- Cult of Mac Today
- Posts
- Apple Watch's fantastic nightstand mode
Apple Watch's fantastic nightstand mode
Turn your wearable into a mini alarm clock.
The other day my iPhone was in StandBy mode as it charged on my bedside charger.
My mom said: “Is that a new gadget by your bed?”
Confused, I asked her what she was referring to.
“What’s that iPhone-looking alarm clock gadget you’ve got by your bed?” she replied.
The penny dropped. Even though my mom’s used an iPhone for years, she was unaware of StandBy mode, which transforms your iPhone into a bedside clock/smart display if you angle it horizontally while it charges.
Likewise, my mom also has an Apple Watch — and had no idea that it, too, can be transformed into a bedside alarm clock, this time via nightstand mode.
It turns your Apple Watch into a really nice mini alarm clock. If you’ve not tried it yourself, here’s how to use it.
Also in today’s newsletter:
I love reading about battery breakthroughs. This time it’s TDK (remember the company’s cassette tapes?) with a massive improvement in solid-state batteries.
Our writer D. Griffin Jones is a big Vision Pro fan and has been living with the new visionOS 2 beta for a week. With new gestures and customization options, it’s a big improvement, but he wishes there was more.
Apple’s M4 chip is already in the new iPad Pro, and it may come to MacBooks before year’s end.
Amazon has a big sale right now on about a dozen models of the M3 MacBook Pro. Save up to $350 on these powerhouse laptops.
I remember really, really wanting one of these second-gen Power Macs back in the day. Alas, it was waaaaaay out of my budget.
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
A message from Aura Health
Two Forbes 30U30 Founders Transforming Mental Wellness
People scroll on their smartphones, they get depressed. Today, 25% of American adults are suffering from a diagnosable mental health condition.
After seeing their mother struggle with depression, Lee brothers, Forbes 30U30 winners, founded Aura, already with over 8 million users and 100K+ paying subscribers.
Aura quickly received investments from Silicon Valley’s legendary VCs as well as executives from Spotify, Youtube, Facebook, and Apple. And they’re just getting started.
For [x] more days, you can invest in Aura alongside 2000+ investors and back the future of mental wellness.
A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team
A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team
Tweets of the day
I have been rocking two HomePods (as a stereo pair) along with Apple TV 4K (connected to a LG OLED TV) for some time now. It's a really great all-around experience. Biggest problem is few people know HomePods can be used in such a setup. Apple has been giving the idea some love… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— Neil Cybart (@neilcybart)
3:20 PM • Jun 18, 2024
Concept: Introducing the Track Bar.
It's an OLED strip that sits at the top of your (massive) MacBook Pro trackpad. It brings all the benefits of the Touch Bar while keeping the function row keys
This is one of my favorite concepts I've ever made, what do you think?
— zell (@zellzoidesigns)
4:51 PM • Jun 18, 2024
Wallpapers of the day
Your next wallpaper is here ✅
— Vuk Andric (@vukandric)
4:43 PM • Jun 18, 2024
One more thing ...
It's not about pop culture, and it's not about fooling people, and it's not about convincing people that they want something they don't. We figure out what we want. And I think we're pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it too. That's what we get paid to do. So you can't go out and ask people, you know, what the next big [thing is.] There's a great quote by Henry Ford, right? He said, 'If I'd have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me 'A faster horse.'‘
Today’s poll
Do you use nightstand mode with your Apple Watch? |
Results from yesterday’s poll: Are you interested in a cheaper Apple Vision headset?
Best reader comments
Subscribe to The Weekender — Get the week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.
Reply