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Tag: Apple

  • Apple doubles its biggest bug bounty reward to $2 million

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    Apple is updating its Security Bounty program this November to offer some of the highest rewards in the industry. It has doubled its top award from $1 million to $2 million for the discovery of “exploit chains that can achieve similar goals as sophisticated mercenary spyware attacks” and which requires no user interaction. But the maximum possible payout can exceed $5 million dollars for the discovery of more critical vulnerabilities, such as bugs in beta software and Lockdown Mode bypasses. Lockdown Mode is an upgraded security architecture in the Safari browser.

    In addition, the company is rewarding the discovery of exploit chains with one-click user interaction with up to $1 million instead of just $250,000. The reward for attacks requiring physical proximity to devices can now also go up to $1 million, up from $250,000, while the maximum reward for attacks requiring physical access to locked devices has been doubled to $500,000. Finally, researchers “who demonstrate chaining WebContent code execution with a sandbox escape can receive up to $300,000.” Apple’s VP for security engineering and architecture Ivan Krstić told Wired that the company has awarded over $35 million to more than 800 security researchers since it introduced and expanded the program over the past few years. Apparently, top-dollar payouts are very rare, but Apple has made multiple $500,000 payouts.

    The company said in its announcement that the only system-level iOS attacks it has observed in the wild came from mercenary spyware, which are historically associated with state actors and typically used to target specific individuals. It said its new security features like Lockdown Mode and Memory Integrity Enforcement, which combats memory corruption vulnerabilities, can make mercenary attacks more difficult to pull off. However, bad actors will continue evolving their techniques, and Apple is hoping that updating its bounty program with bigger payouts can “encourage highly advanced research on [its] most critical attack surfaces despite the increased difficulty.”

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    Mariella Moon

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  • 3 Ways to Spot Fake iPhone Type C Cable

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    • I ordered the cable online, and when I received the product, the packaging and the overall feel of the box felt premium.
    • If you look closely at the metal part of the cable on one side, you will see a serial number placed right before the region of manufacture.
    • Since there are a lot of counterfeits in the market, you can lose a lot of money if you are not careful.

    If you have ever purchased an iPhone accessory, then you would know that they are not cheap. I paid INR 1900 for a Type-C charging cable and got duped with a counterfeit product. The worst part was that I realized it way later, when I noticed the slow charging speed. Cosmetically, there was no flaw; it looked like a proper cable, but when I took it to an official store, they confirmed my fear that this is not an original cable. They also helped me with some key points that one should look for while buying such cables online or offline. So, in this article, I will share all the information I have on checking the authenticity of such accessories.

    Check if Your Apple Cable is Genuine

    This stands true for all the Apple products out there; most of the counterfeits that are on the market are cosmetically perfect. Meaning you will not be able to point out the counterfeit simply by looking, you will have to dig deeper. This is what happened with me: I ordered the cable online, and when I received the product, the packaging and the overall feel of the box felt premium. However, that was not the case, so be sure not to rely solely on the product’s appearance. So look for all the points that are mentioned below, and you might save yourself from a counterfeit product next time.

    Check the Manufacturing Region

    Apple cables are famously manufactured in China and Vietnam, and now in India as well. Well, you can use this to verify the authenticity of your cable. If you look closely at the metal part of the cable on one side, you will see a serial number placed right before the region of manufacture. This is something that is missing from most of the manufacturers; also, some of them mistakenly put a random region, and you can check for that too.

    Manufacturing country

    The Overall Quality of the Cable

    The second thing to note is the overall quality of the cable. When you take an authentic cable, you will feel the braided cable along with reinforced metal tips on either side. The reinforced part is what holds the metal Type-C part steady and is often missing from the counterfeit products.

    Double support for Type-C

    Stating the Obvious: Buy From an Authorised Seller

    This goes without saying, but make sure you buy from an authorised seller, either online or offline. There are some authorised sellers on both Flipkart and Amazon, and offline, there are authorised resellers of Apple, which you can find very easily.

    Note: If you are considering buying third-party accessories for your Apple products, then make sure they are compatible with your devices. To do so you can refer to the MFi badge on the side of your product packaging.

    MFi Badge

    FAQs

    Q. Will using a third-party accessory with my Apple device damage it?

    Yes, if you are using a bad-quality product, then it can harm your Apple device. However, there are companies such as Anker and Stuffcool, which are reliable and will give you the same results as an Apple-certified cable.

    Q. How can I check if my iPhone is brand new?

    Simply check the serial number of your device and enter it on this website, and it will tell you if your iPhone is new or not.

    Wrapping Up

    This article talks about how you can check the authenticity of your Apple Type-C cable. Since there are a lot of counterfeits in the market, you can lose a lot of money if you are not careful. The next time you are buying any accessory, make sure you look for these markers.

    You may also like to read:

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    Dev Chaudhary

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  • Apple Announces $2 Million Bug Bounty Reward for the Most Dangerous Exploits

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    Since launching its bug bounty program nearly a decade ago, Apple has always touted notable maximum payouts—$200,000 in 2016 and $1 million in 2019. Now the company is upping the stakes again. At the Hexacon offensive security conference in Paris on Friday, Apple vice president of security engineering and architecture Ivan Krstić announced a new maximum payout of $2 million for a chain of software exploits that could be abused for spyware.

    The move reflects how valuable exploitable vulnerabilities can be within Apple’s highly protected mobile environment—and the lengths the company will go to to keep such discoveries from falling into the wrong hands. In addition to individual payouts, the company’s bug bounty also includes a bonus structure, adding additional awards for exploits that can bypass its extra secure Lockdown Mode as well as those discovered while Apple software is still in its beta testing phase. Taken together, the maximum award for what would otherwise be a potentially catastrophic exploit chain will now be $5 million. The changes take effect next month.

    “We are lining up to pay many millions of dollars here, and there’s a reason,” Krstić tells WIRED. “We want to make sure that for the hardest categories, the hardest problems, the things that most closely mirror the kinds of attacks that we see with mercenary spyware—that the researchers who have those skills and abilities and put in that effort and time can get a tremendous reward.”

    Apple says that there are more than 2.35 billion of its devices active around the world. The company’s bug bounty was originally an invite-only program for prominent researchers, but since opening to the public in 2020, Apple says that it has awarded more than $35 million to more than 800 security researchers. Top-dollar payouts are very rare, but Krstić says that the company has made multiple $500,000 payouts in recent years.

    In addition to higher potential rewards, Apple is also expanding the bug bounty’s categories to include certain types of one-click “WebKit” browser infrastructure exploits as well as wireless proximity exploits carried out with any type of radio. And there is even a new offering known as “Target Flags” that puts the concept of capture the flag hacking competitions into real-world testing of Apple’s software to help researchers demonstrate the capabilities of their exploits quickly and definitively.

    Apple’s bug bounty is just one of many long-term investments aimed at reducing the prevalence of dangerous vulnerabilities or blocking their exploitation. For example, after more than five years of work, the company announced a security protection last month in the new iPhone 17 lineup that aims to nullify the most frequently exploited class of iOS bugs. Known as Memory Integrity Enforcement, the feature is a big swing aimed at protecting a small minority of the most vulnerable and highly targeted groups around the world—including activists, journalists, and politicians—while also adding defense for all users of new devices. To that end, the company announced on Friday that it will donate a thousand iPhone 17s to rights groups that work with people at risk of facing targeted digital attacks.

    “You can say, well, that seems like a very large effort to protect only that very small number of users that are being targeted by mercenary spyware, but there is just this incontrovertible track record described by journalists, tech companies, and civil society organizations that these technologies are constantly being abused,” Krstić says. “And we feel a great moral obligation to defend those users. Despite the fact that the vast majority of our users will never be targeted by anything like this, this work that we did will end up increasing protection for everyone.”

