macOS is the operating system that powers every Mac. It lets you do things you simply can’t with other computers. That’s because it’s designed specifically for the hardware it runs on — and vice versa. macOS comes with an entire suite of beautifully designed apps. It works hand in hand with iCloud to keep photos, documents, and other stuff up to date on all your devices. It makes your Mac work like magic with your iPhone and other Apple devices. And it’s been built from the ground up with privacy and security in mind.
The macOS App Store is home to thousands of apps and you could potentially get an app for almost anything. But while you’re busy foraging for new apps, it’s easy to miss out on the stock Mac apps. Apple bundles a lot of useful apps into the Mac and today I’ll tell you about 7 handy built-in Mac apps you may not know about: 1. We design Mac hardware and software with advanced technologies that work together to run apps more securely, protect your data, and help keep you safe on the web.
Featuring all-new, dedicated apps for music, TV, and podcasts. Smart new features in the apps you use every day. And Sidecar, which lets you use iPad as a second Mac display.
Easy to Use When it’s simple to
do
everything, you can do anything.
On a Mac, everything is designed to work just the way you expect it to — from operating it with simple, intuitive gestures to asking Siri to find a file to having your apps automatically update themselves. Whatever you set out to do on a Mac, there’s much less to learn and that much more to accomplish.
The Finder lets you easily browse and organize the files on your Mac — and those stored in iCloud Drive. View files by icons, in a list, or with Gallery View, which helps you quickly locate a file by how it looks. Drag and drop files into folders in the sidebar. And use the Preview pane to see all of your files’ metadata, quickly create .zip files, and share using the handy Share menu.
Dark Mode adds a dramatic look to your desktop and apps that puts the focus on your content. Dynamic Desktop makes your Mac even more beautiful with time-shifting desktop pictures that match the time of day wherever you are. And Stacks keeps your desktop free of clutter by automatically organizing your files, images, documents, PDFs, and more into tidy groups.
Spotlight helps you quickly and effortlessly find what you want, like documents on your Mac, movie showtimes, and flight departure and arrival times. Just type a few keystrokes in the Spotlight search field and autocomplete immediately shows you relevant results.1
A simple two-finger swipe from the right edge of your trackpad brings up Notification Center — the same one you use on iPhone — where you can see all the alerts that have come in recently. It’s also where you’ll find your Today view, which you can customize with helpful widgets or handy information pinned from Siri searches.
Siri helps you get things done just by using your voice. It also helps you get more things done at the same time. So you can finish your document while asking Siri to tell your coworker that it’s on the way. Looking for the presentation you worked on last week? Just ask Siri.2 And with Apple Music, Siri can be your personal DJ and recommend music based on your tastes, and tell you more about songs, albums, and artists.3
Continuity All your devices.
One seamless experience.
Your Mac works with your other Apple devices in ways no other computer can. If you get a call on your iPhone, you can take it on your Mac. And when friends text you — regardless of the phone they have — you can respond from your Mac, iPad, or iPhone, whichever is closest. When you copy text or an image from one device, you can paste it into another with standard copy and paste commands. And with Sidecar, you can extend your workspace by using your iPad as a second Mac display. You can even unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch. No password typing required.
Privacy and Security We believe your data belongs to you. Period.
Everything you do with your Mac is protected by strong privacy and security features. That’s because we build data security into everything we make, right from the start.
Privacy. You trust our products with your most personal information, and we believe that you should be in complete control of it. We respect your privacy by enacting strict policies that govern how all data is handled. And when you browse the web, Safari helps prevent data companies from tracking the sites you visit.
Security. We design Mac hardware and software with advanced technologies that work together to help you run apps safely, protect your data, and keep you safe on the web. The new Find My app helps you locate a missing Mac that’s lost or stolen — even if it’s offline or sleeping. And Gatekeeper makes it safer to download and install apps from the Mac App Store and the internet.
