The Final Mix Effect Episode 1 Mac OS

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This fall, Apple will release OS X Yosemite, the latest version of its operating system for the Mac. OS X Yosemite features a brand-new look, tons of new features and tight integration with iOS 8.

If you can't wait until the fall, though, Apple is releasing OS X Yosemite beta to the public — for the first 1 million users that sign up. That means you can try out OS X Yosemite before it is officially released, bugs and all.

See also: The 18 Most Important Features in iOS 8

Half-Life 2: Episode One is a 2006 first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve.Like previous Half-Life games, it combines shooting, puzzle-solving, and narrative. Players control scientist Gordon Freeman, who, alongside his companion Alyx Vance, must escape City 17 before an explosion destroys it. Episode One was the first in a planned trilogy of shorter episodic games that. Episode 2 is being story-boarded! I would like to announce that Episode 2 of The Final Mix Effect is being story boarded at the moment. So make sure you play Episode 1 so you can catch up and be prepared for Episode 2!

We've had some time to spend with OS X Yosemite across its various betas and have our preliminary preview of the beta operating system as it exists now. Because this is a beta, we're not going to address issues such as app compatibility or stability (though generally speaking, the beta is more stable than other versions of OS X we've seen at this stage). We're also not going to focus on any of the new features that integrate with iOS 8 because they won't be available to the public until this fall.

So how does the new interface stand out? Are any of the new features going to change how you use your Mac? Here's our preview of what to expect in OS X Yosemite.

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Flat is back

The biggest shift in OS X Yosemite is the way the operating system looks. As we said last month, this is the most radical design change since OS X was first released in 2001.

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Nearly every inch of the OS has a fresh coat of paint. From the chrome on application windows and the Dock, to application and sidebar icons, almost everything has been redrawn and redesigned.

Say goodbye to the lickable indicators and Aqua bubbles of the past — OS X Yosemite is decidedly more modern.

Still, even though the interface has been updated, it still feels like a Mac. This is important because, as Microsoft learned with Windows 8, becoming too different can be jarring and upsetting to the end-user.

Last year, Apple overhauled the user interface of iOS with iOS 7. The influence of iOS 7 (and iOS 8) on OS X Yosemite is clear. Intricate skeuomorphism is dead, replaced with a brighter color palette and flatter designs. Flatter does not mean totally flat, however: There are still plenty of shadows, subtle textures and gradients throughout the operating system.

A design area that OS X Yosemite really plays up is window transparency. The sidebars in apps such as the Finder and Messages are now semi-transparent. The effect lets you see more of what is happening in application windows in the background, especially while multitasking with lots of apps.

The effect is reminiscent of Windows Vista's Aero Glass effect — but a bit more refined. These transparencies are similar to what you see in iOS 7, but the larger screen view of OS X makes them more visible. Apple goes into a lot of detail on the new look on its webpage.

It's interesting to see the dock return to 2D. In 2007, Apple made the dock 3D with the introduction of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Seven years later, the dock is two-dimensional again, yet it somehow looks more modern.

On the dock, the icons for every OS X core app have been redrawn. The look is a mix of what we saw with Mavericks and the style Apple has adopted in iOS 7 and iOS 8. The icons are flatter — but there is still plenty shadow and gradient play. The end result is that it looks more modern and mature.

The system font has also changed, moving from Lucida Grande to Helvetica Neue. That means the font for menus and preferences throughout the system are now Helvetica Neue, just like in iOS 7.

And it's not just a new look. Certain aspects of the system behave differently too. One of the best changes is the way the window indicators operate. In the past, pressing the green 'maximize' indicator just maximized the window for 'best fit' - but it didn't necessarily mean that the window would fill the entire screen. This became even more confusing with OS X Lion and beyond, with the addition of full screen mode. That was an entirely different shortcut and the button for full-screen mode was often on an entirely different part of the application.

With OS X Yosemite, Apple has smartly decided to make the green indicator make an app full screen. This is awesome and for me personally, will significantly increase how I use full screen apps. It's also useful for switchers — or users who also use Windows — because finally, finally, the Mac's maximize indicators work the same as they do in Windows.

If you hate the new zoom button behavior, you can switch to the old method by pressing the Option key while clicking on the indicator.

