Serious photographers take care of their lenses. The rest of us just stuff our iPhones into our pockets or purses and pay no attention to the fingerprints and grime they collect. If your iPhone’s camera lens is smudged, it will impact the quality of your photos. Take a few seconds to polish it with a microfiber cloth now and then, or, you know, simply wipe it with the edge of your T-shirt. Your photos will thank you.
(Featured image by iStock.com/EyeEm Mobile GmbH)
The ongoing threat of tariffs raising the price of iPhones has recently prompted some people to upgrade from an old Touch ID iPhone to a new iPhone 16. Although most have adjusted well to Face ID, few are aware of the app-switching shortcut exclusive to Face ID iPhones. To access the App Switcher on a Face ID iPhone, you must swipe up slightly from the bottom of the screen and then continue the swipe to the right. However, Face ID experts rarely do that. Instead, they just swipe right and left on the bar at the bottom of the screen to switch between apps—it’s much faster and easier, albeit hard to discover.
(Featured image by Adam Engst)
Booting from an external SSD (hard disks are too slow) provides a convenient way to test specific versions of macOS or troubleshoot problems with your Mac’s internal storage. However, a little-known gotcha has caused untold hair loss among those trying to boot from an external drive. Macs with Apple silicon cannot start up from external drives connected to their DFU (device firmware update) USB-C port. The only way to determine which port this is on a given Mac is to look it up on Apple’s website. If your Mac won’t boot from an external drive, connect it to a different USB-C port.
(Featured image by iStock.com/ardasavasciogullari)
All Bluetooth devices come with a name, but those names are often difficult to decipher, such as ATUMTEK, DX01Gu, and MY-CAR, making it hard to remember which is which in your iPhone’s Bluetooth settings. What you may not realize is that you can rename many Bluetooth devices to tidy up that list. Go to Settings > Bluetooth, connect to the device, and tap the blue ⓘ button to the right of its name. If you can rename the device, you’ll be able to tap the Name field and enter a new one. While you’re here, note the Device Type menu, which lets you choose from Car Stereo, Headphone, Hearing Aid, Speaker, and Other. Apple says that specifying the correct device type can ensure greater accuracy for the Headphone Audio Level measurements, which iOS uses to warn you about prolonged exposure to loud audio.
(Featured image based on originals by iStock.com/Pantherius and iStock.com/Meepian Graphic)
Is your child heading off to college soon? Now is a good time to consider getting them a new Mac, especially if their current computer is old or unreliable, is shared with other family members, or was a school loaner. If you haven’t been keeping up with Apple’s Mac lineup, you might be unsure which model is the best choice.
First, check with the college before making a purchase. Although less common than in the past, some college departments have specific requirements based on the software used by students in their classes. Generally, these requirements focus on processor type, amount of RAM, and storage space. Current Macs should meet or exceed all of these requirements. A more significant issue arises if the college requires a Windows machine; in that case, determine whether the requirement is based on specific Windows-only software or simply a preference by the IT staff to maintain a uniform support environment. Second, see if the college offers educational pricing—most do—to save a few hundred dollars off the prices listed below. Regardless, Apple often has a Back to School offer.
Choose a laptop instead of a desktop Mac. Students lead mobile lives and need to work in various locations on campus, so having to head back to the dorm to use an iMac or Mac mini will be limiting. Plus, they often need to work during breaks, so they need a Mac that’s easy to carry home. A student accustomed to taking notes on an iPad with a keyboard and Apple Pencil might manage to use that alongside a desktop Mac, but most students should opt for laptops.
In the past, deciding on the best model for a given student was more challenging, but Apple’s speedy and power-efficient M-series chips make the decision easier. We see three primary scenarios:
No matter which laptop you choose, you’ll need to select a processor, memory size, and storage capacity:
For most students, the best choice for a Mac that is likely to last throughout four years of college is the 13-inch or 15-inch M4 MacBook Air, equipped with a 10-core GPU, 16 GB of memory, and 512 GB of storage. While the 15-inch model has a larger screen, it’s also 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 guaranteed that some mishap will occur with a student laptop, and AppleCare+ covers up to two incidents of accidental damage each year.
