News - page 156

Dear university students: While it’s tempting to buy the hot new MacBook Air, doing so would mean a huge loss of flexibility. You simply don’t need to pay hundreds of dollars more for a laptop that’s less versatile. An iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard and Pencil fits your needs much better, especially now that it has the very same M2 chip inside.

And beyond the versatility, the whole iPad lineup can do just about everything you can expect a Mac to do every day.

To be clear, there are exceptions to this — some students really do need a Mac. But odds are you’re not one of them.

The new Apple TV+ trailer for the upcoming drama series The Changeling starts off lightly enough — LaKeith Stanfield’s character, Apollo, can’t get a date with Clark Backo’s Emma in New York City because she’s moving to Brazil.

But once she’s there, dark magic soon reveals this Big Apple-based “drama” to be an absolute supernatural horror show. It premieres Friday, September 8.

Dear university students: While it’s tempting to buy the top-tier MacBook Pro, it would be a huge waste of money. You simply don’t need to pay an extra $1,000 or more for a notebook that powerful. A MacBook Air fits your needs much better, especially now that there’s a 15-inch version.

And beyond the higher price, the increased performance of the MacBook Pro comes with a drawback you’ll notice every day.

To be clear, there are exceptions for this — some students really do need a MacBook Pro. But odds are you’re not one of them.

Apple’s next-generation M3 Max could feature a staggering 16-core CPU and 40 GPU cores. A third-party Mac developer spotted the chip in test logs running inside a high-end MacBook Pro.

This new high-end Apple silicon should find its way inside the 2024 MacBook Pro. It should also power other high-end Macs due to launch in 2024.

Makers of third-party Apple Watch chargers will reportedly no longer be able to build the old, slow Apple Watch charging puck into their products. The only one available will operate 33% faster than the original Apple Watch charger.

This means that, going forward, all new Apple Watch accessories will support Fast Charge.

We joined forces with Pitaka this week for an exciting giveaway that will take you over the moon. Two lucky winners will score big with the ultra-cool Moon Wondering MagEZ Case for iPhone 14 Pro or 14 Pro Max. This limited-edition iPhone case is totally sold out, so this is your last chance to get one.

This Moon Wondering Kit is worth $89.99 and it comes with a bunch of goodies — a MagEZ Moon Wondering iPhone Case, a MagEZ Grip and a special Moon Wondering coin. Talk about a package deal!

On Monday, Apple and Major League Baseball called out the September Friday Night Baseball schedule for Apple TV+ subscribers.

As the season’s final stretch unfolds — the regular season ends October 1 ahead of the playoffs — don’t miss out when your team’s at bat.

Apple’s excellent 15-inch MacBook Air has dropped to its lowest price since launch. Grab Amazon’s latest deal, and you can get the machine for $1,099, a massive $200 off its MSRP.

This is a great deal on the world’s slimmest 15-inch laptop that you should not miss.

We look at a lot of computer setups on social media, but sometimes what drives conversation among commenters surprises us. With today’s Mac Studio rig with an odd couple of mismatched displays, the main debate concerned … keyboards for iPad.

Specifically, when an iPad is so wonderfully light, what keyboard case doesn’t weight it down too much?

The just-launched HyperDrive Next 10 Port Business Class USB-C Dock can handle dual 4K monitors, and it offers multiple 10Gbps USB ports and a detachable USB-C cable.

It’s part of the new HyperDrive Next collection, which also includes a range of USB-C hubs plus an NVMe SSD enclosure with data transfer speeds up to 40Gbps.

Planet of the Apps is a series of interviews with app developers about making, marketing and maintaining apps in the App Store.

Indie developer and podcaster Casey Liss used to hate SwiftUI, Apple’s controversial UI toolkit for crafting apps. A lot of developers have a deep and abiding animus for SwiftUI, including Liss himself. But after using SwiftUI to create his latest app Callsheet, a movie and TV database app, he’s now a huge fan.

“So much of SwiftUI, I love,” he said in a wide-ranging and surprisingly-interesting interview. “I went from nothing to a fully functional app … in the span of a couple of weeks… It was stunningly fast.”

Apple is working on a slew of M3-powered Macs for late 2023 and 2024, and the latest mystery machine spotted on developers’ logs appears to be a new Mac mini.

