Technologies

Best Phone Plan Deals: Free Streaming Services, $200 Gift Cards and More

Why spend a small fortune on a monthly phone plan? Check out some ways to help cut costs on your mobile service.

It seems like the cost of having a phone just keeps going up as time goes on, but there are ways to avoid major price hikes if you get creative. That might include looking beyond the three major players in the US market — those being Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile — and scouting out some deals at the lesser-known carriers that piggyback on the larger carriers’ networks. Though your coverage and customer service experience may differ, it could open you up to a plethora of additional options you may not have known about and save you a decent chunk of change in the process.

Whether you simply want to lower your current bill or switch to something new so you can add some more lines, there are various cheap phone plans available and some great deals you should be aware of. Below, we’ll show you the best phone plan deals available right now below.

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Best prepaid phone deals

Best contract plan deals

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Technologies

Dyson Reveals Futuristic Farming Vision

Dyson, a company best known for its vacuums and hair dryers, has unveiled a new rotating farm design that aims to make food production more local, sustainable and dependable.

Dyson, a company best known for its vacuums and hair dryers, unveiled a new circular farm design featuring rows of strawberry plants that rotate to share sunlight, robots that do everything from harvesting to releasing helpful insects, and sensors to help farmers keep an eye on things.

The company is also getting into the renewable energy game. Check out the video in this article to find out how it all connects and what it could mean for the future of food.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for July 14 #498

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 14 No. 498.

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 theme set me to humming the theme from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. When you find the answers, they’re pretty easy, though one is quite long to unscramble. 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: Won’t you be my neighbor?

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Different jobs.

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:

HEAR, REAM, LIME, RAIL, TRAIL, ROIL, COIL, BLUR, FIRE, FIGHT, FIGHTER, COME, COMET, ROAM.

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:

MAYOR, JANITOR, TEACHER, LIBRARIAN, FIREFIGHTER.

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is COMMUNITY. To find it, look for the C that’s four letters down on the far left, and wind up and around.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for July 14, #764

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for July 14, #764.

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.

There are some TV and movie references in today’s NYT Connections puzzle. If you spent your childhood in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, you’re sure to get one of them. That purple category, though … good luck! 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: Think paint and crayon names.

Green group hint: Vroom-vroom.

Blue group hint: King Friday XIII and Queen Sara Saturday.

Purple group hint: Twist some Disney names.