Cult of Mac

With the CdkeySales Black Friday Sale now extended, you can still find the biggest discounts you’ve ever seen on Microsoft software like Windows 11 Pro. The CdkeySales Black Friday Windows sale slashes some prices by up to 91%! And since the latest Windows 12 rumors indicate Microsoft won’t release its next big operating system update until late 2025, you can update your PC now the quick and easy way rather than waiting. Just buy a Windows 11 CD key on sale during CdkeySales’ extended Black Friday Sale.

During the sale, you can get great deals on upgrade-ready Microsoft productivity software like Windows 11 Pro and Microsoft Office. Savings include Windows 10 Pro for just $17.05 — with a free upgrade to Windows 11 Pro.

The alternate-history comedy Fly Me to the Moon starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum launched on Apple TV+ on Friday. The film covers events that definitely did not happen during the 1969 moon landing.

It premiered in theaters over the summer, and is only now reaching streaming.

The new Meross Matter Smart Home Thermostat works with HomeKit and other smart-home platforms, offering an affordable entry point at $70 (limited time price, regular $99.99), the company said Thursday. And the new device represents one of only a few Matter-compatible smart thermostats currently available for U.S. HVAC systems.

iOS 18.2 will make searching on Apple Music and Apple TV much easier with natural language support. This means you can use natural language to describe and search for TV shows or music you are looking for.

The revamped Photos app gained support for similar search capabilities with the iOS 18.1 update.

New Mexico just joined the list of states whose residents can store a digital version of their driver’s license and state ID in Apple Wallet on their iPhone.

With Thursday’s addition, there are now nine U.S. states that support the feature.

With Thursday’s introduction of the release candidates for iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.2, we’re likely a week away from the debut of the second wave of Apple Intelligence features, including Genmoji, the Image Playground and more.

Release candidates for watchOS 11.2, tvOS 18.2 and visionOS 2.2 also went out.

After the disappointing launch of its Ai Pin wearable device, San Francisco-based tech company Humane shifts its focus to CosmOS. It’s a new AI-powered operating system that promises to revolutionize how users rely on artificial intelligence to interact with their smart devices, including Apple’s. The Humane AI Pin struggled to deliver on its promises, prompting the company to pivot toward software-driven innovation.

That might remind folks of Steve Jobs’ long-ago move from Apple to NeXT, which ended up dropping hardware entirely and focusing on software.

Humane demonstrated CosmOS running across multiple platforms including car entertainment systems, smart speakers, TVs and smartphones in a new video Wednesday. The system aims to provide functionality similar to AI assistants like Siri, but appears more advanced, enabling complex, context-aware interactions across various devices.

The culmination of a Major League Soccer postseason filled with upsets and comebacks, the MLS Cup championship unfolds Saturday as LA Galaxy hosts the New York Red Bulls. And you can watch the MLS Cup final for free on various Apple TV platforms via MLS Season Pass, the streamer said Thursday.

December 5, 2002: Cupertino says it served its millionth unique customer in the Apple Store online, marking a significant milestone for the company. It is a benchmark worth celebrating for Apple, which launched its online store just five years earlier.

“Reaching our 1 millionth customer is a major milestone, and is proof positive that our online shopping experience is second to none,” Tim Cook, Apple’s executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations at the time, says in a statement. “The Apple Store is a popular way for a growing number of consumers and businesses to buy Apple products, and with extensive build-to-order capabilities, easy 1-Click shopping and free shipping on orders, it’s never been easier to buy a Mac online.”

Third-party accessory-maker Polysoft stepped in to make something Apple won’t: upgrade SSDs for the Mac Studio. These will allow owners of the powerful desktop to increase the storage capacity with relative ease, which is not possible now.

And the product raises the possibility that Mac mini SSD upgrades will launch at some point, too.

Another mad tinkerer surfaced this week spending a huge amount of time an effort recreating a decades-old Apple concept. Designer Kevin Noki dropped a YouTube video Wednesday showing every detail about how he remade Apple’s abandoned FlatMac concept from 1984 into a working prototype. And like an inspiration for the iPads that would come later, it’s a thing of beauty!

“This project has been a dream come true! As a designer, I’ve always been inspired by groundbreaking concepts, and this time, I challenged myself to recreate one of the most iconic and unrealized prototypes: Hartmut Esslinger’s Apple FlatMac,” Noki wrote on his YouTube video page.

Apple continued its impressive run in its next big growth market, India, shipping more than 9 million iPhones from January to September 2024. This represents 35% year-over-year growth for iPhone shipments in the country.

The company also increased its lead over Samsung, the previous leader in India’s smartphone market.

