While people are at the greatest risk from high temperatures during the summer season, your Mac can also be at risk. (People can be water-cooled, and no current Mac offers that option, though some have tried.) An iPhone or iPad will warn you when it detects it’s too hot before shutting down, while a Mac may simply suddenly power off. If it doesn’t power down, you may be running it too close to its maximum capability and putting a lot of additional wear in the process on components that might fail later during other seasons.

Knowing the temperature is one thing. The other is: how hot should your internal components run? Apple says you should only use a Mac when the ambient temperature–the temperature around you–is in the range of 50°F to 95°F (10° to 35°C) and 95 percent or lower humidity.

Internal components produce far more heat than the ambient temperature, with around 100°F or 40°C often the minimum at which they operate in normal indoor circumstances. CPUs, GPUs, ports, and other elements shouldn’t exceed about 192°F (89°C) for extended periods. At 212°F (100°C), the boiling temperature for water at sea level, you should either figure out what energy hogs are making your computer work that hard or shut the system down for a while. (Hint: It’s almost always a browser.) You can use the Activity Monitor app in Applications > Utilities to look at Energy Impact in the Energy column for more particulars.

Monitoring the Mac’s temperature

Modern Macs have an inordinate number of power sensors to detect problems and manage fan speeds in models that contain them–I count 34 using one tool on an M1 Mac mini. These sensors can be monitored with the right knowledge or software. (Also read: Why is my Mac fan so loud).

On some Intel Macs, you can use Terminal or a free utility for basic temperature monitoring. In Terminal enter the following command and press return:

sudo powermetrics --samplers smc |grep -i "CPU die temperature"

(Note that those quotation marks are straight double-quotes.) Enter your administrative password when prompted. This will provide a continuous temperature reading of the CPU’s temperature. Press Control-C to stop the monitoring.

You can also install the free app Fanny (not the most perfect name for U.K. and other Commonwealth Mac owners), which offers a simple drop-down set of information in the menu bar or as a notifications widget. Details include the average CPU and GPU temperatures along with current fan speeds.

For any Intel Mac and M-series Mac, the utility TG Pro ($20 but often on sale for $10) provides detailed monitoring and fan control. You can see the temperature recorded by every sensor in your Mac and for hard disks and SSDs that support the industry-standard SMART diagnostics. Information and controls are available both in a standard app window and a drop-down menu bar. That bar shows the highest port and CPU temperature and the current fan rotation.

You can also monitor the speed of internal fans and override Apple’s settings. This includes creating rules for when fans run and how fast they run. The app comes with a preset rule that turns the blades up to their maximum rotation if the highest temperature of any CPU parameter is at least 158°F (70°C).

Best Mac Temperature Monitoring apps

TL;DR: iScanner is an iOS app that scans, edits, and organizes any document, and a lifetime subscription is only $25 for Deal Days.

Most phone scanning apps either upload your files to a cloud service or charge a monthly fee for basic features. iScanner skips both, running locally on iOS or Android and turning your phone into a full document scanner with no subscription attached. A lifetime subscription is on sale for $24.97 (reg. $199.90) during Deal Days.

Scanning works on contracts, receipts, ID cards, tax forms, handwritten notes, books, and just about anything else flat enough to point a camera at. The AI handles the cleanup automatically. Borders get detected, skewed pages straighten out, and text recognition kicks in across more than 20 languages. Exports come out as PDF, JPG, DOC, XLS, PPT, or TXT, so a scan can drop straight into the format you actually need it in.

A full PDF editor lets you sign documents manually, blur sensitive text before sharing, add watermarks, merge multi-page files, and lock confidential folders behind a PIN. The file manager handles folders with drag and drop, which makes finding a tax form from two years ago a lot less painful than scrolling through an unsorted gallery.

iScanner also has some little extras that desktop scanners definitely can’t manage. That includes a math solver for working through equations, an area calculator for measuring objects in the frame, an automatic count tool for repeating objects, and a built-in QR code reader.

During Deal Days, you can get an iScanner lifetime subscription on sale for $24.97.

Offer ends July 1 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Check out the rest of the Deal Days Extended collection while you can.

iScanner App: Lifetime SubscriptionSee Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Reuters reported last week that Tata Electronics in India had a “cybersecurity incident” that resulted in more than 200,000 Tata files being stolen and posted to the internet in a purported ransomware attack. We’re now learning that many of those files involved projects with Apple, and in a new report on Monday, Reuters details that the supplier lists, parts, and photos of the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro were included in those documents that can now be found on the dark web.

Tata Electronics is an electronics manufacturing company in India that is under contract with Apple to produce the iPhone. The contract is part of Apple’s effort to diversify its iPhone manufacturing, which is concentrated in China.

In Reuters’ review of the documents, they found at least six files that map the iPhone 18 Pro chips, battery, and cameras to their suppliers. The files also detail where Apple uses several suppliers for a part, and where only a few suppliers are used. Reuters states that making this information public affects Apple’s “bargaining leverage and its vulnerabilities.”

The leaked files also contain confidential watermarks and internally used code names for the iPhone 18 Pro. Reuters also found photos of “a conventional slab-shaped, grey handset with a three-rear-camera setup and the Apple logo” being used in drop tests performed at a Tata plant. In all, Reuters reports the documents detail “hundreds of parts” expected to be included in the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro models.

Apple and Tata did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment. Reuters also said that Apple is investigating the incident and “working with Tata on long-term measures,” and “is concerned about the documents being shared on the dark web as they relate to unreleased models.” 

The iPhone 18 Pro is expected to be announced at an event sometime in September. That event is also expected to feature the new iPhone Ultra, Apple’s first folding phone, but that specific model will not be available at the same time as the iPhone 18 Pro. Learn more about the iPhone 18 Pro.

Apple has released iOS 26.5.2, iPadOS 26.5.2, and macOS 26.5.2, a relatively small series of updates with no new features or bug fixes. The simple release notes for all three versions:

This update provides security fixes for your iPhone.

Those security updates are worth paying attention to, though. According to Apple’s security page, there are 29 vulnerabilities addressed in this release. Many of them are related to WebKit, which is Apple’s browser engine for Safari and is used by third-party web browsers in most of the world, too.

WebKit vulnerabilities are especially important to pay attention to because they impact almost everyone, all the time—everyone browses the web, and it’s easy to be tricked into visiting a malicious website. So we recommend anyone running iOS 26 update their iPhone or iPad as soon as they can.

Apple is also working on OS 26.6, which should release sometime in July. A third beta was released to developers today.

To update your iPhone to iOS 26.5.2

• Open Settings
• Tap General
• Tap Software Update and follow the on-screen instructions.

Like its counterparts on the other Apple devices, on September 15, 2025 macOS got a brand new look along with a new name: macOS 26. Because Apple is aligning the names of all the operating systems this year, the new version of macOS is called macOS 26 rather than macOS 16. It also takes the name Tahoe, inspired by the lake, beaches, and the ski resorts of that area of California. 

Along with a big redesign, macOS 26 brings new Continuity features to bring your iPad, iPhone, and Mac even closer together, a brand new Phone app, and more. Spotlight also gets its biggest ever update with the ability to action things like sending emails directly from Spotlight. 

macOS Tahoe might have launched, but Apple is continuing development with new features being added every couple of months – the latest update being macOS 26.5.2. You can get a first look at the new upcoming features via Apple’s developer and public betas, which are available to download if you join the beta program (we explain how to do so below).

You will find all the things you need to know about macOS Tahoe and all its new features below, including which Macs are compatible with macOS 26 and the new features you can expect, including what’s been added since the September launch, and what’s coming in the next update. Stay tuned to this superguide for everything you need to know about macOS 26 Tahoe.

What is the latest version of macOS 26 Tahoe?

• Latest version of macOS is macOS Tahoe 26.5.2, which arrived on June 29, 2026.

Apple released the first version of macOS 26 Tahoe on September 15, 2025. The release coincided with the iOS 26 update. Since then the following updates to Tahoe have been issued by Apple:

• macOS 26 – September 15, 2025
• macOS 26.0.1 – September 29, 2025 (bug fixes)
• macOS 26.1 – November 3, 2025
• macOS 26.2 – December 12, 2025
• macOS 26.3 – February 11, 2026
• macOS 25.3.1 – March 4, 2026
• macOS 26.4 – March 24, 2026
• macOS 26.4.1 – April 9, 2026
• macOS 26.5 – May 11, 2026
• macOS 26.5.1 – June 1, 2026
• macOS 26.5.2 – June 29, 2026

Wondering whether to install macOS Tahoe? Read: macOS Tahoe vs macOS Sequoia: What’s different, what’s new, and should you update?

What’s coming in the next version of macOS?

• macOS 26.6 – release date tbc

Apple is working on the next beta of macOS 26 – version 6. It may be the last major update to macOS Tahoe.

