{"id":6712,"date":"2018-06-06T14:30:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T19:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/?p=6142"},"modified":"2018-06-08T14:55:46","modified_gmt":"2018-06-08T19:55:46","slug":"apples-latest-announcement-2018-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macworks.com\/blog\/apples-latest-announcement-2018-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple’s Latest Announcement 2018 – What You Need To Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Apple\u2019s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote on June 4th, the company unveiled the first developer versions of all four of its operating systems: macOS 10.14 Mojave, iOS 12, watchOS 5, and tvOS 12. They won\u2019t be available until this fall, likely in September or October, but here is a glimpse of what you can expect.<\/p>\n

macOS 10.14 Mojave Adds Dark Mode, Enhances the Finder, and Gains Four iOS Apps<\/h2>\n

With the update to macOS, which Apple is calling \u201cMojave\u201d after the southern California desert, the company is beefing up the Finder, adding visual enhancements, and bringing some familiar iOS apps to the Mac. Apple is dropping support for some older Macs, so you\u2019ll need a Mac introduced since 2012 to run Mojave.<\/p>\n

Productivity mavens with messy Desktops will appreciate a new Finder feature, which, when turned on, automatically gathers all the files on the Desktop into \u201cstacks,\u201d sorting them by file type, date, tag, or other criteria. Click a stack to expand it, much like a Dock stack today.<\/p>\n

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Apple has replaced Cover Flow view, which combined a large preview area and a file list, with the new Gallery view. Aimed at helping you browse in a folder of images, Gallery view displays a large preview of the selected file above a row of thumbnails for other items in the folder. A right-hand sidebar in Gallery view shows more information about the current file and lets you edit or mark up the file with Quick Actions (which you can create with Automator) without opening the file in an app. Press Space bar to preview a file with Quick Look, and you can apply appropriate Quick Actions to the file as well, all from the Finder.<\/p>\n

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If you find the white backgrounds in the Mac\u2019s windows too bright, you\u2019ll like Mojave\u2019s new Dark Mode (shown above), which intelligently reverses things to display white text in a largely black interface. Additional eye candy comes from Dynamic Desktops, which change the appearance of new Apple-provided Desktop backgrounds based on the time of day.<\/p>\n

For those who take a lot of screenshots, Apple has given the Mac\u2019s long-standing screenshot capabilities a visible interface that simplifies taking still screenshots or recording a movie of your actions. Plus, you can preview, edit, share, or delete a screenshot or movie immediately after creating it.<\/p>\n

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A new feature called Continuity Camera lets you use your iPhone\u2019s camera in Mac apps, either taking a photo directly into a Mac app or scanning a document as a PDF.<\/p>\n

Lastly, although Apple was emphatic that it won\u2019t be replacing macOS with iOS, or merging the two, the company is working to make it easier for developers to create apps that work on both platforms. Independent developers won\u2019t be able to do that until 2019, but Apple is testing the waters by bringing four familiar apps from iOS to the Mac: News, Stocks, Voice Memos, and Home. They look and work very much like their iPad counterparts, but rely on the mouse or trackpad, and use normal Mac interface elements like resizable windows.<\/p>\n

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iOS 12 Improves Performance, Provides Time Management Tools, and More<\/h2>\n

In the WWDC keynote, Apple emphasized that one of its main goals for iOS 12 is to improve performance, especially for older devices. Unlike Mojave, iOS 12 will support all the same devices as iOS 11, so those with an iPhone 5s or original iPad Air may benefit the most from this effort.<\/p>\n

\"\"To address increasing concerns about how much we\u2014and our kids\u2014are using smartphones, Apple has made some important changes. Perhaps most important is the new Screen Time feature, which shows how often you use your iOS devices and how much time you spend in different apps. It also lets you set daily time limits for specific apps, so you can make sure you don\u2019t spend too much time in Facebook, for instance. Even better, you can set such limits for your children\u2019s devices via Family Sharing.<\/p>\n

Do Not Disturb has become a more appealing feature, because you don\u2019t need to worry about accidentally leaving it on for too long\u2014it can now be set to turn off automatically after some time or when you leave a location, such as at the end of a class or when you leave your doctor\u2019s office. (This feature also comes to the Apple Watch with watchOS 5.) Also new is Do Not Disturb During Bedtime, which ensures you won\u2019t see enticing notifications on the Lock screen if you check the time on your iPhone in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

Getting too many notifications? Notification grouping gathers all the notifications from each app together on the Lock screen so it doesn\u2019t fill up, but you can see them all at once when you\u2019re ready. Plus, a new feature called Instant Tuning helps you reduce the number of notifications you see, right from the Lock screen.<\/p>\n

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If you\u2019ve always wanted to automate repetitive actions in iOS, you\u2019ll love the new Siri Shortcuts feature. You can use it to string together actions in different apps\u2014send a message to your spouse that you\u2019re leaving work, show the traffic conditions on your commute home, and start playing a podcast app\u2014and then invoke them all via Siri with a custom phrase.<\/p>\n

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Other interesting changes in iOS 12 include these:<\/p>\n