The colorful budget MacBook could be the star of Apple's March product announcements. AI image: Gemini/Cult of Mac
Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed Thursday what had previously been rumored: The company will launch new products starting Monday, March 2.
The graphic he posted on X hints at the new MacBooks that are expected to be among the announcements. Beyond notebooks, the iPhone 17e, revamped iPads and possibly more could all be unveiled in just a few days.
In the early 2000s, the iTunes Music Store went from strength to strength. Photo: Apple
February 26, 2008: Less than five years after launching, the iTunes Music Store becomes the No. 2 music retailer in the United States, second only to Walmart.
In that relatively short period, iTunes sells more than 4 billion songs to more than 50 million customers. The rapid rise to prominence stands as a massive achievement for Apple — and for the revolutionary digital distribution model Cupertino helped pioneer.
Save 87% on lifetime access to Hive AI's Unlimited Plan. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
It’s easy to lose track of your projects when all your ideas and notes are scattered across different apps. If you want a simpler way to get organized, try Hive AI. This browser-based workspace pulls documents, visual boards and structured data into one place — and adds AI tools to help you clean things up faster.
It’s part workspace, part AI-integrated project manager, and it’s great for working alone or collaborating with others. Right now, you can get a lifetime subscription to Hive AI for just $79 (regularly $619).
This Hall Effect keyboard's body, or housing, is solid concrete. Photo: Keychron
Never shy about making keyboards that look as good as they perform, Keychron just pushed that idea into genuinely unexpected territory. Launched Tuesday, the K2 HE Special Edition comes in two versions — one with a body made entirely of concrete, and one cast in resin. Both cost $199.99.
“Mechanical keyboards have advanced significantly in switch engineering, but enclosure materials have remained largely unchanged,” said Keychron co-founder Paul Tan. “With K2 HE Special Edition, we applied magnetic switch performance to a material-driven redesign, expanding how a keyboard can look and feel.”
★★★★★
Anker's new miniature wall charger sports a smart display and other innovation. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The Anker Nano Charger (45W, Smart Display, 180° Foldable) — that’s its actual name — is the smartest wall charger I’ve ever used. It recognizes my iPhone and iPad when I plug them in and even displays the device’s current battery level.
I can set it to quickly or slowly juice up my device, helping to protect its battery. Or order it to slow charge my handset overnight.
Here’s why I love Anker’s tiny new charger after testing it for several weeks.
This was one of the worst (and one of the most significant) days in Apple history. Photo: Bonhams
February 25, 1981: Original Apple CEO Michael Scott oversees a mass firing of employees, then holds a massive party. The Apple layoffs follow a hiring boom that led to what Scott called a “bozo explosion” at the company. They also stand as an early sign that the fun startup culture of Apple’s early days are gone forever.
“I used to say that when being CEO at Apple wasn’t fun anymore, I’d quit,” he tells a crowd of Apple staffers. “But now I’ve changed my mind — when being CEO isn’t fun anymore, I’ll just fire people until it is fun again.”
For many people at Apple, the day is the worst in the company’s history.
MacBook screen feeling cramped? We've got a $60 solution for you. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
A lightweight USB-powered portable monitor can instantly double your screen space, anywhere you go. It’s an excellent productivity booster for MacBooks and other laptops when you venture away from the big screen in your home setup.
And right now, you can treat yourself to all that precious extra screen real estate for just $59.99 (MSRP $139) with this 15.6-inch refurbished portable monitor from AOC.
A great new feature comes to Apple Music. Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Upcoming iOS 26 feature Apple Music Concerts solves one of music lovers’ biggest heartbreaks — finding out too late that your favorite artist already passed through your neighborhood on tour, unbeknownst to you.
The feature lets you see shows coming soon to your city, with convenient details on venues, ticketing, set lists and more. You can also look up an artist’s tour and see all their upcoming shows.
Supposedly, Apple Music Concerts will even notify you when a tour is coming nearby. The feature, available now in iOS 26.4 beta 2, hasn’t been out long enough for me to test. But if it works like the Apple Music notifications that alert you about new tracks, it could be a lifesaver.
Unfortunately, though, there’s one serious drawback. Here’s an overview of Apple Music Concerts.
Time to jump ship? Photo: Rajesh Pandey/Cult of Mac
1Password, a popular third-party password manager service among Apple users, will soon cost significantly more. The company plans to raise prices for both individual and family accounts by as much as 33%.
After the increase, 1Password’s individual subscription will cost $47.88 yearly, while the Family plan will rise to $71.88 annually.
Rumors suggest a touchscreen-enabled macOS 27 might look something like this concept. AI image: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac
Building a touchscreen into the MacBook Pro coming late this year will require significant changes to macOS 27. Some early details of what Apple has in store for macOS leaked out Tuesday from a generally reliable source.
The upcoming notebooks will supposedly be the first Macs with a Dynamic Island — but that’s just the start of what Apple has planned.
Add terabytes of storage to your Mac, iPad or iPhone with SanDisk's latest SSD. Photo: Sandisk
Sandisk just launched a third generation of the Extreme Portable SSD. It offers 2,000 MBps data transfers, drop protection and more. Capacities go up to 4TB.
The drive will be joined later in 2026 with two more additions to the line of SSDs — one with even faster data transfer speeds, and the other expected to be more affordable.
Has Happy Valley on Mars finally grown too big for its britches? Some people on Earth are up in arms. Photo: Apple TV
Earth almost seems to have a “make Earth great again” moment in the new For All Mankind season five trailer Apple TV released Tuesday. Happy Valley, the burgeoning Mars colony that the alternative-history drama depicts, needs so much funding and resources it’s starting to piss people off — on both planets.
