Clean Up Your Mac’s Login Items for Better Performance

If you use certain apps or documents regularly, you can ensure they’re ready to go after a restart by manually adding them to your Login Items list. Some login items are also added automatically by apps that want to be available at all times. Either way, when the Mac boots, it automatically opens all login items. But it’s easy to end up with login items for apps you no longer use, which can slow down startup and overall performance, increase the risk of conflicts, and even expose you to attacks. We encourage you to review your Mac’s login items periodically and remove any items you’re not using. Just navigate to System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions, select the unwanted items, and click the minus button. If you make a mistake, drag the app back in from the Finder.

(Featured image by iStock.com/artisteer)

Be Alert for Deepfake Phishing Scams

Phishing scams have entered a new, AI-powered phase and can now convincingly mimic real people. Attackers can generate fake voice or video deepfakes to impersonate CEOs authorizing urgent payments, IT staff requesting access, or family members needing help. If you receive a voice or video call from someone you know at an unknown number who urges you to reveal confidential information or send money immediately, slow down, check for telltale signs, and verify before acting. Listen for unnatural pauses, overly smooth phrasing, or odd emotional timing. Visually, look for inconsistent lighting or shadows, artifacts around the hairline, ears, or teeth—or anything that seems “off,” especially around the mouth and eyes when the person moves. For verification, ask for a detail that only they would know. If you’re at all unsure whether the call is legitimate, hang up and contact them—or someone else who will know more—through a separate, trusted channel. A few seconds of skepticism can prevent a costly mistake.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Tero Vesalainen; article image by iStock.com/Boris023)

How to Customize the iPhone and iPad Home Screen with Liquid Glass

When describing its new Liquid Glass design language, Apple spoke only generally about how users could change the look of icons and widgets on their iPhone and iPad home screens to be dark, clear, or tinted, without specifying how to do that. The trick is to touch and hold an empty spot on the Home screen to enter jiggle mode, tap Edit in the upper-left corner, and select Customize to bring up a set of controls: choose from Default, Dark, Clear, and Tinted. For Tinted, set the color ➊ and opacity ➋ using the sliders, and use the buttons at the top of the Customize panel to change the brightness ➌, expand icons and remove names ➍, and use either the suggested image color ➎ or pick a color with the eye dropper ➏. The effectiveness of a Liquid Glass-enabled Home Screen will depend on how much you rely on color to identify icons at a glance.

(Featured image by Apple)

macOS 26 Tahoe Introduces New Recovery Assistant

If a Mac running macOS 26 Tahoe experiences certain kinds of problems, it might automatically restart and launch a new Recovery Assistant. It will prompt you to unlock your disk if needed and to connect to a Wi-Fi network—an Internet connection is required. Apple doesn’t specify precisely what Recovery Assistant will do to recover your device, but it will either indicate that it succeeded, that it was unable to recover the device, or that it found no problems. In any case, you’ll need to restart your Mac, after which you may receive a notification to recover your iCloud data; initiate this process in System Settings. While we generally favor Macs being able to fix their own problems, we cannot stress enough how much more important it is to have a current backup than to rely solely on any recovery system.

(Featured image based on an original by iStock.com/Armastas)

Updated Passwords App Adds History

One small way Apple’s Passwords app lagged behind top password managers like 1Password was in its lack of a password history. It’s sometimes helpful—such as when trying to figure out why a seemingly correct password isn’t being accepted—to see previous passwords for a site and when they were changed. In macOS 26 Tahoe, iOS 26, and iPadOS 26, the Passwords app adds that feature. Click or tap View History to review the history of a particular site’s passwords. 

(Featured image by iStock.com/designer491)

App Store Gains Accessibility Nutrition Labels

Apple does a good job providing accessibility options for users who experience issues with vision, hearing, motor control, and other accessibility needs. Nearly everyone will benefit from these features at some point in their lives. To encourage support for Apple’s accessibility features and assist users in finding compatible apps, the App Store now includes Accessibility Nutrition Labels that indicate supported features. Developers aren’t required to support or list these features, so it may take some time before many apps display this information. Still, it’s a welcome step forward!

(Featured image by iStock.com/findfootagehq)

How to Display Contacts with Last Names First

Most people prefer Apple’s default of sorting contacts by last name, so “Andy Anderson” appears near the start of the list and “Liliana Velasco” toward the end. But some would also prefer to display contacts with their last name first, such as “Anderson, Andy,” and “Velasco, Liliana.” That’s not the default, but if it’s what you want, here’s how to accomplish it. On the iPhone and iPad, go to Settings > Apps > Contacts > Display Order and select Last, First. On the Mac, open Contacts > Settings > General and from the Show First Name controls, select Following Last Name.

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

Blood Oxygen Monitoring Returns to Recent US Apple Watches with Software Updates

With the release of iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1, Apple restored blood oxygen monitoring capabilities to US Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2 models that previously had this feature disabled due to a patent infringement suit by medical device maker Masimo. Apple’s redesign processes blood oxygen data on the paired iPhone rather than on the watch itself. After updating both devices, you can view your blood oxygen readings in the Health app under Browse > Respiratory > Blood Oxygen. If blood oxygen monitoring doesn’t activate immediately after updating, try opening the ECG app on your watch to trigger the necessary software asset download. Apple Watch units that predate the ban and those sold in other countries continue to work as they always have, with the Blood Oxygen app on the watch itself.

(Featured image by Adam Engst)