Bookmark all open tabs

If the browser tabs you have open are related and you plan to regularly revisit them, it's worth bookmarking them together in their own bookmark folder. To do so, simply select Bookmarks -> Add Bookmarks for These X Tabs... (X being the number of open tabs).

You'll then be invited to create a name for the bookmark folder and select where you want it to be kept amongst your other bookmarks, which you can access at any time by selecting Bookmarks > Show Bookmarks in the menu bar. Note that you can perform a similar action to add all open tabs to your Reading List for later perusal, even when you're offline. (Bookmarks > Add These X Tabs to Reading List.)

Use Tab Groups

Tab Groups are a neat way to save and manage related tabs without having to have those tabs active and taking up space. If you're planning a trip, for example, you can save all of your tabs into a "Vacation" group, accessing them when needed and leaving your device free for other content when you're not doing active planning.

To create a new Tab Group, click the Show Sidebar icon next to the traffic lights, then select New Tab Group. Alternately, click the down arrow next to the Show Sidebar icon and select either New Empty Tab Group or New Tab Group With X Tabs, "X" being the number of tabs currently open. Any Tab Groups you create are listed in the sidebar for easy switching. You can also select groups by clicking the down arrow next to the Show Sidebar icon. Any tabs that are opened when a Tab Group is selected will automatically be included in that group.

Change Safari's tab layout

Safari offers two tab layouts: Compact and Separate. Compact is a more unified Safari design that does away with the dedicated URL and search interface and makes any individual tab able to be used for navigation input. The problem with the Compact layout is that it severely limits space for multiple open tabs. In this regard, the Separate layout is more preferable, as it positions the URL/search bar at the top of the Safari window, with your tabs arranged below it.

If you're not already using the Separate tab layout, you can switch to it easily enough by selecting Safari > Settings... in the menu bar. Click the Tabs menu in the preference pane and select Tab Layout: Separate to remove the compact tab bar that merges everything together.

Rearrange open tabs

Sometimes you may have several open tabs from a handful of websites that you tend to visit but which are mixed up with other tabs from different places across the web. In such cases, it can be useful to rearrange your tabs so that tabs from the same website are lined up next to each other, allowing you to easily review what you've read and dispense with any redundant tabs that were hiding between them. To sort your tabs according to website, or title if you prefer, simply right-click any tab and select Arrange Tabs By > Website or Title from the dropdown menu.

Pin tabs

Safari's pinned tabs feature lets you better organize your tabs, especially if find you have too many open at the same time. It's particularly useful if you have certain websites that you tend to visit frequently throughout the day. The neat thing about pinned tabs is that they stay in place, even when you open a new Safari window or quit and reopen Safari. And when you click a link to another website from a pinned tab, the other website opens in a new tab, ensuring your pinned tab always shows the website you pinned.

To pin a tab, drag the tab to the leftmost side of the tab bar, and when the tab shrinks to show just the website's favicon, simply drop it in place. You can also select Window > Pin Tab from the menu bar, or right-click (Ctrl-click) a tab, then choose Pin Tab from the contextual menu. If you have multiple pinned tabs, you can rearrange them in the Tabs bar by dragging them with your cursor. To unpin a website tab, just drag the pinned tab to the right side of the tab bar and it will expand to become a normal tab again.

Kill them all

If you're done with all your other open tabs because you've found what you were looking for, then you can close all open tabs except the currently active one. Alternately, you can opt to close all open tabs to the right of the one you're currently viewing. Simply right-click the currently active tab and select Close Other Tabs or Close Tabs to the Right.

Apple actually added two audio modes for apps to take advantage of, Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum. Voice Isolation is definitely the more useful of the two. Wide Spectrum is not so useful unless your group call has an actual group in one room. That’s because it focuses the audio onto the background noise, minimizing your own voice.

The setting you want for most situations is Voice Isolation. It tunes out background noise when turned on, so you come through clearly and cleanly. That could be removing traffic noise or just the general background hum of a coffeehouse.

To enable Voice Isolation:

• Open an app that supports Mic Modes, such as FaceTime
• Click the FaceTime icon in the menu bar, then click Mic Mode
• Choose Voice Isolation

Set the Finder to display folder sizes on a Mac:

• Open the Finder and click a location in the sidebar or navigate to any folder on your Mac
• Press Command + J or click View > Show View Options in the menu bar
• Tick the box next to “Calculate all sizes” and macOS will display folder sizes in the Size column
• Click the "Use as Defaults" button and close the inspector window

Don’t see the Size column? Follow these steps if the Size column is missing in the Finder:

• Open a new Finder window and click View > As List in the menu
• Right-click the Name column below the window toolbar and check the Size option. While at it, uncheck any other Finder columns you don’t need

If the Size column still won’t show up, the Finder window is too narrow to display all columns. Simply move the pointer to a side of any column so it changes to the drag pointer, then click and hold and move the column to reveal invisible columns. You can also reorder columns by dragging.

