Cult of Mac

Apple TV+ unveiled the season 2 trailer Tuesday for the Emmy-nominated series The Problem With Jon Stewart. The show premieres Friday, October 7.

“Welcome back, it is season 2 of the The Problem — this is the new variant,” Stewart says at the trailer’s opening, offering a bit of self-effacing pandemic humor.

Elon Musk reportedly has stopped his efforts to get out of buying Twitter. He’s going to purchase the social media platform at his original price from April.

He spent the intervening months trying back out of the deal, which forces him to pay much more for the company than its current value.

The Gamevice Flex is an iPhone game controller that mimics the design of the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con with the controls set on either side of the display. Similar iPhone controllers make you take the case off your handset to play but the Flex wraps around the handset even if it’s in a protective case.

The wired controller includes a full set of buttons, sticks, bumpers, etc. so you can enjoy games like Fortnite from Xbox Cloud Gaming or similar services, or almost anything from Apple Arcade.

I spent quite a few hours testing Gamevice Flex – here’s why I like it.

Popular email client Spark is getting a significant redesign for Mac. It completely overhauls how you approach your inbox, with features like priority email, Smart Inbox, and a Command Center.

Spark is also moving towards a premium model with a new subscription tier. You can continue using the app for free if you don’t need the premium features.

It’s time to organize those masses of files across all your devices. The way to do it is with a great cloud storage solution like Prism Drive that allows you to access every file from anywhere.

Prism Drive comes highly recommended by users. And right now, you can get lifetime access to 2TB of cloud storage space for $39.99 (regularly $700), a price you won’t find anywhere else.

You’ll have to be quick, though, as this best-of-web price is part of our limited-time Deal Days event — our version of Amazon’s Prime Day — which ends on October 12. (You can find even more major savings on our most popular products right here.)

The European Parliament voted in an overwhelming majority Tuesday to enforce USB-C as the standard charging port across a wide range of consumer electronics. The law will come into effect by the end of 2024.

With the legislation passed, Apple has a couple of years to complete the transition of its product lineup to USB-C. The company continues to use the Lightning port on iPhone and some accessories for charging purposes. As the iPhone maker adapts to these regulatory shifts, users can expect significant changes in Apple’s hardware ecosystem.

Seeing the world doesn’t have to cost the Earth, especially if you know how to find great travel deals. Dollar Flight Club can alert you whenever it finds cheap airfare deals, so you don’t have to waste time hunting them down yourself. Usually $1,690, a lifetime Premium Plus+ membership is now going for $69.99, the lowest price it’s ever been!

You’ll have to be quick, though. This price is only available during our Deal Days event, which runs through October 12. And as our answer to Prime Day, you can find exclusive deals such as this Premium Plus+ membership and more in our Deal Days collection.

The hopes of AirPods Pro users were raised recently when evidence pointed to the original version of these wireless earbuds getting Adaptive Transparency, one of best features of the second-generation model. Turns out it’s probably just a mistake.

If you’re really missing the feature, perhaps the best option is to sell your old AirPods for cash to upgrade.

Still remember why you’re mad at Will Smith? Apple TV+ hopes you’ve forgotten about the “The Slap” by December because that’s when Emancipation staring Smith will reach theaters and the streaming service.

The historical drama is based on the real-life story of a man named Peter, whose saga of escaping slavery made headlines around the world in 1863. A just-released teaser trailer gives a first look.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told a group of students in Italy last week what it takes to get and keep a job with the Cupertino tech giant.

Cook said Apple seeks out candidates with four shared skillsets that help employees — and the company — succeed.

Apple promises that AirPods Pro 2 offer a longer battery life that the original version, and now we know part of the way this is accomplished. The 2022 version uses batteries with 16% more capacity.

But the truly wireless headphones manage to pull off a 33% increase in time between changes.

If you bought or plan to buy Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro, now’s the time to protect your fabulous wireless noise-cancelling earbuds. Elago’s got new clear or colorful cases — in clear polyurethane or colorful silicone — plus a handy strap to help you protect your buds against damage or loss.

The strap and four cases, two with a metal clip and two without, are all super-affordable right now in the Cult of Mac Store.

You, like many people, may build your computer setup around a MacBook Pro. But is yours the “standard setup” for MacBook Pro users?

If you answered “there’s no such thing,” you’re right. That’s why we were surprised to see a reference to such a standard in reaction to a setup with a MacBook Pro, a new Studio Display, an excellent CalDigit dock and a raft of excellent audio gear that not everyone has or even knows about. But maybe they should.

There are now a whopping 100 million songs available to stream on Apple Music.

That’s “more music than you can listen to in a lifetime, or several lifetimes,” says Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s global head of editorial. “More music than any other platform. Simply the biggest collection of music, in any format, ever.”

