School supplies aren’t limited to a nice binder, a new backpack and some rad pens. These days, your Apple gear is front and center in the educational experience. For example, you can use your iPhone to join or view video lectures, your AirPods let you listen to recorded lessons, and your Apple Watch is a great place to keep your Pomodoro timer.

Once school starts, those batteries will drain pretty fast. Luckily, during our Back to Education Sale, you can get a 3-in-1 Foldable Magnetic Wireless Charger for just $43.99 (regularly $59). Plus, a portion of each sale goes to a great cause!

No coupon code is needed, but this sale only runs through August 24.

The internet has come a long way. For example, you can play online games with massive, thriving communities. Meanwhile, your browsing habits probably produce targeted ads on your sidebar and email.

Luckily, you can take the best and get rid of the worst. Unlock online gaming and lock down your browsing with this bundle, which pairs 12 months of PlayStation Plus Essential with a lifetime subscription to VPN Unlimited, all for only $69.99 (regularly $259).

You probably spend a fair chunk of change on your Apple Watch and you should take care to protect it — especially if you’re the sort of person who does a number on watches.

If you really want to safeguard it, you could get a rugged case and band combo like the one Elago makes.

You can find the Elago Armor Case Apple Watch Band in the Cult of Mac Store for just $15.

Google’s campaign to talk Apple into supporting Rich Communication Services in iMessage continues. The Android-maker introduced a new website Tuesday that claims that because iPhone does not support RCS it lacks “modern texting standards” and causes unnecessary problems.

Apple has long resisted RCS, choosing instead to reserve the best benefits of its messaging software to iPhone users.

The Gamevice Flex and PowerA MOGA XP5-i Plus are both game controllers for iPhone, but that’s almost the only thing they have in common. The Gamevice product wraps around the handset to put buttons and d-pads on either side of the screen, while PowerA’s mimics an Xbox controller but with a phone mount.

No matter the design, these let players escape using onscreen touch controls when accessing cloud-gaming services, Apple Arcade and other games.

Apple products are shifting from Cupertino’s proprietary Lightning connectors to USB-C, but the switch may not be in the cards for the second generation of AirPods Pro, expected to ship before the end of the year.

Or so said a prominent analyst Tuesday, anyway.

Apple doesn’t enjoy a great record when it comes to charging accessories. The company’s Lightning cables, in particular, seem overpriced and less than rugged.

So, if you want to power up your iPhone or iPad without being super-careful, it might be time for an upgrade. With a braided sheath to protect it, this Vibrance Connect Lightning cable might just last much longer than a stock Apple cord. You can get one today for just $39.99 in a range of eye-catching colors.

You can have your own 2.6-inch Ted Lasso. And Coach Beard, Rebecca Welton, too. They’re all in Mattel’s newly released Fisher-Price Little People Collector set for the hit Apple TV+ show.

There are six characters in the set, which is available now.

Apple’s M2 MacBook Air might be the newest kid on the block, but you can’t go wrong with the M1 Air as well. And with Best Buy taking a whopping $200 off on the 2020 MacBook Air, now is the perfect time to buy one.

This is the lowest price the M1 MacBook Air has dropped down to.

Color is an essential part of any visual project. When you find inspiration in the digital realm, it’s easy enough to find the hex code and save the shade. But what about in the real world? You can think of the Nix Mini Color Sensor V2 as your pocket color picker.

This tiny device can detect the exact hue of any object or material and send the result straight to your iOS device. It’s typically priced at $99, but you can get the sensor today for only $83.95.

The latest iOS 16 beta returns the iPhone’s battery percentage to the status bar. This is Apple finally walking back a controversial user interface change from 2017.

However, users of some iPhone models report that the new feature isn’t available on their device.

With a new week come new discounts on Apple products — especially at this time of year, with new product releases from Cupertino around the corner.

Today Amazon is chopping $50 off of iPad Pro Magic Keyboards and $30 off Apple Pencil 2 (which is a return to an all-time low price).

