Mavericks, the latest major release of OS X (pronounced Oh-Es Ten),
is version 10.9 of Apple’s desktop operating system. With, reportedly,
over 200 new features Mavericks is no incremental update.
Jonny Ive might suggest that “Apple has reimagined the operating system for the desktop”,
but the truth is Apple has incorporated some of the best ideas from
third-party developers and has sought to integrate some of the features
of iOS (the operating system for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad) into
it’s desktop big brother.
The Mavericks Moniker
1. The Origin of Mavericks
Apple’s OS X has a history of using big cats to denote different
versions of the operating system. OS X versions 10.0 to 10.8 were named Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion, respectively.
Version 10.9 of OS X departs from the big cat monikers and, according
to Apple’s Keynote at WWDC 2013, is now going with Californian place
names the first of which is Mavericks.
Mavericks is a big wave surfing location in Northern California where
an unusual undersea rock formation acts as a surf break that causes
waves to routinely crest at over seven metres (25 feet) and top out at
an incredible 24 metres (80 feet).
Mavericks is so-called after a white-haired German Shepherd who
accompanied his owner Alex Matienzo with fellow surfers Jim Thompson and
Dick Knottmeyer, in early March 1961, decided to try the distant waves
off Pillar Point. So much for the big-cat names!
iBooks
2. iBooks on the Desktop
Jordan Merrick's 'Back Up Your Mac With Time Machine' book, in iBooks on Mavericks
If you are familiar with iBooks on your iOS device, you’ll be pleased
to know that iBooks is coming to OS X with Mavericks. This gives you
access to in excess of 1.8 million books, from the iBooks Store, right
on your desktop.
You can browse by title, author or genre. In the iBooks Store you can
click to see further details, read reviews left by other readers or
read a free sample of your chosen title.
With a magic touchpad, you can turn pages with a swipe, zoom in on
images with a reverse-pinch and scroll quickly from cover to cover.
3. iBooks in the Cloud
It is now possible to synchronise books across devices with iBooks in the cloud
If you use multiple Apple devices, and you are an avid reader of
iBooks, then iBooks in the Cloud is going to be an invaluable feature to
you. On downloading an iBook in Mavericks, it will also be
automatically pushed to your iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad.
Furthermore, if you are reading an iBook on any device, iCloud
remembers where you are. If you left off on page 19 on your Mac, you
will pick up that iBook on page 19 on your iPad so you can continue
reading effortlessly.
4. Studying With iBooks
iBooks can help students study with annotation and highlighting aids to produce flashcards
If you use iBooks for studying, the ability to highlight important
pieces of text and the ability to add notes is a feature that will be
very useful. Highlighting can be done in colours of your choice to make
passages stand out. The notes pane, to the left, is where you can insert
notes relating to your chosen highlighted passages.
Of course, with iBooks in the Cloud, your highlights and notes are
pushed to all of your devices. Take notes on your Mac and they’re
available to view on your iPad, for instance.
Enhanced content – in iBooks that include interactive diagrams,
photos or videos – can be viewed using gestures on your multi-touch
trackpad.
5. Multiple Books
iBooks allows you to study with more than one book at a time
OS X Mavericks allows you to open more than one iBook at a time. If
you are studying, this allows you to read and search through each title
with ease.
When you quote a passage, whilst writing an essay, iBooks will add the citation for you.
Maps
6. Apple Maps in Mavericks
Maps is an all new app, in Mavericks, that brings Apple's mapping information to the desktop
Maps is an entirely new app for OS X and it shows that Apple is
serious about its oft-maligned maps effort. Whilst the usurping of
Google Maps, on iOS, as the default mapping app left many unhappy,
Apple’s mapping effort does seem to be improving, albeit slowly.
Bringing the same maps to OS X is a smart move to wean people off Google
Maps and onto Apple’s version.
To view maps, simply launch the new Maps app and, if you have
location services enabled, maps should home in on your present location.
Use the search box to find other locations and the Standard, Hybrid and Satellite buttons to change the view.
7. Flyover
Apple Maps' Flyover feature uses 3D renderings taking from
Apple's photographic flyover data that can be viewed from different
angles. It is not satellite imagery.
Flyover is a feature of Maps that is only available, currently, for
selected cities. It offers photo-realistic, three-dimensional views. You
can zoom in on and around the buildings using intuitive multi-touch
gestures.
Where available, Apple’s Flyover feature is much more interesting
than Google’s use of satellite imagery. To view Flyover graphics, select
the Satellite button or click View > Satellite.
