Software Reviews | The Verge

These are the macOS Sonoma features you should actually pay attention to

2023-10-04T10:54:23-04:00

This is Sonoma on the outside.

Around this time last year, I called macOS Ventura "a bunch of good updates you can mostly ignore." The year before, I said that macOS Monterey had "not impacted my life much." I'm starting to suspect that this is going to just be my life now as the person assigned to review new macOS releases.

You get, every so often, a Big Sur - something that drastically changes what it's like to look at and use a Mac computer. But most of the time, you're getting a giant grab bag of new features with little relevance to each other and no unifying theme.

This, the year of macOS Sonoma (or macOS 14, if you prefer numbers to names), is certainly one of …

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The Mac sure is starting to look like the iPhone

2023-07-12T15:47:15-04:00

It looks uncannily like my Lock Screen.

The general trend of macOS releases over the past few years is that it has been moving closer and closer to the look and feel of iOS. The icons have become iOS icons, and their shape has become the iOS shape, and you can now use your iPhone as the Mac's webcam, etc. etc. This occasionally comes at the expense of other functionality (ask me how I feel about the new Settings menu), but it is the direction that Apple has clearly been heading in since (arguably) Big Sur. Every so often, other splashy features are announced (Stage Manager, Universal Control, Quick Notes) that I write a lot about and then never end up using ever again.

So, good n …

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This is a quietly big year for the Apple TV and tvOS

2023-07-12T14:08:14-04:00

Apple today pushed out a slew of public betas across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS. But I'm here to tell you that you shouldn't sleep on the other new beta released today: it's for tvOS 17. After installing it, your first impression might be, "Hmmm… that's all?" There aren't any glaring interface changes or game-changing redesigns.

But the more you explore the Apple TV's latest software release, the clearer it becomes that this is one of the more significant updates Apple's streaming box has received in many years. It introduces FaceTime on the big screen. Control Center is so much better than before. And there are several new features th …

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In iPadOS 17, Apple fixed the worst thing about Stage Manager

2023-07-12T13:15:52-04:00

When Stage Manager first launched last year as part of iPadOS 16, I turned the setting off as fast as I could and never looked back. It was a half-hearted attempt to build a better multitasking system, with too many quirks and complications that all added up to more clutter and confusion on my iPad.

But this year is different. Ish. I've been using the iPadOS 17 beta for a while ahead of the public beta that's available today, and I have good news: Stage Manager feels much closer to the multitasking system Apple always said it was trying to build. It's still nowhere near perfect, and Stage Manager still interacts with apps and even other iP …

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The Arc browser is the Chrome replacement I’ve been waiting for

2022-11-17T09:00:00-05:00

Arc’s sidebar is much more than a bunch of vertical tabs. | Image: Arc / David Pierce

Switching to the Arc browser is hard. You should know that right up front. It's not that it's technically difficult: Arc has some simple tools for importing bookmarks, it runs the same underlying engine as Chrome, and the onboarding process is actually thoroughly delightful. It's just that Arc, the new browser from a startup called The Browser Company, is such a divergent idea about how browsers should work that it takes some time, and some real effort, to get used to.

The Browser Company's CEO, Josh Miller, talks a lot about operating systems and browsers. The difference is subtle but important. Browsers, traditionally, have mostly just tr …

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Apple macOS 13 Ventura review: a bunch of good updates you can mostly ignore

2022-10-27T09:00:00-04:00

Apple’s macOS 13 Ventura.

When I was reading over my macOS Monterey review in preparation for this one, I was struck by many features I thought I might end up using that I have not actually used.

I thought I might start using Shortcuts. I could see myself adopting Focus. I was sure I'd start tagging my notes. I thought I'd use Portrait Mode all the time. Tab Groups made me consider moving over to Safari. The new cards in Maps made Apple's navigation software very tempting to switch to. Spoiler alert: I am still very much using Google Maps and Chrome on a daily basis, and I have not touched any of the aforementioned features since. This does not mean I was dishonest …

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iPadOS 16’s Stage Manager is not the future of multitasking you were hoping for

2022-10-24T11:00:00-04:00

I do love my Stage Manager messaging command center. But even that would be better with better multitasking. | Image: Apple / David Pierce

There is really only one big idea inside of iPadOS 16. The new operating system comes with plenty of improvements and upgrades, of course - editable messages, a Weather app (finally), improvements to most of Apple's built-in apps, and some extremely clever new Live Text features - but most of that is already available on the iPhone through iOS 16. There's nothing wrong with an iterative update, of course, and by the time you hit version 16 of anything, you're not likely to be breaking much new ground.

Stage Manager, though, is an almost entirely new thing. It's the one feature in iPadOS 16 that has the actual potential to change the way you …

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Windows 11’s 2022 Update has something new for everyone

2022-09-20T13:00:00-04:00

Windows 11’s 2022 Update is available today. | Image: Microsoft

When Microsoft launched Windows 11 last year, it was clear the PC was back. PC usage had skyrocketed during the pandemic, and hybrid work had become the new normal for many around the world. But the new OS wasn't completely ready to capitalize on those changes - Windows 11 felt like a work in progress, a familiar home in the middle of a big renovation. Now, with the Windows 11 2022 Update, Microsoft is back to make those renovations feel more complete.

Microsoft has greatly improved Windows 11 over the past year to the point where updates feel like they're arriving monthly now. The Windows 11 2022 Update addresses a lot of the early complai …

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iOS 16 review: unlocking the lock screen

2022-09-13T11:45:00-04:00

The lock screen is the centerpiece of what iOS 16 brings to your iPhone. | Photo by David Pierce / The Verge

The story of iOS 16 is all the things that your phone does when you're not using it. Apple has been saying for years that we need a reset in our relationship with technology and that picking up our phones hundreds of times a day is not the right outcome. Apple, of course, is probably the company most to blame for that problem. And so, part of the idea with its new smartphone software is that there might be ways for your smartphone to be useful without you having to use it so much.

Like every year, this new version of iOS (which is available for the iPhone 8 and newer starting on September 12th) is filled with improvements and changes to pra …

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Apple macOS 12 Monterey review: the best is yet to come

2021-11-08T10:30:00-05:00

Downloading macOS Big Sur was a big change for me - visually, pragmatically, philosophically. It was the biggest macOS redesign we'd seen in years. And it was a new direction for the ecosystem in general; macOS looked and felt like iOS.

Downloading macOS Monterey, by contrast, has not impacted my life much. I installed the first beta over the summer, forgot that I was using it within a few days, and tried to download it again the following week. It looks like Big Sur, with some tweaks here and there. Many of them seem to be catch-up efforts, equipping Monterey with features that iOS (or competitors) already had. A few of the features are u …

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