So, you just set up a brand new Apple Watch. Apple’s popular wearable is an awesome extension of your iPhone, and it comes packed with features that span health, fitness, communication, and entertainment. But before you dive into all of those fun and exciting options, there are 10 things you should probably do first to maximize your watch straight out of the box.

Apple Watch Series 9

$299.00 at Amazon

$399.00 Save $100.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$299.00 at Amazon

$399.00 Save $100.00

Mute it (or lower the volume)

Credit: Jake Peterson

By default, your Apple Watch’s sound is turned on. At first, it’s fun to listen to all the unique chimes and tones that Apple put into its wearable. After a while, though, it might become irritating, especially if you do have a lot of notifications. (More on this later.) If you’re someone who usually keeps their iPhone on silent, you might want to consider the same for the watch.

To mute your watch, just wake it up, swipe up from the bottom, then tap the alarm bell icon in Control Center. To simply lower the volume, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics on the watch or in the Watch app, then use the volume icons to adjust accordingly. You can also access "Silent Mode" to mute notifications from here, if you want.

Set up your watch to unlock your Mac

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

If you have a Mac, especially a Mac without Touch ID, you’ll want to set this feature up. Whenever you wake up your Mac, whether by lifting up your MacBook’s lid or by pressing a key on your iMac, it’ll unlock right away, so long as your Apple Watch is unlocked on your wrist. For more info, check out this walkthrough from Lifehacker writer Khamosh Pathak.

Turn off notifications for apps you don’t want

Credit: Jake Peterson

The Apple Watch ships with a lot of notifications by default, especially if you have a lot of notifications set up on your iPhone. Luckily, it’s easy enough to manage these notifications specifically on the watch.

Open the Watch app on your iPhone and go to Settings > Notifications. Here, go through all apps and disable notifications for any you no longer wish to see. Tailoring this experience is key to fully enjoying your Apple Watch: If you don’t want to see any more breathing reminders, but you do want to see your Messenger alerts, you’ll be happy you took the time here.

For a list of notifications you should enable, check out our guide here.

Delete apps you don’t want

Credit: Jake Peterson

If there are apps from your iPhone on your watch that you don’t want there, just get rid of them! If you told your watch to download all available apps from your iPhone, you might have way more options than you really need. Deleting these apps will make finding the apps you do want to use much easier, since there won’t be a sea of irrelevant options every time you open the app view.

You can remove apps from your Apple Watch by long-pressing on an app on your watch and tapping the (X) that appears, just like on your iPhone. Alternatively, you can open the Watch app, scroll down to the list of installed apps, tap the app you want to remove, and hit the toggle on Show App on Apple Watch to confirm.

Set up cellular (if you have a cellular Apple Watch)

Credit: Jake Peterson

If you have a cellular Apple Watch, it won’t simply give you free cellular connectivity out of the box. Instead, you’ll need to buy a cellular plan through your carrier. You can initiate this process from Settings > Cellular on the watch, or through your iPhone’s Watch app.

Aren’t sure if you have a cellular Apple Watch? There are two easy ways to tell: You’ll only see the Cellular settings page in the Watch app if you have a connected cellular watch. In addition, the red ring on the cellular watch’s crown is a dead giveaway.

To learn more about calibrating your Apple Watch for the most accurate workouts, check out our full guide here.

Set up sleep tracking

Credit: Jake Peterson

For the longest time, Apple didn't have a native sleeping-tracking feature for the watch. If you wanted to track your sleep with your Apple Watch, you were forced to use a third-party app instead. These days, you can track your sleep habits using built-in tools, but they need to be set up first. You can learn more about it in Lifehacker Senior Health Editor Beth Skwarecki's guide here.

Save some battery

Credit: Jake Peterson

If you have a newer Apple Watch, it likely comes with an Always On display. With it, you can quickly glance at your watch to tell the time, look for new notifications, or read data from your watch face without having to wake up the watch at all. While this feature is awesome, it does put a strain on the battery. To maximize your battery life, consider disabling it by going to Settings > Display & Brightness > Always On.

I'd also recommend disabling Background App Refresh as well from General > Background App Refresh. While this feature can be helpful for keeping your various Apple Watch apps up to date with the latest content, it's another battery hog. You're probably better off just loading up the apps when you're interested in seeing what's new. You can go here for more Apple Watch battery-saving tips.

Learn the gestures

Your Apple Watch is a touch-screen device, but doesn't operate exactly like your iPhone. Here's how to navigate watchOS:

• Quick-press Crown: Open app view

• Long-press Crown: Activate Siri

• Quick-press Side button: Pull up Control Center

• Long-press Side button: Expanded menu, including Power, Medical ID, Compass Backtrack, and Emergency SOS

• Swipe down from top of watch face: Notification Center

• Swipe up from bottom of watch face: Widget view

• Long-press watch face: Switch and customize watch faces

• Cover watch face with palm: Put watch to sleep/mute notifications

• There's also a gesture new to Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 called "double-tap": Whenever there's an action you need to tap on your watch face say, to, turn off a timer or answer a call, you can double tap your index finger against your thumb to act as a button press. Even if you don't have one of these watches, however, you can set up something similar through Accessibility settings.

Calibrate it

If you wanted an Apple Watch for fitness, you might have already recorded an exercise or two with it. However, it’s possible that those exercises weren’t recorded as accurately as they could be.

Apple doesn’t advertise it very clearly, but the Apple Watch actually needs to be calibrated in order to record the best and most accurate workouts. It’s not an intensive process—essentially, it boils down to a 20-minute outdoor walk or run in an open, flat environment—but without that calibration, your data might be a bit skewed.

While you're calibrating your workouts, make sure Fall Detection is at least enabled when you're exercising, if not all the time. The feature can contact emergency services on your behalf if the watch detects that you've fallen.

Charge it

If this is still day one using your new Apple Watch, and you haven’t yet, give that battery some juice. Most tech ships with a partially discharged battery, and the Apple Watch is no exception. If you want it to last the rest of the day, or even track your sleep on the first night, put it on the charger for a while. If you have a Series 7 or newer, you can take advantage of quick charging to fill up fast. For fast charging, you just need:

• USB-C power adapter that supports at least 5W

• Apple USB-C Magnetic Fast Charging Cable

Twitter changed its name to "X" back in July of 2023. But while the site has taken the past 10 months to slowly adjust to its new name and logo, two things have remained constant: All of us still call it "Twitter," and the site's URL is still twitter.com.

It seems the times really are a-changin' though: As of today, twitter.com is officially x.com. Elon Musk confirmed the transition in a post (formerly known as a "tweet") on X (formerly known as Twitter):

Tweet may have been deleted

But while Musk says "All core systems are now on X.com," it doesn't appear to be the case for everyone. For example, when I fire up twitter.com out of pure, unwavering habit, the site loads right up without redirecting. For me, it's still Twitter, even if in URL only. (The X logo is still very much fixed to the top of the page, which I suppose is at least better than Doge.)

On the flip side, if I type in the new x.com domain, it loads up just fine as well. It even makes a big deal about me visiting x.com itself, with a banner thanking me for checking out the new URL. It seems like the site really wants to encourage me to continue visiting x.com rather than twitter.com, even though the latter should automatically redirect to the former.

I'm sure once X's skeleton crew figures out how to force Twitter URLs to be X URLs, that will be that, until the site runs out of money and folds. I, for one, think typing x.com is not only stupid, it feels like I'm about to visit a very different kind of site—which, at this point, might be true, considering the types of bots that plague X as of late.

If you're about as sick of X's shit as I am, there are plenty of X-alternatives to check out. Maybe I'll see you there, but I'll probably still be here, too, helplessly typing twitter.com into my browser until the end of time.

The Nintendo Switch 2 rumor mill seems to have been churning almost since the Switch originally launched, yet for the last seven years, Nintendo has been mostly silent on the issue. The company did recently break its silence on its plan for its newest console, but, surprise: It still didn't reveal much.

With a lack of any official intel, it's easy to dismiss any new claims as mere speculation. Still, I think some Switch 2 rumors are more solid than others, and may actually give us a glimpse into what Nintendo has planned for what is possibly the most anticipated new console in years.

Nintendo confirms the Switch 2's existence

The best rumors aren't rumors at all: On Tuesday, May 7, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa posted on X (formerly Twitter), revealing the company would, "make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year."

Tweet may have been deleted

That doesn't tell us much, but it is the first time the company has publicly acknowledged the existence of the Switch 2. Plus, we now have some timeline for some official Switch news: By the end of this fiscal year, we'll get at least a glimpse into what Nintendo is planning for its newest console.

If the original Switch is any indicator, we may get quite a bit of information on the initial announcement: The Switch's first reveal video showed off its now-famous ability to "switch" from TV to handheld mode, as well as its ease as a portable multiplayer machine. Hopefully, any Switch 2 news offers us at least the same level of insight.

Rumors with a bit of credibility

Last month, writer Ramón Varela dropped a breakout piece for Spanish outlet Vandal that included several claims that hadn't circulated before. Those claims were then corroborated and expanded upon by Mobapad, a company that makes Switch controllers and accessories.

While all rumors should be taken with a grain of salt (and a massive one at that), there is reason to put stock in Vandal's reporting. The outlet's piece on the "Switch Pro" in 2021 actually got many of the details correct, for what turned out to be the Switch OLED. While Vandal was incorrect in predicting the Switch OLED would output 4K when connected to a TV, it accurately reported Nintendo would increase the display size without increasing the size of the console, and that the company would use an OLED panel for the display rather than an LCD. It also correctly claimed the upgraded stand would resemble a Microsoft Surface's stand, and that the dock would have USB 3.0 ports, as well as an ethernet port.

That's not to say you can expect every claim in Vandal's latest report to be true. But it's good to know the rumors aren't coming from a source with zero credibility, and it certainly helps that a Switch accessory maker can back some of them up.

Old Joy-Cons, new connections

The rail design of the current Switch Joy-Cons is iconic: You align the Joy-Con's rail with the corresponding rail on the Switch, then slide and click it into place (hence, the Switch's famous "click" sound effect).