If you don’t want to always calculate folder sizes, you can always find the size of the folder by selecting it and pressing Command + I or Command-clicking it and choosing Get Info from the menu.

By clicking the button with the calculator icon, you can now also switch between Basic, Scientific, and Programmer calculators, open your Math Notes, or switch to a plethora of conversion options using Convert. The new Convert option supports unit conversions for length, weight, currencies, and more. Here's the full list of conversions that it supports:

Angle
Area
Currency
Data
Energy
Force
Fuel
Length
Power
Pressure
Speed
Temperature
Time
Volume
Weight

Generally speaking, it is safe to leave a MacBook plugged in all the time. A huge number of MacBook usage are in scenarios where a MacBook is sitting on a desk, connected to a charger, and often to an external display, keyboard, and mouse too. These “use a laptop as a desktop” situations are incredibly common in the workplace and school with Apple laptops, and for many home users as well.

When a MacBook is plugged in and charging, it will typically perform at it’s best, since there is no need to engage in energy conservation or battery life extension. It’s not totally unusual for some MacBook users to have discovered their laptop feels like it’s running slower than usual when running on battery particularly when battery life is relatively low, and in fact it often is running slower because of the Low Power Mode feature, which directly throttles performance to extend battery life.

While there’s nothing wrong with keeping a MacBook plugged in all the time, and you’ll often have the best CPU performance by doing so, there are a few things to keep in mind that may contribute to the broader battery health and battery longevity of your MacBook, so it’s important to keep those in mind.

Important considerations for keeping MacBook plugged in

Most modern laptop and gadget batteries are lithium-ion based, including those that are found in MacBooks, which means they degrade over time and with usage. The battery in a MacBook is designed to be used. Keeping a lithium-ion battery at 100% charge constantly may reduce the overall lifespan of a battery, but modern Macs include battery maintenance features that help to prevent this. Nonetheless, it’s still good practice to use your Mac laptop as a laptop from time to time, and let the battery discharge to 20%-30% or so, and then charge it again.

Apple explains the various factors that can contribute to Mac battery health and battery lifespan as follows: “All rechargeable batteries are consumable components that become less effective as they get older—and their age isn’t determined only by time. A battery’s lifespan depends on its chemical age, which is affected by factors such as its temperature history and charging pattern. As your notebook’s battery ages chemically, its charging capacity gets smaller.”

Let’s pay particular attention to the ‘temperature history’ and ‘charging pattern’, because those are both often directly controllable by MacBook users.

Modern versions of MacOS have built-in battery optimization features that aim to extend the lifespan of the devices battery. One of the primary means of doing this is by learning your laptop usage and charging habits, and then delaying the amount of time the MacBook spends fully charged. For example, let’s say you get to your desk every day at 8am, plug in your MacBook, and then leave your desk every day and disconnect the MacBook at 4pm – macOS battery optimization will observe and learn this schedule, and then hold your laptop battery at an 80% charge level until the end of the day, when it will then charge the battery to 100%. Apple Silicon Mac laptop batteries will use fast charging tech to get to 80% capacity, and then they automatically switch over to a slower charging style referred to as ‘trickle charging’, where the remaining 20% will charge much slower, at a defined time, or sometimes not at all.

Battery Optimization is enabled by default on every modern Mac, but you can confirm it is enabled on your particular Mac laptop by going to  Apple menu > System Settings > Battery > Battery Health > clicking the tiny (i) button next to Battery Health make sure “Optimized Battery Charging” is enabled. Battery Optimization should be enabled on Mac laptops for best performance and longevity.

Avoid extreme heat

Extended exposure to high heat or extreme heat can negatively impact battery health and battery life, and it’s also not great for any tech in general. Heat can directly damage lithium-ion batteries. Keep the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro out of direct sunlight, and away from heat sources. Do not smother the laptop, which can prevent heat from dissipating as designed.

Additionally, if you run the MacBook in clamshell mode (meaning closed, but still on and connected to an external display), you will want to make sure it is well ventilated around it, particularly with the modern MacBook Air since it does not include a cooling fan. The fan-less design of the Apple Silicon MacBook Air series makes it a very power efficient and silent computer, but it is known to throttle performance when overheating or in clamshell mode and under heavy usage.

Aside from potential battery issues, high heat will often cause CPU performance to reduce and throttle. If you’ve ever used a MacBook outside in the sun on a warm day, felt the computer get very hot to the touch, and then suddenly become almost unusably slow with beachballs, it’s likely because the Mac is overheating and the system is reducing performance and other activity to try and cool things down. There are a variety of helpful ways to keep a MacBook cool in hot weather and high temperatures if you want more specifics, but a little common sense goes a long way.

Keep macOS updated

It’s important to keep up to date with macOS software updates and install those updates when they are available. Not only do macOS system software updates routinely fix bugs and security issues, they may also address any known issues with energy usage, battery optimization and usage, or other power management related circumstances. You can update macOS by going to  Apple menu > System Settings > General > Software Update.