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    Lily Hay Newman

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  • Apple Took Down These ICE-Tracking Apps. The Developers Aren’t Giving Up

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    Legal experts WIRED spoke with say that the ICE monitoring and documentation apps that Apple has removed from its App Store are clear examples of protected speech under the US Constitution’s First Amendment. “These apps are publishing constitutionally protected speech. They’re publishing truthful information about matters of public interest that people obtained just by witnessing public events,” says David Greene, a civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

    This hasn’t stopped the Trump administration from attacking the developers behind these ICE-related apps. When ICEBlock first rose to a top spot in Apple’s App Store in April, the Trump administration responded by threatening to prosecute the developer. “We are looking at him,” Bondi said on Fox News of ICEBlock’s Aaron. “And he better watch out.”

    Neither the White House nor ICE immediately responded to requests for comment.

    Digital rights researchers say that the situation illustrates the dangers when key platforms and communication channels are centrally controlled—whether directly by governments or by other powerful entities like big tech companies. Regardless of what is officially available through the Google Play store, Android users can sideload apps of their choosing. But Apple’s ecosystem has always been a walled garden, an approach that the company has long touted for its security advantages, including the ability to screen more heavily for malicious apps.

    For years, a group of researchers and enthusiasts have tried to create “jailbreaks” for iPhones to essentially hack their own devices as a way around Apple’s closed ecosystem. Recently, though, jailbreaking has become less common. This is partly the result of advances in iPhone security, but partly related to the trend in recent years of attackers exploiting complex chains of vulnerabilities that could potentially be used for jailbreaking for malware instead, particularly mercenary spyware.

    “The closed ecosystem motivation sort of dwindled as Apple added capabilities that previously required a jailbreak—like wallpapers, tethering, better notifications, and private mode in Safari,” says longtime iOS security and jailbreak researcher Will Strafach. “But this situation with ICE apps highlights the issue with Apple being the arbiter and single point of failure.”

    Stanford’s Pfefferkorn warns that while US tech companies are not state-controlled, they have in her view become “happy handmaidens” when it comes to “repressing free speech and dissent.”

    “It’s especially disappointing,” Pfefferkorn says, “coming from the company that brought us the Think Different ad campaign, which invoked MLK, Gandhi, and Muhammad Ali—none of whom would likely be big fans of ICE today.”

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    Reece Rogers, Lily Hay Newman

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  • Apple Reportedly Bans App Designed to Document Abuses by ICE

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    For the second time in one week, Apple has removed an app from its App Store that was designed to track abuses by Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

    Last week, Apple removed ICEBlock, an app designed to allow users to report nearby ICE activity in their neighborhoods. The app, which Trump administration officials had frequently criticized, sought to keep immigrants abreast of federal law enforcement’s presence in their communities.

    “We just received a message from Apple’s App Review that #ICEBlock has been removed from the App Store due to ‘objectionable content’,” ICEBlock wrote, in a post on Bluesky last week. “The only thing we can imagine is this is due to pressure from the Trump Admin. We have responded and we’ll fight this! #resist.”

    Now, yet another ICE-related app has been banned. The app in question, called Eyes Up, allows users to upload videos of ICE officers engaging in abusive behavior. The app’s website provides a geographical map of where the alleged abuses took place, along with timestamped videos that provide evidence of the behavior. The goal is to preserve digital evidence that could be used later in legal cases against the government.

    According to Eyes Up’s developer, the app was kicked off the App Store on October 3rd—the day after ICEBlock reported its own expulsion. That developer expressed their frustration to 404’s journalist, Joseph Cox, about the app’s expulsion:

    “Our goal is government accountability, we aren’t even doing real-time tracking,” the administrator of Eyes Up, who said their name was Mark, told 404 Media. Mark asked 404 Media to only use his first name to protect him from retaliation. “I think the [Trump] admin is just embarrassed by how many incriminating videos we have.”

    “Mark” added that he is careful to curate the material to ensure that it belongs in the app’s video repository:

    “I personally look at each submission to ensure that it’s relevant, accurately described to the best I can tell, and appropriate to post. I actually look at the user submitted location and usually cross-reference with [Google] Street View to verify. We have an entire private app just for moderation of the submissions,” Mark said.

    Gizmodo reached out to Apple for more information about the ban. It’s unclear if and how the app may have violated the company’s terms of service. 404 notes that Apple did not respond to its request for comment.

    Apple, like many other tech firms, has sucked up to the White House since Trump took office. Earlier this year, CEO Tim Cook donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. Meanwhile, at a White House AI summit in September, Cook rambled on sycophantically about what a great job the president was doing. As such, it would obviously be easy to read Apple’s recent expulsion of the two ICE-related apps as a different kind of sucking up, but, of course, we have limited information about it.

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    Lucas Ropek

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  • 6 Years Before He Died, Steve Jobs Nailed the Difference Between Those Who Succeed From Those Who Only Dream

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    In his last few years, Steve Jobs became even more of what he’d always been: a relentless visionary. As his health declined, his focus sharpened to inspire entrepreneurs to build what matters, cut the noise, and inspire others to leave their mark. It was like he stepped into a higher calling: to teach the world how to lead a meaningful life.

    What is truly important

    As Jobs said in his famous 2005 Stanford commencement address, “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

    Knowing his time was almost up made Jobs see life with startling focus. He zeroed in on what mattered most, and pushed others to do the same. His message was simple but powerful: Don’t wait to live your purpose. Life’s too short for anything less.

    He added, “You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

    Find what you love. Love what you do

    Jobs’s words hit hard for most of us because they’re real. He understood something most of us spend a lifetime avoiding — that we don’t have forever. When you really sit with that, a lot of the things we keep chasing after no longer matter. Neither do the need to impress, the fear of failing, or the worry about what other people think — it all fades. What’s left are the things that actually matter: the people you love, the work that gives you meaning, and the courage to follow your gut.

    That’s what made Jobs different. He lived with urgency and clarity because he knew time was limited. That awareness didn’t make him fearful — it made him even more focused to his last dying breath.

    And maybe that’s the lesson for us. We don’t need a crisis or a diagnosis to wake us up. We just need to remember that life is short and none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. So stop waiting for the perfect time or permission to do what you’re here to do. Start now. Follow your purpose while you still can.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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    Marcel Schwantes

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  • iOS 26 Just Made Driving Like an Asshole a Lot Easier

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    There are lots of ways to drive like a complete and utter douche bag; Teslas, for instance! Autopilot, the company’s driver assist, is an express ticket to distracted driving that has resulted in some truly Darwinian moments. Case in point: this porno that was shot while Tesla’s unfinished, almost-kind-of-self-driving software was at the wheel. Lovely. No notes. Or, wait, how about these trucks that “roll coal,” which is numbnuts code for intentionally spewing black diesel smoke everywhere? Nice! Very cool. Thanks, America.

    There are subtler ways, though, like driving with wireless earbuds in, which is not only inadvisable but actually illegal in some states. While there’s obviously nothing preventing anyone from popping their wireless earbuds in and driving like that, there’s at least one UI quirk in iOS that nudges would-be distracted drivers in the right direction. When you get into a car you’ve previously connected to via Bluetooth, your phone audio will often automatically switch to the car instead of your wireless earbuds if you happened to be listening to something at the time you turned your car on.

    You can obviously just switch it back and go about your asshole journey of driving with wireless earbuds in if you want to, but then at least you’re truly electing to be an unsafe driver each and every time you fire up the trusty steel battering ram. Maybe not anymore, though, thanks to iOS 26. With a new setting called “Keep Audio with Headphones,” you can make sure that even when your car’s Bluetooth is within range, your wireless earbuds (be they AirPods or others) will remain playing in your ears and not on your car speakers.

    © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

    On one hand, I get it. Sometimes the audio switches when you’re not even in your vehicle if your car happens to be on, and you don’t want that very important call you’re on to be trapped inside your car, where you are not currently located. Or maybe, you’re a passenger and you want to completely f**king ignore the person who is driving. In that case, I just want to say I am sorry, I’ve been there. I promise things will get easier once you graduate high school. But, also, let’s be honest, for people who want to listen to their wireless earbuds while driving, this is a major win. Finally, less screwing around and more Rogan-esque anti-vax misinformation piped straight into the ol’ flesh desert where your mind used to be.

