Let’s say you’re writing documentation to help colleagues use Preview to edit images, sign PDFs, and convert graphics. (A worthy task for which they will thank you!) For this documentation, you want to include the Preview app’s icon so they know what to look for in the Applications folder and Dock. To copy a high-resolution version of any app icon that you can paste into a document or combine with other graphics, select the app in the Finder, choose File > Get Info, select the little icon in the upper-left corner of the Info window, and press Command-C. You can then use Command-V to paste it wherever you want or create a new file containing all sizes of the icon by switching to Preview and choosing File > New From Clipboard.

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

Although most Mac users rely on Apple’s Safari for Web browsing, plenty of people prefer Google Chrome for its cross-platform compatibility, massive collection of extensions, and tight integration with the Google ecosystem. Chrome is by far the most popular browser in the world, with about 65% of the market, compared to Safari’s 18%. Still others opt for alternative browsers based on the same open-source Chromium engine, such as Arc, Brave, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi.

Unfortunately, Chrome’s dominance makes it a target for attackers in two ways. First, attackers may attempt to find vulnerabilities that would let them steal data or compromise credentials. Second, although Google reviews extensions submitted to the Chrome Web Store, researchers have discovered malicious extensions with millions of downloads. To keep your copy of Chrome secure, we recommend two things: relaunch the browser regularly and be careful with extensions.

Relaunch Chrome to Install Updates

Google Chrome and all the other Chromium-based browsers update themselves automatically. Sort of. While the browser is running, it downloads the latest update but doesn’t install it until you quit and relaunch. Since both macOS and most apps are highly reliable, many people go weeks or even months without relaunching, leaving Chrome vulnerable to recent security exploits. You can check if you’re running the latest version or need to install an update by choosing Chrome > About Google Chrome. (Some extensions, like 1Password, even refuse to run when an update is required.)

In other words, it’s important that you quit and relaunch Chrome and any other Chromium browsers regularly—we recommend a weekly schedule to match Google’s schedule for security updates. There’s no need to worry about losing your open tabs as long as you set Chrome to “Continue where you left off” in Chrome > Settings > On Startup. All the Chromium-based browsers have a similar setting. (While we’re on the topic, remember that it’s also a good idea to restart your Mac occasionally!)

There is one exception among the alternative browsers: Arc. Its developers have figured out how to download and install updates automatically. The feature is still being rolled out to all users, but when enabled, it installs updates when the Mac wakes from sleep rather than forcing the user to quit and relaunch.

Be Careful with Chrome Extensions

Chrome extensions can be both a blessing and a curse. There are vastly more Chrome extensions than Safari extensions, so Chrome and the Chromium browsers enjoy added features that Safari lacks. On the downside, in 2023, researchers discovered dozens of malicious extensions with tens of millions of combined downloads. Google has removed all of them, but many had been on the Chrome Web Store for 6 months or more.

There are over 100,000 extensions in the Chrome Web Store, so while malicious extensions are real, most extensions are legitimate. But if Google can miss them for months or years, how can you reduce the chances of installing something evil? Here’s what we do:

• Reduce the number of extensions you install: The fewer extensions you install, the less likely one is to be malicious or cause other problems. Regularly uninstall any extensions you don’t use from Window > Extensions (the location may vary slightly in the Chromium browsers).
• Only install from the Chrome Web Store: Stick to extensions that have at least gone through Google’s reviews for the Chrome Web Store and avoid direct downloads for extensions.
• Read reviews before installing: Although reviews are no guarantee, if you see people complaining about unusual behavior, that may be a clue that the extension is doing something sketchy.
• Evaluate extension metadata: In general, avoid extensions that aren’t used by many people, that don’t have many reviews, or that aren’t updated frequently. Those aren’t guaranteed signals of a malicious extension but may be a hint to be cautious.
• Review permissions before installing: When you click the Add to Chrome button in the Chrome Web Store, a prompt explains what permissions will be granted to the extension. If they seem unnecessarily broad, cancel the installation.

Don’t stress too much about this. Maintaining good Chrome security comes down to relaunching the browser once a week and being careful about which extensions you use—it’s easy.

