| Cult of Mac

Moft reinforces its 4-in-1 origami folio for iPad with stronger magnets

By

Moft's Snap Float Folio for iPad offers four stand positions.
Moft's Snap Float Folio for iPad offers four stand positions.
Photo: Moft

Moft released its cool, origami-style Snap Float Folio for iPad in 2022, offering a versatile four stand positions for the tablet. Now the company has updated the folio, reinforcing it and adding stronger magnets for a better hold, among other changes.

“In retrospect, yeah, stronger magnets would definitely improve the stand,” said Ed Hardy, Cult of Mac‘s reviewer of the original Snap Float. He loved it then, and it sounds like the new one’s even better.

External monitor, MacBook Pro and iPad all float on one arm [Setups]

By

The external display, MacBook Pro and iPad are all lined up on one mount/arm.
The external display, MacBook Pro and iPad are all lined up on one mount/arm.
Photo: ishyaboiabba@Reddit.com

Today’s featured Mac-and-gaming-PC computer setup pulls off a rare feat. It perfectly aligns three displays on one arm. The displays are a substantial external monitor, a MacBook Pro and an iPad Pro mounted vertically (yet running Sidecar).

Read on for tips on how to pull all that off, as well as tricks to using an iPhone as a mounted webcam and more.

Hey, maybe you can afford a ‘Mini Pro Display XDR’ with your Mac Studio [Setups]

By

It may be small, but it's a Liquid Retina XDR Display.
It may be small, but it's a Liquid Retina XDR Display.
Photo: Tom@bytereview@Twitter

Anyone who buys a desktop Mac or wants a desktop feel using their MacBook is going to need a decent-sized external display. And wouldn’t it be grand if we all had $5,000 to spend on an Apple Pro Display XDR? Well, we don’t. In fact, scratching together enough cash to buy a new, more-affordable Studio Display can feel like a stretch for many folks.

The owner of today’s featured computer setup figured out a clever way to run a brilliant Liquid Retina XDR Display at much less cost with their new Mac Studio. What’s the catch? Well, it’s only a 12.9-inch display. Because it’s an iPad.

Easily mount an iPad to expand your MacBook screen real estate [Deals]

By

Mountie iPad
This grip is optimized to mount large tablet screens to your laptop, for a great multi-screen experience.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Even if we’re not at the office anymore, we’re getting more screen time than ever. From video conferences to streaming shows and, well, working, we’re leaning on our MacBooks more than ever. This tool for attaching tablets and phones to the side of any laptop makes it easy to maximize your digital workspace.

How to use Ableton Live or Logic Pro X on your iPad

By

Ableton Live on the iPad
Yes, that's Ableton Live on the iPad.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Sidecar is the new iOS 13/macOS Catalina feature that lets you use an iPad as an extra display for your Mac. But it also lets you send any app off to your iPad. Then you can wander off and use that app on the iPad, pretty much independently, with the Apple Pencil.

This means you can use some high-level Mac music apps, like Logic Pro X and Ableton Live, on the iPad. There are a couple of catches, but it’s easy to use. In fact, Sidecar is so good that using Mac apps on the iPad like this is actually a viable, sensible option. It’s not just a neat trick that you’ll use once and then forget about.

Sidecar is the closest we’ll get to a touchscreen Mac, and it’s good enough [Opinion]

By

Ableton on Mac and iPad.
Ableton on Mac and iPad.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

We will never see a touchscreen Mac. Apple has made this clear over and over. Whenever one of its executives is asked about a touchscreen Mac in an interview, the answer is always the same: macOS is for trackpads, and iPadOS for is for touch. Combining them would compromise both.

I agree. While I do catch myself tapping the Mac’s screen from time to time, there’s no way I’d want the Mac redesigned for touch. For one thing, you’d lose all the accuracy of the mouse, because clicking targets would have to be big enough for your fingers. But it doesn’t matter, because Apple has already made a touch option for the Mac. It’s Sidecar, and it’s amazing.

How to arrange your iPad’s window in Catalina’s Sidecar

By

Yes, that's Logic Pro X 'running' on an iPad.
Yes, that's Logic Pro X "running" on an iPad in Sidecar.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Sidecar, which lets you use an iPad as an external display for your Mac, is an unexpectedly amazing new feature in macOS Catalina. You just move any window to the iPad, and there it is. You can either mouse over to that window with the Mac, just like using any other external display, or you can pick up an Apple Pencil, and use it in the Mac app, directly from the iPad’s screen. And, like any regular external display, you can choose where the iPad’s screen exists.

Today we’re going to see how to move the iPad’s screen from left to right in the Sidecar setup.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro is amazing, but it’s still a Mac [Review]

By

MacBook Pro review
It's about time!
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

There’s a great Steve Jobs story that somehow seems relevant in a 2019 MacBook Pro review. You probably know it, but I’ll tell it anyway. After the iPad launch, Jobs supposedly walked into a meeting with the Mac team, carrying an iPad. He woke up the iPad, which happened instantaneously. Then he woke up a Mac, which took a while to come out of sleep. Then he asked something like, “Why doesn’t this do that?”

Today, he might take the iPad Pro, and the brand new top-of-the-line MacBook Pro, start them both editing a few images, and wait for the fans to spin up on the Mac. While it cranks up to leaf-blower levels, he’d point at the silent iPad, and make some scathing quip.

The new 16-inch MacBook Pro is an incredible computer that’s let down by the red-hot Intel chips inside. Apple’s cool, fast, super-powerful A-series ARM chips can’t come to the Mac soon enough. Using this Intel machine after using an ARM-powered iPad for several years, the Mac feels like there’s something wrong with it. And yet, barely 24 hours into owning one, I absolutely love it.

macOS Catalina is out with new apps, Apple Arcade, Sidecar and more

By

macOS Catalina is here. But proceed from Mojave with caution.
macOS Catalina is here. But proceed from Mojave with caution.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s big update for Macs, macOS Catalina, is finally out today bringing with it a host of new features, apps, privacy improvements, and much more.

Developers just received the gold master version of macOS Catalina last week, but today’s launch was a bit of a surprise. Anyone that has a compatible Mac can grab the new update from the Mac App Store for free.