Apple today announced that OS X Yosemite, the latest major release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, is available as a free upgrade for Mac users from the Mac App Store. Yosemite delivers a fresh, modern look and introduces Continuity features that make it easy to hand off activities between Mac and iOS devices and even make and receive iPhone® calls from your Mac. Yosemite also includes a new Today view, a redesigned Spotlight® and updated versions of Safari®, Mail, Messages and iTunes®.
“OS X Yosemite is the most advanced version of OS X we’ve ever built, with a brand new design, amazing Continuity features and powerful versions of the apps you use every day,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “OS X Yosemite ushers in the future of computing, where your Apple devices all work together seamlessly and magically. It’s something only Apple can do, and it’s available today.”
OS X Yosemite has been redesigned with a fresh, modern look, while maintaining the power and familiarity users expect from a Mac. Streamlined toolbars make more room for your content, and use translucency to reveal additional app content as you scroll. Other translucent elements, such as window sidebars, take on the feel of your desktop picture and give you a sense of what’s hidden behind the active window. App icons have a clean, consistent design, and a new system font improves readability on every Mac and looks stunning on a Retina® display.
Yosemite includes amazing Continuity features that make your Mac and iOS devices perfect companions.* Handoff automatically passes what you’re doing from one device to another, like writing an email or surfing the web. Instant Hotspot makes using your iPhone’s hotspot as easy as connecting to a Wi-Fi network.** AirDrop® now works between Mac and iOS, so you can quickly and easily share content across devices. All the SMS messages that previously only appeared on your iPhone now can automatically appear in Messages on your Mac and all your iOS devices. You can even make and receive iPhone calls on your Mac.***
Yosemite introduces innovative new features, including:
• Today view in Notification Center, giving you quick access to informative widgets for Calendar, Weather, Stocks, Reminders, World Clock and social networks. You can also add widgets like Yahoo! Sports from the Mac App Store to customize your Today view;
• a new Spotlight, delivering rich information right to your desktop from Wikipedia, Maps, Bing, App Store℠, iTunes Store®, iBooks Store℠, top websites, news and movie showtimes;
• iCloud Drive℠, so you can store files of any type in iCloud®, organize them any way you like, and access them from your Mac, iPhone, iPad® or even a Windows PC;
• a streamlined new Safari that delivers the fastest performance, as well as the longest battery life for web browsing and Netflix HD video streaming on the Mac;
• an updated version of Mail, which includes Markup for quickly filling out and signing forms and PDFs right within Mail, plus Mail Drop, which makes it easy to send large attachments up to 5GB for free;
• enhanced Messages, so now you can add participants to your ongoing group conversations, see their locations on a map, quickly access attachments and even mute notifications;
• iTunes 12, which has a sleek new look, is fast and simple to use, and makes it easier to switch between browsing your music library and discovering new music on the iTunes Store. A new Recents view makes it easy to access the media you just purchased or recently played; and
• Family Sharing, so family members can now browse and download each other’s iTunes, iBooks® or Mac App Store purchases.
Yosemite also delivers platform technologies that make it easier for developers to create amazing new Mac apps. Swift™ is a powerful, next-generation programming language for iOS and OS X that’s fast, modern, interactive and helps developers write safer and more reliable code. SpriteKit makes it easier for developers to incorporate realistic motion, lighting and physics in games and when integrated with SceneKit, makes it simple to create games with animated 3D scenes and effects.
Pricing & Availability
OS X Yosemite is available as a free upgrade today from the Mac App Store. Yosemite supports all Macs introduced in 2009 or later, and some models introduced in 2007 and 2008. For a complete list of system requirements and compatible systems, please visit apple.com/osx/howtoupgrade. Continuity features require iOS 8.1, which is available as a free upgrade starting October 20. OS X Server 4.0 requires Yosemite and is available from the Mac App Store for $19.99 (US).
* Some Continuity features require advanced Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi features available only in more recent Macs.
** Check with your carrier for hotspot availability.
*** Cellular data charges may apply.
Source: Apple Inc.
I’ve no idea why the ‘news’ says that Yosemite is available from the Mac App Store – it’s not up there as of 1:30 PM CDT!
Circus owner PT Barnum once posted a sign in a tent at his circuses that said, “This way to the egress.” Naturally, people read the sign, followed it and found themselves on the outside.
If I told you that you could get Yosemite by walking through a doorway, would you stop to see if I was leading you into an elevator shaft?
My point is this: what’s your big rush? Why do you HAVE to have Yosemite RIGHT NOW?
Would you not be better off waiting for at least several days, to make sure that:
1) You can avoid the traffic jam of fools trying to be the first to download it?
2) After a large number of early adopters have tried Yosemite, that it is indeed stable, even after a large beta test?
LifeHacker reported that a number of third party applications need to be updated to work correctly with Yosemite, among them Firefox and Google Chrome. I would not be surprised if the Adobe CC suite needs an update as well. So again, I ask, what’s the big rush?
Previously, I urged fellow MDN fanboys to not download iOS 8.0. But that did not stop people from racing for the egress. Nor 8.0.1. And even 8.0.2 has Bluetooth issues. And did I mention that until today, iCloud Drive had issues with iOS if you tried it? But still, people are willing to dive into an open elevator shaft.
Don’t get me wrong. I can’t wait to upgrade to iOS 8 and Yosemite. But time has taught me that with ANY OS or big-iron app, that it’s smart to wait a few weeks until the hysteria dies down. But no, YOU HAVE TO HAVE IT NOW.
I warned you. I hope you don’t mind frustration, because with anything new, you’re taking a chance that it won’t work 100%.
When will we fanboys ever learn?
Not showing up anywhere in my App Store yet….
