macOS Mojave has just become available recently and best of all, you get it as a free update if you’re an existing mac user. The new OS update brings with it several key aesthetic changes designed to alter your overall experience.
The first and most noticeable would be the dark colour scheme that features a desktop that shifts images to reflect what time of day it is. New productivity features like Stacks cleans up messy desktops by automatically organizing files into neat groups.
Familiar iOS apps are also brought to the desktop experience now, including News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home, and a redesigned Mac App Store featuring rich editorial content that makes finding the right Mac apps easier than ever.
Dark is the New Light
When everyone else was going midnight black, Apple was touting white. Today it’s swapped roles and Mojave come with a low-light friendly dark theme. The colour scheme is well integrated across built-in Mac apps including Mail, Messages, Maps, Calendar and Photos.
What’s Up With Stacks?
Stacks quickly clears cluttered desktops by automatically organizing files into neat groups based on file types like images, presentations, PDFs and text documents. Users can also customize Stacks to sort based on other file attributes, including date and tags. Stacked files can be easily accessed by clicking to expand a Stack and then opening a file.
Dynamic Desktop
For the first time, the macOS Mojave desktop background features a series of images that shift to match the time of day wherever a user is in the world. The desktop, featuring the rolling sand dunes of the Mojave Desert, transitions with different lighting variations based on the time of day, from dawn to morning, midday, dusk and evening to give the Mac user an all-new experience.
Finder: Do More Than Ever Before
Finder in macOS Mojave features an all-new Gallery View that lets users skim through files visually, while a Preview Pane shows all of a file’s metadata, making it easier to manage media assets. Quick Actions now appear in the Preview Pane within Finder and allow users to do things like create and password-protect PDFs, and even run custom Automator Actions. Quick Look now lets users rotate and crop images, mark up PDFs and trim video and audio clips and can be accessed by selecting a file and pressing the keyboard space bar.
Screenshots: Now a Snap
Screenshots delivers easy-to-use on-screen controls for quick access to screenshot options and new video recording capabilities. This feature can be accessed by launching the Screenshot utility or pressing shift-command-5 to access a series of controls to capture still images and videos of a Mac screen, including options for setting a timer and even choosing where to save screenshots.
Continuity Camera: Seamless Integration Across Mac and iPhone
With Continuity Camera users can shoot or scan a nearby object or document using their iPhone, and have it appear on their Mac. Users need to simply choose “Import From” in Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Notes, Mail and other supported apps to scan or shoot using their nearby iOS device.
New Apps: News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home
Familiar iOS apps including News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home come to the Mac for the first time, allowing users to do more than ever right from their desktop. News provides a one-stop destination for trusted news and information, curated by editors and personalized for each user. Stocks provides a simple way to track the market, delivering curated market news alongside a personalized watchlist complete with quotes and interactive charts. With Home, users can control their HomeKit-enabled accessories, from turning on lights to adjusting a thermostat or checking a baby monitor. And Voice Memos makes it easy to record personal notes, lectures, meetings, interviews or song ideas with the Mac’s built-in microphone and then later access them through iCloud from iPhone, iPad or Mac.
Updated Safari
Safari now supports website icons in browser tabs so users can easily identify their open tabs with a glance. Website icons can be enabled in Safari Preferences.
Mail now features an Emoji menu right within the Mail composition window, making it quick and easy to add Emoji to email messages.
Siri on Mac now lets users control HomeKit-enabled devices and also has improved knowledge of food, celebrities and motorsports.
UK English, Australian English, Canadian French and Traditional Chinese for Hong Kong system languages are now included in macOS Mojave, as well as improved maps for China and romanized English input for the Japanese keyboard.