macOS 12: All the little things!

[ArPe]

Does anyone have a screenshot of the pie chart progress bar when copying or moving files in finder? Is it similar to iPadOS 15 new progress pie chart?

What happens when you click it?

The pie chart is in the side bar showing copying to destination drive.

 

[adrianlondon]

Is it still possible to disable loading remote content in Mail? How do the new privacy settings look like?

If you turn on the new privacy settings, then all images are automatically downloaded (to Apple's servers, in the background, even if you never open the email). If you turn this new option off, then you get access to two sub-options. One is to hide the IP address and one is to block all remote content by default.

That latter option works exactly the same as it did previously.

I'm probably going to stick with having the two sub-options enabled as I don't like the idea of Apple automatically validating my email address to every spammer that sends me a mail with a tracking pixel, which I'd typically delete without opening (or open but with all remote content disabled).

 

[n-evo]

Totally agree. The big changes since Mac OS X was released have been:

Leopard (2007)
Lion (2011)
Yosemite (2014)
Big Sur (2020)

Having said that there's more in terms of new features in Monterey than say Mountain Lion or High Sierra - all the FaceTime stuff, redesigned Safari, Shortcuts and Quick Notes to name a few.

There's also still a lot of low hanging fruit for macOS such as the antiquated LaunchPad and just general window management which could be so much better, hopefully these will be addressed over the next few releases.

Mac OS X 10.3 Panther actually introduced the first big Aqua overhaul.

 

[thunderw]

Siri get a new icon.

 

[FNH15]

Another nice little aspect of low power mode - it can be set to be power-state dependent. There are independent settings for the battery & power adapter. Nice little touch.

 

[vaugha]

Another nice little aspect of low power mode - it can be set to be power-state dependent. There are independent settings for the battery & power adapter. Nice little touch.

Can you please post sceenies for your descriptions? Trying to understand how they are different.

 

[thunderw]

PHP is completely removed.

 

[Kung gu]

new command line commands for Terminal.

aea
automationmodetool
clangd
codecctl
dyld_info
networkQuality
pythonwrapper
shortcuts
syscapturediags
umtool
xctrace

This is my favourite one: networkQuality

This is a builtin speedtest for your internet speed for terminal.
Works great

 

[Kung gu]

Can you please post sceenies for your descriptions? Trying to understand how they are different.

When Low power mode is turned on when on battery you will get longer battery life.

When Low power mode is turned when plugged in the Mac will charge faster because the Mac is using less power
so the battery gets to charge quicker.

 

[FNH15]

Can you please post sceenies for your descriptions? Trying to understand how they are different.

Yes, my battery needs service - pretty disappointing on a 2018 MacBook Pro...

 

[vaugha]

When Low power mode is turned on when on battery you will get longer battery life.

When Low power mode is turned when plugged in the Mac will charge faster because the Mac is using less power
so the battery gets to charge quicker.
View attachment 1793890
View attachment 1793892

Thanks. So if my mac is unplugged w/ low power mode on and I plug it in, does it turn off the low power mode if I don't have low power mode in power adapter tab ticked? Or does enabling low power mode in either battery or power adapter tab enable the other automatically? Conversely if my mac is plugged in w/ low power mode on and I unplug my mac, then does it turn off the low power mode if I don't have the low power mode ticked in battery tab?

It's confusing how this will work when there're 2 different scenarios of a low power mode that operates independently depending on plugged vs unplugged.

 

[Kung gu]

Thanks. So if my mac is unplugged w/ low power mode on and I plug it in, does it turn off the low power mode if I don't have low power mode in power adapter tab ticked? Or does enabling low power mode in either battery or power adapter tab enable the other automatically? Conversely if my mac is plugged in w/ low power mode on and I unplug my mac, then does it turn off the low power mode if I don't have the low power mode ticked in battery tab?

It's confusing how this will work when there're 2 different scenarios of a low power mode that operates independently depending on plugged vs unplugged.

You can leave both options on at the same time. Each option will work depending on if your Mac is plugged or unplugged.

Or you can have 1 just one option turned on at a time.

