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Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Jan. 20.
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Pioneering mathematician Dr. Gladys West has passed away at the age of 95. Her name may not be familiar to you, but her contributions certainly are; West's work laid the foundation for the global positioning system. As you likely know from experience, GPS is now an essential component of industries ranging from aviation and emergency response, as well as ensuring that you get to that dinner date or job interview on time.
— Dr. Gladys B. West (@DrGladysBWest) January 18, 2026
West was born in 1930 in Virginia. Despite the oppression of Jim Crow laws in the south, she was able to pursue higher education at Virginia State College (now named Virginia State University), obtaining bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics. In 1956, West was hired at what is now called the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, VA. Her focus during the 1970s and 1980s was creating accurate models of the Earth's shape based on satellite data, a complex task requiring the type of mathematical gymnastics that would make the average person dizzy. Those models later became the backbone for GPS. West worked at the Dahlgren center for 42 years, retiring in 1998.
As has been the case with so many of the women, particularly those of color, behind tech and science breakthroughs in the US, West's work went largely uncelebrated fo
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Basketball fans can save on NBA League Pass right now, which lets you catch a bunch of out-of-market NBA games via streaming. The League Pass Premium subscription is on sale for $75, down from the usual $160, and League Pass Standard is marked down to $50 from $110. Considering we're almost halfway though the season, the discount makes sense and is a good deal for anyone who wants to keep a close eye on the rest of the games to be played this year.
The Standard plan includes commercials and support for only one device at a time, while the Premium tier offers no commercials, in-arena streams during breaks in the game, offline viewing of full games and concurrent streams on up to three devices at once.
Last year, League Pass added mult
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Meta's Threads is pulling further ahead of Elon Musk's X on mobile, based on recent estimates from analytics firm Similarweb, Forbes reports. In the first stretch of January, Threads averaged roughly 143 million daily active users worldwide on mobile devices, compared with about 126 million for X.
Similarweb's year-over-year snapshot shows Threads growing sharply, up 37.8 percent year-over-year, while X's daily mobile audience fell 11.9 percent across the same period. The picture is more mixed in the US, where X still holds a narrow edge on mobile. Similarweb data puts X at about 21.2 million daily active US mobile users in early January versus roughly 19.5 million for Threads.
However, Threads' US mobile usage has risen substantially faster over the past year, surging almost 42 percent to X's 18 percent. X remains far larger on desktop, where it draws around 150 million daily users or visits worldwide, while Threads' web presence sits at just 9 million.
Forbes also reported on Similarweb data for Bluesky, another competing text-based platform started by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Dorsey left the board in the summer of 2024, later telling Pirate Wires he believed Bluesky was "literally repeating all the mistakes we made as a company," in reference to Twitter
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 Apple's iPhone 18 Pro models will have a front camera cutout in the top-left corner of the screen alongside a new under-display Face ID system, which will see the Dynamic Island software feature relocated to the same corner. That's according to the latest YouTube video from Front Page Tech's Jon Prosser.
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 MacBook Pro availability is tightening on Apple's online store, with select configurations facing up to a two-month delivery timeframe in the United States.
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 Amazon is discounting a few models of Apple's M4 Mac mini this weekend, starting at $499.00 for the model with 16GB RAM/256GB SSD, down from $599.00. Discounts reach up to $129 off in these sales, and this time around there is also a discount on the M4 Pro model.
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You don't need to spend a fortune to stay on top of your health goals while tracking your fitness. These days, even cheap fitness trackers come packed with features that help you monitor your heart rate, track your steps and even analyze your sleep stages. Many budget options now include GPS tracking for those outdoor runs, real-time heart rate tracking to keep you in the right zone during workouts and, thankfully, most work with both iPhone and Android devices.
Some even go beyond basic metrics, providing insights on daily readiness to help you decide if you're up for an intense workout or need a lighter day. From simple step counters to more advanced running watches, affordable fitness trackers offer plenty to support your journey toward better health without breaking the bank.
Table of contents
Best budget fitness trackers for 2026
What to look for in a cheap fitness tracker
Other budget fitness trackers we tested
What about fitness rings?
Best budget fitness trackers for 2026
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 Apple's newly announced partnership with Google to use Gemini models for Siri and Apple Intelligence could be worth as much as $5 billion, according to one analyst's estimate.
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 Apple today introduced a new Apple Creator Studio bundle that offers access to six creative apps, as well as exclusive AI features and content, as part of a single subscription. In the U.S., pricing is set at $12.99 per month or $129 per year.
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Because when you look beyond the glassy surface with its rounded corners and the Start menu in its strict position, the differences are not that insanely big actually. It's not like switching to Mac or Linux, not by a long shot.
In many cases, these are fairly small changes that you can quickly get used to. In many cases, it's even possible to restore or mimic old behavior, and new additions you don't need can often be turned off or hidden.
We recommend: Windows 11 Pro
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