Apple has issued the third beta versions of iOS 26.2, iPadOS 26.2, macOS Tahoe 26.2, to those engaging in the beta testing programs for Apple system software. With a new beta build coming every week, it’s fairly likely we will see a final version released in December before yearend.

A handful of tweaks, changes, and new features are being worked on in the current betas. For iPhone, iOS 26.2 beta includes a slider to adjust Liquid Glass on the lock screen (they should probably bring this slider to all OS 26 versions and make it able to adjust Liquid Glass system wide, but what do I know I’m just a bozo user who sees a lot of complaints about the Liquid Glass interface on MacOS Tahoe and iOS 26), the Live Translation AirPods feature arrives for EU users, Reminders gets an alarm feature, AirDrop gets a temporary code feature for allowing non-contact users to exchange files, you can have your screen flash for alerts, and more. It’s unclear what bug fixes will be included in the new OS 26.2 releases, but hopefully hopefully MacOS 26.2 will fix the bug where Reduce Transparency does not work entirely in Tahoe, iCloud no longer works in VMs, and other known issues.

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Once you use the Journal app, it will send a daily notification to your iPhone and Apple Watch (yuck) with a reminder that says “Time to Write”, nudging you to create a new journal entry for the day. If you’re annoyed by the Journal “Time to Write” alerts on your iPhone or Apple Watch, you can disable them completely.

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The second beta versions of iOS 26.2, iPadOS 26.2, macOS Tahoe 26.2, are now available for testing for users participating in the beta programs for Apple system software. watchOS 26.2 beta 2 and tvOS 26.2 beta 2 are also available if you’re testing on those devices.

iOS 26.2 beta features a slider for adjusting intensity of Liquid Glass on the lock screen, AirPods live translation feature arrives for EU users, Reminders get an alarm option for both iOS and macOS, and you can now have your screen flash with alerts. There will likely be additional refinements, features, and bug fixes as well across the OS 26.2 lineup, hopefully including fixes for a bug where Reduce Transparency no longer fully works on macOS Tahoe, VMs do not work with iCloud, and other issues and bugs experienced by users.

The most recent stable builds of system software are currently iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1.

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The Liquid Glass interface of iOS 26 makes everything more transparent, and you can bring that effect to your Home Screen icons too by making them clear. The clear icon look offers a dramatic visual change to the icons on your iPhone or iPad, stripping them of the usual bright neon colors and transforming them into translucent outlines instead.

Aside from many users liking the appearance of Clear icons, one of the biggest perks of using Clear icons on your iPhone or iPad Home Screen is that it strips away the color from the bright red notification badges that show numerical indicators of things like missed calls, voicemails, unread messages, app updates, number of unread emails, notifications, and alerts.

If you’re interested in dramatically transforming the look and feel of your iPhone or iPad Home Screen by making the icons clear, read along and you’ll have this neat customization enabled on your device in just a moment.

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The latest versions of macOS Tahoe include a new toggle that allows you to switch between two slightly different appearance modes for the Liquid Glass interface; “Clear” and “Tinted”. This setting was introduced to the Mac with macOS Tahoe 26.1 (and iOS 26.1 / iPadOS 26.1 for iPhone and iPad), and offers another way to customize the look and feel of your Mac a bit.

The difference between “Clear” and “Tinted” is very subtle when in Light Mode, and just slightly more obvious when in Dark Mode, but if you’re hoping for a major rollback of Liquid Glass this is not it (and unfortunately Reduce Transparency doesn’t completely work in macOS Tahoe 26.1 now either).

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AirPods 4 feature the iconic earbud design, and have many great features like gesture support, spatial audio, voice isolation, water and sweat resistance, Siri support, and USB-C charging.

• Get AirPods 4 for $85 (down 30% from $129)

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Amazon continues to offer wildly great deals on the M4 MacBook Air, with the 13″ model starting at $749 (down from $999), and the 15″ starting at $949 (down from $1199), with the $250 discount available on other models with more RAM and SSD storage as well. The base model 13″ is a whopping 25% off for the 16GB/256GB model, a huge discount on what is a fantastic Mac laptop.

