MacBook screen feeling cramped? We've got a $60 solution for you. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
A lightweight USB-powered portable monitor can instantly double your screen space, anywhere you go. It’s an excellent productivity booster for MacBooks and other laptops when you venture away from the big screen in your home setup.
And right now, you can treat yourself to all that precious extra screen real estate for just $59.99 (MSRP $139) with this 15.6-inch refurbished portable monitor from AOC.
A great new feature comes to Apple Music. Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Upcoming iOS 26 feature Apple Music Concerts solves one of music lovers’ biggest heartbreaks — finding out too late that your favorite artist already passed through your neighborhood on tour, unbeknownst to you.
The feature lets you see shows coming soon to your city, with convenient details on venues, ticketing, set lists and more. You can also look up an artist’s tour and see all their upcoming shows.
Supposedly, Apple Music Concerts will even notify you when a tour is coming nearby. The feature, available now in iOS 26.4 beta 2, hasn’t been out long enough for me to test. But if it works like the Apple Music notifications that alert you about new tracks, it could be a lifesaver.
Unfortunately, though, there’s one serious drawback. Here’s an overview of Apple Music Concerts.
Time to jump ship? Photo: Rajesh Pandey/Cult of Mac
1Password, a popular third-party password manager service among Apple users, will soon cost significantly more. The company plans to raise prices for both individual and family accounts by as much as 33%.
After the increase, 1Password’s individual subscription will cost $47.88 yearly, while the Family plan will rise to $71.88 annually.
Rumors suggest a touchscreen-enabled macOS 27 might look something like this concept. AI image: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac
Building a touchscreen into the MacBook Pro coming late this year will require significant changes to macOS 27. Some early details of what Apple has in store for macOS leaked out Tuesday from a generally reliable source.
The upcoming notebooks will supposedly be the first Macs with a Dynamic Island — but that’s just the start of what Apple has planned.
Add terabytes of storage to your Mac, iPad or iPhone with SanDisk's latest SSD. Photo: Sandisk
Sandisk just launched a third generation of the Extreme Portable SSD. It offers 2,000 MBps data transfers, drop protection and more. Capacities go up to 4TB.
The drive will be joined later in 2026 with two more additions to the line of SSDs — one with even faster data transfer speeds, and the other expected to be more affordable.
Has Happy Valley on Mars finally grown too big for its britches? Some people on Earth are up in arms. Photo: Apple TV
Earth almost seems to have a “make Earth great again” moment in the new For All Mankind season five trailer Apple TV released Tuesday. Happy Valley, the burgeoning Mars colony that the alternative-history drama depicts, needs so much funding and resources it’s starting to piss people off — on both planets.
The new trailer, full of new characters and aging favorites, ratchets up the tension for the upcoming 10 episodes. Season 5 debuts on Friday, March 27 on Apple TV.
Apple silicon devices are powered by TSMC chips made in Taiwan. Apple is trying to change that, but it's slow going. Photo: TSMC
Nearly every high-end chip powering Apple devices is manufactured in Taiwan, a small island democracy over which China claims ownership. U.S. officials have warned Apple and the rest of Silicon Valley for years that a Chinese blockade, invasion or prolonged military standoff — possibly coming by 2027, according to intelligence sources — could cut off the chip supply.
And with a too little, too late response by tech giants grinding forward, a chip shortage could crush the tech industry, hobble the U.S. economy and keep your next iPhone out of reach for a long time, according to a new report.
Steve Jobs was born on this day in 1955. Photo: Jason Mercier
February 24, 1955: Steve Jobs is born in San Francisco. He will go on to co-found Apple and become one of the most important figures in the history of consumer technology. He’s also probably a big part of why you’re reading this website right now.
Happy birthday, Steve! Let’s take a moment to reflect on your innovation, artistry and overall brilliance.
Apple Studio Display 2 might build considerably on the current model. AI image: Cult of Mac/ChatGPT
Apple will soon replace the Studio Display with an even more gorgeous second-generation version with a range of upgrades, according to reliable rumor sources.
Read on for all the enhancements that rumors indicate will come to the high-end Mac monitor.
This gesture comes in handy all the time. Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
A hidden gesture on the iPhone and iPad lets you quickly select a bunch of items in a list — kind of like Command-A (⌘A) for Select All on a Mac. I use it all the time to select a bunch of emails to archive, a bunch of reminders to rearrange, a batch of files to sort, etc.
Once you learn this two-finger swipe gesture, you’ll use it everywhere. It’s great for getting work done on the go with your phone. Watch our quick video or keep reading.
No more late wishes. Photo: WhatsApp/Rajesh Pandey/Cult Of Mac
WhatsApp is preparing to add a long-requested message scheduling feature. The app will let users compose messages in advance and send them at a chosen time, similar to how iMessage handles scheduled texts.
References to the feature popped up in the latest WhatsApp beta release on TestFlight.
"Made in the USA" Mac minis are coming soon! Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Apple will start assembling Mac mini in the United States later this year. Foxconn will build the tiny desktop computers at its facility in Houston, Texas.
The iPhone's Visual Intelligence feature is a sign of things to come. Photo: Apple
Apple CEO Tim Cook has a well-established habit of dropping subtle hints about where the company is headed. This time, the dropped breadcrumbs all point toward Visual Intelligence. And the impression they leave is of a company preparing to reshape how humans interact with the world around them.
Apple becomes the world's biggest music vendor. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
February 23, 2010: The iTunes Store officially passes the 10 billion music downloads mark, reaching a major milestone. The 10 billionth purchase? “Guess Things Happen That Way” by Johnny Cash.
