The top new features in Apple's OS X Yosemite
Eveybody expected Apple to announce an upddate to its operating system at WWDC 2014, so nobody was surprised when OS X 10.10 – aka Yosemite – was unveiled by software engineering senior vice president Craig Federighi.
Yosemite sports a revamped design, improvements to its core apps and a new “Continuity” feature, which integrates iOS and Mac devices.
Here are the main things you need to know about Apple’s new desktop operating system …
1) No more big cats
Starting with OS X 10.0 (Puma), Apple has named its OS X upgrades after big cats – from Cheetah, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger and Leopard to Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion. But the big cats are no more. Starting with OS X 10.9 Mavericks, Apple has moved on to Californian locations. Mavericks is a popular surfing beach, while the new Yosimite is named after a national park (and not Yosemite Sam, the popular Warner Bros cartoon character).
2) Continuity
Continuity in Yosemite basically means that your Mac and iOS devices can work better together. When your iPhone or iPad is near your Mac, Handoff lets you start an activity on one device and pass it to the other. Instant Hotspot makes using your iPhone’s hotspot as easy as connecting to a wi-fi network. And the SMS and MMS messages that previously only appeared on your iPhone will appear in Messages on all your devices. You can even send SMS or MMS messages directly from your Mac and make or receive iPhone calls using your Mac as a speakerphone.⁴
3) Today View
Apple says that the new Today view in Notification Center gives users a quick look at everything they need to know with widgets for Calendar, Weather, Stocks, Reminders, World Clock and social networks.
4) Spotlight
Search functionality has been revamped, and now a big search bar appears in the middle of the screen. Not only can you search for documents and contacts locally, Spotlight is able to pull down content from the the web and bring up results from Wikipedia or Maps.
5) The Flat Interface
Yes, OS X 10.10 takes a leaf out of iOS7’s book – as well as its look and feel. The dock, typeface, OS X app icons, windows and more all borrow from iOS 7’s flat design. So if you’re a fan of iOS 7’s design, you’re going to be very happy with Yosemite.
6) iCloud Drive
This Dropbox rival allows you to store files and folders in the iCloud, sync them across all OS X and iOS devices and access them from the Finder. it will also be compatible with Windows.
7) Safari
Apple says that in OS X 10.10, Safari has a new streamlined design that puts the most important controls at users’ fingertips. A new Favorites view gives you quick access to your favorite websites, and a new Tabs view displays thumbnails of all your open web pages in one window. Safari also gives you more control over privacy, with separate Private Browsing windows and built-in support for the non-tracking search engine DuckDuckGo.
8) Mail
Apple has upgraded the built-in OS X the Mail app, and it now has the ability to sent 5GB attachments using the cloud. The new MailDrop feature allows users to upload a file of up to 5GB and creates a secure link, which can be sent to users – along similar lines to WeTransfer.
