With iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, you can use your Phone as a WebCam. You can even purchase an iPhone mount to up the quality and resolution of your MacBook or iMac webcam. Mac Mini users just got a free, high-quality WebCam whenever they bring their iPhone close to their device.
We tested it. It works friggin’ brilliantly!
This feature taps into the Ultra Wide camera on iPhone to simultaneously show the user’s face and an overhead view of their desk — great for DIY videos, hands-on presentations, and so much more.
Personally, we found it a so-so feature as it tends to distort your hands and items that are closer to the camera than others. Still a handy thing to have! Really smart piece of technology.
Stage Manager automatically organizes apps and windows so users can concentrate on the task at hand and still see everything in a single glance. When users enable Stage Manager from Control Center, the current window they are working in is displayed prominently in the center, while other windows appear on the left so they can seamlessly switch between tasks.
Passkeys are a new sign-in method that makes browsing in Safari even safer. Passkeys are more secure, easy to use, and designed to replace passwords. Whenever users create a passkey, a unique digital key is created that stays on the device and is never stored on a web server, so hackers can’t leak them or trick users into sharing them. With passkeys, it’s easy for users to sign in securely using Touch ID or Face ID for biometric verification, and passkeys are securely synced with end-to-end encryption using iCloud Keychain so they are available across Apple devices including Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Passkeys also work across apps and the web, and users can even sign in to websites or apps on non-Apple devices using their iPhones.
Mail now gives users the ability to schedule messages, cancel delivery of a message before it reaches a recipient’s inbox, and even add rich links for better content previews. Mail can also detect if items such as an attachment or cc’d recipient are missing and remind the sender to add them. Users can even set reminders to come back to a message later and get automatic suggestions to follow up on emails when they are waiting on a response.
Users can edit or undo a recently sent message, recover accidentally deleted messages, or even mark a message as unread if they are unable to respond at the moment. Collaborating with others is easier than ever as users now have the option to share a file in Messages and automatically give everyone on the thread access.
Spotlight comes with new features and an updated design that provides a more consistent experience across Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Users can now use Spotlight to find images in their photo library, on the web, and across the system in apps like Messages and Notes.
The Weather and Clock apps come to Mac with all of the features users know and love from iPhone, and do things like check local forecasts, create alarms, set timers, and more.
Live Text can recognize text in paused video frames. Users can also lift the subject away from an image and drop it into another app like Messages. Visual Look Up can now recognize animals, birds, insects, statues, and even more landmarks.
macOS Ventura brings new accessibility tools like Live Captions for all audio content, Type to Speak on calls, “Text Checker” to support proofreading for VoiceOver users, and more.
Please ensure that you have at least 20% more space than the recommended amount if you upgrade your MacBook, iMac or Mac Mini to macOS Ventura. If the update appears to be taking a long time, please LEAVE IT ALONE. Don’t switch off your device. Apple updates can take an hour or even need to be left overnight in some cases.
Please ensure you clear up some space on your iPhone /or iPad if you don’t have at least 20% more than the recommended storage space free.