Apple won’t go broke for us, so why should we go broke for Apple?
Macworld Boy, it seems like it was just a month ago that we were making fun of the competition’s prices, doesn’t it? The MacBook Neo came out at the low, low price of just five dollars and ninety-nine cents (okay, it was actually $599, but it seemed crazy cheap), causing a seismic wave in the PC industry. And, oh, the fun we had. The Macalope may have had a little too much fun as karma apparently read what he wrote, sat back in its chair, said “Is that right? Well, we’ll just see about that.” and wrote the Macalope’s name in a ledger. But it wasn’t just since the introduction of the MacBook Neo that Apple fans have been reaping price benefits. It’s actually been since the introduction of Apple Silicon. Apple’s price to performance ratio has been pretty staggering since then. When the Macalope finally decided to upgrade from his M1 MacBook Air to an M4 last year (and is he glad he did), it was less because the M1 was slow than it was simply five years old. Well, the horny one hoped you gathered ye rosebuds while you had Mayesth (?) because the party’s over! You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay at Apple’s Amazing Price-to-Performance Ratio, The Bar, because it’s shutting down for the foreseeable future. As you may have heard (and if you didn’t hear you probably felt a great disturbance in the Force as if millions of voices cried out “Why didn’t I buy it yesterday?!”), Apple raised prices last week on everything that didn’t end with “Phone” or “Watch” or start with “AirPod”. They’re all fairly significant increases but in some cases–some very surprising cases!–the increases are really quite something to behold. Apple TV 4K was hit particularly hard on a percentage basis, with the 64GB base model going up 54 percent and the 128GB model … rising 67 percent. If it had only been two more percent we could have said “Nice.” and at least been able to laugh about it a bit. C’mon, Apple, work with us here. Of course, Apple could have absorbed the price increase and taken a hit on margins but, let’s be honest, does that even remotely sound like Apple? High margins are just who Apple is. We don’t have to like it, but something something person who brought you to the dance. And also happens to own the dance hall. If you’d like to receive regular news and updates to your inbox, sign up for our newsletters, including The Macalope and Apple Breakfast, David Price’s weekly, bite-sized roundup of all the latest Apple news and rumors. Foundry Even the low-priced Neo had relatively good margins at the $599 price point because Apple was able to make it by sweeping up the chips that were unceremoniously dropped to the factory floor when making iPhones. The company could have just buried these chips out in the desert with all those copies of E.T. – The Video Game, but instead it stuck them in some leftover aluminum and sold it as a MacBook. Step 3: profit. Despite having basked in the glory of a great price to performance ratio for a number of years and enjoyed the benefits of it, we do not need to like this, we don’t need to be happy about this, we don’t need to be shy about mean mugging Tim Cook the next time we pass him in the cereal aisle at the Piggly Wiggly. Just make really long, extended eye contact as you bend down the bottom shelf to get a bag of generic “Legally Distinct Früt Circles”. Then look pointedly at the family-sized box of “Froot Loops” in his cart and whisper “Must be nice.” as you walk away, one wheel of your cart squeaking and spinning wildly, the “JU” and “CY” emblazoned on your short shorts moving in opposite directions, the “I” simply lost in the mix. The Macalope doesn’t know what you wear to grocery shop; that’s just what he wears, so he assumes you wear something similar. The horny has actually been trying to tell people for years that they should not feel the need to get the latest and greatest Apple products. And the benefit of Apple Silicon is you don’t have to get them as often. The Macalope writes about tech but even he has never owned an iPhone with the “Pro” monicker. And when it comes time to upgrade from his iPhone 17, there’s a good chance it’ll be to an iPhone 18e. Apple is not going to go broke for us. Think twice before you go broke for Apple.

Read more »

Proton launches Lumo 2.0 with image generation, memory, private web search, more
Today, Proton is introducing Lumo 2.0, in what the company says is the largest upgrade to its privacy-first AI assistant to date. Here are the details.

Read more »

Apple @ Work Podcast: macOS ClickFix is back for more
Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that...

