Some home computer setups go extra-large on visuals, others pump up quality sound — and some go nuts with both in equal measure.
Today’s featured Mac Studio and MacBook Pro setup features not only six exceptional displays — including Apple’s vaunted, $5,000 Pro Display XDR — it also adds a bonus sound system to its complete Sonos home-theater audio array.
The Philips Creator Series 27E2F7901 is an expansive 27-inch desktop display for your Mac that offers a high degree of color accuracy and quality in a crisp 4K resolution.
Back in our day — when we walked 5 miles uphill to school both ways — students were lucky to have plywood on cinderblocks for a desk and a laptop weighing, oh, let’s say 25 pounds (we’re too old to remember things).
Nowadays, these kids have pretty swanky computer setups with desktop machines you could toss in a knapsack. Today’s featured item boasts a Mac mini, a MacBook Pro, a 4K display, Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad 2 and a Lego building set to die for.
Imagine buying a massive new ultra-wide, curved monitor to display what you do on your Macs in style. But once you get it all set up, the monstrous thing won’t stop wobbling.
Today’s featured M1 MacBook Pro and Mac mini setup suffers just that problem, despite the use of a recommended monitor arm attached to a solid standing desk.
Check out the advice the user got and all the gear in play below.
Not everyone has a huge desk with ample room for their computer setup and loads of associated gear. But with a few smart moves, anyone can make the most of a small desk in a cramped space.
Today’s featured setup is a good example. It takes advantage of a standing desk, displays mounted on arms and ample wall-mounted storage to maximize limited space.
And the audio gear and lighting don’t disappoint, either.
Quasim Zafar’s neatly laid out computer setup serves as his filming area for YouTube product reviews, his general workstation using a 2020 M1 Mac mini and his Xbox Series S gaming station where he plays Call of Duty.
But that’s only incidental to what you’ll probably love about it and want for your own setup.
Philips wants to cover your home from the inside to the outside with its new lineup of smart lightbulbs that debuted today.
The new collection includes the smart vanity mirror that leaked last month and has a ton of new lights that are perfect for your bathroom, living room, bedroom, den or even the backyard.
Think about how nice it would be to have the best lighted bathroom mirror and dim the lights without having to get out of the tub. That’s one of the promises of the Adore Bathroom lighted mirror as it can be controlled from your iPhone or iPad.
The center of this product is a standard mirror that’s about 20 inches across. This is surrounded by a while LED light that can be dim or bright.
Big-name brands are acting especially generous this week — we found deals on Panasonic, Sony and even KitchenAid products. eBay is back at it again with a new-and-improved PlayStation 4 bundle. Amazon’s cutting the price on its Echo smart home package. And Walmart is joining the fray with a major deal on a Panasonic 50-inch HD TV.
Read on for all the juicy details.
If Apple is really planning to kill the iPhone headphone jack in the model it reveals next year, it’s ditching 60 years of history.
Rumors that the next iPhone could do away with the industry-standard 3.5mm port in Apple’s relentless pursuit of thinness have been around for a while, but they’re seeing a resurgence thanks to a post on a Japanese blog. The article cites “a reliable source” that claims the Cupertino company will shave 1mm off the phone’s thickness by dropping the just-way-too-fat jack in favor of proprietary Lightning connectors.
But if Apple actually does this, it’s kind of a huge deal.
It was Philips that managed to beat, err, Beats to the first Lightning headphones last year, and at CES the company has taken it to the next level: announcing a new $299 pair that also offers noise cancellation.
Called the Fidelio NC1L, the battery-free headphones plug straight into iOS devices using the Lightning connector, and boast their own integrated 24-bit digital-to-analog converter rather than the one Apple builds into its devices.
LAS VEGAS — The wait for the world’s first Lightning headphones is almost over.
Philips’ upcoming Fidelio M2L bypasses the analog headphone jack, instead sending the digital audio signal through the Lightning port used in late-model iOS devices.
“You keep the digital signal as far as possible until you have no choice,” Benoit Borette, a Philips audio engineer, told Cult of Mac.
If you play darts, you know it's all about the doubles and triples. Landing your pointy projectile in those choice slivers of bristle board real estate make all the difference when you are playing to win.
The Bandit Plus ProTrainer ($65 from A-ZDarts.com) can help. On this fiendish and well-constructed training tool, the double and treble beds are just half the size of a regulation steel-tip dartboard. Practicing with this demanding mistress is the darting equivalent of running in ankle weights or sliding a doughnut on your bat while taking a few cuts in the on-deck circle. Spend some quality time with the ProTrainer at home, and those precious moneymaker slots will look gigantic when you step up to the oche during your next pub match. — Lewis Wallace
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Filmed on location at the Alyeska resort in Alaska, the Alaskan wilderness, and the Golden Alpine lodges in Canada, this incredible film of extreme skiing will light up your screens on October 19.
