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10 things you didn’t know you could do with an Apple Watch

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 10:30:00 +0000

When Apple unveiled its first-ever smartwatch back in 2014, it’s fair to say that the world wasn’t exactly sure what it was for… and neither was Apple. In those early days, along with the fitness elements which would remain an enduring part of the product’s appeal, the company talked enthusiastically about sharing taps, sketches, and heartbeats with friends, which would not. It took time for users and third-party developers to teach Apple what they wanted from a smartwatch, and for the company to take that on board.

Today, the Apple Watch is a mature and versatile product. It’s so versatile, indeed, that you may not be aware of some of its most useful capabilities. In this article, we’re going to catch you up.

Take better iPhone photos

This was a superb piece of lateral thinking. There have always been situations where it’s difficult or impossible to trigger a camera because it needs to be out of reach, or out of sight, of the person taking the picture: when you’re trying to photograph the ports around the back of your Mac, for example, or when setting up a formal group photo that everyone wants to be in. Timers used to be the main solution, but often resulted in a mad scramble to place the camera correctly and get back in time before the time ran out. But the Apple Watch offers something better.

Open the Camera Remote app on your watch, and it will simultaneously open the Camera app on the paired iPhone. Whatever the iPhone’s camera can see, you can now see on your watch; you can switch between the front and rear cameras (and toggle some other settings) using the options button at the bottom right. Once you’re happy, hit the three-second timer button, look up and smile, and enjoy your perfect photo.

You can turn off the three-second timer using the options menu on the right, but it gives you time to compose yourself.

Foundry

Unlock other Apple devices

An Apple Watch, once you’ve unlocked it with a single passcode input, remains unlocked as long as it stays on your wrist. It can thus act as a handy digital key that’s on you at all times, unlocking your Mac and iPhone by proximity alone.

On iPhone, open the Settings app and go to Face ID & Passcode (or Touch ID & Passcode on older devices), then scroll down and tap the toggle under Unlock With Apple Watch. On Mac, open System Settings and go to Touch ID & Password and click the toggle next to your Apple Watch.

Play games

As small as the Apple Watch’s screen may be, it can still support some fun games; they just need to be designed with that limitation in mind. You need to be selective. We’d recommend Deep Golf and Lifeline, both of which make perfect sense in this format, but there are some more excellent suggestions here.

Talk to ChatGPT

You probably have your own thoughts on the ethics of AI, but it’s hard to deny that ChatGPT is fun to play with. Thanks to the Petey app, you can now have those conversations on Apple Watch. Tap the ‘Ask me Anything’ button then type in a query (or better still, use the dictation button and save your tapping finger) and you’ll soon hear what our future AI overlord thinks of the matter. There’s even a complication, which means Petey is never more than a tap away.

Petey can handle life’s most serious questions.

Foundry

Control navigation with air gestures

The standard control method for Apple Watch involves having the device on one wrist, and then tapping the screen and pressing and rotating the buttons and dials with the other hand. But there are situations where you need to control the watch with the same hand it’s on. And this is possible, thanks to AssistiveTouch, one of Apple’s handy accessibility features.

Open the Watch app on the paired iPhone. (Alternatively, you can set the feature up in the Apple Watch’s own Settings app, but I found this fiddly.) In the My Watch tab, select Accessibility, then scroll down until you see AssistiveTouch. Tap this, then tap the toggle at the top of the next screen to turn it on.

By default, doing a pinch gesture with the watch-bearing hand will take you forwards in menus, while double-pinching (pinching twice, rather than pinching once with two fingers) will take you back; clenching your fist will act as a tap, while double-clenching will open a menu of actions, which takes a little getting used to. In fact, the whole thing has a learning curve, but practice makes perfect, and you can change the actions tied to each gesture.

Tell the time without looking

If for whatever reason you are unable to look at your Apple Watch but you’d still like to know the time, Speak Time is the lesser-known feature for you. To set it up, open the Settings app on the watch and go to Clock, scroll down until you see Speak Time, then tap to turn it on. (Again, this can also be done in the Watch app on a paired iPhone; again, go to Clock then hit Speak Time.) Now you need only hold two fingers on the watch face for a second or so and it will tell you the time out loud.

Conversely, if you’d like to know the time silently without looking at the screen, consider Taptic Time. (You can turn this on in the Watch app by going to Clock > Taptic Time, or following a similar route in the Apple Watch’s Settings app.) There are various options but I find the Digits format easiest: this would for example give one long tap, followed by four short taps, followed by three long taps, followed by six short taps, to give you the time 14:36.

Quickly reply to messages

The Apple Watch probably doesn’t seem like the optimal device for writing out messages, but watchOS has been cleverly designed to help. Tap a notification of an incoming message (or open the Messages app on your Apple Watch and tap a message there) and you’ll see the option to reply. This is easier than it sounds.

The easiest method is to select one of the pre-written replies, such as yes, no, and “Can I call you later?” One tap and the canned reply is winging its way to the recipient: easy. And if these replies seem too limited, write some of your own by opening the Watch app on your paired iPhone and going to Messages > Default Replies.

By default the Messages app offers context-sensitive Smart Replies, but you can turn this off in the settings.

Foundry

If you’d rather be spontaneous, you can type out a reply on your wrist in the onscreen keyboard, but we’d recommend that you instead swipe up and select the Scribble keyboard instead: this has you scrawl a letter at a time using the entire screen, which is much easier than hitting tiny keys. Or best of all, tap the dictation button and speak your thoughts out loud.

Make your battery last much longer

Hardly anyone seems to know that the Apple Watch now has a Low Power mode–perhaps because it already had a Power Reserve mode, which was far more drastic and made the watch basically unusable. But Low Power, finally added in watchOS 9 in 2022, is much closer to the equivalent iPhone feature, simply cutting back on features and settings to eke out a little more battery life.

To turn on Low Power mode, open Control Center by swiping up from the clock face, then tap the battery percentage. Just below the Battery Remaining figure, you’ll see a toggle labeled Low Power Mode. (Note that in watchOS 10, Control Center is instead accessed by pressing the side button.)

Preserve your privacy

The always-on screen offered on the Series 5 onwards has many good qualities, but you might be worried that it means personal data may be visible to other people. Fortunately, you can adjust the settings so that sensitive complications and notifications only appear when your wrist is raised.

Let’s start with complications, which could display personal data such as calendar appointments or health information. Open the Watch app on your paired iPhone. From the My Watch tab, go to Display & Brightness > Always On > Show Complications Data. From here you can pick and choose which complications are allowed to display their data when the always-on screen is in dimmed mode.

Think carefully about information that could be embarrassing if seen publicly.

Foundry

Similarly, if you go to Display & Brightness > Always On > Show Notifications you can fine-tune the notifications which appear in dimmed mode, and which are only allowed to reveal their information when you’ve raised your wrist.

Get discreet directions

When you’re lost in a new city, the last thing you want to do is advertise the fact that you’re a tourist (or indeed the fact that you’ve got an expensive smartwatch on your wrist and an expensive smartphone in your pocket). For this reason, it’s desirable to have Maps advise you of turnings in a way that’s discreet and doesn’t require that you look at the screen of your Apple Watch or iPhone.

While you’re still somewhere safe, open Maps on your iPhone and select a destination and the type of directions you want. Start the journey, and make sure you turn off the sound alerts by tapping the mute/unmute button on the right-hand side. Tuck the iPhone away in a pocket.

Now, as you walk along, the Apple Watch will alert you to left turns by giving you three sets of two short buzzes and signal right turns with a rapid and even series of 10 to 12 haptic taps. (You don’t need to count them, it’s the rhythm that gives it away.) When you reach your destination you get a long vibration.

Apple Watch

How to use the new password sharing in Safari on macOS Sonoma

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 16:03:13 +0000

With the forthcoming macOS Sonoma, you’ll be able to share usernames and passwords with family and friends from within Safari.

Ever since Safari has been able to store and create passwords, it’s been possible to share them — but in a fiddly process, and only one at a time.You had to open Safari’s Settings, click Passwords, log in, select the site concerned, then click on the black dots representing the password. And if the person you wanted to share it with loses it, you had to do it all again.

How to use the new password sharing in Safari on macOS Sonoma

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 16:03:13 +0000

With the forthcoming macOS Sonoma, you’ll be able to share usernames and passwords with family and friends from within Safari.

How to use the new password sharing in Safari on macOS Sonoma

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 16:03:13 +0000

With the forthcoming macOS Sonoma, you’ll be able to share usernames and passwords with family and friends from within Safari.

Read the WWDC 2023 keynote before it happens in our minute-by-minute preview

tigaman webdesign — Sun, 04 Jun 2023 13:00:01 +0000

Macworld

You probably haven’t heard, but on Monday Apple is holding its first event of 2023 on Monday. We’re kidding—we know you know it’s time for WWDC 2023, and we’re here to give you the lowdown on the event’s announcements.

That’s right. Just like last year’s iPhone event, by an amazing coincidence, we’ve again stumbled across Tim Cook’s video script for Monday morning’s keynote presentation and of course, we’re going to share it all with you. It’s a doozy: from iOS 17 and new Macs to macOS and the mixed-reality headset, we’ve got the scoop on everything you’re going to hear from Apple on Monday—before Apple is ready to show it all to us. (Editor’s note: For anyone thinking this is real, if David had the actual script, we would definitely send it back to Apple.)

So here’s your spoiler alert: If you want to be surprised, stop reading now and watch the WWDC keynote live at 10 am.

Introduction

09:57: The pre-stream starts, complete with achingly hip musical accompaniment. The opening track is called “Friday Night Baseball” by MLS Season Pass. Wait that’s the wrong Apple document—it’s actually “Eyes Closed” by Ed Sheeran from the Apple Music WWDC playlist. Is that a hint??
10:00: The video stream starts. It’s another pre-recorded video, rather than a live presentation.
10:01: Tim Cook says good morning, and welcomes us to WWDC 2023. “Today,” he says, “we’re going to push our platforms into an exciting future where technology makes the world a better place.” He talks a bit about how much he loves developers and says there are lots of great announcements on their way, but for now, he wants to talk about…
10:03: …the App Store. He says the official store prevented more than $2 billion in fraudulent transactions last year, while small developers grew their revenue by 64 percent. It sounds a bit like sideloading is coming, and Apple realizes it now needs to sell the benefits of the App Store instead of forcing people to use it.

iOS 17 and iPadOS 17

10:05: Well, we’re about to find out if that’s the case, because here comes avuncular gigolo Craig Federighi, accompanied by ludicrous James Bond music, to talk about the iPhone and iOS.
10:06: Craig is doing his usual joke about picking a name for the update. Is it going to have macOS-style branding? iOS Death Valley, perhaps? No, it’s iOS 17. Very funny, Craig.
10:07: Craig is into the proper action now. He’s talking about the iPhone’s Lock Screen and all the customization options that were added last year. Apparently, he’s seen some of the layouts people have come with and thinks they’re “magical.” Cheers mate.
10:08: It’s about to become more magical because Apple is adding new font options. And you’ll be able to create a Lock Screen setup and share it with other users. That’s a nice idea.
10:09: And as expected, the Lock Screen will be able to serve as a sort of smart display. When the iPhone is locked and laid horizontally it will switch to an alternative interface and set of widgets showing essential data. This could be handy when you’re working on your Mac and have the iPhone charging on your desk or charging it next to your bed.
10:10: We’re on to the Dynamic Island now. It’s getting new features in time for the expected expansion to the entire iPhone 15 family. Both incoming notifications and Siri are moving to the island, and there’s a slick new interface that lets graphical elements flow from the island into the main screen area.
10:13: Control Center is changing. There’s a completely new design and it looks stunning. Will take some time to get used to, though. Apple says you now have complete, well, control over the toggles that appear here, including third-party settings!
10:15: Now we’re talking Focus Mode. There are two new filters, called Movies and Fanzone respectively, aimed at people watching either a movie, TV show, or a sports event on their iPhone. (Federighi says these will work great on iPad too.) The two come with subtly different presets, the one helping to avoid spoilers and distraction, the other allowing for related social media and commentary from secondary sources.
10:17: Federighi gets some laughs by pretending he’s about to unveil a super-important new feature and then revealing it’s the infinitely adjustable flashlight. A nod to the leakers there, I think.
10:18: Robby Walker, Apple’s information intelligence boss, is here to talk about the new and improved Siri. And not a moment too soon.
10:19: Siri is now based on a completely remodeled artificial intelligence which Walker refers to as Project Bobcat. It’s far more accurate and versatile than any other smart assistant on the market, he boasts. No word on the expected (and widely vilified) change to the trigger phrase, thankfully.
10:21: Emily Schubert is here to talk about the redesigned version of CarPlay. We saw a lot of this at WWDC last year, but Apple now has a firm launch date: the first cars with CarPlay 2.0 will go on sale in September 2023.
10:24: Federighi is back to talk about compatibility. iOS 17 will be available for the iPhone X and later. Bad news for iPhone 8 owners.
10:26: Federighi is now talking about iPadOS 17. The iPad is getting the Lock Screen customization it missed out on last year, including the new fonts and sharing options added in iOS 17 this year. Plus the new Focus Mode filters.
10:30: Thin gruel for iPad owners, it seems, because that’s all for now. Federighi is back to sum up the main points of the iOS 17/iPadOS 17 update. Interesting that they were rolled in together: a quiet year for iDevices. And no mention of sideloading. Then again, this is precisely the kind of thing Apple would keep quiet.

