Just a few cents' worth of silicone can ruin your new $250 earbuds. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Why am I returning my AirPods Pro just a day after receiving them? If the AirPods Pro don’t fit in your ears, then tough. There’s pretty much nothing you can do about it short of returning them to Apple.
However, if you’re prepared to wait, there might be some hope.
AirPods Pro are so popular Apple is struggling to keep up with demand Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
It has taken me just over a day to realize AirPods Pro are the best accessory I’ve ever purchased from Apple. They sound terrific, work exceptionally well with other Apple products, and feel great.
They might be pricier than their siblings at $249. But with new features like active noise cancellation and Transparency mode, they’re worth every penny.
The AirPods Pro come with three pairs of tips. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
If you ever sat with a pair of earbuds, and a handful of interchangeable silicone tips, and felt a sense of apathy and confusion creep over you, then you’re going to love the new AirPods Pro Ear Tip Fit Test. This clever new feature uses the AirPods Pro’s own microphones to test how well the variously sized silicone tips fit in your ears.
It works really well. The only problem is, the results could be bad news.
Don't retire that wide-angle lens attachment just yet. Photo: Moment
Now that the iPhone 11 line brings an ultra-wide camera to the bump, there is some question on what to do with an extra-wide lens attachment you may have purchased from brands like Moment, Sandmarc or olloclip.
The short answer: Use it. For now, it’s the better option.
Newly leaked screenshots depict an updated AirTags section in the “Find My” app. Although they are referred to by their codename “B389,” the screenshots show how AirTags findability will work.
AirPods are the rumored item tracker tags which promise to help users to locate bags, keys, and assorted other valuables.
Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri got on the phone with investors after the numbers came and provided some surprising details on how Apple hit a new high for Q4 revenue despite slowing iPhone sales. While everyone has been focusing on Apple’s booming services business, one of the company’s other product categories has transformed into its true growth engine.
We're still very much in the dark. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
You don’t need to dig into the Settings app every time you want to change the noise canceling settings of your AirPods Pro. There are two other ways to toggle setting which are much, much faster. Let’s check them out.
Another image of a new 16-inch MacBook Pro (above) has been leaked by macOS 10.15.1 Catalina.
The photo reveals a redesigned keyboard layout, with a Touch ID sensor separated from the Touch Bar. But it does not confirm rumors of a return for the dedicated escape key.
It’s also hard to tell whether this keyboard uses the dreaded butterfly switches that MacBook Pro fans want Apple to abolish. And we could be waiting a long time to find out.
The only thing scary about AirPods Pro is how good they are. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
The best-selling headphones in the world are now even better. AirPods Pro come with an all-new design that’s now sweat-resistant and capable of blocking out background noise for the first time.
They cost just $50 more than regular AirPods with a Wireless Charging Case. But they’re so much better. Here are our AirPods Pro first impressions.
Order yours today from the Cult of Mac Store. Photo: Mujjo
Lovingly wrap your MacBook in a gorgeous Mujjo Sleeve for protection on the go.
Made from soft felt and high-grade leather, it keeps your pricey notebook from picking up scuffs and scratches. It’s also beautifully slim, so it won’t take up too much room in your backpack.
When I set out to write this book, one of my goals was to see if I could insult fifty million people in one sentence. Here goes. Years ago, before I was excommunicated from New York City and became a resident of Texas (a state so backward that someone in our town once asked my wife and me if being Jewish was like being Catholic), I lived in Florida, which is so appealing to the unbalanced that when I took the “Florida Challenge” (where you google “Florida man” and your birthday to see what kind of headlines pop up) for April 24, the first result read, “Florida man kisses venomous snake and is immediately bitten on the lips.”
You know how when you swipe an email on your iPhone or iPad, and depending on the direction you swipe, you get a bunch of options? Mark as read, move, archive — that kind of thing. But how do you customize these options? And how do you access the ridiculously well-hidden option to archive and/or delete?
Just what is the vision behind Apple TV+? Photo: Apple
The first Apple TV+ reviews are out — and, broadly speaking, they’re not great. Critics generally slammed the marquee shows on the Apple TV+ slate. Anyone wanting to pull together a movie poster with positive pull-quotes would need to do some serious wading through bile to emerge with choice excerpts.
That’s a shame. And while it might seem easy to write off the bad reviews — based on the just the first few episodes of four shows, all shown to critics prior to the service’s launch — the poor reception might suggest deep-seated problems for Apple TV+. It sounds like a service that suffers from a lack of vision.
The tiny GeoZilla GPS Tracker can be found anywhere cell phones work. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The GeoZilla GPS Tracker can find your dog if he gets out of the yard, even if he takes a plane to Reno. Or it can locate your lost luggage if the airline accidentally ships it to Australia.
