Remember Network Utility, the handy tool for Mac that was bundled with the operating system since the origins of Mac OS X? With Network Utility, you had an easy graphical interface to commonly used network tools like ping, netstat, nslookup, traceroute, finger, port scanning, and whois. But for reasons unknown, Apple removed Network Utility from MacOS after Catalina, and while you can copy that older Network Utility application to a modern MacOS version and get it to run with this trick, if you don’t have a Catalina or older Mac laying around to copy the original Network Utility.app from, that isn’t going to work for you.

This is where Neo Network Utility comes in, it’s a free tool from Devon Technology that replaces Network Utility on modern MacOS versions. Neo Network Utility has all the same features of Network Utility, plus a handy connection speed testing tool too.

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A fair number of MacBook Pro users with Touch Bar equipped Macs have discovered the Touch Bar stops working or goes black after installing a MacOS update. Given that the Touch Bar serves as Function keys, F1, F2, F3 etc keys, as well as toggles for adjusting brightness, system audio, and accessing many MacOS and app features, and even serves an Escape key for some Touch Bar Macs, having the Touch Bar vanish and fail is not particularly great. Even if you disabled the Touch Bar to have it simply display system toggles, having it disappear completely is still frustrating, because there’s no other way to access those toggles on the keyboard.

If your Touch Bar is not working or the Touch Bar vanished on your MacBook Pro, particularly after installing a system software update to MacOS, read along to troubleshoot the issue.

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Many Mac users are reporting that “System Data” is taking up huge amounts of disk storage capacity on their Macs. While this issue is reported more commonly with MacOS Sequoia, some users find the bloated System Data storage on older versions of MacOS as well. In many cases, the “System Data” in MacOS is taking up unusually large amounts of disk storage, with reports ranging in size from 100GB to even 500GB. With how small the SSD storage capacity is on Mac’s and how much of a huge premium Apple charges to have more local storage, something consuming such a large amount of disk capacity is understandably frustrating and concerning. Even if you have an upgraded 1TB drive, having “System Data” take up 100GB to 500GB of that is obviously unreasonable and ridiculous.

Not everyone reports having an inordinately large “System Data” folder in macOS. In fact, many users have System Data that takes up a reasonable amount of storage, around a few GB to perhaps 10 or 20GB. This article is intended to address the Mac users who have excessively large “System Data” capacities on their Mac, and offer a discussion and some solutions around the problem.

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Amazon is taking up to $173 off the price of the new M4 MacBook Air series, in both 13″ and 15″ display sizes, and in a variety of RAM, SSD storage, and color configurations (Sky Blue, Midnight, Starlight, Silver).

The M4 MacBook Air features an M4 chip with Apple Intelligence support, LCD display in 13″ or 15″ size options, dual display support, 12MP camera with Center Stage, Touch ID, backlit keyboard, all-day battery life, MagSafe charging, two USB-C ports, and more.

If you’re shopping for a MacBook Air, these are great discounts off the retail price, and cheaper than even the educational discount offered by Apple.

• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $849 ($150 off, MSRP: $999)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,049 ($150 off, MSRP: $1,199)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,245 ($154 off, MSRP: $1,399)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $1,049 ($150 off, MSRP: $1,199)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,249 ($150 off, MSRP: $1,399)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,447 ($173 off, MSRP: $1,599)

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macOS Sonoma 14.7.6 and MacOS Ventura 13.7.6 have been released by Apple for Mac users who are not running the MacOS Sequoia operating system. These updates focus exclusively on security updates, with no other changes or features.

The release of MacOS 14.7.6 and 13.7.6 comes alongside the MacOS Sequoia 15.5 update that was simultaneously released.

Additionally, software updates are available for iPhone and iPad as iOS 18.5 and ipadOS 18.5, iPadOS 17.7.7, along with updates for watchOS 11.5, tvOS 18.5, and visionOS 2.5.

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MacOS Sequoia 15.5 is now available as a software update for Mac users running the Sequoia operating system. The system software update includes bug fixes and security enhancements, but does not appear to include any new features or other major changes.