The new driver’s view provided by CarPlay 2.0.

Apple

Macs and macOS 14

10:35: Will there be any new hardware today? It looks like there will be because John Ternus is here. And it’s official: Apple is launching a 15-inch MacBook Air!
10:37: We’re watching a marketing video for the new Air, and it looks stunning. Three immediate questions to ask: how much does it weigh, how much does it cost, and how powerful will it be?
10:39: The answer to the first question is 3 pounds or just under 1.4kg. That’s pretty impressive for the size. It’s just 12mm thick (or “thin” in Apple’s terminology), which is only 0.7mm thicker than the 13-inch model.
10:41: It’s got a 15.2-inch screen, to be exact, at a resolution of 2880 x 1800 (compared to 2560 x 1664 on the 13-inch model).
10:43: As expected, Apple is sticking with the M2 chip. No sign of the M3 generation just yet (unless there’s a surprise waiting for later in the presentation). And it seems to be the plain M2 chip, with no mention of an M2 Pro option. That’s fast enough, though.
10:45: Apple is boasting that the new Air is “whisper-quiet” which presumably means no fan, and is another way of saying the company hasn’t included the sort of higher-power processor that would require cooling.
10:47: The choice of a slightly lower-power chip may be important for other reasons. Apple says the new MacBook Air has the longest battery life of any laptop it’s made. That’s quite a boast. We’re looking at graphs and Apple is throwing some serious shade at “the leading Windows laptops.”
10:49: It starts at 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.
10:51: More marketing videos. Getting a bit tired of looking at the Air, as nice as it is.
10:52: STOP THE PRESSES IT COMES IN GREEN.
10:54: The new 15-inch MacBook Air will start at $1,599/£1,699, and goes on sale next month. And that’s it from John Ternus.
10:58: Federighi is back to talk about macOS 14!
10:59: He’s doing the naming joke again. Lots of footage of beautiful California scenery, leading to the revelation that…
11:00: …the next version of macOS is called Grizzly. Wow, that’s surprising.
11:01: Hang on, Federighi was joking again. It’s actually called Skyline. Good one, Craig.
11:02: He’s now talking about system reliability, and claiming macOS Skyline is the fastest and most energy-efficient operating system in the world. That’s shorthand for “not many new features this year, lads.”
11:03: Ah, but Wallet is coming to the Mac! That’s a neat idea.
11:04: macOS Skyline is coming in the fall. That was all very quick. And there’s no sign of the M2 Ultra chip or the Mac Pro.

Foundry

watchOS 10

11:05: It’s time to talk about the Apple Watch. Here comes Kevin Lynch to talk about watchOS 10!
11:07: Lynch is talking about the famous Grid View, which he calls “the most viewed screen on any smartwatch in history.” But he admits it can be intimidating to use. (Or as we put it, “all wrong.”)
11:08: We’re looking at what he calls “a reimagining” of Grid View. It’s a simpler layout, with larger icons in neat rows, rather than tessellating in a honeycomb; you scroll up and down, not freely in two dimensions. It looks a bit more like iOS, and far easier to use, even though there will be fewer icons on screen at once.
11:10: There are now app folders in watchOS! Lynch makes these look easy to use, although they could be fiddly on the smaller Apple Watch sizes.
11:11: And widgets too! In terms of complexity, these sit somewhere between the old Glances in early versions of watchOS and full apps.
11:12: Apple Watches can now sync with multiple Apple devices: Macs and iPads as well as more than one iPhone. This is a huge change.
11:14: Lynch is now boasting about improvements to sleep tracking in watchOS, which he says features “the most accurate metrics in the industry.” Has Apple really caught up with Fitbit?
11:16: There’s a new feature where you can create your own types of workout. Note that this was already possible to an extent, by using the Other workout type, but now you can answer a series of questions about the exercise you’ll be doing and watchOS will more intelligently assess your progress, calorific consumption, and so on. This is great news for kabaddi practitioners.
11:18: Which Apple Watches will be able to run watchOS 10? The Series 4 and later. That’s the same list as last year, so Apple has refrained from swinging the axe.

Mixed-reality headset

11:19: Tim Cook is back to talk about Apple’s history, a little about Steve Jobs, and the many achievements and products Apple has made over the years. It’s all very important-sounding and after years of rumors, it’s finally time for the Apple headset!
11:22: Marketing video time. Lots of moody low-lit shots of abstract shapes against a backdrop of ominous music.
11:23: The buildup is palpable. And here it comes…
11:24: We’re getting our first view of the headset. It’s gorgeous, frankly. Apple does these videos so well. But what about battery life? What about price? What about content?
11:26: The video is over and Cook talks a bit about what it means and introduces an exec we’ve never seen before: Mike Rockwell. Rockwell starts talking about how VR and AR are “the most important technologies in the world right now, bar none.” He says Apple has been exploring these technologies in its software releases for years now but has been waiting to create hardware until it felt it could create something to match its high standards. Tell that to the designers, Mike.
11:28: Rockwell is ready to tell us the name of the thing. Please, no jokes.
11:29: It’s called… Reality Pro. As we expected. Leaks really have killed the fun of Apple events.
11:30: Rockwell is talking about all the things we can do with the headset. Games, movies, product design, “next-gen social” which looks suspiciously like the metaverse, training, art…
11:33: A nervous-looking developer called John Caramel is talking us through the delights of VR gaming. It looks a bit boring. The problem with these kinds of presentations is you can’t really appreciate what it’s like unless you’re using the hardware.
11:37: A Hollywood mogul named Ron Waffle pretends to be excited about watching movies in VR. We’re looking at a mocked-up Marvel short that clearly makes no sense unless you’re wearing a headset. The short is called “Ant-Man Pays Off A Parking Ticket.”
11:41: Rockwell is back to talk about the hardware. He says the screens are the “highest-resolution displays on any VR hardware in the world,” and that the viewing experience is “buttery smooth.” Shades of Federighi there.
11:43: Ah, the all-important question of battery life. Rockwell says Reality Pro lasts for four hours between charges and claims this is better than any rival hardware.
11:44: …but that’s only possible because there’s a separate battery pack you have to carry with you. That could reduce the number of customers, I suspect.
11:45: Rockwell is now talking about how the device works. As expected there’s an Apple Watch-style dial (which Apple is calling the “Reality Switch”) to move smoothly from augmented reality to virtual reality and vice versa.
11:47: We’re now talking about augmented reality, and the way the headset will be able to overlay information about your surroundings. The headset uses both short- and long-range LiDAR to develop a 3D map of the world around you.
11:49: We’re looking at some of the device’s pre-installed apps. There are xrOS (yes, that name has now been confirmed) versions of FaceTime, Fitness, Camera, Calendar, Maps, Mail, Numbers, News, and a whole lot more. Pretty much every preinstalled iOS app has an xrOS equivalent ready to go. Third-party content might be sparse to begin with, but Apple has made plenty of in-house apps for early adopters.
11:51: Here come the two key facts: price and launch date. The Reality Pro will cost $2,899/£2,999, so Apple has managed to come in under the all-important three thousand. That’s still a heck of a price to ask for something that feels niche at this point. It’s not clear if the headset will be available to just everyone, or only through the developer channel as was hinted ahead of the launch.
11:53: Either way, it will go on sale “this fall.”
11:54: And that’s your lot. Tim Cook has returned to the stage and appears to be summing everything up. Lots in store for iPhone and Apple Watch owners, a little less for iPad and Mac owners, but the latter gets new hardware at least. And what an exciting prospect Reality Pro is!

Talk to your local Apple rep for great pricing on wheels.

Apple

One more thing

11:56: Hold your horses! We’re not done yet. It’s time for One More Thing. It’s… the new Mac Pro! And John Ternus is back to talk us through it.
11:57: Just a second, John, we’re going straight into a marketing video. Has the Mac Pro been redesigned? No. It’s the cheese grater suitcase again. This was expected, to be fair, and it’s what’s inside that counts. Apple has still managed to make the 2019 design look exciting, by the way. The people who make these videos are geniuses.
11:59: Ternus says Apple has been accused of ignoring pro users, but it “never gave up on them for a second.” The new Mac Pro has all the power and upgradeability you could possibly ask for, he says.
12:01: We’re now officially into our third hour of this presentation, by the way. As virtual keynotes go, this is a marathon.
12:02: Apple confirms that the Pro is getting a brand-new chip. Will this be the first sighting of the M3? No, it’s an M2 Ultra. And we’re switching to another presenter: it’s Johny Srouji, who talked us through the M2 last year.
12:04: The M2 Ultra is “the most powerful system on a chip ever seen in a personal computer.” It has 24 CPU cores and 76 graphics cores. RAM goes up to 192GB. Those are the exact numbers Mark Gurman released in December.
12:06: We’re looking at graphs. So many graphs.
12:08: Think the M2 Ultra is powerful? There’s an upgrade option to get the M2 Extreme instead. This has 48 CPU cores and 152 graphics cores. More graphs.
12:10: Apple is skirting around the issue of expandability, but is implying that significant upgrades will be possible. You can definitely upgrade the SSD, and the media and networking cards, but no mention of RAM or graphics.
12:12: Ternus is back and starting to wrap up on the Mac Pro. Price? Launch date? (And is there going to be an upgrade to the Pro Display XDR?)
12:13: The new Mac Pro will start at $5,999/£6,299. For U.S. customers that’s the same as the 2019 model, which is decent. U.K. customers probably expected that price bump. We’re assuming the M2 Extreme model will push past the $10,000 mark, but Apple isn’t revealing the upgrade pricing just yet.
12:15: The Mac Pro will launch “in the fall of 2023.”
12:17: And now Tim Cook is back to wrap up–for real this time. It’s over. With Lil Durk’s “All My Life” to play us out.

Apple

WWDC keynote exposed! A minute-by-minute breakdown of every announcement

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 10:30:00 +0000

Macworld

That’s right. Just like last year’s iPhone event, by an amazing coincidence, we’ve again stumbled across Tim Cook’s video script for Monday morning’s keynote presentation and of course, we’re going to share it all with you. It’s a doozy: from iOS 17 and new Macs to macOS and the mixed-reality headset, we’ve got the scoop on everything you’re going to hear from Apple on Monday—three days before Apple is ready to show it all to us. (Editor’s note: This story could not be verified before publication.)

So here’s your spoiler alert: If you want to be surprised, stop reading now and watch the WWDC keynote live at 10 am.

Introduction

iOS 17 and iPadOS 17

The new driver’s view provided by CarPlay 2.0.

Apple

Macs and macOS 14

Foundry

watchOS 10

Mixed-reality headset

Talk to your local Apple rep for great pricing on wheels.

