Apple has released the second beta versions iOS 26.5, MacOS Tahoe 26.5, and iPadOS 26.5, to those who are participating in the beta testing programs of Apple system software.

The latest betas continue to work on RCS messaging support for encrypted text messages (this is a separate feature from iMessage, which is already encrypted), and support for placing ads into Apple Maps which you might imagine is not considered a feature for end users who almost certainly do not want to see advertising in the Maps app.

The latest stable builds of system software from Apple are currently iOS 26.4.1, iPadOS 26.4.1, and MacOS Tahoe 26.4.1.

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Remember Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah? If you’re a super longtime Mac user you just might, and you might also remember the Nintendo Wii gaming console too. Well because the Nintendo Wii runs on PowerPC architecture, the theoretical possibility of running original Mac OS X versions has always existed, but were largely impractical. That didn’t stop developer Bryan Keller though, who has hacked together a Nintendo Wii that runs the original release of Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah. If you’re adventurous, you can even give a try to get this setup on a Wii yourself too.

If you recall, the Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah operating system was quite sluggish and buggy, with Mac OS X 10.1 Puma being the first more stable and usable version of the Mac OS X operating system. If you feel like diving into a similar project yourself, you likely won’t get a ton of practical usage out of this setup, but nonetheless this is a fun and interesting proof of concept.

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Amazon is offering the latest M5 MacBook Air in both 13″ and 15″ display sizes at up to $150 off the retail price, starting at just $949 for the 13″ and $1149 for the 15″ model.

M5 MacBook Air 13″

• 13″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 512GB – $949 ($150 off)
• 13″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 1TB – $1149 ($150 off)
• 13″ M5 MacBook Air – 24GB – 1TB – $1349 ($150 off)

M5 MacBook Air 15″

• 15″ M5 MacBook Air – 24GB – 1TB – $1549 ($150 off)
• 15″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 1TB – $1349 ($150 off)
• 15″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 512GB – $1149 ($150 off)

If you don’t need all that a MacBook Air has to offer, or the M5 chip, you can also get a small discount from Amazon on the 13″ MacBook Neo 512GB Touch ID model for $689 with rapid shipping for certain color options.

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Some Mac users who are sensitive to eye strain and PWM display flickering have turned to a small free utility called StillColor to modify how MacOS renders colors on their screen. The StillColor tool has a feature that can disable something called “temporal dithering”, a usually imperceptible display technique that alternates pixel colors at the displays refresh rate, tricking the eyes into experiencing a wider range of colors than are truly present.

This temporal dithering feature has been reported to cause eye strain, headaches, fatigue, nausea, difficulty focusing, and various other physical symptoms, in users who are sensitive to this technology.

And that’s where the Stillcolor app for Mac comes in, which allows you to disable the color dithering feature, potentially relieving eye strain and fatigue symptoms for users who are impacted by the flickering color dithering feature.

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Apple has released MacOS Tahoe 26.4.1 as a software update for Mac users running the Tahoe operating system. The update includes unspecified bug fixes, making it recommended for all Tahoe users to install.

The MacOS Tahoe 26.4.1 update is particularly important for users of the new M5 MacBook Air and M5 MacBook Pro series to install, as it apparently resolves a wi-fi connectivity issue known to impact those computers.

Separately, Apple also released iOS 26.4.1 and iPadOS 26.4.1 also with unspecified bug fixes.

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Apple has released iOS 26.4.1 for iPhone, along with ipadOS 26.4.1 for iPad, both to address unspecified bug fixes. Because no specific bug fixes are mentioned in the release notes or with the download, it’s unclear as of now what exactly has been addressed, but obviously Apple felt it important enough to issue a software update to fix whatever bug(s) have been patched.

This is the only fresh software update released today, meaning the most recent available versions of system software for other Apple devices are still MacOS Tahoe 26.4, watchOS 26.4, and tvOS 26.4.

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A significant number of iPhone users run into situations where they discover their iPhone is not ringing or making sounds with incoming phone calls, text messages, and alerts, leading to missed calls and texts. This is hugely frustrating, but for most situations the reason why this happens is pretty simple; the iPhone has accidentally been placed in Focus or Do Not Disturb mode.

