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 tough one. I guess I don’t look closely enough at traditional paintings to immediately make the connections I needed. 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: Paint me a picture

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Old-fashioned art.

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:

• LEET, SWEET, LONE, HUFF, FLOW, FILL, RIPE, RIPES, TRIO, PILL, HURT, TILL, JEWEL, RILL, PITS

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:

• BOOK, FRUIT, GUITAR, JEWELRY, PITCHER, SUNFLOWERS

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is STILLLIFE. To find it, look for the S that’s three letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.

Toughest Strands puzzles

Here are some of the Strands topics I’ve found to be the toughest in recent weeks.

#1: Dated slang, Jan. 21. Maybe you didn’t even use this lingo when it was cool. Toughest word: PHAT.

#2: Thar she blows! Jan.15. I guess marine biologists might ace this one. Toughest word: BALEEN or RIGHT. 

#3: Off the hook, Jan. 9. Similar to the Jan. 15 puzzle in that it helps to know a lot about sea creatures. Sorry, Charlie. Toughest word: BIGEYE or SKIPJACK

The superb iPhone 16 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, are among the best phones you can buy in 2025. At least until the iPhone 17 comes along. These top-end phones have a lot in common, from their excellent cameras and high performance, but also their whopping price tags. Even wallet-friendly phones like the Google Pixel 9A still cost a sizeable chunk of money. With purse strings continuing to tighten the world over, it’s never been more important to squeeze the most value from whichever phone you buy, and the best way to do that is simply to keep using it for longer, spreading that costly purchase out over the years, rather than upgrading more often.

Doing this isn’t just better for your bank account; it’s much better for the planet, too. Upgrading your handset less often means fewer phones being produced and shipped while fewer old phones end up in a landfill. The good news is that companies like Apple, Google, Samsung and others are supporting their phones with software updates for longer, meaning the phone you buy today will remain safe to use for years to come. 

The rest of it is up to you. Keeping your phone in good working condition for the seven or eight years of software support it might receive takes some effort, plenty of care and a few key strategies. 

Here then are the top things you can do to help your phone last as long as possible.

Install all available updates

Using a phone that no longer receives security updates simply isn’t safe and should be avoided. Previously it was common for many Android manufacturers to support new phones for only two to three years, but now you’ll find phones like the Google Pixel 9 series coming with seven years of software support. Sadly, some more affordable phones like the new OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite still only receive a few years of updates. If you’re buying a new phone, make sure you check how long it’ll be supported as this will give you more value for money throughout the phone’s lifespan.

Updating your phone to the latest security update will help keep hackers out and keep your phone free of malicious software that could creep in and slow down your phone. Most phones will automatically prompt you to install the latest updates (and you should), but if you’re on an older phone, head into your settings menu and scroll down to Software Update and click to see if an update is available. 

The same is true for your apps, which will also need to be updated to remain compatible with the version of iOS or Android you’re using. It’s good practice to allow apps to be automatically updated in the background, but if not, make sure you go into your app store of choice and check that you’re running the latest versions.

Use a case

If you’ve just bought a shiny new iPhone the best thing you can do to physically protect it is to put it in a case immediately. It’ll not only keep it safe should you accidentally drop it, but it will also help keep it from picking up micro scratches from the keys or coins in your pocket. 

A screen protector is a great idea too, as once your phone’s actual screen becomes damaged, there’s little you can do to help it. If you get a nasty scratch on a screen protector, you can simply replace it, keeping the underlying phone looking fresh as a daisy for years to come. Even if you don’t plan on keeping your phone for years, keeping it looking fresh may help you sell it for more on the used market when it’s time to upgrade.

Replace a tired battery, not the phone

Your phone’s battery will gradually wear down over time, offering less battery life per charge than it did when it was new. This is true of all phones. Some older phones may have batteries that only offer 50 percent of what they once did. You may even receive warnings from your phone that your battery can’t offer the necessary power and so your processor may be throttled to compensate. 

Worry not, as it’s pretty easy to replace the battery yourself on most phones to give it a whole new lease on life. iFixit sells a variety of kits and third-party replacement batteries to suit a huge range of phones, so if your battery is on the way out, it’s worth seeing if you can swap it out yourself. 

There are a variety of places you can take your phone (not all of them are especially legit) to have your battery replaced — or even other components like a broken screen — and this could be a good option to consider if you’re not especially confident about your skills with a screwdriver. 

Offload old apps and photos you don’t need

If you’ve had your phone for years then odds are it’s pretty clogged up with thousands of photos of your friends, your pets or the plates of food you’ve eaten over the time you’ve had it. It’s also likely you’ve got a variety of old apps and games you downloaded on a whim, played with for a few bus rides and then moved on to the next mobile gaming sensation. 

A lack of storage can have a detrimental effect on your phone’s performance overall and can also mean there’s not enough room available for crucial software updates to be installed. It’s worth going through your archives, backing up the photos and videos you want to save to the cloud, and getting rid of anything on your phone that’s needlessly taking up space. 

If you’ve had your phone for a long time and it’s really running slowly, it may even be worth backing up all your important data and doing a full factory reset, starting fresh and only installing the essentials you need. 

Clean out your ports

Finally, give your phone a good cleaning as it can have surprisingly helpful outcomes. Pocket fluff can be a real problem for your phone, with the charging port in particular often getting clogged up with bits of nonsense. The result is that when you plug in your charger, it can’t quite connect and as a result, your phone won’t charge. 

It’s easy to think that something has actually broken — the charging port itself, or the cable — but really it could be as simple as the port just being stuffed full of lint. Get a wooden toothpick in there periodically and try and ease out any dirt and debris you find to ensure your charger can fit without having to be aggressively wiggled.

It’s also worth using an old toothbrush (clean and dry) to gently brush away any debris you might find around the speakers and microphones to ensure you can clearly hear — and be heard — on your phone calls. 

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

I struggled with a few of today’s Mini Crossword clues. 3-Down, with the clue «Fab!» really stumped me. I eventually got it, thanks to the other clues filling in some letters. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in The Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue:  Stylish
Answer: HIP

4A clue: Something a beach umbrella provides
Answer: SHADE

6A clue: ___ Banks, North Carolina
Answer: OUTER

7A clue: Unlikely to keep you up at night, in a way
Answer: DECAF

8A clue: The eruption of Mount St. Helens released 520 million tons of it
Answer: ASH

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Come out of one’s shell
Answer: HATCH

2D clue: Bright ___
Answer: IDEA

3D clue: «Fab!»
Answer: PERF

4D clue: Starry or Squirt
Answer: SODA

5D clue: Color tones
Answer: HUES