Apple released macOS Sierra in 2016 and the major feature in this version was the inclusion of Siri on the desktop. Plenty of other smaller features were also part of the update but Siri on the desktop was something people had been anticipating for quite some time. Another major update from Apple came in the form of the new Macbooks which have a new hardware component called the Touch Bar. It has mixed reviews but developers have been hard a work adding support for the Touch Bar. Here are the 10 best macOS apps and tips of 2016.

Chromecast is a pretty popular device with both macOS and Windows users. If you have a Chromecast that you’d like to use to cast just audio, there’s a little app that lets you do just that.

Security is a growing concern as ordinary devices like your thermostat get smarter. It’s best to stay safe and you can start by keeping an eye on your webcam and mic. Oversight is a little app that can tell you which apps are accessing these two devices.

Google has quite a few search parameters that let you refine your search. Spotify, while not the same kind of service, has similar search parameters for refining your music search. If you’re interested in finding music from a particular genre or label, there are parameters you can apply to do just that.

macOS Sierra added a neat little picture-in-picture mode in Safari. It lets you pop out any HTML5 video from the browser and append it to a corner of your screen.

If you have a Chromecast, you definitely want to install Plex on your Mac. It’s the best media server available for casting and it’s available for both Mac and PC. Here’s how you can set it up.

macOS Sierra introduced a universal clipboard that works with iOS devices running iOS 10+. The universal clipboard, when enabled, lets you sync whatever is copied to your clipboard between your iOS device and your Mac.

When you edit a photo on your iPhone, the original photo is never discarded. This is great because it lets you revert to the original photo whenever you want. It’s not so great when you want to move the edited version of the photo to your desktop. You just can’t copy the edited version and will always have the original photo. Here’s how to circumvent that.

You can record your iPhone screen on macOS. It’s pretty awesome regardless if you’re a developer or if you like to record game play. You don’t need a developer account or a special app to record your iPhone screen. You need an iPhone and QuickTime Player.

The Windows right-click context menu has a ‘New’ option that lets you create new documents and folders. macOS doesn’t have something like that by default but you can still enable it via a little Finder extension.

If you’re guilty of running more apps than you need to, Quitter is something you can use. It’s an app that will automatically hide or quit apps that have been inactive too long.

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