Yosemite

It’s a new year: Take back your Mac this weekend

It's a new year, and as such, I wanted a fresh start. Over the past few months I had become increasingly frustrated with the sluggishness of my MacBook Pro. My laziness over the summer left me behind on OS X Yosemite betas - and the smoothness and flow of the SSD on my work machine was absolutely in terror.

I took this weekend to wipe the slate clean on my MacBook Pro, and it was such a liberating feeling. Not only did I rid of files and applications that I absolutely never used or would need again, but I brought back the speed my Mac once had. As such, I challenge you to take back your Mac this weekend.

Apple posts Safari updates for OS X Yosemite, Mavericks and Mountain Lion

After releasing then pulling a update for the desktop Safari browser on OS X last week, Apple on Thursday posted Safari 8.0.2 for Yosemite.

In addition to allowing Yosemite users to import username and passwords from Mozilla's Firefox browser, Safari 8.0.2 fixes a few annoying issues, among them history not syncing across devices if iCloud Drive is disabled and another one prevent a saved password from being autofilled after two devices are added to iCloud Keychain.

The update is available through the Mac App Store's Updates tab. A standalone installer should be available shortly from the Apple Support website. Safari 7.1.2 for OS X Mavericks and Safari 6.2.2 for OS X Mountain Lion were also released on Thursday.

Apple seeds second OS X 10.10.2 beta to developers

Apple has seeded the second beta of OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 this afternoon. The update, labeled build 14C78c, is available through the Update tab in the Mac App Store and the Dev Center for all registered Mac developers.

Today’s release comes a little more than two weeks after the first 10.10.2 beta, and Apple has asked developers to focus on Wi-Fi connectivity. Users have complained of Wi-Fi issues since updating to Yosemite in October.

YouTube issues affecting Yosemite’s Safari

According to user-submitted posts over at both Apple Support Communities and Google Product forums, an unknown portion of Mac owners who run Yosemite are having issues playing certain YouTube videos, with some getting Safari crashes when attempting to watch a clip.

It seems to affect some, not all, HTML5 videos and does not manifest itself when using the resource-hog Flash Player, causing Safari to fall back to Flash for video delivery.

Other browsers are unaffected by the annoying problem. Neither Apple nor Google have commented on the matter yet. Digging deeper, it would seem the hiccup could be traced to the YouTube backend because HTML5 videos in Google Chrome and other browsers play without a problem.

Apple seeds first OS X 10.10.2 beta to developers

Apple has seeded the first beta of OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 this afternoon. The update, labeled build 14C68k, is available through the Update tab in the Mac App Store and the Dev Center for all registered Mac developers.

Today’s release comes just a few days after Apple officially launched 10.10.1 to the public, which featured bug fixes and Wi-Fi improvements—although some users are still complaining of Wi-Fi issues after updating.

Wi-Fi issues continue to persist for some after updating to OS X Yosemite 10.10.1

After upgrading their Macs to yesterday's OS X Yosemite 10.10.1 software update, some users continue to experience a range of intermittent Wi-Fi issues that have been plaguing Apple's latest desktop operating system since its release, according to user feedback over at Apple's Support Communities containing more than a thousand posts.

Issues vary on a case-by-case basis and include dropped or unreliable wireless connections, slow data transfer speeds, connections randomly dropping every few minutes or so, inability to connect to a Wi-Fi network after waking from sleep and more.

OS X Yosemite 10.10.1 update out with Wi-Fi improvements, bug fixes and more

In addition to launching the iOS 8.1.1 software update with bug fixes and performance improvements for the A5-powered devices running iOS 8, such as the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4s, Apple on Monday pushed the official OS X Yosemite 10.10.1 software update for Mac desktops and notebooks.

The software contains plenty of bug fixes while improving Wi-Fi performance on some Macs following numerous user complaints about intermittent Wi-Fi issues. It also contains enhancements for enterprise users and many other improvements to make your Mac more stable.

Apple seeds second OS X 10.10.1 beta to developers

Apple has seeded the second beta of OS X 10.10.1 Yosemite this evening. The update, labeled build 14B23, is available through the Update tab in the Mac App Store and the Mac Dev Center for all registered developers.

Today’s release comes just one week after the first beta, and nearly a month after 10.10 went public. It's not clear what changes it includes yet, but Apple has asked devs to focus on Wi-Fi, Mail and Notification center.

Apple rolls out refreshed Mac App Store design for OS X Yosemite

Late Wednesday evening, Apple began rolling out a refreshed UI design for its Mac App Store in OS X Yosemite. Following up last month's OS X update, the new Mac App Store look features flatter graphics, thinner font styling, and tons of white space.

As you can see in the screenshot above, Apple has done away with skeumorphic elements like shadows and well-defined tables, in favor of thin gray lines. The new UI feels faster, lighter and more streamlined, and again more in line with OS X Yosemite.

Apple seeds first OS X 10.10.1 Yosemite beta to developers

Apple has seeded the first beta of OS X 10.10.1 Yosemite this evening. The update, labeled build 14B17, is available through the Update tab in the Mac App Store and the Mac Dev Center for all registered developers.

Today's release comes nearly three weeks after Apple officially launched OS X Yosemite to the public, which brought about a number of improvements, including a redesigned UI, text message forwarding and more.

OS X Yosemite Interactive Starter Guide

Looking for a a quick way to get up to speed on all of OS X Yosemite's most outstanding features? Our OS X Yosemite Interactive Starter Guide is a visual tool to help you become quickly acclimated with some of Yosemite’s most notable new additions, improvements, and changes.

Each item showcased includes a hand-crafted video walkthrough with guided voice over. More importantly, it’s designed to be easily digestible.

You may have noticed that over the past few weeks, we've posted excerpts from the guide right here on iDB. In fact, you can read all of its excerpts by visiting the guide's tag page. Of course, you also have the option to buy the OS X Yosemite Interactive Starter Guide directly from the iBooks store for only $0.99. Not only do you get a guide that you can take with you and reference while offline, but you also get to support iDB in the process. It's a win-win scenario. Check inside for more details.

Using the new Today View in OS X Yosemite’s Notification Center

The Notification Center in iOS 8 received a significant revamp, and the same can be said about the Notification Center in Yosemite. New in this year’s OS X revamp is the appearance of the Today View.

The Today View contains pertinent information about your day from your Calendar, Stocks, Weather and more. It even has the ability to host widgets—both stock and third-party—directly within Notification Center. Watch our walkthrough video inside to see what I mean.