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Posts tagged with "accessories"

Apple Teams Up with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric to Offer the Apple Home Collection

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Apple revealed today that it has partnered with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric on the Apple Home Collection, a range of smart home products including sensors, thermostats, cameras, and a smart lock that will be available beginning in December and into 2027.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

LG has developed a video doorbell, a floodlight camera, outdoor and indoor cameras, a thermostat, and a temperature sensor, along with a smart lock that supports Ultra Wideband for hands-free door unlocking. Schneider Electric will offer a smart thermostat and temperature and humidity sensors. Device installation will also be available through a partnership between ADT and Apple Retail in the U.S. for an additional fee.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Standout features include:

  • the ability of the cameras to pick out faces, animals, vehicles, and packages,
  • iCloud+ support for HomeKit Secure Video,
  • the ability for the indoor cameras to tilt down when a household member returns home,
  • adaptive temperature on the thermostat that adjusts heating and cooling according to whether someone is home, and
  • the ability to shift heating and cooling use (U.S. only) to when available energy sources are cleaner.
Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Pricing for the devices is as follows:

  • LG Video Doorbell Wired: $249.95
  • LG Floodlight Cam: $399.95
  • LG Outdoor Cam Plug-In: $299.95
  • LG Indoor Cam Plug-In: $199.95
  • LG Smart Deadbolt Lock: $349.95
  • LG Smart Thermostat: $199.95
  • LG Temperature Sensor: $39.95
  • Schneider Home Smart Thermostat: $199.95
  • Schneider Home Room Sensor: $39.95

The cameras will be available in the U.S., Canada, and the UK, with other devices limited to the U.S. and Canada.

MacStories Amazon Prime Big Deal Days Roundup

Amazon’s Big Deal Days for Prime members has begun, and we’ve collected some of our favorite deals offered. As usual, we’ve kept our picks simple, including only those that we’ve reviewed, use ourselves, or that are from brands we trust.

It’s worth noting that this sales event is focused on Prime members, so many of the deals require a Prime subscription. However, not all do.

Smart Home

Philips Hue Festavia lights on my balcony.

Philips Hue Festavia lights on my balcony.

I’m a big fan of Philips Hue Festavia string lights, which I reviewed on MacStories in 2023. I hung a strand on our balcony, which has provided great outdoor atmosphere year-round.

The lights are great for the holidays, too. The Hue app lets you pick all sorts of festive presets that animate and color the lights to mimic candles, stars, and more. Festavia lights are also compatible with Apple’s Home app, giving you multiple ways to control and automate them, which I love. Both the 65-foot and 130-foot models are on sale.

Aqara G5 Pro camera.

Aqara G5 Pro camera.

The Aqara G5 Pro camera is on sale, too. It’s been over 18 months since I wrote about this sturdy and reliable outdoor HomeKit security camera, and it’s still one of our most popular hardware reviews on the site. There’s a reason for that, too. The G5 Pro serves as a hub for your other Aqara devices, and stays connected reliably with clear nighttime footage, support for HomeKit Secure Video, and an onboard spotlight. Mine has been installed outside my home ever since I reviewed it, and it’s never missed a beat. I use the Wi-Fi model, but the PoE version is on sale too.

Travel Accessories and Headphones

Anker's 20,100mAh Prime power bank

Anker’s 20,100mAh Prime power bank

I’m a big fan of batteries and one of the best is Anker’s 20,100mAh Prime power bank, which Federico added to his setup just before WWDC this year. I have a similar model, which is great for use with a laptop and other devices because it can deliver 220W of power with one USB-C port delivering 140W of charging.

UGREEN's 20,000mAh Qi 2 battery.

UGREEN’s 20,000mAh Qi 2 battery.

Another interesting battery option is UGREEN’s 20,000mAh Qi 2 battery that delivers 25W of wireless power. I haven’t used this exact battery before, but I have a similar UGREEN model with a smaller capacity that I like a lot. This model also has a built-in USB-C cable and digital screen that shows how much charge is left.

