This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: It sounds like Apple is planning nearly a dozen new Macs with a next-gen M2 processor. The question is, just how big of a speed bump will that new chip bring? And then there’s iPhone 14, which sounds like it might come with a very big bump indeed — and not the kind you might be hoping for.

Also on The CultCast:

• The original HomePod never ceases to surprise.
• iPhone 14 could be the ultimate smartphone for narcissists.
• Apple might be prepping an ingenious hybrid device to take over your living room.
• When you’re tired of wearing earbuds, you’ve got options. Very strange options.

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 what you hear.) Or watch the video livestream, embedded below.

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We’ve all had it happen. Maybe you streamed movies while on a trip. Or you accidentally turned off your phone’s Wi-Fi connection and forgot to turn it back on. Or maybe you’re just a mobile power user.

No matter how it happened, almost all of us have received a dreaded mid-month notification that we’ve almost exceeded our data plan’s limit. Then you spend two weeks watching your data use like a hawk to avoid extra charges. You don’t need to suffer this outrage any longer.

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Spring cleaning doesn’t just have to mean finally dusting. You can clean up your online tracks with a no-log virtual private network that’ll protect your identity and your browser data.

This three-year subscription to VPNCity offers that service and a lot more. And you can get it for $69 (regularly $357) with coupon code SPRING10 during our Spring Refresh Sale.

Apple TV+ spy series Slow Horses gets ready for the climactic showdown between MI5, Jackson Lamb’s misfit spies at Slough House and the kidnappers. Lamb hatches a plan to acquire some crucial evidence, but it involves subterfuge, bombs and the music of The Proclaimers.

Are these guys as clever as they pretend to be? The penultimate episode of season one delivers high highs and no lows — everything an hour of TV should be.

Even the most meticulous planners have trouble sticking to an agenda sometimes. But planning and notetaking doesn’t have to be all on you. There’s some impressive software out there that can make it easier on Macs, iPads and iPhones.

Date-focused notetaking app Agenda Premium 14 automates what it can for notetaking and planning, and makes the rest of the process easier with some fantastic tools. For a limited time, Agenda Premium 14 is on sale for $9.99 (regularly $34).

The European Union may force Apple to make big changes to its App Store as well as services like FaceTime and Messages, if a leaked version of an EU antitrust proposal becomes law.

The draft is said to be the “final version” of the Digital Markets Act, provisionally approved by EU regulators in March. It seeks to restrict how tech giants operate in order to foster greater competition.

Physics-based puzzlers are all the rage, and the latest Apple Arcade game takes the concept to the stars. In Moonshot – A Journey Home, players use a slingshot to reunite a wandering moon with its home planet.

It debuted Friday on Apple’s gaming service, which now offers more than 200 titles.

Pachinko, the stellar Apple TV+ series about the fortunes of a Korean family across decades and generations, takes time away from its main storyline to tell the story of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which killed tens of thousands of people in Japan.

The episode isn’t a full stylistic break, but it’s a very different animal from the rest of the season. It offers a harrowing look at one person’s struggle to survive before and after a disaster that forever changed the face of Japan and the Koreans who lived there.

Anker showed off its much-anticipated 736 USB Charger at CES back in January. At long last, now you can buy the powerful-but-compact 100W gallium nitride (GaN) charger at Amazon.

And you might want to do just that. It looks like Anker’s new GaN II charger beats Apple’s 96W charger in three ways. It’s smaller, more powerful and more versatile.

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. So today’s M1 Mac mini-driven computer setup, with eight smashing photos, must be roughly equivalent to 8,000 words. But instead of burying you in a horrible cascade of text, we’ll let the pictures tell most of the elegant rig’s story.

The newly updated setup has some exceedingly nice touches. Each of the photos below includes a little commentary.

iPhones will continue getting smaller, faster and more efficient processors for years to come. TSMC, the company that manufactures all Apple’s chips, says it should be able produce processors in 2025 that are an amazing 2nm. These should make today’s fastest Macs and iPhones look like slugs in comparison.

Rival Intel is working hard to keep up. It says it’ll pass TSMC in a few years – but it’s missed plenty of similar self-imposed deadlines over the years.

Apple TV+’s WeCrashed is finally done, which means we can finally stop looking at the hollow eyes of Jared Leto as WeWork CEO Adam Neumann. The company can’t go public while Adam remains CEO. But Adam doesn’t ever want to not be CEO.

He left WeWork in terrible shape before the board kicked him to the curb, and the only solutions are expensive ones. If you’re still invested in this story, god bless. But the time for some of these people to face consequences was long, long ago.

