MacOS Catalina will let you use your iPad as a second display

Apple debuted MacOS Catalina at its WWDC 2019 keynote on Monday. While the headline news for the new version of the operating system is the death of iTunes, there are arguably much, much bigger features incoming.

One is called Sidecar.

“With Sidecar, iPad can be used as an extended display for Mac and a high-precision drawing tablet across supported Mac apps,” Apple announced, meaning that users can now employ their iPads as secondary screens.

“For users on the go, Sidecar makes it easy to bring an extended display with them so they can spread their work out over two displays wherever they happen to be,” it added.

More interestingly is its ability to function with the Apple Pencil, turning the iPad into a drawing, sketching device for the MacBook itself.

Security is improved too with a new Gatekeeper app, which acts as a screen and firewall for documents. Users can approve data requests using the Apple Watch too.

Screen monitoring, similar to what came to iOS 12, is also coming to MacOS Catalina.

“Screen Time on the Mac gives users insight into how they spend time in apps and on websites, and the tools to help decide how to spend their time,” Apple explained.

You can now use your iPad as your MacBook’s secondary screen

“Users can schedule time away from their Mac and determine how much time they want to spend within apps, websites or categories of apps.”

Notably, screen time settings can also be synced across multiple Apple devices via iCloud.

Finally, Notes has a new Gallery View, Reminders has a new interface, Mail now allows users to block mail from specific senders, and Photos gets the machine learning treatment as we covered in our iOS 13 roundup.

When can I get it?

MacOS Catalina will be a free update “for Macs introduced in mid-2012 or later,” Apple announced. Developers can grab a preview copy right now, while a public beta will be available later this month. Expect MacOS Catalina around Q3 2019.

Feature image: Apple