UGREEN's 100W Nexode Pro GaN charger

UGREEN’s 100W Nexode Pro GaN charger


A good travel wall charger is a must, too. When I’m on the road with my MacBook Pro, I always bring UGREEN’s 100W Nexode Pro GaN charger. It has two USB-C ports and one USB-A port, and its prongs fold flat so it’s easy to pack. Combined with its small size, it’s a great choice for any trip.

Slate 7.

Slate 7.

A portable Wi-Fi router is great for traveling with your family when you want to stream a movie at night or when you’re working away from home at a coffee shop. My favorite is the Slate 7 by GL.iNet, which I covered on MacStories last summer. It works well to extend an existing network or to connect to your iPhone to create an ad hoc wireless network.

Satechi USB-C 2.5Gbps Ethernet adapter.

Satechi USB-C 2.5Gbps Ethernet adapter.

Finally, I wanted to mention the Satechi USB-C 2.5Gbps Ethernet adapter, which I carry whenever I stay in a hotel room because even slow Ethernet is better than most hotel Wi-Fi. I’ve had this adapter for a couple of years and it’s been a lifesaver on the road more than once, including at WWDC this year where I found myself uploading 4K video to YouTube from the Mountain View public library.

AirPods Pro 3.

AirPods Pro 3.

My favorite wireless earbuds and over-the-ear headphones are on sale too. AirPods Pro 3 are my go-to everyday headphones for walking around the neighborhood or working remotely. The active noise cancelation is top tier, and I love both transparency mode for hearing what’s happening around me and the fit.

Beats Studio Pro in Light Blue.

Beats Studio Pro in Light Blue.

I’m also a fan of the Beats Studio Pro headphones for their versatility. They work wirelessly, with a 3.5mm headphone cable, or a USB-C cable, with both cables packed in the box. The sound and noise cancelation are excellent, too. Today’s sales price is one of the lowest I’ve seen, so it’s a great time to pick up a pair.

Alright, that’s all for now. We’ll have more finds during Big Deal Days on the MacStories Deals social media accounts on X.com, Mastodon, and Bluesky.

And for more recommendations beyond the sale, visit the MacStories Setups page, where Federico and I share the hardware and apps we use for work and play. We’ll have an update to that coming tomorrow.

Apple Updates a Power Adapter for the EU and Vietnam and Drops the Price of Its Polishing Cloth

The Magic Keyboard isn’t the only accessory Apple updated today. As Juli Clover reports for MacRumors, the 40W Dynamic Power Adapter that can charge up to 60W was also updated for users in Europe and Vietnam:

The updated variant of the power adapter has a retractable two-prong design. The prongs pop back into the power adapter’s enclosure, making it easier to tuck into a bag or a pocket. Apple previously debuted a standard U.S. variant in September 2025 alongside the iPhone 17 models, and a type G plug version in November 2025.

At this price, why not buy two?

At this price, why not buy two?

Plus, as Chance Miller covered for 9to5Mac, there’s a new Apple Polishing Cloth. It’s not clear whether the new cloth is different from the one that came before it, but in one respect it’s a big improvement. The updated Polishing Cloth has dropped in price to $9 from $19. In a world of high-priced memory and storage, I’ll take the pricing wins where I can get them.

Apple Updates Magic Keyboards→

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Earlier this year, Apple swapped the text on some of its laptop keyboard keys for glyphs. MacRumors reports that the trend has now spread to four of the company’s Magic Keyboard models:

On the new keyboards, the tab, caps lock, shift, return, and delete keycaps are labeled with glyphs rather than edge text.

The keyboards with numeric pads get even more glyphs than the more compact models.

It’s a small change, but I like it. I burn through keyboards pretty fast with the amount of typing I do, and these come just in time to replace the Magic Keyboard on I use with my Mac Studio that has a slowly disappearing “A” key.

