Earlier this year Apple introduced OS X Yosemite, the next version of their popular desktop operating system. In mid-October the company released Yosemite into the wild, and with it comes a wide number of updates and features that business users will benefit from. Here is an overview of the most useful extras for businesses.
Upgrading to Yosemite
The good news about Yosemite is that Apple has made this a free upgrade for users with compatible Macs. You can get it by going to the Apple Store on your Mac, and logging in using your Apple account. For businesses, we strongly recommend contacting us before you do this as we can help back up your systems and install the update so that your systems will work perfectly.
A new look for OS X
Last year Apple released a drastic redesign of their popular mobile operating system – iOS. This redesign brought about a modern look to the system with translucent menus and a clean, semi-transparent design. Apple has brought this style of design to Yosemite.
When you first start up Yosemite you will notice that bars like the launch bar at the bottom are translucent. Many icons have also been updated with clean and consistent design and menus have been somewhat flattened, making them easier to read.
Overall, the new look makes systems running this version of OS X easier to look at, while modernizing them and bringing them more in line with other Apple systems.
Enhanced continuity between devices
Apple has noted before that they are striving to bring their desktop OS and mobile OS closer together, eventually reaching a point where they are more or less one and the same. With Yosemite, they make a big jump forward by introducing a number of mobile and desktop features. One of the most useful being Handoff which allows users to start a task on their iPad or iPhone and continue this on their laptop, or vice versa.
Instant Hotspot is another feature that allows users to instantly share their iPhone’s data connection with their desktop – no need to enter a password as the system uses iCloud to ensure that the connection is secure.
If you have an iPhone that is running iOS 8 and a laptop or desktop with Yosemite installed, and connected to the same Wi-Fi network, you will be able to answer calls to your iPhone from your computer, or even send and answer text messages via the Messages app on any device.
Improved AirDrop
AirDrop is a feature that Apple has been trying to get working properly for a number of years now. When it works, it works really well, but with the last update to iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, it simply didn’t work when you needed to transfer files from your phone to your computer.
Yosemite fixes this, as this version of AirDrop now has the same protocols as the mobile versions, so you can swap files between devices on the same Wi-Fi network.
Notifications Center
This feature has been updated to make it much more useful, mainly due to the introduction of the Today view. Similar to the view introduced in iOS 8, this shows you, at a quick glance, useful information for the day. By default you can see your calendar, stocks, weather, etc.
There is also support for widgets. Because Apple has enabled this, software developers can now create widgets that can be placed in the Today view of the Notifications Center. This is similar to the new feature that was introduced with iOS 8, and can be accessed by swiping four fingers from the left of the track-pad to the right on your laptop, or pressing the bulleted icon at the top-left of your menu bar.
Improved Spotlight
While Spotlight has long been a feature of OS X, it has been updated in Yosemite. Now, instead of just searching for files on your computer it can also search for applications. You can also use it to search the Web, so when you enter a term you see results from pages like Wikipedia, the Apple Store, iTunes, and more.
As in other versions of OS X, you can access Spotlight by hitting Command + Spacebar. You then see a search bar pop up in the middle of your screen. Simply type what you are looking for and a window will drop down with results.
These are just a few of the new features that business users will benefit from when they upgrade to Yosemite. If you would like to learn more, please contact us today.