Get dark

In the OS X Yosemite beta, there is also an option to make the menu bar, dock and menu bar overlays 'dark.' This 'dark mode' is similar to the look Apple has cultivated across its professional apps, including Final Cut X and Logic X.

It's not clear if Apple will extend the dark offering other parts of the UI as well, such as the Finder and apps such as Mail.app, but its a nice way for users to get an alternate look at OS X.

One thing is for sure: We expect plenty of Mac developers to start adding dark-themed options to their apps in the future.

Widgets become useful again

Apple overhauled Notification Center in OS X Mavericks, removing the linen background and adding the ability to send tweets, post to Facebook and create iMessage messages. Those features are still around, but they have moved to a new part of the Notification Center, the Today Screen.

The Today Screen works the same as it does on iOS. In iOS, pulling down from the top of the screen not only shows off your notifications, but it's also an overview of the things happening in your life. This includes the weather for your current location, our calendar, a look at your stocks and a preview for what is happening tomorrow.

All of those features are also visible in OS X Yosemite. Even better, you can customize what you see and what you don't. You can also add additional widgets to the Today Screen, including the calculator, widgets for sports scores, world clocks and more.

Apple is going to let developers sell these widgets in the Mac App Store — which is great. The best part is that the widget framework works the same way on iOS 8 as it does on Yosemite, so widgets can be available on both operating systems and sync with one another.

For me, this simple addition has made widgets useful again. Back in 2005, Apple released widgets as part of Dashboard — one of the big signature features of OS X Tiger. Back then, widgets were the new hotness. These mini-apps could query the Internet and show real-time information in an unobtrusive way.

Over the years, however, developer interest in widgets has waned and Apple has de-emphasized Dashboard, even turning it off by default on new installations.

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With iOS 8 support and the ability to be visible simply by either either swiping the trackpad or clicking on the Notifications Center menu bar item, widgets have purpose again.

The rest of the notifications in Notification Center remain the same — only constrained to their own tab.

Spotlight is remade

With Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Apple introduced a fantastic feature dubbed Spotlight as a way for users to quickly search their Macs for files, folders and even documents or data stored in email attachments or other messages.

Over the years, a number of third-party tools have offered enhancements to some of Spotlight's abilities — adding options to search the web, Wikipedia or IMDb, perform calculations and do other types of tasks.

The granddaddy of these programs is called Quicksilver, and popular apps such as Launchbar and Alfred continue to gain new users.

Those applications have had a clear impact on the new Spotlight inside OS X Yosemite. As with Quicksilver/Launchbar/Alfred, typing the Spotlight keys or hitting the search button calls up a search window in the middle of the screen.

Type into it and, in addition to seeing data from your Mac or connected hard drives, you can also pull up meta data from top searches on the web, Wikipedia entries, iTunes files, maps and even movie listings.

The idea is to give users the information they want based on what they type. You can also perform quick calculations or unit conversions and pull up a contact to make a call or send an email.

Spotlight uses a lot of the same information that powers Siri, but uses search terms for input rather than voice.

For now, Apple doesn't have any public APIs for extending Spotlight — so fans of Launchbar and Alfred will still have a reason to use those apps — but the new design and the new functionality makes OS X's already superior search options that much better.

Surfin' Safari

It's clear that Apple has spent a lot of time improving and enhancing its Safari web browser. Not only does Safari have a Yosemite-friendly redesign, it also has lots of enhancements under the hood.

On the design side, Safari is partially influenced by Safari for iPad. By default, there is just one toolbar visible in Safari. This lets the system look clean and crisp. You can still optionally add the Favorites toolbar to view, but the default is minimalism.

Safari also uses an iOS-style favorites bar for easy access to your favorite sites. You can access them directly from the omnibar (the search bar/URL bar) and also quickly see frequently accessed sites.

The same contextual search features that are available in Spotight are also available in Safari. That means you can type in a movie title and see information about it in the web search — including movie times from nearby theaters — as a suggestion. Likewise, typing in a more general term, such as 'Yosemite,' will bring up a Wikipedia preview that you can click on, in addition to just doing the standard Google search. The feature is reminiscent of the old Inquisitor plug-in for Safari (for those of you that remember back that far), and it adds a nice contextual view to doing web searches.

Apple has also added DuckDuckGo as a search option to Safari — which is great for users who value their privacy.

