Technology

MacOS Mojave, the next major update to Appledesktop operating system, will officially launch on September 24, the company today announced.

Unsurprisingly, Apple September event today was all about the new iPhone and iOS. But the company also found time to talk a bit about its desktop operating system, too.

Mojave, which has been in beta for a while now, features a new dark mode, something users have been asking for for a very long time, stacks for keeping your desktop uncluttered, an updated Finder that lets you perform more actions without having to open another app, a new screenshot app, and support for Facetime calls with up to 32 people.

Mojave will also launch with a couple of new apps that were previously only available on iOS. These include Apple News and the Stocks app, as well as a voice memo app and the Home app for managing HomeKit-enabled gadgets from your laptop. As usual, there are plenty of other updates here as well, including a refreshed Safari browser, emoji support in Mail and more.

The public beta of Mojave has been available since late June, so there are no major surprises here. Virtually every Mac that has shipped since mid-2012 will support the new operating system. It does drop support for older machines, though, but thatthe price of progress.

WeWork, the eight-year-old, 800-pound gorilla in the co-working space, hasn&t been known for being terribly acquisitive, despite the billions of dollars it has raised and its valuation, which one of its biggest investors, SoftBank, apparently believes to be approaching $35 billion. To wit, it made just one small acquisition in 2015 (Case), and one other in 2016 (Welkio).

The company is clearly beefing up its efforts to, well, beef up, however. Last year, it acquired five companies, including Meetup, asite for organizing group trips and events for which WeWork paid a reported $200 million. It meanwhile acquired three companies earlier this year, including the Chinese coworking startup Naked Hub,for which it paid $400 million.

Now, WeWork is announcing its fourth acquisition of 2018 — and its third-biggest purchase to date — with Teem, a maker of office management software for which a source says WeWork paid $100 million in cash.

The six-year-old, Salt Lake City, Utah-based outfit had raised $21.5 million from investors, including Origin Ventures, Greycroft, and NGP Capital.

WeWork appears to have picked up the company for several reasons, beginning with its ongoing quest to provide its growing base of corporate customers with bells and whistles like &insights& to help make their spaces more productive.

The two also share numerous customers, including GE, whose CTO of digital workplace technology, Jeff Monaco, went so far as to issue a statement about Teemacquisition, saying the company&suite of workplace software tools helps make our day-to-day more seamless, so our employees can focus on innovating new projects, not trying to find a conference room.& (GE, , along withGM, Samung, Salesforce, Bank of American and Bacardi are among a growing list of corporate giants to plunk their employees, or their portfolio companies, in WeWork locations.)

The move also extends the general evolution of WeWork into more of a software company and not simply a real estate play. Another aspect of its business, for example, is helping design, construct and manage services on behalf of enterprises that want some of that WeWorkje ne sais quoibut that would rather lease their own offices.

Either way, we&re told that Teem will continue to operate as an independent business line, serving its current customers from its Salt Lake City location while now also providing its services as part of WeWorkofferings, which, based on recent history, you can expect to expand even further, and fast.

Even if you don&t plan on buying a new iPhone, you&ll be able to get a bunch of new features next week. Apple plans on releasing iOS 12, the next major version of iOS, on Tuesday, September 17th.

As always, iOS 12 will be available as a free download. If your iPhone or iPad runs iOS 11, you&ll be able to update to iOS 12 as Apple plans to keep supporting all existing iOS 11 devices.

Herea quick rundown of whatnew in iOS 12. The main feature of iOS 12 is a performance improvement, especially for older devices. If you have an iPhone 6 or an iPad Air for instance, you should see a big improvement when it comes to launching apps, triggering the camera and entering text.

The other big theme of the year is new features to help you spend less time using your phone. Therea new Screen Time feature to see and control how much time you spend using each app. Notifications are now grouped and you can silence them from the lock screen. You also can turn on Do Not Disturb when you&re in a meeting, for a few hours or for longer.

Apple didn&t stop there, and added new power features as well. Developers will be able to take advantage of a new file format for augmented reality and new features in ARKit 2.0. Apple is releasing the Workflow app as a new Siri Shortcuts app. Developers will be able to add information to Siri, as well, so that you can add a boarding pass or a music playlist to Siri.

The Photos, News and Stocks apps have been improved, as well as Apple Books (the app formerly known as iBooks). Apple is introducing Memoji on the iPhone X. Ita customized avatar that you can use in iMessage and FaceTime to represent you.

If you want to learn more, read my iOS 12 preview to get my thoughts on this update.