Syntilay has launched AI-designed, 3D-printed shoes.
The footwear was designed with a mix of Midjourney and Vizcom AI
The $150 shoes use smartphone foot scans for a fully customized fit.
If you like Crocs but wish they had more of a science-fiction backstory, you’re in luck. A startup company named Syntilay is using AI and 3D printing to produce a new line of shoes. The futuristic footwear is available now for $150 a pair. These slides aren’t cheap, but innovation rarely is.
Syntilay uses a mix of AI tools supplemented by human artistry to create its shoes, which look more than a little like a deep sea fish at first glance. The designers relied on Midjourney to develop the basic shape of the shoe. After that, a human artist refined the idea with a sketch for inspiration uploaded to Vizcom AI, which produced a 3D model based on the sketch. AI then helped design and embed textures and patterns into the shoe design, completing their look.
Entrepreneur Ben Weiss founded Syntilay, but it has the backing of Reebok co-founder Joe Foster, who added some credibility to the idea. The shoes come in five colors: orange, red, beige, black, and blue. They are supposed to evoke the work of Syd Mead, the artist behind the iconic visuals in Blade Runner and Aliens.
AI shoes
The $150 shoes are 3D printed in Germany and specially made for each customer, shipping out after about three weeks. If you want to buy a pair, you are asked to scan your feet with a smartphone camera so that the shoes will fit perfectly, even adjusting for the usual slight differences between people’s right and left feet.
There’s also the matter of practicality. While scanning your feet with a phone camera sounds straightforward, not everyone is eager to go full techie just to buy shoes. And what happens if the fit isn’t quite right after all that scanning and printing? These are hurdles Syntilay will need to address as it scales its operations.
The question, of course, is whether the market is ready for AI-driven footwear. Syntilay’s shoes will have to prove they are worth the expense and wait when it comes to things like comfort and durability.
$150 is a pretty big price tag when generic slides similar to Crocs can cost $20 or even less. Syntilay has to hope its design, custom-fit promise, and the gimmick of AI design win over early adopters.
There have certainly been personalized shoes before, but combining AI and 3D printing may entice those looking to be trendsetters.
Perplexity AI has released a mobile app for Android
The Perplexity Assistant offers voice, text, and camera-based interactions for tasks such as booking rides and identifying objects
The assistant integrates with apps and leverages real-time information and task automation
AI conversational search engine Perplexity is going mobile on the Google Play Store with a new Android app. Peeplexity’s app pitches itself as a kind of digital Swiss Army knife that can manage tasks for you, including making reservations and identifying objects through your phone’s camera. Best of all, the app is free and speaks 15 languages.
By leveraging Perplexity’s own search engine, the assistant can also tap into real-time web information, so it’s not just regurgitating pre-programmed answers. This should, in theory, make it smarter and more versatile than many of its competitors. To juggle all of those abilities, Perplexity can maintain context across multiple tasks. That means it won’t double-book you and will remember what you like and don’t like.
“You can do many cool things like booking an Uber, finding dinner tables, playing an old YouTube video, playing songs, getting directions, and translating Shakespeare, all with voice and a simple action button or gesture,” Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas explained on X. “Cool thing about this is everything stays in context. You can start with a conversation about some question you have and follow up to set an action related to it, e.g., getting an alert ahead of a basketball game.”
Say you want Perplexity to help with your dinner plans. The AI will look for restaurants, check reviews, suggest dishes for you, and book the table on OpenTable, all in one conversation. Srinivas admitted that the restaurant booking “doesn’t always work” but promised it would be sorted out soon.
