Apps can be useful for a a countless number of things. From making a new parents life easier to finding new music, there’s are apps fit to help make things nearly effortless. This week, we have a couple great new (to me, at least) apps, and a really solid update to one of my favorites. As usual, I’ll put out the call for other suggestions as well. If you have something you want us to check out for a future Awesome Apps post, be sure to email your suggestion or tweet them over!

Scanners come in handy, but buying one means dropping a hefty sum and wasting space in your home or office. iScanner is a cheaper and more capable solution for scanning documents.

Right now, you can get a lifetime subscription to this top-rated iOS scanning app for just $39.99. And you might be surprised how much use you get out of it.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: For once, Apple’s new products leave us scratching our heads more than reaching for our wallets. We let loose our first impressions of this week’s new iPads, the surprisingly affordable Apple TV 4K, that ridiculous Apple Pencil dongle and more.

Also on The CultCast:

• Is the new Magic Keyboard Folio really all that magical? Some features sound great, but we don’t think it will turn your iPad into a laptop — at least not one you can use on your lap!
• Apple might’ve burned a cool million on the #TakeNote Twitter hashflag for the event that never happened.
• Logitech knows how to make a stylus right.
• What’s up with that USB-C to Apple Pencil Adapter? Like everyone else in the Apple universe, we’re not diggin’ the dongle.

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.

Our sponsor: Squarespace

Special thanks to this week’s sponsor, Squarespace. Get all the tools you need to set up your very own website and commence selling anything online. Start your free website trial today at squarespace.com/cultcast (no credit card required). Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain with code cultcast at checkout.

If you want to browse in private on your MacBook, iPhone or any other device, using something like Incognito mode isn’t the way to do it. While it may be comforting not to see your searches appear in your history, that’s often the extent of your privacy. Companies and third parties can still track your web activity unless you use a more all-encompassing security protocol like Windscribe VPN.

If you want to keep your online activity to yourself and beef up your cybersecurity risk management, then check out this VPN that offers a three-year subscription for just $69 — the best price you’ll find online right now.

Your MacBook isn’t charging right and you can’t figure it where the problem is? Plugable’s USBC-VAmeter3 can help. Connect it to the power cable running to your Mac, iPad or iPhone to see the voltage, wattage and amperage.

I’m no electrical engineer, but I tested this miniature power meter. I found it both useful and kind of fun.

Although Apple released iOS 16 in September, the company delayed iPadOS 16 due to bugs and stability problems. A month later, the company is finally ready to seed iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura and iOS 16.1 to the public on October 24.

But when exactly will the updates show up on your iPad, Mac and iPhone? Find below the likely iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura and iOS 16.1 release times in your time zone.

Need more storage for your MacBook? This slim-profile flash drive, currently discounted to only $14.99 (regularly $19), fits perfectly in a USB port and adds 64GB of extra memory.

This slimline storage device will instantly upgrade how you handle files. And it looks unique, too!

Bilingual Apple TV+ comedy series Acapulco returns this week for a second season of bright colors and frothy hijinx narrated by Eugenio Derbez. The Mexican resort is an ’80s uproar, young Maximo’s life is crumbling (though he won’t admit it), and his family is at a crossroads. And everyone, as usual, needs a favor.

The second season so far seems exactly like the first, which is to be expected, so if you like the softest possible jokes, you’re in luck. The show is fleetingly charming and expertly designed — the art direction remains Acapulco‘s greatest virtue — and little by little, it’s relaxing into a funnier groove.

Your creative and work projects can never sound professional enough. Micmonster‘s AI-powered voiceovers can give your projects a polished sheen, anywhere and anytime you need it.

Micmonster features hundreds of voices, in multiple languages, and gives you tools for tweaking the resulting voiceovers to your heart’s content. For a limited time, you can get a lifetime subscription to Micmonster for $59 (regularly $119) — the best price on the web!

Any list of the most revolutionary Apple products includes the original Mac, iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Too often overlooked is the PowerBook 100 series, Apple’s first laptops.

On the anniversary of the launch, I can explain why the series was groundbreaking. I had a PowerBook 140, and it’s as important to Apple history as the original iPhone.

This week on new Apple TV+ limited series Shantaram, based on the best-selling book by Gregory David Roberts, Lin stares a new life in the face — but fate has other plans.

The escaped con is starting up a practice in a Bombay slum with help from his reluctant and besotted friend Prabhu. A need for penicillin puts him right where the local underworld chiefs want him, in thrall to them and in need of supplies only they can gift him.

Meanwhile, local politics are heating up, Lisa’s kicking junk, and Karla’s feeling left out. It’s a perfectly respectable episode of the drama.

Some Apple Store locations began stocking the exclusive new Level Lock+ last week, letting users open their door locks with their iPhone or Apple Watch via digital keys. And now you can get it online, too.

