If you’re shopping for someone who uses a Mac, iPhone, or iPad this year, start with a budget. That’s trickier than usual, because Apple raised prices on many Macs, iPads, and HomePods in June. Below are gifts we expect will go over well, sorted by the maker’s US list price (retailers often charge less, but […]

The name “Black October” took hold among security researchers the week of October 19, amid a run of serious security flaws that had been surfacing since mid-October. Many were found with the help of AI models, some had gone unnoticed for a decade or more, and all of those below have now been fixed: PHP: […]

If you have a network-attached storage (NAS) device at home or in the office, you’ve probably wanted to get to its files while you’re away. The traditional approach, forwarding ports on your router so the NAS answers requests from the Internet, is exactly what attackers look for. Synology’s September 18 advisory warned of flaws in […]

If you use a Synology NAS, check its DiskStation Manager (DSM) software. In a September 18 advisory, Synology disclosed two flaws that let attackers read and write files over a network without logging in, and multiple Synology users have reported ransomware attacks. In DSM, open Control Panel > Update & Restore and make sure the […]

If macOS 27 Golden Gate’s Liquid Glass look makes toolbars, sidebars, or the Dock hard to read, you’re no longer stuck with macOS 26 Tahoe’s two choices of Clear and Tinted. Golden Gate asks you to set a new slider at the end of setup. If you accepted the default (the middle) or now regret […]

If your iPhone or iPad running iOS 27 or iPadOS 27 won’t finish starting up after an update, you can now try fixing it without a computer. Apple’s new iOS Recovery may appear automatically after a failed update. To start it yourself, shut the device down (force-restarting it if necessary), unplug it, and press and […]

If Word, Excel, or PowerPoint on your Mac says your Office 2021 license isn’t supported and opens documents read-only, don’t rush to buy a subscription. Users have traced the problem to versions 16.114.1 and 16.114.2 of Office for Mac, which stopped recognizing perpetual Office 2021 licenses, and Microsoft says version 16.114.3 “fully restores functionality for […]

After 16 years of insisting that touchscreens don’t belong on the Mac, Apple has changed its. On October 28, it introduced the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, which combines a touchscreen with a tandem OLED display and an iPhone-style Dynamic Island, in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes starting at $2899. It arrived a day after […]

Apple has announced a redesigned iPad mini with an A20 Pro chip, a larger 8.5-inch OLED display, and a thinner, lighter, water-resistant body. Pre-orders opened on October 28, and the new model arrives in stores and on doorsteps starting November 6. It’s a much bigger change than the 2024 update, which left the design alone […]

On October 21, 2026, the PHP project released emergency updates for two critical security flaws. You may never have heard of PHP, but your website probably runs on it. PHP is the programming language behind WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, and a big chunk of the rest of the Web. It runs on the server, building […]