Block ads for life on 9 devices for just $19 (was $169.99)
Macworld TL;DR: Block ads on nine devices for life with an AdGuard Family Plan Lifetime Subscription on sale for $19. Ads are one of the most frustrating parts of being online, but you aren’t stuck with them. AdGuard is a comprehensive ad blocker tool that can get rid of pop-ups, banners, and so many other frustrating ads. Right now, a lifetime family plan is also on sale for $18.97 (reg. $169.99). AdGuard works across your devices to clean up your browsing so pages load cleaner and faster. Once it is installed, it filters out a wide range of ads and prevents tracking tools from collecting your data. If you spend a lot of time online for work or school, the difference can be noticeable right away, since pages feel less cluttered and more readable. The Family Plan supports up to nine devices, which makes it easy to cover everyone in the household. You can install it on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, and each device gets the same protections. The parental control settings also let you block adult content and other categories you don’t want kids to access, and it works quietly in the background without requiring constant adjustments. AdGuard also checks the websites you visit so you avoid known phishing links and malware pages. It is not a VPN, but it adds another level of protection by keeping your information private from trackers that follow your activity across sites. Until December 21 at 11:59 p.m. PT, you can get an AdGuard Lifetime Family Plan for $18.97 when you use code FAMPLAN. AdGuard Family Plan: Lifetime SubscriptionSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change.

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This refurbished 2017 MacBook Pro is 80% off right now
Macworld TL;DR: Get a Grade A refurbished 2017 MacBook Pro with Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, and 512GB SSD for just $299.97, down from $1,499. Looking for a reliable MacBook without the premium price tag? This refurbished 2017 MacBook Pro delivers pro-level performance at a fraction of the original cost. Right now, you can snag the 13-inch model with a 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor for just $299.97, a massive 80% discount off the $1,499 retail price. This isn’t some beaten-up hand-me-down. The Grade A refurbished MacBook Pro arrives in near-mint condition with minimal to zero scuffing. Under the hood, you get 8GB of RAM for smooth multitasking and a speedy 512GB SSD for quick app launches and ample storage. The Intel Core i5 can turbo boost up to 3.5GHz, making it more than capable of handling demanding tasks like video editing, coding, and creative work. The 13.3-inch Retina display with True Tone technology adjusts screen color automatically for better visibility and reduced eye strain, perfect for long work sessions. You also get the Touch Bar, Touch ID for secure login, and four Thunderbolt 3 ports for maximum connectivity. Battery life clocks in at up to 10 hours, so you can stay productive without constantly hunting for an outlet. Get this refurbished Apple MacBook Pro (2017) for $299.97 (reg. $1,499). Apple Macbook Pro (2017) 13″ i5 3.1GHz Touchbar 8GB RAM 512GB SSD Space Grey (Refurbished)See Deal StackSocial prices subject to change.

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Apple cancels ‘The Last Frontier’ after just one season
Apple has decided to cancel “The Last Frontier” after one season. Here are the details. more…

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ChatGPT has a Sora-powered Holiday easter egg
As Sam Altman teaser on X, you can prompt ChatGPT with a single emoji, and get a personalized Christmas-themed video made by Sora in return. Here’s how to do it. more…

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Apple TV’s newest nature docuseries is now available
‘Born to be Wild’ is narrated by Hugh Bonneville (Notting Hill, Paddington), and adds to Apple TV’s ever-increasing catalogue of natural world content. Watch the trailer below. more…

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Apple study shows how an AI-powered ISP could dramatically improve low-light iPhone photos
Apple researchers have developed an AI model that dramatically improves extremely dark photos by integrating a diffusion-based image model directly into the camera’s image processing pipeline, allowing it to recover detail from raw sensor data that would normally be lost. Here’s how they did it. more…

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New Powerbeats Fit ad starring Travis Scott features a new unreleased track and an old tweet
Beats’ new campaign, “Dare to Dream,” recreates Travis Scott’s childhood bedroom and the moment he manifested his path to becoming a global superstar. Watch it below. more…

