Technologies

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Is Here: Get the SteelBook Edition at Best Buy

With a premium metal case and unique cover art, the SteelBook Edition for PlayStation is a collector’s item that’s available exclusively at Best Buy.

The mission is clear: Stop scrolling, head to Best Buy and secure a new copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 before it’s too late.

While your real-life mission might be a little less apocalyptic than what’s going on in the world of the game, Black Ops 7 is arguably one of the hottest game releases of the year, and likely to be on every gamer’s list this holiday season. That is, if you can get your hands on it.

Over two decades after it first launched, Call of Duty has grown to become one of the gaming world’s most popular shooters, reportedly earning billions in revenue since it was introduced back in 2003. Following the release of Black Ops 6 last year, the wait is finally over: Gamers can pick up the SteelBook Edition (Playstation) of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 now at Best Buy, both online and in stores. The game officially launched on Nov. 14, and retails for $69.99 for the PS5 edition. Along with PS5, CoD fans can also snag a copy of Black Ops 7 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, and PC.

So where does the game pick up? Ten years into the future – and this time, a star-studded cast, including This Is Us actor Milo Ventimiglia, is coming along for the campaign. According to the game’s official description on the retailer’s site, the Black Ops 7 «world is on the brink of chaos, ravaged by violent conflict and psychological warfare. David Mason (Ventimiglia) leads an elite JSOC team on a covert mission to the sprawling Mediterranean city of Avalon. While there, they discover a sophisticated plot that won’t just plunge the world into chaos, it will pull them into their own haunting pasts.»

Even if you’ve never entered the CoD world or experienced the infamous Black Ops character, Raul Menendez, one look at the game’s trailer confirms Black Ops 7 is packed with next-level graphics, non-stop action, and an unrecognizable world that will be unlike anything else you play this year.

Here’s a little refresher:

No stranger to CoD, Ventimiglia plays David Mason in Black Ops 7, who’s the son of the franchise character Alex Mason. «I played earlier versions of Call of Duty – I played Modern Warfare, I’ve done some Black Ops,» Ventimiglia said in an interview of being part of the new game. «I got away from it a little bit only because life is busy, when you have a baby and when you have a lot of film and TV work to do. But I feel like this was a nice reintroduction to the world of gaming.»

For longtime Call of Duty fans, Black Ops 7 follows a familiar storyline, yet takes place decades into the future of the game. «One takes place in the 1990s, you know, early 1991, and the other takes place in 2035, and that really gave them very distinct identities from the start,» Treyarch associate creative director Miles Leslie previously said of Black Ops 6 and 7. «There are threads from Black Ops 6 that weave into Black Ops 7, and it allowed us that opportunity to take the learnings from and really the momentum from Black Ops 6, and carry that into Black Ops 7.»

The SteelBook Edition for PS5 features 16 six-versus-six maps, along with a few 20-versus-20 maps, according to Best Buy. While the game has plenty of fresh new maps and modes, there was still some unfinished business leftover from Black Ops 2, which was released in 2012.

«We left Black Ops 2 and there was actually way more story to tell,» Leslie said. «David Mason, he’s carrying scars, both internally and externally, and the characters around him have also been affected.»

Don’t wait to add Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 to your cart now at Best Buy before it sells out.

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.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has one repeated letter.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has one vowel, but it’s the repeated letter, so you’ll see it twice.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with S.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with L.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to a cylindrical device upon which thread is wound.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is SPOOL.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Dec. 23, No. 1648 was GLINT.

Recent Wordle answers

Dec. 19, No. 1644: MYRRH

Dec. 20, No. 1645: WHITE

Dec. 21, No. 1646: QUILT

Dec. 22, No. 1647: CONCH

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Dec. 24, #457

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Dec. 24, No. 457.

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

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a bit of a toughie, with a lot of proper nouns included. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: What separates two entities.

Green group hint: Head to the mountains.

Blue group hint: Mitt makers.

Purple group hint: Kick it.