Macworld “Passkey” is the name for a simplified login process to websites that arrived in its full glory later this year with macOS 13 Ventura, iOS 16, and iPadOS 16. A passkey relies on broadly supported industry standards to let you carry out an encrypted login with almost no effort on your part after the initial setup. You can try a passkey without installing the public betas of these upcoming operating systems, as Apple built passkey support in a preview form into Safari across all its operating systems in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and Safari 15 with macOS 12 Monterey. With the full release of passkeys in a few weeks or months, and Google and Microsoft’s announced support for compatible technology, you’re…

Apple today released iOS 16.5.1 and iPadOS 16.5.1, minor updates to the iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 operating system updates that came out last September. iOS 16.5.1 comes over a month after Apple released iOS 16.5. ‌‌‌iOS 16‌‌‌‌.5.1 and iPadOS 16.5.1 can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. It can take a few minutes for the updates to propagate to all users because of demand. According to Apple's notes for the update, the update includes important security fixes and is recommended for all users. It also addresses a bug that could prevent charging with the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter. Reports in May suggested that the Camera Adapter…

Starting with iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma, Safari automatically removes tracking parameters from URLs while in Private Browsing Mode, in order to prevent cross-website tracking. When a tracking parameter is detected while browsing or copying a link, Apple says Safari strips the identifying components of the URL, while leaving the rest intact. Apple calls this new feature Link Tracking Protection, and it also works for links shared in the Messages and Mail apps. The links will still work as expected, but will no longer have unique identifiers embedded into the URL for tracking purposes. In a WWDC 2023 video for developers, Apple shared an example of a URL before and after the tracking parameters are removed. The original URL has…

Since its introduction in iOS 7, AirDrop has become the favored means for iPhone users to instantly share photos, videos, documents, and more to nearby Apple devices with relative ease. Given its widespread popularity, the feature hasn't changed all that much over the years. But this year, Apple is stepping things up a gear by bringing several new capabilities to AirDrop that should make it more powerful than ever. The following five features are coming with Apple's iOS 17 software update, which is expected to arrive in the fall. Are any of them likely to fundamentally change the way you use AirDrop? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of the article. 1. NameDrop NameDrop was Apple's headline…

Macworld You might think that connecting anonymously to a public Wi-Fi network doesn’t reveal much about you. You might be using a VPN (virtual private network) to protect everything you do. But even if you aren’t, the vast majority of websites and email servers (and pretty much all those run by companies) use client-to-server encryption. But what if you could be tracked anyway? Apple has a solution for this as it does for many tracking systems. The company’s trick lies in how Wi-Fi (and ethernet) adapters identify themselves over a local network when connecting wirelessly or via an ethernet cable. Every network adapter has a factory-assigned unique address baked in at the time of manufacture. It’s called a Media (or…

In a support document published today, Apple said certain SATA hard drives might unexpectedly disconnect from the 2023 Mac Pro after the computer wakes from sleep. Apple said it is "aware of this issue" and will fix it in a "future macOS update." While the Mac Pro is configured with SSD storage, it has SATA ports for connecting internal hard drives, and some can disconnect due to a bug. "Certain models of internal SATA drives might unexpectedly disconnect from your computer after your Mac wakes from sleep," said Apple. "This can occur if your Mac automatically goes to sleep or if you manually put your Mac to sleep. If you see a message that your disk was not ejected properly,…