Mac

Subpages

Dark mode

• NightOwl (free): automatically (or manually) turn Dark mode on at night (based on actual sunset and sunrise hours)
• Shifty: see in the Night shift section

Desktop background

Here is a couple of apps to take good care of your desktop background:

• Downlink (free): images from a couple of satellites
• PrettyEarth (free): images from Google Earth View

Firefox

Share sheet

Since 2018, Firefox (finally) supports the native Share sheet! That being said, Mozilla’s implementation is not that straightforward…

• Where to access it
• How to make it easier to use

iCloud

Books

Books folder

We are probably NOT supposed to access this folder. Use it at your own risks!

When you add a PDF or an ePub file to Apple Books and subject to you enabled iCloud sync, there is actually a folder where the added documents are stored. The folder is located at this address:

~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud\~com\~apple\~iBooks/Documents/

To open it on the Finder, run the following command in the Terminal:

open ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud\~com\~apple\~iBooks/Documents/

For easy access, creating a symbolic link does not work (it redirect on iCloud Drive, not the Books folder).

I created a small Automator app. Basically, you launch it and it opens the folder. You can download this small utility here.

You can also add this folder to the sidebar of the Finder DOESN’T WORK:

1. open the folder (via the Terminal or the application)
2. click on File > Add to sidebar

Source

Edit PDF metadata

On macOS, go to the PDFs library on Apple Books, then click the list view.

You can then change any PDF’s title and author by double-clicking on the field or by using tab after you selected it.

iCloud Drive

Add iCloud Drive in the Home folder

Run the following command in the Terminal while being in your Home folder:

ln -s "/Users/$USER/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs" "iCloud Drive"

It basically creates a symbolic link of the iCloud Drive folder directly into the folder where the current Terminal prompt is located.

Source

Working on iCloud Drive from the Terminal

• You can’t ls in the root iCloud Drive directory, but you can ls in subfolders (including Documents if you enabled the storage of the Documents folder in iCloud Drive)

Mail

Get the URL of an email

• How to make the Message ID appears in Apple Mail
• How to format correctly the URL

Night Shift

• Shifty (free): can disable Night Shift for certain apps, and automatically turn Dark Mode on after sunset and before sunrise (but see the dedicated section for more complete apps)

Screensavers

• Aerial (free): gorgeous photos and videos from all over the world, inspired by the Apple TV screensavers