David Snow - page 39

When it comes to fantastic and popular over-ear noise-canceling headphones that don’t stray too far from the realm of affordability, certain brands typically leap to mind. Apple. Beats. Sony. Sennheiser. Audio-Technica. Bose. And yet we noticed how seldomly flagship cans from Bose, one of the most famous and well-regarded brands in the United States, crop up in our computer setups coverage. Take the brand’s current top dog, for example — Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones.

Today’s M2 Max MacBook Pro setup brings in a set of Bose Ultras alongside AirPods Pro 2, for when the user needs bigger audio guns with greater comfort than Apple’s top earbuds.

You might be shocked to find out the No. 1 album of all time according to Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums list.

After releasing 10 albums a day in an agonizingly slow bleed, Apple Music finally unveiled its top 10 Wednesday. The final installment is sure to get people talking, especially the No. 1 pick: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

Apple Music took care to justify every selection, though. DJs Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden spoke with guest artists Nile Rodgers and Maggie Rogers about the top 10.

Monday marked the first day in Apple Music’s 10-day countdown revealing its picks for the 100 best albums of all time.

Apple invites you to follow along as it “journeys through the albums that shaped, inspired and fundamentally changed music.”

We’ll add to the list below as Apple continues the countdown. (Update: All albums, 1 through 100, now added as of Wednesday.)

Season two of hit multilingual wine-tasting drama Drops of God is headed your way on Apple TV+, Apple said Tuesday. It acquired streaming rights to it much like it did with season one of the international production.

Fans of the show appreciate its adaptation from the New York Times bestselling Japanese manga series of the same name. The award-winning Tadashi Agi created and wrote it, and Shu Okimoto illustrated it.

As Paris gears up for French Open tennis next week and the Summer Olympics in July, Apple Wallet makes paying for Paris public transit easier. Users can now add a Navigo card and simply tap their iPhone or Apple Watch to ride. It works on the metro, trains, buses and more in the French capital region, Apple said Tuesday. Apple Maps added more real-time transit information, too.

“In the lead-up to what will surely be an amazing summer for the Paris region, we’re thrilled to bring Navigo cards to Apple Wallet and provide Parisians and visitors with an incredibly convenient and secure way to ride transit in Paris and explore the city,” said Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet. “Users will love the safety, security, and seamlessness of purchasing passes and riding with a Navigo card in Apple Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch.”

Popular speaker brand Sonos finally unveiled its “most-requested” product ever Tuesday — Sonos Ace over-ear headphones. They appear to go straight at Apple’s aging AirPods Max as a competitor. The new cans sport top features and a $100 lower list price ($449) than Apple’s premium headphones.

Sonos touts the new headphones’ “breathtaking lossless and spatial audio, world-class Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Aware Mode, as well as the most precise and immersive home theater experience possible using Sonos’ new TrueCinema technology.”

You can preorder Sonos Ace now and they become available June 5.

Today’s MacBook Pro setup boasts a secret weapon many laptop-based computer setups should have — a multiport adapter like a USB-C or Thunderbolt dock. In this case, an iOS and macOS developer runs his M1 Max MacBook Pro through an OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock, connecting the laptop to various peripherals.

A multiport USB-C hub or docking station greatly expands connectivity with peripherals like monitors and storage drives. And it often provides fast data-transfer speeds and even powers devices. In short, for not too much money it enables your setup to do much more.

If you’re a software developer or frequently find yourself hip-deep in code for some other reason, BenQ just released five new computer displays just for you. It called its new RD Series “the world’s first line of monitors custom crafted to meet the unique and extensive needs of programmers.”

The displays use versions of BenQ’s Fine-Coated Panel plus anti-glare and anti-reflective properties to enable long coding sessions.

This week someone paid about $1,000 on eBay for an allegedly fake Apple employee badge masquerading as the 1977 ID of employee number 10.

The employee badge is a convincing phony, according the an intrepid blogger and the longtime Apple employee (number 8) he contacted to confirm the forgery. And the proof of provenance the blogger sought from the seller appeard to be fake, too, according to several sources.

KRK Rokit 5 speakers are the crown jewel among the audio gear in today’s M1 Max MacBook Pro setup. The rig belongs to an iOS and macOS developer who only counts music production as a hobby. But we’ll take his vote of confidence in a fine audio product.

We’ve seen the Rokit 5 boxes in setups a few times, not often, but we have no doubt they sound great and look good doing it.

M4 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air users are justifiably excited by Apple Pencil Pro’s fantastic and highly functional new features. But now they’re discovering a delightful feature Apple didn’t highlight at its recent “Let Loose” event. The stylus casts a shadow of the selected tool in use on the screen.

That feature may not equal the functional importance of the new squeeze gesture or haptic feedback, but judging by user reactions in the videos below, it’s pretty much the coolest thing ever.

The first trailer for Apple TV+’s The Big Cigar, below, looks like so much fun I almost don’t want to know how true the “incredible true story” about Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton actually is. And as of Friday, the show’s on with its first two episodes.

The upcoming drama series tells the tale of Newton enlisting a Hollywood producer to fake out the FBI, providing cover for the political activist’s escape to Cuba in 1974. That came after Newton jumped bail on murder and assault charges he called false.