Built in Apps Apps as powerful and elegant as your Mac. Because they’re designed for it.
With every Mac, you get a collection of powerful apps. They’re the same apps you use on your iPhone or iPad, so they’ll feel instantly familiar. They all work with iCloud, so your schedule, contacts, and notes are always up to date everywhere. And because they’re native apps — not web apps in a browser — they take full advantage of the power of your Mac to deliver the fastest possible performance and more robust features.
Media. Experience music, TV, and podcasts in three all-new Mac apps. Get all the news that matters from sources you trust, all in one place.4 Track the market and customize your watchlist. Peruse the best book titles from your desktop. And find the latest apps and extensions for your Mac, right on your Mac.
Podcasts
Stocks
App Store
Creativity. Enjoy your best photos and videos, showcased in an immersive, dynamic new look. Transform home videos into unforgettable movies or quickly share clips with your favorite people. Create music like the pros with a huge collection of sounds, instruments, amps, and a lineup of virtual session drummers and percussionists perfectly suited to play along with your song.
Productivity. Create beautiful documents with stunning simplicity. Visualize your data precisely and persuasively in spreadsheets with images, text, and shapes. Make stage-worthy presentations using powerful graphics tools and dazzling cinematic effects to bring your ideas to life. And collaborate with friends and coworkers in real time — whether they’re across town or across the globe.
Communication. Easily manage all of your email accounts in one simple, powerful app that works with email services like iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft Exchange. Send unlimited messages to anyone on any Apple device, using the same Messages app on your Mac as you do on your iPhone. Make unlimited high-quality video and audio calls right from your Mac with FaceTime. And securely locate a missing Mac using the new Find My app on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Mail
Messages
FaceTime
Organization. A new gallery view and more powerful search help you find your notes more quickly than ever. Easily create, organize, and add attachments to reminders. Manage your iCloud, Google, and Exchange calendars in one place, create separate calendars for home, work, and school, and view them all or just the ones you want. Instantly capture personal reminders, class lectures, even interviews or song ideas with Voice Memos. Keep all your contact info up to date on all your devices, and easily import numbers, addresses, and photos from Google and Microsoft Exchange. And control all your HomeKit-enabled accessories from the comfort of your desktop.
Notes
Reminders
Calendar
Voice Memos
Contacts
Internet. Surf the web seamlessly with an updated start page that helps you quickly access your favorite and frequently visited sites. Use Apple Pay to make purchases on the web in Safari with Touch ID on MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Map out new destinations from your desktop, with gorgeous 3D city views like Flyover, point-to-point directions, and comprehensive transit directions. And instantly search your entire Mac or get results from the internet in just a few keystrokes.
Spotlight
iCloud All your stuff on your Mac.
And everywhere else you want it.
Every Apple app uses iCloud — it’s the magic behind the seamless experience you have with all your Apple devices. So you always have your photos, videos, documents, email, notes, contacts, calendars, and more on whatever device you’re using. And any file you store in iCloud Drive can be shared with friends, family, and colleagues just by sending them a link. iCloud Drive also lets you access files from your Mac on your iPhone or iPad. It’s all done automatically. Just like that.5
Accessibility We make sure that everyone is able to use a Mac.
macOS comes standard with a wide range of assistive technologies that help people with disabilities experience what the Mac has to offer, providing many features you won’t find in other operating systems. Voice Control lets users control their Mac, iPad, and iPhone entirely with their voice. And features such as VoiceOver, Accessibility Keyboard, FaceTime,6 and Text to Speech help everyone get more out of Mac.
Technology Advanced to the core.
macOS features powerful core technologies engineered for the most important functions of your Mac. Thanks to Mac Catalyst, you can now enjoy your favorite iPad apps on your Mac. With SwiftUI, developers have a simple way to build better apps across all Apple platforms with less code. Create ML gives developers a faster and easier way to build machine learning into apps. And support for virtual and augmented reality lets developers create immersive worlds for you to step into.
