Apple has just pushed out a new version of OS X Yosemite to Mac users that brings with it some pretty substantial changes. The two biggest tweaks in 10.10.3 come in the form of the new Photos app and fixes that promise to solve the Wi-Fi issues that have plagued many OS X Yosemite users. There’s also improvements to Spotlight Search, Safari stability improvements, and more.
The new Photos app, which replaces the clunky iPhoto app, aims to bring the experience of browsing photos on a Mac in line with that offered on iOS. It makes it easier to browse and organize photos based on time and location, and it also lets users store photos in iCloud at their original resolution.
While it certainly won’t replace Photoshop for detailed photo editing, the new app does feature some simple editing tools that work with just a series of sliders. For more casual Mac users who aren’t interested in professional-grade editing options, this will definitely do the job.
The other major change, and one that isn’t new with the announcement of an OS X Yosemite update, is improvements to Wi-Fi. Versions 10.1 and 10.2 both included vague updates that promised to improve Wi-Fi, and 10.3 offers the same. Hopefully Apple has locked it down this time, but stating that the update “improves Wi-Fi performance and connectivity in various usage scenarios” doesn’t tell us much, and it will take some time before we see user reports stating whether or not Wi-Fi conditions have improved.
Other smaller changes come to Spotlight, which adds suggestions for Look Up. There’s also some small privacy and stability fixes for Safari, and some improvements to Bluetooth. Business users will find a fix for the problem where a Mac connected to an Active Directory server became unresponsive and some other small enterprise tweaks.
As will all Mac updates, this one can be downloaded from the App Store.
