Huawei plans to sell smartphone unit Honor to a consortium of buyers in an effort to ensure its survival amid crippling US sanctions, according to a statement published late on Monday. 

"The acquisition represents a market-driven investment made to save Honor's industry chain," Huawei said in a joint statement released with a group of more than 30 Chinese dealers and agents. 

"It is the best solution to protect the interests of Honor's consumers, channel-sellers, suppliers, partners, and employees."

The sale announcement comes as Huawei's consumer business scrambles to stay afloat following tougher sanctions levelled by the Trump administration on the Chinese company, including measures that take aim at the Chinese telecom giant's global chip supply.  Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but a Reuters report published earlier this month said the deal could fetch more than $15 billion. Once the sale is complete, Huawei will not hold any shares in the new Honor company, Huawei said in a statement. 

Read more: Not just Huawei: A guide to China's biggest and best smartphone makers

Honor is a Huawei sub-brand that sells low-cost smartphones designed for younger consumers within its native China as well as overseas including Europe and South East Asia. The seven-year-old company ships 70 million phones annually, according to the statement. Honor products often depend on Huawei's technology and some Honor phones run on Huawei's cutting-edge Kirin chipsets.

"Huawei's consumer business has been under tremendous pressure as of late," the company said in the statement. "This has been due to a persistent unavailability of technical elements needed for our mobile phone business."

"This move has been made by Honor's industry chain to ensure its own survival," Huawei said.

The purchase will be made by a new company called Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co, according to the joint statement. It was founded by the aforementioned consortium of buyers and a tech enterprise called Shenzhen Smart City Technology Development Group Co, which was formed by the government of the Chinese city of Shenzhen. 

Max Verstappen has won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, giving him his first ever Formula One championship title after a season-long battle with reigning champ and seven-time winner Lewis Hamilton. With both drivers heading into the last 2021 F1 race of the season on equal points after Hamilton won the maiden race in Saudi Arabia last weekend, the world championship was up for grabs Sunday at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. 

Racing for Red Bull, Dutch driver Verstappen started the race in pole position after topping the qualifying session Saturday. However, Hamilton led the entire race until the final lap.

Hamilton held an 11-second lead over Verstappen prior to a safety car due to a crash by Williams driver Nicholas Latifi with five laps to go. Verstappen pitted during the safety car, with a controversial decision by the FIA then allowing all lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to pass before the race restarted. The FIA's decision put Verstappen directly behind Hamilton on fresh tires when the race restarted on the final lap.

Mercedes has launched a protest against the decision, arguing it was a breach of regulations. The FIA dismissed the protest late Sunday, with Mercedes now appealing that decision.

Verstappen finished the season on 395.5 points, while Hamilton finished on 387.5. Both rivals started the race with 369.5 points. Coming in third for the championship was Hamilton's current Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, who finished the season with 226 points. Rounding out the top five were Perez on 190 and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz on 164.5 points.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas won the 2021 constructors' championship, with both of its drivers in the top three.

Verstappen broke his rival's winning streak, but Hamilton and Michael Schumacher hold the record for most championship titles, at seven. Hamilton, who is also spearheading an initiative to push greater diversity and inclusion in motorsports, won the F1 championship in 2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

The drivers get just three months off now, with the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship kicking off on March 20 in Sakir with the Bahrain Grand Prix. Hamilton will continue racing for Mercedes with new teammate George Russell, while Verstappen remains at Red Bull with current teammate Sergio Perez.

Season four of F1 Drive To Survive will be coming to Netflix in 2022 to recap this year's dramatic and controversial racing championship.

The race to the top of the mobile phone market has brought fantastic handsets from companies that continue to chase the leaders that are many people's top choices, like Samsung's Galaxy line and Apple's iPhones. From 5G connectivity to foldable screens, phone companies are innovating and evolving faster than ever, unveiling solutions to problems that we didn't even know existed. And all this competition benefits AT&T subscribers, giving you many excellent phones to choose from, at a number of different prices.

That means you need to go into the process of choosing a new phone with a solid strategy, one that ensure that you get a device with all of the apps, tools, data and media specifics that you want from your device. If that seems a little overwhelming, don't worry -- we've simplified it all for you. Read on to learn more about the best AT&T phone for you and your smartphone needs, as well as our tips for how to buy a new phone.

More phone recommendations

It's been just five years since Xiaomi was founded, and the rapidly growing company is celebrating the occasion in China with a fan festival to thank the company's loyal customers. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun took the opportunity to announce five new products, including the new Mi Smart Scale.

