Apple Previews M2-Based MacBook Air and Updated 13-Inch MacBook Pro

During its Worldwide Developer Conference keynote on June 6th, Apple took a brief break from showing off new features in upcoming operating systems to throw back the curtains on its new M2 chip and a pair of laptops that use it: an all-new MacBook Air and an updated 13-inch MacBook Pro. Apple said that both laptops will be available in July.

Next Generation M2 Chip Boosts Performance, Offers More Memory

Although we’re still wrapping our heads around the insane performance offered by a Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra chip, Apple is already introducing the next generation of chips to power the Mac line, beginning with the M2. It includes an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, and builds on the capabilities of the M1, increasing CPU performance by 18%, GPU performance by 35%, and Neural Engine performance by 40%. It also offers up to 24 GB of unified memory (16 GB max in the M1) and expands memory bandwidth by 50%. Impressive numbers, but still well under the capabilities of the M1 Pro. We expect Apple to release an M2 Pro, M2 Max, and M2 Ultra within the next year or so.

New MacBook Air Brings Complete Redesign

Apple claims the MacBook Air is the world’s best-selling laptop, which isn’t surprising, given the model’s svelte size, zippy performance, and reasonable price point. For this revision, Apple changed the previous wedge-shaped design to a squared-off look that echoes recent Apple products like the 24-inch iMac and iPhone 13. It’s otherwise similar in size to the previous model, though just a touch thinner and lighter. It’s the same width and a bit deeper, likely because it boasts a 13.6-inch screen and a full-height function key row with Touch ID. Happily, it now charges using Apple’s MagSafe 3 technology. You can get the new MacBook Air in four finishes: silver, space gray, starlight, and midnight.

The new MacBook Air’s screen isn’t just bigger, it’s also better. It has a slightly higher resolution of 2560x1664, it’s brighter, and it supports up to 1 billion colors. In other words, it’s gorgeous, and you can supplement it with an external display up to 6K in resolution. Embedded at the top of the screen is a better webcam with a 1080p resolution instead of the previous 720p resolution. Apple also enhanced its audio capabilities with a four-speaker sound system and a three-mic array with directional beamforming.

The price of the M2-based MacBook Air starts at $1199, but additional processing power, memory, and storage are available:

• Chip: Choose from either an M2 with an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU or one with an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU ($100).

• Memory: 8 GB of unified memory is standard, but you can opt for 16 GB ($200) or 24 GB ($400).

• Storage: The base level of SSD storage is 256 GB, with upgrades to 512 GB ($200), 1 TB ($400), or 2 TB ($800).

Like the previous M1-based MacBook Air, the new model sports two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports on the left side (next to the MagSafe port) and a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the right side. It also supports Wi-Fi 6 wireless networking and Bluetooth 5.0.

It comes with a 30-watt USB-C power adapter, or you can pay $20 more for either a 35-watt power adapter with two USB-C ports or a 67-watt USB-C power adapter that supports the M2-based MacBook Air’s fast charging capabilities. If you opt for the higher-end M2 chip and at least 512 GB of storage, you get one of the more-capable power adapters for free.

Although the new MacBook Air is a little more expensive than a comparably configured M1-based MacBook Air, it sports better performance, more memory, a bigger and better screen, a better webcam, a larger function key row, better speakers, and MagSafe 3. Nevertheless, if you’re working on a tight budget, the least expensive M1-based MacBook Air remains available for $999, and it’s still a fine machine.

In the end, it’s hard to go wrong with the new M2-based MacBook Air when upgrading from an Intel-based Mac laptop or supplementing your desktop Mac with a laptop. It’s small, light, powerful, and cost-effective, if not a significant enough jump to warrant upgrading from an M1-based MacBook Air.

Updated 13-inch MacBook Pro Gains M2 Chip

While the new MacBook Air is a complete redesign, the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro is unchanged from its M1-based predecessor, apart from the move to the M2 chip. Since that’s the same chip that’s in the MacBook Air and the price is identical for comparable configurations, the question becomes why you’d buy the 13-inch MacBook Pro instead of the new MacBook Air.

