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The 2018 MacBook Pro has had an eventful week. We’ll talk about the new laptop and its performance issues. Join us with your comments and questions for Jason Cross, Roman Loyola, Gordon Mah Ung (of PCWorld), and Dan Masaoka in the Macworld Podcast, episode 614.

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Updated 7/26/18: Alfre Woodard joins the cast of futuristic sci-fi drama See. Just two weeks ago we learned that Jason Momoa was also starring in that show. 

Apple is said to be spending as much as $1 billion over the course of 2018 on original TV programming. That’s a lot of TV! It’s not the $8 billion Netflix is going to spend, but it’s still a huge commitment.

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Updated 07/25/18:  Apple's first China-exclusive activity badge is for National Fitness Day, August 8th.

Achievement badges are a funny thing. You know they’re just a simple little bit of visual flair, they don’t even do anything, and yet for some reason you just have to collect them. Achievements are great motivators, and the achievement badges for the activity tracking on the Apple Watch have inspired many users to get more exercise.

If you want to maximize your badge count, you’re going to watch to chase down as many activity achievements as you can. Most are available year-round, but there are also some time-limited special events to grab, too. Here’s a list of all the activity achievements for the Apple Watch and how to unlock them.

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B&H is currently having what it calls the "Amazing Mac Savings EventRemove non-product link," and from what I can tell, it’s aptly named. As a part of the promotion, you can get everything from iMacs and MacBook Airs to Mac minis for significant discounts. In some cases, you’ll even save hundreds of dollars.

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Updated 07/25/18: Katy Huberty, an analyst for Morgan Stanley, says that the OLED iPhones will release in September as planned, but the LCD-based model may launch in October.

Now that we’re well into 2018, rumors about the next iPhone have started to pile up. We’ll keep track of everything that’s being said and analyze what seems feasible in this article so you can keep up with the latest iPhone gossip.

6.1-inch LCD iPhone may launch after the OLED models

A new report from Barron’s cites an analysis from Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty in expecting relatively weak September iPhone sales compared to most years. The reason? While the 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch high-end iPhones with OLED screens are expected to launch in September as usual, the 6.1-inch LCD model may suffer a small delay. 

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Every file you save, whether it be pictures, videos, or music, adds up. Pretty soon, your phone and laptop hard drives are filled to the brim with files, and you have to resort to external solutions to save your precious data.

One popular solution is cloud storage, which allows you to save your files, well, to the cloud! If you need a reputable cloud storage service, look no further than Zoolz, which offers up to 3TB of combined instant vault and cold storage for $75.

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I have a prediction. At some point over the next month or so, Apple will issue an update to macOS High Sierra specifically designed to address an issue caused by the macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Supplemental Update. Granted, it might not be as highly publicized as the thermal throttling bug, but I’m betting there will be something Apple needs to correct that rises above the usual universal big fixes and performance tweaks.

I hope I’m wrong. But until Apple builds up a cushion of reliability, there’s no reason to think its new product launches, updates, and even patches won’t be riddled with bugs and issues, some so big that they make headlines. Just take a look at the last few releases, all within the past 12 months:

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This month Apple demonstrated that it doesn’t need a major media event to launch new Mac hardware, as it rolled out new MacBook Pro models with an invitation-only press briefing in New York City. Sure, there could be new Macs announced at Apple’s annual iPhone launch event in September, or even a follow-on event in October... but they could also appear at literally any other time. As I wrote last week, Apple’s rulebook has changed.

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On Tuesday, Apple released the macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Supplemental Update that is supposed to fix the CPU throttling issues that have plagued the 2018 MacBook Pro since its release. We installed the update on a 15-inch 2.9GHz Core i9 MacBook Pro, and ran several benchmark tests to see if, as Apple promised, performance improved.

Our preliminary results show that yes, the update does boost the laptop’s speed. For example, in our Adobe Premiere test, the updated 2018 MacBook Pro was about 11 percent faster than the same laptop without the update. Compared to the 2017 15-inch 2.9GHz MacBook Pro, the updated 2018 laptop was 22 percent faster.

