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If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.

Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for January 26 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for January 26 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Ore so they say

These words are on the periodic table of elements.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

Words are ores of metal.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is PureMetal.

Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for January 26

• Aluminum

• Nickel

• Cobalt

• Iron

• Titanium

• Cadmium

• PureMetal

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to the latest Strands.

Many of us neglect our eye health, often spending long hours in front of a Windows PC that isn’t set up for comfortable viewing. Consider adjusting some settings to make Windows more accomodating to your eyes.

If you have a confidential PDF you want to password protect, you have a few ways to do that on your Windows 11 PC. You can use a desktop app or a web-based tool to encrypt your PDF files.

With a first look at the Switch 2, Nintendo practically confirmed a longstanding rumor: the Switch 2 would have mouse functionality in its Joy-Con. So what could such a feature be used for? We have some ideas.

Do you have a beautiful photo that you want to upload to social media, but there's an unwanted element in the background ruining it? You can use the Microsoft Paint Generative Erase feature to remove that element and upload the photo online.

Inheritance filmmaker Neil Burger reveals all the ways filming with an iPhone gave them access to locations and shots they otherwise would not have been able to achieve.

Inheritance is now in theaters.

You just installed Ubuntu—awesome! But wait, before you start using it, here are some free apps that I think you need to add right now. These tools will enhance your overall Ubuntu experience, boost performance, and make your desktop way more fun. Let's dive in!

Samsung includes Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on top of Galaxy S25's gorgeous AMOLED display to protect it from scratches. However, it isn't infallible. So, if you want peace of mind, invest in a high-quality screen protector.

Social platform X is "barely breaking even," owner Elon Musk emailed employees, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"Our user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even," Musk reportedly said. In a story about banks preparing to sell billions of dollars in debt borrowed by X, WSJ printed other parts of the email:

"Over the last few months, we've witnessed the power of X in shaping national conversations and outcomes...We are also seeing other platforms begin to adopt our commitment to free speech and unbiased truth."

SEE ALSO: DOGE officially announced. How the Elon Musk-led department will work

The latter sentence refers to Meta, which is removing fact-checks in favor of community notes, which X already has.

Elon Musk has denied writing this to staff, posting on X, "This report is false. I sent no such email. WSJ is lying."

Since his takeover of then-Twitter in 2022, Mashable has reported that X's user base has declined, fleeing for alternatives like Bluesky, especially after the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Advertisers have been no different, with the trend of companies removing ads on X expected to continue this year.

The WSJ article stated that Morgan Stanley bankers have reached out to investors ahead of a $3 billion sale of debt it and other banks lent to X to complete Musk's buyout in 2022. Investors have allegedly expressed interest in buying the debt as they see X's financial position on an "upward trajectory," WSJ reported, likely because of Musk's alliance with President Trump.

Musk has been in the news this week for other reasons, including his attendance at Trump's inauguration on Monday and the "Roman salute" he gave during a speech.

If your photos contain sensitive information that you don’t want others to see, hide those parts using the tools at your disposal. You can use a built-in or a third-party app on your Windows 11 PC to do that.

Meta platforms Instagram and Facebook blocked and hid posts by abortion pill providers, the New York Times reported. The company confirmed to the Times that it blurred some posts and suspended some providers' accounts. The actions have reportedly ramped up this week following Trump's inauguration.

SEE ALSO: Report: Meta's fact checking program failed to spot most disinformation

This month, before the inauguration, Meta made several major changes to its platforms, including removing fact-checks and relaxing hate speech policies. A Meta spokesperson told the Times that the post-blocking and account suspensions aren't related to the moderation changes and attributed some of the incidents to the "overenforcement" of rules prohibiting pharmaceutical drug sales without proper certification.

Aid Access, Women Help Women, Just the Pill, and Hey Jane are abortion pill providers impacted by these actions, the Times reported.

In recent weeks, Instagram came under fire for blocking LGBTQ content (Meta claimed it was an "accident") and the #democrat hashtag.

For years, Meta platforms, particularly Instagram, have been accused of blocking and removing posts and accounts sharing sex-educational and LGBTQ content. In 2022, Instagram blocked posts that mentioned abortion following the overturning of Roe v. Wade (apparently due to a "technical glitch"). Mashable has also previously reported that Meta rejected period care ads for being political or adult content.

This week, The Trump administration shut down reproductiverights.gov, a site set up after Roe was overturned. The government site provided information on birth control, emergency contraception, and abortion pills.

