A note to Cult of Mac readers: We’re changing the way external links open on the site. Instead of opening in the same tab, external links will now open in a new tab.
In the last few years, opening external links in new tabs has become a widespread practice in digital publishing. Many of the web’s most influential sites, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Reddit and Quora, open external links in a new tab.
We’re making the change to keep up.
With Apple’s release of new iPads, an updated Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro and the brand-new Apple Pencil Pro, many people are looking to upgrade all three. (Because of course all your old iPad accessories won’t work with the new tablets.) However, apart from going the DIY route on eBay or Facebook Marketplace, it can be difficult to find a trade-in site where you can sell an old Apple Pencil or Magic Keyboard.
Even Apple’s own trade-in program won’t buy back these iPad accessories. However, there are several other options for selling a used Apple Pencil or Magic Keyboard — and we’re here to help!
★★★★☆
Update: Function 101’s Button Remote for Apple TV has been upgraded with Bluetooth, allowing the multibutton remote control to work without direct line of sight to your Apple TV. This proves essential if you mount the streaming box behind your TV or hide it away in a cabinet. Otherwise, the remote looks and works the same, and is an excellent replacement remote for your Apple TV.
If, like me, you hate the fiddly Apple TV Siri Remote, Function 101’s Button Remote for Apple TV is a good replacement remote.
It’s a traditional infrared remote control — and now with added Bluetooth — with 18 simple buttons, hence the name. Thanks to its familiar design, it’s perhaps the easiest way to use your Apple TV.
It works with most TVs and home theater components out of the box, works with regular batteries, and isn’t as easy to misplace as Apple’s remote. There’s a lot to like, and it’s on sale for 25% off exclusively for Cult of Mac readers over the Memorial Day weekend. Use code CULTOFMAC25 (code applies to sitewide to all Function 101 products).
Apple introduced a new third-generation “pro” Apple Pencil at its “Let Loose” iPad event Tuesday alongside new iPad Pro and iPad Air models. The first Apple Pencil Pro brings a new “squeeze” gesture, an internal gyroscope, haptic feedback and Find My support, making it the most capable iPad stylus yet.
Available to order today for $129 — the same price as the second-generation Apple Pencil — the Apple Pencil Pro gains features normally found on styluses for dedicated drawing tablets, like a new “squeeze” gesture and a “Barrel Roll” gyroscope for precise tool controls.
“The new features in Apple Pencil Pro are simply revolutionary,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, in the introductory “Let Loose” video. “And we’re also excited that Apple Pencil Pro works with the new iPad Air as well, giving air users yet another pro feature to push their creativity.”
I love the idea of Humane’s Ai Pin: It’s an omnipresent smart assistant that you can assign tasks to, and it will perform them for you — like booking the best flight on a certain day, or asking what’s good to eat at a restaurant you just stumbled across. That’s the vision for the $700 magnetic lapel pin released Thursday. But the first Humane Ai Pin reviews paint a disturbing picture.
Many of the third-party testers sound sympathetic to Humane’s vision for the device. In fact, most of the early reviews bend over backward to try to accommodate the Ai Pin’s drawbacks, emphasizing that this is version 1.0 of the product.
But while the vision is beguiling, the implementation makes Humane’s Ai Pin almost unusable. It’s not just slow or unreliable. It flat-out doesn’t work most of the time. The Verge‘s review sums it up well: “Should you buy this thing? That one’s easy. Nope. Nuh-uh. No way.” Ouch.
The Department of Justice’s monumental Apple antitrust case appears weak.
Still, the civil lawsuit, filed Thursday, represents the biggest legal challenge to Apple’s power in the company’s 47-year history. If successful, the lawsuit could force Apple to fundamentally change the way it makes products and conducts business. A similar action against Microsoft in the 1990s significantly curtailed that company’s reach and power.
But the DOJ’s lawsuit against Apple appears to be based on old and outdated information, and Apple has already — or is about to — address most of the major concerns.
AirPods can work surprisingly well as hearing aids. Thanks to Transparency mode, AirPods Pro will boost the sound of your environment around you. They can give you freaky Spiderman super-hearing if you boost input volume to the max. And Conversation Boost on the latest AirPods Pro 2 can intelligently raise the volume of people talking to you (while lowering the volume of your music or podcasts).
My prescription hearing aids were out of action recently due to a battery problem, so for a few weeks, I used my AirPods Pro as hearing aids.
