We had a fabulous Thanksgiving at my house yesterday, and for those of you in the United States, I hope that you were able to enjoy some time with family and/or friends. Of course, that means that today is Black Friday. The most impressive Apple-related sale right now is that you can get the new, top-of-the-line AirPods 2 Pro for almost $100 off on Amazon, an all-time low price of only $153.99. That is a crazy low price for one of the very best products that Apple makes. I use mine all the time at work, either connected to my PC to use during video conferences or connected to my iPhone to use for phone calls. And when I'm not working, I use them all the time to listen to podcasts or music on my iPhone, watch movies or TV shows on my Apple TV or my iPad, and with my Apple Vision Pro. The "Pro" model is so much better than regular AirPods because of the fantastic noise reduction, the touch controls, the longer battery life, and the soft tips that for many people are so much more comfortable than the hard tips of regular AirPods. Moreover, you can change the tips if you want to get an even better fit for you. For almost three years now, I've been using COMPLY Foam tips with my AirPods Pro 2, and those replacement tips are only $20.81 on Amazon. This price for AirPods Pro 2 is so good that I toyed with the idea of getting a second pair just to have them at my office if I ever forget to pick mine up when I head to work in the morning. Whether you want to upgrade from your older AirPods or get someone a fantastic gift for the holidays, this is an amazing discount for one of my all-time favorite Apple products. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Here are a few more great deals that I saw on Amazon for Black Friday. The Eufy SmartTrack card, which I reviewed earlier this year and I keep in my wallet every day, is only $16.88 on Amazon (44% off). A perfect item for you, and a useful and inexpensive gift for anyone. The Jackery Solar Generator Explorer 500 is only $479, a $320 discount. The Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe, which I reviewed last year, is what I use next to my bed every single night to charge my iPhone, my AirPods Pro 2, and my Apple Watch. I bought it for $150, but it is currently only $119.99. I've heard rave reviews of the tiny but powerful Samsung T9 Portable SSD drive with 2TB, and it is only $199.97, a savings of $100. I love my Apple Watch Series 10 as noted in my review, and it starts at only $329, a $70 savings. And I've always been intrigued by the Bird Buddy, a bird feeder with a digital camera so that you can watch videos on your iPhone of the birds that visit, and it is only $199, a $40 savings.
- Things, which I use on my iPhone and iPad to track my to-do items, is 30% off for Black Friday as noted by the developer on its website.
- If you are an attorney and you use an iPad, I am sure that you have long known that Lit Software makes some of the best apps for lawyers. TrialPad and TranscriptPad in particular are so incredibly useful for litigators. For a while now, the company has been working on an app that you can use to create timelines, and the public beta started this week. I have already tried it out, and it looks great. I'll post a full review in the future, but if you want to get a sneak peek now and you don't mind using a beta app on which the bugs are still being worked out, you can click here to sign up.
- The team at MacStories put together a great Holiday Gift Guide for the Apple nerd in your life.
- Apple issued a press release to announce the 45 app and game finalists for its 2024 App Store Awards. There are some apps on the list that I love, but many more that I have never even heard of.
- Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels explains why he loves using the new iPhone Mirroring feature to see his iPhone on his Mac.
- Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that YouTube updated its iPhone app to add support for the iOS Share Sheet, which means that you can now share videos from the iPhone directly to YouTube.
- John Gruber of Daring Fireball argues that we don't need a low-end or a high-end Apple TV because the current device is just right. I agree. I'm sure it will get better with future updates, but the Apple TV is by far the best device to use to watch TV shows, movies, and more on a television.
- If you drive a Mercedez-Benz and you wear an Apple Watch, you're in luck. This week, the company announced that it released a new Apple Watch app that lets you lock and unlock your vehicle remotely, determine your car status, access information such as vehicle range, battery level, or fuel level, and more.
- Wesley Hilliard of AppleInsider recommends using an Apple Vision Pro (as a huge computer display) and a Mac mini (as the tiny computer driving that display) and notes that if you attach a portable battery pack, you can get a portable computing environment.
- Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac reports that Apple is exploring the possibility of assisting with the renovation of the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid to support live immersive video streaming to the Apple Vision Pro.
- How long has Apple been working on the Apple Vision Pro? A few days ago, I was listening to the latest episode of the Vision Pros podcast, and guest and former Apple employee Clement Boissiere told the host Tim Chaten that he started working on the Vision Pro project in late 2016 and was one of only about 200 people working on the product at the time. Two years later, there were around 2,000 people working on the project. But Apple started even earlier than that. In an article for Macworld, Dan Moren shared a report from 2008 about an Apple patent for something that looks surprisingly similar to what the current Apple Vision Pro looks like. The reporter humorously called it an "eyePod." It is interesting that someone was thinking about an Apple Vision Pro when the iPhone was only a year old, and yet it took 15 years before we had hardware available that could implement the idea. It makes me wonder what Apple employees are thinking about right now that we will start using in 2039.
- If you haven't started watching it yet, I highly recommend Silo on Apple TV+. The first season was great, and we are now three episodes into Season 2 and it is just as good.
- I recently watched the Apple TV+ movie Blitz, and it is good. The plot is decent, the actors are fantastic, and I especially enjoyed seeing the depiction of war-torn London during World War II when Germany was bombing the city at night.
- I enjoyed the movie Wolfs on Apple TV+ more than my wife did, but we both thought it was worth watching. There is a fascinating story by Mike Fleming, Jr., in Deadline about how the filmmaker, Jon Watts, is angry at Apple for not giving the movie a full theatrical release before streaming it on Apple TV+.
- Severance, one of the best shows on Apple TV+ or any other streaming service, returns on January 17, 2025. Ethan Shanfeld of Variety reports that there will also be an official podcast hosted by director Ben Stiller and star Adam Scott, with lots of interesting guests planned. This is fantastic news.
- Maureen Lee Lenker of Entertainment Weekly interviews Brett Goldstein and he confirms the theory that Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso was heavily influenced by The Wizard of Oz.
- And finally, if you are ready to see one more reason that the AirPods Pro 2 is a great product, and if you are also ready to shed some tears during a very touching commercial, then Apple has something ready just for you. This one is called Heartstrings:
