If you’re a Signal messenger user, you can further improve the security and privacy of your Signal communications and messages by enabling and using the disappearing messages feature. Just as it sounds, disappearing messages causes Signal to automatically disappear and remove messages after a specified time period. Even better is that it’s customizable, so you can set disappearing messages to be enabled for specific contacts, and you can toggle the feature off and on at any time (as can the other person you’re communicating with).

For some quick background for the unfamiliar; Signal is a popular and highly regarded free secure messaging client that not only enhances communication privacy and security with end-to-end encryption, but is also popular because of it being cross-platform compatible, available for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. That cross-platform availability makes it more versatile than iMessage, which while also encrypted, is limited to the Apple ecosystem. Signal requires a phone number to setup, but once you have it configured on an iPhone or Android you can then easily setup the client on a Mac, Windows PC, and other desktops too. And this might be obvious, but anyone you want to communicate with using Signal will need to have the Signal app on their device or computer as well.

Let’s walkthrough how to setup disappearing messages in Signal, including Signal messenger for iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux:

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Downloading complete macOS installers has long been possible via the App Store and from Apple CDN and the command line, but some users encounter difficulties with those approaches, or find them too cumbersome. Another option is to download a full macOS installer by using an app called MDS.

MDS stands for Mac Deploy Stick and is third party software, it’s free to download but if you want support for the app you’ll need to pay for it. For our purposes here, we’re simply aiming to use the MDS app to download complete installers of macOS system software, without going through the usual channels of the Mac App Store, or the Terminal.

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Are you tired of seeing unwanted camera and microphone access pop-ups with certain websites on Safari for iPhone and iPad? Or maybe you just want to manually disable camera access for some websites due to privacy concerns? Fortunately, this is actually pretty easy to do with iOS and iPadOS.

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Apple has released the first beta version of macOS Big Sur 11.3 to users enrolled in the beta testing programs for Mac system software.

The new beta arrives a day after macOS Big Sur 11.2 update was released to the general public, and iOS 14.5 beta 1 and iPadOS 14.5 beta 1 were released for iPhone and iPad beta testers.

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Telegram might be one of the most secure messaging services out there, but that doesn’t stop someone from reading your incoming messages through notifications that pop up on your iPhone screen. The developers have thought this through however, as they offer an in-app setting that allows you to disable message previews. If you use Telegram on iPhone and are concerned about having more privacy, this may interest you.

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How’d you like to use your iPhone camera buttons for both camera burst mode and QuickTake video? With supported devices and the latest versions of iOS, you can use the volume buttons for camera burst and QuickTake video on an iPhone.

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Apple has released the first beta versions of iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, watchOS 7.4, and tvOS 14.5.

The new betas arrive not long after the final versions of iOS 14.4 and iPadOS 14.4 became available to iPhone and iPad users.

A first beta for macOS Big Sur 11.3 is not yet available, but is likely to arrive soon as well, considering macOS Big Sur 11.2 update was just finalized and released to all Mac users.

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Apple has released macOS Big Sur 11.2 for Mac users running macOS Big Sur. The new software update includes bug fixes and enhancements to the operating system, and is therefore recommended for all Mac users running macOS 11 Big Sur.

Specifically, macOS Big Sur 11.2 is said to improve the reliability of Bluetooth connections, resolves an issue with external displays and some M1 Macs, fixes a problem where iCloud Drive could erroneously turn off, amongst other various improvements and bug fixes. The full release notes for macOS Big Sur 11.2 are further below.

Additionally, smaller software updates are available for Mac users running macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave, versioned as Security Update 2021-001 Catalina and Security Update 2021-001 Mojave. Previously, Apple had also released iOS 14.4 for iPhone, iPadOS 14.4 for iPad, tvOS 14.4 for Apple TV, and watchOS 7.3 for Apple Watch.

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We all love a bit of music and Apple Music subscribers are no different. But with so much music including explicit language, you might want to turn it off, ensuring you only hear the clean version of every song. That is especially the case if you have kids who use your device – or they have their own device – and listen to music.

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Do you want to keep your Telegram conversations safe and secure? Perhaps you don’t want anyone snooping around on your Telegram messages if you let someone briefly use or borrow your iPhone? If this is something that you’re worried about, you may be interested in locking the app with a passcode and in turn, use Face ID or Touch ID to unlock your chats depending on your device.

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Want to set up a silent alarm clock on your Apple Watch? How’d you like to be tapped on your wrist to wake up? The Apple Watch can go beyond the iPhone silent vibration alarm feature and actually tap you on the wrist as a wake-up instead, and it’s a pretty neat feature for obvious reasons.

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Want to use subtitles or closed captioning on videos on your iPhone or iPad? Do you watch movies and other video content in foreign languages? If so, you’ll be pleased to know that you can view subtitles and closed captions on your iPhone and iPad, as long as they’re available for whichever video or service you’re watching.

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If you recently started using Telegram as your primary messaging platform for texting your friends and colleagues, you may want to check out one of its unique features called Channels. Before you jump to conclusions, this is not a fancy word for group chats. In fact, it differs from groups in many ways.

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The Calendar app on iPhone and iPad is incredibly useful, but if you are new to the platform or just haven’t bothered to use it much yet, you might be wondering how you can add and delete events from Calendar on your device. Fortunately, managing Calendar events in iOS and iPadOS is quite simple.

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Have you ever wanted to lock your WhatsApp conversations behind a password? If so, you’re certainly not alone. Thankfully, there’s now a way to actually lock your WhatsApp behind Face ID or Touch ID to add a second layer of security to your data.

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Apple has released yet another macOS Big Sur 11.2 release candidate, this time versioned as macOS 11.2 RC 3.

Users who are enrolled in the public beta and developer beta programs can find the latest RC 3 build available to download now.

macOS Big Sur 11.2 RC 3 comes to Mac beta testers several days after iOS 14.4 and iPadOS 14.4 updates were made available to all iPhone and iPad users.

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The latest Apple Silicon Macs can use IPSW files to restore and revive Mac hardware, similar to how iPhone and iPad can use IPSW files for firmware updates and restores. Unsurprisingly, this means there are now Mac IPSW files for the Apple Silicon M1 Macs.

The usage of IPSW files is generally considered advanced, and with the Mac IPSW files this is particularly true because they’re a bit of a hassle to use for restoring and reviving Apple Silicon Macs. But more on that in a moment. If you’re wondering where you can download MacOS IPSW files from, you can get them directly from Apple once you know the proper URLs.

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Have you been taking advantage of the built-in Shortcuts app on iPhone and iPad to perform automated tasks or customize your home screen with custom app icons? In that case, you may already have an idea regarding how to create custom shortcuts, but you also may might to try out custom shortcuts that other users have created too.

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