On June 8, Apple will hold its WWDC event at which the company will reveal news about what’s coming in macOS 27 later in 2026. The macOS 26.6 update is unlikely to arrive before the WWDC Keynote.

With Apple already working on the next update to macOS, we are less likely to see new features for macOS 26. Future updates to macOS 26 are more likely to relate to bug fixes and security updates, unless Apple needs to release new features for compatibility with upcoming new products.

Apple runs a developer beta as well as a public beta so that upcoming new features can be tested. Both betas are free, though the developer beta requires a free registration as a developer. Apple issues updates to the betas fairly regularly. The public beta updates tend to come a day or two after the updated developer beta. If you are interested in trying out the beta, you can join Apple’s beta program. For help installing the macOS beta, see our guide to installing the macOS beta.

New features that have arrived in macOS 26 Tahoe since launch

Development continues even after the official macOS update is released, as Apple seeks to introduce new features that missed the initial introduction date.

Below you can see all the new macOS features that have arrived with each iteration of macOS 26 since it’s initial launch in September 2025.

New features in macOS 26.5.2

This update has no new features and contains security fixes. Apple has released a support document that has the details on the security fixes.

New features in macOS 26.5.1

The macOS 26.5.1 update only contains a bug fix for M5 Macs. According to the release notes, “This update addresses an issue for enterprise users where Macs with an M5 chip could unexpectedly shut down when using certain content filtering network extensions.” No new features are included in the update.

New features in macOS 26.5

With macOS 26.5, Apple added a new option for desktop Mac owners who think it’s too difficult to reach their Mac’s power button.

A new option labeled “Start up when power is connected” now appears in the Energy section of System Settings for the Mac mini, iMac, and Mac Studio. An Apple support document explains that “Your Mac will now automatically turn on whenever you connect it to power, such as when plugging it into a power outlet or restoring power using an external power switch.” This should be helpful for those who find the on switch awkward to reach on the Mac mini.

Apple also included several features that are also in iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5:

• Maps now has Suggested Places and ads
• Power control setting in Energy for Mac mini, Mac Studio, and iMac enables you to power off or restart your Mac using assistive accessories like switches
• RCS end-to-en encryption
• Bug fixes and security enhancement

New features in macOS 26.4.1

macOS 26.4 is specific to the M5 MacBook Air and the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros released in March 2026.

It fixes an issue that can occur when using content filter extensions and connecting to a Wi-Fi network on those machines.

New features in macOS 26.4

• Battery management feature: A manual battery charge limit for MacBooks. This is a feature previously exclusive to iPhones that allows users to cap their battery charge at 80 percent, 100 percent, or any five-percent increment in between to reduce long-term wear and tear.
• Terminal warning: A new Terminal paste warning alerts users who paste in suspicious commands that scammers encourage pasting text into Terminal.
• Apple Music “Playlist Playground”: A new feature that uses Apple Intelligence to generate or edit playlists based on text prompts or a selection of songs.
• Writing Tools and Summaries: Continued integration of system-wide AI tools for proofreading and summarizing text.
• Apple Podcasts update: A new video podcast experience that utilizes HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) to allow users to switch seamlessly between watching and listening to shows.
• Apple Music update: The interface for albums and playlists has been updated so that the background color dynamically matches the album artwork.
• Freeform: The whiteboarding app has received a “Creator Studio” update, which includes new features and a refreshed app icon.
• Advanced Fingerprinting Protection: macOS 26.4 includes critical security patches and expands on privacy features like Advanced Fingerprinting Protection.
• Stolen Device Protection: This a feature, first seen on iPhone, is expected to be enabled by default starting with this release.
• Eight new emoji: Ballet Dancer, Distorted Face, Fight Cloud, Hairy Creature (Bigfoot), Landslide, Orca, Treasure Chest, and Trombone
• Rosetta 2 warnings: Support for the transition layer for Intel-based apps will end with macOS 27.

New features in macOS 26.3.1

• External Display Support: macOS 26.3.1 adds support for the 2026 models of the Studio Display and Studio Display XDR.

If you’re planning on investing in a Studio Display, you’ll need to install this update, according to the release notes. It also includes security patches and bug fixes.

New features in macOS 26.3

This update continues the refinement of the major features introduced with the initial launch of macOS 26 Tahoe. In iOS 26.3 there were a number of EU-mandated changes. It is also optimized for the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, which are due to launch. Read our iOS 26 guide for more information.

New features in macOS 26.2

macOS Tahoe 26.2, released in late 2025, introduced several specialized updates focusing on video conferencing enhancements, AI development tools, and hardware-specific performance boosts. While it was not considered a massive overhaul, it brought a few “genius” utility features that improved the daily user experience, particularly for those working in remote or low-light environments.

• Edge Light: The most prominent consumer-facing feature in macOS 26.2 is Edge Light, a virtual ring light designed to improve webcam image quality. It places a bright white border around the display to mimic a selfie ring light, significantly improving visibility in dark rooms. It uses the Neural Engine to detect the user’s face for appropriate light adjustment and can even detect the cursor to hide the light when it might interfere with navigation. Users can adjust the intensity of the light and choose between warmer or cooler color temperatures. It requires an M-series Mac, but on M4 Macs and later, the feature can be set to enable automatically when low light is detected .
• AI and Developer Enhancements: For developers and power users, macOS 26.2 introduced significant updates to machine learning frameworks and hardware clustering. Developers using the open-source MLX framework can now leverage the Neural Accelerator in the M5 chip. The update enhanced the ability to create AI clusters using the Mac Studio’s Thunderbolt 5 connectivity.
• Security Updates: Critical patches for vulnerabilities, aligning with security fixes found in iPadOS 26.2.
• Interface Polish: Continued refinement of the “Liquid Glass” UI, which introduced more translucency and visionOS-style effects across the system.
• Performance: General “under-the-hood” changes to improve system stability and responsiveness .

New features in macOS 26.1

The macOS 26.1 update includes fixes for problems with games controllers and some other issues. There are a lot more changes coming to iPhones with iOS 26.1.

New features in macOS 26.1 include:

• Liquid Glass: Ability to tone down Liquid Glass effect. Choose between clear and tinted look for increased opacity.
• AutoMix support for Apple Music over AirPlay.
• FaceTime audio improvements over low-bandwidth.
• Regional Communication Safety and Web content filters for adult websites.
• Icons: Changes to the Macintosh HD icon.
• New TV app icon with Apple TV+ rebranded to Apple TV.
• A new Results from Clipboard setting for Spotlight, where the user can turn on/off Spotlight’s ability to search and display clipboard items. Users can also set an expiration time for the clipboard and clear the Clipboard history. (Settings > Spotlight > Results from Clipboard.)

macOS 26 Tahoe problems & fixes

Some M3 Ultra Mac Studio users have reported that they are unable to install macOS Tahoe. It seems the problematic Mac Studios already had Sequoia 15.7 installed, and during the attempted installation, Tahoe would look for a driver, and when it failed to find it, it resulted in a failed installation.

The macOS 26.0.1 update addresses the initial bugs, including the Mac Studio installation bug.

macOS 26 Tahoe supported devices: Which Macs get macOS Tahoe

• Requires M-series chip or Intel-based Mac computers with a T2 Security Chip
• Apple Intelligence features require M1 or later
• No Intel support from macOS 27 onwards

When Apple updates the operating system for its devices, it sometimes means that certain models are no longer supported. The good news is that Macs that ran macOS Sonoma will be able to run the new macOS. Apple states that the base requirement includes Macs with M-series chips and Intel-based Mac computers with a T2 security chip.

Here are Macs with Apple Silicon that will be able to run macOS Tahoe:

• MacBook Air (M1/2020 and later)
• MacBook Pro (M1/2020 and later)
• iMac (M1/2021 and later)
• Mac mini (M1/2020 and later)
• Mac Studio (M1/2022 and later)
• Mac Pro (M2/2023 and later)

There are four Intel-powered Macs able to run macOS Tahoe. These models won’t support Apple Intelligence features:

• MacBook Pro (16‑inch, Intel/2019)
• MacBook Pro (13‑inch, Intel/2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• iMac (Intel/mid 2020)
• Mac Pro (Intel/2019)

Apple confirmed that this is the last version of macOS that will run on Intel Macs. 

What were the biggest changes in macOS 26 Tahoe

macOS 26 Tahoe represents one of the most significant overhauls to Apple’s desktop operating system in over a decade. The update is characterized by a dramatic visual redesign, the introduction of core mobile apps to the Mac, and a complete rethinking of system-wide tools like Spotlight.

