We recently helped a client set up an external boot drive on a Mac mini for testing, but the installation kept failing near the end with vague errors. We tried different cables, swapped drives, and more, to no avail. On a hunch, we moved the SSD to a different USB-C port, and the installation completed on the next attempt. But the port wasn’t bad—it was just the wrong port. Here’s what we mean.

All the USB-C ports on a Mac look identical, but they don’t all behave the same way. On Macs with Apple silicon and Intel-based Macs with the T2 chip, Apple designates one port as the DFU (device firmware update) port. Most of the time, this distinction doesn’t matter—you can plug a device into any port, and it’ll work normally. But for certain tasks, using the wrong port can cause mysterious failures that waste hours of troubleshooting time.

Note that we say “USB-C” here, even though in most cases, these are Thunderbolt ports. However, Thunderbolt uses the USB-C connector, and Apple refers to the ports as USB-C ports, so we’re following Apple’s lead.

When It Matters Which Port You Use

The DFU port exists for one specific purpose: reviving or restoring your Mac’s firmware using another Mac and the Apple Configurator app. This recovery procedure requires connecting a USB-C cable (not a Thunderbolt cable!) to the DFU port. It’s extremely uncommon to need to revive a Mac in this way, but it might be necessary if the Mac starts up to an exclamation point in a circle, starts up to a blank screen, shows the status indicator light pattern for firmware recovery mode, or has problems installing macOS.

For most everyday tasks, the DFU port should work like any other USB-C port. However, Apple has documented one notable exception on Macs with Apple silicon: when installing or updating macOS on an external drive, avoid using the DFU port. If your external drive is connected to it during installation, the process may fail partway through, often without a useful error message and certainly without a clear “Connect your drive to a different port” message. You might see vague notifications like “Some updates could not be installed” or cryptic errors like “com.apple.OSInstallerSetup.error 702.” After installation or updating completes, you can connect your external drive to any port, including the DFU port.

We’ve also heard of situations where seemingly inexplicable problems, such as errors from an Apple SuperDrive attached to a Thunderbolt dock, were resolved by switching to a different port. It wasn’t always clear which port was responsible, but it’s always worth trying a different one if you have trouble.

Finding Your Mac’s DFU Port

How do you figure out which USB-C port is the DFU port? Apple maintains a support document describing the DFU port locations for each Mac model. The location varies by model and, within the same model, sometimes by generation. Apple does not explain why a particular port is designated as the DFU port or provide another way to identify it. All you can do is refer to Apple’s documentation.

Unfortunately, users have found errors on that page in the past, so if you’re experiencing unexplained installation failures or other errors, try a different port even if you believe you’re using the correct one.

DFU Port Takeaways

For everyday use—connecting displays, drives, docks, and other peripherals—you shouldn’t need to think about which port you’re using. The only time you must use the DFU port is when reviving or restoring a very unhappy Mac.

However, if you’re setting up an external boot drive or updating macOS on an external drive, take a moment to identify your Mac’s DFU port and plug your drive into a different one. And if a peripheral, even if it’s connected through a dock, behaves inexplicably, treat the port itself as a variable. Before troubleshooting cables, drives, or software, move the connection to another USB-C port. This simple step can save you from frustrating troubleshooting sessions where everything appears to work but ultimately fails.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Milosz Deptula)

Sometimes you just don’t want your phone to ring, chirp, or even vibrate. Maybe you’re asleep, in an important meeting, having dinner with family, meditating, playing a game, or simply enjoying some quiet time.

Apple’s Focus feature on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac can silence those interruptions, but Focus is considerably more complex than the straightforward Do Not Disturb feature it replaced in 2021. Misconfiguring Focus such that it activates unexpectedly can cause you to miss important calls, messages, and other notifications.

What Focus Does

Focus lets you create customized notification environments that block unwanted interruptions while allowing important ones through. You can have a Focus for different situations—when you’re at work, eating dinner, at the gym, and more—each with its own rules about when it activates and which people and apps can reach you.

When a Focus is active, it can:

• Silence notifications from selected people and apps
• Allow specific people and apps to break through
• Change your Lock Screen appearance
• Hide certain Home Screen pages
• Automatically reply to messages explaining you’re unavailable
• Filter content in apps like Mail, Calendar, and Messages
• Make a certain profile or tab group active in Safari

Focus can share your settings across all your Apple devices, which saves you from having to configure it on each device but can also create confusing interactions.

The Built-In Focus Modes

Apple provides three essential Focus modes that cover most people’s needs:

• Do Not Disturb: A general-purpose Focus for when you need to ensure your iPhone doesn’t interrupt you. It’s ideal for doctor appointments, workouts, movies, and similar situations. You can schedule it, but it’s often best to activate it manually from Control Center for a specific amount of time or until you leave the current location.
• Sleep: This Focus activates according to the Sleep schedule you set on the iPhone (in either Settings > Focus > Sleep or in the Health app) to minimize nighttime interruptions. It lets you choose a specific Lock Screen, Home Screen, and Apple Watch face to limit distractions at night.
• Driving: Automatically activates when your iPhone connects to a car’s Bluetooth system or detects driving motion. (The Bluetooth connection may be best if you’re frequently a passenger and want to use your iPhone while being driven.) It blocks nearly all notifications to keep your attention on the road and can send custom automatic replies to people who text you.

For further customization, you can create additional Focus modes—Apple suggests modes for Gaming, Mindfulness, Personal, Reading, and Work. For instance, if you take a spin class every Tuesday at noon and yoga on Thursdays at 7 AM, you could create a Focus for Working Out that would automatically activate during those times.

Configuring a Focus

To set up a Focus, go to Settings > Focus on your iPhone or iPad, or System Settings > Focus on your Mac. Select the Focus you want to configure or create a new one, then:

1. Choose allowed people: Decide whether to allow or silence notifications from specific people. You can also specify whether phone calls from certain groups (Allowed People, Favorites, Contacts, or Contacts groups) can break through.
   
2. Choose allowed apps: Similarly, allow or silence specific apps. You can also enable Time Sensitive Notifications, which lets urgent alerts (like delivery notifications or security alerts) come through even from disallowed apps.
   
3. Set a schedule: Have the Focus turn on at certain times, locations (on when you arrive, off when you leave), or when using specific apps (but not when apps are in the background). App-based triggers are useful for presentations, live performances, and games. A Smart Activation option on the iPhone can automatically turn on a Focus based on your location, app usage, and time of day.
   
4. Add Focus Filters: Customize how Calendar, Mail, Messages, Safari, and others behave when the Focus is active—for example, showing only certain Safari tab groups and your work email accounts during a Professional Focus.
   
5. Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing: If you have Apple Intelligence enabled, this option “intelligently” allows priority notifications to interrupt you and silences others. It doesn’t override your explicit settings for allowing or silencing notifications.

The Complexity Problem

While Focus is powerful, its complexity can create unpredictable behavior. Here are common pitfalls to avoid:

• Unexpected activation: With automatic schedules based on time, location, and apps, it’s hard to predict when a Focus might turn on. You may not realize notifications are being silenced until you’ve missed something important. This is especially important if your routine is interrupted. Perhaps you normally work out at noon, but today you are at a professional conference or dealing with a family emergency.
• Cross-device confusion: By default, Focus syncs across all your Apple devices via the Share Across Devices option. Syncing means a Focus activated on your iPhone—such as Sleep—might also silence notifications on your Mac when you’re working late and need to communicate with colleagues. Consider turning off Share Across Devices unless you’re certain you want synchronized behavior.
• Unpredictable AI: Focus includes two features that rely on machine learning—Smart Activation and Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing—to make contextual decisions about when Focus should activate and which notifications are important enough to bypass it. We recommend against using them because they make an already unpredictable scenario even more unpredictable.
• Silenced notifications indicator: When a Focus is active, people who text you in Messages see that your notifications are silenced. While this can be helpful, it can also confuse others when a Focus activates unexpectedly.
  
• The forgotten Focus: A Focus that activates automatically when you go to a specific location or open a particular app might remain active longer than you expected. For instance, what if a Focus activates when Mail is your frontmost app, but you have to leave unexpectedly and your Mac doesn’t sleep automatically, so Mail remains the active app over the weekend? That might be particularly confusing when a Focus Filter hides certain accounts or data.

Practical Recommendations

To get the benefits of Focus without the confusion:

• Keep it simple: Start with Do Not Disturb, Sleep, and Driving. These three cover the needs of most people and have the most predictable behavior. If you created Focus modes you’re not using, delete them.
• Be conservative with triggers: If you add schedules or triggers based on location or apps, keep them to a minimum. The more triggers you add, the harder it becomes to predict when a Focus will be active.
• Allow more calls: These days, unexpected calls from people you know well are fairly uncommon, and those that do happen are more likely to be important. So consider allowing calls from family and close friends (perhaps via Favorites or a Contacts group) and enabling Allow Repeated Calls, which lets someone through if they call twice within three minutes.
• Check Focus status when troubleshooting: If you or someone you know is missing notifications, check whether a Focus is unexpectedly active. The easiest place to check is Control Center.
• Review Share Across Devices: If you experience unexpected Focus behavior, turn off Share Across Devices and configure each device’s Focus settings independently.
• Control notifications directly: Rather than rely on Focus, limit notifications to just those that are actually important to you. Many apps are unnecessarily chatty.

Focus is a powerful tool for managing the constant stream of notifications from our devices, but it requires careful configuration. When in doubt, keep it simple: Sleep to protect your sleeping hours, Driving to block distractions in the car, and Do Not Disturb for ad hoc appointments and performances may be all you need.

(Featured image by iStock.com/DragonImages)

Many people assume that storing files in iCloud Drive, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive means those files are backed up. After all, the files exist on remote servers maintained by large companies with professional IT teams and redundant storage. But that doesn’t mean they are backed up.

Cloud storage is tremendously useful and can play a valuable role in recovering from disasters, but it is not a backup. Understanding the difference could save you from a devastating data loss.

What Makes a Backup a Backup?

A true backup creates a separate copy of your files through a process that’s distinct from your normal saving. With cloud storage, saving is syncing—the moment you save a file (or it auto-saves), that exact version propagates everywhere. There’s no separate copy, just one file that exists in multiple places simultaneously.

With a real backup system like Time Machine, backing up is an independent operation. You work on your file, saving changes as you go, and separately, on its own schedule, Time Machine backs up that file. If something happens to that file at 2 PM, you can still recover it from the 1 PM backup.

Risks Not Mitigated by Cloud Storage

Why might you need a real backup? Computers and apps are significantly more reliable than they used to be, but they’re not perfect. Plus, human error is always a risk, and you can never discount the possibility of unexpected events.

Cloud storage won’t fully protect you from these scenarios:

• Inadvertent deletion: It’s all too easy to delete important files or folders. With cloud storage, those deletions are synced across all your devices and the cloud. (Though hopefully you can pull them out of the trash—never empty it immediately after deleting files.)
• Accidental changes: A misbehaving app could corrupt data in an important file, or, more likely, you could change or delete data within the file that you later decide was a mistake. With cloud storage, those changes sync instantly, making it difficult or impossible to revert.
• Account compromise: Cloud storage is protected only by your password. If you don’t use a strong, unique password, an online thief could use it to access your account and delete or encrypt your files.
• Account problems: Even if an attacker doesn’t compromise your account, if you lose the password, have billing issues, or do something that the provider considers a terms-of-service violation, you could be locked out of your account and all your files.
• Ransomware: If malware encrypts all your files, those encrypted files will be synced to the cloud and become unrecoverable everywhere. Ransomware isn’t a significant problem on the Mac today, but that could change at any time.

How to Back Up Cloud Storage Files

The solution to these problems is not to stop using cloud storage, but to back up your cloud storage files just like you back up everything else. However, there are two things to keep in mind when backing up cloud storage.

First, verify that the local copies of your cloud storage files are being backed up. By default, the local versions of cloud-based files are stored in ~/Library/CloudStorage/ for everything but iCloud Drive, which puts files in the hidden folder ~/Library/Mobile Documents/. Time Machine automatically backs up your entire user folder, including cloud storage folders, but other backup apps may exclude them.

Second, cloud storage services can optionally store data only in the cloud to save local disk space, showing just placeholder icons on your Mac. These cloud-only files won’t be backed up by Time Machine or most other backup apps, though Carbon Copy Cloner can download them, back them up, and then evict the local data to save space.

How do you ensure cloud storage files are also kept locally? All cloud services offer an option to Control-click a folder or file and choose a command like Keep Downloaded, Make Available Offline, or Always Keep on This Device. That works, but requires manual intervention.

For all the major cloud storage services other than Box, you can also set a preference to keep files locally at all times:

• iCloud Drive: Turn off System Settings > Your Name > iCloud > iCloud Drive > Optimize Mac Storage.
  