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A Month with Logitech’s Innovative Mobi Fold Travel Mouse

I can’t recall the last time I was truly excited about a mouse. I primarily use a trackpad whether I’m at my desk or using a laptop. The trouble with a trackpad-only setup, though, is that I sometimes wind up with wrist and elbow pain. That’s why I keep a Logitech MX Master 4 mouse on my desk to balance out the stress on my arms.

But that only works if I’m at my desk. More and more, I’ve been turning to a MacBook Pro for working away from my desk at home or elsewhere. Those locations are always less ergonomic than sitting at my desk, causing wrist and elbow pain more quickly. Still, I’ve never made it a habit to bring a mouse with me, especially when I’m away from home, because it’s more than I want to carry – that is, until Logitech’s latest mouse, the Mobi Fold, came along.

The Logitech Mobi Fold is an impossibly small mouse that folds completely in half, reducing its footprint to about ⅓ the size of my iPhone 17 Pro Max and about twice its thickness. Unfolded, it’s close to the length of the MX Master 4 but narrower. The Mobi Fold is impressively full-featured, too, making it an excellent all-around travel mouse worth taking a closer look at.

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My Favorite Gear From CES 2026 – and Some Weird and Wonderful Gadgets, Too

It’s CES time again, which means another edition of our annual roundup of the most eye-catching gadgets seasoned with a helping of weird and wonderful tech. I’m sure it will come as no surprise that robots, AI, and TVs are some of the most prominent themes at CES in 2026, but there’s a lot more, so buckle in for a tour of what to expect from the gadget world in the coming months.

AR Glasses

Viture encourages customers to both unleash and embrace The Beast. Source: Viture.

Viture encourages customers to both unleash and embrace The Beast. Source: Viture.

I first tried Xreal AR glasses shortly before the Vision Pro was released. The experience at the time wasn’t great, but you could see the potential for what has turned out to be one of the Vision Pro’s greatest strengths: working on a huge virtual display. There’s also a lot of potential for gaming.

It looks like the tech behind AR glasses is finally getting to a point where I may dip in again this year. Xreal updated and reduced the price of its entry-level 1S glasses, which will make the category accessible to more people.

The company also introduced the Neo dock, a 10,000 mAh battery that also serves as a hub for connecting a game console or other device to its AR glasses. Notably, the Neo is compatible with the Nintendo Switch 2, which caught my eye immediately.

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Our Final 2025 MacStories Setups Update→

Our desk setups. Federico (left) and John (right).

Our desk setups. Federico (left) and John (right).

John: As 2025 comes to an end, Federico and I thought we’d cap off the year with a final update on our setups. We just went through this in November, but both Federico and I decided to take advantage of Black Friday sales to improve our setups in very different ways. Let’s take a look.

My changes were primarily to my office setup. I’ve wanted a gaming PC for a long time, but I never had a good place to set one up. The solution was to go with a high-end mini PC, the GMKtec EVO-X2, which features a Strix Halo processor, 64GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD. It came with Windows installed, but after a few days, I installed Bazzite, an open-source version of SteamOS, which makes it dead simple to access my Steam videogame library.

Two things kept me from getting a PC earlier. The first was space, which the EVO-X2 takes care of nicely because it’s roughly the size of the Mac mini before its recent redesign.

The second and bigger issue, though, was my Studio Display. It’s an excellent screen, but it’s showing its age with its 60Hz refresh rate and 600 nits of brightness. Plus, with one Thunderbolt port for connecting to your Mac and three USB-C ports, the Studio Display is limiting. Without HDMI or DisplayPort, connecting it to other video sources like a PC or game console is nearly impossible.