It said available today… so they’ve got until 11:59 PM to make it available 😉
Exactly lol. Relax, it will get there. 😊
No rush it’ll suck anyway
No Yosemite for Canada yet though.
Still negotiating with Stephen Harper. He wants it to be called “Franklin” in the great white north.
It was up half hour ago . I’m already installing it. Should be done by the time I’m back from picking up the kids
hank,
Where are you located? I’m in Alabama on CDT and there’s still no sign of Yosemite in the Mac App Store (I’ve even restarted to see if that makes a difference – nada). I do have the last Yosemite Developer Candidate 3, but I’m not certain that’s the ‘release’ version or not!
Clinton
apple.com/osx/howtoupgrade
link broken
Apple said it was not available in our country yet when I tried to click on the download link on their website.
I’m sure they are performing a controlled rollout so the Internet doesn’t grind to a halt.
One more thing. The download was super fast. 5.5 g took about 3 min.
I’m in fios 150/150
Nothing like ios8 download that took forever!!
Swine!
And how much are you paying per month for that WICKED fast FIOS? I’m betting its a lot cheaper than fscking Verizon wants to charge me where I live. 😕
The download of Yosemite was very speedy on my 1Gbps fibre-optic connection, which costs $72.00-per-month. (Yes, I’m a lucky bastard.)
I still can’t get Yosemite PB 4 to download and install correctly. It just fails each time.
What is the build number of the final release?
Note: As a beta tester (Appleseeder) for Yosemite, you might want to hold off until 10.10.1. It’s still got some fiddly bugs in it and has NOT exactly been speed optimized yet, at least IMHO.
I’m also a protester against the loss of window bars on a lot of applications such as Safari. There’s going to be some noise about that change. I’m writing up an article about a minimal work around for the resulting problem.
Not that we are allowed to talk about it… 😉
Is GM RC3 the final GM? What build should we be looking for?
I have 14A388a
RC3 is apparently THE 10.10.0. I was playing on it tonight and was NOT offered an update. I’m installing it from scratch on another Mac tonight and will compare the versions in the morning.
I decided to DL the final full install, and did an inlace upgrade over GM3. I didn’t want to take any chances.. Actually there was a difference. Slight. It asked me if I wanted to take phone calls on my mac, something GM3 didn’t ask.
Everthing is now up to date. iOS 8.1, OS X 10.10.0, both at work and home.
Mine (beta) is 14A338b
Sorry to be slow re-replying. What’s installed with ‘Install OS X Yosemite’ is 14A389, one iteration up from RC3. It is apparently not required. App Store insisted that I already had 10.10 installed and I had to download the downloader manually to get it. I did install it and noticed that the start up graphics were finally cleaned up, at least for my test machine (Mac Mini mid-2011). The loading thermometer never worked properly in the beta.
Fit and finish appears to be lacking.
Check out this post by Contreras:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1802142&page=16
A couple things of related interest:
– The RC3 version was 10.10 (14A388a). The downloaded final version is (14A389). That’s one iteration up. From what I can find, it is not a required update. But I found the thermometer graphics when booting were at least cleaned up (at least on my test Mac Mini mid-2011). Beta testers have to manually download the final 10.10 to install it. It is not offered as an update.
– There has been a stubbornness at Apple about the new GUI look and features in Yosemite, along with an inconsistency. Some people have made sense of it and resigned to it. I have not. The removal of the title bar in many applications, particularly Safari, is nonsensical to me. It actually ruins the ability to move the Safari window around if you have a pile of extensions running. The work around is to customerize the ‘Toolbar’ with a bunch of extra dead spacers. This affords a bigger guaranteed free space for grabbing the Safari windows and moving them. This is a truly AWFUL blunder by Apple and they’ve heard from me about it. –Because the removal of the title bar is inconsistent in Yosemite, I have to assume it’s either an experiment or considered to be an option depending on how the programmer (including at Apple) feels about it.
I note the Contreras images. I agree with him. I can also point to ‘Dark’ mode as a fumbling idea. It ruins the ability to see certain icons. I know of one affected developer (of Menu Bar) who has responded by creating a new icon that doesn’t disappear into the Dark-ness.
Being my usual PITA self, I’m watching both Path Finder and Flavours for solutions to the Yosemite GUI fumbling. No doubt there will be others. It’s clearly a ‘Version 1.0 Syndrome’ situation.
Not available yet in SoCal as of noon PST.
Anyone know of a software compatibility list for Yosemite? I’m specifically looking to see if QuickBooks 2013 has any problems.
Bizlaw,
Try Roaring Apps -> http://roaringapps.com – it should have loads of software that’s been tested in the last 4 months or so using Yosemite.
Thanks, that was perfect. Unfortunately, no data on QB2013 yet, and of course Intuit is no help.
Hank. BS. No way would it be up wherever you are. I’m in So. Cal and it isn’t up. For sure in Cali it would be up first.
I can’t wait to upgrade!
But I think I’ll wait until a few of you guys do it first and tell me how it goes. 🙂
——RM
I’m in Chicago…nothing yet.
Is this another FU like iOS8.1?
“Available Today” is relative.
Looking for that Hawaiian sunset time now.
(“The view from Kona is tremendous.”)
Will probably wait for version 10.1 like I should have waited for iOS 8.1
Still waiting
😒
There is no upgrade available yet. Just spoke with a friend who works for Apple.
I don’t see it yet either. A phased roll-out throughout the day makes a whole lot of sense though.
It could be based on your location, or even based on something arbitrary like your Mac’s serial number. Either would accomplish the goal of preventing a huge spike of network traffic in the first hours of release.
If it’s based on Serial Number, does that mean my little 2010 MBP will get to go first?
Not available in the UK as of an hour or so ago.
Still Nothing! Apple why do you torture us so? 😉
Well I can see it in the store now but still can’t upgrade to it.