On the plus side, the 13-inch MacBook Pro has cooling fans that enable it to maintain peak performance for sustained loads—the fanless MacBook Air will throttle itself to avoid overheating if you push it for too long. The MacBook Pro’s battery life is likely a little longer, given that it has a large battery. Finally, it has a Touch Bar instead of a function key row, which some may like.

However, the new MacBook Air’s slightly larger screen supports more colors (1 billion versus millions), and the MacBook Air has a better webcam and potentially better speakers. It’s also a little thinner and lighter.

In balance, we recommend the MacBook Air unless you love the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar, which seems to be on the way out. The 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1299 for an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU M2-based model with 8 GB of unified memory and 256 GB of SSD storage. The build-to-order options are the same as for the MacBook Air.

(Featured image by Apple)

Copy and Paste between Your Apple Devices with Universal Clipboard

Everyone is accustomed to using the Copy and Paste commands on the Mac, but fewer people know that you can also copy and paste between your Mac and your iPhone and iPad. Apple calls this feature Universal Clipboard, and it’s so deeply integrated into macOS, iOS, and iPadOS that it can be easy to miss. You won’t find a switch for Universal Clipboard or any other mention of it in System Preferences or Settings.

To use Universal Clipboard, all you have to do is copy some content—a bit of text, an image, a video—on one device, switch to another device, and paste it into an app that can accept the copied content. It’s a great way to move data between your devices. (When going from Mac to Mac, you can also copy and paste en-tire files in the Finder.)

Or at least there’s no fuss if you have the right settings enabled on all your devices—miss even one of these and Universal Clipboard won’t work. Here are the necessary supporting conditions:

•  Apple ID: Each device must be signed in to iCloud using the same Apple ID. Ensure this is the case in System Preferences > Apple ID on the Mac and in Settings > Your Name on the iPhone and iPad.

•  Bluetooth: Each device must have Bluetooth turned on. On the Mac, look in System Preferences > Bluetooth (or Control Center, or the Blue-tooth menu); on an iPhone or iPad, check Settings > Bluetooth (or Con-trol Center).

•  Wi-Fi: Each device must have Wi-Fi turned on and connected to the same Wi-Fi network. It’s unlikely this wouldn’t be the case, but you can verify it in System Preferences > Wi-Fi (or Control Center, or the Wi-Fi menu); on an iPhone or iPad, check Settings > Wi-Fi (or Control Center).

•  Handoff: Each device must have Handoff enabled. Check that on the Mac in System Preferences > General and on an iPhone or iPad in Settings > General > AirPlay & Handoff. There’s almost no reason to disable Handoff, so it should be on.

•  Recent devices: Your devices must be relatively recent—from the last 7–10 years—and running at least macOS 10.12 Sierra or iOS 10. In other words, don’t expect Universal Clipboard to work on some ancient Mac-Book or iPad.

If those settings are all correct, but Universal Clipboard still isn’t working, restart your devices and verify that they all have Wi-Fi and Internet connectivity when they come back up.

Most of the time, however, Universal Clipboard just works. It normally transfers the data between devices almost instantly, although if you copy a particularly large image or video on one device and switch to another, you may see a progress dialog while it finishes moving the data. In the screenshot below, Universal Clipboard didn’t even have time to calculate the time remaining before it finished pasting a photo.

Remember that Universal Clipboard simply populates each device’s clipboard just as though you had copied from that device. As soon as you copy something else on any device, it immediately replaces whatever came in from Universal Clipboard. Plus, if you copy something but don’t paste it on another device right away, the clipboard on that device may revert to its previous contents after about 2 minutes.

