This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: The latest rumors point to impressive iPhone upgrades on the horizon. Stacked batteries might deliver the holy grail of longer battery life as early as this year. And in 2024, the iPhone Pro Max camera might graduate to a mind-blowing 12x zoom. Excuse if we’re a little excited!

Also on The CultCast:

• A secret project dubbed “Apple GPT” might make Apple’s products better — even Siri!
• If you’re not taking advantage of Continuity features, you’re doing Apple wrong.
• Sounds like we’ll be waiting quite a while for a truly pro Mac Pro.
• How in the world did Goldman Sachs lose so much money on Apple Card?!?

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.

Most of us know to double-check for the physical necessities before we travel outside the country. That includes (but isn’t limited to) passports, phone chargers, swimsuits, etc. What less experienced travelers don’t know is that it’s just as important to prep your smartphone for the trip. Once you cross international borders, you might not be taking your mobile plan with you, and that can mean expensive roaming charges for text messaging and internet use. That is unless you’re prepared with an eSim card from aloSIM.

Just in time for upcoming trips, you can now score the aloSIM Lifetime eSIM Plan for only $21.99 (regularly $50) and even get an additional $50 of data credit with your purchase. You’ll have to act fast since this deal only lasts until July 23 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific.

Swagger takes a hard look at incarceration this week in a season-best episode of the Apple TV+ basketball drama.

With the eyes of their community on them, Jace and Team Swagger head to a juvenile detention center to learn and to play as they sweat their futures. Entitled “Are We Free?,” it’s a terrific episode filled with great performance notes and stunning direction.

Anybody that’s ever tried to touch up patchy paint knows that you should never try to “eyeball” the right shade. Even subtle color differences can result in a wall that looks like a crazy quilt. And cans of paint are not cheap.

Luckily, there’s an easy way to match that color right the first time: the Nix Mini 2 color sensor. This tiny but mighty gadget should become an essential part of any home improvement or decorating toolkit. And through July 23, you can grab this helpful color-matching device for only $59.97 (regularly $99).

The SwitchEasy MagPower 4-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand can wirelessly power up a MagSafe iPhone while also juicing up an Apple Watch, AirPods and more. And it even has a nightlight as a bonus.

I’ve had the stand either on my desk or beside my bed for a couple weeks now. Here’s what it’s like in real-world use.

Note: This stand is currently on sale in the Cult of Mac Store’s SwitchEasy flash sale.

La Maison is a one-hour drama set within a contemporary French fashion house. It focuses on the lives of powerful families involved in the world of fashion, aspirational French elegance and luxury.

The upcoming Apple TV+ series stars a who’s who of French actors, including Lambert Wilson and Amira Casar.

TSMC reportedly can’t get enough skilled workers to build its processor factory in Arizona. The company’s CEO warns that this means the start of chip manufacture in the United States won’t begin as soon as had been earlier projected.

That’s not good news for Apple, which has committed to sourcing processors from the plant.

Soccer legend Lionel Messi recently joined Major League Soccer club Inter Miami CF, and Apple TV+ hopes to score off the Argentine star’s high-profile arrival. The streaming service is offering a range of MLS Season Pass content complementing the games it will air, starting July 21 with Leagues Cup coverage.

“Lionel Messi joining Inter Miami marks a historic moment for the sport in the U.S. and reflects the incredible momentum behind Major League Soccer,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, in a press release Friday. “We couldn’t be more excited to give fans around the world the opportunity to watch the greatest footballer of all time on MLS Season Pass.”

Apple TV+’s epic science fiction series Foundation deals with the fallout from an assassination attempt, a potential marriage and the opening of a puzzle cube this week.

In the episode, entitled “A Glimpse of Darkness,” Salvor and Gaal have their overdue reunion with Hari Seldon. Plus, some new converts are betrayed by their faith. And Hari, like Schrodinger’s cat, may or may not be in a box. It’s a very good episode between major developments.

Popular farming simulator Stardew Valley+ is now playable via Apple Arcade. The game promises many hours of entertainment, with farming, ranching, fighting monsters and even getting married.

It’s one of a number of classic titles to hit Apple’s gaming subscription service in recent weeks.

Nomad introduced ChargeKey in 2013, and at long last the popular little keychain charging cable got an update. Now it sports a fresh design and USB-C and Lightning versions to help you power up today’s devices on the go.

New Apple TV+ sports doc Stephen Curry: Underrated follows the Golden State Warriors star and his quest to bring his team back after a bad season.

The film documents the various rises and falls of the player with the three-pointer record and the slim build, showing us who Curry is off the court as well as on. It’s a very conventional but likable look at the kind of talent that doesn’t come along every day.

