Technologies

You Need to Try These 17 Essential MacBook Settings Right Now

Customize your MacBook by following these tips during or after setup.

This story is part of 12 Days of Tips, helping you make the most of your tech, home and health during the holiday season.

With the new year just around the corner, it’s a great time to clean up your MacBook and get it running at its best. Or maybe you’ve got a pristine new MacBook and want to explore all it has to offer. Either way, no laptop comes straight out of the box optimized for maximum performance — even one with an Apple logo.

No matter if you have a new MacBook like the M2 MacBook Air or an M2 MacBook Pro, own an earlier M1 MacBook Air or Pro, or you have an older Intel-based MacBook, there are things you can do to improve the experience. A handful of tweaks, tips and fixes you should do on Day 1 or Day 101 that go beyond your default MacBook settings. I’ve put together some of my personal favorites here that will make your device easier to use.

So, after you’ve jumped through the initial screens from the Mac Setup Assistant that had you log in with your Apple ID, connect to a network and so on, consider changing these settings, or at least check them out, on your MacBook. This list is sure to grow, too, now that Apple’s latest desktop OS, MacOS Ventura, has arrived.

Check for updates

Has Apple released an update to MacOS since it built your MacBook? Find out by clicking the Apple button in the upper-left corner of your screen and then clicking About This Mac. You should be staring at the General tab of the About This Mac window. If so, click the Software Update button, which will launch the System Preferences to check for updates.

Optimize battery charging

If your MacBook is going to spend most of its time plugged in, you’ll definitely want to change this setting. MacOS can learn your charging habits to reduce battery aging. Click on the battery icon on the menu bar at the top of your display and select Battery Preferences from the drop-down menu. (If you don’t see a battery icon, go to System Preferences > Energy Saver and check the box for Show battery status in menu bar.) At the bottom of the list of options, select Optimized battery charging. This will slow down your charging once the battery hits 80%.

Set up Siri

Siri should be enabled by default, but if you would prefer to use Siri only on your iPhone, then you can disable Siri by going to System Preferences > Siri and unchecking the box for Enable Ask Siri. If you plan on using Siri frequently, then you can use this Siri window to choose Siri’s voice, language and a keyboard shortcut.

Customize the Touch Bar

If you have one of the last remaining Intel-based MacBook Pro or 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro models with the Touch Bar, then head to System Preferences > Keyboard and click the Customize Touch Bar button and then simply drag the buttons you want to show up on the default view of the Touch Bar to the Touch Bar below the display. Don’t worry, they’ll make the leap from your display across the hinge and to the Touch Bar.

Sync folders via iCloud

I find it incredibly useful to sync the Desktop and Documents folders between my two Macs and my iOS devices. To sync these two folders, go to System Preferences > Apple ID and click iCloud in the left column and check the box next to iCloud Drive. Click Options next to iCloud Drive and select Desktop and Documents folders.

Choose default browser

Even though it uses more system resources than Safari, I use Chrome instead of Safari because the favicons help me keep track of all of my open tabs. To set a default browser, go to System Preferences > General and make a selection other than Safari for Default web browser.

Set scrolling direction

A MacBook’s «natural» scrolling direction doesn’t feel natural to me. If you want the two-finger swipe gesture to scroll vertically in the opposite way, head to System Preferences > Trackpad and click on the Scroll & Zoom tab. Next, uncheck the box for Scroll direction: Natural.

Add and remove items from Dock

Apple throws a number of stock apps into the Dock at the bottom of the screen. You can make room for the apps you use most frequently by removing others you don’t need in the Dock. To remove an app from the Dock, simply click on its icon in the Dock and drag it to the desktop until you see Remove appear above the icon and then let go. Poof, it’s gone! To add an app to the Dock, open it and then right-click on its icon in the Dock and mouse over the Option line in the menu and click Keep in Dock.

Move the Dock

The Dock sits at the bottom of your screen, but on a widescreen MacBook display, you might find it better to have it on the side. To move the Dock, go to System Preferences > Dock & Menu Bar and choose either Left or Right for Position on Screen. While you’re there, you can also drag a slider to adjust the size of the Dock. You can also make it disappear from view when you aren’t using it by checking the box for Automatically hide and show the Dock.

Show battery percentage

Like an iPhone, a MacBook displays a small battery icon at the top of the display to show how much battery power remains. It’s more helpful if next to this icon the percentage of battery you have left is also displayed. To show the percentage, go to System Preferences > Dock & Menu Bar and choose Battery from the left column. Check the box next to Show Percentage and it should instantly appear next to the battery icon on the Menu Bar.

