Thanks, I'll check it out! In the meantime, I managed to transfer all my files by zipping them and moving them via an external hard drive.
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Shall I keep my Macbook Air M1? Missing apps from Windows.
- Thread starter madonnaragu
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Is it just me, or is the display brightness level on the Macbook Air M1 not as high as it should be?
I'm coming from a Dell XPS and the display on it can go really bright and the colors are very punchy and saturated. I do not mind less saturated colors, but the maximum display brightness on the Air is quite low. It kind of never goes really bright, even with all the battery optimizations turned off.
I'm coming from a Dell XPS and the display on it can go really bright and the colors are very punchy and saturated. I do not mind less saturated colors, but the maximum display brightness on the Air is quite low. It kind of never goes really bright, even with all the battery optimizations turned off.
The MBA is rated for 300 nits.
The MBP is rated for 400 nits.
And the Dell XPS 13 seems to be 417 nits for the 1080p or 301 nits for the 4K version.
Nope. The M1 MacBook Air is 400 nits. The M1 MacBook Pro is 500 nits. Go look at the tech specs.
I am also looking for Mac alternatives to these PC applications:
- Android Emulator (none seem to work on M1)
- PDF editor that supports editing PDF javascript and security
Any suggestions?
Thanks! 😄
- Android Emulator (none seem to work on M1)
- PDF editor that supports editing PDF javascript and security
Any suggestions?
Thanks! 😄
Not sure about javascript, but pretty sure Adobe Acrobat DC can edit all the various security settings. I used to have an Acrobat subscription but let it lapse a couple month ago and no longer have it installed to verify.
Adobe Acrobat for PC can do this, but I'm not keen to subscribe. Too bad Adobe have removed the option to buy their apps outright. Instead of Photoshop and Fireworks, I now use Affinity Photo and Designer. But I'd like to find a PDF editor for Mac that can edit PDF javascript.
Might try emailing the authors of the higher-rated PDF editors on the Mac App Store and asking if their apps will do what you want before buying.
Maybe check out Foxit to see if it will work for you.
Free Online PDF Editor | Edit PDF Files Effortlessly with Foxit
Foxit's free online PDF editor enables quick PDF editing, eSigning, and redaction with AI-powered tools, offering secure and efficient document management for businesses.
Found an article detailing how to get Google's emulator running on an M1 Mac. Looks like (at least as of February) it was still in Beta and its not completely foolproof but this might help some. I haven't messed with it myself, but might be a good starting point.
I don't understand people here are trying to help the OP turn MacOS into Windows by recommending to install silly apps that make the Mac behave like Windows. @madonnaragu there are lot of features and functions on MacOS that are so great that if one were to switch from MacOS to Windows then they will be looking for all the "Mac stuff" that they are missing. This is the same as your situation with switching to MacOS from Windows.
I'm only wondering what made you decide to switch to Mac? If you have to install all of this nonsense to make it be more "Windows-like" then a Mac isn't for you. You really should learn the system.
The reason why Mac OS does not quit the last window is because Windows is application-centric and MacOS is document-centric. You may not believe this in the beginning but the MacOS document-centric system is far superior. With Windows when you close the last open window the system just quits the app. That's stupid because it's deciding for the user that they are done with the application. Closing the window doesn't necessarily mean the user is done with the app so with the MacOS document-centric system the applications are ran from the Menu Bar. With the Windows application-centric system the applications are ran within themselves. That's why you see the FILE-EDIT-VIEW, ETC on the window border of Windows applications. These functions are on the MacOS Menu Bar amongst all the other features that run the application open. That's why the MacOS window doesn't quit when close the last window. This generally applies to apps that are capable of having more than one window open at a time such as Safari.
On MacOS applications such as Calendar have only one window so it will auto-quit when you close it because it's only usable as an open window. With Safari when you close the last window you can still open more windows from the Dock by two-finger tapping on the Dock icon.
The MacOS document-centric system is PDF-based. That's why Preview (the PDF/Image) reader is built-in and system-wide to work with nearly all applications. It's designed not to auto-quit applications that offer multiple windows. The Finder and the Menu Bar are always on and they run the MacOS apps.
Honestly if you bought the Mac for aesthetics and didn't take the time to fully check it out, take the time now to do so. If you can't leave your Windows way of thinking I would recommend returning the Mac and buy a good capable Windows machine. Makes no sense to install of bunch of utilities to make your Mac more "Windows like".
I'm only wondering what made you decide to switch to Mac? If you have to install all of this nonsense to make it be more "Windows-like" then a Mac isn't for you. You really should learn the system.
The reason why Mac OS does not quit the last window is because Windows is application-centric and MacOS is document-centric. You may not believe this in the beginning but the MacOS document-centric system is far superior. With Windows when you close the last open window the system just quits the app. That's stupid because it's deciding for the user that they are done with the application. Closing the window doesn't necessarily mean the user is done with the app so with the MacOS document-centric system the applications are ran from the Menu Bar. With the Windows application-centric system the applications are ran within themselves. That's why you see the FILE-EDIT-VIEW, ETC on the window border of Windows applications. These functions are on the MacOS Menu Bar amongst all the other features that run the application open. That's why the MacOS window doesn't quit when close the last window. This generally applies to apps that are capable of having more than one window open at a time such as Safari.
