June 6, 2022 marks the start of WWDC, the annual trade show hosted by Apple. This conference is an opportunity for the Apple brand to present all of its new products, including those related to its macOS operating system. This 2022 edition is no exception to the rule since the Californian firm has announced macOS Ventura, the new major update to its operating system, succeeding macOS Monterey.
Stage Manager for better management of open windows on Mac
The first feature offered to users of Apple computers is Stage Manager. This focuses on window management for better task execution. Indeed, Apple has bet on the massive use of windows by its users. Seeing them overwhelmed, the firm now offers to have an overview of all the active windows so that the user can choose the one he wants to have in the foreground.
Apple formalizes the arrival of its M2 chip at WWDC
All the other windows will be available on the left of the screen and it will be possible to switch from one window to another with a single click. This feature immediately brings to mind the slides that can be found in presentations.
Stage Manager allows you to have a real overview of the active windows on the Macbook. Photography: Apple.
In addition to that, the user will see his windows being grouped according to a theme chosen beforehand by the computer and this automatically. The different pages will be categorized according to their nature: videos, internet browsing windows, spreadsheets, software suite, etc. This is intended to facilitate the opening of linked windows and which therefore have a high chance of being chosen simultaneously (or one after the other) by the user.
Spotlight: optimizing the search for information
Spotlight is, without a doubt, a feature that should appeal to people who want to get as much information as possible around a keyword. Thanks to this new feature, it will be possible for a user typing in a keyword to obtain a large amount of information around said keyword.
For example, if the user is interested in Major League Baseball in the United States, all he has to do is use Spotlight to find out as much as possible about this championship. These “enriched” results concern several themes such as films & TV series, celebrities & artists, companies or even sport.
With Spotlight, it is possible for a user of Apple products to have access to many condensed information related to a single subject. Photography: Apple.
Thanks to Spotlight, it will also be possible to extend the search for images to the user’s own photo library. Thus, if a user types in a keyword and one of his photos is related to this word, the photograph will be suggested to him as a search result, in addition to the photographs listed by the web. With Live Text, macOS users will be able to search based on text appearing on an image to learn more about the text and image; Spotlight is one of the novelties that will also be available on iOS.
Mail app update
Mail is one of the most used applications by owners of Apple devices. The Mail update should allow users to be able to schedule and schedule the sending of emails. In addition, when receiving an email, it will be possible to set a reminder to return to an email previously received and that a person does not wish to open immediately (or that a person wishes to consult again).
The update therefore focuses on the ways in which the application is used: users will be able to cancel the transmission of an email even after clicking on “send”, notice that an attachment or a recipient has been forgotten thanks to to the presence of a notification or even to obtain suggestions after a search, even if the keyword typed is not the right one. Now, recent emails, contacts, documents, and more appear as soon as users click in the Mail app’s search bar.
Much more security and usability for the Safari browser
Safari sees the arrival of new features that will allow its users to have access to new ways of using the browser. First of all, Safari offers a new way to navigate on the same tab with several people. Groups of shared tabs (or Shared Tabs Groups) will aim to offer a group of people to share their sites in a few clicks. Thus, family members, friends, or co-workers can consult websites at the same time, but also know which tabs they consult in real time.
It will be possible for these users to plan many things together (like trips, events, etc.), without all these people being gathered around the same Macbook. Note that all users of the same group of shared tabs can communicate via Messages or through FaceTime directly from Safari.
It is now possible to browse together and remotely on Safari thanks to shared tab groups. Photography: Apple.
Then, the Safari update was particularly focused on more secure browsing. In 2019, Google, Microsoft and Apple announced the future possibility of identifying yourself without using a password. This is now done since with the access codes (or Passkeys), it will be possible to obtain a unique digital key which will never be stored on a web server and which will be associated with the user’s device. Thus, Apple tries to limit any risk of leaking passwords by phishing or other unscrupulous techniques.
Apple wants to offer gamers the possibility of turning to macOS
Playing video games on a Macbook is not common. Nevertheless, the apple brand has focused heavily on gaming by offering macOS users the possibility of launching AAA games (very greedy for processors and graphics cards). To achieve this, Apple is launching Metal 3, its latest version of its software adapted for video games, which will aim to boost game performance.
An upscaling feature will speed up the rendering and smoothness of complex game scenes (with a lot of detail) by using less resource-intensive frames, attempting to lower framerate resolution, and making the editing process faster. anti-aliasing to try to reduce the effect of image saturation.
With Continuity, Apple tries to link all the devices of its users
Finally, Continuity will allow Macbook users to use their iPhone as a webcam. The computer immediately and automatically recognizes the California firm’s phone and will open its Camera application. When calling someone with any video conferencing tool, the computer will immediately recognize the phone and then use it as a webcam. As for the video quality, the user will see their background slightly blurred so that their silhouette can stand out better on the screen.
In addition, Finally, Handoff appears in FaceTime: if the user starts to move to the right or left of the computer, the iPhone camera will follow the user in his movements and his interlocutor will be able to, keep seeing it. If another Apple device is connected near the one that started a video call, it can take over to continue the videoconference. Finally, the Desk View function will simultaneously display the user’s face as well as his desktop, which can be very useful for showing something placed on it.
With this new macOS update, Apple aims to offer new ways to use its Macbooks to its users. The Apple brand wants to offer more security, more performance and a better experience, as Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, points out: ” macOS Ventura incorporates powerful and innovative features that help make the Mac experience even better “.