Latest news with #MetaQuest
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wordle hints today for #1,490: Clues and answer for Friday, July 18
Hey, there! The weekend is right around the corner and we hope it's going to be a great one for you. To help make sure you sail into Saturday in high spirits, let's keep your Wordle streak in one piece. Here's our daily Wordle guide with some hints and the answer for Friday's puzzle (#1,490). It may be that you're a Wordle newcomer and you're not completely sure how to play the game. We're here to help with that too. What is Wordle? Wordle is a deceptively simple daily word game that first emerged in 2021. There is one five-letter word to deduce every day by process of elimination. The daily word is the same for everyone. Wordle blew up in popularity in late 2021 after creator Josh Wardle made it easy for players to share an emoji-based grid with their friends and followers that detailed how they fared each day. The game's success spurred dozens of clones across a swathe of categories and formats. The New York Times purchased Wordle in early 2022 for an undisclosed sum. The publication said that players collectively played Wordle 5.3 billion times in 2024. So, it's little surprise that Wordle is one of the best online games and puzzles you can play daily. How to play Wordle To start playing Wordle, you simply need to enter one five-letter word. The game will tell you how close you are to that day's secret word by highlighting letters that are in the correct position in green. Letters that appear in the word but aren't in the right spot will be highlighted in yellow. If you guess any letters that are not in the secret word, the game will gray those out on the virtual keyboard. However, you can still use those letters in subsequent guesses. You'll only have six guesses to find each day's word, though you still can use grayed-out letters to help narrow things down. It's also worth remembering that letters can appear in the secret word more than once. Wordle is free to play on the NYT's website and apps, as well as on Meta Quest headsets and Discord. The game refreshes at midnight local time. If you log into a New York Times account, you can track your stats, including the all-important win streak. How to play Wordle more than once a day If you have a NYT subscription that includes full access to the publication's games, you don't have to stop after a single round of Wordle. You'll have access to an archive of more than 1,400 previous Wordle games. So if you're a relative newcomer, you'll be able to go back and catch up on previous editions. In addition, paid NYT Games members have access to a tool called the Wordle Bot. This can tell you how well you performed at each day's game. Previous Wordle answers Before today's Wordle hints, here are the answers to recent puzzles that you may have missed: Yesterday's Wordle answer for Thursday, July 17 — MODAL Wednesday, July 16 — NERVY Tuesday, July 15 — FOIST Monday, July 14 — UNDID Sunday, July 13 — GNOME Today's Wordle hints explained Every day, we'll try to make Wordle a little easier for you. First, we'll offer a hint that describes the meaning of the word or how it might be used in a phrase or sentence. We'll also tell you if there are any double (or even triple) letters in the word. In case you still haven't quite figured it out by that point, we'll then provide the first letter of the word. Those who are still stumped after that can continue on to find out the answer for today's Wordle. This should go without saying, but make sure to scroll slowly. Spoilers are ahead. Today's Wordle help Here is a hint for today's Wordle answer: Slow-moving nocturnal primate that is related to the lemur and found in Asia. Are there any double letters in today's Wordle? There are no repeated letters in today's Wordle answer. What's the first letter of today's Wordle? The first letter of today's Wordle answer is L. The Wordle answer today This is your final warning before we reveal today's Wordle answer. No take-backs. Don't blame us if you happen to scroll too far and accidentally spoil the game for yourself. What is today's Wordle? Today's Wordle answer is... LORIS Not to worry if you didn't figure out today's Wordle word. If you made it this far down the page, hopefully you at least kept your streak going. And, hey: there's always another game tomorrow.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Consumers Are Focused on AI-Powered and Value Spending, While Retailers Face Supply Chain Challenges for the Second Half of 2025
The first half of the year was a learning curve for everyone. The economic uncertainties with the ever-changing tariffs put in place, rapid accelerations in artificial intelligence, cautious consumer spending and changes within Apple iOS 18 have caused many brands to pivot rapidly. Listrak recently released three reports — 'H2 2025 Beauty Retail Outlook,' 'H2 2025 Fashion Retail Outlook,' and 'H2 2025 Retail Outlook' — to give brands insights into what worked and what didn't in the first half of the year and what's to come in the second six months. More from WWD Sue Bird and Meta Quest Take Over the NBA Store Ahead of the WNBA All-Star Weekend There's Now a Tool for Predicting How Your Skin Could Age With Versus Without SPF Use Intuit Expands Its IDEAS Small Business Program Across Nine U.S. Cities Fashion is expected to grow between 3 percent and 5 percent, with non-luxury brands fueling this rise. Similarly, e-commerce is driving beauty growth — a third of beauty sales are set to be online. Overall, Listrak's data showed that SMS has continued to surge. With RCS (Rich Communication Services) emerging with new possibilities, revenue for SMS increased by 30 percent. Meanwhile, email engagement has greatly declined as consumers are experiencing fatigue and as a result of Apple Mail changes. Brands are seeing