Apple Music Replay is a great way to find your music stats for the past year: the most played songs, artists and albums in the last 12 months. Similar to Spotify Wrapped and the like, your annual Apple Music Replay is a fun way to see what tracks you listened to most.

Fun fact: Apple usually publicizes Apple Music Replay in November, but it’s actually updated weekly and available throughout the whole year! You can check in whenever you want to see how 2025 is shaping up.

We’ll show you how to find it and how to share your top music of the year to your friends and social media.

Apple is making accessing login credentials saved in iCloud Keychain in Firefox easier with a new iCloud Passwords add-on.

The extension will help autofill your saved login details and automatically save new passwords to iCloud Keychain.

The newly launched GameSir X3 Pro Mobile Gaming Controller packs Hall Effect sticks, dual rumble motors, micro switch triggers and detachable grips. And its USB-C connector and telescoping design means it fits a range of iPhone and Android models.

A stand-out feature is a cooling plate designed to prevent the handset from overheating while playing very demanding games.

Apple Wallet-compatible smart lock Alloy Deadbolt+ will make life easier for renters and landlords alike, SmartRent said Wednesday. Debuting at a Starwood Capital Group property, Alloy Deadbolt+ expands on the security, functionality and convenience of smart locks by integrating with resident keys in Apple Wallet. It easily lets you in, as well as your property manager and designated friends and service providers.

“Alloy Deadbolt+ enhances the way we think about secure access, providing a straightforward and reliable solution for both residents and property managers,” SmartRent Chief Technology Officer Isaiah DeRose-Wilson said.

There are supposedly 12 days of Christmas and at least that many ways to fix a computer setup. If your workstation features a MacBook Pro and two big external LG UltraFine external displays sitting on a desk, plus a Magic Keyboard mini and a Magic Trackpad, it’s pretty much good to go, right? Well, maybe. But today’s user with that rig asked on social media how to improve it, and they got a ton of advice.

Most of the comments concerned the dual displays, but they ranged pretty far afield, and anyone can learn from it.

December 4, 1992: Apple engineers demonstrate a “proof of concept” of the Mac operating system running on an Intel computer. More than a decade before Macs will switch to Intel processors, getting Mac OS to run on PCs is an astonishing feat.

It’s part of an aborted plan to make Apple’s software available on other manufacturers’ hardware. Apple ultimately chickens out, fearing (probably correctly) that such a move would hurt Macintosh sales.

Apple TV+ casts its net wide for quality programming, offering plenty of entertainment from distant lands. So why not a German hospital drama? A “gritty” new eight-episode series called Krank Berlin Berlin ER is headed your way soon. Apple offered a description of the “vibrant and dynamic” show. And since first announcing it, the stream has posted an air date, below, for the German-language medical drama — as well as a new title.

Update: Apple TV+ gave Krank Berlin a boring new title and an air date Wednesday. Now named Berlin ER, the series, which comes to us from a former emergency room doctor, streams with its first two episodes February 26, 2025.

The HomePod with a built-in 6- to 7-inch display that’s been the subject of previous rumors will launch after Apple’s developer conference in June, according to a report on Wednesday from a reliable source.

It will supposedly be part of Apple’s drive to offer more smart home products.

The next big iPad Pro refresh will arrive in the second half of 2025 at the earliest, according to a new report. The upgraded M5 iPad Pro reportedly will be the first product to use the next-gen Apple silicon chip.

Apple surprised everyone by launching this year’s iPad Pro refresh with an M4 chip.

Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed details about the company’s approach to artificial intelligence and defended its Vision Pro headset in an extensive interview Wednesday. In a now-familiar refrain, he discussed the company’s strategic entry into generative AI while addressing criticisms about Apple’s seemingly delayed response to the AI boom.

“We never talked about charging for it,” Cook said of Apple Intelligence. “We view it sort of like multitouch, which enabled the smartphone revolution and the modern tablet.”

Apple uses Amazon Web Services’ custom artificial intelligence chips to power its search services. The company is also evaluating if it can use Amazon’s latest AI chips to pretrain Apple Intelligence models.

Apple’s Benoit Dupin, senior director of machine learning and AI, made these revelations Tuesday in a surprise appearance at Amazon’s annual AWS re:Reinvent conference in Las Vegas.

Apple picked Hysterical as the winner of the Apple Podcasts Award for 2024, which honors quality and innovation in podcasting.

It’s not a comedy. The seven-part series by Dan Taberski investigates a mysterious illness that spreads among a group of high school girls in upstate New York, and looks for parallels with one that affects American diplomats.

Anya Taylor-Joy, perhaps best known for starring in The Queen’s Gambit, is coming to Apple TV+. She’ll star in an adaptation of the bestselling crime thriller Lucky by Marissa Stapley.