Exactly how far Apple extends this flyover mapping remains to be seen given that they have recently been refused permission by Norway.
Perhaps we will never be able to flyover the beautiful handiwork of Slartibartfast?
8. Local Search
You can search for restaurants, points of interest, museums and all sorts of things in Apple Maps
With Maps it is easy to get information about local points of
interest such as tourist attractions, restaurants and hotels. Maps
displays phone numbers, photos and even Yelp reviews. This makes it a
handy tool for researching places to visit and for planning holidays.
Extremely easy to use, just launch the maps app, perform a search for
what you are looking for and click on each red map pin. For example, Thai restaurants in Brighton
then click on any map pin to bring up a contact card with information,
reviews and photos about that destination or point of interest.
9. Add Maps POI to Contacts
Visiting a new restaurant? You can add all their contact details to Contacts with just a click
To add a point of interest to your Contacts address book
open the Maps app
search for your desired point of interest
click on the map pin for your point of interest
click Add to Contacts
This is a fantastically quick way of adding useful contact information to which you might need to refer, later.
10. Bookmark Maps Points of Interest
Adding a bookmark in Maps is very straightforward
To add a point of interest to your Contacts address book
open the Maps app
search for your desired point of interest
click on the map pin for your point of interest
click Add to Bookmarks
Perhaps you are going on holiday soon? This is a great way to add
points of interest or places that you wish to visit in a particular
region.
11. Get Directions
Getting directions in Apple Maps is easy, and it will offer alternative routes where available.
Planning a trip has never been easier than with Apple Maps.
Click on Directions
If you are not starting from your current location, enter your starting point
Enter your destination
Click the vehicle or person to give you driving or walking directions, respectively
Your directions are then listed.
12. Send Directions to iOS, iMessage and More
Once you've worked out your route, on the Mac, you can send it to your iPhone or iPad
The process is similar to the steps in the previous example followed by clicking on the share to icon:
Click on Directions
If you are not starting from your current location, enter your starting point
Enter your destination
Click the vehicle or person to give you driving or walking directions, respectively
Your directions are then listed.
Select the Share icon (or File > Share) and then Send to [Yourname]’s iPhone.
You will then have turn-by-turn voice navigation available on your
iPhone – provided you have an iPhone 4S or later running iOS 7.
13. Get Realtime Traffic Data
Apple Maps is able to display realtime traffic data
Clicking on the icon of the two cars, or by selecting View > Show Traffic, you will be able to view realtime traffic information.
This is displayed as orange dots or red dashes, on congested routes, depending upon the severity of the congestion.
Other important traffic infomation is also displayed. Icons for
Events, Roadwords and Accidents – denoted by a yellow warning triangle,
and orange roadworks sign and a red square, respectively – can be
clicked upon to reveal further information.
14. Map Scale
The Apple Maps mapping scale
Maps just aren’t proper maps without a scale to give a sense of
proportion. Whilst not turned on by default, Apple’s Maps app can show
you the distance scale when you click on View > Show Scale.
The units of the scale adjust automatically as you zoom in or out of the map view.
Safari
15. New Sidebar
The Safari sidebar
Safari incorporates redesigned Bookmarks handling into a sidebar that also incorporates Reading List and Shared Links, to the left of the main browser.
Accessible through the Bookmarks Book icon, this sidebar shows shared
links, posted by people you follow on Twitter and LinkedIn.
16. Top Sites
Safari topsites
Accessible through the grid of squares icon, Safari’s Top Sites
has been redesigned to make the pinning, organisation and deletion of
frequently visited sites an awful lot easier than it is in OS X Mountain
Lion. Coverflow has gone.
Hover over a webpage image to reveal an icon, in the top-left, that allows you to pin or delete the website from Top Sites. To reorder the sides, simply click with the mouse, hold and drag to your desired order.
17. Speed
There are also unique advancements under the hood. Safari 7.0, in
Mavericks, uses Nitro Tiered JIT (Nitro is Apple’s Javascript engine,
and the Tiered Just In Time compiler efficiently decides how best code
should be executed in webpages) and Fast Start technologies to make the
web pages you visit feel snappier and more responsive.
18. Battery Life
Apple claims that Safari 7.0 is significantly faster than Chrome and
Firefox and is also more more memory efficient and uses less CPU energy
than its competitors.
Safari doesn’t waste energy on web pages in the background or plug-in
content you don’t want to see. Processor and battery intensive process,
such as Flash animations, will be suspended in tabs that are not in
view.