Apple

One more thing

Apple

Best Apple Watch chargers, stands & docks

tigaman webdesign — Mon, 22 May 2023 13:43:32 +0000

Macworld

Apple ships a simple but effective charging cable with the Apple Watch that will fast-charge an Apple Watch Series 7 or later (Watch 8, Watch Ultra). You won’t find a faster charging accessory but you can also choose from a wide range of stylish and practical charging stands and docks for your Apple Watch—including some that can also charge other Apple devices such as your iPhone and AirPods.

Here, we round up some of the best Apple Watch chargers, docks and charging stands. Most should be compatible with all generations of the Watch, but be sure to check compatibility before buying.

Apple Watch Magnetic Fast Charger to USB-C Cable – Best Apple Watch charging cable

Pros

Fast charge Watch
Simple

Cons

One use only

Best Prices Today:

$27.99 at Best Buy $29.00 at Apple $29.99 at Adorama

Watch fast charge: Yes

Size: 1m cable

Weight: 2.6oz (73g)

Colors: White

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

Apple ships its Watch Magnetic Fast Charger to USB-C Cable with its Watch Series 7 and later models, including the Watch Series 8 and Watch Ultra. The Apple Watch SE (including the current model) and Series 6 and earlier Watch models shipped with the Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Cable that lacks the fast-charging function.

Both cables are Apple white and a meter long. The latest version features an enhanced charging puck.

The 7.5W Fast Charger Cable can charge 33% faster than the older 5W cable—charging a compatible Watch battery from 0-80% in just 45 minutes. An eight-minute charge will support eight hours of sleep tracking.

Without fast charge, it takes about 1.5 hours to charge an Apple Watch to 80%, and about 2.5 hours to 100%.

Fast charging requires at least a 20W USB-C charger, like you’d use to charge an iPhone; find our recommended best iPhone chargers for a wider choice that the plain Apple 20W charger.

While you can still buy the older Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Cable, there’s little benefit as the newer Magnetic Fast Charger to USB-C Cable is backwards compatible with older Watch models, looks the same, and is the same price. You can use the old cable on a later Watch but obviously without fast charging.

Belkin Boost Up Charge Pro Wireless Charging Pad – Best 3-in-1 Apple Watch pad

Pros

Charges Watch, iPhone, AirPods
Fast charge Watch
15W MagSage for iPhone

Cons

Large footprint

Best Prices Today:

$149.95 at Apple $149.99 at Best Buy

Watch fast charge: Yes

Size: 9.3 x 3.4 x 0.835 inches (23.7 x 8.6 x 2.1cm)

Weight: 22.8oz (476g)

Colors: White, Black

Requires USB-C charger: 20W wall charger included

Belkin’s Boost Up Charge Pro Wireless Charging Pad 3-in-1 charger (available at Apple) is the fastest way you can wirelessly charge both your Apple Watch and iPhone (12/13/14-series models), plus AirPods that come in a wireless charging case.

It boasts both Watch fast charging (7.5W) and iPhone MagSafe fast charging (15W).

The Watch can either lie flat or in Nightstand mode.

The magnetic charging module features a precision dial that can adjust the height for the best Watch, depending on the screen size.

Journey Rapid TRIO 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station – Best Apple Watch charging stand

Pros

Charges Watch, iPhone, AirPods
Detachable Watch charger

Cons

No Watch fast charge

Watch fast charge: No

Size: 6.7 x 5.3 x 3.4 inches (17 x 13.4 x 8.6cm)

Weight: 11.5oz (325g)

Colors: White, Black

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

If you own an Apple Watch it’s a fair bet that you also have an iPhone, and, go on admit it, some AirPods, too—you’re well invested into the Apple ecosystem.

This 3-in-1 charging station from Journey has a tiltable MagSafe-compatible pad (7.5W) for all iPhones 12/13/14, plus a Qi charger for AirPods that have a wireless charging case.

Important to us here, though, is the Apple Watch charger, which is detachable and so can slip into your pocket and plug into a USB-C charger, including your MacBook, away from the base unit.

Alogic Matrix Universal Apple Watch Charger – Best portable Apple Watch charger

Pros

Portable

Cons

One use only

Watch fast charge: No

Size: 1.7 x 1.4 x 0.4 inches (4.2 x 3.6 x 1cm)

Weight: 0.85oz (24g)

Colors: Silver

Requires USB-C charger: Any USB-C charging port

Small enough to fit in your pocket, this little Watch charger from Alogic can plug straight into a USB-C charger or a USB-C charging port—for example, the Thunderbolt on your MacBook—or USB-C output power bank.

It’s part of a modular Matrix family, which means it can be part of a 3-in-1 iPhone/AirPods/Watch charging station, like the one reviewed in our roundup of the best MagSafe chargers. This flexible system can include a removable MagSafe-compatible power bank in the stand or outside with you.

Belkin Boost Charge Pro Portable Fast Charger – Best Apple Watch charging stand

Pros

Fast charge Watch
Nightstand
Portable

Cons

One use only

Best Prices Today:

$54.99 at Best Buy $59.95 at Apple

Watch fast charge: Yes

Size: 3.8 x 3.8 x 0.63 inches (9.7 x 9.7 x 1.6cm)

Weight: 6.8oz (192g)

Colors: White, Black

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

The Belkin Boost Charge Pro Portable Fast Charger for Apple Watch is a long name for a fairly simple square, rubberized Apple Watch charging stand. It’s one of the few Apple Watch accessories that can fast-charge the Watch (Series 7 and later), and, weighing just 6.8oz (192g), is portable, too.

The magnetic charging module allows the Watch to be raised to work either lying flat or in Nightstand mode.

Its built-in 4-foot (1.2m) USB-C cable wraps neatly around the underside of the dock, so keeping your space clutter-free. There’s a precision dial on the bottom of the dock to raise the puck height depending on the size of your Watch. Available from Apple.

Zens 2-in-1 MagSafe + Watch travel charger – Best Apple Watch travel charger

Pros

Charges iPhone and Watch
15W MagSage for iPhone
Portable

Cons

No Watch fast charge

Watch fast charge: No

Size: 2.36 x 2.36 x 0.79 inches (6 x 6 x 2cm)

Weight: 6.4oz (182g)

Colors: White

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

This pocketable 2-in-1 Apple Watch and iPhone charger from Zens is a quality travel accessory for Apple users. The foldout Watch arm works as a kickstand for the iPhone in either landscape or portrait orientation.

It doesn’t support Apple Watch fast charging but is MagSafe-certified for full 15W MagSafe charging for iPhones 12 and later.

There’s a cute hard-shell travel case so you can keep the included braided USB-C cable and the charger protected in transit. Its a great charger in its own right and doesn’t need to be reserved for just travel duties.

Lamicall Watch Stand – Best budget wired Watch stand

Pros

Affordable stand

Cons

Requires charging cable
One use only

Best Prices Today:

$11.99 at Amazon

Watch fast charge: Yes, with Apple fast-charge cable

Size: 3.54 x 5.31 x 1.85 inches (9 x 13.5 x 4.7cm)

Colors: Black, Silver, Gray, Rose Gold

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

Lamicall’s Apple Watch Stand is a super-affordable wired Watch-charging stand, available in four different colors.

Keep in mind that you will still need to use a separate charging cable as this is only a stand and won’t charge your Apple Watch on its own.

It’s a nifty little bedside stand if you don’t want to splurge more than you need to.

Belkin Boost Up Charge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charger Stand with MagSafe

Pros

Charges Watch, iPhone, AirPods
15W MagSage for iPhone

Cons

No Watch fast charge
Large footprint

Best Prices Today:

$89.99 at Amazon

Watch fast charge: No

Size: 5.7 x 5.3 x 5.3 inches (13.7 x 13.5 x 13.5cm)

Weight: 22.4oz (635g)

Colors: White, Black

Requires USB-C charger: 20W wall charger included, with 1.2m cable

This 3-in-1 Watch/iPhone/AirPods charging station from Belkin takes up some space on your bedside table or desk but it looks great and can wirelessly charge an iPhone 12/13/14 model at the full MagSafe 15W. Sadly, like most charging stands, it isn’t compliant with Watch fast charging.

The stand lifts the charging iPhone to a height that makes it easier for FaceTime or watching videos. Why watching Netflix, sorry Apple TV+, why not hang up the Apple Watch for a charge as it’s no use to you anyway while you are sat down.

Belkin BoostCharge Pro Apple Watch 10K Power Bank

Pros

Fast charger
Portable
Charges Watch, iPhone, AirPods

Watch fast charge: Yes

Colors: Black

Requires USB-C charger: 20W

We haven’t tested Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro Fast Wireless Charger for Apple Watch + Power Bank 10K, but it is available for pre-order now and is promised for a June 2023 release.

This portable 10000mAh power bank can fast-charge an Apple Watch at 7.5W, and also wirelessly charge AirPods Pro (2nd generation) and wired-charge an iPhone (or any other device) at 20W.

Four LED battery indicator lights let you know when it’s time to recharge the power bank itself.

Pass-through charging means you can wirelessly charge your Apple Watch when charging the power bank

It ships with a 12-inch (30cm) USB-C to USB-C cable.

i.VALUX Portable Wireless Charger for Apple Watch

Pros

Portable Apple Watch power bank

Cons

No Watch fast charge
MicroUSB cable

Best Prices Today:

$19.99 at Amazon

This keyring power bank (1000mAh) should store enough charge to keep your Watch going until you are near a proper power source again. Four PEDs on the bank show you how much power remains in the bank.

It’s available in a range of colors, depending on where in the world you are.

You recharge the power bank with the included cable—sadly fiddly old MicroUSB.

Spigen S350 – Simple dock for Apple Watch cable

Pros

Affordable stand

Cons

Requires charging cable
One use only

Best Prices Today:

$11.99 at Amazon

Watch fast charge: Yes, with Apple fast-charge cable

Size: 2.2 x 2 x 1.8 inches (5.6 x 5.1 x 4.6cm)

Weight: 11oz (312g)

Colors: White, Black, Blue, Pink

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

This is a simple, secure stand that you slip your Apple charging cable into so that you can set your Watch in Nightstand mode by your bedside or at your desk if you prefer to charge during the day so that you can track your sleep at night.

Note that it’s just a stand so you still need the Apple charging cable. From Spiegen.

Elago Vintage Stand – Best novelty charger for Mac users

Pros

Looks like a tiny Mac

Cons

Requires charging cable

Best Prices Today:

$13.99 at Amazon

Watch fast charge: Yes, with Apple fast-charge cable

Colors: Beige, Black

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

Here’s one for the Apple enthusiasts that have been following the company since long before all this fancy touch-screen malarkey started. Elago’s cute W3 Stand (a.k.a. the Apple Watch Vintage Stand) turns your Apple Watch into a tiny original Macintosh while it’s charging.

It even sits at a slight angle to match the original Mac, and uses Nightstand mode to make sure the screen is aligned correctly.

Twelve South TimePorter – Best Watch charging case for travel

Pros

Tidy travel case

Cons

Requires charging cable

Fast charge: Yes, with Apple fast-charge cable

Colors: White, Black

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

The TimePorter from Apple accessory supremo Twelve South is a cool case for storing your Watch gear and charging the Apple Watch whether at home or on the go.

You clip Apple’s Watch charging cable into the case where you can also store the charger plug, extra straps and other Watch accessories. This tidies everything away; having the Watch and all its bits charging on your nightstand can otherwise be a cable-twisted nightmare.

Your Watch attaches to the charging puck on the outside, and if you lift the lid it acts as a stand in a viewing position like an alarm clock. You can pack everything away and chuck it in a bag, too.

If your power bank fits inside, you can charge your Watch on the go.

The case is covered in vegan-friendly synthetic leather.

FAQ

How much time does Apple Watch take to fast charge?

The Apple Watch battery life is notoriously short between charges so fast charging is a great way to keep your smart timepiece topped up and ready for action.

