In case you were not aware, MacOS 27 Golden Gate will be the last version of MacOS to offer Rosetta support. Rosetta is a translation tool from Apple that allows Mac computers with Apple Silicon chips to run older Intel applications. It runs seamlessly in the background anytime an Intel app is launched, and works pretty much flawlessly, offering modern MacOS support for many older Intel-based apps. If you’re using an Apple Silicon Mac, you might have already installed Rosetta at some point in time to use an Intel-based app.
Essentially this means that if you depend on Rosetta to run some critical apps, you’ll either want to stay put with MacOS 27 Golden Gate moving forward, or find alternative apps, or get updates to those apps for Apple Silicon whenever possible.
Amazon is back offering $100 off select M5 MacBook Air 15″ models. Apple is apparently having a difficult time keeping up with MacBook Air demand, and combined with recent price hikes due to memory shortages, it’s becoming less common to see discounts available on these models.
At the time of writing, these deals are specific to the classic silver color model in a few configurations, but Amazon stock changes quickly so it’s quite likely the discount will arrive on other colors and configurations too:
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The third beta versions of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and MacOS 27 Golden Gate, are now available to public beta testers. These match the same builds as the just released MacOS 27 beta 5 and iOS 27 beta 5 versions for developers.
Apple is focusing on performance enhancements and general improvements for iOS 27, MacOS 27, and iPadOS 27, including focusing on Spotlight, refinements to app icons, refinements to the Liquid Glass interface, improvements to general system performance, new Siri AI features, a dedicated Siri app, and more.
Apple has released fresh betas for macOS Tahoe 26.6.2, iOS 26.6.1, and iPadOS 26.6.1, with each beta build apparently focused on security updates. No new features are expected, as those are being prioritized in the OS 27 betas instead. While there’s likely nothing particularly exciting about these new beta builds, they do offer a way to track Apple’s software release schedule as to what system software updates are coming, and a general timeline of when. Apple usually goes through multiple beta releases before issuing a final version, so users might reasonably expect final system updates for MacOS 26.6.2 & iOS 26.6.1 sometime within the next month or two.
These new beta versions are available only to beta testers who are running an OS 26 version, and will not be shown to OS 27 beta testers.
Separately, Apple also issued new beta updates for macOS 27 Golden Gate beta 5, iOS 27 beta 5, and iPadOS 27 beta 5. The OS 27 betas get a lot more attention and interest, due to new features, refinements to Liquid Glass, and performance improvements, plus many users have a keen interest in experimenting with upcoming major operating system releases.
Apple has released MacOS 27 Golden Gate beta 5 for Mac users who are currently running the beta operating system. For those in the public beta testing program, the same build typically arrives for them soon after.
MacOS 27 Golden Gate emphasizes performance improvements to the general system as well as features like Spotlight and Mail search. There are also notable adjustments made to the Liquid Glass interface including a slider for users to change the transparency effect. Additionally, there’s a new dedicated Siri app, Siri AI features including customizable voice, new Apple Intelligence capabilities, and more.
Beta system software is generally only appropriate for advanced users, but if you’re comfortable with the idea of the beta experience then installing MacOS 27 Golden Gate beta is pretty simple. You can also choose to download a full installer or IPSW file further below, which can be used for things like making a bootable install drive or a Golden Gate virtual machine.
Apple has released iOS 27 beta 5 for iPhone, along with iPadOS 27 beta 5 for iPad. If you’re currently running the developer beta you will find the latest update available right away, and typically public beta testers find the same build version available soon after as well.
The emphasis of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 is primarily performance improvements, leading to a faster and more stable operating system, improvements to system search, and other core system functionality. There are also visual tweaks and adjustments to the Liquid Glass interface including a customizable slider to adjust the transparency effect throughout the OS. iOS 27 also includes a new dedicated Siri app, new Siri AI features (on fully compatible devices anyway), new Apple Intelligence features, along with various tweaks and adjustments to other aspects of the operating system.
