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I had a little time to play with the MacOS Monterey Public Beta, and so far there are a handful of things that have really blown me away. That said, like almost all operating system updates, Monterey at Windows 11 at iOS 15, most new features are things you will probably never use, or even find. Much of what we do on our computers is browser based which platform relies on much less than before.
That said, some of the new features in macOS really jumped out at me as being very useful. Note that this is still a beta version and some promised features are not yet available or are working well.
As always, I suggest that you do not install a beta version of the operating system on your critical machine, or on your only one. But do whatever you want, I’m not the cell phone police.
MacOS Monterey beta allows you to try out features in development.
Dan Ackerman / CNET
FaceTime in your browser
There is a bunch of audio, video and layout changes coming to FaceTime, but by far the most important change is the ability to invite anyone, even if they don’t have an Apple device at all, to a FaceTime call through a browser link.
Open FaceTime on your Mac, link, and share it however you want. You can just copy it and send it via email or google chat.
So far I have found the browser version to be a bit unstable compared to a direct FaceTime-to-FaceTime call, but by opening up this platform so widely I can see FaceTime being much closer to a competitor. Zoom for business calls now.
Safari tabs matched to colors.
Dan Ackerman / CNET
Safari tabs have style
I’m generally a Chrome browser mainly because it’s easy to sync my experience on Windows and Mac systems. But Safari on Mac has really become a great experience over time
, and the latest additions really stand out.
If you’re suffering from tab fatigue, the new tab groups allow you to group together a bunch of open tabs, almost like a folder, and switch between different groups in a flash. You can label and organize them however you like, and it’s easier to navigate than the way I did, by having different browser windows open, each with their own set of tabs.
There is also a cool visual upgrade. The tabs themselves have been incorporated into the design of the page, blending in better, whereas before they literally came out of the top of the page. It’s a subtle difference, but a much cleaner look. I especially like the way the tab bar color changes on the fly to blend in with the page you have open.
It’s not revolutionary, but the way we look at and use browser tabs has been stagnant for so long that this new design really puts the emphasis on what you read, not the sea of tabs that rise up at the top. from the window.
My normal handwriting is much worse.
Dan Ackerman / CNET
Live Text teaches you to read your photos
It’s not really a new tip, but it’s new for Macs. Open an image in Preview or Photos, and you can highlight and copy text into the image. In my testing it worked pretty well and I tried with handwritten and printed text.
More than just cutting and pasting text, you can also highlight phone numbers and websites. For a phone number, you can call it, text or FaceTime it, and for a URL, you can open it in Safari or open a quick view window. Yes, apps like Google Goal have been able to do this forever, but it is convenient to integrate it directly into the operating system.
Some other new features, like Universal control to use your Mac’s keyboard and touchpad or mouse on your iPad, not yet in the current beta. The official version of MacOS Monterey is expected later this year.
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