straps

The internet is going crazy over the Apple Vision Pro’s new Dual Knit Band, with AI users creating increasingly fantastical mutant versions of the distinctive-looking strap.

The craze started with people turning the white knit headband into a head-covering hat, but kicked into overdrive after X.com user John Dagdelen posted an image Sunday of a samurai warrior dressed head-to-toe in Vision Pro-inspired armor.

“We are not thinking big enough,” Dagdelen said in his X.com post. Dagdelen, founder of the Fluid operating system for VR headsets, who said he used ChatGPT to create the Vision Pro samurai image.

His AI creation clearly inspired others to think bigger … or at least weirder.

A wild array of AI creations followed, including some that animated Dagdelen’s samurai. The jokesters envisioned all sorts of bizarre designs and uses, from Star Wars characters to high-fashion gowns and handbags. There’s even an automotive design where the lenses make up a car’s front grill and headlights.

“There are some pretty creative ones,” Dagdelen told Cult of Mac.

Many people associate leather and stainless steel with watch bands for both analog and smart watches, but nylon seems to be on the rise for a lot of good reasons. Straps like the Carterjett Nylon Apple Watch Band offer lightweight comfort, flexibility and waterproof durability that looks good in a lot of situations.

And you can get the Carterjett Nylon Apple Watch Bands in 11 color choices from just $32.99 in the Cult of Mac Store.

You probably spend a fair chunk of change on your Apple Watch and you should take care to protect it — especially if you’re the sort of person who does a number on watches.

If you really want to safeguard it, you could get a rugged case and band combo like the one Elago makes.

You can find the Elago Armor Case Apple Watch Band in the Cult of Mac Store for just $15.

There are few things more classic than a watch band made of supple Italian leather. And the Cult of Mac Store has a great one on sale right now for your Apple Watch, at 35% off (that’s a savings of $26).

The Italian Leather Band by Olpr is not only a classic leather band, it’s also colorful. You can get it in red, teal, yellow and orange.

Everyone knows leather Apple Watch bands are a timeless class-act, long-popular for a variety of reasons. But which kind of leather matters, too. One type might be quite durable but stiff, needing breaking in. Another type might be incredibly soft and supple from the get-go.

One option for the latter type would be ostrich leather. And while it’s always a premium choice, the Cult of Mac Store has a beautiful band for a surprisingly affordable price.

Delicate pastel hues aren’t just for Easter eggs and watercolor paintings. When applied to your Apple Watch as a band, a pastel color can seriously brighten up your wrist and freshen up your whole look.

If you’ve had enough of the basic blacks and browns, you can get the Laut Huex Pastels Apple Watch Band for just $30 in the Cult of Mac Store.

Apple Watch makes for a great activity and health tracker, whether you’re just going for a stroll or sweating serious bullets at the gym. But you don’t necessarily want a heavy steel band or a fine leather strap with that, though, do you? You want something designed for exercise. Something light and flexible.

That something is the Laut Active Apple Watch Band. It’s so smooth and light you may forget you’re wearing it, except when its vibrant color catches your eye.

Nothing beats the classic style and comfort of a premium leather Apple Watch band. And calfskin leather typically makes for an especially supple version of the classic strap.

If you’re looking to upgrade the look and feel of your wrist, check out the Speidel Sport Calf Skin Leather Apple Watch Band. You can get a good price on it in the Cult of Mac Store.

Evoking nostalgia for 1960s and 1970s motorsports with their distinctive perforations, leather rally watch bands pair beautifully with rugged chronograph watches and smartwatches alike.

BluShark’s trio of leather rally Apple Watch bands, for example, make quite the racy statement.

Your car may not be all that fast, but if you want to feel like Steve McQueen getting behind the wheel, check out BluShark’s leather rally Apple Watch band collection in the Cult of Mac Store.

In the world of watch bands, nylon is sometimes overlooked in favor of steel, leather or silicone, but it’s an exceptionally good material for the job. That’s true of analog timepieces as well as smart watches like Apple Watch.

Done right, nylon is soft, comfortable and durable. It’s breathable and it dries quickly, too. It often doesn’t even look like nylon, either.

