It is secure to say that Apple has had a busy fall. The corporate launched a slew of recent options and merchandise, protecting every thing from Apple {hardware} and software program upgrades which introduced us brand-new Apple Watches, iPhones and Apple Pencils. Most lately, the tech big unveiled its brand-new M3 chip, the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Execs and a refreshed model of the iMac at its “Scary Quick” occasion held on the finish of October.
MacOS Sonoma‘s smaller updates did not get the pomp and circumstance from the tech big that different updates and upgrades recieved this 12 months, however the brand-new Macs hitting the scene this fall will shake issues up. If you happen to’re planning to improve to a brand new Mac and a brand new iPhone concurrently, you may wish to be certain they work in concord.
If you happen to plan on upgrading each your pc and your telephone, there’s excellent news. MacOS Sonoma’s replace brings options that iPhone customers have loved for a number of years, and a few brand-new ones that iPhone customers first noticed in iOS 17.
Take a look at these new Mac options that I believe make my telephone and pc work higher collectively. For extra, try the way to repair probably the most annoying iOS 17 options and the Mac keyboard shortcuts that you must know.
Widgets come to your desktop
Widgets have lastly arrived in your desktop.
Whereas widgets aren’t an earth-shattering productiveness characteristic, and even new to Apple followers, having them in your desktop is fairly useful. As an illustration, a few of my co-workers work on the West Coast whereas I work on the East Coast, so I’ve a clock widget that shows the present time in Pacific Commonplace Time, which makes coordinating with my coworkers a bit easier.
The widgets are additionally tremendous easy to make use of; all it’s a must to do is right-click together with your mouse or double-click your trackpad in your desktop and a menu will come out. You may choose Edit Widgets and a widget menu will seem the place you’ll be able to select from small, medium or massive widgets for quite a lot of functions. If you wish to take away a widget, you’ll be able to both right-click or use two fingers to click on your trackpad and choose Take away Widget, or you’ll be able to click on the small crimson button that seems after deciding on Edit Widget to take away your widget.
You may choose all types of widgets so as to add to your desktop.
It’s also possible to drag and drop widgets out of your Notification Middle to your desktop. If you wish to add widgets to your notification middle, all that you must do is scroll to the underside of your notification middle and click on Edit Widgets. You take away widgets out of your notification middle in the identical means you’d out of your desktop.
It’s also possible to add your iPhone widgets to your Mac’s desktop, even when you do not have the widget’s corresponding app downloaded to your pc. To allow this, you’ll need to go to System Settings, then scroll right down to Desktop and Dock and from there scroll to the Widgets part. As soon as within the widgets part, merely toggle the Use iPhone Widgets possibility on. Your iPhone widgets shall be accessible from the widget browser that seems when deciding on Edit Widget in your desktop or notification middle.
Auto-sorting grocery lists
I am a fairly organized individual, however to be trustworthy, I’ve by no means turned to Apple’s Reminders app for assist with this. The app did not make a lot sense to me and I historically have opted for third-party group apps. Whereas these new reminder options aren’t sufficient to sway me away from my most popular group apps, some additions assist me make higher use of the app.
You may create auto-sorting grocery lists with Sonoma, however the characteristic might be tough to make use of.
The modifications to reminders are fairly simple to reap the benefits of. Probably the most main replace is the auto-sorting grocery record characteristic. To utilize this characteristic, click on the Add Listing button on the backside of the reminders web page. Give your record a reputation (and alter the colour of the record and the icon if you would like). Then, beneath the Listing Sort drop-down menu, choose Groceries.
As soon as within the record, create the classes you need on your record. For instance, my record had three classes: meats, produce and miscellaneous. After you create your classes, it’s best to be capable to begin placing your record collectively, and the objects you add ought to be mechanically sorted. Be warned — this characteristic appears to be a bit buggy. My greatest recommendation is to maintain making an attempt the characteristic, and you may at all times drag and drop your objects to their appropriate class if nothing else works.
Messages that mirror your telephone
One in every of my favourite issues about having an Apple household of merchandise is that I can textual content from my pc. This sounds small, however this has confirmed super-helpful in my day-to-day life. After I’m engaged on my pc, I can put my telephone fully away so I can focus, however it’s good to nonetheless be capable to be reached.
One factor that has at all times annoyed me about iMessage on my pc is that it feels years behind my telephone. For the longest time, I could not use tap-back reactions and even reply to messages like I might once I would textual content on my telephone. Sonoma has modified this for the higher — there’s lastly parity between telephones and computer systems in relation to the iMessage expertise.
The reply perform, which might help arrange textual content threads, lastly makes its means onto Macs
The largest characteristic that I had been lacking was the reply perform. Primarily, this perform permits you to swipe throughout a message and reply on to that particular message. I’ve discovered this characteristic significantly useful when making sophisticated plans or in noisy group chats.
All it’s a must to do to make use of the reply perform is swipe two fingers to the proper till you’ll be able to reply to the message. If you happen to do not wish to swipe, you’ll be able to click on the message you want to reply to with two fingers and choose Reply from the drop-down menu.
For extra, here is the perfect MacBook of 2023.
