A reader asks, "I hear a lot of people who are excited about Yosemite. There seems to be a lot of information on the web. Can you help make it simple and give me a list of new features?"
Absolutely! I am really excited for the soon-to-be-released OS X Yosemite. I've been playing with pre-release copies now for over a month, and with each new release, it becomes more stable and feature-rich. As you may already know, Apple's WWDC event was partially focused on the new OS. Here is a simple-to-understand list of the biggest new features.
Notification Center
The new Today view in Notification Center gives you a quick look at everything you need to know now — upcoming events, reminders, stocks, weather, and more. Add widgets from the Mac App Store to customize what you see.
Spotlight
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.
Safari
The new, streamlined toolbar in Safari puts your most important controls at your fingertips and gives you more room for what you’re viewing. Safari also gives you faster performance and more control over your privacy.
Now Mail lets you send large attachments more easily. You can annotate documents and fill out forms right in your email messages. Faster performance means you’ll get your email more quickly, too.
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.
iCloud Drive
Store any type of file in iCloud and access it on any device. With iCloud Drive, you can organize your files in the cloud the way you like, create as many folders as you want, and add tags to find files faster.
Phone
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.
SMS
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.
Handoff
Now your Mac knows the last thing you were doing on your iOS device and vice versa. So you can start something on one device and instantly pick it up on another.
Instant Hotspot
Turn on the personal hotspot on your iPhone with just a few clicks on your Mac. So as long as your iPhone is nearby, you can get online with your Mac.
Apple says that Yosemite will be available later this year. If you are interested in test-driving Yosemite (beta), click here.
If you want to view the entire Yosemite portion of the WWDC keynote, play the video below:
