A side effect of the pandemic is that online videoconferencing improved drastically. Video calls happened before 2020, but videoconferencing wasn’t an everyday activity for most people. Now, with many people working remotely or in a hybrid model, it’s a fact of business life. To support videoconferencing tools, Apple has extended macOS’s basic webcam and microphone capabilities to allow Mac-powered video calls to go beyond the basics. Apple’s enhancements fall into four categories: camera modes and controls, mic modes, reactions, and Presenter Overlay. Read More from “Make the Most of the Mac’s Videoconferencing Capabilities”

Apple’s prices for Thunderbolt, USB-C, and Lightning cables often seem unnecessarily high. $69 for a Thunderbolt 5 cable or $19 for a simple USB-C to Lightning cable? Unfortunately, when it comes to cables, you often get what you pay for. Happily, other reputable hardware manufacturers like Anker, Belkin, and OWC sell quality cables for less than Apple. When possible, get cables with braided covers, which tend to last longer because the braided design makes them less prone to kinks, less likely to tangle, and more resistant to abrasion. Read More from “Use High-Quality Cables for Optimal Performance and Safety”

We Apple users tend to believe that our devices usually last longer—both physically and functionally—than Windows PCs and Android smartphones. For instance, Apple’s current operating systems work on nearly all Macs, iPhones, and iPads introduced in 2018 and later, albeit with some feature loss on the oldest devices. In a white paper entitled “Longevity, by Design,” Apple has now outlined how it works to increase product longevity through design and manufacturing, ongoing software support, and access to repair services. Read More from “Apple Explains Its Approach to Device Longevity”

Let’s say you’re writing documentation to help colleagues use Preview to edit images, sign PDFs, and convert graphics. (A worthy task for which they will thank you!) For this documentation, you want to include the Preview app’s icon so they know what to look for in the Applications folder and Dock. To copy a high-resolution version of any app icon that you can paste into a document or combine with other graphics, select the app in the Finder, choose File > Get Info, select the little icon in the upper-left corner of the Info window, and press Command-C. You can then use Command-V to paste it wherever you want or create a new file containing all sizes of the icon by switching to Preview and choosing File > New From Clipboard. Read More from “How to Copy an App Icon on the Mac”

Is your child heading off to college soon? They’ve undoubtedly been using a computer throughout high school, though now is a good time to look at getting them a new one, especially if theirs is old or unreliable, is shared with other family members, or was a school loaner. If you haven’t been keeping up with Apple’s Mac lineup, you might be unsure which model is the best choice. Read More from “Choosing the Best Mac for a College-Bound Student in 2024”

Research suggests that exposure to blue light fools your body into thinking it’s daytime, making it harder to fall asleep if you work late on a Mac with a bright white (which has a lot of blue light) screen. To help, a macOS feature called Night Shift subtly changes the colors of the screen as the sun sets to reduce the amount of blue light hitting your eyes. Read More from “Working Late on Your Mac? Turn on Night Shift to Help Your Sleep”

If you have trouble finding particular items across multiple shelves of books, labeled boxes, or anything else that’s clearly identified with a text name, take carefully composed photos that capture all the titles without glare. Later, you can search for any text in those photos to find them Read More from “Quickly Catalog Books or Other Named Items on Shelves”