The GMKtec EVO-X2 mini PC, Switch 2, and 8BitDo Ultimate 2 controller

The GMKtec EVO-X2 mini PC, Switch 2, and 8BitDo Ultimate 2 controller

So I also bought a deeply discounted ASUS ROG Swift 32” 4K OLED Gaming Monitor, which is attached to my desk using a VIVO VESA desk mount. I’d wanted a bigger screen for work anyway, and with its 240Hz refresh rate and bright OLED panel, the ASUS has been excellent. However, the ASUS display really shines when connected to my GMKtec and Nintendo Switch 2. As I covered on NPC: Next Portable Console recently, the mini PC combined with a great monitor, which also allows me to stream games to my handhelds over my local network, was the missing link in my setup, delivering a flexibility I just didn’t have before.

Along with the gaming part of my desktop setup, I updated my desktop lighting with two Philips Hue Play Wall Washer lights and a Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K, which casts light against the wall behind my desk that’s synced with what’s onscreen. In fact, the Sync Box 8K works with all the Hue lights in my office, allowing me to create a more immersive environment when I’m gaming.

I’ve been using a handful of other accessories lately, too, including:

That’s it from me for 2025, folks. Enjoy the holidays! Things will be a little quieter at MacStories over the next couple of weeks as we unwind and spend the time with family and friends over the holidays, but we’ll be back with lots more before long.

Federico: For this final update to my setup before the end of the year, I focused on two key areas: audio and my living room TV setup.

The biggest – literally – upgrade for me this month has been switching from my previous LG 65” TV to a flagship LG G5 77” model. I’d been keeping an eye on this TV for a while: it’s LG’s first model to use Tandem OLED technology, and it boasts higher brightness in both SDR and HDR with reduced reflections thanks to the new panel. I took advantage of an incredible Black Friday deal in Italy to buy it at 50% off, and we love it. The TV rests almost flush against the wall thanks to its compact design, but since it’s not completely flush, it allowed us to re-install our Philips Hue Gradient Light Strip behind it. Since I was in a renovation mood and I also wanted to future-proof my setup for the Steam Machine in 2026, I also upgraded to a Hue Bridge Pro and replaced my previous Hue Sync Box with the latest 8K edition that is certified for HDMI 2.1 connections. Speaking of gaming: as I discussed this week on NPC, I got a Beelink SER9 Pro mini PC and installed Bazzite on it to get a taste for SteamOS in the living room; this one will eventually be replaced by a more powerful Steam Machine.

The other area of improvement was audio. I recently realized that I wanted to fully take advantage of Apple Music and Spotify’s support for lossless playback with wireless headphones, which is something that, alas, Apple’s AirPods Max do not support. So after much research, I decided to treat myself to a pair of Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2, which are widely considered some of the best Bluetooth headphones that you can buy right now. But you may be wondering: how do you even connect these headphones to Apple devices that do not support Qualcomm’s aptX Lossless or Adaptive codecs? That’s where the BT-W6 Bluetooth dongle comes in. In researching this field, I came across this relatively new category of small Bluetooth adapters that plug into an iPhone’s USB-C port (they work on a Mac or iPad, too) and essentially override the device’s built-in Bluetooth chip. Once headphones are paired with the dongle rather than the phone, wireless streaming from Apple Music or Spotify will use aptX Lossless instead of Apple’s legacy SBC protocol. The difference in audio quality is outstanding, and it makes me appreciate the Px8 S2 for all they have to offer.

While I was at it, I also took advantage of another deal for a Sonos Move 2 portable speaker; we’ll have to decide whether this one will be permanently docked on my desk or next to a record player that Silvia is getting me for Christmas. (We don’t like surprises for each other, especially when it comes to furniture-adjacent shopping.)

So that’s my update before we go on break for a couple of weeks. I can already feel that, when I’m back, I’ll have some changes to cover on the software front. But we’ll talk about those in 2026.

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Just the Best: MacStories’ Black Friday 2025 Picks

Black Friday deals started very early this year, and we’ve covered a lot of ground on the MacStories Deals Mastodon and Bluesky accounts since publishing our Early Black Friday Picks. A lot of those deals are ongoing, so it’s worth revisiting that story as you start your holiday shopping in earnest.