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Easter may be over, but the software savings continue in the big April Sale at CDKeylord.com. The software activation key provider offers fantastic discounts on genuine Microsoft products.

Cult of Mac readers can get 30% off the regular price of a Windows 10 Pro key and much more. And when you buy a Windows 10 key, you can get a free upgrade to Windows 11! Just enter the special discount code CULT when you check out to secure the great savings below.

In an open letter sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday, more than 100 film and TV professionals called on the company to publicly commit to building its video editing software Final Cut Pro into an industry-standard tool.

The group praised FCP as as “the biggest leap forward in editing technology since the move to digital” but complained it’s not living up to its potential.

The group noted, bitterly, that even the crew on CODA — the first streaming service release to win a Best Picture Oscar, and Apple’s own release — would probably not have chosen to edit it with FCP.

The iPhone 13 series is selling very well… with one exception. The iPhone 13 mini is not attracting U.S. buyers, according to a report by a market-research firm.

This helps explain why the upcoming iPhone 14 series isn’t expected to have a “mini” version with a 5.4-inch screen.

Apple TV+’s latest documentary series is They Call Me Magic, a look at the life and legacy of one of the greatest and most flashy basketball players the game ever saw.

Director Rick Famuyiwa gives us a guided tour of Earvin “Magic” Johnson Jr.’s game, the illness that took him out of professional sports, and the family members — both professional and blood — who made his life hard but worth living. The documentary’s form is digestible and the story is a necessary window into living memory, to see at once how far we’ve come and how little we’ve changed.

We love our AirPods. But do we like thinking about all the gross stuff that accumulates inside the little holes which you then put into your ear? Not so much.

The way to fix that is with a reliable AirPods cleaning tool. And right now, you can get this great Wireless Charger + Cleaning Pen Set for AirPods on sale for just $22.99. That’s 54% off the regular price of $49.

Our latest giveaway is for iPad owners. We are giving away five Lululook bundles to five lucky winners. Each bundle features one Urban iPad Magnetic Stand and one 33w GaN USB-C charger.

If you own an 11-inch or 12.9-inch iPad Pro, the sleek Urban Magnetic Stand will elevate your iPad and make viewing and working more user-friendly. The 33w GaN USB-C charger is compact and will charge your devices quickly. This $90 bundle will make your desktop flow, so make sure to enter the giveaway below.

If you’d love to add a Sonos soundbar to your home theater but you find the company’s well-regarded products a tad pricey, just wait. According to a new leak, Sonos will release its least-expensive soundbar ever — just $249 — in early June.

The wait for a redesigned MacBook Air with an M2 processor will be over soon, if a tipster is correct. The notebook will supposedly be announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. And a version of the Mac mini with the M2 allegedly will be unveiled at the same time.

If true, these will be the first Macs with the improved replacement for Apple’s M1 processor.

It’s finally time to turn down the heater and start thinking about how you’re going to keep cool! If you want to beat the heat this summer and cut down on your power bill, a personal air conditioner is the cool way to go.

The EvaChill EV-500 Personal Air Conditioner is a compact, portable air conditioner that’s about the size of a lunchbox, with disproportionately strong cooling power. During our Spring Refresh Sale, you can get an EvaChill EV-500 Personal Air Conditioner in white or gray for just $69.99 (regularly $99) with coupon code SPRING10. Or, if you buy both, you can get them for $139.98 (regularly $159.98) with coupon code SPRING20.

Former eastern Kentucky lawyer Eric C. Conn is notorious for committing the largest-ever Social Security fraud, bilking the U.S. government and taxpayers out of $550 million. Plus, he partied with porn stars and opened a brothel before leading authorities on a major chase.

Apple TV+ covers the whole sordid affair like a blanket, judging by the new trailer for upcoming documentary series and podcast, The Big Conn.

Accessories maven Elago has a cool new way for you to protect your pricey Apple Watch while also dressing it up. The Elago Duo Case for Apple Watch completely wraps around your wearable’s housing. And the case’s accent pieces in different colors can be swapped out to freshen up your look.

You could have a different-looking case for every day of the week. People might even ask why you have so many Apple Watches!

Apple will increase the number of countries where it does an important phase in developing products, according to a industry analyst. Currently, its R&D-oriented New Product Introduction (NPI) sites are in China, but the company plans to build NPI offices in other places as well.

Recent COVID shutdowns — which have disrupted several recent products — are supposedly the reason for the change.

Grid Studio, known for turning old iPhones into a piece of art, will offer a 20% discount across all its frames to celebrate Earth Day. It will also donate 10% of its sales proceeds to charity.