Antivirus developer McAfee released its latest threat report on Friday, and there’s some big news for Mac users: Mac malware is more prevalent than ever before. It’s still not a huge problem, however and it’s also important to take McAfee’s numbers with a grain of salt — it is trying to sell a product after all.
First, let’s dig into the numbers to put things in context. According to 9to5Mac, there were about 700,000 documented instances of malware hitting Macs in the first quarter of 2017. That’s a lot, but keep in mind Windows machines were hit 700 million times in the same time period.
Naturally, that’s attributable to Apple’s smaller overall share of the PC market — it’s a smaller target, and malware creators want to strike the biggest targets possible to maximize the damage/profit of their illicit endeavors.
It’s also important to point out McAfee’s definition of malware includes adware — which it notes is largely to blame for the increasing number of detected malware instances on MacOS. Adware is irritating, and potentially dangerous, but it’s not quite as malicious as full-on malware. Still, it’s important to be vigilant, and MacOS makes it pretty easy to do just that.
One of the best things you can do to protect your Mac is limit yourself to software available in the Mac App Store. Of course, that’s less than ideal. The Mac App Store has grown a lot in recent years, but there are still some important software suites you might need to get elsewhere.
It’s kind of a pain sometimes, but MacOS Sierra automatically prevents software from being installed if it doesn’t come from a list of identified developers. However, you can manually install software from anywhere, but only after opening up the Security and Privacy pane of your preferences menu and personally authorizing the install.
In order to check on how your personal security settings are tuned, make sure you familiarize yourself with the aforementioned Security and Privacy pane. Also, it’s never a bad idea to take some common-sense measures to protect yourself — even if you’re only protecting yourself from some irritating adware.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.