This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: A string of leaks from Majin Bu showcase a new line of “TechWoven” iPhone cases. This looks to be Apple’s replacement for the hated FineWoven cases, with a new material that will make the whole thing less sucky.

But does the world really need a replacement for leather iPhone cases?

Also on The CultCast:

• iPhone 17e might take a welcome trip to the Dynamic Island, and the Apple Watch might add Touch ID.
• An eye-popping eight-display setup leaves us slightly amazed and full of questions.
• Anker’s brand-new iPhone power bank is super-slim and super-cool.

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 version, embedded below.

August 23, 2011: United Airlines says it will hand out 11,000 iPads to its pilots as part of its “paperless flight deck” filled with essential data. It’s the largest rollout yet of Apple tablets as a replacement for the weighty flight bags previously carried by aircrews.

Going paperless saves around 16 million sheets of paper each year, the equivalent of 1,900 trees not cut down. Even better, the weight difference between the 1.5-pound iPad and the 40-pound flight bag saves 326,000 gallons of jet fuel per year!

Google’s new Pixel 10 lineup shows just how much fun (and just how useful) AI can be on a phone. If Apple really wants the iPhone 17 lineup to shine, it should steal a few pages from Google’s playbook.

The iPhone 17 needs more than impressive new hardware to stand out from the crowd. It needs new AI features to make an impact, especially with the Pixel 10 raising the bar.

Add Google Gemini to the list of AIs that might go into the promised revamp of the Siri voice assistant if Apple can’t develop the tech itself.

Apple is working hard on its own large language models to provide Siri with a much-needed intelligence boost. But Cupertino is reportedly covering its bases by talking to other companies about using their AI instead. Google joined the list, according to an unconfirmed report published Friday.

Forget about the old 15W limitation on wireless charging. Belkin took the wraps off a trio of iPhone stands on Friday that support the new Qi2 25W standard, offering a 66% increase in speed.

The new models include the UltraCharge Pro 3-in-1 Magnetic Charging Dock for use in the office, plus a pair of multidevice wireless chargers for travel.

CleverFiles just launched Disk Drill 6, a major update to its popular data recovery Mac software. (It works on Windows, too.) Among other things, it can now recover deeply fragmented videos. Plus, it boasts significant performance improvements.

The new version, which can recover footage from almost any camera, addresses some of the most challenging data recovery scenarios while delivering up to 25% faster scan speeds and improved success rates.

“We’ve re-engineered Disk Drill 6 to solve some of the toughest recovery cases our users face,” said Roman Kropachek, co-founder and CEO of CleverFiles. “From fragmented video footage to encrypted or lost partitions, Disk Drill 6 brings professional-grade recovery technology to every desk.”

Ready to face the end of the world as we know it? The new 10-episode season of Apple TV+’s epic alien onslaught series Invasion streams its first episode Friday. A new one follows each Friday through October 24.

And you can watch the recently released Invasion season three trailer below. It shows the evolving face of the alien menace. And it looks like the horrific inroads the extraterrestrials made in seasons one and two of Invasion, seemingly slowed by a determined but disconnected human effort, might be just a preview of much worse to come.

The Apple One subscription bundle lets users save money on Apple’s subscription services like Apple Music, Apple TV+ and iCloud+ storage. The company offers three Apple One configurations. Check pricing on Apple One’s three tiers — Individual, Family and Premier — and find out what you get for your money (and, most importantly, how much you can save).

With a recent price increase for Apple TV+, Apple One just became an even better deal!

While Røde built its reputation on microphones, the Australian company’s first on-ear wired headphones deliver surprising audio quality for everything from studio monitoring to casual listening. This Røde NTH-50 headphones review finds the $99 wired cans challenge what we expect from professional headphones at this price point.

Is Røde’s entrance into the headphone market worth your attention? Let’s find out if these newcomers deserve a spot in your audio setup.

An AI-powered infographics generator can save you tons of time when pulling together these specialized — and extremely effective — images for visual communication.

If you have ever tried designing an infographic from scratch, you know how quickly it can eat up your time (and your patience). Between formatting data, picking the right color palette, and wrangling fonts, it’s way more complicated than it should be.

That’s where InfographsAI comes in — and it’s currently available for a lifetime price of just $49.99 (regularly $360). No subscriptions, no recurring fees, and no more losing your mind trying to create infographics on your own.

August 22, 2001: Apple takes home a technical Emmy Award for developing FireWire, the high-speed serial port that allows users to transfer data quickly between a Macintosh and another device, such as a digital camera.

“Apple enabled the desktop video revolution with its invention of FireWire,” says Jon Rubinstein, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, in a press release about the Emmy win.

FireWire plays a key role in Apple CEO Steve Jobs‘ “digital hub” strategy for the company. However, the technology’s origins go back much further than that.

The Games app is a new all-in-one destination for gaming on your Apple devices. You can create a custom profile, track your achievements, and add friends (and set challenges for them). It’s also a quick way to launch games you’re playing and discover new ones.

It doesn’t entirely replace Game Center, a few vestiges of which reamin in the Settings app. But if you care at all about iPhone gaming, you should check out the new Games app. It’ll help you find new games to play and let you know about exciting events in your old favorites.

Here’s everything you need to know about Apple’s new Games app.

