New Mac OS X (Mavericks) is free: who would've thought?
Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks is available from the Mac App Store for free, starting October 22. Which is about right now. It's certainly good news for Mac owners, but let's take a journey into the new features of Mavericks OS to find out how it stands on its own.
Finder: Tags and Tabs
Organizing files and navigation in general has become much more effecient in Finder, and definitely more comfortable thanks to two new features: Tags and Tabs. Even though most users have a general idea what these terms could mean, I feel I need to elaborate a little bit more.
I find it natural to navigate through my computer the same way I surf the Internet. Fortunately, Mac owners can experience this feeling: with Mavericks you will be able to have two or more folders in one window (as tabs that you can quicky switch between) and copy files from one folder to another by simply dragging and dropping them onto respective tabs. Also, sharing files through AirDrop can be done quicker now, since AirDrop is bookmarked in Finder by default.
Colored tags should also help you smoothen up and simplify the working experience: you now have the option to attach tags to your documents either when you're saving your project or through clicking on the title of an existing project. You can then find these tags on the left side of Finder and have quick access to, for example, documents marked as «Important». This way, you can think of tags as a kind of virtual folders.
Combining Tags and Tabs is also possible through the very same drag-and-drop procedure: drop any document you want into a tagged directory, e.g «Project B», and the document will automatically be tagged as «Project B». Multiple tags are, of course, implemented as well.
In fact, you can now use the built-in search engine in Finder and instantly have access to documents that have two or more tags, like «Important» and «Project B».
Multiple Displays and Full-Screen Apps
More pleasant surprises for Mac owners: connect a second monitor to your device and use it instantly, with no configuration required. The Dock is displayed on both monitors (finally!), and full-screen applications can work on two or more monitors simultaneously. Drag-and-drop here is also easy and intuitive, and it looked absolutely beautiful to me from the first glance.
Notifications
Improved notifications will let you reply to messages right from the notification bar, which won't force you to take a break from whatever you are working on and switch between a couple of windows just to reply «ok» to a friend or a collegue. There are also website notifications (for the websites you follow, of course) - so called push notifications - which work independently from Safari and enable you to visit a website/read an article from within the same notification bar if you find a notification interesting enough.
Maps
Satellite mode in Maps has lived through some great changes, it looks neat and, what's even more important, like a finished product. As we all remember, not always has Apple been thorough with maps in its products, but the company learns from its mistakes and that's great. Flyover mode (works only with a limited number of cities so far) lets you get a different prospective (no pun intended) on buildings and the Earth itself.
If you get a notification with a real location mentioned in it, you can now find the place instantly and send directions to your iPhone, all in a couple of seconds.
Calendar
Of all updates to Calendar I found that being able to see map directions to an event's location and the weather forecast for the day is the most useful.
Safari
Shared links in Safari , accessible from the new Sidebar, let you track what your friends and collegues, or anyone you follow, are sharing on Twitter and LinkedIn. I imagine it would be quite easy to get used to the new feature, but it is worth noting that the idea behind it is simple and smart.
But Apple's developers were not only concerned with the level of browsing convenience in Safari, they also improved online protection with new tracking prevention features.
Advanced Technologies
Software can, in fact, extend battery life, and that's what Mavericks does through energy-saving technologies, which let you watch more videos or surf the Web longer than you used to. One of the new technologies is App Nap.
App Nap controls which apps you are actually using at the moment and redistributes CPU accordingly. This definitely sounds like an effecient way to do things, and, to be totally honest, I thought that was implemented years ago.
Conclusion
If you are a Mac owner - update to OS X 10.9 Mavericks now. It's as simple as downloading a free app. I don't see any cons in Mavericks and I updated my Mac the moment I saw the update notification. And I'm pretty happy with that decision.
