The Tapback reaction feature in Messages for iPhone, iPad, and Mac is popular, and with the latest versions of system software for these devices, you can now Tapback with any Emoji, rather than just the handful of defaults. This offers a nice way to further customize a response to a message, and it’s pretty easy to use.
A second release candidate build of iOS 18.2, MacOS Sequoia 15.2, and iPadOS 18.2, has been made available for all beta testers. The 2nd RC build follows after issuing the first RC build a week prior. RC, or Release Candidate, are usually the finalized beta version of system software that is made available to beta testers before the final version is released to everyone in the public. This suggests the final release of iOS/iPadOS 18.2 and MacOS Sequoia 15.2 is soon, perhaps even this week.
iOS 18.2 and MacOS Sequoia 15.2 will include a round of bug fixes and security patches, along with new AI features, a few smaller features like the ability to use iPhone Mirroring with Personal Hotspot, a weather widget for the Mac menu bar, and sharing for devices in Find My.
By far the biggest change coming in iOS 18.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.2 are the inclusion of more Apple Intelligence AI features, including ChatGPT integration and Image Playground which allows for generating images with AI. Currently, Apple Intelligence features are mostly summarization abilities and various useful writing tools. Apple’s AI features are strictly limited to newer devices however, meaning those capabilities will not be available for all users.
Apple has issued the release candidate build for iOS 18.2, MacOS Sequoia 15.2, and iPadOS 18.2, for all users that are involved in the beta testing programs for Apple system software. RC, or Release Candidate builds, are typically the final version of a beta before it gets released to the general public, indicating the final releases of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and MacOS Sequoia 15.2 are imminent.
Aside from the usual bug fixes and security enhancements, these upcoming software updates are focused on bringing new Apple Intelligence features to compatible devices, including Image Playground AI image generation capabilities, and ChatGPT integration. This will be the second route of AI features introduced to the Apple operating systems, with a variety of handy writing tools and summarization features being available at the moment.
Some other new features will be included as well, including the ability to share devices in Find My, a weather widget for the Mac menu bar is available, iPhone Mirroring can be used with Personal Hotspot, and a handful of other small changes and adjustments.
One of the potentially most useful newer features on iPhone is available in iOS 18.1 and later, offering a remarkably simple way to record calls on iPhone. Now, iPhone has an easily accessible call record button, available on the same phone screen that you use to toggle speaker phone, mute, and end the call. When you activate the call recording feature, a message plays for both parties to inform all that the phone call is being recorded, but it’s still probably a good idea to verbally confirm with the call participants that you’re going to record the call.
With this official call recording on iPhone, you no longer have to rely on the old tricks like calling your voicemail on 3-way, or recording from a Mac with speakerphone.
Calls recorded on iPhone are stored automatically within the Notes app, labeled as “Call with (contact name or phone number)”, where you can easily listen to the call again, review a voice-to-text transcription, and add additional notes if you’d like.
Ready to get started with this incredibly useful feature? Let’s dive in and you’ll quickly learn how you can record any call on your iPhone, whether you’re making the call, or you’re receiving the call.
While there are plenty of paid options to get a business plan, from business plan software, to books, to working with a consultant, or even outsourcing the entire thing, another option is available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users, and it uses the magic of Apple Intelligence features and ChatGPT to instantly create a business plan for literally any business, industry, or location.
Whether you need a business plan to start a business, help flesh out ideas for a new or existing business, are trying to get a small business loan and need a business plan for the bank or lender, or even as an academic exercise or class, you’ll get a great business plan in literally seconds, generated from the brilliance of artificial intelligence and large language models.
One of the useful Apple Intelligence features that is available in Safari is the webpage summarization feature. With Apple Intelligence Summarize in Safari, you can have an AI summary of an entire webpage, whether it’s a long article, a general website, or anything else on the web, giving you a nice summary of the page contents. This can help you quickly determine information and save time, and it’s really easy to use in Safari on the Mac.
Cyber Monday is a great time to get some huge discounts on popular Apple products through Amazon, who consistently offers some of the best deals out there on new Apple gear. From huge discounts on AirPods Pro, to AirTags, MacBook Air, iPad, and Apple Watch, check out some of the available deals below.
AirPods Pro 2nd gen feature USB-C charging, noise cancellation, Spatial Audio, and more, and are massively discounted right now now on Amazon:
AirTags have many handy uses, and right now for Cyber Monday, Amazon is discounting the 4-pack to an all time low price of just $69.99:
Apple Watch Series 10 features a bigger and brighter always-on display, faster battery charging, health insights and fitness tracking capabilities, crash and fall detection, and much more:
If you’re shopping for iPad, you’ll find many great deals available for Cyber Monday on Amazon, whether it’s on the powerful M2 iPad Air in either display size, or the iPad 10th gen, each in various color options:
Amazon is offering the M3 series of MacBook Air in both 13″ and 15″ screen sizes for up to 23% off, or $300 off the MSRP. Perhaps best of all is remembering that Apple recently made 16GB the base default for RAM, making these deals even better when considered against their upgrade prices from just a few months ago.
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.
Apple has introduced their annual Holiday advertisement for the 2024 season, titled “Heartstrings”, and it’s an unusually moving commercial that focuses on hearing loss and the hearing aids feature of AirPods Pro 2 (which happen to be hugely discounted on Amazon right now, if you’re in the market).
