Some Mac users have reported that the Contacts app is randomly missing all of their contacts, and the entire address book is suddenly blank on their Mac. This is obviously alarming, but the good news is that if this happens to you, it’s usually a pretty simple fix and your contact list and address book will be returned shortly.

The Contacts app not loading your contacts can be exceptionally stressful, since many of us have relied on Apple’s Contacts app and iCloud syncing to backup and maintain our entire address books, often with many years worth of individuals, businesses, family members, friends, coworkers, colleagues, peers, providers, and everyone else you’d typically save contact information for. Having just went through this myself on my Mac, I felt the panic and worry of losing all my Contacts, but troubleshooting mode kicked in and it was quick to resolve.

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Sports fans might appreciate a neat little free Mac app called MenuScores, which places a game of your choice in the menu bar, which you can use to keep track of scores or game start times with a quick glance. It’s that simple, no frills, nothing overengineered or fancy, just sports scores in your Mac menu bar. If that sounds good to you, grab the free app for your Mac, set the game of your choice to keep track of, and away you go.

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Amazon Prime Day is live, offerring some all-time-low prices on Apple products and generally stellar deals. To take full advantage of these offers, you will need to sign up for Amazon Prime if you have not done that already (and eligible students can get discounted Amazon Prime memberships).

Let’s check out the great Amazon Prime Day Deals for Apple gear:

AirPods 4 – $89 (down from $129)

AirPods 4 are available at 22% off Apple’s retail price, coming in at just $89. AirPods 4 have the iconic design of the most popular wireless earbuds out there, and have great features like gesture support, spatial audio, voice isolation, water and sweat resistance, Siri support, and USB-C charging.

• Get AirPods 4 for $89 (down 25% from $129)

Apple Watch Series 10 – $279 (down from $399)

Apple Watch Series 10 has an always-on 42mm display, fitness and activity tracking capabilities, heart rate monitor, ECG with irregular heart beat detection, crash detection, fall detection, Emergency SOS, ovulation tracking, GPS, pinch gesture support for one handed operation, water resistance, voice control, Siri commands, all-day battery life, and more. Why pay full retail when you can save a bunch from Amazon?

• Get Apple Watch Series 9 for $279 (down from $399 MSRP)

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If you use UTM virtual machines of MacOS on your Mac, let’s say to test out a beta version of system software (like MacOS Tahoe beta), you might be wondering how to copy files from the local host Mac, to the virtualized MacOS installation running in the virtual machine (in this case, with UTM).

While there are multiple ways to copy files and data between virtual machines and the local host Mac, including using a shared folder or clipboard between the VM and host, a much simpler and reliable way exists for these MacOS on MacOS situations, and it works not only with UTM (our focus here), but also Parallels, VMware, and basically any other virtualization software you can think of. The trick? Just use simple file sharing.

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The third beta version of iOS 26 beta for iPhone, and ipadOS 26 beta for iPad, has been made available for registered Apple developers. Any user can install the iOS 26 beta now by registering for the developer beta testing program, but generally speaking this is only appropriate for advanced users.

iOS 26 brings along the all new Liquid Glass interface look, new features for Phone app, Messages app includes new options to customize background wallpapers for threads and share polls in group chats, new ringtone, improvements to CarPlay, improvements to Apple Intelligence, new Shortcuts features, and more, while iPadOS 26 brings a new multitasking approach with windowing, along with the Preview app, and other various changes.

Additionally, macOS Tahoe 26 beta 3 for Mac, watchOS 26 beta 3 for Apple watch, and tvOS 26 beta 3 for Apple TV are available for beta testers.

It’s possible the iOS 26 beta 3 build could match the upcoming public beta, which has yet to be released by Apple.

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The third beta version of MacOS Tahoe 26 is now available for users enrolled in the Apple Developer Beta Testing Program on their Mac or virtual machine.

MacOS Tahoe 26 features the all new Liquid Glass interface look, options to customize icon and folder colors in Finder, many improvements and changs to Spotlight, a clipboard history manager, Live Activities from iPhone, Phone app comes to Mac, Journal app for Mac, and various other changes.

While beta system software is intended for advanced users only, installing macOS Tahoe 26 beta on a compatible Mac is fairly easy if you enroll your Apple ID in the beta testing program. One must expect a buggier less stable experience however, making this really only appropriate for developers and similar Mac users. If you’re a more casual user and you wish to checkout MacOS Tahoe 26 beta 3, you might want to install macOS Tahoe beta into a UTM virtual machine which runs atop your existing MacOS installation.

