Hi everyone Aaron here for Zollotech and yesterday apple released mac os monterey version 12.1
this is the first major update to mac os monterey since its release and it brings new
features and some much needed bug fixes as well and this particular update if you're not seeing
it you can go to your software updates in system preferences and just go to software update and you
should see it there however if you're a developer or beta tester and you had a version on earlier
this is the same build as rc2 or release candidate 2 and you can tell that by clicking on the version
number and you'll see it's build number 21c52 it's the same build you've just had it a few days early
now this particular update was released alongside ios 15.2 ipad os 15.2 watch os 8.3
tv os 15.2 and homepod os 15.2 as well as a new version of xcode all of those are available now
if you haven't seen them already so if you have a mac os monterey supported mac you should be seeing
this update now as you can see i'm running this on a 16 inch macbook pro with the new m1 max and
this particular update seems to run really well on it but let's first talk about what's new so we'll
go ahead and close this and the first update is something that apple showed with the release or
the initial announcement of mac os monterey and that is shareplay shareplay allows you to share
different things together with someone on a facetime call such as music or tv so let me
show you how that works so if i place a facetime call and as you can see i'm on a facetime call
and if i open an app such as music it will pop up and in my notifications you'll see it says choose
content to use share play so i have the option to choose something to share with someone while i'm
using facetime also you have the option to screen share this little icon here if i go on my iphone
and share my screen you'll see the screen pop up here in just a moment so i'm screen sharing
and if i swipe home you'll see it will pop in and you'll see here is my screen so now i can share my
screen what i'm doing as i'm swiping through and it's what's on my display you're seeing the exact
same thing and it's just letting me know that my microphone is muted that's what that noise was and
you can see what i'm doing on my iphone you can screen share not only with an iphone but an ipad
and a mac as well so if i go ahead and close this we'll close facetime with share play you can not
only just share your music but also tv shows and podcasts and more so you can view them together
with someone else or multiple people now within music apple has updated apple music a little bit
with a new plan so if we go to browse you'll see that we have explore all the ways to listen to
apple music using just your voice and so there's a new siri music plan that's 4.99 per month
if you want to spend a little bit less but you don't need the visual interface of apple music and
so you can still access your music apps just like before but now you can access apple music for 4.99
and use your voice only to do things such as play the voice tutorial as it says here or maybe ask
siri to play different albums and more so that's a new option if you want to do that however if
you want a family plan it's the same cost 15 or so per month depending on where you live
now the next new thing has to do with photos so if we go into photos within photos if you click
on memories memories has been updated with some new transition styles and has similar updates to
what we get with ios 15. so you have different photos here you have a different style if you
click on this button here and then click the three dots the menu you can now sort them based on short
medium or long you can edit the title there's new transitions you can add music and more so that's
been updated there's also additional memories that they've added such as international holidays
child focused memories trends over time and improved pet memories so those have been updated
now to go along with photos apple has added expanded protections for children in this update
now specifically communication safety within messages and search and as you can see in their
press release here there's actually an example from apple showing that if someone sends a photo
that maybe a child should not see it will use the neural engine or the processor to determine
whether or not there's something that could be sensitive in it if there is it will warn
them and say are you sure you want to view it if they continue they can view it it says it's your
choice but make sure you feel safe and also you could message a grown-up or message someone that
you trust whether that be a parent or guardian or someone else and so this is using the processor on
device it's not sharing any information with apple and this is not the same thing as csam
photo scanning protection so this is completely separate that has been delayed indefinitely
but the child protections are here and only for a child if you're not a child this won't even show
up so 13 or younger and it will warn you of that information so that's something they've updated in
this update again that continues to siri spotlight and safari search to help protect children as well
now apple has updated a new feature that they've talked about for a while and that has to do with
digital legacy now this is easily accessible on an iphone but basically what it does is make it easy
to access your information should you pass away or something happen to you you can access your
information and hand it off to someone else after you pass away or they could do the same and give
you that access yourself i have not been able to find an easy way to do this on the mac typically
you would go to your apple id and then under your id you would click on password and security
under password and security this is where it would be that's where it is on your iphone
but it will unlock that information for you on your mac as well so should something happen to you
you can get your photos out of there or your loved one can take care of any additional things they
need to off of your computer also in this update if you're subscribed to icloud plus you'll have
the option to hide your email in a new message that you're sending so if you click on from you'll
