By Joanna Stern
Macs and iPhones finally speak the same language.
I can begin replying to an email on my phone, then walk over to
my laptop and finish it off there. While my phone charges on my
nightstand, I can pick up calls from my mom with a mouse click at
my desk. And when someone texts me a photo, it's already on my
laptop, where I can quickly jazz it up in Photoshop then tweet
it.
With the Thursday release of the Mac's free OS X Yosemite
update, Apple is finally getting its devices to behave like a real,
happy family--a family that not only talks to each other but even
looks very much alike. The Mac operating system has acquired apps
and features from iOS--and vice versa--over the past few years, but
this is the biggest leap toward each other yet.
The advantage is so big that if you are an iPhone or iPad owner
but don't have a Mac, Yosemite might get you to consider buying
one. It makes living in Apple's ecosystem harder to resist. But
before you fall into the Apple trap, keep in mind that there are
still plenty of reasons to play with Google (and even Microsoft) on
a Mac or iPhone.
An iOS-Inspired Face-Lift
Late one night, Jony Ive, Apple's design chief, threw on the
"White Album," took out a bucket of translucent primer, mixed it
together with some of his rainbow-colored iOS paint and tossed it
at the computer screen. At least, that's how I imagine the Mac
operating system got its new look.
There are traces of iPhone and iPad design everywhere you look.
Icons have been revamped to look flatter and more modern. The edges
of windows are translucent so you can see what's behind them. The
red, yellow and green window-position buttons look like a
futuristic traffic light. Even the notification pane now has a
"Today" view that is identical to the iPhone's.
If you've not used Macs but are accustomed to iOS, you'll face a
learning curve but should feel pretty comfortable. Unlike
Microsoft, Apple continues to focus on an interface that is
optimized for navigating with a mouse and keyboard.
If you already are a Mac user, you'll enjoy the fresh look while
still finding everything in the right spot. Yosemite has gotten me
to take more advantage of certain OS X tools, starting with
Spotlight. Apple's systemwide search tool now opens in the center
of the screen, and its results contain file previews, suggested
websites and Apple maps.
Apps in Sync
Yosemite also has forced me to rethink where I spend my
days.
I used to steer away from using Apple's native apps--Maps,
Safari, Mail--preferring Google's Web apps instead. But because
Apple's apps now sync across devices, I have switched to using
Apple's Mail to manage my Gmail account. Being able to pick up my
iPhone's unfinished emails instantly on my laptop is beyond
convenient.
And there's a new feature that allows you to open a document
right in Mail, without switching to another application, sign your
name or make some edits and send it right back. I just wish Mail
had a better way to filter nonessential messages and clear out my
inbox using trackpad swipes.
I'm not as game to shift to the Safari browser from Chrome,
however. Yosemite gave Safari slimmer tool bars, a better tab view
and an improved search bar that gives you a sneak peek of Wikipedia
and map results. But I still find Google's browser to be faster,
and it's still fairly easy to sync across devices.
The same goes for iCloud Drive. While you can now drag any file
to your Drive on a Mac and see those files at iCloud.com, there's
no iPhone or iPad app that shows you all your stuff. You can only
access the Drive through apps that recognize it, like Apple's Pages
word-processing app. For now, I'm still more apt to use Google
Drive or Microsoft's OneDrive, which work across iOS and Mac, plus
Windows, Android and the Web.
Keeping in Touch
I am, however, all in on Apple's iMessage. In Yosemite, the
texting app syncs with my iPhone and allows me to sign in to my
Google chat. With an iPhone running iOS 8.1, I was even able to
receive and send standard-carrier text messages from my computer,
and access all the photos my phone has sent or received.
Apple takes this concept of continuous communication even
further with phone calls. When my Mac and iPhone are on the same
Wi-Fi network and both logged in to my iCloud account, my laptop
starts ringing and I can accept or reject the call with just a
click. I can also initiate calls. Unfortunately, all of your
logged-in devices will ring in unison, not just the one you happen
to be with. And you can't hand off a call from phone to laptop, or
vice versa.
Many of Apple's apps--Safari, Contacts, Calendar, Maps and, of
course, Mail--support that close-proximity handoff feature,
however, using a combination of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and iCloud account
authentication. I'm able to begin reading an article in Safari on
my iPad, for instance, and then pick it right up on my Mac.
And don't worry that you'll suddenly get incessant notifications
popping up on your computer whenever you start something on your
iPhone or iPad. Instead, an icon appears in the dock indicating
that you can pick up an activity.
It's well thought out and simple. I had no problems getting
handoffs to work on my office network and a colleague's home
network, but I had mixed results in my home.
Fortunately, all of Yosemite's extra services don't cause a drag
on the system resources. In my tests on a new MacBook Pro with
Retina display and a 2013 MacBook Air, I found battery life and
overall performance remained the same with the new OS.
All three computer giants--Apple, Microsoft and Google--are
trying to figure out how to create the computing platform of the
future by tying together our devices. But unlike the competition,
the iPhone, iPad and the Mac are playing to their form factors
without requiring compromise, while adopting visual continuity and
strong communication they never had before.
The Yosemite and iOS pairing feels like the glue that the others
just don't have right now.
Write to Joanna stern at joanna.stern@wsj.com and follow her at
@JoannaStern.
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