The latest generation of AI models has fundamentally changed how quickly security vulnerabilities can be found in software, for both defenders and attackers. Understanding what’s happening helps explain why we keep emphasizing the importance of keeping your devices updated.

In April 2026, AI company Anthropic announced Mythos Preview, an AI model with unprecedented capabilities for finding security flaws in software. Unlike previous AI-assisted security tools that often produced false positives and created more work for human evaluators, Mythos proved that it can discover true vulnerabilities that have evaded detection for decades—including a 27-year-old bug in OpenBSD, an operating system famous for its security.

Alongside Mythos, Anthropic launched Project Glasswing, a collaborative effort with approximately 50 partners—including Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and numerous financial institutions—to identify and fix vulnerabilities in critical software before similar AI-powered capabilities fall into the hands of malicious actors. As Firefox engineers said when reporting on their use of Mythos, “The current moment is a perilous one, but also full of opportunity. Let’s work together to secure the internet.”

Why This Matters

The security implications are significant. Within a month of Project Glasswing’s launch, Anthropic reported that partners collectively found more than 10,000 high- or critical-severity vulnerabilities in their software. Several partners reported that their bug-finding rate increased by more than tenfold.

Firefox developer Mozilla published compelling evidence of Mythos’s capabilities, noting that it identified and fixed 271 vulnerabilities in Firefox 150—over 10 times as many as they found in Firefox 148 with the previous-generation Claude Opus 4.6. Of those 271 bugs, 180 were rated high-severity, meaning they could be exploited through normal user behavior, such as browsing a Web page. (The chart below shows higher numbers because it includes bugs from other sources and other versions.)

Mozilla’s results are remarkable for both their volume and their quality. Firefox engineers reported finding bugs that had remained undiscovered through many years of traditional security testing.

How Apple Fits In

Apple is a founding partner in Project Glasswing, yet another signal that the company takes security seriously. Apple’s vertical integration—controlling everything from chip design to the operating system to the App Store—gives it a structural advantage in secure design. For instance, Apple’s newest M5 Mac chips and A19 iPhone and iPad chips include Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE), a hardware-level protection designed specifically to stop memory corruption exploits.

However, even these cutting-edge protections aren’t invulnerable. Security researchers at Calif.io demonstrated the first public macOS kernel memory corruption exploit on M5 silicon in May 2026. Working with Mythos Preview, they built a working privilege escalation exploit in just five days—targeting hardware protections that Apple spent five years developing.

An Arms Race Against Time

The uncomfortable reality is that while Anthropic currently controls access to Mythos, equivalent capabilities will inevitably become more widely available. OpenAI and Google probably already have similarly capable models in development, as do other AI model developers, some of whom may be accessible to or even beholden to hostile entities.

The security dynamics differ depending on whether we’re talking about existing software or new code that hasn’t shipped yet. For new code, defenders have a clear advantage—they can scan for vulnerabilities before release and catch bugs that would never have been found manually.

For existing software already running on billions of devices, the picture is darker. Attackers only need to find one exploitable bug to get in; defenders need to find and fix all of them. Worse, attackers don’t have to test their code to avoid breaking features, schedule a release, or get approval from other departments—they can exploit a vulnerability the moment they find it. As the Zero Day Clock site shows, the window between a vulnerability being discovered and being exploited has dropped precipitously—what once took months now happens in days and is expected to happen in minutes in a year or two.

This transition period—while AI rapidly discovers vulnerabilities in existing code that takes time to patch—is where we’re most at risk. The Zero Day Clock site features a call to action offering 10 suggestions for how the industry—and society—should rethink cybersecurity to stave off this threat.

Keep Installing Updates

For most users, the best defense against AI-powered exploits is nothing new—keep your devices updated—but it’s more important than ever. The fixes in Apple’s updates increasingly include patches for AI-discovered vulnerabilities. Practically speaking, you should:

• Enable automatic updates: Don’t allow yourself to forget to install updates. On iPhones and iPads, go to Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates. On Macs, go to System Settings > General > Software Update, click the ⓘ button, and turn on all the switches. (If you’re working in an organization with an update policy, check with IT first.)

