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OS X Yosemite: Top 5 features (Video)

Now that we’ve had some time to get used to OS X Yosemite, it’s time to explore some of its top features. This is a big step up from Mavericks when it comes to iOS integration and design. Yosemite isn’t quite the drastic change we saw from iOS 6 to iOS 7, but there are definitely visual differences. It’s no surprise that iOS 8 has plenty of exciting features available, but the same can be said about OS X Yosemite as well…

More than ever before, iOS and OS X have become somewhat unified, but not to the point where they’ve completely merged. Because of this, you’re getting the best of both worlds on any Apple device. There’s only one way to describe Yosemite and iOS 8: Connected. That’s the experience you’re getting here. There’s now a huge benefit that comes along with being an OS X and iOS user.

With all of that in mind, what makes Yosemite so special? Well, let’s take a look at the top five features that this powerful new operating system has to offer.

Check out our top five features video below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-LHv70z6-Y]

Of course, there are more than five new features available in OS X Yosemite, but in my opinion these are the best ones. Here are the top five features mentioned in the video above:

  • Text Message/SMS through the Messages app
  • Make voice calls within OS X
  • AirDrop between Macs and iOS devices
  • Handoff (Continuity)
  • Smart Spotlight Search

What are some of your favorite OS X Yosemite features?

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Comments

  1. Mindaugas Savickas - 10 years ago

    Dom, thanks for the video. One question: what kind of files (types) one can send through air drop? only pictures? what about mp3, pdfs?

    • tilalabubakr - 10 years ago

      +1
      +
      does the new air drop work with bluetooth or WiFi?
      does it work with iPhone 4s or not?

    • Dom Esposito - 10 years ago

      What I’ve noticed is that you can send almost any file through AirDrop to a Mac (at the moment using the Mail app and sending attachments), but not the other way around. I tried sending an unsupported “.deb” file to iOS and it prompted me to download an app from the App Store in order to complete the transfer. I’m assuming if you had a file storage app (many available) that supported the file type, it would complete the transfer without problems. Then again, this is a beta so everything could change before the public launch.

      • Nick Santos - 10 years ago

        Dom, first of all congrats! Another nice video. Just one question: I have an MacBook Pro from early 2011 and an iPhone 5S, with Yosemite and iOS 8 respectively. Neither AirDrop nor Continuity is working. Do you have any suggestion?!
        Thanks…

      • chrisrod09 - 10 years ago

        Nick, I believe I can help, at first I was not able to get continuity/handoff to work. But in my case, it works on & off. But I figured out a option that can be enable for handoff inside my Mac. Go to (System Preferences–>General–>Enable Handoff to this Mac and your icloud devices) That option is second to last from the bottom of the window. So I sometimes can get handoff to work but sometimes it goes out. But at least I can conclude that this option needs to be enable. Not sure if it should of been enabled by default, but it helps. Thanks!

      • Nick Santos - 10 years ago

        Thank you so much chrisrod09! I did it, but you know what? I can’t pair (through bluetooth) my iPhone 5S to my MacBook Pro. I can’t understand why! It’s possible to pair my Mac to my iPad Mini, but it doesn’t work with iPhone. A lot of people have the same problem (I saw in forums), but I couldn’t find a solution. That’s really weird.

      • chrisrod09 - 10 years ago

        I totally agree Nick, I struggle as well connecting my iPhone to my Mac or vise versa! And there are other types that show both are connected together, so my theory is that it is too early for key features to work properly and gives more anticipation for future betas and the potential it has to be released when all is set and done. Sometimes, I also get two (Macbook’s names) on my iPhone, so i figured out a solution that works more than others, by trying to connect from your Mac to your iPhone, instead of iPhone to Mac. In this case, the Mac will prompt you with a message and code confirming it is the same code on your iPhone and most of the type it pairs to the iPhone but *not always. But like I predict, just due to early testing and just have patience that all will work out at the end…

  2. tilalabubakr - 10 years ago

    Awesome,
    I hope you demonstrate the other non-mentioned features as well.
    Can’t wait to use Yosemite.

  3. roemer - 10 years ago

    Thanks a lot. What are the network requirements for Continuity? Does it only work via Bluetooth, or also via WiFi on the same home network – or even from remote via Internet?
    And also: Do both devices have to be awake at the same time when ‘continuing’ on a document somewhere else?

    • William Robinson - 10 years ago

      I’m sure it’s bluetooth only, and possibly only the most current bluetooth revision. I don’t see how useful it would be from a remote location via Internet. Do you start and email on your phone, jump ion your car and drive home to complete it on your Mac?

      • roemer - 10 years ago

        You would be surprised how many half-written emails I had already found when cleaning up my pile of desktop windows ;) I mean, who is working linearly nowadays?

        Besides, continuity would be cool for all other apps too, not just mail and safari. And I guess that ‘forgetting’ about an open text document in the background would be pretty usual. Once you are out of the house, it would be too late to remember…

  4. jb_tweaks (@jb_tweaks) - 10 years ago

    I have both ios 8 beta andm osx Yosemite beta but the handoff feature doesn’t work. I will start and email on my iPad or iPhone both on iOS 8 and nothing happens on the mac. Is there a setting I need to turn on? Thanks!

  5. Grayson Mixon - 10 years ago

    You said that SMS and phone calls from OSX and (and I assume iPad as well) use the bluetooth connection to the phone. They didn’t mention bluetooth in the keynote, and I haven’t downloaded any betas.

    I was thinking this would be convenient for when I have my phone plugged in charging, and I’m on my iPad. But if it uses bluetooth, and my phone is at the other end of the house, it may not work.

