What makes OS X Mavericks so special? Apple dials down the eye candy and builds in needed efficiencies

“Not surprisingly, iOS 7 got most of the attention at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month. Given the importance of the iPhone and iPad to Apple’s bottom line, that makes sense. But Apple does still make computers and spent some time showcasing the next version of its desktop/laptop operating system, OS X Mavericks,” Michael deAgonia writes for Computerworld. “Unlike iOS 7, which is getting an overdue UI overhaul, the changes coming to OS X aren’t as obvious, but they’re still important.”

“At first glance, Mavericks looks much like its predecessor, although clearly Apple’s designers are getting away from highly detailed UI ornamentation — skeumorphism — and turning the focus more toward content,” deAgonia writes. “With that design minimalism in mind, all of the built-in apps in Mavericks — everything from Safari to Mail to FaceTime, Messages, Calendar and Notes — have adopted standard OS X interface elements, ditching of the leather/metal/paper backgrounds that users have grown accustomed to.”

deAgonia writes, “The move to less UI ornamentation isn’t a surprise, given Apple design chief Jony Ive’s penchant for minimalism when it comes to hardware (and he’s now in charge of software design). But Mavericks does offer some delights that users should appreciate.”

Read more in the full article here.

13 Comments

  1. Please leave the yellow notepad. It reminds me of for what the space is used – if Apple changes it to white it is no longer a yellow pad for ideas and I’m going to confuse it with Pages – don’t blow this.

  2. It is all good, but the multiple monitor enhancements — connecting MBP to monitor or projector — are fabulous, worth the upgrade alone. Dismissing spam/unwanted email via notifications is also a huge time-saver. Love it.

  3. Please bring back the icon art to the finder windows!

    I have 4 internal hard drives, 9 external in two different raid cases, plus several others in docks and USB externals.

    Before Lion, I could glance in the finder window and know which drive I wanted by the icon art (usually a pic of the drive… but sometimes a client logo). I have the drives named by size and manufacturer, so reading the label doesn’t provide the needed I.D.

    Now, with everything having the same gray logo in the finder, I can’t tell what’s what. Is there any hack to get my icon art back?

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