We’ll run through each new feature in detail below, including the Liquid Glass redesign, Spotlight overhaul, new apps, new iPhone features that are coming to the Mac and more…

macOS 26 Tahoe design: Liquid Glass and other interface changes 

At WWDC in June, Apple showed off some enticing new features for macOS that will be coming later in 2025. A number of new features and interface enhancements were promised, but one of the biggest changes is coming to all of Apple’s products: a new design based on a graphical user interface that Apple is calling Liquid Glass.

Apple showed off the brand new look for macOS in the WWDC keynote. As with Apple’s other operating systems, macOS Tahoe uses Apple’s new Liquid Glass effect to create reflective, glossy elements around the interface. The Liquid Glass elements will change color to reflect the content beneath as you scroll and will dynamically react. Buttons appear more curved and less flat.

You’ll see the effect in the Dock, sidebars, toolbars, and elsewhere. The menu bar is fully transparent, and you can adjust the transparency of icons in the Dock, for example. If you don’t like the new transparent look or if it affects how well you can see items, there is a way to reduce it, and in some instances, turn it in off altogether. Read: How to reduce transparency in macOS Tahoe.

This is the first time in years that Apple has made significant changes to the visual style of macOS, and it certainly makes the OS appear more modern.

@macworld.com

Top 3 features in macOS Tahoe from WWDC #wwdc #macostahoe #fyp

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macOS Tahoe interface changes 

Apple says the design overhaul will elevate the key elements of macOS and enhance the macOS experience. The cleaner design is intended to help the user to focus on their content rather than other distractions, while elements like the translucent menu bar will make the screen feel larger. 

Users will be able to choose to add third-party apps to the menu bar and even drag widgets and buttons from the Control Centre into the menu bar, thanks to a customizable layout, similar to iOS 18. Users will also be able to add controls for their favorite apps to the Control Centre. We have a guide to how to use Control Centre in macOS Tahoe where you can read about how to add controls, remove the ones you don’t want, and arrange them in a way that makes sense for you.

Apple is taking advantage of the Liquid Glass introduction to bring some new icon designs to the Mac as well to help give macOS a fresh look. Some of the icons look drastically different, for others the changes are more subtle. The ‘hard drive’ icon will now be replaced with one that looks more like an SSD, for example.

The new icons tend to take the form of ‘squircles’. The changes may make some third party icons less recognisable. Take a look at: 21 of the new macOS Tahoe icons with new designs for the Finder, Automator, Calendar and Contacts icons among others. You can change the icons if you want, read: How to change the icon of a macOS storage device.

macOS will also gain a feature that arrived on the iPhone and iPad with iOS 18: tinted and dark app icons.

Users will be able to personalize their Mac in other ways, too, such as changing the color of folders and adding emoji or symbols to help them identify folders. Users can also pick personalised wallpapers and choose theme colors. If you want to change your folder color read: How to change folder color and add icons in Tahoe.

New dynamic screensavers will be included. One, based on the default macOS Tahoe wallpaper, depicts the landscapes of South Lake Tahoe in a stylized artistic manner, is available in both light and dark versions. See how it looks in Tahoe’s gorgeous new screen saver.

There are up to 15 other new screensavers with images of Tahoe at various time of the day, Himalayas, Goa, The Ganges and more.

macOS Tahoe Spotlight overhaul

Spotlight has always been much more than a search tool built into macOS, helping users find anything on their Macs, make calculations and conversions, and more. In macOS Tahoe, Spotlight will be able to do even more.

Spotlight’s design and functionality have been completely rethought for macOS 26, with changes that will help Mac users get things done faster.

Rather than being a single bar, on the right-hand side of the new Spotlight search box, you will find icons for things like apps, files, Shortcuts, Actions, and clipboard. Select one of these buttons, and Spotlight’s box expands to house relevant items in an easy-to-browse view. When you search for something, you’ll see relevant filters under your search terms – click one to quickly apply it.

Not only will Spotlight be the easiest way to find anything on your Mac, but in macOS 26, Spotlight will be contextually aware so it can make suggestions based on what you are doing. Search results will be listed based on their relevance to you, and it will be possible to use new filtering options for more specific search results. 

Spotlight will also have the ability to perform actions that normally require you to be inside an app. For example, you will be able to create a calendar event, begin an audio recording, or play a podcast from within Spotlight. It will even let you fill out parameters for actions, such as typing out an email message and filling in the recipient and subject. You can essentially compose an email from inside Spotlight, without opening your email app.

This will be simplified further with Quick Keys, with which you will be able to type a short string of letters to launch an action, such as typing “sm” to start sending a message to a friend. An App Intents API will make it possible for third-party developers to add Spotlight shortcuts for their applications.

One of the most exciting new arrivals in Spotlight is Clipboard History, something we have wanted for years. Instead of being limited to pasting the last copied item, you will be able to view previous text and photos you’ve copied and re-insert them as needed. Why did it take Apple so long to offer this?

Tied to the new Spotlight is the new Apps app, which replaces Launchpad, which has been a feature of Macs for more than a decade and provides users with a Home page like view of all their apps. Instead Spotlight will be the means of finding apps. This will take some adjustment, especially if you were a Launchpad user. Learn more about Apps replacing Launchpad, and if you want to get Launchpad back we have a tutorial to show you how.

macOS 26 Tahoe: New and updated apps 

There are also lots of updates coming to Apple apps that are included with iPads, iPhones, and Macs. Many of the changes are shared across all the new apps, but there are a number of Mac-specific updates coming. 

Phone app

A Phone app on the Mac is the latest Continuity feature to come to macOS. Continuity is Apple’s name for the features that work seamlessly between Macs, iPad and iPhones, these include Handoff (which enables you to start a task on one device and switch to another to finish it), Universal Clipboard (which allows you to copy something on one device and paste it on another), and Universal Control (where you can use one mouse and keyboard to interface with more than one Mac), among other features. 

With the new Phone app, users will be able to receive their calls and voicemail on the Mac. The Phone app is getting some new features of its own, including Call Screening, which is designed to help you avoid spam calls, and Hold Assist, which means you will never have to listen to hold music again.

With Call Screening, before a call is put through, an unknown caller will have to share their name and reason for calling, and you will then be provided with that information. With Hold Assist, when you join a queue to wait for a call operator and the hold music starts, you can choose to be called back. 

Live Activities

Another feature that demonstrates the interoperability between the iPhone and Mac is Live Activities.

In iOS 18, you can see a live update on your Lock Screen relating to things like a takeaway order. Live Activities show the process of a food delivery driver, for example. Now, that functionality is coming to the Mac.

It will be powered by the iPhone Mirroring function, and will take the form of an iPhone-style widget that you will see on the screen of your Mac.

Games app

The Games app is another one that is available across all three main operating system updates: iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. As with the iOS Games app, the Games app on the Mac will bring together all the games you have on your Mac (bought from the App Store, Apple Arcade and elsewhere), as well as your friends list, achievements, and leaderboards. Tabs will make it easy to find the games you and your friends are playing.

A new Game Overlay will make it easy to adjust settings for a particular game. You’ll also be able to chat with friends and ask them to play.

@macworld.com

New Mac gaming features just dropped! #wwdc25 #gaming #apple #fyp

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There is also a new Low Power Mode coming, which gamers will be able to turn on to maximise battery life when playing games. 

And in related news, Metal 4 is coming, which will enable next-gen features for Mac game developers, such as MetalFX Frame Interpolation and MetalFX De-noising. 

Shortcuts 

The Shortcuts app is getting an overhaul in macOS Tahoe.

Shortcuts is a tool for automating tasks and repetitive actions. For those with more specific needs, there is also Automator on the Mac, but Shortcuts is simple to use and available on iPhone and iPad as well.

In Tahoe, Shortcuts will be able to run workflows based on factors like time of day, or in response to an email from a specific person arriving. This functionality was previously limited to the iPhone and iPad versions.

There are new intelligent actions available that can be used to create Smart Shortcuts. Apple Intelligence and ChatGPT can be used to enhance these Shortcuts. Apple says that “Users will see dedicated actions for features like summarizing text with Writing Tools or creating images with Image Playground.”

Live Translation 

One of the most useful new features announced at WWDC is Live Translation. With Live Translation, you can text a friend who speaks a different language and have the translations appear in real time, or get instant translations during a phone call or FaceTime conference. Everyone gets their own translator. 

You’ll be able to take advantage of Live Translation in the Phone app, Messages, and FaceTime on your Mac.

Journal

The Journal app, which arrived on iOS in 2023, is coming to the Mac (and iPad).

Terminal

Terminal is getting a colorful redesign and the Liquid Glass treatment, with support for 24-bit color and the ability to use Powerline fonts.

Reminders

Reminders is getting some help from Apple Intelligence. Reminders will scan a website, note, email or other content, then decide the most relevant action items for you based on its findings. You’ll be able to use Apple Intelligence to automatically categorize your reminders into sections, making them easier to find

There are also changes coming to Safari, Messages, Photos, FaceTime, and Notes. 