    I know that there’s a less-than-0% chance that Apple intended to release a feature that makes distracted driving easier. If I had to imagine, engineers are probably trying to avoid the jump scare of having the audio switch to your car without asking it to, which is, at least in theory, an issue worth tackling. Or, I don’t know, maybe they actually want all of us dead after the mass criticism of Liquid Glass. Who’s to say, really?

    This would normally be the point where I tell you how to activate said new feature, but, uh… don’t do that. Sure, auto-switching isn’t always going to be ideal, but sometimes the annoyance we have is better than the mass safety hazard we invented, and as tempting as tuning out all of that very annoying auditory information on the road may be, a little concentration can (despite popular opinion) actually be a good thing.

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    James Pero

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  • The Essentials With Rita Hazan: High-Low Skincare, Anguilla and Working With Beyoncé

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    Even if you don’t know Rita Hazan by name, you know her work. The New York City native has been behind the hair color transformations of some of the biggest pop stars since the late ‘90s, from Mariah Carey’s first foray into lighter locks (and eventual blonde makeover) for her 1997 album, Butterfly, to Jennifer Lopez’s post-Selena honey highlights and Katy Perry’s full range of rainbow colors. And then there’s Beyoncé, who first came to Hazan in 2013 and has been working with her ever since.

    But Hazan’s impact in the beauty industry extends far beyond her impressive list of celebrity clients. In the male-dominated field of hair coloring, Hazan carved out her own path: First by developing a coloring technique that defied (and eventually set) trends, then with the opening of her namesake salon and product line. “I didn’t even think about it as a woman; I just really loved doing color,” Hazan tells Observer of what drove her to take risks. After attending beauty school at 17, Hazan immediately went to work at Oribe Canales’ legendary Fifth Avenue salon, where she assisted color director Brad Johns (whose clients famously included Christy Turlington and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy) through much of the ‘90s. “I got promoted, and that’s where I was doing a little bit different hair color. Brad was all about chunky, very golden highlights, and I went the opposite way of that,” Hazan says. “My family background is Egyptian and Jewish, and we like to be blonde, but we don’t like to be goldy,” she adds of what inspired her more seamless approach to blonde color.

    By the early 2000s, Hazan’s work with Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez and Jessica Simpson had established her as the go-to colorist for pop It girls and up-and-comers alike. “If you wanted to create an image or change your look, you would come to me,” confirms Hazan. All the while, she was still busy at Oribe with her usual clients, one of whom first planted the idea of opening her own salon. “I was like, ‘Who the hell wants that headache?’” Hazan laughs. “But I told my client I’d think about it, and when I went home and said something to my mom, she said, ‘If you want to, just open your own place.’ So I did, and that was it.”

    Rita Hazan Rita Hazan.

    After establishing her Fifth Avenue salon as the place for A-listers and those in the know, Hazan developed her own product line, which most famously introduced the world to the first root cover-up spray (inspired by and developed for her clients as an at-home solution for grays in between color appointments). But after 20 years in the industry, Hazan was introduced to her most famous client to date: Beyoncé. “About 12 years ago, [hair stylist] Kim Kimble called me and was like, ‘Beyoncé wants to be blonde but her hair keeps turning orange, and I told her, Rita is the only person that’s going to get you the color that you want. Can you do her hair?’” Hazan recalls of the singer’s first visit to her salon. Hazan delivered, and the two have been working together ever since. The colorist is behind every Beyoncé hair look of the past decade, from her bright blonde at the 2015 Met Gala to her more dimensional, “sunwashed” color during the 2023 Renaissance tour.

    “We’ll go back and forth on color ideas, but I’m always making sure it looks good for video and with movement—Beyoncé is flipping her hair and she’s up and down when she’s onstage, so every aspect of her hair has to look beautiful,” Hazan says of their collaboration process. “She also grew up in a hair salon, so she understands what’s possible and what’s not.”

    This fall, Hazan is sharing her coloring expertise through open classes at her salon, now located on the Upper East Side. “I really like educating, and everybody is always asking me about going blonde without it getting damaged or brassy, so I’d like to do classes in the salon that are affordable and open to anybody who wants to come in,” she says. In between creating buttery blonde color for her clients (Hazan’s top trending color for fall), Rita Hazan spoke with Observer about her current essentials—from the red lip that’s become part of her everyday uniform to the at-home hair gloss with results so good, she uses it in the salon.

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    Marissa DeSantis

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  • Apple’s ‘Find My’ Leads Cops to Cache of Thousands of Smuggled iPhones

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    Apple’s Find My feature is immensely useful. If you’ve ever been out for a wild night of drinking and wake up the next morning without your phone, Find My is there. If you are in a hurry and dash out of your Uber only to later feel a suspicious absence in your pocket, Find My is there. And, if you’re a British law enforcement team conducting a probe into a massive iPhone smuggling ring in the heart of London, Find My is also, apparently, there.

    The BBC reports that U.K. cops recently broke up a phone-smuggling ring involving tens of thousands of devices. How did they accomplish that? The original break in the case involved a person whose phone was stolen, but who managed to trace the device to a London warehouse. We are left to assume that the tracking was possible thanks to Apple’s handy iOS geo-tracking service.

    “It was actually on Christmas Eve and a victim electronically tracked their stolen iPhone to a warehouse near Heathrow Airport,” Detective Inspector Mark Gavin told the BBC. “The security there was eager to help out, and they found the phone was in a box, among another 894 phones.”

    That initial incident eventually led cops to a bigger bust: another 2,000 stolen phones, and a number of arrests. 9to5Mac notes that cops interdicted several shipments to the same warehouse, which then gave investigators DNA samples tied to potential suspects in the case. Subsequent investigation then led to raids on dozens of residences, and as of Monday, 18 people had been arrested in connection with the ring, which is suspected of smuggling the phones to China. Gizmodo reached out to police for more information.

    According to cops, tens of thousands of phones are stolen in London every year, and the recently arrested gang may have been responsible for a large number of them. “This group specifically targeted Apple products because of their profitability overseas,” Gavin told the Associated Press. “We discovered street thieves were being paid up to 300 pounds ($403) per handset and uncovered evidence of devices being sold for up to $5,000 in China.”

    Crooks in Britain may have even begun to pivot from selling drugs to selling stolen phones. “We’re hearing that some criminals are stopping dealing drugs and moving on to the phone business because it’s more lucrative,” Policing Minister Sarah Jones told the BBC. “If you steal a phone and it’s worth hundreds of pounds, you can understand why criminals who are one step ahead and want to exploit new crimes are turning to that world.”

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    Lucas Ropek

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  • The iPhone Air is so light, I forgot it was in my pocket | TechCrunch

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    After using the iPhone Air for the past ten days, I can confirm what everyone’s been wondering: yes, it really is that light and thin. But what’s more interesting is whether Apple’s thinnest phone ever, at just 5.64 millimeters, is worth the trade-offs it demands. I have used the iPhone 15 Pro Max as a primary phone for over 18 months now, and my secondary phones are often flagship Android phones, so I know what substantial feels like. Meanwhile, the iPhone Air is so light that when I first picked up the iPhone 17 Pro Max after using the Air, the Pro Max suddenly felt heavy, too. That contrast tells you something about what Apple has accomplished here, and what you might be giving up.

    Friends who’ve held the iPhone Air say how exquisite it looks and feels in hand, even though the phone weighs just 12 grams less than the iPhone 17. I share the sentiment. I find myself picking the phone up from my table just to experience that feeling again. Surely, the novelty of a phone’s build will wear off, but for now, I’m enjoying it.

    Image Credits: Ivan Mehta

    The phone is not small. It is easier to hold because it is thin (sorry, iPhone Mini fans). But if you have trouble operating phones with large screens with one hand, this one won’t be too different because of its 6.5-inch screen.

    Just like the headline suggests, when the iPhone Air is in my pocket, I often forget it’s there. If you have trouble fitting larger phones in your pocket, the iPhone Air will likely fit in. If you don’t have any trouble, your pockets will just feel lighter.