(Featured image by iStock.com/voyata and Sielan)

The Best Characters to Use When Naming Files and Folders

Back in the early 1980s, DOS filenames couldn’t be more than 8 characters long with a period and a 3-character extension. That was limiting, so when Apple developed the Mac operating system in 1984, it allowed longer names and eliminated the need for an extension, although Mac OS X’s Unix roots meant a return of the filename exten-sion in 2001. Since then, filename restrictions have loosened to the point where it’s easy to think that they no longer exist.

If only that were true! In some ways, the situation has become even cloudier, thanks to additional limitations from file-sharing services like Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box. (Google Drive’s native Web interface reportedly has no naming limitations, but files whose names contain Windows or macOS forbidden characters may not sync via Google Drive’s desktop software.) Plus, people tend to move files between operating systems more than ever before—if you’re sending a file from your Mac to a Windows user through Dropbox, you need to make sure that all three can deal with the filename.

At least length isn’t something that you generally have to think about these days, since both macOS and Windows—and the cloud services—accept filenames up to 255 characters in length. Technically speaking, Windows limits directory paths (the enclosing folder names along with the filename) to 255 characters, but even still, that shouldn’t be difficult to avoid.

What could go wrong if you run afoul of a naming restriction? macOS and Windows may simply not let you type the character—for example, you can’t put a colon in a Mac filename. Putting a period at the start of a Mac or Unix filename will hide the file. Cloud sharing services might rename the file, or you might encounter syncing issues where files don’t appear where they should. Certain characters can also cause trouble when files are used at the command line.

Here are the characters to avoid and the operating systems and services that prohibit them:

•  : (colon): macOS, Windows, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box

•  . (period): macOS (at the start of a name), Dropbox

•  / (forward slash): macOS, Windows, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box

•  \ (backslash): Windows, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box

•  < (less than): Windows, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box

•  > (greater than): Windows, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box

•  " (double quote): Windows, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box

•  | (vertical bar or pipe): Windows, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box

•  ? (question mark): Windows, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box

•  * (asterisk): Windows, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box

•  ^ (caret): Windows (using FAT-formatted drives)

In addition, avoid using special characters like the © (copyright) symbol or emoji 🤷 in filenames. They might work locally, but all bets are off if you share the files in any way.

A few other recommendations:

•  Avoid unusual punctuation; in particular, note that OneDrive renames filenames containing:

  •  , (comma) to ^J

  •  # (number sign) to ^N

  •  & (ampersand) to ^O

  •  ~ (tilde) to ^F

•  Never start or end file or folder names with a space, and avoid spaces in file-names that will be uploaded to a Web or SFTP server.

•  Avoid putting more than one period in a filename, and don’t put a period after a filename extension.

•  Never assume that names are case sensitive—always make sure that similarly named items differ by more than just case.

If all that seems like a lot to keep in mind, here’s the simple rule that will ensure your filenames will work everywhere:

Name files only with uppercase (A-Z) and lowercase (a-z) letters, digits (0-9), and the hyphen (-) and underscore (_), plus a single period (.) and extension.

(Featured image by iStock.com/cosmin4000 and smartstock)

Take Advantage of CarPlay in Rental Cars While Traveling

Renting a car has become more interesting in recent years due to changes automakers have been making to car electronics. For example, Apple’s CarPlay is becoming a common feature on rental cars. That lets you run Apple Maps or Google Maps on your iPhone while displaying the map on the car’s built-in screen and routing spoken directions through the car’s speakers. It’s way better than trying to prop your iPhone on the dash for navigation directions.

Although there are no guarantees, rental cars are usually recent models, so it’s likely that if one has a screen, it will support CarPlay. Look for some indication on the screen, see if the car is in Apple’s list of supported models, or check the car’s manual in the glove compartment. (Car manuals are universally terrible, but search for CarPlay in the index.) It might even be worth asking at the rental car desk if it’s possible to get a CarPlay-enabled car.

CarPlay setup should be easy. It will add only a few minutes to the time you already spend adjusting seats and mirrors and familiarizing yourself with the car’s controls. Start by plugging your iPhone into the car’s USB jack with a Lightning cable to see if that’s sufficient to start pairing. If the car supports only wireless CarPlay, you’ll instead tap a button on the screen or hold down the voice control button on the steering wheel to initiate pairing.

