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 is a fun one. It’s one of those where the answers are paired, though of course you can find them in any order. 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: Breaking up the band.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Rock out.

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:

• ROCK, ROCKS, SACK, SACKS, PAGE, HEAP, GAPE, GAPES, TING, TINGE, PLAT, TALK, MACK

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:

• CHEAP, TRICK, TALKING, HEADS, SMASHING, PUMPKINS

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is ROCKGROUPS. To find it, start with the R that’s five letters down on the farthest row to the left, and wind up and over.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess th

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The Trump Organization drew headlines last week when it announced the launch of Trump Mobile, a cell service with plans to release a gold T1 phone in September. One of its selling points, according to the website, is that the T1 phone is «Proudly made in America,» though that does not appear it will be the case when the phone launches, among other issues. 

An independent phone maker based in San Francisco, however, has been working on the closest thing to a smartphone made almost entirely in the US: the $1,999 Liberty Phone. Purism, which has been around since 2014, says its handset, which has a 5.7-inch screen and runs a proprietary operating system called PureOS, is primarily made in Texas and California with almost all of its manufacturing and assembly done domestically.

The exceptions, according to its website, include a Chinese-made chassis and some chip components sourced to China or India. Its main processor is made by Austin-based NXP and was originally intended for automobiles.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Liberty Phone’s battery and screen are sourced from China and its rear-facing camera is made in South Korea. That’s likely due to availability: in the case of screens, there aren’t any US manufacturers currently mass producing smartphone displays

The Trump Mobile launch has raised questions as to whether it’s possible to manufacture a smartphone entirely in the US and release it at a price most customers could afford. Nearly all modern smartphones contain parts assembled primarily in China or other countries including South Korea, Vietnam or India. 

Purism founder Todd Weaver told the Journal that his company has sold fewer than 100,000 at a cost to the company of about $650 each and does not expect to compete with the latest iPhone or Samsung devices.

«On the consumer side, it’s security geeks, parents who want a phone for their kid, elderly people or people who want to avoid big tech,» Weaver said of his customers. «Someone who needs a wicked-strong camera is not our audience.»