[PB PM]

Lets talk about Yosemite! First of all, I like the name, it just works for 10.10. Most of the changes in the latest release of OSX appear to be mostly surface level UI changes, since there were no comments made about any under the hood changes. This seems to follow Apple's strategy from the last few releases, where one would introduce new UI features (tick), followed by a release with some minor UI tweaks and a focus on under the hood improvements (tock).

Key Features:
Continuity - Finally you can move work, messages, calls, etc from OSX device to iOS device and keep working on a project without using third party software.
Updated UI- More transparency and flatness. Oh and dark mode!
Apps: The usual array of updates for Mail, Calendar, Reminders etc
Spotlight - New UI and new features.
Notification Centre - Looks like it will be more useful now with expanded functionality and the ability to add widgets. Final goodbye and deathblow to Dashboard.
iCloud Drive - Guess Apple finally realized that they need to compete with Dropbox etc. in a way that is actually usable.

1st Thoughts, the updated UI, the thing I like the most is the new dark mode and updated menus. Transparency in the Finder, please let us turn it OFF!!! Flatness, was that really necessary? We knew you were going to do it, but really? As for Spotlight, it's about time that Apple got around to improving it's functionality. Not sure why they needed to add web searches, but okay.

[kscherer]

Airdrop bringing "continuity" between iOS and MacOS is the biggest thing for me. That one is HUGE!

[torifile]

Originally Posted by kscherer Airdrop bringing "continuity" between iOS and MacOS is the biggest thing for me. That one is HUGE!

My wife was just wondering why she couldn't airdrop things between her MBA and her iPhone last night. I couldn't give her a good explanation. Now I'll tell her I made it happen.

[addabox]

Funny, those iOS 7 style icons look much better in the Mac OS dock. Not being densely packed in a grid? Have had time to get used to them?

I didn't hate the iOS7 stuff, but I actively like the way the dock looks in Yosemite. Very clean, easy to look at. Hopefully developers will follow suit.

[psmith2.0]

I think iOS 7 "greased the wheels". I was thinking earlier how we'd react to this Yosemite redesign had iOS 7 never looked the way it did. I think Yosemite looks really nice and clean, but there would've surely been some major freaking-out if we weren't kinda used to it already via iOS 7.

What's funny is that every version of OS X gets smarter/cleaner/more attractive, making the one before it somehow look worse and cluttered. Granted, there hasn't been much major change over the past 3-4, but still. Suddenly Mavericks looks like iOS 6.

I like that darkening switch too. Illustrator CS6 and Pixelmator are that way (by default for AI, although you can go back to the traditional look). But I like this way. I don't know if I'd use it over my entire OS, but it's neat that it's there.

Also, I know it's not coming until next year...but this new, upcoming Photos app. Will that be an iPhoto replacement? Surely there won't be two consumer-level photo-centric apps from Apple. I think the iOS version of iPhoto is kinda DOA (I don't know a soul who uses it, even other Mac users). So maybe they're gonna roll basic iPhoto functionality into this new Photos app and just officially kill off the "iPhoto" thing, both Mac and iOS? And just have this single iCloud-savvy photos app that works the same on both OS X and iOS? That would be nice. Right now it's a bit clunky. iPhoto on the Mac, and then Photos installed by default as one of the built-in iOS apps, but with the option to install iPhoto as well (even though it doesn't really look or work much like the OS X version). I think most people just don't see the point. Hopefully they'll just do what they're doing in the other iLife and iWork apps and make a single, same-named app that spans both platforms.

I think iPhoto (the name, anyway) isn't long for this world.

[torifile]

Unrelated to OS X 10.10, but I wish they'd officially kill off Aperture so I can move over to Lightroom without wondering if another version is just around the corner.

[PB PM]

It makes sense that Apple would kill off iPhoto and make a more simple "Photo" app. After all, with Aperture 3 at $79, if you need more advanced tools they are available for a reasonable price.

Originally Posted by torifile Unrelated to OS X 10.10, but I wish they'd officially kill off Aperture so I can move over to Lightroom without wondering if another version is just around the corner.

Oh please, Apple don't do it. I don't want to get stuck with Adobe crap, keep making Aperture!

[chucker]

The Continuity demo… so great. I've longed for this for years.

Originally Posted by addabox Funny, those iOS 7 style icons look much better in the Mac OS dock.

