MagSafe Monday: Lisen’s ultra-slim 0.3’’ MagSafe battery is the product Apple should have launched alongside the iPhone 16
Apple released a single version of its MagSafe battery a few years ago but was never upgraded or replaced. It eventually was removed for sale. It was a great product, and I wish it had stayed around. It was never designed to be the biggest battery, but it was great for getting through a heavy-use day. That’s exactly what the offers. It’s what I envision a modern Apple MagSafe battery would look like. more…

Read more »

Price drop: Add 128GB of storage to your iPhone (or other device) with 4-way flash drive
With four connectors (USB-C, Lightning, USB 3.0 and micro-USB), 4-in-1 Smart Flash Drive lets you add 128GB of storage to almost any device. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Read more »

Apple has re-released iOS 18.3 for an older iPhone model
Have an iPhone 11? Apple just released a new build of last week’s iOS 18.3 software update just for you. iOS 18.3 build 22D64 is now available for iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. The five-year-old model received the same update to iOS 18.3 last week as other iPhone models. The new build suggests something specific to the iPhone 11 line needed resolved with a new build. more…

Read more »

Apple has officially launched the 2025 Swift Student Challenge
Apple's Swift Student Challenge is officially open, with participants vying for the top prize — an all-inclusive three-day trip to Apple Park.Swift Student Challenge 2025 is now openJust as it did in 2024, Apple will select 350 winners in total and, recognize 50 of them as Distinguished Winners for their "outstanding submissions." Distinguished Winners will need to demonstrate "excellence in innovation creativity, social impact, or inclusivity."All 350 Challenge winners will receive a year of membership in the Apple Developer Program, a complimentary voucher to take the App Development with Swift certification exam, and a special gift from Apple. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Read more »

Audio Hijack 4.4.6
Brief maintenance update for the full-featured audio recording. ($64 new, free update, 31.4 MB, macOS 14.4+)

Read more »

Is Your PIN Easy to Guess?
In the latest installment of “People Are Bad at Security,” reporters from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation use a heatmap to illustrate the prevalence of 29 million PINs from the Have I Been Pwned? database.Read original article

Read more »

