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Apple should go all in on iPhone 12’s reverse wireless charging

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Apple should go all in on iPhone 12’s reverse wireless charging
What if you could charge your AirPods just by putting them on your iPhone?
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Turns out the iPhone 12 could do reverse wireless charging all along — Apple just didn’t talk about it until this week. And now that the cat’s out of the bag, Apple should embrace the capability and let iPhones wirelessly charge any other compatible device.

Take a gamble on Schmigadoon!, the inventive Scream of musicals [Apple TV+ review]

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Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key in Schmigadoon!
Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key wind up in a surreal situation.
Photo: Apple TV+

With a murderers’ row of talent behind and in front of the camera, and nods to handsome musicals and TV of the past, Schmigadoon! could become a major crossover hit for Apple TV+.

The new musical comedy injects a thoroughly modern sensibility into the classic Brigadoon storyline. Loaded with the obligatory singing and dancing you’d expect, it’s good and occasionally great.

If you like musicals, you’ll almost certainly love Schmigadoon!. The only question is, is the public’s thirst for musical theater enough to sell this high-concept gamble?

A Mac mini, a PC and a G4 walk into a podcasting primer … [Setups]

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See the G4 peeking out from under the desk? Ah, nostalgia.
See the G4 peeking out from under the desk? Ah, nostalgia.
Photo: omgaporksword@Reddit

It sounds like the setup to a punchline: A strapping young Mac mini, a yoked gaming PC and an elderly Power Mac G4 walk into a podcasting primer. Then what happens?

Well, if we’re talking about Redditor omgaporksword’s recent setup post, you learn a few OS-switching tricks, share some old-school Mac nostalgia and see how to position your USB microphone using a boom arm.

There is no punchline and there are no laughs. But please, people. Not everything is about humor. Except maybe omgaporksword’s Reddit handle.

How Apple uses US Customs and Border Protection to bust bogus AirPods

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AirPods
Not exactly authentic AirPods.
Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection

When you think about the types of items typically seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, you might picture contraband like drugs or weapons. You probably don’t imagine knockoff AirPods as a target.

In fact, bogus earbuds are a big deal. Customs and Border Protection seized “roughly 360,000 counterfeit wireless headphones with a retail value of $62.2 million” since October, according to a story in The Information, citing previously unreported government data.

Apple is one several predominantly larger companies that work with Customs officers to help weed out copycat products upon their entry into the United States. And the counterfeit goods are not necessarily packaged to look exactly like actual Apple products. Here’s how it works.

Lisey’s Story finale cements show as one of Apple TV+’s finest [Review]

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Lisey's Story finale review: Lisey learns to carry on.
Lisey, played by Julianne Moore, learns to carry on as the Stephen King-penned mini series concludes.
Photo: Apple TV+

The time has come for a bool hunt in Lisey’s Story! In the Apple TV+ series finale, Lisey and Dooley reach their final showdown — and get their last look at the brutal past just in the rearview mirror.

It’s a fitting end to the Stephen King-written miniseries about the widow of a famous writer and the crazed superfan who hunts her down. If you’re an Apple TV+ subscriber and haven’t watched this show yet, a rewarding binge awaits.

How to send Soundmojis in Facebook Messenger

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Amp up your emoji game with Soundmojis in Facebook Messenger.
Amp up your emoji game with Soundmojis in Facebook Messenger.
Image: Facebook

Emoji just got a sonic boost in Facebook Messenger. The social network’s chat app added Soundmojis on Thursday, giving users the option of sending audio snippets with some key emoji.

At launch, you can send catchphrases from TV shows, bits of hit songs, and garden-variety stock sounds. If your conversation demands the world’s tiniest violin emoji, your chat partner can actually hear it!

New emoji will let you salute, melt, gasp and tear up

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New emoji will let you salute, melt, gasp and tear up
These are just some of the proposed emoji that could be coming to your iPhone or Mac.
Graphic: Emojipedia

Soon there could be new emoji that let you show you are melting, have a low battery or are feeling ambivalent or teary-eyed. These and more are on the list for approval in Emoji 14.0. But they might not appear in iPhones and other devices until 2022.

The list appears with World Emoji Day coming July 17.

How to use a long, alphanumeric iPhone passcode so cops can’t hack it [Update]

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iPhone passcode
A strong passcode is the next-best thing to keeping your iPhone in a safe.
Photo: Rob Pongsajapan/FlickrCC

It’s time to stop using that useless six-digit passcode on your iPhone. Now that cops around the United States are going crazy for the GrayKey, a little box that can crack your iPhone’s passcode in hours, it has become clear that the iPhone’s regular six-digit numerical code is no longer secure.

