10 Things To Try After Updating To macOS Big Sur

Here are 10 new features in macOS Big Sur that you should check out right after updating. Get to know the Control Center, new Notifications Center, new sounds and set up things like your desktop background.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today let's  
take a look at the ten things to try out as soon as you update to Mac OS Big Sur. 
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So once you upgrade to Mac OS Big Sur you may want to try out some of the new features. Here are ten  
things that you should look at right away. A new feature in Big Sur is the Control Center and you  
get to it by clicking here and it brings up all sorts of controls that before would have been  
in individual little menu bar icons here. Now you can customize Control Center by going to  
System Preferences and then Dock and Menu Bar. On the left here you'll see Control Center. The first  
group of items are things that are always in the Control Center. But you could also  
determine whether or not they are in the Menu Bar as well. Then below that you've got other modules.  
These are things that could be in the Control Center, the Menu Bar, both or  
neither. So you can add something to Control Center by checking, Show in Control Center.
Big Sur offers some exciting new choices for desktop backgrounds. Depending upon how Apple  
releases the final version of Big Sur and whether you're upgrading or getting a new  
Mac you may or may not see this as your default background, this colorful background, rather than  
a picture of scenery. However, if you go to System Preferences and then to Desktop and Screen Saver  
you'll see all of your desktop options. So under Desktop Pictures here  
you actually can choose a picture of Big Sur. You can also go back and choose Catalina and these  
are dynamic desktops so that they will change according to the time of day. In addition to  
that Apple includes a lot of other photos and things here even going back to some older ones.
Now Apple also has a few really cool illustrations here under Dynamic Desktop. Like this one and  
it will change throughout the day as well and others that include beautiful scenery.  
So check all of those out and pick one. But, you know,  
feel free to change from day to day until you find one that best fits your style.
The Notification Center and Widgets work differently in Big Sur.  
Instead of having two different modes in either Notifications and Widgets  
they are both together. You have Notifications at the top and Widgets at the bottom.  
You customize these a little differently. It's a little more similar now to iOS.  
So scroll to the bottom here, click Edit Widgets and here you can go and choose  
other widgets in different sizes and just drag them over to the widgets on the right  
or click the Minus button to remove them. You can look at the different apps here that use them and,  
of course, you may in the future have some third party apps that add widgets as well.
Now let's jump into the Messages app. The Messages app has a lot of new features in it. One of them  
is to pin conversations. So you know you have those people that you're always messaging with  
and instead of having them be in this list with everybody else you can put them at the top.  
Just click and drag any conversation to the top and you can add it here and pin it. Now these  
conversations will always be at the top and larger than your other ones. You can always drag back  
down below to unpin. There are few new message types that you can send. One is to use Memoji or  
Animoji. Click here and choose Memoji stickers. Now if you already have a Memoji set up, say you  
sit it up on iOS, it's going to sync across using iCloud, and now you'll be able to use it to send  
a Memoji like this. You could also go and create your own right here on your Mac. You don't have to  
do it on your iPhone anymore. You can click here and choose New Memoji to create one on your Mac.
It's also now easier to send animated GIFs. You don't have to go to a website, find one,  
and copy and paste it over. You can click here  
and choose Images and it works just it does on iOS. So you can search for a GIF  
and choose something appropriate to send.
One of my favorite new features in Big Sur is in the Photos app. It's the ability to  
make adjustments, apply filters, and even crop and rotate videos as well  
as photos. So here I have a video in the Photos app. I can click Edit and  
you can see I've got Adjust here and I can adjust the lighting for the entire video.  
I can apply Filters to the entire video, and I can even crop and rotate the video.
There are a few new features in the Maps app as well. One of those is Look Around, which is  
similar to Goggles Street View. It's not available everywhere yet but Apple is adding new cities all  
the time. So, for instance, here I can click on a landmark and then you could see I get Look Around  
here. I click there and now I can look around on the street and I could click on a spot and move  
forward and move around. These are actually really beautiful and well done. Pretty high res images.
Another new feature is Look Inside. This works for things like shopping malls, airports,  
other large indoor spaces. So, for instance, here I could see the shopping center and I  
could just keep zooming in on it and I can actually see the individual stores and things  
inside of the space. Of course it's not available everywhere. Look for the little  
Look Inside indicator to let you know that it's available at this location.
Another new feature is Cycling Directions. So now when you do Directions in Maps you could do  
By Car, Walking, Public Transportation, and Cycling.
Big Sur marks the first time in a long time that Apple has changed the system sounds.  
They've updated them so you may want to go into System Preferences and then  
Sound and pick a new general alert sound here.  
Each one keeps elements of the sound that it replaces but they are a little different now  
so you probably want to check them out. Pick one that you don't mind hearing over and over again.
Here's one last one to checkout if you're using a MacBook. In System Preferences under Battery  
a new section here called Usage History. You can actually see the use and charging  
history of your battery. So I can see the battery level here on a graph.  
I can see when I had it actually plugged in and I can compare that down here to my screen usage.  
I can look at all these details for the last 24 hours and I can look at a more  
generalized view for the last ten days of how much battery power I've used each day.
So check these things out after you've upgraded to Big Sur. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 6 Responses to “10 Things To Try After Updating To macOS Big Sur”

John M.

4 years ago

My MacbookPro summer 2012, has 91gigs free, out of 500gigs. Upgraded to Catalina and severely slowed processing time in everything I do. How much MORE, slow down, do you think, this new Big Sur OS will affect my MacBook Pro? Do you think I should bother with this update and potentially cause even more 'spinning wheel of death' waiting? Thanks, and I really appreciate your info! jm

Gary Rosenzweig

John: New operating systems don't necessarily mean slower performance. Sometimes they mean faster performance on older machines. But it is irrelevant in this case since you can't install Big Sur on a 2012 MacBook Pro. I'd look into the real reason why your Mac is slow now -- could be apps or extensions installed, could be hardware issues. Just having Catalina isn't the reason.

Alison Siegfried

I wonder if there is a way to change the pinky hue in Big Sur? I don't mean the accents but the main colour. I watched this video and learned quite a bit about Big Sur, THANK YOU and thank you for your consideration.

Alison: The menu bar and windows pick up the color from the desktop background. Just try a different one and you'll see. I actually have a video on this coming next week.

Marta Kollin

On my Mac BookAir There is no option to choose my photos for screensaver.
Ia there a way to do it?

Marta: You don't see Photos listed on the left like I show in my video? Do you have anything stored in your Photos library?

Comments Closed.

10 Things To Try After Updating To macOS Big Sur

Comments: 6 Responses to “10 Things To Try After Updating To macOS Big Sur”

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