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Sandy Springs residents have access to fast internet options. Here are the best plans, handpicked by CNET’s internet experts.

What sort of 2024 did AMD experience? This year was quiet in some respects for Team Red – with not much activity in the GPU space, save for one notable exception – but there was more happening on the CPU front, although the introduction of new Zen 5 processors proved controversial.

New laptop chips for Copilot+ PCs and a fresh X3D offering were definite highlights, so without any further preamble, let’s dig into what was good, bad, or indifferent for AMD in 2024.

(Image credit: AMD) Vanilla Ryzen 9000 CPUs fizzled upon launch

This year we received new Ryzen processors, although the launch of these Zen 5 chips was pushed back a month from July to August – a delay which some regarded as ominous at the time. Those more pessimistic mutterings turned into something of an online outcry when the Ryzen 9000 range did eventually arrive, with the PC community seemingly quick to label the new processors a flop.

That’s a harsh conclusion to jump to, perhaps, although it’s undeniable that Ryzen 9000 did not meet the expectations of would-be CPU buyers, particularly for gaming performance, where uplifts were widely reported to be closer to 5% than the 10% AMD was touting prerelease (which is where the ‘Zen 5%’ joke comes from). The better news is that Ryzen 9000 swiftly received better performance thanks to fine-tuning work in Windows 11 24H2 – though crucially, Ryzen 7000 chips got close to the same (major) uplift.

Following rather shaky reviews of the mainstream Ryzen 9700X and 9600X offerings, sales appeared to flag out of the gate – partly due to Ryzen 7000 chips still being around with pretty deep discounts applied, making them comparatively more tempting.

So, the flak AMD caught from a gaming angle wasn’t good at all here, but Team Red did have a couple of things in its favor. Its desktop CPU rival, Intel, spent the whole of 2024 dealing with way worse issues than a lukewarm reception around gaming prowess – with Team Blue’s 13th and 14th-gen processors being plagued by nasty instability issues (that were eventually fixed). On top of that, Intel’s new Core Ultra 200S (Arrow Lake) desktop CPUs fared just as badly as Ryzen 9000 – actually, worse – out of the gate in terms of gaming performance.

That gave AMD some breathing room, and then Team Red shot back with a powerful volley to entice PC gamers in terms of a swift launch of its new 3D V-Cache processors.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler) Ryzen 9800X3D to the rescue

Last year, we saw the introduction of 3D V-Cache for Zen 4 CPUs, and the Ryzen 7800X3D caught fire as the most popular gaming CPU out there. While normally AMD takes some time to push out X3D chips for any given generation, with Zen 5, these gaming-focused processors arrived very swiftly. Indeed, the Ryzen 9800X3D debuted in the first week of November, only a few months after Ryzen 9000 chips.

You could argue that this hasty appearance was pushed through to take away the bad taste from Ryzen 9000, and indeed the Ryzen 9800X3D did exactly that for PC gamers. As we found in our review, this CPU is seriously pepped up (with the ability to be overclocked for the first time, too), and an excellent gaming chip – we called it the best processor release of 2024, in fact.

The sticking point for the 9800X3D was the slightly hiked MSRP, along with the initial stock selling out very quickly, a situation compounded by scalping woes. Still, this clearly was the piece of silicon AMD needed to get out of the door to recover its CPU reputation, and really take the fight to Intel.

Also, i's worth noting that we were treated to a welcome wallet-friendly last-gen offering from AMD, the Ryzen 7600X3D, as a budget gaming CPU (and a great fit for small form-factor builds) – but as a Micro Center exclusive in the US (again).

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler) GPU disappointment – with a big saving grace

AMD was a hive of activity with graphics cards last year, filling out the RDNA 3 series with various models of GPU, from the lower-end RX 7600, through the mid-range territory with the RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT. Before that in 2022, we only had high-end models with the RDNA 3 family.

To say this year was a bit of a contrast is an understatement. At the very start of 2024, we did get a new RX 7600 XT, the pepped-up take on the most wallet-friendly RDNA 3 GPU, but it was a modest upgrade, not all that compelling in the value stakes, and overall it didn’t stand up well compared to its Nvidia rival (the RTX 4060).

We were hoping for some new entrants at the true budget end of the GPU market in 2024, below the RX 7600, but the rumored RX 7400 and 7300 never showed. (Although bizarrely, we did get some milking of ancient low-end Radeon GPUs).

