- OS X Yosemite review: 6 months later. The iMore team is back at it to talk once more about Apple's national-park-named operating system.' Yosemite is the first version of OS X for me where.
- Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite review OS X 10.10 is a perfectly appropriate name: it's the best OS X ever, but it's still OS X. When it downloads and installs onto your machine, you'll hardly even notice.
- OS X Yosemite is a big leap forward for OS X's user interface and the way it interacts with iOS. Like Mavericks before it, OS X Yosemite is available for free on the Mac App Store.
- Yosemite introduced a major overhaul of OS X's user interface, emphasizing flat graphic design over skeuomorphism, following the aesthetic introduced with iOS 7. It is the first major redesign of the OS X user interface since 10.5 Leopard. Other changes include thinner fonts and blurred translucency effects.
In our Mac OS X Mavericks vs Mac OS X Yosemite comparison review we compare the user interfaces, feature sets and overall performance of Mavericks and Yosemite,.
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DigitalTrends ^ | October 17, 2014 | Matt Smith
Posted on 10/19/2014 12:19:47 AM PDT by Swordmaker
OS X Yosemite is the perfect desktop operating system for people who just want to get stuff done.
In early 2012, Apple CEO Tim Cook famously compared Microsoft's attempt to make Windows an OS that's friendly to tablets, notebooks and desktops alike akin to combining a refrigerator with a toaster. Consumers have largely agreed with this criticism, if Windows 8's and 8.1's paltry usage numbers are any indication. However, some enjoy having mobile features integrated into their PC.
This is the kind of tough problem that Apple has been adept at tackling, and Yosemite is its latest attempt to make the magic work for everyone that has bought in to its ecosystem.
Unlike Windows, which fully embraced a mobile-ish interface, but failed to bring desktop-friendly mobile features along for the ride, OS X Yosemite is dedicated to serving notebook and desktop users. At the same time, it adds mobile functionality where it matters.
The result is a wonderful operating system that provides the best of both worlds without slipping into a compromised, hybridized approach.
Yosemite's new look
While it's still a desktop operating system at heart, Yosemite borrows design elements from iOS to unify the look of Apple's devices. This comes in the form of design changes that gives the software's aesthetics a more flat look. Apps and icons that emulate the texture of their real-world counterparts are out. Colorful, abstract alternatives are in.
No individual part of Continuity is incredible on its own. As a whole, though, it does feel a bit like magic. Most of the changes are cosmetic, but a few impact usability. The system font has changed from Lucida Grande, to Helvetica Neue. The latter is easier to read at high resolutions, and the flatter look of apps makes them easier to use, even if they're not as attractive as they once were.
The Contacts app provides the best example of this. What was once a bloated notebook, is now a simple white sheet. Finder has been updated too, with a roomier sidebar, brighter folder icons, and some tweaked button design.
These changes sound more important than they actually are. We've used Yosemite since the first beta was released, and we can assure you the new design is easy to navigate. Within a week we'd largely forgotten about the update altogether. A quick refresher tour through Mavericks was required to remind us that the look had changed at all.
Regardless of what your opinions of Yosemite's new looks are, the changes won't impede your ability to use the newest version of OS X.
Continuity just works, for the most part
Nothing in Yosemite is a better example of its approach to mobile integration than Continuity, which is a phrase that includes four separate features.
Continuity lets Mac owners with an iPhone send text messages and make phone calls directly from their computer. It also lets any Mac owner with an iOS device transfer app sessions between devices with a single touch.
Setting up Continuity is as simple as ticking a checkbox, and the feature is turned on by default. Your Mac, iPhone, and iPad should 'just work' together if they're all connected to a common iCloud account, and they're within Bluetooth range of each other.
We instantly fell in love with Continuity. The text-messaging feature is arguably the most useful of the bunch, as it lets Mac owners use a method of communication that's usually specific to smartphones directly from the desktop. Sending a text through the Message app on a Mac is easier than doing the same on an iPhone.
Calling from a Mac is a bit less impressive since it's effectively the same as making a call on speakerphone, but it's a nice addition. We particularly like the integration with Safari. Phone numbers are automatically highlighted, and can be called with a single click.
Speaking of Safari, the Web browser serves takes the spotlight in Handoff. Browser sessions can be instantly transferred between an iPhone, iPad and Mac with the touch of an icon. This is handy, and works in a flash.
We instantly fell in love with Continuity. However, at this point, it's only available in apps that span the iOS and OS X platforms (like Safari, Mail, Maps, Notes and the iWork suite). Developers can use Handoff in third-party apps, but it remains to be seen whether the feature will be widely embraced.
Last but not least is Instant Hotspot, which works just the way it sounds. Using Yosemite, and a hotspot-capable iPhone, you can create a hotspot without touching your phone. You can only use it if you have a hotspot plan through your carrier, however, so this isn't the end-run around mobile data plans that some hopelessly optimistic fans had predicted.
No individual part of Continuity is incredible on its own. As a whole, though, it does feel a bit like magic. Features that are generally specific to mobile phones are now useable in Yosemite, yet they're accessed through a familiar desktop interface. Plus, there's virtually no setup involved.
The only downside is the fact that you have to buy into Apple's ecosystem in order to take advantage of Continuity. There are no plans to make these features work with other platforms.
A prettier face for Facetime (and Messages)
The addition of Continuity means users will be seeing the Messages and Facetime apps more than ever before. They've received updates to handle the increased attention they'll get.
