If you plan to go traveling with your Apple Watch as soon as it’s safe to do so, you’ll want to take with you the handy Monowear Monochest. This book-like accessory securely carries your spare bands, and doubles as a stand that keeps your Apple Watch protected while it’s charging.

The Monochest is compatible with all generations of Apple Watch, and we think it’s a must-have for frequent travelers. What’s more, you can get yours today at 20% off the usual price.

There’s something strangely nostalgic about Microsoft taking shots at Apple in a commercial. If you were to add in a post-grunge soundtrack, hair with frosted tips, and a supreme overconfidence in the value of any and every .com business, it could be the ’90s again.

Sadly such vintage touches aren’t present in Microsoft’s latest ad — pitting the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 against the MacBook Pro. Guess which one the folks in Redmond, WA think you’re better off buying?

How many important photos and documents have you lost on misplaced USB drives or computers that haven’t worked in years? Confronting the impermanence of so much of our digital data is a frustration we all experience. And the more important the file, the more it hurts when it disappears forever.

For everyone from entrepreneurs to casual web users, losing data is painful, and it’s estimated that if it’s not copied and verified frequently, there’s up to an 8% chance every year that your data will be lost.

The Starchive 1TB Cloud Storage: Lifetime Subscription offers an alternative to the stress of constantly worrying that your files might fade. For under $100, you can have a safe place to store all your most important digital possessions.

It looks like the MacBook Pro isn’t the only Apple laptop that’s going back to the future. The next-gen MacBook Air supposedly will get MagSafe, just like the MacBook Pro we learned about last week. Plus it should come in thinner and lighter than ever.

Add in the upcoming iMac and Mac Pro redesigns, and this year is looking pretty fantastic for Mac fans.

Meanwhile, this year’s iPhone might be a bit of a welcome throwback as well. You can luxuriate in all the latest Apple news and rumors in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Grab it now to read on your iOS device. Or scroll down for the links to this week’s top Apple news, reviews and how-tos.

Socrates once said, “The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing,” and these words ring true, even today. Those who are truly intelligent seek more learned experts to educate them in areas where they’re lacking. That’s why you often hear about successful entrepreneurs reading multiple books each month.

Even so, our busy lives can leave us exhausted at the end of the day, so having the time or energy to crack open a book is a luxury. There are methods out there to help you read faster, but if you want to get straight to a book’s main point, Four Minute Books can help.

Spire Blast, a physics-based match puzzler that debuted Friday on Apple Arcade, is one of those simple games that so many people find addictive.

Strategically use colored balls to knock down towers. It’s a casual game that’s easy to learn but with multiple levels to keep it challenging.

Dickinson rocks the party this week on Apple TV+ as Sue hosts a salon and Emily tries to boost her confidence long enough to be proud of herself in public.

The show’s tightrope walk of purposeful frivolity keeps butting up against its desire to say and do things of real substance. It’s the rare show that can pull off such a feat. And so far, Dickinson seems too interested in strained wordplay to quite get there.

Brie Larson, perhaps best know for her role in Captain Marvel, will reportedly take the lead in Lessons in Chemistry, a series about a frustrated scientist in the 1960s who’s forced to take a job on a cooking show.

The squirrels are out there. And no one knows that they’re doing. It’s your job to find out in Nuts — A Surveillance Mystery, which debuted Friday on Apple Arcade as well as other platforms.

It’s a game for everyone who thinks they’d be a good spy. Just not a creepy one.

Woot is blowing out new, open-box MacBook units from as little as $789.99. You can pick up various MacBook Air or MacBook Pro models, but note this sale is good for today only, so bag yours before it’s too late!

New Apple TV+ miniseries Losing Alice takes a deep dive into the psychology of two sexually charged rivals. There’s a lot to sink your teeth into with this eight-episode psychological thriller, which premieres Friday on the streaming service.

Losing Alice offers a cautionary tale about the perils of collaboration — and about riding the wave of TV production to series length.

People have been using Face ID to unlock their iPhones since 2017, and their iPads since 2018. But don’t expect to unlock your iMac using facial recognition just yet.

According to a Friday report from Bloomberg, Apple has been developing Touch ID for Mac. However, while it was originally planned for the 2021 iMac redesign, it’s now been pushed back to a later update.

