Apple has announced that OS X Yosemite, the new operating system for the Mac is available for download today via the Mac App Store.
OS X Yosemite includes the following features:
- 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.
OS X Yosemite is available FREE to users with Macs running Snow Leopard or above in the Mac App Store. [DIRECT LINK]
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).