macOS Sequoia brings an update to Apple's Chess game

The new standalone Passwords app in macOS Sequoia offers a centralized and user-friendly way to manage passwords and passkeys across various devices. This app replaces the iCloud Keychain and provides a more accessible interface for managing login credentials.

Key features of the Passwords app include:

1. Syncing across devices: Passwords sync across Apple devices, including Macs, iPhones, iPads, and even the Apple Vision Pro headset5. Passwords can also be synced with PCs via the iCloud for Windows app.

2. Managing multiple credentials: The app consolidates various credentials, including passwords, passkeys, and Wi-Fi passwords, into a single, easily accessible location. Users can filter and sort their accounts based on various criteria, such as recently created accounts, credential type, or membership in shared groups.

3. Sharing passwords: Users can share passwords in groups with people they want to have access to them.

4. Viewing Wi-Fi passwords: The app allows users to view their Wi-Fi passwords in one place.

5. Integration with Apple logins and family sharing setups: The Passwords app integrates deeply with Apple logins and family sharing setups, providing a seamless experience for users.

6. Importing passwords: The app allows users to import passwords from existing password managers, making the transition to the Passwords app more convenient.

The Passwords app aims to encourage users to adopt stronger passwords and avoid repeating passwords across multiple websites and services. It provides a more secure and convenient alternative to third-party password managers, with the added benefit of being integrated directly into Apple's ecosystem.

macOS Sequoia, also known as macOS 15, is the latest operating system for MacBooks and iMacs, announced at WWDC 2024. It introduces several new features and improvements, including:

1. iPhone Mirroring: This feature allows users to access and interact with their iPhone wirelessly using their Mac. Users can use the keyboard, trackpad, or mouse to drag and drop content between both devices, open and use any of their apps, swipe through all the pages on the home screen, and view and respond to notifications.

2. Passwords App: This new standalone app simplifies password storage by employing Face ID and Touch ID alongside character-string passwords. It consolidates and streamlines your passwords across your Apple devices.

3. Apple Intelligence: This is an AI ecosystem integrated into macOS 15, as well as the iPhone and iPad. It is fueled by a partnership with OpenAI, allowing Apple to leverage the massive LLM (Large Language Model) already cultivated by OpenAI's huge success with ChatGPT.

4. Siri Updates: Siri has been redesigned to speak more naturally and has been given the ability to understand context within conversations. Siri can now also take in-app actions in a way that wasn't possible before.

5. Safari Updates: Safari will see a host of improvements powered by AI functionality, including an "Intelligent Search" option that harnesses on-device AI to summarize search results in the browser in Mac OS Sequoia1.

6. Window Tiling: This new feature makes it easy to arrange open windows into a layout that works best for you6. When you drag a window to the edge of the screen, macOS Sequoia suggests a tiled position by displaying a frame, and you release the window to drop it right into place.

7. Messages Updates: Messages has big updates to the ways users express themselves and stay connected, including all-new text effects, emoji and sticker Tapbacks, and the ability to schedule a message to send later.

8. Apple Maps: Apple Maps is introducing even more ways to explore the world, including curated hikes and custom walking routes. Beginning this fall, users can browse thousands of hikes across all 63 national parks in the United States, filtered by length, elevation, and route type, and save them to use while offline.

9. Photos App: Photos now surfaces Collections, which automatically organizes a user's library by helpful themes, and includes a big update to search, so users can get results quickly.

10. Chess Game Update: The pre-installed Chess game on every Mac has been rebuilt with new, more modern graphics. The glossy background has been replaced by a new grainy gradient, while the board and pieces now have brighter, more realistic textures.