Prime Day is over, but Apple’s Magic Mouse is still on sale for its absolute best price, which means you can grab one for $80, a good $20 under its MSRP. It’s the same price we saw last week during Prime Day, so it’s nice to see a deal that hasn’t expired yet since most other Apple discounts have disappeared. Plus, it’s rare to get any savings above a couple bucks on a Magic Mouse, so we’ve surprised to see this one is still around.

The best thing about Apple’s Magic Mouse is the multi-touch surface. So, instead of the clunky scroll wheel, you can just use gestures like a trackpad. You can scroll by sliding a single finger up, down, or sideways, swipe between pages with two fingers, or double-tap with two fingers to open Mission Control. 

The mouse also looks sleek, with a slim design. The foot design also makes it slide smoothly across your desk. Battery life is impressive on this tiny little thing as a single charge will power the mouse for about a month, which means you’ll rarely have to hunt for a cable. There’s a cable in the box, too, so you won’t need any extras. 

The one annoying bit about this mouse is that its charging port is on the bottom of the mouse. So, if you run out of battery mid-workday, you just have to flip it over and go take a break. It only takes a couple of minutes to get it back up and running, but still, stopping work to charge your mouse can be annoying.

But for $80, the Apple Magic Mouse is an easy pick if you want a gorgeous accessory to go with your MacBook. 

According to a filing with the European Commission, Apple has acquired Rabbit 3 Times, the makers of Play, a software development tool that allows for the creation of interactive prototypes with SwiftUI frameworks. Play was a recipient of an Apple Design Award for Innovation in 2005.

In its announcement of the 2025 award winners, which all offer “a state-of-the-art experience through novel use of Apple technologies that set them apart in their genre.” Apple describes Play’s “thoughtfully crafted user interface” as “both powerful and easy to navigate, helping designers create interactive prototypes and collaborate across Mac and iPhone, all synced in real time for seamless creativity.” The app is no longer available in the App Store.

Apple often buys companies that create software that it deems valuable to the Apple experience, or that provides core functionality. Apple has not commented on the acquisition, which was spotted by MacRumors, though the company will likely incorporate Play’s functionality into the Xcode development tools or issue it as a separate Xcode companion app.

For what it’s worth, there’s an old superstition of unknown origin, where saying “Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit” or some variation during the morning of the first day of the month ensures good luck for the rest of the month. Though I have not confirmed this, it appears that the “Rabbit 3 Times” name for the company refers to this superstition. Something to keep in mind for Wednesday morning.

For the first time in years, Apple is preparing a major shake-up to its iPhone lineup. Multiple reports suggest that the company will introduce its first foldable iPhone this fall, and Macworld has previously reported that Apple plans to position the device under a new “Ultra” branding.

Now Macworld can report that while the iPhone Ultra is expected to be announced alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models in September, it likely won’t arrive in stores at the same time.

iPhone X redux

Sources familiar with Apple’s supply chain told Macworld that while the iPhone 18 Pro models have already entered mass production, the iPhone Ultra is still undergoing production testing. Although Apple has been pushing suppliers to accelerate the process, supply chain sources don’t expect the Ultra model to be ready for a September release.

Instead, people familiar with Apple’s supply chain believe Apple is preparing a launch schedule similar to the iPhone X in 2017. While all three phones will be announced at the same event, only the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max will ship a week later, as usual, with the iPhone Ultra arriving at a later date. Back then, because of its more complex manufacturing process, the iPhone X didn’t reach stores until November, almost two months after the announcement, while the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus shipped in September.

This also lines up with a report this week from The Elec, which claimed Apple is expected to begin mass production of its foldable iPhone in late July. The report says Apple has resolved most of the challenges related to the hinge mechanism, one of the most critical components of a foldable device.

That timing matches what Macworld has heard from independent sources. While the regular Pro models are already further along in production, with few external changes from the current model, the Ultra remains behind due to its more advanced design.

Once again, this doesn’t mean that Apple will announce the iPhone Ultra at a later date, or even that it won’t take as long to ship as the iPhone X. But given that mass production hasn’t started yet, it’s quite likely that only the iPhone 18 Pro will hit stores immediately after Apple’s September event, with the Ultra following a few weeks later.

The iPhone Ultra won’t come cheap

Apple’s first foldable iPhone is also expected to be one of the most expensive devices the company has ever made.

Sources told Macworld that component costs for the iPhone Ultra are significantly higher compared to the iPhone 18 Pro models, mainly due to the foldable display and hinge mechanism. Because of this, Apple is expected to position the Ultra as a new premium tier above the Pro Max.

While details about the final price are still somewhat unclear, our sources believe prices for the iPhone Ultra could reach as high as $2,500, depending on the configuration. For comparison, the iPhone 17 Pro Max with 2TB of storage (the highest-end configuration available) costs $1,999 in the US.

Apple has already shown that it’s willing to create new price categories with Ultra products. The Apple Watch Ultra launched as a more expensive alternative to the regular Apple Watch, aimed at users who want the most advanced hardware regardless of price.

At the same time, Apple is also expected to raise prices for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max compared to the current models. Again, pricing decisions may change at the last minute, but supply chain sources estimate that the starting price will be at least $100 higher than it is today.

In that case, the price increase would be due to higher-cost RAM and flash storage. On Thursday, Apple updated the prices of its entire Mac and iPad line by $100-$500. However, iPhone prices remained unchanged, likely because Apple is holding off on a price increase until September.

Although the company could introduce a less aggressive price hike by sacrificing some of its profit margin, this week’s price adjustments show that Apple has run out of options and now needs to pass at least some of the higher costs to its customers.

More new iPhones coming early next year

While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra models are expected to be announced together in September, there will be two notable omissions: the base iPhone 18 model and the second generation of the iPhone Air.

In line with other reports, our sources reveal that Apple will break with tradition and announce the less expensive models of the new iPhones in early 2027, likely around April. In addition to the iPhone 18 and iPhone Air 2, the iPhone 18e is also expected to be announced in the first half of next year.

The three devices are still in the final stages of design and engineering and have not yet entered production testing. It’s unclear whether Apple will increase prices on these models. A phased launch would help Apple increase the iPhone’s average selling price by pushing upgraders and holiday shoppers to the most expensive models. 

It will also help put the iPhone Ultra in the spotlight. As Apple’s first foldable phone, the device represents a much bigger hardware transition than a typical yearly upgrade. The company is entering a category where competitors have spent years refining their own designs, which puts additional pressure on Apple to get the first generation right.

The iOS 27 beta already includes multiple references suggesting that the company has been preparing iOS for foldable devices, including new system behaviors related to multitasking, screen states, and hinge angles. There are also clear signs in the beta code that reference a folding phone.

At this point, it’s all but certain that Apple will unveil its first foldable iPhone later this year. The only question now is exactly when customers will be able to buy Apple’s most expensive and unique iPhone to date, and how much it will cost, and those answers are starting to become clearer.

Having held steady for months while the rest of the industry increased prices in response to the ongoing RAM crisis, Apple finally and dramatically gave way last week. Macs and iPads saw increases of anywhere from $100 to more than $500, a move the company insisted was the result of unprecedented rises in the cost of components.

Commentators questioned the magnitude of the increases but some form of price rise was inevitable. The burgeoning demand for AI server infrastructure is seeing more and more memory siphoned away from consumer electronics and into giant data centers. And a new report indicates that the situation is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

In a Twitter/X post on Sunday, the respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo discussed his latest industry checks, which make for gloomy reading for anyone planning to buy a Mac (or other Apple product) in the near future. It’s not just about high prices, either. Apple shoppers could also see delivery times lengthen as the company struggles to get enough components to meet demand.

“The memory supply-demand gap will keep widening through 2027,” Kuo writes. “Of the memory capacity allocated to consumer electronics in 2026, an estimated 15–20% is expected to shift to data centers in 2027, and that share could grow… Due to tight memory supply, Apple’s actual pull-in volume of A20 chips in 2H26–1Q27 could be 10–20% below its original target.”

Officially, the A20 chip doesn’t exist yet, but that’s the processor on which the iPhone 18 Pro will be based when it launches this fall. And that suggests that the unpopular Mac and iPad price rises could be followed by even more unpopular iPhone price rises (and/or stock shortages) in due course. This isn’t the first indicator that the RAM crisis may have a year or more still to go–one analyst recently predicted it wouldn’t start to ease until 2028–but there’s a new pessimism to the idea that it will actively get worse through next year.

Apple’s response to the situation isn’t just to raise its prices, as drastic a step as that was when it finally came. It’s also making full use of its considerable political influence, lobbying the Trump administration for clearance to buy memory from the Pentagon-blacklisted Chinese company ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT).

