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

Macworld To use Apple’s two-factor authentication (2FA) with your Apple ID account–something that the company has effectively mandated for the last few years–you must have at least one “trusted phone number” associated with your account. A trusted phone number can receive a code via SMS or an automated voice call speaking the code to validate a login on a new device. This contrasts with a trusted device, which is any iPhone, iPad, or Mac logged into that Apple ID account. You can add more than one trusted phone number, which is useful for backup in case a phone is lost or a phone number is hijacked. But you must have at least one. Some readers find that they can’t set…

OpenAI this week announced that its official ChatGPT app for the iPhone and the iPad is now available in more than 40 countries in addition to the United States. The app first launched in the United States last week, and OpenAI promised that it would expand to more countries in the coming weeks. As of today, the app can be used in Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Qatar, Slovenia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, and the United States. OpenAI's ChatGPT has…

Innocent-seeming apps can be trojan horses for your information. | Image: Amar Toor / The Verge An Android recording app called iRecorder Screen Recorder began as an innocent screen recording app but turned evil nearly a year after it was first released, as detailed by Ars Technica. The app first came out in September 2021, but after an update the following August, it began recording a minute of audio every 15 minutes and forwarding those recordings, through an encrypted link, to the developer’s server. The whole thing is documented in a blog post from Essential Security against Evolving Threats (ESET) researcher Lukas Stefanko. In the post, Stefanko said the app was updated in August 2022 to include malicious code “based…

OpenAI today announced the launch of an official ChatGPT app for the iPhone and the iPad. OpenAI's ChatGPT has been accessible on the web and has been made available on iOS through multiple third-party apps, many of which are little better than scam apps, but this legitimate version will give users a safe way to use ChatGPT on the go. ChatGPT is an AI-based chatbot that uses generative artificial intelligence to answer questions and provide advice on all manner of subjects. OpenAI says that ChatGPT can help with all of the following: Instant answers: Get precise information without sifting through ads or multiple results. Tailored advice: Seek guidance on cooking, travel plans, or crafting thoughtful messages. Creative inspiration: Generate gift…

Apple has not notably tweaked iPhone screen sizes since the introduction of the iPhone 12 models in 2020, but that's set to change with the 2024 iPhone 16 lineup. The ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro models will have larger display sizes than the iPhone 14 Pro models and the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro models. According to researcher Unknownz21, the ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro (D93 in Apple's internal documentation) will feature a display with a size of 6.3 inches, while the ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro Max (D94) will feature a display size of 6.9 inches. Note that these are the full dimensions of the display, and the actual viewable area will be slightly smaller due to the rounded corners of the design. The ‌iPhone 14…