One of the great features of iPhones and cellular-equipped iPads is the ability to use the device as a Personal Hotspot. Your iOS device, using its cellular modem, connects to the Internet and then uses its built-in Wi-Fi to become a mobile hotspot. This can be very useful for Mac users on the road with a good cellular data connection and no way to connect to a free â or safe â Wi-Fi network. In this article Iâll show you how to set up Personal Hotspot on your iPhone or iPad, connect to it from your Mac, and make sure that you donât use all of your monthly data allotment quickly by minimizing your Macâs data usage.
May 11, 2020 I am using Mac OS Sierra 10.12.1 and Safari 10.01.1 I have 8GB of Ram and a 1 TB hdd. This is my first venture into Mac, as I have always used windows, but found the virus susceptibility worrisome. I am asking for help here if there is any available!
Setting Up Personal Hotspot (Turning On Personal Hotspot)
This is the easy part. On your iOS device, go to Settings > Personal Hotspot. Tap on it, then toggle the Personal Hotspot switch to âonâ (it will turn green). Itâs smart to set a Wi-Fi password for the Personal Hotspot so others canât freeload on your connection.
As demonstrated in the screenshot seen above, a user can connect to the iPhone Personal Hotspot one of three ways: through Wi-Fi (easiest and quite fast), Bluetooth (easy, yet not as fast), and USB (easy, fast, very secure). My personal choice is through Wi-Fi since I can keep my iPhone in my pocket and connect to the Hotspot from my MacBook Pro. When you or another user is connected to the Personal Hotspot, the status bar at the top of the iOS device turns blue to indicate that it is acting as a Personal Hotspot and shows the number of users connected (see screenshot below):
(This iPhone is being used as a Personal Hotspot)
On a Mac, the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar turns gray and is covered by a small link icon (see screenshot below):
(The Mac Wi-Fi menubar icon changes when connected to Personal Hotspot (highlighted in red).)
Reducing Data Usage From Your Mac With TripMode While Using Personal Hotspot (TripMode in use on a Mac)
Your Mac can do a lot while itâs seemingly âjust sitting thereâ. Apps are busily sending and receiving data, all the while chewing up your monthly data allotment. One of the best â and easiest â ways Iâve personally found to control usage is to use TripMode, a $7.99 app thatâs designed to only let apps youâve selected get access to the Internet (itâs also part of the Setapp subscription Mac app bundle).
TripMode can be used to track how much data is used per app (see screenshot above) so that you can decide which ones to block. The app also now lets the user set a data limit, shutting off all access to the Internet on a Personal Hotspot network once the limit is reached.
When using TripMode, you can set it to work only when connected to Personal Hotspot so that your regular access isnât hampered on work or home Wi-Fi networks.
What If I Only Use Personal Hotspot On Rare Occasions?
If you only use Personal Hotspot with your Mac on very rare occasions, TripMode might not be the answer for you. Here are some tips and guidelines on how to reduce your data usage manually:
Use Chrome Browser and the Data Saver Extension
Web browsers are often one of the largest users of your precious mobile data, so itâs important to keep an eye on whatâs going on there. One handy way to keep your data usage down while âhotspottingâ is to use Googleâs Chrome Browser and the Data Saver Extension created by the company.
If youâre concerned about privacy, you may not want to use this method as it routes web pages through Googleâs servers to compress them. However, HTTPS secure private connections and âIncognitoâ tabs in Chrome are not optimized or seen by Google.
The Data Saver Extension even provides a handy chart of your data savings over time thatâs viewable with a click.
Use Opera Browserâs Turbo Mode
Another web browser that can cut down on your data usage is Opera. Rather than requiring you to install an extension like Chrome, Opera has a built-in function called Opera Turbo that routes non-HTTPS web pages through a server to compress pages. Song editing and mixing software, free download for mac. Opera Turbo can be turned on or off under the Opera menu.
Pause Syncing of Services Like Dropbox, Backblaze, and Google Drive
When youâre on a fast Wi-Fi network with essentially unlimited bandwidth, apps like Dropbox and Backblaze go about their business sending and receiving gigabytes of data without complaint. While using a Personal Hotspot, you should pause those services.
