One of the more useful new small features available to iPad users in iPadOS 27 is the ability to always show the menu bar when using iPad. With this new setting toggled on, the menu bar will always be visible at the top of the screen on the iPad, much like the MacOS default. You can interact with the iPadOS menu bar at any time when it’s always visible like this, whether that is using touch input, or a trackpad, or mouse.

Having the iPadOS menu bar always visible is particularly useful for iPad users who use their iPad more like a typical computer, whether that’s with the iPad Magic Keyboard in semi-laptop mode, or in a desk workstation setup with a stand, external keyboard, and a a mouse or trackpad. This is just one of various new features available in iPadOS 27 (and don’t forget the handy new iOS 27 features are shared with iPadOS 27 too), and it’s a nice workflow option for many users.

Assuming you have already installed iPadOS 27 onto your iPad, here’s how to enable the always visible menu bar.

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The iPad Magic Keyboard is by far the best accessory to add to iPad Air, transforming the tablet into a laptop of sorts by adding a keyboard and trackpad. The discounted price is available on the white model and up to 26% off, which is typically the color variation that does not see big discounts.

• White Magic Keyboard for iPad Air 11″ – $200 (down from $269)
• White Magic Keyboard for iPad Air 13″ – $250 (down from $320)

Save $100 on M4 iPad Air 11″ and 13″

Speaking of iPad Air, the iPad Air M4 is available at a discount for both the 11″ and 13″ display sizes, in multiple color and storage configurations.

• 11″ M4 iPad Air – 128GB – $649 (down from $749)
• 13″ M4 iPad Air – 128GB – $849 (down from $949)

AirTags 2 4-pack for $80

AirTags 2 are handy trackers with many uses , and you can grab a 4-pack of the AirTags 2 $20 off the retail price:

• AirTags 2 – 4-pack – $80 (down from $99)

$150 Off M5 MacBook Air 13″

Amazon is taking $150 off multiple configurations of the M5 MacBook Air 13″ model. You can also save $100 on a few other models including the 16GB/1TB configuration, and the same discount is available on the 15″ Air in 16GB / 1TB configuration as well:

• 13″ MacBook Air M5 – 24GB – 1TB – $1649 (down from $1799)
• 13″ MacBook Air M5 – 16GB – 1TB – $1499 (down from $1599)
• 15″ MacBook Air M5 – 16GB – 1TB – $1699 (down from $1799)

Misc Deals

• M5 Max MacBook Pro 16″ – 32GB RAM – 2TB SSD – $3799 (down from $4399)
• AirPods Pro 3 for $199 (down from $249)
• AirPods Max for $479 (down from $549)
• AirPods 4 for $99 (down from $129)
• Magic Trackpad – $119 (down from $129)
• Magic Keyboard – $89 (down from $99)
• Anker 7-in-1 USB-C hub For $20 (down from $26)

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.

While MacOS 27 Golden Gate is overall a great system software release, that’s not to say it’s perfect and without user complaints. One issue that is cropping up for some MacOS 27 users, myself included, is poor battery performance. Battery life issues and complaints are fairly common to crop up during the initial release period of major new operating systems, and macOS Golden Gate is no different in this regard.

Often the complaints about battery life also include perceived sluggishness to the Mac in general, and sometimes the Mac is also warm or hot to the touch. Those are indicators that a lot of system activity is occurring behind the scenes, and that’s all typically related with the reduction in battery life.

If you’re experiencing issues with reduced battery life with MacOS 27 Golden Gate, read along to better understand the issue, what could be the cause, and what to do about it.

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The second beta versions of iOS 27.2, MacOS 27.2 Golden Gate, and iPadOS 27.2, are available for users participating in the beta testing of Apple system software.

While the final versions of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and MacOS 27 Golden Gate just recently became available to the general public, beta testing has already moved on to the next point release updates. And yes, the first available betas are for iOS 27.2 and MacOS 27.2, not iOS 27.1 or MacOS 27.1. There is some speculation that the missing OS 27.1 releases will ship on iPhone Duo and perhaps other soon to be released or unveiled hardware, but nobody outside of Apple knows exactly what’s going on there.

As far as new features and improvements are concerned, iOS 27.2 beta includes a redesigned Health app which includes some new features focused on health insights and longevity based on health and fitness metrics from Apple Watch. There are also birthday reminders and anniversary reminders that appear when you’re on phone calls, and several new languages will support Siri AI on compatible devices. Presumably various bug fixes and other tweaks will be included for MacOS 27.2, iOS 27.2, and ipadOS 27.2 as well.

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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… Adobe Photoshop used to be a lightweight image editor and available without an annoying subscription fee, but not anymore. With Adobe Photoshop now a comically bloated sluggish and expensive mess, one rebel spaceship carrying an enterprising developer took it upon himself to challenge the ADOBE GALACTIC EMPIRE and build a simple and super lightweight Photoshop alternative to restore freedom to the Mac image editing galaxy; Compositor.

