This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: What will WWDC23 bring us? In addition to a sweeping look at the future of all Apple’s platforms, it sounds like we’ll get some major new hardware. Yes, there’s that $3,000 AR/VR headset, but there’s also something we really want: a 15-inch MacBook Air.

Also on The CultCast:

• The Apple Watch interface will get a major upgrade with watchOS 10. And the same holds true for Stage Manger in iPadOS 17.
• All about Apple’s new Rapid Security Response system for deploying urgent upgrades.
• Shockingly, internal strife seems to be one of the things holding back Siri and Apple’s artificial intelligence efforts.

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 teamed up with SwitchEasy, maker of one of the finest MacBook cases around. Two lucky winners will bag a SwitchEasy Urban MacBook Sleeve.

Made of water-resistant threaded polyester material, these laptop cases will protect a MacBook from scuffs and scrapes. And they look good while doing so!

Has there ever been a new technology that has risen so rapidly and been as influential as artificial intelligence, and more specifically, ChatGPT? The OpenAI tool changed the game in almost every industry, seemingly overnight. Potential applications including content generation, translation and even coding iPhone apps from scratch.

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Apple TV+ revealed the launch date for Hijack, a seven-part thriller starring Idris Elba. When it debuts June 28, the series will follow a hijacked plane in “real time,” with Elba playing a passenger trying to negotiate with terrorists.

The first images from the show were also released on Friday.

Apple TV+ series Drops of God, about two wine experts competing to win a priceless cellar and their dead father figure’s favor, takes a trip down memory lane this week.

Alexandre and Marianne Léger relive their first tribulations, as well as their decision to move to Japan. And Issei’s mother remembers her first encounter with Alexandre, and how he ended up changing her life.

It’s a bit of a letdown that the episode, entitled “Foundation,” drifts from the show’s main action. However, this beautifully acted and well-directed detour proves very good nevertheless.

The Last Thing He Told Me,  the Apple TV+ limited series about a shady software developer with a checkered past who vanishes from his wife and daughter’s life, heads to a bar for a fateful drink and a little interrogation this week.

Hannah and Bailey find themselves dancing ever closer to the truth about their missing husband/father, and danger looms around every corner. The episode, entitled “The Never Dry,” makes for a pretty tense outing of the sometimes-too-casual mystery series.

Apple Music Live returns for its second season May 10 with a concert by Ed Sheeran at the Eventim Apollo in London. He’ll perform the whole of his new album “-” (aka “subtract,” because it’s a minus sign), Apple Music said Friday.

For the show, Sheeran will play with a 12-piece band that includes The National’s Aaron Dessner, who also produced Sheeran’s album. And in a new twist, you can watch Sheeran’s show and others to follow during the season on Apple TV+.

In a world of shockingly expensive Apple products, one magnificent items stands supreme — Pro Display XDR. If you’re among the legion of Apple fans who can’t quite crack open their wallets wide enough for a $1,600 Studio Display, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Today’s MacBook Pro setup sports a Pro Display XDR that came at a shocking price, too — shockingly good, that is, all things considered.

With AirPlay, you can wirelessly stream video from your Apple devices to a large-screen TV. It’ll let you enjoy Ted Lasso or share a TikTok video with a group of friends on a big screen, not your iPhone’s relatively small one.

If this handy option is new to you, Apple made an explainer video. Watch it now.

In the big new May Software Sale at software activation keys provider CdkeySales.com, springtime deals on Microsoft software are blooming. You can find great prices on Microsoft Windows, Office and more. Don’t pass it up.

If you could pay much less than full price for Windows 10 and other critical software, wouldn’t you? Just click on the links below to secure low prices on loads of Microsoft software. Plus, Windows 10 comes with a free upgrade to Windows 11.

Note: To get the absolute best savings possible, enter promo code CULT at CdkeySales.com. That will slash an additional 30% off the site’s super-low prices on keys for Windows 10 Pro Global, Microsoft Office 2021 Pro and more.

