The M4 MacBook Air is available at some all-time lowest prices from Amazon, with a whopper of a deal taking $160 off the base model 13″ 16GB/256GB and $260 off the 15″ 24GB/512GB models. If you’ve been thinking about getting a new MacBook Air in either 13″ or 15″ screen sizes, these deals are fantastic and available right now.

The M4 MacBook Air features the super-fast M4 chip that supports Apple Intelligence, easy-on-the-eyes LCD display in 13″ or 15″, dual external display support, 12MP camera with Center Stage, MagSafe charging, two USB-C ports, Touch ID, backlit keyboard, all-day battery life, and is available in multiple color options including Sky Blue, Midnight, Starlight, Silver. You’ll find the biggest discounts available on select configuration and color options, so toy around on the Amazon options until you find what you want.

• Best Deal: 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $838 (MSRP: $999)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,099 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,299 (MSRP: $1,399)
• Best Deal: 15″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,339 (MSRP: $1,599)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $1,099 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,299 (MSRP: $1,399)

Apple Watch Series 10 – $299 (down from $399)

Apple Watch Series 10 is a fantastic smart watch, with excellent fitness tracking features, heart rate monitor, ECG, crash detection with emergency SOS, fall detection with Emergency SOS, activity tracking, ovulation tracking, GPS, pinch gestures, water and sweat resistance, voice control, Siri commands, all-day battery life, and more. The Apple Watch Series 10 features a 42mm always-on display as well, making it a perfect choice for most people seeking out an Apple Watch.

• Get Apple Watch Series 10 for $299 (down from $399 MSRP)

AirPods Pro 2 with Hearing Aid Functionality – $199 (down from $249)

AirPods Pro 2 are not only widlly popular wireless earbuds, but these headphones offer advanced features like hearing aid functionality, 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 – $199 (down from $249)

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.

Gamers everywhere are happy that Fortnite is back for iPhone and iPad users, but there’s no Mac client in sight (yet anyway). That doesn’t mean you can’t play Fortnite on the Mac though, because if you have an Apple Silicon Mac, and you’re comfortable running some mods and tweaks, you can get the iOS/iPadOS version of Fortnite running on MacOS with the help of two free tools, FnMacAssistant and Sideloadly.

FnMacAssistant is an app that basically patches the Fortnite IPA file (for iOS and iPadOS) so that it can run in MacOS. Sideloadly is an app that basically lets you sideload apps onto a Mac, and in this case, you’d be sideloading Fortnite. Thus, by combining the two apps, and being comfortable with performing a tweak or two, you’ll have Fortnite running on the Mac.

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One of the more curious features of Apple Watch is how the Compass Backtrack feature automatically activates and takes over the Apple Watch screen during workouts, seemingly at random, or even every time a “Hiking” workout or sometimes any outdoor workout of any sort is selected or initiated. Given that the vast majority of hikers, trail runners, joggers, and walkers will typically be on an obvious path or trail, and that trails are fairly obvious to follow, it’s a little unnecessary for Nanny Watch to kick in automatically with a retracing system that takes over your Apple Watch face. Additionally, what nearly every Apple Watch owner wants to see during a workout and probably why they bought an Apple Watch in the first place, is to view typical workout stats, like duration of workout, distance covered, and heart rate information. Nonetheless, Apple Watch does not want you getting lost while walking at your local dog park, and so the Compass will automatically activate with the Backtrack feature and your entire Apple Watch screen is suddenly displaying mostly useless information that is irrelevant to your workout.

The Backtrack feature is probably pretty useful if you routinely go hiking in the backcountry off trails, or if you’re navigating a complex maze of a trail system network where everything looks the same, but both of those are fairly rare for most leisurely hikers, who typically hike on obvious trails that are typically out-and-backs or loops.

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macOS Sequoia is a pretty solid operating system with some great features like iPhone Mirroring, and while performance is fantastic for most, not all users are experiencing the speediest of experiences. If you feel like macOS Sequoia is running slower than your Mac was on prior operating system versions, you might appreciate some of these tips to speed up the MacOS experience, and make macOS Sequoia feel a bit faster.

