Apple just released their latest and greatest Mac OS X version, 10.15 a.k.a. Catalina. This release is the final coffin for 32-bit applications, as it goes full 64-bit. Whilst this may seem alien to some readers, it basically means that there are old applications that worked on Mojave (10.14) that will stop working on Catalina. You’ll know which ones when you upgrade you Mac — it will list these 32-bit applications that you can no longer enjoy. That being said, I find there are several new features that are worth the upgrade — here’s a rundown of my favorites. 1.  Sidecar. I used to use a third-party application named Duet on my Mac and iPad — to allow the iPad to be used as an extended display. Catalina comes with this feature baked in, for free, and works better. With Catalina and iPadOS 13.1, logged on the same Apple ID and on the same WiFi network, with Handoff turned on on the Mac, you can trigger Sidecar to automatically use that iPad Pro as your extended display. 2.  Apple TV, Podcast, Apple Books and Music killed iTunes. Finally, the behemoth iTunes application is now gone, replaced with four different applications: Apple TV for your TV series and movies, Podcast for your favorite podcast client, Apple Books for those audiobooks, and, of course, Music, for what else, your music. One thing that you might miss, though, is the iPhone back-up functionality. That one is now on Finder, where it makes more sense, as all other devices connected to the Mac appear there. 3.  Apple Arcade. Not that I play games on the computer that often, but this one, paired with your favorite game controller, in my case the Xbox wireless controller, gives you that bigger game experience as your iPhone. 4.  Approve with Apple Watch. If you have your Apple Watch configured to automatically log you in on your Mac, this new functionality will allow you use your watch (double click on the side button) to approve some processes that need authentication. 5.  Enhanced Reminders. The new functionalities added to Reminders give it a much needed boost — making it up to par with third-party reminders applications. Nothing beats having an application that automatically syncs with all your other devices. 6.  Enhanced Gatekeeper, Data protection and System Volume protection. System volume protection means that the drive partition where Catalina resides is now made read-only, preventing third-party applications from overriding important system files. This is paired with an enhanced Gatekeeper where third-party applications, from the Mac App Store or from the internet, are checked for known security issues. Finally, third-party applications that require access to your Documents, Desktop, Downloads folders, iCloud Drive, etc., all prompt you for access permission before they are given access. It might be annoying at first, but it is there to prevent malware from unauthorized access. 7.  Screen Time. Apple finally brings this to the Mac. Now you get an integrated view of how much time you’ve spent in front of the screen, whether on your Mac, iPad or iPhone. Wondering, though, if this will soon add the Apple TV. So there you have it — my short list of favorite new Catalina features. There are other new features and improvement available, like Catalyst, for example. However, just like in iOS upgrading, make sure that you back-up your data first, and also ensure that all your third-party applications are compatible. It is a full 8GB download, so make sure that you have enough space. Enjoy!