We were also hoping for RDNA 4 with even more eagerness, of course, but that didn’t happen either. Despite the rumor mill firmly believing these next-gen graphics cards could debut later in 2024, they didn’t – and the grapevine now has a Q1 2025 launch predicted. Overall, the no-show from RDNA 4 – which is rumored to top out at the mid-range, with an RX 8700 XT flagship in theory – was one of the biggest disappointments in the PC sphere for us in 2024.

What we did get, though, was a rocket-powered rabbit – a Golden Rabbit Edition, or GRE, version of the RX 7900, to be precise. Now, this was a GPU that was launched in China in the middle of 2023, but it was only released globally in February 2024. At that point, the RX 7900 GRE stormed our list of the best GPUs and stole the top position, arguably being the best entry-level option for 4K gaming.

So, it wasn’t a complete washout for Team Red after all, particularly when you consider that the RX 7800 XT also topped our best GPU list when it emerged last year. The GRE was the only thing that was GRE-at (sorry) about 2024 for AMD’s GPUs, though.

(Image credit: AMD) Ryzen AI 300 bursts onto the scene to take on Qualcomm Snapdragon X

As you doubtless noticed, 2024 was the year that Copilot+ PCs launched, and the only chips powering these AI laptops were Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X SoCs to begin with.

AMD and Intel weren’t that far behind with CPUs that had a beefy enough NPU to qualify as the engine of a Copilot+ PC, though, and Team Red’s Ryzen AI 300 (x86) processors (also known as Strix Point) arrived in laptops starting from July 2024. However, the available models were very thin on the ground to begin with, and indeed the amount of choice with Strix Point notebooks remains limited even as this year draws to a close.

Ryzen AI 300 proved to be strong for AI, and also general performance and mobile gaming, too, easily matching Qualcomm’s effort – with the advantage of having none of the compatibility issues that the Arm-based Snapdragon X CPUs have as baggage.

That said, Intel also debuted Lunar Lake mobile (x86) processors for Copilot+ PCs in 2024, and these also proved to be very strong CPUs – and a match for Ryzen AI 300 in many respects. In short, two great x86 alternatives to Qualcomm Snapdragon X-powered Copilot+ PCs emerged in 2024, albeit we need more laptops packing this silicon.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler) Concluding thoughts

Other notable happenings for AMD in 2024 included the release of FSR 3.1 – which remains lagging behind Nvidia DLSS, although maybe AI will fix that – and an eye-opening achievement in outgunning Intel in the data center arena in terms of overall revenue.

While the launch of Ryzen 9000 CPUs caused some wobbles, we have to remember that these aren’t bad chips by any means – they just didn’t meet (gaming) expectations, and didn’t seem all that great value compared to previous-gen processors (at heavily cut prices) which are still very much on shelves (for the time being).

Ryzen 9000’s time will doubtless come, and at any rate, AMD recovered suitably with the Ryzen 9800X3D – and wasn’t exactly under pressure from Intel, either, as Team Blue had bigger worries than the criticisms Team Red faced.

GPU launches were thin on the ground from AMD, and rather disappointing – save for that RX 7900 GRE – and RDNA 4 failing to appear this year was a further source of some dismay.

Unfortunately, 2024 also saw AMD implement major layoffs, with the company making no bones about an increasing focus on the world of AI, where plentiful profits are to be made.

Is that increased leaning into AI anything to do with pushing back RDNA 4 graphics cards, perhaps? We don’t know that, and wouldn’t get carried away with any paranoia around AMD deprioritizing consumer GPUs yet – it’s probably more to do with market conditions and selling through current-gen RDNA 3 stock. Furthermore, you could apply that line of worried thinking to Nvidia equally, with next-gen Blackwell gaming GPUs also failing to turn up this year, and perhaps set to launch in the shadow of much bigger potential AI profits.

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• Leaders and execs are preparing for “when” the next major IT disruption will occur
• 83% of businesses were caught off guard by CrowdStrike 2024 outage
• More than half of IT leaders now see preparation as an ongoing effort

Business leaders are preparing for the next big outage as we head into 2025, new research by PagerDuty has claimed.

The research explores how mindsets have changed following the widely reported July 2024 disruptions, when a dodgy CrowdStrike update caused an estimated 8.5 million Windows Server devices to go offline.

Nine in 10 (88%) now believe that another major incident is inevitable within the next year.

