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.

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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.

• Get Apple Watch Series 10 for $299 (down from $399 MSRP)

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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.

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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.

• M3 MacBook Air 13″ – 24GB RAM / 512GB SSD – $1099 (down from $1499)

If you do want the freshly updated M4 model MacBook Air 13″ instead, you can get a 24GB/512GB model for $1399 on Amazon

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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.

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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:

• Get EarPods Wired Headphones – Lightning – $15.96 (down from $19.99)
• Get EarPods Wired Headphones – USB-C – $16.99 (down from $19.99)
• Get EarPods Wired Headphones – AUX 3.5mm – $16.99 (down from $19.99)

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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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The latest versions of MacOS make it easier than ever to use Type to Siri, but many Mac users are finding themselves accidentally triggering the ‘Type to Siri’ feature on their Mac running the latest MacOS Sequoia releases. This can be frustrating, and if you don’t use Siri or Type To Siri you might not want this feature to activate at all, so as Mac user you might be wondering how to disable Type to Siri and prevent it from activating unintentionally.

Curiously, MacOS Sequoia does not have a settings toggle available to directly turn off Type to Siri on the Mac. That doesn’t mean you can’t disable the feature though, so read on to learn more about how to handle this.

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One of the questions many Mac users have when they see newly available system software updates for MacOS is “how long will updating MacOS take?” followed by “why is MacOS update taking forever?” These are both perfectly reasonable questions, and it’s important to remember the answers can vary. But, with modern MacOS, you can also get a pretty good estimate for how long installing a MacOS system update will take.

Let’s dive into this topic a bit so that you can better understand and prepare for installing MacOS updates on your Mac.

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Amazon is back with some more great deals on Apple products, beginning with a big discount on AirTags, Apple Watch Series 10, AirPods 4, AirPods Pro 2, and Apple Pencil Pro. Let’s check them out.

AirTags are very useful personal trackers that have myriad uses from keeping an eye on your dog, cat, luggage, backpack, purse, car keys, package, bike, or just about whatever else you might want to track with the Find My network. With an AirTag 4-pack coming in at just $65 ($16 per AirTag), this is quite a deal, down from the $99 retail price. Try them out yourself!

• AirTags – 4-pack – $65 (down from $99)

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Apple has released iOS 18.3.2 for iPhone and ipadOS 18.3.2 for iPad. The updates are focused on security patches and bug fixes, and do not include any new features.

Separately, there are updates available for Mac as MacOS Sequoia 15.3.2, Safari 18.3.1 for Ventura and Sonoma, tvOS 18.3.1 for Apple TV, and visionOS 3.2.3 for Apple vision Pro.

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MacOS Sequoia 15.3.2 has been released by Apple for Mac users running the Sequoia operating system.

The update includes important bug fixes and security patches, and Apple recommends installing the update on all eligible devices.

If your Mac is running macOS Ventura or macOS Sonoma, you will find an update to Safari 18.3.1 available instead of a full-fledged MacOS software update.

Separately, iPhone and iPad users will find iOS 18.3.2 and ipadOS 18.3.2 available as software updates, and Apple TV and Apple Vision Pro receive small updates as well.

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More great Apple deals are on tap from Amazon today, including big discounts on AirPods and Apple Watch Series 10. Let’s take a look!

AirPods 4 are on sale for just $99, cutting 22% off the $129 retail price. These are wildly popular headphones for a reason, and not just because of the iconic stylish design of the wireless earbuds. AirPods 4 include features like gesture support, Spatial Audio, voice isolation for phone calls, water resistance, sweat resistance, Siri commands, and a USB-C charging case.

• Get AirPods 4 for $99 (down 22% from $129)

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Apple has released the third beta version of MacOS Sequoia 15.4, iOS 18.4, and iPadOS 18.4, for users who are participating in the beta testing programs for Apple system software.

These beta builds are working on a variety of new features and capabilities, including refinements to Apple Intelligence, the controversial and frustrating sorted Mail Categories feature from iPhone is coming to iPad and Mac, a new ambient music feature in Control Center, new Emoji icons, and more smaller features and changes.

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Some MacOS Sequoia users have discovered the familiar handy Emoji keyboard shortcut to access the Emoji & Symbols panel is no longer working as expected. This can be immensely frustrating, especially if you rely on it for quick access to emojis in messages, emails, documents, and in general.

While it might seem like a minor issue, an inability to access the Emoji & Symbols panel by keyboard shortcut can disrupt workflow and make simple tasks like writing messages and emails much harder. Fortunately, there are ways to troubleshoot and fix the problem, whether it’s a settings adjustment or a quick reboot. With a little patience, it’s usually possible to get things working again and bring back that seamless emoji experience on the Mac.

If you’re frustrated with an unreliable Emoji keyboard shortcut on macOS Sequoia, read along.

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Amazon is offering some all-time-low prices on some fantastic Apple products right now, including the latest Apple Watch Series 10 for just $299 (down from $399 retail), AirPods Pro 2 with Hearing Aid functionality for just $169.99 (down from $249), and the M2 MacBook Air 13″ 16GB / 256GB model for just $699. What’s not to love about these great deals? Why pay more than you have to, check out the deals below!

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