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Apple's built-in Passwords app checks saved logins against a local list of known leaked passwords and uses privacy-preserving cryptographic checks with its servers for others, without transmitting the actual password. The app also flags weak or reused passwords even if they haven't appeared in a known breach, though it doesn't reveal where a leak occurred.
Apple announced it will begin monitoring iCloud links shared with the "Anyone with the Link" setting, starting in iOS 27.3. The company says it may remove flagged content, disable accounts, block new account creation tied to the same email or phone number, and involve law enforcement for violations of its harmful content policy. Links restricted to specific approved people remain end-to-end encrypted and are not subject to this scanning.
OpenAI has launched new plugins letting ChatGPT connect to iCloud Mail and iCloud Calendar, mirroring existing support for Gmail and Google Calendar. Users must sign in with an Apple account and set up an app-specific password, and the feature works across desktop, web, and iOS on both free and paid ChatGPT tiers. Pro subscribers can also let OpenAI's Dot agent access the same iCloud data.
OpenAI announced that ChatGPT now supports plugins for iCloud Mail and Calendar, letting users link their Apple accounts the way they already can with Gmail. The integration works on web, desktop, and iOS across all ChatGPT plans, and requires signing in with an app-specific password. OpenAI confirmed the plugins also enable compatibility with its proactive agent feature, Dots, for iCloud users for the first time.
A Cybersecurity Awareness Week report explains that while Apple's App Tracking Transparency, Hide My Email, and iCloud Private Relay limit future tracking, they do not remove personal information already collected by data brokers over the years. It details how brokers compile sensitive details like addresses, phone numbers, and family connections from app and website permissions, then resell them largely without regulation.
A guide outlines several ways to boost performance on an aging iPhone, centered mainly on freeing up storage space. It recommends checking Settings > General > iPhone Storage to identify space hogs like photos, videos and messages, enabling iCloud Photos optimization to offload full-resolution images, and clearing Safari's stored website data.
A new free iOS app called Hoardware allows users to track and organize their Apple hardware, logging details like model numbers, serial numbers, and software versions. The app auto-fills device details and images when adding items, includes a coverage tab showing iOS version distribution across a collection, and can alert users to new software updates. It requires iOS 17 or later and has no ads, in-app purchases, or subscriptions.
A new guide highlights that many iPhone users skip regular backups, often because their data exceeds free iCloud storage limits or because they assume their data rarely changes. It argues that daily backups are important given how often phones are lost, stolen, or damaged, and outlines ways to do this without necessarily paying for more iCloud storage.
Apple's new HomeView platform, designed to power smart displays and shared home screens, reportedly only supports photo integration through Apple's own Photos service. Users who store their images in Google Photos or other third-party services cannot access that photo-display feature, which appears to be one of HomeView's most appealing functions.
Microsoft has released a redesigned Photos app for Windows 11 that merges photos and videos from a user's PC, OneDrive, and iCloud into one gallery, requiring OneDrive Camera Backup and iCloud for Windows to be set up. The update also rebuilds the editor with four new tool categories—Crop, Enhance, Repair, and Stylize—and speeds up app launch, scrolling, and image viewing, while adding support for HDR preservation, HEIC/WebP editing, and SVG files. The update is rolling out now to Windows Insiders, with a broader release planned later this year.
A widely shared post titled 'Passkeys are a trap' argued that passkey attestation could let websites eventually restrict logins to approved apps, operating systems and devices. A developer who built an open-source passkeys library has published a rebuttal, saying most consumer passkeys—synced ones stored in iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager or apps like 1Password and Bitwarden—do not send attestation data at all, even when a site requests it.
Apple has rolled out several new perks for iCloud+ subscribers over the past few weeks, including upgraded HomeKit Secure Video with 4K support, AI-generated clip descriptions and searchable footage tied to iOS 27. The company also raised the custom email domain limit from three to ten addresses, and in more than 100 countries outside the US, iCloud+ now bundles Apple TV and Apple Arcade at no extra cost.