MacLife - UK (2019-12)

Use enhanced Find My to track down devices

Monitor yourself with

Screen Time on the Mac

There’s more to explore in

macOS Catalina

THERE ARE LOTS of other new

and improved features in macOS

Catalina, of which we highlight

some here. Take a look back at our “Get

Ready For Catalina” feature in ML #159

for tips on more additions, a few

subtractions, and changes to security.

It’s worth familiarizing yourself with

the updated System Preferences app,

which has been rearranged with fewer

sections and a header bar for your Apple

ID and iCloud settings, as in iOS. Most

of the old iCloud settings are now found in

the Apple ID pane, while Family Sharing

gets its own pane.

FIND MY MAC and Find My

Friends are now one app, Find My,

with tabs for People and Devices.

Behind the scenes, finding devices gets a lot

cleverer, as long as you own two Apple

products. All Apple devices will constantly

broadcast Bluetooth signals that only other

Apple devices recognize, containing a public

key unique to their owner. Any receiving

device uses this to encrypt its location,

sending the data to Apple. When you look

for your first device using Find My on your

second device, it uploads a matching public

key to Apple, which searches its records

and returns any relevant data. Your second

device has the private key to decrypt the

location and tell you where the first device

is. So your device could be found, via

nearby Apple users, even if offline,

unknown to anyone but you.

THE BIG SCREEN on

your desk may be no less

distracting than the small

one in your pocket, so you can now

keep tabs on how much you’re on

your Mac, and what for, using the

same tools that were introduced in

iOS 12. Found in System Preferences,

Screen Time lets you set daily limits

for selected apps and schedule

“Downtime” when only a limited

range of activities are allowed. Of

course, you can override the limits if

you need to work or just lose the will

to chill. The App Usage, Notifications

and Pickups tabs gather data to show

you how you have been spending

your time.

You can also set content and

privacy restrictions, which are more

like parental controls and are

intended for setting up a non–

administrator user account for

a child who’s going to use the Mac.

A Screen Time passcode, set up by

clicking Options at the foot of the

pane, makes it easy to prevent the

user changing these settings later.

Feature

28 DEC 2019 maclife.com