Technology

The cost of prescription drugs may increase, but here's where you can find discounts on critical medication.

The Trump administration removed pages relating to LGBTQ issues, HIV information, racial disparities and more, but you can still find them on the Wayback Machine.

The answer depends on where you live.

Here are some hints and the answer for Wordle No. 1,326 for Feb. 4.

• A new phishing campaign is targeting businesses and individuals in over 50 countries
• Experts warn attackers are hiding malicious links in PDFs using a never-before-seen obfuscation technique
• Use the best antivirus software and activate advanced mobile threat defense solutions

PDF files, long considered a safe and reliable way to share documents, are now being weaponized by cybercriminals in a sophisticated phishing campaign targeting mobile users.

New research from Zimperium’s zLabs team claims this new threat involves malicious PDFs delivered via SMS messages whose senders impersonate the United States Postal Service (USPS).

Attackers are using advanced techniques to hide malicious links within the files, exploiting the trust users place in the format to steal sensitive data.

Why mobile users are vulnerable

This campaign reportedly targets organizations and individuals in over 50 countries with over 20 malicious PDF files and 630 phishing pages identified so far.

Attacks commence once the victim clicks on the malicious link hidden in the PDF; usually containing requests for personal information, including names, addresses, and credit card details.

Mobile devices are considered especially vulnerable to this type of attack because, on smaller screens, users have limited visibility into file contents before opening them.

Malicious links in these PDFs are even more difficult to detect than usual, because the attackers aren't using the standard /URI tag to embed links, allowing the malicious content to evade detection by traditional endpoint security software.

“Although USPS has no involvement, cybercriminals exploit its trusted name to mislead and target users,” said Nico Chiaraviglio, Zimperium zLabs' Chief Scientist.

“This campaign shows the growing sophistication and continued rise of mishing attacks, emphasizing the need for proactive mobile security measures,” he added.

How to protect yourself

One of the most effective ways to stay ahead of this type of attack is to verify the sender’s details, and the metadata of any attachment you open; even more important measures to take as business email attacks are becoming a bigger threat than ever for businesses.

You may also want to avoid clicking on links embedded in PDFs or SMS messages. Instead, navigate directly to the official website or use the organization’s mobile app.

Furthermore, to stay safe from malware on mobile devices, ensure you’re using the best Android antivirus or best iPhone antivirus software.

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We’re all hopelessly online these days, but our kids are more connected to the internet than any generation that came before them. Of course, that connectivity can come at the cost of privacy. It’s natural for parents to want to protect their children and their privacy before sending them out to explore the Internet, but do you have all the tools necessary? If you’re not using Norton VPN Ultimate, you could be missing out on incredible technology that can help keep your family safe when browsing the internet.

Protecting your family’s privacy online

(Image credit: Norton VPN)

It’s common these days for our personal information to be available online, but such lax security comes with some legitimate threats. Bad actors are always looking for your family’s data and can use easily tracked information on your favorite devices to steal your identity, financial information, and more. Norton Ultra VPN is an award-winning VPN service that ensures your family is safe and secure online.

Robust toolsets like IP Masking, Data Encryption, and Antivirus Protection can help provide anonymity in today’s hyper-connected digital landscape. With a VPN, targeted ads are a thing of the past, as identifying information about your family’s location and browsing history becomes encrypted.

Masking your location with a VPN can also have the added benefit of granting you access to your favorite content from your favorite streaming service. No more losing access to your kids’ favorite show when traveling to a different region!

Parental Controls put you in charge

(Image credit: Norton VPN)

Norton VPN Ultimate offers an impressive array of parental controls that put you in charge of determining your family’s online activity. Relying on online filters like safe search controls can be limiting, and don’t prevent your children from directly accessing inappropriate websites. With Norton VPN Ultimate, you can block unsuitable websites and prevent your children from accessing unapproved content.

