Mac OS X Yosemite Beta Opens

New submitter David Hames (3763525) writes Would you like to test drive the newest release of the Macintosh operating system? Apple is opening up the beta for Mac OS X Yosemite starting Thursday to the first million people who sign up. Beta users won't be able to access such promised Yosemite features such as the ability to make or receive your iPhone calls or text messages on your Mac, turn on your iPhone hotspot feature from your Mac, or "Handoff" the last thing you were doing on your iOS 8 device to your Mac and vice versa. A new iCloud Drive feature is also off-limits, while any Spotlight search suggestions are U.S.-based only. Don't expect all your Mac apps to run either. Ars has a preview of Yosemite.

Comments

Flat UI Design

[TitusC3v5]

Am I the only person who hates the flat UI style that Microsoft, Google, and Apple have all adopted? I hated it being shoved onto my iPhone, and now it looks like the same nonsense it coming to OSX.

Re:Flat UI Design

[UnknowingFool]

Nope. While I agree that skeumorphism may have gone too far in previous designs, the shift to flat UI takes away from functionality sometimes. I want to clearly tell if something is touchable/clickable as opposed to nonfunctional text/graphics. All I can say is that it's not quite as bad as Metro/Modern. But that's not saying much.

Re:Flat UI Design

[tipo159]

Clearly you are not the only one. The flat UI seems to be the hot idea among UI designers and I am sure that they are all impressing themselves with their work. But, to me, as a user, it is just a gratuitous change that does not contribute to the UI's usability. And, to my kernel s/w engineer eyes, it, for the most part, doesn't look as good as what it is replacing.

I wonder how long I will be able to get by with OS X Mavericks.

Re:Why does Apple charge for Mac OSX?

[tbuddy]

The don't charge for Mac OS X actually anymore. Didn't last revision cycle and the previous two versions were $29 and $19 respectively.

Re:Why does Apple charge for Mac OSX?

[aristotle-dude]

But give free updates for iOS?

Apple does not charge for OS X anymore. The last update was free and so is this one.

Mac OS X Yosemite

[Snufu]

National parks are selling commercial naming rights?

Not Apple's first Yosemite-named Mac product

[wernst]

Those of us of a certain age will probably find the codename of the new OS X oddly familiar.

The so-called "Blue & White" PowerMac G3 was also code-named "Yosemite" (http://apple-history.com/g3blue). Mine still works fine, 15 years later - it'll be old enough to drive and vote soon.

Too bad my Yosemite Mac won't be able to run Yosemite OS X...

Re:Why does Apple charge for Mac OSX?

[UnknowingFool]

Apple hasn't charged for OS X since Mavericks. Then they charged before Mavericks:

• 10.0 "Cheetah": $0
  I don't think there was a price as it was the first OS X to be installed on new machines.
• 10.1 "Puma": $129
• 10.2 "Jaguar": $129
• 10.3 "Panther": $129
• 10.4 "Tiger": $129
• 10.5 "Leopard": $129
• 10.6 "Snow Leopard": $29
• 10.7 "Lion": $29
• 10.8 "Mountain Lion": $19
• 10.9 "Mavericks": $0
• 10.10 "Yosemite": $0

Re:Who is this aimed at?

[azav]

Yes. Yes it does. Bouncing rubber banding scroll views in Safari and the Finder if you use the Magic Mouse. Who the HELL needs this? Kill it. Kill it with fire. Windows and alerts that pop open in your face just like from iOS. So many iOS conventions that simply suck on a desktop. Full screen use on my 30 inch display is counterproductive. Full screen on a multi monitor system with a 30 inch display is a joke.