Adding to its growing ecosystem of phones and accessories, the Mi Smart Scale connects via Bluetooth with your smartphone and is another source of data for the company's Mi Fit app, which is available on both iOS and Android. It has a precision of 50g (1.8 oz) and can track weights from 5 to 150kg (11 to 330 lb). With a glass platform and LED display, it will retail for 99 yuan, which converts to around $15, £10 or AU$20.

Like the Yi Action Cam , the scale is developed by Huami, which also made the company's wearable fitness band, the Mi Band .

Other products include a buffed up Mi TV 2, which sports a 55-inch 4K display, smart features and comes with an eight-speaker sound bar. The price? Just 4,999 yuan ($805, £545 or AU$1,060).

Two phones -- a pink version of the company's flagship Mi Note , and a version of the Redmi 2 made for carrier China Mobile were also announced. Lastly, the company showed off the Mi Power Strip -- a portable charger with three power sockets and three USB ports.

These products are currently only for sale in China, but given that the company will be opening its online Mi Store for accessories in the US and Europe sometime soon, there's a good chance you may be able to get your hands on the Mi Smart Scale.

Lenovo's new Legion 2 gaming smartphone, expected to be unveiled Thursday, will feature four ultrasonic shoulder keys designed to turn the handset into a game console-like controller.

The keys, or triggers, located at the phone's bezel-less edges, are designed to replicate a game controller's L1, L2, R1 and R2 keys, detecting precise finger location and movements, including light and hard taps, slides and swipes.

"With these gestures, in-game maneuvers like aiming, shooting, opening skills, gear shifting and other controls are all seamlessly realized," Sentons, which partnered with Lenovo to create the experience, said in a statement. The San Jose, California, startup specializes in ultrasonics that work like sonar to register touch and pressure anywhere on a gadget's surface.

Sentons said the keys' positions match the natural position of users' hands when the smartphone is held horizontally.

The shoulder keys can also be used to augment operation of the handset's camera, adding a virtual shutter-release button that Sentons says operates just like a real camera, with a light press on the right side setting the focus, and a hard press taking the picture.

Facebook may stop removing false or misleading COVID-19 posts and may label or demote them instead, the social network said Tuesday. Parent company Meta is considering the move as it seeks advice from Facebook's independent oversight board on whether to modify its COVID-19 misinformation policy.

Facebook expanded its policy on harmful misinformation in early 2020 as the virus spread across the globe, allowing for posts that could lead to an "imminent risk of physical harm" to be removed worldwide, rather than only being taken down at the advice of local partners and experts. This was designed to combat misinformation about the pandemic, such as false claims about the effectiveness of masks, social distancing and the transmissibility of the virus.

In late 2020, as first doses of vaccines began rolling out, Facebook updated its policy to also remove vaccine misinformation. More than 25 million pieces of content have been removed since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Meta.

But now, amid rapidly shifting pandemic trends and declining stocks for the company in the year so far, Meta is looking into revising its policy, beginning with input from its oversight board.

"The policies in our Community Standards seek to protect free expression while preventing this dangerous content. But resolving the inherent tensions between free expression and safety isn't easy, especially when confronted with unprecedented and fast-moving challenges, as we have been in the pandemic," the company said.

Facebook's content moderation guidelines have long been a contentious topic, with the company being accused both of enabling hate speech to optimize profit and limiting free speech in recent years.

Meta's independent oversight board comprises legal advisers from various think tanks, professors from universities across the globe, journalists and human rights advocates. In this case, Meta requested an advisory opinion from the oversight board, meaning recommendations they provide to the company are nonbinding.

The competition in cloud gaming is heating up, with Microsoft's Xbox game streaming (xCloud)arriving in September, and now Nvidia encroaching on GoogleStadia's turf by adding Chromebooks to GeForce Now's supported platforms. The ability to run on a Chromebook is a great option, and GeForce Now is a slightly more sensible choice than Stadia. It's also easy to use: Just go to play.geforcenow.com, add a game you own that's in Nvidia's supported list, and launch. 

Unlike Stadia, which has a small library of custom-optimized games that you buy specifically to run on its platform, GeForce now is bring-your-own-game. At least if you buy a game on Steam, Epic or Ubisoft, you'll still be able to run it on a PC if Nvidia pulls the plug on the service rather than get stuck with a pile of useless bits. However, I stand by my opinion that you shouldn't buy games exclusively to play with any of these services. They move in and out of the libraries because of licensing deals, and you may yet end up with that pile of useless bits; with GeForce Now, you'd have to buy a PC capable of running the game if it flits out of the library.

