Posts filed under Mac

Screenshots 101 for Mac

In today's digital age, taking screenshots and screen recordings has become an integral part of our daily lives. Whether it's for work, school, or personal use, the ability to capture what's on our computer screens can be incredibly helpful. If you're a Mac user, you may be wondering about the various methods available for capturing your screen. From keyboard shortcuts to specialized apps, there are several ways to take screenshots and record your screen on macOS. Whether you're a seasoned Mac user or just getting started, you'll find valuable information and tips to help you effectively capture and share your screen content.

Posted on April 7, 2023 and filed under How To, Mac.

6 Ways to Know It's Time to Upgrade Your Mac

As a Mac user, you know how important it is to keep your machine up-to-date. Not only do software updates bring new features and improvements, but they also ensure that your computer is secure and functioning optimally. However, there comes a time when upgrading your Mac is necessary. In this blog post, we'll discuss six ways to know if it's time to upgrade your Mac.

Posted on April 6, 2023 and filed under Opinion, Mac.

An Introduction to Universal Control

At Allgaier Consulting, we love finding new helpful tricks to share with our clients. We recently dove into Apple’s new feature called Universal Control to see what it’s all about. At first, it seemed to me like it was just an extra screen in the form of an iPad, but that is not the case. Universal Control is much cooler!

Posted on March 24, 2023 and filed under How To, iPad, Mac.

The Importance of Staying Current with Software

My father, a practicing pediatrician, constantly advises patients to eat healthier foods. In response, they complain of how expensive eating healthy is. My father always replies, “Think how expensive your doctor and hospital bills will be if you don’t take care of your body. Plus, you will feel a lot better!

In much the same way, staying current on our software ensures the best, fastest working systems possible. Effective technology allows businesses to increase profitability and everyday users to simplify their lives. As we keep our software up-to-date, we will need to consider (1) why software updates are vitally important, (2) how often we should update our devices, and (3) how to update our systems.

Posted on September 29, 2017 and filed under How To, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Opinion.

macOS High Sierra is NOW AVAILABLE!

Apple today announced macOS High Sierra, the latest release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, is now available as a free update.

With macOS High Sierra, Mac users gain powerful new core storage, video and graphics technologies. A new file system ensures more efficient and reliable storage, and support for High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) brings stunning 4K video at lower file sizes. Metal 2 powers virtual reality content creation, faster performance and more. The Core ML developer framework makes it easy to create apps with powerful machine learning that predict, learn and become more intelligent. macOS High Sierra also includes a number of refinements to the apps Mac users enjoy everyday, including Photos and Safari.

Posted on September 25, 2017 and filed under Mac.

Unlock Your Mac with Your Apple Watch

When Apple announced macOS Sierra and showed us all the new features that would be included, there was one feature that stood out immediately as one that I would use many times every single day... unlocking my Mac with my Apple Watch! To say that I love this feature is an understatement.

If you read my post on improving security (click here), then you know that longer passwords are better (i.e.: more secure) than shorter passwords. The expected side effect... it's less convenient and takes longer to log in to your Mac. This tip will save you a ton of time (not to mention digit fatigue)! In this post, I will explain how it works and walk you through the steps you'll need to go through to make it work for you.

Posted on October 3, 2016 and filed under How To, Mac, Watch.

10 Tips for Safer Online Computing

Technology is wonderfully amazing!! Sit back and think about it for just 10 seconds... can you imagine working, playing and relaxing without your laptop, iPhone, iPad, etc? When is the last time you checked your email, Instagrammed (that's a verb, right?) or surfed the web? You're reading this so I know the answer already. We're all connected all the time.

Being connected has it's obvious benefits, but it also introduces a significant amount of risk. Malware, spyware, viruses, hackers... these are all things that can ruin an otherwise great day. But they don't have to, if we're doing the right things! To help keep you safe, I created a list of 10 simple things that everyone can (and should) be doing. There is no rocket science involved here. Mostly common sense infused with many years of my own experiences.

Posted on September 30, 2016 and filed under How To, Opinion, Mac, iPhone, iPad.

Change the Way People See You On FaceTime and Skype

FaceTime, GoToMeeting and Skype are great tools that help us to stay in touch with those that we care about... family, friends, colleagues, etc. The fact that we can, with the click of a button, instantly see someone else regardless of their location is a modern miracle!

With that in mind, today's post will focus (no pun intended, sort of) on the camera element of these calls. Most laptops today come with a built-in HD webcam above the display of your laptop. If not, or if you use a desktop as your primary system, there are plenty of options to add an after-market HD webcam (I prefer the Logitech HD Pro C920 camera). Even with the best cameras on the market, there may be a need to make adjustments to that camera that the built-in software can't offer.

Posted on May 31, 2016 and filed under Design, How To, Mac.

Managing Dropbox Upload and Download Speeds

Today's post comes from a Dropbox user: "I've been using Dropbox for a long time and only lately noticed that it takes forEVER to upload files to Dropbox (it seems fine when downloading). Is there something I can do to speed this up??"

The short answer is yes... most likely (how's that for non-committal!). Dropbox syncing will only happen as fast as your Internet connection will allow, and keep in mind that your download speeds are usually much faster than your upload speeds (this is typical, especially for home Internet). Having said that, there is a simple change that you can make to your Dropbox settings that will give you full access to the speeds you have.

Posted on May 26, 2016 and filed under How To, Opinion, Mac.

Fastest Way to Batch Rename Files in OS X

Prior to the release of OS X Yosemite (10.10), the process of batch renaming files on a Mac required 3rd-party software. Some apps were better than others, and usually the good ones cost a few bucks (or more) to get the job done.

Apple included the option to batch rename files in Yosemite, and of course, this is still a feature in El Capitan (10.11). While it may not be obvious (at first) just how to do this, it's super-easy once you know how.

Posted on May 19, 2016 and filed under How To, Mac.

The Right Way to Archive Photos from the Photos App

If you're using a Mac, there's a very good chance that you are using the built-in Photos app to manage your precious photos and videos. It's a great, easy-to-use tool for those countless photos and videos that you take on your iPhone, iPad, SLR and even scanned photos.

Over time, your Photos library is likely to grow, and if you're like me, it will get pretty large, pretty quick. These growing libraries are like trees... they need to be pruned every so often to keep them at a manageable size. There's the wrong way to do this pruning (a.k.a.: archiving) and the right way. In this post, I will walk you through the steps I take to archive my photos the right way.

Posted on May 18, 2016 and filed under How To, Mac, Opinion.