Accessing content is only the tip of the iceberg, though. Norton VPN Ultimate features a well-rounded screen time feature, giving you the power to control not just what your children see, but for how long. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) recommends less than two hours of screen time a day for children, and even less for those under the age of six. We all know our kids aren’t keeping to those guidelines on their own, and it can be time-consuming as a parent to count down every minute of screen time our kids are exposed to. Norton VPN Ultimate’s screen time feature gives us the power to monitor and limit screen times as we see fit, in addition to providing all these other privacy and safety tools.

All-in-one data protection, antivirus protection, and family set tools? Yes, please.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

You could sit and download a plethora of apps and software to cover all of the devices your family uses to browse, game, and shop online. Or, you could save yourself the hassle of trying to remember all those passwords and just sign up for a Norton VPN Ultimate to provide you and your family with peace of mind. Norton VPN Ultimate’s toolkit is stacked with everything you need to protect your family from the ills of the internet, including robust antivirus and malware detection, data encryption, parental controls, and so much more. You can try this one-stop-shop VPN right now, and rest easy knowing Norton VPN Ultimate is backed by a 60-day money-back guarantee. Keeping your family safe online has never been easier.

Your MagSafe accessories might work for both the iPhone and Android phones as Qi2 expands.

Now, the game will show up in the Times Games app, where the Feb. 9 Connections: Sports Edition game will be Super Bowl-themed.

An emergency credit card can help with unexpected expenses, but make a plan to pay it off quickly to avoid interest charges.

• Nvidia integrates DeepSeek-R1 as a NIM microservice
• AWS supports DeepSeek-R1 with a focus on scalable and cost-efficient AI deployment
• Microsoft also has future local deployment plans for DeepSeek

Having taken the AI world by storm in recent weeks, DeepSeek has now made significant strides in expanding the accessibility of its advanced reasoning models.

The company has announced its flagship DeepSeek R1 model is now available on multiple platforms, including Nvidia, AWS, and GitHub.

DeepSeek’s open source nature allows developers to build models based on its architecture, and, at press time, there are 3,374 DeepSeek-based models available collaborative AI-model development platform Hugging Face.

Nvidia, AWS, Github & Azure now offers DeepSeek

On AWS, DeepSeek-R1 models are now accessible through Amazon Bedrock which simplifies API integration and Amazon SageMaker which enables advanced customization and training, supported by AWS Trainium and Inferentia for optimized cost efficiency.

AWS also offers DeepSeek-R1-Distill, a lighter version, through Amazon Bedrock Custom Model Import. This serverless deployment simplifies infrastructure management while maintaining scalability.

Nvidia has also integrated DeepSeek-R1 as a NIM microservice, leveraging its Hopper architecture and FP8 Transformer Engine acceleration to deliver real-time, high-quality responses.

The model, which features 671 billion parameters and a 128,000-token context length, utilizes test-time scaling for improved accuracy.

It also benefits from Nvidia’s Hopper architecture, using FP8 Transformer Engine acceleration and NVLink connectivity. Running on an HGX H200 system, DeepSeek-R1 can generate up to 3,872 tokens per second.

Microsoft’s Azure AI Foundry and GitHub have further expanded DeepSeek’s reach, offering developers a secure and scalable platform to integrate AI into their workflows.

Microsoft has also implemented extensive safety measures, including content filtering and automated assessments. The company claims that it plans to offer distilled versions of DeepSeek-R1 for local deployment on Copilot+ PCs in the future.

DeepSeek-R1 took the world by storm by offering a powerful, cost-efficient AI model with advanced reasoning capabilities and has dethroned popular AI models like ChatGPT.

R1 was reportedly trained for just $6 million, with its most advanced versions being about 95% cheaper to train than comparable models from NVIDIA and Microsoft.

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• Security outfit VIPRE processed 7.2 billion emails to deliver a scathing report
• It found 90% of emails sent are classified as spam, with the US topping the spam senders list
• Rising threats for 2025 include QR code phishing and adoption of deepfakes

VIPRE processed 7.2 billion emails in 2024 and uncovered a staggering 858 million instances of spam, with the majority flagged due to content (437 million) or the links inside (411.62 million).

