[HN Gopher] macOS Sequoia Preview
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       macOS Sequoia Preview
        
       Author : davidbarker
       Score  : 206 points
       Date   : 2024-06-10 18:49 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.apple.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.apple.com)
        
       | wwalexander wrote:
       | I never thought I'd see the day macOS would get tiling window
       | management. Wonder how it will interact with Stage Manager if at
       | all.
        
         | spike021 wrote:
         | Yeah it looks like this will usurp Magnet for me, which I've
         | used for years now.
        
           | minimaxir wrote:
           | The better question is why it took so long for Apple to copy
           | Magnet.
        
             | vladsanchez wrote:
             | Because Apple is pure Snobbery! Period! They'll never admit
             | to be behind imagineers.
             | 
             | I've personally been infuriated by the absence of Send
             | Later feature. I can't fathom that I could do it with a
             | "stupid/inferior" Windows Phone that wasn't obscenely
             | priced like an iPhone.
             | 
             | They lost their technological leadership since Steve Jobs.
             | End of Story.
        
           | imbnwa wrote:
           | Rectangle and Magnet devs not happy
        
             | cassianoleal wrote:
             | I still run f.lux even though macOS has native Night Shift.
             | I run BetterDisplay even though I can change display
             | settings natively. I run AppCleaner even though in theory I
             | can uninstall an app by dragging it to the bin. I run
             | Alfred even though Spotlight exists.
             | 
             | I bet I'm gonna keep Rectangle as well.
        
         | alejoar wrote:
         | Now if they only would allow me to take the focused window to
         | the next workspace without using the mouse.
        
         | LogHouse wrote:
         | I know it's simple but I am so pleased with this. Now if they
         | fixed the mouse acceleration curve and the scaling issue for
         | monitors, I'd be at peace.
        
           | imbnwa wrote:
           | What's the scaling issue?
        
             | sunshowers wrote:
             | Not GP, but macOS doesn't have fractional scaling, which
             | means that running at non-integer scales is inefficient.
             | For example:
             | 
             | A 3840x2160 monitor run at 1x means a framebuffer of
             | 3840x2160.
             | 
             | At 2x, the effective resolution is 1920x1080, and this also
             | uses a framebuffer of 3840x2160.
             | 
             | At 1.5x, the effective resolution is 2560x1440. This is
             | implemented by rendering at 4x (5160x2880) and then
             | downscaling that.
             | 
             | At 1.25x, the effective resolution is 3072x1728. This is
             | also implemented by rendering at 4x (6144x3456) and
             | downscaling that.
             | 
             | The difference between all of these is quite noticeable.
             | 
             | Edit: Apparently Apple has been shipping its laptops with
             | non-integer scaling for a while, which is interesting.
        
           | cmiller1 wrote:
           | It's the only OS that offers a good acceleration curve for my
           | trackballs, been dying with the lack of configuration for the
           | curve under wayland :(
        
         | freediver wrote:
         | I use BetterSnapTool for ages and love it. Wondering if this
         | will be good enough to replace it natively.
        
           | mvanbaak wrote:
           | This was exactly what I was thinking as well. Let's see!
        
         | flenserboy wrote:
         | It's great for those who want it, but I really hope it can be
         | turned off just as with most of their recent UI additions, such
         | as Stage Manager.
        
         | zeusly wrote:
         | I hope it supports thirds and not just 50/50 layouts.
        
           | doublepg23 wrote:
           | I think that'll require the crackpot team that made
           | Calculator on iPad possible.
        
             | mostlysimilar wrote:
             | To be fair the new calculator app with its magic math
             | writing is pretty dang cool.
        
               | goosedragons wrote:
               | Nebo has had essentially that for years, OneNote too.
        
         | nico wrote:
         | I use Moom for basic keyboard-based window management. Great
         | for maximizing windows and quickly resizing them
        
           | LeoPanthera wrote:
           | Yes! I've been using Moom for I think over a decade now.
           | Cannot recommend it highly enough.
        
         | xyst wrote:
         | the tiling is very basic though. reminds me of windows. i3/sway
         | is superior, especially once you get it customized to your
         | workflow.
        
           | thfuran wrote:
           | Really basic tiling would be a vast improvement over the
           | pathetic current built-in window management.
        
         | xlii wrote:
         | 2 days ago I complained that Apple has stalled when it came to
         | window management. I wonder if Tim Cook is reading HN ;)
        
         | wiseowise wrote:
         | Finally Windows and Linux fanatics will shut up.
        
           | fckgw wrote:
           | No they just switch from "Mac doesn't have X" to "Welcome to
           | 20212 Mac"
        
           | superjose wrote:
           | TBH, we still need to see how it integrates with the
           | keyboard.
           | 
           | Ever since I've been using a Mac since Nov. 2023 that's been
           | one of the things that I've battled with, and I've assigned a
           | heck tons of shortcuts to make that happen.
        
             | adamomada wrote:
             | Wouldn't it be like everything else, default keyboard
             | shortcuts that can be easily overridden? Personally I hope
             | they go with rectangle's CTRL+OPT just because it's seared
             | into my muscle memory now
        
             | nobleach wrote:
             | It's frustrating at best. On any tiling WM on Linux, I can
             | hit Meta+<#> and be taken to that workspace.
             | 
             | On macOS, the moment I fullscreen an app, it's taken out of
             | that flow. So for so many years, I've had my terminal full
             | screen on workspace 2. Meta+2 it in my muscle memory for
             | "go to terminal".
        
           | mmcnl wrote:
           | Why the fanboyism? It's not a tournament. Let's embrace
           | competition and enjoy that it brings the best out of each OS.
        
         | gnatman wrote:
         | I installed Rectangle about 4 hours ago based on another
         | thread! Tim Apple knows all.
        