Stop auto-play videos

Safari now combats two of the bigger internet annoyances: autoplay videos and ad trackers. Ad tracking is stopped by default, but there is a global setting for stopping autoplay videos that you’ll want to enable. Open Safari’s Preferences and click on the Websites tab. Choose Auto-Play from the left panel and for When visiting other websites at the bottom of the window, select Never Auto-Play or Stop Media with Sound (if you are OK with muted videos playing) and sit back and rejoice in the silence.

Work the Night Shift

Staring at a blue-light screen before bed can shift your body’s natural clock and make it difficult to get a good night’s sleep. With Apple’s Night Shift feature, the colors of your display are shifted to the warmer end of the spectrum during the evening hours. Head to System Preferences > Displays and click the Night Shift tab. You can set Night Shift to come on from sunset to sunrise, or you can select a custom time period. Use the slider to adjust the color temperature of the effect between less warm and more. Once you start using Night Shift, you’ll wonder how you ever sat in front of a cold, blue screen in the evening hours.

Make your desktop dynamic

With MacOS Mojave, Apple introduced a dynamic wallpaper that slowly changes its lighting throughout the day, going from a bright, sunny desert scene during the day and transitioning to a cool, dark screen at night. You can find it by going to System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver. While Mojave started out with just two dynamic wallpapers — Mojave and Solar Gradients — there are now several to choose from and sites where you can download more.

Try out dark mode

MacOS Mojave also delivered an honest-to-goodness dark mode for Macs. Go to System Preferences > General and you’ll see the Light and Dark options at the top for Appearance. On most apps, dark mode turns the background black and text white. Want to use both Light and Dark options? Select Auto and buttons, menus and windows will change throughout the day.

Set hours for Do Not Disturb

Along with overly blue screens, notifications have no place in my home after a certain hour. As with iOS, MacOS lets you disable notifications in the evening so you aren’t disturbed while watching Netflix or sleeping. Go to System Preferences > Notifications and check the box Turn on Do Not Disturb. By default, it’s set for the hours of 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. but you can set your own Do Not Disturb Window. There are options to enable the feature when your MacBook’s display is sleeping or when you are mirroring the display to a TV or projector (and presumably watching a movie or show or video). You can also let calls come through (if you use your MacBook to answer calls) or just repeated calls, which might mean there is an emergency or something urgent to which you may need to respond.

Set app download tolerance level

If you want to download apps from the web at large and not just from the Mac App Store, you’ll need to tell MacOS to loosen up on the reins a bit. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy, click the General tab and then click the lock in the lower-left corner and enter your password to make changes. Next, for Allow apps downloaded from, choose App Store and identified developers.

More from 12 Days of Tips

Choose how quickly your MacBook locks

While on the Security & Privacy page, you can set the length of time your MacBook can sit idle before the screen locks. It’s more convenient to set a longer time but also less secure. The time period to set here doesn’t start ticking until the screen saver begins, so you also need to set the length of time before your screen saver kicks in. Go to System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver and you can select the style of your screen saver and also the time by using the drop-down menu at the top of the window.

Technologies

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Technologies

My Camera Test: Comparing the $499 Pixel 10A With the Galaxy S25 FE, Motorola Edge

The Pixel 10A’s cameras are similar to those on the 9A, but it still performs quite well compared to other phones in its price range.

Google’s $499 Pixel 10A uses nearly the same cameras as last year’s Pixel 9A, but I wanted to see how its photos directly match up to its midrange Android rivals: the $650 Samsung Galaxy S25 FE and the $550 Motorola Edge.

I traveled with all three phones around St. Petersburg, Florida, checking how flexible each was in different environments, from bright outdoor settings to an indoor coffee shop and an evening brewery. All three environments can be challenging for the small image sensors on each phone.

While I find the cameras on all three phones to have different strengths and weaknesses depending on the setting, I’m quite impressed with how the Pixel 10A keeps up. In my tests, the photos include lots of detail, even though certain settings appear to involve a lot of processing to improve them.

Wide and telephoto cameras

Starting with photos taken on the sidewalk in downtown St. Petersburg, I notice that all three phones handle bright sunlight slightly differently, especially how it’s depicted on the street.

For the Pixel 10A, the sun provides a slight exposure mark over the Bay First sign at the top of the frame, but it remains fairly cordoned off to focus on the rest of the streetscape. Zooming in, you can see the Century 21 location, but the street is captured in the most detail, with the phone’s camera maintaining its natural gray color.

For both the Galaxy S25 FE and the Motorola Edge, the sun has a more pronounced effect on the rest of the image. The pavement’s color is notably brighter. I also find both the S25 FE and the Edge have slightly more clarity on the business signs on the Bay First building, including the aforementioned Century 21 logo.

