What are the new features and changes of OS X Yosemite compared with Mavericks?

Yosemite's significance to OS X, just like what iOS 7 means to iOS, is a brand-new starting point.

The change you are most likely to notice comes from the change of the system interface. The metallic design style that lasted for 13 years on OS X has finally left the scene, and it has been replaced by the ubiquitous ground glass special effects, high saturation colors, lack of three-dimensional sense and so on, which Apple has been using since iOS 7.

And design is just one of the changes. Since Yosemite, the functional docking between OS X and iOS system has become closer than ever. This means that if you want to experience new features including Handoff/Phone/SMS/Instant Hotspot, you have to prepare an iPhone first.

Running on my MacBook Air is the first developer preview of OS X Yosemite. This version of the operating system is earlier than the system version shown by Apple at WWDC, and you will find that the iTunes icon is not the red flat icon in the presentation. Apple didn't mention anything about iTunes at this WWDC conference, which may mean that they just bought Beats and they have to completely rewrite iTunes.

ITunes is not the only icon that has not been "flattened". At least half of the icons in the system's own software shown above are still in the era of the previous generation system-fine, extremely realistic and more three-dimensional. Of course, these icons are likely to be redrawn in future system versions. Those new icons with brand-new designs become closer to the design style of iOS 7-fewer decorative elements, higher saturation, and less emphasis on three-dimensional sense.

In addition to the software icons, the icons in the menu bar have become more like iOS 7, and the lines have become thinner and clearer-but this is not good to watch on a Mac with a non-Retina screen, and you can notice that the jagged feeling has become more obvious than before. This version of OS X Yosemite doesn't support the black version of menu options yet-although Apple has shown it on WWDC, the only thing you can easily notice is that the drop-down menu has a slight frosted glass effect.

The frosted glass effect of OS X Yosemite is different from the Aero effect of Windows, and the transparency level is more complicated. Take tracing people as an example. You can see the picture slightly from the top toolbar and the background behind the Finder from the sidebar. Unlike the Aero effect of Windows, the frosted glass effect used by OS X Yosemite in the software window is very cautious, and you will not affect the text recognition because of this transparent effect.

However, OS X Yosemite, which is closer to iOS in interface style, still retains a lot of simulacra traces in the past. Yosemite didn't completely abandon the iconicity elements as Apple did when it launched iOS 7. Take the address book icon as an example. It is still an icon that imitates a real notebook. The only difference for me is that it is just another notebook. However, these simulacra icons, which have less decoration and texture than before, mostly reduce the light perception and flat perspective, and use thick color blocks to replace the previous texture and decoration-this may make you feel that the icons are not as refined as before, and these over-saturated icons even make the whole system "feminine". In the past, the metallic texture in the system was replaced by a kind of faintly transparent glass material, but you will still feel the traces of the previous design in the gray tone of the toolbar, which will inevitably lead to confusion caused by the alternation of old and new designs.

(Safari's reading list icon is not aligned with the address bar)

Generally speaking, although the interface design style of the whole system is moving closer to iOS, this time Apple is not so radical. In this way, the products left over from the old design are mixed with the new design elements. What is even more desperate is that with the exit of the renovation, the display of system details has become rough, and even some defects should not appear (of course, the requirements for the preview version should not be so high). For example, Safari's reading list icon is not aligned with the address bar, and the word "search" is written inside and outside the search input box of the email, but these details may be fixed in the subsequent beta.

Want to experience the new system better? First, you have to have an iPhone.

With OS X Yosemite, it is finally possible to communicate between Mac and iOS devices by airdrop. If you have also turned on "Airdrop Delivery" on your iOS device, and the device is not locked, you can see other iOS devices (supporting iOS 7 and iOS 8) in the Finder. Airdrop delivery is also integrated into the system sharing menu. You can right-click any file you want to share. When iOS receives a file type other than a picture or a link, it will prompt you to call which application to open.

Except that it is barely available by airdrop (Mac can transfer files to iOS devices, but iOS 8 devices can't recognize Mac), other new features have big and small problems in the current version of OS X Yosemite (so don't upgrade if you want to try it early). Handoff is almost completely unavailable at present, but if Safari is opened on the Mac, the Safari icon will appear in the lower left corner of the lock screen interface of the iOS 8 device, but it will not automatically navigate to the current page and reading position of Safari for the Mac version after opening; There is a certain probability that the phone can be connected, but it cannot be called normally; All the old messages in the Messages application will be lost, but you can send messages on your Mac.

But Apple's logic of integrating phone and SMS functions on Yosemite is very strange, which will definitely confuse most iOS users. For example, you can answer the phone on Facebook, but you can't call others with Facebook. FaceTime does not store historical call records, and can only view missed calls in the notification center; If you want to make a phone call, you need to use the address book, and Yosemite doesn't provide you with dialing numbers that are not in the address book.