Leaders are preparing for the next big outage

Business leaders have significantly increased their spend on cybersecurity in recent years amid growing attacks and threats from nation-state actors, however 86% now believe they’ve prioritized security at the expense of their readiness for disruptions similar to 2024’s CrowdStrike-induced outage.

A similar number (83%) also noted that the July outage caught them off guard, with British businesses being most surprised by the disruption (89%).

"The … study shows that executives around the globe are shifting their leadership priorities with major incidents in mind, with 100% of those surveyed reporting a heightened focus on preparing for future service disruptions at their companies," noted PagerDuty CIO Eric Johnson.

The effects of the July disruptions were felt widely, with more than a third (37%) of the businesses surveyed saying that they lost revenue or were unable to process sales transactions. Nearly half (44%) had to revert to old manual processes or workarounds as a result, highlighting the reliance on digital tools.

Looking ahead, between 78% and 91% of leaders (depending on country) are now preparing for “when” the next outage or major disruption will occur, rather than “if” they’re likely to be affected by one.

PagerDuty is calling for more real-time data tools, with more than half (55%) of IT leaders and execs now seeing outage readiness preparation as a continual effort rather than a one-off investment.

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Now that 2025 is upon us that means one thing: new year, new movies. And that's not just subject to brand new cinema releases, as Hulu has a range of exciting new titles arriving in January 2025, and we'd expect nothing less from one of the best streaming services.

Joining the array of best Hulu movies and best Hulu shows is yet another mix of TV specials and movie franchises from action thriller John Wick, to the horror series Insidious and even the Paul Blart movies. Like clockwork, most of Hulu's January titles will be available to stream on January 1, meaning that you can jump straight into tailoring your 2025 movie wish lists.

What's great about Hulu's monthly lists is the range of genres it packs, so whether you're more of a sci-fi buff or you prefer a simple comedy you know Hulu will have it.

Everything new on Hulu in January 2025

Arriving on January 1

Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2025: Special Premiere (TV show)
Kids Diana Show: Let's Celebrate Together season 1 (TV show)
Papa Jake: Epic Box Forts season 1 (TV show)
After Earth (movie)
American Psycho (movie)
The Devil's Own (movie)
The Devil's Own En Español (movie)
Dirty Grandpa (movie)
Empire Records (movie)
Ender's Game (movie)
The Great Debaters (movie)
Heat (movie)
Insidious (movie)
Insidious: Chapter 2 (movie)
Insidious: Chapter 2 En Español (movie)
Insidious: Chapter 3 (movie)
Insidious: Chapter 3 En Español (movie)
The Intouchables (movie)
John Wick (movie)
John Wick: Chapter 2 (movie)
John Wick: Chapter 3 (movie)
The King of Comedy (movie)
Little Manhattan (movie)
Man of the House (movie)
Man of the House En Español (movie)
Mr. Deeds (movie)
Pacific Rim (movie)
Paddington (movie)
Paul Blart: Mall Cop (movie)
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (movie)
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 En Español (movie)
Paul Blart: Mall Cop En Español (movie)
Shutter (movie)
Sorry to Bother You (movie)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (movie)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada En Español (movie)
Threesome (movie)
The Town (movie)
To Rome with Love (movie)
The Walk (movie)
xXx (movie)
xXx En Español (movie)
xXx: State of the Union (movie)
xXx: State of the Union En Español (movie)

Arriving on January 2

2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony: Special Premiere (TV show)
American Pickers season 25 (TV show)
Beyond the Headlines: The Tanya Kach Story with Elizabeth Smart season 1 (TV show)
The Butcher season 1 (TV show)
Dark Side of the 90s season 3 (TV show)
My City's Just Not That Into Me season 1 (TV show)
The Unbelievable with Dan Aykroyd season 1 (TV show)

Arriving on January 3

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition series premiere (TV show)
Animal Control season 3 Premiere (TV show)
Going Dutch series premiere (TV show)
Mother's Instinct (movie)

Arriving on January 7

Dead Pixels seasons 1-2 (TV show)
Stopmotion (movie)

Arriving on January 8

The Rookie season 7 (TV show)
Will Trent season 3 (TV show)
Doc series premiere (TV show)
Ishura season 2 (TV show)
Fall (movie)
65 (movie)

