What’s New in macOS 10.15 Catalina, Available Now
Apple’s macOS Catalina arrives today, October 7. This free upgrade lets you use your iPad as a second display, draw with an Apple Pencil in Mac apps, and run more iPad apps on your Mac.
Catalina is compatible with most Mac models released after 2012. If yours ran macOS 10.14 Mojave, it will almost certainly run Catalina.
Dropping Support for 32-Bit Apps
Apple has warned for years that 32-bit app support is going away, and this will happen when macOS Catalina arrives. Most apps should be updated by now, but if you have an older Mac app that shows you the “[App] is not optimized for your Mac and needs to be updated” message when you launch it, that app won’t work at all in Catalina.
If an app you need occasionally displays this message when you launch it, don’t upgrade to Catalina until there’s a newer version of that app, or you find a replacement for it.
RELATED: How to Check Your Mac for 32-Bit Applications That Will Stop Working After High Sierra
Music, TV, and Podcasts Get Separate Apps
Mac users have been begging Apple to break up iTunes for years, and in macOS Catalina, this finally becomes a reality. There are three new apps to handle media: Music, TV, and Podcasts. The Music app is where you go to stream Apple Music, manage your library, and purchase tracks from the iTunes Store.