Out of the many new features added to Yosemite, our favorite is undoubtedly Spotlight's new interface. Messages has been revised into an SMS/Internet messaging hybrid that supports group conversations, attachments, and audio messages as well. Users can also transfer conversations to an iOS device with Handoff, and send screen-sharing invites as well.
The updates to Facetime are more modest, and revolve around making Yosemite's call connectivity feature work. Users can now access their iCloud call history, and call waiting too. Mac owners can also answer directly from the login screen, which is helpful when you're receiving an unexpected call.
One feature that's missing, strangely, is a dial pad. Yosemite only lets users call from Contacts, Maps, or Safari.
Both apps have received a new layer of paint that brings their aesthetics in line with the look of Yosemite. For the most part, this means each app looks like its iOS counterpart on iOS 7/8. Both have a clean interface, with few options to distract or confuse users.
All hail desktop search
Out of the many new features added to Yosemite, our favorite is undoubtedly Spotlight's new interface. We praised Yosemite's desktop search feature in our preview, and we still stand by that sentiment.
To be clear, Spotlight is not entirely new. It has been a part of OS X for years. What's new is the desktop search interface that appears when Spotlight is summoned using a keyboard shortcut, or from its menu bar icon (it does not appear when Spotlight is used through Finder).
This new interface consists of a small box that shows results directly in the middle of the display. It isn't a window, though it does look like one. It doesn't appear in Mission Control, and it can't be moved or re-sized. That's both a positive and a negative. It can be annoying if it appears on top of content you'd like to see, but it also can't get lost in a mess of open windows. Your last search result is always saved, and it will reappear when you open Spotlight again.
Search results are pulled from both local, and online sources. However, that's not revolutionary. Windows 8.1 currently boasts this feature. What makes Spotlight better is how it cleverly summarizes information, though.
Want to know how many ounces are in a cup? There's no need to open a browser. Just ask Spotlight. The same goes for most math equations, along with Dictionary, Mail, and iTunes. Search provides summaries of websites too, including Wikipedia, so you can find a quick answer to simple questions within seconds.
All of this functionality doesn't detract from Spotlight's core function, however. It's still a great way to search for files on your computer. Any file saved to your Mac or iCloud account is instantly indexed, and search-able. During our time with Yosemite, we found that Spotlight is now so accurate and quick that it nearly renders Finder redundant.
Mac Os Yosemite Review
That, in turn, makes OS X more understandable for users who find navigating files and folders a bit intimidating.
A trek through Safari
New versions of OS X also bring a new version of Safari, and Yosemite is no different in this regard. A brighter, flatter appearance has replaced the dark, textured look of the previous version, but that's just a fraction of the story. Apple has added or tweaked a long list of features.
Interface elements have been compacted, which results in a slightly narrower title bar, and more room for content when Safari is used in full-screen mode. Search is now a tiny line flanked by a few options, some of which (like refresh) are context-sensitive. The new Safari takes lessons from Spotlight, and provides excellent search previews that can include brief summaries, and thumbnails. It'll even display open tabs from devices that are connected to your iCloud account if they are relevant to your search query.
Mac OS X Yosemite is an excellent operating system. In the revised Top Sites tab, you'll find taller previews, which is a sensible change that vibes better with the fact that websites show content by scrolling vertically. A Favorites view that shows frequently accessed and bookmarked sites is now available as an alternative to Top Sites. Safari's sidebar has been slightly updated too, abandoning the blue bulletin points of Mavericks in favor of simpler, more compact arrows.
Tab management has been improved with a Tabs button that opens an interface which is similar to Mission Control. All open tabs are displayed and grouped by Web domain, so they can be easily identified and dismissed. This same view shows any open Safari tabs on other Macs and iOS devices registered to your iCloud account. Anyone who works with multiple tabs on a regular basis will adore this addition.
Sharing is better, thanks to the addition of a share button that's almost identical to the one found in iOS (but it opens a list rather than an icon grid). The share menu supports all major social networks except Google Plus by default. It also provides quick access to Airdrop, which can be used to share content between Apple devices that aren't registered to the same iCloud account. This feature works between Mac and iOS, and is extremely handy when you'd like to show a friend a Web link, but don't want to re-type the address, or post it to Facebook.
Apple has boasted that Safari is up to six times faster than competing browsers. That represents an ideal situation in a specific benchmark, so it's not representative of everyday use. However, we were surprised to see Safari score 3,554 in the Futuremark Peacekeeper benchmark on a mid-2012 Intel Core i5 MacBook Air. That essentially ties Google Chrome's result of 3,531 on the same machine. Safari has made major strides in performance over the last few years.
Benchmarks aside though, Safari still feels a bit slow. Web pages load about as quickly as they do in other browsers, and using them feels smooth even with high-resolution images and video on-screen. Switching between tabs or the new tab management interface results in momentary jerks and starts though. While it's not a deal-breaker, the difference between Safari and Chrome, which is much smoother when numerous tabs are open, is noticeable.
Floating through iCloud
Yosemite adds support for Apple's recently introduced iCloud Drive, which is a cloud storage service that comes with every iCloud account (and is thus enabled when you register a new Mac, iPhone or iPad). Users receive 5GB of storage for free, but you can pay to get more if you want.
