Hands-On With macOS 10.14 Mojave: Dark Mode, Revamped Mac App Store, Desktop Stacks and More

[aevan]

Abridged version of the video:
•Dark Mode: We had that in the 90's in Mac OS 8. It was called Kaleidoscope, and it could do more.
•Stacks: Worthless is you have multiple formats/dates/ect. of files that all have to do with the same project. That's what we have folders for.
•Gallery View: It already exists. it's called Bridge, thumbnails, and coverflow.
•Quick Actions: Not really handy for real projects. Just rotating the image in preview mode doesn't really do anything turning your head doesn't already do. (Insert Anakin saying "I'll try spinning, that's a good trick." joke here)
•Screenshot: Nothing new here. We already have all these features. They just redecorated existing functions.
•Desktop iOS apps: Programs you didn't want or use, stuffed into your hard drive, taking up valuable space you can't afford to squander. Especially considering how much Apple reams you on the cost of a drive. And here I thought Windows was the OS that had the bloatware.
•New App Store: Oh goodie. They made a new way for you to give them your money.

Summation: They really had no new ideas this round. Really disappointing.

I don't see how having the first point is relevant, unless you use Macs from the 90's. I want that dark mode on my current Macs. And also, you're ignoring the part where it just looks ****ing beautiful.

As for the App Store, you're looking at it completely wrong. Developers have been asking for Mac App Store improvements ever since.... Mac App Store. The App Store is a way to get your app discovered, a way to distribute your app and a way for you to earn money as a developer - so that you actually get to make more apps. Want good apps on the Mac? This is one of the ways to do it. Not to mention they allow apps to access more of your Mac in a secure way, which is what brought BBEdit back. It's big. Finally, you missed the whole UIKit on Mac thing, which also has the potential to be huge.

As for the rest - talk about negativity. These are some genuine nice things. Nothing groundbreaking, but nice.

You should've summed your whole post into: I didn't like it.

 

[ikir]

Can't wait!

 

[Jim Lahey]

Dark mode is lush. I DEMAND that it comes to iOS.

 

[ikir]

Metal is here to replace them.

And it is much much faster

 

[Jim Lahey]

Abridged version of the video:
•Dark Mode: We had that in the 90's in Mac OS 8. It was called Kaleidoscope, and it could do more.
•Stacks: Worthless is you have multiple formats/dates/ect. of files that all have to do with the same project. That's what we have folders for.
•Gallery View: It already exists. it's called Bridge, thumbnails, and coverflow.
•Quick Actions: Not really handy for real projects. Just rotating the image in preview mode doesn't really do anything turning your head doesn't already do. (Insert Anakin saying "I'll try spinning, that's a good trick." joke here)
•Screenshot: Nothing new here. We already have all these features. They just redecorated existing functions.
•Desktop iOS apps: Programs you didn't want or use, stuffed into your hard drive, taking up valuable space you can't afford to squander. Especially considering how much Apple reams you on the cost of a drive. And here I thought Windows was the OS that had the bloatware.
•New App Store: Oh goodie. They made a new way for you to give them your money.

Summation: They really had no new ideas this round. Really disappointing.

Goodness. Some people just cannot be pleased. Did you want it to make you a cup of tea?

 

[pipis2010]

I think you guys are missing the most important announcement: iOS Apps coming to the Mac. Thus, if Metal is already supported in iOS, that means that the Mac users can potentially get hundreds of thousands of games and apps from next year onwards...So, if that happens, which Apple just paved the way for it to happen, why wouldn’t the likes of Pro companies also support Metal and transition their apps to it?

Rest Mojave features were not that important to my eyes to be included in a major OS upgrade, they could have included them in minor .1 updates, but that’s just my opinion.

 

[RodDavies]

Can I turn off Desktop Stacks?
I've long since learned how I want to keep things organized on my desktop and am unwilling to brook any interference with the right way to do things.


