This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Apple pulled the plug on Project Titan, its not-so-secret, decade-long effort to build a self-driving electric car. After spending a reported $10 billion on R&D, the moonshot Apple car project winds up canceled — in favor of generative AI!

Let’s just say we have some opinions.

Also on The CultCast:

• Apple’s FineWoven iPhone cases don’t seem to hold up so well. In fact, a high-profile journo says hers is “browning like a rotten banana.” What gives?
• Apple Arcade’s shifting mission means kids will be winners (but indie devs will be losers).
• Waiting for a second-gen Vision Pro that will be lighter, brighter and less expensive? You might want to rethink that plan.

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.

Napoleon, a historical epic from director Ridley Scott, began streaming on Apple TV+ on March 1, after having its global premier in theaters in November.

The movie stars Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Bonaparte, the French emperor who conquered much of Europe. It details the tyrant’s ruthless rise to power and his obsessive love for his wife, Empress Josephine.

It’s a rare day you see big price drops at Apple.com, but Friday saw Beats headphones and earbuds price drops there and at retailers like Amazon.

So here’s your chance to grab Beats Studio Pro headphones at $349.99 $199.95 and Beats Studio Buds+ at $169.95 $129.95, among other great deals. See below.

Apple changed course and is not disabling iPhone web apps in the European Union. The method for turning websites into applications will not disappear with the release is iOS 17.4 after all.

The flip-flop is just a small aspect of big changes coming to iOS because of EU legislation.

Apple TV+ adds movies from time to time — just not usually 50+ at once. But that’s what it did this week with its “Great movies on Apple TV” collection. It includes big-time titles like Mad Max: Fury Road, The Wolf of Wall Street, Titanic and Saving Private Ryan. You can also go old-school comedy with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and — why not — Old School.

They’re free for subscribers in the United States to stream, but half will be gone at the end of March. The other half will last through April. Another new arrival is Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, but that Apple Original will stick around.

Satechi makes an awfully cool USB-C hub and stand for Mac mini that also suits Mac Studio perfectly. We’re surprised we don’t see that particular Satechi hub and stand more often in computer setups online.

But today’s Mac Studio rig with three big 4K displays makes perfect use of it. It greatly expands the machine’s capability and it blends right in like it’s not even there.

Plans to transition Apple Watch Ultra to a micro LED display have been dropped, according to a trusted source of insider Apple information.

Beyond that, Apple seems to have lost interest in micro LED screens entirely.

You can find plenty of wireless chargers for your iPhone. But few are better than Apple’s MagSafe charger. It can magnetically attach to your iPhone and transfer power at up to 15W speeds.

At $39, the official MagSafe charger is expensive. But Amazon is taking a whopping 26% off it, bringing its price down to $29. Also, if you’re looking for more length, there’s a third-party option at the same price that might be an even better deal.

Apple is widely expected to hold a product launch event in March 2024 with a range of new iPad Pro, iPad Air, and MacBook Air models on the agenda. If you’re wondering when Apple’s next big announcement is happening, check out the apple october event date for the latest updates.

You don’t have to wait to find out what’s on Apple’s agenda. Many details about the upcoming notebooks and tablets already leaked out.

UPDATE: It appears there won’t be an actual event. Apple has begun unveiling the expected product via press release, starting with the M3-powered MacBook Air on Monday. The iPad announcements are likely to come soon. 

Neuromancer, William Gibson’s much-lauded sci-fi novel published in 1984, is coming to Apple TV+, the iPhone giant said Wednesday.

The 10-episode drama has no release date yet. But it’s sure to be — as Apple TV+ says about almost every upcoming show — “much anticipated.”

The Apple Self Service Repair program just expanded to include MacBooks and iMacs with the M3 processor released in 2023.

The program provides customers access to parts and tools they need to fix their own devices, and already includes many models of iPhone plus earlier Macs. But there are some big gaps.

Apple could reportedly rebrand Apple ID to Apple Account. The change could go live later this year, presumably when iOS 18 drops in September.

It’s unclear why Apple is considering renaming Apple ID to Apple Account.

Apple TV+ dropped a trailer Wednesday for a companion documentary film to hit World World II drama series Masters of the Air. The  documentary, The Bloody Hundredth, tells the stories of the airmen in a particularly hard-hit B17 bomber group through some of the survivors themselves as well as series filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

“Watch The Bloody Hundredth and get an in-depth look at the real stories of the brave Airmen that inspired Masters of the Air,” the streaming service said. “Streaming March 15th on Apple TV+.”

Vision Pro may be Apple’s only AR headset until 2027. The company has yet to start work on Vision Pro 2 or Vision Air, according to a trusted analyst.

That said, Apple is allegedly working on ways to produce the current Vision Pro more cheaply, which could lead to a price cut next year.

Even as a big car enthusiast (and a bigger AI pessimist), I see Apple’s cancellation of its electric car project in favor of tackling AI as nothing but good news.

Apple pulled the plug Tuesday on the doomed Project Titan, its decade-long attempt at building a self-driving electric car. The company reportedly will reassign software engineers from the autonomous vehicle project to work on generative AI.

Some of my colleagues here at Cult of Mac find the Apple car cancellation depressing and sad. And, yes, it was always fun imagining what an Apple car would be like. However, Apple’s now-abandoned car strategy is already being executed at the peak of what’s possible by every other automaker. And whereas OpenAI, Google and Facebook clearly aren’t remotely interested in waiting for an ethical solution to their many, many problems, I think Apple has the best chance of bringing about positive change in this field.

Like clockwork, Amazon bargain site Woot! comes out with great deals on Apple gear, including refurbished Apple Watch deals. So now it’s time for what looks like the lowest price we’ve seen on Apple Watch Ultra and a bunch of other deals on older Apple Watches for those who don’t want to pay typical Apple prices.

“Well, movies taught me that I’d have a wrist communicator in the far future but they didn’t say anything about ten F&F movies, that’s cray …” the site joked, apparently name-dropping the Fast & Furious movie franchise.

Very few Vision Pro units are being returned to Apple, according to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. He pegs the Vision Pro return rate at less than 1%, which flies in the face of previous reports that many of the headsets bought by early adopters would wind up in the refurbished bins.

The reason Kuo states for a large percentage of those Vision Pro returns is even more surprising!

How many external displays would you consider ideal in your computer setup? Surprisingly, a lot of folks who assume it’s at least two end up regretting the idea. Today’s Mac Studio rig with triple 4K displays — three 32-inchers — sparked some debate on the matter.

That’s an awful lot of screen real estate that calls for a lot of head turning.

Experian now includes small consumer loans made through Apple Pay Later on consumers’ credit reports. That makes Apple the first “buy now pay later” provider to supply this information to the credit reporting agency.

This can improve the customer’s credit score.

The next time you open Apple Music, you should notice a new feature called Heavy Rotation at the top. The new collection behind the fiery orange, yellow and red card is yet another way Apple surfaces the tunes you play most. But unlike the others, Apple Music Heavy Rotation playlist updates daily instead of weekly.

Personally, I’d rather have the service nudge me in new directions, as with the recently added Discovery Station. And maybe it will build out further in that direction, too.

Aqara launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign Tuesday for its new Smart Lock U200. Built on the Thread networking protocol and native to the Matter standard, the lock will integrate with many smart home devices. But its compatibility with smart-home platforms like HomeKit — and its support for Home Key in particular — will come from future software updates.

We all love our devices, but it can be a nightmare hunting for the appropriate charger. And if you have limited desk space, the last thing you want is a mess of cords when you’re just trying to get through the workday. This 5-in-1 MagSafe charging stand is an elegant, simple charging solution that can power up to four devices at once, without overcharging.

Plus, it even doubles up as a lamp with three different brightness levels. It’s available for just $54.99 (regularly $79.99) — the best price you’ll find on the web.

Connecting your Mac, iPad or iPhone to an HDMI monitor is easy as plugging the HyperDrive Next USB-C to HDMI 4K60Hz Cable into both devices.

The affordable adapter with a built-in 8-foot cable reached store shelves Tuesday.

Apple’s reported cancellation of its electric car project strikes me as one of the most demoralizing decisions the company has ever made. And I’m not sure which is worse, the Apple car cancellation, or the revelation of how Cupertino plans to reroute most of Project Titan’s brainpower.

The long-rumored Apple car was never a done deal, obviously. But it stood out as a moonshot project capable of transforming transportation and improving our everyday lives.

Now we find out that Apple won’t be going to the moon. Instead, Cupertino might be taking a me-too detour to Gibberish City.

In a somewhat shocking development, Apple reportedly completely canceled all development on its self-driving car program on Tuesday.

The company is shifting its emphasis to artificial intelligence, instead.