Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

A new feature of macOS Big Sur is Control Center. This is an iOS-like feature that brings together various system controls like volume, Wi-Fi, Do Not Disturb and other settings into a single panel you can access with one click in the menu bar.

If you need to include something like a + symbol before positive numbers in cells, you can do it using formulas or using custom cell formatting. Using a custom cell format is more versatile and can be easily reused no matter how complex the calculation.

You can use images as video overlays for iMovie on your iPhone or iPad in the same way you do it for Mac. The Keynote app for iOS is a great way to create these images, which must have transparent backgrounds. Switching between Keynote and iMovie you can add text, shapes, lines or almost any sort of overlay image easily.

I haven't installed beta 1 of macOS Big Sur on my Macs. But I do have a way to run it anyway. I installed it on an external drive. But not just any external drive. A spinning HD would be too slow. A USB thumb drive would be too problematic. So I created a small, inexpensive external SSD drive. Installing Big Sur on this external drive is tricky. Basically, you boot into Recovery Mode, and then choose to install Catalina on the blank external drive instead of "restoring" the internal drive. Once that is done, you boot to the external drive and finish the setup. Then I installed the Big Sur beta 1 "Profile" on it from the Apple Developers site. In the future, you'll be able to do the same with the public beta "Profile." Then I just let the system on that external drive update to Big Sur. All this time, the normal internal SSD on my MacBook Pro remained untouched. So I can just boot my MacBook Pro and nothing has changed. But if I want to look at Big Sur and test things out, I just connect this external drive, hold down Option during a restart, and choose to boot from the external. Shut down and reboot without the external to return to normal operation with my internal drive and Catalina. Here are the two products I used to create the external SSD for $64. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZGK3K4V/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Silicon Power 256GB - NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen3x4 2280 TLC SSD </a>  <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MNFH1PX/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">SSK Aluminum M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure Adapter, USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) to NVME PCI-E M-Key Solid State Drive External Enclosure</a>  As I point out in the long (too long, sorry) video, an external drive like this is much better suited for running macOS, as opposed to a cheap USB thumb drive, which is fine for storage and transfers, but not for active read+write constant access. Even better would be a Thunderbolt 3 case/adaater instead of USB 3.1. That would be faster, but more expensive and also impossible to access on a computer without Thunderboth 3.

To stay safe while downloading third-party software from websites to your Mac you have to weigh risk versus reward. Here are six factors you need to take into account before downloading anything.

The new macOS Big Sur coming out this fall will have a fresh new design and look quite different than macOS Catalina and before. While it is still early in the beta cycle, take a look at the design elements in Big Sur.

Paragraph styles in Pages make it easier to easily and consitently apply font styling and formatting in your documents. When you use styles from the start, you can apply them to all parts of your document and easily make changes throughout.

So I installed the first beta of macOS Big Sur on my MacBook for a look around. I recorded a 20-minute look at different things so I've got the ability to look back at that recording for reference. I'll restore that MacBook back to Catalina for the time being. Here's that recording, with my commentary if you want to see it. I discovered some interesting things, like changes to System Preferences and how to customize the new Control Center. Also some hints on what changes still need to be made as the beta testing continues.

Have questions about how Macs are moving from using Intel CPUs to Apple's own ARM chips? When will the first new Macs appear? Is it still worth it to buy an Intel Mac? How long will Apple support Intel Macs? Will your apps run on the new Macs? How about Windows emulation?

Here's my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLFZnxFzuRk" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">rundown of today's big Apple news</a>, including macOS Big Sur and the switch to ARM processors in Macs. I hope to post a look at Big Sur for Club MacMost later today perhaps. So now that we know that Macs will really start using ARM processors in the future, I thought I'd give Club MacMost my thoughts on how this will work and what to expect over the next few years as we transition. Ask me any questions!

Apple announced a ton of new features for the iPhone, iPad, Macs and other devices coming this fall at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The new macOS will be called Big Sur and it will give Mac software a new look. Apple will be moving away from Intel processors to their own ARM processors starting at the end of the year, giving Macs the ability to run iOS apps as well as current and old Mac apps.

The menu bar is something you use every day in almost every mac app. Here are some shortcuts and productivity tips for using the mac menu bar.

You can use Mission Control on your Mac to give yourself multiple virtual desktops. Each desktop can display different app windows to make it seem like you have more than one screen. Other desktops can contain full screen or split view windows.

There are many different ways you can preview files on your mac before opening them. The Finder can show you a preview as you browse files, Quick Look can bring up a larger preview, some apps and the Dock allow you to preview files as well.