The update process may take approximately 40-50 minutes and there may be several depending on the device you have and the saturation of the servers. It is always advisable to give it a 10-15 minute process with the Mac turned off so that everything is indexed correctly.
macOS 14 is called Sonoma
Apple, unique in almost everything it does, gives a more organic character to the versions of macOS by giving each one a special name. Previously, we found versions such as Leopard, Lion, Sierra, Mojave, Catalina or Yosemite. These names are not random, but are names of liconic places in california and that Apple usually highlights to make known where its headquarters and State are located.
Apple is a company with deep roots in California and that is why in each generation it tries to convey to us this sensation of natural parks, beaches, desert and outstanding mountains of the place where Apple lives, which not only serve to name the macOS backgrounds, but also determine the name of the software generation.
Now, this situation seems to have changed in this generation, since, for the first time, we have a generation that includes wallpapers from other countries such as Iceland or Dubai, where we can see small animations recorded on the drone that are activated when the device is at rest. As a Mac fan that I am, my wallpaper continues to be the Valley of Sodom, one of the most beautiful valleys in California and if Apple always highlights its State, we are not going to change traditions by placing another wallpaper.
This area of Sonoma is also known as The Valley of the Moon and that is located in the part of the county. The name of this valley is due to the fact that it is limited by two large areas. On the one hand, the Mayacamas Mountains and to the west by the Sonoma County Mountains.
Main new features macOS 14 Sonoma
Next we will see the main features that macOS 14 Sonoma has, many new features that will blow you away and that you will surely want to enjoy.
Widgets arrive on Macs
Until the arrival of macOS Sonoma, widgets They lived in a discreet sidebar, we had to swipe from the right side of the screen to be able to view them and the truth is, I almost never used them because they gave me very little. It is true that other colleagues in the editorial office used them partially, but since it was outside our work spectrum, you had to specifically remember them.
Fortunately, Apple has taken action on the matter and widget revolution on the Mac has arrived now, when Apple has decided that Widgets with information and functionality should be in a permanent place of our macOS desktop and that they are visible at all times in an area that we normally do not usually extract the full potential of because thanks to the Dock and the Finder we already have access to practically everything.
For add a Widgetsyou have to perform the following steps:
- To get started, right-click on any empty space on your desktop.
- In the menu that appears, select “Edit Widget.”
- A pop-up widget launcher will open. Explore the available options and choose the one you want.
- Drag the selected widget to the desired area of the desktop.
- Once you already have a widget in place, if you decide to add a second widget, Apple will offer suggestions on where to place it, displaying a white widget-shaped outline in the recommended position. If you agree, the widget will automatically snap to that recommended location.
We can also go one step further and add colors to Widgets, since, when not in use, the interactive desktop widgets fade into the background taking on a monochrome style, but they are permanently activated if we click on them. If you want them to keep this tone constantly, you have to go to System Settings system < desktop < widgets and sets a monocolor image style.
For remove a widget, you just have to click on it and if you click on the right button, the option to delete widgets appears. It will then be automatically deleted.
Add Widgets from iPhone to Mac
If you were already happy enough with the inclusion of widgets, it doesn’t end there, since if both devices have the same Apple ID, you can share widgets directly from the iPhone to the Mac. Of course, not all widgets are compatible, although I’m sure Apple will add new options in the next updates. Let’s see how you can add widgets from the iPhone.
- On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Desktop & Dock in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)
- Go to Widgets and turn on Use iPhone Widgets. iPhone widgets are now available to add to the desktop or notification center from the widget explorer.
Navigation system settings
One of the aspects that macOS had to improve and that has finally improved is the system settings navigation systemsince, if you are a usability geek like me and you love using Figma, the first thing you realize is that it does not have back and forthhaving to make much sharper jumps and from the side bar.
Now, the system settings panel is much more adapted to how it is represented in iOS and iPadOS, but adapted to the macOS Sonoma interface, but it is now much easier to navigate through the different screens you visit without having to scroll continuously through the sidebar, thanks to the buttons described above.
Safari Profiles
Continuing with the thread regarding navigability, we have to talk about Safari where they have finally included one of the new features that was most missing in the macOS ecosystem. Specifically, we are referring to professional profiles, where previously you had to take too many steps to access other profiles that you had in Apple’s native browser. This is something we can do in Google Chrome from the moment we open the browser and now, we can do it in Safari.
To activate these profiles, we have to go to Safari < Settings where you can create custom profiles, where you can choose a symbol (some do not come by default and are very cool) and a color for each of the profiles, as well as select a favorites folder
FaceTime
For several generations, Apple has included the best of two of its main products. On the one hand, we have FaceTimea video calling application and the iPhone camerawhich we can use as main camera on Macs.
Well, now in macOS Sonoma we have all the benefits that our iPhone camera has from the Mac, to which we have to add the shortcuts that we previously had in the control center, including aspects such as the portrait, studio lighting, reactions, among others.
We also have reactions How can they be love, I like it, I don’t like balloons, rain, confetti, lasers and fireworks. Some reactions are even activated automatically by the user’s physical actions. For example, if we are on a video call and we raise our thumb, an animation of a thumb appears.
Continuing with the video calls, whether through Zoom, Face Time or Google Meet, if we keep pressing the green traffic light located in the open location window, a new screen sharing option appears, as well as a new presenter overlay feature to keep you on screen and better capture details.