OS X 10.9 Mavericks: The Ars Technica Review

111 Pages·2013·12.47 MB·English

by  John Siracusa

Contents
Introduction
Purchase and installation
Branding
Interface
Safari
iCloud Keychain
Notification Center
The Finder
Tags
Implementation
Labels
Tags
iBooks
Maps
Multiple displays
Energy saving
App Nap
App Nap Policy
Energy best practices
App Nap API
Visibility
Timer tolerance
User activities
Energy shaming
Background tasks
Centralized task scheduling
Compressed memory
Battery benchmarks
Energy summary
Responsive scrolling
Sprite Kit
Grab Bag
System Preferences
General
Desktop & Screen Saver
Language & Region
Internet Accounts
Sharing
Parental Controls
App Store
Dictation
Accessibility
Integrated graphics improvements
Terminal cwd restoration
Special characters popover
System font
Recommendations
Changeover
OS X 10.9 Mavericks: The Ars
Technica Review
After a dozen years and nine major releases, OS X has had a full life: the
exuberance of youth, gradually maturing into adulthood, and now,
perhaps, entering its dotage. When I am an old operating system I shall
wear… leather?
The 2011 release of OS X 10.7 Lion seemed to mark the natural endpoint
of the "big cat" naming scheme. But Apple couldn't resist the lure of the
"cat, modifier cat" naming pattern, releasing OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion a
year later. Perhaps it just wanted to give its cat nine lives.
The 10th major release, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, is named after an
awkwardly plural California surfing spot, finally ending the feline dynasty.
But what part of the operating system's existence is this? The afterlife?
When it comes to OS X, many people are suffering from the end-of-
history illusion: the belief that while the Mac platform has consistently
experienced significant enhancements in the past, it will somehow not
continue to grow and mature in the future.
So let's readjust our perspective. Perhaps the first seven big-cat releases
were OS X's early childhood: birth, potty training, learning to walk and
talk, and so on, culminating in some form of self-actualization.
With Lion, the Mac entered an awkward adolescence, acquiring a
newfound concern about what the other kids were doing. Accordingly, OS
X's last two releases included several naked attempts to ape the look and
feel of its more successful sibling, iOS.
But that was all before last year's ouster of Scott Forstall, senior vice
president of iOS Software. By all accounts, Forstall was one of the driving
forces behind the iOS aesthetic that Lion and Mountain Lion so
enthusiastically embraced. Jony Ive's iOS 7 strikes off in a bold new
direction based on a philosophy that Apple is eager to generalize to the
company as a whole—leaving OS X holding the stitched-leather bag.
An OS out to sea
Let's say we accept that this is not the end of history and that OS X will
continue to evolve. To what end? Aside from undoing the most egregious
peer-pressure-motivated interface changes, what should this first non-cat
release of OS X do differently from its predecessors?
One option would be to continue to follow iOS's lead, switching gears
from rich textures and simulations of analogous physical products and
setting off in pursuit of the new, spare iOS 7 aesthetic. I'll spoil it for you:
Apple hasn't chosen this path—not yet, anyway. Time and resource
constraints alone could explain this choice. After all, Apple didn't even
have the iPad version of iOS 7 ready in time for WWDC this year. An
interface overhaul in Mavericks was clearly out of the question.
Mavericks is also not an internals-only release like Snow Leopard, which
famously promised "no new features." There are new features in
Mavericks, even new bundled applications.
To some degree, the content of any OS release is determined by what
did and didn't make the deadline for the previous release. There are
exceptions, like Fusion Drive, which didn't quite make it into Mountain
Lion but also couldn't wait for the next major OS release because it was a
prerequisite for some new hardware products.
Nevertheless, Apple does try to give each new OS some sort of theme.
Mavericks is the first California-themed release of OS X, named after
"places that inspire us here in California," according to Craig Federighi,
who says this naming scheme is intended to last for at least the next 10
years. The pressure is on for Mavericks to set a new direction for the Mac
platform.
According to Apple, Mavericks has a dual focus. Its first and most
important goal is to extend battery life and improve responsiveness.
Secondarily, Mavericks aims to add functionality that will appeal to
"power users" (Apple's words), a group that may be feeling neglected
after enduring two releases of OS X playing iOS dress-up.
Is that enough for Mavericks to live up to its major-release version
number and to kick off the next phase of OS X's life? Let's find out.
Purchase and installation
Lion was the first download-mostly release of OS X, and Mountain Lion
was the first download-only release. Mavericks breaks no new ground in