a 29 percent decline in both click-through rate and revenue. But a bright spot is that conversion rates rose 7 percent year-over-year, as consumers with intent remained engaged. Notably, the biggest impacts to brands for the first half of the year were consumers spending less and being sales-reliant (42 percent), supply chain shake-ups (26 percent), tariff volatility (22 percent) and Apple Mail changes (11 percent). The major takeaways from the first half included consumers being conscious and stretching their dollar, experiences and loyalty programs evolving to focus on personalization and engagement and digital-first brands doubling down on physical retail experiences and diversifying their offerings. Brands told Listrak that their overarching plan for the second half includes increasing prices (25 percent), mounting discounts (23 percent), diversifying supply chains (20 percent), artificial intelligence capabilities (20 percent), RCS (7 percent) and pre-loved/used space adoption (5 percent). According to the reports' authors, the three trends that will define the second half are price pressure and value-driven behavior, inventory volatility and operational agility and the emergence of AI-powered shopping assistants. The market is signaling price pressure and value-driven behavior with dupes trending, private labels in Target and Costco scaling with lower prices, and pre-loved and rental brands such as Nuuly and Rent the Runway gaining momentum. Moreover, the closing of the Shein and Temu loopholes in terms of their importation into the U.S. has also boosted affordable competitors. Thirty-seven percent of shoppers said they plan to cut any non-essential spending going into the summer and holiday seasons. For fashion and beauty, capturing value will be of the utmost importance for consumers. Brands need to appeal to the aspirational yet price-conscious customer. With retailers looking beyond China to diversify their supply chains, inventory is harder than ever to predict. Imports from China — as a result of President Trump's tariffs — have dropped 65 percent year-over-year and order cancellations are up 60 percent as compared to 2020. Supply chain diversification and slow restocks are creating urgency and unpredictability. But according to Listrak's data, low inventory SMS alerts drove 42 percent year-over-year revenue — proving that scarcity does indeed sell. AI has continued to be on everyone's mind — 53 percent of consumers said they plan to use AI to support their purchase decisions for 2025. Listrak said the industry will see a shift from traditional search engines to ChatGPT usage rising during the holiday season. Many retailers will start to adapt quickly by investing in AI tools on their e-commerce platforms to aid product discovery, enhance their personalization and streamline the path to purchase. While previously ChatGPT told WWD's sister publication Sourcing Journal this April that it had no plans to monetize its product recommendations, the AI company has changed its mind. More than 50 percent of fashion executives surveyed by Listrak said they see generative AI as a key driver of product discovery for this year and 43 percent of retailers are already utilizing chatbots on their site to address customer service and lower friction. Overall, there's been a 155 percent increase year-over-year in traffic from AI tools to e-commerce websites. 'The first half of 2025 reminded us that retail success is not about predicting the future — it's about being prepared for the future,' said Jamie Elden, chief revenue officer of Listrak. 'While change is constant, with the right insights and tactics, retailers can convert change into advantage. To support retail momentum throughout the second half of 2025, Listrak's experts, leveraging Listrak's predictive intelligence, identified key trends and provided tactics to power success through the balance of the year.' Best of WWD What the Highest-paid CEOs at U.S. Fashion and Retail Companies Make The Definitive Timeline for Sean 'Diddy' Combs' Sean John Fashion Brand: Lawsuits, Runway Shows and Who Owns It Now Confidence Holds Up, But How Much Can Consumers Take? Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Time Out
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
NYC's NBA Store will turn into the WNBA Store today and, yes, Ellie the Elephant will be there
Basketball fans, clear your calendars: The NBA Store is going orange for a day. On Wednesday, July 16, Meta Quest and the WNBA are teaming up to transform Midtown Manhattan's NBA Flagship Store into the first-ever WNBA pop-up experience—dubbed W All Day—celebrating the league's meteoric rise and the second half of the 2025 season. From 10 am to 8 pm, 545 Fifth Avenue will be the epicenter of W energy, with a surprise-and-delight takeover featuring none other than WNBA legend Sue Bird and the New York Liberty 's larger-than-life mascot, Big Ellie. Expect live appearances, Meta Quest VR demos, limited-edition merch and more than a few jaw-dropping moments. Meta Quest, the league's official VR partner, is allowing attendees to test its immersive courtside viewing experience and compete in virtual Pop-A-Shot competitions alongside influencers and creators. Score big and you could walk away with exclusive WNBA swag. The one-day activation highlights a broader effort from Meta and the WNBA to integrate cutting-edge technology with cultural momentum. Meta Quest is currently offering free access to 20 live WNBA games this season (five of which are fully immersive VR broadcasts) and hosting interactive meet-ups inside Horizon Worlds' NBA Arena. The timing is no coincidence. As the WNBA heads into the second half of a season defined by record-breaking viewership, surging merch sales and unprecedented buzz around players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, W All Day marks a high-impact moment for the league—and a clear signal of where sports fandom is heading next.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wordle hints today for #1,488: Clues and answer for Wednesday, July 16
