A new analysis of smartphone speeds in 10 countries shows iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are the fastest 5G mobile devices in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.

Ookla’s study, released Monday, listed the top five fastest “popular” 5G devices by market share in each country. iPhone 14 and 13 series models appeared in many of the lists, but failed to place in some Asian markets.

Noting the performance variations by network and country, Ookla said the analysis “provides a snapshot of what you might typically expect.”

The Apple Watch Ultra has dropped to its lowest price for Black Friday. You can grab the watch with an Alpine Loop wristband for $739, down from its $799 MSRP.

The rugged titanium case and multi-day battery life make the Apple Watch Ultra ideal for fitness and outdoor enthusiasts.

Some people like a lot screens in their computer setup, others like to be glued to one and one only. In today’s featured computer setup, the user wrestles with the question of whether to keep his iPad Pro front and center, right in front of the external display, or just leave it out. Meanwhile, a MacBook Pro sits off to the side in clamshell mode.

Because the user asked for opinions on social media, he got them. Lots of them. But it proved to be a tricky question to answer definitively.

A leaker with a pretty good track record for accuracy said Sunday the upcoming iPhone 15 series will feature rounded corners and edges, plus a titanium case. Rounded corners would harken way back to earlier iPhones and a titanium case would be a first for Apple handsets.

The rumors came from ShrimpApplePro, who gets it right a fair amount of the time when predicting what Apple will do.

Apple’s AirTags just dropped to a pre-Black Friday low of $74.98 for a four-pack on Amazon. If you’ve been waiting for your chance to snag some of the remarkably handy tracking tags, this is it!

But, as with all Amazon deals, there’s no way of predicting how long this deal will last. If you want to get in on the AirTag action, you’d better grab this deal ASAP.

A reimagined Apple Pacific Centre doubles the store’s original size and adds some new features, like 32-foot floor-to-ceiling glass panels, a “living wall” with 144 native plant species and one of the tallest staircases among Apple Stores worldwide.

The store, in Vancouver, British Columbia, reopened Friday after its massive makeover. Take a peek inside!

In an unexpected development, SwiftKey is back on the App Store just a month after Microsoft removed the virtual keyboard app.

The move comes following customer feedback about the discontinuation of SwiftKey for iOS.

Want to buy your favorite chef a gift that’s a cut above the rest? A set of high-quality chef knives could be the missing ingredient in their kitchen, and this set of Seido Japanese Chef Knives even comes with its own gift box. Plus, these high-carbon kitchen knives are price dropped to $89.99 for a limited time.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Maybe, just maybe, Apple can make a metaverse competitor that won’t leave us ready to heave. Stranger things have happened, but we’re not so sure the long-rumored Apple mixed-reality headset will be right for us.

Also on The CultCast:

• Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite feature looks pretty cool and potentially lifesaving. Be sure to try the demo before you find yourself stranded on a mountaintop.
• We’re endlessly searching for a Black Friday deal on AirTags. (Editor’s note: Oh, wait, here’s one now: Grab an AirTag 4-pack for less than $80 before this deal disappears.)
• iPhone 4K video — it’s a scam!
• Erfon’s missing AirPods Max story takes a strange twist.
• You won’t believe how much somebody paid for an ancient pair of Steve Jobs’ stinky Birkenstocks.

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.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, there’s a good chance you’ll have some down time on the way. Whether you’re planning a trip to see family, doing some shopping, or just want to flex your Apple knowledge, this week we have some Awesome Apps to infuse some tech into your holiday week.

What do you give the golf lover who has everything? How about the luxury of perfecting their swing from anywhere? Make their holiday season with a great at-home golf simulator. For a limited time, you can get the Phigolf Premium Swing Trainer Bundle on sale for $199.99 or 28% off.

Aspiring IT and computer science professionals should consider earning professional certifications as part of their education and training. Want to prepare for the challenging exams ahead? Check out the Complete 2023 CompTIA Certification Course Super Bundle, which is on sale ahead of Black Friday for $49 — no coupon necessary.

PDF files are a fact of life online. All sorts of information, forms, contracts, applications and more come in the format, which is fixed to preserve formatting and resist having just anyone make changes. So you need special software to fill in, edit and sign a PDF, which can be a hassle.

That’s where UPDF comes in. It’s a versatile and easy-to-use PDF editor that’ll have you filling in and signing PDF files in no time, or even making more substantial changes, like reordering pages and converting files to other formats.

Even better, you can use UPDF on any platform for no additional cost. Cult of Mac readers can get UPDF at 53% off. Grab this deal (at the end of the article) and you will have an all-in-one PDF editor that works onMac, iOS, Windows and Android.