Yosemite borrows design elements from iOS to unify the look of Apple's devices. 5GB is alright, but it's a lot less than what competitors like Dropbox, Google, and Microsoft offer. We're not sure why Apple didn't choose to blow away the competition by starting users off with 10GB to 15GB instead. On top of that, the storage that's available covers everything in your iCloud account including backups. In our case, backups consumed a whopping 2GB of space, leaving just 3GB available for other uses.
There's also an understandable, but unfortunate barrier between iOS and OS X files. While Apple claims that users can access Drive on both, whether you'll be able to use files between the two platforms depends on the software you use. Anyone with iWork will find integration to be seamless, but users who rely on third-party software are out of luck (for now, at least).
At least managing iCloud Drive is easy. Unlike competing services that use a local client paired with a Web interface, iCloud is handled entirely through OS X System Preferences. There's a website too, but users don't have to open it to access storage, delete backups, or even buy more space.
A useful feature that's easily missed is the addition of Family Sharing. This lets users designate up to six iCloud accounts (the family organizer, and five family members) as a family. All members of the family receive immediate access to media, books, and apps purchased by other family members through the Apple App Store. There's also a family photo album, a family calendar, and family reminders.
Family Sharing will save large families time and money, but there's no reason why a group has to consist of a traditional family. You can just as easily link with close friends, roommates, or your significant other.
Invisible notifications
In our preview of Yosemite, we talked about the Notification Center, a new sidebar that slides out from the right side of the screen when accessed through the appropriate menu bar icon. In our imagination, we saw ourselves constantly accessing it to catch up on the latest news. In practice, however, we barely touched it.
There are two reasons for this. One is that iOS and OS X notify users as events occur. If you have either in your possession, you're likely to dismiss a notification when it appears. We found little need to access the Notification Center because the message it sent had already been received, and anything that was missed was more likely to be accessed from an iPhone or iPad than from a Mac.
We also found that we tend to keep Facebook and Twitter open in their own Safari tabs when using Yosemite, further reducing the need for Notification Center. Integrating social networks into an operating system is a great idea, but it's less important on a desktop system that can easily handle multiple tasks than on a mobile device that displays just one app at a time.
The Notification Center also failed to pull us in with its widgets. In theory, they provide a quick view of the calendar, weather, stocks, and other information. In reality, the information in each space is so limited that it's nearly pointless. Want to view more calendar information? You need the calendar app. Want more weather? You'll need a website for that. The only widget we found useful is the calculator, but even that is readily accessible through Spotlight.
More customization could help, and it's possible that third parties will step in to add better widgets or improve the interface. As it stands though, the Notifications Center is a bit of a miss. It doesn't hurt the Yosemite experience, but it fails to add anything compelling.
Conclusion
Mac OS X Yosemite is an excellent operating system that deftly adds mobile features without compromising the function of the desktop space. In this sense, it's light-years ahead of Windows 8.1. Continuity, Spotlight, and the new version of Safari are way ahead of the default features Microsoft provides in Windows.
There are a few problems. We're particularly annoyed by iCloud Drive, which bakes cloud storage right into the operating system, but simultaneously provides far less space than it should. We were also surprised by how little impact the Notification Center has on everyday use.
Even with those issues though, this free update is clearly better than Windows 8.1, and is also a major leap forward from OS X Mavericks. While more configurable operating systems will always win the love of enthusiasts looking to tweak every last variable, Yosemite is the clear choice for desktop owners who just want to get things done.
Highs
- Great, new features
- Makes life easier for iOS device owners
- Free
- Stays true to the desktop experience
Lows
- Notifications center isn't really needed
- Safari is slow with lots of tabs open
- Default iCloud Drive storage is light
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Appreciate the great thread. Thanks
Not really liking the new Safari much...task bar is a bit too small for my old eyes, and the 'favicons' being removed from the bookmark sidebar menu is a BIG thumbs down! Also Yahoo IM got killed by the update (my dear old Mom sill uses it!) and there is no update/replacement from Yahoo. Otherwise, OS X Yosemite is fine, and I have yet to try some of the new 'continuity' features and I haven't got into the newer 'iCloud Drive' yet.
For nearly two decades, the release of a new PC operating system was an event. Upgrading cost money; you had to go to the store to get the necessary floppy disk or a CD; the new OS was expected to be different and better in basically every way. I'll never forget the first time I booted Windows XP, or the day I finally got to jump again to Windows 7.
The last few years, Apple's taken a decidedly simpler approach. It still rents event space and touts the new features, but your new operating system arrives more like an tune-up than a new car. You open the app store, click a button, and poof: a few things change but everything stays mostly the same.
This year's model, OS X 10.10 Yosemite, is a little different. It comes with a stylistic overhaul, a new and cleaner coat of paint for your Mac. And it improves most of Apple's built-in apps, from Mail to Maps and everything in between. But the reason Yosemite feels bigger, more important, is that it feels like the beginning of something new for Apple. OS X still looks like OS X, but Yosemite turns your Mac into more than just a PC. It turns it into both hub and spoke of a constantly connected, conversing ecosystem of Apple products, in which you're able to do anything you want on any device you want.
Yosemite doesn't promise to make my Mac look like my iPhone; it promises to make them work together constantly. Perfectly.
That would be a big event.
Our original preview of Yosemite, from July.