Calendar
Formerly known as iCal, prior to OS X Lion, Calendar has been a
staple of OS X from the beginning. It’s lost the leather, stitching and
torn-paper skeuomorphic elements in favour of a much simpler, cleaner
look and the functionality has been enhanced, too.
19. Change Meeting Name, Location and Time
Calendar in Mavericks
It is now possible to change the name and location and amend the
dates and times of meetings without the need to open up the event to
edit it. Simply tap on your event to reveal a pop-up window and tap on
the name, location or time to amend them.
20. Add Meeting Invitees
Adding invitees to Calendar events
In the same manner as changing the name, location and time, it is
possible to quickly add invitees to an existing event. Again, click on
the event to edit easily.
21. Add Meeting Notes, Attachments or URL
Adding important information, to Calendar events, is simple
Adding meeting notes, attachments or a URL is easy, too. Tap the event to reveal the quick-edit window
iCloud Keychain
Setting up iCloud Keychain
If you are a power-user, you are probably familiar with 1Password. A
long-time favourite of Mac aficionados, this password-syncing service is
essential.
Such functionality is now available baked into Mavericks, which is
great news for anyone with an interest in computer security. It brings
improved password habits to the masses.
22. Secure Password Generation
iCloud Keychain password suggestions
A new password generator suggests unique and hard-to-guess passwords
for your online accounts. Apple uses robust 256-bit AES encryption to
keep your passwords secure.
23. Autofill Credit Card Info
iCloud Keychain will remember your credit card information so that you can autofill forms from then on (not CVV code)
iCloud Keychain can also be used to remember your credit card
credentials, thus making online shopping a breeze. Your security is not
compromised, though, as you will still need the CVV (Card Verification
Value) – the three digit number from the reverse of your credit card –
in order to proceed with any transactions.
24. Synchronise Across Devices
iCloud Keychain doesn’t just remember your passwords, it can create
them, too, then synchronise them across all of your Apple devices. Both
OS X and iOS.
Multiple Displays
Since full-screen app functionality was introduced in OS X 10.7 Lion,
the ability to efficiently employ multiple screens has been broken.
25. Menu Bars and Docks
The Menu Bar appears on each display when running multiple displays
Finally, Apple has fixed how multiple displays are handled by removing the primary and secondary distinction, between displays.
Now each display has its own menu bar, which is always there, and the
dock is available on whichever screen you are working at the time.
26. Full Screen Apps Done Properly
iBooks running in full screen mode
If you use multiple displays in OS X 10.7 Lion or 10.8 Mountain Lion,
you will be familiar with the awkward behaviour of full screen apps in
that making any app run full screen will blank out and remove
functionality from the second display.
In OS X 10.9 Mavericks this has been fixed. You can now use any
combination of full screen apps and desktops running multiple apps. For
example:
Both displays can run multiple apps on desktops
One display can run a full screen app whilst the other runs multiple apps on a desktop
Both displays can run different full screen apps
27. Mission Control
Mission Control will now show the desktops and apps running on each of your displays
Mission Control gives you an overview of the apps and desktops
running on your Mac. In conjunction with multiple displays, Mission
Control will now show the desktops and apps running on each of your
displays.
You can then drag and drop apps from any of the desktops to another and even to a desktop on the other display.
28. AirPlay Display
Mirror your screen or extend to a new desktop on your television, via an Apple TV, with AirPlay Display
If you have an Apple TV, then the new AirPlay Display feature allows
you to either mirror or extend your desktop to your television.
AirPlay Display turns any HDTV (connected to an Apple TV, of course)
into a fully functional, wireless display for your Mac. This could be
especially useful for business presentations or watching films, from
your Mac, on your normal television.
Notifications
Notifications first appeared in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and
integrated similar functionality that could only previously be enjoyed
by installing a third-party app called Growl.
29. Interactive Notifications
In Mavericks you can reply straight from the notification without needing to open the app
Mavericks builds upon Notofications with interactivity that allows
you to reply to a message, respond to a FaceTime call or delete an email
all immediately from the Notification and without the need to open the
corresponding app.
30. Website Update Notifications
Notifications has been updated to allow you to receive updates from
your favourite websites. This might be breaking news, auction updates,
sports scores or something else.
Your notifications will keep on coming, even if Safari is not running on your Mac at the time.
31. Whilst You Were Away Notifications
Notifications Whilst you were away
They’re the digital equivalent of whilst you were away notes
that your colleagues leave on your desk. Notifications will pop up
messages, on the lock screen, to tell you how many new emails you have
received, how many iMessages have come in, how many FaceTime calls you
have missed, and so on.
