On Launchpad on Mac, you can find all of your apps, regardless of where they are installed. While you can expect few problems on Launchpad with apps installed in the Applications folder, the same can't be said for titles downloaded and stored elsewhere. Occasionally, installed apps aren't showing up under Launchpad. Conversely, you might see icons for apps that are no longer on your computer. In times like these, the Launchpad database gets corrupted.

Luckily, there's a quick fix for it! Here's how to reset Launchpad on macOS Monterey on all the best Macs!

How to reset Launchpad on your Mac

1. Go to the Finder on your Mac.
2. Hold down the Option key and click on the Go menu.
3. Select Library.
4. Open the Application Support folder.

5. Click on the Dock folder.
6. Delete all the files ending in ".db."

7. Empty the Trash on your Mac.
8. Restart your Mac.

Once your Mac has restarted, it will automatically rebuild the Launchpad database and repopulate it with an accurate count of the apps you have on your Mac.

Easy fix

As you can see, it's relatively simple to reset Launchpad on your Mac when there is a problem. Follow the steps, and be on your way!

May 2022: Updated for the latest version of macOS.

Apple has released OS X 10.11.1, bringing along with it a number of fixes and improvements. The update, which is available now through the Mac App Store, brings new emoji, improvements for Microsoft Office 2016 compatibility and much more. A full list of the changes in OS X 10.11.1 include:

• Improves installer reliability when upgrading to OS X El Capitan
• Improves compatibility with Microsoft Office 2016
• Fixes an issue where outgoing server information may be missing from Mail
• Resolves an issue that prevented display of messages and mailboxes in Mail
• Resolves an issue that prevents certain Audio Unit plug-ins from functioning properly
• Improves VoiceOver reliability
• Adds over 150 new emoji characters with full Unicode 7.0 and 8.0 support

It may take a little before you see the update show for you in the Mac App Store, but keep an eye out. If you happen to notice any other improvements or issues with this build, let us know in the comments below.

If you've recently upgraded to iOS 9, you may find that you can no longer sync your beautiful new Notes app with your Mac. This is because on OS X Yosemite, your Notes app is still the same sad, pre-attachment version that you had in iOS 8—and they can't talk to each other.

Good news: OS X El Capitan has an iOS 9-compatible Notes app. Bad news: OS X El Capitan doesn't ship until September 30.

But don't worry, friends: You don't have to rush to install the OS X El Capitan beta if you're relying on getting your notes from iOS to OS X. Instead, you can use iCloud.com for your syncing needs. Unfortunately, this does only talk from iOS 9 to iCloud.com—so you'll have to do your notes-writing in one of those two places, and leave the OS X Notes app alone until you upgrade to OS X El Capitan.

Note: This only works for Notes you're syncing through iCloud.com; if you're syncing them through a different service, you won't be able to see them.

How to view iOS 9's Notes on a Mac running OS X Yosemite

1. Open Safari on your Mac.
2. Visit iCloud.com and enter in your username and password.
3. Click on the Notes app.
   
   

From there, you should be able to edit your current notes, add checklists and text, and delete any unwanted information.

Apple recently started pushing out a new Digital Camera RAW Compatibility update for OS X Yosemite today that brings RAW format support for a number of new cameras. The update clocks in at version 6.06 and covers RAW compatibility for the following list of cameras:

• Canon PowerShot G3 X
• Leica Q (Typ 116)
• Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GX8
• Sony Alpha ILCE-7R II
• Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 II
• Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 IV

The update is a necessary addition to add system-level RAW support for the listed cameras when working in imaging applications on your Mac. The update measures a small 7.8MB large, and should be available on the Mac App Store now.

Source: Apple

OS X Yosemite has been updated to version 10.10.4 and with it Apple has surfaced a trim command in Terminal. Trim enables more efficient "garbage collection" on Macs equipped with some third-party solid state drives (SSDs). Not all SSDs are created equal, though, and that raises some issues to consider before you pull the trim trigger.

Let me point out right off the top that if you're using a Mac with built-in SSD storage, none of this applies to you. Trim support in 10.10.4 is only relevant to Macs with upgraded third-party SSD. And even then, trim may only be relevant to a subset of those Macs.

"Trimming" is a technique used by operating systems to do "garbage collection" on an solid state disk. Trimming enables the SSD to consolidate blocks of flash memory to make sure performance remains high. Without garbage collection, an SSD can slow down over time as more data is written to the drive.

If you bought your Mac with an SSD factory-installed by Apple, you don't have to worry. First party SSDs do their own garbage collection, so no changes are necessary for those systems. Third-party SSDs equipped with SandForce controllers, like the ones sold by Other World Computing (OWC), don't need any help, either.

With Mavericks and previous OS X releases, some Mac users who had upgraded their computers with third-party SSDs used Trim Enabler and other tools to get trim support to work on their drives. That went away with the release of Yosemite, which enforced a new security measure called "kext signing." Kernel extensions, or kexts, are system drivers. Kext signing makes sure system drivers stay unaltered to prevent potential security problems. Unfortunately, this meant that utilities which altered the way SSD drivers work stopped working on Yosemite.

While kext signing is still Yosemite's law of the land, 10.10.4 introduces a new "trimforce" command that enables trim on SSDs. OS X 10.10.4's new "trimforce" command is entered through the Terminal:

sudo trimforce enable

The operating system barks back a long and potentially scary message about how using trimforce may cause "unintended data loss or data corruption" before turning it on.

The problem is that not all SSDs implement trim support the same way, and some models from some manufacturers appear to have very buggy trim implementations all together.

So why did Apple enable this? Well, it looks like this is an early implementation of something we expected in El Capitan, but many newer third-party SSDs don't have any trouble with trim support and will benefit from it, so it's a net positive.

Again, if you're using a Mac equipped with a factory-installed SSD or one that uses an SSD that has a SandForce controller, this doesn't apply. If you're using a third-party SSD, use this command at your own risk. I'd strongly recommend checking with user support forums and any other online resources for your SSD maker before enabling trimforce on your Mac, and whatever you do, back up early and often.

Amidst iOS 8.4's release and the introduction of Apple Music, Apple on Tuesday also released a point update to OS X Yosemite, 10.10.4. If you've been having problems with flaky networking issues since upgrading to Yosemite, including wake from sleep issues and devices getting renamed on your network, I'd recommend giving the new update a try.

Networking problems with Yosemite came to a boil this Spring following some comments from developers, who attributed the troubles to Yosemite's use of networking software called "discoveryd." Discoveryd was also the culprit behind some memory leaks and CPU hogging, according to various reports on Apple developer and OS X user forums around the Internet.

Once Apple released the first beta version of OS X 10.10.4 in May, many of these problems went away. So, it turns out, did discoveryd: Apple replaced it with mDNSresponder, the networking code in Mavericks and previous versions of OS X going all the way back to 10.2 Jaguar. mDNSresponder had been modified to support newer foundational networking technology in Yosemite like Handoff.

10.10.4's improvements don't end with just networking, however. Apple also lists a variety of "reliability" improvements including changes to Migration Assistant, better functioning for external displays, better iCloud Photo Library video and photo syncing, improved iPhoto and Aperture upgrading to Photos, and a change to prevent Photos from crashing when importing certain DNG files from Leica digital cameras. Outgoing email problems have been fixed in Mail and a JavaScript exploit has been closed in Safari which could keep you from navigating away from a web site that throws repeated popups at you.

Apple also lists several changes of interest to enterprise IT managers: A fix for problems associated with hanging Macs connected to directory services, adding the ability to create mobile accounts using the "createmobileaccount" tool, and a Profile Manager fix that will keep users from installing beta software when the setting is disabled.

On Tuesday Apple released a new beta version of OS X Yosemite. The new 10.10.4 release, build 14E26a, went into the hands of developers and Mac users who are signed up for Apple's AppleSeed public testing program. And it makes an important change to OS X's underlying network technology that may yield improvements for those of us who have been suffering a host of problems for the past several months.

Specifically, a key piece of networking code called discoveryd is gone. In its place is mDNSResponder, the old code that was in Mavericks and every OS X release since Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar" came out in 2002. 9to5Mac reported the change late Tuesday.

Discovery has been at the heart of criticism lobbed at Apple by developers for months. The problems with Yosemite's networking have run the gamut. Wake from sleep stopped working consistently, for example. You'd open your laptop only to stare at a blank screen or a cursor without any activity. Wake On Demand (a feature that makes a Mac wake up when it's pinged by another device over the network) stopped working consistently. Bonjour, Apple's implementation of zero-configuration networking, stopped working consistently. Devices on the network would get renamed with incremented numbers (like "Peter's MacBook Pro (2)"). And DNS, the core technology that translates human-readable domain names (like "imore.com") into their IP addresses, would randomly stop working.

Not all of these may be related exclusively to discoveryd, but discoveryd certainly is contributing to many of them. Discoveryd also demonstrated a penchant for grabbing 100 percent of the CPU's attention and grabbing huge amounts of RAM, too.

Discoveryd was introduced when Yosemite came on the scene last year, and even during the initial beta period, it appeared to cause a lot of trouble. Through months of incremental updates to Yosemite, the problems haven't gone away.

Replacing discoveryd with mDNSResponder is a procedure described on developer discussion boards. It's a fairly elaborate process. It requires using the Terminal command line, so it's not something within the range of many Mac users who prefer to spend their time working in the relative comfort of the Mac graphical user interface. But developers have gotten it to work. Apple seems to have elected to go that route rather than continue to distribute discoveryd, which clearly wasn't up to snuff for many users.

For better or worse, Apple rarely communicates with developers and end users about problems like this. It's frustrating, even for seasoned Mac and iOS developers, when months of complaints, bug filings in Apple's "Radar" system and queries posted to Apple discussion forums lead nowhere. Apple hasn't, to the best of my recollection, published any support articles to help Mac users troubleshoot these problems, either. For that matter, we still don't have a clear idea of why discoveryd replaced mDNSResponder when Yosemite was first released. All we know is that things have sucked since then.

So the latest beta release of 10.10.4 comes as a surprise — a welcome surprise for many of us who have been suffering from discoveryd problems, obviously. But there's still no clear communication from Apple to explain the change. What's more, the 10.10.4 release is a beta. There's no way to know if this is a permanent change from Apple or a temporary fix while Apple address discoveryd problems in a more substantive way.

Since I installed the latest beta, my Mac's network name hasn't jumped any digits. It's waking from sleep faster than at any time I can remember since I installed Yosemite. To that end, trusty old mDNSResponder seems to do the job better than discoveryd. I'll temper my optimism by reminding you that I've had the latest beta installed for less than a day.

Will this change be permanent? I doubt it. Apple replaced mDNSResponder with discoveryd for a reason. But it's certainly an improvement for now, and I welcome it.

Are you using the latest beta? Or are you still suffering problems in 10.10.3? Sick and tired of networking problems plaguing your Yosemite machines? Or are you not having trouble at all? Sound off in the comments.

Iconfactory developer Craig Hockenberry posted to his blog about persistent problems he's run into with OS X Yosemite (warning: strong language). Hockenberry gives me some insight into a problem that has also dogged me since Yosemite was in beta last summer: Problems with Macs waking from sleep, and devices on the network being arbitrarily renamed.

Hockenberry, writing on Furbo.org

According to Hockenberry, Macs are losing network connections when waking from sleep and Apple network devices are being renamed with a number in the title, like "Apple TV (2)" or "Peter's MacBook Pro (3)."

It's been happening to me as well, so it resonated for me.

Hockenberry lays the blame for the problem at the feet of "discoveryd," a service that debuted with Yosemite and handles a bunch of networking-related functions. Prior to 10.10's launch OS X used another piece of code called mDNSResponder, which worked pretty well.

Hockenberry isn't the only one out there who says "discoveryd" is the problem. Instapaper creator Marco Arment agrees:

Apple moved to "discoveryd," in part, to enable new features like Continuity, a suite of services that lets Mac and iOS devices effortlessly communicate with one another — text messages on the iPhone are relayed to the Mac; the Mac can use the iPhone as an Internet hotspot without any configuration; email and web page information is passed between devices, and more.

Continuity has changed the way people expect their Macs and iOS devices to work, and provides a way for those devices to work better together than they can apart. It's incredibly important technology. It's also disturbingly fragile, especially given than we're now more than six months past Yosemite's initial release (and even longer since Yosemite went into the hands of developers and public beta testers).

Hockenberry learned a workaround: Shut off Apple TVs on the local network, reboot the AirPort Extreme. Hockenberry theorizes why it works:

Bonjour is Apple's implementation of zero-configuration networking, to help the Mac and peripherals just work when they're connected to a network. Hockenberry admits, however, that it's just conjecture, since Apple hasn't been forthcoming with information about the problem. Hockenberry also suggests that the Dilbert Principle may be the ultimate cause for why this problem has dragged out for so long (to wit: that someone in Apple's middle management is trying to cover their ass by obfuscating what's going on).

Marco Arment's network topology is different: He has problems with wired network connections and doesn't use Apple AirPort routers. Arment writes:

"Discoveryd" is one of the many reasons why some of us would like Apple to take a step back from pouring a lot of new features into the next releases of OS X and iOS, instead focusing on making what's already there better. There are maddening inconsistencies and broken features right now.

"Discoveryd" is a foundational technology for Yosemite, iOS 8, the Apple Watch, and everything that comes after. Apple has to get this stuff right before it expects us to start using even more new features, or before those new features introduced in Yosemite get more complicated. So I don't think this is something that's just going to persist.

But after six months, I'm wondering when a solution is finally going to get here.

Are you having these troubles with your Mac, Apple TV or other devices connected to your network? Have you noticed things are worse in Yosemite than they were in Mavericks? Sound off in the comments.

First, we wrote the original gigantic review. Then, we got together and chatted about the operating system three months later. Now, six months after the release of OS X 10.10, the iMore team is back at it to talk once more about Apple's national-park-named operating system.

Design

Ren: The more I work with OS X Yosemite, the more I love its design and aesthetic. It flows really seamlessly when you're switching between iOS and OS X, and I love the new Safari window more every day. I only wish I had a Retina computer to really take advantage of the new design.

Ally: Yosemite fuses iOS and OS X together for the first time. Design language is important and it's one of the very first things people notice. Anyone already using an iPhone or iPad will now be instantly familiar with a lot of the same aesthetic features on the Mac, thanks to Yosemite. It makes the switch from PC even more enticing, and that wasn't on accident.

Peter: It didn't take me long to get used to the visual changes to Yosemite, producing more consistency with iOS 7 and 8. It's also Retina-optimized, which means it doesn't look quite as nice on the MacBook Air and older Macs. I must say it looks especially nice on the new MacBook.

Rene: Yosemite is the first version of OS X for me where it's almost painful to go back to an older version based on looks alone. I mentioned during the 3 month later review that, unlike previous generations where I've waiting a year or so to upgrade my podcast studio Mac, the new interface had me upgrading almost immediately. It's clean, it's crisp, and it's deep. I like it so much I'm even more interested in seeing how, if at all, Apple will tweak it for OS X 10.11 this year.

Extensibility

Ally: This is one area I'd really like to see developers do more with. On iOS I can create workflows through extensions, add deliveries, view source code, unzip files, and do tons of other neat things. Sadly, a lot of that same love hasn't yet been given to the Mac. The app that have implemented it have made my life even easier. But whenever I try and use a share or action extension that isn't available in OS X that is on OS X, it makes my heart sad.