see we have hide my email which creates a random address that forwards to your inbox so if you have
icloud plus you can set this up so maybe someone messages you or maybe you want to send an email
to someone but you don't want them to have your initial email address because you're not sure who
it is you can hide it using this option so before you could do this from settings but now you can do
it directly in mail the tv app also gets a slight update and if we go into tv you'll see at the top
there's a new store tab we can now purchase or rent movies and tv shows directly from the app
so apple is integrating everything into the tv app just like they did with music and separating it
away from itunes so the itunes app is no longer necessary to purchase your tv shows or movies
also there's an update in stocks so if we go into stocks again in launch pad
open up stocks we'll click on apple and you can see there's a new chart type here for year to
date so this is just an additional option to help you sort your information they've
also listed the current currency for this area so usd for apple that's been updated with 12.1
reminders also has a slight update along with notes and what they've updated has to do with tags
so if we go into reminders under reminders you'll see we have a couple tags here now i can select
multiple tags and then either rename them or i can delete them at the same time so i
can option click and delete them or rename them if they're similar and you have the option to
select multiples at once where you couldn't do that before this also carries across to nodes
now this update also includes fixes for mac and quite a few fixes for the new 16-inch macbook pro
and other macs that just released but the first thing has to do with desktop and screen savers so
within settings under desktop and screen savers sometimes before this update they would appear
blank after selecting a photo from your photo library so maybe you're setting your own custom
screen saver it sometimes just wouldn't work properly so that has been updated so it works now
also a major fix is the trackpad trackpad could become unresponsive with taps or clicks
so this was a big problem for quite a few people whether or not you're using tap to click
that could be an issue for some where it just wouldn't work properly so clicking
and tapping on the trackpad have been updated also external displays sometimes wouldn't charge
macbook pro or macbook air if they were connected using thunderbolt or usbc so if that was happening
to you that should be resolved now so when you're connected to whether it be a pro display xdr or
something else it should now work properly also hdr video playback on youtube should be resolved
now so if you're using safari sometimes it would crash on 2021 macbook pro computers so this
16-inch macbook pro however sometimes the option for hdr doesn't show up properly still
but that's something between youtube and apple now if you have one of the newer
macbooks with the notch at the top sometimes the menu bar could be obscured by that notch
they've resolved that issue in this update so it should no longer do that they won't be hidden
they'll just be to the side of them also if you're using a new 16-inch macbook pro with magsafe
sometimes magsafe wouldn't charge if the lid was closed and the system was shut down that's been
resolved in this update so if that was a problem for you it should now work properly also searching
in finder and text edit seems to work again if you're looking through your documents on icloud
so that seems to be resolved that's not mentioned by apple but it's something that i mentioned
now there's some security updates as well and we can see those on apple's security website
and they've updated this since they've released mac os monterey 12.1 you can click on it here
and i'll link this in the description but you can see the updates that they've pushed for
security from everything from airport where it said a device may be passively tracked by
bssids and they fixed it by an access issue was addressed with improved access restrictions
and it also gives people that have helped notify apple of the issue so that's something they fixed
as well as issues with bluetooth core audio graphic drivers and also kernel as well as
launch services model io sandbox and more so you can see all of the different fixes here again i'll
link this in the description if you want to see it within this update they've added support for
the new amd rx 6600 graphics card so if you have a mac pro or maybe an e-gpu you can now use this
graphic card natively on the mac and it should work properly so that's everything in mac os 12.1
and i've been using it for a few days even editing videos with it and it's been very stable i've had
no issues i find that it's actually a little bit faster when exporting videos it seems like
and in general it seems to stay a little quieter also so even though it's in high performance
mode when plugged in it seems to be a little bit quieter than it was before so if we go to battery
you can see here power adapter and energy mode is high power it seems to stay a little bit quieter
than it was maybe it's got some better better thermal control but either way it seems to be
fine and stable and i wouldn't really hesitate installing it so if you're wondering if you
should install mac os 12.1 if you're already on monterey then absolutely however if you
have production level applications and you're on maybe mac os big sur you may want to make sure
there's compatibility before switching as there's some issues with things such as audio and more
but for me editing video and final cut using native apple apps pixelmator pro things like
that it seems to work fine and it's been very stable no issues whatsoever if you've found
anything else in this update i'd love to hear from you in the comments below and of course if
you'd like to get your hands on this wallpaper i'll link the iphone version in the description
below if you haven't subscribed already though please subscribe and if you enjoyed the video
please give it a like as always thanks for watching this is Aaron i'll see you next time