Download: Apple Releases macOS 12.1 and watchOS 8.3 – Here’s What is New

Apple Download macOS

Download: Apple Releases macOS 12.1 and watchOS 8.3 – Here’s What is New

blognet   Monday, December 13, 2021   Comment  

 

Today, Apple has seen fit to officially release macOS Monterey 12.1 and watchOS 8.3 to the general public. The new updates are available on all compatible Macs and Apple Watch models with a boatload of new features. If you are unfamiliar, check out the changelog and how you can install macOS 12.1 and watchOS 8.3 on your compatible device.

Apple Releases New macOS Monterey 12.1 and watchOS 8.3 Update For Compatible Macs and Apple Watch Models - Check Out The Full Changelog

The final macOS Monterey 12.1 update arrives almost five days after the company issued an RC build of the firmware to developers. If you are looking to install it on your Mac, all you have to do is launch System Preferences > Software Update and you are all set. The new macOS Monterey 12.1 brings a boatload of new additions to the table like SharePlay, Apple Music Voice Plan, New Privacy and Security features for parents in Messages, improvements in Photos, and much more. You can check out the full macOS Monterey 12.1 changelog below for more details.

20 top tips to help you master your Mac

macOS Monterey 12.1 — Restart Required

macOS Monterey 12.1 adds SharePlay, an entirely new way to have shared experiences with family and friends in FaceTime. This update also includes the Apple Music Voice Plan, new safety features for children and parents in Messages, redesigned Memories in Photos, and other features and bug fixes for your Mac.

SharePlay

• SharePlay is a new way to share synchronized experiences in FaceTime with content from the Apple TV app, Apple Music, and other supported apps
• Shared controls give everyone the ability to pause, play, rewind or fast forward
• Smart volume automatically lowers the audio of a movie, TV show or song when you or your friends speak
• Screen sharing lets everyone on a FaceTime call look at photos, browse the web, or help each other out

Apple Music Voice Plan

• Apple Music Voice Plan is a new subscription tier that gives you access to all songs, playlists, and stations in Apple Music using Siri
• Just Ask Siri suggests music based on your listening history and likes or dislikes
• Play it Again lets you access a list of your recently played music

Photos

• Memories has been redesigned with a new interactive interface, new animation and transition styles, and multiple image collages
• New Memory types include additional international holidays, child-focused memories, trends over time, and improved pet memories

Messages

• Communication safety setting gives parents the ability to enable warnings for children when they receive or send photos that contain nudity
• Safety warnings contain helpful resources for children when they receive photos that contain nudity

Siri and Search

• Expanded guidance in Siri, Spotlight and Safari Search to help children and parents stay safe online and get help with unsafe situations

Apple ID

• Digital Legacy allows you to designate people as Legacy Contacts so they can access your iCloud account and personal information in the event of your death

TV App

• Store tab lets you browse, buy, and rent movies and TV Shows all in one place

This release also includes the following enhancements for your Mac:
• Hide My Email is available in the Mail app for iCloud+ subscribers to create unique, random email addresses
• Stocks allows you to view the currency for a ticker and see year-to-date performance when viewing charts
• Reminders and Notes now allow you to delete or rename tags

This release also includes bug fixes for your Mac:
• Desktop and Screen Saver may appear blank after selecting photos from the Photos library
• Trackpad could become unresponsive to taps or clicks
• External displays may not charge some MacBook Pro and MacBook Air computers when connected using Thunderbolt or USB-C
• HDR video playback on YouTube.com could cause 2021 MacBook Pro computers to panic
• Menu bar extras may be obscured by the camera housing on 2021 MacBook Pro computers
• MagSafe may stop charging on 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro computers when lid is closed and system is shut down

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

Other than macOS Monterey 12.1, Apple has also seen fit to officially make watchOS 8.3 available for all compatible Apple Watch models. If you are looking to give it a swing, all you have to do is launch the dedicated Apple Watch app on your iPhone and head over to General > Software Update. Make sure that your Apple Watch is charged above 50 percent and plugged in. Moreover, it should be in the range of your iPhone to complete the installation process.

Similar to macOS Monterey 12.1, watchOS 8.3 is a major update as it expands the functionality of AssistiveTouch. The new addition will allow users to control their Apple Watch using their hand gestures. The new feature will also be making its way to older Apple Watch models. For more details, you can check out the entire changelog of the watchOS 8.3 update below.

watchOS 8.3 includes new features, improvements, and bug fixes, including:

• Apple Music Voice Plan gives you access to all songs, playlists, and stations in Apple Music using Siri
• Support for App Privacy Report to record data and sensor access
• Fixes an issue where notifications may interrupt Mindfulness sessions unexpectedly for some users

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/HT201222

Apple has also seen fit to release HomePod 15.2 software as well which adds Apple Music Voice Plan and much more. It is available for the HomePod and HomePod mini. You can check out the remaining details below.

