You may occasionally see a Messages thread or a conversation in Messages app that shows a bell with a line through it next to the persons name. If you’re wondering what the bell with a line through it means in Messages app, which is the mute symbol, you’re certainly not alone, because not everyone activates the associated feature intentionally. You may come across the crossed bell symbol in Messages on iPhone, iPad, Mac, or even Apple Watch.

The crossed out bell icon poses a lot of questions, not only in what it means or indicates, but how it was enabled to begin with. We’re going to discuss and explain the crossed bell icon so that you understand what it means, how it’s enabled, how you can disable it, and to better understand how it can be accidentally toggled on.

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If you have a video file in MOV format, you may wish to convert the MOV video to MP4 format instead. While there are a variety of methods for converting MOV to MP4, the approach we’re going to address here is by using the command line, with a super easy to use and free tool called ffmpeg.

Why would you want to convert MOV to MP4?

Typically Mac users might want to convert MOV to MP4 for sharing and general compatibility reasons, since MP4 is a more widely supported video format, particularly if you want the video to be compatible across various platforms and video player apps.

And often, you can get better compression out of an MP4 file, making for a smaller file size too.

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Apple has released macOS Ventura 13.6.6 for Mac users running Ventura, along with Safari 17.4.1 for Mac users running Ventura and Monterey.

These software updates include some of the same critical security fixes that came with macOS Sonoma 14.4.1, and are aimed at users who are not running the Sonoma operating system on their Macs. There are no new features included in these updates.

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If you’re interested in getting a brand new M3 MacBook Air and running in clamshell mode to take advantage of the dual external display support, be aware that system performance may be reduced when the MacBook Air is run in clamshell mode (clamshell mode, meaning the lid is closed but the MacBook is powered on).

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Apple has released the first beta versions of a round of upcoming future software updates, versioned as iOS 17.5 for iPhone, macOS Sonoma 14.5 for Mac, iPadOS 17.5 for iPad, tvOS 17.5 for Apple TV, watchOS 10.5 for Apple Watch, and visionOS 1.2 for Apple Vision Pro.

The betas are available now to users enrolled in the developer beta testing programs for Apple system software. Typically the same build is quickly released for public beta testers as well.

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The Microsoft Edge browser offers perhaps one of the best and easiest ways for an average person to access and use ChatGPT-4 for free, without having to pay for ChatGPT-4 access through OpenAI. Best of all, Edge is available for just about every major platform, including Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, and Android.

With the Edge browser’s Copilot feature, you can access GPT-4 at any time while in the web browser easily. Whether you’re browsing the web, or simply looking to engage in a discussion with the GPT service to summarize a webpage or article, get answers to questions, walk through code or scripts, write emails or letters, help solve complex problems, and so much more.

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Apple has released iOS 16.7.7 and iPadOS 16.7.7 for select older model iPhone and iPads. The updates seem to include the same essential and applicable security fixes that iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 included.

Specifically, iOS 16.7.7 is available for iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, while iPadOS 16.7.7 is available for iPad 5th generation, iPad Pro 9.7-inch, and iPad Pro 12.9-inch 1st generation. Other devices will not see this update available to them.

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When you connect an iPhone or iPad to a Mac or Windows PC, you will see a request on the device to “Trust this computer?” with an option to ‘Trust’ or “Don’t Trust’. This is a security feature that is part of iOS and iPadOS to ensure that you approve of a device connection to a trusted computer, since that computer could access your device and its stored data.

The “Trust This Computer?” alert message is supposed to only appear on a computer that the iPhone or iPad has not connected to before, and once trusted, it should not appear anymore. But that’s not always how things work, and sometimes you will be confronted with a constant and repeating “Trust This Computer?” request anytime you connect an iPhone or iPad to a Mac or PC, even if simply to charge the device.

This article is going to investigate the repeating “Trust This Computer?” alert request, and offer some solutions on how to stop it from appearing constantly.

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If you’re a Windows user, whether on a PC, in a dual boot environment with Boot Camp on an Intel Mac, or you’re running Windows 11 in a virtual machine on an Apple Silicon Mac, you may have an interest in installing Windows Subsystem for Linux, or WSL.

Windows Subsystem for Linux puts a full Ubuntu Linux shell on a Windows PC that is accessible from the command prompt or PowerShell. If you have a Mac background, you can think of Windows WSL as kind of like what Terminal and HomeBrew is for MacOS, since MacOS has a BSD shell available at any time through the command line.

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If you’re at the command line and perhaps interacting with Homebrew, Git, or similar, you may run into an error message that says something like the following “warning: unable to access /Users/Name/.config/git/attributes” : Permission denied”.

This error message sounds more alarming than it is in most cases, but regardless, you likely want to fix the error and remedy the permissions issue so that you no longer receive the ‘unable to access ~/.config/git/attributes’ error message.

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If you have an Apple Watch, or you just bought an Apple Watch, you may occasionally run into a situation where the Apple Watch displays a squiggly line charging cable on the screen, sometimes with a little lightning bolt icon as well. Some people have even referred to this screen as the ‘green snake screen’ or ‘red snake screen’ because it also kind of looks like the old snake video game. If you see this screen, you’ve probably noticed by now that the Apple Watch will not turn on at all, instead it just shows that screen image.

