Guide

How to stop the new MacBook Pro from automatically turning on when the lid is open

Aside from the marquee Touch Bar feature and other hardware advances, the new MacBook Pro introduces a tweaked boot process where the machine automatically starts up when you open its lid or connect it to power. To avoid forcing users to listen to the startup chime every time they open the lid, Apple's also decided to disable the boot chime on the new notebook by default (you can easily re-enable it).

But what about the mentioned auto-boot features? Unfortunately, Apple does not provide user-facing switches in System Preferences to control the new boot on power and boot on lid capability. With a little help from Terminal and smart folks over at Pingie, you can manually stop the late-2016 MacBook Pro from automatically powering on when you lift the lid or connect it to a power adapter or an external display.

How to bring back the classic boot chime on the new MacBook Pro

The new MacBook Pro has ditched the iconic boot chime that's been a signature part of the Mac startup process over the last 17 years. Pingie discovered that the sound is not gone entirely. Apple's just disabled it and it's possible to bring it back should you want. In this quick tutorial, we'll show you how to re-enable the boot chime on your late-2016 MacBook Pro with a simple Terminal command.

Tip: save space on iPhone 7 Plus by turning off depth of field photo duplicates

iOS provides a Portrait mode in the stock Camera app to owners of the dual-camera iPhone 7 Plus.

As you know, Portrait mode lets you take dramatic DSLR-like depth of field photographs where the camera automatically creates a beautifully blurred background while keeping the subject in the front sharp and in full focus.

Your iPhone 7 plus defaults to saving both the original twelve-megapixel photo and its depth of field counterpart, effectively doubling storage requirements for Portrait shots.

In this quick tutorial we're going to show you how you can easily disable photo duplicates for depth of field photos with just a few taps.

What Automatic Graphics Switching is on your MacBook Pro and how to use it

MacBook Pro graphics

Depending on the model of MacBook Pro you have, you may be able to physically choose whether your computer uses the high-power discreet graphics card for better performance or the low-power integrated graphics chip for better battery life by using an option known as Automatic Graphics Switching.

The feature is only available on MacBook Pros which have two Graphics Processing Units (GPU). The reason it only exists on certain models of the MacBook Pro is not all Macs have dual GPUs. And desktop Macs don’t need this as they don’t rely on batteries and are connected to a power source all the time.

Here's more about Automatic Graphics Switching and how to enable it on your Mac.

YouTube videos keep buffering? Here’s the fix

I'm a big time YouTube user, and even though I have zippy fiber optic internet, it seems like there are still times when YouTube videos get stuck buffering instead of playing when I want to enjoy HD video streaming.

If you can relate, then you should take a few minutes to read this piece, because we'll be talking about some common remedies for the annoying buffering problem.