The buyer of the song in question is Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia. As part of a “Countdown to 10 Billion Songs” promotion by Apple, Sulcer wins a massive $10,000 iTunes Store gift card. He also receives a personal phone call from Apple CEO Steve Jobs for good measure!
This two-MacBook setup uses a Keychron Q3 Pro custom mechanical keeb. Photo: [email protected]
For years, Mac users contentedly typed away on Apple’s sleek but simple keyboards. Then the mechanical keyboard revolution really took off, transforming computer setups everywhere.
These days, more and more Mac enthusiasts trade their Magic Keyboards for an astonishing variety of mechanical alternatives — some practical, some quirky, and some downright bizarre. I collected 16 fascinating examples below.
Texts you might actually send to someone. Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Apple Watch texting is not fun, no matter which way you slice it. But it can be made a lot easier if you spend a few minutes setting up canned messages for you to instantly reply with later. It makes texting much easier. Here’s how to set it up.
These were two of the wackier Macs ever. Photo: Apple
February 22, 2001: The iMac Special Edition, sporting wild designs that would make a hippie happy, puts a wacky face on the colorful computer that saved Apple’s bacon at the turn of the century. The Flower Power iMac and Blue Dalmatian iMac evoke tie-dye shirts and other unconventional ’60s-era imagery.
A far cry from the super-serious, aluminum-heavy industrial design that will come to define Apple in subsequent years, these colorfully patterned iMacs stand out as some of the most irreverent computers Cupertino ever dreamed up. (C’mon, when was a real Dalmatian blue?)
Under the crazy-looking exteriors, a pretty darn great iMac G3 hums along.
The 2026 AI Powered Digital Marketing & Content Creation Bundle is now 87% off! Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
The 2026 AI-Powered Digital Marketing & Content Creation Bundle teaches creators, entrepreneurs and marketers how to use AI tools like ChatGPT and Canva to build scalable content workflows without spending hours brainstorming or designing from scratch.
The training is designed for beginners and experienced creators alike, with practical lessons focused on blogs, social media, email campaigns and multichannel marketing strategies. And right now, you can get all seven courses for just $24.99 (MSRP $197).
The iPhone 17 Pro finally brings some chromatic excitement, and extremely pro features to the lineup. Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
Following the success of the cosmic orange iPhone 17 Pro, Apple reportedly plans to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro in a deep red color. It will seemingly be the new flagship color for 2026 Pro iPhones.
The company may also be testing similar hues internally.
Apple's March 4 event sounds unusual (and clever). Image: Cult of Mac
This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: The “special Apple Experience” planned for March 4 doesn’t sound like a typical Apple event. What could it be? And what new hardware will we see?
It definitely doesn’t look like Apple CEO Tim Cook will be hitting us with his standard “good mooooorning” … we go over the possibilities.
Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:
Apple is ramping up its AI efforts with three interesting new products: smart glasses, a pendant/pin and AirPods with earcams. The devices all have one thing in common — and we should see at least one of them later this year!
We try to wrap our minds around the strangest MacBook Air setup we’ve ever seen.
And finally, Griffin gives us the scoop on an excellent, affordable iPhone game controller he reviewed.
Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast 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.
The first iPhone was definitely a bit ... different from current models. Photo: Bob Ackerman/Wikipedia CC
February 21, 2007: Apple comes to an agreement with Cisco over the iPhone trademark, which Cisco legally owns but Apple wants to use.
Under the agreement, both companies get to use the iPhone trademark on products throughout the world. The two businesses also dismiss outstanding lawsuits against one another, and agree to “explore opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, and consumer and enterprise communications.”
It’s a classic bit of Apple CEO Steve Jobs steamrolling the opposition.
A quick tap of a letter is all it takes to bring any app to the front with rcmd. Photo: ChatGPT/Rajesh Pandey/Cult of Mac
I switch between apps on my Mac dozens of times every hour. For years, Command-Tab seemed good enough, but then I started using rcmd, a fantastic alternative app switcher for Mac.
This nifty piece of software completely changed how I move between apps on my Mac. It made the process faster, more precise, and far less disruptive to my workflow.
★★★★★
The pictures in this article aren’t very good because I couldn’t use the iPhone 12 Pro (pictured) to take the picture. Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
The Belkin iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Desktops and Displays, despite what its lengthy product name may imply, is a simple and straightforward product that does one thing remarkably well. It mounts your iPhone to a desktop display with MagSafe.
It’s straightforward to set up; it’s easy to plop your phone on and pull it off; it’s well made and feels nice in the hand. It’s great for Continuity Camera. The Belkin iPhone Mount with… no, I’m not writing all that out again. The Belkin iPhone display thing is an easy recommendation.
Give it a go before you give it up. Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
For the first time in 18 years, Apple redesigned the oft-overlooked Phone app. The overhaul in iOS 26 simplifies the Phone app’s layout, putting your favorites, call history and voicemails in one tab, and providing easier access to search.
Its fancy Liquid Glass-inspired layout goes hand-in-hand with the Phone app’s excellent call filtering features.
Here’s how you can learn to love the new design — and how to nope out of it if you don’t like it.
The Supreme Court made a ruling that will save Apple billions. Image: Pexels/Cult of Mac
The Supreme Court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump does not have the authority to impose tariffs on imports coming into the United States from virtually every country. This could ease costs for U.S. companies that rely heavily on overseas manufacturing, including Apple.
In the months since Trump began broadly imposing tariffs, Apple paid billions in these import taxes. And it rearranged its supply chain to move some product assembly away from China, the country that the president made the primary focus of his tariff policy.