If you see the squiggly line screen on your Apple Watch display, this is actually pretty easy to fix, but you’ll need to have some patience.

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The M3 MacBook Air 15″ model may be brand new, but Amazon is already offering up to 7% off the fantastic Mac laptop in certain configurations.

Specifically, you can get the base model M3 MacBook Air with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD for $1204 (down from $1299), but even better is the upgraded model with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD for $1574 (down from $1699).

The MacBook Air 15″ features the powerful M3 chip, 15.3″ Liquid Retina display, 1080p FaceTime camera, support for two external displays when in clamshell mode, a MagSafe Charger, two thunderbolt / USB-C ports, Touch ID, a great backlit keyboard, and excellent energy efficiency and battery life.

Save Up To $125 on the 15″ M3 MacBook Air!

The M3 MacBook Air 15″ currently discounted 7% at Amazon in select configurations:

• 15″ MacBook Air M2 – 8GB / 256GB – Starlight – $1204 (down 7% from $1299)
• 15″ MacBook Air M3 – 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD – Starlight – $1574 (down from $1699)

As usual, stock changes quickly at Amazon, so you’ll want to grab the deal you like if you see it, and if it’s out of stock then checking again later will often return the same deal, or in a different configuration or color option.

Separately, you can also get the M3 13″ MacBook Air at 5% off (save $50 from MSRP) if you’d rather have a smaller display and lighter laptop to be working with.

Big AirPods Savings

You can also save $50 on the all new AirPods Pro 2nd generation with USB-C charging, or take $30 off the AirPods 2nd gen with Lightning charging.

• AirPods Pro 2nd gen with USB-C Charging 20% off for $199 (down from $249)
• AirPods 2nd gen 23% off at $99 (down from $129)

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. Shopping on Amazon from our links is a helpful way to support this site, at no cost to you.

You may have noticed while on a video call or teleconference that your video is mirrored, or flipped, by default on the Mac. Mirrored video means the image on screen is what you see when looking in a mirror, not your regular orientation from an observers perspective, thus the name. This is the case with all MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iMac computers, each with a built-in front facing FaceTime camera.

You might be wondering if you can change the default mirror video camera effect, and the answer to that is yes, but it’s not universal.

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Some Mac users have discovered a process named “NewsToday2” running on their Mac, typically found after they’ve noticed a slowdown on their machine, or if they’re browsing through active processes running in MacOS.

We’re going to dive into the NewsToday2 process in MacOS, discuss what it is, and show you how to stop it from running and disable NewsToday2 on the Mac.

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Creating a resume is one of those tasks that can be stressful, but it does not need to be if you’re in the Apple ecosystem. That’s because your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, all have a readily accessible series of resume templates that you can access.

Whether it’s updating a resume into a new format, or creating an entirely new resume, we’ll show you how you can easily make a resume on Mac, iPhone, or iPad, by using the bundled Pages app.

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Apple has announced their annual developer conference, WWDC, will take place from June 10 to June 14 of this year.

The majority of WWDC 2024 will be online, however there will be an in-person event and keynote speech on June 10, at Apple’s Cupertino California headquarters.

Apple typically unveils new versions of upcoming system software at the Worldwide Developer Conference, and this year we can assume that iOS 18, MacOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 11, tvOS 18, and visionOS 2 will debut.

Sometimes Apple announces new products or hardware at WWDC as well, though it’s unclear if that will happen this year.

Apple is also expected to focus prominently on AI, or Artificial Intelligence, at WWDC 2024, where it’s rumored that AI helper components will be built into operating systems and individual apps.

Separately, there are reports from Bloomberg that Apple has been in talks with Google to use the Gemini AI product to power various AI features on iPhone. Gemini is a large language model from Google that launched recently as a ChatGPT competitor, but not without some controversy regarding certain subjects, accuracy, and image generations. ChatGPT has also been shown to include many of the same troubles and biases. A recent study commissioned by the US government determined that AI could potentially pose an “extinction-level threat to the human species.” Despite all of those reasonable concerns, AI tools like Gemini and ChatGPT are incredibly useful for completing day-to-day tasks, and it’s likely that Apple will use these tools in helpful ways.

If you’re a developer, student, or simply interested in Apple’s annual developer conference, be sure to visit the Apple Developer WWDC24 page here.

Apple has released macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 as an update for Mac users running the Sonoma operating system.

The software update includes bug fixes and security enhancements, and appears to resolve the USB hub and external monitor issues that some Mac users were experiencing with macOS Sonoma 14.4 update.

Separately, macOS Ventura 13.6.6 is also available for Mac users running the Ventura operating system. These updates are concurrent with the already released iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1, which were released the week prior.

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The Apple Watch may be small and on your wrist, but believe it or not the Apple Watch also has a keyboard. Yes, even with the small screen, you can use a full size QWERTY keyboard on Apple Watch to type things out, whether it’s a quick response to a message, or an email.

In addition to the keyboard feature, there are other ways to type on Apple Watch as well, including Dictation, and by using iPhone keyboard. Let’s check out these great features to empower your Apple Watch usage.

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