You don't necessarily need to buy games, though. There's a large selection of free-to-play games -- nothing that's not free on every platform, but now you can play them on a Chromebook. You can give the $4.99-per-month Founders membership (which entitles you to priority access and longer sessions than the free option) a try with Nvidia's new promotion: six months for $24.95, which is equivalent to a free month. It includes a Season One battle pass for Hyper Scape and some content.

The nice thing is that you can fire up one of the free-to-play games with the free account on your Chromebook and give it a shot at zero cost.   

Now that you can sync your Steam library with GeForce Now, matching Nvidia's list with your library is not longer as onerous as it used to be, but if you have games through Epic Games Store it's really tedious on a Chromebook. That's because there's no EGS launcher for Chromebooks, and you can only see your game library in the launcher, not via the site. It's not Nvidia's fault, but it's Nvidia's problem.

The minimum recommended Chromebook specs aren't those you'd find in a cheap model, despite Nvidia's claim that a $299 model will run GeForce Now "fine": a 7th-gen Intel Core M3 or better (which has integrated Intel HD Graphics 600) and 4GB or more of RAM. Just as with its general network requirements, Nvidia does recommend a wired or 5GHz wireless connection -- that means WiFi 5 (802.11ac) -- and a network connection speed of at least 15Mbps (25Mbps recommended).

Although those are the recommended specifications, Nvidia has tested about 14 Intel-based models so far, some of which fall well below them:

I gave the service a whirl on the Chromebook 715, which falls on the high-end of the performance spectrum. When it works, it works well, and the experience matches playing on the desktop.

But, as usual, beyond a certain point it's not the hardware that holds back the experience; it's your internet connection. And bandwidth is only one factor when playing. The consistency of the connection is even more important, and it's something you can't measure because it changes minute to minute, and it's hard to fix in many situations. That doesn't always translate to poorer gameplay, but it frequently does start glitching the controls.

I'd launch a game when the connection was OK and at least 150Mbps, but by the time the opening screen appeared I'd start getting "spotty connection" warnings on a regular basis. In Observation, the glitchy video and unresponsive camera controls could pass as part of the game. In a platformer like Dead Cells, not so much. So your mileage may vary.

I suspect the problem is crowding on the Wi-Fi channels; there are no lightly used ones among the 20 or so Wi-Fi networks surrounding my apartment and my router. Ethernet is an option, but really inconvenient, which is probably true for a lot of people. This isn't unique to GeForce Now. It happens with all the services for me. But clearly it's an issue, given that Nvidia has a recommended router program for the service.

The other problem is Chromebook screens, which tend to be dim and washed out. They're usually not designed for a great gaming experience or with high contrast the way a phone or higher-end laptop screen is.

The Chromebook version supports all the latest features of GeForce Now, including Highlights, which can automatically record notable gameplay, and FreeStyle, for applying filters to your games. Ansel -- the high-resolution capture tool in Nvidia's drivers -- will be arriving soon in GeForce Now.

If you've got a Chromebook, even one that doesn't meet the minimum specs, it's certainly worth giving it a shot to see how well it works on your particular setup.

The new iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max have certainly turned a lot of heads at Apple's September event, not least because of the controversial new green color options. But I'd wager that a briefly mentioned update to the entry-level iPad will be a bigger leap for more people. The iPhone updates are largely centered on camera hardware, while the Apple Watch's blink-and-you'll-miss-it internal compass and always-on screen is not going to move the needle more than any other Apple Watch update. 

On the other hand, the iPad (Apple's only tablet without a modifier like Air, Mini or Pro), feels like a much-evolved product. Its screen goes from 9.7 inches, a mainstay since the launch of the iPad line in 2010, to a more modern-feeling 10.2 inches. That means there's no current iPad with a 9.7-inch screen, the first time that's happened in the history of the device. 

The shift further erodes the line between the standard iPad and the much more expensive iPad Pro, pitched by Apple as a true laptop replacement. Actually Apple pitches this new entry-level iPad as a laptop replacement, too, saying it offers two times the performance of the "best-selling Windows laptop." 