It took about six hours for me to mostly forget that I was using Yosemite. That's not to say it doesn't look different — it does. It's just that the new look feels familiar, only slightly more refined, like the finished version of what came before. After downloading and installing the update (which took about 25 minutes and a little over 5GB of disk space), I had a new wallpaper, the mountain face against pink and purple sky. All the fonts were suddenly a little smaller and a lot more Helvetica Neue (and also pretty pixelated unless I was on a Retina screen). All the icons were a little flatter. I'd love to say I have feelings about the translucency in the sidebars and menu bars of Apple's apps, which shows a bit of the app behind whatever you're looking at, but I don't. I stopped noticing it almost immediately. (Of course, that's partly because a lot of apps haven't even updated to support translucency yet. You can also turn it off really easily.)
It's a cleaner, calmer, more balanced look that I like a lot, even if I did change my background immediately. But there's still a dock at the bottom of my screen, still a menu bar at the top, still the same settings and options and gestures and keyboard shortcuts. Yosemite is a new look — but it's not a new idea.
Yosemite only changed a few things about the way I use my Mac. Some are small: there's no 'full-screen' button in the top right corner of the window, you just press the green button in the stoplight menu. Spotlight doesn't pop up in the corner of your screen, but in the center, in a gray window like Alfred. I have a fraught relationship with the new Spotlight, by the way: it's much more powerful, showing movie times and map results and topical Wikipedia pages, but it can't do a simple Google search, and it would rather show me emails that reference Taylor Swift than actually help me play 'Out Of The Woods.' Spotlight is so close to right, but I still use Alfred every time.
The biggest change was that I started using Safari again. A lot. Safari is so incredibly fast to load pages that I almost think it's cheating. The list of frequently visited sites that appears every time you click on the address bar is incredibly handy, as is the visual tab switcher. I'm a habitual opener of hundreds of tabs, and I've never found an easier way to wade through the morass and find what I'm looking for. If you're not forever married to another browser, Safari is very much worth a shot.It looks different… and yet the same
For all the talk of convergence and of the ever-shrinking gap between PC and smartphone and tablet, Yosemite almost makes a statement in its lack of fundamental change. It's not Windows 10, with big ideas about how our devices are just different sizes of the same thing, how the interface and settings and apps should be consistent everywhere. Microsoft believes in a single experience for all devices; Apple believes every device ought to have its own. This is still a PC operating system, made for devices with mice and keyboards and trackpads. It feels outdated in places – the whole idea of the 'desktop' just feels pointless, and saving and organizing files is still more complex than it should be in the age of limitless searchable cloud storage — but it's true to what Apple believes in.
Plus, there's a lot more to Yosemite than the desktop. The best features, the most important and innovative features, do affect every device you own — as long as you own Apple devices. They don't all look or work the same, but they work together better than ever.
If you're using an iPhone or iPad running iOS 8.1 and a Mac running Yosemite, have Bluetooth on, and are logged into the same iCloud account and Wi-Fi network on both devices, your devices will suddenly begin to constantly talk to each other. After a surprisingly convoluted setup process (you need to change settings in three different apps on two different platforms, and enter a passcode), when your phone rings, so does your Mac.
You can actually even make and receive calls from your computer, which has more than once saved me from missing calls while digging for my phone in my bag. AirDrop finally works between Mac and iOS, meaning you can easily send photos and files between phone and computer. (FINALLY.) You can remotely activate the personal hotspot feature on the iPhone and use it to connect your Mac to the internet, which I've already needed a few times because Time Warner Cable is a nightmare.
My favorite feature of the Continuity group, and probably the thing about Yosemite that most changed how I go about my day, is that Messages now lets you send SMS text messages from your computer. That means I can finally text my Moto X-toting girlfriend without having to constantly pick up and put down my phone. It's already made me more likely to quickly (or ever) respond to someone's texts. Messages do still occasionally sit in the iMessage hell of existing on one device but not others, but I can't overstate how much I like texting from my laptop.
Sharing data between devices is automatic, once you get the setup right, and surprisingly pervasive. Whenever you open a new tab on your Mac, or start composing an email or text, an icon appears in the bottom left corner of the iPhone's lock screen; swipe it up and you'll go right to where you were on your PC. It works the opposite way, too, the icon showing up to the left of your dock on the Mac. It doesn't always work the way I expected, though; there's no rhyme or reason to when in the message-composition process the icon will appear on my phone, and sometimes the icon on my Mac opens Chrome but not a new page. Everything works most of the time, but it's not quite seamless yet.
When Continuity works, it's amazing
As long as they work, all these features together make the case for buying a Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad better than Apple ever has before. iTunes wasn't compelling enough; neither were any previous iterations of iCloud. Now, the three devices feel synced and aligned in a totally automatic, uncomplicated way. I can do anything from anywhere, each device suited best to certain things. (This is the idea Windows had long ago, and I hope Microsoft is taking a few notes on execution.) Next, I hope more apps start to take advantage, letting me move image edits and my spot in videos and the like between devices. This is a killer feature with huge possibilities, and I hope Apple and its developers all make real use of it.
There's more to Yosemite, including lots of behind-the-scenes changes and graphics improvements and more access to built-in apps, Finder, the sharing menu, and Notification Center. There are also a number of features borrowed from iOS and sort of hidden around your Mac. The Today view in the Notification Center is handy, and I like having my calendar and a few widgets just a two-finger swipe away, but I keep forgetting it's even there — and the Mac's handling of notifications is as messy as ever. (Which is to say, as messy as iOS still is.) Developers will hopefully quickly start to take advantage of Extensions, to let you essentially use an app within another app.