For the most part, they’ve been pretty good. They work best when set up properly, which is a bit of a chore, but here’s how to do it.
Two years after the Russian invasion, one of Ukraine’s preeminent Mac software companies isn’t just surviving. In fact, MacPaw is doing pretty well — shiny new bomb shelters notwithstanding.
The company behind CleanMyMac X and Setapp has launched new products — including some designed to take the fight to Russia. MacPaw also opened a satellite office in Boston and donated millions to humanitarian efforts, all while most of the company’s employees have remained behind in the war-torn country.
“Living and working amidst the unjust full-scale Russian invasion poses numerous challenges for our team,” said Nina Bohush, a senior MacPaw PR specialist based in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital city. “Just imagine a morning that starts with loud explosions outside the window because of another Russian attack … Of course, going through these unprecedented circumstances impacts people’s mental health and productivity.”
So far, all the demos of Humane’s supposedly iPhone-killing Ai Pin have been underwhelming.
Humane pitched the small, screenless device — which ships next month — as a successor to smartphones. However, it is garnering almost no buzz at all, no thanks to its lackluster marketing. The Ai Pin’s first introductory video looked especially bad. It proved so head-scratchingly awful, it made you wonder if the company wants the device to bomb, like some kind of high-tech The Producers investor/insurance scam.
But a new video just emerged that actually makes the device look cool. It’s the demo Humane should have made.
The latest iPhone 16 Pro camera rumor comes with an image that shows a radically redesigned lens module. It looks like a fidget spinner, or an 18th-century tricorn hat seen from above, and would represent a striking departure from Apple’s current design language.
If the iPhone 16 Pro actually looks like this, it would instantly put to bed perennial complaints that the new iPhone looks just like the old one.
You’d think readers of a website called Cult of Mac would be into Apple products. But a straw poll of Cult of Mac Today readers found a whopping 76% of respondents plan to return their Vision Pro to Apple.
The eye-popping number comes as droves of Vision Pro early adopters say they plan to take advantage of Apple’s generous return policy. Discomfort, the headset’s high price and the lack of a clear use case for the isolating device top the list of reasons cited by disaffected Vision Pro owners.
Many early adopters seem set on returning their Apple Vision Pro headsets. As the 14-day return window approaches for people who bought the device on launch day, an avalanche of posts on X and other social media channels point to a wave of Vision Pro returns.
Apparently, it’s not just Mark Zuckerberg who thinks Apple’s expensive headset isn’t worth the money. There appears to be a mass exodus of early adopters who ponied up the cash for Apple’s pricey headset. They cite three main reasons for returning Vision Pro. But is the situation really as bad as it seems?
★★★★☆
Apple Vision Pro is the most amazing technology I’ve experienced in my life. Thanks to the headset’s intuitive interface, it’s as close to mind reading as you can get.
It’s given me magical, highly emotive experiences I haven’t felt with any other technology. Immersive 360-degree videos make you feel like you are actually there — it’s a cliche, but it’s true.
I’m absolutely, unabashedly delighted with Vision Pro. But would I recommend you get one?
Hell no!
Apple’s new Vision Pro headset is but a day old, but already it’s been spotted in public in several amusing situations.
Here’s what folks have been up to with their new Vision Pros in the wild. Some users, like James Addictive, love Apple Vision Pro for its immersive experience.
Steve Jobs designed the Apple unboxing experience as a careful process of introducing the customer to an unfamiliar product. And the Vision Pro unboxing is no different.
You don’t just rip the product from its box like a kid at Christmas! You carefully unpack it, examining each component as you go. The idea is to gradually show the customer the parts of the product and give them an idea of how they work together. An Apple unboxing is a very carefully thought-out process and ritual.
And, as you’d expect, the Vision Pro unboxing proceeds just as Apple intended. The new spatial computing headset is sleek, premium and very luxurious. This is no Fisher-Price View-Master.
And as for Vision Pro first impressions after using the headset for a few hours? I was originally skeptical of AR headsets after using a Meta Quest 3 and not liking it much at all. But I’m now a zealous convert. I may never take this thing off!
SAN FRANCISCO — I demoed the Vision Pro at the Apple Store here on Chestnut Street. It’s the most impressive tech product I’ve ever seen. It makes the iPhone seem like a primitive stone tablet. It’s amazingly intuitive, works literally like magic, and is incredibly emotional. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
You don’t have to buy a Vision Pro, but you absolutely must go to a store and get a free demo. We put together a video (below) that will show you what to expect from your Vision Pro demo.
