MacRumors

There are dozens if not hundreds of macOS shortcuts and tricks to streamline your workflows and make it easier to use your Mac, but many of these shortcuts are easily overlooked or forgotten.

For this guide and accompanying YouTube video, we asked MacRumors readers on Twitter and YouTube for their most useful macOS tips, which we've compiled below. Some of these are more basic and will work for all users, while others are a bit more advanced for those who are looking for a deeper dive into macOS. Check out our video to see them in action, or read through the guide for a quick overview.

Desktop and App Management

• Activate Spotlight for Searching - To bring up a handy search interface that will let you find files on your Mac, just use Command + Space. Spotlight can do all kinds of things, from locating files to answering basic questions to solving math problems.
• Swap Between Apps - To switch between your open applications, press Command + Tab. Keep holding down the Command key and then press Tab to cycle through the open apps. Let go when the app you want is highlighted.
• Close Apps From App Switcher - When you're in the Command + Tab view, press the Q key with command held down to close an open app.
• Hot Corners - If you don't already use Hot Corners, they're worth checking out. You can set tasks that will happen when your mouse hovers in a specific corner, like launching Mission Control, showing the desktop, and more. Set them up in System Preferences > Mission Control > Hot Corners.
• Advanced Hot Corners - If you want to use Hot Corners but have found yourself accidentally activating features, hold down the Option key when setting up a Hot Corner. From there, the Hot Corner won't activate unless you're holding down the Option key.
• Hide a Window - To quickly hide a window on the desktop, just press Command + H. The app will disappear into the background, but you can get it back by clicking on the icon on the dock or using Command + Tab.
• Hide All Windows - You can hide all of the windows except for the window for the app you're currently using by pressing Option + Command + H.
• Cycle Between App Windows - If you have multiple windows open for an app like Safari, you can swap between those open windows using Command + the Tilde (~) key.
• Switch Between Multiple Desktops - If you use multiple desktops, you can swap between them quickly by pressing the Control button and then either the left or the right arrow.

Managing Files

• Quickly Open Folders - To open up a folder in Finder or on your desktop, hold Command and press the down arrow key. To go back, just hold Command and press the up arrow key.
• Clean Up Your Desktop - For those with macOS Mojave or later, on a messy desktop, just right click and choose "Stacks" to have your Mac automatically organize everything by file type.
• Instant File Deletion - If you want to delete a file and want to bypass the Trash Can on the Mac that saves files before deleting them, just select a file and press Option + Command + Delete at the same time.
• Create an Auto Duplicating File - If you want to create a duplicate file when clicking on a specific file, just right click, select "Get Info." and then check the Stationary Pad box. Every time you open that file, it'll actually open a duplicate, which is great for templates and similar file types.

Screenshots

• Video Screenshots - Shift + Command + 3 takes a screenshot, Shift + Command + 4 lets you select an area of the screen to screenshot, but Shift + Command + 5, a lesser known option, brings up an interface that lets you record your screen or a portion of your screen.
• Cleaner Screenshots - When using Shift + Command + 4 to select an area of the screen, if you press spacebar, the icon turns to a camera. From there, you can click on any open window to get a screenshot of just that window or interface element like dock or menu bar.

Safari

• Safari Picture-in-Picture (YouTube) - You can watch a video in Safari while you do other things. To do so with YouTube, just right click twice on a video that's playing to bring up a menu offering the picture-in-picture feature.
• Safari Picture-in-Picture Pt. 2 - If the right clicking method doesn't work to pop out a video or you're not watching YouTube, there's another method. With a video playing, look for the audio icon in the Safari toolbar, right click it, and it should bring up a picture-in-picture option.
• Easier Link Copying - If you want to copy the current URL in Safari, press Command + L to highlight the URL bar and then press Command + C to copy. It's quicker than using a mouse.

Force Touch Trackpad

• Quick Looks - When using a Mac with a Force Touch Trackpad, if you click and hold on something like a website link or a YouTube video, you can see a little preview of the content to see what it is without having to leave the current page you're on.
• Dictionary - If you see a word that you're not familiar with, highlight it and press down on it with the Force Touch Trackpad to get a dictionary definition.
• Rename Folders and Files - If you Force Touch on a folder or file name, you can quickly rename it. Force Touch on a folder or file icon and you can see a preview of the file.

Apple Watch and Mac

• Unlocking With Apple Watch - If you have an Apple Watch, you can use it to unlock your Mac, which is a super useful feature for those who don't know about it. To set it up, open System Preferences > Security & Privacy and then toggle on Unlock Mac with Apple Watch.
• Apple Watch Password Authentication - For those with macOS Catalina and an Apple Watch, the Apple Watch can also be used as an alternative to a password so you don't need to type in passwords frequently.

Notification Center

• Activate DND Quickly - If you hold the Option key and click on the Notification Center icon in the top right corner of your Mac's menu bar, you can activate Do Not Disturb.

Keyboard Tricks

• Alternate Mouse Control - There's an option to control your mouse cursor with your keyboard, and it can be enabled in Accessibility. Open up the Accessibility settings and under Pointer Control, choose the Alternate Control Methods tab. From there, turn on Enable Mouse Keys and select toggle to turn on Mouse Keys when Option is pressed five times. When you press Option x5, Mouse Keys turn on and you can use the keyboard to move the mouse.
• Quick Access to Function Key Settings - When pressing one of the function keys to activate Mission Control, Brightness, Media playback, and more, if you hold down Option when you press, you can access the corresponding Settings options inside System Preferences for those keys. Note: This doesn't work on Touch Bar Macs.

Share More Tips

Do you have other useful Mac tips and tricks that we didn't cover here? Let us know in the comments and we might highlight them in a future video.

As the coronavirus outbreak in China continues to spread, Apple today shuttered two more of its retail locations in the country. Stores located in Nanjing and Fuzhou, China, have been temporarily closed, according to Bloomberg.

During yesterday's earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that one store location in Qingdao, China had already been shut down, bringing the total stores closed to three. Many other stores have limited hours.

Apple plans to reopen the Nanjing and Fuzhou stores on February 3, while the Apple Store in Qingdao will reopen on February 4.

Apple has limited employee travel to China to "business critical" operations, and it is providing care kits to Apple employees located in Wuhan and across China.

There are more than 6,000 cases of coronavirus, primarily in China, though the virus has been spreading to other countries. Some of Apple's supplier factories in China are going to be closed until February 10 due to Chinese New Year and the outbreak, which Apple CEO ‌Tim Cook‌ said Apple is working to manage to avoid an impact on production.

The virus situation is still emerging, and Apple is continuing to gather data points, says Cook. The company is experiencing a sales slowdown due to the closing of retail stores and shoppers who are afraid to go out. As a result, Apple set its next quarter guidance range at $63 to $67 billion, which is a larger range than normal. Cook said that this $4 billion range is reflective of the coronavirus outbreak and the "uncertainty" around it.

The Unicode Consortium today announced the finalized Emoji 13 characters that will be introduced alongside Unicode 13 in 2020, and which will eventually be adopted by Apple for use on the iPhone, iPad, Macs, and more.

There are a total of 62 new emojis included in the Emoji 13 update, such as smiling face with tear, polar bear, seal, bubble tea, pickup truck, fondue, teapot, magic wand, beetle, and piñata.

Broken down by category, here are all of the new emoji as listed by Emojipedia:

- Faces - Smiling Face with Tear, Disguised Face

- People - Ninja, Person in Tuxedo, Woman in Tuxedo, Person with Veil, Man with Veil, Woman Feeding Baby, Person Feeding Baby, Man Feeding Baby, Mx. Claus, People Hugging

- Body Parts - Pinched fingers, anatomical heart, lungs

- Animals - Black Cat, Bison, Mammoth, Beaver, Polar Bear, Dodo, Seal, Beetle, Cockroach, Fly, Worm

- Food - Blueberries, Olive, Bell Pepper, Flatbread, Fondue, Bubble Tea

- Household - Potted Plant, Teapot, Piñata, Magic Wand, Nesting Dolls, Sewing Needle, Mirror, Window, Plunger, Mouse Trap, Bucket, Toothbrush