         | mortenjorck wrote:
         | I'm honestly surprised and disappointed that all they appear to
         | have done is Sherlock Rectangle.
         | 
         | Stage Manager was the most interesting and useful thing to
         | happen to window management in over a decade, and I was really
         | hoping we'd see Apple do more with it. Its dynamic nature
         | (windows don't always live in just a single context!) solved a
         | lot of problems inherent in Spaces, and yet there's still
         | plenty of room to build on its foundation.
         | 
         | I was hoping we'd at least see the window snapping behavior
         | ported over from iPadOS. It's a really well-thought-out way to
         | simplify window resizing and overlapping, and it would go a
         | long way on MacOS (perhaps with a toggle in Control Center for
         | those edge cases where you actually want pixel precision).
         | Maybe in MacOS 16...
        
           | thiht wrote:
           | > Stage Manager was the most interesting and useful thing to
           | happen to window management in over a decade
           | 
           | ... really? I've tried to use it a few times but it's just...
           | not good. Not very intuitive, full of idiosyncrasies, and it
           | doesn't solve the basic "I want to snap 2 windows side by
           | side" problem. Maybe it's more interesting on iPad?
           | 
           | I'm glad they finally bring window snapping to Mac.
        
             | cjk2 wrote:
             | it's bloody terrible on the ipad too.
             | 
             | I tried it with my studio display for a day and it was like
             | wrestling a raccoon all fucking day.
        
           | cassianoleal wrote:
           | I disabled Stage Manager after trying it out for a week or
           | so. How the hell does that thing make any sense? Really, this
           | is a legit question. How is that thing useful?
        
         | thiht wrote:
         | FINALLY! I really didn't it to come to Mac, ever.
         | 
         | Now so just need a clipboard history manager, a way to make
         | cmd+tab behave like Windows alt+tab, a way to mute the mic in
         | the status bar, and a different setting for the trackpad/mouse
         | wheel direction, and I won't need to install random apps for
         | basic features anymore.
        
           | pxc wrote:
           | don't forget per-app volume control, linear scroll wheel
           | speed, some reasonable way to manage menu bar icons and
           | ensure all can actually be accesses and used, a way to
           | prevent the system from going to sleep (the built-in
           | `caffeinate` command hasn't worked for years!), and searching
           | through open windows by typing!
        
         | mmcnl wrote:
         | No mention of Stage Manager at all if I'm correct? Seems like
         | Apple is quietly abandoning that path.
        
         | karmakaze wrote:
         | I never really understood the appeal of tiling window managers.
         | I've gotten used to having overlapping windows with appropriate
         | parts peek out out behind others. e.g. tail of a log behind an
         | editor running a program, and I can bring it to the foreground
         | to see older lines and/or scroll. To do the same with a tiling
         | manager, I would zoom the logging pane. I suppose I just prefer
         | less layout changes. Same for Slack, I have just enough peeping
         | out to know there's some messages but I can't see the message
         | text so I can ignore them until I'm ready.
         | 
         | Are there situations that make more sense to use a tiling
         | manager like on larger (where all the tiles are usable) or
         | smaller screens (where full expansion makes sense)?
        
           | harshaxnim wrote:
           | With tiling managers you can do all you just listed + quick
           | snapping. Who would say no to that?
        
             | jwells89 wrote:
             | The WM being tiling-dominant doesn't really make sense if
             | one only ever tiles the odd window every now and then. In
             | that situation it makes more sense to use a floating-
             | dominant WM with light tiling features (like that of
             | Windows, most major Linux DEs, and now macOS).
        
           | sircastor wrote:
           | I generally agree with you. I use my Mac with most of the
           | windows overlapped most of the time. But occasionally I need
           | them side-by-side to do some work. Typically referencing
           | documents or code. Fortunately the introduction of this looks
           | to just be an optional feature rather than a dictated "way
           | things are".
           | 
           | An overlapped/stacked interface is fine a lot of the time,
           | but the flexibility is important.
           | 
           | What really drives me crazy is the 100% tiled-interface. I
           | feel like something important is just below the tiles, but I
           | can't see it.
        
         | pxc wrote:
         | You still haven't seen that day, have you? macOS still offers
         | only a floating window manager, now with some window snapping
         | capabilities. But there is no mode or window manager built into
         | macOS where new windows are arranged in tiles spanning the
         | whole screen by default.
        
         | vladsanchez wrote:
         | Been a happy Magnet user for long time! Nothing remarkable in
         | this OS that hasn't been seen yet elsewhere. No innovation,
         | only #MeToo features.
         | 
         | It took them a decade to release a "Send Later" feature? How's
         | that for innovation? Snobs!
        
       | minimaxir wrote:
       | The iPhone Mirroring was the most interesting announcement (and I
       | don't think was leaked).
       | 
       | I suspect it will only be useful for emergencies as latency will
       | be terrible, though.
        
         | k8sToGo wrote:
         | With WiFi 6e latency should be ok.
        
         | tsujamin wrote:
         | Sidecar/display mirroring from my macbook to my ipad is pretty
         | low latency, so presumably this will be based on a similar
         | technology stack
        
         | gfaure wrote:
         | This is occasionally quite useful. A few weeks ago, my phone's
         | display went haywire, and the only way I could operate it to
         | secure a backup was through the somewhat hidden mirroring
         | functionality via QuickTime screen recording.
        
         | eddieroger wrote:
         | > as latency will be terrible, though
         | 
         | Based on what? AirPlay mirroring is great today, and this is
         | that with data in the other direction. Current Wifi is
         | perfectly capable of bidirectional voice and video. Adding
         | touch/key events is incremental.
        
           | fragmede wrote:
           | Yeah, I use my AppleTV As a monitor for my laptop all the
           | time via Airplay mirroring and it's fine.
        
