Some people may already have these auto-update features enabled on their devices and not mind this change (nor would they notice a difference), whereas there are many other people who intentionally disable automatic update and do not wish to have the auto-update feature forced upon their devices.
With Automatic Updates enabled, this means your Mac, iPhone, or iPad, will automatically download and install system software updates onto your device(s) as they become available, without your approval or prompting.
Apple has released iOS 18.4 for iPhone, along with iPadOS 18.4 for iPad. These updates include a few new features, as well as bug fixes and security enhancements.
iOS 18.4 for iPhone includes new emoji icons, an ambient music generator, a Priority Notifications feature for Apple Intelligence, and various bug fixes and security patches.
iPadOS 18.4 for iPad includes the introduction of the controversial Mail Categorizations feature from iPhone to sort your email inbox for you, ambient music generation, new emoji icons, Priority Notifications, and fixes for various bugs and security issues.
You will also find MacOS Sequoia 15.4 available for Mac, along with updates to macOS Sonoma, macOS Ventura, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS.
MacOS Sequoia 15.4 has been released for Mac users running the Sequoia operating system. The software update includes some new features and refinements, as well as resolutions to various bugs and security patches.
For new features, MacOS Sequoia 15.4 gains the Mail Categorization feature that automatically sorts your email inbox for you that has been somewhat controversial on iPhone since it debuted, along with new Emoji icons. You’ll also find the typical array of bug fixes and security patches in this particular software update for Mac.
Aside from Sequoia, if your Mac is running macOS Sonoma or MacOS Ventura you will find updates available for those macOS versions as well.
Additionally, iPhone and iPad users will find iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 available as updates to download and install, along with updates for watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS.
Amazon is having some fantastic spring sales and deals, offering many Apple products at great discounts from retail prices. Check out the deals below to find discounted prices on new Apple gear including AirPods 4, AirPods Pro 2, wired Earbuds, Apple Watch Series 10, iPad mini 7, M3 iPad Air, M4 MacBook Pro, AirTags, and more.
Why pay full price when you don’t need to? Check out the deals.
AirPods 4 – $99 (down from $129)
AirPods 4 are popular wireless earbuds and include great features like gesture support, Spatial Audio, voice isolation, water and sweat resistance, Siri commands, and a USB-C charging case.
AirPods Pro 2 with Hearing Aid Functionality – $169 (down from $249)
AirPods Pro 2 offer advanced features like hearing aid functionality, active noise cancellation, high fidelity sound, water and sweat resistance, Spatial Audio, custom fit, transparency mode, ear detection, a USB-C charging case, and more.
Apple has issued a second release candidate (RC) build of iOS 18.4 and ipadOS 18.4, a day after releasing a 2nd RC build of MacOS Seqouia 15.4. Earlier in the week Apple introduced the first RC builds of these system software versions.
iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 gain some new features and improvements to Apple Intelligence, Photos app, various bug fixes, and iPad gains the Mail Categories feature on iPhone which hasn’t been well received by everyone but you can always disable it if you don’t like it. There’s also a new feature to play Ambient Music from Control Center, and the inclusion of new Emoji icons like a face with bags under its eyes.
With a second release candidate and accompanying release notes being made available today, it is likely that the final versions of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4 will debut next week.
Apple has provided a second Release Candidate build of MacOS Sequoia 15.4 for users enrolled in the beta testing program, arriving just a few days after the first release candidate build of Sequoia 15.4, iOS 18.4, and iPad 18.4 were issued.
Release Candidates typically match the final version of software that is released to the general public. A second release candidate build suggests some bug or issue with the first release candidate build has been found and addressed.
VirtualBuddy offers a simple way to quickly virtualize MacOS (and Linux) on any Apple Silicon Mac, offering an easy method for developers, enthusiasts, and the curious to run multiple instances of MacOS on their Mac. And VirtualBuddy is speedy with great performance, plus it’s free and open source, so you can easily explore the world of virtual machines with no commitment aside from the disk storage and bandwidth required to setup a MacOS or Linux VM.
Amazon is back at it with some great spring deals, ranging from big discounts on M2 MacBook Air, iPad mini 7, AirPods 4, AirPods Pro 2, Apple Watch Series 10, AirTags, and more.
If you’re shopping for some Apple gear, check out these great deals. Read more »
Apple has announced that their annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) will be held online from June 9 to June 13, 2025.
There’s also set to be a special event in Cupertino California at the Apple Park campus on June 9. Typically these special events are when Apple debuts upcoming operating systems for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro, and they sometimes will launch updated hardware on the same occasion as well.
It’s almost a certainty that Apple will use the January 9 special event to launch iOS 19, MacOS 16, and iPadOS 19, along with the next major versions of system software for watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS.
Apple has issued the Release Candidate builds of iOS 18.4, MacOS Sequoia 15.4, and iPadOS 18.4.
Release Candidate (RC) builds are typically the last version of a beta cycle before the software gets issued to the general public, indicating that final versions of iOS 18.4, MacOS Sequoia 15.4, and iPadOS 18.4 are coming soon, possibly by the end of this week or next.
There are a few new features that are expected to arrive in iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and MacOS Sequoia 15.4, including bringing the polarizing AI Mail Categories feature on iPhone over to the Mac and iPad, refinements to Apple Intelligence including a Priority Notifications feature, the ability to generate ambient music from Control Center, and the inclusion of various new Emoji icons.
