macOS

How to sort notifications by arrival time in Notification Center on Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated March 13, 2018

I have to admit that I'm not a huge user of Notification Center, and this applies to both iOS and the Mac. One of the reasons that I'm turned off by Notification Center is the disarray that I see when viewing it.

By default, Notification Center is set to sort manually, which means that you can go into its preferences, and sort each app by hand. That's fine and all, but it makes for a less than ideal experience when trying to find the most relevant notifications based on time of arrival.

For me, this results in a less than ideal experience when opening Notification Center. If you have a lot of apps enabled for Notifications, it can be overwhelming, because there's no real logical order to the way they're sorted. To remedy this issue, try this simple tip, and sort your notifications by time of arrival instead.

Read More

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.

Read More

How to Cut and Paste files on Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated October 2, 2025
Cut and Paste on Mac

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.

Read More

Clean up your Downloads folder to regain storage space on your Mac

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated April 17, 2023

Sometimes, the most simple and obvious tips are the best. Everybody knows about them because they're usually based on good old common sense, yet, we usually forget about them. One such tip is to periodically clean up the Downloads folder of your Mac, which, depending on your setup and habits, could quickly go out of control.

The Downloads folder is the default location where any file you download from the internet is saved. Downloading the PDF of your bank statement? It's downloaded to the Downloads folder. Downloading a song from an unofficial source? It's most likely going to the Downloads folder.

Read More