Eating well on a budget can be tough, but one way to enjoy more adventurous or healthier meals without spending a ton of money is by making them at home. If you’re planning to cook more this year, you’ll want to consider shopping at Costco.

With a Costco Gold Star Membership, you can find shelves of enticing ingredients and premade delectables to help you create amazing breakfasts, lunches and dinners. For a limited time, you can get a one-year Costco Gold Star Membership for $60 — and it comes with a $30 Digital Costco Shop Card.

Most people don’t really use AM and FM radios anymore, but streaming live content is hardly dead. Lots of podcasts do live streams — and you can still tune into radio stations online. Broadcasts, an app by independent developer Steven Troughton-Smith, makes listening to live music and streaming radio on your iPhone very easy.

Let me show you how it works.

Every year, Apple has some significant hardware upgrades planned for at least a few devices in its product lineup. 2023 could be an outlier, though.

This year, Apple’s major hardware launches will include its first AR/VR headset and the iPhone 15 series. While other products in the company’s lineup will receive a refresh, they will be relatively minor upgrades.

Contrary to rumors, the upcoming Apple silicon Mac Pro might disappoint many in the design department. A new report suggests the forthcoming Mac Pro refresh will have the same design as the 2019 Intel-based model.

The Apple silicon Mac Pro is widely expected to launch later this year. It would stand out in the Mac lineup by offering a certain degree of user upgradability but come with non-upgradeable system memory.

Most iPhone users have finally gotten on the iOS 16 bandwagon, according to a tracking company. Adoption passed 70% last week, almost four months after it launched.

That’s significantly slower than iPhone users adopted previous iOS versions. The data shows that people simply don’t trust that Apple’s iPhone updates will be bug-free. Not the way we used to, anyway.

With 2022 officially and fully in the rear-view, we’re all looking at how 2023 will be different. But some things don’t need to change. With that, it seemed only fair that we look back at some of the apps that made the biggest difference this past year. With so many apps to choose from, knowing the ones we (the Cult of Mac team) actually used and loved this last year may even help you nail that New Year’s resolution.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: The more we hear about Apple’s upcoming AR/VR headset, the more we’re perplexed about who is actually going to buy one. We take a long, hard look at the latest leaks — and come up shaking our heads.

Also on The CultCast:

• We might get a raft of exciting new Macs — including the first Mac Pro powered by Apple silicon — at a March event.
• Apple’s Pro Display XDR and Studio Display get some high-end competition.
• Sorry, voice actors. AI narrators look like the future of audiobooks (and Apple leads the charge).
• Our final best-of-2022 picks.

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.

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The Mac is hardly ever the focus of events like CES. But at this year’s massive tech conference in Las Vegas, two promising displays were announced by Samsung and Dell.

Any new Retina display options for the Mac are a welcome treat. Let’s see how these new monitors stack up.

Owning a professional knife set completes a kitchen and makes whipping up outstanding meals easier than ever. This eight-piece Seido Japanese Master Chef Knife Set, which comes with a gift box, is one of the best you can get.

Now you can grab it for just $99.99, marked down from $249.

Over the past 20 years, Apple’s Safari web browser grew from a speedy young upstart to a polished professional. Released on this day in 2003 as a free download, Safari has been bundled with every version of the Mac operating system since.

Take a trip down memory lane as we look at how Safari has evolved over the years.

The Safari browser turns 20 years old today, and I remember excitedly firing it up for the first time.

When Steve Jobs introduced Safari at Macworld 2003, he described the brand-new browser as a speed demon and way easier to use than competitors.

“Buckle up,” he said with a smile. “We have done our own browser and it’s hot … it’s sweet.”

A few weeks later, I deleted it in disgust. Safari wasn’t sweet. It sucked!

For anyone interested in a coding career, one of the most useful languages you can learn is Python. With the Premium Python Certification Bootcamp Bundle, you can study it in your own time, from just about anywhere. And during our Same You, New Job promotion, you can enroll in this $2,585 course for only $29.99 — no coupon needed.

There’ll be no iPhone SE 4, according to a reliable source of insider info. And the previous model is supposedly Apple’s last low-cost handset.

This is not intended to force consumers to buy pricier models. Shoppers are doing that on their own.

Apple TV+ comedy Mythic Quest hits the end of season three this week with a bittersweet and very funny episode. Ian must fix the rift between himself and Poppy. David must regroup from a loss, and Jo’s got just the ticket (though maybe so do Ian and Poppy). Plus, Dana, Brad and Jo need a new challenge.