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

In the early days of the Internet, when most people connected via slow modems, saving bandwidth was a big deal. You could watch images load on Web pages, and you’d have to wait to download a large email attachment before the rest of your email would appear. For most people, in most situations, bandwidth isn’t nearly as big of a deal anymore. The average Internet download speed in the US is nearly 250 megabits per second, such that most Web pages load instantly, email just appears, and we think nothing of having multiple video streams playing at once.

All that’s by way of saying that you don’t have to shrink images that you share in email or Messages in most cases, and doing so can cause problems for recipients. The most common issues people run into are images being too small or fuzzy to see, not matching the dimensions needed for a website, or being too low quality to save for posterity.

There are exceptions. Smaller or lower quality images may make sense when sending or receiving in rural areas with slow Internet connections, places with no Wi-Fi and tenuous cell service, and remote locations with only satellite Internet. In those cases, you’ll either realize that messages are taking a long time to send or hear from the other party that it’s a problem. But, most of the time, it’s best to send actual size images, so let’s look at how you ensure that.

Sending Actual Size Images in Email

How do you ensure you’re not sending downsized images in email? In Mail on Apple’s devices, the details vary slightly depending on which device you are using, but in each case, you want to use the Actual Size option. Neither Gmail nor Outlook suffers from this problem. Here’s what you need to know for each of these email clients:

• Mail on the Mac: When you drop an image into a Mail message, an Image Size menu specifies the size at which it will be sent. Small resizes the longest side to 320 pixels, Medium to 640, and Large to 1280. Actual Size sends the original image, which is what you want. The Image Size menu remembers its setting, so if you send one image in a smaller size, you probably want to reset it to Actual Size for the next one. If you attach multiple images in a single message, they’ll all be resized similarly.
  
• Mail on the iPad: On the iPad, when you add an image to a message, you’ll see a note in the header information that says something like “Images: 2.9 MB.” Tap anywhere in the header to reveal extra header fields, including an Image Size line with options for the different sizes. Small and Medium work as on the Mac, resizing the longest side to 320 and 640 pixels, and Actual Size sends the original, which is generally what you want. However, Large resizes the image to half the size of the original if appropriate or leaves it alone if not. Multiple images will be resized to the selected size.
  
• Mail on the iPhone: Because of the iPhone’s smaller screen size, Mail on the iPhone asks how to resize the image(s) after you tap the send button. The results are the same as on the iPad, described above.
  
• Gmail on the Web: You don’t need to do anything when sending images in Gmail to prevent them from being resized. Although Gmail lets you visibly resize an image with handles and offers Small, Best Fit, and Original options when you click, none of them change the file size or resolution of the image being sent. Only some receiving email apps (including Gmail and Outlook, but not Mail) will display the sent size. Regardless of the visible size, opening an attached image reveals that it’s the original. Note that Gmail has a 25 MB limit on attachments and may refuse to send a message with more than that or may resize images to make them fit. If you need to send an image at a particular size using Gmail, resize it before attaching—see below for a tip on how to do that.
  
• Outlook on the Mac: You can visibly resize images sent in Outlook on the Mac, but doing so affects only the displayed size, not the file size or resolution of the attached image. Email clients receiving an Outlook-resized image may do so at the sent size, but opening it reveals that it’s the original image. If you need to send an image at a smaller size, resize it before sending—read below for help.
  

Avoiding Lower-Quality Images in Messages

Although it may seem confusing, keeping images from being resized in email is pretty straightforward. Ensuring that you send full-quality images in Messages is trickier because there are multiple variables in play:

• Turn off Low Quality Image Mode: Make sure you turn off Settings > Messages > Low Quality Image Mode on the iPhone and iPad. (The Mac has no comparable setting.) This mode downsizes images sent via iMessage (blue bubble conversations), making them smaller and lower quality. Only turn it on if it’s paramount that you save bandwidth due to a slow connection or data cap.
  
