San Mateo, California-based smart home equipment maker Brilliant completed its HomeKit rollout with updates adding Apple’s smart home platform to a smart plug and a wall switch.

Brilliant sells a variety of smart products, including wall panels, dimmer switches, smart plugs and related parts.

In something of a rare sensitivity slip-up for Apple, the company is being blasted by STAMMA, the British Stammer Association, over an emoji recommendation that seemingly mocks people with the speech disorder also known as a stutter.

When users write the word “stammering” in the iPhone’s predictive keyboard, it suggests the comical “woozy face” emoji as a substitute. STAMMA CEO Jane Powell described this as “demeaning and damaging.”

It’s no secret that careers in technology can provide a ton of much-needed stability these days. And whether you’re looking to develop new skills or pivot into a new career path entirely, this ITProTV: The Premium Core CompTIA Certification Prep Bundle helps you master the core skills you need to set up corporate devices, networks and establish a secure IT environment. Best of all, the bundle is on sale now for just $29.99, or just $10 per course!

Rapper Soulja Boy, best known for his 2007 viral hit “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” has another claim to fame as well: According to the 30-year-old rapper, Steve Jobs visited him on the set of his first music video and brought him the first iPhone.

At least, that’s the story Soulja Boy shared in a clip from an upcoming podcast interview for Million Dollaz Worth of Game. “I was the first rapper with the iPhone,” Soulja Boy says. “It was ‘Crank That’ video shoot 2007. Steve Jobs and the Apple team came. I was in the swimming pool, doing the instructional dance. Showing the people how to do the dance … They came, they brought me the iPhone.”

The M2 chip, sequel to the inaugural Apple Silicon processor, will debut in the first half of 2022, says a leaker who previously nailed details about the company’s proprietary chips.

The tipster, known as Dylandkt, has an 81.3% accuracy rating according to Apple Track based on 16 previous rumors. Dylandkt said the M2 chip will be released alongside “the upcoming colorful MacBook Air.”

Logitech’s outstanding MX Master 3 is widely regarded by users and reviewers as the best third-party mouse you can buy for Mac — and it regularly makes an appearance in our Mac setups series.

Want to know what all the fuss is about? Get your MX Master 3 from Amazon today and enjoy a rare $10 discount off its usual price. That’s the biggest discount we’ve seen on this mouse in 2021.

Larry David once played a verbose, neurotic app approval officer in a skit for Apple. But curb your enthusiasm (womp womp) … the video never aired. Clearly someone at Apple didn’t think it was pretty, pretty, pr-et-ty good enough to be shown to customers.

However, the video — apparently shot as a possible intro for 2014’s Worldwide Developers Conference — has been leaked online by Sam Henri-Gold of the dearly departed Unofficial Apple Archive, a former repository of Apple videos no longer around. While Henri-Gold only shared a snippet, the whole video was later posted to YouTube. Check it out below.

Need an affordable Mac for basic productivity tasks? Pick up a bargain MacBook Air refurb from Woot today for as little as $289.99. A whole bunch of 11- and 13-inch models are available, but stock is selling fast.

Woot also has a couple of 13-inch MacBook Pro models on offer, with prices starting at just $449.99.

Everyone knows a picture is worth a thousand words — especially in today’s digitally driven, visually stimulated world. Whether you’re launching a small business, are a professional photographer or just want to take incredible photos of objects from pretty much anywhere, this FlashBooth 2.0 Portable Photo Studio is for you.

It’s the perfect way to take professional, high-quality photos worthy of websites, social profiles, pamphlets and more. And it’s small enough that you can take it with you wherever you go.

So, you’ve already installed the iPadOS 15 beta beta on your iPad and now some of your favorite apps and features are broken. Don’t worry — it’s really easy (if a little time-consuming) to revert back to iPadOS 14.

We’ll show you how.

The Cult of Mac Store just kicked off its big Fourth of July sale, offering 15% off all items when you spend $50 or more.

Take your pick from some of the best iPhone, iPad and AirPods cases, stands, Apple Watch bands and more — all hand-picked and approved by members of the Cult of Mac team.

The offer ends today, so enjoy it while you can!

Many people have a thing for clean, simple computer setups where distractions are minimized and productivity — of whatever type — is maximized. Redditor CosmicCrispApple seems to find a Zen-like state simply by emphasizing the color white with some black contrast on the desk.

But it’s really not that simple. You also have to keep things, well, simple. And if you do it right, your setup can look and feel as light as air.

There’s no greater service you can do yourself right now than upgrading your iPhone chargers. Be it with an extra-long charging cable that means you can use your phone while plugged in from any side of the bed, or a pocket-size portable charger that will keep you fully juiced on the go, being charged at all times is a life luxury we could simply all benefit from.

Even better, we found all these great charging accessories with huge discounts. Here are eight of the best chargers, which are all on sale right now… 

Apple’s new iPhone, set to launch in fall, will be named the iPhone 13, says a report from the Economic Daily News, published Monday.

Given that last year’s iPhone was named the iPhone 12, it may not sound much of a surprise to hear that it’s successor is named the iPhone 13. However, guessing the name of this year’s handset upgrade has proven surprisingly tricky.

Apple’s new Beats Flex headphones, the most affordable wireless Beats money can buy, are now even cheaper thanks to a $10.99 discount from Amazon. Get yours for just $39 for a limited time.

Apple has thwarted an attempt by multiple Chinese tech companies to get around its App Tracking Transparency feature, the Financial Times reports Monday.

The group of tech companies includes Baidu, Tencent, and TikTok parent company ByteDance. They supposedly worked with a couple of Beijing companies to find a new way to get around Apple’s new privacy measures.

However, Apple blocked updates to several apps that included the workaround, called the Chinese Advertising ID (CAID). In doing so, it enforced its rules in a way that may have surprised the companies in question.

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.