Has Apple Finally Improved Window Management in macOS?

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Hey there!

I hope you're having a fantastic week so far! I have some great things lined up for you in this edition:

• Has Apple Finally Improved Window Management in macOS?

• BAF Show: Checking In On The Public Betas

• The News Feed: New M4 Macs, Apple Intelligence Beta, and more

Let’s get into it!

🪟 HAS APPLE FINALLY IMPROVED WINDOW MANAGEMENT IN MACOS?

For years, macOS users have longed for better window management, but Apple never really seemed to move the needle on this. It added some very basic tiling functions, but that's about all.

This led to a robust third-party utility market that made managing windows on macOS more functional. Apps like Magnet, Rectangle, and others have filled the gap nicely.

In the upcoming macOS Sequoia, Apple is taking another swing at improving window management with some new window-tiling capabilities. Let’s take a look.

The primary benefit of the third-party apps is the sheer number of tiling options they provide. Magnet, my app of choice for this, offers over 15 built-in positions for windows, all just a click or keyboard shortcut away. Here's a look at them:

When you compare that to the minimal options Apple has provided until now, you can see why these third-party utilities have found broad support among Mac users.

As shown above, in the current version of macOS, there are only three tiling options available when you hover over the green circle.

Let's compare the number of options in Sequoia:

That's quite an improvement! And there are even more options in the Window menu under "Move & Resize":

Plus there's even keyboard shortcut support for most of them!

When you tile windows, a small margin is left around the sides to allow you some room to click on the desktop or another window or app in the background. If you prefer to have the windows go edge to edge, you can turn off the margin in System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Tiled windows have margin.

While I think there will still be a market for third-party window management utilities, Apple's new tiling features are pretty great and should be good enough for what I and many others need.

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🎙️ BASIC AF SHOW: CHECKING IN ON THE PUBLIC BETAS

It's time to check in on the Apple Public Betas! Jeff is running the latest builds of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and watchOS 11, while he and I are both running the latest macOS Sequoia beta. There's a lot to like, and we'll share our experiences with the new Home Screen features, Control Center, more on the new Mac window tiling, the Passwords app, and much more!

Listen and follow the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all the other podcast apps, as well as on YouTube and YouTube Music.

🗺️ APPLE INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPER BETA

Apple released the first developer betas of Apple Intelligence last week as part of macOS 15.1, iOS 18.1, and iPadOS 18.1. The company has stated that not all Apple Intelligence features will be released this year, but here's what has been included so far:

• Writing Tools: Summaries, proofreading, and the ability to rewrite sections.

• Siri: Type to Siri, new interface, Apple product knowledge and support base, contextual awareness.

• Mail: Summaries, Smart Reply, time-sensitive awareness, notification summaries.

• Photos: Natural language search, create a Memory Movie with just a description, and more.

• Transcription: Record audio and get a transcript.

• Messages: Smart Replies, Notification summaries

If you’d like to see it in action, MacRumors has a great video rundown.

🚀 M4 MACBOOK PRO, MAC MINI, AND IMAC ON THE WAY

In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports the MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac will be updated with M4 series processors later this year. I may be in the market for a new Mac mini early next year, and this is welcome news.

📄 MAJOR CRAFT DOCS UPDATE

This week, Craft, one of my favorite writing and note-taking apps, announced a major new feature coming out later this year. Objects will provide flexible new ways to organize information and build workflows in Craft—think Notion database-like features. They just opened the beta, and I've joined the program and plan to push this to see how far I can take it. I'll have more to follow and you can read the details here.

⚙️ SOFTWARE UPDATES FROM APPLE

Last week Apple released a batch of updates across the lineup that include bug fixes and important security updates:

• macOS Sonoma 14.6

• iOS 17.6 and iPadOS 17.6

• watchOS 10.6

• tvOS 17.6

• visionOS 1.3

And just today, Apple released macOS 14.6.1 and iOS and iPadOS 17.6.1 to address an issue with Advanced Data Protection.

All of the updates are available through Software Update.