• Dropbox: Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar and then, in Dropbox > Account > Preferences > Sync, choose Available Offline for the Default Sync Preference. Note that this applies only to new files!
  
• Google Drive: Click the Google Drive icon in the menu bar, click the gear menu, choose Preferences, click Google Drive, and select Mirror Files for the My Drive syncing options.
  
• OneDrive: Click the OneDrive icon in the menu bar, click More, click Preferences, and in the Preferences screen, make sure Files On-Demand is turned off.
  

What About Version History?

Most cloud storage services other than iCloud Drive offer version history, allowing you to restore previous versions of changed or deleted files. Version history provides a safety net against inadvertent deletions or modifications, but it’s not a substitute for comprehensive backups. It has two notable limitations:

• Time: Version history is typically limited to 30–180 days, depending on your plan. You might not realize you need a deleted file or that your database has become corrupted until after that window closes.
• Trouble: Restoring many files from version history can be tedious compared to restoring from a proper backup. It might be fine for a file or two, but recovering from a more significant disaster might be difficult.

The Real Value of Cloud Storage

None of this means cloud storage is useless for disaster recovery. If your Mac fails, is stolen, or is destroyed in a fire, you can access all your cloud storage files as soon as you sign in to your account from a new or repaired Mac. You can even get to them from an iPhone or iPad. That also applies to Web apps like Google Docs, where data is never stored locally.

But cloud storage won’t protect against accidental deletion, file corruption, ransomware, or account issues. For that, you need separate, independent backups of all your files—including those stored in the cloud.

(Featured image by iStock.com/ismagilov)

Sadly, not all websites and apps support Apple Pay, so we’ve become accustomed to manually entering our credit card information into fields, like animals. No longer! In iOS 26, the Wallet app now supports AutoFill. If you need to add a card—those set up with Apple Pay are already available—open Wallet, tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner, tap AutoFill, then tap Add Card. You can scan the card with your camera or enter details manually. Then, whenever you’re checking out on a website or in an app that doesn’t support Apple Pay, tap a payment field. You may be able to select a saved card from the suggestions above the keyboard, or you may have to tap in the field to bring up the text menu, and tap AutoFill > Credit Card (below left). When you invoke AutoFill from above the keyboard, your card number, expiration date, and security code will be automatically entered. Using the menu requires tapping the blue text for the field you want to fill (below right).

(Featured image by iStock.com/BongkarnThanyakij)

The discovery of two sophisticated iPhone exploit kits—DarkSword and Coruna—within weeks of each other signals a troubling shift. Unlike previous spyware attacks that targeted high-profile users, these exploit kits have been deployed via compromised legitimate websites, so anyone who visits an infected site could fall victim, with no additional clicks or downloads required. This suggests that exploit brokers are now selling tools to multiple buyers, including financially motivated hacking organizations.

Making matters worse, the complete DarkSword exploit code was published to GitHub, making it easy for any hacker to deploy. Security researchers warn that the exploits “will work out of the box” with no iOS expertise required—anyone could copy and paste the code and have it running on a server within hours.

Because it ultimately operates with elevated system privileges, DarkSword can silently harvest alarming amounts of data from vulnerable iPhones, including passwords stored in the keychain, photos, call logs, contacts, browsing history, chat message history, and more. It takes a smash-and-grab approach: collecting and exfiltrating data quickly, then disengaging. Coruna is more targeted and persistent, focusing on stealing cryptocurrency wallet credentials and scanning notes for financial information.

Protection Is Simple

Happily, it’s easy to protect yourself against these and future vulnerabilities: keep your devices up to date. We’ve been beating that drum for years, but DarkSword and Coruna are sufficiently worrying that Apple published a dedicated support page urging users to update, saying: “Keeping your software up to date is the single most important thing you can do to maintain the security of your Apple products.”

If your iPhone is running the latest version of iOS it supports, you’re already protected. But if you’ve been putting off updates—or are still running an earlier version of iOS 18 to avoid iOS 26’s Liquid Glass interface redesign—your iPhone may be vulnerable. Happily, Apple has taken the unprecedented step of releasing an update to an older operating system—iOS 18.7.7—to protect users who don’t wish to upgrade to iOS 26. (You may have to scroll down in the Software Update screen to find it under Also Available.)

