Thought your older Intel Macs running on Lion all the way up through Mojave could no longer have a modern, functional web browser? Named after the “red leaves of autumn” in Japanese and based off of FireFox 140 ESR from June 2025, it’s quite an upgrade. It is a fork/successor to the FireFox-dynasty […]
The post Momiji: A new FireFox browser for OS X Lion – Mojave appeared first on Low End Mac.
Have you been asking yourself this question lately, “Why is my Mac running slowly?” If yes, you’re one of a number of users who encounter the problem wherein their computer starts to slow down. It’s a perennial question that we all ask ourselves at some point after using our Macs for a while. It’s ironic […]
The post Mac Running Slow? How to Make it Fast Again appeared first on The Mac Observer.
On August 1, 1989, Apple introduced the Mac SE FDHD, which came with a versatile new SuperDrive capable of storing a massive 1.4MB of data.
(via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)
After years of using a Mac, these overlooked macOS features have become essential to my daily workflow. They eliminate repetitive tasks.
(via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)
Apple (transcript, Hacker News):
The Company posted quarterly revenue of $109.4 billion, up 16 percent year over year.
[…]
“Today, Apple is proud to report our strongest June quarter ever, with double-digit revenue growth across iPhone, Mac and Services, and in every geographic segment,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
iPhone revenue was up 22%, Mac revenue was up 10.4%, Services revenue was up 12%, and Wearables revenue was up 6%. iPad revenue was down 6%.
Together, iPhone and Services accounted for 77.7% of Apple’s $109.4B in net sales.
Gross margin for the quarter was 50.1 percent, compared to 46.5 percent in the year-ago quarter.
You can’t argue with the strong iPhone and Mac sales figures, and Apple specifically called out the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Neo, which Cook said “has been especially popular” and suggested that the company is still struggling to make them fast enough.
It’s admirable (and sensible) that Cook isn’t pointing fingers at anyone but customers who want Apple products, but the key phrase in his statement is “the supply chain just has less flexibility in it than normal.” This is an acknowledgement that while in the past, Apple might have been able to boost chip production from its partners, today the chip industry is maxed out thanks to the wild building of chips for AI applications.
[…]
As an aside, Cook also alluded to reports that Apple has tried to get the U.S. government to authorize purchase of RAM from some forbidden Chinese chipmakers, which has aroused political ire.
See also: MacRumors.
Previously:
What sets Pastebot 3 apart is its addition of deep automation tools. Not only does the update add MCP support, making it an excellent tool to use with Claude or ChatGPT/Codex, but it includes a brand new CLI that you or an agent can use from Terminal or incorporate into scripts you build.
[…]
New filters have been added that allow you to transform clippings using text transformations and even shell scripts. Using the ability to script custom filters, I’ve begun adding a few of my own to Pastebot for things like adding and removing bullets from multiple lines of text.
I’ve long been aware of this app but hadn’t paid much attention because I’m happy using LaunchBar as my clipboard and snippet manager. LaunchBar has some transformations built-in, and I’ve built up a collection of my own scripts, but it’s appealing that Pastebot comes with so many out of the box.
From Pastebot’s main UI, you can select multiple items at once and right-click to add them to a Stack, or you can pick them one at a time in any order you’d like. As you select items, they’re numbered in the order you’ll paste them into a document using a keyboard shortcut. It’s an excellent feature for filling out forms or copying data from one spreadsheet to another.
There are also rule-based Smart Pastebins for automatic organization, like every link or image copied from Safari. Smart Pastebins can be filtered by clipping size, type, file extension, creation date, text, text length, and more. Multiple parameters can be combined for detailed filtering, and custom notes can be added to clippings to make them easy to find via search.
[…]
Tapbots says Pastebot 3 was built to work with Apple's Universal Clipboard feature, and when enabled and active, anything you copy on your iPhone is saved in Pastebot automatically.
Chief among my favorite features:
- Remembers up to 1,500 clippings (up from a mere 1,000 in v2).
