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10 reasons to seriously consider the 2016 Retina MacBook

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Yesterday, I bought a 12″ MacBook, and after playing with it for 10 minutes, I immediately knew that I made the right decision. 24 hours later, I’m convinced that this is the best laptop for me, and a much better portable workhorse than something like a 12.9″ iPad Pro. Here are 10 reasons why you should consider going with a MacBook if you’re in the market for something powerful, yet portable.
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How-To: Group Mission Control windows by application on OS X [Video]

Mission Control is a tool that I use every day on my Mac to quickly locate open app windows. In my opinion, though, finding a specific window in the Mission Control view can be a challenge if you have many app windows open at once.

The good news is that it’s easy to group like applications while using Mission Control. More importantly, enabling grouping places the relevant app icon near groups and single windows. Having an app icon displayed makes it even easier to identify a particular app window while using Mission Control.
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How-To: Automatically change your Mac’s display resolution when running specific apps [Video]

I normally run my 15″ MacBook Pro at default resolution, which equates to a useable space of 1440-by-900. While this default resolution is great for reading and writing, I’ve found that it’s not always so good for editing with timeline-based apps, such as Final Cut Pro X.

Generally speaking, it’s better to have more resolution for timeline-based apps, because the timelines can be so long and expansive. A larger field of view gives content creators more flexibility and room to work with on the canvas.

Wouldn’t it be nice if your Mac automatically adjusted to a higher resolution when running a certain app, and automatically switched back to default resolution when closing said app? In this post, we’ll show you how to wield SwitchResX, a utility geared towards managing your Mac’s screen resolution, in such a way that makes that possible.
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How-To: Quickly resize images on OS X using a Service with Automator

Every day I use a handy service created with Automator to resize images exported from 4K footage to a smaller size. It’s easy to resize images in an app like Preview or Pixelmator, but using a service works better for me since it can batch resize multiple images in seconds, and it’s directly accessible from the Finder. Here’s how you can create your own handy image resizing service using Automator.
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Apple releases Bluetooth software update for new 12-inch MacBook already

Even though nobody has gotten their hands on the new 12-inch MacBook released today, Apple has already gone ahead and released a new software update. The update focuses on bluetooth compatibility with third-party devices. Weighing in at 157.8 MB, it will be a relatively small update to download once configuring your new machine.


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Building a (sub-$1000) Hackintosh that meets the Oculus Rift hardware requirements – Part II

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In part I of our Hackintosh tutorial, we discussed our choice of hardware and the reasons behind those decisions. The main goal was to create a machine that had enough power to meet the Oculus Rift hardware requirements.

In this follow-up tutorial, we’ll show you the entire software install process needed for completing the build. Watch our 18+ minute step-by-step tutorial and witness this Hackintosh come to life.
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Building a (sub-$1000) Hackintosh that meets the Oculus Rift hardware requirements – Part I

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Back at the beginning of March, Oculus CEO Palmer Luckey made controversial statements about Apple’s hardware, specifically the inability of any Mac in Apple’s entire lineup of computers to handle the graphics needs of the upcoming Oculus Rift. At one point in time, Oculus had support for OS X in the pipeline; in fact previous Rift dev kits supported Macs. As time went on, however, it was decided that the Oculus Rift would be Windows-only, at least initially.

It’s with Luckey’s comments, and the lack of initial OS X support in mind, that I’ve decided to put together a Hackintosh machine that meets the minimum requirements outlined by Oculus, yet can still run OS X. In theory, this machine could support the Oculus Rift if the necessary software was made available for OS X. It can run the Rift now if you install a Windows partition on it…
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Feature Request: Messages for Mac needs quick photo sharing access like iOS

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When Apple posted the Messages Beta for the Mac over four years ago, I knew I would feel right at home. iChat was long overdue for an upgrade, and bringing iMessage to the Mac would further bridge the divide between iOS and Mac OS X. I was excited to start messaging my friends and family from the comfort of my computer, until I realized, “Where’s the camera button?”


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Yoink: A great utility for moving files around OS X [Video]

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Yoink is a utility available on the Mac App Store that I find to be extremely useful. When you begin dragging a file on a Mac with Yoink installed, the utility’s interface appears on the side of the screen. Yoink serves as a temporary holding area for files on your Mac as you move them between apps, folders, and wherever else in the Finder.

There are few apps that I consider to be must-haves on OS X, but Yoink is certainly one of them. Moving files around the Mac is easier with Yoink installed, especially if you make the most of using full screen apps. Watch our video walkthrough inside to see how.
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How-To: Easily move items to full screen apps with Mission Control

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Mission Control is a great feature found in OS X that can simplify the process of moving items between full screen apps when combined with Hot Corners. Hot Corners, a feature that I talked about in my 10 getting started tips for new OS X users, allows you to place your mouse pointer in one of the four corners of your Mac’s screen to invoke a specific response.

