Mac - page 7

Dear university students: While it’s tempting to buy the hot new MacBook Air, doing so would mean a huge loss of flexibility. You simply don’t need to pay hundreds of dollars more for a laptop that’s less versatile. An iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard and Pencil fits your needs much better, especially now that it has the very same M2 chip inside.

And beyond the versatility, the whole iPad lineup can do just about everything you can expect a Mac to do every day.

To be clear, there are exceptions to this — some students really do need a Mac. But odds are you’re not one of them.

Dear university students: While it’s tempting to buy the top-tier MacBook Pro, it would be a huge waste of money. You simply don’t need to pay an extra $1,000 or more for a notebook that powerful. A MacBook Air fits your needs much better, especially now that there’s a 15-inch version.

And beyond the higher price, the increased performance of the MacBook Pro comes with a drawback you’ll notice every day.

To be clear, there are exceptions for this — some students really do need a MacBook Pro. But odds are you’re not one of them.

August 7, 2006: Apple unleashes the first Mac Pro, a high-end desktop computer that completes the company’s transition from PowerPC to Intel processors.

Built for computation-heavy tasks like 3D rendering and professional audio and video editing, the quad-core, 64-bit Mac Pro serves as a replacement for the Power Mac G5 (from which it borrows its aluminum “cheese grater” design).

Apple is working on a slew of M3-powered Macs for late 2023 and 2024, and the latest mystery machine spotted on developers’ logs appears to be a new Mac mini.

The M3 chip, the next-gen Apple silicon that will power these Macs, should be based on the 3nm node, offering superior performance and efficiency.

The number of people subscribing to Apple services passed the 1 billion mark during the company’s most recent financial quarter, allowing that segment of the company to bring in record revenue.

But total revenue decreased slightly during the June quarter, the third time that’s happened in a row. And the money coming in from all Apple’s hardware groups is down.

Need to buy a new laptop for your school or college before the sessions begin? There’s no better laptop for you than Apple’s M2 MacBook Air.

If you are ready to pull the trigger now, Best Buy is offering a sweet $150 off the machine. So, you can get the slim and powerful 13-inch Air for just $949.

A security company recently asked OpenAI’s ChatGPT about Mac threats online and used the results to uncover some scary malware for sale from Russia on the dark web.

At a price of $60,000, it can give an attacker total control of someone’s Mac. A more damaging version is available for $80,000.

In any case, if the malware gets on your Mac, you won’t know it’s there, it’s very hard to get rid of, and it can steal a lot of your information. Luckily, you can probably avoid it.

If you’re on the road a lot for work, you know your computer accessories — like chargers and cables — can take a beating. That’s why Elago now offers its MacBook Charger Cable Management Case.

Want to extend the life of your charger and cable? Check out the clever new Mac cable case, which costs just $14.99 in the Cult of Mac Store.

It happens every year. The summer flies by, and before you know it, the words “back to school” are popping up everywhere. We know that pain.

It’s smart to get ahead of the back-to-school shopping game and snag supplies early, especially when those supplies are a great deal, like this refurbished MacBook Air. Get one through August 13 for just $299.99 and cross one thing off your list now.

July 29, 1993: Apple releases the Macintosh Centris 660av, a computer packed with innovative audiovisual features. These include an AppleVision monitor with microphone and speakers, and a port that can work as a modem with a telecom adapter. It also comes with the first Apple software to recognize and synthesize speech.

At the relatively low price of $2,489, this was one of the first great affordable multimedia Macs.

Keyboard shortcuts are a great way to speed yourself up when you’re using a Mac. Mastering them means more time spent getting things done and less time spent moving your hands back and forth between keyboard and trackpad.

There are the basics like Command-C and Command-V for copy and paste; Command-B, Command-I and Command-U for bold, italics and underline; Command-Z and Shift-Command-Z for undo and redo. But for a lot of people, that’s where their knowledge ends.

You can do so much more than you may know. Here’s a guide to the best Mac keyboard shortcuts.

Arc is a new kind of web browser that recently launched for Mac. It breaks free of the conventional tabbed window design with an all-new approach to organizing your internet activity without slowing you down along the way.

The top talent at The Browser Company, Arc’s developer, are taking bold approaches behind the scenes as well. The Windows version won’t be rewritten in C++ as with most Windows programs. Instead, the team is creating a custom toolkit to compile its code in Apple’s Swift language on Windows.

You can download Arc here for free from The Browser Company.

July 26, 2005: Apple debuts the opaque white iBook G4, the last of its laptops to launch under the iBook name.

The portable computer adds Apple’s scrolling trackpad for the first time. It also incorporates Bluetooth 2.0 as a standard feature, and becomes the last Apple laptop with a PowerPC chip.

