Reviews - page 8

Apple TV+’s six-part docuseries Vietnam: The War That Changed America offers a profound and multifaceted exploration of one of the most controversial conflicts in American history. In this Vietnam: The War That Changed America review, I’ll tell you why the series is worth watching.

Narrated by actor Ethan Hawke, this series provides viewers with a surprisingly personal look into the Vietnam War and its lasting impact on both American and Vietnamese societies. I felt its biggest impact in the first few episodes, perhaps because that’s when the novelty of the storytelling felt freshest. I’ve been hearing about the Vietnam War for decades, so it’s surprising when a documentary sucks me in, as the first half of this one did.

In today’s fast-paced digital world, keeping your devices charged is crucial — but it isn’t always easy. Enter the Cuktech 30 Power Bank, a high-capacity portable charger that promises to keep your devices powered up no matter where you are. After my testing and research for this Cuktech 30 Power Bank review, I’ll let you know why you should buy it (or not).

The iPhone 16e might lack some of the iPhone’s most premium features, but I can’t help but love it. While testing it for my iPhone 16e review, the phone’s light weight and clean rear design made me happy every time I picked it up, in a way I haven’t felt since my iPhone 5s. And its updated guts make it a perfectly serviceable daily driver that’ll stay fast and responsive for years to come.

It isn’t as cheap as the iPhone SE it replaces in Apple’s lineup. And while it largely resembles the iPhone 14 and 15, it’s missing MagSafe, one of the iPhone’s best features for many years now.

I downgraded from my personal iPhone 16 Pro to the iPhone 16e for the review, to put it through its paces — and came out impressed. Keep reading or watch the video below.

The classic Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light just made its way to iPhone, iPad and Android. It’s an action-puzzler that’s been around for 15 years on other platforms because it’s so much fun to play.

Is the new port to mobile devices worth your time and a bit of cash? Read on.

In our Severance season 2 episode 7 recap of the episode “Chikhai Bardo,” we finally get the backstory of Mark S.’s wife Gemma, aka Lumon Industries’ Ms. Casey. With it comes a deeper look at what’s really going at the company. And by the way, the visually stunning, intellectually challenging and jarringly unfamiliar episode takes its title from a transitional experience in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, referring to the “moment of death” prior to rebirth. But whose death and whose rebirth?

Oh, and guest stars this week come as fascinating surprises: Robby Benson as the scary Lumon dentist who whistles “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and Sandra Bernhard as a scary Lumon nurse.

Last week’s episode brought us strange liaisons inside and outside of Lumon Industries. Mark S. and Helly R. got busy in an unused Lumon office. Outie Irving attends a tense but ultimately rewarding dinner with Burt and his husband, Fields. Before the end, Mark S. took a reckless risk that looked life-threatening.

Plug the AVerMedia Elite Go GC313Pro into a wall socket to charge your Mac or iPad, and then (surprise!) plug an HDMI monitor and USB accessories into it, too. It’s both a charger and a hub in one package, handy for any traveler. Plus, it can charge three devices at once — also great for travelers.

As a bonus feature, the gizmo is also a video capture card. But (spoiler alert) how useful this is for Apple users is questionable.

I tested the various functions of the 4-in-1 charging hub and came away impressed… mostly.

The Apple TV+ original film The Gorge neatly mixes romance and action, with a pair of highly trained agents falling in love while protecting the world from horrible monsters that lie hidden in the depths of the eponymous gorge.

It’s a fun popcorn movie, with stars Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy and Sigourney Weaver giving it their all. There’s plenty to enjoy for those who like action and for those who like romance. Put it on the calendar for your next date night.

That said, it benefits from the lower expectations for a straight-to-streaming film like this one. It’s fun, exciting, sweet … but not perfect.

In our Severance season 2 episode 6 recap of the episode titled “Attila,” we see strange liaisons inside and outside of Lumon Industries. Mark S. and Helly R. get busy in an unused Lumon office. Outie Irving attends a tense but ultimately rewarding dinner with Burt and his husband, Fields. Before the end, Mark S. takes a reckless risk that could be life-threatening.