• Avoid sending via SMS/MMS: There’s no need for Low Quality Image Mode for messages sent via SMS (green bubble conversations) because the MMS technology used to send images for SMS conversations has size limits that vary by carrier, usually between 500 KB and 3.5 MB. Messages automatically resizes and compresses images to fit within carrier limits. You have no control over this process, which is likely to be unpredictable. If you need to send someone a full-quality image, use email instead of SMS. Happily, in iOS 18, Messages will support the RCS standard that allows full-quality images.
• Prefer high-speed connections: Although Apple doesn’t document anything along these lines, some suggest that Messages may reduce image size or quality when using slow networks. If you (or your recipient) experience issues while using weak cellular connectivity, try again when connected to the Internet via high-speed Wi-Fi.

Bonus Tip: How to Resize an Image Manually

Let’s flip the problem around. Say you use Gmail or Outlook and need to send an image with specific dimensions or a smaller file size than the original. How do you do that easily? Preview! That’s right, Apple’s Preview works well for resizing images and shrinking file sizes.

To resize an image you have open in Preview, choose Tools > Adjust Size and enter the desired width or height into the appropriate field. As long as Scale Proportionally is selected, Preview will automatically set the other dimension to resize the image proportionally. You can choose other units, but pixels is generally best. Preview even reports on the resulting size at the bottom. After you click OK, save the image.

What if you want to reduce an image’s file size without changing its dimensions? With the image open in Preview, choose File > Export, choose JPEG from the Format menu, and move the Quality slider to the left to increase the JPEG compression. Preview reports on the new file size each time you move the slider. You’ll want to export a few tests to determine the best combination of file size and quality.

Generally speaking, changing an image’s dimensions is a better way to reduce file size than increasing compression.

But really, in most cases, just send the original image.

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote was a lightning-fast (even in the full 1:44-long video—or try the 3-minute recap) look at what Apple is bringing to the software side of the Apple experience in the next year. Although some past keynotes have introduced hardware like new Macs and the Vision Pro, this year’s keynote stuck to new operating system features before previewing a suite of AI features collected under the umbrella term “Apple Intelligence.”

Apple previewed a boatload of new features and listed even more on its website. We’ll focus on those we think will make the biggest splash in your Apple experience, but we recommend that you scroll through Apple’s pages for each operating system to see more of what’s coming. Those are linked below, along with basic hardware requirements so you can see if your devices will be eligible to upgrade (not all features will be available on all devices):

• macOS 15 Sequoia: iMac Pro from 2017, MacBook Pro and Mac mini from 2018 and later, iMac and Mac Pro from 2019 and later, MacBook Air from 2020 and later, and Mac Studio from 2022 and later
• iOS 18: Second-generation iPhone SE, iPhone XR, and later (same as iOS 17)
• iPadOS 18: Seventh-generation iPad and later, fifth-generation iPad mini and later, third-generation iPad Air and later (including M2 models), first-generation 11-inch iPad Pro and later, and third-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro and later, and all M4 iPad Pro models
• watchOS 11: Second-generation Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Series 6 and later, and Apple Watch Ultra and later
• tvOS 18: Apple TV HD (with fewer features), Apple TV 4K
• visionOS 2: All Vision Pro headsets

Here are a handful of new features we think Apple users will find most interesting. Then we’ll look at Apple Intelligence.

Personalize Your iPhone and iPad Home Screen

iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 introduce significantly enhanced Home Screen customization options aimed at letting your creativity shine through. You can leave blank spaces between icons and arrange icons and widgets however you like. Additionally, you can change the size of icons and widgets and apply color tints.

Screenshot

Tile Windows Automatically in Sequoia

macOS has long had a subtle window alignment effect that makes it easy to line up windows, but in macOS 15 Sequoia, when you drag a window to the side of the screen, macOS suggests a tiled position on your desktop, intelligently sizing it for the window’s content. Window tiling makes it easy to put windows side-by-side and fill the screen without wasting space. Keyboard jockeys will appreciate new keyboard shortcuts for window tiling as well. (If you don’t want to wait for Sequoia, numerous utilities offer similar features now, including  Amethyst, BetterTouchTool, Magnet, Moom, Rectangle, and Yabai.)

