Month: September 2023

Are you wondering if you should upgrade to MacOS Sonoma?

MacOS Somona is scheduled to be officially released to the public on 9/26/2023.  Some people are wondering if they should (or even can) upgrade to the newest operating system. or what's new?

Apple has made a .PDF on all of the new features of the new O/S that you may have missed, because its located on the upper-right corner of the Mac section web page on Apple.com, which has been available since the initial announcement.

To download and/or view it, click here.

 Apple expands the power of iCloud with new iCloud+ plans

Apple expands the power of iCloud with new iCloud+ plans

Beginning today, Apple users will have the option to choose from two additional iCloud+ plans: 6TB for $29.99 per month and 12TB for $59.99 per month.

The new plans are a perfect complement to the powerful 48MP Main cameras on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro lineups that take photo and video capture on iPhone to the next level with super high-resolution photos and 4K videos. With iCloud+, users can keep large libraries of original, high-resolution photos and videos safe in iCloud and easily accessible across all of their devices and the web — all while keeping beautiful, optimized versions on their iPhone, automatically saving space. This is just one of the benefits of iCloud+.

Every iCloud+ plan offers premium features:

  • Private Relay keeps browsing in Safari entirely private from network providers, websites, and even Apple — without affecting the browsing experience.
  • Hide My Email lets users generate unique, random email addresses whenever needed, allowing users to sign up for newsletters, offers, and more without sharing their personal address.
  • HomeKit Secure Video lets users capture and review home security footage in an end-to-end encrypted format so that only the user and the people they share with can see the footage.
  • Custom email domains let users personalize their iCloud email address with a custom domain — or purchase one right from Mail settings.

Family Sharing enables all iCloud+ plans to be shared with up to five other people in a family group. That way, everyone in the household can access the premium features of iCloud+, have all the storage they need, and keep their content private and separate.

How to make a Bootable MacOS Sonoma Emergency Installer Drive

Most of the time, MacOS works like a charm.  But, like with all things, something could go wrong that wouldn't allow you to boot into your Mac. This could be several reasons.  But at the time, you just want to get back in to save any valuable data that maybe on the drive.

Fortunately, Apple allows a user to make a bootable emergency installer drive that would allow someone to reinstall the operating system via a USB drive. Making this drive is somewhat easy to do and could save someone hours of heartache and work.

Here's what you'll need:

  • A free USB Port that's directly on the Mac.
  • An USB drive (16GB minimum)

Here's what to do:

  1. Download the MacOS Sonoma installer from the Mac App Store.
  2. Connect the USB Drive directly to the Mac.
  3. Open Disk Utility from [Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility].
  4. Over on the right side, select the USB drive.
  5. Select Erase.
  6. When it's finished, quit Disk Utility.
  7. Go in to Terminal [Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal].
  8. Type the following (see fig. A).
  9. Hit return to execute the command, and then enter the administrator password as required by sudo, you won’t see the password typed in Terminal so just enter it and hit the Return key
  10. The macOS Sonoma beta boot installer drive will be created, you can watch the Terminal for progress, when finished you will see a message in Terminal stating ‘Install media now available at “/Volumes/Install macOS Sonoma beta”‘
  11. To safely remove the USB drive, drag the desktop icon to the Trash.
  12. Now you can remove the drive.

Fig A.:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sonoma.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --nointeraction

That's it.  Good luck!

How to update an Apple Watch to WatchOS 10

Today's the day!  The public, non-beta version of WatchOS 10 will be available today.

Here's how to update:

  1. Put the watch on the charger.
  2. On the iPhone, go to the Watch app.
  3. Select GENERAL and then SOFTWARE UPDATE.
  4. If the update is available, it'll show up.
  5. Select "Install Now."
  6. The update should begin downloading.
  7. The update should take anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes.
  8. DO NOT REMOVE THE WATCH DURING THE UPDATE.
  9. That's it.

To see what's new, click here.

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