Here's to hoping developers will continue to try and find even more unique and useful ways to take advantage of extensions on OS X, because we aren't quite there yet.

Peter: Still not as much of a feature smorgasbord as I would like to see, though where it's been applied has made my worfklow a lot more seamless.

Ren: I use Extensibility all the time on my iPhone and iPad, but rarely on my Mac. The same library for sharing extensions just doesn't exist on OS X yet, though I hope developers address that this year.

Rene: We're going to look back and see extensibility as one of the biggest changes in computing technology in recent years if not decades. Decoupling interface and unbundling apps so that functionality no longer has to be hunted down but can be pushed up is fundamentally transformative. I agree with my colleagues, however, that right now it's far more impactful on iOS than it is on OS X. The combination of Touch ID and action extension on iOS, for example, makes 1Password a better experience now on the iPhone or iPad than the Mac.

Perhaps that's because OS X has always been a less controlled, more functional environment, or perhaps it's because developers have better engaged with extensibility on iOS than OS X. Time will tell.

Continuity

Ally: I use Continuity constantly, whether it be for calling or messaging. I've said it many times and I'll say it again, if you own a non-iOS phone, we can be friends again my green bubble freak friends. Before, it just broke up my workflow too much to stop what I was doing and respond to a regular text message. With Continuity, I don't have to. I'm not quite sure what people without a built-in messaging solution do, and yes, I'm looking at all the PC people in the room. And then there's apps like Pixelmator that let me pass what I'm doing off from my iPhone or iPad to my Mac, and vice versa. I've become completely spoiled by it.

If I'm at my Mac, I almost never pick up my iPhone or iPad any more, because I don't have to, thanks to Continuity.

Ren: I go back and forth on Continuity being my favorite thing or just something I happen to use on occasion. Handoff still isn't (for me, at least) regularly reliable enough for me to always use it; if I expect an app to be ready to hand off in my Dock and it's not there, it breaks the experience. SMS Relay is excellent, however.

Rene: I'm using Continuity more now than I was previously. I'm still not answering my phone on my Mac regularly, like Peter, but I am using Handoff to sling everything from half-composed mail and messages around to half-read webpages. (Though I wish webpages could push scroll position reliably as well.) Instant hot spot is my constant coffee shop companion and during the transition period from My Photo Stream to iCloud Photo Library, Air Drop was a life saver for screenshots. Now we just need some hot Continuity for iTunes action and things will get even more interesting.

Peter: Continuity is my most used Yosemite feature. I don't even think twice about using my iPhone as a hotspot or a relay to my "green bubble friends" from my Mac. It works like magic. It hasn't always. But it's getting more solid with each successive built of OS X and iOS 8.

Spotlight

Ren: Launchers forever! I use Spotlight early and often, and the Flashlight plugin has essentially let me turn it into a full-fledged launchbar utility. It's great. I do wish you could move the Spotlight search bar to another location, though — sometimes I'll be doing calculations and the Spotlight bar drops over whatever I was referencing, which is a pain.

Ally: I use Spotlight like I always have and it's one area that I don't think I use to its full advantages. I never look up Wikipedia info or search the web, mainly because I'm so used to launching a browser. Muscle memory right there.

I do use Spotlight often to convert currency though. Seriously, awesome feature. Try it.

Peter: Spotlight is, arguably, my main user interface element for doing almost everything. I usually don't go clicking around windows or relying on third-party menu bar apps or interface enhancements; just hit command-spacebar to bring up the Spotlight window, type my search query, the name of the app I'm looking for, movie times, unit conversions and more. Spotlight is easier to work with than ever in Yosemite thanks to extended data searching, which you can customize in System Preferences.

Rene: I'm with Peter. Spotlight is how I find almost everything on my Mac. The new Spotlight has a few new features that I like and use occasionally, but 6 months in I'm still primarily using it the way I always have — to launch apps and find files.

Mail

Ren: Mail continues to be more reliable than Mavericks, but still not as rock solid as Snow Leopard. Messages move to the folder I'm asking them to about 90 percent of the time — which overall is a pretty good record — but I'd still like to not doubt that when I do something in Mail, I may have to come back and do it again.

Ally: I don't use the built-in Mail app and haven't in years. I toggle regularly between Mailbox and Airmail 2 which I find to be way superior. At least enough for me to forego Handoff in order to use them.

Rene: I'm the anti-Ally. I use Mail both for my personal accounts and for my work account, and I still like the way it's set up and implemented better than third party alternatives. I wish I could get Gmail over Exchange the way I can on iOS, and I wish I didn't have to kill and restart it on occasion to get Gmail to update — and had a clue whether that was Mail or Google's quirky IMAP implementations — but the good far outweighs the bad.

I haven't found myself using Markup, however. When I annotate, I still do so in Napkin and then send by Mail.

Peter: I know Mail's been troublesome for some users, but I haven't run into any issues with it in a while. I manage a variety of different accounts with it too, including iCloud, Gmail and more.

Safari

Ally: Yosemite is the first time I've actually used Safari more than I do Chrome. I love the fact that previously clicked links on my iPhone or iPad also translate to my Mac, and vice versa. Features like iCloud Tabs, universal search history, and anything else that meshes my workflow together keep making Safari more and more appealing to me.

Fine Apple, you finally got me to use Safari full time. Happy?

Rene: When Yosemite launched there was a JavaScriptCore crash that would kill especially JavaScript heavy websites — including, iMore, alas. That was fixed a version or two ago, and everything has been fast and solid for me ever since. If I ever have to play a Flash video — looking at you TV channel embeds! — or open a Google Doc, I do so within a Chrome jail. For everything else, Safari's sleeker interface and ability to sync everything I've done on iOS just makes it such a better experience for me.

Ren: Hallelujah to fixing that JavaScript bug — it made Safari nigh-unsable for me for awhile. But now it's fixed, and I can enjoy the real delight of Apple's web browser on OS X Yosemite: its speed and cleanliness. Safari has always been quick, but it feels even lighter and faster in this version of OS X; I'm a huge fan of its minimalist design, as well. Though I tend to keep all the extra bells and whistles — tabs, the status bar, bookmarks — turned on, Safari never feels cluttered, guiding the majority of your attention to the website you're visiting.

Peter: Continuity's handoff of Safari web pages you already have open on another device, as Ally described, is a very cool reason to use it. It also does a much better job managing system resources than either Firefox or Chrome, which makes Safari a better choice for Mac laptop users who work untethered.

Photos

Rene: With Photos Apple has delivered on what I've always wanted: ubiquitous nearline picture and video storage. It's new and there are still some features missing that I'd like, but the core idea is solid and that's the most important thing for me. Any picture or video I take or save on my iPhone or iPad, or take, save, or import on my Mac, all just goes up into iCloud Photo Library, and the more recent, more frequently accessed, and most favorite get cached locally on all my devices.

Yes, the price plans are still expensive, especially when compared to the ad or data collection subsidized models of competitors, but I like the privacy and I like the architecture. Photos for OS X and I are going to be fast friends.

Ren: I've been using the Photos app with the OS X 10.10.3 beta for awhile now, but I am so happy it's finally hit the public stage. While not Aperture, the Photos app is an excellent all-purpose tool for image management and editing, and iCloud Photo Library makes it even better. I do have my gripes and wish lists, but overall, it's a great first step from the company.

Ally: All my photos completely in sync, across all my devices? Including albums? Yes please! It's something I've been wanting for entirely too long. It also forces me to better organize my crap, which isn't a bad thing. Aside from a few glitches and bumps in the road, I'm completely happy with Photos as an organization tool. For anything else, I still have Lightroom.

Peter: Photos had a mostly successful product launch with the release of 10.10.3; I think this is due in part to a lot of pre-release testing with OS X developers. Not everything is seamless in Photos, but integration with iCloud photo services is infinitely better.

Messages

Ally: Yeah, Continuity and Messages are pretty much the bees knees. I am not quite sure how I lived without them in my prior lives. Seriously. How did I?

Oh and being able to mute Rene's weird Star Wars references at midnight that I won't understand anyways? Priceless!

Peter: Messaging improvements in Yosemite have run hot and cold. Group messaging is something that we at iMore use every day to stay in touch with each other, while Soundbites — adding audio recordings to your Messages — isn't something that I use or that many other people I've checked with use either. The ability to mute conversations and to leave them all together was long overdue.

Ren: Messages by and large works very well for me on OS X Yosemite, but like Peter, I wish that group messaging was implemented more successfully. For every seamless SMS relay, I also have multiple group threads and general disorganization. I could also do with a smarter, faster search bar.

Rene: Star Wars is Harry Potter in space, Ally, except with cleaner, more self-actualized archetypes! That aside, I love messages on OS X. It's fast, it's fluid, and it's insanely productive. The only catch is occasional weird behavior like Peter mentioned. Not only the group messages splitting, which is apparently being fixed, but also the sometimes delay in populating messages after startup.

Also, because there are no instant selfie, video, or location senders, I find it less stressful overall than Messages for iOS where I'm one misclick away from accidental oversharing.

Cross-device messaging is a tough problem to crack, but that's Apple's job.

Bottom line

Ally: OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 tie together the entire Apple ecosystem in a way that was previously inconceivable. iOS owners that are new to Mac will instantly feel a warm familiarity, and that makes things a lot less scary.

However, Apple still wants a Mac to be a Mac and an iPhone to be an iPhone. They just want them to work together better, and they've succeeded.

Rene: Six months later Yosemite is the best version of OS X I've ever used. Sure, there are bugs and people are right to complain. Everything from Extensibility to Continuity to everything that drives them, like the discoverd daemon, were massive changes and brought with them some of the instability you get when massive changes are made. It's happened before — humans forget old pain while new pain burns sharply — and it'll likely happen again. It got everything in place from cross-device functionality, however, including Apple Watch, and it set Apple and us up for the next stage of computing.

Like everyone, I want the bugs fixed and fixed fast, but I also want Apple to continue to bring us the future faster.

Ren: OS X Yosemite gets better with every point release and bug fix. It packed some big changes into OS X, and carried them off largely without a hitch. There are snags here and there, but it seems like Apple is committed to fixing the holes and making its operating system even smoother and more solid as time goes on.

Peter: Apple understands that Macs and iOS devices are used for different reasons and have different strengths and weaknesses. There's no need to unify the user interface between mobile and desktop as Microsoft has tried to do with Windows. The benefit is in the unification of workthrough with technology like Continuity.

I hope the next year is more "rebuilding" year than year rife with more customer-facing features; I'd like to see Apple get obsessive in making sure this new tech works as solidly and seamlessly as it can before doing anything else.

The third major update to OS X Yosemite adds the new Photos app. Photos for Mac lets you manage your iCloud Photo Library, lets you browse, organize, and edit your photos, syncing your changes over to your other devices. Find out more about the app in our Photos for Mac FAQ.

OS X 10.10.3 also adds support for Google's two-step verification and adds Spotlight suggestions to Look Up. There are also more than 300 new emoji characters. You can check out the full set of changes in OS X 10.10.3 in the list below:

The OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 update includes the new Photos app and improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.

With Photos you can:

• Browse your photos by time and location in Moments, Collections, and Years views
• Navigate your library using convenient Photos, Shared, Albums, and Projects tabs
• Store all of your photos and videos in iCloud Photo Library in their original format and in full resolution
• Access your photos and videos stored in iCloud Photo Library from your Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iCloud.com with any web browser
• Perfect your photos with powerful and easy-to-use editing tools that optimize with a single click or slider, or allow precise adjustments with detailed controls
• Create professional-quality photo books with simplified bookmaking tools, new Apple-designed themes, and new square book formats
• Purchase prints in new square and panoramic sizes

It's easy to upgrade your iPhoto library to Photos - just launch the app to get started. To learn more about Photos, please visit: https://www.imore.com/e?link=https%3A%2F%2Fapple.sjv.io%2Fc%2F221109%2F473657%2F7613%3FsubId1%3DUUimUdUnU31033%26subId2%3Ddim%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.apple.com%252Fmacos%252Fphotos%252F%26ourl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.apple.com%252Fosx%252Fphotos%252F%253Fafid%253Dp239%25257C159229%2526cid%253Daos-us-aff-ir%2526subId1%253DUUimUdUnU31033%2526subId2%253Ddim&token=Bs-KPgC6

This update also includes the following improvements:

• Adds over 300 new Emoji characters
• Adds Spotlight suggestions to Look up
• Prevents Safari from saving website favicon URLs used in Private Browsing
• Improves stability and security in Safari
• Improves WiFi performance and connectivity in various usage scenarios
• Improves compatibility with captive Wi-Fi network environments
• Fixes an issue that may cause Bluetooth devices to disconnect
• Improves screen sharing reliability

The update weighs in at 1.52GB, and can be found in the Updates section of the Mac App Store right now.

• Everything you need to know about Photos for Mac
• How to use Photos for OS X

Security is on everyone's mind these days. How secure is your Mac? Can other people figure out where you are? What apps have access to your most important data? Read on to understand how Yosemite's Privacy settings are configured, and how to master them.

R.C. writes:

Not quite. There's no GPS radio inside the Mac like there is in an iPhone, so you're not constantly in touch with a tower somewhere. Instead, your Mac figures out your location via Wi-Fi instead. When Wi-Fi is on, Location Services-related apps can work.

Certain apps like your Maps app benefit from being able to figure out precisely where you are — giving you directions to places you need to go with reasonable accuracy, then transferring that info to your iPhone so you can use it on the road. When you tell the Mac to enable Location Services, you're enabling it for those apps — and those apps only — to try to locate themselves in the world.

The Privacy tab in the Security & Privacy system preference is where you can manage that connection. If you want to turn off or edit Location Services settings, click the lock in the lower left and enter your system administration password.

To open Security & Privacy settings in Yosemite

1. Click on the  menu.
2. Select System Preferences.
3. Click on Security & Privacy.
4. Click on the Privacy tag.
5. Click on the lock icon in the lower left and enter your Mac desktop password.

Now you can edit which applications have access to Location Services.

J.T. writes:

Yosemite creates a few common databases when your user account is generated. Contacts, Calendar and Reminders databases are three of the most common ones. Different apps can work with those databases. You have ultimate control over which apps can and can't work with them, and you can adjust that from the same place you'd adjust Location Services.

In the Privacy tab of Yosemite's Security & Privacy system preferences pane, you'll find the setting you need to control access to your contacts, calendars and reminders databases. To get there, follow the steps above, but click on the Contacts, Calendars and Reminders icons in the left window.

Click the Lock button in the lower left, enter your system administration password and adjust the settings for each application.

Column view is a handy way to look at large collections of files in the Finder. It's my go-to default when I want to arrange contents of Finder windows in easy-to-track lists. I like to reset the column width, however, and I've discovered a handy trick to reset it across an entire window.

How to resize all columns in a Finder window

1. Open a new window in the Finder.
2. Organize the view by column by clicking the third button from the left above the word View (or, alternately, by typing command 3).
3. Hold down the option key on the keyboard.
4. Position the cursor over the edge of a column. It will change from the regular cursor to a column width cursor.
5. Click the mouse and drag the column to its new width. All the other columns in that window should move with it.
6. Let go of the mouse button to set the width, and let go of the option key.

If you don't hold down the option key, only the column you've selected will resize.

