The plan is set on this week’s episode of Apple TV+’s dark comedy thriller Severance. But will our heroes make it out of Lumon Industries? Will anyone believe Mark, Helly and Irving when they wake up from their regular lives and emerge their work selves?

This week’s magnificently tense episode, directed by series executive producer Ben Stiller, is a real nail-biter. It’s wonderfully edited and excellently performed.

Severance has abandoned its early crux — the depressing lives of office drones who literally have no souls because they’ve been surgically stripped of them — for a more fast-paced approach to the show’s thriller aspects.

It’s no longer a show about the drudgery of both lives lived by lost people. It’s about the race to get back some measure of its characters’ personhood.

Apple is “actively testing” a 9-inch foldable device, but it won’t be taking on Samsung with a foldable iPhone until 2025 at the earliest, one analyst claims.

The company’s “priority order” for foldables is said to be medium, large and then small devices. Its current prototype is being used to test new technologies and may not be indicative of an upcoming product.

This post is presented by Keysbuff.

The Easter holiday is often associated with chocolate bunnies and candy eggs, but this year it also means big savings on software. Cult of Mac readers can get great discounts from software activation keys provider Keysbuff. You can save up to 90% off the full price on Windows 10 and get great savings on lots of other Microsoft software.

Just use promo code COM at Keysbuff.com to get an extra 25% off the site’s already-low prices on keys for Windows 10 Pro Global, Microsoft Office 2021 Pro and others in the list below. You can purchase many products with lifetime licenses.

This Samsung Galaxy A51 is almost certainly the only Android phone in the world that uses a Lightning port. That’s thanks to engineer Ken Pillonel, who hacked the handset to use Apple’s connector instead of USB-C.

The port is fully functional, with support for charging and data transfer — despite the fact that Apple designs its cables to work only with its own devices. Why go through all that effort? Well … why not?

Slow Horses, based on the first book in the Slough House series by author Mick Herron, is the newest addition to the Apple TV+ roster of thrillers.

In the series, which premieres Friday, Gary Oldman plays Jackson Lamb, the leader of a group of misfit spies who work cases in secret while MI5 looks down its nose at the scrubs.

Directed by James Hawes and created by Will Smith (no, not that Will Smith), the first two episodes of this oddball spy show prove reasonably diverting.

Whether in your personal or professional life, everyone needs great web hosting. Now’s the perfect time to grab a lifetime deal for hosting unlimited websites with the well-reviewed iBrave Cloud Web Hosting.

We’ve got a deal on it now for just $99.99 — that’s a 96% discount off the regular price of $2,997.

Apple is said to be collaborating with LG on new foldable iPad and MacBook models with flexible OLED displays. LG is already gearing up to supply similar displays to HP for a foldable laptop scheduled to launch this year.

The report corroborates earlier claims from one display analyst, who claims Apple is exploring foldable/rollable display technologies for future devices. It warned, however, that a foldable iPhone won’t come until 2025 at the earliest.

Two Avengers stars are making a movie for Apple TV+. Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans — perhaps best known as Black Widow and Captain America — are working on a mysterious Project Artemis.

The news started out as a leak, but Evans has since confirmed it.

Whether it’s for keeping your private data totally secure while online or for streaming new TV series with zero geographical restrictions, everyone needs a reliable virtual private network for their internet-connected devices.

So, if you still haven’t gone anonymous online, now’s the time to invest in a VPN that will protect you for life. Right now, you can grab some incredible deals during Cult of Mac Deals’ Best of Digital Sale. Simply enter the coupon code DOWNLOADNOW at checkout to take 30% off every single one of these top VPNs.

Apple said Thursday all small businesses in the U.S. can now sign up for its new Apple Business Essentials service. Previously in beta testing, the new service brings together device management, 24/7 Apple support and iCloud storage into flexible subscription plans.

Apple also unveiled new AppleCare+ for Business Essentials insurance options. Cupertino also made a two-month free trial available to all customers, including those who used the service in beta.

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Apple is showing interest in making a clip-on iPhone or iPad game controller. It filed a patent application for various permutations of exactly that sort of accessory on Thursday.

This would be a new product category for the company. But it could be a boon for Apple Arcade subscribers.

Popular microphone brand Rode, based in Australia, dropped the mic Tuesday with major news: It’s getting into the premium headphones business.

