Ready for some amazing deals on Apple gear? Amazon Prime Day is on with tons and tons of excellent deals on products and goods, but of course the Apple gear is what we are most focused on. With huge discounts on AirPods, Apple Watch, MacBook Air 15″, MacBook Air 13″, iPad, and more, take a look and grab the deals while they’re hot. Whether you’re shopping for yourself, or for someone else, or just getting some early holiday shopping done, this is a great opportunity to get some significant discounts on rarely discounted Apple hardware.

To take advantage of Amazon Prime Day deals you will need an Amazon Prime membership, or a free trial membership, after which you can either cancel the membership or enjoy the perks (like excellent streaming shows and movies, faster Amazon shipping, etc) at a cost of $139 annually or $15 a month.

Let’s get to the deals, and if you see something that appeals to you, move fast because Amazon stock changes quickly!

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Apple has released iOS 16.7.1 and iPadOS 16.7.1 for iPhone and iPad users who are not running iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 on their respective devices.

For most users, the 16.7.1 update will be available on an older device that doesn’t support the 17 versions of iOS/iPadOS, which includes iPhone 8 series, iPhone X, iPad Pro 1st generations, and iPad 5th gen. However, the update is technically available for anyone who hasn’t yet updated to iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 as well.

The small software update includes security fixes and does not come with any new features. If you’re seeking new features, then updating to iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 is the way to go, unless of course your device does not support those system software releases.

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Amazon is offering an absolute steal of a deal on the iPad 9th generation for just $249, the lowest price it has ever sold for. That’s 24%, or $80 discount, from the $329 retail price that Apple sells the same iPad for!

The iPad 9th generation features a 10.2″ Retina display, A13 Bionic chip, 64GB of storage, 12MP front camera, 8MP back camera, Touch ID on a Home Button, wi-fi, great battery life, and is available in Space Gray and Silver color options.

• iPad (9th generation) for $249 (down 24% from $329)

The 9th gen iPad is the last iPad model to feature a Home button, which makes it an excellent choice for those users who prefer the Home button and Touch ID compared to the button-less modern design and Face ID.

If you’re looking for a great Mac, don’t miss out on the stellar deal on the 15″ M2 MacBook Air, offered at a $250 discount too!

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.

iCloud is packed full of features that make using devices in the Apple ecosystem super easy and fluid, but there are some security features and capabilities offered by iCloud that literally everyone should be using because of their added benefits to security, convenience, and capabilities.

While it’s generally a good idea to basically use every possible iCloud feature that is available to you – yes you want to sync your notes, contacts, files, etc – we’re going to highlight a few security specific features in particular that every Apple user should absolutely be utilizing – whether you’re on a Mac, iPhone, iPad, or all of the above.

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Amazon is offering record low prices on the M2 MacBook Air 15″ lineup, taking a whopping $250 off the price of both the base 256 GB model and upgraded 512 GB storage model. This brings the price down of the 512GB model to $1249 which is cheaper than the MSRP of the 256GB model, and the 256GB model to just $1049. The deals are available for all color options, so whether you like Starlight, Midnight, Space Gray, or Silver, they’re available.

The MacBook Air 15″ features the powerful and energy efficient M2 chip, a 15.3″ Liquid Retina display, a 1080p FaceTime camera, MagSafe Charger, and two thunderbolt / USB-C ports, Touch ID, a nice backlit keyboard, and excellent battery life.

Save $250 on the $15″ MacBook Air!

