Reviews - page 57

For the longest time, I had a particular problem with my Apple Watch. When I rode my bicycle, the watch’s Digital Crown would rub against my wrist, playing havoc with the sound coming through my AirPods. Suddenly it would get very loud, or very low. It drove me crazy.

I tried everything I could think of, including wearing my watch backward so the Digital Crown was reversed, or on the inside of my wrist. Nothing worked, so I disabled Now Playing on my Watch, which I missed because it’s great for controlling music when doing something like riding a bike.

Then I came across Elkson’s Quattro Series Bumper Case for Apple Watch. This inexpensive cover surrounds the Digital Crown and prevents it from spinning when I ride my bike. Problem solved.

After a bumpy start, the Apple TV+ reboot of Amazing Stories headed off in an agreeable direction. Between its heart-on-the-sleeve emotional core and the very modern, depressive look at the deflation of the American dream, this is a show that understands why people need to believe in the impossible today.

Episode 4, titled “Signs of Life,” might not be a perfect hour of television. However, it’s got its heart in the right place. And a host of excellent elements make its story beats hit with extra force.

Emerging from the dark and noisy arcades of the 1980s is a updated version of a classic. Atari’s Missile Command: Recharged for iPhone and iPad is nearly identical to the original with only a few tweaks for a new generation.

And to double down on the nostalgia, an augmented reality mode projects your gameplay onto a virtual arcade cabinet.

The 2020 iPad Pro takes Apple’s very capable tablet from 2018, improves the specs and performance, and even adds some great features.

I did hands-on testing of the new capabilities and found there’s a lot to love in the latest iPad.

Apple’s newest iPad Pro will begin landing on customers’ doorsteps Wednesday, March 25. Will it be worth their hard-earned cash? Let’s find out from reviewers who already have their hands on one.

Unsurprisingly, the 2020 iPad Pro is already being dubbed Apple’s best tablet yet. It improves upon an already winning formula with a LiDAR Scanner, Ultra Wide camera, and faster connectivity.

Some still bemoan missing features in iPadOS. When it comes to the hardware, however, there’s very little to complain about.

Mired in scandal and plagued by delays, the debut fiction film purchased by Apple TV+ is finally here to stream, just in time for everyone in America to be trapped with little else but their TVs.

The Banker, starring Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson, likely won’t top many best-of lists this year. It’s too slight, though neither does it embarrass itself in the telling of a compelling true story about overcoming discrimination in a racist world.

The Apple TV+ reboot of Amazing Stories started with a warning most viewers likely heeded: The show is going to be maudlin, and it will broadcast its emotional and dramatic beats from a mile away. Thankfully, having thrown down that gauntlet, the threat turned into a promise worth keeping. Each episode has been an improvement on the pilot.

“Dynoman and the Volt,” the third episode of the series, has quite a lot to recommend it. Enough, in fact, that it becomes easy to overlook its obvious storytelling and only half-earned poignancy.

The first reviews of Apple’s new and improved MacBook Air are out just days after its official unveiling. It will come as no surprise to fans of the machine that each one has great things to say about Apple’s most popular notebook.

New configurations, increased storage, a reduced price, and — most importantly — and brand-new Magic Keyboard make this a stellar MacBook Air upgrade. Still not sure? Here’s what the critics have to say…

Trapped indoors with nothing to watch during the COVID-19 quarantine, or just sick of your usual streaming options? Apple TV+ harbors a day’s worth of exciting and compelling programming to finally dig into.

For anyone looking for an excuse to finally give the streaming service a try, here’s a guide to some standout shows. Not every Apple TV+ series is a slam dunk, but there are hidden gems waiting to be binged during these uncertain times.

Quirky but excellent new book iBauhaus traces Apple’s design principles to a German design school nearly a century old. Written by art expert Nicholas Fox Weber, the book won’t appeal to everyone.

If you’re exclusively interested in behind-the-scenes details of how Apple makes and sells its products, this book probably isn’t for you. If you shuddered through Jony Ive interviews heavy on design-speak, this definitely isn’t the book for you.

However, a certain segment of readers — myself included — will find iBauhaus really enjoyable. And they will learn a lot about the design of the iPhone along the way.

New book Samsung Rising tells the story of Apple’s biggest rival in the smartphone era. It chronicles Samsung’s decades-long ascent, and the fierce competition between the South Korean tech giant’s Galaxy smartphones and the iPhone.

Smartly written and reported by veteran journalist Geoffrey Cain, Samsung Rising will certainly keep your brain active and your fingers flipping pages.

The second episode of the redesigned Amazing Stories finds its legs with a story of a track star caught between life and death.

If showrunners Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz have anything even a fraction as good as this up their sleeves for the rest of the season, Amazing Stories might prove the strongest of Apple TV+ shows, considering its short episode order.

Classic video game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night landed in the App Store last week and, boy, is it great!