On MacOS applications such as Calendar have only one window so it will auto-quit when you close it because it's only usable as an open window. With Safari when you close the last window you can still open more windows from the Dock by two-finger tapping on the Dock icon.
The MacOS document-centric system is PDF-based. That's why Preview (the PDF/Image) reader is built-in and system-wide to work with nearly all applications. It's designed not to auto-quit applications that offer multiple windows. The Finder and the Menu Bar are always on and they run the MacOS apps.
Honestly if you bought the Mac for aesthetics and didn't take the time to fully check it out, take the time now to do so. If you can't leave your Windows way of thinking I would recommend returning the Mac and buy a good capable Windows machine. Makes no sense to install of bunch of utilities to make your Mac more "Windows like".
I have in the meantime found 2 PDF editors for Mac that support editing PDF javascript:
PDFpenPro
Master PDF Editor
I'm leaning towards Master PDF Editor - it's much cheaper and easier to use.
Hopefully this can be useful to others who are looking for this feature. 😄
Thanks for that! I tried it a few days ago and could not get it to work. I think I'll just have to wait until Bluestacks or Nox are available for M1.
This is not about if Mac is better than Windows, or the other way around. It's about what helps me get the work done.
I bought a Mac because I wanted something light, fast and most importantly, fan-free. I could not find a Windows device that offered that.
I never said a thing about MacOS being better than Windows. I said just like both sides they will equally have functions that take time to get used to if you’ve only been used to one system for many years. It’s stupid to install a bunch of 3rd party utilities to get the Mac to be more Windows-like. There’s more to a Mac than being light,fast and fan free. You really should get used to the system otherwise you’re wasting your money.
I did address in full detail for you why MacOS does not auto-quit applications upon the last window closed. Thanks for not acknowledging it but rather mistake the words I stated in a slightly defensive manner. Enjoy. 🙄
You are spot on with your whole post, except Calendar doesn't auto-quit when closing the window (neither does mail). Though like you said, some other single-window apps do.
I had to think for a minute because I never quit Mail because I keep it on full screen so I thought it might have been the exception but Mail doesn't quit because it still offers functions with the window closed. In the Dock the Mail icon badge showing how many emails you have doesn't require the window to be open. If you quit Mail it will not run. Also with the Mail window closed when you two-finger tap on the Mail icon you can Get New Mail, New Viewer Window and Compose a new Message.
Calendar does quit. When you close the window from the red traffic light once you click the finder (desktop) or any other active window Calendar quits.
And Mail isn't a single window app. You can open many viewer windows and message windows or have none.
You can print to PDF natively. That's built into the OS. Preview also beats the crap out of pretty much any PDF reader for Windows (though both versions of Edge aren't that bad). Also, Adobe Reader/Acrobat is cross-platform.
TextEdit is a pretty simple text editor. I'm unsure about macro support, but it wouldn't surprise me if that existed. There are also a ton of great text editors out there for Mac that definitely do support macros.
This is a dying breed, but it honestly depends on the program. Certainly a "Window" menu will be able to help you if nothing else.
Yes. A bad habit coming from Windows and Linux is assuming that clicking the Red 'X' closes the program. It doesn't! There are some exceptions to this (System Preferences is one of them) where that IS what it does, but in most cases it closes the window and not the program. The three ways to close a program completely are (a) Right clicking on the program's icon in the dock and selecting "Quit ::name of application::", (b) going to the program's menu in the upper left corner of the screen and selecting that same option, or, my personal favorite, (c) hitting Command-Q which does the same thing. Frankly, I'd just get used to Command-Q as it's way quicker.
You cannot move the top menu bar. The auto-show delay can probably be configured in System Preferences, though.
Sure thing! Any time!
Same here, I hope someday Microsoft manages to sell a fan-less Surface Pro Tablet without Pen Jitter and with a decent Battery, I'll swap without a blink on this day. I like my silent M1 16GB Air a lot, but despite the a bit less appealing UI, Windows flies more here and there, than macOS, by "flies" I mean I get "my nerdy" things done quicker.
Good macOS still has the terminal, this is a huge life saver for me, unlike iOS/iPadOS.
Sadly the better macOS Apps are becoming subscription based, making the macOS platform less appealing to me, just like iOS/iPadOS. E.g. it's hard to find an non subscription based complex, good and low priced PDF App incl. Profiled Printer like this one on macOS: https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-editor
But basic PDF Page manipulations you can do with the build-in macOS Preview-App: re-arrange,extrude,delete,insert,rotate,re-save, etc.
I run almost any platform(Windows/Linux/FreeBSD/macOS) here, I find my way around these issues.
Try TextMate as Notepad++ alternative, it's what i use: https://github.com/textmate/textmate
Want a multiplatform MS Visio alternative, try https://github.com/jgraph/drawio-desktop/releases/tag/v14.5.1
As IDE use VisualStudioCode: https://code.visualstudio.com
As GitClient you can use https://fork.dev
All native AppleARM Apps
You can also browse https://isapplesiliconready.com and check for native Apps.
I avoid additional Intel AMD64 drivers (e.g. Logitech Options, HP Printer), and I make sure to quit "Command+Q" Intel Apps. It's to avoid battery draining and weird unknown side effects.