The M2 MacBook Air 15″ base model with 256 GB storage and 8 GB RAM is now discounted 19% to just $1049 on Amazon:

• 15″ MacBook Air M2 – 256GB – Starlight – $1049 (from $1299)
• 15″ MacBook Air M2 – 256GB – Midnight – $1049 (from $1299)
• 15″ MacBook Air M2 – 256GB – Space Gray – $1049 (from $1299)
• 15″ MacBook Air M2 – 256GB – Silver – $1049 (Reduced from $1299)

The upgraded M2 MacBook Air 15″ model 512 GB storage and 8 GB RAM is available for $250 off as well in all the color options:

• 15″ MacBook Air M2 – 512GB – Midnight – $1249 (from $1499)
• 15″ MacBook Air M2 – 512GB – Starlight – $1249 (from $1499)
• 15″ MacBook Air M2 – 512GB – Space Grey – $1249 (from $1499)
• 15″ MacBook Air M2 – 512GB – Silver – $1249 (from $1499)

Stock changes quickly at Amazon, so if you’re looking to enjoy the discounted price on any of the 15″ MacBook Air models, shop quickly.

M1 MacBook Air at $250 off

If the M2 MacBook Air 15″ isn’t what you’re looking for, Amazon continues to offer the M1 MacBook Air 13″ for just $749.99, which features the M1 chip, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 13″ LCD, a backlit keyboard, FaceTIME HD camera, Touch ID, and three color options:

• M1 MacBook Air 13″ – 8GB RAM / 256GB SSD for $749.99 (from $999)/li>

Big AirPods Deals!

You can also save $50 on the all new AirPods Pro 2nd generation with USB-C charging, which if you just got an iPhone 15 series and you want to transition to more USB-C chargeable devices is a great deal, and there’s also a $40 off the AirPods 2nd gen with Lightning charging.

• AirPods Pro 2nd gen with USB-C Charging for $199 (down from $249)
• AirPods 2nd gen for $89 (down from $129)

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.

Threads, the social network microblogging Twitter/X competitor launched by Meta (Facebook), is typically thought of as a mobile only experience, with users having the Threads app on their iPhone or Android device.

But, if you have a Mac, Windows PC, or Linux computer, and you want to use Threads on your desktop computer, you can do that.

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Steam, the popular gaming platform for Mac, Windows, and Linux, is great in that it offers a ton of really fun popular games, but it’s not without its annoyances. One of the most frustrating Steam annoyances are its popup ads on startup, or what it calls “Steam News”, that slowly launch in a new pop-up window every time you open the Steam app. These ads are presented to you trying to get you to buy more games, be aware of some game sale, inform you of some game availability, or do something else purchase oriented in Steam, and many users do not want to see the Steam pop-up ads at all let alone when they start the app.

Steam pop-up ads are enabled by default, but let’s turn off the pop-up ads when Steam launches so you can play your games in peace. You can disable the Steam pop-up ads on startup

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While many Mac users have already downloaded and installed MacOS Sonoma onto their Macs and are enjoying the great new features, not every Mac user wants to upgrade to Sonoma. In fact, many Mac users want to stay put with macOS Monterey, or MacOS Ventura, and not upgrade to MacOS Sonoma for now, or even at all.

Whether you’re waiting for some particular app compatibility, for a later release version of Sonoma, or are skipping Sonoma entirely, we’ll show you how you can install updates to macOS Monterey and MacOS Ventura, without installing the MacOS Sonoma upgrade.

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Apple has launched SF Symbols 5, a large collection of iconography for developers and designers to use in their apps for Apple experiences.

If you’re a designer or developer, you’ll probably appreciate all the new symbols available that you can use in apps for the Apple ecosystem, whether for interface, toolbars, navigation, contextual menus, or tab bars.

And now SF Symbols 5 includes not only more than 5000 symbols, but additionally there are animated effects on many of them like bounce, pulse, and scale.

SF Symbols are available to download free from the Apple developer website:

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iOS 17 includes a variety of new capabilities and features, and some in particular really stand out for iPhone. Let’s take a look at the best new features in iOS 17 and some tips to get started using the latest innovations in the world of iPhone software.

From interactive widgets, to Standby Mode, new Messages features, password sharing, and much more, let’s check out some tips for iOS 17!