In Compositor, you will find all the familiar critical Photoshop tools, including layers, folders, layer masks, adjustment layers, clipping masks, blend modes, selection tools, filters, background removal, gaussian and motion blurs, lens correction, grain and noise adjustment, liquify, smear, spot healing, clone stamp, brush tools, and text tools. These combine to give you a fantastic set of powerful tools for post-processing images, image editing, and design work, and should be a workable Photoshop alternative for many Mac users. While it’s obviously not going to have every feature in Photoshop, for image editing and post processing, Compositor is really quite impressive, and freakishly lightweight, making it a worthy addition to just about any Mac.

• Get Compositor for Mac from the developer here
• Check out Compositor on Github here

Not only is Compositor quite powerful, but it’s also exceptionally lightweight at only 12 MB. Yes, megabytes, TWELVE MEGABYTES! That’s it! Staggeringly tiny in this day and age of enormous software bloat.

The video below, via the developer @robbietilton on X/Twitter, shows the app in action:

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World of Warcraft: Forever is currently in beta, and while you can pre-purchase the game to get early beta access to the game right now before it launches to everyone in November, there are also workarounds to install and run World of Warcraft Forever right now on a Mac or Windows PC, without any purchase or opt-in required, and that’s what we’re here to show you how to do.

For some background, World of Warcraft: Forever is a new upcoming take on the famous MMORPG. It’s basically a version of the classic 2004 game with some of those classic limitations (like a level 60 cap), but with new zones, dungeons, and storylines. The focus is intended to be on exploration and socializing and community, rather than just endless level grinding that came to define much of the modern World of Warcraft experience. This has excited a lot of gamers who have fond memories of the earlier days of the wildly popular game, so it’s understandable that many users want to play the WoW:Forever beta right now. So, let’s learn how to do exactly that.

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Looking for a fun unique way to stylize your Mac experience, and also to make it easier to differentiate which windows are which? Window Sweaters might be for you.

Window Sweater is a whimsical little app that wraps your MacOS windows in virtual sweater knitting, with each app window getting its own distinct color and sweater design. This offers not only a fun visual customization to your Mac, but provides for an incredibly creative way to determine which window is which, an issue that some Mac users have lamented about with the newer flat interface designs.

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It’s official; MacOS Golden Gate 27 is here, and if you’re already running the latest version of MacOS, or you’re just curious about some of the new features and changes, you’ll appreciate knowing what’s new and improved. While may of the biggest changes to MacOS 27 are under the hood and are noticeable with faster app launch time, snappier Safari experiences, and a generally more performative system, there are also a variety of new features and capabilities to explore.

From the all new Siri AI, Siri app chatbot, Liquid Glass interface adjustments, new screen savers and wallpapers, a solution to clutter menu bar icons, powerful AI assisted Shortcuts creation, and more, read on to find some great new features in MacOS 27 Golden Gate.

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Apple has just issued the first betas of iOS 27.2, iPadOS 27.2, and MacOS 27.2 Golden Gate, to users enrolled in the beta testing programs for Apple system software.

These beta builds arrive just days after the final versions of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and MacOS 27 Golden Gate became available to the general public.

The new iOS 27.2 beta includes a few new features including a redesigned Health app with new Insights and Longevity features, offering more insight into your health and fitness metrics if you wear an Apple Watch. The OS 27.2 betas also offer birthday reminders and anniversary reminders if you’re on a phone call with someone whose birthday or anniversary is set in their contact. Several new languages are also available for devices that support Siri AI within the OS 27.2 suite. There also appears to be an option to erase an iPhone and overwrite the device with blank data, offering a more secure erase procedure. These are all in beta development and may or may not make the final versions.

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iOS 27 is here for iPhone and iPad, and while most of the efforts of the OS 27 releases were put towards performance enhancements and improving the core operating system itself, there are also some new and interesting features introduced with iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 too.

From the new Siri AI, to further customizing the interface and Lock Screen, to AI tools for editing your photos, and more, check out a few of the highlight iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 features.

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If you recently installed iOS 27 on iPhone, iPadOS 27 on iPad, or MacOS 27 Golden Gate, you might be wondering where the widely hyped new Siri AI set of features are on your device; a dedicated Siri app, a much smarter Siri AI with chatbot like experience, custom voices, and more. These are all compelling features and are a big part of the iOS 27 marketing and features, so it’s reasonable to be curious how to access and enable Siri AI on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Siri AI has a few restrictions though, and it’s not available for everyone, nor on every device, nor in every language or region of the world (though we do provide a workaround for enabling Siri AI for EU users below). Plus, it turns out that Siri AI is technically still in beta, and there’s actually a waitlist to be sign up for and to be able to access and use the new Siri AI features.

Let’s review the system requirements, region requirements, and other limitations that exist, as well as how to enable and access Siri AI on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 27, or Mac with MacOS 27.

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Mac users are faced with the annual classic computing question again; should I upgrade to the latest major new system software that is available? In this case, MacOS 27 Golden Gate is available to download and widely considered to be a solid system software version, so if your Mac is currently running MacOS Tahoe 26, or MacOS Sequoia 15, should you jump in and upgrade to MacOS 27 Golden Gate? That’s what we’re here to discuss. And while this may seem like a simple and straightforward question, there’s actually more nuance to consider here than you might think.

