There are also major new additions to parental controls and device management, a huge upgrade to accessibility, the ability to use an iPad as an additional display and input device, a new machine-learning-driven facelift for Photos, and big upgrades to many other built-in apps. But as for the present? This is an update that users should be wary of installing because of all the changes it brings.īut Catalina isn’t all about breaking things. We are headed into a future with more unified apps and interfaces and an increased security focus. This is a huge update that shows the direction Apple is taking the Mac and all its platforms. macOS Catalina creates incompatibilities, alters workflows, and ends what has been a period of relative stability. The Mac is entering a new era, but for a while things are going to be bumpy. After a few years of fuzzy updates, macOS Catalina is one of those clean breaks.Īmong the reasons are a major redesign to macOS security, the long-promised deprecation of older software, the replacement of a nearly two-decade-old core app, and the introduction of the ability to run software born on iOS on the Mac for the first time. Others are more momentous, when there’s a clean break from what has come before. Sometimes software upgrades just fuzz together, all part of a continuum of changes over time. Note: This story has not been updated for several years. As described by Apple, the process sounds a lot like the technology that leading key trackers use to pinpoint the location of missing items by crowd-sourcing the location information.MacOS Catalina review: New era ahead, proceed with caution That encrypted location data will be anonymously forwarded to you so that you can find that offline laptop. Apple devices will now use secure Bluetooth beacon technology so that they're detected by other nearby Mac users who are online. One new twist involves the ability to find devices even if they're offline - particularly important if you've lost your MacBook Pro, and it's asleep. (As with the accessibility improvements, this enhancement is headed to iOS devices as well, with iOS 13.) The new Find My feature will be your one-stop location tracking app for keeping tabs on your friends and assorted Apple devices. While macOS Catalina splits up iTunes, it's combining two other apps - Find My iPhone and Find My Friends. The feature will even add numbers to files and photos so that you can select them with your voice. In a demo video, Apple executives showed off how voice controls can halde everything from dictation to navigation. MacOS Catalina boosts the accessibility features on the Mac by adding voice control, with similar support coming to iOS devices this fall. The other show dropped at this year's developer conference, with app makers now gaining access to what Apple calls Project Catalyst. Newer Macs will be able to enjoy 4K HDR playback with HDR10 and Dolby Vision support.Īt last year's WWDC, Apple announced plans to make it easier for app makers to bring their software over to the Mac, with macOS Mojave showing how it's done with apps like Apple's own News offering. Podcasts will play back your favorite audio shows, and a new machine-learning powered feature will be able to search for spoken content, so you can search for episodes using words and phrases that appear in the podcasts themselves.Īs for the new TV app, it will give Mac user access to the Watch Now and Apple Channels features already enjoyed by iOS users on their version of the TV app. The other remnants of iTunes can be found in the new Podcasts and TV apps, which will work a lot like they do on iOS devices. MORE: macOS Catalina Beta Hands-on Review: Should You Upgrade Now? Apple envisions the process taking place in the background, but you'll be able to drag songs, podcasts and other media over from Apple's apps onto your mobile device. The new Music app will focus almost entirely on music playback, with Apple's Craig Federighi describing the new app as "blazingly fast." Apple Music subscribers will be able to get personalized recommendations from within the app.Īs for syncing your device, that now takes lace in the Finder, where your iPhone or iPad will appear as just another drive you've plugged into your Mac. Apple's response is to break everything up, with three apps in macOS Catalina taking over for iTunes.
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