Reviews - page 42

Dorothy has one final trick up her sleeve on the season finale of Apple TV+ thriller Servant, M. Night Shyamalan and Tony Basgallop’s show about a mystic nanny and the troubled family she appears out of nowhere to help.

Just when it seems like things can’t possibly be more warped than they already are, a handful of desperate events throw the Turner household into tragedy and disarray. Is there any coming back from this?

Servant‘s riotous third season comes to a close on a dreadful cliffhanger, promising more chaos and darkness in the currently filming fourth season.

A depressing dance party and a murder round out the crazy goings on in this week’s episode of Severance, the Apple TV+ show about a workplace plagued by secrets and underhanded, science fiction-style practices.

Once Mark (played by Adam Scott) sees the truth of his situation, there’s no turning back. But he can’t fix the problems at Lumon Industries alone. Wouldn’t it be helpful if something traumatic happened to everyone on his team, aligning them against their employer?

This week’s episode of Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson’s trippy workplace thriller brings a cavalcade of violent upsets — and each new incident stings intensely. It’s all a hair convenient, but it’s compelling enough to clear the hurdle anyway.

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey takes a tour through the past this week and finds clues to its central mysteries. The Apple TV+ show, based on Walter Mosley’s book of the same name, continues to be one of the best shows on television, with actors Samuel L. Jackson and Dominique Fishback leading it to greatness.

The Last Days might be the best investment in a TV show Apple TV+ has yet made. All the right people will be talking about this series for years to come.

The Satechi Type-C Aluminum Monitor Stand Hub for iMac adds some extra height to the all-in-one desktop. And it makes room for four additional USB ports, an SD card reader and an audio jack.

I put stand/hub combo through its paces to see how it stands up in everyday use.

Apple TV+ show WeCrashed tightens up at long last for a reasonably entertaining fourth episode that nevertheless lays bare the essential flaw in its calculus. It’s still asking us to watch and care about the vacuous psychos at the heart of the story of co-working startup WeWork — and it has not made them any more interesting.

Actor Jared Leto’s portrayal of Adam Neumann, the CEO and founder of WeWork, remains unwatchable. And the show keeps hitting Anne Hathaway’s character, Rebekah Neumann, with more and more embarrassment to overcome. But at least there’s the occasional joke.

In epic new Apple TV+ series Pachinko, three generations of a Korean family — caught between Japan, America and their homeland — eke out a living as times change and fortune fails to provide for them.

Series creator Soo Hugh and director Kogonada based the show on the bestselling book by Min Jin Lee of the same name. Frequently gorgeous, this show provides necessary context for modern Korean sociopolitics, while also delivering healthy doses of gripping melodrama.

The series, which debuts Friday on Apple TV+, also boasts what might be the best opening credits sequence of all time.

The Plugable UD-6950PDZ Docking Station includes a trio 4K HDMI Ports and the same number of 4K DisplayPort ports. These allow users to mix and match up to three monitors. That includes M1 MacBooks that natively support only one.

The USB-C dock also includes half a dozen USB-A ports, Ethernet and more.

I put this powerful accessory through a battery of hands-on tests to see how it performed. And it lived up to my expectations.

The plot thickens on this week’s tense and exciting episode of Severance, the show about a creeping conspiracy at a shady organization.

Mark is finally ready to start asking questions about what his employer Lumon Industries is up to, even though he knows the company will do everything in its power to stop him. He’s going to have to watch himself on two fronts because his outside world self is starting to dig into Lumon, too. And if he keeps making a spectacle of himself at work, they’ll be watching him extra-closely outside.

Dorothy is fed up on this week’s Servant, the Apple TV+’s show about a witchy nanny named Leanne who takes over the lives of a rich Philadelphia family.

Dorothy wants Leanne out of the house by any means necessary, heedless of just how crazed her determination makes her look. She’s going to need all the help she can get to best Leanne, who she should know by now is nigh-impossible to outflank.

This week’s typically strong episode comes courtesy of Austrian directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, who take to the world of Servant like fish to water.

The five kidnapping suspects finally meet their tormentor in the gripping season finale of Apple TV+ thriller series Suspicion. All the information will be revealed about these perfect strangers this week. And they can decide for themselves, along with the rest of the world, whether they’ve been doing the right things for the wrong reasons.

This ecoterrorism lark has proven exciting so far. The first season of Suspicion closes on a satisfying note of audacious ambiguity about what happens next and who gets away.

The Targus Antimicrobial Active Stylus for iPad resists up to 99.9% of bacterial growth for the life of the product. That’s one less thing to worry about while you’re taking notes or sketching on your tablet.

I tested this stylus with my iPad Pro to be sure it’s up to the job. Here’s why the extra features Targus built in make me quite pleased with it.

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, the Apple TV+ series based on the book of the same name by Walter Mosley, unwinds more of its central mysteries this week.

