Want to change the browser color theme on the DuckDuckGo.com search engine to a dark theme or light theme? It’s easy to adjust the appearance to dark or light theme on DuckDuckGo if you’d like to do so.

First, know that DuckDuckGo search typically follows the current system theme on the computer or device in use, so if a Mac is actively running dark mode or light mode, or an iPhone or iPad is in dark mode or light mode, the search engine appearance usually reflects that as well. We’re showing how to set it manually however.

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If you’re a Mac user who does not use iCloud, nor do you want to use iCloud, you might be bothered by the “Start Using iCloud” notifications and messages in System Preferences to use the iCloud service.

iCloud is undeniably useful with its syncing capabilities, but if you don’t use it for whatever reason, you might want to get rid of the nagging notifications about using iCloud found in System Preferences and Notifications on the Mac.

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Do you want to hide your phone number for new iMessage conversations started from the Mac? This is something that a lot of users may wish to do for privacy reasons. Well, you’ll be pleased to know that you can easily do this on your  Mac.

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macOS Monterey is here, complete with some nice new features like Live Text which allows you to select text in images, the inclusion of Shortcuts app on Mac, improvements to Safari, Focus modes, the ability to use a Mac as an AirPlay receiver, and a variety of general refinements to the Mac operating system.

If you’re ready to install and upgraded to macOS Monterey, we’ll walk through the steps for installing macOS Monterey onto a Mac. The approach we’ll cover in this article will be upgrading a prior macOS release to macOS Monterey.

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Do you want to use a different Apple account for App Store purchases and subscriptions? Perhaps, you have some credits left to spend on your other account? Fortunately, this can be done without having to change the Apple ID that you’re primarily logged into on your iPhone or iPad.

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Apple has released the first beta version of macOS Monterey 12.1 for Mac users participating in the beta system software testing program.

The beta build presumably focuses on bug fixes and enhancements to the macOS Monterey operating system, and also includes some features that were skipped in the initial release, including SharePlay support.

Users who are interested in Universal Control will continue to wait as the beta does not appear to support that feature, yet anyway.

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Do you use the Live Photo feature while taking pictures using your iPhone or iPad? And do you use Live Photos effects to spruce up the imagery? If you use Live Photos effects, you can change the effect type at any time to make the picture loop, bounce, or even change it into a long exposure shot. Editing Live Photos effects is pretty easy, as you’ll see, though the approach is slightly different depending on what iOS and iPadOS version you’re using.

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Apple has released Safari 15.1 for macOS Big Sur. The update reverts the controversial Safari 15 changes to the appearance of tabs, and includes security updates and bug fixes as well.

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The final release of iOS 15.1 and ipadOS 15.1 is barely out of the oven, but Apple is already moving forward with beta testing iOS 15.2 and iPadOS 15.2.

The first betas of iOS 15.2 and iPadOS 15.2 include an App Privacy Report feature, which lets you see what data apps are sharing, as well as determining app access to location, camera, microphone, photos and contacts. There are also some changes to the Emergency SOS feature, and likely other smaller refinements and bug fixes will be included as well.

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Are you a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air user who likes to keep an eye on their Mac laptop battery life? Want to see the battery percentage in the menubar of MacOS with Monterey or Big Sur? Let’s check how you can show the battery percentage indicator in the menu bar of macOS with the latest operating systems.

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If you’re an iPad user who updated to iPadOS 15 and did not like the redesigned Safari Tabs experience, where the tabs are hard to tell apart and differentiate from and look like strange buttons instead of, well, tabs, you’ll be happy to know you can rid yourself of this experience quickly.

Reverting the iPadOS Safari Tabs back to what they looked like previously (with iPadOS 14.x and earlier) is as simple as updating to iPadOS 15.1.

Mac users can achieve the same change by updating to Safari 15.1, or macOS Monterey.

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Do you want to disable FaceTime on your iPhone or iPad completely? Apple gives users the option to turn off the FaceTime functionality on their devices, so whatever the reason you want to turn off FaceTime, you can do that.

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Wondering how you can install updates to existing macOS installations, like macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina, without jumping ahead and installing MacOS Monterey?

While MacOS Monterey is available to download now for anyone who wants to install it, not everyone may be ready for the update. Fortunately, Apple offers system software updates and security updates to the most recent two prior generation system software versions, in this case macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina, so if you’d like to you can install updates for those versions of system software and avoid Monterey.

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iOS 14.8.1 and iPadOS 14.8.1 have been released with security updates for iPhone and iPad. Yes, this is a separate release track than iOS 15/iPadOS 15.

The updates are intended for users who are not yet on iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 releases, the latest of which is iOS 15.1 and iPadOS 15.1.

In a similar manner, macOS Big Sur 11.6.1 and a security update for MacOS Catalina are both available to users who are not yet interested in downloading macOS Monterey update.

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Apple has released macOS Big Sur 11.6.1 for Mac users who are interested in continuing to run the macOS Big Sur operating system, rather than jump to macOS Monterey 12. The 11.6.1 update is said to improve the security of macOS Big Sur and is therefore recommended to all users to install.

macOS Big Sur 11.6.1 comes alongside the release of MacOS Monterey 12 for Mac, iOS 15.1 for iPhone, iPadOS 15.1 for iPad, watchOS 8.1 for Apple Watch, and tvOS 15.1 for Apple TV.

Mac users running macOS Catalina will also find Security Update 2021-007 Catalina available to download if they’d prefer to stay with the Catalina release.

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Apple has released macOS Monterey, versioned as macOS 12.0.1, to the general public. The build number is 21A559.

Any Mac that is compatible with macOS Monterey can download and install the update right now if they choose to. Users can also stay on their current macOS version if they prefer by simply ignoring the update. If interested, you can learn a bit more about preparing a Mac for MacOS Monterey.

MacOS Monterey includes various new features and changes to the Mac operating system, including a redesigned Safari experience with a new tab grouping feature and updated interface, FaceTime group chat grid layout, Quick Notes for jotting down notes quickly from an app, Live Text which allows for selecting and copying text from images, Notes tags, FaceTime screen sharing functionality, the ability to invite Windows and Android users to a FaceTime call via a web link, Universal Control for using a single mouse and keyboard across multiple Macs or iPads (coming in a later update), the inclusion of Shortcuts app on Mac, and updates to Photos, Music, Podcasts, Notes, and other built in apps, along with many smaller changes scattered around the operating system.

Separately, Apple also released updates for iOS 15.1 update and iPadOS 15.1 update for iPhone and iPad.

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iOS 15.1 and iPadOS 15.1 have been released for iPhone and iPad, the updates include SharePlay screen sharing through FaceTime, the addition of Live Text support in the iPad camera app, ProRes video capture for iPhone 13 Pro users, the inclusion of Covid-19 vaccination card pass in the Wallet app, along with bug fixes and security enhancements for the iPhone and iPad.

Separately, Apple has also released macOS Monterey for Mac, macOS Big Sur 11.6.1, tvOS 15.1 for Apple TV, and watchOS 8.1.

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Is your Apple Watch not accurately tracking your morning walks, workouts, and other fitness activities? This is something that can be resolved by resetting the fitness calibration data on your Apple Watch. This is pretty easy to do.

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