The holidays are here, so let’s cover a few iPhone tips that will help you get the best use of technology over Christmas and New Years. From capturing and sharing moments, making sure your device lasts through the festivities, getting festive, to staying connected to those you’re apart from, let’s use your iPhone well this holiday season!
Amazon continues to offer great deals on Apple products, with many still being available to ship immediately and arrive in time for Christmas. If you’re shopping for yourself or someone else, you’ve still got time!
Plus, Amazon is continuing to sell Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, and both at nice discounts, where the two products that have been banned for sale in the USA due to a patent issue (temporarily anyway, but these models of Apple Watch are currently not available from Apple directly because of the dispute).
If you’re interested in doing some reading of the classics, you may appreciate the Standard Ebooks project, which offers free high quality ebooks that are well-formatted, proofread, and professionally designed using style manuals.
Standard Ebooks focuses on books that are in the public domain and without copyright restrictions, which is how they’re able to offer the books free of cost. You’ll find classics from Virgil, Marcus Aurelius, Emerson to Shakespeare, Jack London to Jane Austen, Lewis Carrol to Laozi, Kipling to Tolstoy… you get the picture.
The ebooks are all free to download and will work on any Apple device through the iBooks app err Books app, Kindle app, and other e-readers, so whether you’re looking to enjoy some classic books on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Kindle, or even Android device, you’re in for a treat.
Christmas is fast approaching, with an increasingly small window available to shop online for various gifts and have them delivered in time for the holiday. Fortunately, Amazon continues to offer a variety of great Apple products at discounted prices with delivery in time.
Keep in mind that stock and delivery time estimates can vary quickly on Amazon, and may be different for some regions, so you may need to explore things like different color options for some products to have them delivered on time. Enough talking, let’s get shopping.
Amazon is offering a whopper of a deal on the M2 MacBook Air 15″ base model in Silverlight or Midnight color, taking $300 off the MSRP of $1299, and bringing the price of the 8GB / 256GB model to just $999.
The M2 MacBook Air 15″ features the speedy and efficient M2 processor, a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina Display, 8GB Unified Memory, 256GB SSD Storage, 1080p FaceTime HD Camera, Touch ID, a backlit keyboard, two USB-C ports, and a MagSafe charger.
Move fast if this one interests you, because at this price it will sell out quickly.
Silverlight and Midnight are currently the only color scurrently available at the super low price of $999, though Amazon stock shifts quickly so it’s worth exploring the other options. Just be cautious to make sure it’s a “new” model, because sometimes Amazon will put a lower price on used or open box items as well, and most people aren’t looking for that.
The only real downside to this deal is that it delivers in the first week of the new year, so if if you’re aiming for a holiday gift, it won’t make it in time for Christmas. But you could always print out a picture of a MacBook and wrap that, eh?
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Finder is the native file manager on macOS which is running pretty much all the time once you log in to your system. It allows users to organize and locate all the files that are stored on their Macs. By default, launching the Finder window shows you all the recent files, but this can be changed if necessary.
While it’s getting increasingly difficult to shop online with delivery before Christmas, Amazon continues to offer plenty of great deals for the holiday shopping season with delivery in time for the holidays. With huge discounts on everything from AirPods, airTags, various iPad models, MacBook Air, and more, whether you’re shopping for someone else, or yourself, get moving!
Amazon stock moves quickly, so you may need to investigate different color options to find delivery in time for the big upcoming holiday, but check out these deals!
Apple has released iOS 16.7.4 for older iPhone and iPadOS 16.7.4 for older iPad models that are not updating to iOS 17.2.1 or iPadOS 17.2.1.
Specifically, iOS 16.7.4 and iPadOS 16.7.4 are available for iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPad 5th generation, iPad Pro 9.7-inch, and iPad Pro 12.9-inch 1st generation.
The software update includes bug fixes to address an issue where deleting built-in Apple apps may not be able to reinstall properly.
Apple has released macOS Sonoma 14.2.1 as a software update for Mac users running the Sonoma operating system. The update is said to include important bug fixes and security updates, and is therefore recommended for all users to install.
Separately, Apple has released iOS 17.2.1 for iPhone, iPadOS 17.2.1 for iPad, iOS 16.7.4 and iPadOS 16.7.4 for older iPhone and iPad models, and Safari 17.2.1 for Macs running Ventura or Monterey rather than Sonoma.
Apple has released iOS 17.2.1 for iPhone. The small point release updates are said to include important but unspecific bug fixes for those devices, and is therefore recommended for all users to install.
Separately, Apple also released a similar update for Mac as macOS Sonoma 14.2.1, and for older iPhone and iPad models versioned as iOS 16.7.4 and iPadOS 16.7.4. Older Macs will find Safari 17.2.1 available as a software update.
Amazon is continuing to offer some great discounts on select Apple products, with delivery before Christmas! From AirTags, to MacBook Air 15″, to Apple Watch, let’s check out the deals!
Some iPhone users may discover their iPhone is randomly playing music, sometimes from within a pocket, or a purse, from a lap, or when being held in a hand but otherwise not in use. An iPhone may begin to randomly play music even when the iPhone is locked, making this a frustrating and potentially embarrassing issue to face, especially if the iPhone starts playing music when you’re in an office, classroom, gym, library, or other environments where it is inappropriate to start playing music or a podcast.
We’re going to review the most common reason that an iPhone will randomly play music, and show you how you can fix this so that your locked iPhone will not play music or audio unintentionally.