Mac Apps For Using Internet Lesson
For example, for Dropbox click on the menu bar icon, then click the settings âgearâ icon. Youâll see something similar to the image at right. Just select âPause Syncingâ while youâre on a Personal Hotspot to reduce your data usage.
Use Common Sense and Donât Use Streaming
Video streaming can be a real data hog! You may be able to watch videos on your Mac while using Personal Hotspot for your data connection, but even at low quality (which your streaming service should switch to automatically), youâll still burn up a lot of data.
If you still wish to try watching Netflix, for example, be sure that the Playback Settings are set to Low. That wonât provide you with very clear video, but youâll be able to get your usage down to about 0.3 GB per hour of viewing. At High quality, youâll use 3 GB per hour, and if by some magic youâre able to get a fast enough connection to stream 4K UHD video, it will chew up 7 GB per hour.
Likewise, streaming music services such as Apple Music and Spotify are going to take a toll on your data usage. Instead of streaming music or video, consider downloading a selection of both to your laptop ahead of time. This will allow you to be entertained on the move without getting nailed with data plan overages.
Do you have any other tips for reducing data usage while using Personal Hotspot with your MacBook or MacBook Pro? If so, please share them with other readers of The Rocket Yard by leaving your comments below.
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If youâve just recently switched from PC to Mac, youâve probably noticed that instead of Internet Explorer or Edge that youâre used to, Mac has its own proprietary browser called Safari. In fact if you try searching for âdownload Internet Explorer for Macâ youâll quickly realize that the exact IE equivalent on Mac doesnât exist. What do you do then?
Interestingly, at the dawn of the world wide web in the late 90s, Internet Explorer was the default browser on all Macs. But when Apple introduced Safari as the new default browser in 2003, Microsoft has decided to discontinue the development of IE for Mac shortly after. So unless you run Mac OS X 10.6 or earlier (why would you?), there is no way to directly install Internet Explorer on Mac. And you definitely shouldnât use the Internet Explorer versions from pre-2003 right now.
Windows apps alternatives for Mac?
Say no more. Hereâs a curated collection of apps for any job available with Setapp.
How To Use Internet Explorer on Mac
Although natively launching Internet Explorer on Mac isnât possible, there are other ways to simulate IE for Mac experience. You could mask Safari as different versions of Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge, you could also install a virtual machine and launch IE for Mac that way, or you could simply choose to use any other third-party browser available on macOS.
Simulate Internet Explorer on Mac with Safari
Most of the time, if you need to use Internet Explorer on Mac, itâs probably for testing purposes, to see how certain websites or web apps perform, or to access websites that require you to use IE (yes, those still exist).
Both of those use cases could be easily performed by Safari. To use Internet Explorer with Safari, you just need to turn on developer tools:
Now you can access developer tools directly from Safari, which let you inspect websites, empty caches, and most importantly simulate a variety of other browsers right through the Safari app. To use Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer on Mac:
The User Agent option in Safari should cover nearly all reasons for using Internet Explorer on Mac. However, if you do absolutely need to launch Internet Explorer itself for one reason or another, you could also try doing it with the help of a virtual machine.
Launch Internet Explorer on a virtual machine
Creative edge software ic3d suite 4.0.4 win mac torrent. While using a virtual machine for Internet Explorer is not by any means an easy solution, itâs still there for anyone who needs it. What virtual machine essentially does is installing a full-scale copy of Windows on your Mac and letting you launch it as an app inside the macOS. From there you can launch Internet Explorer or, in fact, any program you miss from your Windows days.
To set up virtual machine, first you need to buy a copy of some virtual machine software (VMware Fusion is a good one) and a license for Windows. Once you have those in place:
Now every time you need to use Internet Explorer on Mac, you can just launch the virtual machine and use IE directly with Windows that way. There are certainly a few downsides to this solution. First, you have to purchase both VMware Fusion and a licensed copy of Windows for the sole purpose of using Internet Explorer. Second, virtual machines tend to be quite heavy on your processor, as they are running the whole operating system inside them.
Using A Mac Computer
Another option available to you in case you donât specifically need to use IE for Mac but rather move away from Safari is to switch to any other third-party browser, all of which are freely available on macOS.
Use third-party browsers on Mac
If Safari is not your first browser of choice and using Internet Explorer for Mac is at the very least quite complicated, you can download any other stable and widely used browser out there and make it the default one on your macOS.