Any questions? Let me know.

Google's Project Zero research program has disclosed and released proof-of-concept code for a series of 0day — previously unknown — vulnerabilities found in Apple's OS X operating system for the Mac. These exploits are all fixed in OS X Yosemite 10.10.2, now in beta. Here's a report on the vulnerabilities from Ars Technica:

These vulnerabilities were reported to Apple in October of 2014 and made public as part of Google Zero Day's 90 day disclosure policy. (You can argue the merit of that policy in the comments below.)

None of these exploits can be used remotely, which means they'd need to be combined with remote exploits or with physical access to the hardware to be put to any practical use.

The first vulnerability, 130, which could result in privilege escalation, contains the following comment:

It includes the following:

That vulnerability, 121, is marked as fixed and closed as of January 8.

This could indicate the 130 vulnerability is also no longer an issue for people running Yosemite.

What's more, based on the latest build of OS X 10.10.2, seeded yesterday to developers, Apple has already fixed all of the vulnerabilities listed above. That means the fixes will be available to everyone running Yosemite as soon as 10.10.2 goes into general availability.

Nick Arnott contributed to this article.

Updated with reference to vulnerability 121.

The stability of Apple's platforms has been the subject of a lot of debate recently. Whether you agree with it or not, there's a growing sentiment that the quality of Apple's software has gone downhill in recent years, and that some form of "Snow Leopard moment" is needed to get it back on track. Our own Peter Cohen tackled the issue back in November:

Marco Arment brought a ton of attention to it, and made some excellent points both on his show, ATP, and on John Gruber's The Talk Show, as did many, many others.

I also loved Rich Stevens' take on it in last week's pixel project comic:

It reminded me of something I wrote two years ago called Seeing Apple through rose colored blasters:

Being passionate and advocating for change is exactly what Peter and Marco were doing. Unfortunately, keeping it in context is what people re-blogging them often missed. Ashley Nelson-Hornstein, however, missed nothing:

On Daring Fireball, Gruber expressed something similar:

For historical context, Gruber also linked a 2004 Ars Technica piece by Eric Bangeman about the last time Apple was caught in such an era:

OS X 10.0 to OS X 10.5 included the transition from classic Mac OS to NeXT-based technologies, the adoption of Aqua, an entirely new interface and design language, and the switch from PowerPC to Intel. It also set Apple up for the current leap forward — increasingly light, increasingly power-efficient mobile devices.

That era was famously capped off by Snow Leopard, when Tevanian's successor, Bertrand Serlet, convinced Steve Jobs to let them spend the majority of OS X 10.6 tightening the screws on everything they'd done before. There was 64-bit, Grand Central, and OpenCL under the covers, but mostly there was a focus on refining projects that had already been put in place by Leopard. Marketing came up with the "no new features" hook, figuring going all-in was the best way through, and engineering, without even bothering with a wine name, made it happen.

What we're in now is another period of transition. iOS 7 included an entirely new interface and iOS 8, a major functional upgrade. OS X Yosemite included a bit of both. They also set Apple up for the next leap forward — increasingly decoupled, increasingly interchangeable end-points.

Take the Apple Watch by way of example. It's going to rely on extensibility so that the iPhone can project information and apps onto its screen. And because that screen is small, it's going to rely on continuity so it can handoff any activity that requires more involved interaction back to the iPhone.

Those technologies (or something like them) had to be in place for the Apple Watch (and other future devices) to ship. Sure, Apple could have taken longer to roll them out and they could have moved the watch from this year to next, but then we'd have spent another year hearing about how Apple was no longer innovating, how they were falling behind, and how they were doomed.

Instead, iOS 7, iOS 8, and OS X Yosemite shipped almost every major feature, and set up almost every new device, people had been asking for. The greater scope and scale meant greater turbulence, but it also promised greater rewards. So far the gamble has paid off with the big and bigger screens of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but it will have to pay off again with the Apple Watch this spring.

Yes, there's been pain. It's arguable whether or not it's any more pain than last year, the year before, the year before that, the year before that, and so on. But it's inarguable that there's been pain. People at Apple know that. They and their families and friends use the same hardware and software we do. Whether or not the right people were paying attention to the right measures, recent events have at the very least made even those who might not have realized the sentiment aware of it now.

After all, what's a great leap forward without a great stuck landing?

Will iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 have as significant design and functionality changes? My guess is not. My guess is that, as in the past, we'll begin moving back into a phase of stabilization. Though my guess is that we'll still find a lot to — rightly — complain about.

As a long time user of Apple's cloud services dating back to iTools (and even dabbling with AppleLink back in the day), I just assumed that most people used iCloud. Until I started working at an Apple reseller and helping people with their Macs and iOS devices. And that's when I discovered that a lot of people don't. What's more, if they do start using iCloud and later change their minds, Apple makes decoupling from the service absolutely terrifying.

iCloud is by most measures a pretty clear success: More than a year ago, Apple counted more than 300 million users, and it's gone up quite a bit since then.

If you're one of the hundreds of millions of iCloud users, you're probably wondering why people wouldn't use it, or would disconnect. The reasons vary. The number one reason I hear from my customers is that they don't trust "the cloud" to begin with. They're nervous about putting any more information online than they have to.

They certainly recognize the benefit of syncing data through iCloud, having shared content to work with through iCloud drive, and being able to share and stream photos online, but that doesn't mean they trust Apple any more than they trust Google or any other service with that data. And well-publicized incidents like the celebrity nude photos scandal earlier this year breed further distrust.

As far as disconnecting is concerned, reasons vary: Some folks grow gradually more distrustful of iCloud and want to separate from it. Some, like me, have actually had problems that require us to disconnect, albeit temporarily, to see if we can resolve issues.

The problem is that Apple absolutely does as much as it can to dissuade users from iCloud — especially casual ones who may not understand a lot of technical intricacies that many of us take for granted. When you try, your Mac throws up a bunch of really scary messages.

The new Continuity features in OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 are great, but they're not bulletproof. I have had problems where my iPhone and Mac work great one day, but don't the next.

Troubleshooting the problem led me to try to decouple my Mac from iCloud, just temporarily, to see if signing back in would fix it (it turns out did). But in the process of signing off, this is what I saw:

...and so on.

Now, I'm sure you understand what those messages mean. And I certainly do too. The local content that's synced through iCloud is, at least in some cases, going to be deleted off the Mac.

It doesn't mean that I'm not going to be able to reconnect to iCloud and re-sync all my information. But for the average Muggle who doesn't necessarily read those error messages carefully, one thing pops out more than anything: The word "delete."

And that's a scary word for many people, because it means "I'm going to lose something that I have now."

Maybe that's enough. But I've talked with enough customers who feel resentful that they think they're being held hostage by Apple's cloud services to know that this process is intimidating. "Intimidating" should never be a word that we associate with the Mac (or iOS) user experience.

Of course, in my case, none of this would have been necessary if the new Continuity features had just worked the way they were supposed to. Which is another rant for a different day.

NSFW is a weekly op-ed column in which I talk about whatever's on my mind. Sometimes it'll have something to do with the technology we cover here on iMore; sometimes it'll be whatever pops into my head. Your questions, comments and observations are welcome.

Everyone's had that experience where you're promised something, and when you get it, what you get doesn't live up to your expectations. That's the way I've been feeling with OS X Yosemite and iOS 8.

Every operating system release has growing pains, and Apple has boxed itself into a corner especially this year by rolling out two new OSes that are so closely mated to one another. When it works, it works spectacularly. The problem is that it's so damnably inconsistent.

Getting my Mac and my iPhone to work with Handoff features has probably been the single biggest pain point. Instant Hotspot took me days to get working. It ultimately did start working once I changed the name of my phone (changing it back again still allowed connections) — clearly a bug.

AirDrop is supposed to work seamlessly between Mac and iOS device now, but "seamlessly" isn't the word I'd use — there are random dropouts and sometimes devices are just not able to see each other. What's worse is that Mac-to-Mac AirDrop transfer, which worked just fine before, is now sporadically unavailable. My wife and I spent an hour troubleshooting an AirDrop issue between our two machines the other night before I just gave up and asked her to send me the files a different way.

Thank goodness Dropbox still works.

iOS 8 got off to a rocky start, too. We all recall the iOS 8.0.1 debacle.

I've read pages and pages of complaints and problems from customers who have installed Yosemite and iOS 8, and have all sorts of problems, ranging from Wi-Fi issues to trouble connecting to Microsoft Exchange servers, problems with Handoff and more. And some of you have e-mailed me to let me know of the difficulties you're seeing; posted to discussion threads on our articles and elsewhere. So I know this isn't isolated.

I won't go as far as some to declare these releases the worst or the buggiest that Apple has ever released; that's ridiculous. I've lived through much worse. But it is annoying, when you're given a bill of sale and an expectation of how your gear should work, and the software isn't able to deliver.

Certainly doing a "clean install" can eliminate some of the problems that we're collectively having, but that's a painful and traumatic process on the Mac, at best. And it shouldn't have to be that way.

I'm an early adopter. I expect problems, and I'm not naive enough to think that everything that Apple ships is going to be flawless. I also recognize that operating systems are incredibly complex things comprising millions of lines of code.

But Yosemite and iOS 8 are fraught with enough difficulties for enough users that I feel like neither of them are fully baked.

Apple made the decision a few years ago to adopt an annual upgrade cycle for its operating systems. That's brought tremendous innovation to the Mac and to iOS in a relatively short amount of time, but it's also brought a lot of pain for users. Here's to hoping that Apple can iron out the problems with iOS 8 and Yosemite in less time than it took them to get us a reasonably stable release of Mavericks.

OS X Yosemite is available for download. It's free and will run on most Macs built in the last seven years. Before you install it, however, there are a few things you should keep in mind.

Back up your Mac

Before you make any major change to your Mac, make sure to back up your Mac. It doesn't matter if you use Time Machine, copy files to an external hard drive or clone your Mac, just make sure things get backed up before you do.

• How to set up a complete backup strategy for your Mac: Time Machine, cloning, and the cloud!

Check with crucial app developers before updating

Now that Yosemite has been out for a bit, most application developers have updated their apps with new versions optimized for the new operating system. But others are still working on new versions. So the best thing to do is to check with each individual developer of the apps you rely on the most to make sure you're using the most up-to-date version, and that they've tested their software to work with Yosemite.

Download OS X Yosemite

To get Yosemite, just open the Mac App Store. Apple's heavily promoting Yosemite right now so you shouldn't have any trouble finding it and getting it, but you can always click here and make it easy on yourself. It's a free update, so you don't have to worry about getting charged for it.

Because you need to download it from the Mac App Store, Yosemite is able to upgrade from OS X Snow Leopard (10.6), Lion (10.7), Mountain Lion (10.8) and Mavericks (10.9). If your Mac isn't running Snow Leopard, you'll need to get it there before you can install Yosemite. You can buy a copy from Apple's online store for $19.99; it's shipped on DVD.

Here's the list of Macs that Yosemite works with:

• iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
• MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
• Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

Bear in mind that not all Macs will run Yosemite the same way. Certain features like Handoff and Instant Hotspot only work on Macs equipped with Bluetooth 4.0, or Bluetooth LE. That's something you'll only find in most 2012 or later era machines.

Downloading Yosemite will deposit the installer inside your Applications folder. That installer measures several gigabytes, and will automatically delete itself after installation as part of its own housecleaning process. That's a great way to save hard drive space.

If you're upgrading multiple Macs with Yosemite, make sure to copy the installer to an external hard drive or a USB thumbdrive so you don't have to download it again. The installer can be copied like any other file or application - just drag it to the target disk.

If you don't happen to have an external hard drive handy, moving the installer out of the Applications folder should stop it from deleting itself once it's done upgrading your Mac.

Install Yosemite

Once Yosemite installs it will automatically launch. If you've saved it for later use, you can double-click it like any other application. Select the hard drive you'd like to install it on (for most of us, that's the only hard drive the Mac has), and then let the installer do its thing — your Mac will restart and begin the upgrade process.

For the most part, installing Yosemite is a hands-off process. Once the installer has put the new software on your Mac, just step back, go have a beverage or a snack, and let it do its thing.

Post Yosemite clean-up

After Yosemite is installed, the installer may ask you a few questions. It may also find software that won't work with the new operating system; if it comes across any, it will warn you. Then it will move these apps and system extensions to a folder called "Incompatible Software." Again, check with developers for updates to any apps you rely on.

If you've left the Yosemite installer in its default location in the Applications folder, it will have automatically deleted itself after it's installed. If you wanted to keep another copy but forgot to make one, you can always download it again from the Mac App Store for free.

Enjoy Yosemite!

Hopefully by now you're running Yosemite and enjoying Apple's efforts to modernize and harmonize the Mac with a new user interface, cool new features and more. For a complete rundown of everything that's changed in Yosemite, read our review.

• OS X Yosemite review

And if you have any questions, let me know in the comments.

Installing OS X Yosemite is as easy as downloading the installer from the Mac App Store and getting started. But there are times when you might want to create a bootable drive to run the Yosemite installer from, instead.

Installing Yosemite from a bootable drive comes in handy if you want to do a clean install - wiping your hard drive and installing a fresh copy of the operating system, for example, or if you're installing the software on multiple Macs and don't want to have to download it each time.

To do this, you'll need the Yosemite installer and you'll also need a bootable disk. You can use a USB thumbdrive with 8 GB or more storage capacity or an external USB hard disk; either will work just fine.

To download the Yosemite installer, click here. The installer is free, though you'll need to be signed in to the Mac App Store to download it. After it downloads, the installer app may automatically launch. Quit out of the installer if it does.

You'll need to make sure that external hard drive or USB drive is properly formatted for the Mac.

To format the drive for the Mac

1. Attach the drive to an available USB port on you Mac.
2. Open the Utilities folder.
3. Double-click Disk Utility.
4. Select the hard drive or USB thumbdrive from the list on the left hand side of the Disk Utility window.
5. Click the Erase tab. Name the drive whatever you'd like, but I'd recommend using one word, easy to remember. For the purposes of this How To, I've named it Installer. Remember it though, for the next step in our procedure.
6. Format it for "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)." Click the Erase button.
7. Quit Disk Utility.

To make the drive bootable for the Yosemite installer

The next step is to prepare the disk to operate as a bootable drive. This requires you to work in the Terminal application.

1. Open the Utilities folder if it's closed.
2. Double-click Terminal.
3. Remember how I mentioned it was important to remember what your hard drive or USB thumbdrive was called? If you didn't call it "Installer," you'll need to change the pathname where it says /Volumes/Installer to the name of your drive. Copy the following text: sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Installer --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app --nointeraction
4. Paste that text into the Terminal application and hit the Return key.
5. You will be prompted to enter your system password — the password you use to update apps on your Mac, or to login at boot.
6. The process of readying the disk as a bootable drive will begin. It should say "Copy Complete" when it's done.

Once it's done, you have yourself a bootable Yosemite installer drive. To use it, simply connect the drive to the target Mac with the power off. Turn the power on, hold down the Option key, and select the drive from the list that appears on the screen.

Have any questions? Let me know.

OS X Yosemite is now available for download. Before you pull the trigger on the upgrade, you should probably make sure that you're ready for it. I've jumped the gun enough times to know where the big landmines are, so learn from my mistakes and read on for details.

