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Apple unveils macOS 10.14 Mojave with dark mode, Home app, new App Store, more

At its WWDC 2018 keynote, Apple has officially unveiled macOS 10.14 Mojave. The update will be available later this year to Mac users and includes new features, interface tweaks, and more. Head below for all of the details…

Tim Cook kicked things off by saying that Apple “loves the Mac” as it puts the customer “at the center of the experience.” macOS 10.14 is “chockfull of new features inspired by new features, but designed for everyone.”

  • Dark mode extends throughout the entire interface, including apps such as photos, Finder, Calendar, Mail, iTunes, Messages, Xcode, Pages, and more
  • Wallpaper changes dynamically in dark mode
  • A new Dynamic Desktop feature makes your desktop subtly change through the day
  • Desktop Stacks make organizing your desktop easier, atomically arranging files on the desktop by tag, date, type, and more. Auto organized and new files automatically go into their respective stacks
  • Can scrub files inside stack with a mouse over
  • Finder includes new Gallery view with a big preview window and scroll bar along the bottom
  • A new side bar shows full metadata and includes quick actions like routing, markup, and more.
  • Side bar is contextual and changes based on file type, such as PDF, images, and documents
  • Automator actions in the quick actions menu let you make custom buttons for side bar, such as watermarking a PDF
  • Quick Look, which appears when you tap the spacebar on a file, is now more expansive with features such as markup, crop, and rotate, and trim videos
  • When you screenshot, a new thumbnail in the lower-right corner will popup with markup options, save, delete, and share
  • New on-screen controls for choosing a screenshotting tools, including vide option
  • Continuity Camera – Capture a photo or video on your iPhone and it will appear on Mac. Capture is initiated from Mac. Can also scan documents and immediately appear on Mac
  • New apps: Stocks app for Mac, Apple News app for Mac, Voice Memos
  • New Home app for controlling HomeKit, Siri on Mac also now supports HomeKit control
  • Security and privacy enhancements – Greater protection about how apps handle your data, including Camera, Microphone, and sensitive parts of the file system such as mail, messages, and backups
  • Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.0
  • Safari – Can disable social buttons such as like and share, as well as comment sections. This is opt-in and disabled by default
  • Fingerprinting – Mojave makes it harder for for tracking based on system information by only showing simplified system information, makes it “dramatically” more difficult for tracking
  • Revamped Mac App Store – Redesigned interface similar to iOS with focus on curation, new sidebar for moving throughout categories.
  • Mac App Store includes dedicated tabs for Discover, Create, Work, Play, and Develop. Video previews
  • New developers bringing apps to Mac App Store: Office 365, Panic Transmit, Barebones BB Edit, Lightroom CC
  • Metal GPU offers speed improvements of more than 20x
  • Create ML makes training machine learning models much quicker for developers
  • “Are you merging macOS and iOS? No. We love the Mac”
  • Support for cross-platform applications in testing, Apple beginning with Stocks, Apple News, Home
  • Apple gives a sneak peek at multi-year project to bring UIKit iOS apps to the Mac

Be sure to stay tuned to our continually updating news hub for all of the latest news out of WWDC 2018.

San Jose, California — Apple today previewed macOS Mojave, the latest version of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, with new features inspired by pros but designed for everyone. In macOS Mojave, a new Dark Mode transforms the desktop with a dramatic new look that puts the focus on user content. The new Stacks feature organizes messy desktops by automatically stacking files into neat groups. Familiar iOS apps, including News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home, are now available on the Mac for the first time. FaceTime now adds support for group calling, and the Mac App Store gets a full redesign featuring rich editorial content and the addition of apps from top developers, including Microsoft, Adobe and others.
“macOS Mojave is a major update that introduces powerful new features for a wide range of Mac users, from consumers to pros,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Dark Mode brings a dramatic new look to macOS that puts your content front and center, familiar iOS apps come to the Mac for the first time and the redesigned Mac App Store makes finding new apps easier and more enjoyable than ever.”
Dark Mode
Screen shot of a Mac screen featuring the new Dark Mode setting

Dark Mode transforms the Mac desktop with a dramatic darkened color scheme where content pops and controls recede into the background.
macOS Mojave users can switch to Dark Mode to transform their desktop to a darkened color scheme, putting the focus on user content while controls recede into the background. Users can toggle between a light and dark desktop, and built-in Mac apps like Mail, Messages, Maps, Calendar and Photos all include Dark Mode designs. macOS Mojave also features a new Dynamic Desktop that automatically changes the desktop picture to match the time of day. An API is available so developers can implement Dark Mode in their apps.
Desktop and Finder
MacBook showing icon layout on Apple desktop

