David Snow - page 120

In a festive New Year’s promotion, Elago is offering every accessory in the Cult of Mac Store — hundreds of items, all in one place — at 15% off through January 7. No matter what Apple products you may have received as gifts over the holidays, there’s something for your in the sale. We cover some highlights below.

The new M1 Macs are impressive — especially the newest of the new, the M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBooks. They’re so impressive, we see them replacing even late-model desktop Macs that have years of useful and even impressive life left in them. Such is the case with today’s year-end setup.

In a twist on the old phrase uttered at this time of year, “Out with the (not very) old, in with the (insanely great) new.”

This MagSafe charger post is brought to you by Journey, a brand of Alogic. 

You probably have cables to charge your iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch. But wouldn’t it be great to charge them all at once, in one place, like on your nightstand or desk? Without a bunch of wires? With the handsome new Journey 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station, you can.

Journey’s newest charger also serves as a stand for your gadgets — and it looks good doing it. And, by the way, if you act fast, you can get the new charging station for 30% off with the coupon X30.

Apple Watch’s Digital Crown helps users take full advantage of the watchOS interface, beyond using the wearable’s touchscreen. But it looks like future Apple Watches might ditch the crown in favor of optical sensors, according to a new patent the Cupertino tech giant filed.

The well-regarded Slopes app that provides resort information to skiers and snowboarders — and helps them track their exploits carving mountain trails — saw four major updates in December. They include privacy-focused live location sharing and enhanced maps for iPhone and Apple Watch.

We keep coming across two great secrets of super-clean desktops when it comes to computer setups. As shown in today’s featured setup, they’re both about creating significant amounts of open desk space in different ways — without losing any access to your gear or forfeiting any computing power.

And we’re not just talking about clearing away basic clutter, or even cable clutter, although that always helps. We’re talking about how you can get some of your main equipment up and off the desk so you have room in front of you. Redditor kurtvdpoel demonstrates the two excellent methods in his post, “Home office with Mac mini Apple M1.”

If you got an Apple Watch for Christmas, or even if you already had one — congratulations on owning one of the best smartwatches! Now, it’s time to up your band game (aka your Apple Watch strap). For a limited time, you can get the Speidel Square Tip Oiled Leather Band for Apple Watch for just $9.89 in the Cult of Mac Store. That’s 70% off the regular price!

This iPhone 13 cases post is brought to you by Totallee.

With the release of the tough iPhone 13 series handsets, with their Ceramic Shield and Gorilla Glass, more and more people started talking about going without a case altogether. Others, of course, weren’t about to drop a grand on a smartphone and then not protect that pricey gadget. There may actually be a perfect third path, whether you just got an iPhone 13 for Christmas or have had one for a while. You can try Totallee’s extremely thin and light iPhone 13 cases. They help protect and showcase your new smartphone without adding bulk.

The eagerly anticipated and much-praised Apple TV+ original series Foundation, based on the epic Isaac Asimov novels of the 1950s, has received a modern-day distinction, of sorts — it’s among the most-pirated shows of the year online. As such, it’s in good company.

It’s not quite the same sort of honor as the scads of awards Apple TV+ has been winning for shows like Ted Lasso and Stillwater, but it’s impressive nonetheless.

In gift-giving season, sometimes you get something you already have or something that isn’t quite what you wanted. So, if you can exchange the item for something you truly covet — like a killer pair of Apple AirPods or Beats earbuds — you probably should.

But how do you choose between earbuds made by Apple and earbuds made by Apple subsidiary Beats by Dre? We’ve laid out the specs for four popular sets of buds, below, pitting AirPods Pro against Beats Fit Pro and the new AirPods (3rd gen) against Beats Studio Buds. But all the specs listed in each chart are the same, so it’s not difficult to compare and contrast all four.

A new, red-and-gold, limited-edition design for Beats Studio Buds will celebrate the Lunar New Year in China and other countries — the Year of the Tiger — Apple said on Monday.

This follows a recent release of another predominately red, limited-edition design in collaboration with the men’s fashion store Union we wrote about earlier in December.

Apple reportedly hired Meta’s AR communications chief recently, a move that fits with Cupertino’s long-rumored plan to launch an augmented reality/virtual reality headset.

Observers expect Apple to unveil its mixed-reality headset sometime in 2022. And, according to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, Apple is forming a team to handle the hardware’s launch and marketing. Part of this appears to be the hiring of Andrea Schubert, chief of communications and public relations for AR at Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook.

If you’re an avid gamer, or maybe just an aspiring one, it pays to know which displays and accessories will best serve your needs. Not just any display, input device and headset will keep up with today’s graphically rich games. The dual M1 Mac and Sony PlayStation 5 computer setup we look at today demonstrates some good choices you might consider.

