MacOS Ventura 13.6.3, MacOS Monterey 12.7.2, and Safari 17.2 are now available as software updates for Mac users who are not installing Sonoma or interested in the just released macOS Sonoma 14.2 update. Many Mac users continue to run older versions of system software for compatibility reasons, general preference, or a multitude of other reasons, and installing these small point release updates is a good way to insure those older versions of system software are maintained with adequate security patches and critical bug fixes.

Aside from the Mac, there are updates available for older iPhone and iPad models versioned as iOS 16.7.3 and iPadOS 16.7.3, as well as iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2 for newer iPhone and iPad hardware, along with updates for tvOS, watchOS, and HomePod.

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Apple has issued the first beta versions of iOS 17.3 for iPhone, ipadOS 17.3 for iPad, and macOS Sonoma 14.3 for Mac. The beta builds are available now to users enrolled in the beta testing programs on their compatible devices.

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Stuck in another boring Zoom Meeting? Ready to be done with those dull virtual meetings or Zoom classes for the moment, or the day? Zoom Escaper will come to your rescue, by allowing you to “self-sabotage your audio stream, making your presence unbearable to others” according to the apps developer, LOL!

Zoom Escaper is an absolutely hilarious utility that does exactly what it says it does; self sabotage your audio stream.

With Zoom Escaper, you can add echo, feedback, voice delay, or even emulate a bad connection and chop up your audio stream.

But that’s not all, with Zoom Escaper you can also turn on sound effects of an upset crying baby, a crying man, wind blowing, dogs barking, construction and jack hammers, or someone urinating into a toilet – each with their own volume slider, so you can really dial up the nuisance factor.

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iOS 17.2 update for iPhone, and iPadOS 17.2 for iPad, have been released by Apple. iOS 17.2 includes the Journal app for iPhone, while both iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2 include PDF autofill capabilities, some improvements to Messages app like the ability to add stickers from contextual menus in messages and a catch-up arrow, new weather widgets, and other smaller changes. Full release notes are included below.

Separately, Apple has released macOS Sonoma 14.2 for Mac, watchOS 10.2 for Apple Watch, tvOS 17.2 for Apple TV, and iOS/iPadOS 16.7.3 updates for older iPhone and iPad models, and macOS Ventura 13.6.3 and macOS Monterey 12.7.2 for older Macs.

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Apple has released macOS Sonoma 14.2 as a software update for Mac users running the Sonoma operating system. macOS Sonoma 14.2 includes a few minor new features like the ability to use autofill with PDF files, new Weather widget options, some minor additions to Messages like the ability to add stickers from the reactions contextual menu, Clock app can now run multiple timers, and more. The full release notes for macOS Sonoma 14.2 are included below.

Separately, Apple has issued iOS 17.2 for iPhone, iPadOS 17.2 for iPad, watchOS 10.2 for Apple Watch, tvOS 17.2 for Apple TV, and iOS/iPadOS 16.7.3 updates to older iPhone and iPad models. Mac users running Ventura or Monterey will find macOS Ventura 13.6.3 and macOS Monterey 12.7.2 available as updates instead of macOS Sonoma 14.2.

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It’s Green Monday, which is one of the busier online shopping days that allows for purchases to be delivered in time for Christmas, and Amazon continues to offer fantastic deals on miscellaneous Apple products.

From deals on AirPods, Apple Watch, AirTags 4-packs, MacBook Air M2 models, iPad Air, iPad mini, fantastic external displays, and more, check them out!

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Apple now has the exclusive rights to “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, which means if you’d like to watch the Christmas classic from 1965 this holiday season, you’ll need to watch it through the Apple TV+ service. Fortunately, Apple TV+ offers a free seven-day trial, so you can sign up for the free trial long enough to enjoy “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and then cancel the service if you’d like to.

The Apple TV+ app is included on every Apple device including Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, and the entire streaming service is also available on the web to any device with a web browser (meaning any Windows PC, Linux machine, Chromebook, Android, etc) can also watch the Christmas show.

