Apple has updated the iPad Mini line with a spec bump, and the new model is capable of supporting Apple Intelligence. The new iPad Mini 7th generation model debuted via press release, and was not accompanied by any other updated hardware.
The iPad Mini continues to offer a small physical footprint with an 8″ LCD display, but now has a faster A17 processor (the same processor from iPhone 15 Pro series, hence the Apple Intelligence support) and there are also minor improvements to the camera and wi-fi.
Apple has released the 7th beta version of MacOS Sequoia 15.1 to users in the beta testing programs. The MacOS 15.1 beta 7 comes a day after the accompanying iOS 18.1 beta 7 and iPadOS 18.1 beta 7 releases were issued.
The most notable difference in MacOS Sequoia 15.1 beta is the inclusion of Apple Intelligence features, which offers AI tools for re-writing messages, smart replies, summarization, and more. Apple Intelligence has strict system requirements, and only M1 or better Macs support the feature. If you have an older Mac and you want to use similar AI features, ChatGPT on the web will work on just about anything with a web browser.
Scroll-to-Top is a super useful gesture that has been around on the iPhone for a long time, basically rather than swiping to get back to the top of a long screen of text, email, webpage, or whatever, you just tap the top of the screen and it immediately scrolls to the top. This is a great feature, but it’s a little different with iPhone models that have Dynamic Island.
The Dynamic Island is the little oblong cutout at the top of newer model iPhone screens, and while it holds the camera and microphone, it also updates depending on whatever apps are running. For example, if you have a music app open it’ll be in the Dynamic Island, or if you have a Timer running it will display there, or directions will, and so on. One issue with Dynamic Island is that it’s much harder to use the ‘scroll to top’ gesture, because if you try and tap on the top of the screen like users are accustomed to pre-Dynamic Island, then they usually end up accidentally tapping on the Dynamic Island itself, so rather than scrolling to the top of the current app window, it will switch to whatever app is updating the Dynamic Island itself.
How do you use Scroll to Top with Dynamic Island on the iPhone 16 series, iPhone 15 series, or iPhone 14 Pro line, and not accidentally switch to an app instead? That’s what this article is here to help you with.
Apple has issued the seventh beta versions of iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 for iPhone and iPad, respectively. Typically a MacOS Sequoia 15.1 beta soon follows as well.
iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 introduce the first Apple Intelligence AI features to compatible devices, and the emphasis should be on compatible devices because the supported hardware list for Apple Intelligence is very strict; only iPhone 15 Pro or better for iPhone, or M1 or better equipped Mac or iPad.
Initial Apple Intelligence features offer things like summarization of text and web pages, writing tools to rewrite things in concise or professional manners, smart replies in email and messages, and some new Siri functionality. More Apple Intelligence features will debut at later dates and with later system software updates to compatible devices.
Many users have already installed iOS 18 onto iPhone or iPadOS 18 onto iPad, but there are also a large number of iPhone and iPad owners who have not yet updated to the latest operating systems. One of the most common reasons for this is as old as the iPhone or iPad itself; a lack of available storage on the device, preventing the system software update from both downloading and installing. Storage woes are nothing new for iPhone and iPad users, and managing device storage is one of the most obnoxious and annoying tech chores you can forced to engage in if you simply want to install a software update on your device.
Numbers of users are seeing an error message at the Software Update screen that says something like this: “More Storage Required – This update cannot be installed because it requires at least 15.57 GB of available storage during installation”
Let’s explore how much storage you need available on iPhone or iPad to be able to install iOS 18 or ipadOS 18 onto a device. We’ll also discuss why you need so much storage available to be able to install these updates, and how you can free up some space.
Some Mac users have noticed that Microsoft Office files and documents, whether that’s Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, Powerpoint presentations, or otherwise, are not opening in the intended apps, or properly associating with the relevant Microsoft Office app, after updating their Mac to MacOS Sequoia. To make matters worse, some users report that when attempting to open a Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Office file, like a docx or xls file on the Mac, they may see an alarming message that says some variation of “MacOS cannot verify that DocumentName.docx is free of malware”.
If you’re not yet interested in installing MacOS Sequoia for whatever reason – perhaps due to compatibility issues, waiting for specific features, or just holding off until Sequoia is more refined – you almost certainly still want to install other system software updates as they become available to your Mac, including installing any available security updates and system software updates to macOS Sonoma or macOS Ventura.
