Apple has released iOS 15.5 for iPhone, and iPadOS 15.5 for iPad.

The software updates include a few minor features and changes, along with security updates. The full release notes are listed below.

Additionally, Apple released macOS Monterey 12.4 for Mac, an Apple Studio Display update which requires the 12.4 macOS update, along with updates to Homepod, WatchOS, and tvOS.

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Apple has released macOS Monterey 12.4 to all Mac users running the Monterey operating system.

According to Apple, macOS 12.4 includes improvements to the Podcasts app, support for a firmware update for the Apple Studio Display camera, and security enhancements.

Separately, Apple has also released iOS 15.5 and iPadOS 15.5, along with updates to watchOS and tvOS.

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The iPad has a great feature called Quick Notes that allows you to instantly create a new note on the iPad from anywhere, with just a swipe gesture.

You can use the Quick Note gesture with a finger, or with Apple Pencil. And it works with any iPad running iPadOS 15 or later. If you haven’t tried out Quick Note yet, it’s super easy to use and very convenient, so let’s check out how this works.

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If you’re a Mac user who has an Android phone for personal or professional use, you may be happy to learn that you can easily record the screen of the Android from the Mac, thanks to a free third party app.

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Many CenturyLink users have discovered that attempting to visit certain web pages and websites leads to a giant McAfee cyber security “warning” message that says something to the effect of “Warning! (website URL) appears to be risky. This might be because it is new or may not have the latest security.” or “Warning! This site has been flagged as malicious. Visiting this site may expose your device to malware or hijacking, allowing theft of private information.” or a variation of a similar error message.

You have the option to click “Continue to Site”, but what if you trust the sites, or if you just don’t want CenturyLink determining which sites are ‘safe’ for you to visit, and want to do away with the CenturyLink warnings for some web sites? If you’re an advanced user, you may be interested in turning this feature off and disabling the cyber security warnings from the router.

This tutorial will walk through how to turn off the CenturyLink McAfee Cyber Security feature and all related warnings.

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The upside-down exclamation point is frequently used in some languages, and if you’re on an iPhone or iPad you may be wondering how to type the inverted exclamation point on the virtual keyboard.

Like most things on iPhone and iPad, it’s simple, at least once you learn how it’s done. We’ll show you how to type the inverted exclamation point on iPhone and iPad using both the onscreen virtual keyboard, and with a physical keyboard as well.

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Apple has issued a Release Candidate build for iOS 15.5, iPadOS 15.5, macOS Monterey 12.4 to users involved in the beta testing programs for Apple system software.

Additionally, new RC builds of tvOS 15.5 and watchOS 8.6, and the macOS Monterey 12.4 beta includes new firmware for the Apple Studio Display, which aims to improve the FaceTime camera quality for that screen.

No significant new features are expected in any of the releases, but bug fixes and security improvements will undoubtedly be included.

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MacOS Monterey and MacOS Big Sur introduced a new style to the MacOS alert dialog boxes, which look more like something you’d see in iOS than MacOS. In the new design style for MacOS alert dialog windows, everything is centered with the app icon on the top and the alert messages below, whereas the older traditional style of MacOS alert dialog boxes has always shown an icon on the far left, with the alert information to the right of that.

If you’d like to return to the older traditional style of MacOS alert dialog boxes and windows, you can do so with the help of a defaults write command.

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Occasionally you may need to shut down, restart, or force restart a device, and iPad Air 5 is no exception.

Whether it’s force restarting because of a frozen app, troubleshooting an issue, restarting for any number of reasons, or shutting down the iPad Air for a flight, we’ll cover how you can perform these common tasks for the iPad Air 5.

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The iPad Magic Keyboard includes backlit keys, which make for easier visibility in lower light situations, and add a nice visual flare to the hardware keyboard as well.

With the latest versions of iPadOS, you can easily change the backlit keyboard brightness levels through Control Center. But first you must enable the keyboard backlighting option, so let’s review how this all works.

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The Notes app on modern iPhone and iPad system software versions includes a handy feature that lets you scan text directly into the notes app. The text you want to scan can be printed or handwritten, and the scanning is done directly within the Notes app instantaneously. After the text is scanned into the Notes app, you can edit it as needed at any time if you’d like to.

This is a great feature if you want to digitize a collection of anything that is printed or handwritten, be they letters, family recipes, receipts, manuscripts, books, magazines, flyers, or just about anything else you can imagine.

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SHA512 hashes are often used to determine data integrity, whether for matching a downloaded file to an original on a server, or for command output, or to make sure a file transfer was successful, or not tampered with.

Checking a SHA512 hash is pretty easy on a Mac, thanks to bundled command line tools that are preinstalled on any semi-modern MacOS installation. We’ll cover two different methods to check and verify SHA512 hash on the Mac, using both the shasum command, and openssl command.

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If you’re a Discord user, you may have noticed that the Discord app starts automatically when you startup the Mac. Some Mac users may prefer that Discord does not launch itself on system boot, and thus may want to stop this from happening.

For the unfamiliar, Discord is a popular app for communicating, whether through voice calls, video chat, messages, group chat, communities, and much more through Discord servers. While it’s commonly used by gamers for streaming and communicating while playing, it’s also widely used by many other online communities.

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“¡I need to type an inverted exclamation point!” the Mac user said… Indeed, the upside-down exclamation point ¡ is frequently used in Spanish and some other languages and thus it makes sense why you’d need to type the character, but if you’re using an English keyboard you may be wondering how you can type the upside down exclamation point character.

Fortunately the Mac makes this super simple. Typing the inverted exclamation point, or sometimes called the inverted bang, upside-down bang, or upside-down exclamation mark, is as easy as it gets

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Live Text is useful and interesting feature that allows users to select any text, words, or numbers found within an image, and then copy, define, lookup, or search for that selected text. For iPhone and iPad users, this can be convenient for many obvious use cases, but for some users it can also be frustrating as the text selection tools may show up when attempting to adjust a photo, or when you don’t want to actually select text within a photo or picture.

If you would like to turn off Live Text on iPhone or iPad, read along and you’ll have the feature disabled momentarily.

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All iPad models have the ability to search within apps for matched text. This includes searching within PDF files, notes, Safari, Chrome, and more. Since many iPad users come from a Windows background, they associate Control-F or CTRL-F with find and search, and thus are looking for a similar keyboard shortcut on their iPad to perform searches like this.

If you use an iPad with a physical keyboard, like the iPad Magic Keyboard, iPad Smart Keyboard, or any other external keyboard or keyboard case for iPad, you’ll be thrilled to know there is a search and find function that is basically identical to Control-F for the iPad, iPad Pro, iPad Air, and iPad Mini.

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The fourth beta versions of macOS 12.4 Monterey, iOS 15.5, and iPadOS 15.5 are available to users participating in the beta testing programs for Apple system software.

Additionally, new betas are available for Apple Studio Display, tvOS 15.5, and watchOS 8.6 as well.

Any active user in the developer beta or public beta testing programs can get the latest beta builds on their eligible devices now.

These are not expected to significant updates with any major new features, but it’s more likely the beta builds will fix bugs and include security patches for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and the other Apple operating systems.

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The Live Text feature available in modern MacOS releases allows Mac users to select text from within images and photos, but some users may find this feature to be more annoying than helpful, and thus may want to turn Live Text off on their Mac. This may be particularly true for some designers and image editors who spend a ton of time editing photos and images and find the Live Text selection tools to be cumbersome in their workflow.

If you’d like to disable Live Text in MacOS, read along and in no time you’ll have the feature off. And of course you can always turn it back on again if you change your mind.

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