Apple has introduced new beta versions of system software for those enrolled in the Apple beta testing program, versioned as iOS 26.3 beta 1, macOS Tahoe 26.3 beta 1, and ipadOS 26.3 beta 1. This is the first set of beta builds that arrive right on the heals of the freshly released iOS 26.2 update, iPadOS 26.2 update, and macOS Tahoe 26.2 update.

Presumably iOS 26.3 beta 1, macOS Tahoe 26.3 beta 1, and ipadOS 26.3 beta 1 will include some bug fixes, security enhancements, some tweaks, and a minor feature or two. No major changes are expected.

Additionally, other beta system software is available for developers who work with Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro and need to test their work on those devices.

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Apple has released iOS 18.7.3 and iPadOS 18.7.3 for iPhone and iPad, respectively, for users who are continuing to run the iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 operating systems. These are security updates that do not include any new features or changes, and are available as alternatives for users who either can’t install iOS 26 or do not want to install iOS 26 onto their devices for whatever reason.

These updates are concurrent with the freshly released iOS 26.2 update, iPadOS 26.2 update, macOS Tahoe 26.2 update, MacOS Sequoia 15.7.3, macOS Sonoma 14.8.3, watchOS 26.2, tvOS 26.2, and visionOS 26.2.

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If you’re a Mac user who is continuing to run the MacOS Sequoia or macOS Sonoma operating systems, you’ll find updates available as MacOS Sequoia 15.7.3 and macOS Sonoma 14.8.3. These are security update focused and do not introduce any changes or new features. Safari 26.2 is also available as an update to these MacOS versions.

Separately, Apple has released macOS Tahoe 26.2 update (For the curious Sequoia and Sonoma users, Tahoe 26.2 remains flawed and buggy making it difficult to recommend Tahoe at all). Apple has also released iOS 26.2 for iPhone, ipadOS 26.2 for iPad, watchOS 26.2, tvOS 26.2, visionOS 26.2, and iOS 18.7.3 and iPadOS 18.7.3 for iPhone and iPad users avoiding the iOS 26 updates, so you’ll want to update your other Apple devices.

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If you’re holiday shopping, don’t miss out on these great deals from Amazon on all sorts of Apple gear, from AirPods Pro, to Apple Watch, iPad mini, and MacBook Air, and more.

AirPods Pro 3 from $199

AirPods 4, AirPods Max, and AirPods Pro are available at great prices from Amazon:

• AirPods Pro 3 for $199 (down from $249)
• AirPods Max for $449 (down from $549)

Apple Watch Series 11 from $299, Apple Watch SE 3 for $199

Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch SE 3 are both available at nice discounts from Amazon:

• Get Apple Watch Series 11 for $299 ($100 off)
• Apple Watch SE 3 – $199 ($50 off)

AirTags 4-pack for $75

AirTags are great personal trackers, and can make for great gifts or split up the 4 pack into stocking stuffers too.

• AirTags – 4-pack – $75 (down from $99)

iPad mini – $399 (down from $499)

iPad mini 7 features the A17 processor with Apple Intelligence support, 8″ LCD display, 12MP front and rear cameras, 128 GB storage, USB-C charging, and support for optional Apple Pencil Pro. iPad mini is offered in a few color options at a hefty 20% discount price, cutting $100 off the retail price.

• iPad mini 7 – $399 (down from $499)

M4 MacBook Air Deals from $749

Amazon is continuing to offer their whopper discount on the M4 MacBook Air, taking $250 off the retail price of the 13″ model, and $200 off the 15″ model.

13″ M4 MacBook Air ($250 off)

• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $749 (MSRP: $999)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $949 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,149 (MSRP: $1,399)

15″ M4 MacBook Air ($200 off)

• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $999 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,199 (MSRP: $1,399)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,399 (MSRP: $1,599)

M4 Mac mini from $479

• M4 Mac mini – 16GB / 256GB – $479 ($130 off)

FTC: OSXDaily is an affiliate partner with Amazon, meaning if you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment which goes towards keeping the site running.

The Christmas classic movie “A Charlie Brown Christmas” will be free to watch on the Apple TV service on this weekend of December 13 and 14.

