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For years, Apple provided its built-in Keychain password management tool hidden within the Settings app. This tool allowed passwords to be automatically generated and saved in the Passwords section, but it could often be cumbersome when a user needs to quickly manage particular logins.

Now, in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, passwords have broken away into its own dedicated app called Passwords. Apple hopes this change will make managing credentials more convenient for its users, but one question is on everyone’s mind right now: Does it offer enough to replace paid password managers? Let’s talk about it.

Weighing the costs and benefits

When you open Passwords for the first time, you’ll find the layout very similar to the Reminders app with two rows of categories: All, Passkeys, Codes, Wi-Fi, Security, and Deleted. It’s very simple and easy to navigate.

The app allows users to view saved credentials, manage passkeys, create rotating verification codes, review saved Wi-Fi logins, and receive alerts about passwords that have recently been compromised in data leaks. With the addition of Family Passwords sharing, the app is a handy hodgepodge of features that previously existed elsewhere now in a single place, accessible from any signed-in Apple device.

But there are some drawbacks.

Similar to a password manager like 1Password for example, stored credentials in the Passwords app can be accessed from any signed-in Apple device. You can even access your stored passwords on Windows via the iCloud for Windows app. However, there is no browser or Android support. The Passwords app is exclusive to Apple devices with the exception of the iCloud Windows app. This can be an inconvenience if you use Android and Mac or a combination of mixed-platform devices.

Moreover, if you use a paid service like 1Password, you know it provides features beyond basic password storage, including secure notes, document storage, cross-browser integration, two-factor authentication, etc. These are not offered in Apple’s free Passwords app.

Wrap-up

In conclusion, the Passwords app is currently in its infancy. Its basic, easy-to-use layout is clearly targeted at people who have never used a password manager before.

If you’re already using a service like 1Password and find it effective, I don’t see a compelling reason to switch to Passwords, despite it being free. You’ll find While the app primarily focuses on basic credential management, it could be a convenient choice for newcomers to password managers or those who prefer an integrated solution, as Passwords is available across iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and even visionOS 2. Ultimately, the decision depends on your needs and preferences.

Nonetheless, I’m excited to see where the app goes. Will you be using the new Passwords app in iOS 18?

About Security Bite: Security Bite is a weekly security-focused column on 9to5Mac. Every week, Arin Waichulis delivers insights on data privacy, uncovers vulnerabilities, or sheds light on emerging threats within Apple’s vast ecosystem of over 2 billion active devices to help you still safe.

Follow Arin: Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Threads

More in this series

In this initial hands-on walkthrough, I discuss 18 of my favorite new changes and features from the first iOS 18 beta for iPhone. I explain why you should be excited about new long-awaited updates to the iOS Calendar app, Reminders, Notes, Messages, and more. Watch our hands-on video, and be sure to subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more hands-on iOS 18 coverage.

Note: For your convenience, clicking the heading of each section will jump directly to the corresponding timestamp in the embedded video below.

In iOS 18, the home screen receives several radical (for iOS) changes. For the first time, users are allowed to place app icons anywhere, as long as they adhere to the traditional grid structure. The same thing now applies to widgets on iPhone, a feature previously exclusive to iPadOS.

Speaking of widgets, in iOS 18 you can now resize widgets dynamically via a handy drag handle that surfaces while in edit mode. Widgets can also be upsized and downsized, all the way back down to a regular app icon, using a context menu option that appears when long-pressing the app.

Video: iOS 18 top features and changes

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There’s also the ability to make app icons larger, which also brings forth the ability to hide app names on the Home Screen for the first time. Hopefully, Apple will extend this feature to the smaller icons as well.

Users will also like the new option to enable a dark mode for icons. Currently, only Apple’s first-party pre-installed apps are affected by the dark mode option, but developers will be able to feature it in their apps as well. In addition, there is a new option to tint all app icons with the same color for a more cohesive theme on the Home Screen.

Up until now, the Calendar app was a big disappointment for me, because the monthly view provided almost no detail. In iOS 18, Apple has finally addressed this glaring omission by providing the month view with different colors for each calendar, and the ability to pinch out to view specific details about upcoming events.

But Apple took it a step further in iOS 18, and tightly integrated the Calendar with Reminders. You can now schedule a reminder directly in the Calendar, and add a calendar event directly from Reminders. These are both quality improvements that are sure to simplify event and task management.

