Running MacOS Beta versions within a virtual machine is generally a fantastic way to test out system software without having to fully commit to running the beta as the primary operating system. But sometimes even trying to get the VM setup fails. In this case, trying to install macOS Golden Gate 27 beta in a virtual machine may result in failure, error messages, or boot failures, preventing MacOS 27 beta from installing or running in the VM.

For example, attempting to install MacOS Golden Gate 27 beta into a virtualization app with a restore IPSW file may result in an error message that says the following: “An error occurred during installation. Installation failed.”

The screenshot here shows this error in UTM, but you might see the same or similar errors in other virtualization apps, including virtualbuddy, tart, Parallels, Vmware, and others too.

Early testing of MacOS Golden Gate beta has suggested there’s a compatibility issue with virtualization environments, making the installation impossible in many cases, if not difficult. If you’re experiencing this issue, it is frustrating, but know that you certainly aren’t alone.

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iPadOS 27 is here, announced at WWDC 2026, with a huge emphasis on performance improvements, efficiencies, Liquid Glass adjustments and a slider, lots of little changes, and some pretty major new Apple Intelligence and Siri AI features. If you’re excited about trying out iPadOS 27 beta on your iPad, you might be wondering about installing the developer beta now and getting an early look at the changes and experience.

The typical caveats apply here, because we mostly do not recommend installing early beta system on any device. But if you’re going to ignore that caution, and want to try out iPadOS 27 beta right now anyway, and you’re comfortable with bugs, app incompatibilities, incomplete features, and other known issues that are common in beta system software, you’re in the right place. And yes, we understand the irony of installing a buggy beta of iPadOS that otherwise is focused on performance improvements, but it’s a beta!

Read along and we’ll be walking you through the steps to install iPadOS 27 developer beta onto your iPad.

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If you’re already running the macOS 27 Golden Gate beta, and you’d like to gain access to the new Siri capabilities that require joining a waitlist, you can use a little Terminal trick to bypass the Siri waitlist. Really! And no, you don’t need to disable SIP or do anything too crazy, it’s achieved through a defaults write command.

And once you bypass the Siri waitlist on the Mac, you will also have access to the new Siri AI features on any iPhone or iPad sharing the same Apple ID running iOS 27 beta or iPadOS 27, so this approach functions as a way to bypass the Siri waitlist on iPhone and iPad too.

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Amazon is cutting a whopping $70 off the price of AirPods Pro 3, bringing these wildly popular headphones down to the price of just $179. A gift for Father’s Day? A treat for yourself or a loved one?

• AirPods Pro 3 for $179 (down from $249)

M5 MacBook Air 15″ from $1099

Amazon is still offering the base model 15″ MacBook Air M5 at a $200 discount in the Midnight color, a fantastic Mac at a great price:

• 15″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 512GB – $1099 ($200 off, Midnight color)

More Apple Deals from Amazon

• Apple Watch Series 11 – $299 (from $399)
• 13″ MacBook Neo – 256GB – $589
• 13″ MacBook Neo – 512GB for $689 ($10 off)
• M4 iPad Air 13″ – $749 ($50 off)

FTC: OSXDaily is an affiliate partner with Amazon, meaning if you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment which goes towards keeping the site running.

Now that iOS 27 has been announced at WWDC 2026, any user who is registered with the Apple Developer program can download and install the iOS 27 beta onto a compatible iPhone model. And while we generally do not recommend installing the iOS 27 developer beta unless you’re an advanced user or onto a secondary device, the reality is that many people are going to throw caution to the wind and want to install the iOS 27 beta onto their iPhone.

iOS 27 has an emphasis on performance and stability improvements, Liquid Glass refinements, and lots of new Apple Intelligence and Siri AI features, plus there’s some app redesigns, and little tweaks and changes that many people will appreciate. Nonetheless it is still a beta release, and at this stage it’s an early developer beta, and thus it’s really only appropriate for advanced users to bother with. If you consider yourself to be in that category, then read along and you’ll be installing the iOS 27 beta onto your iPhone in no time.

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Apple has just announced iOS 27 for iPhone and iPadOS 27 for iPad, with many updates aimed mostly at performance enhancements, and some tweaks to the Liquid Glass interface and app designs, and some of the newest features are concentrated in Siri and Apple Intelligence. It’s understandable for all users to be excited when new system software is released, and the OS 27 suite is no exception, but that doesn’t mean everyone should jump into the beta.