We recommend talking with your child to learn more about what they think they’ll need—and make sure to 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)
Most phishing attacks are easy to identify, but we’ve just seen one that’s more likely to evade detection. Those who own personal or business Internet domain names—to personalize their email or provide an online presence for their website—may receive fake messages claiming that a domain has been deactivated due to a payment issue. Because scammers can determine when domain names are due to expire and the name of the company hosting the domain, the urgency triggered by a message that appears to be from the domain host and arriving near the renewal date may cause someone to click a link they shouldn’t. This particular one wasn’t even that well crafted and still caused the recipient brief concern until they manually went to DreamHost and verified that nothing was wrong with their domain payment. Stay alert out there!
(Featured image by iStock.com/weerapatkiatdumrong)
When discussing digital security, we typically focus on preventive measures, such as using strong passwords with a password manager, enabling multi-factor authentication, keeping systems up to date, maintaining regular backups, and training employees to recognize potential security threats. While these practices are essential, they don’t guarantee complete protection.
No one is immune to online attacks—the most security-conscious organizations and individuals can still become victims. Even security experts occasionally click something they shouldn’t have or forget to keep a little-used system up to date. A single employee opening a convincing phishing email, a momentary lapse in judgment, or a zero-day vulnerability can lead to devastating consequences.
According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), cybercrime-related losses from 2020 through 2024 are estimated at $50.5 billion, with IC3 receiving 4.2 million complaints. Most concerning is the rising trend in the frequency and severity of these attacks.
Given these statistics and the reality that perfect security is impossible, many are looking to protect themselves from possible financial losses. Just as fires and accidents make home and auto insurance necessary, these ever-increasing threats from phishing, malware, and other forms of digital attack make cyber insurance an important consideration for both companies and individuals. We’ll focus on businesses here and explore personal cyber insurance in a future article.
Cyber insurance for businesses helps companies recover from security breaches and online attacks. Unlike traditional business insurance policies, cyber insurance focuses on the risks of using technology to operate or to store sensitive data online. Businesses of all sizes are vulnerable, but small and medium-sized businesses are often targeted because they lack the robust security infrastructure of larger enterprises.
Industries that are especially at risk include healthcare, financial services, retail, and professional services, but no sector is immune. You may have cause for additional concern if your company collects customer information, processes payments, or maintains a significant online presence, but realistically, every business that uses email or conducts online banking is vulnerable.
A business cyber policy typically includes two core types of coverage:
However, it’s essential to be aware of common exclusions to business cyber insurance, the most important of which are:
How much will business cyber insurance cost? It varies based on your company size and revenue, industry sector, type and amount of sensitive data stored, security practices, coverage limits and deductibles, and claims history. That said, small businesses with yearly revenues under $1 million typically have annual premiums ranging from $500 to $2,000. Mid-sized firms often pay between $2,000 and $10,000, and large companies can expect premiums in the tens of thousands.
It’s common—and entirely understandable—to hesitate to purchase cyber insurance due to concerns about the cost. However, the potential financial impact of an incident is often significant. IBM’s 2024 Cost of Data Breach Report found that the average cost of a data breach was $4.9 million globally, but $9.4 million in the United States. Although IBM doesn’t break out costs by company size, those costs are likely for larger companies. Nonetheless, a Financial Times report notes that users at small and medium-sized businesses were twice as likely to encounter threats as those at large companies.
Choosing the right cyber insurance broker is as important as selecting the policy itself, and you’ll want to involve your security team in the search. Look for someone specializing in cyber coverage who has technical expertise in cybersecurity practices, strong relationships with underwriters, and a track record of providing active claims support. A good broker will not only find competitive pricing but also help tailor coverage to your specific risks and ensure you’re prepared to meet underwriting requirements.
When comparing cyber insurance options, pay attention to the details. Confirm that the policy addresses risks specific to your situation and provides sufficient financial protection for your potential exposure. Pay close attention to exclusions—there will be more than those listed above. Research the insurer’s claims process and reputation for responsiveness, as timely support during an incident is crucial. Finally, inquire about additional risk management services offered by the insurer that may provide valuable preventative resources to complement your coverage.
