A brand new operating system is on the way for the Mac – macOS 10.14 Mojave – and it has a boat load of new business-friendly features: A new dark mode, improvements to the Finder, and the ability to use a connected iPhone as a camera for your Mac.
Favorite iOS apps such as News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home, will debut on the Mac for the first time. FaceTime now adds support for group calling, and the Mac App Store gets an overhaul complete with editorial content and apps from developers like Microsoft and Adobe.
Little things sometimes spell the difference between ease of use and frustration. For instance, Apple’s new OS will provide an emoji button in Mail so you don’t have to go hunting for your favorite cat face. It lets you view favicons in Safari tabs so you can visually identify which site is which. It puts Siri in control of HomeKit devices to adjust lights and thermostat in your home or office. It helps you find saved passwords. And it adds a bunch more language options.
Here are the most business friendly features you have to look forward to in Mohave.
Dark Mode
You can easily switch between the dark and light modes whenever you feel like. Alongside Dark Mode, a very cool Dynamic Desktop feature alters the desktop picture according to the time of day as the interface transitions to dark mode in the evening.
Quick Look
Credit: AppleQuick Look is an all-time favorite time saving feature, which lets you peer into a document without having to launch an app or open a file – just by pressing the space bar. With Mojave, it gets a lot more powerful by being able to execute Quick Actions to mark up or edit files — say, drag a signature into a document, rotate a photo, trim a video, or perform other actions native to the file’s format. A new side bar displays specific details like EXIF information for photos and file information for other types of documents.
Stacks
Credit: AppleThere are few things more discouraging than switching on your computer in the morning and confronting a desktop full of unsorted icons. Mojave’s new Stacks feature can help by automatically grouping together files based on document type – images, PDFs, spreadsheets, photos and movies. You can also arrange them by date created, added, modified or last opened, or by tags to better organize your projects.
Stacks behave just like their Dock counterpart: When you click on a stack, you see an expanded view of all its contents. When you let go the mouse, files converge back into the stack. You can also scrub through the stack with the mouse to see which files are there, and choose the one you need.
Finder
Credit: AppleFor several generations, the macOS Finder has offered four major views – Icons, List, Columns and Cover Flow. Mojave debuts a new Gallery View that allows you to scroll through large, high quality previews of your files to visually identify the one you seek and presents complete metadata for that type of file, if you choose, or show only the metadata you want to see.
But it doesn’t stop there. The feature also includes Quick Actions, which lets you mark up, rotate, convert to PDF and perform other actions on the file directly in the Finder without having to open, rename or save them. You can even work on multiple files at once, or assign an Automator task as a Quick Action.
Security
Credit: AppleYou know how you checked out that nice pair of kicks during your lunch break, and now your browser won’t stop showing them to you? With macOS Mojave, Apple has overhauled both the desktop and the mobile version of Safari to reduce such online “fingerprinting” and tracking by advertisers. Safari will share only a “simplified” profile that makes it harder to identify users by system configuration, installed fonts and plug-ins. Mojave also stops social media Like and Share buttons and comments from tracking your data.
To further aid security, Mojave’s Safari supports strong passwords so they will auto fill on your devices, while flagging reused passwords.
Apple will use popups more frequently to alert and ask your permission when a Mac app tries to access your photos or microphone or personal data from your Mail database or Messages history, Safari data, Time Machine backups, iTunes device backups and more.
FaceTime
Credit: AppleAs it does in iOS 12, Apple delivers a significant update to its FaceTime video conferencing app. Mojave’s FaceTime facilitates calls with up to 32 audio and video participants at any point, with the ability to join the conversation at any time. You and colleagues can connect using a Mac, iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch. And, in answer to your burning question: Yes, you can use your Animoji and Memoji avatars from the desktop app.
Screenshots
Credit: AppleMany business professionals capture information on their screens with screenshots to save as reminders, use as documentation or share with others. With Mojave, screenshots on the Mac got a whole lot more useful. The updated utility presents a thumbnail of the screen capture at the corner of your screen, similar to iOS 11, and you can either save it to a chosen location, drop it directly into a document or continue to work on it. New controls for shooting screens offer options like a timer, video recording and whether to include the cursor in your shot. After you finish marking up your screen, you can immediately share it without having to save a copy.
Continuity Camera
Credit: AppleWhen it comes to sharing files between Mac and iOS devices, the new Continuity Camera is likely to come in handy for all kinds of business communications. The new Mojave feature lets you use your iPhone or iPad to capture a photo or a scan and let you insert the file directly into a desktop document or presentation. So go ahead and file your expense report or insert a gallery of photos into a document to send off to clients or colleagues. The feature works with Mail, Notes, Pages, Keynote, Numbers and TextEdit.
Mac App Store
Credit: AppleThe Mac App Store is getting an overhaul in Mojave to make it easier to use, more interactive and more immersive. Starting with a redesigned App Page that features Mojave’s Dark Mode, it offers new tabs like Discover, Create, Work, Play and Develop to get you started with your search. But it will offer even more help than that: The new App Store will offer video previews, ratings and reviews and a new API that allows developers to implement user reviews for their apps. Business owners can also look forward to Microsoft bringing Office 365 to the Mac App Store while Adobe will make Lightroom CC available.
Getting ready for Mojave 10.14
The new Mojave update is compatible with most Macs dating back to mid-2012, as well as 2010 Mac Pros that have the recommended Metal-capable GPU. Apple has confirmed that Mojave will be the last macOS to support 32-bit apps, as the OS continues to warn users via alerts that 32-bit apps are not optimized for recent operating systems.
While the full release of macOS Mojave won’t arrive until the fall, a public beta will be available sooner. If you’re daring, or have an extra Mac stashed away, you can check it out before the final release date.
