Imagine if Apple sold AirPods for $5,000, and they were so buggy they kept disconnecting from your iPhone. Sounds crazy, right? But that’s the reality faced by me and millions of other hearing aid users today.

Apple offers a solution for hearing aids called Made for iPhone (MFi). This enables third-party hearing aids to work like regular AirPods. In hardware terms, there’s not much difference between them anyway these days. But while AirPods will set you back just $129, MFi hearing aids cost 30 times more, and they’re far less reliable.

So, why did I just buy a pair? It’s complicated.

Apple has dropped a couple of new ads highlighting iPhone 13’s splash resistance and the durability of the Ceramic Shield front.

The entire iPhone 13 series carries an IP68 certification, making them dust and water-resistant. However, Apple is only highlighting the phone’s splash resistance capabilities in the ad.

MacBook Pros powered by upgraded Apple M2 Pro and M2 Max chips could debut as early as this fall. The new chips would focus on delivering improved GPU performance.

The upcoming 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro refresh is not expected to pack any other significant changes.

If you want to set up a smart home, you may not have to pay as much as you think. Sure, you could buy lights that turn on when you get home or a fridge that knows when you’re out of milk. Alternatively, you could just get a Wireless Wall Tap Smart Plug and turn anything you connect into a smart device.

For a limited time, this simple way to turn your dumb house into a smart home is on sale for $39.99 (regularly $49).

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Everyone’s raving about the new M2-powered MacBook Air — and so are we. Although Erfon just bought a different Apple laptop (and offers up a pro tip for anybody thinking of getting the hot new MBA).

Also on The CultCast:

• Bye-bye, Jony Ive. We’re gonna miss ya. Mostly.
• The emoji people scrape the bottom of the barrel.
• Toys are about to get personal (but brace yourself for disfigured plastic selfies).
• BMW foists an outrageous subscription plan on car buyers.

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 livestream, embedded below.

Our sponsor: CultCloth

Get the only cleaning cloth you need: CultCloth!

Is your home safe? With more than a million burglaries every year in the United States, it could be worth double-checking. If you want to ensure your home’s safety even when you aren’t there, you don’t need an expensive security system. The Smart Home DIY Wireless Alarm Security System is easy to install and can alert you 24/7 to a break-in.

For a limited time, it’s only $69.99 (regularly $89). And you won’t need to pay exorbitant monthly fees, like most other systems require.

Skate through off-limit areas, tagging objectives and evading the guard – that’s what Subway Surfers Tag is all about.

The game debuted Friday on the Apple Arcade gaming service. It’s playable on a variety of Apple computers, including iPhone and Mac.

Apple TV+’s newest limited series Black Bird hits its stride in a strong third installment.

Prison guards and inmates hound undercover informer Jimmy Keene as he tries to get close to suspected serial killer Larry Hall. McCauley and Miller search for harder evidence as time slips away from them. And outside prison walls, Big Jim is in a bind that affects little Jim.

Black Bird still has a little ways to go to be truly great, but so far this is a promising look at guys at the end of their ropes looking for a way out of very bad circumstances that they brought on themselves.

Why spend dozens of hours or thousands of dollars building mobile websites to showcase your brand? Linkcard lets you quickly design one-page micro websites that are optimized for mobile and easy to share.

And for a limited time, a lifetime Linkcard Professional Plan is on sale for just $49.99 (regularly $478).

It looks like Humane’s upcoming iPhone-killer will be a laser-projection system after all, based on a cryptic teaser video that dropped Friday.

Humane is a San Francisco startup staffed with a glittering roster of ex-Apple talent, many of whom were instrumental in developing the original iPhone.

The company hasn’t yet announced its first product, but patents hint Humane is working on a smart, screenless device that projects information onto the environment around the user.

In this week’s episode of Physical, Apple TV+’s death trip in spandex pumps the brakes to reconsider its priorities.

Aerobics star Sheila breaks her contract, reconnecting with Danny and Greta as she plots her next big move. But she remains selfish at heart, so nothing goes quite the way any of them had planned. Meanwhile, John and Maria plot one last attempt at salvation.

This week’s episode, titled “Don’t Try This at Home,” delivers some of the highest highs of the season, but still manages to blow a commanding lead in the home stretch.

The SwitchEasy Odyssey 3-in-1 Lanyard Shockproof Case protects an iPhone 13 in two ways. A removable strap helps you keep hold of the device, and the case is designed to absorb the shock if you drop your handset anyway.

