Apple WWDC 2019: MacOS Catalina is finally revealed
Following the iPadOS, Apple WWDC 2019 presented the new Mac Pro alongside with the iMac, just to proceed to the updates of the macOS. MacOS Catalina got its name based on an island near the coast of California similarly to all previous versions of the macOS that got its name taken from nature. The new macOS brings several new app enhancements as well as an important new feature: iPad app support.
MacOS Catalina is bringing project Marzipan to life, first by renaming it to Catalyst. The project is intended as a way for developers to port the iPad apps to the Mac using the Xcode. For now, there are three apps that are certainly going to be transported from iOS: Twitter, Asphalt 9 Legends, and Jira iPad app by Atlassian.
Besides the app support, macOS Catalina is getting a new “Sidecar” feature that allows an iPad to be used as a second display for Mac, or even as a graphics tablet. By using Continuity, Sidecar feature can run on a wireless connection. All of this could be very useful for apps like Final Cut X, Adobe Illustrator and iWork were working with a touch screen and Apple Pencil while displaying macOS can be more productive.
Another big announcement is the one that was rumored about quite a lot lately: division of iTunes app into the new Apple Music, Podcasts and Apple TV apps. The Podcast app looks pretty simple and uses Machine Learning to index the podcast content which makes searching among the 700,000 shows much easier. Apple Music is a simplified version of the iTunes without the additional features. Finally, Apple TV app lost the sidebar and instead offers category option on the top of the screen. It supports 4K HDR playback with HDR 10, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.
Furthermore, macOS Catalina can be controlled entirely using just voice as a part of improving accessibility. Everything you could do with a mouse, you can do by just speaking it and giving commands based on the numbers on the screen next to each option. Another joint app will be the new “Find My” app for both iOS and macOS which combines the Find My Friends and Find My iPhone apps into one. It can locate even offline devices through Bluetooth encryption.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqoXFCCTfm4
Screen Time is also coming to macOS, giving the users insight in how much time they spend in each app or website. The activation lock is coming to macOS Catalina as well and it will work similarly to that on iPhones. This means that in case it gets stolen, nothing on it can be accessed. There are other apps that are getting an update as well, including Photos with a new browsing view, Notes with a new gallery view and even Reminders with its own tweaks and adjustments, alongside with the Safari and Mail updates.
macOS Catalina can be seen as a demo during the Apple WWDC 2019 conference but it won’t be available for download sooner than September or October this year. Of course, registered developers can download the beta version right away while public beta users can get to it as soon as July.