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ESET Home Security Premium Review: Excellent protection, but there are bugs
Macworld At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Excellent antiviral and malware protection, that caught everything Spam/phishing protection that caught 100% of the questionable websites during testing Simple, reliable VPN client Cons Installation and setup issue The Settings pane feels buried Assorted bugs, including the Scheduler function failing during testing Our Verdict ESET Home Security Premium offers genuinely excellent core protection features that caught nearly everything that was thrown at it, along with the most impressive spam and phishing filters we’ve seen to date on macOS, which is also accompanied by a reliable VPN client. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Retailer Price ESET (first year, 1 device) $49.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Price When ReviewedEssential: $49.99 a year for one device; Premium: $79.99 a year for one device Best Prices Today: Eset Home Security Retailer Price ESET (first year, 1 device) $49.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket 1 year, 1 Mac (Premium) $79.991 year, 1 Mac (Essential)$49.99 There’s intent, and there’s execution, and sometimes the two don’t always mesh perfectly, but still yield an impressive result. This is the case with ESET Home Security Premium, the latest offering from Slovakian security firm ESET. ESET, which is continuing its foray into the Mac marketplace, has subtly updated its offerings for 2025. The new version, which retails for $39.99/£27.99 and up for one device for one year at an introductory price point, requires macOS 10.12 (Sierra) or later to install and run, and a free 30-day trial period is in place that doesn’t require a credit or debit card to be entered, albeit you’ll have to set up an ESET account. The software is centered on its antiviral/anti-malware core and also features a VPN client that’s designed to get you up and running quickly without battling with the settings VPN users sometimes find themselves tied up with. If there’s a poignant obstacle to ESET Home Security Premium, it came early, and while it was easy enough to download the software from the ESET website, installation turned into a struggle. (And it was confusing that the software name switched to ESET Cyber Security). The software installs a number of extensions, proxies, and modules into macOS, which have to be granted permission, making the setup a bit more manual than might be expected, as opposed to a typical software installation. Once permission was granted for everything involved, the software hit a strange bug in installing its SSL certificate, which required troubleshooting, a Terminal command workaround, and reinstallation to allow the certificate to pass through and for normal web traffic to resume. This took some finagling, and perhaps it’s a unique case or something more widespread; it’s something for the developers to take a look at should it surface again. Where its core elements are concerned, ESET Home Security Premium knocks it out of the park. The antiviral/anti-malware function offers a typical scan mode, a custom scan mode, and allows you to submit viral samples to ESET to help identify viruses and offer updates to protect against them. [Find out how ESET compares to the best Mac Antivirus apps in our group test]. Scanning the computerFoundry The scanning module is capable of multiple simultaneous scans (such as a typical scan and a custom scan on a specific folder or external volume), and the feature offers both .zip and .dmg file format scan support, but has to be configured within a deeper scan.  As for the scan results themselves, these are impressive, and next to nothing out of an extensive sample library was in a position to get through outside of a few instances where you’d have to go through multiple warning screens and bypass macOS-level system protections to execute virus and malware samples. The software itself meshes well with the macOS’ Gatekeeper and Xprotect functions, pinning down just about everything before it has a chance to install itself and upend your system functionality. In addition to this, the scan essentially nukes the vast majority of the sample malware after it was decompressed, offering little to work with in the way of potential viral and malware infections, which proved impressive.  Foundry ESET seems to have heard the clarion call where its Protections module was concerned, and amidst the multitude of extensions the software installs, the software offers Computer, Network Access, and Web and Email protections, which, for the first time I’ve ever seen, were able to bat 1,000 on spam and phishing emails from my Gmail’s Spam folder. Here, the software provided adequate warnings as to links from questionable spam and phishing websites, but still allowed you to travel to the site if you wanted to. The sites offering free power tools that I’d won? There was a warning about this. The sites telling me I had a $17,000 Cash App payment that I didn’t know about? There was a warning. Websites offering questionable medical and casino access? The warning was there, and this proved genuinely impressive. ESET’s VPN client may be somewhat bare-bones compared to a dedicated client, but it excels in terms of reliability and ease of use. The proxy settings are useful; there’s an overall internet kill switch if needed, as well as easy geolocation options to choose the country and region you’re logging in from. This may not appease the hardcore VPN user who needs more extensive options, but it’s impressive for everyday use. VPN functionFoundry ESET’s settings feel a bit tucked away, but what’s there is actually remarkably impressive and gives you a huge amount of control over the modules, their performance, how strict the blocking and filters are, firewall settings, what kind of exception/whitelist can be built, and how external volumes are recognized and handled on your Mac. The settings are well-categorized, and there’s a remarkable amount of control to be had here should you decide to take a few minutes and play with things. This is coupled with a readily accessible Help and Support module, which adds quick access to ESET’s help page, technical support, and Knowledgebase, and acts as a useful jumping-off point to get to the section of the ESET website that you need.  Outside of the installation foibles and the issue of sorting out the SSL certificate, ESET Home Security Premium installed easily and performed well, albeit there are a few things that could use some attention. The .dmg and .zip scanning and removal feel a little strange, as the scan located these, but seemed to vary in how it handled them, which can arguably be adjusted in the settings. The settings themselves are a powerful chunk of the program, but feel buried, and a quick introduction/tutorial could readily point them out and encourage the user to adjust them as needed. A Scheduler function buried within the settings supposedly allows for scans and other functions to be programmed in and executed, but failed to activate after two tests, which raises an eyebrow and could stand some debugging. If there’s a motif with ESET Home Security Premium, it’s that this is a powerful set of tools, but without quite the polish that it requires to be a must-buy utility. The settings felt buried under layers with little drawing attention to them and what they were capable of, the installer offered a semi-battle royale to get the SSL certificate up and running, the application’s Scheduler feature felt tucked away and didn’t execute during testing, and despite an incredibly powerful element of protection where viruses, malware, spam, and phishing efforts were concerned, the application needs some debugging while ESET itself needs to decide which tools to present to the user instead of opting for minimal simplicity in its home screen interface.  In the end, ESET Home Security Premium is impressive and worth trying out, and some of its features are as impressive as I’ve ever seen, but it needs some debugging and polishing to get it over the final hurdle. Still, with a free 30-day trial in place and no credit or debit card needing to be entered, this may be worth trying out to see how it fits into your everyday Mac lifestyle.  Should you buy ESET Home Security Premium Some bugs and rough edges aside, ESET Home Security Premium offers an impressive value via its raw protection features. Elements such as antivirus and malware detection, email filtering, and commendable integration with macOS’ own security frameworks offer excellent performance, and the simple but powerful VPN client offers what’s needed for day-to-day users. This, combined with a 30-day trial, allows for a good evaluation period without having to surrender payment information.