I cannot stress how much I need this show’s creative team to crank out new seasons more quickly. I do not want to go another two years without checking back in with the Mystic Quest crew. A fine season comes to a very lovely ending.

If you’re missing the iPod — the revolutionary music player that Apple unceremoniously killed last year — maybe an iPod-inspired Apple accessory will help fill the void.

In this roundup, we showcase iPod-inspired products from Elago like cases for AirTags and AirPods, as well as an Apple Watch stand. These are just some of the many Elago accessories you can find in the Cult of Mac Store.

Episode XOXO is an interactive storytelling game full of love, drama and adventure now on Apple Arcade. It brings a version of the very popular Episode: Choose Your Story game to Apple’s gaming service.

It is now playable on a wide range of Apple computers, from iPhone to Mac.

It’s finally go time on Echo 3, the Apple TV+ show about rescuing a CIA operative with a brother and a husband in the military. Prince and Bambi have cleared the runway for their secret invasion of the prison where sister/wife Amber is being held captive.

But big questions remain: Can they get in without getting killed? Is Amber actually there? Can they avoid a large-scale incursion with massive casualties? Can they flee the country to safety once they’re done? Is this at all a proportionate response?

Find out on this week’s installment of the most ideologically confused show on Apple TV+.

It’s always nice to hear from professionals relying on Apple gear and finding it meets or even exceeds their expectations. That’s a good indicator that Cupertino is going in the right direction.

Today’s featured computer setup shows that enthusiasm. A mobile app developer offers high praise for his M1 MacBook Pro. And his stacked displays and raft of AV gear aren’t bad, either. Let’s take a look.

Now that 2023 has arrived, you can score wonderful new bargains on Microsoft software. Just visit the Happy New Year Sale at software activation keys provider CdkeySales.com to save on Windows, Office and more.

Any Cult of Mac readers who want a great deal on Windows 10 (and more) can click on the links below. As a bonus, Windows 10 comes with a free upgrade to Windows 11. CdkeySales offers big savings on plenty of other Microsoft software, too. To get the most savings, enter promo code CULT at CdkeySales.com. That will slash an extra 30% off the site’s already-low prices on keys for Windows 10 Pro Global, Microsoft Office 2021 Pro and more.

As more and more organizations of every kind move online, one of the most valuable and in-demand skills you can have is cybersecurity expertise. A great way to learn the latest is with the Infosec4TC Platinum Membership for Cybersecurity Training.

And through January 9, you can grab lifetime access for just $54.99 — that’s a staggering $950 off the regular price of $999.

Apple TV+ thriller The Mosquito Coast kisses its second season — and a number of its characters — goodbye in this week’s show. The season two finale skids into a violent confrontation that leaves many dead, but answers a lot of important questions in the process.

The Fox family — Dina, Charlie, Margot and Allie — is still on the run. And they all know they want different things out of life. Can they work it out in time to escape the repercussions of the sundry terrorist events that have been escalating all season? This frankly shocking episode of The Mosquito Coast looks at all that and more.

Apple’s AR/VR headset development has reportedly hit another setback. As a result, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo now predicts Apple will unveil the headset at a spring media event or at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

Rumors so far indicated Apple could hold an event in January 2023 to unveil the long-rumored headset.

With scammers increasingly desperate to take advantage of people, random calls and texts have become a primary tool for fraudsters. Robocalls are an unfortunate trend you’ve likely experienced in your own life. And they can quickly get out of control, exposing phone owners of all ages to vulnerable situations.

As we ring in 2023, we’ve got a limited-time offer on a subscription to RoboKiller spam call and text blocker. It’s a proven solution to a modern problem. A three-year subscription to RoboKiller typically costs $119, but is available for just $49.99 during this New Year’s special.

The long-awaited Mac Pro desktop will finally debut at a big March event, according to a tipster. As will a Mac mini powered by Apple’s M2 chip.

Plus, Apple is apparently getting ready to knock people’s socks off, as three MacBooks are also supposedly on the agenda for the event — including a 15-inch MacBook Air.

Smart-home specialist Aqara said Thursday it will expand its product line in the coming months with a new video doorbell, LED light strips, a sensor with artificial intelligence and a smart door lock that works with Home Key. All of the new devices will work with HomeKit and other smart-home systems.

Rather than showcasing new products at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, however, the company put out a video showing off the four items below as if it were at the show.