Notes and Phone Gain Audio Recording and Transcription

If you find yourself wanting to revisit what was said in a lecture, appointment, or phone call, a pair of upcoming features can boost your recall. The Notes app on all platforms will record audio and create live transcriptions, allowing you to pay attention during a talk rather than furiously taking notes. Plus, the Phone app in iOS 18 will let you record and transcribe a live call—when you start recording, participants are automatically notified so everyone knows it’s happening.

Mirror Your iPhone on Your Mac

If you frequently pull out your iPhone while working on your Mac, you’ll appreciate Sequoia’s new iPhone mirroring feature. It lets you use your Mac’s pointing device and keyboard to interact with all your iPhone apps in a window on your Mac while the iPhone remains locked or in StandBy. Audio from the iPhone plays through your Mac, and you can share data between devices with drag and drop. A related Continuity feature displays iPhone notifications on your Mac—when mirroring your iPhone, clicking those notifications opens the associated iPhone app.

Passwords Breaks Free of Settings

At long last, Apple has given us a dedicated Passwords app in Sequoia, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and visionOS 2. The company’s password management features have become quite good over the past few years, but they are awkward to access in Settings on the iPhone and iPad and System Settings on the Mac. We don’t anticipate significant feature changes beyond the addition of categories, but the Passwords app should make managing your logins even easier. Passwords still won’t fully match up to the likes of 1Password, but you won’t go wrong with Apple’s built-in solution. Remember that if you use a Web browser other than Safari, you’ll need the iCloud Passwords extension we’ve mentioned previously. You can also share your passwords with a Windows PC using iCloud for Windows.

Five More Welcome Features

For more reasons to upgrade once these new operating systems are out and stable, consider the following additional features:

• Customize Control Center: iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 feature a thoroughly revamped Control Center, accessible with a continuous swipe down on the Home Screen. You can create custom groups of controls—some from third-party apps—with resizing and mixing options.
• iPad Calculator app and Math Notes: Not only does the iPad finally get a Calculator app, but it also introduces Math Notes. You handwrite an equation with an Apple Pencil, and when you write an equals sign, Calculator solves the equation. Math Notes works with keyboards, too, and you can also find it in the Notes app.
• Lock and hide iPhone apps: New privacy features in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 let you lock apps with Face ID or Touch ID so the friend who’s scrolling through your vacation photos can’t also read your journal. You can also move apps to a hidden folder in the App Library that can’t be opened without biometric authentication.
• More tapbacks: In Messages, when you want to use a tapback to acknowledge a message without typing out a reply, you’ll be able to use any emoji or sticker, or a new AI-powered Genmoji.
• Vitals app collects overnight data: When you wear your Apple Watch to sleep, a new Vitals app in watchOS 11 collects and displays your overnight health metrics on your wrist, including heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, blood oxygen, and sleep duration. It might help you rest up to fight off that cold that’s going around.

Apple usually releases its new operating systems in September or October; we’ll write more about them as we get closer. Generally speaking, it’s OK to upgrade to everything but macOS shortly after release; with macOS, we recommend caution to ensure your existing apps and workflows won’t be impacted.

Apple Intelligence

Apple devoted a large chunk of the keynote to introducing Apple Intelligence, a collection of AI-powered features coming to the Apple ecosystem over the next year. These features will enable your iPhone, iPad, and Mac to understand language and create both text and images, plus take actions aimed at simplifying your interactions with apps. What sets Apple Intelligence apart from AI efforts from other companies is its focus on—and understanding of—your personal context. Apple Intelligence will know about your contacts, schedule, email, messages, photos, and much more.

The most significant use of Apple Intelligence will come with Siri, which will let us speak more naturally and understand what we mean if we make mistakes. We’ve trained ourselves to say only things Siri is likely to be able to handle, but that won’t be necessary when Siri gains Apple Intelligence capabilities. You’ll be able to search for photos of your child holding a fishing rod, for instance, or ask Siri to find something when you can’t remember if it was in Mail or Messages. Siri will also gain context awareness, so you can ask what the weather will be like at the beach tomorrow, and if the response is good enough, have it schedule a trip there. Siri will even know a lot more about your Apple devices and can help you use them. For the most part, though, Siri won’t have global knowledge. If Siri can’t answer your query directly, it will offer to send it to ChatGPT for free.

