Power up Yosemite!
Supercharge Mac performance with hot system tweaks and amazing add-ons
Yosemite adds a huge range of new features and functionality to your Mac and it’s important to get the most out of them. After all, getting more out the software also means getting better value out of your hardware investment. Just upgrading to the latest version of OS X is to give your Mac a power boost. Each new version of the operating system introduces new features designed to make the Mac a more productive, useful and graceful experience. Yosemite is no exception to this, and new features such as Continuity, Handoff and Instant Hotspot bring a sense of delight to those who use them. These features enable a Mac to tap into your iPhone and make phone calls, send SMS texts and use a mobile internet connection without even having to unlock your iPhone. Meanwhile, iCloud Drive and Handoff enable you to move between a Mac and iOS device and seamlessly continue work.
Getting the most out of Yosemite means knowing your way around it. Sometimes a feature‘s visual presence doesn’t reflect its usefulness, so we’ll tell you how to find subtle enhancements that aid your productivity.
Yosemite’s enhancements aren’t all about iOS integration, though. With this version, Apple’s chief designer Jony Ive got a chance to bring his vision of the OS X interface to life. Yosemite uses translucent interface elements. You’ll see the effects of this throughout the apps that come with the operating system, including Mail, Calendar, Preview, and the iWork and iLife apps. You might find this gets in your way, but don’t worry – there’s an app for that and it comes with OS X. If you’re running an older Mac with limited resources, or you don’t like certain aspects of OS X, either because you find they slow things down or they don’t fit with how you work, you’re in luck because you can use hidden settings and third-party tools to change your Mac’s behaviour and boost its performance.
Make your Mac work for you
If you have an older Mac that struggles to run Yosemite and you’re missing the latest and greatest features, don’t worry. There’s a lot you can do with any Mac to improve your experience. Long-time Mac users have learnt many tricks over the years to keep OS X running smoothly on older models, and we’ve had a lot of time to discover hidden features that can be unlocked. We’ll show you how to do this. Even a brand new Mac can be encouraged to run faster.
That’s what this feature is all about: getting the most out of Yosemite, whether that’s by typing a couple of lines into a Terminal window or by downloading extra tools that tailor the system to your needs. We’ll show how to make your Mac run better and be more flexible.