Software version 15.2 includes support for Apple Music Voice Plan, a new subscription tier designed to access music using Siri, and extends Siri voice recognition to new languages. This update also includes performance and stability improvements.

Apple has also released iOS 15.2 and iPadOS 15.2 to the public so be sure to check that out as well. This is all there is to it, folks. What are your views on the latest macOS 12.1 and watchOS 8.3 update? Would you be willing to give the new features a swing? Let us know in the comments.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Calendar, Reminders, and Notes on Mac

Keyboard Shortcuts for Calendar, Reminders, and Notes on Mac

blognet   Saturday, July 11, 2020   Comment  

If you’re a Mac user looking for a simple and effective day planner, consider this trio of native macOS apps: Calendar, Reminders, and Notes.
Once you set up these apps to your liking, you have a fuss-free system to manage your schedule, tasks, and notes. Plus, if you learn how to control them with keyboard shortcuts, so much the better. And what’s more, you can discover various useful keyboard shortcuts for these macOS productivity apps in the cheat sheet below.

20 top tips to help you master your Mac

20 top tips to help you master your Mac

blognet   Sunday, July 05, 2020   Comment  

Macs are more popular than ever before - but for people still making the switch from Windows to Apple’s OS for the first time there can be a lot to take in. Here are 20 of our top tips to help you master your Mac 

1. Take a screenshot of a specific part of the screen

Taking a screenshot is all well and good, but more often than not you don’t actually need the whole screen in the capture. On Macs there’s a simple way to grab just the part of the screen you want: Cmd + Shift + 4.

From there, click and drag out a box over the part of your screen you wish to capture. Upon release the image will be saved to the desktop. If you do just want to grab the whole screen, press Cmd + Shift + 3 instead.

2. Rename large batches of files all at once

Renaming files is tedious at best. Renaming a hundred holiday snaps in one sitting is downright torturous. If you’re running the latest version of OS X – Yosemite – you can do it with one simple action.

Select all the files you want to rename and right-click them, then click Rename. This presents you with three options for renaming. Replace Text allows you to change, for example, the ‘IMG’ part of a set of files with something more relevant. Thus ‘IMG_01’, ‘IMG_02’ and so on become ‘Dad’s birthday_01’ and ‘Dad’s birthday_02’, or somesuch.

3. Run Windows on your Apple machine

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to run a copy of Microsoft Windows on a Mac. It’s also surprisingly simple to do.

Navigate to the Applications folder on your Mac, and then to the Utilities folder. Within that is a programme called Boot Camp. It will now ‘partition’ your hard drive – this essentially means split it between Windows and Mac. You can choose how you split the ratio, but remember that storage allocated to one OS is not accessible by the other. Click Partition to start the process.

Upon restarting your Mac will ask for a Windows installation CD. If you don’t have one you will need to purchase one – it can be either Windows 7 or Windows 8. When it asks where it should install select the partitioned section of your hard drive.

Want some more help with your Mac? Our friendly tech team can help you with one-to-one support on a range of tech issues. Find out more here.

Once completed your Mac will boot into Windows for the first time. Surreal eh? From now on, whenever you turn your machine on simply hold down the Option key and you can choose between Windows or OS X. Bear in mind there is no way to switch operating systems on the fly, so make sure you choose the right one or you’ll have to restart.

4. Add your signature to documents

If you’ve ever had to return an official document that’s been sent to you digitally you’ll know the pain of having to add your signature. With Mac OS X, there’s a much better way.

Open the document you need to sign within the Preview application. Click the pen icon near the top right-hand corner of the screen and select Create Signature from Built-in iSight. iSight is your Mac’s built-in webcam, which it will use to capture your signature. Sign your name on a plain white sheet of paper and hold it up to the camera. Align it properly using the guides on screen and the camera should automatically extract it. Click Accept to save it.

To use it in the future just follow the first steps of this guide, only instead of clicking the Create Signature option there will be a preview of your existing signature.

5. View all special characters

Click on the magnifying glass icon in the top right of your screen and search for a program called Character Viewer. Open it and you’ll be granted access to every special character Mac OS is capable of displaying. When you find the character you want double-click it to insert it into the text field you’re currently editing.

6. The Mac equivalent of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

Mac has it’s own equivalent of Ctrl + Alt + Delete. Should you find yourself unable to exit a program, hold down the Cmd + Option keys and press Esc. This will bring up the Force Quit dialog box, which will show you all running applications and allow you to forcefully terminate them.

