadmap next week at the ACS Fall 2025 conference, suggests tapping into the thousands of tons of nuclear waste, including spent reactor fuel, using the sleeping atoms within to support tritium production. With the right adjustments to an accelerator-like apparatus, this strategy could reliably create a self-sufficient source of the precious isotope.

In a successful fusion reactor, tritium and deuterium—two lightweight hydrogen isotopes—fuse and release a gigantic load of energy in the process. By contrast, current nuclear plants run on fission, or the splitting of heavy atoms such as uranium, which also generates a hefty amount of power but produces long-lived radioactive byproducts. This waste material just “[sits] around the country,” presumably for a million years, and costs hundreds of millions of dollars each year to manage, Tarnowsky explained to Gizmodo during a video call. 

Meanwhile, the promise of fusion is shadowed by an inevitable shortage of tritium, an extremely rare and unstable hydrogen isotope. “There are only tens of kilograms [of tritium]—both natural and artificial—on the entire planet,” Tarnowsky said. And it doesn’t help that nuclear experiments worldwide are burning through those tiny supplies at an alarming rate. “So, where is this tritium supposed to come from?”

Breeding tritium in labs is a viable option, but again, there’s a very good reason we haven’t found the perfect recipe; it’s a “tricky fuel to deal with,” Tarnowsky said. 

“If you breed tritium now, it’s not like you can stash it in a container for 30 years from now, because it decays to helium-3 very quickly,” he explained. “And it also has the chemistry of hydrogen. Hydrogen likes to get out of things; it likes to get stuck in walls. So it’s a hard thing to deal with.” For context, the half-life of tritium is 12.3 years, meaning it decays to half of its original amount in that time.

Tarnowsky’s proposal combines previous theories with recent technological advancements. Simply, the idea is to employ a particle accelerator to trigger the decay of uranium and plutonium atoms inside nuclear waste, resulting in a series of neutron bursts and other nuclear transitions that would eventually produce tritium atoms. The waste would be covered with molten lithium salt to shield the process from overexposure to harmful radiation, according to Tarnowsky. 

With the right design, Tarnowsky surmises this method could “produce more than 10 times as much tritium as a fusion reactor at the same thermal power,” as noted in the press release. That said, he admits that this roadmap would require bold commitments from both the public and private sectors. 

Fusion economy is irreversible in some ways, Tarnowsky said. It’s certainly not something where one “can flip a switch and have a backup system running if something goes terribly wrong with tritium breeding,” Tarnowsky said. “You need to plan ahead by a very long time frame.”

But the longer we wait, the more we’re essentially digging ourselves into a hole, he said. “Every year we continue to operate our nuclear power plants—in a very safe manner!—we also make more spent fuel every year, [which] increases about 2,000 metric tons per year. So the liabilities are getting worse every year.”

All that said, Tarnowsky remains hopeful for the future of nuclear fusion—and, really, completing our transition toward clean energy. 

“I’d say, you know, 10 years ago, this kind of technology being proposed in this space would not have received this much interest; people were wary about nuclear power plants,” he said. “And then they went to burn dirty coal. Well, what are you going to do? But we’re having this conversation now, and people aren’t just reacting with fear.”



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New York Times Strands word game
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Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answer and Help for Aug. 18 #533

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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 is a fun one, involving a category of well-known words. But one of them still stumped me. 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: If the shoe fits

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Carrie Bradshaw loves them.

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:

  • PLIE, PLIES, SOOT, FOOL, RAKE, RAKES, ROLE, GOAL, FOAL, LOAF, SAND, SLIP, FOOT, TOOK, NEAR

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:

  • CLOG, LOAFER, SANDAL, SLIPPER, SNEAKER, ESPADRILLE

Today’s Strands spangram

The completed NYT Strands puzzle for Aug. 18, 2025, #533.

NYT/Screenshot by CNET

Today’s Strands spangram is FOOTWEAR. To find it, look for the F that is three letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.

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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The Plan to Turn the Caribbean’s Glut of Sargassum Into Biofuel
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The Plan to Turn the Caribbean’s Glut of Sargassum Into Biofuel

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Esteban Amaro, director of the Quintana Roo Sargassum Monitoring Network, agrees that fuel is the best product to focus on. Processing the seaweed into other consumer products is possible, but inadvisable given that the health risks of doing so have not yet been sufficiently studied.