You may be prompted to transfer contacts and favorites to the car for access via Bluetooth, but don’t bother—you can access everything you need on your iPhone via CarPlay. There’s no worry about CarPlay revealing any of your information to later car renters.

(It’s worth keeping a Lightning cable in the car for the entire trip because GPS navigation drains iPhone batteries quickly. Keep the iPhone plugged in to ensure you have power for other activities. Remember, CarPlay just sends the iPhone’s display and audio to the car—the iPhone is still doing all the navigational work, so CarPlay won’t do you any good if your iPhone is drained.)

Once configured, CarPlay will likely display a map on screen—that’s Apple’s Maps. Assuming you want to leave the rental car agency and get on the road, bring up directions to your destination in Maps on the iPhone, and everything will start appearing directly on the car’s screen. If you don’t hear spoken directions, make sure the car stereo’s volume is turned up.

You can control CarPlay with the car’s touchscreen or Siri: use “Hey, Siri,” press the voice control button on the steering wheel, or touch and hold a button on the car’s screen. That’s helpful for playing music from your iPhone instead of suffering with random radio stations. Stick with searching for new destinations in Maps when you’re not driving, however, since using any unfamiliar car interface distracts from driving safely, especially when you’re in a new location.

The icons on the left sidebar of the CarPlay display give you access to recent mapping and audio apps, plus Settings. Tap the bottom icon to switch to a tile view that shows the map, Now Playing, and favorite destinations.

If you’re staying in the same location for several days, set its address as a favorite in Maps so it’s easy to navigate back to it merely by tapping a button on the car’s touchscreen. Although Maps works well, if you prefer Google Maps, you can now use that instead. Just start navigating in Google Maps, and CarPlay should automatically bring it up—you can also tap the bottom icon when in tile view to switch to a Home screen-like view of all apps and tap Google Maps there. If you have to swipe left to find the app you want, adjust the icon order on the iPhone in Settings > General > CarPlay > Car Name > Customize.

On subsequent trips, CarPlay should connect automatically and be available for use within a minute or two of starting the car. If it doesn’t, you may need to restart the phone, turn the car off and on again, or even start over by deleting the connection from the car and using Settings > General > CarPlay > Car Name > Forget This Car. You may need to delete the Bluetooth pairing from the car first.

There’s much more to CarPlay, but you’re traveling, so spend your time relaxing and enjoying the trip rather than fussing with technology!

(Featured image by Tonya Engst)

Business Uses of the Apple TV—Really!

Many people have an Apple TV in the living room, hooked to a large-screen TV. It’s a great streaming media box for Apple TV+, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and a slew of other services. It even supports a bunch of games. Don’t let the Apple TV’s consumer focus fool you, though. It’s also a highly useful device for businesses in two important ways: digital signage and presentation display.​

Apple TV for Digital Signage

For businesses that need to post signs, it’s easy to print something out and stick it on the wall. But that can get out of hand quickly, and once you have more than a couple of sheets of paper posted, people won’t read them. And, let’s face it, a piece of paper taped to the wall isn’t exactly eye-catching. Professional-level design and large-format printing can help, but then costs start going up quickly, and print signs aren’t easy to update.

An Apple TV coupled with an inexpensive TV might be a better solution. Conceptually, a digital sign is just one or more graphics displayed on a screen, rotating as necessary—it’s a slideshow. For a one-off solution, you could add some images to Photos and display them as a slideshow or as a screen saver. If you go this route:

• Make your images 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high, assuming that your Apple TV’s resolution is set to 1080p in Settings > Video & Audio > Resolution. (If not, match whatever you’re using there.)

• Avoid putting content within 60 pixels of the top and bottom of the screen and within 80 pixels of either side. Content can be difficult to read near the edge, and it may be cropped due to overscanning on older TVs.