[doublepost=1528326086][/doublepost][doublepost=1528326048][/doublepost]
The announcement of auto-updating desktop backgrounds is not a good sign.

late to the party I know, I think you have to actually ENABLE them to use them, so if you don't enable, you don't have. You should be sweet.

 

[SteveW928]

I don't see how having the first point is relevant, unless you use Macs from the 90's. I want that dark mode on my current Macs. And also, you're ignoring the part where it just looks ****ing beautiful.

Yeah, I imagine everyone will like this... eventually. But, won't it be quite some time until all the apps you use also implement a 'dark' palette?

As for the App Store, you're looking at it completely wrong. Developers have been asking for Mac App Store improvements ever since.... Mac App Store. The App Store is a way to get your app discovered, a way to distribute your app and a way for you to earn money as a developer - so that you actually get to make more apps. Want good apps on the Mac? This is one of the ways to do it. Not to mention they allow apps to access more of your Mac in a secure way, which is what brought BBEdit back. It's big. Finally, you missed the whole UIKit on Mac thing, which also has the potential to be huge.

I'm not sure forcing everything through the app store is good though. Also, my understanding is that they made it more like iOS app store... which will that help? I think the iOS app store has gotten worse in the last couple iterations.

As for the rest - talk about negativity. These are some genuine nice things. Nothing groundbreaking, but nice.

My gripe here is about priority. It isn't so much that what they spent all that keynote time on is bad, just that most of it is stuff we should have eventually read about on some feature list. The time could have been better spent showing us new hardware (which I have to assume they didn't, because they didn't have it), or talking more about future direction, or ensuring us the Mac will be OK, etc.

A good chunk of it was like... I just wasted an hour or two I can't get back, kind of stuff.

And it is much much faster

Faster won't help if the apps don't implement it.

 

[hagar]

I'm disappointed Mail didn't get any love. Time to find an alternative.

Also, the screenshots and videos seem to indicate that dark mode loses its translucent sidebar in apps. But maybe it's just too subtle with the dark backgrounds.

 

[SteveW928]

I think you guys are missing the most important announcement: iOS Apps coming to the Mac. Thus, if Metal is already supported in iOS, that means that the Mac users can potentially get hundreds of thousands of games and apps from next year onwards...So, if that happens, which Apple just paved the way for it to happen, why wouldn’t the likes of Pro companies also support Metal and transition their apps to it?

That could be a blessing and curse. iOS apps aren't generally known for their UI consistency or being 'Mac-like'... though that is becoming kind of a lost art on macOS too.

Also, I'm assuming the kind of games people are worried about probably aren't on iOS anyway. Are most of the iOS games worth having on the Mac?

The real problem is all the pro apps and utilities that are unlikely to bother doing a re-write into Apple's proprietary system that have been using OpenGL/CL. We just got many of these companies back on the Mac!

I'm disappointed Mail didn't get any love. Time to find an alternative.

Give https://www.postbox-inc.com a look. It isn't as nice as Mail in some ways, but at least it works. And, it's pretty full-featured.

 

[tokajilover]

Looks great! Sad to see my 2011 MBP isn't supported.

same here! (my 17' mbp)

1) Mojave dosen't seem a real "upgrade" - just some design-changes
2) now, finely they (also only announced!) add apfs for fusion and more (i have a 2tb ssd-raid-0=) and can't still get high sierra

guess, we just have to swallow it

 

[Sefstah]

Was there a mention of dark mode in iOS 12? I really hope so

 

[Colonel Blimp]

Why bring in Microsoft? They have nothing to do with it. This is purely about APPLE wanting total control. APPLE are the ones using a single platform API.

Microsoft also use a single-platform API, in case you hadn't noticed. It's called Direct3D, and Microsoft refuse to license it to anyone else, because Microsoft want total control.

