Tag: Phones and Gadgets

If you are finding it hard to spot theme words in today’s puzzle, then you are in serious need of the Strands hints below. Those bored with sensational games like Wordle and Connections are turning their attention to Strands for a challenging new experience. If you happen to be one of them and are struggling with NYT Strands, we can get you sorted. So, to help you out, we have added the Strands hints, answers, and Spangram on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, below.

What is NYT Strands?

NYT Strands is a word game created by The New York Times as part of its growing “Games” library. The aim of this New York Times game is to connect letters in a six-by-eight grid to form a bunch of words that share the same theme.

To get you started, the puzzle will give you a theme for today’s NYT Strands. You can use it to form multiple “theme” words which will be relevant to this theme, along with one “special” word called the Spangram. This is a word or phrase that spans the length of the grid, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, giving you the key to crack the rest of the Strands theme words.

The theme for today’s Strands can be relevant in many different ways. So, the puzzle keeps you on your toes every day with its intriguing set of theme words and Spangrams.

NYT Strands Hints for Today’s Theme: “That’s quite a (tasty) mouthful”

The theme for today’s Strands on April 9, 2025, is — That’s quite a (tasty) mouthful

If you can’t figure out answers for today’s puzzle, here’s a quick Strands hint — think of fruits or vegetables with lengthy names.

Here are hints for a couple of Strands theme words to make it easy for you to solve today’s puzzle on your own without having to scroll down to view the answers:

• Hint #1: a cruciferous vegetable that’s a cousin of broccoli.
• Hint #2: a vegetable that gets its name from the Italian “cavolfiore”.

NYT Strands Spangram Hint: Is It Vertical or Horizontal?

The Spangram for today’s Strands on April 9, 2025, is mostly HORIZONTAL. It starts with the letters “FO“.

The hint for today’s Spangram for Strands — vegetables or fruits with a quartet of distinct vowel sounds.

Spoiler Warning:

Scroll past this point AT YOUR OWN RISK. Hints and answers for today’s Strands below.

Today’s NYT Strands Answers for April 9, 2025

Today’s Strands Spangram Answer

The Spangram answer for today’s Strands on April 9, 2025, is — FourSyllables

All Theme Words in Today’s Strands

Still looking for the theme words to get the answers for today’s NYT Strands? You can check them out below:

• ARUGULA
• AVOCADO
• WATERMELON
• CAULIFLOWER

The answers for today’s Strands were pretty tricky. I admit I did have to solve hints to solve the first theme words. This gave me a sound idea on what the Spangram might be about and once I spotted FOUR, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the puzzle revealed itself.

Do you also happen to play NYT Connections daily? If so, you can check out Wordle hints for April 9 and Connections hints for April 9 for answers and step-by-step guides to these puzzles.

What is NYT Strands Spangram and How Does It Work?

Every NYT Strands puzzle consists of a unique word or phrase that’s called the Spangram. This word or set of words will run the length of two opposite sides of the grid. One thing to note here is that, a Spangram doesn’t necessarily have to originate or end at the edge of the grid.

In its essence, the Spangram is kind of like a bigger hint that sums up today’s Strands theme in just a word or two. Since it spans across two sides of the puzzle, solving it early helps you figure out the rest of the theme words and vice versa.

Tips and Strategies for Mastering NYT Strands Puzzle

Solving an NYT Strands puzzle successfully isn’t that hard in itself, but in some cases, the approach might not be as straightforward as it looks. So, here are simple tips and tricks that we suggest you follow to crack the theme words and Spangram for Strands puzzles:

• Always start at the corners: No two puzzles are the same. But the chances of the Spangram extending to a diagonal form are quite low. So, the best strategy is to find and decrypt relevant words that are at the corners of the grid.
• Don’t be ashamed to get hints: Sometimes, a theme word could be all you need to solve the entire puzzle. If that requires getting a hint using non-theme words, then that’s the first thing you should do. After all, the point is to have fun and figure this out, like all of us.
• Think both literally and figuratively: Not all themes may land you in the same sense of thought. Some puzzles may welcome more clever answers that may convey something totally different from their actual meaning.
• Aim for the Spangram: The Spangram is what splits the Strands board in half. So, figuring it out will help you cross out other potential approaches for a theme. Deciphering even half of the Spangram can get you close to the rest of the answers.

