This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Apple’s electric self-driving car project apparently just landed a bigwig from Lamborghini. Does this mean the hiding-in-plain-sight Apple car is back on track?

Also on The CultCast:

• Why we didn’t see an M1 Mac Pro — and why we never will.
• Saudi Arabia’s crazy glass building sounds unbelievable.
• Anker makes GaN charging even faster and more efficient.
• The EU’s new Digital Markets Act could bring big changes for Apple and the App Store.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video livestream, embedded below.

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Apple Watches are fantastic, but they’re also pretty expensive starting at $399 for a Series 7. Luckily, there are Apple Watch alternatives that get the job done and look great at the same time. The C-Max Chrono-Max Smartwatch is an affordable Apple Watch alternative that comes in black, teal, rose and pink, and for a limited time, all colorways are on sale for $34.99 (regularly $219).

Apple TV+ miniseries Black Bird finally reveals the killer this week, along with the evidence that might hang him … or might not be enough to do anything but frustrate the people working to expose him.

Superlative work from actors Paul Walter Hauser, Ray Liotta and Laney Stiebing in the episode, titled “The Place I Lie,” pulls the show into greatness just before its final installment.

Black Bird covered a lot of ground in a little time — and now it’s time to bring it home.

For All Mankind has a Martian crisis on its hands this week’s episode, “The Sands of Ares.” Ed and Danny are trapped, Danielle has to come get them, and Karen, Jimmy, and Amber wait on tenterhooks for news of the rescue.

It’s all hands on deck at NASA in the meantime, in the Apple TV+ space soap. People start confessing dark things as they face down death. And there may not be enough people left to make any sense of the Mars mission when it’s over.

Apple TV+’s Physical, the story of would-be workout icon Sheila Rubin, is in recovery this week. Can Sheila finally combat her inner critic? Can she make Danny forgive her? Will she make friends at a retreat? Can she finally be honest with herself about her life and her problems and her image of herself?

The answers probably won’t shock you in this perfectly ordinary episode.

iPad shipments declined modestly in the Q2 2022, but not because people don’t want Apple tablets. iPad is still suffering from component shortages that slow production.

This was the second quarter in a row that Apple couldn’t make enough iPadOS units to meet demand.

Apple TV+ family comedy Trying goes camping this week, and Nikki and Jason discover their strengths and weaknesses as parents by listening to things their kids need.

Elsewhere, Freddy hijacks an AA meeting to bore them with his everyday transgressions, Karen is pregnant and Scott is an idiot. More glaring than any plot point is a gaffe that hints at the hollowness at this story’s core. It is a long half-hour.

With a new school year looming, it’s time to celebrate educators. Apple TV+ did just that Friday when it dropped a trailer for Lucy’s School, an all-new Peanuts special that debuts on the streaming service August 12.

For those who grew up with Peanuts, it’s comforting that the classic series based on classic Charles M. Schulz comics lives on. Lucy’s School adds to the growing list of seasonal features following Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy and the rest of the gang.

iPhone shipments grew 3.3% year over year during the second quarter of 2022, according to a market-research firm. That’s in contrast to the global smartphone market, which declined 7%.

Apple made up 16% of the total market, its highest second-quarter performance in more than a decade.

Glossy mystery series Surface gets off to a bumpy, soapy start this week on Apple TV+. Gugu Mbatha-Raw (who you might know from The Morning Show) stars as Sophie, a woman who lost her memory after what could have been an accident or a suicide attempt.

Like Truth Be Told, another Apple TV+ series from producer Reese Witherspoon, this one is a prestige look at a woman undergoing a lot of changes in her life as the result of crime … or is it?