13″ M4 MacBook Air ($250 off)

• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $749 (MSRP: $999)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $949 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,149 (MSRP: $1,399)

15″ M4 MacBook Air ($250 off)

• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $949 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,149 (MSRP: $1,399)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,349 (MSRP: $1,599)

While the best deals are on the 256GB models, some Mac users might want additional storage capacity, but an easy way to expand that and stay deeply in budget is to get a tiny USB-C flash drive that is 256GB for just $30 (you can even get up to 1TB if you want a huge amount of additional storage).

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If you were one of the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro users who found MacOS Tahoe causing excessive battery drain and battery life reductions with MacOS 26.0 and MacOS 26.0.1, then you’ll want to update to macOS Tahoe 26.1 right away, as it will likely resolve the most significant battery life problems.

Multiple user reports online, with yours truly included, have found that battery life of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro has been restored to expected durations with the installation of macOS Tahoe 26.1. On my particular MacBook Air, Tahoe 26.1 means a return to 12 hour battery life, which is a significant improvement from the 2 hour battery life that I routinely experienced with the initial macOS Tahoe 26 release and the 26.0.1 update.

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Amazon is cutting $250 off the price of all M4 MacBook Air models, starting at $749 for the 13″ MacBook Air, and $949 for the 15″ MacBook Air. These are all-time low prices and tremendous deals on fantastic Apple laptops, and probably match whatever upcoming Black Friday deals are to be expected. It’s exceptionally rare to get up to a 25% discount on a brand new Mac laptop with so much capability, so take advantage of these prices while they’re available.

13″ M4 MacBook Air ($250 off)

• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $749 (MSRP: $999)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $949 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,149 (MSRP: $1,399)

15″ M4 MacBook Air ($250 off)

• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $949 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,149 (MSRP: $1,399)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,349 (MSRP: $1,599)

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iOS 18.7.2 and iPadOS 18.7.2 are available for iPhone and iPad users who are not running iOS 26 and who do not want to install iOS 26.1 update onto their devices. The iOS 18.7.2 and iPadOS 18.7.2 updates are security releases and do not include any new features or changes.

Separately, iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, macOS Sequoia 15.7.2, macOS Sonoma 14.8.2, watchOS 26.1, and tvOS 26.1, have been released as well, so don’t miss those updates for eligible devices.

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Apple has released the first beta versions of iOS 26.2, iPadOS 26.2, macOS Tahoe 26.2, and the rest of the OS 26.2 suite. These betas are available now for users engaging in the beta testing programs.

iOS 26.2 beta and macOS Tahoe 26.2 beta come just after Apple released the final versions of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 to the general public.

iOS 26.2 beta includes a new slider for toggling the intensity of Liquid Glass on the Lock Screen, Reminders gains alarms, AirPods Live Translation comes to Europe, an Accessibility screen flash option for alerts, and likely some other adjustments as well. Presumably there will be some bug fixes in the 26.2 releases as well.

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Some Mac users have discovered that the “Reduce Transparency” and “Increase Contrast” accessibility toggles no longer work completely after installing the macOS Tahoe 26.1 update, as transparency remains prominent throughout the interface. The feature continues to not work in Tahoe 26.2 either, making legibility difficult.

Toggling the Accessibility switch on for ‘Reduce Transparency’ in MacOS Tahoe 26.1 might reduce the transparency in the menu bar and Control Center only, but transparency remains overtly visible throughout some aspects of the Liquid Glass visual appearance, including in some window title bars, sidebars, search bars, and elsewhere in the macOS Tahoe interface. Similarly, the “Increase Contrast” toggle will place dramatic contrasting borders around windows and visual elements, but the Liquid Glass interface remains transparent in many areas, like Finder and System Settings.

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MacOS Sequoia 15.7.2 and macOS Sonoma 14.8.2 are available as software updates for Mac users who are not running the macOS Tahoe operating system. Safari 26.1 is also available as an update for these versions of MacOS.

These are security updates for macOS Sonoma and Sequoia, and the updates do not include new features or bug fixes, as Apple has devoted those efforts into the macOS Tahoe 26.1 update, which is freshly released as well.