How to clear Safari’s cache and cookies on Mac
Macworld There are a handful of situations when clearing Safari’s cookies or cache–one of the places where Safari stores website data to avoid having to download it afresh each time you access a site–can help improve your browsing experience. The first is when websites simply stop working when you access them on Safari. Perhaps Facebook stops updating with new posts, for example, or the images on a site don’t appear as they should. If this happens, it’s likely the cache has become corrupted. Alternatively, if you find that personal info automatically completed on sites isn’t correct, deleting cookies can help. These are small files sites use to save data about you and what you do on the site. Even if none of these problems affect you, periodically cleaning browser data can help protect your privacy from snoops who want to discover what you’ve been up to online. Therefore, this article explains how to clear Safari’s cache and cookies on Mac. We also have an article that explains How to clear cache on a Mac. How to clear Safari cookies and cache for websites Cleaning cookies and the cache data for individual sites can be done via Safari’s Settings/Preferences. Open Safari Click on Safari in the menu at the top of the screen. Click on Settings or Preferences (depending on the version of macOS you are running). Go to the Privacy tab. Click on Manage Website Data. Choose Remove All or select websites individually to remove. Foundry After the data is loaded you’ll probably see a long list of websites. You can choose to Remove All or just select individual websites you want to remove from this list. If you want to select several different sites, you can click on one and then press and hold the Command key to select a second, third, fourth, and so on. We recommend that you don’t select hundreds this way; it’s better to delete in batches just in case you have to start over. If you would prefer to select all and then deselect the ones you want to keep you can do so. Use Command+A to select all, then press and hold Command while clicking on any website you are happy to keep in this list. Just click Remove afterwards, not Done, as that will just undo all your hard work. There’s also a search field you can use to track down individual sites. Bear in mind that deleting cookies might remove autocompleted login usernames and passwords for sites, and will almost certainly log you out of that site if you’ve configured it to automatically log in each time you visit. How to clear Safari cache The hidden Safari Developer menu can be used to clear just the cache, leaving cookies and the browser history in place. This is a very useful diagnostic step to take before removing those two items if a website behaves badly. If you just want to clear all your cache you can do so by following these steps: Open Safari. Click on Safari in menu bar at top of screen and select Settings/Preferences (depending on the version of macOS you are running). Click on the Advanced tab. Check the box beside Show Develop Menu in Menu Bar or Show features for web developers. Now there will be a new Develop tab in the menu at the top of your screen. Click on this. Click on Empty Caches. Alternatively click on Option+Command + E. Close any open Safari windows and select Empty Caches on the Develop menu. Then click File > New Window to start Safari with a clean cache.Foundry How to remove autocomplete data from AutoFill Safari’s AutoFill tool can fill in username and password details on websites as well as credit card details and other elements like your address and email details. This can be really useful, but it can also be annoying if the data it fills in is incorrect or out of context. It’s also a problem when AutoFill enters old or incorrect passwords or emails and addresses. You can change this data, or delete it by following these steps: Open Safari. Click on the Safari menu. Click on Settings/Preferences. Choose the AutoFill tab. Here you can edit contact information, usernames and passwords, credit cards and other data. Click on Edit beside the category you want access to. You’ll need to enter your password or use Touch ID to gain access. Foundry Delete incorrect data: If you are finding that Safari is autofilling incorrect data about you (your address, for example), click Edit beside “Using information from my contacts.” This will open up your Contacts app. Your card will be at the top or under My Card. You can add and amend data about yourself here. Delete incorrect passwords and site logins: In versions of Safari before 18.2, you can manage site passwords within Safari. If you want to delete incorrect passwords, you can click on the Passwords tab. If you know which password you want to remove search for the website or service and then find the older password option (if there is more than one) and select it and then click on the “-” below the column to remove it. You can then select Delete Password. If that means there is no password saved for that website, you can then recreate the entry for the site by clicking the Add button. You’ll first need to provide the URL of the site (that is, something like https://facebook.com), and then type the username and password alongside (hit the Tab key to move from field to field). If you are using macOS Sequoia or later, website passwords are now managed in the new Passwords app. You need to open this app to delete incorrect passwords. Learn more about the Passwords app (the linked review is about the iPhone version, but it is the same as macOS). We’ll also cover the Passwords app in the section below. See: How to autofill passwords, bank cards, names and addresses for more. Delete logins and passwords system-wide If you are using a version of macOS before Sequoia, site logins can also be accessed via the Keychain Access app, which you’ll find in the Utilities folder of the Applications list in Finder, although you should be very careful using this app because it pretty much controls the entire security operation of your Mac! However, by removing errant username and password entries here you’ll stop virtually all of your Mac apps using them, and not just Safari. Just type the name of the site into the Search field, and look in the list of results for entries of the kind Web Form Password. Right-click the entry and select Delete. Foundry For macOS Sequoia or later, Apple introduced a new Passwords app. You can find it in the Applications folder. (The Keychain Access app still exists, but it is hidden. You can find it by doing a Spotlight search for “Keychain Access” but when you open it, you’ll get a notification stating that Passwords is the preferred way to manage passwords.) Type the name of the site in the search field, and look at the list of sites that appear. Click on the one you want to modify and click Edit in the upper right to modify the password, or Control-click the website and select Delete in the pop-up menu to delete it. Foundry If you want to delete your Chrome or Firefox cache, cookies or browsing history read: How to delete your Mac browsing history. For alternative web browsers take a look at: Best web browser for Mac.

Read more »

Apple Calendar’s ‘Confetti’ could offer three advantages over competitors
Apple is reportedly about to launch a new iCloud-based service, codenamed Confetti, that’s tied to the iOS 18.3 Calendar app. Here are three advantages Apple’s offering could provide over its competition. more…

Read more »

The History of Screen Savers
At Tedium, Ernie Smith explores the origins of screen savers, revealing a history that stretches back further than most might think. Although Apple seems focused on its high-resolution Aerial video screen savers, screen saver design seems to be returning to just darkening the screen.Read original article

Read more »

Sophie tangles with evil British aristocracy in Surface season 2 [Apple TV+ trailer]
When is British aristocracy ever at fault? Well, in "Surface" season 2's trailer, Sophie's search for lost memory leads her to a big scandal. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Read more »

Judge swiftly tells Apple it can't delay the Google trial
Apple's motion for a stay on the forthcoming Google remedy trial has been quickly denied, meaning Apple will have little say in the potential end of its annual $20 billion iPhone search deal with the search giant.Google faces a remedy trail over its monopolistic practicesAt the conclusion of the Department of Justice's case against the company, Google was legally declared to be a search and advertising monopoly in August 2024. A remedy trial is planned to determine what steps Google can take to address this, and Apple has been trying to be a major part of the process.According to MLex, however, Judge Amit Mehta has now denied Apple's motion to obtain what's called an emergency stay of the trial. The ruling came 24 hours after Apple filed its motion in response to Judge Mehta's previous refusal to allow it any significant participation. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Read more »

Apple TV+ debuts trailer for ‘Surface’ season two
On Monday, Apple TV+ unveiled the trailer for the upcoming second season of “Surface.” Starring and executive produced by… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

Read more »