I thought the same. The Safari Dock icon in Yosemite is nowhere near as jarring to me as the one in iOS 7.

[PB PM]

The big difference is that OSX icons are not all boxes, round is okay! The white border around the Safari icon in iOS is what makes it look so strange.

[kscherer]

So, I thought, "What the hell?" and signed up for the Yosemite Beta Program.

What's a guy got to lose, right?

Edit: Aside from all my files. But, hey, it's a cliff. You're supposed to climb it!

[Moogs]

Pretty clear to me now Apple is done with "big feature" releases and has moved to a more incremental approach consistent with free updates. Other than the Cloud Drive thing (drop box clone), the only thing that seems even in the ballpark of problem that found its solution, is some of the enhanced Notification Center stuff. I found I used that more than I thought I would in Mavericks, so nice to see capabilities improved.

Not much else to write home about. And I doubt I'll switch to iOS 8 at all, even though I could.

[Brave Ulysses]

Originally Posted by Moogs Pretty clear to me now Apple is done with "big feature" releases and has moved to a more incremental approach consistent with free updates. Other than the Cloud Drive thing (drop box clone), the only thing that seems even in the ballpark of problem that found its solution, is some of the enhanced Notification Center stuff. I found I used that more than I thought I would in Mavericks, so nice to see capabilities improved. Not much else to write home about. And I doubt I'll switch to iOS 8 at all, even though I could.

huh?

Continuity is about as big of a feature as any past "big feature" in paid upgrades. And that's just one of the many improvements/updates/features of Yosemite.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by PB PM The big difference is that OSX icons are not all boxes, round is okay! The white border around the Safari icon in iOS is what makes it look so strange.

That's definitely a big part of it, but I think the OS X ones also use more toned-down colors?

[chucker]

Originally Posted by Moogs Pretty clear to me now Apple is done with "big feature" releases and has moved to a more incremental approach consistent with free updates. Other than the Cloud Drive thing (drop box clone), the only thing that seems even in the ballpark of problem that found its solution, is some of the enhanced Notification Center stuff. I found I used that more than I thought I would in Mavericks, so nice to see capabilities improved. Not much else to write home about. And I doubt I'll switch to iOS 8 at all, even though I could.

I don't see this at all. As far as features go, there's a pretty big chunk of user-facing ones, and while they touted Extensibility as a developer feature, it's really about making the user experience more powerful. You got a much nicer Spotlight (on both platforms), you got all the Continuity stuff, Extensibility, lots of little tweaks here and there, and massive Developer improvements. A new language? That doesn't happen every day with Apple.

The two categories that, surprisingly, saw little mention are back-end/core OS features (like, say, Mavericks's Compressed Memory), and of course hardware. The latter is clearly coming throughout the year anyway, though. Part of it may be, as ATP had speculated, the Intel Broadwell delay. Part of it may be that it just doesn't matter; the current hardware is a solid line-up for the time being. The former may mean nothing; there could be plenty of NDA'd goodies in the OS upgrades yet.

[_Ω_]

Originally Posted by kscherer But, hey, it's a cliff. You're supposed to climb it!

You fall off a cliff, you climb a mountain.

[turbulentfurball]

This 'continuity' feature only works with iOS 8. I guess Yosemite and iOS 8 will be have to be released simultaneously in order that one of its main features actually works from day one. I don't recall iOS and OS X being released on the same day before. I hope Apple's servers can cope with that...

[SpecMode]

Originally Posted by turbulentfurball I hope Apple's servers can cope with that...

Oh, almost certainly not, but that certainly won't stop them from trying...

[PB PM]

I was thinking that such features would require both to be released at the same time. I can only imagine how slow things will be on day one.

[Wrao]

Originally Posted by PB PM It makes sense that Apple would kill off iPhoto and make a more simple "Photo" app. After all, with Aperture 3 at $79, if you need more advanced tools they are available for a reasonable price.

Which, kinda sucks. I mean, just a few years ago we were all leaning towards the other direction which was "Wow, look at all the amazing stuff Apple is throwing into free software, if they keep improving this stuff they'll have silently built an arsenal of software solutions that could legitimate challenge some pro software and it'll all be included in the OS!"

