What Is Apple Catalina

adminфевраля 17 2021

What Is Apple Catalina

Most coverage of Apple’s new operating system, macOS Catalina focuses on the improvements since Mojave, its immediate predecessor. But what if you’re still running macOS High Sierra? Well, the news then is even better. You get all the improvements that Mojave users get, plus all the benefits of upgrading from High Sierra to Mojave. Let’s compare macOS Catalina with macOS High Sierra.

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Apple this week officially released macOS Catalina (also known as macOS 10.15), the first major update to its Mac operating system since Mojave last year. Apple just released its big new Mac update called macOS Catalina. It lets you use an iPad as a second screen, splits iTunes into three separate apps and can run new Catalyst apps.

Clean your Mac before you upgrade

Before we get started, if you’re planning to upgrade to macOS Catalina from High Sierra, it’s likely you have lots of files on your Mac that you don’t need. We call them system junk. They consist of cache files, temporary files that were never deleted, and all sorts of other data macOS stores on your Mac and you’ll never need again. Installing a new OS over that lot is not a good idea, it’s like layering paint over paint – at some point you have to sand it down and start again. That time is now, before you upgrade. My favorite way to get rid of junk files is to use CleanMyMac X. I recommend you use it to. It’s really easy to use, quick, and can free up tens of gigabytes of space.

Once you’ve got rid of the junk, backup your Mac either with Time Machine or a tool that can make a bootable clone. It’s very rare that anything goes wrong when you upgrade, but it’s much better to be safe than sorry.

The evolution of interface

MacOS Mojave saw one of the biggest changes to the macOS interface in several years, so if you’re still using High Sierra, upgrading to Catalina will allow you to use features like Dark Mode, which changes the look of your Mac and all applications that support it so that they display light text on a dark background.

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Mojave also introduced Desktop Stacks, so if you’re still running High Sierra you’ll be able to use those for the first time in Catalina too. Stacks allow you to automatically store files of the same type, like photos, PDFs, and screenshots, in a stack on the Desktop. Talking of screen shots, Mojave changed the way screen shots work. Now, instead of just saving your screen shot, it hovers as a thumbnail for a few seconds, so you can click on it to preview you and make some basic adjustments, before saving or deleting it, just like in iOS. then there’s the new features in the Finder, like the Gallery view and the new Quick Look tools that allow you to make changes to image files when you preview them in the Finder.

Compared to the leap from High Sierra to Mojave, Catalina didn’t add too much to the visual interface, but made huge improvements to the way you use your Mac with your Voice. You can now control your Mac completely using just your voice, including launching apps, selecting commands, dragging and dropping, and, of course, dictating.

Applications

Both upgrades since High Sierra have brought iOS and the Mac closer. First, there was the addition of Voice memos, Stocks, and Home apps to the Mac. Then, Apple got rid of iTunes and replaced it with TV, Music, and Podcasts, to mirror the equivalent apps in iOS. The Mac App Store has also been overhauled since High Sierra, making it easier to find the best apps, and allowing developers to offer trial versions.

There’s a new FindMy app that replaces Find My iPhone, Find My Mac, and Find My Friends, and it can find your Mac even if it’s sleeping or offline. And you’ll notice improvements in lots of Apple’s built-in apps like Reminders, which is rebuilt in Catalina, Notes, Safari, and Photos. You can now mute entire threads in Mail, just as you can in Messages, and make group calls with FaceTime.

All devices are welcome

In Mojave, Apple added the ability to use your iPhone’s camera to scan documents directly on your Mac. And it continued that theme in macOS Catalina, by allowing you to use an iPad as a second display for your Mac, and as a graphics tablet. A feature called Continuity Markup also allows you to markup PDFs on an iPad and have the changes show up on your Mac. Finally, Mojave added a feature that allowed you to unlock your Mac with an Apple Watch, and Catalina has taken that further by allowing you to authenticate certain actions on your Mac by clicking the button on an Apple Watch. Apple’s iOS devices now work much more closely with the Mac than they did in High Sierra.

iCloud

Apple has added a lot to iCloud since High Sierra, turning it into a serious alternative to Dropbox or Google Drive. You can now sync your Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud, meaning they will be the same no matter which Mac you log into your iCloud account from. And you can now share entire folders with other people, rather than just individual files.

More gatekeepers and security checks

Apple Tv Catalina

There have been some big improvements in this area since High Sierra. In macOS Mojave, Safari made it much more difficult for websites to follow you around the web by preventing so-called ‘fingerprinting’. In macOS Catalina, apps will have to ask permission to access your Desktop or Documents folders, as well as iCloud Drive and external disks. And they’ll also have to get your permission before capturing keyboard strokes or taking a photo or video of your screen. And macOS Catalina introduces Activation Lock, which means only you can erase or re-activate your Mac.

What if I don’t feel like upgrading?

Many people live happily using older operating systems because old is gold, right? But if your Mac is underperforming and you think that the mere switch to macOS Catalina will solve everything, you’d likely be disappointed. But the more realistic way to improve the performance of your macOS is freeing up its memory and removing old apps. Really. We’ve seen many good-maintained Macs running the ancient El Capitan that actually performed and copied files faster than latest machines.

So, here’s the cheat-sheet to improve the performance of your Mac

— Free up space on startup drive

— Switch to some lightweight browser, other than Chrome, for example, Brave

— Minimize Login Items via Preferences

— Use third-party macOS speed up tools

For example, there’s a special instrument that comes with CleanMyMac X that identifies heavy memory consumers on your Mac. The tool is called Heavy Consumers and you can use it to make your Mac more responsive. Many Apple forums recommend it for slow-performing Macs.