Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

You can buy cheap NFC tags and use them to trigger Shortcuts and other actins on your iPhone. You can set up a Personal Automation that automatically runs when triggered by touching your iPhone to a tag. You can also write information to tags that can bring up web pages and request other actions from any iPhone or Android user with a recent device.

The latest update to macOS Catalina, version 10.15.2, brings back to beloved features of the old iTunes app. You can now view your songs library in the Music app using the Column Browser and control music playback on your Mac with the iPhone app iTunes Remote.

When a new Windows user switches to Mac, they can be frustrated by the differences. Here are some of the most common questions and problems that new Mac users face and the solutions. There are some great tips here to get your transition moving forward quickly. Welcome to the world of Mac!

So I finally got a better camera for shooting MacMost videos. Some of you may remember I had been using the Logitech Brio, a 1080p webcam, for years. Then I upgraded a few months ago to a cheap camcorder, the Canon R800. I plugged that in to an Elgato Cam Link 4K to stream the 1080p video into the Mac and record in ScreenFlow. That was better. But I know a real camera with a large sensor and lens would be much better. I had planned to get the Sony 𝛂6400 for a while, but the $1,000 price point held me back. Then Sony came out with the 𝛂6100, a cheaper version for $750. I got that over the weekend and have now shot two upcoming videos with it. Take a look at the comparison. It is quite a jump. And I can see it when I zoom in really well. I now understand why not all actors were thrilled when 1080 became the standard for TV! The camera is actually 4K, but I'm using it at 1080p. The Elgato Cam Link 4K can do 4K, but at the moment I can only seem to get 4K by sacrificing frames. So instead of 30 frames per second, I'm getting dropped frames, so more like 10 fps. It looks jittery. Each frame is crystal clear, though. And the preview of the video looks 30fps. So I'm wondering if even my 2013 Mac Pro isn't capable of encoding 4K video <strong>in real time</strong>. That "in real time" is the key here. Even a midrange Mac can work with 4K video, but it isn't encoding a stream of it in real time. So I can try some 4K video, but just recorded to the camera's SD card. And maybe my next Mac will be able to do it. Or maybe the successor to the Elgato Cam Link 4K will work. I can't wait to use the new camera as a camera too. Oh, and I've moved the R800 to the other side of my desk to use instead of the old Brio in the shot of me in the corner of the screen. Have to use the same Cam Link for now, swapping out the HDMI input though.

Most people use albums to organize their photos in the Mac Photos app. However, it makes more sense to use Keywords instead of albums. You can create a Smart Album with any Keyword. But instead of Smart Albums, which can't be seen on iOS, you can simply search for a Keyword to view those photos just as if they were an album. You can also search for words in titles and descriptions, making them useful for organizing as well.

So I have an upcoming video on store photos in the Finder as files rather than in the Photos app. That is useful, especially if you use your Mac for work and want to separate work projects from your personal photos. Here is a preview of the video: <a href="https://archive.org/download/storingphotosinfinderfoldersasanalternativetothephotosappmacmost2069/2069FinderPhotos.mp4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://archive.org/download/storingphotosinfinderfoldersasanalternativetothephotosappmacmost2069/2069FinderPhotos.mp4</a>  While making this video, I thought it would be useful to be able to rename photos, but keep the original name in parenthesis. So "IMG0096.jpg" would become "Photo Title (IMG0096).jpg". Sure you can do it manually. But if this could be something that you need to do often if you take photos for work. Heck, I have a huge clipart photo collection I purchased with names that are just numbers and I'd love to rename a file from time-to-time but don't want to lose the original filename. So here is an automator script that does this. It prompts you for a new name and then puts that name, plus the original name in parenthesis. I thought it would be easier to make. But it is tricky because you have to take apart the original file path and just get the name. And you have to juggle that and the new name. I'll zip up and attach the Automator workflow to this post.

The new Mac Pro is the most powerful Mac ever, but it comes with a huge price tag. But if you are looking for a pro-level Mac, you have other choices. You can get the iMac Pro, which is cheaper and comes with its own 5K screen. You can also get an upgraded regular iMac or MacBook Pro. A budget option is to get an upgraded Mac mini with an external GPU.

You can use JavaScript in Automator to fill in a web page form. If you make this a Quick Action you can access it from the menu bar or as a keyboard shortcut. This can help speed up situations where you need to fill in the same form every day.

As someone who has been helping people with their Macs for a long time, I see lots of things people do with their Macs that if they stopped it would solve a lot of problems. Learn from my past experience and years of teaching to prevent current and future problems.

So I had some fun last night and made this little video, just for YouTube. But I thought I'd share it here too, so we can discuss. Having a teenager at home, and a wife pretty active with social media, I see a lot of communication done with emoji. I find it fascinating how these little pictures are being used to abbreviate words, feelings, or convey an idea with some whimsy. I made this video partially because I think people will find it fun, but also because some parents may want to know what their kids mean when they send a text. I thought very carefully how to handle the more risqué ones. I tried to present the most logical and least-shocking definitions I could think of, without making them difficult to understand. I hope no one takes offense.

The handoff feature of macOS and iOS allows you to use a Universal Clipboard to copy text, images, files or just about anything between your devices. You can use this to copy and paste text and images between documents while working with two or more devices. You can also transfer entire files this way, which is actually easier than using AirDrop in many situations.

New Mac users sometimes don't understand why the top row of keys on the keyboard don't work as expected. These keys are both the function keys and the special features keys, also knows as f-keys and media control keys. You toggle how these keys behave with the fn key. But a setting in System Preferences determines which mode is the default one and which requires the fn key.

With the new Voice Control feature in macOS Catalina you can control almost anything on your Mac with your voice. You can access menu commands, dictate text, click buttons and even click a specific point on the screen using grids. This functionality is critical for some, but for others it can also offer a nice hands-free alternative to using your Mac.

I can't believe this worked so easily. I bought some cheap NFC tag stickers from Amazon and was easily able to add Personal Automations in the Shortcuts app on my iPhone that are triggered by them. As an example, I now have a tag that I can wave my iPhone in front of and a song will play. I'm sure I can come up with more useful things for it to do too. Works better than other Personal Automations because you can set it to run without confirming. I will be playing with it more and doing a regular tutorial at some point. Any good ideas for useful things that can be done with this technique?

If you only use the Dock to launch apps, you missing out on one of the Mac's most powerful features. By adding folders to the right side of the Dock, you can have quick access to downloads, applications, files and more. You can create Smart Folders to view recent documents or documents from a single app. You can create folders full of aliases to get quick access to groups of applications or files.