Setting Up Your Home Office

If you're in the market for a new iPhone, good news: Apple just announced one. Despite the company's big event planned for Wednesday, it decided to drop some product news early, including its newest "affordable" phone, the iPhone 17e. While affordable certainly doesn't mean "cheap," the "e-series" offers most of what you'd expect in an iPhone with a price tag lot lower than $1,000. At first glance, the new iPhone 17e looks remarkably like the iPhone 16e. That's because the phones are functionally the same in design. You'll still get the same 6.1-inch display with 800 nits of brightness (1200 nits for HDR); the same overall dimensions, minus an extra .08 ounces; the sam…

Apple is continuing to announce new products ahead of its big March 4 event. Yesterday, it was the iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air. Today, it's all about the Mac. Apple made a number of announcements: a new M5 MacBook Air, M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros, and new Studio Display options for anyone who wants to take out a mortgage on their external displays. All of these new products will be available preorder tomorrow, and go on sale March 11. M5 MacBook AirThis first announcement isn't all that exciting, but it does make sense for Apple. The company is now shipping MacBook Airs with the M5 chip, following the M5 MacBook Pro it launched in October. That doesn't come with any re…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Apple is gearing up for a series of product announcements on Wednesday. So, naturally, the company revealed two of those products on Monday. There's the iPhone 17e, Apple's latest "affordable" iPhone, which largely just updates the chip to the A19. In the same vein, the company is updating its iPad Air line with the M4 chip. If you're hoping for other big iPad Air upgrades, however, keep waiting. The iPad Air is the same, just now with M4 If you put the M4 iPad Air side-by-side with the M3 iPad Air, you might mix the two up. That's because Apple has changed virtually nothing about the overall design and appearance of the…

WWDC 2026 is rapidly approaching. While Apple has a number of events throughout any given year, WWDC is one of two Apple keynotes that the tech community actively anticipates (the other being the iPhone fall event). This is Apple's chance to show off all of the software updates its been working on since the last WWDC—and all the features that come with them. This year, that likely means iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and watchOS 27. When is WWDC 2026?Apple announced on Monday that WWDC 2026 will kick off on Monday, June 8 and run through Friday, June 12. If you're used to watching a single keynote from past WWDCs, seeing that this year's event runs multiple days might come…

If you've been an iPhone user for a long time, you might remember "slide to unlock." When you wanted to use your iPhone, you had to physically move your finger along the screen to actually unlock the device. It was a clever way of ensuring than your iPhone didn't unlock in your pocket, or due to an accidental touch. With iOS 10, Apple killed slide to unlock in favor of pressing the Home button, then later swiping up on the bottom of the screen. Since then, for the better part of a decade, swiping right on the Lock Screen simply takes you to the "Today View," which contains your widgets. Change is good, and I don't necessarily think Apple should bring back slide to unlock…

AirDrop is one of Apple's best features. I use it on a daily basis to share files between my various Apple devices, but it really shines when I'm sharing stuff with other people, or vice versa. It can be tricky to find a quick solution to send larger files. Emails have too low a file size limit, chat apps can compress files, and cloud storage can fill up fast, but AirDrop is simple, built-in, and reliable. It even works with Android now, albeit just the Pixel 10. If AirDrop has one flaw, it's that it's not particularly easy to use with strangers. Apple has changed how this side of AirDrop works over the years. For the longest time, you had two AirDrop settings: "Contacts …

When you share your location data with an app or service, you may assume you're sharing your exact coordinates. But that's not necessarily the case. While "precise location" sharing does indeed broadcast your literal whereabouts, "approximate location" sharing only submits your general position. It's the difference between an app knowing your home address versus seeing the neighborhood you're in, or perhaps even the town or city itself. It's a great way to balance privacy and utility: Apps that don't need all that extra location information to function simply won't get it. Back in January, Apple introduced a new privacy setting for iPhone: Limit Precise Location. While …

It's once again time to update your Apple devices. The company just released a whole host of security patches, including a fix for an actively exploited zero-day affecting iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe. These updates arrived alongside the official release of iOS 26.3, which includes features like more seamless data transfer between iPhone and Android. Other security patches address bugs in Photos, VoiceOver, and Screenshots, to name a few. iOS 26.3 patches a zero-day affecting dyldAccording to Apple's latest security bulletin, the zero-day—tracked as CVE-2026-20700—is a memory corruption issue in dyld, Apple's "Dynamic Link Editor." The flaw could allow attackers w…

