A Look At OS X Yosemite And iOS 8.1
by Brandon Chester on October 27, 2014 8:00 AM ESTConclusion
It has definitely been a busy few months in the Apple world. September delivered the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, along with iOS 8, and a preview of the still mysterious Apple Watch. This month we got the iPad Air 2, the iPad Mini 3, the iMac with Retina 5K display, iOS 8.1, Apple Pay, and OS X Yosemite. Those last three points are some of the most interesting, and they all happen to be part of Apple's software ecosystem. I don't think that's a coincidence. We're reaching a point where it's becoming more and more difficult to differentiate your products based on hardware alone. Great software driving a great experience is where the focus needs to be moving forward.
Apple's strategy to provide that experience appears to be deep integration of their services across all of their product lines. It starts with the cloud, with new additions to iCloud like iCloud Drive and Photo Library. From there it goes to software commonality, with a design language that exists on both iOS and OS X, and applications that exist on both platforms. On the opposite end of the spectrum from the cloud are the new continuity features which provide integration between all the devices that you have right there with you. SMS Forwarding and iPhone call transferring expands communication on iPad and the Mac to new areas, while Handoff makes the transition between applications seamless and accurate right down to where your cursor was.
What interests me the most about Apple's stategy is how it provides incentive for a user with one Apple device to buy other Apple devices. This exists to a certain degree with other manufacturers as well. If you own a Samsung smartphone, you may be more inclined to buy a Samsung tablet due to the similar hardware design and user interface. But apart from any brand loyalty you feel, you don't really have any incentive to buy a Samsung laptop which runs Windows and doesn't integrate with your other devices. Apple's integration covers their entire lineup of devices. An iPhone user has a lot to gain by choosing a MacBook over a Windows Ultrabook, and an iPad over a Nexus 9. It would be interesting to analyze what percentage of people purchasing a new Apple device already own one or more Apple products.
Overall, I'm happy with the work that Apple has done with iOS 8.1 and OS X Yosemite. It's clear that a lot of this has been in the works for some time now, and integrating products and services to this degree requires a lot of planning to position your hardware and software so that it will be capable of working together in the ways you want them to. The Yosemite redesign has also gone quite well, and there aren't as many jarring inconsistencies as there were with iOS 7 at launch despite OS X being a more expansive operating system. Apple has definitely learned from their experiences with the iOS redesign. That being said, there is still a lot of work to do. Apple Pay needs to expand rapidly, and iCloud Photo Library isn't as far developed as I had expected it to be.
It's hard to say where Apple will go as we move forward. It will be hard to outdo the work that has been done with Yosemite. However, history tells me that there are still great things yet to come from Apple. It seems that year after year Apple is able to make updated products and proclaim them to be the biggest advancements in that product's history, and regardless of my initial reaction, I somehow always find myself agreeing .
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p_giguere1 - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
I think the main point of this article is to present an overview of what's new in Yosemite compared to its predecessor Mavericks.The negatives you would like to see mentioned are not new to Yosemite, they're limitations of the whole OS X platform when you put it next to other OSes.
It seems this article did not aim to analyze the whole OS X platform and whether it's a good OS choice, but rather tell existing OS X users what are the new features they'll get by upgrading to Yosemite.
I understand that may not be the kind of article you would have preferred, but the fact people make a big deal out of this to the point of attacking Anandtech makes the the complains hard to take seriously IMO. I feel some of the people calling Anandtech biased are not very objective themselves, and would rather see an article pointing the downsides of OS X just to validate their own decision of sticking with another OS, even though it would deviate from the original point of the article.
TEAMSWITCHER - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
It's you. Apple is THE premiere ecosystem provider, with smart phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. There simply is no other manufacturer that comes close to the breadth of devices they sell...with the software that ties them all together....and a breadth of applications to make the experience worthwhile.If Anandtech didn't cover topics like this...I would remove my bookmark to their site.
at80eighty - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
mmm. tasty tasty kool-aidsolipsism - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
You've piqued my interest. If saying that Apple's OSes are the best for a unified ecosystem between disparate device categories has you pull out a Kool-Aid comment then what is inarguably better?I personally know of nothing and with Yosemite and iOS 8 ones ability to make a smooth transition between devices from one moment to the next without altering your workflow has been vastly improved. So, please, elucidate as to what combinations of desktop and mobile OSes are even more user friendly and efficient to setup and use?
ppi - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
Well, Apple is certainly step ahead of everyone else in terms of integrating together devices made by Apple.The trouble comes when you try to plug in something else. Or plug an idevice to non-Mac (/waves to worst application on Windows, i.e. iTunes). And this OS X update apparently does little to nothing to improve in this direction.
So going Apple is basically all or nothing decision.
retrospooty - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
LOL. Now THAT is funny.invinciblegod - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
Good now you can leave since apparently anything positive about Apple is a corruption in journalism. Doesn't matter if it's any good or not because it is crapple and must be horrible and the only way they can have any fair coverage is if the site says it was made by the devil and should be destroyed for it's pretentiousness. Since you and people like you say the same things about every site on the internet that has positive apple coverage in it, I can only assume you are an apple hater for no reason other than the fact that they are annoying in their locking down on stuff or you hate steve jobs.sjprg2 - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
BOTH!michael2k - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
It's just you. It's written by a Mac user, so it will be biased towards other Mac users. If you don't particularly care about iOS and Macs then this review will be like reading about the new Mustang when you happen to not care about cars.Brandon Chester - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
For the record I don't own a Mac