These tips can be relevant to any Mac user, whether running an M4 chip or M1 chip, but may be of particular value on older Macs, where performance concerns are typically more relevant compared to the latest and greatest hardware.

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Amazon is continuing to offer some great discounts on MacBook Air models, but by far the best deal is on the upper end 24GB RAM and 512GB SSD model with 15″ display, where you can save $235 off the retail price, bringing the price down to $1364 down from $1599. If you’re been shopping for a top-of-the-line 15″ MacBook Air and don’t want to pay full price, enjoy this 15% discount from Amazon. Other display sizes, memory configurations, and color options are also discounted, though not necessarily at the same rate as the best deal on the upper-end 15″ model.

• Best deal: 15″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,364 (MSRP: $1,599)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $1,099 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,299 (MSRP: $1,399)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $899 (MSRP: $999)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,099 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,299 (MSRP: $1,399)

M4 MacBook Air features the speedy and energy efficient M4 chip with Apple Intelligence support, LCD display in 13″ or 15″ size options, dual display support, 12MP camera with Center Stage, Touch ID, backlit keyboard, all-day battery life, MagSafe charging, two USB-C ports, and is available in various RAM and storage options, as well as in Sky Blue, Midnight, Starlight, Silver color options.

AirPods Pro 2 with Hearing Aid Functionality – $199 (down from $249)

AirPods Pro 2 offer advanced features like hearing aid functionality, 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 – $199 (down from $249)

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.

For the majority of existence for iPhone, anytime that music, podcasts, audiobooks, or media was being played on the device but the screen was locked, a volume slider was visible on the iPhone Lock Screen.

The volume slider made it easy to see what volume something was playing at, and also made it very easy to control the volume precisely of whatever was playing, without having to use the volume up or down buttons.

Strangely, Apple removed the constantly visible volume slider from iPhone Lock Screen a while back, but now the feature has quietly returned, albeit it is disabled by default and now appears as a setting in a curious location, Accessibility.

We’re going to show you how to get the volume slider back on your iPhone Lock Screen again.

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Amazon is offering nice discounts on the M4 MacBook Air series, in either the 13″ or 15″ screen sizes. You’ll find the best deal on the 24GB RAM models ($198 off the 24GB / 512GB model in 13″!), but there are discounts available on all memory/storage configurations and color options (Sky Blue, Midnight, Starlight, Silver).

M4 MacBook Air features the speedy and energy efficient M4 chip with Apple Intelligence support, LCD display in 13″ or 15″ size options, dual display support, 12MP camera with Center Stage, Touch ID, backlit keyboard, all-day battery life, MagSafe charging, two USB-C ports, and more.

If you’re shopping for a MacBook Air, these are great discounts off the retail price, and cheaper than even the educational discount offered by Apple.

• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $879 (MSRP: $999)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,066 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,201 (MSRP: $1,399)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $1,099 (MSRP: $1,199)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,299 (MSRP: $1,399)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,449 (MSRP: $1,599)

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 “Hide My Email” feature on iPhone is incredibly useful, allowing you to create random unique email addresses that forward to your real email address inbox. This feature can help protect your privacy by allowing you to sign up for apps or services without sharing your real email address, while enhancing security from phishing attempts, and also reducing spam.

Hide My Email is a very useful feature, but for some users, they may be aware of the feature but have no idea how to use it, and trying to find or access the feature is a challenge in and of itself. That’s what we’re going to address here.

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Amazon is offering some really great deals for Memorial Day Weekend, so whether you want a big discount on the iPad mini 7, Apple Watch Series 10, or a MacBook Air M4 model, don’t miss out on these deals.

Apple Watch Series 10 – $299 (down from $399)

Apple Watch Series 10 has excellent activity and fitness tracking, heart rate monitor, ECG, crash detection with emergency SOS, fall detection with Emergency SOS, ovulation tracking, GPS, pinch gestures, water and sweat resistance, voice control, Siri commands, all-day battery life, and more, and features a 42mm always-on display.

