For Apple, it's that time of year, and by "that time" we mean the time of year when it unloads new iPhones, unveils a new line of accessories, rolls out significant updates to iOS, launches a new MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and begins in earnest its transition away from using Intel chips to using its own silicon...
Safari gets a host of new updates including added customization and stronger privacy controls. Apple is also claiming that Safari is now 50 percent faster than Google Chrome while at the same time adding Chrome-like features... including favicons in tabs and a built-in translator for converting web pages that aren't rendered in the language your computer or laptop is set to.
Control Center might not be the sexiest feature of macOS, but the fact that it's now on desktop (formerly it was only available on iOS) makes it pretty noteworthy. Just like iOS, users can now drag and drop their preferred controls and favorites to the bar so it contains only the tools they want / need most.
To set Control Center tools, Navigate to System Preferences > Dock & Menu Bar and scroll down to Other Modules.
If you're noticing a trend in the Big Sur updates, it's because a lot of the tweaks revolve around tightening up the macOS interface and streamlining features that are already there. The same can be said for the new Notification Center which groups notifications by app, making them (hopefully) easier to digest. They're also interactive, so you can launch relevant apps straight from the notification bar.
The biggest fixture of Apple's "One more thing" announcement last month was the introduction of the M1, its very own ARM-based processor that will go into its current and future products. Through Big Sur, we're already starting to see the type of tight integration between iOS and macOS M1 enables. For instance, Big Sur now allows users to download some iPad and iOS apps.