For the Switch 2, it seems likely Nintendo is sticking with a similar Joy-Con design, which makes sense: Detachable controllers are a fun way to make a portable console instantly multiplayer—although I hope they've figured out a way to prevent stick drift going forward. However, one big difference is the new Joy-Cons may connect with magnets, rather than by rail. Vandal doesn't share many details about how this magnetic tech actually works, but Mobapad says they're made with "magnetic suction" and use an electrical current. Perhaps there's some type of locking mechanism that clicks into place once the magnets do, similar to the locking system in the current Switch.

In any case, switching to a magnetic connection rather from a rails option would likely mean your old Joy-Cons wouldn't be fully compatible with the Switch 2, unless Nintendo or a third-party made magnetic rail attachments for them. That said, Mobapad believes the current Joy-Cons will be compatible at least via Bluetooth, and both outlets think the existing Pro Controller will be as well.

Mobapad also says the Joy-Con buttons are getting an upgrade. The SL and SR buttons are supposedly going to be metal, and Nintendo is adding a third button to each of the Joy-Cons. In addition, there will be a new function button below the HOME button on the right controller.

Nintendo Switch OLED Gaming Console

$349.99 at Dell

Shop Now

Shop Now

$349.99 at Dell

Full backwards compatibility

Vandal says that the latest rumors don't definitively say one way or another whether the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with original Switch games, but report that manufacturers "believe and assume" that the console will be backwards compatible.

I'm with the manufacturers here: If Switch 2 isn't backwards compatible, that sounds like a disaster for Nintendo. The Switch was the first Nintendo console since the GameCube that wasn't backwards compatible with the generation before it. (It would've been difficult to fit a Wii U disc in the Switch's cartridge slot anyway.) But seeing as the Switch 2 is a likely spiritual successor to the OG Switch, it would be silly to expect customers to upgrade to the latest console generation without an option to play their existing Switch library.

Nintendo, you already made us buy all the best Wii U games as Switch ports. Please don't make us do it again.

Beefier hardware

Specifics on hardware specs are still pretty hard to come by in the Switch 2 rumor mill, but we do know the Nvidia is likely to be involved. An unnamed source told Reuters back in February that Nintendo was planning to use a custom Nvidia chip for the Switch 2, while a previous Vandal report indicates Nintendo is planning to use an Nvidia chip based on the GeForce RTX 30 series. If rumors are to be believed, this chip is known as the T239, a customized version of the existing T234 chip.

Vandal believes the hardware will support DLSS (deep learning super scaling), which uses AI to create upscaled frames, and that the Switch 2 will support ray tracing, a modern lighting technique that produces realistic lighting environments. These changes, plus a rumored 4K output, would definitely put the Switch 2 well above the original in the graphics department. And if outlet Centro LEAKS is to be believed, the Switch could also launch with 12GB of RAM. (Centro corroborates many of Vandal's leaks, as well.)

Even if we had the exact hardware specs in-hand, we wouldn't know for sure how powerful the Switch 2 really could be. That's because Nintendo will likely underclock the chip to balance the system's power with its portability, as it does the current Switch. If Nintendo allowed us to use the SoC's full potential, it would likely drain the battery too quickly and overheat the system. You can overclock your Switch, improving performance in demanding games like Tears of the Kingdom, but it isn't recommended.

All that to say, it's safe to assume the Switch 2 will increase the graphical performance of the current Switch, but the difference will not necessarily be seismic, especially if you're coming from a Sony or Microsoft console, or even the possible PS5 Pro. But Nintendo has never prioritized having the best quality graphics: As long as the next-generation of Nintendo's IP looks and plays great, and there continues to be support from third-party developers on the platform, the Switch 2 will do what it's supposed to.

Games should look good in handheld mode, too: Mobapad says the system will come with an 8-inch display, larger than even the 7-inch display on the Switch OLED. and 1080p resolution. All current Switches have a 720p display, so even though the Switch 2 won't run at 4K in handheld mode, it should look crisper than anything we've seen so far. That said, many outlets, including Centro, believe the Switch 2's display will be LCD, not OLED. That's a bit surprising:

The Switch 2 is likely not coming this year

If you're waiting to pick up an OLED Switch because you think the Switch 2 is right around the corner, you might be waiting a while longer. Vandal and other sources believe Nintendo is planning on a early 2025 launch, which would put the gap between console generations at eight years. That would track with Furukawa's promise of an announcement by end of this fiscal year.

Vandal says that accessory manufacturers believe Nintendo is waiting until they have a larger catalog of games for the Switch 2 before launch, which isn't a bad strategy: Nintendo launched the 3DS without enough killer games, and it tanked the handheld's first year. (It was also too expensive, but that's a story for another day.)

Whatever's Nintendo's reasoning for holding off on the Switch 2, it likely won't be on shelves in the immediate future, or in time for the holidays. If you've been holding out, you're missing out on a lot of great games, so unless you're OK waiting up to another year, you may want to pick up a Switch.

Android 15 is in the works over at Google HQ, and there are plenty of changes to look forward to. But in my view, the best part of future Android updates aren't some flashy new features: Instead, I'm most excited for these new security features that should make everybody's Android phones safer.

Private space

"Private space" is a new security feature in Android 15 that lets you hide apps containing sensitive information from view of the home screen or app drawer. This is an awesome change: Whether you're handing your unlocked phone to a friend, or someone cracks your PIN and goes snooping through your apps, any programs you designate to the private space will be hidden from view.

This is a great idea for financial apps, like banking and money-transfer apps, but also for apps containing private information. Perhaps you want to keep certain messaging apps out of sight, or a particular files app from your public screen.

Even better, notifications from apps you place in your private space are hidden as well. That way, no one will see when someone has sent you a message if that messaging app is in private space, nor will they see any alerts from your bank.

By default, private space lives at the bottom of the app drawer, but you can choose to hide it from view entirely as well. Either way, you can set a new PIN for private space that's separate from your phone's passcode. That way, even if someone breaks into your Android, they won't know the PIN for private space, and all the apps therein will be protected.

Theft Detection Lock

I have to say, Google really upped the ante with Theft Detection Lock: This feature can detect when someone takes your Android out of your hand, and either runs, bikes, or drives away with it. Google actually worked to figure out each "common motion associated with theft" in order to build that sense in Android.

Once your Android does detect a theft, it locks itself right up. For the most part, thieves need your Android unlocked in order to access the phone and its data. Unless they were sly enough to spot your PIN before taking the phone, a locked phone is essentially useless.

If a thief does manage to take your phone without detection, Android has some other tools this year: If the thief disconnects the phone from the internet, theft protection may kick in and lock the phone. If they fail to enter your PIN too many times when trying to access sensitive settings, the phone will also lock.

This one isn't an Android 15 exclusive, either: As long as you're running Android 10 or newer, you can access it.

Authentication lock, à la Apple

Google is adding one of Apple's best security features to Android this year: authentication lock. This security measure ensures that even if a thief is able to force a factory reset on your stolen Android, they won't be able to proceed with set up without providing the credentials for the Google Account connected to the device. (Now that Android has authentication lock, by the way, there may be a rise in a common scam on stolen phones and devices. Don't fall for it.)

Extra security steps, à la Apple

Google is also adding another great Apple security feature to Android: When you disable Find My Device or extend the time before your screen automatically locks, Android will require your phone's passcode or biometric authentication before proceeding. In addition, "enhanced authentication" requires biometric authentication when you try to change "critical settings" on your Google Account or device. That includes when changing your PIN, disabling theft protections, or trying to access your passkeys from a new location.

It's similar to Apple's Stolen Device Protection, which requires a Face ID or Touch ID scan when accessing certain sensitive settings.

Remote Lock in Find My Device

Let's say your phone is stolen, and you can't remember your Google Account password in order to lock the phone via Find My Device. Google's new Remote Lock feature lets you lock your phone by providing your phone number and authenticating yourself on another trusted device. From here, you can remotely reset your phone if you want to ensure no one can access its data. This feature will be available on Android 10 and newer later this year.

All eyes are on Apple's WWDC event next month. That's when the company will no doubt show off their latest operating system upgrades, including its late-to-the-party AI plans for iOS and macOS.

But AI doesn't just mean generative AI. Apple has more traditional features in the works for users to check out, some simply powered by AI. And as it happens, we just got a glimpse at a slew of upcoming iPhone and Mac features that fit that mold, specifically related to accessibility.

Apple unexpectedly announced a batch of these new accessibility features Wednesday. The company says these features are coming "later this year," which almost assuredly means they're shipping with iOS 18. Apple switches between using the language "AI" and "machine learning" to describe how these features work, but rest assured, the underlying tech is part of Apple's AI push this year.

Eye Tracking lets you control your iPhone with your eyes alone

Out of nowhere, Apple announced that both iPhone and iPad users will soon have the ability to control their devices with just their eyes. Apple says the front camera on either your phone or tablet will use AI to calibrate and set up the feature, as well as power it. Most impressive of all, you don't need any additional hardware to use it.

Once Eye Tracking is set up, you can navigate apps, use Dwell Controls to engage with elements, and replicate physical buttons, swipes, and gestures with your eye movements.

Music Haptics let you feel the beat through your iPhone

Apple added a new music feature for users who are deaf or hard of hearing: Music Haptics uses the Taptic Engine to play taps and complex vibrations along to the beat of the song. While it sounds like a great accessibility feature, it also seems like a great way to enhance the Apple Music experience for everyone. This feature works on "millions" of songs in Apple Music, but Apple has also included it as an API for developers to add to their apps.

Vocal Shortcuts and Listen for Atypical Speech

Vocal Shortcuts is a new feature that lets you assign actions to words or phrases. For example, you could set the word "Rings" to open your Apple Watch Activity Rings in Fitness. In addition, Listen for Atypical Speech uses on-device AI to learn your speech patterns, so your device will recognize the way you speak.

These features are designed for users with conditions such as cerebral palsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or stroke—as these conditions affect speech.

Vehicle Motion Cues tries to prevent motion sickness

Apple wants to cure motion sickness. Vehicle Motion Cues places dots on your screen when your iPhone or iPad recognizes you're in a moving car. These dots will then move according to the direction of the vehicle: These moving dots may counter the effects of motion sickness, as Apple says research shows motion sickness happens when there's a conflict between what you're seeing and what you're feeling.