• Get Apple Watch Series 10 for $299 (down from $399 MSRP)

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If you’re running macOS Sequoia or macOS Sonoma, you might occasionally find yourself in a situation where you need to flush the DNS cache on your Mac. This can be necessary to fix DNS related issues or errors, to clear out outdated DNS settings or records, to resolve issues with certain websites, or even to have the results of a modified hosts file or some other networking component to take effect. Knowing how to flush DNS cache on MacOS can be helpful for troubleshooting some network issues without needing to reboot the entire Mac too.

While flushing DNS cache is perhaps most relevant for more advanced Mac users, it’s fairly easy to accomplish with the execution of a simple Terminal command string.

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Fortnite, the wildly popular online action game, is back on the App Store for iPhone and iPad users to download and play. The app has returned after Apple removed the popular game roughly five years ago while Apple and Epic engaged in an expensive drawn out legal squabble, which ultimately ended up disappointing and irritating consumers, gamers, kids, and parents who spent a lot of money with in-app purchases, more than anything else. If you have any interest in the legal aspects of the Epic v Apple case (I don’t!) you can bore yourself to sleep on Wikipedia, but if you, your family, or your kids are just interested in playing the popular game, you can download it again right now from the App Store.

For the unfamiliar, Fortnite is an incredibly popular online game that blends competitive action, shooting, building, and general mayhem in a large interactive environment. Up to 100 players engage in battle royale while they wander around a map that is ever-changing and full of silliness and entertainment, complete with fun cartoony graphics and a unique social component. It’s not unusual to have Fornite players jump on a game with a friend, or even group of their friends, and hang out in a digital space while they play the games, and it’s particularly popular with kids and parents for a reason.

• Get Fortnite from the App Store here (free to download and play)

Fortnite is currently available for iPhone and iPad only, but there used to be a Mac application for the game as well, though it remains to be seen if Mac users will get to enjoy the game again on their computers.

If you have a gaming console or controller nearby, don’t forget to connect your Xbox One controller to iPhone or iPad so that you can use it to control Fortnite, as external controllers work really well with the game and typically improve players performance.

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Did you know that your internet service provider default DNS servers almost certainly track and log your online activity? Basically this means that every time you visit a website or use an internet-connected application from your Mac, iPhone or iPad, your ISP is aware of that. Many ISP’s will not only log and track your online activity gathered through DNS lookups, but some will sell that data and share it with partners and data brokers too.

One way to get around this is to use a privacy focused DNS service, like Surfshark DNS, which is a free DNS offering that emphasizes privacy and does not track or log your online activity. There are other free DNS services like this out there too, including Cloudflare DNS, and Apple’s own iCloud Private Relay offering also uses a custom DNS with privacy protections, but having more options is always a good thing, so let’s review how you can setup the privacy protecting Surfshark DNS on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad

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Continuity is a broad set of features for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, that make using all three of the devices together as seamless and easy as possible. Many of the Continuity features also will undoubtedly improve your workflow, making using MacOS, iOS, and iPadOS even better together.

We’re going to focus on six of the most useful Continuity features available for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. For some of you, these will be familiar, while for others they might be new to you. Either way, they’re worth trying out and checking how these fantastic Continuity features can fit into your workflow and device usage.

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iPad mini 7 is a powerful miniature tablet that features the A17 processor with Apple Intelligence support, 8″ LCD display, a 12mp front and rear camera, 128 GB storage, USB-C charging, and support for optional Apple Pencil Pro. iPad mini is offered in multiple color options at this 20% discount price, taking $100 off the retail price. Score a great deal while you can!

• iPad mini 7 – $399 (down from $499)

M4 MacBook Air 13″ & 15″- Up to $170 Off

Amazon is cutting up to $170 off the retail price of the M4 MacBook Air, with deals offered on both 13″ and 15″ display sizes. The 13″ MacBook Air now starts at $849, while the higher-end 15″ model is at $1428. Choose your display size, the color of your choice, and the RAM / storage configuration you’d like, and enjoy a great discount. The MacBook Air features an M4 chip with Apple Intelligence support, LCD display in 13″ or 15″ size, 12MP camera with Center Stage, Touch ID, backlit keyboard, all-day battery life, dual display support, MagSafe charging, two USB-C ports, and more.