Arriving on January 9

Celebrity Jeopardy! season 3 (TV show)
Shifting Gears season 1 (TV show)
Biography: Alice Cooper season 1 (TV show)
Biography: Chris Farley - Anything for a Laugh season 1 (TV show)
Biography: Jeff Dunham - Talking Heads season 1 (TV show)
Biography: Jeff Foxworthy - Stand Up Guy season 1 (TV show)
Booked: First Day In season 2 (TV show)
Extreme Builds season 1 (TV show)
Interrogation Files season 1 (TV show)
Mashle: Magic and Muscles season 1 (TV show)
More Power season 1 (TV show)
My Hero Academia season 7, episodes 148-159 (TV show)
Kitchen Nightmares season premiere (TV show)
Special Forces: World's Toughest Test season 3 (TV show)
Dance First (movie)
65 En Español (movie)

Arriving on January 10

Goosebumps: The Vanishing season premiere (TV show)
The Girl Locked Upstairs: The Tanya Kach Story (TV show)
American Star (movie)

Arriving on January 12

The Silent Hour (movie)

Arriving on January 13

Toilet Bound Hanako-kun season 2 premiere (TV show)
Biography: WWE Legends season 2 (TV show)
The First 48 season 25 (TV show)
The Mega-Brands That Built America season 2 (TV show)
Murder at the Motel season 1 (TV show)
Quarter Ton Teen season 1 (TV show)

Arriving on January 14

My Penguin Friend (movie)

Arriving on January 15

Unmasked season 1 (TV show)
Sniper: The Ultimate Competition season 1 (TV show)

Arriving on January 17

Roy Wood Jr.: Lonely Flowers special premiere (TV show)
The Bad Shepard (movie)

Arriving on January 20

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai season 1 (TV show)

Arriving on January 21

Rurouni Kenshin season 1 (TV show)
Sleep (movie)

Arriving on January 22

Whiskey on the Rocks season 1 (TV show)

Arriving on January 23

The Misfit of Demon King Academy season 1-2 (TV show)
Persona5 the Animation season 1 (TV show)
Swamp People: Serpent Invasion season 4 (TV show)
Theresa Caputo: Raising Spirits season 1 (TV show)

Arriving on January 24

The Killer Inside: The Ruth Finley Story (movie)
Arcadian (movie)
City of Dreams (movie)

Arriving on January 28
Paradise series premiere (TV show)
The Bachelor season 29 premiere (TV show)
Humane (movie)

Arriving on January 30
The First 48 Presents: Critical Minutes season 3A (TV show)
The Food That Built America season 5 (TV show)
Holy Marvels with Dennis Quaid season 1 (TV show)

Arriving on January 31

Rachael Ray's Meals in Minutes season 1 (TV show)
Scamanda series premiere (TV show)
Take Cover (movie)

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• FatakPay, an Indian loan company, was found storing sensitive data in an unprotected S3 bucket
• The data included people's names, addresses, IDs, and more
• The company has since locked the database down

Instant loan company FatakPay kept sensitive data on millions of its users exposed on the internet, for an unknown period of time to anyone who knew where to look.

In mid-September 2024, security researchers from Cybernews discovered a misconfigured Amazon AWS S3 bucket containing more than 27 million files filled with sensitive information.

The data found in the bucket includes people’s full names, postal addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, copies of national IDs, loan agreements, account statements, filled-in loan applications, user selfies for verification, PAN (a PIN number issued by the Indian Income Tax Department), Aadhar (a PIN number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India), and credit score reports.

Closing the archive

After a few attempts, the researchers managed to get in touch with FatakPay, which then closed the bucket, but has not yet released an official statement regarding the discovery.

FatakPay is a digital payment and micro-lending platform in India that provides instant credit solutions to users for small-ticket transactions. At press time, its Google Play Store page shows 1M+ downloads, but the exact number of active users is not publicly available.

Misconfigured databases remain one of the key causes of data leaks. Some researchers warned that many organizations don’t fully understand the shared responsibility model of most cloud hosting providers, and that they believe it is the service provider’s job to keep the data secure.

As a result, researchers often stumble upon large databases full of information that crooks could use for identity theft, phishing, social engineering, wire fraud, and more.

Recently, a Mexican fintech startup was found holding a large database full of sensitive customer data wide open on the internet. The company, called Kapital, held data on 1.6 million Mexicans, including voter IDs and selfies.

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Here are some hints -- and the answers -- for Connections No. 565 for Dec. 27.