    Image Credits: Ivan Mehta

    While the phone is thin, it is pretty sturdy. I had the phone fall from the level of a bedside table, and it was fine. Once I sat on it by mistake, and it didn’t lose any shape. There are plenty of videos out there to suggest it will do just fine in most day-to-day conditions.

    I typically use most phones without a case, and I didn’t want to add any bulk or thickness to the iPhone Air with a case, though you’ll need one if you are planning to use Apple’s new shoulder strap. And if you want extra protection, you can use Apple’s bumper case without adding a lot of heft.

    Image Credits: Ivan mehta

    Given the iPhone Air’s slim build, there has been a lot of talk about its battery life. I notice that the phone often starts to get hot after intense gaming or video streaming, especially around the camera plate area, prompting me to check the battery percentage more often than I should.

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    The phone has the processor chops to let you play games with intensive graphics, but if you plan to use the phone extensively during the day, having Apple’s $99 MagSafe battery pack — which fits the back of the phone — is a good idea, as it will get you through the day easily. One added advantage of carrying the pack is that you can top up the battery of MagSafe-compatible AirPods if needed.

    The Battery Pack adds weight and Thickness to the phone Image Credits: Ivan Mehta

    Overall, the battery life of the iPhone Air is fine if you are planning on doing tasks like making a few calls, watching some videos, scrolling your feeds, and answering your emails while being connected to a Wi-Fi network. I carried the phone on a two-hour flight and watched a downloaded movie on Netflix, and I didn’t see a significant drop in the battery level. But keep in mind that this is a new phone, and the battery will deplete over time, which might be a concern if you plan to hold on to this phone beyond a year or two.

    Another drawback of the iPhone Air is in the camera department, with its single-lens rear camera setup. The phone features a 48-megapixel sensor with an f/1.6 aperture, just like the base iPhone 17. The 26 millimeter focal length camera has sensor shift stabilization to capture good images in most lighting conditions. While details on the photos are fine, I’ve noticed that the iPhone’s camera post-processing often makes the background a lot brighter than what you see with your eyes.

    Image Credits: Ivan Mehta

    There is no dedicated telephoto camera, and you will have to make do with a 2x crop from the main sensor. However, apart from in low lighting conditions, the zoom works well. I have three pets, and over the years, I have really appreciated good zoom so I can capture their goofy and cute poses without moving from my place. I missed having that option with the iPhone Air.

    The omission of a wide-angle lens might pinch you if you travel often or go to places where you might want to capture vast landscape photos.

    Apple changed the selfie camera sensor across the new lineup with a new square 18-megapixel sensor. This enables you to take selfies in different formats without having to hold the phone in landscape mode. Thanks to Center Stage, when more people cram into a frame, the camera automatically chooses a wider aspect ratio. But you can manually control the zoom in/out and orientation as well. If you shoot videos for different creative channels, the new iPhones also have an option to shoot a clip using feed from both front and back cameras simultaneously.

    One side note: the Air has the camera control button just like previous iPhones, but I haven’t bothered using it much.

    There is a third, albeit smaller, drawback of having a single speaker. The iPhone Air is designed in such a way that Apple wasn’t able to accommodate speakers at the bottom. When you are gaming, listening to music, or taking calls on the speaker, you will hear sound only from the speaker atop the screen. I personally use AirPods most of the time, but I did miss having dual speakers while watching an odd video without the earbuds.

    Apple nailed the tough part — engineering a stunning phone. Now comes the harder part, which is convincing people to buy one The Air is filling the fourth slot in the company’s four iPhone yearly lineup, which was occupied by the Mini and the Plus previously. For Apple, the Air’s job is to do better than that. But the question is, who is the phone for?

    Just like my colleagues Amanda Silberling and Julie Bort wrote on the launch day, it is easy to get swayed by the iPhone Air because of how it looks. You might be further convinced once you hold the phone. When I got the iPhone Air, I told one of my friends that it is a “vibe phone” — one with more swag and feel rather than practicality.

    It is not a phone you can charge in the morning and wholly trust to last the whole day without any extra battery support. But if aesthetics or portability matter to you more than all-day battery life or a multi-lens camera system, the iPhone Air delivers. If not, the rest of the iPhone lineup is for you.

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    Ivan Mehta

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  • Prime Day Apple deals include a four-pack of AirTags for a record-low price

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    Prime Day Apple deals can be hard to come by, but right now you can save on one of Apple’s smallest (and arguably one if its most useful) gadgets. A four-pack of Apple AirTags is down to $65 right now, which is 34 percent off its usual price. That brings each AirTag in the bundle down to $16.25 each. If you’re an Apple user, then the AirTag is the best Bluetooth tracker on the market for you.

    Apple

    Apple’s AirTag 4 pack is 34 percent off for Prime Day. 

    $65 at Amazon

    You can put these little discs in your wallet, in a backpack or in your luggage while you’re traveling. Your AirTag’s location will show up in your Find My app, powered by the vast network of iPhones, iPads and other compatible devices that receive the AirTag’s Bluetooth signal. Keep in mind these only work when close enough to participating devices to be located.

    You can attach AirTags to just about anything thanks to an abundance of available accessories. Their built-in speakers can play a tone, triggered from your iPhone, to help you find them when the object they’re affixed to is lost. On iPhone 11 and newer models, you can take advantage of the AirTag’s Ultra Wideband capability and have your phone lead you right to your AirTag, complete with directional arrows on your iPhone screen.

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    Andre Revilla

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  • Apple Brought Back 1 of the iPad’s Best Features. Fans Thought It Was Gone for Good

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    I love the iPad. I’ve always loved the iPad, both as a work device and as a way to read, stream video, or edit photos and podcasts. I currently have an M4 iPad Pro, and it’s probably my favorite computing device Apple has ever made.

    For all of the ways I love the iPad, it’s had one major drawback—doing more than one thing has always been pretty clunky. I guess you could argue that’s more of a benefit if what you want is to use your iPad as a focus device. But, if you want to do normal work things, the iPad’s complicated multitasking was more of a chore than it was worth.

    Then, Apple announced iPadOS 26, and with it, the company gave the iPad the one thing its biggest fans had been asking for–windowing. Not the watered-down version of multitasking, but actual windowing. In this wonderful new iPad world, you can place windows pretty much anywhere and make free-form adjustments.

    Killing off the best feature

    There was just one problem: with all the changes, Apple killed what might have been its best features—Slide Over. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I get it. Slide Over was kind of a power-user feature that basically let you dock an app to the side of the display, and slide it in and out of view as needed.

    Surely, Apple knows how many people use Slide Over, and I have to think the number isn’t huge. It’s the kind of feature that is incredibly intuitive and useful to people who use it all the time. At the same time, it’s the kind of feature you could use an iPad for years and never notice.

    Which is why it seemed strange that Apple killed it. You don’t have to think that Slide Over is a good idea to recognize that it was a bad idea for Apple to remove it. It doesn’t cost you anything for this particular feature to exist, but for people who benefited from it, Slide Over was a super useful productivity feature.

    A clever way to interact with apps

    I’m sure Apple assumed that its windowing changes would meet the needs of power users, but Slide Over offered something that you couldn’t get from just the ability to put two windows next to each other. It meant you could keep apps you use often, but not as your primary focus (think messaging apps and email), just a swipe away.

    That’s why so many people were bummed that Apple killed it off. It might not have been the most obvious feature, but it was very useful.

    Everyone’s favorite feature is back

    Now, however, in the iPadOS 26.2 beta, Slide Over is back. Well, sort of. It’s mostly the same, though it’s a tad more finicky, presumably due to the underlying windowing control that Apple built into iPadOS 26.

    The two major differences are that you can only have one app in Slide Over at a time. Previously, you could have a stack that you swiped through at the bottom. Now, you only get one, and if you try to add a second, it’ll boot the first back to the “desktop.”

    The other difference is how you get an app into Slide Over. Previously, you could just drag the app up to the side of the screen, and it would anchor itself there. Now, you open the app, then tap and hold the green traffic light icon and select the “Open in Slide Over” option.

