macOS Mojave adds dark mode and improved organization options

It wouldn't be WWDC if Apple didn't give an update on the future of macOS, the company's oldest computing platform. Senior VP of software engineering and Unofficial Apple Dad Craig Federighi is on stage walking the crowd through the updates. But first, we had to get through the naming scheme -- Federighi says that they've been on a "mountain bender" for four years now, so this year's update will change things up. It's called macOS Mojave.

The first feature on display was inspired by the desert: a "night mode" on the Mac for the first time. Federighi says it's not just a personal preference; it was designed with professionals in mind. In particular, it looks good for presentations and photography, but will be applied to basically all of the Mac's first-party apps; we wager third-party apps will need to be updated though.

The second new feature is called "dynamic desktop" -- and this appears to be just a cosmetic change, as the wallpaper circles through the time of day as the hours tick by. It's definitely cool.

Moving on to more useful features, a new organization scheme for the desktop called "stacks" will help clean up a desktop that might be overloaded with documents. It can organize files by file types like documents, presentations, spreadsheets, PDFs, images and so on. Clicking a stack expands it so you can see all the files in it.

There's also a new view mode in the finder called gallery mode. It shows a large preview of the file you're looking at (the demo showed off photos), and there's a strip along the bottom that lets you scrub through your files. Finally, there's a new right-side data area that shows all of the metadata for a file -- another feature that'll definitely be useful for photographers.

Prior to WWDC, there wasn't a lot of rumors or conjecture about what Apple had in store for the Mac this year, in keeping with the slightly more chill vibe that we've gotten from this event after last year's hardware-packed bonanza. Most of the chatter focused on macOS and iOS converging even more -- late last year, there was a rumor that Apple would even let iPad apps run on the Mac for the first time. But that wild OS mash-up will have to be saved for a future date.

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