Apple has released MacOS Sonoma beta 3 to users enrolled in the developer beta testing program for Mac system software.

While beta system software is buggier and more prone to crashes and misbehaviors than final versions, technically speaking anyone can install MacOS Sonoma beta on a Mac by enrolling in the free Apple developer beta program. A public beta is expected to launch soon as well.

Additionally, iOS 17 beta 3, iPadOS 17 beta 3, tvOS 17 beta 3, and watchOS 17 beta 3 are available to download for testers as well.

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Apple has released iPadOS 17 beta 3 to download for all users participating in the developer beta testing programs for iPad system software.

Separately, Apple has also released iOS 17 beta 3 for iPhone, MacOS Sonoma beta 3 for Mac, along with beta updates to tvOS 17 beta and watchOS 10 beta.

Any user can install iPadOS 17 beta on iPad now if they are interested in doing so by enrolling in the free Apple developer beta program. A public beta is expected to debut soon as well.

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Someone at Apple appears to be a Bitcoin enthusiast, or at least intrigued by the technology, as the complete Bitcoin whitepaper appears hidden in MacOS.

Specifically, the full Bitcoin whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto is stored as a PDF file within the resources of the Image Capture application – yes the app you can use to get photos from your iPhone, scanner, or digital camera, onto your Mac. You can read it yourself right on your Mac, which is probably a good idea before buying Bitcoin or even if you just wish to better understand the cryptocurrency. So, let’s learn how to accomplish that and check it out on your Mac.

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If you use the Chrome browser to develop for the web, you may be interested in knowing that you can clear the browsers DNS cache directly in Chrome. This is a separate process that is limited to Chrome, and it does not clear the DNS cache of the host computer or device.

If you’re a web developer, designer, programmer, network administrator, network operator, or similar, you probably are already familiar with the processes to clear DNS cache in MacOS Ventura and Monterey, and on iOS and iPadOS, but you may not know about this unique ability to reset and clear DNS cache directly in the Chrome browser. Let’s take a look at how this works.

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iOS 17 for iPhone not only includes a new default wallpaper for the iOS 17 homescreen, but also new wallpapers for CarPlay. While typically the CarPlay wallpapers are only visible when in CarPlay mode with an iPhone, you can grab those wallpapers now, without installing iOS 17 beta, and enjoy them on any device.

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Minecraft is a popular virtual sandbox video game that allows players to build, explore, create, and survive in a virtual world made up of very pixelated blocks. Offering an open-ended gameplay experience with no specific goals or objectives, players get to enjoy a digital sandbox to explore their own creations or craft their own experience.

In a way, you can think of Minecraft as a bit like digital LEGOs, except that rather than only being able to build structures, you can also gather resources, craft tools, engage in combat, set mechanics, and much more.

Because the Minecraft worlds are procedurally generated, there is practically an infinite number of unique playing experiences available.

If you’re not sure that you or a loved one is going to enjoy Minecraft, you can play the trial version of Minecraft and get a feel for the game. And of course, you can get the free Minecraft trial version for Mac, but it’s not necessarily obvious on the Minecraft site.

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This weekend, why not make the most of your iPhone by exploring some of the best features and embracing the possibilities of new iPhone experiences? Whether you’re mastering the iPhone camera, exploring new podcasts, or finding new apps to try, check out the tips below so that you can enhance your weekend with some iPhone experiences.

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The 15″ MacBook Air is a fantastic Mac, featuring an M2 chip, 15.3″ Liquid Retina display, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, Touch ID, MagSafe charger, and two Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, and right now you can save $100 on a brand new M2 MacBook Air 15″ model simply by shopping at Amazon.

The base model is equipped with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, and is available at the discounted price:

• 15″ MacBook Air M2 – 256GB – Midnight – $1199 (from $1299)
• 15″ MacBook Air M2 – 256GB – Space Gray – $1199 (from $1299)
• 15″ MacBook Air M2 – 256GB – Starlight – $1199 (from $1299)

Separately on Amazon, there are also some great deals on AirPods, wired EarPods, and Apple Watch.

• Apple EarPods headphones (wired, Lightning connector) for $17 (40% off from $29)
• AirPods (2nd generation) for $99 (down from $129)
• Apple Watch Series 8 for $329 (down from $399)

Why pay full price for these great Apple products when you don’t need to?

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.

Users may come across a situation where they would like to find all files in a directory, folder, or subfolder structure, that match a particular string but with variations to the file names, a situation perfect for finding files based on wildcard matches.

For example, maybe you’d like to locate all files on a file system containing the word “invoice” regardless of where in the filename the text of ‘invoice’ appears (eg, files named like the following; invoice1-2023.pdf, big-invoice-wow.pdf, yourfavoriteinvoice.pdf, invoice-2-22.pdf, etc).

