April 4, 1975: Microsoft is founded by childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The software company destined to become a tech behemoth — and a major Apple frenemy.

A few years later, Microsoft will break through to the mainstream with Excel and Word, becoming a key developer of Macintosh software. Then comes the Windows operating system, looking suspiciously Apple-like. After Windows arrives, Microsoft and Apple will embark upon a long-running feud.

AirPods Max 2 are the surprise update to Apple’s premium over-the-ear headphones. Now offering feature parity with the regular AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 3 — thanks to the H2 chip inside — the headphones’ $549 price tag makes some kind of sense.

The design and controls remain unchanged from the originals, for better and worse. That includes the silly “Smart Case.” But the signature beautiful, booming sound and excellent noise cancellation are better than ever. If you’ve never tried AirPods Max before — only the lesser AirPods and maybe a few pairs of cheaper headphones — you are well and truly unprepared for the remarkable music these cans will pump into your ears.

You don’t need to be a big audiophile to love the AirPods Max 2. But considering how Apple has mistreated the product line so far, you have to be a little bold to buy them yourself. 

Getting your hands on a Mac mini or Mac Studio might be harder than expected. Delivery times for even the basic configurations now stretch to four weeks, with high-end models showing lead times of up to five months.

Apple either appears to be struggling to meet demand or gearing up for an imminent M5 refresh.

I have a bunch of pro tips to help you organize the Notes and Reminders piling up in your iPhone. Apple has added tons of powerful new features over time, making them comprehensive tools for all the goings-on in your life. 

With tagging, you can quickly filter and search through a big folder of notes or a long to-do list. You can easily put together a bunch of filters by date, location and tag to create a smart list of everything that needs your attention in Reminders. You can even set up template Reminders lists that you can copy at any time.

Let me show you how to set it all up.

Apple TV built a reputation as a quality-first streamer. It gave us Severance, Ted Lasso, Slow Horses, and the first Best Picture Oscar from a streamer, 2022’s CODA. But even Apple can’t promise a universal guarantee of quality. Over the years, a handful of originals have landed with a thud, panned by critics, dismissed by audiences or both. See the eight worst-reviewed Apple TV shows and movies below.

The charger that came with your iPad Pro or iPad Air is wasting your time. Your tablet could be charging almost twice as fast (up to three times as fast for the latest iPad Pro). Plus, the included charger is not well-designed for travel.

Here’s what’s going on, along with recommendations for better options.

April 3, 2010: The first iPad hits store shelves after months of anticipation. The tablet Apple CEO Steve Jobs called “magical and revolutionary” at its unveiling earlier in the year quickly becomes a major success.

Following years of rumors, Jobs initially showed off Apple’s first tablet on January 27, 2010. But now, the wait for the iPad is finally over … at least for people in the United States. (The iPad’s international debut won’t happen until May.)

Cable management is the invisible infrastructure of every beautiful desk setup. Do it well and your workspace looks effortlessly minimal, almost wireless. Do it badly and a tangle of cords swallows every other design decision you’ve made. Cult of Mac’s Setups section chronicled the most impressive Apple-centric workstations on the internet for years, and cable management — how to hide it, route it, tame it and sometimes eliminate it entirely — is a recurring obsession among Mac owners. Behold the best cable management in setups, below.

April 2, 1980: Microsoft releases its first hardware product, the Z-80 SoftCard. A microprocessor card that plugs into the Apple II, it allows the computer to run programs designed for the CP/M, a popular operating system for business software.

Arriving several years before the first version of Windows, the Z-80 SoftCard quickly becomes a big hit for Microsoft.

Anker’s new Nano Power Strip (10-in-1, 70W, Clamp) thoughtfully reinvents one of the world’s most common electrical accessories to make it play nice with desks.

It comes with some caveats, but for anyone needing to tame cable clutter, it makes a solid addition to a setup.

Apple updated its free Sports app for iPhone Wednesday to support the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup. That gives soccer fans a seamless way to track the biggest sporting event on the planet right from their Lock Screen. With the tournament just over two months away, now is the perfect time to get set up.

Apple just finished its first 50 years, making this an ideal opportunity to look ahead to what we can expect from the next five decades.

Having watched the company progress from the Apple II to the iPhone, I’m as qualified as anyone to peer into the future of computing. Here’s what we can look forward to.

Dredge has been described as “a cosmic horror-fueled fishing game,” so don’t expect a knockoff of Bass Masters when playing it on Apple Arcade. If that doesn’t pique your interest, it got named iPad Game of the Year.