• M4 MacBook Air 13″ – 16GB / 256GB – $849 (down from $999)
• M4 MacBook Air 13″ – 16GB / 512GB – $1069 (down from $1199)
• M4 MacBook Air 15″ – 16GB / 512GB – $1249 (down from $1399)
• M4 MacBook Air 15″ – 24GB / 512GB – $1428 (down from $1599)

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.

Remember Network Utility, the handy tool for Mac that was bundled with the operating system since the origins of Mac OS X? With Network Utility, you had an easy graphical interface to commonly used network tools like ping, netstat, nslookup, traceroute, finger, port scanning, and whois. But for reasons unknown, Apple removed Network Utility from MacOS after Catalina, and while you can copy that older Network Utility application to a modern MacOS version and get it to run with this trick, if you don’t have a Catalina or older Mac laying around to copy the original Network Utility.app from, that isn’t going to work for you.

This is where Neo Network Utility comes in, it’s a free tool from Devon Technology that replaces Network Utility on modern MacOS versions. Neo Network Utility has all the same features of Network Utility, plus a handy connection speed testing tool too.

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A fair number of MacBook Pro users with Touch Bar equipped Macs have discovered the Touch Bar stops working or goes black after installing a MacOS update. Given that the Touch Bar serves as Function keys, F1, F2, F3 etc keys, as well as toggles for adjusting brightness, system audio, and accessing many MacOS and app features, and even serves an Escape key for some Touch Bar Macs, having the Touch Bar vanish and fail is not particularly great. Even if you disabled the Touch Bar to have it simply display system toggles, having it disappear completely is still frustrating, because there’s no other way to access those toggles on the keyboard.

If your Touch Bar is not working or the Touch Bar vanished on your MacBook Pro, particularly after installing a system software update to MacOS, read along to troubleshoot the issue.

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Many Mac users are reporting that “System Data” is taking up huge amounts of disk storage capacity on their Macs. While this issue is reported more commonly with MacOS Sequoia, some users find the bloated System Data storage on older versions of MacOS as well. In many cases, the “System Data” in MacOS is taking up unusually large amounts of disk storage, with reports ranging in size from 100GB to even 500GB. With how small the SSD storage capacity is on Mac’s and how much of a huge premium Apple charges to have more local storage, something consuming such a large amount of disk capacity is understandably frustrating and concerning. Even if you have an upgraded 1TB drive, having “System Data” take up 100GB to 500GB of that is obviously unreasonable and ridiculous.

Not everyone reports having an inordinately large “System Data” folder in macOS. In fact, many users have System Data that takes up a reasonable amount of storage, around a few GB to perhaps 10 or 20GB. This article is intended to address the Mac users who have excessively large “System Data” capacities on their Mac, and offer a discussion and some solutions around the problem.

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Amazon is taking up to $173 off the price of the new M4 MacBook Air series, in both 13″ and 15″ display sizes, and in a variety of RAM, SSD storage, and color configurations (Sky Blue, Midnight, Starlight, Silver).

The M4 MacBook Air features an M4 chip with Apple Intelligence support, LCD display in 13″ or 15″ size options, dual display support, 12MP camera with Center Stage, Touch ID, backlit keyboard, all-day battery life, MagSafe charging, two USB-C ports, and more.

If you’re shopping for a MacBook Air, these are great discounts off the retail price, and cheaper than even the educational discount offered by Apple.

• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $849 ($150 off, MSRP: $999)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,049 ($150 off, MSRP: $1,199)
• 13″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,245 ($154 off, MSRP: $1,399)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 256GB for $1,049 ($150 off, MSRP: $1,199)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 16GB / 512GB for $1,249 ($150 off, MSRP: $1,399)
• 15″ M4 MacBook Air 24GB / 512GB for $1,447 ($173 off, MSRP: $1,599)

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.