Redditor smhppp uses an M1 Mac mini for personal uses, an M1 MacBook Air for work and a Sony PS5 for gaming. They showed their setup in a post entitled, “Current setup, spec in comments for those interested.” It’s one of those one-vertical-and-one horizontal-display setups so many people are trying lately.

It’s Christmas Eve, and all we want for the holiday is a Porsche 911. It could be a gleaming new one, with a base price of a mere $99,200. It could be super-cool vintage one. Or it could even be a Lego one like the one featured in today’s MacBook Pro and iPad Pro-driven setup.

OK, given our paltry income, who are we kidding — we’d even take a die-cast 911, like the Matchbox cars of our youth.

Sometimes when you’re trawling the interwebs for cool computer setups, you learn a lot not just from the person bragging about their gear in a social media post, but also from the folks admiring or lambasting it. Such is the case with today’s iPad Pro and Dell widescreen setup.

Its owner and other folks push the importance of adding a good webcam and good lighting for successful videoconferencing. And other folks make a compelling case for adding a subwoofer to paired HomePod minis if you want any bass at all in your music.

This GaN2 charger post is presented by Journey, a brand of Alogic.

These days, you really don’t have to live with slow chargers for your iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro and other devices. That’s because gallium nitride (GaN) technology makes it possible to pack components into small spaces, resulting in tiny but powerful charging gadgets like the Journey 30W USB-C Mini Charger.

It’s fast. It’ll charge almost anything. And because it’s one of the smallest chargers you can get, you can take it anywhere. Even better, Journey’s current promotion offers the little powerhouse for 30% off with the code BLACK30.

Australia-based Røde Microphones rolled out a host of free updates to its Røde Central app, making its popular Wireless Go II Dual Channel Wireless Microphone System more capable and easier to use in a variety of ways.

Last week a crowdfunding campaign launched for the new BusKill USB kill cord. It’s a dead man’s switch for laptops designed to protect your data by locking or even wiping your computer if someone snatches it away from you while you’re using it.

BusKill is designed for journalists, activists, crypto traders and travelers, the company said. Though it seems it could come in handy for anyone at risk of losing a laptop via smash-and-grab tactics.

China-based audio specialist Edifier said Monday its new MP230 Bluetooth speaker — a CES 2022 Innovation Award Honoree — is now shipping. For a hundred bucks, the portable stereo acoustic speakers come in a wood frame that would not look out of place in your grandfather’s den. Yet you can take your tunes outside, too.

Marking the 60th anniversary of the James Bond movie franchise, Apple TV+ plans to release a documentary film entitled The Sound of 007 in October 2022. It will celebrate the music of the Bond films, from Dr. No with Sean Connery in 1962 to Daniel Craig’s last romp as the man from MI6 in 2021, No Time to Die.

The soon-to-launch Schlage Encode Plus smart lock could be the first to support Apple Home Key, according to various leaked documents. And, in another “first,” the smart lock looks likely to offer Thread support for HomeKit.

HomeKit Authority reported on the Schlage Encode Plus recently, citing a since-removed Home Depot listing, Schlage’s own installation guide as well as a Federal Communications Commission filing.

OK, so no 2021 award for Most Fastidious Cable Management, mentioned in this article’s headline, exists — at least not around here. But if it did, we might hand it to the person behind today’s setup.

It centers on a 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro and a 32-inch LG 4K display. And it keeps cable clutter to an extreme minimum.

If you look up “11.11” in the Slang Dictionary, it says, “If it’s 11:11, make a wish! Some people believe 11:11 is a magic number or lucky time of day, good for making a wish … or reaching cosmic enlightenment.” Well, if something’s enlightened, or at least en-whitened, it’s today’s Mac mini-based setup.

It’s all there in black and white, really, with “11.11” writ large on the dual displays — probably via the Fliqlo screensaver, though it could be a clock app — and Nintendo gaming consoles aplenty.

Sonnet Technologies rolled out its new Echo 5 Thunderbolt 4 Hub on Tuesday to enable Mac and iPad Pro users — or anyone with a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 port on their machine — to expand their connectivity to peripherals like displays, input devices and storage. And it offers a robust 85W of charging power.

When you get a computer or tablet and it has fewer ports than you’d like, hubs like this one can come in handy.

Accessory-maker mophie launched three new portable batteries in its powerstation go rugged series Wednesday. Each one is capable of charging mobile devices, powering lights and more during a power outage, or even jump-starting a car if necessary.

“The addition of rugged to our existing powerstation go lineup gives customers another option for power while on-the-go,” said Gavin Slevin, managing director of mophie parent company Zagg International, in a press release. “We are excited to equip users with another multifunctional and affordable portable power option for peace of mind while on the road.”