Additionally, Apple has also released MacOS Ventura 13.7.6 and macOS Sonoma 14.7.6 for Mac, along with iOS 18.5, iPadOS 18.5, iPadOS 17.7.7, watchOS 11.5, tvOS 18.5, and visionOS 2.5.

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iOS 18.5 for iPhone and iPadOS 18.5 for iPad have been released by Apple. According to the release notes accompanying the update download, the software updates primary focus is the introduction of a new Pride Harmony LGBTQ wallpaper. Additionally, parents will now receive a notification when the Screen Time passcode is used on a childs device, and the updates include a variety of bug fixes and security enhancements to iPhone and iPad.

Separately, MacOS Sequoia 15.5 update is available for Mac, along with updates to MacOS Ventura 13.7.6, macOS Sonoma 14.7.6, iPadOS 17.7.7, and updates for watchOS 11.5, tvOS 18.5, and visionOS 2.5.

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As an iPhone or iPad user you’re undoubtedly familiar with using Dark Mode and Light mode for the interface, and you might even have automatic dark/light mode enabled on your device. But some users may like to use light mode in some apps, and dark mode in other apps, like when editing in the Photos app. With a little hidden settings adjustment, you can make the Photos app editor always stay in Dark Mode (or Light Mode) on your iPhone or iPad, regardless of what your broader system setting for the interface appearance is.

Using the Photos editor in Dark Mode all the time might be easier on the eyes or simply preferable for some users, while others may prefer to always edit in Light Mode even if they’re using Dark mode systemwide otherwise. And you can also switch back to the default setting, which will place the Photos Editor in whatever appearance mode you have selected.

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Amazon is back with some really great deals on Apple products, taking 20% off the iPad 11th generation model making it just $278, 20% off the iPad mini 7 for just $399, 17% off M3 iPad Air models, and they’re cutting 15% off the price of the M4 MacBook Air series which now starts at $849, plus 25% off the Apple Watch Series 10 bringing it down to just $299, and more.

Whether you’re shopping for Mothers Day gifts, or yourself, or for any other occasion, there’s no reason to pay full retail price when Amazon is offering such generous discounts.

iPad 11th Gen – $278 (down 20% from $349)

The 11th generation iPad model features an A16 chip, 11″ LCD Retina display, 128GB storage, 12MP front and rear cameras, Touch ID on the power button, and solid all day battery life. The deal price is currently available on the pink model currently but stock and pricing at Amazon changes quickly so check out the other color options as well.

• iPad 11th gen – 128GB

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Advanced Mac users may wish to manually increase the VRAM allocation on their Apple Silicon Mac for performance reasons when engaging in graphics intensive tasks like running LLMs locally, AI models, or any graphics heavy applications, whether for gaming or video editing. This is possible because Apple Silicon chips offer unified memory architecture, meaning the CPU and GPU share the same memory pool, and while the system will dynamically allocate memory as needed, advanced users can also manually tweak VRAM allocation from RAM on their Mac.

Important: This is genuinely only appropriate for advanced Mac users who have a compelling reason to adjust VRAM themselves, as improperly allocated VRAM may cause significant performance issues, memory problems, or even system crashes. If you’re not familiar with how memory allocation may impact performance, for better or worse, and you’re not comfortable using the command line, this one is not for you.

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A release candidate build for iOS 18.5, iPadOS 18.5, and MacOS Sequoia 15.5 is now available for users enrolled in the beta testing programs. For users not in the beta testing programs, what this basically means is that the final versions of these system software releases is coming soon, perhaps even next week.

macOS Sequoia 15.5 is expected to be mostly a bug fix update with some security patches, and no notable new features are anticipated.

iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5 are mostly focused on bug fixes and security patches as well, but also include some minor changes like in-app settings toggles for the controversial Mail Contact Photos feature (along with a toggle for the frustrating Mail Categories feature), the settings of which also remain in the Settings app because redundant redundancy is redundant, and who doesn’t want multiple settings toggles in multiple locations for the same setting? Additionally, it’s now easier to see AppleCare warranty information in Settings app.