Introducing Perplexity Assistant.Assistant uses reasoning, search, and apps to help with daily tasks ranging from simple questions to multi-app actions. You can book dinner, find a forgotten song, call a ride, draft emails, set reminders, and more.Available on Play Store. pic.twitter.com/UHdUIiDOzDJanuary 23, 2025
Here are a few more examples of what Perplexity Assistant can do. We can’t wait to see how you use it.Get it here: https://t.co/H4J9cr68So pic.twitter.com/F7ibSFfrgqJanuary 23, 2025
Perplexity resolved
This launch comes on the heels of Perplexity’s broader expansion efforts, including rolling out Sonar, an API that lets businesses integrate Perplexity’s search tech into their own apps. It’s part of a growth strategy that also includes acquiring the professional social media platform Read.cv. Clearly, Perplexity is trying to build an ecosystem where its AI doesn’t just answer your questions but also becomes an indispensable part of your daily workflow. Whether it’ll succeed in creating a full-blown AI assistant that people can’t live without remains to be seen
Perplexity is facing a crowded market, so anything to stand out will be useful. To beat ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Apple’s latest enhancement of Siri through Apple Intelligence will require a lot of creativity from Perplexity. Still, if Perplexity’s app can deliver consistently with its multimodal capabilities and app integrations, it stands a real chance of muscling aside those rivals, at least partly.
People love novelty, but they hate frustration. If Perplexity can avoid or quickly squash any bugs, you might see a lot of people becoming far less perplexed about AI apps as a concept.
It’s time for your guide to today’s Wordle answer, featuring my commentary on the latest puzzle, plus a selection of hints designed to help you keep your streak going.
Don’t think you need any clues for Wordle today? No problem, just skip to my daily column. But remember: failure in this game is only ever six guesses away.
Want more word-based fun? TechRadar’s Quordle today page contains hints and answers for that game, and you can also take a look at our NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for our verdict on two of the New York Times’ other brainteasers.
SPOILER WARNING: Today’s Wordle answer and hints are below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to see them.
Wordle hints (game #1315) – clue #1 – Vowels
How many vowels does today’s Wordle have?
• Wordle today has vowels in two places*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Wordle hints (game #1315) – clue #2 – first letter
What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?
• The first letter in today’s Wordle answer is C.
C is a very common starting letter in Wordle – in fact, it’s the second most common of all, behind only S.
Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it’s still more likely that a Wordle doesn’t have one.
Wordle hints (game #1315) – clue #4 – ending letter
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
• The last letter in today’s Wordle is E.
E is the most common letter to end a Wordle answer by far. That’s one of the reasons why many of the best start words, including SLATE, CRANE, CRATE and STARE, all end with one.
Wordle hints (game #1315) – clue #5 – last chance
Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here’s an extra one for game #1315.
Today’s Wordle answer is a type of fabric or a tasty food.
If you just want to know today’s Wordle answer now, simply scroll down – but I’d always recommend trying to solve it on your own first. We’ve got lots of Wordle tips and tricks to help you, including a guide to the best Wordle start words.
If you don’t want to know today’s answer then DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER BECAUSE IT IS PRINTED BELOW. So don’t say you weren’t warned!
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1315)
(Image credit: New York Times)
NYT average score: 3.8
My score: 4
WordleBot’s score: 3
Best start word performance*: CRANE, PLACE (4 remaining answers)
My start word performance: ROUGH (414)
* From WordleBot’s Top 20 start words
Today’s Wordle answer (game #1315) is… CREPE.
Before anyone suggests that CREPE should have a circumflex over the first E, it’s one of those words that has now been naturalized into English and therefore doesn’t require one. Besides, Wordle doesn’t do accents, not least because it only deals in capital letters.
Anyway, accent or not I do love a nice CREPE, ideally with just a little sugar and lemon. I can’t make them, though; my efforts always end up looking more like an omelette. Fortunately, my attempt to solve this Wordle was slightly more successful, although not enough to beat the ‘bot – or the global average.
The latter currently stands at 3.8, marking it out as a middling answer that’s unlikely to lead to many lost streaks. The repeated Es make it a little more difficult, as does (presumably) the fact that it’s not a particularly obvious word. No, CREPEs are not rare – but it’s really only a word you’d use if you were eating one, or thinking about eating one. Unless, of course, you’re referring to the fabric instead. Don’t eat that, whatever you do.
I began with ROUGH today – a good one in theory but a poor one in practice. That gave me nothing more than a yellow R, and left 414 possible solutions. At the other end of the scale was CRANE, which left a mere four of them; that goes a long way to explaining why the ‘bot beat me here.
I followed up with SANER in order to sense-check that ER format, and was relieved to see that the final two letters were both yellow. There was still work to be done, though: WordleBot told me afterwards that I still had 47 options to consider.
