macOS Sonoma 14.1.2 update has been released for Mac users running the Sonoma operating system. The software update includes unspecified bug fixes and security enhancements, and is recommended for all Mac users running Sonoma to install. Full release notes are included below.
Dark Mode is a popular visual option for many Mac users who wish to change the appearance of their computers interface. If you’re new to the Mac, or even just new to the more modern operating systems like Sonoma and Ventura that use System Settings, you may not be familiar with how to activate and enable Dark Mode in macOS.
If you’re wondering how you can set the default web browser in macOS Sonoma to something else, maybe to Chrome, Firefox, Brave, or perhaps even back to Safari, you’ll find that it is relatively easy to do so. However, like so many other adjustments and tweaks to the latest macOS versions, it is different compared to prior versions of macOS and Mac OS X and what you may be accustomed to.
Apple has released another round of betas for their operating system suite, with iOS 17.2 beta 4 for iPhone, iPadOS 17.2 beta 4 for iPad, and macOS Sonoma 14.2 beta 4 for Mac, each being available to users participating in the beta testing programs for Apple system software.
Some new features are coming with iOS 17.2, iPadOS 17.2, and macOS Sonoma 14.2, including the ability to add stickers to your iMessages from contextual menus, and the inclusion of the Journal app in iOS 17.2 for iPhone. The typical round of bug fixes and security enhancements are expected to be included as well with the final versions of iOS 17.2, iPadOS 17.2, and macOS Sonoma 14.2, when those are released likely next month.
The latest versions of iOS for iPhone default to enabling a feature called SharePlay, which allows you to easily share Spotify, Apple Music, Podcasts, and many other media experiences, easily with whoever you’re having a FaceTime audio or FaceTime video call with. While this feature can be convenient for the intended purposes, it can also be annoying and frustrating, as you’ll be prompted with pop-ups to use SharePlay anytime you’re on a FaceTime call with another person, usually for whatever the last multimedia app experience you were engaging with involved. Or, if you’re listening to something on say Spotify, and you get an incoming FaceTime call, you’ll get the SharePlay pop-up appearing, whether you want to or not.
If you don’t have any interest in using SharePlay on iPhone and you’re annoyed with the SharePlay pop-ups on iPhone, read along to turn the feature off completely on iPhone or iPad.
Amazon is celebrating Cyber Monday tons of discounts on everything under the sun, and included in that are some fantastic deals on Apple products that we know and love.
The command line grep tool is incredibly powerful and useful for searching for matches in files, sorting text and data, finding strings in large files, and so much more. One common situation many command line users may find themselves in, is seeking to grep match for two different strings in a single line.
You can use grep in the Terminal in MacOS for this, or any other unix-based command line prompt, whether that’s Linux, Windows WSL, any version of MacOS / Mac OS X, or even a rooted iOS/iPadOS if you’re into that kind of thing.
Cyber Monday is here and Amazon is already offering incredible deals on many Apple products during their Cyber Monday sales. If you missed the Black Friday Deals, no sweat, Cyber Monday deals are here are also fantastic.
From great deals on MacBook Air, iPads, AirTags, AirPods, Apple Watch Series 9, MacBook Pro, external hard drives, and so much more, shop on!
The Instacart app for iPhone is convenient in that it allows you to shop for groceries and other items and have them delivered (if you live in a major city anyway), but like an ever-growing number of iPhone apps, it defaults to pelting you with annoying sales, promotional, and marketing notifications that are completely unrelated to your delivery or order experience.
Chances are decent that you don’t want to receive these promo notifications from Instacart, so let’s go about disabling the Instacart marketing/advertising promo notifications on your iPhone, while still keeping notifications that are actually useful for Instacart, like delivery and order updates.
Did you know your iPhone will let you know if a wi-fi network is available to join nearby? This feature of iOS is relatively new, and it’s interesting in that it will specifically focus on public wi-fi networks are popular and being used by others that are nearby.
