And we'll update this review when and as needed. We'll all keep testing Sierra as it launches and as it updates, and as new apps and accessories come out that take advantage of its features. Like all our reviews going forward, it'll be a living review. Notes for this review were taken throughout the beta program, and final testing was done on the gold master (GM) version. That includes a lot of time in my studio, at coffee shops, on planes, at hotel bars - and yes, at more coffee shops. I've also spent some time with it on both a MacBook and iMac. I've spent the last three months and change using macOS Sierra day-in and day-out on my main machine, a 13-inch MacBook Pro. Siri and APFS (Apple's new file system) alone make it one of the biggest updates in recent years - as big as the mountain range from which it derives its name. It requires a button click or keyboard combo to activate, at least on current hardware, but it has almost all the functionality of iOS as well as some new tricks for the desktop, including persistence, pinning, and drag-and-drop into documents.Īll told, it's a big update. Then there's Siri, Apple's personal assistant, which makes its debut on the Mac with Sierra. There's even a new Apple File System (APFS) that, when it starts shipping next year, will improve backups, storage efficiency, security, and more. Rounding out Sierra's both front-facing and behind the scenes features are tabbed browsing for every app, picture-in-picture for video, enhancements for Apple's Metal framework for graphics, Swift 3 and a much-improved Xcode for developers, advanced support for wide color gamut, Safari extensions on the Mac App Store, Contacts integration, and much more. By adding new tools to automate trash and cache cleanup and inspect large files, power cleaning should now be accessible even to intermediate users. ICloud will now sync your documents no matter where you save them, including your desktop, so your files stay consistent across multiple Macs and easily accessible from any iPhone or iPad, while Optimized Storage hopes to do for file management what Time Machine did for backup (and battery shaming did for power). It also now includes 'computer vision' for your local library, which identifies, tags, and lets you search for faces, places, and thousands of object types. Photos can now edit Live Photos and create Memories, which pulls together people and places to serendipitously remind you of the occasions that mean the most.

Apple Music has gotten much of the same big, bold, brilliant - and much-needed - makeover as iPhone and iPad, but it remains buried in iTunes, and bereft of Continuity handoff for songs and video.

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