the realm of product distribution. As expected, it's available only through
the Mac App Store.
With the transition away from physical media complete, Apple is free to
focus on one of the intended benefits of downloadable OS updates:
adoption rate.
At WWDC, Tim Cook made a point of bragging
about iOS's adoption rate. After less than 10
months on the market, 93 percent of iOS
users were using the latest version, iOS 6.
(iOS 7 is well on its way to matching that
performance, with a 64 percent adoption rate
34 days after its release.)
Earlier in the same presentation, Craig
Federighi shared some less impressive
statistics about Mountain Lion adoption: 35 OS X prices, 2007-2013.
percent after six months. Did it pass 90
percent four months later? If it did, I imagine Apple would have said so.
After eliminating the trip to the store (or the package delivery), the other
major knob Apple can turn to drive adoption of new OS X releases is the
price. And turn it has, dropping the price of the Mac operating system
steadily over the past five years, hitting $19.99 with Mountain Lion.
Mavericks follows the trend to its logical conclusion, finally joining iOS at
the magical price point of free. Mac users who are still stubbornly clinging
to Snow Leopard are unlikely to be dislodged, but anyone running Lion or
Mountain Lion is sure to feel the gravitational pull of an OS upgrade that's
one just one click and $0 away.
In a refreshing change of pace, Mavericks does not cut off support for
any additional Mac hardware. If your Mac can run Mountain Lion, it can
run Mavericks. For completeness, here's the list of supported models:
iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later; 15-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or
newer)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)
Like its feline ancestors, a single copy of Mavericks can be installed on
"each Apple-branded computer […] that you own or control" plus two
additional copies within virtual machines. There's still no DRM, no serial
numbers, and no product activation. I know I repeat this every year, but
it's worth emphasizing. Despite having arguably built a large portion of its
current digital media empire on the back of its FairPlay copy protection
system, Apple still seems to view DRM as a net negative that should be
and avoided, when possible.
Branding
Time was when I'd review OS X branding trends by lining up images of
cardboard product boxes or optical discs. After the transition to
download-only, Apple's marketing materials and website must fill the gap.
Our first glimpse of Mavericks branding was on a banner visible just
before the WWDC 2013 keynote.
Mavericks banner at WWDC 2013.
The thin "X" is an obvious echo of iOS 7's design—despite the fact that,
as we would soon find out in the keynote, Mavericks does not adopt the
iOS 7 interface style. Apple's website revealed what would become the
more common logo for the OS.
The Mavericks preview section of apple.com.
The "X" is thinner than in the past, but not quite iOS-7 thin. It's placed
inside a circle that initially reads like an optical disc—or does if you're a
Mac user of a certain age, anyway. But sometimes a circle is just a circle.
Behind it, showing through the logo, is the attractive new default desktop
image showing a wave, presumably from the eponymous surfing location.
I'm mentioning all of this not (just) because I'm interested in how Apple
markets its products, but because the branding of Mavericks reveals a
tension that appears in both the aesthetic and functional design of the OS
itself. Mavericks is not iOS 7, but it's also not Mountain Lion. Mavericks
doesn't get an all-new interface, but it surely can't carry on with many of
its bundled applications looking like iOS 6 doppelgängers. In the next
section, we'll see how Apple manages this tension.
Interface
At first glance, Mavericks looks like Mountain Lion. There are no major
changes to the appearance of standard controls like scroll bars and
buttons; the Dock looks the same (in its default position, anyway); most
application icons have not changed.
But poke around a bit and you'll spot a few differences. Move the Dock to
the side to reveal its new smoked glass appearance. It's a nice match for
the attractive gray metal look introduced in Mountain Lion, though the
smoked glass Dock is translucent instead of reflective like the metal
Dock.
The gray linen texture that invaded OS X in a big way a few years ago
has now been expunged. The Notification Center sidebar and the login
screen are now a soothing slate gray.
The new linen-free login window.
No linen in Notification Center either.
Linen also no longer covers secondary displays when full-screen mode is
active; more on that later.
With these changes, Mavericks can be seen as continuing to follow the
lead of iOS 7, which also notably parts ways with the linen texture. But
Mavericks is unwilling—or at least unable—to follow iOS 7 the rest of the
way down the road. For now, Mavericks has settled for expelling as much
visual and interactive baggage from iOS 6 as possible.