If you’ve been using computers for a long time, you might recall the Apple II and Apple IIgs, two of Apple’s early computers that were before they had fully committed to the Macintosh platform. While there were plenty of productivity apps and programming tools for Apple II and Apple IIgs, there were also a whole bunch of classic games which made the platform so much fun.
If you’re up for some nostalgic gaming, a fun site called VirtualApple offers “almost every Apple ][ and Apple IIgs game ever made” which translates to hundreds and hundreds of titles, including classics like Dark Castle, ShadowKeep, Kings Quest I, Kings Quest II, Kings Quest III, Oregon Trail, Mummy’s Curse, Police Quest, Tetris, and so much more. The games play right in your web browser, making perusing and retro gaming easy and available on just about any device.
If you’re into retro gaming from the Apple II and Apple IIgs era, check them out:
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Apple has released security updates for MacOS Tahoe 26.6.1, MacOS Sequoia 15.7.9, and MacOS Sonoma 14.8.9, each addressing the same security flaw relating to the Screen Sharing service where an attacker could authenticate without valid credentials. Download links for IPSW and full installers for these new versions of MacOS are available further below.
Due to the nature of security updates, the software update is recommended for all users of Tahoe, Sequoia, and Sonoma operating systems.
It’s unclear if the current MacOS Golden Gate beta is already patched for this issue, or if the security flaw will be patched in the upcoming Golden Gate beta releases.
Presumably it’s only users who have enabled the Screen Sharing feature that would be theoretically impacted by this security issue, though that is not guaranteed. Any issue where an attacker could authenticate into a computer should be patched quickly due to the nature of such a flaw, and therefore it’s still recommended to install the security update on any eligible Mac.
It seems like every time you call any major business, institution, facility, government, or corporate office nowadays, you get placed on hold, often for what seems like an eternity. Nobody likes waiting on hold with the annoying and repetitive hold music, but fortunately the iPhone has a wonderful solution to being stuck on hold, called Hold Assist.
With Hold Assist, you don’t need to wait on a call hold, because your iPhone will wait on hold for you. How this works it quite simple; when Hold Assist is activated, the iPhone monitors the call, and then alerts you when a live person has returned to the call, so that you can pickup and rejoin the call. It’s super easy and works quite well. Let’s walk through the exact steps so you can utilize this fantastic feature.
If you’re curious about testing out MacOS 27 Golden Gate beta but you aren’t ready for the full commitment of installing it as your primary operating system, the simplest and safest way to run MacOS 27 Golden Gate beta is within a virtual machine. While one of our authors dove right into MacOS 27 Golden Gate beta full time out of frustration with Tahoe, running a beta operating system has some risks and stability issues associated with it, so that’s not always a viable solution. In situations like this, a virtual machine is particularly helpful.
Virtual machines are great because they’re self-contained and segregated from the rest of your files and host Mac operating system, meaning there’s no chance anything in the VM, beta or not, can break anything else on the Mac. This offers a nice way to test out new beta MacOS features and functionality without any risk to your main Mac. And when you’re done, or no longer use the VM, you can just delete it.
We’re going to walk through the steps for making a MacOS 27 Golden Gate virtual machine by using the VirtualBuddy VM app. VirtualBuddy is easy to use, free, and handles the downloading of necessary MacOS 27 assets directly within the app as part of the VM setup. This makes it so you don’t have to seek out and download MacOS 27 IPSW and installer files on your own, or deal with any additional steps. The result is that setting up a new VM is super easy with VirtualBuddy. Yes there are many other virtualization apps out there, many of them are great too, but for our purposes here we are using VirtualBuddy. You will also need the host machine to be a MacOS 27 compatible Mac, which includes basically any Apple Silicon Mac (MacOS 27 does not support Intel chips).
I know it’s only in beta, and probably halfway through the beta cycle at that, but I’m going all in on MacOS 27 Golden Gate. Why, you might ask? Because, for me, the MacOS 27 beta is better than MacOS 26 Tahoe is, in some pretty critical ways.