Apple Intelligence also includes writing tools, but unlike ChatGPT, it’s not aimed at creating text from scratch. Instead, it can rewrite text you’ve written to help you fine-tune the wording or adjust the tone to be more appropriate. It can also proofread text, helping you with grammar, word choice, and sentence structure (if you need this now, check out Grammarly). Even when Apple Intelligence does create text, such as the Smart Reply feature coming to Mail, it asks you questions to guide its response.

Text summarization powered by Apple Intelligence shows up repeatedly. In Notes, you’ll be able to summarize a transcription. If you save a long article to Safari’s Reader, it can provide a table of contents and summary. In Mail, instead of the first few sentences appearing in the message list, you’ll get a short summary. Apple Intelligence can even prioritize and summarize notifications.

Unsurprisingly, Apple Intelligence lets you create and edit images, but it’s a far cry from the AI artbots that let you create photo-realistic images. Instead, Apple Intelligence lets you create custom emoji, called Genmoji, which let you express yourself graphically in ways that standard emoji can’t support. Image Playground lets you create images for inclusion in conversations and documents, but it limits you to three styles: Sketch, Illustration, and Paint. Apple doesn’t want anyone making deepfakes with Apple Intelligence. A new Image Wand feature in Notes even turns your rough sketches into polished images.

Apple took great pains to emphasize the privacy aspects of Apple Intelligence. Most Apple Intelligence tasks will take place entirely on your device, hence the need for powerful Apple silicon chips with their Neural Engines and Secure Enclaves. Some tasks require more processing power; to handle those, Apple has developed a highly secure system called Private Cloud Compute. It relies on Apple silicon servers, transfers only the data necessary to the task, and stores nothing.

Apple Intelligence features will start arriving in the fall and continue to roll out in feature-release updates over the next 6–8 months. They will run only on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPads and Macs with M1 or later chips. Intel-based Macs and less-powerful iPads and iPhones need not apply. Apple Intelligence will also require Siri and the device language to be set to US English in the early releases, with other languages to follow.

Overall, Apple appears to have put a great deal of thought and effort into integrating AI into the Apple experience in focused, helpful ways that offer new capabilities while preserving user privacy. We won’t know how well these features will work until they ship, but we look forward to seeing how they can improve interactions with our Apple devices.

(Featured image by Apple)

If you have trouble finding particular items across multiple shelves of books, labeled boxes, or anything else that’s clearly identified with a text name, take carefully composed photos that capture all the titles without glare. Later, you can search for any text in those photos to find them—tap the Search button in Photos on the iPhone or iPad, or use the Search field in Photos on the Mac. Photos highlights the search term on the found photo. (If Photos on the Mac doesn’t surface an expected photo, try again on your iPhone, which seems to get more hits on harder-to-read text.) This capability comes courtesy of Apple’s Live Text feature, which uses machine learning to identify text in photos. Think of it as the lazy person’s database!

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

Research suggests that exposure to blue light fools your body into thinking it’s daytime, making it harder to fall asleep if you work late on a Mac with a bright white (which has a lot of blue light) screen. To help, a macOS feature called Night Shift subtly changes the colors of the screen as the sun sets to reduce the amount of blue light hitting your eyes. In essence, everything gets slightly warmer. To configure your Night Shift schedule—so it turns on and off automatically—go to System Settings > Displays > Night Shift. You can set any times, but Sunset to Sunrise adjusts for the sun’s movement in your location throughout the year. One warning: if you edit photos or videos, or work on graphics where specific colors matter, Night Shift’s color changes may be problematic.