If your hardware supports it, you should upgrade to OS X Yosemite. There's really no reason not to, unless translucency makes you want to pull your hair out. In the time I've been using it I've found zero crippling bugs, few bugs whatsoever, and plenty of improvements both aesthetic and functional. It's more secure, faster, and better all around.Yosemite is just a collection of smart, small changes
The best and worst thing I can say about Yosemite is that I mostly forgot about it. It's stable and fast and utterly familiar. Everything works as it should, including a lot of things that didn't work before. But Yosemite isn't really a brand-new vision of the future the way Windows 8 was. The ways it talks to and interact with your other devices is tacked on to an existing paradigm, not part of an entirely new one. Yosemite is an excellent desktop operating system, but in a world where 'desktop operating system' is starting to feel as antiquated a phrase as 'cordless telephone,' I don't see Apple moving boldly into the brave unknown. I see Apple watching its PC share grow while others fall, and sticking with what still works. For now.
Yosemite is the continuation of a decade-long legacy, the result of endless tweaking and improving. OS X 10.10 is a perfectly appropriate name: it's the best OS X ever, but it's still OS X. When it downloads and installs onto your machine, you'll hardly even notice.
Good Stuff- Continuity is really impressive
- Nice, cleaner look
- It's free!
- Notifications still suck
- Some new features are hard to find
- The icons-on-a-background PC desktop needs to die
For nearly two decades, the release of a new PC operating system was an event. Upgrading cost money; you had to go to the store to get the necessary floppy disk or a CD; the new OS was expected to be different and better in basically every way. I'll never forget the first time I booted Windows XP, or the day I finally got to jump again to Windows 7.
The last few years, Apple's taken a decidedly simpler approach. It still rents event space and touts the new features, but your new operating system arrives more like an tune-up than a new car. You open the app store, click a button, and poof: a few things change but everything stays mostly the same.
This year's model, OS X 10.10 Yosemite, is a little different. It comes with a stylistic overhaul, a new and cleaner coat of paint for your Mac. And it improves most of Apple's built-in apps, from Mail to Maps and everything in between. But the reason Yosemite feels bigger, more important, is that it feels like the beginning of something new for Apple. OS X still looks like OS X, but Yosemite turns your Mac into more than just a PC. It turns it into both hub and spoke of a constantly connected, conversing ecosystem of Apple products, in which you're able to do anything you want on any device you want.
Yosemite doesn't promise to make my Mac look like my iPhone; it promises to make them work together constantly. Perfectly.
That would be a big event.
Our original preview of Yosemite, from July.
It took about six hours for me to mostly forget that I was using Yosemite. That's not to say it doesn't look different — it does. It's just that the new look feels familiar, only slightly more refined, like the finished version of what came before. After downloading and installing the update (which took about 25 minutes and a little over 5GB of disk space), I had a new wallpaper, the mountain face against pink and purple sky. All the fonts were suddenly a little smaller and a lot more Helvetica Neue (and also pretty pixelated unless I was on a Retina screen). All the icons were a little flatter. I'd love to say I have feelings about the translucency in the sidebars and menu bars of Apple's apps, which shows a bit of the app behind whatever you're looking at, but I don't. I stopped noticing it almost immediately. (Of course, that's partly because a lot of apps haven't even updated to support translucency yet. You can also turn it off really easily.)
It's a cleaner, calmer, more balanced look that I like a lot, even if I did change my background immediately. But there's still a dock at the bottom of my screen, still a menu bar at the top, still the same settings and options and gestures and keyboard shortcuts. Yosemite is a new look — but it's not a new idea.
Yosemite only changed a few things about the way I use my Mac. Some are small: there's no 'full-screen' button in the top right corner of the window, you just press the green button in the stoplight menu. Spotlight doesn't pop up in the corner of your screen, but in the center, in a gray window like Alfred. I have a fraught relationship with the new Spotlight, by the way: it's much more powerful, showing movie times and map results and topical Wikipedia pages, but it can't do a simple Google search, and it would rather show me emails that reference Taylor Swift than actually help me play 'Out Of The Woods.' Spotlight is so close to right, but I still use Alfred every time.
The biggest change was that I started using Safari again. A lot. Safari is so incredibly fast to load pages that I almost think it's cheating. The list of frequently visited sites that appears every time you click on the address bar is incredibly handy, as is the visual tab switcher. I'm a habitual opener of hundreds of tabs, and I've never found an easier way to wade through the morass and find what I'm looking for. If you're not forever married to another browser, Safari is very much worth a shot.It looks different… and yet the same
For all the talk of convergence and of the ever-shrinking gap between PC and smartphone and tablet, Yosemite almost makes a statement in its lack of fundamental change. It's not Windows 10, with big ideas about how our devices are just different sizes of the same thing, how the interface and settings and apps should be consistent everywhere. Microsoft believes in a single experience for all devices; Apple believes every device ought to have its own. This is still a PC operating system, made for devices with mice and keyboards and trackpads. It feels outdated in places – the whole idea of the 'desktop' just feels pointless, and saving and organizing files is still more complex than it should be in the age of limitless searchable cloud storage — but it's true to what Apple believes in.
Plus, there's a lot more to Yosemite than the desktop. The best features, the most important and innovative features, do affect every device you own — as long as you own Apple devices. They don't all look or work the same, but they work together better than ever.
