Is Apple OS X Yosemite Just Eye Candy or Life Changing?
n 2014 Apple released OS X 10.10 and called it Yosemite, after dismissing Weed as a probable name. They have henceforth decided to name the OS on places in the US which is a welcome change from names based on cannibals. So, has Yosemite brought about some significant changes or is it just old wine served in a new bottle. Read on to find out.
Yosemite is different from the time you switch on your Mac. Unlike previous updates which changed little, this looks like Mavericks has got a complete makeover. Visually, Yosemite will be a big change to every Mac user. The icons have been modified and the whole OS has been given a flat look a la iOS 7. In fact, the Share button in Finder is the same from iOS. But not much in its functionality changes and you will go about doing tasks in the same way used to earlier. It did not take me more than a day to get used to Yosemite.
Features like Continuity and Handoff are amazing for users of the iPhone/iPad. I have started writing this post on my MacBook Air at office but since I have to get back home I can just continue from where I left off on my phone while travelling. At home, I could finish it on my iPad while resting. How awesome is that! This works on Apple Apps such as Mail, Safari, Notes, etc. They also have developers the option to enable this in their app. This feature never worked really well for me. Even though it showed the work I had opened on Mac onto the phone, there was a huge lag. I would rather start my work on Google Docs which syncs on any device.
Now, Apple lets you answer calls on you Mac provided both the Mac and the iPhone is connected on the same Wi-Fi network. This featured was very finicky. It worked then it didn’t and then it did again. The biggest problem I faced was that even though I could answer calls on my Mac, I couldn’t make any through it. Hopefully, Apple sorts out the issues with Continuity and Hand Off as an iPhone and iPad user, those seem the most interesting to me.
Airdrop is a joy. I transferred data from my phone to the MacBook in a few seconds. It works really well to transfer stuff from one Apple device to the other. Then there is the Dark Mode which turns the translucent dock and menu bar from light grey and switches it to black. It didn’t appeal much to me and I have stuck to the normal mode.
The best feature in Mail is the one in which you can mark-up attachments. No longer would you need to edit the photo in Sketch or some other tool. Yosemite allows you to do it in the Mail app itself and saves you a lot of time. Spotlight has gotten much better. It opens on any screen and now searches through all your apps. Just like iOS 7, spotlight has significantly changed.
After trying to draw parallels between Yosemite and iOS 7, which again was a complete redesign, I realised that iOS 7 was so much more. While Yosemite is just eye candy. iOS 7 added Control Centre and made Multitasking much better. A colleague of mine uses a Mac but an Android phone. And, he found nothing in Yosemite that made things easier or simplier. Of course expecting Apple to let you answer calls through your non iOS phone is a bit too much.
In terms of design, Apple has done a great job with Yosemite. It give a consistent sense of UI across all their devices and is pretty. I can only imagine how good it must be looking on the retina display. Apple has concentrated on making it easier to work with the iPhone and the iPad which is a big plus of users of both or either. But this update helps people who are deeply invested in the ecosystem (Mac, iPhone and iPad users). This has just made the whole ecosystem more connected and has given me all the more reason to not switch my phone OS. If you are an Android user then there is nothing beyond cosmetic changes for you.
