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Apple TV+ draws tiny but growing share of US streaming market

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Apple TV+ draws tiny but growing share of US streaming market
Apple TV+ isn’t a big part of the streaming video market, but at least it’s growing.
Chart: JustWatch

Apple TV+ is a small player in the streaming video service competition with only 4% of the U.S. market. Still, it’s beating out some rivals even if it’s well behind the front runners.

The service has reportedly been growing throughout 2021 … not a claim all its competitors can make.

Going ‘ergo everything’ with an M1 MacBook Pro rig [Setups]

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Ergonomic furniture and peripherals plus pleasing decor equal comfy setup.
Ergonomic furniture and peripherals plus pleasing decor equal comfy setup.
Photo: [email protected]

Coincidentally, our last Setups post concerned itself with proper ergonomics, and today’s sticks with the theme. On Friday we wrote about a person making a comfortable and productive workstation out of little more than a laptop. This time, someone has gone “ergo everything” on an M1 MacBook Pro rig with a big external monitor and a nice set of peripherals, furniture and accessories.

Massive AirPods Max deal drops price by up to $120

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AirPods Max red
For a limited time, pick up a stylish top-quality pair of AirPods Max for 22% off the usual cost.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s over-the-ear — and over-the-top — AirPods Max headphones just hit their lowest price ever. A deal knocks a whopping $119 off the regular cost.

If you have AirPods Max on your holiday shopping list, then now might be your best opportunity to pick up a pair.

Apple will accept App Store submissions over the holidays for the first time

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Trust in the App Store is critical to the success of the iPhone.
The updates will keep on comin'.
Image: Apple

Apple today confirmed that it will continue to accept App Store submissions over the holiday period for the first time.

The company usually takes a short break in December, during which App Store submissions are closed and developers must scramble to get their updates out. That changes this year, but Apple warns that reviews may be delayed.

App Store rules could force Netflix to deliver subscription games individually

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Netflix’s Apple Arcade rival launches but iOS support still ‘on the way’
It's the only method Apple approves of.
Image: Netflix

Netflix may be forced to release its subscription games as individual downloads on the App Store to comply with Apple’s rules. Other subscription services, such as GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming, aren’t allowed on the App Store.

It is believed users will still be able to discover and launch titles through the main Netflix app, but they’ll need to download each one first.

No Face ID in MacBook Pro is a missed opportunity

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No Face ID in MacBook Pro is a missed opportunity
There’d be far fewer complaints about the MacBook Pro notch if it included Face ID.
Graphic: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Saying the 2021 MacBook Pro’s screen notch is controversial is putting it mildly. But Apple could have made it easier to bear. Building in Face ID would have better justified the display cutout — and also made the newest macOS notebooks easier to use.

Apple execs recently revealed why the MacBook Pro utilizes Touch ID instead of Face ID. And the reason is not convincing. The facial-recognition system is a better fit for MacBook than it is for any other Apple product — including ones it’s already built into.

Get deals on web hosting during our Pre-Black Friday Sale

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Set up your website hosting for less.
Host your website for cheap with one of these limited-time deals.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

When it comes to creating a space online, designing your website isn’t the end of the work. As much as it’s important to have a clean, secure, easy-to-navigate site, there’s one more big thing you have to think about: Where you host your website is as important as the site itself.

A good web hosting service provides security, accessibility, customization and so much more that you’d have to program and maintain yourself. Below you will find some of the best deals in web hosting anywhere. And during our Pre-Black Friday Sale, you can get an even bigger discount if you use code SAVE15NOV

WhatsApp rolls out multi-device support to all iPhone users

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WhatsApp multi-device beta
Activate the beta today.
Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

WhatsApp’s handy multi-device feature is now rolling out to all users on Android and iPhone, making it easier to access your messages on other devices. The upgrade finally makes WhatsApp a little less reliant on your smartphone.

Sadly, multi-device support still does not allow you to use WhatsApp on two different smartphones — like you can with rival messaging services.

2021 MacBook Pro owners suffer kernel crashes when playing HDR video

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2021 MacBook Pro
That's not fun.
Photo: Apple

Some 2021 MacBook Pro owners are reporting that their new machines are susceptible to kernel crashes when playing HDR video on YouTube. The problem appears to be happening inside Safari and third-party web browsers.

It’s not yet clear what the root cause is — or if it will be fixed with the upcoming macOS 12.1 update, which is currently in beta testing ahead of its release.

