Skip to main content

Apple's OS X 10.9 Mavericks ships this fall with tabbed Finder, Maps and iBooks apps

Apple's OS X 10.9 Mavericks ships this fall with tabbed Finder, Maps and iBooks apps

Share this story

OS Mavericks apple stock
OS Mavericks apple stock

The next major version of Apple's desktop operating system, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, has been revealed for the first time on stage at today's WWDC keynote. All told, the company says Mavericks includes over 200 new features including tabbed Finder windows. Tag support is also new, and is applicable to documents on your Mac. Apple says tags ultimately make for a better experience keeping track of the files on your Mac.

Some nods to power users

Apple is also promising improved support for multiple displays — a particular pain point that came with the company's emphasis on full-screen apps in OS X Lion and Mountain Lion. The OS has been built to play nicely with Apple TV, letting Mac owners essentially convert their HDTV into a second display with the set-top box.

Safari is also being updated with a new bookmarks bar and what Craig Federighi described as massive performance improvements. The OS X boss says Apple's browser now uses far less energy than Chrome, and compares even better against Firefox.

Apple is also looking to make password management more convenient for its customers with iCloud Keychain, which securely stores your login details, credit card numbers, and other sensitive data and syncs them across devices.

Notifications are also being improved; alerts from your iOS apps can now be pushed to your Mac for a more seamless experience across Apple's various hardware. Speaking of iOS, Apple is also bringing dedicated apps for Maps and iBooks to its desktop OS.

Better interplay between iOS and Macs

In terms of visual style, OS X remains largely similar to Apple's previous software with one notable exception. It's been stripped of the faux stitched leather and other controversial skeuomorphic design elements found in Mountain Lion.

Like Apple's last several OS X releases, Mavericks will be available as a digital download from the Mac App Store this fall.

Mac OS X Mavericks Gallery

1/23