In iOS 18, the Messages app gains several new features, such as being able to use emojis and stickers with tapbacks, the super-handy one-icon replies for quickly acknowledging a message that doesn’t require a full text response.

Users will also love the ability to schedule messages, a feature that I and many others have been wanting for years. Apple also included a new text effect option that allows you to apply special effects and text formatting for your messages down to an individual word or emoji character.

Notes have received some fantastic updates over the years, and that trend continues with iOS 18. One of my favorite new features is the ability to collapse headings, which is great for organizing dense text. Notes also gains the ability to record and embed audio notes and highlight text using one of five new color options.

As always, this year’s major iOS update includes quite a few noteworthy accessibility improvements. A new Vocal Shortcuts option, which lets you establish specific keywords for executing Siri commands and shortcuts provides an extremely powerful new automation tool.

There’s also a new visionOS-like eye-tracking feature that allows you to control your device using just your eyes. I can only imagine this feature becoming more powerful over time and may be a good enough reason for a significant update to the front-facing camera hardware in future iPhones.

13 additional top features

In addition to the five areas touched on above, I also cover an additional 13 sections in this initial iOS 18 walkthrough. The sections include the following:

I’ll be back with more in-depth, hands-on coverage of iOS 18 and all of Apple’s platforms in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, tell me, what’s your favorite new feature in iOS 18? Sound off in the comments below.

The original Macintosh computer, quickly renamed to the Macintosh 128k, sold for $2,495 (£1,969) when it launched in 1984. Now, thanks to the Raspberry Pi Pico and one dedicated maker, you can build your own for less than $6.34 (£5). 

Matt Evans developed the project over an undisclosed amount of time. He was inspired by a conversation about building a desktop GUI for the Raspberry Pi Pico’s RP2040 MCU. He’d commented on running an old operating system instead, and the original Macintosh came to mind. 

When it debuted in 1984, the Macintosh only had 128KB of RAM. Within months, Apple quadrupled that and released the Macintosh 512K. The original model was rebranded the Macintosh 128K. It came bundled with MacWrite and MacPaint. Eventually, software such as MacProject, MacTerminal, and Microsoft Word were released for the computer. When the Macintosh 512K was released, Apple soon offered the vector graphics drawing software MacDraw.

Evans’s goal was to bring the Macintosh 128K to life to run the originally bundled software and the all-important Missile Command. If he could pull it off, he’d also hoped to run MacDraw on his budget Macintosh. While putting together the hardware for the job was easy enough, getting it to run the Macintosh operating system took some doing. 

The Raspberry Pi Pico MicroMac build

Along the way, Evans developed three software projects: a Mac emulator he named umac, the pico-mac project to embed the umac emulator on the Pico, and the means to connect to a monitor and USB keyboard and mouse. For hardware, he used the Raspberry Pi Pico with three series resistors, a VGA connection, and DC power. He also used a USB OTG micro-B to A adapter for connecting a USB keyboard and mouse. 

After a fair bit of trial and error, reverse engineering, and hacking various registers and variables in the Macintosh System 3.2 operating system, Evans had accomplished what he set out to do. Embedded into a Raspberry Pi Pico, the Pico MicroMac runs the original Macintosh operating system, MacWrite, MacDraw, and Missile Command. 

Image 1 of 5

Hardware-wise, Evans has built in support for the following hardware, according to the notes in the GitHub project:

VIA A/B GPIO ports, and IRQs (1Hz and Vsync)VIA shift register for keyboardSCC DCD pin change interrupts, for mouseParavirtualised disc storageDefaults to 128K of RAM, but will run as a Mac 512K by changing a #define(RAM_SIZE).

His project does not support:

IWM/realistic floppy drivesMore than one disc, or runtime image-switchingSound (a lot of work for a beep)VIA timers (Space Invaders runs too fast, probably because of this)Serial/printer/AppletalkFramebuffer switching: the Mac supports double-buffering by moving the base of screen memory via the VIA (ha), but I haven’t seen anything using it. Easy to add.Disc writes (easy to enable, untested). I didn’t need to save my MacWrite essays so far.