Check and Update Your Device

To check your iOS version, go to Settings > General > About and look at the iOS Version line.

DarkSword targets iPhones running iOS 18.4 through iOS 18.7.2. If you’re running iOS 18.7.3 or later, or have upgraded to iOS 26.3 or later, you’re protected. Although none of the DarkSword security reports specifically mention the iPad, it’s best to assume that the corresponding versions of iPadOS are similarly affected.

Coruna can compromise older iPhones and iPads running iOS 13.0 through iOS 17.2.1. Apple recently released iOS 15.8.7 and iOS 16.7.15 to address these vulnerabilities on devices that cannot run newer iOS versions. Devices running iOS 13 or iOS 14 must be upgraded to iOS 15.8.7. Devices running a vulnerable version of iOS 17 should update to the latest version of iOS their device supports.

You can update using Settings > General > Software Update to the latest version of iOS your device supports:

• iPhone 11 and later (and other devices that support iOS 26): Update to either iOS 18.7.7 or iOS 26.4 or later.
• iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max: Update to iOS 18.7.7, the latest version these devices support, which includes the DarkSword fixes.
• Older devices that can’t run iOS 18 (iPhone 6s through iPhone X, plus various older iPads and 7th-generation iPod touch): Update to iOS 15.8.7 or iOS 16.7.15, depending on your device. Devices still running iOS 13 or 14 will need to upgrade to iOS 15.8.7.

If you cannot upgrade for some reason, Apple says that enabling Lockdown Mode in Settings > Privacy & Security > Lockdown Mode in iOS 16 and later will block DarkSword attacks. However, Lockdown Mode significantly degrades the iPhone experience by blocking most message attachment types, disabling certain Web technologies, limiting incoming FaceTime calls, and more. For most people, upgrading to the most recent version of iOS available is the better option.

These discoveries make it clear that installing security updates promptly is more important than ever. Sophisticated exploits that were once reserved for targeted attacks against activists and journalists are now being deployed more broadly. Check your iOS version today, update all your devices, and encourage family members and colleagues to do the same.

(Featured image by iStock.com/sqback)

When a Web browser has many tabs open, it can be hard to find the one playing audio if you need to silence it. Worse, when a browser relaunches, it can be tough to identify and silence all the tabs that have automatically started playing audio. Happily, all browsers can help. Tabs with active audio show a speaker icon next to their names; click it to mute the audio. These speaker icons are easier to spot in browsers that display tabs vertically rather than horizontally across the top, where space constraints may prevent the speaker icons from appearing. Safari provides an additional option: a speaker icon on the right side of the address bar (see the top screenshot). Click it to mute all audio, or Control-click it to see which tabs are playing audio. Chromium-based browsers—including Google Chrome, Brave, and Microsoft Edge—display a musical note icon in the upper-right corner of the toolbar (bottom screenshot). Click it to open playback controls and stop playback.

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

In iOS, iPadOS, and macOS 26, Apple added an option in the Messages app to filter messages from unknown people and those marked as spam by the carrier. To enable filtering, open Messages, tap the Filter button in the upper-right corner, tap Manage Filtering, and turn on Screen Unknown Senders and Filter Spam. Once those are enabled, the Filter menu gains two new options: Unknown Senders and Spam. If a text from an unknown person comes in, the main app icon will get a red badge, but you won’t see the new message in the usual list. Instead, use the Filter menu—which also gets a blue badge—to switch to Unknown Senders or Spam and look in those lists. The Phone app works similarly—enable call filtering in Settings > Apps > Phone under Call Filtering, and unknown callers will appear in separate lists accessible via the Filter button in the Phone app’s Recents or Calls views. To move a conversation out of Unknown Senders, tap Mark as Known.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Liubomyr Vorona)

Apple has unveiled the MacBook Neo, a new entry-level laptop. With pricing starting at $599, a whopping $500 less than the MacBook Air, the MacBook Neo is positioned as an affordable computing option, particularly for families buying devices for K–12 students.

Despite its low price, the MacBook Neo is a Mac, so it works like any other modern Mac, complete with support for Apple Intelligence. A key question is how it compares to the MacBook Air, which Apple just updated with the M5 processor. Unsurprisingly, Apple made numerous compromises to hit the lower price point compared to the $1,099 13-inch MacBook Air. Those compromises may or may not make a difference for your intended usage.

