Macworld March 2024

Forty years. In the world of technology, where many devices seem to evaporate after only a matter of months, lasting for a decade is an accomplishment—but lasting for four decades? It’s practically unheard of. And yet today marks the Macintosh’s 40th anniversary. While it has certainly seen its ups and downs over the intervening years, it’s a device that has nevertheless been in constant production since the day Apple co-founder Steve Jobs first took the wraps off it back in 1984. In that time, it’s run on four different processor architectures and two major operating systems, making it a bit of a computer of Theseus. It’s seen challengers rise and fall, and it has been threatened with extinction more than once, and yet for all of that has emerged in recent…

With the current M-series Mac lineup, Apple is taking absolutely no prisoners. In this dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-fittest release cycle featuring the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips, Apple demonstrates that it prioritizes perpetual progress. Apple has one chip left in the M3 series to be released, the M3 Ultra, and if history is any indication, it is poised to be an incredible powerhouse. On paper, the M3 Max MacBook Pro is inferior to the top-end M2 Ultra Mac Studio, but in practice, its performance in real-world scenarios gets very close. Both the performance and efficiency gains of the M3 Max lead to a potentially groundbreaking chip with the anticipated M3 Ultra. A new report claims the M3 Ultra is due to arrive this summer using a new enhanced 3nm process, and when it…

While most of Apple’s “Scary Fast” event was predictable, there were a couple of surprises. The first was Space Black, which is Apple’s best laptop color in years. The other was the introduction of the new 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro for $1,599, replacing the 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro at the entrylevel position. On the surface, it seems like a great deal. You get a new design with a larger ProMotion display, an HDMI 2.1 port, and an SD card reader for just $100 more than the previous entry-level Pro with the same 512GB of storage. But when you take a step back, it gets a little more confusing. The 15-inch MacBook Air with 512GB of storage costs $1,499, but you don’t get ProMotion or the extra ports. (At the moment, it also…

Getting new Apple hardware can be an exciting experience, but for customers who are finally switching from an Intel Mac, the experience is a little different from a simple upgrade. The recently released MacBook Pro with the M3 chip is filled to the brim with changes. Even if you’ve been using an older M-series MacBook, there are still a few surprises. For users new to the M3 MacBook Pro experience, let’s take a look at what’s in store, from the hardware at your fingertips to the software you use. If you haven’t made a purchase yet, these tidbits can help you decide what model to get. And if you already have one, I’ll cover a few things to help you get the most out of the laptop. (For a deep…

Even though Apple has improved its security focus in recent years, including releasing more frequent macOS updates when significant exploits are found in the wild, there’s still a place for good antiviral tools. To this end, Avast Premium Security for macOS (version 15.74 at the time of writing) does an excellent job, setting out to keep your Mac secure from viruses and malware, scanning network content, and only missing an occasional beat. Like a number of antiviral software packages for the Mac (click to see our Best Picks), Avast Premium Security divides itself into several modules (Virus Scans, Core Shields, Traffic Monitor, Network Inspector, Email Guardian, Ransomware Shield, Quarantine, and Store). The home screen offers easy access to these tools. Click on the Virus Scans button, and Avast Premium Security will…

Sometimes an application that could have been outstanding sabotages itself, with a series of corporate and engineering decisions as well as bugs twisting a potentially great idea into something clunky and awkward to use. This may have been the case with PC Matic, as the macOS version stumbles out the gate and never regains its stride, and a series of infuriating corporate decisions makes a frustrating interface only that much more infuriating. First and foremost, PC Matic is an application for macOS that, like similar applications, works to scan for and remove viruses and malware—take a look at our roundup of the “Best Antivirus for Mac”. The app takes a unique approach in that it’s centered around customizable blacklist and whitelist classifications, which designate which applications and file systems are…