It is protected to say that Apple has had a busy fall. The corporate launched a slew of latest options and merchandise, protecting every little thing from Apple hardware and software upgrades which introduced us brand-new Apple Watches, iPhones and Apple Pencils. Most lately, the tech big unveiled its brand-new M3 chip, the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros and a refreshed version of the iMac at its “Scary Fast” event held on the finish of October.
MacOS Sonoma‘s smaller updates did not get the pomp and circumstance from the tech big that different updates and upgrades recieved this yr, however the brand-new Macs hitting the scene this fall will shake issues up. In case you’re planning to improve to a brand new Mac and a brand new iPhone concurrently, you will need to be sure they work in concord.
In case you plan on upgrading each your laptop and your cellphone, there’s excellent news. MacOS Sonoma’s replace brings options that iPhone customers have loved for a number of years, and a few brand-new ones that iPhone customers first noticed in iOS 17.
Try these new Mac options that I believe make my cellphone and laptop work higher collectively. For extra, try how to fix the most annoying iOS 17 features and the Mac keyboard shortcuts you need to know.
Widgets come to your desktop
Widgets have lastly arrived in your desktop.
Whereas widgets aren’t an earth-shattering productiveness characteristic, and even new to Apple followers, having them in your desktop is fairly useful. For example, a few of my co-workers work on the West Coast whereas I work on the East Coast, so I’ve a clock widget that shows the present time in Pacific Normal Time, which makes coordinating with my coworkers a bit easier.
The widgets are additionally tremendous easy to make use of; all you need to do is right-click along with your mouse or double-click your trackpad in your desktop and a menu will come out. You’ll be able to choose Edit Widgets and a widget menu will seem the place you’ll be able to select from small, medium or giant widgets for a wide range of purposes. If you wish to take away a widget, you’ll be able to both right-click or use two fingers to click on your trackpad and choose Take away Widget, or you’ll be able to click on the small purple button that seems after deciding on Edit Widget to take away your widget.
You’ll be able to choose all types of widgets so as to add to your desktop.
You too can drag and drop widgets out of your Notification Middle to your desktop. If you wish to add widgets to your notification heart, all it is advisable do is scroll to the underside of your notification heart and click on Edit Widgets. You take away widgets out of your notification heart in the identical means you’d out of your desktop.
You too can add your iPhone widgets to your Mac’s desktop, even when you do not have the widget’s corresponding app downloaded to your laptop. To allow this, you will have to go to System Settings, then scroll all the way down to Desktop and Dock and from there scroll to the Widgets part. As soon as within the widgets part, merely toggle the Use iPhone Widgets possibility on. Your iPhone widgets will probably be obtainable from the widget browser that seems when deciding on Edit Widget in your desktop or notification heart.
Auto-sorting grocery lists
I am a reasonably organized individual, however to be sincere, I’ve by no means turned to Apple’s Reminders app for assist with this. The app did not make a lot sense to me and I historically have opted for third-party group apps. Whereas these new reminder options aren’t sufficient to sway me away from my most popular group apps, some additions assist me make higher use of the app.
You’ll be able to create auto-sorting grocery lists with Sonoma, however the characteristic might be tough to make use of.
The adjustments to reminders are fairly simple to make the most of. Probably the most main replace is the auto-sorting grocery record characteristic. To utilize this characteristic, click on the Add Record button on the backside of the reminders web page. Give your record a reputation (and alter the colour of the record and the icon if you would like). Then, underneath the Record Kind drop-down menu, choose Groceries.
As soon as within the record, create the classes you need in your record. For instance, my record had three classes: meats, produce and miscellaneous. After you create your classes, you must have the ability to begin placing your record collectively, and the gadgets you add ought to be robotically sorted. Be warned — this characteristic appears to be a bit buggy. My finest recommendation is to maintain making an attempt the characteristic, and you’ll all the time drag and drop your gadgets to their appropriate class if nothing else works.
Messages that mirror your cellphone
One in every of my favourite issues about having an Apple household of merchandise is that I can textual content from my laptop. This sounds small, however this has confirmed super-helpful in my day-to-day life. After I’m engaged on my laptop, I can put my cellphone fully away so I can focus, but it surely’s good to nonetheless have the ability to be reached.
One factor that has all the time annoyed me about iMessage on my laptop is that it feels years behind my cellphone. For the longest time, I could not use tap-back reactions and even reply to messages like I may once I would textual content on my cellphone. Sonoma has modified this for the higher — there’s lastly parity between telephones and computer systems relating to the iMessage expertise.
The reply perform, which may help set up textual content threads, lastly makes its means onto Macs
The most important characteristic that I had been lacking was the reply perform. Basically, this perform lets you swipe throughout a message and reply on to that particular message. I’ve discovered this characteristic significantly useful when making sophisticated plans or in noisy group chats.
All you need to do to make use of the reply perform is swipe two fingers to the correct till you’ll be able to reply to the message. In case you do not need to swipe, you’ll be able to click on the message you want to reply to with two fingers and choose Reply from the drop-down menu.
For extra, here is the perfect MacBook of 2023.
