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:

• Think of all the interesting ways you could use an Action button like on Apple Watch Ultra’s on an iPhone. Well, the iPhone 15 Pro might get in on that action.
• Apple’s Vision Pro loaners for developers come with some absolutely ridiculous restrictions.
• We’ve got an Apple Watch tip that we bet you don’t know — how to get the time with a tap on your wrist. Perfect for those long, boring meetings when you don’t want to peek at your watch.
• Hang around for the great Apple Music versus Spotify debate of 2023.

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.

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%.

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.

Sometimes the best accessory isn’t flashy, it just gets the job done and looks good doing it. That’s the case with the Elago H Stand for AirPods Max. The stand gives your exceptional headphones a handy perch.

Check out the tasteful stand in the Cult of Mac Store. It’s only $49.

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Apple TV+ unveiled a teaser for season 3 of Emmy Award-winning drama series The Morning Show Thursday, and things are starting to look pretty desperate for the show within a show. Billy Crudup’s executive producer character says “it’s time to smash and shatter” and “let’s burn it all down.”

But he’s a pretty shifty character. He might just be playing along with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon’s characters’ threat to expose the network’s horrible secrets.

If you keep forgetting or misplacing things, an AirTag will make your life much easier. Apple’s tracking tag can help you track lost or stolen items, even when they are not within your iPhone’s reach.

And what’s better than one AirTag? Four! And while an AirTag four-pack retails for $99, Amazon is currently discounting them to $84.99.

The top-tier model in Apple’s upcoming 2023 line could be in for a considerable price jump. The iPhone 15 Pro Max could go up by as much as $200, according to an industry analyst.

While the iPhone 15 Pro will allegedly get its own price increase, the two “standard” ones will not.

Your party is about to start, but you’ve just realized you’re missing a key ingredient for dessert — and you forgot to stock up on cups, plates, napkins and other party essentials. Yes, you should probably hire a party planner next time. But instead of zipping through multiple stores for those items, you could shop more efficiently (and more money-consciously) with a Costco Gold Star Membership.

Fortunately, you can get a one-year Gold Star Membership to Costco now for only $60 — and you’ll even score a $30 Digital Costco Shop Card* with your purchase.