- Syncs via iCloud. If I copy something on one Mac, it’s in my Pastebot history on my other Macs.
- That sweet Tapbots UI.
Importantly, Pastebot 3 requires macOS 26 Tahoe or later and comes with a 14-day free trial. Users can buy the app directly from Tapbots for $39 or subscribe through the App Store for $2.99 per month or $24.99 per year.
[…]
The direct purchase includes one year of updates, with additional years available for $19 each. Users who stop paying for updates can continue using the latest version covered by their purchase. Pastebot 2 owners can also get a $12.99 upgrade discount by entering their existing license key at checkout.
They are not offering any upgrade path for MAS customers. The reason they stated was “upgrade pricing has always been our way of thanking people who bought directly from the site.”
I generally try to avoid complaining about App Store review, since I do think they have a really hard job to do. But I’m about 2 more PB3 rejections from just giving up.
Previously:
The problem is that PAMS is drunk with power and flattens everything on its way[…]
That includes:
- emphasis by italics or bolding
- links
- bulleted and numbered lists
- strike-through text
- headlines
None of these are “style.” This is actual information that should not be removed.
Sometimes, Paste and Match Style is what you want, but I like when apps also provide other options, as he discusses. For example, the Omni apps now offer Paste and Merge Styles.
Previously:
Take $90 off at Amazon
This baseus docking station has a 25W Magsafe Charger
If you have a lot of accessories and peripherals for your Mac, a good docking station will help keep them all organized and tidy. They all basically do the same thing, adding ports, slots, and functionality that otherwise isn’t available on your Mac. But this deal for the Baseus SpaceMate RD1 Pro, on sale for $209 ($90 off), has a little extra: an adjustable MagSafe wireless charger on top. At the time of writing it is selling for $210 on Amazon, but use the special code at the end of this article to get the price as low as $199 at checkout.
With a single 10Gbps USB-C cable (included in the box along with an 180W GaN power adapter) connected to your computer, the SpaceMate RD1 Pro adds a slew of ports to your Mac, including 2 HDMI, 2 USB-C (10Gbps), 2 USB-C PD (100W), 4 data-only USB-A, SD/TF slots, and Ethernet. For such connectivity, the device is remarkably small, measuring just 18.58 x 10.75 x 4.13 inches.
Use either HDMI port to connect a single display up to 4K at 120Hz (or two mirrored displays), while the USB-C ports are capable of charging three devices at once with even power distribution. Plus, you can get 1Gbps wired Ethernet for stable Internet connectivity.
But the best part of this docking station is the top. That’s where you’ll find a 25W Qi2.2 MagSafe charger for your iPhone. It’ll securely hold your iPhone at any angle so you can still see what’s on the screen as well as charge supported iPhones (iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro Max, and all iPhone 17 models) at a max of 25W. It’s a unique feature not available on any other docking station we’ve seen.
So if you want lots of ports, a second monitor, and a place to charge your iPhone at the fastest possible wireless rate, look no further than the Baseus SpaceMate RD1 Pro, on sale for $90 off today.
A special discount for Macworld readers, using the code BASEUSPR will further reduce the price to $199.99 (33% off the original price of $298.49), valid from July 21st to August 31st at Amazon.
The highly anticipated MacBook Ultra has dominated recent tech discussions with its touchscreen and OLED panel. However, the fresh exterior built around these parts might be an even bigger deal. That is largely because Apple is not keeping this fresh look locked to its top-tier machine for very long. Rumors suggest the company plans to […]
The post MacBook Ultra’s Premium Design Will Soon Reach More Affordable Models appeared first on The Mac Observer.
Apple's CEO confirmed that even if Apple ends up using Chinese memories on its devices, it won't lead to a reduction in Mac or iPad prices.
(via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)
Despite delivering record-breaking financial results for its third quarter of 2026, Apple is facing fresh concerns from Wall Street over its ability to meet hardware demand. Following the massive Q3 2026 earnings report, JP Morgan adjusted its expectations for the technology giant. The investment bank officially lowered its price target for Apple stock from $345 […]
The post JP Morgan Lowers Apple Target To $340 Amid Supply Headwinds appeared first on The Mac Observer.
