Reviews - page 54

One of the first Apple TV+ shows for a younger audience, Ghostwriter was both a reboot of a ’90s cult hit and a shoo-in to get renewed. With precious little to choose from, the streaming service’s execs had little choice but to put their muscle behind a show with cheap production costs and limitless potential for story ideas.

Like Apple TV+’s initial batch of Ghostwriter episodes, the second season is in no hurry to go anywhere or say much. However, it’s agreeable company — and its heart is in the right place.

Apple TV+ invites you to take a look at the things beneath your feet in its new documentary series Tiny World. Narrated by Paul Rudd, this show is charming, if maybe too cute for its own good.

Tiny World, which premieres on October 2, is the first of three new docuseries coming to the streaming service this fall. It’s a shrewd and promising start, as Apple TV+ positions itself as a provider of episodic nonfiction content to match its high-profile dramas and films.

Minix Neo Storage Plus handles two jobs. It’s a multiport USB-C adapter, adding USB-A, HDMI and Ethernet to Mac or iPad. And this accessory is also an SSD, bringing 480GB of storage.

We tested all the features of this multifunction hub. Here’s how it stands up to real-world use.

In order for any streaming service to keep up with the competition, it must serve up serialized shows that people can’t wait to finish. Until now, Apple TV+ did not offer one of those. Not even the star-studded and fairly engrossing Defending Jacob proved so compelling you couldn’t turn it off.

That all changes this Friday, when Israeli spy thriller Tehran premieres on Apple TV+. The streaming service’s best dramatic show by a mile, it delivers stunning displays of intrigue and backstabbing.

Almost all the reviews of the Apple Watch Series 6 say the same thing: Yeah, it’s great, but it’s an incremental upgrade, and if you already have a Series 5, skip the upgrade.

That’s sage advice, I guess, especially in the middle of a crushing pandemic that’s ruined the economy, left millions unemployed, and has lots of people thinking carefully about their expenses.

But I say stuff it!

If you have the money, run out and buy the latest Apple Watch. It’s frickin’ amazing! It blows my mind that you can have a mini-iPhone strapped to your wrist that can make phone calls, pay for groceries, give directions, monitor your blood and heart, and so, so much more. It’s a technological marvel, my favorite gadget — and it could possibly save my life.

Every Apple Watch deserves a good charging stand. The W5 from Elago takes you back in time with a one-of-a-kind design that resembles an iconic handheld gaming console.

Made from high-quality silicone, it’s simple, sturdy and surprisingly affordable. It’s also compatible with every Apple Watch ever made. Here’s why we think the Elago W5 charging stand is a great way to spend $19.

Even in a world where everything can be stored in the cloud, there’s still a role for an external drive. Especially if it’s high-performance, and can go anywhere. Western Digital’s new solid state drive is slim and light, but also rugged. And the WD My Passport SSD holds up to 2 TB of data, and is far faster than a traditional hard drive.

Here’s how this newly-released peripheral stands up to real-world use with a range of computers.

Way back in 2004, Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman decided to ride their motorcycles around the world from London to New York — the long way. That 19,000-mile trek produced British TV series Long Way Round.

A few years later, they and their team rode from Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa, and produced a sequel series, Long Way Down. Neither of these shows have much in the way of social value or a point beyond “this is certainly possible.”

Well, they’re back, with a new Apple TV+ documentary series called Long Way Up, which premieres on Sept. 18. This one recounts yet another epic motorcycle trip, starting at the southern tip of Argentina and covering “13,000 miles over 100 days through 16 border crossings and 13 countries.”

If you’re one of the several people who’s been waiting for the third installment of McGregor and Boorman’s Long Way series, boy are you in luck.

Everyone should use an iPhone case, and practically everyone needs to carry a wallet. Consider combining those two necessities with the Mujjo Leather Wallet Case. Updated for the iPhone 11 series, it remains just as beautifully slim-but-practical as its predecessors.

I’ve used this wallet case for weeks. Learn how well it survived daily use in my full review.

Back when Apple introduced the Apple Pencil, the company positioned the stylus primarily as a tool for artists. And try as I might, I’ve never been particularly great at drawing. That said, it didn’t stop me from picking up an Apple Pencil to annotate documents, edit photos or use as an alternative way to touch the screen.

Then the Magic Keyboard came along with a fantastic trackpad experience. It offered a different way to interact with the screen without touching it with my finger. But now, with iPadOS 14, Apple has rewritten the story of what Apple Pencil can do, and it’s completely changed how I use my iPad once again.

There’s no reason to watch a movie on your MacBook or iPad when the world is full of external displays you can connect to. Of course, to make the connection you’ll need something like the Plugable USB-C Multiport Adapter. Not only does it have an HDMI port, there’s a USB-A port for connecting an external drive. And a USB-C port for keeping your computer powered.

It was obviously designed to copy Apple’s Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter but at a much lower price. Here’s how it stands up.

iPadOS offers full support for mice, and it also supports styli. But carrying around both can be a bit of a hassle. That’s where the Adonit Note-M comes in. It’s a stylus that’s also a mouse. And one that’ll attach itself to the side of an iPad Pro.

I extensively tested this innovative accessory. Here’s how it performs in real-world use.