• Consider security in hardware upgrades: Although the main reason to upgrade hardware should be functional, keep in mind that a newer device will likely be more secure thanks to improved hardware protections.

• Replace unsupported devices: Hardware that no longer receives security updates is increasingly risky. This applies not just to your Apple devices but to every piece of gear that can be updated, including network hardware, printers, and smart home devices like cameras and doorbells.

In the long run, the emergence of AI-powered security tools favors defenders—developers will be able to catch many more bugs before shipping. For the near future, however, it’s essential that we keep our devices running the latest and most secure software.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Thinkhubstudio)

If you’re still using Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac, on July 13, 2026, an expiring certificate will cause your copies of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook to enter “reduced functionality mode,” meaning you can view and print documents but cannot edit or create new ones. To check if you’re affected, open Word and choose Word > About Microsoft Word (or the equivalent in any other Office app). If it says you’re using Office 2019, you need to act before July 13. Some newer versions are also affected but can be updated—for Office 2021 and Microsoft 365, an update is required for app versions under 16.83, and macOS 12 Monterey or later is required. For Office 2019 users, options include subscribing to Microsoft 365 ($99.99/year), purchasing a one-time license for Office 2024 for $179.99 (Home) or $249.99 (Home & Business with Outlook), or switching to alternatives like Apple’s iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote), LibreOffice, or Google Docs. New purchases of Microsoft 365 or Office 2024 require macOS 14 Sonoma or later, so users whose Macs can’t upgrade must use Microsoft 365 on the Web, consider the alternatives, or upgrade their hardware.

(Featured image based on an original by iStock.com/grinvalds)

If you have a college-bound student, it’s time to think about whether they need a new Mac. Perhaps their current computer is showing its age, or it was a high school loaner, or it would be better handed down to a younger sibling. Whatever the reason, navigating Apple’s current Mac lineup can feel overwhelming, especially given the wide range of price points. Here’s how to choose.

First, you (or your child) will need to do some homework. Check with the college for any technical requirements. Some programs or majors mandate specific processor types, memory amounts, or storage capacities based on the software their students use. Current Macs can usually meet or exceed these specs without issue. A more pressing concern is whether a particular field of study requires Windows. If so, dig deeper—is the requirement driven by specific Windows-only software, or is it simply the IT department’s preference for a uniform support environment? It’s also worth checking if the college offers educational pricing. Most do, and you can usually save a few hundred dollars. Apple also typically runs a Back to School promotion that may be interesting.

For college students, a laptop makes far more sense than a desktop Mac. Students rarely stay put—they work in lecture halls, libraries, the quad, coffee shops, and wherever they can find a seat. There’s also the matter of breaks: when students head home, they need a computer that travels with them so they can keep working on assignments. A student who’s already comfortable taking notes on an iPad with a keyboard and Apple Pencil could potentially supplement that with a desktop Mac, but for the vast majority, a laptop is best.

Apple’s MacBook Choices

Happily, Apple’s current lineup offers something for nearly every student. We see four primary scenarios:

• Most students: Buy Apple’s MacBook Air, the company’s most popular laptop. The 13-inch and 15-inch M5 MacBook Air models, refreshed in March 2026, now start with 512 GB of storage and feature faster SSDs. The 13-inch M5 MacBook Air features a 13.6-inch screen, a memory ceiling of 32 GB, and up to 4 TB of storage, starting at $1,099. For those who want a larger display, the 15-inch M5 MacBook Air is a great choice, starting at $1,299. Otherwise, it’s nearly identical to its smaller sibling.
• Better specs: If performance is more important than price, consider the 14-inch MacBook Pro. It features M5, M5 Pro, or M5 Max chips. The entry-level M5 model starts at $1,699, but there’s little reason to choose it over the M5 MacBook Air. For students who need more power, the M5 Pro ($2,199) and M5 Max ($3,599) can be configured with significantly more memory—up to 64 GB with the M5 Pro or 128 GB with the M5 Max. Students majoring in film production, computer science with a focus on machine learning, or other fields involving heavy computation may benefit from an M5 Pro and more memory. (There’s also a 16-inch MacBook Pro in M5 Pro and M5 Max configurations—the larger screen is nice for video work, but it’s heavy and way more expensive.)
• Budget choice: If budget is the primary constraint, look at Apple’s new $599 MacBook Neo. It handles basic tasks like Web browsing, writing papers, and video streaming without issue. However, it has significant limitations: only 8 GB of memory, an iPhone-class A18 Pro chip that’s notably slower than the M5, and a limited port selection. The Neo is adequate for students whose coursework involves only word processing, Web research, and light productivity apps—but it won’t suffice for students who discover a passion for video editing, data analysis, or 3D modeling.
• Windows compatibility: The only downside of Macs with Apple silicon is that it’s more challenging to run Windows using virtualization software like Parallels Desktop (available at half price for students) or VMware Fusion (free for personal use). If Windows is a bonus but not essential, Windows 11 for Arm should work for most apps. However, if Windows compatibility and performance are crucial, your best option is—much as we hate to say it—a PC laptop.