Hey, there! We're already reached the midway point of this week, and we hope things are going swimmingly for you. Let's keep your Wordle streak afloat, shall we? Here's our daily Wordle guide with some hints and the answer for Wednesday's puzzle (#1,488). It may be that you're a Wordle newcomer and you're not completely sure how to play the game. We're here to help with that too. Wordle is a deceptively simple daily word game that first emerged in 2021. There is one five-letter word to deduce every day by process of elimination. The daily word is the same for everyone. Wordle blew up in popularity in late 2021 after creator Josh Wardle made it easy for players to share an emoji-based grid with their friends and followers that detailed how they fared each day. The game's success spurred dozens of clones across a swathe of categories and formats. The New York Times purchased Wordle in early 2022 for an undisclosed sum. The publication said that players collectively played Wordle 5.3 billion times in 2024. So, it's little surprise that Wordle is one of the best online games and puzzles you can play daily. To start playing Wordle, you simply need to enter one five-letter word. The game will tell you how close you are to that day's secret word by highlighting letters that are in the correct position in green. Letters that appear in the word but aren't in the right spot will be highlighted in yellow. If you guess any letters that are not in the secret word, the game will gray those out on the virtual keyboard. However, you can still use those letters in subsequent guesses. You'll only have six guesses to find each day's word, though you still can use grayed-out letters to help narrow things down. It's also worth remembering that letters can appear in the secret word more than once. Wordle is free to play on the NYT's website and apps, as well as on Meta Quest headsets and Discord. The game refreshes at midnight local time. If you log into a New York Times account, you can track your stats, including the all-important win streak. If you have a NYT subscription that includes full access to the publication's games, you don't have to stop after a single round of Wordle. You'll have access to an archive of more than 1,400 previous Wordle games. So if you're a relative newcomer, you'll be able to go back and catch up on previous editions. In addition, paid NYT Games members have access to a tool called the Wordle Bot. This can tell you how well you performed at each day's game. Before today's Wordle hints, here are the answers to recent puzzles that you may have missed: Yesterday's Wordle answer for Tuesday, July 15 — FOIST Monday, July 14 — UNDID Sunday, July 13 — GNOME Saturday, July 12 — EXILE Friday, July 11 — BRAND Every day, we'll try to make Wordle a little easier for you. First, we'll offer a hint that describes the meaning of the word or how it might be used in a phrase or sentence. We'll also tell you if there are any double (or even triple) letters in the word. In case you still haven't quite figured it out by that point, we'll then provide the first letter of the word. Those who are still stumped after that can continue on to find out the answer for today's Wordle. This should go without saying, but make sure to scroll slowly. Spoilers are ahead. Here is a hint for today's Wordle answer: Jumpy, on edge. There are no repeated letters in today's Wordle answer. The first letter of today's Wordle answer is N. This is your final warning before we reveal today's Wordle answer. No take-backs. Don't blame us if you happen to scroll too far and accidentally spoil the game for yourself. What is today's Wordle? Today's Wordle answer is... NERVY Not to worry if you didn't figure out today's Wordle word. If you made it this far down the page, hopefully you at least kept your streak going. And, hey: there's always another game tomorrow.
Engadget
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
Xbox's 'Stream your own game' feature now extends to PC
Xbox's "Stream your own game" feature continues to expand. You can now use your PC to play supported games you own on Xbox. (The games stream from the cloud, not your console.) You'll need to be an Xbox Insider and Game Pass Ultimate subscriber to use it. The PC launch follows the feature's arrival earlier this year on other devices. Already supported were Xbox consoles, TVs, browser-based devices (including mobile) and Meta Quest headsets. The idea is the latest chapter in Microsoft's mission to make Xbox software more device-agnostic. Hop on whatever device is available, and start playing without waiting for installations. That makes sense from a business perspective, given Sony's commanding lead in their two-way console race. It's increasingly more about selling Game Pass subscriptions than fighting a losing hardware battle. Microsoft lists over 250 supported games. Standouts include Baldur's Gate 3 , Star Wars Outlaws , Cyberpunk 2077 , Hogwarts Legacy , Balatro and a whole mess of Assassin's Creed entries. Microsoft says it will add more over time. The company says the collection includes some console-only titles. But you'll be hard-pressed to find many that aren't already available (natively) on PC. On the other hand, this method could free up storage and save you the hassle of downloading them. There are some caveats. You'll need to own digital copies of those you want to stream to your PC. (Physical copies won't cut it.) The feature is only available in the 28 countries where Xbox Cloud Gaming is supported. You'll also need a Game Pass Ultimate subscription, which costs $20 per month. If you're interested, you'll first need to sign up for the Xbox Insider program, which is free.
