David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
World record holder and gold medallist swimmer, Zac Stubblety-Cook, uses Apple Watch to track his activity and manage his training load. Photo: Apple
Australia’s national swim team uses Apple Watch, iPad and a combination of apps to improve performance, helping the team in the most-successful period in its history, Apple said Wednesday.
As if you needed another thing to make you feel bad about skipping the lap swim at the Y this morning.
Bluetti Power Week features great deals on premium power stations, backup batteries and more.
Image: Bluetti
This post on power stations is brought to you by Bluetti.
Electricity, one of the most widely used forms of energy in the world, is one of modern life’s necessities. As summer burns on with record heat throughout much of the world, even a brief power outage can have catastrophic consequences.
To ease your worries about maintaining electrical power this summer, Bluetti plans a Power Week from August 18 to 28, with major savings on the company’s products. Power Week will feature Bluetti’s B230 and B300 batteries, versatile power sources that can save the day when the lights go out.
With just four rows of keys, the new Keychron Q9 mechanical keyboard features an unusually small 40% layout. Photo: Keychron
The ninth entrant in Keychron’s custom mechanical keyboard line came out Wednesday, making it abundantly clear the company wants to cover every corner of the market. The new Q9 is for folks who want a tiny keyboard they can customize — maybe one that’s smaller than anything they’ve ever used.
As a 40% layout mini keyboard with just four rows of keys, the all-aluminum Q9 makes even a compact 60% keyboard look big.
Charge four devices at once with the stand. Photo: SwitchEasy
Who doesn’t love saving money, saving space and saving your gadgets from running out of juice? Well, you can do all three at once when you buy a SwitchEasy 4-in-1 MagPower Charging Stand.
The compact charger powers up four devices at once. And you can get it at 30% off in the Cult of Mac Store through 11:59 p.m. PDT Wednesday, August 17, 2022. That’s a savings of about $25 on something you’re likely to use every day.
The biggest iPad doesn't look so big next to that mechanical keyboard. Photo: Steve Troughton-Smith
App developer Steve Troughton-Smith raised a few eyebrows recently when he tweeted a photograph of his iPad Pro propped up on a stand and hooked up to a mechanical keyboard that dwarfed it in size. It looked like some ungainly desktop machine of yesteryear.
“The perfect computer doesn’t exist,” the title read.
It would be a stretch to say Troughton-Smith does all his work on that iPad setup, but he does some of it via the tablet, he told Cult of Mac.
It's glamorous, but it's not over-the-top glamorous. Photo: Goldenerre
Sometimes you want to glam it up a bit, but not so much that you look silly at the laundromat. If you’d like an Apple Watch band that you can look good wearing at the burger joint, the French restaurant and the gala black-tie benefit, look no further. Goldenerre’s Starburst Apple Watch Band has you covered.
And it’s available now for a staggering 66% off in the Cult of Mac Store. That’s a savings of $56!
If you've been wanting an M1 Pro MacBook, don't miss this opportunity. Photo: Apple
Amazon surfaced the lowest prices ever on certain 2021 MacBook Pro laptops Tuesday, including 14-inch and 16-inch models. Specifically, there are three options featuring the M1 Pro chip and different sizes of solid state drive (SSD).
If you’re in the market for one of those, act fast. Deals where you can lop $300 off the the usual prices don’t usually last long.
AirVersa's new Purelle air purifier works with HomeKit as well as the Thread wireless networking protocol. Photo: AirVersa
AirVersa’s new Purelle Smart Air Purifier for HomeKit came out on Amazon in the U.S. on Saturday. According to the company, it’s the first air purifier to support the Thread networking standard.
That Thread support will be important when the Matter home automation standard starts helping devices made by different makers work well together.
Two Studio Displays offer identical color consistency. Photo: [email protected]
If there’s one thing Apple displays are known for, it’s high prices. OK — all joking aside — if there are two things they’re known for, it’s crisp, accurate colors and being worth the price for that level of quality.
After all, those who work or play with graphics, photos, video or animation need great color.
And if you go dual-display, it helps if they’re the same model. Today’s featured Mac Studio setup, for example, corrected mismatched displays and the resulting color inconsistency by adding a second Studio Display.
Christopher Walken, John Turturro and Zach Cherry in “Severance” on Apple TV+. The series won 5 awards from the Hollywood Critics Association. Photo: Apple TV+
Two of the best-loved shows on Apple TV+ — Severance and Ted Lasso — took home honors over the weekend from the Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards.
Severance won five awards, including Best Drama, and Ted Lasso won two awards, including Best Comedy. Apple TV+ topped all streaming services with 53 nominations overall.
★★★★☆
I've already accidentally added some "character" to this fine leather iPhone case. You know, scratches. Maybe they'll fade or blend in as the patina develops. Photo: David Snow/Cult of Mac
Whether you’re getting an iPhone 13 series handset at a discount because iPhone 14 is coming soon or you just want to change up your case for the iPhone you already have, you can’t go wrong with the tasteful and tough Journey iPhone 13 Leather Case.
