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It looks like iOS gets all the love these days. And it's pretty easy to see why. The smartphone has long been the dominant device in the lives of many users, while the category of desktop / laptop computers is in decline. But macOS still has life.
A year after the introduction of the High Sierra incremental (it's just there in the name), Apple came back with a macOS update packed with new features. Unlike other recent updates, a number of great additions are aimed at creative professionals, with Apple refocusing its efforts on the user base that has long been a critical part of its target market. In the case of features like Dark Mode and Gallery View, there is also a lot to do on this front.
For the first time, iOS applications were directly ported to macOS for the purpose of launching multiplatform development, while Stacks should help users stay a little more organized – and healthy in mind. Now that the operating system is in public beta, here's a look at the biggest and best new features in Mojave.
Dark mode
The biggest addition to Mojave is also one of the most interesting from the populist point of view. Apple said during its WWDC presentation earlier this month that dark mode is a tip for creative professions. This is a category that the company once owned, but Microsoft has been aggressive for the last few years with its surface line.
Apple has been hit for a handful of decisions seen as diverting the ball for the small but loyal contingent that has formed its base user base. The company has made amends for this over the last year and change, with the addition of the iMac Pro and the promised return of the Mac Pro. Dark Mode is clearly a nod to those who spend long periods of time watching bright screens in dark rooms.
Of course, this is not just for creative professionals. Dark Mode is a potential benefit for all office jockeys who are looking for some respite from eye strain. It's also just aesthetic, and a nice visual break from a Mac desktop design that has not really changed much in recent generations.
Apple has done a good job here maintaining consistency through its own applications. With dark menus and frames, Mail, Contacts, and Calendar invert in white text on a dark background. The default Mojave desktop image of a winding sand dune has also been transformed accordingly.
Better yet, there is a dynamic version of the screen background that will darken, depending on the time of day, as the sun goes down and the stars come out in the sky of the desert. A nice touch. However, only the default screen background is able to do it for the moment. If you want the effect, I hope you do not mind watching the sand.
The biggest problem with Dark Mode (in this public beta stage still early) is compatibility. Apple says that the mode is designed for easy adoption by third-party developers, assuming that their applications are built for the macOS Mojave SDK, but there is no guarantee that the applications you use regularly will have this compatibility at all. launch. This means that there is a decent chance that your dark office system is regularly interrupted by an explosion of white light.
This is also the case for Apple's own applications like Safari (although iWork and other non-preloaded Apple apps do not have the feature yet), which have implemented aspects of Dark Fashion, but in which you will spend a lot of time looking at glossy pages independently. For most of us who spend time in and out of various applications, the actual Dark Mode feature is quite limited, but you will probably have to try it anyway. At the very least, it's a good start compared to the default macOS color scheme in which you've been installed for so long.
Battery
Dark mode may be the feature that has generated the biggest reaction from WWDC, but Stacks is the best. No question here, really, and this comes from someone who has become quite consistent to tidy up his desk. This thing is worthy of a clickbait-style title "A weird thing to organize your life".
It's a surprisingly cathartic act. Hover over the bottom of your desktop screen out of control, tap two fingers on the touchpad and select "Use Stacks" from the drop-down list. Poof, they all shoot in their pre-ordered piles on the right. The default mode classifies files by product type, which is probably the simplest method of the group (you can also move to the category or tag). If a file is the only one of its kind on the desktop, it will keep its name under the thumbnail; otherwise, the file type will be displayed below. Unclassified files will appear in a less useful "other" stack.
When new files are added to the desktop, they automatically appear in the associated stack as long as you stay in Stacks mode. When the mode is enabled, the files are essentially glued to these points as a grid. You can drag and drop them into apps, but you can not move them to the desktop.
Once everything is sorted, click on the top of the stack to spread it so you can see it all over again. Click again on the top of the stack, and poof, everything goes back into the stack. You can also move the mouse over the top and slide the touchpad to the left or right with two fingers to scroll through the list. I find the method a little less useful, but some people will probably prefer it.
If you decide that the whole set of cleanliness is not for you, type two fingers on the bottom of the screen again. Click "Use Stacks" and ottoman, everything is returned to its original entropy position on the desktop. Good on Apple to let users go back to madness.
Apple has added MANY different features – from Launchpad to Tags – designed to help users better organize themselves. For my part, I have tried extensively and failed to integrate them into my daily use. On the other hand, Stacks is a really useful addition and a serious contender for the most useful feature that Apple has brought to macOS in recent memory.
Office
Gallery View is an interesting addition for reasons similar to the Dark mode. Functionality is a spiritual successor to the familiar Cover Flow. It's less dynamic, relying on a lower scroll bar, rather than large images at the top. It puts the metadata in the foreground and much more than before. This is especially evident when you are manipulating images, which gives you almost perfect detail on the photos.
The information includes, but is not limited to: dimensions, resolution, color space, color profile, device brand, device model, aperture value, duration of the device. exposure, focal length, ISO sensitivity, flash, F-number, measurement mode, and white balance. This is a lot for most users. In fact, it's probably exaggerated for the majority of us, but it's clearly another indication that Apple is working to maintain its grip on the creative professional category by building that level of Intense detail directly in the Finder.
In the lower right corner of Finder windows you will find quick actions. There is a handful of convenient features for editing images and PDF documents, including Left Rotation (as in the iOS Photos app), Markup (as in Adobe Acrobat), Add Password and Create a PDF, which turns the files into PDF. .