As Kuo notes, Apple CEO Tim Cook has rare leverage in both Washington and Beijing, but his argument that the deal needs to be finalised before Cook steps down as CEO in September may be wide of the mark. Cook will stay with the company beyond that point, and it is likely that his day-to-day duties as chairman will include more lobbying than currently, not less.

But as Kuo astutely points out, the deal doesn’t necessarily need to be signed in order for Apple to benefit: merely the attempt makes for good PR.

“Even if the effort goes nowhere,” he writes, “the media coverage can still leave the market with the impression that Apple tried but was constrained by U.S. policy. That may help ease frustration over price hikes and longer delivery times.”

Researchers at XM Cyber have discovered a method to attack a Mac without requiring a kernel exploit or bypassing macOS’s System Integrity Protection (SIP). XM Cyber has created a tool called XM Hunter as proof of the vulnerability, which will be demonstrated at the Black Hat conference in August.

To take advantage of the exploit, an attacker needs to find a way to access the Mac, either by directly accessing it, or through social engineering. The attack itself involves the installation of a legitimately signed app, and when macOS caches the app’s trust fingerprint, the attacker can go in and modify the app bundle with a malicious payload. According to the company, the attack “does not trigger standard exploit signatures or leave obvious event log artifacts.”

XM Cyber reports that the exploit could be used even with enterprise endpoint security tools running on the target Mac, and because the issue stems from macOS, tools such as CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor and Kandji MDM Agent did not detect the exploit at the time. CrowdStrike and Kandji have since updated their software to provide further protection to macOS. Apple has not publicly responded to XR Cyber’s findings.

A CrowdStrike spokesperson sent the following statement to Macworld: “The technique exploits a macOS issue, and we have detections and preventions in place for the Falcon sensor.”

How to protect yourself

The easiest way to protect yourself from an attack like this is to avoid downloading software from download sites you are not familiar with. Do not install software for someone you don’t know or someone who is not authorized to provide support to you. Never open links in emails or texts you receive from unknown and unexpected sources. If you get a message that looks like it is from an entity that you do business with, check the sender’s email address and inspect the URL carefully. If you see a link or button, you can Control-click it, select Copy Link Address, and then paste it into a text editor to see the actual URL to check it there.

Apple has vetted software in the Mac App Store, and it is the safest way to get apps. If you prefer not to patronize the Mac App Store, then buy software directly from the developer and their website. If you insist on using cracked software, you will always risk malware exposure.

Macworld has several guides to help, including a guide on whether or not you need antivirus software, a list of Mac viruses, malware, and trojans, and a comparison of Mac security software.

Apple has protections in place within macOS, and the company releases security patches through OS updates, so it’s important to install them when they are available. If Apple pulls back an update, the company will reissue it as soon as it is properly revised with corrections.

Apple raised MacBook prices last week by hundreds of dollars, but you can still get a good deal on one if you’re vigilant. Over at Amazon right now, Apple’s 14-inch MacBook Pro with the new M5 chip is selling for $1,650, which is $350 under Apple’s newly increased MSRP and $50 less than it cost before prices went up. That’s a decent discount on a brand-new MacBook, and that’s enough to make this a tempting upgrade. 

The M5 chip is what makes this laptop a must-buy for folks who want to do it all. This chip brings a faster CPU and a more powerful GPU than previous models, complete with a Neural Accelerator built into each core. This means that any AI tasks you want to complete will be done a lot faster, including the upcoming Apple Intelligence features with new Siri AI built into macOS 27. Pair that with all-day battery life, and you’ve got a machine that flies through video and photo editing, multitasking, and everyday creative projects without breaking a sweat.

The 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display is fantastic in any lighting situation, hitting 1600 nits peak brightness with great contrast. Photos, videos, and anything you’re looking at will look vivid and accurately colored. You also get three Thunderbolt 4 ports, MagSafe 3 charging, HDMI, a card slot, as well as support for two external displays.

While this is a laptop we love, we do have to be honest about one thing. Just last week, Prime Day had this one for $100 less. It was also last week that Apple decided to make everything more expensive, including this MacBook Pro. Last week, today’s price would have only been $50 under its MSRP. But we don’t expect to see those prices return anytime soon, so for now, this is as good as it gets.

Grab the MacBook Pro M5 for $1,650, a solid pick if you want a powerful, future-ready MacBook Pro that mixes speed with a gorgeous display and a fantastic performance across the board. 

Price When Reviewed

99.99

Best Prices Today: Logitech Signature Comfort Plus Combo

Logitech’s MX range includes some of the best mice and keyboards available for the Mac, but with individual devices costing well over $100, they’re far from cheap. By contrast, the Signature Comfort Plus Combo pairs a keyboard and mouse for just $99.99/£99.99, while the M850L mouse is also available separately for $49.99/£49.99. Like the MX mice, however, it’s only available in a right-handed design.

The Signature Comfort Plus Combo is aimed at budget-conscious professionals who spend long hours at a desk. Its comfortable ergonomics and extensive customisation features outweigh compromises such as the right-handed-only mouse and replaceable batteries, making it an excellent value choice for most office users.

How comfortable is the Comfort Plus Combo?

Logitech states that the Comfort Plus Combo is “designed for comfort” and is aimed at people who spend long hours every day working with their mouse and keyboard. The Comfort Plus keyboard doesn’t have the ‘split’ design of ergonomic keyboards – such as Logitech’s own Ergo model – which are split into two sections that are placed at an angle in order to reduce strain on the wrists, but it does have a smoothly curved surface and a built-in wrist-rest that allow you to rest your hands in a more natural and comfortable position while typing.

That may be a matter of personal preference for some people, but I found that typing on the Comfort Plus keyboard felt quite natural, and while the plastic keyboard isn’t as solidly built as the more expensive MX Keys from Logitech, the keys do travel well and felt firm and responsive as I began taking notes for this review. The keys aren’t too loud either, which is something that I find irritating with some less expensive keyboards.

The buttons on the Comfort Plus mouse are designed to be silent too – although it’s more accurate to say that they’re very quiet, rather than completely silent. At first glance, the Comfort Plus mouse looks like a slightly smaller version of the MX Master, with the same distinctive ridged pattern on the surface, with Left/Right buttons and a scrolling wheel on the top panel, and two buttons for your thumb on the left-side of the mouse. It doesn’t have the second scrolling wheel of the MX mouse, but the Comfort Plus mouse does introduce one new feature in the form of a soft, spongy ‘palm cushion’ that is supposed to support your hand during long hours of use.

To be honest, I barely noticed the palm cushion while using the mouse myself, so I’m not convinced that this is a particularly important innovation. However, I did find that the lower profile of the Comfort Plus fit my palm more comfortably, with the top panel of the mouse not bulging upwards as much as that of the MX Master.

But, as mentioned, there’s no left-handed version of the Comfort Plus mouse, and Logitech’s oft-repeated boast about ‘extending human potential’ rings rather hollow when it only applies to right-handed people (needless to say, there’s one or two lefties here at Macworld).

How does it connect and what’s missing?

The low cost of the Comfort Plus Combo does involve a few compromises. The Comfort Plus keyboard and mouse both rely on Bluetooth for a wireless connection. They can’t be used in wired mode with a USB-C cable, and the standard version of the Combo doesn’t include Logitech’s Bolt USB adaptor, which provides a more reliable and secure wireless connection than Bluetooth. However, Logitech has stated that it will release a Business Edition of the Comfort Plus Combo that includes the Bolt adaptor for $109.99/£109.99.

The lack of USB means that the keyboard and mouse don’t include a rechargeable battery either. Logitech does include replaceable batteries in the box though, and states that both keyboard and mouse should last for ‘up to 24 months’ before the batteries need to be replaced.

You can pair the keyboard and mouse with your Mac or mobile devices using the standard Bluetooth Settings panel, and they can pair with up to three different devices, allowing you to share the keyboard and mouse with a Mac and an iPad, or a PC and switch between them as required.

The biggest omissions are practical rather than deal-breaking. The keyboard and mouse rely entirely on Bluetooth, with no wired USB mode for charging or use. They also use replaceable batteries instead of rechargeable ones, while Logitech’s more secure Bolt USB receiver is only included with the Business Edition.

What can you customise with Logi Options+?

Logitech sometimes prefers to call itself Logi for some reason, and the app that controls its mice and keyboards is called Logi Options+. You don’t need to download the Options+ app to get started, as both mouse and keyboard can pair with your Mac or mobile devices using a standard Bluetooth connection. However, the Options+ app allows you to adjust a wide range of settings and controls, such as the Function keys on the Comfort Plus keyboard, or the side buttons on the mouse.

Business users can set up the keyboard with shortcuts for apps such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams, while creative users can create shortcuts to work with Photoshop or other design tools.