Home automation is convenient and even kind of fun. And a smart plug is the easiest way to get started. The redesigned Wemo WiFi Smart Plug from Belkin lets you find out if you really want to be able to control your lights or other appliances from your iPhone, without making a big investment.

A couple of weeks of testing this pint-size HomeKit accessory went into this review. Here’s what I found out.

Your Apple Watch is always with you, which exposes it to occasional rough treatment. The Speidel Light Brown Leather Luxury Watch Band comes with a case that wraps around all the edges and corners of your wearable, protecting it from bumps.

I tested this case, and the Watch band it comes with. Read on to see how they stood up to daily life.

If you looked at the crowds of white nationalists bearing tiki torches at the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and wondered what took them from innocent children to gimlet-eyed monsters of borrowed ideology, Boys State is a harrowing but necessary research tool.

The new Apple TV+ documentary by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss delivers a frightening look at a time-honored tradition that appears to have actively made the world a worse place.

Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner Boys State, which premieres Friday on Apple TV+, may nauseate you. But you’ll be glad you saw it, if only because it’s a shocking and sobering reminder that the next generation of conservatives is ready to step in and replace the one about to die — and they’re no less efficacious.

A portable monitor makes you more productive on the go. And the 15.6-inch Vissles-M is a thin and lightweight LCD screen that easily connects to a Mac or iPad Pro through its USB-C port.

I tested this affordable external display in a variety of conditions, and used it for both for work and fun. Here’s how it held up.

Twelve South’s HiRise Duet iPhone and Apple Watch Stand is one of the best high-end charging stands on the market.

It charges fast, keeps my Apple Watch in nightstand mode, and takes up minimal room on my bedside table. Constructed from premium materials, the HiRise Duet makes decluttering sleek and stylish.

If you want a leather Apple Watch band that feels great, looks spectacular, and is built to last you years, you should really do yourself a favor and check out the wonderful Ingenium band from Strapa.

It’s made using leather sourced from one of the finest tanneries in Italy, plus 316L surgery-grade stainless steel buckles and adapters. I’ve been using one for months now, and I highly recommend it.

Created for a diverting if not particularly funny web short, Jason Sudeikis‘ clueless coach Ted Lasso now has his own Apple TV+ series. The question is: Is there enough meat on the bones of the premise to support a comedy series?

Like the NBC Sports promos that spawned the character, Ted Lasso is about an American coaching football in England — and being sorta kinda unfit for the demands. Fish-out-of-water, culture-clash comedies are as old as film comedy itself. And there’s certainly potential in the idea of an old-fashioned Southern gentleman dropped into tough-as-nails, hyper-masculine soccer culture. But ultimately, the high-concept stuff isn’t what works in Ted Lasso’s favor. You must get past the show’s premise to get to the good part.

iPadOS 14 includes Scribble, finally allowing you to hand write text on an iPad with a stylus. If you don’t already have a stylus, there are some great options out there besides the very expensive Apple Pencil.

Here are some of the best available, so you can take full advantage of your iPad’s capabilities without paying too much.

MacBooks don’t have HDMI ports, but the Plugable USB-C to HDMI Adapter makes it easy to connect your laptop to an external monitor. Even better, this accessory is inexpensive and very portable.

I tested the adapter for work, watching video, and playing games. Here’s how it held up.

Until very recently, I never spent a lot of mental energy thinking about the desk I worked at. As long as there was enough space for whatever I was doing, and it wasn’t getting in the way, I was pretty flexible.

As I’ve started spending more time working and taking meetings from home, I have started to notice when certain “desks” don’t work as well. Sitting on the couch, standing at the bar in our kitchen, or working from the dining table are all OK from time to time, but none are particularly comfortable long-term. Some of this comes down to having a desk at the proper height, and some of it is the lack of flexibility I get in those situations.

That why, when the folks at Autonomous asked if I wanted to check out their SmartDesk 2 adjustable standing desk, I saw it as an opportunity to see if the hype about standing desks is all it’s cracked up to be.

The LikPok Hyper Mirror saves you the hassle of stringing wires between your computer and TV. It makes a wireless connection instead, using the extremely fast mmWave technology normally found in 5G networks rather than Wi-Fi.

Read on for the results of my tests with this replacement for HDMI cables.

Apple News Today, the breezy new podcast showcasing the day’s top news stories, sounds perfectly peppy and polished. Maybe too perfectly polished, in fact — you won’t find a single rough edge on this slickly produced daily news report, which Apple unleashed last week with iOS 13.6. You will endure no energized, partisan rants, either. These straight-down-the-middle reports won’t get your blood boiling while you make your morning coffee or tea. If you’re tired of partisanship, this is the antidote.

What you will find in the weekday audio show is steady promotion of the Apple News app, and of Apple News+, the company’s reportedly struggling subscription news service. This upbeat and earnest free daily news briefing basically functions as a Trojan horse for getting in the ears of potential Apple News+ subscribers.

Never carry your MacBook or iPad around “naked,” but a bulky case can be just too much. A laptop sleeve is a compromise, like the one recently released by Ekster. This protects your 13-inch computer, and includes room for a few accessories.

I’ve been using this leather-and-canvas folio for a couple of weeks. Here’s how is stands up to daily use.