Apple has released beta 8 of macOS Big Sur 11.3, iOS 14.5, and iPadOS 14.5, available now to users enrolled in the Apple operating system beta testing programs. Builds are available for both public beta and developer beta testers.
The eight beta builds arrive just a week after the seventh beta builds, and a week before a scheduled Apple event is set to take place.
Apple has scheduled an online event for April 20 at 10am PST.
The event will be live-streamed and available for anyone interested to watch at the Apple Events site on Apple.com.
Rumors suggest that Apple may release updated iPad models during the event, and there is mixed speculation about updates to other products as well.
It’s also likely the final versions of iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and macOS Big Sur 11.3 will be made available at the same time, or during the same week.
Interested users can visit the Apple events site and get a calendar reminder, or tune into the livestream during the event itself. Apple usually posts a video of the full event to their website later in the day as well.
As usual, we’ll keep you updated about any software updates as they become available for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV, and any noteworthy hardware releases too.
Do you use Safari as the default web browser on your Mac? If so, you might be happy to know that Safari’s start page is now customizable, as long as you’re running a new version of Safari on the Mac.
Did you know that your iPhone and iPad can read highlighted texts out loud? This is a feature that could come in handy for any number of reasons, but it may be particularly useful if you’re busy focusing on something else, want to know how to say or pronounce something, want something read to you, or even as an accessibility feature.
Did you purchase a used iPhone from someone only to be welcomed with an Activation Lock screen? Or, did you forget your Apple ID details and get locked out of your own iPhone? Either way, there are multiple ways to go about resolving the activation lock situation on an iPhone (or iPad for that matter).
Do you take a lot of pictures using your iPhone camera? If so, you may be surprised to know that you can actually adjust the framing of your photos after you capture them.
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Is your Apple Pencil not pairing with your iPad or is it getting randomly disconnected while in use? This could be due to a number of different factors since it relies on a wireless connection and packs its own battery. Don’t fret though, since most disconnection and pairing issues with Apple Pencil can be fixed within a matter of minutes unless the hardware isn’t compatible.
Need to type accent letters on the iPhone or iPad keyboard, but can’t quite figure out how to? Although English is widely considered to be the global language, several languages across the world use accents and diacritic marks to change how a letter or vowel sounds. Accordingly, you might find it useful to know how to type accents and diacritical marks on your iOS or iPadOS device.
Mac users may occasionally find themselves wanting to clean install macOS Big Sur onto a Mac. A clean installation of macOS Big Sur basically means the entire hard drive – including the system itself, all data, all apps, user accounts, literally everything – is erased, and then a fresh clean install of macOS Big Sur is installed onto the Mac. In this way it’s sort of like a factory reset or a fresh start, or what PC users sometimes refer to as reformatting, because there will be nothing left on the Mac at all, and booting it up will be similar to booting up a new Mac, with zero user data or other stuff.
A clean install is generally for advanced Mac users only, and is otherwise not recommended unless you’re giving away a Mac or transferring ownership, and have fully backed up your data. Because it erases the entire hard disk and all data on the Mac, it will cause complete data loss intentionally, so without sufficient backups the
Before proceeding, be certain you have a full backup of the Mac, and any or all important data. Failure to have sufficient backups will result in permanent data loss.
Apple has released the seventh beta version of macOS Big Sur 11.3 to users enrolled in the public beta and developer beta testing programs for the Mac.
How’d you like to start a timer, right from Apple Watch?
The Apple Watch might be the best thing to happen in personal fitness in a long time, but where the wearable really shines is in making it super easy to do things that we do multiple times a day, week, or month. Checking the time is obviously one of those things, but so is starting timers. And starting a timer on an Apple Watch is both useful and easy.
Sure you can use your iPhone to start a timer, and you can start one with HomePod as well, but doing it on your Apple Watch means you’ll be able to see the timer’s status at any moment, just by lifting your wrist. You’ll also get a tap on the wrist when the timer comes to an end, too.
The seventh beta version of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 has been made available to users in the beta testing programs for iPhone and iPad. The new beta build is 18E5198a and is available to both developer beta and public beta users.
Additionally, Apple has released the seventh beta of watchOS 7.4 and tvOS 14.5, though a new build of macOS Big Sur 11.3 beta is not available (yet anyway).
If you send a lot of photos back and forth in messages, you may be wondering how you can save them all to your iPhone or iPad for later use, backups, sharing along, or whatever else.
It turns out that all the photos and videos that are shared over iMessage are not saved to your iOS or iPadOS photo library. Therefore, in order to make sure you don’t lose the photos you’ve received (especially if you plan on deleting a messages thread), you’ll need to save these photos to your iPhone or iPad library.
Do you want to use Google Sheets to view and edit CSV files for data analysis? Or perhaps to import or export contacts? If so, you’ll be pleased to know that Google Sheets has native support for CSV files. With how widely used Google Sheets is throughout the workplace and educational worlds, knowing how to perform tasks like this can be undeniably useful.
How’d you like your Apple Watch to speak the time to you? Sounds convenient, high-tech, and useful, right?
Want to play Fortnite on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac again, in 2021? You can play the popular game entirely for free, despite the ongoing dispute between Apple and Epic, thanks to GeForceNow. Best of all, it works impressively well, and with high graphics settings too (possibly even better graphics than you’d be able to run natively on your hardware).
By default, Sidecar for Mac sets iPad to be on the right side of the Mac display, but what if you want to change the iPad position to be on the left side? Or to the top, or bottom of the Mac display? Or perhaps you want the iPad display to be a little bit up or down? Much like you can change positions and orientations of other external displays on Mac, you can also change the iPad Sidecar position side on Mac too.
Your iPhone can serve as an alarm clock to make sure you’re on time for events, routines, work, school, or anything else. If you’re trying to wake up early enough, or fit a schedule, or traveling and need a wake-up, using the iPhone as an alarm clock is undeniably useful since most people have their iPhone with them all the time anyway.