The company rolled out its first pair of high-end cans, the Rode NTH-100 Professional Over-Ear Headphones.

Anyone who works in event management — weddings, conferences, film sets — knows that fluid communications are key. But rather than run around with your iPhone glued to the side of your head while everything goes to pieces, why not invest in a wireless intercom headset system? Hollyland launched a new set Thursday that could fit the bill.

That way, you and your team can keep in constant touch and you’ll look super-important, too.

Apple introduced bug fix updates for every one of its operating systems on Thursday. These updates should improve the battery life on iPhone and iPad. And for Mac users, the new version fixes well-publicized bugs recently introduced by macOS 12.3.

However, there are no new features in macOS Monterey 12.3.1, iOS 15.4.1, iPadOS 15.4.1, watchOS 8.5.1 and tvOS 15.4.1 — Apple just fixed small problems. All five updates are available to download immediately.

It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown, the first-ever Peanuts Earth Day special, premieres April 15 on Apple TV+. It tells the story of how a single flower inspires the Peanuts gang to start caring for the environment, and features an original song by American singer-songwriter Ben Folds.

A trailer for the upcoming special debuted Thursday.

Most of us take pictures with our phones, but if you walk around with one or more actual cameras from your fancy collection, a boutique camera maker has a new strap that could change your life.

The Goodman Camera Strap with Mag-Lock takes the tensile strength of Kevlar cord and marries it to a quick-release magnetic locking harness system attached to a handmade leather camera strap.

Keychron launched its Q3 80% tenkeyless (TKL) full metal custom mechanical keyboard on Tuesday. Following sold-out initial runs of its Q1 and Q2 customizable keebs, the Q3 is a full aluminum mechanical keyboard with gasket mount design. It features hot-swappable switches, a high-grade aluminum case, QMK/VIA mapping support and more, the company said.

Choosing between Mac and Windows isn’t hard: Mac is clearly better. Apple’s computers have an intuitive user interface, fantastic apps and much better hardware. But Windows is ubiquitous, and there are a ton of Windows-only apps that Mac users sometimes need.

Fortunately, you don’t need to choose between Mac and Windows because Parallels Desktop Pro Edition lets you run Windows and macOS at the same time. And right now, it’s on sale for just $32 (regularly $99) if you use Cult of Mac Deals’ exclusive discount code GET60NOW.

But hurry: This outrageous deal must end at 11:59 p.m. PDT on March 31, 2022.

WhatsApp on Thursday revealed significant improvements to voice messaging across Android and iOS. The update adds the ability to change the speed of audio playback, pause and resume recording, and more.

It also allows voice message playback to continue when users back out of a conversation to catch up with another. Users can look forward to seeing the changes “in the coming weeks,” WhatsApp said.

So much time is lost when you’re constantly moving between spreadsheets and databases. When you must use one app to organize information and another to analyze it, things can get clunky and overly complicated.

Stackby is a unique app that combines the ease of a good spreadsheet with the analysis and sharing tools of a database. For a limited time, a lifetime subscription to the Stackby Personal Plan is also on sale for $69 (regularly $300).

Apple this week revealed slightly more relaxed rules for Dutch dating apps that will make it easier for them to offer third-party payment options. It comes after months of fighting with Dutch regulators over new app laws.

One thing Cupertino won’t give up, however, is its 27% commission.

Apple on Wednesday confirmed a significant change to its App Store policy that finally allows “reader” apps like Netflix and Spotify to link to their own websites for things like creating and managing accounts.

Until now, including an external link for this kind of purpose was prohibited, and would have resulted in App Store expulsion. That meant a poor user experience for a whole bunch of popular services on iPhone and iPad.

That’s finally changing, but of course, Apple plans to make it as complicated as possible for developers to enjoy it.

Rather than letting existing financial companies handle all its payment processing, Apple wants to bring some of it in-house, according to an unconfirmed report. And the Mac-maker would also like to take on a range of other related services itself.

The goal is to reduce the amount of money Apple has to pay outside companies for financial services.

YouTube TV subscribers with an iPhone or iPad can now watch shows in a small window while another app is open. The feature is rolling out now.

However, picture-in-picture support is not yet available for all mobile users of the YouTube application, as has been promised.

In the middle of last year, Apple and Facebook parent company Meta Platforms gave customer data to hackers. They enticed the companies by pretending to be law enforcement officials, three people with knowledge of the matter said.