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 #276) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #276) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• RAIL
• TRADE
• DATE
• GRAIL
• RAVE
• FLEX

NYT Strands today (game #276) - hint #3 - spangram

NYT Strands today (game #276) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

NYT Strands today (game #276) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #276, are…

• GRAVE
• ACUTE
• TILDE
• UMLAUT
• CEDILLA
• CIRCUMFLEX
• SPANGRAM: DIACRITICS

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 2 hints

Hi, Johnny here, taking over Strands duties from Marc (who'll still be looking after the daily Wordle today page, if that's also on your reading list).

Let's be honest, who didn't immediately think of weddings when they saw today's theme?

After a couple of hints, it became apparent that we were instead looking for the words for the dots, accents, and squiggles placed over letters to indicate how they should be pronounced – something which in our age of texting and group chats is vanishing – in English-speaking countries instead.

Unless, of course, you are a fan of heavy metal, where an UMLAUT is near-obligatory, whether it is required or not. Blue Öyster Cult were the first rock band to use this particular DIACRITIC, and they did so purely because they thought it looked good and added an air of the occult.

The use of unnecessary umlauts does lead to confusion, though. Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil told Vanity Fair that they put umlauts in their name after drinking Löwenbräu but had no idea what it meant until they toured Germany many years later and were puzzled to hear the crowd chanting, "Mutley Cruh! Mutley Cruh!"

Vince's opinions on the cedilla are unknown.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday, 3 December, game #275)

• CANDLE
• LANTERN
• TORCH
• HEADLAMP
• FLASHLIGHT
• SPANGRAM: ILLUMINATION

• Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks at AWS re:Invent 2024 opening keynote
• Jassy outlines Amazon AI work, and what it has learned
• Amazon priority is "technology that really matters for customers"

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has outlined some of the company's biggest challenges when it comes to using AI.

Speaking as part of a guest appearance in the opening keynote of AWS re:Invent 2024, Jassy highlighted the usefulness of "practical AI" in helping its customers.

Outlining multiple examples of how the ecommerce giant utilizes AI internally, Jassy also shared some key learnings from the company's experiences with the technology - as well as revealing its new Nova foundational models.

Andy Jassy and Amazon AI

"We have been using AI expansively across the company for the last 25 years," Jassy noted, "but the way we think about technology - and this goes for AI as well - is that we're not using it because we think it's cool, we're using it because we're trying to solve customer problems."

"That's why when we talk about AI, it's typically less to announced that we beat the best world-class chess player of the world - and more to allow you to have better recommendations, or to equip our pickers in our fulfilment centers...or for out Just Walk Out technology"

"We prioritize technology that we think is going to really matter for customers, and with the explosion of generative AI in the last couple of years, we've taken that same approach - there is a ton of innovation, but what we're trying to do is solve problems for you - what we think of as practical AI."

In his time on stage, Jassy highlighted a number of examples of Amazon's usage of generative AI, from customer service to creating pages for sellers, to inventory management.

Jassy also focused on Rufus, its generative AI chatbot, which is reportedly getting better and smarter at recommending products to customers across the world, and a focus on robotics - which is becoming much more important in its fulfilment centers, providing huge increases in efficiency and productivity.

But he noted this work is not without his challenges - even with the wealth of resources and knowledge Amazon possesses.

"It's actually quite difficult to build a really good generative AI application - you need a good model, but you also need to have the right guardrails, the right fluency of message, and you have to have the right UI."

"We keep learning the same lesson over and over and over again - there is never going to be one tool to rule the world."

"In AWS, we are going to give you the very best combination...as we always do."

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• Amazon unveils new image and video creation AI tools
• Amazon Nova Canvas and Nova Reel look to help ecommerce sellers
• Both new Nova models set to launch in 2025

Amazon has announced new image and video generation models as it steps up its fight to become an AI heavyweight.

The company unveiled Amazon Nova Canvas and Nova Reel at its AWS re:Invent 2024 event in Las Vegas, with CEO Andy Jassy revealing the launch as part of a new Nova series of AI models.

Both new models will be available in mid 2025, with the launches set to take Amazon into direct competition with the likes of OpenAI and Grok when it comes to image and video creation.