Google ChromeMac Internet Settings
By far the most dominant browser of today, Google Chrome currently commands 45â65% browser market share. Developed by Google, the browser is available on both desktop and mobile devices, and thus boasts a significant amount of plugins and web apps that are exclusive to it. Chrome has also been praised for its speed and tight integration with all other Google products. As for the downsides, using Chrome means being subjected to Googleâs pervading tracking and helping Google to effectively monopolize the web.
Firefox
Firefox is another great everyday browser. Heir to the first commercial web browser called Netscape, itâs an open-source program owned by the not-for-profit Mozilla Foundation. Firefox is fast, secure, and boasts a supportive community around the world. All of this makes it a great alternative to Safari and Internet Explorer.
Brave
Brave is a newcomer to the browser arena that first appear only in 2015. Based on the open-source Chromium project (as is Google Chrome), the browser quickly gained a loyal following due to its aggressive privacy controls and ad blocking. Turning Brave into your default browser might seem a bit experimental at this point, but it nevertheless presents a good option for anyone concerned with privacy.
Microsoft Edge
Although not available on macOS as of early 2019, Microsoft has announced that itâs currently rewriting the Edge browser engine to run on Chromium (like Google Chrome and Brave), which means it will become compatible with macOS too upon release. Fingers crossed, but in the meantime you can choose one of the alternative browsers listed above.
Overall, these are your three options of running Internet Explorer on Mac. You can use Safariâs User Agent to view any webpage just as Internet Explorer would, launch the actual Internet Explorer browser through a virtual machine running Windows, or choose one of the alternative browsers if all you want to do is get away from Safari on Mac.
However, if youâre new to Mac, a browser might not be the only thing youâre concerned about. You also need to find apps to cover all kinds of issues related to optimization, organization, security, and productivity.
Essential apps for all new Mac owners
As soon as you switch from PC to Mac, you realize that sadly not all apps you loved and used daily are available on macOS. So naturally you need to find suitable replacements. The good news is Mac has an abundance of great apps for everything you need. But how do you choose and decide which ones are worth your time?
Thatâs where a platform like Setapp becomes indispensable. Setapp is a collection of more than 150 essential apps and utilities for Mac that cover all possible use cases and scenarios. All apps in the collection are automatically updated to their latest versions and new apps are added regularly. Itâs a godsend for new and seasoned Mac users alike. Discover new apps that are the best at what they do? Whatâs not to like?
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Get around browser restrictions to enjoy your web journey with useful apps for Mac users
Here is an essential introductory set of some of the apps featured on Setapp that every new Mac users should have.
Bartender
A lightweight utility performing a vital role, Bartender keeps your menu bar clean and tidy. As you use your Mac more and more, every new app would want to be featured in your menu bar (top-right corner). This quickly becomes unsustainable, and instead of a quick access to the apps you need, youâll spend more time just trying to find the right one.
Macâs default organization settings for menu bar are quite basic, only allowing you to reshuffle icons. Bartender lets you hide them under a single icon and feature just those you need to use right at the moment.
Ulysses
Lauded as the best writing tool for years, Ulysses features a clean interface and lets you focus on the writing process, whether itâs for simple notes, speeches, or anything in between. And the appâs Markdown support makes it much more web friendly, allowing direct exports to WordPress and Medium.
Disk Drill
No one ever wants to lose their files, no matter whether itâs due to physical damage or accidental deletion. Disk Drill solves that problem by essentially insuring and giving you the option to recover your files. As the most widely used data recovery tool around, Disk Drill helps you back your files on a regular basis and save lost files from damaged hard drives if things ever go south.
CleanMyMac X
The ultimate Mac optimization app, CleanMyMac X keeps your Mac free of any junk, safely and completely uninstalls old apps, and protects you from being affected by malware. Just launch CleanMyMac X once a month to do a complete scan of your computer and youâll ensure your Macâs top condition.
Best Free Mac Apps
Best of all, Bartender, Ulysses, Disk Drill, CleanMyMac X, and all other apps featured on Setapp are available to you on a free trial. Just launch Setapp and try out as many apps as you want, turning your transition to Mac from a chore to a pleasurable discovery.
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