The latest financial numbers are in, and the Apple MacBook Neo is single-handedly pushing Mac sales to record levels. During its recent Apple Q3 2026 earnings call, Apple reported that Mac revenue jumped by almost 29 percent over the last quarter. This massive growth happened without the launch of any brand-new hardware during those three […]
The post John Ternus And MacBook Neo Give Apple A Huge Q3 Mac Sales Boost appeared first on The Mac Observer.
Apple posts yet another round of astonishing numbers during yet another record-shattering quarter. Try to wrap your head around these stats!
(via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)
Many MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Neo owners have noticed something curious; their MacBook battery stops charging at 80% when plugged in. To add to the confusion, even if they leave their MacBook plugged in overnight, the battery seems to be stuck at 80% and will not charge any further. Because this is not ... Read More
The post Why MacBook Stops Charging at 80% and How to Fix It appeared first on OS X Daily.
- A new brushing engine that has been rewritten using Metal shaders. It includes an option for “velocity thinning”, where the faster you draw your brush strokes, the thinner the lines.
- A new
acornshell tool that you can use to send JavaScript to Acorn, as well as start an MCP server. So if you’ve got a favorite LLM you like to use, you can now use it to drive Acorn. The JavaScript section of the release notes are a good read if you’re interested in that. In addition:
- The JS API has also been updated with examples for most calls.
- The shell tool has a
-jsioargument which lets you do things like:echo "acorn.takeLayeredScreenshot();" | acorn -jsio- Big ML models (used for Select Subject and Super Resolution Scaling) are now downloaded on demand. If AI isn’t your thing, they won’t take up any space on your Mac.
I feel lucky that Acorn is enough for me.
Very few software companies outside of Microsoft have the kind of leverage over entire industries. Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom and After Effects are all load bearing to some extent within their respective fields despite the fact that many people I know loathe using them.
Via Nick Heer:
I have said it before and I will say it again: if I had known the path Adobe’s software would eventually go down, I might very well have picked a different career.
Previously:
For a while now the transition away from Manifest V2 (MV2) to MV3 has been on-going and it looks like it is entering its final phase of deprecation, at least, in the case of Google Chrome. A recent discussion thread in the w3c WebExtensions Community Group GitHub repo has highlighted how the latest and upcoming versions of the most popular browser are expected to be its final releases with support for MV2 extensions.
[…]
Here is a rundown of the changes coming in the final such releases of Chromium releases:
- Chromium 150 lost
ExtensionManifestV2Disabledoption- Chromium 151 will loose
ExtensionManifestV2Unsupportedoption- Chromium 151 will loose
ExtensionManifestV2Availabilityoption- Chromium 151 will likely loose
AllowLegacyMV2ExtensionsoptionOther Chromium-based browsers like Opera and Microsoft Edge could soon follow suit too. Although it is not specified, Edge began disabling uBlock Origin back in February, and Opera could also stop the functioning of MV2 add-ons, even though it had committed to support MV2 for longer in October 2024.
Aug 31st 2026: All remaining Manifest V2 extensions removed from the Chrome Web Store
Previously:
Update (2026-09-02): Web Iterate (Hacker News):
Google today reached the final milestone in a browser-extension transition that has been years in the making, all remaining Manifest V2 extensions were removed from the Chrome Web Store.
The Mac mini shortage isn’t over. Wait times still stretch past four months, and Apple’s June price hikes made things worse.
(via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)
The Apple Upgrade purchase program was introduced earlier this week in the U.S. It’s a leasing program where you agree to a term, pay a monthly fee, and then have to decide what to do with the device you bought at the end of the term. If you are familiar with car leases, Apple Upgrade will make perfect sense.
When you’re in a situation where you need to buy a new Mac, it’s nice to have purchasing options that suit your finances. But regardless of how you buy a Mac, you should understand the implications of how you pay for your Mac. Sometimes, it’s pretty straightforward, but other times, it’s a little more involved.