I've owned most Nintendo's consoles, but the last one I purchased was a Wii U. Yeah, I skipped a pretty big one, but you can bet I'm getting a Switch 2.

Sometimes, the easiest solution can be the best one, and for PCs, that's just giving it a reset.

Want to use both Windows and Linux but want to keep all your files in sync? Whether you prefer automatic background syncing or manual control, these cross-platform tools offer secure, efficient solutions for keeping your data synchronized across operating systems.

On Friday, Mark Zuckerberg announced a $60-65 billion investment into Meta AI.

"This will be a defining year for AI," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post detailing the investment. "In 2025, I expect Meta AI will be the leading assistant serving more than 1 billion people, Llama 4 will become the leading state of the art model, and we'll build an AI engineer that will start contributing increasing amounts of code to our R&D [research and development] efforts."

SEE ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg wants more 'masculine energy' in corporate America

Llama is the open-sourced Large Language Model (LLM) powering Meta's AI on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The current version is Llama 3, but Meta announced back in December that Llama 4 is coming in 2025.

Zuckerberg went on to say that Meta is building a data center of over two GW (gigawatts, a big amount of energy) "that is so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan." Meta expects to bring around one GW of computing this year and will end the year with more than 1.3 million GPUs. Basically, the data center will have a ton of processing power.

"We're planning to invest $60-65B in capex [capital expenditures] this year while also growing our AI teams significantly, and we have the capital to continue investing in the years ahead," Zuckerberg said.

This announcement coincides with Zuckerberg being named in a lawsuit claiming that Llama was trained using pirated materials. Additionally, it follows the unveiling of The Stargate Project, a $500 billion AI infrastructure investment announced by President Trump and OpenAI. Stargate will also facilitate the construction of AI data centers. 

"This is a massive effort, and over the coming years it will drive our core products and business, unlock historic innovation, and extend American technology leadership," Zuckerberg concluded his post. "Let's go build!"

The day after Inauguration Day, Oklahoma Senator Dusty Deevers introduced a slate of legislation to "restore moral sanity" to the state, including criminalizing pornography.

The bill, SB593, would prohibit pornography, and those who produce, distribute, or possess porn in the state would face up to 10 years in prison. Project 2025 (the conservative policy wishlist for Trump's second term) calls for exactly this: a ban on pornography and the imprisonment of its creators.

Oklahoma already has an age-verification law in place, meaning that those who want to view a website with a "substantial portion" (over a third) of explicit content must verify their age with personal information like a digital ID. As a result, Pornhub is no longer available in the state. (The Supreme Court recently had a hearing about age verification, but the result is still pending.)

SEE ALSO: Did Trump's executive order just make everyone in the U.S. female?

The bill also heightens 10-to-30-year penalties for "organized pornography trafficking," though it's not immediately clear if this is referring to sex trafficking.

"Pornography is both degenerate material and a highly addictive drug," Deevers said in the announcement of the bills. "It ruins marriages, ruins lives, destroys innocence, warps young people's perception of the opposite sex, turns women into objects, turns men into objects, degrades human dignity, and corrodes the moral fabric of society. Any decent society will stand against this plague with the full weight of the law."

"Porn addiction" isn't recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a mental disorder due to lack of evidence, and the American Psychological Association (APA) points to a study that suggests porn can be used compulsively rather than an addiction. But many activities can be done compulsively, like eating or shopping. Another study suggested that one's perceived addiction to porn leads to more psychological stress over time.

As for how porn impacts perceptions, this seems like a great argument for comprehensive sex education. Among other things, sex ed teaches students media literacy — that porn is fantasy and not what sex is like — and teaches anatomy, so students can know their own bodies. But the first Trump administration sabotaged sex education in the country, and the pandemic disrupted it, too.

Only 36 states and DC require either sex education and/or HIV education at the time of publication. Oklahoma falls into the latter (mandating HIV education), and it stresses abstinence. It also isn't required to cover healthy relationships, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization for advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Additionally, the bill calls for heightening the penalties for possession of child sex abuse material (CSAM) from up to 20 years in prison to 10-to-30 years.

Deevers introduced several other bills as well, calling for measures such as abolishing abortion, ending no-fault divorce, and prohibiting Drag Queen Story Hour.

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Saturday, January 25, 2025:

AcrossComfy slip-on shoes, for short

• The answer is Mocs.

Convincing evidence

• The answer is Proof.