 

[Diskutant]

new command line commands for Terminal.

aea
automationmodetool
clangd
codecctl
dyld_info
networkQuality
pythonwrapper
shortcuts
syscapturediags
umtool
xctrace

Interesting! Any more info on what those are doing? I can guess some, but I have no what aea and umtool are.

 

[ErikGrim]

• aea creates and manipulates Apple Encrypted Archives (AEA)
• automationmodetool can be used to install and remove a file indicating to the system that UI automation mode can be enabled without user authentication. This is useful for configuring machines in continuous integration (CI) environments as well as those in labs where the active users do not have administrator privileges. Running the tool for this purpose requires the current user to authenticate in the shell and to be an administrator. If no argument is passed, the tool prints the current status of UI automation (enabled or disabled) and exits
• The dyld_info tool will display information that dyld uses from binaries. It supports fixups information encoded as opcode based or as chained fixups.
• networkQuality allows for measuring the different aspects of Network Quality, including:
  • Maximal capacity (often described as speed)
  • The responsiveness of the connection. Responsiveness measures the quality of your network by the number of roundtrips completed per minute (RPM) under working conditions. See https://support.apple.com/kb/HT212313
  • Other aspects of the connection that affect the quality of experience.
  • NOTE: This tool will connect to the Internet to perform its tests. This will use data on your Internet service plan.
• Use umtool to output diagnostic data for troubleshooting UserManagement

The rest did not have any man pages

 

[rctneil]

Have Apple changed the stupidly small "x" buttons that appear when you want to dismiss a notification? This is my biggest frustration with Big Sur!

 

[alba_83]

Have Apple changed the stupidly small "x" buttons that appear when you want to dismiss a notification? This is my biggest frustration with Big Sur!

Negative. Looks the same to me.

 

[vaugha]

Can someone post a screenie when making/receiving a call? Big Sur still has the old interface and was wondering if they updated it to align w/ iOS w/ circular buttons rather than rectangular ones.

 

[thingstoponder]

new command line commands for Terminal.

aea
automationmodetool
clangd
codecctl
dyld_info
networkQuality
pythonwrapper
shortcuts
syscapturediags
umtool
xctrace

This is my favourite one: networkQuality

This is a builtin speedtest for your internet speed for terminal.
Works great
View attachment 1793887

Cool! How do you find these? And are they made by Apple or existing open source tools?

 

[Kung gu]

Cool! How do you find these? And are they made by Apple or existing open source tools?

They are made by Apple. I found those on YouTube when searching for new stuff in macOS 12

 

[nicho]

There is a new "Communication" section in Screen Time
Also some of the icons have changed

Looks exactly like 11.4 to me.

 

[StellarVixen]

Siri get a new icon.

Looks…more glossy.

 

[srbNYC]

My cursor is dark blue and I love it.

 

[polyphenol]

From what I can see on posted screenshots, the hard drive icon "Macintosh HD" is still based on a 3.5" steel-clad drive!

Isn't it about time Apple acknowledged that many of us use SSDs - of whatever sort?

Does it matter? - hardly at all. Very simply, it is just annoying that every single time I see a hard drive icon, my thoughtline gets diverted to "I remember when hard drives looked like that..."

However, it would be rather nice to get realistic drive icons - especially for external drives. My Samsung T5 is a black device. But the icon is a strange orangey colour and the wrong shape. If not automatically, I can see why outer cover colour might need to be manually selected but, for widely distributed drives, more accurate images would be nice.

 

[Ritsuka]

It would be hard to create an icon for every existing external drive out there. But the good news is that you alread can paste a custom icon on each drive in Finder.

 

[polyphenol]

It would be hard to create an icon for every existing external drive out there. But the good news is that you alread can paste a custom icon on each drive in Finder.

That is good news!

I accept that every external drive is a big ask! But something like being able to use an icon stored on the drive itself - which gets read as part of the connection process, might work? Manufacturers could put one or more (multiple if they offer different colours, for example) on - and users could add their own and choose a default. Whichever machine they connect to, they'd have the same icon(s) offered.