Choosing a new Mac often involves consideration of the many Apple silicon chips now on offer, so our comprehensive guide covers their generations, variations, performance benchmarks, and future prospects to help you decide which is best for you. After iterating for over a decade in the iPhone and iPad, Apple in 2020 brought its custom silicon chip technology to the Mac, enabling major performance and power efficiency improvements. Since then, Apple silicon has expanded to every Mac model, spurring new designs and capabilities that were previously impossible. Understanding the distinctions between Apple silicon chips will help you make an informed decision when selecting the right Mac for your needs. There have been two generations of Apple silicon for the Mac,…

Macworld Near-field communications (NFC) allow very short-range transmission of data from a device that can be battery-free. The field generator by the NFC reader produces the tiny amount of power required to trigger a signal. Starting with AirTag support in the iPhone 6s in 2015, all iPhone models have had some kind of ability to activate and read NFC tags. (Starting with ever earlier iPhones, all Watch models, and many iPads, NFC transmission or encoding is used for Apple Pay.) You might have received certain kinds of NFC tag notifications. The most common are: AirTag: Tapping an AirTag after receiving an alert that one is near you. AirTags that aren’t registered to you will be identified by your iPhone. When brought…

Macworld iCloud Keychain is end-to-end encrypted among all your devices and uses iCloud just for syncing your password and other shared keychain entries. As I’ve written previously in “Why iCloud Keychain may prompt you for a device password used with other Apple hardware you own,” Apple relies on device passcodes in a special way as you add additional devices to an iCloud Keychain set. With your first device, you’re simply enabling syncing. Apple requires that you enter the password or passcode on that device to prime the pump. That encrypted password is used to wrap all your iCloud Keychain entries. The next device you add will prompt you to enter the passcode or password of the one you initiated iCloud…

While the iPhone 15 Pro has yet to launch, several new features have already been rumored. Following our iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro comparisons, we have now put together a version for the iPhone 11 Pro. While year-over-year iPhone upgrades are not always significant, new features begin to stack up over multiple generations. For this reason, the iPhone 15 Pro will be a notable upgrade for those who still have a four-year-old iPhone 11 Pro. The list below includes major iPhone changes introduced since 2019, as well as new features rumored for iPhone 15 Pro models. iPhone 11 Pro vs. iPhone 15 ProA17 chip vs. A13 chip: The 5nm-based A16…

Macworld Even for what is reputedly a somewhat smaller-than-usual annual update, iOS 17 still brings with it a host of new features. As the beta process begins, there’s plenty to investigate and try out ahead of the software’s full release this fall. But as I perused the capabilities that are part of this latest upgrade, something interesting struck me: an older technology appears to be having its moment in the sun, as Apple embraces its utility in a bunch of new ways. That’s great not only because it means new features, but also because–as it’s something that’s been around for a while–those new features will be available on any iPhone that runs iOS 17. I speak, of course, of the…

Apple has introduced the latest update to the beta program for macOS Ventura 13.5, making the fourth beta version is now accessible for developers to conduct testing.The newest macOS Ventura beta is now availableDevelopers who are part of the program can obtain the most recent builds by visiting the Apple Developer Center or updating their Macs in the Settings app. Subsequently, public beta versions are typically made available shortly after the developer versions, enabling users to participate through the Apple Beta Software Program. Read more...