Separately, iOS 26 beta 3, iPadOS 26 beta 3, tvOS 26 beta 3, watchOS 26 beta 3, and visionOS 26 beta 3, are also available for beta testers.

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Amazon is offering some really great deals on Apple products again, deeply discounting the AirPods and AirPods Pro, and more. Check out the deals if you’re shopping for yourself or anyone else.

AirPods 4 – $99 (down from $129)

AirPods 4 are available at 22% off Apple’s retail price, coming in at just $99. AirPods 4 have the iconic design of the most popular wireless earbuds out there, and have great features like gesture support, spatial audio, voice isolation, water and sweat resistance, Siri support, and USB-C charging.

• Get AirPods 4 for $99 (down 22% from $129)

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If you’re heading out to watch fireworks this July 4th, you might want to capture the moments with some great photos or videos of fireworks. With just a few simple tips, you’ll be snapping great fireworks photos and smooth videos with just your trusty iPhone.

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Apple is opening a new store in Osaka, Japan, and to commemorate that store opening they have created a neat wallpaper of some shapes that are twisted into an Apple logo.

You’ll find the new wallpaper available in three different sizes, for mobile/iPhone, tablet/iPad, and Mac/desktop. Click any of the links below to open the full sized image in a new window, via URLs from Apple:

• Grab full-sized Umeda wallpaper for Mac / Desktop
• Grab Umeda wallpaper for iPhone / Mobile
• Grab Umeda wallpaper for iPad / Tablet
• Check out the Osaka Umeda page on Apple here for the wallpapers

Releasing new wallpapers in concordance with a new store opening is something that Apple has been doing for a while now. Most recently, they issued one for the Perth store, Miami (which may be the coolest, let’s face it), Shanghai, and others too.

There are a variety of different ways to run MacOS Tahoe 26 beta, including installing it as an upgrade to an existing MacOS installation (which is not recommended for most people, by the way), but by far the safest and perhaps simplest way is to use a virtual machine. Virtual Machines (VM) offer isolated virtualized environments, making them perfect for testing out a new beta operating systme, like Tahoe 26. UTM, which is the VM tool we’ll focus on here, is a fantastic free virtual machine app that makes it easy to manage and run various virtualized operating systems on your Mac, including the latest MacOS Tahoe beta. UTM is easy to use, and setting up a virtualized MacOS Tahoe environment within UTM is easy too, as we’ll walk through the steps here.

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Amazon is on it yet again with some really great discounts on Apple products, including discounts on the entire M4 MacBook Air lineup with the upgraded 15″ 24GB model being the most deeply discounted at $175 off retail, the iPad Mini 7 available at a $100 discount for just $399, and slashing $100 off the Apple Watch Series 10 to start at just $299 as well. There’s no reason to pay full retail price from Apple when Amazon is offering such great deals, so enjoy them while they last!

M4 MacBook Air 13″ & 15″- Up to $175 Off

The M4 MacBook Air lineup is availabe at heavy discounts on Amazon again, taking up to $175 off in various configurations. The all new MacBook Air features the M4 chip with Apple Intelligence support, LCD display in 13″ or 15″ size, 12MP camera with Center Stage, Touch ID, backlit keyboard, all-day battery life, dual display support, MagSafe charging, two USB-C ports, and more. You’ll find the best deal, taking $175 off the 15″ MacBook Air 24GB/512GB model, in particular color options, so play around with configurations and colors until you find what suits you.

• M4 MacBook Air 13″ – 16GB / 256GB – $849 (down from $999)
• M4 MacBook Air 13″ – 16GB / 512GB – $1049 (down from $1199)
• M4 MacBook Air 15″ – 16GB / 512GB – $1249 (down from $1399)
• M4 MacBook Air 15″ – 24GB / 512GB – $1425 (down from $1599)

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iPadOS 26 offers a compelling set of features for iPad users that they have long asked for, including Mac-like windowing, improved multitasking capabilities, an improved Files app, the inclusion of Preview app, Phone app, plus all the popular iOS 26 features like the new Liquid Glass interface appearance, a redesigned Lock Screen, wallpapers in Messages, and so much more. If you’re an advanced iPad user and you don’t mind having a buggier than usual experience which is typical of beta operating systems, then it’s no wonder you might be interested in running the iPadOS 26 beta on your iPad right now.