Using a Fast Charger cable, such as the Apple Watch Magnetic Fast Charger to USB-C Cable, or stand, such as the Belkin Boost Charge Pro Portable Fast Charger for Apple Watch, you can charge a Watch 33% faster than using an older cable or stand. Fast charging will get a compatible Watch battery from 0-80% in 45 minutes. An eight-minute charge will power your Watch for eight hours of sleep tracking.

Fast charging requires at least a 20W USB-C charger.

See How to fast charge Apple Watch for more information.

Which Apple Watch models can fast charge?

The following Apple Watch models support Fast Charge: Apple Watch Series 7, Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra.

The second-generation Apple Watch SE does not support Fast Charge.

How can I see my Apple Watch battery percentage?

To see how much power remains on your Apple Watch, hold the bottom of the screen and swipe up to open the Control Center. You can add the battery life percentage to the watch face by adding a battery complication, in this way:

Hold the display, then tap Edit
Swipe left to the end to see if the watch face includes a possible battery complication
Tap the complication to select it, then turn the Digital Crown to choose the battery complication
To save your changes, press the Digital Crown, then tap the face to switch to it.

You can also add a battery widget to show the battery percentage of a connected Apple Watch on your iPhone.

How to save power on the Apple watch

When you can’t get to your Apple Watch charger fast enough and the Watch battery is dangerously low, you can eke out the remaining battery charge by saving power.

The easiest way save battery life is to turn on Low Power Mode. This turns off Always On Display, background heart rate and blood oxygen measurements, plus heart rate notifications. Cellular access is also turned off in Low Power Mode. Apple states that “other notifications may be delayed, emergency alerts may not arrive, and certain cellular and Wi-Fi connections are limited.

When the Watch battery is charged to 80%, Low Power Mode turns off automatically.

Other Apple Watch battery saving tips include:

Don’t use an Exercise or other tracking
Turn off Always On Display in the Settings app
Turn off background apps: push the side button (not the digital crown) and release it; then scroll through the running apps using the digital crown; close the apps by swiping from left to right and tapping on the “X”
Turn off the heart rate monitor and advanced health tracking in the Watch app on your iPhone: Privacy > Health >
Turn off voice assistant Siri—which is always listening for your commands—in Apple Watch Settings
Turn on Theater mode, which prevents the Apple Watch display from turning on when you raise your wrist, and also turns on Silent Mode
Turn on Silent Mode
Use a darker watch face as black pixels use less power than bright ones such as Mickey Mouse or the Activity Face
In extreme circumstances when you know you’ll need your Apple Watch later but not right now, turn off your Apple Watch by pressing and holding the side button until you see the Power Off slider
Unpair AirPods from your Apple Watch in Settings.

See: How to improve Apple Watch battery life for more advice.

How to turn on Low Power Mode on the Apple Watch

When its battery charge falls to 10% or lower, your Apple Watch alerts you and suggests that you enter Low Power Mode.

Hold the bottom of the Watch screen, then swipe up to open Control Center.
Tap the battery percentage icon, then turn on Low Power Mode.
Scroll down, and tap Turn On Low Power Mode.

Apple Watch, Computer Accessories

Best Apple Watch chargers, stands & docks

tigaman webdesign — Mon, 22 May 2023 13:43:32 +0000

Macworld

Here, we round up some of the best Apple Watch chargers, docks and charging stands. Most should be compatible with all generations of the Watch, but be sure to check compatibility before buying.

Apple Watch Magnetic Fast Charger to USB-C Cable – Best Apple Watch charging cable

Pros

Fast charge Watch
Simple

Cons

One use only

Best Prices Today:

$27.99 at Best Buy $29.00 at Apple $29.99 at Adorama

Watch fast charge: Yes

Size: 1m cable

Weight: 2.6oz (73g)

Colors: White

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

Both cables are Apple white and a meter long. The latest version features an enhanced charging puck.

Without fast charge, it takes about 1.5 hours to charge an Apple Watch to 80%, and about 2.5 hours to 100%.

Fast charging requires at least a 20W USB-C charger, like you’d use to charge an iPhone; find our recommended best iPhone chargers for a wider choice that the plain Apple 20W charger.

Belkin Boost Up Charge Pro Wireless Charging Pad – Best 3-in-1 Apple Watch pad

Pros

Charges Watch, iPhone, AirPods
Fast charge Watch
15W MagSage for iPhone

Cons

Large footprint

Best Prices Today:

$149.95 at Apple $149.99 at Best Buy

Watch fast charge: Yes

Size: 9.3 x 3.4 x 0.835 inches (23.7 x 8.6 x 2.1cm)

Weight: 22.8oz (476g)

Colors: White, Black

Requires USB-C charger: 20W wall charger included

It boasts both Watch fast charging (7.5W) and iPhone MagSafe fast charging (15W).

The Watch can either lie flat or in Nightstand mode.

The magnetic charging module features a precision dial that can adjust the height for the best Watch, depending on the screen size.

Journey Rapid TRIO 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station – Best Apple Watch charging stand

Pros

Charges Watch, iPhone, AirPods
Detachable Watch charger

Cons

No Watch fast charge

Watch fast charge: No

Size: 6.7 x 5.3 x 3.4 inches (17 x 13.4 x 8.6cm)

Weight: 11.5oz (325g)

Colors: White, Black

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

If you own an Apple Watch it’s a fair bet that you also have an iPhone, and, go on admit it, some AirPods, too—you’re well invested into the Apple ecosystem.

This 3-in-1 charging station from Journey has a tiltable MagSafe-compatible pad (7.5W) for all iPhones 12/13/14, plus a Qi charger for AirPods that have a wireless charging case.

Important to us here, though, is the Apple Watch charger, which is detachable and so can slip into your pocket and plug into a USB-C charger, including your MacBook, away from the base unit.

Alogic Matrix Universal Apple Watch Charger – Best portable Apple Watch charger

Pros

Portable

Cons

One use only

Watch fast charge: No

Size: 1.7 x 1.4 x 0.4 inches (4.2 x 3.6 x 1cm)

Weight: 0.85oz (24g)

Colors: Silver

Requires USB-C charger: Any USB-C charging port

Belkin Boost Charge Pro Portable Fast Charger – Best Apple Watch charging stand

Pros

Fast charge Watch
Nightstand
Portable

Cons

One use only

Best Prices Today:

$54.99 at Best Buy $59.95 at Apple

Watch fast charge: Yes

Size: 3.8 x 3.8 x 0.63 inches (9.7 x 9.7 x 1.6cm)

Weight: 6.8oz (192g)

Colors: White, Black

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

The magnetic charging module allows the Watch to be raised to work either lying flat or in Nightstand mode.

Zens 2-in-1 MagSafe + Watch travel charger – Best Apple Watch travel charger

Pros

Charges iPhone and Watch
15W MagSage for iPhone
Portable

Cons

No Watch fast charge

Watch fast charge: No

Size: 2.36 x 2.36 x 0.79 inches (6 x 6 x 2cm)

Weight: 6.4oz (182g)

Colors: White

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

It doesn’t support Apple Watch fast charging but is MagSafe-certified for full 15W MagSafe charging for iPhones 12 and later.

Lamicall Watch Stand – Best budget wired Watch stand

Pros

Affordable stand

Cons

Requires charging cable
One use only

Best Prices Today:

$11.99 at Amazon

Watch fast charge: Yes, with Apple fast-charge cable

Size: 3.54 x 5.31 x 1.85 inches (9 x 13.5 x 4.7cm)

Colors: Black, Silver, Gray, Rose Gold

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

Lamicall’s Apple Watch Stand is a super-affordable wired Watch-charging stand, available in four different colors.

Keep in mind that you will still need to use a separate charging cable as this is only a stand and won’t charge your Apple Watch on its own.

It’s a nifty little bedside stand if you don’t want to splurge more than you need to.

Belkin Boost Up Charge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charger Stand with MagSafe

Pros

Charges Watch, iPhone, AirPods
15W MagSage for iPhone

Cons

No Watch fast charge
Large footprint

Best Prices Today:

$89.99 at Amazon

Watch fast charge: No

Size: 5.7 x 5.3 x 5.3 inches (13.7 x 13.5 x 13.5cm)

Weight: 22.4oz (635g)

Colors: White, Black

Requires USB-C charger: 20W wall charger included, with 1.2m cable

Belkin BoostCharge Pro Apple Watch 10K Power Bank

Pros

Fast charger
Portable
Charges Watch, iPhone, AirPods

Watch fast charge: Yes

Colors: Black

Requires USB-C charger: 20W

We haven’t tested Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro Fast Wireless Charger for Apple Watch + Power Bank 10K, but it is available for pre-order now and is promised for a June 2023 release.

This portable 10000mAh power bank can fast-charge an Apple Watch at 7.5W, and also wirelessly charge AirPods Pro (2nd generation) and wired-charge an iPhone (or any other device) at 20W.

Four LED battery indicator lights let you know when it’s time to recharge the power bank itself.

Pass-through charging means you can wirelessly charge your Apple Watch when charging the power bank

It ships with a 12-inch (30cm) USB-C to USB-C cable.

i.VALUX Portable Wireless Charger for Apple Watch

Pros

Portable Apple Watch power bank

Cons

No Watch fast charge
MicroUSB cable

Best Prices Today:

$19.99 at Amazon

It’s available in a range of colors, depending on where in the world you are.

You recharge the power bank with the included cable—sadly fiddly old MicroUSB.

Spigen S350 – Simple dock for Apple Watch cable

Pros

Affordable stand

Cons

Requires charging cable
One use only

Best Prices Today:

$11.99 at Amazon

Watch fast charge: Yes, with Apple fast-charge cable

Size: 2.2 x 2 x 1.8 inches (5.6 x 5.1 x 4.6cm)

Weight: 11oz (312g)

Colors: White, Black, Blue, Pink

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

Note that it’s just a stand so you still need the Apple charging cable. From Spiegen.

Elago Vintage Stand – Best novelty charger for Mac users

Pros

Looks like a tiny Mac

Cons

Requires charging cable

Best Prices Today:

$13.99 at Amazon

Watch fast charge: Yes, with Apple fast-charge cable

Colors: Beige, Black

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

It even sits at a slight angle to match the original Mac, and uses Nightstand mode to make sure the screen is aligned correctly.

Twelve South TimePorter – Best Watch charging case for travel

Pros

Tidy travel case

Cons

Requires charging cable

Fast charge: Yes, with Apple fast-charge cable

Colors: White, Black

Requires USB-C charger: Yes (20W minimum)

The TimePorter from Apple accessory supremo Twelve South is a cool case for storing your Watch gear and charging the Apple Watch whether at home or on the go.

Your Watch attaches to the charging puck on the outside, and if you lift the lid it acts as a stand in a viewing position like an alarm clock. You can pack everything away and chuck it in a bag, too.

If your power bank fits inside, you can charge your Watch on the go.

The case is covered in vegan-friendly synthetic leather.

FAQ

How much time does Apple Watch take to fast charge?

The Apple Watch battery life is notoriously short between charges so fast charging is a great way to keep your smart timepiece topped up and ready for action.

Fast charging requires at least a 20W USB-C charger.

See How to fast charge Apple Watch for more information.

Which Apple Watch models can fast charge?

The following Apple Watch models support Fast Charge: Apple Watch Series 7, Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra.

The second-generation Apple Watch SE does not support Fast Charge.

How can I see my Apple Watch battery percentage?

Hold the display, then tap Edit
Swipe left to the end to see if the watch face includes a possible battery complication
Tap the complication to select it, then turn the Digital Crown to choose the battery complication
To save your changes, press the Digital Crown, then tap the face to switch to it.

You can also add a battery widget to show the battery percentage of a connected Apple Watch on your iPhone.

How to save power on the Apple watch

When you can’t get to your Apple Watch charger fast enough and the Watch battery is dangerously low, you can eke out the remaining battery charge by saving power.

When the Watch battery is charged to 80%, Low Power Mode turns off automatically.

