★★★★★
Twelve South ButterFly is ready to charge your devices wherever you go. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Twelve South ButterFly is a 2-in-1 MagSafe iPhone and and Apple Watch travel charger that folds into a tiny package. It offers fast-charging and can serve as a kickstand for your handset.
It’s a bit pricy, but an innovative design makes it very portable. I put the gadget to the test.
You now have another way to reclaim access to your 1Password account. Image: 1Password
1Password — a popular password manager for iPhone, Mac and other platforms — added support for recovery codes Thursday. This will make it easier to recover your account when you can’t remember your password.
Recovery codes also will help you get into your 1Password vault if you lose access to your Secret Key.
Secure three years of privacy and freedom from annoying ads with this AdGuard bundle. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Want an optimized online experience? For a limited time, you can instantly upgrade your efficiency, privacy and safety at a surprisingly low price with AdGuard’s VPN and ad blocker for Mac, iOS, Android and Windows. This one-two privacy punch keeps websites from tracking you and ads from annoying you.
Big updates to Final Cut Pro will boost mobile production capabilities. Image: Apple
UPDATE: The new versions of Final Cut Pro for iPad and Mac — and the new Final Cut Camera app — launched Thursday on the App Store.
Apple updated its video editing application Final Cut Pro with live multi-camera recording on iPad and powerful new AI color correction on Mac. Plus, Final Cut Camera, a free new app for iPad and iPhone, allows for professional video capture in multicam mode or on its own. These updates “take creativity to the next level,” said Will Hui, project manager for creative applications at Apple when they were announced in May.
First it looked like Apple TV+ might stream a big new international tournament in 2025, now it doesn't. Photo: Riccardo Bresciani/Pexels CC
FIFA’s ongoing struggle to launch and broadcast a new international soccer tournament next year in the United States ahead of the 2026 World Cup continue, as its talks with Apple over broadcast rights have stalled, according to a report.
Apparently $1 billion won’t cut it for soccer’s global governing body.
Malaysia's first Apple Store has some over-the-top design features. Photo: Apple
Apple’s latest retail shop sports a stunning multilevel design featuring an exotic hat on top — aka a tiered-pyramid roof. The iPhone giant showcased its first store in Malaysia, Apple The Exchange TRX, on Thursday. It opens Saturday in Kuala Lumpur. It will employ a staggering 160 team members offering the full array of Apple products and services in a dramatic location.
“We live for moments when we can surprise and delight our customers, and we’re excited to do that in Malaysia with the opening of our first store in the country, Apple The Exchange TRX,” said Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail.
“Being able to support and directly connect with a new community is always a special experience for our retail teams, and we can’t wait to welcome customers to this beautiful space designed for discovery, creativity, and shopping for the world’s most innovative products,” she added.
★★★☆☆
The Motion Sport band in ultra orange catches the eye, but it's not actually visible from space (probably). Photo: David Snow/Cult of Mac
A rubber Apple Watch band has plenty of uses, like when want to you take the wearable along for heavy workouts or swimming without worrying about getting it wet. Add some style, just the right amount of ventilation and a secure clasp and you have solid athletic Apple Watch band. And that’s just what you get in the new Journey Motion Apple Watch Sport Band (with just a few quibbles, below).
Save $460 off Resso Professional and enhance your job search with AI. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
When looking for a job, you need all the support you can get. Resso sets you up with a suite of AI-powered job search tools to help you get the interview — and then land the job.
Apple's Back to School promo is live in the US. Screenshot: Apple
Apple’s annual Back to School promotion went live Thursday in the United States. As a part of the deal, eligible students and faculty members will receive up to a $150 gift card on the purchase of select Macs and iPads. Apple also offers a 20% discount on AppleCare+, its premium support and repair service.
The back-to-school promo runs through September 30, so students and parents have ample time to take advantage of Apple’s discounts.
The Reply button in Apple Mail on iPhone does way, way more than you might expect. Image: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The Reply button in the iPhone version of Apple Mail does a whole lot more than let you reply to messages. For some reason, Apple packed it with unrelated options.
Here’s everything lying hidden behind that simple button.
Zzzzzz. The Apple Watch's nightstand mode even has snooze. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Have you heard of the Apple Watch’s nightstand mode? I knew about it from digging through the settings in the Watch app on my iPhone, but I never tried it out. I wear my watch while sleeping, mostly so I get a nice haptic alarm in the morning instead of an audible iPhone alarm. But if you charge your watch overnight, you should almost certainly be using nightstand mode, formerly known as bedside mode.
If you love old-school video games, you're about to get a treat. Photo: Antstream
In a first, a catalog of more than 1,300 classic games will come to the Apple Store for iPhone and iPad as of June 27, retro gaming service Antstream said Tuesday. Antstream Arcade’s upcoming launch on the App Store follows recent worldwide changes Apple made in response to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act.
This shot from Universal Audio shows the Apollo Twin Duo audio interface in action. Photo: Universal Audio
If you want great sound out of your computer setup, you need excellent speakers, of course. But if you work with music rather than just listening to it, you also need a top audio interface for Mac to run between your computer and other gear. Today’s MacBook Pro setup incorporates one of our top picks in a recent roundup of best audio interfaces for Mac and pairs it with a nice set of Yamaha speakers.
