50 Best Mac & iOS Hacks

THE WORD ‘HACK’ suggests that you need programming skills or in-depth knowledge of an operating system to change it to work for your specific needs, but this is not the case. A hack can be anything from going deep and building a small app to using your iPhone or Mac in a different way to what would normally be expected. macOS and iOS contain a number of features that will allow you to take advantage of what is available and to use each to the best of your ability. The fact that these features are not always obvious should not stop you from utilising them and, even better, the vast majority take a second to learn in order to gain massive time-savings and usability benefits in the future.

Here we will detail many of the lesser known hacks you can use and with luck you will start to see your Apple products through new eyes and you will be using them more efficiently than you have in the past.

Let’s start hacking.

Make macOS and iOS devices usable

ACCESSIBILITY CAN MAKE all the difference for those who need assistance to use a phone or computer and there is little doubt that Apple has led the way in this area. The inclusivity of the options available is staggering and should be applauded by everyone.

01 SEE EVERYTHING

When you go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Display you can invert the colours or use greyscale to completely change the look of macOS. The inversion of the colours in particular offers dramatic visual improvements for those who need such assistance and can make a Mac much more usable.

02 A HANDY VOICE

The ‘VoiceOver’ feature will talk you through what is happening onscreen at any time and it also gives you the ability to control everything through the keyboard alone. If a mouse or the trackpad is difficult to use for you this could be the ideal hack to help speed things