Apple Mac OS X (10.10) Yosemite Developer Preview 4 released alongside iTunes 12 beta

Apple has started rolling out the fourth developer preview of OS X 10.10 Yosemite for those registered in the Mac Developer Program. The update brings the usual performance improvements, but Apple has even managed to sneak in a brand new version of iTunes into the new release.

Over the past years, Apple has remained fairly conservative with the updates there have released to their desktop operating system, mainly offering incremental features introduced on iOS, instead of releasing full blown desktop features. With OS X Mavericks, Apple has chosen to give their desktop platform an aesthetic makeover, by replacing the skeuomorphic design with the iOS 7 inspired flattened modern icons and user interface.

Another important enhancement on OS X Mavericks is the Continuity feature, which allows a user to Handoff what they have been working on their iPhone or iPad over to their Mac, offering a seamless experience to their customers across their iOS and Mac OS X devices.

OS X Yosemite Developer Preview 4 is mainly meant to improve on the underlying features of the platform, but Apple has managed to sneak in a surprise in the form of a beta version of iTunes 12.0, which the company didn't unveil at WWDC.

Apple's iTunes 12.0 beta is clearly a big update over iTunes 11. It offers the same flattened user interface offered on Yosemite, but the first thing you will notice is the newly red colored icon. Other than the flattened UI, Apple doesn't seem to have strayed far from iTunes 11, though it does feel slightly more economical in terms of real estate.

The navigation bar at the top has been cleaned up so that the display in the middle bleeds all the way to the edge, and the gradients match the rest of Yosemite. The dropdown that used to be on the left hand side of the menu bar, has been replaced by a line of little icons for music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and apps with menus appearing each time you click one of these icons.

Meanwhile, you can no longer toggle between songs, albums, artists, etc. on the top. That is now a dropdown menu on the right hand side. So we lose a dropdown menu to gain a drop down menu. Either way, it looks nicer.

Overall it isn't really a dramatic change, but the incremental update makes things slightly easier without complicating things.

While these Developer Previews remain exclusive to Mac developers, Apple plans to eventually release a public beta of OS X Yosemite through its newly introduced Beta Seed program. Those who sign up for this program will get to savor some of these features ahead of the final release of OS X 10.10 Yosemite this fall.


source - Apple | Gizmodo