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.
★★★★☆
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
People swear by their iPads. And when they get one, they have many choices of cool accessories that help expand what it can do and how they use it.
SwitchEasy is a major accessory-maker for iPads, and for a limited time, you can get 20% off the company’s goods in the Cult of Mac Store.
But if you want to score a deal, you need to do it today. Our sale on SwitchEasy iPad gear ends at 11:59 p.m. PDT on August 10, 2022.
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.
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.
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.
You can find the Elago Armor Case Apple Watch Band in the Cult of Mac Store for just $15.
Apple products are shifting from Cupertino’s proprietary Lightning connectors to USB-C, but the switch may not be in the cards for the second generation of AirPods Pro, expected to ship before the end of the year.
Or so said a prominent analyst Tuesday, anyway.
With a new week come new discounts on Apple products — especially at this time of year, with new product releases from Cupertino around the corner.
Today Amazon is chopping $50 off of iPad Pro Magic Keyboards and $30 off Apple Pencil 2 (which is a return to an all-time low price).
Some computer setups are so strikingly beautiful they look like art installations. That tends to happen more with multiple-display setups because the imagery on the screens really adds to the aesthetic impact.
Today’s featured M1 Mac mini setup makes a visual statement using six displays, including two ultra-wide monitors and two iPads, plus some clever backlighting.
This GPS spoofing post is presented by iToolab.
A typical reason people want to “spoof,” or fake, a GPS location shown on a device is to play location-based augmented-reality games like Pokémon Go — without having to do all that walking.
And a highly effective, easy-to-use and affordable tool for changing and controlling your GPS location on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch — anywhere in the world, and for whatever reason — is iToolab AnyGo.
With summer still blazing, Apple offered a useful Today at Apple Creative Projects video on Friday. It teaches you how to capture “Dramatic Summer Light” with your iPhone camera.
In the video, Apple Creative Pros Jahmyra and David bring in professional photographer Eddy Chen to explore great tips about snapping better shots and editing them to make the most of light.
Anybody can walk around with one fine Italian leather Apple Watch band. But what about two? Now you can, with petite double Italian leather Apple Watch bands. They stylishly cut one band into two thinner straps on the same watch.
And it’s not like you have to pay a fortune or one, either. They’re just $75 in the Cult of Mac Store.
Apple Watch Series 8, at least in the standard 41mm and 45mm models, will see the same design as Apple Watch 7 rather than adding new elements like flat edges or bigger screens, a new report indicated Friday.
And the source added there may be no new sensors and fewer color choices with Apple Watch 8 than with the 7 series.
Some older iMacs are being shown the door, giving way to newer Macs paired with Studio Displays. That’s the case with today’s featured computer setup. In it, an iMac gave way recently to a plenty-powerful M1 MacBook Pro paired with a brilliant Studio Display.
And the attractively spare setup, well placed in a beautiful coastal setting, is nearly all Apple — down to the input devices and audio gear.
Grid Studio disassembles well-loved gadgets and presents their rearranged innards as framed wall art. And its nostalgic collection for Apple fans just got two new entries.
The collection now includes a fourth-generation iPod Classic and a first-generation iPad mini for your aesthetic consideration.
★★★★☆
The Soundcore Motion Boom Plus is a powerful, portable outdoor speaker you might want to nab before summer’s over. The boombox-style Bluetooth speaker brings the brawn — 80 watts of power — along with a bit more heft than some competitors.
When you factor in the excellent sound quality, some sporty features and the relatively low price of $179.99, it’s a worthy choice for outdoor use. Some folks might even use it indoors, but many never would because of its black plastic design. It might look at home in a college dorm, but probably not in most living rooms.
Apple first said it would transition from Intel chips to Apple silicon more than 2 years ago. Then Cupertino launched the first M1 Mac in November 2020. And, finally, today Microsoft said its Teams app will now run natively on M1 and M2 Macs.
So it’s about time.
But don’t get greedy and expect the upgrade immediately. The Redmond tech giant said the rollout to users will be incremental.
Some computer setups will make you green with envy, considering their gear’s quantity as well as quality. Take today’s featured setup, a delight for both gamers and podcasters.
It sports not just a new M1 MacBook, but also a powerful custom gaming PC. It boasts not just a solid 27-inch full HD display, but a monster 49-inch super-ultra-wide screen. And it relies on not just a good webcam, but a premium mirrorless digital camera.
And the list goes on, extending to audio and even a new mechanical keyboard. Read on.
★★★★☆
It might be time to get a new backpack. The British company Troubadour Goods makes just just what you need. It recently released four of its sustainable bags in a limited-edition color, a dark khaki.
They sent me the Troubadour Pioneer Backpack to try out. And it’s a stunner, fit for taking to work or outdoor hikes and trips to the gym in between.
If you ride a bike, now you can now get turn-by-turn navigation from Apple Maps in all 50 states. That’s because cycling directions recently arrived in Hawaii.
If you get rolling now, there’s just time to bike through the whole country in … never. Not gonna happen.
But it’s nice to know directions are available all over if you ever need them.
Nomad’s refined and costly Base One and Base One Max MagSafe chargers are widely considered to be of excellent quality, even “high-end” status. But now you can feel even more like a king — maybe King Midas — by snagging one with a rich golden hue.
That’s right, Nomad just rolled out golden gear for you, the Gold Base One and Base One Max.