             | Toutouxc wrote:
             | Same, I do this regularly when my wife's using my desk, the
             | latency is a bit like cloud gaming - it's there for
             | competitive Counter Strike, it isn't there for coding or
             | browsing.
        
           | minimaxir wrote:
           | "Terrible" might be an exaggeration, but even in my personal
           | uncongested network the feed can get randomly choppy from
           | wireless AirPlay mirroring.
        
             | ThomasBb wrote:
             | That might be a sign of excessive congestion on the channel
             | used for Airplay. Esp with device to device direct link,
             | latency should be minimal. If you can, try moving nearby
             | AP's off the AirPlay channels for your region. For the US:
             | "If possible, avoid using Wi-Fi channels 149 and 153 in
             | rooms where peer-to-peer AirPlay is frequently in use"
        
               | doublepg23 wrote:
               | Wow, that might be why AirPlay always gave me issues.
               | I've been on channel 153 for 5GHz forever. Thanks!
        
         | wwalexander wrote:
         | This used to exist via QuickTime, but I wasn't able to get it
         | working recently.
         | 
         | > I suspect it will only be useful for emergencies as latency
         | will be terrible, though.
         | 
         | If they can make the macOS display feature in visionOS usable,
         | I imagine they can make this work too.
        
           | navanchauhan wrote:
           | I thought you could only do screen recording via QuickTime
           | This mirroring feature actually lets you interact with the
           | phone
        
             | wwalexander wrote:
             | I think you're right about that!
        
         | dereg wrote:
         | Can't wait to attempt GUI automation on my iPhone using the
         | mac.
        
         | sleepybrett wrote:
         | I hoping my mom can share their phone with their laptop and i
         | can sreenshare into her laptop to troubleshoot her phone.
         | 
         | Also I will use this often to approve okta 2factor requests.
        
           | crummy wrote:
           | Oh shit - that's a great point, this will make remote tech
           | support a lot better
        
           | djxfade wrote:
           | You can already remote control an iPhone through FaceTime I
           | think
        
         | jayd16 wrote:
         | Why? It's not like remote desktop tech is new or anything.
        
           | m463 wrote:
           | apple's mac to mac remote desktop is quite good.
        
         | xyst wrote:
         | Wasn't this always possible though? Apple just turned what was
         | once a development feature (Xcode) into a mainstream feature.
        
         | drewg123 wrote:
         | I'd like to use it for watching Netflix/Hulu/etc on a plane on
         | a larger screen than my phone without being forced to carry an
         | iPad.
         | 
         | I really wish Apple would just force companies to enable their
         | iPhone/iPad apps on Apple Silicon. But if I could display a
         | video from my phone onto my 15" laptop screen, that would be a
         | nearly as nice.
        
         | ttul wrote:
         | Apple would not be releasing iPhone mirroring if the latency
         | were terrible. If they had a low bar for latency, they'd have
         | released iPhone mirroring ten years ago. Apple's Human
         | Interface Guidelines do not specify an exact maximum number of
         | milliseconds for interface latency. However, they emphasize the
         | importance of responsiveness and recommend that any user
         | interface should feel instantaneous and fluid to create a
         | positive user experience. The general goal is to keep latency
         | as low as possible to ensure interactions feel immediate and
         | natural.
        
         | pazimzadeh wrote:
         | this is needed on Vision Pro
        
         | cassianoleal wrote:
         | Goodbye having to lift my phone to use crappy enterprise MFA
         | solutions.
        
         | Detrytus wrote:
         | The only use case for iPhone Mirroring I can think of is online
         | shopping, when I'm trying to finalize transaction on my Mac,
         | but then realize that I have to login to my banking app to
         | confirm payment, and my iPhone is in another room... I guess
         | you can call that "an emergency".
         | 
         | And of course, there are all those MFA apps which I need for
         | work...
        
       | pmx wrote:
       | I have high hopes for the background replacement tech, the
       | segmentation built into teams isn't very good.
        
         | minimaxir wrote:
         | The demo they showed used the iPhone Continuity Camera, which
         | has depth information and already does a great job of
         | segmentation as it's required for the Portrait and Studio Light
         | effects.
         | 
         | I suspect quality will be worse on a typical Mac FaceTime
         | camera.
        
           | xenonite wrote:
           | Good point, but not for details: I doubt that the depth
           | information is of much help for separating hairs from the
           | background.
        
         | viraptor wrote:
         | You can always use your own removal with OBS. There's a plugin
         | for automatic background removal and you can re-export the
         | video as a virtual camera that any other app can use.
        
       | corytheboyd wrote:
       | I'd love to have a proper window organizer with keyboard
       | shortcuts built into the OS, one less thing to have to install on
       | the side. Hopefully it's fast, with no annoying flair.
        
         | sleepybrett wrote:
         | I'll probably still use phoenix since I can code it to do
         | whatever I want. https://github.com/kasper/phoenix
        
           | kalb_almas wrote:
           | Dude thank you SO MUCH for sharing this. I use Rectangle to
           | tile windows and I've been looking for a way to switch
           | between windows based on their position on my screen rather
           | than their type for probably about a year now.
        
       | AnonC wrote:
       | The iPhone mirroring feature and the related feature of being
       | able to control the screen on another person's device is going to
       | be quite helpful, personally speaking. But the screen control
       | feature can also be a threat that scammers could convince someone
       | to allow and then defraud them. I'll be looking forward to try
       | this out and see how (well) it works.
        
         | UniverseHacker wrote:
         | I don't think scammers will be able to exploit the control
         | feature, as you will most likely need to have two apple devices
         | in close physical proximity.
        
       | adamors wrote:
       | Should have called it Sherlock as they seem to be Sherlocking a
       | lot of apps. For instance I only use Fantastical because I can
       | see my reminders with my events, I assume many people will also
       | switch from a paid password manager to this as well.
        