The classic cartoon follows a child who is upset about the commercialization of Christmas, and features the entire Snoopy gang. It’s a family favorite, and many people have fond memories of watching the movie from various times in their life.

While you can typically watch A Charlie Brown Christmas anytime on the paid Apple TV service, what’s unique about this particular offering is that, like the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, it’s available for a limited weekend window to watch for free on Apple TV. A little Christmas present from Apple to everyone, perhaps?

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Apple has released macOS Tahoe 26.2 to the general public, becoming available for all Mac users to download as a software update to macOS Tahoe. macOS Tahoe 26.2 includes a few new features, including the ability for adding alarms to Reminders, and a FaceTime ring lighting feature, and resolves a few bugs as well as adding some essential security patches. If you’re running macOS Tahoe, you will want to install macOS Tahoe 26.2.

Update: macOS Tahoe 26.2 does not fix the Reduce Transparency bug where transparency remains prominent throughout MacOS even if enabled, with the accessibility feature being broken since the Tahoe 26.1 release. This is a feature many Mac users rely on to reduce overlapping text and other annoying legibility issues with Tahoe that did not exist in prior MacOS versions. Some users are also reporting a new bug/issue in MacOS Tahoe 26.2 where local networking between Macs running Tahoe and Sequoia no longer works.

Aside from macOS Tahoe 26.2, Apple has also released iOS 26.2 for iPhone, iPadOS 26.2 for iPad, watchOS 26.2 for appleWatch, tvOS 26.2 for appleTV, and if you’re on a Mac that is not yet running Tahoe, you will find MacOS Sequoia 15.7.3, and macOS Sonoma 14.8.3.

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iOS 26.2 for iPhone and iPadOS 26.2 for iPad have been released by Apple. These updates include a few bug fixes, and also add a few new small features, as well as include essential security patches, making these updates recommended to any iPhone or iPad user that is running the iOS 26 operating system.

New to iOS 26.2 is a slider for the Liquid Glass effect on the Lock Screen, Reminders app gains alarms, AirDrop includes an optional temporary code feature for users who are not in your contacts list, and iPadOS 26.2 reintroduces Slide Over drag-from-Dock as a multitasking option.

Separately, Mac users will find macOS Tahoe 26.2 update available to download, along with macOS Sequoia 15.7.3, macOS Sonoma 14.8.3, watchOS 26.2, tOS 26.2, visionOS 26.2, and updates to other Apple devices as well.

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If you ever wished your Mac could feel a bit more seasonal and festive for the holidays and Christmas, you might just appreciate a fun app called Snowy. Snowy brings falling snow, twinkling Christmas lights, and some holiday ambiance, directly to your Mac desktop. You can have dangling twinkling Christmas lights hanging from your menu bar, while snow falls and blows around your screen.

And Snowy for Mac is free, so if you’re just looking for a bit of holiday cheer, there’s no commitment other than a download to use the fun little app. Get Snowy on your Mac, and if you feel up for it you can put Christmas Lights on your iPhone with Festivitas too, decorating all of your Apple gear as you please.

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Release candidate builds typically match the final version of an operating system, unless a last minute bug or issue has been found anyway, and that’s perhaps what happened in this case, as a 2nd release candidate build for iOS 26.2 has been made available for testing. macOS Tahoe 26.2 RC remains on the first release candidate build released the week prior, in case you were wondering.

It’s quite likely the final version of iOS 26.2, iPadOS 26.2, and MacOS Tahoe 26.2 will be released to the general public in the very near future, likely the coming days.

iOS 26.2 includes a few tweaked and changes, including the ability to adjust how strong Liquid Glass is only on the Lock Screen of iPhone (would be nice to have this system wide, and on the Mac), Reminders gains an alarms feature, EU users get the Live Translation features on AirPods, a setting is available to flash the screen for alerts and notifications, and AirDrop gains a temporary access code features for sharing with users who are not in your contacts list.

macOS Tahoe 26.2 includes FaceTime Edge / Ring Lighting feature that helps to improve lighting during video calls, and the Reminders app on MacOS gains alarms too. We will soon find out some annoying bugs have been addressed, including whether or not iCloud can work in Virtual Machines again, and if the bug where Reduce Transparency does not work entirely has been fixed with MacOS 26.2.