    It’s definitely more work and more limited, but for people who were used to having Slack or Messages always a swipe away, it’ll be a welcome update. More importantly, I think it’s a very good sign that Apple is paying close attention to how people want to use the iPad. I don’t think there’s any question that iPadOS 26, overall, was the biggest improvement to iPadOS, maybe ever. Now, it’s even better for those of us who know that Slide Over was the iPad’s very best feature.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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    Jason Aten

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  • Jony Ive Says He Wants His OpenAI Devices to ‘Make Us Happy’

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    At OpenAI’s developer conference in San Francisco on Monday, CEO Sam Altman and ex-Apple designer Jony Ive spoke in vague terms about the “family of devices” the pair are currently working to develop.

    “As great as phones and computers are, there’s something new to do,” Altman said on stage with Ive. The duo confirmed that OpenAI is working on more than one hardware product but finer details, ranging from use cases to specifications, remain under wraps.

    “Hardware is hard. Figuring out new computing form factors is hard,” said Altman in a media briefing earlier in the day. “I think we have a chance to do something amazing, but it will take a while.”

    Ive said that his team has generated “15 to 20 really compelling product” ideas on the journey to find the right kind of hardware to focus the company’s efforts on.

    “I don’t think we have an easy relationship with our technology at the moment,” said Ive. “Rather than seeing AI as an extension of those challenges, I see it very differently.” Ive explained that one reason he wanted to design an AI-powered device with OpenAI is to transform the relationship people currently have to the devices they use every day.

    While Ive acknowledged the potential for AI to boost productivity, efficiency doesn’t appear to be his core goal with these devices. Rather, he hopes for them to bring more social good into the world. The devices should “make us happy, and fulfilled, and more peaceful, and less anxious, and less disconnected,” he said.

    Earlier reporting indicated that OpenAI is planning to manufacture a new category of hardware that doesn’t resemble a phone or laptop. In a recent preview for OpenAI staff, Altman hinted that the product would be aware of a user’s surroundings and day-to-day experiences, according to The Wall Street Journal. The device might be screenless and rely on inputs from cameras and microphones.

    OpenAI also hasn’t said publicly when it plans to launch the devices, though late 2026 may reportedly be the target launch, according to the Financial Times. The publication recently reported that development of the device has been stymied by technical issues.

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    Reece Rogers, Boone Ashworth

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  • Apple is bringing back Slide Over in iPadOS 26.1

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    The reaction to iPadOS 26 , but some users have bemoaned the absence of the decade-old Slide Over multitasking feature. Well, Apple just announced that it’s coming back as part of iPadOS 26.1. It’s actually already available, though just as part of the beta build.

    For the uninitiated, Slide Over is a multitasking tool that lets users quickly reveal and hide an app that slides in and out from the side of the screen. This is great for quickly revealing and hiding an app without permanently rearranging your workspace.

    Apple also got rid of Split View with iPadOS 26, but the new windowing system can easily do something similar. There has been no way with the new OS to mimic Slide Over, which has become a .

    Slide Over has been redesigned to work with that new windowing system and there’s a major upgrade. Users can quickly resize the windows and change the aspect ratios, in addition to swiping right to completely hide them from view.

    There is also one major downgrade, . Users can only have one active app in Slide Over at a time. In iPadOS 18 (and earlier), folks could switch between multiple apps in a Slide Over window, but it looks like that option has been removed.

    Given how iPadOS 26 radically reworked the way the system handles multiple apps, it’s a safe bet that this old Slide Over behavior was incompatible with the latest OS. Engadget has reached out to Apple for clarification and will update this post when we hear back.

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    Lawrence Bonk

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  • How a single MacBook compromise spread across a user’s Apple devices

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    NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

    We trust Macs to be reliable, secure, and mostly resistant to viruses. Apple’s software reputation has long been built around the idea that macOS is harder to compromise than Windows. And while there is some truth to that, it does not mean that Macs are immune. Modern malware is smarter, more targeted, and often designed to slip past built-in defenses quietly. Recently, I heard from Jeffrey from Phoenix, AZ, who’s been dealing with this exact situation.

    “I used a MacBook at work and noticed it was performing oddly. I didn’t use an Apple ID on that machine per company protocol. But I had personal devices that I could work from that are now infected. The notepad, maps, and home, among others, seem to be getting hung up. I’ve tried to advise Apple but have had little success. It’s completely taken over my devices, and I don’t know how to resolve this.”

    If your Mac has started acting strange, you are not alone, Jeffrey. Malware infections are more common than many Mac users realize, and spotting them early can make all the difference. Let us break down how to tell if your system is compromised, what protections Apple already provides, and the steps you should take to keep your data safe. If you’re a Windows user facing similar issues, check out our guide: What to do if you think your PC has a virus for step-by-step help.

    Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy Report
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    WHY IPHONE USERS ARE THE NEW PRIME SCAM TARGETS

    Mac malware often hides in the background, making it hard to spot at first. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

    Signs your Mac might be infected

    Spotting malware on macOS is not always straightforward. Many threats are designed to stay hidden, running quietly in the background while collecting data or opening a backdoor for attackers. Still, there are a few red flags that usually signal something is wrong.

    One of the first signs is slower performance or frequent overheating. If your Mac suddenly takes a long time to boot, runs hot during light tasks, or lags when performing simple actions, it might be doing more behind the scenes than you realize. Apps that crash or freeze more often than usual are another warning sign. Occasional app failures are normal, but if built-in tools like Safari, Notes, or Mail begin acting unstable, it may point to malicious interference.

    It is also worth paying attention to what is happening under the hood. Checking Activity Monitor for unknown processes or unusually high CPU or memory usage can reveal malware that tries to hide itself with random or unfamiliar names. Redirected web traffic is another classic symptom. If your browser takes you to strange websites, shows pop-ups, or installs new extensions you never approved, adware or spyware might already be present.

    Finally, unexplained changes to your security settings should always raise suspicion. If you notice your firewall turned off, privacy permissions modified, or login items appearing without your knowledge, something could have gained unauthorized control of your system.

    SHAMOS MALWARE TRICKS MAC USERS WITH FAKE FIXES

    Apple logo glows on the front of an Apple Store building at night.

    Strange app behavior, pop-ups, or overheating may signal something’s wrong (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

    How macOS protects you by default

    Apple has built several layers of defense into macOS, many of which run silently in the background to keep your system secure. Knowing how they work can help you understand what protections are already in place and where you might still need to add more safeguards.

    Gatekeeper is one of the most important built-in security tools. It checks every app before it runs to make sure it comes from a verified developer, warning or blocking you if the app is not trusted. Another layer of defense is XProtect, Apple’s built-in malware scanner. It updates automatically and can stop many known threats from running, although it is not as thorough as specialized antivirus software.

    System Integrity Protection, or SIP, is another important safeguard. It locks down critical system files and processes so that malware cannot tamper with them even if it gains access. macOS also uses sandboxing and strict permission controls to contain threats. Apps run in isolated environments and must explicitly request permission to access sensitive data such as your camera, files, or location.

    Together, these features make it significantly harder for malicious software to infect your Mac or cause serious damage. However, they are not perfect. Attackers are constantly developing new techniques to bypass these protections, and many threats rely on human error rather than technical exploits. That is why taking additional precautions is still essential, even on a Mac.

    10 WAYS TO SECURE YOUR OLDER MAC FROM THREATS AND MALWARE

    Person typing on a laptop at a desk with computer monitors in the background.

    Even Apple’s built-in protections can miss new or advanced threats (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

    What to do if your Mac is already infected

    If you find yourself dealing with a Mac that’s already compromised these steps can help you get back in control:

    1) Disconnect from the internet immediately

    Unplug Ethernet or turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. This prevents malware from sending more data out or pulling in additional malicious code.

    2) Back up your important files safely

    Use an external drive or cloud service you trust. Avoid copying entire system folders-just grab personal documents, photos, and files you can’t replace. You don’t want to back up the malware along with them.