This article will show you how to use the command line to find files recursively in directories and subdirectories by using wildcards that match a string of text that could appear anywhere in the filename itself, with several practical examples.

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Mac users may occasionally come across a situation where a process is locking a port, preventing another app or process from using that port. If you come across such a situation, for example maybe you’re trying to use React.js and find out that something is already running on port 3000, you can easily track down what process(es) are using a port on the Mac by turning to the command line.

We’ll show you how to find and kill what process is locking a port on MacOS.

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Everyone knows that Windows has been the most popular desktop operating system by market share for a long time, and if you roll back the clock 20 years you will find that MacOS had a itty bitty slice of the desktop operating system market of around 4%.

But fast forward 20 years, and things have changed quite a bit. Not only has the versions of Windows changed, but so has the Windows market share. In those two decades, the Mac desktop market share has quintupled, while the share of Windows has reduced dramatically as it loses marketshare to Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, and others.

Watch the video below to see this as an animated visualization, as you see Windows XP, Windows 98, and Windows NT slowly melt away to give rise to Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11, and of course MacOS, Linux, Chrome OS, and “others”.

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Sometimes when you’re using Excel, you might have data inputted across multiple columns, and you may wish to combine columns. One of the major perks of using spreadsheet software like Excel is that you can easily combine columns with simple formulas and functions, merging two (or more) columns together.

The simplest way to combine multiple columns in Excel is by using the Ampersand & symbol and a simple formula. If you’re new to this, don’t worry, we’ll walk you through it and show you how to combine two (or more) columns in Excel. This works the same with every version of Excel on every platform that Excel works on, including Windows PC, MacOS, iPad, iOS, Android, and the web.

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Fans of the dystopian sci-fi genre might be interested in watching the first full episode of the Apple TV+ show “Silo”, which Apple has made available to watch in full free on Twitter (and embedded below).

Apple describes Silo as follows:

“In a ruined and toxic future, thousands live in a giant silo deep underground. After its sheriff breaks a cardinal rule and residents die mysteriously, engineer Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) starts to uncover shocking secrets and the truth about the silo.”

The full first episode, can be watched from this Twitter embed or on the Twitter website.

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Apple has issued the fourth beta version of MacOS Ventura 13.5, iOS 16.6, and iPadOS 16.6 to users who are testing betas of the current generation of system software.

No significant features or changes are expected in iOS 16.6, iPadOS 16.6, and macOS Ventura 13.5, as Apple is undoubtedly spending the majority of their beta efforts on iOS 17 beta, iPadOS 17 beta, and MacOS Sonoma 14 beta, which are concurrently available.

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If you have a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air running the latest versions of MacOS system software, like Sonoma or Ventura, you may be interested in knowing how you can show the battery percentage in your Mac menu bar.

Displaying the battery percentage indicator MacOS in Sonoma and Ventura has moved to a new settings location yet again, making it different from Monterey and Big Sur, so if you have been hunting around for this setting unsuccessfully, you certainly aren’t alone.

Read along and you’ll have the battery percentage indicator showing in your Mac menu bar in no time at all, giving you instant insight into how much battery life you have left on your Mac laptop.

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CAPTCHA’s are those annoying “prove you are a human” tests that are common on the web, making you do things like select all the motorcycles, crosswalks, or cars in a series of images, or type out a series of fuzzy characters to match, before you can proceed to login or access a particular website. The point of CAPTCHAs is to prevent automated attacks, brute force attempts, and other common web-spam activity, but the most obvious consequence to CAPTCHAs for the average user is annoyance.

Thanks to a little feature that is included on the iPhone and iPad however, you can automatically verify CAPTCHAs, and skip them entirely. Rather than be annoyed by CAPTCHAs, if you’re on a modern version of iOS and iPadOS you can skip and bypass CAPTCHAs on the web.

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Homebrew is a fantastic package manager for the command line on Mac, but something that is perhaps less fantastic for some individuals is that Homebrew defaults to enabling ‘analytics’, which means your Mac will transmit data from your Mac to Homebrew about Homebrew usage. No thanks!

The Homebrew analytics include everything from user agent, Google Analytics version and other information, and a Homebrew analytics tracking ID and user ID. The data is said to be anonymous, but as we all know about metadata, “anonymous” is relative, and perhaps not so anonymous after all. So if you are a Homebrew user, you may be interested in disabling the analytics feature, which is turned on by default on every Homebrew installation.

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Pixelmator is arguably the best photo and image editing app for Mac, other than the much more expensive Photoshop anyway. If you bought Pixelmator Classic some time ago, and you haven’t yet went for the upgrade to Pixelmator Pro (or perhaps you don’t need the new features), then you may be interested in downloading and installing Pixelmator Classic onto a Mac, whether it’s a new M1/M2 Mac, or a clean install on an older Mac.

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