According to MacRumors, a thread on Reddit allegedly contained four (very) blurry images of Mac OS X Mavericks 10.10, which is slated to be the next significant update to Apple’s desktop operating system. The Verge reports that the Reddit account associated with the thread has since been deleted. OS X 10.10 is widely expected to be revealed once WWDC 2014, Apple’s annual developer-focused event, kicks off later this afternoon at 1 p.m. EST.
The information contained in the images suggests that OS X 10.10 will appear similar to and behave more like iOS, Cupertino’s mobile operating system. Assuming the photos are genuine, OS X 10.10 will include a Control Center that pops up from the left side of the screen and offers easy accessibility to multiple features, including System Preferences, Airplane Mode, Do Not Disturb, and About This Mac. Do Not Disturb is already available via the Notification Center.
Below that, it looks as if this Control Center-esque feature also includes settings for display brightness, a media player, and access to AirPlay controls. At the very bottom of the panel, our squinting eyes tell us that there are four buttons for sleep/shutdown-related tasks. It seems as if this change would simply make certain features of the OS easier and quicker to access.
This screenshot depicts a notification center that appears on the right side of OS X 10.10, and includes a date, calendar, access to Weather, and a “Configure” button. Below that is a stock price tracker app, though we assume that this will be configurable. This alleged new feature in OS X 10.10 is akin to the iOS Notification Center.
The other two images both feature what appear to be some changes to Safari, Apple’s Web browser. The Safari revamp seems to feature larger, mobile-esque buttons for quickly accessing websites that you visit often. There also appears to be a search bar that allows you to find stuff throughout your computer. The icons on the Dock appear to be unscathed, save for the Finder button, which no long wears a rectangular border, but still maintains the two-face-ish look. As for the Dock itself, it too looks more like iOS, and has a semi-transparent strip.
MacRumors reports that the images were shot on March 24. Considering that over two months have passed since that point, these changes might not have made it to the final release of OS X 10.10, and that’s assuming that these photos are legitimate. If they are, this would represent another step taken by Apple in the overall direction of the iOS-ification of OS X, which also occurred when Mavericks was first released back in October.
