David Snow - page 45

Alogic rolled out its new Echelon wireless keyboard and mouse last week, offering a pair of sleek, solid, affordable and eminently practical input devices for Mac users. I swapped out a couple of Logitech devices to try Alogic’s, and I’m not missing Logi’s gear so far. In a word, you could call the Echelon input devices “minimalist.” But they have all the features you need, and then some.

Edifier’s new D32 speaker, a stylish and powerful wireless speaker that looks a bit like your grandfather’s radio, packs modern audio technology. Its hi-res audio capabilities and robust 60-watt amplifier system sit inside a hand-made wooden cabinet with crazy-cool retro buttons. And it costs just $170, which might seem steep to your grandpa, but it’s not bad.

Sometimes Amazon stuns us with outstanding bargains. This week it’s big discounts on Apple’s powerhouse M3 MacBook Pro, in all or most of its iterations. You can save up to $350 off M3 MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro chip and solid specs, but that’s just one of many deals. We list six below where you can save anywhere from $200 to $350 on your machine of choice.

You can preorder the newly updated Beats Solo Buds headphones June 18 and expect shipping to commence June 20, Apple subsidiary Beats by Dre said.

At just about half the cost of AirPods 3 and ready-made to pair with Apple devices with long battery life and a truly tiny case, the new buds could be a tempting get for a lot of folks. And big sound is promised, too, according to the video below.

UPDATE: As noted above, Beats Solo Buds became available to order today, Tuesday, June 18, and should ship starting Thursday.

A cryptic new video ad featuring basketball star Lebron James rapping along with L’il Wayne suggested Monday that the long-rumored return of the discontinued Beats Pill+ speaker could be just one week away.

That’s if the video’s ending reference to “The Predicament 6.25” means the updated speaker, which celebrities have been photographed carrying around recently, will launch next Tuesday.

The new 11-inch and 13-inch M2 iPad Air models are great tablets, but not everyone wants to throw down $600 or more. And not everyone needs bleeding-edge performance. That’s why sales on the previous models like the one right now at Best Buy are such great opportunities. You can chop $200 off M1 iPad Air and enjoy it for years to come.

Ever since computers like iMac G3 pulled off the trick, transparent computer gear has come in and out of style. And now transparent keyboards are having a bit of a moment. One good example is the Yunzii X75 Mechanical Keyboard seen in today’s MacBook Pro setup.

A Canadian firefighter credited Apple Watch for saving his life when he suffered a heart attack, according to a report over the weekend.

Given the wearable probably saved his life, the fit and active 44-year-old man said he’ll never go another day without it.

The sleek new CukTech 10, a 100-watt, 10,000mAh power bank with a digital display brings fast mobile charging to laptops, smartphone, gaming console and more, the company said this week. And thanks to a launch sale, you can nab it on Amazon for just under $30. That’s a low price for a power banks with this battery capacity and wattage.

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.