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Yosemite: Know how to pick your Apples

As if we could not get enough shiny new things from Apple this year, the company has done it again with the new OS X Yosemite update for the Mac.

The update requires 5.16 GB of space on your computer’s hard drive, so the potential switch from Mavericks to Yosemite won’t be as quick as other applications’ updates have been in the past.

The overall design of Yosemite mirrors that of the recent iOS updates in that it is much more sleek and minimalistic. Mail, Safari and Messages all have a clean, new look, and the dock icons have moved away from their 3D, “stand-out” nature to a more crisp and colorful 2D design.

At first glance, it seems as though these aesthetic changes are the only new part of the OS; however, there are a handful of new features that add a little something more to the Mac experience.

Spotlight searches now yield more results that go beyond solely searching through folders on your machine. Along with your files, the new search feature brings up various web search content relevant to your query. As with many new Apple products, users are able to customize what folders and content Spotlight searches through in preferences.

There has been some debate in terms of the privacy issue with this new feature, as Apple now sends your search questions and location data when using Spotlight.

If you have an iPhone with the newest iOS 8 update, your Mac and your phone will essentially become one super-machine due to a number of new sharing features. Users can handoff just about anything they’re doing on their iPhones or iPads to their computers and vice versa. AirDrop is also capable of sharing files between devices with no internet connection needed.

Users of both may now make phone calls through their computers, so long as they have an iPhone with iOS 8. All SMS messages can be accessed through any device as well.

The new update adds more ease to the computing experience, even though it may not all be necessary. But isn’t that the legacy of technology nowadays?

If you are a Mac user questioning whether or not to make the switch, there are a few things to remember. The first is that, if you don’t have an iPhone, all of these new features may not be as important to you as someone who has an iPhone and frequently shares things between devices.

The second thing to consider is that OS X Mavericks still works perfectly fine. In fact, there are some programs and softwares that have not yet caught up with the new update.

As with every other technological advance, a little research on whether or not the update will suit your needs can go a long way.

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