Mac

Stay up-to-date on the latest Mac news, and tutorials. Get expert tips and tricks to optimize your Mac’s performance and learn about the latest Apple products and software updates. Discover the best Mac apps and accessories to enhance your user experience.

Ex-Apple engineers write a killer app for artists that turns iPad into a professional graphics tablet

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 23, 2015

Former Apple engineers Matt Ronge and Giovanni Donelli have created an absolutely amazing software solution called Astropad which magically turns your iPad into a professional graphics tablet for your Mac.

The iOS application talks to the Mac client via Wi-Fi or USB which then translates your stylus strokes on the tablet into corresponding actions in virtually any Mac app such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Pixelmator and many more.

Drawing on your Mac with your iPad works with most pressure sensitive styluses on the market. Your stylus strokes are transferred to the Mac in a silky-smooth sixty frames per second, thanks to a proprietary technology called Liquid that provides nearly three times more fluid responsiveness than Apple's AirPlay.

Empty Trash versus Secure Empty Trash – what’s the difference?

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated February 11, 2016

Did you know that there are actually two ways to empty the trash on your Mac? Perhaps you've seen both options before, but never gave it much thought. Just what is the deal with Empty Trash versus Secure Empty Trash? Which one should you use? By knowing what each empty trash command is capable of doing, you'll be able to make more informed future decisions with regard to handling your Mac's sanitation needs.

How to set a default Finder folder on Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated September 12, 2025

Learn how to change the default Finder folder on your Mac to streamline your workflow and enhance productivity.

How to disable the camera on your Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated January 19, 2023

Every Mac that Apple ships, sans the Mac mini, comes with an iSight camera embedded in the bezel at the top of the display. If my memory serves me correctly, Apple's computers were one of the first to really popularize the standardization of built-in cameras.

I'm probably not alone when I say that I rarely, if ever, use my MacBook Pro's iSight camera. In fact, it's become more of a worry to me when thinking about the potential hacking and privacy concerns. I'm far from a tin foil hat wearer, but I have to be honest and admit that the thought has crossed my mind before... you know, the one where hackers view my iSight camera unbeknown to me.

With all of that said, wouldn't it be nice if you could disable your Mac camera with a simple software tweak? Inside, I'll show you how to do just that.

3 quick ways to restart or relaunch Finder on Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated February 10, 2026

Learn about three ways to restart or relaunch Finder on your Mac in case it hangs, stops responding, or fails to refresh your files with the latest changes.

OneNote for Mac gains enhanced OCR features and other goodies

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

After adding the ability search for words in images to OneNote for the iPhone, iPad and Mac last summer, Microsoft today refreshed the Mac client by enhancing the somewhat limited functionality of the optical character recognition (OCR) feature.

In addition, the software contains other perks such as the ability to hide author initials in shared notebooks from the View tab and close the OneNote window without quitting the app.

OneNote for the Mac, iPhone and iPad is available at no cost through the Mac App Store and App Store.

EA releases ‘The Sims 4’ for Mac after missing 2014 launch

Jake Smith ∙ February 17, 2015

Electronic Arts has finally released the anticipated "The Sims 4" for Mac, as previously announced in January. The Sims 4 was initially available for Windows in September, but it's taken several months for the company to launch a Mac version of the game, and lead to the company missing its original 2014 deadline.

How to Cut and Paste files on Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated October 2, 2025

It may not be obvious, but your Mac has the option to cut a file and paste it to a new location in Finder. In this tutorial, we’ll show you four different ways to use cut and paste files on a Mac.

Why I decided to position the dock on the left side of the screen on my Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

About a year or so ago, I decided to position my Mac's dock on the left side of the screen. Since then, I haven't looked back. In my opinion, this is by far the best position for the dock if your right hand happens to be your dominant hand. Positioning your dock on the left side of the screen has some obvious advantages, which I'll highlight in this post.

How to set Mac Dock to hide and show instantly with no delay

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 7, 2026

Use this simple trick to make your Mac’s Dock hide and show instantly without any delay or system animation.

Parallels Desktop 10 gains experimental support for Office/Windows 10 Technical Preview

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

Our own Jeff Benjamin showed you earlier how anyone can try Windows 10 Technical Preview on their Mac for free, using VMware Fusion.

But if you use Parallels’ award-winning virtualization software, you must check out its most recent update.

Announced today, it enables experimental support for running both Office 10 and Windows 10 previews on your Mac.

How Photos for Mac handles iPhoto imports

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

New details continue to trickle out concerning Apple’s upcoming Photos for Mac software, as Jason Snell shared some previously unknown tidbits regarding how Photos handles iPhoto imports.

Rather than duplicate the photos during the import process, Photos creates Unix-style hard links to files, allowing for quite a few interesting features detailed further below.