Jon Stewart got super-candid about what really ended his Apple TV+ show, The Problem with Jon Stewart, on a podcast Thursday. He previously hinted at creative differences after the show got canceled, but in the podcast discussion, he went into much more depth — even describing the exact moment he knew it was all over.
Stewart made the remarks in a long conversation on the podast The Town with Matthew Belloni.
Cult of Mac‘s setups coverage loves to look at premium products, but we often emphasize value with thrifty-but-reliable gear. Today we marvel, however, at just how much one desk lamp can cost. Our MacBook Pro user places a $650 Dyson Solarcycle Morph Desk Light on a very nice Vari sit-stand desk.
Do people really pay that much for a lamp? Even our user claims it was a gift, not a purchase.
Amazon is running some deals on Apple accessories right now, with discounts on AirTag trackers and Apple Pencil models. In addition to some lesser savings, you can actually get $50 off Apple Pencil 2, a solid deal on a great iPad stylus.
★★★★☆
Losing a wallet and all its contents can be a major drag. But rather than taking up precious space by inserting a tracking card, why not make the whole wallet a tracker? Enter your replacement wallet, Journey’s stylish LOC8 MagSafe Finder Wallet and Stand. And, oh yeah, did I mention it’s not just a magnetic iPhone wallet, it’s an iPhone stand? Yep. And it works beautifully with Find My, just like an AirTag or an Apple device you’d hate to lose.
And better yet, you can take 20% off the regular price of LOC8 through Father’s Day at Journey or Best Buy. See below.
In a new family coming-of-age series headed to Apple TV+, a kid discovers he possesses a shape-shifting superpower. He can become someone else. And in the midst of battling bullies and struggling with other middle-schooler crises like school dances, he learns that life is full of challenges and how we meet them helps define who we are. Oh, and “someone is coming” for him, ominously. At least, that’s the gist of the trailer for Me that Apple TV+ dropped Wednesday.
After this preachy, over-educational trailer, I’m rooting for whoever’s coming for the kid. But if you have children who need to learn about resilience and figuring out who they are, maybe this is a good family-watch this summer.
Hailing from Barry L. Levy (Vantage Point), the new 10-episode series Me debuts on Apple TV+ July 12.
The new Alogic Clarity 5K Touch 27-inch UHD Monitor features Studio Display’s 5K resolution but adds a handy touchscreen (something Apple has so far avoided on all but iPads). The new Clarity touch is one of several new display products Alogic rolled out Wednesday at InfoComm 2024 in Las Vegas. Other new products include ultra-wide and portable touchscreen displays.
“In line with our ambitious growth and expansion strategies, we are dedicated to continually advancing the frontier of innovation in connectivity solutions,” said Alogic CEO Ritesh Kumar. “Our products are designed to meet the dynamic requirements of today.”
While many computer setups shown off on social media look suspiciously immaculate, the truth is we tend to live at our desks and make a big mess of them routinely. Stuff just piles up. But a great way to keep your workstation clean and organized is to deploy one of the best fixes — a pegboard for setup storage.
With pegboards, you can put practically anything right on your wall, like today’s MacBook Pro user does. We’ve seen some pretty strong negative reactions to them, but there’s no denying their effectiveness.
We found more precious nuggets in new software releases from WWDC24: new wallpapers for Apple devices. They include Mac versions that reference old-school icons, iPad landscape and portrait wallpapers in various colors, and similar pretty images for iPhone.
“This new dynamic wallpaper floats over old Macintosh iconography, Control Panel, and applications like the Calculator and MacWrite, Apple’s early word processor,” Basic Apple Guy said of the new-old Mac wallpaper he found.
In a major update, iOS 18 gives iPhone users big look-and-feel customization options as well as new generative AI-based functionality like a smarter Siri, Apple revealed during Monday’s WWDC24 keynote.
“iOS 18 is a big release that delivers more ways to customize your iPhone, stay connected and relive special moments,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering.
The iOS 18 update will roll out to developers as a beta first. Then, after rounds of developer and public betas, become public for all in September when the 2024 iPhones arrive.
Apple’s Safari web browser will learn a few new tricks across Apple devices, including web page highlights and summaries, as well as better-integrated control of videos online, the iPhone giant pointed out Monday in its Safari updates at WWDC24 section of the Keynote.
“In this release, we’re making it even better with easier ways to discover content and streamline your browsing. When you’re on a site Safari can now help you discover more about the page with highlights,” said Beth Dakin, Apple’s senior manager, Safari Software Engineering.
At Cult of Mac, we love great audio. So when a computer setup comes along on social media showing off a killer system, we love to feature it. Today’s M3 Pro MacBook Pro setup kicks out the jams — we also love obscure references to cult-favorite bands of yesteryear — with Audioengine A2 Plus speakers and a Kanto Sub6 subwoofer.
So, as nice as the MacBook Pro’s six speakers may be, they don’t have a chance against that sound system.
When it’s unveiled at WWDC24’s Keynote on Monday, the new iOS 18 update — codenamed “Crystal” — is expected to be one of Apple’s biggest updates of iPhone software since the handset came out in 2007. Artificial intelligence (AI) should play a big role, along with other new features, redesigned elements and plenty of app updates. See our summary below, with links to Cult of Mac coverage.
