While iOS 7 was expected to be the star of Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) this year, it wasn’t the only operating system getting a significant update. Supposedly codenamed “Cabernet” at headquarters, OS X Mavericks was unveiled on Monday with little fanfare. UPDATING LIVE.
The specific improvements, however, are designed to improve performance across Apple platforms. So upgrading to OS X Mavericks won’t just make life on your Mac easier. It will make life easier.
The latest version of OS X offers a number of understated improvements that will please power users. It will also please iPhone and iPad users, because many of the upgrades are basically all borrowed from or inspired by iOS. The update will supposedly iron out a lot of the (many) wrinkles in iMessage and iCloud, as well as overhaul some core pieces of Apple software. Finder will be getting some new browsing features, including tabs and tags, which should make surfing around your Mac a bit more like surfing the Web.
From there, the upgrades start to drift pretty hard into power user territory. Screen-happy graphic designers out there will be happy to hear that full screen app support will now be supported on multiple displays. This includes the ability to summon the dock and use the menu bar on both displays. It also means you could be running Photoshop in fullscreen mode on your main display and keep Spotify open on your secondary display in fullscreen mode, open enough to see your playlists at least. Mission Control is also “supercharged” in OS X Mavericks, as is Apple TV which will now act as a full power display that interacts with your desktop. So you can move windows from Mission Control into Apple TV.
Sound thrilling? Not really, but Apple’s smart to reward its most faithful users with simple features they’ve been asking for.
OS X Mavericks has bunches of improvements under the hood that Apple says will improve your MacBook’s CPU performance by up to 72 per cent. More power and better battery life, designed for users on that go.
How does the new OS improve CPU performance so much? First up, it’s a technology called Time Coalescing, which smooths out the curve of CPU usage so that rather than alternating between passive and active states it’s more smoothly transitioning.
Picture: Engadget
Notification Center was a great addition to OS X, but it was causing more problems than they solve. In OS X Mavericks, Apple’s fixing the notifications so that you can deal with the notification from a dialog rather than needing to fire up an application to use them.
Picture: Engadget
Apple Maps is getting a pretty little desktop client in the new Maverick version of OS X. The desktop client includes the same (steadily improving) offering of 3D-flyover views, and provides you with information cards as you skirt around different locations. And once you find your destination on the desktop, you can shunt it right over to your iPhone as well.
Calendar is getting a couple of improvements too. Theres no more leather, and there are some new features to fill its place. Events will now provide handy, automatic, Google Now-esque information like how long it will take to get to your location. You’ll even get a desktop notification when it’s time for you to leave.
Picture: Engadget