Choosing Processor, Memory, and Storage Options

No matter which laptop you choose, you’ll need to select a processor, memory size, and storage capacity:

• Processor: For the most part, processor choice tracks with model and budget. The low-end MacBook Neo only offers an A18 Pro with a 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU. The mid-range MacBook Air models have an M5 with a 10-core CPU and either an 8-core or 10-core GPU; the extra GPU cores offer a little more performance for an extra $100. The powerful 14-inch MacBook Pro offers a choice between the M5 and multiple configurations of the M5 Pro and M5 Max. The base M5 model performs the same as the M5 MacBook Air, but students with significant computational needs will benefit from an M5 Pro or M5 Max, with price being the main constraint.
• Memory: The MacBook Neo has 8 GB of memory with no upgrade option—sufficient for basic tasks but limiting for demanding apps or heavy multitasking. The M5 MacBook Air models start at 16 GB and offer 24 or 32 GB options. On the 14-inch MacBook Pro, memory capacity varies by chip. The M5 Pro comes standard with 24 GB, with upgrade options to 48 or 64 GB. The M5 Max has a standard memory spec of 36 GB, with upgrade options to 48, 64, or 128 GB. Students can typically stick with 16 GB or choose 24 GB for more demanding tasks—a few will require 32 GB or more.
• Storage: The MacBook Neo starts at 256 GB ($599) or 512 GB ($699, which also adds Touch ID, a welcome feature for a college student using their laptop in public spaces). For both MacBook Air models, 512 GB is the minimum storage option, with upgrades up to 4 TB. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro starts at 1 TB, while M5 Max models start at 2 TB, with upgrades up to 8 TB. Choose the storage capacity based on two factors: budget (storage gets expensive quickly) and anticipated usage (audio and particularly video production can consume a lot of space, as can large numbers of images). It’s easy to offload large, infrequently used files to an external SSD or hard drive, but external storage prices have skyrocketed lately, making Apple’s prices for internal storage less extreme.

Our Recommendation

For most students, the best choice for a Mac likely to last four years of college is the 13-inch or 15-inch M5 MacBook Air, equipped with 16 GB or 24 GB of memory and either 512 GB or 1 TB of storage. While the 15-inch model has a larger screen, it’s heavier and takes up more space in a backpack, so consider portability when making your final decision. Be sure to budget for AppleCare+ as well; it’s almost certain that a mishap will occur with a student laptop, and AppleCare+ covers up to two incidents of accidental damage per year.

Be sure to talk with your child to learn more about what they think they’ll need—and compare it to the college’s recommendations—but if you have any questions afterward, feel free to reach out to us.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Zbynek Pospisil)

Have you ever wanted to activate the shutter button for your iPhone’s camera—for either a still photo or a video—when you’re not holding it? Selfie sticks often come with Bluetooth buttons that can do that, and starting in iOS 26, you also can use your AirPods 4 or AirPods Pro as a camera remote. While you’re wearing your AirPods, turn on the feature in Settings > AirPods > Camera Remote, where you can choose between triggering the shutter with a single press or a press and hold. Note that whichever option you turn on will override the usual actions for those triggers.

