Best external SSD for Mac 2024-2025 Macworld
Solid-state drives – aka SSD – used to be really expensive, but prices have really fallen in the last few years, and you can now pick up fast, reliable SSDs that cost only slightly more than their hard drive counterparts.
As well as being faster than conventional hard drives, SSDs are lighter and sturdier too, making them ideal for use with a laptop when you’re traveling. That’s reflected in the drives that we review here, most of which are small and light enough to slip into your pocket. However, the latest SSDs can also offer up to 8TB of storage, which makes them a good option for use with a desktop Mac in an office as well. And they can help to reduce cable clutter too, as they generally take their power from a USB port on your Mac, rather than requiring a separate external power supply.
Even the slowest SSDs are generally faster than mechanical hard drives, but there are still speed differences, with entry-level models providing speeds of around 500MB/s, while more advanced models can step up to 1000MB/s or even 2000MB/s. Other features to look out for include IP-ratings for weather protection and password protection for your important files. Just remember to check that any apps provided by the manufacturer work with Macs and well as Windows PCs.
Another thing to take note of is whether the SSD connects via Thunderbolt 4 or 3, and USB 4 or USB-C, USB 3 or USB 3.2×2. The latter is one to avoid if you are a Mac user because Apple supports only 10Gbps with USB 3.2, meaning 3.2×2 20Gbps SSDS are constrained to half their potential. We explain the difference between Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4, and USB4 in a separate article. As a Mac user there isn’t a big difference between Thunderbolt 4 and Thunderbolt 3 variations, but PC users didn’t get the full Thunderbolt 3 feature set.
Shopping for storage this Black Friday? Read: Add storage to your Mac this Black Friday with these Mac SSD & HDD deals.
Updated November 2024 to add Adata SE920 External SSD 4.5.
Best SSD for Mac
1. Kingston XS1000
Pros
Very competitive price
Pocket-size design
Weighs only 28.7g
Cons
No Thunderbolt interface
No bundled software
Cable is USB-A-to-USB-C
Price When Reviewed:
1TB – $84.99; 2TB – $139.99
Best Prices Today:
$64.90 at Kingston$74.99 at Amazon$74.99 at B&H
We liked the sturdy little XS2000 drive that Kingston launched back in 2022, but it was pretty expensive and used a version of USB known as USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, which isn’t fully supported on the Mac at the moment. Drives that use ‘Gen 2×2’ will still work with a Mac, but the Mac won’t get the full speed that the drive is capable of. However, Kingston has now launched a more affordable model called the XS1000. This is a more conventional USB-C drive, using standard USB 3.2 Gen 2, so it’s a good, affordable option for Mac users who just want a compact, lightweight backup drive.
The XS1000 is one of the smallest and lightest SSDs that we’ve seen so far – in fact, it looks more like a little USB thumb drive, rather than a high-capacity backup drive. It measures just 13.5mm thick, 32.5mm wide and 69.5mm long, and weighs only 28.7g, so you can easily slip it into your shirt or trouser pocket when you’re traveling. It’s not quite as rugged as the more expensive XS2000 – which had an IP55 rating for water and dust resistance – but the plastic and metal casing feels sturdy enough to cope with a few knocks when you’re traveling, and Kingston provides a five-year warranty as well.
It’s very competitively priced too, costing $84.99/£74.99 with 1TB of storage, or $109.99/£99.99 with 2TB. The drive’s USB interface provides a quoted write speed of 1000MBs, while the read speed is slightly higher at 1050MB/s. It didn’t quite match those speeds in our tests, but its write speed of 875MB/s and read speed of 950MB/s will still be fine for routine back-ups with Time Machine. Our only complaint is that Kingston only includes a USB-A-to-USB-C cable with the XS1000, so you’ll need to buy an adaptor or a new cable if your Mac only has USB-C. Professional users might prefer a faster drive, or a more rugged design, but if you just want an affordable backup drive that can go traveling with you then the XS1000 is great value for money.
2. SanDisk Professional Pro-G40
Pros
Thunderbolt 3 interface (compatible with USB-C)
Ultra-rugged design
Professional-level performance
Cons
Very expensive
Doesn’t support Thunderbolt 4
Price When Reviewed:
1TB – $299.99; 2TB – $449.99; 4TB – $699.99
Best Prices Today:
$159.99 at Amazon$299.99 at Western Digital
Many portable drives use a standard USB-C port for connecting to a Mac or PC, but SanDisk’s Pro-G40 opts for a high-speed Thunderbolt 3 port to provide maximum performance for professional users who need to work with large video and graphics files (and, of course, it’s backward-compatible with USB-C as well).
The Pro-G40 was first released in 2022, and was already on our list of the best SSD drives for Mac, but this current model provides both improved performance and higher capacity for your work files. The design hasn’t changed though, with a compact, portable drive that measures just 12mm thick, 58mm wide and 111mm long. It weighs just over 120g – depending on the capacity you choose – so you can slip it into a jacket pocket or into a carrying case alongside your MacBook with no trouble at all. The drive is also extremely tough, with a sturdy metal case that is rated IP68 – one of the highest ratings possible – for resistance to water, dust and other particles. Western Digital, which now owns the SanDisk brand, also claims that the drive can survive drops from a height of 3m, and can withstand crushing pressure of up to 4000lbs. The drive even includes a five-year warranty as well.
The 2022 version of the Pro-G40 provided read and write speeds of 2700MB/s and 1900MB/s respectively when using the Thunderbolt cable included in the box, but the current model is rated at 3000MB/s for read and 2500MB/s for write speeds. Our tests showed it to be absolutely spot-on for write performance, consistently hitting 2500MB/s. The read performance didn’t quite hit the quoted 3000MB/s, settling at just over 27000MB/s, but that’s still far faster than most USB-C drives, and provides the sort of performance that professional users need for backing up their work files.
That combination of high performance and ultra-rugged design does mean that the Pro-G40 is quite a bit more expensive than many USB-C drives, so it’s probably overkill if you just need an affordable portable drive for backing up personal files. However, professional users will be pleased to find that the price of the Pro-G40 has been reduced recently, with the 1TB model now costing $299.99/£294.99, while the 2TB version is $449.99/£441.99. And, as mentioned, there’s a new 4TB version to provide extra capacity, priced at $699.99/£687.99.
Read our full
SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 review
3. SanDisk Pro Blade System
Pros
Thunderbolt 3 interface (compatible with USB-C)
Ultra-rugged design
Professional-level performance
Cons
Very expensive
Doesn’t support Thunderbolt 4
Price When Reviewed:
$49.99 for dock I $159.99 w/1TB Mag I $219.99 w/2TB I $339.99 w/4TB
Best Prices Today:
$49.99 at Western Digital$159.99 at Amazon$159.99 at B&H
We normally organize reviews of portable drives and desktop drives separately, but the new SanDisk Pro Blade is a modular SSD storage system that is very much designed for professional and creative users, and allows you to switch between portable and desktop modes as required.
You can start by buying the Pro Blade SSD Mag, which is a solid-state storage module that is available in 1TB, 2TB or 4TB sizes (the 1TB was discounted from $179.99 to $119.99 at the time of our review). The SSD Mag is pre-formatted in APFS format for Mac users, and is tough enough to withstand being dropped from a height of 3 meters or 9.8 foot, and withstand 4000lb (1814kg) crush pressure, making it ideal for outdoor use. However, the SSD Mag modules can’t connect to a computer on their own, so SanDisk provides two options for portable and desktop use.
For portable use you can buy the Pro Blade Transport, which is a compact case for the SSD Mag, and is equipped with a USB-C port for connecting to your Mac. The Transport measures just 130.4mm long, 71.5mm wide and 16mm thick, so you can easily slip it into your pocket or a carrying case just like any other portable drive. It’s also possible to connect the Transport to a camera that has a USB-C interface so that you can record high-res video rather than having to carry lots of smaller SD memory cards.
When you get back to the office you also have the option of inserting the SSD Mag modules into the Pro Blade Station ($499.99/£490.99). This desktop storage system doesn’t include any built-in storage of its own, but it has four slots that allow you to insert SSD Mag modules (not included) providing up to 16TB of high-speed solid-state storage. The Pro Blade Station has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, with one used to connect your Mac, while the other port can be used to daisy-chain additional storage devices if required. The Pro Blade Station is fairly expensive – given that it doesn’t include any storage of its own – but it gives you the option of creating a high-speed, high-capacity SSD storage system for use in your office, whilst also being able to remove the individual SSD Mag modules and use them as portable drives whenever you need to.
Western Digital – which owns SanDisk these days – claims that the Pro Blade Station can provide read and write speeds of 3000MB/s and 2600MB/s respectively. Our tests actually recorded a read speed of 2600MB/s and write speed of 2300MB/s, but that’s still one of the fastest SSD drives we’ve ever seen, making it a good option for creative users who need a fast storage system that they can use both in the office and on the road.
Read our full
Sandisk Pro-Blade Transport review
4. LaCie Portable SSD
Pros
Small and stylish
Solid construction
Cons
Middling performance
Price When Reviewed:
500GB – $129.99; 1TB – $209.99; 2TB – $369.99
Best Prices Today:
$71.34 at Amazon$129.99 at LaCie
The LaCie Portable SSD is an option for people who don’t need James Bond levels of security. Available with 500GB, 1TB or 2TB of storage, the Portable SSD has a new design compared to its predecessor. Rather than sharply angular corners and edges of the now discontinued LaCie Mobile SSD, the compact Portable SSD has smoothly round corners – perhaps following Apple’s recent fetish for rounded corners on icons in Big Sur and Monterey.
It’s smaller and lighter than previous drives from LaCie too, measuring just 0.4in/10.6mm thick, 1.9in/50mm wide, and 3in/80mm long, and it weighs a mere 1.5oz/45g, so it’s ideal for carrying around with your MacBook or iPad when you’re traveling.
The drive has a single USB-C interface, and includes a USB-C cable, but the low cost means that there are no added extras, such as an adaptor for older Macs that have USB-A (3.2) connectors.
LaCie hasn’t cut any other corners, though. The Portable SSD has a solid, sturdy design that should be able to cope with a few bumps in a backpack or briefcase, and it performs very well too.
LaCie quotes read and write speeds of 1000MB/s, but repeated tests with the BlackMagic speed test app showed the Portable SSD comfortably cruising along at around 1,300MB/s with no trouble at all.
That combination of speed, compact design and competitive pricing makes the Portable SSD a great option for anyone that needs a portable backup drive for their Mac or iPad.
Read our full review.
5. SanDisk Desk Drive
Pros
Good performance
Up to 8TB capacity
Compact design
Cons
Requires mains power
No additional ports
Price When Reviewed:
4TB: $379.99; 8TB: $699.99
Best Prices Today:
$259.99 at B&H$279.99 at Adorama$279.99 at Walmart ElectronicsNot Available at Amazon
The lightweight, compact design of solid-state drives makes them a great option if you need a portable back-up drive to use with your MacBook when you’re traveling. However, portable SSDs do tend to have limited storage capacity, often with a maximum of just 1TB or 2TB. In contrast, the SanDisk Desk Drive provides both high-speed SSD performance and high capacity too, starting with a minimum of 4TB for $379.99/£359.99. If that’s not enough then you can also step up to 8TB, for $699.99/£663.99.
As the name suggests, the Desk Drive is very much designed for desktop use in an office, and it’s larger than most conventional SSDs, standing 40.2mm high and 99.2mm on each side, and weighing 268g. The drive itself is still small and light enough to slip into a backpack or traveling bag along with your MacBook, but it does require a mains power supply as well, so this isn’t a drive that is going to leave the office very often (we did try to power it through a USB-C port on our MacBook Pro, but that didn’t work).
It’s also a little disappointing that the Desk Drive just has a single USB-C port for data transfer. At this price, a couple of extra ports would have been a useful bonus, especially for MacBook models that only have a couple of USB-C ports of their own.
We didn’t have any complaints about the Desk Drive’s performance, though. SanDisk quotes a speed of 1GB/s, although the results we got were closer to 925MB/s and 910MB/s for write and read speeds respectively. That’s not as fast as some high-end SSDs that are designed for professional users – such as SanDisk’s own Pro Blade system – but it’s still a lot faster than a conventional hard drive, and the Desk Drive will be a very good option for people who simply need a fast backup drive that provides plenty of storage for photos, videos and work files.
6. Seagate OneTouch SSD
Pros
Ships with USB cables that cover both USB-C and USB-A
Sturdily built
Cons
Doesn’t offer hardware encryption options
Price When Reviewed:
500GB – $94.99; 1TB – $169.99; 2TB – $309.99
Best Prices Today:
$64.99 at B&H$82.55 at Amazon$94.99 at Seagate
Seagate’s OneTouch hard drives are a popular choice with many users. The OneTouch SSD is the smallest and lightest portable drive we’ve ever seen and is available in black, silver or blue.
When sitting flat on the desk it measures just 2in/50mm wide, 2.7in/70mm deep and a mere 0.4in/10.6mm thick. And it weighs only 2.6oz/74g, so you can easily slip it into your pocket and carry it around with your laptop or iPad when you’re traveling. It’s sturdily built too, with Seagate claiming that it can withstand being dropped from a height of 6.5 foot/2m.
The OneTouch drive has a USB-C interface, but Seagate includes both USB-C and USB-A cables so that you can use it with most Macs and PCs straight out of the box.
It works with Apple’s Time Machine for automatic backups, but Seagate also includes its own ToolKit app, which has a ‘sync’ option for backing up specific folders. The drive also includes a one-year free subscription to the Mylio photo-organizer app, and four months with Adobe’s CC Photography plan, normally $9.99/£9.98 a month on an annual plan (read our guide to getting the best deal on Adobe Creative Cloud).