(Featured image by iStock.com/PeopleImages)

Spam filters work pretty well—99% of the messages in your spam mailbox are probably spam. But it’s frustrating to miss an important message that was caught by an overeager spam filter. Here’s an easy way to find many good messages, also known as “ham,” amidst all the spam. Think of keywords that might appear in legitimate email to you: the name of your city, major employers in your area, nearby colleges, companies whose products you use, their products, and so on. Then search for those terms inside your spam mailbox, either one at a time or, if your email app supports it, as a single search with OR statements for each keyword, like this Gmail search (use your actual town name and so forth): in:spam townName OR employerName OR clubName OR companyName. Of course, your keywords will appear in some spam messages, but if the searches reveal ham messages you would otherwise have missed, they’re worthwhile. Be extra cautious around any message that wants you to click a link, log in, or provide private information. The fact that your spam filter caught a message is a red flag.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Igor Kutyaev)

Take a moment and look behind your Mac. Do you see a tangle of cables? The main downside of a mess of cables is that it’s a cluster of chaos that attracts dust bunnies. However, it’s possible for power cables—especially when tightly bundled or looped—to emit electromagnetic interference that can disrupt or degrade the signal carried by nearby data or network cables. They can also heat up, which is generally best avoided. Plus, the more tangled the cable nest, the more likely you’ll cause harm if you pull too hard while attempting to remove a cable from the tangle.

Also, consider cables that extend beyond your desk. Do you have power cables that run across the ground or Ethernet cables that loosely snake up into the ceiling? To protect both people and equipment, ensure that cables aren’t a tripping or catching hazard.

If your cables are a complete disaster, take some time to shut down your devices, disconnect all the cables, clean underneath, and reconnect them in an organized fashion, removing unused cables and replacing damaged or unnecessarily long cables with new ones.

To keep your cables under control going forward, follow these tips:

Select and reduce cables:

• Buy and use cables that are only as long as they need to be.
• When buying new cables, prefer braided cables, which catch less and last longer.
• If you have many cables, try to trim the number with judicious use of docks or hubs.
• Upgrade to wireless accessories, like the Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad, that only need to be plugged in occasionally to charge.

Pay attention to cable location:

• Try to keep cables off the floor, but use a floor cord cover if it’s unavoidable.
• Attach long runs of network cabling to the wall or floor to reduce the chance of accidents.
• Run cables through raceways or inside cable trays to keep them together under desks.
• Add adhesive cable clips to the back or underside of desks without cable management options.
• Ensure cables don’t interfere with workstation ergonomics, especially with movable sit/stand desks.
• Keep power adapters away from other cables for better heat management.

Group your cables:

• Use Velcro straps or cable ties to bundle power and data cables separately.
• Avoid bundling too many power cables too tightly to avoid heat buildup.
• Label cables with their type and use so you can easily distinguish between them.
• Store extra cables in clear zip lock bags or bins, one per cable type.

Maintain your cables:

• Throw out any damaged or suspect cables right away.
• Periodically check and reorganize your cables, removing any that aren’t in active use.

You should be able to find a wide variety of cable management accessories, such as Velcro cable ties, cable labels, cable clips, and floor cord covers, at your preferred electronics retailer.

None of these suggestions are difficult to follow, and you’d be surprised how much you will appreciate having neatly organized cables in use and available when you need them.

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

When your team or family shares access to a single account (such as for banking or social media, which seldom offer multi-user access), using two-factor authentication via SMS is awkward—whose phone receives the 2FA codes? One solution is to use an authentication app. Authentication apps are more secure, and multiple people can add 2FA support to the same account by scanning the QR code at setup or adding the 2FA setup URL later. (In both 1Password and Apple’s iCloud Keychain, edit the login to see and copy the setup URL.) An even better solution is to use a password manager that supports both 2FA codes and password sharing. That way, one person can set up the account with 2FA and add its login to a shared vault or collection. 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, iCloud Keychain, and others provide such features.

(Featured image by iStock.com/May_Chanikran)

Are you a 27-inch iMac owner wondering when Apple will release a new model with speedy Apple silicon? We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the answer seems to be an unequivocal “Never.” Late last year, Apple confirmed to The Verge that it would not be making an Apple silicon version of the 27-inch iMac. Technically, that leaves open the possibility of a 32-inch iMac, for instance, but that feels like wishful thinking given the $5000 cost of Apple’s 32-inch Pro Display XDR. How did we get here, and where should 27-inch iMac owners look next?

Apple introduced the 27-inch iMac with 5K Retina display in 2014 and updated it several times before discontinuing it in 2022. It was hugely popular due to its large, gorgeous screen and a price that made the guts of the Mac seem cheap when paired with such a nice screen. An 8-year run isn’t bad, but once Apple introduced the powerful Mac Studio and the 27-inch Studio Display (also a 5K Retina display), the company felt there was no room for the 27-inch iMac in the lineup.