“I believe that sargassum’s purpose is to produce energy, because when it decomposes, it releases many heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, and cadmium,” Amaro says. “Therefore it is better to produce biofuels or biogas than everyday products like clothing or shoes.”

A Potential Source of Carbon Credits

In the race to dispose of sargassum, there is another viable product—Sargapanel, a construction material developed by researchers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). These panels use between 60 and 70 kilos of wet sargassum per piece and offer several advantages compared to conventional paneling: The material is around 33 percent more flexible, has greater resistance to impact, and is a fire retardant. In addition, no chemical additives are used in its production, so it can be recycled: Once its life cycle is over, it can be shredded and reintegrated into the production line.

“With this project, not only do we contribute to reducing the problem … we also generate profits from carbon credits. For every 5 tons of wet sargassum, a carbon credit is generated, and each credit is worth between $10 and $30,” says Miriam Estévez González, head of the group that developed Sargapanel at UNAM’s Center for Applied Physics and Advanced Technology (CFATA) in Juriquilla, Querétaro.

Estévez estimates that if 4,000 tons of dry sargassum were processed into paneling each year, this would generate an annual profit of between $80,000 and $240,000 as well as absorbing the equivalent of 8,000 tons of CO2. “Making a comparison, we would be removing from circulation about a thousand cars,” she says.

CFATA scientists, in collaboration with academics from other UNAM departments, have also developed several other products, among them Sargabox—cardboard packaging boxes that are also fire-resistant—as well as filters that can be used to remove contaminants from water, including microplastics.

“In the case of Sargapanel, we already have the necessary scientific studies and a registered and scalable utility model that is fully competitive, and we are approaching some companies that are leaders in construction materials,” says Estévez.

On February 28, the governor of the state of Quintana Roo, Mara Lezama Espinosa, announced the formation of the Sargasso Comprehensive Sanitation and Circular Economy Center, whose aim is to shift the macroalgae from being considered a pollution problem toward it being used as an economic and environmental resource. If processed into long-lasting physical products, sargassum can lock away the carbon it draws from the environment to grow; if turned into a biofuel, it can avoid some fossil fuel emissions.

The center will mainly promote using sargassum to produce biogas and organic fertilizers—replacements for products that usually result in greenhouse gases being released when made and used. The center will then sell carbon credits off the back of these emissions reductions.



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The best earbuds for Android devices in 2025

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Deserved or not, Apple has turned AirPods into the default choice for most iPhone owners in the market for new wireless earbuds. But if you’re one of the millions who have an Android smartphone, figuring out which set to grab isn’t as obvious. If you need a hand, allow us to point you in the right direction. We’ve tested and reviewed dozens of wireless earbuds over the years and broken down our favorite options for Android users below. Whether you use a Galaxy or a Pixel phone, and whether you want something for the gym or your morning commute, here are the best AirPods alternatives for Android.

Table of contents

Best Android earbuds for 2025

Photo by Billy Steele / Engadget

Active noise cancellation: Yes | Wireless charging: Yes | Water resistance: IPX4 | Multipoint connectivity: Yes (2 devices) | Wear detection: Yes | Max battery life (rated): 12 hrs, 24 hrs w/ case | Codecs: SBC, AAC, LDAC, LC3 | Warranty: 1 year

Read our full Sony WF-1000XM5 review

The Sony WF-1000XM5 hit on just about everything we want from a premium set of Bluetooth earbuds. Their small, rounded design should feel comfortable and secure in most ears. They’re nearly unmatched at muting outside noise, thanks to a powerful ANC feature and memory foam eartips that do a remarkable job of isolating sound passively. They sound great out of the box, especially if you like a warmer profile with elevated bass, but you can easily customize the EQ curve through Sony’s app, and they do well to draw out treble-range detail either way. They’re also loaded with extra features, including multipoint connectivity, Google Fast Pair, LDAC and spatial audio support, the ability to swap between ANC and ambient sound (or “transparency”) modes automatically and more. The wireless charging case is conveniently tiny, while the eight- to 12-hour battery life gives little to complain about.

Still, the XM5s still aren’t a total slam dunk. The built-in mics aren’t the clearest for phone calls. The IPX4 water-resistance rating could be higher. Some people might find the memory foam eartips a little too full-feeling. They also have a list price of $330, which is far from affordable. But no other wireless earbuds we’ve tested have managed to tick so many boxes.

