OS X Yosemite : it has got really more advanced than Windows

I love staying up late to watch the tech events live. And the latest one is that of Apple: the yearly WWDC.

Of all the presentations I watched this year, the one by Apple yesterday was simply in a whole new league. It was pretty long, but not a bit boring. In fact it was more entertaining than a long spidy movie I had watched recently. It was that good. The best part of the presentation for me was the continuity feature demonstration on OX Yosemite and iOS 8. People who remember the Nokia Symbian may say that similar phone and message integration was provided on Windows back in 2006. That is true, idea is not new, but Apple has nailed the implementation ( search for my own app, btsms, to see how arcane was this back then, and then have a look at the Apple implementation - similar idea, miles apart in implementation ). But that is what Apple does, and known to do it extremely well, so well that all the 'credit' goes to them for inventing something that was already there. OK not really. But you get the point. Others are simply not able to take an idea and execute it in the best possible way, the Apple way.

After the demo by Craig Federighi, I can safely say that Yosemite blows Windows 8 in terms of usability, to the level that I am seriously thinking of shifting my home PC to a Mac (already use a Mac at office). By focusing on touch screens, Microsoft has lost all the time and energy to bring real usability to it's desktop. The thing is so bad right now that your desktop apps are called legacy apps. And that too when they are the most usable and productive of the apps. By focusing on touch first in Windows, Microsoft brought down the learning curve for a new user, but completely alienated an experienced and power user.

With continuity, Apple has shown how desktop and the mobile device can work in harmony, something that Microsoft has been trying to do, but never made it (may be 8.1 fixes some issues and probably 9 will be a lot better, but then precious time was lost). OSX usability does not stop at this feature, it goes on to everything from spotlight search to notifications to improvements in the mail and photos apps, all of which are simply quite superior to what is there on Windows 8.

The story on the developer side is an equal mess for Windows, but seems to be  quite a harmony for OSX and iOS. And with the introduction of a new programming language, Swift, Apple has not only made programming a joy for existing developers, but is sure to attract a lot of new learners to the platform.

PS :

// has become hit, I think it will over take printf("Hello, world!"); -)