Make sure your Mac can run it

If your Mac is already running OS X Mavericks, chances are you're not going to have any trouble running Yosemite. You may not get all the same features as everyone else — some of Yosemite's Handoff features depend on having a later-model machine, for example — but you can still run it to get the benefit of the new Yosemite interface and many other under-the-hood improvements.

Here's Apple's official list of supported Mac models for Yosemite:

• iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
• MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
• Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

If you have an older Mac, make sure you can live with limitations

Yosemite introduces some really cool technology that we've been reading about for months, that people are really excited to try out: Handoff features and Instant Hotspot tethering, for example.

But some of these new features don't work on every Mac that can run Yosemite. So you need to calibrate your expectations accordingly; if you're running older hardware, you may have to brace for a bit of disappointment. According to Apple, here are the Mac models that support Handoff and Instant Hotspot features:

• MacBook Air (2012 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (2012 or newer)
• iMac (2012 or newer)
• Mac mini (2012 or newer)
• Mac Pro (Late 2013)

AirDrop between Macs and iOS devices has the same restriction, too. Mac to Mac AirDrop will continue to work in Yosemite, the same way it has before, but if you want Mac to iOS AirDrop or vice versa, you'll need to have one of those newer Macs.

(All these caveats and restrictions are due to the Bluetooth controllers used in each Mac model.)

Check with application developers for Yosemite upgrades before you upgrade

Developers have had months to get ready for Yosemite, and many developers have pushed out Yosemite updates just since Yosemite launched. but that doesn't mean everyone is good to go on day one. I'd strongly encourage you to check with the developers of the software you rely on the most to make sure that the apps you use are all ready to go for Yosemite.

If they are, then great. If not, you'll either need to find substitutes or you'll need to go without until they get their act together.

Back up your Mac

Before you do anything else, back up your Mac. Whether you use Time Machine, clone your hard drive, use an Internet-based backup service, or just copy stuff off to a flash drive or external hard disk isn't important. What is important is that you have a secure, reliable way to recover and restore files that don't make it through the transition.

Ideally you should be backing up regularly anyway. But doing something as significant as a new operating system install on your Mac without making sure your files are safe? That's sheer madness. Don't do it.

Make sure you have enough space

You're going to need about 5.1 GB of space to download Yosemite, and Apple says you'll need about 8 GB of space to run it. So plan accordingly, and back up or move files to another volume if you need to free up hard drive space to manage the download and install.

Need to check space? The easiest way to do it in Mavericks is the following:

To check available hard drive space

1. Select the  menu.
2. Select About this Mac.
3. Click the Storage tab.

OS X will show you how much of your hard drive is being used.

The bottom line

Yosemite is here, and if you've taken the steps to make sure your Mac's data is secure and you're going to get the most out of the software you can, then feel free to step up to the plate. Welcome to the future!

And at the risk of completely contradicting myself, here's a cautionary warning for anyone who hasn't thought this upgrade through:

• Planning to upgrade to OS X Yosemite? Wait!

If you run into any problems or you have any other questions, let me know in the comments.

OS X Yosemite introduces the first major interface changes to OS X in more than a decade. Yosemite offers flatter iconography, a cleaner design and better typography more suited to the increasing number of Macs with Retina displays. One change Apple's implemented is an optional "Dark Mode" that inverts the color of your menu bar and makes the dock darker too. Here's how to get the most of it.

Many Mac apps, including some of Apple's own like iMovie, GarageBand and Final Cut Pro, emphasize darker interface themes. So do some well-known Mac apps like Adobe Photoshop. The reason why they use darker interfaces is easy to understand: The content you're working on is emphasized, rather than tools and user interface elements. It can be less distracting, which can improve productivity.

The menu bar and dock in Yosemite are translucent, but use white as their base color. Activating the dark menu option changes that base color to black. Translucency is still maintained, so Yosemite still retains its 3D, layered appearance. What's more, menu type is changed from black to white, and individual menus will retain the dark look too.

To make your menu bar and Dock dark on OS X Yosemite

1. Click on the  menu.
2. Select System Preferences...
3. Click on General.
4. Under Appearance, check the box in front of Use dark menu bar and Dock.

That's all there is to it. Both the menu bar and the Dock should now be translucent black instead of their more familiar translucent white.

If you've installed third-party menu bar applications, they may need to be updated for Yosemite before they look right in dark mode, so don't be surprised if you still see white menus until you've updated, or until the developers get on board with the changes Yosemite introduces.

Have any questions about Yosemite's new dark mode? Let me know in the comments.

Now that OS X Yosemite is rolling out to everyone we're seeing app updates galore start to roll in. Apple's own iMovie is among the first batch and with version 10.0.6, which is rolling out as we speak, things have been given a full makeover in line with the visuals of Yosemite. So it looks pretty sharp.

Beyond the looks, which we love, Apple has also added some new features in there, some of which are again in line with new stuff from Yosemite. Here's the full changelog:

• Updated look for OS X Yosemite
• New file export options including Custom H.264, ProRes, and Audio Only
• Share any video frame as an image
• Email HD video with Mail Drop when signed in to iCloud
• Select a portion of a clip in the timeline by dragging across the bottom of the clip
• Adjustments Bar is always open for easy access to audio and video tools
• Improves performance on older Mac computers
• Addresses reliability issues with copying and pasting certain adjustments
• Support for Indonesian, Malaysian, and Vietnamese
• This update lets developers create app previews for the App Store, including:
• Support for iPhone and iPad screen recording videos captured with QuickTime Player
• 11 animated titles designed to showcase apps in action
• Share option to easily export for the App Store

The bottom few in particular look great for iOS developers. With iOS 8, Apple finally allowed video previews into App Store listings, so we're sure there's going to be a number of developers out there happy to have an easy way to get them done.

The update is pushing out right now through the Mac App Store and you'll find it at the link below.

• $14.99/Free - Download Now

As noted by Apple CEO Tim Cook at Apple's Special iPad and iMac event, Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite is now available for free through the Mac App Store. It took a while after the announcement for the update to filter through, but it has now arrived, bringing along of ton of improvements and new features with it.

We've already given it an extensive review but now it's your turn to go hands-on with it. Will you be downloading it right now or holding out to see how others make out with the update? Let us know in the comments if you're jumping in or waiting. Keep in mind, things might be a little bit slow as many folks are trying to get Yosemite downloaded.

• Download Now

Sending files by e-mail attachments can be a big old P.I.T.A. thanks to restrictions imposed by service providers, corporate I.T. policies and a host of other things that can get in the way. Mail Drop on the Mac makes the pain go away.

How to use Mail Drop to send large files on Mac

1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.
2. Select System Preferences from the drop down menu.
3. Click on iCloud.
4. Sign into your iCloud account if you aren't already.

That's all there is to it! There's nothing to configure or set up in order to use Mail Drop. As long as you're signed in to your iCloud account your Mac will handle the rest!

How it works

Mail Drop simply acts as an intermediary, temporarily hosting your file attachments so you don't actually have to push them through the e-mail server. That way nothing is going to get in the way of sending that big file you need to, whether it's pictures of you and the family on vacation or an updated presentation that your boss needs for his Shanghai business trip.

Many mail servers impose strict limits on the size of a file you can attach to an e-mail — it's usually measured in megabytes, and usually not that many megabytes at that. If your file enclosure is larger — if you're sending big media files, for example — you're stuck relegating yourself (and the recipient) to another file sharing method, such as Dropbox, OneDrive or a host of other systems that will require both you to maintain an account.

Mail Drop, on the other hand, works with files up to 5 GB in size. The files are uploaded to iCloud, instead. What's more, it's seamless, especially on the Macintosh. If you're sending the file to a Mac user, they're going to see it attached just like they would with any other file.

People who aren't using the Mac won't have a hard time, though - they simply see the file attachment as a file marker in their mail message. When they click on the attachment, iCloud begins to download the file onto their computer.

I've mentioned iCloud, and you may be wondering if the file attachment counts against your total file allotment in iCloud, and I'm glad to say that it does not. So attach away! 5 GB is your new file size limit, thanks to Mail Drop!

Have any questions? Let me know in the comments.

Markup is a new feature in the OS X Yosemite Mail app that lets you easily annotate and edit images inline. While you'll still want advanced graphics program for heavy editing, Markup makes it extremely easy to get your point across without having to launch Photoshop, Acorn, or something similar.

How to use Markup in OS X Yosemite Mail

1. Launch Mail on your Mac running OS X Yosemite.
2. Create a new message and click on the paperclip icon to attach an image — alternately, you can just drag and drop an image if you'd like.
3. Hover your cursor over the newly inserted image and a dropdown arrow will appear in the top right corner of it.
4. Click on the dropdown arrow and select Markup.
5. You can now use any of the tools to add text, magnify a part of an image, add shapes, and much more.
6. Use Markup to edit and annotate your image as much as you'd like. Once you're happy with your edits, click Done in the Markup toolbar.
7. Once you're done, fill out the rest of your email if you haven't already and send it on its way like normal!

That's all there is to using Markup. One important note about Markup — it's not limited to just the Mail app. Markup can be accessible to any Mac app that uses Apple's standard protocols for managing text and images. So if you've attached an image in TextEdit or any other app, click on it and check for the Markup menu dropdown!

Sometimes it's just easier to say something than it is to type it out. iMessage in OS X Yosemite's adds a new feature that demonstrates this principle. It's called Soundbites and this is how it works.

To send a Soundbite with iMessage in OS X Yosemite

1. Launch the Messages app.
2. Start a new message or click on an existing one.
3. Click on the microphone icon that sits to the right of the text entry field.
4. Start talking to record your message.
5. When you're done recording, click on the red stop button to end the recording.
6. Press either Send or Cancel.

Messages attaches the Soundbite along with the iMessage. Just like a regular iMessage, Messages will tell you when the Soundbite has been delivered to its recipient. There's also a clickable text field that will enable you to save the Soundbite snippet away from the iMessage stream, so you can make sure to keep those really important (or incriminating) Soundbites for future reference.

Use Soundbites carefully. If you're accustomed to being able to refer back to your iMessage stream to see what you've said to friends and colleagues, Soundbites throws a wrench into search usefulness since iMessage makes no attempt to convert speech to text, so you'll need to click on each Soundbite individually to know what was said.

That's all there is to it. Anyone who uses OS X Yosemite or iOS 8 will be able to hear the mellifluous tones (or enraged bellows) of your voice along with whatever text you want to send!

Safari's toolbar has been dramatically reworked in OS X Yosemite. It's a much simpler setup, but there's still plenty of power under the hood. The first thing you may notice about Safari in OS X Yosemite is how simplified it is. Your favorites are gone, too. Or are they? If these are questions you find yourself asking, follow along for a detailed walkthrough of where your stuff went and how to access it!

Where to find your bookmarks, favorites, and more with Safari in Yosemite

The default toolbar set is different in OS X Yosemite. Gone are iCloud Tabs and Downloads buttons. Instead, a Sidebar button now appears to the left of the Address and Search field while a Share button appears to the right of it. A Show All Tabs button is also part of the default set now.

You're still able to customize the toolbar however you'd like — simply click the View menu and select Customize Toolbar..., and you can click and drag your favorite buttons into place. Once you're happy with the setup, click the Done button. And if you get it hopelessly mucked up, you can simply drag the default set into the toolbar.

The Address and Search field works like it always has. But as soon as you soon as the cursor pops up in the address bar, you'll see how different it is. A drop down menu displays all of your favorites. And if you have folders there, you'll see them with an embellishment you might recognize from iOS: Thumbnails showing you what's inside of each folder too. Your frequently visited sites are also here.

The Safari toolbar searches Wikipedia, Maps and iTunes, just like with Spotlight. Type in a search query and Safari will work its tendrils out to the Internet to see what comes back, will give you directions and will show you iTunes links too.

So as you can see from above, all of the features you've grown accustomed to in Safari are still there. They've just been condensed in some cases, or even became optional so folks that don't use them, don't have to. So what is your take on the new Safari? Do you like it better, worse, or not sure yet? Be sure and let me know in the comments!

One of the new features of OS X Yosemite is the ability to add new widgets to Notification Center, to help you consume even more information at a single glance. Whether it's weather forecasts, time zones across the world, and a plethora of other things App Store developers no doubt have in store for us, the possibilities are pretty much endless. Here's how it works!

Here's an overview of how Notification Center has changed in Yosemite:

• Notification Center in Yosemite: Explained

Widgets are mini-applications that you can download from the Mac App Store. Installing them causes them to appear in the Notification Center window, and offers you additional functionality that you've never had before in Notification Center.

How to add apps from Yosemite Notification Center

1. Open Notification Center by clicking on the Notification Center icon in the upper right hand corner of your Mac's menu bar — alternately, if you're using a trackpad and have gestures enabled, you can swipe in from the right of the trackpad with two fingers in order to invoke Notification Center.
2. Click on the Edit button at the bottom of Notification Center — you'll need to be in the Today View tab.
3. Click on the plus sign next to the widget you want to add — any apps that support OS X Widgets should show up in this list.
4. Reorder your Notification Center widgets however you would like before exiting edit mode by dragging them up or down.

How to remove apps from Yosemite Notification Center

1. Open Notification Center by clicking on the Notification Center icon in the upper right hand corner of your Mac's menu bar — alternately, if you're using a trackpad and have gestures enabled, you can swipe in from the right of the trackpad with two fingers in order to invoke Notification Center.
2. Click on the Edit button at the bottom of Notification Center — you'll need to be in the Today View tab.
3. Click on the red delete button to the left of the widget you'd like to remove from Notification Center.

This way you can manage what you have in Notification Center to include only those items most important to you, and you can customize Notification Center to include new apps that contain functionality you'd like to see! Keep in mind that removing widgets from Notification Center doesn't actually delete them from your Mac, but just removed them from the Today view.

If you need to send a file to another Mac or iOS device user, OS X Yosemite makes it more convenient than ever by using AirDrop. AirDrop provides a configuration-free way to share files, and is available for use between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac for the first time ever. Here's how it works!

Remember, AirDrop is a point-to-point file sharing system, so your recipient, either on their Mac or OS X, will need to have AirDrop open on their device in order to receive your file.

How to use AirDrop in Finder

1. Click on Finder in your Mac's dock.
2. In the top menu, click on Go.
3. Click on AirDrop — you may also find Airdrop in the Favorites section of every Finder window as well, unless you've removed it.
4. The AirDrop window will appear. An icon should appear for your recipient. Drag the file or folder you want to send to them.
5. Once they agree to accept the file, it will begin to transfer.

How to use AirDrop in Share sheets

1. Click on the Share icon in the app's menu bar.
2. Select AirDrop.
3. That'll open the AirDrop window, and from there you can share the file with the intended recipient.

With OS X Yosemite, sharing via AirDrop has gotten even easier — not only is it more accessible than before, but it's also supported across OS X and iOS for the first time, making it possible for you to share files with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch the same way you've been able to with the Mac. If you have any questions, fire away in the comments!

At the special event today in Cupertino, Apple has finally answered one of the burning questions we've had about OS X Yosemite since June when WWDC rolled around; when can we get it? The good news is that's been put to bed now and you'll be pleased to know that you can get it today!

As with Mavericks, Yosemite will be a free download and it will be offered through the Mac App Store.

Keep your eyes peeled for our OS X Yosemite review, coming real soon!

