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)

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.

The latest versions of Safari use an aggressive tinting feature by default that changes the color the Safari window and titlebars to whatever color is detected on the top of a particular webpage. This can cause some visually jarring experiences when browsing the web with Safari on the Mac, and if the colorful windows and titlebar experience is not something you like, you’ll be happy to know that you can turn the Safari color tinting feature off on the Mac.

Even if you had previously disabled this feature, if you recently updated to macOS Tahoe, you will likely find that Safari has enabled this feature again anyway.

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Release Candidate builds of iOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, and iPadOS 26.1, are now available for users participating in the beta testing programs for Apple system software. Release Candidate (RC) builds are typically the final version in a beta period, absent any major bugs, and the release of an RC build indicates the final versions will be made available to the general public soon. We therefore might reasonably expect the release date of iOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and tvOS 26.1, to be as soon as sometime this week, or more likely, next week.

iOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, and iPadOS 26.1 all include new toggles for the Liquid Glass appearance to switch between “Clear” and “Tinted” appearances, with the latter toning down some of the transparency a bit. These settings are found within the Display section of Settings, and are separate from the Accessibility setting for Reduce Transparency that many users have relied on to tone down the Liquid Glass interface if they have found issues with usability or readability. Liquid Glass has been somewhat controversial because of legibility issues on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and some users perceived performance reductions as well. iPadOS 26.1 also reintroduces the Slide Over feature as an optional multitasking capability again. The 26.1 updates also include a few other new features and bug fixes.

Mac users who were hoping for major bug fixes to issues like Spotlight’s random inability to find local files on the Mac, memory leaks in Safari on the Mac, or significant battery life reductions, may or may not find those solutions in this update, at least according to the release notes accompanying the RC builds, which are brief and don’t mention much specifically in terms of bugs aside from an issue with FaceTime audio quality. It’s also possible those issues have been resolved in these updates but are simply not mentioned in the release notes, which are repeated further below.

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MacOS has evolved with some powerful window resizing features, including automatic window resizing capabilities that were introduced in newer versions of MacOS system software. These automatic window resizing functions will activate when dragging windows around on the Mac screen, and will either attempt to tile windows, resize windows, or make windows fill the screen, depending on where or how you are dragging a window to.

Like just about every feature in MacOS, some Mac users absolutely love these capabilities, while others are less unenthusiastic or even annoyed by the automatic window resizing. Usually the Mac users who do not like the automatic window resizing features find them accidentally activating and frustrating, and thus they might wish to disable the capabilities.

If you’d like to turn off the automatic window resizing features in MacOS, read along. These window resizing features are in MacOS Tahoe and MacOS Sequoia onward, so earlier versions of MacOS will not apply here.

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Amazon is slashing $200 off the price of all M4 MacBook Air models, with prices starting at $799 for the 13″ Air, and $999 for the 15″ Air model. These are absolutely fantastic Mac laptops and are also staff favorites around here.

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)

AirTags 4-pack for $65

AirTags are very useful tracking devices that can be used for many purposes, from tracking a car, luggage, package, cat, car keys, backpack, bag, purse, bike, and so much more. A 4-pack usually goes for $99 from Apple, but Amazon is offering a steal of a deal at just $65 for the same 4-pack.

• AirTags – 4-pack – $65 (down from $99)

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.

Basically every Mac user is familiar with the process of updating MacOS system software to install updates for their operating system, which typically arrive as point releases (like 15.6) or major version releases (like 26). But did you know that MacOS will also periodically install security updates and anti-malware updates to Gatekeeper, MRT, and Xprotect? Those little security updates tend to happen routinely in the background when your Mac is online, but if your Mac is offline often like during commuting, storage, or travel, it’s possible to miss an update to those security and protective systems built into MacOS. Plus, every once in a blue moon, one of these automatic update systems may fail for any number of other reasons, and so security aware Mac users could be interested in an easy way to see what’s going on. If you ever want to check on the status of these behind-the-scenes MacOS updates to Xprotect, MRT, and firmware, a great way to run a quick security status check is with a free third party tool called SilentKnight.

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Knowing the percentage remaining of your MacBook battery life is valuable information for many Mac laptop users who work on the go or away from a power source, and a simple way to always know where your battery stands is to adjust the Mac battery menu icon to show the battery percentage remaining.

This article will show you how to always show the battery percent remaining in macOS Tahoe, so that you can immediately know how much battery you have left on a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. This might be particularly useful for Mac laptop users who are experiencing bad battery life in macOS Tahoe 26 (total of 2-4 hours for myself, ouch), where keeping an eye on battery remaining is critical so that the MacBook doesn’t die in the middle of work.

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Kohler, the faucet and toilet brand, is expanding into the tech market in a rather innovative and unusual way; by launching Dekoda, a $600 iPhone-connected toilet camera that monitors your waste for various health metrics.