         | akagr wrote:
         | I don't see myself switching from 1password simply because I
         | don't think Apple passwords autofill will work natively with
         | non-safari browsers or Linux, both of which I also use. Also, I
         | find the handy 1password mini source pretty convenient.
        
           | macintux wrote:
           | I haven't determined yet whether the new Passwords app will
           | support my killer feature for 1Password: non-password-stuff.
           | 
           | I keep family members' social security numbers, security
           | questions and answers, passport numbers, etc in there, and I
           | don't want to split that data between a passwords app &
           | secure notes.
        
             | shepherdjerred wrote:
             | Yes, it's so nice to keep random info in 1Password. I keep
             | my VIN/license plate, software licenses, API tokens,
             | drivers license info w/ pictures, insurance cards, etc.
        
           | ssbash wrote:
           | Other browsers could add support for the native macOS
           | password autofill apis (introduced back in 2020 in macOS Big
           | Sur). So far both Chrome[1] and Firefox[2] have refused to
           | add support.
           | 
           | [1] https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40744291#comment15
           | 
           | [2] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1650212
        
             | FireBeyond wrote:
             | That exchange with Vas (on the Chrome side) was more than a
             | little frustrating.
             | 
             | "Chrome isn't just an App, it's a password provider. We're
             | not throwing that away for Apple."
             | 
             | I don't think that was anyone's intention. But he locked
             | into a single use case that was a straw man. "I can
             | understand how some users might want that. That's not a
             | priority for us."
        
           | djxfade wrote:
           | It already works for Chrome. Apple has an official extension.
           | However, it's a bit annoying since you need to authenticate
           | each new browser session with MFA
        
         | amelius wrote:
         | Isn't it illegal to push your own products by bundling them
         | with other products?
        
           | adamors wrote:
           | Well Apple has been doing this since forever
           | 
           | > Watson became very popular, and stayed that way right until
           | Apple released Mac OS X 10.2 with Sherlock 3. In that
           | release, Apple added just about everything Watson could do to
           | Sherlock's own interface.
        
           | bn-l wrote:
           | Yeah I think that's what MS was doing before one of their
           | antitrust lawsuits.
        
           | macintux wrote:
           | That can result in anti-trust action if you have a monopoly,
           | which isn't true for Apple in the U.S. The EU has different
           | rules which I don't pretend to understand.
        
           | WillPostForFood wrote:
           | It is not illegal to push your own products by bundling them
           | with other products. Both MacOS and Windows have dozens or
           | hundreds of their own bundled products.
        
           | mpalmer wrote:
           | They're not even charging for these things, what's the
           | objection exactly?
        
         | runako wrote:
         | Isn't the Passwords app essentially just existing features of
         | the OSes extracted into an app? Or does it add new capabilities
         | as well (other than obviously the Windows app)?
        
           | jerbear4328 wrote:
           | The Windows app already existed, actually, as part of iCloud
           | for Windows. It uses a Chrome extension for autofill.
           | https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud-windows/set-up-
           | icloud...
        
         | agent86 wrote:
         | Math Notes certainly appears to be moving into Soulver/Numi
         | territory. I'm a bit surprised by this one as while I
         | personally love Soulver I didn't know how appealing it would be
         | to Apple's overall user base.
        
           | JZL003 wrote:
           | I was going to say too, I love literate-calc in org mode but
           | it's all pretty niche and not a well developed set of
           | sofwtare https://github.com/sulami/literate-calc-mode.el
        
         | twixfel wrote:
         | Honestly, I support it. I got burnt by Tijme Gommers selling
         | Raivo to someone shady and getting all my passwords locked
         | behind a subscription (and subsequently lost). I don't want to
         | have to check once a day to see if my TOTP app has been sold to
         | some guy in Morocco and my passwords monetised.
        
       | freediver wrote:
       | A cool tidbit shown in one of the screenshots is that Apple Pay
       | will be unlocked to other browsers. It is not clear whether they
       | will need to be running WebKit or not for this to work, but
       | looking forward to support in Orion.
        
         | lxgr wrote:
         | Given that all relevant browsers on macOS either bring their
         | own WebKit build or run another engine, system-WebKit only
         | would be close to false advertising, so I really hope it's not.
         | 
         | I'm really looking forward to this - big fan of Apple Pay, but
         | I'm not switching to Safari and rebuilding my shopping cart for
         | non-logged-in purchases, and that's where it's arguably most
         | useful.
        
       | xenospn wrote:
       | I've been wishing for iPhone notifications on my Mac for the
       | longest time!
        
         | dmitshur wrote:
         | I wonder if it'll do anything about duplicate notifications. As
         | a basic example, the Weather app exists both on iOS (and
         | iPadOS) and macOS, so if it's enabled, would you get duplicate
         | notifications on macOS?
        
           | xenospn wrote:
           | I could always use more reminders that it's going to rain in
           | 13 minutes
        
           | Cthulhu_ wrote:
           | I really need to unfuck my notifications; I'm getting them
           | from Chrome (Google Calendar), Office (work calendar), and
           | MacOS calendar (where I have a copy of all of them). Should
           | unify that stuff.
           | 
           | Oh, and I get more notifications on my other laptop which has
           | some similar calendars.
           | 
           | And my phone, too.
        
         | autoexecbat wrote:
         | Just waiting for yet more of "Apple Arcade Free For 3 Months"
         | style notifications
        
       | srott wrote:
       | I wish they'd have an LTS version, I'm in constant fear of what
       | will go wrong next...
        
         | cyclecount wrote:
         | Every release is an LTS version, with support for about 8
         | years.
         | 
         | The current stable release of macOS (10.14 Sonoma) supports all
         | Macs introduced in 2017 and later.
        