Comparing the Specs

Let’s run through the MacBook Neo’s specs and see how it matches up to the MacBook Air:

• A18 Pro chip: One of the main places Apple cut costs is by relying on an A18 Pro chip with 6 CPU cores and 5 GPU cores, previously used in 2024’s iPhone 16 Pro models. This is the first time Apple has used an iPhone-class chip in a Mac. For everyday tasks in a single app, performance is nearly comparable to the MacBook Air’s M5, which has 10 CPU cores and 8 or 10 GPU cores. However, the MacBook Neo will be significantly slower for multi-threaded tasks such as video editing, code compilation, or heavy multitasking.
• 8 GB unified memory: Another notable difference is that the MacBook Neo has only 8 GB of unified memory, whereas the MacBook Air starts at 16 GB and can be configured with 24 GB or 32 GB. Being limited to 8 GB means the MacBook Neo will struggle with memory-intensive tasks or running many apps at once, but that isn’t likely to be an issue with everyday Web browsing, email, and messaging.
• 256 GB or 512 GB storage: The base MacBook Neo has only 256 GB of storage, which may fill up quickly with photos, videos, and games. For $100 more, you can get 512 GB. In comparison, the MacBook Air starts with 512 GB and can be configured with 1 TB, 2 TB, or 4 TB. You can always buy an external SSD to offload little-used data.
• 13.0-inch Liquid Retina display: The display is another significant difference. The MacBook Neo has a 13.0-inch display that shows slightly less content on screen than the MacBook Air’s 13.6-inch display—imagine losing about a half-inch of space vertically and horizontally. The MacBook Neo also lacks True Tone, which adjusts the display for ambient light conditions, and supports only sRGB color rather than Wide color (P3), so colors will be slightly less vibrant when viewing photos or videos, though this will be unnoticeable in most apps.
• 1080p FaceTime camera: The MacBook Neo’s webcam is several years behind the current 12-megapixel Center Stage camera that debuted with the M4 MacBook Air in 2025. It’s fine, but it is noticeably lower quality and lacks the Center Stage feature that keeps you in the frame as you move around. The MacBook Air’s camera also supports Desk View, which shows items underneath it, but that’s not a commonly used feature.
• Two USB-C ports: Connectivity is another place where the MacBook Neo makes compromises. It offers two USB-C ports, but only the left one supports USB 3 at 10 gigabits per second; the right one supports only USB 2 at 480 megabits per second. You can use the left one for an external drive or a single 4K display; the right one is primarily useful for a keyboard, mouse, or printer. The MacBook Air, in comparison, has two 40 gigabits-per-second Thunderbolt 4 ports and supports up to two 6K displays. The MacBook Neo has to use one of its ports to charge, since it lacks the MagSafe charging port found on the MacBook Air.
  
• Magic Keyboard: The $599 MacBook Neo has the same Magic Keyboard as the MacBook Air, but lacks keyboard backlighting for typing in the dark and Touch ID for authentication and Apple Pay support. Moving to the $699 model gets you Touch ID along with 512 GB of storage. All MacBook Air models have Touch ID, which is a convenience.
• Multi-Touch Trackpad: The MacBook Neo uses Apple’s much older Multi-Touch trackpad with a physical click mechanism rather than pressure sensors and haptic click simulation in the MacBook Air’s Force Touch trackpad. Few people will miss Force Touch features like pressing deeply on a file in the Finder to open it in Quick Look.
• Dual mics, dual speakers: For audio input and output, the MacBook Neo relies on a dual-mic array and a dual-speaker sound system. It will undoubtedly be fine, but it doesn’t match up to the MacBook Air’s three-mic array and four-speaker sound system. Both have 3.5 mm headphone jacks, or you can just use AirPods.
• Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 6: Although the MacBook Air has slightly newer Wi-Fi 7 support (both have Bluetooth 6), no one in the MacBook Neo’s target audience will notice the difference with Wi-Fi 6E. Few people have Wi-Fi 7 base stations yet anyway.
• Battery life: Apple rates the MacBook Neo at 16 hours of video streaming and 11 hours of “wireless web” use, which qualifies it for “all-day” battery life. It’s respectable and probably sufficient for most situations, but well below the MacBook Air’s 18 and 15 hours on those benchmarks.
• Size and weight: In terms of raw numbers, the MacBook Neo is slightly narrower and shallower than the MacBook Air—about a quarter of an inch— but essentially the same thickness (about half an inch) and weight (2.7 pounds). You wouldn’t notice the difference.

