Table of contents for June 2025 in Macworld UK

Just when we thought the M3 was in the ground (fave.co/4j4YGYw) and Apple had rapidly moved every single Mac model over to the fresh and new M4 processor, in rolls the high-end Mac Studio (fave.co/3QXIgWx), equipped with the impossible-to-predict, never-before-seen M3 Ultra processor. That’s right—in March 2025, a full 16 months after the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips arrived on the scene, Apple introduced a new chip in the old, nearly retired family. And it means that the new Mac Studio comes simultaneously in M3 and M4 varieties—with the M3 model being the high-end configuration It’s so confusing—I admit to being a bit baffled when I heard the news, too. But the more I think about it, the more I have come to grips with the fact that Apple’s…

This year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which will take place June 9 to 13, promises to be quite the event. That’s in no small part because Apple’s found itself in an unusual position this year: The company has already copped to the fact that some of the most impressive features from last year’s WWDC keynote—Siri’s ability to use personal context and take action in various apps—will not arrive on time (fave.co/42LmCd1), and we don’t know exactly when they might ship, if ever. So, at this year’s WWDC when Tim Cook greets the in-person crowd and fires up the keynote video, what exactly are we going to see, and how’s it going to play? NO FEATURE LEFT BEHIND Back in 2012, Apple made a bold move and replaced Google Maps as the…

Up till now the most USB-C ports we’ve seen on a charger is six, courtesy of the Satechi 200W 6-Port Charging Station. Six charging ports ought to be enough for most people, we thought, but on a busy bank of desks or back at home in a device-full abode, those charging ports can get filled very quickly. A further complication is that most multi-port chargers reserve specific maximum power output to each port, known as rules-based charging—so when using all its ports, the Satechi Charging Station powers devices at 65W on the top port, 45W on the second, and then 20W each on the next four. If you are the last to use a port, you might get stuck with just 20W to play with even when the other connected…

DOUGH SPECTRUM CANVAS dough.tech The follow up to the dazzling Spectrum display is the Spectrum Canvas, a 32-inch 6K monitor made with graphics professionals in mind. It features a LG IPS Black 2.0 panel that uses ATW Polarizer technology to enhance viewing angles, reduce glow, and produce deep blacks. It offs true 10bit color, and 99.5% Adobe RGB and 98% DCI-P3 color gamuts. —ROMAN LOYOLA CHIPOLO POP chipolo.net Chipolo’s wireless tracker works with Apple’s Find My app, but if you use Chipolo’s app, you get extra features, such as the ability for the tracker to call your phone, out of range alerts, and more. Available in black, blue, green, red, yellow, and white. —ROMAN LOYOLA CALDIGIT THUNDERBOLT STATION 5 PLUS us.caldigit..com The TS5 Plus docking station has 20 ports, including…

You are likely not planning a military action in another country, but the accidental inclusion of unintended invitees to a group text, email, or other discussion could still prove a problem—from embarrassment to losing friends, causing a family rift, or even being fired from a job. The problem arises from two intersecting factors: how Apple and third-party software retain recipients’ information to make it easy to use in future messaging, and how quickly apps have trained us to type a few letters and move on without examining what’s being autocompleted and filled in. This means that you might intend to add “Jeffrey Pixenwald” to a group chat and instead invite “Jenny Hickenlooper” by typing “Je.” It happens. A great general place to start when inadvertently selecting the wrong person is…

ESR is among the first batch of forward-thinking companies to update all its charging solutions to the 15W Qi2 standard. Its first update was to the popular 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Set, which was first available as a 7.5W MagSafe-compatible charger and then as a 15W Qi2 version. It works with all iPhones since the iPhone 12 except the iPhone SE and iPhone 16e. The company has now refined its Qi2 3-in-1 charger with a cooling technology it calls CryoBoost. In fact, this is the second generation of CryoBoost, which seeks to solve the biggest efficiency blocker in wireless charging: heat. If a device is too hot or too cold, wireless charging and indeed general battery performance is negatively affected. CryoBoost’s open duct system improves airflow and therefore cooling efficiency. ESR…