Why you might breathe into a paper bag or drink water upside down

• The answer is Hiccups.

Start arguing

• The answer is Go at it.

Mark left by trunks, perhaps

• The answer is Tanline.

Bird of Australia

• The answer is Emu.

Bruce who starred in "Enter the Dragon"

• The answer is Lee.

Small issue to "pick"

• The answer is Nit.

Clairvoyant's gift, for short

• The answer is ESP.

DownSpeed limit abbr.

• The answer is MPH.

Art form with folding

• The answer is Origami.

"___ milk is a natural laxative. That's something Gilligan never told us" ("Cast Away" line)

• The answer is Coconut.

Where L.A. and San Diego are, casually

• The answer is SoCal.

Utterly hopeless

• The answer is Futile.

Trees with needles

• The answer is Pines.

Like a big roller coaster drop

• The answer is Steep.

Number of "things I hate about you," in a rom-com title

• The answer is Ten.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of Games

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to the latest Mini Crossword.

You may think of programming as typing code into an interpreter, text editor, or IDE. Enter Jupyter, a radically different way of programming that freely mixes text, code, and graphics into interactive documents. It's powerful but also easy to use.

UPDATE: Jan. 24, 2025, 3:30 p.m. EST Shortly after taking office this week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Department of Justice to delay enforcing a TikTok ban for 75 days. The order doesn't mean TikTok is saved in the U.S. — far from it. It does, however, give time for ByteDance — TikTok's parent company — to reconsider a sale or for Trump to land on a resolution he feels is fit.

SEE ALSO: Trump delays TikTok ban for 75 days

What do you do when your dream is yanked out from under you? And, to make matters worse, the hand doing the yanking belongs to the colossal, omnipotent entity that is the U.S. government?

This could be the reality for the TikTok creators who’ve built entire careers on the app — a platform that has transformed what it means to be an influencer. For many, being a social media star is, in fact, a dream job — 57 percent of Gen Z say they want to be influencers.

But now, that dream, for some, is at risk of being abruptly snatched away. TikTok is facing a deadline of Jan. 19 — this Sunday — when it could be banned in the U.S. over concerns about its Chinese ownership. The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld a federal law that would effectively ban the app unless TikTok divests from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. This ruling means the ban could take effect as soon as this weekend if TikTok doesn’t meet the government’s demands.

While reports suggest President Joe Biden is unlikely to enforce the law before leaving office, leaving the decision to President-elect Donald Trump, the situation is rapidly developing.

Folks in Trump’s orbit have already expressed opposition to the ban, indicating the administration could at least stall the ban process. But that still leaves content creators who’ve built followings – and income streams – on the app preparing as best they can for what’s next.

For creators like Brandon Edelman, known to hundreds of thousands on the app as the chaotic and entertaining Bran Flakezz, the looming deadline feels like an existential threat. What if everything they’ve built disappears in a flash?

"This ban is so irresponsible and reckless," Edelman told Mashable, emphasizing the countless people who rely on the app for their livelihoods.

"If this app is banned, I'll use it every single minute I have until it goes away,” Edelman said. "I’m living in delusion, I guess. I won’t stress about it until I open the app, and it won't open."

The reactions from creators are as varied as the content they produce: some are frantic, others are unfazed, but all are left navigating a sea of uncertainty. Scroll through TikTok, and you’ll see creators urging followers to find them elsewhere, emotional farewells, and some who are practically indifferent to the possibility of the app's demise in the U.S.

"There’s a range," said Michael Berkowitz, co-founder of the Greenlight Group, a talent agency representing digital creators. "Some creators are extremely concerned and in a bit of a panic. Others? Not concerned at all. They don’t think the ban is actually going to happen."

TikTok changed everything. But what if it disappears?

Here’s the bottom line: nobody knows if the ban will happen, and even if it does, it’s unclear what kind of impact it will have.

"I don’t think we’ll see a full ban — where TikTok just vanishes from the face of the Earth — being a reality," Doug Landers, co-founder of Greenlight Group, told Mashable.

Some reports have suggested that TikTok was preparing for a radical and unprecedented step: a full-scale shutdown in the U.S. This would block access entirely, with users attempting to open the app being met by a pop-up redirecting them to a website with details about the ban. The move would effectively lock users out of the platform, marking a dramatic escalation in the app's ongoing battle for survival.

