David Snow

I’ve always noticed a certain breed of Apple enthusiast for whom less is definitively not more. While minimalist setups have their ascetic charm, the rigs below operate on an entirely different philosophy: more computers, more screens, more audio gear — more of everything. These are the top 10 maximalist setups.

They’re the ones that made commenters ask if the owner works at “the money factory making commerce,” for example, or declare, “OP has done it: they’ve finally hit the limit of too much screen space.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed during Thursday’s quarterly earnings call that the company intends to apply for refunds on tariffs it paid under trade measures that the Supreme Court recently ruled unconstitutional. And has a clear plan for where that money will go: straight into U.S. manufacturing.

A redesigned Netflix iPhone app brings a cleaner interface, revamped navigation and an entirely new vertical video discovery feature called Clips, the streamer said Thursday.

We’ll see how Apple users receive the update. The recent revamp of Netflix’s app for Apple TV, which switched from a native tvOS player to a custom one that blocked Apple TV features, didn’t go over well. 

Formula 1 racing returns the United States this weekend with the F1 Miami Grand Prix on Apple TV. And Apple decided to pull out all the stops to make sure fans experience it not just on Apple TV, but across multiple platforms, the iPhone giant said Wednesday.

The Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix 2026 streams exclusively on Apple TV beginning Friday. You can see every session — from Practice through Sunday’s race — live and on demand. And there’s a lot more going on, too. 

Apple will put artificial intelligence front and center in the iPhone camera with a dedicated Siri camera mode coming in iOS 27, according to a new report. The move signals the company’s push to make on-device AI feel less like a hidden feature and more like a core part of the iPhone experience.

Nearly a decade after Twitter pulled the plug on Vine, the beloved 6-second video app is back — this time under the name Divine. It’s now available as a free download on the App Store.

Apple’s bid to freeze court-ordered App Store changes while it pursues U.S. Supreme Court review got rejected Tuesday as the latest decision in the iPhone giant’s long-running legal fight with Fortnite maker Epic Games. So the clock is now ticking on compliance pending another decision over what Apple can charge in fees.

A New York ophthalmologist made history recently, becoming the first surgeon in the world to perform cataract surgery using Apple’s Vision Pro headset, according to a new report. It offers a compelling new use case for a device that has struggled to find mass-market traction.

“We are now able to bring the world’s best surgeon into any operating room, at any hour, from anywhere on the planet,” Dr. Eric Rosenberg said. “From residents performing their first cases to surgeons facing unexpected complications, this technology democratizes access to expertise — and that will save vision.”

Apple’s ecosystem has never sounded better — AirPods, HomePods, Apple TV with Dolby Atmos — and yet the humble desktop speaker often remains an afterthought. For Mac users who spend long hours at a monitor or in front of a gaming console or smart TV, the audio situation can range from mediocre built-in speakers to a rat’s nest of half-compatible gear. But this Edifier M90 speaker review explains how the stellar new boxes do a great job of solving any number of audio problems in different settings. They bring potent audio power to practically any gear. 

The M5 MacBook Air is the best mobile computer for most people, and a sweet deal drops both the 13-inch and 15-inch models to record-low prices. The sale slashes $150 off models with 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSDs. 

You can snag the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air for just $950 or the 15-incher for only $1,150, in a variety of colors.

OpenAI has been secretly developing a smartphone designed to compete directly with iPhone, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Sunday. It’s a significant reversal from the company’s previously stated hardware strategy, which included smartphone alternatives like AI companion devices.

First announced at CES 2026 in January and released Monday, EarFun Clip 2 open-ear earbuds arrive with an unusually ambitious spec sheet for $79.99 (or less with launch discount). EarFun says Clip 2 is the world’s first Hi-Res comfort ear-clip earbuds with built-in AI translation priced under $80 — a claim that would sound like marketing bluster if the hardware didn’t largely back it up. After spending time with them, here’s my EarFun Clip 2 earbuds review with an honest verdict.