You can choose to have these Motion Cues appear automatically, or enable them manually from Control Center.

CarPlay gets some new accessibility features

Speaking of cars, CarPlay is getting a series of new accessibility features: Voice Control, which lets you control CarPlay with your voice; Color Filters, which lets you fine tune the color space of your CarPlay UI; and Sound Recognition, CarPlay will let you know when it detects sounds like car horns and sirens.

visionOS accessibility features

Remember Apple Vision Pro? That's still around, even if it isn't getting much attention lately. Still, Apple is working on some visionOS accessibility features, including Live Captions. These captions will work in conversations in-person and on FaceTime, as well as from audio in your apps. Apple is also adding new vision features like Reduce Transparency, Smart Invert, and Dim Flashing Lights, as well as support for Made for iPhone hearing devices and cochlear hearing processors.

New VoiceOver features

VoiceOver is getting new voices. Apple didn't say how many, or what they sounded like, but they're coming. In addition, the feature is getting a "flexible Voice Rotor," which lets you control how VoiceOver works, custom volume control, customizable VoiceOver keyboard shortcuts on macOS, and support for custom vocabularies and complicated words.

Magnifier

Apple's Magnifier doesn't get the love it deserves, but it is getting some new features. Coming soon, you'll get a new Reader Mode, as well as quick ways to launch Detection Mode with the Action button on iPhone 15 Pro.

Braille

There are some new Braille features as well: You'll have a new way to start and stay in Braille Screen Input, Japanese will be available, Dot Pad users have support for multi-line braille, and you'll have the ability to choose input and output tables.

Hover Typing

Hover Typing is a new feature that increases the size of the text whenever you're typing in a text field. Plus, you get to control the font and color.

Personal Voice is now available in Mandarin

Apple rolled out Personal Voice last year, an AI-powered feature that can replicate your voice during Live Speech. The feature is now available in Mandarin Chinese. In addition, you can now create a Personal Voice even if you have difficulty with reading full sentences out loud.

Speaking of Live Speech, the feature now comes with categories, and is compatible with Live Captions.

Virtual Trackpad

Apple is adding a virtual trackpad feature as part of AssistiveTouch, so one area of your iPhone or iPad can be used to move a cursor around the screen. I could see this being useful for anyone who wants a trackpad experience, especially on the larger iPads, but doesn't have a physical trackpad to use.

Switch Control

With Switch Control later this year, you can use your iPhone or iPads' camera to recognize finger-tap gestures as switches. Switch Control lets you use hardware to control your iPhone or iPad with switches, so this means you can gesture with your fingers in view of the camera to control on-screen elements.

During yesterday's big Google I/O keynote, Google talked about a handful of new AI features coming to Android, including a new change to Circle to Search, as well as AI-powered scam protections. One day later, Google has a trove of new Android 15 announcements, starting with the reveal that Android 15 beta 2 is now available.

Android 15 beta 2 is available on quite a few smartphones

Android betas traditionally start on Pixel, but with beta 2, many smartphone users can try out Android 15 early. The beta is now available on Pixel, iQOO, Lenovo, Nothing, OnePlus, OPPO, Sharp, Realme, Techno, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Honor. If you have a compatible smartphone, give the beta a shot if you want to try out these new features. (Just know beta software isn't finished, so there's the risk for bugs and lost data.)

Private space

Google calls "private space" a "digital safe within your phone," and for good reason. The feature lives at the bottom of your app drawer, and requires a second layer of authentication to access. From here, you can add whatever apps you want, so they don't appear on your home screen or in your app drawer. Think health, banking, or even certain messaging apps: Private space hides the app's icon, its data, and even its notifications. If you want, private space can be invisible altogether, although it's not clear where it'd live in this case.

Selected photos access

When you give an app partial access to your media, that means it can see only a select number of photos and videos from your library. Google is making it possible with Android 15 beta 2 to access only recently selected media. That way, apps that frequently ask for photos and videos can grab these items quickly, without you constantly having to adjust the permissions yourself.

One-time passwords are now hidden from notifications

This is a great security feature in Android 15: Malware tends to rely on OTP notifications to steal these codes and break into your accounts. Going forward, the codes will be hidden from most notifications, so you'll need to tap through to see what your OTP is. Google also says it's expanding the restricted settings that require user approval when installing apps from the web.

Screen sharing is more secure

When you share your screen in Android 15, the OS will automatically hide both notifications and OTPs. It will also hide the screen when you enter your password and credit card information, and soon, more phones will have the Pixel's ability to share a specific app's screen, rather than your entire screen at once. Plus, Google is adding a more obvious screen sharing icon that makes it easy to disable the share at any time.

Cellular security upgrades

Google will now warn you if your cellular network is unencrypted, which could let bad actors listen in on calls and read your SMS texts. Plus, Google will warn at-risk users, like journalists, if a false cellular base or surveillance tool is hijacking their location.

Updated multitasking on large screens

Google has been working on an optimized Android experience for tablets in recent years. With Android 15 beta 2, you can now pin the taskbar on-screen, so you can quickly access apps and split-screen app combinations.

Choose how you're addressed

Android will soon let you choose the gender you'd like to be addressed as, in gendered languages. Google tested this feature first in French, but it will soon be available in other gendered languages. You can choose from non-personalized, feminine, masculine, or neutral.

Saving items to Google Wallet from a photo

Android 15 is making adding passes to Google Wallet even easier: Google says you will soon be able to snap a picture of any pass—say, a ticket, gym membership, library card, etc. From here, Android can turn it into a digital pass that you can save to Google Wallet. It joins the ability to save digital items containing barcodes and QR codes.

AR content in Google Maps

Google is rolling out augmented reality content in Google Maps with Android 15: They're kicking things off with AR experiences for Singapore and Paris, and will presumably add more cities as they go. Google wants you to use AR content to learn more about a particular location, which has merit: If you can point your phone's camera at a building in the city you're visit and learn more about it, that's pretty neat (but might spark a bit of an existential crisis for tour guides).

Google built-in is expanding

Google says Google built-in is coming to more cars, such as the Acura ZDX and Ford Explorer. Built-in adds apps from your phone to your car's built-in display, and Google says developers are making more apps compatible with the service.

Plus, Google Cast is coming to cars with Android Automotive OS, beginning with Rivian in "coming months." You can beam videos from your device to the car's display, which sounds great for passengers and treacherous for the driver.

Google TV now has Gemini

Google TV now uses Gemini to suggest content for you to watch. This includes AI-generated descriptions based on your watch history and "actor preferences." Cool. A better use for this tech is in missing or untranslated descriptions: Any time the system runs into this situation, which may have left you stuck in the past, the AI fills in the gaps.

RCS is coming to Japan

Apple isn't the only one getting RCS support this year: Google says Japan is also getting the protocol. Details are light at this time, but soon, Android users in Japan will be able to take advantage of RCS's end-to-end encryption, high-res photo and videos, and functioning group chats. (That last one shouldn't be a "feature," but, well, here we are.)

Find My Device is expanding

Google's Find My Device service is a worthy competitor to Apple's Find My, harnessing the greater Android community to help locate your missing items. Later this month, Google says you'll be able to find things using trackers from Chipolo and Pebblebee. Later this year, companies like eufy, Jio, and Motorola will also join the Find My Device ecosystem.

Theft detection lock (coming later this year)

Here's one positive use for AI: Theft Detection Lock, arriving at some point later this year, will sense if your phone has been stolen by looking out for "theft motion." How exactly this works isn't obvious, but Google says if your phone detects that your phone has been snatched, and a thief tries to run, bike, or drive away, Android will lock itself down.

Real-time protection from fraud apps (coming later this year)

Fraud is a real problem on Android. While Google has protections in place to screen apps before they land on the Play Store, plenty of malicious apps still slip through the cracks. Google announced today that, later this year, Google Play Protect will use on-device AI to identify apps that may be fraudulent or engaging in phishing. Play Protect will report any suspicious behavior back to Google, and the company will either warn you or take down the app entirely.

Google says this feature is coming to Pixel, Oppo, Honor, Lenovo, OnePlus, Nothing, Transsion, and Sharp later this year.

Wear OS 5 changes

Google says Wear OS is about to get more energy efficient: Running an outdoor marathon will take up 20% less power than it does with Wear OS 4. Plus, your fitness apps will have data points like ground contact time, stride length, and vertical oscillation, which is a measure of how you move vertically which each stride of your run. (Full disclosure: I had to look that up.)

Google I/O has come and gone—at least the main keynote address. Unlike past years, there weren't too many groundbreaking features announced; rather, the event was mostly focused on Google's general plans for Gemini and AI going forward.

Those plans include Android as well. Google announced it would be sharing all the details about Android 15 on Wednesday, but during I/O's inaugural event today, the company did note some general AI changes coming to Android devices.

Circle to Search for homework

Circle to Search isn't a brand new feature; Google rolled it out earlier this year, as a way for users to start a search for elements on-screen by circling them.

During today's announcement, however, Google did show off a new feature for Circle to Search: homework help. The tool now recognizes long problems, and can walk students through how to solve them. Say you have a complex math problem in front of you: Circle it, and Gemini will break down the process for you. Sure, the answer is included, but so is the reasoning, so it can be a tool for learning how to solve future problems rather than simply a way to cheat on your homework.

Gemini is now "context aware"

Google was very excited to announce that Gemini is now "context aware" on Android. What they mean by that is Gemini will recognize what you're currently doing on your phone or tablet when you call up the assistant, and take that into account when returning a result for your query.

In an on-stage example, a demonstrator was in a conversation with a friend who asked if they wanted to play pickleball. The demonstrator jokingly asked if pickleball was playing tennis with a pickle, then pulled up Gemini inside the chat to create a meme of a pickle playing tennis. The friend then sent over a video on how to play pickleball: The demonstrator asked Gemini a question about the game, and, since the AI understood the demonstrator was watching a video, it searched the video for the answer rather than the web at large.

