Niléane

Contributor

Mastodon: @nileane@nileane.frEmail: nileane@macstories.net

Niléane is a French-Réunionnese podcaster and activist, working and advocating for trans rights. She is passionate about technology and always likes to experiment with Apple products and software to improve her workflows and everyday life.

414 — April 20, 2024

Prism Launcher: Optimizing Minecraft with Mods on an M2 MacBook Air

Niléane

MACSTORIES EXTRAS

Prism Launcher: Optimizing Minecraft with Mods on an M2 MacBook Air

Niléane

I have only ever really played two games in my life: SimCity and its spiritual successors on one hand, and on the other hand, Minecraft. This game has been with me for the better part of a decade now, and while I haven’t really launched the game for more than an hour at a time over the past two years (and have been neglecting it completely for the past few months), I’m finally back into it now. And I am obsessed with placing blocks again.

Even though Minecraft runs pretty well on my M2 MacBook Air, I found that the game could chug in some places, especially when loading new parts of the world or raising the render distance. To alleviate this, I knew I could probably find an optimization mod that would allow the game to run more smoothly on my machine. Back in the day, when I was pulling all-nighters in Minecraft on my old 2015 MacBook Pro, I would rely on OptiFine, a well-known mod that enhances performance on lower-end machines.

410 — March 23, 2024

Setting up Time Machine Backups from a Mac to a Linux Machine over the Local Network

Niléane

THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

Setting up Time Machine Backups from a Mac to a Linux Machine over the Local Network

Niléane

About a month ago, I upgraded my desk setup with an 11-inch iPad Pro that I’m now using as a secondary display. I am still loving this setup. Unfortunately, though, because I want to keep the iPad Pro plugged in to my Thunderbolt dock at all times in order to use Sidecar in wired mode, I had to free up a USB port and unplug the external SSD that I was using as my main Time Machine backup destination. Since I was then out of available ports, I started looking for a wireless solution to keep my Time Machine backups running on a daily basis.

While I could have simply found a way to add more ports on my desk, that would have meant investing in a bigger dock, or adding one more dongle to my poorly-hidden cable mess on the desk. So instead, I wanted to leverage the Linux machine in the living room that I’ve been using for a bunch of experiments lately. The idea was to plug my external SSD into the Linux machine, share a folder from the SSD on my local network, and then set that shared folder as a Time Machine backup destination on my Mac.

408 — March 9, 2024

Two BetterTouchTool Tips for Window Management

Niléane

TIPS

Tips and tricks to master your apps and be more productive.

Two BetterTouchTool Tips for Window Management

Niléane

Turning the Yellow Minimize Window Button into a Hide Button

Two weeks ago, in Issue 406 of MacStories Weekly, Federico shared a tip for BetterTouchTool that resonated with me. Just like him, I am used to minimizing my windows instead of hiding them, which can be annoying since minimized windows no longer come up when you Command (⌘) + Tab to their app’s icon.

To solve this, Federico used BetterTouchTool to remap the Command (⌘) + M keyboard shortcut to hide a window, instead of minimizing it. While that helps, there was still a small piece missing for me. Most of time, instead of using the keyboard shortcut to minimize windows, I just click the yellow minimize button in a window’s title bar.

405 — February 17, 2024

Reader Setup: Niléane

Niléane

READER SETUPS

Members of Club MacStories share their computing setups.

Upgrading My Compact Desk Setup with an 11-inch iPad Pro

Niléane: I spend my days working at a tiny desk at home. It’s an ALEX desk my partner and I bought from IKEA last year to be able to fit an additional workstation in our bedroom, so we could work in two different rooms during the day. Since this desk had to fit in our bedroom, it had to be a small, compact one. I wanted my desk to look clean and cozy, but I also wanted to fit a lot of personal tech items in this tiny corner of the room. So it has been a really fun challenge trying to keep this balance.

396 — December 1, 2023

Working Around Bluetooth Audio Stuttering on a MacBook Air

Niléane

TIPS

Tips and tricks to master your apps and be more productive.

Working Around Bluetooth Audio Stuttering on a MacBook Air

Niléane

I mainly use Bluetooth headphones at home for listening to music and podcasts. The three devices I primarily switch between are the 2nd generation AirPods Pro, Beats Studio Pro, and Sony WH-1000XM5. No matter which one I use, I always face the same issue when they are connected to my M2 MacBook Air: every so often, the audio randomly starts stuttering for a few seconds. Before I switched to the M2 MacBook Air as my main computer last year, I was using the M1 iPad Pro. I never had an issue with the iPad Pro or iPhone, so something was definitely up with this new MacBook Air.

As always, I started googling. I was obviously worried that something was wrong with my unit. However, I quickly realized how common of an issue this actually is. There aren’t enough words I could write in this sentence to prove to you how many Apple Community posts and Reddit threads mention a similar problem on Apple Silicon MacBooks. The symptoms vary, but they typically involve the same set of devices: game controllers, mice, and headphones are commonly affected by Bluetooth lag in these reports.

391 — October 27, 2023

Orion Browser for iOS Is the Highly Customizable Browser I Was Looking For

Niléane

MACSTORIES EXTRAS

Orion Browser for iOS Is the Highly Customizable Browser I Was Looking For

Niléane

A couple of months ago, I tried using Orion Browser, by Kagi, as my main web browser on macOS. Orion is based on WebKit, just like Safari, and it looks a lot like Safari as well. However, it is supercharged with extra features, and most notably supports Chrome and Firefox extensions. Although I have since gone back to using Safari as my main browser on the Mac, I was quite pleased with the overall experience. Coming out of my disappointing experiment with Vivaldi, I was wondering whether Orion could also be a viable alternative to Safari on iOS, as a fully-featured and highly customizable web browser.

At first glance, Orion Browser for iOS resembles Safari. The address bar is in the bottom toolbar, and you can swipe on it to switch to adjacent tabs. Although the animations are not as smooth, most of the interactions in the app also feel a lot like Safari. This is a comforting feeling. Orion is not attempting to stand out with a radically different interface and vibrant colors. Instead, the place where Orion sets itself apart the app’s settings panel. The number of available toggles and options is so vast that I won’t be able to mention them all.

388 — October 6, 2023

Using Moom and BetterTouchTool to Reset My Windows Layouts between Laptop and Desktop Mode

Niléane

MACSTORIES EXTRAS

Using Moom and BetterTouchTool to Reset My Windows Layouts between Laptop and Desktop Mode

Niléane

Moom is a utility for moving, resizing, and snapping windows. One of its features is the ability to save snapshots of your window arrangements and restore them with a click or a keyboard shortcut.

I have mainly used this feature to save and restore the way I like to arrange my windows when I’m using my Macbook Air at my desk versus when I’m on the go and using it in laptop mode. While macOS is better than ever at remembering how your windows were arranged the last time you were plugged into a specific monitor, it still isn’t perfect, and I’ve found it still will often scramble them after switching back and forth a few times.