Ptolemy (played by the excellent Samuel L. Jackson) learns a little more about the deal he’s made with the doctors to get his memory back — and what it will cost him in the long run. However, he’s got too much to do with the extra capacity the operation gave him to stop now. If he can’t solve the many problems and questions swirling around him before he loses his memory, it will be too late. He’ll die not even realizing how close he came to peace.

For some reason, Apple TV+ paid actual money for WeCrashed, the deeply inessential story of WeWork founder Adam Neumann and his wife Rebekah.

The tale’s already been told as a documentary, a podcast and a series of investigative pieces for various publications. But as we all know, the idea isn’t totally wrung dry until a couple of Oscar winners have their say.

So here’s Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway as the Neumanns in a terrible Apple TV+ mini-series directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. Maybe now we can tell another story.

The first reviews of Apple’s new Studio Display are in, and just as expected, reviewers have some terrific things to say about it. Its impressive 27-inch panel and top design make it one of the finest monitors you can pair with a Mac.

But is it worth its price tag? That depends who you ask. While some reviewers love Studio Display, others say its shortcomings stick out like a sore thumb. Here’s the review roundup.

The powerful Mac Studio desktop first reaches customers on Friday, but the initial reviews are out to answer any lingering questions about Apple’s latest macOS desktop.

This is supposed to be Apple’s new mid-range desktop, but hands-on tests show it beats the 2019 Mac Pro hands down.

The iPad Air 5 reaches customers on Friday, and the first reviews describe it as a moderately improved version of the already excellent fourth-generation model.

They give us our first hands-on impressions of the tablet with an M1 processor and support for Center Stage.

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The OtterBox Wireless Power Bank for MagSafe doubles down on wireless charging. It clings magnetically to your iPhone while charging it, and the external battery also magnetically attaches to MagSafe chargers to receive power. And it can do both at the same time. There are versions with 3,000mAh and 5,000 mAh of capacity.

I tested the MagSafe accessory with my iPhone 13, and I’m pleased with how well it works.

Wi-Fi 6 is the latest version of the wireless networking standard we all love. It’s so much better than its predecessor you should think about upgrading your router just to get it. Especially because the change won‘t be as expensive as you might expect because the Rock Space AX1800 WiFi 6 Router is just $80.

At that price, I was a bit suspicious that the device. But I’m a believer. I used this Wi-Fi access point in my home office for nearly two weeks and have no complaints.

With less than a week to go until Apple’s third-generation iPhone SE makes its official debut, the first reviews are out. They have plenty of great things to say about Cupertino’s most affordable handset — and more than a few complaints.

While everyone is praising the handset’s super-speedy A15 Bionic, welcome 5G connectivity, and even its single 12-megapixel camera, most reviewers agree that its “tired design” is in dire need of a refresh.

Leanne makes a surprising new friend on this week’s episode of Servant, Apple TV+’s M. Night Shyamalan-shepherded show about a nanny upending the lives of a rich Philadelphia couple.

Dorothy’s rival at the TV station shows up in their lives with a little more force than usual, and it’s up to Leanne to fix things, and keep the Turners from losing what they worked so hard to gain.

The kidnapping suspects under Suspicion land in New York for their next rendezvous this week on Apple TV+’s thriller series.

As the noose tightens around them from the lead-hungry FBI and British police service, the group starts to look at each other askance more frequently than usual. Can they really trust each other? This week, there’s enough breathing room to soak up the tension. And Katherine Newman (played by Uma Thurman) finds herself in an uncomfortable situation.

Severance takes a detour to a birthing cottage as Helly recovers from her suicide attempt and Mark recovers from having misjudged her so wildly. Now that he’s starting to see her side of things, he just has to hope it’s not too late.

Elsewhere in this week’s episode of the Apple TV+ hit about a company with extreme ideas about work/life balance, Irving and Burt circle each other. Mrs. Cobel grows nervous about her grip on the employees. And a psychiatrist comes in to monitor everyone.

Trust is running thin at Lumon Industries, and tensions are running high.

Apple TV+ made an incredibly smart move picking up The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, based on the book of the same name by legendary writer Walter Mosley.

Directed by Ramin Bahrani, adapted by Mosley himself, and starring a searing Samuel L. Jackson, this is one of the best things to air on Apple TV+ so far. This sensitive and painful look at a man losing his memory at the end of a hard life is everything it ought to be.

The TechMatte Apple Pencil Gen 2 Charging Carrying Case juices up the iPad’s official stylus when it’s not attached to the tablet. It’s a secure place to carry the Apple Pencil around, and keep it topped off when you’re on the go.

I tested this charging accessory to be sure it lives up to its promises.

Although Apple refuses to make a touchscreen Mac, the Espresso Display V2 is ready to fill in the gap. There are 15.6-inch and 13.3-inch versions of the very slim external display, and both support touch and an optional stylus.

I tested the screen with a MacBook and iPad to see how well it performs in ordinary use. And I also tried out the stylus as well as the stand for desktop use and the case for taking the display on the go.