Apple TV+ comedy Loot has family and romance on the brain this week. Molly wants to get in touch with her family again after years of distance — with Howard as go-between. Arthur and Nicholas eavesdrop on a stormy night of conflict for Sofia.

It’s all fine. Indeed, the drama and comedy are handled with equal deftness for the first time this season. But there’s something that nags about the mission of a show like Loot.

Apple TV+ family comedy Trying goes camping this week, and Nikki and Jason discover their strengths and weaknesses as parents by listening to things their kids need.

Elsewhere, Freddy hijacks an AA meeting to bore them with his everyday transgressions, Karen is pregnant and Scott is an idiot. More glaring than any plot point is a gaffe that hints at the hollowness at this story’s core. It is a long half-hour.

Not everyone has a huge desk with ample room for their computer setup and loads of associated gear. But with a few smart moves, anyone can make the most of a small desk in a cramped space.

Today’s featured setup is a good example. It takes advantage of a standing desk, displays mounted on arms and ample wall-mounted storage to maximize limited space.

And the audio gear and lighting don’t disappoint, either.

Mac shipments dropped a whopping 20% in the June quarter, according to a market-research firm. But it wasn’t just Apple struggling – shipments of all the top PC-makers declined.

COVID lockdowns in China this spring hurt production for all these companies, lowering the number of computers they could ship to consumers.

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If that sounds good, just use promo code COM at Keysbuff.com. That will save you an extra 25% off the site’s already-low prices on keys for Windows 10 Pro Global, Microsoft Office 2021 Pro and other software.

With a new school year looming, it’s time to celebrate educators. Apple TV+ did just that Friday when it dropped a trailer for Lucy’s School, an all-new Peanuts special that debuts on the streaming service August 12.

For those who grew up with Peanuts, it’s comforting that the classic series based on classic Charles M. Schulz comics lives on. Lucy’s School adds to the growing list of seasonal features following Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy and the rest of the gang.

iPhone shipments grew 3.3% year over year during the second quarter of 2022, according to a market-research firm. That’s in contrast to the global smartphone market, which declined 7%.

Apple made up 16% of the total market, its highest second-quarter performance in more than a decade.

Writing content for your social media or website takes a lot of time. If you want to speed up the content-creation process without compromising your standards, you might want to try Autowriterpro.

This AI-powered content-writing machine can help you produce original, custom content in a fraction of the time it would take you to write it. For a limited time, a lifetime subscription to Autewriterpro is on sale for only $39.99 (regularly $469).

Glossy mystery series Surface gets off to a bumpy, soapy start this week on Apple TV+. Gugu Mbatha-Raw (who you might know from The Morning Show) stars as Sophie, a woman who lost her memory after what could have been an accident or a suicide attempt.

Like Truth Be Told, another Apple TV+ series from producer Reese Witherspoon, this one is a prestige look at a woman undergoing a lot of changes in her life as the result of crime … or is it?

Apple earnings calls with analysts can offer fascinating glimpses behind the scenes at the iPhone-maker. Most of the time, though, they are dull as toast. That’s true even for the June quarter, when Apple managed to snatch financial success from the jaws of supply constraints.

But we endured the tedium of the call so you don’t have to. Just read on to get the interesting details almost lost in all the talk of basis points and CAPEX.

If you’re setting up a website, you need to take hosting costs into account. Hosting services aren’t always expensive, but they usually demand a monthly payment to maintain your site’s digital real estate.

iBrave works a little differently, though: It’s selling subscriptions for $99.99 (regularly $2,997), which can set you up with lifetime web hosting for unlimited domains, without monthly payments or additional subscription fees.

Apple overcame considerable headwinds to set a new revenue record during its most recent financial quarter, the company said Thursday. Cupertino once again beat analysts’ expectations, despite COVID-19 lockdowns in China that slowed Mac and iPad production.

“Our June quarter results continued to demonstrate our ability to manage our business effectively despite the challenging operating environment,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s chief financial officer, in a press release announcing the Q3 2022 earnings.

Apple will reportedly design future Mac processors at a new R&D center in Jerusalem.

