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OS X Yosemite Apps I’ve Been Trying

OS X Yosemite, first announced at WWDC in June and released today by Apple, brings a major redesign of OS X and a variety of new features such as widgets, extensions, Handoff, and Continuity. While I don’t use OS X as much as I did a few years ago, I still rely on the system for tasks that I can’t complete on iOS alone.

Below, you’ll find a roundup of the third-party Yosemite apps I’ve been testing over the past couple of weeks, which should give you a good idea of the design changes and new functionalities Yosemite is bringing to OS X.

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iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3: Our Complete Overview

At a media event held earlier today in Cupertino, Apple unveiled the latest entries to the iPad family: the iPad Air 2 and the iPad mini 3. Building upon last year’s launch of the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display, the new iPads brings iterative improvements over the last generation, but it should be noted that, this year, Apple has drawn a clear line between the iPad mini and the full-sized iPad Air.

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OS X Yosemite & iOS 8 Continuity Explained: Handoff, Instant Hotspot, SMS & Phone Relay

Perhaps the headline feature of OS X Yosemite (besides the visual overhaul) is what Apple has called ‘Continuity’.

Continuity is really just an umbrella-term for a few key features that allow OS X and iOS to, in Apple’s words, “connect like never before”. Those key features that make up Continuity are Handoff, Instant Hotspot, SMS Relay and Phone Relay.

Please note: iOS 8.1 is required for Continuity features.

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Taking a Tour of OS X Yosemite’s Revamped Spotlight

Spotlight in OS X Yosemite is improved not only in its appearance, but also utility. The biggest and most obvious change is that Spotlight no longer resides in the right corner of your menu bar. Triggered by the usual CMD+Space keyboard shortcut, it now appears as a floating bar in the center of your screen. As you start typing, the bar will expand downward to display your results on the left and a Quick Look-esque panel on the right.

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OS X Yosemite: Tips, Tricks, and Details

At MacStories, we believe in knowing all the little features and details of the software we use every day. We enjoy finding all the tweaks and hidden tricks that Apple ships with OS X and iOS every year, we love to round them up in a comprehensive collection. In this post, you’ll find over 60 tips, tricks, and details of OS X Yosemite that we’ve collected throughout the summer since the first beta release of Apple’s major redesign of OS X.

The release of OS X Yosemite was announced today at Apple’s media event in Cupertino, and the new OS is available now as a free upgrade on the Mac App Store. Yosemite – version 10.10 of OS X – brings a radical redesign, better integration with iOS thanks to Continuity and iCloud, and several changes to apps like Safari, Mail, and even the Finder.

We will have more articles on Yosemite today and throughout the week in our Yosemite hub on MacStories. In the meantime, you can enjoy our collection of tips and tricks to get the most out of OS X Yosemite below.

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The Numbers From Apple’s October 16 Event

Photo courtesy of Jason Snell at Six Colors.

Every year, Apple kicks off their product presentations with a “state of the business” introduction that, with various numbers and facts, reveals how the company is doing in several areas such as retail, the App Store, iOS device sales and software upgrades, and Mac sales.

At today’s media event in Cupertino, Apple CEO Tim Cook shared only a few details about the launch of new iPhones, but the company still revealed some interesting numbers and statistics throughout the keynote.

  • 48% of customers have already updated to iOS 8 after 4 weeks; 46% of them remain on iOS 7, and 6% on “other” versions of iOS.
  • Another 500 banks have confirmed they will support Apple Pay.
  • More than a million members of the Mac community signed up for the Yosemite public beta.
  • 225 million iPads have been sold to date.
  • 675,000 apps have been created specifically for the iPad.
  • The new iPad Air 2 is 6.1 mm thin; 18% thinner than the first iPad Air.
  • The new A8X chip of the iPad Air 2 has a 40% faster CPU, 2.5x faster GPU.
  • The Mac’s line has been growing 18% year-over-year.
  • The iMac’s new Retina 5K display has 67% more pixels than 4K.

For more coverage, check out our October 16 news hub and follow @macstoriesnet on Twitter.

Apple Updates the Mac mini with Faster Processors, Thunderbolt Ports

Photo courtesy of Jason Snell at Six Colors.

At its media event held earlier today in Cupertino, Apple announced an update to its Mac mini line.

“People love Mac mini. It’s a great first Mac or addition to your home network, and the new Mac mini is a nice upgrade packed into an incredibly compact design,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With the latest CPU and graphics, faster Wi-Fi, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, OS X Yosemite, and starting at just $499, the new Mac mini is the best value ever.”

Described by Phil Schiller’s as “the world’s most efficient” desktop computer, the new Mac mini comes with two Thunderbolt 2 ports, new fourth generation Intel Core processors,  and 802.11ac WiFi. Packing an “entire Mac experience” in a small  7.7-inch-square frame, the new Mac mini will come pre-installed with OS X Yosemite and also offer four USB 3 ports.

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Apple Announces OS X Yosemite Launching Today

At a media event held in Cupertino, California, Apple announced that the next major version of OS X, Yosemite, will be released later today.

Introduced at WWDC in June, OS X Yosemite (version 10.10 of Apple’s desktop operating system) brings a complete redesign, updates to core apps such as Safari and Mail, and better integration with iOS devices thanks to Handoff and Continuity. Alongside an elegant design that prioritizes content, Yosemite will feature an updated Spotlight with rich inline previews, a revamped Notification Center with widgets (also available in iOS 8) and iCloud Drive, a new unified folder to manage all documents stored in iCloud.

OS X Yosemite will be a free update and available through the Mac App Store.

For more coverage, check out our October 16 news hub and follow @macstoriesnet on Twitter.