Other Apple Watch battery saving tips include:

Don’t use an Exercise or other tracking
Turn off Always On Display in the Settings app
Turn off background apps: push the side button (not the digital crown) and release it; then scroll through the running apps using the digital crown; close the apps by swiping from left to right and tapping on the “X”
Turn off the heart rate monitor and advanced health tracking in the Watch app on your iPhone: Privacy > Health >
Turn off voice assistant Siri—which is always listening for your commands—in Apple Watch Settings
Turn on Theater mode, which prevents the Apple Watch display from turning on when you raise your wrist, and also turns on Silent Mode
Turn on Silent Mode
Use a darker watch face as black pixels use less power than bright ones such as Mickey Mouse or the Activity Face
In extreme circumstances when you know you’ll need your Apple Watch later but not right now, turn off your Apple Watch by pressing and holding the side button until you see the Power Off slider
Unpair AirPods from your Apple Watch in Settings.

See: How to improve Apple Watch battery life for more advice.

How to turn on Low Power Mode on the Apple Watch

When its battery charge falls to 10% or lower, your Apple Watch alerts you and suggests that you enter Low Power Mode.

Hold the bottom of the Watch screen, then swipe up to open Control Center.
Tap the battery percentage icon, then turn on Low Power Mode.
Scroll down, and tap Turn On Low Power Mode.

Apple Watch, Computer Accessories

Best free PDF editors for Mac

tigaman webdesign — Mon, 15 May 2023 10:16:45 +0000

Macworld

PDFs can be a pain. As they were initially designed to be forms that were printed out and filled in by pen, they can feel somewhat anacronistic in the modern digital age. But, it’s not as hard to complete forms or annotate documents in this format, and you don’t even need expensive software to do it.

Here we look at a collection of PDF apps that are either completely free, or have a free trial version with a lot of the necessary functionality for a one-off PDF editing requirement.

Some of these apps do certain things better than others, so the best PDF editor for you will depend on what your particular needs. For example, if you want a PDF editor that can use OCR (optical character recognition) to read the text on a page you have scanned, and allow you to edit it, we have an option that can allow you to do that.

Alternatively, if you are looking for a PDF editor that’s simple to use and flexible enough to let you fill in a form without pulling out your hair, we have one below. We have even found a PDF tool that will let you import a PDF into Word (or Pages) and edit it there.

We have looked at the following features and abilities of the PDF Editors reviewed here:

Import: How faithful to the original PDF is the PDF editor? Does it maintain fonts and spacing? Can you open the PDF in Word, Excel etc?

Editing: Can you select text from the original PDF? Is the new text added in a separate text box? How easy is it to edit and delete content from the PDF? Can you move content around? Does the text you add maintain the style and formatting of the original PDF? Can you add hyperlinks or attach documents? Can you add images?

Collaboration: What markup tools are available? Can you highlight, underline, or strikethrough text? Can you use freehand drawing tools and an eraser. Can you add stamps? Can you track who reads and edits?

Signing: Can you add a signature? Is this signature scanned, imported, or typed? How many signatures can you save?

Saving: Can you resize the PDF? Can you stitch pages from multiple docs? Can you delete pages? Can you rotate pages?

Find & Replace: Can the PDF editor search the PDF? Can you find and replace words? Can you redact words?

OCR: Can the PDF editor read a scanned page – and can you edit that?

Watermark: Does it add a watermark? Can you add your own watermark?

Don’t forget that macOS comes with some PDF editing capabilities of its own in Preview, and you can read a bit more about how to work with it in
tips for using Preview to edit a PDF on a Mac.

Preview

Pros

Already on your Mac
Surprisingly capable

Cons

Limited feature set for advanced users

There is a free PDF editor already available on your Mac and it’s pretty good. It’s got some limitations, but it’s likely to offer enough tools for you if you just need to fill in some responses to questions on a PDF.

You can use Preview to add text (in text boxes), you can change the size, colour and font you use. It can be a bit fiddly to get the text box to line up with the text on the page, but it’s not impossible.

You can also perform actions like strike-through – initially we used the line shape, but then we discovered that it is possible to select strike-through from the menu (Tools > Annotate). You can also underline text the same way. These options are also available from the highlighter palette.

Under Annotate in the menu are options for adding a speech bubble. You can also add comments in the form of sticky notes.

Our spellings were checked as we typed – indicated by the usual squiggly line.

Adding a signature is simple, with three options for doing so: using a trackpad, iPhone or iPad, or by signing your name on a piece of paper and holding it up to the camera. You can save multiple signatures and add them to the document easily. We have a guide to adding a signature to a PDF here.

It’s easy to shuffle pages and add to, and delete pages from, a Preview PDF. If you can’t already see the thumbnail view on the left click on the drop down box above the A icon and choose Thumbnails.

Now that you can see the thumbnails it is easy to shuffle page order, delete a page, and you can even drag and drop another PDF into the thumbnail column to add it.

It is also easy to rotate pages (click on the page in the Thumbnail view and click on the rotate icon in the menu).

You can export your PDF as a JPEG, TIFF, but there are no options for exporting to other apps, such as Word or Pages.

One of the newest features of Preview is an OCR – optical character recognition. If you are running macOS Monterey or later and you open anything in Preview – be it a PDF or a photo – you will be able to select most forms of text and cut and paste it in to a text document. We were able to select text, even if it was on a slant, and generally the results were good.

As we said above, Preview offers enough features if all you need to do is enter a bit of text and sign a PDF. So if you are trying to fill in an application form or filling in a few yes or no checkboxes, it’s likely to be sufficient. Those wanting a little more flexibility may find that Preview might not have enough features… in which case we have some options below that might prove more tempting.

Before you look at those, be sure to also read our full guide to
using Preview on the Mac.

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Pros

Free tier is quite useful
Comment, annotate and sign PDFs
Free trial for paid tiers

Cons

Some of the more advanced features only on paid tiers
Expensive if you need a subscription

Adobe Acrobat Reader is free for some basic use, but some of the features require moving to the standard or Pro tiers that comes with a monthly, annual or prepaid annual subscription. Standard costs $22.99/£23.26 p/m, although you can lessen this if you commit to a year, which reduces the price to $12.99/£13.14p/m. The annual pay-up-front cost is $155.88/£156.89. The same options on the Pro tier will respectively set you back $29.99/29.96p/m, $19.99/19.97p/m or $239.88/£238.75 for the whole year. There’s a 7-day free trial available, so there’s no need to spend any money before deciding whether you need the extra features or not.

However, there are a lot of features that are available for free. You’ll find these in the Comment and Fill & Sign sections.

To add text to the PDF choose Fill & Sign. Here you will also find the options to add a tick or a cross, a circle, or a line. The signature option is here too, we’ll look at that in more detail below.

Comment options include the ability to add a speech bubble, highlight, underline, and strike-through words. In fact, you can strike-through and add a related comment. All your comments will appear in the sidebar on the right.

There are also tools here to draw and erase what you draw. A stamp tool with options like Approved, Revised, Confidential, Sign Here, and the option to import your own (these need to be in the PDF format, but it could be a way to add an image).

When adding a signature you have options to Type, Draw (using a mouse or trackpad), or Image. If you opt for the latter you could import a scan or photograph of your signature – you can import any image this way, but it will appear translucent, with the background appearing behind it as you can see from our illustration.

Acrobat Reader offers enough features to make it worth the download. It can be a tad annoying when it looks like you need to get a subscription to use features that it turns out can be performed without signing up, so beware of this before you spend

LibreOffice

Pros

Full office suite
Edit text and add images
Create PDFs

Cons

No signature feature
Limited features compared to dedicated PDF editors

LibreOffice is a free office suite with some handy features if you are wanting to edit and update PDFs.

Because it’s an office suite you benefit from all the Office-like features and familiar menus.

We were able to open a PDF in LibreOffice and edit text and add text and images. We weren’t able to add a signature, but this would be simple enough if you already had the signature as an image file.

You can also create a PDF from a document you create in LibreOffice, just as you can from Pages or Word. Create the document and then choose File > Export as PDF.

While it’s not a dedicated PDF editor or creator you can do many of the things you are likely to want to do to a basic PDF, so its a good option that comes with various benefits on account of it being a decent alternative to Microsoft Office. Read our round up of the
best word processors for Mac for more information.

PDFelement

Pros

Edit text and images
Create new PDFs
7-day trial of full software

Cons

Watermark can’t be removed on free version
Limited tools unless you pay
No monthly plan

Best Prices Today:

$0 at PDFelement Free Trial

Wondershare’s PDFelement app brings a streamlined interface and additional capabilities that make it a fine choice for those who want pro level features at an affordable price, although there is, as with so many of these options, a free trial version.

With the latter, you can edit images and text, create PDFs and print them. If you register the demo then you’ll get access to almost the full range of features available on the paid version. One caveat here is that you’ll only be able to remove the PDF Element Pro watermark on the paid version and youre limited to PDFs with a maximum of three pages.

With the full software you can create new PDFs from scratch, convert Word, Excel or Powerpoint files, as well as quickly producing forms that can be used online, replete with dropdown menus.

Editing an existing PDF is straightforward, with tools for adding text or comments, annotating images and documents, plus the standard option of inserting a signature created on the trackpad. There’s also OCR capabilities that make it easy to scan in documents and have them converted into usable PDFs in minutes.

PDFelement is a comprehensive package with an interface that’s simple and intuitive.

The full Pro license costs $79.99 (approx £64) per year or $129.99 (approx £104) for a perpetual license.

For more tips, take a look at
using PDFelement Pro on a Mac.

If you’d prefer a free version that you don’t have to pay for, PDF Reader is also from Wondershare, but this is an entirely free version of PDFelement that you can use on your iPad or iPhone to read, edit, annotate, convert and sign PDFs. You just need to register with Wondershare to use the app.

We’re mentioning it here because, while it’s not a Mac app, you might be happy to edit the PDF on your iPad or iPhone for the sake of getting a free option. Incidentally, there is a Windows version of PDF Reader.

Once the app was downloaded to our iPhone we were able to open PDFs that were stored in iCloud, edit text and add our own. You can add crosses and ticks (checks), draw on the PDF, strike through text, highlight text, and create and add a signature. Once your changes are made you can save.

Download Wondershare’s PDF Reader from the iOS App Store

PDFExpert for Mac

Pros

Fully featured 7-day trial
Lifetime plan is good value
Lots of tools

Cons

No permanent free tier

Best Prices Today:

$0 at PDF Expert Free Trial

PDFExpert for Mac from Readdle offers a seven-day full-featured free trial, which could make it ideal if you just need a solution now and don’t expect to be editing PDFs again for a while. If you do need it for longer than a week it costs $79.99/£72.99 a year on subscription, or $139.99/£119.99 if you choose the Lifetime plan.

We found PDFExpert did a good job of maintaining the fonts, style and formatting of the original PDF.

There are two options for editing that you can find in the menu at the top of the page: Annotate and Edit. Under Annotate you will find the tool to easily add text to the PDF. You can choose the font and colour of the text here.

However, you will find the better editing tools under Edit. Here you have the option to actually edit the text already on the page, add images, add hyperlinks, and redact sensitive information (you can choose to black out names, or you can search for a specific word and delete every occurrence of that.)

We were able to select text and move it around the page. But as we found with all the PDF editors here, it wasn’t possible to drag and drop text between pages (to get around this we were able to cut and paste though and still make a good-looking document).

Back to the Annotate tab. Here you will find options to highlight, underline, or strike-through text, as well as a pan tool that means you can draw freehand in any colour, as well as change the line width and opacity. There’s also a crop tool here. In Annotate you can also add sticky notes and stamps (e.g. an Approval). You’ll see a column of existing annotations on the left so its easy to see what edits have been made and when. These annotations can be exported as HTML, text or markdown.

Adding a signature is also done via the Annotate tab. You can add more than one signature and these are added via the keyboard, trackpad, or an image. To add the signature to your PDF just drag and drop from the signature pane. You an also add a watermark yourself, perhaps your company logo, rather than having one added for you as is the case with some of the other trials looked at here.

Resizing a large PDF was easy thanks to a High/Low slider that indicated the size of the resulting file. There was also the option to merge files, combine multiple documents into one PDF, or individual pages from multiple documents.

