How macOS Sequoia can help you at work

Along with iOS 18, Apple today is releasing macOS Sequoia, iPadOS 18, and the latest update to watchOS. (Apple Intelligence, which isn’t expected to begin to appear until next month, has gotten a lot of attention, but the pre-AI versions of these operating systems offer plenty of useful features and updates.)

Focusing today on macOS Sequoia, should you upgrade immediately? That depends. 

There are good things to tempt you, but you might need to wait — particularly if third-party services or applications you use (especially higher-end apps) don’t yet support the new OS.

If Apple Intelligence is the thing you’re most interested in, there’s no need to rush, since those tools won’t available until October in some countries, and next year in others. Global launch (including in Europe) will follow. Apple will also let Mac admins manage access to the service.

So, what’s Sequoia got to make you swoon if you ignore Apple Intelligence?

iOS, Mac, and iPhone: S.W.A.L.K.

What may turn out to be one of the most useful productivity-enhancing features in Sequoia is the increased integration between the Mac and iPhone. While EU customers won’t get this feature yet, iPhone Mirroring lets you use your iPhone on your Mac in a compact mini window. This lets you interact with iPhone apps via your Mac, and also lets you drag-&-drop files between the devices (though, that feature won’t debut until later this year). I think this could get really interesting if you use an iPad and a second Mac, too, as the implication is that you’ll be able to move files and folders around between the machines to your heart’s content in a quite focused way.

A second integration means notifications received on your iPhone can also appear on your Mac. 

Manage busy desktops

Dragging a window to the edge of the screen will automatically place that window in a tile in the main window. This works across multiple windows, making it much easier to parse information from numerous websites and applications in one clear to the eye view. You can shift windows around, if you like.

Apple

Solving the eternal presentation headache

If you use Webex, Zoom, or even FaceTime, Sequoia will show you a view of what will be made visible to other meeting attendees when they share their screen before they actually share it. If you’ve ever unexpectedly needed to share a document during a meeting while other confidential items are open on your Mac, you’ll recognize what a small but handy improvement this is.

Even experienced Zoom hosts can’t help but exhale a little when they share their screen, as this is never quite as certain as you need for comfort. Now, it is.

Safari redesigned to get web clutter out of your way

Safari is smarter than before. You’ll be able to read page summaries or gather together links at the touch of a button. Reader view has been improved with a variety of features, including auto-generated table of contents to make navigating complex pages much easier. If a page features video, Safari will either open the clip in a big window or pop it inside a smaller pop-up window if you decide to navigate to another site while leaving the original site window open.

Finally, Safari will let you hide distracting items such as subscription pop-ups from view when you visit a site. 

Notes, Reminders, and Calendar

Just as on the iPhone, Mac users can expect audio transcription and summarization features in Notes when Apple Intelligence appears. The app has also become more capable, with collapsible section headers and different text and highlight colors. Finally, if you record a call taken on your iPhone, a transcript will be created that can also sync with Notes on your Mac.

Calendar and Reminders work more smoothly now, with Reminder tasks showing up in Calendar and a Month view that lets you see both Calendar and Reminder entries at a glance.

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The Password application

Apple’s all-new Password application is a new skin on Keychain, making the information — passwords, passkeys, Wi-Fi passwords — much more accessible and usable than before. The app uses iCloud to sync across all your logged-in Apple devices (and Windows hardware using the iCloud for Windows application).

Better collaboration tools

Freeform remains a really useful collaborative space where teams can work on ideas together from whatever Apple device they happen to use. On the Mac, the latest iteration includes a new diagramming mode to connect different objects and usability improvements when moving around a large board using a mouse.

Some Siri intelligence

Kick the system around and you’ll find a new accessibility tool that lets you make custom voice commands to invoke Shortcuts. You might use this to set up a tool that lets you ask Siri to create a PDF from what you are reading on a Mac, for example. You can find these options in System Settings>Accessibility>Vocal Shortcuts.

Smaller, useful tweaks

A handful of additional system tweaks wipe old annoyances away. You can schedule when messages are sent, for example. Another change allows you to install larger applications (more than 1GB) on external drives, subject to some restrictions. You also won’t need to have double the amount of space for an app on your drive to install it. 

In addition:

An updated Calculator application lets you see mathematical expressions and previous calculations, and integrates with Notes to create what Apple calls Math Notes. The latter is essentially a way to do algebraic equations on your Mac. 

There’s a new Keep Downloaded option that will ensure a local copy of a file is kept on your Mac rather than being stored in iCloud.

One more thing? 

Apple has shipped a Chess application with Macs for decades. Yet the last time this got updated was with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther — 20 years ago. The historically important game, probably included in the Mac because Steve Jobs liked Chess so much, clearly isn’t on Apple’s speedy upgrade cycle. In Sequoia, it finally gets a makeover with new graphics, though sadly without a 3D or Kriegspiel mode.

Which Macs does macOS Sequoia work with?

If you ignore Apple Intelligence, the new Mac operating system is compatible with the following devices:

MacBook Pro (2018 and later).

MacBook Air (2020 and later). 

Mac mini (2018 and later).

iMac (2019 and later). 

iMac Pro (2017 and later). 

Mac Pro (2019 and later). 

Mac Studio (2022 and later).

The problem is that not all of the above devices support Apple Intelligence. To use Apple Intelligence, you need to be working with a Mac running an M1 or later Apple Silicon chip. No Intel Macs will run Apple Intelligence.

Finally, on security — once macOS Sequoia is available, it will be the only version to receive full security updates in the next 12 months. The two most recent versions (Sonoma and Ventura) will get some updates, but Monterey and earlier versions will get none. This means that if you rely on Macs, it’s worth ensuring you know which machines you run, what version of the OS they use, and what data they have access to.

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