While macOS Catalina isn’t being released until the fall, there are already four catalyst apps on the Mac: Apple News, Stocks, Voice Memos, and Home. Last year at WWDC, Apple announced a multiyear project that we now know as Catalyst, and as part of a preview of what was to come, they brought these apps to the Mac with the release of macOS Mojave. Unfortunately, they have not been well received by the Mac community. They feel more like iOS apps and the Apple News app, in particular, is a bit of a mess. The navigation and overall user experience is clunky, the app lacks the ability to pull any article into Safari, and sharing articles is quite cumbersome. According to Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, that is all about to change with macOS Catalina.
In an interview with CNET, Federighi assured users of the apps that these iterations of Apple News and the rest are merely version one and we will all see major improvements to all four in the new macOS. He explained that where many expressed concern over the user experience of the apps and cast doubt on the technology that drove the project, they were actually unhappy with certain design decisions that had been made for Apple’s first take on what an iPad app might look and feel like on the Mac. They’ve learned a lot, and the second generation of these apps are going to see major overhauls in design and functionality that will make them feel much more like true Mac apps.
MacDailyNews Take: Catalyst promises to turn these “iPad apps for Mac” into true Mac apps! We’ll find out how well Apple’s promise has been realized with the release of macOS Catalina public beta in July.
