MAC users are in for some interesting changes later this year, when the next version of Apple’s desktop operating system becomes available. But don’t go looking for OS X. After more than 15 years, the name has been retired in favor of macOS to keep the desktop OS in tune with Apple’s younger operating systems–iOS, watchOS and tvOS.
At the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2016, Apple senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, announced the name change as well as the codename for the latest version, macOS Sierra (version 10.12).
“Sierra is a fantastic new release with a big focus on continuity, the iCloud and the fundamentals of the Mac experience,” Federighi said.
“Continuity is like magic,” he continued. “Your devices are able to sense themselves around you, and use secure peer-to-peer wireless protocols to enable you to move from one task to another across your devices seamlessly.
Federighi then demonstrated one of the new features of Sierra, Auto Unlock, which enables the Mac to automatically go past the lock screen when it detects that you are already logged in on your Apple Watch.
Another continuity feature demonstrated at WWDC 2016 was Universal Clipboard, which allows users to copy content, including text, images, photos and video from one Apple device and paste it into another.
Other new features demonstrated were:
• Seamless integration with iCloud Drive that make everything on a user’s Desktop and Documents folder available on their iPhone, iPad or any other Mac they use.
• Optimized Storage, which frees up space when the drive starts getting full by storing infrequently used items in iCloud and reminding users to delete used application installers, and even clearing out duplicate downloads, caches, and logs. In the WWDC demo, a 250-gigabyte drive that was down to 20GB regained 130GB after it was optimized.
• Tabs, which are popular in browsers, can be used to manage multiple windows in more applications in macOS, including Maps, Mail, Pages, Numbers, TextEdit and even third-party apps.
• Picture in Picture, which lets users float video from Safari or iTunes in a window over their desktop while they work. The tiny screen can be resized, dragged and pinned to any corner of the screen and stays put even when spaces are switched.
• Apple Pay, a way for Apple users to shop securely and privately online, and to use their devices, like the iPhone, to verify their identities. So far, Apple Pay is available only in a few countries, and the Philippines isn’t one of them.
Federighi saved the most dramatic demo for last—showing off Siri, the natural language personal assistant found on iPhones, the iPad and Apple Watch, working on a Mac.
Siri can be summoned from the Dock, the menu bar or the keyboard to responds to spoken, natural-language commands or queries. With Siri, users can use their voice look up information, find documents, pin or drag and drop search results, search the internet, send messages and even adjust system preferences.
Despite the new branding and the bells and whistles on it, macOS doesn’t seem to be a revolutionary departure from OS X – which is a good thing, since most users don’t want their computing habits disrupted with every new release of an OS.
A preview of macOS Seirra is already available to developers under the Apple Developer Program at developer.apple.com. Mac users can sign up for the macOS Sierra Beta Program and download the software starting in July at beta.apple.com.
The final version will be available for free from the Mac App Store this fall. Chin Wong
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