Notes on building the hardware for the Pico MicroMac

Evans provides instructions to build the Pico MicroMac on the Github project page. He does warn potential builders, though, that a lack of soldering skills could lead to a zapped mouse. Nevertheless, it’s a great use for a Pico and demonstrates just how fast microcontrollers have come. 

In his latest note, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote that he believes the upcoming Apple Watch Series 10 will feature a thinner chassis and a larger display, compared to Apple Watch Series 9. What is perhaps most surprising is just how much bigger Kuo believes the screens are getting.

Kuo says the Watch will increase from the current 41mm and 45mm sizes to about 45mm and 49mm respectively. Remember, unlike other Apple devices, these sizes measure case height of the watch, not diagonal screen size. Naturally, a taller case also means a bigger display. For comparison, the current Apple Watch Ultra is also measured at 49mm case height.

This is a pretty dramatic jump. The new form factors would make the smallest watch as big as the current larger Series 9, and the new bigger model would approach — and perhaps surpass — the Ultra screen size. The Ultra will still be a bit bulkier overall, as its chassis features thicker titanium design with a protruding crown guard, for instance.

But still, if these numbers are accurate, the screen size jump would be notable for the main Apple Watch line. It seems unlikely that hypothetically slimmer screen bezels could offset much of this size increase, as the Watch screen already has super-slim borders.

The thinner chassis claim gels with what Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported yesterday, indicating that Apple is planning thinner designs for upcoming iPhone, Watch, and MacBook Pro models, sticking to a trend started by the launch of the M4 iPad Pro.

Interestingly, Kuo does not expect the new Apple Watch Ultra to also get bigger. He says it will have roughly the same dimensions as the Ultra 2. However, Apple may make a dark titanium color option available for the first time.

Rumors of a significant Apple Watch hardware redesign that uses new band attachments have been circulating for a while, but it’s unclear if that is what Kuo is referring to or if the Series 10 will be a revision of the same general form factor. The ‘Apple Watch X’ redesign was previously suggested as arriving in either 2024 or 2025.

Cadence demonstrated its proprietary optical connectivity solution for PCIe 7.0 at the PCI-SIG DevCon 2024 earlier this month. The world’s first demonstration of 128 GT/s PCIe 7.0 interconnection over optics is largely a proof-of-concept as the PCIe 7.0 specification is yet to be finalized. However, having a working optical connectivity solution for a standard that is set to be used towards the end of the decade clearly demonstrates Cadence’s technical prowess.

During the event, Cadence demonstrated its 128 GT/s PCIe 7.0 IP’s transmission and reception capabilities using a real-world, low-latency, non-retimed, linear optical connection. This setup consistently achieved a pre-FEC BER of ~3E-8, well within the PCIe specification requirement of 1E-6, making it the first stable demonstration of 128 GT/s over standard optical connectors. The receiver Eye PAM4 histograms, depicted on an image demonstrated by Cadence, exhibit excellent linearity and margin.

Back in August last year PCI-SIG formed its Optical Workgroup, which will work on industry-standard PCIe over optical interfaces. To this day, PCI Express has relied solely on copper interconnections. 

However, because PCIe interconnections are getting longer in applications like AI and HPC servers and usage of retimers is both complicated, expensive and power consuming as well as having its limitations (as only two retimers per link can be used). Therefore, the decision to explore optical connectivity is certainly an important one.

Just like Cadence, there are several other vendors currently provide proprietary external PCIe connectivity solutions. This does not necessarily contradict PCI-SIG’s plan to standardize optical PCIe connectivity, as the development of an optical standard seeks to establish a unified approach for PCIe over fiber optics. PCI-SIG emphasized that it is not creating a standard for any specific optical technology, but aims to develop a technology-agnostic specification that supports a broad spectrum of optical technologies.

An optical solution for PCIe 7.0 is something that will be required in the years to come. But Cadence showcased quite a number of PCIe setups, including PCIe 7.0 electrical, and various PCIe 6.0 configurations at the event. These included RP/EP interop back-to-back setups, protocol demonstrations in FLIT mode at both the Cadence and Lecroy booths, JTOL testing with Anritsu and Tektronix equipment, and system-level interoperability demos with a PCIe Gen5 platform at the SerialTek booth.

Leaked images have revealed that a new Philips Hue Twilight bedside lamp is on the way. In addition to a standard angled lamp, there are separate LEDs at the rear which can be used to simulate sunrise and sunset.