In the touching and family oriented commercial, a small family is gathered around a Christmas tree opening presents, and as the father reminiscences about his daughter growing up over the years, he gets a nudge from his wife to listen to his daughter singing a rendition of “Our House” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, where he puts in his AirPods and is able to hear her clearly.
Grab a tissue, get in the holiday spirit, and watch the commercial on YouTube or below!
One of the best features of modern MacOS versions, from Sequoia 15.0 onward, is iPhone Mirroring, which allows Mac users to interact with their iPhone and use their iPhone directly from their Mac.
iPhone Mirroring is almost entirely full featured in that you can access basically every iPhone feature from the Mac… but “almost entirely” is not entirely, because some iPhone functionality is not accessible currently with iPhone Mirroring.
One of the more prominent iPhone features that iPhone Mirroring does not currently support is Control Center, which is how you access many of the iPhone features and quick toggles for networking, Shazam, accessibility toggles, amongst many other capabilities.
Amazon Black Friday deals continue with tons of fantastic deals on various Apple products, with particularly big discounts being offered on AirPods Pro, AirTags, select iPad models, Apple Watch, and the M3 MacBook Air lineup.
If Apple gear has a place in your holiday shopping, don’t miss these discounts while they’re available!
If you’ve just setup a new wi-fi network or ISP, or perhaps you just joined a new wi-fi network, one of the first things you might be inclined to do is run a speed test. Speed testing helps to evaluate the performance of an internet connection, measuring download speed, upload speed, and latency, allowing you to determine if performance is optimal, or needs adjustments.
A strange bug is impacting some iPhone, iPad, and Mac users, where they are presented with new “iCloud Terms & Conditions” to accept, but they are not able to accept them. On a Mac this is particularly annoying because the iCloud Terms & Conditions popup and screen will continuously bother you, but it’s equally annoying on iPhone, iPad, and apparently even on Apple Vision Pro too. For some, they attempt to accept the iCloud Terms and they see an error message stating “Cannot Complete Action. This action cannot be completed at this time.”
By not being able to accept and dismiss the iCloud Terms & Conditions, you’re not able to use most iCloud features, including access to Notes, Photos, Reminders, and many other features in the MacOS and iOS ecosystem that depends on iCloud, and therefore depends on being able to accept the iCloud Terms & Conditions.
If you’re experiencing problems accepting iCloud Terms and Conditions and the popups and alerts will not go away, read along to fix this problem.
While the only Time Machine we know of is the easy to use and fantastic backup tool for Mac users, some of us have geeky dreams of digital time machines, where we can get lost in flashbacks to retro computing, like the early Macintosh days of Classic MacOS System 7. While there are ways to run System 7 in your browser or through an emulator, we’re going to present another fun option here, which is to restyle and re-theme modern MacOS (even Sequoia!) to the look, feel, and sound, of Macintosh System 7, a now 33+ year old operating system.
Amazon has started their early Black Friday Deals on many Apple products, so if you’ve been planning on shopping this holiday season for some great deals on Apple gear, this is a great place to get started.
AirTags are popular personal trackers, allowing you to keep track of bags, pets, luggage, even pets and people. They’re a handy Apple product that is easy to setup and use, and you can grab a 4 pack for $80 on Amazon allowing you to deploy several AirTags for multiple different purposes. Just as easy to find, through Find My or even with Siri by saying “Hey Siri, find my luggage”, for example.
Let’s check out some great uses of AirTags that you might find useful in your life.
Apple is dropping support for iCloud backups for iPhone or iPad running iOS 8 or earlier. Additionally, Apple is also dropping support for Safari Bookmark Syncing for devices running iOS 10 or earlier, or macOS Sierra 10.12.5 and earlier.
While this will not impact the vast majority of people, there are many older model iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices still in use out there, many of which continue to run older versions of iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS. Thus, these changes will undoubtedly impact some users and their older devices, and they should be aware of these changes.
Apple has released the fourth beta version of iOS 18.2, MacOS Sequoia 15.2, and iPadOS 18.2, for users participating in the beta testing programs for Apple system software.
The primary focus of these new betas appear to be introducing additional Apple Intelligence features, including things like ChatGPT integration to Siri, Genmoji for custom Emoji creation, and Image Playground AI image generation. These Ai features are in addition to the helpful writing tools, smart replies, and summary features with Apple Intelligence that debuted in the prior .1 updates.
Aside from the new Apple Intelligence features, there are some additional new features as well, like allowing iPhone Mirroring to use Personal Hotspot, sharing functionality in Find My, a weather widget for the Mac menu bar, refinements to Settings app, and some other smaller changes and features.
iOS 18.2 and MacOS Sequoia 15.2 are expected to launch next month for all users. The most recent stable version of system software currently available is the just released iOS 18.1.1, iPadOS 18.1.1, and MacOS Sequoia 15.1.1.
Apple has issued iOS 18.1.1, iPadOS 18.1.1, iOS 17.2.2, and iPadOS 17.2.2, for iPhone and iPad users. These updates are relatively small but contain important security fixes, making the software updates important for users to install onto eligible devices.
Separately, Apple also released MacOS Sequoia 15.1.1 with the same set of security patches, along with visionOS 2.1.1.
No new features or other changes are expected in these security updates, as those will be arriving likely next month with iOS 18.2 when it finishes beta testing.
