#mac tips

Are you playing games on Steam? Are you having problems with those games loading from an external USB drive? I have a solution flowchart for you!

This combines several tips and tricks. I'm specifically on a Mac, which seems to be the cause of at least some of these problems, but not all of them.

The situation: I wanted to play Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077.

Problem: I don't have a very big hard drive, and both of these games don't fit at the same time. So, I normally use a USB drive. Normally this works perfectly fine.

However this time, trying to install and play these games on a USB drive was giving me issues where the games either wouldn't install directly on the USB (Cyberpunk 2077), or wouldn't load properly if installed directly on the USB (BG3).

For example: the icon for BG3 would appear, and bounce around like it was opening, but nothing would happen. At one point, BG3 would load to the Launcher, I could click to open the game, I would get the first splash screen, but then it would just go black.

Dragging and dropping the game folders from my computer to the USB didn't work. The .exe / .app files got messed up somehow. These problems with the USB were apparently all due to Mac permission issues.

On top of that though, even when installed on the main hard drive, I was having an issue where trying to open BG3 via Steam lead to a "verifying game files" loop. This is not a Mac-specific issue.

So here is the full solution! Note that you don't need to do the whole opening via the .exe or .app files UNLESS you get the "Verifying Program Files" loop.

Running Steam games off a USB:

Install the game on your main computer's hard drive using Steam.

Open the game via Steam to make sure it's working. Close the game.

Use Steam to transfer the game's files to your USB drive. This is under the game's Manage > Properties > Installed Files. If this option is not showing up but the USB is connected, go to main Steam Settings/Preferences > Storage and make sure your USB is added to Steam. Then, restart Steam and try again.

Wait for the files to transfer.

Once the game is fully transferred, you should be able to play the game via Steam off of the USB drive!

Fixing the "Verifying Program Files" loop:

Close Steam completely. Give it a good long time for all background processes to stop, too.

Navigate to the game's folder and load the game via the .exe or .app file. You can use Steam to find the folder, for me it was in a hidden Library directory. Just make sure Steam is closed before you load the game!

Make sure the game loads fully, then close the game.

ios:

the lockscreen is POGGERS, but i still have no idea how to put people in front of the font and stuff. i'll probably figure that out later, but i'm happy with this rn. the font options go from nice and aesthetic to slightly deranged, with weird numbers and all. the widgets were a good idea.

music player!!

the music player has two modes. one more compressed and compact:

and one more bigger zoomed-in version of the album art!

this is a really nice touch for people who are into album art and like seeing them, and the compact method works with those who want to be a little more private about what theyre listening to. theres also a little equaliser on the top right of the progress bar right next to the song title, which i think is pretty neat!

other stuffystuff:

overall, the animations seem a lot more natural, and i really like that. it makes me feel more comfortable using my phone, and it feels as if it's brand new. this just shows how much software affects the experience, and apple outdid themselves this time. although, there are a few slight animation errors that i've already informed them about, so hopefully they do something soon.

the scrolling on the home page is almost the same as iOS15, but instead the dots at the bottom have a search function when the phone is still. i think for small handed people like me would be okay to use it, but i'm not really sure this function is needed since all we can do is just swipe down for spotlight.

but when we DO swipe down, there's a new animation that makes the search button at the bottom of the screen come up to be the search bar itself. pretty cool ngl

the fixed app row at the bottom of the homescreen seems even closer to the edge, either that or my eyes are failing me. there's no battery percentage yet, but hopefully the actually update has it :')

the hold picture thing isn't working for me as for now, but that's maybe bc i'm on an older phone. can beta testers who use newer phones tell me if it works on yours?

the fitness app was a good thing i feel. im always super unmotivated to exercise, so i think seeing the rings themselves can help me force myself to exercise everyday :D

that's all for iOS! onto macOS!

ok first things first, ventura is BIG. like big BIG update. 12gb???? my computer was having a difficult time to download everything, but i eventually got it downloaded. and the biggest thing in this update:

stage manager!

(dont mind the ayato wallpaper thanks 💀)

stage manager actually boosted my productivity in class, a LOT. my moots know that we use our computers a lot in class, and stage manager helped me not only focus, but do my work more efficiently. i used to be a very everything-full-screen person. i would put all of my windows in full screen mode and travelling between them was a little bit torturous. but stage manager somewhat found a middleground for people who love full screen and minimised windows. they made it so that your current window was big enough to feel like it's full screen, but you still have the stage manager at the side for you to switch your windows whenever you want to.

however, it was a little difficult to navigate at first. i kept opening windows that i wasnt supposed to and i had no idea how to group tabs and separate them. hopefully the feedback i gave to apple will allow them to give more direct instructions on how to use the stage manager.

Follow these simple instructions for how to insert emojis on a Mac running OS X El Capitan (10.11).

View this tutorial on YouTube.

These instructions were created using OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan. For previous releases of OS X, check out the relevant guide. Or see how to use emojis on the latest version of macOS.

1. Go to any text field, then press the following keys at the same time:

Control ^

Command ⌘

Space

Alternatively, this same feature is available under Edit > Emoji & Symbols

2. An emoji insertion palette will appear. Click any emoji to insert it at the location of your cursor.

3. If you want to see more emojis, either scroll up and down the list, or click another category listed at the bottom of the palette.

4. Tip: If you click-and-hold on some emojis, you get a choice of skin tone. Release on the skin tone of your choice:

Note: Only some emojis are enabled for diverse skin tones. This is mostly the human-looking characters. Families and emojis with more than a single person do not  support skin tone modifiers in OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan.

Create a palette

Drag and drop any of the empty space in the emoji picker interface to create a floating emoji palette. This lets you insert more than one emoji without the picker disappearing each time.

Copy and Paste

To see a larger version of these emojis, or to copy and paste an emoji, view all emojis in Safari:

Categories

The order that the emojis are listed in has changed from previous versions of OS X. New categories exist, and this is what they look like.

Smileys & People

Animals & Nature

Food & Drink

Activity

Travel & Places

Objects

Symbols

Flags

See this video of emoji on OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan in action on YouTube.

Read More

List of All Emoji Meanings

View All Emojis in Safari

How to use Emojis in OS X 10.7 and 10.8

How to use Emojis in OS X 10.9 and 10.10.0

The Hidden Secrets of the Fn Key

The Fn key has been a fixture on Apple keyboards for decades, but many Mac users lack a sense of its purpose.