The new trailer, full of new characters and aging favorites, ratchets up the tension for the upcoming 10 episodes. Season 5 debuts on Friday, March 27 on Apple TV.
Apple silicon devices are powered by TSMC chips made in Taiwan. Apple is trying to change that, but it's slow going. Photo: TSMC
Nearly every high-end chip powering Apple devices is manufactured in Taiwan, a small island democracy over which China claims ownership. U.S. officials have warned Apple and the rest of Silicon Valley for years that a Chinese blockade, invasion or prolonged military standoff — possibly coming by 2027, according to intelligence sources — could cut off the chip supply.
And with a too little, too late response by tech giants grinding forward, a chip shortage could crush the tech industry, hobble the U.S. economy and keep your next iPhone out of reach for a long time, according to a new report.
Steve Jobs was born on this day in 1955. Photo: Jason Mercier
February 24, 1955: Steve Jobs is born in San Francisco. He will go on to co-found Apple and become one of the most important figures in the history of consumer technology. He’s also probably a big part of why you’re reading this website right now.
Happy birthday, Steve! Let’s take a moment to reflect on your innovation, artistry and overall brilliance.
Apple Studio Display 2 might build considerably on the current model. AI image: Cult of Mac/ChatGPT
Apple will soon replace the Studio Display with an even more gorgeous second-generation version with a range of upgrades, according to reliable rumor sources.
Read on for all the enhancements that rumors indicate will come to the high-end Mac monitor.
This gesture comes in handy all the time. Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
A hidden gesture on the iPhone and iPad lets you quickly select a bunch of items in a list — kind of like Command-A (⌘A) for Select All on a Mac. I use it all the time to select a bunch of emails to archive, a bunch of reminders to rearrange, a batch of files to sort, etc.
Once you learn this two-finger swipe gesture, you’ll use it everywhere. It’s great for getting work done on the go with your phone. Watch our quick video or keep reading.
No more late wishes. Photo: WhatsApp/Rajesh Pandey/Cult Of Mac
WhatsApp is preparing to add a long-requested message scheduling feature. The app will let users compose messages in advance and send them at a chosen time, similar to how iMessage handles scheduled texts.
References to the feature popped up in the latest WhatsApp beta release on TestFlight.
"Made in the USA" Mac minis are coming soon! Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Apple will start assembling Mac mini in the United States later this year. Foxconn will build the tiny desktop computers at its facility in Houston, Texas.
The iPhone's Visual Intelligence feature is a sign of things to come. Photo: Apple
Apple CEO Tim Cook has a well-established habit of dropping subtle hints about where the company is headed. This time, the dropped breadcrumbs all point toward Visual Intelligence. And the impression they leave is of a company preparing to reshape how humans interact with the world around them.
Apple becomes the world's biggest music vendor. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
February 23, 2010: The iTunes Store officially passes the 10 billion music downloads mark, reaching a major milestone. The 10 billionth purchase? “Guess Things Happen That Way” by Johnny Cash.
The buyer of the song in question is Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia. As part of a “Countdown to 10 Billion Songs” promotion by Apple, Sulcer wins a massive $10,000 iTunes Store gift card. He also receives a personal phone call from Apple CEO Steve Jobs for good measure!
This two-MacBook setup uses a Keychron Q3 Pro custom mechanical keeb. Photo: [email protected]
For years, Mac users contentedly typed away on Apple’s sleek but simple keyboards. Then the mechanical keyboard revolution really took off, transforming computer setups everywhere.
These days, more and more Mac enthusiasts trade their Magic Keyboards for an astonishing variety of mechanical alternatives — some practical, some quirky, and some downright bizarre. I collected 16 fascinating examples below.
Texts you might actually send to someone. Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Apple Watch texting is not fun, no matter which way you slice it. But it can be made a lot easier if you spend a few minutes setting up canned messages for you to instantly reply with later. It makes texting much easier. Here’s how to set it up.
These were two of the wackier Macs ever. Photo: Apple
February 22, 2001: The iMac Special Edition, sporting wild designs that would make a hippie happy, puts a wacky face on the colorful computer that saved Apple’s bacon at the turn of the century. The Flower Power iMac and Blue Dalmatian iMac evoke tie-dye shirts and other unconventional ’60s-era imagery.
A far cry from the super-serious, aluminum-heavy industrial design that will come to define Apple in subsequent years, these colorfully patterned iMacs stand out as some of the most irreverent computers Cupertino ever dreamed up. (C’mon, when was a real Dalmatian blue?)
Under the crazy-looking exteriors, a pretty darn great iMac G3 hums along.
The 2026 AI Powered Digital Marketing & Content Creation Bundle is now 87% off! Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
The 2026 AI-Powered Digital Marketing & Content Creation Bundle teaches creators, entrepreneurs and marketers how to use AI tools like ChatGPT and Canva to build scalable content workflows without spending hours brainstorming or designing from scratch.
The training is designed for beginners and experienced creators alike, with practical lessons focused on blogs, social media, email campaigns and multichannel marketing strategies. And right now, you can get all seven courses for just $24.99 (MSRP $197).
The iPhone 17 Pro finally brings some chromatic excitement, and extremely pro features to the lineup. Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
Following the success of the cosmic orange iPhone 17 Pro, Apple reportedly plans to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro in a deep red color. It will seemingly be the new flagship color for 2026 Pro iPhones.
The company may also be testing similar hues internally.