Pros

  • Strong, customizable audio quality
  • Should be comfortable to most
  • Loads of handy bonus features
  • Stellar noise isolation

Cons

  • Expensive
  • Memory foam eartips aren’t for everyone
  • No battery life improvement over predecessor

$213 at Amazon

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

Active noise cancellation: Yes | Wireless charging: Yes | Water resistance: IPX4 | Multipoint connectivity: Yes (2 devices) | Wear detection: No | Max battery life (rated): 10 hrs, 50 hrs w/ case | Codecs: SBC, AAC, LDAC | Warranty: 18 months

Read our guide to the best budget wireless earbuds

If you don’t have hundreds to spend, our favorite wireless earbuds in the budget bracket are the Anker Soundcore Space A40. Frequently priced between $45 and $60, this pair has the kind of features we’d expect from earbuds that cost twice as much: genuinely powerful ANC, multipoint connectivity, wireless charging, a solid eight to ten hours of battery life, LDAC support, decent (if not great) IPX4 water resistance and a usable ambient sound mode. They don’t have the most resolving or detail-rich sound of the box, unsurprisingly, but their warm profile offers pleasant, thumpy bass without totally blowing out the low-end. If you want to add more treble presence, you can customize the EQ through a clean and easy-to-read companion app. The actual earpieces are small, round and comfortable as well.

The main trade-off is call quality, as the built-in mic can lose your voice in noisy environments and doesn’t handle sibilant sounds very well. There’s no wear detection either, so your music won’t auto-pause when you remove an earbud. They also don’t support Google’s Fast Pair tech, though the earbuds should remember your device and automatically reconnect after you pair them for the first time. But for the price point, it’s hard to complain.

Pros

  • Excellent ANC for the price
  • Warm, pleasant sound
  • Comfortable and compact
  • Good battery life

Cons

  • No automatic wear detection
  • Mediocre call quality
  • Doesn’t sound as detailed as higher-end options (as expected)

$45 at Amazon

Billy Steele for Engadget

Active noise cancellation: Yes | Wireless charging: Yes | Water resistance: No IPX rating | Multipoint connectivity: Yes (2 devices) | Wear detection: No | Max battery life (rated): 7 hrs, 47 hrs w/ case | Codecs: SBC, AAC, LDAC, aptX Adaptive | Warranty: 1 year

Read our full Noble FoKus Rex5 review

Determining which set of headphones has the “best” sound quality is a fool’s errand — at the end of the day, it’ll always come down to personal taste. But if we had to pick one pair we’ve particularly enjoyed for music, it’d be the Noble FoKus Rex5. Its unique five-driver design helps it draw out a remarkable level of detail and properly separate the instrumentation in any given track. It’s a balanced sound profile, with tight but not overindulgent bass, a natural-sounding midrange and relaxed highs that don’t fatigue over time. The soundstage is wider than most true wireless earbuds we’ve tested, while support for LDAC and aptX Adaptive only assist with detail retrieval. You can set a personal EQ if you need it, but we’ve found the stock tuning to suit any genre well by default.

The FoKus Rex5 supports ANC and multipoint connectivity, while its IEM-style, metal-and-acrylic housing fits comfortably in the ear. But you’d buy it for the sound quality first and foremost: Noise cancellation isn’t on Sony’s level, the ultra-green finish isn’t for everyone, the five- to seven-hour battery life isn’t ideal and there’s no auto-pausing when you remove an earbud. Most prohibitively, these things are damn expensive at $449. If you want something a little less pricey, the Technics AZ100 and Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 are compelling (if bassier) options as well. But for self-proclaimed audiophiles with cash to burn, the FoKus Rex5 are a treat.

Pros

  • Detailed, immersive sound
  • Comfortable fit
  • Custom audio profiles that save directly to the buds

Cons

  • Very expensive
  • Just one color and it’s not for everyone
  • Subpar ANC performance

$449 at Amazon

Photo by Billy Steele / Engadget

Active noise cancellation: Yes | Wireless charging: No | Water resistance: IPX4 | Multipoint connectivity: No | Wear detection: Yes | Max battery life (rated): 6 hrs, 24 hrs w/ case | Codecs: SBC, AAC | Warranty: 1 year

Read our full Beats Fit Pro review

Most of our picks above will work just fine in the gym, but if you’re buying a pair for workouts first and foremost, try the Beats Fit Pro. Yes, we’re recommending a set of Apple-made earbuds in an Android buying guide. But while they work best with iPhones, most of their AirPods-style features are also available on Android through the Beats app. You can pair them with one tap through a pop-up card, view a map with their last known location, swap between ANC and ambient sound modes from the home screen, remap controls and check their battery level from the notification tray. There’s no hi-res codec support, but in general the drop-off from iOS to Android isn’t nearly as great here as it is with AirPods.