If you’re shopping for an Apple Watch this holiday season, you’re running short on time. Not only is Christmas fast approaching, but a new twist has developed where Apple must stop selling Apple Watch models due to an ongoing patent issue.
Apple will stop selling Apple Watch due to a patent dispute, starting on December 21, according to Bloomberg. Retailers that have Apple Watch models in stock will be able to continue selling their existing stock, but that stock will not be refreshed after the ban takes effect, without direct involvement from US President Biden, anyway. Specifically, the sales ban will impact Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, because of their ability to read blood oxygen levels.
Fortunately, Amazon still has Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 8, and Apple Watch Ultra 2, all in stock and with nice discounts, and with delivery before Christmas.
If you want the latest and greatest Apple Watch Series 9, Amazon is offering that at a great price taking $70 off the retail price. Apple Watch Series 9 features a 41mm display, GPS, fitness tracking capabilities, a blood oxygen reader, ECG app, water resistance, an always on display, and supports a one-handed double tap pinch gesture feature.
And if the Series 9 isn’t enough for you, the ultra-rugged Apple Watch Ultra 2 is also available at a discounted price from Amazon.
The rugged Apple Watch Ultra 2 has all the fitness tracking capabilities you know and love of Series 9, plus a tough enclosure, an action button, longer battery life, and water resistance down to 100 meters.
Apple Watch Series 8 features a 41mm display, GPS, fitness tracking capabilities, blood oxygen reader, ECG app, water resistance, an always-on display, and much more. The Series 8 and newer Series 9 are quite similar, but the Series 9 has a faster chip, and supports a one-handed double-pinch gesture to interact with the device. If you don’t care about those features, or you want to save more cash, the Series 8 remains a fantastic Apple Watch at a big discount:
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Shop now if you want delivery before Christmas, and before the sales ban takes effect.
If you wish to read more about the patent dispute with Apple that is leading to the Apple Watch sales ban, you can read more at Bloomberg and 9to5mac.
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Would you like to have even more Christmas spirit on your Mac, in the form of a twinkling Christmas tree? Of course you would! If the falling snow and blinking Christmas lights weren’t enough for your Mac desktop, you can add a little Christmas tree into the mix too, complete with a Christmas countdown.
Christmas Tree app is simple, with a handful of settings options accessible by right-clicking on the tree. There, you’ll be able to adjust if the lights on the tree twinkle, if the star blinks, whether you want the tree to float above all windows, to show a dock icon or not, and whether you want the tree countdown to be for December 24 Christmas Eve, or December 25 Christmas Day.
The classic cartoon “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, about a child who is upset about the commercialization of Christmas, is free to watch this weekend only on Apple TV+ (though you can continue to watch it free with an Apple TV+ free trial at any other time).
Perhaps you had grown accustomed to watching the heartwarming anti-commercialization of Christmas classic free every year on regular television, but apparently that won’t happen this year since Apple acquired the rights to “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in 2020 and has commercialized it by placing the cartoon within their paid Apple TV+ service. Except for this weekend, anyway!
If you want to get your Mac into the holiday spirit, why not put some blinking Christmas lights and falling snow on your Mac screen? That’s exactly what the free Mac app MacLampsX will do for you, decorating your Mac for the holidays, complete with customizable holiday light bulbs, snowfall, and holly.
You can change the bulbs themselves (and even add or make your own custom bulbs), adjust the density of the falling snow, make the bulbs and snow appear over everything or just on the desktop, and much more. MacLampsX is a fun little app that harkens back to the earlier days of classic Mac OS, where there were tons of fun Shareware and Freeware apps available for the Macintosh platform.
As you use the Mac, opening windows and dragging them around, you may have noticed that the color of the windows can shift tone and change hue, sometimes fairly dramatically so, and depending on what your MacOS wallpaper is set to. For example, if you have an orange wallpaper as your desktop background picture, the windows on the Mac will be tinted orange as well. It’s not quite a transparent effect, but more of a translucent effect where only the color of the wallpaper will bleed through to tint the windows in the foreground.
This feature is referred to as wallpaper tinting in MacOS, and you can turn off this window color tinting feature on the Mac if you’d like to.
Amazon is offering a fantastic deal on the Apple Watch Series 8, available in select colors for just $249, with delivery before Christmas.
Apple Watch Series 8 features a 41mm display, GPS, fitness tracking capabilities, blood oxygen reader, ECG app, water resistance, an always-on display, and much more.
I (Paul) personally just bought a Series 8 for myself at the $249 price (Merry Christmas to me), because I’d rather save the $80 than have the one-handed double-pinch gesture support that is the primary differentiating feature between the Series 8 and Series 9, but my use case for Apple Watch is almost exclusively as a fitness tracker.
The Apple Watch Series 8 is so similar to the Apple Watch Series 9 that they’re practically identical in appearance and features, though the Series 9 supports a one-handed double-pinch gesture that Series 8 does not offer, and the Series 9 has a more powerful chip and brighter display. If the Series 9 strikes your fancy more than last years model, Amazon is also offering an incredible deal on that model.
If you want the latest and greatest Apple Watch Series 9, Amazon is offering that at a great price taking $70 off the retail price. Apple Watch Series 9 features a 41mm display, GPS, fitness tracking capabilities, a blood oxygen reader, ECG app, water resistance, an always on display, and supports a one-handed double tap pinch gesture feature.
And if the Series 9 isn’t enough for you, the ultra-rugged Apple Watch Ultra 2 is also available at a discounted price from Amazon.
The rugged Apple Watch Ultra 2 has all the fitness tracking capabilities you know and love, plus an action button, longer battery life, and water resistance down to 100 meters.
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