Secrets of sonoma

26 min read

Are you getting the most from macOS Sonoma, or are there features you’ve not yet seen? Let’s take a look

Image credit: Apple Inc

Apple’s latest macOS is packed with all kinds of features great and small, but many of them aren’t documented, are hard to remember, or are so new you might not have come across them just yet. From things that save you time, effort and maybe even money, to those that cause you to smile and let out a ‘Eureka!’ shriek when you discover them, these are the secrets of Sonoma.

Did you know, when you place widgets on your macOS 14 desktop, you can have them sit there in full colour instead of reverting to monochrome when they’re not in use? Or that you can bring exciting effects to a video chat using hand gestures? Or that also in video chat, you can decide where to appear when using Centre Stage; it no longer has to be the middle of the screen? Or that when writing a note in the Notes app, you can switch it to the Pages app and carry on? Or that you can use your Sonoma-based Mac with devices for the hard of hearing that are made for the iPhone? It’s all in macOS Sonoma.

Over the next few pages, we take a look at the secrets of Sonoma. Features and facets of the new Apple Mac operating system of which you might not be aware, but are sitting there, just waiting to be discovered. So what are you waiting for? Let’s delve into Sonoma’s darkest corners, and get even more from our Mac’s latest operating system.

All about the screen savers

How do you make the most of the new slowmo screen savers?

Sonoma takes a new look at screen savers. The old ones are still there, but they’ve now been joined by some awesome slow-motion video screen savers featuring areas of great beauty from all over the world.

Each of these screen savers has a companion wallpaper too, so you can have a slow-motion view of a beautiful scene while you’re not using your Mac, which steadies into a static desktop when you return to it. They’re easy to use too.

1 Screen saver settings

First of all, click the Apple menu in the top-left corner of your screen and select System Settings. In the window that opens, click the Screen Saver option in the left-hand sidebar. The Screen Saver settings are now shown.

2 Screen saver categories

As you can see, you’re offered new screen savers in four categories; Landscape, Cityscape, Underwater and Earth. Below this are options to shuffle new screen savers, that is, pick one at random from one or all of these categories, and ‘Other’, which is the older screen savers if you prefer to stick with what you know.

Sonoma has some gorgeous animated screen savers, featuring slow-motion video of scenes from around the world, such as Hong Kong’s skyline, Arizona’s Monument Valley and Sonoma, California.

3 Show all

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