Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle has a fun, timely theme. Once you figure out the topic, the answers come easily. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. 

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Keep it classy.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: School days.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

• HOLE, DOLE, SCENE, SCENES, CURE, CURES, SLIM, SLIME, SLIMED, NICE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

• MATH, LUNCH, MUSIC, ENGLISH, SCIENCE, RECESS

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is SCHOOLSCHEDULE. To find it, look for the S that’s the first letter on the far left on the top row, and wind down.

If you’re more comfortable hiking mountain trails or gliding under water, or you just prefer a chunky smartwatch with days of battery life, your patience over the last couple of years has paid off. 

Today, Apple announced the Apple Watch Ultra 3, the next generation of its high-performance smartwatch. The Ultra 3 adds a brighter, larger display, 5G cellular communication, satellite connectivity, a battery life increase of up to 42 hours and the ability to detect whether you might be suffering from hypertension.

Apple Watch Ultra fans have had to spend a while watching time pass on their Ultra-exclusive Wayfinder face. The Ultra 2 arrived in 2023, but last year Apple merely added a new Satin Black color — even as the Apple Watch Series 10 gained a better processor and adopted a screen that became the largest in the line. 

Now the Ultra 3 is here to satisfy those who want the most smartwatch Apple can offer.

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 costs $799 (£749, AU$1,399), with preorders starting today. The first shipments and in-store availability arrive Sept. 19.

We’re following Apple news closely to see how it compares to everything we had expected to see. 

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 screen size is back on top

The brilliant screen on the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is now slightly larger than its predecessor, at a 422×514-pixel resolution (up from the Ultra 2’s 410×502 pixels), though the case itself hasn’t expanded. Instead, Apple has slimmed the bezel to bring the active edge of the screen closer to the frame. 

Speaking of the frame, it’s now created using a 3D printing process that uses 100% recycled titanium and half the amount of raw materials as earlier generations.

The screen is also better than the Ultra 2, with an LPTO3 OLED always-on Retina display that has the same faster refresh rate introduced with the Series 10. That means you’ll see a second hand that continually updates, or an active stopwatch timer, without having to raise your wrist and engage the screen. Screen brightness when viewing from an angle has also improved, according to Apple.

Even more battery life

The Apple Watch Ultra and Ultra 2 boasted much longer battery stamina than the regular watch, thanks to their physically larger batteries: about 36 hours of regular use, or 72 hours with low power mode on. 

With the Apple Watch Ultra 3, you might forget the last time you put it onto its charger. Its larger battery and improved battery life get up to 42 hours on a charge. Continuous workouts can extend to 20 hours in low power mode while retaining full GPS and heart rate readings.

The Ultra 3 also joins the Series 10 and Series 11 by offering fast charging. Apple claims 45 minutes of charging will get the watch up to 80% full, or 75 minutes to top out at 100%. Since most people probably aren’t going to run the watch down to zero, a more realistic circumstance is being able to pop it onto a charger for just 15 minutes and gain 12 hours of battery life.

Apple says a number of factors contribute to the improved battery life in the Ultra 3: the more efficient display, larger battery and redesigned radios for 5G cellular and satellite communications. We expected a new processor as well, but surprisingly, the Ultra 3 is powered by the same S10 chip that runs the Apple Watch Series 11 and Series 10.

Connect to satellite services, even without an iPhone

Most phones and smartwatches are designed with the expectation that they operate in areas where cellular or Wi-Fi networks are easily available. The Apple Watch Ultra almost expects you to get lost, with that larger battery and dual-GPS location tracking. But if something unfortunate happens while you’re away from everything, you still want to be able to signal for help or keep friends alerted to your whereabouts.

The Ultra 3 now includes on-device satellite communication, which means as long as the watch has a view of the sky, it can connect to satellites. In most situations, you’d also have a satellite-capable iPhone with you, but that’s not helpful if the phone’s battery is drained. Apple says it redesigned the radios and antenna to double the signal strength. 

As with the iPhone, Emergency SOS via satellite is free for two years, though Apple has not announced any pricing for the service since it was launched. Text messaging and Find My services via satellite are also available as long as you have an active cellular plan.

