OS X Yosemite available today as free update

os x yosemite today

Mac and iOS software chief Craig Federighi just announced that OS X Yosemite will be available to the public today, as a free update in the Mac App Store. As long as you have a compatible Mac machine, you’ll be able to grab the software at no cost.

Announced in June, Yosemite is a significant update for Apple’s Mac operating system that brings about a fresh new design, and hundreds of new features including Notification Center Widgets, Handoff, Continuity, text message forwarding and more.

Here is a brief overview of some of the major new 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
  • 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
  • Family Sharing, so family members can now browse and download each other’s iTunes, iBooks or Mac App Store purchases.

And from Apple’s press release:

“OS X Yosemite is the most advanced version of OS X we’ve ever built, with a brand new design, amazing Continuity features and powerful versions of the apps you use every day,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “OS X Yosemite ushers in the future of computing, where your Apple devices all work together seamlessly and magically. It’s something only Apple can do, and it’s available today.”

Stay tuned to iDB for more OS X Yosemite coverage.