Even though Apple will begin integrating iOS and OS X in new, mutually beneficial ways with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, Apple currently plans to stagger the releases of the two operating systems, according to people briefed on the plans. iOS 8 will launch in September alongside the iPhone 6, and OS X Yosemite will launch approximately a month later, in October, according to the sources…

In 2013, iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks launched a month apart because Apple diverted resources from OS X to finish up the radical new iOS design, and this year, sources say that Apple has roped in engineering and user interface design experts from the iOS team in order to complete Yosemite for the fall. Either later this month or early next month, Apple plans to provide a public beta of Yosemite, sources said earlier this week.

It is a bit surprising that the pair of next-generation systems with their newly similar appearances and tighter integration could launch separately. At its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple pushed a new set of features under the umbrella names of Continuity and Handoff. Continuity allows Yosemite to make phone calls and receive an internet connection via an iOS 8 iPhone, and Handoff allows an iPhone user, for example, to begin writing an email and finish the message on a Mac.

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