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The Tim Cook era at Apple looks to be winding down
As we step into 2026, a historic leadership transition is unfolding at three of America's most pivotal corporate giants. We're talking… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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This smartpen automatically digitizes anything you write
Enjoy the timeless feel of writing by hand with the perks of modern technology with the SyncPen 4 smartpen set. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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Apple stops signing iOS 26.1, here’s what that means
If you’re running iOS 26.2 and had been thinking about downgrading, you missed your chance. Here are the details. more…

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You’ll soon lose access to ChatGPT’s Voice feature on macOS
If you rely heavily on ChatGPT’s Voice feature on the Mac app, be warned: the feature is going away early next year. Here are the details. more…

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iPhone 18 Pro rumors: Under-display Face ID, variable aperture cameras, more
The iPhone 18 Pro is nowhere near release, but plenty of claims have already been made about Apple's next flagship. Here's what the rumor mill thinks is coming.The iPhone 18 Pro is expected to deliver a multitude of improvements.With its 2025 iPhone lineup, Apple's high-end models underwent significant changes, both visually and functionally. Titanium was replaced with aluminum as the case material, and the familiar rear camera bump expanded into a rectangular camera plateau.Its planned successor, the iPhone 18 Pro, more than likely won't deliver significant design alterations. In many ways, we expect an iterative upgrade, but that doesn't mean it won't include major performance enhancements. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Apple TV drops ‘Pluribus’ season finale early: Stream the epic conclusion on Christmas Eve!
Fans of "Pluribus" get a holiday treat: no agonizing seven-day wait for the season one finale. Apple TV typically rolls out fresh episodes… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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You can now watch Stanford’s 2025 SwiftUI development lectures for free
All 16 videos and supporting material from the Spring 2025 version of Stanford’s CS193p (Developing Applications for iOS using SwiftUI) course are now online, for free. more…

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9to5Mac Daily: December 19, 2025 – iPhone Fold, Apple Music news
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: Give yourself the gift of peace of mind. Till the end of the month, 9to5Mac listeners get 30% off with code 9to5Xmas.  more…

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This Mac superpower lets you copy text from any PDF [Pro Tip]
Trying to copy text from a PDF can be a nightmare. But the Mac has Live Text, a secret trick up its sleeve to make it dead simple. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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HomeKit Weekly: Aqara Hub M200 brings Matter support and new automation options to HomeKit
The smart home world is continually moving toward Matter, and Aqara is one of the companies driving this transition forward at a steady pace with its new products this year. Their latest hub, the Aqara Hub M200, replaces their older hubs and features a cleaner design, along with support for Matter. For HomeKit users, this means another step toward a future where more Aqara accessories can integrate seamlessly with the Home app, while still leveraging the benefits of Zigbee behind the scenes. more…

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A Request Regarding ‘Magic Link’ Sign-Ins and Apple’s Passwords App
I despise this design pattern, because it’s inherently slower than signing in using an email/password combination that was saved to my passwords app (which is Apple Passwords) and autofilled by my web browser. It’s not just a little slower but *a lot* slower.

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Gift guide: Last-minute HomeKit recommendations
Crafting a smart home ecosystem can be tricky. There are a lot of product categories, and it can be hard to know which ones to prioritize. Here are some of my go-to smart home recommendations for outfitting a smart home — and they all make great gifts this holiday season. more…

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