How to get Microsoft Word for free on Mac
Macworld Microsoft Word remains the standard way to create and share text documents, whether you’re in a corporate or educational organisation. In recent years, it’s definitely had its iron-clad grip loosened by the likes of Google Docs, but in many instances Word is the preferred or expected software to use. There’s only one problem with that: it’s not free. So, if you don’t want to add another monthly bill to your account, how can you still use the software without shelling out? Here’s how to get Microsoft Word on your Mac for free, plus the various paid versions and some useful alternatives. How to use Microsoft Word for free on the web Microsoft offers completely free versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, all of which you access online at its Microsoft 365 hub. You’ll need a Microsoft account, but these are free and you may find that you already have a Hotmail or Outlook account that you created a while back. If you don’t, they only take a few minutes to create. Once this is done, you’re free to access the various apps and use them in your browser. This used to be called Office.com but Microsoft now calls it Microsoft 365 to keep it in line with its other productivity software. Read our review of Microsoft Word 2024 for Mac, plus everything you need to know about Microsoft Office for Mac vs Microsoft 365. It’s true that you don’t get the full suite of tools that the paid versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint possess, and you have to save documents to OneDrive, but if you just need a word processor that can accurately create and handle .docx file types, this is a handy way to get it for free.  Get Microsoft Word for free for one month You can run Word, Excel, PowerPoint and all the apps Microsoft offers in the Microsoft 365 bundle for one month for free thanks to Microsoft’s 30-day free trial.  When you set up the trial you will need to add your payment information, so If you don’t want to pay anything you could set a reminder for yourself to cancel before your subscription starts. If you miss that date your subscription can be canceled by turning off recurring billing. Best deals right now! U.S. The Digital License shop is offering Microsoft Office 2024 with lifetime licenses for Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint for $49 for Mac users (it’s cheaper on the PC). Get the deal from Digital License for £49 U.K. Groupon has a deal where you can get lifetime access to Microsoft Office Standard 2024 Mac for £29 – that’s 85% off and includes lifetime licenses for Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. Get the deal from Groupon for £29 Wowcher has the same deal. Get Office Standard 2024 for £29. It includes lifetime licenses for Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. Get the deal from Wowcher for £29 How to get the paid version of Microsoft Word for less If you need the full range of tools that Word has to offer, not to mention the ability to work offline and save files into other folders or online storage services, then you’ll need to pay. There are two routes open to you: one-off payment, or a subscription.  We already pay for plenty of things each month, so the idea of adding another bill to the list might not appeal. Thankfully, you don’t have to, as Microsoft still offers a one-and-done approach to buying Word. It’s not cheap, though, as buying the app outright will set you back $179.99 / £159.99, although there are no more payments afterwards.  But there’s an even cheaper way to get Microsoft Word for one payment and you actually get Excel and PowerPoint too! You can get a lifetime license for Office Home 2024 that includes all three apps for $149.99 / £119.99. Microsoft Word for Mac Read our review Price When Reviewed: Lifetime license, Office Home 2024, one device: $149.99; Lifetime license Word, one device: $179.99; Microsoft 265 Personal, one device: $99.99 a year ($9.99 a month) Best Prices Today: $99.99 at Microsoft (one device, one year) | $119.99 at Microsoft Office Home 2024 | $179.99 at Microsoft (lifetime license) However, the best option, especially if you really want to save money and only need Word temporarily, is to sign up for the Microsoft 365 subscription for a month or so and then cancel. Microsoft 365 costs $99.99 a year or $9.99 a month / £84.99 a year or £8.49 a month – sign up for the monthly deal if you want the flexibility to cancel in a few months time. Microsoft 365 Personal Price When Reviewed: $99.99 a year ($9.99 a month) Best Prices Today: $99.99 at Amazon | $99.99 at Microsoft (one license, one year) With Microsoft 365 you not only get Word, but also Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook and 1TB of OneDrive storage. Microsoft keeps you on the latest version of the apps at all times, so you never need to deal with outdated software or miss out on new features. Another benefit is that you can use the Office apps on up to five devices, including an iPhone and iPad (if you buy the lifetime licenses its only for use on one Mac). If you want more accounts, there’s the Microsoft 365 Family tier which allows 2-6 people to use the service and boosts the storage up to 6TB. This costs $129.99 / £104.99 per annum or $12.99/£10.49 per month.  Microsoft 365 Family Price When Reviewed: $129.99 a year (or $12.99 per month) Best Prices Today: $129.99 at Amazon | $129.99 at Microsoft (six licenses, one year) To see how the subscription version compares to the bought one, take a look at our Microsoft 365 vs Office 2024 buying guide.  Should you get Office 2021? We’ve noticed a few stockists still selling Microsoft Office for Mac 2021, so you might find this on sale for less than Office 2024. Do bear in mind when buying this older version of Office that Microsoft has said it will no longer support it after October 2026. Office for Mac 2021: Home & Student Price When Reviewed: Was $149.99 Best Prices Today: $149.99 at Microsoft Watch out for scams and hacks Microsoft It takes about 30 seconds to find videos on YouTube that will show you how to download, install and get Word (plus all the other MS Office software) up and running on your Mac for nothing. If the instructions are similar to the ones in this article, then you should be fine, but many of the ones we’ve seen require some sort of serial code-cracking program to be bought and downloaded to your machine. While this might seem like a victimless crime to some–Microsoft is a multi-billion-dollar company while the user is just a single person with no money–the real victim is most likely to be you. It’s true that some hackers are benevolent, wanting only to free the information so that anyone can use it, but sadly others are most definitely not. Downloading and installing things like this on your Mac is one of the easiest ways to contract malware or spyware software that can cause havoc with your data. That’s aside from the fact that you’re contravening copyright, which is rather naughty. Our advice would be to keep well away from these ‘free’ routes to Word. Free alternatives to Microsoft Word Unless you specifically need Microsoft Word, you’ll find that there are plenty of great word processors out there that won’t cost you a penny. Any new Mac will come with a free copy of Apple’s Pages software, which is a hugely powerful tool for creating and editing documents, and also works well with its iOS/iPadOS counterpart app. Google Docs is a perennial favourite as the web-based software is free and easy to use. You won’t find incredibly advanced features like those on the full-blown Microsoft Word, but for most people it’s all they’ll ever need. LibreOffice Writer is another one that’s always worth checking out. The open-source software is completely free and yet offers a complete solution for those who want the functionality of MS Word. Yes, it’s not quite the smooth and aesthetically pleasing experience of its inspiration, but you can get so much done on Writer that you won’t care. For a roundup of other options, check out our Best Mac word processor roundup.

