Cult of Mac

A Sam’s Club membership, usually a $45 value, is already a deal. It gives you access to essential everyday products at exclusive low prices. The warehouse superstore’s prices are hard to beat.

Currently, a one-year Sam’s Club membership is 65% off at $19.99. Grab one now to open the door on exceptional deals on Apple products and other essentials.

Reading more books consistently ranks as one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions, and it’s a good one!

If reading more and learning something new is on your list, then you’re in luck. 12min is a book service that condenses some of the most popular books into 12-minute, easily processable packages. And right now it’s on sale for just $31.20 (regularly $399) with coupon code CYBER20.

We keep coming across two great secrets of super-clean desktops when it comes to computer setups. As shown in today’s featured setup, they’re both about creating significant amounts of open desk space in different ways — without losing any access to your gear or forfeiting any computing power.

And we’re not just talking about clearing away basic clutter, or even cable clutter, although that always helps. We’re talking about how you can get some of your main equipment up and off the desk so you have room in front of you. Redditor kurtvdpoel demonstrates the two excellent methods in his post, “Home office with Mac mini Apple M1.”

If you got an Apple Watch for Christmas, or even if you already had one — congratulations on owning one of the best smartwatches! Now, it’s time to up your band game (aka your Apple Watch strap). For a limited time, you can get the Speidel Square Tip Oiled Leather Band for Apple Watch for just $9.89 in the Cult of Mac Store. That’s 70% off the regular price!

Competition for highly skilled engineers and programmers is fierce in Silicon Valley, and Apple’s answer is big bonuses for employees it really wants to hold on to. It reportedly rewarded some workers with up to $180,000 in company stock.

These were apparently unscheduled and not part of usual compensation packages.

Apple won‘t let the iPad languish in 2022. Most notably, some big improvements are reportedly coming to the display and charging capabilities of the iPad Pro line.

And the iPad Air and iPad won‘t be overlooked, either.

The AirPods experience is great overall, but let’s be honest. The way Apple’s earbuds work with a Mac is a pale imitation of the seamless functionality you get when using them with iPhones and iPads.

Luckily, an innovative Mac app called AirBuddy fixes that. And right now, you can save 20% on AirBuddy with code CYBER20.

One of the greatest goals you can have for 2022 is to explore the world around you and surround yourself with nature — and this awesome Carsule pop-up cabin for your car will allow you to do exactly that.

Not only is it discounted right now from its regular price of $379, but you can enjoy even more savings by taking a further 20% off the sale price with the coupon code CYBER20. That knocks the price all the way down to $239.99 for a limited time.

This iPhone 13 cases post is brought to you by Totallee.

With the release of the tough iPhone 13 series handsets, with their Ceramic Shield and Gorilla Glass, more and more people started talking about going without a case altogether. Others, of course, weren’t about to drop a grand on a smartphone and then not protect that pricey gadget. There may actually be a perfect third path, whether you just got an iPhone 13 for Christmas or have had one for a while. You can try Totallee’s extremely thin and light iPhone 13 cases. They help protect and showcase your new smartphone without adding bulk.

Apple received a patent for a foldable iPad cover/stand capable of holding the tablet up in a range of viewing angles. It’s a notable improvement over the current Apple Smart Cover.

Of course, there are plenty of third-party folding iPad stands with comparable capabilities. But people are more likely to pick Apple’s version because it’s Apple.

The eagerly anticipated and much-praised Apple TV+ original series Foundation, based on the epic Isaac Asimov novels of the 1950s, has received a modern-day distinction, of sorts — it’s among the most-pirated shows of the year online. As such, it’s in good company.

It’s not quite the same sort of honor as the scads of awards Apple TV+ has been winning for shows like Ted Lasso and Stillwater, but it’s impressive nonetheless.

In gift-giving season, sometimes you get something you already have or something that isn’t quite what you wanted. So, if you can exchange the item for something you truly covet — like a killer pair of Apple AirPods or Beats earbuds — you probably should.

But how do you choose between earbuds made by Apple and earbuds made by Apple subsidiary Beats by Dre? We’ve laid out the specs for four popular sets of buds, below, pitting AirPods Pro against Beats Fit Pro and the new AirPods (3rd gen) against Beats Studio Buds. But all the specs listed in each chart are the same, so it’s not difficult to compare and contrast all four.

A new, red-and-gold, limited-edition design for Beats Studio Buds will celebrate the Lunar New Year in China and other countries — the Year of the Tiger — Apple said on Monday.

This follows a recent release of another predominately red, limited-edition design in collaboration with the men’s fashion store Union we wrote about earlier in December.