The security firm's latest email threat analysis research also revealed over 90% of all emails identified as spam included unsolicited commercial messages and malicious phishing attempts which attempt to evade secure email provider filtering.

VIPRE found the US is the leading source of spam emails, followed by the UK, with countries like Switzerland and Sweden also among the top senders.

The rise of malspam and phishing

The digital age has brought an overwhelming deluge of email spam; other recent research claims businesses reportedly received 20 billion spam emails in 2024.

Malspam, or malicious spam, continues to be a significant threat, and attackers are known to switch up their attack methods.

In Q1 2024, 78% of malspam used attachments, while Q2 saw a shift to 86% using links. By Q4, attachments had regained prominence, with PDF, DOCX, and XLSX files being the most common carriers of malware.

Links remained the most common phishing tool, with URL redirection accounting for 51% of phishing attempts. QR codes emerged as a new attack technique, with their usage in phishing emails rose from 1% in Q1 to 12% in Q4.

VIPRE's report encourages vigilance against emails purportedly coming from CEOs and top business executives; the firm found 70% of all scam emails use this format. Such spam emails primarily target the manufacturing sector (32%), energy (9%), retail (8%), health (5%), and government (4%). Microsoft remained the most spoofed brand with the likes of DocuSign, Apple, and Google also topping the list.

To combat these evolving threats, organizations must adopt a multi-layered approach to email security. Implementing email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC can help prevent spoofing and impersonation while investing in AI-powered detection tools can provide real-time protection against emerging threats.

In addition, enforcing multi-factor authentication (MFA) via authenticator apps adds an additional layer of security, while continuous user education is essential for identifying phishing attempts.

On the backend, behavioral analysis and endpoint protection systems should also be deployed to detect and block suspicious messages and malware.

“This annual email landscape analysis provides valuable insight into the cybersecurity threats that will challenge businesses in 2025,” said Usman Choudhary, Chief Product and Technology Officer at VIPRE Security Group.

“To counter the increasingly automated and AI-enhanced email-based threats, organisations need to implement robust email security technologies and foster a culture of highly vigilant security awareness among employees, in equal measure. This dual approach presents the most realistic and effective approach to surmount the ever-advancing and difficult-to-spot email-based threats.”

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Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Monday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Monday, February 3 (game #1106).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 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 #1107) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.

* 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 #1107) - 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 0.

Quordle today (game #1107) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• Yes. One of Q, Z, X or J appears among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1107) - hint #4 - starting letters (1) Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1107) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• B

• D

• M

• J

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1107) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1107, are…

• BIRTH
• DRAWN
• MILKY
• JOIST

I only just scraped through today thanks to some brain freeze. That said, without incorrectly guessing the word “Right” when I already had an incorrect “T”, I would never have got BIRTH. Sometimes a mistake can unlock the rest of the puzzle – that’s what I’m telling myself, anyway.

I certainly should have also guessed JOIST ahead of Moist – it’s exactly the kind of word Quordle loves to catch us out with. Or maybe I'm just paranoid.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Daily Sequence today (game #1107) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1107, are…