Unfortunately, the frequency and risk of cyber attacks are on the rise. Proactive security measures are key, but a single mistake or oversight could have dire outcomes. Cyber insurance provides an important safety net in the event of a breach or attack that evades your best efforts.
We won’t pretend that finding and purchasing cyber insurance is simple, but we can help with finding a good cyber insurance broker, evaluating the policy, answering application questions, and ensuring that your company meets the necessary security requirements.
(Featured image by iStock.com/Who_I_am)
Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote was a lightning-fast 92-minute tour of Apple’s vision for how we’ll use its products in the next year. Apple wove two themes through the presentation: the new Liquid Glass design language will provide a consistent look and feel across all its platforms, and Apple Intelligence-powered features will continue to appear throughout the ecosystem. The other overarching news is that Apple is adopting a new annual versioning approach, similar to car model years, so the version number for each operating system will be 26.
Apple previewed numerous features during the keynote and listed even more on its website afterward. Below, we’ll focus on those we think will make the most difference to your Apple experience, but we also encourage you to read Apple’s pages for each platform to learn more about what’s coming. Those are linked here, along with basic hardware requirements, so you can determine if your devices will be eligible to upgrade this fall:
First, let’s look at Liquid Glass, after which we’ll examine a handful of changes we think Apple users will find most interesting.
Apple’s last major interface redesign occurred in 2013 with the release of iOS 7. Since then, the company’s hardware and graphics technologies have advanced significantly, enabling the new Liquid Glass interface design. It brings to life a new glass-like “material” for interface elements that blurs the line between the physical and the virtual. Liquid Glass is both translucent and malleable, allowing background content to refract through the controls, which can morph, flex, and illuminate in response to user interaction.
Liquid Glass encompasses all of Apple’s platforms and extends to every aspect of the interface, including controls, navigation bars, tabs and sidebars, alerts, widgets, icons, the menu bar, and the Dock. Functionally, Apple has taken the opportunity to improve some interactions, so alerts appear from where you tap rather than taking over the entire display, and context menus expand into scannable lists rather than requiring awkward horizontal scrolling. When you interact with toolbars or other controls, they expand and become more prominent, but as soon as you’re done, they minimize themselves to let you focus on the content. Watch Apple’s intro video to get a feel for it.
The main concern with Liquid Glass is that it may lack contrast and be difficult to read for those whose vision isn’t perfect. In the past, Apple has provided a Reduce Transparency option in the Accessibility settings for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS to eliminate any color bleeding through translucent menus and dialogs; we’ll see if such an option proves necessary for some.
Ever since the introduction of the iPad, people have been frustrated by the extent to which it was a larger iPhone rather than a smaller, touch-sensitive Mac. Apple took small steps toward enhancing productivity by adding features like Slide Over and Split View, but they were fussy to use and never achieved widespread acceptance. With iPadOS 26, Apple has finally acknowledged that the iPad should just work more like a Mac. To that end, iPadOS 26 will offer Mac-like features in the following areas:
Apple Intelligence has been far from a rousing success, with Apple’s failure to deliver last year’s promised update to Siri being the most prominent misstep. But Apple isn’t giving up and will be tapping into Apple Intelligence in many more places across all its operating systems and apps.
Even more important, the company announced that it is opening Apple Intelligence to developers, so we can expect to see features powered by Apple’s on-device large language models appearing in third-party apps this fall. That’s a big deal because Apple’s models provide fast response times, prioritize privacy, and incur no per-prompt costs.
Some of the new and expanded uses of Apple Intelligence include:
These new applications of Apple Intelligence may not rock your world, but together, they offer some appreciated enhancements. We also look forward to seeing how developers leverage Apple Intelligence models in innovative ways.
