OS X Mavericks Review Roundup

A few weeks ago, Apple introduced OS X Mavericks during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. The latest version of Apple’s operating system for Mac is focused on new features for power users, and continues to bridge the gap with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Following the WWDC keynote, Apple supplied a number of journalists and members of the press with demo Macs running OS X Mavericks for testing purposes. The results and first impressions are just beginning to flow in now, and we’ve rounded up some of the more interesting opinions ahead. 

Jim Dalrymple of The Loop:

The real shining point of Mavericks is the continued integration between OS X and iOS. Whether it’s Maps directions shared to your mobile device or passwords being synced from your iPhone to your Mac, Apple is making their entire ecosystem work for the user.

David Pierce of The Verge:

For the most part, Mavericks looks and feels just like Mountain Lion, and Lion before it. There’s a new background, but everything from the dock to the menu bar to how you use your computer will feel completely familiar. The changes here have less to do with how you do things than what you use to do them: Apple’s hoping to obviate some of the App Store’s best offerings, instead giving you better versions of its core apps and a few new ones besides.

Brian Heater of Engadget:

While there are some features ported over from iOS, the full mobilification (read: feature crippling) that many feared hasn’t actually come to pass. There are still plenty of things you can do here that your iPhone can’t — but it’s a bit of a bummer to see iOS continuing to largely lead the way in terms of new features. It would be great to see more customization targeted specifically at desktop power users, but as long as PC sales remain relatively stagnant, that’s not likely to change any time soon.

Vincent Nguyen of SlashGear:

Apple saved the revolution for iOS 7 this year. The smartphone and tablet platform was overdue a refresh, and that’s just what Apple has delivered. In contrast, the changes in OS X Mavericks feel solidly evolutionary, and while that has often come to be interpreted as a criticism, in fact it’s exactly what the Mac needs. Apple is poised between its existing users and those fresh to OS X, with iOS often the point of entry. In that sense, Mavericks’ drawing together of the ties between desktop and mobile makes perfect sense.

Categories: mac os