Best Portable Monitors for MacBooks 2026: Compact, travel-ready screens
Macworld Most monitors sit on a desk and don’t move any more than their stand or arm allows. We have a separate round up of the best monitors for Mac. But sometimes a more portable solution makes sense when the MacBook’s own screen simply isn’t large enough. There are two main types of portable display: travel monitors that can be slipped into a backpack; or moveable monitors that can be carried from one room to another or quickly hidden from sight when not in use. Here are our picks for the best portable displays to match with your Mac. Plugable 15.6-inch USB-C Portable Display: Lightweight portable USB-C 15.6-inch HD screen Pros Full HD (1920×1080 at 60Hz) IPS display Lightweight   Integrated folding travel cover and stand 85W pass-through charging 2x downstream 10Gbps USB-C ports Cons Not much larger than a laptop screen Price When Reviewed: $239.95 Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $239.95 View Deal $239.95 View Deal $239.95 View Deal $239.95 View Deal Plugable $239.95 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide View more prices Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Size: 15.6-inch Resolution: 2K (1920×1080 pixels) aka HD sRGB Color Gamut: 45% Brightness: Up to 300 nits Connections: 3x USB-C Webcam: No Stand: Foldable Weight: 1.85lb (840g) Orientation: Landscape This 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display doubles most laptops’ screen space and is simple to setup and connect, and then disconnect and lightweight enough to carry away when you’re done. Weighing just 1.85lb (840g) with its cover/stand or 1.35lb (615g) without, it is barely noticeable alongside your laptop in your backpack or briefcase On the back of the display is a detachable PU vinyl cover that can protect the screen in transit or storage and doubles up as a foldable stand that is easy to setup.–Simon Jary Read our full Plugable 15.6-inch USB-C Portable Display review

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SigLens acquired by Apple for debugging massive apps and services
Apple has bought SigScalr, the maker of SigLens, giving it a tool to monitor and debug the processes of large numbers of interrelated applications.SigLens lets developers set up continuous monitoring of apps to see how they are working over time - image credit: SigScalrInstead of needing multiple programs ranging from Xcode to Activity Monitor, an application monitoring app like SigLens is one tool that tracks and logs what happens inside several apps, or across many routines within the same one. With apps sometimes being written as very many related single-task ones, application monitors give a picture of the whole process.SigLens from SigScalr was one such application monitor, and its makers claimed it to be up to 100% more efficient than its rivals, DataDog and Splunk. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Free Mac app WhatCable tells you what each of your USB-C cables can really do
We’ve talked on a number of occasions about the problem with USB-C cables: namely, they all look alike but can have very different capabilities. Google addressed this issue in Chrome OS several years ago, and we suggested at the time that Apple should copy it. That hasn’t yet happened, but there’s now a free Mac app, WhatCable, to turn your Mac into a hardware cable tester …

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Anthropic expanding Claude Cowork to mobile and web, details here [U]
Update 7/13: Fable 5 access on all paid plans has been extended once more through Sunday, July 19. Anthropic announced today that it is expanding Claude Cowork capabilities from the desktop app to the web and mobile. Claude Cowork on mobile and the web will start as a beta feature with a gradual rollout on select paid plans. Additionally, Anthropic is extending Claude Fable 5 access to all paid plans for a few more days.