The drive is available with 500GB, 1TB or 2TB of storage, so it provides plenty of room for backing up large libraries of photos, videos or music. It doesn’t quite match Seagate’s quoted speed of 1GB/s, but it recorded read and write speeds of 835MB/s and 915MB/s respectively in our tests, which still put it among the fastest solid-state drives that we’ve tested recently. And, with its ridiculously light and compact design, the OneTouch will be ideal for backing up all your important files when you’re on the move.
7. SE920 External SSD
Pros
High data transfer rates
Good fan
Cons
No transport bag
No rubber feet
Price When Reviewed:
1TB: $140 I 2TB: $200 I 4TB: $380
Best Prices Today:
$179.99 at Adata$179.99 at Amazon
The Adata SE920 External SSD is a high-performance USB4 SSD for those who need rapid data transfer speeds.
It combines passive and active cooling with a compact metal housing for passive cooling, and a micro-fan with openings for active cooling. The user can actually activate the fan by pressing on the housing.
If you are working on a project such as a video or image edit, or another task that could require a lot of drive access over a period of time, then switch on the fan. The rest of the time you can probably leave it.
The SE920 is primarily designed for Windows users, evident from the formatting in the NTFS file system and the backup software for Windows, but this shouldn’t be a problem for experienced Mac users. The SE920 is quickly reformatted in APFS using the macOS Disk Utility.
Data transfer rates measured with Aja System Test Lite were impressive. The SE920 achieved 2992MBps for writes and 3161 MBps for reads. Data rates are stable over a longer period and the thermal design works perfectly.
All this comes at a good price. We recommend the SE920 to any content creator.
Read our full
SE920 External SSD review
8. LaCie Rugged SSD Pro
Pros
IP67 ruggedized
Fast NVMe/Thunderbolt 3 performance
Operates via Thunderbolt 3 or USB 3.0
Cons
Expensive
Price When Reviewed:
$419.99 (1TB), $739.99 (2TB), $1049.99 (4TB)
Best Prices Today:
$199.99 at Amazon$299.99 at B&H$388.21 at Walmart Electronics
LaCie’s Rugged drives have been popular with Mac users for many years, thanks to their combination of high-performance and that now-familiar orange sleeve that helps to keep the drive safe when you’re working outdoors. However, the Rugged range has mostly used conventional hard drives in the past, which are slower than the latest solid-state drives, as well as being bigger and heavier. Welcome the Rugged Pro SSD, which is primarily aimed at creative users.
The Rugged SSD range starts at around $180/£180 for a model with 500GB storage, but we were able to review the SSD Pro, which stands out from the rest of the range with its matte-black sleeve. It’s pretty expensive, costing $419/£249.99 with 1TB of storage, and a hefty $739.99/£379.99 for the 2TB model and $1,049.99/£999.99 for 4TB, but it justifies that price with an even tougher design and the latest, super-fast solid-state drives designed for professional video work. (U.K. prices dropped in 2024 but US prices don’t seem to have followed suit. Luckily you can get good deals at various resellers).
Switching to a solid-state drive means that the SSD Pro is now the smallest model in the Rugged range, measuring just 3.8in/98mm long, 2.5in/65mm wide and 0.6in/17mm thick. It only weighs 100g/3.5oz, so you can easily slip it into your pocket or bag when you’re traveling and barely even notice that it’s there.
Despite its compact design, that new black sleeve is seriously tough and rated IP67 for resistance to water and dust, allowing it to survive in 3.2 foot/1m of water for up to 30 minutes. It can cope with being dropped from a height of 9.8 foot/3m, and can even resist the weight of a two-tonne car driving over it. It includes a five-year warranty in case anything does go wrong, which includes one visit to LaCie’s data-recovery labs if you need to retrieve important data.
The Rugged SSD Pro includes just a single Thunderbolt 3/USB-C interface, but most of its high price is down to the use of the latest NVMe solid-state drives, which provide top performance for high-end video applications, such as editing 8K or super-slow-motion video files (which can be enormous, as they shoot at up to 240 frames per second on the latest iPhones). The drive didn’t disappoint, recording consistent write speeds of 1780MB/s, and an even faster 2480MB/s for read speeds – with both figures leaving just about every other SSD drive we’ve ever tested trailing in its wake. And, when backing up our iTunes music library, the Rugged SSD Pro blew us away by backing up 5GB of music files in just five seconds – look away for a couple of seconds and you’ll miss it!
Of course, not everyone will need that sort of performance – especially at this price – but if you work with high-res video and need a fast, tough drive for outdoor work then the Rugged SSD Pro is in a class of its own.
Read our full
LaCie Rugged SSD Pro review
9. LaCie Rugged Mini SSD
Pros
Compact, rugged design
Up to 4TB storage
3-year warranty
Cons
Expensive
No Thunderbolt interface
Requires USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 for maximum performance
Price When Reviewed:
500GB = $89.99; 1TB $129.99; 2TB – $234.99; 4TB – $439.99
Best Prices Today:
$79 at Amazon$79.99 at B&H$84.99 at Lacie
LaCie’s Rugged range of hard drives and SSDs has long been popular with people who need a sturdy back-up drive that can cope with rough weather and conditions when working outdoors. The Rugged drives have always tended to be rather large and bulky, though – like the Rugged SSD Pro (below) – so LaCie has now produced a more compact option in the form of the new Rugged Mini SSD.
As you might expect, the Rugged Mini looks very much like its rugged relatives, with LaCie’s distinctive bright orange rubber sleeve helping to keep the drive safe. But, of course, it’s a lot smaller than previous models, measuring just 17.3mm thick, 66.9mm wide, 105mm long. It only weighs 114g as well, so you can easily slip it into a jacket pocket or backpack when you’re traveling.
Despite that compact design, the Rugged Mini is still tough enough to cope with some rough treatment. It’s rated IP54 for water and dust resistance, so it should be able to cope with life outdoors if you’re working on location for a photo- or video shoot. And, thanks to that rubber sleeve, it can handle drops of up to 3m and even survive being driven over by a 1-tonne truck. And if that’s not tough enough, the drive comes with a three-year warranty that includes LaCie’s Rescue Data Recovery Service, to help restore any lost data.
The drive’s USB-C port will work with any Mac or PC that also has USB-C or Thunderbolt. But, like a number of drives that we’ve seen recently, it uses a version of USB known as USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, which isn’t fully supported by Macs at the moment. This means that Macs won’t be able to get the full 2000MB/s speeds supported by that interface, and our tests confirmed this, recording write and read speeds of 900MB/s and 970MB/s respectively. We’ve seen stronger performance from some rival drives, but those speeds should be perfectly adequate for routine backups when you’re on the road, and the sturdy design of the Rugged Mini makes it a good option for people who need a drive that they can use outdoors on a regular basis.
Pricing is a little confusing, though. In the US, the Rugged Mini costs $84.99/£74.99 (1TB), $109.99/£99.99 (2TB), and $159.99/£149.99 (4TB). We’ve seen much lower prices from Amazon and other online retailers, so it’s definitely worth shopping around before buying.
10. WD My Passport SSD
Pros
Lightweight
Offers USB-C and A
Hardware encryption
Cons
Expensive
Remarkably short cable
Software issues
Price When Reviewed:
500GB – $59.99; 1TB – $74.99; 2TB – $179.99; 4TB – $319.99
Best Prices Today:
$59.99 at Western Digital$74.99 at Amazon$117.99 at Walmart
Western Digital’s Passport drives have always provided portable, lightweight designs, and the My Passport SSD combines compact design with strong performance and additional security features.
Available in a variety of colors, the My Passport SSD provides up to 4TB of solid-state storage, although the 1TB model that we review here costs $74.99/£94.99.
The drive measures just 0.35in/9mm thick, and weighs 1.6oz/46g, so it’s small enough to slip into a jacket pocket when you’re on the move. However, it’s also tough enough to survive being dropped from a height of two metres.
The drive is equipped with a USB-C interface, but WD includes a USB-C cable and a USB-A adaptor with the drive, so you can still use it with older Macs that don’t have USB-C. The solid-state drive provides good performance too, recording a write speed of 935MB/s and read speed of 908MB/s, making it a great option for backing up your important files on the move.
It’s secure too, as WD’s Discovery app allows you to set a password for the drive in order keep your files safe. There’s a second app as well, called WD Unlocker, which is built into the drive itself, and allows you to enter the password so that you can use the drive with another Mac or PC if you need to.
When the drive was first introduced there were complaints that the WD apps hadn’t been properly updated to 64-bit code for the latest versions of the macOS, but we tested the drive with our office Macs and didn’t encounter any problems.
Read a full review over on our sister site Tech Advisor.
11. SanDisk Portable SSD
Pros
Competitive price
Slim, lightweight design
Can survive 2m drop
Cons
Could be a little sturdier
Modest performance
Price When Reviewed:
1TB – $89.99; 2TB – $139.99
Best Prices Today:
$99.99 at Walmart119.99 at Western Digital
SanDisk has been making a push for the professional market with some of its recent products, but it’s also well-known for simply providing good value for money with products such as the SanDisk Portable SSD. In fact, the Portable SSD is so cheap that SanDisk doesn’t even bother selling a 500GB model on its web site, jumping straight up to 1TB for a very competitive $101.99/£104.99, while even the 2TB model costs just well under $200/£200.
The Portable SSD lives up to its name too, as it measures just 10mm thick, 47mm wide and 97mm long, so you can slip it into a jacket or even a shirt pocket and barely even notice that it’s there. The lightweight plastic case doesn’t feel quite as sturdy as we might have liked, and professional users who work outdoors a lot might prefer a drive with a more rugged design. However, SanDisk states that it can survive being dropped from a height of two metres, and there’s a handy little rubber hook on one corner to help keep it safe, so it should be able to survive general day-to-day use when you’re out and about with your laptop. The only oddity is that the drive has a USB-C interface, but SanDisk only provides a USB-C-to-USB-A cable, so you’ll need your own adaptor or cable if your Mac or PC only has USB-C ports.
It’s not the fastest solid-state drive around and, to be honest, even SanDisk’s quoted speed of 520MB/s seems a little optimistic. The drive’s write performance was a little erratic, but averaged around 300MB/s, while read performance was higher and more consistent at 430MB/s. Again, professional users might prefer a faster drive if they’ve got deadlines looming, but the Portable SSD is still a lot faster than a conventional hard drive, and it’s a good option for anyone that just wants a lightweight, affordable back-up drive for their Mac.
12. Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield
Pros
Rugged & shock resistant
Password protection
USB-C cable and a USB-A adaptor included
Cons
The standard T7 is cheaper and may be sufficient for your needs.
Price When Reviewed:
1TB – $129.99; 2TB – $219.99; 4TB – $389.99
Best Prices Today:
$84.99 at Walmart$99.99 at Amazon$99.99 at B&H
There are three versions of Samsung’s T7. The standard T7 is a compact, lightweight SSD that looks very similar to the old T5 – although it boasts higher performance, so make sure you check the model numbers before buying. We tested the T7 Shield, which is a more rugged model, wrapped in a sturdy rubber sleeve designed for outdoor use. Both of those models can use Samsung’s Portable SSD app to add password protection for your files, but there’s also a third model called the T7 Touch that has a built-in fingerprint sensor for extra security and convenience.
Available in black, blue or silver, the T7 Shield costs $129/£110 with 1TB of storage, but we are seeing great discounts now it’s been out a while. It has a USB-C interface for connecting to your Mac, but Samsung includes a USB-C cable and a USB-A adaptor so that you can use it with older Macs that have USB-A. The rugged protective sleeve means that it’s a little larger than the other T7 models, measuring 0.5in/13mm thick, 2.3in/59mm wide and 3.4in/88mm long, and weighing 3.4oz/98g. Even so, it’s still small enough to slip into a jacket pocket or backpack with no trouble at all, and many people will appreciate the extra protection that it offers.
The T7 Shield is rated IP65 for water- and dust-resistance, and Samsung claims that the shock-resistant rubber sleeve can survive drops from a height of three meters.
It’s a good performer too. Samsung quotes read and write speeds of 1,000MB/s, but our tests with the Blackmagic disk tool actually recorded a read speed of 1,780MB/s, and a write speed of 1,300MB/s, which makes the T7 Shield a great backup option for people who need to work outdoors with their laptop.
13. OWC Express 1M2 USB4 SSD
Pros
Very high data transfer rates
High-quality housing
Good cooling without a fan
Cons
Short connection cable
Price When Reviewed:
1TB: $219.99 I 2TB: $299.99 I 4TB: $529.99 I 8TB: $1,299.99
Best Prices Today:
$219.99 at OWC$249.99 at Amazon
The OWC Express 1M2’s cooling fins alone account for around half of the overall height of this external SSD. The aluminum housing is quite large at 5.2 by 2.8 by 0.9 inches (13.2 by 7.1 by 2.3 centimeters) and the very high-quality metal housing also has sufficiently large rubber surfaces on the underside.
To test for speed, we used two benchmarks, Aja System Test Lite and Blackmagicdesign Disk Speed Test. The results are impressive: 2736MBps (write) and 2980MBps (read) in Aja System Test Lite. The values with Blackmagicdesign Disk Speed Test were around 100MBps higher–it cracked the 3000 MBps mark in the read test.
Read our full
OWC Express 1M2 USB4 SSD review
How to choose an SSD: Buying advice
You’ve read our recommendations of the best SSDs for Mac owners on the market right now. But how did we reach these decisions, and what general advice should you follow when selecting an SSD?
SSDs vs hard drives
Cost per gigabyte is the main stumbling block. You might pay $200 for a 1TB portable SSD, whereas a 1TB external hard drive costs around $25.
This is because hard drives use relatively cheap spinning platters to store data. SSDs employ NAND memory chips. They are pricier, but also faster and allow for much smaller enclosures.
If you decide in favor of hard drives, see our roundup of the best Mac hard drives.
2.5in or ultra-portable?
SSD performance varies from around 300-500MB/s read speeds all the way up to 3000MB/s, but there are three basic physical forms of SSD. And two can be considered portable.
