Shopping on a budget is tough, and it doesn’t get easier when you’re planning to feed a fleet of holiday guests flying into town soon. Friends and family are on their way, and it’s time to find out how you will fill your table with tasty treats without breaking the bank.

With a Costco Gold Star Membership, you can find shelves of enticing ingredients and premade delectables to serve your guests. And for a limited time, you can get a one-year Costco Gold Star Membership for $60 — and it comes with a complimentary $30 Digital Costco Shop Card.

How much would you pay for a used pair of shoes? A few bucks, probably. What if they were owned by Steve Jobs? The amount you might be willing to put down surely goes up quite a bit. But would it go up to almost $220,000?

That’s what a pair of Birkenstocks owned by the Apple co-founder sold for over the weekend.

Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack for iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 is down to its lowest price ahead of Black Friday. The battery pack is available for $71 — a massive 28% off its $99 MSRP.

This is the cheapest price Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack has dropped to so far. Stocks are unlikely to last long, so make sure to place an order before the deal expires.

There are plenty of nylon and canvas Apple Watch bands out there, but they don’t all have Fortitude. Tefeca Fortitude, that is. It’s a line of extra-tough and handsome bands that are super-comfortable — especially the Ultra Wide versions, which are as wide as an Apple Watch Ultra case.

And a wide band isn’t just comfortable. It offers a distinctive, masculine look — like you’re on a mission.

And if you act fast, you can get a great discount on the bands in a variety of styles, colors and sizes. See below.

Over the years, numerous celebrities have been caught promoting flagship Android phones on Twitter while tweeting from their iPhones. This could soon become a thing of the past, due to a change proposed by Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

The new Twitter owner plans to remove the “Twitter for iPhone” or “Twitter for Android” label below each tweet.

If you find yourself nodding along to a conversation you can only half hear, the reason might be a buildup of earwax. Earwax impaction is one of the most common causes of hearing loss. If you want an at-home method that can help prevent earwax buildup from getting out of hand, then you need a tool that lets you clean it yourself.

The Smart Visual Ear Cleaner is part camera, part wax scoop tool, and it’s on sale for $34.95 (regularly $39) for a limited time.

A class-action lawsuit filed in California alleges that, “Apple’s assurances and promises regarding privacy are utterly false.”

The lawsuit is based on the work of a security researcher who claims that many of Apple’s own applications send detailed analytics information to the developer even after users ask them to stop.

Apple job listings offer a peek into the development of the company’s long-rumored AR headset. Cupertino seemingly wants to create augmented reality and 3D content for its mixed-reality device, which could arrive in early 2023.

More importantly, one posting indicates Apple could be working on a metaverse competitor.

There’s a cholera outbreak this week on Apple TV+ epic Shantaram, and impostor doctor Lin Ford finds himself in the thick of it. If he saves lives, he’ll become a hero. If he doesn’t, he’ll be a pariah.

Meanwhile, Lisa and Karla make business arrangements that threaten relationships with the people closest to them. Abdullah gives Maurizio an ultimatum, Khan gives the competition a scare, and Lin must make some very hard choices.

It’s another gripping episode of the Bombay-set thriller.

With the FIFA World Cup a week away, the latest version of the Sega’s hugely popular sports management game Football Manager 2023 launched for a range of Apple devices. Play to find out if you have what it takes to take a club to the top.

It’s available as a stand-alone app or as part of Apple Arcade.