The 12-minute video was created to show off the color and light technology of Phillips Ambilight TV. To do so, the filmmakers created LED ski suits and let loose their pro skiers in the Alaskan and Canadian mountains.
Check out the gorgeous preview in the short teaser below.
Update: False alarm. As we suggested was a possibility, Philips was misunderstood by a reporter. They are actually just bundling Apple TV’s with new televisions, not building in the hardware.
We don’t know exactly what Apple plans on announcing next Thursday, but one thing’s for sure: It’s not just new iPads.
The tagline for the event — “It’s been far too long” — implies that we’re about to see a new version of a product that hasn’t been updated for a while.
One strong candidate is the Apple TV. But if a (possibly premature) announcement by consumer electronics company Philips is anything to go by, Apple might not just be giving the Apple TV a spec bump. Cupertino might announce instead that it will be integrating Apple TV hardware into third-party television sets!
Ever since the Lightning Connector was first announced two years ago, we’ve known it could do more than just sync-and-charge: it could also play music. So when Apple bought Beats earlier this year, many assumed that it would be Apple’s new in-house headphone brand who would release the first Lightning-connected cans to market.
But nope. As it turns out, the first headphones to connect via a Lightning port to an iPhone, iPod, or iPad won’t come from Beats. It’ll come from Philips, who have just introduced their Fidelio M2L headphones featuring the funtionality.
In the not-so-distant future, we’ll use smartphones to control nearly everything around our homes. We already have smart light bulbs, thermostats, locks and appliances, but we lack a central platform for all these devices.
That’s all going to change this fall when Apple releases iOS 8 with HomeKit, an important new protocol for developers. This will create the kind of universal platform that could revolutionize home automation.
We’re big fans of the Philips Hue line of smart lightbulbs controllable with a slick, full-featured iOS app, but there’s no doubt it’s a pricey proposition for most people, with a single Hue bulb costing as much as $60.
If you want smart lighting in your home for about half the price, then, pay attention to what LG is doing. They have just announced their own smart bulb system called the LG Smart Lighting system, and each bulb will cost just $32.
Apple has moved up to number 19 in the latest Fortune Global 500 survey thanks to its financial performance throughout 2012, which saw the Cupertino company collect $157 billion in revenue. The iPhone 5 and the iPad mini have been credited for its success over the past 12 months.
Here at Cult of Mac, we’re huge fans of Philips Hue LED lightbulbs and Minecraft. Any hack, then, that mashes together the two and we’re in… especially if there’s a father delighting his ten year old, Minecraft-obsessed son at the end!
Which is why Jim Rutherford’s Hue/Minecraft hack is so awesome. It uses the Hue, Minecraft and an iPad to make the lights around you correspond to the game’s pixellated day cycles.
We’ve seen Philips’ Hue lightbulbs do some pretty cool stuff, but things are about to get crazy. Philips revealed that they have some open APIs and an iOS SDK for the Hue connected lighting system.
The official SDK for Hue means that third-party apps and hardware can pick up where Hue left off and bring new features to the Hue system that Philips can’t bring on its own.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – Y’know how we said something or other about how iHome had an avalanche of new products? Yeah, forget we said that; the amount of new products at the Philips fort (really, they had, like, an encampment) made the iHome avalanche look like a powder dusting. And amazingly, most of it is actually worth talking about. Here’re the highlights from our booth tour.
Philips has joined the likes of JBL by selling Lightning-compatible speaker docks for Apple’s latest iOS devices. Today Philips announced not one, but four new speaker docks with Lightning connectors. Each speaker set serves a different purpose, ranging from a nightstand dock with alarm to a portable speaker.
These speakers should start hitting retail channels this month, but Philips hasn’t given any pricing info yet.
One of the better Yuletide traditions is the venerable holiday Advent Calendar, in which each day of December leading up to Christmas is marked off on a special calendar by opening its corresponding door to find a small gift, toy or chocolate squirreled away inside.
This year, we here at Cult of Mac decided we wanted to give our readers their very own Apple-themed advent calendar, filled with the year’s best apps, gadgets, stories and other curios. So each day in December, we’re going to lovingly peel back the door on the Cult of Mac 2012 Advent Calendar to reveal another delicious morsel, something really special that came out this year that we think every one of you should enjoy.
Lightbulbs are boring. Yes, they provide an important service to the world, but when was the last time that you got really excited to go out and buy some new lightbulbs? Probably never. But Philips’ new Hue LED lightbulbs are actually incredibly cool and will change your blasé opinion on lighting fixtures.
The new Hue bulbs revealed today by Philips are wirelessly controlled by your iOS device. You can turn them on or off from your iPhone as well as change their color even if you’re not at your house. The Hue app will select the perfect lighting for your mood or activity or let you adjust the lightning in a room based on one of your favorite photos.