There are plenty of tracking tags that can discover your keys in your living room, but the GeoZilla GPS Tracker uses built-in cellular-wireless access so it can be found anywhere.
Read on to find out if this is the ultra-portable global tracker you’ve been hoping for.
Maybe you like to keep your iPhone and Apple Watch in English, but you also like to dictate notes and messages in your mother tongue. Or perhaps you want to dictate your notes in English, but send iMessages to your family in Spanish. Or maybe your Apple Watch is just screwed up, and keeps trying to take dictation in a language you don’t speak.
Whatever the reason, it is easy to change the Apple Watch dictation language. Plus, you also can specify a different language for each and every app. Let’s see how.
A new leak shows the 16-inch MacBook Pro isn't quite what we expected... Photo: Apple
This week on The CultCast: The new 16-inch MacBook Pro just leaked, but its “new design” leaves a lot of people disappointed. Plus, we’ll tell you why 2020 could deliver Apple’s most impressive hardware in years. And stick around for our favorite new router, mouse, keyboard and iPhone 11 case in an all-new Under Review!
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.
An iPad Pro with Sentis Libra attached could be mistaken for a MacBook. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The Sentis Libra gives an iPad Pro a keyboard and trackpad, allowing it to act as both a tablet and a laptop — something no MacBook can do.
However, rival keyboard maker Brydge accuses Sentis of using its patented design. Cult of Mac has both a Libra prototype and the most recent Brydge Pro, and we compare the two and let everyone judge whether the accusations made against this device stand up.
The Libra is undoubtedly great, including a highly-functional trackpad. So the real question is, who deserves credit for the design?
The iPad version has a toggle directly over the preview image. Photo: Cult of Mac
In iPadOS and iOS 13, long-pressing a link does two things simultaneously. It brings up a contextual menu with options for sharing and so on, and it loads a preview of the linked web page. Apple calls this a link preview.
But what if you don’t want a link preview? Maybe you’re on a cellular connection and you don’t want to waste data by loading pages you won’t read. Or maybe you only need the link, and never want to see the page. What if it’s a link to a huge image, or an MP3? Or perhaps it’s a link in an email, and you want to use the contextual menu to check the URL for scams. In this last case, there’s no way you want that link to load. It could prove disastrous.
The good news is that you can disable link previews in iOS 13 with a single tap.
My Apple Watch Series 5 gets seriously good battery life. I can easily get 24 hours out of it, but I don’t really stress it by doing multiple daily workouts or by streaming audio directly to Bluetooth headphones. But what if your watch has trouble lasting the whole day? Or if you’re traveling, and not able to just stop and charge the watch whenever it needs a quick boost?
Today, we’ll check three settings that can prolong your Apple Watch battery life.
A seemingly small number of Mac users are reporting that their machines have been bricked after upgrading to macOS Catalina.
It is believed a potentially unsuccessful EFI firmware update is responsible for the issue. All affected users see nothing but a folder icon when attempting to boot up their Mac.
The Urban Canvas is smart but stylish. Photo: Monowear
No one considers canvas to be an obviously attractive material. Not unless you have an unhealthy relationship with tents. But pair it with leather and slap it on an Apple Watch and, boy, does it look good.
Case in point: Monowear’s terrific Urban Canvas band. It’s immensely durable, comfortable all day long, and surprisingly beautiful. And it costs just $38.
I was sure I was going to cancel, but I'm actually enjoying Apple Arcade games quite a bit! Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
I don’t consider myself much of a gamer, but the idea of games always seems to appeal to me. That’s why, when Apple Arcade launched, I activated my subscription to test the waters. My hope was that I’d get some clarity before it cost me anything to try.
Now, a month has passed, and I’ve got some mixed feelings about the service. Should I keep paying for it? Are its 100-plus games worth the monthly fee? Can I play it when and where I want? Get the lowdown in my Apple Arcade review.
Remember things, when you need them. Photo: Estée Janssens
The Reminders app got a total revamp in iOS 13, making it way quicker and easier to add due dates, alerts and location-based notifications to new reminders. But it also added one killer new feature: Remind me when messaging.
This lets you add a contact to the reminder, and the next time you’re messaging that person, a notification will pop up.
In watchOS 6, your Apple Watch can monitor the noise levels around you, and warn you when things get too loud. This is an essential tool to help people who work in noisy environments avoid hearing damage, but it’s also a handy safeguard against excessive noise for anyone.
Apple Watch Series 5 is here with its first always-on display and a built-in digital compass. Apple will charge you $399+ for your very own — but we’re giving one away for free!