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Apple has released iOS 17.0.3 for iPhone to address an issue where many iPhone users were experiencing overheating iPhones that were not only hot but sometimes suffered from slow performance sometimes along with rapid battery drain. The update is recommended for all iPhone users to install, even though apparently the overheating issue is primarily experienced by iPhone 15 Pro devices, but the release notes mention that iOS 17.0.3 “addresses an issue that may cause iPhone to run warmer than expected” with no specificity for device.

While a lot of sluggish behavior is normal with a newly setup iPhone or after a system software update, the overheating and hot iPhone 15 Pro experience was apparently beyond what was considered normal by Apple, so they have addressed that problem with the iOS/iPadOS 17.0.3 software update.

Additionally, iPadOS 17.0.3 is also available for iPad users, which apparently contains “bug fixes and security updates” as well.

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Now that iPad users can update to iPadOS 17, have you done so? If not, you’re certainly not alone, as a lot of people sit on the sidelines with no particular rush to install the latest system software versions. But iPadOS 17 offers some nice improvements, like interactive widgets, FaceTime Video Voicemail, new Messages features, the ability to put widgets on your Lock Screen, and more, making it a worthwhile update for most iPad users.

Let’s review how you can install iPadOS 17 onto your iPad so that you’ll be running the latest and greatest iPadOS in no time at all.

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Apple has issued the second beta versions of MacOS Sonoma 14.1, iOS 17.1, and iPadoS 17.1, for users who are participating in those beta testing programs. The beta 2 builds are available first for edevelopers, and are soon followed by public betas.

iOS 17.1, iPadOS 17.1, and MacOS Sonoma 14.1 will likely include some new features that were announced with the major releases, but didn’t make the cut for the first .0 release builds.

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Installing iOS 17 onto your iPhone is easy to do, and you’ll gain access to the neat new features available in iOS 17. This includes everything from customizable contact cards, FaceTime Video voicemail, interactive widgets on your Home Screen, NameDrop easy contact sharing, new stickers features in Messages, new ringtones and text tones, new autocorrect and predictive typing, and much more. But not everyone is familiar with the process of updating an iPhone and installing the latest updates, as many users either have automatic updates enabled, or simply never update their devices at all.

Let’s get to it, and run through the exact process to update your iPhone by installing iOS 17.

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Some iPhone users are experiencing an error message that says “This iPhone is open in another window” when attempting to sync music between their Mac and iPhone. Users may see the error message even when there is no other window open in the Music app on Mac, making this a peculiar error message that doesn’t necessarily make sense.

If you experience the “This iPhone is open in another window” when attempting to use Music on Mac to sync music between your iPhone and Mac, read along for troubleshooting steps.

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Steam, the popular gaming platform for Mac, Windows, and Linux, has an optional Big Picture Mode that takes over the screen of their device or computer, and changes the interface quite a bit. If you’re like many Steam users, you may at some point accidentally enter into Big Picture Mode, and then wonder how to escape Big Picture Mode in Steam so you can get back to the normal interface.

Recently I accidentally got stuck in Big Picture Mode on Steam and I discovered that exiting Big Picture Mode is curious and not exactly what I would have expected, and so I figured this is worth a writeup in case someone else runs into the same problem.

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If you’ve already installed and updated to MacOS Sonoma, and you were previously in the beta testing programs (either public beta or developer beta), you may wish to no longer receive beta updates to your Mac.

If you don’t do this, and you were previously enrolled in the MacOS Sonoma beta testing program, you will be receiving beta updates, like Sonoma 14.1 beta, 14.2 beta, 14.3 beta, and so on.

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If you were part of the iOS 17 beta test or iPadOS 17 beta testing programs, and now you’re on the latest stable build (iOS 17.0.2), you may wish to remove the beta updates from your iPhone or iPad, so that you no longer receive beta updates and stay on the stable builds of system software.

Leaving the iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 beta programs is easy, removes future beta updates from showing up on your iPhone or iPad, and you can toggle participation in the beta programs at any time. We’ll show you how to do it.

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