The company already does chip development in Israel. Some of the more powerful M1 variants were designed in the country.

The Apple Leather Wallet with MagSafe magnetically clings to an iPhone. And it has a useful trick: The phone shows the user the location the wallet was last detached, so it’s easier to find if it gets lost. If you’re looking for a sleek and functional folder wallet, check out this review for more details.

As a fan of Apple’s Find My application, I decided to try it out.

In partnership with Sony, Backbone said Thursday it’s launching a new PlayStation Edition of its popular game controller for iPhone.

And players will also find a new dedicated section inside the Backbone app for iOS. It includes new releases and updates from PlayStation.

Just about a week after collaborating with Twitch streamer Nickmercs, Apple subsidiary Beats is out with another special-edition release of Beats Studio Buds, this time with design firm Futura Laboratories.

This is the second Beats collaboration for the design firm’s founder, the graffiti artist Futura.

The first Apple store in India won’t open until 2023. Apple has been trying to open the retail location since 2019, but it’s been beset with delays.

The Mumbai store is supposed to be part of an important shift in the way the company does business in India. Another store in the country is also on the way.

Shouldn’t it be exciting to invest in the stock market? Unfortunately, when you have to process so many fail-safes, you could lose quite a bit of that enjoyment.

Get the thrill of investment back by letting an app do the safety screening for you. Stock screener Tykr helps you quickly find great investments, so you don’t accidentally pick from the bottom of the barrel when you’re plunking down a huge sum. And lifetime Pro plans are currently on sale for only $119 (regularly $900).

Both Apple and Meta (formerly Facebook) are both building AR/VR headsets, but they’re going about it in dramatically different ways. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly told Meta employees the two companies are in “a competition of philosophies and ideas.”

It’s possible the metaverse is the future of the internet. And Zuckerberg describes Meta as being a leader in creating an open metaverse with multiple companies working together, while he says Apple is creating its own closed version.

But Zuckerberg’s comments ignore another major philosophical difference between the twin companies. Apple believes in protecting user privacy, but Meta makes its money by collecting and selling information about users.

A former Lamborghini executive recently joined Apple to lead design of the company’s long-rumored self-driving car, according to a new report Wednesday.

As Apple works toward releasing an electric vehicle before the end of this decade, the addition of Luigi Taraborrelli, who worked for the fabled Italian automaker for 20 years, could accelerate the project.

Traveling abroad might be intimidating at first, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. Just a few years ago, if you wanted to talk to someone in another language, you’d either have to spend months studying or cling to a dictionary and try your best.

Now, you can land in another country and use the Newyes Scan Reader Pen 3 to read or live-translate in another language for you. For a limited time, this portable language translator is on sale for $124.99 (regularly $199).

Everyone knows leather Apple Watch bands are a timeless class-act, long-popular for a variety of reasons. But which kind of leather matters, too. One type might be quite durable but stiff, needing breaking in. Another type might be incredibly soft and supple from the get-go.

One option for the latter type would be ostrich leather. And while it’s always a premium choice, the Cult of Mac Store has a beautiful band for a surprisingly affordable price.

The Garvey sisters vowed to always take care of each other, which leads them toward murdering their abusive brother-in-law. Their scheme plays out in Bad Sisters, a creation of Irish actress, writer and producer Sharon Horgan, who is known for her darkly funny shows.

The comedy/thriller series debuts on Apple TV+ in August, and a trailer debuted Wednesday.

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Do you dream of achieving power independence? Whether that means living off the grid or just keeping your home lit when the power goes out, Bluetti’s got a new, top-of-the-line solar power station for you.

Just last year the company put out its modular AC300 solar station and B300 battery module combo. Now it’s back with a worthy successor — the even more powerful AC500 and B300S combo.

The newest update of the Firefox browser includes a performance boost for computers with displays running at a 120Hz refresh rate or higher. That’s good news for anyone with a 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro model from 2021, which have ProMotion displays.

Those MacBook models feature Liquid Retina XDR displays with ProMotion technology for adaptive refresh rates ranging from 24Hz to 120Hz.