Technologies

Grab a Certified Refurbished Apple Watch Ultra 2 for $580 With This Woot Deal

Save over $200 by opting for a refurbished Apple Watch that includes a year of warranty from Apple.

Last year, the original Apple Watch Ultra was succeeded by the Apple Watch Ultra 2. The headline change is a new sleek black titanium option, but there are some other minor tweaks. If you’re after a high-performance smartwatch at a reduced price and don’t mind a refurbished model, there’s an excellent deal available. You can currently purchase a certified refurbished Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $580 at Woot — down from its original price of $799. Since this is an Apple Certified Refurbished unit, it includes a full 1-year warranty from Apple. However, this offer is only available while supplies last, so if you’re interested, it’s best to act quickly to secure one at this discounted rate.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is one of the best smartwatches you can buy, with CNET reviewer Lexy Savvides complimenting its «searingly bright screen and faster responses.» It originally retailed for $799, but with this deal, you receive a certified refurbished model that has undergone Apple’s rigorous refurbishment process. This includes a thorough inspection, replacement of any defective parts, and a comprehensive cleaning. The watch comes with a new battery and outer shell, ensuring it looks and functions like new. It also includes a magnetic charging cable and is packaged in a new white box. As an Apple Certified Refurbished product, it qualifies for AppleCare and comes with a standard 1-year warranty.

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.

If you’re comfortable with a refurbished device, this is a fantastic opportunity to own Apple’s most rugged and feature-rich smartwatch at a significant discount. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 offers the same 49mm titanium case as the 1st-gen, an always-on Retina display with up to 3,000 nits brightness, and advanced GPS capabilities for outdoor adventures. It offers up to 36 hours of battery life on a single charge, extendable to 72 hours in Low Power Mode. Health and safety features include heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, fall and crash detection and a built-in siren for emergencies. With cellular connectivity, you can make calls, send messages and use Apple Pay directly from your wrist, even without your iPhone nearby.

Read more: Apple Watch Ultra 2 vs. Apple Watch Ultra: Rugged Watches Compared

If refurbished items aren’t your thing, be sure to check out our roundup of other Apple Watch deals currently available.

Why this deal matters

Purchasing refurbished products is an excellent way to save money without compromising on quality. Apple’s Certified Refurbished program ensures that each device meets strict standards and includes a full warranty for peace of mind. If you’ve been wanting to upgrade without paying full price, this is a deal worth taking before supplies run dry.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #463

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 463 for June 9.

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.

Todays NYT Strands puzzle features a bunch of mysterious words. Some are a bit difficult to unscramble so 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: What you see isn’t what you get

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Hiding in plain sight

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:

CALL, CALLS, FALL, FALLS, SAME, SEAM, LAND, ROSE, COVE, CANE, CANES, FLUME, FLUMES, DIGS, MEAL, COLA, CARD, CASE

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:

MASK, CLOAK, COVER, FACADE, DISGUISE, CAMOUFLAGE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is FALSEFRONT. To find it, start with the F that’s two rows over from the far left and two letters down. Wind around into a question mark.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #729

Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 9, No. 729.

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

Do you play the NYT Spelling Bee? If you do, you should be able to ace the purple category in today’s NYT Connections puzzle. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Control-C.

Green group hint: Don’t wait till the last minute.

Blue group hint: Pals to plan a heist.

Purple group hint: Think another NYT online game.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Keyboard shortcut commands.

Green group: Secure in advance.

Blue group: Crime organization.

Purple group: Spellling Bee ranks minus a letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is keyboard shortcut commands. The four answers are paste, print, quit and save.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is secure in advance. The four answers are book, order, request and reserve.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is crime organization. The four answers are crew, family, ring and syndicate.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is Spelling Bee ranks minus a letter. The four answers are genus, goo, mazing and slid. (Genius, good, amazing and solid.)

Technologies

I Made Google Translate My Default on iPhone Before a Trip and It Saved Me More Than Once

Google Translate supports far more languages than Apple’s app, and it’s easy to make the switch.

If you’re traveling overseas this summer, the Google Translate app can come in handy to quickly translate a road sign or conversation. The latest Google Translate update allows you to pick the app as your default translation app for Apple iPhones and iPads running iOS and iPadOS 18.4 and later. Previously, you were limited to the built-in Apple option.

Google began leveraging AI to boost Google Translate’s offerings, adding 110 languages last year to increase its total support for 249 languages. Compare that to Apple Translate, which supports 19 languages. Neither Google nor Apple responded to a request for comment.

Both apps offer voice and text translation, including a camera feature that lets you instantly translate by pointing your camera at text. Both also allow you to use translation features without an internet connection, which can come in particularly handy when traveling to more remote locations.

After using both, I found that the Google Translate picked up speech a little quicker so I didn’t have to constantly repeat myself, and the audio pronunciations were a little easier to understand than on Apple Translate. I switched to Google Translate as the default on my iPhone, and here’s how you can, too.