Who Should Consider the MacBook Neo

Apple is clearly aiming the MacBook Neo at specific audiences. Anyone working with a lot of apps at once, doing photo or video editing, playing high-end games, or using a bunch of peripherals will be better suited with the additional processing power, memory, and connectivity of the MacBook Air. And those with even more intensive workflows will gravitate to the MacBook Pro line.

But the MacBook Neo is meant to be a small, cute, and inexpensive laptop. It’s entirely adequate for the kind of schoolwork that most K–12 students do: educational apps, online lessons, writing assignments, creating presentations, and conducting research. Its aluminum enclosure will withstand the rigors of daily student use, and the battery life should be sufficient for a full school day.

It would also be appropriate for budget-conscious adults with minimal computing needs. Many people do little more than browse the Web, check email, stream video, and use basic productivity apps. Those who spend most of their time in a handful of bundled Apple apps don’t need the performance of the MacBook Air.

However, we can’t recommend the MacBook Neo for most college students. Although it could handle basic word processing, Web browsing, and video streaming, college students can’t predict what they may need to do during their time in school, and it’s easy to imagine them needing to edit video, do data analysis, or work with 3D graphics. Plus, the limited port selection may be problematic for students needing to connect to external displays, storage drives, and other peripherals.

Although the same concerns apply to creative and business professionals, the MacBook Neo may be an economical travel laptop for someone who does most of their real work on a Mac mini or Mac Studio at the office. For keeping up with email, managing travel details on websites, and giving presentations, it should be more than sufficient and cheaper than most iPads with keyboards.

Pricing and Availability

The MacBook Neo costs $599 for the 256 GB model with Magic Keyboard (no Touch ID) or $699 for the 512 GB model with Touch ID. For the education market, pricing starts at $499. Both configurations are limited to 8 GB unified memory, and there are no other build-to-order options. It comes in four colors—silver, blush, citrus, and indigo—with color-coordinated keyboards.

(Featured image by Apple)

Apple kicked off March 2026 with a flurry of product updates, refreshing its budget iPhone, mid-range iPad, and entire MacBook lineup. The announcements bring real upgrades across the board, with improved chips, faster storage, and better connectivity.

iPhone 17e Adds MagSafe

The iPhone 17e replaces last year’s iPhone 16e and maintains its $599 entry-level price. The most notable addition is MagSafe support—something conspicuously absent from its predecessor. The iPhone 17e now supports 15-watt MagSafe and Qi wireless charging, opening it up to the full ecosystem of MagSafe accessories.

Apple doubled the base storage to 256 GB and dropped the 512 GB price from $899 to $799. The new model runs on the A19 chip—the same processor powering the iPhone 17, though with one fewer GPU core. Apple’s C1X cellular modem promises up to twice the speed of the iPhone 16e’s C1 chip while using 30% less energy.

Other improvements include Ceramic Shield 2 for better scratch resistance, the next-generation portrait mode with post-capture focus and depth adjustments, and a new pink color option alongside black and white.

For users seeking the most affordable iPhone, the iPhone 17e is a solid value at $599 and a real improvement over the iPhone 16e. However, for $200 more, the base iPhone 17 offers a larger, brighter 6.3-inch screen, Camera Control, an additional Ultra Wide camera, better battery life, Always-On display with ProMotion, and Dynamic Island—making it the better choice for users who can stretch their budget.

iPad Air Gets M4 and More Memory

The updated iPad Air brings the M4 chip to Apple’s mid-range tablet while maintaining prices at $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for the 13-inch version.

The M4 features an 8-core CPU and 9-core GPU, delivering up to 30% faster performance than the M3 version and up to 2.3x faster than M1 models. More significant is the increase in unified memory—the iPad Air now comes with 12 GB of RAM, 50% more than the previous generation’s 8 GB, and memory bandwidth has increased to 120 GB/s. These improvements particularly benefit AI workloads and demanding apps like Final Cut Pro and Pixelmator Pro.

Connectivity receives an upgrade with Apple’s N1 and C1X chips. The N1 wireless networking chip enables Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, while the C1X cellular modem in the Wi-Fi + Cellular models delivers up to 50% faster data performance with 30% lower energy consumption than the M3 model’s modem.

