macOS Catalina 10.15.2 improves Apple News+, Stocks, Photos and more

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MacOS Catalina Jamf
Your Mac and your MacBook can be updated today with macOS Catalina 10.15.2.
Photo: Apple

There’s a fresh update for macOS Catalina out today. Version 10.15.2 allows an iPhone to remote control a Mac’s music and video playback. And there are also other enhancements for the utilities Apple bundles with this operating system, including Photos, Music and Mail.

A new iTunes Remote, and more improvements

There’s a new iTunes Remote feature in macOS Catalina 10.15.2. This allows someone to use their iPhone or iPad to remotely control the Music and TV apps on a Mac.

Also, the Mac maker is still tinkering with its struggling digital magazine subscription service. Today’s update includes a “New layout for Apple News+ stories from The Wall Street Journal and other leading newspapers,” according to Apple.

The Stocks app that was ported to macOS from iPadOS enjoyed some improvements, too. There are now links to related stories at the end of articles. And “Breaking” and “Developing” labels have been added to Top Stories. Plus, Canadian users can get articles in French as well as English.

Changlog for macOS Catalina 10.15.2

Not surprisingly, Apple used this update to fix quite a few bugs in Catalina. Apple’s official changelog says:

Music

  • Restores the column browser view for managing the music library
  • Resolves an issue that may prevent album artwork from appearing
  • Fixes an issue that may reset music equalizer settings during playback

Photos

  • Resolves an issue that may cause some .AVI and .MP4 files to appear as unsupported
  • Fixes an issue that prevents newly created folders from appearing in Albums view
  • Addresses an issue where manually sorted images in an album may be printed or exported out of order
  • Fixes an issue that prevents the zoom-to-crop tool from working in a print preview

Mail

  • Addresses an issue that may cause Mail Preferences to open with a blank window
  • Resolves an issue that may prevent using undo from retrieving deleted mail

Other

  • Improves the reliability of syncing books and audiobooks to your iPad or iPhone through Finder
  • Fixes an issue where reminders may be out of order in the Today smart list in the Reminders app
  • Resolves an issue that may cause slow typing performance in the Notes app

How to install this macOS update

With a month or so of beta testing now over, macOS Catalina 10.15.2 can be downloaded directly from Apple’s servers by anyone.

Alternatively, on your Mac, choose System Preferences from the Apple menu , then click Software Update. Next, hit Update Now.

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