Of course, this could be a privacy issue so it can disabled on an app by app basis. Visit System Preferences > Notifications
and then select the desired behaviour of each app by unticking the
preference for notifications for that app to appear on the lock screen.
Finder Tabs
During the course of your normal workflow, it is sometimes necessary
to open more than one Finder window to navigate your way around the
filesystem. Beyond two Finder windows and this can become difficult to
manage, especially amongst the windows for other apps.
32. One Finder Window, Multiple Finder Tabs
Having multiple tabs, in Finder, makes things somewhat more manageable
Finder Tabs solves this, in Mavericks, by borrowing the idea of tabs such as you may be familiar from web browsers.
This means that you can have one Finder window with multiple tabs,
each navigating to a different part of the filesystem. You can even drag
and drop files between tabs.
Tags
Using Tags when saving a document
Tags is a new way of filtering and finding stuff. Tags are added to
documents, even those stored in iCloud. Tag files, with appropriate
tags, when you save them. Click on the appri
33. Tags in Finder
Tag files in Finder with different names and colours - handy to keep track of project files
You’ll find Tags in the Finder sidebar. The tags are named as
colours, by default, but can be renamed to something more appropriate to
you. To assign a tag to any document, secondary-click that document and
assign a tag.
34. Tags in Apps
You can assign tags when you save a document. Along with the name for
your document and the location to which to save it, tags can be added
before clicking the Save button.
35. Tags in iCloud
Tags in iCloud is particularly useful for documents stored in
different iCloud libraries. For instance, you might have a Numbers
Spreadsheet, a Pages document and a Keynote presentation all for a
particular project.
By assigning a tag for that project, all of these documents can be
assigned the project tag to group them together in that project. This
makes it easier to find all the resources for a given project and view
them all in a single Finder window.
36. Filter by Tags
Any document can have more than one tag assigned to it. For example,
if I have telephone bills for both my home and work iPhones, I could
assign all of them with the tag “Bills”, all of the home iPhone bills with “Personal” and the work iPhone bills with “Work”.
To find all of my work iPhone Bills, I could search for the tags “Bills” and “Work”. This would then not list my personal iPhone bills.
Advanced Technologies
Advanced Technologies is the name that Apple is giving to a number of under-the-bonnet
improvements to the OS X operating system. Advanced Technologies
improve battery efficiency meaning that you can work for longer. They
boost performance to bring you greater responsiveness and speed in using
the OS.
37. Timer Coalescing
This is a means of grouping low-level operatiosn together with the
effect of creating many small periods of time where the CPU remains
idle. With the CPU in a low-power state less energy is consumed and,
therefore, the battery lasts longer.
Apple claims that CPU activity can be reduced by up to 72 per cent
with Timer Coalescing, and that it happens so fast that you will not
notice any difference in performance.
38. App Nap
App Nap is designed to conserve energy by slowing down any app that is completely obscured by another app window
If you are anything like me, you will have many different app windows
open whilst working on your Mac. App Nap is designed to conserve energy
by slowing down any app that is completely obscured by another app
window …provided that app is not already doing something that you want
it to, such as playing music, downloading files or checking email.
When you switch back to the slowed-down app, it snaps back to full
speed instantly. Apple claims that App Nap can reduce CPU energy usage
by up to 23 per cent.
39. Safari Power Saver
If you have followed the fortunes of Apple for any length of time,
you are probably familiar with Steve Jobs’ downer on Adobe Flash. To be
fair to Jobs, Flash is particularly power-hungry which is why it was not
included in iOS.
Flash no longer comes installed, by default, in OS X, but you are
free to install it yourself. If you have a MacBook Pro, Flash is going
to impact your daily battery life.
OS Mavericks cleverly recognises the difference between the content
that you want to view, that that’s front and centre, and the content
that you perhaps don’t want to, as it is in the margins. Mavericks gives
you a static preview that you may click to play if you wish to view it.
This way, precious battery energy is conserved by not automatically
playing needless animations.
40. iTunes HD Playback Efficiency
The energy efficiency of playing HD video – in full screen, on your
MacBook Pro – has been enhanced in OS X Mavericks. The video playback
software employs the efficient graphics hardware in your Mac to reduce
the need for disc activity.
Apple claims that, “even audio playback is more efficient.
Altogether, your CPU will use up to 35 per cent less energy while you’re
watching video.”
41. Compressed Memory
We’ve all known, for a long time, that more memory is better and the
faster your Mac will run. This is because there will be less requirement
for writing to and reading from the hard disc – sometimes known as scratch space or virtual memory.