We had one PDF that was scanned on our iPhone via the Notes app (we explain
how to scan a document with an iPhone here). Obviously such a document will only be recognised by the PDF editor if the editor has OCR abilities that are unlocked in the trial. PDFExpert couldn’t do this so we weren’t able to edit the text in the scanned document, although we were able to add hyperlinks to sections of that document. Obviously we couldn’t search the scanned document, or edit the text there.

We were able to search normal PDFs though, and we were able to search for a word and redact every occurrence of it either by blacking it out, or deleting it.

We were able to export the PDF into Word, PowerPoint and Excel, as well as to Text and Image.

It’s a free seven day trial, so if you need the software for longer than that and don’t want to pay up then you would have to look elsewhere. But if you don’t need something long term this trial offers everything you need.

pdfFiller

Pros

Web based
30-day free trial
Wide range of features

Cons

No free tier
No desktop version

Best Prices Today:

$0 at pdfFiller Free Trial

pdfFiller from airSlate is another option if you want to edit and adjust a PDF. As with the other paid for PDF editors in this round up, there is a 30-day free trial that you can use (although it’s included with a full version when you sign up, so it would probably be more accurate to describe it as the first month free-you’ll need to cancel before the subscriptions start). You will need to enter your details, but since you can sign in with Apple you can avoid sharing your email address, which is nice.

It’s web based, although there is an iOS app you can use. You can add and edit existing text, copy and paste, and add images to the PDF. It’s also possible to add a signature – which is even electronically verified. You can easily combine multiple PDFs in one file. You can save your PDFs and collaborate with others while editing. If you are working as part of a team the lock and encryption options will be useful. It is even possible to create and host fillable forms that multiple users can fill in, and you can export the data added. Plus it is possible to convert documents from Word, JPG, Excel, PowerPoint and so on and create PDFs from them.

If you want to open up the whole app to use then you’ll need to sign up to a subscription. At the time of writing this costs $8 a month for the Basic version or $20 a month if you want to be able to cancel before the end of the first year.

PDF Candy

Pros

Web based
Easy to use
Useful features

Cons

Hourly limits on free tier

While there is no Mac app for PDF Candy, Mac users can use the free online version to add text to a PDF, as well as underlines, strike-throughs, and add signatures.

You can also compress and merge PDFs, rearrange pages, delete pages, rotate and crop PDFs.

Unfortunately you can’t add or change the text, so if you need to do that this isn’t going to suffice (although you can place white overlay over content you want to hide).

You can also convert PDFs to Word, Excel and various other documents using this free online tool. You then need to download it from the website. Unfortunately when we did this the word document we ended up with wasn’t quite what we’d started with.

There are limits to this free online version. For example, you can only perform one task per hour. If you want access to more tools (there are 47 in total) you need to register and select a plan. There are two on offer, you can pay monthly and cancel at any time for $6/£6, pay yearly for $48/£48. PDFCandy does also have a desktop+web offer for $99/£99 but that only pertains to the Windows version.

Skim

Pros

Completely free
Add notes, underline and highlight text

Cons

Basic
Mainly intended for reading PDFs

Skim is an open source, free PDF reader, so as long as you don’t expect more than basic functions you will be satisfied.

The tool allows you to view PDFs, add notes, underlines and highlight text.

Skim is more for reading PDFs – it was designed for academics, so it’s less about filling in and editing PDFs and more about the comfort of reading and navigating them along with the ability to add notes and bookmark pages. If all you want is a PDF reader this may well suit you. You can download it
here.

FineReader Pro for Mac

Pros

OCR capabilities
Allows PDF content to be edited in Word or Pages

Cons

A bit hit and miss at times
Quite a niche product
Preview now has OCR capabilites

Best Prices Today:

$0 at FineReader PDF Free Trial

This is the app to try if you want OCR (optical character recognition) capabilities (although Preview does now offer these). However, we nearly didn’t realise how deep the capabilities of this app went because the results can be a little hit-and-miss. Actually, the capabilities of the 30-day free trial version are pretty impressive, as long as you are willing to accept that it might not always do a great job of translating what it ‘sees’.

We discovered this when we imported our PDF and were greeted with a warning to “Please re-scan your document at a higher resolution”. Given the PDF we were imported hadn’t been scanned we were a little confused by this. Then when we exported the ‘scan’ to Word we saw a warning that some of the pages had not been recognised. The resulting Word document (actually we opened it in Pages) was a little muddled, some of the translations were laughable. But the general content had come through well enough for us to be able to correct the mistakes.

Now, this probably wouldn’t do for you if you wanted to edit a straightforward PDF – if that’s the case use one of the other apps. However, if you had scanned text from a book or a printout and you wanted to edit that then this is the app for you.

As we mentioned earlier, we had a scan we had taken with our iPhone camera via the Notes app and we were able to get FineReader to ‘read’ this and open it as a Word document, which we could then edit. Sure, there might be a few words that are wrong, but it’s got to be better than typing the whole thing out.

Once in Word (or Pages), you can edit the document as much as you like. We did see a warning that fonts were missing, and there was a strange case of paragraph formatting that caused the text to wrap to the next line as if it was in a box, but it was a good effort we thought.

As for collaboration and editing you have all the tools that are available in the app you end up opening the document in, be that Word, Pages, Excel, PowerPoint or something else.

It might not be spot on every time, but the fact that we were able to scan a document and export it to Word where we could edit it, was a real bonus.

You can buy an annual subscription to FineReader for $69/£59, also available in the Mac App Store.

PDF Escape (macOS)

Pros

Some useful tools
Easy to use
Web based

Cons

File size limits on free tier
Reduced editing features unless you pay

Best Prices Today:

$0 at PDF Escape

PDF Escape is another web-based editor that has decent tools on offer. To get started you upload documents to the site, then work in the online portal on your PDF. Like most of the packages on this list, there’s a limited free tier or a more powerful version can be unlocked through a paid subscription. You can still do a fair bit of work with the free version, so it’s a good place to start.

There are three main areas in the interface, comprised of Insert, Annotate, and Page. Within each of these you’ll find the relevants tools for editing text, images, links, adding notes, underlining, striking through text, plus you can reorder pages and use a few other useful organisational settings.

PDF Escape does impose a 10MB file size limit on the free tier, which will make larger PDFs a no-go. Perhaps a more limiting restriction is that the free tier also has no way to edit the exisiting text in a PDF or even allow the conversion to another format. If your needs are modest, then it could do the job but basically, it’s something akin to a demo rather than workable piece of software unless you sign up to a subscription. The current cost is $5.99 (£4.80) per month or $35.88 (£29) per year for Premium. There’s also the Ultimate tier for or $8.99 (£7) per month and $71.88 (£59) per year. That’s brings the ability to digitally sign documents, use the redaction feature, as well as sealing a document for added security.

Foxit Reader

Pros

Simple and lightweight
Free
Enough tools for basic form-filling

Cons

Might not suit advanced users

Completing our list is Foxit PDF Reader, which is a simple editor that, as the name suggests, allows you to open and read PDFs on your Mac. That’s not all though, as the free program can also let you fill in forms and digitally sign documents.

When you first open the app, its can look a little busy as Foxit places ads for its other software products, including the PDF Editor which is a more powerful version of Reader but requires a purchase. That’s not necessary though, as Reader has plenty to offer. You can enter text into PDF fields, create a new signature or import one you may already have on your Mac so that you can sign-off on forms. Plus there’s various annotation tools on hand, such as highlighting and adding notes.

It’s a nice little app that will probably be all that most people need if they don’t work with PDFs very often.

Personal Software, Professional Software

Best Mac antivirus software 2023: Security software compared

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 05 May 2023 14:07:59 +0000

Macworld

Macs may be a far less tempting target for malware and viruses, but they’re not immune from attack. Even if you don’t care about adware or being used as means to infect users on other platforms, it’s still possible to fall victim to ransomware, or password theft.

Accordingly, good antivirus for Mac software will protect your Mac on all of these fronts. It’ll catch malware that’s still spreading or in circulation; block ransomware; protect older systems with out-of-date software from security vulnerabilities; prevent your Mac from acting as a carrier for malware aimed at other operating systems; and keep infected files off of any virtual machines you’re running.

As to the question of which Mac antivirus software you should choose, our current top pick is Intego Mac Internet Security. However, you will find several other recommendations below that may suit you better, depending upon the type and number of devices that need protection and also how much you want to pay.

Our top contenders in our best Mac antivirus round up dominate by posting perfect (or virtually near perfect) scores from security research labs, passing our own malware detection tests with flying colors, offering well-designed interfaces, and even throwing in extra features like a firewall or password manager.

For some great discounts and deals see our best Mac antivirus deals round up.

Updated May 5, 2023 to update the F-Secure review.

Best antivirus for Mac reviews

1. Intego Mac Internet Security X9

Pros

Two-way firewall
Good performance

Cons

Mac-specific (no Windows / Android protection)

Intego’s Mac Internet Security X9 suite is a pair of utilities designed to help you keep your Mac safe and running smoothly. These are VirusBarrier and NetBarrier, which catch and kill malware threats plus spot potential intrusion attempts from outside as well as outgoing attempts from rogue software.

You can get Intego Mac Internet Security X9 here.

The Mac Premium Bundle X9 adds three more sets of capabilities to these: the backup prowess of Personal Backup (a good ‘belt’ addition to your Time Machine ‘braces’), the useful cleaning, tidying and general speed optimising tricks of Mac Washing Machine, and finally the multi-user safe surfing intelligence of ContentBarrier.

Sure, that last one is not something everyone needs, but it’s great for parents. Whichever one of these software suites you choose, you can be sure they offer some of the best protection available for your Mac.

Read our full

Intego Mac Internet Security X9 review

2. Clario Antivirus 1.5 for Mac

Pros

Reasonably priced
Comprehensive and user-friendly security in a single package
Step-by-step setup and help easily available

Cons

Software can sometimes be slow when open

Best Prices Today:

$107.88 at Clario

Clario 1.5 for the Mac is much more than an antivirus package, it packs a healthy amount of security into one package, including real-time and on-demand malware scanning, ad blocking and website trackers, a VPN, and data breach monitoring to alert you if your email is caught and potentially exposed in a cyberattack. There’s also 24/7 live support.

Payment is by subscription, and currently Clario has 54% off the usual $107.88 / £107.88 a year, so you can pay $50.00 / £50.00 a year (billed at $4.17 / £4.17 a month). The three devices included in the plan can include a combination of Macs and iOS or Android devices. There’s also a 7-day free trial.

Set up is quick and painless with a wizard that takes you through configuration of all the key features while allowing you to evaluate the different options and determine which ones you want to enable. Once installed you can access information about the security of your Mac and monitor the status of your online accounts and personal data. The VPN will kick in if Clario detects you using an unprotected network. And from the Dashboard you can trigger a quick virus scan, which is actually quite thorough.

We did encounter some issues with performance, with the program sometimes running slow before we were fully set up, but once we were fully configured everything ran smoothly.

Whether you’re a novice or advanced user, Clario is an effective and supportive security program.

Read our full

Clario Antivirus 1.5 for Mac review

3. AVG Antivirus for Mac

Pros

Capable basic protection for a free product
Quick and easy installation
Clean and helpful dashboard

Cons

Occasional prompts to convince you to upgrade to the paid version
Lacks the ransomware, phishing, and fake website protection built into the paid product

Best Prices Today:

$0 at AVG

AVG Antivirus for the Mac is one of a handful of free antivirus for Mac programs. As such it is basic, but its effective at protecting you from viruses, spyware, and malware.

Despite being free, AVG covers all the bases: blocking viruses and malware from websites, downloads, and email attachments. AVG will scan applications and check every file and remove threats from your Mac. It auto updates so you shouldn’t miss out on protection from the latest threats.

Though it lacks the advanced features of paid antivirus products, it handles the core tasks cleanly and seamlessly. However, if you need to resolve any advanced issues you will need to pay to upgrade to the full version of the software, which is about $2/£2 per month for a one-year subscription. There is a 60-day free trial though, which could be enough for your purposes.