Compatibility Need to work with Windows?
Mac does that, too.
With macOS, it’s easy to transfer your files, photos, and other data from a Windows PC to your Mac. Work with popular file types such as JPEG, MP3, and PDF, as well as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. And, of course, you can run Microsoft Office natively on a Mac. If you want, you can even run Windows on your Mac.7
Find the right iMac for you.
21.5‑inch iMac
Starting at $1099
- Up to 21.5' Retina 4K display
- Up to 6-core Intel Core i7 processor
- Up to 32GB memory
- Up to 1TB SSD storage
- Up to Radeon Pro Vega 20 with 4GB of HBM2 memory
27‑inch iMac
Starting at $1799
- 27' Retina 5K display
- Up to 10-core Intel Core i9 processor
- Up to 128GB memory
- Up to 8TB SSD storage
- Up to Radeon Pro 5700 XT with 16GB of GDDR6 memory
iTunes
Delete Built In Apps Mac
Oh man, iTunes is one behemoth of an app. We could probably do a whole ultimate guide on it (alternative title: 366 ways of doing the same thing in iTunes). But we won’t. Instead we’ll give you an overview on just how or why you should be using iTunes.
iTunes on Mac is not that bad of an app. Unlike the Windows client, I find the Mac app to be swifter and better (I know, duh). And the album view is great for playback.
If you’ve got your songs from your old Windows machine in a USB drive or an external drive, just open iTunes and drag the folders in the iTunes window. All the songs will be imported to your machine, along with the metadata and album art. The songs will be copied to the iTunes sub folder in the Music folder.
Just Switched to a Mac? Get our eBook – The Ultimate Guide to OS X Yosemite for a Mac Beginner. It is the perfect eBook for people who want to get a hang of a Mac and how to get the most out of it.iTunes is not great when it comes to managing video files, ebooks or audiobooks not bought from iTunes itself, so I suggest you just use it for music playback.
And of course, to sync your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.
Talking about the UI, iTunes 12 in Yosemite got the same flat and clean UI update as the rest of the OS.
There are three important parts in the iTunes app. The playback area up top, the single navigation bar below that (which is responsible for almost all actions in iTunes) and finally the main content area.
You’ll see icons for Music, Movies, TV shows in the left-hand side of the navigation bar. Clicking the menu will show more options. You can rearrange the layout of these buttons using the Edit option.
Clicking the Music icon for instance will change the main navigation menu and the content area. You’ll get access to your albums, playlists and more. iTunes defaults to albums view (which is my favorite) but if you want to change to songs or artists view, click the button on the far right on the navigation bar.
Playlists is the only view that will bring up a sidebar. You can click the +button to create a new playlist and drag in the songs.
READ: Here are some cool iTunes tips and tricks you should know about.iPhoto
iPhoto, soon to be replaced by iCloud Photo Library, is the $9.99 photo editing app from Apple that came for free with your new Mac. That’s great because outside Adobe Lightroom, it’s one of the best ways to manage your photos and it ties in with iCloud pretty well.
There are couple of different ways to get your photos into iPhoto for editing and management.
- If you use PhotoStream or iCloud Photo Library on your iPhone or iPad, those photos should show up in the iCloud section once your iOS device is synced over Wi-Fi.
- When you connect a camera, phone or SD card to your Mac, iPhoto usually springs up like a puppy waiting for its owner at the end of a long day.
Once you see your device in iPhoto, you can either choose to import all the photos at once or select things manually. Click the thumbnail previews to get a bigger image, this will help in the selection process.
When it comes to importing photos, there are two schools of thought.
Either import everything to iPhoto first and then use the Remove feature to delete the photos you don’t need or carefully select just the photos you need when importing them.
Choose which suits you best. For a beginner, the former is better but if you’re not prompt with the deletion, your hard drive can fill up pretty fast.
Once the photos are in, it’s time for some organization.