    3) Boot into Safe Mode

    Restart your Mac and hold the Shift key. Safe Mode prevents some malware from launching and makes it easier to run cleanup tools.

    4) Run a trusted malware removal tool

    While macOS includes XProtect, you may need something more powerful. A strong antivirus program can detect and remove infections. Run a full system scan to catch hidden threats.

    5 PHONE SETTINGS TO CHANGE RIGHT NOW FOR A SAFER SMARTPHONE

    5) Check your login items and Activity Monitor

    Review what apps are set to launch at startup and remove anything you don’t recognize. If you spot unfamiliar processes hogging resources, don’t just guess. Use our guides at Cyberguy.com/LockUpYourTech to compare what’s safe and learn how to shut down anything suspicious before it causes more trouble.

    6) Consider a clean reinstall of macOS

    If malware persists, wiping your system may be the only option. Erase your Mac’s drive and reinstall macOS from scratch. Restore only the clean files you backed up earlier.

    7) Secure your other devices

    If your iPhone, iPad, or other personal devices are showing strange behavior, run security scans, update their software, and reset key passwords. Malware can sometimes spread through shared Wi-Fi networks, cloud accounts, or files.

    8) Reset key passwords and enable two-factor authentication

    Even after cleanup, assume some of your data may have been exposed. Update your Apple ID, email, banking, and work accounts with strong, unique passwords. Turn on 2FA wherever possible.

    9) Get professional help if needed

    If you’re overwhelmed, you can bring your Mac to an Apple Store for in-person help at the Genius Bar, or schedule a free appointment with Apple Support.

    Person working on a MacBook at a white desk with a smartphone and pen nearby.

    Simple steps like scanning, updating, and using strong passwords can keep your data safe (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

    7 ways to keep your Mac from getting infected

    Some cyber threats do not reveal themselves immediately. Scammers often collect small bits of data over time or wait weeks before trying to use what they have stolen. These steps can help you strengthen your defenses and reduce the chances of future infections.

    1) Install strong antivirus software

    macOS’s built-in protections are useful but basic. A strong antivirus adds an extra layer by detecting threats in real time, blocking malicious downloads, and even identifying new types of malware before they spread. A strong antivirus also scans email attachments and browser activity, areas where many Mac users are most vulnerable.

    The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have strong antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe.

    Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices at Cyberguy.com/LockUpYourTech 

    2) Consider a personal data removal service

    Many cyberattacks begin with information freely available online. A data removal service scrubs your personal details from broker sites, reducing the chances of targeted attacks or identity theft. While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice.  They aren’t cheap, and neither is your privacy.  These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites.  It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet.  By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.

    Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com/Delete

    Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com/FreeScan

    GOOGLE FIXES ANOTHER CHROME SECURITY FLAW BEING ACTIVELY EXPLOITED

    3) Use a password manager

    Many malware attacks rely on stolen credentials rather than technical exploits. A password manager stores unique, complex passwords for every account and can automatically flag weak or reused ones. It also helps protect you from phishing attempts because it will only autofill passwords on legitimate websites.

    Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches. Our #1 password manager (see Cyberguy.com/Passwords) pick includes a built-in breach scanner that checks whether your email address or passwords have appeared in known leaks. If you discover a match, immediately change any reused passwords and secure those accounts with new, unique credentials. 

    Check out the best expert-reviewed password managers of 2025 at Cyberguy.com/Passwords

    4) Enable two-factor authentication

    Even if someone steals your password, two-factor authentication (2FA) makes it much harder for them to access your accounts. It adds an extra step to the login process, requiring a code from your phone or a security key.

    5) Keep macOS and apps updated

    Outdated software is a common entry point for malware. Updates often patch vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit, so turning on automatic updates for both macOS and third-party apps is an easy but effective defense.

    6) Review login items and background processes

    Malware often tries to run at startup so it can operate undetected. Regularly check System Settings to make sure only trusted apps are launching automatically, and use Activity Monitor to investigate anything suspicious.

    7) Use identity theft protection

    If your personal data has already been exposed, an identity theft protection service can monitor for suspicious activity, alert you to breaches, and help you recover quickly if something does go wrong. Identity Theft companies can monitor personal information like your Social Security Number (SSN), phone number, and email address, and alert you if it is being sold on the dark web or being used to open an account.  They can also assist you in freezing your bank and credit card accounts to prevent further unauthorized use by criminals. 

    See my tips and best picks on how to protect yourself from identity theft at Cyberguy.com/IdentityTheft 

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    Kurt’s key takeaway

    Macs have a reputation for being safer than other computers, but that does not mean they are untouchable. Malware has evolved to target macOS more aggressively than ever, and many attacks now rely on tricking users rather than breaking through security software. If your device is behaving strangely, taking action early is the best way to prevent deeper damage.

    How important is cybersecurity when choosing the devices you use every day? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com/Contact

    Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy Report
    Get my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide – free when you join my CYBERGUY.COM/NEWSLETTER

    Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com.  All rights reserved.  

    Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

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  • 14 Years After His Death, Steve Jobs’ Most Enduring Idea Isn’t the iPhone

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    It goes without saying that Steve Jobs will always be known as the father of the iPhone. Eighteen years later, his introduction of what would become the most successful consumer product of all time is still—I would argue—the greatest tech keynote ever delivered. It is, after all, the only time I’ve seen a tech CEO prank call a Starbucks and order 4,000 lattes.

    The iPhone transformed everything from how we communicate to how we work to how we capture the moments we care about. But, 14 years after Jobs passed away at age 56, you can make the case that the iPhone isn’t his most enduring idea. That distinction, I think, belongs to another of his revolutionary ideas: the Apple Store.

    There are many reasons I say that, but the only one that matters is that the iPhone, as revolutionary as it was, would have never been possible without the Apple Store.

    That might sound strange. One is a piece of technology, the other is a retail space. But the Apple Store is the reason people understood—and trusted—Apple enough to buy the iPhone in the first place. It’s the most powerful expression of Jobs’ obsession with controlling every part of the customer experience. And it’s the one part of Apple’s ecosystem that has only grown more important with time.

    When the first two Apple Stores opened in May 2001, most people thought Jobs was crazy. Gateway had just shut down its stores after losing millions. Dell’s direct-to-consumer model was thriving online. Why, critics asked, would anyone need a physical store to sell computers?

    Jobs had a simple answer: because no one else could tell Apple’s story the way Apple could.

    Before the Apple Store, buying a Mac meant walking into a store like CompUSA, where the computers were shoved in a corner next to fax machines and discount printers. No one was explaining why a Mac was different. No one was showing how it worked. Apple had great products, but no way to tell the story.

    Selling Macs in its own retail stores changed that. The design was intentional: wide tables instead of shelves, clean glass and light wood instead of clutter and chaos. It felt more like a showroom than a computer shop—everything was meant to be touched. You could play with a Mac, edit a photo, make a video, and see what Apple meant when it said, “It just works.”

    That experience did something no ad campaign ever could. It built trust. It made people feel like Apple wasn’t just selling them a computer—it was inviting them into a way of thinking about technology.

    By the time the iPod came along later that year, the Apple Store was already doing exactly what Jobs envisioned. It was making complicated technology feel simple and accessible, and giving people a reason to believe that Apple could make something better.

    And when the iPhone arrived in 2007, the world was ready.

    The iPhone was radical, but what made it believable was everything that came before it. If you were going to ask people to pay $500 for a smartphone, you needed a space that made it make sense. The Apple Store did that. It was the place where you could pick up Apple’s vision of the future and hold it in your hand.

    More importantly, it let Apple control how that future was introduced. Carriers might have sold the majority of iPhones, but the Apple Store was where people fell in love with them. It was where they learned to use them, where they came for help, and where they came back for their next one.

    Even today, Apple Stores are still the company’s most effective marketing tool. They are, quite literally, the physical embodiment of the brand—every one of them a giant glowing billboard. You don’t walk past an Apple Store and wonder what the company stands for. You feel it.

