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The first public update for iOS 9 this year has finally arrived in the form of iOS 9.2.1, which was made available to all iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users this morning.

The newest build of OS X El Capitan is now available to the public after undergoing a month of beta testing.

OS X 10.11.3 can now be downloaded and installed by all Mac users with supported hardware. It’s a free update that promises to bring a number of enhancements, including performance improvements and tons of bug fixes.

Best List: Contact snow sports goggles by Giro

Magnets. That’s right, magnets.

The Giro Contact goggles use magnets to help you change and secure their almost-frameless, spherical Zeiss lenses.

The Apple Watch is designed with the Digital Crown in the same place as where traditional watches have their own crown to set the time. It’s a design choice that helps us think of this new tiny computer on our wrist as something comfortable and familiar.

But there’s no reason the Digital Crown should remain on the right, as it defaults to if you’re wearing your Apple Watch on your left wrist.

In fact, flipping it around can make things on your Apple Watch even better. Check it out.

This week on The CultCast: super-sized drones, app-controlled robot bartenders, smart coffee mugs and the coolest of gadgets from CES 2016. Plus, don’t miss our picks for the absolutely, positively, you-should-install-them-today, most essential Mac and iOS apps.

Our thanks to Harry’s for supporting this episode. Harry’s super-sharp, German-made razors ship free right to your door and for way less than drugstore razors. Learn more at Harrys.com and save $5 off your first order with code CultCast.

Recent reports suggest Apple might ship wireless, noise-canceling EarPods with the iPhone 7. From a hardware perspective, these headphones would be very similar to hearing aids.

With the right feature set, these devices could change the way we hear digital audio and pave the way for transformative new audio experiences for everyone.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Skluzacek was taking heavy fire from a relentless enemy.

He shot back with everything he had – counseling, psychiatric drugs and lots of alcohol – but felt defenseless against the post-traumatic stress disorder that followed him home to Minnesota.

He lost friends, jobs, and his marriage. But Skluzacek is reclaiming his life for the first time in the eight years since he returned from Iraq.

This is thanks to a surprise ally in his son Tyler and the weapon he invented for his father – a smartwatch app that helps him sleep.

From refusing to have a car licence plate to wearing one “uniform” every working day of the last decade of his life, Steve Jobs certainly had his fair share of personal idiosyncrasies.

In a post for Medium, Adobe senior director Arno Gourdol adds one more to the list: that Jobs absolutely refused to carry an Apple ID with him.

Stolen!, the app that let you buy and sell Twitter users in a fictional exchange, has been taken off the App Store by its developers due to privacy concerns.

“The app is no longer available in the App Store,” the Stolen! team tweeted Thursday afternoon. “We’ve heard everyone’s concerns and have decided the best thing to do is to shut down.”

Apple is increasing transparency on its Wi-Fi Assist feature in iOS 9.3, which is currently available in public beta. And it’s not just doing it for your sake.

The occasionally controversial iPhone setting is getting a minor but potentially super-useful upgrade that will not only make it more user-friendly, but could also save the company a ton of money in legal costs.

Want to play your Mega Man 2 ROM on your new fourth-generation Apple TV? How about Super Mario Bros. 3?

It’s a ton of fun to play classic console arcade games, especially if you have a few ROMs lying around on your hard drive and would like to play them on the big screen.

Here’s how to get your new Apple TV all set up to rock some retro games.

Now you can try out the latest and greatest operating systems for Apple products, thanks to public betas for iOS 9.3 and OS X El Capitan 10.11.4. Both are now available for testing — even if you don’t have a developer account.

You can grab both updates from Apple’s beta program website for free. Take note, however, that this is trial software — and updating could cause some apps and features on your iOS or Mac devices to go funky or stop working altogether. Use these at your own risk.

If there’s one thing we know, it’s that technology is continually evolving. This is what we love about it. The excitement of the next Apple product, the newest TV or car. Innumerable websites keep up with rumors and changes, and companies show off their latest and greatest technology and electronics at countless conventions.