• APRON
• COCOA
• GUESS
• CURLY

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1106, Monday 3 February: SLEET, TENSE, SEIZE, SCAMP
• Quordle #1105, Sunday 2 February: LOUSY, PENNE, CHUMP, SALVE
• Quordle #1104, Saturday 1 February: FACET, BLISS, FLUFF, FRANK
• Quordle #1103, Friday 31 January: PARER, SYNOD, BRAWN, BANJO
• Quordle #1102, Thursday 30 January: WEEDY, CHIRP, STALE, SUGAR
• Quordle #1101, Wednesday 29 January: CROWN, SCENE, AGILE, CRANK
• Quordle #1100, Tuesday 28 January: TOKEN, DAISY, INANE, PLIED
• Quordle #1099, Monday 27 January: ANGEL, GLOBE, MAYOR, BRAVE
• Quordle #1098, Sunday 26 January: WATER, ORBIT, BRIDE, TOUCH
• Quordle #1097, Saturday 25 January: GIVER, GROOM, GUSTO, MAKER
• Quordle #1096, Friday 24 January: GRIND, STOCK, SERVE, TOUCH
• Quordle #1095, Thursday 23 January: RUGBY, SASSY, WORRY, BANAL
• Quordle #1094, Wednesday 22 January: SLANT, TRUNK, WOOZY, EATEN
• Quordle #1093, Tuesday 21 January: CHART, VIGOR, PRINT, SPAWN
• Quordle #1092, Monday 20 January: SIXTY, THONG, TATTY, ROBIN
• Quordle #1091, Sunday 19 January: WREST, RINSE, SCOUR, CANNY
• Quordle #1090, Saturday 18 January: BLARE, ITCHY, BICEP, PIPER
• Quordle #1089, Friday 17 January: CATCH, WEARY, SWOON, LATHE
• Quordle #1088, Thursday 16 January: PARTY, BLUNT, TWEED, PLANT
• Quordle #1087, Wednesday 15 January: RISEN, PLATE, RURAL, ENVOY

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Monday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, February 3 (game #603).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #604) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• FILE
• SAVE
• BUTTER
• CHICKEN
• SPREAD
• SAND
• UNDER
• STORE
• LADY
• FAVORITE
• STICKY
• PRESERVE
• KEEP
• BUFF
• PARLAY
• GRIND

NYT Connections today (game #604) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Put away for later 
• GREEN: Level the surface
• BLUE: Bet on it
• PURPLE: Add a handy body part

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #604) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: CONSERVE 
• GREEN: SMOOTH USING FRICTION
• BLUE: SPORTS GAMBLING TERMS 
• PURPLE: WORDS BEFORE "FINGERS" 

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #604) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #604, are…

• YELLOW: CONSERVE KEEP, PRESERVE, SAVE, STORE
• GREEN: SMOOTH USING FRICTION BUFF, FILE, GRIND, SAND
• BLUE: SPORTS GAMBLING TERMS FAVORITE, PARLAY, SPREAD, UNDER
• PURPLE: WORDS BEFORE "FINGERS" BUTTER, CHICKEN, LADY, STICKY

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

The only STICKY group for me today was WORDS BEFORE “FINGERS” and this was just because I’d never heard of CHICKEN Fingers. If the group had included FISH I would have got it more quickly – although I believe that in the US this pinnacle of orange cuisine is called a Fish Stick.

The Fish Stick was invented by frozen food pioneer Clarence Birdseye and was originally made from herrings. It only became a product made from cod in the 1950s and its success was rapid in the UK, where they were marketed with the slogan “No bones, no waste, no smell, no fuss”. I’m not sure about that last part as it’s a given that if you clean your freezer you will always find some orange fishy crumbs preserved in the ice, even if you haven’t eaten a fish finger in years. Finger crumbs – the wooly mammoth of the modern suburbia.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Monday, 3 February, game #603)

• YELLOW: COMMENT AFTER AN INSULT BURN, OUCH, SNAP, ZING
• GREEN: TINY AMOUNT, WITH "A" BIT, LITTLE, MITE, TAD
• BLUE: BIT OF CITRUS GARNISH SLICE, TWIST, WEDGE, ZEST
• PURPLE: BUNGLE, WITH "UP" FOUL, LOUSE, MUCK, SCREW

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I love wrestling. I love the storylines, I love the athleticism, I love live TV, and I love the ridiculousness of it all. I turned 30 last month and there are very few interests that have stuck with me from my childhood, but wrestling is one of them. There have been times when my interest has withered, but the soap opera of wrestling always manages to reel me back in.