Bored of your basic Apple Watch band? Dress it up with a stunning stainless steel stretch-link bracelet from Rilee & Lo. They look just as spectacular as other high-end bracelets but are much more convenient to get on and off — and they’re a lot more affordable than they look.

iPad is an outstanding tablet, but add the Zagg Pro Keys with Trackpad and it becomes a powerful notebook computer that’s ready for work or school. Plus, the keyboard case offers a welcome 6.6 feet of drop protection.

There are versions for several Apple tablets, so I wrapped my 12.9-inch iPad Pro in the Pro Keys and went to work using it. There’s a lot to like here.

Some computer setups are so strikingly beautiful they look like art installations. That tends to happen more with multiple-display setups because the imagery on the screens really adds to the aesthetic impact.

Today’s featured M1 Mac mini setup makes a visual statement using six displays, including two ultra-wide monitors and two iPads, plus some clever backlighting.

This GPS spoofing post is presented by iToolab.

A typical reason people want to “spoof,” or fake, a GPS location shown on a device is to play location-based augmented-reality games like Pokémon Go — without having to do all that walking.

And a highly effective, easy-to-use and affordable tool for changing and controlling your GPS location on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch — anywhere in the world, and for whatever reason — is iToolab AnyGo.

Streaming services used to be an affordable alternative to traditional cable services. However, as more and more customers cut the cable, new streaming services appeared left and right. SelectTV brings order to the chaos by organizing more than 150 channels into a comprehensive digital media guide. Right now, you can subscribe for just $99 (Reg. $677), and you’ll also get a lifetime subscription to KeepSolid VPN Unlimited.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has once again reiterated that Apple’s AR/VR headset could debut as early as January 2023.

The analyst believes Apple’s augmented reality headset could be “the next revolutionary consumer electronics product after the iPhone.”

Apple will add two new ports to the 2022 iPad Pro, according to an unconfirmed report. However, it’s not known what these will be for as they do not conform to any connectors used by current Apple devices.

But there’s no mention of a second USB-C port in the upcoming tablet.

Apple reportedly does not plan to hold an in-person iPhone 14 event this September. Instead, the company will once again announce the upcoming iPhones via a virtual event.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: The latest benchmarks make Apple’s M2 chip sound better than we thought. In fact, the new MacBook Air that the processor powers might be the perfect laptop for almost everyone.

Also on The CultCast:

• The iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on screen looks sweeeeet.
• How does Apple keep pulling off earnings miracles?!?
• What not to do when a creep steals your AirTag-equipped scooter.
• Somebody built an Apple Store time machine.
• And a truffle tangent to end all tangents.

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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Few industries have grown as quickly or found such an important niche as cybersecurity. With so many people working online and volumes of important information being traded daily, there’s practically always a demand for skilled cybersecurity workers. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you’ll need to prove to employers that you’ve mastered the NIST Framework, completed a CISSP exam or passed other cybersecurity benchmarks. The 2022 Ultimate Advanced CyberSecurity Professional Certification Bundle covers these topics and more for $69 (Reg. $1,475). 

Loot, the Apple TV+ comedy about a woman with everything who learns from people who have nothing, has a play, a zoning board meeting and a summit to prepare for this week.

Howard and Nicholas must patch up their friendship. Sofia and Molly need to work out their differences of opinion and ambition. Molly comes face to face with the bad side of charity work. And in general, the characters needs to make some hard choices about the people they want in their lives.

You might know what books you want to read, but do you have the time? Between work and life, that reading list definitely isn’t getting any smaller, and who can blame you?

You could try reading summaries, but most of those are made to entice people to read the whole book instead of distilling the message. However, with Mentorist, you get an entire library of bestselling books to read, and all of them are broken down into functional summaries with guides for applying what you learned to your life.

For a limited time, you can purchase a lifetime Mentorist Pro subscription for $49 (regularly $490).

Surface, the new Apple TV+ mystery series about a woman who can’t remember her life or lies, keeps up the erotic intrigue this week. The show avoids all of its worst tendencies for a basically good fourth episode.

Amnesiac Sophie and her lover Thomas clandestinely chase leads as they try to solve the mystery of who almost killed her. Sophie’s husband, James, desperately runs around trying to hide his crimes, and Caroline gets pulled back into his orbit once again.

The investigation and the cover-up proceed apace. It’s just a matter of who’s smarter, more thorough and more careful.