    That feeling has real financial weight. Before the pandemic, Apple Stores generated more revenue per square foot than any other retailer—about $5,500 per square foot, according to eMarketer data—more than Tiffany & Co., more than Lululemon, more than any luxury brand on the planet. The number has fluctuated over the years, but the point remains: no one has ever been more successful at physical retail on this scale.

    In 2023, Apple’s direct-to-consumer business—its stores and website—accounted for roughly 37 percent of the company’s total sales, according to Apple’s SEC filings. That’s tens of billions of dollars sold directly, without a middleman. For iPhones, the carriers still dominate overall sales, but Apple Stores aren’t about volume; they’re about experience and control.

    Jobs understood that better than anyone. He once said that Apple exists at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts. The Apple Store was the intersection of technology and theater. It gave the company a stage to perform its story—every day, in cities all over the world. It continues to be the perfect place to expose more people to Apple’s products, and—more importantly—its brand.

    It’s also the part of his vision that’s aged the best. The iPhone is now in its 17th generation. Macs and iPads have gone through dozens of redesigns. The Apple Store has evolved, but it’s still very much the place Apple prefers to tell its story.

    When you walk into an Apple Store today, you’re walking into the company’s ideal for how technology should feel, and that comes directly from Jobs. He believed the experience should be human, warm, and a little bit magical. Every clean line, every Genius Bar conversation, every moment you pick up a product and instantly get it—that’s Jobs’ philosophy in physical form.

    That’s what makes it his most enduring legacy. Sure, the iPhone changed the world. But it was the Apple Store that made it possible. It taught people to expect beauty and simplicity from technology. It taught them to trust Apple. And it gave the company a direct connection to its customers that no competitor has ever matched.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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    Jason Aten

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  • Where the ‘PayPal Mafia’ Is Today: Founders, Fortunes and Feuds

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    Peter Thiel, PayPal’s first CEO, turned his fintech fortune into a far-reaching empire of influence spanning venture capital, politics and power. Marco Bello/Getty Images

    In 2007, Fortune magazine reimagined a classic mafia scene with a Silicon Valley twist: 13 male founders and early employees of PayPal, all long gone from the company, posed at a San Francisco café with slicked-back hair, poker chips and dozens of whiskey glasses. The crowd included some of the most recognizable names in today’s tech scene, like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman. The magazine dubbed them the “PayPal mafia,” not for their time at the fintech company, but for their outsized impact on Silicon Valley through the companies they launched afterward.

    PayPal went public in early 2002 and was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion the same year. Most of its early employees left the company after the acquisition. They went on to found YouTube, SpaceX and LinkedIn, among other legendary names in Silicon Valley. However, like their cinematic namesake, the group hasn’t avoided controversy. These former colleagues have built billion-dollar businesses while also finding themselves in the crosshairs of public criticism.

    For instance, Thiel has faced controversy over his political affiliations and, most notably, for funding Hulk Hogan’s 2012 lawsuit against Gawker Media with $10 million — a case that ultimately drove the online media company into bankruptcy. Musk has also faced criticism for his takeover of Twitter and his prior role in the Trump administration, where he led widespread federal employee firings.

    Here’s what they are up to these days:

    Peter Thiel: venture capitalist 

    Peter Thiel speaking at the 2022 Bitcoin ConferencePeter Thiel speaking at the 2022 Bitcoin Conference
    Peter Thiel. Marco Bello/Getty Images

    Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Luke Nosek founded PayPal in 1998, originally as a software security company. After merging with Elon Musk’s X.com (unrelated to the social media platform he owns today), PayPal shifted its focus to digital payments.

    Thiel served as CEO from 1998 until 2002, leaving after the company was sold to eBay. He then co-founded Palantir Technologies, a major U.S. government contractor providing data analytics services. The company now has a market capitalization of $439 billion.

    Thiel is also known as a prolific angel investor. He co-founded Clarium Capital, Founders Fund, Valar Ventures and Mithril Capital. In 2004, Thiel became Facebook’s first outside investor after acquiring a 10.2 percent stake in the company for $500,000.

    Thiel is among the many former PayPal employees who have entered political and high-profile public arenas. An active donor to the Republican Party, Thiel supported Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign but withheld donations during the 2024 election. He is also credited with helping JD Vance reach the Vice Presidential ticket.

    Elon Musk: entrepreneur, the world’s richest person

    Elon Musk gesturing at a press conference in the Oval Office of the White House in May 2025. Elon Musk gesturing at a press conference in the Oval Office of the White House in May 2025.
    Elon Musk. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

    Elon Musk briefly served as PayPal’s CEO before being ousted by the board in 2000. He went on to build one of the most influential portfolios in technology, spanning electric vehicles, space exploration, social media and A.I.

    Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 and has led Tesla since 2008. He also founded Neuralink and The Boring Company, expanding his reach into brain-computer interfaces and infrastructure. In 2022, Musk gained global attention for acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, later rebranding it as X.

    His ties to A.I. run deep: Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015 but left in 2018 over strategic disagreements. In 2023, he returned to the field by launching xAI, a research venture focused on building A.I. that is more understandable for humans.

    Today, Musk is the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $400 billion. He is also perhaps the only PayPal alumnus to ascend into direct political influence. During the Trump administration, he led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a name shared with his cryptocurrency venture—before stepping down in May after clashing publicly with the President.

    Max Levchin: computer scientist 

    Max Levchin speaking at a FOX Network show in 2019.Max Levchin speaking at a FOX Network show in 2019.
    Max Levchin. John Lamparski/Getty Images
    • Position at PayPal: co-founder, chief technology officer from 1998 to 2002
    • Companies later founded: Affirm
    • Net worth: $1.8 billion

    As PayPal’s chief technology officer, Max Levchin helped lead the company’s anti-fraud efforts by co-creating the Gausebeck-Levchin test—the foundation for the widely used CAPTCHA security tool. After leaving PayPal, he launched the media-sharing platform Slide in 2004, which was acquired by Google in 2010. Levchin briefly served as Google’s vice president of engineering until Slide was shut down the following year.

    In 2012, he co-founded Affirm, a leading “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) company, where he continues to serve as CEO. Today, Affirm has a market capitalization of $27.5 billion, with 21.9 million consumers and more than 350,000 merchant partners on its platform.

    Levchin has also held board positions at Yahoo and Yelp. In 2015, he became the first Silicon Valley executive appointed to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s advisory board, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between companies and regulators.

    Reid Hoffman: entrepreneur, investor

    Reid Hoffman speaking at event for WIRED's 30th anniversary.Reid Hoffman speaking at event for WIRED's 30th anniversary.
    Reid Hoffman. Kimberly White/Getty Images for WIRED
    • Position at PayPal: chief operating officer
    • Companies later founded: LinkedIn, Greylock Partners
    • Net worth: $2.5 billion

    Before joining PayPal, Hoffman worked as a senior user experience architect at Apple, contributing to the company’s online social network eWorld. He later became director of product management at Fujitsu. After his online dating startup, SocialNet, folded, Hoffman joined PayPal in 2000 as chief operating officer.

    In 2003, he co-founded the career networking site LinkedIn. Following Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2017, Hoffman joined Microsoft’s board, a move that greatly increased his wealth.

    Over the years, Hoffman has served on the boards of Airbnb and OpenAI, where he was also an early investor. Through the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, he has backed dozens of A.I. startups. In 2022, he co-founded Inflection AI with Mustafa Suleyman, who now serves as CEO. Earlier this year, he teamed up with cancer researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee to launch Manas AI, a startup focused on drug discovery.

    David Sacks: investor, White House A.I. and Crypto Czar

    David Sacks being photographed on a red carpet in Los Angeles.David Sacks being photographed on a red carpet in Los Angeles.
    David Sacks currently serves as the White House A.I. and Crypto Czar. JC Olivera/Variety via Getty Images
    • Position at PayPal: chief operating officer from 1999 to 2002
    • Companies later founded: Craft Ventures
    • Net worth: $200 million

    Since leaving PayPal, David Sacks has built a career spanning film, tech, investing and politics. In 2005, he produced and financed a political satire that earned two Golden Globe nominations. The following year, he founded Geni.com, a genealogy-focused social network that later spun off Yammer, one of the earliest enterprise social networking platforms. He went on to co-found Craft Ventures, the startup Glue, and the podcast platform Callin.