The 23-year-old side-scroller pits Dracula’s half-son Alucard against the evil count himself. The game, widely regarded as one of the best video games of all time, has made its way onto various games platforms over the years. Now you can finally play it on your iPhone. Frankly, that’s the best news I’ve heard in ages.

Amazing Stories, the Apple TV+ reboot of Steven Spielberg’s 1980s show about all things fantastical, bafflingly kicks off with a limp romantic fantasia. One can only hope that the dull opening episode, a rote time-travel story titled “The Cellar,” does not prove representative of what will follow.

Spielberg created the anthology series Amazing Stories in 1985. It was one of a handful of shrewd moves that, calculated to do so or not, turned his crowd-pleasing style into a brand. Cupertino clearly wanted to capitalize on Spielberg’s reputation as a storyteller. Regrettably, the reboot’s first episode does little but remind us that we’d rather be watching one of his movies instead.

The Mophie Powerstation Plus XL doesn’t just extend the battery life of your iPhone, it also makes recharging your handset a snap. The 8000mAh power bank has an integrated Lightning cable, plus it offers wireless charging.

Mophie has a long history of producing top-tier external batteries. That’s why this one is available from the Apple Store. I test this accessory to see if it lives up to its maker’s reputation for dependability.

It’s totally tempting to use a fountain pen. These throwback writing utensils carry a promise of a slower time, when people had hours to write — and when the main writing tool wasn’t a $1,000 computer or an $800 iPhone, but a tube of ink with a sharp tip.

However, fountain pens also can prove intimidating. Are they messy? Do you need to refill them from a bottle of ink? Can you toss one in a pocket like a cheap gel pen?

The fact is, you can have all the style and enjoyment of a fountain pen in a package that’s as practical as a cheap biro. More practical, really, as you can refill it yourself. If you want to try a fountain pen, you should begin with the Kaweco Sport. And if you want the Jony Ive-compatible version, you will buy the reasonably priced aluminum one.

Wireless charging can really help keep your iPhone topped off and ready to go. Every model since the iPhone 8 supports it, and Cult of Mac brings you our list of the best wireless chargers available today.

This includes multi-device models too, for everyone who needs power up an Apple Watch or AirPods too.

Picaso Lab’s new iPad Pro leather sleeve does more than protect your valuable tablet. Its designers built in an innovative stand, while the leather exterior gives a very stylish look.

I tested this hand-made case for the iPad Pro to see how it stood up to real-world use.

The Scosche BaseLynx can quickly charge every Apple device you have — AirPods to MacBook Pro — either wirelessly or via cable. And this system is modular so you can get just the components you need and not the ones you don’t.

I’ve used it to power my Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad. Here’s how it survived real-world use.

The breakout show for Apple TV+ has arrived: Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet. It’s hilarious, but also has heart.

This isn’t a typical office comedy. It’s set at a video game development company, so episodes are a struggle between employees trying to be creative, others trying maximize profitability, and people caught in the middle just hoping to get the code shipped on time.

The Uniq Fuele Mini offers enough power to more than fully recharge an iPhone 11 in a package just a bit bigger than a credit card. It beats bulkier rivals that are convenient when your iPhone needs a recharge, but the rest of the time they’re a hassle to carry around.

I tested this affordable, multi-port powerbank for several days. Read on to see how well it performed.

Nvidia GeForce Now is ready to stream the latest PC games to your Mac. It sells us a dream that sounds too good to be true, a future that macOS fans gave up wishing for a long time ago. And most importantly, it actually delivers it.

I’ve been playing games on GeForce Now for several days (I love my job!) so that I can tell you whether it’s worth your hard-earned cash. And although I’ve run into a few teething troubles that I can’t ignore, I’ve been blown away by what it can do.

If you’ve ever found yourself showing other people pictures on your phone, you’ve probably also been trying to micromanage what they can and can’t see. And, if you’re a parent of a young kid, it’s likely that you’ve let your child look through a photo album on your device. In that case, you’ve certainly been worried about their ability to delete or accidentally modify an image.

There are ways to limit what a person — or child — can or can’t get to on your device through the Guided Access settings in iOS. But nothing is as simple as using a new iOS app called Peek-a-View to lock down your photos.

Wirelessly connecting a MacBook to a TV is a snap with the IOGear Share Pro. It uses the computer’s USB-C port to stream video to a screen up to 60 feet away, no wires needed.

I fully tested this accessory. Dive in to see how it preforms in regular use.

I picked up the Smart Folio Keyboard for my iPad Pro a few weeks back, because I was traveling and needed to do some work on the go. I’ve avoided the expensive accessory in the past, because a regular Bluetooth keyboard is so much better — on paper anyway. Even the most basic Bluetooth keyboard offers far more essential features than Apple’s own keyboard case. But after trying the Apple keyboard, I like it a lot. The keys themselves are still awful, but the convenience factor is off the charts.