If you’re gonna spend $3,500 on a face-hugging computer, you’ll want to get your money’s worth of mind-blowing experiences. For that, you’ll need the best Vision Pro apps available on day one.
Here are some of the coolest apps, concepts and use cases we’ve seen so far:
Apple has a huge problem with the Vision Pro that no one has talked about: It’s highly addictive!
The astonishing visuals that Apple’s new headset pumps directly into your eyeballs make the real world seem dull, according to Nick Bilton, a Vanity Fair reporter who got behind-the-scenes access for a cover story published Thursday.
In fact, Bilton says Vision Pro is “like a drug” that offers a “dopamine hit.” And an unnamed source in Bilton’s story likens the Vision Pro to “tech fentanyl.”
Apple is further opening up iOS to alternative browsers and browser engines, as part of Cupertino’s plan to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act.
In iOS 17.4 — launched Thursday as a beta — iPhone users in the EU will have a lot more choice over the default browser and browser engines.
The biggest change will be the ability to use alternative browser engines, like Google’s Blink renderer instead of Apple’s WebKit.
To celebrate the Macintosh’s 40th birthday, the author of a celebrated book about Macs created a website featuring photos of every Mac ever released.
Jonathan Zufi, author of Iconic: A Photographic Tribute To Apple Innovation, just launched Mac40th.com, a new website with more than 1,000 photos of every Mac, ever.
“So many people have come across a Mac at some point in their lives,” Zufi said in an email to Cult of Mac. “Mac40th.com is about giving fans a fun trip down memory lane with the hope that the Macintosh’s 40th anniversary evokes happy memories for anyone who has ever had an experience with an Apple Mac.”
Check out Apple’s new video for the Vision Pro: It’ll definitely give you FOMO. Labeled a “guided tour,” the 10-minute video shows a newbie user testing the AR/VR headset for the first time.
You’ll see lots of moments where the newbie gasps with Steve Jobs’ famous childlike wonder. But while Vision Pro looks amazing for consuming media, the video suspiciously skips over work you might do with Apple’s new spatial computer. It’s mentioned, but briefly: Here’s your workspace, now let’s watch Godzilla!
Update: Black Friday might be over but the deals certainly are not. Many of the best deals on Apple products are still live and you can score some hefty discounts on them this shopping season. In fact, some of these deals disappeared for a while on Black Friday — like the iPad (9th gen) for just $229 (save $100) — then reappeared at some point!
For starters, don’t miss this killer deal on AirPods Pro 2 (with USB-C) for just $189 (save $60) — this is the best price we’ve seen on the best AirPods you can get. Plus, Apple Watch SE (2nd gen., 2022) is down to just $179 (save $70) — the SE is a great gift for someone this Xmas. Or, if you are shopping for yourself, the latest Apple Watch Series 9 is just $329 (save $70).
There are lots of great Apple deals to be had on Black Friday 2023 — just not from Apple itself. Apple is usually pretty stingy when it comes to Black Friday (Tim Cook loves his margins!). This year, you can get an Apple gift card worth up to $200 when you splash out on select products, but the latest and greatest — iPhone 15, M3 MacBook Pros, iMac, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 — are not included.
However, there are great savings on Apple products from third-party retailers like Best Buy, B&H Photo, Target and Walmart. All these stores offer significant discounts on AirPods, Apple Watch, iPads, iPhones and more. Here are the best deals on Apple gear we’ve found.
In this week’s Awesome Apps roundup, we have a way to play Legos without the mess, an app that’ll read aloud almost anything, 700 workouts on your Apple Watch, and the best Safari extension ever.
Almost every day, our robot vacuum tangles itself in charging cables, which the kids toss cavalierly across the floor. Snaking from behind the couch, the cords wait like baited fishing lines to ensnare our unsuspecting Roomba. It’s an unmitigated cable management disaster.
Luckily, we just got some Cable Blocks from Function101. Cable Blocks are rubbery little magnetic blocks that sit on your desk or nightstand and hold cables out of the way. It’s a simple and clever design.
Here’s why Cable Blocks are my favorite cable management system.
In this week’s Awesome Apps roundup, we have a synthesizer app that brings back the sound of the ’80s, a solid VPN for safely surfing the Web, an app for testing external drives for recording high-res video, and a guide to the best eateries in Italy.