With its most recent update (fave.co/3GsHTRa), Apple’s fastest Mac is the Mac Studio, hands down. The Mac Pro lurking in the background might cost more and look more powerful, but it still has a chip that was released nearly three years ago, and that chip isn’t the fastest anymore. So the spotlight focuses on the Mac Studio. That’s not by accident. Apple has been trending toward compact designs with its products, so the company’s preference for the Mac Studio as its top performer fits the bill. And the Mac Studio is up to the task—compact doesn’t mean a sacrifice in performance. It’s a mean machine ideal for the most hectic of production environments. MODEL SPECIFICATIONS Apple offers two standard configurations of the Mac Studio: a $1,999 model with an M4…

We’ve tested so many cloud-based storage services for your Mac (fave.co/3CSx4G9) that our heads are starting to spin, and Sync.com is easily one of the most no-nonsense options. Its Mac app is basic, but its focus on security makes it arguably best for enterprise users. That’s thanks to end-to-end encryption, something not offered by many rivals, while its Vault function lets you keep files in the cloud that aren’t synced across devices, too. These all combine with a lightweight interface to make Sync easy to recommend for just about anyone, although it’s perhaps not as well known as the likes of Dropbox (fave.co/44cUiTb) and Google Drive (fave.co/4jKsHx2), which may make getting others on board a little harder. FIRST IMPRESSIONS Once you put together a Sync account, you can start using…

Every time I review a product that features hard disk drives (HDDs), I sing the same tune: lots of capacity for a lot less than SSDs, and better performance than you might think. I wouldn’t want to run my operating system off a box like the Glyph Blackbox Pro RAID, fave.co/449lt1f (HDDs offers slothful random access), but I’d certainly use it for audio or video production where sequential transfer speed is paramount. 550MBps in RAID 0 will easily do the trick in most scenarios. THE HDD VERSUS SSD CONUNDRUM But there’s a caveat: The striped RAID 0 that delivers that 550MBps offers no redundancy. HDDs, while far more reliable than they used to be, are still mechanical and hence more prone to failure than far faster SSDs. Operating HDDs in…

Apple Arcade is one of Apple’s more opaque services. The company doesn’t disclose any subscription figures and keeps other key data under wraps. Occasionally, specialist media manage to glean a few insights by interviewing a developer in a forthcoming mood, but most of the time we’re kept in the dark. Is it a success? Is it a failure? That’s hard to say. What we can say for sure is that Arcade has some really good games. Everything from indie classics such as Slay the Spire and Stardew Valley and current titles such as Vampire Survivors and Balatro to surprising (and surprisingly good!) franchise additions such as Sonic Dream Team and Cypher 007. On the other hand, there’s some real rubbish on there too: the kind of junk that should have…

LayerX Labs on Tuesday posted (fave.co/42YXDUP) its finding on a new phishing attack that originally targeted Windows users but now can be found on Macs. The phishing attack attempts to get a user’s username and password by making the user think their Mac is compromised. The attack involves fake security warnings that appear while browsing the web. Alerts appear stating that the Mac has been “compromised” and “locked,” and the webpage appears frozen to heighten the sense of a compromise. A window appears prompting the user to enter their Mac’s username and password, along with a phone number to contact for “support.” LayerX Labs provided a screenshot of the phishing attempt, though the attackers may modify the alert to make it more convincing. It has several telltale signs that it…

The iPhones and Macs we use today aren’t mere smartphones and desktop computers—they’re the fruit of decades’ worth of research and testing behind the scenes at Apple HQ. Like most corporations in this field, Apple spends large sums of money trialing all sorts of wild and innovative prototypes. Naturally, many of these experiments never make it to the consumer market and instead act as lessons or even foundations for future devices. While there are numerous unreleased products concealed in Apple’s secret basement, here are six notable products Apple developed that never saw the light of day—and one that might top the list soon. 1. APPLE CAR The most recent instance of a product that failed to get out the door is Apple’s self-driving car project. For many years, the company…

Samsung makes a wide range of high-performance solid-state drives, including the seriously rugged T7 Shield, which has been on our list of best SSDs for Mac (fave.co/47H8IL0) for the last couple of years. Its new T5 EVO isn’t as fast as some of its SSD rivals, but rather than competing with more expensive, high-end drives, Samsung is really promoting the affordable T5 EVO as a general-purpose backup device that provides a faster and more portable alternative to a conventional hard drive. And, unlike many solid-state drives, it provides up to 8TB of storage, making it a good option for people who need a lot of storage space for their work files, photos and videos. It’s competitively priced too, starting at $189.99/£146 with 2TB of storage, while the 8TB model costs…

Everyone knows that Apple is playing catch-up when it comes to Apple Intelligence. The company’s shipping AI models seem to be way behind the cutting edge, as OpenAI grows, Google pushes forward, and newcomers hit the scene. I’m sure Apple is pouring everything it can into building better, more modern models, and we’ll hear about that effort in detail in June at the Worldwide Developers Conference. But what troubles me most about the Apple Intelligence rollout isn’t that Apple was caught flatfooted by the AI hype train and is struggling to catch up—it’s that Apple’s implementation of AI features also feels slapdash and rushed. Apple doesn’t have to end up with the best large language model around to win the AI wars. It can be in the ballpark of the…

Keep your phone in your pocket or backpack, and dust and dirt will certainly enter its most vulnerable point of entry—the charging port. Once enough fluff is in there, you will find it difficult to properly insert the charging cable, and you will have to rely on wireless charging. Dirt transferred from your pocket or bag into the charging port is simply inevitable—or is it? After too many trips to the Apple Store, I’ve taken to plugging that port with a little stopper. There are several on Amazon, but I use the Limvory dust plug covers (fave.co/4iQZmR3), shown above, which come in a pack of four with a handy little cleaning brush. You can buy USB-C dust plug covers for iPhone 15 and 16 (fave.co/4iQZmR3) or dust plug covers for…

Clicks is the only keyboard case for the iPhone on the market. It is one of those accessories that will inevitably divide opinion. The concept itself isn’t stupid, it’s just a bit out of date, because the era of smartphones with keyboards came to an end with the demise of Blackberry at the latest. Maybe I’m just susceptible to such concepts—after all, I belong to the (probably relatively small) group of people who spent quite a while with keyboard smartphones and look back longingly in moments of weakness. The small company has launched a revised version of the keyboard case that works with the iPhone 16 (fave.co/44L6ElD). Not only was the fit adapted to the two new devices, but changes were also made to both the keyboard and the workmanship.…

There are good reasons why Apple’s cheapest tablets, such as the 9th-gen (fave.co/3xb9FuN) and 10th-gen (fave.co/44VJ5ov) iPads, have been big sellers. In theory, Apple’s standard iPad models are designed primarily for educational institutions, but in reality, they offer everything most users want. Most of the time a basic iPad is completely sufficient. The last of these standard iPads, which came out in 2022, sold quite well despite its initially high price of $449. (It later dropped to a more palatable $349.) This model was the first in the line to have a more modern design, featuring a USB-C port and a Touch ID sensor in the power button, which brought it closer to the top models. But there were compromises too: Buyers had to make do with an older chip…

They may not always have the marketing budget to continuously flash their products on your Facebook or YouTube feeds, but there’s a lot to be said for the one-person indie developers cranking out Mac utilities. Case in point: Benedict Slaney, whose one-person MacDaddy outfit is currently responsible for nine separate Mac utilities on the market, including Mac Backup Guru (fave.co/4jSvGUr), which over the years has drawn a considerable following as a nifty alternative to Apple’s free Time Machine (fave.co/3ERVMrA) utility as well as the popular Carbon Copy Cloner (fave.co/3YuRiig) and SuperDuper (fave.co/3LT5xpm). Mac Backup Guru requires Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) or later to install and run. It retails for $9/£7.51 (fave.co/3EOGzaL) as of this writing, though it’s listed as $29/£24.15, and it is available as a fully functional 30-day…

This is not a sponsored post. I am not being paid to promote this product. But it transformed my experience of using AirPods Pro so much that I want you to know about it. Comply foam tips, which generally sell for around $20 on Amazon (fave.co/4lS35QI), make my AirPods Pro 2 more comfortable, more secure, and better sounding. I literally use them more often because of these tips, and when I eventually get AirPods Pro 3, the first thing I’ll do is slap a new set of Comply foam tips on them. Apple knows that people have different ears, which is why it offers several AirPods Pro ear tips for different ear shapes. But they’re just hollow silicone flanges, which isn’t ideal for all ears. Comply (fave.co/4lPXD0H, and a few…