AI for scam prevention

This was my favorite feature of the entire event. Google showed off how Gemini can analyze your phone calls as they're happening, and warn you of a potential scam. It's not subtle, either: The demo involved a call from someone impersonating a bank, claiming the demonstrator had suspicious charges on their account. When the demonstrator asked what the charges were and the caller said they couldn't say over the phone, the phone instantly started buzzing, and an alert appeared warning of the potential scam.

I would love if companies like Google took this idea and ran with it. Scams are so prevalent in digital life already, and they are only getting worse with the rise of generative AI. If companies can use AI technology to fight back against AI scams too, all the better.

Android 15 news is coming tomorrow

Again, this is simply a short list of Gemini features coming to Android in general—not the entire list of changes coming with Android 15. More Android feature news is coming tomorrow, per Google, so keep your eyes open for that.

Last month, Google officially rolled out its Find My Device network for Android—not to be confused with Apple's Find My network, of course. But the similar names are appropriate in this case, since Google's service works just about the same as Apple's—and Tile's, for that matter. Google's service helps you find devices you've left behind or misplaced by leveraging the greater network of Android devices. Sound familiar?

How does Android's Find My Device work?

Find My Device allows you to find the approximate location for any connected, compatible device by relying on a network of over one billion Android devices around the world. (At the onset, however, Find My Device only works in the United States and Canada.)

When you leave behind a connected device, those devices can passively connect to any nearby Android phone through Bluetooth. That connection updates the device's location in the Find My Device network, giving you a good idea of where that device is—at least, where it was the last time an Android user came within Bluetooth distance of it (roughly 30 feet). If you have a Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro, this works even when your device is offline. If your phone loses all its battery, you can still locate it using Find My Device.

But it's not just other people's devices that can help you find your missing items: You can also use your personal devices to find others. If you're close enough to the missing device, you'll see a Find nearby option appear, which walks you directly to your device's location using an on-screen radius. Your Nest devices can also act as beacons for your missing devices: If they're close enough to one of your Google smart home devices, that will help you locate those missing items as well.

For now, Find My Device only works with Android phones and tablets, but Google will expand the network to support compatible Bluetooth devices starting in May. That includes Bluetooth trackers from Pebblebee and Chipolo, and Google says companies like Motorola, Jio, and Eufy will be making compatible tags later this year. Google will also let you share items with other people, so you can share a TV remote with your friend who is house sitting, or your keys with someone borrowing your car.

How about the security of Find My Device?

You may have seen reports that Find My Device is a security risk. Sure, the idea that all of these Android devices are sharing location data with each other sounds like a field day for stalkers and other bad actors. But, the truth is, both Find My Device on Android and Find My on iOS are perfectly safe to use.

Google says all location data, including aggregated device location reporting, is end-to-end encrypted, so no one should be able to see your items' locations but you—not even Google. That goes for the people whose devices are sharing their location with your items: Their data is end-to-end encrypted, so you can't see that it was their device that shared the location, and they can't see they shared it to your device. The company even asserts that if one of your devices can help find your missing item, it will disregard all aggregated location data in favor of using your device as a tracker.

Google also says it doesn't start saving location info until it senses multiple devices around yours, and limits the number of refreshes to minimize the risk of malicious real-time tracking. In other words, the feature works great for stationary objects, such as keys left behind in a coffee shop, but it won't offer live updates if you left those keys in the back of a taxi. In addition, if you're near your home and have your address tied to your Google account, your device won't contribute to the crowdsourced location data used to locate other devices.

Finally, Find My Device works with the established anti-stalker protocols both Android and iOS are a part of. If your device detects a strange tracker, it will alert you and offer instructions on how to find and disable the tracker. In fact, Apple and Google recently rolled out a new standard for detecting trackers: Whether you use an iPhone or an Android, your Find My service will help you locate a strange tracker should it be following you.

How to use Find My Device

To get started, you'll need an Android device running at least Android 9 and the Find My Device app from the Play Store. Alternatively, you can log into the Find My Device site on desktop.

If you're looking for your own device, you can hit Continue, but if you're helping a friend, choose Sign in as guest and have your friend plug in their credentials. From here, choose the device you want to find: You may need to confirm your device's PIN or provide your Google password instead. Once confirmed, this action will send a notification to that device.

Now, you should see your device on the map. You can choose to get directions to your device, or, if you're close enough to the device, you can use the Find nearby feature.

You have a few other options as well: You can choose to play a sound from your device, which will make it ring at max volume for five minutes (be careful with this one). You can also lock your device with your PIN or password using Secure device to make sure no one can access it: If you use this feature, you can leave a message for anyone who finds your device to help get in contact with you.

Finally, if you can't find it, you can delete the device from your account.

How to turn off Find My Device

If you ever want to disable Find My Device for your Android devices, it's easy to do. To start, pick up the device you want to disable the feature for, then open Settings > Security & privacy > Find My Device. From here, disable Use Find My Device, and your Android device will stop using the feature.

Apple released iOS 17.5 to all compatible iPhones earlier today. There aren't a ton of user-facing changes in this latest version of iOS, which isn't a huge surprise as we're only about two months away from our first look at iOS 18.

Still, iOS 17.5 will be another monumental update for some iPhone users, as Apple is adding support for downloading apps directly from the web. Once you update to iOS 17.5, you'll be able to sideload apps on iPhone—as long as you live in the European Union.

App installation via the web (E.U. only)

Following an announcement in March, iOS 17.5 introduces the ability to download apps directly from developers' websites, as opposed to using an app store. The first 17.5 beta gave developers the option to host their apps on the web, while the second beta let users download those apps onto their iPhones. It's the latest fundamental change Apple has made to its platform in the wake of rulings from the European Commission that forced the company to allow developers to run their own third-party app stores, offer true third-party web browsers, among other big changes.

If you don't use iOS, downloading software from a website for use on your phone isn't a novel experience. The practice, known as sideloading, is quite normal on Android, and is essentially the go-to way to get new apps on desktop operating systems like Windows, Linux—and, yes, macOS. Sideloading will also be coming to iPadOS in the near future—again in the E.U. only.

Apple has resisted the practice on the iPhone since iOS' inception, claiming that sideloading puts users at risk. While there is some truth to that, as the lack of oversight invites bad actors to trick users into installing malware, there are plenty of legitimate apps that don't exist on an official app store. As long as users are careful, they should be able to download programs safely.

Apple being Apple, even after this change rolls out, you won't be able to simply download any old app from the internet you want: The company is placing restrictions on both the developers that can offer this service, as well as the apps that can be sold online. In addition, devs will still need to offer a cut of their earnings to Apple, so the entire process won't be that far removed from what goes on in the App Store. Still, it's a step in the right direction—for users in the E.U., anyway. Nothing about Apple's app download policies is changing outside of Europe.

Apple News+ gets some changes

For the rest of us outside of the E.U., there are still coming fun changes that make iOS 17.5 worth installing right away. Apple News+ in particular gets a few updates: If you pay for Apple News, you'll now have a new game to try out: Quartiles. In this game, players pick from tiles containing two or three letters each to build words, which can be made up of one to four tiles. For example, you may see the tiles "art," "ist," "ic," and "ally," which you can play to create the word "artistically." If you pay for Apple News+, you can add this game to your roster of news-based games, including Wordle and Connections.

Also new to Apple News+ is offline mode, which pulls content from the Today feed and News+ tab locally onto your iPhone. That way, you can check out daily updates when you're away from an internet connection, such as when hopping on a flight. Plus, there's now a Scoreboard section in News+ Puzzles, to keep tabs on your stats in Quartiles, Crossword, and Mini Crossword.

Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers

After teaming up with Google, Apple is releasing a new standard for detecting Bluetooth trackers across platforms: Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers. With this standard, any iPhone running iOS 17.5 and any Android device running Android 6.0 or newer will be able to identify a unknown Bluetooth tracker, and alert you with a “[Item] Found Moving With You” message.

According to Apple, if you get that message on your iPhone, it means someone's AirTag, Find My accessory, or
"other industry specification-compatible Bluetooth tracker" is with you. The alert will come with instructions about what the tracker is, how to play a noise to locate the tracker, and how to disable the tracker.

Other changes in iOS 17.5

While iOS 17.5 is a minor update, there are a few new features to check out. The Podcasts widget will now change its color to reflect whatever you're listening to, rather than the stock purple color of Podcasts itself, and there's a new icon for the Passkeys Access for Web Browsers menu in Privacy & Security. As of the second beta, you'll find a tip in the Notes app pointing you to features like tags and checklists, while the Books app has a new shortcut to the Reading Goals section.

MacRumors found features in 17.5's code that may be on the horizon, including a "Block All Participants" button in FaceTime, a Battery Health menu for iPads, and references to the new Apple Pencil and its "squeeze" feature.

For a week or so, it seemed like OpenAI was ready to take on Google and announce a ChatGPT-powered search engine. In this case, though, the rumor mill had it all wrong. Instead, during the company's Spring Update event earlier today, OpenAI unveiled some modest upgrades to ChatGPT's underlying model—but in a surprising and at times unsettling way.

Introducing GPT-4o, the new flagship model

OpenAI's big announcement was a new model, GPT-4o. In a twist, the company revealed GPT-4o isn't a only for paying customers—it's available to everyone, for free. The company sees GPT-4o as the first step towards making interacting with AI much more "natural," a stance that made sense as the presentation went on.

GPT-4o works with voice, text, and vision, so you can interact with ChatGPT using any type of content you like. In addition, OpenAI is making many of its premium features free for all. Free users can access GPTs for the first time via the GPT Store, upload images (documents or pictures) and chat with ChatGPT about them, and access ChatGPT's memory feature. That last one is especially useful: ChatGPT will remember what you talked about in past chats, so your future chats are informed by those conversations.

Paid users still have up to 5x capacity limits, so there is something to justify spending that $20 per month.

OpenAI showed off the new model by demonstrating a breathing exercise. The demonstrator asked ChatGPT for some relaxation tips, which included an instruction to breath deeply in. They demonstrator then breathed rapidly and loudly, in an attempt to check whether the model would identify the incorrect technique. Indeed, the model corrected the behavior, but it was a bit choppy: The model kept cutting in and out as it gave feedback about the breathing technique. That said, you can "naturally" interrupt the model as it speaks, so it's possible the demonstrator was accidentally interrupting throughout.

