Back in October of 2012, senior vice president of industrial design, Jony Ive, became the person in charge of all design at Apple, both hardware and software. As a result, iOS 7 got a down-to-the-pixel interface update that set the iPhone and iPad up for the future, but left years of "back to the Mac" consistency behind. Apple simply didn't have the resources last year to redesign OS X at the same time. This year they do. This year OS X Yosemite not only gets onto Apple's new design language, but gets to take it even further into the future... Like water from candy

The original OS X interface was called "aqua" and featured buttons that looked like beautifully rendered gum drops, windows that like emerged like genii from the bottle, and elements that were, at the time, referred to as "lick-able". Also, early on, pin-stripes. Get an iPhone SE with Mint Mobile service for $30/mo Some awkward years followed as well, including forays into brushed metal, stitched leather, and linen. Yet it had good years as well. Sane years. Snow Leopard and Mavericks years that matured the interface, and made it more consistent, even if at the expense of some color. Yosemite isn't the evolution of either Snow Leopard or Mavericks, nor is it the revolution of iOS 7. There's plenty new here, but there's also a a remarkable restraint. Yosemite isn't built on a physics or particle engine. There's nothing bouncing or colliding. But it is flatter, cleaner, and more coherent than what's come before. It's also darker... Flat, with shadows

Flatness, or the eschewing of rich textures for solid colors, is the prevailing trend in modern interface design. Some believe it to be more authentic to the nature of the machines. Others as a sign that we, as a collective, have matured beyond the need for skeuomorphic cues and affordances. Still others as massive misstep when it comes to both design and usability. Where ever you fall on the spectrum, Apple is falling just short of totally flat. Gone are the gum-drop style buttons, and the last of the green felt has been left by curb. Instead we have solid colors, but subtle gradients. We have clean windows that still drop shadows. We have clear sidebars that blur the background behind them, and streamlined tool bars that blurs the content beneath them. Combined, they minimize distraction but still provide a sense of placement and personalization. The colors from your wallpaper show through. The photos and icons and documents from your files show through. As much as it breaks up the window and seems odd at first, it can also tie everything from the desktop to the folder grid together. Because OS X is a multi-window environment, that shadows remain helps visually separate and stack different apps. It's one of the ways Yosemite is less extreme and better balanced than iOS 7 or iOS 8. It embraces the new without jettisoning what worked so well in the old. Perhaps nowhere is that better exemplified that the dock. Where it once went from blessed 2D to faux 3D, it's now not only returned to past glory, it's done so in a newly translucent form. It really is the best of the past and the present, and hopefully a sign of what's to come from both of Apple's platforms in the future. Icons newly iconic

Yosemite doesn't just give windows and interface elements a makeover, it goes all the way down to the icons. Apple has standardized on three shapes — the rounded square, the circle, and the tilted rounded rectangle. Oh, and a new, shiny, translucent trash can. The rounded square is used for system-related apps. That includes not only the new, happier, even slightly more embossed Finder, but the new System Preferences as well. The circle is used for content-focused apps, like iBooks, the App Store, Safari and the new, red, iOS-Music-app-matching iTunes. The tilted round rectangle is used for traditional apps, especially productivity apps, like Mail, Calendar, TextEdit, and Preview, often with a smaller icon at the bottom left to better hint and functionality, like a stamp for Mail, a pen for TextEdit, and a magnifier for Preview. It's no longer in perspective, but it does have depth. There are a ton of exceptions, of course. Time Machine is round and Maps is tilted, to name but two. In general, however, the new look makes for a new feeling — a more ordered and organized one. Still, Apple designers are Apple designers, and that means the icons are still filled with great colors, amazing details, and even small touches like a subtle reflection effect on the metallic icons, blues and oranges as though they were situated in the environment of Yosemite itself. Going dark