The Options+ app provides similar features for the buttons on the mouse, allowing you to assign commands such as Forward/Back to the thumb buttons for use with a web browser. There are also the inevitable AI features, such as an AI Prompt Builder that can be triggered with a mouse button or keyboard command to start typing out a prompt for your vibe-coding sessions.

Is the Logitech Signature Comfort Plus Combo MK880 worth buying?

The MX range offers better build quality, rechargeable batteries, wired USB support and extra productivity features, so it’s worth the upgrade for demanding users.

However, most right-handed office workers will find the Comfort Plus Combo comfortable, customisable and good value. The lack of rechargeable batteries is disappointing, but replacing them every couple of years shouldn’t be too much of a chore.

There’s a reason why so many Apple enthusiasts love the Shortcuts app. Like Automator on the Mac, it’s one of the most powerful tools on your iPhone. With Shortcuts, you can automate simple tasks or even create complex workflows that link multiple apps and actions together—if you know how to use it.

The problem with Shortcuts is that it’s complicated, and most users have no idea how to use it. Even if you consider yourself an advanced user, there are so many options within Shortcuts that finding the one you need can take quite a while.

With iOS 27, Apple is finally building Shortcuts for everyone. With a complete revamp of the Shortcuts experience, Apple is using AI to make Shortcuts drop-dead simple to use without sacrificing any of its power.

Shortcuts have always been anything but short

Since acquiring the Workflow app in March 2017 and turning it into Shortcuts a few months later, Apple has spent years building an incredible automation platform. For those who use it, Shortcuts has become an incredible tool over the past 10 years and is one of my favorite tools on iOS.

The possibilities are endless. You can create a shortcut that automatically turns on Low Power Mode when your battery reaches a level other than 20 percent, or something much more complex that detects when you’ve arrived home to turn on the lights and play a specific playlist on your HomePod.

Here, for example, I have a shortcut that detects when my iPhone is plugged in to enable Always-on Display. When I unplug my phone, it instantly turns off the feature to save battery life. Others use Shortcuts to change app icons, system sounds, rename files, summarize meetings, and much more.

But the thing is, the Shortcuts app has always been a bit intimidating for the average user. If you had no idea where to start, using the app could feel like you need to understand programming. There are actions, variables, conditions, app integrations, triggers, and automation logic. Even relatively simple shortcuts can require digging through long lists of actions and hoping you selected the correct ones in the right order.

The app can do amazing things, but most users simply haven’t figured out how to access them. That’s why Apple’s new AI-powered Shortcuts experience in iOS 27 may end up being one of the most important Apple Intelligence features announced at WWDC 2026.

Shortcuts is now built entirely around Apple Intelligence

As part of iOS 27, the new Shortcuts app is built entirely around Apple Intelligence. Instead of having to search for actions and triggers, users can now describe automations in natural language and let Apple Intelligence assemble the workflow automatically.

For example, you can now ask Shortcuts to automatically open a specific app when you connect your iPad to the Magic Keyboard, turn on the porch lights when your food delivery is on its way, or even set your morning alarm based on your first calendar event the next day, all using natural language. There’s no need to navigate through complex controls anymore.

And even more importantly, you can continue refining your shortcuts conversationally. If something doesn’t work exactly the way you want, you can simply describe the adjustment instead of manually rebuilding the automation yourself. That changes everything and makes it a tool anyone can understand and master.

Apple is so confident about using AI in Shortcuts that the new interface for creating a shortcut starts by asking the user what they want to create, rather than showing all the available actions and an overwhelming series of menus. With the new Shortcuts, Apple Intelligence essentially becomes a translator between users and automations.

Of course, if you still want to manually create your own shortcut, that option is still available. But starting with a draft generated by Apple Intelligence is definitely more effortless than starting from scratch.

iOS 27 brings AI where it matters most

When it comes to Apple Intelligence features, some of them have always seemed a bit abstract. Sure, it’s always fun to watch demos of Genmoji and Image Playground, but these are features that most people will probably try once or twice and then forget they exist.

With iOS 27, Apple seems to be finally implementing AI where it matters most, and the new Shortcuts app is a great example.

Unlike many AI products, this feature doesn’t require users to completely change how they interact with their devices. People already describe tasks naturally in everyday language. Shortcuts simply turns those descriptions into functioning automations.

Honestly, this feels like one of the first Apple Intelligence features that could fundamentally change how average users interact with iOS. This also applies to the new Siri AI, which understands what the user wants, rather than forcing you to use specific language to talk to the assistant.

Apple isn’t just adding new AI features to iOS. It’s using Apple Intelligence to reduce the friction between users and more complex tasks. And if it works the way Apple claims, Shortcuts might finally stop being a niche tool and become something that many iPhone users will rely on every day.

iOS 27 will be released this fall. For now, only a developer beta is available, with a public beta set to be released next month.

By my count, Apple’s flirtation with affordability lasted a total of 113 days. I hope you enjoyed it.

The MacBook Neo was announced on March 4, shocking customers and PC makers with its bargain price tag of just $599. The company widely known (albeit slightly unfairly) for its expensive products had finally learned, almost 50 years after its founding, how to sell a bargain.

But what can be learned can quickly be unlearned. On June 25, Apple took down its webstore for a short while and, when it came back online, customers saw to their dismay that prices across the iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and HomePod lines had risen dramatically. The Neo went up from $599 to $699, but that was the least of it: the iPad Air went up by $150, the Mac mini by $200, and the MacBook Pro by $300 (or more). The entry-level Mac Studio went up by a startling $500.

Apple didn’t do this on a whim, of course. In a press release, the company justified the hikes by saying it had “never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly. We have shielded our customers from these increases so far, but we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products.”

It’s hard to find fault with the core of that argument. The escalating RAM crisis has seen consumer tech prices rise relentlessly across the industry, yet Apple customers have (as I’ve discussed in previous columns) been almost completely insulated from the situation. We’ve been spoiled. But did we deserve to be punished this severely when the price rises finally arrived? That’s debatable.

The MacBook Neo’s 16.7 percent rise may be justified because the profit margin on products in that category tends to be tight; if the cost of the RAM doubles or even triples, there’s very little wiggle room in the rest of the spec to absorb that increase, and you can quickly find yourself selling at cost or even at a loss. But it’s hard to view the 25 percent bump on the Mac Studio with M4 Max, a premium product set up for low volume but very high margin, as anything other than greed.

We should bear in mind, too, that Apple hasn’t been “shielding” us from price rises out of the goodness of its heart. It simply had the market leverage to insist that suppliers prioritize Apple products when allocating components. Losing a contract with Apple is such a catastrophe that the company can insist on preferential treatment, and thereby maintain its margins without having to raise prices. The fact that Apple has now raised prices so dramatically doesn’t mean that it couldn’t cope with low margins any longer, but rather it indicates that it didn’t want to put up with low margins at all.

More than almost any other company in the world, Apple–with its fat reserves of cash and enviably high margins–had the capacity to take the hit on this one. Putting the prices up at this moment and to this extent was a choice.

Perhaps, however, it was a smart choice. Partly because the RAM crisis doesn’t show signs of abating any time soon. One memory manufacturer said last week that the situation may not start to ease until 2028. The prospect of coping with slimmer margins for 18 months or more must have seemed rather unappetizing.

But it also speaks to the executive moves inside Apple Park. He may not like things this way, but one of the company’s biggest stories this year is Tim Cook himself, and his looming resignation from the CEO hot seat. By announcing the big price hikes now, Cook puts his own face on the policy decision, as ever proving himself willing to look bad for the sake of the company.

The last thing John Ternus would want, upon taking the helm in September, would be to announce price changes doomed to be unpopular with customers and shareholders. Instead, he gets to avoid all blame for the new prices, then play good cop and announce cuts when the market turns a corner. Or play the morally neutral cop: sit back and quietly enjoy these prices becoming the new normal without it being his fault.

Five-dimensional chess, or overthinking it? Who can say. But no matter what happens over the next couple of years, the one thing you can guarantee is that Apple will always find a way to make money. It’ll take a lot more than a long-running components shortage to stop that.

Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.

Trending: Top stories

As Apple starts a new era, Jason Snell’s comes to an end. He takes a look back and a look forward in his last column for Macworld.

I hate AI, but even I can’t wait to try these 10 iPhone features.

Apple is doomed just as everyone is loving iOS 27, sobs the Macalope.

iOS 27’s Shortcuts is AI at its best, writes Felipe Esposito.

Apple’s new CEO plots ‘major design shake-up’.

Podcast of the week

Apple has released beta versions of Siri AI, its digital assistant that uses AI technology. In the latest episode of the Macworld Podcast, we talk about our experiences with Siri AI: what it’s like, what it does right, what it does wrong, and a lot more.

You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.

Reviews corner

• AirPods Max 2: Too little, too late.
• LaCie 8Big Pro5: Gargantuan capacity and Thunderbolt 5 speed.

