E3 isn't the only major happening over in California, as Apple also took to its own stage for the 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) to start talking about future developments in all things Apple. Easily one of the biggest in a sea of big announcements was the official announcement on Mac OS X's newest version, Mavericks.
Mavericks offer up a slate of new features as well as its new name. First, there is Finder tabs, which, much in the same way that some Web browsers will, offers an easy way to combine Finder windows into one set of tabs. The tabs will offer up different locations and view modes, so rather than piling Finder windows up on the desktop, the windows can be more readily condensed and made easier to work with.
The next new feature, tagging, offers users another slice of expediency, this time as a way to better deal with files. When a tag is added, say to a document file, those tags will appear in the finder sidebar, according to senior vice president of software engineering at Apple Craig Federighi, and will allow that file to be found more rapidly when it's needed later on. Plus, the tags can serve as a way to organize files into certain folders, again stepping up the speed of locating such files in the future.
Finally, OS X Mavericks will include support for multiple displays on multiple units, an announcement that was reportedly greeted with cheers from the audience. Taking a page from Windows this time, the support for multiple displays means that going to full screen on another display won't black out the display on the first device. With AirPlay in place, it will also reportedly allow users to use an AppleTV device as a second display.
The new features are terrific, and also of note here is that Apple's dropping the series of cat-based names that were a large part of its nomenclature for a while. With Lion and Mountain Lion and the rest under the belt, (some had actually mentioned in jest that the next version of OS X should be called “Sea Lion” and others had thought that the cat theme would go on for some time). But now, Mavericks has stepped in to get Apple out from under the cats.
It's good to see that Apple can take some cues from other designs that have worked well in the past, though like it or not someone will start accusing Apple of copying others. But still, with a departure in the naming theme backed up by some exciting new, if somewhat familiar, features, it's clear that Apple is willing to go the distance to keep itself viable, making changes and showing a willingness to keep what works and depart from what doesn't, a sound attitude for any company to show. Mac OS X Mavericks, meanwhile, should find plenty of excited users eager to go.
Edited by
Ashley Caputo