With a new president installed, this has been a big week for the United States — and, to paraphrase Billy Madison, news app are reaping all the benefits.

According to a new report by top app analytics platform Sensor Tower, news apps in the App Store received a nice Inauguration Day bump. Three of the big winners were CNN‘s news app, aggregator News Break, and Newsmax. They respectively jumped 530, 13, and 43 spots in the App Store rankings.

Smash-hit Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit left us with two feelings.

1. We need a stylish midcentury wardrobe.
2. Competitive chess is cool and we want to play it right now.

Whether you want to brush up your chess skills to Beth Harmon level or simply learn a fun new hobby over the winter, here are the best courses to do it. Even better, we identified the finest chess courses offering great deals right now, with discounts of up to 92%. Now that’s a smart move.

Apple’s next-gen MacBook Air will be thinner and lighter than the current version, as well as boasting a MagSafe charger and, possibly, a redesigned display.

According to a Friday report from Bloomberg, Apple is planning to launch these new laptops in the second half of 2021 or in 2022. This would be the second MacBook Air to feature Apple Silicon processors, following the M1 MacBook Air released at the end of last year.

A pair of reports published by Digitimes Friday add more evidence to previous ones claiming that the iPhone 12 Pro series is proving to be the big hits of this year’s iPhone refresh. The iPhone 12 mini? Not so much.

One report claims that Apple manufacturer Foxconn is “expected to see extra momentum in the first quarter of 2021” thanks to Apple increasing orders for the iPhone 12 Pro handsets. A second report, meanwhile, claims that fellow manufacturer Pegatron has seen a slowdown in orders for the iPhone 12 mini. The report blames this on shrinking sales in the US and Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The second season of Servant, Apple TV+’s creepy psychological thriller from Tony Basgallop and M. Night Shyamalan, is apparently off to a strong start.

According to a new report, the first episode of season two, which debuted last week,  registered double the audience that watched the show “during the same time frame” during season one. That suggests that Servant has spread through word of mouth, as well as potentially indicating that Apple TV+ has picked up considerably more viewers in the past year.

Apple seeded a macOS Big Sur‌ 11.2 release candidate to developers on Thursday. Among other changes, it promises to improve Bluetooth reliability, which is probably music to the ears of those using the recently released Macs built around Apple’s first-generation M-series processor.

Those dreaming of Mac and iPad someday merging might get a bit of hope from a new video showing an Apple tablet running macOS Catalina. Or maybe not.

Watch it now:

Twelve South’s AirSnap is a gorgeous leather case that ensures your beloved AirPods are always within reach. It clips onto any bag or jacket so you’ll never forget where you left it, and it’s nowhere near as expensive as it looks.

Apple seeded to developers the release candidates for iOS 14.4 and the iPad equivalent on Thursday. It’s probably the last step before a public release. Among other changes, these new versions will apparently give iPhone and iPad users the option to block third-party applications from tracking them.

Devs can also install watchOS 7.3 RC and tvOS 14.4 RC, which became available Thursday too. But macOS Big Sur 11.2 is still on Beta 2.

It’s good to be the president. People just give you things, like the first 2019 Mac Pro assembled in Austin, Texas. Tim Cook gave this pricy computer to Trump, probably after the president toured the factory.

Beeper is a new all-in-one chat app that merges 15 different platforms into one. That sounds pretty interesting already, but what makes Beeper really exciting is its promise to put iMessage on Android and Windows.

The app, from Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky and his team, is “using some trickery” to make the impossible possible. But you’ll have to cough up a monthly subscription fee if you want to take advantage of it.

Whether you want to learn a new language, get fit or start a whole new career, make 2021 your year to do something new. If you’re looking to learn a highly profitable skill from the comfort of your home — and all on your own time — BitDegree Academy’s AWS Online Courses & Practice Exams is just the ticket.

Amazon Web Services is the world’s most prominent cloud platform. And if you learn how to use it, you can improve your chances of earning a full-blown career or even boosting your annual earnings in other development roles.

Don’t expect too much from Apple’s first virtual reality headset. A new report warns that Cupertino’s first stab at a wearable VR system, which could come in 2022, will be expensive with a limited set of capabilities.

The device is believed to be designed primarily as a “niche precursor” to more ambitious AR/VR glasses that Apple plans to launch later.