I didn’t list them (and didn’t know there were quite so many at the time, anyway), but instead simply placed the R and E in their most common positions then built a word around them. That word was TRICE, and this time I made progress: both the R and E turned green, and a yellow C was added to the mix too.
This left me with only two words, CREPE and CREME. I agonized over which to choose for a few minutes, then went with CREPE mainly because they are so damn tasty. My greed proved well placed, and I solved it in four.
In a different time zone where it’s still Thursday? Don’t worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1314, too.
Wordle yesterday had vowels in two places.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
The first letter in yesterday’s Wordle answer was U.
U is not a particularly common starting letter in Wordle, with only 33 answers beginning with it. It ranks 20th in this regard, and is the least common vowel to start an answer.
There were repeated letters in yesterday’s Wordle.
Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it’s still more likely that a Wordle doesn’t have one.
The last letter in yesterday’s Wordle was R.
R is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – it’s actually the 4th most common there, behind E, Y and T.
Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here’s an extra one for game #1314.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer is higher in position.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer (game #1314)
(Image credit: New York Times)
NYT average score: 4.4 (revised)
My score: 3
WordleBot’s score: 5
Best start word performance*: PARSE (18 remaining answers)
The second ER word this week, and the fourth so far in January, is also the easiest for a while – but it’s far from easy compared to most other answers.
WordleBot says UPPER has an average score of 4.3 (note – revised to 4.4), compared to 5.6 for the horrendous ROWER, 5.0 for WAFER and 4.6 for CYBER. But compared to yesterday’s REACH (see below), which finished at 3.0, it’s still a tough nut to crack.
It does differ from most ER words in that it lacks the consonant-vowel-consonant format at the start that characterizes so many of them. This theoretically makes it easier, as there are only so many two-consonant pairings that work; you’d never get R followed by J or K followed by V for instance. The effect here was to reduce the number of possible solutions, so that once you had the second letter in place you would (theoretically) have had an easier time than you would if it was a vowel.
On the flip side, it contains a repeated P – a format that is pretty uncommon even by the standards of repeat letters; a mere 18 of the Wordle’s 2,309 original solutions contain more than one P.
It’s hard enough overall that it took WordleBot five guesses to solve it, surely not helped by the fact that CRANE left 191 solutions. Well, excuse my lack of sympathy, ‘bot, but welcome to my world.
Today, as it happens, my opener performed better than that, with SCAMP leaving 144 options. Better still, it gave me the yellow P that would prove pivotal to my own game here.
I followed up with PRINT, knowing that P is very common at the start, and gained a yellow R. And, at this point, I realized that an ER word was likely – something that I should probably have played for by this stage.
Still, I only had nine words left, WordleBot told me afterwards, and found a handful: LEPER, DOPER, ROPER, UPPER and REPLY. But I dismissed DOPER and ROPER as very unlikely, and decided to go with UPPER on nothing more than a hunch. If wrong I might still have had three or four words to choose from, but I’d have confirmed that ER format and would be guaranteed to know where the P went.
I needn’t have worried. Sometimes a hunch is correct, and today, improbably, mine was spot on. UPPER turned out to be the answer and I got home in three.
Wordle answers: The past 50
I’ve been playing Wordle every day for more than three years now and have tracked all of the previous answers so I can help you improve your game. Here are the last 50 solutions starting with yesterday’s answer, or check out my past Wordle answers page for the full list.