Our travels online among computer setups show that a great many Apple users don’t choose Magic Mouse — and many even detest it. So they select popular products from Logitech and other makers. But some people, like graphic designers, passionately defend Apple’s sleek and slippery mouse, and today’s featured MacBook Pro-and-custom-PC setup is a testament to that. Long live Magic Mouse!

Apple Watch is one of the best accessories you can get for your iPhone. The smartwatch will complement your iPhone by mirroring key notifications and tracking your key health metrics.

If you are using an old Apple Watch or have yet to try one, now is the time. Amazon’s latest deal has slashed $70 off the Apple Watch Series 8, dropping its price to as low as $329.

The blazing sun isn’t summertime’s only hot thing. You can also get blistering deals on crucial Microsoft productivity software. Whether it’s new or you’re just keeping yours updated to work smoothly and sidestep emerging security threats, it’s a good thing you can nab the latest versions of Windows, Microsoft Office and other great software at super-low summer prices.

Savvy shoppers can score a boatload of summer savings through Apple Pay’s promotion running through July 26.

Just head to the sellers’ websites through Apple’s promo page for great savings from the likes of Ray-Ban, Sonic, Gymboree and nine others. See below.

Home cooks depend on their knives more than any other utensil in the kitchen. Unfortunately, blades also need the most care, and too few of us can fully provide it. If you already invested in a decent set of knives, it pays to find a sharpener that can keep their edges keen. The Angle Pro Knife Sharpener is a unique tool that gives you custom blade sharpening and care, no matter what kind of knives you have in your kitchen arsenal.

Luckily, giving your beloved blades TLC doesn’t have to come at a steep cost. You can score the Angle Pro Knife Sharpener with Angle Gauge for only $59.97 (regularly $199). You’ll have to act fast, though, since this deal only lasts until July 23 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific!

The Vaonis Hestia gives users a closer look at the moon, sun and stars, but it’s far from a traditional telescope. It’s designed to let beginners use their iPhone to view the heavens, easily find the celestial objects they want to see, and then photograph them.

It’s also quite portable. It’s ready to go with you to escape light pollution.

Almost everybody loves houseplants, but sometimes it can seem like they don’t love us. To those of us who don’t have a degree in botany, it can be a mystery why some plants thrive while others wither in the same spot. Now there’s help for everyday plant moms and dads in the form of Plantum, an AI-based app that can help you both identify and care for your flowers, ferns, and other flora. A lifetime subscription is only $14.97 through July 23.

Zagg just launched a line of Bluetooth desktop keyboards that range in size from 12 inches all the way up to 17 inches, with larger models adding a numberpad and function keys. And they really don’t need wires, as they also charge wirelessly

In addition, the new keyboard lineup includes one designed specifically to plug into the Lightning port of an iPad. And there’s a USB-C variant, too.

A standout feature of the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max is reportedly causing assembly problems. The high-end models Apple will launch in autumn 2023 are expected to have the thinnest screen bezels of any handset, but that’s apparently making the panels harder than usual to produce.

If true, this could lower the supply of the iOS devices when they launch.

The on again/off again iPhone SE 4 is reportedly off again. For at least a couple of years, anyway. Apple reportedly no longer intends to make a new budget iOS handset in 2024.

That’s probably not surprising considering the popularity of the company’s more expensive models.

The Kuxiu X40 3-in-1 charger simplifies travel by juicing up your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods from one device, cable and outlet. It folds flat for sticking in your bag — it even comes with a little carrying case. Its handsome design and premium materials make it suitable as a permanent desk companion, too.

Without a handy travel charger like this, hitting the road with all your devices — iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods and possibly a MacBook, iPad or Nintendo Switch — can become a big nightmare of device-specific cables. iPhones and AirPods charge with a Lightning cable, the Apple Watch has its own unique puck thing and most other devices are on USB-C, except for some MacBooks that have MagSafe, too.

The Kuxiu X40 replaces two to three of the special charging cables that we, people with Apple devices, are used to taking with us everywhere we go. You don’t need your Lightning cable and your Watch cable. All you need to put in your bag is the Kuxiu X40 and a beefy USB-C power cable to charge all your devices on a weekend away from home.

It’s regularly on sale for less, but even its original $79.99 price is competitive for what you get.

Apple’s M1 MacBook Air was available for just $749.99 on Prime Day earlier this month. In case you missed that deal, Amazon is again discounting the machine to $749, knocking a staggering $250 off its retail price.

If you need a new laptop, this is the deal you should not miss. At $749.99, the M1 MacBook Air provides one of the cheapest ways to get into Apple’s ecosystem.

Almost any writer or content creator can benefit from using a minimal Markdown editor like Typora. It’s a simple app that you can configure in many different ways to suit the formatting you need for your document, whether you’re writing a book, building a website, crafting a business report or simply blogging or penning an essay for school.