With running multiple apps, the physical memory can become used very
quickly. OS Mavericks Compressed Memory allows your Mac to free up
memory by seamlessly compressing data from inactive apps.
Apple claims that compression and decompression happens almost
instantaneously. Responsiveness under load is purported to be 1.4 times
faster and wake from Standby some one and a half times faster.
Internet Accounts
OS X Mountain Lion already allows for integration with your Twitter
and Facebook accounts, along with Flickr and Vimeo if you have them.
Mavericks is going all grown-up by introducing integration with
LinkedIn, the largest professional social network with in excess of 230
million users.
42. LinkedIn
Adding LinkedIn in Internet Accounts
To set up your LinkedIn account on OS X Mavericks:
Click on the Apple symbol at the top-left of the menu bar
Select System Preferences in the drop-down menu
Select Internet Accounts – second along on the third row of icons
Select LinkedIn
Enter your User Name and Password for your LinkedIn account
Activity Monitor
Located in Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor, Activity Monitor has been redesigned for Mavericks with the tabs being moved up to the toolbar. Disk Usage and Disk Activity have been consolidated into a single tab.
43. Energy
A new tab within Activity Monitor, Energy has been added to detail the energy consumption impact of each app that is running
A new tab within Activity Monitor, Energy
has been added to detail the energy consumption impact of each app that
is running, along with any apps that are currently enjoying an app nap.
Accessibility
44. Captions
OS X Mavericks introduces greater support for captions to assist the deaf and the hard of hearing
OS X Mavericks introduces greater support for captions to assist the
deaf and the hard of hearing. Closed Captions are automatically provided
where they are available. Default, Classic and Large Text caption styles are provided along with the ability to define your own. The Captions option can be found in System Preferences > Accessibility
45. Switch Control
Switch Control is an assistive technology that is particularly useful to any person with impaired mobility or motor problems.
Switch Control is an assistive technology that enables control an
interface through one or more buttons. This is particularly useful to
any person with impaired mobility or motor problems.
Switches can be mouse, keyboard or gamepad devices as well as
dedicated buttons. This opens the way for more gaming device options
with OS X, perhaps.
Dictation
Dicatation has been available, in OS X, since 10.8 Mountain Lion. The
way in which dication works is to send your speech to Apple’s servers
to be translated into text.
46. Enhanced Dication
Enhanced dictation is a 491MB download for offline dictation functionalityEnhanced Dication can be enabled at System Preferences > Dicatation & Speech.
It provides the ability for offline dictation which was previously not
possible. It also allows for continuous dictation with live feedback.
It’s a modest (in today’s terms) 491MB download that saves OS X
having to constantly report back to Apple’s own servers in order to
translate any speech to text.
Mac App Store
Here are four more changes, to OS X Mavericks, that might not immediately be apparent when you upgrade.
47. Automatic App Updates
The Mac App Store Preference pane
A new preference pane, located at System Preferences > App Store, allows you to customise the behaviour of the Mac App Store along the lines of what you may be familiar with in iOS.
By default, OS X Mavericks will now check for app updates, for
software purchased through the Mac App Store, and will automatically
download them in the background. You will then be notified when the
updates are ready to be installed.
48. Automatic App Installations
Within the new App Store preference pane, located at System Preferences > App Store, you can now opt-in to having the downloaded app updates automatically installed for you.
This will also automatically install system data files and security
updates to ensure that your Mac always has the latest level of
protection and is totally up-to-date from Apple.
49. Automatically Install Apps Across Macs
This is a feature that has been available in iOS for a little while
and is one that would benefit anyone who owns and uses more than one
Mac.
Navigating to System Preferences > App Store you can now opt to have all new app purchases downloaded and installed automatically on your other Mac(s).
Battery Information
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50. Enhanced Battery Status Information
The battery status menu bar app will show any apps using significant amounts of energy
Enhanced battery status information is available in the battery
drop-down menu from the menu bar. To first enable this menu bar item,
navigate to System Preferences > Energy Saver and tick the Show battery status in menu bar option.
Now, when you click on the battery symbol, on the menu bar, any
energy-hungry apps will be listed as using a significant amount of
enery.
Conclusion
The headline features of OS X Mavericks are iBooks and Maps and are
the changes that most will notice. A tabbed Finder will make the app
much easier to use and tags gives greater control over managing files
and documents.
Many changes are behind the scenes with a lot of attention being paid
to technologies that will help to enhance the battery life of MacBooks
Air and Pro.
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