MacOS High Sierra: what's new

File system APFS

The new file system is just one of those "engine compartment" improvements. Apple's proprietary design aims to improve drive efficiency and improve speed, safety and reliability.

APFS is currently only available on solid state SSDs. Support for traditional hard drives and hybrid Fusion Drives will be coming in future updates. Installing macOS High Sierra automatically converts the drive from HFS + to APFS while keeping all files. This works for both clean installs and upgrades from macOS Sierra or previous versions.

Photo application

Apple seems to have heeded user criticism and made the default photo viewer more functional. In macOS High Sierra, Photos gets enhanced editing tools and several useful enhancements that make it look more like its predecessors.

It became available to change many parameters of images, including the correction of saturation and contrast of the image, as well as curves. The sidebar contains more information, making it easier to find and organize collections. Now it is possible to simultaneously change several photos at once and apply effects for Live Photos. Also, there are new themes for the "Memories" albums.

HEIF and HEVC codecs

New codecs for photos and videos are now supported on iOS and macOS, allowing for more efficient use of device resources and disk space. Using the HEIF compression format, images take up almost half the disk space. The HEVC codec is designed to more efficiently compress 4K video with minimal loss of quality.

At the same time, the company took care of backward compatibility, so that when transferring content to devices without HEIF and HEVC support, it will be automatically converted to-j.webp

Metal 2

Starting with the new version of macOS, support for the Metal graphics API, previously available on mobile devices, is now available on Apple computers. In the long term, this will give an increase in performance in games and resource-intensive applications, as well as new opportunities for developers. In the meantime, the benefits of Metal 2 can only be felt by iMac owners - on computers with large displays, the system interface has become noticeably smoother.

Also Metal 2 will bring improved support for virtual reality on the Mac. And this applies not only to working with VR headsets, but also to software with the ability to create this kind of content.

Safari

With every new macOS update, Safari gets better. In addition to the overall performance boost, the browser has received several useful features.

Apple turned off the automatic playback of media content on site pages, protecting users from annoying ads and various promotions. The Intelligent Tracking Prevention function has appeared, thanks to which tracking scripts that remember what you are looking for and offer contextual advertising are disabled.

In addition, Safari now remembers the display settings of various sites and automatically opens pages in Reader mode when supported.

Mail

The standard email client in macOS High Sierra has received an even more intelligent search that analyzes user actions and self-learns to deliver the most relevant results. Mail remembers which contacts you chat with more often and which documents you use in attachments to offer exactly what you need.

Another innovation will be appreciated by MacBook users with a small screen size: now the application automatically opens the reply form to a letter in Split View when working in full screen mode.

Notes

Following iOS in "Notes" on macOS, there is also the ability to pin the necessary entries at the top of the list for quick access to them, as well as the function of inserting tables, which will be very useful for creating small summaries right in notes without the need to use Numbers.

Siri and Spotlight

With each new version, Siri becomes smarter, and her voice is more human. In macOS High Sierra, the voice assistant has become a real DJ. Now he knows how to select music for you and knows a lot about the performers.

And Spotlight has learned to search for information about aircraft by flight number. Enter the number and a search will show you departure times, terminals, delays and even a flight map.

Facetime

Apple continues to bring support for Live Photos to its ecosystem. Now on Mac you can not only view animated photos, but also create them. The corresponding function appeared in FaceTime, which allows you to save memorable moments right during a conversation. Of course, your interlocutor will be notified of the recording and, if desired, can turn off this feature.