Surprising things you can do on your Mac

For work or play — and the stuff that doesn’t fit either of those categories

01 FIND ALIEN LIFE

The University of California, Berkeley’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (setiathome.berkeley.edu) wants your Mac’s help to analyze radio telescope data. Install the BOINC app from boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php, and it’ll run in the background. You can opt in to other research too.

02 Light up your party

The Music app (or iTunes in previous versions of macOS) offers a psychedelic light show that responds to the sounds your Mac is playing. Hit Cmd+T to start; it’ll cycle through different modes to keep things fresh. While it’s playing, press ? (with or without Shift) to show key shortcuts that you can use to change the patterns, including M to switch modes and P to shift the color palette. You can also press A to add more branches to the patterns or S to subtract. Press I to show or hide track info. In Window > Visualizer Settings, you can switch to the Classic Visualizer from the original iTunes. Again, try A and S. To really chill out, connect your TV or projector.

03 Do math in Spotlight

The Calculator widget is handy, but for a quicker method, hit Cmd+[Space bar] to open Spotlight and type numbers and operators straight in. It accepts both x and * for multiplication, / for division, ^ for powers (so ^2 is “squared”) and %, and you can use brackets.

04 KEEP SECRETS

The keychain is where macOS stores confidential data like passwords and security certificates. You can also use it to keep secure notes. Launch Keychain Access (from Applications > Utilities, or type its name into Spotlight). You could now select the “login” keychain at the top left; alternatively, for extra security, go to File > New Keychain, name a new keychain and set a password for it, then select it. Now, click Secure Notes, then the + below. Give your note a name and type something in the box. Click Add. The title of the note is visible when you’re logged in, but if it’s not in your login keychain you’ll be asked for the password for its keychain to show the content.

05 SPEED-READ DOCUMENTS

Just want the gist of a document? In System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts, click Services. Items ticked here appear in Services, available from the application menu (next to the Apple logo at the top left), or by right– clicking content. Tick Summarize, and click Add Shortcut at the right to set a key combo, like Ctrl+Shift+S. In any app, select some text. Now, right–click it and choose Services > Summarize, or press your shortcut. A window appears showing what it thinks are the key points; drag the slider for a longer/ shorter summary. For example, in Safari, hit Cmd+Shift+R for Reading mode, Cmd+A to select all the text, then your Summarize shortcut.

06 Plan a trip

Unsurprisingly, macOS’ Maps app doesn’t offer real–time satnav. But if you search for a place, then click the blue box on its pin label, you can get driving, walking, or transport directions. Click Details, then use File > Print to get a neatly formatted journey plan (which can be saved as a PDF).

07 Remote– control your Mac

The ability to operate your Mac from another device is no longer included, but you can add it via Google’s Chrome browser: see bit.ly/mfchrrem. Install the Chrome Remote Desktop app (free) to use it to control your Mac over the internet.

08 PRINT YOUR OWN T-SHIRT

Label paper maker Avery can help you plan out–of–the–ordinary print projects. At avery.com, go to Templates > Avery Design & Print > Start Designing, and sign up with your email.

Pick a product category: Create Your Own has interesting options like T–shirt transfers. Note the options for light fabrics (where "white" areas are left unprinted) versus dark. Click Upload a Complete Design to use artwork you’ve created in bitmap or vector formats, or start from a blank sheet or preset, and add text and images here. Print your design on the relevant Avery paper, save it online, or export to PDF for later. Transfers can be ironed on: see bit.ly/mfytavery for tutorials.

09 HAVE TEXT READ ALOUD

Select any text in any app, right–click and choose Start Speaking: macOS’ built–in speech synthesizer reads it out. In System Preferences > Accessibility > Speech, set which voice to use (in macOS Catalina, click Customize to see all the options), and how fast to talk. You can set a shortcut key to start speaking, or enable announcements, so when an app needs your attention it’ll promptly tell you so, instead of just showing an alert or bouncing its icon.

As it starts speaking, macOS loads all the text into memory. So, for example, you can select text on a web page, start it speaking, then close the page; the voice continues. To halt it, select any text in the same app, and choose Stop Speaking.