Now, as much as I think there's a really great story to be told about the new iPad, that's a pretty shaky comparison. Depending on where you look, the best-selling laptop right now is a sub-$500 plastic slab with either a low-end AMD or Intel Celeron processor. A similarly priced iPad specially tuned to run its custom iPadOS operating system is definitely going to feel faster than a Celeron machine struggling to run Windows 10 smoothly. The same could be said of an inexpensive Chromebook, which will feel faster running Google's light ChromeOS. 

So it's not a perfect comparison to a Windows laptop from that point of view, but the other big new feature in the iPad certainly does help it make the case as an alternative to clamshell PCs. By adding the proprietary Smart Connector interface to the edge of the iPad, you suddenly have access to the small but impressive range of high-end accessories made for the iPad Pro and iPad Air. Having tried both types of keyboards, a direct connection to Apple's keyboard cover is a better overall experience than using a Bluetooth keyboard. 

The previous gen of iPad already worked with the Apple Pencil, at least the original 1.0 version of it, and that continues here. Now combined with a larger screen, fast A10 processor and the Smart Connector, there's less daylight than ever between this and the pricey iPad Pro. 

Lost somewhere in the middle are the recently revived iPad Mini and iPad Air. Both of those are trapped in the middle, leading neither in price nor features. The iPhone is available in regular and Pro models, the MacBook in Air and Pro models. I'm not sure there's a compelling reason for there to be four distinct iPad product lines. But I am surprised that the entry-level iPad now feels like the model that should survive alongside the Pro. 

I go back to my original thoughts on the iPad, dating back to the original 2010 launch model. At the time, I called it a product that came off better in person than on paper. I'd say the same about the new iPad. It adds a bunch of spec tweaks that don't sound revolutionary, but when trying it out in person, I came away more impressed than I expected. 

This story is part of Home Tips, CNET's collection of practical advice for getting the most out of your home, inside and out.

Whether you've just bought a home or have lived in the same house for years, one thing remains the same: If you have a mortgage, you're required to purchase a homeowners insurance policy. While the average home insurance cost in the US this year is $1,383, those rates are rising, due in part to inflation and supply chain issues, according to CNET's sister site Bankrate.

"Home insurance is not only required for anybody who has a loan -- it's critical to protecting what is for most people our most important financial asset, our home," says Douglas Heller, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer research and advocacy nonprofit. 

Your homeowners insurance cost is influenced by several factors, including your home's location, age and condition. But despite increasing rates, there are still ways to cut your bill, potentially by hundreds of dollars a year. 

Here are seven ways you could save money on your homeowner's insurance. (You can also find out how to save money by unplugging your appliances, turning off the lights and setting your thermostat to the right temperature.) 

1. Shop around 

Whether you're in the process of buying a house and looking for an insurance provider, or you've lived in your house for years, it's a good idea to compare insurance premiums across different companies. They can vary widely, says Janet Ruiz, director of strategic communication for the Insurance Information Institute, a nonprofit that aims to help people understand insurance. 

Sites like insure.com let you input your information to get an idea of what your rate might look like, before you have to provide all of your information to get an actual quote. This makes it easier to shop around across providers before homing in on the couple that may offer you the best rate, Ruiz says. (Just check the privacy policy first: Though these sites offer a free service, they're likely sending your data to third-party advertisers in exchange for that service.) If you know an insurance agent in your family or community, you can consult with them as well, she adds. But know that some agents only represent one provider, while others can pull quotes from several. 

Read more: 5 Steps to Lower Your Water Bill

2. Consider loyalty discounts

Insurance companies often give loyalty discounts, which is something to consider if you've been with the same providers for a long time before switching to another. But even if you're getting a loyalty discount, it's still worth shopping around, because it's very possible that you'll find a rate that offers similar coverage but costs less, Ruiz says. 

3. Ask about bundles

It's simple, explains Ruiz, but bundling your home and auto insurance under one provider can net you a discount on rates for both.

Read more: Best Car Insurance Companies

4. Make improvements (or tell your insurance provider about changes you've already made)

If you've made any improvements to your house -- particularly to things like plumbing and electrical work -- let your insurance carrier know. Plumbing and electrical issues are common costly problems that insurance companies pay for, and making improvements could lead to a lower premium for you, Ruiz says. 

You can even work with your insurance agent to come up with a checklist of improvements or investments you can make over time to get a lower premium, Heller says. 

