macOS Sonoma for more productivity and creativity

Apple has previewed macOS Sonoma, the latest version of the Mac desktop operating system with a host of features that supercharge the Mac experience. Beautiful screensavers and versatile widgets give you a whole new way to personalize your device. For example, you can now place widgets on your desktop and activate them with one mouse click. Furthermore, Continuity makes it possible to use all kinds of iPhone widgets on your Mac. Read here about all the new features of macOS Sonoma, the successor to macOS Ventura.

Interactive Widgets
Widgets on your Mac are now more powerful and more personal: put them directly on your desktop or conveniently open a gallery to find all your favorite widgets. All widgets blend seamlessly into the background when you’re working in an app, so they don’t distract you. Thanks to Continuity, you can also use a variety of iPhone widgets on your Mac. And widgets are now interactive, making it possible to check off reminders, play and pause media, control home accessories and perform a variety of other tasks right from your desktop. (article continues below the image).

Personalize your desktop with widgets or add widgets directly from your iPhone to your Mac thanks to Continuity

Smarter video meetings
macOS Sonoma includes enhanced video conferencing features that let you more effectively present and share your work in any meeting app. The new video effect ‘Presenter Overlay’ literally takes you to the next level: you remain in view as an overlay over the content you share. Comments let you further express your thoughts by adding balloons, confetti, hearts, and more to your video stream. You can even activate these effects with a hand gesture. The improved screen sharing dialer makes it easier to share apps during a video call. Simply click the green button in the top left of any app and choose the option to share the app in the conversation. This way you can easily share content from windows that you have open at that moment.

Major updates to Safari
The very fast Safari browser contains new features that make surfing on a Mac even better. For example, private mode has been greatly improved this year to protect you even better against trackers and people who may have access to your device. The advanced tracking and fingerprint protection in private mode goes even further to prevent websites from tracking you or knowing your identity. Plus, Private Mode locks windows when you’re not using them, so you can leave tabs open when you’re away from your Mac.
Profiles help you keep an overview by separating browsing sessions by subject, while cookies, history, extensions, tab groups and Favorites are also neatly split up. Thanks to the possibility to log in to the same website with both your work and private account and to switch accounts quickly, you are guaranteed to enjoy a smooth surfing experience. Finally, Safari lets you create web apps that behave like regular apps. A special toolbar then gives you super-fast access to all your favorite sites. (article continues below the image).

In Safari you can keep your activities on the internet separate, for example for work and private

New screen savers
macOS Sonoma includes beautiful screensavers featuring slow-motion videos of locations around the world, such as the breathtaking skyline of Hong Kong, the sandstone table mountains of Monument Valley, Arizona, and the rolling hills of Sonoma, northern California. These graphic and photographic images are rotated in the themes ‘Landscape’, ‘Earth’, ‘Underwater’ and ‘Cityscape’. Thanks to the new login field at the bottom of the screen, there is more space left to show the new screensavers. Then they transition seamlessly into the desktop.

Better gaming on the Mac
Thanks to the power of Apple silicon, you can enjoy great graphics performance on any Mac. Tens of millions of Apple silicon-enabled Macs now run demanding games with stunning quality, long battery life, and spectacular visuals. Developers continue to embrace Metal 3, bringing a host of exciting new titles to Mac, including DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR’S CUT, Stray, Fort Solis, World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, HUMANKIND, Resident Evil Village: Winters’ Expansion, The Medium , ELEX II, Firmament, SnowRunner, Disney Dreamlight Valley, No Man’s Sky, Dragonheir: Silent Gods and Layers of Fear. To make it easier to transfer games from other platforms to Mac, Metal is introducing a special toolkit that saves developers months of prep work and shows in just days how well an existing game could run on Mac. In addition, the code conversion process for game shaders and graphics has been dramatically simplified to take full advantage of the performance of Apple silicon. This also greatly reduces the total development time.
Also new to macOS Sonoma is Game Mode, which gives gamers that little bit extra when performance is measured in precious milliseconds. Game mode provides an optimal gaming experience with smoother and more consistent frame rates by ensuring that games are given top priority in the CPU and GPU. Doubling the sample rate for Bluetooth also makes games in Mac Game Mode more exciting, as both audio lag when using AirPods and input lag when using popular controllers (e.g. Xbox and PlayStation) are greatly reduced. The game mode is suitable for all games, including the latest and upcoming Mac games.