As of January, WWE’s headline weekly show, 'Monday Night Raw', is live on Netflix worldwide. We’re a month into the $5 billion deal and the road to the most important event of the wrestling calendar is underway (Wrestlemania), making now the perfect time to dust off your wrestling boots and get back into the action. Whether you loved WWE growing up and lost interest over time, or you’ve never seen a wrestling show in your life, now’s the perfect time to start watching WWE and I’m going to explain why.

Welcome to the Netflix era

(Image credit: WWE / Netflix)

The late 90s/early 00s was prime WWE, or as it was called back then WWF, before a legal dispute with the World Wildlife Fund. With icons of the sport like Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock leading the charge, WWE was hotter than ever before selling out arenas all around the United States. That was, until now. Following on from a monumental sale to TKO (the company that owns UFC), WWE is now setting record gates in stadiums across the globe and has never been more popular. With adults returning to wrestling to see John Cena’s final year or CM Punk’s incredible mic work, and children engrossed with new future legends like Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, WWE is thriving and it’s only going to get better from here on out.

Naysayers love to throw around the idea that wrestling is “fake” and the storylines cheesy, but as I grow older I come to respect the craft more than ever before. Wrestling is indeed pre-determined, but so are all the best TV shows and best movies. But the result of a match being decided beforehand shouldn’t be a reason to dismiss or avoid giving WWE a chance, after all some of the best wrestlers in the world like Seth Rollins and CM Punk can deliver live acting in one take that you wouldn’t be surprised to see in an Academy Award-winning drama. That might be hard to believe if you’re used to the ridiculousness of the 90s, but some of the best wrestling storylines nowadays, like the infamous tale of The Bloodline, a look at the Samoan wrestling dynasty with The Rock, Roman Reigns, Jey and Jimmy Uso, and Solo Sikoa, has been pure cinema. I’m talking about interweaving weekly storylines that have only grasped an audience but have essentially reinvented the wheel when it comes to how storylines can be portrayed on live television.

(Image credit: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

In the UK and the rest of the world, Netflix doesn’t only show Raw on a Monday, but also WWE’s Friday night show, SmackDown, as well as all the Premium Live Events like Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, and Summerslam. Speaking of Wrestlemania, the journey to the biggest event of the year began this weekend with one of the best PLEs we’ve seen in years. I may have watched wrestling for nearly three decades but I can’t remember the last time I’ve been sat on the edge of my seat, biting my nails, hoping my favorite wrestlers come out on top. The best bit, everything that happened on Saturday night at Royal Rumble is just the beginning of months of storytelling as we lead up to Wrestlemania 41 in Las Vegas on April 19th and 20th.

WWE has gone through years of irrelevancy, particularly as the company turned to PG audiences following the heyday of The Rock and Austin. But now the tides have turned and it’s not only culturally acceptable to say you watch wrestling, it’s almost cool again. Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, and Rhea Ripley, to name a few are pioneering something special on live TV and I implore anyone who’s ever watched wrestling in the past, or is looking for a new way to spend their Monday nights to give WWE on Netflix a go.

How to watch WWE on Netflix

US audiences can tune into WWE Raw every Monday night on Netflix, PLEs (the huge shows like Wrestlemania) are streamed live on Peacock.

For the rest of the world, like the UK and Australia, the full WWE catalog is available on Netflix, including WWE Raw, WWE Smackdown, and all PLEs, including Wrestlemania 41. Not only can you watch shows live, but there’s a full selection of previous shows dating back to the 80s, so you can catch up on your favorite nostalgia trip before getting stuck into modern-day action.

The next big WWE PLE is Elimination Chamber that will be streamed live on Netflix worldwide and Peacock in the US on March 1st. That said, give WWE Raw a try on Netflix at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET / 1 a.m GMT to see what all the fuss is about. I promise, if you appreciate great stories and incredible action, you’ll be hooked in no time.

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• 3 new Netflix shows I can't wait to watch in February 2025

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Monday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, February 3 (game #337).