All in all this is a great option, despite being basic. You get much more than you ‘pay’ for.

Read our full

AVG Antivirus for Mac review

4. McAfee Total Protection

Pros

Affordable cover for multiple devices
Simple automated operation

Cons

Lack of detail in activity reports
Occasional performance impacts

McAfee Total Protection is a dedicated software security tool that will monitor your Mac as you work, looking for unauthorised software activity such as browser search engine hacks, attempts to trick you into installing unwanted software, and actual malware and virus attacks.

It is very simple to use; once you’ve walked through the guided steps for giving it permission to work behind the scenes it is essentially something you can just leave to get on with its job.

Total Protection also offers WebAdvisor as an option, steering you from known problem sites and warning you when you visit questionable ones. It also offers a software firewall for two-way network traffic monitoring.

We noted some occasional performance impacts as it ran in the background, but it was largely unobtrusive in its efforts. The option of protecting other devices is useful as well, covering smartphones and Windows PCs as you require.

It’s worth noting that the Windows version in particular offers more features, such as a native VPN, which you don’t get in the Mac app.

You can get McAfee Total Protection here.

Read our full

McAfee Total Protection review

5. Norton 360 Deluxe

Pros

Easy-to-use & effective
Multiple device cover
Minimal performance impact

Cons

No backup on macOS
Didn’t spot threats in zip files

Norton 360 Deluxe is a security utility that performs a range of different monitoring and safeguarding operations to keep your Mac free from threats such as browser hacks and search engine hijack scripts to intrusion attempts and actual malware.

It focuses on catching unwanted software, but it also offers some useful additional features including a VPN for securing personal data while online, and a tool for managing passwords, bank card details and similar data.

There are three different versions, two of which can also be used to secure your iPhone as well as Android smartphones and Windows PCs, should you require that. In tests it proved to have little to no detectable impact on performance, and it spotted all the challenges in our test macOS setup.

Note that the Cloud Backup feature doesn’t work on macOS, but that is more of an extra rather than a vital part of the package.

You can get Norton 360 Deluxe here.

Read our full

Norton 360 Deluxe review

6. Avast Premium Security

Pros

Doesn’t generally impact performance
Caught all problem test files

Cons

Slow manual scanning
No option for single-device license
Upselling

Avast Premium Security for Mac does its job well overall. There are a few niggles such as the unwanted upselling for Cleanup Premium and the fact that the File Shield monitoring slows down file copy times a bit.

Otherwise, it’s a well-featured suite which will protect from all sorts of nasties including watching for browser script hacks, potential ransomware and other remote attack activity. It will, of course, also scan for potentially unwanted programs and actual malware threats, whether on your Mac or your removable media or in email attachments.

Custom scheduled scans can be set up, although the automatic background monitoring teamed with occasional specific manual scans is likely to be enough for most requirements. Wi-Fi network monitoring for vulnerabilities is another feature this software offers, and the Real Site option watches for fake sites pretending to be legitimate shopping or banking sites, a serious risk that goes beyond just watching for unwanted files on your own Mac. It is very effective at all these things, although we found that customising its behaviour can be a little fiddly.

Read our full

Avast Premium Security review

7. Bitdefender Total Security 2021

Pros

Doesn’t slow down your Mac
Effective real-time protection
Unobtrusive browsing protection

Cons

No password manager
Very limited VPN
No identity protection

Bitdefender Total Security is a very effective tool for keeping your Mac safe, and it will also protect Windows PC, an iOS and Android devices. The bundled VPN is very basic and gives you only 200MB of data per day, but the rest of the suite of tools is effective and easy to manage.

But when you compare what the Mac version offers compared to the Windows version, you’ll feel quite hard done by. There’s no password manager, no social network protection, no webcam or microphone protection, no Wi-Fi security advisor and plenty of other features that Windows users get for the same price.

Bitdefender is also lagging behind its rivals with no identity protection. If your goal is simply to keep your Mac protected from malware, then Bitdefender does a great job. But you can find better value elsewhere.

Read our full

Bitdefender Total Security review

8. Eset Cyber Security Pro

Pros

Effective protection
Full control over settings

Cons

Minor impact on Mac performance
No VPN
No iOS version

Eset Cyber Security Pro is a useful security tool that protects your Mac – and your Windows PC, Linux box and even Android phones, although not your iPhone – against unauthorised software behaviour, network intrusions, search engine hijack scripts and worse.

It stands out from its competition through its comprehensive range of preferences controls that can fine-tune many aspects of its behaviour, and its relatively low price.

It isn’t the most unobtrusive in terms of background performance impact, although most of the time this was minor enough to be not really noticeable.

As well as real-time and on-demand monitoring it also provides a useful firewall, dedicated tools for spotting web-based threats including spyware, and protection against phishing attempts to trick users into divulging private data. It also offers parental controls with three user categories and detailed control over what kinds of sites each user is allowed to visit.

Read our full

Eset Cyber Security Pro review

9. Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac

Pros

High malware detection rate
Monitors for ransomware-style attacks from unknown software in specific folders

Cons

Wouldn’t detect some malware in real-time in our tests
Fewer extra features compared to less-expensive or similarly priced higher-rank competitors

Trend Micro Antivirus is a good program with well rated antivirus protection, and a simple, straightforward interface that users will appreciate.

Anyone looking for additional features will be disappointed with this suite, but it offers good protection at a fair price.

In March 2022 AV-Test gave Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac a 99 percent protection score against 200 samples.

Our own spot checks produced similarly good results. Lining up against the Objective See malware library Trend Micro had no trouble detecting most threats. However in a few cases it didn’t detect all the malware contained in a folder until a scan had been run.

Trend Micro is an excellent choice for those looking for something that’s simple and easy to use. There are options with better protection, but Trend Micro’s protection is still good and pricing is fair.

Read our full

Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac review

10. Avira Prime

Pros

Easy to use
Full VPN
Won’t slow down your Mac

Cons

No fine-tuning scan options

Avira Prime is a security utility designed to keep your Mac safe from potentially unwanted programs; which covers everything from simple scripts designed to compromise and redirect your browser searches through to actual malware.

A single large window presents the various features, from scans to app management and cleanup, although a couple of its features use a separate panel for a web-based console. In our tests it detected all our compromised files and installers.

It doesn’t look inside zip archives or disk images, but it pounces as soon as items are extracted from these.

Most importantly, even while Avira Prime is actively scanning for trouble it has such a small impact on the general performance of our Mac that we wouldn’t notice it without comparing timings. You can get the basics of the security features with Avira Free Security but Prime’s annual subscription provides useful additional capabilities, if you can stomach the high cost.

Read our full

Avira Prime review

11. Sophos Home Premium for Mac

Pros

Effective protection
Reasonably priced

Cons

Confusing setup process
Configuring software and running scheduled scan is cloud-based

Sophos used to offer a free version of its Home product with antivirus protection and website protection, but in 2021 that version was discontinued, leaving Sophos Home Premium as the only option for personal use.

There’s now a 30 days full trial, but after that it costs £37.46/$44.99 for the first year and £49.95/$59.99 for each subsequent year. You can install on 10 Macs or PCs though.

Setup was confusing. Initially the software guides you through the process, but then setup stops and you have to sign into your
Sophos Home dashboard to complete setup (it’s not at clear that you need to do this step).

There’s also no Dock icon to launch the program, instead you use a menu bar icon to access the online dashboard where you can control the five types of protection including:

Antivirus protection – real-time scanning for local and network drives, perform a manual scan or schedule one, plus a quick scan can be triggered from the menu bar icon.
Web protection
Ransomware protection
Privacy protection
Malicious traffic detection
Web filtering

A
2017 evaluation of macOS security software by AV-Test gave Sophos Home outstanding grades for protection, performance, and usability. We ran the EICAR test, which simulates a virus, and Sophos detected and blocked it with no trouble. The website filtering worked well.

Sophos Home Premium provides effective protection, but the setup process and cloud-only features are drawbacks. It needs clearer set up and the ability to do more locally.

Read our full

Sophos Home Premium for Mac review

12. ClamXAV

Pros

Effective antivirus protection

Cons

Charges an annual subscription for basic malware protection with no other features

Installing ClamXAV from the ClamXAV website is quick and easy. Either click the Free Trial button or sign up for a $29.95/£24 a year subscription and the installation file is automatically downloaded. After the initial setup, where you need to grant permission to access the Downloads folder and modify security settings, you are all set.

You can run a manual scan from the main screen, but there are several other options. A quick scan checks system files and other areas on your Mac, you can select just your hard drive to runs a scan on all folders and files on the disk, and dragging and dropping a single folder or file onto the scanning pane checks it for malware. You can also select an external drive or connected USB stick for scanning. There’s also a real-time scanning component–Sentry–that is always on guard.

It is possible to schedule any type of scan to run on specific days and times. By default, any malicious files are automatically quarantined, but you can decide whether or not to quarantine infected files. You can open the quarantine folder to see what files were caught.

ClamXAV proved effective at detecting and stopping test malware files, but there’s nothing more to the program beyond the basic antivirus scanning and options. ClamXAV is certainly effective at virus scanning, but that’s a capability found in many free and equally effective security products for the Mac.

Read our full

ClamXav review

13. Malwarebytes Premium for Macs

Pros

Offers all the basic types of security
Easy to use
Reasonably priced

Cons

Mac version missing certain features compared with its Windows counterpart
Excludes any mention or advice on the Malwarebytes browser extension

Malwarebytes comes in both free and premium editions for personal use. Unfortunately the Mac version falls short of many of the features of the Windows version. Malwarebytes Premium for Mac includes the basis virus and malware scanning as well as the ability to detect malicious apps, or PUPs (potentially unwanted program). The real-time protection constantly monitors your system for security threats, automatically blocking and quarantining anything that could infect your computer.

But it doesn’t directly come with the protection against malicious links and phishing attempts. Nor does it offer the safeguards against ransomware and zero-day exploits.

There is a free version of Malwarebytes, but that just includes just basic virus scanning. The premium version costs $3.33/£2.50 billed monthly or $39.99/£29.99 billed annually for one device, and $6.67/£5.83 billed monthly or $79.99/£69.99 billed annually for five devices. There’s a free 14-day trial.

Malwarebytes Premium on a Mac is accessible through a menu bar icon. Clicking the icon displays a menu with options to start a scan, temporarily turn off the malware protection and malicious app blocker, update the program, view and tweak its settings, and open the management console.

From the management console you can trigger a manual scan and set up scheduled scans to run on a recurring basis. A detection history displays all quarantined items. There’s an Allow list to add legitimate files or programs that were mistakenly flagged as malware to.

Malwarebytes Premium has regularly and consistently gotten top marks from AV-Test for protection, performance, and usability. In real-world testing conducted by AV Comparatives during February and March of 2022, the software scored 100% at blocking malware, though it had a high number of false positives.

It’s just a shame that the Mac version feels like an also-ran compared with the Windows edition.

Read our full

Malwarebytes Premium for Macs review

14. F-Secure Total for Mac

Pros

Includes virus protection, secure browsing, ID monitoring, a VPN, and a password vault in one package
Effective and flexible VPN

Cons

Missing key capabilities such as a quick virus scan and a scheduled scan
Certain options unavailable in the Mac version vs the Windows version
No notification for malware infections
No way to view malicious or quarantined files
Charges a hefty annual subscription

F-Secure Total for Mac is a simple-to-use security software suite that works on macOS, iOS, Windows and Android devices and protects your data from a wide range of threats. It includes several useful features, but lacks certain key options, especially in the virus scanning.

The program is $59.99 a year for one device, which is steep, but there’s a free 30-day trial that requires no credit card and even gives you free technical support if you need it.

Clicking the Scan button runs a full virus scan that checks your entire system, while clicking the link for Viruses & Threats takes you to another screen where you can scan just specific folders. But there are no options to run a quick scan or even to schedule a scan, unlike the Windows version which includes a quick scan. It provides real-time virus and spyware scanning to automatically block malware, and ‘DeepGuard’ monitors applications for any changes indicative of a malware infection.