• It’s safest to set up a clean Apple ID for the Apple TV to ensure that Photos contains no personal snapshots.

• After creating images on your Mac, add them to a shared album in Photos that’s shared with the Apple TV’s dedicated Apple ID.

• On the Apple TV, open the Photos app, go into Shared, select the album, and start the slideshow or set the album as a screen saver. If Shared doesn’t appear, turn it on in Settings > Users and Accounts > Your Name > Shared Albums.

• If you use the Set As Screensaver option, you must still configure it in Settings > General > Screen Saver.

• For either the slideshow or the screen saver, set the theme to Classic for a simple, full-screen display. Make sure Repeat Photos is on (slideshow only), set the Time Per Slide to 20 seconds, and stick with a simple Transition.

For more capabilities when creating and switching among slides, turn to a digital signage app. Searching on the Apple TV’s own App Store will reveal numerous digital signage apps, including DigiBoard TV and ez plus.

If you have multiple Apple TVs running digital signage, such as in a hotel, you’ll want to manage them via an MDM solution like Addigy, Hexnode, Jamf Pro, Kandji, or SimpleMDM (to name just a few that support Apple TV management). Details vary, but it’s important to be able to lock the Apple TV to a single digital signage app that will be the only thing that runs and that automatically launches whenever the Apple TV reboots after updating tvOS or after a power failure. (You can also set this mode via Apple Configurator if you don’t have an MDM solution.)

For industrial-strength digital signage, look to systems like Carousel and Kitcast. They offer significant feature sets but charge $20–$25 per screen per month, making them appropriate mostly in larger business scenarios.​

Apple TV for Presentations

The other notable business capability of the Apple TV is displaying presentations on a large-screen TV via AirPlay, which lets you avoid the cabling issues and extra hardware associated with projectors. To enable that, Apple added Conference Room Display mode to tvOS to make it easier for people to connect to the Apple TV via AirPlay.

First, make sure AirPlay is on in Settings > AirPlay and HomeKit. Then, in Settings > AirPlay and HomeKit > Conference Room Display, enable Conference Room Display. Once it’s on, you can:

• Require a PIN on every use of AirPlay. Enable this setting if you’re concerned about someone sending inappropriate content to the TV.

• Set a custom message for the onscreen alert that encourages people to use AirPlay whenever the Apple TV is in Conference Room Display mode.

• Choose a custom photo as the background whenever the Apple TV is in Conference Room Display mode.

From then on, when you turn on the Apple TV, it will open to the Conference Room Display screen and alert. Note that the screen saver plays while in Conference Room Display mode, although the alert may obscure any digital signs you want to display using the screen saver.

AirPlay is the key for sharing screens, displaying Keynote or PowerPoint presentations, or playing videos on an Apple TV in Conference Room Display mode. From a Mac, go to System Preferences > Displays and choose the Apple TV from the Add Display pop-up menu. From an iPhone or iPad, go into Control Center, tap the Screen Mirroring button, and select the Apple TV from the list.

What if someone wants to play a presentation from a Windows PC or share its screen? The solution, though it requires advance setup, is the $17.99 AirParrot, which enables PCs to share screens with Apple TVs.

This is a high-level overview of how you can leverage an Apple TV for digital signage and presentation display—there are lots of details that may be important in your particular situation. If you need help creating an ideal configuration, don’t hesitate to ask us.

(Featured image by iStock.com/necati bahadir bermek)

How to Help a Friend Whose Email Has Been Hacked to Send Scams

Beware of an email-based scam that’s making the rounds this year! Since January, I’ve been targeted three times, and I wanted to share the story—both to help you avoid falling prey to the scam and so you can better alert any friends or acquaintances whose email accounts have been hacked.

First, let me bang the drum one more time: None of these people would have had problems if their email passwords had been strong and unique. If you reuse your email password anywhere, or if it’s short and obvious, stop reading right now and go change it.