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Was The X Files: Fight the Future really one of the best films of the 1990sRemove non-product link? I have my doubts. Apple apparently doesn’t, though, as it included it in its “Best of the ‘90s” movie deal over at iTunes today. It’s but one of a ton of similarly themed collections on sale, all for the price of $20 a bundle, and it’s worth looking into if the question above stirs passions in you as it does with me.

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Buyers of the new MacBook Pro, take note: Apple on Tuesday released an update to macOS High Sierra that you’ll want to install right away. According to the company, the macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Supplemental Update should fix the performance issues that have come to light by reviewers and customers.

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Macs may be a far less tempting target for malware and viruses, but they’re not immune from attack. Even if you don’t care about adware or being used as a means to infect users on other platforms, it’s still possible to fall victim to ransomware, password theft, or stolen iPhone backups.

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We've all heard the age-old advice: change your passwords often, never use the same password twice, create complicated passwords. But how many of us really follow that advice? That's where LastPass comes in, and right now its premium version is $6 for 12 months on Humble Bundle, down 75 percent from its list price of $24Remove non-product link—a deal that works for both new and existing users.

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While Apple canceled its AirPort/Time Capsule line of Wi-Fi base stations, there are still an untold number of them in use. I have two in my house alone, and sold an unused third one recently.

The AirPort Utility Mac app is how you administer the features on an Apple Wi-Fi base station. Using this app, Macworld reader Tony can see all sorts of base stations in AirPort Utility that don’t belong to him. What's up with that?

His internet service provider configured its access so that it assigned network addresses from the same shared pool to several customers. That’s not great from a security perspective, because it means that subscribers who haven’t set up firewalls or who have vulnerable computers and devices, could be intentionally attacked or sniffed by other customers.

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The Macalope had to do a double-take today as he felt certain he had read an article before but it turns out he’d just read an article that was almost exactly the same as this one. What a relief to know it’s not a glitch in the matrix. He hates those. They always lead to so many slow-motion action shots.

Writing for the Forbes contributor network and Institute for Advanced Misunderstanding, Gordon Kelly says “Apple's iPhone 9 Has An Unfixable Design Problem.” (Tip o’ the antlers to mylestaylor.)

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HomePod is a great sounding smart speaker, but it's late to a game dominated by Amazon and Google and more than a little behind on some table-stakes features we've come to expect from the category.

If a new report from French site iGeneration is to be believed, that situation should improve this fall. 

The site claims that a beta version of iOS 12 has been distributed to internal Apple testers, adding a few much-needed features. Some of the features iGeneration says are included in this update are:

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Ah, a new week is here, along with a new opportunity to save some cash on Apple’s new 9.7-inch iPad with Apple Pencil support. Today’s offer comes from Best Buy, which is offering $30 off both the 32GB and 128GB models with Wi-Fi, which brings the prices down to $299.99Remove non-product link and $399.99Remove non-product link respectively (down from $329.99 and $429.99).

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Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 is due to land in a few weeks, and for the most part, it won’t make much noise among iPhone fans. Pegged to have a very similar design, screen, and camera as last year’s model, the battle between the Note 9 and the new iPhones will likely be even more one-sided than usual, as Apple is primed to release three new models with iPhone X-style designs, including one with a bigger screen than the Note, a first for an iPhone.

But while Samsung’s phablet might not matter to iPhone users, the accessories probably will. For one, the Note will reportedly have a new S Pen stylus, which could raise some Pencil envy. And Samsung will also be selling a brand new charger, the Wireless Charger Duo. Tipped by German site LetsGoDigital, the accessory is basically an extended version of Samsung’s existing wireless charger, with a stand on one end and a mat for the Galaxy Watch on the other. There are quite a few third-party iPhone-and-Apple Watch chargersRemove non-product link that do this wit varying results, but nothing from Apple.

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When you’ve got to charge a whole stack of devices at once, all those cords can get messy—and that’s if you have enough wall adapters to do it. Today, Amazon's got a great deal on a handy charger that makes powering multiple devices a breeze. You can get a 60 watt RavPower charger with five ports, including one USB-C, for $20 with the code RAVPKK59. That’s $10 off the charger’s list price of $30.

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