Apple devices are known for their beautiful designs and user-friendly functionality — not their battery power. Apple Watch is no exception, needing daily charging. So sometimes the battery runs low when you’re not near a charger. But a brand-new gadget fixes that problem.
qCharge 2.0 Portable Apple Watch Battery, now available in the Cult of Mac Store, goes wherever you go and charges up your Apple Watch (and AirPods Pro 2) anywhere, no cable required.
★★★★☆
If you’re looking for newer, better charging options than the old adapters you have lying around the house, but without having to spend much, don’t sleep on Ugreen’s new Nexode Pro lineup of four gallium nitride (GaN) wall chargers.
Ugreen continues to go the way of GaN with these “GaNInfinity”-branded gadgets — more charging power in a smaller space with as many USB-C charging ports as possible (without leaving out USB-A ports entirely; there’s always one).
If you’re ready to put your MacBook in clamshell mode on a vertical stand, Twelve South rolled out a nice one for you Tuesday — BookArc Flex.
The minimalist stand lets you run your closed laptop like a desktop — just plug in your external display and fire up a keyboard and mouse — while saving loads of space on your desk for other gear. And you can get it with chrome, matte-black or matte-white finishes.
New entertainment experiences launching with Apple Vision Pro on February 2 should be dazzling, as users can turn any space into a personal theater, enjoy more than 150 3D movies and experience “the future of entertainment” with Immersive Video, Apple said Tuesday.
“Apple Vision Pro is the ultimate entertainment device,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing. “Users can turn any place into the best seat in the house, enjoy personal concerts and adventures with Apple Immersive Video, interact with lifelike prehistoric creatures in Encounter Dinosaurs, and even land on the surface of the moon using Environments. It’s unlike anything users have ever seen before and we can’t wait for them to experience it for themselves.”
For a would-be blockbuster packed with A-list Hollywood talent, the Apple TV+ spy thriller Argylle coming to theaters next month sure flew under the radar until recently. And not only is the high-concept global romp starring Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa and everyone else in Hollywood seeming to come out of nowhere. So is the developing Argylle movie franchise, which could dominate screens for years.
Turns out Argylle is based on book four of a novel series that has only just released book one. Does that mean a whopping four Argylle movies will come to Apple TV+? Or maybe even more?
Sure, you can buy a computer monitor and set it up on the stand that came in the box. But what if you want to easily move the external display around? And what if you want to have multiple screens and move them around?
Keeping monitors up off the desk and mobile can really improve your setup. And the best way to do that is to mount your screens on arms. It takes some effort, but as today’s user points out below, it’s worth it.
As always on the third Monday in January, Apple’s homepage honors the memory of slain Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King Jr.
It’s his national holiday. And this year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day you can download a free book that collects the man’s greatest writings.
★★★★☆
You can’t ask for much more than For All Mankind‘s season 4 finale “Perestroika” gives. It wraps up the season in heart-pounding and heartstring-tugging fashion Friday, bringing climax and resolution to the audience along with hope for the future of the space program — and maybe a season 5 of the show.
It’s a satisfying end to the conflict over Mars-based asteroid mining at the heart of the season. But the future development teased as the episode wraps up, which appears to beg a fifth season, could simply make a fitting end to the series (as we wait to see if Apple TV+ will renew it).
Some iPhone MagSafe stands are ideal for use at your desk or on your bedside table. Others are car mounts. But what if one mount could go almost anywhere and let you view your handset at any angle? That’s the SwitchEasy Orbit Universal Magnetic Stand.
And all the better, you can get 20% off the portable and flexible stand in the Cult of Mac Store — a savings of $8. The sale ends this Sunday.
Amazon is offering discounts on all Apple AirPods models right now, including some hefty ones. Depending on the right model for you, you might save as much as 24% off the regular price, or about $60.
Even AirPods Max over-ear headphones are priced down a bit, with prices ranging from $495 to $535 depending upon which color you choose (under the regular $549 price).
Sennheiser unveiled three new earphones at CES 2024 that will compete with various AirPods, including Momentum Sport wireless earbuds that track heart rate and body temperature. Those kinds of sensors were expected in AirPods Pro (2nd generation), launched in September 2022, but didn’t show up.
In addition, Momentum True Wireless 4 earbuds become the venerable brand’s new flagship buds for sound quality and Accentum Plus bring top-shelf features to relatively affordable over-ear headphones.
You can ask the new AI-powered Rabbit R1 gadget to do pretty much anything you’d normally do with some combination of apps on your smartphone, according to Rabbit’s fascinating keynote at CES 2024.
You can ask it to explain something, call an Uber, order a meal delivery or even book a fairly complex vacation itinerary, to name a few examples.
