[colemannerd]

I feel the biggest disappointment in Sierra that this review didn't really harp on is the lack of new features for non-iOS users. There's not that much in this update and the end user features that are available right now are solely focused on iPhone users. As an android user, I can't use siri on a day to day basis, I can't do automatic unlock with my watch, etc. You'd suspect that most mac users have iPhones, but that's not been my experience since most developers use mac but also use android.

[jws]

The Photos upgrade for "moments" is quite nice, assuming you use Photos to store your photos.

The storage upgrade where they can remove forgotten debris files and then migrate your unused files to the cloud is great for most people.

I realize most HN readers have already drawn their saber and are 2/3rds over the gunwale at my suggestion that a computer make a decision about the disposition of a file, but this one feature is going to reduce my "friends and family tech support debt" by about 75%. A couple of clicks and I can fix their full computer. In the process of that I have quietly gotten them to backup their documents to the cloud so when I get the "my computer won't turn on" call I don't have to spend hours extracting and recovering their hard drive because they NEVER backup. Thanks to "apps", I can finally convince people that paying $1.99/mo for cloud storage isn't some evil plan to loot the world economy. People are used to small payments for computer services.

[rbl]

"In the process of that I have quietly gotten them to backup their documents to the cloud […]"

Are you saying you are/would be storing someone else's data "in the cloud" without their consent/knowledge?

[CJefferson]

The 'migrate to the cloud' is no good for backups -- it doesn't put files in the cloud which you actually use regularly!

[matt4077]

I'm pretty sure it does. It just doesn't replace the local copy with a reference to the cloud version. Otherwise it could't synchronize between computers.

[mhurron]

No sync service is good for backing up. Delete it locally and it's deleted remotely, same with making edits to a file.

[toomuchtodo]

Dropbox. I disable syncing for certain files, and its only stored in Dropbox. I need access again without using a web browser? I turn on syncing for that folder again and the files are synced back locally within a few seconds to minutes.

I priced out getting an external SSD drive ($300 for 1TB). Its cheaper for me to just buy a year of Dropbox at a time (1TB @ $100/year if paid annually).

https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/113

[totalrobe]

Why would you compare the cost of an SSD in this case?

You can get a good 1TB HDD for $50.

[toomuchtodo]

A mechanical drive is more likely to fail if exposed to shock or magnetic fields; unless its safely encased in a rack in a datacenter, its not an acceptable form of data storage.

[michaelmrose]

If you use a filesystem that checksums you will know if the drive is likely bad and wont lose data unless local and backup go bad within the window required to get a replacement for whichever died. See zfs.

If your proposed backup solution is only used for periodic backups and isn't in constant heavy use 2 $50 1tb drives in raid1 would be quite secure against data loss and last years and for a bonus would be unlikely to be compromised by hackers or mined by the nsa for signs you are a terrorist.

If you project replacing the drives every 5 years your annual cost could be $20 and your up front cost no higher than dropbox. Its even entirely likely that you could get by with a single drive for a annual cost of $10.

[merb]

well I also didn't tought bad about MacOS sierra and I'm a developer. What I really hated was iOS 10. I mean after ~9 years they move the goddamit camera to the lockscreen right side, so that I open the camera since I always "played" with the lockscreen before and that always stresses me. Also why should I want to access everything from the lockscreen? this is just stupid. UX changes that do more harm than good.

Edit: Oh and Clock Sleep timer swipe delete, doesn't work anymore. If I put a Clock into "sleep" and than still woke up after 5 minutes I can't remove the sleeped timer.

[nicholassmith]

They've changed the behaviour of the camera on the lockscreen previously. It's just an adaptation.

[eridius]

Press firmly (a.k.a. 3D touch) on the timer on your lock screen to get at the options.

[merb]

I didn't had an iphone 6 until today.

[eridius]

I was under the impression that one of the iOS 10 betas added support for getting at notification options without 3D touch on devices that don't support it, but since all of my personal devices support it I can't actually test that (and the development device I use is intentionally still running iOS 9).

[merb]

Update, yeah with an iPhone 6 it works

[djrogers]

> As an android user, I can't use siri on a day to day basis

But with Sierra, now you can. You seem to be under the impression that this requires an iPhone - it does not.

[SSLy]

he meant to say he can't run siri on android

[israrkhan]

Siri, Cortana, and Google Now are mainly for collecting personal user data, and understanding user behaviour. Microsoft has already made cortana available on iOS and Android (though it is not baked into OS). Similarly Google has made their tech available on other platforms. Apple's data harvesting ambitions are not huge currently, mainly because of their absence from search and advertising business, but I wont be surprised if one day they make Siri available on other platforms too.

[corv]

As opposed to how Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex and Baidu text search are not collecting personal data?

[Osiris]

That's what I noticed as well. The upgrades are Siri, iMessage, iOS integrations, and iWatch integrations. I don't own an iPhone or iWatch.

The Photos upgrade doesn't matter to me since I use Lightroom on a more powerful PC rather than my Macbook.

I have noticed one small upgrade, clicking the speaker icon in the system tray now shows Output Devices by default rather than having to hold down OPTION.

Has anyone noticed any other small, but convenient, changes?

[nicky0]

You can use Siri and iMessage without owning an iPhone or Watch.

[tuxracer]

It's not very practical to use without an iPhone in many circumstances. If I use iMessage people will message me there asking to meet up, etc.. and actually I won't receive those messages until I get home and boot up my Mac. Most people spend the vast majority of their time at work, or out of their home for whatever reason. Using iMessage on a Mac without an iPhone is a bit like the messaging version of only having a landline phone.

[JustSomeNobody]

I've been able to iMessage my wife from my mac to her iPhone for some time without my needing an iPhone.

[glhaynes]

Window edges now snap to other windows' edges/display edges. (No doubt doable with a 3rd party component before, but not built-in.)

Also, tabs (like in a browser) are now available in most of the built-in apps and lots of 3rd party ones.

[spdustin]

El Capitan (I think) added a side-by-side snapping that's handy on widescreen devices. Drag a window close to the left edge and wait, and it'll visually indicate that it's ready to snap to the left half of the screen. Do the same on the right. Really handy to do this with, say, Sublime Text (or whatever terminal, something-vim, something-emacs, Atom, VSC, etc.) and a browser.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

Naaah, it's some half-baked full-screen mode with two windows side by side. If you cmd-tab out of either of those apps to a third app you lose visibility of the two full-screen-side-by-side apps a-la Spaces (or whatever it's called this week). Such a let down.

The way Windows 7 does it is about a squillion times better, hold down super and use an arrow key to tell the window to snap to that edge of the screen. Works across multiple monitors too. Use this all the time at work, where I need to use propitiatory Windows-only software.

[eridius]

3rd party apps could reposition your windows for you, but I'm not aware of any that could do this sort of behavior in the middle of dragging a window.

[vlunkr]

I guess my question is what non-iOS features do we want? I'm already pretty happy with macOS, and I don't really care to see updates just for the sake of updates. iOS integration may just be a place they feel like they are lacking.

[glhaynes]

Main thing that comes to my mind is a new file system (and associated revamps of Time Machine/Versions/etc to take advantage), which is clearly being worked on and just isn't ready yet. I might be annoyed with the lack of new stuff if I'd paid $129 for Sierra, but, as a free update it's fine and I'm more than happy for them to let the FS stuff mature until it's ready.

As a user of both platforms (which I'm sure is true for a very large portion of their macOS users), the iOS integration stuff of the last several releases is very valuable and has been toward the top of my wishlist.

[vlunkr]

now that you mention filesystem, I would love to be rid of DS_store and other garbage hidden files they love to create.