Microsoft Defender SmartScreen is a feature in the Microsoft Edge web browser for Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, and Android (and it’s also in the Windows operating system, in case you have a PC or run it in a virtual machine) that aims to protect your computer or device from malicious sites and downloads.
Because of the way that Microsoft Defender SmartScreen works, you may find that it occasionally interferes with trying to access certain websites or downloads, so there are some users that may with to disable Defender SmartScreen in the Edge browser.
The Apple Watch is a nifty gadget that many of us are fans of, but one of the curious things about Apple Watch is that it doesn’t have an obvious battery percentage remaining indicator, unlike the iPhone, iPad, Apple Pencil, AirPods, or Mac. Furthermore, it’s not necessarily obvious how to check how much battery life you have left on Apple Watch.
We’re going to demonstrate several different ways that you can check the battery life remaining on your Apple Watch.
If you are going to sell, return, or give away a Mac, you almost certainly want to factory reset the computer first. Performing a factory reset on a Mac will erase all data on the Mac, and return it to a clean slate as if the computer were brand new, without any data or personal files on the computer at all.
Erasing a Mac and returning it to factory defaults has never been easier, thanks to the addition of a “Erase All Content & Settings” feature introduced in newer versions of MacOS system software. Gone are the days where you had to manually erase and then reinstall system software, now you can simply let MacOS handle the task for you by choosing to erase and factory reset the Mac through a handy built-in feature.
Read along and you’ll be erasing all data on a Mac and it will be factory reset in no time.
VMware Fusion Pro is now available for free for personal use, according to a blog post on the developers website.
VMware Fusion Pro is powerful hypervisor software that allows you to create and run virtual machines on your Mac, enabling the capability to do things like run a virtualized Windows installation atop MacOS, or run Linux alongside MacOS, or similar situations where you’d want to run multiple operating systems simultaneously. We frequently cover virtual machines and some of the neat things you can do with them, and VMWare Fusion Pro offers another virtualization option alongside UTM, VirtualBox, QEMU, and Parallels.
We’re going to walk through the process of downloading and installing VMWare Fusion Pro for free, using the new personal use license.
macOS Ventura 13.6.7, macOS Monterey 12.7.5, and Safari 17.5 are now available as software updates for Mac users who are not running the macOS Sonoma operating system and the just released MacOS Sonoma 14.5 update.
macOS Ventura 13.6.7, macOS Monterey 12.7.5, and Safari 17.5 focus on security fixes and are not expected to include any significant changes, bug fixes, or new features.
Amazon is back with some really great deals on select Apple products. Leading the way is the fantastic M1 iPad Air for just $399, discounted 33% from the $599 MSRP – sure it was just replaced by the M2 Air model but that is $599, so simply getting the last-gen saves you $200! Next up is the fantastic Apple Watch Series 9 for just $299, discounted $100 from the $399 MSRP. You’ll also find good deals on M3 MacBook Air, and AirPods, so check them out!
M1 iPad Air for $399 (down from $599)
The M1 iPad Air features a 10.9″ retina display, 64GB storage, 12MP cameras on front and rear, Touch ID, and fantastic battery life. You can take $200 off this fantastic iPad by choosing select color options (currently blue and purple, but stock changes quickly).
As of this writing the bigger discount is available for blue and purple colors, but check stock and you might find the other colors available at $200 off as well, otherwise they’re available at $449 for $150 retail.
Apple Watch Series 9 for $299 (down $100)
Apple Watch Series 9 is deep discounted by $100 right now from Amazon, available in various color options and band sizes. The Apple Watch Series 9 has a 41mm display, heart rate monitoring plus an ECG, crash and fall detection, always-on display, ovulation tracking, GPS, one-handed pinch gesture support, a faster and more energy efficient chip, and fantastic fitness tracking capabilities.
The M3 MacBook Air 15″ can be had at a $100 discount on Amazon. The MacBook Air 15″ features a 15.3″ Liquid Retina LCD display, the powerful M3 chip, great battery life, a 1080p FaceTime camera, support for two external displays when in clamshell mode, a MagSafe Charger, two thunderbolt / USB-C ports, Touch ID, backlit keyboard, and more:
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Alongside iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5, Apple has also released iOS 16.7.8 and iPadOS 16.7.8 updates for older model iPhone and iPads. iOS 16.7.8 and iPadOS 16.7.8 include security fixes and do not appear to have any other changes.
iOS 16.7.8 and iPadOS 16.7.8 are available for iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPad 5th gen, iPad Pro 9.7″, and iPad Pro 12.9″ 1st gen. Newer iPhone and iPad models can find iOS 17.5 available instead.
iOS 17.5 for iPhone, and iPadOS 17.5 for iPad, have been released by Apple. The new software updates are available with bug fixes, security enhancements, enhancements to Apple News, and a new Pride Radiance wallpaper from Apple to celebrate the LGBTQIA2S++ communities for Pride month.