But there’s one big problem with this. What happens to our old stuff when we move on to the next thing?

Amazon made Prime an even greater deal this week by adding 20% off the latest games, but if that couldn’t persuade you to finally sign up, perhaps a discounted membership will.

This weekend only, a year of Prime will cost you just $73 — down from $99.

Steve Jobs flopped at the box office and with Silicon Valley, but with two Oscar nominations the film continues a kind of redemption tour through the awards season.

Jobs actor Michael Fassbender was nominated for best actor and co-star Kate Winslet, who already won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of former Apple marketing chief Joanna Hoffman, received a supporting actress nomination.

Apple has come out with some gorgeous bands for the Apple Watch, but if a patent application published today is to be believed, future Apple Watch straps may get a whole lot more useful.

Specifically, the patent application describes a magnetic band capable of folding, origami-style, into a standalone mini display, protective case, fridge-mounted magnet, or even an extra screen for your iMac.

Talk about robots in disguise!

The iPhone 6s is only four months old, but Apple watchers already are looking to the future and imagining what delights the iPhone 7 may hold in store.

A new concept design created mixes the present iPhone 6s design with a curvaceous back piece straight out of the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3Gs era, complete with beautifully rounded edges. Check out a concept video below.

Apple Watch usage is dropping off as the novelty factors fades away, according to a new study. While Apple’s wearable has found a place in many owners’ gadget ecosystems, the device is still viewed as distinctly nonessential.

However, the new report includes a list of users’ desired features for Apple Watch 2 — and many of them are things Apple is supposedly working on already.

So you’ve got a fourth-generation Apple TV (the one with Siri Remote and all the apps) and you’ve just downloaded VLC, the “play everything” video app that was just ported to tvOS.

The last few versions of Apple TV haven’t included any storage for video files, and the same is true of the latest model: All the device’s storage is for apps and associated media files. Getting your own videos up on the big screen using VLC takes a little finesse.

Here’s how to watch any video (with a few caveats) on your Apple TV via VLC.

Grace Digital’s Voice Enhanced TV Speaker promises to enhance the sound of your television and potentially give it a volume boost. The sound was engineered with voices in mind because, more than anything when watching TV, dialogue is what you need to hear. As a bonus, a Bluetooth connection lets the speaker work with any Bluetooth-enabled computer or smartphone.

I hooked up Grace Digital’s Voice Enhanced TV Speaker to my television and gave it a whirl.

Best List: K380 Multi-Device Bluetooth Keyboard by Logitech

Not one, not two, but three devices, all commanded by a single keyboard.

Three Bluetooth presets on one thoughtfully designed, battery operated, portable input device.

I’ve been using the Logitech K380 for a little while and I still can’t get my head around why someone would need to hook up a keyboard to three different devices at the same time. However, if you do, this keyboard is a no-brainer.

iOS ships with a few dozen default system apps, all of which take up valuable room on your homescreen since Apple won’t let users delete them. Until now, the best you could do is squirrel them away into a folder, or jailbreak.

But with iOS 9.3 Beta 1, it looks like Apple is finally making it possible to hide unwanted system apps. Here’s how.

We think Siri’s been holding out on us. It turns out that Apple’s digital assistant has been quietly working on a skill that we only recently discovered.

It’s not very useful, but it should give you a smile: A simple request will make Siri beatbox for you.

If you’re looking for some amazing new Retina-display-quality images to wallpaper your Mac, iPhone or iPad, you might want to head over to Apple’s “Start Something New” campaign web page.

The sub-site — part of an ongoing advertising campaign highlighting how creative you can get with Apple products — has a bunch of amazing images that zoom around when you mouse a cursor across them.

Here’s how to get them to spruce up your device.

Best List: Flex headphones by JLab Audio

If you are on a budget and routinely trash your headphones, JLab Audio’s Flex is just what you have been looking for: a decent pair of cans built to withstand regular abuse.

The Flex headphones come folded down compactly into their included case, and for $70 deliver pretty impressive sound quality.