If you're using an iPhone or iPad running iOS 8.1 and a Mac running Yosemite, have Bluetooth on, and are logged into the same iCloud account and Wi-Fi network on both devices, your devices will suddenly begin to constantly talk to each other. After a surprisingly convoluted setup process (you need to change settings in three different apps on two different platforms, and enter a passcode), when your phone rings, so does your Mac.
You can actually even make and receive calls from your computer, which has more than once saved me from missing calls while digging for my phone in my bag. AirDrop finally works between Mac and iOS, meaning you can easily send photos and files between phone and computer. (FINALLY.) You can remotely activate the personal hotspot feature on the iPhone and use it to connect your Mac to the internet, which I've already needed a few times because Time Warner Cable is a nightmare.
My favorite feature of the Continuity group, and probably the thing about Yosemite that most changed how I go about my day, is that Messages now lets you send SMS text messages from your computer. That means I can finally text my Moto X-toting girlfriend without having to constantly pick up and put down my phone. It's already made me more likely to quickly (or ever) respond to someone's texts. Messages do still occasionally sit in the iMessage hell of existing on one device but not others, but I can't overstate how much I like texting from my laptop.
Sharing data between devices is automatic, once you get the setup right, and surprisingly pervasive. Whenever you open a new tab on your Mac, or start composing an email or text, an icon appears in the bottom left corner of the iPhone's lock screen; swipe it up and you'll go right to where you were on your PC. It works the opposite way, too, the icon showing up to the left of your dock on the Mac. It doesn't always work the way I expected, though; there's no rhyme or reason to when in the message-composition process the icon will appear on my phone, and sometimes the icon on my Mac opens Chrome but not a new page. Everything works most of the time, but it's not quite seamless yet.
When Continuity works, it's amazing
As long as they work, all these features together make the case for buying a Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad better than Apple ever has before. iTunes wasn't compelling enough; neither were any previous iterations of iCloud. Now, the three devices feel synced and aligned in a totally automatic, uncomplicated way. I can do anything from anywhere, each device suited best to certain things. (This is the idea Windows had long ago, and I hope Microsoft is taking a few notes on execution.) Next, I hope more apps start to take advantage, letting me move image edits and my spot in videos and the like between devices. This is a killer feature with huge possibilities, and I hope Apple and its developers all make real use of it.
There's more to Yosemite, including lots of behind-the-scenes changes and graphics improvements and more access to built-in apps, Finder, the sharing menu, and Notification Center. There are also a number of features borrowed from iOS and sort of hidden around your Mac. The Today view in the Notification Center is handy, and I like having my calendar and a few widgets just a two-finger swipe away, but I keep forgetting it's even there — and the Mac's handling of notifications is as messy as ever. (Which is to say, as messy as iOS still is.) Developers will hopefully quickly start to take advantage of Extensions, to let you essentially use an app within another app.
If your hardware supports it, you should upgrade to OS X Yosemite. There's really no reason not to, unless translucency makes you want to pull your hair out. In the time I've been using it I've found zero crippling bugs, few bugs whatsoever, and plenty of improvements both aesthetic and functional. It's more secure, faster, and better all around.Yosemite is just a collection of smart, small changes
The best and worst thing I can say about Yosemite is that I mostly forgot about it. It's stable and fast and utterly familiar. Everything works as it should, including a lot of things that didn't work before. But Yosemite isn't really a brand-new vision of the future the way Windows 8 was. The ways it talks to and interact with your other devices is tacked on to an existing paradigm, not part of an entirely new one. Yosemite is an excellent desktop operating system, but in a world where 'desktop operating system' is starting to feel as antiquated a phrase as 'cordless telephone,' I don't see Apple moving boldly into the brave unknown. I see Apple watching its PC share grow while others fall, and sticking with what still works. For now.
Yosemite is the continuation of a decade-long legacy, the result of endless tweaking and improving. OS X 10.10 is a perfectly appropriate name: it's the best OS X ever, but it's still OS X. When it downloads and installs onto your machine, you'll hardly even notice.
Good Stuff- Continuity is really impressive
- Nice, cleaner look
- It's free!
- Notifications still suck
- Some new features are hard to find
- The icons-on-a-background PC desktop needs to die
For nearly two decades, the release of a new PC operating system was an event. Upgrading cost money; you had to go to the store to get the necessary floppy disk or a CD; the new OS was expected to be different and better in basically every way. I'll never forget the first time I booted Windows XP, or the day I finally got to jump again to Windows 7.
The last few years, Apple's taken a decidedly simpler approach. It still rents event space and touts the new features, but your new operating system arrives more like an tune-up than a new car. You open the app store, click a button, and poof: a few things change but everything stays mostly the same.
This year's model, OS X 10.10 Yosemite, is a little different. It comes with a stylistic overhaul, a new and cleaner coat of paint for your Mac. And it improves most of Apple's built-in apps, from Mail to Maps and everything in between. But the reason Yosemite feels bigger, more important, is that it feels like the beginning of something new for Apple. OS X still looks like OS X, but Yosemite turns your Mac into more than just a PC. It turns it into both hub and spoke of a constantly connected, conversing ecosystem of Apple products, in which you're able to do anything you want on any device you want.
Yosemite doesn't promise to make my Mac look like my iPhone; it promises to make them work together constantly. Perfectly.
That would be a big event.
Our original preview of Yosemite, from July.