(Handoff can synchronize user behaviors between different devices under the same iCloud account. )

Handoff is the most eye-catching new function, which pushes iCloud to a new height-iCloud can synchronize user documents before, and now it can also synchronize user behaviors. As long as you are associated with the same iCloud account, you can continue the current operation on another Apple device without any additional settings. For example, if you browse an article on Safari for Mac, the iOS device associated with the same iCloud account will automatically load the same page on Safari, and the page will scroll to the same location.

Apple applications, including Keynote, Safari, email, address book, memos and reminders, all support switching, whether on Mac or iOS devices. More importantly, Apple has opened the Handoff API (you can find the official Handoff programming guide here, which is still a preview version). This means that if you are an iOS developer and develop Mac programs at the same time, it will bring a more seamless experience to your application-imagine that you listen to songs with Spotify on Mac at home, and when you are near going out, take out your iPhone and plug in headphones, and you can continue listening where you just stopped. What a great experience!

ICloud also adds home sharing features, including:

Share music, movies, apps and books;

Share photos and videos in the home photo stream;

Plan activities on the family calendar;

Enjoy the geographical location with family members (in China, the geographical location enjoyed by * * * is offset);

Help your family find the lost Apple device.

(By default, iCloud shortcuts are added to the Finder sidebar. You can use iCloud documents just like local documents, just like using Dropbox. )

ICloud Drive is not so novel at first glance. You can find it in the sidebar of Finder. Like Dropbox, iCloud Drive can synchronize files on all devices, which is more significant on iOS-because you can finally synchronize the file directory structure of your Mac to iOS devices, knowing that users could not manage documents through the file directory on iOS devices before. In the past, documents could only be shared between applications by copying, which made it very inconvenient to modify a document between multiple iOS applications.

On the Mac, the documents previously stored on iCloud finally have a place in the local area. You can find these documents in the Finder. Take iWriter as an example. The first time OS X Yosemite runs, it will automatically generate an application folder locally. You can use documents originally stored in iCloud cloud locally, even if you are not connected to the Internet. Apple's document cloud synchronization logic is finally consistent with Dropbox.

Apple also lowered the price of the iCloud storage plan, but the free capacity did not increase. The specific price is:

5GB: Free

20 GB–0.99 USD/month (1 1.88 USD/year)

200 GB-–$3.99 per month ($47.88 per year)

Capacity can be added to 1TB.

Developers, it's time to submit application plug-ins on the Mac Store.

(Extensions can exchange data directly with the main application)

Starting from Yosemite, OS X began to provide system-level third-party extension functions, allowing third-party applications to integrate functions into other applications. For example, as a developer, if you want users to share content with your service when viewing pictures in other applications, you can develop an application extension so that users can share content with your service without leaving other applications. (Complete extension developer documentation can be found here. )

As a user, you can find all the extensions in the System Preferences panel, which can be turned on and off selectively, and you can download and install new extensions through the Mac App Store (there are no third-party extensions available for download and installation in the Mac App Store at present). There are three kinds of Mac system extensions: operation, enjoy menu and today.

(You can mark the picture directly in the email. )

The extension in "Operation" provides the operation in the "Service" menu, and the "Mark" extension is built into the system. For example, when you insert a picture in an email, you can directly comment and modify the picture in the email without leaving the email application.

The extension in "* * * Enjoy Menu" literally means that after you select a document, you can enjoy sharing it to other places through * * * in the right-click menu. The extension in Today will appear in the notification center. At present, the built-in extensions of the system include weather, calendar, reminder, stock, social, world clock and calculator, and the data is synchronized with iOS devices (except calculator).

On the other hand, is such a heavy device interconnection really a good thing?

Apple describes Yosemite like this-"Mac and iOS. An unprecedented connection. " , but it is difficult to define how much this means to users. As a Twitter friend described the scene;

Finally, the day came: you received a phone call, and your iPhone, your iPad, your MacBook, your iPod Touch in your drawer and your mother's special iPad for TV series all rang.

For Apple, their purpose is clear-all Apple users should buy more Apple devices. No matter how you evaluate Yosemite's new features, you have to admit that in Apple's ecosystem, you can only use a more complete software experience if you have more Apple hardware.

But I personally will drop the system back to OS X Mavericks after writing the evaluation. After all, I hate the new system interface.

Yosemite system upgrade tips:

If you want to upgrade OS X Yosemite just to experience making phone calls, sending and receiving text messages and Handoff off, you'd better give up the idea. In the current system version (developer's preview version), the call is in a highly unavailable state (the call is silent, sometimes without notice), all the old information in your information application will be emptied, and Handoff is completely unavailable.

Just upgraded the system, the fan runs wildly, but it will return to normal after a while.

Battery life decreases. The battery life of my 20 12 MacBook Air has dropped from about 6 hours to about 5 hours.

The probability of an application crashing or losing its response has increased, but it is not serious.

Spotlight can't be used normally (many people have encountered this situation), and the specific performance is that Spotlight crashes and restarts as soon as the text is entered. But it works normally under the new user group.

Compared with Mavericks, the current system test version is more card.