Who doesn’t love saving money, saving space and saving your gadgets from running out of juice? Well, you can do all three at once when you buy a SwitchEasy 4-in-1 MagPower Charging Stand.
The compact charger powers up four devices at once. And you can get it at 30% off in the Cult of Mac Store through 11:59 p.m. PDT Wednesday, August 17, 2022. That’s a savings of about $25 on something you’re likely to use every day.
Apple released two new GarageBand in-app Remix Sessions Wednesday for iOS and iPadOS featuring Katy Perry and K-pop phenom Seventeen.
So now’s your chance to learn how to remix hit songs by superstars on your iPhone or iPad (and you don’t need to be any sort of music pro to do it).
App developer Steve Troughton-Smith raised a few eyebrows recently when he tweeted a photograph of his iPad Pro propped up on a stand and hooked up to a mechanical keyboard that dwarfed it in size. It looked like some ungainly desktop machine of yesteryear.
“The perfect computer doesn’t exist,” the title read.
It would be a stretch to say Troughton-Smith does all his work on that iPad setup, but he does some of it via the tablet, he told Cult of Mac.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few years, you likely already know that the iPhone no longer comes with a headphone jack. And Apple certainly doesn’t ship its smartphones with a free set of AirPods — the third-generation wireless earbuds retail for $179.
Want a more affordable option? Then you might consider these Flux 7 TWS Earbuds, which are on sale now for a wallet-friendly sum of just $25.99 (regularly $99).
iPhones and iPads offer plenty of valuable features, but with the right accessories, you can turn them into bonafide educational tools. For example, this Wi-Fi microscope adds a new dimension to your iOS devices and Macs, turning them into a fun way to explore the world in miniature for $55.95 (regularly $69).
With iOS 16 likely just a month away from release, Apple is picking up the tempo of beta releases of the operating system. Apple seeded iOS 16 beta 6 Monday, a mere seven days after the fifth beta. Along with that increase in release speed, the latest beta packs only minor changes.
As iOS 16 nears its stable launch, we are going to see Apple focus more on squashing bugs and improving the overall stability instead of adding new features or tweaking things around.
Sometimes you want to glam it up a bit, but not so much that you look silly at the laundromat. If you’d like an Apple Watch band that you can look good wearing at the burger joint, the French restaurant and the gala black-tie benefit, look no further. Goldenerre’s Starburst Apple Watch Band has you covered.
And it’s available now for a staggering 66% off in the Cult of Mac Store. That’s a savings of $56!
Amazon surfaced the lowest prices ever on certain 2021 MacBook Pro laptops Tuesday, including 14-inch and 16-inch models. Specifically, there are three options featuring the M1 Pro chip and different sizes of solid state drive (SSD).
If you’re in the market for one of those, act fast. Deals where you can lop $300 off the the usual prices don’t usually last long.
As far as remote file storage goes, iCloud is pretty great. It connects seamlessly to your Apple devices, is reliable and reasonably cheap. But it’s not perfect. For example, if you’re a college student or learning a new skill, you might need more storage space to house all your project files.
For situations like that, Prism Drive makes for an excellent and inexpensive Plan B. And right now, lifetime subscriptions are on sale during our Back to Education event.
No one wants to admit it, but our iPhones can sometimes be black holes. Mobile games and social media can sap our attention and damper our productivity. On the flip side, your smartphone can help bring you to a better headspace and alleviate your stress and anxiety, thanks to all the mindfulness apps you can try.
One example is the Mindfulness.com app. For a limited time, you can purchase a lifetime Plus Plan for $69.99 (regularly $399), courtesy of our Back to Education campaign, which ends August 24.
AirVersa’s new Purelle Smart Air Purifier for HomeKit came out on Amazon in the U.S. on Saturday. According to the company, it’s the first air purifier to support the Thread networking standard.
That Thread support will be important when the Matter home automation standard starts helping devices made by different makers work well together.
If there’s one thing Apple displays are known for, it’s high prices. OK — all joking aside — if there are two things they’re known for, it’s crisp, accurate colors and being worth the price for that level of quality.
After all, those who work or play with graphics, photos, video or animation need great color.
And if you go dual-display, it helps if they’re the same model. Today’s featured Mac Studio setup, for example, corrected mismatched displays and the resulting color inconsistency by adding a second Studio Display.
Two of the best-loved shows on Apple TV+ — Severance and Ted Lasso — took home honors over the weekend from the Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards.
Severance won five awards, including Best Drama, and Ted Lasso won two awards, including Best Comedy. Apple TV+ topped all streaming services with 53 nominations overall.
Your Apple Watch can tell a lot about you — including how well you sleep at night. It offers insight into your sleeping habits, like how many REM cycles you go through each night, your average time in bed and your heart rate when you’re snoozing. You can even set sleep reminders.
But you know what it can’t tell you? Whether you’re snoring (although maybe your partner can answer that question better). If you wake to see your partner irritated in the morning, you may want to curb your snoring with VitalSleep, an anti-snoring device that’s on sale for $64.95 (regularly $99).
