macOS 12.0 Monterey Released
Apple (Hacker News):
Connect, share, and create like never before. Say hello to exciting new FaceTime updates. Explore a redesigned Safari. Discover and invent powerful new ways to work using Universal Control and Shortcuts. Stay in the moment with Focus. And so much more.
This database will contain download links for macOS 12 full Installer pkg files (InstallAssistant.pkg). This file is the same full installer that you would download directly from the App Store for Intel and Apple Silicon M1 Mac Computers. The InstallAssistant.pkg is stored on Apple’s servers and contains the full “Install macOS.app”. Once downloaded, all you need to do is install the pkg and the full installer of macOS will be in your applications folder.
macOS Monterey adds quite a few features that have already been introduced on iOS devices with iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. FaceTime has gained spatial audio support and voice isolation to cut down on background noise, and in the future, it will work with the SharePlay feature for screen sharing and watching tv and movies with friends and family over FaceTime.
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To give a better overview of all of the new features that Apple has brought to the Mac with macOS Monterey, we have a dedicated macOS Monterey roundup that’s available.
Monterey’s focus is all about system apps, a topic near and dear to me. With the technical building blocks in place and a refined design out of the way, Monterey is one of the most tangible, user-facing payoffs of the past three years of transition. More than ever before, Apple is advancing system apps across all of its platforms at the same time. Finally, everything is everywhere.
However, as much as it pleases me to see the groundwork laid in years past pay dividends in the form of new features being rolled out simultaneously on all platforms, Monterey’s payoff isn’t an unqualified success. Every OS release has its rough spots, but this year, Shortcuts is especially rough.
Just last week, Apple confirmed that Universal Control will be coming “later this fall,” and not with the initial launch of macOS Monterey.
And although SharePlay has been enabled for all users on iPhone and iPad with iOS 15.1, the feature has been pushed to “later this fall” as well.
When Apple announced details of Monterey in the summer, features varied considerably according to model. To help discover exactly what your Mac would benefit from when upgraded, I produced a chart.
Once you get it installed, there are several features that I found delightful through the beta[…]
I’ve added macOS 12 to my macOS Screenshot Library for your viewing pleasure[…]
Previously:
Update (2021-10-29): Jason Snell:
The big new features of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are also the big new features of macOS Monterey.
Unfortunately, some of the biggest features are still missing. The most important new feature in Photos is missing from the Mac, though Apple says it will arrive soon. And one of the biggest features being imported to the Mac from iOS, Shortcuts, is in a half-finished state.
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On the Mac, the Shortcuts app feels like something from an entirely different operating system—or maybe solar system. Editing items becomes a process of hunting and clicking for just the right gesture that will get you what you want—there’s nothing like trying to insert a Smart Variable in the proper place by precisely control-clicking in a text field. In a Save File action, the Replace option doesn’t offer to replace the file you’re saving, but changes which folder the file will be saved into. Pop-up windows are awkward. Keyboard support is weak.
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Most notably, macOS Monterey does nothing to address the failure of notifications, Notification Center, and widgets from macOS Big Sur.
And there are even more alerts that are narrow.
The Finder’s Go To Folder (or Command-Shift-G) search field has been reworked with a design that more strongly resembles the Spotlight search box. It will offer to autocomplete your folder path for you, and your most recent locations will be displayed without needing to click-through to a drop-down menu first.
When hovering over a folder in a Finder window, holding the Option key will show you the full path of the folder in the lower-left corner of the window, and you can click anywhere in the path to hop up to the parent directories or parent volume. Right-click any folder within that path, and you can copy the path to the Clipboard, view the folder in its parent directory, or open a Terminal window that has already navigated to that directory.
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It turns out that whether you’re using an Apple Silicon or an Intel Mac, Low Power Mode operates primarily by reducing CPU clockspeed, thus reducing CPU voltage. Examining Activity Monitor while running Geekbench 5, we saw all eight of the M1’s cores being lit up in similar patterns whether Low Power Mode was enabled or not.
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After a big year with Big Sur, Monterey is a return-to-form macOS update. Most people will be able to find at least one or two new things that they really like. Other people will continue using it without noticing that it’s different. And it would benefit from a major bugfix update or two. The hardware is changing a lot, but macOS remains macOS.
When you copy a file in macOS Monterey’s Finder, you will see a floating copy window, of course[…] There’s just one thing about that window that’s unusual. The red circle used to close windows, inactive in previous versions of macOS, is now active. […] Once you close the window, it won’t reappear for subsequent operations until you choose Show Progress Window from the Window menu. But Finder is still providing you with some feedback that a copy operation is happening. In List views, a circle to the right of the filename slowly fills in clockwise until the copy is done. In Icon views, a progress bar fills from left to right across the bottom of the icon.
After upgrading to macOS Monterey, you might see notifications like the above [overlayed with a circle and a slash].
If so, the simple solution is to logout and then back in (or restart).
There have been several reports on Reddit, Apple’s Developer Forums, and Apple’s Support Communities about the issues. In some cases, users say the the USB 3.0 ports on their hub no longer work since upgrading to Monterey, while HDMI, USB-C, and other hub ports continue to work as expected.
See also: Hacker News, Rene Ritchie and John Gruber.
Update (2021-11-15): Monica Chin:
Downloading macOS Monterey, by contrast, has not impacted my life much. I installed the first beta over the summer, forgot that I was using it within a few days, and tried to download it again the following week. It looks like Big Sur, with some tweaks here and there. Many of them seem to be catch-up efforts, equipping Monterey with features that iOS (or competitors) already had. A few of the features are useful for me, but they’re features you have to seek out and set up. And we’re still waiting on some of the most innovative parts of Monterey that Apple announced earlier this year to arrive.
So my ultimate view on this operating system is, “Sure.” It’s a stable release that I’ve been using reliably for a few months. Nothing’s terribly broken. If you’re someone who prefers to exercise maximum caution and wait a while before upgrading, you’re also not missing all that much.
macOS Monterey, released last week as the latest version of macOS, is bricking older Mac computers, rendering them unusable and unable to even turn on, according to a number of reports from users across social media and online forums.
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2 Comments RSS · Twitter
Wonder if Time Machine and Finder free space calculation are fixed.
Haven't tried the full release, but beta 8 to rc 1 and 2 would not install on my MacBook Pro