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It's been two weeks. Two weeks running Apple's beta version of OS X 10.10 Yosemite, set for wide release this fall. (Well, almost two weeks -- it took 24 hours to actually download the software, but I digress.) Two weeks of flat design, upgraded features, and surprisingly few bugs for a beta version.
What's the verdict? OS X 10.10 is the iOS-ification of the desktop operating system: flat design, thinner fonts, and a few other features pulled from the mobile OS, and it's surprisingly fantastic.
Yes it does. Instead of Lucida Grande as the default system font, you'll be looking at Helvetica Neue, a thinner font that I was initially worried would be hard to see on my non-Retina (lower resolution screen) MacBook Air. After all, the word from Apple was that Yosemite was designed with higher resolution screens in mind.
Fortunately, there were no such issues -- the new font is absolutely gorgeous. As for other visual tweaks, if you've seen an iPhone in the last year, the changes will be unsurprising: brighter colors, flat design, slight translucency for all menus, and no glassy effects on icons or buttons.
The only disappointment? Dark mode, which turns the task bar and a few other things black. Unfortunately, it doesn't do so for in-app or context menus and most system dialogs (including Spotlight). Plus, third-party notification icons, up by the clock, often disappear into the dark background. This is a beta version, so it could improve, but right now, it feels like a half-baked afterthought.
The new Spotlight brings up a universal system and Internet search in the middle of your screen -- either click the magnifying glass on the top right corner of your screen or hit Cmd+Space, then type a query, and it'll search your documents, applications, Wikipedia, and the rest of the Internet.
One shortcoming: typing a favorite site, like San Francisco Craigslist, doesn't bring anything up unless you start with "http:// ...", which defeats the time-saving purpose of Spotlight.
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I've had a Mac for a few months now. I used the Notifications Center once: when I clicked the icon to see what it does. The Yosemite Today/Notifications panel, which again, is pulled from Apple mobile OS, has your weather, notifications, calendar, social network buttons, and more.
In short, it's something I might actually use.
Some features aren't yet included in the beta. Others only work if you have a compatible device (an iPhone or iPad is required for Continuity -- the feature that passes data, files, text, and phone calls back and forth between your Mac and your mobile device). I haven't tested either just yet, and Continuity might just be the biggest new feature of OS X 10.10.
With that in mind, how big of an upgrade is Yosemite? Visually, it's huge -- not jarring, mind you, but definitely a system-wide facelift. But functionally? Spotlight and Notifications/Today are great, but hardly game changers. Battery life, speed, and other functionality has shown no noticeable change.
So far, it's a good upgrade, but we'll wait for Continuity (the iPhone 6 can't get here soon enough!) to really judge Yosemite.
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