In a less extreme scenario that had long been expected, TikTok could simply be removed from app stores. While current users would still have access, the app would likely begin to degrade over time due to a lack of updates and maintenance.

But now it appears the decision could be in Trump's hands, which might mean TikTok sticks around. Alternatively, TikTok could also be sold to someone like... well, Elon Musk, and keep running in the U.S. (Mashable reached out TikTok for comment and did not receive a response.)

Even with all the "what-ifs," the threat of TikTok’s disappearance feels very real to creators. Users are already flocking to other platforms, and creators are scrambling to direct their followers elsewhere. For creators, the looming shutdown represents another crisis in an industry defined by its volatility.

Credit: Mashable

Take Jordan Howlett, for example. You probably know him as @jordan_the_stallion8 — he’s the guy who went from chasing his pro baseball dreams to amassing nearly 14 million followers on TikTok. If you’ve scrolled your For You Page lately, you’ve likely seen him leaning into the camera and telling you to "come here" as he explains the latest viral moment.

"There was never a moment where I was like, 'Oh, I can do this for a living' because I come from a very traditional background where a 9-to-5 job was what stability truly meant," Howlett told Mashable.

But TikTok turned that notion on its head. "It has allowed me to wake up daily and figure out [how I can] express some kind of creativity," he said. The platform has given him a space to set goals and pursue them. "If I have a goal, I can try to achieve it."

For Howlett, that's meant collaborating with the likes of Kevin Hart, Donald Glover, Halle Berry, and Method Man — all thanks to his decision in 2020 to post up to eight videos a day as a creative outlet.

Or there’s Rebecca West-Remmey, half of the married duo behind Devour Power, a channel chronicling viral food mostly in the NYC era. For her and her husband, Greg Remmey, TikTok arrived long after they'd already built large followings on platforms like Instagram and YouTube.

Back in 2012, when "food porn" became a cultural catchphrase, they started posting mouthwatering videos of crispy, greasy, often over-the-top meals that made you hungry just watching them. After quitting their day jobs a decade ago, they became full-time creators, with TikTok becoming an increasingly important part of their income.

"It is a big platform for us, I'm not gonna lie," West-Remmey told Mashable. Since joining the platform in 2018, their account has amassed more than 4 million followers.

But even as TikTok’s rise has been meteoric for creators like her, the prospect of it disappearing doesn’t feel like the end of the world. In the world of digital media, nothing is certain. “Social media is the Wild West,” West-Remmey said. "You do not know what's going to happen. I don't know if Instagram is going to shut down tomorrow. There is a lot of uncertainty."

Instagram, YouTube, RedNote: Time to diversify

As the clock ticks down, creators are scrambling to take action. The basic steps are the same across the board: download your videos, alert followers where to find you next, and diversify your presence as much as possible.

But the situation looks different for everyone. For Devour Power, TikTok's possible disappearance won’t upend their entire business. A big chunk of their revenue comes from their media arm, which manages social media for dozens of restaurants. If TikTok vanishes, it simply means a change in strategy, not a collapse.

"Our restaurants are a little bit worried about TikTok being banned," West-Remmey said. "Our thought behind that is, if it is [banned], there are so many other directions that we can take that second platform space."

Other social media platforms, such as Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Facebook, and even RedNote — a Chinese app gaining international traction just days before the proposed ban — offer alternatives. With the advantage of time and significant effort, Devour Power has successfully expanded its presence across multiple platforms.

The outlook is more uncertain for smaller creators or those who built their following on TikTok. Take Avery-Claire Nugent, for example. With roughly 80k followers, Nugent took off by posting about girls who "cluster" tiny, precious objects in their homes.

Still juggling her full-time fashion job in New York City, she's already shifted part of her following to the Girls Who Cluster Instagram page, which functions as the brand's HQ, and recently launched a YouTube channel where she shares vlog-style videos about her day-to-day life.

SEE ALSO: TikTok ban countdown: See the latest updates as time runs short

But for Nugent, the ban presents a potential opportunity to step back and reassess.

"I'm going to take some time to touch some grass for a little bit, to really, you know, chill out," she told Mashable. "And then we'll see how the strategy goes for the rest of social media."

For now, TikTok is a valuable financial supplement to her 9-to-5 e-commerce gig, even if she'd one day love to go full-time with social media and Girls Who Cluster.

However, the landscape looks drastically different for creators like Edelman. He left his corporate job two years ago, and in the first summer after quitting, he earned double his previous annual salary.

