Macs at elevated levels
High Sierra preps up Apple computers for the future
Apple’s keeping us quite busy nowadays — Apple Watch Series 3, iPhone 8, iOS 11, everything iPhone X (shout-out to those who lined up early last Saturday as well) — so we’re going to make sure this time around we’ll keep it simple for another new roll-out from Cupertino’s Mount Olympus (of sorts).
The newest version of Apple’s operating system for its computers, macOS High Sierra, was announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
High Sierra is the biggest overhaul to macOS in recent memory, and from a bird’s eye view, it’s also Apple’s way of saying that they’re not just for the present, but also the future (iPhone X ring a bell?).
So, since this is another major update, we’ll try to make everything concise and with bull’s-eye precision as we discuss what’s new and improved in High Sierra, in no particular order. Just for fun and to serve as an ice-breaker, the ever-game senior vice-president of Apple software engineering, Craig Federighi, once again spiced things up at the WWDC when he revealed how his ‘crack team’ came up with a great name for the successor to Sierra.
Honestly, when I saw the video showing an illustration of Sierra getting elevated, I had quite an idea that the new name was just somewhere up there. Alright, let’s get more serious now. Since a computer is better at handling e-mails, we’ve figured to go with it first. Mail now has what’s called Top Hits, utilising Spotlight to search e-mails faster while plucking out the most relevant results and putting them right on top. The more you search in Mail, the more accurate Top Hits will be each time you search.
Full screen has also been bumped up — well, actually bumped sideways, so to speak — because opening an e-mail in that screen automatically pops up a new message window on the right using Split View, so don’t have to go back and forth or up and down or switch apps if you need anything from the original e-mail for your reply. Even more, High Sierra compresses all your e-mails; it has the ability to take 35 per cent less space for all of them. Open up Photos and you’ll see some new stuff on it, including an enhanced sidebar that now shows imports history, showing images you’ve put in your library listed by import date, and media types, so you can see pictures organised by parameters like bursts, panoramas, selfies, GIFs and Live Photos.
On the other side, you’ll see a selection counter, which shows you exactly how many files you’ve chosen, which in turn can be used with drag-and-drop to transfer them to an album on the sidebar or to the desktop where you can export them. Below that is a drop-down menu, which you can use to filter your files by, for example, Favorites — you can even create your own keywords with Keyword Manager.
If you want to make things look better, the rehashed Edit view now has a more complete set of tools you can use, plus new filters are also available. The External Editor, meanwhile, gives you access to third-party apps (Photoshop, anyone?); any edits you make will still be saved in Photos as a nondestructive layer. The Apple File System on High Sierra devices come with all-flash internal storage. In other words, it’s more accurate, more secure and more reliable. Period.
Expanding on that, native encryption is ever-present, meaning it’s built into the system’s foundation, with support for full-disk encryption in the new OS. Apple’s file systems — be it macOS or iOS — are, I’m told, are at the level of those used by banks, so that gives you the idea of how high its security is. The system’s extensible data structures also assures that it’s backward-compatible, even as new features are added. It also protects files more from crashes, featuring more protection against loss of data. Apple also introduced a new file-compression technology to keep up with the growing use of 4K video: HEVC — High Efficiency Video Coding, or H.265. The next-generation innovation offers lower bit rates compared to the current H.264, as well as improved quality. And with HEVC built-in in macOS and iOS 11, Apple says it’s the ‘next key media technology’ for them — a ‘major league’, as they termed it. Matter of factly, HEVC is now an industry standard and is seen in many other devices.
In a nutshell, HEVC dramatically reduces video sizes without compromising on quality — taking up to 40 per cent less space. Speaking of Safari, Apple has figured out a way to relieve you of those annoying ads you see everywhere related to a certain product you just browsed.
Here’s how it works: Safari, using machine learning, identifies advertisers and others who track your browsing behaviour. This time around, it automatically eliminates the cross-site tracking data trail they leave behind, which ensures that those ads won’t show up anywhere you go. Being the shoe nut that I am, I’ll be happy not to see those show ads haunting me after I’ve searched for them, especially in situations when I really want them, but they’re uber-expensive or I have no chance to actually cop a pair. Thank you for sparing me the torture, Apple.
In addition to that, there’s also an improvement in Content Blockers: if you have an app or extension that blocks third-party content like, say, ads on Web pages, you can choose which sites to use it on. And more browsing-in-peace, Safari now also automatically (togglable) stops those annoying Web videos and audio.
less space taken by video sizes using HeVC on macOs High sierra
Well, virtual reality is just waiting for its huge moment, ready to explode anywhere and everywhere. Apple already kick-started its mission with ARKit on iOS 11 — and macOS won’t be left behind.
High Sierra now has support for VR headsets; simply slap in a VR headset, launch the relevant app and you’re good to go (and fall to your virtual death). Warning: just remember you may end up in one of those ‘VR fail’ viral videos if something awry happens to you.
Anyway, there’s a specific headset ready on the fly for this, the HTC Vive VR. Just plug it in to make it available to VR-enabled development tools. You can use it to view and create VR content — even 360-degree videos on supported Mac models.
Of course, you can’t just take our word — actually, lots of words — here for it. The real deal is when you actually try out High Sierra on your Mac, and experience the new heights it takes you to.