We’re going to cover how to install system updates to macOS Sonoma or MacOS Ventura, without upgrading the Mac to MacOS Sequoia.
Some MacOS Sequoia users have discovered various networking issues with their Mac since installing the MacOS Sequoia 15 system software update. The reported network problems can range from and include random intermittent connection issues with MacOS Sequoia, inability to connect to the internet, unusually slow internet, DNS resolution failures, problems with VPN services, problems with third party firewalls, problems with the native firewall, problems with the Messages app not working behind a firewall, problems with third party security software, and many other variations of these complaints.
Amazon Prime Day is happening, offering fantastic discounts on tons of products and goods. You will need an Amazon Prime membership (it’s free for 30 days, so if you just want to do some holiday shopping and not pay for membership you can do that too), which is handy anyway since it offers access to Amazon Video, prioritized shipping, and great discounts. While you can shop for just about anything on Amazon and get great Prime Day discounts, we’ll highlight some of the best deals on Apple products and related gear that’s available right now.
Apple Watch SE 2nd gen – $170 (down from $249)
Apple Watch SE 2nd gen is available at a whopper discount from Amazon, and is a great entry level Apple Watch if you just want a fitness tracker for your activities, along with the standard array of Apple Watch features. One thing to keep in mind is that Apple Watch SE 2nd gen doesn’t have ECG capabilities or an oxygen reader, but the latter was removed from later model Apple Watch anyway due to an ongoing patent dispute, but if you don’t care for those features, you can save some serious cash and get the SE 2.
The iPad 9th gen is one of the best deals on Prime Day, at just $199, down from the original $329 retail price. The 9th gen iPad is the last iPad model with a Home button, which could make it preferable for those who are accustomed or prefer the Home Button, and making it a great gift for anyone who fits that bill too.
Amazon is also offering nice discount on the 13″ and 11″ iPad Air M2 models, if you want the latest and greatest, a beefier processor, larger screens, and Apple Intelligence support:
If you prefer the smaller size of iPad Mini, the 6th gen model is available at a whopping $150 discount. One thing to keep in mind with iPad Mini is that it’s likely to be updated soon with a processor that supports Apple Intelligence, so while this is a great deal, if you want Apple Intelligence support you might want to hold off until the refresh happens at some point.
The M3 MacBook Air with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD is available at a $250 discount on Amazon in both the 13″ and 15″ display sizes. This is a great price for a really great laptop, one I use myself, and the one that I generally recommend to family and friends as well.
If you want a nice portable Mac laptop and don’t have the need for more storage, RAM, or CPU power, the base model M2 is available at huge discount. For some of you who may be debating an iPad vs MacBook, this is a great laptop alternative to many iPad models since it comes with more storage than base model iPads plus you get a built-in keyboard, trackpad, and the much more powerful MacOS.
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iOS 18.1 beta 6, iPadOS 18.1 beta 6, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 beta 6, are now available to download for those participating in the beta testing programs for Apple system software. These beta builds are assumed to be finalized by the end of the month, and will bring Apple Intelligence AI features to compatible devices.
The initial Apple Intelligence features include capabilities like summarization, writing tools, smart replies, and some new Siri features, though other AI features that were announced as part of iOS 18 or macOS Sequoia are likely to arrive in a later OS update as they are not included in iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, or macOS Sequoia 15.1. Apple Intelligence has strict system requirements, requiring an M1 or better chip for Mac or iPad, and an iPhone 15 Pro or better for iPhone. Other hardware will be able to install the iOS/iPadOS 18.1 and macOS 15.1 updates, but simply won’t include the Apple Intelligence features.
Apple has released MacOS Sequoia 15.0.1 as a software update to Mac users running the Sequoia operating system. The update includes bug fixes and security enhancements, and is therefore recommended for all MacOS users running Sequoia to install.
For Mac users who are running MacOS Sonoma or macOS Ventura, you’ll find Safari 18.0.1 update available instead.
Separately, Apple has also released iOS 18.0.1, iPadOS 18.0.1, watchOS 11.0.1, and visionOS 2.0.1, also with bug fixes and security updates.
