OS X is dead. The name, at least.
Apple’s desktop operating system will become macOS this fall with its next major update, which will bring a whole host of exciting new features and improvements — including Siri integration, automatic unlocking, and Apple Pay for the web.
The official name of Apple’s next Mac update is macOS Sierra, and it’s huge. The experience starts with Auto-Unlock, which instantly unlocks your Mac when you sit down in front of it wearing your Apple Watch.
Another feature that’s going to make your life easier is the Universal Clipboard. This lets you copy and paste content between your Mac and iOS devices. Thanks to improvements to iCloud, you can also do the same with files and folders.
Photo: Apple
Apple is also adding Optimized Storage, which automatically sends old documents and files to iCloud, freeing up local storage space. It can also clear your trash, web history, and other data in the background to keep your Mac clean.
This negates the need for Mac cleaner apps, which remove old files that you no longer need. Apple claims that during one test, Optimized Storage was able to free up a whopping 130GB of local storage on one Mac.
macOS is also getting Picture-in-Picture, a feature adopted from iOS that lets you enjoy video while you do other things. Apple is also making tabs available inside more apps to make multitasking easier, and this will be automatic — devs don’t need to do anything.
Photo: Apple
Other improvements to macOS include Siri integration, and the ability to use Apple Pay in your web browser. Just like watchOS 3, macOS will be a free update when it rolls out to all this fall. Developers can get their hands on a preview today.
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
8 responses to “OS X is dead! Long live macOS”
I long for the days when I could do word processing on my Mac.
But yeah, add another 15 things I’ll never use.
Ever hear of “Pages,” the word processor, which has been included on Macs for years? “Is there no one to pick my nose?”
You clearly haven’t used the piece of junk that Pages has become since the last major revision. Might as well tell me to use Textedit.
As a matter of fact, I HAVE used it, and it works very well. If you don’t like it, feel free to buy Microsoft Office.
I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. I have been used to use Microsoft Word and LibreOffice Documents, but I found Pages is a clean and neat experience as well. You must be using Pages wrong since “the last major revision”.
So iCloud Drive no longer takes local storage ?
Dream on… That would be great… ;)
I can watch video while doing other things? I can do that already…