Still finding it difficult to master the art of NYT Strands? Follow our guide and learn how to play Strands, along with more helpful tips and tricks.

NYT Wordle is a satisfying and tricky test of vocabulary and logic that challenges players to guess a new five-letter word every day. However, things can get a little too challenging at times, and that probably explains why you’re here. So, if you don’t want to break your word-guessing streak or get too frustrated, take a look at today’s Wordle hints and answer for puzzle #1390 for April 9, 2025, down below!

How to Play Wordle

Wordle is a word puzzle game by The New York Times. You are given six attempts to guess a five-letter word. The letters are highlighted in Yellow, Green, and Grey when you input a word. Yellow denotes that the letter appears in today’s Wordle answer, but it’s not at the right spot. Meanwhile, when a letter turns green, it means you have guessed the right letter in the right position. At last, a grey letter means the letter is not part of today’s answer.

While it may seem that winning at Wordle is easy, it is difficult to get that pesky five-letter word right. To help you out, here are some quick tips on how to play Wordle:

• Open with a strong word – Using the right Wordle starting words rich with multiple vowels and consonants is important. While you can take a look at our dedicated guide, starting words like AISLE, SALTY, and DINER are my go-to choices.
• Pay attention to colors – Keep track of the yellow, green, and grayed-out letters to eliminate incorrect positions and letters. To make every guess count, avoid accidentally repeating letters that have already been eliminated.
• Isolate the vowels – There can be days when your usual starting words don’t help much. In that case, try to test the remaining vowels by using different words.
• Repeating letters is good – Don’t be afraid of repeating letters as history is proof that there are chances the Wordle answer will have one or two letters that repeat themselves.
• Use the Wordlebot – As described above, NYT’s Wordlebot is an intuitive bot that analyzes your responses and compares them against itself. Instilling some healthy competition can help you improve your own Wordle guessing and see what you could have done better.

If you still need more details, learn how to play Wordle and check out more Wordle tips and tricks to ensure you get the answer almost every time.

Hints for Today’s Wordle Answer for April 9

We know you are here for Wordle hints and clues, and we are eager to help you. Like always, to assist you with today’s puzzle, we list the starting word for today’s Wordle answer, whether it has any vowels or repeating letters, and more.

After that, we also provide an additional hint for today’s Wordle game to get one step closer to the answer. So scroll down if you’re ready. SPOILERS AHEAD!

Does Today’s Wordle Have Any Vowels?

Today’s Wordle answer for Wednesday, April 9, 2025, has two vowels.

If you guess the vowels correctly, there is a high possibility that you will guess the correct 5-letter answer in no time.

Does the Wordle Today Have Double Letters?

Well, there are no double letters in the Wordle answer today.

What Does Today’s Wordle Answer Start with?

Today’s Wordle answer starts with the letter “W.”

Spoiler Warning:

Scroll slowly past this point. Major hint and answer for today’s Wordle #1390 lie ahead.

Additional Hint for Today’s Wordle Answer

If the above-mentioned hints haven’t helped much, here’s the Wordle cheat hint that will definitely get you to the answer. The final hint for today is:

A type of cereal.

What Is Today’s Wordle Answer?

The answer for Wordle today on April 9, 2025, is WHEAT.

Meaning of Wheat — Wheat is a cereal grain that is a staple food in many parts of the world. It comes from a type of grass and is primarily ground into flour for making bread, pasta, and other baked goods.

I started the game with AISLE today and got a yellow A and E from that. Next, POUCH gave me a yellow H, while SHEET proved to be the most useful, having an H, E, and a T to offer in green. With that, I gave WHEAT a try and that turned out to be the Wordle answer for the day! It was decent in terms of challenge, overall.

Do you also solve NYT Connections and Strands every day? Check out our posts for Strands hints for April 9 and Connections hints for April 9 since they include helpful tips and clues to today’s puzzles.

Previous Wordle Answers

For regular Wordle players, we have curated the answers of all past Wordle answers in one place. If you are trying to find patterns in these word puzzles, check out our list of past Wordle answers.

Why Is Wordle Still So Popular?