Last week’s episode 5 brought us back inside Lumon Industries hallways in the aftermath of the ORTBO team-building event out in the wintry woods — and a few steps closer to solving the sinister company’s mysteries.

Released earlier this month, the Alogic Ark Pro power bank is a beast of a charger with a big 27,600mAh battery, up to 140 watts of charging power for MacBooks and other devices, an attached cable and a color display. IATA-compliant, it’s the biggest battery you can take on a plane, according to Alogic. The only question is, would you? It’s pretty hefty.

Dio Node speakers connect to your Wi-Fi network and let you easily stream music, podcasts and more from your iPhone or Mac. Thanks to support for AirPlay, virtually any audio on the device can stream to one or more of these speakers.

I put an array of Node speakers to the test in my house. They invite an immediate comparison to HomePod mini, given the features and price, so I put them up against Apple’s smart speaker, too.

In our Severance season 2 episode 5 recap, the maddeningly mysterious show delivers a somber and tense episode called “Trojan’s Horse.” It picks up the pieces after last week’s not-so-shocking revelation that Helena Eagan had been masquerading as innie Helly R., and Irving B. paid with his innie life to reveal it.

Last week’s episode 4 brought us into a wintry wilderness for the world’s weirdest team-building glamping trip. It turned a spotlight on Irving B. for the first time, but it also showed his likely demise as an innie as he took an uncharacteristically bold stand in the woods. Now he gets a Lumon-style funeral.

Nuvyyo’s Tablo picks up local TV broadcasts and lets you watch or record them on your TV, phone or tablet. As you’ll see in this Tablo TV review, it’s a brilliant solution for cord-cutters who lost access to CBS, ABC, etc., when they dropped their expensive cable subscriptions.

The device costs less than $100, with no subscriptions required and no hidden fees. For this review, I tested the latest Nuvyyo Tablo with my Apple devices and found the over-the-air DVR to be darn good, if not perfect.

The Rolling Square Pocket Travel Charger should make you forget that bulky international charger you used to carry. It offers the plugs needed to juice up your Apple gear in over 200 countries, but is about the same size as single-country chargers… and smaller than many of those.

One version includes a 30W USB-C port, while a second puts out 20W via a USB-C or a USB-A port.

I tested this accessory to be sure it deserves a spot in your luggage.

In our Severance season 2 episode 4 recap, we follow our friends from Lumon Industries’ Macradata Refinement (MDR) department into a wintry wilderness central to Kier Eagan’s lore. In the most bizarre corporate team-building event ever, two of them find forbidden love and one may never return. And it’s the first episode to take place completely outside of Lumon’s halls without visiting outies’ lives.

Last week’s episode 3 went further down innie rabbit holes in amusingly confounding ways. Ultimately, an improved-yet-still-dangerous outlaw reintegration procedure seemed like it might be outie Mark S’s path to returning to his beginnings at Lumon, cracking the sinister company’s mysteries and finding his wife. It made likely plot trajectories a little more clear. But episode 4 actually unravels some mysteries, and gives Irving B. (John Turturro) center stage for the first time.

In our Severance season 2 episode 3 recap, I confess I felt my patience with the endlessly weird show might expire, as yet another maybe-just-weird-for-weird’s-sake thing happened. But then an intriguing puzzle piece appeared, dangled like a treat, and my rising impatience fell away. For now. In a good puzzle-box show, that’s how it works.

Last week’s episode 2 showed what it took, from outies’ perspectives, for Mr. Milchick, Helena Eagan and others to get the innie Macrodata Refinement crew back to work after the Overtime Contingency allowed them temporary freedom. This week’s episode goes further down innie rabbit holes, slowly luring us toward who the hell knows what. But at least there are a lot more goats, and an improved-yet-still-dangerous outlaw reintegration procedure might be outie Mark S’s path to cracking Lumon’s mysteries and finding his wife.

In other words, the whole season’s story arc became more clear in this episode.