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• Japan Airlines experienced a major network disruption
• An investigation uncovered cyberattack by an unknown threat actor
• The attack lasted a few hours and caused delays in some flights

Japan Airlines has confirmed suffering a cyberattack which caused widespread system disruption and delays to more than 20 domestic flights.

The airline first noticed something was amiss when a part of the network that connects internal and external systems went awry. A short investigation determined that a threat actor tried to overwhelm the network by sending enormous data transmissions - similar to a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.

These days, DDoS attacks are used as a diversion, while the attackers deploy malware, or even ransomware, elsewhere on the network. Alternatively, the crooks can reach out to the victims, sometimes even via phone, to demand a ransom in exchange for stopping the DDoS.

No malware inolved?

However, Japan Airlines said the attack did not result in the deployment of malware, or data theft. The only damage included the delay of 24 domestic flights for roughly half an hour. The company also suspended the sales of tickets for both domestic and international flights for a few hours. Flight safety was not impacted, it was added.

The AP also reported the country’s ministry of transport urged Japan Airlines to hurry up and restore the systems, accommodating affected passengers, as other national airlines, such as All Nippon Airways, Skymark, or Starflyer, were not affected by the incident.

At press time, no threat actors have assumed responsibility for the attack, so we are yet to learn of the motives. The holidays are the usual time of year when criminals increasingly target critical infrastructure firms. As companies experience an increase in traffic, while at the same time having plenty of staff on annual leave, they are a prime target for ransom demands.

In January 2024, one of the biggest aircraft leasing companies in the world, AerCap, suffered a ransomware attack that resulted in the theft of sensitive corporate data, and in March, Air Europa suffered the same.

Via AP

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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 clues.

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 #565) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• TAPS
• UNICORN
• IRONS
• BACON
• PRESSES
• PHOENIX
• CAR
• BUGLER
• BRIDGES
• AFRICA
• TOAST
• WASHINGTON
• GRITS
• HITS
• HASH
• CLICKS

NYT Connections today (game #565) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• YELLOW: Morning meal staples 
• GREEN: On/Off
• BLUE: Beep beep 
• PURPLE: And the award goes to…

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 #565) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: BREAKFAST SIDES 
• GREEN: PUSHES, AS A BUTTON 
• BLUE: THEY HAVE A HORN 
• PURPLE: OSCAR-WINNING ACTORS 

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

NYT Connections today (game #565) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #565, are…

• YELLOW: BREAKFAST SIDES BACON, GRITS, HASH, TOAST
• GREEN: PUSHES, AS A BUTTON CLICKS, HITS, PRESSES, TAPS
• BLUE: THEY HAVE A HORN AFRICA, BUGLER, CAR, UNICORN
• PURPLE: OSCAR-WINNING ACTORS BRIDGES, IRONS, PHOENIX, WASHINGTON

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 1 mistake

My first thought when I saw PHOENIX and IRONS in the grid was the actors River and Jeremy. I spent ages trying to think of any films they were in together (I later discovered there are none, but they were both in the Shakespearean TV drama The Hollow Crown). I then convinced myself that they must be connected to Denzil WASHINGTON and Kevin BACON and got the dreaded “one away”.

After connecting the breakfast items I found the correct group for BACON and the rest clicked into place.

The blue group completely threw me. Although it's true that THEY HAVE A HORN, the type that AFRICA has is very different to the one you’d find in a CAR. Such is the random beauty of Connections.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Thursday, 26 December, game #564)

• YELLOW: APPROXIMATELY ABOUT, AROUND, LIKE, ROUGHLY
• GREEN: TREES ELDER, PALM, PINE, SPRUCE
• BLUE: SIZABLE, AS AN AMOUNT HANDSOME, HEALTHY, RESPECTABLE, TIDY
• PURPLE: U.S. STATE ABBREVIATIONS, PER AP STYLE GUIDE ALA, ARK, MISS, ORE

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.

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 #1068) - 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 #1068) - 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 #1068) - 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.

Quordle today (game #1068) - 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 #1068) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• B

• L

• O

• C

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

Quordle today (game #1068) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1068, are…

• BRAWL
• LYING
• ORGAN
• CRONY

I could not have cut things finer today, getting the four words on the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th guesses – although I did come close to ruining my streak by initially typing in GROAN instead of ORGAN, then thought better of it.