Wordle #1314, Thursday 23 January: UPPER
Wordle #1313, Wedneday 22 January: REACH
Wordle #1312, Tuesday 21 January: ICING
Wordle #1311, Monday 20 January: SQUID
Wordle #1310, Sunday 19 January: ROWER
Wordle #1309, Saturday 18 January: SILLY
Wordle #1308, Friday 17 January: PROSE
Wordle #1307, Thursday 16 January: FLINT
Wordle #1306, Wednesday 15 January: KNACK
Wordle #1305, Tuesday 14 January: FANCY
Wordle #1304, Monday 13 January: CLOAK
Wordle #1303, Sunday 12 January: TOTAL
Wordle #1302, Saturday 11 January: DINGY
Wordle #1301, Friday 10 January: CRAWL
Wordle #1300, Thursday 9 January: WAFER
Wordle #1299, Wednesday 8 January: DRAFT
Wordle #1298, Tuesday 7 January: ATLAS
Wordle #1297, Monday 6 January: SPRIG
Wordle #1296, Sunday 5 January: CYBER
Wordle #1295, Saturday 4 January: RELAX
Wordle #1294, Friday 3 January: CHEAP
Wordle #1293, Thursday 2 January: CHOSE
Wordle #1292, Wednesday 1 January: NERVE
Wordle #1291, Tuesday 31 December: LEMUR
Wordle #1290, Monday 30 December: STARE
Wordle #1289, Sunday 29 December: MAMBO
Wordle #1288, Saturday 28 December: DECRY
Wordle #1287, Friday 27 December: GRAIN
Wordle #1286, Thursday 26 December: AFFIX
Wordle #1285, Wednesday 25 December: SHARE
Wordle #1284, Tuesday 24 December: EAGLE
Wordle #1283, Monday 23 December: SAUNA
Wordle #1282, Sunday 22 December: BRAWN
Wordle #1281, Saturday 21 December: BLADE
Wordle #1280, Friday 20 December: FLASH
Wordle #1279, Thursday 19 December: STRAY
Wordle #1278, Wednesday 18 December: HEFTY
Wordle #1277, Tuesday 17 December: SCOWL
Wordle #1276, Monday 16 December: BOAST
Wordle #1275, Sunday 15 December: FUNKY
Wordle #1274, Saturday 14 December: DROOL
Wordle #1273, Friday 13 December: BOXER
Wordle #1272, Thursday 12 December: VYING
Wordle #1271, Wednesday 11 December: PLUMB
Wordle #1270, Tuesday 10 December: PATIO
Wordle #1269, Monday 9 December: FLUNG
Wordle #1268, Sunday 8 December: HYENA
Wordle #1267, Saturday 7 December: HILLY
Wordle #1266, Friday 6 December: SHOVE
Wordle #1265, Thursday 5 December: ENDOW
Wordle #1264, Wednesday 4 December: CRYPT
What is Wordle?
If you’re on this page then you almost certainly know what Wordle is already, and indeed have probably been playing it for a while. And even if you’ve not been playing it, you must surely have heard of it by now, because it’s the viral word game phenomenon that took the world by storm last year and is still going strong in 2025.
We’ve got a full guide to the game in our What is Wordle page, but if you just want a refresher then here are the basics.
What is Wordle?
Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day. You get six guesses, with each one revealing a little more information. If one of the letters in your guess is in the answer and in the right place, it turns green. If it’s in the answer but in the wrong place, it turns yellow. And if it’s not in the answer at all it turns gray. Simple, eh?
It’s played online via the Wordle website or the New York Times’ Crossword app (iOS / Android), and is entirely free.
Crucially, the answer is the same for everyone each day, meaning that you’re competing against the rest of the world, rather than just against yourself or the game. The puzzle then resets each day at midnight in your local time, giving you a new challenge, and the chance to extend your streak.
What are the Wordle rules?
The rules of Wordle are pretty straightforward, but with a couple of curveballs thrown in for good measure.
1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.
2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow.
3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray.
4. Answers are never plural.
5. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.
6. Each guess must be a valid word in Wordle’s dictionary. You can’t guess ABCDE, for instance.
7. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses unless you play on Hard mode.
8. You have six guesses to solve the Wordle.
9. You must complete the daily Wordle before midnight in your timezone.
10. All answers are drawn from Wordle’s list of 2,309 solutions. However…
11. Wordle will accept a wider pool of words as guesses – some 10,000 of them. For instance, you can guess a plural such as WORDS. It definitely won’t be right (see point 4 above), but Wordle will accept it as a guess.
Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,000 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.
Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc’s Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
Quordle today (game #1096) – hint #1 – Vowels
How many different vowels are in Quordle today?
• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Quordle today (game #1096) – hint #2 – repeated letters
Do any of today’s Quordle answers contain repeated letters?
• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.
Quordle today (game #1096) – hint #3 – uncommon letters
Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?
• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today’s Quordle answers.
What letters do today’s Quordle answers start with?
• G
• S
• S
• T
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
Quordle today (game #1096) – the answers
(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)
The answers to today’s Quordle, game #1096, are…
GRIND
STOCK
SERVE
TOUCH
Despite a very good start getting STOCK and TOUCH in the first four turns I labored to finish today’s Quordle.
I’m struggling with a head cold at the moment and I think it showed with my guesses for SERVE, where I tried SEVER even though I already knew the word couldn’t end in ER.
Sometimes it’s such a struggle to extract a guess from my brain that I rush to type it before thinking. This is not, frankly, very helpful for Quordle…
How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.
Daily Sequence today (game #1096) – the answers
(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)
The answers to today’s Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1096, are…
Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc’s Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #327) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Get smart
NYT Strands today (game #327) – hint #2 – clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
THIN
SUCK
SELL
BUCK
TEEN
HILL
NYT Strands today (game #327) – hint #3 – spangram
What is a hint for today’s spangram?
• Next level
NYT Strands today (game #327) – hint #4 – spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?
First side: top, 5th column
Last side: bottom, 4th column
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #327) – the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today’s Strands, game #327, are…
QUICK
BRILLIANT
BRIGHT
CLEVER
INTELLIGENT
SPANGRAM: THATS GENIUS
My rating: Easy
My score: Perfect
Spotting a Q in a Strands puzzle is always a great headstart and after a QUICK opener the rest fell into place quite easily today.
The only real sticking point was the Spangram, which was made up of two words and which jarred a little thanks to the absence of an apostrophe in THATS GENIUS – not that this is possible in Strands, it’s just sad to see their disappearance from the world.
As an English teacher might put it: people only write “Thats” instead of “That’s” because they’re lazy. And that’s the truth.
How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.
Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Thursday, 23 January, game #326)
MILK
BUTTER
CHEESE
GELATO
CUSTARD
YOGURT
SPANGRAM: DAIRY PRODUCTS
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day.
AMD has confirmed a vulnerability in its processor lineup that leaked out early before the company had a chance to issue a patch. While the vulnerability appears to affect consumer Ryzen CPUs, AMD has yet to name them nor describe the vulnerability.
The vulnerability will require mitigations, however, AMD said. A security bulletin is due soon.
The Register reported that Tavis Ormandy, who works at Google’s Project Zero, had noted that Asus released a beta version of a BIOS update for its gaming motherboards with a mention of an AMD vulnerability. Ormandy edited his post to remove the reference, but not before the Register report was published.
AMD has confirmed that the bug exists, but that it needs both local administrative access to the PC in question and specific microcode designed to attack the vulnerability.
“AMD is aware of a newly reported processor vulnerability,” a company spokesperson confirmed in an email. “Execution of the attack requires both local administrator level access to the system, and development and execution of malicious microcode. AMD has provided mitigations and is actively working with its partners and customers to deploy those mitigations.”
AMD wouldn’t say which processors were affected, or the nature of the vulnerability. For now, consumers will have to wait. But not long.
“AMD recommends customers continue to follow industry-standard security practices and only work with trusted suppliers when installing new code on their systems,” the AMD representative wrote. “AMD plans to issue a security bulletin soon with additional guidance and mitigation options.”
Having a fast flash drive on hand can save you the pain of transferring files over slow Wi-Fi. In fact, it allows you to bypass the need for an internet connection altogether. It just so happens that one of our favorites — Samsung’s Type-C Flash Drive — is on sale right now, with the 128GB model available for a mere $18 on Amazon.
Besides the fact that this modern flash drive is a total steal at this price, this particular flash drive is awesome because, as the name suggests, it has a USB-C connection. That means it’s so easy to back up data from smartphones, tablets, laptops, gaming consoles, and more.
The Samsung Type-C Flash Drive is tiny, too, making it easy to throw into a pocket or purse and take with you anywhere. It’s also built with protection against most dangers, including water, dust, shocks, magnets, extreme temperatures, and X-rays.
With its 400MB/s read speeds, you can transfer massive files to your thumb drive in no time, including those extra-large 4K videos.
