The Tech Media Minute: The Sad State of Apple's Mac and Ransomware on iOS

What’s up with Mac?

It hasn’t been a good year for folks looking to buy a new Mac. In this calendar year, Cupertino has only refreshed one Mac product, the 12-inch MacBook, which received Intel’s Skylake processors in April.

The MacRumors Buyer’s Guide tells an unfortunate story: Macs simply aren’t getting much attention from Apple anymore in terms of upgrades.

Here’s the last time Macs were last updated:

• MacBook Air, May 2015
• Retina MacBook Pro, May 2015
• iMac, October 2015
• Mac mini, October 2014
• Mac Pro, December 2013

And let’s not forget that the non-Retina MacBook Pro hasn’t been updated since June 2012. As The Verge rightly notes, Apple should stop selling four-year-old computers.

The iPhone accounts for two-thirds of Apple’s revenue, we get it. Still, for a company that prides itself on being cutting edge, the current Mac situation is beyond laughable.

In September, I fully expect we’ll see upgrades for the MacBook Pro and iMac. The non-Retina MacBook Pro? Hopefully, Apple will pull it from the market, which they should have done years ago. The future of the Mac Pro and Mac mini is a different story entirely.

Beware this message

According to Dutch site AppleTips (via 9to5Mac), hackers are trying to fool people into thinking their devices have been compromised to gain access.

Hackers use Apple’s Find My iPhone app to lock an iPhone and display the following message:

As 9to5Mac explains:

The attack requires someone to have compromised the Apple ID associated with the device, but again non-tech users tend to re-use passwords and not use two-factor authentication, so it would only require an unrelated website to be hacked to gain access to credentials that also serve as Apple ID logins.

A good rule of thumb: If you get a weird message on any of your devices, contact the manufacturer or at least do a Google search to see if other folks are experiencing it. And don’t click on it.

Unhappy with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as presidential candidates? Maybe consider #BetterFictionalCandidates.

Also trending:

• #ThursdayThoughts
• #ThingsInTheMuseumOfMe
• #RightNowICouldUse
• #ThingsToDoInAWaitingRoom
• Bank of England
• #LondonStabbing
• Part-Animal Embryos
• McNabb

Today, Aug. 4 is U.S. Coast Guard Day.

Black Hat USA concludes in Las Vegas as DEF CON begins.

Rewind: On this day in 1693, champagne was invented by Dom Perignon.

We’ve looked around the web and found these other stories worth considering:

• Facebook’s Area 404 — what we know, Computerworld
• Why it now takes forever to catch a damn Pidgey in Pokemon Go, CNET
• Dish now offers sub-$40 skinny pay-TV bundle, USA Today

Want even more? Check out Tech Media Extra.