OS X Mavericks

The big cats have gone, now we welcome a whole new era of OS X. Mavericks. Surf's up! (For those who don't know - Mavericks is a popular surfing destination in California, home to Apple.) OS X has been around for a while and it's good reputation is very high, so to keep the interest alive Apple needed to have something evolutionary up their sleeve. As always, they did - although the UI hasn't changed that much.

The Mac software is now super power efficient and mega fast. This is achieved using Timer Coalescing, which groups CPU operations together, allowing more idle time and faster performance. Mavericks reduces activity by 72%, saving much needed battery life. An interesting feature has been added to OS X Mavericks, App Nap. It slows down the app which you're not currently using and which isn't in view (for example, if you paused your music and started using another app), and again, it saves battery life. When you start using the app again, it works as normal and at full speed. App Nap works the same way with tabs in Safari. When you are currently viewing one tab, the others slow down to conserve energy. The best thing is that you don't even notice it.

Now, everyone hates it when various adverts are running on a web page, especially if you're not interested. Safari has a solution. The ads don't start playing by themselves, instead, you can choose if you want them to play or not by clicking a bar at the top of an ad. Simple and easy. The new version of OS X has compressed memory, allowing you to have lots of apps open without being deprived of speed at which they run in.

New features and updated apps:

iBooks - Yes. They're here. iBooks for OS X. There are over 1.8 million books in the store, so you can get your hands on the latest novels. Studying with iBooks has never been easier. You can highlight important information, make notes and add bookmarks. The best thing is that it appears on all of your iDevices, so you can start reading on your Mac and pick up where you left off on your iPhone.

Maps - Maps have now reached a new destination, your very own Mac. You can fly over famous landmarks and even send directions to your iOS device. Real time traffic data is also shown and Maps will suggest alternative routes according to whether or not there are delays on the roads. Maps are also built into other apps - Calendar, Mail and Contacts - making everything more convenient.


Calendar - The stitches are gone, and amazingly everything still sticks to the screen. How did they manage to do that? Calendar now displays a weather forecast and journey time to each of your events. Facebook events now appear right in your calendar, now there's no excuse for forgetting someone's birthday. Also, when you click on an event, a little slice of the map appears at the bottom, so you know where to go. Scrolling is now much smoother and faster if you want to go far forward in time.

Safari - The world's best browser is now even better. When you have multiple tabs open, only the one you are currently in is active; the others practically go to sleep, increasing power efficiency. Whenever you open Safari, you are greeted with your Top Sites so you can visit them quickly and easily. You can also drag bookmarks and to the Top Sites section and rearrange thumbnails. The web pages you visit are a lot more responsive and scrolling is smoother than before.The new Sidebar lets you see your bookmarks, thumbnails and shared links. Safari is much more efficient and faster than Chrome and Firefox.



iCloud Keychain - This feature remembers and stores you passwords safely, so now there's no need to worry about forgetting your passwords. They are automatically filled in whenever and wherever you need them. Unique passwords are generated for your new accounts to keep them safer, but you can always use your own one. iCloud Keychain also stores your credit card information.

Multiple Displays - You can now connect two Macs together, to act as one. The displays work in perfect harmony: the dock appears on whichever screen you're working on, and each has it's own menu bar. You can open apps in full screen mode on each display and even turn your TV into a fully functional display using your Apple TV and AirPlay. How's about that?

Notifications - Reply to emails, messages, and other notifications without having to leave the app you're in. You can also sign up with your favourite websites to stay up to date with the latest news and goings on. Furthermore, you can answer FaceTime calls without having to stop what you are doing - it will all appear in a box at the side of your screen.  A summary with all of your notifications will appear if you've been away from your Mac.







Finder Tabs - One window now consists of multiple tabs, to find the things you want, when you want. As well as that, you can now open Finder in a full screen view, to see even more of your files at once.

Tags - You can now keep all your related documents in one place, using tags. Place all your important documents in one place with an "important" tag, or keep all your school work under the "school" tag. Finding organising your files has never been easier.


OS X is a big step forward in the Mac software and users are definitely going to like it. Hopefully there won't be any glitches and everything will work fine and at the promised speed.