Perhaps the most significant additional feature driven by Apple Intelligence in the new operating systems is Live Translation. It’s integrated into the Phone, FaceTime, and Messages apps. In the Phone app, you get spoken translations between supported languages. In FaceTime, you see the other person’s translated text as a caption, and Messages translates their text. Live Translations may prove to be a lifesaver on your next international trip.
Whenever you do a search on the Mac, you’re using Spotlight. It can also search within apps like Contacts and Calendar, access various online sources, open documents, launch apps, and more. Despite that, Spotlight has paled in comparison to launchers like Alfred, LaunchBar, and Raycast. No more.
In Apple’s new operating systems, Spotlight will enable users to perform hundreds of actions across various apps. It will also be capable of understanding what you’re working on and suggesting relevant files, apps, or actions. For instance, you’ll be able to start a timer, create calendar events, generate a new email message with pre-filled fields, play a podcast episode, and more.
Spotlight also introduces the concept of “quick keys,” which are short, custom mnemonics for specific actions. For instance, you might type sm to trigger Spotlight to send a message or ar to add a reminder.
In addition, Spotlight becomes a clipboard manager, providing access to recently copied items, including text, images, and links. You can browse, search, and insert previous clipboard entries directly through Spotlight.
Phone calls may not be the primary use of the iPhone for many people, but they remain a fact of life. With iOS 26, Apple has introduced two features that, if they work as promised, will alleviate two common pain points associated with calls.
Call Screening builds on the Live Voicemail feature by automatically answering calls from unknown numbers, without even alerting you. Once the caller provides their name and the reason for their call, the Phone app rings and presents information to help you decide whether to answer.
The other new feature is Hold Assist, which automatically detects hold music and asks if you want it to wait on hold for you, allowing you to attend to other tasks. When someone on the other end picks up, it informs them that you’ll be there shortly and notifies you that it’s time to return to the call.
Although we think of using the Phone app exclusively on the iPhone, Apple is also bringing it to macOS 26 and iPadOS 26, thanks to Continuity. Once you upgrade, you’ll be able to take advantage of these features—and Live Translation—on those platforms as well.
Finally, watchOS 26 introduces a new gesture that we believe will be popular: the wrist flick. Whenever a notification appears on screen, you can quickly rotate your wrist away from you to dismiss it. This feature is a great little addition to the Apple Watch interaction model.
If none of these changes seem earthshaking to you, we agree. With six operating systems and billions of users, Apple can’t move as quickly as smaller companies. While Liquid Glass will dramatically change the look of our Apple devices, the other new features shouldn’t require us to learn completely new methods of interaction.
(Featured image by Apple)
No one likes passwords. Users find managing them annoying, and website managers worry about login credentials being stolen in a data breach. The industry has developed a better solution: passkeys.
Traditional multi-factor authentication involves three methods of authentication, at least two of which are required for protection. They include something you know (a password), something you have (usually a code from an authenticator app or text message), and something you are (biometric authentication). Most systems primarily use the first two, but that leaves room for attack because someone could acquire your password and an authentication code through nefarious means.
Passkeys change the model. Instead of how passwords and codes use words and numbers that can be copied and shared, passkeys are pairs of cryptographic keys: a public key and a private key. Websites keep the public key, and the private key is stored securely within an encrypted vault, such as in iCloud Keychain or a 1Password vault. Authenticating with a website requires providing the private key that matches the account’s public key, something that Apple users with modern devices can usually initiate with Touch ID or Face ID.
Instead of generating security with something you have and something you know, passkeys rely on possession (do you have the device?) and presence (are you physically in front of the device?). This approach is fundamentally more secure than passwords because the private key can’t be phished, copied, or used remotely, and you must be physically present to unlock your device. Nor can you be tricked into providing a passkey to a malicious website. (Neither approach protects against physical coercion.)
In practice, since you use passkeys primarily to sign into websites, passkeys are stored alongside account details in your password manager. For Apple users, Safari (in iOS 16 or macOS 13 Ventura and later) with Apple’s Passwords app provides the most integrated passkey experience. However, most independent password managers, such as 1Password, Bitwarden, and Dashlane, also enable you to store, share, and enter passkeys and can take over for or work alongside Apple’s Passwords. They provide consistent passkey functionality across all major Web browsers, although experiences may vary slightly due to differences in how they handle authentication prompts and platform integration.
