Apple has released important security updates for Mac users who are continuing to run OS X Mavericks (10.9.5) and OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5). The updates are versioned as “Security Update 2015-001” for both system software versions and are recommended for all Mac users running prior releases of OS X. Additionally, new versions of Safari are available versioned as Safari 7.1.3, which includes bug resolutions, stability improvements, and security fixes, the Safari updates are also available for both OS X Mavericks and Mountain Lion.

These software updates arrive separately from OS X 10.10.2 update for Mac Yosemite users but do include some of the same security updates.

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Apple has released iOS 8.1.3 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The minor point release primarily focuses on bug fixes, but is also said to increase general stability of iOS as well. All eligible devices running prior versions of iOS 8 are recommended to install iOS 8.1.3.

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Apple has released the OS X 10.10.2 software update to all Mac users running OS X Yosemite. The OS X 10.10.2 update focuses on bug fixes and security updates, and is said to help resolve some of the persistent wi-fi problems that have negatively impacted some Mac users running the newest versions of OS X Yosemite.

Apple recommends that all Mac users actively running OS X Yosemite install the update to improve the stability and security of OS X.

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Many Mac users rely on the Messages app to converse back and forth with other Mac and iPhone owners, but unlike saving a picture or image from a message in the iOS side of things, Mac OS X Messages app does not offer a share sheet download option or menu for saving specific photos and media sent back and forth. That’s because the Messages app in Mac OS X offers perhaps an even easier and faster way to save images from your message conversations, using a simple drag and drop trick.

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Mac users who have older hardware laying around which are unable to run modern versions of Mac OS X may be relieved to discover that Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) and Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) are available to download directly from Apple. These versions of Mac OS X are over half a decade outdated and are now unsupported, making them appropriate for advanced users and those who require specific legacy software support within a virtual environment or on appropriately aged Mac hardware.

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Mac Safari users in the latest versions of OS X have discovered that when the URL bar is clicked in Safari, a panel of bookmark icons and Favorites appears. This is a lot like how Safari iOS works, and these icons can be clicked to visit sites quickly, or moved, removed, and rearranged as desired. But some Mac users may wish to not see the bookmark favorites icon drop down menu thing at all, and would rather just be able to click into the URL bar of Safari and enter a site address or search term without the popup.

If the bookmarks dropdown menu bothers you, you can quickly turn it off in Safari settings, though the preference isn’t necessarily named something you would expect:

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It’s time for another featured Mac setup! We’re going to share the great personal studio workstation of Nick J., a professional Audio Designer.

Let’s dive right in and learn more about the hardware and software used with this setup:

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Local networking usually works flawlessly on Macs, which is why some of the most aggravating issues that a select group of users may experience with Mac OS with OS X Yosemite (and sometimes with later releases) pertain to network connections. Some of these may relate to broader connection and wi-fi functionality problems, and others which can effect general LAN networking functions and the ability to discover and connect to another local Mac, or transfer files on a local network of other AFP Macs or even broader SMB machines. The latter LAN discovery and connectivity issues are what we’re going to focus on addressing here.

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Losing an iPhone is a terrible feeling, so if you ever happen to be in the position of finding a random iPhone somewhere, maybe in a coffee shop or on the street, you should always do the right thing and try to return it to the proper owner. Of course that’s sometimes easier said than done, but everyones favorite virtual assistant Siri can make the job significantly easier by helping to locate the devices owner.

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When you click into the URL bar of Safari in MacOS and Mac OS X, a panel menu of website bookmark icons appears directly under the address bar. This can offer a quick way to access web bookmarks in Safari from a Mac, but it’s fairly likely you’ll discover a few bookmarks in the icon view that you don’t really want showing in the bookmark list.

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Have you ever needed to mark an email as unread after opening it on your iOS device? Of course you have, whether to serve as a reminder to yourself later, or to undo an accidental mark as read. Typically on the iPhone and iPad iOS Mail apps, most people use the Flag menu method to manually select “Mark as Unread” on a message, but the newest versions of Mail app support an ultra-fast gesture that will quickly mark any email as unread without having to even open the mail message. This works remarkably well on the iPhone Mail app in particular.

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The Google Chrome web browser has updated with a multiple-user profile menu visible in the window titlebar, a feature that makes juggling multiple Google and Gmail accounts extremely easy. It’s also helpful for computers with multiple people using them without multiple accounts too, since anyone can switch logins through the menu. Of course, the user menu switching option is not necessarily useful if you don’t have or regularly use multiple Google profiles, so changing the user menu from enabled by default to being hidden by default is a desirable choice for some users.

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Apple has released a sixth beta version of OS X 10.10.2 to those registered with the Mac Developer program. The new build arrives as 14C106a and continues to emphasize a focus on resolving wi-fi problems, Mail, and VoiceOver.

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Now that Siri can identify songs that are playing, similar to the Shazam app service, you’ll probably appreciate knowing that you can easily go back and see a list of songs that Siri has found and detected. This is great since it basically keeps a running tab of what music you asked your iPhone to identify, making it easy to view that list of songs so that you can either listen to them again or buy them through the iTunes music store.

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The Xbox One is a great gaming console with an excellent controller, and if you have a Mac with a few games you’d like to use a controller for, you can use a third party tool to gain Xbox One controller support for gaming in OS X.

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By default, all calls on the iPhone will play audio through the standard earpiece at the top of the phone, and if someone wishes to use speakerphone they enable it manually by tapping on the “Speaker” button during an active call. While that may be the desired effect for most users, in various situations some users may wish to receive and make all phone calls with speakerphone activated automatically, without having to manually enable it every time by pressing the Speaker button.

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Two unusual error messages that can occur during the attempted installation of Mac OS X El Capitan or Mac OS X Yosemite are the “This copy of the Install OS X El Capitan application can’t be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading” error, or a “This copy of the Install OS X Yosemite application can’t be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading” message, or a more vague “An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running again” error message. Sometimes these can be resolved by simply rebooting and trying to reinstall OS X again (or re-downloading the Mac OS X installer if it was damaged), but if the error messages are persistent, then you may find that modifying the system date of the Mac can be the resolution.

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Some Mac users have discovered the Safari web browser has become significantly less stable after updating to some versions of Mac OS X system software including OS X El Capitan, OS X Yosemite, and MacOS Sierra. This can range from periodic crashes of Safari that never happened before, to Safari freezing up entirely, to Safari outright refusing to open as it crashes immediately upon launch.

Troubleshooting app crashes can be frustrating, but there are some tricks specific to Safari that may help to resolve instability with the Safari browser. If you’re experiencing Safari crashing or freezing on a regular basis under Mac OS X whether in Yosemite or newer and you’ve already reset Safari to no relief, follow each of the steps below. If all fails to resolve the problem, we’ll offer a reasonable workaround too.

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