However, today, I wanted to hit the highlights of what we’ve covered over the past week on MacStories Deals and add some new deals to the mix that you probably haven’t seen yet, so buckle up, it’s time to go shopping.

MacStories Pixel Icons

All three MacStories Pixel Icon sets are 40% off until Monday, December 1.

Two of the icon sets are specially-designed for Shortcuts. We’ve all been there. You work hard on a shortcut and want to give it the perfect icon, only to realize that Apple doesn’t offer what you want in the Shortcuts app. The MacStories Pixel Icons fill that gap with an extensive set of painstakingly hand-crafted icons with multiple color options created by MacStories’ long-time designer, Silvia Gatta. We also offer a set of Perspective icons that are perfect for OmniFocus Pro and other uses.

Visit our dedicated MacStories Pixel page today to preview all three icon sets and purchase them for 40% off until Monday, December 1.

Apple Hardware

There are a lot of Black Friday deals on Apple hardware, but most of them are good, not great. I’m picky, so I’m only going to focus on just the great deals.

One of the best deals on Apple hardware during Black Friday is the M4 13” MacBook Air with 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage. If you want more memory or storage than that, you’ll have to settle for a smaller percentage discount, but even with more memory and more storage, you’re still doing better than any other deal this year. The 15” M4 MacBook Air with 16GB of memory and a 256GB SSD is a good deal, too.

Among the many iPad deals, the best is on the 128GB iPad mini with an A17 Pro chip. I’ve had a mini since they were released and love it. The size makes it an excellent reading and video-watching device.

AirPods 4 are also heavily discounted for Black Friday. Apple’s most affordable wireless earbuds come with active noise cancellation and without. The model with no active noise cancellation slightly edges out the model with ANC as far as the discounts are concerned, but both models are a bargain.

However, the very best deals available from Apple in terms of the percentage discount are a 4-pack of AirTags and the Apple Pencil Pro. If you need either, now is the perfect time to buy them.

Smart Home

The holiday season is a great time to catch up on projects and start new ones. For me, that’s often tuning up my smart home setup and setting up some new devices thanks to Black Friday sales. Here are the best ones I’ve seen:

Aqara already makes some of the most affordable smart home devices out there, so you really can’t go wrong with their Black Friday deals. One of my favorites is the FP2 Presence Sensor. It’s far more sophisticated than a simple motion sensor. To start with, it can tell when you’ve left a room, which motion sensors can’t do. I’ve used an FP2 Sensor in my office to control lighting for a couple of years, wrote about it for Club members, and have been really happy with it.

Other great deals from Aqara include its U100 Smart Lock that works with Apple Home Key and HomeKit, the Aqara M3 Home Hub that I recently set up at home and love, and 4MP Camera Hub G5 Pro, an outdoor HomeKit camera that I reviewed earlier this year.

My Aqara 4MP Camera Hub G5 Pro is paired with an Ecobee Smart Video Doorbell, which is also on sale for Black Friday. I’ve used various Ecobee smart home products for years and have never been disappointed. The same goes for its smart doorbell. I’ve had it installed for over a year, and it’s been reliable despite facing the sun on some very hot summer days.

Black Friday is also a great time to buy a robot vacuum and mop. There are lots of deals, but the model I’ve tested for the past couple of months and love is the Narwal Freo X10 Pro. It handles vacuuming and mopping, navigating via LiDAR and does an excellent job compared to other robot vacuums I’ve tried. I’ll be reviewing the Freo X10 Pro about it soon, but now’s the time to get it at a steep discount.

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Our Top Amazon Early Black Friday Picks

If you haven’t noticed, it’s not Friday, and Thanksgiving is still a week away. Yet here we are, talking about Black Friday deals. That’s because every year, Amazon pushes the start of its deals a little earlier.