Stacks instantly organizes even the messiest of desktops by automatically organizing files into neat groups.
Stacks for the desktop can organize even the most cluttered of desktops by automatically stacking files into neat groups based on file type. Users can customize their Stacks to sort based on other file attributes like date and tags. Finder also gets a significant update in macOS Mojave with an all-new Gallery View that lets users skim through files visually. The Preview Pane now shows all of a file’s metadata, making it easier to manage media assets. Quick Actions allow users to do things like create and password-protect PDFs and run custom Automator Actions on files right from Finder. Quick Look provides a fast, full-size preview of a file, allowing users to rotate and crop images, mark up PDFs and trim video and audio clips without ever opening an app.
News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home
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Image of the new Apple News desktop widget

News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home apps are available on Mac for the first time.
Image of the new Apple Voice Memos desktop widget

News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home apps are available on Mac for the first time.
Image of the new Apple Home desktop widget

News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home apps are available on Mac for the first time.
Image of the new Apple Voice Memos desktop widget

News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home apps are available on Mac for the first time.
News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home apps are available on Mac for the first time. News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home apps are available on Mac for the first time. News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home apps are available on Mac for the first time. News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home apps are available on Mac for the first time.
In macOS Mojave, handy apps including News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home are now available on Mac for the first time. In the News app, articles, photos and videos look great on the Mac display and users can follow their favorite publications from one app. With Home, Mac users can control their HomeKit-enabled accessories to do things like turn lights off and on or adjust thermostat settings without ever having to step away from their computer. Voice Memos makes it easy to record personal notes, lectures, meetings, interviews and song ideas, and access them from iPhone, iPad or Mac. Stocks delivers curated market news alongside a personalized watchlist, complete with quotes and interactive charts.
Group FaceTime
Demo of multiway FaceTime application on MacBook

Group FaceTime makes it possible to chat with multiple people at once and participant views are resized based on how active they are.
Group FaceTime makes it easy to chat with multiple people at the same time. Participants can be added at any time, join later if the conversation is still active and choose to join using video or audio from an iPhone, iPad or Mac — or even participate using FaceTime audio from Apple Watch.
All-New Mac App Store
Demo image of the new Mac App Store

The Mac App Store is completely redesigned and features rich editorial content and new tabs for easier app discovery.
Since its launch in 2011, the Mac App Store has transformed the way users download and install software for the Mac, and today it remains the single largest catalog of Mac apps in the world. In macOS Mojave, the Mac App Store gets a complete redesign with a new look and rich editorial content that makes it easy to find the right Mac app. The new design highlights new and updated apps in the Discover tab, while tabs for Create, Work, Play and Develop help users find apps for a specific project or purpose. A number of apps from top developers are also coming soon to the Mac App Store, including Office from Microsoft, Lightroom CC from Adobe and more. As always, users can download apps from the Mac App Store with confidence that Apple has approved them for safety and security.
Privacy and Security

As with all Apple software updates, enhanced privacy and security remain a top priority in macOS Mojave. In Safari, enhanced Intelligent Tracking Prevention helps block social media “Like” or “Share” buttons and comment widgets from tracking users without permission. Safari now also presents simplified system information when users browse the web, preventing them from being tracked based on their system configuration. Safari now also automatically creates, autofills and stores strong passwords when users create new online accounts and flags reused passwords so users can change them. New data protections require apps to get user permission before using the Mac camera and microphone or accessing personal data like user Mail history and Messages database.
Sneak Peek of Developer Framework for Mac Apps

The News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home apps were brought to Mac using iOS frameworks that have been adapted to macOS. Starting in late 2019, these additional frameworks will make it easier for developers to bring their iOS apps to macOS — providing new opportunities for developers and creating more apps for Mac users to enjoy.
Other New Features
Screenshots deliver new on-screen controls for easy access to every screenshot option and new video recording capabilities. A streamlined workflow enables easy screenshot sharing without cluttering the desktop.
Continuity Camera allows Mac users to take a picture or scan a document nearby with their iPhone or iPad and have it appear instantly on their Mac.
Markup tools are now integrated into Finder, Quick Look and Screenshots, making it fast and efficient to add comments to content and share with others.


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Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

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