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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.

Twitter fixes a big search problem on iPhone and iPad

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Twitter profile search iPhone
Install the latest Twitter update to get its new search tool.
Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Trying to find tweets posted by a certain user has long been a complicated process on Twitter. But it just got a lot easier on iPhone and iPad, thanks to a new button that can now be found on every user profile.

The button allows you to quickly search tweets posted by a specific account, while leaving out everything else.

Super-size movie night with a pocket projector for less than $200

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Get this iPhone sized projector for 15%+ off for Pre-Black Friday.
Live large with this pocket-size projector's 200-inch, cinema-quality image.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

With more and more movies landing on streaming platforms and in theaters simultaneously, you have more chances to re-create a first-run cinematic experience from the comfort of your own home. And big-screen glory is more accessible than ever with a Prima 1080p HD Pocket Projector.

This pocket-size projector is slim and lightweight enough to fit in your purse or backpack — and it’s $600 off with the pre-Black Friday deal.

Peloton partly blames Apple for post-pandemic sales plunge

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Peloton blames Apple for sales slump
It's much more difficult for Peloton to serve targeted ads.
Photo: Peloton

Apple’s efforts to bolster your privacy protections on iPhone and iPad are being blamed for a sharp decline in Peloton sales.

The company enjoyed a boom while everyone was stuck at home during the pandemic, but it has since been forced to cut its outlook by as much as $1 billion. It said this week that Apple’s crackdown on tracking is partly at fault.

Invasion braces itself for full-blown alien action [Apple TV+ review]

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Invasion review: This sci-fi show has a soldier problem.
This sci-fi show has a soldier problem.
Photo: Apple TV+

Invasion finally says the “A” word as conspiracies become fact — and facts become dire. This week on the Apple TV+ sci-fi show, the Malik family gets caught in a web of lies, Mitsuki crafts her own, and Trevante winds up stuck in Afghanistan (and for once wants to get out).

Invasion gets ready for the fireworks by going small and emotional to lay the groundwork. Something big is around the corner, so this week it’s about biding time and digging in before the invasion really ramps up.

Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show is the kids show we need [Apple TV+ review]

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Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show
Jack McBrayer gets a long-overdue showcase in Apple TV+'s winning new kids show.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+’s new kids show is another musical extravaganza, this time starring the inestimable Jack McBrayer, a comedy veteran with a heart of gold. Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show, which debuts today, treats us to the sensibility of someone who wants us to know about life’s challenges and meet them head on in classic Sesame Street fashion.

Will McBrayer’s inoffensive brand of comedy catch on as easily as the OK Go songs on the Hello, Jack! soundtrack? (They’re written expressly to get stuck in your head, BTW.) And can McBrayer become a household name like he ought to be? Here’s hoping so, because if anyone’s earned that, it’s Jack.

Some Apple retail stores drop face mask mandates

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Why Apple Watch’s iPhone unlock will change your freakin’ life
Wave goodbye to masks at some Apple Stores.
Photo: Ivan Samkov/Pexels CC

Starting Friday, many people will be able to visit a U.S. Apple Store without wearing a mask. It’s not a universal change — an Apple company memo that leaked out indicates that removing the mask requirement depends on “vaccinations, testing, and case counts” in the area of each retail store.

Reportedly, about a third of stores will see the change. But that’s only the start.

In Finch, Tom Hanks rides out a totally ordinary apocalypse [Apple TV+ review]

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Finch review: Tom Hanks plays the last man on earth.
Tom Hanks plays the last man on earth in Finch. But don' worry. He's got a dog (and he's building a robot).
Photo: Apple TV+

Though it looks like a fake movie they invented for a throwaway joke on 30 RockFinch — the new movie Apple TV+ movie in which Tom Hanks, a dog and a robot band together to survive the apocalypse –is very real.

The latest in a long string of post-apocalyptic flicks, it premieres Friday on Apple TV+. If by some miracle you’ve never seen a movie about the end of the world, why not start with this one? A lot of reasons, actually….

Manage all your company’s Apple devices on your own with Jamf Now

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Easily manage Apple devices with Jamf.
Jamf is the ultimate Apple device management platform.
Photo: Jamf

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Everybody wants to be the boss, but once the responsibility of running a business is firmly placed on those untested shoulders, there is a laundry list of decisions and problems that need to be resolved daily.

Jamf Now is one of the ways a small- to medium-size business can make sure some of those pressing problems get handled. It’s an Apple device management platform designed to help companies set up, manage and secure all their iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV devices — even without a dedicated IT staff.

How to change credit card or bank account used by iPhone Upgrade Program

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How to change credit card or bank account used by iPhone Upgrade Program
If your Apple Card isn’t being used by the iPhone Upgrade Program, you’re losing out on 3% Daily Cash. Here’s how to change it.
Photo: Cult of Mac

The iPhone Upgrade Program enables people to get a new Apple handset every year and pay it off in monthly installments, interest free. The monthly payments come from a credit card or a bank account. It’s possible to change which one at any time.

