Steam, the popular gaming platform for Mac, Windows, and Linux, is great in that it offers a ton of really fun popular games, but it’s not without its annoyances. One of the most frustrating Steam annoyances are its popup ads on startup, or what it calls “Steam News”, that slowly launch in a new pop-up window every time you open the Steam app. These ads are presented to you trying to get you to buy more games, be aware of some game sale, inform you of some game availability, or do something else purchase oriented in Steam, and many users do not want to see the Steam pop-up ads at all let alone when they start the app.

Steam pop-up ads are enabled by default, but let’s turn off the pop-up ads when Steam launches so you can play your games in peace. You can disable the Steam pop-up ads on startup

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While many Mac users have already downloaded and installed MacOS Sonoma onto their Macs and are enjoying the great new features, not every Mac user wants to upgrade to Sonoma. In fact, many Mac users want to stay put with macOS Monterey, or MacOS Ventura, and not upgrade to MacOS Sonoma for now, or even at all.

Whether you’re waiting for some particular app compatibility, for a later release version of Sonoma, or are skipping Sonoma entirely, we’ll show you how you can install updates to macOS Monterey and MacOS Ventura, without installing the MacOS Sonoma upgrade.

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Apple has launched SF Symbols 5, a large collection of iconography for developers and designers to use in their apps for Apple experiences.

If you’re a designer or developer, you’ll probably appreciate all the new symbols available that you can use in apps for the Apple ecosystem, whether for interface, toolbars, navigation, contextual menus, or tab bars.

And now SF Symbols 5 includes not only more than 5000 symbols, but additionally there are animated effects on many of them like bounce, pulse, and scale.

SF Symbols are available to download free from the Apple developer website:

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iOS 17 includes a variety of new capabilities and features, and some in particular really stand out for iPhone. Let’s take a look at the best new features in iOS 17 and some tips to get started using the latest innovations in the world of iPhone software.

From interactive widgets, to Standby Mode, new Messages features, password sharing, and much more, let’s check out some tips for iOS 17!

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Apple has released iOS 17.0.3 for iPhone to address an issue where many iPhone users were experiencing overheating iPhones that were not only hot but sometimes suffered from slow performance sometimes along with rapid battery drain. The update is recommended for all iPhone users to install, even though apparently the overheating issue is primarily experienced by iPhone 15 Pro devices, but the release notes mention that iOS 17.0.3 “addresses an issue that may cause iPhone to run warmer than expected” with no specificity for device.

While a lot of sluggish behavior is normal with a newly setup iPhone or after a system software update, the overheating and hot iPhone 15 Pro experience was apparently beyond what was considered normal by Apple, so they have addressed that problem with the iOS/iPadOS 17.0.3 software update.

Additionally, iPadOS 17.0.3 is also available for iPad users, which apparently contains “bug fixes and security updates” as well.

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Now that iPad users can update to iPadOS 17, have you done so? If not, you’re certainly not alone, as a lot of people sit on the sidelines with no particular rush to install the latest system software versions. But iPadOS 17 offers some nice improvements, like interactive widgets, FaceTime Video Voicemail, new Messages features, the ability to put widgets on your Lock Screen, and more, making it a worthwhile update for most iPad users.

Let’s review how you can install iPadOS 17 onto your iPad so that you’ll be running the latest and greatest iPadOS in no time at all.

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Apple has issued the second beta versions of MacOS Sonoma 14.1, iOS 17.1, and iPadoS 17.1, for users who are participating in those beta testing programs. The beta 2 builds are available first for edevelopers, and are soon followed by public betas.

iOS 17.1, iPadOS 17.1, and MacOS Sonoma 14.1 will likely include some new features that were announced with the major releases, but didn’t make the cut for the first .0 release builds.

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Installing iOS 17 onto your iPhone is easy to do, and you’ll gain access to the neat new features available in iOS 17. This includes everything from customizable contact cards, FaceTime Video voicemail, interactive widgets on your Home Screen, NameDrop easy contact sharing, new stickers features in Messages, new ringtones and text tones, new autocorrect and predictive typing, and much more. But not everyone is familiar with the process of updating an iPhone and installing the latest updates, as many users either have automatic updates enabled, or simply never update their devices at all.

Let’s get to it, and run through the exact process to update your iPhone by installing iOS 17.

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Some iPhone users are experiencing an error message that says “This iPhone is open in another window” when attempting to sync music between their Mac and iPhone. Users may see the error message even when there is no other window open in the Music app on Mac, making this a peculiar error message that doesn’t necessarily make sense.

