On 7th-Sep-2019 Apple announced the official release of macOS Catalina. Now it is available off-the-shelf in Apple App Store for Mac and all the new generation Mac machines will get Catalina pre-installed.
I already tried out the beta version of Catalina and there were so many new good features that I liked in my review. Especially Sidecar was the most effective feature I liked. There are so many features like ScreenTime, new look of Reminders, Catalyst etc. that makes the Catalina the best macOS so far. So there are few more new additions from beta to the official release. Will explore all the features now including which were there in beta version too.
Apple Arcade
This is the addition to Mac App Store even though to the entire Apple Ecosystem, targeted to the game lovers. With $4.99 per month family sharing subscription you will get access to Apple Arcade to play games on your Mac, Apple TV, iOS, and iPad, even though 1st month is free as a trial for 30 days. Apple Arcade is offering on Mac devices exclusively on Catalina. There are more than 100s of games will be available this week and many more coming every month, including exciting new action, adventure, RPG, racing and strategy games.
Games can now be played and resumed from the last saved game position, from any Apple device. It’s almost like the same competition to Google Stadia. But still now Microsoft Windows ecosystem is at the top for gaming. Now the future will tell where will the Apple stand in gaming arena with Apple Arcade.
Good bye! iTunes and welcome Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple TV
Apple is now closing on iTunes on Mac and their ecosystem. Now there will be 3 apps Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple TV for all the entertainment in your Apple ecosystem. Now you will get dedicatedly music, videos and podcasts on their respective apps. By their icons you can tell that these are pretty much equivalent to iTunes had in a single pane of glass. These new apps are considerably fast and features more than iTunes. 50 million songs, playlist, and music videos on Music app. More than 700,000 shows on Podcasts app. Apple TV app let you watch movies and TV shows with Apple TV channels and personalized recommendations over 100,000 movies and TV shows to browse, buy or rent.
Now Apple TV+ video subscription service, will also be available in the Apple TV app for Mac starting November 1.
Your iPhone, iPad, and iPod will now connect with Finder itself for all the files transfer.
Sidecar: Enhanced workspace
Now extend power of Mac on your iPad and iPad Pro as secondary screen and design enhancer. Adobe tools and many other apps that support Apple Pencil on iPad will surely improve your creativity. You can design the basic layout on your Mac and then for more enhancements move it to iPad Pro with pencil paint/colour the way you want.
You can even use your iPad and iPad pro as normal secondary screen for your work. Personally this is the most favourite feature, because in Catalina Beta version this one was the most talked about.
Mac Catalyst
This is one of the most empowering feature in Catalina which will bridge the gaps between using you iPad and Mac together. As iPad apps will run easily through the implementation of Catalyst. Now you can see apps like Twitter, GoodNotes, TripIt from SAP, Post-it, Morpholio Board, Rosetta Stone, Jira, Proloquo2Go and many more on your Mac.
Screen Time
Screen Time will let you monitor your computing activity so you can alter your work timings and monitor how much time you’re spending on which apps and which category/type of apps. Screen Time is really a boon to geeks who always want to monitor how much time they are spending on different apps. There are many other benefits, like you have a particular category of apps which you’re not using at all, you may uninstall them to free up some space.
So check all the great features of the new macOS that will help you trigger new opportunities.