The company sent me a MagSafe-compatible, tan-colored case for iPhone 13 Pro to try out. I found it a refreshing switch from the Apple clear MagSafe case I’d been using, which had begun to blacken at the corners over the past several months.
pCloud has a new family plan with 10TB of cloud storage -- and you can get up to 80% off the price! Photo: pCloud
This cloud storage post is presented by pCloud.
If you’re looking for reliable cloud storage for the whole crew, pCloud’s new family plan delivers 10TB of shared storage. Plus, a great back-to-school deal can save you some serious money (up to 80% off).
The Switzerland-based company, subject to strong privacy laws, offers affordable, super-secure cloud-based storage and backup for individuals, families and businesses.
"Stephen C." annoys Irving B. at Lumon Industries in "Severance" parody. Photo: Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert created a parody Thursday night of the psychological thriller Severance on Apple TV+. The segment’s a must-see for fans of the show, or for fans of nouveu-comedy classic The Office, which figures into the mashup heavily.
I just called Severance a psychological thriller. In his lead-in to the video, which you can watch below, Colbert was probably more accurate.
“Severance is easily one of the top dystopian workplace sci-fi mystery black comedy psychological thrillers I’ve ever seen,” he deadpanned, getting a laugh.
In an "after" picture, one larger monitor on a desk shelf instead of two on the desk opens up the space nicely. Photo: [email protected]
With so many people working from home these days, a whole lot of them spend much of their life in one room — wherever the computer setup is, that is. And that’s all the more the case in apartments and small homes. So improving the setup can have a pretty big impact.
In today’s featured Mac Studio setup, swapping out two smaller displays for one bigger one, adding a desk shelf and making a few other changes made quite a difference in enhancing the workspace.
★★★★☆
The Anker 727 Power Station, left, and Anker 733 Power Bank have your special needs covered. Photo: David Snow/Cult of Mac
Anker deployed a whole squad of six new, compact and capable high-speed GaNPrime chargers to the charging accessory battlefield a few weeks back. They seem equipped to cover pretty much any need, taking different forms and offering different charging capacities and numbers of ports.
The company sent me a few to try out. I already reviewed the impressively potent and portable Anker 747 150W GaNPrime Charger, an adapter. Now I’ll take a look at two other forms — the Anker 733 Power Bank and the Anker 727 Power Station, which is a compact power strip.
They each address specific capabilities a lot of people might look for in a charger. You might want one of each.
Now available in small and medium sizes. This one is made from walnut-based plywood. Photo: Grovemade
Accessories-maker Grovemade recently added small and medium sizes to its lineup of desk shelves, which are wooden stands or risers for monitors and laptops that help you organize and store other items.
We see the Portland, Oregon-based company’s desk shelves from time to time in people’s workstations in Setups feature articles.
Is this your favorite macOS wallpaper? Photo: Apple
Apple aficionado Basic Apple Guy ran a “bracket” polling competition — think March Madness basketball, but without any perspiration — to determine the greatest macOS wallpaper ever. And users have spoken, according to a tweet pointing to final results Wednesday.
In a field of 18 competitors, macOS Catalina wallpaper emerged the champion (pictured above).
Anker's new power bank charges three devices -- or itself -- with 140W of power. Photo: Anker
Anker has been on a roll lately with new chargers, and it kept going Wednesday with the release of its PowerCore 24K, aka the Anker 737 Power Bank.
The gadget packs a 24,000mAh battery, three ports for charging devices (up to and including your MacBook) plus a handy digital display that shows you what the device is doing.
Sennheiser's new Momentum 4 ANC wireless headphones changed up their look and claim 60 hours of battery life. Photo: Sennheiser
Venerable audio brand Sennheiser rolled out its new Momentum 4 wireless over-ear headphones Tuesday. The successor to the much-liked Momentum 3 aims for the same high-end sound and comfort along with a more modern look.
The cans, which will compete with the likes of Sony’s top headphones and AirPods Max, also claim an impressive battery life of up to 60 hours.
The Studio Display replaced a 34-inch ultra-wide monitor. Photo: [email protected]
We’ve seen a few computer setups lately where the owner switches from one or more large monitors to something smaller. But they don’t necessarily see losing the screen real estate as a “downgrade.”
That’s the case with today’s featured M1 Pro MacBook-centered setup. It went from a 34-inch ultra-wide 4K monitor to a new 27-inch Studio Display.
Essentially it boils down to “size isn’t everything.” When it comes to displays, there’s actually a lot more to the picture.
iTubeGo is a great tool for downloading videos as MP3 or MP4 files. Image: iTubeGo
This YouTube download post is brought to you by iTubeGo.
If you like downloading videos and other media from various websites, a great utility to have is iTubeGo YouTube Downloader. With it, you can download YouTube videos, audio, playlists and whole channels quite easily and quickly. And you can easily convert files to other formats, like MP3 and MP4.
We’ll get into more detail below about iTubeGo YouTube Downloader and where you can get it.
This rugged case and band will keep your Apple Watch safe. Photo: Elago
You probably spend a fair chunk of change on your Apple Watch and you should take care to protect it — especially if you’re the sort of person who does a number on watches.
If you really want to safeguard it, you could get a rugged case and band combo like the one Elago makes.