Apple released the first developer release of macOS Sierra 10.12.6 on Tuesday, just one day after shipping macOS Sierra 10.12.5. The company didn’t announce any new features in the release, and it’s likely to be another maintenance release ahead of Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference in June.
macOS
macOS: Speedifier Lets You Control Video Speed In Safari
Speedifier is a Mac app that lets you control video speed in Safari for HTML5 videos. You can use the extension on any on any website. Speedifier was developed by Arno Appenzeller, a part-time Mac and iOS indie developer from Germany. Andrew Orr reviews the app to test it out.
Apple Squashes 30 Security Holes in macOS Sierra, Plus Standalone Updates for El Cap and Yosemite
Apple squashed 30 security holes in macOS Sierra with the release of macOS 10.12.5 on Monday. The company’s security notes indicate the update addressed a wide variety of issues in its Mac operating system, many of which are serious. Apple included the same fixes in separate security updates for El Capitan and Yosemite.
Apple Releases macOS 10.12.5 with USB Headphone Bug Fix, More RAW Formats
Apple released macOS 10.12.5 Monday. This update includes a fix for a USB headphone bug and other bug fixes, support for more RAW formats, and as-yet-unspecified security patches.
Guardians of the Geek Galaxy – Mac Geek Gab Podcast 657
Ever wondered how to share iCloud contact groups amongst family and team members? Ever have to mix iOS, Android, and macOS? Ever wonder what AppTranslocation folders are? How about the best thing to put in your walls before you close them up? John F. Braun and Dave Hamilton have your answers to all of this and more.
macOS: Use Spotlight to Directly Search Google with this Shortcut
Andrew Orr has another cool tip from Reddit. Using a simple keyboard shortcut, you can use your Mac’s Spotlight to directly search using your default search engine. It saves you from manually going to Safari and searching from the address bar.
4 Tricks for Using Bookmarks Folders in Safari
For today’s Quick Tip, we’re going to cover some features of bookmarks folders in Safari on the Mac. Using a few handy-dandy shortcuts, you can open a bunch of your sites in new tabs or replace the existing ones! Just don’t do one thing when you meant to do the other, all right?
Mac Developers: Microsoft’s Visual Studio for Mac Is Here
Today Microsoft has released Visual Studio for Mac, which it previewed at the Microsoft’s Connect(); 2016 developer event. It’s exciting news for developers who want to develop for Windows without giving up their Apple devices.
How to Prevent Photos and iTunes from Opening Automatically
If you’re getting sick of watching programs bounce in your Dock just because you plugged your iPhone into your Mac to charge it, then boy, have we got a Quick Tip for you! Melissa Holt’s going to tell us how to stop Photos and iTunes from opening automatically.
PSA: Video Converter Handbrake Was Compromised by Malware
While reading through forum posts, Jeff Butts came across some troubling news. It turns out that the popular video conversion app HandBrake has been compromised by malware.
macOS: Finding the Hidden Advanced Display Preferences
When you look at Display Preferences in macOS and remember what choices you used to have, you may wonder what happened to things like Detect Displays. Jeff Butts has found that a simple keypress is all it takes to get that option, and more, for advanced tweaking of your Mac’s display.
macOS: How To Use Apple Watch to Auto Unlock Your Mac
Andrew Orr recently bought his first Apple Watch, and wanted to set up auto unlock for his MacBook. He shows us how to do it so you can have a password on your Mac without having to type it in.
How to Require a Password to Wake Your Mac from Sleep or Screen Saver
This Quick Tip is about a very, well…quick setting to change to make your Mac more secure. If you can just unlock your Mac after it’s been sleeping without needing a password or your fingerprint, you’ve gotta read this! And make the change! We pretty much insist.
Apple Seeds 5th Developer Preview of macOS Sierra 10.12.5
Apple released the 5th developer preview of macOS Sierra 10.12.5 on Monday. The patch notes say nothing besides the boilerplate note that the release. “improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.”
macOS: Make Your Spotlight Searches Better with the Kind Operator
When you are looking for something specific on your Mac with Spotlight, you might get overwhelmed with the search results. Jeff Butts has become a Spotlight search pro thanks to a simple operator. Read along as he shows you how it works and some of what you can do with it.
macOS: Automatically Format Reminders With Date And Time
This tip comes from Reddit, where user pralux found a handy shortcut. If you use the Reminders app on macOS, there is a way to automatically format reminders with the date and time. This saves you several clicks by doing it manually. Here’s how to do it.
Evade the macOS 'Too Many Open Files' Error by Pushing the Limits
Here at Mac Observer, we’re penultimate geeks. We push our Macs to the limits, and then find ways to surpass those limits. macOS has limits put in place that result in occasional error messages about “too many open files,” which one of the team ran afoul of. Jeff Butts dove deep into the core of macOS and found out how to increase the limits Apple has imposed upon us.
macOS: How to Copy Files as Pathnames
If you need to reference a file or a folder with a really long pathname, then don’t waste your time typing out the whole thing when there’s a shortcut to help you! Today’s Quick Tip is about a better, faster way to point people toward items on their Macs, and Melissa Holt’s got the scoop.
macOS: How to Roll Back the Firmware on Your AirPort
If you update your Time Capsule or AirPort Extreme and your network starts having issues, then just go and roll back the version you installed! This little-known feature will let you revert the firmware on your Apple network devices in case you run into trouble, and Melissa Holt’s gonna tell us how in today’s Quick Tip.
Word for Mac: Viewing Nonprinting Characters
For today’s Quick Tip, let’s talk about Word! Microsoft’s document-creation program has a way to show and hide nonprinting characters, so if you’re having issues with text reflowing or with images moving around, this may just help you figure out why.
8 Ways to See the Charge Level of Your AirPods
If you’ve got a pair of Apple’s bluetooth headphones, dubbed “AirPods,” then it’s good to know that there are tons of ways to check their battery levels. Considering that the AirPods don’t have a physical indicator of how much charge they’ve got, that’s a good thing! In today’s Quick Tip, Melissa Holt’s gonna go over a number of methods for finding out how much more listenin’ you can do.
NVIDIA's Pascal Drivers for macOS Available, but Still Beta
NVIDIA made Mac users happy on Tuesday when it released a macOS-compatible version of its Pascal graphics processors. The company promised they were coming, and while still in beta, they let Mac owners get a taste of the company’s more powerful GPU offering.
macOS Sierra: How to Disable the Dashboard
You probably don’t use the Dashboard in macOS, except by accident. Ever wondered how you could disable it altogether? Jeff Butts did, and has found a way to do just that.
macOS: Reduce PDF File Size in Preview
This Quick Tip is about a little-known feature of Preview that’ll let you shrink the file size of large PDFs, so you could use this when you’re bumping up against uploading limitations, for example. Come read about how to do it (and why you should pay attention to how your file looks afterward!).