I brought in Microsoft because some folks on this thread have contrasted the sunny, open, freedom-loving world of Windows with the dark, closed, totalitarian world of Apple, without seeming to realize that Microsoft made the same decision 20 years ago.

It's the GPU manufacturers that have been paying engineers to provide OpenGL and now Vulkan for Windows, not Microsoft.

I'm not saying that there aren't any issues with Apple deprecating OpenGL. I am pointing out that for 20 years after Microsoft went all proprietary, Apple provided and maintained an open 3D graphics API that has grown increasingly long in the tooth, and now that Apple are putting it out to pasture, folks like you are bashing them for wanting total control. The irony.

As for Vulkan, Apple shipped Metal six months before Vulkan was even announced.

(Would I like to see Apple support Vulkan also? Certainly. But I know it's not realistic to expect Apple to want to maintain two 3D graphics APIs.)

 

[where is it]

Has anyone got a list of bugs?

Is the Beta stable?

It is very stable on the whole.

Bugs I've noticed so far:

HTML Tick boxes seem to disappear, they are there, you just can't see 'em - First noticed in Safari, but after a restart now effects Chrome.

Some system preference panels seem to cause the spinning beach ball after clicking through them, not always, but seems buggy.

Also, if you are prompted to install a printer driver in software update, don't, it'll screw up your printer driver. Easy to fix though, just download and install again.

Overall though, the new beta has been solid, no crashes at all and very productive.

 

[NightFox]

In the video there was a preview of the dynamic wallpaper with a slider changing between day to night - anyone know where I find that preview capability?

so did anyone get the dynamic wallpaper to work? I have enabled location services, restarted, but it won't change depending on the time of day.

Don't think it works in dark mode. Can't test right now though, but I'm sure someone will confirm/correct.

 

[xazac]

So... it appears that Apple is likely dumping OpenGL and OpenCL with Mojave, or shortly thereafter..... anyone else think this is a huge mistake?

This sounds like "Not supporting Flash Player is a huge mistake". R.I.P. Flash Player.

 

[Tygernoot]

This sounds like "Not supporting Flash Player is a huge mistake". R.I.P. Flash Player.

..where Apple pushed the move from a proprietary Flash Player to an open standard (HTML5), as opposed to now deprecating support for the existing standard (OpenGL), not supporting a new standard (Vulkan) and now moving to their proprietary API (Metal).

 

[Eagle_Eye]

Dark mode looks nice and all, but did they fix all the High Sierra bugs and problems? There's no need to upgrade any Mac if you cannot use it properly afterwards...

 

[RuffyYoshi]

If Apple moves MacOS to Metal, will future hackintoshes be impossible? I'm concerned.

 

[bollman]

Why is everyone so interested in dark mode? It looks strange, the ergonomics are broken.
It might be useful if you work in total darkness, but the clever solution is to work in a well lit room, which I sure hope most people do.
I tested it in the beta and found it stupid and immediately turned it off. It has zero use for 99% of the users, unless they want to look "cool". If you really need it now, just use "invert colors", available right now. That one even works better since webpages becomes dark too. Using dark mode mostly for web pages is horrible, a bright white page with menus and controls darkened so your eyes have to strain to see them. Not good at all.

 

[aeronatis]

To disable desktop stacks, simply right click on desktop and go to "Group stacks by" and select "None".

For me it was disable by default after the update. I had to manually enable it just so I could try, which changed nothing since my desktop was mostly clean.

As for the bugs, so far I only get a full black screen when I try to watch a video fullscreen on Safari. On Chrome, I have no such issue.

 

[gvanvoor]

"inspired" by the demands of the people.

If you're referring to dark mode, I'ld say inpsired by adobe illustrator

 

[asiga]

Did anybody try to run a 32bit app? Did they finally made it totally impossible to run 32bit apps?

 

[Spectrum]

What actually happens when you click on a desktop Stack?

 

[MacHiavelli]

Dumping OpenGL and the whole of Mojave are all about transitioning to ARM.