Nearly every hotel nowadays offers free wi-fi, but a surprising number of them use unsecured wireless networks. Most commonly, the unsecured networks use a captive portal to access the wi-fi network, where a splash screen pops-up in a web browser window before you are granted further access to the network. Often there’s some marginal login requirement, like entering your room number, or email address. Captive portals are different from entering a wi-fi password to join the wireless network, which is necessary when joining a secured network.

But once connected, these networks are usually completely insecure, with no wi-fi security protocol in place at all. This means that any unencrypted data is transmitting openly over the wireless network potentially in plain text format, potentially revealing that data to any nefarious actors or snoopers on the network.

While it may be improbable or unlikely that someone is sniffing around the wireless network for unencrypted data, it’s still wise to proceed with caution when using any unsecured network.

How can you tell if your internet connection is unsecured or secure? The simplest way is to use a Mac, then do the following:

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iOS 16 beta 4 and iPadOS 16 beta 4 are now available to download for users enrolled in the beta testing programs for iPhone and iPad system software.

Typically the developer beta build rolls out first, and is soon followed by the same build as a public beta version.

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Apple has released the fourth beta version of macOS Ventura beta to users enrolled in the beta testing programs.

MacOS Ventura beta 4 is available now for registered developers, and the public beta build will likely soon follow.
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Are you on a Zoom meeting and your audio, or someone elses audio feed, is very choppy, garbled, cutting out, or robotic sounding? Zoom conferences use a lot of bandwidth, particularly when you are using video streaming and audio streaming concurrently.

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Some Mac users may want the cursor size on the Mac screen to be larger, making it easier to see.

Whether you’re having a difficult time seeing the Mac cursor on your screen as you move the mouse or trackpad around, or you just would prefer a bigger cursor pointer in general, you can manually change the cursor size in MacOS rather easily.

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Ever wanted to enhance the webcam on your Mac? For example, tweak the brightness, contrast, saturation, or even flip the camera horizontally? These things can be done using third-party software called virtual cameras.

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Interested in checking out the tvOS 16 public beta on your Apple TV? Much like how you can run the public betas of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura, you can also give tvOS 16 public beta a try if you’re adventurous and up for it.

tvOS 16 doesn’t have a ton of crazy new features, but it does support new game controllers like the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con and Pro controller, and there is more integration with tvOS apps and apps for iPhone and iPad.

So, want to check out tvOS 16 public beta? Why not?

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Are you planning to use iCloud Keychain for managing all your passwords? If you’ve been relying on a third-party password manager until now, you may want to move all your existing passwords to make the migration to iCloud Keychain a whole lot easier. This can be done, although it’s not exactly simple.

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Did you know that many modern TV’s, like any newer model LG OLED TV, includes support for AirPlay? This functionality which is built into many modern smart TV panels allows you to use AirPlay for watching videos, movies, tv shows, and screen mirroring, sending content from an iPhone or iPad directly to the TV screen – and it’s all done wirelessly and simply. The feature is so handy that it may even supplant your need to get an Apple TV device, since the handy AirPlay functionality is entirely built into the TV itself.

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macOS Monterey 12.5 has been released by Apple to all Mac users running the macOS Monterey operating system.

The MacOS Monterey 12.5 update includes security updates, bug fixes, and adds an ability to pause and rewind live sports in the TV app.

Separately, Apple also released iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6 for iPhone and iPad.

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Apple has released iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6 for all iPhone and iPad users. The new software updates are available now, alongside macOS Monterey 12.5 for Mac.

iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6 include bug fixes, security updates, and small enhancements to the operating systems for iPhone and iPad. Perhaps most notable is a resolution to an issue where the Settings app may erroneously state that the storage is full, despite having storage available. Additionally, there are new options to pause, rewind, and restart live sports games in the TV app, and bug fixes for braille devices when using Mail, and a fix for a Safari problem where tabs may revert back to previous pages. iPadOS 15.6 also resolves an issue for iPad Mini where USB-C connections may not be recognized. The full release notes are further below for those interested.