5. Schedule regular home insurance checkups

Your home insurance renews automatically each year. Next time it comes around, check your coverage and contact your provider if you've made any changes to your home. It's also a best practice to do a home insurance checkup with your provider every few years to make sure your coverage is still appropriate for your circumstances. For example, maybe you're driving an older car that isn't worth much and you don't want the same amount of collision insurance as you would on a newer car. 

These are relatively brief conversations, Ruiz says: "Take 15 minutes. It'll save you a lot of grief if you have a loss."

6. New homebuyers: Don't wait until the last minute

Securing a home insurance policy is typically one of the final steps before closing on a house during the purchasing process. But this isn't recommended. "I've seen so many people end up with a high price policy because they just waited until the last minute, or didn't realize it would take a couple of days," Heller says. 

Instead, start shopping for homeowners insurance as soon as your offer is accepted, Heller says. That way you'll have time to explore all of the options and find the best price. 

Read more: The First-Time Homebuyer's Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Buy a Home

7. Evaluate your deductible

In the last decade or so, insurance companies have moved from a standard dollar base deductible -- say, $500,000 on your policy -- to percentage-based deductibles. You may have a deductible that is 1% of your coverage, so if you have a $200,000 policy, the insurance company won't pay for damage below $2,000. 

"It's important to know how that works, and you may be able to choose a lower or higher deductible to save money on your premium, if you can cover out of pocket," Heller says. There's a caveat there, though: When insurance companies give you savings, you're usually giving them less responsibility for the claim and taking on more risk yourself. 

For more, you can check out the current mortgage rates and how to prepare for a recession. 

The London-based livestreaming website OnlyFans will begin prohibiting sexually explicit content starting in October, the company said Thursday. The new standards will still permit nudity, provided that creators post in accordance with the site's acceptable use policy.

"Effective 1 October, 2021, OnlyFans will prohibit the posting of any content containing sexually explicit conduct," an OnlyFans spokesperson told CNET. "In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the platform, and to continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we must evolve our content guidelines."

The change is being made at the request of the site's banking partners and payout providers, the spokesperson added.

Founded in 2016, OnlyFans claims over 130 million users and 2 million creators worldwide, but recent reports suggest that the site's status as a popular destination for amateur adult content has made it difficult to attract investors. Earlier this week, the company launched a nude-less app to help broaden its image as a platform for creators and to align with the policies of popular app marketplaces. 

"We will be sharing more details in the coming days and we will actively support and guide our creators through this change in content guidelines," the OnlyFans spokesperson said.

Fight for the Future, an advocacy group for online digital rights and censorship, released a statement in response.

"OnlyFans deplatforming legal sex work is a perfect example of why we need an Internet with less choke-points for censorship," said Lia Holland, Fight for the Future's Campaigns & Communications Director. "Banning sexual content from OnlyFans is not going to make anyone safer—in fact, it will put sex workers in harm's way by eliminating a safer revenue stream for a lot of marginalized folks.

"It is laughable that OnlyFan would call this an "inclusive" move when it literally excludes the primary marginalized community that has been using their services to generate safer, sustainable income since its inception."

Emily van der Nagel, a lecturer at Monash University and co-author of Sex and Social Media, believes the move is a mistake on the part of OnlyFans.

"OnlyFans has missed an opportunity to support sex workers and porn performers by formally welcoming them and proactively working with payment companies that allow adult content," she said, adding that it added further stigma to sex work. "Such a message is harmful for these vulnerable workers, and exacerbates existing harm done by other platforms deciding adult content is too risky to support."

Sex workers and those potentially impacted by the move are holding out hope restrictions don't include them. Many are frustrated that OnlyFans is seemingly set to abandon the sex workers that helped build the platform. Jenna Love, a sex worker and member of the Scarlet Alliance -- an association working towards sex workers rights -- says OnlyFans' decision is unsurprising. 

"There is a lot of conflicting information circling at the moment," she said, "but we have seen OnlyFans attempts at becoming more 'mainstream' for a long time. Unfortunately banks and payment processors hold the power in this world and financial discrimination against the sex industry is absolutely rife. While we don't know exactly what this information means for content creators yet, this has the potential to be the latest in a long line of devastating blows to the sex working community."

"The news is not in any way surprising but that doesn't lessen the pain it will cause and the impact it will have on the livelihood of a lot of people," Love said. "But sex workers are a resilient bunch, we are used to adapting to dangerous legislation and discriminatory rules and we will continue to survive and thrive."

This story is part of The Cost of Climate Change, CNET's coverage of how the changing climate impacts a range of financial issues.

