EVERYTHING ELSE
Accessibility, Finder, Game Center, Books, and more
Most laptop models gain an optional new Low Power Mode, to reduce display brightness and slow hardware clock speed when needed to prolong the battery. Should you want to remove all personal data, for example when selling or passing your Mac on, there’s a new option to Erase all contents and settings, while keeping the current installed System volume. On M1 and Intel Macs with T2 chips this doesn’t need to erase anything, but destroys the encryption keys for the current Data volume instead, which is even better.
There are several Accessibility improvements. Markup is a way to add persistent image descriptions which are read by VoiceOver; these persist when that image is shared with other devices including Macs. VoiceOver can also read custom descriptions added to signatures so you can choose the right one for a PDF document. Voice Control gains support for several new languages, including French, German and Chinese, as does Siri. An addition to contextual menus is the instant translation of selected text.
Keyboard shortcuts are expanded so you can control everything from your keyboard, and don’t need to use a mouse or trackpad. You can also customize the appearance of the pointer to make it easier to spot when it moves or changes type to an insertion point, crosshair, and other forms. Memoji have been extended with additional customizations, including a helmet for headgear.
The Finder gains all the benefits of running suitable shortcuts, which can be launched from the Touch Bar, the main menu bar, and in Quick Actions. This makes it simple to apply batch actions to convert or rename hundreds of files such as images, without having to open them in an app. There’s a new folder in the sidebar of Finder windows containing docs shared in iCloud, which shows info about their status such as the identity of the last person to change a file.
To work better with secondary displays including iPads, the Finder now resizes windows which are moved between multiple displays, and Split View management is improved. The standard file copy progress indicator changes from a bar to a pie chart, and gains pause and resume controls.
Game Center makes it easier to play with friends, with a new friend request inbox, and integration with Messages in a multiplayer friend selector. You can save a clip of the last 15 seconds of gameplay using the Share button on some controllers, and new games are automatically added to a folder in Launchpad, making them accessible with a controller.
Object Capture is an innovative new technology which will soon be
supported by apps which use it to construct realistic 3D objects from a series of photos. Although Monterey doesn’t ship with an app to use this, there are several expected in the coming months.
Books has been redesigned and its search improved. Find My has a widget, and can now get an approximate location for AirPods Pro or Mac so you can get within Bluetooth range, and has streaming updates to the locations of family and friends to give better sense of their movement. Finally, Reminders gains the tag features introduced in Notes, and more.