Big Sur Gripes & Greats

Gripe: Widgets Ain’t Interactive

When macOS Catalina eliminated Dashboard, whose Calculator widget I relied on for quick calculations, I switched to the Calculator widget in Notification Center. Now, Big Sur shifts Notification Center widgets to display-only, similar to what’s offered on iOS.

Since the new Control Center feature isn’t yet very customizable, I guess I’ll be picking up my iPhone for the simple math for now.

P.S. There’s also a bug in Notification Center wherein it doesn’t retain its scroll position after closure. Every time I reopen, it’s back at the top. I’ve submitted feedback to Apple.

Great: Power Saving Dreams

I usually use my six month old 13″ MacBook Pro plugged into power, however I unplug it when I put it to sleep for the night (just like me).

Before upgrading, the computer tended to lose 5–10% of its charge overnight. Since upgrading, I find that the charge remains steady at 100% when I wake the Mac in the morning.

Gripe: Hidden Filters

For several versions, Mail has offered a filter with the easy ability to show only messages matching certain criteria. I haven’t used the filter that often, but I’ve found it most helpful for triaging unread mail or finding messages with the largest attachments.

In earlier versions, the filter criteria appeared in a popover, a type of interface that supports multiple clicks before closing. In Big Sur, Mail moves all of the sort and filter criteria to standard menus, which only support one click at a time.

You can still access the filter criteria by long-pressing on the Filter button at the top of the sidebar. (They’re also in the View menu.) Otherwise, the only alternative I can think of is to map a series of keyboard shortcuts to various criteria I use most—and then try to remember them.

Also, the bar that housed the sort and filter options sported the hidden ability, when clicked, to scroll the message list all the way up—just like the status bar on iOS. Lacking that bar, there’s no longer as easy a way to jump to the top.

Great: Mail Keeps Position

Mail has offered a Unified Inbox for several years and also shows “related messages”—sent mail part of the same conversation. However, its implementation fails to delete the sent messages when deleting the received ones from the inbox.

To cope with this shortcoming, I have a smart mailbox called Conversations that unifies my inboxes and sent boxes (criteria shown above). When I feel a conversation is over and doesn’t need to stick around, I can delete the whole thing, without concern that some messages will get left behind.

All this is to say that Conversations is my primary view in Mail, but under Catalina, Mail randomly and unceremoniously reverted me to the Inbox. As of Big Sur, this bug is gone and I happily remain in Conversations until I’m ready to go.

Toss Up: Control Center vs. Status Menus

Apple did a nice job consolidating a bunch of functionality into the new Control Center, which appears on the menu bar to the left of the clock. There are controls for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Brightness, Sound, and more, with an arrangement similar to iOS.

Some of these features retain the status menus they’ve always had. I assume this is because folks are used to finding them there. However, with Big Sur menus being more spread out on the menu bar, Control Center makes it feasible to remove a few of them.

Plus, Control Center retains the hidden functionality of those menus. For example, for more details about the current Wi-Fi connection, you can Option+click on the Wi-Fi menu. Likewise, you can get all the same details by Option+clicking on “Wi-Fi” in Control Center.

I already use Bartender to show more items in the menu bar than normally fit, however I’ve decided to remove Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Sound. I hope to see an increase in Control Center’s functionality and customization options.