It took about six hours for me to mostly forget that I was using Yosemite. That's not to say it doesn't look different — it does. It's just that the new look feels familiar, only slightly more refined, like the finished version of what came before. After downloading and installing the update (which took about 25 minutes and a little over 5GB of disk space), I had a new wallpaper, the mountain face against pink and purple sky. All the fonts were suddenly a little smaller and a lot more Helvetica Neue (and also pretty pixelated unless I was on a Retina screen). All the icons were a little flatter. I'd love to say I have feelings about the translucency in the sidebars and menu bars of Apple's apps, which shows a bit of the app behind whatever you're looking at, but I don't. I stopped noticing it almost immediately. (Of course, that's partly because a lot of apps haven't even updated to support translucency yet. You can also turn it off really easily.)
It's a cleaner, calmer, more balanced look that I like a lot, even if I did change my background immediately. But there's still a dock at the bottom of my screen, still a menu bar at the top, still the same settings and options and gestures and keyboard shortcuts. Yosemite is a new look — but it's not a new idea.
Yosemite only changed a few things about the way I use my Mac. Some are small: there's no 'full-screen' button in the top right corner of the window, you just press the green button in the stoplight menu. Spotlight doesn't pop up in the corner of your screen, but in the center, in a gray window like Alfred. I have a fraught relationship with the new Spotlight, by the way: it's much more powerful, showing movie times and map results and topical Wikipedia pages, but it can't do a simple Google search, and it would rather show me emails that reference Taylor Swift than actually help me play 'Out Of The Woods.' Spotlight is so close to right, but I still use Alfred every time.
The biggest change was that I started using Safari again. A lot. Safari is so incredibly fast to load pages that I almost think it's cheating. The list of frequently visited sites that appears every time you click on the address bar is incredibly handy, as is the visual tab switcher. I'm a habitual opener of hundreds of tabs, and I've never found an easier way to wade through the morass and find what I'm looking for. If you're not forever married to another browser, Safari is very much worth a shot.It looks different… and yet the same
For all the talk of convergence and of the ever-shrinking gap between PC and smartphone and tablet, Yosemite almost makes a statement in its lack of fundamental change. It's not Windows 10, with big ideas about how our devices are just different sizes of the same thing, how the interface and settings and apps should be consistent everywhere. Microsoft believes in a single experience for all devices; Apple believes every device ought to have its own. This is still a PC operating system, made for devices with mice and keyboards and trackpads. It feels outdated in places – the whole idea of the 'desktop' just feels pointless, and saving and organizing files is still more complex than it should be in the age of limitless searchable cloud storage — but it's true to what Apple believes in.
Plus, there's a lot more to Yosemite than the desktop. The best features, the most important and innovative features, do affect every device you own — as long as you own Apple devices. They don't all look or work the same, but they work together better than ever.
If you're using an iPhone or iPad running iOS 8.1 and a Mac running Yosemite, have Bluetooth on, and are logged into the same iCloud account and Wi-Fi network on both devices, your devices will suddenly begin to constantly talk to each other. After a surprisingly convoluted setup process (you need to change settings in three different apps on two different platforms, and enter a passcode), when your phone rings, so does your Mac.
You can actually even make and receive calls from your computer, which has more than once saved me from missing calls while digging for my phone in my bag. AirDrop finally works between Mac and iOS, meaning you can easily send photos and files between phone and computer. (FINALLY.) You can remotely activate the personal hotspot feature on the iPhone and use it to connect your Mac to the internet, which I've already needed a few times because Time Warner Cable is a nightmare.
My favorite feature of the Continuity group, and probably the thing about Yosemite that most changed how I go about my day, is that Messages now lets you send SMS text messages from your computer. That means I can finally text my Moto X-toting girlfriend without having to constantly pick up and put down my phone. It's already made me more likely to quickly (or ever) respond to someone's texts. Messages do still occasionally sit in the iMessage hell of existing on one device but not others, but I can't overstate how much I like texting from my laptop.
Sharing data between devices is automatic, once you get the setup right, and surprisingly pervasive. Whenever you open a new tab on your Mac, or start composing an email or text, an icon appears in the bottom left corner of the iPhone's lock screen; swipe it up and you'll go right to where you were on your PC. It works the opposite way, too, the icon showing up to the left of your dock on the Mac. It doesn't always work the way I expected, though; there's no rhyme or reason to when in the message-composition process the icon will appear on my phone, and sometimes the icon on my Mac opens Chrome but not a new page. Everything works most of the time, but it's not quite seamless yet.
When Continuity works, it's amazing
As long as they work, all these features together make the case for buying a Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad better than Apple ever has before. iTunes wasn't compelling enough; neither were any previous iterations of iCloud. Now, the three devices feel synced and aligned in a totally automatic, uncomplicated way. I can do anything from anywhere, each device suited best to certain things. (This is the idea Windows had long ago, and I hope Microsoft is taking a few notes on execution.) Next, I hope more apps start to take advantage, letting me move image edits and my spot in videos and the like between devices. This is a killer feature with huge possibilities, and I hope Apple and its developers all make real use of it.
There's more to Yosemite, including lots of behind-the-scenes changes and graphics improvements and more access to built-in apps, Finder, the sharing menu, and Notification Center. There are also a number of features borrowed from iOS and sort of hidden around your Mac. The Today view in the Notification Center is handy, and I like having my calendar and a few widgets just a two-finger swipe away, but I keep forgetting it's even there — and the Mac's handling of notifications is as messy as ever. (Which is to say, as messy as iOS still is.) Developers will hopefully quickly start to take advantage of Extensions, to let you essentially use an app within another app.