And if you can find a nylon band that looks and feels a lot like a knit weave fabric, all the better. But look no further, because the popular brand BluShark sells a selection of them in the Cult of Mac Store at a good price.

The Cult of Mac Watch Store is hosting a huge sale on gorgeous Carterjett bands for Apple Watch this Labor Day weekend. You can enjoy 20% off all models until September 3.

It’s the perfect time to treat yourself to a sweet new style at a great price.

Best List: Gordy’s Camera Straps

Considering my Sony RX100 cost about 40 times more than a garden variety point-and-shoot camera, I’d expect it to come with a quality strap. But it does not. It comes with a shoelace attached to a string.

I wanted a strap I could securely attach to the tiny ring, let hang out from my bicycle jersey pocket, and slip my hand through for easy access.

While sifting through Sony camera internet forums, I discovered Gordy’s. And I’m ecstatic I did.

Nikon might be content to lose out to its competitors in every field except SLR bodies and lenses, but it beginning a big comeback, starting at the very top – literally. Two new camera straps – the Quick-Draw and the Quick-Draw S – are made in partnership with Black Rapid, and promise to let you never buy a third-party camera strap ever again.

How about an iPad accessory so dorky, so unashamedly utilitarian that even the Android-using Killian Bell just dared me to wear one around this year’s Mobile World Congress? Interested? Good. It’s the Survivor Harness from Griffin, and it is so named becasue if you wear it, you’ll struggle to survive the taunts and humiliation it will surely bring.

Meet the Miggo, a camera strap that wraps around your camera to make a protective case. If that gets you as excited as it makes me, then keep reading.

If you can get over the fact that you’re paying $89 for a strip of paracord with a pair of leather end caps, you are going to love Killspencer’s new camera strap: it’s absolutely gorgeous, and probably weighs less than your iPod nano.

Boy, things are really heating up in the minimalist heck-with-all-this-crap-I-only-want-to-carry-one-thing space. Earlier this week, Distil Union unveiled Wally, basically a strip of leather that clings tenaciously to the back of your iPhone, with a small cavity you can fill with cards or cash.

But the $35 Crossover, created over at crowdsource-design site Quirky, looks like it might be even more minimalist than Wally — it’s just two silicone straps that grip the edges of your iPhone. And it comes in all kinds of colors to boot.

I can’t be the only person who took a look at the new iPods’ wrist straps and thought, “I want that for my iPhone.” I’m forever pulling my iPhone 5 from my pocket to snap something for Instagram, and it’d be totally neat if I could just keep the thing in my hand instead, and never have to worry about dropping it.

Happily, the fine folks at Photojojo also felt the persistent pull of gravity and did something about it. Presenting: The iPhone Wrist Strap.

I hate camera straps. I’m forever taking one off and threading another one through the camera’s eyelets or hooking up some device to the tripod screw or just wrapping a neck strap around my wrist. For something that’s so simple, and has been around for so long, the camera strap sure is a badly-designed piece of junk.

The Leash, on the other hand (or other shoulder), is an attempt to combine all straps ever into one ultra-versatile sling. Does it work? Let’s see.

Back in June, when I first reviewed the C-Loop camera strap mount from Custom SLR ($40), my favorite camera strap and mount was actually the RS-5 system from a company called Black Rapid. But since those long summer days, though I still really love the RS-5, I’ve noticed that the C-Loop has really grown on me and has become my de-facto strap mount.

After three months of use, I think I now know why, and in that time, I’ve also been able to identify some C-Loop issues my first review period was unable to reveal.

I don’t own a necktie, and I haven’t been clean-shaven since sometime in the mid-to-late 1990s. But that doesn’t mean I can’t brush up nice and get all dressed up from time to time. Which is why I’m seriously considering one of Photojojo’s smart-looking Camera Strap Neckties.

Oh, man. We’ve seen some dorky iPad accessories in our time, but none has managed to be both embarrassing and stylish at the same time. The GoPad performs this seemingly impossible feat, and adds a little bit of campness at the same time.