Cult of Mac

If you use your computer before going to bed, you owe it to your eyes to turn on Night Shift on your Mac. The feature, which adjusts the color of your display to the warmer end of the light spectrum after sundown, eases eye strain and can make falling asleep easier.

Night Shift dials down the amount of blue light emitted by your display. Studies have shown that exposure to blue light, which makes images look bright and crisp, can have adverse effects during nighttime use of electronics: Getting too much blue light after dark can make it more difficult to drift off to sleep.

This week on The CultCast: The CIA loses control of its iPhone-hacking arsenal, and computer crooks turn your gadgets against you. Plus: Why iPhone 8 may arrive later than you hoped; our favorite Apple AirPort replacement routers; and we discuss the non-Apple gear we’re currently obsessing over in an all-new and aptly named “What We’re Into.”

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace.com website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10 percent off any hosting plan.

March went off with a bang at the Cult of Mac Store, where we’ve gathered a bunch of great deals on gear and gadgets. From a lifetime of development courses and VPN access to a set of futuristic Bluetooth earbuds and two full terabytes of cloud storage for next to nothing, you’ll want to check these deals out. Read on for more details:

If you want to get the absolute best tech support for your laptop, pay the Apple tax and get a Mac.

In the latest annual Tech Support Showdown rankings, Laptop Magazine has awarded Apple the number one spot for the third straight year. Apple beat out nine other companies, but it’s starting to get some serious competition from companies like Acer that are focusing more on online service.

Apple CEO Tim Cook appears to be open to a friendlier relationship with Google than Steve Jobs ever was. Cook got spotted dining with Google CEO Sundar Pichai at one of the top Vietnamese restaurants in Silicon Valley this week. What the two powerful tech leaders were discussing is still a mystery, though.

Here’s another angle:

Game streaming platform Twitch today unveiled its new desktop app for Windows and Mac.

It will offer all the features you expect from the service, including voice and video calling, and you’ll be able to get your hands on the beta later this month.

Apple’s latest iOS 10.3 betas feature a floating QuickType keyboard for iPad, but it’s hidden away and inaccessible for now. Here’s how you can try it out before it is officially unlocked using the free Swift Playgrounds app.

One of the skills a designer must have is the ability to put various pieces together into something cohesive. Problem is, those various assets can cost a lot of money. And if you’re not a full-time professional designer, or you’re simply strapped for cash, an asset library can be the tool that lets you complete your creative work.

That makes this massive royalty-free library of more than 600,000 assets from StockUnlimited a must-see for any designer, especially those designing iOS apps. And right now, you can get a three-year subscription to StockUnlimited Design Library for just $39.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

As part of its ongoing effort to make micro-blogging a less offensive experience, Twitter has begun censoring profiles that post “potentially sensitive” content.

Users that publish offensive tweets and images will have their profiles grayed out, forcing visitors to push a button to see censored content.

Apple delegates have officially opposed the so-called “right to repair” bill in Nebraska that would make it easier for consumers to repair its products.

Should the bill be passed, Apple could be forced to give users and third-party repairers access to its components and service manuals. Company representative Steve Kester warned Nebraska would become a “Mecca for bad actors.”

Google Chrome is already the best third-party web browser on iOS, and with every update, it gets even better. The next will bring a Safari-like Reading List feature that lets you save web pages for later.

If President Donald Trump wants Apple to bring iPhone manufacturing to the United States, America needs to open up its wallet first, according to the company that actually assembles the devices.

Foxconn CEO Terry Gou said that if Trump truly wants iPhones to be made in America, he’ll need to push new laws through Congress that offer incentives and tax breaks to foreign companies.

Apple’s new Swift programming language is being adopted even faster than anyone predicted.

In the latest TIOBE Index, which ranks the popularity of programming languages, Apple shot up from the 14th spot last year — and has already cracked the top 10. That may not sound too exciting, but considering all the other languages in the top 10 are at least two decades old, Swift is catching fire in a major way.