- Miscellaneous - Feather, Rock, Wood, Hut, Pickup Truck, Roller Skate, Knot, Coin, Boomerang, Screwdriver, Carpentry Saw, Hook, Ladder, Elevator, Headstone, Placard, Transgender Symbol, Transgender Flag

- Clothing - Thong Sandal, Military Helmet

- Musical Instruments - Accordion, Long Drum

The update also includes 55 gender and skin-tone variants, along with new gender-inclusive emojis that can be used as an alternative to gendered versions, such as person with veil and person with tuxedo rather than the current woman/man options.

Apple will adopt the new Unicode 13 emoji characters at some point in 2020, likely in the fall as an update to iOS 14. Apple last year introduced Unicode 12 emojis in the iOS 13.2 update that was released in October.

Apple recently snatched a top engineer from Netflix as Apple works to build out a technical team to support Apple TV+ and the company's other services, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The new hire, Ruslan Meshenberg, helped build Netflix's platform and participated in key initiatives to create a faster and more consistent service for viewers. He ran the infrastructure guaranteeing Netflix shows and movies played reliably.

Meshenberg has joined Apple's internet-services organization just this week, with his LinkedIn profile listing him as an Engineering Leader.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Meshenberg is joining Apple at a time when Apple is shifting its approach to cloud services, relying more often on third-party providers to save money.

Michael Abbott, a former Twitter engineer, has been responsible for Apple's internet-services operations and he has been adding engineers to Apple's technical team. Apple has not run into any particular major issues with ‌Apple TV‌+ or its other new services, but hires like Meshenberg will ensure that things continue to run smoothly as Apple scales up with new customers and new content offerings.

Apple plans to release an iPhone with a Touch ID power button on the side of the device in the first half of 2021, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In a research note with TF International Securities, obtained by MacRumors, Kuo has now revealed that the iPhone will feature an LCD display, further suggesting that it will be a lower-cost model. Last month, Kuo claimed the device will lack Face ID, allowing it to have a nearly edge-to-edge design with a smaller notch.

Kuo said the fingerprint solution will be capacitive and sport a "new design" for an improved user experience, but he did not elaborate.

Last month, Kuo claimed that the so-called "iPhone SE 2 Plus" will feature a 5.5-inch or 6.1-inch display, suggesting that its size will fall somewhere between the iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone 11. The device could complement higher-end iPhones with both Face ID and under-display Touch ID in Apple's 2021 lineup.

Apple plans to release several new products in the first half of 2020, including Ultra Wideband tags, high-end wireless headphones, a 4.7-inch iPhone, refreshed iPad Pro models, and refreshed MacBook Pro and/or MacBook Air models, according to the latest forecast from well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

"We forecast that Apple's major new hardware products in 1H20 include the 4.7-inch LCD iPhone, iPad Pro, MacBook Pro/Air, smaller wireless charging mat, UWB tag, and a high-end Bluetooth headphone," wrote Kuo in a research note with TF International Securities, a copy of which was seen by MacRumors.

Our insight on these products:

• 4.7-inch iPhone: Apple is widely rumored to be planning to release a new low-cost iPhone with a similar design as the iPhone 8, including a 4.7-inch LCD display and a Touch ID home button, but with a faster A13 chip and 3GB of RAM. The device is expected to launch by the end of March, with pricing predicted to start at around $399 in the United States.
• iPad Pro refresh: New models with a triple-lens rear camera system that supports 3D sensing for augmented reality are expected to be unveiled as early as March.
• MacBook Pro/Air refresh: It is unclear if Kuo is referring to the possibility of either a new MacBook Pro or MacBook Air or both, but previous rumors suggest that a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a scissor switch-based Magic Keyboard will launch in the first half of 2020, following in the footsteps of the 16-inch MacBook Pro last October. Apple last refreshed the MacBook Air in July 2019 with a True Tone display and a lower $1,099 starting price.
• Ultra Wideband tags: Last year, MacRumors uncovered evidence of Apple working on Tile-like item tracking tags in iOS 13 code, including a potential "AirTags" name. As with iPhone 11 models, Kuo believes the tags will support Ultra Wideband, which would likely make it possible to locate the tags with much greater accuracy than Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi.
• High-end headphones: Kuo did not provide any details about these headphones beyond claiming that they will support Bluetooth. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that Apple-branded over-ear headphones were under development, but it is unclear if they were canceled, became the Beats Solo Pro, or otherwise. MacRumors has also uncovered evidence of Apple developing new Powerbeats4 headphones, but the existing Powerbeats3 are not considered high end.
• Small wireless charging mat: No further details were shared. Apple canceled its much-anticipated AirPower charging mat last year due to quality concerns. That mat would have been able to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods case simultaneously, regardless of where each device was positioned on the mat and with deep iOS integration.