This is an interesting system-level hug of Adobe's file format, and also makes the need for Preview somewhat redundant as it is directly integrated with the Finder. The options depend on the type of file – so, if you have, say, an audio or video file, you can cut it directly into the Finder window. For most tasks, you will probably want to open an editing application, but I would like to see more custom actions here. For my own purposes, something like cropping and resizing files would be great to have built directly into the Finder window, which allows me to save a trip on Photoshop or a tool to do it. online edition. I realize that my needs are not the same as everyone else's – but one more reason to offer some customization out there, similar to what Apple offers with the MacBook Touch Bar. .
Screenshots
File previews get a lot of love here, everywhere. I do not know how often normal people use screen shots, but I take them all the time, so any additions are welcome. Beyond the general utility, I think a lot of people just do not get screen shots because the key drive is quite complicated. Shift-Command-5 is not really easier to memorize than other similar combinations, but it does bring up a control window of the hand.
From here you can choose to capture a full screen, a window, a selection that you describe yourself, record a video of the entire screen (which I've used for the GIF Stacks above) or record a video of a selection. It certainly avoids having to memorize all the different commands. New screenshots also allow you to set a timer for five or 10 seconds before taking a picture.
Apple takes a piece on iOS, offering a small window in the right corner of the screen once the screenshot has been taken. You can click directly on it, or wait until it disappears. From there, you can mark the file, drag it, drop it in a document, or send it automatically to the desktop, documents, Mail, Messages, Preview, or Clipboard to make sure you have the file. they are not all in the same place.
Continuity camera
I do not know how often this feature will be useful for most users, but it's still a nice feature. The continuity camera essentially uses an iPhone as a surrogate camera for the desktop. It is an intelligent synergy between devices.
Say you are in the page. Go to Edit> Insert from your iPhone and choose Photo. Take a picture, approve it on the camera and it will automatically insert into the document. It works like a charm. The scan function also works surprisingly well here. I took a shot of a crumpled receipt and it seemed very blank, regardless. As someone who has recently passed a long visa process, I would have liked to have access to this thing a few weeks ago.
FaceTime
This one definitely impressed the crowd. FaceTime's MacOS / iOS-only is the main thing that has hindered my own use of the service, but there are very nice additions here that make me rethink the decision. The ability to add up to 32 users is by far the most fascinating, and Apple has done a good job managing this kind of unruly number.
Similar to services such as Google Meet, the system automatically detects who is speaking and places them in front and in the center of the application. Like Meet, you can also manually prioritize the users you want to focus on.
Other users will shrink and end up populating the carousel at the bottom. You can get the list of participants by clicking the Info button. And invitations for more users can be extended while the chat is in progress.
IOS apps
Apple has been keen to respond to long-standing rumors of a convergence between the office's operating systems and the company's mobile operating systems, displaying a 'no' on giant stage. That said, both OS's get even more shared DNA. The biggest news on this front is the porting of three iOS applications on the Mac. This is clearly the first step towards greater convergence of some sort, but more specifically, it's a way to start getting app developers to bring their iOS apps to the desktop.
Of course, macOS has taken a long time, but iOS has all the love of developers in recent years. Making it easier to create cross-system applications means that developers do not have to decide. It also means that the application that arrives on macOS through this method will be more likely to do so through the Mac App Store – a distribution method that Apple clearly prefers over more traditional downloads, for a myriad of reasons.
For starters, Apple brought News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home. In my time with Mojave up here, News is the one I use now quite regularly. I've hesitated a bit to take a more stovepipe approach to news broadcasting, but I enjoy having a center of centralization of trusted news sources that I regularly visit, coupled with alerts. who populate the Notification Center on the right.
It's probably not going to replace my use of TweetDeck for work-related news, because, among other things, it just seems to update more slowly. But it's a good tool for having noise in the background, with a check-in once or twice a day, to make sure I have not missed a moment of the show's performance. Horror that is in 2018. Fun!
Voice memos are probably the most limited in scope of the group. I have gone from various third party tools that I use to record meetings from time to time, and it 's nice to have this sharing between devices. Students will probably find it useful for conferences as well, but beyond that, there will probably not be a lot of play for most users.
The house is the most interesting addition of the group. Granted, it makes sense because Apple is making greater pressure to stay competitive against the likes of Amazon and Google in the smart home. The Mac is not designed to be a hub in this case – it's still the work of Apple TV and HomePod, as far as the company is concerned. But the desktop operating system makes a good control panel, and it's convenient to be able to remotely check your place from the comfort of your MacBook.
Since it is actually ports, little has changed from a design point of view. This means that it is essentially the same layout that you will get on your iPad, with a grid of small, tidy boxes representing your different connected home appliances. It's pretty hard to get rid of the stress to touch and touch things. Apple, of course, has taken a hard line against the integration of touch in its laptops and desktops, so that reaching out will not get you very far in this particular case.
Bouts
- The Mac App Store is undergoing a redesign, including filtering searches and new categories of content. Apple has also added the type of editorial preservation it has had on iOS and other apps.
- More privacy permissions is always a good thing. In addition to standard access to contacts, calendar photos, and reminders, Apple has added notifications for apps accessing camera, microphone, and sensitive data. It means more pop-ups to click, but more importantly, greater peace of mind.
- The system now performs a "password audit" to make sure you do not reuse the same passwords again and again.
- Siri gets some additions on the desktop here, including the ability to add passwords with voice.
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