Plus, now that GrayKey is available, it won’t be long before they’re in the hands of the bad guys, too, if they’re not already. In fact, instructions on how GrayKey works surfaced online last month.

The good news is, it’s super-easy to change your iPhone passcode to something a lot better. The bad news? There actually isn’t any, unless you already have the cops trying to break into your iPhone — in which case you’ve got plenty of bad news already.

New iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 betas fix some of Safari’s biggest problems

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New iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 betas fix some of Safari’s biggest problems
With the release of iOS 15 beta 3, the Safari Address Bar stays at the bottom of the screen where it belongs.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The just-released iOS 15 beta 3 fixes the bouncing address bar in Safari. Plus, iPadOS 15 beta 3 makes Safari’s Share button much more prominent. Both changes apparently come in response to complaints from beta testers about Apple’s updated mobile web browser.

The latest betas, released Wednesday, also bring other changes to the iPhone and iPad versions of Safari.

No need to overthink it (or overpay for it) [Setups]

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A solid M1 MacBook Air and widescreen setup gets things done.
A solid M1 MacBook Air and widescreen setup gets things done.
Photo: floridatastic@Reddit.com

Redditor floridatastic, who probably dwells in The Sunshine State, said they spent a while as a “serial lurker” on the macsetups subreddit. But after rebuilding a home workstation centered on an M1 MacBook Air, the time came to to take the gear public.

Apple launches MagSafe Battery Pack for iPhone 12 series [Updated]

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Apple MagSafe Battery Pack
Here's how the new MagSafe Battery Pack looks when attached to iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Photo: Apple

On its website Tuesday, Apple offered a new MagSafe Battery Pack, designed to work with the iPhone 12 series from mini to Pro Max. That is, it’s designed to work as of the release of iOS 14.7, due imminently.

Unlike all the other unofficially “MagSafe compatible” wireless battery packs that came out after the iPhone 12’s release, this one’s MagSafe-approved, straight from Apple. It took a while, but it’s here.

iOS 14.7 will bring Apple Card tweaks, Apple battery pack support

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iOS 14.7 will bring Apple Card tweaks, Apple battery pack support
iOS 14.7 brings some tweaks, but isn’t a major update.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The release candidate for iOS 14.7 was seeded to developers on Tuesday. It includes some promised improvements to the Apple Card, and it enables users to use a just-announced MagSafe Battery Pack. In addition, it allows users to manage timers on a HomePod.

Plus, the macOS Big Sur 11.5 release candidate, iPadOS 14.7 RC, watchOS 7.6 RC and tvOS 14.7 RC were also made available for developers.

Watt’s next for Apple car: Batteries built on home soil?

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Apple car batteries could be made in U.S.
Foxconn and Aleees could get the go-ahead from Apple.
Photo: Jaguar

Apple apparently wants to build car batteries on its home soil. The company is eyeing a number of manufacturers as it plans to set up factories in the United States, according to a new report.

Foxconn, already one of Apple’s largest manufacturing partners, or Advanced Lithium Electrochemistry (Aleees) could get battery orders from Cupertino in the future, sources say.

Next-gen MacBook Pros might top out at 32GB of RAM

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This is a 16-inch MacBook Pro concept image. Not a leak from Apple.
The 2021 MacBook Pro might be beautiful, but not offer the same amount of RAM as its Intel-based predecessor.
Photo: Antonio De Rosa

The much-anticipated 2021 MacBook Pro models will be limited to a maximum of 32GB of data, according to an unconfirmed report. But the same source indicates that the upcoming macOS notebooks will have speedy SD slots and backlit TouchID sensors.

Brydge Max+: The best third-party keyboard for iPad Pro [Review]

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Brydge Max+ for iPad Pro review
A Brydge keyboard greater than any other.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

If you want to use your iPad like a laptop, adding a Brydge keyboard has long been the best way to do it. There are other solutions — a lot of them, in fact — and many are more affordable. But none of them are as good as a Brydge keyboard.

And no Brydge keyboard has been better than the new Max+ for iPad Pro. Like its predecessors, the Max+ is beautifully built from anodized aluminum, with a backlit keyboard that delivers a stellar typing experience. The big difference with the Max+ — which makes it even better than the Pro+ — is a larger, more reliable trackpad and a new, much more seamless magnetic docking system for your iPad.

The Max+ is not only the best Brydge keyboard ever made, but also the best third-party keyboard you can buy for iPad Pro. Here’s our full review.

