When September and October roll around, you can expect three things;
cooler weather, footballs flying through the air, and a macOS upgrade. The upcoming version, titled macOS Catalina,
is a 64-bit operating system and will offer several new features that may find
their way into your workflow. But before
I touch on those, there are some important things to know before you upgrade.
The biggest change coming with Catalina (version 10.15) is that
the macOS will no longer support 32-bit apps. That means it’s possible that an app you use every day may not work with the
latest OS. And even though many of our
major software vendors, including Microsoft, Adobe, SMART, and Bomgar have said
that their software will work with Catalina, it’s critical that you make sure you
have latest versions of the apps on your computer to ensure compatibility.
To help facilitate a smooth transition to Catalina, the Technology Department will temporarily limit your ability to upgrade to Catalina. This will give us a short window in which to
test 10.15 in our environment. We will choose a small number of staff members to be in our test
group and give them access to Catalina. This will give the Technology Department some insight into the upgrade
process in our Barrington 220 environment and bring to light any roadblocks staff members
might face. We can then communicate to
all staff members what to expect during the upgrade process before opening it
up to everyone.
Once the upgrade is vetted, we will push the upgrade software
package to your computer in the background. That way when you’re ready to upgrade, the software will already be
downloaded and available on your Mac. The upgrade process could take as long as 30 minutes to complete, so we
recommend performing the upgrade at home after you have finished working on your laptop.
During your installation you may get a warning about any 32-bit
applications installed on your Mac that won’t work with Catalina. Please call x1500 or open a ticket by sending
an email to techsupport@barrington220.org with the name of the app(s) so we can
facilitate a remedy or discuss an alternative.
Once you’ve installed Catalina, here are a few of the new features
you can expect to see:
Sidecar
Sidecar will let you use your iPad as an external monitor and use a Logitech Crayon or Apple Pencil for annotating and drawing. Sidecar works either wired or wirelessly and in either extended
or mirrored desktop views.
iTunes Replaced with Multiple Apps
iTunes will no longer be a standalone app. Instead, all its
music functions will be covered by the Music app and all its video functions by the
Apple TV app. Podcasts also get a separate app, just like in iOS on the iPad.
Find My
Find Friends and Find My iPhone apps will be joined into one app called (somewhat curiously) "Find My."
Notes
The Notes app will have a new gallery view, shared folders, and more powerful
search.
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