           | luuurker wrote:
           | Older macOS versions don't receive all security fixes, so
           | while you'll receive security updates from time to time, the
           | OS isn't fully patched. It's a bit different from, say,
           | Ubuntu LTS.
        
         | rafaelturk wrote:
         | You still receive security updates for all manjor MacOSes, so
         | albeit lack of proper naming you can assume each new release as
         | LTS.
        
           | luuurker wrote:
           | Small, but important detail: you receive _some_ security
           | updates, not all. Same with iOS.
        
       | alberth wrote:
       | Tech Debt
       | 
       | Wow, those are a lot of features being added (even if it's
       | largely userland).
       | 
       | I can't even imagine the amount of tech debt for an OS that's
       | 23-years old (and older if you count NextStep).
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS
        
         | Cthulhu_ wrote:
         | First off, you don't need to title your comments. That said,
         | just because a codebase is old doesn't mean it has a lot of
         | tech debt; that's down to maintenance, discipline, and setting
         | priorities. There was a blogger which kept tabs on what Apple's
         | iOS (apps?) were being written in, showing a steady migration
         | towards Swift, which tells me they're not just letting code sit
         | and rot.
        
       | xnx wrote:
       | I'm very productive in Windows, but Microsoft's recent behavior
       | (jamming Windows full of Edge dark patterns and ads) and the
       | improvement of window management in macOS tempts me to give it
       | another try.
        
         | htk wrote:
         | I know your situation very well, I still develop a lot on
         | Windows, but my main computer is a Mac. I find the hardware
         | amazing, and the software a joy to use.
         | 
         | Windows 11 is behaving more and more like the viruses and
         | adwares I spent so many years defending against.
        
         | lawlessone wrote:
         | I just switched to Kubuntu.
         | 
         | Everything I want/need including games via steam run perfectly
         | on it now. I can't see a reason to return to MS or got to
         | Apple.
        
       | spankalee wrote:
       | I wonder - if you're not an iPhone user, will Macs soon just not
       | really be for you anymore? I don't care about iPhone integration,
       | Siri, or Apple's AI.
        
         | buzzerbetrayed wrote:
         | Your Mac being able to control an iPhone somehow makes it worse
         | for you if you don't have an iPhone? And what do Siri and Apple
         | AI have to do with iPhone other than them also being on iPhone
         | in addition to Mac?
        
         | Toutouxc wrote:
         | You don't have to be an iPhone user to use the AI or Siri. And
         | it's not like they're taking non-integration features away --
         | if you're happy with the current version, you'll probably be
         | happy with the next one, won't you?
         | 
         | I mean, I get the sentiment, macOS releases have gotten a bit
         | more exciting since I got an iPad and an iPhone, but macOS is a
         | perfectly good OS even without the iDevices.
        
         | nottorp wrote:
         | TBH i have both Macs and iPhones and not only I don't use any
         | integration options (with the exception of reading and sending
         | text messages from my laptop) but I'm pretty sure I don't even
         | know about 90% of them.
        
       | etherlord wrote:
       | Man I hope they expose the tiling functionality so software like
       | Yabai can hook in and make it automatic.
        
       | nostrademons wrote:
       | I wonder how the "seamlessly drag and drop files, photos, and
       | videos between your iPhone and Mac" will work. Right now, if you
       | just want to grab the raw files of your photos and videos and not
       | deal with the Photos app, your best bet is Image Capture, a 20+
       | year old seemingly unmaintained program that seems to glitch out
       | disturbingly frequently. I really hope they can introduce
       | something that seamlessly lets you drag photos off your phone and
       | into your filesystem, just in the Finder.
        
         | magnio wrote:
         | I thought that's what AirDrop is for? Even Android can drag and
         | drop files to Windows.
        
           | crazygringo wrote:
           | That's exactly what AirDrop is for. I think the commenter
           | must just not know about it?
        
             | nottorp wrote:
             | Neither do I. And I've been using macs and iOS devices for
             | a while.
             | 
             | You're saying that if i select AirDrop I can send photos
             | from my phone directly to my mac's file system?
             | 
             | No Photos app or iCloud drive shenanigans?
        
               | EricE wrote:
               | Yup. Just try it!
        
               | nottorp wrote:
               | I always thought it's some Nintendo like thing for
               | exchanging emojis and little computer people :)
        
             | nostrademons wrote:
             | I know about AirDrop. I use it for small batches (< 10) of
             | photos.
             | 
             | It fails completely for my use case, which is that every 6
             | months or so, I want to back up the 2000 or so pictures
             | I've taken to a Samba share on a home server that I
             | control. The closest equivalent would be iCloud, but I
             | refuse to mortgage my family memories to vendor lock-in for
             | a monthly fee.
        
               | pubutil wrote:
               | Have you tried using the Files app for image/file
               | transfers? You can add Samba (and other) shares in there
               | by tapping the '...' in the upper-right corner, hitting
               | 'Connect to Server', then inputting your local server's
               | address and connecting. I use this not just for photos,
               | but for transferring various files and docs to/from my
               | phone/home server.
               | 
               | You mentioned not wanting to mass-select 2000+ photos. If
               | the photos you're uploading fall within a certain date
               | range, you can open the Photos app, search for the date
               | range of photos you want to upload (e.g. "April 20 2024
               | to today", or "sept 21 2018 to mar 2020"). It'll return
               | photos taken in that date range, where you can tap 'See
               | All', then 'Select' > 'Select All' at the top of the
               | screen. Then you can hit the 'Share' dialogue and upload
               | to your server through Files without having to scroll and
               | select tons of individual pics. Keep in mind that you
               | can't use a '-' in place of the word 'to' when specifying
               | a date range for some reason.
               | 
               | If your images are family memories, you might be
               | interested in Immich[1] (if you're open to making changes
               | to your photo storage setup). Stand up and configure the
               | local server, install the smartphone app, enable
               | automatic sync, and it'll automatically upload new photos
               | from your phone when you open the Immich app. No need for
               | you to manually keep track of your photo syncs. Built to
               | be a local Google Photos replacement. Has features like
               | shared albums, face recognition/person naming, smart
               | search, etc. AI tasks, like everything else, are done
               | entirely locally. It's a nice piece of software, and lots
               | of people (including privacy advocate Louis Rossmann)
               | vouch for it.
               | 
               | [1] https://immich.app/
        
               | nostrademons wrote:
               | Where's "Select All" after "Select"? I'm not seeing that
               | option (either on a search result or the "All Photos"
               | collection), it'd solve a bunch of my problems. Thanks
               | for the tip on Files, it seems like that's a nice
               | alternative to AirDrop that's even more direct.
        
