macOS Ventura preview: the march to continuity continues - The Verge

macOS Ventura’s public beta is out, bringing Continuity Camera, Stage Manager, and more updates to Mac computers. The operating system continues Apple’s journey to bring macOS closer to its mobile counterparts.

As my colleagues downloaded the public beta of macOS Ventura, the underwhelmed reactions began to roll in. “Everything looks the same,” one of my colleagues lamented. “This kinda sucks,” another complained. Nothing was particularly wrong with the operating system — it just looks and feels exactly the same as Monterey did. Many of the most significant features of this operating system are things that many users may not ever know about or use.

But things could definitely be worse. Unlike with Monterey (I feel like we literally just got Universal Control a few days ago), those significant features are basically all up and running in the beta now, and they seem mostly solid.

Ventura also isn’t full of bugs or glitches that are ruining workflows or bricking computers, so there’s that. With the usual caveat that you should avoid downloading betas onto a crucial device because you never know when bugs might pop up, I’ve had no issue with the operating system so far on my M2 MacBook Pro. Broadly, the changes I’m seeing seem to fall into two of the agendas that Apple’s been pushing with macOS the past few years: bringing it closer to iOS (for those already immersed in the ecosystem) and catching up with third-party competitors (for those who have eggs in multiple baskets).

Big Sur iOS-ified macOS’s design, and Monterey brought the Mac some of the iPhone’s key features. Ventura continues that journey with Continuity Camera. This feature allows you to use an iPhone running iOS 16 as a substitute webcam for a Mac that’s running Ventura. Mac computers tend to have not-great cameras, while modern iPhones have excellent ones, so this would be a reasonable decision for people to make.

I haven’t been able to test this myself yet because I’m still clinging to my ancient iPhone 8 that is barely sputtering along with iOS 15 (I’ll get you more impressions for the full review). But my colleagues who have used the feature up report that it’s no problem to set up — your Mac automatically detects the connected iPhone, and you can select it as you would another external webcam. The phone also plays a handy sound when you connect.

https://www.theverge.com/23205841/apple-macos-13-ventura-preview-stage-manager-continuity-camera

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