Sometimes a setup promoted on social media stops you dead in your tracks, and it’s not because you’re excited about the hardware. Sometimes it’s the amazing, hand-built “man shed” where the setup lives that stuns you.
Such is the case with CourseEcstatic6202’s offering on Reddit. The cloud architect — let’s just call him “CE” — works in Amazon Web Services on California’s central coast. He designed and built a beautiful little house for his MacBook Pro-based setup in his back yard.
Apple’s newest MacBook Air is its fastest, most impressive to date. And now is a great time to buy one, with some retailers offering the biggest discounts we’ve seen so far. What’s more, we can help make your upgrade even more affordable.
Sell your old Mac to Cult of Mac today and you’ll get a nice stack of cash to put toward a new model. We typically pay more than anyone else, and we’re fast!
A Federal judge granted class-action status to a lawsuit accusing Apple of putting defective keyboards in various MacBook models made between 2015 and 2019. These laptops all use the butterfly keyboard design which uses a key mechanism that is allegedly prone to sticking.
If one thing catches your eye first about Redditor arnaki_gkioulmpasi’s setup, it’s probably the interesting light show on the wall behind it. That array is made up of Nanoleaf Shapes that can be arranged any which way.
Those cool-looking lights, along with a Yeelight Screen Light Bar Pro atop the Dell 32-inch curved 4K monitor and a standing lamp next to the desk, keep eyestrain to a minimum.
UK-based Redditor linden_park just updated their setup while working in the early development phase of a new life simulator game set in space among multiple planets and space stations. Covering all that intergalactic territory, it helps to have both wide and tall screens.
Apple delayed plans to start mass-producing its next-gen MacBook Pro until this fall, according to a new report from Nikkei Asia. Originally, Cupertino was expected to start building the new laptops in May or June.
This MacBook Pro is widely expected to boast a new form factor and come in both 14- and 16-inch screen sizes. It is also anticipated to kill off the LED Touch Bar in favor of a row of physical keys, bring back the MagSafe charger, feature a built-in SD card reader and HDMI port, and sport a fancy mini-LED display.
In other words, it sounds like it’ll be worth the wait. But you will likely be waiting.
Rocky Lira, aka “Rocky Bandit,” and his “knucklehead” friends Eddie and Paddy went big into podcasting on a moderate budget recently. And they have the gear and the podcasts in circulation to show for it.
He and his Chicago pals started the weekly show Bums of Manarchy for fun, recording more than a dozen episodes so far. Lira got off to a fast start handling the podcast editing and production. He said he uses an M1 MacBook Pro and an older model, along with two iPad Pros and his iPhone 12 Pro — in concert with a Rode RodeCaster Pro Integrated Podcast Production Studio console.
We noticed business and technology author and noted Mac guy Ben Thompson volunteered a pic of his setup on Twitter when tech and politics writer Casey Newton posted a shot of an immaculate setup, wondering if he has “remotely what it takes to put something like this together.”
Well, Taiwan-based Thompson certainly has what it takes to put together a great setup — even if it’s more lived in and not quite as photo-ready as the one Newton posted.
Redditor Singulaffect stirred up a swarm of comments recently when posting a MacBook Pro-based setup featuring an LG 21-inch 4K display but no speakers — and two sets of AirPods. But what really stole the show was a Palm Vx from 1999.
If the latest Apple leaks and rumors prove correct, this year’s new Macs might seem strangely familiar. From colorful iMacs to the reintroduction of long-lost MacBook ports, it looks like Apple might go retro in a big way.
Cult of Mac writer Luke Dormehl dives into the phenomenon and makes the case for why going “Mac to the future” might be just fine.
And speaking of bad things … our Apple TV+ reviewer Scout Tafoya got an early look at Cherry, the new movie from longtime Marvel directors the Russo brothers. Let’s just say things went a little sour. (Scout’s blistering review of Cherry is pretty epic.)
On the other hand, he liked the new documentary Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry. That movie arrived on Apple’s streaming service this week, in case you’re looking for a little weekend viewing.
Read these stories and more in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. It’s free and built for easy reading on your favorite iOS device. (If you don’t want to download the free app, you can get the links in any web browser below.)
This week on The CultCast: We’ve got new details and leaks on the upcoming MacBook Pros, iMacs and Mac Pro mini … or will it be the Mac mini Pro? Plus: Lossless music is coming to Spotify, which means the mythical Apple Music lossless is likely right around the corner!
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Apple reportedly plans to shake up the design of the MacBook Pro later in 2021. Sources in the company’s Asian supply chain assert that a 14-inch model is on the way, a first for Apple.