10 RECORD YOUR iOS SCREEN

In macOS 10.10 Yosemite or later, you can record the screen of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Connect it with its Lightning cable and, on your Mac, launch QuickTime Player (from Applications). Go to File > New Movie Recording, click the chevron beside the Record, and select your device under Camera; select it under Microphone too. Your device’s screen is mirrored live. Turn up the volume to the left of the Record button to hear audio. Click Record to capture video; it turns into a Stop button to click to finish. Save. Without recording, this is an easy way to stream your iOS display to a Mac, avoiding AirPlay’s lag.

11 Edit a font

How annoying is it to find a font that’s just what you need, but lacks a $ symbol, or has its em– dash slightly too high? BirdFont is a Mac app from developer Johan Mattsson that lets you open and edit standard .ttf and .otf font files.

You can even use it to design a font from scratch, drawing glyphs (character shapes) using the included tools — optionally with hand–drawn characters you’ve scanned in as a guide — or importing SVG paths from Adobe Illustrator. BirdFont costs $14.99 on the Mac App Store, but you can get it from birdfont.org and donate what you want, with a minimum of $5 for the commercial version.

To copy a glyph, double–click it in the Overview screen to open it, then press Cmd+A to select all paths, and Cmd+C to copy. Go back to Overview, open a blank character slot, and press Cmd+Shift+V to paste it in the same alignment; this also matches the spacing settings. You can move glyphs between fonts this way. Remember not to distribute fonts to other users unless their license permits this, and even if it does, always include a note when sharing a modified font to avoid confusion.

12 COMPILE FILES INTO A PDF

To send a bunch of PDFs and/or images, collect them into one PDF. Launch Preview, open one of your files, press Cmd+Shift+Opt+S, opt for Save As, set Format to PDF, enter a name for the collection, and click Save. From the sidebar menu at top left, choose Show Thumbnails. Use Edit > Insert > Page From File to add your other files — hold S to select more than one. They appear in the sidebar, where you can reorder them by dragging; select any page not required, and press Backspace to remove it. You can also click the pen nib icon at the top right and use macOS’ Markup tools to annotate pages. Press Cmd+S to save your PDF. You can send it via File > Share > Mail.

13 List files

You have a bunch of files. You need to make a note of them. You open a TextEdit doc and start manually writing down the filenames. Don’t do that. In the Finder, select all the files, and press Cmd+C (Copy). In TextEdit, press Cmd+Shift+Opt+V (Paste and Match Style).

14 Link storage to apps

Connect a USB drive or SD card and launch Image Capture (from Applications). Select your removable storage under Devices. Click the icon at the bottom left and select any app. That app will now open every time you attach this storage device — a time–saver when you always use it for similar content.

15 MAKE A MEME

To turn any image you’ve found on the web into a meme, right–click it in Safari, and choose Copy Image. In Preview, press Cmd+N to open the copied image, then Cmd+Ctrl+T to add a text box. Enter your witty caption, and set the font and size using the text options (’A’ icon) in the Markup toolbar that appears at the top; press Cmd+S+A to show or hide this. For the classic meme style, choose the Impact font, and size the text as big as will fit across the image.

There’s no shadow or outline option, so create the effect by Opt–dragging the text to make a duplicate, setting this to white and the original to black. Use the cursor keys to nudge the text boxes into position. Save your meme with Cmd+S.

16 FORMAT TEXT IN ANY APP

DEVONtechnologies’ WordService (available free from the Mac App Store) adds a range of text formatting options to macOS’ Services, available by right– clicking selected text.

Having installed it, you can activate the commands by heading to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services. The Statistics option also includes a word count.

Surprising things you can do on your iPhone

Forget texting someone or making a call; your iPhone can do so much more

17 MAKE A FLIPBOOK

FlipaClip is a free app (with pop–up ads and in–app purchase options) to draw flipbook animations. Click the red +, pick a background or texture, choose a size, and set frames per second; this can be quite low. Enter a name and tap Create Project.

Draw something with your finger, inspired by our majestic SheepDuck. Then tap + and draw over the faint ‘onion skin’ to slightly change the position or shape for the next frame. Continue, tapping Play to preview, until you have a few dozen frames, or are just giggling hysterically.

Tap the three vertical dots at the top right, then choose Make Movie. Your animation exports with a small FlipaClip logo (a cheap purchase removes this for all projects), and you can save or post it.

18 Make a QR code

Since iOS 11, the iOS Camera app reads QR codes. Just point the camera at one and the data encoded in it — most often a link to a website — appears at the top. To make your own QR codes for others to read, download and run Visual Codes (free), tap Add Code and choose what to encode.

