MacMost: Archives

Apple announced several new pieces of hardware today. A new MacBook Air improves most product specs and brings the new keyboard to the Air. The new low-end price of $999 includes a 256GB drive. The Mac mini gets a minor update to also have a 256GB drive on the base model.

Apple introduced a new MacBook Air today with faster processors, more storage, a new keyboard and a lower introductory price. Two new iPad Pro models boost specs, and also introduce a new camera array. A new Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro includes a trackpad and also lifts the iPad up.

You can choose whether or not to see filename extensions in the Finder on your Mac. But even if you choose to not see them, some filename will still show extensions and others will not. What makes these files different and how do you control them?

There is a lot of bad advice out there when it comes to stopping junk email. People will tell you time-consuming ways to get marginally less spam. But there is really only one method that will solve the problem of getting too much spam. And oddly, few tech advisors talk about it.

Apple has published a page of frequently asked questions about their store closures. Most notably, if you have recently purchased a product and are within the 14-day return period, that period now extends to 14 days after stores reopen.

Your Mac, iPhone or iPad can be used as a way to video chat with others while you are stuck at home away from friends, family, work or school. Technology can help with social distancing. FaceTime is great for Apple-to-Apple communication. Skype and Facebook Messenger can be used for cross-platform communication or with those who are more comfortable with those services.

Apple announced that it is temporarily closing all retail stores outside of greater China due to the Coronavirus Pandemic until March 27. Apple is joining other retails who are doing the same to slow the spread of the virus. Employees will continue to receive pay.

You can use pretty much any USB flash drive with your Mac. But be sure to buy one with the right connection type, either USB-A or USB-C, or get one that has both. Most drives are preformatted for Windows, so you probably want to reformat it for your Mac. You can add and remove files from a USB flash drive using the Finder. Be sure to eject the drive first before phsyically disconnecting it.

Perhaps the most useful third-party tool you can get for your Mac is a clipboard manager. These will let you go beyond the single copy and paste clipboard and recall items you previous copied.

You can get stock prices in Numnbers on your Mac, but they are only updated daily. But by using Google Sheets you can get live stock prices. These can be used right there, or copied and pasted into a Numbers document.

There are many unusual ways to use the features in iMovie to create visual effects and filters that you may not think are possible. Take a look at 10 ideas using titles, transistions, overlays and other techniques.

Text Replacements are one of the most useful productivity features on your Mac. But even people that use them don't always use them to their fullest potential. Here are 10 examples of things you can do with Text Replacement on your Mac.

Here's a list of 10 features of your Mac that are hidden from view. You'll learn about hidden folders and files, hidden Safari menus, how to access hidden markup tools in Mail and Photos, hidden toolbar buttons, hidden menu commands and even characters hidden in your keyboard.

Many people archive important email to mailboxes or folders inside the Mac Mail app. But this may not be the best way to save important messages. Instead, export them as files so they exist in the Finder and you can name them, organize them, and archive them as you wish.

It is a good idea to back up your iPhone or iPad to your Mac, but it is also easy to forget old backups when you switch to a new device. These old backups take up a lot of space on your Mac's drive. You can find them in macOS Catalina if you know where to look and see how much space they use and easily delete them to free up that space.

While you can use iMovie or Photos to create slideshows, Keynote is probably the most advanced tool with the most options. You can quickly import many photos onto individual slides. Then you can work with each slide to scale and adjust each photo. You can add text and transitions. You can even create a Ken Burns effect by moving and scaling a photo over time. Once you have perfected your slideshow, you can export it as a video to share. You can also record naration to include in the video.

You can create your own custom keyboard shortcuts on your Mac for any item in the Mac menu bar. By going into System Preferences you can set a shortcut using the exact name of the menu item in an app or across all apps. You can also change the shortcut assigned to a menu item.

While Keynote is primarily a presentation tool, you can also animate objects with movement, rotation, opacity and scaling. You can include these animations as part of a presentation, or build them to use as animated GIFs or segments of a video.

In macOS Catalina if you are not using Apple Music you can choose to store your music files on an external drive. There are a number of methods you can use. Also learn how to clear out your Music app library to start from scratch.

If you iPhone or iPad is almost full, you may need to take the time to clean out things you no longer need. iOS makes this easy by providing a list of apps showing how much space each uses and giving you controls to delete content. You can also change settings for Messages, Photos and the Camera apps so you use less space.