This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Since Apple and the remainder of the civilized world is taking a vacation break, we’re spending nearly all of the present on our closing picks for the very best and worst of 2023.
Additionally on The CultCast:
- The U.S. ban on the import and gross sales of Apple Watch takes one other bizarre twist.
- Former Apple design chief Jony Ive lures one other former colleague away from Cupertino. This time, the objective is to construct AI {hardware} for OpenAI.
- Amazon Prime Video’s plan so as to add commercials is a significant bummer.
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This week’s high Apple information
On the present this week: Your host Erfon Elijah (@erfon), Cult of Mac managing editor Lewis Wallace (@lewiswallace) and Cult of Mac author D. Griffin Jones (@dgriffinjones).
Listed here are the headlines we’re speaking about on this week’s present:
Finest and worst of the 12 months!
Finest
- Erfon
- Xbox Recreation Move is just like the Netflix of video video games. And with its ever-expanding library of video games from indie devs in addition to large titles from main studios, it’s lastly definitely worth the month-to-month value.
- Although I might by no means usually be fascinated about a vertical climbing recreation, Jusant‘s lovely aesthetic, intuitive climbing mechanics and mysterious plot made it considered one of my favourite video games of 2023.
- Lewis
- Anker 3-in-1 Dice with MagSafe is an extremely compact high-end charger that appears attractive in your nightstand, whether or not at residence or on the street.
- My favourite podcasts: Ported from a syndicated radio present (however with skippable advertisements), Armstrong & Getty on Demand serves up each day information with a libertarian bent and loads of humor. Triggernometry values free speech and dishes out “sincere conversations with fascinating individuals.”
- Griffin
- 404 Media is a journalist-run unbiased media firm with wonderful investigative reporting on the most well liked tech information.
- Mastodon is an open-source social media platform that cuts out rubbish advertisements, monitoring and algorithms. That permits you to lower straight to high-quality discussions with individuals you care about.
Worst
- Erfon
- Amazon Prime retains getting dearer however providing fewer and fewer advantages. And since Amazon presents free delivery on all orders over $25, that is one subscription you may contemplate canceling in 2024.
- The state of streaming in 2023 is a big mess. Each studio now needs you to fork over $10 to $15 to entry content material, and now they’re packing their streams with advertisements. It’s like cable TV over again.
- Lewis
- Apple providers get large value hikes: Apple TV+ went from $6.99 to $9.99 this 12 months, a 40% hike! And Apple One Premier jumped from $32.95 to $37.95. What number of extra {dollars} can Tim Cook dinner squeeze out of Apple followers?
- San Francisco: It was the very best of instances, it was the worst of instances for SF. The Metropolis by the Bay nonetheless possesses its pure magnificence, its nice climate and its unbeatable burritos. However all of the San Francisco doom loop speak seems very actual on the bottom, with horrifying overdoses and tranq zombies, tooth-rattling potholes, an astonishing array of empty storefronts and loads of poo.
- Griffin
- Michael Darius is a former Apple worker who’s promoting his meager expertise from almost 20 years in the past as some sort of design guru and private protégé of Steve Jobs.
- The sensation of being trusted to drive a stranger’s automobile alone after you solely met them earlier that very same night is a weird expertise I hope to by no means repeat.