Yosemite

How to manage group iMessages in OS X Yosemite

Like iOS 8, OS X Yosemite brings tons of new features to the table when it comes to iMessage. You can now do interesting things like rename iMessage Conversations, add additional participants to a group message conversation, and leave a group iMessage conversation outright.

Have a look at our video walkthrough after the break, which showcases these three new group iMessage features in OS X Yosemite.

Using Do Not Disturb in OS X Yosemite’s Messages app

Like the Messages app in iOS 8, the Yosemite version of Messages allows you to mute specific conversations by enabling Do Not Disturb. Do Not Disturb ensures that you still receive messages, but you won’t be bothered by notifications when new messages arrive.

Have a look at our video walkthrough explaining the ins and outs of Do Not Disturb after the break.

Translucency: a big part of OS X Yosemite’s new visual style

Translucency is everywhere in OS X Yosemite. In Safari, you can see the subtle colorful translucent glow of a website behind its toolbar. In the Finder, you’ll see apps and wallpaper glow behind your list of favorites, and in the Dock, you’ll see the translucent visuals of any apps that are moved behind it.

Check inside, as we explore OS X Yosemite's translucent effects in our video walkthrough. We'll also show you how to disable translucency if you're not a fan of the effect.

Cannot activate iOS 8’s Text Message Forwarding and iPhone Cellular Calls? Here’s a fix.

As soon as iOS 8.1 hit two days ago, I immediately went about checking out a pair of new features I care about the most, Text Message Forwarding and iPhone Cellular Calls.

As a quick reminder, Text Message Forwarding lets me mirror text messages sent to my iPhone in the Messages app on the Mac or iPad. With iPhone Cellular Calls turned on, I can finally make and receive phone calls on my other Mac and iOS devices through my iPhone's cellular connection.

But something was amiss, or so I thought, because I just couldn't get either feature to work. While attempting to enable Text Message Forwarding, the system prompted me to enter a confirmation code my Mac was supposed to generated, but didn't.

Likewise, trying to enable iPhone Cellular Calls yielded a FaceTime error message saying my devices must use the same iCloud account, even though I was using FaceTime without any problems before.

Having spent a few hours restoring my devices as new, reseting network settings, changing settings on my router and checking the status of iCloud services, I eventually came to the same realization as did the other affected users: Text Message Forwarding requires you to use an email address and for iPhone Cellular Calls to work properly, FaceTime must be signed in with your Apple ID.

Improved Resize Controls: a new OS X Yosemite Feature

Apple has redesigned and redefined the window controls in OS X Yosemite, and like many of the other changes present in this release, it’s a welcomed change.

All of the window controls in OS X Yosemite—including the ability to invoke full screen mode—are now accessible from the red, yellow, and green “traffic light” buttons in the upper left-hand corner of every app. Check inside for the video details.

How to make and take phone calls on your Mac

Now that iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite are out, the FaceTime app in OS X Yosemite is now capable of making and taking phone calls. It does so by connecting to an iPhone running iOS 8 to transmit calls via the iPhone’s cellular connection. All calls made from your Mac will appear as if they came from your iPhone’s phone number.

Want to see how it works in action? Check out our video after the break for a demonstration and setup details.

Helvetica Neue typeface replaces Lucida Grande as the system font in OS X Yosemite

One of the most striking changes that you will notice when you first fire up OS X Yosemite is the system-wide font change. Apple’s previous desktop operating system releases, since 1999, used Lucida Grande as the system font.

Lucida Grande worked well on lower resolution screens, but as high resolution Retina Displays become more common, it's starting to look out of place. To address the issue, Apple decided to adopt iOS’ system font of choice—Helvetica Neue—and make it the system font for OS X Yosemite.

‘iStat Mini’ widget places system stats in OS X Yosemite’s Notification Center

As I discussed on Let's Talk iOS episode 39, Bjango's iStat Menus is one of my favorite Mac apps. It's an app that places a wealth of system status information right in the Mac's menu bar.

The same folks behind iStat Menus have come up with a new app geared towards OS X Yosemite. The app, which is cleverly entitled iStat Mini, places a simple widget in Notification Center's Today View.

Like its big brother, iStat Mini allows you to quickly view the CPU usage, disk usage, and memory usage on your Mac. It also allows you to monitor your Mac's upstream and downstream bandwidth.

Have a look at our 4K ultra-high resolution video walkthrough after the break for more details.

Wunderlist for iOS gets 1Password integration, Mac app gains Handoff, Today widget and more

Wunderlist, an increasingly popular cross-platform to-do and task manager by German developer 6Wunderkinder, got updated both for iOS and OS X with cool new features.

The iOS edition now includes support for 1Password signing and the ability to see your to-dos in iCal while fixing UI issues on iPad and more.

The Mac edition has received a substantial Yosemite-ready refresh adding a more productive Today widget in the Notification Center, interactive push alerts, a more powerful “Add to Wunderlist” feature along with the complete Handoff experience for seamless moving between devices and more.

OS X Yosemite update now available in the Mac App Store

Earlier today, Apple announced that its highly anticipated OS X Yosemite update would be available today. And we are happy to announce that the update just landed in the Mac App Store, and is now available to all users for free, as long as you have a compatible Mac machine.

The release is a major one for the Mac platform, as it brings about a number of improvements. The software's UI design has been refreshed, bringing it more in line with iOS, and there are several new features including Notification Center widgets, and text message forwarding.

Apple releases iTunes 12.0.1 for OS X Yosemite

Following the release of OS X Yosemite this afternoon, Apple quickly pushed out iTunes 12.0.1. As you know, Yosemite includes a refreshed edition of iTunes marked as version 12, and this is an update for the folks who are using the new software.

Not much is mentioned in the change log in terms of what's new in 12.0.1, but it does note that at least one of the changes has to do with security. And given its release time, and .1 build number, we imagine that it includes other bug fixes as well.