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One of the complaints about the new Liquid Glass interface on the Mac is that with such a reduction in contrast, it is increasingly challenging to quickly determine which of your app windows is active in the foreground. Developer Tyler Hall was annoyed enough by this with Tahoe that he created a simple app to draw an obvious border around the active window, called Alan*, and it’s available free.

The effect of the Alan app is not particularly attractive, but, it is effective – it makes it very obvious what the active foreground window is, something that has gotten increasingly difficult in macOS Tahoe with Liquid Glass. In this way, Alan is sort of like an accessibility app for people who want to be able to quickly determine what window is the active window on a Mac.

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A Release Candidate (RC) build of iOS 26.2, iPadOS 26.2, and MacOS Tahoe 26.2, have been released to those users participating in the beta testing programs for Apple system software. With the issuing of a Release Candidate build, it’s likely the final versions of these operating system versions will arrive next week.

The new versions of system software include a variety of small new features, tweaks, adjustments, and bug fixes to the various operating systems.

iOS 26.2 for iPhone introduces a slider to adjust how strong Liquid Glass presents on the Lock Screen (and given the overall reception of Liquid Glass, this should probably be introduced system-wide, and across all OS 26 operating systems). Reminders gains alarms, AirPods gains a Live Translation feature for EU users, you can have your screen flash for alerts, AirDrop gets a temporary access code feature for non-contact users, and more. On the Mac side of things with MacOS 26.2, FaceTime gets an Edge Lighting / Ring Lighting feature that aims to improve lighting during video calls, and Reminders gets alarms too. It’s unclear if the Reduce Transparency not working properly bug has been fixed with MacOS 26.2, or if the bug where iCloud does not work in virtual machines, has been resolved, amongst other problems reported by users.

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Apple has launched their official 2025 holiday advertisement for the season. This years commercial comes in at 2 minutes and features two friends taking a snowy hike, one of whom drops their iPhone into the snow, which is soon picked up by a forest creature, who proceeds to gather even more forest creatures to use the iPhone and stage a sing-and-dance. It’s goofy and fun, and all of the various animals are puppets, giving it sort of a Jim Henson vibe.

The holiday ad is called “A Critter Carol”, with a tagline “This holiday, remember that friendship is a gift”, and the entire commercial was shot on an iPhone 17 Pro (which is also the same iPhone that drops into the snow).

The full 2 minute 2025 Apple holiday commercial has been embedded below, it’s a good time and enjoyable watch:

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Festivitas is a fun app that brings some holiday spirit directly to your iPhone or Mac, by allowing you to add some animated holiday lights to your Home Screen or desktop. And if you’re using it on a Mac, you can even make it snow, or add Christmas lights to your Dock too. Deck the halls with bows of holly, and throw some holiday lights on your Mac and iPhone, to put yourself and anyone looking at your screen into the Christmas spirit.

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Civilization 6 may be an older strategy game, but it retains immense popularity and replay value for fans of the Civilization franchise. If you’re a Mac gamer who has Civilization VI (Civilization 6 for those who aren’t fans of roman numerals), you might have come across a situation where you go to play Civilization 6 and discover an error message that prevents the game from launching. The error says something like: ‘”Civilization Vl.app” is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash. This file was downloaded on an unknown date.’ with two options; Move to Trash, and Cancel.

If you see the Civilization 6 is Damaged error on MacOS and can not play the game, here’s how to fix that error message and play the fun strategy game again on your Mac. And yes this works in macOS Tahoe too.

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Black Friday Deals are live on tons of great Apple products and there are many fantastic Apple discounts available from Amazon in particular. Whether you’re shopping for yourself or someone else this holiday season, take advantage of the deals while they last. You’ll find great deals on AirPods, Apple Watch, iPad, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini, and more.

AirPods 4 from $69

AirPods 4, AirPods Max, and AirPods Pro are available at great prices from Amazon:

• AirPods 4 for $69 (down from $129)
• AirPods Pro 3 for $220 (down from $249)
• AirPods Max for $399 (down from $549)

Apple Watch Series 11 from $339, Apple Watch SE 3 for $199

Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch SE 3 are both available at nice discounts from Amazon:

• Get Apple Watch Series 11 for $339 ($60 off)
• Apple Watch SE 3 – $199 ($50 off)

AirTags 4-pack for $65

AirTags are great personal trackers, and can make for great gifts or split up the 4 pack into stocking stuffers too.