The rumor mill

Folding iPhone is reportedly on track with ‘most’ hinge issues resolved.

iPhone 18 and Ultra to have separate launches, sources confirm.

tvOS 27 beta leaks clues that Siri AI is coming to future Apple TVs and HomePods.

Report: Apple to skip M6 Pro/Max chips, fast-track M7 for local AI.

Video of the week

@macworld.com

Wait…Siri actually did something correctly?

♬ original sound – Macworld – Macworld

Wait…Siri actually did something correctly? Yes it did! For more short videos, follow us on TikTok and Instagram.

Software updates, bugs, and problems

$4B iCloud class action suit gets OK to proceed to U.K. court.

Another iMessage feature is coming to green bubble chats in iOS 27.

macOS 27 Golden Gate makes naming files easier than ever.

And with that, we’re done for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters, including our new email from The Macalope–an irreverent, humorous take on the latest news and rumors from a half-man, half-mythical Mac beast. You can also follow us on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, or X for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.

If you want to add some quick edits to a photo or video, Apple’s free Mac apps—Photos and Preview—can do a good job, but for anything more advanced you’ll need a dedicated image editing app like Adobe’s Photoshop. For years now it has been the industry standard, due to its wide range of features and capabilities, but it does come with a substantial subscription fee that might be a bit too much for the casual user.

Here’s how to get a copy of Photoshop on your Mac, or, failing that, the next best thing. Plus, because you can’t beat free, we’ll also explain your options for getting Photoshop on Mac at no cost, as well as rounding up the Best Mac free image and photo editors.

If you’d like to get the same software on your tablet, read How to get Photoshop on iPad.

How to get Photoshop free on a Mac: Adobe Express

As Photoshop is professional-grade software, you won’t be able to get the full version for free aside from the 7-day trial that we’ll cover below. However, Adobe does offer a stripped down version that covers a lot of the same ground if your demands aren’t too high. Adobe Express is a free, online web app that offers a range of editing tools, such as the ability to crop, reshape, flip, and recolor images.

You can also add text (there are plenty of templates and fonts to choose from), make the background of an image transparent, quickly put together collages, and generally improve the style and form of your photos and videos. Adobe Express comes with access to 1 million+ royalty-free stock images you can use for posters or social media content, plus you get 5GB of storage.

If you want more advanced features, including Generative AI for instantly creating images, removing backgrounds in video, one-click resizing, a much larger selection of stock images, not to mention 100GB of storage, then you can sign up to Adobe Express Premium for $9.99/£9.98 p/m, with the option to cancel at any time. There’s also a free 30-day trial so you can see if Premium gives you all the Photoshop capabilities you need, without spending any money.

If you’re happy to work online rather than with a dedicated app, and you’re not after the high-end editing features, either Adobe Express or Adobe Express Premium are probably the ones to go for, plus you have those trials to ensure whether the tools you need for your particular workflows are included.

How to get full Photoshop for free

If you want to use the full version of Photoshop, then there is the aforementioned free trial, or you could sign up to a short-term subscription to at least keep the costs down.

Trial: The first option is a Photoshop trial. There is a 7-day free trial that gives you access to the full program, with no restrictions.

While Adobe advertises the free 7-day trial, you can actually get 14 days free, because you can cancel within 14 days of your initial order and get fully refunded. In fact, you could, theoretically, get 21 days free if you had the trial and then canceled your subscription after 13 days. Don’t forget though, as you’re then liable to pay 50% of the entire 1yr contract if you miss the deadline.

Monthly subscription: The second option is signing up for a subscription on a monthly rather than an annual basis. This won’t give you Photoshop for free, but the option will allow you to access all the features of the software on a shorter-term basis, then cancel when you no longer need it. We’ll run through the various subscription options in the sections below.

To explain how it works we need to explain the difference between Adobe’s two monthly subscription packages: one is cheaper ($22.99/£21.98 a month) because it is part of an annual plan; the other is a more expensive option ($34.49/£32.98 a month), but you can cancel without having to pay Adobe anything.

Adobe doesn’t list these options on the site, instead you have to click the Buy Now button then you can select from the three options: Annual – Billed monthly, Monthly, and Annual – Billed upfront.

Photoshop with 100GB of cloud storage	U.S.	U.K.
Annual plan paid monthly	$22.99	£21.98
Annual plan paid upfront	$263.88	£262.51
Monthly plan (cancel at any time)	$34.49	£32.98
	Buy it here	Buy it here

Adobe explains the legal terms of the various contracts here. Basically, if you sign up for the cheaper ‘annual contract, paid monthly’ and then choose to end your subscription you will be able to do so, but if you end the contract after the first 14 days “you’ll be charged a lump sum amount of 50% of your remaining contract obligation and your service will continue until the end of that month’s billing period.”

This is a slightly better scenario than if you were paying annually—in that case, your contract will continue to the end of the term. You wouldn’t get any money back.

This is why the best option, in this case, is to sign up for a month-to-month contract. In this case, the contract will automatically renew every month, but should you choose to cancel (we explain how to cancel below) you will be able to use Photoshop until the end of that month, at which point your contract will cease.

If you need Photoshop, but you don’t want to tie yourself into a contract with Adobe, this could be the best option for you. However, you should note that you will lose access to anything you have saved in Adobe’s cloud after 90 days.

If these options aren’t quite what you’re after, you can always look for alternatives to Photoshop, as there are some excellent apps currently available. We also have a round-up of the Best Mac free image and photo editors, which includes options such as Seashore and Gimp.

How to get Photoshop on a Mac without an annual subscription

If you were hoping to buy a copy of Photoshop to own, as in not paying on a subscription basis, we have some bad news for you: Adobe no longer sells what is known as a ‘perpetual license’ for Photoshop and its other apps.

There is one option though: you can buy Photoshop Elements. Photoshop Elements is designed for amateur rather than pro photographers, but it does offer a number of photo editing features that might be sufficient for your needs. One very important thing to note though is that Adobe has changed how Elements works, so that when you make your purchase you’re only getting a 3-year licence. That means, once the three years are up, the app will stop working, although you’ll still be able to access all of the work you created.

You can buy a copy of Photoshop Elements directly from Adobe’s website for $99.99/£86.99. (Buy Photoshop Elements from Adobe). See our review of Photoshop Elements for more information.

You can also buy Photoshop Elements on the Mac App Store for $99.99/£99.99.

The benefit of Photoshop Elements is that you can buy it outright and install it on your Mac. You will have access to features like masks, layers, colorisation, image manipulation and other useful, more consumer-level effects with Elements.

If you’re a creative professional though, or are used to the full-blown version of Photoshop, then you may find too many tools missing from the box. If you want to take a look there’s also a 7-day free trial of Photoshop Elements so you can take the software for a test run.

If you don’t care about how up-to-date your software is you might be interested in buying a secondhand copy of Photoshop, or an old Mac with Photoshop installed. Just be aware that Adobe doesn’t support all older versions in terms of updates, so the ones you find might not be compatible with later iterations of macOS, plus newer Macs won’t run old versions of Photoshop.

You’ll also need to confirm that the software license hasn’t already been used, as usually these are non-transferable. And generally, we would advise against buying a used Mac (unless it’s certified refurbished).

For more information read: What version of macOS can my Mac run?

If a subscription to Photoshop isn’t for you, and Photoshop Elements isn’t enough, we recommend you look at alternatives to Photoshop, many of which have comparable features with the benefit of being available to buy outright. The best options include Apple’s own PixelMator Pro, Affinity Photo and others. See: Best Photoshop alternatives for Mac.

Is there an education discount for Photoshop?

There is one other way you can save money while getting a copy of Photoshop for your Mac.

If you are in education then you may qualify for a discount. However, you can’t sign up for a reduced price on the Photoshop-only tier, you have to get the entire Creative Cloud collection, which includes Photoshop and a large collection of other Adobe apps. The student and teacher deal for Creative Cloud does represent quite a hefty reduction.

At the time of writing, Students and Teachers pay $19.99/£16.24 a month, which is around 70% less than the normal subscription rate but requires a 12-month contract.

Note that at the end of your offer term your subscription will be automatically billed at the standard subscription rate, currently at US$39.99/£32,99 a month, unless you change or cancel your subscription.

Eligible students of 13+ and teachers can purchase an annual membership to Adobe Creative Cloud for a reduced price of US$239.88/£193.82 per year for the first year. At the end of the offer term, the subscription will be automatically billed at the standard subscription rate, currently at US$479.88/£392.98 a year, unless you change or cancel your subscription.

Photoshop for Mac price

If you have accepted that you need to pay for a subscription to Photoshop you will want to know how much it costs. There’s not actually a straightforward answer: it depends on how you want to buy it.