‘Naked’ SSD boards plug directly into PCIe or SATA interfaces. These are the kind you might use to replace the SSD in a laptop, or add to a desktop. They are not really portable.
2.5in SSDs offer a mix of portability and internal use, and are the cheapest way to get a portable drive. They have a plastic casing, avoiding damage to the components, but use SATA connectors rather than USB.
You can buy an enclosure to get more protection and that all-important USB or Thunderbolt interface, or even just use a SATA-to-USB cable. We use one of these cables in the office to ferry around test files on a 2.5in SSD.
For the ultimate portable experience you need a ‘pocket’ SSD, though, not one based on 2.5in drive dimensions. These are designed to be used with USB or Thunderbolt connectors, not those found inside a Mac or MacBook.
You’ll mostly find this kind below. They are incredibly small and convenient. However, they are more expensive than 2.5in-style drives, so you may want to consider the larger type if lower spend is a top concern.
Shock-proof, and rugged?
SSDs are more durable than hard drives. They have no moving parts, and won’t be damaged if they are moved or knocked while writing data. While modern hard drives have some level of shock protection, it’s still a big issue.
You can treat an SSD pretty mean before it starts complaining.
Some portable SSDs even offer water resistance. You can also get ruggedization in a specialized drive enclosure, if you choose to go down the 2.5in drive route.
This is a huge portability benefit. But if they are sat still all day, are SSDs more reliable than HDDs? Hard drives tend to fail mechanically. For example, the motor that spins the platters might burn out. SSDs’ memory cells age, which can lead to failure. Both kinds require specialist recovery. As ever,
back up important data.
However, for our purposes, as people who occasionally have to fling drives in rucksacks and plug them in while sat in an airplane seat, SSDs are the clear winner.
Matching SSD performance to your connectors
How fast can you expect SSD file transfers to be? The top external SSDs can read and write at up to around 550MB/s.
However, to get these speeds you need a port on your Mac or MacBook that can handle this bandwidth.
If you’ve got a recent model with a Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port, you’re set. While external SSDs use USB 3.1 standards rather than Thunderbolt, the port also supports USB 3.1 Gen 1 and Gen 2, which is what we’re after.
Have an older machine with USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 ports? You’ll see some speed compromise.
USB 3.0 can hack most of an external SSD’s speed, with theoretical max of 625MB/s, or a chunk lower in real-world use. Think twice if your computer is rather old, say a 2011 MacBook Pro, and only has USB 2.0 ports. These max out at 60MB/s, which just can’t do justice to these ultra-fast SSDs. In that case, consider a hard drive instead.
How much storage do I need?
Recent external SSDs tend to come in three or four capacities: 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB and you might even find 8TB.
You’ll want to think carefully about the capacity you need, as the cost difference between 500GB and 1TB models is usually stark. There aren’t the same relatively minor price leaps seen in 1-4TB hard drives.
We can’t answer this one for you, but it’s a good idea to do a quick mental calculation. For example, 4K footage from a Panasonic Lumix GH4 camera eats up 4GB every five minutes. Video editors who work in 4K need a lot of storage.
However, if you just need to back up or carry around some movies and photos, a smaller-capacity model may well do the trick. Check out your Mac’s own storage capacity and use that as a guide.
Emergency Network Maintenance – EU-Central (Frankfurt) THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 20, 23:00 UTC - Nov 21, 03:00 UTCNov 20, 17:05 UTCScheduled - We will be performing an emergency network maintenance in our EU-Central (Frankfurt) data center beginning 20 November 2024 23:00 (UTC) until 21 November 03:00 (UTC). During this time, users with resources in the EU-Central (Frankfurt) region may experience intermittent issues when attempting to take actions like creating, updating, and deleting resources within this region
TV Time Attacks Apple's 'Significant Power' After App Store Removal TV Time's parent company criticized Apple's App Store control after the tech giant removed its streaming app over an intellectual property dispute. "Apple holds significant power over app developers by controlling access to a massive market and, in this case, seems to have acted on a complaint without requiring robust evidence from the complainant," Jerry Inman, CMO of Whip Media, which operates the app, told TechCrunch.
The app was pulled from the store by Apple after the developer refused to pay a settlement fee related to user-uploaded cover art. The app has since been reinstated.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Apple Watch 2024 holiday shopping guide: Series 10, Ultra 2, SE, and more Holiday shopping for an Apple Watch and don’t know where to start? Look no further than our Apple Watch 2024 holiday shopping guide as we take you through every option, key differences, and buying tips.
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Apple TV+ reveals first look at drug ring drama series ‘Dope Thief,’ premiering March 14th Apple TV+ on Wednesday unveiled a first look at “Dope Thief,” its new, eight-episode crime drama created and executive produced by…
The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.
UPDATE: **Summary :**
Google Voice group chat users may receive malformed SMS messages.
**Description :**
We are experiencing an issue with Google Voice beginning on Tuesday, 2024-11-19 20:45 US/Pacific.
Our engineering team continues to investigate the issue.
We will provide an update by Wednesday, 2024-11-20 10:00 US/Pacific with current details.
**Customer Symptoms :**
Google Voice group chat users may receive malformed SMS messages.
**Workaround :**
None at this time Incident began at 2024-11-20 04:45 (times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)).Summary :
Google Voice group chat users may receive malformed SMS messages.
Description :
We are experiencing an issue with Google Voice beginning on Tuesday, 2024-11-19 20:45 US/Pacific.
Our engineering team continues to investigate the issue.
We will provide an update by Wednesday, 2024-11-20 10:00 US/Pacific with current details.
Customer Symptoms :
Google Voice group chat users may receive malformed SMS messages.
Workaround :
None at this time
Affected products: Google Voice
Deals: 16GB M3 MacBook Air $849 all-time low, M4 Mac mini from $500 low, M4 MacBook Pro, MagSafe Charger, more Well, we certainly thought we were going to have to wait until Thanksgiving Day for today’s headliner deal – the 16GB and 24GB M3 MacBook Air models are at new all-time lows. Now up to $450 off the price they carried just over a month ago, you can now score the newly upgraded MacBook Air starting from $849 shipped in all colors. We also spotted the lowest price to date on the new M4 Mac mini at $500 – but only for Costco members – as well as the return of the all-time low on the M4 Pro Mac mini at $129 off. Apple’s official MagSafe Charger from $15 and a host of other accessories are also on tap here today. Scope it all out below alongside the ongoing $249 price drops on the new M4 MacBook Pro models.
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AirPods 4 with ANC on Sale for $168.99 The AirPods 4 is for sale on Amazon today. Designed for comfort, you can use the AirPods all day- featuring up to 30 hours of listening time, 20 with ANC enabled, with an hour or 45 minutes of talk time replenished by the small yet powerful wireless charging case in just 5 minutes. SIRI your […]
The post appeared first on iLounge.
Apple Pay ad released by Apple An ad for Apple Pay was released today by Apple in preparation for the holidays. The YouTube ad promotes the convenience and ease of using Apple Pay for online shopping. Apple Pay, with a card stored in it, can seamlessly be used for transactions with a TouchID or FaceID Authentication to verify if it is […]
The post appeared first on iLounge.
iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone XS Max now vintage, and Apple Series 2 Watches obsolete Apple has added the iPhone XS Max and iPhone 6S Plus and other older Apple products to the vintage list on their website. An Apple device is classified as vintage 5 years after which the company last distributed the product for sale. Sometimes, Apple would still offer repairs for vintage products if parts of the […]
The post appeared first on iLounge.
WeChat introduces passkey technology for their iOS app WeChat is integrating passkey support in their iOS app, enabling those who are not in China to log into the messaging platform via their passcode, TouchID, or FaceID instead of entering a password, which is the standard way. Apple presented the passkey for the iOS 16 to provide a more convenient and secure verification method […]
The post appeared first on iLounge.
MMS Delivery Failures to AT&T Network in the US for a subset of Toll Free Numbers Nov 20, 08:35 PSTInvestigating - We are experiencing MMS delivery failures sending to AT&T Network in the US for a subset of Toll Free Numbers. Our engineers are working with our carrier partner to resolve the issue. We expect to provide another update in 1 hour or as soon as more information becomes available.
Gamer gears up for World of Warcraft action with new Mac mini [Setups] Today's slick dual-monitor setup is purpose-built as a Mac mini gaming station, thanks to M4 Pro. Who says Macs aren't good for gaming?
(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)
How much should I expect to pay for the development of a relatively basic chatGPT wrapper mobile app? I am looking to develop a pretty basic chatgpt wrapper mobile app(it will be niched and and marketed to a specific audience). I am non technical and am looking to pay for someone to develop this for me. Is anyone able to give me a rough estimate of what I should expect to pay for […]
Add 13 Features That Improve App Growth, Retention, and Reviews to any app in 15 minutes Hi everyone! I’ve been building a iOS SDK which handles a ton of the grunt work you need in an app; things like when you ask for reviews, churn notifications, app-update messaging, etc. The idea came to me after building a lot of apps (both indie and as an engineer at Apple). There’s a ton […]
Iconic band Fleetwood Mac tells its own story in new Apple TV+ documentary A new Fleetwood Mac documentary coming to Apple TV+ tells the legendary rockers' story in the band members' own words for the first time.
(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)
'Final Fantasy XIV Mobile' brings epic adventures to your iPhone Lightspeed Studios and Square Enix are bringing the critically acclaimed MMORPG "Final Fantasy XIV" to mobile, letting players embark on the epic Eorzean adventure on their iPhone.Final Fantasy XIVNaoki Yoshida, producer and director of Final Fantasy XIV Online, described the mobile adaptation as a "sister" game that aims to bring the core story and combat of the original to a smaller screen. Non-combat roles, like Disciples of the Land and Hand, will also be included.Final Fantasy XIV Mobile offers both longtime fans and new players a chance to explore Eorzea in a new way. Familiar characters like Thancred, Tataru, and Nanamo Ul Namo will appear, alongside features like fishing, Triple Triad, and chocobo racing. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
SMS Delivery Delays to Brisanet Network in Brazil Nov 20, 07:57 PSTInvestigating - We are experiencing MMS/SMS delivery delays when sending messages to Brisanet Network in Brazil. Our engineers are working with our carrier partner to resolve the issue. We will provide another update in 1 hour or as soon as more information becomes available.
Apple’s Shazam hits 100 billion song recognitions Shazam has now officially surpassed over 100 billion song recognitions since it launched. This monumental milestone not only reflects how…
The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.
Overcast adds new listening stats and 48-hour undo features The popular podcast player Overcast has gotten a big update today with a new listening stats feature. The app can now show you which podcasts you’ve listened to most over the last two years.
Today’s Overcast update also adds an incredibly useful new 48-hour history and undo feature to help you recover from accidentally skipping a podcast.
more…
AirTag 2 has a lot more to prove than most Apple products Apple is reportedly planning to ship AirTag 2 next year, about four years after its predecessor. And when it arrives, it will have a lot more to prove than most other Apple products. Here’s why.
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503 Service Unavailable Errors on Twilio Chat Services Nov 20, 07:35 PSTInvestigating - Customers using older versions of the Programmable Chat client SDKs may experience HTTP 503 errors when trying to initalize the SDK client. Our engineering team has been alerted and is actively investigating. We will provide another update in 1 hour or as soon as more information becomes available.
Shazam has been used more than 100 billion times since it launched Shazam, the wildly popular song recognition app, has reached a major milestone by identifying more than 100 billion songs — up from 70 billion songs in 2022.Shazam Predictions 2022 playlist and new subscriber dealOn Wednesday, Apple took a moment to praise Shazam for reaching a major milestone. Since its inception in 2002, Shazam has been used to identify 100 billion songs worldwide.To put that in perspective, Apple points out that a person would need to use Shazam to identify a song every second for 3,168 years to reach 100 billion. It's also equivalent to 12 songs identified for every person on Earth. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
Samsung Black Friday Event Begins With Huge Savings on Monitors, TVs, and More Samsung has introduced early Black Friday deals this week, and you can find discounts on TVs, smartphones, monitors and memory, wearables, appliances, and more.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Samsung. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Notable deals this time around include multiple monitors and TVs at low prices, as well as deals on portable SSD accessories and memory. If you're shopping for the popular 27-inch ViewFinity S9 Smart Monitor, be sure to check out Amazon's price tag of $819.98 ($780 off), which is much better than Samsung's current price.
SITEWIDE DEALSSamsung Black Friday Sale
Below we've collected some deals on monitors, storage, TVs, and Galaxy products, but be sure to browse the full sale for even more Black Friday discounts at Samsung.
Monitors and Storage
990 EVO 5.0 NVMe SSD 2TB - $129.99, down from $239.99
2TB Portable SSD - $169.99, down from $284.99
34-inch Odyssey OLED G8 Curved Gaming Monitor - $799.99, down from $1,199.99
32-inch Odyssey Quantum Gaming Monitor - $799.99, down from $1,099.99
27-inch ViewFinity S9 Smart Monitor - $819.98 at Amazon, down from $1,599.99
49-inch Odyssey OLED G9 Curved Gaming Monitor - $1,078.99, down from $1,799.99
55-inch Odyssey Ark 2nd Gen Curved Gaming Monitor - $1,799.99, down from $2,999.99
TVs
The Frame QLED 4K TVs - Save up to $1,300
55-inch Neo QLED 4K Smart TV - $1,199.99, down from $1,499.99
65-inch OLED S90C TV - $999.99, down from $2,599.99
85-inch QLED 4K TV - $1,479.99, down from $2,799.99
85-inch Neo QLED 4K TV - $1,799.99, down from $3,699.99
Galaxy Products
Galaxy Z Fold6 - Save up to $1,600 with trade-in credit
Galaxy Z Flip6 - Save up to $950 with trade-in credit
Galaxy Watch Ultra - Save up to $410
Galaxy Buds3 Pro - Save up to $155 We're keeping track of all of the season's best Apple-related deals in our Black Friday roundup, so be sure to check back throughout the month for an updated list of all the most notable discounts you'll find for Black Friday 2024.