           | lucianbr wrote:
           | What do you mean from Android to Windows? How exactly can
           | that happen? I have an android phone in my hand now and a
           | windows desktop in front, and no clue how to even begin this
           | drag and drop operation. Where would I even start dragging in
           | Android?
        
             | nostrademons wrote:
             | Plug it in via USB, and then most Android devices show up
             | as USB sticks within Windows Explorer. You can access the
             | filesystem the same way you'd access any external media,
             | and drag & drop photos over.
             | 
             | Apple, however, in their infinite wisdom made MacOS pop
             | open iTunes when you connect an iPhone as a USB device. You
             | can "import" them into Photos (another Apple walled
             | garden), but they don't show up as a filesystem, and you
             | can't use normal filesystem operations or terminal commands
             | to move them over.
        
               | k3nx wrote:
               | I know it's not ideal, but if you have iCloud disabled in
               | Photos.app, use that to download photos from your phone
               | to Photos.app, then in Photos.app, select all, and export
               | to your chosen location, then delete from Photos.app. I
               | know it's a few more steps, but this might make it easier
               | than selecting 10+ files to AirDrop. There might be a way
               | to automate that with the shortcuts app. I haven't looked
               | yet. I hope this doesn't come across as "you're holding
               | it wrong", that wasn't my intent.
        
         | dsego wrote:
         | I frequently just airdrop stuff between my iphone and mac,
         | that's the best thing coming from android, that and pasting
         | text between devices, eg iban, passwords, etc.
        
           | marricks wrote:
           | Right? Airdrop "just works" and so does copy paste between
           | devices.
           | 
           | If this is a better AirDrop I'm all here for it. AirDrop was
           | already leaps and bounds better than email my android phone
           | to my PC.
        
             | jcynix wrote:
             | You can rsync over ssh from and to Android devices, if you
             | install Termux (Linux in an app).
             | 
             | And SolidExplorer is a good app to transfer data from/to
             | Android.
             | 
             | I'm a long time Mac user, but I really dislike Apple's
             | walled garden on the iPhone and thus switched to Android
             | some years ago.
        
           | ttul wrote:
           | AirDrop is great in theory, but in practice 80% of the time I
           | try to send a photo to my partner using AirDrop, it simply
           | fails to bring up a notification on her devices. In my
           | experience, Apple often delivers well much of the time, but
           | will allow mysterious bugs like this to pervade a feature for
           | years without finding a fix despite much discussion in their
           | customer forums. I wish they did a better job of fixing such
           | problems.
        
             | justinator wrote:
             | 80% of those 20% of the times it doesn't work, it's just
             | because the receiver's phone either doesn't have Bluetooth
             | turned on, or it just isn't unlocked.
        
               | ttul wrote:
               | And the remaining 20%... total mystery.
        
             | jmugan wrote:
             | I even have the same problem from me to me. My phone to my
             | mac. Bluetooth and all that is on.
        
           | nostrademons wrote:
           | I want the source list to be the Finder on my Mac, not "All
           | Photos" on the iPhone. I frequently have 2000+ photos to
           | bring over at once; I hate dragging through all of them to
           | select them, with one mis-touch resetting the selection. I've
           | also found AirDrop to be very unreliable at that scale (does
           | it even work? I've never used it for more than ~a dozen
           | items), and want reliable file transfer functionality that
           | can pick up where it left off if it gets interrupted.
        
             | nox101 wrote:
             | Use the MacOS Image Capture app (built in)
        
           | talldayo wrote:
           | I use KDE Connect to do the same thing across Android, Mac
           | and Windows: https://kdeconnect.kde.org/
           | 
           | Well worth checking out.
        
         | StrLght wrote:
         | It's already been working for quite some time: shared clipboard
         | on iOS and macOS has supported photos and videos since more
         | than 2 years ago. I'd expect drag-and-drop works the same way.
        
           | nostrademons wrote:
           | Like I mentioned in another comment, I've got 2000+ photos to
           | dump onto an external hard drive (Samba share technically,
           | but I can always move from local disk to SMB easily). I'm not
           | going to cut & paste 2000 photos individually. Hell, I don't
           | even want to select 2000 photos for a batch operation.
        
         | amarshall wrote:
         | Drag and dropping photos and other files from iPhone (plugged
         | via USB) works well on Linux in the file browser. Too bad it
         | seems Apple can't figure it out on their own OS, though maybe
         | they have now.
        
       | thih9 wrote:
       | > iPhone notifications on Mac
       | 
       | I was hoping for improvements to iPhone's notifications, not have
       | them expand to other devices.
       | 
       | I'm quite happy with all the social media notifications being
       | confined to a single device; I can pick it up and check it when I
       | want to, or put it away and ignore for a while. I know Apple
       | wants me to set some sort of focus / do not disturb, but managing
       | that seems too complex when the analog "put the phone away"
       | works.
        
       | djhworld wrote:
       | The iPhone mirroring looked interesting, I'm not sure why I would
       | use it but it might come in handy in a pinch.
       | 
       | One thing not clear in the presentation (or maybe I missed it)
       | was how this feature works when apps ask for FaceID, e.g. finance
       | apps. Presumably either they fail, or fallback to some other
       | authentication means e.g. passcode.
        
