A second release canndidate build has been released for iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 (but not for MacOS 26.5 which is still the original 26.5 RC build). Participating beta testers can find the latest RC build to download on their enrolled devices. Typically a second RC build is issued if there was a last minute … Read More

The menu bar on a Mac tends to fill up with clutter and icons over time. Between system icons like Spotlight, the date and clock, wi-fi, third party apps, various utilities, and popular tools, it’s quite easy for the menu bar to become a crowded strip of icons that’s distracting and harder to interact with. … Read More

Update: Apparently NotePad++ for Mac is unofficial and not associated with the Windows version or developer. According to a blog post by the Windows developer Don Ho, the Mac release has “nothing to do with Notepad++. It’s not authorized, not endorsed, and not affiliated with the project in any way. The owner is using the … Read More

A Release Candidate build for iOS 26.5, iPadOS 26.5, and MacOS Tahoe 26.5, has been released by Apple, to users involved in the Apple system software beta testing programs. Enrolled devices can find the RC builds available now. Release Candidate (RC) builds are usually the final version of a beta test, that, absent any last … Read More

Whether you’re preparing to sell, recycle, or repurpose a Mac, or you’re going through old hard drives and storage disks that you wish to clear all data from, securely erasing the drive is an important step. Simply deleting files or formatting a disk isn’t always enough, especially for hard drives and external storage, since data … Read More

Performing a clean install of macOS Tahoe can be a necessary task in some situations, offering a way to start fresh on a Mac. Since a clean install removes everything and reinstalls MacOS from scratch, you are presented with basically a brand new Mac from a software standpoint. Clean installations can be useful for users … Read More

MacOS includes a built-in way to assess memory usage, called Memory Pressure, and it can give you a lot of insight into your Macs performance, and whether or not you need more RAM. This is particularly informative if you feel like your Mac is slow, apps and media are stuttering, or you’re experiencing the annoying … Read More

ASCII art is a unique plain text art style that you might have seen over the years when connecting to a remote server via the command line, or perhaps a BBS, or something silly like watching Star Wars in ASCII art from the Terminal. It’s a distinct style of artwork for plain text situations on … Read More

iOS 26.4.2 has been released by Apple for iPhone, along with ipadOS 26.4.2 for iPad. Both updates include important security fixes, as well as unspecified bug fixes, for the iPhone and iPad. The security patch apparently addresses an issue with data being retained in notifications, which had allowed extraction of deleted Signal messages from notifications … Read More

If you have felt your Mac is curiously sluggish, you may have opened Activity Monitor to investigate at some point and noticed a process called “WindowServer” using a large amount of CPU or memory. High CPU usage and memory consumption of WindowServer has been a long reported issue on MacOS with various system software versions, … Read More

Apple has announced that longtime Apple CEO Tim Cook will be stepping down from his role on September 1, 2026, concluding a 15 year tenure that has coincided with Apple become one of the largest and most influential companies in the world. Tim Cook will transition to the role of executive chairman of the Apple … Read More

If you have ever been on a phone call and tried to adjust the volume on iPhone and found the volume buttons aren’t responding, you’re not alone. This is a frustrating presumed bug that can happen on iPhone, and the volume buttons seem to stop working during phone calls, even though they can sometimes still … Read More

One common complaint of MacOS Tahoe users is that it can be difficult to determine which window is active or in the background. With all of the flatter and low contrast design elements in Tahoe, there is a significant reduction in contrast between background and foreground apps and windows, which can make visual focus less … Read More

Remember Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah? If you’re a super longtime Mac user you just might, and you might also remember the Nintendo Wii gaming console too. Well because the Nintendo Wii runs on PowerPC architecture, the theoretical possibility of running original Mac OS X versions has always existed, but were largely impractical. That didn’t … Read More

Some Mac users who are sensitive to eye strain and PWM display flickering have turned to a small free utility called StillColor to modify how MacOS renders colors on their screen. The StillColor tool has a feature that can disable something called “temporal dithering”, a usually imperceptible display technique that alternates pixel colors at the … Read More

Apple has released MacOS Tahoe 26.4.1 as a software update for Mac users running the Tahoe operating system. The update includes unspecified bug fixes, making it recommended for all Tahoe users to install. The MacOS Tahoe 26.4.1 update is particularly important for users of the new M5 MacBook Air and M5 MacBook Pro series to … Read More

Apple has released iOS 26.4.1 for iPhone, along with ipadOS 26.4.1 for iPad, both to address unspecified bug fixes. Because no specific bug fixes are mentioned in the release notes or with the download, it’s unclear as of now what exactly has been addressed, but obviously Apple felt it important enough to issue a software … Read More

If you miss the early internet dialup days of AOL (America OnLine), you can dial back the tech clock and enjoy some retro computing nostalgia by checking out the fantastic Dialtone project. Dialtone lets you sign in to a fully functional reverse engineered AOL experience with an original AOL 3.0 client, running inside a web-based … Read More