10 Things To Try After Updating To macOS Big Sur

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.