Separately, updates are also available for watchOS 10.5, tvOS 17.5, iOS 16.7.8 and iPadOS 16.7.8 for older iPhone and iPad models, macOS Sonoma 14.5, macOS Ventura 13.6.7, and macOS Monterey 12.7.5.
Apple has released MacOS Sonoma 14.5 for Mac users running the Sonoma operating system. The MacOS 14.5 update includes bug fixes, security enhancements, and some changes and improvements to add various word games to the paid Apple News+ service.
Mac users running earlier versions of system software will find MacOS Ventura 13.6.7 and MacOS Monterey 12.7.5 available as security updates.
Separately, Apple has also released the final versions of iOS 17.5, iPadOS 17.5, iOS 16.7.8, iPadOS 16.7.8, watchOS 10.5, and tvOS 17.5.
The Marathon series of video games are classic first-person shooters set in a sci-fi world, and longtime Mac users may have fond memories of playing Marathon, Marathon 2, or Marathon Infinitiy as single-player or multiplayer over a LAN in the mid 1990s.
But you don’t need a time machine or to run Mac OS Classic 9 in a web browser to go back and enjoy these retro gaming classics, because you can play them on your modern Mac (or Windows or Linux PC) right now, natively!
Instagram is one of the most popular social networks in the world, with photo sharing, video sharing, messaging capabilities, and much more. While it seems like many people have Instagram accounts, there are also plenty more people without Instagram accounts, and who don’t ever want to have an Instagram account or profile. So what if you’re one of those people without an Instagram account, but you still want to look at someone’s Instagram profile, or an Instagram of a business, or service?
As an Apple Watch owner, you likely have noticed that phone calls from your iPhone will ring on your Apple Watch, where you can answer and reject those calls as you wish. If you reject or mute the call from the Watch, the caller will have the option to leave a voice message on the iPhone voicemail as usual. And if you have iPhone or Apple Watch in Do Not Disturb mode, you may notice voicemails in your notifications when you check them.
Those functions may be reasonably well known by Apple Watch users, but lesser known is that you can also listen to voicemail directly from Apple Watch, that was left on the paired iPhone. Let’s learn how this works, so that you can check your voicemail at any time from Apple Watch, even if your iPhone is not in your hands.
The Photos app is a major part of the Apple ecosystem, providing a ton of powerful capabilities for managing and editing photos whether you’re using Photos on iPhone, Mac, or iPad. While you may already be familiar with some great tips like editing photos for color, cropping, applying filters, and creating folders for your photos, there are a variety of lesser known features that are super useful in the Photos app.
We’re covering three of the most useful overlooked features that are available for Photos app for iPhone, Mac, and iPad.
Apple Watch users may occasionally see a black screen with a squiggly line that looks like a charging cable and lightning bolt, and when this screen is active you will find Apple Watch is not usable. You may run into this screen after an Apple Watch has not been in use for a while, and you may even run into the squiggly line screen on a brand new Apple Watch that you just opened out of the box. The lightning bolt is sometimes red, and sometimes the lightning bolt is green.
What is the Apple Watch squiggly line screen, sometimes called the snake screen or lightning bolt line screen, what does it mean, and how do you fix it? Those questions are precisely what we are going to answer here, and you’ll be using your Apple Watch again soon enough.
Apple has issued release candidate builds for iOS 17.5, iPadOS 17.5, watchOS 10.5, tvOS 17.5, and visionOS 1.2. MacOS Sonoma 14.5 release candidate is not yet available.
The release candidate versions arrived right after the new M4 iPad Pro debuted, and the final version of iPadOS 17.5 will almost certainly ship on that device.
Screen sharing on a Mac allows users to remotely control or view another users computer, including their desktop, apps, and whatever else they’re doing on their Mac. This allows for many remote collaboration opportunities, along with easy remote assistance, troubleshooting, and remote management of computers.
Enabling screen sharing is a matter of adjusting a setting in MacOS Sonoma and MacOS Ventura, which has moved in the latest versions of MacOS with System Settings compared to prior MacOS releases. Let’s review how to turn on this very useful feature on a Mac.
Apple unveiled updates to their iPad lineup today, featuring newly redesigned iPad Pro models with M4 chips, and updates to the iPad Air which now include the M2 chip and a 13″ display size option.
Additionally, Apple introduced a new Apple Pencil Pro for iPad Pro, and a redesigned Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro.
If you recently got a new phone and new phone number, or perhaps you changed phone numbers, or maybe you have a new work phone, you might be left with the question of wondering what your phone number is. Obviously knowing your phone number is important, so if you need to know what your phone number is on iPhone, rather than be wondering “what is my phone number” and not knowing the answer, you’ll discover the iPhone makes it easy to see your phone number, offering several different ways to get your contact digits.
We’ll show you two quick and easy ways to find your phone number from an iPhone. And while