Credit: Mashable

Edelman quickly gained a following on TikTok because of his comedic content about Philly nightlife. He still cracks jokes about life in the city, but his range has expanded to include mental health, friendship, and, of course, the Eagles. For him, TikTok’s potential disappearance feels deeply personal.

"It's devastating," he said. "The amount of people who have found a voice and been able to tell their stories and have their lives changed...like myself, a 24-year-old gay guy from Philadelphia who was making $41,000 a year. My whole life transformed through this app."

Edelman isn’t overly concerned about his long-term future. He can pivot to Instagram, YouTube, his podcast, or whatever comes next. But losing TikTok would still be a major financial blow in the short term. Between TikTok's Creator Fund and brand partnerships, he estimates that TikTok accounts for about a third of his income — hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Creators who rely on TikTok Shop or affiliate links would be hit even harder.

But the real question looms larger: What happens to the smaller creators, the ones still building their careers on TikTok? Or to the behind-the-scenes teams — accountants, assistants, videographers — who depend on social media's booming ecosystem to make a living?

While the impact on creators could be severe, advertising dollars would likely shift to other platforms if TikTok were banned.

"Influencer marketing is not going away, and marketing dollars are not going to stop flowing into the creator economy," Berkowitz said. "But if TikTok is banned, they'll certainly shift that spend to other platforms. Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat will probably benefit the most."

Even so, an immediate and negative financial impact would be felt by creators and small businesses if TikTok were to disappear. In December, TikTok argued in court filings that small businesses and creators could lose as much as $1.3 billion in revenue and earnings within a single month. A company spokesperson further revealed that, as of November 2024, over 7 million U.S. accounts were using TikTok for business purposes.

Credit: Mashable

Berkowitz noted that Greenlight has been adding clauses to brand deals to allow advertisers to redirect their content to other platforms should TikTok vanish. They’ve worked closely with their clients — including creators like Howlett — to identify the platforms that will work best for their content.

The founders of Greenlight see TikTok’s rise as the dawn of a new kind of influencer: one that’s more relatable and more personal. That parasocial bond won’t disappear overnight.

"The creators who have a tight-knit community will be able to more successfully transition their followers onto other platforms," Berkowitz said.

So... What now?

In short, the clock could be ticking on the clock app, even if it may have just gotten an extension. To paraphrase a modern digital philosopher, no one is planning to log off. 

"If TikTok goes away, the passion I [feel] from doing those things — that doesn't go away," Howlett told Mashable. "I'm going to keep going until it's either not fun anymore or I found a different way to express [myself]... If TikTok is gone, it's not going to stop me [from] wanting to make videos."

When you're as big as Howlett — he's got 12 million followers on Instagram and 4 million on YouTube — the audience and income will likely follow. But what replaces TikTok? That's anyone’s guess. And in the world of viral content, it might not be just one app that takes its place. Things move fast.

Credit: Mashable

For West-Remmey, the rise and fall of platforms is a game they’re used to. In fact, after years of being an afterthought, Snapchat is now a major part of their strategy again.

"You can't have all your eggs in one basket," she said. "It's a lot of work to manage multiple platforms. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's easy."

For creators who thrive on TikTok’s creative freedom, the idea of it disappearing is a hard pill to swallow. Nugent, whose "Girls Who Cluster" trend gained a devoted following on the app, will mourn the community TikTok cultivated.

"What I will miss the most is the people on TikTok," Nugent said. "Those are my OG girls; those are my girls who have given me everything I have today, all these opportunities."

Those girls, that community, landed Nugent in the pages of major magazines. It’s a bond that, for many creators, feels impossible to replace.

But this is the social media game. If your job is online, you’ve learned to pivot. Remember Vine? Remember Tumblr at its peak? Hell, remember Twitter? Ban or no ban, TikTok creators are already considering their next steps. For someone like Edelman, despite some jokes to the contrary, he's not planning on letting the doors that TikTok have opened close once again.

"I can support my parents now, who are retired. I can buy them a new oven next month because they won't buy it for themselves," he said. "I can take my mom and get her sneakers when her fucking big toe is hanging out the front because my parents are poor, for lack of a better word. I've been able to change their lives."

TikTok might soon be gone — but the void it leaves behind might be an opportunity for creators to shape the next big thing.

Are you going through a phase where you feel like you'll never enjoy gaming ever again? I’ve been through this a few times myself, and I've always pulled myself back from the brink. You can, too, with these tips.