Hey folks today I'm gonna be teaching you how to use my top favorite new features that
you'll find in the brand new operating system for the Mac know as Mac OS Catalina.
That's coming up next on Tech Talk America.
Hey, folks, I wanted to start off today's class by saying if you're watching this video
right after Mac OS Catalina comes out, my recommendation is to always hold off before
installing any new operating system whether that's for your computer or your iOS devices
and you should wait at least 2 to 3 weeks.
That way developers have a little bit of time to work out any potential bugs and trust me
in the process of making this video, I've encountered a few.
While there are technically several dozen new features that you'll find in Mac OS Catalina,
today I am just gonna focus on the ones that I think you're actually going to use.
One quick little bit of business before we begin.
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We have a lot to go over today so at this point let's switch to my Mac.
The first feature we're gonna be discussing today is called voice control.
This first feature may not be something that affects all of you but it could absolutely
be life-changing to anyone dealing with paralysis or disabilities that affect motor control.
Voice control makes it possible to completely control your Mac using only your voice.
I'm not gonna demonstrate this feature in great depth in this video only because I've
decided to create a dedicated class that is really gonna deep dive into this feature.
Hopefully, I'll have that video out soon.
You'll find the preferences for voice control here in system preferences.
From there just go into accessibility and then scroll down and click where it says voice
control.
This will play some microphone icon at the bottom right corner of your screen.
So you'll be able to see when it's listening.
In order to use voice control, you are going to need to learn a certain vocabulary of commands
and one of the things that I plan to do in that upcoming class is I will be including
a free PDF guide that could be easily printed out so that you can have those commands available
in front of you.
Again, look for that class soon.
Next, let's talk about the new security features including the ability to use your apple watch
to authenticate your Mac.
To set this up just go into system preferences and from there let's navigate to security
and check out this option right here.
This way, anytime you need to enter your admin password on your Mac, you can simply double
click the side button on your apple watch.
Another security feature that you won't really see but is a good thing to know about is that
Mas OS Catalina now runs on a separate partition of your hard drive which is set to read-only.
This really won't affect your experience but it makes your Mac a lot more secure.
One more thing on the topic of security which is something that everyone should really take
a moment to do after upgrading their Mac to Catalina.
Just go into system preferences then click on security and privacy then click on the
privacy tab and just take a few moments to go over some of the new options that you'll
see here.
For example, if an application were trying to monitor your keyboard, something you've
probably would not want, you would see it listed right here.
The next new feature in Catalina is finder device management for iPhone and iPad.
So now when you plug in your iPhone or iPad to your Mac, you'll see it appear here in
finder under locations.
I dare to say that this is overall probably a smart move just because iTunes have become
so cluttered but ultimately I do still have some frustrations with the functionality.
For example, when you do make a change it doesn't really give you any kind of progress
bar that shows you that those changes have been applied and because I always like to
focus on solutions I would like to take a very brief moment to offer an alternative.
So if you don't like managing your iPhone or iPad through finder, instead you could
use an alternative app called iMazing, which happens to be the topic of my class from last
week.
This software also allows you to do other things that Apple just doesn't.
For example, if you have songs that are on an old iPod that you need to transfer from
your iPod to your computer, it lets you do that.
It also allows you to export things like voice mail messages as an audio file.
So if you've lost someone who you care about, you now have a way that you can save their
final voice message.
If you would like to check out that app I encourage you to watch my class.
If you're watching me on Youtube you can either click the little card icon that just appeared
at the top right or I'll also put a link down below in the video description.
Another new feature which may be quite humbling to some people is that screen time now syncs
between your devices so that you'll have a much more accurate picture of what apps are
wasting you're time and pulling apart your family.
You'll find that feature in system preferences but my problem with this feature is that the
information itself is not as accurate as it could be.
Let me show you what I mean.
Here's a screenshot from my personal account and as you can see here it makes it look like
many of these apps were open for 3 hours and 28 minutes when in fact they were actually
apps that I had minimized and others I had closed but not quit.
My point here is that it would be a lot more beneficial to know active usage time as suppose
to just how long an app was open.
Of course one of the biggest changes in Mac OS Catalina is that iTunes has been broken
up into 3 different apps which includes music, podcast and Apple TV.
Personally, I think this was a good call because I mentioned earlier it was starting to feel
a little too crowded.
Of all of these apps, my favorite is definitely the podcast app and on that subject, I'd love
to discover a few new ones.
So if you have a favorite podcast, let me know about it down below in the comment section.
The reminders app got a bit of an update which includes the ability to combine lists into
folders.
You can do this by just dragging one list into another.
You can create custom icons to represent your various lists.
So, for example, I use reminders to keep my shopping list.
So I can change it from just a solid color to one with one of these little glyphs inside.
If when you add a reminder you make an indication as to when something is due or a location,
reminders will now make suggestions.
Another cool feature is the new dynamic wallpaper of Catalina Island which you'll see here on
my desktop.
This image will change over the course of the day and I have to say it is actually pretty
cool.
If you decide to use this feature you should also really consider checking out a very similar
feature which is here in general settings where you can now have your Mac switch automatically
between light mode and dark mode depending on the time of the day.
If you use the photos app on your Mac, you'll see there's a new way to view your photos
which you'll find here at the top under days.
This will be especially interesting if you use the live photos feature on your iPhone.
So be sure to check that out.
Real quick on the topic of photos if you are one of those people who has trouble with organizing
your photos, I wanted to let you know that I'm very soon gonna be updating my class on
that subject matter.
So be sure to look for that video on the next couple of weeks.
And finally, we have my favorite feature here in Mac OS Catalina which is sidecar.
This is a new feature that allows you to use your iPad as either a secondary display or
you can use it to mirror your Mac.
You'll find the settings for this oddly in two places.
Sidecar does have its own preference pane in system preferences.
However, if you want to adjust the positioning of your iPad in terms of does it extend your
display to the right or left and also at what height, those options are actually under display
preferences and then from there just go into arrange.
Now personally, I would have loved to have seen a shortcut to the arrange tab from sidecar
but hey I'll live.
I have to say that during the process of making this video, I've been using sidecar the entire
time including as I'm recording this voice over and have been really impressed by how
it works.
Other YouTubers have reported some latency issues but in my own experience, it's been
flawless.
I did wanna mention that if this feature does appeal to you, this is a perfect excuse to
buy a tablet holder to prop up your iPad next to your computer.
There are quite a few different variations of this type of accessory and I've posted
several of my favorites and I've got a few down below.
One last thing about sidecar which I think you'll find very helpful is that now, any
time you press and hold down on the green button of any app, you'll see several options
to view that app either in full screen, split-screen or you can instantly send it to your iPad
using sidecar.
Thank you for watching everyone.
If you've enjoyed this video please be sure to hit that thumbs up like button.
Leave me a comment down below and if you haven't already done so please subscribe to my Youtuber
channel.
Thank you for watching everyone.
This is David A Cox with Tech Talk America.
Class dismissed.