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Instagram is a very popular photo sharing and video sharing social network where users post photos, videos, reels, and stories, but, curiously, by default Instagram does not upload the highest quality photos or videos. Instead, a buried settings option allows you to enable high quality uploads of photos and videos to Instagram.

If you feel like your videos, photos, and reels are a little blurry or pixelated once they upload to Instagram, or the quality is lower than you’d like it to be, then turn on this hidden setting for instagram to enable the highest quality uploads for videos and photos.

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Apple deals continue for the holiday shopping season, with many items receiving nice discounts from Amazon. And, delivery is still available by Christmas for most! Check out the Apple section at Amazon and browse around, and glance at the deals we have highlighted below.

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Extensions and Quick Actions in MacOS allow you to enable and disable additional features in places like the Sharing menu, Touch Bar, and contextual menus in the Finder. For example, you can add or remove Markup options, Quick Actions, Sharing options, photo editing options, and much more. These are a popular feature for many Mac users, but the latest versions of MacOS make customizing these features a challenge, because many users can’t find the settings, and are left wondering where Extensions and Quick Actions are located on the Mac now.

Like so many other curious or outright baffling settings relocations in macOS Sonoma / Ventura, Extensions has come along for the ride, and if you can’t locate Quick Actions or Extensions in macOS Sonoma and macOS Ventura System Settings you certainly aren’t alone.

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Amazon is back with more great deals on select Apple gear, bringing nice discounts to Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2, iPad 10th gen, iPad Air, and more, and delivery is available before Christmas.

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Due to the nature of how Hey Siri on iPhone works, Siri is basically always listening to you and your surroundings, if the Hey Siri feature is enabled.

This is necessary to hear the “Hey Siri” activation word so that Siri knows to pick up the command you give to it, and the always on / always listening functionality is no different from how other voice activated devices work, be they from Apple, Amazon, Google, or otherwise. For iPhone users, this is sometimes made obvious by Siri talking randomly or activating on its own.

If you don’t want your iPhone to be listening to you, or rather Siri to be listening to you, then you’ll want to turn off the listening feature, either temporarily or completely. We’ll show you how to do both.

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If you’re accustomed to using iCloud to keep your photos synced between your iPhone, Mac, or even Windows PC, you may not be familiar with the process of transferring pictures off of the iPhone without using iCloud.

This tutorial will walk through the steps required to get pictures from your iPhone to your computer, without using iCloud.

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Mac users enrolled in the beta testing program for macOS Sonoma will find 14.2 available as a release candidate. Release Candidate builds are typically the final version in the beta cycle, suggesting a release of macOS Sonoma 14.2 to the general public is imminent.

Additionally, Apple has issued RC builds for other beta system software including iOS 17.2 RC, iPadOS 17.2 RC, watchOS 10.2 RC, and tvOS 17.2 RC.

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Apple has issued a release candidate (RC) build for iOS 17.2 for iPhone and iPadOS 17.2 for iPad. Release Candidates are typically the last of the beta development cycle, unless some additional significant bug or security issue is found, suggesting that the final version of iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2 will be coming in the near future.

iOS 17.2 includes the Journal app, the ability to add stickers to iMessages from the long-press menu, and a variety of other bug fixes and security enhancements.

Additionally, Apple released macOS Sonoma 14.2 Release Candidate, along with RC builds of watchOS 10.2, and tvOS 17.2.

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Want to boost your Mac productivity with some super useful keyboard shortcuts? Here are four of them that every Mac user should know and memorize, where you’re sure to get plenty of use from.

From switching between apps, windows, jumping into any directories, or force quitting, read on!

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If you have an iPhone or iPad you may already be familiar with adding widgets to the Home Screen of iOS and iPadOS, but a lesser known trick is that you can create a stack of widgets that you can flip through to see different widgets and data.

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Shopping for some Apple gear this holiday season? Why not save some cash and take advantage of Amazon’s ongoing deals for Apple hardware. We’ve rounded up a handful of great deals on the M3 MacBook Pro 14″ & 16″, M2 MacBook Air 15″, iPad Air, iPad mini, AirTags, Apple Watch Series 9, external hard drives, and more.

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