19 LEARN TO DANCE

Dance Reality (free) is an augmented reality app that teaches you to dance. The app uses your iPhone (6s or later) to watch your feet, overlaying diagrams of where they should be. A video instructor appears to show you what to do. Most content needs an in–app purchase, from $0.99.

20 SCAN DOCUMENTS

Did you know your iPhone can scan documents? Apple added the feature in iOS 11, but hid it in the Notes app. Open this and make a new note by tapping the pencil icon at bottom right (or tap the chevron at top left to choose where to store it). Tap the + icon above the onscreen keyboard, then Scan Documents. Place your item flat, preferably on a contrasting background in good light, then point your iPhone camera at it. When a page is detected, it’s shaded yellow; hold still to snap it. Capture more pages if required, then tap Save, and your scan is automatically straightened. Move the corners if necessary. Find scans again from the Attachments icon at the bottom left of the Notes home screen.

21 Explore your senses

San Francisco’s Exploratorium is an interactive science museum — with free apps. In Sound Uncovered, see with your ears, test audible frequencies, and experience acoustic phenomena. In Color Uncovered, boggle at optical illusions and learn how your screen works.

22 Make an animated GIF

In Shortcuts (iOS 12 or later), tap Gallery, and search for ‘Convert gif’. Pick, say, Convert Video, then Get Shortcut. In Library, tap the shortcut. Pick a video and drag the timeline to trim it. Tap Save, then Share and Save Image. It appears in Photos.

23 Capture inspiration

Adobe Capture grabs creative inspiration from the real world. In Colors, point your camera at a scene, or import a photo, and place points to produce either a colour palette or a gradient, switched by tapping the icon at the top. Tap the tick to save your swatches with RGB.

27 Watch your videos

On your Mac, turn on System Preferences > Sharing > File Sharing. In VLC for Mobile (free), tap Network, and tap your Mac under File Servers. Set Port to 22 and enter your login. Tap Save, then Connect. Navigate to a video in almost any format, and it’ll stream to your touchscreen.

28 VISIT HISTORY

The BBC’s Civilisations AR app (free) renders 30 historical artifacts. In the Natural History Museum’s Fossil Explorer (free), you can see what ancient animals once inhabited the planet. British Museum Guide, like the other apps from Museum Guides Ltd, shows a selection of the items.

29 Magnify anything

In iOS 10 or later, go to Settings > Control Panel > Customize Controls, and click the green + beside Magnifier. Control Panel (open by swiping up from the bottom of the screen, or from the top right on recent iPhones/iPads) gains a magnifier icon. Tap and use the slider to zoom in on reality.

24 Measure anything

Apple’s ARKit, supported on iOS and iPadOS devices with A9 or later processors, builds a map of real–world scenes. These can be for practical purposes, like estimating dimensions. Among various apps to exploit this, Measure — AR was one of the first, and is free.

25 Plan a room

The free IKEA Place app shows you not just what the furniture emporium’s products look like, but how they’ll fit into your home. Through the magic of AR (iPhone 6s or later), you can place items in 3D, automatically scaled to real size — but do check with a tape measure too.

26 Collaborate IRL

The free Vuforia Chalk app lets another user see a live feed from your iPad (or iPhone) camera that you can mark up in real time. Thanks to ARKit, marks stay put in space as you move: ideal for "which wire do I cut?" moments. You’ll need to set up an account with a name, password, and email.

30 Monitor your baby

Set up a spare iOS device with a different Apple ID, and place it somewhere that you want to keep an eye on. With it and your own iOS device both logged in on Wi–Fi, make a FaceTime video call, answer it, and leave it on. If you search Settings for ‘Answer’ and turn on Auto– Answer Calls, you have the option of checking in remotely.

Google’s Translate app is a scarily smart piece of software. Point its Camera mode at any piece of text, and it will translate it to a chosen language live, even matching the typesetting. Conversation mode interprets between users of two languages, aloud, as they speak. Voice converts your speech to text and translates it. Incroyable!

32 BRING THE WORLD

TO YOU

The free Google Earth app lets you zoom to any location, many captured in wobbly 3D. Tap the Street View figure (bottom left) to see where close–ups are available. In Navigator (ship’s wheel icon), find ready–made tours of cities and scenery, plus historical topics and geographical quizzes.

