Apple today unveiled a new version of its Mac OS X software, dubbed Yosemite.

Developers will get access to Yosemite today, while the public will get it in the fall. Like the previous version, Mavericks, it will be a free upgrade.

Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Software Engineering at Apple, joked during his Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) presentation that Apple execs took a road trip to hunt for the best follow-up name to Mavericks. After passing on Mac OS X Oxnard, OS X Rancho Cucamonga, and OS X Weed(Opens in a new window), they landed on Yosemite.

As for what Yosemite includes, Federighi talked up the “clarity and utility” of the operating system.

The major theme of Yosemite is Continuity, which provides for a deeper link between Mac and iOS when users are signed into iCloud.

As part of this Continuity concept, AirDrop will now work between iOS and Mac rather than just iOS devices.

With a feature known as Handoff, meanwhile, you can link up your iOS devices and easily pass files between devices whenever they are close to one another. “Let’s say you’re composing an email on your phone and you walk up to your Mac, your Mac will notice and prompt you right on the dock,” Federighi said. “Click it and you can pick up that message right on your Mac.”

It works the other way, too. If you’re working on a document on the Mac, a little icon will appear on your iPad. Just swipe up, and continue working on the tablet.

As for messaging, Mac users can now get iOS updates from non-Apple users (or “green bubble friends” as Federighi called them). But it’s not just texts – Mac users can now get and place iPhone calls on the Mac. And it works if your phone is across the room in a pocket or bag.

Federighi showed off the desktop-calling feature by calling new Apple employee Dr. Dre – and seemed to inadvertently flash Dre’s phone number on the screen, too.

With Instant Hotspot, meanwhile, you can use your iPhone as a hotspot to get Internet access on your Mac, provided you have hotspot capability enabled on your phone. Once linked, your Mac will display the iPhone’s signal strength and battery life so you know how much juice you have without having to look at your phone.

Then there’s iCloud Drive, which adds cloud-based folders to Finder on your Mac. You can add folders and tags to documents, which then sync across all your Macs. All this content is accessible from iOS and Windows devices.

An update to Mail, meanwhile, will let you send large files without bumping up against your email client’s storage limits. Mail Drop supports files that are up to 5GB in size, and sends an encrypted version of your documents to other Mac users. Those on other devices will get a notification with a download link.

Like iOS 7, Yosemite includes a translucence that lets you see the color of your desktop underneath the window that is open on the desktop. These programs and apps “take on the personality of your desktop,” Federighi said, and “maintains a sense of depth.”

That translucence also applies to the dock at the bottom of the screen, as well as FaceTime, contacts, and reminders.

In something that got big applause from developers, Yosemite includes a “dark” mode.

The dock, meanwhile, includes revamped icons that are “so clean and yet so fundamentally Mac,” Federighi said. “And check out that trash can,” he quipped. You wouldn’t believe how much time we spent crafting a trash can.”

In the Notification Center, a new “Today” view will let Mac users pull in widgets and apps that have been downloaded from the App Store.
“Add them in and set up the Today view that you want,” Federighi said.

An updated Spotlight, meanwhile, displays a search box on the desktop when you click it, and shows results as you search, from programs saved on your Mac to documents with in-line preview, and content on the Web.

Mavericks made its debut in the fall, and is now running on more than 50 percent of the Mac install base, Tim Cook announced, with more than 40 million copies of Mavericks installed since release. “This is the fastest adoption ever of any PC OS in history,” he said.

Cook used this data to take a swipe at Microsoft, pointing out that Windows 8 is only on 14 percent of Windows-based devices. “Need I say more?” he quipped.

Apple today also revealed its next-gen mobile operating system, iOS 8.

For more, check out PCMag’s live blog from the WWDC keynote.

For PCMag’s first take on the Apple announcements, check out the video below.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 5:45 p.m. ET with more details.