Not everybody needs, wants or can afford an Apple display. Luckily, many good options abound for use with a Mac, including the 34-inch BenQ Ultrawide Creator Monitor featured in today’s exceptionally nice M3 Pro MacBook Pro setup. And it’s ideally situated on a handsome Oakywood dual-monitor stand.
★★★★☆
Sometimes people take car chargers for granted as merely functional necessities. But Pitaka challenges that with its new MagEZ Car Mount Pro 2 Qi2, a sleek and innovative device that fast-charges your iPhone or other smartphone and streamlines your in-car experience. It takes up little space as it brings your handset’s screen in sight.
As as a Qi2 device, it gives everyone MagSafe-level charging. And the company also makes a MagSafe edition, of course. It’s a great accessory to keep in the car, especially if the car lacks CarPlay on its infotainment screen.
The Apple Design Awards recognized 14 “best-in-class” apps and games, the iPhone giant said Thursday. It will hand out the awards, which celebrate excellence in design and outstanding technical achievement, to winners at WWDC24 on Monday.
“It’s inspiring to see how developers are using our technology to create exceptional apps and games that enhance the lives of users,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “This year’s winners have demonstrated how apps can create powerful and moving experiences — and we’re excited to celebrate their hard work and ingenuity at WWDC this year.”
And this year the awards added a new spatial computing category.
Creative Technology’s new Creative Zen Hybrid SXFI over-hear headphones and Creative Zen Air SXFI true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds offer an immersive, three-dimensional soundscape through Super X-Fi technology, the company said.
That’s another way of saying “spatial audio.” And both noise-canceling devices are affordable. Now available for preorder, the cans list for $99.99 and the buds go for $79.99.
In a surprising incident at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, an Apple Watch played a pivotal role in helping a determined passenger track down her stolen luggage when Spirit Airlines couldn’t.
You expect this sort of thing from AirTag, a dedicated tracker. But this time, an Apple Watch and the Find My network came to the rescue.
Some people are happy typing away on quiet membrane keyboards like Apple’s Magic Keyboard. Others are obsessed with pimping out their clickity-clackety mechanical keebs with the exact key caps, switches and design flourishes they prefer. Today’s M3 Pro MacBook Pro setup goes for the latter style with a Keychron Q2 custom mechanical keyboard.
It’s an excellent, moderately affordable option in a crowded market.
Last chance: Save a whopping 40% on SwitchEasy’s great Skin Silicone Magnetic Apple Watch Band. For just $17.99 (regularly $29.99), you can get a great-looking magnetic band that’s super comfortable and great for the office or the gym. But hurry: The sale ends soon.
The Skin Silicone band is a great example of a comfortable, stylish, durable and easy-to-adjust band. We gave it four-and-a-half stars in our hands-on review. The magnetic closure keeps it secure on your wrist, while getting it on or off is a snap. And the soft silicone feels great.
It’s a hot seller, and we have it on sale exclusively for Cult of Mac readers.
Audio brands and manufacturers can now buy cutting-edge reference designs for solid-state, all-silicon micro speakers online to bring new generations of true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds and in-ear monitors (IEMs) to market faster, xMEMS Labs said Tuesday.
This is another step toward realizing the “ultrasonic revolution” I wrote about in-depth in November 2023. In it, old-school speaker technology still used even in tiny earbuds may give way to new solid-state tech providing the full sonic range digitally compressed audio has compromised.
“Steve Jobs was a digital pioneer, but when he went home, he listened to vinyl,” classic rocker and noted audiophile Neil Young once said. He was getting at all the sonic detail lost to digital compression in forms like MP3 files.
HomePod (2nd generation) is a great smart speaker, but the $300 price tag holds some folks back. That’s $600 for a pair. But now you can get a great deal on HomePod 2 for a price of $175 for one, or two for $350, thanks to a sale at Verizon.
Sorry, not the white one, just the midnight option. But still!
Qualcomm tried a new spoof of a legendary Apple ad campaign Sunday, coming in 14 years late and more than a few dollars short. The new ad for Arm-powered PCs stars “I’m a Mac” actor Justin Long pretending that notifications would drive him away from his MacBook.
The ad appeared at the end of Qualcomm’s “Snapdragon Computex 2024 Keynote: The PC Reborn.” You can see it and Long’s other work for Apple and competitors below.
Some computer setups just seem to have it all. Today’s featured workstation sports a new M3 Pro MacBook Pro with hefty amounts of memory and storage, plus a speedy Thunderbolt 4 dock connected to a well-curated selection of peripherals. Even the gear stands and furniture are especially nice.
Apple will overhaul its Settings app across iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS 15 when it unveils the updates at WWDC24, according to a report Friday. In other words, not everything at the big developers conference will be about AI.
Update: Control Center, which provides easy access to frequently used features on iPhones (as well as Macs and iPads), should see changes, too. Apple will upgrade it “with a new music widget and improvements to how it operates smart home appliances,” Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman wrote over the weekend in his PowerOn newsletter.
For years Keychron made its bones on good mechanical keyboards. Now it’s jumping into the scissor-switch game with a pair of Keychron ultra-slim keyboards that are direct Magic Keyboard competitors.
They looks the part, include solid features and beat Apple on price by a mile.