If you’re beta testing system software on Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro, you’ll also find RC builds available for those devices.
Amazon is back with some more great deals on Apple gear, this time taking $100 off the price of Apple Watch Series 10, $30 off AirPods 4, and knocking $80 off the price of AirPods Pro 2. Why pay full price when you don’t have to? Check out the deals and enjoy.
Apple Watch Series 10 – $299 (down from $399)
Apple Watch Series 10 is an excellent fitness and activity tracker with an always-on 42mm display, features for tracking workouts and physical activity, a heart rate monitor, ECG, crash detection with emergency SOS, fall detection with Emergency SOS, ovulation tracking, GPS, pinch gestures, water and sweat resistance, voice control, Siri commands, all-day battery life, and more.
Safari is a fantastic web browser on the Mac, but that doesn’t mean it’s always trouble-free. One issue that Safari users may see on the Mac from time to time will cause a webpage to refresh and then throw an error message that says “this webpage was reloaded because a problem occurred”. You might also see a variation of wording that is like “a problem repeatedly occurred” or similar.
Since that error message is fairly nonspecific, you might be wondering what is causing the error in Safari and what you can do about it with your Mac.
Sure Apple just spec-bumped the MacBook Air to have an M4 chip, but if you don’t mind having the M3 chip instead, you can get a whopping 27% off the original retail price of an upgraded model with 24GB RAM and a 512GB SSD. This is still a fantastic Mac and has the M3 chip with Apple Intelligence support, a 13.6″ LCD Liquid Retina Display (with virtually no PWM compared to any LED model), 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD Storage, a Backlit Keyboard, Touch ID, great battery life, and midnight color.
One very easy and convenient way to share access to a wi-fi router is by generating a QR code for joining that wi-fi router, which can be useful for house guests, offices, waiting rooms, rentals, restaurants, shops, and just about anywhere else with wi-fi that people might want to join. It can also make it much easier for someone to join a wi-fi network without them having to enter in a long complicated password. The latest versions of system software for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, make this task easier than ever, able to generate a QR code for any connected wi-fi router that someone can easily join simply by pointing the camera at that QR code.
While Apple has long had a useful feature on iPhone, Mac, and iPad to share wi-fi passwords easily from iPhone to iPhone, or with a Mac, that feature doesn’t work if you’re tryin to share the wi-fi authentication information with someone on an Android phone, a Windows PC, a Linux machine, or even an older iPhone, Mac, or iPad. Sometimes the wifi password sharing feature doesn’t even work with the newest model devices too, as I myself ran into recently with two new iPhone’s trying to join a friends wi-fi network. In these situations, you might find tremendous utility in generating a QR code for joining a particular wi-fi network, which allows you to easily share a wi-fi network with others by them simply scanning the QR code with their device, to which they’ll join the network immediately. This also has an added benefit of allowing people to join a wi-fi network without you having to share the wi-fi password directly, which is handy if the wifi router has a convoluted or complicated password.
Sharing passwords to wi-fi routers is kind of a hassle, so let’s learn how to make sharing and joining wi-fi networks much easier by making a QR code for any wi-fi network your iPhone, Mac, or iPad is currently connected to.
While AirPods are wildly popular and completely wireless, there’s a growing movement of people who like to use more traditional wired headphones instead of wireless, whether it’s with their iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Many people even prefer the wired headphones over wireless for various reasons. Apple still produces the classic white wired Apple EarPods headphones in USB-C, Lightning, and 3.5mm AUX, and right now Amazon is offering nice little discounts on each of them.
Whether your device uses USB-C (like iPhone 15 and newer), Lightning (like the iPhone 14 Pro and older), or AUX 3.5mm (any older iPhone, Mac, or iPad with an AUX headphone jack), Amazon has one for you at a nice little discount:
Once upon a time Apple included these nice white EarPods wired headphones with the purchase of every new iPhone, but just like they stopped filling the box with an included charger (LOL) they also stopped including headphones (cheap), so now you have to buy all of these accessories separately. Fortunately, Amazon often discounts Apple gear regularly, so if you wish you had some wired EarPods headphones, check them out.
Ultra longtime Mac users may recall a fun Classic Mac OS application that placed a set of googly eyes into the Mac menu bar, and those eyes would follow your cursor around as you used the Mac. While the old Classic Mac OS days are long gone (sigh), you can still have a bit of fun and whimsy on your modern Mac with the aptly named Googly Eyes app.
Amazon is back at it again with some more great discounts on select Apple gear. This time they’re knocking $100 off the price of iPad mini 7, $300 off the Apple Studio Display, $70 off Apple Watch Series 10, and $30 off a pack of AirTags 4-pack. Check out the deals and grab what interests you!
Apple has released the fourth beta version of iOS 18.4, MacOS Sequoia 15.4, and iPadOS 18.4, all of which are set to be fairly minor software updates but do include a handful of new features, and will also include the usual round of bug fixes and security enhancements.
New features currently being tested in these various beta releases include bringing the maligned Mail Categories sorting feature from iPhone to the iPad and Mac (fun!), a new ability to generate ambient music from Control Center, refinements to Apple Intelligence features, and a handful of new Emoji icons.
There are also new beta versions of system software for tvOS, watchOS, and visionOS, if you’re testing software on those devices as well.