Just as importantly, it and an improved 16-inch MacBook Pro supposedly will be the first macOS notebooks with a mini-LED display, improving the look of the screen.
San Francisco-based designer Arun Venkatesan is about to take delivery on a 2020 MacBook Air with an M1 chip to replace the 2013 MacBook Air he uses in tandem with his 2018 MacBook Pro. But the new Mac isn’t really what he’s excited about.
He thinks less about having the latest technology and more about how his tools fit into his design philosophy, which he wrote about at length here. Form and function meet in his elegant and minimal setup.
Woot’s spectacular sale on MacBook refurbs is back! There are a whole host of models to choose from, with prices starting at a mere $329.99 today only.
Don’t miss out!
This post contains affiliate links. Cult of Mac may earn a commission when you use our links to buy items.
Something weird is brewing in Apple land. The company, which for years wasn’t big on embracing its past, has gone retro.
While the innovations — ranging from the first 5G iPhones to the exciting new Macs powered by Apple’s proprietary processors — keep coming, Cupertino is reportedly revisiting some of its past designs for its next generation of products.
And you know what? I like it.
It’s a great time to pick up a new M1 MacBook Pro, with retailers like Amazon now slashing up to $100 off brand-new models, and Apple itself offering bigger discounts on refurbished units. And Cult of Mac can help make yours even more affordable.
We pay great prices for used Apple computers (and other Apple devices) — and we make the whole process quick and simple. We also cough up real cash that you can spend anywhere you like.
Apple began selling refurbished M1 MacBooks at well below their original prices. As they’re as much as $500 below the regular price, these are outstanding options for anyone who wants a laptop with Apple’s speedy M-series processor but don’t have the cash for a new one.
There’s a wide range of used MacBook Air and MacBook Pro units currently in stock at the online Apple Store.
iOS software engineer Christian Roman has a “love-hate relationship” with his impressive triple 5K display setup.
“It’s fantastic when it works,” he told Cult of Mac. “It’s a nightmare when macOS suddenly decides to stop working with triple screens.”
From the sound of things, Apple is going back to the past for its next-gen MacBook Pro — and, depending on who you ask, that could be a very good thing.
The next MacBook Pro is already rumored to bring back the MagSafe charger and kill off the LED Touch Bar in favor of a row of physical keys.
Now, in a new note to clients, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says this year’s pro laptop will come with a built-in SD card reader and an HDMI port. These have been MIA since 2016, when Apple went all in on USB-C — and started ditching MacBook ports like they were going out of style.
Vincent Belotti, a mechanical engineering student at Farmingdale State College on Long Island, New York, has a colorful setup — and we’re not just talking about his screensaver. He 3D-prints some of the components in it himself, and he can’t get enough decor related to his favorite games.
As an engineering student, Belotti has made 3D printing into a hobby. He uses his MacBook Pro to model and slice prints that become components to enhance his setup. They include an Apple Watch dock, shown on the right side of his desk in these photos, and 3D figurines on the shelf above his monitor.
Shad Ahmad was a hard-studying freshman majoring in biology and minoring in history at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Going home to continue classes for a semester remotely from his parents’ house in Wisconsin may not have been ideal, but Ahmad found a comforting upside. Integrated smart technology makes his life easier, he told Cult of Mac.
Austin, Texas-based photographer Matt Tran initially built his impressive setup to share his pics on Instagram, and you can certainly see a lot of them there. But now he uses his workstation, centered on a MacBook Pro and two monitors of vastly different sizes, to film and edit videos.
“I like having the 38-inch [LG] ultrawide to view the timeline on Final Cut Pro and the smaller, 15.6-inch Desklab portable monitor to review the footage,” he told Cult of Mac.
Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based Edward Wang, Ph.D., is an executive director with Quest Diagnostics. He took some serious time and effort making his setup a clean and powerful tool for health care work and audiovisual play. Once he diagnosed and treated a cable-management malady stemming from several separate pieces of computer and audio equipment, his setup delighted him.
According to Apple, a “very small number” of MacBook Pros sold in 2016 and 2017 have an issue that stops the battery charging beyond 1%.
As a result, Apple has launched a free battery replacement program to swap out these faulty batteries — so that customers can join the rest of us in the exclusive “our batteries charge up to 100%” club.
Gareth Owen is a London-based professional sound designer whose job involves extensive CAD and acoustic modeling, but he also does sound effects work and multitrack mixing.
So he built a setup that functions as both his home office and a basic home studio.