In a recent report, Apple outlined the “rigorous scientific validation processes” used to develop the health and fitness features baked into its products.
Wearables like Apple Watch monitor our bodies around the clock, providing health insights in real time. That’s a new and unprecedented development in medical technology. The benefits are already clear, as the report illustrates, with anecdotes about how Apple Watch has saved lives.
But anecdotal evidence is not the same as scientific research. By cherry-picking the best outcomes, anecdotes risk overlooking the bigger picture. Scientists must look at all the outcomes, not just the good ones. With that in mind, I took a closer look at the scientific studies cited in Apple’s report, to find out what they tell us about the impact Apple Watch is having on our health.
This can be a challenging time of the year for children, as school resumes and several necessities are required. Unfortunately, not all households can handle those costs, which include class supplies and daily meals. For a limited time, you can help kids in need through the power of a purchase. During our Back to Education event, when you pick up the Maglight Mini, an eight-in-one utility flashlight, for only $17.99 (reg. $29), a donation will be made to a deserving recipient.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: We’re taking a long look (and listen) at all the hottest new features coming in iOS 16, including the return of the battery percentage indicator. Some of the impending changes look (and sound) great. Others … not so much.
We want two big tweaks: a polished version of the battery percentage indicator, and an iPhone ping that doesn’t sound like garbage. (The existing one is great, and the proposed one is definitely not an upgrade.)
But, hey, there’s still time for Tim Cook’s team of tweakers to bring things up to snuff. In fact, somebody already did the heavy lifting for them on that battery icon (see below)!
American Sign Language is the most-used form of communication for deaf people in the United States, but you don’t have to be hard-of-hearing to find value from it. So whether you want to communicate with the deaf community, become a first responder, do social work or simply pick up a new language, the Complete American Sign Language Master Class Bundle might come in handy. It’s on sale for a limited time for $49.99 (regularly $349).
★★★☆☆
Surface, the Apple TV+ mystery about a woman with no memory, goes tripping in an episode filled with twists, turns, memories and hallucinations.
Sophie has a secret identity. Her husband, James, has a secret file that Baden the cop needs to steal and investigate. And literally nothing is going to go as planned. Sophie treats herself to a little psychotropic therapy when her therapist lets her down.
She learns a little more than she bargained for in this mostly OK episode.
Have you put off learning to code because it’s challenging to get started? There’s a lot to learn, but that’s nothing a good teacher can’t help with. With the 2022 All-in-One Learn to Code Certification Bundle, you can explore several popular coding languages, and that’s just the start.
This training is also price-dropped during our Back to Education promotion, which ends August 24. Get it for only $39.99 (regularly $3,000) — no coupon necessary.
★★★☆☆
Loot, the Apple TV+ sitcom about a rich woman discovering the meaning of life through charity work, finally hits the wall I’ve been waiting for after weeks of politesse and a too-overwhelming fear of the vulgar side of comedy.
In this week’s season finale, Molly and the crew head to Corsica for a billionaire energy summit where she must make an important choice. She must decide between her rich, debonair boyfriend and his million-dollar ideas about conservancy, and her friends who want to do real, on-the-ground work and fight the root causes of the problems facing their neighbors.
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert created a parody Thursday night of the psychological thriller Severance on Apple TV+. The segment’s a must-see for fans of the show, or for fans of nouveu-comedy classic The Office, which figures into the mashup heavily.
I just called Severance a psychological thriller. In his lead-in to the video, which you can watch below, Colbert was probably more accurate.
“Severance is easily one of the top dystopian workplace sci-fi mystery black comedy psychological thrillers I’ve ever seen,” he deadpanned, getting a laugh.
★☆☆☆☆
Apple TV+ series Trying, the James Corden of sitcoms, invents some new fake problems for its characters to solve this week. Tyler bumps his head, Princess steals a solution to an outcast’s problem, Nikki and Karen don’t feel like moms, Jason is disappointed in his son’s taste, and there may be a new wrinkle in the couple’s decision to keep their kids.
The writers also show their Tory hand this week with jabs at all things lower class — except when it’s necessary for our characters to engage in them. Not even a special cameo from a great villainess can lift this week’s offering above pitiful.
With so many people working from home these days, a whole lot of them spend much of their life in one room — wherever the computer setup is, that is. And that’s all the more the case in apartments and small homes. So improving the setup can have a pretty big impact.
In today’s featured Mac Studio setup, swapping out two smaller displays for one bigger one, adding a desk shelf and making a few other changes made quite a difference in enhancing the workspace.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ space opera/soap opera For All Mankind closes its confounding third season this week by introducing us to a new character and a new geopolitical rival for the beleaguered space crews.
In this week’s season three finale, entitled “Stranger in a Strange Land,” Ed Baldwin learns Danny’s terrible secret. Jimmy Stevens hangs out with the wrong crowd for just a few minutes too long. Margo’s in trouble, Kelly’s giving birth, Karen’s making bold choices, and Dev is up a creek.
None of that’s going to matter by this week’s third act, of course. Just you wait and see.