I’ve never had a microphone like the Shure MV7i in my hand or on my desk. It combines the simplicity of a USB-C connection with the requirements of high-quality microphones and instruments. Particularly practical: The MV7i also serves as an interface for an additional XLR microphone or a guitar via the 6.3 mm jack input. It can be an exciting solution for traveling because if you want only to record two voices or a voice with a guitar, you don’t need a separate interface. As soon as I unpack it, I realize that the MV7i is designed for a professional user, or those who want to become one. You can neither hold it easily in your hand like the Shure SM58 (fave.co/4jCKRS2) vocal microphone—which I will use later for comparison—nor…

There was a time in my life as a MacBook user when I preferred the largest model. In my younger days, I lugged around a 17-inch PowerBook G4 (fave.co/4jHtYVD) with pride, boasting about how I wasn’t willing to compromise screen size and battery life. My penchant for large MacBooks continued for a couple of decades, all the way through to the 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M1 Max. But then I reviewed the 15-inch M3 MacBook Air (fave.co/46MJcDT), and I dumped the 16-inch MacBook Pro as my daily driver. I even loved the 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro (fave.co/3Rt3mMe) when I tried it last year, too. For a user like me, bigger isn’t better. And now I think I want to go even smaller, smaller than a 13-inch MacBook Air. What…

The BenQ PD2730S 5K Designer Monitor is a 27-inch display that’s a new addition to the company’s DesignVue lineup of displays geared toward designers, graphics professionals, video producers, and anyone else who demands color accuracy and consistency, as well as top-notch image quality. Its size and resolution make it a direct competitor to Apple’s Studio Display (fave.co/3E5nXk4). SPECIFICATIONS Size: 27 inches Glass front: Nano Matte Panel Aspect ratio: 6:9 Native resolution: 5120×2880 Panel type/Backlight: IPS/LED backlight Response time: 5 ms Contrast ratio: 2000:1 Frequency: 24Hz to 60Hz Color depth: 10-bit Brightness: 400 nits Dimensions with stand (horizontal): Highest height: 22.7×24.2×9.5 inches (577.6×614×242.1mm); lowest height: 16.8×24.2×9.5 inches (427.6×614×242.1mm) Weight with stand: 18.12 lbs (8.22 kg) DESIGN AND BUILD The PD2730S is a well-built, good-looking display. It is encased in plastic, with…

In addition to laptop sleeves (fave.co/42uMtXV) and other small accessories, Harber London also produces backpacks and other bags. If you take a look at the manufacturer’s website, you’ll notice that its high-quality full-leather backpacks cost a few hundred dollars. But there are also cheaper options, such as the TotePack (fave.co/4jHs07M). Its price is still a very pretty penny, but it also offers a good deal. DESIGN AND WORKMANSHIP The TotePack is available in three colors: black, mocha (brown tone with black leather elements), and olive (green tone with black leather elements, shown here in the photos). “TotePack” is a portmanteau of “tote bag” and “backpack.” The only difference from an ordinary backpack is that there are two leather straps at the top so that you can carry the TotePack like…

While everyone is waiting to see just how different the iPhone 17 lineup will be (fave.co/4cRroKH), an analyst with a decent track record has a prediction for next year—not one but two folding devices from Apple. While we’ve already heard rumors that a folding phone is nearing release, GF Securities analyst Jeff Pu reports that Apple is planning to launch a 19-inch folding iPad later next year. As spotted by 9to5Mac (fave.co/3GF1dKY), Pu says the iPad Fold will launch with the folding iPhone next year. This is somewhat contradictory to a report (fave.co/3EzfsAA) earlier this week by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, in which he reported that 2027 would be the year Apple launched its first folding iPhone to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the iPhone, similar to how Apple launched the…

