And just like that, a catchy slogan turns into an earworm. Image: Apple
August 8, 1997: At Macworld Expo, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs introduces the world to the company’s new slogan, “Think different.” The catchy marketing reassures fans that Apple is exiting its mid-1990s dark age and once again making products customers will love.
Apple's built-in apps are great, but I replaced seven of them on my Mac. Photo: Unsplash
Apple ships the Mac with several built-in apps that are surprisingly feature-rich and fast. But over time, I found myself replacing a handful of them with third-party alternatives that simply did more.
I didn’t make these switches overnight. Each replacement solved a specific problem or added a feature I couldn’t live without. These are the Mac apps and tools I use instead of Apple’s stock apps.
AirPods Pro 3 are always brilliant, and now they are much more affordable. Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
An AirPods Pro 3 deal drops Apple’s excellent noise-canceling earbuds to just $189.99 at Amazon. That’s a sweet $59 discount. And they are just a low at Best Buy.
AirPods Pro 3 bring new features, including Live Translation, a heart rate monitor, revved-up audio quality and redesigned ear tips for better active noise cancellation. Plus, like the previous model, they can even function as clinical-grade hearing aids.
Make no mistake: These are the best wireless earbuds you can buy for your iPhone, Mac and other Apple gear. Nothing can match how seamlessly AirPods integrate with Apple devices.
And with Writing Tools, it can reply to your emails for you, too. Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
With automatic mail categorization in Apple Mail, you can organize your emails and keep your personal inbox less cluttered. It’ll intelligently put all your newsletters, receipts and promotions into separate folders.
If you struggle keeping up with your inbox, this feature is a great way to make your email easier to understand at a glance.
The iPhone 18 Pro DRAM shortage stems from a packaging bottleneck at chipmaker TSMC. Photo: Reynaldo Yodia/Pexels
An iPhone 18 Pro DRAM shortage is threatening to leave Apple’s next flagship phone in short supply the moment it launches. Roughly $1 billion worth of finished processors are reportedly stuck at chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, with no memory to pair them with.
The holdup traces back to the global memory crunch that’s already reshaping Apple’s lineup. With the iPhone 18 Pro and Apple’s first foldable, possibly called the iPhone Ultra, just weeks away, the clock is ticking.
Apple's next MacBook Pro could arrive this fall with the new M6 processor. Image: Apple/Cult of Mac
Apple plans to refresh the base-model MacBook Pro this fall with its new M6 processor, according to numerous rumors. The performance boost should make it more appealing to those who want a macOS laptop with more ports than a MacBook Air, but at a lower price than Pro models with Pro and Max chips.
Here’s what to expect from the first (and possibly only) M6 MacBook Pro.
It's kickoff time for Madden NFL 27 Arcade Edition. Image: EA Games
Are you ready for some football?! Madden NFL 27 Arcade Edition is now available on Apple’s game subscription service, bringing EA Sports’ blockbuster football franchise to iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Vision Pro without ads or in-app purchases.
It’s the first time the Madden series has been offered through Apple Arcade, giving subscribers a premium version of one of gaming’s most popular sports franchises.
“Madden NFL 27 Arcade Edition is a chance to bring the most authentic NFL experience to a new audience of football fans, letting them play and compete as the league’s most elite players, or take control as GM and shape a franchise,” said Evan Dexter, EA’s vice president of Franchise Strategy and Marketing.
Spreadsheets don't need to give you nightmares. Photo: Pixabay/Pexels
The Claude AI for Microsoft Excel Mastery Bundle will show you how to use Anthropic’s AI to build formulas, automate spreadsheets, create dashboards, analyze data and more.
You’ll master Microsoft Excel with these five lifetime courses — and you’ll pay just $19.99 (MSRP $97).
The original Mac Pro took productivity to new levels. Photo: Apple
August 7, 2006: Apple unleashes the first Mac Pro, a high-end desktop computer that completes the company’s transition from PowerPC to Intel processors.
Built for computation-heavy tasks like 3D rendering and professional audio and video editing, the quad-core, 64-bit Mac Pro serves as a replacement for the Power Mac G5 (from which it borrows its aluminum “cheese grater” design).
OpenAI's first smart speaker will not look like a typical smart speaker. Photo: Unsplash
OpenAI’s first smart speaker will supposedly look like a “doughnut that’s roughly the size of a hockey puck,” according to a new Bloomberg report. This odd design will help the speaker stand out from the competition.
It will also apparently enable the speaker to work in “different positions.”
Mac users, don't procrastinate on installing macOS Tahoe 26.6.1. Photo: Tranmautritam/Pexels CC
Apple on Thursday released macOS Tahoe 26.6.1, a surprise security update that fixes a potentially serious vulnerability in the operating system’s Screen Sharing feature.
While the update doesn’t bring any new features, Mac users should nevertheless install it as soon as possible — or the new security patches for macOS Sequoia and Sonoma.
Apple trade-in values for older iPhones increase ahead of the iPhone 18 launch. Photo: Tessa Charles/Pexels CC
Thinking about upgrading to an iPhone 18 this fall? Apple just made the decision a little easier.