If you can’t afford Apple’s Pro Display XDR, then what? [Setups]

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The custom-made redwood desk is nice, but the Pro Display XDR is stunning.
The custom-made redwood desk is nice, but the Pro Display XDR is stunning.
Photo: Caliform@Reddit.com

Gorgeous, high-definition monitors hold a place of honor in many a computer setup. And sometimes it’s several displays, actually. But we rarely come across one of the most amazing monitors out there: the Apple Pro Display XDR. Why? Well, it costs $6,000, for one thing. Or, if you’re lucky, not quite that much.

So if you’re not a wealthy or financially irresponsible person, what’s a reasonable alternative to the Pro Display XDR?

Larger iMac ‘en route’ and could bring even faster ‘M2X’ chip

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M1 iMac
Could it be Apple's fastest desktop to date?
Photo: Apple

A larger iMac powered by Apple Silicon is “en route” and could feature an even faster “M2X” chip, according to reliable reporter Mark Gurman.

The next-generation all-in-one is expected to replace the 27-inch iMac with an even larger screen — perhaps around 30 inches — and could well be Apple’s fastest desktop to date.

iPad mini will see ‘biggest redesign’ and larger display this fall

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iPad mini concept is cool but not happening.
Like the newest iPad Air, only smaller.
Concept: Parker Ortolani

Apple’s new iPad mini is on track to launch this fall with its “biggest redesign” to date, according to one reliable reporter.

The sixth-generation device, which could look like a more compact version of the iPad Air, is expected to feature a larger edge-to-edge screen. It could be powered by the lightning-fast A14 Bionic chip.

A year of effort goes into a clean and balanced look [Setups]

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Chris Reed's dual-monitor M1 MacBook Pro setup was a long time in the making.
Chris Reed's dual-monitor M1 MacBook Pro setup was a long time in the making.
Photo: Chris Reed

Working student Chris Reed told Cult of Mac he put a year of work into his “slow build” home office and computer setup. In that year he strove to achieve a clean and balanced look, and, judging by his pics and comments, it seems he got there.

Reed said he wanted to go with dual monitors rather than a wide screen display to save some money. He’s pleased with his choice of 32-inch Samsung 1080p curved monitors, run along with his 2020 MacBook Pro and his iPad Pro.

Lisey’s Story paints provocative portrait of incel culture [Apple TV+ review]

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Lisey's Story review: Dane DeHaan plays a particular kind of creep in the Stephen King miniseries.
Dane DeHaan plays a particular kind of creep in the Stephen King miniseries.
Photo: Apple TV+

Lisey has both of her sisters by her side as crazed stalker Jim Dooley approaches for their final showdown. But is everything as cut-and-dried as it appears?

The penultimate episode of Lisey’s Story, the Stephen King miniseries on Apple TV+, has one last round of games to play.

MacBook Pro may get a swanky screen upgrade later this year

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Antonio takes rumors and makes them into renders. Not pie-in-sky dreams
Would you be excited at the prospect of a redesigned, mini-LED MacBook Pro?
Concept: Antonio De Rosa

Mini-LED screens, branded by Apple as “Liquid Retina XDR” displays, are reportedly coming to MacBook Pro. In a note to clients Friday, seen by Cult of Mac, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests that the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models — featuring Liquid Retina XDR displays and an all-new design — will enter mass production in the third-quarter of 2021.

This contrasts with a May report that claimed the launch of Apple’s mini LED-backlit MacBook series had been postponed to 2022. It’s not clear whether that information was incorrect, or whether Apple and its suppliers have been able to solve whatever problem they may have been facing.

Apple’s Liquid Retina XDR displays will brighten all iPad Pros next year

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2021 iPad Pro has an amazing mini-LED display
That's trickle-down screenomics for you.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s swanky mini-LED display apparently won’t be limited to the larger iPad Pro next year.

According to a Friday research note from TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, seen by Cult of Mac, both the 11-inch and 12.9-inch 2022 iPad Pro models likely will come equipped with mini-LED screens.

Todd Haynes’ Velvet Underground doc for Apple TV+ is a hit at Cannes

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Discover how an unsuccessful rock band went on to become hugely influential in the Velvet Underground documentary on Apple TV+.
Discover how an unsuccessful rock band went on to become hugely influential in the Velvet Underground documentary on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple

Director Todd Haynes’ first foray into documentary filmmaking, The Velvet Underground, got rave reviews after its world premiere Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival. And that bodes well for the music doc’s debut on Apple TV+ and in theaters on October 15.