Read more »

How to check your Mac’s temperature and keep it cool
Macworld While people are at the greatest risk from high temperatures during the summer season, your Mac can also be at risk. (People can be water-cooled, and no current Mac offers that option, though some have tried.) An iPhone or iPad will warn you when it detects it’s too hot before shutting down, while a Mac may simply suddenly power off. If it doesn’t power down, you may be running it too close to its maximum capability and putting a lot of additional wear in the process on components that might fail later during other seasons. Knowing the temperature is one thing. The other is: how hot should your internal components run? Apple says you should only use a Mac when the ambient temperature–the temperature around you–is in the range of 50°F to 95°F (10° to 35°C) and 95 percent or lower humidity. Internal components produce far more heat than the ambient temperature, with around 100°F or 40°C often the minimum at which they operate in normal indoor circumstances. CPUs, GPUs, ports, and other elements shouldn’t exceed about 192°F (89°C) for extended periods. At 212°F (100°C), the boiling temperature for water at sea level, you should either figure out what energy hogs are making your computer work that hard or shut the system down for a while. (Hint: It’s almost always a browser.) You can use the Activity Monitor app in Applications > Utilities to look at Energy Impact in the Energy column for more particulars. Monitoring the Mac’s temperature Modern Macs have an inordinate number of power sensors to detect problems and manage fan speeds in models that contain them–I count 34 using one tool on an M1 Mac mini. These sensors can be monitored with the right knowledge or software. (Also read: Why is my Mac fan so loud). The Energy section of the Mac’s Activity Monitor utility provides information on apps and the amount of heat they generate while processing.Foundry On some Intel Macs, you can use Terminal or a free utility for basic temperature monitoring. In Terminal enter the following command and press return: sudo powermetrics --samplers smc |grep -i "CPU die temperature" (Note that those quotation marks are straight double-quotes.) Enter your administrative password when prompted. This will provide a continuous temperature reading of the CPU’s temperature. Press Control-C to stop the monitoring. You can also install the free app Fanny (not the most perfect name for U.K. and other Commonwealth Mac owners), which offers a simple drop-down set of information in the menu bar or as a notifications widget. Details include the average CPU and GPU temperatures along with current fan speeds. TG Pro provides an enormous amount of detail on demand and control of built-in fans, but uses color coding and a menu bar summary for at-a-glance status.Foundry For any Intel Mac and M-series Mac, the utility TG Pro ($20 but often on sale for $10) provides detailed monitoring and fan control. You can see the temperature recorded by every sensor in your Mac and for hard disks and SSDs that support the industry-standard SMART diagnostics. Information and controls are available both in a standard app window and a drop-down menu bar. That bar shows the highest port and CPU temperature and the current fan rotation. You can also monitor the speed of internal fans and override Apple’s settings. This includes creating rules for when fans run and how fast they run. The app comes with a preset rule that turns the blades up to their maximum rotation if the highest temperature of any CPU parameter is at least 158°F (70°C). Best Mac Temperature Monitoring apps Fanny Price When Reviewed: Free TG Pro Read our review Price When Reviewed: $20 Best Prices Today: $20 at Tunabelly Software

Read more »

This app replaces your printer, scanner, and filing cabinet, and a lifetime license is $25 for Deal Days
Macworld TL;DR: iScanner is an iOS app that scans, edits, and organizes any document, and a lifetime subscription is only $25 for Deal Days. Most phone scanning apps either upload your files to a cloud service or charge a monthly fee for basic features. iScanner skips both, running locally on iOS or Android and turning your phone into a full document scanner with no subscription attached. A lifetime subscription is on sale for $24.97 (reg. $199.90) during Deal Days. Scanning works on contracts, receipts, ID cards, tax forms, handwritten notes, books, and just about anything else flat enough to point a camera at. The AI handles the cleanup automatically. Borders get detected, skewed pages straighten out, and text recognition kicks in across more than 20 languages. Exports come out as PDF, JPG, DOC, XLS, PPT, or TXT, so a scan can drop straight into the format you actually need it in. A full PDF editor lets you sign documents manually, blur sensitive text before sharing, add watermarks, merge multi-page files, and lock confidential folders behind a PIN. The file manager handles folders with drag and drop, which makes finding a tax form from two years ago a lot less painful than scrolling through an unsorted gallery. iScanner also has some little extras that desktop scanners definitely can’t manage. That includes a math solver for working through equations, an area calculator for measuring objects in the frame, an automatic count tool for repeating objects, and a built-in QR code reader. During Deal Days, you can get an iScanner lifetime subscription on sale for $24.97. Offer ends July 1 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Check out the rest of the Deal Days Extended collection while you can. iScanner App: Lifetime SubscriptionSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change.

Read more »

Alleged video of iPhone 18 Pro shows new back design with mirror-finish Apple logo
A video of an iPhone 18 Pro unit is making the rounds on social media, allegedly from the Tata leak, in which the phone is being recorded under drop test conditions. The video does appear to show that the 18 Pro will feature a new back design where the metal and glass pieces are much more similar in color, a change from the notably contrasting two-tone effect seen on the 17 Pro. The Apple logo also appears to have a new reflective mirror finish.

