Technologies

As Black Friday Week Begins, Amazon’s AI Shopping Tool Can Buy for You When Prices Drop

Get ready to find all the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

Black Friday isn’t just a single shopping day anymore. Amazon calls it Black Friday Week, but it actually runs for almost two weeks: from Thursday, Nov. 20, through Monday, Dec. 1. And this year, Amazon is continuing to incorporate Rufus, its built-in AI shopping assistant. The company says Rufus can track prices, personalize recommendations and automatically buy items when they reach your set target price.

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Rufus is Amazon’s AI assistant

Rufus, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, can play a significant role in your shopping experience. You can ask Rufus what’s trending, what fits your set budget or what matches your buying interests. It can surface personalized picks based on your shopping habits, wish lists and browsing patterns.

Rufus can also help you track prices. If there’s an item you’re waiting to buy at a specific discount, Rufus can monitor its price — checking frequently throughout the day — and automatically purchase it once it hits the threshold you’ve set. That means you won’t have to worry about missing lightning deals or losing items in your cart.

Shoppers can also use Rufus for product discovery. The AI assistant can provide tailored gift suggestions or compare products side by side. Because it’s embedded in the Amazon shopping experience, you can ask follow-up questions, refine your preferences or switch categories without having to start over.

How to save more while you shop this Black Friday

You don’t need a spreadsheet and a stopwatch to survive Black Friday, but a little strategy goes a long way. Here’s how to stay smart:

Plan ahead: Start by making a short list of items you genuinely want or need. It’s the easiest way to avoid getting pulled into flashy «half-off» deals that aren’t actually planned purchases.
Create a wish list: Add items early and monitor their pricing throughout the week, as Amazon refreshes deals and inventory daily.
Check membership perks: Prime members receive an extra layer of savings with faster shipping options.
Timing matters: If you’re shopping across categories, keep an eye on rotating daily deals, since some of the steepest discounts only last a few hours.
Set a budget before shopping: Above all, set a firm budget and stick to it. The best Black Friday win is scoring deals without overspending.

Best Black Friday deals this season

Here’s a quick look at some of the discounts Amazon announced:

Amazon devices: Up to 50% off Echo devices, Fire TV devices, Blink security systems and more.
Home and holiday decor: Discounts on artificial Christmas trees, ornaments and seasonal decor.
Grocery deals: Holiday dinner specials, including turkeys and bundled meal savings.
Electronics: Markdowns on products from Bose, JBL, Canon, Acer, Asus and TVs from LG, Hisense and TCL.
Home and kitchen appliances: Up to 55% off Shark appliances, plus discounts on Ninja, Vitamix, Nespresso and Staub.
Fashion and beauty items: Up to 50% off brands like Levi’s, GAP, NAADAM, Theory, AllSaints and premium beauty products.
Books and travel: Up to 80% off Kindle books, print book discounts, and savings on hotels, cruises and car rentals.
Prime Visa and Prime Store card perks: Eligible cardholders can earn extra cash-back rewards during the sale.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Dec. 24

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 24.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I’m Irish-American, but yet 6-Down, which involves Ireland, stumped me at first. Read on for all the answers.. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Wordle or Boggle
Answer: GAME

5A clue: Big Newton
Answer: ISAAC

7A clue: Specialized vocabulary
Answer: LINGO

8A clue: «See you in a bit!»
Answer: LATER

9A clue: Tone of many internet comments
Answer: SNARK

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Sharks use them to breathe
Answer: GILLS

2D clue: From Singapore or South Korea, say
Answer: ASIAN

3D clue: Large ocean ray
Answer: MANTA

4D clue: ___ beaver
Answer: EAGER

6D clue: Second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland, after Dublin
Answer: CORK

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Technologies

Quadrantids Is a Short but Sweet Meteor Shower Just After New Year’s. How to See It

This meteor shower has one of the most active peaks, but it doesn’t last for very long.

The Quadrantids has the potential to be one of the most active meteor showers of the year, and skygazers won’t have long to wait to see it. The annual shower is predicted to reach maximum intensity on Jan. 3. And with a display that can rival Perseids, Quadrantids could be worth braving the cold to see it.

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The show officially begins on Dec. 28 and lasts until Jan. 12, according to the American Meteor Society. Quadrantids is scheduled to peak on Jan. 2-3, when it may produce upwards of 125 meteors per hour. This matches Perseids and other larger meteor showers on a per-hour rate, but Quadrantids also has one of the shortest peaks at just 6 hours, so it rarely produces as many meteors overall as the other big ones.

The meteor shower comes to Earth courtesy of the 2003 EH1 asteroid, which is notable because most meteor showers are fed from comets, not asteroids. Per NASA, 2003 EH1 is a near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun once every five and a half years. Science posits that 2003 EH1 was a comet in a past life, but too many trips around the sun stripped it of its ice, leaving only its rocky core. The Earth runs through EH1’s orbital debris every January, which results in the Quadrantids meteor shower.

How and where to see Quadrantids

Quadrantids is named for the constellation where its meteors appear to originate, a point known as the radiant. This presents another oddity, as the shower originates from the constellation Quadrans Muralis. This constellation ceased to be recognized as an official constellation in the 1920s and isn’t available on most publicly accessible sky maps.

For the modern skygazer, you’ll instead need to find the Bootes and Draco constellations, both of which contain stars that were once a part of the Quadrans Muralis. Draco will be easier to find after sunset on the evening of Jan. 2, and will be just above the horizon in the northern sky. Bootes orbits around Draco, but will remain under the horizon until just after 1 a.m. local time in the northeastern sky. From that point forward, both will sit in the northeastern part of the sky until sunrise. You’ll want to point your chair in that direction and stay there to see meteors.

As the American Meteor Society notes, Quadrantids has a short but active peak, lasting around 6 hours. The peak is expected to start around 4 p.m. ET and last well into the evening. NASA predicts the meteor shower to start one day later on Jan. 3-4, so if you don’t see any on the evening of Jan. 2, try again on Jan. 3.

To get the best results, the standard space viewing tips apply. You’ll want to get as far away from the city and suburbs as possible to reduce light pollution. Since it’ll be so cold outside, dress warmly and abstain from alcoholic beverages, as they can affect your body temperature. You won’t need any binoculars or telescopes, and the reduced field of view may actually impact your ability to see meteors.

The bad news is that either way, the Quadrantids meteor shower coincides almost perfectly with January’s Wolf Moon, which also happens to be a supermoon. This will introduce quite a lot of light pollution, which will likely drown out all but the brightest meteors. So, while it may have a peak of over 100 meteors per hour, both NASA and the AMS agree that the more realistic expectation is 10 or so bright meteors per hour.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Dec. 24, #1649

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Dec. 24, No. 1,649.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a little tricky, with a double letter that could confuse players. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.