As you’ll read in our hands-on review of the BenQ DesignVue PD2730S, this Apple Studio Display alternative offers similar specs at a lower price. The new BenQ display delivers the same 27-inch screen, 5K Retina resolution, frame rate, color gamut and Thunderbolt connectivity as Apple’s pricey monitor.

This formula might ring a bell — BenQ’s new high-end display is the second Studio Display alternative to hit the market. The BenQ display proves nicer than the Asus ProArt 5K I reviewed two months ago, but it also costs more ($1,199 compared to $799).

One thing is for sure: Both are still a steal compared to the Studio Display, which starts at $1,599. Read on to see how these monitors stack up.

In our Severance season 2 episode 2 recap, we discover the lengths to which Lumon Industries went to clean up after the Overtime Contingency (OTC) that enabled the rebelling innies to briefly escape to the outside world at the end of season one.

In last week’s season two debut, the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) crew came back to work on the severed floor. This week’s episode, “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig,” doubles back to show what it took for Mr. Milchick, Helena Eagan and others to get them there. It doesn’t quite have the first episode’s high impact — it brought the show back to us after season one’s climactic cliffhangers three years ago — but it clarifies matters while introducing new questions.

Your iPhone takes beautiful bokeh images, and these look truly astonishing on Looking Glass Go, a display that turns your pictures into 3D holograms. Children, pets, whatever you send to the screen seems to be floating in the frame. No headset or special glasses are necessary.

As cool as the 6-inch photo frame is — and it’s very cool — my time with the product turned up limitations you should consider before purchase.

Perfection is hard to find in life, and so it is with the world’s many and varied earbuds. In my hands-on Edifier Comfo C earbuds review, I look at how the supremely comfortable and secure the clip-on wireless earbuds fit, making them a solid choice for many active users. And yet for me, that same fit keeps the sound quality from being all it could be, which makes me less likely to wear the buds.

After a three-year wait that felt longer than a day working at Lumon Industries, Severance is finally back! The season two premiere, entitled “Hello, Ms. Cobel,” picks up right where we left our favorite corporate drones. In our Severance season 2 episode 1 recap, we look at the fascinating twists and turns that prove the show hasn’t lost its edge. As the season goes on, let’s see if it keeps it.

Are you into exercise and looking for wireless earbuds that’ll take your workout punishment but not break the bank? Look no further than EarFun OpenJump Open-Ear Wireless Earbuds. They aren’t fancy, but the lightweight, hook-on earbuds deliver comfort, security and solid audio without a premium price tag.

Let’s dive into what makes these earbuds, available now for preorder at a substantial discount, stand out in a crowded market.

The espresso Display 15 doubles down on appearance. Not only does it have a great-looking LCD, its aluminum-and-glass exterior makes the screen match a MacBook or iPad perfectly.

Even better, it comes with a clever magnetic stand that can hold the display above your notebook, or beside it if you prefer.

espresso’s 17-inch Pro version from 2023 is the best portable monitor I’ve used, so I went into my review of the smaller version with high expectations.

The mophie Powerstation Plus Ultra plugs directly into a wall, and built-in cables let it plug straight into your iPhone or Mac. But it’s no simple wall adapter — it’s also a 10,000mAh power bank.

I put the all-in-one device to the test. It’s a bit of a brick, but delivers when it counts.

There are so many Apple TV+ shows to look forward to in 2025! There are new seasons of some of the streamer’s best shows coming, along with new series and even a cool-looking film or two. Get ready for dramas, comedies and lots of sci-fi.

Cult of Mac writers picked the Apple TV+ shows we’re most excited about in the coming year. Keep reading or watch our video to fill out your Up Next queue early.

If you’re considering taking part in Dry January, check out these sober apps to help you quit alcohol for the month — and maybe longer. Dry January is a monthlong challenge to abstain from alcohol for the first 30 days of the year. Popular in the United Kingdom and growing worldwide, it’s a great way to reset after the boozy holiday season, giving people a chance to focus on health and well-being.

A lot of people get guidance and support using Dry January apps, aka apps to drink less alcohol, which can also help cut back drinking anytime during the year.