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.

How to find your Mac’s Bluetooth version

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated June 12, 2018

With the recent release of Apple's new "Magic" devices—the Magic Trackpad 2, Magic Mouse 2, and the Magic Keyboard—some of you may be wondering if your Mac can support these new peripherals. Since all of the new Magic devices are wireless and work with the latest Bluetooth versions, it's important to know if your Mac will support them before making a purchase.

Apple doesn't exactly make it easy and straightforward to find what version of Bluetooth your Mac sports, but it can be done. In this post, we'll show you a simple method for quickly deriving your Mac's Bluetooth version in just a few steps.

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How to customize your view of System Preferences icons on your Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 4, 2017

Like iOS's built-in Settings app, the System Preferences application on OS X lets you customize the various aspects of your Mac to your liking.

For instance, you can adjust the size and location of the Dock, select a desktop background, set your computer’s clock to a different time zone, customize how your keyboard, mouse and trackpad work and much more.

With System Preferences, changing your computer's settings happens in one easily accessible central place. Our recent tutorial has shown you how to manually remove a third-party pane from System Preferences if it stays intact after uninstalling its container app.

Today, we're going to discuss customizing your view of System Preferences and teach you to organize System Preferences icons and show and hide individual icons from the view.

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1Password for Mac gains large type option, changing secondary vault password and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

AgielBits' popular password-management utility, 1Password, was refreshed in the Mac App Store today with several notable enhancements. For starters, the app has brought out a new large type option to make those passwords easier to read on huge monitors and Macs with high-resolution Retina screens.

People who happen to manage multiple vaults in 1Password should jump with joy as they can at last change passwords for secondary vaults, too.

The top layout view has seen some changes as well with rich item icons and customizable columns. Last but not least, 1Password 5.4 for Mac includes security updates to address the dreaded XARA vulnerabilities.

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Pixelmator for Mac gains all-new Photos extension, Split View multitasking and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 15, 2015

The popular Photoshop alternative for the Mac, Pixelmator, was updated this morning in the Mac App Store. Bumped to version 3.4, the app includes full support for OS X El Capitan and iOS 9's Split View mode so you can use Pixelmator with another app in El Capitan's new side-by-side multitasking mode.

More importantly, Pixelmator now includes a brand new extension for Apple's stock Photos app that lets you edit images within the context of the Photos app using Pixelmator's Metal-based Distort tools.

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How to jailbreak iOS 9 with Pangu on Mac using a virtual machine

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

If you're running a Mac, you'll need a virtual machine running Windows in order to jailbreak using OS X. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to create a Windows virtual machine and how to jailbreak iOS 9 on your Mac. It's super easy, and takes less than 20 minutes to complete. Instead of waiting for a Mac tool, why not use a virtual machine and enjoy an iOS 9 jailbreak today?

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How to manually remove System Preferences panes from your Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 14, 2015

Some third-party apps you install on your Mac might nest custom panes within OS X's System Preferences, mostly those distributed outside the Mac App Store due to sandboxing requirements. Uninstalling such an app automatically removes the underlying pane from System Preferences but not always, leaving you scratching your head.

Case in point: Tuxera's MacFUSE, a dynamically loadable kernel extension.

I needed to mount files to an NTFS-formatted drive the other day so I installed MacFUSE. After removing the app a few days later using its own uninstaller, I noticed its pane in System Preferences was left intact. Should that happen to you, here's how you can safely remove stubborn System Preferences panes from your Mac.

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New iMacs and the RAM situation…

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 14, 2015

Apple's refreshed 27-inch Retina iMacs can be configured with up to 32 gigabytes of RAM via the Apple Online Store.

Thankfully, these machines have changeable RAM slots due to the larger form factor, permitting users to double the RAM to 64 gigabytes total after the purchase with third-party RAM upgrades.

On the other hand, the new 21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display uses soldered memory chips so you'll have to configure it with either 8GB or 16GB of RAM at the time of your purchase.

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How to reopen windows and tabs from your last browsing session in Safari for Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 1, 2023

If you've ever accidentally closed a Safari window loaded with dozens of tabs, you know how daunting a task recreating them from your browsing history can be. Like many people, I used to be a huge fan of Google's Chrome before I eventually made a switch to Safari.

One of Chrome's simple yet tremendously useful features that I've always valued is a switch in settings telling the app to open with all the windows from your last browsing session.

Apple's desktop Safari, too, has had that feature for a while now but did you know of a hidden option for reopening all windows from the last session?

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CheatSheet brings iOS 9’s keyboard shortcuts overlay to the Mac

Timothy Reavis ∙ October 8, 2015

iPad power users received a nod from Apple this year with iOS 9’s new feature set. Aside from Split View and Slide Over, anyone using a physical keyboard in conjunction with their iPad can now hold down the Command key to get a list of all the shortcut key presses available in the currently running app. This is an excellent way for users to discover non-obvious key combinations in order to help speed up their workflow.

In OS X, discovering hotkeys is a bit more difficult than iOS 9's new simplified method, as many are hidden in crowded drop down menus, while others can be even harder to find. CheatSheet is a Mac app that brings iOS 9’s Bluetooth keyboard feature to OS X, adding the same hotkey-sheet functionality when holding down the Command key.

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References to Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse 2 and Magic Trackpad 2 discovered in OS X code

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 8, 2015

References to unreleased Apple-branded mouse, keyboard and trackpad accessories have been discovered in OS X code by French blog Consomac. Code strings discovered in the latest OS X 10.11.1 beta 3 point to the Magic Mouse 2 and Magic Trackpad 2, which are likely next-generation versions of Apple-branded mouse and trackpad. In addition, the strings hint at a brand new keyboard, dubbed the Magic Keyboard.

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How to send video wirelessly from your Mac to TV

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 30, 2017

Since OS X 10.9 Mavericks owners of the Apple TV have been able to wirelessly mirror their Mac screen to the big screen TV with an AirPlay feature called AirDisplay. There was just one slight problem: you couldn't stream individual videos without mirroring the whole screen.

Apple has solved this annoyance with OS X 10.11 El Capitan, which introduced richer AirPlay support permitting you to send video from Safari and other apps to the Apple TV.

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