Starting storage remains at 128 GB, with options up to 1 TB. The iPad Air continues to be available in two sizes and four colors: blue, purple, starlight, and space gray.

The M4 iPad Air makes sense for users upgrading from pre-M1 iPads or anyone wanting a capable tablet without the premium price of the M5-based iPad Pro models, which start at $999 and $1,299.

MacBook Air Gains M5 and Doubles Storage

The MacBook Air receives the M5 chip along with doubled starting storage of 512 GB. The 13-inch model now starts at $1,099, and the 15-inch model at $1,299. Although those prices are the same as the previous generation’s 512 GB configurations, they’re $100 higher than the previous entry-level pricing to create a little more room between the MacBook Air and Apple’s new entry-level $599 MacBook Neo laptop.

The M5 chip features a 10-core CPU and 8-core or 10-core GPU, delivering 1.5x to 4x improvements over the M4 depending on the task. Memory bandwidth increases to 153 GB/s, enabling smoother multitasking and faster app launches. Storage configurations now include a 4 TB option for the first time in a MacBook Air, and the new SSDs deliver up to 2x the read/write performance of the M4 generation.

Apple has integrated its N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. The MacBook Air continues to feature the 12-megapixel Center Stage camera, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, MagSafe 3 charging, and up to 18 hours of battery life. It’s available in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver.

The MacBook Air remains compelling for most laptop users. If you configure it comparably to the M5 14-inch MacBook Pro, it’s $400 cheaper, slightly smaller, and 26% lighter. Anyone limping along with an Intel-based Mac laptop will experience dramatic improvements if they upgrade to the M5 MacBook Air, and it’s also well worth considering an upgrade if an older M1 or M2 MacBook Air has started to feel slow.

MacBook Pro Introduces M5 Pro and M5 Max

The MacBook Pro gains significant performance upgrades with the new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, along with doubled starting storage. For models with the M5 Pro chip, pricing starts at $2,199 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro and $2,699 for the 16-inch MacBook Pro. The M5 Max models start at $3,599 (14-inch) and $3,899 (16-inch).

The M5 Pro offers either a 15-core or 18-core CPU and up to a 20-core GPU, now supporting up to 64 GB of unified memory with 307 GB/s bandwidth (up from the M4 Pro’s 48 GB ceiling). The M5 Max comes with an 18-core CPU, up to a 40-core GPU, and supports up to 128 GB of unified memory with 614 GB/s bandwidth. Compared with the previous M4 Pro and M4 Max, Apple claims up to 30% faster multithreaded CPU performance for the M5 Pro and 15% faster for the M5 Max. Both chips also deliver 4x faster peak GPU performance, in part thanks to new Neural Accelerators built into every GPU core. Ray tracing performance improves by up to 35% compared to the previous generation of chips.

As with the other product refreshes, Apple doubled starting storage: M5 Pro models now start at 1 TB, while M5 Max models start at 2 TB. The new SSDs also deliver up to 2x faster read/write performance. Like the MacBook Air, all models gain the N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.

Otherwise, the MacBook Pro retains its premium hardware from the previous generation, including the Liquid Retina XDR display, three Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI with 8K support, SDXC card slot, 12-megapixel Center Stage camera, and MagSafe 3 charging. Battery life remains up to 24 hours, and both sizes continue to be available in space black and silver.

For professionals pushing boundaries in motion design, visual effects, video editing, machine learning, and data-intensive workflows, these new MacBook Pro models offer real-world improvements that may justify an immediate upgrade from recent generations. Others with M3 or M4 Pro/Max machines may not see enough benefit to justify upgrading, but anyone on older hardware will appreciate the leap.

(Featured image by Apple)

Apple has updated its Studio Display with an improved 12-megapixel Center Stage camera with Desk View support, two Thunderbolt 5 ports, and improved bass from its six-speaker system—all for the same $1,599 starting price. More significantly, Apple introduced the Studio Display XDR at $3,299, bringing professional-grade HDR technology to a broader audience at a much lower price than the $5,000 Pro Display XDR it replaces. The Studio Display XDR features a 27-inch 5K panel with mini-LED backlighting, 2304 local dimming zones, up to 2000 nits of peak HDR brightness, a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and a 120 Hz refresh rate with Adaptive Sync. Both displays require macOS 26.3.1 Tahoe and work with all Apple silicon Macs.

(Featured image by Apple)