Apple has released iOS 18.0.1 for iPhone and iPadOS 18.0.1 for iPad. The purpose of these small updates is to fix various bugs and resolve a variety of security issues that were present in the 18.0 releases of iOS/iPadOS.
Specifically, iOS 18.0.1 aims to resolve some issues with touch screens and camera functionality on iPhone 16 models, patches a bug where Messages would crash if you shared an Apple Watch face, and resolves an issue with performance and memory allocation on some iPhone models. There are also a handful of security fixes included as well. The full release notes are shown further below.
Separately, you’ll find software updates for MacOS Sequoia 15.0.1, watchOS 11.0.1, visionOS 2.0.1, and Safari 18.0.1 for MacOS Sonoma and Ventura.
If you use the Reminders app to keep track of things you need to do or be reminded of, on your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, then you might appreciate having Reminders easily available in the Mac menu bar.
That’s exactly what the aptly named Reminders MenuBar does, it’s a free tool that places a fully interactive Reminders functionality behind a menu bar icon on MacOS, where you can quickly add new reminders, mark reminders as completed, and scroll through your list of reminders to see what else is on tap.
Some iPhone users have discovered that cellular data is not working on many apps after they have updated to iOS 18. For example, you might be driving and discover that you can no longer stream music from Music app, or can’t listen to podcasts from Spotify, or load reels on Instagram, or watch TikTok, but only when you’re on cellular data, and after updating an iPhone to iOS 18.
This is a common enough complaint that there are multiple posts about it on the Apple Support forums and elsewhere on the web, and I personally also encountered this issue after updating to iOS 18 as an iPhone as well. After updating to iOS 18, my cellular data worked with apps in a small range, but then all cellular data quickly stopped working at all if I drove just barely outside the city. This is understandably frustrating, but the behavior also gives a clue as to what might be wrong, and how to resolve the issues where apps are not working with cellular data after installing iOS 18.
For many users who experience difficulty with cellular data and iOS 18, the resolution to this problem is actually fairly simple.
The iOS 18 software update has been popular for iPhone users thanks to the addition of some great new features that allow for more Home Screen customizations, Dark Mode icons, icon tinting, and Control Center customizations. But if there’s one thing that has seemed to be the focus of complaints with iOS 18, it is the Photos app.
Photos app got a dramatic redesign in iOS 18, and a fair amount of iPhone users wish they could undo these changes and revert back to the prior Photos app design. While you can’t quite do that, you can make some adjustments to the Photos app that will help it behave closer to it did before the confusing redesign in iOS 18. One of the best improvements you can make is to simply change the Photos ordering to sort by recently added instead of capture/creation date, but there are even more customizations you can make that will further improve the Photos app experience and better suit it to how you use the Photos app.
The Photos app in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 got a major redesign that is confusing some users and bothering others, creating a “Who Moved My Cheese” scenario for iPhone and iPad owners who have been accustomed to the longstanding behavior of the prior Photos app. One of the major frustrations for some users is that Photos app defaults to sorting by the creation date of photos and videos in the library now, rather than sorting by date added. With sorting by creation date enabled, if someone AirDrops you a handful of photos from a gathering a week prior, that media is going to be tucked away back in time in your Photos library, making them harder to find, rather than at the very bottom of the camera roll, as most users have come to expect where new photos and videos added to their device should appear.
While it may not be obvious, there is a way with iOS 18 to sort Photos by Recently Added, instead of by Date Captured (creation date, the new default setting), and this little adjustment alone resolves many complaints you might hear about the new Photos app.
Command Line Tools are an optional component of Xcode that bring a variety of advanced utilities to the Mac command line, including compilers, debuggers, and other essentials for software development and command line tinkering. But not everyone has to be a developer to require Command Line Tools be installed on their Mac, because the suite is necessary as a prerequisite for installing things like the popular Homebrew package manager, and cask.
Whether you recently installed MacOS Sequoia or are running Sonoma, installing Command Line tools is pretty straight forward.
By now it’s fairly likely you have either heard about or updated to iOS 18 on iPhone or iPadOS 18 on iPad, and you might be wondering about some of the new features.
While there are some major new features along with many small changes and mini features here and there, there are a handful of features in particular you might find to be most compelling or useful, and that’s what we’re aiming to cover here.