Since the S25 FE and the Edge each include a telephoto camera that supports 3x optical zoom, I took a photo at that zoom with each phone. The Pixel 10A uses digital zoom on the phone’s 48-megapixel wide camera, but a lot of the scene’s detail remains preserved.

The Pixel’s zoom photo provides a clear view of the 7th St N sign, the trees and the plants. However, if you look further back at the next intersection, you’ll notice that the 7th St S sign and the Colony Grill are much harder to see. It’s those smaller details that are captured by the S25 FE and the Edge, both aided by telephoto cameras, making them more visible.

Of the three zoom photo examples, I feel like the S25 FE has the best color reproduction while also retaining details like the signs further back. Even though the photo was taken with the S25 FE’s 8-megapixel telephoto camera rather than its 50-megapixel wide camera, the colors remain complementary when comparing the 1x to the 3x. Meanwhile, the Edge’s 10-megapixel telephoto camera looks quite a bit different from the 50-megapixel wide camera — the whole image has a more yellowish hue.

Ultrawide cameras

Moving inside the Southern Grounds coffee shop, I decided to use the ultrawide cameras to capture my sausage, egg and cheese on toast. The three photos came out wildly different.

The Pixel 10A’s 13-megapixel ultrawide and S25 FE’s 12-megapixel ultrawide have a more balanced set of colors and details, in my opinion. The wheat toast appears lighter in the Pixel’s photo than in the darker hues captured by both the S25 FE and the Edge.

When zooming into my notebook, however, the Pixel and S25 FE captured more of the page markings, details that blur together more in the photo taken by the Edge. While the Edge’s 50-megapixel ultrawide camera is a higher-spec number, I noticed it had a harder time distinguishing toast levels, giving more of it a darker look. If I hadn’t eaten it myself, I’d have thought it was burned based on the Edge’s photo.

Night photography

Moving over to a nighttime setting, I used the three phones to take photos outside of 3 Daughters Brewing. I felt like all three did a decent job at producing the colors of the building, but they differ in how they handle light sources.

Both the Pixel and the S25 FE tone back the glare produced by the various lighting fixtures. Meanwhile, the Edge’s photos show noticeable streaks that dominate the sky. When inspecting the photos more closely, I find that the Galaxy captured a sharper view of the furniture, like in the Connect 4 set next to the blue chairs in the center of the frame. The same details are visible in the Pixel’s and the Edge’s depictions of the scene, but they appear smudgy by comparison.

This type of scene needs to take advantage of a phone’s processing power in order to iron out visibility issues, and I do find that the Edge appears to come up short here in this regard, with a lot of noticeable image noise.

Selfies

Each phone takes selfies with noticeable differences in style and color choices. For this test example, I’m in a well-lit daytime room with natural light from a window. The 12-megapixel front-facing camera on Google’s Pixel 10A brightened up my face as if there was a light in front of me, and captured a decent amount of the details of my hair and face.

The front-facing camera on Samsung’s Galaxy S25 FE shows a noticeably darker color tone, but it still captures a similar shade of orange on the wall behind me. Of the three photos, I felt like the S25 captures the most details, including strands of hair, and defaulted to a closer crop than the other two.

The photos taken by the 50-megapixel selfie camera on the Motorola Edge feel a bit smoothed out. The orange color on the wall is noticeably different from the Pixel and the S25 FE, though it does capture a lot of my face details, from hair strands to the fabric textures on my shirt.

The $499 Pixel 10A camera keeps up and, in some cases, exceeds the detail captured by the slightly more expensive $550 Motorola Edge and $650 Galaxy S25 FE. I’m quite impressed by how the Pixel camera handles colors and low-light environments, but the phone’s processing work sometimes makes scenes appear brighter than they are in real life.

The Galaxy S25 FE is no slouch either, with a third telephoto lens for capturing more detail farther away. While I did find the Motorola Edge to struggle in low light, it is one of the lowest-cost phone options currently available for someone who must have a 3x optical telephoto camera.

But if you can live without the telephoto lens, the Pixel 10A’s low cost and photography abilities will likely be a good fit for most people.

Google’s Pixel 10A Looks Stylish for a Low-Cost Flagship Phone

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 14 #741

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 14, No. 741.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Does today’s date seem memorable to you? If so, today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be easy. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: A math teacher’s favorite dessert.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: 3.14

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

RITE, SPIT, TIPS, STAT, STATE, GIVE, RUST, FINE, LAZE, SURE, PEAL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

VENT, CRUST, FRUIT, EDGES, GLAZE, FILLING, LATTICE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is HAPPYPIDAY. To find it, start with the H that’s six rows down and three to the right from the upper-left corner, and make — well, a pie shape.