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Apple is beating Netflix the same way it beat everyone else: Quality
Macworld You won’t read this in many corporate mission statements, but subscription services thrive on laziness. The very moment that a customer signs on the dotted line, inertia enters the equation: it becomes a pain to cancel, and easier just to go with the flow. And from that point on, the customer is incentivised to do nothing, and the provider is incentivised to do the absolute bare minimum. Which is how they like it. This is why gyms and banks and cable networks do everything allowable under a generous interpretation of the law to increase the friction and inconvenience of breaking things off. So sorry, they inform us solemnly, but you can’t cancel online/over the phone/at the branch where you signed up. You’ll have to visit our special Cancellation Center in Nova Scotia. On a Thursday afternoon. In the early days, streaming services liked to present themselves as an antidote to the exploitative behaviour of cable companies, but this, it quickly turned out, was yet another example of the inertia strategy. Netflix and Disney and the rest were playing the long game: acting nice at the start, removing ads, letting us binge-watch entire seasons of shows, turning a blind eye to password sharing, and spending big on prestige projects. But once they’d secured a large audience of subscribers, they no longer needed to play nice, and all the old habits came rushing back. The problem is that this generates resentment among customers, not loyalty; a fickleness beneath the surface that is constantly on the verge of escalation. Customers treated in this way may need only a tiny bit of extra motivation to cancel and switch to another service. Or to something even more drastic, such as piracy. In an article last week, the A.V. Club discussed this phenomenon on a series level: Netflix shows are experiencing drastic drop-offs in ratings from their first to their second seasons, which the site puts down to multi-year hiatuses and unmemorable programming. That’s true, but I think there’s more to it. Many Netflix shows are neutrally lit, algorithm-driven “content” with no heart, and a tendency to decline in quality after the first few episodes. Simply put, Netflix is more interested in marketing than making. But this is only a microcosm of a bigger problem, and a more serious disillusionment. Netflix, like most other streamers, cares disproportionately about getting new customers on board and nowhere near enough about delivering a quality product to the customers it already has. Matthew Rhys in “Widow’s Bay,” which received 19 Emmy nominations.Apple Then there’s Apple, a company that, over the years, has showcased both the best and the worst of customer retention strategy. Apple fans, also known derisively as fanboys, or, if you’re a Twitter bore, iSheep, are notoriously loyal to and protective of the multi-trillion-dollar corporation that makes their favorite tech products. But the centrality of those products makes it, by late-capitalist standards, a comparatively healthy relationship. Apple makes great products, and we love it for doing that. That’s sort of how consumerism is supposed to work. The moment when Apple’s relationship with its customers became rather less healthy was when someone came up with the idea of the walled garden. iPhone apps had to be installed from the officially sanctioned App Store. If you wanted to repair an Apple product, you had to get it done by a licensed repair company. Apple accessories had to use a proprietary connection standard. And so on, and so on. In each case, Apple softened the policy only when forced to by regulation, because locking in the customer gives it a massive advantage and the ability to charge more money. When Apple launched a streaming service, therefore, things could have gone either way. Apple TV (or TV+, as it was initially called) could have showcased the company’s gigantic warchest and commitment to quality, or its love of a captive audience. In the event we’ve seen both. Yes, Apple has given its streaming service an advantage over rivals trying to access the iPhone-owning public: if you buy an Apple product, you get a three-month subscription thrown in. Yes, it isn’t above using product placement in Apple TV shows to market other items in the Cupertino ecosystem. Some walled-garden tricks are going on. But above all, Apple TV tries to win over customers by simply making the best shows and movies it can. Last week, the Emmy nominations for 2026 were announced, and several Apple properties were recognized in a big way. Pluribus, Slow Horses, and Your Friends & Neighbors got nods for best drama series; Shrinking, Widow’s Bay, and Margo’s Got Money Troubles for best comedy. (Netflix, by contrast, has one in each.) Apple TV shows earned 21 actor nominations, three for directing, and three for writing. And while this was Apple’s best year yet, it wasn’t a complete surprise. In 2025, the stand-out performers were Severance and The Studio, plus, inevitably, the perennially beloved Slow Horses. If we base our verdict on the contents of Apple’s award cabinet, it would appear that the product is good. I’m hesitant, nevertheless, to make too simplistic a connection between awards nominations and content quality. Apple may have outshone its streaming rivals in the Emmys’ prestige categories this year–-and famously beat them to the first streaming Oscar for Best Picture–-but Netflix still got more Emmy nominations overall this year, by a score of 111 to 87. You can put this down to a deeper catalogue (with entries in more categories) and a longer track record: Apple is still the upstart in this field, and it’s impressive that the company has made the progress and built up the momentum that it has. It’s not like other streamers are unable to make the kind of shows and movies that awards committees like. It’s more that they don’t know what to do with them when they come along. One of Netflix’s great successes of this year, Beef, got 16 nominations… but as the A.V. Club points out, it saw a 70 percent viewership decline from season 1 to season 2. Something has gone wrong there. What I like most of all about Apple TV, by contrast, is its commitment. Widow’s Bay is a deeply odd comedy as well as being very funny (and frequently scary). Pluribus and Severance feel almost arthouse, the sort of niche experimentation nobody could possibly imagine as a mainstream smash. But Apple is backing all three with deep funding and heavy promotion. It may follow the Netflix route at some point. For now, Apple is following its old tech hardware playbook: make good products, and everything else will follow naturally. Foundry Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too. Trending: Top stories Skip the iPhone Ultra. Something better is coming. Watch out! Here are 10 safety features every iPhone user needs to turn on. Alex Blake thinks Apple hiked Mac prices at exactly the wrong time. We round up 10 clever uses for your iPhone’s USB-C port. Mahmoud Itani closed his rings for 500 days by cracking the Apple Watch code. watchOS 27’s new Siri finally fixed Jason Cross’s dumb timer problem. Reviews corner espresso Lite 15: Great-value portable monitor. Mophie StealthCharge: Wireless charging without the heat. Orico MiniLink: Dual SSD hub for Mac mini. Ugreen Mac mini SSD Dock: More storage, more ports. The rumor mill More iPhone Air 2 details emerge–and it’s looking like the upgrade of the year. The folding iPhone Ultra could follow the iPhone X’s path: Late and expensive. The iPhone 18 Pro probably won’t be as thick as the latest rumors say. Cheaper Vision Pro takes another hit as Apple reportedly scraps key component. Video of the week @macworld.com Infamous Apple leaker info-dumps almost every iPhone Air 2 detail #iphoneair2 #apple ♬ original sound – Macworld – Macworld The iPhone Air 2 is looking like a really nice improvement. For more videos, follow us on TikTok and Instagram. Software updates, bugs, and problems macOS 27 in depth: How AI upgrades Freeform, Notes, Weather, and more. Apple to end support for encrypted Mac OS Extended drives–here’s what it means. Some Apple Intelligence for Home features require a 2TB iCloud+ subscription. And with that, we’re done for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters, including our new email from The Macalope–an irreverent, humorous take on the latest news and rumors from a half-man, half-mythical Mac beast. You can also follow us on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, or X for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.