Farther out, Kuo said the worst scenario for Apple related to the new coronavirus outbreak would be postponing the qualification and mass production schedules for new products in the second half of the year.

"If there are no significant improvements regarding the coronavirus epidemic in the foreseeable future, we predict that Apple may delay new material adoptions or lower test requirements for components to shorten qualification processes and launch new products in 2H20 on schedule, and the lower spec will likely hurt the ASP of materials or components," wrote Kuo.

Flexibits today is launching version 3.0 of its popular Fantastical calendar app, bringing a host of improvements across all platforms including Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Along with all of the feature updates, Fantastical is transitioning to a premium subscription model that unlocks access across all devices and will provide continued feature additions and improvements on an ongoing basis.

With the new updates to the Fantastical apps, everything has been unified across the various platforms, so users will essentially find feature parity on all of their devices. An all-new design brings a full-screen calendar window, support for native OS features like Today widgets, action and share extensions, and Handoff, and much more.

I've had a chance to try out the new Fantastical, and I've come away impressed with the sleek look, slick management of significant amounts of information, and of course the natural language parsing Fantastical has been known for that lets you easily create events and tasks by simply typing a few words. Among the key additions in Fantastical 3.0:

- AccuWeather integration displays small weather icons in relevant places, bringing forecasts right into your calendar so you can see what the weather is going to be like for your various events, even taking into account event locations.

- Calendar sets let you quickly manage your various calendars and tasks, allowing you to toggle multiple calendars with a single click and even change displayed calendars based on your location. Interesting Calendars is another new feature powered by SchedJoules that lets you subscribe to calendars for holidays, your favorite sports teams and TV shows, and more. Subscribing to a sports team, for example, will add entries for upcoming games to your calendar, and each game entry will update at its conclusion with box scores and even highlight links to let you easily follow your favorite team.

- Meeting proposals are particularly useful for groups, letting you specify multiple time options in a calendar event invitation and have each invitee choose times that work for them. Once a unanimous time has been selected, the event can be automatically scheduled in on users' calendars, or it can be manually set by the organizer.

- Tasks now have a prominent home alongside calendars in Fantastical, and integration with Todoist, Google Tasks, and iCloud helps keep everything in sync.

Other features in Fantastical 3 include one-click creation of Zoom or Google Hangout meetings right from events, the ability to attach files and photos to scheduled events, event templates for one-touch creation of frequent events, and custom alert sounds for events.

Fantastical has long been available across Apple's various platforms, but each app has been a standalone purchase, and that's changing with Fantastical 3.0's shift to a subscription model. Subscriptions have long been controversial with users, but Flexibits has made a strong effort to justify the change by unifying everything under a single subscription that unlocks all apps and keeping pricing to a reasonable $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year. With the new subscription model, Flexibits will be able to deploy new features on a more regular basis rather than holding them to bundle for the next major paid update.

For those who don't want to pay for a subscription, there is a new free mode available for Fantastical, but many users will find it limited enough that they'll want to consider a paid subscription, for which there's a 14-day free trial. All users will also need to set up a free Flexibits account if they wish to sync calendars.

Fantastical 2 users who don't wish to convert to a subscription won't find themselves completely out of luck, as they'll be able to download the new apps and maintain access to all of the features and functionality they've had under Fantastical 2 on the platforms where they previously purchased it, plus a few of the new features as well as ongoing bug fixes and technical support.