When combining the power of Hot Corners with Mission Control, you can easily move items to and from full screen apps. Have a look at our video tutorial inside for the details.
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How-To: Display window previews for apps in the OS X Dock

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Yesterday, I presented a list of 10 different tips that I thought any new Mac owner should know. As stated in that walkthrough, I don’t consider every recommendation on the list to be an absolute must-follow for new Mac users. There are a few items on the list, however, that are staples in my opinion.

For example, I would hate it if every minimized window on OS X occupied its own space on the Dock. For that reason, I rush to enable the “Minimize window into application icon” option (found in System Preferences → Dock) after every new install. But enabling such a feature comes with its own caveat — it’s hard to know exactly what’s behind an app icon on the Dock once you’ve minimized its respective windows. Thankfully, there’s a handy Mac utility that allows you to preview app windows by hovering over icons in the Dock.
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How-To: 10 getting started tips for new Mac users [Video]

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As someone who reinstalls macOS several times a year, I’ve gotten into a habit of powering through the initial setup process without thinking much about it. Today, I’d like to share 10 of my favorite initial setup tips with new Mac users. But even if you’re a long-time Mac user, you may still find a helpful gem or two within this how-to.
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Twitter for Mac is officially getting a much-needed overhaul, but not just yet

Twitter doesn’t exactly have the best track record in supporting its loyal third-party developers, which is something that could be forgivable if it built half-decent first party applications. The company’s official apps for the iPhone and iPad have dramatically improved as of late, but the official Twitter for Mac client has felt almost abandoned for years.

Today, at the Twitter Flight developer’s conference, the company has confirmed that a much-needed overhaul to the Mac app is on the way…
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Apple releases OS X El Capitan, featuring full-screen Split View, new Notes, revamped Spotlight Search, Safari 9 and more

Apple has officially released OS X El Capitan for the Mac, adding some new improvements as well as bringing parity with changes in iOS 9, released two weeks ago. OS X El Capitan (version 10.11), can be installed on any Mac that runs OS X Yosemite: simply download the free update from the Mac App Store. The release does not feature anything radically new — like the major visual overhaul that came last year — but there are new features as well as a strong focus on overall performance and stability improvements.

Here’s what’s new in Apple’s latest version of the Mac operating system …


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Make your MacBook chime like an iPhone when you plug it in to charge

The iPhone and iPad have made a cute little chime noise when plugged it into charge since their inception, but the Mac has no such noise as it uses the MagSafe light indicators to show charging status. This changed with the new 12-inch Retina MacBook which doesn’t have MagSafe so it uses the iOS chime sound to indicate charging. By default, this noise is simply disabled for other Macs …


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This song is actually a pretty good roundup of the WWDC keynote (Video)

Jonathan Mann has been running his “Song a Day” YouTube channel for quite some time now, and without fail, you can navigate to his channel on the day of an Apple event and find yet another song-ified version of Apple’s announcements. He’s a self-proclaimed Apple fanboy, and he was the guy that wrote the song played during the opening to the Antennagate press conference.
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Apple providing retail employees with OS X 10.11 El Capitan beta for testing

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At WWDC earlier today, Apple revealed Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan with a handful of new features, including improvements to Safari, new Spotlight capabilities, side-by-side window functionality, performance improvements, and more. Apple released a developer beta of El Capitan today via its developer portal, while also noting that a public beta will come in July. We have learned this evening, however, that Apple has also seeded a beta version of El Capitan to retail employees for testing.


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Roundtable: What we want to see at Apple’s WWDC conference next week

We’ve already run down much of what can be expected from iOS 9, OS X 10.11 and Apple Music at the 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference, and now it’s time to run down what 9to5Mac’s editors want to see at the conference. You can find our hopes below, and stay tuned for our comprehensive roundup of what to expect at WWDC.


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Apple readies Transit subway, train + bus guides for iOS 9 Maps, deploys robots for indoor mapping

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Having originally planned to add a new transit directions feature to Maps last year, only to pull the feature before WWDC 2014, Apple now hopes to launch its Transit service with iOS 9, according to sources. Apple currently plans to debut bus, subway, and train route navigation as the central upgrade to the Maps app in iOS 9 at WWDC, using a user interface similar to the one intended for last fall’s launch, as depicted in the screenshots above…


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Apple releases OS X Yosemite GM Candidate 1.0 for developers, Yosemite Beta 4 for testers

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Apple has released OS X Yosemite GM Candidate 1.0 for developers via the Mac App Store today. Candidate 1.0 of OS X Yosemite GM follows the release of the first iOS 8.1 beta to developers yesterday and Yosemite Developer Preview 8 two weeks ago. Apple is expected to debut to the new version of the Mac operating system to the public next month. We’ll update with changes found in the new version, and feel free to share any discoveries in the comments or via tips@9to5mac.com. 
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