Mac

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Is Xiaomi’s first-ever Windows PC notebook a shameless MacBook Air ripoff?

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 27, 2016

Xiaomi (pronounced “sh-YEOW-mee”), a booming Chinese smartphone and consumer electronics maker, today took the wraps off its first-ever Windows PC notebook and it looks awfully familiar to the MacBook Air. The familiarity starts with the device's silly 'Mi Notebook Air' moniker and extends to its unibody industrial design that's thinner and lighter than Apple's notebook.

Offered in 12.5 and 13.3-inch varieties, the product matches and—in terms of graphics, lightness and thinness—one-ups the MacBook Air while costing half as much. Xiaomi's new notebooks run Windows 10 and will hit store shelves in China on August 2.

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Video walkthrough: changes & fixes in macOS Sierra beta 3

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 22, 2016

Monday, Apple seeded a third developer-only beta of macOS Sierra (build number “16A254g”) to members of the Apple Developer Program, followed by a version suited for public beta testers 24 hours later.

After spending some quality time with Sierra's third beta, our own Andrew O'Hara summed up for you guys all the changes and fixes he's discovered in Sierra's beta 3 in a hands-on video.

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How to split PDF files with the Preview app on Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated September 17, 2018

PDF files are among one of the most widely-used forms of sharing documents with others across the internet; especially considering that the idea behind this file type is to have something that is universally readable on any platform.

If you do a lot of PDF handling on your Mac, then it might not be a bad idea to become familiar with how to split a PDF file, so we'll show you how you can do that in this tutorial.

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macOS Sierra Public Beta 2 released to testers

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 20, 2016

In addition to releasing a second public beta of iOS 10, macOS Sierra Public Beta 2 is now also available to those signed on the Apple Beta Software Program.

The third beta of Sierra was seeded to Apple's registered developers two days ago, and now public beta testers can take it for a spin (public beta 2 and developer beta 3 offer the same features).

The update should appear as an over-the-air download via the Software Update mechanism through the Mac App Store's Updates tab on Macs that run the first public beta and are enrolled in Apple's program.

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OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 hits Mac App Store with bug fixes and security enhancements

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 18, 2016

A sixth major software update to OS X El Capitan 10.11 since its September 2015 debut is now available for public consumption as a free-of-charge release on the Mac App Store. To apply the update, launch the Mac App Store on your computer and click the Purchased tab: OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 should be sitting there, waiting for you to download it. If not, give it a few minutes or hours as new software takes some time to propagate across the Internet.

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Facebook SDK for Swift beta now available to iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS developers

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 18, 2016

This past weekend, the social networking giant Facebook announced that a beta version of its brand new software development kit (SDK) for Apple's Swift programming language is available for download. The new SDK integrates Facebook buttons into iOS, watchOS, macOS and tvOS apps written in Swift, and integrates such features like Facebook Login, Analytics for Apps, Graph API and Share to Facebook sheets. The Facebook SDK source code is available via GitHub on an open-source basis.

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Airmail 3 for Mac gains new snooze actions, unified VIPs, reply reminders & other new features

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 18, 2016

Following its major revamp of the Mac app, the powerful email client Airmail 3 has now received its first point update on the Mac App Store, bringing out a few missing features. In Airmail 3.0.1 for macOS, a free update for existing users of the app, you can take advantage of a brand new Unified VIP feature which brings together emails from the app's built-in VIP contacts received across all your accounts. BusyCal 3 users will appreciate the ability to connect their calendars from within Airmail 3 and everyone will love many other features available in this release.

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Easily delete photos from your iPhone or iPad with Image Capture on Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated August 4, 2023

If you have a Mac, then you also have a really useful image importing app called Image Capture lurking in your Applications folder.

To be completely honest, I still use the Image Capture app despite the fact Apple released their new Photos app for OS X last year, and that's because it's a dead simple utility that isn't bloated with extra features I really don't feel like using.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to use the Image Capture app on your Mac to remove photos or videos from your iPhone or iPad.

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How to simulate tetherless ‘Hey Siri’ functionality on macOS Sierra like a pro

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 18, 2016

Apple advertises Siri as one of the headlining new features in the forthcoming macOS Sierra software update. Siri on the Mac performs in much the same way as it always has on an iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, except on the Mac tetherless 'Hey Siri' functionality is currently unsupported.

On iOS, tetherless 'Hey Siri' requires Apple's embedded M9 motion coprocessor to monitor microphone input without taxing the battery. Since the battery isn't a major concern with Macs, the decision not to implement 'Hey Siri' on Sierra is eyebrow-raising. As it turns out, you can easily simulate 'Hey Siri' on Sierra without resorting to dark magic, using a simple trickery.

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