A new leak shows off the alleged TechWoven cases that Apple will supposedly launch for the iPhone 17 Pro lineup.

Based on the image, Apple’s TechWoven iPhone 17 cases will come in at least five colors.

The Twelve South PlugBug wall charger includes a feature that every travel accessory should have: Apple Find My support. So not only can it power two devices at up to 50W, you can be sure you won’t accidentally leave it in your hotel room.

To make the accessory even more enticing, a deal knocks 30% off the usual cost, dropping it below $50.

The Kuxiu M30 Magnetic Smart Connector Charger for iPad Pro/Air helps solve the irritating problem of limited iPad ports. It clings to the back of Apple tablets and charges them without taking up the computer’s sole USB-C port. It also reduces wear on the port.

I put the 35W charger through testing in my home office and came away quite satisfied.

And it’s on sale: 20% off!

The price for streaming Ted Lasso season 4 and other hits from Apple TV+ took a considerable jump on Thursday. The U.S. monthly fee went to $12.99, up from $9.99.

While that’s a 30% increase, it’s also the first to the streaming service in two years.

These affordable smart sunglasses come with a camera that lets you snap photos and record video. They also let you listen to music and podcasts, take phone calls, and even conjure up the AI wiles of ChatGPT via a simple voice command. And they cost less than a pair of earbuds!

Normally, these smart sunglasses would set you back $99.99. But right now, they’re on sale for just $69.99.

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August 21, 2008: Microsoft recruits comedian Jerry Seinfeld for a series of ads. It’s a naked attempt to shake the company’s reputation as a stodgy oldster (as opposed to Apple’s trendsetting hipster image).

Microsoft pays Seinfeld a reported $10 million for the ads. However, thanks to the Mac’s appearance in virtually every episode of Seinfeld over the years, the comedian remains the world’s most famous Apple fanboy.

Apple wants to bring Touch ID to the Apple Watch. Leaked internal code indicates the company is exploring bringing biometric authentication to its smartwatch.

The idea is likely still in internal evaluation, with no clarity on if or when Apple will move forward with it.

A new sale on the 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro drops its price to just $1,299 — the lowest price we’ve seen for this model.

Apple’s workhorse professional laptop is a great get for anyone when it goes on sale. And with the M5 models reportedly delayed until 2026, now’s the time to upgrade. If you want a model with a bigger screen and/or beefed-up specs, you can browse a bunch of great MacBook Pro deals in the sale links below, many with nice new price cuts.

Entry-level pro laptop

14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 chip (2024)

$1,599.00 $1,349.00

Apple's latest base-model MacBook Pro features an M4 chip with a 10-core CPU and a 10-core GPU. It also boasts a 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR Display, 16GB unified memory, 512GB SSD storage and silver or space black colors.

Pros:

• Great performance and "built for Apple Intelligence"
• Outstanding 24-hour battery life
• Beautiful Liquid Retina display

Cons:

• More expensive than MacBook Air

Buy from Amazon

Buy from Best Buy

12/15/2025 04:10 pm GMT

The newly announced Google Pixel 10 includes Pixelsnap, a system that lets wireless chargers and other accessories cling magnetically to the back of the phone. If that sounds familiar, that’s because Pixelsnap is another name for Apple’s MagSafe system for iPhones.

But this is not yet another example of Google stealing a good idea from Apple. Instead, Apple helped make MagSafe into the Qi2 standard so other companies would build it into their handsets. And that’s what Google did, though it felt the need to rebrand Qi2 as Pixelsnap. Whatever the name, the more handsets with Qi2, the more iPhone users benefit.

Apple released iOS 18.6.2, macOS Sequoia 15.6.2 and iPadOS 18.6.2 on Wednesday, warning that the updates close security vulnerabilities already exploited by hackers.

While the patches include no new features, they are nevertheless highly recommended for iPhone, Mac and iPad users.

AI language learning app MosaLingua can speed up your mastery of nearly a dozen languages. It’s designed for busy people who want to make steady progress without carving out hours each day.

MosaLingua’s lessons are short and to the point, with most taking just 10 minutes to complete. Its advanced tools make learning a new language fun. And instead of sitting down for a whole language session, you can brush up whenever you have time.

Sound bueno? Right now, you can secure a lifetime subscription to MosaLingua for just $85.97 (regularly $4,085).

There’s an unexpected benefit to Action mode in the iPhone camera. A feature intended for taking exciting video also benefits those who can’t hold the camera still because of Parkinson’s.

A video Apple released Tuesday demonstrates the benefits, and a follow-up video explains how those with hand tremors can take advantage of Action mode.

Apple will replace its much-maligned (and quickly abandoned) FineWoven material for iPhone cases with a new synthetic fabric for the iPhone 17 lineup, according to a new leak Tuesday. And on Wednesday a new name — “TechWoven” — and images of Apple packaging came to light. The new MagSafe cases might feature a cross-body strap and lanyard support, too

The new material appears to be Apple’s next attempt to create a leather alternative for iPhone cases, following the company’s 2023 decision to eliminate leather products from its lineup for environmental reasons. The resulting FineWoven came under heavy fire from users for poor durability and its tendency to show wear quickly.

The leaker Majin Bu followed up on his Tuesday post with a post Wednesday indicating the name “TechWoven” and showing images of Apple product boxes for the MagSafe cases.. See below.