Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge When you read a review of a smartphone, you will usually be hit with a long list of screen specs: the display type, its dimensions and aspect ratio, its resolution in pixels, its HDR support (or lack of it), and its brightness, for example. Too often, it’s assumed that everyone understands the significance of each of these specs. So in this article, we’re going to focus on the basics of the refresh rate, which you’ll see in the specs of monitors and TVs as well. It tells you how many times the display is refreshed per second, typically measured in Hz (hertz). In other words, a 90Hz display refreshes itself 90 times a…

Apple last week previewed watchOS 10, its next major software update for compatible Apple Watch models. Among a handful of new features, one of the most impactful is the introduction of widgets. Let's take a closer look at how they work and what you can do with them. What's Up With Widgets? Widgets offer a new way to quickly bring up app-related information from any watch face on your Apple Watch, without having to open the corresponding app or rely exclusively on complications. In other words, if you choose simple faces without complications, you can still access the information you want, and if you like complication-rich faces, now you can get even more info at a glance. In watchOS 10,…

Macworld Do Macs get viruses? Do Macs need antivirus software? The answers to these questions aren’t as simple as they might seem. In this article, we look at the dangers faced by Mac users, and the pros and cons of using Mac antivirus software. Historically, the Mac has been considered safe and secure for a number of reasons that we will go into below, but in recent years the consensus has fluctuated. In its 2020 State of Malware report, Malwarebytes said it saw “a significant rise in the overall prevalence of Mac threats in 2019, with an increase of over 400 percent from 2018.” The following year, the company found that overall malware detected on macOS decreased by 38 percent…

Macworld Do Macs get viruses? Do Macs need antivirus software? The answers to these questions aren’t as simple as they might seem. In this article, we look at the dangers faced by Mac users, and the pros and cons of using Mac antivirus software. Historically, the Mac has been considered safe and secure for a number of reasons that we will go into below, but in recent years the consensus has fluctuated. In its 2020 State of Malware report, Malwarebytes said it saw “a significant rise in the overall prevalence of Mac threats in 2019, with an increase of over 400 percent from 2018.” The following year, the company found that overall malware detected on macOS decreased by 38 percent…

All of Apple's software announcements have been somewhat overshadowed by the Apple Vision Pro, but there are a number of useful changes that are coming in iOS 17. We've pulled out five features that we think are the most interesting and that iPhone users will be most excited about when ‌iOS 17‌ launches this fall. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Live Voicemail - If you're like us, you sometimes forget that voicemail even exists. With ‌iOS 17‌, when someone calls and leaves a voicemail, you can see the transcription live on your Lock Screen. If they have something notable to say, you can pick up the call right then and there. StandBy - StandBy is similar…

All of Apple's software announcements have been somewhat overshadowed by the Apple Vision Pro, but there are a number of useful changes that are coming in iOS 17. We've pulled out five features that we think are the most interesting and that iPhone users will be most excited about when ‌iOS 17‌ launches this fall. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Live Voicemail - If you're like us, you sometimes forget that voicemail even exists. With ‌iOS 17‌, when someone calls and leaves a voicemail, you can see the transcription live on your Lock Screen. If they have something notable to say, you can pick up the call right then and there. StandBy - StandBy is similar…