Apple announced OS X 10.10, the latest iteration to its desktop operating system at WWDC 2014. OS X 10.10 named Yosemite has been completely designed to a flat new UI like the iOS 7 design. The built-in apps have been refined with new enhanced features and looks entirely fresh.
The bold new design is coupled with features that enable better integration and communication between iOS and OS X. The improvements are widely seen throughout the OS with its new look, which apple claims has been refined “App by app. Feature by feature. Pixel by pixel.”.
OS X 10.10 has been given a fresh coat of paint with clearer controls, easy to understand and streamlined toolbars to put focus onto content without affecting functionality. The elements have been given a translucent touch to given a sense of depth between windows.
All app icons have been cleaned up with a flat design and a new system wide font through out OS X 10.10 Yosemite.
Notification Center
Notification center has upgraded with “Today” feature that was introduced in iOS 7 Notification center, the Today panel now includes third-party widgets along with the other elements like stock,weather, reminders and upcoming events in calendar. This is a move to get more information in a glance than rather a place for all notifications to pile up.
Spotlight
Spotlight has been improved to search for more stuff than ever. The newly designed spotlight opens a search box right in the middle on the screen. The improvements have been made to search results with better preview directly from the search. Information from sources like Wikipedia, Bing and maps can be looked up from the spotlight in OS X 10.10 Yosemite.
Safari
Safari has been always upgraded to match the current web standards which has been revamped with a cleaner layout and better search integration. A streamlined toolbar and integrated share menu all dressed in the new flat UI, along with a new tab view with preview of all the open tabs.
Apple claims Safari JavaScript code runs 6 times faster than other browsers in the market. It was mentioned that the latest version has improved multi-tab support with better energy efficiency overall while browsing.
Mail app for OS X has been improved to make editing and sending attachments seamless than ever. Now with markup and ability to annotate images and PDF’s within the Mail app. A new feature that got everyone’s attention is Mail Drop, which allows file attachment up to 5GB from Mail app to any email.
iCloud Drive
iCloud until now only let developers integrate iCloud into their applications to share and sync files across multiple devices. iCloud Drive lets you store any type of file on iCloud and access it on any device. iCloud Drive allows organization of files in the cloud just like any other cloud services but with a better OS X native integration. Apple says that iCloud Drive files will sync across Macs and Windows PCs as well.
Continuity – Seamless iOS and OS X Integration
The integration of mobile and desktop operating system starts with Messaging and Phone calls, OS X 10.10 improves iMessages to handle SMS messages from your iDevice. Phone calls can be made or received for iPhone directly from a Mac.
Air Drop has been updated to allow sharing of files between mobile devices and macs. Handoff is a new feature on OS X which allows your to share work across devices. You can start writing an email on one device and continue finishing it on another device without any hassle.
OS X 10.10 is a bold step in a new direction, keeping the way system works the same with a much-needed visual refresh. The update is major focused on deep integration between different apple devices. The update shows apple is working into a better ecosystem where sharing and syncing will be smooth.
OS X 10.10 will be available for free just like OS X 10.9 Mavericks, It will be available to public in fall. Join the free public beta program for Yosemite for quick access right now. Registered Mac developers can download OS X 10.10 developer preview at developer.apple.com.
[…] importantly, the October event will see the public release of the OS X Yosemite. Coming to the products that will be updated in the next event, new iPad and iMacs are coming for […]