UPDATE: The Big Cigar now airs on Apple TV+. The first two episodes came out Friday. The third episode airs May 24.

Belkin is such a favored maker of MagSafe chargers and other Apple accessories that the iPhone giant sells many of them directly on its site. But for bagging bargains in the Memorial Day Sale Belkin launched this week ahead of the holiday, you’re better off hitting the links to its site, below.

You can get 20% off site wide, plus an additional 50% off refurbished products! The sale started Tuesday and runs through May 27.

Three new videos test just how “bend-but-don’t-break” Apple’s new super-thin M4 iPad Pro is, and the answer is “very.” Reviewers came away impressed by how well even the ultra-thin 13-inch M4 iPad Pro performed. And the 11-inch model did well, too.

JerryRigEverything performed bend tests as part of a teardown of the 13-inch M4 iPad Pro. AppleTrack stuck with comparing bends of 11- and 13-inch 2024 iPad Pro models against the 2022 versions. And MobileReviewsEh showed new models held up under massive pressure about as well as older models despite being about 20% thinner.

The iPad buying cycle has slowed because iPad owners increasingly hold onto their old tablets for longer periods than in the past, a new analysis showed Wednesday.

However, the just-ended wait for the latest iPad Pro and iPad Air could be a big reason why. It was a long one. The previous generations both came out in 2022.

Apple showcased some remarkable new accessibility features for people with disabilities Wednesday, including Eye Tracking, Music Haptics and Vocal Shortcuts.

The new features, coming later this year to Apple devices, harness Apple silicon, artificial intelligence and machine learning. They will come mainly to iPhone and iPad, though some new ones will appear in Vision Pro’s visionOS, too.

“We believe deeply in the transformative power of innovation to enrich lives,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a press release. “That’s why for nearly 40 years, Apple has championed inclusive design by embedding accessibility at the core of our hardware and software. We’re continuously pushing the boundaries of technology, and these new features reflect our long-standing commitment to delivering the best possible experience to all of our users.”

Our setups coverage often reveals clues to Apple hardware’s functional longevity. An iOS and macOS developer uses today’s setup. Even though two new generations of powerful Apple silicon chips have supercharged more recent MacBooks, he’s still cranking away on an M1 Max MacBook Pro run through an OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock.

In fact, he just updated his setup. But that turned out to have nothing to do with the computer. It was all about adding decorative toy figures, an LED light strip and a new wooden countertop as a desk.

The new M4 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air finally make it easy to manage your tablet’s battery heath from the Settings app. iPadOS finally has a Battery Health menu in its 17.5 version, but it only works with the new iPads, not older models.

The new feature lets you limit charges to 80% capacity, which can extend the battery’s lifespan.

The App Store prevented more than $7 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions over the past four years, Apple said Tuesday, when it published its fourth annual fraud prevention analysis report.

Apple has lost its customary lead on smartphone customer satisfaction as archrival Samsung has drawn even overall and gone ahead in one area, according to new data.

New findings from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) show Apple’s rating went up a point, but Samsung’s rose three points to tie overall and creep ahead on 5G satisfaction.

Audio specialist Denon added the Siri voice assistant to certain wireless speakers and a soundbar this week — only the second third-party product line to do so. But there’s a catch. Siri only works with the speakers if you also have a HomePod or HomePod mini speaker to act as a relay.

The same is true of the first non-Apple products that added Apple, ecobee smart thermostats. But it’s a little weirder this time because it’s all speakers. Only an Apple speaker will let you use Siri with Denon’s speakers.

The new iOS 17.5 update brings cross-platform tracking notifications for unwanted Bluetooth trackers plus a new Quartiles spelling game and an Offline Mode for Apple News+ subscribers, Apple said Monday.

And that’s in addition to the new Pride and Unity Lock Screens and Apple Watch faces we can expect. As far as other Apple OS updates go, macOS 14.5 got compatibility with Apple News+ features and bug fixes, watchOS 10.5 incorporates new Pride updates and the rest are performance and stability updates.

Savvy, bargain-conscious Apple shoppers know new model releases can also herald the lowest-ever prices on recent, not-actually-new but new-to-them products. And with the recent rollout of M2 iPad Air, great deals on M1 iPad Air abound.

These limited-time deals on Amazon — including a new price drop that makes the M1 iPad Air just $399.00 (33% off) are great examples.

Streamers and podcasters often worry over their choices of microphones and audio interfaces for sound quality. But they shouldn’t forget to select great co-stars for that gear like the Elgato Wave Microphone Arm.

A good microphone boom arm makes working with the mic easy, especially in a computer setup where you need to move it aside to do other tasks. Today’s MacBook Pro and Studio Display setup makes great use of the extremely popular Elgato Wave Microphone Arm supporting an Audio-Technica mic.

And right now you can get one version of the suspension boom microphone arm for 20% off at Amazon ($99.99 $79.99), and it’s the one our user deploys.

Something as simple as the right lamp can make a huge difference in a computer setup. Today’s sexy M3 Max MacBook Pro and Studio Display workstation benefits from a big, wide, clamp-on double-headed Pzloz LED Desk Lamp to brilliantly light the scene.

So it seems sometimes an overhead lamp can beat a monitor light bar, especially on a big, wide desk.