The main reason we recommend the Fit Pro is their lightweight design, which is equipped with bendy silicone fins that keep the earbuds secure in place while you’re moving around. Their IPX4 water-resistance rating isn’t the best, but it should be enough for all but the sweatiest gymgoers. (Just don’t use them in the pool.) We also like that the Fit Pro uses physical buttons to adjust volume or skip tracks, since touch controls can feel finicky when you’re trying to keep up with a workout. Their punchy sound is well-suited to the gym as well, with a noticeable but not overwhelming push in the bass and treble. It’s not one for purists, but it’s energetic.

If you aren’t specifically looking for workout earbuds, you can still do better. The Fit Pro lack wireless charging and multipoint connectivity, and there’s no way to customize the EQ if you don’t like the default sound. Their built-in mics aren’t anything special for phone calls, and the five- to six-hour battery life is on the edge of passable. The charging case is somewhat large as well. Plus, while the ANC mode is useful enough for tamping down the noise of a gym, it’s a clear step down from the best options on the market.

Pros

  • Secure fit for workouts
  • Punchy sound is well-suited to the gym
  • Physical control buttons

Cons

  • No wireless charging or multipoint connectivity
  • Battery life is just OK
  • ANC isn’t fine but nothing special

$153 at Macy’s

Photo by Billy Steele / Engadget

Active noise cancellation: Yes | Wireless charging: Yes | Water resistance: IP54 (IPX4 for case) | Multipoint connectivity: Yes (2 devices) | Wear detection: Yes | Max battery life (rated): 12 hrs, 48 hrs w/ case | Codecs: SBC, AAC | Warranty: 1 year

Read our full Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 review

The Pixel Buds Pro 2 are explicitly designed to work in harmony with other Pixel devices, so they’re worth considering if you’re a dedicated fan of Google’s phones. They come with a host of useful bonus features, from remote ringing and a “conversation detection” mode to a customizable EQ and automatic switching between devices paired to your Google account. (You also get hands-free access to Google’s Gemini AI bot, though we wouldn’t call that essential.) You can still access most of the Pixel Buds’ perks on other Android devices by downloading a separate app, but all of the functionality is baked into Pixel phones natively. This means you can manage the earbuds, check battery status and the like right from your device’s settings menus. It’s similar to how Apple integrates AirPods with iOS.

The earbuds themselves are perfectly competent beyond that, with a tiny yet comfortable design, decent ANC for the price, eight-ish hours of battery life, adequate call quality and an enjoyable sound with punchy bass and extended treble. That said, you’ll still get richer audio quality and more robust noise cancellation from our Sony and Noble picks above, so those who aren’t all-in on Google hardware can feel free to look elsewhere.

Pros

  • Tight integration with Pixel phones
  • Tiny, comfy design
  • Agreeable sound

Cons

  • Smaller touch panels require precision
  • ANC isn’t on par with Sony WF-1000XM5

$189 at Amazon

Photo by Billy Steele / Engadget

Active noise cancellation: Yes | Wireless charging: Yes | Water resistance: IP57 | Multipoint connectivity: No | Wear detection: Yes | Max battery life (rated): 7 hrs, 30 hrs w/ case | Codecs: SBC, AAC, SSC, SSC-UHQ | Warranty: 1 year

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review

Along those lines, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are to Galaxy phones what the Pixel Buds Pro 2 are to Pixel phones. Using them with a Samsung handset unlocks a few ecosystem-specific perks, including the hi-res Samsung Seamless codec, a real-time translation tool and a “Game Mode” that reduces latency. That’s on top of features like spatial audio, a graphic EQ, a lost device finder, adaptive ANC, simplified voice commands and automatic switching between Samsung devices.

This kind of walled garden approach is frustrating; remember when you could plug your headphones into any device and it’d work the same way every time? But, as with the Pixel Buds and AirPods, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are undeniably convenient if you’ve already bought into their chosen platform.