Read more »

Don’t miss your chance to get AirPods Pro 2 at a huge discount
Take advantage of AirPods sales and save on the best wireless earbuds for Apple devices. There are discounts on the full range. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Read more »

Don’t miss your chance to get AirPods Pro 2 at a huge discount
Take advantage of AirPods sales and save on the best wireless earbuds for Apple devices. There are discounts on the full range. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Read more »

Apple’s newest AirPods 4 have dropped below $100 for the first time
Macworld Our favorite new AirPods are cheaper than they’ve ever been as the price drops just below $100. That’s a 22 percent discount from its usual $129 for the version without Active Noise Cancelation. These are Apple’s new AirPods that haven’t been around for a very long time, and it’s the first deal where we see them drop this low. We reviewed the ANC version of these AirPods, which are otherwise identical to this model. We gave them a 4.5-star rating, appreciating the great overall audio quality and the wireless charging case. (If you’re interested in the version of AIrPdos 4 with ANC, you should know you can get it for $30 off as well, although the discount isn’t nearly as enticing.) “I was also impressed with the clarity and volume of voice recordings in podcasts and during phone calls. I didn’t think voices would be as good as with the AirPods Pro with their ear tips–it’s not, but it’s close, and I can say the AirPods 4 produced excellent voice quality,” we noted about using the AirPods 4 for calls. They also have Hey Siri support, long battery life, and a new design for better ear fit. We really like the AirPods 4 at $129 but love them at under $100. So go ahead and get your own AirPods 4 without ANC for $100 at Amazon because we can’t know for sure how long this deal will be around. Buy now at Amazon

Read more »

As breaches rise, Surfshark Alert with free Data Leak Checker can help
With big data breaches on the rise, your personal information is a greater risk than ever. Get Surfshark Alert with Data Leak Checker. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Read more »

Apple Music kicks off Kendrick Lamar’s Road to Halftime ahead of Super Bowl LIX
Apple on Monday announced Apple Music is celebrating Kendrick Lamar’s Road to Halftime with a spotlight on the era-defining artist who… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

Read more »

Deals: AirPods 4 $100 all-time low, AirPods Pro 2 $170, MacBook Pro $210 off, Apple Studio Displays, more
After a steady string of iPad mini, M2 iPad Air, and M4 iPad Pro deals to kick the year off, we are now seeing our first chances to save big on the latest AirPods releases. Amazon has now dropped the AirPods 4 down to a new $100 all-time low there while the lauded AirPods Pro 2 have now dropped from the $249 regular list price to $170 shipped. Those offers join a $210 price drop on a couple different M4/Pro MacBook Pro configs as well as up to $299 off the gorgeous Apple 5K Studio Display lineup. You’ll also find a $100 price drop on Sonos Ace headphones, Beats deals, Anker Apple Watch power banks, and more. more…

Read more »

Today in Apple history: iPhone comes to Verizon at last
On February 3, 2011, the iPhone arrived on the largest U.S. carrier. Bringing iPhone to Verizon Wireless ended four years of AT&T exclusivity. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Read more »