As climate change brings severe weather to more regions of the US, a growing number of homeowners and residents are dealing with natural disasters for the first time. If your home or vehicle has been flooded, damaged by hail or set ablaze, there are resources to help.

In the US, the federal government provides various forms of assistance to rebuild homes and restore personal property in the wake of a natural disaster. Some of it comes as grants, which is money you don't have to repay. But most of it comes through loans, which you do have to repay -- with interest.

Here's a breakdown of the major forms of federal assistance programs when recovering from a disaster and what you'll need to apply.

Federal Emergency Management Agency grants

FEMA's disaster assistance programs are designed to aid homeowners "who have uninsured or under-insured necessary expenses and serious needs," according to the agency's website. The Individuals and Household Program, which helps homeowners rebuild both the exterior and interior of their homes, is capped at around $30,000 to $35,000, according to Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications at the Insurance Information Institute.

Experts suggest not to rely solely on FEMA grants following a natural disaster, however. FEMA grant payouts are "typically well below $10,000," said Friedlander. This, combined with the fact that the grant review and approval process can take a long time, means that homeowners should have other safeguards -- namely, insurance -- in place before a disaster strikes.

"Don't expect FEMA to bail you out from a flood loss or property loss," Friedlander said. "FEMA emergency funds are not a replacement for insurance coverage, for flood insurance or any home loss," Friedlander said.

How to apply for FEMA assistance

Go here to submit an application online. You can also call toll-free at (800) 621-3362 or head to one of FEMA's Disaster Recovery Centers. Here's what you'll need:

• You must file a claim with your insurance carrier before you can apply to FEMA, so be sure to do that first.
• Photos of your damaged home and belongings. 
• A list of the damaged and/or lost personal property.

Small Business Administration Loans

The Small Business Administration also offers funding to homeowners and renters who need help with repairs from damages to their home and personal property.

Despite its small business-focused designation, the SBA is actually the primary source of federal funds for long-term recovery assistance for disaster survivors, according to a FEMA representative. The SBA's low-interest disaster loans offer assistance for disaster damage to private property for homeowners, renters and non-farm businesses of all sizes. 

In contrast to a FEMA grant, the SBA provides loans, which means you'll have to pay this money back with interest. Your interest rate will depend on whether you can secure credit elsewhere, according to the SBA website. If you can get it from a private lender, the interest rate is capped at 8%. If you can't, your interest rate will not exceed 4%.

Note that these loans are available only if your losses are not covered by your insurance or FEMA funding. Homeowners may apply for up to $200,000 to replace or repair their primary residence and up to $40,000 to replace or repair their personal property, including vehicles. 

One thing to keep in mind: If an event is officially designated a natural disaster by the US president or SBA, any loan exceeding $25,000 must be secured with collateral if possible. The SBA also says it "will not decline a loan for lack of collateral," however.

How to apply for SBA loans

Go here to apply for SBA loans. Here's the application and what you'll need:

• Complete and submit IRS Form 4506-C, which allows the IRS to provide tax return information to the SBA.
• Real estate tax information.
• Homeowners and vehicle insurance info and the dollar amount received following a disaster from your insurance carrier.
• If you changed employment within the past two years, the SBA may request that you must provide a copy of your current pay stub. This information must be provided within seven days of the SBA's request. 

Wordle  has been keeping me up at night. Literally. I almost always stay awake past midnight to solve a new puzzle.

The game has gotten all the more satisfying for me since I developed a new, two-step strategy that really seems to work every time. My win streak is at 32 now, and maybe that's nothing to you, but it's a personal best for me. I thought I'd talk you through my strategy so you can start a winning streak of your own (or keep yours going for days to come).

If you're reading this, Wordle needs no explanation to you. The puzzle was invented by Josh Wardle (Wardle -- Wordle, get it?) and bought for big bucks by The New York Times back in January. The online game gives you six chances to guess a randomly selected five-letter word, and if you get correct letters, they show up in different colors, depending on if they're in the right spot in the word or not. It's addictive and fun.

I stuck to the same starter words for a long time, and they'd usually work for me. I was a longtime user of "ADIEU" to get in a ton of vowels, and I would often move on to "STORY," to get the two other vowels (sometimes Y!) and some other major consonants going. And that strategy is still a solid one. I may go back to it if I feel I'm in a rut.

Hop on the 'TRAIN'

But these days, I'm starting every Wordle round with "TRAIN," and then moving on to "CLOSE."

