Apple recently presented this year’s operating systems, and they are full of new features to boost your productivity and increase your fun. macOS Ventura, iOS 16, and iPadOS 16 also have a number of useful new features to enhance your security and privacy. Most of these features are present in all of the operating systems. Here’s an overview of what to look forward to this fall.
Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.
It has been one year since Apple released AirTags, the small tracking devices that leverage the vast network of iPhones and iPads. Designed to help you find your keys, track your luggage, and keep tabs on your backpack, these devices have also been used for stalking and theft. Here’s an overview of the first year of AirTags.
Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.
iCloud is the umbrella for Apple’s services that you can access with your Mac, iPhone, or iPad. Not all of the company’s services; there are other services, such as Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and others, which you access with a paid subscription. But iCloud is the backbone of the services you use to manage your data and communicate with others.
In this article, I’ll explain what all the various elements of iCloud are, and how they work together.
Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.
The ports that you use to connect keyboards, mice, and hard drives to your Macs have changed over the years. Current Macs have USB-C, which provide standard USB speeds, along with faster Thunderbolt to compatible peripherals. But what’s the difference between USB-C and Thunderbolt ports, and how can you tell them apart? And which cables do you need to get the most out of them?
In this article, I’m going to explain what Thunderbolt and USB-C ports are, how to identify them, how they work, which features they offer, and how to choose the right cables for your needs.
Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.
Your Apple ID is the key that opens the door to all of Apple’s services. You use it to sign into iCloud, where you manage email, calendars, contacts, and more. You use it for purchases from Apple on the iTunes Store, or on App Stores. And you also use it to sign into Messages and FaceTime, to communicate with friends, family, and co-workers.
Since this single combination of a user name and password is so important to users of Apple devices, managing your Apple ID is important. In this article, I’ll discuss how to access settings for your Apple ID, how your Apple ID uses two-factor authentication to protect access to your device, how to set up account recovery contacts and legacy contacts, how to change your Apple ID, and much more.
Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.
Universal Control is one of the most interesting features in macOS Monterey, but it’s taken months for it to roll out to users. Apple first presented the feature in June 2021, and, while it was slated to be included in macOS Monterey’s first release, it was delayed. It is finally available, but still officially described as “beta.”
When working on your Mac, you can enable Universal Control so you can use the same keyboard and mouse or trackpad to control another Mac, or even an iPad. It allows you to have a second screen when you need it, to work with different apps. It’s not the same as Sidecar, which allows you to shift a window from your Mac to an iPad; it’s a way of using iPad apps and controlling them from your Mac.
In this article, I’ll explain how to set up and use Universal Control, and when you might want to use it.
Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.
Sometimes you want to share a PDF with someone, yet hide some of the information. For example, you may need to provide a bank statement to someone to prove you have a bank account, but not want to show the balance.
There are a number of ways you can do this, and one way that has been common for many people is using apps to pixelate the text you want to hide. But a security researcher has shown that this sort of pixelization is reversible.
Fortunately, if you use a Mac, you have access to a much more powerful redaction tool in Preview, the app you can use for viewing PDFs and images.
Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.
Relationships are hard; some last forever, some end amicably, and others end in conflict. If you break up with a spouse or partner, you have to make a lot of changes in your life. After sharing so much, the separation involves changes, including to the data you may have shared. To ensure a clean break, you need to remove your ex from your digital life, and this can mean changing passwords, adjusting settings, and deleting apps.
In this article, I’m going to tell you how to check and change sharing settings on your iPhone and iPad, so you no longer share your location, your calendar, or your apps.
Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.
Apple’s new App Privacy Report, in iOS 15.1 and iPadOS 15.2, gives you lots of information about how apps and websites collect data.
A new feature in iOS and iPadOS 15.2 is the App Privacy Report. Your iPhone or iPad can record and display activity carried out by apps, such as which apps access your location, contacts, or photos, which apps access a network, websites that contact trackers, and more. You can then view a detailed report of this activity over the past seven days.
In this article, I’ll explain how to enable the App Privacy Report, and how to understand the data it presents.
Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.
Social media is polarizing. While it’s done a lot of good for society, bringing people together, it’s also responsible for fomenting a lot of anger and distrust. From conspiracy theories to tools for radicalization, and the hostility that some users experience, social media services are responsible for amplifying anger, hatred, and racism.
A lot of the effects of social media depend on how we use these services. The problem with social media is that it thrives on “engagement,” and anger and fear or powerful ways of getting people to engage (like posts, comment on them, share them, etc.). The more engagement on social media, the more views, and the more ad revenue the companies make.
Many people are deciding to change the way they use social media: either curtail their usage, or stop using some social media services entirely. In this article, I’ll tell you how to delete your accounts on the 10 most popular social media services.
Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.