It really does pay to stop and double-check for a second – Quordle is the kind of game where you really need to be alert at all times.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Daily Sequence today (game #1068) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1068, are…

• THINK
• LIVID
• HEAVE
• SNORE

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1067, Thursday 26 December: TATTY, OVERT, FLOUR, SWEPT
• Quordle #1066, Wednesday 25 December: LIVER, CRIER, SHORE, MURKY
• Quordle #1065, Tuesday 24 December: TIPSY, SCALE, FLYER, VALVE
• Quordle #1064, Monday 23 December: SNAKE, SAVVY, ELBOW, TWEED
• Quordle #1063, Sunday 22 December: DOUBT, SLURP, PAPER, CIVIL
• Quordle #1062, Saturday 21 December: STRIP, BUDGE, SAPPY, SHELF
• Quordle #1061, Friday 20 December: PENAL, EAGLE, DILLY, QUITE
• Quordle #1060, Thursday 19 December: JEWEL, GNOME, TRAMP, IDLER
• Quordle #1059, Wednesday 18 December: LITHE, BIRTH, HUMID, ROBOT
• Quordle #1058, Tuesday 17 December: DOING, ENJOY, SNAKY, AMPLE
• Quordle #1057, Monday 16 December: HYDRO, CREAM, CHIDE, SLIME
• Quordle #1056, Sunday 15 December: DROVE, STILT, LINEN, GIANT
• Quordle #1055, Saturday 14 December: SPIEL, ONSET, TIGER, DITTO
• Quordle #1054, Friday 13 December: ERECT, REBAR, MOIST, IDIOM
• Quordle #1053, Thursday 12 December: MILKY, CRIER, STORK, DRIER
• Quordle #1052, Wednesday 11 December: BRIAR, NASAL, SHARD, FLUFF
• Quordle #1051, Tuesday 10 December: BEGAN, TRIAL, IDEAL, GUIDE
• Quordle #1050, Monday 9 December: TITAN, FORTE, SPEED, BRIAR
• Quordle #1049, Sunday 8 December: BUNCH, SHINY, MOULT, INTRO
• Quordle #1048, Saturday 7 December: SHAKY, CROOK, GHOUL, VERSE

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

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Back in style

NYT Strands today (game #299) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• SIXES
• TIRE
• MILLET
• NONE
• RIGS
• KEEP

NYT Strands today (game #299) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• The synth pop decade

NYT Strands today (game #299) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: top, 3rd 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 #299) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #299, are…

• NEON
• PERM
• MULLET
• SPANDEX
• JUMPSUIT
• WINDBREAKER
• SPANGRAM: EIGHTIES

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

Maybe it says something about me but I spotted the words Break and Wind before I saw WINDBREAKER – although this is possibly because it’s not the most obvious of EIGHTIES fashions.

SPANDEX – which is an anagram of Expands – seems very particular to the 1980s, but there is probably more of it around today than then, it’s just that we call it Lycra now.

In the UK two very particular sub sections of the male amateur cycling community have emerged in recent years: Lycra Lads – road racers so obsessed with speed and time that they don’t care who gets in their way as they go “aero”, and MAMILs which stands for Middle Aged Men in Lycra. I can’t help thinking both would be less keen on cladding themselves in clingy fabric if we still still called it Spandex.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, 26 December, game #298)

• AUNT
• INLAW
• GRANDCHILD
• NIECE
• COUSIN
• UNCLE
• NEPHEW
• SPANGRAM: REUNION

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.

Gatekeeping is something that's brought up a lot, isn't it? It's frowned upon, obviously enough, as obnoxious, off-putting, and generally unnecessary – whether we're talking about gaming, music, movies, books, you name it. New fans aren't going to ruin Metallica for you just because they're, well, new, and they like St Anger. I'm not here to talk about that trashcan snare drum, though – no. I'm here to talk about PC gaming and how absolutely diabolically expensive it's become to even get yourself into the ecosystem.

It's dumb. Real dumb. I bought my first gaming PC back in 2011. It was a pretty solid build back in the day: Intel Core-i5 2500K, 8GB of DDR3, a nice BitFenix Shinobi chassis, the works. The crowning glory in that thing, though, was the graphics card, an MSI Twin Frozr GTX 460, complete with 1GB of VRAM, on Nvidia's Fermi architecture at 40nm. Perfect for a bit of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm raiding with my guild Fracture at the time. It's a card that retailed for $250, but I paid around half that for the GPU (£130 in the UK to be precise). In January 2013, I upgraded to a GTX 660, Asus DirectCU II, with 2GB of VRAM. That card was available for £155 (retailing at $229), offering much more performance and twice as much memory (for less money in the US).