(Featured image by iStock.com/PeopleImages)

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote—the final public appearance for outgoing CEO Tim Cook—was different this year. Although it was still a tour of the changes we’ll see in version 27 of Apple’s operating systems, the company broke it into three parts. The first focused on interface refinements, performance improvements, and feature tweaks that smooth rough edges in our current user experience. The second revolved around changes Apple is making to its parental controls and child safety features. And the third was devoted to showing off Apple Intelligence and the new Siri AI.

Apple previewed numerous features during the keynote and listed even more on its website afterward. Below, we’ll focus on those we think are most likely to entice you to upgrade your Apple devices, but we encourage you to read Apple’s pages for each platform to learn more about what’s coming. Those are linked here, along with hardware requirements, so you can determine if your devices can upgrade this fall:

• macOS 27 Golden Gate: Only Macs with Apple silicon, including the MacBook Neo (2026), MacBook Air (2020 and later), MacBook Pro (2020 and later), iMac (2021 and later), Mac mini (2020 and later), Mac Studio (2022 and later), and Mac Pro (2023)
• iOS 27: iPhone SE (2nd generation and later) and iPhone 11 and later (unchanged from iOS 26)
• iPadOS 27: iPad (9th generation and later and A16), iPad mini (6th generation and later and A17 Pro), iPad Air 11-inch (4th generation and later, M2, M3, and M4), iPad Air 13-inch (M2 and later), iPad Pro 11‑inch (2nd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9‑inch (4th generation and later), and iPad Pro (M4 and later)
• watchOS 27: Apple Watch SE 3, Apple Watch Series 9 and later, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 and later
• visionOS 27: All Vision Pro headsets

Siri AI Everywhere

The long‑promised “more personalized” Siri, now called Siri AI, is slated to ship later this year as a dedicated app that lets you carry on conversations much like with ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. Apple is integrating Siri AI deeply into its platforms, so you can invoke it by swiping down from the Dynamic Island on an iPhone or via Spotlight on the Mac. Contextual menu commands on the Mac will let you focus Siri AI on images, files, and text. You’ll even be able to use Siri AI with AirPods and in CarPlay.

Personal context enables Siri AI to tailor its responses and actions based on your messages, emails, calendar events, photos, and other data. It will also be aware of what’s showing on screen, so you can ask Siri about what you’re looking at or direct it to take actions based on what’s showing. Siri AI will be able to work directly with compatible apps, creating contacts, sending email, calling people, and much more, depending on developer support. Finally, Siri AI will be able to respond with broad-based world knowledge gleaned from Web searches.

On sufficiently powerful devices, Siri AI provides more expressive voices and more advanced dictation. For that, you’ll need an iPhone Air or iPhone 17 Pro, an iPad with M4 or later, or a Mac with M3 or later.

Better Performance

Although we don’t think of our Apple devices as slow, Apple has improved performance across many areas. iPhone and iPad apps launch up to 30% faster, new photos appear in the Photo Library up to 70% faster, files transfer via AirDrop up to 80% faster, and files can be copied from an iPad to an external drive up to 5x faster, matching macOS transfer speeds. People with older iPhones will particularly appreciate the effort Apple put into improving general performance with a new CPU scheduler.

More Reliable Spotlight

We’ve all encountered the frustration of Spotlight failing to find a file we know exists. In response, Apple has rearchitected Spotlight’s search index to make it faster and more comprehensive. Searching in Mail and Photos also benefits from the new search index.

Liquid Glass Refinements

Apple showed several refinements to the Liquid Glass interface that debuted last year, addressing common requests for more control and legibility. Most notably, a transparency slider lets you adjust Liquid Glass from ultra-clear to fully tinted. macOS apps get a new uniform toolbar to improve legibility, and macOS sidebars will extend to the edges of windows and regain colored icons.

Visual Intelligence on More Devices

So far, Visual Intelligence, which can tell you about anything in the camera viewfinder, has been limited to iPhones with the Camera Control. Apple is moving it to a dedicated Siri mode in the Camera app, which brings it to the iPad; on the Mac, you’ll be able to select on-screen items and ask about them.