Your new email password can be at least 13 truly random characters (something like iR82dGlQf3&@C) or at least 28 characters of common words separated by hyphens (like the classic correct-battery-horse-staple), or you could generate it through some combination of numbers (like dates) and letters (such as initials) that make sense to you. Whatever you choose, it must be strong and unique. And if you’re not using a password manager, you’re wasting your time and likely being insecure.

How the Scam Progresses

The email scam message I received came from someone I know quite tangentially—John is a runner from a nearby city who had participated in some of the track meets that I organize. Since I assign bib numbers and announce all the races, his name was sufficiently familiar that I wasn’t surprised to receive email from him—we had corresponded once in 2021 about an upcoming track meet. But with only one prior conversation, I had no sense of his email style, so his first message didn’t raise any alarm bells in my head.

I replied generally to the first message—there were various reasons an upstate New York runner might contact me—but those alarm bells went off instantly upon receiving the next message.

I couldn’t see any reason why a person I barely knew would ask if I had an Amazon account, and besides, at this point, who doesn’t? I switched into investigation mode. What you can’t tell from the message above is that although the sender’s name remained the same, the email address had changed from windstream.net to yahoo.com. Combined with the strange request about an Amazon account, I was now nearly certain I was talking to a scammer who was using the email address switch to get me into their own account in case John locked them out by changing his password. I decided to keep the scammer talking and see what I could learn.

After sending that message, I looked up John’s phone number in his most recent track meet registration and texted him. Luckily, I was able to provide sufficient context in my initial text that he knew who I was. As I expected, he knew nothing about what was happening and confirmed that the Yahoo account wasn’t his.

By now, I was curious what the scam would be, so I kept pretending that I was skeptical but still going along with it all. After another message or two, it became clear—the scammer wanted me to buy a $300 Amazon gift card for which they would reimburse me later. Yeah, right.

Throughout all this, I made sure to send only to the windstream.net account in part to see if the scammer would lose access. I was simultaneously keeping up the text backchannel with John, who said that he saw none of these messages in his Sent mailbox nor messages from me in his Inbox, which suggested that the scammer was somehow deleting them instantly to cover their tracks. I assume that John changed his password, but if so, that apparently didn’t kick the scammer out because I kept getting replies to the messages I sent to windstream.net.

I entertained a faint hope that Yahoo would be interested in shutting down both the scammer’s address and the address they wanted me to use for the Amazon gift card. But no, my attempt to alert abuse@yahoo.com failed. I subsequently tried to contact Yahoo via a recommended Web form after I mentioned the issue in “Yahoo-Backed POP Connections Cause TidBITS Formatting Error” (26 January 2022), but that was equally unsuccessful.

By this time, I had traded a few more messages with the scammer to keep the conversation going, but they eventually gave up on me. I never heard back again after this message.

I didn’t get around to writing up this story right away and quickly forgot about it. But a month later, it happened again! Vern isn’t someone with whom I’ve ever exchanged email, but he runs an excellent U-Pick blueberry farm in my nearby hometown, and I had left my email address in his visitor book the last time I picked berries there. Luckily, I had an in for contacting him—my father used to be the mail carrier, and he still knows most people in town. Dad was able to call him and let him know about the problem, and Vern changed his password and alerted all his email contacts not to reply to the scam messages. Amusingly, this time, Vern’s real email address was at Yahoo, and the scammer was trying to redirect replies to a fake Outlook account.

Two months later, the scam reappeared in my email, with the scammer victimizing an older runner in the area. In this case, I’d been talking about Tom with another friend who worked with him regularly just the day before, so I recruited my friend to encourage Tom to change his password.

How to Help Your Friends

Let’s assume that you get one of these messages. They’re so weirdly generic that you’ll realize it’s a scam right away if they come from someone you know well. Or, as in the case of my second example, you’ll know the person so slightly that the scam will be obvious purely because a stranger would never ask such questions. The awkward middle occurs if the message is like my first and third examples, where I knew the people just well enough that I wasn’t surprised to get email from them but not well enough to be certain that the message was fake.