TRAIN is pretty self-explanatory if you've studied which letters are most commonly used in English words. All five of the letters in TRAIN are among the top seven letters used.

All I know is that nearly every time I use TRAIN as a starter word, I get a couple correct letters, often in the right spot. And it's an easy to remember starter word for sure.

CLOSE as a second choice is interesting. It gets two more vowels out of the way, and C, L and S also turn up in the top 10 most-used letter list. Sometimes, though, I get zero correct letters out of CLOSE. But believe it or not, that helps me, too. Then I'm able to look at the keyboard showing me which letters I haven't yet guessed, and choose a word that uses any correct letters plus any major consonants I haven't yet guessed.

Correct letter, wrong spot

If you've got a correct letter, but don't know which spot it should go in, you can have some fun with your third guess. If you know that you have an F but not where it goes, guess a word with a lot of Fs, like "FLUFF." That way, you can at least determine if there's an F in three of the five spots. Remember, too, that there may be more than one of the same letter used.

X marks the spot

Here's one more oddball tip. If I have just a couple of letters in the right spot, I personally need to see how the word looks. So I type in the correct letters I have, plus Xs for each letter I have no clue about. If I know the word ends in "ON" from my guesses, I type in XXXON. Then I study the unguessed letters in the keyboard and mentally picture them where the Xs are. (I don't enter these words as guesses, I just look at them for ideas, then backspace over them and delete.)

If I know there's another letter, say an B, somewhere in the mix, I might try typing it in all the empty spots -- BXXON, XBXON, XXBON -- and see if I can picture what words work. Remember, the Xs don't stand for X, they stand for "I don't know this letter."

If the Xs make it too confusing, you can also just write down the options using blanks. That might give you a better view of possibilities. I choose an X because I like to type it right into the Wordle grid, and X seems the most like a blank to me. Since these attempts aren't really words, there's no danger of me accidentally hitting enter and wasting a guess by mistake.

There you go. That's my new Wordle process. It may not be the perfect strategy. But I almost always find myself in a good place after two rounds of guessing. 

For more Wordle tips and tricks, here's a roundup of excellent strategies. Plus, New York Times Games has released a new way to play Wordle. If you're done with Wordle for the day, try these other addicting puzzle games.

Samsung tends to use its splashy Unpacked events to show off the newest high-end gadgets in its Galaxy S, Galaxy Note and Galaxy Z families of phones. But it's the company's midrange A Series, which last year started at $110, that will take center stage at its next big product event. 

On 7 a.m. PT Wednesday, Samsung is set to host its second virtual Unpacked event of 2021. Samsung called Wednesday's event "Galaxy Awesome Unpacked" and said it will explain how it's "bringing Awesome to everyone." (Yes, capital "A" Awesome). Its first Unpacked, in mid-January, marked the introduction of Samsung's flagship phones for the year, the Galaxy S21, S21 Plus and S21 Ultra. All come with 5G, and the devices start at $800, which is $200 less than their predecessors. 

The Galaxy S may be Samsung's most high-profile flagship lineup, and the Galaxy Z foldables are its future, but neither offers the most popular devices the South Korean giant sells. That title goes to the Galaxy A, which represented more than three out of every four Samsung phones shipped around the world last year, according to Strategy Analytics. The line's quiet rise as a major contributor to sales for Samsung underscores the notion that while high-end specs and cutting-edge features are nice for attention and buzz, people still care about what they're spending on phones -- especially in these times. 

Samsung will bring more attention to the lineup than ever when it makes the Galaxy A the focus of Wednesday's Unpacked. 

When Samsung first jumped into the Android market in 2010, it was with its Galaxy S devices, which propelled the Korean company to the position of world's biggest phone vendor, a title it's held for most of the past decade. Similarly, the Galaxy Note ignited a trend for jumbo phones and the Galaxy Fold touched off a new wave of foldables.

Generating much less fanfare is the Galaxy A lineup. The phones have been viewed as devices for people who are more price-sensitive -- if anyone thought about the A Series at all. They've been sold internationally for years but didn't come to the US as a full lineup until 2020.

In the past, "every time [Samsung] rolled out the S series, even after carrier subsidies disappeared, that was what sold," Strategy Analytics analyst Ken Hyers said. "Things like the A Series or equivalent product, those were for the people who didn't have the money for a premium phone."