Whether you love or hate the subscription model, there are a few options to choose from if you want to get a copy of Photoshop:

Photoshop: If you just want the single Photoshop app you can have that for $22.99/£21.98 a month if you sign up for a year, or $34.49/£30.34 a month if you just pay on a monthly basis. Sign up on Adobe’s website.

Photography Plan: However, the Photography Plan is actually the best deal. It includes Photoshop, Lightroom (for web and mobile), and Lightroom Classic (for desktop), plus 1TB of storage. The bundle costs $19.99/£19.98 a month on a contract for a year. Adobe has now included a monthly option for $29.99/£28.99 a month that you can cancel at any time. Sign up on Adobe’s website.

Plan: Photography Plan with 1TB cloud	U.S.	U.K.
Annual plan paid monthly	$19.99	£19.97
Annual plan paid upfront	$239.88	£238.46
Monthly plan (cancel at any time)	$29.99	£28.99
	Buy it here	Buy it here

Business: If you are a business user you ought to sign up for the Business option where you can get a single Photoshop license for $37.99/£27.99 ex VAT a month per license. It’s worth noting that all the Adobe CC apps, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and Acrobat, cost $99.99/£73.33 (ex VAT) per license a month. Sign up on Adobe’s website. 

How to cancel a Photoshop subscription

The ease with which you can end your Photoshop contract is one of the benefits of Adobe’s decision to switch from selling copies of Photoshop outright to a subscription model.

It also means that you only need to pay for Photoshop for as long as you need it. So if it’s just for a short-term project you can unsubscribe as soon as the work is done.

Here’s how to cancel your subscription:

1. Sign in to the Adobe web page where plans are managed.
2. Sign in to your Adobe account.
3. Under the My Plans tab find Manage Plan (or View plan) and click on that.
4. Now click on Cancel plan.
5. Give your reason for cancellation.
6. Click on Continue.

Best alternatives to Photoshop on Mac?

There is plenty of great photo and image editing software available on macOS, many of which come with lower price tags than Adobe products. One of our favorites is the free Affinity from Canva, which boasts a wide range of powerful tools and a friendly interface—you can pay for extra Canva premium plans that offer powerful AI tools.

Another popular choice is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), which is completely free and comes with an incredible range of tools and features. The interface can take a little getting used to, which is not uncommon with open-source software, but once you get to know your way around, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve. There’s also a large collection of tutorials for the software on YouTube, so if you’re willing to put in the time then it’s a powerful suite that will cost you nothing at all.

We also recommend you read Best Mac for photo editing.

You may also be interested in: How to get Adobe Illustrator on a Mac and How to get InDesign on a Mac.

TL;DR: Get Microsoft Office Home & Business 2021 for Mac as a one-time purchase instead of a subscription. You get lifetime access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more for $39.97 (MSRP $219) through a limited Deal Days extension ending July 1.

If recurring software fees and constant renewal reminders are getting old, this one-time offer on Microsoft Office Home & Business 2021 for Mac is a clean switch for your setup. Through July 1, you get a lifetime license for core Microsoft Office apps with no subscriptions, no surprise costs, and no ongoing billing — all for $39.97 (MSRP $219) during an extension of the Deal Days promotion through July 1, an alternative to Prime Day.

Apps included:

• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• Outlook
• Teams (basic)
• OneNote (free version)

That’s basically everything you need to handle work projects, personal tasks, or school assignments like a pro. It’s perfect for students, families, or small business owners who want a dependable, full-featured productivity suite without ongoing costs.

Once you purchase, you’ll get instant delivery of your redemption code via email, along with instructions to activate it. The license connects to your Microsoft Account (not your device), and it works on one Mac for the lifetime of the product. It also comes with updates and free customer service.

Just make sure you redeem the code within 7 days of purchase, and note that this version is not compatible with virtual machines like Parallels Pro.

Skip the subscriptions — get a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Home & Business for Mac 2021 while this $39.97 deal is extended until July 1.

Microsoft Office Home & Business for Mac 2021: Lifetime LicenseSee Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

If you’re just finding out that Apple raised the price of the MacBook Neo to $699 and you’re scrambling to find it for $599, you’re running out of time. Amazon no longer has it in stock, which means the next time you see it there, it will be $699. The Apple Certified Refurbished Store is sold out, and there’s no telling when it will get new inventory. (The refurb store does have MacBook Airs and Pros in stock.) Best Buy is selling the Neo at the new prices, and B&H doesn’t carry it.

It looks like your last resort is Walmart, which has the $599 MacBook Neo in Blush, Citrus, and Indigo in stock. The Silver model is sold out. This is the model with a 256GB SSD and without Touch ID. If you want the MacBook Neo with a 512GB SSD and Touch ID, Walmart has it in Citrus, Indigo, and Silver for the old price of $699. Apple also raised the price of this model by $100, to $799.

Act now, because this laptop is sure to sell out soon, and when Walmart gets new inventory, it’ll be at the new $699/$799 prices.

TL;DR: PDF Expert is a Mac PDF editor that lets you edit, sign, annotate, convert, and manage documents with ease. It’s now $79.99 for a lifetime license (MSRP $139.99), with no subscription required.

If you deal with PDFs at all, you’ve probably run into how annoying and limited many editors can feel. PDF Expert is a Mac-only app that makes handling PDFs far more seamless and natural, and it’s currently just $79.99 (MSRP $139.99) for a lifetime subscription.

With a lifetime subscription, you can edit PDFs without restrictions. Need to fix a typo, drop in a new logo, or update a paragraph? It’s all easy to do. You can even add links, fill out forms, and sign documents in just a few clicks. The layout is clean and intuitive, which makes a big difference if you’re used to complicated or slow PDF tools.

For reviewing files, PDF Expert gives you everything from highlights and pop-up notes to custom stamps. You can combine multiple PDFs into one, rearrange pages, or split out just the parts you need. It also handles file conversions, so you can turn PDFs into Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, images, or PowerPoint slides.

One of the best features is the built-in OCR. If you’ve ever scanned a document and realized you couldn’t search or copy the text, this fixes that. It even enhances scan quality and lets you crop pages or remove extra margins.

PDF Expert works on macOS 12 or later and is yours for life. It includes ongoing support and bug fixes. If you’re tired of clunky PDF editors or subscription models that never end, this may be the move.

Right now, it’s only $79.99 to get a PDF Expert Premium lifetime plan.

PDF Expert Premium Plan: Lifetime Subscription (Mac)See Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Get a full year of Intuit QuickBooks on sale for $299.99.

Small businesses pay a steady drip of monthly fees for tools that used to live on a single computer, and accounting software is one of the worst offenders. Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus 2024 for Mac is a simpler alternative without the monthly fee, and right now, you can get a full year subscription on sale for $299.99 (reg. $536).

QuickBooks runs natively on macOS Monterey or newer, on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, so the app sits on your hard drive instead of behind a browser login. Day-to-day work covers what most small businesses spend their time on. Send invoices, log expenses against the right project, manage purchase and sales orders, and pull reports whenever tax season or a slow Tuesday calls for a closer look at the numbers.

Job costing tracks profitability project by project, useful for contractors or agencies billing multiple clients at once. A landscaper running three jobs at once can see which one is actually paying and which one is quietly bleeding into a loss. Inventory tracking handles stock and costs for product businesses, and fixed asset management runs depreciation on equipment without anyone needing to open a spreadsheet.

Right now, it’s only $299.99 to get an Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus 1-year subscription.

Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus 2024 for Mac (1 User): 1-Year SubscriptionSee Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Learn 14 languages for life: Grab a Babbel Lifetime Subscription for $134.99 (reg. $299) with the StackSocial code LEARN through June 28.

If your vacation plans include more than pointing at menu items and hoping for the best, this exclusive Babbel offer is worth a look.

As part of our Deal Days sale running through June 28—our answer to Prime Day—you can get a Babbel Language Learning Lifetime Subscription for just $134.99 (reg. $299) with the StackSocial code LEARN. The offer is available to new users in the United States.

Babbel isn’t about memorizing random phrases you’ll never use. The platform was built by more than 100 expert linguists and focuses on practical conversations you’ll actually have while traveling, working, dining out, shopping, or navigating a new city.

In fact, many learners can begin holding basic conversations within as little as a month. Imagine confidently ordering dinner in Rome, asking for directions in Paris, or chatting with locals in Barcelona without immediately reaching for a translation app.

The lifetime subscription includes access to all 14 available languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, and English.

Lessons take just 10 to 15 minutes, making them easy to fit into a lunch break, commute, or evening routine. You’ll also get speech recognition technology to help improve pronunciation, personalized review sessions, an AI Conversation Partner.

Whether your next destination is across the ocean or just across town, this is the time to get Babbel while it’s just $134.99 (reg. $299) with the StackSocial code LEARN through June 28.

Babbel Language Learning: Lifetime Subscription (All Languages)See Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.