Yosemite Beta

Apple recently released a beta version of their new Mac operating system, Yosemite. Typically this is something that is reserved for developers, but this year anyone with a supported Mac and an Apple ID can try it out. If you are interested, you can sign up and download the Yosemite beta here.

One key thing to note before you instal Yosemite is that beta software inherently has bugs, glitches & problems of every sort. The purpose of allowing people to use a beta version of software is to find those bugs so they aren’t still there when the product is released.

This beta comes with a simple app called “Feedback Assistant” that allows users to easily report issues. I've reported one so far.

"Connected like never before” is a theme of Yosemite (and iOS 8). Apple is making a push to further integrate their devices. They’ve changed the look and feel to be a lot more like iOS, and they've added support for phone calls & text messaging (not just iMessage) from your Mac so that you can message that person who still has a flip phone right from your laptop.

Another feature of Yosemite is something they’ve called “Handoff” which allows you to begin working on your phone or computer & immediately pick up doing that thing on another Apple device.

One of my favorite new features in Yosemite is the today view. Much like the today view in iOS, you can see what’s coming next in your day, the weather, your stocks & much more. Apple is opening this up for third-party widgets so we should see some interesting new capabilities added over the next year.

I’m enjoying my experience with Yosemite overall, and I’m excited to see how it improves over time. If you have any questions or have decided to try out Yosemite for yourself, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you.

Header image from Wikipedia