Remember Clippy, the little animated Microsoft Office Assistant? I bet you missed Clippy, right?! The Office assistant was a bit divisive, typically considered either quirky and lovable or annoying and obnoxious, often appearing in the midst of your workflow to say things like “It looks like you’re writing a letter. Would you like help?” with its smirking face and blinking eyes

While Clippy has been removed from all modern versions of Microsoft Office (much to your disappointment, surely), if you miss your interactions with good old Clippy, you can experience the joys and absurdities of Clippy all over again with the help of a free open source tool that runs on the Mac.

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Wondering how you can tell if an iPhone is unlocked? Did you recently purchase a new iPhone for yourself or maybe for someone else as a gift? Or perhaps you are reselling your used iPhone, or considering switching carriers? Maybe you’re thinking of traveling to a different area and you’re wondering if you can swap in a local SIM card? Whatever the case, you may want to make sure that your iPhone is capable of accepting any SIM card.

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Ever wondered how to delete files on the Mac? Whether you got yourself a new Mac, switched from Windows, or just never really thought to delete files or folders before, you’ll find that it’s easy to remove unnecessary files from the filesystem anytime you want to.

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Most people think that 2TB is the maximum iCloud Storage capacity plan size, but it turns out that by stacking the iCloud 2TB plan with Apple One Premier, you can get 4TB of iCloud Storage. If you have a ton of Apple devices, with a ton of data, you might be interested in getting the whopping 4TB of storage capacity for all of your device backups, photos, data, and more, particularly if the 2TB is running short and you’re tired of freeing up iCloud storage capacity. And yes, it’s accessible from iPhone, iPad, or Mac. And as an added bonus, the Apple One Premier subscription includes Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, Apple News+, and Workouts on Apple Watch.

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Apple has released the fifth public beta versions of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey to users who are enrolled in the public beta testing programs. The build numbers are the same as developer betas, as expected.

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Apple has issued macOS Monterey beta 5 for Mac users in the Mac system software beta testing program. Usually Apple releases a developer beta version first and is soon followed by the same build for public beta users.

Additionally, iOS 15 beta 5 and iPadOS 15 beta 5 have also been made available, along with beta 5 of watchOS 8 and tvOS 15.

MacOS Monterey includes various new features, changes, and improvements to the Mac operating system, including Live Text for selecting text in images, Universal Control lets a single mouse and keyboard control a Mac and iPad, FaceTime Screen Sharing, changes to Safari tabs and the appearance of Safari tabs, Quick Notes for apps, Shortcuts app for Mac, Low Power Mode for MacBook laptops, along with various changes to Photos, Music, Maps, Messages, and a variety of other smaller changes, improvements, and adjustments.

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Apple has released macOS Big Sur 11.5.2 for Mac users running the Big Sur operating system.

The MacOS 11.5.2 update weighs in around a hefty 2.54gb, but has extraordinarily brief release notes which do not seem to indicate anything beyond that the update “includes bug fixes for your Mac.”

Presumably all Mac users running Big Sur should install the update, though without any specifics it’s unclear what problems and issues have been resolved or addressed, which may reduce the urgency for some to proceed with the update.

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Did you know you can use your Keyboard as a mouse for Mac? This is an excellent accessibility feature, but it has some other uses too. For example, did your MacBook’s trackpad stop working all of a sudden? Or did your Magic Mouse battery go out? Whatever the case, you can control your Mac with just a keyboard.

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Do you use Facebook to stay connected with your friends, family, and colleagues? If so, do you want to hide your online status from your Facebook friends whenever you launch Messenger? Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to disable your active status on Facebook Messenger, regardless of what device you’re using Facebook from.

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Apple has released iOS 15 Beta 5 & iPadOS 15 Beta 5 to users enrolled in the beta testing programs for iPhone and iPad system software. Often the developer beta rolls out first and is soon followed by the same build for public beta testers.

iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 include a variety of new features, changes, and improvements to the operating systems, including a redesigned Do Not Disturb system called Focus, FaceTime improvements like screen sharing and a grid view of participants for group chats, redesigned Notifications, redesigned Safari tabs and a tab grouping feature, Safari extensions, Live Text for text selection within images, changes to Maps, Health, Photos, Music and other default apps, changes to Spotlight, a redesigned Weather app on iPhone, and new multitasking changes for iPad, along with the ability to place widgets anywhere on the iPad home screen. iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 also include new anti-child abuse measures, where Messages are scanned for inappropriate pictures and parents are automatically alerted when any are found, and all photos stored in iCloud will be scanned for exploitation content and reported to authorities when detected.

New beta builds of macOS Monterey beta 5, watchOS 8 beta 5, and tvOS beta 5 should be expected shortly as well.

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Need to change the autofill information that’s used in Safari to quickly log in, fill in address data, and make payments? Editing autofill info is easy to do on an iPhone and iPad.

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Want more privacy on Instagram? If so, you might consider turning an Instagram account private, otherwise by default anyone with or without an Instagram account can view your profile, photos, and videos. Fortunately, this can be changed.

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Ever wondered how you can move files and folders around on a Mac? If you’re using your first Mac and are new to macOS, one of the first things you may be interested in learning is file organization, especially if you’re switching from Windows.

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If you’re someone who uses Telegram to stay in touch with your friends and colleagues, you may be interested in taking advantage of one of its features that allows you to schedule voice chats using the Telegram app.

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Do you make WhatsApp voice and video calls on your computer? If so, it’s likely that you may want to change the webcam or the microphone it uses by default. Fortunately, this is pretty easy to do and it just takes a few seconds of your time.

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Being able to share your favorite songs with friends via Instagram stories is great, but this is something Apple Music users didn’t get to experience until recently. However, now that Apple has implemented this feature, they’ve done quite a good job with it.

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Are you unable to play songs from the Apple Music or iCloud Music library on your Mac? If so, are you getting a specific error stating that your computer is not authorized when you try to play something? This is an issue you may run into when you start listening to Apple Music on a new Mac or even Windows PC.

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Did you know that your Mac is capable of reading alerts for you, in addition to displaying them on the screen? This is a handy Accessibility feature that’s a bit buried in system settings.

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