Last year's Galaxy A lineup included four 4G LTE phones and two 5G models. They ranged from $110 for the Galaxy A10 to $650 for the Galaxy A71 5G on Verizon's network (it's $600 at other carriers without super-fast 5G millimeter-wave connectivity). All came with some high-end features, though they weren't nearly as premium as the specs found in the Galaxy S, Note and foldables. And none came close to the price tag for Samsung's premium phones, which started at $1,000 for the Galaxy S20. Though the Galaxy A lineup may not have the flash of Samsung's high-end phones, what it does have is a lot of buyers across the world. 

In the US, where there's often a bigger market for pricey phones than in many other regions, the A Series' shipments surpassed those of the S Series, 26% to 19%, according to Strategy Analytics. In the key fourth quarter of the year, nearly half of Samsung's phone shipments in the US came from the A Series. That included models like the $180 Galaxy A11, $250 Galaxy A21 and $500 Galaxy A51 5G. 

People are increasingly choosing less expensive phones, even if they can afford the pricier models like the Galaxy S, Strategy Analytics' Hyers said. 

Today's phone market looks very different from the industry a few years ago. In the past, many consumers bought the latest and greatest on a regular two-year cadence, and Apple and Samsung made $1,000 the standard starting price for high-end phones. Now people in the US are content holding onto their phones an additional year, and when they upgrade, they're often seeking out less expensive phones. Today's mainstream devices ship with many higher-end features -- like fast processors, big screens and several camera lenses -- that consumers deem to be good enough, especially for the price. Samsung even cut the starting price of its Galaxy S lineup by $200 for this year's S21 models. 

"The price of premium products has gotten out of whack with what people think is justifiable for a smartphone," Hyers said. "And midtier phones like the A51 ... don't feel like you're making a compromise." 

Samsung declined to comment ahead of Wednesday's event. 

The new A Series

This year, Samsung is expected to introduce Galaxy A52 and A72 phones, successors to last year's A51 and A71. The devices likely will come with 4G and 5G variants right away (last year's 5G models arrived after the 4G versions) and several improvements over the older models. 

The A52 is rumored to sport a bigger battery, a better processor and more RAM, while keeping the 6.5-inch Super AMOLED display found in the A51. And the A72 is believed to feature a new camera design, with five back lenses, a first for any Samsung device. It also may become the first midrange phone with optical image stabilization to optimize shots. 

Refreshing the higher end of the A Series could have a lower boost on Samsung's unit sales than introducing newer cheap models. It's the company's least expensive Galaxy A models that have proved to be the most popular with consumers, said Mark Bachman, lead tech and telecom analyst at M Science. His firm tracks how well phone models sell. 

Looking at the first 20 weeks of sales for each device, the data analytics provider found that the budget models, like the $180 Galaxy A10e and A11 or the $250 A20 and A21, sold in higher numbers than the higher-priced $500 A51 5G and $600 A71 5G (or $650 at Verizon). US consumers bought nearly 2.5 million units of the A11 in its first five months of sales, while they purchased only about 300,000 Galaxy A51 5G units. 

"While the launch of the A52/A72 series will refresh Samsung's midrange offerings, we believe these phones will have less impact to Samsung's sales in the US when compared to their budget A series and premium priced S series handsets," Bachman said. 

Still, Samsung hasn't yet said what its new A Series devices will cost. It could lower the prices for the models, like how it cut Galaxy S pricing. 

Hitting the 'sweet spot'

Samsung highlighting its less expensive phones follows a trend found across the mobile industry. The first 5G devices on the market in 2019 cost significantly more than their 4G counterparts. Samsung's Galaxy S10 5G and Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G both retailed for $1,300. That's $400 and $200 more than the 4G variants, respectively.

But the coronavirus pandemic has forced companies to reevaluate their launch plans and drop pricing for 5G phones much more quickly than expected. In September, Samsung introduced its Galaxy S20 FE for $300 less than its S20 sibling. Then in January, Samsung said its new Galaxy S21 models would cost $200 less than their Galaxy S20 sibling from a year earlier. It's partly because component costs have fallen but also recognition that it's getting harder to convince people to shell out $1,000 for a phone.

The Galaxy S21 lineup meets "sweet spots" in the market when it comes to pricing and features, Drew Blackard, Samsung Electronics America's vice president of product management, said in an interview ahead of January's Unpacked event. And he said the lower starting point is likely here to stay. 

The Galaxy A devices are even more affordable, without having to sacrifice features like strong cameras.  

A new smartphone that won't drain your bank account may be worth the trouble of all that Unpacked fanfare after all.