Tim Mulkerin’s Friday guide to NYT Connections #1,125 puts Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, and OutKast in the same frame, but not the same box. Lifehacker published the hints and answers for July 10, 2026, and the puzzle’s wordplay turns on a simple split: OUTKAST looks musical, yet it does not belong in the musician category.
NYT Connections #1,125 is the day’s puzzle, and Mulkerin’s coverage gives players the working set before they waste guesses. He has worked in digital media and the tech world since 2016, which fits the way this kind of daily puzzle guide has to move: fast, clear, and exact.
Tim Mulkerin on July 10
2016 is the anchor point for Mulkerin’s background, and it helps explain the tone of the piece. He is a freelance writer, editor, and social media manager, has a bachelor’s degree in art history, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in communicative sciences and disorders from New York University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Friday’s Connections write-up is part of the recurring daily hints coverage that also includes Wordle and Strands. For players, the value is practical: one page collects the clue structure instead of forcing a trial-and-error run through the board.
NEW ORDER and the mode tiles
The article says all the mode tiles belong in separate categories today. That matters because it narrows the sort of pattern the game is using: not shared subject matter, but shared construction.
NEW ORDER is identified as the name of an English band, so it sits apart from the tile logic around the rest of the board. OUTKAST, by contrast, might seem to belong beside the musician answers, but the guide says it does not go there.
SMARTPHONE SETTINGS and dessert
The yellow group is SMARTPHONE SETTINGS, with AIRPLANE MODE, DO NOT DISTURB, HOTSPOT, and LOCATION SERVICES. That is the cleanest route for players who need one solved category to stabilize the rest of the board.
The green group is DESSERT MENU DESCRIPTORS, with DECADENT, FRESH-BAKED, MOLTEN, and À LA MODE. Those two categories give the puzzle its structure: one set built from device options, the other from menu language.
What remains beyond the yellow and green groups is not shown in the provided text, so the useful move for players is to lock those two categories first and then test whether the remaining tiles fit the same kind of wordplay. That is the only way OUTKAST stops looking obvious and starts looking like the trap it is.
