BETA 5

I just installed Monterey beta 5 and realized the last two beta releases have been non-events because they went so smoothly and there have been no significant issues to deal with (other than between my ears blush). There are still some applications that are not compatible and don't even have a Monterey compatible beta including anything from Rogue Amoeba, Micromat, and Koingo. But those are all utilities dependent on kernel extensions or shell commands and in the latter case incompatibility often stems from an abundance of caution on the part of the developer. Productivity and Entertainment apps that run in Big Sur have all run equally well in Monterey.

AS TO THE NEW FEATURES IN MONTEREY…
  • the FaceTime enhancements use the facial recognition hardware and are therefore unavailable on my Mac mini — until Apple releases their rumored monitor with facial recognition and then only if I can afford it.
  • I really like Safari's new look and feel.
  • Focus will be a God send for many of us, but it takes setting up and intentional use. I find I am still tweaking the various Focuses and their options. They work well — when I remember to use them.
  • Quick Note is essentially Notes but available within other applications.
  • Tags more accurately hashtags within Notes/Quick Notes as a means of grouping related Notes/Quick Notes. A feature I would like to see extended to any and all data files and folders (macOS 13 perhaps?)
  • Universal Control "A single keyboard and mouse or trackpad now work seamlessly between your Mac and iPad — they’ll even connect to more than one Mac or iPad. Move your cursor from your Mac to your iPad, type on your Mac and watch the words show up on your iPad, or even drag and drop content from one Mac to another." Still a but of a work-in-process, but has definite possibilities.
  • AirPlay to Mac Nice enhancement to AirPlay. IMHO it makes AirPlay much more useful and it is easier to use.
  • Live Text in Photos OCR without OCRing the image. Very useful and handy. My question is why is this only available in Photos?
  • Shortcuts App An extension of Siri Shortcuts. Another level of automation
  • Maps A significant upgrade visually and functionally, but it is still limited to point-to-point navigation and third party apps like inRoute or Road Trip Planner are needed for complex multi-day/multi-stop routing. Both of those apps rely on Maps for routing and the improvements in Maps has also improved their routing as well.
  • Privacy Some significant new features fall under the rubric of Privacy including Private Relay, Hide My Email, Login with your Apple ID, and Apple Pay all of which hide your actual ID and location when you are on-line. Not a full-blown VPN, but accomplishing the essential security elements of a VPN with little or no performance hit.
  • System Wide Translation even in many third party apps. And the most commonly translated languages can be downloaded and translated entirely on your Mac without having to send anything over the net.
  • Digital Legacy Digital Legacy program lets you designate people as Legacy Contacts so they can access your account in the event of your death. At my age that is a consideration.


IS MONTEREY A WORTHWHILE UPGRADE? IMHO Yes.

SHOULD YOU WAIT FOR MACOS 12.2 OR 12.3 BEFORE UPGRADING? Based on the stability I have seen in the last two betas 12.0 is as stable and solid as macOS 10.15.2 and more stable than macOS 11.2. There are one or two things I had hoped to see in Monterey, but it now appear more likely they aren't going to happen until macOS 13.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein