Apple TV+’s The Afterparty, the show with a kaleidoscopic approach to genre, hits a new low this week as it becomes a dreadful procedural for its penultimate episode. The show has been many things by now — an unfunny cartoon, a musical, an action movie, an arthouse experiment — but it’s never fully just given into being bad television on purpose before now.

There’s something frankly a little insulting about being asked to watch a half-hearted impression of something The Afterparty creator Christopher Miller and the show’s writers keep telling us is bad and a waste of time and unrealistic. I’d much rather just watch a rerun of JAG on Pluto TV than continue with this baleful re-creation.

What, for heaven’s sakes, is the point of The Afterparty?

Have you ever seen two big ol’ Apple Cinema Displays mounted vertically, in portrait mode, bookending an iMac? We didn’t think so. Or at least, it seems like a rare sight. But today’s featured setup has that nuevo-retro styling going on, big-time, and folks took notice.

After all, secondary displays in portrait mode seems to be all the rage lately, but not so much back in the glory days of Cinema Displays. Or were they?

The Apple TV+ thriller/comedy Severance started out strong. It’s on Reelgood’s list of the Top 10 most-streamed shows of the week.

The series debuted February 18 on Apple’s streaming video service to very positive reviews from critics and audiences.

This discount software activation keys post is brought to you by CDKeylord.com.

Hope for inexpensive software activation springs eternal, doesn’t it? In its Spring Big Sale, software seller CDKeylord.com offers more unbeatable deals on genuine Microsoft software. Cult of Mac readers can get 30% off the regular price of a Windows 10 Pro key. 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 grab the exceptional savings.

See currently available discounts on various Microsoft software titles in the list below.

Apple TV+’s Suspicion has gathered its suspects together and now they have to decide who’s who — and more to the point, who’s guilty.

It’s a Ten Little Indians riff this week as everyone accuses everyone of being more guilty than they are. The suspects are going to have to come as clean as they can if they want to make it out of this bottle episode alive.

Rob Williams and his writers have crafted a nifty detour for these characters as they work together to figure out who’s put them in the spotlight and why. The nation is starting to think they’re heroes, but they might kill each other before any new evidence comes to light and they can prove their innocence.

Apple News’ local coverage feature this week expanded its reach to Canada. Users in Montreal and Toronto can now enjoy local news from a number of different sources, including CTV News and Toronto Star.

Local coverage was first added to Apple News in July 2020, but growth has been slow since then. Although it has made its way to additional U.S. cities since it debuted, this is the first time the feature has landed in another country.

Did you know that hidden cameras have been discovered spying on guests in hotels, Airbnbs and public spaces? If you want to travel the world and remain sure of your safety, camera detector devices can eliminate the problem and give you total peace of mind,

The Scout Hidden Camera Detector is one of the best of these essential travel gadgets — and it’s our Deal of the Day. Usually $89, today you can grab it with a special price drop to just $69.99. And you can get a two pack for an incredibly low $79.99.

But you’ll have to be quick, as the deal ends at midnight PST on Feb. 25.

If you want your iPhone to always look brand-new — even after you’ve dropped it over and over again — you’ll need a rugged case that offers plenty of impact protection. And there are loads of tough iPhone cases to choose from.

We rounded up 10, starting at just $7.99, that are all built to be robust bodyguards for your iPhone.

Apple TV+ released the first full trailer for WeCrashed to get viewers pumped for the limited series that premiers in March. It’ll star Jared Leto as the controversial co-founder of WeWork as he builds a cult of personality that eventually helps take the company down.

Watch the trailer to get ready for the wild ride up… then down.

The Wemo Smart Plug with Thread simplifies controlling lamps, fans, and other appliances with an iPhone or Siri. Anything that plugs into a standard wall outlet can be turned on or off.

Rather than Wi-Fi, the HomeKit accessory communicates with other accessories over Thread, a mesh networking standard.

A world where Bluetooth rises above compression and delivers full-stream, hi-res, lossless audio remains in the future. But sound specialist Astell&Kern said it’s about the roll out the world’s first Bluetooth speaker with support for the rarefied LDAC and aptX HD codecs — which should at least allow for CD-quality wireless streaming.

The Acro BE100, Astell&Kern’s first Bluetooth speaker, goes on sale March 7, the company said. And it’s not just the codecs that make it special.

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Keeping large numbers of browser tabs open is such a common habit that Apple created a system to organize them. Safari Tab Groups let you put open tabs into logical collections so you can more easily work with them. And the same groups are available across all your Apple devices.

The system gets a little complicated. But here’s how to get started with Safari Tab Groups.

The OtterBox Wireless Power Bank for MagSafe offers two-sided charging capability. It clings magnetically to an iPhone while charging it, and the external battery also magnetically attaches to MagSafe chargers to receive power. It’s that second feature that sets it part from rivals.

There are versions with 3,000mAh and 5,000mAh of capacity.

On the heels of a big Obscura 3 camera app refresh, another popular and powerful photo app sees major changes this week. This time, it’s the Halide MK II app for iPhone and iPad, from Lux Optics, which also makes the Spectre app for creating long exposures.

The Halide app’s important updates include the addition of batch actions — so you can finally work with multiple photos at the same time — and an improved “Image Rescue” function.

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Our friends at MacPaw in Kyiv, Ukraine, are today facing the horrifying reality of a Russian invasion. But they want to assure users of their software — including CleanMy Mac X and Setapp — that support will continue.

An emergency plan is in place to ensure that there are no disruptions to MacPaw’s operations, development or customer assistance. “We’ve been enjoying working for you all these years and appreciate all the trust you’ve put into our company,” said CEO Oleksandr Kosovan in a blog post Thursday. “We won’t disappoint your expectations.”

This post on how to recover a Word document on Mac is presented by Tenorshare 4DDiG.

Accidentally deleting important Word files is something we all do sometimes. When you trash an important file that contains necessary data or work, you will need to recover it. For Mac users, 4DDiG Mac Data Recovery is one of the best pieces of software for that purpose. It is easy to install and use, and you can recover any lost Word document with it.

But before we get into that, let’s learn about the reasons why Word documents become lost — so maybe disaster can be prevented in the first place.

Apple previewed its “dramatic” new Al Maryah Island store in Abu Dhabi Thursday, showcasing design elements never seen before at Apple stores, as well as special programs.

The retail location opens Friday at 5 p.m. United Arab Emirates time.

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Apex Legends Mobile, the smartphone and tablet version of the popular battle royale game, expands its reach to 10 new countries next week ahead of an official global rollout.

The game has been in testing since EA and Respawn launched a closed beta almost a year ago. It still doesn’t have a release date, but Respawn says it will share more details “coming out of the limited regional launch.”

Whether you want to amp up your creative skills for personal or professional projects, training in Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator and the rest of the Creative Cloud is the perfect way to do it. It’s the world’s No. 1 software — with more than 90% of the world’s creatives using Photoshop — but right now, you can get an awesome Adobe education from anywhere. And it won’t cost anywhere near what you’d expect to pay.

The 2022 Ultimate Adobe CC Beginner to Advanced Training Bundle is on sale today for just $29.99 (regular price: $1,800). With nine courses included in this mega-bundle, that works out to less than $3.50 a course.

Facebook parent company Meta is still bemoaning App Tracking Transparency, the “harmful” feature Apple introduced last year in iOS 14.5 to bolster the privacy of iPhone and iPad users.

The change is “making it harder and more expensive” for businesses to reach their customers, Meta said as advertisers reportedly slash their spending on Facebook and Instagram and turn to rivals like Amazon and Google instead.

Intel is planning to build more efficient mobile chipsets that will better compete with Apple silicon, according to a leaked internal roadmap.

The document outlines plans to take on the 14-inch MacBook Pro specifically with upcoming Arrow Lake processors that are scheduled to launch in late 2023 or early 2024. There just one (rather large) problem with that plan.

Long one of the most popular professional camera apps for iOS, Obscura is relatively easy to use. It enables various manual-style controls for shooting photographs using your iPhone.

And with Obscura 3 – Pro Camera, released Thursday, developer Ben McCarthy redesigned the interface, added new capture modes and made other improvements. The last major upgrade to Obscura came four years ago.

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There’s a good reason why 70% of Fortune 500 firms use Microsoft 365. The world’s leading office suite delivers practically everything you need for work and play. So, whether you run a small business, work from home, or are studying right now, Microsoft Office contains software that will give you a lift.

And once again, we’re offering a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Home & Business for Mac for just $49.99. The incredibly popular bundle includes six Microsoft apps at an incredible 85% discount.

You don’t have to settle for an uncomfortable work setup when you’re away from the office. Wiplabs’ new Lift Stand elevates your MacBook so that it’s easier to use, and folds down so you can easily transport it anywhere.

It’s made from sturdy anodized aluminum so there’s no need to worry about it getting broken in your bag. And it’s adjustable, so you’re all but guaranteed a great viewing angle anywhere. Get your Lift Stand today for under $40.

In what will surely be welcome news for folks who like to use the company’s peripherals with their Macs, Logitech said it’s rolling out full native M1 support in the latest beta version of its Logi Options+ software.

If you use Logitech products, you may think of it as Logi Options. Logi Options+ replaces that software and features some enhancements in addition to the native support for Silicon Macs.

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