       | nofunsir wrote:
       | Wish I could use Safari with uBO, so that I could use Safari.
       | Tired of feature fragmentation in 3rd party software, but equally
       | tired of ostensible limitations in 1st party software that try to
       | control and prevent every single edge case use in the name of
       | "uSeR ExPeRiEnCe".
       | 
       | EDIT: I'd like to add the following, in case any Safari team
       | members come across this in the wake of today's keynote. I remain
       | utterly disgusted by things like:
       | 
       | - hiding the full url by default
       | 
       | - force hiding the full url on certain ($) search engine sites
       | 
       | - force injecting 'client=safari' into my urls for ($)
       | 
       | - {google, yahoo, bing, duckduckgo, ecosia}
       | 
       | - inability to specify custom search engines and their urls
       | 
       | - removal of RSS reader (still salty)
        
         | doublepg23 wrote:
         | I quite like the Wipr "Content Blocker". It's paid, but at
         | least that's incentive to continue working on something a
         | dreadful as ad-block.
        
         | ilrwbwrkhv wrote:
         | Safari has issues with audio pitch correction on sped up
         | videos.
        
         | runjake wrote:
         | If anyone is wondering why uBlock Origin is no longer available
         | for Safari, since version 13, see:
         | 
         | https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/1123#is...
         | 
         | And for watching Safari status ongoing:
         | 
         | https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBOL-home/issues/52
        
           | nofunsir wrote:
           | Yes. But,
           | 
           | "... if ever there is a port to Safari, that will be MV3 uBO
           | Lite, not uBO, which requires MV2." --gorhill
        
           | nottorp wrote:
           | It's not available because Apple don't want to allow it.
           | Hence I use Firefox.
        
         | carlosjobim wrote:
         | NextDNS solves ads. Anything super special you can use the
         | Stopthemadness plugin.
        
           | strunz wrote:
           | I don't believe either of those block YouTube ads on Safari
        
             | ngai_aku wrote:
             | StopTheMadness can automatically fast-forward YouTube ads
             | which produces effectively the same result
             | 
             | https://underpassapp.com/news/2023-10-19.html
        
           | nofunsir wrote:
           | uBO isn't just about ads, and the mechanisms Stopthemadness
           | uses should be readily available to me without having to
           | install an app-store blessed plugin, for monies.
        
             | carlosjobim wrote:
             | > ...should be readily available to me without having to...
             | 
             | Are you chairman of the central committee? You write as if
             | your word was law.
        
         | rzzzt wrote:
         | Orion uses WebKit and also lets you access extensions like uBO.
        
           | nofunsir wrote:
           | I don't really care what engine is used. Bad javascript
           | between sites raises the noise floor above browser/engine
           | speed differences, and ads and trackers do the same wrt site
           | functionality.
           | 
           | I want Safari for the OS integrations and cleanliness. I need
           | Firefox for manifest v2 and UI customization.
        
         | skydhash wrote:
         | The only thing I would add is enabling javascript per tab. And
         | remote fonts. This is my most used feature on UBO. The web is
         | finally snappy again.
        
       | ilikehurdles wrote:
       | First time in recent memory that I've been totally blown away
       | with a macOS announcement. I'm excited for a majority of the
       | features here. Maps, tiling, smart reader, info extraction.
        
       | Yaggo wrote:
       | Still no re-nameable virtual desktops? Bummer.
        
         | cjk2 wrote:
         | Err we already have that in Sonoma. Press F3 and move the mouse
         | to the top of the screen.
         | 
         | You can even switch between them with a triple swipe on a magic
         | trackpad...
        
           | aldonius wrote:
           | If you can _rename_ desktops though, I've never seen how.
           | 
           | e.g. in Mission Control right now I have "Desktop 1",
           | "Desktop 2", and full-screened iTerm2 on my external monitor,
           | plus "Desktop 3" and about 6 other fullscreen apps on my
           | laptop.
           | 
           | I have somewhat semantic meaning for what each of those three
           | numbered desktops are, but it'd be nice to _name_ them.
        
       | bsimpson wrote:
       | My corp desktop is an iMac Pro (2018). For a long time, it was
       | the best way to get a Retina-quality desktop without getting into
       | VFX budgets. It was also in that weird period in Apple's product
       | calendar when the one-and-done trash can was obsolete, but its
       | replacement hadn't been released. Work usually issues whatever
       | panels they can buy in bulk from overseas, but for a magical
       | window, we could get a nice screen with no shenanigans by
       | ordering an iMac Pro.
       | 
       | My heart dropped for a second when I saw Sequoia only supports
       | iMacs from 2019, until I saw it supports iMac Pros from 2017. I
       | wonder how much longer I have before Apple stops releasing
       | updates, and corp IT decides the iMac Pro is now e-waste.
       | 
       | It's really unfortunate that they don't do Target Display Mode
       | anymore. These iMacs have panels that are still top-of-the-line 6
       | years later. (A Studio Display is basically an iMac Pro with
       | Apple Silicon in Target Display Mode.) I wonder if there will be
       | a Linux distribution to convert these things into monitors when
       | they go obsolete.
        
         | ryandrake wrote:
         | I've got so much perfectly-working e-waste from Apple. It's so
         | sad. I'm on a Late 2014 Mac mini that's stuck on Monterey macOS
         | 12 and a Late 2014 retina iMac that's stuck on Big Sur macOS
         | 11(!!) An iPhone7 that's stuck on iOS15. The display on that
         | iMac is still IMO second to none. These computers do everything
         | I need, yet their software support is stuck back in time. And
         | 3rd party developers are terrible about supporting previous
         | version of macOS. They alway seem to assume you are running the
         | latest and greatest, and deliberately remove support for
         | earlier OSs.
         | 
         | Hell, I have an O.G. iPad 1 that still works perfectly as it
         | did the day I bought it, but most of the built-in software no
         | longer works, and the App Store is basically empty. What a sad
         | state of affairs.
        