Flash forward to 2024, and it’s a whole other ball game. To get even close to a similar model, you're looking at a minimum of around $320, and that's on the low-end. That's an increase of 40% over that 11-year time frame. Take mid-range and high-end cards though, crammed with even more goodies, and that price shoots up even higher. RTX 4090s debuted at, what, $1,800? Even the best Titans used to land around the $800 to $1,000 mark back in the day. That's nearly double the cost for the flagship GPU of choice.

The thing is, though, the more you look into the details – into how it's all lining up – the more you realize that actually a lot of this price hiking ties into inflation quite nicely. Certainly with the more affordable GPUs, anyway. $229 in 2013 works out at around $310 in today's money – about right for the low-end pricing I mentioned.

I'd be less begrudging if economies of scale weren't a thing, and you know, continued advancement and production improvements should lead to a reduction in overall cost, like we've seen in TVs for example.

Yes, of course, there's the argument that these companies need to make money, and there are R&D costs involved, but even so, graphics cards and products just haven't dropped in price like they used to gen-on-gen. And the thing is, these companies clearly have the profit margins to do it. With the current inflationary pressures out there globally, Nvidia, AMD, and Intel all launched new product lines in the last 12 months, all of which either match or are cheaper than their similarly named predecessors. A good PR move – and a smart sales move.

(Image credit: Shutterstock) Buying power, build complexity, and influencers

I believe there are far more complex issues at work here. As far as I can see, there are three primary reasons why buying a mid-range gaming PC today is far more painful than it used to be on the old wallet.

First on the agenda, localized buying power has not kept up with inflation. Certainly not in the US. If you look at real median household income in the States from 2013 to 2023, it increased by just 18.2%, a far cry from that 35.4% cumulative inflation over the same period. Simply put, wages haven't kept up with rising costs. Why that’s the case is more an argument for those in the political sector than for me, but the stats don't lie, and its impact is clear.

The second, and more pressing factor, is the radical increase in companies making ever fancier components across every facet of a modern-day gaming PC build.

Although entry-level and mid-range graphics cards (that still make up the vast bulk of sales, I might add) are amazingly on target for affordability lining up with inflation, the rest of the PC ecosystem isn't. Higher-end GPUs, as well as CPUs, motherboards, RAM, and SSDs have all seen major increases in overall costs.

Certainly, if you compare product lines, Asus ROG Hero motherboards used to come in at just under, or over, the $200 mark – and now one of the latest models will set you back nearly $700. And then there's everything else. Cooling, lighting, fans, custom keyboards, monitors, the works. Everything is a specialist product now, and that all adds to the overall build cost of a PC.

Lastly, in part thanks to influencers, and the internet more broadly, it's no longer enough to just have a non-windowed chassis packed with the core hardware. The humble gaming PC has become an ornament, littered with RGB lights and enough accessories to make even the most avid of kleptomaniacs blush. It's a struggle to stay five minutes on social media without getting fed an Instagram Reel or YouTube Short of someone showing off an epic PC build, or gaming den, complete with a $1,200 GPU and RGB lighting that costs nearly as much.

All of that comes together to push an average system build well out of reach of an average wallet. Consoles aren't faring any better either, with the likes of the PS5 Pro debuting at nearly $700. Once upon a time, building a custom gaming PC that was more potent than a console for similar(ish) money was a good reason to jump on the PC bandwagon. Now, it's a pipe dream. A memory from within the mists of time.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler) Intel leads the way, weirdly

That's why Intel's latest move with its Arc B580 graphics card has got so many people talking (in a positive way for once). Its latest generation of desktop processors (Core Ultra 200S) might not have been released quite as oven-ready as Intel had hoped, but Team Blue's new Battlemage graphics card? Oh boy, it is top-notch, at least on the value front.

Our own John Loeffler took a look at the Intel Arc B580 at the tail-end of 2024, and it absolutely stomps 1440p gaming, which, let's face it, is slowly becoming the de facto resolution for most modern PCs at this point (sorry 4K, you're still too damn expensive).

But the big thing, by far, isn't the fact that the B580 does very well in pretty much every game you throw at the GPU currently, beating out the likes of the Nvidia RTX 4060 and AMD RX 7600 XT. No – it’s the fact that it does this while being 20% cheaper than the cheapest of those cards, and it easily outguns the RTX 4060 Ti in terms of value proposition given the relative performance of the two GPUs. Well played, Intel. Well played.

