Why OS X Yosemite is Making Mac App Developers Excited

Mac OS X Yosemite

After 13 years of being left almost unchanged, Apple’s desktop operating system is getting a much-needed iOS 7-inspired facelift. The change in design, as well as the added features, has had its desired effect: Developers are once again looking at their OS X apps in a fresh and new way.

During the WWDC 2014 keynote, Federighi highlighted a handful of new features that Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite will bring, but that’s just part of the story. Since then, the beta version has been pushed out to both developers and registered testers.

After speaking with developers about Yosemite and what it means for them and users, FastCoLabs concluded that OS X has become Apple’s sexiest product yet. Here is why: First of all, iCloud has finally reached Apple’s “just works” benchmark, and as of now it seems that Dropbox will have a strong competitor.

Alongside the facelift, it’s features like Handoff that have made developers excited, not to mention the convenience of working on documents instantly across devices. This feature could become the “holy grail of cross promotion,” one developer said.

But maybe Scriveners’s Keith Blount sums up what Yosemite means to developers the best:

“Yosemite is an exciting release for Mac users and developers alike. The UI feels fresh while remaining familiar, but mostly, after several years of promising to get ‘back to the Mac,’ it finally feels as though Apple has. The Mac has felt more and more like a second-class citizen to iOS, but Yosemite shows that OS X is still close to the heart of Apple, and that it has a lot left to give.”

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