Deals Newsletter
Interested in hearing more about top deals as we head into the holidays? Sign up for our Deals Newsletter and we'll keep you updated so you don't miss the biggest deals of the season!
Related Roundup: Apple DealsThis article, "" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
Microsoft Ignite 2024: Enterprise Productivity Is the Easiest AI Sell This week’s Microsoft Ignite 2024 event in Chicago showcased Microsoft's vision and strategies for corporate and enterprise customers, highlighting AI's potential to transform operations. The post appeared first on TechNewsWorld.
Apple’s best selling iPhone models aren’t what you’d expect, but there’s a good reason Early in the iPhone’s life, Apple made only one model for everyone. Today, the company releases four flagships every year and also offers the iPhone SE and older models. It’s a lot to keep up with, but a new report gives us a good picture of which models are selling best.
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Score an official Apple MagSafe Charger for 60% off in this wild blowout sale Macworld
If you have a new iPhone, the easiest and safest way to charge it is with Apple’s official MagSafe charger, especially when you can get one for crazy cheap: Amazon’s Woot is selling the 1st-gen MagSafe charger for $15, a savings of more than 60 percent and the lowest we’ve ever seen.
Woot says the product is brand new direct from Apple but won’t ship in its original packaging. Instead, it will however arrive in a polybag or plain brown box. it comes with a 90-day Woot Limited Warranty. The deal is available through Saturday or until supplies run out.
Apple MagSafe Charger uses magnets to firmly attach to the back of the iPhone or AirPods Pro case for more reliable wireless charging. Since this is the 1st-gen cable, it maxes out at 15W, but that’s plenty fast for quickly filling up your iPhone when it hits the red. Like Apple’s other products, it doesn’t come with a power adapter, so you’ll need to bring your own. Apple recommends 20W or higher for maximum speeds.
What’s more, you can also save even more by buying two ($28) or three ($40), so if you need a great charger for a great price, go grab one now.
Get an official Apple MagSafe charger for 60% offBuy now on Woot!
Shazam tops 100 billion song recognition milestone Shazam, the song recognition service that Apple acquired in 2018, today announced a major milestone: its users have now identified more than 100 billion songs.
The most identified song is Dance Monkey, by Tones and I, which has been recognized by Shazam more than 45 million times.
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Apple Announces Shazam Has Identified More Than 100 Billion Songs Apple today announced that music recognition tool Shazam has identified more than 100 billion songs since it launched. Shazam started as an SMS service in the U.K. in 2002, and it became one of the first iPhone apps available on the App Store in 2008.
Apple shared some fun comparisons for this statistic:- That's equivalent to 12 songs identified for every person on Earth.
- A person would need to use Shazam to identify a song every second for 3,168 years to reach 100 billion.
- That's more than 2,200x the number of identifications of Shazam's top song ever, "Dance Monkey," with over 45 million tags.
- Shazam Predictions 2023 alum Benson Boone's "Beautiful Things" was the first track released this year to hit 10 million recognitions, and the fastest, doing so in 178 days. At that pace, it would take more than 4,800 years for it to hit 100 billion.Apple acquired Shazam in 2018, and it now powers the Music Recognition feature built into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Shazam is deeply integrated across Apple's software platforms, including in Control Center, as an Action button option on iPhone 15 Pro models and newer, as a Smart Stack widget on the Apple Watch, and more.
The playlist below includes Shazam's top 100 most-identified songs.
Tag: ShazamThis article, "" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
Amazon Takes Up to $300 Off M3 MacBook Air With New All-Time Low Prices Amazon today has knocked the price off of multiple M3 MacBook Air models, with as much as $300 off select computers. Prices start at $849.00 for the 13-inch M3 MacBook Air (16GB RAM/256GB), and also include multiple 15-inch models as well.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
All of these deals have been applied automatically and do not require an on-page coupon in order to see the final sale prices. Apple introduced the M3 MacBook Air back in March, and last month it increased the starting RAM to 16GB, from 8GB.
UP TO $300 OFFM3 MacBook Air Black Friday Deals
13-inch M3 MacBook Air
16GB RAM/256GB - $849.00 ($250 off)
8GB RAM/512GB - $999.00 ($300 off)
16GB RAM/512GB - $1,049.00 ($250 off)
24GB RAM/512GB - $1,249.00 ($250 off)
15-inch M3 MacBook Air
16GB RAM/256GB - $1,044.00 ($255 off)
8GB RAM/512GB - $1,199.00 ($300 off)
16GB RAM/512GB - $1,234.00 ($265 off)
24GB RAM/512GB - $1,424.00 ($275 off)
You can find all the Apple Black Friday Deals currently available in our dedicated post. For everything else, we're keeping track of all of the season's best Apple-related deals in our Black Friday roundup, so be sure to check back throughout the month for an updated list of all the most notable discounts you'll find for Black Friday 2024.
Deals Newsletter
Interested in hearing more about top deals as we head into the holidays? Sign up for our Deals Newsletter and we'll keep you updated so you don't miss the biggest deals of the season!
Related Roundup: Apple DealsThis article, "" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
iPhone SE 4 with Apple-designed 5G modem to launch in March 2025 – Barclays A recent research note from Barclays analyst Tom O'Malley suggests that Apple is planning to release a fourth-generation iPhone SE…
The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.
AppStore registration nightmare Has anyone encountered getting your application rejected from all 4-5 of your household Apple devices , and a similar number of payment methods, and WiFi connections? What am I doing wrong and to those who got approved what do you guys do right ? Plus is it a regional bias? Like I’m in SEA right […]
Uber Adding Home Screen Widget on iPhone, UberXXL Option, and More Uber today announced that it will be releasing a Home Screen widget for the iPhone today, allowing users to request a ride in as little as two taps.
The widget can display your saved addresses for home and work, or you can tap on the magnifying glass icon to quickly search for another address.
We do not see the widget yet. It will likely be added in an update to the Uber app later today.
The widget is one of several new features that Uber is introducing ahead of the busy travel season in the U.S., which kicks off with Thanksgiving next week. Other additions include a new UberXXL vehicle option, UberX Share at airports for discounted rides with one other passenger, and more, with complete details outlined in Uber's press release.
UberXXL lets you request a vehicle with larger trunk space for your baggage on rides to and from airports. The feature is now available at more than 60 airports across the U.S., Canada, and select other countries, and it will expand to more airports later.Tag: UberThis article, "" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
SMS Delivery Delays to Xphone Network in Israel Nov 20, 06:33 PSTInvestigating - We are experiencing SMS delivery delays when sending messages to Xphone Network in Israel. Our engineers are working with our carrier partner to resolve the issue. We will provide another update in 1 hour or as soon as more information becomes available.
Get a pair of AirTag-style tracking tags for just $35 Tired of hunting down lost keys? Find them with an Ethos Smart Tracker, an affordable AirTag alternative that works with Apple's Find My app.
(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)
UK carrier O2 creates AI grandmother Daisy to waste scammers’ time [Video] UK mobile carrier O2 has created Daisy, an AI grandmother designed to waste the time of phone scammers by keeping them on the line as long as possible.
Anyone can report a scam call or message by texting their number to 7722, where it will be checked and then added to the list of targets …
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Black Friday Sale Coming Soon! [FREE] A Black Friday sale is coming soon to Kodeco. Discounts on subscriptions, bootcamps, and books – get your holiday wishlist ready!
Why Apple should bring out Mac mini SSD storage upgrades The option to buy high-capacity replacement storage SSDs would be a win for M4 Mac mini users and Apple itself.
(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)
Help snagging a .m3u8 link from a video? I have a video I’m looking to snag the .m3u8 link from to be able to stream the video directly from the source. The link isn’t available in the HTML for me to parse and just grab it that way. However, if I go to the video in Safari, open the inspector, and monitor the […]
New Zealand Voice Carrier Partner Maintenance THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 27, 03:00 - 07:00 PSTNov 20, 05:52 PSTScheduled - Our Voice carrier partner in New Zealand is conducting a planned maintenance from 27 November 2024 at 03:00 PST until 27 November 2024 at 07:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent call disconnects or call failures from and to Twilio New Zealand phone numbers.
New Zealand Voice Carrier Partner Maintenance THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 26, 03:00 - 07:00 PSTNov 20, 05:51 PSTScheduled - Our Voice carrier partner in New Zealand is conducting a planned maintenance from 26 November 2024 at 03:00 PST until 26 November 2024 at 07:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent call disconnects or call failures from and to Twilio New Zealand phone numbers.
Apple defends removing Musi from the App Store, as fans boycott new iPhones The legal battle over the free music streaming app Musi continues, with Apple defending its decision to remove it from the App Store ahead of a court case set to determine its fate …
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Apple to urge judge to end U.S. smartphone monopoly case Apple will argue for the dismissal of the U.S. DOJ's antitrust lawsuit on Wednesday. The lawsuit accuses Apple of abusing its so-called…
The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.
XCode on External NVME via Thunderbolt 4 How much of XCode can I install onto an external drive? I know the main app is OK, but can all of the associated libraries/simulators/everything else also be put outside of the system disk? If so, is there any special process I should follow? submitted by /u/El_Oxle [link] [comments]
Apple heads to court to try to get massive & vague DOJ antitrust suit dismissed Apple will today present its case for why the Department of Justice's mammoth lawsuit against the iPhone maker is entirely without merit — and prosecutors will repeat their accusations.The Department of Justice case will hang over Apple for yearsThe Department of Justice (DOJ), together with multiple states, is accusing Apple of monopolistic practices, over the iPhone, the App Store, and most of the company's business. Following the start of that case in March 2024, Apple filed a motion to dismiss in August.Now according to Reuters, Apple will today ask US District Judge Julien Neals in Newark, New Jersey, to dismiss the case. Central to Apple's case is its claim that being forced to share its technology with rivals would end innovation. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
Control Ultimate Edition Mac version will be available on February 12, 2025 A Mac version of the popular console game Control Ultimate Edition will launch on February 12 next year, says developer Remedy.
We don’t yet know the specs required to run it, but we can be certain that it will be limited to M-Series Macs …
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Apple will today ask a judge to dismiss the DOJ antitrust case Lawyers acting for Apple are today expected to ask a federal judge to dismiss the DOJ antitrust case against the company in its entirety.
The Department of Justice has for years been investigating whether Apple broke antitrust law by abusing its dominant position in the US smartphone market, before deciding that it did, and filing charges in March of this year …
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How to Erase and Factory Reset Your Mac This article explains how to erase and factory reset your Mac if you plan to give it away, sell it, or trade it in. Apple silicon Macs and Intel Macs with a T2 security chip (2017-2020 models) have an "Erase All Content and Settings" option available in macOS Monterey and later. If you have an older pre-2017 Mac, it's a more convoluted process – follow this link instead to erase and factory reset your machine.
Traditionally, wiping a Mac and returning it to factory settings involved manually signing out of a range of services, erasing your Mac's internal drive, then reinstalling macOS. These steps are quite involved when you consider how easy it is to wipe an iPhone or iPad (Settings - > General - > Transfer or Reset iPhone - > Erase All Content and Settings).
Fortunately, Apple includes the same option on newer Macs running macOS Monterey and later. Erase All Content and Settings in macOS offers a very simple and straightforward way to erase your Mac without needing to reinstall the operating system. Thanks to the way storage is encrypted on Macs with Apple silicon or the T2 chip, the option is able to instantly and securely "erase" all user date by destroying the encryption keys.
Not only does this effectively erase all user data and user-installed apps from your Mac without reinstalling macOS, it also signs out your Apple Account from a range of services, removes any Touch ID fingerprints, purchases, and all Apple Wallet items, and turns off Find My and Activation Lock, making it far easier to restore your Mac to like-new factory settings.
The following steps show you how it's done. Whether you simply want to start fresh with your Mac or are planning to sell or gift your computer to another person, after erasing it using this option, your Mac will display the Setup Assistant and be ready to be set up like new.
Click the Apple () symbol in the menu bar and select System Settings (System Preferences... if you're not running macOS Ventura or later).
If you're running macOS Ventura or later, select General in the sidebar, then choose Transfer or Reset - > Erase All Content and Settings.... Otherwise, select System Preferences - > Erase All Content and Settings from the menu bar.
Enter your admin password in the Erase Assistant dialog prompt and click OK.
If you haven't already backed up your important data, heed the onscreen Time Machine advice. Otherwise, click Continue.
Note all the settings, data, media, and other items that will be removed. Click Continue if you're sure.
Enter the password for your Apple Account to sign out, click Continue, then click Erase All Content & Settings in the prompt to confirm.
After following these steps, allow the erase process to complete. Your Mac may restart more than once during the process. Once finished, you'll see the "hello" message on your Mac's screen, indicating that your Mac has been restored to factory settings and Setup Assistant is ready to start anew.This article, "" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
Graykey iPhone hacking tool can ‘partially’ access iPhone 16 – but betas protect Leaked documents reveal that the Graykey iPhone hacking tool is able to “partially” access iPhone 16 models – but not if they are running any of the iOS 18 betas.
Graykey is a competitor to Cellebrite, and is intended for use by law enforcement agencies. We’ve seen similar leaked documents from Cellebrite before, but this is the first time we’ve discovered which devices Graykey can access …
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Do you Watch Figma Tutorials? I am a creator on YouTube and would like to help you with questions about Figma. Do you have ideas for videos that you have always wanted to see? Are there any Figma tutorials that have been particularly helpful to you? submitted by /u/appcourses [link] [comments]
AT&T Turbo Indicator Showing Up in iPhone Status Bar for Subscribers AT&T has begun displaying "Turbo" in the iPhone carrier label for customers subscribed to its premium network prioritization service, according to reports on Reddit. The new indicator seems to have started appearing after users updated to iOS 18.1.1, but that could be just coincidence.
