Massachusetts-based David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV+ shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
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It’s that time of year when Black Friday and Cyber Monday seem to stretch for days and days. The Cult of Mac Store is offering 30% off a range of wonderful Laut accessories for Apple products through the end of the day Monday.
You can pick up a protective and colorful folio for your iPad, a luxurious steel mesh Apple Watch band, an iPhone 14 camera lens protector or a bike saddle mount for AirTag at great prices. See the whole Laut collection and some highlights below.
The colorful names -- Sunset, Lagoon and Night -- could be more straightforward but whatever. Photo: Ultimate Ears
Here’s a genuine killer deal on some killer products. Save up to 40% on Ultimate Ears portable speakers, many offered at $50 off the regular prices. The company said these are the best prices of the year. We’ve reviewed a lot of these speakers and rank them among the best you can get.
Gifting an iPhone for the holidays? Here's all you need to know. Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Which iPhone is the best to buy as a gift? We’ll walk you through some of the best choices below, along with great accessories for new iPhone owners, including tough cases and handy MagSafe chargers.
★★★☆☆
After enduring torture during a coup attempt, a battered and dazed Margo Madison is offered work at the Russian space agency. Photo: Apple TV+
Sure enough, last week’s hints of looming unrest blossom this week in a full-scale coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in alt-history drama series For All Mankind, season 4, episode 3, “The Bear Hug.” And who’s in the middle of it all? Why, the former head of NASA, of course — Margo Madison.
In the span of one episode — released Wednesday instead of Friday for the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend — she gets horribly tortured and finds herself in a big new space-agency job. But it ain’t NASA this time. I’d say you can’t make this stuff up, but someone did. Meanwhile, another coup unfolds at private space-exploration company Helios Aerospace.
You can huge Black Friday savings on Apple accessories at MagEasy, especially if you use coupon code "cultofmac." Photo: MagEasy
SwitchEasy’s MagEasy brands makes tons of cool Apple accessories, and they’re up to 60% off for Black Friday. But you can take another 5% off is you use coupon code cultofmac at checkout!
That will make the deals you nab on cases, chargers and more for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods and MacBooks even sweeter. The promotion goes through November 28.
A powerful M3 MacBook and its older sibling -- an M1 Max -- play nice with a big LG smart TV via a Thunderbolt 4 dock. Photo: [email protected]
Today’s featured setup packs two powerful MacBooks Pro — an M1 Max for work and an M3 Pro for play. To give them hassle-free equal time with peripherals, including a big, beautiful OLED smart TV serving as a display, the user employs a Thunderbolt 4 dock bristling with ports for maximum connectivity options.
They're loyal and true, but sometimes they get lost. AirTag to the rescue via a Nine Twenty Eight collar. Photo: Nine Twenty Eight.
Never worry about losing your pet again with one of Nine Twenty Eight’s new AirTag dog collars. The family-run Canadian retailer — new to the Cult of Mac Store — designs the collars with a double-stitched slot for an AirTag, which is included with some models.
That way, you have a secure, comfortable collar for your pooch that also lets you use Apple’s AirTag tracking technology to help ensure he or she never gets lost.
Nine Twenty Eight also makes cat collars, but currently the lineup in the Cult of Mac Store is a selection of small, medium and large dog collars — and personalization is an option on the medium and large sizes!
Here's your chance to add a 49-inch curved ultra-wide display to your computer setups, or any of dozens of other choices. Photo: Samsung
If your computer setup could use a new external display, don’t sleep on Amazon’s Black Friday bargains on Samsung monitors. You can nab steep discounts of up to nearly half off regular prices on a few items, with more like a third off on many others.
And the selection is as wide as some of those ultra-wide displays! If you want to spend less, you can skip 4K-resolution screen and find choices with 1080p resolution.
A smile on Bill Belichick's face is a rarity, but he can almost manage it immediately after a Super Bowl victory. Photo: Apple TV+
Everybody loves a winner — except when they don’t. The NFL’s New England Patriots saw so much success over two decades, with six Super Bowl wins, they gained a lot of fans as well as haters.
But even if you despise the Pats, who are having another post-dynasty bad year, you might want to consider watching the upcoming 10-part documentary series The Dynasty: New England Patriots. The teaser trailer Apple TV+ dropped last week takes a decidedly defeated tone after the opening scenes wallow in the thrill of victory.
The series, which promises “unprecedented access” to the team, debuts February 16 on Apple TV+. If it sparks riots in Boston, we’ll know it touched a nerve.
The unobtrusive vertical stand holding up the Mac mini at right does a lot. Photo: [email protected]
Mac mini, Apple’s small-but-mighty desktop machine, does a lot of things well — especially the M1 and newer models. They make bigger desktop computers unnecessary for people who don’t need truly massive computing power.
And today’s featured M2 Mac mini user found a way to greatly expand his computer’s capabilities with a vertical stand that also saves space on the desk.
SwitchEasy's MagEasy magnetic wall mount lets you easily stick your iPhone practically anywhere. Photo: SwitchEasy
Following a recipe in the kitchen? Assembling furniture via online instructions? Taking a hands-free call in the tub? Sometimes you need to put your iPhone where you can see it, or talk via speaker, without holding it — and that’s when a magnetic wall mount comes in handy.
