We’ve heard a lot about iOS 17 and watchOS 10 over the past few weeks, but we’ve gotten surprisingly few macOS 14 rumors… until now. A few recent leaks have shed a little light on the secretive OS.
The first comes from Mark Gurman, appearing as a guest of The MacRumors Show, who says macOS 14 won’t be a “groundbreaking or significant” update. Gurman indicates, however, that macOS 14 will continue the recent trend of “baking in” support for features in iOS and iPadOS. That could include adding features such as a Wallet app and iCloud backups, both of which have been on iPhones for years.
Gurman said Apple’s “big push” is to get every app and feature to work on every device to eliminate all possible friction: “The dream scenario is that you own an Apple Watch, an iPhone, a MacBook, an iPad, an Apple headset, and all five of those devices are capable of doing all the same things just in different use cases and at different times of the day.”
Like iOS 17, macOS 14 is expected to be light on big new features and focus instead on maintenance and performance improvements. Gurman suggested that probably means it will have the name of a location relatively close to Ventura, much like El Capitan and Yosemite. He guessed Malibu as the name due to its proximity to Ventura.
However, Parker Ortolani on Twitter listed 15 possible macOS 14 names based on California landmarks that Apple has trademarked, and Malibu isn’t included among them:
- Condor
- Diablo
- Farallon
- Grizzly
- Mammoth
- Miramar
- Pacific
- Redtail
- Redwood
- Rincon
- Sequoia
- Shasta
- Skyline
- Sonoma
- Tiburon
As Ortolani points out, every one of Apple’s macOS California names has come from this list. Assuming macOS 14 follows this trend and uses a location close to Ventura, Rincon or Skyline are the most likely names.
You can keep up with all the latest news and rumors by bookmarking our regularly updated macOS 14 superguide.
Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor, Macworld
Michael Simon has been covering Apple for more than 20 years. He started covering rumors with Spymac when the iPod was the iWalk, and has owned nearly every iPhone Apple has ever made. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, son, and far too many gadgets.