From here, the demonstrators asked ChatGPT to come up with a story. It started off as you might expect ChatGPT to, but one demonstrator interrupted, asking for more emotion in the voice. Truth be told, it was impressive how the voice model started acting like a cartoon voiceover artist, especially once asked a second time to emphasize emotions. It even started talking like a stereotypical robot when prompted.

The part that rubbed me a bit wrong was when demonstrators showed how you can give ChatGPT a live feed from your camera to analyze your surroundings. They used a simple math homework example, but I don't know if I'm ready for ChatGPT to have constant access to my environment. If I want to ask it a question about something in front of me, a picture or video will do fine. To further my point, during this part of the demo, they tried to shut off the model, but it unexpectedly said something along the lines of "wow, that's quite the outfit you have on." Yeah, I'm really not here for the AI live feed.

It can also identify facial expressions from the live feed, which, again: creepy. One demonstrator put their face in the feed and asked what they looked like, and ChatGPT said something along the lines of "a piece of wood," which the demonstrator quickly corrected, saying it was responding to an image he had submitted to the chatbot previously. (Sure, Jan.) Once he gave ChatGPT another shot, it did manage to identify his facial expression.

GPT-4o can also do live translations, which the team demoed live. One person pretended they only spoke Italian, while the other said they only spoke English: The live translation worked well, as far as I could tell: ChatGPT spoke in Italian, and I have to take OpenAI's word that everything it said was correct.

Per the demo, GPT-4o will be rolling out over the new few weeks, and I'm looking forward to testing it out. Until then, I'm left feeling a bit unnerved by this experience. The voice effects are quite realistic, and at times it all feels fairly natural in a way that is entirely unnatural. ChatGPT will experience "human" moments, such as saying something "oh, silly me" or "well, that makes more sense" after being corrected, for example. Sure, it's impressive, but I'm not sure I want this tech in my life. What's wrong with computers being distinctly computers? Why do I need to pretend my AI is actually alive? In any case, I'm not keeping that live feed open.

There's a new ChatGPT desktop app too

While it was overshadowed by GPT-4o, OpenAI also announced a desktop app for ChatGPT, as well as a new UI, but didn't dive too deeply into the changes.

The app seems similar to the web and mobile versions of ChatGPT, plus some new features. Demonstrators showed off a voice app built-into this version of ChatGPT; it can't see anything on your screen, but you can talk to it in the same conversational way. In the demo, they copied code over to the voice app, and ChatGPT analyzed the code and explained it, as you'd expect.

It's that time of year again: Google is gearing up for I/O, the company's annual software event. Like Apple's WWDC, Google I/O is actually a developer's conference, rather than a traditional product announcement. But while app developers can tune into specialized events of their own, the rest of us are really here for the consumer-facing software news. For Google I/O, that means a lot of AI.

Google I/O and AI

Google has been pushing its AI services for some time now. Once called Bard, Gemini is just about everywhere Google is: There's now a paid version of the service, just like ChatGPT Plus, and the tech now powers many of Google's AI features on Android, Workspace, Maps, and more.

AI is the current trend in tech, and it doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. Expect Google to continue the conversation as it explores its vision for AI in its product lineup, especially as it pertains to search. (Search continues to be the company's bread and butter, of course.)

Of course, being I/O, Google will likely use the event as an opportunity to showcase Android 15, which is currently in beta. Perhaps the company will expand upon features we already know about, such as granular control over the number of notifications an app can send, a high-quality webcam mode, and partial screen sharing, among others. It's also possible we'll see some new features not yet tested in the beta, as well as other new features across Google's product lineup.

While it's possible the company will announce hardware, the focus is really on software. That said, the company will no doubt make note of its recent Pixel 8a launch.

How to watch Google I/O 2024

Even if you aren't among the journalists and developers invited to I/O in person, you can tune in wherever you happen to be. Google will be live-streaming the event from its official website as well as from the company's YouTube channel. The main event kicks off Tuesday, May 14 at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET).

Tweet may have been deleted

[Update May 13, 2024, 2:30 p.m.: Turns out it wasn't a search engine at all, but a more natural chatbot and a new free tier for all ChatGPT users. Get the details here. Original story follows.]

OpenAI's search engine might be just around the corner. According to two sources exclusive to Reuters, the company is preparing to announce its AI search plans on Monday, May 13, setting the stage for its big play against other search engines—namely, of course, Google.

We know very little about what OpenAI has planned for its "Google-killer": Right now, rumors suggest the search engine will capitalize on ChatGPT's AI tech to return results from the internet, citing its findings. That sounds very similar to Google's AI search results, powered by Gemini, as well as Bing's Copilot search, which is also powered by ChatGPT. (Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI.)

These big names aren't the only ones pioneering AI-generated search, however. Perplexity, which was founded by a former OpenAI employee, also offers AI search features with citations. In addition, Perplexity comes with filters to refine your search: You can, for example, choose to only return results from academic papers, or have the bot pull sources exclusively from Reddit. (Many of us are already adding "Reddit" to the end of our searches anyway.)

While Reuters is the first to break this news, it isn't the first time we've heard about the company's search engine plans. Earlier this week, rumors of "ChatGPT search" made headlines, following the discovery of the URL "search.chatgpt.com." At that time, speculation pointed to OpenAI making a big announcement on May 9. Thursday has come and gone with no such announcement, but those rumors weren't based on much. If Reuters' unnamed sources are to be believed, we'll see ChatGPT Search, or whatever the company ends up calling its search engine, on Monday.

The company declined to comment to Reuters about the outlet's new reporting, which doesn't tell us much. But there's no denying the speculation about ChatGPT Search is growing this week. If OpenAI really does have a search engine ready to drop, it will be fascinating to see how much of an impact it makes on the search market. How many of us would break away from Google, or whichever search engine we prefer, if the results were returned by ChatGPT? For a deeper analysis on that subject, check out my previous thoughts on ChatGPT Search.

While it's still the butt of some jokes, Microsoft Edge is actually a solid browser—especially when you configure it right. That said, you shouldn't be forced to use it if you're using Windows 11: As much as Microsoft desperately wants you to surf the web with its app, there are plenty of other excellent browsers to choose instead.

Unfortunately, changing your default web browser on Windows isn't all that straightforward, at least not out of the box. You would think it's as simple as clicking the "default browser" button that might pop-up when installing a new browser, but it often isn't. Rather than choose a default browser app to open every time you click a link, Windows wants you to set a default browser app for each link and file type you may click on. If you're someone who desires that level of granular control, you may love this. If you're like the rest of us, it's a pain. Luckily, once you know where to set your browser, it is as easy as a button press.

How to change your default web browser in Windows 11

By clicking "Set default," you can automatically adjust the default browser for some link and file types. Credit: Jake Peterson

So, let's say you downloaded Chrome onto your PC, and you're ready to make the switch. When you fire it up, you may see an option to set Chrome as your default browser. By all means, click this button, but don't assume your settings will be changed. Instead, this button leads you to Start > Settings > Apps > Default apps. If you don't see the default browser button, you can simply head to this settings page yourself.

On the "Default apps" page, locate your browser of choice. Here, you'll find all sorts of options, including HTM, HTML, PDF, SHTML, SVG, WEBP, XHT, XHTML, FTP, HTTP, and HTTPS. These are the individual link and file types you can tie to any browser of your choice. If you wanted, you could have HTML links open in Chrome, HTM links open in Edge, HTTP links open in Firefox, etc. For most of us, however, we'll want one browser to open whenever we click most links.

You can potentially ignore these link options, however, if your browser offers you a "Set default" button in the top-right corner of the page. Click that, and it should automatically set itself as the default for the major link and file types, including HTM, HTML, HTTP, and HTTPS. It will likely leave Edge as the default for certain link and file types, including PDF and SVG, so if you'd prefer your browser in all cases, change these manually.

Credit: Jake Peterson

Some browsers, like Firefox, will actually set these options automatically when you click their "set as default browser" button when you first launch the application. I'm not sure why Mozilla handles this for you, and Chrome makes you go to the settings page itself, but alas.

Now, even when you change these settings and make a new browser your default, Windows may still insist you use Edge, such as when clicking on links you find when using the search bar in the Start menu. But there's a fix for that, too.

While new iPads are always exciting, it was the iPad Pros' M4 chip that stole the show this week. M3 just came out in October, and Apple decides to launch its successor now—in an iPad, of all devices. Still, the chip is here, and is likely what will power Apple's big AI plans this year.

Apple touted M4's 3-nanometer architecture, its four performance cores and upgraded six efficiency cores, and claimed it can deliver up to 1.5 times faster CPU performance over M2. (The company does prefer to compare its chips to two generations prior, rather than one.) Of course, the iPad isn't out yet, so reviewers and users can't test these claims. While we could just take Apple's word for it, we could also just look to Geekbench.

The M4's stats starting appearing on Geekbench, the popular benchmarking site, on Wednesday. It's not clear who is testing the M4 through Geekbench, but it offers an interesting window into the chip's performance. At the time of this article, single-core performance ranges from 3,595 all the way to 3,824, while multi-core performance ranges from 13,910 to a whopping 14,748. (Single-core refers to testing one of the chip's cores, while multi-core refers to testing multiple cores at once. For context, the M4 has 10 total CPU cores.)

The iPad Pros being tested are running iOS 17.5, not yet released, with a base clock speed of 4.4 GHz. They're equipped with 16GB of RAM (although it comes through as 15.05GB on Geekbench).

These scores are impressive, especially considering they're running on iPads (and the thinnest iPads ever made, at that). Based on these scores, M4 modestly outperforms M3. If you look at Geekbench's scores for the M3 MacBook Pro (not M3 Pro or M3 Max, mind you), you see a single-core score of 3,079 and multi-core score of 11,524. If you look at the 6th gen iPad Pro running an M2 chip, the difference is more stark: Geekbench shows this tablet scores 2,613 in single-core, and 10,082 in multi-core. That's a near one-and-a-half times jump in performance, which tracks close to Apple's claims.

