the big apple software update of 2024

By whbeebe on September 17, 2024

Monday, 16 September, Apple unleashed software updates for iOS, ipadOS, macOS, and watchOS, just to name the four I got. In particular I was interested in macOS 15 Sequoia for my two Apple Silicon MacBook Pros, one of which you see in the fastfetch output at the lead of the post.

What I discovered is that my aging iPhone 11 Pro Max was allowed to upgrade to iOS 18. My even more ancient 12.9" iPad Pro was only allowed to update to ipadOS 17.6, which contained just bug fixes. Bug fixes I don't mind, as the iPad is still just fine for my needs. My Apple Watch Series 7 was updated to watchOS 11, which I find rather remarkable considering how old it is compared to Series 8, Series 9, and the latest Series 10. I'm quite certain that my iPhone will not get any new major iOS versions beyond this years iOS 18.

But back to my MacBook Pros. As it turns out, my oldest MacBook Pro, the 16" Intel i9 Beast, also updated to macOS 15, this version for Intel architecture. Again, I don't know how much longer this will go on, but considering how bulked out it is I don't intent to give it up anytime soon.

Which leaves my two Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pros, the 13" regular M1 and the 16" M1 Max. The 16" M1 Max is meant to eventually replace the 16" Intel system, although when I purchased the M1 Max system it had been discounted heavily so that it cost about 1/3 what was paid for the 16" Intel system.

Interesting Features

One interesting feature I've been trying out is window tiling. I use window tiling quite a bit on my Linux Mint system, which has been around now for some number of years. And window tiling isn't just limited to Linux Mint if you're curious.

The example above is a screen capture from my 16" MBP with three applications tiled on the desktop. You'll note how crowded it can get. I should also point out that there are any number of combinations, from side-by-side to one-above-another, or four in each corner, of a combination of those basic placements. In my example I have the right corners filled and the left side filled. My biggest complaint are the gaps between each window; Linux Mint has the window edges tightly abutted with no wasted space.

You can eliminate those gaps by going full screen with two of the applications, side-by-side. You will note that macOS 15 has a slider bar between the two side, allowing you to tweak the devision of space between the two. Reminds me an awful lot of how iPadOS handles multitasking.

I have mixed feelings about how window tiling is implemented on this latest release of macOS. Perhaps over time the Apple coding meisters will clean it up, but I'm not holding my breath on that.

iPhone mirroring is now a feature of macOS. I can say definitively but this will only work if you have an iPhone running iOS 18. The reason I can't say definitively is because by the time I got to this feature my iPhone was already updated to iOS 18.

I like iPhone mirroring because I can control my iPhone from my desktop, and because if I'm writing about some feature on my iPhone and I need to grab a screen capture then I can do it from my MacBook without littering my iPhone's photo folder with junk images. Before sharing came along, I'd take a screen capture and then use AirDrop to move it from my iPhone to my MacBook before I could use it. And I had to be careful to make sure it wasn't HEIC format, as WordPress won't accept any HEIC images as media to be used in their blog. Instead I had to go into my iPhone and have my images saved as JPEGs.

It's a long and somewhat convoluted process to set up iPhone mirroring, with multiple requests with passwords, but once set up you can click on the iPhone Mirroring application and there it is. If you're wondering why my iPhone icons are big without text, that's a new feature of iOS 18.

Basically, if you hold down on any bare spot of the iPhone screen to get the wiggling icons, an Edit selection will appear on the upper left corner of the screen. Tap that and you're presented with the ability to select the icon size (Small vs Large) as well as limited coloration changes. Its the Small size that gives you the text underneath each icon, which I refer to as the classic look. It's the Large size that makes the icons fill up and remove the text underneath each icon. I prefer large because the icons are easier to see, and the desktop looks less cluttered. A bonus is the larger icons are easer to recognize. What took Apple so long to give us this capability?

In general I can manipulate my iPhone through mirroring without issue. If you're wondering how you get back to the main screen, if you look at the top right corner of the iPhone mirror window, you'll see a 3x3 array of square dots. Click that to close the iPhone app or operation and get back to your main screen. You can swipe with the mouse to move between screens (or whatever app you have open that uses the swipe gesture).

I will make the following recommendation: You'll come to a dialog that asks if you want your Mac to ask every time to log in when you start up mirroring, or to authenticate automatically. I strongly recommend authenticate automatically, unless you're that paranoid. Either authentication only applies to the Mac you're setting this up on, not every Mac in the universe. You should only do this on a Mac you control, not a Mac that the rest of the world has access to.

There will be other discoveries in the coming weeks, which may trigger new posts and the possible airing of grievances.