Amazon Nova Canvas and Reel

The new models look to initially target sellers and other users on Amazon's ecommerce platform, allowing them to quickly and cheaply create media content to enrich their pages.

Amazon didn't reveal too much in the way of specifics when it came to the new offerings, but did reveal Nova Canvas will allow users to create and edit images using natural language text inputs, and Nova Reel can provide "studio-quality" video, with features such as camera motion control, 360-degree rotation, and zoom.

In a blog post announcing the news, the company noted that customers on its Amazon Ads platform using the new models advertised five times more products and twice as many images per advertised product, widening their reach to buyers across the globe.

Looking forward, Jassy also revealed Amazon will be launching a Speech-to-Speech generation model in early 2025, followed by an "Any-to-Any" model in mid-2025.

The former will be able to analyse and understand streaming speech input in natural language, with the ability to interpret verbal and nonverbal cues such as tone and cadence, to reply in a natural, human-esque way.

The latter, which Jassy described as a true multimodal to multimodal model, will be able to take in text, images, audio, and video, before outputting in whichever mode is required.

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• The NES version of Tetris is coming to Nintendo Switch Online
• It's set for a December 12 release
• The 1989 title joins the growing collection of classic Nintendo games on the subscription service

Nintendo has announced that the NES version of Tetris will be joining Nintendo Switch Online this month.

In a new X / Twitter post shared today, Nintendo confirmed that the classic 1989 title will be added to its Nintendo Switch subscription service next week on December 12.

This console version of Tetris features two modes of play, A-Type and B-Type, each with its own unique goals. For A-Type, players must achieve the highest score, while in B-Type, the board starts with randomized blocks at the bottom of the field, and the goal is to clear 25 lines.

To play the NES version of Tetris, Nintendo Switch users must be subscribed to Switch Online for $3.99 / £3.49 / €3.99 a month, or $19.99 / £17.99 / €19.99 for a 12-month membership, both of which give access to the NES, SNES, Game Boy, and Game Boy Color collections.

To get access to the other classic catalogs, including Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, and Mega Drive / Genesis, users must purchase the Switch Online Expansion Pack, which costs $49.99 / £34.99 / AU$59.95 for a 12-month pass.

Last week, as part of its November 2024 update, Nintendo added three more classic Sega Genesis games to the service, including ToeJam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron, Vectorman, and Wolf of the Battlefield: Mercs.

The addition of these three titles brought the total number of Sega Genesis games in the collection to 47.

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• Security researchers saw corrupted files used in phishing campaigns
• These files bypass email protection solutions
• Word can easily restore them, presenting malicious content to the victim

Cybercriminals have found a new and creative way to sneak phishing emails past your onlinedefenses and into your inbox, experts have warned.

A new report from cybersecurity researchers Any.Run observed crooks distributing corrupted Microsoft Word files in their campaigns. Most phishing emails come with an attachment. That file can either be malware itself, or can contain a link to a malicious website, or download.

In response, most email security solutions these days analyze incoming attachments before the recipient can read them, warning the victim if they are being targeted.

Stealing login credentials

However, if the file is corrupted, security programs cannot read, or analyze it, and thus cannot flag it as malicious. So, hackers have now started deliberately corrupting the phishing files, before sending them out. The trick? Word can easily restore them.

Once they are restored, and readable, it is already too late for email security tools to scan them, and the victim is presented with the malicious content which, in this case, is a QR code leading to a fake Microsoft 365 login page.

Therefore, the goal of the recently observed campaign is to steal people’s cloud credentials.

"Although these files operate successfully within the OS, they remain undetected by most security solutions due to the failure to apply proper procedures for their file types," Any.Run said.

"They were uploaded to VirusTotal, but all antivirus solutions returned "clean" or "Item Not Found" as they couldn't analyze the file properly."

Phishing remains one of the most popular attack vectors on the internet. While there are many software solutions helping businesses minimize the threat, the best defense remains the same - using common sense and being careful with incoming email messages. This rings particularly true for messages coming from unknown sources, and messages coming with a sense of urgency.

Via BleepingComputer

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