Hands-on with macOS Sierra
Fewer changes than iOS, but still some great stuff for the Mac
The big new feature of macOS Sierra is Siri, and Apple’s personal assistant is arguably even more useful on the Mac than it is on the company’s mobile platforms, because you can drag and drop Siri’s search results from the Notifications pane into other apps. Its voice recognition engine worked flawlessly for us, picking up even strong accents brilliantly. You can get a list of things that Siri can do by asking, “What can you do?” Some are simple, such as asking Siri to open a folder on the Mac or launch an app. It’s also possible to start a FaceTime call, set up a meeting in Calendar, find photos from a particular date, and more.
Other changes include the use of tabs in most apps now, including the likes of Maps and iWork (and third-party apps). It works great for Split-Screen mode use, so you can be flicking between tabs for draft and final Pages docs on the left, and looking up information in Numbers sheets on the right.
Keeping your files in sync is easier in Sierra, because your Desktop and Documents folders can by synced with iCloud Drive, so files stored there are available anywhere. Many people dump files onto the desktop to file at a later date, so syncing them is a useful way of making them available if you forget to sort them. After selecting the option to link the two locations to iCloud, the folders behave in the same manner as app-specific iCloud folders, so you see the cloud icon when uploading files to indicate that they’re being sent to the cloud, and a warning message will pop up when deleting files stored in them too.
A new feature ported from iOS is Picture-in-Picture mode, floating a video window above everything else. There’s limited support right now, with Vimeo and a few other video sites making full use of it. It’s useful, but not all that flexible in its current form.
The new Optimized Storage features is accessed using the About This Mac menu and then clicking on storage. It works by automatically deleting files from certain folders and locations to reclaim space. You can choose to move older photos and videos to iCloud, in addition to removing TV shows and movies that have already been watched. If you’re unsure of what to get rid of, Sierra also lets you review and delete files individually.