Update Here's Apple's full press release for OS X Yosemite

OS X Yosemite Available Today as a Free Upgrade Introduces New Design & Amazing Continuity Features

CUPERTINO, California—October 16, 2014—Apple® today announced that OS X® Yosemite, the latest major release of the world's most advanced desktop operating system, is available as a free upgrade for Mac® users from the Mac App Store℠. Yosemite delivers a fresh, modern look and introduces Continuity features that make it easy to hand off activities between Mac and iOS devices and even make and receive iPhone® calls from your Mac. Yosemite also includes a new Today view, a redesigned Spotlight® and updated versions of Safari®, Mail, Messages and iTunes®.

"OS X Yosemite is the most advanced version of OS X we've ever built, with a brand new design, amazing Continuity features and powerful versions of the apps you use every day," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "OS X Yosemite ushers in the future of computing, where your Apple devices all work together seamlessly and magically. It's something only Apple can do, and it's available today."

OS X Yosemite has been redesigned with a fresh, modern look, while maintaining the power and familiarity users expect from a Mac. Streamlined toolbars make more room for your content, and use translucency to reveal additional app content as you scroll. Other translucent elements, such as window sidebars, take on the feel of your desktop picture and give you a sense of what's hidden behind the active window. App icons have a clean, consistent design, and a new system font improves readability on every Mac and looks stunning on a Retina® display.

Yosemite includes amazing Continuity features that make your Mac and iOS devices perfect companions.* Handoff automatically passes what you're doing from one device to another, like writing an email or surfing the web. Instant Hotspot makes using your iPhone's hotspot as easy as connecting to a Wi-Fi network.** AirDrop® now works between Mac and iOS, so you can quickly and easily share content across devices. All the SMS messages that previously only appeared on your iPhone now can automatically appear in Messages on your Mac and all your iOS devices. You can even make and receive iPhone calls on your Mac.***

Yosemite introduces innovative new features, including: Today view in Notification Center, giving you quick access to informative widgets for Calendar, Weather, Stocks, Reminders, World Clock and social networks. You can also add widgets like Yahoo! Sports from the Mac App Store to customize your Today view; a new Spotlight, delivering rich information right to your desktop from Wikipedia, Maps, Bing, App Store℠, iTunes Store®, iBooks Store℠, top websites, news and movie showtimes; iCloud Drive℠, so you can store files of any type in iCloud®, organize them any way you like, and access them from your Mac, iPhone, iPad® or even a Windows PC; a streamlined new Safari that delivers the fastest performance, as well as the longest battery life for web browsing and Netflix HD video streaming on the Mac; an updated version of Mail, which includes Markup for quickly filling out and signing forms and PDFs right within Mail, plus Mail Drop, which makes it easy to send large attachments up to 5GB for free; enhanced Messages, so now you can add participants to your ongoing group conversations, see their locations on a map, quickly access attachments and even mute notifications; iTunes 12, which has a sleek new look, is fast and simple to use, and makes it easier to switch between browsing your music library and discovering new music on the iTunes Store. A new Recents view makes it easy to access the media you just purchased or recently played; and Family Sharing, so family members can now browse and download each other's iTunes, iBooks® or Mac App Store purchases.

Yosemite also delivers platform technologies that make it easier for developers to create amazing new Mac apps. Swift™ is a powerful, next-generation programming language for iOS and OS X that's fast, modern, interactive and helps developers write safer and more reliable code. SpriteKit makes it easier for developers to incorporate realistic motion, lighting and physics in games and when integrated with SceneKit, makes it simple to create games with animated 3D scenes and effects.

Pricing & Availability OS X Yosemite is available as a free upgrade today from the Mac App Store. Yosemite supports all Macs introduced in 2009 or later, and some models introduced in 2007 and 2008. For a complete list of system requirements and compatible systems, please visit apple.com/osx/howtoupgrade. Continuity features require iOS 8.1, which is available as a free upgrade starting October 20. OS X Server 4.0 requires Yosemite and is available from the Mac App Store for $19.99 (US).

• Some Continuity features require advanced Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi features available only in more recent Macs. ** Check with your carrier for hotspot availability. *** Cellular data charges may apply.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

OS X Yosemite makes key improvements to Messages to help enhance productivity and make it easier to communicate. Among the improvements in this update are soundbites, compact audio files you can record with the click of a button and include in your iMessage; SMS/MMS support through the iPhone; and group messaging. Let's take a look at the new features.

Soundbites

Sometimes it's just easier to tell someone something than it is to write it down. To that end Soundbites can help; this new addition of Yosemite lets you add quick audio clips to your messages.

Soundbites don't replace Voice over IP, Skype or any other streaming audio technology; they're just supplemental files that can be sent between iMessage accounts, either to Mac or iOS device users.

Soundbites are trivial to use: Just click the microphone button, record your message and it will be sent. You can either keep the message (by clicking on a "Keep" button) or let it expire after a couple of minutes, so your chat log doesn't fill up with audio files.

No need (and no way to) customize the audio; the Mac takes care of all that for you, and sends it to the recipient. The soundbites themselves are sent encoded as .amr files. Adaptive Multi Rate is an audio compression format optimized for speech recording; it's not high fidelity, but it gets the job done and it's compact.

You've long been able to include audio files on your iMessages, but it's relied on having an external app to record the audio, which you then have to save as a separate file and then click and drag into the iMessage to send. Soundbites simplifies the process down to a couple of clicks, making it infinitely easier for everyone to use.

iMessage and SMS/MMS

OS X's Messages apps is a handy tool if you're trying to communicate with other iMessage users on Macs and OS X, or if your messaging takes place on one of the other services that the Messages app supports (like Google Talk, Jabber, Yahoo or AOL Instant Message).

Where Messages on OS X has failed, however, is to keep us in touch with the many people who rely on their non-iOS mobile devices as an instant messaging tool. Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) reign supreme on those devices. Since that messaging is managed through the wireless carrier, Messages on OS X hasn't been useful to stay in touch with the people Craig Federighi cheekily called "our green bubble friends" at WWDC 2014.

That changes with Yosemite thanks to Apple's Handoff technology, which blurs the line between the Mac and iOS devices. With Yosemite on the Mac and iOS 8.1 installed on your iPhone, you can see SMS and MMS messages you're getting from non-iPhone using colleagues, and what's more, you can send them too.

Both the Mac and the iPhone need to be on the same Wi-Fi network, and both must be signed in using the same Apple ID. But once they are, new messages you get on your phone will now show up on your Mac as well, even if the person isn't an iMessage user.

Group messaging

Group messaging gets some big improvements in Yosemite — it's now much easier to manage them, thanks to the inclusion of a new "Details" button in the upper right hand corner of the chat window.

Now it's possible to give your chat a title, helping to (hopefully) direct participants to stay somewhat on topic, so chats don't veer off wildly into unexpected territory. What's more, you can mute notifications for the chat, so if you're carrying on a group conversation but don't want to be distracted temporarily (say you're in a meeting or on a call), you can silence the chat and pick up later when you're ready.

You can add new participants as you go along, and what's more, you can even remove yourself from the chat entirely, if you're done.

The Details control panel also gives you other handy tools — like using Find My iPhone, if it's turned on, so you can see the location of the people you're chatting with. Participants can share their screens with one another. You can review images and files that have been transfered in chat. And that's also where you can mute notifications if you don't want to be bothered for a bit.

Bottom line

Apple's taken a mostly iterative approach to Messages in Yosemite, making key improvements to help reduce user discomfort with features like improved group messaging and soundbites. One feature stands out above the rest, though, and that's Handoff.

Handoff blurs the line between Mac and iOS device, making it possible for you to use both devices together in elegant, intuitive ways that you can't do alone. With the ability to make and take phone calls now present as well, the iPhone just may be the killer app to help improve productivity on the Mac.

Apple had posted a copy of the OS X Server 4.0 Developer Preview that will work on OS X Yosemite to the developer center for download. The OS X Server 4.0 software, considered beta, comes just after Apple had released a second gold master of the OS X Yosemite beta for developers earlier this week. You can grab the download from Apple's developer portal.

Back in October of 2012, senior vice president of industrial design, Jony Ive, became the person in charge of all design at Apple, both hardware and software. As a result, iOS 7 got a down-to-the-pixel interface update that set the iPhone and iPad up for the future, but left years of "back to the Mac" consistency behind. Apple simply didn't have the resources last year to redesign OS X at the same time. This year they do. This year OS X Yosemite not only gets onto Apple's new design language, but gets to take it even further into the future...

Like water from candy

The original OS X interface was called "aqua" and featured buttons that looked like beautifully rendered gum drops, windows that like emerged like genii from the bottle, and elements that were, at the time, referred to as "lick-able". Also, early on, pin-stripes.

Some awkward years followed as well, including forays into brushed metal, stitched leather, and linen. Yet it had good years as well. Sane years. Snow Leopard and Mavericks years that matured the interface, and made it more consistent, even if at the expense of some color.

Yosemite isn't the evolution of either Snow Leopard or Mavericks, nor is it the revolution of iOS 7. There's plenty new here, but there's also a a remarkable restraint. Yosemite isn't built on a physics or particle engine. There's nothing bouncing or colliding. But it is flatter, cleaner, and more coherent than what's come before. It's also darker...

Flat, with shadows

Flatness, or the eschewing of rich textures for solid colors, is the prevailing trend in modern interface design. Some believe it to be more authentic to the nature of the machines. Others as a sign that we, as a collective, have matured beyond the need for skeuomorphic cues and affordances. Still others as massive misstep when it comes to both design and usability.

Where ever you fall on the spectrum, Apple is falling just short of totally flat. Gone are the gum-drop style buttons, and the last of the green felt has been left by curb.

Instead we have solid colors, but subtle gradients. We have clean windows that still drop shadows. We have clear sidebars that blur the background behind them, and streamlined tool bars that blurs the content beneath them. Combined, they minimize distraction but still provide a sense of placement and personalization.

The colors from your wallpaper show through. The photos and icons and documents from your files show through. As much as it breaks up the window and seems odd at first, it can also tie everything from the desktop to the folder grid together.

Because OS X is a multi-window environment, that shadows remain helps visually separate and stack different apps. It's one of the ways Yosemite is less extreme and better balanced than iOS 7 or iOS 8. It embraces the new without jettisoning what worked so well in the old.

Perhaps nowhere is that better exemplified that the dock. Where it once went from blessed 2D to faux 3D, it's now not only returned to past glory, it's done so in a newly translucent form. It really is the best of the past and the present, and hopefully a sign of what's to come from both of Apple's platforms in the future.

Icons newly iconic

Yosemite doesn't just give windows and interface elements a makeover, it goes all the way down to the icons. Apple has standardized on three shapes — the rounded square, the circle, and the tilted rounded rectangle. Oh, and a new, shiny, translucent trash can.

The rounded square is used for system-related apps. That includes not only the new, happier, even slightly more embossed Finder, but the new System Preferences as well.

The circle is used for content-focused apps, like iBooks, the App Store, Safari and the new, red, iOS-Music-app-matching iTunes.

The tilted round rectangle is used for traditional apps, especially productivity apps, like Mail, Calendar, TextEdit, and Preview, often with a smaller icon at the bottom left to better hint and functionality, like a stamp for Mail, a pen for TextEdit, and a magnifier for Preview. It's no longer in perspective, but it does have depth.

There are a ton of exceptions, of course. Time Machine is round and Maps is tilted, to name but two. In general, however, the new look makes for a new feeling — a more ordered and organized one.

Still, Apple designers are Apple designers, and that means the icons are still filled with great colors, amazing details, and even small touches like a subtle reflection effect on the metallic icons, blues and oranges as though they were situated in the environment of Yosemite itself.

Going dark

For those who want to keep focus on active windows and tasks at hand, Apple is also minimizing the potential distractions of menu bars and menus by introducing a "dark mode".

As you'd expect, dark mode changes the menu bar and drop down menus themselves to a deep, translucent, charcoal gray reminiscent of some of Apple's pro-apps past.

Dark mode looks good enough that even people who don't care about distractions might want to try it out.

Straight to Helvetica

Lucida Grande has been the OS X system font for as long as there's been a system a font. It was perfect for an era of lower resolution displays and subpixel antialiasing. Yet now we live in the era of Retina.

With iOS 7, Apple switched not to their own, custom font for iPhone and iPad, but to Helvetica Neue. With OS X they're doing the same for the Mac.

It doesn't have the personality of Lucida Grande, or of a custom Apple font, but it looks great on high density displays, and it even looks fine on older Macs with standard displays.

More importantly, it looks consistent with iPhones and iPads, which means anyone considering a Mac as their next computer will feel even more at home with OS X. And that's a feature.

The bottom line

With Yosemite Apple has achieved an even better balance than iOS. They've brought the Mac interface fully into the modern age without leaving behind everything that worked well in the past.

Apple has flattened out the textures and gone solid, but instead of losing the visual differentiation between apps, they've deferred to apps' own content, made it more prominent, and hence made the app itself more recognizable.

They've added transparency to let the desktop shine threw and integrate the overall look, but kept the drop shadows so the layers are better separated visually and the depth is even greater.

And the dock, the icons, the new system font, and everything else ties Yosemite together in a way no other version of OS X has been tied together before, at least not since it first launched.

OS X Yosemite's new design language isn't perfect, but it's lightyears ahead of where it was, and arguably iOS could learn a lesson or two from where it is now.

Overall it accomplishes two critical tasks — it once again makes the Mac consistent and comfortable for iPhone and iPad owners, and it breathes bold, clean new life into OS X.

Apple has just released an update to the OS X Yosemite public beta. The release makes this the fourth beta for the Yosemite public beta preview program, and the update should be available through the Mac App Store for download.

OS X Yosemite is due for a consumer launch this fall. Developers participating in a separate beta program are now being seeded with a gold master of OS X Yosemite, suggesting that Yosemite may soon be launching to all consumers.

At this point, it seems that the roll out is still gradual and the update may not be available to everyone just yet. Have you received the Yosemite public beta 4 update?

Source: Apple developer

Word is spreading on info security websites that there's a vulnerability in a Unix program called Bash. Bash, or Bourne-Again Shell, is standard issue on the Mac, and at this writing, the latest version of OS X — 10.9.5 — has a version that's vulnerable to this new exploit. Should Mac users be concerned about this new security issue? Sure. Should we panic? No, and here's why...

What is Bash?

Bash is a shell — a processor that lets you type commands which then result in actions. It's been around for 25 years, and is the core shell tool used in most Linux and Unix operating systems (including OS X) found in millions of computers all over the world. It can also be used to parse scripts for other programs, like Web servers.

The exploit that's been recently discovered affects all Bash releases through 4.3 — about 25 years worth of Bash versions. So there are a lot of systems potentially affected by this flaw.

What is Shellshock?

The new bug has been nicknamed "Shellshock." The vulnerability lets an outside attacker insert extra code into a Bash command. Researchers are still trying to understand the extent of the exploit, but one of the most prevalent vulnerabilities involves web servers running Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts, a standard method for creating dynamic content on the web. An attacker uses "environment variables" containing Bash functions in them. You can read more about it here. Warning: It's pretty dense technical language.

Arbitrary code execution is a very serious problem. The worst case scenario is that an outside attacker can take over the targeted computer, access files and get it to run software it wouldn't otherwise.