Team Blue has made a grand statement with this thing. Intel has repeatedly said it aims to target the entry-level gaming market, and if I'm honest, I'm glad. AMD used to hold that mantle nicely, beating Nvidia in the lower-end price bracket while Team Green dominated the high-end – but those plucky Team Red GPUs have since lost their affordable sheen.

Intel, with its Arc GPU line, seems to be pulling back some serious street cred – well, at least for the time being. This'll hopefully lead to both AMD and Nvidia countering with their own price cuts, and that's going to be a major positive for all of us.

(Image credit: ShutterStock) Where will all this lead?

Still, this is just one drop in the ocean. One component out of many. PCs are still too expensive. The PS5 Pro launched at near $700, and more and more we're seeing this ecosystem that used to be so inclusive, just price people out. If you want to get into PC gaming, or even console gaming, it is now so difficult with modern hardware. This is just a fact. You want the best experience? Best take out a loan or remortgage the house.

There's always been an "us and them" mentality when it comes to PC gaming. Always a Red versus Blue, or Green versus Red, or PC versus console conflict. The latter in particular is an age-old tale, but not one that stemmed from cost – it was built off the back of issues like ease of use, graphical fidelity, or mouse and keyboard versus controller. There wasn't artificial financial gatekeeping as there is now.

The thing is, unless there's a radical shift in the world of PC components, and the way they're made, it's difficult to see how there will be any change. Prices are only going to creep up higher, wages are only going to stagnate further, and the situation can only escalate. Combine that with the threat of Trump’s trade tariffs in the US adding an extra 20% to 60% onto the cost of those imported components, and, well, you've got a recipe for disaster.

The glimmer of hope, for GPUs anyway, is that challenge presented to the current duopoly by Intel's Arc Battlemage and the new B580 – and the hope that a rumored B770 model might prompt some further price cuts (although the high-end is set to remain Nvidia's domain, sadly).

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• Project Infinity and Mobile Security Rewards Program bolster Samsung's security strategy
• Red, Blue, and Purple teams safeguard Galaxy devices from cyber threats
• CTI task force scours the Dark Web to prevent device breaches

Samsung has always prioritized security for its Galaxy smartphones, and with the launch of the Galaxy S24 series, it promised an unprecedented seven years of mobile security updates.

Behind this extended protection lies a secretive and highly specialized security initiative known as Project Infinity - but Samsung has now lifted the veil and provided some details about the project.

Project Infinity comprises multiple task forces which ensure that the billions of Galaxy smartphone users worldwide are protected from the ever-growing threat of cybercrime.

The invisible guardians of Galaxy devices

At the core of Project Infinity are three distinct teams, Red, Blue, and Purple, alongside a Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) taskforce. These groups operate globally in countries such as Vietnam, Poland, and Brazil, working in the shadows to prevent and mitigate cyberattacks.

Each team has a specific role, from proactive threat detection to creating and deploying defensive measures. Their work is largely invisible to the public, only surfacing when you receive a security patch on your device.

The CTI task force specializes in identifying potential cyber threats, ensuring that hackers can’t exploit vulnerabilities in Galaxy devices. The team scours the Deep Web and Dark Web, looking for signs of illicit activity, from malware to stolen data.

By analyzing system behaviors, such as unusual data requests or suspicious network traffic, the team can identify and neutralize threats, while collaborating with other departments to roll out security updates.

“Occasionally, we engage in security research by simulating real-world transactions," noted Justin Choi, Vice President and Head of the Security Team, Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics.

"We closely monitor forums and marketplaces for mentions of zero-day or N-day exploits targeting Galaxy devices, as well as any leaked intelligence that could potentially serve as an entry point for system infiltration.”

Samsung’s security operation is modeled on military-style tactics, with the Red and Blue teams simulating attacks and defenses, respectively.

Through techniques like "fuzzing," which involves throwing random data at software, they can find hidden vulnerabilities that might otherwise go unnoticed. Meanwhile, the Blue team works tirelessly to develop and implement patches that protect against these vulnerabilities.

The Purple team combines the expertise of both Red and Blue teams, focusing on critical areas of Galaxy’s security infrastructure. They also work with external security researchers to ensure no potential weak spot goes unnoticed.

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