Automatic Updates to Weak or Compromised Passwords

We all have old accounts with weak or compromised passwords that we’ll get to changing real soon now. Apple recognizes this, so it’s adding Apple Intelligence to the Passwords app, enabling it to log in to eligible websites and change your password to something strong and unique.

More Comprehensive Parental Controls

To address parental criticism and potentially head off governmental regulation, Apple beefed up its parental controls. A new setup assistant helps parents configure child accounts, which now feature Ask to Browse (parental permission to visit specific websites) and communication controls (permission to communicate with people outside the family). Communication Safety now warns about gore and violence along with nudity, and a redesigned Screen Time app provides an at-a-glance view of a child’s device usage.

New Photos Features

The Clean Up tool that debuted with Apple Intelligence has been popular, and Apple says it now does an even better job of removing distractions and filling backgrounds realistically. A new Extend feature expands images outward, adding a realistically generated background around the photo’s subject. Even more impressive is the new Reframe feature, which lets you reposition the virtual camera after taking a photo. You can use it to shift perspective or change the zoom, generating new content only for the shifted areas.

Build Shortcuts with Natural Language

It’s often useful to automate tasks in Shortcuts—say, notifying your spouse when you leave the office—but many people have found it too hard to create those automations. Thanks to Apple Intelligence, you’ll now be able to describe what you want a shortcut to do, and it will be created for you. If it doesn’t work quite right the first time, you can keep iterating until it’s what you want.

Image Playground Gets More Productive

The images Image Playground has been able to create so far have been on the childish side. Apple says that Image Playground will now be able to create photorealistic images, incorporate multiple people from Photos, transform images with natural language descriptions, and generate images in multiple dimensions. It won’t replace a professional illustrator, but it might help you generate quick images for a presentation, website, or invitation.

Apart from Siri AI, these aren’t earth-shaking features, and that’s the point. Apple wants to keep improving the user experience, but part of that is not changing too much too fast. We’ll write more about when we recommend upgrading each of your devices after the beta this summer.

(Featured image by Apple)

Silicon Valley thinks everyone wants to delegate writing to AI, which is why Apple Intelligence constantly suggests replies for you in Messages and Mail. But there’s an excellent way to supercharge your typing speed without sounding like a chirpy chatbot or resorting to teenage texting abbreviations: text expansion.

Text expansion speeds up typing words or phrases that you use regularly, and it’s especially helpful for character combinations that your fingers find awkward—just try touch-typing “Hyundai IONIQ 5” or “acetaminophen.” Apple has long offered text expansion capabilities in macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, and third-party utilities take them even further.

Configuring and Using Text Expansion

To configure the built-in text expansion on the Mac, look in System Settings > Keyboard > Text Replacements; in iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement. In each, a text replacement consists of a shortcut and a replacement phrase.

Then, in almost any app, type the shortcut, followed by a space or a punctuation character, and its phrase will replace it. If text expansion doesn’t work in a Mac app like Mail or Safari, make sure Edit > Substitutions > Text Replacement is selected.

If you’re signed into the same Apple Account on all your devices, text expansions sync between them automatically. So, you can type omw and tap the Space bar to have “On my way!” typed out for you, regardless of what device you’re using.

Tip: To create replacements more quickly, you can export a list of text replacements, edit the list, and re-import it; Apple provides instructions. This export/import capability also lets you share text replacements with someone else.

What Text to Expand

Replacements can be as short or long as you like—up to about 1900 characters—and can contain anything you can type from the keyboard, including spaces, returns, symbols, accented characters, and emoji. It can be hard to know where to start, but once you try text expansion, possibilities quickly become obvious. A few common categories include:

• Your email address, phone number, and postal address
• Boilerplate text for common email replies (“To subscribe to our mailing list…”)
• Email signoffs (“Sincerely, your close personal Internet friend…”)
• Frequently shared URLs or email addresses (https://www.apple.com/feedback/)
• Long scientific, medical, or technical terms (esophagogastroduodenoscopy)
• Proper nouns with unusual spelling, capitalization, or accents (Zoë Saldaña)
• Words you consistently misspell or mistype (teh)
• Unix commands with arguments (ls -la)

Shortcuts are usually shorter than their replacements, but you can also use text expansion to simplify entering individual characters that are hard to access.

