MacMost: Patreon Video

When I need to post the new MacMost episode to four different social media networks, I use the Open In New Tabs function in Safari to open four webpages at once. This way I am quickly able to post the new episode without much hassle.

Each video at MacMost has that special poster frame image that you can see on the website and YouTube. It includes a title and two screen grabs from the video. Watch how I create those using a simple template I made in Acorn.

A simple Terminal command can be used to keep your Mac from sleeping.

So I spent some time at Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo today. It is supposed to be the busiest intersection in the world. Each time the walk signs turn green, a ton of people cross from all directions and fill the street,. I had to take some video of that.Of course I was just there with my iPhone 7 plus and nothing like a tripod. I just held the phone up and tried to be as steady as I could. But the result was still shaky. So here is a test I did in iMovie on my Mac afterwards. First, I sped up the video 4X since it takes a full minute to see the crossing. And the speed makes it look more exciting. Then, I copied and pasted it so it repeated. The first time is normal, but the second time I applied iMovie's image stabilization at 100%. It doesn't get rid of the movement completely, but it does smooth it out. It makes it easier to watch, I think.

Apple has a new iOS app called Clips. It is kind of like a social media video sharing app, but without the social network. It is just a "creator" app and you choose where to post it.Could this be the start of another Apple push into social media? Or is it just iMovie lite? Here's a link to the app: <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clips/id1212699939?mt=8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Clips</a> .

Did you know that you can look at individual web pages in Activity Monitor? Only discovered this while exploring. This could be useful for web developers looking to see how much CPU or memory their sites are using. Or, for everyone else who suspects that some web pages use a lot of their Mac's resources.

You probably know about Safari's Developer menu. But did you also know there is a second developer menu called the Debug menu?

Kind of a hidden feature of the Maps app on your Mac. Pretty to look at and could be useful for creating graphics or just figuring out if it is dark yet in some part of the world.

Take a look at a bizarre, interesting and potentially very useful calculator environment you can access from the Terminal app.

Demonstrating iPhone panos at a spot along the coast just south of Abel Tasman park in New Zealand. The noise you hear are cicadas, I think. You can see the images I took here: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/iFsVs" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/iFsVs</a>

I'll be posting lots of Apple-tech travel videos in the next two week or so. If you have any questions about how I'm using technology on this trip, let me know and I'll try to answer it. Basically, I'll be using my iPhone 7 plus and an old MacBook Air as I travel throughout the south island of New Zealand.

This is a more advanced way to encrypt files that requires using the Terminal. But if you don't mind doing that, it is a way to protect information on your Mac, and to even send protected information via email.

For a few years now an online backup company Backblaze has publushed their hard drive statistics. A lot of Mac (and PC) experts use those stats to shop for the best drives.

The iPhone 7's button feels really good, especially considering it isn't really a button at all. Could this be the first step to a touchscreen-based keyboard for the Mac? Such a screen would be really cool, provided it felt right.

Here's a handy little tool for web developers that is built-in to Safari (Sierra). You can simulate other browsers, screen sizes and resolutions. It is fun to play with and can be handy even if you aren't a developer.

I'm seeing a lot of people at Mac-related forums complaining about battery drain on their new MacBooks, even though they claim to only view web pages. Here's what I think is happening.