7 Cool Things Macs Can Do That You Didn’t Know About

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It’s official. Apple is now a trillion-dollar company. That’s trillion…with a ‘t’. It attained this remarkable feat for numerous reasons, not least for the charisma of Jobs and brilliance of Wozniak. But it was Apple’s signature style and revolutionary tech that sky-rocketed it to stardom. Everything from iPhones to earpods rocked the industry and our lives along with it. The Apple Mac is another prime example of this. Sleek, stylish, and powerful, it immediately found a fan base among people looking for alternatives to Microsoft. Even now, though, there are tons of cool things macs can do that many people don’t even know about.

We want to rectify that predicament today! After all, any Apple aficionado is sure to want to use their computer to its fullest potential.

Sound like a plan?

Read on to discover 7 cools things that you didn’t know Mac could do!

1. Message Your Mates

Whoever said text messaging was reserved for mobiles?

Not Apple.

Log into your iMessage account on the mac and you can send and receive messages with ease. Messages from your mates come through to your computer in real-time.

Rather than logging onto your iPhone and replying from there, you can do it from the mac instead. Get in touch with your pals, set up group chats, and interact as normal via the keyboard.

This functionality allows instant connectivity with any other apple user you know. It’s just one example of the convenience Apple products offer.

2. Airplay Images and Audio

Got a presentation to run?

Want to stream a film/series and watch in on the TV?

How about listening to music on designated Apple speakers?

You can do it all with ease using Apple airplay. Of course, this functionality relies on having other Apple gear in the house (think Apple TV and airplay-enabled speakers).

But that’s rarely a problem for Apple-lovers of the world. Once they make the move to Apple, there’s rarely any going back!

Anyway, tap the airplay button on your mac and you can sync audio and visual to your connected devices. It’s worth noting, though, that wireless screen-mirroring on Apple TVs isn’t possible on macs made before 2011.

3. Use Two Apps in Split-Screen Mode

The split view is another basic mac function that can make a mighty difference.

It allows you to place two apps, side by side, on the same screen. You can then look and use both simultaneously, without having to resize them.

The process of accessing split-view on Mac varies by your OS. On Catalina, for instance, you can hover the cursor over the full-screen button (the green one!) and select ‘Tile Window to Left/Right of Screen’.

The app will then move to the left or right side of the screen, depending on your selection. Repeat the process for another app and select the opposite side.

Voila, you’re using two apps at the same time! Use the escape key to get back out of this mode.

4. Share Files With Airdrop

Airdrop makes sending and receiving files on iOS a breeze.

You select anything you want to distribute and the airdrop function lets you drop it onto nearby Apple devices.

This is great if you can’t stand the thought of laboring away with something like email, which takes far more time and effort. Airdrop, on the other hand, finds devices in your vicinity and lets you share files with them in two clicks.

This is just one example of an Apple function that Microsoft doesn’t offer. However, if you ever wanted an insight into what Microsoft does provide, then you can quite easily run Windows on Mac to take a look.

5. ‘Quick Look’ Into Files

Quick-look is nothing fancy.

But it will revolutionize your mac experience when you start using it!

This little hack does exactly what it says on the tin. Anyone with a mac can use it to enjoy a ‘quick look’ at any file on the computer. Select it in Finder, tap the space bar, and you’ll see a preview of the contents pop up on the screen.

Why is that useful? Because you can see the file without having to open it up completely.

Wave goodbye to waiting for programs to open and bid farewell to emailing the wrong documents to people!

6. Perform Instant Calculations on Spotlight

Spotlight is vastly underutilized on Macs.

Get your head around it, though, and it’s great for navigating your computer with ease. You can use it to search (or shine a spotlight) on whatever documents, files or information that you’re after.

You can also use it to perform instance calculations.

Open Spotlight up by hitting command and space (or by clicking the magnifying glass in the menu). All you do from there is type in the calculation to which you need an answer, which will populate automatically as a search result.

You can to currency conversions in exactly the same way. Type in the number and its currency symbol (e.g. $500) and it’ll show you its equivalent value in numerous global currencies.

7. Create Your Own Shortcuts

Any computer shortcut is perfect for saving valuable time and effort.

For instance, most people are well-aware of the copy and paste keyboard shortcuts. Holding Command + C and Command + V will copy and paste something, respectively.

It’s super quick and easy compared to using the mouse.

But did you know that you could create your own shortcuts to access the apps on the computer?

Head to ‘system preferences’, hit ‘keyboard’, ‘then shortcuts’ and onto ‘app shortcuts’. Now click the ‘+’. You can then select your app of choice and pick a shortcut. Press ‘Add’ and it’s all set up for easy access in due course.

Enjoy These Cool Things Macs Can Do

It’s no surprise that Apple has grown into the behemoth it is today.

People love the brand and the products it brings to market. They’re always sleek, simple, powerful, and industry-leading.

However, few of us ever use them to their full potential! Hopefully, though, this post has highlighted all of the cool things Macs can do that you might not have known about already.

Search ‘Apple’ on the website to read more posts like this.