The biggest new addition to iOS 18.5, iPadOS 18.5, and watchOS is a new Progress Pride Flag wallpaper, which Apple says in a press release is made to “celebrate the strength and beauty of LGBTQ+ communities around the world”.

There are also release candidate builds of watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS, if you bother with running those.

The most recent stable builds of Apple system software are iOS 18.4.1, iPadOS 18.4.1, and MacOS Sequoia 15.4.1.

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Whether you have a HomePod or HomePod mini in your own house, or you’re visiting elsewhere with a HomePod, you can quickly and easily play music from Spotify or Apple Music on the HomePod from your iPhone with a simple physical proximity gesture.

This trick is so simple and useful but it’s not well known, and it’s literally just a matter of placing your iPhone in close proximity to the HomePod. You can obviously play music on HomePod and HomePod mini a variety of other ways too, from AirPlay or playing Music on HomePod with Siri, but it’s arguably much easier, doesn’t involve any menu navigation, and let’s be honest, with how unreliable Siri is (still, in 2025), it’s a much more reliable way to play music too.

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Amazon is back with more great deals on Apple products, taking $150 off the price of the M4 MacBook Air series in both 13″ and 15″ display sizes, up to $320 off the M4 MacBook Pro in select configurations, the latest iPad mini for $399, $100 off the M3 iPad Air, plus discounts on AirPods, AirPods Pro, and Apple Pencil Pro. Maybe you’re shopping for yourself, maybe you’re shopping for Mothers Day, maybe you’re just shopping in general, but why pay the standard retail price when Amazon is offering great discounts?

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If you’re an iPhone or iPad user, you might appreciate a feature that automatically switches your devices appearance from Light Mode to Dark Mode, and vice versa, automatically. Furthermore, you can set the automatic enabling of Dark and Light mode to follow sunset and sunrise, or a custom schedule, whichever you prefer.

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While many people find to-do lists to be useful, they can also be overwhelming if you have twenty items on the list. For some people, it might be easier to just have a single goal, task, or reminder, and that is the focus or important thing to remember, without any other distractions. That’s where One Thing comes in, which is a free simple Mac app that allows you to place any text (and emoji) into the Mac menu bar, whether that’s a task, goal, reminder, affirmation, or even a short sweet note to a loved one on their Mac.

There’s not a lot to One Thing for Mac, but as the developer describes its purpose, “Put your most important task or goal in the menu bar. Its presence there will help remind you without being annoying.” If that sounds good to you, then grab One Thing free from the Mac App Store, launch it, and away you go.

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Spotlight is the powerful search engine built into MacOS that allows you to quickly find any file or data on your Mac disk drives. Part of what makes Spotlight so fast is that it uses caches and temporary files during indexing to quickly refer to data on your Mac, but sometimes those Spotlight files can take up unusually large amounts of disk storage space. Spotlight metadata consuming a very large amount of disk space can happen randomly and has been reported by many Mac users over time, and though some of these issues were first noticed during beta development of MacOS system software, the bloated Spotlight metadata issue has persisted for some users into the stable builds of MacOS, including Sequoia.

If you have discovered the CoreSpotlight folder on your Mac to be taking up huge amounts of disk storage, read along and you’ll learn how to clear out and recover that disk space quickly.

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If you’ve ever wanted to browse your photo library a bit more efficiently, adjusting the thumbnail size in the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad can make a big difference. Whether you’re looking to see more images on the screen at once, or you prefer larger previews for easier viewing, changing the thumbnail size gives you more control over how your photos are displayed in iOS. This is a very simple adjustment to make that can make navigating through hundreds or even thousands of pictures faster and more comfortable, especially on devices of varying screen sizes, like the iPhone and iPad.

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Amazon is offering some really fantastic deals on Apple products right now, bringing the M4 MacBook Air to the lowest price available yet at $150 off retail, cutting $100 off the price of the M3 iPad Air models, taking $100 off the price of Apple Watch Series 10, and some whopper discounts on AirPods 4, AirPods Pro 2, and more. If you’re shopping for some new Apple gear, don’t pay full price when you don’t need to! Check out the deals below.

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