Shadowing Practice: macOS 27 Released! What's New? - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creating lesson...
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Okay, Apple just dropped macOS 27 Golden Gate, the Mac's next big update.
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And this one's interesting, because on the one hand, Apple's finally fixing a bunch of stuff we've asked for forever.
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But on the other hand, they're also making changes that came completely out of nowhere.
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So here's every single one of the 50 new features in just under 12 minutes.
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The first thing you notice is that your Mac now does a lot more for you automatically, just not always where you'd expect.
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Like take Finder, which when you rename a file, now intelligently suggests a new name based on what's inside.
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Or Calendar, which now lets you simply describe an event in plain English
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and then it does its best to fill all the details in for you.
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Messages now suggest quick actions, as these buttons write in the conversation, like adding an event to calendar or turning a message into a reminder.
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And that same do it for me approach shows up in Safari too, because it can now clean up your tab bar.
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It automatically sorts similar websites by topic and collapses them into a single tab you can click to expand.
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Plus on the same note, you can now tell Safari to watch any website for changes, say a price drop on a shopping site, and it will keep checking.
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But the best example of this intelligence upgrade for better or for worse has to be passwords.
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You probably know Apple's password manager already warns you about weak or leaked passwords.
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But now Apple intelligence can compromet- fix them for you.
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Now I respect the idea because I'm never gonna actually sit down and work through my 69 risky passwords one by one.
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But here's the thing, right now my passwords app can fix a single one.
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So I'm sure this will get better over time.
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But here's something weird.
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Some of the most satisfying changes this year don't feel groundbreaking at all.
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It really feels like someone at Apple stumbled across a 5 year old feedback list and thought you know what, let's just do the modern one update.
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Welcome to Long Overdue.
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You see what I mean?
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Like how many bar items finally stop vanishing
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when there is no space left and instead get tucked behind this little expandable menu.
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Or how screen recordings can finally capture the audio playing on your Mac.
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I've been waiting for this forever.
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Same with AirPods, which 10 years after their release finally get native EQ customization in settings
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and once personalized that custom EQ syncs across all the Apple devices you use with your AirPods.
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AirDrop also got an upgrade, it's supposed to be more dependable and up to 80% faster.
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And definitely long overdue, four changes in Apple Notes.
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Because you can finally add proper divider lines to split up your text, you can link to specific headings or sections inside a note
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so you can basically build an entire index for your note at the top.
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And what's more, you can now use Markdown to import and export text.
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Oh and if you use shared notes, this is much better now too.
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You can see who is currently active and even pull up the entire activity history.
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Also in notes, there are now proper drawing and annotation tools, and you can also find those in freeform.
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Speaking of which, you can now finally organize boards into folders
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and even share those folders to collab on entire projects with other people.
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Oh, and it's crazy it took this long, but boards in freeform, after all, support dark mode.
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And this is much needed macOS is now more transparent with what apps do after you close them.
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The dock now marks third-party apps that keep syncing in the background with this grayed-out dot.
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Shortcuts gets two new automation triggers.
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One can run whenever you take a screenshot and the other can trigger when you get a notification.
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And finally, Photos now lets you export and download a single video frame as an image.
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Now, before we're getting to the elephant in the room, the new smarter Siri, If there's one thing that definitely belongs in the long overdue category,
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it's this year's design fixes.
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Most of it basically being Apple going back and cleaning up a bunch of last year's changes, especially liquid glass.
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Like, check this out, in the appearance settings, there's finally a slider, which lets you fine-tune the transparency of liquid glass across the whole system.
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What's more, sidebars stretch edge to edge again, instead of floating like they did before.
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And toolbars are back with that hard edge instead of fading out the content underneath.
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And their buttons have much more contrast.
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Fun fact, the traffic lights are also glassy now and animate when you click them.
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Plus, for me, this is the design fix that should have happened a long time ago.
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Every window now has the exact same tighter corner radius again.
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Instead of the absolute anarchy we all had to go through with macOS 26.
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There's a new extra large size of desktop widgets and it works with apps like photos, notes, reminders, calendar and weather.
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And it's a small detail, but the iPhone's compact battery icon finally made it to the Mac's menu bar.
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Just like how Ethernet, when you're plugged in, finally shows in the menu bar instead of the WiFi one.
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But it's not just those tiny design fixes where Apple's playing catch up this year.
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Siri has been overdue for a proper upgrade for years.
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The good news is, the new Siri doesn't just look beautiful, it's actually good now.
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Let's speedrun the four new places where you can use Siri.
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Sure, you can still talk to it like before, that still works.
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But then Spotlight Search is now Siri and Search, so you can also type to Siri.
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Fun fact, if you right click the search bar, you can also switch this to ChatGPT and I bet even more models in the future.
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What's more, you can also right click some text, a file or image and send it straight to Siri and you can ask anything about it.
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And this works with pretty much anything you can right click.
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And then all this ends up in the brand new Siri app, which syncs those chats over iCloud so you can continue on any device.
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This is basically like the AI chatbot apps we already know, so you can upload files, continue conversations and pin important chats.
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And there's one more new way to use Siri I really want to show you.
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But first, it's not just where you can ask Siri now, it's also what you can ask.
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First, it finally knows what's happening in the outside world, and it has a pretty decent idea of what's currently going on.
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Of course, we all know we need to check AI-generated info, but this gets even easier because Siri now properly shows its sources.
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Second, it kind of knows what's going on in your world, because Siri can pull stuff from your apps.
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It basically relies on the same kind of search as Spotlight
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to find things like a website you just about remember visiting in Safari.
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And this gets way more interesting with Visual Intelligence, which is one more new way to ask Siri.
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And I dare to say, probably my favorite one.
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Point being, with Command-Shift-6, you can select part of your screen to share with Siri to remember something for you,
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add an entire schedule to your calendar, or just figure out where a place is.
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Plus, Visual Intelligence isn't just for Siri.
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You can also use this to reverse image search on Google or even scan QR codes.
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And sure, none of that feels genuinely new or revolutionary.
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But then there are a few additional AI features that kind of came out of nowhere and actually feel pretty refreshing.
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Like back to Safari, where we can literally describe any web extension in plain English
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and it gets built or coded for us in the background.
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The Shortcuts app takes this concept even further.
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By default, the new Shortcuts editor shows just a text field and you can basically prompt whatever you want to automate.
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And I feel like we can all agree, this is the sweet spot for AI, making a complicated but safe tool stupidly easy to use.
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But here's the thing, Apple didn't stop there and this is where the line gets blurry.
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Though it it starts pretty harmless.
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Everyone's most used feature, Genmoji, got an upgrade.
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It's noticeably faster and you can now combine more than one emoji into a single Genmoji.
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But then there's also a second version of Apple's image generation model, Image Playground.
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This basically means it can now generate slop in much higher quality.
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Now check this out.
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This is what the previous version created by default, and this is the new one.
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And now more than before, the focus seems to be on actually editing only parts of those images afterwards, whilst the rest stays much more consistent.
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Like you can now circle anything and then simply move it around, plus replace or remove objects entirely.
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And this isn't just about AI-generated images anymore.
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You can now make many of the same level changes to your actual photos too.
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Three new AI editing tools here.
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For starters, you might have used the Cleanup tool before.
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Probably only once, because on macOS 26, Cleanup was more like mess up.
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But it got an upgrade, because this is the exact same photo cleaned up on macOS Golden Gate.
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There's also a new extend tool so you can expand images beyond their original frame.
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It uses AI to fill in the blanks.
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And then there's even spatial reframing, so you can drag an image to change the angle that the photo was taken from.
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And I feel like sure, this is a super impressive demo of what consumer tech can do.
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But then also in most cases, why would you turn a photo of a moment that actually happened into a half-AI generated image that never did.
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But not everything new in photos is AI.
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There are also two new collections, Captured by me, which shows only photos taken on your iPhone and not by AI,
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and another one that filters only for identity documents.
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You can now also share albums using a web link, so Android or Windows users can add or download photos and videos too.
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But this album sharing now eats up your iCloud storage.
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It isn't free anymore.
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Which might also be why you can now set shared albums to expire automatically.
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Oh, and before I forget, there's something suspicious going on with macOS 27.
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In apps like Mail or Safari, you can now swipe or scroll down to refresh, which makes sense for a touchscreen.
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And just come here for a sec.
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If you use your iPad as a second Mac display with Sidecar, you can now actually control macOS with touch.
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Pair that with the new drawing tools from earlier and Apple is making the touchscreen MacBook theory.
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A very easy one to have.
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But touching on something you can actually use right now, your Mac can now live caption any video across the system.
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Plus, it can show those captions automatically when your Mac is on mute, so you still know what's being said.
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And the settings for this are actually quite buried.
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Same with a bunch of other macOS 27 exclusive settings.
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You'll find over 20 of those in this video here.
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Alright, I'll see you there.
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Thank you so much for watching and have an amazing day.

