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How-To - page 33

Change your Apple Watch Move goal to stay fit during lockdown [Pro tip]

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Increasing your Move goal can help you be even more active.
Photo: Apple

Pro-tip-4You might need to exercise a little more if you hope to stay fit while stuck at home for most of the day during a global pandemic. Give yourself a little push by increasing your Move goal on Apple Watch.

It’s easy to do, and if you’re one of the many Apple Watch owners who likes to complete their Move goal every day, it will help you burn a few additional calories to make up for spending most of the day on the couch.

Pro tip: Adjust mouse and trackpad scroll speed in iPadOS

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Make using a mouse with iPad even better.
GIF: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Apple’s default mouse and trackpad settings in iPadOS might work great with the company’s own accessories, but they can be less than ideal with third-party peripherals. Scroll speed, in particular, seems very temperamental.

Unfortunately, Apple decided it would be a good idea to hide away those scroll speed settings, so a lot of users have no idea they can be adjusted. Here’s where you can find them on iPad.

How to find a COVID-19 testing station with Apple Maps

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Map
See all the local testing locations on a map.
Photo: Capturing the human heart/Unsplash

As of yesterday, Apple Maps can now show you local COVID-19 testing stations, so you can find the nearest one and get yourself checked out. It’s really easy to do, but it does require a search to activate the new map layer.

Here’s how to find a COVID-19 test near you. Note: This currently only works in the United States.

20 Apple Watch home workouts you can do during lockdown

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No excuses! You could be doing one of these workouts right now.
No excuses! You could be doing one of these workouts right now.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

Apple Watch supports a huge selection of workout types, but most of the popular ones, like running and swimming, you probably can’t do right now thanks to the coronavirus lockdown. Fortunately, if you delve a little deeper, you’ll find plenty of Apple Watch home workouts you can choose from that require little or no special equipment.

So why not take the opportunity to master a whole new kind of exercise? Here are 20 Apple Watch indoor workout options you can do at home right now.

Apps to boost your work-from-home productivity

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It only takes a few key tools to make working remotely much more manageable.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

COVID-19 lockdown certainly brought a swift change from the norm for many people. We’re dealing with the added stress of different working situations, the struggle to get groceries, and in many cases, even acting as teachers or child care providers.

All of that can make it really challenging to feel accomplished and productive. Luckily, I finally found my groove in the last week or so, thanks to a couple of really useful apps (and some self-imposed rules).

Force Mac apps to open in glorious full-screen mode

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Full-screen works great on a MacBook.
Full-screen works great on a MacBook.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Full-screen mode on a Mac is pretty great. Unlike Windows, where full-screen apps have been the default since forever, the Mac’s full-screen abilities are a fairly recent addition. And the default is still for apps to launch in smaller windows, which is the Mac Way. But what if you want those apps to launch in full-screen every time you open them? Well, by changing one setting — and abandoning an ingrained habit — you can have exactly that.

Bonus: Full-screen app launching will only apply to the apps you choose, leaving the rest of them to behave normally.

If your MacBook Pro overheats, you might be charging it from the wrong side

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It takes years of professional training to place MacBook stickers this badly.
Even the new-ish 16-inch MacBook Pro runs hot.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Does your brand new MacBook Pro go into meltdown when it’s plugged into power? Do the fans spin up into a blast of white noise, while the heat makes your hands sweat as you type? Is your kernel\_task pegged using 100% of the CPU when you check things out in the Activity Monitor app?

If so, don’t worry — it’s not your Mac’s fault. It’s you. You’re charging it wrong.

Yes, if you plug your USB-C power cable into the left-hand side of your MacBook Pro, you might make it overheat.

Using the Space bar for Push to Talk makes Zoom calls bearable

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Would you touch this Space bar?
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Zoom is the world’s favorite app during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite its flagrant privacy abuses, and a history of startlingly bad security holes, people are using the videoconferencing service for remote teaching, conference calls and virtual get-togethers.

If you — or your boss or a stubborn family member — insist on using this software rather than one of the safer Zoom alternatives, this Mac tip will save you a lot of trouble. Using the Push to Talk feature will make your Zoom life a lot easier.

How to add a Smart Folder to your Mac’s Dock (and why you’ll want to)

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A Smart Folder can make a powerful addition to your Dock.
A Smart Folder can make a powerful addition to your Dock.
Photo: Dan Counsell/Unsplash CC

I have an app I use every day, but whenever I open it, it opens to a new, blank document, instead of the project I was working on when I closed the app. To open that project, I have to mouse up to my Mac’s menu bar, click on File > Recent Items…, and find it in there.

To fix this, I set out to find a way to easily access the last few projects from this app. What if I could put this list of recent projects into my Mac’s Dock? It turns out that you can easily do this, using a quick Spotlight search, a Smart Folder and a drag to the Dock.

Amazing Darkroom photo app now does video

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Darkroom, the amazing iOS photo-editing app, now edits video
Darkroom, the amazing iOS photo-editing app, now edits video
Photo: Darkroom

Darkroom, one of the best photo library and editing apps on iOS, is now also one of the best video library and editing apps on iOS. In today’s update, Darkroom adds support for editing your videos. Not cutting and chopping them up, like iMove, but changing how they look, as if you were applying filters and edits to a still photograph. And the along thing is, it’s instant, just as fast as editing a still image.