While literally anyone can enroll their Apple ID into the developer beta program and gain access to download and install the iOS 27 beta and iPadOS 27 beta, that doesn’t mean you should do so. In fact, the vast majority of users should not run beta system software at all, particularly these early development betas.

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Apple has released the first beta versions of the all new iOS 27, iPadOS 27, MacOS Golden Gate 27, watchOS 27, and tvOS 27, to users who are enrolled to participate in the developer beta testing programs for Apple system software.

With a big emphasis on performance improvements, feature refinements, a new Siri app, and new Apple Intelligence features, many users are excited about the latest OS 27 beta suite being available already, but these are betas aimed at developers, not casual users.

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Apple has announced the next major version of system software for iPhone, versioned as iOS 27, along with iPadOS 27 for iPad.

iOS 27 includes a variety of new features, but also has a heavy focus on performance, optimization, and general improvements to the operating system for iPhone and iPad. You’ll also find subtle refinements to the Liquid Glass interface, some apps have been redesigned, and there are plenty of new AI based features including a dedicated Siri AI app, if you have an iPhone or iPad compatible with all the AI features anyway.

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The next major version of MacOS, versioned as MacOS Golden Gate 27, has been announced by Apple at WWDC 2026. MacOS Golden Gate 27 apparently has a significant emphasis on stability, performance, and general improvements to the Mac operating system. Of course you will also find some new features and changes as well, including a dedicated Siri app.

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TestFlight is an Apple developer app used for beta testing applications before they are available to the general public on the App Store. With TestFlight, a developer can easily distribute pre-release versions of their apps to users for beta testing, and the beta tester can easily download, install, and run the beta app.

With WWDC just around the corner, where many apps will be in beta, now seems like a great time to review how to use TestFlight to download and install a beta app onto your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, or Apple Vision Pro. The TestFlight app works the same basically across all devices, the only question is whether or not the app you’re beta testing is for a specific platform, or all devices.

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Amazon is taking $100 off the price of the Apple Watch Series 11, so check out the various color and band combinations to find the model right for you:

• Get Apple Watch Series 11 for $299 ($100 off from $399)

AirPods from $99

Amazon is discounting AirPods Pro 3 by $50, cutting the price of the popular earbuds down to just $199. You can also get the AirPods 4 for just $99:

• AirPods Pro 3 for $199 (down from $249)
• AirPods 4 for $99 (down from $129)

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Did you know your Apple Watch can track the amount of time you spend in daylight? Indeed, Apple Watch models can use a built-in light sensor to automatically detect when you’re outside, recording the total amount of time you spend in daylight, and this is documented as a Health metric.

Time in Daylight matters for various health reasons, ranging from eyesight and eye health, to mood, sleep, and the critical hormone Vitamin D, which NIH says is linked to bone health, neurological health, and health of the immune system – pretty important stuff!

So, want to see how much time you’re spending in daylight and add it to your Health metrics to review on Apple Watch? We’ll show you how.

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WWDC 2026 starts next week, where we will all get a first look at iOS 27, MacOS 27, iPadOS 27, and whatever else Apple is cooking up on the software side of things for us. To get into the spirit, Apple has provided a nifty WWDC 2026 wallpaper under a tagline that says “Glow All Out”, and the wallpaper is the top half of the Apple logo glowing. Presumably the glowing look and reference is a hint of something to expect at WWDC, perhaps a refinement to the Liquid Glass interface, or a new Siri/AI interface, both, or something else.

• Head over to developer.apple.com to snag the wallpaper for your device
• Grab a JPG version in 6016 × 6016 resolution directly here

The wallpapers are for Mac, iPhone, or iPad, allowing you to grab whichever for your device.

The Mac wallpaper is 6016 × 6016 and weighs a whopping 96 MB in PNG format, but we’re re-hosting a 1 MB JPG format version below that you can use on any device you want if you don’t want to take up quite as much storage for a single wallpaper, click the thumbnail to open the full size JPG version in a new window:

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iOS 26.5.1 update has been released by Apple, aimed at all models of iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Air, to address an issue where the iPhone may not charge if the battery is low. The problem appears to only impact iPhone 17 models and iPhone Air, and thus the update is not available for all iPhone models.

Separately, Apple has released MacOS Tahoe 26.5.1 update to fix an issue with enterprise M5 Macs.

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Apple has released MacOS Tahoe 26.5.1 as a software update for Tahoe users, though the update is specifically aimed at enterprise users of M5 machines that could experience an issue where the Mac unexpectedly shuts down.