Breaking news: Apple has another update for you to install. While it seems like there's always a new update for us Apple users to install on our devices, this one is quite important to prioritize. That's because it's not a simple feature update, changing the software you're used to. Instead, it's a security patch, fixing issues with iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and other Apple OSes that, left unpatched, leaves you vulnerable to hacking. Security patches vs. software updatesSome platforms separate security patches and software updates as two distinct processes. Not Apple. Usually, the company couples security patches and software updates together, which creates some interesting si…

There was once a time where first-party apps and experiences on Apple devices were exempt from advertisements. Other app marketplaces might happily show you ads, but not the App Store. Most news sites place ads in between every other paragraph, but Apple News was an ad-free experience. Say what you wanted about Apple and its products, but you certainly dealt with far fewer ads than on other platforms. Unfortunately, that's no longer the case. Apple has slowly made ads a part of its business model in order to boost revenue. You might have noticed them already while scrolling through stories in News, or when looking for a new game on the App Store. Even the Wallet app has …

I like Apple Maps. I want to love it, but I can't. Despite the obvious integrations with iOS, and the generally pleasing aesthetic, Google Maps simply does some things better. One of those things is particularly key: finding somewhere to eat. Searching for a restaurant on Apple Maps and Google Maps is the same on the surface: You make your query, scan the map for a name that jumps out, then tap that restaurant to learn more. Apple Maps serves up Yelp reviews, which you can see previews of, but if you tap any of them for more details, you're taken to the Yelp app. If you don't have the Yelp app, you're taken to the App Store to download the Yelp app. Google Maps, on the ot…

It's time for another Apple event! On Wednesday, March 4, Apple will announce new products, and despite the company's commitment to secrecy, we know what most of the revelations are already. In fact, Apple has already announced a number of new products this week in lead up to the event, including the iPhone 17e, M4 iPad Air, and new Macs—including M5, M5 Pro, and M5 Max variants. But even though the company has already shared a bunch of news across Monday and Tuesday, that doesn't mean Wednesday's event is going to be a bore. In fact, Apple may announce one of its most interesting products in years during its March 4 keynote: the MacBook "Neo." This is a "budget" MacBook…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Apple's product lineup is not small: The company makes smartphones, tablets, computers, headphones, and smart watches, among many others. But aside from the Vision Pro, it's a bit late to break into the headset and smart glasses market—while other companies, namely Meta, have pushed full steam ahead on their own smart wearable tech. But as anyone following tech rumors may know, Apple is working on its own smart glasses—four glasses, in fact. In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman asserts that Apple is working on not just one design for its upcoming smart glasses, but four. According to Gu…

Apple has been on a budget kick of late. Last Monday, the company announced the iPhone 17e, a $599 device that does just about everything most of us would expect our iPhones to do. Two days later, it unveiled the MacBook Neo, a $599 laptop that, despite running an iPhone chip, holds its own against Macs with M-series chips designed for macOS. While these products may sell well (particularly the Neo), Apple isn't exactly going full bargain bin. In fact, rumor has it that Apple is currently working on a lineup of products on the opposite end of the spectrum. This rumored "Ultra" line would include new machines and devices that will cost quite a lot, but also offer quite a…

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. It's an exciting time to be an iPhone user. There's iOS 26, of course, which brings a number of major changes to the platform. For the daring, there's the iOS 26.1 beta, which continues to build upon the foundation of Apple's latest OS. If that weren't enough, however, it seems Apple is also working on yet another iPhone update—this time intended mostly to fix problems with the last one. The update, iOS 26.0.1, could drop any time in the coming days. These types of updates aren't necessarily unusual: Apple …

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. On Tuesday, Apple dropped the first beta for iOS 26.1. With it, we can see what the company is planning for the successor to iOS 26, including new gestures in Apple Music, a new scrubbing bar for the video player, and Liquid Glass support for the keypad in the Phone app. It's a small update on the surface, but there's something quite interesting going on behind the scenes. 'Notification Forwarding'As discovered by Macworld, code within the iOS 26.1 beta suggests that Apple is working on support for third-pa…

Thinking about getting a new iPhone? You certainly have options: Apple's latest generation of smartphones, the iPhone 16 series, offers four different models, each with their own plusses and minuses. If you're not set on having the latest and greatest, you could consider last year's iPhone 15, or even 2022's iPhone 14. They're all great. However, there's one iPhone that stands out from the rest: the iPhone SE. Unlike every other iPhone Apple currently sells, this one has a Home button. In fact, the phone looks nearly identical to the iPhone 8 Apple released back in 2017, which itself borrows the design from 2014's iPhone 6. That means it has a smaller, lower quality displ…

