'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
Apple just released updates for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with bug fixes and security improvements
Featured
Apple on Monday released several software updates for its various hardware products, including the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, HomePod, and Apple TV.
The updates are iOS 16.3.1, iPadOS 16.3.1, MacOS 13.2.1, WatchOS 9.3.1, HomePodOS 16.3.2, and tvOS 16.3.2, and they include several bug fixes and security improvements.
Also: The 5 best iPhone models
When checking for an update on my iPhone 14 Pro Max, I was presented with the following change log:
- iCloud settings may be unresponsive or incorrectly display if apps are using iCloud.
- Siri requests for Find My may not work.
- Crash Detection optimizations on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models.
The crash detection improvements will surely be of interest to emergency services and call centers, as there have been multiple reports of errant 911 calls in situations where a crash was incorrectly detected -- such as when skiing or even riding a roller coaster.
Included in the release notes, there's a link to Apple's security updates website, where the company lists any security issues that are addressed in each update, and it appears there are two vulnerabilities that have been patched in the update.
Also: How to update your iPhone, iPad, and Mac now to fix critical security vulnerability
The first one allowed an app to possibly execute code with kernel privileges. The second security issue that was fixed used web content for arbitrary code execution, and Apple notes that it may have been actively exploited.
You can download and install the updates for free right now. On the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, that's done via the Settings app under General > Software Update. The HomePod is updated through the Home app, while the Apple Watch is updated through the Watch app on your iPhone.