Handheld gaming consoles are no longer dominated by Nintendo; PC games are entering the handheld industry with competition from Valve and ASUS. Valve’s Steam Deck was the best budget option available until ASUS released the ASUS ROG Ally Z1 earlier this summer, which is the budget version of the more powerful ASUS ROG Ally Z1 Extreme. And now, the ASUS ROG Ally Z1 has become a bit more budget-friendly after a big discount from Best Buy. You can get the Asus ROG Ally Z1 for $399.99 (originally $599.99), matching its lowest price yet, which it hit after Cyber Monday, according to Honey’s price history.

A great budget option for PC gamers on-the-go

The ASUS ROG Ally Z1 is a great option for PC gamers who are used to the Windows system and want a budget-friendly way to play their games. The ASUS ROG Ally Z1 is cheaper than budget gaming laptops, although its processing power and graphics are limited. Don’t expect to play every AAA smoothly without having some kind of problem. For most big AAA games, you will need a full-sized desktop or gaming laptop to run without hiccups. While you can play some on the ASUS ROG Ally Z1, you will have to accept playing with lower frames per second to make them run. If you’re not familiar with the Windows 11 operating system, this can be tricky to do.

The ASUS ROG Ally Z1 brings you 512GB of memory with a micro SD memory card slot if you want to expand it, an AMD Ryzen Z1 processor, 16GB RAM, and a seven-inch touchscreen LED with a maximum video resolution of 1080p. The rechargeable battery will give you about eight and a half hours of battery time.

If you’re looking for a more budget-friendly option to play PC games or want to take them on the go, consider the ASUS ROG Ally Z1. You can read the full PCMag review here. While the ASUS ROG Ally is not objectively better or worse than the Steam Deck, at its current price, the Ally Z1 can be a better option than the Steam Deck for most people.

This Gamma heated jacket that comes with a portable power bank and is on sale for $199.99 right now (reg. $575). This graphene-infused insulated jacket has a power bank that connects for precise control of your upper-body temperature, and the USB-C portable power bank can charge your devices and also doubles as a hand warmer with three different heat settings. Heat levels are controlled by a smart display, which can run for up to eight hours of continuous use. The power bank shows how much charge it has left, and the jacket itself is wind resistant, water resistant, and completely machine washable.

You can get the Gamma heated jacket with a portable power bank on sale for $199.99 right now (reg. $575) until January 1 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.

• Gamma Graphene-infused heated jacket and power bank bundle (Men’s S/Women’s M), on sale for just $199.99 (regularly $575)

• Gamma Graphene-infused heated jacket and power bank bundle (Men’s M/Women’s L), on sale for just $199.99 (regularly $575)

• Gamma Graphene-infused heated jacket and power bank bundle (Men’s L/Women’s XL), on sale for just $199.99 (regularly $575)

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for December 28, 2023 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is medium difficulty; I got it in four. Beware, there are spoilers below for December 28, Wordle #922! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.

How to play Wordle

Wordle lives here on the New York Times website. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, your local time.

Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)

Ready for the hints? Let’s go!

Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?

We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)

All five letters are common ones today!

Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?

Let’s say today’s puzzle will teach you a thing or two.

Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?

Nope, not today!

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

There are two vowels in today’s word.

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with L.

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with N.

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is LEARN.

How I solved today’s Wordle

After getting three yellows on ARISE, I decided to look for their positions with a guess of CHEAT. That didn’t help much, so I went for REGAL, which gave me an extra L. At this point, I felt silly for “wasting” so many guesses, but since I had four out of five letters, I should be able to puzzle it out from here. I wrote down the remaining possibilities on scratch paper (LE RA? LER A? Aha: LEAR !) and realized it had to be LEARN.

Wordle 922 4/6

🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
🟨🟩⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

A primer on Wordle basics

The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word. 

Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word: 

• Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)

• Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)

• Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)

With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.

The best starter words for Wordle

What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:

• CRANE

• TRACE

• SLANT

• CRATE

• CARTE

Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:

• SALET

• REAST

• TRACE

• CRATE

• SLATE

Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.

How to win at Wordle

We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.

The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.

One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.

Wordle alternatives

If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:

• Wheeldle, which lets you play one puzzle after another

• Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.