Image credit: Reddit user No_Highlight7476
The Turbo feature provides enhanced network performance through prioritized data access, offering improved speeds and lower latency for activities like gaming and video streaming. Previously, customers had limited ways to confirm the service was enabled beyond checking technical network settings. With the new label, Turbo subscribers can easily verify when the $7 monthly add-on is active on their line.
Some users have said they aren't too happy about the longer carrier text in their iPhone's status bar, but others don't mind it since it gives them a clear visual indicator of their premium network status. AT&T says that the icon can appear sometimes when Turbo is inactive, such as when connected to Wi-Fi or when a customer's hotspot allotment is exceeded.Tag: AT&TThis article, "AT&T Turbo Indicator Showing Up in iPhone Status Bar for Subscribers" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
Supply chain report says iPhone SE 4 will launch in March 2025 Analysts from Barclays bank claim to have confirmed that the iPhone SE 4 will in March 2025 as previously expected.An iPhone 14, the design of which the iPhone SE 4 could be based on. The prediction of a March date is far from new. However, this time Barclays is claiming that it has the date from the supply chain. The analysts even use the word "confirmed".There does not, though, appear to be any specific basis for the claim other than that others have previously reported the same date. Rumor Score: 🤔 Possible Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
Once again, the only way forward is the Mac Macworld
Personal computers started out simple. So simple that you could just type in programs and run them, save them, and even give them to your friends. But over time, things got more complicated. A lot more complicated.
To a kid growing up in the 1980s, the idea that the maker of your computer would actively stop you from using software it didn’t approve of would have seemed beyond the pale. It certainly would’ve been a deal-breaker. And yet so many of today’s computing devices are locked down–for some good reasons, but also a lot of bad ones.
What do we want the world to look like in the future? Is the destiny of the most important invention of the last half-century, the computer, to become a series of locked-down devices controlled by the giant companies that designed them? Should the iPhone be the model for all future devices?
If Apple’s locked-down approach in the App Store era is our future, it’s a bleak one indeed. But there’s good news: Apple has also built a system that provides security, flexibility, and responsibility while letting device owners run the software they want to run.
It’s called the Mac. When we consider the future of computing devices, the Mac is the model we should aspire to, not the iPhone.
Original sin
When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, it was completely locked down. The only apps on it were the ones that came with the operating system, and while everyone immediately assumed that someday third-party software would come to the device, in the interim, Steve Jobs extolled the virtue of the open web as a “sweet solution” for people who wanted their phones to do a bit more.
But Apple didn’t make this decision out of some sort of strategy. The iPhone came together quickly and was still being put together in the months leading up to its ship date. Apple was still struggling internally with building apps that would work and had no time to build any sort of infrastructure to allow other parties to write software for the device. (That didn’t stop people from doing it anyway.)
A year later, Apple announced the App Store. And there’s a lot to commend the App Store for: It got regular people used to buying and downloading software in a way that had never happened before. Despite Apple’s frequent claims to the contrary, there was plenty of software for sale on the internet before the App Store, but you couldn’t buy and run it with the ease of buying a single from iTunes.
When Steve Jobs introduced the App Store in 2008, he said it would be”the exclusive way to distribute iPhone applications,” which is true today but perhaps it shouldn’t be.Apple
(Yes, the App Store was a hastily rewritten version of the system Apple used for iTunes, a decision that sealed the fate of Apple’s software platform as a hit-driven marketplace backed by systems designed for record companies to upload music.)
The App Store was brilliant. It created an entire app economy and allowed software developers to build sustainable businesses. The problem with the App Store is that Apple decided it would be the only way anyone could distribute software for the iPhone.
There’s absolutely nothing fundamental in the App Store concept that requires it to be the only pathway for software on the iPhone. But limiting things to the App Store gave Apple complete control of its new software platform, which in those early days was very much still under construction. I understand why Apple had that impulse, why it wanted to protect what it was building, and why it didn’t want the iPhone to be defined by software in any way that Apple didn’t agree with.
But over time, the inevitable happened: Apple used the exclusivity of the App Store and its total control over the platform to extract money through rent-seeking and to bar businesses from admitting that the web existed outside their apps. Perhaps worst of all, the App Store’s exclusivity allowed Apple to essentially treat app developers as Apple employees, forcing them to follow Apple’s guidelines and please Apple’s approval apparatus before their apps would be allowed to be seen by the public. Whole classes of apps were banned entirely, some publicly, some silently.
The problem of the Mac
A few years later, Apple began planning how to bring the Mac into the App Store universe. However, macOS was designed in a much earlier era and didn’t offer the level of lockdown that Apple built into iOS. Rather than attempting to lock down the Mac and make it more like iOS, the company wisely chose a different path.
Today’s macOS is a reflection of that decision, and it’s undeniably the right one–not just for the Mac but for every computing device we own.
Here’s how Apple did it: They launched the Mac App Store, yes. It’s a curated library of apps that follow Apple’s specific security and privacy rules. Those rules are so strict that lots of apps just can’t be in the App Store, despite occasional attempts by Apple to expand the rules in order to get back in the store. (Those rules sometimes contract again after expanding, driving existing App Store apps back into the wilderness.)
But this is the beauty of software on the Mac: If your app doesn’t fit in the App Store, you just… don’t put it there and sell it yourself. You lose the showcase of Apple’s curated library, but you can still make a business on the outside.
On the Mac, developers can sell through the App Store or not. That’s the ideal situation.Foundry
Today’s computing world is also more dangerous than the one in which macOS was originally devised, so Apple cleverly built a multi-tiered approach to running software on macOS. (Never let anyone tell you that there’s no way Apple could open up iOS to software beyond the App Store. The very smart people at Apple have already solved the problem, and they did it for the Mac.)
Here’s how it works: At the center of the circle of trust are App Store apps. These are the most blessed of Mac apps because they conform to Apple’s specific App Store standards and have been individually reviewed by App Store staff members. A Mac can be set to only run apps from the App Store, though it’s not the default.
One level out is what are called notarized apps. These apps live outside the App Store–you can just download ’em from the internet!–but they’ve gone through an automated validation process by Apple. Developers have to be registered with Apple, and then they send their app through an Apple server, which scans it for malware and other irregularities, and then cryptographically signs (or “notarizes”) the app.
Notarized apps are not as safe as App Store apps, but they’re guaranteed to be from app developers known to Apple, have passed some basic scans, and are guaranteed not to have been tampered with after leaving the developer, because any changes would break Apple’s cryptographic signature. macOS is happy to open these apps by default, without any warning beyond a notification on first launch that the software was downloaded from the Internet. Most Mac apps you download outside the App Store these days are notarized.
In the early days of notarization, the fear was that Apple might use the process to create another App Store approval process. You can see how that might happen: Apple could decide to reject apps because they aren’t in a category that Apple likes or because they use private Apple APIs that the company would prefer third-party developers not access. But in practice, Apple has kept to its promise to limit how it processes these apps.
Apple also keeps a “kill switch” in reserve, by which it can stop particular apps from launching, or even remove all apps from a single developer if they’re found to be dangerous. It’s another pathway that’s ripe with potential for abuse, but Apple has kept its promises and limited its use of these pathways to stomp out malware.
However, the danger does exist that Apple could tighten the screws at any time. I’m troubled by its initial refusal to notarize emulators on iOS in the EU, because–while Apple seems to have backed off–it’s a move that points out that notarization of apps is only benign because Apple allows it to be so.
Still, even if Apple were to tighten those screws, macOS continues to offer alternatives for software distribution. At the edge of the circle are non-notarized apps, apps that don’t need to be from registered developers and that Apple has never processed and signed. Some of these apps are from open-source projects that refuse to pay for an Apple developer account; others are operating in gray legal areas.
A few years ago, an Apple representative stood on stage and said that Apple will never stop users from running code they want to run on their Macs, and we all need to hold them to that.
The important thing is that you can still run these apps. A few years ago, at one of the last in-person WWDC events, an Apple representative stood on stage and said that Apple will never stop users from running code they want to run on their Macs, and we all need to hold them to that.
Unfortunately, running these apps is getting harder. While I understand that Apple sees them as a vector for malware, spyware, and other nefarious things, it’s also gone too far in making them hard to run. As of macOS Sequoia, launching one of these apps requires you to attempt to launch them and fail, then visit the Gatekeeper section of System Settings to lower your security level, click through a stern warning, and enter in an administrator password. There’s no setting for users to opt out of this dance–you have to do it for every non-notarized app you install.
Still, Apple hasn’t broken that promise: If you want to run a non-notarized app, you can do it. Apple won’t stop you. It may scare you, cajole you, and hide the button that allows you to run that app in the basement in a disused lavatory behind a door with a sign on it that says “Beware of the Leopard,” but it will let you run it.
The Mac is open and upgradeable in all the ways the iPhone isn’t.IDG
The Mac is the model
In the European Union, iPhone and iPad users can now use apps that bypass the App Store. Unfortunately, the options are limited and require a third-party app store, which seems to miss the point. In building these systems mandated by EU regulations, Apple has used its work on macOS as the foundation. Non-App Store apps come from recognized developers and are notarized by Apple.
This is an important moment. Apple has built two separate models for running software on our devices. In one, there’s a gradient of trustworthiness that strongly encourages users to stick to the safe, well-lit paths–but allows competitors to go their own way and users to make different decisions than Apple would prefer they make. And, yes, at the extremes, users can behave in ways that might open them up to danger, but only after many warnings. It’s a very good system. Apple built it that way because it cares about the Mac, the Mac ecosystem, and Mac users.
Of course, the other model is the one we’re familiar with from iOS: There’s only one layer and Apple entirely controls it. Even though we’re spending thousands of dollars to own devices that can run software developed by clever people from all over the world, Apple believes that only it should be able to determine what kinds of apps are allowed, that it should always be cut in on the revenue of every financial transaction inside those apps, and that if it doesn’t like anything about a developer’s app, it can demand it be changed or the app made to disappear into oblivion.
That both of these approaches come from the same company is… kind of staggering, to be honest. One path provides security, safety, curation, and a reasonable opportunity for Apple to define its platform and work with partners, but tempered with the prospect of competition. The other approach has evolved from a simple way to get software onto a new platform using a mechanism used to sell pop music singles into a way to exert total control, including deciding what apps we’re allowed to use and forcing Apple into every financial transaction on its platform.
I know which Apple-built approach should be the model for the future of software on computing devices. The good news is that Apple has already built it. The era of top-down control of our devices needs to end. The Mac is the model.
Apple’s most controversial dongle might be gone for good Macworld
Back in 2016, the most hated accessory in the Apple ecosystem was a small dongle that came free with the iPhone 7 and cost $9 to replace. And now it looks like it might be gone forever.
Of course, we’re talking about the much-maligned Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter. When Apple launched the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, it removed the headphone jack, leaving the Lightning port as the only way to plug in wired headphones. And since most people didn’t have a pair of Lightning headphones, Apple supplied a free dongle in the boxes.
Based on Apple’s store listing, the accessory may be gone forever. It’s currently sold out online and isn’t available at any nearby stores. Apple still sells a USB-C to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter for newer iPhones, however.
Apple still sells the iPhone SE and iPhone 14, both of which have Lightning ports, but this legacy port is on the way out. If you still want a Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter, you can grab one on sale at Walmart for $7.
Price cuts fail to prevent iPhone sales drop in China's Singles Day China's annual Singles Day shopping festival has again seen Apple's iPhone sales decline year over year.iPhone 16 ProSingles dDay used to regularly see record-breaking sales for the iPhone, with one vendor selling 156 million of the iPhone 13 in the first two seconds of its sale in 2021. With increased competition from local brands, Apple had a disappointing 2023 with a 4% decline in sales year over year.Now according to Counterpoint Research, it's fared even worse for the 2024 Singles Day festival. While not listing a specific figure, Counterpoint claims that Apple "declined YoY by double-digit percentages." Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
'Control Ultimate Edition' Coming to Mac on February 12, 2025 Remedy Entertainment has announced that Control Ultimate Edition will launch on Mac on February 12, 2025. The award-winning action-adventure game has garnered over 80 industry accolades since its 2019 debut, and two expansions in the intervening years have kept the franchise alive.
The Ultimate Edition includes the base game alongside its two major expansions, "The Foundation" and "AWE," plus all post-launch updates. Inspired by the new weird literary genre, the supernatural third-person action game puts players in the role of Jesse Faden as she explores the mysterious Federal Bureau of Control, wielding telekinetic powers and transforming weapons.
Remedy's announcement was spotted by Engadget during the company's Capital Markets Day presentation to investors. While specific Mac system requirements haven't been revealed, the game will presumably require an M-series chip to run effectively, given its demanding graphics and physics engine.
The developer also confirmed that work continues on Control 2, though no further details about the sequel were shared. Control Ultimate Edition previously launched on Windows PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms, so this will be its first appearance on macOS.This article, "" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
Ever wondered where your Swift files end up in an iOS app? In this video, I’ll show you the ins and outs of the iOS file system! I’ll dive into swift file locations, explore how the swift file system works in iOS apps, and uncover the mysteries of iOS sandboxing. This is for beginners. submitted by /u/karinprater [link] [comments]
SwiftData + CloudKit setup Hey folks, I'm having an issue where iCloud sync is only working in the Development environment, not in Prod. I have deployed the schema to Prod through the CloudKit console, although I did it *after* the app went live on the AppStore. Even though the two schema are identical, iCloud sync just doesn't work on […]
Bug surfaces in M4-based Macs preventing older versions of macOS from booting under virtual machine architectures As nifty as Apple’s M4 chip is, sometimes there’s still a kink or two to work out. Owners of Apple’s newest M4-equipped Macs have noticed that they are unable to run older versions of macOS in a virtual machine given a strange booting issue. Running a virtual machine with older generations of macOS can have […]
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The everything gift guide for iPhone users Macworld
When they already have the best phone on the planet, what do you buy an iPhone user? We’re here to help you select the best iPhone gifts available—perfect gifts for Christmas, birthdays, Fathers Day, Mothers Day, anniversaries, and when you are just feeling generous.
