[ad_1]
Earlier this week, we rounded out some of the hidden features of iOS 13. We will now explore macOS 10.15 Catalina, highlighting some of the lesser known features included in this year's Mac update.
Sylvania HomeKit Light Strip
Limitations of Sidecar
Sidecar is one of the most fascinating new features of macOS Catalina. This allows you to use your iPad as an external display with your Mac, wirelessly or via USB. However, the feature is limited to the latest Mac computers.
This discovery was made by Steve Troughton-Smith on Twitter. The list of devices supported by Sidecar may be lengthening during the beta period of macOS Catalina, but for now, these are the supported machines:
- Mac 27 "(late 2015) or newer
- MacBook Pro (2016) or newer
- mac Mini (2018)
- Mac Pro (2019)
- MacBook Air (2018)
- MacBook (early 2016 or newer)
- iMac Pro
Automatic dark mode
Last year, macOS Mojave added support for a dark system-wide mode. This feature has been quickly adopted by many third-party applications and has proven to be popular among users. One limitation, however, has been that the dark mode has to be activated manually – until now, that is to say.
MacOS Catalina adds support for Auto Dark mode, which means that Dark mode automatically turns on according to the time. To access this toggle, open System Preferences and choose the General menu. There you should see a new Auto Dark Mode option in the Appearance area.
messaging effects
According to some rumors, this year's release of MacOS 10.15 Catalina would include support for iMessage effects in Messages. Although this feature does not appear to be enabled by default, Troughton-Smith has discovered how to enable it via a Terminal command.
The feature is still unfinished, suggesting that Apple is working to activate it here at the Catalina public release later this year. Here it is in action:
You can enable the unfinished user interface of iMessage Effects on macOS Catalina with: default default write https://t.co/LLWkWTxkE0.iChat expressive-ui -bool YES
(Sent with confetti) pic.twitter.com/qIWB1NGiCL
– Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) June 5, 2019
Signature of document in overview
The Preview application on Mac has long been a simple way to sign signature documents, but things have become even more advanced in macOS Catalina. Now you can use your iPhone or iPad to sign your name and instantly view it in PDF format in the Preview application.
To access this feature, choose Tools from the menu bar, then hover over the Annotate option, click Signature, and choose Manage Signatures. A new window should open where you can choose to write your signature via the trackpad, camera or iPhone / iPad of your Mac. Choose the iPhone or iPad option, click Select Device and choose the device you want to use. On the device you select, you should now see a signature pad that you can sign with your finger.
pack
Read our full coverage of macOS 10.15 Catalina here. What minor but useful changes did you notice in the update? Let us know in the comments.
Subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more information on Apple:
[ad_2]
Source link