To be clear, this is all largely largely a matter of opinion, but I will say it’s a fairly informed opinion based on significant direct experience with all three MacOS operating systems; Golden Gate, Tahoe, and Sequoia.

If you’re wondering to yourself, should I upgrade to MacOS 27 Golden Gate from MacOS Tahoe or MacOS Sequoia? then you might find this article to be helpful to your decision making.

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Apple has released iOS 26.7 for iPhone and iPadOS 26.7 for iPad as security focused software updates for users who are not yet ready to jump onto iOS 27 or iPadOS 27.

Over 100 security fixes are included in the iOS 26.7 update, but no new features or other changes are along for the ride.

Separately, Apple has released a bevy of other software updates including iOS 27, iPadOS 27, MacOS 27 Golden Gate, MacOS Tahoe 26.7, MacOS Sequoia 15.8, watchOS 27, and tvOS 27.

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Apple has released MacOS Tahoe 26.7 along with MacOS Sequoia 15.8 as security updates for older Mac users and for those who are not yet interested in running the just released MacOS Golden Gate 27 update.

MacOS Tahoe 26.7 and MacOS Sequoia 15.8 have over a hundred security fixes but do not include any new features and are focused entirely on security patches, though both the Tahoe and Sequoia updates also have access to Safari 27.0 which does include some new features for the Safari browser. MacOS Sonoma did not receive a security update, and will no longer be supported by Apple.

Separately, Apple has released MacOS 27 Golden Gate, iOS 27, iPadOS 27, tvOS 27, watchOS 27, along with iOS 26.7 and iPadOS 26.7.

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MacOS 27 Golden Gate has been released by Apple and is now available to download and update for the general public. MacOS 27 went through several months of beta testing, and the finalized version can be installed on any compatible Mac.

MacOS 27 Golden Gate includes performance improvements for MacOS itself including improved system responsiveness and speed, enhancements to core functions like Spotlight search, improvements to Mail search, new child safety features and Screen Time functionality aimed at parents, and more. MacOS 27 also includes improvements to the Liquid Glass interface including a slider to adjust the intensity of translucency effects, refined icons, new wallpapers and screensaver options, and more. MacOS 27 Golden Gate includes a dedicated Siri app, new Apple Intelligence features, and a new Siri AI that offers improvements to Siri itself. Release notes for MacOS 27 Golden Gate are further below.

Aside from MacOS 27 Golden Gate, Apple has also released iOS 27 for iPhone, iPadOS 27 for iPad, watchOS 27 for Apple Watch, tvOS 27 for Apple TV, and visionOS 27 for Apple Vision Pro.

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iOS 27 is now available for iPhone, along with iPadOS 27 for iPad. This is the final version of iOS 27, after a several months long beta development and testing process. All eligible iPhone models and iPad devices can download and install the iOS 27 or ipadOS 27 upgrade, respectively, at their leisure.

iOS 27 includes improvements to system performance, including improved app launch speed, improvements to Spotlight and Mail search, refinements to the Liquid Glass user interface design including a slider to adjust the intensity of transparent effects along with refined icons, and new wallpaper options. You will also find new Apple Intelligence and Siri AI capabilities and features, and a dedicated Siri app. There are also new features and improvements made to apps like Photos, Messages, Mail, and Safari. Parents will find new child safety and parental control features with Screen Time to help with device management and control. iPadOS 27 includes all of the same, plus some iPad specific tweaks and adjustments. There are a variety of other various changes and improvements too, the full release notes for iOS 27 are further below.

Separately, Apple has also released MacOS 27 Golden Gate for Mac, watchOS 27 for Apple Watch, tvOS 27 for Apple TV, and visionOS 27 for Apple Vision Pro, so you will want to update all of your Apple devices when you get a chance.

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MacOS 27 Golden Gate has an emphasis on improving performance, with significant enhancements to Spotlight search, mail search, and more. There are also some really nice visual refinements to the Liquid Glass interface and system icons, and there’s even a slider for adjusting the intensity of Liquid Glass. Plus, macOS 27 Golden Gate brings with it a dedicated Siri app, and new Siri AI and Apple Intelligence features, along with many other smaller changes and features throughout the operating system. With all these improvements, it’s easy to see why Mac users are excited about Golden Gate.

The official public release of MacOS 27 Golden Gate is Monday, September 14, and whether you’re jumping in immediately on day one, or waiting a bit, you might want to take a few moments to prepare your Mac for the next major Mac system software upgrade.

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iOS 27 for iPhone and iPadOS 27 for iPad will be released on Monday, September 14. That’s pretty soon, and while you don’t have to update right away on the release day, you still might be interested in preparing your devices for installing the next major system software update for iOS and iPadOS.

Since iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 are heavily focused on performance improvements, you’ll almost certainly see a benefit when updating from the OS 26 releases, and plus there are nice refinements to Liquid Glass interface, and new Siri AI features too.

Let’s take a look at the steps you’ll want to take to be sure you’re ready for iOS 27.

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