The update is available for all MacOS Tahoe users, but there does not appear to be any security patches or other bug fixes included, and the release notes specify the problem is associated with Mac hardware with M5 chips. Thus it’s probably not the most urgent update to apply if you’re not an the impacted category of Macs, but we’ll keep an eye on things to see if some other

Separately, Apple has also released iOS 26.5.1 for iPhone 17 models and iPhone 17 Air users to fix a charging bug where those devices might not charge properly if the battery is too low.

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Age of Empires II, regarded as one of the best real-time strategy games of all time, is finally available for Mac. Sure, it originally debuted back in 1999 for Windows, but AoE 2’s depth and replayability has allowed it to maintain a longstanding following that has kept the game wildly popular even 25+ years later.

Thanks to native Mac support, Mac users can now play Age of Empires II directly on an Apple Silicon Mac. That means no more workarounds, Windows virtual machines, no more Age of Empires clone, 0 AD (though that’s still a fun alternative and remains free), and no spare PC’s are required, you can just play the game directly on your Mac after downloading it from Steam.

Age of Empires 2 for Mac offers single player and multiplayer mode, and you can play as over dozen civilizations ranging from Britons, Franks, Japanese, Chinese, to Byzantines, each with their own unique strengths and strategic advantages. In classic real-time-strategy form, you have to balance resources, economics, military, exploration, and diplomacy, as you navigate a world map, establish a civilization, grow and build cities, build armies, engage in warfare, research technologies, and conquer your way through history.

• Grab Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition for Mac from Steam here ($35)

Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition is a welcome addition to the Mac gaming pantheon, and whether you’re a longtime fan, a general fan of RTS’s, or a complete newbie to the series, you’re sure to appreciate and enjoy the classic gameplay, now natively on your modern Mac.

System requirements to play Age of Empires 2 on Mac are pretty straight forward: you will need to be running MacOS Sequoia 15.7 or newer (yes MacOS Tahoe 26+ is compatible with Age of Empires 2), have an Apple Silicon processor (any M-series including M1 or better, or A-series including A18 Pro or better), 8GB RAM, and at least 16GB of available storage space. That’s it, so basically any modern Mac will play the game with flying colors.

And if you aren’t sure if Age of Empires is for you but you don’t want to shell out the $35 for a copy, you can check out the popular game 0 AD, a free Age of Empires clone, to get a general idea of how a real-time strategy game like this operates. Age of Empires II is far more refined and wildly popular for a reason, so expect it to be even better than 0ad.

AirPods 4 are discounted on Amazon down to just $99, making for a fantastic set of wireless earbuds at a great price.

• AirPods 4 for $99 (down from $129)

And if you don’t want wireless earbuds, you can get the classic wired Apple Earbuds for just $16.

Up to $100 Off M4 iPad Air

Amazon is offering up to $100 off the M4 iPad Air series for the 13″ model, and $80 off the 11″ M4 iPad Air:

• M4 iPad Air 13″ – $699 (down from $799)
• M4 iPad Air 11″ – $520 (down from $599)

Take $200 Off M5 MacBook Air in 13″ or 15″

Amazon is continuing to take $200 off the entire M5 MacBook Air lineup in both 13″ and 15″ display sizes, and in all color, memory, and storage configuration options. These are fantastic deals for great Macs:

M5 MacBook Air 15″

• 15″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 512GB – $1099 ($200 off)
• 15″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 1TB – $1299 ($200 off)
• 15″ M5 MacBook Air – 24GB – 1TB – $1499 ($200 off)

M5 MacBook Air 13″

• 13″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 512GB – $899 ($200 off)
• 13″ M5 MacBook Air – 16GB – 1TB – $1099 ($200 off)
• 13″ M5 MacBook Air – 24GB – 1TB – $1299 ($200 off)

FTC: OSXDaily is an affiliate partner with Amazon, meaning if you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment which goes towards keeping the site running.

Some Mac users may discover the mds_stores process has run amuck, consuming absurd amounts of CPU and memory when viewed in Activity Monitor. Typically this is accompanied by unusually sluggish system performance on a Mac, which is what inspired the visit into Activity Monitor to begin with, and there you may find that mds_stores is taking up 100% or more CPU, and perhaps many GB of RAM to the extent that it’s causing significant swapping and virtual memory usage.

Let’s dig into mds_stores to learn about what it is, what it’s doing, and more importantly to the topic on hand, how to fix it when it has gone haywire and is consuming large amounts of system resources including CPU and memory.

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