Apple has announced a major change for its desktop operating system, today at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2016. After having used the name OS X for more than 15 years, it has announced that it will be renaming the OS to macOS.
This name change is due to place more continuity towards its platforms, namely iOS, tvOS, and watchOS.
Moreover, aside from the name change, it has announced its new version, the macOS Sierra.
It has announced a couple of features that helps bring all of Apple"s platforms together. Apple has decided to focus on seamlessness between all three aforementioned platforms, and has named one of macOS Sierra"s core features Continuity.
For one, Continuity helps macOS users login faster by using their Apple Watch. The conference emphasized the difficulties of typing in passwords, as this act is error-prone. What Apple is proposing to combat this problem is that it will utilize the Apple Watch. If the computer detects that the owner"s Apple Watch is nearby, it will automatically unlock the computer.
Another feature under Continuity is what Apple calls the "Universal Clipboard." Through this, if a user copies, let"s say, a block of text on their macOS computer, with this new feature, the copied text will be available across all devices, whether it"s on the iPad, iPhone, or on the Apple Watch.
iCloud functionality has also been improved for macOS. You can now sync multiple Mac desktops, as well as access files stored on your Mac on your iPhone or iPad. Furthermore, iCloud will help you organize your storage. It will analyze junk files on your computer, and then set to automatically empty the trash, making sure that there will always be free space for the computer.
Apple has also made Apple Pay available to macOS users via the web. If a user shops online via their computer, they can use Apple Pay to transact, and their iPhone"s Touch ID will then be utilized to verify the purchase.
Picture-in-picture on the other hand, enables users to resize their video on the screen if they opt to do something else as well. The video will behave like an overlay on all desktops upon hitting the "picture-in-picture" button.
Lastly, Siri finally makes an apeparance on the Mac. It can now handle complicated queries, like "show the files I worked on last week." During the conference, Apple even took the time to poke some fun at rival Microsoft, by asking Siri, "How do you like being on the Mac?" The sassy assistant answered, "lots of space, aluminum unibody walls, no complaint about the lack of Windows." As a bonus, Siri also integrates with the macOS Finder, which can help users find what they need faster.
macOS Sierra will be available as a free update which will come this fall, with the developer preview available by July.