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New Apple TV+ series Silo packs what may be the last people on earth into a huge, mysterious structure. Like Snowpiercer pointed straight up, this show offers a look at the hierarchies and conspiracies of silence that lead to cataclysmic turns of events.

This shaggy dog post-apocalyptic story — with an all-star cast spouting a lot of silly sci-fi lingo and exaggerated futurespeak — gets off to a compelling start this week.

Shipments in the global smartphone market declined by 14% YoY in Q1 2023 to 280.2 million units. Despite the slowdown, Samsung replaced Apple as the world’s largest smartphone maker during the period.

Apple, however, continued its dominance, with iPhones accounting for nearly half the revenue generated by the smartphone market in Q1 2023. The company also took the lion’s share of the market’s profit.

Ahead of Apple’s transition from Lightning ports to USB-C for its devices, the European Commission warned the company not to limit the functionality of charging cables that don’t carry Apple’s MFi certification.

EU Commissioner Thierry Breton reportedly sent a letter to Apple addressing rumors that iPhone charging and data-transfer speeds might be reduced when using non-MFI USB-C cables. Breton reminded Cupertino that such limitations could lead to iPhones being banned from the European market.

Perhaps the best phrase to describe the results of Apple’s most recent financial quarter is, “It could have been worse.” Total revenue dropped 3% as the company battled inflation and other macroeconomic problems not of its making.

Still, Apple’s quarterly numbers beat the overly pessimistic Wall Street estimates. And there is more good news buried in the results Apple reported Thursday (and in the company’s earnings call with investors). Read on for five reasons to be optimistic about Apple’s future.

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During the first three months of 2023, Apple’s total revenue dropped 3% year over year. iPhone was a bright spot, but revenue from virtually all of the company’s other product segments saw annual declines. CEO Tim Cook blamed the drop on a “challenging macroeconomic environment.”

While the financial news isn’t good, Wall Street had been expecting it to be even worse. AAPL is up in after-hours trading on the news.

The amount of money Apple will pay you to trade in a previous-generation iPhone just increased. And that’s the second time this spring. The same holds true for Mac and iPad.

So, if you have an older Apple device sitting around, it might be worth more than you suspect.

Want an Apple desktop computer at a good price? Amazon bargain site Woot! is selling refurbished iMacs at discount prices through May 8. You can pick from 21 machines — right now, that is, while they last — with a selection of specs and colors.

The newest rigs date from 2021, most harken back to 2019 and a few date back to 2017 and even 2013.

If you own an iPhone XS or newer, your device comes with eSIM built in. That means you can skip physical SIM cards and simply set up cellular plans for international travel right on your phone, avoiding roaming charges wherever you go.

Apple Arcade normally grows by one game a week, but Apple added no less than 20 new titles to the service on Thursday.

These include TMNT Splintered Fate, What The Car?, Disney SpellStruck and Cityscapes: Sim Builder — all exclusive to Apple Arcade.

You might’ve dropped your iPhone on the floor and felt massive relief to find it undamaged. Or maybe a bit cracked. But what happens when an iPhone plummets 14,000 feet?

Thanks to TikTok and a skydiver who failed to secure his handset, now we know. At least in this one very lucky case.

Before the work-from-home revolution, cloud storage was a boon. Now, it’s a necessity. For so many of us, the office isn’t in some cubicle or even our home laptop. It’s wherever we are, on whatever device we can access. Files need to be both accessible and secure, and that’s why savvy cloud users are turning to Koofr.

Now that Koofr is offering 1TB of lifetime cloud storage for just $139.99 (regularly $2,700), you can expect even more people to jump on board.

Apple’s Maryland store became the company’s first retail store to unionize earlier this year. This was despite Apple’s best efforts to head off all unionization attempts.

The store employees are now demanding a 10% hike in their pay, overtime policies and more time off. More importantly, they also want Apple to allow consumers to tip retail employees.