Universal Control

Nothing illustrates the power of Apple’s ecosystem like the Continuity features that help your Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch work seamlessly together. Thanks to Continuity, your iPhone can serve as your Mac’s webcam. You can start an email on one device and instantly pick it up on another. You can use the same keyboard and mouse with a Mac and iPad, copy and paste across devices and more.

These features flex the power of Apple’s hardware and software — and they would never be possible on a PC. Unfortunately, that means a lot of people don’t learn about these features because they don’t expect so much from their computers.

In this post (and the accompanying video), I will show you some of the time-saving, annoyance-busting Continuity features you can enjoy when you go all-in on the Apple ecosystem.

Moft released its cool, origami-style Snap Float Folio for iPad in 2022, offering a versatile four stand positions for the tablet. Now the company has updated the folio, reinforcing it and adding stronger magnets for a better hold, among other changes.

“In retrospect, yeah, stronger magnets would definitely improve the stand,” said Ed Hardy, Cult of Mac‘s reviewer of the original Snap Float. He loved it then, and it sounds like the new one’s even better.

When Apple demonstrated its new Universal Control feature during its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote back in June 2021, it made Apple fans drool. Too bad Cupertino made everyone wait longer than expected to get their hands on it.

But now, Universal Control is finally in beta testing ahead of its public release, and the anticipatory drool is once again flowing — especially among those who get to test it out.

The owner of today’s iMac Pro-based featured setup, a game developer and blogger, is no exception.

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Universal Control, which is finally in testing ahead of its public debut, lets you control a Mac and an iPad with the same keyboard and mouse, bringing the two computers closer together than ever before. It’s particularly handy if you rely on both macOS and iPadOS apps and find yourself regularly switching between them.

The feature looked pretty ambitious and exciting when Apple previewed it during its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote back in June. And now that it’s here (mostly) and we’ve had the chance to try it out, we firmly believe it is one of Cupertino’s most magical features to date.

Here’s why Universal Control will knock your socks off.

Apple seeded the first beta for macOS Monterey 12.3 to developers on Thursday. It includes the long-overdue Universal Control feature, suggesting this will finally launch soon.

The beta comes just a day after macOS 12.2 ended testing and was released to the public.

macOS 12.1, the first major update to Monterey, went out Monday. The major new feature is SharePlay, but there are some other enhancements. But it does not include the much-anticipated Universal Control.

It comes on the same day as the release of iOS 15.2, iPadOS 15.2 and watchOS 8.3.

Developers got access to the macOS 12.1 release candidate on Tuesday. This means beta testing of the new Monterey version is almost over, and Mac users will soon be able to start playing with SharePlay. But there’s still no sign of the much anticipated Universal Control feature.

Apple also seeded release candidates for iOS 15.2, iPadOS 15.2 and watchOS 8.3 to developers.

Apple seeded macOS 12.1 beta 4 to developers on Wednesday. It has a build number that ends in “a,” which suggests the public release is only a week or two away. This version of Monterey will bring SharePlay to the Mac. It might also be the debut of the much anticipated Universal Control.

It is not accompanied by fresh betas of iOS 15.2, iPadOS 15.2 or watchOS 8.3.

Developers just got their hands on macOS 12.1, the initial major update to Monterey. It’s Apple’s first opportunity to test features missing from macOS 12, like SharePlay and Universal Control.

But the beta is so new it’s not yet clear whether these features are in it yet.

Mac users can now upgrade to macOS Monterey. This new version offers improvements to Safari and FaceTime, and new Focus mode. But two of its biggest features — Universal Control and SharePlay — won’t debut until later.

It’s free to download and install on all compatible computers.

Apple has finally put us out of our misery and confirmed Universal Control for macOS Monterey will be delayed until “later this fall.”

The new feature, which lets you seamlessly control a Mac and iPad with a single keyboard and mouse, has been missing from most macOS Monterey betas. It has popped up in more recent builds, but it still cannot be activated.

Apple released the tenth and possibly final beta of macOS Monterey on Wednesday and it still doesn’t allow testers to try out Universal Control. Apple will either have to delay the introduction of one of the highlights of macOS 12 or release it without it having gone through the usual beta testing program.

Apple normally announces when the debut of a major feature has been delayed. But it has not done so with Universal Control.

One of the highlights of macOS Monterey is Universal Control, which will let users easily jump between Mac and iPad. But there’s cause to question when the feature will become available because it isn’t in any pre-release version of the next Mac operating system, including the new beta 5.

Apple announced the feature two months ago and there’s no sign of it yet. There’s some irritation growing among Mac users about the delay.

Remember those heady days of WWDC 2021, when Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi performed a magical drag-and-drop demo of Universal Control that made the near-future world of macOS Monterey seem especially cool? Oh, yeah. It was just last month.

Anyway, Redditor kinky_unicorn certainly remembers it. They recreated Federighi’s workstation from the video, took a photo of it and posted it on Reddit, after all.