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Your favorite AI tools are getting expensive — this bundle puts them together for a flat $60
Macworld TL;DR: 1min.AI brings ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and other AI models into one platform, with lifetime access available for $59.97 (MSRP $540) through July 19. Between ChatGPT, Claude, and the endless stream of new AI tools, keeping up can quickly turn into a pile of monthly charges. Instead of paying for each service separately, 1min.AI brings top AI models together in one place. Right now through July 19, you can lock in lifetime access to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and more for an all-time low of $59.97 (MSRP $540). Instead of dumping everything into one generic chat box, 1min.AI organizes its tools into specific use cases. Choose what you want to do, like write a blog post, generate an image, or summarize a PDF, then pick which AI model to use. From there, enter your prompt and get results tailored to that exact task. Your lifetime subscription also comes with the highest monthly credit allowance 1min.AI offers, meaning you can run hundreds of requests every month without hitting a paywall. For most people, that’s far more than they’ll ever need. And because the credit system refreshes monthly, you’ll always have the power to tackle your next big project. Until July 19, get your 1min.AI lifetime subscription on sale for $59.97 with no coupon needed (MSRP $540). 1min.AI Advanced Business Plan Lifetime SubscriptionSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change.

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Amazon revives $199 AirPods Pro 3 deal after Prime Day
Amazon's post-Prime Day Apple deals are still delivering, with AirPods Pro 3 dropping to their best price since the mega shopping event concluded.Grab AirPods Pro 3 for just $199 at Amazon.Amazon has dropped AirPods Pro 3 back down to $199.99 this week, marking the best post-Prime Day price on Apple's flagship earbuds. While it's not as low as the record discount we saw leading up to Prime Day, the $50 savings beats Black Friday 2025 pricing by $20 and is the strongest deal to return since Prime Day ended last month.Buy AirPods Pro 3 for $199.99 Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Apple’s AI ambitions may kill the M6 Pro and M6 Max
Apple will jump straight to the M7 Pro and M7 Max chips in 2027—skipping the M6 Pro and Max chips—due to their superior AI performance. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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9to5Mac Overtime 072: Apple Watch and the new Siri
Jeff and Fernando discuss the new Siri experience on Apple Watch, new Siri features on iOS 27, our Apple Watch feature wish list, enhancements to Messages on iPhone, and the state of social media in 2026. Sponsored by Bitwarden: Check out Bitwarden Password Manager, featuring an Apple Watch authenticator integration, secure autofill on Safari and iOS apps, and enterprise-grade security tools that help you manage credentials with confidence.

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Beyond Streaming: Why and How to Download Videos from YouTube
Can’t stream a YouTube video on a plane? Worried that a rare concert recording will disappear? Need to edit a clip for a presentation? Here’s why TidBITS Talk readers download YouTube videos—and which apps they recommend.

