It happens every year. The summer flies by, and before you know it, the words “back to school” are popping up everywhere. We know that pain.
It’s smart to get ahead of the back-to-school shopping game and snag supplies early, especially when those supplies are a great deal, like this refurbished MacBook Air. Get one through August 13 for just $299.99 and cross one thing off your list now.
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery just got its largest-ever game expansion. Dubbed Beyond Hogwarts, it offers 50% more content as players leave the hallowed halls of Hogwarts and visit the magical haunts of London.
With the expansion, those who played the original game when it launched 5 years ago can come back and find plenty more to enjoy.
This year’s iPhone 15 Pro models will feature “stronger, lighter and more premium” titanium edges, according to a reliable source. And a customizable Action button could be another highlight, letting users quickly enable Focus mode, launch the Camera app or perform other common tasks.
All those new features could jack up the cost of the iPhone 15 Pro line considerably.
There’s a lot more to AI than telling ChatGPT to write a paragraph or tell a joke. With a little coding experience, you can program your own AI chatbot. Even if you’re a beginner programmer, you can start your education independently with the 2023 Ultimate AI ChatGPT and Python Programming Bundle.
This course pack gives you 86 hours of expert instruction, culminating in a tutorial to help you craft a chatbot. And it’s on sale for only $29.97 until August 13 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific.
In this installment of 3 Reasons to Watch, blast off with Apple TV+’s spectacular Foundation, a space opera worthy of the classics of the genre. After a stellar first season of the show, which is based on the timeless novels of Isaac Asimov, the second season is even more tremendous!
Here’s why you should check out this epic sci-fi show if you haven’t already.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Not all iPhone rumors prove exciting. In fact, a big one this week — possible iPhone 15 price hikes — sounds downright depressing. But it’s not all bad news. The “normie” iPhone 15 might get some trickle-down camera tech that could make it easier not to go Pro this year.
Also on The CultCast:
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.
For this week’s giveaway, we partnered with Harber London to offer you an opportunity to win an exquisite, handmade Magnetic Envelope Sleeve for iPad Pro valued at $118.
This gorgeous, full-grain leather iPad sleeve exudes elegance and durability, boasting a sleek design and robust construction. Crafted in either black or tan, the sleeve is made of top-quality leather, with 100% wool felt on the back and inner sleeve. This combination ensures comprehensive protection for your prized iPad, shielding it from potential scratches and impacts while providing a comfortable touch.
Apple aggressively added to its catalog of original films and TV shows between June 2022 and June 2023. The Apple TV+ total hit almost 200, and has since surpassed that milestone.
And some of the shows are very popular, appearing near the top of the ratings list always every week of 2023.
Clip the Brydge Pro+ keyboard to an 11-inch iPad Pro to make an ultraportable laptop ready for school or work. And the useful add-on is available now for just $29.99.
If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your first, second or third-generation iPad Pro 11-inch with a keyboard and trackpad, there’s never been a better time.
This post contains affiliate links. Cult of Mac may earn a commission when you use our links to buy items.
Searching for a job is hardly fun, especially if you have to repeatedly enter all the information from your application materials into various online questionnaires. Thank heavens you can save yourself some time — and open up new professional opportunities — with the help of AI.
LazyApply is a job-hunting AI assistant that inputs your information for you, then helps you generate and track your application materials. Don’t waste time hunting blindly! Get a lifetime license to LazyApply during our Back-to-School Sale, while it’s just $59.97 (regularly $149).
Arc is a new kind of web browser that recently launched for Mac. It breaks free of the conventional tabbed window design with an all-new approach to organizing your internet activity without slowing you down along the way.
The top talent at The Browser Company, Arc’s developer, are taking bold approaches behind the scenes as well. The Windows version won’t be rewritten in C++ as with most Windows programs. Instead, the team is creating a custom toolkit to compile its code in Apple’s Swift language on Windows.
You can download Arc here for free from The Browser Company.
The back-to-school season is about more than returning to the classroom. It’s about taking your education into your own hands. If you want to become an IT professional, you don’t need to wait for a class you can take in person.
Instead, you can enroll in the Complete 2023 CompTIA Certification Course Super Bundle by Iducate. This comprehensive IT and cybersecurity study bundle can be used as an independent educational tool or to help you prep for formal CompTIA certification. Either way, it costs just $39.97 — but only until August 13 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+’s epic space opera Foundation shores up its defenses this week as everyone prepares for the second crisis.