From AirPods, AirTags, Apple Watch, iPad models, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro, there are fantastic deals, and even more, enjoy these Black Friday discounts. Read more »
It’s not unusual for those of us who are the “family geek” to spend time with less tech savvy people during the holidays, so why not use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to assist or improve the tech lives of loved ones? Express your thankfulness and gratitude with some helpful tech tips!
You may already be using ChatGPT, the phenomenally powerful and useful AI tool, but the free version is based on GPT-3.5. GPT-4 is said to be ten times more advanced, with enhanced creativity, reliability, up-to-date information, and an ability to interpret more nuanced instructions, so it’s understandable why users would like to explore and experience GPT-4, but not everyone is able to pay the $20 monthly fee to access GPT-4 through OpenAI. Fortunately there are some other options out there, giving you access to use GPT-4 for free.
Black Friday may be a few days away, but Amazon is ahead of the game and offering giant discounts and great deals on Apple products for Black Friday right now.
If you’re shopping for Apple gear this holiday season, whether for someone else or to treat yourself, why pay full price when you can take advantage of these great discounts from Amazon?
Some Gmail web client users may occasionally see a red error message at the top of their Gmail inbox that says “Gmail is having authentication problems. Some features may not work. Try logging in to fix the problem.”
The error can persist sometimes even on a logged in account, and if you have logged back into Gmail, as the error message suggests to do. So what’s going on, and how can you fix this error on Gmail.com with your web browser?
Apple has debuted their annual holiday ad for the 2023 season, or “Holiday Film” as they refer to it on YouTube, perhaps because it’s nearly four minutes long.
The 2023 Apple Holiday Film, titled “Fuzzy Feelings”, follows some of the typical modern media tropes, focusing on a younger woman who seems to strongly dislike her boss, an older man, who appears as a stereotypical crappy boss. Each night, she goes home to enact revenge fantasies against him by creating stop-motion animations of her boss suffering various acts of violence and misfortunes, from being hit by a car to being electrocuted. Eventually, her feelings for her boss change, after he gives her what appears to be a gift of hand-made woven socks, to which she starts creating happier stop-motion animations of her boss in positive moments like unboxing a dog, and eventually she sits down to enjoy a lunch with him at the office.
Isn’t it amazing what a gift of hand-made socks can do?!
The text accompanying the video on YouTube says:
“Creativity has the power to change the way we see each other, and the world. Sometimes, seeing things through a new lens can make all the difference.
You make the holidays.”
Apple mentions the stop-motion animation was recorded on an iPhone 15 Pro Max, and edited on a MacBook Air.
The full video is embedded below:
Does this holiday film from Apple give you “Fuzzy Feelings”? Happy Holidays!
Apple Watch SE 2 features a 40mm screen, fitness tracking functionality, sleep tracking, crash detection, a heart rate monitor, and is water resistant.
If you want more features, including the ability to perform an ECG and take blood oxygen readings, then the Series 9 is also discounted.
Apple Watch Series 9 for $70 Off, from $329
Amazon is offering a fantastic deal on the all new Apple Watch Series 9 for just $329 in select colors, taking $70 off the retail price of $399. The Apple Watch Series 9 is water resistant and features a 41mm screen, fitness tracking capabilities, heart rate monitor, blood oxygen reader, ECG capability, ovulation tracking, crash detection, fall detection, an always-on display, GPS, and a powerful new chip to make the watch faster than ever before.
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.
Don’t want to have certain gestures trigger FaceTime Reactions? Don’t want an on-screen emoji to appear when you give a thumbs up to the camera, or maybe you don’t want a peace sign made with your hands to trigger a bunch of balloons appearing on your video chat? Then you can turn the FaceTime Reactions feature off, right on your iPhone, Mac, or iPad.
While some users really enjoy the FaceTime Reaction Gestures, there’s also certainly no shortage of criticism about the feature from users who do not want to either accidentally trigger the reactions, or use the gestures to send reaction effects into FaceTime video chats, Zoom calls, and other video chat methods on the iPhone, Mac, and iPad.