Learning English with Tech Videos: A Fun, Practical Approach

Tech videos like "macOS 27 Released! What's New?" are perfect for practicing English—they’re full of everyday phrases, casual tone, and real-world context. The speaker uses conversational language to explain new features, making it easy to follow and mimic. Whether you’re into tech or not, this video is a goldmine for improving your listening and speaking skills, especially with techniques like shadow speak.

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

  • "dropped macOS 27": "Dropped" here means "released," a common casual term for new products. Use it like: "Did you hear? They dropped the new phone model yesterday!"
  • "long overdue": Describes something that should have happened earlier. Example: "A coffee break is long overdue—let’s take 10 minutes."
  • "intelligently suggests": Means "smartly recommends." Try: "My phone intelligently suggests replies to texts when I’m busy."
  • "tucked behind": Refers to something hidden but accessible. Like: "My keys are tucked behind the book on the shelf."
  • "elephant in the room": A obvious issue no one mentions. Use: "The elephant in the room is that we need to talk about the project delay."

Step-by-Step Shadowing Guide for This Video

Shadowing is a great way to improve English pronunciation and fluency, and this video is ideal for practicing. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Listen first, then repeat: Watch the video once to understand the main points. Then, pause after 5-10 seconds of dialogue and repeat exactly what the speaker says—copy their tone, speed, and pauses. This is the core of the shadowing technique.
  2. Focus on connected speech: The speaker uses phrases like "on the one hand" and "so here's" that flow together. Notice how words link (e.g., "what's new" becomes "wuhz new"). Mimic this to sound more natural.
  3. Use short clips for precision: Pick a section about a feature you like (e.g., AirDrop or Notes). Repeat it 3-5 times until you can say it without pausing. This helps with tricky words like "customization" or "annotation."
  4. Record yourself: Compare your recording to the video. Did you stress the right words? (The speaker emphasizes "finally" and "crazy"—copy that!) This feedback will boost your pronunciation fast.

Learning English with videos doesn’t have to be hard. With a shadowing site and consistent practice, you’ll notice progress in no time. Start with this tech video—its mix of casual and technical language is perfect for building real-world skills. Happy shadowing!

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.