Hari and Gaal have a crucial appointment with an ancient power. Cleric and Day both need to rescue the last men in the galaxy that either of them wants to ask for help. And new and greater puzzles wait behind every corner.
Great pacing, great character work and a couple of welcome additions to the Foundation cast make this week’s episode, “King and Commoner,” appointment television.
iPhone shipments made up 55% of the U.S. smartphone market in the second quarter of 2023, according to a market-analysis firm. That’s the third quarter to a row that Apple handsets have made up more than half of the market.
iPhone shipments actually declined slightly in the April-though-June period, but not as much as some Android-makers — Samsung shipments dropped almost 40%.
Done with the beach and ready to soak up some blistering savings on Microsoft productivity software? You might be buying for the first time or simply updating it to work its best and stay safe from security threats. Either way, it’s a good thing you can get the latest versions of Microsoft Windows and Office at super-low summer prices.
Looking to buy a new MacBook Pro but find the 14-inch and 16-inch models expensive? You might consider buying the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which costs a much more reasonable $1,299.
And if you jump on Amazon’s latest deal, you can get the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 chip for just $1,099, a sweet $200 off.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a charming life sim game starring the world-famous feline, and it just joined the Apple Arcade roster.
With her adorable friends, Kitty White explores a beautiful island and the magical underwater world near it.
★★★★★
Swagger takes a look at personal responsibility this week, as Jace ponders his future after taking a tough stance.
He and Crystal spend an eventful, meaningful day together, while higher-ups decide what to do with the divisive athlete. Ike, Tonya and Emery must work through the Jace situation, while he needs to deal with his own confidence issues. Entitled “Jace + Crystal,” it’s a very fine episode of an Apple TV+ sports drama that produces little else.
Computer-setup gawkers on social media love their symmetry. It’s really just human nature to prefer those clean lines and even spacing — you know, stopping short of full-blown obsessive compulsive disorder and blowing a gasket if one little cable appears out of place.
Today’s M1 Ultra Mac Studio workstation brings not only powerhouse computing, but a few tricks of the trade when it comes to creating that pleasing symmetry. And it packs an interesting device we don’t see very often.
Apple warned all App Store developers that it’s starting a crackdown on using device fingerprinting for user tracking.
As a means of preventing this invasive tracking, Apple will soon require devs to justify the inclusion of all APIs in software submitted to the App Store.
★☆☆☆☆
The Beanie Bubble, the new Apple TV+ movie about a product you rightly moved on from despite its momentary stranglehold on culture, is fleetingly persuasive but hopelessly conventional.
Directed by the lead singer of OK Go and Al Gore’s daughter, the movie tells the true story of the creation of and exploitation of the Beanie Babies craze of the 1990s.
The back-to-school vibe has undoubtedly changed. We’ve traded our three-ring binders and Trapper Keepers for digital files and folders on our laptops. So much is saved on our computers during a school year, and it’s only natural if your machine eventually runs out of space.
The easiest thing to do is to keep all your important school, work and personal docs and photos backed up and in one place. Fortunately, during this back-to-school sale, you can get a lifetime subscription to Koofr with 1TB of cloud storage for only $119.97 to do just that. Simply enter code KOOFR with your purchase to score this $20 discount. But don’t put off this key buy for long. This deal only lasts through August 13.
Apple pinned its hopes on soccer superstar Lionel Messi boosting interest in its MLS Season Pass, and the gamble is apparently paying off. After the legend joined Inter Miami CF, Apple reports that its soccer streaming service just had its best week ever.
And that’s after Messi playing only two matches on the service.
Google thinks Apple’s Find My network is so clever it’s “borrowing” the idea. But the upcoming extension of Android’s Find My Device network to tracking tags has been delayed — and Google says it’s all because of Apple.
The snafu supposedly stems from the companies working together on a scheme to prevent stalkers from misusing tracking tags made for the two rival platforms.
AirPods Pro (2nd generation) have a sleek and protective case of their own, but it’s not the grippiest accessory. So Nomad decided to curtail chances your earbuds will slip out of your hand by rolling out its new Sport Case this week.