We’ll show you how to fix this problem and turn off Do Not Disturb mode so that you can get phone calls and texts again, and you won’t miss anymore calls or messages.

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The all new M5 MacBook Air is available at up to $150 off retail price on most models, in both 13″ and 15″ display sizes. If you’re considering a new MacBook Air, these are some great deals:

M5 MacBook Air 15″

• 15″ M5 MacBook Air – 24GB – 1TB – $1549 ($150 off)
• 15″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 1TB – $1349 ($150 off)
• 15″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 512GB – $1149 ($150 off)

M5 MacBook Air 13″

• 13″ M5 MacBook Air – 24GB – 1TB – $1349 ($150 off)
• 13″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 1TB – $1149 ($150 off)
• 13″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 512GB – $1049 ($50 off)

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If you miss the early internet dialup days of AOL (America OnLine), you can dial back the tech clock and enjoy some retro computing nostalgia by checking out the fantastic Dialtone project. Dialtone lets you sign in to a fully functional reverse engineered AOL experience with an original AOL 3.0 client, running inside a web-based virtual machine with Classic Mac OS System 7.1, Classic Mac OS System 7.6.1, Windows 98, or Windows 3.11. You can even use chat and instant messaging!

And to add to the coolness, there’s even a modern twist to Dialtone; despite being a retro AOL 3.0 client, once you sign-in to the reverse engineered AOL server, you can use the AOL client to engage with Grok, the modern AI chatbot and LLM.

• Launch Dialtone in a Mac VM in your browser here
• Check out the Dialtone project page here

You will need to create a screen name by using your Discord account, email address, or an X account, and then you’re ready to go and sign-in with your AOL 3.0 client, which runs entirely in the browser.

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Apple has issued an important software for iOS 18 users who are holding out and avoiding iOS 26 for whatever reason. Specifically, iOS 18.7.7 for all iPhone models running iOS 18 (not running iOS 26 or newer), along with iPadOS 18.7.7 for all iPad users with iOS 18 (also not running iPadOS 26 or newer), are both available as security updates. The iOS 18.7.7 update includes important security updates and is therefore recommended for all users to install, because some of the security issues addressed by the update are known to be actively exploited. No new features or changes are included otherwise.

Again, the iOS 18.7.7 update is aimed specifically at iPhone and iPad devices that are still running iOS 18, but are otherwise compatible with but not yet installing the iOS 26 updates. There are a fair amount of people who are strategically avoiding iOS 26 for any number of reasons, and this update is able to provide them with some essential security updates, without having to jump onto the 26+ versions.

Even aside from the release of iOS/iPadOS 18.7.7, Apple has been on an aggressive software update push lately, releasing myriad updates for many devices, including iOS 26.4, iPadOS 26.4, MacOS Tahoe 26.4, MacOS Sequoia 15.7.5, MacOS Sonoma 14.8.5, watchOS 26.4, tvOS 26.4, watchOS 8.8.2, and watchOS 5.3.10, iOS 16.7.15, iOS 15.8.7, amongst various other updates to basically every Apple device that is still supported. Check your devices software update mechanisms for more.

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If you have ever looked at your MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Neo, and thought to yourself “I wish this Mac was a theremin. I wish that when I moved the lid at any angle, to open or close, it played sounds like a theremin” then gosh all golly you just rubbed a magic lamp and your genie has arrived to grant your wish, because a very amusing Mac app called LidAngleSensor can transform your MacBook into a theremin.

Yes a theremin, that weird touchless instrument that creates bizarre “wooooooo wooooo” sounds as you move your hands around the antennas. That’s your Mac now, if you’d like.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apple Inc being born, which was officially founded on April 1, 1976, with a nice note and dedicated page on the Apple.com site: “50 Years of Thinking Different”.

The anniversary post discusses Apple’s humble origins in a garage, to the first Apple computer, the Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and beyond, and ends with a shoutout to the “Here’s to the Crazy Ones” poem (which used to be buried on the Mac as an Easter Egg in Pages.app and the original TextEdit icon, le sigh). The full text of the note from Tim Cook has been repeated further below for posterity.

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Apple has issued the first beta versions of iOS 26.5, MacOS Tahoe 26.5, and iPadOS 26.5, for users who are participating in the developer beta programs for Apple system software.