• Waffle, which shows you several five-letter words, scrambled in a grid; you play by swapping the letters around until you solve.

• Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.

• Squabble, in which you play Wordle against other people with a timer running. You take damage if you spend too much time between guesses; winner is the last one standing.

• Antiwordle, in which you are trying not to guess the day’s solution. You’re required to reuse any letters that you (oops) guessed correctly, so the longer it takes you, the better you are at the game.

As the temperature drops and the weather gets dreary, few treats create the same coziness as homemade hot chocolate. While the ordinary from-scratch method can produce a satisfying hot beverage, I’m interested in something more along the lines of extraordinary.

While it’s not difficult to make a cup of cocoa from scratch, it often feels lackluster. It might be a certain blandness that extra cocoa powder or cream can’t solve, or worse—chocolate clumps. If you’ve ever made hot cocoa with a chocolate bar there’s a high likelihood you ended up with little chocolate slugs surfing around in a cup of hot milk. While it’s not “gross” per se, it’s not quite what you may have envisioned. 

A good cup of hot chocolate is smooth, chocolatey, and sweet. A chocolate bar, even melted, won’t emulsify well with milk or water. Nutella, on the other hand, will dissolve in hot liquid easily. This simple method only requires two ingredients, and it’s ready in maybe three minutes. To make matters easier, this popular chocolate hazelnut spread is already fully sweetened, and it includes emulsifiers so you don’t have to do much work to create a perfect drinkable cup. Pull on a pair of those furry, grip-bottom socks you got for Christmas and make this delectable hazelnut hot cocoa with Nutella.

How to make Nutella hot cocoa

Add a tablespoon of Nutella to a mug. Pour in four ounces (a half cup) of hot liquid. I used water from my electric kettle. Let the water sit in the cup for a minute or so to soften the Nutella. Whisk or stir with a small fork for about 30 seconds to agitate the mixture and dissolve the Nutella. Once the mixture is smooth and chocolatey, add another four ounces of liquid and stir. I like to add boiling water first to fully dissolve the other ingredients, and then top it off with four ounces of milk to bring it down to a more drinkable temperature. Top your fresh cocoa with a few marshmallows and get cozy. 

Even if you stan for Swiss Miss or your personal scratch cocoa powder mixture, you can always add a spoonful of Nutella to your mug for a satisfying hazelnut twist. It has no qualms about sharing space in a mug with other chocolate mixtures. As long as hot liquid is involved, it will dissolve.

When you get down to the dregs of your Nutella jar, just pour in some hot water and swirl it around. To get every last bit, you can twist the lid on and shake it: but beware, the steam can cause a bit of a mess. To avoid that, use lukewarm liquid first, shake to dissolve the chocolate spread, then pour it into a mug. Heat it in the microwave to a temperature you like, and enjoy.

Nutella Hot Chocolate Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon Nutella

• 4 ounces boiling water

• 4 ounces milk 

• Marshmallows (optional)

Add the Nutella to a mug. Pour the hot water into the mug and let it sit for a minute or so. Whisk or stir with a fork until the Nutella is fully dissolved, about 30 seconds. Add the milk and stir again. Top with marshmallows if you like, and enjoy immediately. Note that the ratio is one tablespoon of Nutella to eight ounces of liquid, so you can use all water or all milk if you like. Just make sure to heat it first.

If you want to strengthen intimacy with your partner, the new year is a great time to re-evaluate old habits and start some new ones. You resolve to do so much for yourself, so why not make this year a joint effort toward pleasure? It might seem a little awkward, but it’s actually a great way to start the new year off with a bang. 

Talking to your partner about resolutions

First, you’ll need to set aside some time to chat with your partner about what worked in the bedroom this year—and what didn’t. Before you structure the resolutions themselves, it’s important to assess both your needs. Set aside some time to do this together, maybe after dinner or while you’re making your plans for New Year’s Eve. Go into the conversation prepared to say what you need, but also prepared to listen to what they need.  

“I encourage couples to lean into the hopefulness of the new year,” says Dr. Lori Davis, a certified clinical sexologist in New York. That’s a positive place to start. Instead of looking at joint resolutions as a way to address grievances, be positive about all the great sexual experiences and intimacy you could find in the new year. As Davis says, “You can make changes to your sex life and find more pleasure, ease, and intimacy.”