This is far from the first article you’ll come across about Black Friday deals, and it won’t be the last. But what’s different about our approach to Black Friday is that we’re pickier than most sites.

When I sat down to consider Amazon’s Black Friday deals, I looked at a long list of factors, including:

  • whether we’ve reviewed and recommended a product on MacStories,
  • the percentage of the discount,
  • the absolute dollar amount of the discount (which we can’t list due to Amazon rules),
  • whether each deal beats past deals,
  • and a bunch of other factors.

What we’ve come up with is a list of a couple dozen excellent deals that will save you loads of money on everything from great holiday gifts to nerd staples like storage, networking gear, and upgrades to your computing setup.

Every time I write one of these roundups, I inevitably run across even more great deals after the story has been published. So in addition to this story, we’ll be posting deals on the MacStories Deals Mastodon and Bluesky accounts.

Club MacStories Plus and Premier members will be sharing their Black Friday deal finds on Discord too. If you’re not a member, you can sign up here. The Discord server is just one of the many perks of joining the Club.

Finally, please note that the Amazon links in this article are affiliate links. If you follow one of our links and buy something, we make a small commission.

Storage

Some of Amazon's best deals are on storage.

Some of Amazon’s best deals are on storage.

Storage is a staple of Black Friday, with excellent deals on hard drives and SSDs of all shapes and sizes. This year is no different. Whether your Mac’s drive is filling up and you need to offload some large files or you’re looking for a backup solution, now is the time to pull the trigger and get more storage.

I mention Samsung portable SSDs a lot on MacStories and the MacStories Deals accounts because I’ve used them for years and they’re reliable. Samsung’s fastest model – the T9 – is my favorite because it uses USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x2, making it equally good for quick backups and working on large files externally.

Currently, both the 4TB Samsung T9 SSD and the 2TB model are on sale on Amazon, with the biggest discount on the 4TB model. You can save a little more with SanDisk’s 2TB external drive, but it runs at half the speed of the Samsung T9, so I recommend the T9. However, if you want to go really big with an SSD, SanDisk has Samsung beat with an 8TB model that, while expensive and half the speed of a Samsung T9, will be far faster than a mechanical hard drive for backing up a Mac with lots of internal storage. Samsung sadly does not offer an 8TB T9 drive.

SSDs are great, but even on sale, they’re more expensive than mechanical hard drives. If you don’t need the fastest speeds and can tuck your hard drive away somewhere the heat and noise won’t bother you, Amazon has a great deal on a 14TB Western Digital Elements hard drive. I’ve used Elements drives a lot over the past several years for archiving big projects and Time Machine backups, and I’ve been very happy with their performance. If you need a big drive, now is the time to pick one of these up; they’ve never been cheaper.

Smart Home

For starters, the Aqara 4MP Camera Hub G5 Pro is deeply discounted for Black Friday. I reviewed this outdoor HomeKit-compatible camera earlier this year and love it. From the feedback I’ve heard, MacStories readers seem to love the camera, too.

I also reviewed the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K this summer. Paired with Philips Hue lights, it’s remarkably capable, syncing the colors of your lights to whatever is on your TV. While it’s not a smart home essential, it is a lot of fun, and if you need a little push to pull the trigger on this sort of gadget, this discount is a great excuse.

On the more practical end of the spectrum, Philips Hue is also offering a great deal on its Go Smart Portable Table Lamp, which works plugged in or via its built-in battery. I’ve had my eye on this lamp for a while because it’s very portable and would add nice accent lighting when I’m working on my balcony in the evening or anywhere else with less-than-ideal lighting.

Finally, as I mentioned on the Setups video that Federico and I recently released, I love my new SwitchBot Smart Desk Fan. It oscillates left and right as well as up and down, and it has nine speed settings. Best of all, I can control it from the buttons on the front of the device, using the included remote control, or with Shortcuts because it works with HomeKit.

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