US Congressman Jason Chaffetz thinks poor people should stop buying iPhones and pay more for healthcare, but in his latest comedy sketch, late-night TV host Conan O’Brien shows how you can have both at the same time.

CoCo’s satirical video unveils Apple’s new “Healthcare” product that utilizes the company’s innovative products to check on your well-being. Why pay for a doctor when you can use an iPhone for throat examinations and rectal temperature checks?

Watch Conan’s silly skit:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has vowed to give technology firms like Apple access to the CIA’s “cyberweapons” arsenal so they can develop fixes that make our devices more secure.

Earlier this week, thousands of leaked documents and files revealed the full extent of the CIA’s cyber attacks on smartphones, computers and even smart TVs. WikiLeaks says the spy agency has lost control of it all in a “historic act of devastating incompetence.”

Red flags go up for me when a shoulder bag or backpack is described as having a “minimalist” design. Minimalist is code for “won’t carry all my crap.”

However, in the case of the new Moshi Arcus multifunction backpack, the minimalism actually conceals an ample and well-thought-out space. A surprising number of pockets in various sizes accommodate all the tools of a daily carry.

FBI director James Comey has warned that we should not expect “absolute privacy” in America. His comments come just days after a WikiLeaks dump revealed the CIA’s incredible arsenal of malware and viruses used to spy on iPhones and other smart devices.

Speaking at a Boston College conference on cybersecurity this week, Comey said that while the government cannot invade our privacy without good reason, “there is no place outside of judicial reach.”

With all our devices, it seems like there are nearly as many ways to listen to sounds as there are sounds themselves. That’s why we’ve gathered up these deals on four of the best ways to enjoy your tunes, shows, podcasts or anything else that tickles your ears.

In this Cult of Mac Deals roundup, we’ve got top-shelf on-ear headphones, nearly invisible in-ear buds, a set of workout-ready Bluetooth earbuds and a headset that transmits sound through bone conduction (seriously).

If you’ve ever tried to learn a new language, you’ll know it’s a hard and incredibly time-consuming process. It’s not much easier for virtual assistants like Siri.

Here are the mind-blowing steps Apple goes through to teach Siri new languages and dialects that help it stay one step ahead of the competition.

When you spend $700 on an iPhone, the last thing you should do is rely on a $5 case to protect it. Instead, let Louis Vuitton coat it in clunky metal and crocodile skin so you never have to worry about scratches and shattered screens.

Just try to ignore the fact that the case is super-expensive — and just as ugly.

Most of us have a favorite browser, but some of us use different browsers for different purposes. The same goes for email clients. With Bumpr for Mac, you don’t have to be tied to one default; you can switch between your favorites on the fly.

With new iPads (and new iPad price cuts) on the horizon, you should definitely hold off on buying an Apple tablet for a few weeks. But that leaves plenty of Apple deals: Check out a super-cheap refurbished MacBook Air and several great tech accessories in this week’s roundup.

Apple is going all out to feature great media that promotes strong women by creating special sections in iTunes and Apple Music for International Women’s Day.

iPhone, Mac and Apple TV users can comb through Apple’s handpicked choices in categories like music, movies and books to find stories and entertainment that promotes strong female characters.

The Activity app is one of Apple’s most important and powerful products. Its three brightly colored rings are changing people’s lives around the world, inspiring individuals to make healthier choices throughout their day.

The trouble is, if you want to use the Activity app, your only option right now is to buy an Apple Watch — and Apple Watches are expensive.

With this kind of game-changing product, Apple usually wants to reach as big an audience as possible. Take the iPod, for example. It was too expensive for some consumers. so Apple released a no-frills, sub-$99 version called the iPod Shuffle. Could a similar strategy work for the Activity app? An affordable activity band from Apple could be a Fitbit killer.

The rumored “Function Bar” will make a beautiful addition to the upcoming iPhone 8 if it looks anything like the concept created by designer AlHasan Husni.

In the stunning new artwork, Husni imagines how the Function Bar at the bottom of the new iPhone will work. Not only could it make unlocking the iPhone even faster, it could add a whole new set of swipe functions to bring up certain features.