Apple introduced the macOS Sequoia, the next version of its advanced desktop operating system during WWDC 2024.
The system introduces new capabilities such as iPhone Mirroring, Safari with Highlights, Passwords app, and Apple Intelligence. Apple Intelligence combines generative models with personal context to deliver useful and relevant intelligence.
In addition, the aforementioned system is deeply integrated into macOS Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18, and will be supported by every Mac with an M-series chip. The system aims to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks by understanding and creating language and images, taking action across apps, and drawing from personal context.
macOS Sequoia Details
“The all-star combination of the power of Apple silicon and the legendary ease of use of macOS have made the Mac more capable than ever. Today, we’re excited to take macOS to new heights with macOS Sequoia, a big release that elevates productivity and intelligence. macOS Sequoia ushers in Apple Intelligence, unlocking incredible new features that will be a game changer for working on Mac. And with more ways to help users effortlessly get things done, new Continuity features like iPhone Mirroring, major updates to Safari, and a host of new games, we think Mac users are going to love it.”
Craig Federighi, Apple senior vice president of Software Engineering
Wirelessly Use iPhone Right from Mac with iPhone Mirroring
macOS Sequoia enhances Continuity with iPhone Mirroring, allowing users to fully interact with their iPhone from their Mac. Users can customize their iPhone’s wallpaper, icons, and apps, and use a keyboard, trackpad, and mouse to interact with their iPhone.
StandBy ensures iPhone remains locked, allowing quick access to information. Users can also review and respond to iPhone notifications directly from their Mac. This feature ensures privacy and seamless interaction between iPhone and Mac.
Big Updates Come to Safari
Safari, the world’s fastest browser, now offers Highlights for easy web discovery, including directions, summaries, and quick links. It also features a redesigned Reader for streamlined reading, summary, and table of contents.
Safari’s Viewer helps users center videos on pages, allowing full access to system playback controls, including Picture in Picture.
Gaming Gets Even Better with Highly Anticipated Titles and More
A stellar lineup of games is coming to Mac — including the highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the next installment in Ubisoft’s blockbuster series — alongside new features like Personalized Spatial Audio that make gaming even more immersive.
- Highly anticipated titles: Developers are delivering an amazing host of new titles to Mac.
- Ubisoft will release Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and Assassin’s Creed Shadows
- Capcom will offer even more exciting titles from the popular RESIDENT EVIL series, including RESIDENT EVIL 7 biohazard and RESIDENT EVIL 2.
- The next major expansion of World of Warcraft: The War Within is coming later this year.
- Frostpunk 2, Palworld, Sniper Elite 4, and RoboCop: Rogue City, all leverage powerful software technologies like MetalFX Upscaling to accelerate performance and deliver high-quality visuals across the Mac lineup. And Control Ultimate Edition and Wuthering Waves are coming soon, taking advantage of the latest M3 family of chips to deliver breathtaking visuals with ray tracing.
- A more immersive gaming experience: Personalized Spatial Audio enhances player experience, while AirPods Pro reduces latency for better responsiveness. Game Mode improvements unlock smoother frame rates, and advanced power management features improve Mac lineup performance.
- Game Porting Toolkit 2: Game Porting Toolkit 2 enhances the speed and accessibility of bringing games to Apple devices, allowing developers to bring more titles to Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and incorporating the most-requested capabilities from game developers.
Window Tiling Is Easier and Faster Than Ever
Users can stay organized with new ways to arrange windows into a layout that works best for them. When a user drags a window to the edge of the screen, macOS Sequoia automatically suggests a tiled position on their desktop.
Users can release their windows right into place, quickly arrange tiles side by side, or place them in corners to keep even more apps in view. And new keyboard and menu shortcuts help users organize tiles even faster.
Video Conferencing Gets More Updates
Apple’s presenter preview enhances presentation by allowing users to preview content before sharing it, integrating with FaceTime and Zoom apps. It also offers built-in backgrounds, color gradients, and system wallpapers, and allows background replacements during video calls or third-party apps. Apple’s segmentation ensures optimal presentation.
The New Passwords App Keeps Credentials Secure and Organized
Built on the foundation of Keychain, which was first introduced over 25 years ago, macOS Sequoia brings Passwords, a new app that makes it even easier to access passwords, passkeys, Wi-Fi passwords, and other credentials all in one place. iCloud syncing is backed by secure end-to-end encryption.
Moreover, Passwords works great with Safari, and seamlessly syncs between a user’s Apple devices and Windows with the iCloud for Windows app.
Apple Intelligence Ushers in the Next Chapter of AI on Mac
Apple Intelligence is integrated into macOS Sequoia, enhancing writing and communication. It offers systemwide Writing Tools for rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing text across various apps.
Additionally, Image Playground allows users to create playful images in seconds, with options for Animation, Illustration, or Sketch. This feature is easy to use and integrated into apps like Messages.
Memories in Photos allows users to create stories by typing a description, with Apple Intelligence selecting the best photos and videos based on the description.
The tool also helps identify and remove distracting objects in the background. Siri, with Apple Intelligence, becomes more natural, contextually relevant, and personal. Users can type to Siri and switch between text and voice, making the Siri experience on Mac seamless.
Apple’s Private Cloud Compute offers a new level of privacy in AI, allowing for flexible computational capacity between on-device processing and dedicated servers. Data is not stored or accessible to Apple, and independent experts can verify this privacy.
ChatGPT is integrated into Siri and systemwide Writing Tools, enabling users to access its expertise and image- and document-understanding capabilities without needing to switch between tools.
Additional features in macOS Sequoia include:
- Messages have big updates to the ways users express themselves and stay connected, including all-new text effects, emoji and sticker Tapbacks, and the ability to schedule a message to be sent later.
- Apple Maps is introducing even more ways to explore the world, including curated hikes and custom walking routes. Beginning this fall, users can browse thousands of hikes across all 63 national parks in the United States, filtered by length, elevation, and route type, and save them to use while offline.
- Photos now surfaces Collections, which automatically organizes a user’s library by helpful themes, and includes a big update to search, so users can get results quickly.
- Notes is getting smarter, making it easier than ever to take detailed and well-written notes. New audio transcription and summarization features with Apple Intelligence enable a device to take notes for the user, letting them stay present in a situation where they need to capture details about what’s happening. And if they need to quickly crunch a number, they can just type in an equation to have it solved automatically in their note body.
- the Calculator app lets users see previous calculations with history and gives them the ability to see their expressions as they type.
- Calendar shows events and tasks from Reminders, making it easy to see, edit, or complete tasks throughout the day. An updated Month View makes it easier to see events and reminders for an entire month at a glance.
Availability
The developer beta of macOS Sequoia is available through the Apple Developer Program starting today, and a public beta will be available through the Apple Beta Software Program next month.
Apple Intelligence will be available in beta on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad, and Mac with M1 and later, as part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.
For more information, visit the Sequoia preview page here and the Apple Intelligence page here.
Features are subject to change. Some features are not available in all regions, all languages, or on all devices.
For more information about availability, visit Apple’s website.
Started his freelancing adventure in 2018 and began doing freelance Audio Engineering work and then started freelance writing a few years later.
Currently he writes for Gadget Pilipinas and Grit.PH.
He is also a musician, foody, gamer, and PC enthusiast.