Separately, Apple has also released iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, watchOS 26.1, tvOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1, so you’ll want to update your other Apple devices as well.

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Apple has released macOS Tahoe 26.1 for all Mac users, being the first major point release software update for macOS Tahoe since it debuted a few months ago. macOS Tahoe 26.1 includes a few new features, some bug fixes, and security patches, making it an important update to install for any Mac user that is running the Tahoe operating system.

The most notable change in macOS Tahoe 26.1 is an optional toggle to tone down the Liquid Glass interface, which has been somewhat controversial since it debuted, with users complaining of some legibility issues with the new appearance.

Separately, other updates are available for Apple devices, including iOS 26.1 for iPhone, iPadOS 26.1 for iPad, watchOS 26.1 for Apple Watch, tvOS 26.1 for Apple TV, macOS Sequoia 15.7.2, and macOS Sonoma 14.8.2.

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Apple has released iOS 26.1 for iPhone, and iPadOS 26.1 for iPad. These are the first major point release updates for iOS 26, and offer a few changes, new features, bug fixes, and security enhancements, and are therefore recommended for users running iOS 26 or iPadOS 26.

You will find a new toggle for Liquid Glass that allows for a tinted higher contrast look, or the default Clear look. There are new language options for Live Translation with AirPods, and iPad regains the Slide Over multitasking capability. The release notes don’t mention many bug fixes, but it’s likely there are many included in the update that are not specified in the release notes, which are available below for both iOS 26.1 and iPadOS 26.1.

Separately, Apple has also released macOS Tahoe 26.1, MacOS Sequoia 15.7.2, macOS Sonoma 14.8.2, Safari 26.1 for Sequoia and Sonoma, watchOS 26.1, tvOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1, as well as iOS 18.7.2 and iPadOS 18.7.2 for iPhone and iPad users who are not running iOS 26.

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A fair number of Mac users are experiencing a frustrating issue with the Spotlight search engine which seems to prevent Spotlight on the Mac from finding any local files at all.

This Spotlight problem is not subtle, and when you’re experiencing it, Spotlight basically has no ability to find any local file, even if your search term is an exact match for a file name. In the screenshots accompanying this article, a file named “finder.png” on the Desktop can’t be found by Spotlight, despite searching for “finder.png”.

An inability to find your files makes an OS search feature pretty useless, so let’s dig into this issue a bit so that you can use Spotlight to locate and find your local files on the Mac again.

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A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is a holiday season classic, and Apple is making it free to watch on their Apple TV service for a weekend in the middle of November.

Specifically, on Saturday November 15, and Sunday November 16, 2025, you’ll be able to tune in and enjoy the Thanksgiving Charlie Brown special for free on the Apple TV service.

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AirPods Pro 2 are fantastic earbuds and offer advanced features like hearing aid functionality for mild to moderate hearing loss, active noise cancellation, high fidelity sound, water and sweat resistance, Spatial Audio, custom fit, transparency mode, ear detection, a USB-C charging case, and more.

• AirPods Pro 2 – $170 (down from $249)

Apple Watch Ultra 3 – $100 off from $699

Apple Watch Ultra 3 is the toughest and most feature-packed Apple Watch there is, and it’s available at a $100 discount from Amazon right now:

• Apple Watch Ultra 3 – $699 (down from $799)

$200 Off M4 MacBook Air, starting at $799

Amazon is continuing to offer one of the best Mac laptops for $200 off, starting at $799 for the 13″ Air, and $999 for the 15″ Air.

13″ M4 MacBook Air ($200 off)

• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $799 (MSRP: $999)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $999 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,199 (MSRP: $1,399)

15″ M4 MacBook Air ($200 off)

• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $999 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,199 (MSRP: $1,399)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,399 (MSRP: $1,599)

iPad Deals: $50 Off M5 iPad Pro, iPad, & iPad Air

Amazon is offering multiple nice deals on various iPad models, pick which works best for you:

• iPad 11″ A16 – $299 (down from $350)
• M3 iPad Air 11″ – $550 (down from $599)
• M5 iPad Pro 11″ – $950 (down from $999)

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