Philips already released the Philips Hue Signe gradient lamp back in 2022, with bedside tables one of the suggested uses, but the Twilight appears to take a more focused approach to bedroom use …

HueBlog shared some images yesterday, and more details today, of the lamp, which is just over a foot high.

The main light and rear LEDs are controlled with separate switches in the top of the lamp. The one controlling the rear LEDs can also activate scenes.

These switches can be used not only to switch the bedside lamp on and off or to cycle through scenes, but also to start sleep automation. The Hue Twilight then simulates a cosy sunset until it switches off completely.

There’s no mention of a wake feature, but I’d expect to be able to use the app to be able to set a wake scene which simulates sunrise.

The lamp will be available in a choice of black or white, both featuring a matching power cable and a cork base.

Microsoft will delay its controversial Recall feature and take more time to test and polish it before rolling it out to Copilot+PCs.

In an update to a blog post detailing changes coming to Recall, Microsoft revealed it would not make the feature available as a preview on Copilot+PCs on June 18th, as originally planned. Instead, the company will launch the preview in the Windows Insider Program first to get more feedback. Eventually, the company will make the Recall preview available to all Copilot+PCs, though there isn’t a timeline for when that will happen yet.

“We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the Windows Insider community to ensure the experience meets our high standards for quality and security,” Microsoft wrote in the blog post.

“This decision is rooted in our commitment to providing a trusted, secure and robust experience for all customers and to seek additional feedback prior to making the feature available to all Copilot+ PC users.”

This is the latest change to Recall following an outcry over security and privacy issues. Microsoft first revealed Recall at its Copilot+PC event in May. The company positioned Recall as a helpful tool for searching previous activities to find documents, conversations, photos, and more. However, security experts raised concerns over how Recall captures screenshots of what people are doing, which could result in the feature storing personal information like banking details or passwords. Recall uses screen captures to build a ‘semantic index’ of user activity that can be searched.

Notably, Apple’s recently unveiled Apple Intelligence features similarly rely on a semantic index built from personal information people store on their iPhones. Though both features work on-device and don’t use cloud processing, Apple Intelligence doesn’t appear to take screen captures to build its semantic index.

Microsoft will share another blog post detailing how to get the Recall preview once it becomes available for Insiders. However, the company still says Insiders will need Copilot+PCs to test Recall due to “hardware requirements,” even though it’s been proven that Recall works fine on other hardware.

Header image credit: Microsoft

Distributed also on: Microsoft

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With the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 on the way, we’re getting new leaks about the upcoming device. We recently saw the specs for the device, and Ice Universe posted images of a dummy phone on their X (Twitter).

Samsung Fold6 Dummy pic.twitter.com/fwtLyXyG3i

— ICE UNIVERSE (@UniverseIce) June 14, 2024

We see a more modern, updated design compared to the Fold 5. The handset sports a squared, boxy design with sharper corners and a wider Cover Screen. Many in the past, including myself, have complained about the aspect ratio of the front screen, so this would be a welcomed update compared to its predecessor.

The handset’s full specs were also leaked, indicating that you can see most of the Z Fold 6 changes just by looking at it. The smartphone’s UI may also have many Galaxy AI changes, but we’ll have to wait until next month to learn more about Samsung’s upcoming flagship.

Distributed also on: Ice Universe 

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Two female Apple employees have filed a lawsuit against the tech giant, alleging that it pays women less than men for the same work.

In a California court, the women are proposing a class-action suit to represent more than 12,000 current and former female employees across Apple’s engineering, marketing and AppleCare divisions. The suit alleges that Apple “systematically” paid women lower wages over a four-year period due to a policy that set their salaries based on their previous employment, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

While the state of California made it illegal in 2018 for employers to ask job candidates about their prior pay, Apple would instead ask about pay expectations, the lawsuit says. The tech giant would then reportedly set starting salaries at lower rates based on these pay expectations.

The lawsuit also alleges that “Apple’s performance evaluation system is biased against women because for scored categories such as teamwork and leadership, men are rewarded and women are penalized for the same behaviors.”

The lawsuit calls for class members to be compensated for the loss of fair wages, as well as declaratory and injunctive relief. Apple has not yet publicly responded to the suit.

Via: Engadget

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