The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted unanimously Wednesday to increase right to repair regulation stopping businesses from making it difficult for customers to fix their own products. Apple has repeatedly lobbied against right to repair laws around the world.

Back in May, the FTC published a report for Congress in which they listed some of the ways that companies (including Apple) make products tough to repair. These include gluing components together and restricting software and parts needed for carrying out maintenance. President Biden then recently signed an executive order asking the FTC to create new rules to bar these practices.

This appears to be the start of this ruling become more official.

TikTok is big. Almost unfathomably enormous, actually. The product of Chinese parent company ByteDance, the social media video-sharing app has remained a fixture at the top of the App Store charts for more than a year now — with no sign of it losing that position any time soon.

Journalist Chris Stokel-Walker is the author of a new book, titled TikTok Boom: China’s Dynamite App and the Superpower Race for Social Media. It launches today in Europe and worldwide, with a US launch coming September 30.

Stokel-Walker spoke with Cult of Mac about what makes TikTok, well, tick, the app’s face-off with Donald Trump, and why it’s no longer exclusively an app for teens to show off their dance moves.

Twitter is running an experiment that lets iPhone users downvote a reply to a tweet. It tests allowing users to actively show that they disagree with a response to a post on the social-networking service.

Twitter is often a venue for people to angrily argue politics, sports, entertainment, etc. Giving people the ability to downvote each other isn’t likely to calm the storm.

Antivirus and security programs are essential if you want to keep your Mac working and your information secure. The problem is that many antivirus programs can slow down your computer — and miss actual malware while focusing on nonexistent threats.

The FixMeStick Virus Remover is a unique security device that plugs directly into your Mac, removes any viruses or malware, and can be unplugged until you’re ready to use it again. This exciting device comes in two subscriptions, and both of them are on sale. Get one year of service for three Macs ($29.99) or two years for five Macs ($44.99).

We’ll soon find out how the ongoing fascination with Steve Jobs will combine with the new fascination for NFTs. A handwritten job application the Apple cofounder filled out in 1973 is going up for auction both as a physical document and as a Non-Fungible Token.

Apple’s just-released MagSafe Battery Pack faced plenty of mockery for not being about as slim as a credit card, as some people apparently expected. This criticism clearly comes from people ignoring an inescapable fact: Batteries are always bulky.

Until there’s a revolutionary breakthrough in power storage tech, there’s no way to make an ultra-slim battery store a useful amount of power. Stop expecting it. And stop criticizing companies for not miraculously producing an impossible product.

Targus recently launched a trio of EcoSmart cases for iPad made from recycled post-consumer plastic and up to 40% biodegradable materials — with no compromise on protection, the company said. The cases showed up on Amazon in mid-to-late June.

This post is brought to you by Wondershare, maker of PDFelement.

Wondershare’s PDFelement, now available in version 8.0, vies for the title of best Adobe Acrobat alternative and prides itself on being a PDF editor “built on simplicity,” whether you use it with macOS or Windows. We’ve seen nothing in our use of the Mac version of the utility to quibble with any of that. It’s powerful and easy to use.

Both macOS Big Sur 11.5 and iPadOS 14.7 made the jump from beta to full release on Wednesday. They bring only a handful of new features, though, as well as bug fixes.

The updates follow several days after the debut of iOS 14.7 for iPhone.

Slack is rolling out its new Huddles feature in an effort to bring the office environment to wherever you might be working. The feature lets you hold “quick, informal discussions” with other members of your team.

You can also use it to share your desktop screen, which makes it great for demonstrations. We’ll show you how to use Huddles on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Accessories maker Hyper has launched 65W and 100W HyperJuice chargers — based on power-efficient gallium nitride (GaN) technology — that you can stack to increase power output.

Redditor madeitinthewild makes beautiful music up in Canada. Or he makes music, anyway. Jazz music. You can tell by the assortment of saxophones next to his M1 MacBook Air- and iPad Air 4-based mini music studio. That, and he said so.

“Remember to always practice safe Sax,” came the obligatory jazz-joke comment.

“No way I live on the edge,” replied madeitinthewild, kinda true to his Reddit handle.

Australian outfit Chargeasap is back on crowdfunding site Indiegogo with new high-capacity power banks for charging gadgets on the go. The Flash Pro works for Android and the MagSafe-compatible Flash Pro Plus is designed for Mac.