    Today, Sacks serves as the White House’s Special Advisor for A.I. and Crypto, a role created by the Trump administration to guide policy on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.

    Jeremy Stoppelman: engineer, Yelp CEO 

    • Position at PayPal: vice president of engineering
    • Companies later founded: Yelp
    • Net worth: $100 million

    Jeremy Stoppelman joined Musk’s X.com in 1999 and became vice president of engineering after its transition to PayPal. In 2004, he co-founded Yelp, where he has served as CEO ever since. Under his leadership, the company turned down a 2010 acquisition offer from Google and went public two years later. Stoppelman’s net worth is estimated at more than $100 million.

    Ken Howery: investor, U.S. ambassador

    • Position at PayPal: chief financial officer from 1998 to 2002
    • Companies later founded: Founders Fund
    • Net worth: estimated $1.5 billion

    Ken Howery served as PayPal’s chief financial officer from 1998 to 2002. After PayPal’s sale to eBay, he became eBay’s director of corporate development until 2003. He later joined Peter Thiel at Clarium Capital as vice president of private equity and went on to co-found Founders Fund as a partner. Beyond investing, he is a member of the Explorers Club, a nonprofit dedicated to scientific exploration, and an advisor to Kiva, the micro-lending nonprofit founded by former PayPal colleague Premal Shah.

    Howery is also among the former PayPal executives who have moved into politics. He has donated at least $1 million to Donald Trump’s campaign through Elon Musk’s political action committee. During Trump’s first term, Howery was appointed U.S. ambassador to Sweden and today serves as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark.

    Roeloth Botha: venture capitalist

    Roelof Botha joined PayPal as director of corporate development shortly before graduating from Stanford University. He later became vice president of finance and went on to serve as chief financial officer until the company’s acquisition by eBay.

    After leaving PayPal, Botha joined Sequoia Capital, where he oversaw investments in YouTube and Instagram. He currently sits on the boards of MongoDB, Evernote, Bird, Natera, Square, Unity and Xoom.

    Russel Simmons: entrepreneur 

    • Position at PayPal: software architect from 1998 to 2003
    • Companies later founded: Yelp, Learnirvana

    Russel Simmons helped design PayPal’s payment system as a software architect. After leaving the company, he and fellow PayPal alum Jeremy Stoppelman set out to build a platform for restaurant reviews. With a $1 million investment from Max Levchin, they launched Yelp in July 2004. Simmons served as chief technology officer until his departure in 2010. At the time, Yelp said he would remain a “significant” shareholder, though the size of his stake—and whether he still holds it—remains unclear.

    In 2014, Simmons co-founded Learnirvana, an online learning platform.

    Andrew McCormack: entrepreneur

    • Position at PayPal: assistant to Thiel from July 2001 to November 2002
    • Companies later founded: Valar Ventures

    Andrew McCormack began his career as an assistant to Peter Thiel at PayPal and followed him into subsequent ventures. From November 2002 to April 2003, he oversaw operations at Thiel’s hedge fund, Clarium Capital.

    In 2010, McCormack co-founded Valar Ventures with Thiel and James Fitzgerald, focusing on fintech investments. He remains a general partner at the firm.

    Luke Nosek: investor 

    • Position at PayPal: co-founder and vice president of marketing and strategy from 1998 to 2002
    • Companies later founded: Founders Fund, Gigafund

    In 2005, Luke Nosek joined Peter Thiel and Ken Howery to launch Founders Fund, a San Francisco–based venture capital firm that has backed companies such as Airbnb, Lyft and SpaceX. While his exact net worth is unclear, Nosek has made substantial investments through his venture firms. At Founders Fund, he led one of the firm’s earliest major deals with a $20 million investment in SpaceX, later serving on its board.

    In 2017, Nosek left to co-found Gigafund, which went on to invest $1 billion in SpaceX, according to the company. He also sits on the board of ResearchGate.

    Premal Shah: entrepreneur 

    • Position at Paypal: product manager
    • Companies later founded: Kiva

    Three years after leaving PayPal, Premal Shah co-founded Kiva, a nonprofit that provides loans to entrepreneurs in underserved communities worldwide. He also serves on the boards of other nonprofits, including the Center for Humane Technology, the Change.org Foundation, Watsi and VolunteerMatch.

    Keith Rabois: investor

    • Position at PayPal: executive vice president of business development

    After leaving his executive role at PayPal, Keith Rabois became an active investor, backing companies including Slide, YouTube and Palantir. He also invested in LinkedIn, where he served as vice president of business and corporate development, and Square, where he was chief operating officer.

    Rabois joined venture capital firm Khosla Ventures from 2013 to 2019 and was a partner at Founders Fund from 2019 to 2024.

    Where the ‘PayPal Mafia’ Is Today: Founders, Fortunes and Feuds

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    Irza Waraich

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  • Apple’s AirPods 4 drop to $90 for Prime Day

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    If you prefer open-ear AirPods but still have an older model, this deal could be worth noting. Amazon’s October Prime Day has the AirPods 4 on sale for $90, or 30 percent off their usual price. That’s also the lowest we’ve seen them.

    When Apple updated its standard AirPods in 2024, it released two models: one with active noise cancellation (ANC) and one without. We consider the non-ANC models to be the best budget AirPods you can get, so they’re an even better buy at this sale price. The ANC versions are also discounted at the moment, so you can pick them up for $140 instead of the usual $180.

    Apple

    Save 30 percent on Apple’s open-ear wireless earbuds.

    $90 at Amazon

    The AirPods’ H2 chip brings a bunch of Pro-adjacent features to the standard model. That list includes Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Transparency, Personalized Spatial Audio and wireless charging. For calls, it supports Voice Isolation, which helps filter out background noise and make it easier for you to be heard. And if that call is via FaceTime, it supports Apple’s 48kHz “cinema-quality” audio.

    Sound is improved over the AirPods 3. “There’s more low-end tone than the previous model right out of the gate, and the punchier treble opens the sound stage so it’s wider and more immersive,” Engadget’s Billy Steele wrote. “The improved frequency response is on full display with Dolby Atmos content (movies, music, and TV), but the AirPods 4 are also more sonically adept with non-spatial tunes and video.”

    You can expect around five hours of battery life on a single charge. With the ANC model, that estimate drops to around four hours with the marquee feature activated. With either version, you can drop them in the charging case to extend their total time to around 30 hours. And hey, it’s good to give your ears a rest now and then anyway.

    Image for the mini product module

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    Will Shanklin

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  • Prime Day Apple deals include 25 percent off a four-pack of AirTags

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    Prime Day Apple deals can be hard to come by, but right now you can save on one of Apple’s smallest (and arguably one if its most useful) gadgets. A four-pack of Apple AirTags is down to $75 right now, which is 24 percent off its usual price. That brings each AirTag in the bundle down to $18.75 each. If you’re an Apple user, then the AirTag is the best Bluetooth tracker on the market for you.

    Apple

    Apple’s AirTag 4 pack is 25 percent off ahead of Prime Day. 

    $75 at Amazon

    You can put these little discs in your wallet, in a backpack or in your luggage while you’re traveling. Your AirTag’s location will show up in your Find My app, powered by the vast network of iPhones, iPads and other compatible devices that receive the AirTag’s Bluetooth signal. Keep in mind these only work when close enough to participating devices to be located.

    You can attach AirTags to just about anything thanks to an abundance of available accessories. Their built-in speakers can play a tone, triggered from your iPhone, to help you find them when the object they’re affixed to is lost. On iPhone 11 and newer models, you can take advantage of the AirTag’s Ultra Wideband capability and have your phone lead you right to your AirTag, complete with directional arrows on your iPhone screen.

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    Andre Revilla

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