The new versions of beta system software don’t include any major new features thus far, except for laying the groundwork for including advertisements in Apple Maps (is that a feature?), and more work on the RCS messaging feature that was beta tested in the prior releases but did not arrive in the public versions.

The most recent versions of stable system software are the recently released iOS 26.4 update, iPadOS 26.4 update, and macOS Tahoe 26.4 update.

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Amazon has a great Spring Day Deal discount on AirPods Pro, bringing them down to just $199 from the $249 MSRP:

• AirPods Pro 3 for $199 (down from $249)

Apple Watch Series 11 is discounted $100, bringing the price down to just $299 in select band and color combinations:

• Get Apple Watch Series 11 for $299 ($100 off from $399)

Misc Apple Deals

• 13″ M4 iPad Air for $749 ($50 off)
• 13″ MacBook Neo – 512GB for $689 ($10 off)
• 13″ M5 MacBook Air – 24GB – 1TB – $1449 ($50 off)
• 13″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 1TB – $1249 ($50 off)
• 13″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 512GB – $1049 ($50 off)
• 15″ M5 MacBook Air – 24GB – 1TB – $1649 ($50 off)
• 15″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 1TB – $1449 ($50 off)
• 15″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 512GB – $1249 ($50 off)
• 16″ M5 Pro MacBook Pro – 24GB – 1TB for $2549 ($150 off, down from $2699)

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macOS Tahoe 26 has been a controversial release of MacOS system software, mostly due to it’s completely redesigned interface built around what Apple calls Liquid Glass, which has a new look, but includes some major usability and legibility issues. Tahoe is also just buggier and less refined than other Mac operating systems like Sequoia. Accordingly, some Mac users have considered the rather dramatic decision of downgrading from MacOS Tahoe 26, and reverting their Mac back to MacOS Sequoia 15.

The simplest and most direct way to downgrade from MacOS Tahoe and back to Sequoia involves a series of steps including creating a Sequoia installer drive, erasing the Mac, installing Sequoia on the Mac, then restoring your files from a backup if you have a Sequoia compatible backup. If you do not have a Sequoia compatible backup, then you will end up with basically a clean install of Sequoia instead.

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If you’ve been a longtime web user or web developer, then long ago you probably wouldn’t have imagined how complex the modern web would become, nor how capable just HTML and CSS would evolve to be. Likewise, if you’re a lifelong Nintendo fan, could you have imagined you would one day play a Mario game in your web browser with just HTML and CSS? And here we are, in the year 2026, and an enterprising developer has built a Mario game entirely in CSS and HTML, that you can play in your web browser with keyboard controls.

Mini CSS Mario is a fascinating functional proof of concept, demonstrating just what someone can accomplish with CSS and HTML alone. Don’t expect perfection or a full game experience, but again as a proof of concept this is pretty amazing for developers, general geeks, and the retro Mario fans out there.

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The MacBook Neo is wildly popular, and while it’s already priced quite aggressively, you can save a little cash on the top end model from both Amazon online store, and from some Costco locations if you’re a member. That brings the MacBook Neo 512GB model with Touch ID to $689, taking $10 off the $699 MSRP, in select colors, and with delivery in about a week.

• MacBook Neo – 512GB w/ Touch ID – Indigo – $689
• MacBook Neo – 512GB w/ Touch ID – Silver – $689

If you don’t need the larger storage or Touch ID, the Neo 256GB model is also available at the standard $599 price in all color options.

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Amazon is offering a ridiculously huge discount on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 in select models and band sizes, taking the price down to just $499, from $799. That’s a whopping 38% off the retail price for Apple’s high end premium rugged watch model, which is rarely discounted in general.

• Apple Watch Ultra 2 – $499 (down 39% from $799)

This deal is part of Amazons “Spring Deals” collection and will likely sell out quick, so if you’ve been in the market for an Apple Watch Ultra 2, this is about as good as it gets.

You can also still get the Apple Watch Series 11 for $299, a $100 discount, if you prefer that model or don’t need the rugged Ultra 2.

FTC: OSXDaily is an affiliate partner with Amazon, meaning if you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment which goes towards keeping the site running.