I must say, I’m impressed and kind of shocked. Yesterday, Apple unveiled the new iPad air line and announced that the newest version of OS X, Mavericks, was ready and available for free. All OS X updates in the past have cost money, so this is a pleasant surprise.
About Mavericks: What’s New
You might be wondering what’s new with Mavericks: there’s a lot. According to the iTunes description page, there are over 2000 new features like iBooks, Maps, Finder Tabs, Tags, and all-new Safari, among other things that I’ll cover in Part Two.
iBooks
OS X now has iBooks, where all the books you’ve downloaded to your iOS device will appear on your Mac. This is great for casual readers as well as students or those writing papers. iBooks will remember where you left off and will store any notes or highlighting you’ve done in the cloud.
Maps
Probably the best part about the Maps app on your Mac is going to be the ability to send your map to your iPhone for when you hit the road. Maps is also integrated with Contacts, Mail, and Calendar.
Finder Tabs
If you’re the type to have multiple Finder windows open at once, you’re going to love this feature that consolidates all your Finder windows into one. You can move files from tab to tab with drag and drop. You can set a custom view for each of the tabs (column, icon, or list), and you’ll be able to use tabs with full-screen Finder.
Tags
You’ll be able to sort and organize files with tags you have stored on your Mac or in iCloud. You can give files as many tags as you want, and when you want to list all the files with that tag, just click on the tag in your Finder sidebar.
Safari
Safari is all-new for Mavericks. It has new tech that will use less battery if you’re on a laptop, which lets you browse for longer. It has new tracking-prevention features, and it has an all-new Sidebar to let you more easily access things like your Reading List, bookmarks, and Shared Links.
Is Your Mac Compatible?
To download and install the upgrade to Mavericks, your Mac has to have OS X 10.6 or later.
Compatible machines include:
- Mac mini (early 2009 or later)
- Xserve (early-2009)
- MacBook (late-2008 aluminum, or early-2009 or later)
- iMac (mid-2007 or later)
- MacBook Air (late-2008 or later)
- Mac Pro (early-2008 or later) and
- MacBook Pro (mid/late-2007 or later)
If you have Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion, you won’t have to do any stepped upgrading, which is awesome. I updated straight from Lion without having to download Mountain Lion first.
Before You Go Ahead and Download Mavericks
Save anything you have open, quit any unnecessary apps, and back up your files, PLEASE. If you don’t want to back up your whole computer, at least back up the ones you would be upset about if you lost.
Clean up any apps; trash the ones you don’t use and check for updates for the ones you do.
Now you can go and install the shiny new OS X. Be prepared for long download times if you’re doing it today, though, since lots of other people are trying to download it at the same time.
