Reviews - page 30

In the ongoing mania for wireless earbuds and headphones, it’s easy to forget that their older wired siblings still have distinct advantages — namely, great sound for less money.

With no need to worry about analog-to-digital conversion and compression for Bluetooth, wired-gear manufacturers can focus on audio quality at a good price.

New York City-based Strauss & Wagner sent me a pair of its EM205 wired earbuds to try out, and they didn’t disappoint. You can find cheaper wired earbuds with good sound, but you can’t really go wrong with these for $39.95. They feature excellent balance and clarity with a comfortable fit and good build quality.

Apple TV+’s newest limited series Black Bird hits its stride in a strong third installment.

Prison guards and inmates hound undercover informer Jimmy Keene as he tries to get close to suspected serial killer Larry Hall. McCauley and Miller search for harder evidence as time slips away from them. And outside prison walls, Big Jim is in a bind that affects little Jim.

Black Bird still has a little ways to go to be truly great, but so far this is a promising look at guys at the end of their ropes looking for a way out of very bad circumstances that they brought on themselves.

In this week’s episode of Physical, Apple TV+’s death trip in spandex pumps the brakes to reconsider its priorities.

Aerobics star Sheila breaks her contract, reconnecting with Danny and Greta as she plots her next big move. But she remains selfish at heart, so nothing goes quite the way any of them had planned. Meanwhile, John and Maria plot one last attempt at salvation.

This week’s episode, titled “Don’t Try This at Home,” delivers some of the highest highs of the season, but still manages to blow a commanding lead in the home stretch.

The SwitchEasy Odyssey 3-in-1 Lanyard Shockproof Case protects an iPhone 13 in two ways. A removable strap helps you keep hold of the device, and the case is designed to absorb the shock if you drop your handset anyway.

I put my own iPhone in this hard case to see how it stood up to real-world use. Here’s why there’s a lot to like about it.

The Loot crew dons black tie and tails for a humanitarian gala this week. Billionaire divorcee Molly is being honored, hit on and insulted all at once. Arthur is starstruck. Howard is in crisis. And Nicholas is just happy to be in a tuxedo surrounded by rich people again.

The Apple TV+ comedy swings hard for big moments of personal empowerment through kindness and self-respect. That’s all well and good, but I came to this show for something a little more caustic.

Apple TV+’s For All Mankind finally made it to Mars! Still, it’s pretty much business as usual this week, what with Americans and Russians bickering and making back-alley deals, and men being boorish and short-tempered and proud of nothing.

On Earth, U.S. President Ellen Wilson must deal with gays in the military right on schedule. And on Mars, Danny’s going nuts, Ed and his adopted daughter Kelly meet, and the Russians find water — and vodka!

A perfectly OK episode of the alt-history space show is made all the more frustrating by its flashes of greatness.

The OWC MiniStack STX is just the right size to stack with a Mac mini. The hub adds three Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports that can be hooked to high-resolution displays and external drives.

It also includes bays for SATA and/or NVMe M.2 drives. That’s space for up to 18TB of storage. Install your own drives or buy them from OWC.

I put the powerful accessory for Mac or iPad to the test over several weeks of daily use.

The first reviews of the M2 MacBook Air praise its slimmer design and speedy M2 processor. “Apple’s near-perfect Mac,” says Engadget.

Sometimes reviews are a mix of positives and negatives. Not this time – reviewers found very little to criticize in Apple’s newest notebook.

Twitter might be going through a turbulent time, but for many of us in the tech community, it remains our de facto town square — a place where we can meet to share our views, opinions and hopes.

Like most of us here at Cult of Mac, I’ve been using Twitter for years. And although I’ve switched between clients more than a handful of times, my favorite Twitter app is Twitterrific.

In fact, I’d even say that Twitterrific is the best Twitter client for iPhone and iPad. Stick around to find out why.

In “Seven Minutes of Terror,” Apple TV+ alt-history space race show For All Mankind returns this week to where it left off last season, with America and Russia once more holding hands begrudgingly to fix some space problems.

Ed and Karen have the same trouble with authority. Danny’s cracking up. Margo’s head is in a noose. Kelly’s got a crush. And Sojourner 1 suffers from a serious a problem.

Behind the scenes, WALL-E helmer Andrew Stanton directs this week. His brand of post-classical Hollywood craftsmanship is much appreciated, if also a sad sign of where we are as a country.

Apple TV+ comedy Loot takes a spa day today as Molly tries to relive her old lifestyle without her old life, and the rest of the office bonds over shared drinks and massages. Arthur and Molly think about each other more than friends do, but everywhere she goes reminds her of the life she lost to a younger model.

The show continues to make good inroads on character dynamics. However, Loot needs a little electricity in the writing to keep it from feeling like just another sitcom.

Apple TV+’s Physical has an incurable itch to break free this week. Both Sheila’s and John’s spouses know something is up. They try to help, but they can’t — because there’s no cure for being blackmailed by a vindictive Bunny.

John stares a new life in the face, a real one and an imaginary one. Sheila contemplates becoming an even worse version of herself. And Danny’s out of luck in every way he can be.

Brace yourself for more of the same bad behavior in this week’s episode, entitled “Don’t You Have Enough.”