And to be clear, I do not recommend this for anyone else, this is me throwing caution to the wind on my own personal Macs. But I just am fed up with the bugs of MacOS Tahoe enough that I want a change, and I’m willing to embrace the more risky beta experience instead. And here’s some specific reasons why.
Longtime gamers and fans of retro gaming in general may recall the 1992 classic first person shooter Wolfenstein 3D, which set the standard and blueprint for many the entire genre and gaming in general moving forward.
While re-playing Wolfenstein 3D in and of itself can be a fun retro experience, one enterprising developer took it upon themselves to modernize it just ever so slightly.
Dubbed Wolfenshine 3D while it still uses the original 1992 artwork and sound effects, it has been modernized a bit with lighting effects to add in colored lighting, light rays, fog effects, bloom effects, shadows, and water effects. The end result is pretty neat. Check out the game yourself as a free download, or enjoy on your Mac (or Windows PC):
The developer Github page describes the Wolfenshine project as follows:
“Wolfenstein 3D rebuilt in modern C#—faithful when you want it, shiny when you don’t.
Wolfenshine is a playable, cross-platform reimplementation of the 1992 classic. It reads the maps, artwork, music, and sounds from your own copy of Wolfenstein 3D, then brings them to life through a clean .NET engine written from scratch.
At its heart is an authentic 320×200 software-rendered experience. Press F2 and that same game becomes something new: colored lights spill across rooms, muzzle flashes illuminate enemies, fog gathers in the distance, and bright doorways cast descending shafts into the darkness.”
If you want to watch how it looks before running it yourself (or perhaps in lieu of), check out the YouTube embed below:
Many MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Neo owners have noticed something curious; their MacBook battery stops charging at 80% when plugged in. To add to the confusion, even if they leave their MacBook plugged in overnight, the battery seems to be stuck at 80% and will not charge any further. Because this is not necessarily understood or expected behavior, some Mac users think there may be something wrong with their battery or their computer.
So what’s going on here? Why is the MacBook battery stuck at 80% and will not charge more? It turns out this is intentional behavior, part of a feature of MacOS that is designed to help preserve long-term battery health on your MacBook. Let’s explain, explore this further, and learn how you can fully charge the MacBook to 100% at any time, and even how to change this setting so it always charges to maximum capacity.
Amazon is taking $500 off the 14″ M5 Pro MacBook Pro in 24GB RAM 2TB SSD configuration. This is a very well equipped pro Mac at a whopper size discount:
If you don’t need quite so much power or storage, or perhaps you want a larger display, there are some other deals available from Amazon too on MacBook Air and 16″ MacBook Pro, though none are as generous at the aforementioned with $500 off.
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The iOS 27 beta has overall been a very positive experience for many beta testers, but if you have installed iOS 26 beta onto your iPhone or iPad and decided that it’s no longer for you, perhaps due to some incompatibility, critical bug, or other issue, then you can downgrade your iPhone from iOS 27 beta reverting back to iOS 26 (and yes, the same trick works for downgrading iPadOS 27 beta back to iPadOS 26).
Downgrading is a multistep process that is somewhat technical, but don’t be too intimidated by it. The big thing to remember is that to downgrade successfully and keep all of your stuff, you’ll have need to have made a backup of your iPhone or iPad prior to updating to iOS 27 beta. If you don’t care about keeping your data, then you can downgrade and just setup the iPhone or iPad as a new device running iOS 26.
MacOS Sequoia 15.7.8 and MacOS Sonoma 14.8.7 are available for Mac users who are not running the Tahoe operating system. Both MacOS Sequoia 15.7.8 and MacOS Sonoma 14.8.7 include a myriad of security patches, making them recommended updates for all Mac users who are running those operating systems. No new features are included.
Separately, Apple has also released MacOS Tahoe 26.6 update, iOS 26.6 & iPadOS 26.6 update, along with updates to watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. Those releases also contain important security patches, so you’ll want to be sure to update all of your eligible Apple devices.