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The Mac Finder and apps like Preview offer window title icons when you hover over the window title text, and once defaulted to show icons in the window title bar too. Sometimes these window icons were referred to as “proxy icons”, because they’re interactive and allow for things like dragging and dropping, and right-clicking to access dropdown menus.

In modern MacOS versions like Monterey, Big Sur, and newer, these window title icons still appear if you hover over the title bar texts, but you can enable a setting in System Preferences to always show the window title bar icons if you’d like.

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The iPad allows you to easily adjust the cursor tracking speed, whether you’re using a trackpad or a mouse with the iPad.

For some users, the default iPad cursor tracking speed may be too fast, and for others it may be too slow. Fortunately, there’s a wide variety of adjustment available, and you can make the mouse pointer move as fast or as slow as you’d like.

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The all new MacBook Air with M2 and MacBook Pro 14″ and 16″ with M1 Pro and M1 Max processors are impressive machines by most hardware standards, but not everyone is impressed with the Notch that takes up a portion at the top of the screen. The Notch holds the front facing camera, and dips down into the top of the display. So, what if you hate the way the notch looks? Are you stuck with it? Not entirely.

Fortunately for notch haters, there’s an app called TopNotch that hides the display notch, using a simple but ingenious method of turning the menu bar black to match the notch. This effectively makes The Notch blend into the menu bar, making it much more subtle.

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Release Candidate 2 of iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6 are now available to beta testers, along with the first Release Candidate build of macOS Monterey 12.5.

Release Candidate builds are typically the final version of beta software that then gets finalized and released to the general public, so this suggests that iOS 15.6, iPadOS 15.6, and macOS Monterey 12.5 are likely to be released perhaps as soon as the coming week.

No major features or changes are expected in the builds, meaning iOS 15.6, iPadOS 15.6, and macOS Monterey 12.5 are probably bug fix updates that also include security enhancements.

Most beta testers are probably running the separate beta builds of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura 13, but for those who are running betas for the current generation operating systems, you’ll find the release candidate builds available now through the respective software update mechanisms.

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Adventurous Mac users may be interested in trying out the macOS Ventura public beta on their Mac, which is now available for any user to download and install.

As is usual with beta system software, the macOS Ventura public beta is buggy, and users should expect to encounter quirks, bugs, and incompatibilities with certain things and apps. For this reason, it’s recommended to install the macOS Ventura public beta on a secondary Mac, and not a primary workstation.

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Now that iPadOS 16 public beta is available for any user to download, some curious iPad enthusiasts will undoubtedly be interested in installing the public beta onto their device.

As is usual with beta system software, assume the iPadOS 16 public beta to not be as stable as a final software version, meaning things like crashes, bugs, and apps not working as expected is normal. For this reason, only advanced users should bother running the beta, and preferably on a secondary device that is not your primary hardware.

iPadOS 16 beta includes some interesting new features, including a new multitasking interface called Stage Manager that is limited to M1 equipped iPads, the ability to edit and unsend iMessages, the inclusion of Weather app on iPad, Safari tab groups and tab pinning, the ability to connect Nintendo JoyCons to the iPad, and more. For those wondering, the lock screen widget customization feature is limited to iPhone with iOS 16, and will not be available on iPad. The iPadOS 16 beta is most compelling on an M1 equipped iPad or better, so earlier device users may be underwhelmed by the incremental features.

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Apple now supports the ability for verifiable COVID vaccination cards to be added to iPhone via the Apple Wallet application. The digital COVID-19 vaccine passport could be useful for situations where you must show your vaccine papers to travel, cross a border, enter into a restaurant, enter a building, or other for example. Rather than carrying around a delicate piece of paper, you can just simply use your iPhone and have a verifiable vaccine record with you instead to serve as your vaccine passport.

The ability to add Covid vaccine cards into Apple Wallet requires the iPhone be running iOS 15.1 or newer, as older versions do not offer this capability.

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