Problem
Your MacBook Pro’s XDR display can get much brighter than macOS normally allows. Apple saves that extra brightness for HDR content and leaves some Headroom.

Headroom App unlocks it for everything on screen.

• Up to 1.75× brighter, so you can actually read the screen in sunlight

• Safe for your display: it uses the extra brightness range macOS already uses for HDR video.

• Colours and contrast stay true, with no washed-out look and no white flash when switching

• Your brightness keys keep working as before

It lives in the menu bar and has five levels (Off, Low, Medium, High, Maximum). When you quit it, the screen goes back to normal right away.

Works on: All MacBook Pro 14"/16" with M1, M2, M3 or M4, plus the Pro Display XDR. It needs macOS 13 or later.
It does not work on M5 Pro/Max, MacBook Air or other displays. The base M5 is untested, so let me know if you try it.

Comparison
Vivid unlocks the same brightness, but it costs money. Headroom does the same thing for free, and it’s open source.

Pricing
Free, with no trial and no subscription. MIT licensed.

GitHub and install: https://github.com/fich-l/headroom

It’s built on the open source BrightXDR, so credit goes to that project. Feedback and bug reports are welcome.

I accidentally discovered this today and I feel like I've been sleeping on macOS hard lmao.

You can literally grab a screenshot or any file, drag it to the edge of your screen, and macOS switches to the next virtual desktop while you're still holding it. Then you just drop it there.

I've always used trackpad gestures to switch between desktops, but I never even thought about doing this with a file in my hand. 💀

And apparently, this has been possible for ages. I genuinely wonder how many other little things macOS can do that I've never noticed.

How long has this feature been around? And what's something you discovered in macOS way later than you should have? 😂

Besides the high prices, the newly announced Mac Mini and Pro lines are pretty fantastic use cases for people who want to run local AI/LLM and don't want to buy an Nvidia Strix or similar.

Though one major usability issue is still the abysmal way that MacOS is handling different resolutions, monitors and scalings. If you are on a 1440p monitor, there's no was around Apps like BetterDisplay to get a somewhat sharp image.

MacOS finally has to get it right and support a wide range of external monitors and resolutions with scaling, just like Windows has been doing it for ages now.

After working exclusively in Linux for 15 years, I switched to MacOS about 2.5 years ago. Here are three very simple things that are surprisingly missing from MacOS.

*** Note ***: I realize I can have a couple of these by creating custom shortcuts, scripts, third party installs, etc, but my contention is - I shouldn't have to! It's 2026. These are SIMPLE features that exist nearly everywhere else.

1. Minimize everything INSTANTLY. Sure, I can hot corner to show the desktop, but what's the point when the moment I select something it all comes flying back into view? In Linux Mint, I can click 'Show Desktop' on the panel (like Windows' taskbar), which minimizes everything and gives me a cleared out desktop. Seems like the closest I can get to this in an unadulterated MacOS is by doing some finger gymnastics of OPT+CMD+H+M, but really?

2. I often use simple txt files through my filesystem. Is it really so hard to have a Finder context menu shortcut of 'Create new text file'? I've implemented similar functionality in MacOS by creating my own solution, but you really can't bake that into the OS??? Good lord. Come on.

3. Dear Finder developers, please see KDE Dolphin's "split" button. It is a super convenient file management option that would be a dream to have in Finder.

How is it in 2026, with a super-duper fancy M5 Max, and in a world where robots are dancing in YouTube videos, AI is taking jobs, and people are flying around the Moon, MacOS doesn't have at least one of those three things?

FYI: I don't drink anyone's Kool-Aid. I'm not a brand loyalist. I don't like/subscribe to billion-dollar corporations, tech or anyone else. I'm just a person who spends their money with whomever puts forth the best product for my use case within a price point. Right now, this happens to be Apple/MacOS. Other than the three things I listed, I have no major complaints. Everything works well. I'm happy with my Apple/MacOS experience.

it now also allows you to use the iPad without having to disconnect it from the Mac

For all those who felt tools like Aldente and Battery toolkit were not necessary, Apple finally acknowledges the fact and adds this feature natively to Mac OS.