Traveling for the holidays can be fun, but it has its challenges. Some of those are a bit easier to manage if you have the distraction of your phone handy, but batteries have to die eventually. The Stand-O-Matic is a free-standing wireless charger that allows you to use your iPhone as it charges, so if long airport layovers have you down, at least you can stream something without killing your battery! And we’ve already dropped prices early during our Every Friday is Black Friday sale, so you can get the Stand-O-Matic for $39.99 instead of $129.

Apple TV+’s Mosquito Coast finds sanctuary at long last this week, but is it everything it appears to be? The Foxes are still learning hard lessons the hard way, surrounded at once by people who are like them and not —  and who know their place, unlike the Foxes.

Dina, Margot and Charlie have their doubts about their new home but Allie is all in, and he’s going to make sure they know how he feels. A hefty new complication rears its head in a tense episode of the thriller series about a family on the lam.

Three lucky winners in this week’s giveaway will be able to cast aside the Siri Remote forever. We’re giving away three Function101 Button Remotes for Apple TV.

But even if you don’t win, you can still free yourself from one of Apple’s most divisive devices. Retailing at just $29.95, the Button Remote is a deal for everyone who doesn’t like the Apple TV’s Siri Remote.

In this week’s edition of Apple TV+ limited series Shantaram, Lin recovers from cholera with Karla’s help, and she’s discovering she isn’t the moral person she’d been hoping she was deep down. Shah and Khan go to war over water, Prabhu gets a win, Ravi makes a chilling discovery, and Lisa and Modena have an ultimatum or two in front of them.

As the show enters its back half, Shantaram’s becoming a very agreeable place to hang — even with all the bad people hanging around.

Sick of awkward remote meetings and lockdown-style chats with loved ones? You can make video chatting more natural with the Three-in-One Self Videographer.

With this gadget, you won’t be forced to sit stiffly in front of your camera during video calls. And that newfound freedom doesn’t need to cost a fortune. You can get this motion-tracking Bluetooth camera, speaker and mount for your iPhone at an early Black Friday price. It’s just $49.99 while we have them in stock.

Mujjo is known for leather iPhone cases and wallets. It also makes sleeves and cases, and now it offers a new pair of vegan leather sleeves — one for a 14-inch MacBook Pro and one for a 16-inch MacBook Pro.

The elegant Envoy Laptop Sleeves, which look like they’d be equally at home in a lecture hall or a board room, are waterproof and offer room for the other stuff you need to carry around, too.

Continue reading

It’s girlboss brunch time on this week’s Mythic Quest, the Apple TV+ show about the overworked, undervalued and confused team of executives and developers who keep a gaming company afloat. Jo, Poppy and Rachel go to brunch together and make some discoveries about themselves and each other.

Meanwhile, Ian and Dana search for inspiration in the desert. David gets excited because a Mythic Quest movie might be in the works, even though everyone and everything is screaming at him that it’s a bad idea. Also, Brad might not be the changed man he appears to be.

Totallee, known for its ultra-slim, lightweight and branding-free iPhone cases as well as charging accessories, is about to launch a big-time Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale.

Between November 21 and 28, products will go for half off their regular prices on Totallee’s website as well as Amazon and Walmart.

Continue reading

If you have an iPhone 11, 12 or 13, now’s your chance to get a little extra protection for its beautiful screen and advanced camera lenses. This week all SwitchEasy screen protectors and lens protectors are on sale in the Cult of Mac Store.

So go ahead and check out the 20% off deals on SwitchEasy iPhone screen and lens protectors in the SwitchEasy Flash Sale and give your favorite gadget the protection it deserves. Sales ends November 18.

Apple TV+ comedy Acapulco, about an old millionaire reminiscing about his early life as a wage slave at a popular resort in the ’80s, takes two trips down memory lane this week. Diane relives her glory days before Las Colinas, while Maximo remembers a moral dilemma that cost him and rewarded him in equal measure.

There’s a party at the resort, and all the ghosts of Diane’s past are invited in an unfortunately middling episode.

Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro is getting a massive $499 discount on Amazon ahead of Black Friday. The attractive discount drops the entry-level 16-inch MacBook Pro price to $1,999.99—$499 cheaper than its MSRP.

You can also grab the 1TB storage configuration for $400 off.

A new external display for your computer setup is usually a joy to behold. It is, after all, what you look at most. And you probably just replaced your old one with a bigger, brighter and more beautiful new one. But sometimes buyer’s remorse creeps in. Is it actually the best screen for your needs that you can afford?

Today’s featured setup comes from a software coder who has started to have doubts about a substantial recent monitor purchase. Will he succumb to them? He’s keeping his eye on the return deadline and asking for advice.