The rest of the package gets more right than wrong, though there are some issues worth calling out. The stem-style design pretty much rips off the AirPods Pro — this is particularly evident with the white finish — but adds weird, unnecessary LED strips down the stems. It’s comfortable, but Samsung isn’t beating the copycat allegations here. The ANC isn’t on par with the Sony XM5s either, and the six-hour battery life is shorter than many other premium pairs. There’s also no hi-res codec support with non-Samsung phones. On the plus side, the ambient sound mode works well. And most importantly, these things sound excellent out of the box, with full, meaty bass complemented by amply detailed highs and upper-mids.

It’s worth noting that Samsung froze shipments of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro right around launch due to quality control concerns (mainly regarding the stock eartips), but those look to have been resolved, and we haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary with our review unit.

Pros

  • Tight integration with Samsung phones
  • Great audio quality
  • Comfy fit
  • Natural ambient sound

Cons

  • Need a Samsung phone to get the most out of them
  • Battery life is shorter than some rivals
  • Copycat design with gimmicky LED lights

$190 at Amazon

What to look for in wireless earbuds for Android devices

A selection of wireless earbuds sit organized in rows on a granite background.

(Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget)

For the most part, the features you want from a set of “Android earbuds” are the same as what you want from any headphones. Great sound quality, a comfortable fit and sufficient battery life are still the foundations. Adequate water resistance is good for workouts, and nobody wants a crummy mic for making calls. Once you approach the $100 range, features like active noise cancellation (ANC), wireless charging, an ambient sound mode (which lets you better hear outside noise without turning off your music) and multipoint connectivity (the ability to pair with multiple devices simultaneously) should be expected.

For Android devices specifically, there are a few extras to consider. A dedicated app that makes it easy to switch sound modes, customize the audio profile, locate your earbuds if they ever get misplaced or adjust other settings is strongly preferred. Features like Google Fast Pair or NFC-based pairing, which can help you avoid having to dig through your Bluetooth menu to connect your earbuds for the first time, are also nice perks. Some Android devices can also utilize higher-quality Bluetooth codecs such as aptX Adaptive or Sony’s LDAC — these aren’t nearly as important to audio quality as the actual architecture of your earbuds, but they can help wring out a little more detail if the buds are capable enough and you’re streaming lossless files. AptX Adaptive can also help reduce latency, which is good for streaming video or gaming.

Diversity is Android’s greatest strength, but it also means that some wireless earbuds play nicer with certain devices, typically those made by the same company. Recent Samsung earbuds, for instance, come with a few perks that are only available if you use a Galaxy phone. We have a couple of recommendations related to this idea above.

How we test Android earbuds

Sony WF-1000XM5 review

(Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget)

The best way to test earphones is simply to wear them as much as possible, so that’s what we do. We typically do this over a one- to two-week period, though embargo times occasionally force us to finish our review process a bit faster. We listen to a test playlist that includes several musical genres and podcasts, paying close attention to how each pair approaches the bass, mid and treble frequencies to get an accurate sense of its sound profile. We also test at high and low volumes to check for consistency in the tuning. We do not have access to a dummy head to take more objective measurements, but we’ll sometimes look to sites like Rtings, SoundGuys and others that do just to ensure our impressions are not wildly off-base. If a model supports custom EQ, we’ll tinker with that and use the available EQ presets to see if one sounds dramatically better than the others — though in general we base most of our impressions on the stock tuning each pair uses by default.

To assess microphone quality, we record our own audio samples and take multiple calls with a partner both indoors and outside. For battery life, we play our test playlist on a loop with the volume around 75 percent and measure how long it takes for each set to drain. Where applicable, we do a thorough review of a pair’s companion app and test each available feature. While comfort is ultimately subjective, we take note of how secure each pair feels while we’re on the move. We also use certain pairs in especially crowded public spaces to get a better sense of their passive and active noise cancellation, as well as their ability to maintain a consistent Bluetooth connection.

Recent updates

August 2025: We’ve taken another sweep to ensure our advice is still up-to-date.

May 2025: We’ve checked this guide to ensure our top picks still stand and noted a couple alternatives to the Noble Fokus Rex5, since that pair has had stock issues of late. We’re also keeping an eye on how the Trump administration’s tariff policy affects the pricing and stock of our recommendations (and the consumer tech industry as a whole). All of our picks are still available in their normal price ranges today, but we’ll update this guide if that changes.

February 2025: The Noble FoKus Rex5 is our new “best for sound quality” pick, replacing the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4. Our other recommendations remain unchanged.

December 2024: We’ve lightly edited this guide for clarity and ensured that our current picks are still accurate.



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