           | EricE wrote:
           | Your not stuck (the Mac's at least)
           | https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/
        
         | Eric_WVGG wrote:
         | > top of the line panels
         | 
         | A few different people have figured out how to convert these
         | panels into stand-alone displays. It's a pity that it would be
         | impractical to make a small business out of this.
         | 
         | - https://ohmypizza.com/2023/04/converting-a-5k-imac-into-
         | an-e... - https://mschmitt.org/blog/convert-5k-27-imac-
         | external-displa...
        
           | bsimpson wrote:
           | Thanks for the tips!
           | 
           | Wild that a hobby project I've never heard of has a whole
           | outfit in China supporting it: http://chiyakeji.com/
           | 
           | I wonder if I'll be able to expense one of those when/if
           | Apple finally deprecates the iMac Pro on my desk.
        
         | hcarvalhoalves wrote:
         | Apple is now imposing the same iOS obsolescence program to
         | MacBook/iMac. That's how you make easy money nowadays.
        
       | dev_daftly wrote:
       | I would love it if I could have different natural scrolling
       | settings for mouse and trackpad, but that's apparently too much
       | to ask for despite it being supported by every other os.
        
       | lawlessone wrote:
       | So is this as problematic as Co-pilot / Recall?
        
       | lxgr wrote:
       | iPhone mirroring sounds great from a usability point of view, but
       | I wonder if this will enable new types of scams.
       | 
       | Many people use their phone as a second authentication factor
       | these days via TOTPs etc., the assumption there being that
       | somebody with access to your computer can't get to it.
       | 
       | This kind of invalidates that, which could be a problem when
       | screen sharing to tech support scammers.
        
       | mrpippy wrote:
       | Rosetta now supports AVX2, this is a big deal for running Windows
       | games in CrossOver/Wine
        
       | ksec wrote:
       | macOS Sequoia update is interesting. It has been at least 5 - 6
       | years I felt macOS had some useful upgrade. But It is also
       | arguably the smallest OS update in terms of number of new
       | features sans Apple Intelligence. Most of the time macOS update
       | talks about features that I have no idea who are they aiming for,
       | or it felt more like certain people had to get new features in
       | every macOS update for the sake of it. This time around most of
       | them very small but useful additions.
       | 
       | iPhone Mirroring and Notification. No longer do I have to find my
       | phone when I am at home sitting in front of my Mac just to check
       | on notification. I could also enjoy most of my iPhone Apps and
       | even some gaming without leaving my Mac. Making the Mac an
       | extension of my iPhone. Very handy and useful. Something I wanted
       | a very long time but thought Apple wouldn't do it.
       | 
       | Seamless drag and drop between devices - Probably need more
       | testing, but AirDrop isn't reliable for doing massive amount of
       | Files between iPhone and Mac. And again transferring files from
       | Mac to an iPhone Apps no longer requires 5+ tedious steps.
       | 
       | Control over web video - Semi-Full Screen Video and the important
       | thing here is "system playback controls". Some of the online
       | video controls are just awful.
       | 
       | Notes - It does 90% of what I need from Soulver. I guess unit
       | conversion won't be as good. And the Collapsible sections meant
       | another note taking app of mine wont be needed.
       | 
       | Unfortunately Safari doesn't seems to get much update. It is
       | still the worst browser for Tab Heavy Users. And their world
       | fastest browser tagline for so many years is annoying because it
       | is clearly very specific to limited cases. Both Chrome and Recent
       | Firefox are simply faster.
       | 
       | Apart from Safari, my current major annoyance, unless there are
       | some new problems from Sequoia, I am not even sure what is
       | missing from macOS. At least right now it does seems macOS, in my
       | view is 99% complete.
       | 
       | The only Apps [1] I will need installing as I wrote a few months
       | ago are;
       | 
       | IINA - Media Player
       | 
       | QuickLook Video - Adds non-quicktime supported Video to Finder
       | Preview.
       | 
       | Unarchiver or Keka - RAR or Zip files.
       | 
       | Little Snitch Mini - Network Monitoring
       | 
       | Transmission - Bit torrent
       | 
       | Apple Numbers, Pages - Alternative to M$ Office if you dont need
       | all the features.
       | 
       | Text Editor - VS Code or Sublime,
       | 
       | And that is it. Other than the Apps above and Default Apps by
       | Apple like Stocks and Notes, 99% of my time are inside Browser.
       | 
       | [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39164362
        
       | sircastor wrote:
       | The commentary stream I was watching described it as "An whole
       | lot of Sherlocking going on": Passwords app, Window Snapping,
       | iPhone to mac Display mirroring. It feels especially tone deaf
       | that they're doing it _at their developer conference_
       | 
       | If you're unfamiliar with the term, "Sherlocking" is the act of
       | Apple introducing some 3rd-party's App features as a core
       | component of the operating system, essentially obviating the app
       | and the developers that created it.
       | 
       | An incomplete list of "Sherlocked" things:
       | 
       | - Watson - a tool for finding stuff on your Mac. Replicated by
       | Apple's "Sherlock", hence the name of the phenomenon.
       | 
       | - Growl - Popover notifications Replicated by Apple's
       | "Notifications"
       | 
       | - Konfabulator - provided a layer of widgets that could do
       | various things, sort of like the old desk accessories applets.
       | Replicated by Apple's "Dashboard"
       | 
       | - Camo - Allowed you to use your iPhone as a webcam. Replicated
       | by Apple's "Continuity Camera"
       | 
       | The list goes on and on.
        
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