Despite over 1,350 puzzles and nearly four years since its initial surge, Wordle is still going strong as a free-to-play word puzzle game that it is. What started as a simple game to pass the time during the pandemic has now become a daily habit for millions of The New York Times readers.

Just like reading your early morning newspaper, Wordle adds some productive value to your daily life as a brainteaser, which explains the incredible player base. Some avid Wordle players even stay up late to solve the puzzle as soon as it releases at 12:00 AM local time.

The fact that there’s a single puzzle on a daily basis that every player tries to solve makes it all the more competitive and challenging. According to a report by The Conversation, just in 2022, Wordle had around a whopping 3 million users across the world. As of 2025, one can only imagine where this number has soared.

That said, if you are one of them, hope the Wordle hints we shared today helped you figure out the answer without having to scroll to the answer.

NYT Connections is the one word association game known for the difficulty and amusement that it brings. However, if you are part of the folks lost as to what today’s Connections answer is, then you are in the right place. We post a NYT Connections answers guide every day to help you solve each day’s puzzle easily. So, let’s not waste time and check out Connections hints for today’s game #668 to help you get to the answers for April 9, 2025.

What is NYT Connections Game?

After Wordle’s overwhelming success, The New York Times embraced the fun and launched another word puzzle game called Connections. NYT Connections is a popular word puzzle game available to play for free on mobile and desktop.

Thankfully, it’s easy getting started with NYT Connections. This word association game spreads 16 random words across a 4 x 4 grid. Players must find well, connections among these words and divide them across four categories, colored yellow, green, blue, and purple, based on difficulty.

Connections Hint Today for April 9, 2025

As mentioned above, the NYT Connections puzzle has four different categories that are divided into color-coded difficulties. From Yellow category being the easiest to the hardest Purple one, the game can quickly become difficult if you’re unprepared.

To make your life even easier, here are the NYT Connections hints for today’s categories:

• Yellow Category –All these words have a shape in common
• Green Category – You don’t want one of these to the face
• Blue Category – Words from a specific play
• Purple Category – An animal comes before all these

Do you also solve Strands from The New York Times every day? Our articles include Strands hints for April 9 and Wordle hints for April 9, useful tips to help you figure out the answers to these puzzles.

Spoiler Warning:

Scroll past this point AT YOUR OWN RISK. Major category hints and answers for today’s NYT Connections below.

Check out Today’s Connections Categories

The Connections categories today are an interesting mix of themes, which might get a bit difficult for us all. That said, here are the NYT Connections categories for Wednesday, April 9, 2025.

• Yellow – ROUND THREE-DIMENSIONAL OBJECTS
• Green – PUNCH
• Blue – ANIMALS IN THE WITCHES’ BREW IN “MACBETH”
• Purple – FOX _ _ _

Do you finally see where each word should go? No? Then, keep scrolling to see the NYT Connections answers for today.

Today’s Connections Answers for April 9, 2025

The answers for Connections today, on April 9, 2025, are:

• ROUND THREE-DIMENSIONAL OBJECTS – Ball, Globe, Orb, Sphere
• PUNCH – Pop, Pound, Slug, Sock
• ANIMALS IN THE WITCHES’ BREW IN “MACBETH” – Bat, Dog, Frog, Newt
• FOX _ _ _ – Glove, Hole, Hound, Trot

How to Play Connections: Tips & Tricks to Solve the Puzzle

Given the fact you’re here, chances are that you already know how to play NYT Connections. As you might be able to tell by now, Connections by The New York Times is a word association game where players sort out 16 random words into four categories by finding a common ‘connection.’ This can be anything from a common sound to a deeper meaning.

That said, if you’re still confused, here are the best tips on how to play NYT Connections:

• Simplicity is key: Connections will often throw ambiguous words at you. While it’s easy to get caught up in the details, the answer almost always lies in the simplest connections possible. So, instead of dear and deer being connected through a hunter-prey dynamic, they most likely connect because of a similar sound.
• Watch those guesses: A key thing to note is Connections only gives you four chances in 24 hours for a single puzzle. As such, we advise not being trigger happy and carefully weighing in your words before pressing that submit button.
• Shuffle Away: While a bit tricky, the sneaky Connections editor deliberately puts the first word placement as a misdirection. So the one golden tip here is to press that Shuffle button before you go on solving it.

