You might soon be able to sign onto iCloud using Face ID and Touch ID

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It looks like Apple is trying out new ways for users to sign onto iCloud.com. Apple users who have the beta versions of iOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina can use Face ID or Touch ID to sign in. Beta users who visit beta.icloud.com or beta-equipped devices will get asked via a popup if they want to sign using either one of those systems. They won’t need two-factor authentication after. This move makes sense as these methods are already being used to unlock devices and make purchases with Apple Pay. And if it’s secure enough for those, it should be secure enough for iCloud.

Source: The Verge

Apple’s macOS Catalina adds Auto Dark Mode

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One glaring omission when Apple introduced Dark Mode in macOS Mojave was the option to automatically turn the feature on and off depending on the time of day. But with the upcoming release of macOS Catalina, the company finally rectified this. There is now an Auto Dark Mode option. You can head to System Preferences – General to see the three options: Light, Dark, and Auto. If you choose Auto, the different design elements on your desktop will get darker at night and then get lighter during the day. Complementing this feature is the Dynamic Desktop wallpaper, which changes depending on the time of day. As expected, there will be a Santa Catalina Island option that will launch when macOS Catalina launches in the fall.

Source: Mashable

The use of Sidecar in macOS Catalina is limited to newer Macs (at least for now)

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While we don’t know if this will be the case with the final version of macOS Catalina, for now, the Sidecar feature is limited to a small number of newer Mac devices. Sidecar lets macOS 10.15 turn your iPad into a second display for your Mac. But as mentioned, at the moment this includes the 27-inch iMac from late 2015, 2016 MacBook Pro, 2018, Mac mini, the new Mac Pro, 2018 MacBook Air, early 2016 MacBook, as well as newer models of each product. According to developer Steve Troughton-Smith, who is looking through the first developer beta of the platform, a blacklist also exists, which prevents Sidecar from being used on older models.

But he found a terminal command that could allow Sidecar on older devices. The command reads: “defaults write com.apple.sidecar.display allowAllDevices -bool YES”. While we don’t know why Apple is limiting Sidecar to a few devices now, we’re hoping this is just for the first release of the beta and that devices will be added later on.

Source: Apple Insider

These are the Mac products that can support macOS Catalina

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One of the great news from the transition into macOS Catalina is that there are a lot of devices that will support this new version. Plus, it brings a bunch of new features to Apple’s desktop platform. For one, iTunes is being split into dedicated apps: one for Apple Music, Apple Podcast, Apple Books, and Apple TV. Another is Project Catalyst, which will make it easier for developers to port iPad apps to macOS Catalina. Version 10.15 will also let you use the iPad as a second screen.

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