Apple announced today that it is making the latest version of macOS, called Catalina, available to all compatible Macs. 

“With macOS Catalina, users are able to enjoy Apple Arcade, a groundbreaking new game subscription service featuring new, exclusive games from some of the world’s most creative developers,” the Apple announcement notes. “Catalina also features all-new Mac versions of Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV apps. A new feature called Sidecar extends Mac desktops with iPad as a second display, or tablet input device using Apple Pencil with Mac apps. Voice Control, a transformative accessibility feature, allows Mac to be controlled entirely by voice. And for the first time, Screen Time comes to Mac, giving users insight into how they spend time in apps and on websites, and the ability to decide how to spend their time.” 

Catalina is mostly a minor upgrade, but there is one major change that could have an interesting impact on Mac users: A feature called Catalyst allows third-party developers to bring iPad apps to Mac for the first time. Apple says that “users will begin to see their favorite iPad apps in Mac versions, including Twitter, TripIt, Post-It, GoodNotes and Jira,” and that more are on the way. 

I’ve been using the Mac Catalina beta since WWDC, but since I don’t use a Mac regularly, I’m not as up on it as I could be. I’ll install the final version tonight and see if there’s anything interesting to discuss, especially around Catalyst. 

You can learn more about macOS Catalina from the Apple website.