The Vision Pro has been a flop, plain and simple. By most accounts, it is not even close to meeting Apple’s own meager internal sales expectations. And worse, it is out of the public consciousness entirely—even Apple fans often forget about it. Better, cheaper hardware is one way to breathe more life into “spatial computing,” but since that’s not coming soon, Apple needs to double down on software. VisionOS 2 felt like visionOS 1.4 than a major step up, probably because it came so soon after the headset’s release. VisionOS 3, which will be announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9 (fave.co/4js1b84) and released later this year, is the first real opportunity for Apple to fully address feedback from actual customers and developers. If they want us to…

Magnetic wireless charging—whether MagSafe or compatible Qi2—has revolutionized iPhone charging and created an exciting market in portable power banks. Simply magnetically clamp a compact battery pack to the back of your iPhone and slip it back in your pocket as it recharges, or start using it straight away. 15W Apple-certified MagSafe or Qi2 made wireless charging relatively speedy, and cheaper power banks could chug along at a decent 7.5W pace if they are only MagSafe compatible. All iPhones post the 2020 iPhone 12 (with the strange exceptions of the SE and 16e) include the necessary magnets to work with the magnetic accessories. Recently, magnetic power banks—such as the Anker Zolo 10K Magnetic Power Bank (fave.co/3XnzfsK) and Baseus Nomos Magnetic Power Bank Qi2 (fave.co/3SfLvsh) have upped the game by including an…

Apple’s Beats brand has a habit of one-upping its parent company with products that are a little less restrictive, a little less one-size-fits-all, and a little more colorful, while still offering the same Apple quality (and indeed, often exactly the same technology). Now there are official Beats charging cables (fave.co/4iyipza), and honestly, I’ll probably never buy an Apple-branded one again. A single Beats cable costs the same as Apple’s ($19 for a single USB-C to USB-C cable, fave.co/3SfPlSd; USB-A to USB-C cable, fave.co/42TMIup; or USB-C to Lightning cable, fave.co/4daJKql), and they have the same specs: USB 2.0 data transfer speeds, charging support up to 60W. They’re probably identical inside. But they’re better in three significant ways. First, they come in colors. Apple’s basic charge cables are only white. The Beats…

If you’ve shopped Thunderbolt in your quest for fast external Mac storage, you’ll know that sticker shock is often a pitfall of the process. You can reduce the monetary jolt by switching your search to USB4, which, being an outgrowth of Intel’s PCIe over-a-wire technology, is just as fast as Thunderbolt 4. And it’s significantly cheaper than Thunderbolt, especially if you roll your own with something such as the UGreen CM850 NVMe M.2 enclosure. The CM850 is a more affordable version of the Ugreen’s CM642 that uses the same ASMedia ASM2464PD chip. It’s a gunmetal-gray aluminum enclosure that’s approximately 4.75x2.1x0.6 inches and weighs 4.4 ounces. Its heft is nice, as is the top panel that pops off to reveal the internal M.2/NVMe slot supporting 2230 (22mm wide, 30mm long) to…

By now, we’re all familiar with an embarrassing slip-up from the leadership at Apple. At the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference, the company promised advanced new Siri features in an update to iOS 18. Then it created mainstream TV ads showcasing the feature (which wasn’t out yet). Finally, this spring, it admitted it couldn’t deliver these features as promised (fave.co/4cPAFD1). They would only come in the next year—meaning likely as an update to iOS 19—and some are questioning whether even that date is possible (fave.co/433UKlE). Naturally, that brought to mind AirPower (fave.co/3OqWMox), another product Apple demonstrated on stage but axed when it couldn’t deliver the feature. Some likened it to Apple’s long struggle to develop its own 5G cellular modem, which eventually ended in the C1 modem (fave.co/4i1ejPY) shipping in the…

HOW TO AVOID BEING SCAMMED BY A TOLL-COLLECTION SMS AND SIMILAR SMISHING ATTEMPTS America is awash at the moment with a “toll-fee SMS scam.” As many state governments (fave.co/3Gvg62J) have alerted residents, you may receive an SMS from an unknown number claiming that you owe an unpaid toll and demanding that you pay. Because tens of millions of people have payment accounts linked to license-plate-based or RFID-scanned systems, it sounds credible. And if you don’t, you might think that your license plate was linked to your phone number in some government database. Apple provides a subtle tool you can use to avoid being scammed by this and other smishing (SMS phishing) con jobs that rely on clicking a URL: When you receive an SMS from an unknown party that contains…