If you experience the “This iPhone is open in another window” when attempting to use Music on Mac to sync music between your iPhone and Mac, read along for troubleshooting steps.

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Steam, the popular gaming platform for Mac, Windows, and Linux, has an optional Big Picture Mode that takes over the screen of their device or computer, and changes the interface quite a bit. If you’re like many Steam users, you may at some point accidentally enter into Big Picture Mode, and then wonder how to escape Big Picture Mode in Steam so you can get back to the normal interface.

Recently I accidentally got stuck in Big Picture Mode on Steam and I discovered that exiting Big Picture Mode is curious and not exactly what I would have expected, and so I figured this is worth a writeup in case someone else runs into the same problem.

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If you’ve already installed and updated to MacOS Sonoma, and you were previously in the beta testing programs (either public beta or developer beta), you may wish to no longer receive beta updates to your Mac.

If you don’t do this, and you were previously enrolled in the MacOS Sonoma beta testing program, you will be receiving beta updates, like Sonoma 14.1 beta, 14.2 beta, 14.3 beta, and so on.

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If you were part of the iOS 17 beta test or iPadOS 17 beta testing programs, and now you’re on the latest stable build (iOS 17.0.2), you may wish to remove the beta updates from your iPhone or iPad, so that you no longer receive beta updates and stay on the stable builds of system software.

Leaving the iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 beta programs is easy, removes future beta updates from showing up on your iPhone or iPad, and you can toggle participation in the beta programs at any time. We’ll show you how to do it.

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Apple has issued the first beta version of MacOS Sonoma 14.1 beta to users enrolled in the beta testing program for Apple system software.

The beta update arrives just a day after the final release and availability of MacOS Sonoma 14.0 became available to download and install for all Mac users.

Separately, Apple has released iOS 17.1 beta 1, ipadOS 17.1 beta 1, watchOS 10.1 beta 1, and tvOS 17.1 beta 1 for beta testers as well.

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Apple has released the first beta versions of iOS 17.1 and iPadOS 17.1 for iPhone and iPad users enrolled in their respective beta testing programs.

The beta builds arrive a day after iOS 17.0.2 and iPadOS 17.0.2 were released to the broader public for all users.

Apple is working to bring additional features to iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, and the betas of 17.1 are likely to include some of these apps and capabilities that were withheld from the initial software releases.

Additionally, the first beta version of MacOS Sonoma 14.1, tvOS 17.1, and watchOS 10.1 are also available for beta testers.

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MacOS Sonoma includes some great new features and beautiful refinements to the Mac operating system, and if you just downloaded and installed MacOS Sonoma 14 you may be curious about what to explore with the upgraded system software version, or what is new. We’re here to help, covering the seven best new features of MacOS Sonoma.

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Apple has released macOS Sonoma, versioned as MacOS 14.0, as a free download for all Mac users. The final version of macOS Sonoma carries the build 23A344, matching the second RC build that was released a week prior.

MacOS Sonoma features an all new redesigned Lock Screen, a snazzy moving wallpaper feature, over 100 new screen savers and wallpapers, the ability to place widgets on the Mac desktop again, many FaceTime improvements including gesture reactions and improvements for screen sharing, FaceTime Video Voicemail support, Safari Profiles support, changes to autocorrect, the ability to turn any website into an app in your Dock, improvements to Messages, inline text predictions, Gaming Mode, Lockdown Mode for Mac, and much more.

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iOS 17.0.2 and iPadOS 17.0.2 have been released for iPhone and iPad, respectively. The updates include a bug fix to address an issue where data migration between devices can fail, causing the devices to brick and require a restore.

If you plan on purchasing any new iPhone or iPad in the near future and using the migration assistant to easily transfer your data between devices, like moving to an iPhone 15 Pro for example, it’s a good idea to download and install this update as soon as possible. If you’re not in the market for a new device, the update is less urgent.

Separately, Apple has released the final version of macOS Sonoma for Mac, Safari 17.0 for macOS Monterey & Ventura, and updates for Apple Watch as well.

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If you’re a Mac user then you are likely excited about installing macOS Sonoma, particularly if you’re already running macOS Ventura. macOS Sonoma improves on its predecessor with new features and improvements, including beautiful new screen savers, a revised Lock Screen, Safari Profiles, desktop widgets, and much more.

Before you jump right into installing macOS Sonoma on its September 26 release date (update: Sonoma final is out!), you should take a few moments to prepare your Mac for the Sonoma release, so let’s review some processes to consider before installing macOS Sonoma onto your Mac.

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