Tag: macos
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I’ve been running macOS in “Increase contrast” mode for nearly a year. Yesterday’s WWDC keynote, which debuted the Liquid Glass design across all of Apple’s OSes, reminded me to look at my settings again. Toggling that off again is an entirely new experience using macOS. It is like I don’t even need to download the…
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Chris Glass wants gesture controls in macOS
Chris Glass: I’d love to see the next version of macOS introduce some basic gestural controls that can be used when a camera is present. I’m talking easy stuff like scrolling, zooming, navigation… I’m sure they can throw on some visionOS gestures to boot. Click-through to his site to see a video he created showing…
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WWDC 2025 wish list
I’m going to keep this simple so that I actually end up publishing this prior to WWDC. Here is my list of wishes for this year across Apple’s operating systems.
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How I hide all but the active window on macOS
My default web browser is set to Switcheroo – a custom-made macOS app by Zhenyi Tan (with some feedback and guidance from me). Whenever I click on a link a modal of sorts appears letting me choose which Safari profile I’d like to load the link within. Here is what that looks like. When that…
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How I use Anybox
Saving links to get back to at a later time is a problem with a million great solutions. I even helped create an open source one that is still chugging along, works great, but hasn’t been updated in far too long. My current solution to this problem is an app called Anybox. I’ve been using…
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TIL That in macOS Sequoia you can connect to your iPhone wirelessly to use as a camera for Zoom, etc. Perhaps this was always the case? But I have been plugging it into my Mac this whole time!
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Switcheroo, the small open source macOS app I use as my default browser to recreate a feature I miss from Little Arc, has reached 1.0.1 and has a new icon! Thanks to Zhenyi Tan for continuing to contribute updates. (See also)
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Switcheroo – An open source Little Arc for Safari
This post details a macOS app that recreates features from Little Arc in Safari. The post and source code were available for members only until April 3rd, 2024 and are now public. One of Arc’s best features is Little Arc — a small Quick Look like window that appears whenever you click a link in…
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Will my next Mac be my last Mac?
Perhaps you’ve had this experience… you walk into a place of business and see the computer and software they use to do their scheduling, billing, and ordering and you notice they are decades old. But, have you seen how productive they are? More often than not they are so fast that the computer has a…
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Zhenyi Tan is on a tear
Zhenyi Tan, who I linked to back in April about his app History Book (which I still use), is on a bit of a tear. Just take a look at Tan’s website post archive and count the number of times you see the word “Launch”. His most recent projects; a Time Machine inspired UI ontop…
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History Book – an app by Zhenyi Tan
Zhenyi Tan, announcing History Book: History Book automatically saves the content of your browsing history for searching. And it does it in a privacy-friendly way. Instant buy.
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DuckDuckGo for Mac in private beta
DuckDuckGo: So today we’re excited to announce the beta launch of DuckDuckGo for Mac, with DuckDuckGo for Windows coming soon. Like our mobile app, DuckDuckGo for Mac is an all-in-one privacy solution for everyday browsing with no complicated settings, just a seamless private experience. Plus, we’re excited to share some new features we think you’ll…
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MeetingBuddy by Tyler Hall
Tyler Hall: A few weeks ago I built a niche little app idea dubbed MeetingBuddy. You choose a target app from a pre-defined list (or pick any app on your Mac) and a time interval and MeetingBuddy starts screenshotting that app’s windows. Each recording session goes into its own folder where all of the screenshots…
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Resetting OneDrive on a Mac
At work we recently changed domain names and ever since my Mac’s OneDrive syncing utility would stop syncing and error when I tried to log back in. To fix the issue our support technician needed to reset OneDrive. I learned that OneDrive comes with a .command file that can be run to reset OneDrive. Use…
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Micro.blog open sources iOS and Mac apps
Manton Reece: I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the longevity of Micro.blog and where we need help to continue to grow the platform and community. As we approach 4 years since the public launch, there are some parts of the platform and supporting services that should be shared more widely, so that I’m not…
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Photos Takeout
Photos Takeout (no doubt a play on the name of Google’s own Takeout data service): Export photos and videos from Photos on Mac in yearwise, album-wise or moment/date-wise folders. Save them in neat folders on Mac, Google Drive, Dropbox, external drive or any other location. For macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave and High Sierra. A…
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Should I update to Big Sur 11.1?