Nevertheless, if you’re unsure, there’s no harm in replying—just don’t get sucked in! If you notice that your reply (or any subsequent one) is going to an address other than where the first one originated, that’s another clue that you’re in the middle of a con. Once you realize what’s going on, here’s what I recommend doing… and not doing:

• Do recommend a password change: By calling, texting, or emailing a secondary address, tell the person whose account has been hacked to change their email account password immediately and recommend that they create a strong, unique password using a password manager. You must assume that the scammer has full control over the victim’s primary email account and will delete all warnings and evidence of wrongdoing.

• Do encourage alerting of other contacts: Although the person whose account was hacked probably won’t be able to tell who received the scam message, encourage them to alert all their contacts that the previous message was fake and should be ignored. Also, suggest that they encourage their contacts to check their passwords—might the acquaintances of people whose passwords were so weak as to be compromised be likely to have weak passwords as well?

• Don’t fall for the scam: Never buy an Amazon or other gift card for someone you don’t know just because they ask. (If you want to give someone money, become a TidBITS member.)

• Don’t mark it as spam: Don’t mark the initial message from the scammer as spam or report it as phishing. Remember, it’s essentially legitimate email, having been sent from the compromised account, so marking it as spam could cause future real messages from that person to be filtered too.

• Don’t bother reporting the scammer: Sadly, I don’t recommend trying to report the scammer to whatever email service they’re using. The goal is good, but it’s all too likely to be a waste of your time.

To make it easier to alert victims, here’s a sample message you can text them or use as a script when talking to them:

It looks like your email account has been hacked and used to send scam messages to contacts like me. I’d encourage you to change your email password immediately, making the new password strong and unique, ideally using a password manager app. Also, it would be good to alert your contacts to ignore the scam message and encourage them to make sure their own passwords are secure.

Finally, if you have friends who aren’t Internet-savvy, share these stories so they have a better chance of avoiding being scammed or having their accounts compromised.

Understanding What “Vintage” and “Obsolete” Mean for Apple Products

Macs—and Apple products in general—tend to last a long time. It’s not unusual to see someone happily using an 8-year-old MacBook Pro. As much as it’s environmentally responsible to use electronics as long as possible, doing so may reduce your productivity or leave your business in a precarious situation if a hardware failure forces an upgrade at an inconvenient time.

Another factor to consider is whether or not you can get service and parts for your older device. It’s easy to assume that Apple will fix whatever you bring in, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. Apple has policies surrounding how long it guarantees to provide service and parts, which is reasonable. No one would expect Apple to repair a 128K Mac from 1984—many repair techs hadn’t even been born then.

All Apple products fall into one of three categories: current, vintage, and obsolete. Current products, which Apple defines as those that were sold within the last 5 years, are eligible for service and parts from Apple, Apple Authorized Service Providers, and Independent Repair Providers. In other words, if you bought your Mac new within the last 5 years, you won’t have any problem getting Apple to fix it.

(Independent Repair Providers are firms that have signed up for Apple’s Independent Repair Provider Program to provide out-of-warranty iPhone and Mac repairs using Apple-provided parts, tools, service guides, and diagnostics. Other repair shops can repair Apple products but may lack Apple certifications and have to source parts from other suppliers.)

Things get trickier with the other two categories:

• Vintage: Apple considers a product to be vintage when the company stopped selling it more than 5 and less than 7 years ago. During this 2-year window, Apple says that service and parts may be obtained, subject to parts availability.

• Obsolete: As you’d expect, a product is considered obsolete when Apple hasn’t sold it for more than 7 years. Apple will not service obsolete products, and service providers cannot order parts for them.

There is one exception to these policies. Mac laptops may be eligible for an extended battery-only repair period for up to 10 years from when the product was last distributed for sale, subject to parts availability. That makes sense since a new battery may be all an old MacBook needs to keep working.

Apple maintains a page listing all vintage and obsolete products. To determine which Mac model you have, choose About This Mac from the Apple menu. For iPhones, iPads, and iPods, Apple provides pages explaining how to identify your model.