If not a brand new iPhone (check out our iPhone Buying Guide if your budget stretches that far), then how about one of the many available iPhone accessories? Throughout the year we have tested and reviewed the best iPhone accessories from Apple and trusted companies, and we can recommend the best ones for the people on your list. We’d be delighted to receive any of these iPhone accessories as a gift.
If you want to splash out on another Apple product, take a look at our guides for best Apple Watch, best iPad and best Mac.
Here we recommend some of our favorite iPhone cases, power banks, chargers, cables and tech organizers, plus a roundup of some super stocking stuffers for the iPhone user in your thoughts.
iPhone Gift Guide: Cases
If your loved one doesn’t own a case for their iPhone then this may be the best gift you can get them as it will share a bit of personality while protecting their precious phone from knocks, drops, and everyday scrapes. If they already have a case, then buy them a new or better one. Just slipping on a new case can transform an old iPhone into something that feels brand new again. It’s even more satisfying than an iOS update!
We have tested the best cases for iPhone 15 and best cases for iPhone 16 and most of these are available for older models from the iPhone 11 up. Run through those lists to see the widest range of cases you can select as a gift, and get one for yourself while you’re at it. If you’re shopping for someone who has an iPhone 12 or later, look for a MagSafe-compatible case as it won’t interfere with wireless charging.
1. Casely iPhone Classic and Bold Cases – Colorful and arty cases for all iPhones
Pros
Optional protection levels
Design options
Price When Reviewed:
From $25
Best Prices Today:
$25 at Amazon
Casely has an enormous range of designer and colorful iPhone cases available for the iPhone XR, 11, and later—right up to the iPhone 16 family. Most are available in either a flexible glossy Classic version or a more rigid and protective Bold version. Art lovers will appreciate the range of impressionist paintings that can now adorn their iPhone. There is even a range of festive winter and Christmas cases available.
Shipping for direct domestic orders under $30 is a flat rate of $5 and international orders below $100 will be charged a flat rate of $10 USD (Canada) and $15 USD (everywhere else). Or follow our Amazon links for possible free shipping.
2. Casetify iPhone Cases – Wide design choice range of iPhone cases
Pros
Optional protection levels
Design options
Price When Reviewed:
From $56
Best Prices Today:
$60 at Amazon
Casetify is another maker of colorful iPhone cases and these can be customized with personalized text, colors, designs, and protection levels. There are hundreds of case designs to choose from, and you can choose the level of protection that suits you best. The camera case is very retro, and you can buy non-slip cases with physical ripples that make your phone grip firmer.
3. OtterBox iPhone cases – Wide choice of colors and protection
Pros
Unique edge-to-edge designs
Price When Reviewed:
From $45
Best Prices Today:
$45 at Amazon$45 at OtterBox
The super-slim Figura Case (above) for iPhone 16 from OtterBox features psychedelic patterns that are hydro-dipped by hand. The graphics envelop the case from edge to edge. The material is flexible with a soft touch. OtterBox has a wide range of cases for many older iPhone versions, too—including its robust Defender range.
4. ESR iPhone Cases
Pros
High protection level
Built-in kickstand
Price When Reviewed:
From $38
Best Prices Today:
$38 at Amazon$38 at ESR
Unlike most macho protective cases, the ESR Cyber Tough cases are available in a range of colors depending on the model of iPhone, including one in a fetching pink. ESR has a huge range of iPhone cases, many with hidden ring stands and other features.
Leather iPhone cases: If you fancy a premium leather iPhone case look at the selection at Dutch design firm Mujjo and Woolnut for iPhone 11 and later.
Wallet iPhone cases: Check out the Vena and Decoded ranges of iPhone cases with built-in and detachable wallets.
Wood/pearl/fabric-effect iPhone cases: Seek out the range at Mous for iPhone 14 and later.
iPhone Gift Guide: iPhone power banks
Hands up if your iPhone has never run out of juice during the day when you are far from a convenient power socket. Yeah, right.
Apple used to make a special Smart Battery Case for the iPhone but stopped selling these when it added MagSafe magnetic wireless charging to the iPhone 12 and later. It then sold its own MagSafe Battery Case but stopped making these when it launched the iPhone 15. But fear not, as there are some great MagSafe power banks out there that clamp onto the back of your iPhone (12/13/14/15) and can recharge the phone for long enough that you can reach a power source.
Of course, Macworld has tested many of them and picked the best MagSafe power banks, but here are a few of our favorites.
1. Anker Zolo and MagGo Power Banks
Pros
Huge 10000mAh battery capacity
Built-in USB-C cable
7.5W wireless or 30W wired charging
Price When Reviewed:
$49.99
Best Prices Today:
$49.99 at Amazon
The Anker Zolo Magnetic Power Bank is available in four colors—black, blue, pink or white—and uses MagSafe to magnetically stick to the back of your iPhone when you need a power boost. In our tests, it recharged an iPhone twice over with its 10000mAh battery capacity. Better still, it features its own built-in USB-C cable for charging up the battery pack or wired-charging the iPhone 15 and 16 families that have a USB-C port rather than Lightning. Using the cable rather than MagSafe will charge an iPhone 15/16 at an impressive 30W. MagSafe wireless charging is slower at 7.5W but it will still rescue a fading iPhone 12 or later—or you can supply your own Lightning cable (or USB-C for iPhone 15 users) and connect with a wire. It also features a handy kickstand.
Anker
If you have an older (pre-15) iPhone, then you need a Lightning cable but the non-magnetic Anker Zolo Power Bank has both, meaning it will still be relevant when you upgrade to a USB-C iPhone. And of course you can use the USB-C cable to charge the power bank itself. If you have a family with both USB-C (15 and 16) and Lightning (14 and earlier) iPhones this will suit all models. There’s a handy digital battery-level display, too. This version of the Zolo doesn’t feature wireless charging.
Anker
With no built-in cable but a fast 15W Qi2 magnetic wireless charging pad, a third option is the Anker MagGo 10K Slim Power Bank (above), which is the slimmest 10K high-capacity wireless power bank we have tested—perfect for carrying with you in a bag for emergencies when your iPhone starts to fade and you are miles from a power socket or have forgotten your charger and cable.
Read our full
Anker Zolo 10K Magnetic Power Bank review
2. Belkin BoostCharge Power Bank 5K + Stand
Pros
Slim
Built-in stand
Price When Reviewed:
$59.99
Best Prices Today:
$39.99 at Amazon$49.99 at Walmart Electronics$59.99 at Belkin
If you are willing to sacrifice some recharging power for pocketable portability consider a 5K magnetic power bank like the Belkin BoostCharge. It’s dinky and boasts a kickstand, and will get you to your next charging point if it’s just a few hours of constant phone use away as in our tests it charged our nearly drained iPhone to close on a full extra power refill.
3. OneAdaptr OneGo – 3-in-1 travel charger and power bank
Pros
Compact iPhone, Watch, AirPods charging stand
10K power bank
Foldable for travel
Price When Reviewed:
$89
Best Prices Today:
$89 at OneAdaptr
This compact OneGo power bank has it all: it can charge four devices at the same time—including iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods, plus another via its side USB-C port—and then folding up into a lightweight form that can slip into your pocket or overnight bag.
iPhone Gift Guide: USB-C iPhone chargers
A simple charger sounds like a boring present but we think any iPhone users would be delighted to receive one of these beauties now that Apple no longer includes one in the box with new iPhones. And which iPhone users couldn’t do with at least one more spare charger at home or in the office—or a special one for travel?
An iPhone charger should be rated at least 20W, and we’d recommend 30W or better as newer iPhones can accept higher wattages than even Apple admits. A 30W charger can handle an iPad Pro and has just enough to power up even a 13-inch MacBook Air.
For more details and options, read our Best Picks roundup of the best iPhone chargers. Further down we recommend some multi-device chargers that might make more of an impact come unwrapping day.
1. Ugreen Nexode RG 30W USB C GaN Charger – cute robot-shaped charger
Pros
Cute robot-shaped charger
Two color options
Price When Reviewed:
$25.99
Best Prices Today:
$25.99 at Amazon$25.99 at Ugreen
The latest GaN (Gallium Nitride) chargers are tiny so we’re used them them being labeled “cute” but this small phone charger really is cute, shaped like a friendly robot. Take off its boots and you’ll find the plug prongs that connect straight into a wall power socket. The boots are even magnetic. Why? We don’t know but you can store the plug protector on most metal surfaces when the charger is in use. When plugged in, the LED screen shows different expressions that refer to the charging states. Its 30W power is enough to fast charge even the biggest iPhone. You’ll need a USB-C to USB-C cable to charge an iPhone 15 and USB-C to Lightning cable for older iPhones. It’s even powerful enough to keep a small MacBook charged.
2. Anker 30W Nano Charger – tiny and powerful charger
Pros
Smallest, lightest 30W charger
Foldable plug
Multiple color options
Price When Reviewed:
$19.99
Best Prices Today:
$14.99 at Walmart Electronics$18.99 at Amazon$19.99 at Anker
Measuring just 1.12 × 1.12 × 1.39 inches (U.S. model), the 30W Anker USB-C Nano Charger is the smallest 30W USB-C charger we’ve had in our labs for testing, and it weighs just 1.3oz (36g). The U.K. model is larger but also features foldable prongs and is equally incredibly light. It’s available in a range of pastel colors, including Misty Blue, Lilac Purple, Phantom Black, Aurora White, and Natural Green.
3. Ugreen Nexode 45W USB-C Wall Charger – Charge two devices at the same time
Pros
Small, light 45W charger
2 ports
Foldable plug
Price When Reviewed:
$29.99
Best Prices Today:
$29.99 at Amazon$39.99 at Ugreen
This two-port wall charger from Ugreen is great if your household or office has two phones—one doesn’t even need to be an iPhone! Indeed you could charge your iPhone plus Apple Watch or AirPods, too. Each USB-C port is rated at 45W so one could charge a mid-sized laptop. Using both ports, one will give 25W and the other 20W—enough for a reasonably fast charge. It’s a great compact choice for homes with a couple of devices in need of a power boost.
4. Casetify 33W Fast Charger
Pros
Small
Two ports
International plug heads
Price When Reviewed:
$42
Best Prices Today:
$42 at Casetify
A cuter option as an iPhone gift is the Casetify 33W Fast Charger, available in a fetching pink and blue combination. It features a USB-C port for fast charging and an old-school USB-A port for older charging cables. Take it on your travels as it has interchangeable prongs for U.S., U.K., and E.U power sockets.
iPhone Gift Guide: MagSafe chargers
While charging using a USB-C cable (USB-C to Lightning for older iPhones, and USB-C to USB-C for the iPhone 15 family) from your charger is the fastest way to charge an iPhone, more convenient is wireless charging. Since the iPhone 12, wireless charging has become more efficient and therefore faster with Apple’s MagSafe technology that magnetically clamps the iPhone more securely to the wireless charger.
You can buy a simple USB-C to MagSafe charging pad, like Apple’s $39/£39 MagSafe Charger or a third-party alternative, or a multi-device charger that includes a MagSafe charger for iPhone plus a charger for AirPods or Apple Watch.
For more details and options, read our Best Picks roundup of the best MagSafe wireless chargers.
1. Satechi 3-in-1 Foldable Qi2 Wireless Charging Stand – Superb travel or desk-bound wireless MagSafe charger
Pros
3-in-1 charging
Fast 15W for iPhone
Folds for travel
Price When Reviewed:
$129.99
Best Prices Today:
$129.99 at Satechi
We love that once static MagSafe chargers are now folding up into highly portable devices, and that’s certainly true of the Satechi 3-in-1 Foldable Charging Stand. It uses Qi2 magnetic wireless charging tech so can power an attached iPhone at 15W. The 5W Apple Watch Charger is all set for Watch fast charging, and you can place your AirPods case at he front for three-at-a-time charging.
2. Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe – 3-in-1 wireless MagSafe charger
Pros
3-in-1 charging
15W (MagSafe)
Fast charge Watch
Price When Reviewed:
$149.99
Best Prices Today:
$149.95 at Apple$149.99 at Twelve South
If the person you are buying for owns an iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods, then a 3-in-1 charging station will tidy a desk or bedside table of cable clutter and keep everything nicely in place. The Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe is the best of the static desk chargers, with a small footprint, certified fast iPhone and Watch charging plus a Qi charger for AirPods. The MagSafe charging pad is adjustable unlike most of its rivals.
Read our full
Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe review
3. Anker PowerWave Magnetic 2-in-1 Stand – Simple and affordable 2-in-1 wireless charger
Pros
Charges iPhone and AirPods
Adjustable charging pad
Price When Reviewed:
$39.99
Best Prices Today:
$43.99 at Amazon
This is a great budget option for a stand that will charge both your iPhone and AirPods. At 7.5W, Anker’s stand is not quite as fast at charging as the 15W models reviewed above, but it will be fast enough for most of us. If speed is your only priority, charge using a cable! Like those pricier charger options, this charger features an adjustable charging pad, so can be angled to your own requirements.
4. Twelve South ButterFly SE 2-in-1 Qi2 Charger – Super-compact iPhone & Watch charger
Pros
Charges Watch and iPhone (swap Watch for AirPods)
15W Qi2 for iPhone
Compact and portable
Price When Reviewed:
$99.99
Best Prices Today:
$99.99 at Amazon$99.99 at Twelve South
The ButterFly charger from Twelve South is a beautiful piece of design and works exactly as it should. You can charge your iPhone and Apple Watch at the same time, or switch the iPhone for your AirPods case if that is your greater need. It’s a great travel charging companion that easily slips into a pocket. There’s the original metal MagSafe ButterFly model or the more affordable ButterFly SE that uses Qi2 but matches MagSafe for 15W iPhone charging speed. The ButterFly comes in five different color options, two exclusive to Twelve South.
