With Apple's OS X limited public beta release, Latin Post got the chance to go hands-on with Yosemite Beta to preview what major changes Mac users have to look forward to. There are a lot.

This fall, Apple will impress you with its new products. Besides the near certainty of a new iPhone 6 and the possibility of an iWatch, Apple will release two updates to its operating system software to the public -- iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. While only developers get a sneak peak at iOS 8, for the first time ever, Apple opened up the new OS X beta to 1 million people for free. Latin Post was on that list, so let's take a look at some big changes coming to Mac's operating system.

There's no doubt that Apple has improved upon OS X Mavericks with Yosemite -- even though the beta version unsurprisingly had some kinks that needed to be worked out. Across the Mac experience, OS X Yosemite brings a remodeled look, along with more speed, efficiency, and an emphasis on interconnectivity, both with Apple's mobile side, the Internet, and within the functions of Mac itself.

A Brand New Look 

The first thing you'll notice about OS X Yosemite is the vast changes in the design of the system. It's probably the biggest shift in OS X aesthetics since version 10.0 was released 13 years ago. Building on some of the translucency effects first introduced in Leopard, Yosemite goes far beyond just making the menu and dock translucent.

Now sidebars, toolbars, menu items, and more are translucent, which ironically gives the kind of layered depth effect that Google's new Android L "Material Design" promises, which should also functionally help you keep track of open windows and desktop items without needing to clear away everything. That said, you won't mistake Yosemite for Android.

But you might mistake it for iOS. Apple took away most of the shading and "Chrome" effects that it's added to the OS over the past decade, switching to a flat look reminiscent of iOS 7. It's not as comprehensively flat as iOS 7, but it will take some getting used to for Mac OS X veterans -- especially since Apple has also rebooted the bright color scheme, which, at first blush, looked like a pastel-smeared Easter parade to eyes that had become used to the more understated gray-scale OS X design.

Apple's efforts obviously went into minimizing toolbars, making more screen real estate for your active projects, and ensuring the system would look crisp and clean on a Retina screen, which it absolutely does. After a brief period of adjustment and once you really start using the OS, it just feels like OS X again, albeit with a lot of enhancements to apps and the user interface.

Spotlight: Center Stage

There's an old, forgotten piece of Apple software from the late '90s to early 2000s called Sherlock. Most didn't notice when Apple dropped the goofily named web/local search feature, but it really was revolutionary at the time, and Spotlight never really lived up to Sherlock's prowess at finding anything you're looking for. 

Until now. In OS X Yosemite, Apple finally brought back the power of multi-functional search, and has (literally) put Spotlight search in the center of the system.

When you hit command-spacebar, Spotlight shows up in the center of your screen. It will look through contacts, mail, and local files (like before), but it also has web search, location-based Maps integration, and previews with links, paragraphs of information, and images. Wikipedia previews appear when applicable, and other handy quick-reference previews like movie listings -- similar to Google's "Knowledge Graph" search results but right there on your desktop -- will appear as well.

Mail: Markup Will Become Indispensible, Once You Get Past Its Fun

Apple's email client Mail may not be a first choice for many, especially if you're a long-term Outlook user. But Mail in Yosemite has one big update that might convince people to switch, or to set it up in the first place as the case may be.

Mail's new "Markup" feature makes editing attached images and PDFs so simple that, once you've used it for a little bit, you'll probably never want to use an email client that doesn't at least offer something comparable. While still a little rocky in its beta version, Markup allows you to add text, shapes, arrows, crop, and draw on attached images within Mail's composer.

It's so simple and actually fun to use -- very reminiscent of the old MS Paint -- that it might not technically be a "productivity" tool at all. That is, until you realize you can also add a signature to PDFs, completely obviating the still persistent (in this day and age!) problem of getting that all-important physical mark onto a digital document, all in one place. Markup will also be a boon to anyone who has to send quick feedback on images for work on a daily basis.

Not a lot else is different in Mail, besides the general flat, transparent facelift and a new option to share large files using iCloud-enabled Mail Drop. But Markup is a perfect example of Apple's genius in taking the annoyance and complexity out of software tasks that should be easy and simple.

Safari: So Streamlined and Fast, It May Become Your Default Browser

I have to admit, I haven't been a fan of Safari for a while. The current version feels big and clunky compared to Chrome or Opera, with too many features and not enough ways to use them quickly. Not so with the new Safari, which has greatly improved Safari's navigation, speed, and layout.

For example, gone is the big slate top toolbar with too many visible bookmarks, buttons, and giant tabs. Apple replaced it with a minimalist top bar that displays the URL/Search field, plus a single, sparse row of buttons.

The tab area doesn't even appear until you actually have multiple tabs going, and both single and multi-tab browsing has been optimized to give you as much space for the actual websites you're viewing as possible. Two-finger pinch the trackpad with a "zoom out" gesture, and Safari will show a preview of all tabs open, neatly stacking multiple tabs from the same site in groups. And if you have dozens of tabs going, you can two-finger scroll through them on the tabs bar to find the one you want quickly and fluidly.

The URL/Search field will also show previews and suggestions like Spotlight as you type in your query, also highlighting websites you're likely to visit below with "favorites." Also, when you're browsing a website, the URL field will only show the main address (think "Latinpost.com" rather than the full article URL), which is a default option I could personally live without, but it adds to the clutter-free ambiance Apple is going for with the update.

That quibble aside, it's clear Apple has redesigned the new Safari to be the best kind of web browser: one that minimalizes the "browser" while maximizing the "web."

Notifications Center: Not Just for Notifications Anymore

Perhaps one of the most talked-about new features of Yosemite Beta is the Notification Center, which was first introduced (to not much fanfare) in OS X Mavericks.

The old version of Notifications takes your latest chat, Mail, social media, and other incoming messages, along with calendar events, suggested software updates, and other things you might want to know, and keeps them all in a list in a virtual drawer you can pull out from the right side of the screen. It's an interesting way to keep everything you might want to check out in one place, but it can be an overwhelming mess.

The new Notification Center in Yosemite will do the same thing for those missed messages, but includes a different default panel called "Today." Anyone who has used an iPhone will know what Today view is. On Yosemite's notification panel, it's a single place where your top social networks, reminders, calendar items, and other practical things like live stock tickers and weather are located -- and it cleanly organizes everything by category and keeps track of the time, so you only get certain reminders when you actually need that information.

In Yosemite's public release, the Notification Center and Today view (can we just call it the right drawer or something?) will be customizable with widgets made by Apple and third-party developers, but right now there are only a couple of add-ons available, like a Calculator widget and a world clock.

Which brings me to one question: If Yosemite's Today view takes off in popularity -- which will likely happen because it's one of those iOS features being imported to Mac -- what will happen to the Dashboard? The Dashboard still exists on Yosemite, but since it's also basically a virtual space where you can stash various widgets for quick access, it seems Today view will eventually kill it. Too bad, Dashboard. 

More to Come this Fall with iOS 8

Besides its general aesthetics and usefulness, perhaps one of the reasons why the Today view has gotten a lot of attention from previewers is that it's one of the few features Yosemite Beta offers that feels like iOS integration.

The one thing about Yosemite Beta is that you can't test out the most anticipated features of the new OS X -- AirDrop, iCloud Drive, Continuity, Handoff, and the iPhone-integrated Mac Messenger app. There are so many cool things, like on-screen caller ID, texting from your Mac, and seamless transitions of ongoing tasks from your iPhone to your Mac, and vice versa. These will require iOS 8 to work, and so only developers beta-testing both new OS's will be able to see them.

Until the fall, of course, when Apple unleashes these twin operating systems on the public for free.