Having only fairly recently completed its massive Apple Park campus in Cupertino, Apple’s now “ramping up” efforts to decentralize its workforce, says Mark Gurman in his latest “Power On” column for Bloomberg.

This means reluctantly embracing the idea that not everyone wants to live and work in Silicon Valley. While Apple execs have supposedly fought against this way of thinking for years, recruitment challenges are now causing them to reassess the situation.

Pick up an Apple-refurbished MacBook Air or MacBook Pro from Woot today and enjoy hundreds of dollars off the original price.

Prices start at just $839.99 for a MacBook Air with an Intel Core i5 chip and 512GB of storage, while 13-inch MacBook Pro units are as little as $1,069.99. The sale is good for today only, so enjoy it while you can.

The app for Didi Chuxing, the popular Chinese ride-hailing service, has been removed from the App Store in China, citing privacy concerns.

This is no usual case of Apple booting an app from the App Store for failing to measure up to its standards, though. In fact, Apple CEO Tim Cook sits on Didi’s board of directors, and Apple previously invested $1 billion in the Chinese Uber rival. Instead, the ban was ordered by China’s Cyberspace Administration of China regulators — citing “serious violations [regarding] collection and usage of personal information.”

There are many ways to celebrate the Fourth of July: family barbecues, vacations at the beach or lake, and something that hopefully involves fireworks (or at least a sparkler). 

Navigating the App Store can be a difficult task. With all the available apps that can make your life easier and help your computer function more efficiently, finding the best ones is a real challenge. But there is a way to get that done while somebody else does the work for you. That’s what you’ll get with a one-year subscription to Setapp.

Apple TV+ just keeps adding new movies and shows, but how many people are watching? Only Apple knows for sure.

An entertainment industry expert takes a look at the current state of Apple TV+ — and outlines what the future might hold for the streaming video service. Read the Q&A to find out what “success” might look like for Apple TV+.

That’s our cover story in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Download it to read on your iPhone or iPad, or get the links to the week’s top Apple news, reviews and how-tos below.

If you plan on camping this summer, make sure to bring a Portable Solar Panel from Choetech. This solar panel delivers 80 watts via four output ports. It’s the coolest thing that you never knew you needed.

If you want a fully charged iPhone at all times, even in the great outdoors, make sure to enter this week’s giveaway. Enter and you could win one of two Portable Solar Panels.

What precious digital files do you have on your phone, laptop or iPad? Today, we all have tons of irreplaceable family photos, videos, confidential work documents and essential personal files on our devices. But are you protecting them, and do you even have enough space for all of them?

A year and a half in, Apple TV+ remains something of a black box. Ever since the streaming video service’s launch in November 2019, Cupertino has refused to reveal hard data about just how well Apple TV+ is doing.

In some respects, the future looks promising. Apple TV+ continues to add high-profile projects to its production queue. Apple TV+ shows and movies continue to rack up awards. And upcoming originals like an epic sci-fi adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and the second season of surprise hit Ted Lasso are generating buzz.

Plus, with the original one-year free trials ending — and new free Apple TV+ trials slashed to just three months — the $4.99-a-month streaming service seems increasingly confident about its value proposition for viewers.

Still, the Apple TV+ library continues to be dwarfed by rivals like Netflix and Disney+.

So what does the future hold? And what does “success” look like for Apple TV+ anyway? Cult of Mac asked the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a pseudonymous entertainment executive who writes about the business, how Apple TV+ is faring and what to expect next. His responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Everyone needs a VPN and a firewall they can trust. With everyone living our lives online more than ever, these services for protecting our most private data are not just bonuses for the highly tech-conscious, but essentials for every household. 

The super-smart Deeper Connect Nano Decentralized VPN Cybersecurity Hardware will take care of both, and it’s on sale today for just $299. Unlike practically every other VPN on the market, the Deeper Connect Nano is a one-and-done deal, sparing you from pesky monthly subscription fees forever.

People who use the video-streaming app Twitch can now join the platform’s “Watch Parties” on iOS and Android devices, according to a tweet sent out Friday.

Focused since its launch on bringing people together to watch and comment on video gameplay, Twitch also does drama and comedy. Its Watch Parties let Twitch users stream Amazon Prime content.

The third-party Controller for HomeKit app’s new version 5.4 update adds something users have wanted for a while. It’s a full backup and restore process that includes the HomeKit codes identifying the devices and accessories you include in your home automation.

If you’ve already installed the iOS 15 beta on your iPhone and run into issues, you might want to downgrade to iOS 14 until more stable releases are available. Luckily, it’s really easy to do that if you have a Mac handy.

We’ll show you how.

With a showdown on the horizon, Lisey gets back in touch with her sisters — in the most intense way imaginable — in this week’s installment of Lisey’s Story, the fantastical Apple TV+ series based on Stephen King’s novel.

It’s only a matter of time before Lisey has to take down her foes, real and imaginary, and she’s gonna need all the help she can get.

Randomo_redditor runs her MacBook Pro and iPad with a monstrously wide Dell monitor, at 49 inches. But even that curved showstopper fails to provide enough real estate for all she does. So she added a 27-inch Dell display in portrait mode on the side. If you’re searching for the best monitors for Mac Mini, you might find this Samsung ultra-wide monitor setup to be a great option.

Now she can fit everything on the screens. And we do mean everything. Randomo already made the most of her widescreen by using an app to split the screen into thirds, for different uses.

Dell’s slick new UltraSharp Webcam takes a page out of the 2021 iPad Pro’s book with a Center Stage-like advanced AI auto-framing feature. It keeps the subject — most likely your face, on a video call — centered in the frame and in focus, even if you move around a lot.

The new Dell 4K webcam isn’t cheap, you may notice. But for the $199.99 price tag, you get some nice features.

Solitaire Stories is a new twist on the popular card game. Rather than just stacks of cards, there’s a storyline. And games get progressively harder to increase the challenge.

This is the latest addition to the Apple Arcade subscription gaming service for iPhone, Mac and more.

As a writer, it’s not just about the big idea — preparation and execution are just as important as the creative spark.

Twitter is exploring a new “trusted friends” feature that gives users more control over who can see certain tweets.

The move could make it possible to block some followers from seeing select posts — without actually blocking their accounts. It comes after rumors claimed Twitter is planning to add groups support to its platform.

Spotify on Thursday rolled out a new beta version of its Mac app that’s built for M1 chips. It promises “many compatibility improvements and optimizations” for Apple Silicon machines, and anyone can try it out.

The 2022 iPad Pro could ship with a next-generation chipset manufactured using a cutting-edge 3-nanometer process, according to a new report out of Asia, citing several sources familiar with the matter.

The upgrade would lead to even greater performance for what is already one of Apple’s fastest mobile devices. But we may have to wait longer for the same technology to make its way to iPhone.

Apple is reportedly going to test a program that will have its Apple Store retail employees work from home some of the time. And no, that won‘t involve customers shopping in employees’ living rooms.

Intrepid explorers online on Reddit and YouTube have come across an especially fun Easter egg in Google’s iOS app — a secret pinball game that takes a little doing to find.

Anyone can put the macOS Monterey beta on their Mac — it’s no longer reserved for developers. Apple added the pre-release version to its public beta program on Thursday.

Installing it is free, and not too difficult. Here’s how begin playing with macOS Monterey yourself.

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You’ll be able to run the recently revealed Windows 11 on your Mac. Eventually. Parallels is working on adding support for Microsoft’s next operating system to its macOS app, Parallels Desktop.

It’s going to be a while, though. All that’s available from Microsoft now is a Windows 11 Insider Preview, and there’s not even an official release date for the full OS.