Read our full
Twelve South ButterFly SE 2-in-1 Qi2 Charger review
5. Native Union Voyage 2-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charger – Super-compact iPhone & Watch charger
Pros
Charges Watch and iPhone (swap Watch for AirPods)
15W Qi2 for iPhone
Compact and portable
Price When Reviewed:
$99.99
Best Prices Today:
$99.99 at Native Union
A similar option to the ButterFly is Native Union’s cool and compact Voyage 2-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charger for iPhone and Apple Watch. It comes with a color-matching USB-C cable and pouch to protect the charger when you travel with it.
iPhone Gift Guide: Lightning and USB-C cables
If you thought that chargers might be a boring gift, I hope we’ve persuaded you otherwise. But how would you feel unwrapping a charging cable? Me? I’d be delighted as you can’t own enough charging cables, can you? They are always handy. Sure, it’s not a pony or a new TV but it’s easier to wrap.
Older iPhones will need a USB-C to Lightning cable; check out our roundup of the best Lightning cables. Pair one of these with a USB-C charger, see above, for the fastest charging. An older USB-A to Lightning cable doesn’t support iPhone fast charging.
The iPhone 15 and 16 families now has a USB-C rather than Lightning port so you can use the same cable as you have for your MacBook. We have tested the best USB-C cables for iPhones and can recommend these as great little gifts.
1. Casetify PowerThru USB-C to USB-C Cable – Fun USB-C cable
Pros
Color options
Robust braided design with rounded head
Price When Reviewed:
From $28
Best Prices Today:
$24 at Amazon$28 at Casetify
No wrapping paper is going to look as good as this gift when unwrapped. It’s cute, it’s tough, and it is available in a range of super colors. The PowerThru by Casetify can charge up to 60W, which is more than enough for iPhone charging so could also be used for your USB-C iPad or MacBook.
2. Baseus Free2Draw Mini Retractable USB-C Cable 100W – neat USB-C cable
Pros
Tidily retractable
Takes up little space
No knots
Price When Reviewed:
$21.99
Best Prices Today:
$13.99 at Amazon$21.99 at Baseus
Cables are by definition awkward things to carry around. They get tied up in knots all by themselves, are a unsightly nuisance, and are tricky to store. This thin 3.3-foot (1m) or 5.5ft (2m) USB-C cable is retractable so will slip into a drawer or pocket without dangling around getting in the way. You can buy it in black, white, purple or blue and is rated to support 100W so it can be used to charge your MacBook, too.
An affordable alternative is the Cable Matters Short Retractable USB C Cable available in a two-pack. Its 60W rating is more than enough for an iPhone or iPad (but not a newer MacBook Pro).
3. Anker 643 USB-C to USB-C Cable – Colorful USB-C cables
Pros
Color options
Tough but flexible silicone
Price When Reviewed:
$19.99
Best Prices Today:
$14.22 at Walmart$15.99 at Amazon$15.99 at Walmart Electronics
Another range of colorful USB-C cables is available from Anker. These are also tough and ready to charge anything from an iPhone 15 to a MacBook Pro.
iPhone Gift Guide: Stocking stuffers
Aside from the gift ideas listed above, there are some great stocking stuffers available for smaller budgets—and products we couldn’t squeeze into any of the groups above.
1. MOFT Snap Phone Tripod Wallet MOVAS – Brilliant foldable iPhone stand
Pros
Flexible iPhone stand
Folds away to tiny form
Price When Reviewed:
$49.99
Best Prices Today:
$49.99 at Amazon$49.99 at MOFT
How often do you carry a tripod around with you in case you need to take a group shot or selfie from a distance further than your arm? Or you simply want to flip your phone into a more comfortable viewing position? Inspired by origami, the Moft Snap Wallet Tripod could be several solutions you are looking for. It folds up into a credit-card-sized device that’s just 0.36 inches thick and weighs 4.7oz, so you hardly notice in your pocket even though unfolded it can raise your iPhone by up to 8 inches. It’s clever and you’ll be surprised just how useful it can be. It uses Apple’s MagSafe tech to firmly grasp the iPhone, and then it’s up to you to decide which of the three shapes—floating, stand or vlogging—you want to fold it into. Plus you can store two credit or travel cards in it even when it’s connected to you phone.
2. inChargeXS 4-in-1 Keyring Charger – Never be without the right cable again
Pros
USB-C, USB-A and Lightning cables
Device to device charging
Price When Reviewed:
$29.90
Best Prices Today:
$29.90 at Rolling Square
Despite the increasing ubiquity of USB-C as the cable connector for all devices, you are sure to have a Lightning device among your Apple goodies—say your AirPods case or Magic Mouse—or something that requires the older rectangular USB-A. The keyring-sized inCharge XS includes swappable connectors that will solve all your charging challenges. It can handle USB-C to USB-C, USB-A to USB-C, plus USB-C to Lightning and USB-A to Lightning options. It supports charging up to 240W so can be used for your laptop, and will also handle data transfers. It also includes a clever proprietary chip that allows for charging laptops, tablets, and Bluetooth speakers using a USB-C device as a power source when you are away from a power socket, so you could take power from one device to another. A tied protective cap keeps the cables protected when not is use.
3. Elevation Lab GoStand Adjustable Stand for iPhone
Pros
Multiple angles
Foldable
Price When Reviewed:
$19.95
Best Prices Today:
$19.95 at Apple
You could you this nifty stand for anything—video watching, gaming, travel and video calls to name a few activities enhanced by a phone stand—but Apple would like you to take it with your yoga mat to ensure you are hands-free when exercising to its Fitness+ service. The GoStand is built with a composite and silicone construction and steel hinge and features precision indexable back support adjusts with a low-profile button.
4. Pureport Multi-Tool Phone Cleaning Kit
Pros
Cleans fluff from iPhone charging port
Cleans cable connectors
Price When Reviewed:
$24.99
Best Prices Today:
$24.99 at Amazon
If your iPhone stops charging via its cable, it’s understandable to think it’s old and broken and you’ll have to rely on wireless charging or just buy a new one. What is more likely the reason that your wired charging isn’t working is a dirty charging port or duff cable (see above). Stick your iPhone in your pocket and it inevitably attracts dust, fluff, and lint. Clear out the port (very gently!) and cable-based wired charging should return. This iPhone cleaning kit has more than you need to keep your iPhone and cables clean, and is available for iPhones with Lightning ports (any iPhone before the 15) and for iPhones (from 15) and iPads with a USB-C port.
Quick tip: if you need to clear out the accumulated fluff from your iPhone’s port you can use a small wooden cocktail stick with utmost gentleness. But a cocktail stick does not make much of a gift, does it? And this cleaning kit offers a whole lot more.
5. Belkin AirPods Cleaning Kit
Pros
Removes dirt and earwax
Price When Reviewed:
$14.99
Best Prices Today:
$9.99 at Amazon$10.49 at B&H$14.99 at Belkin
Belkin’s AirPods Cleaning Kit is a safer way to clean your AirPods than soap and a cotton bud. There’s no nice way of saying it but AirPods can get messy—that is yellow and waxy after spending time in your ears for a few hours. Follow the gentle cleaning process to safely remove dirt and earwax from your AirPods.
6. Apple AirTag – Bluetooth tracker
Pros
Easy to set up and track with Find My.
Replaceable battery
Price When Reviewed:
$29
Best Prices Today:
$25.99 at B&H$27 at Walmart$29 at Apple
Apple’s AirTag is a great Bluetooth tracker that is easy to use and syncs wonderfully with the iPhone’s Find My app. You can buy just one or a pack of four. You can add it to a keyring or other accessory: check our Best AirTag Accessories roundup, so there are lots more gift ideas there too. If you want a tracker for your wallet or something that requires a flatter tracker, we like the Chipolo Card Spot.
Read our full
Apple AirTag review
7. Joby GorillaPod 1K GripTight Mount PRO Kit
Pros
Keeps iPhone stable for photos and videos
Hold it or wrap it
Price When Reviewed:
$59.95
Best Prices Today:
$59.95 at Amazon
As good as image stabilization gets, you can’t beat resting your camera in a stable place for taking the best photos and videos. The GorillaPod phone tripod’s articulated legs wrap around to bars, rails, branches and many static objects. It rotates to portrait or landscape for photos or vertical video and with 90° of rotation and 150° of tilt.
Alternatives include the more traditional $50 IK Multimedia iKlip Grip Pro Smartphone Stand tripod, which includes an integrated/detachable Bluetooth shutter controller.
8. Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4 – Bluetooth speaker with great sound and cool looks
Pros
Powerful, well-rounded sound
‘Outdoor’ and ‘Podcast’ modes
IP67 dust and waterproof
Long battery life
Color options
Price When Reviewed:
$99.99
Best Prices Today:
$79.99 at Amazon$79.99 at Lenovo USA$99.99 at B&H
The Wonderboom 4 is an excellent budget-friendly speaker that’s extremely portable, easy to use, fully waterproof (it even floats!), sounds great and lasts a long time. That might be enough for most people but it is also built with eco-friendly materials, which is always welcome in our book.
iPhone Gift Guide: Tech organizer bags
Where do you keep all these accessories when not in use? Over at sister site Tech Advisor, we have tested the best tech organizer bags and there should be one that’s a perfect gift, whether as a desk tidy or for travels.
1. Tripped Tech Traveler
Pros
Multiple compartments
Color choices
Price When Reviewed:
$44.95
Best Prices Today:
$39.95 at Amazon$55.99 at Walmart Electronics
Available in a range of colors, the Tripped Tech Traveller is a premium, medium-sized tech bag that’s as happy next to your desk or in your tent as it is in your suitcase or backpack. It boasts multiple compartments and is tough enough for travel—made from tough 900D Polyester with weatherproof YKK zippers, soft protective padding, and a leather handle and zipper pulls. There are two internal pockets (one mesh so you can see what’s inside) for extra security for your most valuable kit, such as SD cards or a mini SSD. One external side pocket is big enough for your phone or whatever else you need fast access to. In the center, there are nine different-sized, divided, tight pockets for cables and small devices.
2. Bellroy Tech Kit
Pros
Color choices
Tough shell
Price When Reviewed:
$59
Best Prices Today:
$59 at Amazon$89.58 at Walmart$150 at Bloomingdales
We also love this Bellroy tech case that is very well organized and will open flat so you can easily see all your cables and gadgets at a glance. If you know a friend who carries a lot of gear with their iPhone, there’s no better gift.
Apple releases iOS 18.1.1, iPadOS 18.1.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1.1 updates, focuses on security fixes You might want to snag these updates. Apple on Tuesday released its iOS 18.1.1, iPadOS 18.1.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1.1 updates. The patches address JavaScriptCore and WebKit vulnerabilities that Apple says have been actively exploited on some devices. With the JavaScriptCore vulnerability, processing maliciously crafted web content could lead to arbitrary code execution. The WebKit […]
Source
Malaysia SMS Carrier Maintenance – DiGi THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 20, 09:30 - 14:15 PSTNov 20, 01:40 PSTScheduled - The DiGi network in Malaysia is conducting a planned maintenance from 20 November 2024 at 09:30 PST until 20 November 2024 at 14:15 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays delivering SMS to and from DiGi Malaysia handsets.We are aware of the short notice and are working with our Carrier Partners to provide earlier notification where possible.
Xcode failed to install app on actual device Hello all I literally started programming with SwiftUI 5 days ago – before that a few months doing swift tutorials. I have built my first iOS and watchOS app, for which I do own an iPhone 15PM and AWU for testing purposes. I have not become a ”paid developer” btw for that matters. I have […]
Elevated number of 400/500 errors for D1 API Nov 20, 09:00 UTCResolved - Between 08:42-08:59 UTC customers reaching D1 API would have experienced an elevated number of 400/500 errors.
SMS Delivery Delays to T-Mobile in Netherlands Nov 20, 00:52 PSTInvestigating - We are experiencing SMS delivery delays when sending messages to T-Mobile in Netherlands. Our engineers are working with our carrier partner to resolve the issue. We will provide another update in 1 hour or as soon as more information becomes available.
Expo Application Services (eas) upload release notes We are thinking of using Expo Application Services to build and then submit our builds to both app store and the play store.
All seems pretty straightforward, however, there is one piece that we can't figure out, how do you submit with the build the release notes.
Is there some flag we can use like this eas submit -p android --profile foobar --release-note release.txt ?
How many languages would you learn if you had a lifetime to do it? Macworld
How many times have you started Duolingo only to end up guiltily ignoring the constant notifications a few days later?
I must have given up German nein times.
If Duolingo felt more like a game you were losing than a language you were learning, maybe it’s time to switch things up. Rosetta Stone might be the ticket to finally nailing that French accent or figuring out how to order tapas in Spanish without accidentally offending someone, and it’s only $148.97 (reg. $399) for a lifetime subscription (but only during this super limited-time sale).
Rosetta Stone’s low-pressure approach isn’t about memorizing random vocab lists or cramming to make your subscription worth the money this month.
Instead, you’ll actually learn by doing, with tools like speech recognition that help you nail your pronunciation and practical lessons that prep you for real-life conversations.
Want to sound like a local on your next trip? Or just impress your friends by ordering sushi in flawless Japanese? Go at your own pace—no annoying streaks to maintain or guilt trips for missing a day. Lifetime access means you can start (and stop) as many languages as you like.
