macOS 15 Sequoia Announced
Apple (preview, Hacker News, MacRumors, 9to5Mac):
macOS Sequoia makes Continuity even more magical with iPhone Mirroring, which allows users to fully access and engage with their iPhone — right from their Mac. A user’s custom wallpaper and icons appear just like on their iPhone, and they can swipe between pages on their Home Screen, or launch and browse any of their favorite apps. The keyboard, trackpad, and mouse on Mac also let a user interact with their iPhone, and audio even comes through. Users can seamlessly drag and drop between iPhone and Mac, and a user’s iPhone remains locked, so nobody else can access or see what the user is doing. It also works great with StandBy, which stays visible, so users can get information at a glance. Additionally, users can review and respond to iPhone notifications directly from their Mac.
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Game Porting Toolkit 2 takes this to the next level with some of the most-requested capabilities from game developers, making it even easier to bring advanced games to Mac, as well as iPhone and iPad.
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When a user drags a window to the edge of the screen, macOS Sequoia automatically suggests a tiled position on their desktop. Users can release their window right into place, quickly arrange tiles side by side, or place them in corners to keep even more apps in view. And new keyboard and menu shortcuts help users organize tiles even faster.
[…]
macOS Sequoia brings Passwords, a new app that makes it even easier to access passwords, passkeys, Wi-Fi passwords, and other credentials all in one place.
In a post on X, the leaker said macOS 15 will be compatible with all Apple silicon Macs with the M1 chip and newer, and all Intel-based Macs equipped with Apple's T2 security chip. If this information is accurate, macOS 15 would be compatible with all Macs that support macOS Sonoma, with one possible exception: the 2019 iMac.
Previously:
Update (2024-06-13): Mr. Macintosh:
The 2018 & 2019 MacBook Air models ARE DEAD
Highlights: 2017 iMac Pro & 2019 NON T2 LIVES!!!
However, Apple Intelligence will only be available on Apple silicon Macs. Because a T2 chip isn’t required by Intel Macs, it’s possible that OCLP will enable other Intel Macs to run Sequoia.
I think macOS Sequoia is the last release you can reasonably expect to run on Intel; half the WWDC keynote was AI features that don’t run on Intel Macs, including Xcode’s new editor functionality, and the visionOS SDK already requires ARM. You can only expect more from here. The writing is clearly on the wall; if we get next year’s release, it would be unnecessarily generous of Apple,
See also: MacStories, ArsTechnica, AppleInsider.
If Apple actually wanted more advanced games on Mac, they’d make a deal with Valve to integrate Game Porting Toolkit with Steam, but that means sharing the cake and Apple does not under any circumstances share the cake.
One of the rumours that came out right before WWDC was that Apple might be adding the ability to include ‘retro wallpaper packs’. While those are nowhere to be found in Developer Beta 1, we did get an excellent new Macintosh screensaver/wallpaper in macOS 15. This new dynamic wallpaper floats over Susan Kare’s iconic Macintosh iconography, Control Panel, and applications like the Calculator and MacWrite, Apple’s early word processor.
After a couple of hours scouring macOS Seqioua, I wasn’t able to find the file responsible for these images, so I opted for the next best option and took some high-resolution screenshots of some of my favourite parts to share before people unearth the file.
I guess we now have individual processes for both dynamic/animated wallpapers introduced in Sequoia.
I assume the new default wallpaper is called Helios.
I have to admit, I get happy seeing the word “Macintosh” anywhere.
macOS Sequoia has two new Energy widgets under the Home app.
💡Electricity Usage - Get an idea of how your home's electricity usage is trending.
💡Electricity Rates - Quickly see how your electricity is priced.
Previously:
Update (2024-06-18): Howard Oakley:
This article summarises some of the most important details it has given so far, both in the Keynote and the subsequent Platforms State of the Union.
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Prowd, if foolish, 2020 iMac owner here and agreed, assuming it's accessible. But the increasing marginalisation of Intel makes me nervous. I know it's progress, but ... Windows! If I'm not careful I'll end up with a 27-inch Windows all-in-one and the near-future prospect of a further assault on my wallet and more credit card debt. It's either that, or I make peace with losing out, and more Windows. Or perhaps doing clamshell mode on the MBP, unsatisfying as that is.
@Sebby If you're going to try Windows on it, try Linux too! Ubuntu runs great on all the Intel Macs I've installed it on.
I wonder what things I rely on that they're going to remove, how it's going to break the software I'm maintaining, what new bugs it'll have that'll ruin my workflow, and what annoying new security features it's going to come with that hamper my ability to use my macs the way I want.
Each new release of macOS is a pain, not a delight. It's been like this since Catalina at least.
@Bri this is precisely how I feel.
I used to be excited for WWDC and new macOS releases. That excitement stopped as macOS became increasingly iOS'd in terms of UX, security theatre became an annual ritual, and Swift sucked all air out of the room. Now I wonder how much time and sanity I will lose just to keep shipping otherwise working apps.
Are there any new "entitlements" I need to keep things working? The macOS App sandbox feels like it's had 0 improvements from when it first shipped, only new private entitlements.
Will Apple kill any cool things I was using, because it's not Swift?
Will I need any new Info.plist declarations for using basic features (all because Apple won't directly stop Facebook, Google, and other bad actors for using them to track users beyond Apple's EULA)?
How many hours will I lose walking customers through System Settings changes to enable basic functionality because they mis-clicked a new popup? Or for things that worked without this intervention 8 years ago?
Any new provisioning profile-like or notarization-like garbage build requirements?
How many bugs are present in the new stuff (on top of the old bugs they rarely fix)?
Every year they shovel more work on us and make the process of building apps pointlessly harder.
Desktop apps are in such an awful place compared to where they used to be. I blame the iOS / Security theatre / Swift triumvirate, but there's probably more to it.
Meanwhile, the guys who make SPAs or SaaSs focus on building their product as their platform and development process remains solid (or at least, changeable on their terms). They can use whatever tech or APIs are appropriate (it's not a Swift-only world for them). Their vendors don't opine over their build process, nor halt their releases because they don't like their release notes, nor insist that the vendor provided all the value, etc.