She recommends resolving to become “an erotic team who are intentionally engaged in creating a sex life that works for both of you,” so ask yourself and your partner what that looks like and how you’re already doing it in other parts of your life. 

Dr. Donna Oriowo, a sex therapist who focuses on “planning for pleasure on purpose,” adds that you both need to get specific and define what you mean by sexual intimacy before planning any resolutions around it: “Make sure you know what counts to you both so that it doesn’t get lost in the count. Defining terms means you both understand what is meant when you use a word and it gives more space for intimate success.”

Common sexual resolutions to inspire you

Oriowo says she sees couples make resolutions to increase their sexual intimacy, but also to add some more variety. Davis agrees, noting she sees couples make plans to have more sex, which is a good thing, since it “shows how much both partners value their sex lives together.”

Obviously, wanting to have more sex is a common theme, but to accomplish that, Davis suggests exploring why you aren’t already. Is it time commitments? A lack of energy? A lack of attraction? Getting to the root causes and adjusting your resolutions around them will be more beneficial than just throwing out a blanket statement to “have more sex.” Oriowo says this should be done very specifically: Quantify your wants. Instead of saying you want to have more sex, suggest a number of times per week you’d like to aim for. Having a more structured resolution in place will keep you on track. 

Consider some resolutions like these:

• Resolve to explore a new fantasy for each partner once per month

• Resolve to visit a sex toy shop quarterly and both make a purchase you’re interested in

• Resolve to have sex in a new place (even just around the house) twice per month

Remember though, sex is supposed to be fun. It’s okay if you deviate from this list a bit as you go. It’s most important to have fun with it.

Additionally, if you’re stuck, try what Davis calls a “yes/no/maybe list,” or a list “of possible intimate activities where you can consider what you might want to do, might never consider, and what could be nice in the right context.” Find a mutual “yes” or “maybe” and go from there. 

Sticking with sexual resolutions

To make sure these resolutions don’t fall by the wayside, Oriowo suggests writing down your resolutions and checking in on your progress. The journal can be completed together—or separately, then shared—but it should go over how you feel, what you want more of, what you want less of, and how you’re moving forward in the goal of having more intimacy and connection. 

“Remember that getting off track in your resolutions is actually totally expected,” says Davis. “Give yourself and your partner a little grace and compassion. Working on your sex life can bring up lots of feelings and, of course, life always wants to get in the way of our need for rest and connection.”

Most importantly, if you’re not in the mood to have sex, don’t force it. It’s totally normal for libidos to change and alternate for any number of reasons. Both doctors say to set reminders in your calendar to check in with one another. This is key. Oriwo suggests trying to do this weekly, while Davis says you could even try to do it once a month. No matter how often you check in, make sure you’re referring back to the original list of resolutions and your intimacy journal, reflecting on what has and hasn’t worked, and tweaking the plan as necessary. 

“If you get off track, acknowledge it,” says Oriowo. “Talk about what got in the way and how you want it to get back on track.”

You can get a lifetime subscription to Curiosity Stream on sale for $179.97 right now (reg. $399) through January 1. Curiosity Stream is an Emmy Award–winning streaming service that focuses on documentaries, with thousands of HD series, shows, and documentary movies covering science, art, history, and more. You can also download content to be watched offline. Additional content is continuously added, and with a 4.7/5 star rating on the App Store, you can expect that this well-loved streaming service will be a welcome change of pace from your usual scrolling. 

You can get a lifetime subscription to Curiosity Stream’s Standard plan on sale for $179.97 right now (reg. $399) until January 1 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.

Cooking your own meals at home has always been (and likely always will be) the cheaper option. You can opt to replicate your favorite fast food or restaurant meals, seek out simpler, less labor-intensive recipes, or experience the gluttonous glories of the past by digging through grandma’s recipe book. But just because cooking at home is generally cheaper doesn’t mean every recipe is a bargain. And while some recipes will offer a “per serving” cost, that doesn’t help you budget your grocery shopping. If you’re cooking at home more but not necessarily saving a lot of money, you might want to price out the total cost of your recipes to see where the true bargains lie.

