When you’re planning your next vacation, is Sam’s Club the first place you think to look for deals on hotels? What about when you need to get your eyes checked, or need to fill a prescription?
If not, maybe it’s time to revisit how you think of Sam’s. During our Deal Days Sale, you can get a Sam’s Club Plus Membership for 50% off at only $50. And you might be surprised by how much you can save with an enhanced membership to the popular warehouse club.
This post is brought to you by Bluetti.
If you’re wondering when Amazon Prime Day is this year, heads up — it’s Tuesday and Wednesday of this week! So you can look forward to price cuts from national brands and small businesses across virtually every category.
Taking a cue from the retail giant, power products maker Bluetti is calling its big annual shopping event “Bluetti Prime Day” on those same dates, July 12 and 13.
You can find the best deals at www.bluettipower.com on solar power stations, solar panels, various accessories and more. We link to the best deals below.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: This could be the year Apple Watch goes large … and rugged … and maybe long. Like, long enough to track the kind of intense, multi-hour workouts that “extreme sports athletes” engage in.
So the question is, what will this beefier (and pricier) Apple Watch look like? We can’t help letting our imaginations run a little wild.
Also on The CultCast:
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.
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A 12-month subscription to PlayStation Plus Essential gets you access to an ever-growing collection of games, plus other perks you’ll love. And during our Deal Days Sale, you can get it for only $55 — no coupon code needed.
But if you want in on this hot gaming deal, you’d better move fast. The sale ends July 14!
★★☆☆☆
In “Seven Minutes of Terror,” Apple TV+ alt-history space race show For All Mankind returns this week to where it left off last season, with America and Russia once more holding hands begrudgingly to fix some space problems.
Ed and Karen have the same trouble with authority. Danny’s cracking up. Margo’s head is in a noose. Kelly’s got a crush. And Sojourner 1 suffers from a serious a problem.
Behind the scenes, WALL-E helmer Andrew Stanton directs this week. His brand of post-classical Hollywood craftsmanship is much appreciated, if also a sad sign of where we are as a country.
Golf, as much as you might love it, proves a bit time-consuming. Even if it’s your favorite way to spend a day, you probably don’t always have time to head out to the course to play a full 18 holes.
But your favorite hobby doesn’t need to include lengthy drive time — just a big screen and a little one. During our Deal Days Sale, you can get the SwingLogic SLX MicroSim home golf simulator for just $169.99 (regularly $249) no coupon code needed. Deal ends July 14, 2022.
Got a new 13-inch M2 MacBook Air in need of some stylish protection? WaterField Designs just unveiled its new Magnetic Laptop Sleeve. It’s custom-fitted to that ultralight laptop.
The sleeve, made of waxed canvas in four color choices, offers serious protection, too.
And if you preorder one soon enough, you can get special early-bird gift. See below.
Preorders for the svelte new M2 MacBook Air began early Friday morning and Apple is mostly keeping up with demand. There’s even one standard configuration still available for delivery on the July 15 launch day. The base model can be delivered a few days after that.
Build up the specs and the wait time can stretch out to August. But no farther than that.
A photograph said to show leaked iPhone 14 cases supports the widespread idea that the series will feature four models and bigger camera bumps. And it appears to show a case for a large, non-Pro handset that may be called “iPhone 14 Plus.”
If this holds up at launch in a couple of months, the two smaller models will be iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro and the two bigger models will be iPhone 14 Plus (or Max) and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ comedy Loot takes a spa day today as Molly tries to relive her old lifestyle without her old life, and the rest of the office bonds over shared drinks and massages. Arthur and Molly think about each other more than friends do, but everywhere she goes reminds her of the life she lost to a younger model.
The show continues to make good inroads on character dynamics. However, Loot needs a little electricity in the writing to keep it from feeling like just another sitcom.
Apple Arcade offers many original games, but the collection also includes quite a few App Store Greats: classic titles that have joined Apple’s gaming service. Recent additions include Samorost 3+, My Bowling 3D+, Jigsaw Puzzle+ and Pro Darts 2022+.
They join dozen of other classic games that players used to have to pay to play individually but are now all available with a single Apple Arcade subscription.
Today’s featured M1 Pro MacBook workstation has a new Studio Display with bias lighting, illuminating the wall behind the display. It comes from three strategically placed Philips Hue Play bars that really make that corner of the small apartment “pop.”
Apple TV+ garnered a record 53 nominations for 16 shows across a range of genres — comedy, drama, documentary, anthology series, variety-sketch series — for the upcoming Hollywood Critics Association Awards.
