He’s written a lot about news in Mac OS Ventura like Blickfang (Stage Manager), editable messages, and the ability to use the iPhone as a webcam. But Mac OS 13 has a lot of news and some should get more attention than they have yet. Here we collect five news that could change the computing lives of Mac users.
Spotlight improvements
Search and you will find – at least if the search function is called duga. Mac OS has always had a reasonably good search function in Spotlight, but the display of search results hasn’t always been that good. Often you need to scroll down the list to find the type of file you’re looking for, for example. In Ventura, Spotlight has gotten more improvements than it has in a long time.
Also read our test: Macbook Air with M2 is a very cool computer
Web results show more and more relevant information, and use the entire search window. Image search can use Live Text to find text in photos and Spotlight is better at using metadata in photos. Instead of small previews, on Ventura you can activate Quick Look directly from the search results to see a full-size preview. Another novelty is the ability to, for example, start a timer, like you can already use Spotlight as a calculator.
Hidden and deleted photos are password protected
Finally, you don’t have to worry about someone else sitting at your computer looking at your deleted or hidden photos. On Mac OS Ventura, you must enter your password (or unlock with Touch ID) to view the contents of these private albums. A small but long overdue improvement means you don’t have to go in and manually “real delete” when you take a photo and then delete a photo you never want to show to others.
Faster security updates
Rapid Security Response is what Apple calls a new feature in Mac OS Ventura, which should allow some important security updates to be sent and installed quickly and easily in the background, without the need for a reboot. This is made possible by the fact that Apple has moved some frequently updated files from the protected system volume to a new type of encrypted disk image, located in the Preboot volume. They are signed and added to Mac OS’s Secure Boot Protection, just like a protected system volume, and therefore can only be changed by Apple.
Initially there are so-called cryptex disk images: one called the application containing Safari and the password, which was located in the data volume, the other called OS containing some common code, which is mainly related to Webkit and Safari, but also among other things opengl.
Video recording with the continuity camera
Continuity Camera is called the feature that makes it possible to use the iPhone as a webcam much better than the built-in Mac camera (or as a webcam you already own if you have a Mac Mini or Mac Pro). But what Apple didn’t talk about at WWDC is that the feature applies not only to Facetime, but also to Quicktime Player, where you can use your phone as a wireless external video camera. Or on the other hand: You can use your Mac as a stand-alone viewfinder that’s very large when shooting with an iPhone.
Read also: 5 Mac OS Ventura Features You’ll Actually Use
On iPhone 11 or later, you can also mix the image from the phone’s camera with the screen recording from the Mac it’s connected to, for example to record video evidence.
Metal 3 can open up a whole new world of games
For years, Apple stubbornly stuck to its 3D graphics framework, Metal, and didn’t update the old opengl software and didn’t add support for the modern Vulkan open framework. Metal has become more complete over the years, but it still lacks some features that have made it difficult for game developers to port Windows games and consoles to Mac OS.
In Mac OS Ventura, Metal has arrived at version 3 and includes several new features that have the potential to make things easier for game developers – something we also saw at WWDC when Apple invited Capcom to showcase Resident Evil Village on the Mac. Besides being able to port more games to Mac, Metal 3 can make many Windows games run via virtualization and/or Wine and Crossover using the Moltenvk project.
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