After more than a year's break Twitter has been back with its own Mac app since the beginning of October. However, not with a completely re-programmed app, but with a version of his iPad app, with Apple's new technology Mac Catalyst on macOS 10.15. Catalina has been adapted.
Mac Catalyst was announced at the WWDC Developer Conference in June to help developers migrate iPad apps to iMac, MacBook and Mac Pro. Catalyst apps only run on machines with the new operating system macOS Catalina, which Apple released in early October.
While Twitter is part of a Catalyst app right from the beginning, other developers are still a bit reluctant. For example, Netflix refuses to offer a Catalyst app for Mac, Bloomberg said. Many developers complain about problems, the optimized for the touch screen of the iPads optimized user interface to the mouse and keyboard of the Macs.
In addition to Mac Catalyst - and potentially many new apps for Macs - Apple has extended its macOS version 10.15 to many more features. Thus, over the years, the increasingly extensive multimedia software iTunes is finally abolished and replaced by slimmer new apps for music, movies and series, podcasts and books and audiobooks. In addition, users can now see how much time they have spent in front of the screen and find their Apple devices easier.
The 10 most important new features of macOS Catalina are shown in the following photo gallery:
This is new in macOS Catalina
With the Mac Catalyst tool, Apple offers developers of iPad apps a way to publish their programs on the Mac. The apps run only on Mac machines with the operating system macOS Catalina. Because of technical problems with the implementation, there are still start-up difficulties. The selection of apps is therefore still low.
The Sidecar function turns an iPad into an extended MacBook screen. So you can use it to enlarge the work space and at the same time use the touch screen, for example, to draw in Mac programs. However, this only works if you have an Apple notebook that was released in 2016 or later. For the iPads: Only for models with Pencil support, the connection works on Sidecar.
Drawings can also be created and imported on a touch screen without a sidecar. The Continuity Sketch feature also allows users of older Mac models to use their iPhone or iPad to draw a sketch. Using the "File", the drawings can then be imported on the Mac in apps such as notes or mail.
iTunes is history: Apple has removed the multimedia platform from the new operating system and instead delivers separate apps for music, movies, books and audiobooks, as well as podcasts.
Apple wants to start in the TV business this year. With the video streaming offer Apple TV + challenges the group competitors such as Netflix out. For the partially self-produced films and series, Apple now also provides a program for macOS for apps for iPad and iPhone.
In addition to music and film flat rates, Apple now also offers a video game subscription. The titles of the platform Apple Arcade can now be played on a Mac. We tested the flat rate and recommend the ten best games on the platform.
Anyone who has lost an Apple gadget can do so with the app "Where is?" search. The application is a mixture of the two predecessors "Search my iPhone" and "Search Friends". With Bluetooth signals, lost devices are found even when they are in hibernation and have no Internet connection.
Spent too much time on Facebook or watching videos on YouTube all the time? After iPhone and iPad, MacBooks and iMacs now also have a function to check the screen time. With the tool you can also mute an app. Parents can deny children access to certain apps through family sharing.
The new macOS is more strict with programs that want to access features such as camera or microphone. The new security measures ensure that users have to agree at the start of a program, for example, when Powerpoint requires the permission to record screen contents.
Apple uses its experience with the software assistant Siri and gives the new operating system a voice control. This can give the calculator commands such as "open mail". The function can also be used to dictate texts as soon as a cursor in a chat program or text document flashes. The voice control setting can be found in the "Accessibility".