Apple Upgrade is one of those times when it’s a little more involved. Let’s take a look at what you’re getting into if you enroll in Apple Upgrade. This can help you decide if it’s a plan that suits your needs, or if you should pay a different way.
In this examination, I’ll be looking at what’s involved with buying a 14-inch MacBook Pro. Apple Upgrade will appeal to customers in the market for pricier Mac models, so with that in mind, these are the specs of the MacBook Pro I’ll use for this article.
| 14-inch MacBook Pro | Specifications |
|---|---|
| CPU | 15-core CPU/16-core GPU M5 Pro |
| RAM | 24GB |
| SSD | 1TB |
| Display | Nano-texture |
| Power adapter | 70W |
The price of this laptop as configured is $2,649 without AppleCare+. Apple Upgrade does not include AppleCare coverage, and I won’t be including it in the analysis. Sales tax and other fees are also not calculated here.
For this particular MacBook Pro, Apple offers two Apple Upgrade term options:
Apple Upgrade looks appealing: The monthly fees are a lot more manageable than paying full price for an outright purchase or even financing it through the Apple Card, which would cost $220.75 per month for a year. The total amount you have spent when the term ends seems attractive, too.
With leases such as Apple Upgrade, the true value–or lack of it–comes when the terms end, and you have to decide what you are going to do with the Mac. Apple Upgrade gives you three options; let’s take a look.
At the end of the Apple Upgrade lease, Apple offers three options for your next step.
Foundry
You can decide to buy the Mac after you’ve made all 24 or 36 payments. The fees you’ve paid count towards the original purchase price; you then pay the remaining cost in one sum. In our example, the price would be:
This option is essentially an interest-free loan. You have the burden of making monthly payments and the payment at the end of the lease, but that setup might be more manageable than paying full price all at once at the original point of purchase
Is this a good deal? If you lack the funds to buy a new Mac upfront, this option is attractive. However, Apple products tend to hold a substantial amount of value over time. Leasing means you miss out on getting a good return when selling or trading in the Mac when you upgrade. You’d almost certainly get more for a two-year-old M5 Mac Pro on eBay or Facebook Marketplace than $865. A similarly specced M4 Pro MacBook, for example, sell for about twice that.
Since this is the Apple Upgrade program, Apple expects most users to return the Mac and get a new one. In this case, you’re basically renewing the Apple Upgrade lease. How much you pay with the new lease depends on the new price of the new model. If it’s the same, then you’ll make the same payments.
Say you had a three-year term, so over those three years, you paid $1,903.32. If the upgrade you get has the same price, you’ll be paying another $1,903.32 over three years.
After six years, you will have paid $3,806.64. If you decide to buy the device after the end of the second term, your final payment would be $745.68. The total cost would be $4,552.32 (lease of first laptop + lease of upgrade + final payment). You’re still paying $750 less than you would have if you bought both laptops, but remember, you never actually owned the first one.
As I mentioned earlier, Macs hold their value better than PCs, so if you owned the old MacBook Pro and sold it before upgrading, you’d almost certainly recoup more than $750.
Is this a good deal? During the Q3 2026 financial announcement, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that the Apple Upgrade program is ideal for users who have a regular upgrade schedule. A lease program is a good option for users who upgrade often and don’t want to deal with selling old Macs. It’s not the most cost-conscious, but that’s the price of avoiding the hassle of selling old stuff.
Whether the Apple Upgrade program works for you depends on your comfort with aspects of Mac ownership.
Foundry
When the term ends, you can simply return the Mac and walk away.
Of the three options, this is the least cost-effective. Using the three-year term as an example, your total cost is $1,903.32, which is $745.68 less than the full price.
Once again, Mac value plays a key role in this scenario. Based on what we’ve seen with other older Macs, if you buy the MacBook Pro and then three years later decide to sell it, there’s a pretty good chance you can get more than $750 and end up with a larger amount than the end-of-term payment.
