Functional Not Flashy: The Top 6 New Features in MacOS Sonoma
It wasn’t a big year for macOS at WWDC, with Apple focused on the much higher-profile Apple Vision Pro announcement, not to mention impressive new Mac computers and laptops.
But what the company did announce for its OS is sure to please certain types of users, including business pros, gamers, and web app fans (like me). Apple Vision Pro may have grabbed the headlines, but many more folks will use macOS Sonoma than visionOS, at least during this decade.
A macOS Sonoma public beta is expected sometime in July, and the full release should come out in September, as per Apple’s customary annual schedule. Notable for its absence is any mention of generative AI, which Microsoft is building into Windows with Copilot. Nevertheless, here are the standout new features of Apple’s upcoming desktop OS update (if you have a post-2018 Mac(Opens in a new window).)
In previous macOS versions, widgets were relegated to the notification sidebar on the right side of the desktop. With Sonoma, you can place them anywhere on the desktop. So as not to be distracting, widgets on the desktop go transparent and tint to match your wallpaper when you open an app window. If you use widgets on an iPhone, you can put them on your Mac desktop, too. Some have likened these "anywhere widgets" to the desktop widgets introduced by Microsoft in Windows Vista back in 2006, though widgets reappeared in Windows 11, where they’re (for now) relegated to their own panel. What goes around comes around.
Apple has never been the first choice for playing PC games, but the company is hoping to change that with a new Gaming mode for Macs with Apple Silicon processors. The company even trotted out game developer legend Hideo Kojima at WWDC 2023 to announce that a
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