Apple has introduced its new MacOS operating system. That is called MacOS High Sierra. See what new lies in this operating system MacOS High Sierra. In Apple’s WWDC 2017 developer conference, in which Tim Cook and other company executives have introduced the new products for this year 2017.
These kinds of conferences are usually software-centric, for obvious reasons. But in WWDC 2017 hardware has been the big star. After all, new products are needed so that developers can create apps for them.
A few minutes ago the new iMac and MacBook with renewed Kaby Lake are introduced for this year 2017. While the spectacular iMac Pro 2017 and of course, iOS 11, loaded with controversy by its veto to the applications of 32 bits.
Steam VR and HTC Vive Compatible with MacOS High Sierra
But in this news, we are going to focus on the new MacOS High Sierra, the review designed for the new computers just presented. Which releases some interesting news, such as the virtual reality support with Steam VR and HTC Vive. So that provides a new file system, and improvements of emblematic apps like Safari, Mail, Photos, and Metal.
MacOS High Sierra target virtual reality
MacOS High Sierra is an evolution of the current Sierra. It does not present significant changes. There are only improvements in the main apps and a couple of interesting news. The most striking are the support of virtual reality, through Metal VR.
The new operating system is compatible with the Steam VR platform and the HTC Vive virtual reality glasses. As well as the Unity and Unreal Engine graphics engines. This means that the main PC virtual reality games developed for HTC Vive can be enjoyed on a Mac PC through MacOS Sierra. At the conference, we have seen the demonstration of a Star Wars game in virtual reality mode.
The new APFS file system in MacOS High Sierra
Another major new feature of MacOS High Sierra is the support for the Apple File System (APFS) file format. So that is specially developed for iOS, which replaces the old HFS. Which has roots going back to 1985. The new APFS is not only much faster for copying or writing large files, but also offers a full 64-bit support. So that allows encryption which makes it much more secure. It is specially designed to make the most of Flash memory.
Safari renews itself in MacOS High Sierra
The Safari browser has been completely renovated to make it ” the fastest in the world “. It is 80% faster than Chrome when running JavaScript. And also consumes less battery power on laptops.
One of the most acclaimed novelties in the room is the blocking of autoplay in a web browser. That is the videos will stop playing automatically when you enter in a website. YouTube is not going to like this measure.
Safari for MacOS High Sierra will also include an intelligent tracking prevention system. Which will use machine learning to prevent cookies and websites from tracking users?
It will be possible to adjust aspects such as the zoom, advertising blocker or the Reader for each web individually:
Email and Photos
The new Mail app in MacOS High Sierra includes a smart search that makes it easy to locate emails. The split view can now be set to fullscreen, and emails take up 35% less space than before.
The new Top Hits feature in MacOS High Sierra places the most relevant emails at the top according to your history, using artificial intelligence:
New Photos App
The Photos app in MacOS High Sierra has also suffered a major facelift. New filters allow you to locate specific photos faster. And any changes you make to a photo immediately sync across all your devices, faster than before and without having to intervene. Even when you make changes with a third-party app like Photoshop, these changes will instantly be reflected in the cloud.
A new sidebar in MacOS High Sierra remembers your last imported photos as well as all the albums that you have created. So that you can access your content faster.
New types of effects are also released. This uses a Loop mode that allows you to create videos and animations from photos, and a selector of group images to move them all at once.
New theme categories of Memories (Memories) centered on pets, babies, weddings, and others have also been added. The printable photo album is also opened to third party companies. Which will now be able to offer their printed albums directly from the app.
A safer MacOS High Sierra
Far the times in which Apple boasted of Macs without antivirus. MacOS malware has grown 700% in just a year. So Apple has strengthened MacOS security but has not specified the specific measures.
MacOS High Sierra Graphic enhancements
MacOS High Sierra presents a total renewal of Metal. That is the graphics technology used to create games and animations in the apps. The new Metal 2 now uses machine learning to optimize the drawing of the graphics, multiplying by 10 times the performance under certain conditions.
The new Metal 2 for external graphics allows the use of external graphics cards that can be connected to an iMac or MacBook via USB Type C or Thunderbolt 3. The first model announced is an external card with the AMD RX 580 GPU:
Improvements to 4K video in MacOS High Sierra
Following the current market trend, MacOS High Sierra integrates 4K video into all its apps with support for the H.265 or HEVC codec, specially designed for 4K resolution. It has compressed up to 40% more than the H.264 format. This codec will be hardware accelerated.
ICloud and Siri for MacOS High Sierra
At MacOS High Sierra, Siri becomes a musical expert who recommends Apple Music according to your tastes or moods. Also, it read the notes or the lyrics of the albums. More intonations and recordings have been added to the voice to make it look more human.
The new MacOS High Sierra is now available to developers. The public beta can be downloaded at the end of June. While the final version will arrive in the fall for all users, in the form of the free download.
MacOS High Sierra Review Conclusion
The new version of macOS also includes new features under the hood. The main one is the decision to change file system giving the jump to Apple File System or APFS. This movement should greatly improve the speeds of writing and reading files, as well as any tasks that we perform on our device.
Apple has also announced that they switch from video standard switching from H.264 to H.265, and updating graphics engine Metal. And it is assured, the new Metal 2 should improve ten times the performance of its predecessor. Another improvement is that MacOS High Sierra will also include support for spherical videos and will be integrated with virtual reality systems to be able to use devices like HTC Vive with your Mac.