We took OS X Yosemite for a spin at the November meeting. It’s a free upgrade from OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or later (Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks). It looks quite nice with new fonts and a flatter, more streamlined look similar to iOS 7 and 8 including translucency effects.
There have been some updates to the built-in apps, Safari, Mail, iTunes, etc. Safari now supports DuckDuckGo as a search engine alternative to Google, Yahoo!, or Bing. Mail now makes it easy to send attachments up to 5GB total, which would normally be too large, by using iCloud. The recipient will receive a link if they are using another e-mail client. The Messages application now allows you to send text messages from your Mac if you also have an iPhone, as well as receive them.
There are Continuity features that integrate your iPhone and Mac. FaceTime can answer phone calls on your Mac if your iPhone is nearby. AirDrop allows you to quickly transfer files between Macs and nearby iPhone and iPad users, even without access to a Wi-Fi network. Using Instant Hotspot your Mac laptop can more easily share your iPhone’s cellular connection if you’re away from an accessible Wi-Fi network, without even taking your iPhone out of your pocket or bag.
Now that both iOS and the Mac OS have been updated, you can now enable iCloud Drive, which allows you to store arbitrary files and access them from the Finder on a Mac. You can also install an updated iCloud Control Panel on Windows to access your iCloud Drive files there.