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Mac Tips and Tricks - Summer Heat!

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It’s getting hot out there, at least here in North America. Traditionally, the third and forth weeks of July are the hottest of the season. As such, we figure many of you will avoid that sweltering heat and stay indoors to enjoy the nice air conditioning. So here are some quick Summer Mac Tricks for you!

Netflix Users

Did you know that Netflix has some keyboard shortcuts when you are watching via your Mac?

  • “M” will mute and un-mute the volume.
  • “F” will enter and exit full screen viewing mode.
  • The Escape key will also exit full screen viewing mode.
  • The Up Arrow key will increase the volume.
  • The Down Arrow key will decrease the volume.
  • Both the Enter and Space Bar will pause/play the video.
  • The Shift and Right Arrow key will skip ahead ten seconds of video.
  • The Shift and Left Arrow key will skip backwards ten seconds of video.

Playing Games

Is it too hot? Stay inside and play some games on your Mac! (LEGO Marvel’s Avengers is great!) One of the problems is the lame and mostly crappy video game controllers for the Mac on the market. That is, if you can even find anything made after 2012!

Xbox 360 Controller

Microsoft did so much right with the Xbox 360 Controller. Did you know that the wired USB version is the go-to game controller on the PC? It will also work with your Mac!

360 Controller on GitHub

This software allows your Mac to not only use the Microsoft controller, but you can also remap the keys so that the controller works as you want it to work. The driver can be downloaded via github but it is not supported by Microsoft. This is a community driven project. The software is kept fairly up to date. It is currently installed on my Mac running OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 with no problems.

After you download and run the installer, you will find “Xbox 360 Controllers” in your System Preferences (A reboot is required after installation).

Plug your wired Xbox 360 controller into your Mac, open up that preference file, and make any adjustments as needed. Most games won’t require you to change anything but in case you need to, this is where you will go to do so.

The latest version is 0.16.3, but don’t let the small number fool you. This software has been around for a number of years and is very mature. It just works, and most Mac games have no problem using this controller with the 360 Controller software. You can also pair a PlayStation 3 Bluetooth Controller, which we will go over in the future!

Have a Mac tip or trick of your own? Let us know and we will include it in a future email!

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