Fantastical version 3.0 is rolling out now as an updated version of the existing Fantastical 2 ‌iPhone‌ app [App Store], which is now a universal binary supporting ‌iPhone‌, ‌iPad‌, and Apple Watch. (If you're an existing user of Fantastical 2 for ‌iPad‌, you'll need to download the new universal version, as the iPad-only app is being discontinued, but the transition should be seamless.) The updated version of the Mac app can preferably be downloaded directly from Flexibits, but it's also available on the Mac App Store.

Apple's shares jumped 2 percent today in after-market trading, following the company's best reported quarter ever in terms of revenue and profit.

The tech giant's market capitalization has now grown to over $1.4 trillion, further cementing its place as the world's most valuable tech company. Only the Saudi Aramco oil company is worth more.

AAPL is currently hovering around $312 in pre-market trading. As The Guardian points out, Apple's valuation is now more than Germany's 30 largest listed companies that make up the DAX index on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

The DAX is worth a combined $1.36 trillion, including business software giant SAP ($162 billion), chemical company Linde ($111 billion), engineering and industrial conglomerate Siemens ($108 billion), and insurance group Allianz ($100 billion).

The figures are a response to Apple's glowing financial results last night which saw the company post revenue of $91.8 billion and net quarterly profit of $22.2 billion, or $4.99 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $84.3 billion and net quarterly profit of $20.0 billion, or $4.18 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. The quarter was the best in Apple's history, topping the first fiscal quarter of 2018.

During today's earnings call covering the first fiscal quarter of 2020, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked about 5G, and how much of a demand driver it might be for Apple.

Cook of course said that he wouldn't comment on future Apple products with respect to 5G, but said 5G is in the "early innings of its deployment on a global basis."

Cook went on to say that Apple "couldn't be prouder" of its current iPhone lineup, and is excited about the upcoming product pipeline. "We wouldn't trade our position with anybody," he said.

In another question, Cook was asked about the demand for 5G and the demand for lower-cost iPhones, and how that might impact Apple's future ‌iPhone‌ product plans, which Cook also declined to comment on. He did say that in general, "it's important to look around the world at 5G deployment schedules." Cook said he will not comment on the price of handsets that are not announced.

Rumors suggest that Apple's 2020 iPhones will include 5G support for the first time, allowing the devices to connect to available mmWave and Sub-6GHz 5G networks, which carriers are in the process of rolling out in the United States and around the world. Rumors indicate Apple will use Qualcomm's 5G chips for 5G connectivity.

During today's earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook commented on the coronavirus outbreak in China, which investors fear could potentially impact Apple's business, affecting production of both current iPhones and the new low-cost iPhone that's on the horizon.

Cook said that Apple is donating to China to help with the outbreak and working with partner companies.

We're donating to groups that are working to contain the outbreak. We're working closely with our Apple team members in the affected areas, and our thoughts are with all of those in the region.

In an interview with CNBC, Cook confirmed that employee travel has been restricted to "business critical travel" only as of last week, and employees in Wuhan and across China are receiving care kits from Apple.

"We're restricting travel to business critical travel. For employees that are in the Wuhan area, we are providing care kits and supplying them across our employee population in China as well.

Cook said that Apple's decision to set next quarter guidance with a range of $4 billion is reflective of the coronavirus outbreak and the "uncertainty around that." Apple's guidance for Q2 2020 is $63 to $67 billion, a larger range than normal.

The situation is still emerging, said Cook, and Apple is monitoring the situation closely and gathering data points.

According to Cook, supplier factories in wider China are opening late after Chinese New Year, on February 10, which Apple is working to manage. Apple does have suppliers in the Wuhan area, but all of these suppliers have alternate suppliers, and Apple is working to ensure good supplies. Apple has accounted for the delayed startup with its larger range of outcomes.

In its retail stores, Apple is limiting hours, checking employees, and sanitizing its stores regularly. One store has also been shut down for the time being. Apple's retail sales have slowed due to virus concerns, but this is accounted for in Apple's guidance numbers for Q2 2020.