Dekoda apparently can monitor your hydration levels and provide other information about your gut health, as well as detect signs of blood in the toilet bowl. It works by placing the Dekoda device on the rim of your toilet bowl, which peers down into the toilet to observe what’s going on there with “sensors” (cameras of some sort), and then this information is analyzed and reported back to you – the pooper – as results and insight through an iPhone app. The Dekoda device even has a fingerprint reader on it so that multiple users can monitor their toilet activity, without confusing everyone’s bowel movements.

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Apple has issued the fourth beta of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1, for users enrolled in the beta testing programs for Apple system software. The betas continue to offer refinements, adjustments, improvements, and bug fixes to the various OS 26 operating systems.

The latest 4th beta build includes a new Liquid Glass settings toggle to switch between “Clear” and “Tinted”, with the “Clear” version representing the transparency heavy Liquid Glass default look, while the new “Tinted” choice has less transparency and a bit more contrast. The settings toggle is available in Settings > Display and is available on iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 in the fourth beta, and presumably onward. This settings toggle is different and separate from the “Reduce Transparency” Accessibility setting that many users have relied on to reduce Liquid Glass on iOS 26 or macOS Tahoe 26. Separately, iPadOS 26.1 beta also includes a Slide Over toggle to re-enable that multitasking feature, and in iOS 26.1 beta the iPhone alarm clock has a Slide to Stop feature for stopping alarms, and a new toggle to disable the lock screen swipe camera access gesture.

With the current pace of weekly releases of beta updates, it’s possible that iOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, and iPadOS 26.1, could debut to all users in the coming weeks.

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The iPhone 17 series is now in the wild, and along with the new iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Air, we have new default wallpapers for those devices too. Depending on the device model, you’ll find some star-like designs for the standard model, or futuristic glassy designs that spell out “AIR” or “PRO” for those devices. But of course you can use any of these wallpapers on any device, they’re not just limited to the latest and greatest iPhone series.

Appropriately, there are seventeen different default wallpapers between the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Air, and you don’t need to shell out a bunch of bucks to get your hands on the wallpapers or use them on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, or PC. Instead, just click on the image below to open a full sized version which you can download and save to your device, and set as your wallpaper.

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The United States Mint will feature Steve Jobs on a commemorative $1 coin next year, as apart of the 2026 American Innovation Coin Program, according to a press release from the US Mint.

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When there’s a will, there’s a way. And in this case, some iPhone users are so committed to finding a way back to iOS 18, that they’ve come up with a fairly unconventional yet creative workaround to get away from iOS 26.

As you likely know, there’s no longer any way to downgrade an iPhone from iOS 26 back to iOS 18. This is because Apple stopped signing and verifying iOS 18 IPSW files. That means once you upgrade to iOS 26 and install it onto your iPhone (or iPad), you can’t revert back to iOS 18, and you’re effectively stuck with iOS 26 moving forward.

So, how can iPhone users get iOS 18 onto their iPhone again? How can you get an iPhone with iOS 18 when you can’t downgrade from iOS 26? This is where the wild workaround comes in, and it’s probably not what you think. There are no hacks, jailbreaks, or tweaks involved, the solution is creative yet sillier than that.

The weird workaround: buying an iPhone that is still running iOS 18.

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Apple has updated the iPad Pro lineup, MacBook Pro 14″, and Apple Vision Pro, to feature the all new M5 chip. These are basically spec-bump updates focused on the new M5 chip architecture, with no new hardware redesign or major new features or changes otherwise.

The new M5 chip architecture is apparently notably faster with AI performance, CPU performance, and GPU performance, with battery energy efficiency leading to improved battery life. Apple’s press releases describe the M5 chip as “incredibly powerful” and delivering “huge leaps” in performance. The M5 iPad Pro and M5 MacBook Pro also includes a faster SSD with 2x performance compared to prior models, according to Apple.

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A fair number of Mac users have found that macOS Tahoe has notably reduced the battery life and battery performance of their MacBook hardware. Looking around online, you’ll find a variety of complaints from MacBook Pro and MacBook Air users about quickly draining battery and significant reductions in battery life in general, since installing the macOS Tahoe update.

While it’s fairly common for MacOS to be slow with less-than-great performance after installing a new system software update as MacOS runs indexing and background tasks, that process is usually self-limiting and resolves itself in a day or few. The battery issues that some macOS Tahoe users are complaining about do not resolve after that initial indexing process has finished, however.

Potential battery and performance issues like this are why some users delay updating to macOS Tahoe as they’ll likely be worked out in future bug fix updates, whether that arrives as MacOS 26.1, MacOS 26.2, macOS 26.3, or later, is yet to be determined.

Here we will review some tips to help battery life and to identify what is draining battery quickly with macOS Tahoe, to improve things where they can be.

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Beta testing for iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 is accelerating pace, with the third beta release now being available for those participating in the beta testing programs for Apple system software. Beta 3 comes just a week after beta 2, and Apple usually goes through several beta versions before issuing a final release to the general public.

The current third .1 betas of the OS 26 suite feature various refinements, improvements, enhancements, bug fixes, and even reintroductions of some features that were previously removed in the initial OS 26 releases.

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