The new, highly transmissible COVID-19 variant reportedly forced Apple to shut down around 20 of its retail stores in the United States. Coronavirus cases continue to rise dramatically because of the omicron variant, with the daily national average more than doubling in the past two weeks.

Those planning to return a gift at a brick-and-mortar Apple Store, or use a gift certificate, should check to see if it’s open before heading out.

With 2022 almost on us, it’s time to look forward to the massive MacBook Air refresh expected next year. Tipsters say there’ll be a slim new design, a much better screen and a range of other improvements.

This notebook is also expected to be the debut of the super-speedy Apple M2 processor.

You may own the fanciest gadgets in the world, but none of that really matters if you pay very little attention to your data protection and online privacy. Don’t lull yourself into a false sense of security, thinking cyberattacks only happen to large businesses and corporations. They’re prevalent in small organizations and individuals, too.

The responsible thing to do is to tighten up your security, and you can do that with The Lifetime Backup & Security Subscription Bundle. Available for an extra 20% off with code CYBER20, it offers total online freedom. It pairs a subscription to a top-rated VPN service with lifetime access to 10TB of cloud storage that will keep your data secure.

Three months after launch, a lower percentage of iPhone users have adopted iOS 15 than they did its predecessors in previous years. Cult of Mac asked readers to explain their hesitancy.

Turns out there’s not one single reason.

There are portable batteries, and then there are powerhouses like the ScoutPro Ultimate All-in-One Charger with LED Display. This beefy portable battery can fully charge a MacBook and four other devices at once. And for our second Cyber Week sale, it’s just $127.20 (regularly $349) with code CYBER20.

Apple reportedly hired Meta’s AR communications chief recently, a move that fits with Cupertino’s long-rumored plan to launch an augmented reality/virtual reality headset.

Observers expect Apple to unveil its mixed-reality headset sometime in 2022. And, according to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, Apple is forming a team to handle the hardware’s launch and marketing. Part of this appears to be the hiring of Andrea Schubert, chief of communications and public relations for AR at Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook.

If you’re an avid gamer, or maybe just an aspiring one, it pays to know which displays and accessories will best serve your needs. Not just any display, input device and headset will keep up with today’s graphically rich games. The dual M1 Mac and Sony PlayStation 5 computer setup we look at today demonstrates some good choices you might consider.

Redditor smhppp uses an M1 Mac mini for personal uses, an M1 MacBook Air for work and a Sony PS5 for gaming. They showed their setup in a post entitled, “Current setup, spec in comments for those interested.” It’s one of those one-vertical-and-one horizontal-display setups so many people are trying lately.

Apple proves that demo videos don’t have to be dry and boring. It premiered a trio of short videos Sunday that show off the capabilities of the iPhone 13 Pro camera — and they’re actually fun to watch.

Plus, if you were just gifted Apple’s latest handset, watch all three and you might be inspired to go make a movie with it.

2022 might bring some significant swings in Apple’s phone strategy. The “regular” iPhone 14 series reportedly will include a more affordable 6.7-incher in place of the 5.4-inch mini model. And the two upcoming iPhone Pro models could get rid of the notch, replacing it with a smaller alternative.

Plus, there allegedly will be a big improvement to the rear-facing camera, as well as other changes. And an iPhone SE 3.

How are you going to take your life to the next level in 2022? Whether you set yourself a goal to travel more, boost your career, or simply invest in some much-deserved self-improvement, one activity will improve all of the above: learning a new language.

Excitingly, you can learn languages more effectively — and more affordably — than ever with the renowned Babbel Language Learning. And right now, you can grab a lifetime subscription in the Cyber Week II sale for just $199 — a 60% discount off the regular price of $499.

Having all the Apple gadgets is great for fun and productivity. There’s nothing like the ease of having your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods all synced up together. Keeping them all charged and running throughout the day, though, can be a real pain. Apple is doing a better job, but the battery lives are still painfully short.

However, keeping your batteries topped off is a cinch with the MagStack Foldable 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station with Floating Stand. Even better, this MagStack station is available at a deep discount for our second Cyber Week sale! You can get this charging station on sale for only $35.99 (regularly $69) when you use the code CYBER20.

This 4K Dual-Camera Pro GPS Drone is, without a doubt, the coolest thing any gadget or photography enthusiast can treat themselves to this year. Even better, during our Cyber Week II sale, you can take 20% off this awesome drone by entering the coupon code CYBER20 at checkout. That drives the price down to $55.96 for a limited time (regular price $69.95).