You’ll also find robust support in the Password Manager built into Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers, including Arc, Brave, Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi. Firefox’s native passkey support is more limited, but third-party password managers work well with Firefox.
Although website support for passkeys was initially slow, an increasing number of sites now support them. That includes the big three of Apple, Google, and Microsoft, of course, as well as Amazon, Best Buy, Discord, eBay, GitHub, Intuit, Netflix, Notion, PayPal, Robinhood, Stripe, Target, Walmart, and WhatsApp.
The process of setting up passkeys varies a little by website, but is generally remarkably easy. You may be prompted to create a passkey while signing in, or you may need to navigate to the security options associated with your account.
Google offers both approaches. Setting up a passkey for a Google Account can be as simple as agreeing to do so while logging in. If you’re already logged in, Google’s Passkeys and security keys page lets you make one. Once you click Create a Passkey, you’ll be prompted to save it in either Apple’s Passwords or another password manager like 1Password. That’s it.
Note that if you use both Passwords and another password manager, you can save the passkey in only one, and only that one can use it to sign in later. However, most sites that support passkeys let you add multiple passkeys, so you could save separate passkeys in different password managers.
Similarly, using a passkey to sign in is trivially simple. You navigate to the website’s login page, enter your username, choose the passkey sign-in option if necessary, and then authenticate.
Exactly how you authenticate depends on the device you’re using and your password manager. On the Mac, Passwords will ask you to use Touch ID if available (above) or a dialog otherwise (below, left). 1Password, once unlocked for the session, presents a dialog with a Sign In button (below right).
On the iPhone and iPad, an authentication dialog appears at the bottom of the screen asking if you want to sign in with your passkey. Tap Continue and authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID (with a fallback to your passcode if necessary).
Unsurprisingly, Apple makes it particularly easy to sign in to Apple websites like iCloud.com using a passkey. As soon as you navigate to such a site in Safari, the device prompts you to sign in using your current Apple Account username and an implicit passkey.
When using other browsers or another Mac that lacks access to your passkey, selecting the passkey sign-in option displays a QR code that you need to scan with an iPhone or iPad that has the passkey stored on it.
As noted, passkeys are stored in accounts managed by a password manager. In fact, passkeys are currently stored alongside passwords in each account. There’s nothing to see or edit, although you can delete passkeys like any other data. Although deleting the passkey on your device guarantees that it can’t be used to sign in again, it’s best to also delete the passkey at the website where you created it to avoid confusion.
Passkeys are automatically synced among all your devices by the password manager so you can take advantage of them everywhere, but note that syncing is specific to just one password manager—for instance, iCloud Keychain doesn’t sync with 1Password or other third-party managers. The authentication method varies by device, but the overall experience remains the same.
You can also share passkeys with other people in your family or workgroup, just as you would with password-only accounts. They can log in to your passkey-protected accounts because they can prove possession (they have the passkey) and presence (they’re authenticating). In essence, you’re saying, “This person is authorized to act as the account holder.”
Although passkeys are a big step forward in usability and security compared to passwords, they’re not without limitations or concerns, which have slowed adoption:
Nonetheless, the perfect shouldn’t be the enemy of the good. Passkeys improve on passwords in both usability and security, and the best way to get to an easier, more secure future is to start using passkeys wherever possible today.
(Featured image by iStock.com/tanit boonruen)
We recently helped someone having trouble with 1Password requesting their password repeatedly on their iPad, but not on their iPhone. Since 1Password’s data syncs between devices, this person didn’t realize they needed to configure the app’s security settings separately for each device. It’s appropriate for 1Password to separate security settings—one device could be used in a much more sensitive environment than another—but it’s also easy to see how a user might be confused about the difference in behavior. All this is to say that if you are annoyed by an app or operating system behaving differently depending on the device you’re using, compare the settings and ensure they’re set appropriately for each device.
(Featured image based on an original by iStock.com/towfiqu ahamed)