• AirTags – 4-pack – $65 (down from $99)

M4 Mac mini from $479

• M4 Mac mini – 16GB / 256GB – $479 ($130 off)

M5 MacBook Pro 14″ from $1399

The all new M5 MacBook Pro is currently the only Mac laptop available with an M5 chip, plus it has the 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR LED backlit Display, multiple port options, and a cooling fan.

• M5 MacBook Pro 14″ – 16GB / 512GB – $1399 ($200 off)
• M5 MacBook Pro 14″ – 24GB / 1TB – $1799 ($200 off)

M4 MacBook Air Deals from $749

Amazon is is continuing to offer big early Black Friday discounts on M4 MacBook Air, taking $250 off the retail price, with the 13″ model starting at $749 (down from $999), and the 15″ starting at $949 (down from $1199).

13″ M4 MacBook Air ($250 off)

• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $749 (MSRP: $999)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $949 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,149 (MSRP: $1,399)

15″ M4 MacBook Air ($250 off)

• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $949 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,149 (MSRP: $1,399)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,349 (MSRP: $1,599)

Check out more of the Amazon Black Friday deals while you’re at it!

FTC: OSXDaily is an affiliate partner with Amazon, meaning if you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment which goes towards keeping the site running.

iPhone users have been able to access the iPhone camera through the Lock Screen by a swipe left gesture, which some people find to be very convenient, while others have noticed the swipe gesture can lead to inadvertent camera access and taking dozens of pocket pictures. If you’re in the latter camp, or you just don’t like the lock screen camera access gesture in general, you can disable it on iPhone with the latest versions of iOS. You’ll still be able to access the iPhone Camera from Lock Screen by pressing the Camera button there, it just turns off the swipe gesture feature.

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Early Black Friday deals are available for many great Apple products through Amazon, check some of them out now and get an early start on your holiday shopping.

M3 iPad Air for $150 Off

The M3 iPad Air 13″ and 11″ model are available at a $150 discount from Amazon. These are great iPad models and should be suitable for just about anyone.

• Get iPad Air 13″ for $649 (down from $799)
• Get iPad Air 11″ for $449 (down from $599)

There are also great deals available on iPad Mini and the base model iPad, if you’re looking for either a smaller enclosure or a cheaper device:

• Get iPad mini 8″ for $399 (down from $499)
• Get iPad A16 11″ for $279 (down from $349)

M4 MacBook Air Early Black Friday Deals

Amazon is is continuing to offer big early Black Friday discounts on M4 MacBook Air, taking $250 off the retail price, with the 13″ model starting at $749 (down from $999), and the 15″ starting at $949 (down from $1199).

13″ M4 MacBook Air ($250 off)

• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $749 (MSRP: $999)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $949 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,149 (MSRP: $1,399)

15″ M4 MacBook Air ($250 off)

• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $949 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,149 (MSRP: $1,399)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,349 (MSRP: $1,599)

AirPods from $80

AirPods 4 feature the iconic earbud design, and have many great features like gesture support, spatial audio, voice isolation, water and sweat resistance, Siri support, and USB-C charging.

• Get AirPods 4 for $80 (down from $129)
• AirPods Pro 3 for $220 (down from $249)

Apple Watch Series 11 from $349

You can get Apple Watch Series 11 discounted for $349, taking $50 off the retail price

• Get Apple Watch Series 11 for $349 (down from $399 MSRP)

FTC: OSXDaily is an affiliate partner with Amazon, meaning if you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment which goes towards keeping the site running.

Affinity is a powerful creative application that offers photo and image editing capabilities, vector design, and page layout features, all in a single app, and feature-wise it’s easily able to compete with the likes of Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. But unlike Photoshop or Illustrator, Affinity is now completely free – though advanced features like AI powered tools require a subscription – making it easily one of the best possible options out there for Mac users who want an advanced image editor or graphic design toolkit. Not only is Affinity free, it’s also not just for Mac, and it runs on Windows too, and an iPad version is in the works as well.

If you’re looking for a powerful image editor and vector design tool, Affinity is well worth checking out, and it makes for a fantastic Adobe Photoshop alternative as well.

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