Shellshock is being compared to Heartbleed, a bug involving a popular security library called OpenSSL. There's no direct correlation here, but like OpenSSL, Bash is broadly used by computers all over the Internet, so there's concern that many will go unpatched and hackers will use the exploit towards their own ends.

Back to the Mac

OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 includes Bash 3.2, a version of Bash that is vulnerable to the exploit. As this was posted, Apple had not yet released a security patch to update the version of Bash included with Mavericks.

You can test your Mac yourself using a simple command in the Terminal application.

1. Double-click on the Utilities folder.
2. Double-click on Terminal.
3. Type (or copy and paste) the following command: env X="() { :;} ; echo vulnerable" /bin/sh -c "echo stuff"

If your Mac says "vulnerable," then the version of Bash installed on it is indeed vulnerable to the problem.

But that doesn't mean that your Mac can be exploited by hackers. You'd have to be running software that is accessible to the outside world and invokes Bash when it is run. So far I haven't seen any exploits that the average Mac user would need to worry about.

What now?

System administrators and IT personnel responsible for managing Internet-facing servers need to be on high alert at this hour, patching vulnerable systems with an updated release of Bash or even using a shell program besides Bash until a better solution is available.

StackExchange has an explanation on how to patch the Macintosh version of Bash, but this isn't something I'd recommend for the lay user. For one thing, it depends on having Apple's Xcode programming environment installed on your Mac. For another, it depends on being comfortable using the Mac's command line interface via the Terminal program.

For those reasons, I'd recommend holding off until an officially-brewed fix is ready from Apple. Given the high public profile of this particular problem, I hope that won't be too long.

Are you concerned about the Bash vulnerability? Are you waiting for Apple to update security on Mavericks and other operating systems? Let me know in the comments.

It's been a busy day for Apple. After having launched iOS 8 to the public and hosting a number of updated iOS 8 apps in the App Store, the Mac-maker has now released an update to OS X Mavericks. Now, the Mac OS is at version 10.9.5, bringing with it a number of stability and performance updates.

According to Apple, the update brings better stability to VPN connections as well stability for accessing files on an SMB server. However, the feature that consumers will likely benefit the most from will be the new version of Safari that's included. With the new Mavericks, Safari 7.0.6 comes bundled.

Have you downloaded and installed the update yet?

Photos for iOS 8 brings significant enhancements to the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, including the new iCloud Photo Library, favorites, smart search, smart editing, custom photo and sharing extensions, and PhotoKit so developers can get in on al the action. Apple announced it at WWDC 2014, and then they did something unexpected — they announced Photos would also be coming to the Mac. Rebuilt from pixel to bit, Photos for Mac won't arrive with OS X Yosemite this fall, but will arrive sometime early next year. So what does all of this mean for existing iPhoto and Aperture customers, and, going forward, photography on the Mac?

iPhoto, Aperture, and OS X Yosemite

The first and most important thing to understand is that, when OS X Yosemite ships this fall, both iPhoto and Aperture will continue to work just like they do on OS X Mavericks today. Both will still be available in the Mac App Store. Existing iPhoto and Aperture libraries will all still open, and existing iPhoto and Aperture tools will continue to "just work". Everything will be right in the universe.

Next year, after the new Photos app for Mac is released, Apple will remove iPhoto and Aperture from the Mac App Store. You'll still be able to keep and run your old copies, but Apple will no longer be updating or improving them. However, at some point in the future, they'll be outdated enough you'll want to move on.

Moving from iPhoto and Aperture to Photos for Mac

Come early next year, you'll be able to migrate your existing Aperture library to the new Photos app for Mac. When you migrate, all your albums, folders, keywords, and captions will move from Aperture to Photos. All the non-destructuve edits you've applied to your Aperture photos will be preserved in Photos, and preserved non-destructively. Likewise, if you use iPhoto, you'll be able to migrate your library over to the new Photos app as well. (Aperture and iPhoto libraries are already compatible, and have been shareable since versions 3.3 and 9.3 respectively.)

In terms of organization, Apple has shown that the same, automatically generated Years, Collections, and Moments views that currently exist in Photos for iOS will be implemented in Photos for Mac, as will Albums. How existing iPhoto Events get mapped, be it to Moments, to Albums, or to something else, remains to be seen.

Shared photos will keep track of all your Shared Photo Streams, likely including the automatic shared family album set up as part of Family Sharing on iOS 8.

There's also a Projects tab in Photos for Mac, though we'll have to wait and see how that maps to projects as they currently exist in iPhoto and Aperture. Likewise, Apple hasn't said how "special" albums like Faces or Places will be handled, but hopefully more information will be made available about that as Photos for Mac gets closer to release.

The important part here is that, wherever you're accustomed to finding a photo or video in Photos for iPhone or iPad, that's where you'll be able to find it in Photos for Mac. When it comes to learning and remembering, less really is more.

Bringing Photos to the iCloud

iPhoto and Aperture are, by modern standards, old apps. They were built in an era before iOS and before iCloud and while they've had some interface and compatibility layers bolted on, they were never rebooted the way iMovie and Final Cut Pro were in terms of interface, or Pages, Numbers, and Keynote were in terms of compatibility. Not until now.

With Photos, Apple is saying pictures and video — our memories — are so important they're going to make them an integral part of iOS, OS X, and iCloud at the system level. They're going to make Photos not just an app but a service for everyone on every Apple device.

Hundreds of millions of people own an iPhone, iPod touch, and/or an iPad. Increasingly, more and more of them own a Mac as well. Apple wants to make sure that anyone with both an iOS device and a Mac gets a seamless experience with their photos, same as they already get with everything from their iCloud mail to their iTunes music to their iWork documents.

To accomplish all this, Apple is introducing iCloud Photo Library. Built on their new CloudKit service, iCloud Photo Library will make sure every picture and video you take, import, save, or otherwise bring into Photos is synced to all of your Apple devices, including iCloud.com, along with its organizational information and any and all non-destructive edits you've applied to it.

What's more, all your pictures and videos will be stored (and backed up) on Apple's servers, at full resolution, in its original format — including RAW. Apple is using "nearline storage" for this, so the most recently added and accessed pictures and videos are kept locally, optionally at device-optimized resolution, and immediately available to you. Older and less frequently accessed pictures and videos are kept online so they don't end up consuming all your local storage, but can be re-downloaded quickly any time you want them.

Think about it as a hybrid drive, but instead of HD/SSD fusion, it's local/cloud fusion. It's concept that's been employed in data management for years, and it's something Apple's been doing for music for a while with iTunes Match. While it might not sound as important on the Mac as it does on smaller capacity iPhones and iPads, MacBooks are mobile devices too. A MacBook Air starts at 128GB of SSD storage, so photo library size matters on OS X as well.

Making Photos smart

Apple has only provided a brief demo of Photos for Mac. Exactly how much of Photos for iOS 8 makes its way into Photos for OS X Yosemite, and what Mac-specific features are implemented remains to be seen. However, based on what was shown off at WWDC 2014 — understanding that features in pre-release software can and will change — auto-enhance, crop, filters, redeye removal, retouch, and rotate tools are all in place.

Being able to find your photos is also a high priority for Apple. The ability to hit a heart-shaped button to favorite a photo or video is visible in the demo, as is a search box. Photos for iOS uses a similar search box to access smart filtering — nearby, one year ago, favorites, and home — that let you quickly find photos and videos geotagged close to your current location, taken a year ago from the current date, those you've hit the heart button on, and those geotagged to where you live. It also includes the new smart search feature which lets you find photos and videos based on based on months of the year, city and other location names, and the titles of your albums. Both make just as much sense on the Mac.

Apple did demonstrate the same smart editing tools on the Mac as on iOS. With them you can perform quick adjustments to light, color, and black and white, or to dive deeper into exposure, highlights, shadows, brightness, contrast, and black point, into saturation, contrast, and cast, and into intensity, neutrals, tone, and grain.

Depending on your time and interest in a particular photo, you'll be able to go from a single click to a couple of sliders to detailed, granular adjustments. And any and all changes you make will be non-destructive and synced via iCloud Photo Library to all your other devices.

Extensions are the new plugins

The Extensibility feature coming to both OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 is like a new, more visible, more accessible version of plugins. They're system wide but can also be content specific. With sharing extensions, social networks and upload services like Pinterest will be able to appear inside the default Share Sheet alongside Messages, Mail, Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. Any social network or upload service that wants to can make a share extension so, very literally, the cloud's the limit when it comes to options. Whatever you choose to use, you'll likely be able to find for Photos.

Although Apple hasn't said anything about photo-specific extensions for OS X, they have said action extensions will be there, and it's hard to imagine a plugin-like architecture for filters and transformations won't evolve around Photos as well.

Bottom line

With Apple bringing Photos to the Mac, and with the eventual retirement of iPhoto and Aperture to follow, some level of concern is inevitable. For casual photographers Photos will almost certainly end up being a better, more consistent, more approachable app to use than anything that's come before. For professional photographers, however, the answer won't be as clear.

I've been using Photoshop for decades and Aperture for years. I don't use Lightroom because, for me, it doesn't make as much sense as either Photoshop for pixel-level editing or Aperture for more general editing and organization. Rather than try to force myself into moving from Aperture to Lightroom pre-emptively, I'm going to use the time afforded by Aperture's OS X Yosemite compatibility to wait and see. I'm going download Photos for Mac when it arrives early next year, I'm going to give it a fair try, and I'm going to determine for myself if and how much it can replace Aperture for my needs. My guess is quite well, because a seamless experience between iOS and OS X is incredible valuable to me.

Other people's needs will be different, of course. Just like when iWork was relaunched with compatibility between iOS, OS X, and iCloud, some features were lost. A few of those, including major ones, have since been added back. Extensibility support might take the edge off. Developers could come up with extensions that not only fill gaps but add entirely new capabilities. However, while Photos will likely end up being better for the vast majority of people, it may not end up being better suited for everyone, no more than iPhoto or Aperture are today.

The important part is this — Photos for Mac isn't stuck with an aging codebase from a bygone era, struggling to keep up. It's new and built for now. Apple is working on it and it'll benefit from all the effort and attention they're pouring into not only the Mac but iOS and iCloud as well. Photos is their new foundation for picture and video handling.

Photos is the future.

Badges are those app notifications that show you that something is waiting for you — maybe a to-do list item is due, or maybe you have a new email. Sometimes badges can be helpful. Other times they can be really irritating. Here's how to activate them and deactivate them.

I have to admit that I find badge notifications really annoying. Sometimes they're really helpful, and I do leave them on for most things. But other times they drive me to distraction — I can't stand to see an application icon with a red number glaring at me, a reminder of some unfinished business or something I have to do.

Sometimes there are good reasons why those items have gone unfinished or unanswered, and I'm tired of my apps passively reminding me that they're still waiting for me! That's why I turn off notification badges that annoy me.

To turn notification badges on and off

1. Click on the  menu.
2. Select System Preferences.
3. Click on Notifications.
4. Select the app you want to change the badge status of.
5. Uncheck (or check) the Badge app icon checkbox.
6. Close Notifications.

That's it, in a nutshell.

There's no global setting for badges, unfortunately, so you can't turn them all on and off with a single click. But this way you can keep the distractions to a dull roar.

I hope this helps you get your badges under control. Any questions? Let me know.

OS X Mavericks introduced notifications to Mac's lock screen. Here's how to turn them off, and why it matters.

All sorts of applications display data in notifications. Default applications like Calendar, Mail, Messages and others do; social media services supported by Apple like Twitter and Facebook can as well. So do many web sites and third-party apps.

The lock screen keeps anyone who doesn't know your system password from logging in and doing damage to your computer when you're not looking, and keeping your data from prying eyes.

But most applications that support system notifications will, by default, display them on the lock screen.

This is one of those classic cases of convenience trumping security. If you're the only person who ever looks at your computer, this probably isn't a big deal for you and can potentially be really helpful. But if you're in an open office environment or somewhere else where prying eyes can see what's on your lock screen, there may be circumstances where you really don't want people seeing notifications.

How to turn off lock screen notifications in OS X Mavericks

1. Click on the  menu.
2. Select System Preferences...
3. Click on Notifications
4. For each app listed in the Notification Center sidebar, uncheck Show notifications on lock screen.
5. Close Notifications.

That's all there is to it! Once you're done.

It'd be nice if there was a global setting for this, which there isn't, of course — but that way you can tailor lock screen notifications to only include those apps you really want or need to see.

I hope this helps you improve the security of your lock screen and make notifications on the Mac a bit less annoying. Have I left anything out, or do you have any questions? Fire away.

You restarted your Mac, and now you can't log in. The Apple boot screen appears and pinwheels for a few moments, then the screen goes black. You can still see a cursor, but you can't log in and get any further. Don't panic! We have the fix! Print these instructions out or save them to an iOS device and read them from there — I'll walk you through how to recover.

What's likely happened is that a system preference called a plist file has gotten corrupted or damaged somehow. The file is called com.apple.loginwindow.plist. In order to recover, you'll need to delete the file. There's a catch, though. This method requires you to have access to another Mac equipped with FireWire or Thunderbolt.

Using target disk mode to delete a file

1. Turn your Mac off it's powered.
2. Connect the Mac to another Mac using a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable.
3. Turn your Mac on and immediately hold down the T key.
4. The screen will show you Thunderbolt and FireWire icons instead of the customary interface.
5. Your Mac's hard drive will mount on the desktop of the computer it's connected to. Double-click on the hard drive icon to open it.
6. Double-click on the Library folder.
7. Double-click on the Preferences folder.
8. Click on the com.apple.loginwindow.plist file and drag it to the Trash.
9. Empty the Trash.
10. Unmount your Mac's hard drive by dragging it into the Trash.
11. Power it down by pressing the power button.

When you turn your Mac on again, it will create a new loginwindow.plist file to create the old one, and you should be able to log in as normal.

Update!

This problem sometimes happens with OS X Mavericks 10.9.2. If you're running an out of date version of OS X, the best thing you can do to avoid having this happen again is to update your Mac to the most recent version of the operating system. So please, update.

Hopefully this fixes what's ailing your Mac. Let me know if you have any questions or run into an unexpected problem.

Beginning with OS X Mavericks Apple added the ability for web sites to push updates directly to your desktop. Such updates appear in Notification Center, and when you click on them, Safari will open and load the page. But what happens when you receive notifications you don't want anymore? Here's how to manage which sites can ping you and which can't.

First of all, if you're new to OS X Mavericks or you've never used web notifications, read up on how to get started:

• How to get notifications from your favorite websites with Notification Center and OS X Mavericks

Maybe you've seen a message from Safari that looks like this:

And maybe you've clicked the Allow button. Or maybe you've clicked the Don't Allow button. Now you've changed your mind. You want those notifications. Or you're sick of them. Either way, here's how to take care of them.

To manage web notifications with Safari

1. Double-click the Safari icon
2. Click the Safari menu and select Preferences. (Alternately, you can hold down the command button and type ,.
3. Click the Notifications button in Safari's preferences
4. Select the site you'd like to change the status of.
5. Click the Allow or Deny button as you'd like.

You can also remove sites from the list, though if you do, Safari will ask you the next time you visit the site if to receive notifications from it.

If you don't want Safari to ever ask you about web site notifications, uncheck Allow websites to ask permission to send push notifications.

You can also change the way Notification Center will inform you of new push notifications from web sites.

