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 invoke Siri with a keyboard shortcut on Mac

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 27, 2020

Your favorite assistant finally made its way to the Mac, starting with the macOS Sierra software update.

If you have used Siri on your iPhone or iPad before, then you'll probably feel right at home with the assistant on your Mac since it works in a similar way. However, unlike your iPhone, you don't have the ability to invoke Siri on your Mac by saying "Hey, Siri." Instead, you will have to click on the Siri icon in the Menu Bar, or in the Dock.

Another way to invoke Siri is by using a keyboard shortcut. Admittedly, this is my preferred way of activating the assistant as it feels faster and more efficient than reaching for the mouse or trackpad and clicking on the Siri icon.

Read More

How to disable the startup tone on your Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated September 18, 2018

Whenever you turn on your Mac, you typically hear a startup tone just before your computer boots up. The tone is there to let you know your computer has passed a pre-boot test and its hardware is working properly.

Some people, however, prefer to boot up their computers in silence. If you're one of those people, we'll show you in this tutorial how you can disable the start-up tone on your Mac.

Read More

Pro Tip: create an applet to watermark images

Anthony Bouchard ∙ September 2, 2016

Adding watermarks to photos is an invaluable tool for photographers who want to put a company logo or information on a photograph to share the proper credits that made the photo possible.

It can be done manually in a variety of different kinds of photo-editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop or Pixelmator, but in this tutorial, we'll show you how you can create an applet that automatically watermarks photographs for you.

Read More

Converting a regular video to slow motion with iMovie on Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ September 1, 2016

Slow motion videos are one of the fun aspects of using your iPhone for videogprahy. You can record videos in 120 or 240 frames per second and then watch it play back in a much slower manner than it typically would.

On the other hand, if you don't use your iPhone to capture video, getting the video files from your other devices to transform into slow motion is a little trickier. Fortunately, iMovie for Mac can convert your videos into slow motion, and in this tutorial, we'll show you how.

Read More

How to reveal a file’s path in Spotlight for Mac with a simple keystroke

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 1, 2021

In macOS versions up until Lion, hovering over an item in Spotlight's search results on your Mac would reveal its full file system path. As of macOS Lion, that's no longer the default behavior—the Spotlight overlay gives you some information about the selected file, but not its location. But don't you worry, Apple hasn't ditched this feature entirely as you can reveal a file's path in your Spotlight search results at any time via this practical keyboard shortcut.

Read More

How to copy the same parental controls from one user account to another on Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated February 10, 2023

If you have one Mac, and multiple users, then you might use the built-in Parental Controls to manage what those users can and cannot do. Doing so can help the security of your system in many ways.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to you can essentially copy the Parental Control settings from one of your Mac's users over to another user so they're managed in the same way.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More