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.

OS X YOSEMITE IPHONE AND IPAD INTEGRATION

While OS X Yosemite might take some of its visual cues from iOS, Apple has worked hard to make its mobile and desktop operating systems work together better. It does this using a system Continuity.

One of the best Continuity features is that you can now make and receive real phone calls on your Mac. Provided your iPhone is on the same network, all incoming calls make your Mac ring; however, you can also initiate an outgoing call, using the FaceTime app. In other words there’s no reason to ever miss a call while your phone is on charge.

Recent updates have seen a similar feature enabled for text messages. While OS X has been capable of sending and receiving Apple’s iMessages, you can now do the same thing with regular text messages. By joining your iPhone and Mac using a simple setup procedure, all of your SMS messages are synchronised via the cloud to all of your devices. 

See how to use iOS 8 continuity for full instructions on how to use the new feature

Hand-off is yet another handy feature, letting you start a task on device and then finish it on another. For example, you can start writing an email on your iPhone and then continue writing it on your Mac, or start editing a Pages document on your Mac and then finish off on your iPad. It all works smoothly, with your Mac displaying a new icon to the left of the Dock, showing you which apps you can take over from your other devices. For security, Handoff only lets you view the current app that’s open on your iPhone or iPad, so it won’t let you view all running tasks.

Cleverly, Handoff uses your default browser settings. So, if you open up a website on your iPhone and your Mac’s browser is set to use Chrome, Handoff will open up the iPhone’s current page in Chrome. There’s one point to look out for: if you don’t have the same email accounts set up on all of your devices, the system doesn’t work perfectly. For example, send an email you’re writing from your Mac to your iPhone and it will come over, but the iPhone is unable to send the message as it doesn’t have the outgoing server details.

It won’t work on all Macs, as you need to have Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) on your Mac and iOS device, and have Wi-Fi enabled. Bluetooth LE has been available on mobile since the iPhone 4S, and on the MacBook Pro and iMac since mid-2012, while the MacBook Air has included the hardware since 2011.

OS X YOSEMITE AIRDROP

AirDrop is Apple’s technology for wirelessly sharing data between devices (web links, photos, files and so on). Previously AirDrop only worked between Macs or between iOS devices. Now, AirDrop works between all Apple devices, letting you share seamlessly between them. To share between Mac and iOS, you need a 2012 Mac or later and a device running iOS 7 or higher.

When it works, it’s brilliant, giving you a quick and simple way to beam content between your computer and phone, but it’s still a little flaky. We found that our phone wouldn’t always find our Mac (and vice versa), and it wasn’t obvious why. It’s a little frustrating that it’s not more reliable, but you can see the seeds of a better system there, and we’re sure that further system updates will improve things.

OS X YOSEMITE iCLOUD DRIVE

Apple has long integrated iCloud into OS X, but with the new version comes some key differences. First is iCloud Drive. Rather than each application storing its files in a unique and inaccessible place in iCloud, you can now access, manage and organise your cloud storage through Finder.

Each application creates its own folder, but as you can now access them, you can browse to a file and open it any application that you choose. Of course, iCloud works across all of your devices, so you can start work on your iPad in Pages, for example, save the file and pick up where you left off on your Mac. It’s a much-needed improvement and has certain advantages over other cloud storage systems. However, if you want full control over your folder structure, the ability to synchronise across Mac and PC, and cheaper storage, a rival product, such as Dropbox, still offers more. 

OS X YOSEMITE PHOTOS

Another big change coming is the way that Apple and iCloud deals with photos. At the moment, your iCloud My Photo Stream holds up to 1,000 photos, only storing them online for 30 days. With the iCloud Photo Library (in Beta on iOS 8), every single photo, including RAW images, can be saved to the cloud and accessed from any device. The only problem at the moment is that there’s currently no app for OS X Yosemite that can access this feature, with the new Photos application due next year. Our advice is to stick with My Photo Stream for now and we’ll update this review once Apple’s new service is fully available.

OS X YOSEMITE MAIL DROP

Although the Mail app hasn’t changed a lot, there’s one cool new feature: Mail Drop. This is an automatic way of sending large attachments (up to 5GB in size), by automatically uploading them to the cloud when you send the message. On the receiving end, OS X Yosemite computers automatically download the attachment; users of other operating systems and clients get a link that they use to download the file.

The first time you send a message you get a prompt asking how you want to send the attachment, but your preferences can be remembered. This system is a lot easier and much more convenient to use than, say, Dropbox, where you have to manually upload the file and remember to remove it later; Mail Drop files are available for 30 days, after which point they’re deleted automatically. 

OS X YOSEMITE iCLOUD PRICING

Given how many services are reliant on iCloud and the extra storage burden it will put on the service, Apple has dropped the prices of its storage plans. You still get 5GB storage for free, but can upgrade to 20GB for 79p per month and 200GB for £2.99 a month.

OS X YOSEMITE EXTENSIONS

Extensions are a way of making one applications’ abilities made available to another one. This can be as simple as a photo-sharing app being displayed in the Share menu, but Extensions can also do more complicated things. With Markup, you can annotate images sent to you via email, and even fill in a PDF form from within the mail app. At least, that’s the theory. In reality, the system is a little flaky and we found that we didn’t always get the Markup options.

When it does work, it’s really handy. For example, you can use Apple Maps to embed a location in an email, and then use the Markup tools to annotate the image with diagrams, arrows and text, all before sending it on to someone else. The tools to do this are brilliant. Draw a circle on your touchpad, for example, and it will convert your scrawl into a neat, resizable object; it will also recognise arrows and draw them properly, too. Markup isn’t perfect, though: the signature tool is a nightmare to use and getting an adult-looking autograph is near on impossible when using your finger on a touchpad. 

OS X YOSEMITE OTHER CHANGES

There are plenty of other minor changes throughout Yosemite, too. Safari 8 was introduced with this OS and has a new Tab View, which shows you thumbnails for all of your open browser tabs, plus a list of iCloud tabs with pages that are open on your other Apple devices.

The Calendar app has also been given a facelift, making it look more like the iOS version. The Day view has been tweaked, so that you get all of the details for an event on the right-hand side. Neither of these new features changes the world, but each little tweak just improves on what was there before and moves the OS in the right direction.

OS X YOSEMITE CONCLUSION

Yosemite is a big change for Apple, with the cleaner, new look a welcome change to the OS. It’s the features underneath the bonnet that really make the difference, with the integration between Apple devices a brilliant change for anyone with a Mac and an iPhone or Tablet. We particularly like the ability to send text messages and handle phone calls remotely. Some of the tools, such as AirDrop, are a little flaky, although we’d expect them to improve with future updates. It’s also a shame that there’s no iCloud Photos app until next year.

That said, the update is definitely a positive one, taking the OS in a new direction and giving a level of integration that Microsoft can’t offer with Windows. Yosemite, then, is a great upgrade for any Mac user and a brilliant one for anyone with more than one Apple device.