33 Check the light

There are lots of light meter apps that are available for manual photography, some expensive and many with almost identical names, but Lux — Professional Light Meter for Film Photography has been around for ages and is completely free, with no ads whatsoever. Just set aperture, and it tells you the right shutter speed, or vice versa.

34 SPOT FONTS

Install What The Font, and point it at any example of lettering. Whatever is recognized as type is subsequently highlighted, and you can tap it to see a shortlist of possible fonts — although you may need to use sharp eyes in order to pick a winner. Thanks to MyFonts, from which you can buy the fonts, the app is free, with no ads.

35 Entertain a younger user

Kids need no encouragement to use an iPad, but why risk them messing with settings or accessing random content when handing them yours? Turn on Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access, then open a suitable app. Set it up ready for them with any appropriate adjustments, then tap the Home button if your device has one, or the side button if not, three times. You can now draw around any areas of the screen to keep off limits, such as menu icons. In Options, you can disable buttons and even touch, to allow only passive viewing.

Tap Start and set a passcode (separate from your main unlock passcode) to enter Guided Access mode. To end, use the Home button or gesture and enter the passcode.

36 Sign documents

Received a PDF form that needs your signature? Open the attachment and tap the Markup icon (pen nib) at top right. Tap the + sign in the toolbox that appears, and choose Signature. Add a signature using your Pencil or a steady finger, and it’ll appear here next time. Tap the signature to insert it.

37 MAKE BEATS

GarageBand has two easy grid–based modes. On its home screen, tap + to make a new song. At the top, choose Live Loops, and pick a genre to get a grid pre–populated with loops. Tap the chevron below any column to play loops on all the instruments shown. Tap another column before the start of the next bar to cue it up. Tap an individual cell, and that instrument performs it while the others continue.

Tap the icon at the bottom left to edit cells. Tap FX, and swipe the filters for live effects. Or make a new song and choose Tracks. From Drums, pick Beat Sequencer. Tap a cell to play an instrument on that beat; adjust using the controls (bottom right). Tap the dice (bottom left) for a starting point.

38 Appreciate 38

Art museum websites like nationalgallery.org.uk, rijksmuseum. nl, guggenheim.org, and moma.org display high–res images of parts of their collections. You can also browse art dealing platform artsy. net for thousands of contemporary works from famous and not–so– famous artists.

39 Dissect a frog

An unlikely choice for Apple’s 2018 iPad App of the Year, Froggipedia uses iOS’ ARKit augmented reality framework to explore amphibian anatomy. Biology teachers will find the content offers limited depth, but you get a virtual dissection experience with no frogs harmed. OK, maybe one frog.

40 TRAVEL THE WORLD

Stuck at home, or anywhere with internet, you can explore the world on your screen. Quality varies, but many feeds now are Full HD or even 4K — a far cry from when Cambridge boffins with a 128px camera pointed at a coffee machine in 1991.

Search YouTube for ‘live webcams’ or ‘live cam streams’, or check out YouTube

Live’s Animals category and the Explore Live Nature Cams channel. Third–party sites like worldcams.tv curate feeds in categories such as Cities, Mountains, and Transport. EarthCam (earthcam.com) hosts a variety of high–quality streams; the app charges to unlock them all, but the website is free.

41 MAKE YOUR OWN FONT

Calligraphr lets you create a handwriting font by printing a template, writing on it and scanning it. But you can do it all in iPadOS with Pencil.

In Safari, go to calligraphr.com and register with your email. Under ‘Your first steps’, tap ‘Create a template’. Add Minimal English, Minimal Numbers and Minimal Punctuation, then tap to delete a few characters to reach the limit of 75. Tap Download Template, and proceed with the default settings. The template appears in a new tab. Tap the Share icon at top right, and pick Markup. Draw your characters in black. Tap Done, and save the file anywhere.

In the original Calligraphr tab, tap My Fonts, Upload Template, Choose File, Browse, and pick your template from Recents. Tap Upload Template. When the Result window appears after a few seconds, scroll down and tap ‘Add characters to your font’. Tap Build Font, name your font and tap Build.

Long–press the OTF link, and tap Download twice to get your font; tap Safari’s Downloads icon, then the magnifier to reveal it in your Downloads folder. Open this file on your Mac to install the font, or install it in iPadOS using a font manager app such as iFont (free).