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 #338) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Elf-centered

NYT Strands today (game #338) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• MICE
• HOME
• SLIME
• PIERCE
• BEER
• LIME

NYT Strands today (game #338) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Mischievous beings

NYT Strands today (game #338) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: left, 5th row

Last side: right, 5th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #338) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #338, are…

• PIXIE
• FAIRY
• SPRITE
• HOBGOBLIN
• GREMLIN
• LEPRECHAUN
• SPANGRAM: IMPISH

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

The biggest challenge for me today was connecting the letters of the fiendishly tricky LEPRECHAUN. Other than that I couldn’t have wished for an easier Strands.

Seeing the letter X in the puzzle is always a big help and so it proved, helping me find PIXIE to begin the hunt.

Among the hint words was Beer, and HOBGOBLIN happens to be the name of a UK beer brand. Maybe this was just a happy accident, maybe there’s an ale-head at Strands HQ or maybe I’m just thirsty.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Monday, 3 February, game #337)

• POACH
• BAKE
• BOIL
• BASTE
• PICKLE
• SCRAMBLE
• CODDLE
• SPANGRAM: MAKING EGGS

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.

Severance fans can enhance their enjoyment of the show by reading Ricken's self-help book, which plays a role in the program.

WIRED confirmed various automated efforts to remove pronouns from both email and Slack at USAID, the EPA, the GSA, and more.

Upsettingly, the first three seasons of my favourite sci-fi show, The Expanse, are reportedly about to be cruelly removed from Prime Video and it’s happening this Friday (February 7), giving you just a few short days to binge-watch them all!

I’m sure that there will still be a way to watch the first three seasons on one of the best streaming services somewhere eventually (I hope), but if you’re a Prime Video subscriber then this will be your last chance to watch it as part of your subscription. That's according to reports from Prime Video subscribers who have seen a message appear next to the title saying that it's 'leaving soon', but these messages are no longer available at the time of writing (we have contacted Prime Video asking for clarification and will update this article as soon as we hear back).

If you’ve never heard of The Expanse before, then let me fill you in on some essential lore of the finest sci-fi series you haven’t watched yet. Firstly, it’s based on the superb series of books (not to mention short stories and novellas) by James S.A.Corey, which is the joint pen name for two authors, called Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, that starts with Leviathan Wakes, and ends with the ninth and final book, Leviathan Falls.

• Watch The Expanse season 1 on Prime Video now

As always, the books are better than the TV show, but the TV series is still mostly faithful to the books and astoundingly good, even if it doesn’t cover the entire story – it stops at book six. The original TV series was produced by The SyFy Network and got canceled after its first three seasons. After that Amazon acquired the rights and produced three more seasons – you can see the bump up in budget this produced on screen – and it’s those original three seasons that are supposedly about to disappear from Prime Video for good.

The show begins at a point in time when humanity has already colonized the solar system, including Mars, the Moon, and most importantly, the Asteroid Belt and beyond, but that’s as far as we can reach – for now. Given our limited range and scant access to resources, things like water and air become incredibly valuable commodities, especially for the inhabitants of planets and asteroids that don’t have their own supplies of these things.

Series one focuses on a detective (Miller) and his search for a missing girl, but that’s just your way into the universe of The Expanse, which soon expands to dizzying proportions. Episode one starts with the crew of an ice miner called the Rocinante, or Roci for short, making a run from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the belt when they discover a derelict ship called the Scopuli, which holds a terrible secret that has the potential to change the destiny of humanity.

(Image credit: Amazon)

Throughout The Expanse we see the tensions between the different factions of humanity, the Earthers (that’s us), the Martians (or Dusters), who have gained independence from Earth, and the Belters, whose bodies have had to adapt to life in a low gravity environment, play out in a way that contains all the political intrigue and machinations that you’d find in wars between the Seven Kingdoms in the writing of George R.R.Martin. Several things stop The Expanse becoming simply ‘Game of Thrones in space’ though, but the main one is, surprisingly, physics.