The problem with most recipes is that they can obscure their true cost in a variety of ways. Different ingredients are priced and sold differently, and different amounts are used. Many recipes assume you have certain staples on hand at all times, and even if they offer guidance on their cost, it’s typically “per serving” costs, especially if it’s hyped as a budget-friendly recipe. Knowing that a lasagna will cost just $3 per serving is nice, but if you have to spend $50 to make the lasagna in the first place, that’s crucial information for your budgeting.

Pricing out a recipe is both a straightforward and somewhat mysterious process. Here’s a general guide for how to approach the problem.

1. Figure out unit pricing. You’ll need to know how much you paid for the whole package of each ingredient and how much you’re using. If your recipe calls for using two shallots and you can buy a single shallot for $1.50, that’s easy enough—your recipe cost for shallots is $3. If you have an 8-ounce bag of lettuce that cost $1.29 and you’re using half the bag, your recipe cost is $0.65. If you’re using a different amount of lettuce, you can figure out that each ounce costs about 16 cents and multiply as needed.

   With some ingredients you’ll need to consult the serving size under the Nutrition Facts. If you have a 6-ounce can of tomato paste that cost $0.50, but your recipe calls for 2 Tablespoons of the stuff, the calculation might seem complex. But if the serving size is 2 Tablespoons and there are five servings in the can, then each serving—and thus your recipe cost—is $0.10.

2. Estimate spices. Spices and herbs can be challenging to price. Most packages of spices don’t list nutrition information or serving sizes, and prices will vary a great deal depending on when and where you buy them. Many cooks use a generic estimation of $0.10 per teaspoon of common spices and $0.20 per teaspoon for costlier, more rare spices. Salt tends to be cheaper (about $0.05 per teaspoon). If you want a more accurate idea of how much your spices cost, you can use a conversion chart like this one, which breaks down how many teaspoons or tablespoons are in an ounce of the spice. So if you have a 2-ounce package of cinnamon, for example, you’ll get 23.5 teaspoons out of that. If the package cost you $3 overall, your cost is $0.13 per teaspoon used.

Once you’ve worked out the cost for each portion of each ingredient used, add it all up—that’s the total cost of your meal.

Other costs

Of course, there are other costs involved in cooking food. Not counting your time, you probably use water in every recipe, plus cooking gas or electricity (or both). Water is generally pretty cheap—about 3 cents per gallon—so your water cost in most recipes will be a rounding error. While it’s difficult to pin down exactly how much your stove and oven use might contribute to the cost, in general it costs around 10-20 cents an hour to run an oven at 350 degrees, and 10-15 cents an hour to run a burner at full blast. These numbers will vary greatly depending on the energy costs where you live and the age/efficiency of your appliances, but you can make a somewhat educated guess if you crunch a few numbers from your latest utility bill.

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for December 27, 2023 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is medium difficulty; I got it in three. Beware, there are spoilers below for December 27, Wordle #921! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.

How to play Wordle

Wordle lives here on the New York Times website. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, your local time.

Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)

Ready for the hints? Let’s go!

Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?

We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)

Four of the letters are in our mnemonic. The other is one of those tricky letters that is relatively common, but that many of us tend to forget about.

Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?

It’s floral.

Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?

Nope, not today!

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

Two regular vowels, and one “sometimes” vowel.

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with D.

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with Y.

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is DAISY.

How I solved today’s Wordle

ARISE carried a wealth of information: I was probably looking at -AIS-. WAIST? No. DAISY.

Wordle 921 3/6

🟨⬜🟩🟩⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

A primer on Wordle basics

The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word. 

Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word: 

• Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)

• Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)

• Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)

With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.

The best starter words for Wordle

What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:

• CRANE

• TRACE

• SLANT

• CRATE

• CARTE

Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:

• SALET

• REAST

• TRACE

• CRATE

• SLATE

Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.

How to win at Wordle

We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.

The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.

One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.

Wordle alternatives

If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:

• Wheeldle, which lets you play one puzzle after another

• Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.

• Waffle, which shows you several five-letter words, scrambled in a grid; you play by swapping the letters around until you solve.

• Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.

• Squabble, in which you play Wordle against other people with a timer running. You take damage if you spend too much time between guesses; winner is the last one standing.

• Antiwordle, in which you are trying not to guess the day’s solution. You’re required to reuse any letters that you (oops) guessed correctly, so the longer it takes you, the better you are at the game.