7. Switch between multiple windows within the same program

Using the Cmd + Tab keys you can quickly switch between your open programmes. However if you have, say, three Word documents open at once that you wish to switch between, you’ll need a different shortcut.

Cmd + ~ will instantly switch between multiple windows of the same programme. This will work for any application.

8. Instantly look up a word in the dictionary or thesaurus

OS X’s reference tool is wonderfully integrated. You can access it from just about anywhere to look up whatever word may be causing you trouble. Select the word you wish to learn more about and press the Cmd + Ctrl + D keys. Alternatively, if you’re on a MacBook just click it with three fingers on your trackpad.

9. Start up your Mac silently

Even if you’ve never used a Mac before you may well be familiar with the iconic chime it lets off every time it starts up. Unfortunately, that sound is often quite the inconvenience. If you’re somewhere where silence is paramount, such as a class or library, just hold down the Mute key at startup.

10. Convert any sort of unit within Spotlight

Spotlight can find things both on your Mac and online, and also solve some basic queries without resorting to opening a new window. One such query is unit conversion. All you need to do is type in the figure you want converted, for example ’57kg’ and it will show you a list of conversions as a search result. This even works with currency, provided you’re connected to the internet.

11. Trouble finding your cursor? Make it grow

One of the most innovative features of the El Capitan update to OS X was the ability to make your cursor reveal itself if you’re having trouble finding it. Simply wiggle your mouse or run your finger rapidly back and forth across the trackpad to have it balloon in size. Once you’ve located it, simply stop and it will shrink back to normal.

12. Merge Finder windows

Gone are the days of having to open up a thousand Finder windows when attempting to manage files all around your Mac. If you find your screen filling up with new windows then click on the Windows option in the menu bar, then click Merge all windows. What was previously multiple windows will now appear as neat little tabs within one window.

13. Disconnect from a wi-fi network without turning off wi-fi

Hold down the Alt key and click on the wi-fi icon in your Mac’s menu bar. This will reveal all the options you usually see when clicking on it, plus a larger list of information underneath the name of the network you’re connected to. Directly underneath your network should be an option labelled Disconnect from [your network name]. Give it a click and you’ll disconnect – no need to restart your wi-fi.

14. Record your screen

Sometimes a simple screengrab isn’t enough, and you’ll want to capture something animated. To do this you can use a feature built in to QuickTime, a program that comes with every Mac as standard. Go to your Applications folder (if it’s not already on your shortcuts bar) and open it. Click File > New screen recording. This will allow you to record the whole of the screen, or just a portion of it. It’s super useful for things like tutorials – it can also capture sound.

15. Calculate sums in Spotlight

OS X may have a calculator widget built in, but there’s an even easier way to do quick calculations. Click on the Spotlight icon in the top-right corner of your screen, and then go to type in your sum. +, -, /, * and = correspond to the plus, minus, divide, multiply and equals functions on a conventional calculator. Your result will pop up in the Spotlight box beneath.

16. Quickly add a foreign or accented character

Those of you who are used to Windows computers may well be familiar with what a nightmare it is remembering and executing the shortcuts for common foreign characters, such as é or ü. Fortunately, OS X makes things infinitely easier.

To type a foreign character or character with an accent above it, first find the simple version of the letter you require (e.g. a for á or s for ß) and hold the key down. After a brief pause, you’ll be offered a choice of which variant on the letter you want in a little pop-up box above where you’re typing the letter. Select the one you want and it will be inserted into the text field.

17. No Delete key? No problem

Not every Mac keyboard comes with a Delete key (often stylised as ‘Del’). Instead of jumping to the end of the word you want to erase via backspace every time, just hold down the Function key and press Delete. This is mainly a problem that will affect MacBook users, but in the event that you’re using a separate keyboard with neither a Delete key or a Function key, holding down Control and pressing D also works.

18. Change volume silently

The volume keys on Apple keyboards are undeniably useful, but there’s one big problem with them – they make noise when you press them, meaning that any attempt to stealthily silence your Mac is immediately thwarted. Unbeknownst to many, though, you can actually mute those volume keys – just hold down Shift whilst pressing them.

19. Find a forgotten password for a website or program

For almost all of the programs on your Mac, as well as many of the websites you visit on it, your login and password details will be stored away, deep within your Mac’s keychain. Don’t worry, they’re encrypted and only accessible locally by the user they apply to.

If you forget one of these passwords, you can actually recover them from within your Mac – as long as you remember the password for your user account.

Open a new Finder window and head into your Applications. Within this folder should be another folder named Utilities. Open up a program within it called Keychain. You can now see every login stored on your computer. You can sort them by name or type, or you can search for the one you’re looking for using the search tool in the top-right corner.