And unlike a would-be iPhone replacement like the Humane Ai Pin, Rabbit R1 comes with a screen and costs just $199 with no subscription necessary.
Update: Rabbit noted it sold out its R1 units on day one of sales, moving 10,000 units. See the company’s tweet below.
Mujjo, known for its high-quality leather cases for iPhone and other Apple gear, is having a rare sale — 25% off a wide variety of goods through January 18.
This is the good stuff, so don’t miss it.
When someone asked a marketing director in the United Kingdom how much money he makes, the man laughed and said, “Not enough to justify the contents of this picture” of his computer setup.
Hey, we get it. But then we suffered immediate pangs of envy when he went on to say, “My sister works for Apple so got a sick deal on a refurbed [Mac] Studio and new Studio Display.”
Yeah, good for you, pal. No, really. We mean it!
Many companies use CES to unveil products that won’t go on sale right away — including Qi2 chargers — but Anker is using the major electronics show to make hay about much of its previously teased lineup of MagGo Qi2 charging accessories going on actual sale.
Qi2 is essentially MagSafe for all, and it can be used to charge MagSafe iPhones at a full 15 watts, so these are worth a look.
Alogic rolled out the portable Matrix Ultimate — calling it the world’s first foldable MagSafe-certified 3-in-1 wireless charger for iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch — at CES in Las Vegas Tuesday.
In addition, the company unveiled four new 32-inch Clarity 4K-resolution displays (previous Clarity models are 27 inches), plus Glide Flexible Monitor Arms.
Your Apple Watch may be the ultimate tool, but it can also be beautiful jewelry with the right accessory. Goldenerre makes some remarkably pretty Apple Watch bands, and its Basketweave model is no exception.
Now available in the Cult of Mac Store in three lustrous finishes, you can get it for just $108.
Aqara highlighted new HomeKit-enabled smart-home devices at CES 2024 Monday in Las Vegas — the new Hub M3, Border Router Plug and Smart Lock U300 — plus an AI chatbot interface for the Aqara Home App.
The devices support both Matter and Thread networking standards. And the hub may help you control your whole smart home.
Samsung showed off three transparent microLED displays at its First Look event Sunday just ahead of CES 2024 in Las Vegas, according to reports. Two of them are tinted, but the totally clear one can have an especially hologram-like effect.
Don’t get too excited, though. With no availability or pricing information available yet, it might be a while before even any rich people you know can buy these.
You can nab a 15-inch M2 MacBook Air for $1,049.99 on Amazon right now — $249 off the regular price of $1,299. That’s only about a buck behind the all-time low price the behemoth retailer has offered for the machine.
Multiple-display computer setups are all the rage, but can a workstation benefit from losing one of its external monitors, even one with 4K resolution?
If today’s featured MacBook Pro rig is any indication, yes, it can — especially if the outfit sees a bunch of other cool upgrades at the same time, like a cool new monitor riser, an open stand for the MacBook Pro and a great new office chair.
After receiving 14 Golden Globes nominations, Apple TV+ notched just one win Sunday — but it was a big one. Lily Gladstone became the first Indigenous winner of a best-actress Golden Globe for her performance in Martin Scorsese’s historical epic Killers of the Flower Moon.
So, while Apple TV+ remains the only streamer to win an Oscar — 2022’s Best Picture for CODA — it didn’t exactly clean up this year at the Globes, which tend to foreshadow the Academy Awards.
Zagg-owned mobile-accessories maker mophie let loose a blast from the past with a fresh twist at CES Monday, rolling out its re-engineered Juice Pack cellphone battery case to keep iPhone 15 series handsets charged anywhere.
And the company, which has made Juice Pack products since the first iPhone launched in 2007, also let everyone know its Qi2 Snap+ Powerstation Mini with Stand won a CES 2024 Innovation Award.
★★★★☆
Season 4 of For All Mankind entered its tense final phase Friday, with action heating up on Mars and on Earth ahead of climactic episode 10. Episode 9, “Brazil,” is all about setting up that endgame (and it really could be the End, as we await Apple TV+ news of season 5 renewal … or not).
But two characters won’t live to see that endgame. And many more lives are at risk as forces on Earth seek to control the fight in space over the Goldilocks asteroid’s vast mineral wealth — and maybe even the future of space exploration.
Say what you will about old Apple hardware, it’s cool and it’s got staying power — sometimes to an amazing degree. Today’s featured setup, for example, sports a 16-year-old Mac Pro with some modifications driving a 19-year old Cinema Display (the big one — 30 inches — first released in 2004, a mere 20 years ago).
The user’s just happy she’s getting the venerable desktop machine to run as fast as her spritely young MacBook Pro … from 2012.