[dropcaps style=’2′]Apple kicked off the 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday morning with its traditional keynote loaded with reports on its extend of fittings to the Mac OS X technology. It was rumoured that there would be overhauls to Mac OS X including changes to the design and improved integration with iOS gadgets.[/dropcaps]
[image src=’http://fnx.network/fnxnetwork/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/macbookairwithyosemiteannouncement.jpg’ width=’400′ height=’232′ title=” align=’left’]And boy did those rumours turn out to be true. Welcome to OS X Yosemite.
40 million distributions of the current release of Mac OS X have been installed. Mavericks has been dubbed the version as the “biggest install base” in Mac OS history according to Apple CEO Time Cook. In comparison, the “rival of Mac OS X” Windows 8 has just seen a 14 percent introduction base subsequent to its dispatch.
Craig Federighi, Senior VP of Software Engineering, demonstrated OS 10.10 at the Worldwide Developers Conference. He has shown the general look of the new Mac OS X which takes its feel from iOS including matching icons to their sister apps, which has a more translucent feel… not so much different to the theme in Ubuntu 14.
Yosemite seems to be aiming to unify a powerful search engine which not only scours the internet but your own machine so that Spotlight becomes the central place when looking for anything except your keys. To make it easier to start searching, all you have to do is click the desktop which raises an extensive inquiry bar. It begins searching as you begin typing offering file locations, web pages and even app recommendations.
[image src=’http://fnx.network/fnxnetwork/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/overview_apps_icloud_icon.png’ width=’100′ height=’100′ title=” align=’right’]One feature I find particularly interesting is the new iCloud Drive. It seems Apple is taking on Dropbox, Google Drive and SkyDrive with their own system where you can access a cloud storage from any where. From your iMac, you MacBook Air… even your parents Windows machine.
Speaking of file sharing, Mail app in Yosemite features “Mail Drop” (yes it’s like Air Drop) where the user has the capability to send up to 5Gb of attachements via a seamless integration with iCloud.
[image src=’http://fnx.network/fnxnetwork/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/overview_mac_ios_handoff_icon.png’ width=’100′ height=’100′ title=” align=’right’]Apple has listened to its user base and understands many will work on multiple devices during the day. To help productivity they have included a feature in Yosemite called Handoff. Say you are working on an article on your MacBook Pro but you want to go down to the Coffee shop to finish it but only want to take your iPad Mini… Your MacBook Pro will show a little symbol in the corner. After a swipe over by your iPad, your work will exchange promptly.
Pretty nifty!
[image src=’http://fnx.network/fnxnetwork/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/overview_mac_ios_sms_icon.png’ width=’100′ height=’100′ title=” align=’right’]Something I’m particularly excited about… Mac OS X Yosemite’s Messages app now shows SMS messages even from non-iOS clients, and likewise you can now accept calls from any Apple device when in vicinity of your iPhone… be it your iMac, or iPad.
Developers with Apple Licenses will be able to start getting their hands on Mac OS X Yosemite right now, the rest of us will have to wait. However, we at FNX have signed up for the beta program and hope to report back to you about our findings.