Apple has also redesigned its tabs view. Instead of truncating the tab titles to fit in a window's width, you can scroll across a tab list to see everything open. Plus, you can view tabs visually in stacks. Tabs from the same website are grouped together, so you can instantly eyeball how many Mashable windows are open.

You can also see what tabs are open on your other devices — including iPhone and iPad. You can even remotely close those tabs, which will help avoid any embarrassing instances of your spouse finding your food porn collection on the iPad.

Safari for OS X Yosemite also has support for lots of new web technologies. On Macs that run a Sandy Bridge processor or later, Safari can now play Netflix without the need for the Silverlight extension. That means you get pure HTML5-driven video support, native in the browser.

Only IE 11 on Windows 8.1 (and select Chromebooks) supports this feature right now, but it's great to see it on the Mac.

Marking up email

Apple made some big redesigns to Mail in OS X Mavericks, which means that in Yosemite the changes are more functional.

The big news is that there is a new feature called MailDrop for sending huge attachments to other users. You can send files up to 5GB in size, without having to go through your mail server. Instead, the file is uploaded to iCloud and then a link is appended to the message. If a user opens it in Mail for Mac, they can see the attachment and download it. For users on other mail services, they get a handy link.

It's basically exactly the same as how services like Hightail work, but integrated into your Mac. Even better? It's free. Links last only 30 days, but for most users, that's more than long enough. MailDrop isn't limited to iCloud accounts; if you have a Gmail, Yahoo or Exchange account configured in Mail, it can take advantage of MailDrop too.

The other big feature in Mail is the ability to do markup — or annotations — directly in messages. What happens is that the annotation features from the Preview app are available inside Mail. That means you can fill out PDF forms, add your signatures, and even add annotations and text notes to images.

You can even sign your name by drawing on the trackpad — which is just as magical as it sounds.

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These built-in annotation features — coupled with improvements to how Mail works with various accounts, makes my most-used (if least-favorite) app that much better.

iTunes gets a new sound

What would a new version of OS X be without a new version of iTunes? iTunes 12 has a brand-new redesign that matches the aesthetic across Yosemite.

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iTunes 12 isn't a rethink of iTunes — but it is a much-improved iteration of many of the ideas that have been visible since iTunes 11.

Switching between your music library and the iTunes Store is much simpler and feels less like switching between two different apps. It's also easier to switch from music to movies to TV shows to podcasts. Accessing the App Store — along with your connected iOS devices — is simpler too.

iTunes still needs a radical overhaul for all kinds of reasons, but the brief time I've spent with iTunes 12 is a step in the right direction. At least it now feels like a Mac app from this decade.

Opening it to the public

Last year, when I reviewed OS X Mavericks, I remarked that it felt like the most-realized version of OS X yet. That release was not focused on updating the user interface and was instead about making sure the core OS was ready to be stable and secure.

What that means is that the new interface we see in OS X Yosemite doesn't feel like it's sitting on sand.

The last time Apple tried to issue a visual update with OS X, it was with OS X Lion — a mish-mash UI update that never really felt complete. It took until Mavericks for Apple to really get the vision it wanted from Lion across the finish line.

With Yosemite, it finally feels like the UI and the system underpinnings are on the same page again. The core of the OS is robust — robust enough, in fact, to support a brand new look.

What's exciting to me, however, is that with Yosemite, Apple is going to let regular users beta-test the OS before it is released. This is the first time Apple has done that since the first developer preview for OS X was released in 2000.

Lots of companies offer regular users a chance to beta-test major operating system versions — Apple is hardly unique here — but because of the type of user Apple cultivates, offering Yosemite early to the unwashed masses connotes a sense of confidence in the strength of the release.

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Moreover, it also shows that Apple is interested in seeing how real people will use OS X so that it can make the appropriate changes before it is released for free this fall.

Apple says that OS X Mavericks had an incredibly strong update rate — aided, no doubt, by its free price tag. With Yosemite, Apple seems ready to continue that trend and to carry the momentum from Mavericks forward.

OS X Yosemite is still in beta and some of the best features — iCloud Drive and iOS continuity features — won't be available until the fall with the release of iOS 8. Still, even in its current form — which has bugs as all beta software does — Yosemite feels ready.

More than that, Apple has done something fairly remarkable in that it has made an OS that works how it used to — but better — while looking more modern and clean.

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Portions of this post appeared in a different form in my OS X Yosemite preview post from June.