Many people who used the Upgrade Program to get an iPhone 13 want to do this because a bug prevented an Apple Card from being used for this on the handset’s launch day.

Here’s how to switch to a new credit card or bank account for Apple’s installment plan.

Zynga bets the FarmVille 3 animal menagerie will hook you on iOS

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Now on iOS: FarmVille 3 lets you raise baby animals and keep some as companions.
Now on iOS: FarmVille 3 lets you raise baby animals and keep some as companions.
Photo: Zynga

Game maker Zynga launched FarmVille 3 on iOS and Android Thursday. It’s the newest version in the strategy simulation game series, which first broke out as a hit on Facebook in 2009 with FarmVille and then expanded with mobile FarmVille 2 versions in 2016 and 2018.

AirPods 3 teardown can’t explain boost in battery life

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AirPods 3 teardown can’t explain boost in battery life
Each AirPods 3 battery offers less capacity than the ones in AirPods Pro.
Photo: 52audio

Apple’s recently released AirPods 3 have a longer battery life than either AirPods 2 or AirPods Pro. But a teardown of the new truly wireless headphones finds batteries that can’t fully explain the extra time between charges.

Watch a video of the teardown showing why along with some other internal details of AirPods 3.

6 brilliant but affordable AirPods alternatives

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AirPods might just be the best wireless buds you can pair with Apple devices, but they’re also pretty expensive. Plenty of more affordable options that deliver stellar sound and reliable connectivity in a neat design are available.

So, if you’re buying on a budget this holiday season, skip the Apple Store and check out these six brilliant but more affordable alternatives to AirPods.

iPhone 14 may be forced to settle for less advanced 4nm chip

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iPhone 14 might have to settle for less advanced 4nm chip
The A16 is expected to be the heart of the iPhone 14.
Graphic: Apple/Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Apple reportedly won‘t be able get chips made with a cutting-edge 3nm process for the iPhone 14, so it supposedly might switch to 4nm. The change would result in an iPhone that’s not as much an improvement over the current one as had been thought.

This isn’t a result of the global shortage in processors. Chip-maker TSMC is allegedly having problems with its 3nm process.

Can your iPhone charger open your beer? This one can.

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The High Six compact charging cable and adapter set is also a bottle opener -- all on a keychain.
The High Six compact charging cable and adapter set is also a bottle opener -- all on a keychain.
Photo: Vonmählen

German accessory designer Vonmählen is rolling out a 6-in-1 keychain pocket tool called the High Six – which it said is “the world’s most compact key chain charging cable.” In addition to its various adapters for your charging and data-transfer needs, it has a bottle opener. You know, for your refreshment needs.

iPhone X with USB-C port hits eBay with bids at over $85,000

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iPhone with USB-C hits eBay
Will you be placing a bid?
Screenshot: Cult of Mac

Remember the iPhone X that was modded to use a USB-C port? The robotics engineer who created it this week listed the device on eBay, and it has already racked up more than 140 bids to reach an eye-watering $85,550.

The auction, which includes a 30-minute phone call with seller Ken Pillonel, still has seven days left to run. But Pillonel asks bidders not to restore or update the device — or even use it as their daily driver.

iPad mini could get 120Hz ProMotion display, fixing ‘jelly scroll’

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iPad mini on table
But don't get your hopes up.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

A future iPad mini refresh could bring 120Hz ProMotion technology to Apple’s smallest tablet, according to a new report.

The upgrade could fix the “jelly scrolling” effect that his been exhibited by many 2021 iPad mini units — upsetting a lot of early adopters — which use the same 60Hz refresh rate as iPad Air and the 10.2-inch entry-level iPad.

Juice 3 Apple devices at once with this pre-Black Friday deal on a charging station

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Get 15% off this charging station during the pre-black friday sale.
Put an end to nomophobia with this 3-in-1 charger.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

You should be able to use your phone while it charges. The Omnia M3 Magnetic 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station lets you do that and charge two other devices at the same time.

And you can upgrade your charging game for just $67.96 if you use the code SAVE15NOV, thanks to this pre-Black Friday deal.

Will Smith will be Oprah’s next guest on Apple TV+

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Will Smith sits down with Oprah for Apple TV+
Watch it tomorrow, November 5.
Photo: Apple

Apple on Friday confirmed that award-winning actor, rapper and producer Will Smith will be the next guest on The Oprah Conversation. The episode is scheduled to premiere on Friday, November 5 on Apple TV+.

Apple says the conversation will focus on Smith’s memoirs, deepest insecurities, biggest life lessons, and navigating a complex marriage that has become increasingly public in recent months.