In early November I wrote that I’d be delaying my update to Big Sur. Specifically, I wrote: I’ll be waiting for at least two releases before I update. Well, 11.1 came out today. Depending on how you count, it is sort of the third release of Big Sur. There was 11.0, 11.0.1, and now 11.1.…
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Using Spotlight and Shortcuts to create daily notes in Simplenote
While trialing Obsidian I became fond of a core plugin it had called Daily notes. Activating the plugin adds a button in the interface that creates a new note with a name based on today’s date. It makes keeping a daily log extremely easy. Since I primarily use Simplenote I wanted the same thing on…
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Delay updating to Big Sur
macOS Big Sur will be released to the public tomorrow. As I did with iOS 14 this year, I’ll be waiting for at least two releases before I update. Josh Centers for TidBITS: We recommend delaying upgrades for your production Macs. We’ve heard similar stories from many beta testers and TidBITS readers: Big Sur is…
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Sketch on native Mac apps
Sketch: Native apps bring so many benefits — from personalization and performance to familiarity and flexibility. And while we’re always working hard to make Cloud an amazing space to collaborate, we still believe the Mac is the perfect place to let your ideas and imagination flourish. Lovely little blog post. Couldn’t agree more. I feel…
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How to move referenced originals in Photos for Mac
Warning!! I’ve only just hacked this solution together and I don’t fully understand the ramifications of my actions yet. If there are any, I will update this post. First, a bit of context on how I use Photos for Mac (Photos). I do not allow Photos to store my original files within its “package”. I…
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NetNewswire 5.1 for Mac
Excellent update to my preferred desktop feed reader, NetNewswire. I especially like “Reader View”. Here is how it is described. Some sites only publish extracts of their full articles. Reader View can fetch the full article text and show it to you in NetNewsWire, so you don’t have to go to another app. There is…
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A tweetstorm about Photos for Mac
I’m old, so I can still call them tweetstorms rather than threads. I just posted a tweetstorm regarding Photos for Mac on Catalina. I posted it there because I’m sort of hoping that a few Apple people are still lingering on the WWDC hashtag. Here are my tweets: Figure 1 Figure 2 Who knows. Maybe…
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Why I used Migration Assistant to move to my new Mac
This isn’t a tutorial. If you’re in need of one and you’ve somehow stumbled onto my blog of jumbled thoughts on a variety of topics, sorry. You’ll need to go back to Google and try again (though, really, you should be using Duck.com). I recently upgraded to a 16-inch MacBook Pro (review forthcoming) and had…
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Random WWDC 2019 thoughts
Random WWDC 2019 thoughts: Overall, this seemed like a solid, solid WWDC. I’m sure there will be a lot more news over the coming week. But to me, it addressed the main things I was looking for: a commitment to the Mac, iPad OS updates, and for Marzipan (now Project Catalyst it seems) not to…
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My questions for WWDC 2019
I am looking forward to this year’s WWDC more than I have in the last 4 or 5 years. There is so much riding on this conference for my personal productivity but also for the Mac and iPad platforms as a whole. Here are a few reasons why and I’ll follow with a few questions…
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The Mac is turning less Pro
skywhopper, on Hacker News, commenting on a thread relating to Mark Gurman’s scoop on Apple’s (supposed) plan to have apps running on iOS and macOS using the same (or, similar) code bases by 2020: And then the Mac is losing what should be its primary audience through unwanted innovations and otherwise stagnant hardware, and a…
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SubEthaEdit 5 – free, open
In the early 2000s, when I switched to the Mac from Windows (oh how times change), SubEthaEdit was an amazing leap in text editing. It allowed you to connect with other Macs to collaborate on the same document — something we take for granted these days. Here is Dominik Wagner, one of the original authors…
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Numi
Numi: Beautiful calculator app for Mac It isn’t only beautiful. It appears very powerful.