Read more »

WhatsApp usernames are here, and you can reserve yours today
Meta is opening early WhatsApp username reservations, giving you a chance to secure you preferred handle before the global launch. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

Read more »

How to use Tailscale to remotely connect to your Mac from anywhere
If you need to securely connect to your Mac desktop at home while on the move, Tailscale may be the answer. Here's how to get started.Tailscale helps you connect to your Mac remotely, even in tough networking conditions. One of the main benefits of having a gigabit-class Internet connection is being able to connect to your home devices from outside the home. If you need a file from a home fileserver, you have tons of bandwidth so you know you can get it remotely, quickly.However, while having the bandwidth is good, establishing the connection in the first place can be a problem. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Read more »

9to5Mac Daily: June 29, 2026 – Apple Silicon roadmap leaks
Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. Sponsored by Backblaze: Backup you can rely on. Save 20% with code 9to5daily.

Read more »

Stop paying monthly for cloud storage with up to 70% off pCloud Lifetime this 4th of July
For Apple users, storage never feels finished. iPhone photo libraries keep growing, Macs fill up with large projects and downloads, and the monthly services meant to solve the problem can become another subscription to track. pCloud’s 4th of July promotion takes a different approach: pay once for lifetime cloud storage, then keep using it across your devices without monthly or annual renewal fees. For a limited time, pCloud is offering up to 70% off its Individual Lifetime plans, and each plan includes pCloud Encryption for free for life. Storage options range from 1 TB to 10 TB.

Read more »

Apple accelerates security updates in response to AI-powered hacking risks
Today’s iOS, iPadOS, and macOS 26.5.2 updates include security fixes that Apple had originally planned to release with version 26.6 of each operating system. Here’s why the company pushed them out early.

Read more »

Apple's $502M payment to Optis over patent infringement goes to UK Supreme Court
Apple is contesting a ruling that would force it to pay Optis $502 million for LTE patent infringement, but the UK Supreme Court has yet to reach a verdict.Apple seeks to avoid paying Optis $502 million over alleged patent infringement.The legal battle between Apple and Optis goes back to February 2019, and there's still no end in sight all these years later. Apple was accused of infringing upon Optis' LTE patents, which ultimately led to lawsuits in both the United Kingdom and the United States.The latter case resulted in Apple's victory, as it avoided paying Optis $300M in damages in February 2026. The outcome of the UK lawsuit, however, isn't quite as clear-cut. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Read more »

SCOTUS says detailed cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth Amendment
In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that police conduct a Fourth Amendment search when they obtain a person’s detailed cellphone location history from a tech company, even when the data covers only a short period. Here’s what that means.

Read more »

Apple asks UK Supreme Court to overturn $502 million patent ruling in Optis dispute
Apple’s long-running patent dispute with Optis is set to enter a new chapter this week, as the case reaches the UK Supreme Court. Here are the details.

Read more »

User location data that Google & Apple have is protected by Fourth Amendment, says SCOTUS
A new Supreme Court ruling will require police to have probable cause before using sweeping geofence warrants that rely on people's personal location data to find criminals.The Supreme Court rules against the use of geofence warrantsPolice subpoena Apple, Google, and other tech companies for precious user location data using so-called "geofence warrants," which can serve as a dragnet to catch a single criminal while implicating many others. The Supreme Court says this method is no longer an option without probable cause.According to SCOTUSblog, breaking down the ruling, a geofence warrant meets the criteria of a "search" as defined by the Fourth Amendment. Simply put, this means that anyone included in a warrant must be there with a reason. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Read more »

New iPhone and Mac updates offer dozens of security fixes
Update your iPhone to iOS 26.5.2 today for a wide range of security fixes. There are equally important macOS and iPadOS updates out. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

Read more »

Apple releases iOS 26.5.2 and iPadOS 26.5.2
Apple today pushed out iOS 26.5.2 (and the corresponding iPadOS 26.5.2), a minor maintenance release that arrives roughly a month after… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

Read more »

Future OLED Macs and iPads could support a much wider color gamut, per report
As Apple gears up to bring OLED to the Mac, a new TrendForce report looks at the wider color gamut reportedly planned for future MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and iMac displays. Here are the details.

Read more »

OpenClaw just launched an official app for iPhone, details here
Remember Clawdbot, the effort to put AI models to work as agents? Clawdbot eventually became OpenClaw and gained OpenAI’s support. Now there’s an official iPhone (and Android) app for OpenClaw for the first time.

Read more »

Apple releases macOS Tahoe 26.5.2
Apple today pushed out macOS Tahoe 26.5.2, a minor but important point release for the current-generation macOS 26 Tahoe operating system… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

Read more »