I put my own iPhone in this hard case to see how it stood up to real-world use. Here’s why there’s a lot to like about it.

Those in the market for a M2 MacBook Air should be aware that the base model with 256GB of storage reportedly will have slower performance when moving large files and when multitasking than versions of the new laptop with more storage capacity.

Apple says real world performance isn’t affected, but benchmarks show the base model is slower even than its M1 predecessor for some tasks.

Sometimes you see a pristine computer setup flaunted on social media and you think, how is that even real? Is it staged? Is it a render? At the very least, it looks like they left out all the cables for the photograph. But that’s not necessarily the case.

A lot of us live with messy setups, in part due to cable clutter. But neatening things up doesn’t have to be next-to impossible, as today’s featured Mac mini setup demonstrates.

The Loot crew dons black tie and tails for a humanitarian gala this week. Billionaire divorcee Molly is being honored, hit on and insulted all at once. Arthur is starstruck. Howard is in crisis. And Nicholas is just happy to be in a tuxedo surrounded by rich people again.

The Apple TV+ comedy swings hard for big moments of personal empowerment through kindness and self-respect. That’s all well and good, but I came to this show for something a little more caustic.

July 15, 1998: Apple reports its third profitable quarter after the return of Steve Jobs, continuing the company’s remarkable turnaround.

Cupertino earns $101 million for the quarter, largely thanks to the success of the Power Mac G3. In the same quarter a year earlier, Apple lost $56 million. This marks the first time in three years that the company managed three straight profitable quarters.

This post on discount Microsoft software is brought to you by Keysbuff.

The July Shopping Sale at software activation keys provider Keysbuff.com lets you score great deals on Microsoft products. Cult of Mac readers can hit the links below and save big on Windows 10 — and uncover significant savings on lots of other Microsoft software, too.

Sound 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.

Apple Music Sessions are newly recorded live tracks and videos available only on Apple’s streaming music service. The recordings will be from current stars and emerging artists.

Sessions are starting off in Nashville with Carrie Underwood, Tenille Townes and others, but Apple promises to expand to other music genres soon.

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Missed out on buying the 16-inch MacBook Pro for Prime Day? Worry not, as Amazon is still offering a whopping $250 off on the lineup.

The deal drops the price of the entry-level 16-inch MacBook Pro to just $2,249 — down from $2,499. A similar discount is also available on the more powerful M1 Max model, dropping its price to a new low.

When you need to get some writing done, your MacBook screen can suddenly seem full of fascinating distractions. Even looking up a word can leave you 10 links deep down an internet rabbit hole you never planned on diving into.

Using a dedicated writing app like MasterWriter can help keep you on task. And its robust reference tools make it fast and easy to find the perfect words and phrases to express your thoughts.

For a limited time, MasterWriter’s two-year Creative Writer plan is on sale for $99 (regularly $149).

Apple TV+’s For All Mankind finally made it to Mars! Still, it’s pretty much business as usual this week, what with Americans and Russians bickering and making back-alley deals, and men being boorish and short-tempered and proud of nothing.

On Earth, U.S. President Ellen Wilson must deal with gays in the military right on schedule. And on Mars, Danny’s going nuts, Ed and his adopted daughter Kelly meet, and the Russians find water — and vodka!

A perfectly OK episode of the alt-history space show is made all the more frustrating by its flashes of greatness.

Apple’s new M2 MacBook Air is now arriving for preorder customers in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Europe. It will also be available for in-store pickup starting today in most major markets of the world.

Apple’s svelte M2 MacBook Air has received rave reviews for its excellent performance and long battery life.

The right lamp can help you see your home in a new light. Whether you’re trying to match a specific aesthetic to make your setup shine or want your home to feel like an extension of you, you can customize your lighting with one addition: The Lamp Depot Minimalist LED Corner Floor Lamp.

It lets light your home with more than 16 million color options. And it’s discounted to $59.99 during our Deal Days sale, which ends today.

Celebrating its “10-year Nanoversary,” Nanoleaf put out a special edition of its Shapes smart-lighting panels. It’s a new all -black color option: Ultra Black Shapes Triangles.

Like the other colors, the new set works with HomeKit as part of your smart-home lighting.

The iPhone 14 is reportedly already in the test production phase. That puts Apple’s next-gen smartphone on schedule to launch in September, as expected.

But, in a separate report, an industry analyst warns that one version of the 2022 iPhone may be in short supply when it launches.