New EarFun Clip 2 open-ear wireless earbuds pack an unusual combination of features for their price point — real-time AI translation, hi-res audio certification, Bluetooth 6.0 — the company said Monday. And you get it all for $79.99 (or $59.99 at launch). 

Apple rolled out version 1.8 of its Apple Invites app Thursday, bringing seven new features that make planning and sharing events easier than ever. The update, available on the App Store, is the second recent upgrade for the iCloud+-exclusive digital invitation service.

Apple TV picked up a pair of prestigious Peabody Awards Thursday for hit drama Pluribus and documentary Come See Me in the Good Light. People think of the awards as the Pulitzer Prizes of radio, TV and online media. 

There’s a certain magic in watching someone squeeze maximum capability out of a beautifully spare workstation. While plenty of computer setups aspire to the look of a NASA mission control center — bristling with displays, peripherals and enough RGB to signal alien life — a different school of thought holds that the best setup is the leanest one. Fewer devices mean fewer cables, fewer distractions and more space to think. You can do a lot with a little.

Apple Maps rolled out an immersive new experience for the Miami Formula 1 Grand Prix, giving fans a detailed, interactive look at the race circuit ahead of the May 3 event. And it’s part of a broader plan to cover races throughout the 2026 F1 season.

Anker just quietly did something no accessory maker has attempted before: It built its own AI chip from the ground up, specifically designed to run powerful neural networks inside tiny, battery-powered devices. It announced the chip, called “Thus,” on Wednesday and plans to release it on Anker Day (May 21) inside its earbuds.

If the chip delivers on its promises, it could fundamentally change what we expect from earbuds — possibly including Apple AirPods — and other devices.

“Every AI chip built to date stores the model on one side and performs the computation on the other,” said Steven Yang, Anker’s founder and CEO. “To ‘think,’ the device must shuttle these parameters back and forth many times per second for every single query. Thus brings the computing power to where the model already resides. The model never has to move again.”

Apple briefly removed the popular calorie-counting app Cal AI from the App Store last week. The episode offers a clear message to developers everywhere, according to a new report: The company is still very much in charge of how apps handle payments — even in the wake of a landmark court ruling that loosened some of its long-standing rules.

If you’ve been green with envy watching those grainy fan clips of Paul McCartney lighting up Apple Park last month for the iPhone giant’s 50th anniversary, Sir Paul just gave the rest of us a proper consolation prize. McCartney posted a polished, three-minute, behind-the-scenes film to his YouTube channel Tuesday, offering an intimate look at his celebrated March 31 performance.

Soundcore, Anker Innovations’ audio brand, quietly built a reputation as the go-to name for people who want serious headphone performance without the flagship price tag. Its Space One headphones earned a following as one of the best budget ANC options on the market, and that set the bar for their successor quite high. The new Soundcore Space 2, which launched at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona before going on sale Tuesday, clears that bar with room to spare.

If you were looking forward to iPhone 18 as a meaningful upgrade of last year’s model, new rumors out of China might give you pause. Apple reportedly plans to cut costs on the standard iPhone 18 by paring back several of its manufacturing processes.

That would bring the iPhone 18 significantly closer in specs to the budget-oriented iPhone 18e, according to a prominent Weibo leaker.

Apple users are trained to reach for AirPods. It’s Pavlovian at this point. But at a regular price of $79 or less — roughly the price of a single AirPods replacement bud — the new Tozo NC20 Pro does things AirPods 4 won’t. And Tozo launch deals get you these excellent buds for much less than the list price — currently $59.49 on Amazon, for example.

New supply chain information reveals the four iPhone 18 Pro colors Apple might release this September. The popular and vibrant cosmic orange is gone, with a dark, wine-colored cherry red in its place, according to a new report.

Docking stations and USB/Thunderbolt hubs are the unsung heroes of modern Mac workstations. While flashy displays and mechanical keyboards get a lot of glory in computer setup photos, it’s often a hub or dock quietly humming away that makes the whole thing possible — connecting multiple monitors, peripheral devices, external storage and audio gear through a single cable to the host computer. Here’s a roundup of the best-connected — and most impressive — Mac workstations from Cult of Mac‘s Setups section.