If you’re still unsure how to proceed, check out our dedicated how-to-play NYT Connections guide for all the help you need.

We hope you had similar luck as I did for today’s game. If not, please let us know in the comments below!

After launching the iPhone 16e, Apple is once again set to shuffle its iPhone lineup with a new device. It is highly rumored that Apple is planning to launch an iPhone 17 ‘Air’ this year in spring, along with other iPhone 17 series models. The rumored iPhone is touted to be ultra slim, and now we have leaked photos of the iPhone 17 Air.

Reputed leaker Majin Bu posted leaked photos of iPhone 17 Air yesterday on X. Mind it, these are not renders, but real-life photos. The photos fall in line with the design leaks of the iPhone 17 Air, and the upcoming iPhone looks really slim.

iPhone 17 Air pic.twitter.com/SxMfuL9WWj

— Majin Bu (@MajinBuOfficial) April 7, 2025

As rumored, the iPhone 17 Air has a single rear camera sitting atop a wide, Pixel-like camera module. The iPhone has a Camera Control button as well as an Action Button on the sides. If leaks are to be believed, the iPhone 17 Air will be around 5mm thick, and the photos posted by Majin Bu have almost confirmed that it will be really thin. For comparison, the M4 iPad Pro that Apple launched last year, claiming it to be the thinnest iPad ever, was just 5.1mm thick.

However, the thinness comes with its own set of disadvantages. Apple has reportedly eliminated the physical SIM card slot on the iPhone 17 Air to get the required thinness. Also, the battery capacity of the iPhone 17 Air will be something that could surprise many.

Under Majin Bu’s post, several people have commented that iPhone 17 Air could bring back the infamous ‘Bendgate’ due to its ultra-thin design. It remains to be seen how Apple tackles this particular issue.

As for pricing, the iPhone 17 Air is rumored to retail around $899 but with the latest Tariff announcement from POTUS, the pricing could be on the higher side as well.

Well, what do you know? Minecraft is starting its week strong with a brand new Snapshot. Surprisingly, however, Mojang has shifted the usual Snapshot release day to Tuesday, and it all begins with the latest Minecraft Snapshot 25W15A. This one brings in the most anticipated features of the first Minecraft Live of 2025: the three types of Ghasts. In addition, we have the new Player Locator Bar in the Java edition, along with a couple of new advancements that all crafters can expect. Read on to know what’s what.

Minecraft Snapshot 25W15A Brings Ghasts That Can Fly You to the Sky

Brand new variants of the Ghasts are making their way into Minecraft. Unlike its hostile cousin found inside the Nether dimension, this one’s a rather friendly creature. The best thing about them is that you can ride this cute flying mob along with your three other friends using a Harness, which is also coming to the game.

However, before you take to the skies, do note that these creatures can be crafted from Ghast Tears and bone blocks found only in the Nether. This recipe will give you a Dried Ghast. Once you waterlog this little grumpy thing for 20 minutes, it will turn into a small and cute Ghastling.

Feeding this Minecraft mob further will turn it into a Happy Ghast, which can give you and your friends a unique flying experience. If you’re curious about the Harness, it can be crafted using leather, glasses, and wool. Moreover, it comes in 16 different colors and becomes a new collectible for players.

Player Locator Bar Adds a New Layer to Minecraft Multiplayer

Another major highlight of the Minecraft Snapshot 25W15a is the new Player Locator Bar. Once enabled, this new UI feature hovers over the XP bar and shows directional indicators pointing towards the waypoints, which are typically other players or team affiliations.

However, if you don’t want your present location to be shown publicly, you can always choose to sneak, wear a mob head, or a carved pumpkin, or apply the potion of invisibility upon yourself.

Finally, there are a couple of new advancements: Stay Hydrated and Heart Transplanter. The former can be obtained by placing a Dried Ghast into water, while the latter can be achieved by accurately placing the Creaking Heart between two Pale Oak Logs. The new Minecraft Snapshot also adds a few game rules and commands alongside Ambient Desert Block sound changes.

And that’s about it for the latest Minecraft Snapshot 25w15A. You can test all these features by downloading the latest snapshot on your Minecraft launcher. So, have you tried them yet? Let us know in the comments below!