Just don’t wait too long: your chance to get a Rosetta Stone Lifetime Subscription for $148.97 ends on December 8 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
Rosetta Stone: Lifetime Subscription (All Languages) – $148.97
See Deal
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Cleanup of Keychain storage after an app Hey, I would appreciate your knowledge: Is it possible on a non-jailbroken iOS device for the user to delete the Keychain data for a given app without doing a device wipe? Apple's own engineer admitted this to be a major privacy issue back in 2017, and that was a long time ago—so has anything changed […]
SMS Delivery Delays to Multiple Networks in New Zealand via Subset of Short Codes Nov 19, 23:03 PSTInvestigating - We are experiencing SMS delivery delays when sending messages to Multiple Networks in New Zealand via Subset of Short Codes. Our engineers are working with our carrier partner to resolve the issue. We will provide another update in 1 hour or as soon as more information becomes available.
United States Account Security Carrier Partner Maintenance – T-Mobile US THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 24, 01:00 - 04:00 PSTNov 19, 22:50 PSTScheduled - Our carrier partner T-Mobile US United States is conducting a planned maintenance from 24 November 2024 at 01:00 PST until 24 November 2024 at 04:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent API request failures for T-Mobile US United States customers.Impacted Product: Lookup SIM Swap
Multiple Destination SMS Carrier Maintenance – Hi3G THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 24, 12:10 PST - Nov 27, 20:10 PSTNov 19, 22:04 PSTScheduled - The Hi3G network in Sweden and Denmark is conducting a series of planned maintenances from 24 November 2024 at 12:10 PST until 27 November 2024 at 21:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays delivering SMS to and from Hi3G Sweden and Denmark handsets.Note, the maintenance will be carried out on each of the following dates and times:24 November 2024 at 12:10 PST until 24 November 2024 at 21:00 PST26 November 2024 at 12:10 PST until 26 November 2024 at 21:00 PST27 November 2024 at 12:10 PST until 27 November 2024 at 21:00 PST
What kind of DSA questions to expect in swift FAANG interviews? Does the community know topics that are super important/ ones that won't be asked possibly etc? I'm in the loop for Google and worried about DSA in swift. submitted by /u/sukuna_finger [link] [comments]
Would it be possible to create a widget that shows fitness competition data? Hi r/iOSProgramming, I often do Apple Watch fitness competitions with a friend and have to open the Fitness app to check our scores and the current status of our competition. I was wondering if it would be possible to display competition data (like this) in a widget instead so that it’s more convenient to look […]
United States MMS Carrier Partner Maintenance THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 19, 23:00 PST - Nov 20, 03:00 PSTNov 19, 17:55 PSTScheduled - Our MMS carrier partner in the United States is conducting a planned maintenance from 19 November 2024 at 23:00 PST until 20 November 2024 at 03:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays delivering MMS to and from United States handsets via subset of United States short codes.We are aware of the short notice and are working with our Carrier Partners to provide earlier notification where possible.
Developers behind F1 app ‘Lapz’ for Vision Pro forced to remove it from TestFlight Compared to the iPhone and iPad, Apple Vision Pro has a limited number of apps available in the App Store. Even so, developers have been exploring the device’s capabilities with different projects, one of which is the Formula 1 app “Lapz.” Unfortunately, the app may not even make it to the App Store.
more…
Time to upgrade Mac. Crossplatform/Native development on Air M1 8/256, what to choose? Hi reddit! I'm a .NET MAUI cross-platform developer, but using swift knowledge for native features. (maybe in near future i'll switch tech stack for native iOS) Rn working on MacBook Air M1 (2020) 8/256 and thinking about the upgrade. (Huge problem for me is a small SSD storage and sometimes not enough RAM) I have […]
Fintech Giant Finastra Investigating Data Breach The financial technology firm Finastra is investigating the alleged large-scale theft of information from its internal file transfer platform, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. Finastra, which provides software and services to 45 of the world's top 50 banks, notified customers of a potential breach after a cybercriminal began selling more than 400 gigabytes of data purportedly stolen from the company.
High cache hit time in specific IAD/ORD Nov 20, 01:09 UTCInvestigating - We are currently investigating increased request latency for a subset of requests in IAD and ORD.More updates to follow shortly.
60 Mac Tips for new setups (maOS Sequoia edition) [Video] If you just picked up or plan on performing a fresh install of macOS, you’ll need to change and configure many settings to meet your needs. In this updated Mac getting started guide, I walk through 60 different tips and tricks to help optimize your setup.
Even if you’re an experienced macOS user, chances are you’ll find a handful of new tips. Watch our video walkthrough, and subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more.
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How To Read Apple Documentation? Is there any good material on how to read Apple’s developer documentation? I have seen in a lot of posts that say it’s super helpful but for the life of me, I don’t understand how to read it! I attached a simple example: Padding. Documentation shows nonisolated func returning a view, but I am used […]
Apple TV+ Will License Its Movies To Other Services To Reduce Billions In Losses According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple plans to license some of its Apple TV+ content to competing services in an effort to save money and spread its reach. From the report: Apple has hired an executive to license its original productions to other companies, a strategy designed to increase sales from its film business and improve the visibility of its content. [...] Apple is focused on licensing its movies to other companies, such as foreign TV networks and stores, where viewers can rent or buy them, according to a person familiar with the plans. The company isn't planning to license its original TV shows to third parties. (At least not yet.)"
Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and services boss Eddy Cue have pushed the team overseeing Apple TV+ to lower costs, improve the financial performance of the service and deliver more hits. The company has spent billions of dollars on original films and TV shows and has received strong reviews and praise from critics. Yet few of its titles have attracted a large audience and its streaming service doesn't make money. Apple has already started selling TV+ via Amazon in a bid to increase the audience for the service. Licensing to third parties will generate additional revenue and introduce Apple movies to people who don't yet pay for TV+. Since Apple TV+ launched in 2019, Apple has spent over $20 billion to build a library of original content. Yet, the streaming service only garnered 0.3 percent of U.S. screen viewing time in June 2024, according to Nielsen. "Apple TV+ generates less viewing in one month than Netflix does in one day," wrote Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw in July.
Ars Technica notes that Apple is estimated to have 25 million subscribers, making it "one of the smallest mainstream streaming services."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Should I switch to become an iOS Developer? Hello everyone, I have been passionate about making mobile apps for years now and made a couple of android apps like 5 years ago. But post graduation [its been six months since i graduated from my masters degree] and decided to pick web dev since there are a lot of jobs for web than iOS. […]
SMS Delivery Delays and Failures to Shelcomm Network in US Over a Subset of Long Code Nov 19, 16:30 PSTUpdate - We are experiencing SMS delivery delays and failures to Shelcomm Network in US over a subset of long codes. Our engineers are working with our carrier partner to resolve the issue. We expect to provide another update in 1 hour or as soon as more information becomes available.Nov 19, 16:24 PSTInvestigating - Our monitoring systems have detected a potential issue of SMS delivery delays and failures to Shelcomm Network in US over a subset of long code. Our engineering team has been alerted and is actively investigating. We will update as soon as we have more information.
'Graykey' Tool Used by Law Enforcement Can Only Partially Unlock iOS 18 Devices Graykey, a forensics tool used by law enforcement officials to break into locked iPhones, has limited access to iOS 18 and iOS 18.0.1, 404 Media recently learned. The site secured documents that describe Graykey's functionality in-depth, giving us a look at what the device is capable of.
Graykey parent company Magnet Forensics does not share information about the tool, and complete details about the devices that Graykey can unlock have not surfaced before.
Most iPhones that run iOS 18 or iOS 18.0.1 are listed as eligible for a "partial" unlock, though the iPhone 11 models can seemingly be unlocked in full. Data on iOS 18.1, a newer version of iOS, isn't included in the document, but iOS 18.1 betas were listed as inaccessible.
It's not clear what "partial" access means or what data can be garnered from iPhones with that access listing, but it might mean that law enforcement are limited to unencrypted files, file size information, and folder structure. On more vulnerable devices, Graykey can unlock an iPhone with a 4-digit passcode in mere minutes, while longer passcodes can take hours.
Graykey takes advantage of iPhone vulnerabilities to unlock devices, and its capabilities can change as Apple patches security flaws. In 2018, for example, Apple disabled Graykey with an update to iOS 12, but new vulnerabilities were found that restored functionality. Eventually, Magnet Forensics may be able to find a flaw that will allow Graykey to get into iOS 18 devices as well.
Earlier this year, a leak from Israel-based mobile forensics company Cellebrite suggested that its tools are unable to unlock iPhones that are running iOS 17.4 or later, but it is now able to access devices running iOS 17.5.1.This article, "" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
SMS Delivery Delays to Intertelecom Ltd Network In Ukraine Nov 19, 16:01 PSTUpdate - We are experiencing SMS delivery delays when sending messages to Intertelecom Ltd Network In Ukraine. Our engineers are working with our carrier partner to resolve the issue. We will provide another update in 1 hour or as soon as more information becomes available.Nov 19, 15:53 PSTInvestigating - Our monitoring systems have detected a potential issue of SMS delivery delays To Intertelecom Ltd Network In Ukraine. Our engineering team has been alerted and is actively investigating. We will update as soon as we have more information.
I automated Xcode warnings with GitHub – looking for beta testers! 🚀 Hey folks! Inspired by the discussion in this post I made, I decided to tackle the Xcode warnings problem head-on. I’ve built a tool that integrates with GitHub to help automate the process of cleaning up warnings in your projects. Here’s how it works: You run a simple script to upload your Xcode logs to […]
Russia SMS Carrier Maintenance – Megafon THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 21, 12:00 - 16:00 PSTNov 19, 15:44 PSTScheduled - The Megafon network in Russia is conducting a planned maintenance from 21 November 2024 at 12:00 PST until 21 November 2024 at 16:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays delivering SMS to and from Megafon Russia handsets.
Apple Updates Block Two Zero-Day Security Vulnerabilities Apple has released updates for its primary operating systems—including the previous versions of iOS and iPadOS and two previous versions of macOS—to address a pair of critical security vulnerabilities that have been exploited in the wild. Update soon.
Microsoft announces new Mac mini-sized desktop PC, but it only works online Microsoft on Tuesday announced a new product called “Windows 365 Link,” which is essentially a desktop PC similar in size to launched a few weeks ago. However, while the Mac mini is a full computer, Microsoft’s alternative runs exclusively in the cloud.
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pCloud offers lifetime cloud storage, client-side encryption, more in big Black Friday special pCloud is a Switzerland-based cloud storage company with a security specialty. It offers lifetime options for its storage plans, and in an early Black Friday special it’s bundling cloud storage with client-side encryption and a truly encrypted password manager at a heavy discount.
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Russia SMS Carrier Maintenance – Tele2 THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 21, 12:00 - 16:00 PSTNov 19, 15:11 PSTScheduled - The Tele2 network in Russia is conducting a planned maintenance from 21 November 2024 at 12:00 PST until 21 November 2024 at 16:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays delivering SMS to Tele2 Russia handsets.
Get this great PDF editor for half the price of Adobe LightPDF is a great Adobe Acrobat alternative. It has countless PDF-editing features, OCR tech, and AI-powered summaries.
(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)
Instagram Tests Recommendations Reset for Fresh Start Instagram parent company Meta today said that it is testing a new tool that's designed to allow users to reset their content recommendations for "a fresh start." Using the reset tool removes prior data that's used to power Explore, Reels, and Feed recommendations.
Recommendations will start to personalize over time, providing content recommendations based on the content and accounts that users interact with. Using the reset option will provide users with an option to review the accounts they're following to unfollow content they no longer want to see, and review ad topics.
The tool is designed for teen users, but Instagram is planning to make it available to all users following the test period. The feature will roll out globally "soon."Tag: InstagramThis article, "" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
Title: Apple App Store 4.3.0 Design Spam Rejection – Any Workarounds? Hey everyone, I'm facing a frustrating issue with Apple's recent 4.3.0 design spam rejection. I've got a pretty solid app, but it seems to be caught in this net. I know a dating app that was recently approved, and judging by the reviews, it has a lot of bugs and questionable features. It makes me […]
Apple has officially ended its butterfly keyboard repair program for MacBooks Apple no longer offers free repairs for MacBook models with the infamous "butterfly" keyboard, as the repair program for these machines has officially ended.Apple no longer offers repairs for the butterfly keyboard.The program was available for a wide variety of MacBook models sold between 2015 and 2020, including different MacBook Air and MacBook Pro configurations. With the repair program's end, however, it's now no longer possible to get these machines repaired by Apple at no cost.This will ultimately cause frustration for some users, as they will now have to resort to third-party repair shops and have the machine repaired out of pocket. It's widely known that the butterfly keyboard has significant durability problems, with notable flaws surfacing less than a year after its introduction. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
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Supply Planner III- *Apple* – DISH Network (United States) …large. **Job Duties and Responsibilities** We are seeking a Supply Planner III for Apple products to join our Retail Wireless Product Team. This critical role is
Beauty Consultant – *Apple* Blossom Mall – JCPenney (United States) Beauty Consultant - Apple Blossom Mall Location:Winchester, VA, United States (https://jobs.jcp.com/jobs/location/191170/winchester-va-united-states) - Apple
Hair Stylist – *Apple* Blossom Mall – JCPenney (United States) Hair Stylist - Apple Blossom Mall Location:Winchester, VA, United States (https://jobs.jcp.com/jobs/location/191170/winchester-va-united-states) - Apple Blossom
Cashier – *Apple* Blossom Mall – JCPenney (United States) Cashier - Apple Blossom Mall Location:Winchester, VA, United States (https://jobs.jcp.com/jobs/location/191170/winchester-va-united-states) - Apple Blossom Mall
Seasonal Cashier – *Apple* Blossom Mall – JCPenney (United States) Seasonal Cashier - Apple Blossom Mall Location:Winchester, VA, United States (https://jobs.jcp.com/jobs/location/191170/winchester-va-united-states) - Apple
Operations Associate – *Apple* Blossom Mall – JCPenney (United States) Operations Associate - Apple Blossom Mall Location:Winchester, VA, United States (https://jobs.jcp.com/jobs/location/191170/winchester-va-united-states) - Apple