The new Touch Bar killed one of the best secret MacBook pro-tips

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One of the easiest ways to impress your Mac-owning friends is simple:

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Simply press option + shift + volume up (F8) or option + shift + volume down (F9).

It looks like this:

Apple Sound

Screenshot/Apple

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That magical combination of keys lets you increase or decrease the volume in much finer increments than the usual 16-point scale.

This pro-tip, which has been around for years but still isn't particularly well known, will let you decrease the volume of your Mac lower than just using the volume up or volume down button.

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Like so:

Apple Sound

Screenshot/Apple

It's one thing to hold over your friends who just got the new MacBook Pro. Apple replaced the function keys, which includes volume up, volume down, and mute, with a new touchscreen it calls the Touch Bar.

touchbar_hero_2x

Apple

The Touch Bar is nice! It's fun to use, and it's easy to see it becoming critical to people's workflow. It can be customized to show the volume up and down buttons all the time. But one thing it cannot do is lower the volume by quarter-point increments.

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This means that the pricey new MacBook Pro has less granular control over volume than older Mac laptops, like the MacBook Air.

That's one thing your aging Mac can do that the shiny new MacBook Pro can't.

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