★★★☆☆
Will Charlie (played by Wyatt Oleff) ever get to the bottom of Sam's shooting? Photo: Apple TV+
Apple TV+ drama City on Fire drops a bomb this week.
Charlie and Keith meet up under less-than-ideal circumstances, while Sam fights for her life. Nicky and Sol have one last missive for the city of New York — and the fat cat who set them up. And William has one more act left in his life as an amateur detective — and a family to reunite.
This week’s episode, entitled “The Demon Brother,” is full of engaging, but deeply ridiculous, stuff.
★★☆☆☆
Despite starring Tom Holland, this is definitely not a Spider-Man movie. Photo: Apple TV+
New Apple TV+ thriller The Crowded Room delves into a crime committed in New York at the end of the 1970s. Spider-Man star Tom Holland plays a troubled teen whose life in a halfway house leads to murder.
The miniseries stumbles a fair bit, but when it gets the steps right it proves quite compelling. Its depiction of lowlife decadence and debauchery almost hits the mark, but Holland can’t quite live up to the task of carrying all 10 episodes.
Home Key lets you open this new deadbolt smart lock with an iPhone or Apple Watch. Photo: Aqara
Aqara released its first deadbolt smart lock Friday, the Smart Lock U100. It’s fully compatible with Apple’s HomeKit and you can open it with Home Key, fingerprints, passwords or — get this — a physical key.
Snark aside (a physical if often provided with smart locks for power outages), the stout new lock integrates with the Matter home automation standard and could become a vital part of HomeKit users’ smart-home arsenals.
You can see a StandBy Mode from the iOS 17 beta on the iPhone's display, which looks like a digital clock. Photo: [email protected]
This year, WWDC delivered an avalanche of new hardware as well as the usual major planned software releases — and the latter is already showing up in computer setups while the hardware hasn’t shipped yet.
Today’s featured setup may be all about its MacBook Pro, iPad and fine external monitor, but you can’t miss the brand-new, unreleased functionality showing up on another screen on display in the photograph.
Use promo code CULT at CdkeySales.com to score major savings on Microsoft software. Photo: CdkeySales.com
While few people enjoy updating their Microsoft software, it’s important to do it to maintain the best productivity and security. So it’s a good thing you can score genuine copies of Windows, Microsoft Office and other great software at way below full price.
You can do that when you buy software activation keys.
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If you’re ready to stop paying full price for crucial software, try shopping at software activation keys provider CdkeySales.com. You can find low prices on Windows, Office and more. And if you want to score the most savings, enter promo code CULT at CdkeySales.com. That cuts an additional 30% off the site’s super-low prices on software keys.
And don’t miss this — you get a free upgrade to Windows 11 when you buy Windows 10.
Safari Profiles make it easier to keep work and personal browsing separate. But the upcoming feature can also simplify sharing an iPad. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
With Safari Profiles, Apple takes another swing at helping us organize all the browser tabs we have open. The new feature lets users put tabs and tab groups into separate areas, helping keep work and our personal lives from interfering.
Beyond that, Safari Profiles also could enable two or more people to more easily share the web browser, which can be a huge benefit for iPad users.
I’ve been testing the new feature in the first betas of iOS 17, macOS Sonoma and iPadOS 17, all of which Apple unveiled at WWDC23 this week.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks Apple’s $3,499 Vision Pro headset does not pack any significant technological breakthroughs. He claims his company explored all options used by Apple — but ultimately decided against them.
Zuckerberg expressed his thoughts on Vision Pro in a companywide meeting with Meta employees.
Reddit's new API pricing is the reason behind Apollo's shut down. Photo: Reddit
Apollo, a popular third-party Reddit client for iPhone and iPad, will shut down on June 30. This is due to Reddit’s upcoming API policy that goes live on July 1, which makes it untenable for third-party apps to operate.
Apple highlighted Apollo multiple times on-stage at WWDC23 and even showed it as one of the apps for its Vision Pro headset.
Help Dad clean up his office with the iScanner app. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Everyone has paper documents they need to keep. But if your dad’s office is getting out of hand, the iScanner iOS app can turn his iPhone into a quick and easy scanning tool that can help him clear the clutter.
The star-studded second season of The Afterparty will make its global debut on Apple TV+ in July. Photo: Apple TV+
The second season of an Apple TV+ series that turns a murder mystery into a genre-mixing comedy will soon return. Fresh episodes of The Afterparty premier in July.
As the trailer released Thursday shows, there’s a new mystery to solve with a fresh cast of eccentric suspects, though Tiffany Haddish and some of the other stars of season one will be back.
New health features come to iOS 17, iPadOS 17 and watchOS 10. Photo: Apple
At WWDC23, Apple said it’s adding a slew of new health features in iOS 17, iPadOS 17 and watchOS 10 that will help you take care of yourself physically and emotionally.
And while new mental health and vision features are coming across platforms, the more-general Health app finally arrives on iPad, as well.
You can mount this reflective AirTag holder anywhere on your bike. Photo: Device Therapy
For this week’s giveaway, we teamed up with Device Therapy, which makes a clever disguise to keep an eye on your bicycle. Three lucky winners will receive an awesome Bike Reflector Mount that can help foil thieves who want to steal your two-wheeler.
The AirTag bike mount’s reflective surface is made from genuine 3M diamond-grade reflective material. The durable mounts are made from plant-sourced bioplastic, 3D-printed in-house by the product’s creator.