The functionality takes advantage of the change in iOS 15 last year adding support for home keys in Wallet. It uses NFC radio technology to let an iPhone or Apple Watch near the lock open it.

Three years after the influential Jony Ive vacated the role of hardware design chief at Apple, it’s opening up again, according to a report.

Vice President of Industrial Design Evans Hankey, who stepped into the top job in 2019, plans to step down. And Cupertino hasn’t said yet who will take over when she goes.

Continue reading

As winter shambles coldly toward much of the U.S. and the world, feast your eyes on a beautiful, custom-built backyard shed housing a hot Mac mini computer setup (in the photo above). It doesn’t even need heating because it’s in California. Jealous yet?

Today’s featured setup pairs a Mac mini with dual HP displays, a Logitech webcam designed for the Pro Display XDR and some slick audio gear we haven’t seen before.

This post on discount Microsoft software is presented by CdkeySales.com.

It’s that spooky time of year when you can get frighteningly good deals on Microsoft software. Just haunt the Halloween megasale at software activation keys provider CdkeySales.com. As a Cult of Mac reader, you can click on the links below and get a spooktastic deal on Windows 10 that gets you a free upgrade to Windows 11. And you can dig up big savings on plenty of other Microsoft software, too.

If you want to make the most of your savings, enter promo code CULT at CdkeySales.com. That will take an extra 30% off the site’s already-low prices on keys for Windows 10 Pro Global, Microsoft Office 2021 Pro and more.

Zagg built plenty of features into its new Pro Mouse. That include support for wireless charging so keeping it topped up just means occasionally placing it on a charging mat.

And the Bluetooth accessory can pair with Mac, MacBook and iPad simultaneously so it’s ready to switch to whichever one you’re using. Plus it works on glass.

In aimless new dramedy Raymond & Ray, Ethan Hawke and Ewen McGregor play half-brothers who must bury their father — and decades of trauma — over the course of a long, late-summer day.

Directed by Rodrigo García, and produced by Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, Roma), the film is never believable for even a second. Inessential by design and pleasant enough, this one’s built to go in one ear/eye and out the other just as quickly.

Google is raising YouTube Premium’s Family plan pricing in the US, Canada, and several other parts of the world. In the US, the YouTube Premium family plan will now cost $22.99 per month, up from $17.99.

YouTube’s Premium plan for families is getting a similar price hike in Canada, with the rate increasing from CA$17.99 to CA$22.99. The higher subscription prices will go into effect from November 21.

From office work to home maintenance, personal obligations have a way of getting between you and a good reading session. Fortunately, advanced book-summary service Four Minute Books created a new approach to staying entertained and informed from anywhere, even with limited free time.

A lifetime subscription to Four Minute Books is on sale for $39.99 a fraction of its standard cost of $399.

Apple’s newest iPad features a redesigned chassis, a bigger 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display and faster internals. Thanks to these changes, the iPad 10 carries a significantly higher starting price tag of $449.

Meanwhile, Apple sells the M1 iPad Air, with more powerful internals, for $599. So, should you spring for the Air and pay that additional $150, or save your money and buy the new 10th-gen iPad?

There’s nothing like leather to add stylish protection to your iPhone. If you have a new iPhone 14, it’s a good idea to dress up that pricey device in a high-quality leather case that’ll protect the handset and look good doing it.

For whichever iPhone 14 model you have, you can find eight Mujjo leather and leather-wallet iPhone 14 cases in the Cult of Mac Store.

Apple’s M2 iPad Pro lineup does not pack significant upgrades over the 2021 models. If you don’t need the extra power, you can get the M1 12.9-inch iPad Pro for $200 off on Amazon.

The entry-level variant of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro for $899, down from $1,099. You can use the money saved towards additional accessories or upgrade to a higher storage variant.

The wait for the first major update to iOS 16 is almost over. Apple revealed Thursday in a backwards sort of way that iOS 16.1 will reach iPhones everywhere on October 24.

The update will bring iCloud Shared Photo Library, Live Activities and other new features.

Apple Fitness+ will finally become available to iPhone users starting next week. The subscription service, which offers an array of recorded workouts for a wide range of health levels, previously focused on Apple Watch, showcasing users’ performance metrics in real time.

The expansion to iOS handsets is not the only move in the works to make Apple Fitness+ more mainstream. Music by Taylor Swift is also coming to Fitness+, with workouts focused on the artist’s new album, Midnight.

Keychron launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign Wednesday for its slim, highly customizable new K3 Pro mechanical keyboard. The company called it “the first-ever low profile mechanical keyboard to come with wireless connectivity and support QMK/VIA.”

And it’s “the first keyboard to ever be equipped with double-shot PBT low profile keycaps,” the company added.

The funding campaign has already eclipsed its initial campaign goal, so the product is likely to ship, just as the original K3 did.