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CleanMyMac – Review 2023 – PCMag Middle East

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Most antivirus companies that publish macOS antivirus tools started with Windows security products. Not Kyiv-based MacPaw, which makes CleanMyMac. CleanMyMac is thoroughly Mac-focused, combining antivirus protection with a broad range of features to clean and tune your Mac. The cleanup features are effective and truly useful. The core antivirus visibly does its job, but it lacks some standard features and doesn’t have any lab test results.

By contrast, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac and Norton 360 Deluxe for Mac hold perfect scores from AV-Test, and Bitdefender adds a perfect score from AV-Comparatives. Norton is a cross-platform security suite that includes a no-limits VPN and 50GB of storage for your (Windows) online backups. Bitdefender also packs a VPN, ransomware protection, and a few other bonuses. Neither does as much to clean up and speed up your Mac as CleanMyMac does, but these two are our Editors’ Choice antivirus picks for the Mac.

Note that CleanMyMac’s online description clearly states that it “fights off malware, adware, ransomware, and all other ‘wares’ specific to macOS.” I’m evaluating this program as an antivirus utility for Macs, one that happens to have a big collection of bonus tools to clean and tune your Mac. A review focused on the cleanup side might well take a different approach.

How Much Does CleanMyMac Cost?

A one-year one-Mac subscription for CleanMyMac costs $39.95, the same (or nearly so) as Bitdefender, ESET, Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac, and Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus for Mac. After that, it gets confusing. The list price for a two-device CleanMyMac subscription is $79.90, and for five devices it goes up to a whopping $199.75. But those prices are cut by a volume discount (always active) and a daily coupon discount. Ignoring the coupon discount, you pay $59.95 for two licenses after the volume discount, about the same as F-Secure Safe for Mac. A five-device subscription will run you $89.95. Once you get past the discount confusion, CleanMyMac’s pricing is in line with the competition.

Avast, Avira, and AVG are free, which is handy if you didn’t budget for Mac antivirus. At the other end of the price spectrum, Norton lists…

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SlashNext Mobile Security Review | PCMag

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You can install and maintain the best antivirus tool in the world, one that fends off every possible attack by data-stealing Trojans and other types of malware. However, that malware protection won’t help when the target of the attack is you, the user. If fraudsters can trick you into entering your username and password on a fake site, they own your account, with much less effort than getting the same information using malware. SlashNext Mobile Security exists to save you from making that kind of mistake and help you understand what happened. It proved effective in testing, but its price is just too high unless your employer is paying for it. Bitdefender AntiVirus Plus is our top choice for antivirus software, getting a perfect five-star rating.

The SlashNext Mobile Story

SlashNext primarily tends to the needs of enterprise customers, with company-wide protection against phishing, spear-phishing, and other exploits. The IT department can push SlashNext Business out to every company-owned phone, with nothing required of the user. If employees accidentally break security by responding to a malicious text message or visiting a fraudulent site, the app steps in. And administration can precisely track the app’s activity on every company phone.

But that level of control isn’t right for every business, according to Jimmy Lin, senior director of product management for SlashNext. In most businesses, company phones are a thing of the past. Instead, they rely on BYOD (bring your own device), letting employees use their personal phones on the company network. Management might take precautions such as requiring use of the company VPN for accessing sensitive data, but they also must deal with pushback from employees over too-stringent rules and too much oversight.

Employees especially don’t want the IT department recording every fake website they accidentally try to visit. To address this problem, Lin explained, the company developed a Personal edition, still managed by the company to an extent, but without incident recording.

Even that level of Big Brother oversight proved too much in some cases, so SlashNext took another step toward personalization, creating SlashNext Mobile Security….

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Bitdefender Ultimate Security Review | PCMag

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The days when you could plunk an antivirus utility on your single PC and be done with security are long gone. These days you want a full-on security suite, and you need to protect all manner of devices, not just PCs. Even when you’ve got protection installed on all your devices, you’re not necessarily done, because of your connection to the wild, wild web. If you’re not careful online, an identity thief could drain your accounts and get your home repossessed. That’s why we’re seeing more and more security services that combine device protection with defenses against identity theft, as well as swift remediation for any successful attacks on your identity. Bitdefender Ultimate Security is the latest in this arena, and it packs a wallop, with award-winning device security, password management, a VPN utility, and comprehensive service to defend your identity.

How Much Does Bitdefender Ultimate Security Cost?

Many security suites offer pricing tiers for one, three, five, 10, or even 20 licenses, with the per-device price shrinking as numbers go up. With Bitdefender Ultimate Security, pricing is totally simple. For $179.99 you get 10 device protection licenses plus Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection Standard. If you want Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection Premium (I’ll discuss the difference below), you upgrade to Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus, at $239.99 per year. As standalone products, the Standard and Premium identity protection services go for $129.99 and $209.99 respectively.

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McAfee Total Protection (which includes McAfee Identity Theft Protection) goes for the same price as Bitdefender, but that subscription lets you install protection on every device in your household. Aura costs a bit less, $144 per year for 10 licenses. To get 10 Norton licenses, you must choose Norton 360 with LifeLock Advantage, at a price of $249.99 per year. You pay almost the same as Bitdefender for an IDShield subscription with protection for just three devices, and a three-device license for IDX Privacy Complete goes for a whopping $315.41.

The prices I’ve quoted all come with identity theft protection for just one individual. Some of the services offer couples or family…

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Eero 6 Plus Review | PCMag

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The latest iteration of Eero’s easy-to-use Wi-Fi mesh system, the Eero 6 Plus ($139 for one node, $239 for two nodes, or $299 for a three pack) uses Wi-Fi 6 technology and 160MHz channel width to deliver speedy wireless networking throughout your home. We tested the three-piece system, which provides coverage for homes of up to 4,500 square feet. It was a snap to install and delivered excellent performance in our tests, and it pulls double-duty as a home automation hub. All of this earns it an Editors’ Choice award for Wi-Fi 6 mesh systems.

A Mesh Network With the Latest Wi-Fi 6 Tech

The Eero 6 Plus three-pack uses three identical, low-profile nodes to provide 4,500 square feet of coverage (1,500 square feet per node). At 2.6 by 3.9 by 3.8 inches (HWD), these nodes are noticeably smaller than the nodes that come with the Eero Pro 6 (2.1 by 5.3 by 5.3 inches), though about the same size as the Eero 6 nodes (2.4 by 3.9 by 3.8 inches). The nodes of all three Eero systems have the same basic curvy design and white finish.

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Eero 6 Plus router in living room

This system doesn’t offer the USB and multi-gig connectivity that you get with the Asus ZenWiFi AX XT8 system. Instead, each node is equipped with two auto-sensing gigabit LAN ports and a power port, all of which are located on the back panel. A small LED indicator on the top of the node glows white when everything is connected and working properly, glows blue during setup, and glows red when the node has lost its internet connection.

The Eero 6 Plus is a dual-band AX3000 system, which means it can hit a combined (theoretical) maximum data rate of 3,000Mbps. It supports all of the latest Wi-Fi 6 technologies, including WPA3 encryption, Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) data transmissions, MU-MIMO simultaneous data streaming, and direct-to-client signal beamforming. New to this system is support for 160MHz channel transmissions; the older Eero Pro 6 and Eero 6 lack it.

The Eero 6 Plus is not a Wi-Fi 6E mesh system. The first Eero to use the new Wi-Fi 6E standard (which adds 6GHz data…

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