Apple OS X 10.10 Yosemite officially announced - Here's all you need to know

Today Apple announced a brand new version of its desktop operating system, which the company has decided to name Yosemite. Since last year, Apple stopped using the big cat names for their new versions of OS X and replaced it with names of famous places in California. So just like OS X 10.9 Mavericks, we now have OS X 10.10 Yosemite, which brings a new iOS 7 inspired user interface along with several new features and improvements.

New User Interface

The first thing you will notice on OS X 10.10 Yosemite is that the interface has been completely redesigned to match the iOS 7.0 design principles. That means you get the flat translucent UIs instead of the skeuomorphism which has been a part of Apple's design for years.

Everything in the UI has been tweaked from the ground up, from app icons to buttons allowing us to minimize, expand or close apps.



The windows and menus throughout Yosemite have the same translucent and transparency effects which we’re accustomed to on iOS 7. And Apple has focused on a lot of details which make the whole experience worthwhile for the end-user, such as the new dark mode, which really puts the focus on the content the user is consuming / looking at and move all the desktop OS clutter out of the way.

Notification Center with Widgets

The Notification Center has gotten a new look as well, and features an all-new Today view, which made its cut with the release of iOS 7, which puts the focus on things pertaining to your day.

You can now have a plethora of widgets in one place, and you can have apps that can export widgets, making the whole deal real sweet.

The focus on OS X Yosemite is mainly on the UI front, and to be quite honest, Apple has really bridged the design between iOS and OS X.

Calendar

The new Calendar app now features a new sidebar that shows the user location information, which can prove to be quite handy if you need your calendar events to be upfront and center with plenty of details to go with.

Spotlight Search

With a new search window and rich, scrollable previews of your results, Spotlight makes it easier than ever to find things on your Mac. And now it finds information from Wikipedia, Bing, Maps, and other sources, too.

iCloud Drive

Apple is today announcing iCloud Drive, a new way to sync content across different Macs and is accessible through Finder. The service is similar to Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive and will be available across iOS, Mac and even Windows.

Apple will give users 5GB of free cloud storage. While 20GB will cost you $0.99 per month and 200GB will cost you $3.99 per month.

Mail

The new Mail app looks a lot like the one which we’ve seen on the iPad running iOS 7. It features a very minimal and text-focused look, making sure that you look at emails rather than Scott Forstall’s design elements. Ouch.

Apple is making Mail a lot better by introducing MailDrop, which allows you to send massive attachments to the other user. What MailDrop basically does is: uploads your huge photo / file to Apple’s servers, create a secure link for sharing which can later be downloaded by the other recipient. Clever indeed.

Mail now features Markup, that allows you to sketch over images which are ready to be sent off to another users. Think of it as Skitch, but by Apple, and more powerful.

Messages

If you have an iPhone, now you can send and receive both iMessage and SMS messages right on your Mac. Add people to group conversations, and remove yourself when you want. Even record short audio clips to add your voice to the conversation.

Safari

Safari has gotten a major facelift in this release, and now features a single bar, that handles all searches and URLs without the need to jumping into different boxes.

Safari also takes user privacy to the next level, and now allows users to create a new private window for browsing.

The new Safari is 9.7x times faster when it comes to multi-tab browsing energy efficiency, compared to Chrome’s 2.4x and Firefox sitting at 1.0x. In short, the new Safari is bad news for other browsers on OS X in terms of performance.

AirDrop now works between Macs and iOS devices

Here’s a big feature which we've all been waiting for: AirDrop now works between Mac and iOS devices. Yes, you read that right, if you have a compatible iOS device which supports AirDrop, then you can send – and receive – files from a Mac running OS X Yosemite.

Handoff

A new feature in OS X Yosemite squarely aimed at those who love switching between their Mac and iOS device from time to time. It allows you to continue working on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac seamlessly in real-time! You don't have to launch apps or find what you were doing, OS X and iOS does this all for you.

Instant Hotspot

Another cool feature for those who are reliant on using the Hotspot feature on their Mac. Simply turn on Internet tethering on your iPhone, iPad and OS X Yosemite does the rest for you in setting it up.

SMS and Phone Calls Across your iPhone and Mac

Now you can make and receive iPhone calls on your Mac. So if you're working on your Mac and your iPhone rings in another room, you can leave it there and still take the call.

The text messages on your iPhone - including SMS and iMessage - are now available on your Mac. Send and receive. Read and reply. All without picking up your iPhone.

Release and Availability

Apple OS X 10.10 Yosemite will be available to the public in Fall 2014. Meanwhile the first Developer Preview will be available starting today. Apple has also decided to kick off a public Beta program which kicks off this summer, for anyone who wants to test drive the latest version of Mac OS.