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Sunday Reboot: No cell service for 250 years
In this week's Sunday Reboot, an iPhone 17 Pro Max goes underground for a very, very long time.America 250Sunday Reboot is a weekly column covering some of the lighter stories within the Apple reality distortion field from the past seven days. All to get the next week underway with a good first step. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Apple Watch Series 11 drops to $299 with Amazon deal, save $100
Amazon has brought the 42mm Apple Watch Series 11 back down to $299 for the weekend, offering $100 off its regular price. The sale also includes discounts on larger 46mm models and premium titanium styles.Save $100 on Apple Watch Series 11 styles.Weekend Apple Watch shoppers have plenty of reasons to take a look at Amazon, where Apple Watch Series 11 models are $100 off across multiple configurations. The standout offer drops the 42mm GPS model to $299, within $20 of the lowest price on record.Buy Apple Watch Series 11 for $299 Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Tinderbox 11.8
Note-taking assistant improves AI connectivity, prompting, and resources. ($289 new, free update, 37.6 MB, macOS 11+)

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Apple preps pair of redesigned Apple Pencils for iPad
Two new Apple Pencil models are reportedly in development, with refreshed designs expected to debut alongside the 2027 iPad Pro. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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M6 era will last just six months as Apple pushes for AI-focused M7
It takes years to tape out a chip and bring it to market, with overall industry seismic shifts taking much less time. Nothing will demonstrate that better than the rumored six-month gap between the M6 processor debut and the AI-focused M7.With no M6 Pro or M6 Max on the horizon, don't expect much from the Mac Studio. Apple's chip lines have gradually become more AI-centric, and that will be the same in the future too. However, rather than sticking to an established release format, Apple's intending to skip ahead to the bits it wants the public to use.In Sunday's "Power On" newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman revives a late June report that the M6 Pro and M6 Max chips won't exist. Instead, it is putting the work into the development of AI-first chips for the M7 generation. Rumor Score: 🤔 Possible Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Power of Apple's M7 & M8 chips was born from Apple Car research
We've been telling you this for years — Apple Car research wasn't lit on fire, and the fruits of Apple's labor on it will be seen in artificial intelligence performance in the M7 and M8 processor.16-inch MacBook Pro will be the first to get M7 Pro processorsBefore AI used to be called Apple's biggest failure, that title went to the Apple Car which was cancelled after ten years of development and ten billion dollars of investment. AppleInsider argued at the time that Apple Car research would pay off, but now both of these failures are being recast as positives, with Bloomberg saying this research is being used in designing future AI processors.The report claims that for the future M7 and M8 processors, Apple is concentrating more on AI support than on issues such as overall speed and power efficiency. This reportedly means that these chip designs for the Mac and Apple Intelligence servers are based on the company's efforts toward a self-driving car. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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M7 Ultra to potentially feature up to 1.5TB of RAM, finally matching 2019 Mac Pro: report
According to the latest Power On newsletter from Mark Gurman, Apple is preparing to include up to 1.5TB of RAM in the upcoming M7 Ultra chip. This’ll mean Apple Silicon will finally match the highest RAM configuration available on the highest end 2019 Intel Mac Pro.

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Today in Apple history: ‘Antennagate’ scandal hits its peak
The iPhone 4 suffered a major blow when a "Consumer Reports" review failed to recommend the new smartphone. "Antennagate" was real. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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EU regulations could force an Apple Pencil upgrade in early 2027
The iPad Pro with M6 is expected in early 2027 and Apple may release upgraded Apple Pencil models with easier-to-replace batteries in time for new EU regulations.EU regulations will force Apple to rethink Apple Pencil designThe European Union mandated in 2023 that consumer electronics must have easily replaced batteries by 2027. One of Apple's notoriously impossible-to-repair products is the Apple Pencil, which could see some design changes to meet this mandate.According to the "Power On" newsletter from Bloomberg, Apple is expected to release an updated Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil with USB-C in early 2027. That timing aligns with previous reports of an iPad Pro refresh during the same release window. Rumor Score: 🤯 Likely Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Apple developing new Apple Pencil models for release next year, possibly with replaceable batteries
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that Apple is developing a new lineup of Apple Pencil stylus accessories, set for launch next year alongside new iPad Pro models in spring 2027. This would mean new generations of Apple Pencil (USB-C) and the wireless-charging Apple Pencil Pro. Bloomberg suggests that these new stylus could feature new battery systems, which would make them more easily user-replaceable in order to comply with upcoming EU regulation.

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