The M3 chip, the next-gen Apple silicon that will power these Macs, should be based on the 3nm node, offering superior performance and efficiency.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Which gets you more excited, an AirTag with new AR capabilities, a pink Apple Watch or a black titanium Apple Watch Ultra? This week’s top Apple rumors fuel our imaginations …

Also on The CultCast:

• Apple touts 1 billion paid subscribers, a gigantic number that pushed the company to record-high revenue for its services division last quarter.
• Leander cooks up a cheap-and-dirty way to add CarPlay to any car, even an old beater. (Still can’t get him to come on the podcast, though, because … 👀.
• Tim Cook finally plays the AI card as Apple tries to cash in on the latest tech buzzword.
• Griffin proves he’s a total nerd the consummate tech collector by revealing what he uses an ancient Apple Newton for these days.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.

Now that Hijack has finished its run on Apple TV+, fans of the immensely popular limited series want to know if there’ll be a season two. One of the executive producers says, “I hope so.”

Star Idris Elba already said he’s open to the idea.

Apple began selling refurbished AirPods 3 wireless earbuds on Friday. Those willing to buy a previously-purchased unit save $30 off the regular cost.

At this time, the only refurb option from Apple is the version that comes with a MagSafe Charging Case.

It’s only natural that a user would clean up his computer setup to show it off to the world, and that’s exactly what TechDaily’s Wade B. did with his MacBook Air and Studio Display setup before sending it to us with a video.

“It’s really the first time I’ve ever had a desk that wasn’t a total disaster area,” he told Cult of Mac.

You may not want to lug around a full-on generator for the occasional camping trip or brief power outage, but wouldn’t it be cool to have a powerful little one to provide light and keep your gadgets going?

That’s the Anker 548 Power Bank PowerCore Reserve Portable Charger. And you can get $50 off the regular price right now on Amazon.

Apple could unveil the iPhone 15 lineup on September 13, with a staggered launch after that to avoid supply chain and logistics problems.

The company typically holds the launch event for new iPhones in the first or second week of September. So, this rumored date for the iPhone 15 announcement sounds totally plausible.

Apple has been conspicuously quiet about its plans for artificial intelligence, even as rivals like Google and Microsoft made headlines touting the latest tech buzzword. But CEO Tim Cook leaped to his company’s defense Thursday, pointing out that AI is already used by many Apple products.

And he also listed upcoming software and services that wouldn’t be possible without machine learning and AI.

The number of people subscribing to Apple services passed the 1 billion mark during the company’s most recent financial quarter, allowing that segment of the company to bring in record revenue.

But total revenue decreased slightly during the June quarter, the third time that’s happened in a row. And the money coming in from all Apple’s hardware groups is down.

You can expect a new color for Apple Watch Series 9 — pink — and a new black titanium case for the second-gen Apple Watch Ultra, according to a reliable leaker.

If Apple remains true to its usual scheduling, we should see both new items in September at an event unveiling the iPhone 15 lineup.

ESR unveiled two new MagSafe chargers Thursday. Its new 25-watt 3-in-1 Wireless Charger and 15-watt Car Charger follow last month’s launch of the 100W 6-in-1 Charging Station on Kickstarter.

All three feature “MagSafe + CryoBoost,” which we’ll get into below.

Need to buy a new laptop for your school or college before the sessions begin? There’s no better laptop for you than Apple’s M2 MacBook Air.

If you are ready to pull the trigger now, Best Buy is offering a sweet $150 off the machine. So, you can get the slim and powerful 13-inch Air for just $949.

Elon Musk wants creators on X to make more money. And for this, he plans to talk to Apple CEO Tim Cook about lowering the App Store fees for creators on Twitter X.

The billionaire wants Apple to only charge its 30% commission on the amount that X keeps, not the money a creator receives.

Apple is about to reveal the financial results of its most recent quarter, and Wall Street analysts are preparing for a whole lot of ho-hum. They’re predicting a very slight drop in revenue and earnings, during a traditionally slow time of the year for Apple sales.

That said, Apple has a habit of beating analysts’ predictions. So Thursday’s earnings call could be more upbeat than expected.