• Commonly used emoji (🙄 or 👍)
• Special characters (½ or →)

One helpful convention is to start shortcuts for special characters with a colon. For example, :roll for 🙄 or :tu for 👍. The colon prefix makes these shortcuts easy to remember and prevents accidental expansions. Make sure not to create shortcuts that you’ll also want to type normally. It might seem like a good idea to use mm for “Mickey Mouse,” but that will get in the way of writing about 35mm film.

Third-Party Text Expansion

With such a useful feature built into macOS and iOS, why would you want to spend money on a third-party utility like TextExpander (macOS and iOS), Typinator (macOS and iOS), or TypeIt4Me (macOS)?

Apple’s built-in text expansion works well for most everyday uses, but it has some limitations—its interface is cramped, it doesn’t work in every app, and you can’t include formatted text or images in your expansions. Third-party utilities fill those gaps.

They can include styled text and graphics in expansions, insert the current date and time, respect case when expanding abbreviations, include the contents of the clipboard in expanded text, automatically fix common typos, and much more.

So think about which bits of text you might want to expand automatically, and give Apple’s built-in text expansion feature a try today! If it seems constraining after a while, a third-party app can take text expansion to the next level.

(Featured image generated by Adam Engst with ChatGPT)

On the Mac, every file type opens in a particular app by default, but it’s easy to open a PDF, image, or text file in a different app. In the Finder’s Get Info window, you can also reset the default app so that, for example, JPEGs open in Photoshop or Affinity instead of Preview. That’s all now possible in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 as well. In the Files app on an iPhone or iPad, touch and hold a file to bring up a menu. Tap Open With, then select an app to open the file once in a different app without changing the default. To reset the default app for that file type, tap Get Info, then select an app from the Always Open With list.

(Featured image based on an original by iStock.com/Tippapatt)

The latest scam to watch out for is fake websites that try to get you to open Script Editor directly from your browser with a pre-filled AppleScript. Don’t do this! Security researchers at Jamf Threat Labs documented an attack where a convincing Apple-themed page claiming to help “reclaim disk space” prompted users to allow Script Editor to open, then used the applescript:// URL scheme to open a seemingly legitimate script that—if the user ran it—would download and install the Atomic Stealer malware. In macOS 26.4, a new warning in Script Editor flags the script as from an unidentified developer, which should alert more users to the danger. (Yet another reason to install macOS updates!) The rule is simple: never run an AppleScript unless you wrote it yourself or acquired the code from a source you trust. If a website asks to open Script Editor—or any other app—click Cancel, and if you ever see this warning, close the script immediately. No legitimate webpage needs to run scripts on your Mac.

(Featured image based on an original by iStock.com/Prostock-Studio)

Safari’s compact tab bar option, which saves vertical space by placing the address bar in the current tab, went missing in the initial releases of macOS 26 Tahoe and iPadOS 26. Only Apple knows why this helpful option disappeared (Liquid Glass?), but as of macOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, it’s back! On the Mac, select it in Safari > Settings > Tabs; on the iPad, look in Settings > Apps > Safari.

(Featured image based on an original by iStock.com/czekma13)

We always recommend buying from reputable manufacturers rather than no-name brands, especially for products with lithium-ion batteries, such as power banks, Bluetooth speakers, flashlights, power tools, e-bikes, and more. In a 2025 study, industrial scanning company Lumafield CT-scanned over 1,000 lithium-ion battery cells from ten different brands, including reputable manufacturers like Samsung and Panasonic, as well as low-cost and outright counterfeit brands sold through retailers like Temu. The results were troubling: nearly 8% of the low-cost and counterfeit batteries had dangerous manufacturing defects that significantly increase the risk of internal short-circuiting and battery overheating, potentially leading to fires. None of the name-brand batteries showed these defects. The few dollars you might save on a no-name battery aren’t worth the risk.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Pradit_Ph)