The two iPhone 14 Pro models have been on the market for several weeks now but demand still outstrips supply. As a result, anyone shopping for the handsets should expect to wait until November to get one, especially the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

The iPhone 14 Plus is set to launch October 7 and already has a short wait time beyond that date. Those shopping for the basic iPhone 14 face no wait.

Finally got your hands on a PlayStation 5? On its own, the PS5 allows you to enjoy story-rich single-player games and load your favorite media. But if you want to unlock its full potential, you’ll need PlayStation Plus Essential.

This membership allows you to access multiplayer in paid titles and get free games every month. And right now is the perfect time to stock up — you can get three years of PlayStation Plus Essential on sale for $169.99.

The iPhone 14 Pro can take incredible 48-megapixel photos that capture eagle-eye details at incredibly high resolution. To take 48MP pictures, you need to shoot in Apple’s ProRAW format, which pairs the lossless RAW format preferred by professional photographers with the iPhone’s computational photography data.

This means that your iPhone 14 Pro is capturing all of the sensor data, and the results can be stunning — better than anything possible with any previous iPhone. (The iPhone 13 Pro captured ProRAW images, but only sported a 12MP camera.)

ProRAW captures images at 8064 × 6048 resolution. That means you can crop in really far on your pictures and keep everything pixel-perfect. You can print your images on a huge 26-inch by 20-inch poster, even at a professional-quality 300 DPI. The high-resolution images also give you more control during the editing process, so you can tweak your most important images to your heart’s content.

There are some caveats, though. Images with ProRAW enabled take up three times the storage space, for one. And shooting pictures like this takes a little longer. (The image capture isn’t as instantaneous as we’re used to.) And for everyday snapshots, ProRAW results might even be less satisfying than simply letting the iPhone perform its computational photography magic.

Read on to see how it all works so you can start taking 48MP photos with your iPhone 14 Pro, then edit them effectively.

The iPhone 6 is now a “vintage” product. That doesn’t mean it’s now cool for hipsters to use one – it’s the classification Apple uses for products it stopped selling five years ago, and somewhat limits the repair options.

The iOS handset was hugely successful in its day, and probably still holds the title of the best-selling smartphone ever.

If you enjoy blasting music throughout your home, headphones simply won’t cut it. You’ll need a portable speaker that can move with you without compromising sound quality, and this sleek Sound Spot by Soundfreaq might fit the bill. Usually $79, you can get one on sale today for just $29.99.

Facing problems with the microphone on your Apple Watch Series 8 or Apple Watch Ultra? Apple has acknowledged the issue and is working on a fix.

The company recommends restarting your Apple Watch as a temporary fix. A potential software update to address the problem is seemingly also in the works.

Soundcore rolled out its new flagship Liberty 4 wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC) on Friday with some upgrades.

And one of those upgrades might get under Apple’s skin a little bit. That would be heart rate monitoring via an in-ear sensor, which has so far failed to materialize in Apple’s AirPods line despite persistent rumors.

Quiet quitting is officially in the air. After being featured in a Wall Street Journal story last month, almost everyone is up to speed on what the quiet quitting idea is all about. For those not in the know, it’s when an employee stops taking on extraordinary projects or responsibilities at work and sticks only to what’s in their job description.

In fact, more than 50% of you appear to be quiet quitting right now, according to a Gallup survey. Motivosity gets it — and they want to change all that.

Bad Sisters, the Apple TV+ black comedy about Irish women who might have killed their terrible brother-in-law to save their whole family from him, takes a cold turn this week.

Becka has a new plan for offing John Paul. Ursula’s lover finds out about the blackmail. Gabriel thinks Eva betrayed him, Roger’s in hell. And John Paul is finally getting some of the revenge he deserves after a life of doling out misery to everyone else.

It’s highs and lows all the way to the grave with this one.

No one wants to spend $250 on a set of outstanding wireless noise-cancelling earbuds — let’s say, second-generation AirPods Pro — only to find they don’t fit well, even with a choice of ear tip sizes.

But unfortunately, it can happen. It happened to me, actually. But once I explored after-market ear tips (the part that goes into your ear canal), I quickly solved the problem at minimal expense.

It’s wedding bells for lovely new couple Sibeth Kane and Tormada on this week’s episode of See, the Apple TV+ show set in the not-too-distant future in a world full of blind people. The deposed queen has consolidated her power and is ready for her next move.

Elsewhere in this dystopian world, Lord Harlan recommends a fateful shortcut, Maghra’s done playing Mr. Nice Guy, Lucien’s luck runs out, and Baba Voss kills lots and lots and lots of people.

It’s an above-average outing for the Nietzschean, not-quite-samurai epic.