Unlike most sci-fi shows which throw up get-out-jail-free super technologies (dilithium crystals, I’m looking at you) or fantasy TV shows that can always fall back on magic to explain how things happen, The Expanse, does a great job of providing plausible explanations for how space ships can travel such long distances in a relatively short period of time, in this case, the Epstein Drive. And when we see battles between space ships (and there are a lot!), the beam weapons, like the rail gun, they use don’t cause massive explosions, instead they chop through the hull of a ship like a wire through a block of cheese. And the tactical manoeuvres the captains pull off (having to flip their ship because of a forward mounted rail gun) feel real. In fact, The Expanse feels more like it belongs to the Three Body Problem universe than the Star Wars or the Star Trek ones.

But it’s not all about the physics. The characters are all excellently drawn. Mainly, it’s the ragtag crew of the Rosi, who keep you hooked. Along with James Holden as captain we have the XO, Naomi Nagata, pilot Alex Kamal and chief engineer Amos Burton, who has the strange ability to channel meanness into a super power when he needs to, but is loyal to a fault. Throughout the series we get additional crew members, particularly gunner Bobbi Draper, but the core group somehow manage to stay together, emotionally, even if not physically, in all the turmoil that follows.

The universal constant in The Expanse, however, is space, – the big nothingness that surrounds our tiny struggles. We humans feel like silly creatures compared to the vast unforgiving blackness. The universe doesn’t care if we live or if we die, and the real message of the show, if there is one, is that it’s up to us to care for each other because the universe doesn’t care about us.

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• The latest Fire TV software update has removed a popular feature
• You can no longer hide unwanted apps on your homescreen
• It's possible to restore the functionality with an app called atvTools

Amazon isn't a stranger to quietly removing Fire TV features or breaking their functionality with software updates – and it's just struck again in the latest firmware push for its popular streaming gadgets.

A new Fire TV update, which has rolled out to first-gen and second-gen Fire TV Sticks among other devices, has removed the option of hiding apps on your homescreen (as spotted by AFTVNews).That means you're now stuck with a cluttered grid of apps you probably don't want, with no option to make them disappear.

Previously, you'd be able to press the 'context' button on a Fire TV remote (the one with three horizontal lines) and see the option to 'hide from your apps'. While it's possible to uninstall third-party apps, you can't do this for Amazon's own apps like Freevee or Prime Video. Thanks, Amazon.

The further bad news is that this also means that apps from other user profiles that you've set up on your Fire TV device will be shown across all user profiles. Unfortunately, there's evidence on the likes of Reddit that this downgrade has also hit other Fire TV Sticks including the more recent Fire TV Stick 4K Max.

The workaround

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2023) home screen interface (Image credit: Future)

Fire TV Stick owners are becoming increasingly disgruntled with Amazon's software updates, which sometimes feel user-hostile – like last year's firmware that broke a number of popular third-party apps.

Fortunately, there does seem to be a workaround (for now) that lets you again hide apps that you don't want to see on your homescreen. As outlined by the YouTuber TechDoctorUK,the third-party app atvTools (available for Android and iOS) restores your ability to remove unwanted homescreen apps, albeit in a more long-winded way than before.

To do that with atvTools, open the app and connect to your Fire TV device. Now go the apps list, search for the app you want to remove from your homescreen, tap the three dots, and choose the 'disable' option. Once you refresh the apps grid on your Fire TV, the app should now have been hidden.

This likely won't be the last time we hear of Amazon disabling Fire TV Stick features, as Amazon has previously defended some updates in the name of improving security on Fire TV devices. If you're getting tired of these kinds of updates, it could be worth looking at alternatives like the Nvidia Shield TV Pro (see below), which just got a rare discount on Amazon US.

Streaming devices come in all shapes and sizes but if you want a premium offering, then it doesn't get much better than the Shield TV Pro. The device from Nvidia gives you cutting-edge AI upscaling capabilities and full support for both HDR10 and Dolby Vision content. One of the other benefits of this product is that you get the latest version of Android TV, which serves as a gateway to Nvidia’s game-streaming service, Geforce Now. View Deal

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