To change Safari web notifications

1. Click the  menu.
2. Select System Preferences...
3. Click on Notifications.
4. Click on Safari.

Safari can alert you with banners which appear in the upper-right corner of the screen and automatically go away after a few seconds, or alerts that stay on the screen until you manually dismiss them.

Get notified!

Hopefully these tips helped you get control of Safari's web notifications. If you have anything else to add or if you have any questions, let me know in the comments.

Editor's note: NSFW is a new weekly feature we're trying on iMore starting today. It's an editorial soapbox; I'll be sharing thoughts that may or may not have anything to do with the technology you read about the rest of the week here on iMore. Hope you enjoy!

A busy week in Apple news, what with Yosemite Public Beta's introduction and Apple's quarterly earnings report. I was really happy with the Mac numbers for this past quarter; the Mac is continuing to truck along nicely despite the PC's continued decline.

While I'll cop to at least a bit of schadenfreude in knowing that PC sales suck, I have to admit that my tune's changed over the years. I just find being an advocate for much of anything to be a pointless waste of energy. Trying to get people to change their minds is just more effort than it seems to be worth most days.

I've heard a lot of grousing about Yosemite Public Beta and what a mistake it is for Apple to let the great unwashed masses near Yosemite prior to release. How it's going to cause support problems for Mac IT people and others. Yeah, there's some truth to that. I spend my weekends working at a Mac retailer. I had a guy stroll in a few weeks ago with a MacBook Pro that was hosed — he'd installed a Yosemite developer preview on it and not understood why it was kernel panicking.

I gave him two options — nuke it and pave it back to the original operating system, or do nothing and have him sort it out. He was unhappy with both options (he chose the latter). Because when it comes to beta software, you roll the dice, you take your chances. Beta operating system software, especially.

I don't think he had a backup, either, which was just beyond stupid. There is absolutely no excuse to jeopardize your data simply because you're interested in and anxious to install a public beta.

So I'm cognizant of the psychic pain that people who support Mac users feel about this. And there is some merit in reminding people about the risks they run by installing software like this (and giving them tips to avoid problems). After all, Apple's supposedly opened a million slots for the public beta — that's a lot of potential users to have to worry about.

But it hasn't gone to general release. And the million slots are people who are asking for the software and are, presumably, aware of the risks of installing a pre-release version of OS X. And even if they're not, they're pretty much on their own until it gets released, as far as really proactive support from Apple (and its duly appointed representatives) is concerned.

But here's the thing: In retrospect, Mavericks' rollout was sort of a mess last fall. It's taken until just recently — 10.9.4's release — for Mavericks to stabilize really well. And even so, Mavericks Mail is still brutal for many people who depend on Gmail and some other e-mail services, and things like SMB support for cross-platform file sharing isn't as ironed-out as we'd have hoped. There are other lingering issues that I presume Apple will get to in due course.

Mavericks didn't go through a public beta like Yosemite is. Maybe if it had, some of these issues would have been ironed out sooner. That's all I'm saying.

If you're part of the OS X 10.10 Yosemite beta program, you can now grab Developer Preview 4 from the Mac Dev Center. What's in the update is hidden behind the veil of the nondisclosure agreement, but members of the developer preview program can now download and install the latest version of the beta to both test it for bugs and (perhaps more importantly) develop new and updated apps that take advantage of the new stuff that Yosemite has to offer.

If you're in the developer preview program, the beta should now be available to download through the Mac App Store.

Yosemite brings a flattened user interface to the Mac that's reminiscent of what launched in iOS 7, as well as greater integration between OS X and iOS 8.

Though Yosemite is currently in a closed beta, Apple is expected to release a public beta for the OS later in the year, once we get closer to launch (which is likely only a few months away).

In the meantime, what new features in Yosemite are you most looking forward to?

OS X's Yosemite's new Markup tool is an example of a new class of technology called Action extensions. Action extensions promise to save you time and make you more productive with the software you're already using.

How Action extensions work

Let's look more at Markup as a practical example of how Action extensions work. Markup will let you make changes to photos and other image files. You can embed arrows, dialogue bubbles and other shapes, add text, even add a magnification loupe to zoom in on part of the picture.

Markup as demonstrated at WWDC shows off new functionality in Mail, but it doesn't stop there, because Markup can work in any application that handles text and images. So will other Action extensions.

Action extensions aren't just there to let you mark up images - they can transform all kinds of data. Need to do language conversions? Action extensions can make it happen. Developers can limit Action extensions to whatever type of data is best suited for them.

Expanding and extending

You can liken Action extensions like Markup to plug-ins in applications like Photoshop. Action extensions provide really specialized, context-sensitive ways to both show and modify content you're creating.

Ultimately, Action extensions will let you access the capabilities of the apps you depend on from anywhere in the OS, without having to actually launch the app. The possibilities are endless — it's really up to app developers to figure out how and where Action extensions will be used.

Conceptually, Action extensions are a much bigger deal for iOS 8, because Apple has, up to now, prevented iOS app developers from having that access. As Rene Ritchie explains:

New spin on an old idea

But OS X is different. Since the very first version of OS X, there has been a Services menu (buried in the application menu) — it's actually a vestige of the NeXTSTEP operating system upon which OS X was based. Action extensions provide similar data transformation capabilities. Apple calls Action extensions the spiritual successor to the Services menu.

Accessing Action extensions will be easy. Select content, move the cursor over it and click the button that appears — the Action extension you've selected will spring into...well, action. Action extensions will also be available through the Share toolbar and menu. Developers can also create custom toolbar buttons for Action extensions.

The bottom line

It'll be interesting to see how app developers and Apple alike implement Action extensions in Yosemite. Services in OS X have often gone ignored and underutilized, but they're also more limited in scope.

Action extensions make it possible to do more to your content without having to shuffle different applications. By doing so, Action extensions continue a concept we've seen Apple iterate over and over again with iOS 7 and Mavericks: The idea that the interface should just get out of your way.

I've previously discussed Metal in iOS 8 and why it's so important: Because reducing overhead imposed by OpenGL ES means games (and other apps) can run faster and more efficiently on the right iOS hardware. Can the same happen for OS X?

Metal and the problem it solves

First, let's do a quick recap on what Metal is. Metal is a forthcoming iOS 8 technology that will enable dramatically faster graphics performance on devices that use Apple's A7 processor: Right now, that includes the iPhone 5S, iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display. (We can safely presume that future iOS devices that use new generations of Apple processors will retain this ability.)

Macs don't use A7 processors. They rely on Intel CPU technology, instead. Most of the new ones use Haswell processors that were first introduced on Mac models in 2013. And because of that, the short answer is no: Metal won't be coming to OS X.

But the story doesn't end there.

Macs and iOS devices share an important heritage. Both depend on software code called OpenGL to produce graphics on the screen. iOS's version is a little different: It's OpenGL ES, a special variant made for smartphones, tablets and other systems.

The kind of processors that OpenGL ES was made to run on have changed a lot since it was first introduced. Apple's A7 processor is a lot more capable than older systems, and the problem that Apple's trying to solve with Metal is how to most efficiently use that hardware.

Macs face different challenges

And it's worth reiterating that Metal works on a very specific subset of iOS hardware: Right now, that's only the A7 chip.

Compare the Macintosh. Macs use a lot of different hardware under the hood. Apple's newest Macs use Intel CPUs; most new models use Haswell processors, which were first introduced in 2013, but the Mac Pro uses a Xeon chip, while the "standard" $1199 MacBook Pro and Mac mini still rely on an Ivy Bridge processor that came out in 2012.

Many Macs use integrated graphics — everything from Intel HD 4000 to Intel Iris Pro — while some (like the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro and the higher-end iMacs and Mac Pro) rely on discrete graphics subsystems made by Nvidia and AMD.

And that's just current systems. Mavericks and Yosemite run on Mac hardware that's been around for years. It's a constantly changing target. All this adds up to a hardware mishmosh that makes the whole Metal thing, focusing on A7, to be impractical.

It's a double-edged sword: this diversity and maturity of hardware enables the Mac to handle overhead from OpenGL more effectively than a mobile device. But it also makes the Mac much less predictable and consistent for overall graphics performance.

If a game runs slow, is OpenGL to blame? Is it the GPU or the integrated graphics system, or some related technology, like main system RAM vs dedicated video RAM? Is it the porting technique that's used?

The point is that on a Mac, a lot of different factors can affect the performance of games and other graphics-heavy software.

Getting closer to the metal

Getting back to Metal for a moment, the "Metal" moniker itself is a reference to a programmer's term, close to the metal, working deep in the guts of the system to get the best performance possible. And while implementing Metal may not be feasible in OS X, getting closer to the metal is certainly achievable.

It's actually something that the makers of these graphics subsystems have worked on for years, in different ways. Nvidia has a technology called CUDA, for example. It's not aimed at game developers but rather scientific, engineering, enterprise and other app developers looking to tap into the parallel-processing power of Nvidia graphics processors. While CUDA works on the Mac, Apple emphasizes developer support for OpenCL, an open standard that provides similar functionality — Apple VP Phil Schiller mentioned OpenCL by name when he introduced the Mac Pro, with massive parallel-processing workstation graphics processors, at WWDC in 2013.

AMD has made a lot of noise with Mantle, a technology designed for its own graphics processors that use its GCN architecture — and this one is aimed at improving game performance. Mantle is aimed at reducing driver overhead on PCs much in the same way that Metal is aimed at reducing driver overhead on iPhones and iPads running iOS 8. Unfortunately, Mantle in its initial implementation is designed specifically for Windows, though AMD is leaving the door open to future development for OS X and Linux.

Closer to the metal graphics APIs have gotten a lot of attention in the PC graphics market in recent months. OpenGL is moving in that direction, AMD has Mantle, and Microsoft is emphasizing closer to the metal improvements in DirectX, its own 3D graphics API used in Windows.

The Mac needs help

Hopefully some of these improvements will eventually trickle down to OS X. Because frankly, the Mac could certainly use help in the graphics performance department.

It's no secret that a game will often run slower on OS X than the same game will on the same hardware running Windows (using Boot Camp).

As I said before, there are a lot of factors that can contribute to a Mac game's performance that aren't driver specific, such as the method used to convert a game's code to run on the Mac in the first place.

But there are significant foundational differences in the way drivers are managed on OS X that contribute to the problem. Apple controls OpenGL drivers for its operating systems. Vendors like AMD and Nvidia can work with Apple to make improvements that yield better performance, but Apple is the gatekeeper. Those changes get rolled out incrementally with new versions of OS X.

Apple is consistently several steps behind the working group that manages OpenGL, so the latest and greatest innovations to the technology Apple depends on are not in the latest versions of OS X. And sadly, that hasn't changed with Yosemite.

Ultimately, I hope that Metal is a sea change for Apple: That it yields such impressive performance improvements for iOS 8 gaming that it will force Apple to rethink the way it handles graphics drivers on OS X as well.

Ultimately, I'd like to see OS X get closer to the metal too. Because in its current state, OS X is a second-rate gaming system. Macs and Mac gamers deserve better.

Apple has just updated OS X to version 10.9.4 with fixes for security, compatibility, and stability, as well as Safari version 7.0.5. This update fixes a number of issues, including a problem that kept some Macs from automatically connecting to Wi-Fi networks. Waking your computer from sleep is now also more reliable.

Users can download the update from the Mac App Store. Simply go to the Downlads section and hit Update or Update All. More information can be found on Apple's Support website. Come back after you update and tell us if you notice any improvements in OS X 10.9.4 below in the comments.

Source: Apple

During the WWDC 2014 keynote presentation Apple showed off a new app for OS X Yosemite currently in development called Photos. It won't be out until 2015, but it looks like it's going to replace both iPhoto and Aperture on the Mac. This promises to be a good thing for consumers, but where does this leave professional and prosumer photographers on the Mac?

On Friday Apple revealed to Jim Dalrymple at The Loop that Aperture, Apple's pro photo app, is being discontinued in favor of Photos. This is a blow to anyone who's depended on Aperture for its organizational abilities and its extensive non-destructive editing functions.

Apple's shown over and over again that it's willing to cause some short-term discomfort to users of existing products for long-term benefit. iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Pages, Keynote and Numbers — there are lots of examples where Apple has essentially scrapped the product and started over because a different path was chosen. And they're doing it again with Aperture and iPhoto.

iPhoto vs. Aperture

iPhoto comes with the Mac, and it provides a full array of photo editing, cataloging and sharing capabilities right out of the box. iPhotos is set up to offer you as much organization functionality as possible without your direct intervention. iPhoto organizes photos by event, for example. It incorporates facial recognition, so you can more easily find pictures of family and friends. And it reads GPS data (when embedded in your photos' metadata), so you can organize photos easily by location.

A variety of built-in editing tools help iPhoto make your images look better. You can crop images, straighten them, remove red-eye, perform one-click enhancements that make adjustments to lighting, color saturation and other attributes, apply effects, and get down into the nitty gritty by adjusting various aspects of the photo like exposure, contrast, saturation, color levels and more.

Aperture is to iPhoto what Logic is to GarageBand. Some of the same basic concepts, but greatly enhanced for the needs of professionals. Aperture emphasizes non-destructive photo editing that doesn't take up huge amounts of hard disk space, so you can undo what you've done or just subtract specific elements that you don't like (iPhoto has some non-destructive editing capabilities; Aperture has a lot more).

Aperture also emphasizes work with "raw" digital formats — the data that the camera actually recorded on its imaging chip, not compressed and changed with JPG. Raw images are supported on iPhoto, but Aperture's entire workflow is based on the assumption you're starting with raw files. Accordingly, Aperture has a more complete feature set of image adjustments and retouching abilities.

Another area Aperture really sets itself apart from iPhoto is in its vast organizational abilities. Pro photographers shoot a lot of images and need to make sense of what they've shot. Aperture helps them do that, and helps them make changes to the metadata associated with each picture to help photographers catalog faster too.

Unfortunately, both Aperture and iPhoto have been prone to a lot of problems over the years. Stability issues, database corruption problems, not to mention really atrocious performance problems have all be reported and complained about by frequent users.

Ultimately iPhoto and Aperture were both hot messes. They needed to be replaced. But will Photos be able to replace both of them?

Photos

Both iPhoto and Aperture will be replaced by Photos beginning in 2015. Photos for the Mac borrows its name and its icon from its iOS counterpart.

So far public information about Photos is pretty scant. Outside of a precious few minutes getting demoed by Apple senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi on the WWDC keynote stage, very little is known about the new Photos app on the Mac. What we do know is that it has an interface that looks thoroughly optimized for multi-touch gestures on a trackpad or Magic Mouse.

Federighi showed off some image retouching functionality in Photos and gave a brief demonstration of navigating within timelines to emphasize its "beautiful, buttery scrolling."

Federighi calls Photos "a new grounds-up photo solution for the Mac built with iCloud in mind." And Federighi also demonstrated some impressive retouching capabilities that promise to make it easier to make your photos look better.

Photos promises to be a better mainstream photo editing and cataloging tool for iPhoto, but Apple's set the bar low there. And as it exists now, Aperture and iPhoto's iCloud support seems more grafted on than truly integrated.

One way or the other, it'll take a lot more than what we saw to fill in the blanks to Aperture users' satisfaction.

