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I’m kind of amazed at how quickly Apple’s AirTags became indispensable.
I previously tried out trackers from Mynt, Tile and others, but often ran into silly problems, like they got out of range or the batteries died.
With AirTags, Apple cleverly solved a ton of issues with tracking tags, not least that every Apple user worldwide became part of the Find My network.
As a family, we share our cars with our kids, and without throwing anyone under the bus, there are certain members of the clan who aren’t very good at keeping track of the keys.
Pre-AirTags, this would sometimes cause a little intrafamilial friction, especially if you were running late for an appointment and the keys were nowhere to be found.
But post-AirTags, that source of conflict disappeared entirely. The keys are easily pinpointed, no matter which unlikely place they were left in, like buried in the cutlery drawer or inside the car itself! (That was me, tbh.)
For us, Apple’s AirTags are pretty great.
Cult of Mac writer Ed Hardy is a big fan, too, and has AirTags attached to everything, including his cat, which, believe it or not, is called Houdini.
Ed’s been testing out a new Find My-compatible tracker from Pebblebee, and he thinks it’s even better than AirTags — here’s why.
Also in today’s newsletter:
My name is Leander, and I’m an addict! An iPhone addict! Yeah, I admit it, I’m glued to the thing 24/7. What no one admits about addiction, though, is that it’s often quite enjoyable (until it isn’t). I’m not ready to kick my iPhone habit, but if you’re further along this dark path than I, here are some tips to make it less addictive.
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AirPods Max are fabulous headphones, but pretty overpriced. Not anymore!
I’m not a huge fan of actor Mark Wahlberg, but I caught a clip of his new movie The Family Plan 2 on the socials, and it really made me LOL hard. I still don’t know if I’m going to watch it, but it just started streaming on Apple TV.
This has got to be the worst deal Apple ever signed. History might have been radically different if Apple hadn’t done it.
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
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A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team
The CultCast podcast: Is Tim cooked?
This week on The CultCast:
Leander doesn’t trust his brother
Lewis’ new furnace is a Power Mac G5
Griffin encourages people to harass Graham
A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team
Cult of Mac’s buyback program
A message from The Morning Brew
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Tweets of the day
Wallpaper of the day
One more thing ...
The organization is clean and simple to understand, and very accountable. Everything just got simpler. That's been one of my mantras -- focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
Today’s poll
What items do you track with AirTags?
Results from yesterday’s poll: What's your best defense against smartphone thieves?
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