SwitchEasy sells two such mounts in the Cult of Mac Store, and through December 1 you can get a third one free when you buy two of the handy devices.
Time to get ripped with SmartGym 7 for Apple Watch. Or at least fit. Photo: SmartGym
The SmartGym app is already well-loved by Apple Watch users, and its recent update adds more than 70 new workouts and loads of convenient new functionality.
And it’s considered so good it’s currently up against two other finalist apps to win the App Store Award for Apple Watch App of the Year.
★★★☆☆
Miles Dale and his new Helios colleagues are psyched to work on Mars. But that doesn't last long. Photo: Apple TV+
Last week’s season four opener of Apple TV+ alt-history drama series For All Mankind went necessarily big to catch everyone up and start off with a bang. So it’s not surprising episode two establishes a more practical stride, focusing on the realities of life in a working Mars colony.
Turns out life sucks for the working man up there in more ways than just an alarming chance of fatality. Life in Happy Valley, Mars, also tells a deeply unfair tale of haves and have-nots, just like on Earth.
The user connects a MacBook Pro and Cinema Display via dock, as the Mac mini mainly stays with the TV in the living room. Photo: [email protected]
One thing we love about Apple is the staying power of its beautiful displays. We see the Studio Display maker’s much older Cinema Displays and Thunderbolt Displays used in modern computer setups pretty regularly.
Today’s MacBook Pro setup recently added a docking station to charge the laptop while connecting it to a classic LED Cinema Display.
Journey's Alti Ultra wireless charging desk mat is one of the company's fastest chargers. Photo: Journey
Alogic’s Journey brand recently rolled out its fastest-ever chargers — a wireless charging desk mat and 3-in-1 wireless charging station.
The new Ultra series chargers — Alti Ultra Wireless Charging Desk Mat and the Trio Ultra 3-in-1 Fast Wireless Charging Station — carry Made for MagSafe certification, the company’s first to do so.
Sure, this is mustache-less Ted Lasso from a 2022 holiday animated short, but the coach looks pretty worried his gifts won't get to Kansas by Christmas. Photo: Apple
If you’re planning on giving the gift of Apple gear to someone this holiday season, you better follow holiday shipping guidelines Apple posted on Thursday.
That way you can make sure your presents get to where they’re going by December 24, just in time for Christmas.
The iPhone 15 Series modem chip upgrade resulted in appropriately faster 5G downloads. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
iPhone 15 Series handsets released in September smoke iPhone 14 handsets by up to 54% in 5G download speeds, new tests released Wednesday showed.
Given the modem chipset upgrade in the newer models, the results aren’t surprising. But it’s always reassuring when the new gear performs as advertised.
The product was already a hit, Mophie just made it a little better. Photo: Mophie
mophie added fast charging for Apple Watch and a more sustainable design to its popular folding 3-in-1 MagSafe travel charger, the company said Wednesday.
So now the well-loved travel accessory gives you fast MagSafe charging for iPhone and quicker charging for your wearable.
Ben Mendelsohn stars as Christian Dior in "The New Look" on Apple TV+. Photo: Apple TV+
Legends Christian Dior and Coco Chanel launched modern fashion design amid the horrors of Nazi occupation in Paris, according to the first look Apple TV+ provided Wednesday for The New Look.
Boasting a star-studded cast, the 10-episode historical drama series premieres February 14.
Though most monitors come with adjustable stands, adding a monitor riser provides benefits to any computer setup. Photo: [email protected]
Whether you call them monitor risers, desk shelves or display stands, finding the right one for your desk’s size can be a huge boon to your computer setup. Today’s featured Mac mini workstation benefits from a compact Balolo stand sitting toward the back of a small desk.
You can see that choice desk shelf and several other options below, along with all the setup’s gear, including a Studio Display and marvelous high-end headphones.
If your laptop's webcam isn't doing it for you, you might try the new Tadpole from Opal. Photo: Opal
The ex-Apple and Beats folks behind the DSLR-like Opal C1 Webcam are back with a tiny new webcam claiming even better picture quality in an ultra-portable package for use with laptops and tablets — the Opal Tadpole.
And unlike the C1, which launched at $300 and dropped to $250, the Tadpole comes out of the gate at $175.
If you're looking for reliably good apps and games, this is a fine place to start. These are the apps for iPhone finalists (AllTrails, Duolingo and Flighty). Photo: App Store
Apple’s App Store named its apps and games of the year for different devices/services plus other App Store Award finalists Tuesday. All told, it recognized 37 apps and games whose developers “are delivering exceptional experiences and making a profound cultural impact.”
And in a matter of weeks, we’ll find out who the winners are, the company said.
If you come across a cool tune, you can add it to your library with a click. Photo: TikTok
Even if you only hear a snippet of a tune on TikTok, now you can add the whole song directly to Apple Music or another music-streaming service.
TikTok’s new Add to Music App launched Tuesday in the United States and the United Kingdom. It works with Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music and other music streamers.
You can use the BentoStack to neatly store you Apple accessories (and charge them). Photo: Function101
Ever order a bento box from a Japanese restaurant, with sushi and other foods in separate little compartments? The Function101 BentoStack Charge 8000 is like that — except it holds Apple accessories you want to store at your desk or tote around. Plus, it charges them.
The BentoStack comes with four useful compartments that you can use as trays. And it features a rechargeable power bank.