Alogic’s new Quad Display Universal Docking Station delivers up to dual 4K and dual 1080p output for creatives and other professionals who need ample screen real estate in their computer setups.

To be precise, that’s four screens for Windows, while Mac users can connect up to three screens. In any case, the DUCDV4, introduced Wednesday by Alogic, connects your other peripherals and powers your laptop, too.

July 24, 2006: The world gets its first glimpse of Apple’s new wireless Mighty Mouse, a multibutton Bluetooth device with super-accurate laser tracking.

Photos of the accessory come to light through an Apple filing with the Federal Communications Commission. Apple will launch the device the very next day.

A version of the inexpensive Mac mini desktop upgraded with a faster Apple M3 processor will not be on the market for over a year, according to a reliable source.

However, there are other Macs with the M3 chip expected before the end of 2023.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: The latest rumors point to impressive iPhone upgrades on the horizon. Stacked batteries might deliver the holy grail of longer battery life as early as this year. And in 2024, the iPhone Pro Max camera might graduate to a mind-blowing 12x zoom. Excuse if we’re a little excited!

Also on The CultCast:

• A secret project dubbed “Apple GPT” might make Apple’s products better — even Siri!
• If you’re not taking advantage of Continuity features, you’re doing Apple wrong.
• Sounds like we’ll be waiting quite a while for a truly pro Mac Pro.
• How in the world did Goldman Sachs lose so much money on Apple Card?!?

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 live stream, embedded below.

July 22, 1997: Apple unveils Mac OS 8, its next-gen operating system. The first major operating system refresh for Macintosh since System 7’s release in 1991, it’s destined to become a big hit with users.

Mac OS 8 introduces easier surfing of the internet, a new three-dimensional look and other features. It gets great reviews — but arrives at a very challenging time for Apple.

July 21, 1999: The iBook, Apple’s colorful clamshell laptop that’s a hybrid of the iMac and the PowerBook, arrives and launches a Wi-Fi revolution.

Apple’s new AirPort networking card is the key component that delivers cable-free internet access to the masses for the first time.

Apple’s M1 MacBook Air was available for just $749.99 on Prime Day earlier this month. In case you missed that deal, Amazon is again discounting the machine to $749, knocking a staggering $250 off its retail price.

If you need a new laptop, this is the deal you should not miss. At $749.99, the M1 MacBook Air provides one of the cheapest ways to get into Apple’s ecosystem.

There are a bunch of not-great apps like Spotify and Slack that suck battery life, because they basically run a full copy of Google Chrome inside each window. Chrome is a notorious energy hog, and running multiple copies of its Blink engine inside four different apps can take unnecessary memory and resources.

But you can create your own, much better versions using web apps in the upcoming release of macOS Sonoma.

Web apps in Sonoma are easily made directly in Safari and live in your Mac’s Dock. For apps that you use every day, like Spotify, Discord and Slack, it’s easier to launch them from the Dock and move them around separately from your browser tabs.

Safari web apps won’t drain your battery and they’re incredibly easy to use. Although they can be launched and quit independently from Safari, they share the same system resources, so they barely make a splash on performance.

Let me show you how they work.

An anonymous tipster has bad news for the Mac Pro: Apple apparently has no plans to keep working on the scrapped chip that would have doubled the machine’s power. Development on Apple silicon is reportedly set all the way through the M5 generation.

There’s a beacon of hope, though. Multi-die packaging — technology being developed that could see the light of day around the M8 chip — eventually might give the Mac Pro the power it deserves. However, at Apple’s current pace, that’s at least six years away.

We’ve got an exciting giveaway this week in partnership with Harber London! One lucky winner will have the chance to score a sleek leather laptop folio that’s perfect for a MacBook (or other laptop between 11 inches and 16 inches). How cool is that?

You’ll be spoiled for choice with four classic colors to choose from: tan, black, navy and deep brown. And trust us, this genuine full-grain leather folio ages beautifully over time, giving it a stylish and unique look no matter which color you go for. Plus, starting at just $132 and with free tracked delivery, it’s a steal. But it’s even better if you win!

July 18, 1994: Apple launches the Quadra, Performa and LC 630 Macintoshes, three similar computers with slight differences tailored for the professional, home and educational markets.

Buyers can configure the new 630 series Macs for less than $2,000. Today, the idea of paying more than $4,100 (adjusted for inflation) for a decent multimedia computer sounds over the top. But in 1994, these new Macs looked like a total steal.

July 17, 2002: Apple ships a new super-sized iMac G4, offering a 17-inch widescreen LCD display that becomes the envy of most computer users at the time.

“The best consumer desktop just got even better,” says Steve Jobs of Apple’s new all-in-one computer in a press release. “Having this gorgeous 17-inch flat screen floating in mid-air right in front of you is simply breathtaking. There’s nothing like it in the PC world.” He wasn’t wrong!