As for cellular connections, all configurations of the Apple Watch Ultra include cellular capabilities, and now the Ultra 3 is capable of connecting to 5G networks. It uses 5G RedCap (for «reduced capacity») technology, which delivers 5G access but without the power requirements that a device such as the iPhone can handle easily.

Health and fitness features at the forefront

As with the Apple Watch Series 11, the Ultra 3 also looks for possible hypertension, or high blood pressure, based on readings it takes during the course of a month. Apple expects its hypertension detection, currently under review by the FDA, to be available in 150 countries and regions this month. 

That’s in addition to existing heart rate and ECG measuring, as well as the ability to detect blood-oxygen levels, a feature that’s been temporarily blocked in the US due to litigation (though Apple recently developed a workaround). 

Apple also announced that the Sleep app will include a new Sleep Score feature to help users track and adjust sleep more easily.

When Apple announced WatchOS 26 and iOS 26, it introduced Workout Buddy, a virtual companion that provides stats and encouragement while you’re working out, such as on a bike ride, run or walk. (CNET’s Vanessa Hand Orellana got details from Apple’s team developing it.) As a watch designed for workouts, it’s natural that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 brings Workout Buddy along for the ride/run/amble.

Other health and workout features carry over from the Ultra 2, such as water resistance to 100m and scuba diving to 40m, IP6X dust resistance and durability in extreme temperature and altitude environments. It includes dual GPS (L1 and L5) radios for more precise location tracking and wayfinding.

Even if you’re an Android user, you know very well what a standard iPhone looks like. Sure, there are slight variations but for the past few generations, Apple hasn’t exactly done anything radical to the design of its phones — so much so that most people wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell whether you have the latest version of its flagship or not.

But at Tuesday’s Apple event, which brought us the iPhone 17 lineup along with the AirPods Pro 3 and the Apple Watch 11, the company has shaken things up. 

The long-rumored iPhone Air is real and it’s not just shockingly thin, but shiny too, making it a real target for the magpies among us. I don’t know about you, but my first thought when I clapped eyes on the new device was, «I want to touch it.» I’ve been writing about iPhones for more than a decade and I can’t remember the last time that was the case.

For most of its length, the Air is just 5.6mm thick. This tantalizingly svelte profile is only further enhanced by the gloss-mirror finish. If you’re among the first to get your hands on this phone, you can guarantee it will draw the eye of everyone in your vicinity, in a way that tends not to happen with tech in 2025.

It hasn’t always been this way. When I was growing up I often couldn’t afford the most advanced or expensive phone — so instead I’d search out the weirdos. Some favorites included the navy blue Sony Ericsson Z200, which had a little circular orange screen on the front, as well as the teeny tiny Sagem MW 3020. These phones were conversation starters — often when I whipped them out of the inside pocket of my school jacket, it was the first time people had ever seen them.

Unless you have a foldable phone, that’s a rare occurrence these days. But I predict the iPhone Air is likely to be a real scene stealer — at least at first. Be warned that people are going to want to hold it, touch it and pretend jokingly to bend it or drop it, so keep it in your pocket if you’re precious about others laying their grubby paws on your tech. If you do unveil it in front of your friends, though, you are likely to be the envy of them all.

«It has been a few years since Apple has had new iPhones that you could put on the table in a coffee shop, meeting room or pub, and people would ask, ‘Is that the new iPhone?'» says Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight. He adds that the iPhone Air «feels differentiated enough that people would consider visiting a store to see it in person.» 

These looky-loos will be great for Apple and other phone retailers, even if people don’t end up buying an Air, Wood says. Every time someone walks through the Apple Store door it’s an opportunity to sell them an accessory or an upgrade, so the ripple effect of increased foot traffic inspired by the Air could be felt across Apple’s portfolio. «This is very valuable at a time when people are holding onto their smartphones for longer than ever,» he says.

The iPhone Air isn’t necessarily the new iPhone that will be at the top of everyone’s wish list, but it’s perhaps the one that’s likely to carry the most social cachet for the next year — until of course Apple unveils the long-awaited foldable iPhone, which will no doubt cast this year’s triumph of minimalist design and engineering into the shade.