Apple is looking to phase out the iPhone mini line in favor of its next-gen iPhone SE, a Wednesday report by Nikkei Asia suggests.

Apple debuted its first iPhone mini with last year’s iPhone 12 generation. However, sales have never materialized to match its bigger siblings like the regular iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. While Apple will release an iPhone 13 mini this year, expect that to be its last.

In its place? More emphasis on Apple’s other low-cost handset: The iPhone SE.

Amazon is now offering one of the biggest discounts we’ve ever seen on brand-new Powerbeats Pro wireless headphones. You can bag yours for just $179.95 — down from $249.95 — for a limited time only.

Get them before they’re all gone!

Netflix seemingly isn’t content to compete with Apple (spoiler: it’s winning) over streaming video subscription services only. The media giant has now confirmed that it is planning to launch an Apple Arcade rival — and at no extra cost to its subscribers.

In a letter to shareholders, Netflix noted that it is still “in the early stages of the initiative,” but that it views it as a major piece of the puzzle in terms of dominating the entertainment landscape.

Even though many companies are beginning to work in person again, working from home isn’t going away anytime soon. Even Apple backtracked on its plan to get employees back in the office.

With WFH still in play, video conferencing and connecting digitally continues to offer a convenient way to interact at a more personal level than a phone call or email. And as online work evolves and grows, the media we use to connect also changes and improves.

ElevenSight is one of the best browser-based web conferencing solutions around, and the best Zoom alternative you’ll find. For a limited time, you can pick from three different ElevenSight subscription plans — E-Line, Starter and SMB. They’re all lifetime plans, and they’re all on sale now.

The iPhone 12 has been a major success for Apple, but Wedbush analyst Dan Ives thinks the company’s expectations are even greater for the iPhone 13.

In a Wednesday note to clients, seen by Cult of Mac, Ives suggests Apple is gearing up to produce between 90 million and 100 million iPhone 13 units. That’s a 15% increase year-on-year over the iPhone 12, whose initial orders were for 80 million units.

The analyst also sheds light on when he thinks the iPhone 13 event will take place.

Amazon has been slashing prices on its entire lineup (almost) of Kindle e-readers. You can save up to $55 on the newest models, with prices starting at just $59.99.

These are limited-time discounts, so enjoy them while you can.

Apple this week seeded its first AirPods Pro beta firmware for registered developers. This version enables a number of new features, including Ambient Noise Reduction and spatial audio for FaceTime calls.

Here’s how you can get yours hand on it.

Apple Music will exclusively livestream a special “sold-out listening event” for Kanye West’s 10th album, Donda, on July 22. The event will take place at 5 p.m. PDT, with the album launching the following day.

Donda is West’s first album since 2019’s Jesus Is King, which won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Album. It also achieved the No. 1 position on the Rap Album, Gospel Album and Billboard 200 charts.

Apple’s next-gen AirPods, the third iteration of the company’s regular AirPods, will go into production next month, Nikkei Asia reported Wednesday.

This would be the first upgrade for Apple’s standard issue AirPods since the second-gen version debuted March 2019. The original AirPods made their debut in December 2016.

The Satechi Aluminum Stand & Hub turns your iPad into a useful desktop. Not only does it prop up your tablet, it includes six useful ports. And it goes almost anywhere, from a meeting room to a coffee shop.

I’ve used the tablet stand for weeks, including on a recent vacation. Here’s why I love it… despite a limitation or two.

Although The Problem with Jon Stewart doesn’t premiere on Apple TV+ until September, the comedian couldn’t let Jeff Bezos’ and Richard Branson’s personal space race go by without comment. Stewart posted a video Tuesday making fun of billionaires competing to see who can shoot off a better rocket.

The humor isn’t subtle. Many jokes have been made about how much Bezos’ New Shepard rocket looks like a penis, and Stewart takes the idea and runs with it. If watching a video of giant space penises is going to get you in trouble at work, maybe you’d better wait until you get home to see this one.

If not, watch the mockery now:

A Kickstarter campaign pushes a new iPhone camera grip and MagSafe case combo called the Fjorden. It promises to turn your iPhone into a DSLR camera — while still fitting in your pocket. Its physical camera controls might make a lot of photographers very happy.