AN APPLE A DAY: HOW MACOS 15 "SEQUOIA" IS REDEFINING DESKTOP INTELLIGENCE

With the first chill of autumn outside, Apple insiders are starting to get a buzz over the forthcoming software release, MacOS 15, codenamed Sequoia, unveiled with fanfare at WWDC 2024. Apple’s latest operating system is destined to change the way you use your Mac and, quite possibly, your iPhone as well, with new groundbreaking features that integrate the desktop with mobile, unlike anything ever attempted before. Here’s the juicy run-down of what Apple has in store for MacOS Sequoia, and what it takes to make the magic happen.

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN IPHONE AND MAC

iPhone Mirroring on Mac: A Seamless Symphony

One of the best things I saw at WWDC 2024 was iPhone-mirroring for Mac. Imagine your iPhone, with its content, apps, notifications, etc, on your Mac desktop – all you have to do is click. As the Apple dad and senior VP Craig Federighi proudly demonstrated, even if your iPhone is on the other side of the room, it’s never out of sync. It’s more ‘productive’, sure, but it’s just more ‘Apple’, too.

Continuity and Beyond: A New Era of Interaction

The Continuity feature isn’t just about receiving or making text messages or phone calls on your Mac; it’s really the perfect embodiment of Apple’s whole ‘ecosystem’ ethos. If you drag and drop files from your Mac and a mirrored phone, it’s the Apple way. It’s more fluid, more natural, less of a cerebral-processing event, and all the better for it.

MACOS SEQUOia: WHERE FUNCTIONALITY MEETS AESTHETICS

Automatic Tiling of Windows: Organized Chaos

Say goodbye to having dozens of open apps and so-called windows cluttering up your MacOS Sequoia desktop. Apple will offer automatic tiling. Drag a window to the edge of your screen, and the window automatically gets placed in the best location to optimise how you lead your working day, and your ability to see everything at once.

Enhancements to FaceTime and Passwords: Security Meets Innovation

There’s also a ton of little improvements, such as updates to FaceTime and an entirely new app called Passwords. FaceTime update offers new backgrounds with greater realism and Apple’s industry-leading segmentation technology to ensure that calls between friends and families look more natural. Passwords aims to revolutionise digital security services by providing an option — a highly secure, built-in one — where previously there was none.

A LEAP FORWARD IN BROWSER AND COMMUNICATION TOOLS

With each new MacOS update, Apple reinvents what it means to look at, explore and use our digital lives. Sequoia is no exception. Both Safari and the Mail app are getting major changes. The search engine feature ‘Highlights’ in Safari brings quick summaries to the ‘Highlights’ page to make browsing better, and the Mail app is receiving some updates for Mac loyalists.

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE WITH APPLE INTELLIGENCE

Apple Intelligence, the general-purpose system available on iPhones and iPads announced at WWDC 2024, will be available in a beta version of MacOS 15 this fall. As it has done with every version of its operating system, with each successive MacOS release, Apple has pushed the limits of what is possible, integrating complicated technology with beautiful, user-friendly, functional designs. MacOS Sequoia is a statement by Apple about the future of digital life, and its view of what that future is.

APPLE: A LEGACY OF INNOVATION

Along with MacOS 15 ‘Sequoia’, Apple renews its role as the vanguard of cutting-edge technological creativity with yet another desired ecosystem of products, each update or feature part of the whole, unobtrusively intuitive and coherent from start to finish. Apple’s destiny is less about the devices it produces, and increasingly more about the kinds of experiences it enables. Let us hope that the MacOS Sequoia roll-out is only a fraction of the hardware and software the company has yet to unveil in our continued march to redefining the relationship between our human existence and technological presence.

In conclusion, I think the time has come to conclude by saying that, as we wait for the public release of MacOS Sequoia, what Apple has done is awesome. They take their OS beyond the limits of the traditional desktop OS, and before you know it, they have a platform that truly adds to the user’s needs by integrating everything, executing it more efficiently and rendering everything more secure. Apple’s ecosystem today becomes proof of what a great thing can happen when technology meets human-centric designing. Here’s to the future! May Apple and MacOS Sequoia become revolutionary!