MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Since macOS Sierra, Apple has included its well-known personal assistant, Siri, for the Mac. Siri for Mac differs from iOS' version of Siri in several ways, taking advantage of the larger real estate of a Mac's display and the Finder file system. Users can also easily transfer or pin Siri's search results to the Notification Center or documents they're working on. To help you get started with...

macOS Sierra is Apple's latest desktop operating system, which succeeds OS X El Capitan and adopts a new name to bring it in line with iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. The OS will come pre-installed on all new Macs once current stock is depleted and is a free download for existing Mac owners. The main new feature in macOS Sierra is deep Siri integration, bringing Apple's personal assistant to the...

Weather forecast app Dark Sky has expanded its services to the web, with a full-featured browser site that offers much of the main app's pinpoint-accurate weather predictions and data (via Wired). Dark Sky co-founder Adam Grossman said the reasoning behind introducing a desktop site for Dark Sky was for people who preferred not to take out their phone when sitting at their computer, but still...

Following Dropbox-related security concerns that surfaced earlier this month, developer Phil Stokes has confirmed that macOS Sierra now explicitly requires apps to ask for user permission to access Accessibility (via Daring Fireball). Users can give access to an app, or click "not now" to deny the request. Concerns were raised after it was demonstrated that Dropbox appears in System...

With macOS Sierra, Apple is aiming to make it easier to access all of your content across multiple devices, expanding iCloud Drive to encompass the desktop and documents folder of every Mac. This feature puts all of the files stored either on the desktop or in the documents folder in iCloud, making them available on iOS devices, Macs, and iCloud.com for easy access to your most recent files...

One of the new features in macOS Sierra is tabbed windows throughout the operating system, bringing a feature that was once limited to Safari to all Mac apps, first and third party. In apps like Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, when you work with multiple documents, there's now an option to organize them into separate tabs instead of separate windows. This feature is available in most first-party...

Starting with macOS Sierra, Apple introduced an "Auto Unlock" feature that makes it easier for Apple Watch owners to unlock their Macs, with the Apple Watch being used for authentication purposes instead of a traditional password. It's a feature that's limited to more recent Macs so it's not going to work on some older machines, but when it is available, Auto Unlock is a super useful option...

With macOS Sierra, users can can float a video window from Safari or iTunes over the desktop or an app thanks to a new picture-in-picture mode. The feature enables Mac users to play a video in any one of the four corners of the desktop and resize it to see more or less of the window behind it. The video remains pinned above the desktop and apps, including in full-screen mode and split view,...

One of the simpler updates arriving in macOS Sierra is an overhauled experience for both Photos and Messages, bringing each app closer to their newly-updated iOS 10 counterparts. For Messages, that means users will now be able to use the Mac version of the app to send and receive rich links and Tapback messages, along with larger emoji characters when three or fewer are sent in a message....

New in macOS Sierra and iOS 10 is a Universal Clipboard feature that makes it much easier to transfer links, text, photos, and more between different devices. With Universal Clipboard, you can copy something on your Mac and paste it on your iPhone, or vice versa. It's already been possible to open up web pages across multiple devices, but now that functionality has been extended further. With...

Apple today updated its macOS Server Mac app with a collection of new features in Version 5.2 that bring integration with Apple School Manager, various streamlining updates to the Setup Assistant of some apps, and security restrictions for new macOS features like auto-unlock with Apple Watch. Specifically, macOS Server users can now choose to skip the new Siri Setup Assistant in Sierra, as...

Apple released macOS Sierra today with Safari 10 preinstalled, but Mac users still running the latest versions of OS X El Capitan or OS X Yosemite can now download the all-new version of the web browser too from the Mac App Store. Safari 10 for OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan does not include all of the new features available in macOS Sierra, like Apple Pay on the web and picture-in-picture...

macOS Sierra, available today, includes a built-in storage optimization feature that's designed to free up storage space on a Mac by storing rarely used files in iCloud, regularly emptying the trash, removing unnecessary files, and more. It's a handy feature that can give you a good amount of additional storage space with a set of tools that you normally had to download a third-party storage...

With the release of macOS Sierra today, Apple also updated its line of iWork apps, including Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. The new update for each app introduces the same real-time collaboration feature, in beta form, brought to the iOS versions of each app last week. Using real-time collaboration, users are able to edit one document in any iWork app simultaneously, no matter if they're using a ...

macOS Sierra and iOS 10 both include a new Continuity feature that allows Apple Pay to be used to make purchases on the web using Safari, giving Apple users an alternative to other web-based payment services like PayPal. On Macs, Apple Pay for the web requires an iPhone with Touch ID and Apple Pay support or an Apple Watch, as payments are authenticated through the phone or watch. Apple Pay on ...

Following the release of macOS Sierra moments ago, Tweetbot for Mac has been updated with support for the latest operating system. The update also includes support for extended tweets, uploading videos up to 140 seconds long to Twitter, and better media previews for search results. In terms of extended tweets, Twitter no longer counts photos, videos, GIFs, polls, and quote tweets towards its...

Apple has announced its all-new store in Birmingham, England, located at 128 New Street, opens on Saturday, September 24 at 9:00 a.m. local time. Apple's nearby Bullring Shopping Centre store will permanently close on Friday, just one week after customers lined up for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Apple Birmingham under renovations via MacRumors reader Barry Rimmer Apple has taken over a...

Norway-based company Opera Software has brought its VPN feature to the masses with the release of Opera 40 desktop browser for Mac. For those unfamiliar with the technology, a VPN creates an encrypted tunnel from the user's computer to the VPN server, which hides browsing activity from other users on the local network and enhances security and privacy online. It shields a user's real IP...