Presumably, the reason you want to leave the Apple Upgrade program is that you want to buy a new Mac and pay for it in full. In this case, you’d take that $750 and use it towards that new Mac. Had you bought and sold that same MacBook Pro, you’d likely have more money towards the new purchase,
Another situation that can be compared to this Apple Upgrade option is Apple’s trade-in program. For a 2023 M3 Pro MacBook Pro, Apple offers $900 to $1,300 if the laptop is in excellent condition, and $700 to $1,000 if it’s in average condition (which is more likely). There’s a good chance you can get more than $750, the amount of your final Apple Upgrade payment that you are walking away from and presumably are pocketing.
Is this a good deal? The walk-away option is the least attractive one because you could be leaving money on the table. While you avoid the big purchase payment at the end, you could get more if you buy the Mac first, then sell it and use that money towards a new Mac.
Released less than a month ago by an unknown developer, Chrome Browser Default has somehow become a top download in the United States Mac App Store, alongside well-known developers Amazon, WhatsApp/Facebook/Meta, and Microsoft[…]
[…]
Chrome Browser Default is the top search result for “Google Chrome” in the Mac App Store. Chrome itself is distributed as a direct download from Google, outside the Mac App Store. Notice also that the Chrome Browser Default app icon resembles the Google Chrome app icon[…]
Both the name and icon violate Apple’s guidelines, and the preview images are not actually screenshots of the app. The App Store is great for distributing apps that piggyback on the names of popular apps. They’d be hard to find with a regular Web search, but in the App Store they appear at the top.
The app appears to do what the description says it does, though it’s quite primitive and likely vibe-coded. I can add rules, but I couldn’t find a way to edit or delete added rules, which is ridiculous. The developer’s privacy policy is on GitHub in a repository where most of the commits were co-authored by Claude.
[…]
At the bottom is a section that shows, allegedly, what “People are Saying” about the app. Yet none of these 5-star reviews are from the App Store. According to Google Search, the reviews are not from anywhere on the web.
This app is no longer available in the Mac App Store.
[…]
I have no idea why the Dutch name “Standaard Browser Wisselen” appears in the alert, because the App Store Purchased section says “Chrome Browser Default,” and my only Mac system language is English (US). The name of the developer in the App Store was Chinese, 立花 卢.
[…]
My suspicion is that Apple, not the developer, removed the app from the App Store, which explains why I can’t download it. Whether this removal was triggered by my blog post or by App Store user reports, I don’t know.
Doesn’t say amazing things for the Mac App Store that I find it faster to search for something in a search engine than within the MAS itself. And that’s when I already know the name of what I’m looking for.
Previously:
I continue to have problems with Contacts in Tahoe. The latest issue is that the Messages app constantly displays a banner showing that one of my contacts has updated her poster. I don’t want to use it; I want to keep the photo that I chose. But clicking the × button does not dismiss the New poster available from [Person] banner. It remains anchored atop that conversation.
Sidenote: I hate that it wants me to click Update Contact but that the image shown is the old photo. How can I commit to the new photo without even knowing what it looks like? How can I undo if I don’t like it?
Sidenote 2: I’m also getting repeated Siri found an event banners in Messages, but they go away after about three clicks. They’re extra annoying because (unlike above) they animate in again each time I dismiss them, and they’re for events that are already on my calendar.
I thought maybe I could fix things by going into the Contacts app. Unfortunately, the Contact Photo & Poster button there is inoperative. Sometimes it flickers when I click it. Sometimes nothing happens at all. Sometimes after clicking the button it will open the photo chooser sheet for the next contact that I view.
I just want a single setting to let me choose my own photos. I never want to use a poster or be notified that one has changed.
Ternus, said he was committed to building on the company’s momentum in the entertainment business when he takes the helm of the iPhone maker in September […]
“I think we have such tremendous momentum right now in Apple TV,” Ternus told Reuters on the red carpet at the premiere of the fourth season of Ted Lasso. “There’s so many amazing shows, so many amazing characters and stories, and so we’re just going to keep building on the momentum.”
Have we seen any indication yet that he cares about software?
Previously:
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