If you want to view the password for any of the logins, you’ll be prompted for your username and login, just as you would be if you were to install a new program or make security changes to your Mac.

20. Annotate a PDF or image

With PDFs – the predominant file type of choice for business communications – it can be very frustrating that you have no way to easily edit them – until now. Double click on your desired PDF file and it should open up in Preview, the default PDF viewer on OS X (if not you can find it within your Applications folder. Open it and then select File > Open from the menu).

Now, click on View in the menu bar and select Show annotations toolbar. From now on, this toolbar will always display alongside PDFs you view. It lets you highlight, scribble, annotate and draw shapes. You can then save a fresh copy of your PDF (using File > Save As) and return it to the sender so they can see your changes.

Apple’s ARM Macs Will Ditch Support For Windows Via Boot Camp

Apple’s ARM Macs Will Ditch Support For Windows Via Boot Camp

blognet   Wednesday, June 24, 2020   Comment  

While some users prefer Windows over macOS, we can't deny that Apple's hardware and attention to detail beat all. While officially Apple does not allow you to install Microsoft's desktop operating system on a Mac, we have always been able to install it on the machine via Boot Camp. However, it looks like ARM Macs will not be able to run Windows via Boot Camp.

Say Goodbye To Windows On ARM-based Macs As Boot Camp Won't Be Able to Do It Unless Microsoft Decides So

Tim Cook took the stage at the WWDC 2020 keynote, officially announcing that the company will be moving to its in-house, custom silicon in the future. The transition will take up to two years but we will see the first Mac with ARM-based chip later this year.  The Verge reports that Boot Camp will not run Windows on ARM-based Mac when the machines will be launched. However, it might be possible in the future.

The possibility lies in the hands of Microsoft and if it is willing to make the functionality available for all users. The software giant only licenses Windows 10 on ARM to PC manufacturers so they can preinstall it on their devices. The operating system is not designed for anyone to use it freely or even license it. Here's what the Microsoft spokesperson has to say on the subject.

Microsoft only licenses Windows 10 on ARM to OEMs,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. We asked Microsoft if it plans to change this policy to allow Boot Camp on ARM-based Macs, and the company says “we have nothing further to share at this time.

Apple did not announce the deduction of the feature on stage. While Microsoft's Office Suite of apps will run on ARM-based Macs, Boot Camp will not be part of the mix. However, the details are still scarce and hopefully, it can change in the future so we can't be too certain on the fact that you won't be able to run Windows on an ARM-based Mac. There can be tools developed to make it happen but we're not certain when.

Share your views with us in the comments.

Best Mac WWDC app gains clip sharing, transcripts, and ‘Community’ feature ahead of Apple’s virtual keynote

Apple Apps Free iOS iOS Tips Mac macOS OS Software WWDC

Best Mac WWDC app gains clip sharing, transcripts, and ‘Community’ feature ahead of Apple’s virtual keynote

blognet   Thursday, June 11, 2020   Comment  

WWDC 2020 is set to start on June 22nd as a virtual event and Apple has said it’s planning to share more about what to expect through its Developer app later this month. However, a Mac version of the app is still missing. Fortunately, the unofficial WWDC app for Mac has been updated and is ready for this year’s digital WWDC with some notable new features.

Created by 9to5Mac’s Gui Rambo along with a small global team, the Unofficial WWDC app for macOS (free) is the best way to plan what you want to get out of the event, livestream current sessions, rewatch past ones, and connect with the Apple dev community on your Mac. This year with WWDC going virtual for the first time due to the pandemic, a Mac app will be more useful than ever.

At the end of 2019, Apple rebranded the WWDC app as the Apple Developer app. It will be a crucial piece of the WWDC 2020 experience and is available for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Apple Watch, but a Mac app is still missing.

The Unofficial WWDC macOS app has a clean, native interface for the best WWDC experience on your Mac and has been updated today with a number of new features including an all-new Community tab that features content from Apple devs from a variety of sources and a new clip sharing tool to easily share small portions of sessions.

Two other handy updates include support for Universal links as well as transcripts in English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

You can download the latest version of WWDC for macOS for free now.

Apple Releases Beta 2 of iOS 13.6, macOS 10.15.6, tvOS 13.4.8 to Developers for Testing

macOS

Apple Releases Beta 2 of iOS 13.6, macOS 10.15.6, tvOS 13.4.8 to Developers for Testing

blognet   Tuesday, June 09, 2020   Comment  

Apple today has seen fit to release the second beta of its upcoming firmware updates for the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Macs. The beta is released to developers for testing purposes and arrives a week after the first beta was seeded. If you're a developer, you can download beta 2 of iOS 13.6, iPadOS 13.6, macOS 10.15.6, and tvOS 13.4.8 right now from the Apple Developer Center.