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Amazon is offering some nice deals on iPad models and the M4 MacBook Air again. This time we have the polar opposites of iPad available at $100 off, including the iPad Air with an 8″ display for $399, and the iPad Air with 13″ display for $699. Whether you want a small screen or a jumbo screen iPad, both are fantastic and available at a $100 discount. Meanwhile, Amazon continues to offer great deals on the M4 series MacBook Air, a fantastic laptop that is a great choice for just about anyone.

iPad mini – $399 (down from $499)

The iPad mini 7 features an A17 processor with Apple Intelligence support, 8″ LCD display, a 12mp front and rear camera, 128 GB storage, USB-C charging, and support for optional Apple Pencil Pro. You can get iPad Mini 7 in multiple color options at a great discount:

• iPad mini 7 – $399 (down from $499)

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The second beta versions of iOS 18.6, iPadOS 18.6, and MacOS Sequoia 15.6, are available to users who are interested in running beta versions of the current generation of system software. Most likely that group of beta testers is almost entirely developers, since running betas of the current gen operating systems is not the most thrilling experience. This is particularly true when compared to the concurrent betas of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and MacOS Sequoia 26, which feature all new interface appearances and a variety of new features.

iOS 18.6, iPadOS 18.6, and macOS Sequoia 15.6 are likely to focus on bug fixes and security enhancements, rather than new features.

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Liking the look of the new Sky Blue M4 MacBook Air, but don’t want to splurge on a new purchase? You can enjoy the new wallpaper without coughing up any dough, just download the full resolution version below.

The MacBook Air series was recently spec-bumped with a powerful M4 processor, and along with the new processor came a new color option; Sky Blue. Sky Blue is subtle and can look a lot like silver in some lighting conditions, and quite blue in others, but for some people it’s exactly what they want, and it makes for a nice wallpaper color too. This isn’t a completely new or redesigned wallpaper, in fact the M4 MacBook Air Sky Blue wallpaper is basically just a different color variation of the same other MacBook Air wallpapers introduced a few years ago, but that doesn’t mean it’s not nice to look at.

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Amazon is offering a nice discount on the 13″ M3 iPad Air with LCD display, M3 chip, Apple Intelligence support, 128GB base storage, 12MP front and rear cameras, Touch ID, great battery life, and support for Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard, taking $100 off the retail price in select color options:

• M3 iPad Air 13″ – $699 (down from $799)

M4 MacBook Air 13″ & 15″- $150 Off

M4 MacBook Air is discounted by Amazon, taking $150 off both 13″ and 15″ display sizes and in various color configurations. The MacBook Air features the M4 chip with Apple Intelligence support, LCD display in 13″ or 15″ size, 12MP camera with Center Stage, Touch ID, backlit keyboard, all-day battery life, dual display support, MagSafe charging, two USB-C ports, and more.

• M4 MacBook Air 13″ – 16GB / 256GB – $849 (down from $999)
• M4 MacBook Air 13″ – 16GB / 512GB – $1049 (down from $1199)
• M4 MacBook Air 15″ – 16GB / 512GB – $1249 (down from $1399)
• M4 MacBook Air 15″ – 24GB / 512GB – $1449 (down from $1599)

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Advanced Mac users who are savvy with the command line can rapdly build a MacOS Tahoe 26 beta virtual machine by issuing a few commands into the Terminal, with the help of tart. tart is a command line tool for managing virtual machines, and it’s one of the absolute fastest ways to get a virtual machine of MacOS Tahoe 26 running on any Apple Silicon Mac. After the commands have executed succesfully, macOS Tahoe 26 beta will be running in a windowed virtual machine right away, and performance is quite good on any Apple Silicon Mac. This really is as quick as it gets for Tahoe VM deployment, and after you experience this you’ll likely become a fan of tart.

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Creating a bootable macOS Tahoe installer USB is a handy way to perform clean installs, upgrade multiple Macs without redownloading, or keep a trusted recovery disk at your fingertips. Making a bootable Tahoe installer has a few requirements, but if you’ve got a spare flash USB drive, and don’t mind using the Terminal app, you’ll build one quickly, and be ready to easily install MacOS Tahoe using the boot disk.

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