New Video shows magnifier for Mac In Action

In complementing its Music Haptics video, Apple earlier this week posted a video to its YouTube channel which demonstrates the forthcoming Magnifier for Mac app in use. The software is a headliner amongst the slew of accessibility-focused enhancements the company previewed as part of its Global Accessibility Awareness Day celebration.

The Magnifier for Mac video, embedded here, shows a student using it during a lecture.

The quick glimpses of the new-to-macOS Magnifier app reveal the software to be quite robust. At a technical level, it’s also abundantly clear Apple took the building blocks for Continuity Camera to assemble Magnifier for Mac. I’m excited to try it out for myself on my M2 MacBook Air, but do wonder about clipping my iPhone to the laptop’s display. Will Apple be selling a first-party mount? My guess is no, considering the company already sells a Belkin-branded mount for Mac notebooks. There’s a similar accessory for Apple TV 4K to use for FaceTime calls. Whatever the case, it’ll be interesting to see how accessible these mounts are to manipulate, motor-wise. It’s important people realize not everyone can attach their phone to the mount, then to a display, so easily.

The moral is Magnifier for Mac has a multi-layered accessibility story that goes beyond sheer software. The app seems eminently capable, but is usable only if the mount is too.