    I was thinking it would use the phone’s data connection, either WiFi or cellular.

    • Tyler Shepard (@TyShep12) - 10 years ago

      I actually believe it uses Bluetooth 4.0 to discover your devices (has a radius of 150 feet), then checks if the devices are registered in iCloud, and then finally establishes a wifi direct connection to handle all the continuity features (phone, SMS, handoff, and wifi connections). This is proven by the wifi connection part of OSX Yosemite, because the Mac needs to establish a direct wifi connection with your phone in order to set up a wifi hotspot.

  6. Joe Cranford (@jodeo) - 10 years ago

    Wait: Why didn’t they remove more features — like they did with Page, Numbers, Garageband, etc. last year? New direction, Apple?

  7. Joseph DiPierno - 10 years ago

    I have a small question. Are the system sounds the same as Mavericks, like Mac has always been, or the sounds updated to the iOS 7 sound effects?

  8. Fantastic video! Thanks. Wonder if anyone knows the answer to this related to Airdrop: my husband and I both have 5S’s. And we’ve both turned on Airdrop. But even so, we can’t airdrop anything to each other. Our icons never show up. Anyone know if there’s something we should check? I feel like there’s probably something super simple I’m just overlooking. Thx.

    • Oahu Mike - 10 years ago

      You just have to wait a few seconds for the connection to establish. Also, make sure that Airdrop is set to ‘contacts’ or ‘everyone’ IF your husband isn’t in your contacts. I’ve also noticed that Airdrop makes use of bluetooth so ensure that that’s turned on as well (it should do it automatically).

    • Did you try making your devices available to everyone rather than to only contacts? Did you try both ways: 1) swiping up from the bottom and activating airdrop in both phones and 2) choosing airdrop while about to share something? Did you wait long enough, since sometimes it just takes long to pair?

  9. William Luckie - 10 years ago

    I presume you need iOS8 to do most of what you showed here?

    • chrisrod09 - 10 years ago

      Yes, you would need to obtain IOS 8 on your iPhone in order for you to take advantage of all the new features that are feature in OS X Yosemite and IOS 8.

  10. thejuanald - 10 years ago

    I like the Yosemite beta so far, no complaints as of yet.

  11. Carlos Juliá Figueras - 10 years ago

    Dom, thanks for this video. I cannot see the expand button on the top right part of the window (for example in safari). I’m talking about the button that lets you open the window to see it in the whole screen. Did they take that off in the new OS X?

    • chrisrod09 - 10 years ago

      Carlos, I agree with you that the expand button from the top part of any window, like you say in Safari is not visual anymore, but what I saw to work, in this situation, is that if you double click any part of the top window where it is blank, for example next to the URL, it should expand the window and if you double click it again, it should resize back to what it was. Just a heads up, and not sure if that what you were looking for

  12. carltausend - 10 years ago

    I am a registered IOS developer, can a download OSX Beat without registering as a Mac developer?

  13. Moisés Santos - 10 years ago

    Hey Dom Emposito Help me
    In my mac and my iPhone 4s i cant use the funcion bellow

    Text Message/SMS through the Messages app
    Make voice calls within OS X
    Handoff (Continuity)
    Smart Spotlight Search

    why? u can help me?

  14. Hey Dom,

    Thanks for the great review video! I just had a question about the Handoff feature.
    Do you have to be using safari in order to access the same web page when using the Handoff feature?
    Or can you use google chrome on your computer and access that web page in safari browser on your iphone?

    • chrisrod09 - 10 years ago

      Tom, because Apple is consistent in improving their software and apps, they occasionally stick with their own apps, instead of third-party apps like Chrome, so in order for Handoff to work, it must be access through safari only from your iPhone. By the way, I checked with my iPhone and my Mac just to verify this information and so far, it stands as is.

      • Oh that is harsh! So if I mainly use chrome on my macbook, I can not access these pages on safari on my iphone??:(
        That sucks

      • chrisrod09 - 10 years ago

        Well done might call it harsh but to others it makes sense, you know? It all literally comes to preference on each user. Well if you mainly use chrome on your MacBook, than as if right now, it would seem to be that you would have to miss out on handoff for a while, unless apple come to an agreement and have third-party apps able to use the continuity feature in the future.

  15. Don Beattie (@donbeattie) - 10 years ago

    Would be nice to know if anyone has tested this stuff (SMS, calls, etc) on a 17″ Macbook Pro (early 2011). These great laptops only support Bluetooth 2.1, so I’m guessing they’ll be left out of these cool features. I don’t want to give up my 17″…

  16. Christopher Rene - 10 years ago

    Will the OS X Yosemite preview have frequent beta updates like iOS does?

    • chrisrod09 - 10 years ago

      Yes, OS X always releases updates consistent for their OS, but not as frequent as the IOS ones, but yes, and mostly called DP1, DP2, etc…

  17. Ofer Joe (@joedhoe) - 10 years ago

    Does spell check work for Hebrew and other new languages added to dictation?

  18. Danny A. Garcia - 10 years ago

    have anyone find out how to apply the Dark Mode ?

  19. the icon of map application is already flat in mavericks…

  20. i know that it’s probably the least significant feature of them all, but i really like the new dark theme. i’ve wanted to try something like that for quite some time now. :)

  21. Rajan Joy - 9 years ago

    It was a fantastic video. Thanks. I do have a severe problem using facebook video calling with chrome in my mac after upgrading to yosemite. I am not able to make any video call instead they always tells me to download it. So after downloading and installing the video call software it again shows the same and I am unable to use video call facility with CHrome browser. I use Apple Java 6 which I have downloaded from the apple site. Can you help me to solve this problem?