Apple has issued a critical security update to OS X users aimed at patching an exploit with the network time protocol on most Macs. The update is labeled urgently as “Install this update as soon as possible” rather than a traditional name, perhaps indicating the importance of patching the unspecified issue with the Macs NTP.

All Mac users should heed the advice from Apple and take a moment to install the security patch.

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From time to time, your cellular network provider or Apple may issue a carrier settings update to an iPhone or cellular iPad device. The carrier updates are usually very small and make adjustments or improvements to carrier specific settings pertaining to the cell network, data, personal hotspot, voicemail, text messaging, or making calls. While you may see a carrier update pop up randomly on your iPhone, or a request to install one during a general iOS update, you can also manually check for these carrier updates on your own at any time.

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No Holiday get-together is complete without some seasonally themed music, and whether you’re an iTunes Radio lover or Pandora addict, you’ll find great streaming stations available on both services that fit your celebrations. You’ve already decorated your Mac and iOS backgrounds with some great festive wallpapers, so lets get the musical side of things covered next.

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Audio Messages (also called Voice Texts) are a great new feature in iOS that allows you to send a quick little audio note from your iPhone to another iPhone, iPad, or Mac user who has the Messages app configured to use iMessages. This can not only be an added fun way to communicate, but it can also be a nice way to have a more personable and casual conversation that isn’t particularly time sensitive, since hearing someones voice is a bit more meaningful than reading text (unless packed with emoji, maybe).

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Ae you ready to get your desktops and devices into the Holiday spirit? Decorate your Mac and iOS device backgrounds with this absolutely beautiful collection of high-resolution (5k!) holiday themed bokeh wallpapers, featuring gorgeous abstractions of Christmas lights and decorations as shot by Radoslav Holan. There are sixteen images to choose from, and every one of them is simply beautiful and perfectly fit for the holiday season. Pick and choose, or get them all below!

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The weekend is here which means it’s time for another featured Mac setup! This time we’re sharing the awesome workstation of Philip S., a media producer from the UK who has some great advice on building a dream setup. Let’s jump to it and learn a bit more…

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A little clicking sound is made every time you type on the iPhone keyboard. Some users really like that sound effect and find that it helps them to type on the virtual keyboard easier, but other users find it to be annoying and obtrusive. If you don’t want to hear the clicky sound effects when typing in iOS, you can quickly turn the feature off and have the key taps stay quiet, leaving you with completely silent hitting any keys on the iPhone keyboard.

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If you’re a majority Chrome browser user in Mac OS X you’ve probably noticed that when printing from the web browser, a custom print preview window opens up that looks quite different from the default print window on a Mac. Some users may like the alternate Chrome print preview option with it’s larger viewport and different options, but if you prefer the general default MacOS X print dialog window, you can use a defaults command string to modify the behavior of Chrome to use the broader Mac system default printer window instead.

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Spelling autocorrect features tend to be divisive, with Mac users usually either loving it or hating it. Most Mac users know they can easily turn off autocorrect through an OS X system preference change, but the System Preferences are only accessible from the graphical interface of a Mac. If you’re wanting to automate the enabling or disabling of autocorrect for systems configuration or setup script, you may find it useful to know that you can not only check the active status of autocorrect, but also disable and enable autocorrect from the command line in OS X by using a defaults command string. This can be great in configuration and it can also be handy for making remote changes too.

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Apple has released a third beta of iOS 8.2, versioned as build 12D5452a, for all compatible iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. The beta software is available now for those registered with the iOS Developer program.

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While it’s increasingly common to get overwhelmed in the ocean of emails, the Mail app in iOS includes a really great feature to help you quickly navigate between and scan through tons of emails very quickly. The navigation feature is prominent in the Mail app, and though many users will know about this already, it seems to be vastly underused and often outright unknown by plenty of other iPhone owners. It’s too useful to not point out, so we’re going to show you the quickest possible way to move between emails on the iPhone Mail app.

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The Mac Messages app has long had support for sending and receiving iMessages, and now the latest versions of Messages for Mac OS X support a new feature which allows you to send and receive SMS text messages as well. This basically means that you can talk to someone using an Android, Windows phone, ancient flip phone, with the standard SMS texting protocol right from your Mac Messages app.

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An individuals user Library folder contains personalizations, preference files, caches, and other contents specific to any given individual user account on a Mac. While most users won’t need access to their user account Library directory, some advanced users like to have easy access to that folder for a variety of purposes. All modern versions of OS X default to hiding the ~/Library folder to prevent erroneous access, but with OS X El Capitan, Yosemite, and newer, you can use a simple Settings toggle to reveal the folder if desired.

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Many iPhone users have discovered that since updating a few of the household phones to the latest versions of iOS, suddenly when one iPhone rings, so does another completely different iPhone with a different phone number. This is often the case with spouses and partners who find their iPhone ringing when their wife or husbands iPhone gets a call, and vice versa. You have different phone numbers and different iphones, so why on earth are they both ringing together?

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In some rare situations, reinstalling OS X on a Mac may be required. This is made fairly easy as all modern Macs include the OS X Internet Recovery feature, which lets you reinstall OS X through a netboot type of mode that is accessed from the internet rather than a local drive. This is helpful in the event you need to reinstall Mac OS X whether for fun, because something has gone truly haywire, or because you need to replace the system software for whatever other reason.

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Apple has released their annual holiday commercial, titled “The Song”. The advertisement plays out like a short film, following a girl who discovers an old record of her grandmother singing, and then proceeds to use a Mac and iPad to create and share a duet with herself and her grandmothers old recording.

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The Holiday shopping season is here, and let’s face it, the techies and geeks in our lives can be some of the toughest people to shop for. With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of some of the more useful, fun, and interesting potential gifts you can get for the gadgeteers in your lives (or anyone, really). Just don’t be surprised if you see an item or three and think “that looks great, I kind of want that for myself too”, and hey, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Whoever you’re shopping for (yourself included), check out the list below for some great gift ideas for anyone with an iPhone, iPad, MacBook, or whatever other combination of Apple products. And if you have any interesting ideas or great gift finds that you have come across yourself this holiday season (and that would be appropriate), do share your finds with us and let us know in the comments!

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Apple has released a third beta version of OS X 10.10.2 to Mac users who are registered with the Macintosh Developer program. The new beta build of 14C81f apparently focuses on several issues where some OS X Yosemite users have experienced ongoing problems with the new Mac operating system, including Wi-Fi, Mail, and VoiceOver.

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