Apple’s policies surrounding vintage and obsolete products shouldn’t make a huge difference to most users. That’s because once a Mac hits 5 years old, it’s likely that upgrading to a new model will provide significant benefits. Many businesses prefer a 3-year replacement cycle because they’ve determined that’s the sweet spot where increasing support costs and lower performance make it worth selling the old Mac and buying a new one that’s faster and more reliable.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with keeping a Mac longer if it meets your needs and you don’t mind spending more on support. At some point, though, products in the vintage and obsolete categories are living on borrowed time.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Soulmemoria)

Did You Know That You Can Run iPhone and iPad Apps on an M1-based Mac?

Much has been written about the performance benefits of Apple’s M1 family of chips, but you may not have realized that M1-based Macs can also run many iPhone and iPad apps. It makes sense, given that the M1 chip grew out of the work Apple did for the A-series processors in the iPhone and iPad, and the latest iPad Pro models also rely on the M1.

Why Run iOS Apps?

Depending on how you use your iPhone and iPad, you’re thinking either, “Hey, this is great, because I want to run my favorite apps on my new Mac!” or “What could I possibly gain from putting a little iOS app on my Mac?”

If you’re in the latter camp, think about the apps you regularly use on your iPhone and iPad. Some undoubtedly have Mac versions, and others may offer Web apps that you can run in Safari on your Mac. But a few probably exist only on the iPhone or iPad, or their Web apps are limited. That might be especially true of games, one-trick-pony apps (like the Mandelpad app shown below), and smart home device apps.

What iOS Apps Are Available for the Mac?

In theory, any iPhone or iPad app should run on an M1-based Mac. However, Apple allows developers to set a switch that prevents an iOS app from installing on Macs. Developers may want to prevent that if they already make a Mac-specific app or don’t want to be on the hook for supporting customers using their iOS app on Mac. Sadly, many popular apps like Netflix, Kayak, and Libby won’t run on the Mac.

Luckily, there’s an easy way to determine which of your iPhone and iPad apps will run on your M1-based Mac. Using the Mac App Store app:

1. Click your avatar in the lower-left corner to view your account.

2. Under Account, click iPhone & iPad Apps to view the iOS apps you’ve purchased.

3. If desired, use the Purchased By pop-up menu to the right to see apps that other people in your Family Sharing group have purchased.

4. Scan the listing, which is sorted by the date you acquired the app.

What about new apps? Whenever you’re searching for an app in the Mac App Store using an M1-based Mac, you’ll see the same two tabs: Mac Apps and iPhone & iPad Apps. Click the latter to see all the apps that match your search and will run on your Mac. Because of developer-set limitations, you may not find what you’re looking for with a search.

How Do You Install iOS Apps?

When viewing the list of your purchased iPhone and iPad apps in the Mac App Store as described above, simply click the download button to install the app in your Applications folder.

If you’ve found a new app that you want to download, click the Get or price button, just as though it were a Mac app.

How Do You Use Multi-Touch Apps on a Mac?

Needless to say, trying to tap and swipe on your Mac’s screen with a finger won’t have any effect. You’ll need to use your Mac’s keyboard and pointing device—preferably a trackpad—to control your iPhone and iPad apps. For the most part, such actions should map in an intuitive manner: you click instead of tapping, and trackpad gestures like pinching work the same.

If that doesn’t work, or if the app in question requires tilting the iPhone or iPad, choose Preferences from the app’s menu and turn on Touch Alternatives to map keys on the keyboard to device actions like tilting, tapping, and swiping. How well the Mac’s input devices will work for controlling an iOS app will undoubtedly vary.

We’re not going to pretend that being able to run iPhone and iPad apps on your M1-based Mac is world-changing. It’s all too easy to whip out your iPhone and use such an app in the environment for which it was designed. But there are likely situations where it would be convenient to have an iOS app running alongside the rest of your Mac apps, and that’s now possible.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Apple)