Apple OS X 10.10 Yosemite review

OS X Yosemite is one of the biggest changes to the desktop OS in years, bringing a raft of new features that more tightly integrate it to Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 8. As with last year’s Mavericks update, Yosemite is completely free, running on the majority of Macs from 2008 onwards. We’ve been running it from launch, with our review focussing on how it’s performed since then and how we’ve adapted to the new features.

OS X YOSEMITE NEW INTERFACE

Although from an initial look the desktop hasn’t changed much, Apple has given OS X a subtle overhaul, improving and adjusting the look and feel of it. Now, windows have a subtle transparency effect to them, with the borders of a window letting the wallpaper or application behind gently shine through. It’s a gentle enough effect not to annoy, but if you really don’t like it, you can disable the effect using the Accessibility options in System Preferences.

A bigger change comes from Spotlight being moved from its old place at the top-right of the screen, to the middle of the display in a much larger window. Given that Spotlight is the quickest and easiest way to find anything on your Mac (not to mention the internet), having it front and centre makes it both easier to use and easier to view its results.

Apple has also tweaked the Notifications screen, which pops out from the right-hand edge of the display. Now, the Mac version is very similar to the one used in iOS, giving a consistency across both platforms that wasn’t there before. This new menu has two tabs, Today, which shows you widgets and upcoming appointments, and Notifications. There are Pre-installed widgets for Stocks and the Weather, but you can disable these and add in ones of your choice including a Calculator and World Clock. Expect more apps to come online in the coming months, particularly as third-party developers are free to create their own.

This means that you don’t strictly need the old Dashboard screen, which held widgets on a separate virtual desktop, although it still exists if you prefer the old way of working.

Apple has also revamped the window control buttons. When you hover your mouse over the red, yellow and green buttons, the green button now shows the Full-screen option. If you hold down alt, the green button defaults back to its original ‘+’, which makes the window the size it needs to be in order to display all of the current content. The yellow button (minimise) and red button (close) retain the same function. This is only a minor tweak, but the new green button function makes it a little quicker and a little more obvious how to make an app go full screen, and how to restore it to its windowed mode, too.