Following the launch of iOS 13.5 last week, Apple also released macOS Catalina 10.15.5 today. This update brings new functionality to improve Mac laptop battery life, in addition to bug fixes and performance improvements.
The biggest change in macOS 10.15.5 is a new battery health management feature. The goal of this change is to reduce chemical aging of a MacBook battery and extend its life, but without compromising battery life.
Here’s how Apple describes the feature:
The battery health management feature in macOS 10.15.5 is designed to improve your battery life by reducing the rate at which it chemically ages. The feature does this by monitoring your battery’s temperature history and its charging patterns.
Based on the metrics it collects, Battery Health Management may reduce your battery’s maximum charge in this mode. This happens as needed to ensure that your battery is recharging to an optimum level for your use, which reduces battery wear and slows down its chemical aging.
Today’s update also fixes an issue where large transfers of data to RAID volumes could prevent Finder from responding.
macOS Catalina 10.15.5 is now available through the System Preferences app for Mac users. You can check out the full patch notes for today’s update below:
macOS Catalina 10.15.5 introduces battery health management in power saving settings for laptops, an option to control the automatic prominence of video thumbnails on group FaceTime calls, and controls to fine tune the integrated calibration of your Pro Display XDR. The update also improves the stability, reliability and security of your Mac.
Battery status management
- Battery status management to help maximize battery life for Mac laptops
- The Power Saving preference pane now displays the battery status and recommends whether the battery needs service
- Option to disable battery health management
For more information, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211094
FaceTime Prominence Preference
- Option to control automatic prominence on group FaceTime calls so that video thumbnails don’t change in size when a participant speaks
Fine tuning calibration for Pro Display XDR
- Controls to fine-tune your Pro Display XDR’s built-in calibration by adjusting the white point and luminance for an exact match with your own display calibration target
This update also includes bug fixes and other improvements.
- Addresses an issue that may prevent Reminders from sending notifications for recurring reminders
- Addresses an issue that may prevent the password from being entered on the login screen
- Addresses an issue where System Preferences continue to display a notification badge even after installing an update
- Addresses an issue where the built-in camera may not be detected when trying to use it after using a video conferencing app
- Addresses an issue for Mac computers with the Apple T2 Security Chip where internal speakers may not appear as an audio output device in audio preferences
- Addresses a stability issue when uploading and downloading media files from iCloud Photo Library while your Mac is asleep
- Addresses a stability issue when transferring large amounts of data to RAID volumes
- Resolves an issue where the Reduce Motion Accessibility preference did not reduce the speed of animations in a FaceTime group call
Some features may not be available in all regions or on all Apple devices.
For more information on this update, please visit: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT210642
For detailed information about the security content of this update, please visit: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
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