Here are a couple of ways to do that:
- iPhoto recognizes faces and allows you to name them. Each person then gets their own category.
- If your phone/camera does not support geo-location, you can pool in all the pictures from one trip and assign a location.
- Lastly, we have the good old albums feature.
QuickTime
QuickTime is the built-in video player in OS X, like Windows Media Player on Windows.
While QuickTime supports formats like MPEG-4, it won’t play MKV or even AVI files. For basic playback of mov files, QuickTime is fine but anything more than that and you’ll need a dedicated media player.
My advice is to let QuickTime be. And download VLC Media Player. It will play everything from MKV to the most obscurely encoded MPEG video file. And I’ve already written an Ultimate Guide on it to get you started.
Preview
Preview is one of Mac’s under-appreciated gems. It does everything from displaying images and PDFs to batch resizing images, converting file formats to annotating them.
Here is an overview of all the cool things Preview can do.
- View, merge, annotate and sign PDF documents (no need to pay for Acrobat Reader if you’re not a heavy PDF user).
- View, annotate and sign images.
- Resize, crop, add text and graphics over images.
- Batch process images.
- Show EXIF data of images.
The Small Apps that You Should be Using : TextEdit, Notes And Reminders
On Windows you’ll find basic text editing apps like Notepad and WordPad. OS X’s equivalent to the Notepad is TextEdit. TextEdit saves documents in RTF format (which is cross-platform) and can export the document as PDF.
If you have an iPhone or an iPad, you must have come across the Notes and Reminders apps. Notes is a simple note taking app that automatically backs up to iCloud and syncs the data to connected devices. The same goes for Reminders.
Reminders is actually a pretty good task management system. It’s what I’m currently using. Creating lists, setting time or location based reminders and collaborating on lists with other Reminders users is really easy.
Should You Be Using the iWork Suite?
The iWork suite that consists of Pages, Numbers and Keynote came free with your new Mac. But should you be using them?
The answer, as it is with any pro software, is it depends.
Pages, the iWork equivalent of MS Word, is great for writing letters or even essays. It has great templates that are a lot more aesthetically pleasing than anything on Word. And moving an image 2 pixels to the right in Pages does not destroy the whole document formatting.
But Pages lacks some pro-level features that Word users are used to.
I personally think that Keynote is better than MS PowerPoint. Sure, it’s not as feature rich as PowerPoint but in my experience I’ve found it’s very hard to create an ugly presentation in Keynote. No matter how badly you mess it up, it just looks good. The opposite is true for PowerPoint. You can spend hours and hours trying to make something remotely presentable with PowerPoint.
Numbers though is a whole different story. If you’re used to Excel or even a small yet highly productive part of Excel, Numbers is going to disappoint you. They are just not on the same playing field. The features are too basic, the UI is clearly not made for pro-level work and when you export the spreadsheet in xls or xlsx format, it won’t look anything like it does on your screen.
Built In Apps Macbook Pro
TO CONCLUDE
For basic work like creating invoices or typing on a letterhead to even exporting PDFs, the iWork suite will do just fine.
But if you want to do anything more, you’ll have to get the Office suite for Mac. The current version hasn’t been updated since 2011. But Microsoft says Office 2015 is coming to Mac in a couple of months and it’s to going to be functionally and aesthetically identical to the Windows version (which, in Office’s case, is a good thing). If I were you, I’d wait till then before buying an Office licence.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BASICS OF IWORK SUITE: To help MS Office users get aquatinted with the iWork suite, we’ve written specific guides on the basics of Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Alternatively, you can check out Google Drive’s productivity suite which you can run offline as well if you’re using Chrome.Just Switched to a Mac? Get our eBookMacos Built In Apps
– The Ultimate Guide to OS X Yosemite for a Mac Beginner. It is the perfect eBook for people who want to get a hang of a Mac and how to get the most out of it.Built In Apps In Macbook Air
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There are over 7,000 hours of full-length movies on YouTube.