This TDK CeraCharge battery has a very high energy density. Photo: TDK
TDK Corp. recently developed a material for its next-generation solid-state battery with an energy density about 100 times greater than the current version.
The Japanese company already supplies batteries that go into iPhones and other Apple devices, so there’s hope this breakthrough eventually will benefit Apple Watch and AirPods.
★★★★☆
The new Alogic Echelon keyboard and mouse get the job done with understated style. Photo: David Snow/Cult of Mac
Alogic rolled out its new Echelon wireless keyboard and mouse last week, offering a pair of sleek, solid, affordable and eminently practical input devices for Mac users. I swapped out a couple of Logitech devices to try Alogic’s, and I’m not missing Logi’s gear so far. In a word, you could call the Echelon input devices “minimalist.” But they have all the features you need, and then some.
Stay on top of the latest tech with VirtualSkills. Image: Cult of Mac Deals
Photoshop isn’t just about photography, and ChatGPT doesn’t just translate movie scripts into Shakespearean English. That’s why when you need to thoroughly learn how to use new technology, it’s worth it to go to a credible source. With this lifetime membership to VirtualSkills, you gain access to online courses in everything from AI and software to coding and cryptocurrency.
M4 MacBook Pros could debut before the end of 2024. Photo: Apple
Apple could refresh its MacBook Pro lineup with M4 chips as soon as Q4 2024. Based on supply-chain checks, panel shipments for the 14-inch and 16-inch models will start in Q3 2024.
Typically, this indicates that Apple will start shipping new MacBook Pro models in the last quarter of the year.
Finally, there's an easy way to convert videos and audio from all the popular platforms. Image: Open Media
The easiest way to convert a YouTube video to an MP4 for free is with an app called 4K Video Downloader for Mac and PC. This tool gives you all kinds of options for converting video and audio from YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Soundcloud, Twitch and more.
If you want to save videos or podcasts to your computer to include in a video of your own, this app is the easiest way to download the highest-quality original.
It has other uses, too. If you’re going on a flight, or if you simply have a slow internet connection, you can use it to download what you want to watch in advance. If you’re privacy-conscious but you still want to watch a TikTok sent to you by a friend, you can download the clip without visiting the website.
Glenn Miller's orchestra will sound great on this thing. Shown here in the black walnut finish. Photo: Edifier
Edifier’s new D32 speaker, a stylish and powerful wireless speaker that looks a bit like your grandfather’s radio, packs modern audio technology. Its hi-res audio capabilities and robust 60-watt amplifier system sit inside a hand-made wooden cabinet with crazy-cool retro buttons. And it costs just $170, which might seem steep to your grandpa, but it’s not bad.
Apple is supposedly working on a Vision AR headset more people can afford. Screenshot: Apple
A cheaper version of Apple’s Vision augmented reality headset has reportedly been fast-tracked. The goal is supposedly to have the scaled-back device on the market by 2025.
To accomplish this, Apple allegedly halted work on the next generation high-end Vision Pro model.
You can get M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBooks Pro models in space black and yes, the sale includes them. Photo: Apple
Sometimes Amazon stuns us with outstanding bargains. This week it’s big discounts on Apple’s powerhouse M3 MacBook Pro, in all or most of its iterations. You can save up to $350 off M3 MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro chip and solid specs, but that’s just one of many deals. We list six below where you can save anywhere from $200 to $350 on your machine of choice.
Pairing them with Apple (or Android) devices and using Apple (or Google) Find My will be easy. Photo: Beats
You can preorder the newly updated Beats Solo Buds headphones June 18 and expect shipping to commence June 20, Apple subsidiary Beats by Dre said.
At just about half the cost of AirPods 3 and ready-made to pair with Apple devices with long battery life and a truly tiny case, the new buds could be a tempting get for a lot of folks. And big sound is promised, too, according to the video below.
UPDATE: As noted above, Beats Solo Buds became available to order today, Tuesday, June 18, and should ship starting Thursday.
Photos showing celebrities like Lebron James with the speaker started surfacing in April 2024. Photo: Beats
A cryptic new video ad featuring basketball star Lebron James rapping along with L’il Wayne suggested Monday that the long-rumored return of the discontinued Beats Pill+ speaker could be just one week away.
That’s if the video’s ending reference to “The Predicament 6.25” means the updated speaker, which celebrities have been photographed carrying around recently, will launch next Tuesday.
★★★★☆
Plugable 40W Dual USB-C Charger: Powerful enough to be useful, small enough to go anywhere Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Happily, powerful USB chargers keep getting smaller. The new Plugable 40W Dual USB-C Charger is the most portable one I’ve ever used, but it still puts out enough juice to keep a MacBook, iPad and/or iPhone going.
I went hands-on to test the capabilities of this affordable accessory.
Introduce yourself to cybersecurity and hacking with this $30 bundle. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
You could always go to school to learn cybersecurity, but trudging to a college campus typically brings two big downsides: inconvenient scheduling and over-the-top expenses. However, the courses in the 2024 Ethical Hacking and Cybersecurity for Beginners Bundle don’t come with college prices.
Convenient and up-to-date, this beginner cybersecurity course pack costs just $29.99 (regularly $171). And you can take the online courses whenever you like.