Security

After 25 years of dedicated service the Adobe Flash Player is kaput. The ball started rolling in 2010, when Steve Jobs published an open letter titled "Thoughts on Flash". Along with the letter, Apple refused to allow Flash to be installed on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. While it may have been a controversial stance at the time, in 2017 Adobe announced it was discontinuing Flash. The company officially dropped Flash support at the end of 2020.

According to Apple, "Privacy is a fundamental human right...

Whenever you connect to a Wi-Fi network your iPhone identifies itself with its unique MAC address, which creates a privacy risk. Network operators and other observers could potentially track and profile a MAC address by associating it with network activity and location as it is used on public networks over time. To avoid this, Apple has included a new privacy feature in iOS 14 (and iPadOS 14 and watchOS 7) that lets you use a different unique MAC address for each network you connect to.

In addition iOS 14's big-ticket improvements like widgets on the Home Screen, the App Library, and Back Tap among others, there are numerous new smaller features and upgrades that make various tasks quicker/easier/shinier etc. One of those is the new Security Recommendations tool found in Settings.

The ability to synch your Messages (as well as numerous other services) across multiple Apple devices is undoubtably a huge convenience, but also one that could lead to a serious breach of privacy. Obviously nobody wants their private messages accessible to friends, family and co-workers. If you are the type to have your text messages arrive on every Mac that you use, you might want to check which ones you are logged into, as you wouldn't want your messages popping up on a Mac that you share with a roommate, or on an iPad that you left at a friend's house.