Apple Released macOS Sonoma for all supported devices
Apple has finally released macOS Sonoma, the new version of its popular desktop operating system, bringing a rich set of features that aim at improving your Mac experience. New beautiful screen savers and powerful widgets unlock an entirely new way to personalize your Mac. Users can now place widgets right on the desktop, interact with them with just a click, and through Continuity, access the extensive ecosystem of iPhone widgets on their Mac.
In macOS Sonoma, video conferencing also gets more engaging with great new features to help users present remotely, like Presenter Overlay, which places a presenter on top of the content being shared, and Reactions, which enables fun gesture-triggered video effects in cinematic quality. Significant updates come to Safari, as well. Profiles keep browsing separate between multiple topics or projects, and web apps provide faster access to favorite sites. Gaming gets even better, with the introduction of Game Mode, exciting new titles, and a new game porting toolkit that will make it even easier for developers to bring more games to Mac. Apple’s computers are definitely capable but the gaming industry does not take gaming on the Mac so seriously.
Supported Devices & Availability
The following devices will be compatible with macOS Sonoma
iMac 2019 and later
Mac Pro 2019 and later
iMac Pro 2017
Mac Studio 2022 and later
MacBook Air 2018 and later
Mac mini 2018 and later
MacBook Pro 2018 and later
Interactive Widgets
Widgets are now even more powerful and personal on Mac. Users can place widgets right on the desktop and conveniently access the widget gallery to find the ones they know and love. Widgets blend seamlessly with the wallpaper while users work in apps, so they can stay focused on the task at hand. Through the magic of Continuity, users can also enjoy the vast ecosystem of iPhone widgets on their Mac. Widgets become interactive, allowing users to check off reminders, play or pause media, access home controls, and perform various tasks from their Mac, all directly from the desktop.
New Screen Savers
macOS Sonoma brings new beautiful screen savers featuring slow-motion videos of various locations worldwide. This rich graphical and photographic imagery enhances the Mac experience by shuffling through Landscape, Earth, Underwater, or Cityscape themes. The login experience is now repositioned at the bottom of the screen, making space for the new screen savers, which seamlessly transition into the desktop.
Games & Game Mode on Mac
macOS Sonoma also introduces Game Mode which promises an optimized gaming experience with smoother and more consistent frame rates, by ensuring games get the highest priority on the CPU and GPU. Game Mode also lowers audio latency with AirPods, and significantly reducing input latency with popular game controllers like those for Xbox and PlayStation by doubling the Bluetooth sampling rate. Here’s how you can activate or disable Game Mode.
Game developers are bringing exciting gaming IP’s to the Mac, including DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT, Stray, Fort Solis, World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, HUMANKIND, Resident Evil Village: Winters' Expansion, The Medium, ELEX II, Firmament, SnowRunner, Disney Dreamlight Valley, No Man's Sky, Dragonheir: Silent Gods, and Layers of Fear. To make it easier to port games from other platforms to Mac, Metal 3 introduces a new game porting toolkit, eliminating months of upfront work and enabling developers to see how well their existing game could run on Mac in just a few days. It also dramatically simplifies the process of converting the game's shaders and graphics code to take full advantage of Apple silicon performance, significantly reducing the total development time according to Apple.
Video Conferencing Improvements (from release notes)
Presenter Overlay: Remain a part of the conversation when you’re sharing your screen on a video call by placing yourself on top of your presentation. Use a small overlay to place yourself in a moveable bubble, or use a large overlay to keep yourself prominent while your shared screen is framed beautifully next to you.
Reactions and gestures:Layer screen effects like balloons, confetti, stormy rain, fireworks, or laser beams directly into your camera feed. Trigger them with a click, or go hands-free and trigger reactions using your gestures alone.
Video menu bar item: A new menu bar item makes it easy to manage your camera feed and video effects. Screen sharing picker. It’s easier and more consistent to share your screen with a systemwide screen sharing picker.
Safari Improvements
Profiles: Keep your browsing separate for topics like work and personal. Each profile has separate history, cookies, extensions, Tab Groups, and favorites.
Web apps on Mac: Save your favorite websites to the Dock for easy access. Access them in a streamlined format for simplified browsing.
Locked Private Browsing: Private Browsing locks when you’re not using it to keep your tabs protected from others with access to your device. Unlock with Face ID, Touch ID, or device password.
New Accessibility & Other Features
macOS Sonoma introduces a range of accessibility features that make Mac even more customizable for all users. For customers with hearing disabilities, Made for iPhone hearing devices can connect to their Mac for calls and media consumption, while users who are nonspeaking can use Live Speech to type and vocalize their thoughts during calls and conversations. For users with physical and motor disabilities, phonetic suggestions appear when dictating and editing text with Voice Control on Mac. To assist users with cognitive disabilities, animated images like GIFs can be automatically paused in Messages and Safari. Additionally, users who are blind or have low vision can easily customize text size across Mac apps and utilize Xcode with VoiceOver, Apple's industry-leading screen reader.
Some other updates in macOS Sonoma include streamlined PDFs, inline PDFs in Notes, Siri improvements, enhanced password features, an improved Messages experience, intelligent grocery lists in Reminders, an all-new autocorrect and inline completions in the keyboard, enhanced privacy and safety features, and more.
You can view Apple’s detailed documentation including all new feature and compatibility by clicking here.
