Apple macOS 10.15 Catalina features, news, and release date
Every year, at WWDC, Apple unveils the next major update to its operating system for Macs. This year's incoming refresh is called MacOS Catalina (version number 10.15). Here's everything you need to know about it.
What is MacOS 10.15?
MacOS 10.15 is Apple's next major update to the Mac operating system. It features the ability to turn an iPad into a second display, new Music, Podcasts, and Books apps, new security features will keep you better protected, and Voice Control so you can control your Mac with your voice.
When will MacOS Catalina be released?
A developer beta is available now, as is the public beta. Those of you who are anxious to try all the new features now should test out the public beta, but not on your primary machine. Go here to learn how to get the public beta. Catalina will officially release for Macs in autumn 2019.
MacOS Catalina features
New Music, Podcast, and TV apps
MacOS 10.15 will include new Apple Music, Podcasts, and TV apps, as well as a major redesign of the Apple Books app. The key thing about these apps is that they're made with Marzipan, Apple’s new effort that makes it easier to port iOS apps to the Mac without any complicated changes.
If you still sync your media from your Mac to an iOS or iPod device with a cable, you can still do this in the new apps. When you connect a device to your Mac, it will immediately show up in the sidebar of Finder so you can backup, update or restore your device.
To be clear, the macOS 10.15 will still include the iTunes app, but these new apps are its planned replacements. For more on what these new apps mean for iPod, iPhone and iPad devices as well as iTunes music and movies purchases, check out iTunes isn't dead, it's just being replaced
Sidecar (iPad external display)
If you own a Mac computer and an iPad, then you've probably heard about Luna Display before. The app enables you to use your iPad as an extension of your Mac desktop. Now, Apple is going to bring this natively to iOS 13. And yes, it's wireless as with other features of Continuity.
You'll be able to hover over the green maximise button in the macOS window bar to access options like full-screen mode, new tiling options, and the ability to send the window to an external display. Sidecar will work with the Apple Pencil, so you can draw on your iPad screen and see that appear on your Mac. A nice way around sticking to your guns and not bringing touch to the Mac, Apple.
Screen Time
Screen Time, currently an iOS-exclusive feature that reveals how much time you’ve spent using your device, will also come to the Mac. This app is designed to help you manage your digital health and, of course, will sync with iCloud so you can view data from iOS as well.
There's also a new “One more minute” feature that gives users more time to save their work or log out of a game.
You can also schedule time away from their Mac and determine how much time they want to spend within apps, websites or categories of apps. Family Sharing also incorporates new tools for parents to control device access even including who children can communicate with.
Find My
A new app. Well, not quite - Apple is merging Find My Friends and Find My iPhone into a single app called Find My. All of Apple’s tracking tools are will be in one place, so you can locate both missing devices and loved ones using the same interface. The new app can also locate devices that are offline - by sending a secure Bluetooth beacon to other Apple devices, then relaying it back to Apple, and to you - it's a bit like Tile, really.
It's all end-to-end encrypted, too.
Voice control
As on Windows, Voice Control will enable those who can’t operate traditional input devices to control Macs entirely with their voice using on-device Siri speech recognition. That's not uploaded to iCloud, so there are no privacy implications as with other virtual assistants we could mention.
Voice control could be useful for the masses as you can dictate to your machine. You'll also be able to do this on iOS and iPadOS.
More macOS Catalina enhancements
- Photos: redesigned browser to showcase your best pictures
- Safari: an updated start page that uses Siri Suggestions to select frequently visited sites, bookmarks, iCloud tabs, Reading List selections and links sent in Messages.
- Mail: block email from a specified sender, mute an overly active thread and unsubscribe from commercial mailing lists.
- Notes: brand new Gallery View, more powerful search and collaboration options.
- Reminders: redesigned with a new user interface to create, organise and track reminders.
- Siri Shortcuts: Apple is also planning to bring the Siri Shortcuts feature to the Mac. Shortcuts enable you to create unique Siri voice commands that trigger actions in an app. Learn more about Siri Shortcuts.
- Approve with Apple Watch: One of the new security features enables you to approve many security prompts on your Mac simply by pressing the side button on your Apple Watch. This will come to all Macs that have a T2 security chip.
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