Hollywood at Home video demonstrates filming big scenes with tiny props and iPhone 13

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‘Hollywood at Home’ video demonstrates filming big scenes with tiny props and iPhone 13
Tops for the budding Michael Bay or Steven Spielberg.
Screenshot: Incite/Apple

Anyone dreaming of being a director doesn’t have wait until they have a million-dollar budget to start shooting impressive-looking movies. The new Hollywood at Home video shows how to use everyday objects and an iPhone 13 to film action scenes and create otherworldly landscapes or monster movies.

Watch the amazing video now:

Grab this top-rated VPN for less than $40 — and get $30 back in store credit!

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This top-rated VPN will protect your online freedom for life.
Unlock total internet freedom for life with this top-rated VPN.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

A virtual private network you can rely on is an essential in today’s world. It protects your connection so your private data is kept private, makes online shopping and banking more secure, and gives you total internet freedom by eliminating regional restrictions.

There’s no better time to grab yours than today, as the top-rated KeepSolid VPN Unlimited Lifetime Deal with Devices is discounted in our pre-Black Friday sale. Usually $199, you can sign up for only $39 for life — and get $30 back in store credit to use on other Mac essentials!

This Mac utility is an extra 15% off with this pre-Black Friday code

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Hack your Mac with this app, now 15% off for Pre-Black Friday.
This best-selling Mac app is a steal with this deep pre-Black Friday discount.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

If you’re starting to struggle to find your most important files and favorite apps on your Mac, this MacPilot Lifetime License is your ticket to supercharge your workflow.

MacPilot will help you unlock more than 1,200 advanced features and access them all with the intuitive and familiar Mac user interface. And ahead of Black Friday, you can get it for just $33.99 with code SAVE15NOV.

Foundation brims with big ideas and epic betrayals [Apple TV+ review]

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Foundation review: Lee Pace lets it all hang out in his portrayal of Brother Day.
Lee Pace lets it all hang out in his portrayal of Brother Day this week.
Photo: Apple TV+

This week on Foundation, the Apple TV+ space opera walks a long and lonesome mile toward reconciliation and the end to chaos. But who will survive, and what will be left of them (to quote rather a different odyssey)?

Foundation makes the case for the simplest actions and ideas being the most complex and compelling in this week’s episode, titled “The Missing Piece.” It also gives TV a new worthy obsession object. There are spiritual betrayals aplenty for everyone, no matter what corner of the galaxy they occupy.

M1 Max MacBook Pro slays a monster PC, and iMac Pro will be even better! [The CultCast]

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If the M1 Max MacBook Pro slays monster PCs, what will the next iMac Pro be capable of? [The CultCast]
If an M1 Max in a laptop can destroy a specced-out PC, what will the next iMac Pro be capable of?
Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Just how well does an M1 Max-powered MacBook Pro perform against a monster PC built out of top-tier components? The results might blow your mind. Again. And what does that say about the rumored iMac Pro we’ll see next year?

Also on The CultCast:

  • Possible specs for next year’s iMac “Pro.”
  • Crash detection coming for drivers with iPhones/Apple Watches?
  • Our latest favorite TV shows and movies in an all-new What We’re Into!

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 it!) Or watch the video livestream, embedded below.

Confessions of an AirPods virgin

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Apple AirPods 3 Review
What is it like to have AirPods 3 be your first Apple wireless headphones?
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

What I’m about to write is so shocking you might want to sit down: AirPods 3 are the first Apple wireless headphones I’ve ever owned. I never saw a need to pay the Apple Tax when I had cheap wireless earbuds that were good enough.

But I changed my mind for the newest model. Here are all the reasons I’m happy about the purchase. And the one reason I’m not.

Dickinson trains its eccentric eye on Civil War [Apple TV+ review]

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Dickinson review on Apple TV+: The Civil War makes a mark on young poet Emily Dickinson.
The Civil War makes a mark on young poet Emily Dickinson.
Photo: Apple TV+

Dickinson, Apple TV+’s feminist fable, returns for a qualified victory lap Friday. The first three episodes of the show’s third and final season arrived today, not even a full year after the last one concluded.

It will be a shame once we no longer can enjoy fresh episodes featuring the show’s antic poetry and remixed pastoralism.

And, while Dickinson still hasn’t worked out precisely what its identity is, the comforting oddness of its milieu was a tonic in trying times, even if the show had a ways to go before it could meaningfully grapple with the present. All the same, the final season hints at what Dickinson could have done exceedingly well — if its showrunners were given a little more room.

Turn your iPhone into a recording studio with new Rode AI-Micro interface

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The new Rode AI-Micro turns your iPhone, iPad or MacBook into an audio recording studio.
The new Rode AI-Micro turns your iPhone, iPad or MacBook into an audio recording studio.
Photo: Rode

Popular audio gear maker Rode just launched the affordable AI-Micro, a compact, dual-channel interface for recording to a mobile device or computer. Using the small gadget, one or two mini microphones, headphones and a choice of apps, your iPhone, iPad or MacBook becomes a mobile audio recording studio.