I'm interested to see how M4 performs once Apple puts it into a Mac. It's possible Apple is underclocking M4 on iPad since the tablets are so thin and light, they wouldn't be able to efficiency move the heat generated by pushing the chip. Theoretically, even a fanless MacBook Air would have a better chassis for heat distribution, so M4 should perform even better. Put it in something like the MacBook Pro with a dedicated fan, and the results should only improve, at least once you really start taxing it.

But regardless, my main focus now is on the M4's NPU (neural processing unit). This part of the chip is responsible for processing AI, which Apple is likely to focus on big time following WWDC. The company says M4's Neural Engine is capable of 38 trillion operations, and is 60 times faster than the company's first NPU they built for the A11 Bionic chip. (Again, Apple is comparing stats to a chip they released in 2017 for the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X.) While I'm sure the M4 is going to be the best way to experience all the AI features Apple is cooking up, I'm skeptical it's going to be a huge leap over M3, M2, or even M1. Maybe there will be features exclusive to M4, but my guess is Apple's entire lineup of silicon chips will be capable enough to run most of the new AI features in iOS 18 and macOS 15.

So, your iPhone was stolen. You're sad, obviously, but must move on, so you file an insurance claim and get a new phone. Some time later, you start receiving worrying texts from a stranger, who claims they've bought your stolen iPhone and now have access to everything you saved to it. They say they have your messages, saved credit cards, passwords, even your SIM, so they intercept all your phone calls.

This stranger doesn't want anything from you, however. No, they're simply a good samaritan, warning you that this iPhone with all your personal identifying information is about to be sold on the black market, and that the smart move would be to remove it from your Apple ID. Then, you can erase the phone, and not have to fear your data falling into the wrong hands. They may even include instructions on how to remove the phone from your account, just in case you aren't sure how.

If you ever find yourself in this position, do not do this. This person isn't looking out for you, and your personal data is not in jeopardy: This is a scam. In fact, the reason they are desperate for you to remove your iPhone from Find My is because Apple's security feature is working too well. Here's what's going on.

How scammers use Find My against you

When you set up Find My on your iPhone, it doesn't just let you locate your phone in the event you lose it. This feature also automatically enables a security feature known as Activation Lock, which binds your iPhone to your Apple ID username and password. Activation Lock cannot be undone by a factory reset: Even if thieves erase your iPhone, they will not be able to set it up without providing your Apple ID credentials first.

It's one of Apple's best security features, and it ensures a stolen iPhone is worth about as much as a fashionable paperweight. Thieves aren't getting in without either your iPhone's passcode or your Apple ID credentials, which is why they need you to remove your iPhone from Find My: It's the only way to disable Activation Lock. Once you do, they're free to factory reset the phone and set it up with their own account.

As long as you keep that iPhone tied to your Apple ID, no one is getting in. Don't listen to aggressive scammers who lie about having access to your personal information: Likely the only reason they have access to your phone number is because you enabled Lost Mode, and possibly displayed your number on-screen as a way for someone to get in touch with you if they find your iPhone.

A locked iPhone isn't impervious

Now, I don't want to give off the impression that an iPhone with Activation Lock is impenetrable. It's perfect against thieves who randomly steal your iPhone, but not all thieves are random. Some are smart, and watch for you to enter your passcode before snatching your iPhone. If they know your passcode, not only can they unlock your iPhone, they can reset your Apple ID credentials as well, locking you out of your own Apple account.

In addition to Activation Lock, you should set up Stolen Device Protection on your iPhone as well. With it, iOS requires a Face ID or Touch ID scan when accessing passwords and passkeys. Following this scan, for certain features, iOS puts a one-hour delay on any major changes when using the iPhone in an "unfamiliar location." After that time is up, you'll need to authenticate again. In short, Stolen Device Protection keeps your iPhone safe from thieves that know your passcode, while Activation Lock protects against forced erasure.

Look, keeping a stolen iPhone on Activation Lock doesn't guarantee you'll get it back. In fact, if that iPhone was taken to another country, you'll likely never see it again. But why let the thieves get away with it? Keep that iPhone on your Find My, and let them stare at their expensive, useless bounty.

There's no doubt Apple has the market cornered on tablets, especially in the U.S. But even if "iPad" is synonymous with these devices in your mind, it's worth remembering there are other excellent alternatives on the market. If you already have a few Google smart home products, like a Nest Mini, something like the Pixel Tablet might make a lot of sense.

If you've been thinking about taking leap from iPad to Pixel Tablet (or even if you haven't), Google has a pretty enticing offer on the table. The company recently started offering the Pixel Tablet without the Charging Speaker Dock. While the dock turns the tablet into a smart home display, opting for the tablet alone saves you $100. And while $399 is a better price than $499, that's not the intriguing deal I'm talking about. Google is also offering a trade-in program for your old Samsung or Apple tablet, and depending on the model you're giving up, trading in your tablet gets you a Pixel Tablet for free: You just pay the tax.

What trade-ins can net you a new Pixel tablet for free

You don't even need to have a newer iPad to take advantage of this deal. Google will accept an iPad as old as the iPad 6, which launched in 2018. If it's in good shape, your credit will be $399, which happens to be the price of a base-model Pixel Tablet. Even if the iPad is beat up, if it turns on, you'll still get $200 for it. Seeing as a renewed iPad 6 goes for $164 on Amazon right now, that's a great deal. What's interesting is $399 appears to be the maximum Google will offer you for any iPad: Whether you have a good condition iPad 6 or the latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro, you get $399 for it.

Google will also accept your Samsung tablets, but it won't offer as much. You'll get up to $350 depending on the model, or as little as $100. (I guess iPads really do hold their value.)

Whether you think it's worth giving up even a six-year-old iPad will depend on how you feel about getting a 128GB Pixel Tablet without the dock. If you want to upgrade to 256GB of storage, can pay only the $99 difference after your trade-in (again, plus tax). If you upgrade to the 128GB tablet with the dock, same thing. If you go all out and upgrade the dock tablet with 256GB of storage, you'll pay $199, rather than the MSRP of $599.

The only catch is you need to pay for the Pixel Tablet in full at the time of purchase. Google will send you a mail-in kit for your old tablet, and following an inspection, will rebate you the agreed-upon trade-in value. At the end, you can net a new Pixel Tablet for only the tax, as long as you're fine with parting with your old iPad.

Pixel Tablet

Nearly free with eligible iPad trade-in.

$399.00 at Google

Get Deal

Get Deal

$399.00 at Google

TikTok, in addition to its Chinese parent company ByteDance, is suing to block the so-called "TikTok ban" President Biden signed into law two weeks ago. Both companies filed the lawsuit with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday, claiming the law is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment.

It's not a surprise move by any means: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew previously said the company would fight the law in court. Chew and and the company believe U.S. law is on their side, and that Congress' law won't stand up in court. Congress, however, worked with the Department of Justice on the law in the first place, so lawmakers are confident it will stand up to scrutiny.

The "TikTok ban" gives parent company ByteDance nine months to sell the app to a company not based in China. If ByteDance shows it is trying to sell, or is in the middle of a sale, President Biden can extend the timeline by 90 days. That means, at most, ByteDance has until April 2025 to find someone to take the app of their hands.

For TikTok's U.S. operations, however, this fight is existential, as ByteDance says it won't sell the app. If the company sticks to its word, TikTok will be removed from app stores in the U.S. by January, unless it can win in court.

Why does the U.S. government want to ban TikTok?

Lawmakers in Congress have been worried about TikTok for years. There are two key concerns: The app is owned by a Chinese company, which is bound by law to disclose user data to the Chinese government if requested. Lawmakers see that as a potential security risk for American users, as the Chinese government could possibly gather their personal data.

The other side of the coin concerns the content Americans see on the app: Lawmakers worry the Chinese government could manipulate the videos that TikTok delivers to U.S. users in a way that benefits China. The government already has a heavy hand in the content shown on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. TikTok says it does not give U.S. user data to the Chinese government, and denies the claim the government has a hand in the content Americans see.

While the concerns are mostly hypothetical, there have been instances that have proven Congress' concerns valid: ByteDance employees were able to obtain the IP addresses of American journalists from their TikTok accounts, and in July, we learned some American user data was indeed stored in China, contradicting TikTok's claims.

While Congress doesn't have the best reputation for their tech savviness, TikTok has done little to assuage their concerns. In fact, when they called upon their user base to flood Congress with messages of disdain for the TikTok ban, lawmakers only saw more reason than ever to pass the bill.

For a complete timeline of the U.S. government's fight against TikTok, check out our explainer here.

It might not have been as big a deal as WWDC or the annual fall iPhone event, but Apple's May 7 "Let Loose" event was an exciting affair all the same. The company made some highly-anticipated announcements about the iPad in particular, introducing new versions of the iPad Pro and iPad Air, and revealed refreshed accessories for both.

Don't forget about the Apple Vision Pro and new MacBook Air

Apple made a quick aside to the Vision Pro, talking about the use of the devices by companies like Porsche, filmmakers like Jon M. Chu, and doctors using the headset for healthcare. Tim Cook also highlighted the M3 MacBook Air, announcing it has become the world's best-selling laptop in both the 13-inch and 15-inch models.

Oh, were looking for actual news about Vision Pro or Mac, and not just marketing? Sorry.

The new iPad Pro is super thin

Credit: Apple

In pure Apple form, the new iPad Pro is even thinner than before. The Pros come in an 11-inch and 13-inch design, which are 5.3mm and 5.1mm thin respectively. Apple says it's even thinner than the iPod Nano. The previous iPad Pro design was already quite thin, so will this one feel...too thin? Either way, you can still choose Silver or Space Black.

As expected, Apple has added OLED displays (Apple's calling the tech "Tandem OLED") to both models of iPad Pro, the first time the company has used the display tech in an iPad of any kind. Previously, the 11-inch used an LCD display, which features one large backlight, while the 12.9-inch used mini-LED, which uses local dimming zones that offer finer control over what ares of the display are lit at once. With OLED, individual pixels can be lit or turned off completely, making it the best display format for contrast: The dark parts of an image or video can be completely black, as the display turns them off outright. The iPad Pros have a typical maximum brightness of 1,000 nits, and an HDR peak of 1,600 nits.