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Technology Dogmatism
Are you dogmatic about the companies you will buy technology from? Are you an Apple fanboi? Or, perhaps you’ll only run Windows and Apple sucks at everything because reasons. I try not to be that guy. I try to look at the entire field of offerings in every category; hardware, software, cloud services, home entertainment…
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Microsoft Office now shares a common codebase
Erik Schwiebert: Mac Office 2016 version 16 is now live! For the first time in over 20 years, Office is again built out of one codebase for all platforms (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android)! MSFT is dog fooding big time with this latest release of Mac Office. I’ve been enjoying my work within their frameworks and…
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Universal Apple apps
Mark Gurman, for Bloomberg: Starting as early as next year, software developers will be able to design a single application that works with a touchscreen or mouse and trackpad depending on whether it’s running on the iPhone and iPad operating system or on Mac hardware, according to people familiar with the matter. Remember the many times…
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Repost: Cabel Sasser re: Apple update caching
👉 Cabel Sasser on Twitter: macOS 10.13 Tip: have lots of iOS / Mac devices in your house? And a Mac that’s usually on? Turn on "Content Caching" in Sharing prefs, and updates will be downloaded to all your devices from your Mac, saving time and bandwidth. LINK
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macOS High Sierra security vulnerability
Dan Moren, reporting on this tweet from Lemi Orhan Ergin: Unsurprisingly, that news has quickly rippled through the Apple community as many people—including yours truly—have verified the claim. You can test it for yourself by going to any locked System Preferences pane, trying to unlock it, and entering username rootwith no password. (The number of…
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Micro.blog for Mac beta
Micro.blog: Mac users can use the native Micro.blog for Mac app. It’s a free download and supports most of the same features as the iOS version. You can see a short video of it on Manton’s blog. You’ll even notice a rather handsome avatar make an appearance. Unfortunately I cannot give this a spin yet…
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Magnet for macOS
Magnet: Activated by dragging, customizable keyboard shortcuts or via menu bar, Magnet declutters your screen by snapping windows into organized tiles. Although macOS Sierra has a great split-screen option* that rival’s Windows 10 snap-to-side feature I’ve always wanted a bit more control. This utility is currently only a dollar and does a lot more. /via…
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Transmit 5
Panic: With one massive update we’ve brought everyone’s favorite file-transferring truck into the future with more speed, more servers, more features, more fixes, a better UI, and even Panic Sync. Everything from the core file transfer engine to the “Get Info” experience was rethought, overhauled, and improved. Hard to believe Transmit 4 is over 7…
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Colin Walker on macOS software
Colin Walker: Using OSX can be more intuitive at times but it is visually inconsistent. It may have been through various aesthetic revisions but it can feel old. I think Microsoft has done a better job of enforcing a standard look for applications on the desktop and the Windows design language is now generally more…
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WWDC 2017 recap
I wanted to take a few moments to jot down a comparison between my wish list for this year’s WWDC and what was announced. Also, towards the end, some quick thoughts on the surprises that were announced. Here are my wishes, in order from the previous post, and whether or not we got them. Shared…
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Back to Apple, again
Each year WWDC week gives us new and updated Apple software that is easier to use and more tightly integrated. As a result, each year I find myself wishing that I used Apple software exclusively instead of using third-party applications. Forgive me, but I’m about to quote an entire post that I wrote in June 2014 as to…
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WWDC 2017 wish list
It has been an exciting year for developers so far. Facebook is making the camera a platform, Microsoft is making cloud computation happen with two clicks of a mouse, and Google is doing everything that everyone else is doing plus a billion more things. WWDC is next week. So what are my wishes? Since I…
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Bashing Windows
Ben Brooks likes the look of the new Surface Book Laptop. But he says this about Windows: Still runs Windows though. I don’t know if Ben has used the very latest Windows 10 builds but if he hasn’t he should give it a try. I’ve already said not to bet against Microsoft but I would…
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Removing the pro from Apple
John Gruber regarding Sal Soghoian being axed from Apple: If they had simply fired him, that’d be one thing, but the fact that they’ve eliminated his position is another. This is shitty news. I find this to be a profoundly worrisome turn of events for the future of the Mac. I hope I’m wrong. I…
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A tablet and a notebook in one
John Gruber: To me, an iPad in notebook mode — connected to a keyboard cover — is so much less nice than a real notebook. And the difference is more stark when compared to a great notebook, like these MacBook Pros. There are advantages to the tablet form factor, but no tablet will ever be…
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E12: The Mac, RSS feeds, Shopping, and Stranger Things
We hit our stride in this bit. Danny and I have a Sunday-evening chat about how Apple could move away from the Mac and survive, RSS feed habits, shopping for clothes (naturally) and Stranger Things. Site Danny references is Woodpile Report. http://cdevroe.com/media/audio/e12.mp3 Download MP3
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How to fix bad thumbnails in Photos on macOS Sierra
Since updating to macOS Sierra my Photos library will show some bad thumbnails that are either completely black or have black "bars" on them. Here is just one example that I managed to screenshot (see: top left photo). If you come across this issue it is pretty easy to fix. Right-click (or, control+click, or two-finger…