• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Apple Releases macOS Catalina With Find My, Screen Time, and No More iTunes

CyberPanda

Banned
Apple today released the newest version of its operating system for Macs, macOS Catalina, to the public. macOS Catalina comes after several rounds of beta testing and months of refinements.

macOS Catalina can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for free, and it is available to anyone who has a compatible Mac.

macos-catalina-wallpaper.jpg


macOS Catalina brings some major changes to the Mac, eliminating the iTunes app in favor of new Music, Podcasts, and TV apps. The three apps offer similar functionality to iTunes, but are split up by feature.

iOS device management is still available on the Mac, but it's done through the Finder instead of iTunes, and accessing your Apple ID is now done through the new profile setting in System Preferences.

macos-catalina-apple-music.jpg


The TV app offers up access to TV and movies with support for 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos, the Music app offers access to Apple Music and your iTunes library, and the Podcasts app offers up the Podcasts library with features for browsing, viewing top charts, and more.

A new Sidecar feature lets you turn your iPad into a secondary display for your Mac with just the click of a button, and you can even use your Apple Pencil to turn the iPad into a drawing tablet when using apps like Photoshop and Illustrator.

sidecarmacoscatalina.jpg


With macOS Catalina, the Apple Watch can be used to approve security prompts for passwords, and Macs with a T2 chip now support Activation Lock, making them more secure.

A new Find My app is available on the Mac for the first time, and it lets you track your devices even when they're offline, or in the case of notebooks, closed.

findmymacoscatalina.jpg


Screen Time is available on the Mac in addition to iPhones and iPads in macOS Catalina, so you can track your device usage across all of your devices for a better picture of how you're spending your time.

macoscatalinascreentime.jpg


Project Catalyst, a new Apple initiative, is designed to let developers easily port their iPad apps over to the Mac to increase the number of Mac apps available.

A new Photos interface surfaces your best photos organized by day, month, or year, there's a new start page in Safari, Mail has new tools for muting email threads and blocking senders, and the Reminders app has been overhauled.

macoscatalinaphotos.jpg


Security has been enhanced in macOS Catalina and Gatekeeper, Apple's security protocol, checks all of your apps for known security issues. New data protections require apps to get your permission before accessing your documents.

The update also supports Apple Arcade, Apple's new subscription-based gaming service that first began rolling out on the Mac last week. With macOS Catalina, Mac users can access Apple Arcade games on their Mac, as well as on iOS devices and the Apple TV.

apple_arcade_catalina-800x450.jpg

Prior to installing macOS Catalina, Mac users should be aware that 32-bit apps no longer work, so some older apps may no longer work after installing the update.

For more on what's new in macOS Catalina, make sure to check out our macOS Catalina roundup.

Related Roundup: macOS Catalina

 

Revoh

Member
I will stay on Mojave for as long as they support it. Catalina seems to be full of bugs at the moment.
 
The transition from Itunes to Music didn't carry over ANY of my fucking album artwork. Artwork i added myself, and artwork added by Itunes. Sometimes it shows the artwork in the mini player. Is there a fix for this? I have a lot of music. This bug in infuriating.
 
Last edited:

Nymphae

Banned
I am super pissed about Itunes being broken apart into different pieces and neutered, they can fuck right off if they have removed the Internet Radio functionality (not on Mac at home and my work computer likely won't be upgraded to this for a while for various reasons so I'm not sure if this is gone, but I'm almost certain it will be). I don't understand the Apple cult at all. Apple used to feel genuinely cool and now it's just so sickeningly corporate. I still generally like using the OS for work, but seriously, they can fuck themselves for removing those streams in an effort to push more Apple content.
 
Last edited:

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Too many applications that are 32 bit on my Mac won’t work. No update for me. CBA trying to find alternatives or have money to spend to upgrade existing s/w to work with new o/s.
 

TTOOLL

Member
Updated yesterday and it went smoothly. No problems at all so far besides Diablo 2 not working anymore. I mean, it was already a piece of shit on Mac and I wasn't playing it anymore so whatever...
 
I also have no problems, except for some icons being messed up and Steam needing an update. What I'm looking forward to the most is iOS app devs porting their apps over ASAP, there's quite a few I use on my IPad which I would like to have on my MBP as well.
 
Top Bottom