The rumors were also correct about the iPad Pro's SoC: These Pros use M4, the first Apple devices with the chip. M4 has four performance cores and six efficiency cores, and Apple says it can achieve 50% CPU performance over M2. (Apple loves to skip two generations back to compare its chips.) It has a 10-core GPU with support for ray tracing, a demanding process that render realistic lighting in video games and other graphic-heavy programs. Apple also touted M4's energy efficiency, but hands-on testing will show how those specs translate to real-world use.

Apple also wants you to know its serious about AI: While the company didn't unveil any of the generative AI features it's reportedly working on, it did focus on the M4's Neural Engine (NPU), which is designed for AI. It has a 16-core design, capable of 38 trillion operations per second. (Apple says its 60 times faster than their first NPU ever.) The company also says the thermal performance is better on these iPads, even with the thinner design.

Interestingly, the new iPad Pros seem to only have one rear camera. This time, there's a beefier LiDAR scanner, which can use AI to better detect documents. A welcome change is the fact that the front-facing camera is now on the landscape section of the iPad, where you'd expect it should be. This matches where the camera is on the 10th gen iPad. No more weird angles during video calls.

The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $999 (wifi) and $1,199 (cellular). The 13-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,299 (wifi) and $1,499 (cellular). Both models come in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations. You can order beginning today, and the tablets will be available starting May 15.

iPad Pro (11-inch)

Also comes in 13-inch.

$999.00 at Apple

Shop Now

Shop Now

$999.00 at Apple

The iPad Air gets a MacBook-level chip

Credit: Apple

Two years since its last refresh, Apple’s new iPad Air is finally here. The year’s model updates Apple’s smallest non-Mini iPad to the same M2 chip used in its 2022 MacBook Air, plus introduces a new larger size.

For the first time, the iPad Air is now available in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes. While it might sound counterintuitive to make a larger iPad Air, the idea is to give users the same extra screen space they would get on the Pro without requiring them to pay a lot more for it. Specifically, Apple promises “30% more screen real estate” on the 13-inch iPad Air. (In contrast, the new iPad Pro line is introducing an 11-inch model to pair with the existing 13-inch one—Apple wants you to be happy with your device size, however much you're spending.)

Those hoping for OLED displays on the new iPad Air will have to keep waiting. While the iPad Pro is finally getting OLED, the iPad Air is sticking with the tried-and-true liquid retina display used in prior models.

What you do get is the M2 chip, which, while a generation behind what’s available on the newest MacBooks, is still promised to be powerful enough to run AI features in programs like Photoshop, as well as modern games like Assassin’s Creed Mirage. The M1 chip in the previous model is no slouch, but Apple claims the new iPad Air has 50% improved performance, and three times the performance of the 10th gen iPad running the A14 Bionic chip.

Video calls should also get a little nicer, with the camera and speakers finally getting moved to the landscape edges.

The new iPad Air starts at $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for the 13-inch model, with four available color options: blue, purple, starlight (gold), and space gray (off-black). Storage options range from 128GB to 1TB. You can order beginning today, and they will be available starting May 15.

iPad Air (11-inch)

Also comes in 13-inch.

$599.00

Shop Now

Shop Now

$599.00

iPad 10th gen is getting cheaper

The 10th gen iPad is staying the same, but the price is dropping. Now, the entry-level iPad starts at $349, down $100 from the previous price.

iPad 10th Generation

$349.00 at Apple

Shop Now

Shop Now

$349.00 at Apple

Final Cut Pro 2 and Logic Pro 2 get AI features

Credit: Apple

Apple also introduced new versions of its iPad apps for Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro. These apps focus on some new AI features that take advantage of the M4 chip in the new Pros.

Apple says the new Final Cut Pro renders a final output up to two times faster on the M4 iPad Pro. A new Live Multicam feature can allow you to connect and preview up to four cameras at once, and a new app, Final Cut Camera, also lets you remotely control all these cameras, including features like expose. And, finally, you can edit projects off an external hard drive.

Logic Pro 2 also gets some new features: There's "Session Players," which expands the app's Drummer option with new bass and keyboard players. "ChromaGlow" lets you use AI to add "ultrarealistic" sound to your tracks. Stem Splitter splits one combined track into its different components, at least into Drums, Bass, Vocals, and Other instruments.

Logic Pro 2 will be available May 13 as a free update for existing users, and is still available for $4.99 per month or $49 per year. Final Cut Pro 2 has the same pricing scheme, but will be available "later this spring."

Apple Pencil Pro has some new sensors and haptic feedback

Credit: Apple

Apple finally slapped "Pro" onto Apple Pencil. The upgraded Apple Pencil has a new sensor that lets you squeeze to bring up a new tool palette. As the rumors suggested, the Pencil has a haptic engine for tactile feedback, so when you squeeze it, you feel a small vibration. You can also tilt your Pencil to adjust your pencil strokes in real time.

The Apple Pencil also supports Find My: The next time is rolls underneath your couch, just open Find My on your iPad or iPhone to find it.

Apple is charging $129 for the new Apple Pencil Pro, and it will be available starting May 15.

Apple Pencil Pro

$129.00 at Apple

Shop Now

Shop Now

$129.00 at Apple

The Magic Keyboard will deliver a more laptop-like experience

Credit: Apple

To go with its new iPad Pro, Apple’s upgrading the Magic Keyboard to give users a more laptop-like experience. Most notably, the trackpad has gotten a little larger, there’s now a full row of function keys, and the palm rest is now made from aluminum.

Apple’s site doesn’t mention specific trackpad measurements, but it does confirm that the new trackpad will have full haptic feedback throughout, helping it maintain parity with MacBooks. Unfortunately, the new Magic Keyboard will not work with the new iPad Air models, which means only Pro users will get access to that aluminum palm rest and the new, 14-key function row.

The 11-inch Magic Keyboard will run you $299, while the 13-inch one costs $349. It’s available in two colors: black, and the traditional Apple gray. You can order today, and it will be available starting May 15.

Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro (11-inch)

Also available for iPad Pro 13-inch.

$299.00 at Apple

Shop Now

Shop Now

$299.00 at Apple

As much as other search engines try, Google simply dominates search. Search is the company's bread and butter (and it spends billions to keep it that way). But the future of search is all but certain, and other companies want in—including some big names in AI.

As the rumors have it, OpenAI may be about to roll out a search engine of its own. One Redditor discovered SSL certificates (needed for a site to use HTTPS) made for the site "search.chatgpt.com." Indeed, when you visit the URL, the site returns a message that says "Not found," rather than a message about the domain being available. Android Authority spotted a tweet from the host of an AI podcast that also mysteriously referenced the URL and the date May 9.

Truth be told, that's all we really know about the situation at this time. In fact, it's possible OpenAI isn't planning anything to do with search: Maybe they just registered the domain to have it, or they're planning on using the URL for a different purpose. But search.chatgpt.com does sound like an address a company would want you to go to to search the internet, so let's think about what that might mean for the industry.

Taking on Google

Again, you have your choice when it comes to search engines: Bing, DuckDuckGo, even Ecosia if you're interested in your searches planting trees. But when you think about who dominates the market, it's undeniably Google.

So, OpenAI would really be going up against the king of search if it wanted to get in on the business. It'd be mighty difficult, but perhaps not impossible. While Google does have an almost-monopoly on the search market, the quality of its results haven't been excellent as of late. Low-quality posts, advertisements, and other irrelevant content have been building up over sites that actually answer the question you're looking for. Sure, Google needs to make its money, but if all you get for your search is ads and spam, what's the benefit of their service?

For its part, Google is rolling out changes to its algorithm and spam policies to cut down on these types of results. But there's an opening for another company to swoop in and offer a better experience. ChatGPT might be one of the biggest names in popular tech culture right now, so if OpenAI can combine that popularity with good search, they might have a shot.

But what would that experience look like? Well, I imagine not too far off from Google's current AI search. When you search for something on Google today with Gemini enabled, you still get the usual search results we've all known and loved for the past 25 years. However, at the top of the results, you'll see an "AI answer," which takes the "best" sources from your results and distills them into an AI-generated summary.

Sometimes, this is quite useful: Without needing to sift through multiple websites, you get an answer to your question, complete with highlights of key ideas, images, bullet points, and sources you can check out to fact check the AI. You should, too, because AI constantly makes stuff up. But that applies to every facet of AI, not just search, so if you're going to start using an AI-generated search experience, that just comes with the package.

How could "ChatGPT Search" improve things?

OpenAI would need to do two things here to make their experience better: They'd need to return more accurate, relevant results in search, as well as offer an improved AI summarizer. They might not take on Google overnight, but with that combination, it might be enough to get some tech people interested in switching.

The company sure has the AI tech to offer a decent AI search summarizer, but I obviously can't speak to their search abilities. What I can say is there's not the same financial incentives for OpenAI as there are with Google, at least not yet. OpenAI doesn't need to prioritize SEO spam and advertisements because that's not where their money is coming from: They have paid subscribers and huge investors seeding them capital. From where I'm sitting, they could focus on offering a search experience that delivers the most relevant results possible, rather than what the search engine thinks will make it the most money. That could help an AI summary as well: If the AI pulls from sources without considering how it may affect the company's bottom line, it may tend to pick higher-quality references. There's your better product.

Of course, this is all speculation, based on the URL that OpenAI has not commented on publicly. May 9 may come and go, and we may never heard about ChatGPT Search again. But if the company is planning on going against Google here, it's going to be interesting.

You may know—and be on the lookout for—malware hiding in programs that act legitimate, but aren't. But what happens when apps that are legitimate are unwittingly taken over by malicious users, intent on hijacking their programs?

That's exactly what happened to a group of apps on Android: Microsoft first alerted the world to the issue, called "Dirty Stream," which is a vulnerability that allows malicious apps to take over legitimate ones. Dirty Stream relies on a flaw in ContentProvider, the system that allows different apps to share the same data set. Without it, apps wouldn't be able to communicate with each other or use the same data, reducing functionality and convenience.

Bad actors focused on "share targets," or apps that intercept data and files by other apps, which typically include mail, social media, messaging, and browser apps, among others. Their fake apps would send malicious files to these apps, which would intercept them as they normally would, but inadvertently override important files in its own data set. By exploiting this flaw, bad actors could execute their own code on your device, potentially taking over the device, as well as scraping your data.

