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macOS Sierra - What you need to know about the new Mac operating system

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Apple's latest Mac operating system, macOS Sierra, comes in the fall 2016. It includes features like auto unlocking via Apple Watch and Siri integration. macOS Sierra will run on the following Macs:

2010 AND LATER 2009 AND LATER
  • MacBook Air

  • MacBook Pro

  • Mac mini

  • Mac Pro

  • iMac

  • MacBook

What's New in macOS Sierra

  • Siri integration
  • Auto unlocking w/ Apple Watch
  • Apple Pay for web
  • Revamped Apple Music app
  • New storage optimization
  • New file system w/ native encryption
  • "Memories" tab in Photos
  • Cross-device copy and paste

The main new feature in macOS Sierra is Siri integration, bringing Apple's personal assistant to the Mac for the first time. Siri offers many of the same capabilities available on iOS, along with Mac-specific functionality like the ability to search through documents to quickly find files. There's also an option to pin Siri search results to the Today section of the Notification Center or to add them to documents to provide up to date information at a glance. Siri can also do things like search through Photos, set reminders, initiate FaceTime calls, and more.

In Photos, computer vision and new deep learning algorithms allow the app to recognize people, places, and things in images using facial, object, and scene recognition, using the information to group images into intelligent collections and enable powerful search capabilities. A new "Memories" tab creates curated collections of past photos to resurface old memories, and there's a new "Places" album for displaying all photos on a world map.

Messages has rich links for previewing web content and watching video clips directly within the app, and it supports iOS 10 sister features like bigger emoji and "Tapback" options for quickly responding to messages with icons like a heart or a thumbs up. In iTunes, Apple Music is redesigned with a bolder look and a simpler interface to improve music discovery.

Continuity features are expanding in macOS Sierra with the introduction of a new "Auto Unlock" option for Apple Watch owners. When an authenticated and unlocked Apple Watch is in close proximity to a Mac, it unlocks automatically without the need to enter a password. Also new on the Continuity front is Universal Clipboard, a feature for copying something on one Apple device and pasting it on another.

Deeper iCloud integration makes all of the files stored on the desktop or the documents folder of a Mac available on all of a user's devices, including other Macs, the iPhone and the iPad through the iCloud Drive app, and the web through iCloud.com.

All Mac apps, first and third-party, are able to use multiple tabs in macOS Sierra, so in apps like Pages, users work with multiple tabs instead of multiple windows when accessing more than one document.Picture in Picture multitasking is also new in the OS, allowing users to watch a video while doing other things.

Apple is introducing a new Apple File System (APFS) built around SSDs and engineered with native encryption as a primary feature. There's also a new Optimized Storage feature that frees up space on a Mac when storage is getting low.

Along with iOS 10, macOS Sierra supports Apple Pay in the web browser, letting users pay for purchases made on the web with Apple Pay. Payments are authenticated through a connected iPhone using Touch ID or an unlocked Apple Watch.

>> Which is the better desktop OS: macOS Sierra or Windows 10?

The macOS name

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Every year, Apple introduces a new version of OS X, but 2016 the latest version got a new name. If you upgrade OS X 10.11 El Capitan to version 10.12, you are upgrade to macOS Sierra, not OS X. Apple decide to change the name in order to fit with the names of iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. So no more Roman numerals (or that annoying person who insists on calling it “OS ex”).

Some trivia, if you’re interested: macOS isn’t entirely a new name. Before version 10, Apple used to call its Mac operating system Mac OS, with the last version being Mac OS 9. Apple change the name to OS X when version 10 was released in 2001.

But don’t get it twisted. This is still OS X. Just with a name that makes more sense.

Siri comes to the Mac

siri-comes-to-mac

The biggest feature coming to macOS Sierra is that Siri is now on the Mac. Siri launched on iOS back in 2011, and five years later Apple’s virtual assistant is infused in all parts of the Apple ecosystem. It’s a huge part of the new Apple TV and a major part of Apple Watch. It’s actually surprising that it has taken this long for Siri to come to the desktop.

There will be a Siri icon in the dock. Clicking on it activates Siri. You can use it as you would with your iPhone, like say, if you need directions, are trying to find a nearby restaurant, or want information on a topic.

You can also use it to find files on your Mac. For example, you can tell Siri to find all the files with with word “report” in it, and Siri will list those files.

Siri also lets you work with other Apple apps. You can take Siri results for, say, an image, and then drag and drop the image into a Keynote presentation. You can have Siri find a location in Maps, and then drag the location into an email.

Apple has not announced a third-party API for macOS Siri, so Siri may not work with third-party Mac apps.

Apple Pay comes to the Mac

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When you’re shopping online and you see an Apple Pay button, you can click on it to use Apple Pay to pay for it. You still need your iPhone, however. Apple Pay on the Mac uses the iPhone’s Touch ID to verify your purchase; you can also press your Apple Watch side button twice.

What are the other new features?

Auto Unlock Sick of typing in your password to unlock your Mac? If you have an Apple Watch, you can use Auto Unlock. When you want to unlock your Mac, Auto Unlock senses your Apple Watch and instantly grants you access to your Mac.

iCloud Drive Desktop access Mac users often use the Desktop as a place to save files. If you use multiple Macs, macOS Sierra will allow iCloud Drive access to those desktop files on a specific Mac. This feature will also allow iOS devices to access those Desktop files.

Optimized Storage Apple, for the most part, has phased out hard drives in its Macs in favor of flash storage. But in order to keep costs down, flash storage capacities aren’t as spacious. With Optimized Storage, older files are kept in the cloud to free up local storage space. The feature also gets rid of files that you will never use again. During the keynote, Federighi showed a Mac with 20GB of free storage space; after running Optimized Storage, the amount of free space expanded to 150GB.

Picture in Picture If you’re watching a web video, you can pull it out into its own stand-alone window. When you switch to another app window, the video window stays on top.

Tabs Tabs are now built into every window of the operating system to help keep down the screen clutter. Tabs can also be used by third-party apps.

Universal Clipboard A clipboard that is accessible by any Apple device. Cut or copy on your iPhone and you can paste on your Mac.

NOTE: The new features of mac OS Sierra originally published on http://www.pcmag.com, www.macworld.com, www.macrumors.com, https://blog.conradchavez.com and other sites, Brorsoft Studio just integrated the information from those sites and provided recommendations that were useful.

Compatible Apps: DVD Ripper & Blu-ray Ripper

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Now that macOS 10.12 Sierra has been announced, you’re probably wondering whether your DVD Ripper & Blu-ray Ripper will work in the new Mac operating system.

statement: All the Brorsoft software will be free upgrade for lifttime, even the trail version will be upgrade to have the same functions and compatiblity with retail version.

For users, have installed the trial version of Brorsoft DVD Ripper for mac / Brorsoft Blu-ray Ripper for mac, you can vist Brorsoft website for the latest version which compatible with latest macOS Sierra.

For users, have purchased the retail version Brorsoft DVD Ripper for mac / Brorsoft Blu-ray Ripper for mac, you can free update to the latest version so that the ripping tool work well with macOS Sierra.

dvd-ripper-blu-ray-riper-imedia-converter

An easy-to-use multimedia tool to convert video content from DVDs/Blu-rays and other video sources to and from virtually any formats.learn-more

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