If your hardware supports it, you should upgrade to OS X Yosemite. There's really no reason not to, unless translucency makes you want to pull your hair out. In the time I've been using it I've found zero crippling bugs, few bugs whatsoever, and plenty of improvements both aesthetic and functional. It's more secure, faster, and better all around.Yosemite is just a collection of smart, small changes
The best and worst thing I can say about Yosemite is that I mostly forgot about it. It's stable and fast and utterly familiar. Everything works as it should, including a lot of things that didn't work before. But Yosemite isn't really a brand-new vision of the future the way Windows 8 was. The ways it talks to and interact with your other devices is tacked on to an existing paradigm, not part of an entirely new one. Yosemite is an excellent desktop operating system, but in a world where 'desktop operating system' is starting to feel as antiquated a phrase as 'cordless telephone,' I don't see Apple moving boldly into the brave unknown. I see Apple watching its PC share grow while others fall, and sticking with what still works. For now.
Yosemite is the continuation of a decade-long legacy, the result of endless tweaking and improving. OS X 10.10 is a perfectly appropriate name: it's the best OS X ever, but it's still OS X. When it downloads and installs onto your machine, you'll hardly even notice.
Good Stuff- Continuity is really impressive
- Nice, cleaner look
- It's free!
- Notifications still suck
- Some new features are hard to find
- The icons-on-a-background PC desktop needs to die
Sorry about the duplicate post. . . but the Internet is so slow and flakey in my area this morning that things are getting weird. This is the second time I've posted to FreeRepublic that it's hanged and then resulted in a double post. the first time I requested the admin moderator to delete the duplicate. This time I will just let it be. Strange. I am sometimes waiting for two or three minutes for pages to load, other times they are instantaneous. Something is going on. Anyone else having issues in Central California?
-10 my rating.
Duely dwonloaded Yosemite upgrade to my Mavericks partition, upgraded various voices and so on. All worked well as far as it went. Switched back to my Snow Leopard (10.68) partition to watch a movie before turning in for the night.
Yesterday I saw via 10.68 that there was a security patch for Yosemite, and went to switch back to it. There in all the problems began ...
System Preferences/Startup Drive could not see the Yosemite partition.
Disk Utilities reported the the Yosemite partition did not have a system on it - no Owner, no System Number, no Build number, no Universal Unique Identifier.
Disk Warrior found 6-7 system files that were corrupt and could not be repaired.
I posted all this info to the Yosemite board in Apple Support —— the post was deleted/moved to a non-public area by some one, an Admin I suppose. Draw your own conclusions.
I am going to eventually recreate a 10.68 clone on the Yosemite partition - now erased. except for the 222 gigs the invisible apple recovery partition takes up - will find a way to remove that first.
Was thinking about buying a new mini, but that is off the table (crippled, soldered RAM) - if I buy anything, it will be an older refurbished Snow Leopard capable machine.
You can keep your Yosemite - I don't want or need it.
Dummies left the address book/contacts ICON out of Apple Mail total bar
Now one has to enter them long hand or cut and paste from the contacts app to the; To: CC: or BCC: header.
Bad over sight poor QC
total bar = tool bar
Thanks for the excellent review...
I've been having the same issues since yesterday afternoon, in Oregon, 50 miles South of Portland.
Basically, I you liked OSX Maveriks, you're going to like OSX Yosemite, because, they're basically the same thing, with a new look, and some minor upgrades. The upgrades aren't much to speak of, since, they're what MS and Google have also been working on, with MS being the leader with their 'one OS for everything' and their cloud offerings.
Fact is that, Yosemite is Apple's attempt to modernize their OS, and, like it or not, MS is leading the way with their modern look and one OS and one cloud for all devices. iCloud is in need of catching up, and perhaps they'll do it sometime in the future, but, that cloud is dependent on Amazon and Azure, which are not cloud services from Apple.
But, hey, as long as 'it just works', and people are happy. But, pretending that Yosemite is anything out of this world, or new, is fallacious chest thumping
I doubt I'll upgrade to Yosemite. I wouldn't have any need for it. I don't do iCloud, nor do I have any mobile devices to use it with. I'm just a simple person who uses my computer for simple things. I'll stay with OS 10.9.5 for now.
I think it may be because it is no longer necessary. Simply type the first letter of any name or address of any contact and an interactive drop down list of ALL names and addresses that begin with that letter are shown. . . for example if your friend is Ann or her address is anniejones@abc.com, simply type 'a' and a list of all your contacts under 'A' will be shown, including emails you've received from senders beginning with 'A' with preference to those you most frequently mail to or receive mail from. Unfortunately, I agree they have not even left the icon in those you can add. . . but 'Contacts' is on your Dock. Simply invoke it from there and you can browse it from there. That works.
Every mail app,Yahoo,Gmail all of them have this capability.
Somebody F'ed up
Before I could click the address icon highlight 1 or 20 recips and it would automatically populate the header I chose.......
Replacing one step with 2 or 3 is not an improvement
Sorry,I don't agreeThey screwed up.
Os Yosemite Requirements
Honestly, that looks a lot like Ubuntu Linux before they started the Unity desktop fiasco.
Agreed.
So has Mail in OSX had it. I agree someone has screwed it up. They should restore it.
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