Still, on the other hand, OS X has gone from $129 to 'free' so I guess that's the trade-off. But I dunno, often when Apple re-focuses their entry level apps they do so by inventing new workflow concepts for users to use which has been hit and miss(iMovie... grumble grumble)

[PB PM]

Yes, Apple's app philosophy has changed in recent years. In some cases those changes have been good, in others not so much. The last two versions of iMovie have slowly stripped away features, pushing those who want to make better video either to third party apps or Final Cut X. I suspect that they will do the same with photo editing apps as well. I just hope they don't destroy Aperture they way they did Final Cut.

I suspect the idea is to eventually fully blend all apps that exist on the Mac and mobile versions of OSX.

[hmurchison]

Originally Posted by PB PM Yes, Apple's app philosophy has changed in recent years. In some cases those changes have been good, in others not so much. The last two versions of iMovie have slowly stripped away features, pushing those who want to make better video either to third party apps or Final Cut X. I suspect that they will do the same with photo editing apps as well. I just hope they don't destroy Aperture they way they did Final Cut. I suspect the idea is to eventually fully blend all apps that exist on the Mac and mobile versions of OSX.

I suspect that Photos for Mac 2015 will be fairly basic and Aperture 4.0 will be based on the same new Framework with much more control. I'm not a fan of iMove either but
now that Final Cut Pro is a mere $199 it just makes sense to make the large leap forward ditto for people running out of flexibility with Garageband moving to Logic Pro.

[drewprops]

Originally Posted by hmurchison ....I'm not a fan of iMove either but now that Final Cut Pro is a mere $199 it just makes sense to make the large leap forward ditto for people running out of flexibility with Garageband moving to Logic Pro.

Woah!!

You had me excited about Final Cut Pro being priced at $199 but the Apple Store shows that it's still $299.

Is your price a mistake or is there some sort of discount of which I'm unaware?

I'm hoping that there's been a price drop!!

...

[PB PM]

You are not seeing things, Final Cut Pro X has been $299 since release.

[Kickaha]

Enjoy!

https://developer.apple.com/library/...ac/navigation/

Replace 'mac' with 'ios' to get the iOS 8 pre-release docs.

[Brave Ulysses]

Word of Warning.


If you are tempted to install Yosemite DP1, do not do so.... unless you do it on a 2nd partition or external disk.

It is much more of a true Developer Preview (extremely buggy... even buggier than iOS 7 Developer Preview 1 last year and that says a lot!) than Apple's recent Developer Previews in recent years. I think that unfortunately took a lot of people by surprise... especially those who... may not exactly be developers.

I do have a developer account but my eagerness to try it out led to a lot of regret as I just installed it on my Macbook Pro which I use for work every day. I'm not going through the painful process of reverting back to Mavericks without a Time Machine Backup.


Lesson learned.

[PB PM]

Rule number 1 of alpha/beta testing an OS update, never fully dive in on the first 2-3 DP builds. Experience taught me that when I tested an early build of Lion. Thankfully when I made that mistake it was not on my main work machine! Now days I run all early DP's on an external SSD.

[Brave Ulysses]

Originally Posted by PB PM Rule number 1 of alpha/beta testing an OS update, never fully dive in on the first 2-3 DP builds. Experience taught me that when I tested an early build of Lion. Thankfully when I made that mistake it was not on my main work machine! Now days I run all early DP's on an external SSD.

I had an external drive right next to me at the time. durrrr....


I'm actually kind of impressed at how fucked up it has made many apps.... namely anything made by adobe or microsoft and especially FileMaker Pro oddly enough.

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by Brave Ulysses I had an external drive right next to me at the time. durrrr....

Oh I hate it when I do shit like that.

I'm actually kind of impressed at how fucked up it has made many apps.... namely anything made by adobe or microsoft

But you repeat yourself. ^_^

I was one of the original OS X testers waaaaaay back in the day of the pre-Rhapsody builds (Hera ring a bell, anyone?) and learned the hard way a couple of times myself.

[Brave Ulysses]

Originally Posted by Kickaha Oh I hate it when I do shit like that. But you repeat yourself. ^_^ I was one of the original OS X testers waaaaaay back in the day of the pre-Rhapsody builds (Hera ring a bell, anyone?) and learned the hard way a couple of times myself.

yes.

sigh....

[Brave Ulysses]

I'm going to take a very optimistic and positive that it is impressive that every single aspect of OS X seems buggy in Yosemite DP1.

Apple really is making changes to everything, especially networking apparently