The end of Aperture

In the interest of full disclosure, I have — or at least had — a horse in this race. At one time, shortly after Aperture first came out, I became an Apple-certified Aperture trainer. I really loved Aperture. I got to know the app pretty well and I was impressed with its flexibility, with Apple's focus on making it a great workflow tool for people who spent all day long taking and editing photos.

Over the years I heard a lot of complaints from photographers about Apple's development and improvement to Aperture compared to Adobe, with its rival Lightroom software. Adobe was more nimble, more responsive to photographers, quicker to make changes to Lightroom and advance new photography workflow concepts.

It had become clear years ago that despite early promises to pro photographers, Apple just wasn't that invested in keeping Aperture competitive.

So I started grinding my teeth when I read Apple's reassurance to Dalrymple that development on other pro apps like their video and audio editing tools continues unchanged. My first thought is that it's true for as long as it's expedient for Apple to do so. At one time Apple made similar promises to professional photographers.

I am thoroughly disappointed, but I can't say that I'm surprised. As I said, the writing has been on the wall for a while. Aperture has languished compared to other pro-level tools from Apple.

What's more, many professional photographers have more thoroughly incorporated Adobe Lightroom into their workflow, as they were already using Photoshop to improve and retouch images. Like many creative professionals, many photographers are more invested in Adobe's software ecosystem to begin with, so it was a simpler transition.

The bottom line

Both Aperture and iPhoto still work today and Apple has promised an Aperture compatibility update for OS X Yosemite when it ships this fall. What happens next year and the year after is a different story. But right now, most people using these tools can stay the course until Photos is out in the world.

Professional photographers who haven't already looked at Lightroom probably ought to at this point; Adobe offers a free trial version so you can get started.

Even assuming Photos can fit the Aperture bill, Apple has an uphill climb to regain the trust of professionals who invested in Aperture as the center of their digital photography workflow.

Do you do a lot of digital photography with your Mac? Do you use Aperture, Lightroom or something else to manage it? What do you think of Apple's decision? Sound off in the comments.

You've installed a developer preview of OS X Yosemite, and you didn't take my previous advice to partition your hard drive. Now you're in a pickle: For whatever reason, you need to downgrade to Mavericks. How do you do it? Let's take a look.

To be frank, Apple doesn't make this process consistent and easy like they do with so much else. Upgrading your operating system, whether you're using a Mac or an iOS device, is typically a one-way journey. Even Apple warns developers not to use Yosemite on a live system until it's ready for prime-time.

But many of us give in to temptation and make decisions that we later regret. Whatever the case, you can recover, though how you can recover will depend on circumstances.

Recovery System

Some folks experimenting with Yosemite have been able to boot into the Mac's recovery system (accessed holding down the command and R keys on boot) and reinstalling Mavericks from there. I've seen it written about in plenty of places, and I spoke to a few of you on Twitter who had done it too.

I tried using this method myself on my Yosemite machine, but I couldn't get it to work. Each time it would tell me it wanted to reinstall 10.10 instead. What's more, it would hang indefinitely when it got to the authentication stage.

OS X Internet Recovery

The alternative solution is to use OS X Internet Recovery instead. Mac models introduced since OS X Lion debuted in 2011 have the ability to restore themselves as long as they're connected to the Internet. Some Mac models that shipped before Lion will work with OS X Internet Recovery too (with a firmware patch) — Apple has a list on their support site.

To access OS X Internet Recovery, hold down the command, option, and R keys simultaneously on boot.

You'll know if you're in OS X Internet Recovery if you see a spinning globe on your Mac screen, with a progress bar showing a countdown in minutes. That's Internet Recovery telling you it's downloading from Apple's servers.

Because OS X Internet Recovery is, literally, restoring over the Internet, it takes longer to work, since it has to download everything from Apple's servers to get going. We're talking about the initial recovery software plus a 5 GB Mavericks installer download. So be patient.

There are a few caveats you have to bear in mind if you use this method: First of all, you'll need to be on a network that supports Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA or WPA2) security protocol. Secondly, when the Mac restores, it will be running the version of OS X it came with, so you may actually have to upgrade again via the Mac App Store to get back up and running with Mavericks. You can read more on Apple's support site.

The bottom line

Once you've restored your system, use your preferred backup method to restore your files and applications.

One way or the other, rest assured that you can dial back your Mac to Mavericks if you run into Yosemite show-stoppers that keep you from using the new operating system software, at least for now.

Got questions? I have answers. Fire away in the comments!

The Apple TV is great on its own, but it's even better when it is paired with a Mac or iOS device that can stream video via AirPlay. That opens up a new world of possibilities, to stream content available on the Mac that isn't already available for Apple TV. Is your Mac ready to stream video to the Apple TV? Use this guide to figure it out. And if your Mac doesn't make the cut, don't give up hope — you still may be able to see your Mac's video on your TV. Read on for details.

What you'll need

• A second or third-generation Apple TV.
• A Mac capable of streaming AirPlay video to the Apple TV.
• OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion or later.
• A Wi-Fi network

The following Mac models are capable of streaming video to the Apple TV via AirPlay:

• iMac (Mid 2011 or newer)
• Mac mini (Mid 2011 or newer)
• MacBook Air (Mid 2011 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Early 2011 or newer)
• Mac Pro (Late 2013 or newer)

The easiest way to figure out if your Mac can use Apple TV is if you see an AirPlay menu appear on your Mac's menu bar. It looks like this:

The menu options are pretty self explanatory — you can mirror your Mac's display on your television using Mountain Lion; if you have Mavericks (10.9) installed you can also extend your Mac's desktop, using the TV as a second external display.

If the AirPlay menu is not visible, chances are your Mac is either too old or not running a new enough version of OS X. Check your specs and, if possible, upgrade. Remember that Mavericks is a free upgrade for anyone running a capable Mac and OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or higher.

• Is your Mac ready for Mavericks? Find out here

Let's assume for the moment that your Mac simply can't stream video to your Apple TV. What then? Well, you still might be able to hook it up to the TV, though it'll probably require a direct physical connection. What kind of connection depends entirely on the age of your Mac.

From 2008 on Apple included an interface called Mini DisplayPort that looks identical to Thunderbolt. Apple and other companies make Mini DisplayPort to video adapters that will enable you to connect your Mac to an HDTV using an HDMI cable, the same interface the Apple TV uses to connect to the Mac.

Bear in mind that the first batch of Mini DisplayPort Macs that shipped in 2009 do not supply audio over mDP. Those Macs include:

• iMac (Early 2009) and (Mid 2009)
• Mac Mini (Early 2009) and (Late 2009)
• Mac Pro (Early 2009)
• MacBook (Late 2009)
• MacBook (13-inch Aluminum Late 2008)
• MacBook Pro (late 2008), (Mid 2009), and (Early 2009)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008) and (Mid 2009)

When you attach the Mac to the TV using a Mini DisplayPort cable, the Mac senses the TV as an external display and acts the same way.

Hopefully this will get you going to help get video from your Mac to your TV, either using Apple TV or another method. This is a lot of information to take in, so if you have any questions at all, leave them in the comments.

Steve Jobs famously told the creators of Dropbox that their app was a feature, not a product, and they proved him wrong. Dropbox and other file sharing services have grown to near ubiquity as people find more uses for them. Apple's not ready to cede Jobs' position, though. iCloud Drive is coming to iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, and it provides a lot of the same functionality that Dropbox does, but with much better top-to-bottom integration with Apple's ecosystem.

Cloud-based file service integrated with the system

iCloud Drive is a file sharing service that works in the cloud — iCloud, as the name implies. Files are visible on your Mac and your iOS device, and can be manipulated on the Mac by simple drag and drop. You can also create files using iCloud-aware apps on your iOS 8 device.

iCloud Drive appears on your Mac just like any other drive or service: it's listed in the Favorites sidebar; clicking on the icon will open the iCloud Drive folder. Inside the folder are documents and other folders, each containing the files you've put there. From your Mac you can store any file on iCloud Drive you want to, in whatever folder structure you want, and you can access them from your Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad running iOS 8.

To move a file into the cloud you simply drag them into the iCloud Drive from the Finder. You can also create a new document using an iCloud-enabled app on your iOS device; those files are then stored in their own folders on iCloud Drive.

Smoothing the rough edges out of file sync

For years iOS users have begged Apple to provide some sort of visible file system for iOS, to make it easier to move documents between applications and to do more with those files. While iOS 8 won't have a visible file system, iCloud Drive does solve a big problem: the "siloing" of documents that can only be opened by their respective applications.

In the case of iOS devices, apps will be able to open any iCloud Drive document that registers as readable to them, so you'll be able to import graphics you've made from one document into the presentation document you've created using Keynote, say.

This is a huge step in the right direction for iOS device users who expect the same sort of workflow flexibility out of their iPhone or iPad that they get out of their Mac.

"Sherlocking" Dropbox

Where does iCloud Drive leave services like Dropbox? I'm sure that Dropbox's developers aren't overly concerned at this point: More than 200 million registered Dropbox users were around by the end of the last year.

But it does save Mac, iPhone and iPad users from having to download a third-party utility that has to jump through hoops to provide some level of basic integration with its host computer and devices. This is an Apple-made solution that's going to see widespread support in fairly short order after launch.

Apple's smart to make iCloud Drive work on PCs, too. Many of us depend on PCs in the workplace or other environments where a Mac just isn't available. The apps available in iCloud.com — along with all the other related services — work just fine on the PC already.

Dropbox will remain a popular option for many users who want to share files with each other regardless of what platform they're working on, but users dialed into the Apple ecosystem may find that iCloud Drive is a friendlier end-to-end service for their file needs.

Bottom line

I'm a long-time Dropbox user, but it's never been a perfect solution for me. Despite its developers' best efforts, Dropbox has never really gained complete integration with either my Mac or iOS workflow: It's always felt grafted on. I'm excited about iCloud Drive for exactly that reason — instead of a product, it really is a feature. And a useful one at that.

Do you plan to replace Dropbox with iCloud Drive? Does iCloud Drive solve problems for you in iOS? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Continuity is one of the most important features in both iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite and one of the most important features in Continuity is call answering. Sure, Handoff is great, as is cross-compatible AirDrop and Instant Hotspot, and keeping in touch with our green bubbled SMS/MMS friends and family. But being able to use your Mac and iPad as if they were iPhones? Being able to call Dr. Dre from your desktop? That's magic. And here's how it works!

Why voice calling matters

iPhones have full on cellular voice radios. That's what lets them make and receive calls over the traditional telephone network. iPads can optionally have cellular data radios, but that doesn't give them access to the telephone network. Macs haven't yet been given any cellular radios of any kind. iPads and Macs can both use Apple's FaceTime Audio service, or other voice-over-IP services like Skype, and that works great if you initiate or get a FaceTime or Skype call. But it doesn't help you at all if your iPhone rings and you're sitting across the room with your iPad or at your Mac.

Continuity's call making and answering does.

Apple ID and Wi-Fi connected

Other devices have tried transporting phone calls from phones to tablets or computers before, typically over Bluetooth and using a protocol that essentially handled the tablet or computer as if it were a wireless headset. It was the same technology, for good or for ill, that worked on a speakerphone system or in-car hands-free setup. Apple isn't using Bluetooth or mimicking a headset. Apple's using Wi-Fi and mimicking a telephone system.

As long as you are logged into the same iCloud account (Apple ID) on all your devices, and your iPhone is within Wi-Fi range, you can use Continuity calling. Your Apple ID is to ensure that your phone calls can only ever be made or taken on your devices. The Wi-Fi network not only allows for the transport, but makes it highly likely your devices are in your possession, or at least in your vicinity, which likewise keeps your calls personal and secure.

The end result is, whether it's in your pants pocket, your bag across the room, or plugged in on the charger across the house, any phone call that comes in can be answered on your iPhone or iPad instead.

It should be noted that Apple hasn't mentioned Bluetooth in regards to Continuity SMS/MMS, only Wi-Fi network. However, that doesn't mean Bluetooth isn't used to handle negotiation or pairing (the way it is for the new, easier Continuity tethering). I'll be experimenting some more to find out.

Call display, call answer, call defer

When your iPhone rings, Continuity can show you the name and number of whose calling on your iPad or Mac. It works just like the call display you're used to (provided you have call display service from your carrier and the identity information is available). Also, just like your iPhone, if the caller is in your contacts you'll see your contact picture for that caller, making them instantly recognizable even at a glance.

And just like on your iPhone, you can swipe the incoming call notification on your iPad, or click it on your Mac, to answer. Of course, if you're giving some big fancy keynote or are likewise busy and can't answer, you can choose to ignore the call, or even to respond with an iMessage or SMS message to let the caller know you'll get back to them ASAP. (Presumably, if you ignore the call on your iPad or Mac, it will get sent to voicemail, if available, on your iPhone.)

Call from contacts, calendar, or Safari

Making calls from your iPad or Mac is just as easy as receiving them. Any time you have a phone number in the built-in Contacts app, Calendar app, or Safari web browser, tapping or clicking on it will give you the option to call. Choose it and your call will be placed using the Wi-Fi connection to your iPhone, and your iPhone's connection to the telephone network.

Once a call is connected you'll see a time indicator — useful if you're counting local or long distance minutes — and you'll be told the call is "using your iPhone". Right below that is a sound wave just to add some visual flare.

You'll also get additional options, similar to what you get now on the iPhone. You can switch to a FaceTime video call, in which case the traditional telephone call is ended and the FaceTime call seamlessly connected in its place. You can also choose to mute the call so you can speak freely without the person on the other end hearing what you're saying, and end the call when you're done.

Bottom line

Apple hasn't shown off nor have they said whether Continuity calling will work with conference calls, though there was nothing in the demos that suggested an interface for handling them. However, starting off simply and adding functionality over time is a cornerstone of Apple's approach. The point being, this is a beginning, not an ending.

This fall millions of iPhones will ring and millions of people will be able to answer them on their iPads or Macs. Millions of people will also be able to place calls without reaching into their pockets, crossing the room to their bags, or sitting across the house tethered to their charging cable. If Continuity calling works as advertised — and we'll have to wait until the shipping version really gets hammered on to know for sure — then that's exactly the problem Apple will have solved.

If you've got an iPhone and an iPad or Mac, are you looking forward to making and taking calls on all your devices?

More of iOS 8: Explained

• Handoff in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• Making and receiving phone calls on iOS 8 for iPad and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• Sending and receiving SMS/MMS on iOS 8 for iPad and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• AirDrop and Instant Hotspot in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• QuickType keyboard in iOS 8: Explained
• Interactive notifications in iOS 8: Explained
• SceneKit in iOS 8: Explained
• Metal in iOS 8: Explained
• Widgets in iOS 8: Explained
• Share extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• Action extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• Inter-app photo and video editing in iOS 8: Explained
• Custom keyboards in iOS 8: Explained
• Family Sharing on iOS 8: Explained
• iCloud Drive and Document Picker for iOS 8: Explained
• Document provider extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• TestFlight in iOS 8: Explained
• Apple Maps in iOS 8: Explained
• iMessage in iOS 8: Explained
• Photos in iOS 8: Explained
• Spotlight in iOS 8: Explained
• Health in iOS 8: Explained
• Touch ID in iOS 8: Explained
• HomeKit in iOS 8: Explained
• Adaptive UI in iOS 8: Explained
• Manual camera controls in iOS 8: Explained