Psychological thriller Severance and comedy Ted Lasso led the way with a dozen nominations apiece.
This post on discount Microsoft software is brought to you by Keysbuff.
In a July Flash Sale, software activation keys provider Keysbuff.com offers 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.
If bargains like that 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 TV+’s Physical has an incurable itch to break free this week. Both Sheila’s and John’s spouses know something is up. They try to help, but they can’t — because there’s no cure for being blackmailed by a vindictive Bunny.
John stares a new life in the face, a real one and an imaginary one. Sheila contemplates becoming an even worse version of herself. And Danny’s out of luck in every way he can be.
Brace yourself for more of the same bad behavior in this week’s episode, entitled “Don’t You Have Enough.”
Select iPad mini 6 users are having trouble charging their device after installing the iPadOS 15.5 update. Apple is aware of the problem and investigating the cause behind the problem.
The problem seems to be related to software and is not a hardware one.
Who has the closet space for a vacuum, a mop, a duster and all the cleaning supplies that they require? Even if you do, you might be able to use that space more efficiently by consolidating a few of those cleaning implements.
The Elicto ES-800 5-in-1 Vacuum Spin Mop is your do-it-once cleaner that picks up fur as easily as it wipes away spills on your floor. During our Deal Days Sale, the Elicto ES-800 is on sale for $219.99 (regularly $349), a price you definitely won’t find on Amazon.
★★★☆☆
Black Bird, the new Apple TV+ series about an inmate tasked with cozying up to a suspected serial killer, begins as a blustery and entirely too familiar tale of bad men doing bad things, without much to distract from the cliches.
However, armed with an impressive cast and crew — and one of the last performances by the great Ray Liotta — it eventually slots itself into good procedural habits.
The limited series, based on James Keene’s memoir In With the Devil: A Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption and developed by crime novelist Dennis Lehane, premieres Friday on Apple TV+. The first two episodes start off wobbly, but then chart a path toward true-crime greatness.
Apple has started accepting preorders for the M2 MacBook Air. The company took down its online store for a couple of hours to prepare for the new Air’s launch.
The new MacBook Air will be available in retail stores from July 15.
This post is brought to you by Bluetti.
Power stations, power banks, solar panels and related accessories make great gifts, but it’s not always easy to know exactly what your giftee needs. That’s what makes a Bluetti E-Gift Card so great — they can choose whatever power products they want!
And even better, Bluetti E-Gift Cards offer great savings and make for a quicker way to pay.
While many jobs require an expensive college degree and loads of experience, the IT field includes many skills-based opportunities that only require certifications that prove your expertise. That means a self-taught IT pro can land a killer career — but getting those certifications isn’t easy.
If you enroll in this Complete 2022 CompTIA Certification Course Super Bundle, you’ll get more than 300 hours of training to prepare you for your IT certification exams. You can tap into these lucrative job opportunities for only $49.99 (regularly $4,425) with this exclusive Deal Days discount.
It’s not just Amazon that’s bringing great deals!
Some great sales prices have popped up lately for Apple’s flagship earbuds, AirPods Pro. That may relate to the fact that the highly anticipated next-gen version with new features is expected to launch before the end of the year. And sellers want to clear out stock.
So should you take the deal behind door No. 1, or wait for whatever’s coming with AirPods Pro 2 behind door No. 2? Let’s look at your options for Apple’s top active noise-cancelling (ANC) wireless earbuds.
There’s nothing like a splash of color to jazz things up. Elago found that out years ago when it first offered its popular Glide series of cases, which feature two-tone color combinations. Now an improved, more-protective version of the case is out for iPhone 13 handsets.
And better yet, you can get a great price on a selection of Glide cases for iPhone 13 in the Cult of Mac Store.
Various discounts across the Apple Watch lineup appeared Thursday, including Apple Watch SE hitting an all-time low price on Amazon for the first time and models of Apple Watch Series 7 reaching or returning to all-time low prices.
Act fast, though — these deals often don’t last long.
Feeling unlucky lately? Wouldn’t it be nice if a black cat who speaks English with a Scottish accent could take you to a magical land where luck is made?
Not bloody likely to happen, but you get the next best thing with Luck, the first full-length, 3D-animated film to hit Apple TV+, which offered a trailer for it Thursday.
It’s also the streamer’s first film through its exclusive deal with Skydance Animation. Look for Luck’s Apple TV+ debut on August 5.