Travelers and commuters alike know the importance of items that multitask. If you’re looking to pack light and get from point A to point B with ease, look no further than these multitasking charging accessories. Not only will you save space in your backpack or carry-on, you’ll probably find yourself doing more with less stuff (a welcome plus when you’re hitting the open road). Who could fault an extra little boost of productivity?

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted unanimously Wednesday to increase right to repair regulation stopping businesses from making it difficult for customers to fix their own products. Apple has repeatedly lobbied against right to repair laws around the world.

Back in May, the FTC published a report for Congress in which they listed some of the ways that companies (including Apple) make products tough to repair. These include gluing components together and restricting software and parts needed for carrying out maintenance. President Biden then recently signed an executive order asking the FTC to create new rules to bar these practices.

This appears to be the start of this ruling become more official.

TikTok is big. Almost unfathomably enormous, actually. The product of Chinese parent company ByteDance, the social media video-sharing app has remained a fixture at the top of the App Store charts for more than a year now — with no sign of it losing that position any time soon.

Journalist Chris Stokel-Walker is the author of a new book, titled TikTok Boom: China’s Dynamite App and the Superpower Race for Social Media. It launches today in Europe and worldwide, with a US launch coming September 30.

Stokel-Walker spoke with Cult of Mac about what makes TikTok, well, tick, the app’s face-off with Donald Trump, and why it’s no longer exclusively an app for teens to show off their dance moves.

Antivirus and security programs are essential if you want to keep your Mac working and your information secure. The problem is that many antivirus programs can slow down your computer — and miss actual malware while focusing on nonexistent threats.

The FixMeStick Virus Remover is a unique security device that plugs directly into your Mac, removes any viruses or malware, and can be unplugged until you’re ready to use it again. This exciting device comes in two subscriptions, and both of them are on sale. Get one year of service for three Macs ($29.99) or two years for five Macs ($44.99).

Both macOS Big Sur 11.5 and iPadOS 14.7 made the jump from beta to full release on Wednesday. They bring only a handful of new features, though, as well as bug fixes.

The updates follow several days after the debut of iOS 14.7 for iPhone.

Accessories maker Hyper has launched 65W and 100W HyperJuice chargers — based on power-efficient gallium nitride (GaN) technology — that you can stack to increase power output.

Redditor madeitinthewild makes beautiful music up in Canada. Or he makes music, anyway. Jazz music. You can tell by the assortment of saxophones next to his M1 MacBook Air- and iPad Air 4-based mini music studio. That, and he said so.

“Remember to always practice safe Sax,” came the obligatory jazz-joke comment.

“No way I live on the edge,” replied madeitinthewild, kinda true to his Reddit handle.

Australian outfit Chargeasap is back on crowdfunding site Indiegogo with new high-capacity power banks for charging gadgets on the go. The Flash Pro works for Android and the MagSafe-compatible Flash Pro Plus is designed for Mac.

Even though many companies are beginning to work in person again, working from home isn’t going away anytime soon. Even Apple backtracked on its plan to get employees back in the office.

With WFH still in play, video conferencing and connecting digitally continues to offer a convenient way to interact at a more personal level than a phone call or email. And as online work evolves and grows, the media we use to connect also changes and improves.

ElevenSight is one of the best browser-based web conferencing solutions around, and the best Zoom alternative you’ll find. For a limited time, you can pick from three different ElevenSight subscription plans — E-Line, Starter and SMB. They’re all lifetime plans, and they’re all on sale now.

Apple’s next-gen AirPods, the third iteration of the company’s regular AirPods, will go into production next month, Nikkei Asia reported Wednesday.

This would be the first upgrade for Apple’s standard issue AirPods since the second-gen version debuted March 2019. The original AirPods made their debut in December 2016.