You can set up the ID monitoring to check your email address for data breaches among your online accounts. The VPN is another defense and includes tracking protection to prevent advertisers from monitoring your online activity and a kill switch to quickly cut off all internet traffic.

F-Secure offers a password vault that creates and stores secure logins for all your accounts. The password vault requires an extension that supports Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Safari isn’t yet supported.

Unfortunately, F-Secure doesn’t let you review blocked or deleted malicious files, and no setting allows you to quarantine files instead of remove them.

Read our full

F-Secure Total review

15. MacKeeper 5

Pros

Easy management of protection
Useful range of features

Cons

Some performance impacts
No throttle controls

MacKeeper 5 is the reborn version of a security utility that has been around for many years. The reputation of previous versions seems just old news now – today, it’s a useful and comprehensive tool for keeping your Mac secure and optimised as you work, play and use the internet.

The range of tools it offers in addition to watching for unwelcome software is wide ranging. There’s a memory optimiser, an update tracker to spot outdated applications, a smart uninstaller to clean up after other software and a VPN feature for secure browsing.

There’s even identify protection, which monitors password databases to catch possible ID theft efforts. While we noted occasional performance impacts from its real-time antivirus monitoring, it wasn’t something that happened all the time.

Ultimately, we liked MacKeeper’s easy and helpful interface, which makes what could be a daunting task quite approachable.

Read our full

MacKeeper 5 review

16. Avira Free Security for Mac

Pros

Effective antivirus protection
Includes a VPN, password manager, and junk file cleaner

Cons

Offers several different tools via its dashboard, but only a few are available in the free version
A smart scan promises to boost your performance, but there’s little you can do in the free version
The VPN severely limits the amount of encrypted traffic

Avira Free Security for Mac seems to offer a lot of features for free. But most actually require a paid subscription, so the product’s overall usefulness is limited and the constant sales pitches annoying.

You can run a quick scan to check out system files and other vulnerable areas or a full scan to analyze your entire Mac for malware. These scans can run daily, weekly, or monthly. You can also create a custom scan. There are also real-time virus protection scans to scan new files saved to your computer or downloaded from the internet. You have to pay to scan a USB drive. Malware discovered is automatically quarantined. Avira was effective at detecting and stopping malware when we tested it.

The free version of Avira includes a junk cleaner that can identify issues via a smart scan, but you need to pay to actually clean up anything beyond the junk files.

The old adage of “you get what you pay for” is certainly true with Avira Free Security. Take away the tools that require a subscription, and you’re left with the antivirus feature, a limited VPN, a password manager that works only in Safari, and a junk file cleaner.

Read our full

Avira Free Security for Mac review

17. Kaspersky Total Security for Mac 2022

Pros

Top-rated antivirus engine
Reasonably priced
Host of effective tools under one roof

Cons

No dedicated Mac version
Awkward installation process for the Mac
Certain tools require separate apps to manage them

The 2022 version of Kaspersky Total Security offers a raft of features, including antivirus and anti-phishing protection, ad blocking and private browsing, webcam spying protection, a VPN, a child locator with parental controls, screen time management, and a password manager.

The main disappointment with Kaspersky Total Security 2022 is the installation process on the Mac – made all the more frustrating by the fact that installing on Windows is quick and easy.

Mac users have to download and install the Internet Security product and then download and install the password manager and Safe Kids tools as separate apps. Kaspersky doesn’t make this clear.

Once installed, the product is robust and effective. Based on 2021 testing for anti-virus products, Kaspersky received top marks for protection, performance, and usability from
AV-Test and solid grades from
AV Comparatives. The product also was rated the best antivirus software for 2022 from
Security.org.

Total Security offers access four key features: scanning, updating, privacy, and Safe Kids. To hunt down malware, you can run a full scan, a quick scan, or a scheduled scan. The Safe Money feature protects your credentials when you shop or bank online, while the Kaspersky password manager sets up strong passwords.

There is also an easy to configure VPN and the Safe Kids app (which can be accessed via a smartphone app) brings parental controls.

Read our full

Kaspersky Total Security for Mac 2022 review

Best Mac antivirus at a glance comparison

Here is an overview of the top Mac antivirus software tested above.

Developer

Product name

USB scan

Ransomware protection

Adware prevention

Anti phishing protection

Email protection

Firewall

VPN

iOS version

Parental Controls

Support

Trial

Price

Intego

Internet Security X9

7 days

$49.99/£49.99 / ye ($24.99/£20.99 /yr deal)

Clario

Antivirus 1.5 for Mac

7 days

£107.88/£107.88 / ye (currently $50/£50 /ye); ($4.17/£4.17 / mo for a year, or $8.99/£8.99 /mo billed monthly)

AVG

AntiVirus for Mac

60 days

Free (Paid for version is $2.49 per month for one year / $2.39 a month for two-years / $2.29 a month for three-years)

Norton

360 Deluxe

30 days

$39.99/£34.99/yr

McAfee

Total Protection

30 days

$34.99/£34.99/yr

Avast

Premium Security

60 days

$44.99/£39.99/yr

Bitdefender

Total Security

30 days

$39.97/£34.99/yr

Eset

Cyber Security Pro

30 days

$49.95/£39.95/yr

Trend Micro

Antivirus for Mac

30 days

$39.99/£49.95

Avira

Prime

30 days

$99.99/£85.99

Do Macs need Mac antivirus software?

Plenty of Mac aficionados will tell you that Apple computers are inherently secure and don’t require protection. We’d argue that they are wrong – or overconfident, at the very least.

Not long ago, the Silver Sparrow malware was detected on Macs powered by the M1 processor and infected hundreds of thousands of Macs in total. The bad guys, then, are still very much targeting Mac users and they’re getting smarter and greedier. As a result, cyber security is something you can’t afford to ignore, and good Mac antivirus is a very good place to start if you want to stay safe.

Macs are generally more secure than their Windows brethren for two reasons. On the technical side, macOS is a Unix-based operating system. As a Unix-based operating system macOS is sandboxed.

Sandboxing is like having a series of fire doors: even if malware gains access to your Mac, it is unable to spread to other areas of the machine. They are more difficult to exploit than Windows PCs, but Macs are not unhackable.

More general advice can be found in our Mac security tips; and those who have been hit by a malware attack should try how to remove a virus from a Mac.

How to choose the best Mac antivirus

Features fundamental to all packages are two ways to find viruses: on-demand protection and via always-on protection. The former finds viruses by examining one file after another during scheduled scans, or when you choose to undertake a scan, perhaps because you’re worried your Mac might be infected. The speed at which the Mac antivirus app can do this is important, because some take a long time and also hog the Mac’s CPU while they do so. Waiting six hours to find out if your Mac is infected is neither convenient nor relaxing.

Always-on malware protection is what protects the user outside of the times when scans are run. If some malware arrives, perhaps via an email or a downloaded file, then the always-on protection should be able to detect it and either quarantine it (copy it to a safe folder so the user can decide what to do with it), or simply delete it. Usually a notification is shown when malware is detected in this way, but not all antimalware apps show the same amount of explanation of what’s happened – and this was one of the factors we examined in our testing.

Outside of direct malware detection, many security suites include additional tools such as ransomware protection. Ransomware is a type of malware that, once it’s infected a computer, encrypts all the user’s files and then demands a fee to decrypt them. To protect against this infection, anti-ransomware features typically block any app from writing to a user’s home folders, such as Documents or Photos, unless the app’s pre-approved (a process called whitelisting). Lots of apps come already pre-approved, of course, such as Microsoft Word, or Apple’s own Photos app. But you can add others.

Several products also include virtual private network (
VPN) add-ons. These protect an internet connection by encrypting it, and this is useful when utilising unsafe open WiFi such as that provided by a café or hotel. In our experience, these are not replacements for separate paid-for VPN services as many do not unblock video streaming services and some are cut-down versions which constantly nag you to pay extra for the full, premium versions.

Web protection via browser plugins or extensions is also a common component and aims to stop you (or your children) doing anything you regret online, such as visiting fake or infected websites or handing over personal information.

There are usually different options from each vendor, and you get more extras with the top packages, and far fewer with free ones. They might include password managers, parental controls, cloud storage – the list goes on. Generally, the underlying antimalware engine is the same in all products from the same company, so you can save money if you don’t need those additional features.

Do bear in mind that all antivirus for Mac apps are sold as yearly subscriptions. That’s right, you can’t just pay once and use forever. Often there’s a hefty discount for that first year’s subscription, but this can burn you when automatic renewal occurs a year later and the full retail price is charged: often 100% more. Alternatively, you can purchase several years’ subscriptions at once for a bigger discount.

Some of the best Mac antivirus subscriptions allow you to install the software on more than one computer (including Windows and Android devices), which can sometimes add significantly to the value – all computers, phones and tablets within a household can be protected with one subscription.

Spotting fake Mac antivirus software

Beware that, due to the fact that people are so concerned about malware threats on the Mac, there have been cases of malware disguising itself as an antivirus app, such as the Mac Auto Fixer pop-ups that appeared on some Macs suggesting that software needs to be installed (at a high price). This is similar to another fake antivirus app called MacDefender.

Another Mac antivirus company that is often thought of as unscrupulous is MacKeeper. In the past various reports have suggested it is a scam or at worst malware. In recent times MacKeeper has attempted to transform itself and leave its disreputability behind. It has, for example, gained Apple Notarization – which means the software is checked by Apple for malicious components. The company has also been working to get certifications from various bodies to prove it isn’t a PUP, including an AV-Test certificate. If you have any problems with MacKeeper we do explain how to remove it here: How to uninstall MacKeeper.

How we test Mac antivirus software

Each software package is evaluated creating a clean installation of macOS, cloning it for each AV product, and then booting separately into each one to install a different package. This was to ensure that previous app installations didn’t interfere with new ones – sometimes AV software treats other AV software as an infection.

In addition to visiting malicious websites, downloading known malicious software, and even running said malware on our Mac, we also reference the most recent reports from two labs that regularly cover macOS malware: AV Comparatives and AV-TEST. These laboratories test AV software against sets of known malware as well as products that are grouped as potentially unwanted applications (like adware).

The latter doesn’t damage or expose your computer or its files but may consume power and CPU cycles. Because the testing effectively looks at a combination of virus databases and behavior, they remain good gauges even after many months. When an antivirus for Mac software package lacks a rating from a known security research lab, we do more extensive testing with real malware.

Finally, while we gave props for a lot of different features and behaviors, we marked products down if they lacked any or all of the following:

A nearly perfect score on macOS malware detection
Ransomware monitoring
Native browser plug-in or system-level Web proxy
A high score on Windows malware detection

Privacy concerns

Using a Mac antivirus product, especially any that includes tools to also improve your online privacy, may lull you into believing you’re safe from personal and private information leaking out. That’s not quite the case. While there’s no reason to panic, you should consider a few reasonable issues.

First, an antivirus for Mac product may upload the complete text of files flagged to the cloud, where it can be analyzed by separate tools hosted there. This practice is normal and sensible: Some malware can detect when a running process may examine it, and will then engage in subterfuge. Antivirus software makers also can access their massive databases to examine files with characteristics that trigger their algorithms—certain elements that match known malware. As a result, security researchers discover new viruses, worms, Trojans horses, and the like.

However, helping the greater good means you’ll have to be comfortable with trusting a third-party with your file contents. Where appropriate, we noted privacy policy issues in individual reviews.

Second, this software may also rely partly or entirely on cloud-based checks of URLs, malware, and the like. Accordingly, an AV package might upload every URL you visit, metadata about files, signatures of files, information about your computer’s hardware, a list of running or installed applications, and more. Companies vary on their disclosure of such policies, and may not let you opt out of this kind of sharing. We note issues in each review as available.

Third, anti-virus software makers also get a sense of what behavior is happening on your computer that’s being monitored or blocked, and may use that information for their own purposes. In some cases, you can opt out of this information gathering.

Antivirus, Personal Software, Security