At last year’s Google I/O, the company demonstrated the next evolution of its Gemini with Project Astra. It allows Gemini to see what’s on your phone screen or the world around you, and lets you engage with the AI in real time. Now, Google is ready to finally bring this Gemini Live experience to everyone as the camera and screen sharing features are now available for a few Pixel and Samsung phones.

Google has announced that Gemini Live‘s camera and screen sharing features are available for free on Pixel 9 and Galaxy S25 series of devices. This includes the Pixel 9a, Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25+, and Galaxy S25 Ultra. Earlier, we reported that the feature was only available for users with a Google One subscription.

It’s here: ask Gemini about anything you see. Share your screen or camera in Gemini Live to brainstorm, troubleshoot, and more.

Rolling out to Pixel 9 and Samsung Galaxy S25 devices today and available for all Advanced users on @Android in the Gemini app:… pic.twitter.com/fjTD4qhvjz

— Google Gemini App (@GeminiApp) April 7, 2025

Hands-On with Gemini Live’s Camera and Screen Sharing Feature

We have the feature running on our Pixel 9 Pro XL, and I gave it a shot to test its AI smarts. I asked it about some of the props we have at the Beebom office, as well as other stuff. It recognized everything accurately, and even shared additional information on it. I didn’t have to point at it or anything, it understands what’s in focus and hence what I am asking about.

Meta recently released its Llama 4 series of AI models, making headlines for outranking GPT-4o and Gemini 2.0 Pro in Chatbot Arena (formerly LMSYS). The company claimed that its Llama 4 Maverick model — an MoE model that activates only 17 billion parameters out of a massive 400B across 128 experts — achieved an impressive ELO score of 1,417 on Chatbot Arena benchmark.

This result raised eyebrows across the AI community, as a relatively smaller MoE model outranked much larger LLMs such as GPT-4.5 and Grok 3. The unusual performance from a small model led many in the AI community to test the model independently. Surprisingly, the real-world performance of Llama 4 Maverick didn’t match benchmark claims from Meta, particularly in coding tasks.

On 1Point3Acres, a popular forum for Chinese people in North America, a user claiming to be a former Meta employee posted a bombshell. According to the post, which has been translated into English on Reddit, the Meta leadership allegedly mixed “the test sets of various benchmarks in the post-training process” to inflate the benchmark score and meet internal targets.

Nintendo has officially announced that the Switch 2 will go on sale on June 5, 2025. In Japan, the console is priced at 49,980 yen, about $339. In the UK, the standard retail price is £395.99 (about $505). However, games like the Mario World bundle are listed at £429.99 (around $549). Following the product announcement, select retailers in various regions began offering lottery or pre-order access. This has set off a rapid and disruptive scalper response. There are reports that the company will adopt a dual-pricing strategy to avoid this.

Retailers see immediate scalper activity

According to the British outlet Metro, major local retailers such as Argos and EE added the console to their listings shortly after the announcement. However, these early pre-orders were quickly targeted by scalpers, who rushed to secure stock for resale. This caused frustration for ordinary consumers, many of whom were unable to place legitimate orders before the stock was depleted.

Soon after the pre-order period opened, second-hand platforms like eBay saw a surge in listings for the Nintendo Switch 2. Many sellers have marked up prices well beyond the official retail rate. At the time of writing, some listings are priced over £600 (approximately $766), with the highest reaching £669.72 (about $855). More significantly, several of these high-priced listings show that they have already been sold, confirming demand in the grey market.

The rapid appearance of scalpers and inflated resale prices reflects a pattern familiar to many gamers, particularly those who attempted to buy high-demand tech products during previous launches. This scenario mirrors what occurred during the early days of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, where widespread shortages were worsened by aggressive reselling practices.

No official response yet

As of now, Nintendo has not issued a statement regarding the scalping issue. It remains to be seen whether further stock will be made available closer to launch or if any measures will be taken to counteract resale manipulation.

With official sales still weeks away, many fans are already expressing disappointment online. The early opportunity to reserve the Switch 2 has, for many, turned into a source of frustration rather than excitement. As resale prices climb, some buyers may be forced to either pay a premium or wait until post-launch restocks arrive.