The Morning Show ponders a post-Mitch world [Apple TV+ review]

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Review: When The Morning Show gets down to the business of journalism, it's a lot less annoying.
When The Morning Show gets down to the business of journalism, it's a lot less annoying.
Photo: Apple TV+

Mitch is dead — long live Mitch. This week on The Morning Show, everyone must deal with the death of their network’s former sex pest lead anchor — and things could go much better than they do. Alex is missing. Chip is throwing up. Cory is elated. And Mia’s beside herself. Can they clean themselves up in time to break the news?

It’s borderline impossible to take the Apple TV+ drama about a morning news show seriously now. But there are still three episodes of plot left this season. Can The Morning Show manage anything worthwhile before the curtain falls?

This retro racer is as close as we got to Mario Kart on the original Mac — and you can play it

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Emora Kart Mario Kart clone for Macintosh
Gaming has come a long way since 1994. (Thank goodness.)
GIF: Matt Sephton

Even back in the early ’90s, Mario Kart was one of the hottest games you could get to scratch that crazy kart-racing itch. Super Mario Kart became an instant success after it debuted in 1992 on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. So, naturally, other game developers tried to replicate it on other platforms.

Emora Kart, launched in 1994, is the closest we got on Macintosh.

Later distributed with a 2002 copy of MacLife magazine in Japan, Emora Kart looked pretty fun — even in black and white — and it’s obvious where it got its inspiration. You can play this retro racer now in your browser (or download an original copy for free).

New Twelve South ActionBand absorbs even your sweatiest Apple Watch workouts

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The new Twelve South ActionBand is a full-on sweatband.
The new Twelve South ActionBand is a full-on sweatband.
Photo: Twelve South

If you sweat a lot when you work out — and if your Apple Watch bands barely stand up to the torrent — rejoice. Twelve South rolled out its new ActionBand Thursday. The company designed the soft, absorbent, wide band to keep up with the hardest workouts and resulting perspiration.

No external monitor? Build an ergonomically correct setup around your laptop. [Setups]

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It may look complete, but this M1 MacBook Pro setup is waiting for a big secondary display.
It may look complete, but this M1 MacBook Pro setup is waiting for a big secondary display.
Photo: [email protected]

From time to time, as you work on making your computer setup all it can be, you order new equipment. And maybe it takes a long time to arrive. Perhaps “supply chain” issues intervene. And if that piece of equipment is your workstation’s visual centerpiece — the magnificent display, placed just so for graphical and ergonomic bliss — then what do you do, when you have no external monitor?

Do you hunch over your laptop until your neck and your back and everything else hurts? Not necessarily.

Swagger gets serious with drama on and off the court [Apple TV+ review]

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Swagger review: Crystal (played by Quvenzhané Wallis) has a rough week on and off the court.
Crystal (played by Quvenzhané Wallis) hits a rough patch in this week's episode.
Photo: Apple TV+

This week on Swagger, Apple TV+’s new drama based on NBA star Kevin Durant’s youth, teen basketball stars Jace and Crystal find themselves between a rock and a hard place. He’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders in a good way, she in the worst way, and they need each other at a time when they can’t hear each other.

The episode, titled “We Good,” is all about learning to listen and to trust the people around you who actually have your best interests at heart. But it’s also about learning that your own problems need to be able to be put on ice when other people are in need.

Take your favorite robots into battle in Transformers: Tactical Arena on Apple Arcade

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‘Transformers: Tactical Arena’ is coming soon to Apple Arcade
Battle your friends in “Transformers: Tactical Arena.”
Photo: Red Games/Apple Arcade

No longer robots in disguise, Transformers: Tactical Arena lets players assemble a team of their favorite characters to battle in a real-time person-versus-person strategy game. They fight in an arena, with players sitting next to you — or around the world.

The game debuted Friday on Apple Arcade.

Control freak Apple makes iPhone 13 the ‘strongest case yet for right to repair’

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iPhone 13 display repairs kill Face ID
Way to go, Apple.
Photo: iFixit

The teardown experts at iFixit have confirmed that unauthorized display replacements break Face ID on iPhone 13. They also warn that Apple’s rather unscrupulous move has “huge implications for the professional repair industry.”

The only way around the change is to employ incredibly complicated micro soldering practices to transfer the display chip from the original screen over to the new one. It is “the strongest case yet for right to repair laws,” iFixit says.