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The Escape key is pretty essential to the Mac. You can use it to, well, escape from the current window/view/text field. You can use it to dismiss some dialog boxes. It can even be used to force-quit an unresponsive app. And that’s before we get to the Vim text editor, which is as dependent on the Escape key as Jony Ive is on new kinds of aluminum. So why did Apple remove the physical MacBook Pro Escape key when it introduced the Touch Bar?

Apple made that move, much to the despair of some users, back in 2016. Now, in the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, the Escape key is back. But what if you have a perfectly good previous-gen MacBook Pro? Are you really going to spend close to $3,000 just to get your Escape key back? No, you are not. Instead, you are going to repurpose the Caps Lock key, and turn it into an Escape key.

You can add almost endless faces to your Apple Watch, and switch between them with a simple swipe on the screen. Maybe you have a carefully-crafted fitness face, an elegant, complication-free evening face, plus faces for shopping, hiking, commuting, and so on. But is this really an optimum strategy?

After a months or so using the Apple Watch Series 5, I’ve settled on something way simpler, and probably good enough for 90% of Apple Watch use cases. I call it the “Two-Face Mullet Strategy,” and you’re going to love it.

Apple TV+ is here, and anyone can test it out for a week for free. After that, the $5-per-month charge will be billed automatically, just like any other Apple subscription you may have. Unless, of course, you get to watch Apple TV+ for free. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Apple’s new TV subscription service is pitched as a rival to Netflix, Amazon Prime and so on. It works on Apple devices. Plus, you can watch Apple TV+ on Samsung TVs, Roku boxes and in pretty much any web browser. Signing up is absurdly easy, but a few tips will help you get the most out of the service.

Have you ever been part of one of those threads where your boss sends out a fairly benign yet pointless email, and then one of your less-smart co-workers hijacks the thread with reply-alls about dress code for the upcoming office team-building excursion? Before long, the thread is an embarrassing morass of arguments on whether sneakers count as casual shoes, and who will sit where during dinner.

Your moronic co-worker (hopefully) ends up getting a do-not-promote mark in their personnel file. While you, thanks to today’s tip, manage not only to stay above the fray, but to completely ignore it. That’s because you’re about to see how easy it is to mute an email thread so you never have to see it again.

This is the Livboj, an inexpensive but hard-to-find Qi charging pad from Ikea. Last week, I visited my local Ikea to stock up on frozen cinnamon buns. I got lost, and found a stack of these amazing devices instead.

Despite its dirt-cheap price tag of 5 euros ($5.50), the Livboj is pretty great. So far I’ve experienced none of the problems other people report from far-more-expensive Qi pads. You should snap up one of these elusive chargers — if you’re lucky enough to spot one next time you’re at Ikea.

Fans of Live Photos will be able to save one or more into a single video thanks to a new feature in iOS 13.

Apple Support rolled out a quick tutorial on its YouTube channel Wednesday that shows the easy steps to stitching a string of Live Photos into a fun little video loop.

3D Touch is dead. Long live 3D Touch! Even though Apple removed the 3D Touch hardware from iPhone 11, the company resurrected the feature via Haptic Touch on its latest devices (just the way it mimicked it with iPhone XR). And now that iPadOS is here, that means 3D Touch is coming to iPads (in the form of a medium-long press).

In the new iPad version of iOS, you can long-ish press on an app icon, and it will pop up the same 3D Touch menu as you would find on an iPhone. Let’s see how it looks.

iPadOS 13 soups up its screenshot tool with the ability to capture an entire webpage as a PDF. That means it doesn’t just grab what you can see on the screen right now. If you’re viewing a webpage that’s really, really long, it will capture the whole thing, and turn it into a very tall PDF.

You can also mark up the resulting PDF before you save it to the Files app. This is a fantastic way to save a webpage, especially when you combine it with Reader View to remove the ads, sidebars and other junk first.

Let’s see how to use it.

In iOS 13 and iPadOS, Apple rejigged the text-selection engine and the cut/copy/paste tools. And they’re amazing. For the last 10 years, selecting and manipulating text has been a frustrating nightmare on the iPad. Try to select a couple of words in Safari, for instance — a package delivery tracking number, for instance — and the selection would bounce back and forth between a few characters and the entire page.

It was enough to drive you back to the comfort of the Mac’s mouse pointer.

In iOS 13, though, this all changes. Text selection is accurate and predictable. And the new copy/paste gesture shortcuts become second nature almost immediately.

Fitness tech startup Form launches its first product today: augmented reality swimming goggles.

You might think AR sounds like a bit of a gimmick for swimmers. I certainly did. My Apple Watch already does a pretty good job of logging my swimming workouts, so I didn’t see the need for yet another gadget.

But after testing a pair of Form Swim Goggles for the past month, I’m so impressed that I’ll never use my Apple Watch in the pool again.

The new Apple Watch Series 5 finally arrived this week, and it is by far the best smartwatch money can buy today. But it also costs $200 more than Apple Watch Series 3.

Is the latest model really worth the extra money? And should you consider upgrading if you already have a Series 3 or Series 4 device? Find out right here before parting with your cash.

Our comprehensive Apple Watch comparison will help you choose the right device for you.