And rather than the usual $25 charge for the app, Apple Arcade subscribers can play for $6.99 per month, plus enjoy hundreds more titles.

Making a playlist in Apple Music is a great way to set the mood for a party, road trip or your own private time. You can create playlists for working, working out, studying, driving, doing dishes, etc. Your friends can contribute to your playlist, too. And you can share your masterpiece on your Apple Music profile.

In iOS 26.4, Apple added Playlist Playground, a new feature that lets you quickly create custom playlists via Apple Intelligence. On supported devices, you can type in any odd request — and your iPhone will do the rest. The results aren’t quite DJ quality, but they’re a good starting point if you want something specific or unique. 

Here’s how to make a playlist by hand — and how to use the new Playlist Playground feature. 

Apple released an iOS 18 update on Wednesday to patch a major security vulnerability for iPhones that haven’t yet upgraded to iOS 26. The new version, iOS 18.7.7, is presumably intended to protect a range of iPhone models from the serious DarkSword hack.  

This comes amid a recent push from Apple to address newly discovered vulnerabilities across older iOS releases. It has released multiple updates over the past few weeks.

With storms and flash floods becoming more prevalent, it’s more important than ever to stay up to date with the weather in your area. And a weather radar app like Weather Hi-Def Radar lets you do just that.

This isn’t just an upgraded version of the bare-bones Weather app on your iPhone. It’s an alert system and interactive map that allows you to plan your day and stay ahead of tornadoes, wildfires and more. And now, the Weather Hi-Def Radar Storm Watch Plus plan is priced at only $39.99 for life.

Visitors to Apple.com Wednesday saw something unlike anything the company has displayed in recent memory: a full-screen takeover on its homepage featuring the iconic six-stripe rainbow Apple logo, the words “50 Years of Thinking Different,” and a quiet, elegant animation befitting a company that has always let its design do the talking.

The BMX SolidSafe Air is the MagSafe power bank we’ve been waiting for. It’s a mere 0.27 inches (6.88mm) thin — slimmer than the iPhone 17 I tested it with.

The 5,000mAh iPhone accessory features a semi-solid-state cell design to reduce fire risk and a lightweight titanium build.

Here’s why it was such a pleasure to test out. This is the best MagSafe power bank I’ve ever used.

Apple started exactly 50 years ago, and most of the Cult of Mac staffers have been Mac users almost since the beginning. We have 170-plus years of experience!

Today’s milestone has us looking back on how we got started using Apple computers, from the original Macintosh to the first PowerBook to the early Mac mini.

April 1, 1976: The Apple Computer Company is founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The trio sets out to sell the $666 Apple-1 computer.

Apple will not officially become a corporation until January 3 the following year. By that time, Wayne is no longer a part of the business.

Apple turned 50 on Wednesday, but the real party happened the night before. On Tuesday evening, Sir Paul McCartney took the rainbow stage at the heart of Apple Park and delivered a career-spanning performance for thousands of Apple employees.

It closed out weeks of global anniversary celebrations with one of the most storied voices in rock history — and a sky full of fireworks.

Weeks after launch, Apple has quietly reduced Studio Display XDR’s price by $400. The monitor now starts from $2,899, down from $3,299.

The reduced price only applies to the Studio Display XDR with the VESA mount adapter.

As Apple turns 50, it’s worth looking back on the company’s greatest accomplishments and lowest moments through history. If you don’t have time for David Pogue’s 600-page epic, Apple: The First 50 Years, maybe you can spare eight minutes to relive the single biggest piece of Apple news every year. 

You can watch 50 years of Apple announcements compressed into a single video. Or, keep reading below for a quick rundown.

Apple is working to upgrade Siri so the voice assistant can handle multiple requests at once, according to an unconfirmed report from Bloomberg. The feature would let users combine several commands into a single query instead of issuing them one at a time.

It’s apparently part of a much larger project to inject some real intelligence into Siri. Artificial intelligence.

Two new Sonos speakers — one portable, one not — aim squarely at easy home setup for listeners who want room-filling audio without headaches. Both the portable Sonos Play ($299) and mic-free home speaker Era 100 SL ($189), which went on sale Tuesday, work with Apple AirPlay 2. 

“Much of consumer tech promises innovation, yet too often delivers isolation — new devices replacing old ones instead of building on what already works,” said Sonos CEO Tom Conrad. “We believe a great sound experience shouldn’t reset every time you add something new. It should get better.”