Apple isn’t necessarily wrong. One of the reasons 27-inch iMac owners are so attached to their Macs is that they can’t upgrade the computer and keep using that lovely screen, which remains one of the best available. Target Display Mode (which lets you use some much older iMacs as an external display for another Mac) never supported that model of iMac, and although the $80 Luna Display dongle does let you use a 27-inch iMac as a screen for another Mac, its tradeoffs may be hard to accept.

In the new world order, an Apple silicon Mac paired with a Studio Display provides a fast, capable Mac you can swap for a newer one when necessary and an extremely nice display you can use across multiple Macs. It’s not uncommon for an external display to last a decade or more, whereas many businesses upgrade their Macs every 3 to 5 years. A Studio Display could easily outlast two or three Macs.

“But, but, but,” we can hear you spluttering, “what about the 24-inch iMac with Apple silicon?” It may seem odd for Apple to drop the 27-inch model but keep a smaller iMac around. The reason is that the 24-inch iMac is meant to be a low-cost Mac that doesn’t skimp on display quality. It has a 4.5K Retina display that’s just a little smaller than the 27-inch iMac’s 5K Retina display while matching its quality. (Those numbers refer to the number of horizontal pixels on the screen—4,480 or 5,120—although the actual resolutions nearly everyone uses are half that to get crisp text at a readable size.) A Mac mini paired with an inexpensive external display would be cheaper than a 24-inch iMac, but you would have trouble getting a comparably good display for so little. The 24-inch iMac is perfect for a receptionist’s desk or a family’s kitchen computer, and its M3 chip will seriously outperform the Intel chips in the now-discontinued 27-inch iMac.

So, let’s assume you’ve been holding onto your 27-inch iMac, but it’s finally time to move on. The calculus of what to buy has changed due to the excellent performance of the Apple silicon Macs, even on the low end, and the existence of the Studio Display. Here’s what we recommend for different needs:

• You’re on a very limited budget: Buy a 24-inch iMac. The screen isn’t quite as large, but the price/performance ratio is hard to beat for such a nice screen. The lowest-end model has fewer USB ports, which might be annoying.
• You want a basic desktop Mac with a Retina screen: Choose between a Mac mini paired with a Studio Display or a 24-inch iMac, which is comparable to the low-end Mac mini. For higher performance needs, go for the Mac mini with an M2 Pro.
• You want portability, too: The Studio Display works well with a MacBook Air (13-inch or 15-inch) for a budget solution or a MacBook Pro (14-inch or 16-inch) for a high-performance option. Using two screens also increases productivity.
• You’re willing to pay more for performance: Things get interesting here because you can use a Studio Display with a Mac mini with M2 Pro, a Mac Studio with M2 Max, or a MacBook Pro with either M3 Pro or M3 Max. The MacBook Pro options are the most expensive but offer portability and a second screen.
• You want the ultimate performance: Pair a Studio Display with a Mac Studio or a Mac Pro, both of which come with the M2 Ultra. The choice comes down to expandability: the Mac Pro offers PCIe slots and more ports.

Right now, the M-series chips are a little confusing. The original M1 is available only in an inexpensive 13-inch MacBook Air model sold exclusively through Walmart. The previous MacBook Air (13-inch only), Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro all use variants of the M2, whereas the newer MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models sport M3 variants. Until recently, we expected Apple to standardize the rest of the line on the M3, but then the iPad Pro came out with an M4 because of yield issues with the M3 fabrication process.

It now seems probable that some models will skip the M3 entirely in favor of the M4, but don’t get too caught up in the latest and greatest. There’s more performance to be gained in the Pro, Max, and Ultra versions of the chips than in the next generation, so for now, the M2 Ultra remains the fastest chip for most processor-intensive tasks.

Regardless of what Mac and display combination best meets your needs, you’ll enjoy vastly better performance than was available with the 27-inch iMac, and the Studio Display is every inch as good a monitor. And maybe you can sell your 27-inch iMac on eBay.

(Featured image by Adam Engst)