Advanced workflows for hybrid and remote working
Thanks to the advanced media engine in Apple silicon, a new powerful Screen Sharing mode is introduced in macOS Sonoma. This mode with limited audio delay, high frame rates and support for up to two virtual displays enables very fast remote access to hybrid workflows. As a creative professional, this mode allows you to safely work on your content in any location, whether editing videos in Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve, or creating complex 3D animations in Maya. Plus, with reference color support, you can work remotely with color workflows that typically require dedicated hardware and specialized software.

Improved accessibility features
macOS Sonoma includes a variety of accessibility features that help you customize your Mac even more for your needs. Do you have a hearing impairment? Then it is possible to have conversations and listen to media by connecting a Made for iPhone hearing aid to your Mac (1). And if you have a speech impediment, use Live Speech to type and have your thoughts read during calls and calls. Do you use Voice Control on Mac because you have a physical or motor disability? Then phonetic suggestions appear when you dictate and edit text (2). If you have a disability that makes it difficult for you to absorb and process information, Messages and Safari can automatically pause animated images (such as GIFs). And if you’re blind or have low vision, you can easily adjust text size in all Mac apps or use Xcode with VoiceOver, Apple’s leading screen reader.

Other updates in macOS Sonoma include:
• Streamlined PDFs: Enhanced PDF functionality enables quick form filling thanks to auto-complete option and smart recipient recommendations.
• Inline PDFs in Notes: PDFs and scanned documents now display full width in Notes, and linked notes allow users to quickly add a link to relevant items (such as recipes or homework).
• Siri: It is now possible to just say “Siri” to activate Siri (3).
• Passwords: You can now create a group to share a set of passwords. Anyone in the group can add and edit passwords to keep everything up to date. And because passwords are shared via iCloud Keychain, all information is fully encrypted. One-time verification codes you receive in Mail will now auto-fill in Safari, making it easier to log in somewhere secure without leaving the browser.
• To inform: Keep in touch with your loved ones using new stickers and improved features like searching, replying, grouping, and syncing Messages in iCloud.
• Memories: with smart shopping lists in Memories you make your weekly visits to the supermarket much more efficient. In addition, you can divide lists into sections, which you then arrange horizontally with a new column view.
• Keyboard: A brand new automatic corrections feature makes it easier and more accurate to make corrections. Complete your sentences quickly with handy completion options or take advantage of the improved dictation function that recognizes speech even more accurately.
• Privacy and security: Communications protection is now available for AirDrop, the photo picker, incoming calls, and FaceTime messages, so children are even better protected. The Sensitive Material Warning feature also prevents them from being unexpectedly exposed to sensitive images and videos in AirDrop and Messages, incoming calls, and FaceTime messages. You can also block a contact or find sources of information to help you further.

Availability
The beta version of macOS Sonoma for developers is already available through the Apple Developer Program at developer.apple.com. The public beta will be available next month through the Apple Beta Software Program at beta.apple.com. The release will be available for download as a free software update in the fall. For more information, visit apple.com/macos/sonoma-preview. Features are subject to change. Some features may not be available in all languages ​​or regions.

(1) Bidirectional Made for iPhone hearing aids can be paired with select Mac models with M1 chip and all Mac models with M2 chip.
(2) Phonetic suggestions for Voice Control are made available in English, Spanish, French and German.
(3) Just shouting “Siri” will work on Mac computers with Appl silicon and AirPods Pro (2nd generation) and will be available in English (Australia, Canada, UK, and US).