Last week, Apple finally admitted it will need to team up with Google to finally make good on that contextual Siri promise it made two years ago, which would have allowed the virtual assistant to integrate with content like your texts or emails to answer personal questions and take actions for you. Now, according to a new report, the iPhone company might actually go one step further and turn Siri into a full-fledged AI chatbot—one on par with the likes of ChatGPT, and perhaps even more sophisticated. Currently, Siri has AI implementation, but only technically, and it's certainly underwhelming: You can use it to get tech support on Apple products or shunt questions off to …

There are a lot of music streaming services to choose from right now. Many of us subscribe to Spotify or Apple Music, but still others may use YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or Tidal. They all have their pros and cons, but if price is the most important factor for you, it's a good time to check out Apple's offering. Apple Music usually costs $10.99 for individual users, $16.99 for families, and $5.99 for students—pretty standard for music streaming pricing. Today, however, Apple announced an impressive deal for eligible new subscribers: Six months of Apple Music for $2.99. That's not three dollars per months, but three dollars total. Who's eligibleThat's a pretty great val…

Over the years, Apple Music has improved its algorithmic playlists. There's now an AI DJ, and you can use ChatGPT to generate playlists. With iOS 26.4, which is currently in beta, Apple wants you to make playlists with its own AI tech. The upcoming update includes a feature called "Playlist Playground," which lets you generate AI playlists directly in the Apple Music app—as long as you're running iOS 26.4. How to download and install iOS 26.4I do not recommend installing and running beta versions of iOS on your primary iPhone. Beta software is unfinished, which means you could run into bugs and glitches that may impact how you use your iPhone, or even result in data loss.…

Though it brings me no pleasure, it's once again time to discuss the viral apps Tea and TeaOnHer. You may remember them from the summer, when Tea—where women could anonymously rate and discuss men under the pretense of helping each other safely navigate dating—was the target of data breaches that exposed users' personal information. From there, an app called TeaOnHer was launched for men and Tea faced a class action from users who were upset about their private data being easily accessible to hackers. Whether you remember them or not, they're gone now—sort of. Apple has yanked them from the App Store. The App Store removal of Tea and TeaOnHerTea was around for about two …

If you’ve been living your life severed from Apple TV because you’re on an Android phone, then Apple has some good news for you, refiner. Starting today, the Apple TV app is available on Pixels, Samsung Galaxies, and all other Android phones and tablets, complete with the ability to subscribe to Apple TV+ and the MLS (Major League Soccer) Season Pass. That’s great news for anyone who, like me, can’t stop thinking about Severance, and Apple’s doing its best to make the sign-up process as easy as possible. According to a press release sent to journalists, Android users are able to sign up for Apple TV’s various subscriptions using their Google Play account, rather than need…

If you asked me which streaming service has the best TV shows, I'd say Apple TV (recently freshly rebranded from Apple TV+). But if you asked me which has the fewest TV shows, I'd also say Apple TV. I love Severance and all, but when it's not releasing new episodes, there's usually not enough to keep me subscribed. That's why I'm so interested in the new bundle deal from Apple and Peacock: For just $2 more than a standard Apple TV subscription—or the same price as a monthly Peacock subscription—you can get them both. Peacock isn't my favorite streaming service, exactly, but because it pulls from most of NBC and Universal's respective catalogs, it does usually have enough…

I love Severance as much as the next TV obsessive (though I admit I'm a serial avoider of Ted Lasso—sorry), but I must be honest: Nobody calls the service those shows are hosted on "Apple TV+." And now, they don't have to, because the streamer is getting a new name. I get what Apple was going for with that "+" symbol. It already had a streaming box called an Apple TV, and a pay-per-view app called Apple TV, so it needed to call its subscription-based streaming platform something else. But everyone I've ever talked to about an Apple TV+ show, whether online or in-person, tends to drop the "plus" from the name, perhaps even forgetting it was there in the first place—especia…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. Apple makes good devices and accessories, but they do tend to be more expensive than the competition, even for something as basic as a charging cable. It's certainly true of Apple Watch bands—I'm not sure why a braided strip of polyester and silicone costs $99, but that's what the company charges. But right now, Woot is selling a whole rainbow of Apple Watch bands for up to 70% off. It…