The company increased the max trade-in values for most iPhone, Mac, iPad and Apple Watch models in the United States, marking the latest value bump this year. The higher payouts let customers put more money toward a new device, whether they’re buying outright or through the new Apple Upgrade program.
MacPaw is building on-device AI into its Eney assistant with help from Liquid AI. Image: MacPaw
MacPaw is bringing on-device AI to its Mac assistant, Eney. The company partnered with Liquid AI to build a local intelligence stack designed to run on your Mac, not in the cloud.
The partnership pairs Liquid AI’s foundation models with MacPaw’s own inference and memory technology. Eney will be the first product to get the upgrade, and results are expected later this year.
The last new budget iPad debuted in spring 2025, and it shows. Photo: Apple
iPad shipments slowed in the second quarter of this year, the first time that’s happened in over two years. The source of the problem is easy to pinpoint: the extra-long wait for a new version of the budget iPad.
And unfortunately for consumers, Apple supposedly won’t release a replacement for the iPad (A16) for many more months.
Bill Gates looking like the cat that got the cream. Photo: Apple
August 6, 1997: In one of the most famous moments in Apple history, Steve Jobs reveals a $150 million Microsoft investment that saved his company from ruin.
Although often presented as an inexplicable gesture of good faith on the part of Microsoft boss Bill Gates, the cash infusion into Apple actually benefits both companies.
Secure multiple domains for life with Hostdeal (at a big discount). Image: Cult of Mac Deals
Domain registration looks cheap right up until you’re five projects deep and every name renews in a different month at a rate you never agreed to. Registrars raise those prices whenever they want, and your card gets charged automatically while you’re not looking. But that doesn’t happen with Hostdeal domain names.
Skip that annoyance with this Hostdeal domain names lifetime subscription. It lets you lock down six domains for life with a single payment of just $29.99 (regularly $120).
Charging your iPhone to 100% overnight might stress your battery more than you realize, but what actually matters is how long it stays at full charge. Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac
Charging your iPhone to 100% won’t instantly fry your battery. But regularly keeping it at full charge for hours matters more than you might think.
The real culprit isn’t the charge itself — it’s how long your phone stays plugged in at maximum capacity. Apple’s built-in tools do help, but temperature and charging habits matter even more.
This Apple Pencil Pro deal means you, too, could be making amazing art on your iPad. Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac
Apple Pencil Pro is the best iPad stylus on the market, and a new deal knocks 25% off the regular cost. It’s packed with high-end features, including pressure sensitivity, Find My support and more.
And for those who don’t need all the bells and whistles of the Pencil Pro, the basic Apple Pencil (USB-C) is currently $69.99.
A WebKit privacy leak can expose your iPhone or Mac’s real IP address even when using proxy browsers or iCloud Private Relay. Image: Apple/Cult of Mac
Three recently discovered WebKit privacy leaks expose users’ real IP addresses on iPhone and Mac, even when they use a proxy browser or iCloud Private Relay, according to a new report.
This would mean Apple’s trusted privacy tools aren’t working as advertised. If you’ve relied on proxy browsers for anonymity or iCloud Private Relay for privacy, that protection apparently has some serious gaps.
Clone Macs sounded like a good idea at first. Photo: Antnik
August 5, 1997: Apple gets into a standoff with Power Computing, a maker of Macintosh clones. A very public clash at the Macworld Expo in Boston marks the beginning of the end for Apple’s mid-1990s strategy of licensing the Mac operating system.
“If the [Mac] platform goes closed, it is over,” predicts Power Computing CEO Joel J. Kocher of Apple’s strategy. “[It’s] total destruction. The kiss of death.” Of course, things don’t turn out exactly like that for Apple…
Apple TV gives beloved comedy Ted Lasso a soft reboot with season four, which premieres Wednesday. Image: Apple TV
Despite what really seemed like a series finale three years ago, Ted Lasso is back. Apple TV began streaming season four on Wednesday, reviving its Emmy-winning comedy with what amounts to a soft reboot rather than a direct continuation of the story.
Here’s what to look forward to as Ted, Coach Beard and all our favorites return.
Edit PDFs without getting locked out of advanced features with Systweak PDF Editor Pro. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
We love a good PDF editor that works on Mac, and Systweak PDF Editor Pro handles editing, converting, signing and locking down PDFs without touching the cloud.
iPhone 18e rumors point to a strange new RAM configuration, even as most other specs carry over unchanged from the iPhone 17e. Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
A handful of small but real changes are coming to Apple’s next budget iPhone, with iPhone 18e rumors pointing to a new chip and a RAM configuration nobody expected. None of it amounts to a redesign – this is still a budget phone, just slightly better.
The extra memory is the most interesting shift, but it comes with a catch. Most other specs, including the screen and camera, look set to carry over largely unchanged from the iPhone 17e. Here’s everything reported so far, and how solid each claim actually is.
Installing iPadOS 26 doesn’t mean losing Split View from your iPad! Graphic: Apple
Apple kept the iPad’s Split View feature alongside the new multitasking stuff in iPadOS 26, despite what you might have read online. And setting it up is as easy as a couple of flicks of your finger.
Here’s how to keep using Split View on your iPad. Apple even made a video that demonstrates what to do.