Microsoft highlighted a handful of apps that are known to be affected by Dirty Stream, which collectively had over four billion installations. Four of the apps on the list had over 500 million installations each at the time of Microsoft's report. WPS Office, for example, has over 500 million installs, while File Manager has over one billion.

Usually, the advice would be to delete these apps from your phone. But these apps aren't malicious: They were taken over. As such, following Microsoft's notifications, developers took action, and removed the malware from their apps.

How to protect yourself from this new Android malware

As developers patch their affected apps from this Dirty Stream vulnerability, the question becomes: What can you do to protect yourself?

This issue is quite unique as far as malware goes: If a legitimate app can be hijacked for nefarious purposes, what is there for the end user to do? Who would have thought the default file manager app on Xiaomi phones would be taken over like this?

Unique circumstances aside, the usual advice still works here: Be careful what you download. Sure, you couldn't have done anything about the legitimate apps that were infected here, but it took another malicious program to hijack them in the first place. As such, it's more important than ever to be vigilant as you download and install apps on Android.

Your best bet will always be the Google Play Store. While sideloading is a great perk to Android (at least outside of the EU), it comes with the extra risk of downloading a malicious app. Google has protections in place to limit the chances that a malicious app will end up on the market. Of course, that doesn't mean every app on the Play Store is safe. You still need to vet each and every program you decide to install. If something looks fishy about an app, Play Store or not, avoid it.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that anyone has shared details about the identities of these malicious apps. Give your phone a scan, and if you see anything that makes you suspicious, delete it.

Microsoft, for its part, recommends you keep all apps up to date, as new patches are issued to protect against these types of malware. In addition, the company advises users to reset credentials in the Xiaomi File Manager app.

Apple used to tout the fact that Macs didn't get viruses, and while Apple definitely has good anti-malware software, their machines are far from impervious to infection. And with Macs more popular than ever, there exists even more potential malware out there, ready to steal your data and ruin your day. The latest can even take screenshots of what's on your Mac's monitor without your knowledge.

Researchers from Kandji have discovered the threat targeting Macs, and it's not great news. Kandji reports this new malware, which they've named "Cuckoo," is a mix between spyware and an infostealer. They discovered it in apps hosted by a site called "DumpMedia," which purported to convert songs on streaming services into MP3s.

When researchers downloaded one of these apps, they noticed the DMG, which allows you to install the app on your Mac, had different installation instructions than most DMGs: Rather than dragging the app to your Applications folder, this DMG instructed users to right click on the app and choose "Open." Unbeknownst to many users, this action bypasses some of the security features that serve as the first lines of defense for newly installed apps downloaded from the web.

Rather than follow these suspicious instructions, researchers choose "Show Package Contents" so they could see what the app was hiding. While they did find a legitimate-looking "DumpMedia Spotify Music Converter" bundle, they also found a suspicious executable file that had no developer ID. That would normally trip Apple's Gatekeeper program to block the app from opening—hence why the malicious developers prompted potential victims to unwittingly bypass these protections.

Researchers then tested the software by opening it, and found it immediately started gathering information about the machine and running a long list of processes. Interestingly, the program will not continue if it detects the computer is based in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, or Ukraine. After more processes, it sneakily asks for your password with a "macOS needs to access System Settings" prompt. Once you enter it, the programs saves your password. It then checks to make sure the password is correct.

From here, the program asks for permission to access Finder, Downloads, and your microphone, then continues to scrape details about your Mac's hardware, before scraping files from Safari (including bookmarks, cookies, and history), Notes, and Keychain (which contains your passwords). As if that weren't invasive enough, the malware then initiates the screenshot function, even muting your speakers whenever it takes a screenshot so you don't hear the sound and realize what's happening.

All the while, there is an actual program running as advertised, keeping the victim in the dark about all the nefarious processing churning away in the background. According to researchers, DumpMedia is just one site hosting these malicious apps. Others, such as TuneSolo, FoneDog, TunesFun, and TuneFab, all host similar streaming-converter apps, as well as Android recovery tools that feature the same malware.

How to protect your Mac from this and other malware

This story serves as a good reminder to be careful when downloading apps directly from the web onto your devices, whether that's a Mac, PC, Android, or an iOS device (in the E.U., anyway). While there are plenty of legitimate apps on the internet (as opposed to in an app store like Google Play or the iOS App Store), there are many that are not, so it's important to vet each program before downloading it.

Research the app, and see if others have had positive experiences with both it and its host site. Speaking of which, it's safest to download apps from the developer itself: If DumpMedia is hosting a third-party app, for example, that's riskier than if the app's developer offers it directly.

In addition, never skirt your Mac's built-in malware defenses. You might not have known that right-clicking on an app and opening rather than dragging it to the Applications folder bypasses Gatekeeper, but it does. If you follow the normal process and macOS says there's a problem with the app, believe it. Download your apps from the official Apple App Store when you can, and when you can't, exercise extra caution.

The iPad is a product equally beloved and criticized: It has its devoted fans, who love it as it is, and use it for everything from work, passion projects, and entertainment. But it also has detractors, mostly those who see it as a limited experience thanks to an underpowered OS.

While Apple rarely seems to cater to the whims of its critics, it has made some iterative changes to the iPad over the years: iPadOS used to be an undeniably "tablet" experience, before Apple revamped its multitasking features, not once, but twice. Throw in mouse and trackpad support, and the iPad can be used as a computer replacement.

Apple hasn't made many fundamental changes to the overall design of the iPad in some time: The design of the Pro models remains almost identical to the ones released back in 2018, minus the 12.9-inch Pro's mini-LED display. This year, however, could mark some massive changes in the iPad lineup, across both hardware to software.

Apple's new iPads

iPad rumors have been in circulation for months now, but as we approach Apple's big iPad event next week, the claims are only getting more serious.

Case in point, a new Bloomberg report from noted Apple reporter Mark Gurman presents the highlights of Apple's iPad presentation: The star of the show is the iPad Pro. Apple is moving on from the mini-LED display on the 12.9-inch Pro (as well as the standard LCD on the 11-inch Pro) in favor of OLED. It's the first time Apple has used this display tech in an iPad before, but better late than never: On OLED displays, each pixel can be lit up individually, which means they can be completely shut off for dark scenes. The contrast is incomparable to LCD, which is lit by one solid backlight, and improved over mini-LED: The latter uses many dimming zones to boost contrast, but comes with the side effect of light bloom, or white zones in the dark areas around an image.

In addition to the display upgrades, the rumors suggest these iPads could be the first to get Apple's upcoming M4 chip, which may power many of Apple's upcoming AI features. (At least, the ones not outsourced to OpenAI or Google.) Perhaps the 2024 iPad Pro will usher in Apple's long-awaited AI strategy. We'll just have to see.

While OLED iPads will certainly make headlines, the iPad Air is also getting an upgrade: Gurman expects Apple to unveil a new 12.9-inch version of the Air, for those who want a larger iPad without paying Pro prices. The standard 10.9-inch will also be available for anyone who likes the traditional form factor of the Air, and both are expected to come with Apple's M2 chip. So, not the tablets to get for AI or the best contrast, but probably the best tablets for most people to consider.

Some new accessories for your new iPad

Of course, what's an iPad without some additional (expensive) accessories? Gurman expects Apple to unveil new versions of both the Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard. The new Pencil will come with haptic feedback, which I'm all for: Those are the tiny vibrations you feel in certain pieces of tech, which offers some physical feedback whenever completing an action. It's not clear how Apple plans to implement that into the new Pencil, but it'd be cool if they came into play when drawing, erasing, or selecting items on-screen.

The new Magic Keyboard also sounds like a step up: It will reportedly use more durable materials, like aluminum, and will make the iPad "look more laptop-like." While I'm a fan of the current Magic Keyboard, it does feel quite fragile compared to other Apple products. There are other areas I'd like to see improvements as well: The main keyboard is nice, but I hope Apple increases the size of the trackpad and adds a row of function keys. Honestly, if all they did was add brightness and volume controls to the keyboard, I'd be set.

The iPad is becoming a bit more like a computer

People have wanted to replace their Macs and PCs with iPads since the tablet's launch in 2010. And although we've come a long way since that initial design, there's no denying an iPad simply can't do everything a traditional computer can. Sure, you can now have up to four windows on your iPhone running at once, and the Magic Keyboard lets you interact with your tablet much like a laptop, but you will continue to run into roadblocks and jump through painful workarounds to accomplish tasks that would be simple on a Mac.

There are many such differences Apple still needs to iron out, but one big one comes down to apps. Yes, the App Store is full of apps you can discover and download, but it isn't the same experience as a computer: On a Mac or PC, you can find a fun app or utility on the web, install it, and be on your way. On iPadOS, if Apple didn't approve the app on the App Store, you're not running it.

That's changing this year, at least in Europe: Apple confirmed Thursday it will allow app developers to sell their apps through third-party app stores and through websites, following the same rules the company rolled out for iPhones as of iOS 17.5. While app developers will still need to play by Apple's rules and give a percentage of their revenue to the company (this isn't a way to skirt Apple's fees, after all), it gives users more options for where they can download their apps. It means iPhones feel more like Androids, and iPads feels more like computers: If you see an app online, and you want to install it directly on your iPad, you can.

Of course, the only reason Apple is doing this is because the European Commission is forcing them to. The E.U. sees the iPhone and the iPad as "gatekeeping technologies," and, as such, must open up their platforms to allow for more competition. Unless we see similar legislation passed in the U.S., it's unlikely we'll get sideloading on iPads anytime soon.

That said, this is a reality for European iPad owners: While there are still plenty of small advantages computers still have over iPads, this change is another small step towards a future where Apple's tablet can be most people's all-in-one device.

New iPads are always fun, but arguably the best part of a product release is watching prices on older devices shrink. If you want a new iPad, but don't want to pay new iPad prices, keep an eye on the prices for these iPads post-Apple event:

• 12.9-inch M2 iPad Pro (renewed)

• 11-inch M2 iPad Pro (renewed)

• iPad Air (5th generation)