Black Bird, the new Apple TV+ series about an inmate tasked with cozying up to a suspected serial killer, begins as a blustery and entirely too familiar tale of bad men doing bad things, without much to distract from the cliches.

However, armed with an impressive cast and crew — and one of the last performances by the great Ray Liotta — it eventually slots itself into good procedural habits.

The limited series, based on James Keene’s memoir In With the Devil: A Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption and developed by crime novelist Dennis Lehane, premieres Friday on Apple TV+. The first two episodes start off wobbly, but then chart a path toward true-crime greatness.

Slip the KYY 15.6-inch 1080P USB-C Portable Monitor in the same bag as your notebook and you can always count on having more screen space to work.

M1 iPad users looking forward to external display support should also think about this screen. Or attach it to your Switch for more fun on the run.

I used KYY’s monitor for a couple of weeks. Here’s why I find it surprisingly good.

From Irish folklore to ’60s New York, from culture clashes to meteors, here is a list of the very best films on Apple TV+ so far.

You can divine the company’s best impulses by seeing the best films it acquired, from arcane, auteurist curiosities and thoughtful genre pieces to documentaries that attempt to break free from the usual niches.

1980s aerobics nightmare Physical goes in circles this week as Bunny and Tyler engage in surveillance for subterfuge, John and Sheila seek outside help, and Danny gets a hard dose of reality from Wanda.

In the episode, entitled “Don’t You Want to Watch,” the Apple TV+ series falls back into a familiar rut of Sheila facing problems and somehow solving them, with too little suspense and zero empathy generated for its ghoulish cast of characters.

Physical needs a Hail Mary in the worst way.

Apple TV+’s lunar headache For All Mankind is headed to Mars for real this time. Three competing spaceships strive to make it to the red planet first to win a huge cash prize.

NASA holds some tricks up its sleeve to beat the wilier competition, but you can’t count out the Russians just yet. They’re always willing to do something stupid to make headlines. A mostly fine episode ends on a nice little cliffhanger to boot.

With Twitter killing off TweetDeck for Mac today, users who didn’t plan ahead might be scrambling for options to manage their feeds.

While TweetDeck will continue to function on the web, many power users prefer a native Mac app. Luckily, you can find several worthy TweetDeck alternatives for Mac users that will help you get a handle on your Twitter obsession.

Known for speakers and headphones with high-quality sound at affordable places, China-based Edifier plans to release a new set of true wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC) this month, the NeoBuds S. They closely track the look and feel of the well-regarded, high-resolution NeoBuds Pro the company rolled out in July 2021 — but with some promised improvements.

Edifier sent Cult of Mac a set of NeoBuds S to try out and see how well the company’s beefed-up noise cancellation and sound quality perform, among other features.

New Apple TV+ comedy  Loot goes into damage-control mode this week, as a theme park that Molly owns undergoes a public disaster and the billionaire must take stock of her post-divorce holdings.

Sofia goes to an important meeting, Nicholas goes to an important audition, and Arthur goes to a suddenly important soccer game. The show settles into a comfortable groove as it gives everyone an archetype to play with around dependable star Maya Rudolph.

After a year on the road and almost 600 miles, I’ve gotten to know the RadWagon 4. And no joke, this electric cargo bike played a part in my family deciding to sell our second vehicle.

For the power, price, versatility and build quality, I don’t think there’s a bike on the road that beats the RadWagon. This is the bike I recommend to everyone who wants a way to scoot around without a car, with enough space to carry cargo, one or two kids, packages, groceries or anything in between.

In a world awash in earbuds, it’s not easy for lower-end products to keep their heads above water. But some manage to do it through solid overall quality and a good feature spread, like the new Ugreen T3 HiTune ANC Wireless Earbuds.

They’re not going to compete with many products at mid-to-high price points, like AirPods Pro and competitors. But the T3s offer bass to burn, an OK fit and a range of solid features at $40.

What you don’t get is top-notch sound across all frequencies, stellar ANC or a sense of tremendous build quality.

The Samsung USB Type-C Flash Drive adds up to 256GB of additional storage to Mac desktops and notebooks as well as most types of iPad. It can be easily switched among all of these, and other computers, too.

I tested the tiny drive with multiple devices, and it stood up quite well. Here’s why I love this speedy little accessory.

Apple TV+ murder mystery Now and Then draws to a simmering close this week.

Pedro has lost his campaign, but there’s always more to lose. Ana is ready to turn on him. Sofia’s troubles catch up with her. Marcos suspects his father. Flora suspects her best friend. Hugo suspects Sofia. And there’s only an hour to wrap things up.

It’s been a marvelous bit of sensationalism from start to finish. If we get a second season of this bilingual thriller, it will be a welcome development.

Apple TV+ alt-history hit For All Mankind makes all the right moves this week, then immediately blows a 26-point lead in the last inning.

For once, the dramatic arcs thrown at Margo, Karen, Dev, Aleida and Kelly all seem pretty satisfying and not at all cheap or hyperbolic. Then the writers ensure we won’t see how any of that plays out, instantly turning this from one of the show’s best episodes into its most frustrating yet.

But hey, at least we’re going to Mars, I guess.