Hello, my name is Erfon Elijah, and for the last seven years, I’ve hosted The CultCast, America’s favorite Apple podcast™. In that time I’ve tried a whole lot of podcasting gear, all in an effort to sound better and make the show easier to produce.

Now, I’m offering you the fruit of all that hands-on experience — the end result of years of podcasting hardware testing and tinkering. Good audio gear doesn’t come cheap, but I think I’ve found a great mix of value and quality in the products I use. If you utilize these podcasting hardware recommendations and podcasting tips, you won’t break the bank. And your podcast will sound as majestic as mine!

In the olden days, when you wanted to replace your hard drive with a bigger one, you’d run a “secure erase” on it to completely remove any personal data. This would write zeros to the entire disk, overwriting anything already there.

But now, thanks to advances in storage tech, this no longer does the trick. (Not that you can change your own Mac SSDs now anyway.) The new secure-erase, says Apple, is to just encrypt your disk.

Mac laptops made in the last few years have an annoying/convenient feature. Open one up, and it powers on. MacBooks have woken from sleep when you open the lid for years, but now they boot from cold, too. Want to clean the keyboard without turning the thing on? Tough.

Or is it? If you want to stop this behavior, it’s easy. Here’s how.

A credit card is a departure from Apple’s usual computers and accessories, but the Apple Card is just as gorgeous and the associated software every bit as easy to use as an iPhone or Mac.

I’m among the first cardholders, so here’s what it’s like to carry an Apple Card.

The Developer’s Gear Case from WaterField Designs looks like a bespoke Bible case your pastor had custom made after he sent around an extra collection plate at Sunday service.

But have faith, for the inside of the case will deliver you from the hell of tangled cords. And it will end the searches for the smaller tech accessories that are constantly lost in your backpack or shoulder bag.

The latest Juice Pack Air from Mophie proves iPhone battery cases don’t have to be bulky. This one is relatively slender, while still extending the time between recharges a considerable amount. There’s even room for a Lightning port as well as wireless charging.

Find out what it’s like to use this accessory designed for the 2018 iPhone models in our hands-on review.

Yesterday, I wrote about the massive conceptual difference between Mac and iPad, and mentioned that I still use a 2010 iMac. Today, I thought I’d explain how I managed to keep it going for so long.

Spoiler: It was pretty easy, although it required some simple home surgery from time to time. The only sad part is that the current lineup of iMacs almost certainly won’t last as long, at least not without professional attention.

Here’s how I kept my Mac running for a decade.

Hands up if this ever happens to you: you remembered your iPhone or iPad and an external battery but forgot the charging cable. That frustration isn’t possible with the myCharge HubMax Universal as it has both a Lightning and a USB-C cable built in. Even better, this 10050 mAh battery has a pair of wall prongs so it can plug straight into a socket.

Go on the road with me as I put the HubMax Universal through its paces.

Safari in iPadOS is “desktop-class,” according to Apple. And part of that definition means Safari offers plenty of keyboard shortcuts, just like when you use Apple’s web browser on a Mac.

Just a quick look at the screenshots below will show you how many more Safari shortcuts are available in iPadOS than in iOS 12: Holding down the ⌘ key now reveals two panels in the pop-up help screen, instead of just one.

Let’s take a look at the new Safari keyboard shortcuts in iPadOS.

No outdoor party is complete without music, and that requires a sound system that can be heard over plenty of other noise. The new Rålis from Urbanears delivers more than just the necessary volume: it sounds outstanding.

Check out our review of this high-end portable speaker.

Apple’s Shortcuts app is already great, but in iOS 13 it gets even better. You can still create simple or complex workflows to do all kinds of tasks, from downloading YouTube videos or setting a quick meditation timer to resizing a whole folder of photos. But until now, you had to trigger those shortcuts manually.

In iOS 13, your iPhone or iPad can run a shortcut at a preset time or when you arrive at a specific location. This is huge.

Maybe in iOS 13 we’ll be able to add songs to our music iPhone libraries without having to wake up a Mac or PC running iTunes. Until then, there’s no way to listen to songs downloaded from Bandcamp, or exported from GarageBand, alongside the rest of your music collection.

But there’s a workaround. Vox is a slightly confusing music app that combines your built-in Apple Music library with your Soundcloud, Spotify, and other services. And it will also let you import any audio file, and then add it to playlists and so on. Let’s know more about how to achieve this.

10.8% in ’94. Plus, Apple’s software sales were growing more slowly than those of rival companies. Curious about what is an Apple Fellow? This article provides more insights.

Since the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is faster than the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the tablet is serious competition for Apple’s notebooks. Its design offers many advantages over a notebook, but most people demand a physical keyboard for their primary computer. Of all the options for this, the Brydge Pro comes the closest to transforming a 2018 iPad Pro into a convertible touchscreen MacBook.

Read our hands-on review to see how well this premium keyboard case performs in the real world.

If you’ve been waiting for a deal on a great wireless charger, your patience has paid off! Our friends at Just Mobile have set up an exclusive offer for Cult of Mac Watch Store customers on the AluBase Wireless charger.

You’ll save 25 percent on the AluBase with this special pricing. Normally $39.95, you can get the AluBase Wireless for $30. Add the optional fast charge power adapter for just $5 more. But don’t delay too long! This deal is only good while supplies last. Read on to learn more about AluBase Wireless.