The Mac is a fantastic platform that is intuitive, user friendly, easy to use, powerful, and comparatively free of problems and nuisances. But that’s not to say that Mac OS doesn’t have some frustrating aspects or features too. This post aims to address some of the bigger annoyances that may be encountered on a Mac, with easy solutions on how to adjust them and fix the perceived hassle.

We’re covering some common complaints with mysterious gestures, nagging alerts, sound effects, eye candy which can be visually challenging, unexpected click behavior, constant password entry, and more.

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Apple has released the second beta versions of iOS 10.3.3, macOS 10.12.6, tvOS 10.2.2 , and watchOS 3.2.3 to users participating in the Apple system software testing programs.

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iOS firmware files should always arrive in IPSW file format so that they can be identified and used properly. Sometimes, users may download an IPSW firmware file for iPhone or iPad and it arrives as .zip file instead of .ipsw as expected, this usually happens on Windows computers but it can happen on a Mac too.

The reason this usually happens is usually because of the web browser you used to download the IPSW firmware file which erroneously assigns it a ZIP archive extension. Fortunately this is extremely easy to fix and to change an IPSW marked as a .zip file into a IPSW .ipsw file.

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Do you remember Hypercard? If you’re a (very) longtime Mac user, you might recall tinkering with the amazing Hypercard application, described by the creator as “a software erector set, which lets non-programmers put together interactive information” using the HyperTalk scripting language along with an easy to use interactive interface builder.

Though Hypercard was never brought along to the modern era in Mac OS X or iOS (sigh, maybe some day), if you’re feeling nostalgic for geeking out in HyperTalk one more time, you can easily run the entire Hypercard application and enjoy a bunch of retro HyperCard stacks on your modern Mac right now thanks to the great in-browser emulator on archive.org.

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AirPods are the wireless earbud headphones from Apple which are enjoyed by many iPhone users. Much like iOS devices have firmware updates, so do AirPods, and you may be wondering how you can update AirPods firmware, and how to check and see if your AirPods are up to date.

Managing firmware updates on AirPods is simple, but it’s a bit different from other Apple products as there is no traditional software update menu. Read on to better understand how to update AirPods and how to check the current firmware version of AirPods.

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You can quickly track any package or parcel from the Mac, all you need is an email or message that contains the tracking number. The instant package tracking ability is a data-detectors feature that will automatically recognize most tracking numbers in commonly used apps on the Mac and allow you to take action to quickly track the package via the tracking number.

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Modern versions of Safari for Mac have a unique History keystroke that allows you to open prior windows and tabs from history in reverse chronological order. For example, let’s say you have closed 10 browser tabs over the course of the last hour, then hitting this keystroke 10 times would re-open each of those closed 10 Safari tabs. But this history keyboard shortcut goes beyond that too, it can also be used even after Safari has re-launched, meaning you can open the Safari browser and quickly open whatever the historically opened windows and tabs were, again depending on the number of times you hit the keystroke.

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The iPhone defaults to showing message previews on the lock screen of iOS, revealing the sender name and message content text. Because of potential privacy ramifications, many users turn off message previews on the lock screen which hides the message content, but then to read the full message users have to go to the Message app, right? Not entirely. Devices equipped with Touch ID can reveal the hidden message preview directly from the lock screen simply by authenticating without unlocking the device, and without having to open the messages app at all.

This is an excellent though little-known privacy trick that lets you read hidden messages from the lock screen, it’s easy to use and implement into your work flow. Privacy conscious users should particularly enjoy this tip but it can also be helpful to anyone who just wants to keep private conversations private on the screen of an iPhone or iPad, whether it’s out in the open, on a desk, or otherwise.

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Making an alias for a Mac application, folder, or file, offers an easy way to access that item without having to track down its original location. Instead, you can place an alias anywhere and it will launch the original item immediately, while the original item remains in its original location. An alias on the Mac works similar to how a Shortcut does on Windows, and you can store them anywhere you want.

Aliases have been around on the Mac for a very long time, but they’re often underutilized in the modern era due to other features like Spotlight, Launchpad, and the Dock. We’re going to offer a quick review of making aliases on the Mac to offer shortcut access to any files, folders, documents, or applications.

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Messages sent from an iPhone or iPad may occasionally fail to send, instead displaying a “Not Delivered” error message along with a little red ! exclamation point next to the failed message. While this may be annoying, you can easily resend a message from iOS Messages app with minimal effort.

You can resend an iMessage or a text message that has the “Not Delivered” error message easily.

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If you watch a lot of YouTube particularly in the dark or evening hours you may find it useful to enable the all-new Dark Mode YouTube interface. Dark Mode is just what it sounds like, it basically inverts the YouTube color scheme so that the background and surrounding interface of YouTube is blacks and dark grey rather than whites.

It looks great, and you can enable Dark Mode for YouTube on any web browser.

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For many computer users, filling out PDF forms and PDF documents is a routine occurrence, and the Mac Preview app allows you to easily and quickly fill in a PDF file. The great thing about using Preview to complete PDF forms on the Mac is that there are no additional apps or downloads needed, it’s included with every version of Mac OS and Mac OS X system software.

Whatever the kind of PDF file, if it has forms to fill out you’ll be able to complete the document and save it, ready for whatever usage is necessary.

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Some more advanced Mac troubleshooting and diagnostics techniques require a user to access the Terminal from Mac OS Recovery Mode. We’ll show you how to quickly access the command line while a Mac is booted into Recovery Mode.

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If you have a PDF form you need to fill out, you’ll be pleased to discover that iPhone and iPad can fill in PDF documents rather easily thanks to the built-in Markup feature of iOS. There’s no need to print out any documents, you can handle editing the PDF entirely from iOS.

Given how PDF forms are a fairly common occurrence, whether for an invoice, job application, new patient forms, loan documents, or any of the other droves of documentation you encounter in life, you’re almost certainly to use this feature once you discover it exists.

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It’s looking like new iOS wallpapers will arrive in the next version of the system software, as a trio of new images has appeared in the first beta of iOS 10.3.3. But there’s no need to wait for the final version, you can get the nice wallpapers for your iPhone, iPad, or Mac right now.

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Apple has released the first beta versions of Mac OS 10.12.6, iOS 10.3.3, tvOS 10.2.2, and watchOS 3.2.3 for users enrolled in the system software beta testing programs.

The new beta builds likely focus on bug fixes and minor adjustments to the operating systems, and no major new features or changes are expected.

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The Mac Messages app may occasionally fail to send a message correctly, when a message fails to send it is made obvious by a little red (!) exclamation point and a “Not Delivered” message under the failed iMessage or text message. But you don’t have to retype the message or just let it go, instead you can use a little trick to resend the message again on the Mac.

This works to resend any failed message from the Messages app in Mac OS, including iMessages and text message assuming SMS has been configured to be sent and received from the Mac. Here’s how you can use this neat little trick:

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Apple has released MacOS Sierra 10.12.5 for Mac users. The small point release update to Sierra includes security updates and bug fixes, and is therefore recommended to install for all users running a prior MacOS Sierra build.

A separate security update release is available for Mac users running OS X El Capitan and Yosemite.

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