Gadgetory

every year Apple updates Mac os10 with some new features and usually some design tweaks and every year we wonder if we're going to see iOS take over the Mac and this year or the release it's calling Yosemite Apple's brought the two platforms closer together than ever before but lucky for Mac users it's making sure they stay distinct starting today up 2 million regular people who can sign up and download a beta for Yosemite not just developers that's the good news the bad news is that the very best features of this new version are the pieces that make it talk to an iPad or iPhone with iOS 8 let's aren't out yet so you'll have to wait until the fall before you'll be using your Mac for making calls sending texts and sharing files directly with your iPhone also this is a beta so you should not install it on your main computer but what can you expect if you do download and start using a70 quite a lot first and foremost Yosemite is completely redesigned from dock to menubar and everything in between it shares a lot of the aesthetic of iOS 8 it's a Johnny I've led flattening where you used to have gradients Yosemite has broad expanses of white where he used to have thick toolbars with extra information Yosemite emphasizes thinness and efficiency there are a lot of corners in OS 10 and I keep expecting Apple to miss a little one or two only to be pleasantly surprised at the attention to every little detail the so-called stoplight buttons are cleaner and actually worked the way you'd expect when going to fullscreen other buttons are were less well button E but not to the extent that they are in iOS these are still things that you click with a mouse the icons are bolder the fonts are updated there are still a few edges to be smooth but not as many as you'd expect on a beta but the biggest change I probably the most radical is all the translucency and lots of places throughout the Mac you'll find that different parts are see-through and show you a blurred out version of what's behind the window side bars show you the desktop or the window behind it menu bars show you the content of what's inside the window as you scroll up and the Notification Center appears over the desktop instead of under it all these blurred out elements are supposed to help give you a sense of place for your windows or maybe they're just meant to look cool mostly I found the effects distracting and I was constantly glancing at elements on the screen that I'm used to being completely static and it wasn't too long before I was taking through the settings to turn down the effect another big change and a huge improvement with Notification Center in Yosemite it's actually finally useful not only can you reply to some notifications right there in the pop-up but you can actually add useful widgets inside the Notification Center instead of a basic list of alerts you can get customized pieces of data including a daily calendar view that actually makes sense third-party widgets are coming to the max Universal Search spotlight also got an upgrade and now pops up right in the center of your screen just like the third-party Alfred app and it's able to give you more search results than just your local files just like Alfred sometimes it works for searching the web and sometimes it doesn't but mostly it's a big functional improvement over what we had before Apple gave a bunch of love to its built-in apps as well Safari has some new tab and address bar features that finally give chroma run for its money and it's usually way faster and gentler on your battery calendar has it today view that's actually worth using mail has the ability to mark up attachments and store them in the cloud most of the important built-in apps have received a fresh coat of semi translucent white paint it's all simpler looking but it's still just as powerful at the end of the day the most important thing to remember is that the Mac is still the Mac sure we'll be able to hand stuff off to your iPhone and yeah it looks more like the apps on your iPad than ever but Apple isn't taking Mac features away it's just making them look better or at least making him look more consistent and just wait until you go 70 and iOS 8 are out this fall Apple is not trying to merge your computer in your smartphone it's just trying to make them all work better together it's gonna be great hey doctor you're on speakerphone with V on my Mac