I've been using macOS Monterey for a while now. Although some of the key features that I am
interested in might not be out by the time you watch this video, here are those that matter to
me and actually make a difference in my workflow. And let's just warm up with the fact that you can
now place a memoji on your lock screen and not just a static one, but an animated one.
Now that's just too awesome to miss. Your memoji interacts with you as you type your passwords.
For the first time ever, you might want to spend some time entering the wrong passwords because the
unsuccessful attempts are just hilarious to watch. To set up your custom memoji,
all you have to do is go to System Preferences, User, and Groups and edit your user's profile
picture. You can also use that settings screen to edit or create new memoji's
since you might find it easier than doing that on your phone.
Now Back to REAL LIFE, where FaceTime is the key feature that might make a difference for many
working from home. I am talking about the ability to invite people into a FaceTime call using a web
link that can be shared. That, of course, is tightly integrated with the Calendar, too,
and with the ability to join a FaceTime call via the web browser Apple is undoubtedly increasing
the potential of the app. I already used it a few times with colleagues of mine,
and it appears to be working seamlessly. Creating a calendar event for a call couldn't be simpler.
One can join a call from any device and even multiple devices, for that matter. Picture
quality and sound quality are excellent, especially for whoever is using an iPhone
or an iPad. Compared to Zoom, it's a lot less fun and gimmicky. Still, the overall
quality of the experience is definitely better because aside from the better picture quality,
voice isolation is now baked into FaceTime. With it, you can have a vacuum cleaner running in
the background and still conduct a decent and natural conversation. Unfortunately, I can't
test and experience SharePlay since it's not officially released yet. It is the feature that
stands behind watching and listening to music and TV with people. In the topic of meetings, it also
enables desktop sharing. Also, portrait mode or the blurred-out background is definitely something
that benefits all people on a call, as I mentioned in my iOS 15 video, which I released recently.
In that same video, I tried to explain and showcase how Special Audio works. I am saying
this because Special Audio is now part of Mac OS Monterey as well. If you want to see my attempt
at explaining it, you can check out my iOS 15 features video in the description below.
Special Audio works almost everywhere in Monterey, and it has honestly spoiled me tremendously.
It's fantastic during FaceTime calls, too, because it spreads out the sound in a way
as if it's coming from the direction in which the participants are positioned during that call.
Meanwhile, AirPlay on the Mac is finally here, and it's one of those features that
should've existed for a long time now. Just as you can AirPlay content from your iPad
or iPhone to your TV or Apple TV, you can now throw a video or presentation to your Mac or
to any other Mac in the network, for that matter. This is very cool for few reasons. First of all,
if you collaborate with people in an office, you go to someone's desk and share a video, music, or
presentation on the fly. Second, if you are like many people who don't have a TV but instead use a
decent-sized monitor at home to work and entertain, you can do that even better now.
While on that topic, you can mirror your Apple devices on the Mac as well. This is also a great
way to use your Mac as a speaker destination. Since I have hooked external speakers,
I can simply transfer over my playlist for everyone to enjoy from any corner of the studio.
Quick Note is a welcomed feature that is very similar to what people will get with iPadOS 15.
Dragging the mouse to the bottom right corner of the screen hints at a quick blank note that
expands to a small window for easy and quick access when scrolled further. Accessing it btw
works from everywhere, even in full screen, split view, and even gaming. To be honest,
at first, I didn't know about this feature, and my accidental mouse corner bumps that led to the
hint of the quick Note made me think that this was a glitch. This is a handy feature for me,
and it kind of reminds me of the stickies which are still here in Monterey and still that dated
looking 🙂. Also, from what I have experienced so far, dragging the mouse to the corner does
not create a new quick note every time but instead pulls out the current quick Note, which is better
than generating a new note every time. This feature, combined with the new hashtag system,
allows for very easy navigation and location of scrap notes which is something that I struggled to
clean a few days ago since I had tons of random notes with weird titles that meant nothing to
me. Oh, and to dig deeper, I can now highlight stuff in safari to add to quick Note, which is
just incredible. When I get to the highlight that I have created later, the quick Note hints me from
the corner about the relation. BTW, if you end up enjoying this video, subscribe because WHY NOT?
Now, let's talk about iCloud +, which offers handy new features, one of which is Hide my email. This
feature can be found on iOS15 as well, but now on Monterey, you can customize it. With Hide
My Email, Apple gives you the option to protect yourself by creating email aliases to hide your
personal email when you want to log in or sign up on websites that you wouldn't want to personally
trust. For example, you can create and label an alias Junk and use that alias email whenever you
want to. This means that you can say goodbye to all your other junk Gmail email addresses
and handle everything with clever aliases. Next is one feature that I've always admired of
all the iPhones: Erase all content and settings. Well, now, that feature has arrived on the Mac as
well, and here's how it works. Whenever you are selling your Mac or simply switching to another
one, you no longer need to go through all the cumbersome steps of formatting and re-installing
Mac OS. Instead, you can merely Erase all content and settings, which will securely clean all the
information except for the operating system. This setting lives in System Preferences. It
guides you through the safe deletion of everything - touch ID settings, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and more.
But what if you don't want to erase everything and instead get rid of stuff that only slows
down and cloggs your Mac? Today's video sponsor, CleanMyMac X can help with that.
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is Clean My Mac X's most prominent feature, and for a good reason. With a simple press
of a button and a few seconds later, Smart Scan examines the Mac system for
log files and user cache that is no longer needed. Another favorite feature of mine is
Space Lense which gives me a glimpse at what files are taking most of my
disk space. Finally, another tool that I'd like to point out is the uninstaller, which helps me
get rid of apps the right way without leaving a trace of leftover files or libraries. On the verge
of upgrading to macOS Monterey, you might need to clean up some space
for the over 11GB installation, and CleanMyMac X can help you do exactly that.
Be sure to check out Clean My Mac X by clicking on the first link in the description below.
By far, the most helpful feature and perhaps the most impressive one for me
is Live Text, which is integrated throughout the operating system. Besides in the photos app,
this feature works in other native apps like Preview, which is priceless. Let me give you
the perfect example of this feature. The other day, my finance agency had sent me a scanned
notary document that I had to recreate and notarize again. In the old days, I would have
to re-type this document by hand because it's very specific, and I would have to spend some serious
time making sure all the structure was on point. Now, with Live Text, all I have to do is this.
This is absurd. Of course, it might have some hiccups and mess up some words,
but the time it can save is ridiculous. Minor mistakes are mainly determined by the quality
of the scan or the photo and the font used BTW. I also like to point out a couple of honorable
mentions that you might not hear elsewhere unless you dig into the fine print. You can now customize
your mouse pointer, specifically the outline and fill color, and finally, make it a wacky color
that matches your mousing moods - see, found a reason to use my patented mousing word again.
Next up is my new favorite screen saver introduced in macOS Monterey - called Hello.
It comes in 3 different variants, and honestly, it's mesmerizing to enjoy even from a distance.
I say enough is enough with the Flip Clock 🙂 If you enjoyed this video, you might find my
recently released iOS 15 videos where I talk about features that
actually make a difference in my daily life. As always, it's been an absolute pleasure,
This is E Over and out