Safari Private Browsing mode will soon get multiple new features to prevent online tracking. Photo: Killian Bell/Ed Hardy
Private Browsing mode in Apple Safari will soon get even more secure. It’ll be locked against someone else accessing it, and incorporate new tools to prevent websites from tracking users.
The additional privacy features are coming in iOS 17, macOS Sonoma and iPadOS 17, all of which were unveiled at WWDC23 this week.
Lifetime access to text and audio book summaries cost only $69.99 with this Father's Day discount. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
If your dad likes to read, you probably purchased him a book as a Father’s Day gift at least once over the years. With that holiday here again, you can help him discover hundreds of books at a surprisingly low price.
During our Father’s Day Sale, a lifetime subscription to Headway Premium costs just $69.99 (regularly $300), with no coupon required. That’s nearly 80% savings on an app that’s primed to provide many years of entertainment and enlightenment for your old man. This deal only lasts until June 11, though, so act fast.
Which M2 MacBook Air model is right for you? Image: Rajesh Pandey/Cult of Mac
Apple’s redesigned 13-inch MacBook Air from 2022 remains among the best portable laptops you can buy. The 15-inch MacBook Air packs the same benefits in a slightly bigger form factor.
So, which MacBook Air model is right for you — 13-inch or 15-inch? Read our comparison to find out.
Apple Maps can route users to their destinations even without a cell signal. Photo: Apple
Apple is fixing one of the biggest annoyances of Apple Maps on iOS 17. You can finally download maps for offline use, complete with turn-by-turn directions.
Google Maps has long offered the ability to download maps for offline use. This allows you to use the app for navigation even when not in network range.
Get Rosetta Stone and other travel essentials for just $159.99 for Father's Day. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
You know how Dad is always telling you stories about the good old days? If you’re tired of hearing about them, maybe the best thing you can get him for Father’s Day is a whole new batch of great memories.
The best way to do that is with travel. And that’s what makes the 2023 Travel Hacker Bundle so appealing — especially now that it’s down to less than $159.99 through June 11 for our special Father’s Day Sale.
★★★★☆
Turns out selling bogus art to criminals isn't the smartest move. Photo: Apple TV+
Apple TV+’s farcical neo-noir High Desert gets tied up this week as Peggy accidentally finds herself at the business end of some dangerous people’s guns. Guru Bob is kidnapped and tormented for his role in selling art forgeries to bad people, while Peggy’s quest to find Bob’s wife lands her in hot water with the Gatchi family.
The episode, entitled “A Nod Is Not a Hello,” is a raucous and funny time, even as the stakes climb higher by the minute
That $3,500 price tag certainly got people's attention. Photo: Apple
The $3,499 price of Vision Pro, the long-awaited AR/VR headset Apple rolled out at WWDC23, startles some people. You can find audience reaction videos out there with audible gasps when the price was announced (including among Apple employees, some posts claim). And mainstream headlines are joining in, too.
And of course social media hasn’t let up on the jokey memes. See below for a few choice examples.
Porting PC games to the Mac just got “easier than ever before.” Photo: Apple
A stealth announcement at WWDC23 is that Apple has significantly lowered the barrier of entry to port PC games to the Mac. A new Game Porting Toolkit “provides an emulation environment to run your existing, unmodified Windows game,” says Aiswariya Sreenivassan — a GPU, graphics and displays software engineer at Apple.
It’s a big gap to clear, which is why the Mac has been left behind in recent years. PC games are compiled for the Intel x86 architecture that the Mac just finished moving away from. The unified Apple silicon architecture bears little resemblance to the standard gaming PC with discrete graphics cards and memory. Apple’s Metal 3 library is very different from DirectX, Unity, Unreal and Vulkan — the usual suspects across the computing pond.
Apple’s new tools could open the floodgates for Mac ports of popular PC games. According to a game engine programmer I spoke with, the Game Porting Toolkit demo is “really impressive.” If the tools work as well in practice as in Apple’s demo, they “would be incredibly useful,” said the developer, who works for a major game developer and asked to remain anonymous.
Regularly send money to friends, family, etc. with reoccurring payments, coming to Apple Cash. Photo: Apple
Making regular, reoccurring payments will soon be a feature of Apple Cash. This will make the payment system useful for rent or allowances or other financial transactions that happen each week or month.
Plus, the system will be able to automatically bring in more money when needed.
You might never have to look at a stranger’s private parts again. Photo: Apple
If some random person decides you need to see a picture of his anatomy, iOS 17 will save you. The new Sensitive Content Warning scans texted images and automatically blurs any that contain nudity.
It’s a feature already in iPhone to protect children, and it’s now being extended to adults.
★★★★☆
Charlie (played by Luke Macfarlane) has a little trouble coming to terms with his "wife's boyfriend." Photo: Apple TV+
Apple TV+ comedy Platonic finds Will and Charlie stepping outside of their comfort zones this week, at a greater cost than either imagined.
The show, about two adult friends who try to reclaim their nonsexual friendship at the start of their middle age, finds them Charlie’s wife Sylvia all keeping secrets from each other — a sure sign that everything’s going according to plan, right?
Entitled “My Wife’s Boyfriend,” it’s a surprisingly effective episode, despite all the comic games that come out of left field.